Impact Ladder Transistor (https://transistor.fm) https://feeds.transistor.fm/impact-ladder The Impact Ladder is a conversational career podcast for technical people who want to grow their business impact. Each episode, we sit down with someone who influences commercial outcomes in tech companies, startups, or technical ecosystems. Through the conversation, we trace their climb: the roles, the inflection points, and crucially, the skills and habits they deliberately built along the way. Because nobody moves up the ladder by accident. The through-line: as you became more impactful in your career, what did you have to change in yourself? Our goal of the podcast is to extract the hard won lessons learned by our guests that can help the next generation of people up-and-coming in their career in tech-oriented companies. © 2026 Andrew McBurney 79f9837c-5e6e-5f27-8dc3-91a3139077df yes en Fri, 04 Sep 2026 11:24:38 -0400 Fri, 04 Sep 2026 11:25:33 -0400 https://img.transistorcdn.com/o0zIDRfW2e1-13azdN-GSCnt7036JktGhUxtuXP9pY8/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yYzI1/N2ExZGY3MjBiYmIz/OTZjZTE3ODQxNjZm/YTY3Yi5wbmc.jpg Impact Ladder episodic Andrew McBurney The Impact Ladder is a conversational career podcast for technical people who want to grow their business impact. Each episode, we sit down with someone who influences commercial outcomes in tech companies, startups, or technical ecosystems. Through the conversation, we trace their climb: the roles, the inflection points, and crucially, the skills and habits they deliberately built along the way. Because nobody moves up the ladder by accident. The through-line: as you became more impactful in your career, what did you have to change in yourself? Our goal of the podcast is to extract the hard won lessons learned by our guests that can help the next generation of people up-and-coming in their career in tech-oriented companies. The Impact Ladder is a conversational career podcast for technical people who want to grow their business impact. sales engineer, solution engineer, tech careers, career development for technical people Andrew McBurey No No Kris Holt, Solutions Architect @ Red Hat 3 3 Kris Holt, Solutions Architect @ Red Hat full 9180efcc-00b4-4486-8f04-e68b01d23240 https://share.transistor.fm/s/6cbb6622 In this episode we have Kris Holt on, a Solutions Architect at Red Hat currently focused on the AI space. Kris shares a career path that started in a JPMorgan Chase mortgage call center right out of high school, ran through a contractor role in a data center that ended in him getting let go, and worked its way up through IT help desk and application support before he landed at Red Hat in 2021. He opens up about the eight years it took to finish his cloud computing degree at WGU while working full time, how often he got counted out of jobs for not having a degree despite knowing he could do the work, and how he went from dreading presentations to showing up at a partner event in an inflatable Mario costume, which is still the presentation people bring up to him two years later. Kris also gets into how he's using AI to learn about AI, why he's finally let go of needing to know everything in favour of specializing, and the Simon Sinek book that changed how he frames every conversation with a partner.


Kris's links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristofer-holt/


Andrew's links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmcburney22/
 https://elderado.ca

Like content like this? Subscribe to keep up to date.


Have a guest to recommend? Reach out to Andrew on LinkedIn - always happy to connect.

]]> In this episode we have Kris Holt on, a Solutions Architect at Red Hat currently focused on the AI space. Kris shares a career path that started in a JPMorgan Chase mortgage call center right out of high school, ran through a contractor role in a data center that ended in him getting let go, and worked its way up through IT help desk and application support before he landed at Red Hat in 2021. He opens up about the eight years it took to finish his cloud computing degree at WGU while working full time, how often he got counted out of jobs for not having a degree despite knowing he could do the work, and how he went from dreading presentations to showing up at a partner event in an inflatable Mario costume, which is still the presentation people bring up to him two years later. Kris also gets into how he's using AI to learn about AI, why he's finally let go of needing to know everything in favour of specializing, and the Simon Sinek book that changed how he frames every conversation with a partner.


Kris's links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristofer-holt/


Andrew's links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmcburney22/
 https://elderado.ca

Like content like this? Subscribe to keep up to date.


Have a guest to recommend? Reach out to Andrew on LinkedIn - always happy to connect.

