From Air Force to Cloud Engineer with Jordan McConnell | Ep068

Manuel Martinez: Welcome everyone. My name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads where each episode I basically hit the refresh button, bring on a different guest to learn more about the background and their experiences to help you pick up some actionable advice that you can use as you’re managing your own career. For today’s episode, I have with me Jordan McConnell. He and I connected recently through LinkedIn. I’ve looked at his profile, a lot of what he had doing. He is in the FinOps world now, which is something that I’ve been introduced in my current role. We got to talking. We met up in person. Great guy has his own podcast about something completely different, which we’ll touch on in this conversation, just the blend of your personal life and then your professional life. Just some of the challenges around that. With that, I’ll introduce Jordan.

Jordan McConnell: Hey Manuel. Thank you so much for having me. I’m grateful to be here.

Manuel Martinez: I’m excited to talk a little bit more about you. I know you and I have shared some of those details, but for you to share that with other people who may or may not be going through the same thing, but something similar. I think in every conversation, there’s always something we can take away from something that somebody said.

Jordan McConnell: I definitely agree.

Manuel Martinez: So if you can start by telling us a little bit about what your current role is and some of the responsibilities.

Jordan McConnell: Definitely. So I work for a company called New American Funding. They’re a mortgage lender based out of southern California. They actually just won, I think – they won a lot of awards recently. They’re one of the best companies to work for in the United States. They’re one of the best companies for women to work for the United States. One of the best mortgage lenders to work for in the United States. I’m beyond grateful to work for them. I’m a cloud engineer for them. What that means is so when people go to their jobs and log in, like manual, password, those kind of things. I work on all the stuff, infrastructure behind that to allow people to do their jobs everyday.

Manuel Martinez: And it’s – It’s interesting, right? Because a lot of times people don’t realize all the work that goes behind. They’re just like, “I log in. It either works or it doesn’t.” There’s so much more behind that.

Jordan McConnell: Definitely. I’ve learned that throughout my career. There’s behind the veil, kind of a Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. There’s so much going on. For people that are interested in this career field, there’s so much to learn. That’s kind of why I got into FinOps, is that I was working on just regular infrastructure, like log into your computer stuff. I was really interested in the cloud. I worked on different certifications. I got – a little tangent, but I was introduced at a dinner for a guy from Salesforce. I learned that this person was managing $100 million, something like that, like a month in cloud spend. He was telling me, “Hey, Jordan, have you heard of FinOps?” I’m like, “No, I haven’t.” He’s like, “What is it?” That’s how to optimize resources and how to save money to provide the maximum business value to an organization. That sounds like something that, to me, saving money or making money for an organization is how you stay in business. With that person’s lead, I got my FinOps practitioner certification. I got my FOCUS analyst certification. I went to the FinOps X conference in San Diego last year. I met a lot of great people over there, too. This year I had a great time. I took all that knowledge. I took those certifications and all that knowledge with me. I was able to take that to a new American funding. I was given the opportunity about 90 days after, 90, 120 days after I got there to pitch, to propose, I should say, a cost savings plan to the CISO of New American Funding himself. Folks listening out there, and actually that entire journey was self-funded and believing in myself. That’s probably one of the biggest things I wanted to talk about is just having faith having faith in your own ability. Don’t let other people tell you what you can and can’t do. That’s what I did. The certifications, I bought those out of my own pocket. I funded the entire trip to San Diego out of my own pocket. Then when I left MGM Resorts, when new American funding called me, they were like, “Hey, what you been doing for six months?” I had all this great stuff to talk about. They’re like, “Great. We want you to bring all that over here.” That’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been doing FinOps work for them and then also cloud infrastructure work for them, among other things. I’m just very grateful to work with a lot of smart people and great team.

Manuel Martinez: Yeah I’m excited to talk more about that. We had discussed that a little bit. I’m going to get a little bit started and now we know a little bit of what got you to where you’re at now. Let’s start that journey, that career journey. Where did you originally grow up and what did you think your career was going to be when you first started?

Jordan McConnell: Man. I’m a little bit of a nomad. I grew up on the Virginia side of Washington, DC. Reston, Virginia, Fairfax, for anybody out there that knows. I spent the majority of my childhood between Austin, Texas and Las Vegas. How I got to IT, I’ll say that in a second, but my dream when I was a little bit to be a weatherman on the news. I actually had an opportunity last year, closed mouths don’t get fed. I was in an event for MGM and I actually met the president, maybe the managing director of that kind of role, but of Channel 13 news. The guy that ran the channel here in Las Vegas. I was like, “Hi.” My dream was to be a weatherman when I was little. This is about 40-year-old. I told this guy, “Come over.” I was like, “Can my son come?” He was like, “Yeah.” We did all the releases and everything. That was the most fun experience I’ve probably had in my entire life. They did my son so right. My son’s 11 years old and they did him so right. They gave him the full kid experience. He got to meet everybody there. He got to meet the weather people. He got to meet the 9 a.m. morning breakfast crew. He got to meet literally everybody. He got to go into the server room, see all the operations room. He got to see the cameras and all these kind of things. That was beyond fun. In another life, that’s probably what i would have done. It probably would have worked in a news station.

Manuel Martinez: I love that you said that. Closed mouths don’t get fed. I think a lot of times that’s something that I have, especially going through and doing the podcast, is talking about what you’re doing, what you want to do. There’s a way to go about it. Again, just general conversation. You never know what that can lead to. Like you, that’s great. You met somebody from TV and you’re thinking 40 years old, what does that matter? That was my goal or my dream. Had you not said that, your son doesn’t experience this. You don’t get to see the behind the scenes. Talking about it and he could see, this is a good person. We had a nice conversation. Why don’t you come on over and let’s give you that experience.

