Fireside Chat with Margarita Rivera

All right. All right, everybody. Hey, welcome to all getting all settled in for Fireside Chat this evening. So excited to be able to spend this evening with everyone here. Fireside Chat. With our special guest that we'll be able to get to know quite a bit here in just a moment. As always amazing to have you spend some time with us here. We've been doing this now for four years. We used to do it every single week and then we toned it down recently to once a month instead just to be kind to all the moderators that help us make sure that this show is a success. A couple of ground rules as we get going and then we'll turn it over to you. Afterwards to our special guest Russell Eubanks privilege to do the leading today of our conversation with our guest Tomas Maldonado, the founder of the Fireside Chat and the one who really helps all of us moderators come together and really get to spend time with someone getting to know their origin story what makes them tick? How did they get to where they're at today? And always love to be able to do that. If you're a vendor, you want to sell us something, please wait till another time to try to sell us your things. We really want to focus on getting to know our guest speaker better. What makes them tick? What makes them be successful in their job? journey as a cyber security leader. What we'll do is we'll do some introductions of myself and then to Tomas and then over, we'll save till the end Margarita for you to introduce yourself and get to tell us more about you, your origin story and things that we'd love to hear from you this evening. So I'll start first as introductions. Hey, Russell Eubanks, founder and co owner of a security consulting firm called Cyberity. Tomas, if you're able to unmute yourself and have a brief introduction, love to do that. If that's possible for your set. Hey, everybody. Happy to be here again, as always. It's always great to to hear and not only our guests, but here, there's the folks that are going to join us on stage Tomas Maldonado, CISO for the NFL. And Russell, I'll pass it back over to you. Awesome. Thanks so much Tamma. It's great to have you with us. And thanks for going the extra mile this evening. I know you're out of town working on some really cool things, so it's amazing to have you. And then everyone who's here in the audience, amazing to have you here. Our time, the way that we're gonna do is we're gonna spend about the first first half an hour or so getting to know Margarita well. Let you introduce yourself here in just a moment and then after that folks in the audience, feel free to whenever we let you know, we'll be willing to bring you up on stage so that you can ask questions, but let's spend the initial time getting to know our special guest. So Marguerite, I'd like to turn it over to you. I'll go on mute. I'd love to hear about you, your origin story, how you got to where you are and love to have the audience have the opportunity, if not the opportunity. to know you a little bit better, and then we'll come back and ask you a few questions about what you're sharing. But Margarita, love to hear from you, love to learn about you, and the microphone's all yours. Amazing. Thank you so much, Russell and Tomas, for having me on. For this month's fireside chat, it's amazing to be here and to be able to share a little bit more about my story, my origins and how everything, how the journey has led us to where we are today. So Margarita Rivera, the vice president of global information security for carnival corporation. And my story began. Many years ago, a little over 20 years ago. Believe it or not. I can't believe it's been that long. I always say that this is my accidental career. I think a lot of folks that are in cyber security have, a similar beginning just because cyber security, two decades ago wasn't as bad. formal and as established as it is today. And straight out of college, I did my undergrad at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. And upon graduating, went to work for a financial institution in downtown Miami, and I was doing a lot of operational risk. Type of activities. And at that time it was known as data security. It wasn't even cyber security. It wasn't even a program. It was like an office of one. And there was one individual who was our data security officer and he was quite inundated and overwhelmed with all the, regulatory audits that they were going through at the time and having graduated, fresh out of school. quite driven, quite hungry, wanting to learn, wanting to help out as best as I could. And I was asked if I would mind helping through a particular regulatory audit at that time. And that's really how cyber security kind of came into my world. Just starting to help out and learning kinds of on the job. And I loved it. I really fell in love with it. It was something that was so interesting and so dynamic and a little mysterious to be honest, just because, a lot of people again didn't even know what I did for a living. I think people still nowadays don't even understand what I do for a living. A lot of folks think, I'm a hacker or I'm, facing hackers, although that's true. It was very interesting to see how things have evolved over the years. And I decided at that time that I wanted to continue helping out our data security officer, continue doing our operational risk role that I had been hired for and continued working dual roles. And helping out as much as I could and learning as much as I could and had some pretty incredible mentors in my life at that time. I always understood. I think from early on when I was in high school the power of mentorship. So very early on I was very blessed to have some pretty incredible folks that would speak into my life and that would give me guidance. And I valued and cherish that. And it really made such a huge difference. As a minority and as a daughter of immigrants, it's always really important to have, folks that kind of have a different. Upbringing a different culture and a different understanding of what's going on in the world and can help give you some guidance. And I was really fortunate to have some really incredible folks at that time that saw the hunger and saw the potential and wanted to pour out into me and they did. And I remember, distinctly having conversations, with cybersecurity and questioning I had gone to school, my undergrad is in finance and now all of a sudden, I'm intently in love with something that I didn't go to school for. So now what am I supposed to do? Great that I have an opportunity to work in a company that allows me to do dual roles, but I don't really have the education to do what I was doing. I wasn't a technologist. Traditionally folks that go into cyber security at that time were folks that, had an IT background or a computer science background or some type of engineering background, but I didn't have that. And those folks had the foresight to tell me, Margarita, this is something that you love. Then you should pursue it and don't let your undergrad be something that, holds you back. And I listened, obviously many years later, I'm doing what I love and what I've been very passionate about, but it was a turn of events. I would say about two years into kind of having the opportunity to do a dual role. The bank was sold and the institution that purchased us had a cybersecurity group and they were not interested in bringing over our data security officer or the quasi intern that I was at that time. And I started, trying to figure out what's the next steps for me, and that's really what was pivotal for me because I had to make a decision on whether I was going to go and look for an operational risk rule to continue doing what I was doing at the time, which was more quantitative or whether I was going to pivot into. Cyber security and I decided I was going to pivot. So I started looking for entry level information security roles. I started studying intently. I started attending a lot of different networking events and just trying to learn. As much as I could and really trying to meet as many folks that did what I wanted to do so that I could learn from them. And I was able to secure a role, a very entry level role in another institution. And it was amazing. I absolutely loved it because now I was being full time in information security. Although be it was very entry level at the time, but that also afforded me the opportunity to go back to school. I do carry six I think some of the most sought after cyber security certifications, really proud of that. I ended up going back to school and doing my master's at Harvard University in cyber security, which has been amazing and really aligning my education to what my journey was and what my job was. And it was amazing. And What I soon came to think that was going to be an impediment, which was my undergrad being in finance and not being in technical actually became my secret sauce because I understood finance. I understood the numbers. I understood the business. I understood the bottom line. I understood how to translate, the tech talk, the bits and the bites into, what, Financial impact it would be and what were pain points. And I was able to bridge that gap. And at that time, that was a huge rarity, which I think is incredible because nowadays you see a lot more cyber security professionals, a lot more CSOs that have more of that blended approach that are very sharp in their business acumen, but are also very sharp technologists and are able to play in both of those fields. And that for me became a very empowering tool because I was able to do things that a lot of technologists in that season were not. And that helped me really secure a lot of success in the organizations that I had an opportunity to work for because I understood the bottom line and because I knew how to talk business. That garnered a lot of support. from Uber management and whatnot and had the opportunity to work in a lot of really incredible organizations. Very grateful for that. But I've always had that hunger and that drive. My parents are of Puerto Rican descent, which I think is amazing to be doing this podcast. during Hispanic Heritage Month that began a couple of days ago. And anytime I have an opportunity to speak, I always give, honor and praise to my parents who instilled in me that drive, that hunger to push and that drive and that hunger to not have, limits. My dad always used to tell me, nothing's impossible Margarita and not having those limitations in my head. As a woman and as a Latina, I'm a rarity in this field. And I was a huge rarity in the beginning. I remember going to a couple of conferences very early on in my career and being one of a handful of women, if that and then later on being one of a handful of, Hispanic women that are in this field. So I'm very proud to be representative of my community to be representative for all women out there and to show that nothing is