Keiran Shelden

Machines made this, mistakes and all:

[00:00:00] Chris: Hello, and welcome to the Impostor Syndrome Network podcast. This is where everyone belongs, especially if you think you don't. My name is Chris Grundemann, and I'm here with the always absolutely amazing, astounding, and awe inspiring Zoe Rose. 

[00:00:25] Zoe: The introductions just get more ridiculous, but hello. 

[00:00:29] Chris: Uh, it's alliteration with A's.

[00:00:30] Chris: So it's alliteration of A's, which I think is like doubly cool. This is the Kieran Sheldon episode, and we're all in for a treat. Kieran is a senior solutions engineer for a service provider. He enjoys playing with new technology, as well as learning about old technology that is still used today. His focus is mostly around virtualization and storage.

[00:00:50] Chris: And he's a drummer, a blogger, and a tech field day delegate as well. 

[00:00:56] Chris: Hi Kieran, would you like to introduce yourself a bit further to the Imposter Syndrome Network? 

[00:01:00] Keiran: Thank you for having me. I am Kieran's imposter. Just uh, filling in tonight. No, I, I am Kieran Sheldon. I am um, I, I definitely suffer Imposter Syndrome and that intro, Chris, pretty much sums it up very well.

[00:01:13] Keiran: The only thing I might change is that I'm a Senior Systems Engineer. Um, not that that probably makes too much of a difference for me in my role, because my role covers a lot of different aspects. It's not just engineering for infrastructure, which is what I spend most of my time focusing on. So I do a lot of building out the data science side of, of things.

[00:01:32] Keiran: So I'm building out the, the networks of virtualization, but also designing that equipment before it goes in. So yeah, I guess, um, solutions is one, one of the, um, titles in there, but yeah. 

[00:01:43] Chris: So I'd like to start today with your decade as a Vexpert. I'm sure that many of our listeners will know what a Vexpert is.

[00:01:52] Chris: But I'm also convinced that many will have no idea what that means at all. Can you tell us a little bit about what a Vexpert is, how you become one, what all is involved and maybe what it takes to maintain that status for the nine or 10 years that you have already. 

[00:02:07] Keiran: So the Vexpert program was created to be able to provide a avenue for supporting and promoting people within the V community that are writing blogs, creating content.

[00:02:20] Keiran: The VXpert program is an application based program. So you, you apply to be part of that program, but also if there are VMware employees who see that your content, they can also apply on your behalf. because they find that they need to promote you and think that you deserve a award for the content and the contributions that you are making to the VMware community.

[00:02:44] Keiran: So I've been a Vexpert for 10 years. I've actually didn't make the program at the start of this year, but they have a, a couple of years ago, they brought in a half yearly application round as well. So if you don't make it within the first half of the year, then you can be part of the, the, the, you can reapply again and be part of the second half.

[00:03:03] Keiran: So within that, this particular year, last year was a very busy year for me, so I wasn't able to provide or produce much content. Actually, I don't even think I wrote a single blog post in 2022. So with that happening, I ended up having fallen out of the program. But at the same time, it's a, it's a huge motivator in being able to bring you back into that, that program.

[00:03:26] Keiran: And so I wrote another few posts of issues that I was having. Actually, I wrote a lot more around sort of Veam. So it doesn't have to necessarily be specifically to VMware, but it's, it's sort of aligns with the same concept in the ecosystem. Kind of, yeah. Within that still needs to be at least VMware, or, or another.

[00:03:49] Keiran: Company like that. That's a competitor. You can talk about it, but you also still have to have VMware content. You can't just be a Nutanix person because well, it's not related as, as such for, for VMware. Yeah. 

[00:04:00] Chris: So they don't count it against you, but it doesn't count for you in the program. Correct. Yeah.

[00:04:04] Chris: Obviously. Yeah. 

[00:04:04] Keiran: So that's fine. And yeah, I've been in there for 10 years now. I actually started my blog back in 2013 and it's one of those things where it's sort of I did it for quite some time and a lot of content being produced and then it's just one of those things that's just sort of dwindled away and slowed down a lot.

