¶ Celebrating Thanksgiving Ideas and Industry Insights
How are you celebrating Thanksgiving If you're just not doing anything ? I got a suggestion for you . ["bad Guy's Theme Song"] . Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by installers , estimators , project managers , business owners , customers . We are connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world .
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Of course , our industry is really not good about giving back to the community .
Now , there are a few organizations that are better than others about giving back to their communities , and one of them is having an event next month where they have selected a recipient on who's doing a very important mission in the inner cities of Baltimore , or , as Mike Ray would say , baltimore you guys say it the right way Baltimore making an impact , and they
could use some technology to help make their mission more successful . So some people from tech knowledge worldwide are stepping up . Welcome to the show , mikhail Akasio from Tri-Canned Security . How are you ?
doing today . I'm doing well , doing well . Nice to be here , chuck .
Glad to have you on the show . Big fan of your content . Big fan of your content . Why don't you tell the audience a little bit about yourself and how you got into this industry ? Tell us about your journey .
Sure . So I'm out of Baltimore , maryland . I operate Tri-Canned Security . We're electronic security firms so we're doing all of the surveillance , access control , intrusion alarms . So that's our side of the house and , I would say , my journey into this field . I kind of started off as a software engineer . That's when my roots was .
I was a programmer but I've always been a real hands-on kind of person and so naturally this field is a little bit of a blend of those two worlds . So when I got into this years ago it felt right . I had a power tool in my hand but I also had a keyboard nearby , so it was very comfortable for me to move into this field .
And then security has always been something that I feel that I worked in in different aspects , some of it on the software side , and then I got more into the physical side of security , been doing it ever since , and I'll tell you what I haven't been happier being employed since then .
There's something extremely satisfying about building something and then being able to go back and say I did .
that . That's one of the most fulfilling feelings . As part of it is like when you're all done , you can sit back and say , look what I built or look what we designed . And then it kind of underscores it for you when you're talking to the client and they're like , wow , this is exactly what I wanted .
So it's the design and construction that really does it for me . And I kind of joke around with people and say , if you want me to build what you've already designed , I'm probably not the person for you . But when you kind of give me like this is what I'm dreaming of , make it for me , that's when I'm the happiest .
Let me ask you a question . I know I do this . I wonder if you do this when you're driving around in your car with friends and family , do you go ? Hey , I did the cabling in that building . I did the security in that building . I'm driving with the kids .
And I'm like I did those cameras , like they'll be looking outside and say look up , you see those cameras , I did those cameras , look at that door , I did that door . And so I do that all the time . It drives them crazy because they're like I know , I know you did that . Can we keep going ?
I did a vacation with the grandkids gosh three , four years ago . You know I'm originally from Maryland right , I'm originally from PG County and hence the the Maryland flag in every single episode there , every but . I grew up in Beltsville so , but anyway , I was .
I'm not living Florida now , so we took the grandkids to DC a couple years back because they'd never been to DC , never . All this oven we're driving around downtown DC , which was where I spent the majority of my career , and I was like Poppy did the cabling in that building . Poppy did the cabling the whole dark time , the violence .
It's Poppy , we get it , you wired up DC . It's like well , not all of DC , but a good portion of the DC . I .
Yeah , I'm guilty of that one too .
Yeah , let me ask you this what do you wish you knew before you started your career in security ?
You know I wish I would have started it earlier . That's the only regret I have . I Started in the in the path in my 30s and you know it's like you . Always you say , you know , I wish I would have known what I liked , and Back in my 20s and started it even earlier than that . But you know you , you have your growing pains right .
I mean I I don't regret my path . But if I , you know , had that time machine and could go back and say , hey , I I probably would have , you know , started my business back then , probably got into the industry a little earlier and Just enjoyed my time in the industry , you know , maybe get another 10 years of enjoyment out of it .
You know , working has always been one of those love-hate relationships . But you know , when I got into it on my own and started something , doing things that I actually really enjoyed doing , yeah , I hear that quite , quite often , people saying I wish I'd started earlier .
I'm I understand that that thought mentality , but I'm of the mindset of our path Leads us to where we're going . Never discount your past , right .
