Episode 125: Winning at Business and Life with Dennis Underwood

This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.

Hi, my name is Dennis Underwood. I am CEO of Cyber Crucible and an inventor.

Dennis, it's great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?

You know, with cybersecurity, you are, you know, basically competing with a whole bunch of people that make computers do things that they shouldn't do. And so it is always a surprise to see what the hackers have coming next. It is a constant— you're constantly positioning yourself to reinvent yourself and reinvent what you know. To stay one step ahead of the criminals.

Oh, that's cool. I mean, it's something that I would imagine seeing on TV or in a movie.

It can be— oh, go ahead, sorry, we cut that out.

Please, I don't— I, I go ahead, your thought.

I was gonna say, um, you know, it's a, it's a lot more, uh, exciting on the movies, you know, where, uh, they don't show my team and I up at 2 AM beating our head against the wall trying to solve some math formula or something.

Yeah, yeah. So that's, that's the reality of it, not the, you know, the glamorous part about it.

Not the Halle Berry part of it.

Yeah, exactly. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?

Well, I think that's something that is overlooked if there's someone like me who is a tech entrepreneur and an inventor, is to have books on how to supply a good, you know, some trusted resources that are vendors for the non-sexy things like your accountant and how to prepare and interview and pick out those kind of resources which are so important early stage in setting up the business in a proper way.

I think that's very insightful because we can't miss the, you know, the general blocking and tackling of running a business.

Right, right.

Question number 4: Other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?

I think it's really important to have adequate sleep and nutrition and to take some downtime. What I've noticed is that especially when you have something new and innovative coming to the market, it's really important to have that emotional reserve so that you are going to take some hits. Everyone does. It's like hazing, right? But you really want to make sure that you're able to respond effectively with a high emotional— with the EQ. I think the opposite of IQ, right? You want to make sure you have that so that you can keep that positive face. And turn what could be a bit of a rocky road into something successful for you, however you define that.

And I think it's important because having that sleep, as you mentioned, and just taking care of yourself, you know, you have to be at your optimal to be effective at work. And if your health is starting to lag, I assume, if I'm understanding you correctly, then productivity is going to go down.

Absolutely, yes. And you, I mean, at some point you stop making sense. That's a trick I learned in the Army, right? At some point the brain just kind of shuts down on you. But also you are the face of the business. So if they see someone who's well rested and, you know, physically fit and ready to take on the world, then true or not, they're going to assume the business is doing fabulous because you're doing fabulous. If you show up, and this has happened, you know, where you haven't slept in 2 days because you've been so busy with bags under your eyes and you're barely coherent, They're going to make assumptions about that, even if you just spent the last 2 days working straight because you're so successful. It really comes down to image.

Absolutely. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?

You know, I've had a lot of great conversations with Austin Morris over in Philadelphia. He is a different, uh, industry than me a little bit. It's more of a cyber insurance But whenever I first met him and he was very knowledgeable and had a lot of great ways to communicate the clients, very technical things, which was really cool. What I really liked seeing was, you know, 6 months to a year later, I kept running into clients of mine or prospects who knew of Austin and always had something great to say about his honesty and straightforwardness in his interactions. So it's really cool to see we have a partner, you know, like a business partner or a peer that you're actually hearing from other businesses that, you know, this person really helped them out. That's always a good sign in my book.

I'd agree. That's great. I'll reach out to him. Thank you for that referral. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.

My first job actually was at a car wash place. I managed to— I was working through school, hadn't gotten industry yet. While there, you know, I had the exciting assignment of you know, beyond just washing cars and learning that I really do want to stay in college and keep, you know, keep going. I had the privilege of having a couple accidents, you know, with the cars where maybe their mechanic forgot to put brake fluid in and the car just went down the hill and so did I, you know, stuff like that. So very exciting. Nothing at all to do with cyber, unfortunately, but it was a good work experience. You know, now I can change my own oil and my brakes and everything. So that's always valuable.

That's absolutely great. And it's a great story about going down the road or the hill without any brakes.

More years than I want to admit later, it's funny. At the time, of course, it's terrifying, you know, as a kid going to Pitt, you know, but hey, you know, do it when you're 18, not when you're 30 or 40, right?

Absolutely. That's the main learning right there. So Dennis, thank you so much for being on the show. How could people find you?

So I'm always very active on LinkedIn. That's on purpose. That way they can choose to follow me at their timing. And you'll, you'll find me there under Dennis Underwood. It's myself or a pharmaceutical executive, same name, looks much different than me, right? So find me there. Of course, they can always hit contact us on my website, CybercruiseWorld.com. I try to go to every single meeting I can. Of course, I miss some. However, I really like to get that face-to-face interaction with as many clients and prospects as I can to learn what their concerns really are. As an inventor, that always allows me to kind of get clues as to what to look at next.

Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.