[00:04:22] Keiran: So it was a good motivator actually to have dropped out. It's sort of that coming back to the realization that. You can't just stay in something because you're, you're a veteran or something like that in that time that you'll just roll over. But yeah, so yeah, 10 years now and managed to make that just having that half a yearly one.

[00:04:40] Keiran: So I guess nine and a half years really is the, yeah. 

[00:04:44] Chris: Well, that's awesome. I mean, a lot of the folks we talked to on the show here have a blog and I would say, I don't know, Zoe, if you keep me honest here, but I would say eight or nine out of 10 people, when we bring up the blog, they kind of shake their head in shame and say, well, yeah, I have a blog.

[00:05:00] Chris: I don't really blog as much as I think I should. And in some cases it's maybe false humility, but. A lot of the time, it's just the fact that, you know, things get in the way. And so it sounds like something like this, Vexpert program really was that motivating force to kind of keep you engaged and keep you putting out content, keep writing down your thoughts.

[00:05:15] Chris: Maybe you wouldn't have done without that motivation. 

[00:05:17] Keiran: Yeah, that, that's exactly right. Cause we have like a, a Slack group for example, and just that missing out, um, of not being part of that community as much anymore is a bit of a motivator as well, because there's a lot of content that we're able to talk about just this morning.

[00:05:33] Keiran: We were talking about different options for Red Hat Linux now with the changes they had recently. And so with, within that, those sorts of discussions happen and you don't. Always get that sort of discussion. I guess it's kind of like the tech field day community in a sense. You've got a lot of people from different areas that have experienced.

[00:05:52] Keiran: Using different product sets, whether it be security, networking, virtualization, storage, everyone's got their own experiences. Everyone's got their own places that they have information to talk about and provide, and either an opinion or fact or, or something like that, but. It actually helps build you up in your knowledge as well, but you're having those sorts of discussions.

[00:06:15] Keiran: So yeah, there's certainly those little things in the background that aren't seen by the wider community, the wider public side help motivate you as well to sort of stay in a program like that. 

[00:06:29] Zoe: No, that's really interesting. I will admit I am one of those people about the blog not being the most up to date.

[00:06:37] Zoe: Um, because it is, it is very challenging. So it's quite impressive that you've managed to, for your 9. 5 years, sustain that, because that's, that's most people's career length, uh, well, in my area, because I've, I graduated, no, I went to college in 2013, actually. I was working in industry before, but then I started college in 2013, so that's quite a long, that's quite a long period.

[00:07:03] Zoe: I was curious if you could describe your kind of career path in how you started, essentially, or why you started, maybe why you started blogging, or maybe why you started earlier than that, and then where it's taken you in the last however many years. 

[00:07:22] Keiran: Yeah. So. With my career, it's sort of, I haven't really been too many places within changing employers.

[00:07:32] Keiran: I had a few different random jobs to begin with. I was a, um, a football referee for a year. Um, worked at McDonald's for, for two years, but then I started. At, uh, the age of 15, I started doing school based traineeship, which meant one day a week I would go work in a school working on their IT systems, but at the same time I was earning my certificate in IT, so it was building that up and I then finished that in my senior year of school and then moved and worked for six months Selling PCs at a, a local computer store.

[00:08:08] Keiran: Um, and then after that I actually went back into working in schools. So I ended up being a, a school technician. And, and from there when I, when I first started there, in the process of moving from each school running their own domain and, and being, being separate to running a full state-based domain. So we all, all ended up having every school into a managed environment within the state.

[00:08:32] Keiran: And when that happened, my. Uh, experience or my education in computers sort of dropped a little bit because everything that was locked down was from the top, so it was always if I wanted to install like a printer on domain control because schools only really had one server. We would have to call the help desk, and then the help desk would do that process.

[00:08:56] Keiran: And, and so there were all these little, little tasks that I was no longer able to do. And so building that out, I, I wasn't getting that experience. I wasn't able to, to continue building what I wanted to, to do in my career goals and that, and so I, I started moving around to, to different schools over, over time and, and the last school that I was at, They were actually pushing the boundaries a lot in what they did IT wise, so they were kind of the black sheep in the state because they were doing virtualization.