So , for example , you know , in my earlier days I used to be a volunteer firefighter for PG County , right and and well , I had a full-time job and a lot of that , a lot of that walk helped me become more conscious of Safety and teaching safety and doing safety with work companies . I've worked in the past .
So it's a part of your journey , it's absolutely part of your journey and it probably I would argue that it probably makes you better today Because of the journey that you took , as opposed if you had it just , if you just jumped in and that's all you did your whole entire career .
No , I'm with you . I'm with you , definitely , I can see . You know , I remember when we did the tech fest and we talked fire stopping . So when you mentioned volunteer fire fighter , I'm thinking Perfect , you know that that that goes together hand and gloves . So You're right , it does . There's my passion , right there .
Who knew ? Who knew that little eight-year-old kid lighting plastic cars on fire ? We developed going to be a firefighter and EMT that would go into communications , that would go out teach people on how what is fire stopping . It's all part of the journey . That's not . Yeah , exactly , Exactly . So you're associated with a very interesting group .
The group's called Technology Worldwide .
Tell us a little bit about it , sure , so Technology Worldwide is a nonprofit organization , I think it's . There's a lot of things that play here .
One aspect of Technology Worldwide is to bring text from different portions of the technology field whether that be security , it , msp , structure , cabling and it's to make everyone better , it's to help each other , ask questions If you need help with something labor , I mean , guys are .
I mean that's another thing that we do is we kind of like lean on each other for assistance and work . So there's the aspect of Technology Worldwide where we make texts better texts and , to quote bear be the better tech .
That's kind of a mantra that we have internally is like let's up everybody's game , let's teach people more , and that's kind of some of the podcasts that I put out . There is to help people learn the security aspects right . Some of the more difficult aspects to security access control is always really hard .
So I have a lot of podcasts trying to break those things down and make it a little bit
¶ Technology Worldwide's Text Giving Program
better . So there's the part of the technology worldwide that is dedicated to making everyone better , informing , right . We have events where we try to teach people fire stopping , cybersecurity , like all these little things , and elevate everyone's game . And then there's the core of kind of what we do is we're a nonprofit that gives back , right ?
I would like to say that , you know , the people in Technology Worldwide are some of the best in the industry best in the world and they are truly blessed to have these just amazing skills , amazing knowledge and success in their businesses . And what we do is we bring all that together .
I'd like to say we'll do it , you know , once a year , maybe even more in the future , but we like to bring that all together and that all culminates into an event we call text giving . So we find a deserving organization that is doing great work , that is helping the community , that's just . But they need technology help .
What they're doing in their mission is probably slowed down by their lack of technology . So what we do is we give them what we have , right , we have technology as something that we have and we give it to them .
So that's one of my favorite aspects of Technology Worldwide is our ability to go back out there and share some of these gifts and talents that we had with someone who doesn't have an opportunity , whether that's cost , whether it's knowledge , so they might not have it , and I think that's a great thing and , honestly , I think I would .
If I was a baker , I'd be out there giving bread , but I just happen to be a tech person , so I'm gonna give out tech to those who need it , right ? So that's how I see it , and it's one of my favorite aspects of technology .
Yeah , we'll talk about text giving here in more in just a second . Well , I do wanna add this when you talked about technology worldwide , I think that you mentioned that they , they help . It's about , it's a spiritual thing of helping other technicians , other business owners . And I just saw a post .
I mean literally that's why I was , that's why I was a few minutes late getting on . I was actually in the Slack channel and I was looking at . Somebody posted up a question about hey , I wanna do some blah , blah , blah .
How much should I charge you , this guy , and there was easily six , seven , eight good suggestions on how to do that and I got the thinking . You know , if that person had posted that comment out on the regular internet , they would have gotten roasted I mean absolutely roasted . But yet here there was a bunch of encouragement and nourishment .
I just that's why I love , you know love seeing that part . So you mentioned text giving . You guys have done that in the past and now you're doing one this year as well . How do they select the recipient for a text gift ? So ?
we're still in our early stages , so I didn't meant that . But what we do is we , right now , we go to our members and we say , hey , who do you know that sounds like they could , you know , really benefit from this kind of an upgrade .
