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Description
Having a seat at the table. Nice. Being heard? Nicer.
For decades, IT leaders have been the backbone of defensible business growth, solving problems that could cripple a business often before anyone noticed.
We know this world.
The late nights. The firefights.
The impossible deadlines that somehow got met.
IT Professionals don’t just fix.
They fortify.
They’re the frontline heroes fighting an improbable battle
thriving where others break,
armed with a resilience the strongest military leaders consider simply another day safeguarding the world.
When things get rough, you’re indispensable.
When everything’s humming like a well-oiled Tesla,
you’re the hidden engine of progress, often asked
to do the extraordinary.
And one of the toughest parts? Being hunted by short-term sales reps chasing quotas, pushing shiny solutions they “know” you need… but you know you don’t.
What if you could work with those who have sat in your seat, been precisely where you are? You can.
That’s right: We’ve been there.
Negotiating partnerships, being pitched by vendors across the table, and standing on the frontlines of IT.
That’s why we built a platform where IT leaders are amplified, not sidelined.
Not just “another platform.”
In fact, three in one.
A triple-threat to the industry norm.
Doing to IT what the iPhone did to the Blackberry
redefining the game (and expectations) forever.
And to be clear, we refuse to be part of
the “Hype Cycle” and inflated expectations.
Which is why we’ve perfected a proven model
that elevates you, the IT leader. Just ask our clients.
The first piece?
A podcast, not just a show.
A platform where IT pros share hard-earned truths, not corporate scripts.
The second piece?
A community where peers (real ones) have sophisticated conversations—without vendors lurking in the corner.
The final component?
An advisory with only one agenda: your performance and sanity, so you make smarter vetted choices without the sales circus.
Think of us as your backstage pass to whoever you need to meet to eliminate headaches and accelerate resolutions.
The kind of exclusive pass that gains you access to our ecosystem with $1.2 billion in buying power.
When we knock, the door’s already unlocked.
And here’s the kicker:
We make vendors fund your success.
What about vendor-neutrality?
If we were any more neutral, we’d be beige.
Our triple-threat model doesn’t just transform how we do business.
It transforms the impact you have on a
day-to-day basis and on a year-over-year basis.
It’s how you balance innovation with stability.
Where you not only have a seat at the table,
but get invited to speak.
And be listened to.
And there’s one final point that makes everything work:
We don’t disappear when you need us. Ever.
We stay. We escalate. We stand with you.
We are anti-spin. Anti-transactional. Pro-IT leader.
Your resilience is our resilience.
Because when IT leaders rise…
so does everything else.
Welcome to the platform.
Welcome to the movement.
Join the next wave of IT leadership.
Welcome to You’ve Been Heard.
*****DISCLAIMER***** All views, opinions, and statements made by guests on this show do not represent the beliefs of the host Phil Howard, or any entity whatsoever with which the show has been, is now, or will be affiliated. Any statements, views, random thoughts, or opinions expressed by the hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect the personal beliefs (could easily be misconstrued) and are not the official policy/position of our company, agency, podcast, and affiliated partners. Finally, because human beings are characteristically prone to flaws and mistakes, we warn all listeners to think critically for yourself and seek true knowledge before taking action upon anything.
For decades, IT leaders have been the backbone of defensible business growth, solving problems that could cripple a business often before anyone noticed.
We know this world.
The late nights. The firefights.
The impossible deadlines that somehow got met.
IT Professionals don’t just fix.
They fortify.
They’re the frontline heroes fighting an improbable battle
thriving where others break,
armed with a resilience the strongest military leaders consider simply another day safeguarding the world.
When things get rough, you’re indispensable.
When everything’s humming like a well-oiled Tesla,
you’re the hidden engine of progress, often asked
to do the extraordinary.
And one of the toughest parts? Being hunted by short-term sales reps chasing quotas, pushing shiny solutions they “know” you need… but you know you don’t.
What if you could work with those who have sat in your seat, been precisely where you are? You can.
That’s right: We’ve been there.
Negotiating partnerships, being pitched by vendors across the table, and standing on the frontlines of IT.
That’s why we built a platform where IT leaders are amplified, not sidelined.
Not just “another platform.”
In fact, three in one.
A triple-threat to the industry norm.
Doing to IT what the iPhone did to the Blackberry
redefining the game (and expectations) forever.
And to be clear, we refuse to be part of
the “Hype Cycle” and inflated expectations.
Which is why we’ve perfected a proven model
that elevates you, the IT leader. Just ask our clients.