[00:09:27] Keiran: They were doing all these. All these extra things that you weren't necessarily allowed to do in, in the other schools because it wasn't managed, it wasn't controlled, it wasn't. And that was sort of my, my foot in the door with virtualization. And I just fell in love with the technology. And from there, I, I was actually doing, I had been thinking for quite some time that I wanted to do something Macintosh box that was kind of my the one system I could use with freedom and that it's so I had this dream of starting that and I never did and as I started looking at certifications I started learning more about within those certifications I started to learn more about the community.

[00:10:03] Keiran: What was out there just looking for resources and that and I came across a website called tech exams and on there I started making friends on on that and they started sort of coaching me through the exams but then also had these blogs and they had all this content creation that they were doing and just that that talking with other members of the community.

[00:10:23] Keiran: Got me to start a blog and I started writing. I just started one day, set up a blogger account, which was free at the time. And from there, it's just kind of, I guess, blossomed for quite some time. And what I was doing, I was just putting thoughts down, but then I ended up imposter syndrome sort of started to kick in partway through and I'd find articles that were already written and, and sort of felt like I can't really write about that.

[00:10:50] Keiran: So I was already done it. They're like, this, this, this. It doesn't seem I'm putting out what I, I want to, and that's actually a fear that I've, I've, I've noticed a lot of people come across these days is that something's already written, so why am I writing, but a lot of, of the community is, is coming out and saying, just go ahead and write it anyway, because what you say versus the other person, what they've written is going to be different.

[00:11:14] Keiran: It's the content, sure, the actual topic itself and some of the things that happen in there might be similar, but what you write and your interpretation and the way it's built. So, yeah, I do a lot within, uh, I, I, I have that as well still to this day that I just find articles I want to write about, but then it's there and it's like, I want to, but how's it going to come across?

[00:11:37] Keiran: How's someone else going to read it? How's that? Yeah, so, but that blogging side is certainly something I'm trying, really trying to pick up again. Because it is an expression. It's, it's led to bigger things like tech field day and, and that. So yeah, I've seen a lot of other people with their careers expand from there, from being able to just the content they write and the way it comes out and the way they go into detail.

[00:12:02] Keiran: It's really made some big roads ahead for, for other people. 

[00:12:05] Chris: Yeah, for sure. I forget now, I think conversations are starting to blend together in my mind as they sometimes do. I forget if it was on the show or not. I was talking to somebody who was talking about, I think it was on the show, who was talking about a blog they put out.

[00:12:19] Chris: Actually, maybe it was a tool, actually, right? They'd written some software, actually, and they put that out there. And then based on kind of putting that out there into the world, some other company saw that and kind of came and swooped them up and kind of recruited them away. You know, not that that's going to happen every single time, obviously, but, but I think it's definitely true that, you know, showing your work and working in public can have some, some big effects on your career, but I actually wanted to rewind back a little bit.

[00:12:38] Chris: You know, you said in there that, you know, as you started poking around, you wanted to get a little more access. You want a little more permissions to play around and get deeper into the technology and things. And when you kind of came across virtualization, you instantly fell in love, I think is what you said, or something, something close to that.

[00:12:53] Chris: What was it? I mean, what was it about virtualization? Can you like, you know, bring us back to that moment and then kind of what you say, how you saw virtualization, how it looked to you and why that was attractive and an area where you knew you wanted to go spend more time in. 

[00:13:05] Keiran: Yeah, so I think one of the things was the actual technology itself, the vast array of options that you could do with it because you weren't necessarily just touching a server.

[00:13:16] Keiran: You were, you, you expanded out, you're touching networking from a certain degree. You're touching, uh, storage from a, from another angle. Like there were all these different things and concepts that came into it, but I think it just really came down to a product that I understood. And I, I like to tinker. I like to find new products.

[00:13:34] Keiran: Like I'm, I'm one that I don't distro hop for my primary system, but I like to go test out a new Linux. Distro that's come out. So I will go out and find whatever this week's latest BlendOS or Ubuntu or Pop or something like that and I'll run that up and being able to do that within in virtualization, just have one system and be able to place however many distros of that and test those and go through that.

