Voices of the Vigilant S2 EP1 | Running Toward the Fire: Cybersecurity, Motherhood, and Marathons
In This Episode
Saeger Fischer of Omada Technologies joins me for Voices of the Vigilant Season 2, Episode 1!
You can learn more about the conversation and the guest below.
Tune into the audio version of this episode by clicking the player below:
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VIDEO: Voices of the Vigilant S2 Ep01
Running Toward the Fire: Featuring Saeger Fischer, Senior Account Manager of Omada Technologies
About the Guest
Reinvention isn’t a neat pivot. It’s a grind, a choice you make on hard mornings, and a mindset you carry when no one’s clapping. We sit down with Saeger Fischer of Omada Technologies—former educator, mom of three, and 17‑time marathoner—who rebuilt her career in cybersecurity by treating learning like training and partnerships like team sports. Together we trace the real skills that translate from the classroom to the SOC: structure, self‑teaching, differentiated learning, and the patience to process before speaking. If you’ve ever felt behind, this story shows how consistent effort compounds into momentum.
We also zoom out to the big picture leaders are wrestling with. Is the AI bubble nearing a correction as tools overpromise and underdeliver on simple workflows? Where do agentic SOC models fit, and how do we balance machine speed with human judgment? We break down why you can’t buy your way out of risk, how to separate signal from vendor noise, and why relationship‑driven selling outperforms quarter‑end pressure tactics. Then we dig into category shifts reshaping architecture: the rise of enterprise browsers like Island, collapsing brittle stacks, enabling zero trust without heavy VPNs or VDI, and speeding secure onboarding in minutes, not months.
Finally, we confront timelines most teams prefer to defer: post‑quantum cryptography. Ten‑year roadmaps are already stale, and “harvest now, decrypt later” is not a thought experiment. We outline pragmatic steps to inventory crypto dependencies, prioritize migrations, and budget in phases. We also talk about public‑sector headwinds and where practitioners can still find trusted signal—peer communities, credible advisories, and leaders who share what actually works. If you’re eyeing a move into cyber, or you’re in the trenches and need a reset, this conversation blends grit, guidance, and grounded predictions you can act on today.
Full Episode Transcript
Jess Vachon: 00:35
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Voices of the Vigilant, the podcast where we explore what it means to stay awake, aware, and human in a rapidly changing digital world. And happy new year. Welcome to season two, episode one. I'm your host, Jess Bashaw, and today's conversation is one I'm especially excited about because it sits right at the intersection of reinvention, resilience, and real-world cybersecurity. My guest today is Saeger Fischer from Omada Technologies. Saeger currently protects the digital frontier as a senior account manager, but her journey into tech is anything but linear. She's a former educator who turned what she calls a quarter life crisis into a full-blown tech triumph. And honestly, if it doesn't already resonate with you, give it five minutes. Saeger, welcome.
Saeger Fischer: 01:21
Thank you so much. I can't tell you how excited I am to have this conversation with you. When you asked me to be on the show, I was absolutely thrilled. So very honored to be here and I love what you're doing. I think it's a great service to the tech industry.
Jess Vachon: 01:35
Oh, thank you so much. One of the things I didn't mention to people that is probably going to surprise people, it surprises me. You are a 17-time marathoner, in addition to being a mom of three. Is that correct? That's correct. Yes, yeah, yes. So, we're definitely going to delve into that because if anyone's done a marathon or even a half marathon, you know how challenging that is. 17, 17? Can't believe that.
Saeger Fischer: 02:01
Yeah, it's um I say I joke, and like with three kids, I have to run off the crazy somehow. And somehow 17 marathons are still not enough to do that. But I am truly, truly passionate about it. So, it's I would love I could talk all day about it. Something that I'm deeply passionate about and love. It does not, uh, it brings so much joy to my life before I start my day job. So, it's definitely how you're able to kind of help reconcile some of the craziness that's in our industry before you start your day. So, it's a big, I don't look at it as a hobby. It's definitely something it's like; it's not a question of if I'll do it, it's like, yes, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion as a part of my day to kind of set me up for the rest of the day.