impossible. The limitations are the ones that we place on ourselves are, I think, Biggest enemy is our own mindset and really there's nothing that's impossible if we really are willing to work for it. I believe in the power of grit. I believe in the power of our own mindset and I think that I've been able to achieve, a lot in the last 22 years because of that, because nothing was ever a limitation. And even when things seemed hard in the journey, especially for me, that again, didn't have that foundation in technology, I was always willing to put in the work. And I was always willing to reach out and talk to folks and learn from folks. And I learned just the power of community. And even to this day, even 22 years later We're still figuring it out. There are days that there may be, challenges that were faced that I may not have a solution for, but I know that I can pick up a phone and I can call my community of CISOs and we can figure it out together. And I think that's one of the most powerful things about the cyber security industry is that we're stronger together. We may be competing against each other organizationally, but we are together coming against, those threat actors that are out there and that are all coming at us and, are trying to obviously do things that harm our organizations. And that's one of the things that I love the most about the industry that we're in, that we have an opportunity to really collaborate, work together, and really make a difference for the industry as a whole. I can keep talking, Russell. I can tell you so much more about me. Or were you talking on mute? No. I was, I have to admit Margarita, I've taken a full page of notes already of questions I want to ask. Keep going for what you want to say, and then we'll have everyone start queuing up their questions that they have. I've already got several, but since you've laid out the red carpet for you to keep going. Keep going just a little bit more and then we'll come back in and start to ask some questions based on what you share with us already. But absolutely love what you shared so much and look forward to what you're about to share. Thanks so much. So yeah, as I was mentioning before, obviously I've had really great opportunities. I've had the opportunity to build organizations from scratch which those are always fun. I think that there are certain folks out there that prefer to go into organizations where things are, already structured. And then there's others like me that are crazy and that love the chaos and love to come into organizations and truly make a difference. I've always loved puzzles. I love things that are complicated. So I think it's a lot of fun when you get to come into an organization and you have, huge challenges. And one of the organizations that I worked for previously after working and to help build their information security program, they then decided that they wanted to divest. of their non, I guess it's going to give it away if I say exactly how they were trying to do this, but they wanted to divest some of their subsidiaries that were not core to their operating model. And that was a very interesting time as well, having the opportunity to come in and essentially have to unwind all of the technology and work together, building a team to stand up a technology stack, stand up a security stack and prepare the organization. For IPO and divestiture from their main company that I think is probably one of the most fun opportunities that I've had. I think there's nothing more complex than that, but I've had to face in my career. And beyond that, I've just had the opportunity to come in and really focus on process with our teams. and really helped to bring synergies and collaboration. Again, I believe hugely in collaboration. I think it is incredibly powerful and not just within security, but also within all of the organization, within IT and all of the business owners. I think that's also, been, Pivotal to my understanding and growth as a cybersecurity professional. So I've had a lot of fun. I've got to do really interesting things. Most recently I am at Carnival Corporation, having a lot of fun there, working together with nine different brands and operating units and helping to bring some synergies and alignment and to strategically structure our cybersecurity program to give our brands the freedom to operate, but also have an independent, but United mindset. Back to you, Russell. Wow. So many again, even more ground to flip the page of the questions I want to ask. Again, I love what you share with us and so eager to ask a whole bunch of questions. I'm going to try to keep just a few to allow everyone else to be able to ask their questions too. But, it's interesting. You mentioned your undergrad in finance. I've seen Yeah. People I've worked with who've come in to cyber from that area, from that discipline, it seems like they slash you think very similar to how we think as cyber security professional. So I was really happy to hear that. And I'm not surprised at the success that you've had as you're thinking about earlier. You mentioned you. Pivoted into an entry level security role. What was that? What were you doing? What was entry level? Whenever you got into entry level, what were some of the things you did and perhaps some ways to apply things you'd learned or been trained at or certified in at that point? What was your what was that first job like for you? So I was an information security analyst for another financial institution. And initially it was as basic as doing access reviews and, managing user access centrally, obviously every organization does it very different, but that's really where it started, which was a little different from, what I was doing at the previous organization where I was just. essentially just helping out from an audit perspective. But my first role, like official information security analyst role was heavily centered around identity and access management, even though back then it wasn't known in that in that way. So it was essentially just performing user access reviews, helping to set up folks. Within the systems doing the reviews to ensure, segregation of duties, ensuring that folks, remain with the access that they needed, ensuring that folks were removed and it was heavily censored around there and that's essentially where I started very specific task. It was an organization that had a lot of information security professionals. So things were quite siloed. I think as things began to progress in my career. I started working for more and more organizations that had smaller teams. And that's really where the secret sauce was, because when you're in a huge organization, things are very divided. But when you're in a smaller organization, you get to wear many hats. And that is really, I think, the organization I worked for after that one, after that entry level role, really gave me a lot of exposure into all of information security, because the team was incredibly small. You had to be. to pivot. There were things being thrown at us all the time. So there was just a lot more to do day to day. And my first initial roles were really around, GRC risk management. So because I had a risk management background, I would say my first like full blown role was really centered around governance, risk and compliance and performing, risk assessments. The first 10 years of my career was in financial services. We had to do a lot of. Gramm Leach Bliley risk assessments and really helping to shape the roadmap and the strategy for deployment of different security technologies within the organization. Got it. So helpful. And I've seen that path starting there, finding your place, getting very successful, like you said, with the thing that you did, and then deciding into which area to go pivot in. Let me ask you one more question, we'll go to Tomas. The next one as you're thinking about. You mentioned you love building orgs from scratch. That chaos, chaos y versus orderly. Why is it that, is it because you don't like to be bored? You don't have any hobbies? What's the catalyst you believe that makes you want to prefer that type of environment? So I think it stems back to when I was first in college, Russell I began as an accounting major and this is like not a shot at anybody that does accounting. If you do accounting, God bless you. It's great, but it's the same thing day in and day out. Every process is the same. The beginning of the month is the same end of the month is the same. It's very scripted. There's a pattern. And I quickly learned that's just not for me. Maybe I have ADD. I don't know. But nonetheless, I like things to be dynamic. I like things to change. I like things to be different. And I think that's why I like the chaos of building new programs because you're having to really be strategic. You're having to look at the organization. You're having to understand all the nuances. There isn't a perfect recipe. So you're having to learn and pivot constantly. And I think some of that chaos for me is exciting because Like I said earlier, I love puzzles. So I like to think through what makes the most sense for this organization. What are the pain points? How do we better serve? How do we add value? So being in cyber, I think, really gives me the best of all worlds. Because I have an opportunity to be incredibly creative and how I deliver cyber security services to the organizations that I work for. And it's never the same from organization to organization. So it gives me an opportunity to learn a lot more. I do always spend quite a bit of time learning the business end as well as learning things from a technology perspective. So for me, I find that incredibly interesting because I think the only way you can truly Secure an organization and the best fashion is truly understanding the business side of it and that differs So coming into an organization where you get to be build greenfield where you have that white sheet of paper You're not having to undo a bunch of mess. You're essentially coming in and looking and understanding How things are within that organization? And then you're having an opportunity to figure out what is going on in that moment makes the most sense for that organization versus coming in and inheriting a bunch of legacy stuff that you have to undo. I love that. The getting to have that greenfield, as you said, and then being able to make some decisions and not have to undo perhaps sins of the past. I love that a whole lot. Tomas, let me go over to you, then we'll let Paul ask his question. Thanks. Great conversation so far, Marguerite. I wanted to ask you about your college education. Not so much your undergrad, but your graduate education. You said you graduated from a cyber degree from Harvard. Unfortunately, David Cass is not on this call. I wonder if David Cass was one of your instructors, if he was, to give us some some secrets. But no, look, the question, the root of the question is not so much