Get to the Point — The High Point Networks Podcast

Why Comfort Kills: Growth, Complacency, and the IT Hype Cycle (with Brandon Conkins)

• High Point Networks • Season 1 • Episode 5

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0:00 | 14:05

If you're not evolving, you're falling behind. Brandon Conkins, Director of SMART Services at High Point Networks, makes the case for why comfort and complacency are among the biggest risks facing IT leaders and organizations today.

Drawing from a viral street interview with Snowflake's CRO and the content of one of the world's fastest-growing business media channels, Brandon unpacks the vendor hype cycle, the psychology behind why people resist change, and what it actually means to get comfortable getting uncomfortable — in IT and in life.

✨ In this episode:

→ Why Snowflake's CRO said he can only forecast 12–18 months ahead in today's IT landscape

→ The five phases of the vendor hype cycle and how to spot vendors on the wrong side of it

→ What "burning the furniture to keep the house warm" looks like when private equity gets involved

→ Uncertainty intolerance — the science behind why people choose predictable bad outcomes over uncertain ones

→ How to break out of the comfort cycle — personally and organizationally

→ A closing quote that will stick with you: "When you're born, you look like your parents. When you die, you look like your choices."

🗨️ Mentioned in this episode: 

-School of Hard Knocks (James Dumoulin) — www.youtube.com/@theschoolofhardknocks 

-Mike Gannon, CRO at Snowflake — linkedin.com/in/michael-gannon-6371b11

Connect with Brandon: linkedin.com/in/bconkins | brandon.conkins@highpointnetworks.com

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🕑 Timestamps:

0:00 - Cold open: "What if it's getting too comfortable?" 

0:28 - Welcome & Brandon Conkins introduction 

1:51 - Today's topic: comfort, complacency, and IT 

2:31 - The School of Hard Knocks interview & Snowflake's CRO 

4:22 - The vendor hype cycle — five phases explained 

7:33 - Why people choose comfort: uncertainty intolerance 

9:26 - How to get comfortable getting uncomfortable 

10:27 - Brandon's personal story: preparation meets opportunity 

12:02 - Final nugget: "When you die, you look like your choices"

_____


New episodes every other Wednesday.

Connect with us: 🌐 highpointnetworks.com 📱 LinkedIn, Instagram & Facebook: @highpointnetworks

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Get to the Point is produced by High Point Networks for informational purposes only. Guests include High Point Networks professionals as well as subject matter experts from across the industry, each speaking from their own experience and expertise. Content shared is intended as general information and should be evaluated within the context of your specific organization and circumstances. Views expressed by outside guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of High Point Networks or its affiliates. High Point Networks assumes no liability for decisions or actions taken based on content discussed in this podcast.



Brandi:

What if the biggest risk to your business isn't disruption?

Andy:

What if it's getting too comfortable?

Brandi:

Because in IT, growth is not optional.

Andy:

if you're not evolving and moving forward, you are, by definition, falling behind.

Brandi:

So true. Let's get to the point of why comfort kills, and what leaders can do about it. This is...

Andy:

Get to the Point. Welcome to Get to the Point podcast. It's a podcast where we chat with real IT people about real IT, and we dig in a little bit deeper into the why behind the tech that's all around us, and we try to make it a little bit more human. I'm Andy Middlemiss.

Brandi:

I'm Brandi Mentele. And today we are joined by Brandon Conkins, who is the director of SMART Services here at High Point Networks. And I'm just gonna read a little bit about you, Brandon. We'll just, we'll hype you up here- before wethrow you into the deep end of the pool here. with 20 years of experience in channel development, operations, and leadership, Brandon brings a wealth of expertise today. His team takes a unique approach to managed services, partnering with existing IT departments rather than replacing them, providing expert support where it's needed most. I love that about you. I love that about your team, Brandon. Thank you for being here today. Tell me something good.

Brandon:

I am big Andy and Brandi fans, so any day I get to spend with you guys is a good day.