The first piece?
A podcast, not just a show.
A platform where IT pros share hard-earned truths, not corporate scripts.
The second piece?
A community where peers (real ones) have sophisticated conversations—without vendors lurking in the corner.
The final component?
An advisory with only one agenda: your performance and sanity, so you make smarter vetted choices without the sales circus.
Think of us as your backstage pass to whoever you need to meet to eliminate headaches and accelerate resolutions.
The kind of exclusive pass that gains you access to our ecosystem with $1.2 billion in buying power.
When we knock, the door’s already unlocked.
And here’s the kicker:
We make vendors fund your success.
What about vendor-neutrality?
If we were any more neutral, we’d be beige.
Our triple-threat model doesn’t just transform how we do business.
It transforms the impact you have on a
day-to-day basis and on a year-over-year basis.
It’s how you balance innovation with stability.
Where you not only have a seat at the table,
but get invited to speak.
And be listened to.
And there’s one final point that makes everything work:
We don’t disappear when you need us. Ever.
We stay. We escalate. We stand with you.
We are anti-spin. Anti-transactional. Pro-IT leader.
Your resilience is our resilience.
Because when IT leaders rise…
so does everything else.
Welcome to the platform.
Welcome to the movement.
Join the next wave of IT leadership.
Welcome to You’ve Been Heard.
*****DISCLAIMER***** All views, opinions, and statements made by guests on this show do not represent the beliefs of the host Phil Howard, or any entity whatsoever with which the show has been, is now, or will be affiliated. Any statements, views, random thoughts, or opinions expressed by the hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect the personal beliefs (could easily be misconstrued) and are not the official policy/position of our company, agency, podcast, and affiliated partners. Finally, because human beings are characteristically prone to flaws and mistakes, we warn all listeners to think critically for yourself and seek true knowledge before taking action upon anything.
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Bradley Stokes has done six private equity turnarounds using the same five-step IT playbook. His secret: stop being the department that keeps the lights on and become the business partner that drives value creation.
Dana Kline built an IT team from 1 to 11 at a PE-backed energy company. Then he created a vendor scorecard so tough that an Oracle VP said 'nobody ever measures us like this.'
Sandeep Shenoy has spent seventeen years integrating AI into medical devices at Viant Medical. He's not anti-AI. He builds it every day. But he's watched the industry rush to deploy systems trained on data sets that were never designed to be fair.The problem isn't the technology. It's the history baked into the data. "When AI makes a mistake in finance, you lose money. When it makes a mistake in healthcare, you could lose a life." Early fitness trackers failed to read female heart rate patterns because of biased training data. That already happened.We get into bias audits as continuous process, fairness by design principles, and accountability frameworks. Plus why ethics needs to move out of the compliance box and into business value.The uncomfortable truth: patients have zero say in how these devices work. They just know a doctor told them they need it. By then, discrimination might already be built in.
Shane Petty works in midstream oil and gas where margins are tight and every dollar counts. He inherited a 30-year-old ERP that only twelve people in the country could support. Leadership thought SAP was running the show. Reality? One guy with an Excel spreadsheet was keeping everything alive."If I don't have that opportunity to speak into those things, well, then I'm just a robot, making sure that people are getting their monthly cybersecurity training," Shane says about working without executive vision.We get into the three things IT sits at the center of, why walking leadership to the shop floor beats PowerPoint presentations, and how Shane saved $350,000 annually by replacing legacy systems. Plus his framework for getting heard when leadership has no vision.The biggest takeaway? IT leaders aren't just the department of IT anymore. They're at the junction of leadership, processes, and people. That's where the real power is.
Dr. Sergio Sanchez has sat in seats most IT leaders never will. Operating rooms. Gaming studios shipping Call of Duty. Apple's Genius Bar. Catholic Church administration with 72-year-old nuns who never touched computers.His diagnosis? IT speaks a language nobody else understands. "We assume that everybody has the same knowledge that we do," he says. Meanwhile, users with AOL accounts become prime targets for scams.We get into why cybersecurity is a communication problem, not a budget problem. How to translate tech-speak for executives who sign the checks. And why programmers will become bug hunters in 18 months.The biggest takeaway? "No matter how much money you invest in cybersecurity, take one person to click the wrong link and all that money goes out the window."