Where you study, but why did you feel the need to go back to study? Your craft if you give us a little bit more of that sort of mental thought process That you had at the time that drove you towards going back to getting a secondary education Great question David Cass was not one of my professors, unfortunately, but I did have the pleasure of being his teaching assistant for his quantitative risk management course. I think two years ago, which was amazing. David's an amazing teacher as well as an amazing practitioner. So I wish I would have had the opportunity to learn from him. When I was studying there, but you're spot on Thomas with, it's not really about the place. Sure. A lot of folks. Oh, wow. They're razzle dazzled by the fact that I went to Harvard and I don't mean to minimize it because yes, it was a great thing to do and a wonderful accomplishment for me. But it's beyond that. So I'm going to take you back to when I was about 15 years old. I was about to say, you're practically a billionaire now, right? Cause you know, Mark Zuckerberg went to Harvard, like it's in the cards. I hope it's in the cards, Tomas. I'm trying to retire sometime soon, but not a billionaire yet. So we'll see how we get there. But the whole Harvard thing actually goes back to when I was in high school. I've always been hungry for knowledge. It's something that defines me to this day. I love to learn. I guess I'm a nerd. I love to read. I love to learn new things. And when I was in high school, my dream was always to go to an Ivy league school. I wanted to go to Harvard. And I remember my freshman year of high school. I did very well. I was actually, valedictorian of my high school and I was doing really well in ninth grade. And they had to bestow an award. It was called the Harvard Book Award. And I still have it to this day. And because I was doing so well in school, I was awarded the Harvard Book Award. And I remember that Receiving that award was so impactful for me that I was like, one day I'm going to go to Harvard. This is amazing. Like that just opened up my eyes and my appetite and reset my mindset in terms of how far I could reach. Now, my parents, Again Puerto Rican didn't even know what Harvard was. They came to the States, very early on, but, they were working really hard and they weren't focused on that or understood anything about Harvard or, what elite school it was or anything like that. And when I graduated high school my senior year that I was actually applying for different colleges, my dad being the very macho Puerto Rican man that he was like, you are not going away for school. And I'm like, but that it's Harvard. And he's you're not going away. You're going to go to school here and you're going to live in my house. And you don't leave my house until the day that you get married. And he was that kind of strict Latino man, which, when I think about that now, I think is insane. I have three daughters of my own. And although I would love to keep them near because I absolutely adore them. I want to give them roots, but I also want to give them wings. So whatever opportunity they have, whether it's here in Florida or abroad, I want them to take advantage of that because I know that will just open so many opportunities for them So I had the opportunity To go my parents didn't get it. It didn't matter how much I spoke to them It didn't matter how much the cap college advisor professor spoke to them or my teacher Spoke to them, they didn't get it. And by the, more my dad, my mom would've been down for whatever. She's always been down for whatever. She's my greatest supporter, my best friend adore her. But my dad was very strict and he would not allow me. So I stayed with that desire of one day I am going to go to Harvard. So I went and I did my undergrad at FIU and FIU was amazing. And I received a full scholarship. I was actually talking to my daughter, my oldest about it the other day because. She's a junior now and in high school and getting ready to, begin college applications and all that fun stuff. And, just sharing with her a little bit about, FIU. Not that I want her to go there, but it would be great because then she'd be close to me. But again, roots and wings. And, I was just sharing with her how blessed I was that because I did so well in school I was essentially paid to go to college. I got, full ride and I got a lot of different scholarships and I was awarded like the Hispanic Heritage Awards and again, as a minority. And as a woman, there was just a lot of support that was given to me to further my education. And, thank God for that. I think what pushed me really hard in school, to be honest, Tomas, was because my dad was like, I don't know, like my dad didn't do bright futures or he didn't put money away for college. He couldn't, they were struggling. Like I grew up incredibly humble. So he was like, I guess you're going to have to take out a loan. And the whole idea of having to take out a loan to go to school did not appeal to me even as a teenager, like I don't want to owe money. When I received the full right to FIU, I was like, all right, let's do it. Years later, that kind of, idea of going to Harvard was always there. And it was something that, that kind of, continued to just be in my heart and in my mind. And As I continued in my journey as a cybersecurity professional, I always felt like I was lacking the credential that would align to my job. So as I applied for different roles, even though I did a lot of my certifications before doing my master's, it still didn't feel like I had a credential that really showcased My knowledge. So I felt like I looked, I was looked at okay she has a business degree and she has some certs, but I didn't feel like, folks were taking what I had to offer as serious. And I knew that I wanted to continue to grow. I knew that the end game for me at that time was that I wanted to be a CISO. I wanted to be, chief information security officer within a large organization. I figured the best thing for me to do is to continue my education. And again, as I mentioned before, talking with my mentors, they supported me and they directed me and, just shared with me their experiences and whatnot. And one day I came across just, searching things online and seeing what programs were out there. I wasn't even thinking about Harvard, but saw that there was. A cyber security program within Harvard University. And I was hooked. I was like, Oh my God this is like a godsend because it was exactly an opportunity for me to go back to do my master's in cyber and also to go to the school that my 15, 16 year old self always wanted to attend and was unable to. The thought process for me was just essentially, wanting to give. the substantiation towards my experience along with my credentials and I believe they go hand in hand. I wanted to become the unicorn Tomas. Essentially that's what it comes down to. I wanted to have, the amazing credentials, the amazing certs, amazing experience and be able to show others that again, there's no limitation. So I think it's incredible that I have the opportunity to share my story in forums like this because if I did it, then why can't somebody else do it? There's no limitation. There's nothing different or special about me. I'm a human being just like anybody else, but with a drive and a desire to do more and willing to work for it. And that's why I went back and had the opportunity to fulfill that lifelong dream. So I think it was incredible to have my children witness. that process. They got to see the great moments and the not so great moments when mama was frustrated because I was working a full time job and also, attending to my three Children with my husband and going to school part time and I pushed and the grit was there and I made it happen and they got to see Mama pushed forward towards her goals, which served as a wonderful example for them. Cause if I can do it, they can do it. So nowadays they can't tell me anything about the fact that they're tired because all they do is go to school. I'm like, no, I had three kids and I went to school and I worked. I don't want to hear excuses. You got to have the desire and the push to do great things and you got to pay the price. So a lot of what I get to live today is a blessing, but I know that I put the work in. That's awesome. That's awesome. That's a great, not only I don't want to say sorry in the sense that it's a story and it's fake. That's a great sort of explanation. And I love the whole thought process behind No Margarita. Everything about it. Now, I feel personally that you're missing some things. You're missing a book. So I think that's probably the next thing. And, I'll wait to read whatever that book is. So that's what I would love to, honestly, it's something that's in my heart. It's been in my heart for a long time, but. I just need more time. I just need more time. I need either that or a ghostwriter. Do you know any ghostwriters, Tomas or Russell, you guys can suggest for me? I know somebody in the audience who wrote a book that might be able to pair up with you. She's a solid Latina and a security professional as well. I'll connect you both afterwards if you don't already know Christina, who's in the audience, but anyways, go ahead. Yeah, that's that's so true. And Tomas, that's, I know for a fact someone who's not in this room took your advice and actually did write a book. So I think you're on to something. You're like the book whisperer or something out there. You're It may be prophetic in what you said there to Margarita. Margarita, again, what Tomas said, super inspiring, motivating for all of us here. I love that roots and wings idea there, but Paul, great to see you here. It sounds like you're already unmuted and everything. Paul, a question or questions do you have for Margarita this evening? Yeah. Hey, can y'all hear me? Yes, absolutely. Hi, Paul. Hey, Margaret, it is great to meet you, a fellow Miamian. I am a native myself. I was born and raised down in Little Havana. I went to Gables High School and families from there, but I live in Atlanta now. Sounds like we have some similar background. My brother went to FIU as well. So awesome. But but hey, I'm with a company called fleet. We're just a small company that provides a security solution based on open source OS query just to give you some background. But my role here, I'm a, business executive. And I'm really curious about something you said about your background being in finance and being in technology. A lot of times we really see there's so many challenges in the cyber security space. You've got unlimited challenges you have to address unlimited threats. They're coming from everywhere. My question is really having the finance and business background and having the technical background together, how does it really help you decide what you're going to go after with limited resources and limited budgets? How do you make a business case to solve one