Jordan McConnell: Exactly. Instead of doing the whole generic, let’s do lunch. It was nice to meet you or give me your card. All those things, I actually made it personal. I remember that guy, he reached out to me. After the fact, I really appreciated how you said something real and actually talked to me about something you wanted instead of just keeping it generic. That same vein is how I got into my current role. New American funding, I got invited to a dinner. Again, through LinkedIn. This was really fascinating because at MGM Resorts, I was a hybrid cloud infrastructure engineer. I got invited to this dinner and it was all senior leaders. It was all CISOs, CTOs, SVPs and the likes. All CISU lead, all senior, senior, senior executives and things of all these organizations from across the country. I believe it was some kind of tech conference in something like that in Las Vegas. I got invited, me being an engineer. I got invited to this dinner to talk about AI trends and all those kind of things, a dinner conversation. I was literally the only engineer at the table and everybody else was senior leadership. I believe the person next to me, I think, was the CIO of the Allegiant Airlines or something, like this really big deal of people. One of the folks there was the CISO of New American funding. I remember I went up to him and I was like, “Hi, my name is Jordan. This is the same. Close mouths don’t get fed I remember going down there by myself and not knowing anybody there and just going in fairness. I was kind of starstruck at the dinner and didn’t really say much at the dinner. Before and after I did speak to a lot of people. When I spoke to the CISO at New American Funding, I was like, “Hey, my name is Jordan. I like my current job, but I’m always looking for opportunity.” That’s what I said to him. That just started. That little chat had me meeting him and one of the architects that he brought with him to the conference the next morning. From there, we got an interview, but the timing wasn’t right. Six months later, again, closed mouths. There was an infrastructure alignment at MGM Resorts. Me and a few other people were downsized as it happens in big companies like that. About a month later after I got to the San Diego, I enjoyed my time off for a couple of weeks. I needed a job like everybody else. I did one of those Hail Mary LinkedIn posts as you do, like, “Hey, everybody, I need a job.” That same CISO reached out to me and said, “Hey, are you still looking?” It’s the same thing. That’s something too, is that ego is not your amigo. living in humility. By putting out that post to all my followers say, “Hey, man, I need a job. The methods that I’ve been using so far, I haven’t been panning out.” Just having that humility to say, “Hey, I need help.” Sometimes I wonder if I put that message out the day after I left, if I would have started a month earlier. That kind of thing. I put that message out and a month later I had a job.

Manuel Martinez: So then originally you thought, “I want to be a weather person.” You know, kind of going between Austin and Vegas. So what is it that you originally started doing at first, if it wasn’t tech? For example, I’ve had little side jobs with the first one that I kind of thought was a career. I spent a lot of time in construction working with my dad. In order to get into tech, I, again, through talking to people, a friend of mine got me into working at a casino cage here in Vegas. The reason that happened is because the cage manager knew the help desk manager. They were like, “Hey, well, there’s no openings there. It’s easier if you’re an internal transfer.” Again, before I kind of really got into tech, I was a cage cashier. I like the person who was bringing their chips or their slot machine tickets, all that stuff. What started it for you?

Jordan McConnell: Well mine- My tech journey, because before it all started, I wasn’t one of those guys that when I was a kid that was taking computers apart and those kind of things. It was literally like kind of happenstance. I joined the military. That was my path. My dad was like, “Son, I know you don’t like school, but you need to do something.” I was like, “All right.” Even then, I was resistant to the military and stuff. I ended up in Vegas. I took a couple of buses across Las Vegas to the recruiter station and did the aptitude test and all that stuff. Fast forward to boot camp. That’s where they told me all I was going to be doing was folding t-shirts and marching around, which was a lie. I was either going to yell at and everything. Based on my aptitude scores, they said in this book, basically, aptitude scores, look in this book and pick three jobs, one, two, and three. I did medical, medical computers, and I got my third choice, which is how all that happened. By choosing that, that required a top secret clearance. They immediately called everybody that you’ve ever known and asked them all kinds of questions about you and stuff like that. I had a top secret clearance for six years in the Air Force. I worked in a Langley Air Force Base in a network operations center supporting 100,000 people, 15 Air Force bases, all these things. One of my dreams, I was able to do a few cool things like deploy. I went overseas and helmet, flag fest, computers, all these things. One of my dreams was, “Man, I feel like I’ve gotten to pretty high as far as IT goes in the Air Force. I’m a domain administrator for all these people and all these things. I’m doing ribbon cutting ceremonies with four-star generals and things and fun things like that. I was like, “Man, my dream would be to get to this point in the civilian world. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since. I went from Airman Basic to Staff Sergeant in the Air Force Sergeant McConnell. When I got out and then right back at the bottom, Cox Communications, headset, my internet is broken, my phone is broken, I can’t watch the Oscar game because I’m living in Omaha, Nebraska. Getting yelled at, actually- I was in the International Guard and so Be nice to your customer service agents because I would be getting cursed out during the week and then we’d call Sergeant McConnell and Sir during the weekend because I was in the Guard. It was really jarring time and everything.

Manuel Martinez: So and I- well two questions. The first one is, you mentioned medical, medical, and then computers. What is it about the medical field that interested you there? What did you think you were going to …?

Jordan McConnell: Challenge. There’s one thing that I like is a mental challenge. I like doing things that build new synapses.

Manuel Martinez: Got it. High stress, like, “Okay, hey, there’s medical. There’s a lot I’ve got to learn. There’s troubleshooting.” There’s a lot of that.

Jordan McConnell: Yeah. That’s what I like to do right now. I really like chasing being almost the dumbest person in the room.

Manuel Martinez: And I like the mentality. I think this is one of the reasons that we got along when we first started talking. You kind of climb the ranks within the military. It seemed like you had, again, you said that ego is not your amigo. You could have easily said, “Well, wait a minute. I have all this domain expertise, all this knowledge. Why am I starting here at help desk?” What is it within you? Is it really just that challenge that – “Hey, I can do this again” ?

Jordan McConnell: Actually, that wasn’t by choice. It was the reality of the situation. It wasn’t for lack of trying. I remember the first, first, first job when I got out of active duty, when I actually moved back from Langley to Las Vegas, I got a 90-day contract at MGM, actually, and working on the progressive networks. I was able to see it in real time when people hit the progressive, which was kind of neat. I did that for 90 days, but it was a contract to hire. On the 91st day, and I was working over nights, and this is a week before Christmas, my badge stopped working. Nobody told me. I remember saying, “Hey, y’all, I’m training you guys. I’d like to stay here. Is there anything … Yeah, man, yeah, la, la, la, la.” Then the 91st day, literally looking through the glass, “Oh, dude, you can get the email, bro?” Okay. I was like, “That’s that.” Then when I was in the National Guard, of course I had a clearance, and so I tried to get government jobs and those kind of things, but it’s super hard. Again, but I had in my head, I’ve supported all these people. I’ve deployed. I’ve all these skill sets and all these things. I believe in myself. Literally, I’ve just been grinding it out all the way up, and so they did the hard way. I did the hard way. Yes, I did help desk, and then help desk, I did networking, configuring routers and switches the old way, no GUIs or anything, just notepad, doing static routes and stuff, just in notepad, and then configuring that for people as AT&T. Then like… I was a desktop analyst for a construction company for the entire country. I was a help desk for the entire country. I was 750 people. I had my cell phone number. I set up offices remotely, traveled, flew, planes, trains, and automobiles type thing. I would set up an office from literally blank modem and then have the router and the switch or whatever brought in, wire all that, doing voice phones, set up the entire office, and then fly out and then support everybody type thing. I did all that, and then left, and then went to the children’s hospital. Then I came here, actually the story about how I got to Las Vegas again. I left the children’s hospital. I was like, “Okay, it’s time to go. Actually, I actually have family in Las Vegas, and so I wanted to bring my wife and my son out here. I went on LinkedIn, and I started talking to recruiters, and the cosmopolitan reached back to me. I was like, “Okay, cool. This is promising.” Then they put a job out. I was like, “Oh, a security job. That’s cool.” Then I applied for it, and then a month later, they reached me back and were like, “Yeah, you’re not going to qualify for that job at all, but! We reviewed 100 resumes in the country, and we picked two of them, and you were one of them based on your experience. We want to bring you in. We want to interview you for the principal engineer position at the Cosmopolitan here in Las Vegas. Then, after that interview, they’re like, “Great. I want you to talk to my boss, because I want you to work for her as a solutions architect.” I was the first solutions architect. They literally, HR, wrote it up for me.

