🎙️ In Episode #241 of The Geek Within, my guest is Amos Balongo. He is the CEO at Leader Compass Consulting Group where he specializes in working with senior leaders. Amos is also a keynote speaker, author, and podcaster.

🔗 You can engage Amos here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amosbalongo/

Website - https://www.amonbalongo.com/

Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/46nGeoZTKCYOhrJh7Lfg42?si=319a6073605246b1

🎙️ In Episode #240 of The Geek Within, my guest is Marv McGuire. He is the Head of Investor Relations at Grovia Capital. Marv is a Husband, Father, Navy veteran, and Corporate Sales Leader turned Entrepreneur, not to mention a 3-time brain cancer survivor. Marv focuses on building legacy wealth using multifamily commercial real estate.

🔗 You can engage Marv here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvin-mcguire-8674891b/

Website - https://groviacapital.com/

🎙️ In Episode #239 of The Geek Within, my guest is Kira Shishkin. He is a four-time founder, the current CEO of informed, and has spent his career building tech ventures with substance. Kira is now focused on a deceptively simple challenge - information overload. Through informed, he is redesigning how busy people interact with news and I can't wait to hear more about that later.

🔗 You can engage Kira here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirashishkin/

Website - https://informed.now/

🎙️ In Episode #238 of The Geek Within, my guest is Eric Pratum. He is the Founder of Inbound and Agile, a marketing and communications firm focused on helping you gain confidence in your marketing spend and strategy. Eric is also the host of The Unfolding Thought podcast.

🔗 You can engage Eric here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericpratum/

Website - https://unfoldingthought.com/

🎙️ In Episode #237 of The Geek Within, my guest is Andrew Powell. He is the Chief Growth Officer at Strongbridge and a graduate of the ACT-IAC Voyagers in 2025. It was through the ACT-IAC community where I met Andrew.

🔗 You can engage Andrew here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-powell-85620962/

🎙️ In Episode #236 of The Geek Within, my guest is Boomya Patan. She a Product Owner and Systems Analyst at Navy Federal Credit Union where she is part of the technology department in the lending division. Boomya and I talk about missed opportunities when promoting leaders based on presence versus capability. Thank you for joining me.

🔗 You can engage Boomya here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/boomyapatan/

🎙️ In Episode #235 of The Geek Within, my guest is Taylor Kelley. She is a Director of Business Development at GDIT, a graduate of both the ACT-IAC Associates and Voyagers program, and a proud mom. Taylor and I met during her Associates program and continue to run into each other at all the local networking events. We also took time to discuss the challenges caused by contract award protests and impacts on the people involved. Thank you for joining me.

🔗 You can engage Taylor here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-kelley-825b33a4/

🎙️ In Episode #234 of The Geek Within, my guest is Jade Pech. She is Director of Analytics at Scope Infotech, Inc, a software engineering company in the federal contracting space. Jade was previously a Data Scientist at the FAA, which is when we met. Jade and I discuss how people looking at the job situation today need to be willing to put the work in and make whatever changes are needed to get through to the other side. Thank you for joining me.

🔗 You can engage Jade here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jade-pech-92574630/

🎙️ In Episode #233 of The Geek Within, my guest is Karen F Lee. She is a Co-founder and President of FedsForward, an organization committed to helping civil servants continue their service to the nation by moving forward into mission-driven careers across all sectors of the economy. They are a staunchly non-partisan organization focused on enabling mission-driven individuals to make an impact in for-profit, non-profit, and governmental organizations. We talked a bit about how large the challenges are in migrating your career amongst sections, such as public service to private sector. Thank you for joining me.

🔗 You can engage Karen here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenfranceslee/

Website - https://www.fedsforward.org/

🎙️ In Episode #232 of The Geek Within, my guest is Brian Numainville. He is a Principal at The Feedback Group, President of NUMINSIGHT LLC, and an author of Feedback Rules!: 52 ways to listen to your stakeholders. Brian has deep expertise in public relations, content strategy, AI integration, and digital marketing, which he uses to bring his unique ability to turn complex data into compelling stories that resonate. We talk about how being young is treated as a negative since you don't have deep experience. Thank you for joining me.

🔗 You can engage Brian here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/numainville/

Book - https://a.co/d/dtOgJR7

🎙️ In Episode #231 of The Geek Within, my guest is Rob Fawcett. He is the Founder and Principal Consultant of The Human CTO, where he provides leadership support for executives who need a strategic technology partner. Rob also focuses on product, data, AI, and software delivery alignment when execution isn't landing and with suppling fractional tech and transformation change roles when a team needs experienced direction without the full-time baggage. Thank you for joining me.

🔗 You can engage Rob here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rfawcett/

🎙️ In Episode #230 of The Geek Within, my guest is Mahdieh Ghalampoor, although she goes by Maddie. She is the Director of Service Delivery at Abaco Strategy, LLC. She is passionate about innovation and enthusiastic about helping other people grow. We chat a bit about how many organizational changes are made without consideration for the human element. Thank you for joining me.

