On this "Hacking Your Potential" podcast introduction episode, Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli are joined by Frankie Thomas to discuss the plans for the show, imposter syndrome, challenges of education, and community support for personal and professional growth.
Guest: Frankie Thomas
On ITSPmagazine 👉 https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/frankie-thomas
Hosts:
Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli
Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast [@RedefiningCyber]
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/sean-martin
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Episode Introduction
On this "Hacking Your Potential" podcast introduction episode, Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli are joined by Frankie Thomas to discuss the plans for the show, imposter syndrome, challenges of education, and community support for personal and professional growth.
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Resources
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For more podcast stories from Hacking Your Potential Podcast with Frankie Thomas, visit: https://www.itspmagazine.com/hacking-your-potential-podcast
Watch the webcast version on-demand on YouTube: (coming soon)
Please note that this transcript was created using AI technology and may contain inaccuracies or deviations from the original audio file. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the original recording as errors may exist. At this time we provide it “as it is” and we hope it can be useful for our audience.
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voiceover00:15
Welcome to the ITSPmagazine Podcast Network. You are about to listen to the hacking your potential podcast with Frankie Thomas. Join Frankie, and uncover the secrets of those who achieved greatness. Let their wisdom and experience inspire you to transcend mediocrity and strive for excellence. Take the first step towards an extraordinary life and start your journey today. Knowledge is power. Now, more than ever.
Marco Ciappelli00:57
Cheers. No beer. It's water sparkling. hydrated. Oh,
Sean Martin 01:11
dear. That's a whole, I guess there's sparkly sour beers.
Marco Ciappelli01:17
Where do you live? Yesterday. That's why I asked you they have that.
Sean Martin 01:26
You have to be well, I have to be in uniform. That's not what we're here to talk about. Not maybe we're talking about beer and wine. That's not the initial driver of this conversation. This is obviously this is ITSPmagazine Podcast Network and Sean Martin here with my co founder, Marco Ciappelli. And I think we've had a pretty good run Marco, of bringing on some interesting topics and some interesting shows, and meeting some really cool people in the process that are hosting shows. And today, I have the distinct honor of introducing Frankie Thomas, Frankie, how are you?
Frankie Thomas02:14
I'm very good. Sean, thanks for inviting me on today.
Sean Martin 02:17
You know, this is a natural, a natural thing to do. I mean, we don't know how many weeks not that many weeks ago that we first connected. And I think I saw a post and I said, That's a cool topic. The to see you talk about it some more. And here we are a few weeks later, and you're doing just that. Which is which is pretty cool. But obviously that's the summary version, the the TLDR version of that, but there's much more to it. And you What do you think Marcus? Should we? Should we hear a little bit more about who Frankie is? We know we know a little bit I guess.
Marco Ciappelli03:01
Well, that's the reason why we do this kind of conversation like very friendly. Would it wouldn't be bad to have a beer or coffee or whatever. Just I like this is how I do sometimes with my guest. Like let's pretend to be sitting on a coffee table. Maybe in a coffee shop somewhere. Maybe in London and I'm hearing I'm throwing in hit a hint there that we can we can talk more about but it could be in Paris it could be in Florence anywhere and just have a nice conversation which is about meeting Frankie and introduce you to the audience that maybe listen to my show to Sean show and and they want to listen to your show too. So I would say who is Frankie?
Frankie Thomas03:44
Quest? Okay, well, um, but let's, let's pretend we're in Florence because it's about eight degrees in here at the moment. So I took an interest in penetration testing and cybersecurity in general about 12 months ago, so maybe 13 months now. And I knew nothing about it. I never really I didn't even know what Kali Linux was I've had sort of a background in it, but not much. And I just dug my heels in every single day go and go and go and started making friends on LinkedIn found myself a mentor who's still guarding me. He's going to be on the show in a couple of weeks. Just had an interview with him. It was absolutely fantastic. So and he sort of guided me into take notes because I was unsure I hacked me the website to I hacked me and I basically completed the whole thing in six months. So I was the top 1%. And, and the goal was all that he goes, that's great. You've done that. Yes, I can I can I see your notes and that that you've been taken. I said, I'm supposed to take notes. And he goes, Yeah, he's like, you think you're gonna be able to remember all that stuff? And I was like, Oh, I don't know. So he started quizzing me on SQL injection and stuff like that. And I was like, couldn't answer any of his questions. So so he advised me to go to a course on TCM security to, he said go through it and he was like, but take really good notes. He said, screenshot everything. And so I started doing that. And then I got really, I think I have some maybe some sort of OCD or something I'm very, I get very focused on something when I do it. So the notetaking became primary. And then I was using LinkedIn to sort of save my notes. So I didn't lose them in case my computer crashed or something crazy happened. And then I started getting a lot of interest from them. And after doing it day, after day, after day, after day, they got better and better and better. And, and that's actually what led me to you. So now I've basically sort of cut off the studying for that at the moment. And I'm fully obsessed with the podcast now.