[00:14:00] Keiran: That whole concept was just sort of exciting. And this was back in 2000, uh, 11 that, that I started on this. Unfortunately, the school was running a couple of versions, older versions, and there had been so many different changes, but just the way VMware was innovating at the time, and I know there's a lot more virtualization platforms out there, but they were kind of the key provider right then of a, of product that just could do so much.

[00:14:27] Keiran: And it kind of was one that I struggle a lot with learning in products and that, so not, not necessarily products, but just the, the way that sort of technology works and that, so server oss and that, uh, for to do exams. I, I still struggled to learn those concepts and be able to apply those to do the exams.

[00:14:45] Keiran: Virtualization just clicked. There was just things that fell into place when I was working with it. It just made it so easy to understand as well. So yeah, tho those sorts of things just really stood out. It is quite some time ago, but even now I'm still enjoying using the product and it's, it's become the main part of my role to support.

[00:15:04] Keiran: So I am moving into other avenues as well and spending a bit more time in, in, in backups than that. And all of my blogs are starting now be more backup related or, um, data protection related. Uh, Tech Field Day, I've done more Storage Field Days in that, so there's a lot of, a lot of places that, that virtualization background that I started to, to develop has led me into all these other areas now.

[00:15:28] Zoe: I wanted to touch on Tech Field Day, Delegate, because one thing that, uh, you'd mentioned prior to us starting. Uh, which resonated with me quite heavily is imposter syndrome and anxiety of being considered a tech field delegate. And then also being able to ask the questions in those live environments.

[00:15:47] Zoe: I'm curious. I do have a question. Um, I am curious, uh, what, um, how. If tech field day has been hugely beneficial for you or has been one of those things where you, it's like a constant battle where there's really good and then really fearful almost situations. 

[00:16:06] Keiran: Yes, so my tech field day experience, I think touches on both sides of that, that spectrum of my first one was in 2018 in Boston and that was storage field day.

[00:16:17] Keiran: Uh, so I got accepted and here in Brisbane, there's another tech field day delegate, Dan Firth and. He put my name down for storage field day. So I already applied for it, but he said, you know, it'd be great for the storage field day. I'm going, Oh, okay. Storage field day. Um, I don't know a lot about storage, but I took the opportunity.

[00:16:34] Keiran: I accepted it and just went, I need to go in and try this out, see what's happening. And so I did. So I turned up at Boston, walked into the room, hadn't met a single person except for, um, except for the event coordinator, Ben. And, um, and, I walked into the room and it was taking that deep breath before I walked in, just went, I've flown 16 hours to be here.

[00:16:55] Keiran: I need to make this, take that step and be able to get into there. And so it was just that deep breath. I walked in. I just went and stood at a group of people and within seconds. They all stop what they're talking and introduce themselves and just was very, very heartwarming to be welcomed into a community like that and become part of that family, which I think we'd all agree that Tech Field Day has become part of our family in one way or another, just building those relationships and that those relationships that continue to grow.

[00:17:26] Keiran: And that was, that was a good start, I think, to, to that, my fears sort of dropped down again, and then we moved into tech field day the next day into the actual event, and I was able to bring myself to talk or ask questions in a session, and that, that worked well for the first couple. And then my anxiety kicked in and started going, did I ask the right question?

[00:17:54] Keiran: Was that the right way? I, I brought it up. Did I, um, did I word that correctly? Did they understand? Did they, like all of these things just going through my head. And unfortunately, It then just started to play on me. And so my involvement in session started to drop a little bit and it just sort of, but then over the time, it's, um, getting that confidence to be able to ask those questions again and, and, and butt in.

[00:18:20] Keiran: It's sort of like a, I think for a lot of newcomers, it's, it's a weird thing because you're depending on where you come from or how well you you've joined. From school, you put your hand up and then you ask a question, but tech field day, you sort of butt in and go, okay, I could, could I just ask you this question on this thing you mentioned, or can I ask you on this and, and that?

[00:18:40] Keiran: So it's, it's a, it's a different sort of feeling in those situations, but look, uh, it, yeah, I, I go from either end through COVID when we're all doing remote, it was a bit harder to sort of. Get in there because there's delays. There's depending on where you're coming from. You've got 20 people in a room. So trying to you've got one person up on your screen and try to jump in.