]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2026 11:24:19 -0400 Andrew McBurney Andrew McBurney 2989 In this episode we have Kris Holt on, a Solutions Architect at Red Hat currently focused on the AI space. Kris shares a career path that started in a JPMorgan Chase mortgage call center right out of high school, ran through a contractor role in a data center that ended in him getting let go, and worked its way up through IT help desk and application support before he landed at Red Hat in 2021. He opens up about the eight years it took to finish his cloud computing degree at WGU while working full time, how often he got counted out of jobs for not having a degree despite knowing he could do the work, and how he went from dreading presentations to showing up at a partner event in an inflatable Mario costume, which is still the presentation people bring up to him two years later. Kris also gets into how he's using AI to learn about AI, why he's finally let go of needing to know everything in favour of specializing, and the Simon Sinek book that changed how he frames every conversation with a partner.


Kris's links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristofer-holt/


Andrew's links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmcburney22/
 https://elderado.ca

Like content like this? Subscribe to keep up to date.


Have a guest to recommend? Reach out to Andrew on LinkedIn - always happy to connect.

]]> sales engineer, solution engineer, tech careers, career development for technical people No Justin Gammage Director, Industry Partnerships @ University of Miami Frost Co-Founder @ Illuminex.ai 2 2 Justin Gammage Director, Industry Partnerships @ University of Miami Frost Co-Founder @ Illuminex.ai full fec60f8b-37c9-4904-b526-5169e36cc509 https://share.transistor.fm/s/88957d0a
This episode features Justin Gammage, co-founder of Illuminex AI, an airfield inspection startup, and Director of Partnerships at the University of Miami's Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing. He came up as a material science PhD and spent his early career at General Motors before pivoting into the partnership-building work he does today.


On this episode, we cover:

  • How Justin went from troubleshooting problems on the GM assembly plant floor to running research collaborations with universities, and what he had to unlearn to shift from manufacturing certainty to research "what-ifs."
  • Why selling into airports is slow: 18–24 month sales cycles, unpaid pilots, and a decision chain that can run 10 people deep at a major hub.
  • The mindset that runs through everything he does: you're never selling to "Toronto Pearson," you're selling to one person whose mortgage and next raise ride on your project delivering.
  • Networking tips from a self-described introvert who finds it genuinely hard to walk up to strangers, including his two go-to moves for surviving a conference room full of people he doesn't know.
  • The 2008 financial crisis wake-up call that reshaped how he thinks about his career, plus the mentor "aha moment" that taught him partnerships live or die on whether people actually like working together.

Justin’s Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-gammage-846bb613/

https://www.illuminex.ai/

https://idsc.miami.edu/justin-gammage/



Andrew’s links: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmcburney22/ 

https://elderado.ca 

Like content like this? 

Subscribe to keep up to date. 

Have a guest to recommend? Reach out to Andrew on Linkedin - always happy to connect.

]]>
This episode features Justin Gammage, co-founder of Illuminex AI, an airfield inspection startup, and Director of Partnerships at the University of Miami's Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing. He came up as a material science PhD and spent his early career at General Motors before pivoting into the partnership-building work he does today.


On this episode, we cover:

  • How Justin went from troubleshooting problems on the GM assembly plant floor to running research collaborations with universities, and what he had to unlearn to shift from manufacturing certainty to research "what-ifs."
  • Why selling into airports is slow: 18–24 month sales cycles, unpaid pilots, and a decision chain that can run 10 people deep at a major hub.
  • The mindset that runs through everything he does: you're never selling to "Toronto Pearson," you're selling to one person whose mortgage and next raise ride on your project delivering.
  • Networking tips from a self-described introvert who finds it genuinely hard to walk up to strangers, including his two go-to moves for surviving a conference room full of people he doesn't know.
  • The 2008 financial crisis wake-up call that reshaped how he thinks about his career, plus the mentor "aha moment" that taught him partnerships live or die on whether people actually like working together.

Justin’s Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-gammage-846bb613/

https://www.illuminex.ai/

https://idsc.miami.edu/justin-gammage/



Andrew’s links: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmcburney22/ 

https://elderado.ca 

Like content like this? 

Subscribe to keep up to date. 

Have a guest to recommend? Reach out to Andrew on Linkedin - always happy to connect.