Manuel Martinez: And when you’re… When you mentioned doing it the hard way, or the older way, right? It’s a lot of command line notepad, because I remember around that time when I thought I wanted to be a network person, it was the same thing. I’ve got to go through and learn the commands and don’t typo. Make sure you’ve got the right port. There’s a lot of that attention to detail. Is that something that you naturally kinda had? Is that something that through your time and experience in the military, did that instill a discipline and a … I want to say that, really, it’s an attention to detail, because a lot of people that I know from the military, they have that, right? It’s ingrained in you. Now, it sounds like you also like the challenge of, “I want to try and get better, and I’m going to improve, and I’m going to work my way up.” But then, there’s pieces that you had to learn. I’m just curious how that kind of fit in.

Jordan McConnell: I- rephrase that for me?

Manuel Martinez: Sure! So… The skill to learn and pay attention to detail, and the hard work you got there, but where did that fall?

Jordan McConnell: Yeah… I would say, when I was younger, I was a procrastinator, lazy, all these things, and so part of it is knowing your weaknesses and leaning into those. I would say that. The attention to detail stuff is like … A lot of it was taught me in the Air Force, like, “If you can’t fold a t-shirt in six inches, how can I trust working a multi-millionaire aircraft?” All those kind of things. But a lot of it was just me. just wanting to just be better, and just learn … I’m losing my train of thought here a little-

Manuel Martinez: That’s okay so the… You mentioned kind of leaning into it, right? like hey This is a … I’m going to say a weakness or something in the area. I’m not strong in it, but you say kind of leaning into that. What is it you do? You’re like, “Okay, I’m a procrastinator.” So then how do you go and-

Jordan McConnell: Yeah I would say, I mean, I’ll find something that I know … Like an IT, if there’s a weakness or there’s something in my life that I’m looking at … Even like podcasts, if you’re being on camera, some of these kind of things, there’s something that … I have a speech impediment. So being on camera, I have a tooth missing or something like those. Some of these things are just like getting out of your comfort zone and then kind of leaning into it. I try to do that in all areas of my life. If it’s a … Growth only happens through the uncomfortable type thing. And so, it almost … The other part of my life is Crohn’s disease. Maybe that’s what it … Probably like living with a chronic illness is actually a lot of the fuel and a lot of the way I do things. A lot of the source of how I am and why I do things comes from living with a chronic illness also. And so …

Manuel Martinez: And I wanted to kind of dig into that a little bit more because, you know… everybody’s different, right? But there’s a lot of times where somebody will come across that, right? Like, “Hey, I have a speech impediment. I’ve got Crohn’s. I’ve got these things.” And one of the things I loved about our conversations is you didn’t see that as a crutch, as something that’s going to hold you back. It was almost the opposite. It’s like you were really leaning into it. You talked about it like, “Hey, I have a podcast with the speech impediment. Okay, I’m going to lean into this. I’m going to go and I’m really going to work harder at it now. Am I going to be perfect?” No, none of us ever are. But you didn’t shy away from it. I just really want to know more about what is it that kind of brought that out of you. And again, everybody’s different. I have moments where there’s certain things. One of the things for me is somebody telling me, “Oh, hey, you can’t do that.” I played sports. I’m competitive. I’m like, “Oh, really? Watch me.” So there’s that. But some people, it sounds like you just naturally like, “All right, I have this. I’m going to …”

Jordan McConnell: Well, I would say … I’ve had a lot of that in my life. I’ve had a lot of people try to dictate who I am. And so to the point to where I have this faith in myself, this having faith in myself and self-belief, I’m not going to allow anyone to tell me who I am. I’m going to allow myself to figure out what my own limits are. And so maybe it’s more like … And then also with the Crohn’s disease, it’s like the incredible hulk like what’s your secret? I’m always angry. That’s kind of my secret too, is that one of my favorite motivational speakers is Les Brown And he talks about being hungry. You’ve got to have that kind of hunger for success. And living with Crohn’s disease, I’m literally always hungry. So I have that inner hunger or to actually discomfort. That’s something too. I’m in literal discomfort most of the time. And so it’s easy to do hard things when you’re always doing hard things. Living with a chronic illness for anybody out there, it’s always in the background. Just doing things, just doing a task, taking care of your family, going to work, not taking out how you feel on other people type thing. All that stuff into account. And then do everything else that you’re doing. So a lot of it is being … That’s something too, is just being grateful that I’m not laid up in a hospital bed and that every day I’m upright, I get to kick butt.

Manuel Martinez: And then I’m sure it’s a belief in yourself, but you also probably have to have a pretty good support system to help with that same thing. There’s probably people that maybe early on believed in you. Can you think of any, maybe a mentor or a family member, just anybody that helped instill that in you?

Jordan McConnell: I mean I’ve been grateful to have a few great influences and just those through puts. My mom. So like – a shout out to my mom big time. The kind of person that will always give it to you straight, whether it’s good or bad, just honest feedback, which is probably one of the hardest things to find. The people that aren’t telling you things because they don’t like you or telling you things because they think you’re the most amazing thing in the world and you’re not getting honest feedback. So that’s something I really value. Just having her influence as compassion, empathy, and just self-love, those kind of things. Because in the world, there’s a lot of people that don’t practice those things. I’m just very grateful that I have that influence as I go out into the world.

