Defcon 31 - An Emotional Experience

All-in-all, Defcon 31 was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had in my life, but with great experiences come great emotions(at least from my personal experience).

Defcon is touted as one of the world's most prominent “hacker” conferences, and rightfully so.? I could not believe the number of people that were in attendance at this year's hacker convention. Not that I would know what it looked like otherwise, because this was the first time that I have been able to attend Defcon, and it was an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Before I go any further, it’s important to note that with large conventions like these with thousands of people in attendance, everyone will have their own unique agenda and list of things that they would like to accomplish while they are there, which is something I would really like to emphasize.? There is no “right way” or “wrong way”(debatable) to attend a conference.? One thing for sure is to be prepared for change and accept that.??

One of the best reasons to attend a conference like Defcon is to connect with the people who will be there, and you will rarely experience occasions such as this with so many similar people in one location.? Take advantage of that and network with people.? Some of the talks and workshops are absolutely worth going to, but don’t be upset that you can’t make them all, there is a lot going on, and it’s okay to deviate from your original plan.

With that said, I was utterly unprepared for what was to come at Defcon 31.? The reason that I was able to attend this year was due to the company that I work for.? TCM Security was sponsoring the IOT Village, and we had a booth there.? This was an excellent opportunity for us as a team to come together with the community and put ourselves out there(it’s great for branding).? More importantly, it was an opportunity to connect with the people who have followed TCM and found value in what we are doing. I thought I was prepared for this, but I was not. Think of that “dear in the headlights” look as people began to pour into the IOT Village when the doors opened on the first two days and swarmed our booth.

It wasn’t just the amount of people, it was just about each individual person themselves.? The number of times we heard, “Your content changed my life.”, “You are the reason I got into security.” or “I got my first job because of you.” - those words will stick with me forever.

There were so many people who were quite literally star-struck by seeing Heath Adams there in person, with so many handshakes, photos, and kind words.? That entire experience was utterly surreal to me, and I cannot even put into words how proud I am to be part of an organization that genuinely cares about changing people's lives.

This is where it gets emotional.? There are a lot of people who follow TCM, who take our courses, or our certifications, that have no idea who I am(not that I genuinely feel like I am anyone, to begin with, but you’ll understand).? For those of you reading this that don’t know, I started a YouTube channel 9 years ago called IT Career Questions, the entire purpose of that channel was to help people who were looking to get into careers within Information Technology, so as the name ensues, I answered a lot of IT Career Questions over the years(266,000 subscribers, 1,000+ videos, 19 million views) I never expected that I never wanted that, and to this day I still don’t know how to deal with that, I genuinely just wanted to help people, that’s all.

I would never have imagined creating videos in my basement would have led to showing up to a convention to have people come up to me and THANK ME for helping them find their way into the IT field.

Here I am, thousands of miles away from home, attending a conference with over 30,000 people, and some of them are coming up to me, telling me they wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for me.? If you’ve followed me for any amount of time or now for some of you that met me in person, my goal has always been to be as genuine and authentic as possible, WYSIWYG. I’m not going to lie, there were tears shared.

This was the first time in the last 9 years of doing this YouTube thing that I was finally able to see the impact that I’ve made in real life. I don’t make YouTube videos for subscribers or money or fame.? I make videos because I want to help people.?

That’s why I joined Heath(TCM Security), we are quite literally the same person when it comes to helping people and giving back, and while this entire experience was one of the best of my entire life, it was also one of the most emotional(in a good way, of course). I was able to meet hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people who have had their lives changed because of what we are doing.

It was truly an honor to meet every single person who came up to us during Defcon, and it has wholly cemented my purpose in life. Some of these people I myself have followed their journey(from being connected on social media), and it was so surreal to meet them. I may not say this enough, but I am truly your biggest fan(yes you).? I want to see everyone succeed, and I will always be there to cheer you on in any way that I can. That’s why I do this, I believe in you.?

So coming full circle and being able to meet the people in real life who I have impacted in some way was completely mind-blowing to me.? I can’t put into words how that makes me feel.? If anything, the experience completely humbled me but made me so incredibly proud at the same time.

I will be walking away from this experience, reinvigorated and prepared to take on our next journey to help more people find a successful path into the world of I.T. and cybersecurity.

Thank you again to each and every one of you out there who has supported TCM Security and IT Career Questions( https://youtube.com/itcareerquestions) over the years. I’ve said this before, and I will say it again, we are only getting started.

#defcon #defcon31 #tcmsecurity #itcareerquestions