Sean Martin 05:50
A new obsession, which which we're grateful for, and everything you've done up to this point will fold in awfully, you don't stop learning as you haven't, you're obviously going to be learning new stuff about about yourself and your guests and the technology as you do your podcasts. But hopefully you keep growing in the other areas as well, assuming that's what you want to do. But let's go a little further back even. And I often joke for me, it's back to when I was hatched. But maybe further back, did you. You said you had some experience in it. But did you always have an interest in technology that led you there? Or what? What about technology? early on? Oh, no. How did you enter that? That realm? I guess yes. So
Frankie Thomas06:42
I've actually got a great example for this. I always remember it as being a kid, there was a it was a magazine series, you know, you get those magazines where you get one piece of the puzzle each month or something and then you build the project over time. Well, I started buying this one that was building a robot basically. And it was like, it was like a little book and one day you'd get a microchip. And then another day, you'd get a light sensor. And next week, you get wheels. And I think over the course of three years, I built this entire robot and built its own remote control and everything. So they can come out. Yeah, I've always had a an obsession with technology, I was more I was more interested in breaking it than building it. So I had I had a big box. And I must have been about 10 years old, I had a big box just full of cables and microchips and broken up remote controls, Playstations you name it. Everything I had to take it apart and look what was inside. But I never, I never built things. So when I discovered penetration test and I thought, Oh, this is great. I can just sit around breaking things all day I don't
Sean Martin 07:49
I always look for toys and other things that had motors in them. Right? That you could you could take and make make those do other things with other parts and pieces.
Frankie Thomas07:58
I think got spending
Marco Ciappelli08:02
how many? How many times have you heard these similar story about this is how I got into hacking? Because Will you just describe it is hacking anyway, is either building or breaking a rebuild and being curious and, and being all about making something better if there is a way to to improve it, why not? You get a break something to know that it's not perfect. And I think the assumption is that nothing is perfect. And as a matter of fact, I like the title that you choose for the show because we as human are very hackable ourselves, and we can hack our way into things that is not necessarily just acknowledged, right? It's you hack yourself in learning to play an instrument, you hack yourself into learning how to become an artist or even making friends. I mean, that's an art as well. So I mean, the fact that you're translated this, this mindset into being human and and in find a way to progress in your career. I think it's, it's great. So tell me more about why you focus on on this kind of conversation.
Sean Martin 09:16
And then the shows the show name is hacker hacker potential, right. So just so so we set that stage.
Frankie Thomas09:24
Yeah, so um, the whole idea behind hacking your potential was like, I've never done podcasts before. So I'm not a professional podcaster I'm also new to cybersecurity. So I'm not a professional in cybersecurity either. But I always try to play to my strengths. So and my my strengths have always been like discipline mindset. I will happily get up at one o'clock in the morning and start working on editing one of my shows if I have to, I don't I don't sort of believe in laziness or anything like that. I don't believe in I'll do it tomorrow or it can't be done and This and it all came from small little things that I've done. So like, even just hit my shower, I'm cold every day when I get shower, I've walk on cold every day. And no matter how many times you do that, your brain will tell you not to bet your eggs or every time, even after years of doing it. I make sure I go to the gym every day. And I saw I want to gear the show around. Not particularly, you know, giving people advice in cybersecurity, but giving them more advice on how to be successful in cybersecurity, but more to be just successful in life. Again, I'm certain I can take my hand to any sort of trade or field and then start making moves in it. And I think if you know, we can help people sort of gain them sort of skills, even just little things. Like I found a lot of people on LinkedIn, they're, you know, they're all great the following the learning paths and stuff. But they're not really doing much else. And I don't think that's their fault. I think they just then not educated in the idea of sort of pushing the boundaries with things. So that the whole premise of the show was to sort of help people, you know, find them ideas, give them them lightbulb moments that go on No, I didn't think about that. That's what I've been doing wrong this whole time. Because I think that's what actually changes people's lives is the way they approach things rather than, you know, knowing the latest, no threat or knowing the latest exploit. I don't think that helps as much as actually having that get up and go every single day. And facing your fears and all that sort of stuff. Really. That was the premise behind it.