Manuel Martinez: And that empathy that you have for other people, just knowing that you have this illness, this thing that you’re dealing with. And again, you could easily take out that irritation on somebody else. And again, we talk about, you never know what somebody else is going through. If you did lash out, like, okay, is it really me that you’re mad at? Is it something else? But again, it seems like you do a pretty good job of being able to manage internally, like, yes, I’m feeling frustrated and maybe there’s external frustrations. That’s got to be an additional challenge that most people don’t deal with. There’s already the pressure of job, there’s already the pressure of family, but now you’ve got this added thing and that’s got to… Just talking to you, I see it does both things, right? It makes you more empathetic for other people, which now you’re adding another layer, right? So again, it’s one of the things that in our conversation, I’m like, man, this person is just awesome. Like, Jordan’s great because not only is he just a good person, he’s learning, like we share similar mindset of like, hey, I’m going to learn, I will invest in myself. Because again, I heard a recent quote on somebody, it was like through social media and I was like, oh my gosh, other people’s opinions aren’t going to pay my bills. Right? So it’s a lot of that and I’m like, oh my gosh, yes, that’s so true. But then you still manage this. It’s not like you’re coming into work like, oh, I can’t do this today. Like, I have a flare up and sure, I’m not saying that you don’t have moments where you need accommodations. But again, you don’t use it as a crutch, it almost continues to fuel you. So that’s just, I’m in amazement of doing that.

Jordan McConnell: Well, thank you. And I say, I’m human like everybody else. I have challenges, you know I have a couple of things. I’ve had two feet of my colon taken out, I’ve had my appendix taken out, I’ve had my ileum taken out. So like for the last 17 years, almost, I’ve been living with daily symptoms, daily moment to moment every day. And so that’s, again, always in the background. But as far as how, kind of what you’re saying too is that, my mom used to tell me that, be careful who you make an outside authority on your life. It’s good to have, I would say it’s extremely important to have someone that you allow to tell you about yourself, but be very careful who that person is. Because again, if they’re jealous of you or they’re envious of you, you’re not gonna get the kind of feedback that you want type thing.

Manuel Martinez: And I’ve heard that, sometimes if – you almost wanna have different people, multiple people, right? Obviously not, you don’t wanna count to 20, but at least three, four, five, because then you are able to kind of discern like, okay, if everybody’s, if these different people, right? So like, let’s say I could have my wife, I could have somebody at work, I could have a friend. If you’re hearing the same thing, you’re like about, man, you’re miserable. You’re being a jerk lately. You’re hearing it from three different people, you’re like, well, wait a minute. Now I’ve gotta do some introspection. Right, exactly.

Jordan McConnell: Is the poop on *my* shoe?

Manuel Martinez: Right.

Jordan McConnell: Right.

Manuel Martinez: And that’s interesting. So do you have people like that that you’re like, okay –

Jordan McConnell: Definitely, definitely. I said, it’s the reason I love my wife so much. I want people around me that tell me the truth. I can take the truth. And so just getting honest feedback. My son, that presentation that I did for my job, I remember I actually had my 11 year old look at the slide show, the slide deck, and he was like, actually, dad, can you move this slide here to this one? And this one was better here. Like, that’s a great idea, man. So that’s something too, is that good advice can come from a lot of places too. But what you were saying earlier about how I kind of maintain with my health and stuff, is that, yeah, it is a strong support system. I’m grateful to work from home. And I wouldn’t say like a victim mindset because I think it’s kind of abused. But just knowing that I can conquer my adversity. That I won’t let any person, place, or thing stop me from my goals. Actually my goals and what I want to accomplish are bigger than how I feel. So there’s been times people don’t know. So anybody watching this and stuff, there’s been several times in the past year where I’ve been literally throwing my guts up all night long because I’ve had a flare in my stomach. And so I’m just feeling like this horrible, just in the dark. And then the next morning I’m like, oh my gosh, I feel almost like, what are you thinking? I’m never drinking again. Right. Like I just know where you feel that way. And then a few hours later, I’m like, wait a minute. I feel all right. So it feels really strange. And so it feels strange sometimes not calling in, knowing how horrible that I felt. And other times too, sometimes actually part of my issue is that I’m sick so often that I don’t know what the threshold is to calling sick is anymore. And so that’s something that’s a little bit true with me. And actually I’ve had jobs, so I’m very fortunate to have a non-salary now. But in previous jobs, a lot of folks are on hourly, right? And so I imagine hourly with a chronic illness. So you’re like, hmm, am I sick enough to not get paid today? And then you’re like, well, I’m not dead, so I guess I’m going to go in. Or you go in, and the military too is that same way. You better be on your deathbed and crawling in type thing. And then they’ll say, OK, you can go to the clinic and all that kind of stuff.

Manuel Martinez: I guess you can’t do your job today.

Jordan McConnell: Yeah, I guess. You can get a 72-hour pass or something. And so that’s one of the things that I struggle with is having that cut off. Oh, man. Because I’ll say it, my wife can tell you, I feel horrible. I feel this. Or I’m going to tell my mom or something, I feel terrible. And then she’s like, so Jordan, did you go to work today? Yeah. But I feel like it’s a sense of duty of responsibility. People are going to rely on me. The work that I do, people have expectations and things. And I really try to– that’s something too, is that people just have– people admire you. It’s kind of sad, but people are a lot more interested in your challenges when you’re trying to work over them instead of just talking about, oh, I’m sick, I’m sick, I’m sick. You have to actually be doing something. And so for something else too, with me with Crohn’s, the reason I did the podcast, the reason that I did all this, I really wanted to show people out there that, hey, there is a guy out here who literally is living with not only chronic illness, but the– impact of a lot of surgeries that took out important things. So that leaves a permanent impact on you type thing. And I wanted people to know that, yes, there’s still a guy out there, but he still goes to work, he still takes care of his family, he still– and again, he’s still not treating people. He’s not taking all that pain and suffering and putting it on to the people in front of them. And sometimes it’s difficult. And I’m not saying I’m perfect, I’ve never done that. But my journey is not making– when I’m going through somebody else’s trouble.

Manuel Martinez: And I think just in our conversations, it almost, in a way, helps and makes you stronger. Like you start to realize, well, if I can deal with this, OK, me going and getting a certification, learning these other things, it kind of puts it in perspective, makes it a little bit easier.

