Meet Our New Host!

[00:00:18] Bonnie: Okay, ladies and gentlemen, this is Bonnie Evangelista with the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. Sad to say, this is likely the last time that I'll be introducing this show, though, because I am joined by the very talented Ryan Connell. Who has been a guest on the show with me earlier this year, but now he has joined the ranks of CDAO and he's going to be doing more interviewing and doing more expanding our minds, I would say, Ryan, what would, what would you call that? you like to be more of in podcast land?

[00:00:56] Ryan: I think, yeah, I'm excited, happy to be here and supporting this effort. You know, I think it's important that we remain, um, baseline with the tie to education from like the why perspective. Like, why are we doing this podcast? so I definitely want to. Remain grounded in that truth. but I also think we can expand a little bit in terms of, CDAO, big CDAO, um, I think we can talk about, or also engage with folks that are, not necessarily in the defense space, there are people that break things, everywhere.

[00:01:29] Um, and so we'd love to learn how other people solve problems potentially outside of the defense space. because we we have a lot of lessons learned from that

[00:01:36] Bonnie: Well, this is bittersweet for me. This has been a super fun project. as much as like. I can sit here and say, I'm done bowing out. I want nothing to do with this. That is absolutely not the case. Like this has been one of the most fun projects I've ever done. Bringing a new, I would say, learning platform or a opportunity for people, not just within the CDO or within the department.

[00:01:59] I feel like we've brought in a lot of industry, lessons learned as well. And we're, it's been really, really fun, not just meeting a bunch of people, but, Having authentic conversation in this space that's people who know me know that that's important to me and this As much fun as I've been having it's time, Ryan and you are volunteer distribute.

[00:02:21] So it's time, for this to grow into something more. And, Ryan is one of the best people I can think of on the team to do that. And given your background and experience, I think you're, you're going to bring a different lens and a different. Style of conversation to the table, which I'm super excited about.

[00:02:38] So why don't you give us a quick and dirty on a little bit more of your background? Maybe those who haven't listened to your episode, where is your expertise and then like what you're looking forward to as, you know, we do the handoff to the podcast. Yeah.

[00:02:53] Ryan: awesome and and I think we can convince you to come back for an episode or two so for me from a background standpoint, you know, really my career has been in contract pricing which is a you know Square peg round hole for fitting into the CDAO, CDAO acquisition mold.

[00:03:08] but always, you know, tried to wherever I worked, uh, through Air Force DCMA, over to CDAO, always tried to, find ways to kind of navigate through the red tape, through the bureaucracy to get things done that I thought were important. So I think there is a narrative there, you know, in, in the particular podcast that Bonnie, you and I participated in earlier this year.

[00:03:30] No, I talked a lot about kind of like big picture, why bringing in commercial technology into our acquisition, requirements, you know, really focusing on the requirement aspect. I think there's been a lot of lessons learned from Ukraine and things there. and we, we went all the way from there to, we kind of hit the gamut to, contract pricing.

[00:03:46] And I think I use an example of a wine fridge. and customize wine fridge and why I customize wine fridge would cost so much more than just defining your requirements around the existing wine fridges that they sell at the I don't know Best Buy or wherever you're buying your wine fridge from. so I'm excited to kind of host that that gamut.

[00:04:03] I love how you, you said it earlier with authentic conversations. I loved how you weren't afraid to Be inquisitive and just have that level of humility when someone says like Like and they they threw out an acronym and you're like wait, what's that? you didn't just let it run by you you genuinely wanted to understand what they were offering to the audience, so I want to continue that I think that was really really important as a listener as a consumer of the podcast it just showed as the host, uh being so interested it engaged the audience.

[00:04:32] So I definitely don't want to let that piece go I want to get as much out of this personally as I hope our defense community gets out of this, at an enterprise level I also I like the idea of like balancing different aspects I think you had done a lot of that too. I think you told me offline that our that our session was super nerdy I am happy to nerd out the most I can so I think there'll be some absolute nerding out but then I also think there are you know other speakers that can kind of hit You know, higher level life lessons with problem solving, uh, leadership, things like that, that I think are also important to bring in, um, that are less in the weeds from a regulatory regulation standpoint.

[00:05:11] Bonnie: Yeah. I hope that we're able to bridge or bring community to the space. I think we have to some degree, I hear people say defense Mavericks now, like outside of podcasting world, like in our space, um, they refer to maybe the movers and shakers as the defense Mavericks. So I think that's the start of, again, this idea that.

[00:05:35] those of us who do think about these problems or want to solve these hard problems, even though I don't want to say there's heroics, we should all be the hero of our own stories. But there is something to be said when you're trying to do something really hard.