Jess Vachon: 02:40
So, let's explore that a little bit. So, you talk about the craziness, and you talk about what running brings to you. I know for myself, I start out every day to deal with that craziness. I have to meditate and then I do at least an hour-long workout, and that's six days a week. And that is my burning off the angst, kind of getting my mind to where it needs to be. Describe, you know, what drove you to be a runner, when did you start that? And then what you know, when you're going through that run, I suspect you're thinking through things, you're planning your days or your whole life, you know, balancing everything. What, what, how does that work for you? It's beyond the endorphins, right?
Saeger Fischer: 03:21
Yes, absolutely. So, I, a little bit of background, I played competitive sports my entire life. I was a field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, track, you name it. I kind of played it growing up. And so, when I got to the end of the college where I pursued field hockey, I played there for four years at St. Lawrence University, and I moved to New York City to kind of start my career. There was just this void. You know, you go from you play athletics your entire life, and then all of a sudden, like it's done. Like, that's it. And so, I was doing a lot of soul searching and I actually watched the New York City marathon when I was there, and I was like, that looks awesome. Like it was just like the most magical experience I can possibly describe. And it's the reason why it's so magical, but it's because anyone can do it. Like it's you just have to have a pair of running shoes, a watch if you need it or want it, and just the drive to put one foot in front of the other. And I was like, what an amazing experience. Like, there's people out there for eight hours, not an easy thing to do. And so, I was like, I'm going to try that. And so, I did my first one that following spring, the Vermont City Marathon. Of course, I said I was never ever going to do it again, ever, because it was just your first marathon. You have no idea what you're doing. It was an awful experience. And then two weeks later, you're like, once the dust is settled, you're like, okay, but I did it. You know, I did it. And then you keep chipping away in it. And it's kind of like, it really is for me, like the parallels between what I do on a day-to-day basis, you get in what you put out. Like, that's what I love about our industry is that very rarely do you talk to anyone that went to school for tech that studied and got a degree in tech in college. It's like they just kind of stumbled upon it and they had a curious mind, and they kept chipping away and they kept working at it. They got this certification, or they did, you know, this captures the flag event, and you get in what you put in. And that's what I love so much about running. And so, I've kind of worked at it over the years and I've set various goals. I have an awesome group that I run with in around here that I meet at least four out of the seven days. We run all outside all winter. So that helps. But it really is when I wake up in the morning, you know, how I go through the thousand tabs that I have open in my mind and how it sets me up for the day. So, I feel very fortunate that it's a part of my life and I've met some of the most amazing humans along the way. But I do see a lot of parallels to what it, you know, what I do on a day-to-day basis with my role and what I do with my running too. So, I love it. It's not for everyone.
Jess Vachon: 05:48
It's not for everyone, but I do want to talk about how you get into your career, but there's for people who are not runners, who have never run a marathon, they probably don't understand what goes on in a runner's head as they're doing all the different miles. And I've done half marathons, so I know what went through my head. Sure. There are things you're thinking about, there's the distance you have to run, there's the pace you're trying to keep, and then there's everything that's happening with your body that may or may not be what you want to have happening as you're running. So, talk about those challenges as you experience them as a marathon runner, and then what those lessons are that you've learned that you've now used to uh to guide your life.
Saeger Fischer: 06:37
Yeah, as cliche as it sounds, your mind is so much stronger than what your body tells you. You can trick yourself into finishing and completing just about anything. I mean, there were long runs where I was in, I started getting really into distance running when I was in grad school back in upstate New York. And if you want to talk about debilitating cold, like I can't even begin to describe there'd be runs where I literally would like to sit down on the side of the road. I purposely never bring my cell phone with me because I don't want a way out. I want to be able to work my way through it. And there's never been a run where I've had to like flag down a car or believe me, there's been runs where it's been it's an ugly finish when you're having a bad day, but you can trick yourself into doing just about anything. So, it's a tremendous exercise in strengthening your mental toughness and just completing something, going out and completing the task, you know. So even on the hard days, you just have to say, you know, putting one foot in front of the other, counter breath, whatever your mantra is for that day. We can do hard things, you know. It sounds silly, but honestly, like it, it works. It works. And I have, it's like been such a guiding light for me throughout my life. I think just sports in general or movement, movement in general. It does not have to be running a marathon. It can be just going and playing pickup basketball or golfing with your friends, just any. I don't say it's a replacement for therapy, but it certainly is, for me at least, helpful, a tool that you can rely on for sure.