Sean Martin 11:34
And setbacks, I heard I've heard three things thus far. I'm sure we'll hear more even. But I mean, just talking about creating that robot, where you have to acquire each, I think you said magazine, right? Each magazine gives you each piece, that's patient's right there, to wait for all those pieces, to bring it together to build it. And then the persistence and maybe the desire and creativity to break it all apart again, right? Think men perhaps and maybe make it do something it's not supposed to. And then he's you. So those are kind of the two thing, persistence and patience. But then you described your mentor saying, you just completed this amazing, I don't know that I could do hack the box. Right? I probably couldn't do hack the box to be honest with you. And let alone being the one top 1%. So you accomplish that. And then the feedback you got from the mentor was what were your notes. And that could be like seriously damaging in terms of the desire to continue. And yet, you took that as a challenge to keep moving on and perhaps to help others understand that as well. So I think through the podcast, you're going to be able to do that. Not just one to one but one to many as you connect and grow your audience, right?
Frankie Thomas12:58
Yeah, well, my first, my first thought with the podcast was once I realized how much time it was going to take from me to sort of get the ball roll and all the learning curves, and, you know, equipment I have to learn to use, and especially with, like, I suffer with performance anxiety, I don't know if you know this, but I always have. And so that's another fear that I have to face every time I do this. And what I was worried about, I thought, um, I'm not going to be able to keep learning stuff. I'm gonna, I'm just gonna be focused on this. But then I thought, no, hang on, I get to speak to industry leaders, and I can pick their brains. And that's the sort of stuff you ain't gonna get from the sort of online courses. You know, yeah, they'll teach you how to use the technology, but they're not going to actually teach you why it means to be on the ground and what it actually means to be a professional in this industry. So I think what I'm gonna get from this is going to be a lot more valuable than that. So that's what sort of swayed the, the wait for me really into diving straight in.
Marco Ciappelli13:56
You know what, let's talk about this, because I'm a big fan of every time I talk about education, that there is not just one way to learn how to do something. And for me, education many times fails people because it just tells you, here's the book, here's the rules, here's what you need to follow, then I'm going to give you a test on that. And if you don't do it as it was in that particular book, you fail. I think that's bullshit
Sean Martin 14:25
and the order the teacher wanted you to follow it.
Marco Ciappelli14:29
Exactly. So you know, famous philosopher, said back in, in, in anti Greece that teaching is about teaching how to learn, then how will you learn is up to you because when you have that methodology, then you can learn anything you want. It's not about learning something and I always go by that. And I feel like when you when you talk with people that they've done it their way. There's not just one way to succeed and I think that's that's the key about understanding it. I don't know if you if you agree with me or not, but from what you said so far, and even just by reading, the description of your podcast is about impostor syndrome. So it's about feeling inadequate to do something. But why who said that?
Frankie Thomas15:19
Well, what do you mean? Like, no one said, I think, like impostor syndrome stuff for me. It's all inside my head. Like, everyone, everyone tells me, I'm great. And you know, you can do this, and especially in the cybersecurity community, they are that I found that's the key to impostor syndrome. I've spoke to a few people about it now. And they said, it's the community, that's the answer. If you're unsure about something, or you don't think you can do something, just ask people what they think. And especially in this community, you're gonna get a lot of people saying, No, you can do this. Go ahead. And that's how you cure I guess.