Jordan McConnell: Yeah, I will tell you exactly what happened. So what shifted? Because I had this surgery in 2009. And so that was 18 inches in my colon. I was in and out of the emergency room multiple times that year. It was horrible. And so after that surgery, nobody actually told me that I could never eat anything pretty much ever. Like any regular food, I could never eat anything ever really ever again. And so nobody told me that. And so I literally started just eating normal again after the surgery. And it was sick, sick, sick, sick for literally years. Going to the bathroom every hour or two, 24 hours a day, all night long, all day long, every couple of hours for years. It’s just miserable. And then I finally– and then I actually got– in the Crohn’s and IBD world, they do like biologics. They do like infusions and stuff. And so I was on this medicine called Remicade. So I’m literally sitting in the doctor’s office getting an IV infusion with a laptop still working, still doing it. And so I have pictures of that. But after all of that, they were like, Jordan, your blood work looks great. You look fine. I feel terrible though. And they found out since I had so much stuff taken out of me, they’re like, oh, you also have bile acid malabsorption. And so you also see you need this powder. And so I took this powder. And I was like, oh my god, I actually can go to the bathroom once a day or normally versus every hour or two for 24 hours. And so it was like a complete– I felt so good after that. I actually felt good for the first time in years. And so I was like, oh my gosh, literally anything is possible. I’m going to start– I’m going to go on Instagram and start talking about my life. I got to stuff. I got to food. And so I did that. And then I started going on Instagram Lives. And then I started doing the podcast. And then started talking to other people around the world and everything. And that’s kind of what the catalyst– but the catalyst though was that powder, which I still take today. And that’s the thing. I take this powder every– supposed to take it every morning and every night. And if I don’t, I’m sick. And again, we’re all human. So that’s the thing too. You can take this thing every day, every morning, every night, every morning, every night. And then you’re like, ugh. And then one day you’re like, hmm, I feel really sick. Why is– oh, I didn’t take my powder. It’s like– it’s all– it’s all– it’s kind of all– so I’m human. I challenge– I try not– I can be very hard on myself. Kind of like, this should have been a good energy. I know I’m not a robot. But I need– it’s almost like I need to be a robot to do all these things to– to kind of go through it. Yeah, to feel good. And so to everybody listening, just try to be kind to yourselves.

Manuel Martinez: So then now you’re here at the Cosmo, and then you’ve gotten this role. It seemed like it was tailored for you based on, again, all your experiences, all this resiliency and kind of investing in yourself and kind of continuing to learn. So in that role, what were some of the things that you gained out of that role, and what were some of the challenges?

Jordan McConnell: Yeah, like the– I would say that probably the biggest challenges were– working in a large– in a very large corporation like that, actually, just moving from Omaha to Las Vegas, that’s probably the biggest– the bigger challenge is moving from a city like Omaha, Nebraska to Las Vegas and then hitting the ground running. And so that was a big one. Like, just– it was a very big challenge, because the job that I had at the Coswell Polytine was the first– I was the first one to do it. And so there was no blueprint at all. And so– and then everybody’s trying to keep the lights on and stuff. And so just trying to work with leadership. They try to get your projects done. So it was just a case study and being resourceful. And so like– and I learned– yeah, just– just again, working with your team, how you treat people, you can get a lot of things done even in challenging times. Probably I learned– actually, I just learned just almost like working in other industries and stuff, working in the hospitality especially in Las Vegas, the casinos and stuff, these massive properties and stuff. It was really fun seeing behind– they said behind the scenes. I was talking about this earlier, behind the veil, behind the curtain, seeing all the little– the employee cafeteria of the Cosmopolitan hotel, all the service elevator, all the service hallways and everything, just seeing almost like all the arteries behind the casino floor, all the arteries that make all of that glitz and glam possible. And so I used to love just kind of– yeah, just sitting– almost like sitting in the cafeteria, anybody that knows me, when I used to work there. So I used to love just sitting in the cafeteria and just seeing the lifeguards and the security and everybody just kind of mingling around and just feeling like, I’m a part of this, even though I work from home most of the time.

Manuel Martinez: And I would say the time that I spent working in the casino industry, that was probably one of the funner aspects of that job is– especially being in technology, you are seeing– so when I was there, I started as help desk and then I was a PC technician. And the PC technician, you’re on the property. You’re helping food and beverage. You’re helping security. You’re helping housekeeping. You get to see and understand exactly everything that goes on behind the scenes. People walk out on the floor and there’s just machines, it’s restaurants. But you go in those back hallways. I mean, people are always walking. There’s all these rooms. And that was like the other fun thing is I would walk around a casino and be like, ah, I know that there’s a closet back there. And in that closet, there’s all this server room equipment that you don’t know. And oh, behind that room that you probably don’t know, that’s a shortcut to get to security that also leads to housekeeping. And again, it’s a lot of that information that most people aren’t privileged to be able to experience.

Jordan McConnell: Yeah, so it was super fun. So that was one of the biggest– one of the coolest things about working for the Cosmopolitan. And then when the MGM Resorts bought the Cosmopolitan, I was fortunate enough to move over. And the same thing. So I worked for MGM Resorts corporate, supporting all the properties, not only in Las Vegas, but across the country and everything. And so the same thing. I was an engineer in the city. So I got to go to all the properties here. So I went from just the Cosmopolitan to all of them. And going behind the scenes to all of them. And checking all that stuff. I go to the computer rooms and all of them. So that was really just fun. Just fun. Yeah, that’s what I love about IT. And that kind of work was just being able to touch so many things and learn so many things. And instead of being able to be around smart people.

Manuel Martinez: So that resourcefulness that you mentioned, being the only one. This is a new role. It’s kind of tailored and written for you based on information that you have. So that resourcefulness, is it just reading? Is it studying? Is it talking to other people? Like how did you–

Jordan McConnell: It’s a combination of things. And I would say that in fairness, it took me a little while to acclimate, to get from Omaha to here. And so I would say I feel like I picked up my stride when I got to MGM Resorts. And so I did learn a lot. And I had a lot of fun. I did a lot of fun projects at Cosmopolitan actually. But some of that resourcefulness, again, was maintaining the relationships that allowed me to move over from one to the other. And then I actually– in 2023, I went on– just to try to keep myself trained up and current, I went on– and actually, I was interested in doing cloud stuff even then. And so I went on a certification spree. And so in 12 months, I got like five certifications or something. Something like that. And so I got Azure fundamentals. I think the administrator associate, the solutions architect, the Microsoft cybersecurity architect, something like that. I think I got like four or five certifications in a year. And I didn’t know that all those besides the fundamental one, you have to do every single year that they explain. So I felt like Mr. Joe Cool or whatever for a while. So now I’m working on– so now I just got my AWS cloud practitioner recently. And so they’re still working on that track and everything. So my biggest thing is just like– I try to look at trends and just go for it. I’m not going to wait for somebody to give me permission. If I see it, I’m just going to go do it. And I’m just a big lifelong learner. And I like taking– because of the military, I can take information and apply information pretty quickly type of thing. And I’m still able to do that. I was an instructor. I would literally be taught things in the morning and teach it to other people in the afternoon type thing. I’ve never been doing that.

