Todd Smith

Cabling Technology Consultant

Years at Telcion: 6

What was your first job?

My first job was as a bus boy at a coffee shop—it was called The Airport Marina Hotel which is at the Fresno Air Terminal. My father was the developer of the hotel, and he traveled quite extensively abroad with his aviation business, and at all the airports he saw that there were hotels. He noticed Fresno was pretty busy but didn’t have a hotel. So he embarked on that, was successful, and at the conclusion of building the hotel, I saw an opportunity as a bus boy at 14. Back then, and I don't know if it is true now, you could get a work permit. That was my first true job, paid job.

What energizes you at work?

In the position I’m in, it’s very unique because every day is different. When you have a project, there are certain repeatable tasks that you go through from the beginning all the way through the completion of a project. But during the day you never know what you’re going to come across with different projects. They’re all different. They’re all unique. You just never know what you’re going to come up against with a problem that a client has, and trying to help them resolve it is probably the key. So that’s exciting.

And then identifying and connecting with new customers in an effort to help them address their cabling infrastructure needs. A lot of companies, when you hear that they have an IT department, a lot of times they have a jack-of-all-trades in the organization. But we specialize, whether it's on the TSG side or the cabling side. We are very good at what we do. There's not a lot of companies that can, I think, match up to our abilities on both sides of the house. So we get to bring a different dynamic that’s at a much higher level to these customers, so it's great and connecting with them and being able to offer those services.

What behavior or personality trait do you most attribute your success to, and why?

I think my work ethic is very high. I don’t have a problem rolling up my sleeves and doing what needs to be done to get the job completed.

And then other-oriented & intuitive. You can be other-oriented, but it has to be paired up with being intuitive. You can be other-oriented and not be intuitive at all and you're always going to miss the mark. You've gotta be intuitive enough to understand what the other person’s wants and needs are.

What’s a work-related accomplishment that you’re really proud of?

I think the one that stands out is when I was first hired onto the company due to a project that was going to come online, got delayed, but eventually came online. And that was our work we did at San Joaquin General Hospital, and it was the migration of their legacy system over to VOIP system. I was hired to be the onsite project manager.

The deployment was a migration of 1200 phones in a 24/7 hospital environment. This is the entire campus— 23 acre campus—not only the hospital, but all the ancillary buildings. It was an eye opener for me. I think we had a total of 7 cutovers. But you’ve got to remember, we're in a facility that doesn't shut down. We have emergency, we've got operating facilities, and all that. So it was an orchestration of multiple individuals and departments to help facilitate this, and it worked very well and was very successful. So I think I'm proud of that accomplishment. And of course, there's other ones, but that one really stands out quite a bit.

What do you do to turn things around when you’re having a bad day?

Everybody in this office, you know, we all have to be able to multitask. I mean, if you can't multitask it's difficult to get ahead in a lot of respects. But if I'm having a bad day, then what I need to do is slow down and eliminate some of the multitasking. Concentrate on those tasks that I know have a high probability of getting accomplished successfully. And once accomplished it helps me get into a better state of mind. There’s nothing better to be able to check something off on the long laundry list of items to be accomplished in a day. So if I can focus on that, that's a way to get me re-centered and and get into a better place.

What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?

I'm actually a president of a nonprofit that manages a full blown municipal airport, which is a real anomaly in the state of California. Typically all municipal airports are managed by a city, and we were able to demonstrate at the Turlock Municipal Airport, which is located in a different county—City of Turlock, which is in Stanislaus County, owns the airport, but the airport is in a different county. So the city’s hands are tied from a jurisdictional standpoint. So when we presented this opportunity to them, they saw the benefits of it and it allows us to be much more efficient in the operation of the airport. So, something that probably a number of many people know about me.

What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from?

These two, which are biblical verses—first one’s from Proverbs 12:15: “The way of fools is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.” And Proverbs 18:2: “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.”

Though when I mentioned this to Jane she said, “You’ve got to come up with a mentor of yours that may have given a quote,” and I was trying to think of that and I really couldn't think of any. I mean, I have been surrounded by Christian men and individuals, and any time that I've been given advice, they've always backed it up with scripture, so those are the two that came to mind to me.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

As mentioned earlier, my father was in aviation, so I grew up in aviation. I was always enamored by becoming a pilot. My father didn't want me to do that because he was in the aviation industry, helicopters specifically, and he hired these pilots and saw the individuals had a very vagabond existence, you know, from one place to another, and he just didn't see it as a career path that he'd like to see me go down. So he kind of squelched that in the beginning. But as a kid, being around that and seeing all these big pilots, aircraft, and everything that was something that I thought I would get into.

If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would you choose?

Again it goes down the aviation path here. So Kelly Johnson—he’s an aircraft designer. He was probably one of the best in the history of aviation and the newer technology. The U-2 plane, our spy plane that was developed for the CIA, was developed by him and his team. SR-71, the stealth fighter. He was the aeronautical engineer, just an amazing guy. Gifted beyond any imagination. It's just amazing what he accomplished and it was all at the Burbank airport. Starting in the 40s all the way through into the 70s for very secretive programs. Just an amazing guy.

What would we most likely find you doing on the weekend?

…I’m at the airport, it's a labor of love.

What advice would you give to your teenage self?

Surrounding yourself with many advisors that are able to hold you accountable. And then again I'll go to Proverbs, Proverbs 24:6: “for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.”

And then the other thing would be is, you know, in the world that we live in and all the things that distract us, instead of trying to do a number of things, concentrate on doing one thing or two things of interest and do it until you get really good at it. And that would be a key, because then you can take that and you can find a vocation, a career path, and you're doing something you love to do. Don't worry about the pay—it will pay off. I don't care what it is, but as they say… what’s the old cliche? You do what you love to do and you’ll never work a day in your life. I truly subscribe to that.

What’s something you’ve done, but will never do again?

Prior to and shortly after I got married, I was doing some mountain climbing. And by mountain climbing, I'm not talking about just hiking. I'm talking about going to Yosemite and climbing some of the faces of the rock there in Yosemite Valley, you know, full on, belaying, cliffs, that kind of stuff, which my wife, Jane, didn't think was the best thing in the world to continue doing. But it was accelerating and it taught me a lot about myself, but I wouldn't do it again. I think I'm done.

What book are you reading now?

It goes back to aviation—it’s called Skunk Works by Ben Rich, and this has to do with Kelly Johnson. What it was is this facility that was put together by this group that built these very secretive aircraft was listed as Skunk Works. In fact, their logo was an actual skunk. And the reason why they named it is that the facility they worked in at the Burbank airport many, many years ago, was the site of like a tallow factory or something, and it had embedded smells in the facility and it just didn't smell well. So that name stuck with them through the years and then they actually developed the logo of a skunk.

And Ben Rich was also one of the engineers and a pilot for Skunk Works, and was actually the gentleman that flew the SR-71 from Edwards Air Force base to Dulles Airport when they retired it and set all kinds of records. I mean, that plane flew from the California coast over Los Angeles to Washington D. C. which is 2300 miles and did it in 55 minutes. So if you do the math, you can figure out how fast he was going. It was like, 2400 miles an hour.

Thanks so much, Todd!

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Some of these responses were edited for length.