Marco Ciappelli15:59
Yeah, and how about what I was saying at the beginning like that, you probably gonna get a lot of different answers a lot of different way to do something. Right. And I think that's, that's the beauty of this industry and many other industries. So you know, you'll hear a lot of different stories, and maybe that Erec a moment can come from something unexpected.
Frankie Thomas16:22
Yeah, well, what you said about, you know, the exam and sort of remembering the information and then ticking the boxes, like I've totally agree that it's a poor way to educate people. I'm quite lucky in the sense where I can remember information quite, I can spend a day learning something and pass an exam, no problem, but then the next day that information is gone. Like I had to garden in college and I had to remember certain types of grass by looking at them the Latin names and the names of the seeds, etc. I was the first was the first person in five years to get full marks on that, but you asked me that now I don't I couldn't even remember one of them. So I think it is a poor way. I think. You can't read a textbook on how to hit the hammer on the nail Kenya, you you're only gonna get better after you've hit your finger hit your form a few times.
Sean Martin 17:12
I spent I don't know what I forget how many years for four years, I'll say four years, maybe even five or six? I don't know. That's shows you how good my memory is. Which kind of sets the tone for this next comment which I'm right there with you Frankie. I helped build system for estimation and job management for landscape company. So I used to know all the names and Gene geniuses and all that stuff, too. But not anymore. On anymore. That stuff's gone. But I want to go back to Marco said. He said something and, and it and, or sucks. And I can't remember not because I spoke over myself. But I guess the point I want to make and want to get your thoughts on his success, oftentimes, what what are you trying to achieve, and what's the path to get there is often defined for someone and it may not be the something that you're trying to to achieve. And the path to get there may not be the same for everybody kind of on the same point. And I think that's really where that the hacking your potential comes in. Because you can view something differently than others. And then the path to get there, especially if it's very different, can be different as well. And I don't know you've already you've already recorded a few shows, a couple of couple of which should be live by the time this is produced. Talk to us a little bit about some of those conversations in connection to some of the things that we we've touched on here.
Frankie Thomas18:53
Yeah, so I won't go into my first guest as it's already out there you can then go and have a look at that. But the guests coming up as Anton is known as the remote code execution man or some people call them rice man. But he's, he's a bug bounty hunter and what grabbed my attention with him because like I'm, I'm attracted by work ethic. So if I see someone's doing a hell of a lot of stuff, especially when I found out he has a family as well. I need to speak to these people to find out how are you doing this? And so he has like a successful Twitter, YouTube, Tik Tok, Facebook, LinkedIn. He's on all these platforms doing this stuff. So I want to find out how we did it. And I didn't get much of an answer the answer I got well, it's it's hard. It's from like, he's from Latvia, but I got it's hard but I think the main thing I got from him was when I asked him about the imposter syndrome, which I said before, and he was the one who said it's the community. He said, You join these communities and your and any problems you have shared them with them and, and I was like, that's fantastic, man. How Because I suffer with all the time I, I have a different approach with impostor syndrome, for instance. So when I feel like, this is bad, or this is wrong, I can't do this, I use that to trigger me to carry on, I see that as a sort of marker to say, I'm almost at the end here, I'm almost that the good. But
Sean Martin 20:22
I have to say on this point, because I mean, the thing that drew me to use that, what was your post on LinkedIn, where you were talking about things that I loosely understand, after having been an engineer for a while, but don't, don't, I don't play that role anymore. So I get it, but I don't understand it at the depth at the levels that are necessary to talk intelligently about it. And I thought these, what you're doing would be great for the community to hear beyond LinkedIn. And so to this point, where you have that feeling that you're not good enough, you're already doing amazing things that drew me to you, that now are going to help the community even more, where in part, you'll talk about some of the challenges you have, and some that your guests have, in actually being successful in jumping through those, those hoops and crossing over those hurdles that that are hard as your as your next guest said,
Frankie Thomas21:28
well, that that document is actually a prime example of what I just said, the way I designed that document, it wasn't easy, I use an application called Joplin and no edit taking up or not taking up. And you can use like markdown tags and HTML tags to sort of design things. And this worked out to be 100 page document in the end. And I couldn't just automate this to do what I wanted, I had to put every single tag in individually, it took me seven days, roughly 12 hour days, I was waking up doing it going to sleep waking up doing it. And I must have got about halfway through and I was I was close to giving up. I was like, I don't even know if this is going to look good, or is it is it maybe it's going to be a complete disaster and a footnote, we'll just keep going. And it turned out to be a raging success. So that's for anyone who's listening, if you do suffer with like impostor syndrome, or anything sort of trying to hold you back, just use that as a reason to carry on. But that's because that's what I've started to do. So when you offered me the podcast, I was terrified. And then I was like, Okay, right. I'm scared. Good. I don't want to do it good. It's gonna be difficult. Amazing. Yeah.
