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The Obsidio Podcast explores the people, ideas, and real world challenges shaping hardware security, semiconductor trust, supply chain resilience, and deep tech innovation. Through candid conversations with founders, engineers, security leaders, manufacturers, investors, and industry experts, the channel looks at how critical technologies are built, protected, and trusted in an increasingly complex world. From counterfeit components and electronics supply chain risk to AI, cyber-physical security, and emerging technologies, Obsidio brings practical insight and thoughtful discussion to the issues that matter most across modern industry.
Daniel, welcome aboard to the show. So happy to have you with us here today.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, Ari. I feel grateful and honored that you've asked me to come share my story with you and your studio.
Speaker 1:We do love having veterans on the show. So thank you for your service. And with that said, I want to blast you into the past and ask you about your first day in service. Were you in shock? Were you like, Oh my God, what did I do?
Speaker 1:And maybe a little bit before that, why did you decide to join?
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you the reason I decided to join, we'll go with that first, is I was being raised by a single mother. We lived in the San Francisco Bay area and it was me, my younger sister and my mother was working a full time day job, a part time night job, and she was having extremely hard time financially. So it came to a point when I was 16, I decided I was going to no longer become a burden on her. And the only way I saw to do that was the military. So I searched and shopped and I went in the army of seventeen years and three days old so I could get from up from under her hair, so to speak.
Speaker 2:That's why I did that. Now, as far as your ass about being shocked or anything, I had no idea. No. I mean, my lot, all the men in my family were ex military or of some sort, know, World War II, Korea, be it pigs, Vietnam. So that was something within my culture of my upbringing.
Speaker 2:So I wasn't shocked or anything. I really had no idea what to expect, but shock wasn't one of.
Speaker 1:Was there anything that in retrospect you you were kinda telling yourself, I wish, you know, dad, grandpa, somebody told me about this that, you know, they knew about this, could have told me, but they didn't?
Speaker 2:The one thing was to keep your buttons buttoned, your zippers zipped, your belts buckled, your shoes tied all the time. I remember those first couple of days I got called in by my senior drill sergeant to help hand out supplies to people. And being the kid I am, I unzipped my jacket and I opened it up because was hot, and he just called all up my backside because that's not how you wear your clothes. They're zipped and they're buttoned. If there's a button on it, it stays buttoned.
Speaker 2:If there's a zipper on it, it is zipped.
Speaker 1:My my drill sergeant probably had eyesight that was better than an eagle. If there was anything wrong from the other side of the base he would shout and he would like, soldier come over here. They would give it to me hard. So I have a lot of empathy. You spent, keep me honest here for that, I'm kind of triggering my memory from the research, but I think it was above thirty years true split into two different timelines, but above thirty years in the military.
Speaker 1:When you look at those years, was your most difficult experience that led to let's say personal growth that you look upon fondly in retrospect, but was incredibly difficult at the moment?
Speaker 2:Well, know, I originally got out of the army after almost seven years of active duty. That was in 1979 when I first ETS out of the army, I took a ten year break in service and I realized at some point that I felt like I was missing something. I had lost my edge. I had no real desire. I had no dreams.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was following in my own compost, so to speak. And I knew all the only place to get it back was going be in the military because they're at different military's mental standard. And so that's why I went back in. It was almost ten years later. And, it's why I went into reserves instead of active duty because my wife at the time was not going to be an active duty wife.
Speaker 2:That is one thing I knew. Now here's the funny thing. I spent more time on active duty as a reservist than I did on active duty as an active duty soldier. Go figure,
Speaker 1:Tell us tell us more about that. What is for our audience who doesn't know the difference, how did you kind of perceive the concerns that your your wife had about active duty?
Speaker 2:Well, was just the nature of her persona. I just knew it was not going to work. It would have been a very bad and very ugly thing. And I wasn't going to create that drama in the family. And we had young children at the time and I didn't want to dramatize my kids because of it, because there would have been arguments.
Speaker 2:There would have been fights. There would have been all sorts of negative things. So I chose not to go there. I actually almost ran away from home, went up to Oakland to the MEPS Center, the same one I went in in 1972 when I was 17 and reenlisted in the reserves. Now I'm an infantryman.