]]> Wed, 05 Aug 2026 18:58:31 -0400 Andrew McBurney Andrew McBurney 2962
This episode features Justin Gammage, co-founder of Illuminex AI, an airfield inspection startup, and Director of Partnerships at the University of Miami's Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing. He came up as a material science PhD and spent his early career at General Motors before pivoting into the partnership-building work he does today.


On this episode, we cover:

  • How Justin went from troubleshooting problems on the GM assembly plant floor to running research collaborations with universities, and what he had to unlearn to shift from manufacturing certainty to research "what-ifs."
  • Why selling into airports is slow: 18–24 month sales cycles, unpaid pilots, and a decision chain that can run 10 people deep at a major hub.
  • The mindset that runs through everything he does: you're never selling to "Toronto Pearson," you're selling to one person whose mortgage and next raise ride on your project delivering.
  • Networking tips from a self-described introvert who finds it genuinely hard to walk up to strangers, including his two go-to moves for surviving a conference room full of people he doesn't know.
  • The 2008 financial crisis wake-up call that reshaped how he thinks about his career, plus the mentor "aha moment" that taught him partnerships live or die on whether people actually like working together.

Justin’s Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-gammage-846bb613/

https://www.illuminex.ai/

https://idsc.miami.edu/justin-gammage/



Andrew’s links: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmcburney22/ 

https://elderado.ca 

Like content like this? 

Subscribe to keep up to date. 

Have a guest to recommend? Reach out to Andrew on Linkedin - always happy to connect.

]]> partnerships, justin gammage, university of miami frost campus, illuminex.ai No John Patton - SVP @ High Tide Consulting, Inc. Ex Salesforce, Director of Solution Engineering 1 1 John Patton - SVP @ High Tide Consulting, Inc. Ex Salesforce, Director of Solution Engineering full 101e25cd-dcd8-4bcb-bc5e-8f1613e2a82e https://share.transistor.fm/s/e5ef1299 In this episode we have John Patton on, a Senior VP of AI and Data solutions at High Tide Consulting Inc. on. John shares what he learned from a 12 year journey at Salesforce starting as a Solution Engineer and ending his time there as a Senior Director of Solution Engineering while leading a team. John also gets into how he’s approaching conversations with customers at his current company to help them uncover and adopt new cutting edge agentic AI flows by leveraging the Salesforce ecosystem within higher ed and non profits environments. 

John’s links: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattonj/ 

Andrew’s links: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmcburney22/ 
https://elderado.ca Like content like this? 

Subscribe to keep up to date. 

Have a guest to recommend? Reach out to Andrew on Linkedin - always happy to connect.

]]> In this episode we have John Patton on, a Senior VP of AI and Data solutions at High Tide Consulting Inc. on. John shares what he learned from a 12 year journey at Salesforce starting as a Solution Engineer and ending his time there as a Senior Director of Solution Engineering while leading a team. John also gets into how he’s approaching conversations with customers at his current company to help them uncover and adopt new cutting edge agentic AI flows by leveraging the Salesforce ecosystem within higher ed and non profits environments. 

John’s links: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattonj/ 

Andrew’s links: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmcburney22/ 
https://elderado.ca Like content like this? 

Subscribe to keep up to date. 

Have a guest to recommend? Reach out to Andrew on Linkedin - always happy to connect.

]]> Wed, 22 Jul 2026 23:00:00 -0400 Andrew McBurney Andrew McBurney 3079 In this episode we have John Patton on, a Senior VP of AI and Data solutions at High Tide Consulting Inc. on. John shares what he learned from a 12 year journey at Salesforce starting as a Solution Engineer and ending his time there as a Senior Director of Solution Engineering while leading a team. John also gets into how he’s approaching conversations with customers at his current company to help them uncover and adopt new cutting edge agentic AI flows by leveraging the Salesforce ecosystem within higher ed and non profits environments. 

John’s links: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattonj/ 

Andrew’s links: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmcburney22/ 
https://elderado.ca Like content like this? 

Subscribe to keep up to date. 

Have a guest to recommend? Reach out to Andrew on Linkedin - always happy to connect.

]]> sales engineer, solution engineer, tech careers, career development for technical people No