Marco Ciappelli22:40
It sounds to me, you're the kind of person that the harder it is seems that the more you're going to dig into it to kind of prove you prove yourself that you can do it. And I think that's, that's a great attitude, right? I mean, self learner, clearly, for a lot of things and kind of looking at the challenge in the straight in the face. And you know, and if you fail, you know, you can't always succeed, you know, and you say, you know, if you're not failing a few times, probably not doing it. Right. So that's, that's what I think is the power of listening to other people and I want to dig into the podcast itself. So one of the things I like to ask people is the why right, you know, why do you why did you feel that the podcast was as difficult as challenging for your personality, but something that you say, you know, what, this this is going to be actually a good challenge because it's going to bring me to this and I understand the community but maybe dig in a little bit more into what attracted you to accept this challenge the most?
Frankie Thomas23:47
Well, what the reason I accepted that is because it's a challenge and it's a challenge on so many so many levels for one I'm a very talkative person and I think we all know that you know, if you talk too much it can make you death. So so active listening has always been something I've really struggled with. So I thought this is going to be a great opportunity for me to actually try and sit down and listen to people instead of talking over them and so there was that aspect I thought right that's going to help me with that. And and the fact that the fact that everything about it is a challenge for me so the talking to people I get nervous the what else you know the sort of talking to people I get nervous and I'd lose me words the gentleman right. Just Just give me a second
Marco Ciappelli24:36
No
Frankie Thomas24:39
I've never been on this side before it's easier to be
Marco Ciappelli24:42
here let's let's do this. Let's do that. You ask us a question now. Go sorry.
Frankie Thomas24:48
So What? What? So while I'm engaged you guys to join forces and start ITSPmagazine
Marco Ciappelli24:57
Shawn, do you know the answer you guys
Sean Martin 24:59
Well the answer. It has to do with food, everything starts with food for me. And I'm kind of joking, but not really. We met at a cafe in Redondo Beach. Hermosa Beach, sorry, awesome Beach, California, and we think pretty much instantly became friends and then realized that, that we crossed the crossover in terms of the work that we do and marketing things like that. And, and I'll try to keep the story short, we recognize that the cybersecurity field was doing it, not the best way possible marketing, that is, they were presenting their, their solution in the form of a box. With with the CD inside of that, that was that was a form of marketing, where like, there has to be a better way to, to kind of convey what's going on here and what the what the real value is. And fast forward, we realize that it's connecting to the human, the human side of, of technology, and the impact it can have on business and then broader, we opened up things to technology, so the impact it has on society overall. And what started with helping companies bring their products to market with better messaging became telling stories, in written form. We were born as a publication in at BlackHat, nine years ago. And as a written publication, and then we we figured out that telling stories, as as a conversation works better than just in written form. So we decided to kick into kicking the podcast land and haven't looked back. So that's that's my version of the story. And I'm gonna stick started with started with Toffee Coffee, and you know,
Marco Ciappelli26:53
I'm making some making some connection between Frankie, we will use that and we decided to do because in a way, I feel like we're very, we're very similar meaning with that, should we start a poll like if publication, I had no idea before I met Sean, I didn't even know what cybersecurity was. I mean, I come from marketing, branding and sociology. But I knew it was important. And I knew it was important to have this conversation. But I also remember that one day we, you know, Sean was already good at writing, about cybersecurity, interviewing people, and then writing an article. And we're like, just podcasting. It's kind of happening. And we said, Screw it, let's do a podcast. I mean, never done it before. It's not that we were coming from the radio world or anything like that. And then Shawn started in like, you know, one, I think I can do this. So, you know, I started doing podcast too. And I look back sometimes, and I'm like, I don't know, shit. But I just go out there and do it. And every time that I do a podcast, I learned something and you find your own voice, your own style, which in my case is no style at all. I mean, this is just me. I'm not scripting anything, right? And I guess I'm lucky because of that, but but it's also something that, like you said, every time you talk to someone, you get better. And nobody starts by good being good. That'd be pretty weird, right? So
Sean Martin 28:23
I'm like, You Frankie, I'm not comfortable. On the side of the camera. I'd rather be flipping the knobs in the background, making sure it sounds good, and kind of controlling things from the other side. But nevertheless, here I am. Well, I'm lead me to people like you. And I'm very grateful for that.