Jess Vachon: 08:20
Yeah, that and that's great because I'm happy that how you outlined that and how you talked about the resilience and how you break it down into pieces and how you don't give in when your mind may be saying, hey, you know, there's an easy way out. So, you had this quarter life crisis, you were in education, and then you decide to go into cybersecurity. Talk a little bit about that transition.
Saeger Fischer: 08:46
Yeah, so I look I invested a lot into my career as an educator. I got my master's in education administration. So, I spent two years doing that back at St. Lawrence University and was a grad assistant for the field hockey team. And so never in a million years did I think, like, okay, I'm going to like abandon this career that I've spent a lot of time pursuing, especially getting a higher degree in it. But I ended up working in a boarding school in Massachusetts for four years. I wore, as you do working in a boarding school, you're not just a teacher, you're a coach, you're an advisor, you're a dorm parent. It is all-encompassing. You are teaching classes on Saturday mornings. It's a lifestyle and it's a great lifestyle. But like many educators, you get very burnt out. And you go into the profession with very altruistic intentions. I'm going to make a difference. And 100%, like there's I have a profound amount of respect for our educators, much like our healthcare workers, as you and I were discussing on the call before we jumped on. But you just you get burnt out. And so, one of my friends that I went to college with, St. Lawrence, has this amazing networking alumni program. One of my great friends, his dad owned a tech company in Portsmouth, and he was like, “How about you just give it a shot? Try it out for a year.” And so, I, to be honest with you, had no intentions of staying in the field of tech. It was more just a bridge to until something opened up, either at like a day school where I could catch my breath, where I could maybe have somewhat more of a life. So, my intention was to just give it a stop. And then I would always return to education when something opened up local. And then, you know, so the first six months, like I did just I didn't even like know how the internet worked. Like when someone said the cloud, like I genuinely like looked up in the sky, like I had no idea, no idea. And the first six months I was like, what have I done? Like, what have I gotten myself into? What is this insane industry? And this was all before AI, like, all before you had all those tools at your disposal to teach yourself. And so then one day it just starts clicking. Like I just watched a bunch of YouTube videos, like, and I knew that I was responsible for the trajectory of my career. I was 29 years old, so I got into the industry later. I was in this, you know, it is making cold calls with 21-year-olds. So, I had to like very much so like humble myself, but I knew I was responsible for the trajectory of my career. So, I just started studying and working to understand. And it's truly what I love the most is that every day is different. It's such a fascinating field. And then eventually there was a day where I was like, hmm, I didn't have to ask any questions today. I didn't have to ask any questions. And it was, I remember the day very clearly. I was like, and what a great feeling. You know, it's like, okay, I finally think I'm getting this thing. So, it was totally like by happenstance, luck, and then just sheer ignorance that I kind of like found, found my way into this field. And I don't think that's that un that uncommon in our industry, you know? Maybe even more so like you know, then, but yeah, just a very roundabout way to get into it. But very fortunate that the stars aligned when they did.
Jess Vachon: 12:08
Yeah. No, I agree with you that I don't think it's that uncommon that people come from different backgrounds and different industries into cybersecurity. What tools that you had acquired in education do you think helped you to succeed making that transition from education into cybersecurity? It sounds like the research element of that was certainly uh beneficial to you, but what else did you draw upon?