Manuel Martinez: And that’s something that, in my experience, taking information and being able to teach it to other people is the way that I was really able to cement that knowledge and really understand– you mentioned earlier– where your weakness is. I started teaching part time at the college. And teaching it to IT people is relatively easy because they understand most of the concepts or they have experience. But when I was teaching it to college students who– or people who are, again, making that transition into the tech field who don’t have the experience or the knowledge or that understanding, it was a big challenge. But initially, I was like, oh my gosh, I don’t communicate as well as I thought I did. And I felt I didn’t understand the material well enough because I couldn’t simplify it. There’s that misconception that we think, oh, I know all these terms. I know how this works. And I fell into that trap as well. I was like, oh, I know what all these technological terms are. And I would use them all the time. I knew what they meant. But if somebody else was like, well, what is that? And I was like–

Jordan McConnell: It’s a thing, about the whatchamacallit, about the –

Manuel Martinez: Yeah, and it’s all I could use to explain it were other technical terms. Oh, it’s like– this other thing.

Jordan McConnell: Jargon. It’s jargon, it’s jargon, it’s jargon, it’s jargon.

Manuel Martinez: But it’s really understanding. OK, well, what is that jargon? Break it down. The Richard Feynman or like, hey, explain this to me like I’m five. Once I got it to that point, I was like, oh, now I have to dig deeper and really understand, OK, what is this jargon? What are these terms? What’s an analogy? How can I explain this? And what’s your experience? Oh, sports. OK, I can make a sports metaphor. Or you’re used to a restaurant. OK, let me use restaurant analogies and things like that.

Jordan McConnell: And sometimes with me, like, part of– actually, one of the challenges, I would say, at the Cosmopolitan and some other jobs recently has been shifting from customer facing into more internal IT department facing and having those different conversations. And so sometimes with people that are not tech savvy, you can just explain things like a fifth grader to folks or whatever. And sometimes they don’t even care, kind of like a car. Like, is it running? Is my computer working? And then other people – And then when you get to these kind of spaces of where I’m at now they’re like, no, no, no, no. I want to know all the details. I want to know– you use all the jargon you want, and type-things. And so that’s something, too, is just finding– that’s a great quote that I remember. Always remember where you’re at and who you’re talking to. And so that’s something like that’s in the military. Remember that you’re in the military talking to a military member. You’re not at home. And so that’s what they always try to tell us. And so I try to remember that, too.

Manuel Martinez: And that’s interesting. And when they say that differentiator, know who you’re talking to, is it the type of language that you’re using? So like, hey, you’re not at home, so don’t use slang. Don’t be so casual.

Jordan McConnell: And it’s also just kind of knowing your audience. Is this like– if this is your boss, remember you’re talking to your boss. Actually, to me, it applies to almost everything in life. And then actually, even if you’re at a restaurant, remember that you’re eating in public. And people are seeing you talk to the wait staff and everything else. That’s something, too, is that nothing happens in a vacuum. How you treat people is always remembered type of thing.

Manuel Martinez: Right. Nobody remembers what you said. It’s how you made them feel, things of that nature. And it’s true because– and you never know who’s watching. Like, all those interactions, every time we would go through. And I was talking to another friend of mine, and I think a lot of that big shift for me also came when I became a parent. I always was– I feel like I was always a good person. Like everybody else, I have my moments. But one of the things– and it was surprising to me, we were at the grocery store. My kids were little because they were still in the front in the little seat. And I had cashier tell us because you’re going through. And we were always like, oh, thank you, please. It’s just things that were instilled in us. So when my kids were here, and they’re like, oh, hey, sometimes do you want a sticker? Do you want a lollipop? And they were like, oh, yes, please. Oh, thank you. And it was sad, but it was also a proud moment when we would have a lot of these people because you get to see the same cashiers. They’re like, oh, my gosh, I love that. And they’re like, what do you mean? Like, the fact that they please and thank you. I’m like, well, yeah, that’s what we– for me, that’s a common thing. She goes, we have adults that don’t say that. So to see this two-year-old, to be able to have that kind of thing. So again, it’s not in a vacuum. I’m doing it because, again, this is just a person I talked to. But my kids are watching. So then now I’m like, oh, I have to be a little bit more conscious. Like you said, if you’re out in public, the wait staff, it’s just everybody. And that’s something I think I picked up from my grandfather. Like, he was always somebody. Didn’t matter who you were. You could have been the owner. So he did construction, the owner of a multimillion dollar construction company. Or you could have been a wait staff or somebody. He didn’t treat you any different. He didn’t see you. You were a person to him. And that was that.

Jordan McConnell: Yeah, I’m 100% the same way. I don’t want to be– I don’t want people thinking that I’m doing some kind of favoritism or glazing or any kind of weird things. Or where you’re– that’s one of the reasons that I think the people have resonated with me at my current job is that I am the same way with you I am with everybody else. Like, the janitor, the CEO thing. But I am. Like, if you– the guy that you– I’m going to treat everybody with respect and as an adult. So I assume that we’re all serious. And they’re not in some silly stuff. And so I treat people that way. And so I mean, on that– giving out respect and kind of showing love to people, that works 9 and a half out of 10 times. So I’m a strong believer to put out what you want. To kind of be the change you want to see in the world. There’s a lot of crappy people in the world. So you have to literally not lament them, be the change.

Manuel Martinez: So then when you found out about– I’m going to kind of fast forward. I know you touched on it a little bit at the beginning about being invited to this dinner and, again, advocating for yourself. And is that something that just over time you started to kind of develop– was it a confidence thing? Was it an experience thing? What is it that got you to start verbalizing your goals and saying, hey, I’m interested in this. Here’s what I’m doing. I’m always listening. And then now you get exposed to areas or jobs that you may not know. I didn’t know about FinOps until I got into the role I’m at now.

Jordan McConnell: And so, yeah, I mean, I got invited to another dinner. That’s where I heard that at. So where did that kind of boldness come from, maybe?

Manuel Martinez: Yes.