Frankie Thomas28:44
I'm grateful that you found me. It's it's been, it's probably been one of the hardest challenges I've had to face over the last couple of years for sure. I've always sort of done things that were I didn't have to really face my fears, like the public speaking thing. Especially the public speaking, I used to be a DJ and even even after like, I don't know, 10 years of DJ and at festivals and stuff, I still suffered with the nervousness of it. So I don't think it's anything that will ever leave me to be honest. But I think I can, you know, gain more control over it, I guess. But going back to your last question, I think I felt the same way as you about it. When Sean said, Do you want to do a podcast? I was like, Yeah, let's do it. I have no clue. I have no clue what I'm doing. But you know, when opportunity when opportunity knocks at the door, you have to walk through it. Otherwise, it may not open again. That's so even if someone offered me, you know, to do something else, maybe it's bad, and I'll say it was something bigger. And I'll say someone offered me a TV show, for instance. And I'd be like, I have to keep rolling with this even though that could potentially be a disaster. But there's a there's a part of the podcast where I've been because I've been speaking to some of the guests and then and they think we should start talking more about or asking people more We're about their failures. Because I think a lot to do with impostor syndrome, particularly as people are terrified to fail. And I think it's something that people need to get comfortable with. So I think hearing these human stories from these really successful people in the industry talk about, you know, where things went terribly wrong for them, I think it'd be really useful to people. It's another approach we want to take.
Sean Martin 30:24
Now, it's interesting, because the the start of the publication came on the heels of, well, two ventures, one, one that I started and then we, we transform that into another thing. Remember, Marco was community shopper, and then the what was the other one bag, the card everywhere, something like that, where we had this idea that to bring people together and, and the huge failure of mine one anyway. But what I realized was, it's difficult to connect with a large audience. It's easy to go one to one to a business harder to connect with 1000 people that that one business is trying to sell to. And, again, lead us back to how do you do that? It's about telling a story and having a conversation. And so that that huge failure led to us figuring out well, we want to connect with those people. And we want to do it in a genuine way and tell stories that are meaningful to them. And, and, ultimately, and this is, this is what we're all about. helping them learn. Knowledge is power. That's our that's our tagline. So everything we do revolves around connecting technology and cybersecurity, to society and ultimately, to the businesses that are making society kind of run from that perspective as well. So the point is, that that failure led to this, whether it's a success, that's that's to be determined, at some point. I'm having a good time, even though I'm uncomfortable. But I love working with Marco I love bringing, bringing folks like you into the mix and expanding on our vision for for what we're doing here. So
Marco Ciappelli32:22
to add to that into what you're doing. My experience with, with media, in general, is the fact that now with the internet, and the fact that we have access to technology, and we all become content creator. And that's a good thing and a bad thing, because it's bad thing, because everybody have a platform and can you know, bullshit all day long, and people will listen, I'm not gonna get political here. But the other good thing is that we all have an opportunity to make a difference. And what is beautiful is that people more and more, I think they appreciate transparency and honesty and a candid conversation we're not expecting I mean, if you're watching the BBC, you expect to be to have overproduced piece of something. But when people listen to a podcast they want, they want the moment of shit, I'm not comfortable right now. Give me a minute. Real this is yeah, this is a real conversation. I get in there, people get inspired by that. So no, my point is not not expertize. And experience required. It's long as people had that desire to share the knowledge to make a difference in somebody's life. And it could be that one person that listen to you out of many, that the day after it get inspired, and you change you change their life. I think that's worth it to put ourselves out there even sometimes we would look like little silly, but you know,
Frankie Thomas34:01