Saeger Fischer: 12:36
100%. I would say learning how to study, learning how to teach myself, learning how to be structured. Because listen, this there's no, I shouldn't say there's no playbook, but there's no, you know, this is how your day is. Every day is very different, and you have to be willing to be flexible. And if you want to learn something, the onus is on you to make sure that you're sticking to that structure and you're sticking to that schedule and you're being honest about the work that you put in. And so, I think certainly just the ability to keep my stick with a plan, make a plan, stick with a plan, and then put in the time to really wrap my head around the information. And look, that looks different for everyone. How you retain information is very individualized. For me, I am very much so a consumer, even to this day, of podcasts, of you know, the IBM lightning board sessions. Those are, I can't recommend those enough. Those are awesome for all your visual learners. So, for me, it wasn't just sitting and like reading a newspaper article or anything like that, or opening up, you know, networking for dummies book. Like I am a consumer of very visual. And so, it's just knowing for me personally was the best way that I was going to learn. And honestly, like I wish I had learned that more in college. And I think I would have been a much better student if I had had that awareness about myself. I'm definitely someone who has to like take the information, look at the information and I have to sit with it. Very rarely are you ever going to see me be the first person to raise my hand in a conference room and ask a question. I'm somebody who has to really like take a minute. And it took a long time to accept that that's like you don't have to, you don't, you know, there's when you're growing up, they're like, well, Saeger needs to contribute more in the classroom. And now I'm like, it's actually okay the kids don't. Like they learn differently. So, I think, you know, long, long answer to your question, but I think I can't emphasize enough just being able to learn how to teach myself in that education background.
Jess Vachon: 14:47
Yeah. So many important things in there. I, you know, I heard you talking about what I've learned is called differentiated learning, right?
Saeger Fischer: 14:55
Yeah.
Jess Vachon: 14:56
Some people learn from reading, some people learn from watching, some people learn from doing, and that's an important thing to know about yourself, but it's also an important thing to know about the people you work with because the success of what we do, you from the sales perspective, and myself from the leadership perspective, is we have to tell stories and we have to educate others. So, using those tools, understanding those tools, understanding how people learn and how they listen and how they process, which you just talked about, is super important. I'm a lot like you. I've actually had people; supervisors tell me before that they thought I was zoning out because I wasn't saying anything in the meeting. And I said, no, I'm listening, I'm processing, but I'm not going to speak unless I feel I have something valuable to bring to the table. And if I don't feel I have enough information, I don't want to speak like a fool and waste everyone's time. So yeah, that's a great lesson for our listeners to hear.
Saeger Fischer: 15:59
Yeah, talking just to talk for talking sake is just like I've never understood it. I used to feel like I had to. If I didn't say something in a meeting that was like hugely impactful or meaningful, then like the meeting was a failure, you know. And it's like, no, I'm actually like, maybe it's because I'm now 41 and I'm very you just reach a certain age where you're like, this is a fundamental truth. One of the most important lessons that I learned, I think so far in my life is that nobody cares about you as much as you care about you. Which, you know, you just if being inauthentic to yourself and you know, being that person that feels like they just need to like be in the conference room and take up a lot of space isn't authentic to who you are, then don't do it. Like, don't do it. But like you said, I think it's so important. Like if somebody's having a leadership role, they need to be cognizant of how they're, you know, the people that they're leading learn and not try and try to meet them where they are, right? And I think it just having that awareness is so important because I've had leaders where that's not the case. And it can lead to a lot of imposter syndrome in this industry, which I think is especially for women and minorities in this industry, it's a huge problem, right? So, I think you're spot on there.
Jess Vachon: 17:09
Yeah. That was a nice way to for you to avoid saying gaslighting as well, because that's and it's okay on this podcast to say more people because it happens all the time. Yes, yeah.
Saeger Fischer: 17:24
Yeah.
Jess Vachon: 17:26
So, you know, you've been doing cybersecurity sales for a while now. How have you seen the approach that you've had to take with customers or the in the industry in general? How have you seen that change over, say, the last three to five years?