problem versus the other? So really, I think what defines that Paul is really. My risk management background. It's not even so much my finance background. I think the finance piece is secondary. I think the risk management background is the primary. So I think that, when trying to make decisions, we all have limited resources. We all have limited time. We all have limited budgets. It's something that, we're all struggling with especially in this economy. So I don't think that's something that is foreign to any of us that are cyber security professionals. But to be able to really make the correct decisions on what's The best bang for your buck. It really comes down to measuring, the risk and not so much in a qualitative way, but in a quantitative way. So I'm a huge supporter of the fair methodology. It's something that I think is incredibly powerful if it is used correctly because risk management is obviously the language of the business. And I think that's something that I understood very early on, but in order to make like appropriate decisions in terms of, Hey, what am I going to tackle? It's really looking at what's the risk? What's the reward? And what are the outcomes? For investing those resources and that time and that money into solving, some open issues. So whether we're making decisions about new controls or process or new technologies, it's really going to come down to, What type of risk am I mitigating by this? And what are the rewards of that? So the financial piece comes in secondary because obviously I do believe in the quantitative aspects of cyber security and of risk management. But the ultimate decision is just looking at the organization and how it operates and then understanding their true security risk posture in order to make the appropriate decisions of what we're going to chase and in what order. Great. Thank you. That's great feedback. Appreciate that. Absolutely. Cool. And so interesting to get the idea of, finance was helpful, but I love your response there, risk management, helping to the business to make that better business decision. I think was a, an amazing response there. Margarita. So next question I have for you at all. Let me first, Paul, any other questions, Paul, I should ask that first. No, that's great. I appreciate that. I was really good to hear about the risk management approach. I've got two adult children that went through risk management program. I'll be sharing that with them. Thanks, Margarita. Oh, that's awesome. I think a lot of organizations, Paul, like you can either see folks that are going to be very compliance focused and are just trying to be SOCS compliant and PCI compliant and everything is based on compliance or is based on fear, uncertainty, and doubt. And then there's others that are more proactive. There's lots of ways to make decisions. But to me, the way that has been most beneficial is just being proactive with a risk management approach and understanding the threat landscape and understanding again, the returns of the investments that are made and how that mitigates certain risks in our environment. Awesome. Thanks. And, that actually, I want to change my next question for you, Marguerita. So you mentioned, understanding risk management. You mentioned FAIR, very familiar with that formula, a popular framework to maybe you speak risk a little bit better. If someone wants to get started. talking business or started talking risk or maybe that's not familiar to them or not the natural language like what you've spoken about. How do you recommend someone get more acquainted with or perhaps speak more in a risk management and less of a cyber technology type of vocabulary? What advice would you give to somebody like that? There's tons of resources out there, Russell. We're blessed to live in a world where we have, the internet and we have YouTube and we have LinkedIn and we have podcasts. And I think, listening to different things, listening to different professionals, actually speak helps a lot to understand Hey, let's not talk about this again in tech talk. Let's talk about it in the language of the business, which is again, more risk management, but there are tons of books that are out there. There's tons of content that can really help folks hone in on their message and pivot. To me, I think that a lot of folks that I have the blessing of being able to mentor. I have them, just either listen to certain podcasts or go and, read certain books that really help, define that message from a business perspective. But it's having, the mindset of value. So whenever we're trying to communicate certain things, it's a little less about, again, talking in technology terms, but more so focusing on what the value is for the business. And that's why I think, as we were talking earlier, Understanding the business that you work for, understanding how it operates, understanding how it makes money, understanding what that bottom line is really helps shape the message. And whether we want to admit it or not in the roles that we play, even though we're not selling products per se, we are selling services. To our business end users, and we have to understand what makes them tick and what is important to them in order to be able to cater to their needs and to be able to communicate with them. I love that. And in some of the consulting work I do Coaching for CISOs, new folks new to the craft or want to get better at that. Oftentimes encourage the folks to, memorize mission or vision of values of the company and then try to align the cyber things to that. I know you mentioned the word value just a minute ago as well as that, that I think it's very good and timely. Advice there. So I love that. Yeah, I completely agree. I think that, some of the mistakes that I've seen and even mistakes that I have done in my career, I think really early on. We tend to grasp frameworks, whether it's NIST or it's ISO, and we're really trying to fit everything into a perfect little model without giving some flexibility, without pulling from here and pulling from there to really adapt and make things more pertinent to the organizations that we work for. So I think that truly having an understanding of the organization and again, The mission, the values, what's important, what are our senior leaders thinking? What direction are they going in? It really helps us think through better ways to align what we're doing to what their business objectives are. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. You and we are on the same page on so many things, especially that went there Margarita. So I've got another question for you and folks in the audience, feel free to raise your digital hand. We'll bring you up on stage. You can ask questions of Margarita as well. Love to have you participate. I doesn't have to always be myself, Tomas and Paul asking questions. My next question for you though, Margaret, is this one. So you mentioned, some networking events. I imagine with the folks that you've mentored and even as you were growing in, in, in your impact and influence in the cyber community had several places or communities you got involved with networking events. So which ones did you find effective when your mentees come to you and they ask you questions and they want to do the things that you say, what are some of the places you encourage them to get involved as far as networking events? So whether it's a group or community or an association What? What advice do you give to them in that area? Yeah. I always tell my folks start off with the ISACA local chapter or the ISC Square local chapter or the Cloud Security Alliance local chapter. There's chapters of a lot of these organizations that, bring folks together that offer certifications and that have networking events. To me, those networking events are incredibly powerful. Not only the ISACA, but also the Cloud Security Alliance. To sit in the room and listen because, obviously you learn a lot by sitting and listening and being around a lot of folks that are already doing what you want to do. But also, to be completely candid with you, Russell, I don't think I have quote unquote applied for a job. In over 10 years, everything that has come up route in my career has been through networking through opportunities that come up by meeting other folks. It's hard to find Good talent. That's the reality. And there are so many unfilled cyber security jobs out there. Unfortunately but I think that a lot of the rules that I've had the opportunity to grow in have been simply through networking events. So I think LinkedIn is wonderful because by, setting up, certain keywords, algorithms will pick you up. There are certain groups that do things like Psy Alliance and a few others that have, regular meetings. And if they see that, you're either trying to learn or you're a practitioner in, they'll invite you and you get, visibility in your feed to other events that are going on. But really early on to me, The starting place is really a lot of these organizations that are huge and have, their conferences and whatnot, and they have different, local chapters and you're able to meet and network with others. And through those opportunities, you end up finding about other opportunities and it's great cause it kind of spirals, so to speak. So you may go to one event and you find out, Hey, there's, another two events going on. I remember when I lived in Charlotte. We used to have we used to call him the cruise director because he was one of the most fun CISOs I've ever had the opportunity of befriending. And he would essentially send us, tons of emails pretty much like every week Hey, these are all the events that are going on. He would keep everybody apprised of what was going on out there in the industry. So if you. Want to find things even going to Google and, putting networking events, cybersecurity and the city that you live in and things will pop up. So it's just about really wanting to get connected and plugged in or talking to other folks, that live in the areas that you live and maybe connecting with them on LinkedIn and asking them. There's so many different ways that you can approach it, but I would always say, start off with, some of the local chapters of, you Ions, I think is a great one as well. SANS has some as well. So there are a lot of opportunities out there. And I have to say the, just to put an exclamation point at the end of your several of your comments there. When our family moved from Tennessee to Atlanta in 2010, I bargained with the family to just go. Go show up to all the meetings I could find, B sides or DEF CON, local groups and ISD squared. I sack all the things you said just to find my place. I didn't know anybody in Atlanta needed to know a lot of people in Atlanta to be a successful security leader. And like you said, the not applying for a job at when I went and I gave my first ever security talk is that. B Sides, Security B Sides Atlanta 2011. Scared to death, nervous