no, absolutely. It only takes one good episode to change someone's life. There's no even just one good sentence. But I think what you said about the, you know, being genuine and being honest, it's I figured that really early in this when I started this project, because I, I come to the conclusion, I wouldn't be able to talk on the microphone. As soon as I've hit record, I went. And I had my head in my hands for a whole day saying I can't I can't do this. And then the next day I tried again, and it was like, Oh, hang on enough of me 10 minutes here. But I read, I read I've got an episode that will never be published. And it was about how to about having positive people in your life and how to find positive people how to avoid negative people. And it was half an hour long of me just reading the script. And after I listened to it back and I said I can't I can't do it like this. There's no way so I decided that I have to I have to just do it without the scripts with Did you know maybe have some bullet points couple of questions as reference, but soon I've noticed as soon as you start reading things, whether it be jet, it's not genuine, if you read it from a script really is even if it comes from the heart, but you can tell straight away there's, like I notice there's no buttons or as or doubled up on the words, it's very. Can you talk about mentoring or figuring out who's had a significant impact on your professional journey? It's a totally different. It's a totally different person speaking and straight away, I realized no, just be myself, even if even if I have to fall over and roll around like, what was his name Chaplin. Even if even if after look like the Chuckle brothers or something while I do it, it's it's fine. Because I know when I look back at Episode 100, and 187, I'm going for when I look back from 187, I'll be the turning point where the professionalism finding kicks.
Marco Ciappelli35:56
Yeah, yeah.
Sean Martin 36:00
Well, let's, let's talk about the next 180 something. episodes. I don't know if you want to mention guests or themes. I know you have some some stuff coming from info security, Europe in London, which is talking about that. Yeah. So what? What do you have planned?
Frankie Thomas36:24
Yeah, so excited about that. So so at the moment, I'm trying to put together like a sort of pre conference episode, where I've already spoken to Philip Wiley was kind enough to come on pretty quickly and have a great chat with me that that that interview was an absolute disaster. On my end, I used the wrong microphone. I didn't quite prepare properly for it, because he because he messaged me back so quickly. Luckily, I have a background in sound editing and sound design and stuff last, so I managed to make it sound much better than the reality. And the other guests who I spoke to just now and then Armstrong, he has penned penetration testing as a service. So that the whole point of the first point was to get to know them. So I asked Phil about his life, how he went from pro wrestler to penetration tester, because first thing I saw was that and that was the first thing that sort of piqued my interest. And it was quite fascinating to hear that he has a similar background as myself where you've, you know, worked in construction and restaurants and retail. Like I actually work in construction. Now. I'm on the off because we have this festival on. So when I'm not when I'm not digging holes, I'm doing cybersecurity. So it was, it was, it was refreshing to know that, you know, there is hope for people like myself can, if you work hard enough and just keep going you can, you can get through that. And so far, I've only found those two people, I've contacted a few others, I'm finding it quite difficult, because I like to keep it around penetration testing. And so the ethical hacking, because that's my interest. So I don't, it would be quite in not honest of me really to start interviewing people who are in fields that I don't quite understand. I'd have to sort of make things up and I don't really like that. So I'm waiting back on a few other people. If I can find them here. Yeah, Lauren, Laurie Laurie Mercer. From hacker one. I've sent him a message and waiting for him and then a few others. But I'm hoping to just get a bunch of them in for like, quick 20 minute 30 minute chats and then just put it into one episode. And I'll run around with my new microphones. I got the Rode wireless ones I've got using now. Because I has found it very difficult with the microphone. I had to keep going like this when I was talking to people. It's not to be like
Marco Ciappelli38:53
me, where there's more microphones on my face, but I kind of like that DJ, old school DJ feeling that
Frankie Thomas39:00
that's really the next one I want. The next one is the same as yours.
Marco Ciappelli39:06
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well listen up. One of the reasons why we do this, meet the new host is not only because it's a great conversation for us to have which we could do easily and we've done it of course, before you start it not recorded. We're going to see you when we are at Infosecurity Europe. So I'm excited about that. But the reason why we do this is exactly you know the people that listen to Shawn and I now they may want to listen to your show and I think the community that we are involved with, it's quite big. So I want to take this opportunity to invite everybody that wants to share their story to actually contact Frankie contact us and we'll pass the word to Frankie and yeah, come on, have a chat with with with him and we all have a story to share. And always say
Sean Martin 40:00
Is everybody made up stories? Everybody's hacking their potential? Right? Exactly. And it's those stories we need to hear. Yep.