Ken Widner has a psychology degree, not a computer science one. That's not a footnote. It's the whole story. He was supposed to do marriage counseling. Instead, he became CIO at Do It Best, running IT for 9,000+ retail locations while integrating True Value out of bankruptcy.His insight? IT leaders fail because they lead with logic instead of emotion. "Nobody cares if the system is up, if it's horrible to interact with," Ken says. While most CIOs show up to meetings with uptime charts, Ken shows up with stories from warehouse workers about how pick-to-light changed their lives.We get into the squeaky wheel problem (availability bias in leadership), why your C-suite peers are team one (not your direct reports), and Ken's "challenge, align, commit" philosophy. Plus his take on AI hype, the Department of Prioritization vs. the Department of No, and why he spends more time with his CFO than his architects.The payoff? Ken got a new tech center in Dallas approved not by making a business case, but by building relationships where his peers championed IT initiatives for him.
John Doherty is CIO at Columbia Forest Products, but he started in marketing. That accidental path gave him something most IT leaders don't have - he speaks business first, technology second.The problem he keeps running into isn't technical. It's structural. IT gets called in after the business has already decided what they need. Someone shows up and says "we need SAP" and by then it's too late. The solution's chosen. IT's job is to execute, not influence.We get into his mill ambassador program (people looked at him like he had three heads), why steering committees come before PMO, and the "yes, but" approach that turns IT from blockers into problem solvers. Plus his prediction on what part of IT will be fully automated in 18 months.John's final message hits different: "Don't be a tech nerd. Find how to be a business person. Meet your peers where they're at. Speak their language, and you're going to break the stereotype that we're just a bunch of techies."
Juliano Giannerini runs IT at Baker Construction and fights the same battle every IT leader faces. Someone walks in wanting a new CRM. They need Spanish speakers at the service desk. They saw a demo and it looked amazing. Nobody asked what problem they're trying to solve.When an HR director demanded Spanish speakers for IT support, Juliano asked why. Turns out craft workers weren't calling IT about tech issues – they were calling HR about payroll. Adding Spanish speakers to the service desk would have solved nothing.Always ask 'what problem are you solving' before evaluating any solutionWe get into why IT gets handed solutions instead of problems, how to force clarity before anyone mentions tools, and translating technical needs into business language that actually lands. Juliano's framework: rules before tools, and always start with the problem statement.
Tim Elhefnawy came from operations before technology leadership. That combination gives him a perspective most IT leaders don't have.He's watched tech leaders disconnect from the room in real time. Leading with technical objections when business needed risk discussion. Explaining integration test cycles that meant nothing to anyone while ignoring deal commitments.The pattern? IT leaders who practice the art of no. Who wait to be brought in instead of inserting themselves into strategy from day one. Who think delivering the tech piece is their job while someone else handles the business piece.That's not leadership. That's being a highly paid order taker.Tim's three-step playbook for real business outcomes:1. Understand the actual problem. Not the soundbite. Tim was told there was a physical delivery issue. He went to gemba. Talked to drivers. Talked to customers. What he was sold wasn't the problem—it was half truth. Skip this step and the project fails.2. Solution with the right people before giving timelines. Don't cave to "how fast?" Get the right folks together. Walk through it. Give feedback timely—don't boil the ocean trying to achieve perfection.3. Read back your understanding. The step everyone skips. Confirm you understood. Talk through solution ideas. Tim sees people have light conversations, say "yep we got it," then build the wrong thing.We also get into knowing when to apply rigor versus when to just do it. Adding a CRM field that affects no workflows takes 30 seconds. But Tim sees analysts spend hours on regression testing and full CAB process—for a field. The waste is massive when you can't navigate what should go left versus right.Tim's advice to every emerging IT leader?"Don't allow yourself to be siloed into just technology. Learning business is just as important. You're going to be an incomplete leader without it."Because how dangerous is a business leader who understands the market, the customer, and the technology?