Saeger Fischer: 17:42
Good question. That's a great question. It has changed I think dramatically. I think, you know, back when I first started, I was honestly working on a lot of more like infrastructure opportunities. Like the firewall was kind of the end-all be-all to cybersecurity, right? Like that was like the only not the only thing that you needed, but that was the main thing you needed. And that has changed drastically. I think, you know, what I'm enjoying doing most of now is a lot of pen testing. The anti has been upped, you know, as far as security is concerned. And I think one thing is that you can't buy your way out of risk, right? You can't, there's no tool that no matter what any vendor says to you, there's no magic bullet. So, I think it's definitely much more of become a much more of a consultative approach. Just because you think you need this tool doesn't mean that it's going to be something that you have the folks on your staff to be able to support. So, it's very much so like, here's what the industry might tell you that you need, but here's what we're seeing on a day-to-day basis. We're in the trenches. And just because it's the best and greatest and flashiest doesn't mean that it's going to be the best for you. It's so noisy. It's so noisy. It's just, it's, I don't know how security professionals in your shoes stay on top of it and are not completely and utterly overwhelmed on a day-to-day basis. I it's it blows my mind.
Jess Vachon: 19:27
Yeah, it's um like you, it's constant reading, constant education. Like you it's non-stop. If you're going to be in cybersecurity, especially if you're going to be in cybersecurity leadership, it's sprinting. So, it's like a marathon, and you'd like to keep a pace, but you just can't. Sometimes you need to sprint and sometimes you need to pull back. But if you ever sit down, forget it, your race, your career is over. We just can't do it.
Saeger Fischer: 19:55
So, I guess for like a question that I have for you is like if uh how you wake up each morning and you're like, “all right, like we're doing it again”. We're like we're doing we're doing all these things again. Like, how do you like reconcile that? Because at the end, like there's no, I think what I struggle with a lot in our industry is like, there's no, it's not an a nine to five. It's not a nine to five. And I it's it can, I guess it can be if, and I'm I truly admire those people that can make it a nine to five and put those safeguards in place where it where it is. I think that that that should be the standard, not the exception.
Jess Vachon: 20:38
That's a good question back to me. Uh I think I've always had this mindset of being a defender or standing up for others. So one, I look at my career as that. Every day I get up, I'm thinking, how can I make things a little bit better in my world in a personal role, but also at work. And so, I look at it as more than just securing the organization. I'm looking at it about how do I develop my team? How do I give them opportunities to lead? You know, what do they need? And I'm thinking about their families, and I'm thinking about the families of everyone across the organization, and in the services, we provide, I'm thinking of the customers. Like, how can I make sure that the data that we have on them is in the is uh in a place of trust, top privacy, top security, you know. So, I'm looking out globally. Now you can go down a rabbit hole and let that keep you up all night and think of all the things that you can't do. But to your point, you can't do all of it. Yeah, I spent six years in the Marine Corps, both enlisted and as an officer. And some of the officer training, what they intentionally do is they overload you with scenarios that you can't accomplish everything. What they want to see is how do you deal with the stress, how do you take the information you're getting, and how do you make the best possible decision with the best possible outcome that you can achieve with your resources? So, you're never expected to do the mission to 100% perfection because that's just not going to happen. And you can plan two, three, four, or five levels deep, and you're probably going to go down to the fourth and fifth level of plans because everything continues to change as you're trying to do your attack or defense. So, I kind of I guess I carry that with me. But then knowing that I can't do everything, I have to set limits, right? So, there's only so much I can do, there's only so much the team can achieve, there's only so much the organization can afford to invest in protecting itself. So, when I take all that and I put it into context, I'm like, okay, I'm one person in a very big world full of billions of people with different agendas. I can just do the best I can do today. And if I can make small improvements or smaller increments every day, then that's good. And then I go back and I do it again. Every day is a little bit different, so I'm never bored. I I've spoken many times and said I could not do assembly line work; I couldn't do it because I need to have something different every day. My mind just needs to be stimulated, I need to be challenged, I need to be learning. And cybersecurity gives you that.