Frankie Thomas40:09
Absolutely. Yeah, I'm willing to get virtually anyone on the show if they've got a story to tell, or if they've got things that can help, you know, newcomers to cybersecurity. And personally, I need as much practice as I can get through in this stuff. If I, if I go, if I go a week without interviewing someone, I feel like I'm sort of going backwards a little bit. So if I can speak to someone every single day, that'd be very beneficial for me. Yeah,
Marco Ciappelli40:38
I feel like my life is quite empty for it on record, one, or maybe sometimes even three or four podcasts in a day. And, and today, I don't I'm like, Hey, I got a lot of time to actually do other things. But I do miss that. It's been especially during the pandemic. I just love this idea. Like, you know, this morning, I talked to someone in Singapore, was my first Monday morning conversation. And I'm like, technology is pretty cool. I mean, I just thought somebody in Singapore and I'm in LA, and now I'm talking to you in the UK. And it's very cool. I think that podcasting and video conferencing is a blessing and, and it makes the community tighter. So that's my final message I want to close with this. This is all about the community is not about being the best TED talk or speaker keynotes or anything is about being out there. Share your story. And thinking that maybe what you what do you tell is gonna help the next person to do it in an easier way, learning from other people mistake not always having to hit the head in the wall. or burn your finger or get the cold shower every morning to realize what it is. So any invitation here to spontaneous conversation that happened to be podcast, and then we're so happy to have on ITSPmagazine. So thank you so much for this. I appreciate it. Yeah.
Frankie Thomas42:11
I'd like to add to that as well. Anybody who's like thinking of starting a podcast, you know, but they feel like, maybe they can't or they you know, they're worried that they'll have the fear. I suggest they contact us today because I wouldn't be here without you guys. And I know you're more than happy to you know, if you think somebody has potential excused upon, and you're happy to help them you know, he's been he's been great with me so far. And we're only just getting started. So yeah, if anybody's interested in starting their own podcast give give Shawn and Marco, a message. I'm sure they'll help you out.
Sean Martin 42:48
But you're very kind we definitely saw the potential and we're thrilled to have you on and I think the other the other thing cool that I know, that I'll close with is there's a huge community in Europe as well. And I think they probably don't get the voice that they deserve in a lot of us based publications. So for me this is a call to to hear the UK and the greater European voice on your show. different perspectives, different different experiences, different way of looking at things and you're the you're the one to bring all those stories to bear hacking your potential
Frankie Thomas43:39
well I'll keep that in mind a lot of my guests have been from Canada and the USA I know cybersecurity as a big it's a it's really big in the Americas and Canada and stuff. But yeah, I'll definitely start looking for more I don't know English well United Kingdom, European people because there is a lot of us here and I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in the Isle of Man that I've found so far. But if anyone from the Isle of Man is is listening to the show and meet me in person,
Sean Martin 44:08
I suppose they probably didn't know you were in it until you they hear this so
Marco Ciappelli44:12
yeah, I know we didn't actually mention the fact that you're right there in a small island. So yeah, that'd be curious to see what the community the CyberSecure communities there maybe you can just meet at a pub or something which is what we will do in the in during cybersecurity info security Europe really soon. All right, talking about podcast I think we got another come in here. So back to back. I know you were back to back to and I'm pretty sure that after this you'll get even more back to back and and, you know I'm again, I'm very, very happy to have you on board with us. It's it's an honor and a pleasure and the time we spend together very very you important for us and for the people that got to know you. You're a really cool, really cool person. With that said, Sean, people subscribe. What do you think?
Sean Martin 45:10
I think they should listen, subscribe and share. Support Frankie doing what he's doing to support the community. Thanks, everybody. I hope you enjoyed the conversation and cheers to you, Frank. Cheers, everyone. Thank you very much. We'll see you soon.
Frankie Thomas45:32
I look forward to meeting you both in person all right.
voiceover45:50
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