[00:05:49] And I think part of the podcast is surfacing And highlighting some of those examples or, or even sometimes it's just like, there's something new out there and all of us are learning about what it is. And like bringing a subject matter expert in to talk about that based on their unique experience, I'm just excited that we're going to continue this experiment and you're going to help bring more conversation to the table.

[00:06:16] I've had a good run and I think those like yourself who are consistent listeners, like showing that we can continue to provide some kind of value add to the community. It's always awesome. I can't wait to see you elevate it. My expectation is you elevate it, Ryan. you're going to make it better. And all of your guests are going to help amplify, your, you know, intention and work in this space.

[00:06:43] So I guess maybe let's leave it at what are some things people can either look forward to, or what's something you think, you know, you're going to change up right off the bat. I'll let you answer either one or both of those.

[00:06:58] Ryan: Sure. yeah, I, definitely, I'm a nerd at heart as much as I hate to admit it. Um, I tried to pretend like I was a cool kid in high school, but I really just wasn't. and so I have no problem getting into those conversations. Um, think it's important to hit some of the kind of what you just said and some of the things that you've done like Hey, how do we do siber and you've done some things on just like all about trade win solution marketplace and just some very very targeted areas, you know other transactions and the different Authorities that we have for contracting, right?

[00:07:25] So like very specific things that we can bring experts in to talk about from an educational standpoint. I think I think those are important so you'll you'll likely see some of that for me I tend to be A leadership nerd if that's the right way to say it, but I think that the exercising the muscle of leadership and just constantly trying to create people focused Environments culture is important.

[00:07:47] so I think maybe that's a interesting flare that Might be forthcoming in terms of just like leadership coaching and those kinds of things. I I think those are interesting fascinating to me to learn how people navigate different aspects of difficult conversations and and all of the soft skill elements When it comes to me as a consumer of the podcast, it's generally a quick commute to drop off to daycare It's one of those types of things so I probably want to Keep the time frame somewhere around 30 30 ish minutes which maybe is a slight reduction from what they've historically been so that's something that's on my mind, too Just and that's just me as a consumer, but would love to get you know user feedback to to make a decision like that

[00:08:25] Bonnie: Well, got to make me a promise. Okay 

[00:08:28] And everyone's going to hear it. So you can't back down.

[00:08:31] You got to promise to keep it fun. Okay.

[00:08:33] Ryan: Yeah, absolutely will do that won't be an issue I am going to challenge myself to integrate some technical experiments if you will into into the podcast So those are forthcoming see what happens there.

[00:08:45] Bonnie: Okay, 

[00:08:46] Ryan: and uh, I don't know. gotta ask you, Bonnie too. Like, cause I don't know if you had a chance to answer the grilled cheese question.

[00:08:53] Bonnie: man, you stole my thunder. That was going to be my last question on the podcast because I didn't get to ask you that question.

[00:08:59] Ryan: It's funny when I, you know, as I listened to the podcast, I realized you started asking people that question. I don't know if it was after me. I think for me, you asked what it meant to be a defense Maverick. That's how we ended. 

[00:09:08] Bonnie: Yeah, 

[00:09:09] Ryan: but no, let's both talk about it. You want to go first the grilled cheese dipped into hot chocolate Is that 

[00:09:14] your thing? Would you do it?

[00:09:15] Bonnie: I'll try anything once immediately though. don't think I would like it. cause I feel like when you dip the grilled cheese in the hot chocolate, you're just making the grilled cheese soggy. When that defeats the purpose of a nice crispy grilled cheese with melty.

[00:09:29] I don't know. I just, I don't think it would work. Cause I've also asked this with other guests on the podcast. I do like the French fry in the Wendy's milkshake thing. That so I'm like, maybe there is something there. I don't think I would, I have an intense desire to try it though.

[00:09:43] I don't think it would be my thing.

[00:09:45] Ryan: Yeah, I tend to be in a similar mindset try anything once, maybe twice you'll get me Set me straight here, but we had a episode where the interviewer talked about it depends on the type of cheese And like if it was like a sweeter gouda type thing like that would be and i'm like, okay Like I kind of was sold there.

[00:10:02] So, next time we get together bonnie. Let's do that. Let's let's actually have one 

[00:10:07] Bonnie: Okay, is it gonna go on big rise?

[00:10:10] Ryan: well i'm a foodie on the instagram so yeah, we'll promote it on the on the instagram 

[00:10:13] Bonnie: Okay, that's a deal. Done deal.

[00:10:16] All right. Well, Ryan, so I, I am going to be a weekly listener. I can't wait to hear about all the conversations you're creating in this space. Can't wait to see how this takes off. Thank you so much 

[00:10:27] for doing this for our community.

[00:10:29] Ryan: Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity looking forward to it and looking forward to uh, To growing this uh, you made me promise. So now I have to have fun.

[00:10:35] Bonnie: All right, Ryan.

[00:10:37] Ryan: See ya. Thanks