The Wake UP X Podcast - With Efren L. Salazar | Securing Tomorrow, Empowering Today

Efren Salazar
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Wake Up X: Securing Tomorrow, Empowering Today with Efren L. Salazar" is your go-to podcast for bridging the gap between cybersecurity, business, and personal empowerment. Hosted by Efren L. Salazar, each episode dives deep into the latest trends in cybersecurity, offers motivational insights, and provides actionable business strategies. Our guests range from upper management to newcomers in the industry, sharing their unique stories of success, struggles, and the lessons learned along the way.

  1. 1h ago

    Horse Cart to Moon Landing to Waymo: Larry Switzer on AI, Innovation Cycles and the Future of Jobs

    Larry Switzer opens this episode with a story about his grandfather, a man born in western Pennsylvania who never left except to fight World War II, and who lived to see humans walk on the moon. Larry's point is simple and powerful: the innovation cycle is only accelerating from here. At RSA 2026 in San Francisco, that acceleration was on full display. Autonomous Waymo vehicles navigating live city traffic. Larry rode in one and came away with an unexpected feeling: he trusted the computer's data driven decision making more than he would a stranger behind the wheel. Smoother. More consistent. No stop and start. And behind every one of those decisions? Data. Massive amounts of it. In real time. That is the backdrop for the second half of this conversation, where Larry addresses the question everyone in tech is wrestling with: is AI taking jobs? His take is grounded and clear. AI is automation. Just like mechanical automation before it, the result is not the elimination of work but the redirection of smart people toward harder, more valuable problems. The challenge is not a lack of work. It is a shortage of technically trained people ready to take on what is next. Featuring Larry Switzer and the team at Ziggiz.AI. 🙏 Thank you Larry Switzer for this incredible conversation on Wake Up X. From horse carts to autonomous vehicles to petabyte scale cybersecurity, your perspective on where we are and where we are going is something everyone in this industry needs to hear. Proud to feature you and the work at Ziggiz.AI. 🎙️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLODZHZk6rF5j9esSSLcFbvDGJSqlhs2ZM Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wake-up-x-securing-tomorrow-empowering-today-with/id1792821643

    2 min

  2. May 30

    Be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable: Larry Switzer on Growth, Grit and Getting in the Room

    A baseball player who hits .300 is a superstar. That means they fail 7 out of 10 times. In this closing segment of our RSA 2026 conversation, Larry Switzer of Ziggiz.AI shares the mindset that separates the people who make it in cybersecurity from those who burn out or give up: be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Larry breaks down why discomfort is not a problem to fix but a signal that you are actually growing. His advice for breaking into or leveling up in the industry is simple and direct. Watch where the top investors are putting their money. Get in local rooms with people doing leading edge work. Find experts who have done it, not just taught it. Keep adding. Keep showing up. And when you fail, which you will, remember that life is about what you do after the fall. We also share the story of how this conversation started: a chance encounter at RSA 2026 in San Francisco, a great person in a great conversation, and a simple hello. That is Wake Up X. Real conversations. Real people. Real cybersecurity. Connect with Larry at Ziggiz.AI — larry.switzer@ziggiz.ai 🙏 Thank you Larry Switzer for closing out this conversation with so much honesty and heart. The work you and the team at Ziggiz.AI are doing matters and we are grateful you took the time to chat with us at RSA 2026. 🎙️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLODZHZk6rF5j9esSSLcFbvDGJSqlhs2ZM Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wake-up-x-securing-tomorrow-empowering-today-with/id1792821643

    1 min

  3. May 24

    From corporate professional to cybersecurity entrepreneur serving the state of California, this week's guest is proof that curiosity is the first step to building something meaningful.