Saeger Fischer: 23:14
Yeah, I think for me, that one of the most difficult parts about the industry in cyber was I think it had to reframe how I define success. Because there's never, you're never at the end of the day, like this has been completed to its like obviously it's you can complete a certain task to its completion, but there's you're never you're never done. There's always going to be another CVE. There's always going to be, and while that's great to keep your mind engaged, I think you just clearly like explained it, like you have to redefine for me. I had like what success is. Like, I'm very much so like a check, check each box and want to be done with it, but that's just not how it works doing what we do on a day-to-day basis.
Jess Vachon: 24:04
Right. And I think you know, so let's use marathons as an example, or I like to use climbing a mountain as an example. When I go to climb a mountain, I don't climb and I'm looking at the top of the mountain the whole time because that would just break my will to complete the hike, right? So, when I'm hiking, I look up the trail where I can see, I look at the trail map if I have one, and I say, I'm going to move to that point, right? So slowly I'm covering 100 feet, 200 feet, 300 feet, and I keep breaking it into segments as I'm hiking. Eventually, there's no more elevation for me to hike. I get to turn around and see the great view. And that's the goal, and that's the achievement. So, when I look at a cybersecurity plan for an organization, that's how I break it out. I can't do everything in one year. I can't do everything with the resources I have, but I can incrementally make progress. I can make the organization more resilient; I can set more tripwires out there that alert us when something abnormal is happening. And so that's the mindset I think you have to take to it. Same thing I think with being a marathon, or you're not thinking about this, you know, 17th mile, the 20th mile. You're thinking about two more steps, three more steps. I can see up ahead of me a hill, a corner, I'm going to make it there, and then I'm going to get to the next segment. And those are the little achievements that you make. In the back of your mind, you're thinking about your pace and you're thinking about the time that you want to have when you finish. But you may get to the end of that race and you're like, okay, I didn't hit my time, but I did complete this marathon.
Saeger Fischer: 25:35
So yeah, and you said something interesting too. You're like, I may not complete this in a year, and that is very normal. Like a year is a very long time, but there are projects that I have been working on that have been years, that have been years in the making, and so you really have to like be ready to be in it for the long haul, which I think is very unique to what we do. Like you just have to like it is very much so a marathon, not a sprint. And I think that that's just you have to have the mental fortitude to be okay with that. And nothing, I don't want to say nothing gets done quickly, but it's a slower pace to get longer-term projects done.
Jess Vachon: 26:26
Your perspective from the sales side of the cybersecurity house is very unique. I'll offer my opinion here that I think a lot of people, probably those newer to sales, they're trying to shortcut the process. So, you know, CISOs, I'm sure I can speak for a lot of other CISOs. We constantly are getting bombarded with reach outs on LinkedIn, people saying, “Have you thought about this? Have you thought about this?” Without ever having a conversation with us. We don't know who they are, they don't know who we are, they don't know what challenges we're facing. It's immediately they want to get in there and make a sale. I think those people who have been in cybersecurity sales for a longer period of time have developed better strategies for doing that. And I know where you where you work, you know, Mada Technologies has been around for a little while. The team there has a completely different mindset about how they approach their customers, which I think is why they're so successful. And I think when I look at people who are in sales long term, they all have this trend is they don't look at it as I need to get something and you're going to lose something. Like I need to get my quarterly metrics met and I need to get my bonus. They look at it more in terms of a win-win scenario. So, based upon your experience in marathons and in education and where you're working now, tell us a little bit about your approach to establishing those partnerships and what you deem to be a successful, successful partnership, not just for you, but for the customers that you're supporting.