Jordan McConnell: That’s a good question. I would say part of it is the military. Actually, it’s parents, too. My parents go after what they want. My dad was in corporate America for a long, long, long time. My mom was a small business consultant. She had a bakery and was on the food network and all these cool things. And so, yeah, right now I’m working on a project with my mom. And so actually, one of the things is that my parents, even at their age right now, they still have new ideas and they still want to do things. They still have new projects. They still have a zeal for life. They aren’t playing shuffleboard on a cruise ship. They’re like, I want to work on this entrepreneurship project. And you’re like 70-something. So that, to me, is just super inspiring.

Manuel Martinez: So seeing that there’s no limitations on– you’re not limited by your current status, by anything like that, your age, any of that?

Jordan McConnell: No. Like, literally, I mean, the only limits you have on yourself. And so, yeah, don’t let other people tell you – your timeline is your own. So don’t let– again, other advice that I live by is run your own race. Work on your own track time. Do not, when you’re running, look to your left to see if the person’s behind you or look to your right to see if the person’s in front of you. It’s irrelevant. So that’s something that I live by also, is that there’s– what I’m working on is nothing to do with anybody. Nothing to do with anybody. So I’m not going to hate anybody or jealous of anybody or any of that kind of stuff, because I’m working on my own path. And I’m not trying to take anything from anybody. I’m trying to just do my own thing. So that’s something I live by also.

Manuel Martinez: So when you got into this spin-off role, what was different about it? And what is it that really appealed to you? So I know for me, a lot of what I do internally is I’m part of a technical field community where I help out from a cost savings. Exactly what you’re talking about is managing cost. And one of the things is I’ve always been– I love numbers. I love math. So it’s understanding– I feel like for me, it was that perfect intersection of technology, understanding how to optimize your technology and configuration and doing all the technical things to make sure this is running great. But then also, from a number standpoint, is that the best way that’s also going to give me the most return on investment? How am I spending this? Is doing this either going to help the business make more money or save more money? Which, again, ultimately is the same thing. But when they’re saving, what are we saving for? So it’s understanding. And I get on a lot of these calls. And they’re just like, hey, I just want you to take a look at my environment and see, can we save money? I’m like, OK, well, hold on. Understanding to ask questions, OK, well, what is saving money? Are we trying to reinvest this into for another project? Is it to improve your margins? Is it really just you’re trying to save because we want to save or– You don’t ever know, right? So like, hey, I need to have a little bit of extra cash because maybe in the future there’s a project where we’ll need extra money. It’s funny that a lot of times asking those questions and getting that information, while it may not seem relevant to like, well, just do this. And this is going to save you a bunch of money or change this configuration. But understanding each organization is different. So for you, what is it that kind of interests…?

Jordan McConnell: Yeah, the interest was, again, I like challenge. And so on the challenge of optimizing resources, the challenge of saving money, and I had all this background in infrastructure. And so when I found– when I was talking to– I think his name was George Parker from Salesforce at that dinner, he was telling me about it. I was like, man, this sounds like the perfect peanut butter and jelly. It sounds like it was my entire background in infrastructure and then how to optimize and save money with that same infrastructure. And now what FinOps is kind of turning is not just cloud savings. It’s SaaS. It’s a– was it like Sam and Ham? Like a hardware access– hardware management and software management. And so now there’s just kind of this more umbrella stuff, like ITFM, IT financial management and things. And so I’m just– what I’m really interested in is just trying to– since I was a staff sergeant in the Air Force, one of the things I’ve been chasing is to not be an individual contributor anymore. And so as to get into a manager, director, some kind of leadership so I can actually– I feel like that movie Rudy almost. Like we’re like, come on, coach. I’m ready to put me in. I’m ready to kind of show folks that I can lead and make a positive change in an organization. And so one of the ways to do that is have a good financial background. You’ll start learning those kind of things. And so I want to be just a person that can take all that infrastructure background, can take FinOps and take some of the leadership stuff that I’ve done in the leadership school in the military and some reporting stuff to senior leadership things, training, and just take all of that and make a difference. So my bio on LinkedIn says difference maker. And that’s what I’m trying to embody, is to make a difference in my company’s life, in my job’s life, and also in people’s lives around me.

Manuel Martinez: That’s awesome. So you’ve been gracious enough to tell me a lot about your stories, answer my questions. And now I want to kind of give you the opportunity to do– if there’s anything that we kind of maybe glazed over, maybe you want to do a summary of your career, whatever it is that you think is like, hey, here’s how I kind of want to try and end this conversation.

Jordan McConnell: Yeah, I would say my story is just, I believe, it’s a case study in believing yourself and not giving up on yourself, that you can make mistakes, you can do dumb things, you can have challenges. And what you do today and tomorrow is what matters. And not only that – you can make mistakes, but your character is what you do every day, type thing. And so people can try to dictate your reputation, but you dictate your character. Right? And so that’s something that I want folks to– that’s something I really struggle with in my life is people trying to tell me who I am. And so do not– again, it’s important to have people in your life to tell you about yourself, but again, be very, very careful with what those people are, because they can be hurtful, but also extremely valuable. And so seek out and value those relationships of people that give you honest feedback. And so that, and then people out there with Crohn’s disease, my heart goes out to you. If you’re ever looking for anybody to talk to, reach out to me. I’d be more than happy to listen to your story and share your story with the world. It’s something I enjoy doing. If anybody’s looking for– I would say, yeah, it’s the same thing. If anybody wants to learn more about IT or wants to reach out to me about consulting or anything, just kind of like you, Manuel. I’m more than happy to help you to see if you can save some money in the synapse. But yeah, so that’s something too, is that I’m working on just kind of an abundance mindset. And so I’m trying to just be open to receive good things in my life. And so I’m just always looking for ways to be of service to others and just make money, have fun, help people. So yeah, so reach out to me. I’m always looking for– yeah, I’m trying to go from striving to really feeling like I’m thriving, kind of like, yeah, my cup overfloweth. So I’m trying to get to that point so I can pour into other people more effectively. They say, because if people think that I’m successful now, I don’t feel like I’m truly successful until I can help other people be successful, right? And so I’m trying to lift myself up as much as I can so I can in turn lift others up.

Manuel Martinez: That’s awesome. And yeah, we kind of share that in common, right? We’re trying to help others, kind of current generation, the next generation, whatever it might be, just anybody that is looking for that, because I’ve had those people along the way. You’ve brought it up a couple of times, the thing that I want to know a little bit more about is you mentioned those people that you have, your close counsel. How do you go about– and again, this is just the way that you do it– Yeah. Is to kind of establish who is that person and who is not. How do you–

Jordan McConnell: That kind of discernment?