Andy:

Aw. And we're big Brandon fans.

Brandon:

Is that right?

Brandi:

Yeah, big Brandon- Yeah ... that's why you're here.

Brandon:

But other than that, it was really windy this morning. My garage door was pushed in.

Andy:

Oh, wow.

Brandon:

I've never had that, so-

Andy:

That is very windy.

Brandi:

Interesting.

Brandon:

Yeah, I don't know if that's good news. That's not good news.

Brandi:

That is not good news. But, But it's interesting.

Brandon:

We'll fix it later.

Brandi:

I hate the wind. I hate the wind. I know. This is why we should be doing this in, Jamaica or something, some place- I'm here for it ... some place sunny. Yeah. Next time. Future High Point podcast episode in Jamaica.

Andy:

I got it. In Jamaica. All right, fair enough. So today we are getting to the point of why comfort and complacency kills, as it relates to the world of IT. Love to dig into that a little bit.

Brandi:

Yeah, Brandon, the concept of growing or dying is not unfamiliar to us, right? It's one of our core values here at High Point. And today I think we're applying this idea specifically to the technology industry, and drawing from insights that you've gained from an interview, and I'd love for you to share a little bit more about that.

Andy:

I think even outside of IT, there's, I think there's some, cool life lesson stuff to be gleaned from this.

Brandon:

Sure are. Agreed. Yeah. Are you guys familiar with the, the content creator, James Dumoulin? He does the School of Hard Knocks where he does street-side interviews with successful people. You guys watch any of this?

Brandi:

I have. I have, yeah.

Andy:

I have not, but it's on my list now.

Brandi:

You definitely need to go out there. He'll just stop someone on the street and just be like "Tell me about why you're successful."

Andy:

That sounds like fun.

Brandon:

I'm a huge fan. I just learned the other day, watching one of his videos, that he did over 150 flights around the country in one year. he is, the definition of hustle, and, if you wanna learn how to get past objections or all that, he's, got great hustle. But one interview stood out. Again, he just goes up to strangers that, might appear successful, and his goal is to find nuggets for the younger generation. So what is one piece of advice you'd give the younger generation? And then he tries to extend the interviews, which is really fun, because of course, all the important people are super busy, right? but he found Mike Gannon, who is a CRO of Snowflake, big in the AI and data center and data warehousing side of things, and a question he asked was,"Where do you see the next five to 10 years going as it relates to the IT industry?" And Mike started laughing, and he said, "Five to 10 years? I get 12 to 18 months at best." And I think that hits home for, all of us. Yeah. I don't think we'd imagine the amount of AI that's, ingrained in our business, in our now software tools. If you would've asked that even 12 months ago, I wouldn't have believed that we are as far as we are. it certainly moves fast, and we need to, be open to change and grow. If not, you die.

Andy:

Five years is, an eternity in the AI space. It's just everything's changing so fast. So let's get to the point of all this. what's the concept, exactly, and how does it relate to everything we're doing in the world of, IT these days?

Brandon:

Sure. I see an area where it really relates to, our business, particularly managed services, where we're constantly looking to partner with best-in-breed IT vendors. we find there's, oftentimes what we call hype cycles, where the new bright, shiny tool comes out, gets a lot of attention early on. You go to industry conferences and events, and you hope to find that card table in the back with the low budget, and you hope to talk them, or talk to them and, catch them while they're young. Because what happens is, year two, year three, it's a bell curve, right? Or reverse for the camera, right? Year two, year three, a lot of hype, a lot of industry recognition. they're up on the main stage. Prices increase, which is great. big influx in engineering. Private equity starts to get involved, or, a buyer, which again, can be great. We know plenty of great private equity firms But sometimes you, you get the private equity firms that are looking at it purely from a financial, what can we get out of this organization? And one, one phrase I like to use is they sometimes burn the furniture to keep the house warm, right?

Brandi:

Interesting.