as all get out, probably the worst presentation I ever gave, just because it's the first one I ever gave. But what was fascinating, just like you, where you said you didn't have to apply for any jobs, what I didn't know, people in the audience, My next two employers just happened to be there, just happened to like what I said and just happened to hire me because, just put myself out there to try something out that served me well. So you're I'm living proof that what you say and said does in fact work there. Oh, absolutely. And I think it's important even now I'm going through it, Russell, to be honest. I'm back here in Miami. And even though I had a huge community before, it's plugging myself in. I've been gone for six years. So now it's coming back and replugging into the different groups and putting yourself out there and, reconnecting with folks and meeting new folks. that have migrated down and are now, security professionals in the area and, going out and meeting people. I think to me, that's one of the most wonderful parts of my job and one of the most gratifying is, really being able to connect and meet other folks that do what I do that are passionate about what I'm passionate about. I think it's always a lot of fun. So It's funny. You mentioned Charlotte, I mentioned to you in, before we got started, I'm actually in the Charlotte area for the next couple of months. And I've heard about this cruise director, Rick, I believe. So you're, So actually we have someone in the audience. Yep. I always have someone in the audience who's in the Charlotte area as well as they might choose to come up and say so. So this I'm wondering is this what your new, is your goal ambition to be a cruise director of Miami, perhaps maybe be that person to help folks get connected, stay connected be as involved? That would be great. If that role is not filled, it's weird to be the cruise director when you work for a cruise company, but nonetheless. It would be amazing. I love connecting people as well. It's something that I love and I'm passionate about. So whether it's new folks that are coming into the industry or whether it's established folks, Hey, if that's the role that's made for me, then I am more than happy to do it. And to help make sure that there's enough visibility for everything that's going on in the industry, here locally in Miami. I love that. And it just hit me. Wait a minute. There seems to be a natural connection. Who knows? We'll go ahead and just acknowledge you as that. And until someone tells us otherwise. Absolutely. I'll post it later. There you go. So it needs a hashtag and a Twitter, and I think you'll be all good to go. All that good stuff. Absolutely. Again, reminder, anyone who wants to come up on stage, feel free. Just raise your digital hand. Love to have you be a part of the conversation here with our special guest Margarita. Just love what you shared so far. With no one else right now on stage or wanted to ask a question, I'll just keep at it as promised. I've got a bunch of questions I could ask and happy to do now you mentioned the value of having mentors in your life. You mentioned, they saw such, they saw your hunger. They saw your potential. They poured into you. You've mentioned the fact that you've got folks that you mentor now. So mentees that perhaps you see that same thing in them. Is. In your mentoring, when you mentor others, whether they're new to the role, new to the profession or want to be better at the profession, is there a common refrain or their common advice that you give them or maybe advice that kind of transcends the different mentees as far as here's what I would do if I were, Hey, here's what I Margarita would do if I were you, if in that similar situation or advice that you find that you commonly give them or maybe some advice that maybe They've taken it and made an impact because of that. Can you give us any examples of kind of the output of the work of you pouring into others and what that might've produced? Sure. So I think that, there are definitely some common threads. One of my mentees is on now. I see him there. Hi, Daniel. It's wonderful to have you on. So I think that there are commonalities in terms of, Encouraging folks to get more involved, encouraging folks to, go back to do their search, to learn, to grow in that area and to really emerge themselves in the day to day of what we do, whether, again, it's through, podcasts or, YouTube videos or just, really exploring Posing themselves so that are to go and go ahead and connect to different blogs and making sure that, they're staying apprised of things that are going on out there. But I think the journey for every individual is very different. Because, I've had the opportunity to mentor folks that are, Changing careers. And I've had, opportunity to mentor folks that are just, freshly graduated from college. So it's just very different. I think, in terms of where folks are and, what their priorities are and what the area is. I think that it's always really important. For folks to have an opportunity to explore the different areas of information security, just because there are so many different areas. Are you interested in engineering? Are you interested in architecture? Do you want to be an ethical hacker? Do you want to be in GRC? There's just so much to our world and there's, It's no way that we can do every single thing that information security is comprised of or cyber security is comprised of. So I always try to encourage folks to take time and, experiment with different things. And if they have an opportunity to go intern somewhere, or one of the organizations that I worked for had an opportunity called Launchpad and, you got to Rotate and go to different areas and learn a little bit more about how each of the areas work and operate and get some exposure. So I think that's always been my thing, just having folks expose themselves in a very positive way to different opportunities that are out there into different areas of cyber security so that they can find really where their niches and where their passion is. And as well as again, going and having the opportunity to network, having the opportunity to further their studies. There's really no reason to not, go and spend time and professional development and learning. There's so much out there. I think even ISC squared the other day came out with. Actually, Tomas, I think you posted it. The free Cybersecurity Professional Fundamentals course that they have going on now. There's so much push to get more folks into the cybersecurity world that there's really no excuse not to if you have an interest for it. And there's such a need for it that there's so much opportunity that It's a no brainer. So I always, encourage my mentees to, to take the time to expose themselves to different things, into different areas, whether it be, through blogs or magazines or podcasts to hear, different folks talk about their journeys, to listen to fireside chat. And learn from, different folks and their journeys and, what they've specialized in. And, even to go and connect with folks and learn, their stories. My mentee, Daniel, that was on on the fireside chat before him and I met. He did one of the most amazing things and I loved it because it reminded me so much of like my heart and my drive and that was, he literally reached out to folks within the cybersecurity program of the organization that he worked for. He was not in cybersecurity. And he's just I, and he lived in Florida and he flew up to North Carolina and he's I just want to sit and see what you do. That boldness. To go out of your comfort zone and you know just learn from people and talk to people is amazing and it opens doors and it opens our minds to different things in different areas. So there's just a lot of ways to break in to cyber, but I think some of the more important things are really centered around just exposing yourself and learning and listening and being able to filter through what interests you the most and what excites you the most. And I think that, education also is incredibly important. There's so many opportunities out there that, you really can take advantage of that and help, grow into what you want to grow into. I love that so much, and I think the call to action isn't to do every single thing you said, find your thing. Just like you said, Daniel found his thing and he went for it. I think that's such a great reminder and hopefully motivation for all of us to consider finding the thing that we love to do while we're learning, while we're growing, while we're being all we can be in our craft. I just love that a whole lot. Absolutely. I don't think it's any different than any other, Area, it's if you really love something, then you're going to put the time and the effort to grow in that. So whatever it is, whether it's cybersecurity or not. If you really want to do something and you want to grow into something, you're going to put the time and the effort and it all, your success is going to be dependent on that. If you put the time and you put in the work, then you'll be able to achieve the goals. If you're not going to put in the time and the work, then you're going to stay exactly how you are. So I think that at the end of the day, it's very similar from industry to industry. Connecting yourself, surrounding yourself around, folks that have been able to achieve what you want to achieve, I think is always really helpful because you get to learn from their success and you also get to learn from their mistakes. Yeah, absolutely. Totally agree. There's opportunity there and the person that I think there's so much opportunity that's there. Speaking of which opportunity Daniel's got his digital hand raised. Fleta's does. We'll go to Daniel. Allow Daniel to come up on stage. We'll bring Fleta's up. Fellow Charlotte representative I mentioned earlier, Daniel oh my gosh, love to have you up on stage and what have you to say here? And I think you might a great person to be on stage here, Daniel. Hello, how are y'all doing tonight? Living the dream. So wonderful to see you. I'm so happy that you were able to join. Yes, I am. I'm I'm driving so hopefully my connection doesn't cut out, but but no it's great to be on and be able to hear my mentor and speak about her journey. So it's it's really good. So I did have a question the the billion dollars. And once you write the book with the writer what's next? What is the thing that, that keeps you going? What's the draw? You know what? What is it that just keep going? And what's next on the horizon for you? That's a loaded question. Wow. Okay. Let me think about that for a second. What keeps me going? Honestly, and I know this is gonna sound like incredibly cheesy, but the reality is what keeps me going is the fear of being average Like I for me it's like I feel that I have been born to be extraordinary and to break through glass ceilings and to represent my community and I've always