All right, welcome everyone back to dissecting popular IT nerds.

And today we have Marcus Merchant on with us.

He is the director of IT at Old Thompson, which is actually a really cool company.

You guys make spices.

And we're going to continue the theme of or build upon the theme of IT as a business force multiplier because a lot of people get stuck in an environment

where IT is really a cost center. That's kind of the old school mentality. And we might not even

call it old school because a lot of people still manage IT as a cost center. It's still a line

item on the P&L. But first, welcome to the show, Marcus.

Why don't you just give us a little background on yourself? A, like, how did you get into

IT to begin with? What's the history there? Maybe, you know, what was your first computer? I like

asking people that because I kind of like living in the past a little bit with my 386. Let's just

go from there, man. Great. Thanks for having me. I've living in the past a little bit with my 386. Let's just go from there, man.

Great. Thanks for having me. I've been in the IT road for quite a while. Kind of a funny story, how I originally got into it back when I was 18. My parents moved about six hours away and I decided to stay and I had broken my foot.

I had broken my foot playing lower hockey and my friend was doing tech support for a company

in Southern California here where I'm at and he actually stole a copy of the test, and I memorized the answers,

and I went in, ace the test, and got the job.

And when I first started way back then, it was all management was gone at Comdex.

It used to be held in November. So all the management was gone at Comdex, right? It used to be held in November.

So all the management was gone to Comdex,

this is prior to CES.

And so I got my first week with no one knowing

that I didn't know what the heck I was doing.

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