🔗 You can engage Maddie here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahdieh-gholampoor-phd-executive-director-0a374b41/

🎙️ In Episode #229 of The Geek Within, my guest is Lauren Wittenberg Weiner. She is the founder of WWC Global, a woman-owned government-focused management consulting firm that was founded to provide professional opportunities for military spouses, growing the business into 350+ person firm before selling in 2022. Lauren is the author of the National Bestseller UNRULY, which has the subtitle - Deconstruct the Rules, Defy the Norms, and Define Your Success. She is a Keynote and TEDx Speaker, National Security Thought Leader, a "Business Therapist", and a proud hockey mom. We chat a bit about how sometimes it is important to focus on marginal changes and empathy for those who are usually left out. Thank you for joining me.

🔗 You can engage Lauren here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-wittenberg-weiner/

Book - https://www.amazon.com/Unruly-Deconstruct-Rules-Define-Success-ebook/dp/B0DL7NVMZN

🎙️ In Episode #228 of The Geek Within, my guest is Wes Kussmaul. He is the CEO of The Authenticity Institute, which is an incubator that supports companies providing measurably reliable identities of individuals to their target markets in healthcare, finance, critical infrastructure protection, and others where reliable identity is important. Wes was the founder of Kussmaul Encyclopedia in 1981, which featured an encyclopedia, email, and primitive chat, which later became Delphi Internet Services Corp. I am looking forward to hearing more about how all of that happened. Wes and I talk about the importance of privacy and how the internet has taken that away from most of us and we want it back.

🔗 You can engage Wes here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskussmaul/

Other links from Wes:

https://silibandia.com/

https://escapesilibandia.com/

https://trustedandtrue.net/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskussmaul/

https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Plantation-Wes-Kussmaul-ebook/dp/B014CO8OAC

🎙️ In Episode #227 of The Geek Within, my guest is Erika Dinnie. She is a former GSA Associate CIO for Infrastructure & Operations and currently VP of Federal for MetTel. MetTel is a communications solutions provider offering a wide range of products and services to meet organizations' communications needs in data and voice. We talk a bit about how working for the government is not necessarily a family friendly environment, although there are pockets of people who are, and how those challenges impact your career decisions.

🔗 You can engage Erika here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikadinnie/

🎙️ In episode #226 of The Geek Within, my guest is Mike Shanley. He is the Founder and CEO of GovDiscovery AI, a human-in-the-loop AI intel tool for DoD business development and capture teams. Mike is also the host of the GovDiscovery AI podcast. We talk a bit about federal procurement and the wide-ranging levels of quality with the forecasts that are released and its impact, and cost, on industry.

🔗 You can engage Mike here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gov-market-growth/

Podcast - https://www.govdiscoveryai.com/podcast

In episode #225 of The Geek Within, my guest is Sabrina Amjad. She is a Founder and Senior Advisor for Vanbri Consulting, which is focused on transformation and change leadership, especially helping to drive AI adoption, behavior change, and enterprise strategy. We talk a bit about challenges women still have in their careers, both from themselves and others.

🔊 Listen to episode 225:

Spotify - https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/geekwithin

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-geek-within/id1566374853

Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/65eff8e4-acb9-460a-b848-76b82b766ab0/the-geek-within

iHeartRadio - https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-geek-within-106243909/

🔗 You can engage Sabrina here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrina-amjad-91563b1/

Website - https://vanbrillc.com/

In episode #224 of The Geek Within, my guest is Brett Bearce. He is currently unemployed, as many are with the changes in the Federal government space. Brett was previous at the Millennium Challenge Corporation for nineteen years where his last role was as the Creative Services Director. Brett and I met when I was working at MCC and have a shared history associated with New Mexico. We talk a bit about the over abundance of security controls and policy that need to be looked at for government to be able to innovate faster.

🔗 You can engage Brett here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-bearce/

In episode #222 of The Geek Within, my guest is Rajiv D'Cruz. He is a Data Analyst at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Rajiv is an expert in streamlining processes to achieve efficiencies, which is how we met as we both seek creative ways to improve mission outcomes. Rajiv and I talk about how important it is to have a flexible mindset when it comes to your career and the choices you have available to you along with the skills you bring

🔗 You can engage Rajiv here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajiv-d-cruz-7b3b024/

In episode #222 of The Geek Within, my guest is Matt Hargenrader. He is a Software Developer for SilverEdge Government Solutions. Matt and I connected on LinkedIn, and I am looking forward to hearing about his career journey. We talked about the importance of building your network, especially in your early career. Then we dive into how businesses need to better leverage social media, both from a marketing perspective, as well as generating community good will.

🔗 You can engage Matt here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-hargenrader-018749162/