So this year we solicited among the members and say , hey , do you know any organizations , you know somebody that might be a good fit , somebody doing good work , and we kind of you know , bring all those you know we call them applications in and we look at them and say , okay , well , what do you have now and what do you need and what are you asking for
and can we be a good fit for you ? I mean , you're asking for things that we can give you , that kind of stuff and the help that we can give you , and some of it is you know what's your mission ? I mean , who are you helping you know ?
So that kind of thing , and you know very loosely , we wanna help as many people as we can , but unfortunately resources get limited , right , I mean we don't have an unlimited amount of money , so we do have to stop and choose a winner . I'd love to do , you know , several textgivings , but you know , until we get the funding .
We're just gonna do the best that we can with what we have .
So tell us a little bit about the recipient for this year .
So Mission 5 , they are an inner city youth gym in the middle of Baltimore . Right , it's an area that needs development . There's an area that is underfunded and it's a good outlet for the youth to go there . They can get free , they can work out for free with really great equipment . I mean I've been there personally .
I've had my children go there and work out there from the past that's how I knew it with world-class trainers . I mean they had trainers there that were highly recommended
¶ Supporting Baltimore's Youth
. I had a shoulder issue . I was a weightlifter when I was younger and I tore up my shoulder and I'd gone to several great physical therapists and then somebody referred me and said there's a guy here that can help you and , sure enough , two years later my shoulder feels great . I rehabbed it . He was just really good .
So that's the level of service that they can provide . They've got excellent staff there and they're helping kids and the youth . They're giving them free classes , they're teaching them how to be personal trainers , they're teaching them how to eat healthy . I mean they're just really offering so many great things in that community .
I mean they open themselves up for free yoga classes . They're just really dedicated to uplifting Baltimore , Baltimore's youth , and really giving everybody a chance to be on the same playing field , because a lot of those schools are under resourced . They don't have facilities . Some of these kids have aspirations to play pro-ball .
Well , no pro-ball if you're not working out , so where do they go ? So it's somewhere to help them and just give them a little bump in the right direction of we got some place for you to be . We can help you , we can teach you , we can give you skills , we can help your lifestyle change . Just give you a healthier lifestyle .
And obesity is a big deal in the US as well . So they're just doing so many great things and it was almost an easy choice . And they're such a small organization . They run so lean . When we were talking to them about what do you need , they didn't even understand how much we could give them and how much it would boost .
That's what I was going to ask you . I mean , it's a gym . How is technology going to help them with their mission ?
Oh , that's a great question . So they barely have an audio system there . We're going to upgrade their audio system security . They don't have a great commercial grade camera system on site . I mean , you're talking about youth and inner cities , so security is a big deal . So we're bringing them a camera system . We're going to access , control their doors .
We're going to give them intercoms so they can answer doors securely and talk and see who's at the door before having to open the door up for anybody . So that's going to be a big boost in security .
And when you talk about youth and security , it's like you can never have too much and it's really , you know , underrated sometimes about how important those things can be . But when you don't have the budget for it , it's one of those things that falls to the wayside . So we want to make sure they have that .
We want to make sure that those kids are safe while they're in there and there's nothing going on . We want the camera system up . We're going to give them Wi-Fi throughout the gym . We're going to put in a new network for them .
And when you say , how does it help their mission right now , we're going to give them a kiosk for signing in so they can kind of get credit and start to track the amount of people that they're serving .
So when they're going for grants and they're going for any kind of funding , they can turn around and say , hey , we are , you know , servicing X number of people every single day . Please help us so we can give them technology to help them track that .
We're going to give them sign in kiosk where people can come in and easily go to a tablet , sign themselves in , be able to track those number of sign-ins somewhere . So we're just we're trying our best to give them as much as we can and , I think , anything that helps . We're just going to lace that whole building with Wi-Fi .
We did a survey on it , we know what it needs . We're just real excited . I mean , I want to get started already .
So I've got a two-part question for you , right ? So it's going to take labor to do this and it's going to take equipment to do this . Where are you gonna get the labor from and where you're gonna get this equipment from ?
