I was too busy talking and forgot to ask Chuck Drury for a picture, but did grab this selfie of the group from the lobby before we headed out for the day. Don’t mind my son digging for gold :)

Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, the unthinkable happened: I tested positive for COVID-19.

Being young, healthy and having taken all of the necessary precautions to not get the coronavirus, I was surprised to say the least.

A lot of people say that they’re not a morning person, and three years ago, that was me. But when I wanted to start working out again, I found I was too tired after work to go to the gym, so something had to change. I finally committed to going to a few morning classes and it was the best thing I’ve ever done for my health.

It's 2018 and I'm flying off on the very first helicopter ride to Appomattox—a large platform in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico that I helped design and build at Shell. Like a floating city, these platforms perform operations with the precision of a surgeon, miles beneath the ocean floor—so they're pretty impressive.

In case you didn’t know: Walmart is big. It’s so big, it is the largest private employer in the United States, with over 1.5 million employees. Now imagine driving change from the top, having the support of the CEO to lead Walmart’s efforts in community outreach.

Meet Jose (Pepe) Estrada, the Director of Public Affairs at Walmart. Over the past 15 years, he’s worked with LatinX, LGBTQ, American Indian, People with Disabilities, and Emerging Generations communities. He’s even led Walmart’s first influencer-based reputation management initiative.

I realized that I wrote this article, How to Digitize Anything, but never explained why I'm qualified to write about it. I thought it might be a good time to share the backstory. Five years ago I started a software company called DayJibe.

This was my first business, and I went through the entrepreneurial rollercoaster. I envisioned developing a platform that digitized architecture and civil engineering firm processes—an all-in-one digital toolkit for these firms.

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been six months since I hit “publish” on that first post. But here we are, six months into a venture that has helped me grow exponentially as a project manager and as a person.

The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was the fear of putting myself out there. I remember sitting in my living room with my wife, Phoenix, at my side. It took me hours to hit publish on the first article, “What is Project Management.” I had so many questions running through my head. What are people going to think? Are they going to like what I’m doing?

Having never posted anything before, I didn’t know what to expect from a readership standpoint, either. Would hundreds of people read my post right away? Or would it be crickets?

Walking to the store. Buying an ice cream cone. Driving to work. What do all of these seemingly disparate things have in common? They all involve some sort of process, or a series of steps that can be replicated to reach a certain goal.

I believe that everything in life can be considered a process, and what’s more, I also believe that there’s also a way to digitalize any process out there.

I’m a proud second-generation Latino. My childhood was a mix of dancing salsa in the kitchen during family gatherings while my mom served up fresh homemade tamales. But like many second-generation Latinos, I had to balance that life with growing up in an almost all-white Catholic elementary school in New Jersey.

As a mechanical engineer, Minal’s first job was working in the software industry with 3D-CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing). At the time, designing and building cars was a booming industry that had yet to see countless recessions take their toll on the Michigan economy. While working with 3D CAM, Minal saw the power of software and knew that’s what he wanted to do. He also knew it was where the future was headed, because according to Minal, “I quickly realized, EVERYTHING is going to be related to computer science.”

Many years ago, I was on a failing project, which was stressful for all involved. Another project manager asked me about a very specific type of piping that I didn’t know about and she berated me for it. “How can you call yourself a project manager and not know that,” she said. My response? How can you consider yourself a good project manager if you think you need to. Confused? Let me explain.

Believe it or not, project managers share many of the same skill sets as CEOs. It’s just a difference of scale: CEOs manage companies and project managers manage the projects that generate more revenue for companies. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that project managers are CEOs in training, since their day-to-day responsibilities are a microcosm of what to expect in the C-suite. Are you a project manager with CEO aspirations? Here are five skills project managers and CEOs have in common.

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), project management is taking over how most organizations operate, even in fields like healthcare, where there’s been a 17% growth in demand for project managers. By 2027, it is estimated that 2.2 million project manager roles will need to be filled by employers.