[00:19:04] Keiran: And that sort of made it a bit more nerve wracking. But when we're all together at the event, we can start meeting the people that are there as well. You meet the presenters before it starts. And so you do feel a little bit more comfortable. In doing that. So, but it definitely my anxiety really heightens at that time.

[00:19:24] Keiran: It's also live. That's the other thing. You can't be cut out if you ask a wrong question or not a wrong question, but you how you feel about that question that you've asked. And then you kind of sit there playing with those emotions while they're they're answering going. I'm getting what you're saying now, but also I, did I do everything right in that what I'm doing?

[00:19:42] Keiran: But no, Tech Field Day for me though, it, my anxiety, it has done a lot for me. It also going to just say yes to things, like when Chris, um, sent me the message for this episode, it, my immediate response was, I've got my imposter syndrome to tell me no, but, um, yes, I will do it. It's just those sorts of situations, but no, definitely Tech Field Day and, and that's it, like.

[00:20:08] Keiran: I'm a big advocate for, for tech field day to go and do that for anyone, even if you are an anxious person, building those families, building just those relationships with, with people as well. So like I met Chris back in 2019 and from there, I've sort of, I don't want to sound stalkerish, but I've been following Chris and his progress in that because.

[00:20:30] Keiran: The blog post you put out at the start of the year of these, these are my goals. These are what I want to be able to, to achieve over this. And these are the things I achieved last year, just to me, or in a space inspiration on how I tried to create myself some goals, try to do these. And we just have such a community there.

[00:20:48] Keiran: Of people that are like that, that are building those up. So, 

[00:20:52] Chris: yeah, that's awesome. And yeah, thanks for pointing that out. Um, it's really good to hear obviously, uh, always just the fact that anybody reads stuff that we put out, right. I mean, that's, that's in itself is, is fine. Uh, and if it can be meaningful and inspiring at all to anybody, that's, that's amazing.

[00:21:05] Chris: And, you know, I want to draw a comparison there because I think, you know, one of the things you were talking about with blogging or public speaking too, right, or whatever you're doing or any kind of kind of, I recently read an article that said, don't call it content creation, that's too corporate, what we're actually doing is art, you know, so take that for what you will, but by creating this content, right?

[00:21:22] Chris: And the idea that, oh, well, you know, it's been said before or something like it has been said before. Somebody has talked on this topic before. The comparison I want to draw is, you know, as a delegate for tech field day, like It's similar when what I mean is, you know, at least for me, I get this feeling of I don't want to ask a dumb question.

[00:21:38] Chris: I don't want to show how ignorant I am by asking this totally stupid question live on the air of these presenters. But the reason those two things are related, I think, is just what you were saying, right? When you're writing a blog post, even if it's something that, you know, 10 other people, 20 other people, 1000 other people have written about, you are going to come at it from a unique perspective.

[00:21:56] Chris: And it's almost like the opposite of that. The other side of that coin, uh, tech field day when you're asking those questions. You get to be, you know, the, the person who asked the dumb question, quote unquote, for everybody else who's watching, who has that same question, who doesn't know the thing you don't know.

[00:22:10] Chris: And it may be a little stressful or anxiety inducing for you to kind of be the one who stands up and says, no, I don't know what you're talking about. This doesn't make sense to me. Like explain that please a little further. And typically what I've found. Oh, you know, after years of doing this, is that there's almost always a line of people behind you with that exact same question and you were just the one, you know, brave enough or in the position to, to be able to ask it and kind of get that out there.

[00:22:32] Chris: So yeah, that's all cool. That all resonates a lot. And I think as, as a lot of people know, you know, tech field day was the genesis of, of this podcast one, because Zoe and I met there and, and decided to do it there, but also I had similar experiences. Where tech field day in that community was, you know, one of the first places where I got to sit around and talk to people who were like, yeah, I feel that way too.

[00:22:53] Chris: I had no idea that I wasn't the only one until I met my met these people in tech field day. So anyway, all that's really cool. I want to fast forward a little bit up to kind of the current day. As you pointed out, you're a senior systems engineer at red. What did non technical people think you do? What do you, what do you tell your mom or your family or, or strangers that ask you what you do?

[00:23:13] Chris: Like, how do you explain what you do to the lay person? I guess is what they call it. 