taken that so much to heart that's my drive. Like I want to be able to break barriers left and right now from a work perspective. I think at some point I would love to just consult and, maybe sit on a couple of boards and, help organizations that way. And it's a different aspect on how it is today. So today I'm very internal within my organization. I absolutely love it. But I think, in the future, I think it'd be wonderful to be more external and help bring, some knowledge and understanding. And I think that, we're seeing more and more day in and day out how cyber security is becoming increasingly important. To many organizations. I've had the blessing of working for Fortune 50 companies, Fortune 100 companies, and we're seeing so much change with requirements, from the SEC and from others wanting to have that kind of expertise. And I think that as things continue on to develop and transition and transform. And the threat landscape, I think that we're going to, see more and more need for folks that have, the experience and the exposure that I've had the blessing of having. And I would love to be able to do some consulting on that end and some support and maybe some board work and write a book and go on a world tour and all that fun stuff. So we'll see where it lands us. That's awesome. Thanks for for answering that. I just I, whenever I have the opportunity to be in and in an audience like this I just always like to know because I, and what I've known and what I've learned so far in cybersecurity is it's an ever changing landscape. And there's certain professions that you can get into where you reach the top, you got to the top of the mountain peak and you just settle, but this doesn't seem to be an industry where you can do that because it's ever changed. I was just curious to to see what is the thing that keeps you going? You can very much get left behind if you get complacent or you saw. Yeah, I definitely agree with you. As I mentioned earlier, like I'm such a nerd and I love to learn and that drives me. So if there's, new things that are coming out or new technologies or new threats I love to learn and I love to find, different ways to address things. And I think that, I've had the opportunity to work with some really incredible folks in my career and even the folks that I have the opportunity to work with now at Carnival are such brilliant minds and that feeds into me as well. So the energy of being surrounded by Top talent and working with top talent and solutioning problems and helping to secure the organizations, all that stuff. It really does have such an impact. And I know it sounds, odd, but for me, it's my driver. Like I love to learn and I love to help. And, I'm in an industry that allows me to do that. And that continues to challenge me. And I think that's, what's the differentiator for me in this. And that's why I decided to become a cybersecurity professional, not an accountant, because, we're constantly being challenged in the ways that we approach this and in the ways we do things and that, to me is exciting. It's always a constant challenge to find different ways to approach complex problems. Thank you, Margarita. Thank you, Rostow. Tomas this has been very informative and for the opportunity to be able to be on this. Oh, absolutely. Our pleasure. And how awesome, if anyone deserves to be up here on stage, it's just you, Daniel, definitely. I am so proud of him. I had no idea you're going to make it today, but I'm so glad that you are. I can't wait for the moment that we'll be at a fireside chat for you, Daniel. Your story is incredible. And what's ahead for you is incredible as well. So I'm incredibly proud of you. So mom's about to get them on the schedule. We, our schedules filling up. We got folks through the next several months but she, Hey, Daniel, we've got to work with you. Get on the schedule. So it might be a word of encouragement there. Speaking of encouragement fleet is great to have you with us. Great. Always to see you and all the support you've given us to given to us over the years at fireside chat fleet is over to you. So first off Margarita. Good to finally hear your voice. Heard your name. Been in circles in Charlotte. Just missed you, I believe, from the circles that I've walked in. Just a background of mine. I've been in the Duke Energy world 13 years before I transitioned into a small world. Still interact with a lot of your former Lowe's colleagues, that's awesome. I'm so sorry we missed each other, Fletus. Probably missed each other just by a thing, but what I'll challenge you and what I've been encouraged by here, GRC is not my thing, but information security is imperative. What would you tell someone who is breaking into the GRC why it's important and how that enables them to actually add cybersecurity industry as a whole? So I've always seen, and I guess maybe I'm a little biased, but I've always seen GRC to be like the heart of a cybersecurity program if it's done correctly, because GRC has the opportunity to have that exposure to the business side that perhaps some of the other domains don't have. Do not have as much exposure to it really can be an enabler. So when you really position, governance, risk and compliance at the center of your program, then you're able to drive change with. Data behind it versus just doing things to do them. So the organizations that I've had an opportunity, to work for have all really had that mindset and that alignment from, risk management and helping to drive that able to really show the value and because risk management is the language of the business. It's the one thing that we all understand. It can really be a huge tool and enabler for cyber security professionals to connect with upper management, to connect with their business stakeholders. And that's why I believe in it wholeheartedly now positioned correctly because sometimes GRC. is positioned just as another domain without it really having ties into each of the individual programs. And in the organizations I've worked for, it has not been that way. It's been that bridge. It's been that glue. It's been what has been able to tie different areas into, the overall picture. And I think it's a strategic tool. That should be leveraged if you want to have a proactive type of cyber security program versus a reactive program. Hey, we can be firefighters and deal with all kinds of situations left and right. And that's fine. That's exhausting. And that doesn't give as much value as actually having a rhyme and a reason. That the business can actually resonate with in terms of the decision making. So I think risk management in general really helps to drive that and that's why I wholeheartedly believe in GRC as that core piece. Not that it's, again, driving everything, but it's helping to facilitate a lot of things as we tie in. Because, the reality, cybersecurity is not just technology. It's business as well. And I think that's one of the shifts that we've seen in the last decade where it's not just about, securing technology, it's about securing processes and securing information and securing the technology that it's on. And I think that GRC really helps us to position things in a way that becomes more proactive rather than reactive. So that leads me into my second that I know Russell will appreciate. How do we get folks to see GRC and other components of our domains as human centric elements versus just technological? I think a lot of it has to do with taking the time for, the socialization, for taking the time to understand and have conversations. I think that, a lot of times we approach, cyber security and okay how could they do this or how could they do that? And they need to implement this controller, this tool. And, we don't take the time to build that trust, to build that credibility. So I think that, really taking the time to socialize, with different areas of the business and to understand the business and the pain points, and then aligning that to your risk management strategy and being able to communicate how that can be an enabler. Instead of something that kind of slow things down, I think it, brings huge dividends. So a lot of it has to do, with those discussions that sometimes, don't happen. I've been in organizations where unfortunately they try to direct what's happening on the business side or direct what's happening, within the I. T. World without, really building that trust and without bringing the data that's necessary. to help influence and I think the GRC can be a huge tool to influence change instead of trying to simply shove change down people's throat. So I think that we, as professionals, we need to really position it in a way that is providing, that enablement for our organizations and that's providing that influence in terms of what we want to see so that it's a win situation. Yeah. I think that's just imperative. Culture, I think people forget. They think cyber, they think information security. It's just the industry of no, and I know no, K N O W, no, we have to know why we do our job. And I think it's just imperative that when we get into the business and you've shared it early on and others have shared it on this call is getting to know your business. We can't enable our business until we know our business. And because I worked for a utility, the pun intended, I mined the business. I got in and understood every aspect of it before I secured it. And without that it's imperative. When you're at Lowe's, you sold. Hammers and nails when you're at the utility you're selling power when you're at a carnival You're sharing experience and entertainment We just have to understand what our consumers are buying what our product is And most of the time security is not the product We're there to enable the product and we have to get back to the human centric and culture of our world that we live in To enable that so that when the business comes to it, they know that we're going to see them as I like to quote Covey, we get that perspective, they're scared. And we're only going to see the six when they see the nine, cause we don't sit on the same side of the table. That's exactly right. I don't think I could have said it better myself. And it's interesting you say, the office of now, starting off in cybersecurity again, over two decades ago, that's exactly what we were living. And I think I've made it a goal of mine throughout my career to come in and approach cyber security from a different perspective, not to be the place where things go to die or where things are complicated or where things are always said no, but rather coming in and, being that trusted partner and being able to really provide solutions. I've done that time and time again, and it's something that I'm incredibly proud of being able to come into an organization, understand the business, and then have them coming to me all the time versus me finding out things, once contracts have been signed or, once decisions have been made