Mark Baker is VP of IT at Block Imaging in Michigan. They service legacy medical equipment. Big iron MRI and CT machines that hospitals can't replace.Which means Mark deals with Windows systems no longer patched, medical device regulations, and security frameworks spanning three decades of technology. The fundamental challenge hasn't changed since Mark started at a small computer shop. Back then it was "what's a network card?" Now it's "we need AI." Different technology. Same conversation. A CEO gets on a plane, reads an article, comes back convinced this will solve everything. Mark's the one who explains physics. We get into why 85% of AI initiatives fail to return value. Mark doesn't chase bleeding edge. He's a fast follower. He waits to see what actually works before committing. "I'm not looking for a solution that's looking for a problem. I actually have an issue. And how can I actually address this with what I know about AI today?" We talk about the vendor myths that keep recycling with new labels. Cloud means you don't need backups. Wrong. It's more resilient, but not backed up unless you pay for it. New technology will save you money. Also wrong. AI tools are underpriced right now. OpenAI charges fifty bucks for something costing them two hundred to deliver. Those prices are going up. Mark destroys the idea that IT projects happen overnight. "This did not occur overnight. This will not be corrected overnight." Projects are underestimated. The lift is bigger than anyone thinks. Trying to run fast without proper planning just means you pile the next thing on top of the last thing until throughput slows to a crawl. We get into why Mark hates the word no. It shuts down conversation. When a request will blow up the security framework, he doesn't just reject it. He explains the why. He brings it to a conversation. "We have to be tactical about what we're doing and if it is the wrong path, bring that to a conversation, not just say no and walk away." The biggest struggle? IT pursues technology for technology's sake. Mark's seen departments chase zero trust or cloud without asking if it aligns with where the business is actually going. The mistake is forgetting that IT exists to solve business problems, not implement the latest framework because it sounds impressive. The answer? Push business knowledge down through your entire IT organization. From VP to intern. Everyone should understand how their work connects to company goals. Mark challenges his team to take accounting classes. Understand EBITDA. Learn the business, not just the tech stack. Because you can't speak business language if you don't understand the business.
Chris Pacifico is Director of IT and infrastructure strategist at a healthcare company focused on mobility devices. He's spent 30 years in IT, moving from programming to hardware to security, and he's learned some hard truths about team leadership that contradict popular wisdom.Chris walked into a six-person team that wasn't actually a team. It was six individuals doing six separate jobs with zero coordination. Think baseball played by individuals instead of football where everyone works together. Sound familiar?The leadership gurus all say the same thing: there are no bad teams, only bad managers. Chris used to believe that. Until reality hit. "You can be the best manager in the world with a team of five. Four guys willing to bust their hump. And that one bad apple will still take a good team down." That's the truth nobody wants to admit.We get into his customer mindset shift. How he stopped his team from calling people "end users" and started treating them like actual customers with real business problems. "Your wife went into labor and they had to redirect her to a different hospital. You're going to get mad if you don't get that answer quick, right? Well, that sales guy's got a big deal on the line. His email is down. That's huge for him too."We cover the boring project that changed everything. Active Directory cleanup sounds terrible, but it became the foundation for everything else. Better team collaboration, faster ticket resolution, clearer communication with the business. Sometimes the unglamorous work creates the biggest wins.Chris talks about technology that actually works versus shiny objects that don't solve real problems. Microsoft To Do eliminated his post-it note chaos and helped entire departments stop missing deadlines. Power Automate reduced email overload for customer service teams. Simple tools that solve real problems beat complex solutions nobody uses.The biggest struggle? Getting executives to stop seeing IT as "little gnomes sitting under the stairs running around with turkey legs." They want cutting-edge AI but won't fund basic security. They dismiss IT input until there's a ransomware attack. Then suddenly money flows, but only until the pain fades. Chris has lived through companies where someone said "we make cardboard boxes, nobody's going to hack us." Three weeks later? Ransomware attack.
Bob Berbeco is the Chief Information Officer at Mahaska Health, leading IT, data science, AI, cybersecurity, and informatics. He's been in healthcare technology for 27 years and holds a Six Sigma Black Belt.For most of that time, Bob operated the way many IT leaders do—shields up, knowledge expert, the guy who does all the talking.Then something shifted.When executives ask him something he doesn't know, the best answer isn't to fake it. It's four words: "I got the lead.""I may not have the answer. That's okay. I got the lead. I will run it to its endpoint, and I'll follow up to make sure it's done."That's all they need to know.In this episode, Bob breaks down his SBAR communication framework (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) that eliminates tech-speak. He shares how he presents 30-60-90 day roadmaps with SWOT analysis—then asks the question most IT leaders skip: "Is there a priority we should probably change?"We get into the label printer story. Nurses were hand-labeling surgical supplies. Printers across units were inconsistent with no standardization. One team member saw the problem, took ownership, talked to technical people, clinical people, providers, even people outside the organization—and got it done. Persistence won.Bob also unpacks why he hires for fire not credentials, how "what you permit, you promote" shapes culture, and why the beginner's mindset beats expertise every time.The biggest struggle for IT? Unlimited demand with limited resources. Bob's answer isn't to be the Department of No. It's to show executives what yes actually costs.