[00:23:17] Keiran: So this is something that I've, I always struggle with. This is where my imposter syndrome kicks in a fair bit is trying to explain what I do. It's not just in those terms, there's a lot of times I also will restrict on getting too technical, getting into that detail, and I keep it high level.

[00:23:33] Keiran: What I usually would say is, I build networks and infrastructures, so what a customer might use to connect their email, or to be able to log on and do certain tasks. For their day to day all of that where that runs. I build those generally and I kind of leave it there If there's further questions more than happy to go into into detail my imposter syndrome will kick in and just say that's too much detail Let's let's save that person from from that but really what I actually end up doing is yet my day to day though The way I would expand on that question would be that I sit down and I design and build infrastructure and support clients with their technology needs, their IT needs.

[00:24:21] Keiran: So whether their computer is not working, look for the tasks that they want to be doing or whether or not their entire network, so or providing their user accounts. building the rest of their technology stack that they need to use to get them to be able to do their job and provide the best for their customers.

[00:24:42] Keiran: That is, that is what my focus is. We have a whole team that we work with. So I mentor them the best that I can and work with the rest of our team to be able to provide those services and support them. 

[00:24:53] Zoe: That's very interesting. I think a lot of times. When it comes to describing your career, um, it's, it's always, it's always a balance of where you want to express what you do, but then you don't want to feel like you're bragging.

[00:25:06] Zoe: And, and it's almost like this weird, well, I want to tell you what I'm doing cause I'm so passionate about it, but I also don't want to bore you. So it's like mixing that all together. At least that's how I feel when I present it. So I can definitely relate there. One thing I was, um, also curious about is obviously you're in Australia and, uh, I've known quite a few, uh, friends that, uh, are over there.

[00:25:31] Zoe: And one thing that they face is opportunities as well as, uh, just, especially when it comes to things, when you deal with physical technologies, the delays in getting it to you. So I'm curious if you have noticed. Any challenges specific to you because you're Australia based. 

[00:25:50] Keiran: Yeah, so one of the things that again, tech field day really stood out in those sessions is a lot of this technology that they're providing details about it or coming and presenting about we don't necessarily.

[00:26:04] Keiran: evolve to a lot of those to be able to use a lot of that technology. We just never, some of it we've never heard of. We've never heard of these companies. They're not widely talked about because you've, you've got your sort of standard stack of technologies that people will talk about. And so Cisco, VMware, Microsoft, like they're your, your primary sort of companies that you hear all day to day.

[00:26:26] Keiran: We hear about, but then you go to the more smaller niche starting companies like want to talk storage companies, Tegel, Tintree, Pure Storage, they're not there while they're small companies to a degree, or some of them that have disappeared now. We hadn't heard of them over here, or at least I hadn't. It wasn't a name I had ever heard anyone mention until I was in the VXpert program, where then they sponsored or provided certain marketing material and stuff through that program, but it wasn't until going into a program with Well, I guess it's mostly American based that we start hearing about all these other companies, but from a, uh, local perspective, they're just not something that is, um, widely known, but then we run into the other side where, yeah, you're talking to the physical.

[00:27:13] Keiran: We had a situation where we, we bought a particular storage array from a, um, vendor who put our location down at Sydney, which is a thousand kilometers south from here. And so they, we, we had a situation where one of our nodes died and had to be replaced within four hours. It took more than 24 hours because then they eventually found that it was too far away from us.

[00:27:37] Keiran: And the logistics in that and trying to get that provided in our local area to be able to do that. It was just thrown out. So, we do get a lot of that sort of, we face those sorts of issues here as well, where it's just in the wrong location or, or just that understanding of how big Australia actually is.

[00:27:55] Keiran: And, I mean, it's very different. The way I see Australia versus say America, we're general land size, not including Alaska, let's just talk the, the, the big mainland, we're generally the same, similar size, but the difference is it was, We have our major cities, five of them, and then that's kind of it. Then a lot of stuff and just bare stuff in the middle.

[00:28:16] Keiran: You look at the U S and the whole thing is just covered in cities right across. 