without having security involved, I think there's nothing more gratifying for a cybersecurity professional than to be that advisor and to be viewed that way instead of somebody that's going to be a roadblock. And I tell you, Fleetus was really just letting it go there. I think so many one liners there had to go back and listen to the recording for all the truth that Fleetus was sharing just there. So I love that and love to love your, again, active participation in our community for, again, for so many years there, Fleetus. Jeffrey, see you're up on stage. I'd love to have you asked your question or questions and thanks for coming up. Looking forward to hear from you, Jeffrey. Yeah, absolutely. Marguerite, I just want to say, your energy is infectious, almost like coach. Getting hyped up just listening to you talk and describe your journey and your energy and your passion. So I, one, the one question I have for you is, could you maybe share or articulate kind of. The day in the life of Margarita, meaning from sun up to sun down. Just, I'm just curious what your, what those habits look like from, when the moment your feet hit the floor to, to the time that you turn your day down. I'm just curious. Cause I love everything about what you described and your journey. And I'm a nerd too in that regard, but I'm just curious if you can describe for us Yeah, Connie, what that looks like, the day in the life of Margarita. I'll be honest, Jeffrey, a day in the life of Margarita can be different from day to day. There are certain habits That Margarita tries to practice and most of the time she gets to do it and other times she does not. So I will be, again, completely candid. I am not a morning person, so when that alarm goes off at 545 in the morning, I am not a happy camper. You won't get words out of me. I won't articulate anything. You'll get a lot of sounds. Until I've had my first cup of coffee and I think that my husband and my kids get to experience, a little bit of grumpy margarita in the morning. Cause I'm just not a morning person. It would be wonderful if I could start my day around maybe 11 in the morning. That would be great. That's not the case. So I get up at five 45 in the morning to make sure that the kids are up. Cause I have three beautiful daughters ages 16, 13 and 12 who are going to take over the world. I love those three girls and they are also sleepy heads and not morning people. So I have to make sure that they are up and I will get up and make a cup of coffee because coffee is just, it's life. So I will have my first cup of coffee right around 5. 50 in the morning. And I will take my the love of my life who is my dog My husband is the love of my life too, but I love my dog more. I got him during covid I think I would let my husband go on a heartbeat, but just keep my dog and if he's listening then i'm gonna be in trouble But no, I did tell him we're gonna be talking tonight and that I would Absolutely share about the love of Harvey, who we got during COVID. He is a darling labradoodle. He's gorgeous. I'll post a picture of him on LinkedIn so you guys can all see him. He's beautiful. So we take him out and then I try to begin every morning by reading. I love to read again. I'm a nerd and my cup of coffee and my book, I love to do devotionals or some type of, motivational book. That's going to get me in the right mind. Set for the day. Because if I don't start that way, I don't know, it just, the day doesn't go as well. So my first 15 20 minutes are spent, reading through, reading a chapter, getting my mindset ready. I'll drive my wonderful daughters to school. And then on the way back, I have the Pep Talk app. I don't know if you guys are familiar with it, but I love it. Cause again, I believe a lot in the things you listen to the things you read, the things you consume will set you up for your day. So I'll listen to a pep talk, which is usually five or 10 minutes of some very high energy, motivational talk. And it's amazing. And then I get home I'll jump on the Peloton. I'll do. 30 minutes of exercise, take a shower and then get ready to go into the office, which in Miami is a nightmare. Most days. So Mondays and Fridays, I work from home Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I'm in the office and I try to leave as early as I can because traffic in Miami is no joke. Get into the office and. I'll look at my whiteboard of things to do today. So I always try when I leave the day before to leave a list, even though I'm a technologist, I love to write things down either on a whiteboard or on a notebook or on paper and just have it, in a post it or something, just, things that I want to make sure that I focus on the next day, I'm answering emails and then the onslaught of meetings. Back to back. We'll start which are a lot of fun. I have gotten into the habit of making sure that I separate time to, go have lunch and, email efficiency time, which I think is really important because I've learned that if you don't block off at least a little bit of time to stop and pause and either go for a walk or eat something or take a lap around the office that you will spend your entire time for meeting to meeting. Then, depending on the day. Maybe five, six, seven o'clock I get to come home cook some dinner. I love to cook. I love to eat. I think I love to eat just as much as I love to learn. It's a lot of fun. So cook some good Puerto Rican food for my family. And then just spend some quality time with my kids and with my husband. So either we'll play some games or we'll watch a movie or we'll go somewhere. And now that we live in Miami, we like to go biking or go down to the marina and just get some fresh air and good action. So that's pretty much a standard day in the life of although I'd love to say that would be like that every day But day to day is completely different sometimes depending on what's going on if the kids have activities If there are events to go to networking events to go to if I'm traveling so that's my ideal day That's The perfect day when I get to do all those things 10 times, which is partial of the week. It's not every single day, but for the most part, it's pretty great. Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. A couple of takeaways, from what you described, it's it's great to know that you're human, which is good. Yes, I am human. Yeah. And it's also great to hear. You didn't say it, but it sounds, like one of those critical skills that you've You know, have and possess and it sounds like you continue to work on. It's time management and a little bit of that, I will say balance. We're all in this profession and. Understand the ups and downs, but it seems like you make a point to, to, insert balance where you can. And I think that's just so important and it's great to hear that you do take the time to pause. And it sounds like you have several, not a perfect day, like you described, multiple opportunities and those pauses are different, whether it be, reading or what you're listening to. And I would also imagine that it probably, it sounds like you get a lot of energy from your family and it's just great to hear that. I do. Yeah, I was just going to say thank you for that. It just it's really comforting to hear, but also warming in the sense that a little bit of me too, it's just it's just great to hear because there's a lot of folks that are stepping out of our lanes, out of our communities because of, lack of imbalance or losing touch with relationships and things like that. So it's just great to hear, that you have a method and And you're willing to put the work in on it. So it's just awesome. So thank you very much. Absolutely. I think what you said is incredibly important because I've seen that as well. There's a lot of folks that are getting, burnout is a real thing. And I've been there. I've been burnt out. So I know exactly what it feels like. And I'm sure, many of you that are here and listening have gone through it as well. And, I try to prioritize certain things. Work is always going to be there. And I believe in, there's seasons, there's some seasons that you have to work a little harder and some weeks, some seasons that you can balance a little better. But yeah, time management is definitely incredibly important in this industry. And I think that, in any, you really need to make sure that you're prioritizing yourself. Work is always going to be work, my health and my time with my children, my time with my spouse, my time alone, all those things are incredibly important for balance and for health. and are things that we have to prioritize. And sometimes it's hard because when you love what you do, you can sometimes become obsessive about it. Not in a negative way, but just, you're working and you're constantly like involved in what you do without giving time and space for other things. So I've seen it happen to a lot of folks and I really try to be cognizant of that and trying to have as much balance as I can. And some days I do better than others. But I always try to keep it very front of mind. And, I always check in, I always have conversations, with my daughters and with my husband, and they're great at balancing me out. I'm grateful for them because if, I'm too much in work mode, they will call me out. And if they want some time with me, they will call me out. And I need that. You gotta have some folks to hold you accountable every now and then. And what a blessing it is to have, my family do that for me. So it helps me stay healthy and helps me being my best self. Self for them and my best self at work and my best self with my family. I absolutely love that. And thank you so much for sharing and being vulnerable to share that. Cause sometimes that's the guarded piece of us as executives to not want to tell that piece of the story. So thank you very much. Oh, absolutely. I think it's such an important part of it all. We're all human and we do what we do and it's great to be an executive in an organization and that's wonderful, but I'm just a human being. So it's wonderful to be able to share, what's worked for me. And I think that I didn't get to this routine from one day to the next, I started small and it started with, just getting up every day at 5 45 and having that cup of coffee. And that worked for me. And then I started introducing other things and little by little, you start figuring out what works best. And what times they work best and what time you need to be in bed by and all those little details, but can't, you can't boil the ocean. You got to start with, one good habit at a time, and then really try to incorporate the things that make you a well rounded individual. Awesome. Yes. Again, love it. Thank you so much. Absolutely, my pleasure. What a great question that was. Coach Margarita, I think that's a good ring to it there. But looking at the, not just what did you do, how did you do it, but going back to those basic habits. I should have asked you, do you have