Speaker 2:I'm an infantry soldier. That's basically all I know. And in the reserves, there's no infantry. It doesn't exist. So I'm searching for what kind of a job can I do?
Speaker 2:And I wasn't gonna be a clerk. I wasn't gonna be in medical tech. I wasn't gonna be a truck driver. I was definitely not gonna be an MP, but I discovered there's a reserve drill sergeant unit, like 45 miles away. And I said, I can do that.
Speaker 2:So that's why I chose that path and that venue. And then of course, when I came back and, you know, it was like, where have you been for the last three days? You know, I dropped the ball on her, so to speak. And that that didn't go over very good. But over the course of the years, it worked out fine because, when I would go away on my army reserve tours, she would leave and go visit family and me and obviously take the kids and go party and stuff, so that was fine.
Speaker 1:You talked about this different mental space between, you know, civilianship and army and that you kind of lost something when you left the military. Tell me more about that. What what was it that you actually missed or lost?
Speaker 2:Well, one of the very valuable things about the military is communication is very clear and concise. There is no beating around the bush. I don't need to kiss your backside. I'm gonna tell you the truth whether you like it or not, and we're gonna move from there. In the civilian world, that is not necessarily true.
Speaker 2:You know? I mean, I understand the whole dynamic of wanting to build relationships and wanting to get buy in. I got it. But if there's something that's very demonstrative that at the moment and needs to be dealt with right now, I don't have time to kiss your backside, get you to do what needs to be done. However, I have learned over the years that there are certain ways to actually have these conversations and get the individual to understand and buy in to what is going on.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this. Do you think that that lack of, let's say, direct communication, straight talk in the civilianship environment, companies, corporates, maybe even family can actually be sure, it's maybe a little unpleasant because people don't always enjoy hearing the unfiltered truth, but do you think it can be valuable even in an environment that's not a life and death military, I. E. Kind of civilian Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yes, it can. Mean, I've proven that to myself multiple times. Again, it's how we preface things. As an army drill sergeant, I was the right handed guy who did what I told you you were going to pay for it. No, I can't act like that with a civilian.
Speaker 2:They will not, They will not buy into whatever it is I'm trying to promote. But directness is very important. And I've discovered that not only when you're talking to somebody, you need to be direct with yourself. A lot of us are wandering around in this world and we have no idea who we are, what we're doing. And we're ifing, we're wondering, we're just becauseing because we haven't made a direct determination, a disciplined look at ourselves on what we're doing, where we're going, how we want to do it.
Speaker 2:That is very important for everybody. It doesn't matter if you're in the military or not. If you're alive, you're above ground and you're moving somewhere, then you need to have a direction so you can get to where you're going. Now, again, it's most important for us to be direct with ourselves first, because if we're not direct with ourselves first, then I cannot be direct with you. If I do not really know what I want, if I have a broad idea, I want to hug the trees and save the whales.
Speaker 2:I say, Dan, let's go hug the trees and save the whales. Okay. What trees do you want to hug? You to hug a redwood, an oak tree, an elm tree. What forest are they in?
Speaker 2:Which whales do you want? Blug of whales or the humpback whales? You know, you need to be more direct to accomplish things. So that way we can build on what we have, because that way we can measure it by being direct with ourselves and our people around us. And we can measure the output and whether or not it's really working.
Speaker 1:Was there a single moment in your journey where you came to that conclusion that you need to be direct with yourself? If there was, can you tell that story?
Speaker 2:Well, probably more than one time. Know, I think the first time was when I realized that I can't keep switching hats. You know, we go through life thinking we're, we got the dad hat, we got the mom hat, we got the business hat. I've got the baseball player hat. You know, we wear different hats.
Speaker 2:And I discovered for myself that that wasn't really being direct with me. I was trying to be so many different things. I was not myself. And that's when I decided to, okay, be myself. So, you know, I'll I'll be drill sergeant Dan, a little softer.
Speaker 2:And that way I'm direct with myself and I can be direct with everybody else. And I don't have to worry about changing my hat. And if somebody asks me to be specific or let them know what the intent is, I can directly do that without causing any harm.