[00:28:20] Chris: Yeah. What's the, what's the population of Australia 

[00:28:23] Keiran: roughly these days? So we're around 27, 28 million. Okay. So we're less than 10 percent of the U S 

[00:28:29] Chris: yeah. Yeah. But like similar landmass. Yeah. That's wild. 

[00:28:31] Keiran: The, the, yeah. And it's that concept that just.

[00:28:35] Keiran: We find that yeah, people just don't see that they think Sydney and Brisbane are close together or they think Perth and Sydney are really close and that's the opposite sides. So we face that logistically as well. But for us, yeah, just hearing about other other companies and other technologies and that is not something.

[00:28:56] Keiran: Yeah, I mean, it's getting better. We're hearing a lot more and I think there's a lot more ways of hearing about it. There's a lot more people looking at. finding YouTube videos, like Linus tech tips or something like that, where they talk about companies, tech field day is becoming bigger here as well. So we've got, we've got a lot more delegates coming from Australia.

[00:29:16] Keiran: Um, so then that's promoting from their branches out much further. 

[00:29:21] Chris: Yeah, that makes sense. And that's interesting. I hadn't thought about the fact that, you know, I mean, I mean, I guess, obviously now that you say it, right, it's a completely different market for manufacturers and vendors themselves. So whether or not they're going to come advertise there or educate and, you Yeah, that you wouldn't even hear about it at first.

[00:29:34] Chris: That that's something I hadn't considered. And that's definitely interesting. Well, it is not due to the speed of light or the delay between the United States and Australia, but we have come to the end of our time today. Kieran, do you have any projects or causes or anything either that we have mentioned or, or, or haven't, um, that you'd like to highlight for the imposter syndrome network?

[00:29:54] Keiran: I don't really build too many projects. I think the biggest one would be like my blogs and building that up again. I'm currently working on a a cloud director and NSX, um, build at the moment, which is something that I'm learning fresh in the last few months. And that's developing some new blogs and that.

[00:30:12] Keiran: So kind of working on that at the moment and yeah, that's, uh, that's kind of it really at the moment. 

[00:30:17] Chris: Cool. Makes sense. We'll definitely link to your blog and in the show notes there and your Twitter and LinkedIn and everything as well. So folks can kind of track you down. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your story with the imposter syndrome network.

[00:30:29] Chris: I think it's going to relate to a lot of folks out there and hopefully be helpful. And then thank you to all of our listeners for your attention and your support. If you found this episode insightful or interesting or even just entertaining, please consider paying it forward by letting others know about this show and the great guests we have on.

[00:30:46] Chris: Karen, before we totally close out, I am wondering, we talked a lot about, you know, situations where your imposter syndrome kind of has bubbled up, maybe some around blogging, maybe some around, you know, the, the tech field day and then public speaking, that kind of stuff. But what do you do when you feel imposter syndrome kicking in?

[00:31:02] Keiran: So I find that the best way to work through it is Say, say yes. If you can, if you can get yourself to be able to say that, yes, be able to get out there and say, I can do this. Or even just agreeing to doing something, you kind of push yourself into outside your comfort zone. So once you commit, then what do you do?

[00:31:22] Keiran: How do you work on that? How do you build it up? A good example that I've got at the moment is that a, I had talked about doing some public speaking and early this year, and I missed out on the conference for it, but I had a, uh, Community member, reach out to me and say, I would like to take you on and take you into doing, um, as a co presenter and let's do that.

[00:31:44] Keiran: And I decided to say yes, and now I'm freaking out about it, but at the same time. Putting myself out there and thinking about the time that it's going to take and process through my head that I am going to do, I'm going to provide content, I'm going to go through practicing, I'm going to make sure I know everything and build up my confidence in it and be able to put myself out there and do it.

[00:32:09] Keiran: That's the biggest task is saying yes and then actually doing it and if you can get yourself into that position and focus on that then it'll make it easy. 

[00:32:19] Chris: I like that a lot. I definitely find that kind of like almost like life hacking kind of a tip right where if you put yourself in the situation if you kind of force it to happen you'll you'll find a way to make it work a little bit is what I'm hearing there kind of right like say yes and then you know work work through it and and follow through.

[00:32:34] Chris: Yeah. Awesome. I like it. Great advice. And we will be back next week.