    A huge thank you to ISACA Sacramento for hosting an incredible appreciation event and welcoming the WakeUpX team in to capture some amazing conversations. The energy in that room was something else, packed with passionate professionals, emerging talent, and leaders who genuinely invest in this community. We walked away with outstanding interviews and video content that we can't wait to share with you. More episodes from this event are coming, so stay locked in. 🔒 I sat down with Anil Reddy (Kondakrindi), founder of ARK Strategies Inc., a CMAS-certified small business IT consulting firm that works directly with state and local government agencies across California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and beyond. Anil brings over 25 years of corporate experience and 10 years of deep focus on cybersecurity, in a space that desperately needs leaders who understand both the technology and the public sector mission behind it. What started as a leap of faith during the pandemic has grown into a firm specializing in cloud security, penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, security policy development, and digital transformation, powered by platforms like Microsoft Power Platform, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Workday. We talked about: 💼 Why he left the 9-to-5 to build his own consulting firm 🏛️ How he landed his first public sector engagement with zero prior policy writing experience (and scored perfectly on the CISM to prepare) 🤝 Why relationships, integrity, and community are the real foundation of a consulting business 🔐 How he handles the stress of security breaches at 2am 🤖 His perspective on where AI is headed and what it means for security 🌐 Why he's expanding ARK Strategies beyond California and what "serving the citizens" actually means to him One moment that stuck with me, Anil said, "Don't just bring the problems. Bring the solutions." That's the entrepreneurial mindset right there. For anyone looking to break into cybersecurity, he had this to say: start with education, get certified, then go show leaders what you know. Simple. Actionable. Real. 🎧 Listen on Spotify, watch on YouTube, and follow along at wakeupxpodcast.com for more conversations with CISOs, CTOs, CEOs, serial entrepreneurs, and the professionals shaping the future of cybersecurity. This is just the beginning, we have major guests coming up across tech leadership, cyber defense, and entrepreneurship. You don't want to miss what's next. 👉 Connect with Anil: linkedin.com/in/anil-reddy-kondakrindi-1933891🌐 Learn more about ARK Strategies: ArkStrategiesInc.com🎙️ More episodes: wakeupxpodcast.com #WakeUpXPodcast #Cybersecurity #Entrepreneurship #PublicSector #ISACA #ISACASacramento #CyberLeaders #SmallBusiness #ITConsulting #ARKStrategies #CISM #SecurityPolicy #DigitalTransformation #CloudSecurity #SacramentoTech #CyberCommunity #PodcastAlert

    10 min

  4. May 23

    The Innovator's Dilemma, Pure Consumption and How to Stay Sharp in Cyber with Larry Switzer

    Why can the biggest companies in cybersecurity see disruption coming and still not stop it? In this episode, Larry Switzer breaks down the innovator's dilemma and why business model is the real battleground for the next generation of cyber companies. When an incumbent is locked into how they charge customers, a startup running pure consumption pricing can win ground they simply cannot defend without burning down their own revenue engine. Larry also shares his playbook for staying ahead in one of the fastest moving industries on the planet. Follow the top venture capital firms. Study what the leaders at Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, and Zscaler are doing and why. And above all else, find people who have actually done the work and get in the room with them. Training is useful. Experience is irreplaceable. This is a conversation about disruption, business model innovation, and what real growth looks like in cybersecurity. Featuring Larry Switzer and the team at Ziggiz.AI. 🙏 Thank you Larry Switzer for another phenomenal conversation on Wake Up X. Your perspective on business model innovation and staying ahead in cybersecurity is exactly what this industry needs to hear. Honored to have you on the show. 🎙️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLODZHZk6rF5j9esSSLcFbvDGJSqlhs2ZM Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wake-up-x-securing-tomorrow-empowering-today-with/id1792821643

    2 min

  5. May 16

    25x More Efficient Than Any SIEM: How Ziggiz.AI is Redefining Cybersecurity at Petabyte Scale | Larry Switzer

    ⚡ 25 times more efficient than any SIEM. 980 times faster threat detection. Petabyte scale data ingestion at a fraction of the cost. In this episode of Wake Up X, Larry Switzer goes deep on the technology behind Ziggiz.AI and why it represents a fundamental rethinking of how cybersecurity platforms are built for the AI era. Most security platforms were designed around search. You collect logs, store them, and search for threats after the fact. That model is broken at modern scale, especially for healthcare organizations and highly regulated industries dealing with AI driven attacks and massive data volumes. Ziggiz.AI does detections on the stream. As data flows in, threats are identified, data is enriched with geolocation and threat intelligence in real time, and insights surface immediately. No waiting. No prohibitive storage costs. No leaving critical log sources unmonitored because ingestion is too expensive. Larry walks through exactly what that unlocks for security teams: Full visibility into every asset across the environment. Instant blast radius analysis when an intrusion occurs. Toxic combination detection before incidents escalate. New use cases built with Databricks, SQL, or Sigma without rebuilding from scratch. And a fully open, plug and play architecture built on Databricks Spark with Delta Share, so teams can connect any tool and any partner instantly, including AlphaLevel for advanced ML and statistics based detection engineering. You own your data. You control who sees it. You can revoke access at any time. One source of truth at petabyte scale. This is what it looks like to build security infrastructure that is actually ready for the world we are living in now, not the one from ten years ago. 🙏 Thank you Larry Switzer for bringing this level of technical depth and clarity to the Wake Up X podcast. The work being done at Ziggiz.AI is genuinely moving the needle for healthcare and highly regulated industries that need it most. Grateful to have you on the show. 🎙️ 👇 Subscribe and listen on your favorite platform so you never miss an episode. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/28GZnRBrIV2efHOhZdiftt YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLODZHZk6rF5j9esSSLcFbvDGJSqlhs2ZM Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wake-up-x-securing-tomorrow-empowering-today-with/id1792821643 #Cybersecurity #ZiggizAI #SIEM #DataLake #AI #Databricks #HealthcareSecurity #ThreatDetection #InfoSec #WakeUpX #LarrySwitzer #CyberDefense #DeltaShare #StreamProcessing #RSA2026 #PetabyteScale #MachineLearning #AlphaLevel