Speaker 1:What was the results? What did that look like for you after you kind of made that change?
Speaker 2:I'm more comfortable in my own shoes. Let's put it that way. I don't have to worry. I actually don't worry about what other people think about me. That is one of the biggest things.
Speaker 2:I don't care what you think about me. You can like me, you can hate me, good, bad or ugly. It does not matter. What matters is you. That's one thing I did learn a long time ago.
Speaker 2:Gary, are the only most important person in your life. Just like I am the only most important person in my life. Now, that doesn't mean we don't draw in other people and find importance in them and want to help them. But the bottom line is nobody's walking in my shoes for me. I'm not going to be walking in someone else's shoes.
Speaker 2:I might as well be true to myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I think the huge challenge is if you're not comfortable doing that, then you're going to be no good for anybody else. So whether you like it or not, that's your starting point. You have to be comfortable you and being strong enough so you can be there for other people, whether it's family or friends or community. So I appreciate that comment.
Speaker 1:So going back to military service, you had the opportunity to learn and and experience leadership through your service. What would you say were your big takeaways?
Speaker 2:No, one of the biggest takeaways I had was sharing and educating a young non commissioned officer. I'll tell you the story. We were running a M203 range for a Marine reserve unit. An M203 is a 40 millimeter grenade launcher mounted underneath a T4 and M16, whatever the current version is. And I was senior in CO and I was supposed to be going, but for some reason the vessel was real tight and they wanted to direct me to a different mission.
Speaker 2:So they took a junior non commissioned officer and they make him in charge. And I could see his face was like, my God, I don't know what to do. So I pulled him aside and I told him, here's what's going to happen. Follow your range control, your drill sergeant, you know, range operations, you know, Here's one thing that will happen on this range that you need to be very conscious of. You need to be aware of is they will be a misfire and you need to follow strict protocols for that misfire.
Speaker 2:And I walked him through what the protocols were and why the misfire is. The misfire is going to be because the private is afraid of the weapon and they will not seat the breach tight enough to actually activate the launching system. So they'll pull the trigger and nothing will happen because it's not seated and it will misfire. But you still have to go through the process. So I told him this is gonna happen and you have to go through the entire process.
Speaker 2:And guess what? It happened. And he went through the entire process and the colonel that was out there gave him applause, told him what a good guy he was. So I felt real good about that.
Speaker 1:And this is a very great segue to your book, I would say. Tell us, first of all, the name of your book. If you have it on hand, show us the cover and tell us why you wrote it. Name of the book is Why Plans
Speaker 2:Don't Prepare You What Real Readiness Looks Like When Leadership Is Testing. Now here's something I learned a long time ago, especially in the military. You have plan A, have a plan B and a plan C because your plan is gonna go to crap very fast, whether you like it or not. Now, the reason I wrote this book is working with a lot of people in the business industry and a lot of families. Figured, well, you know, we wrote this plan down.
Speaker 2:We know everything. I said, oh, good. And when was the last time you practiced an evacuation? I would never practiced it. And the business guy, well, when was the last time you practiced an emergency communications protocol?
Speaker 2:We've never done that. It's in the book. It's in the binder. And he says, so tell me when you have an emergency, do you know what you're going to do? Oh yeah, it's in the binder.
Speaker 2:We can look it up. No, you don't have time to look at it. You have to follow the muscle memory. You have to know what you're doing as it's happening because you can cause more harm and more damage by deciding you need to go find the binder, which you probably don't even know where it is to look up the right page, find out what you need to do under the circumstance. That's why I wrote the book.
Speaker 1:And just as a comparison, right? The NCO who was trying to troubleshoot that M16 didn't go off field to look for a binder. He knew the exact steps one at a time. In fact, you know, if a live weapon that could go off at any moment potentially, if not handled that could end up in an accident right, maybe fatal you don't know what that process is. How does this translate to civilian life right?
Speaker 1:I've had some unfortunate experiences. My son was in the STEM school shooting here Highlands Ranch. That was quite the day that we had to go through. We've all gone through COVID and that created food shortages, created all kinds of situations, everybody at home together. You know, the last ten, twenty years, we've had a fair amount of, call it excitement, you know.
