Uncovering my passion for security awareness and effective communication

Sixteen months ago, I was asked to share my “turning point” as a professional speaker and consultant. After taking the time to reflect about my turning point, write about it and share it, I learned a lot about myself, and even more about how I run the Security Catalyst practice.

Until today, I’ve not shared this with you. It matters, because my turning point (or what I now consider my first turning point) also revealed my passion to advocate for individuals while advancing organizations through security awareness, effectively communicating the value of security and helping individuals and teams use those blended skills to advance their security careers.

Since first putting my turning point onto digital paper, I’ve experienced at least one more (there is a hint in this piece). I’ll write more about that next week. In the meantime…

My Family at Mt. Rushmore

My Family at Mt. Rushmore

 

 

My Turning Point

My turning point is literal: the rolling wheels under our RV and the steering wheel that allows us, as a family, to explore the country, find new places and meet people “where they are.”

It started with a simple vow: to raise my children through active, daily involvement instead of watching them grow up in pictures.

That vow led to a promise to travel as a family. We started with a pickup truck and progressed, quickly, to a forty-foot “diesel pusher” RV (and we towed a “dinghy” vehicle behind us). While we continued to own a traditional stick house in Upstate NY, we used the RV to travel to speaking, training and consulting engagements. Our RV was our second home (arguably our first).

After traveling by RV for over six years (mainly for business), we’ve managed to explore 43 of the lower 48 states and a brief trip into Ontario, Canada. We found that the more we traveled, the less we wanted to be pinned down to a traditional house. Confronting our fears — and conventional wisdom — we finally decided to let go: of the house, of stuff, of the things we didn’t need in order to live and travel in our RV.

On the road, I live the promise (dare I say the dream) with my entire family as we embark on our quest to collect experiences instead of collecting things. Sometimes we look out and see the tranquil ocean, or a forest of trees. Other days we are treated to majestic mountains.

We are liberated to live deliberately.

By the nature of the physical space, we focus on simplicity. And it turns out that less physical baggage has the unexpected and welcomed benefit of less emotional baggage. The conventional wisdom about the things we own owning us is true, even when we deny it in a feeble attempt to fool ourselves.

Celebrating the “Small Things”

When explaining our decision to live and travel by RV, a lot of people ask, “You must be excited to be there for the big things, right?”

The power of this approach is that while I celebrate the big milestones in life, I never miss the small things either — from losing a tooth (literally) to swinging on a playground, cuddling up by a campfire and nightly bedtime stories. We have it all.

For six weeks we have lived “full time” in the RV as our primary residence. We “wintered” at an amazing campground in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Our journey is flexible, and includes planned trips to California, South Dakota and wherever else our turning wheels take us.

On the road this way, we get to sleep in our own bed each night, eat from our own kitchen and even have a complete office and school on board! We conduct road school – where we all set goals and work, as a family, to learn and educate each other.

We also learned quickly that leading a more deliberate life has family and business benefits, too. We have less to maintain and worry about – which translates into more time spent truly living, laughing and learning together. Which, in turn, forces better business decisions. And that leads to more business opportunities.

My Turning Point: Uncovering My Passion

The instinctive need to focus introduced a welcome challenge in the first few weeks of being “full time:” what did I do? What was the purpose of our company?

Beyond “information security,” what inspired me and would allow me to apply my experience and energy to drive value, revenue and still allow time to enjoy seeing the country with my family?

At this point, Into the Breach (amazon link) was published, I accomplished recognition as a professional speaker, and ran a successful seminar teaching others how to effectively communicate the value of security. And yet my consulting practice took me all over the industry. While that was great for the first decade, it felt like it was time to concentrate on doing one thing better than anyone else.

So began my personal journey to find the “one thing” to focus on, something that sparked my passion, that made me feel alive while providing value to my family. I wanted to build on my experience of almost 15 years in information security, communication and my love of advocating for people.

Living in an RV encourages time to get out, move around and connect with the world around you. For me, this meant daily walks around a lake (some days, it meant a lot of laps, too). After my walks, I would often reach out to clients, colleagues and friends to explain the pieces I saw coming together and get their feedback, learn from their insights and listen to their guidance.

My turning point not only brought my family closer together and put us on the path of a more simple life, it also helped me uncover and voice my true passion: the “human side” of security.

On February 18, 2010, it was clear that my focus was blending my background in human ecology, information security and professional communication to focus on security awareness, effectively communicating the value of security and helping people advance their security careers.

Living As We Are

Because of our approach, I invite clients, colleague and friends (anyone, really – I guess I’ve never really met a stranger) to join us at our house on wheels for a meal, campfire and conversation.

There is something powerful about meeting people where they live and sitting around the campfire. Beyond celebrating the simple life, this allows me a rich fabric for story development, genuine connection with any audience and the windshield time to think, make connections and improve my ability to serve others as a catalyst.

On our journey, I hope to sit by the campfire with you (this is an offer with no expiration).

In my next “flashlight” article (imagine me sitting around the campfire, holding a flashlight to my face, telling stories), I’ll share my next turning point, and the continued focus on awareness, communication and career.

I look forward to connecting, sharing and learning from you.

Life is great!

 

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