    2 min

  6. May 15

    HI Will Always Beat AI — Serial Entrepreneur John Cuellar on Building Businesses, AI Security & Managing Non-Human Actors | WakeUpX

    “Trying is not failing. I don’t care what the outcome is. If you tried — you did not fail. Period.” That is how John Cuellar thinks. And after 30 years of building businesses from the ground up — through dot-com booms, market crashes, a deal that closed one month after September 11th, $130 million raised in a SaaS venture, and now an AI-driven enterprise built to solve the organizational problems nobody else wants to touch — that mindset makes complete sense. John is the CEO and co-founder of Cascade Clarity, a serial entrepreneur, UC Santa Barbara biomedical engineer, Cal Berkeley Haas MBA, and one of the most well-rounded business minds WakeUpX host Efren Salazar has ever sat across from. This conversation covers everything. John started his career wanting to be a doctor. He studied for the MCAT and came close to getting into UCSD medical school. When that did not pan out he went to work for the US Navy as a civilian engineer. That did not fit either. So he got his MBA from Cal Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, did an internship with Swiss Bank Corporation, and then walked away from all of it to volunteer in Bulgaria for two years through the MBA Enterprise Corps. When he came back he built his first business — a systems integration firm — from zero to $10 million in revenue with no outside capital. No investors. No rounds. Just profitable growth funded entirely by the profits of the business. Six years later he sold it to Mellon Financial Corporation — and closed the deal on October 5th 2001, less than a month after September 11th, while the buyers sat in New York still processing what they had witnessed from their windows. The lesson he took from that first business — you cannot go broke making a profit. Then he learned the opposite lesson. His second venture raised $130 million across multiple venture rounds over 15 years and never scaled to meet expectations. When the dust settled he had made 10X more on the first business — the one built with no capital — than on the one that raised nine figures of other people’s money. Now he runs Cascade Clarity — a fractional CTO firm and enterprise AI consultancy focused on the problem most organizations ignore until it is too late. Organizational governance. Data accuracy. The infrastructure that AI agents need to actually work. Because here is the truth — an AI agent is only as good as the data it operates on. And in most organizations that data is a mess of dual entry systems, siloed departments, outdated org charts, and spreadsheets that only one person knows exist. John breaks down why security and governance are the biggest risks in AI deployment right now. Why ServiceNow got hacked. Why any public-facing agent is exposed. And why the stories coming out of companies deploying AI without proper security infrastructure are — in his words — absolutely horrific. He also raises the question nobody in the executive world is asking yet. Executives have spent their entire careers learning to manage people. But if AI agents are doing the work of five people — who manages the agent? How do you measure its performance? How do you know if it went off the rails? That skill does not exist in most organizations yet. And it needs to. That is what his Executive Leaders Lab is being built for — a tight-knit group of executives getting their hands dirty with real AI use cases, learning what governance and security actually look like at the practitioner level, and building the skills to manage non-human actors alongside their teams. Launching late July. Details at the Cascade Clarity website. John also shares how his van broke down in Ecuador during a trip through the Andes and a stranger who helped him get to Quito became one of his business partners six months later. Because networking is never where you expect it to be. And he ends with a line that will stay with you. ▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-Tt2XKA1-jw?si=RbauZ9upUstQ5NJ6 🌐 Full episodes: www.wakeupxpodcast.com

    1h 2m

  7. May 8

    Why Cybersecurity Is a Community Effort — Not Just an IT Problem | RSA Conference 2025 | Jorge Avila

    🔐 Cybersecurity isn't just an IT problem — it's everyone's responsibility.In this episode of The Wake Up X Solutions Podcast, Efren sits down with Jorge Avila of Paleo Tech Group — recorded LIVE at RSA Conference 2025 — to talk about why protecting your data is a community effort, and how one simple LinkedIn message sparked this whole conversation.If you think cybersecurity doesn't affect you — think again. Your data lives on someone else's data. And theirs lives on yours. 🛡️🔥 What you'll learn in this episode:✅ Why no single company or government can protect your data alone✅ How ransomware and cybercrime target entire communities, not just individuals✅ What the RSA Conference is and why the cybersecurity community is MASSIVE✅ The power of LinkedIn networking — how Jorge found Efren in under 30 minutes✅ How Paleo Tech Group is empowering Latinos in cybersecurity and AI💬 The bottom line: Data protection is not a solo mission. It takes all of us working together to stop cybercriminals in their tracks.👇 Connect with Jorge Avila:🌐 paleotechgroup.com💼 LinkedIn: Search Jorge Avila — Paleo Tech Group🎙️ Listen on your favorite platform:🟢 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gNNknZKj▶️ YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gugPZpFK🎵 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wake-up-x-securing-tomorrow-empowering-today-with/id1792821643⏱️ Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:00 Why cybersecurity is a community effort04:00 How your data is connected to everyone else's07:00 Ransomware and real cybercrime threats10:00 Efren's first time at RSA Conference13:00 How Jorge found Efren on LinkedIn in 30 minutes16:00 The power of networking and community📲 Follow The Wake Up X Solutions:Subscribe for weekly episodes on entrepreneurship, tech, AI, cybersecurity, and empowering the Latino community to build wealth and freedom.#Cybersecurity #RSAConference #DataProtection #CommunityFirst #WakeUpXSolutions #PaleoTechGroup #LatinoInTech #Ransomware #CyberAwareness #Networking #LinkedIn #Podcast2025 #LatinoPower