Yeah , great questions . So this is technology worldwide , and I did mention that our people are some of the most skilled that I've ever met and they're flying in from all over the place to donate their time On their own dime , to be there and to support this event .
I mean they're they're paying their own hotels and and you know everything , just to be there , to be a part of it , just to donate their time . So I mean , I think at this point we have at least a dozen texts who have signed themselves up and said I will be there with my tool belt on , ready to help .
So labor , we are so covered with labor because our guys show up . I mean that's one thing I'll give them credit for . When it's when that text giving bell rings , there they're here . And in terms of equipment , we have kind of like Three , three ways of attacking it .
We have some vendors that are in the community and we always like to go to our vendors first , and so , for instance , cable , we've got cable vendors in the community . We say , hey , we need X number of boxes , a cat six . Would you be willing to help us ? And you know what ? They haven't said no yet . So they're gonna . They're support us .
They and our vendors , they really support us . Whatever they have that they make , it's ours . They just say , hey , I know what you guys are doing , it's worth it . Here's the cable , here's the patch panels , here's , you know , whatever you need that we make , you can have it . So we've got a great number of vendors that do that .
So we're really grateful for the support that they bring to us . The second is the community . The community I have a bill of materials right now and says , hey , these are all the parts and pieces we need to make this job work .
And then the community goes and they look at it and they say you know what make I have , I have that strike , or I have those speakers , or I have a laptop , or I have this , I'll send it to you . It's , it's yours , you know , mark it off the list , we don't need it . And then everything else we try to Raise funds for right . So we raise cash .
So we have a page , donate dot , tech , knowledge , wwworg , and people can donate Cash and what the cash does is the things that we can't get donated . And sometimes we don't have a vendor that makes a certain item In our community , so we have to buy it . That's what we use the cash for .
We use the cash to buy the equipment that we couldn't get donated and for this project we're looking to raise $10,000 in cash , but I think the equivalent of what we're working with what they're going to get is somewhere in the $60,000 range worth of stuff . So it's it's a great investment .
It's it's a good deal and , you know , with all the donations we're getting through labor and materials from other people , it really turns into a wonderful project that we can really do for . I would say a small amount . I mean , depending on who you are , 10k is a small amount .
Let me ask you this , because , yeah , I have a , I have an audience , I'm a podcast , I have an audience , all six of them . You want to count them right , all six of them . If one of them wants to donate labor but they're not a member of Tech Knowledge Worldwide , is that something they can do , absolutely Absolutely ? And how would they do that ?
How would they , how would they arrange that ?
I would say Get in touch with Yourself or me , right , if you can . If you can refer them , I'm on Instagram at try , can security TRIC AN security and I can refer you to the slack channel . We have a form that you fill out and I say if you're not a member now , there's no cost to membership .
So join us , join the slack channel , be a part of this and if you want to come , show up , I'd love to meet you .
I was telling Ray , because he actually invited me to come participate in this event . And you know me , I got a day job , I got a farm and I got a podcast . I'm extremely busy . I'm not gonna say that I'm not gonna be there , but I'm not gonna say I can be there yet either , because it kind of depends on travel .
And my mom lives in Lenticum it's right around the corner , right so you know I don't even need a hotel . My brother lives right there too , so I don't even need a hotel . I'll just go crash with my brother . So I just got to get myself up there . The bigger challenge for me is getting an open block of time in my schedule .
That's the bigger challenge for me Because I want to be there . I want to be there for it Because you know I had a blast at Tech Fast and I love doing these kinds of events where you know the industry is helping give back to you know , to make it .
Let's be honest sometimes some of our installers , some of our companies , don't have the best reputation and that tarnishes everybody else and everybody thinks of us as contractors and you know we're knuckle dragging cable people . But hello , look at you , you got a podcast . Right , you're a keyboard guy , you know .
You know I'm your stereotypical knuckle dragging cable guy . You put me in front of a computer . I'm like this typing , you know . Hey , let's talk a bit about your podcast . I knew of it . I don't think I subscribed to you yet . I don't have to change that today , though . Tell me a little bit about your podcast and the live stream .