Speaker 1:So this isn't something that we're like, oh, you know, everything's fine, nothing happens. We know these things happen, emergencies, from time to time. How should we think about this as families, as businesses?
Speaker 2:Well, the way I like to get people to look at it is to think of about it, not only as a learning experience, but as a leadership experience. As a parent, you're the leader. If you own a business, you're the leader. And when things start going south, everyone's going to look around for the leader to tell them what to do. So if you're a parent, I talk to parents a lot.
Speaker 2:If you don't know what you're doing, what is your child going to do? Are they going to be comfortable? If you're panicking, are your children going to be comfortable? Are they going to pack? If you're in a business and things are going south and you don't know what to do, what is the business look?
Speaker 2:Your people are looking at you. They're looking at you to take charge and do something. So what I try to impart to people, you need to have a certain amount of situational awareness. You need to have a certain amount of things put into place that you've already practiced that can go forward with if and when you need to. Now, that doesn't mean we can practice for every emergency.
Speaker 2:We cannot do that. We have no idea what every emergency will be. But here's what it does for you. Gives you the opportunity to distill the leadership within yourself that you know, if the plan's broken, we're going to stay on our feet. We're going look forward.
Speaker 2:We're to find a way to fix it. We're to move forward. That's the best thing that you can do by working a plan. Even if you never use it, you will have that awareness within your brain, within your community, around you, and you will see things that most people don't.
Speaker 1:You mentioned the leader's practice, but there's also something about the, you said community or the team that's following the leader at that moment, this kind of authoritative, like we need to do this, we need to do it now, and you need to move fast isn't the normal type of working, but that process that you're practicing in, let's say an emergency practice, would you argue that that experience that you gain as the followers would definitely translate to any kind of emergency, not just the one that you practiced?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And here's the thing to keep in mind here. The people working it are not necessarily followers, they're co creators in the plan. We want to draw everybody into the creation of the plan so they have their hands on it so they can say, I did this. That helps them remember what it is that they did.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean? It's like when I deal with a family, the first thing I do is home fire protection. How not to burn your house down. First thing to go through. How to have a fire escape plan.
Speaker 2:How to use the fire extinguisher. Do you have a fire blanket? Where's the number one place a fire can start traditionally is in the kitchen, statistically. Kitchen fires are the number one thing, depending on the time of year, Christmas, dried up Christmas trees, overloaded an electrical cord. So the idea is to understand this and take everybody in that's involved in the plan and make them part of the plan.
Speaker 2:That way they can input it and it becomes their plan and they don't have to go find the binder to figure out what to do.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. So you talked about, about fire, some people that have pools around their house. That's probably another one. Talk to me about CPR. I learned how to do CPR more than twenty years ago, which is probably more frequent than most people, But I'm pretty damn sure I need a refresher.
Speaker 1:What do you I saw you wrote an article about this as well. What are your kind of do's and don'ts as it comes to parents and CPR?
Speaker 2:Well, any kind of skill is fragile. If we don't practice it, we will lose it. I mean, I can remember how to ride a bike, but if I jump on a bike and it's been thirty years since I rode a bike, I might be a little lost. Same with our CPR. Now on the upside is we still understand and know those skills.
Speaker 2:On the downside, some of those skills that we actually do need to practice on a regular basis, maybe once a year, once every other year. And within our communities, there's the American Red Cross, there's a National Safety Foundation. You can talk to your fire department and ask them where to get training. You can go to your hospitals and ask them where to get training. Call your doctor and say, Hey, Bob, I'm an order of CPR.
Speaker 2:Can I do it? So it's not like that information is not out there. It just helps us stay aware of it, keep it on the top of our frame so that way, if we ever need it, we can.
Speaker 1:And just to be crystal clear about this, who would you recommend go and does this to make sure that they know how to perform CPR?
Speaker 2:Well, I used to teach CPR in the American Red Cross, so I obviously fall to them. That doesn't mean that they are
Speaker 1:No, I the meant like who, who in the public should make sure that they know CPR.