Brandon:

So what we don't wanna do is be partnered with vendors who are on the decay phase and the downward trend of that hype cycle. super thankful for a lot of the, team and brilliant engineers, that partner with us to go out, and who are those, up-and-coming, vendors? Who do we need to talk to, and who are maybe at risk of needing, to have an alternative in the, coming months and years?

Andy:

Yeah. A lot changes when somebody gets acquired or, scooped up by, venture capitalists- Yes... or whatever the case may be. A lot changes-

Brandon:

Yes... Andy: really quickly. Sure does.

Brandi:

you've kinda mentioned something about the hype cycles, Brandon. and, to my understanding, there's some phases to that, right? Like, to a comfort cycle. Can you break those down for our listeners? Like, where and how does all of this align?

Brandon:

Yeah. A little bit on that, so because it's a feeling, at least for me it was a feeling before there's actually science, so apparently there are, five phases to the hype cycle, and, a lot of what I just mentioned, so you get into the early, everything's led by the founder. you've got the founder ingrained in the business. You've got engineering helping with decision-makings, a lot of research and development. it goes on to a pure growth strategy, where they're trying to invest and gain customers. You get the-

Andy:

That's that hype curve... Brandon: industry accolades. Yep. Yeah. Okay Yep. And then, again, I would say that the peak is when you start to see, private equity get involved, and then, Now, I, should say there's plenty of vendors we work with, that we've worked with for 15 years, that have private equity that are fantastic vendors. There are some that just have different strategies and maybe wanna play the long term, and there's some that maybe have a three to five-year timeframe of, "How do I flip this and get a quick two to three, four, 5X on our money?" Yeah. Get in, get out.

Brandon:

Exactly. Yeah. Yep.

Andy:

Make some money. Yep.

Brandon:

there's a decay phase, is what they call it, on the, tail end of those bad situations.

Andy:

Sort of that downward swing.

Brandon:

Yes.

Andy:

Makes, a lot of sense. All right. interesting. So shifting gears just a little bit, let's kinda get back to the, beginning of the conversation here about, comfort and discomfort and, why do, people tend to choose what's comfortable? Just curious.

Brandon:

Yeah.

Andy:

Dig in on that a little bit.

Brandon:

that's a great question. I think there is a path of least resistance, that people often encounter. I'm, certainly no psychologist or, expert in this field, but one thing I did find is a phrase called uncertainty intolerance. So studies show that people would prefer a predictable negative outcome over an unpredictable outcome. And at the start, that's how would that apply? But I think pretty quickly, we know situations where we've needed to have maybe a difficult conversation with someone, and we might avoid that because maybe there's risks of the relationship if it's not done right. So in avoiding that often can make the situation worse. We now have complicated feelings or things and situations that we now filter through our conversations with those people. So I think it's the path of least resistance, but ultimately we need to get to places where you can say, "I care more about your success than I care what you think about me."

Andy:

Interesting. Be willing to take a, risk.

Brandon:

For sure.

Andy:

Uncertainty intolerance. It's a mouthful

Brandi:

It is interesting... Andy: that's a new phrase.

Brandon:

It's a mouthful.

Andy:

Very interesting.

Brandi:

Yeah, and I think, applying that back to IT too, you talk about, we'll maybe avoid something that we know because we're so comfortable or we're, so used to doing it a certain way, and, sometimes there is a little bit of risk, in, in that, maybe that change or that, that next step in IT.

Andy:

Yeah. So how do you, break the cycle?

Brandon:

Get comfortable getting uncomfortable.

Andy:

Get comfortable getting uncomfortable.

Brandi:

I like it. I like it.

Brandon:

I was even, even listening, as it relates to parenting, that don't save your children from everything, right? Allow them to go through difficult situations in their life. It's all preparation for being uncomfortable and not just constantly pursuing comfort as they get older-

Andy:

Yeah.

Brandon:

Which we all know won't get you very far.

Andy:

Yeah. Natural tendency. You wanna protect everybody-

Brandon:

Yes.

Andy:

Yep ... when you're talking about the kids. Yeah.