Yeah , so we do it under the tech knowledge worldwide and my forte is the security side of it . So I handle , you know , just teaching people about . You know what cloud cameras are , what on-prem cameras are , what are the advantages , disadvantages . I've done one on access control , cloud-based access control .
We talk about readers and you know what's new in the industry , what's new , what's coming , what's working well , what are people asking for ?
I talked about hardware one time and we have a little bit of a cadence where we'll have a podcast about a topic , we'll release it and then two weeks later , on the Wednesday evening , I think nine on Wednesday , we do a live Q&A .
So if you watched it and you had questions or you just want to talk about anything on the topic , sometimes off the topic , we just open it up . That's a great idea . We open it up .
Oh my God , that's a great idea .
And it's usually . We've gone as long as two hours sometimes on the live streams , but we try to keep it around the hour mark for people and it's a little later so we can catch the West Coast guys . But it's had some success , you know .
So we've had people engage and you know , if two people get on and two people ask questions and two people got answers , it's worth it for me .
There you go . If somebody wants to watch this podcast or this live stream , where would they watch it ? I believe it's called .
Tech Talks and I think it's called what social media platforms . It's on YouTube , they have it on Spotify and they also have it on I think it's Apple Radio . Should be on all three .
Okay , and then the live streams . I think you do that on Instagram .
We do the live streams on Instagram and it's from the tech knowledge worldwide , their page , from their Instagram page . That's where all the lives come from .
Yeah , I've caught a couple of them . I always forget you know they're on . Unfortunately , for some reason my phone doesn't notify me when they pop on and I don't feel like I'm a full member yet because , a I'm a knuckle dragon cable guy , I'm not in security and B I don't have a big old gold chain .
Well , we can get you that , we can work on it . So I just pulled up and it's TKW Tech Talks , t-e-k . That's the name of the episodes if you're looking for it on Spotify TKW Tech Talks .
And from a couple of that I've watched , you guys cover a lot of great content and that's why I love watching . Because people , unfortunately , they see me responding to cable questions and stuff and they label me with the term expert . I gotta hate that term .
I hate that term , but there's a lot that I don't know and access control security those are my huge weak areas . I mean , if somebody asked me how to put in a door strike , I'd be like , yeah , I know a guy .
Yeah , I know a guy . But I'll tell you what I know . You don't like being called expert when I think of the tougher cabling and fire stopping and the more detailed rules that not everybody knows , I'm gonna hit you up , chuck , so I don't know . I know you don't like being called the expert , but I'm a good speed . You're in my speed dial .
Oh good speed , there you go . You know how to get a hold of me . Somebody asked me the other day when I told him I was on social media if somebody's not in the industry , and they said well , how do I find you ? I said it's pretty easy , actually . Just go to Google , put in hashtag CBRCDD , you will find me .
I'm the whole front page and I answer all questions I can . So I really I really do , but I appreciate everything you guys are doing for the industry and any parting thoughts .
Yeah , I would say this . I mean , if you wanna learn more about technology worldwide , please go ahead and check out the website TEKNOWEDGEWWorg techknowledgeorg . And we also have a text giving website where we kind of give updates on what we're doing , and that's TEKS giving text giving .
That's our signature event and it's coming up pretty soon and we're really excited about it and I'd love to see some new members show up . I'd love to see some donations come in so we can really bring the best that we can to the MissionFit organization and really help their mission of supporting and empowering Baltimore's youth .
I couldn't have said it better myself .
¶ Interview
I appreciate you taking time out of your busy day Coming on the show .
Thanks , Chuck . I'm really happy that you brought me on and now I can add that to my resume as a Chuck Bowser guest .
I've been on the let's Talk K-Wing podcast . You know that , and a quarter will get you a couple calls . I think you need one and a quarter .
So I hope you enjoyed this show and if you feel like you can help , or you know whether you want to fly there or you live there already , get in touch with me or Mikhail and we will get you in touch with the right people so you can help do this .
If you are a manufacturer and you like to donate some equipment for this passionate , much needed mission in the inner city of Baltimore , get in touch with us . Until next time , knowledge is power .