Ray Martin started his IT career in a basement cage, setting up Blackberries behind a locked door. Ten years later, he's the CTO at Dimeo Construction—and he's survived two ransomware attacks.The first one fractured trust between IT and operations. The second one? Conti demanded $1.2 million in Bitcoin. Ray counter-offered $10K "so I don't have to go through the trouble." They said no. He recovered everything anyway.In this episode, Ray breaks down exactly how his isolated Azure tenant backup strategy saved the company, why your 200+ subcontractors running Gmail are your biggest security vulnerability, and what it took to convince leadership to migrate to the cloud when the Exchange server was down 80% of the time.We also get into real AI use cases in construction—why Procore flipped their agent strategy from 80% vendor-built to 80% customer-built, how to survey your team before rolling out AI policy, and Simon Sinek's take on why blue collar jobs are safe while white collar jobs aren't.Plus: the conspiracy corner, NJ drones, and why every Flat Earth experiment proves the Earth is round.
ON THIS EPISODE ➤ Why 75% of employees are using unapproved AI tools right now ➤ How to consolidate AI usage onto one secure, compliant platform ➤ Live demonstration of no-code agent building for HR, sales, and operations ➤ Real enterprise security: SOC2, ISO 27001, and GDPR compliance explained ➤ Managing AI chat logs and preventing data leaks ➤ Building custom agents that integrate with your existing systems What happens when IT leaders stop fearing employee AI usage and start securing it? In this special live demo episode, Aaron Bailey, General Manager of Devs.ai, tackles the number one concern keeping...
ON THIS EPISODE ➤ The real difference between AI hype and actual enterprise AI adoption ➤ Why most change management initiatives fail (and what to do instead) ➤ How to identify and solve the right problems before executing strategy ➤ The brutal truth about AI’s impact on workforce transformation ➤ Change management frameworks that actually work for AI implementation What happens when you combine change management expertise with real AI adoption strategy? Dima Syrotkin, CEO and Co-founder of Pandatron, helps Fortune 500 companies like Panasonic, Mitsubishi, and KPMG identify genuine AI opportunities and accelerate adoption. But his journey started in...
ON THIS EPISODE ➤ What network aggregation actually means (and why most IT leaders have never heard of it)➤ How to consolidate 50+ circuits onto one invoice with co-terminus contracts➤ Real strategies for 20%+ cost savings while improving service➤ POTS replacement tactics saving thousands monthly➤ The leadership question that gets executive buy-in: “What do we lose by not doing this?” Managing internet circuits across multiple locations feels like herding cats—if the cats all had different phone numbers and billing cycles. Chris Soucie’s spent 20 years at New Horizons Communications, and he’s breaking down the aggregator model most IT leaders don’t...
ON THIS EPISODE ➤ Why most Azure migrations fail before they start—and how to plan properly from day one ➤ The real difference between CSPs who just sell licenses and partners who drive value ➤ How to reduce Azure costs by 80% through proper architecture and licensing optimization ➤ Why IT leaders must learn to ask for help instead of fighting fires alone ➤ Moving from reactive firefighting to strategic business partnership What happens when submarine leadership principles meet cloud infrastructure strategy? At Heliant Technologies, Kenon Bliss leads infrastructure practices across the Microsoft stack, helping organizations navigate the complex world...
ON THIS EPISODE ➤ Why IT presentations lose executives in 30 seconds—and the backward storytelling framework that changes everything ➤ How a CFO cut AWS costs 20% in three weeks through daily DevOps partnership sessions ➤ The Five Boss Model: Why your CFO wants to fund IT projects but can’t understand your proposals ➤ Innovation budget reality: Why 15-20% waste is expected and how to frame experimentation ➤ The Gemba Principle: Japanese leadership concept for IT-business cross-cultural integration ➤ KeyBanc benchmarking system to justify IT spend as percentage of revenue What happens when a CFO reveals he has five different...
ON THIS EPISODE ➤ The “wedding cake” framework for IT stack management and system lifecycle planning ➤ Why being embedded in every department’s presentation beats having your own slide deck ➤ The change management cycle: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance ➤ Time-Resources-Money triangle: the iron law of ERP implementation ➤ How to select the right ERP tier and avoid the “cement around your ankles” problem James Dean Miller has implemented over 600 ERP projects with a 93% on-time, on-budget success rate. As CIO of Migrate Ammunitions and former co-founder of CSS International, he’s led organizations through Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft...
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