Brandon:

A little bit of natural consequence once in a while is okay.

Andy:

Is probably a good thing. We can learn a lot from that.

Brandi:

I totally agree. there's probably someone out there listening right now, Brandon, who... And I know I've been here, right? Where I've been in, stuck in my comfort zone. They're thinking, "Maybe this is me," right? how can they break out, of the comfort cycle that they may be stuck in? Or do you have any sort of personal story that you could share with us? Maybe something that you went through, that kind of helped you c- come out of that too, and maybe some advice for our listeners today.

Brandon:

Yeah, I would say a personal story, this is going back 100 years ago now when I was in college, but the, the-

Andy:

Wow, you're old.

Brandi:

100 years, please.

Brandon:

The labor market was really strong then, which was great, but you're sitting at university, in my case North Dakota State University. There's 2,000 graduates that year, and that's from your university alone, so there's thousands of people entering the workforce at the same time. And I remember as a freshman and a sophomore thinking there's so much uncertainty. You don't know where things are gonna go. I remember thinking, "What are the things I can do today that are resume builders, experience builders, that when I'm sitting in that interview, I can be differentiated?" So really think of Tom McDougall's story, the, founder of High Point, and I think people who don't know Tom might look at his situation now and say, "Oh, he's so lucky he's got such a great company, such great people," and I don't think they realize the preparation that went in to make sure that when the opportunity came and intersected with the preparation, that's how High Point was created, right? So there's always a degree of even if you're in a position now and you're looking for the next step, what's the preparation today so that when that does come up, when you are in that interview, you've got a long list of reasons why you're ready.

Brandi:

I love that.

Andy:

Good life lessons.

Brandi:

I love it, yeah. this can truly happen to anyone, likely does happen to everyone at some point. If you were to give one final nugget to everyone, what would it be?

Brandon:

I gotta credit-

Andy:

A takeaway.

Brandon:

A takeaway?

Brandi:

Yeah.

Brandon:

I gotta credit a, another short video that I watched from James the other day, where he interviewed a guy who said, "When you're born, you look like your parents, and when you die, you look like your choices."

Brandi:

Oof.

Andy:

That's heavy. That hit.

Brandi:

Yikes.

Andy:

Mic drop moment.

Brandi:

That did, just that just gave me goosebumps.

Brandon:

So make the choices today that you'll be proud about, to look back on. We don't wanna live with regret.

Andy:

I love that. I love that. so where can folks find out more about you or get in touch with you?

Brandon:

I wish I could say I have an agent. I don't have an agent. No agent yet. Unless this goes really well. Maybe, right?

Brandi:

You may after today. You may after today.

Brandon:

no, LinkedIn is a fantastic place to get ahold of me. yeah, we can put that link in the show notes.

Andy:

Okay, great. Brandi, closing, closing thoughts here before we wrap things up?

Brandi:

Yeah, Brandon, thank you for being here today. you continue to... One of the things that I've noticed about you over the course of just working with you here at High Point is I think you're always looking... You, have a pulse on today, and you're always looking for that next step, and, I think that's something that I've always respected about you. You're just a great husband and father. I, that I admire that about you, too. But just from a personal perspective, I, just love the spark that you bring, and sometimes that little spark will challenge others, and I, want you to know that I, I see that, and I really appreciate you for that.

Brandon:

Appreciate that.

Andy:

Thank you. I love that, and we appreciate everybody joining us today for this episode. And, don't forget to subscribe. Hit that subscribe button, and follow us on our social media outlets, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and you can watch for sup- for super... No, how about future episode alerts on-

Brandi:

they will be super

Andy:

highpointnetworks.com. They will be super in the future. Super future. There you go.

Brandi:

I love it.

Andy:

Thank you for joining us today. We really appreciate it, and we'll always be here to help you get to the point.

Head Shot

Andy Middlemiss

Host
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Brandi Mentele

Host
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Jasmine Joy

Producer
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Alex Conner

Editor
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Brandon Conkins

Guest