Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s Next
Between Fires and Futures is the podcast for modern tech leaders caught in the constant tension of today and tomorrow.
It’s the space between daily firefights—cloud issues, AI hype, security breaches—and the visionary work of building scalable, resilient, future-ready organizations.
Each week, we talk with the strategists, technologists, and innovators doing the real work of leading change. These are unfiltered conversations that expose the tradeoffs, wins, and lessons no one puts in the case studies.
No spin. No fluff. Just pressure-tested leadership, real-world insight, and bold thinking.
https://www.technologymatch.com/
Episodes
19 episodes
The Invisible Load of IT Leadership: Pressure, Clarity, and Decision-Making in the AI Era with Dave Zaron
If you are an IT leader carrying constant urgency, invisible pressure, and expectations that keep shifting faster than your organization can stabilize, this episode names what most leaders are experiencing but rarely talk about.
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1:04:08
AI Grew Up Fast: Reasoning Models, Agents, and What Leaders Do Next with Dell’s Allen Clingerman
If you still think AI is something your organization can “watch for another year,” this episode will change your mind.To open season two of Between Fires & Futures, Tonya welcomes back Allen Clingerman, Chief Technology Stra...
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1:05:01
Toxic MSPs: The Silent Threat Inside Your IT Strategy with Z7’s Zack Aleksic
If you’ve ever renewed an MSP contract while thinking, “This partnership isn’t working…but I don’t have the energy to fix it,” this episode is the one you’ve been waiting for. In today’s conversation, Tonya sits down...
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32:55
Cool Again: What IBM’s Reinvention Signals for IT Leaders Right Now with IBM’s Josh Kropf
If you think you know IBM, this conversation will change that. In this episode, Tonya sits down with Josh Kropf, Director for IBM Americas (Arrow), for a candid, energizing, myth-busting look at what it really takes ...
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54:22
Stop the AI Chaos: How to Start Where It Actually Matters with Sciata CEO, Michelle Tinsley
In this episode, Tonya sits down with Michelle Tinsley, CEO of Sciata, to cut through the noise and finally get honest about what it really takes to do AI right inside a modern organization. With 30 years of experience across In...
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38:24
Inside the Hacker’s Mind: How IT Leaders Can Stay Ahead of Cyber Threats with Z7’s Zack Aleksic
In this episode, Tonya sits down with Zack Aleksic, Founder and CTO of Z7 Solutions, to explore the evolving battlefield of cybersecurity—and what it really means to lead when attackers are already inside the walls. With more than 30 years of e...
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40:31
Getting Started with AI: What to Do First, What to Avoid, and How to Win Quick with Josh Einstein, ConRes
In this episode, Tonya sits down with Josh Einstein, Cloud Architect, Software Developer, and AI Engineer at ConRes IT Solutions. With over two decades of experience spanning the dot-com boom, telecommunications, and now artificia...
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42:26
Cybersecurity Won’t Save You. Resilience Will with CTO Justin Young
In this episode, Tonya sits down with Justin Young—Chief Technology Officer at Commercial Tool Group. With more than 25 years in IT leadership, Justin has navigated both large enterprise environments and mid-size manufacturing—where the ...
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33:21
Leadership vs. Management: What IT Leaders Must Master with Maxwell Leadership's Mike Lyles
In this episode, Tonya sites down with Mike Lyles—Head of IT at Maxwell Leadership, keynote speaker, certified coach, and author of The Drive-Thru Is Not Always Faster. With more than 30 years of experience leading Fortune 50 IT teams,...
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46:31
Leading with Presence in the Age of AI with Leslie Ann Keeler
In this episode of Tonya sits down with leadership visionary Leslie Ann Keeler to explore what it means to lead in an era defined by rapid AI innovation and constant change.With nearly two decades of experience guiding founders, executiv...
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1:03:20
Stop the Budget Bleed: How IT Leaders Can Unlock Hidden Dollars with Leslie Bonsett
Is your IT budget quietly bleeding while you’re too busy putting out fires to notice?In this episode, Tonya welcomes back Leslie Bonsett of Global Consulting Group for a deep dive into IT cost optimization. If you’ve ever said, “We d...
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41:03
Power Is the New Currency: AI Adoption vs. Infrastructure Reality for CIOs with Joel St. Germain
AI is moving faster than the infrastructure that powers it. While headlines focus on breakthrough models and business outcomes, CIOs and IT leaders are running into the real bottleneck: data centers, power capacity, and sourcing.In this ...
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47:28
Why Women Are Essential to Transforming IT Leadership in the Age of AI with Leslie Bonsett, April Armijo, Lara Mayes
In this powerful and candid conversation, host Tonya Turrell sits down with three trailblazing women from GCG — Lara Mayes, April Armijo, and Leslie Bonsett — to explore how female leaders are reshaping the future of tech. Together, they unpack...
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1:09:15
From Firefighting to Forward Thinking – Automation for the Modern IT Leader with Chris Miller, Advizex
Want to know what automation strategies are actually working for real enterprise teams?Automation may be one of the most overused buzzwords in IT—but it’s also one of the most underutilized solutions. In this episode, we sit dow...
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44:24
The IT Leader Has Evolved – Are You Still Just a Technologist? with Jason Frame, Southern Nevada Health District
Is your IT leadership evolving fast enough to meet the demands of today’s human-first, AI-driven future?In this episode, Tonya sits down with Jason Frame, CIO of the Southern Nevada Health District, to talk about what it truly means to l...
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40:45
The Cost of Complexity – How IT Leaders Can Rein in Cloud Spend without Killing Innovation with Martin Hauskrecht, Labyrinth Labs
Is your cloud bill out of control—despite doing “all the right things”? You’re not alone.In this episode of Tonya sits down with Martin Hauskrecht, Head of Engineering at Labyrinth Labs and curator of the TLDR DevOps newsletter, to unpac...
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33:57
IT Can’t Do it Alone – Solving the AI Adoption Gap with Steve Grosso & Danny Jones, Advizex
Are your AI pilots technically successful—but still not going anywhere? You’re not alone. So what’s really holding back AI adoption in enterprise environments?In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, we sit down wi...
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43:07
The Tech Buying System Is Broken—Here’s What I’m Doing About It
Ever wonder why tech buying feels broken—and what could actually fix it?In this episode, host Tonya Turrell, founder and CEO of TechnologyMatch.com, pulls back the curtain on the legacy lead generation system that’s failing tech leaders—...
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21:21
AI at the Speed of Light: Allen Clingerman on Data, Infrastructure & the New Era of Tech Leadership
In this premiere episode of Between Fires and Futures, host Tonya Turrell sits down with Dell Technologies’ Chief Technology Strategist, Allen Clingerman, to cut through the AI noise and get clear on what tech leaders actually need to ...
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44:41