Speaker 2:Well, if you work around anybody, you should. If you have elderly parents, if you have children, if you work in a building that has people in it, you might should know it. If you're a restaurant employee, people will have things. Most people will have a heart attack or an event at home. That's the number one thing.
Speaker 2:So I would say the household should be aware of these types of things. And if the household's aware of it because you have somebody in your household that might be at risk, it doesn't mean you can't take this outside the house and use it if you need to. You know, you can probably be that hero for someone else out there. I'm not saying go try and hunt them down and do CPR on people. But having those skills in your home is the best place to start because home is where we live and that's where we want to be able to be the safest.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. And Daniel, if you talk and going back to the book for a moment, what's the, if you could kind of wave a magic wand and, you know, make sure everybody suddenly in the world knew something or change a law, right? What would that one thing be if you could just wave a magic wand and change it overnight?
Speaker 2:I would go with awareness, understanding what the risks are in your community, your demographic. We're all different. We live in different parts of the country. Even in within a community, the risks might be different because of, maybe flooding and traffic or chemicals, a number of things. So the first thing I would do is understand what your risks are within your niche area and expand out to the broader risks.
Speaker 2:And once you understand what they are, then it's quite possible that you can look at ways to, well, maybe I can do something about it. Do your homework, you know, make it an educational thing. If you do nothing else, at least just educate yourself on the subject because ideally at some point you'll go, dang it. And Daniel said, maybe I should check this out. And it's not that hard.
Speaker 2:Let me go check it out. What have you got to lose?
Speaker 1:And the reason that's so important is because the, the solutions quote unquote that you need in an emergency might be pretty damn simple and available if you only know what those risks are, right? If you know you have some snakes that can be poisonous in your environment, then you just make sure you know what the number to call those or you have an antidote or whatever the right procedure is. If you know that there's flooding risk then know you there's certain things you can do. So just being aware of the risk is really the first stage.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I
Speaker 1:deeply appreciate that. Wonderful. And let me ask you this, we'll touch on this for just a minute because you know we don't sell on this show, but part of what you do for a day job is insurance and other kind of activities. But let's focus on the insurance for a moment. What is the basic insurance coverage from a perspective that you think everybody in the world or in The United States should have, that it's an absolute mistake not to have, or do you think it's just case by case?
Speaker 2:Well, there's several different types. We have your health insurance, we have your life insurance, we have long term disability insurance, There's different types. But as an individual, the first thing you're do is a life insurance policy. Do you have children or you have a significant other? If you were suddenly to no longer be there, having been, what is going to happen to them?
Speaker 2:That life insurance policy helps cover some of those expenses. And depending on how that policy is put together as you live longer and longer and get older and older, older, that life insurance policy can become a hedge for you when you get past her into your retirement age. But it's all how they're built. It's all how they're put together.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that. So I have one final question for the show. It is a personal one though. If you had to go back to the hardest moments in your life, what is the piece of advice that you would have given Daniel at that moment, whether this was two years ago or twenty years ago?
Speaker 2:If I had to go back to a moment in my life to get myself some, I would say take more risks. Quit trying to be safe. Cause believe it or not, the world is actually benevolent. It's not out there to really try and kill us. We do that all on our own.
Speaker 2:But as I was younger, was afraid to take risks. Know, I was afraid what people would think about me. Was afraid what people might perceive. And if I knew back then what I know now, I would have, Daniel, go take those risks. Because most risks that we can take are going to be under the table.
Speaker 2:No one's going to notice them but eyes. No one's going to be worried about it but eyes. Now, unless of course, there's something like jumping off of a 50 story building with just a rubber band and all that, don't do that. I would say, don't take that risk. But if you have a risk to take, there are also protocols to put into to make yourself safer with those risks.
Speaker 2:Like a parachute is where's a parachute. You're gonna jump off a plane with parachute on itself. You can have a parachute of some sort built into the risk you're taking somehow.
Speaker 1:Brilliant. Daniel, thank you so much for joining the show today. I appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Well, Ariel, it's my pleasure, and thank you for your questions, and I hope your audience find something that they can work with and take forward and move with.