Manuel Martinez: Yeah, the discernment. What are some of the things that you look for in people? And again, they may not always make it into the inner circle, but maybe like an outer circle. How do I determine that this is– so for somebody that’s watching or listening that says, OK, how do I know that this person–

Jordan McConnell: Is for me?

Manuel Martinez: Is for me, and not only for me, but just, OK, maybe they’re not in my inner five circle, but there’s different layers to it. Like, OK, this is somebody I’ll listen to, and maybe they can slowly make their way in, or you just start determining, hey, this is a person that shouldn’t be in my circle.

Jordan McConnell: Yeah, to me, do you struggle with practicing compassion and empathy?

Manuel Martinez: OK.

Jordan McConnell: I have a chronic illness. So if I say, hi Manuel, my name is Jordan, and I have Crohn’s disease. And then I say, oh, man, I’ve had all these surgeries. I’ve been doing all this pain and suffering and all this trauma and stuff like that. And then that’s not taken into account, or there’s some kind of like, how sick is he type thing? Something like, is he BSing me? Is he this? I don’t like being around people that try to prove– try to prove if I’m sick or prove– if I take you at face value, I expect to be taken at face value and to prove it otherwise. Manuel Martinez. Got it, okay. So you start at that – That’s a starting point.

Jordan McConnell: Yeah. And so with me, I’m going to show you love and respect until I have reason to switch course to adjust. And so with me, people don’t earn my respect. They lose it. I’ll say that. And so to me, it’s just saying all the kind of kid stuff with discernment. If you’re always talking, you can’t listen. If you have two ears and one mouth, you should be listening twice as much as you speak. If you’re talking, you’re only repeating what you know. If you’re listening, you might learn something. You might be listening. You might be hearing, is this person good for me or not? Type thing. And if you’re actually paying attention. And so that’s what I do. Because I have a chronic illness, I pay very close attention to how people move type thing. Because again, the whole compassion and empathy thing. And so yeah. Because I don’t want– we all deal with adversity. I want people that– yeah, just invisible illnesses, you can’t see them. I don’t want to be trying to prove that– almost something that I can’t show. It’s like, well, do you want me to be throwing up in front of you right now? It’s like, so that kind of stuff. And so I just want– I like being around people that give you the benefit of the doubt a little bit. Well, this guy hasn’t given me any reason to not believe him yet. You know, type thing. So that’s what I like. And so I – just try to develop a baseline with yourself about how you treat people. So if you can keep your environment in a constant, type thing, a little bit. Like if you’re not in chaos type thing, then every person that comes by, you can kind of– if you say, hi, I’m Manuel. Hi, I’m Jordan. Hi, I’m Jordan, To the same person in the same way. And then people come at you differently. Some people come at you with love. Some people come up with jealousy and hate. It’s like, oh, I can discern. Because I’m a solid dude. And I’m the same guy to every single person that I meet, to the CEO, to the janitor. Right? So that’s how you do it. You don’t switch up. Be the same. Be who you are. Don’t put out a mask. Don’t perform for people. If you want to know who’s right in your life, be yourself. And the right people will be in your life. And you also can discern who shouldn’t be that way too.

Manuel Martinez: Right. No, I love that. And it’s a great way to go about looking at it. And I thank you again for taking the time to come and talk to me and being open about– again, there’s a lot of things that people are going through that are invisible. And I just– I love the point that you’ve pointed out is I shouldn’t have to prove that to you, right? Right?

Jordan McConnell: I’m not going to. I’m not going– yeah.

Manuel Martinez: Right. And I shouldn’t have to. You’re not going to. And even then, if you’re sharing it, it’s not because–

Jordan McConnell: I want pity or something.

Manuel Martinez: Right. You don’t want pity. You don’t want that. Because again, when you told me, we started talking. And it came out in conversation. And I was like, oh, OK, great. We continue to talk. I was like, hey, I have a heart condition. And again, there’s things that are in the background. I think the way that you communicate it as well makes a big difference if you’re like, oh, man, I have Crohn’s. It wasn’t that. It was just like very matter of the fact. Hey, hey, I have Crohn’s disease and this and that. Oh, OK, great. Boom, boom, boom. I think sometimes– and I’ve been guilty of it in the past– is I’m curious. So I’ll ask more about it. But it’s how you go about asking. Oh, tell me more. What is it? What do you go through? Well, wait a minute. That’s kind of off-putting. You’re going to be like, I don’t know that I want to talk to Manuel. Well–

Jordan McConnell: Yeah, because not everybody’s like me, and not everybody’s on a podcast and telling their story a lot of times. And again, unfortunately, Crohn’s disease is not a fun condition to talk about.

Manuel Martinez: Right.

Jordan McConnell: And so I just happen to be a type of personality that feels like, again, the mission’s more important than the individual.

Manuel Martinez: Right. Yeah. So again, I appreciate you sharing all this. And hopefully, from the different listeners and people that are out there that come across this, they’re like, oh, OK. Maybe it’s not Crohn’s, but it’s something else that I’m dealing with. And oh, I like the way that Jordan approaches it. And that’s something that I can take back and say, all right, let me try applying this. And some things will work. Some things won’t. But again, finding that out and just sharing that information for others so that they’re like, oh, I’m not the only one. Or there’s similar situations.

Jordan McConnell: Definitely, especially in the black community and things like that. I want people to know that people that look like me to know that you’re not alone. And people don’t look– I just want people in general that are out there like, man, I had this condition. Especially, I’m a little bit older now. Like, there’s still people out here that look like you, act like you, that have been dealing with this stuff for a long time that are still pushing through every day. So again, people can reach out to me, [email protected] You can reach out to me on LinkedIn. Again, for tech projects, Crohn’s Veteran projects, just anything. You can reach out to me. I’m happy to be of service. And I was looking for opportunity to make life more fun.

Manuel Martinez: Yeah, I love it. Well, again, I appreciate you coming on. And thanks for taking the time.

Jordan McConnell: You’re very welcome, Manuel, thanks for having me again.

Manuel Martinez: Yeah. And for everyone that continues to watch, listen, and support, again, thank you. And I hope that you find inspiration and are able to take away valuable pieces from conversations like this to maybe not even– may not be directly for you, but maybe you know somebody. And again, you can share that with them to kind of help them as they’re going through their own career journey as well. So with that, continue to plug in and download the knowledge. And until next time, thank you.