an affiliate link for Pep Talk? Downloaded that when you mentioned that if it's good enough for Margarita, I want to get some of that too. And just those little habits, those little daily things of the alarm going off, you get your coffee, take your dog for a walk. You get your girls going, just those routines that set yourself up for success and position you to do that. I just love that so much. And I think that's a great takeaway for me and perhaps everyone, both live and folks who listen to the MP3 recording whenever we post that coming up soon. So I've got another question. I know our time is coming down to an end, but maybe, five, 10 more minutes, and we'll be a good steward of everyone's time, especially your time, Margarita. I've got one more question for you, and then I'll throw it over to Tomas. And if there's anyone else has questions, we can get those in perhaps in the next couple of minutes, but my question is, and first of all, Thank you for letting me pepper you with questions all night long. You've done great at those. It's been amazing to just hear and then audience members, the folks who's with us now on the stage or were on the stage before made for an amazing event. But my question. My last question for you is this what's the one question we should have asked you or you thought we were going to ask, but didn't ask him? Oh, that's a hard one. I thought you guys were going to come and ask me what keeps you up at night? That's like the traditional question that everybody in cybersecurity is asked. It's Margarita, what are you concerned about in the threat landscape? What keeps you up at night? So that's the question I thought you guys would ask, but you didn't, which is great, because nothing keeps me up at night. I love to sleep, so I'm not worried about it at all. But I do say that, things that, that, concern me or Things that I, try to talk through and tackle with my team. Obviously, there's just an onslaught of new things that are happening in the world. I think AI is a huge topic figuring out ways that we can, better control things within our own organizations and, chat, GPT and all that fun stuff that, we're getting to deal with today. It's something that, is requiring a lot of us because there aren't specific technologies to deal with things of that nature. And we're obviously trying to protect, information assets while we're trying to educate all of our end users on the appropriate way to leverage, AI for their benefit. I think it's a powerful tool. I think it's wonderful. I think it's a game changer. But it's, cybersecurity, a lot of times we have to be, very reactive. So it's, here comes this new technology, and here are new ways to use the technology that is counterintuitive, or that is, negative towards what we want to do, and then we have to figure out ways to fix it. to, provide controls and to further secure things and to provide governance and things of that nature. So I know that's definitely a hot topic for us. I'm sure it's for many others, just trying to figure out the appropriate governance for things of that nature and, how do we leverage it in a way that gives us the competitive advantage, but how do we secure it in a way that, we ensure that There isn't, data exfiltrated on the dark web that then gets us in trouble because folks didn't understand their responsibilities. But yeah, I think that would be the one question I thought you guys were going to ask because every single podcast always asks that question around, what keeps you up at night? That's traditional. Cybersecurity question. That just tells me that we're not like every other podcast. I'll take that as a compliment. You are absolutely right. I love that. What I love, this has been so much fun. It's been completely different than anything else I've had an opportunity to do before. So grateful that you guys invited me to be on and that we've had the opportunity to have these conversations. Most definitely. And my parting comment will be It's amazing. You're working at Carnival. Devin and I used to work arm and arm together, fought some good fights at the fed appreciate his leadership, what he poured into me when I was there and things that I've carried on even to this day. So I know you're with a great team and with a great leader where you're at. So that's real really cool. Absolutely. Tomas over to you. Thank you, Russell and Margarita. Wow. What a, what an awesome almost 90 minutes we spent with you just hearing about your journey, your origin story and where you're still going, writing books and the likes. I can't wait to read that, but I, there was a few things. One, I can tell you what keeps me up, what wakes me up in the morning. Those Carnival cruise lines when they, when I'm on vacation and they want to stop. You're like, I'm trying to sleep, I'm on vacation. I will let them know. All right. And you said you've been doing this for about two decades. Damn, that's a long time. Wow. It absolutely is. Look, I've only been doing this for about five years. So I think I'm, I still got a few more years to go to catch up to you. But I do want to ask you this reflection question. Joking aside, I do want to ask you this reflection question. And I like this question because it gives you an opportunity to take your 20 years and reflect on, on where you've been and where you still have to go. I'll ask you if there was one piece of advice that you would share with the younger Margarita, what would it be and why? Oof, you didn't mention it was going to be such a loaded reflection question. Alright, I'm going to have to take a second to think what I would tell the younger Margarita. Ooh, advice for the younger Margarita. Man, that's a really hard question, Tomas. I'm very happy with younger Margarita and older margaritas, so I have to think about that for a second. Tell you it is unscripted. Oh no. Did I stump you? You're right. I wish I would've, I don't think I, I don't think it's, it is possible to stumped you. So I'll give you a second. Yeah, you did. You stumped me on this one, so I'm just trying to think through. To be honest, Toma, I think one of the only things that I would have told the younger Margarita that. Essentially that I would have wanted to do differently probably would have been to just, be willing to explore more of the world and of different things. And I say that because I do that now with my own kids. So I grew up. Again, in a very sheltered kind of bubble. And I didn't get exposure to a lot of things until later in life. So I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do, so to speak. So I think I would have probably told Margarita, push a little harder. So that you can explore a little more because as I'm going through those seasons, in adulthood and even now with my own kids, I see the difference. And for me, I'm incredibly excited and incredibly proud of the three young ladies that I am raising along with my incredible husband. But I know that exposure and that opportunity to think a little bit more outside of the box at a younger age is going to have an impact on them. And I, although I'm incredibly grateful for everything that I've been able to achieve until this point and all the experiences that I've had, I think I would have liked and I think things might've been a little different had I, maybe I would have been like, cyber security professional in Spain or in another country and, exposed to different cultures. I think now that I get to work for, organizations that are global, I see that more. And, I'm having to quickly catch up and grow and expand my way of thinking and learn how to balance things culturally and how to drive change and how to do socialization with different cultures that are very different than how things are here in the United States. And I think that's incredibly valuable to understanding, that the world is very different. It's very vast. It's very huge. But that's costed me a price that I've had to like, again, catch up a lot later in life where I'm giving and affording my children to learn that now. And I know that's going to have a huge impact on their journey early on where I'm experiencing that later on in life. So I think I would have told the younger Margarita, go explore a little more. Don't be such in a hurry. Cause I literally, graduated. College and jumped right into the work force and, have been working ever since your girl been working since she was about 13 years old under the table and then as babysitting and nothing too bad and then, 16 legally and I've been working ever since. I think I would have, liked the opportunity to explore a little bit more and to learn a little bit more and to stretch my mindset a little bit more. I think there's definitely dividends in that and, that's probably what I would tell her. That's awesome, Margarita. And look, your story from having to work at such an early age is not so dissimilar to mine and to a lot of other Latinos that are, their parents migrated over to the U. S., to the States, I'll say to, to hopefully build a better and more prosperous future for their kids. Keep moving forward. I'll pass it back to you to wrap this up. Will do. Thanks so much, Tomás. Really appreciate it. And hey, everyone, as we're closing up this session, if you're not already doing so, please follow us on Twitter. LinkedIn. We have a page for fireside chat, so that you'll be notified of our next sessions. Next month, we have the privilege of having Ben Halpert as our guest, and we'll have all that scheduled and everything available for that. Margarita, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the amazing who you are, how you do it, and how you've inspired each and every one of us, especially even me. I really appreciate what you share with us this evening. I want to absolutely want to give you the last word, any last comments, any last moments of inspiration before we adjourn for this evening, Margarita, the floor is all yours. Thank you so much. Thanks again for having me on. It's been a lot of fun sharing a little bit about my journey, reliving some of those moments and even having to think deeply about the younger version of myself. But if there's one thing that I'll leave you guys with to all the folks that are listening is, the one thing that, my dad taught me when I was very young and that's that there's nothing impossible. If your heart desires it, push, have the grit and have the consistency to get to where you want to be and, never doubt yourself and make sure you're feeding yourself, your heart and your mind, the right things. Those things pay dividends in the longterm and consistency pays a lot in the longterm. And if I could do it, there's no reason why anybody else cannot. So nothing but the best to all of you. God bless. And thank you again for giving me the opportunity to be on the podcast this evening. All right. With that, thanks so much, everybody. Have a great night. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other.