    2 min

  8. May 6

    From West Sacramento Streets to Wake Up X Podcast — Real Stories From the Next Generation of Cybersecurity | ISACA Sacramento Community Special

    This one is different. No studio. No prep. Just real people, real stories, and a microphone open to anyone willing to share their journey. WakeUpX host Efren Salazar showed up to the ISACA Sacramento Appreciation Day and did what he does best — started conversations that needed to be heard. He opened by sharing his own story. Growing up in West Sacramento in the 1990s surrounded by gangs. Isolated. No siblings. Discouraged in school. The friends who pushed him toward computers instead of the streets. The reality check that changed everything. And the 10X Rule that turned a mindset shift into a movement — tattooed on his arm as a daily reminder to never settle for the original goal. Then he handed the mic to eight people who are proof that the path into cybersecurity looks nothing like what you expect. Irene Shaju started in astrophysics, pivoted to MIS and business analytics, and chose cybersecurity because of a clear-eyed view of where AI is heading. It's either controlled by the people who understand it — or it controls everyone else. She chose to understand it. Harmanjot Singh was born in India, came to the US during COVID, earned the Cyber Corps Scholarship for Service, holds a Security+ and ISC2 certification, and had a US Department of Justice interview for a digital investigation analyst position the same week this was recorded. Jared Holloway grew up as a former foster youth, interned at Golden 1 headquarters, and is finishing his MIS degree at Sac State while building toward a career that bridges cybersecurity and project management. Resilience isn't a word he uses lightly — it's how he got here. Zankar Vaishnav transferred from Sierra College, joined ISACA his very first semester at Sac State, and is working toward his CompTIA Security+ after being pulled into the defensive side of cybersecurity by managers who let him shadow their work behind the scenes. Kevin Bali is the student chapter president of ISACA at Sacramento State and president of the MIS Association. He's studying business administration, MIS, business analytics, AI management, and minoring in criminal justice — all in pursuit of one goal. Digital forensics. Bringing justice to families and making communities safer through technology. He said something in this episode that stopped everything in its tracks. "The job can be really great. The duties can be really great. But if it's not the people you work with that you enjoy — then it's for nothing." Solomon Lee moved from Chicago to Sacramento six years ago. He chased the CS six-figure dream, got rejected by big tech over and over, pivoted to cybersecurity, and never stopped grinding. He's building a SIEM lab on Azure, preparing for his CCNA, working a job that has nothing to do with cyber, and studying and labbing every single day anyway. Jesse Telles came from software engineering and found his direction in cybersecurity through his love of architecture and system design. His focus now is supply chain security — the vulnerabilities that get baked into systems when AI automates supply chain creation at scale, and the knock-on effects that ripple across everything connected. Companies like Stryker are finding out in real time how costly those vulnerabilities can be. Eight stories. Eight completely different paths. One community holding them all together. This episode is for anyone who has ever felt like they started too late, switched directions too many times, or didn't fit the traditional mold of a tech professional. These people are proof that there is no single path. There is just the decision to start — and the drive to keep going. ▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1axM1mSsAWo🌐 Full episodes: www.wakeupxpodcast.com Special thanks to videographer Alvin Jue 🎥Huge thank you to ISACA Sacramento for making this event possible 🙏 Follow the guests on LinkedIn:Kevin Bali • Solomon Lee • Irene Shaju • Zankar Vaishnav • Jarred Holloway • Harmanjot Singh • Ethan Ng • Jesse Telles

    19 min
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About

Wake Up X: Securing Tomorrow, Empowering Today with Efren L. Salazar" is your go-to podcast for bridging the gap between cybersecurity, business, and personal empowerment. Hosted by Efren L. Salazar, each episode dives deep into the latest trends in cybersecurity, offers motivational insights, and provides actionable business strategies. Our guests range from upper management to newcomers in the industry, sharing their unique stories of success, struggles, and the lessons learned along the way.

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