Saeger Fischer: 28:07
You have to show up, you have to pay attention. You can't just push your agenda. I like what makes me and anyone else that would work at Omada cringe is when you see this catastrophic event happen, and then you see all these companies saying, “Well, if you had purchased this, this wouldn't have happened”. And I it literally makes my skin crawl because it's just like you are trying to take it that whether or not that's true, I don't know. It's probably not, if we're being honest. But you're taking advantage of a company or a CISO or someone that they're in the most, you know, precarious and vulnerable situation, and you're trying to exploit that. And to me, like, listen, like I young Saeger, third grade Saeger, did not wake up and be like, I want to be a salesperson. Like I very rarely think that that's the case. I wanted to be a vet. Organic chemistry was a real doozy. I, you know, it really was eye-opening in college. So that was kind of, and I realized that I wanted to acquire animals more than you know, be the one making the tough decisions as a vet. So when I got into sales, it it's very hard on a daily basis to say, like, I'm making a difference, but you really can if you go about it in the right way, if you go about it in an authentic way, if you keep showing up, if you go to like the ISSA New Hampshire chapter events, if you show up to the places that matter to the people that you're supporting and you just listen and you and you put yourself in their shoes and you don't push their own agenda, we have quarters at Omana, but they're fake. You know, we don't we have an end of year, but we would never compromise the integrity of our own personal brand or our companies just to try to get a deal done before the end of the year. And that's because they're very methodical about who they have in the organization, who they hire. And that's why I came here. This the humans. Like it's interesting because you know, you see all this on LinkedIn, and I truly, my heart goes out to those people that are just, you know, they give 15 years of their life to a company and then they're just let go in an email. And you know, you see all this verbiage about how your company isn't your family. I genuinely, in my heart, feel like the people that I work with are a part of my family. And I understand that that is the exception, not the rule. And that makes it a lot easier to say I'm a salesperson, you know. I think there's a lot of like negative connotation when it comes to that title. But I think if you go about it in the right way and you just are an authentic and trustworthy and genuine person; it makes it a lot easier to go to bed at night and know that you like actually genuinely helped someone by doing the right thing. Yeah, it's not hard.
Jess Vachon: 30:59
It's not hard. It should be a different title other than salesperson because I think Thank you.
Saeger Fischer: 31:04
I don't know what it should be.
Jess Vachon: 31:05
I don't know either, but because it when there when the when there's a partnership, and you've heard me say that this, and I know Matt, who you work with, has heard me say this a million times. A partnership is how I always refer to it, because it's got to be a win-win, and there has to be mutual respect in both directions.
Saeger Fischer: 31:24
Yes.
Jess Vachon: 31:25
And I've had other people I've worked alongside say, no, you got to you have to be harder on the on the sales rep. I said, no, because here's why I don't agree with that. If I'm in a jam, a product is failing, or we're under attack, and I need resources from this partner, and I know they have the resources, I want to be the one that they want to support because we have a good relationship established on trust, it's mutual, mutually beneficial, not an adversarial relationship. Because if I have that adversarial relationship, why does that vendor want to help me? Why does that salesperson want to help me if I've been treating them, you know, like they're unimportant, like they're not a person? There are people on both sides of these relationships, and it's important that we foster that and we look at it as collaboration. So that's why I struggle with salesperson because it just doesn't it doesn't fit. It's there's got to be a better title.
Saeger Fischer: 32:22
Like um, I think it fits for certain people, you know.
Jess Vachon: 32:26
Some, but it's more you're you know, you're more a success collaborator.
Saeger Fischer: 32:31
I like that. I hate the trusted advisor. It sounds very cliche. I don't trust the trusted advisor. I'm like, ah gosh, we've got to come up. But yeah, we can workshop this, Jess. And if you come up with another one, we're going to we're going to change the way people view salespeople.
Jess Vachon: 32:45
We'll work on that one.
Saeger Fischer: 32:49
Maybe people can comment if they can come up with any anything better. We can wordsmith this.
Jess Vachon: 32:54
There you go. If you're listening and you have a better idea, please send it into the show because I'm going to have Saeger back at the end of the year because we're about to go with a new title. With the new title, and we're about to move into our next segment. So, we're going to do the bingo card predictions, and I don't want to go too far out on this, but I'll start out. So, we're going to basically guess what we think is going to happen in 2026. Uh, we'll keep it to the industry because we could probably go, you know, down a rabbit hole.
Saeger Fischer: 33:27
We could go down a very deep rabbit hole.
Jess Vachon: 33:29
Yeah, so I'll go first. I think 2026 is going to be the year that the AI follows first, and here's why we have such heavy investments in AI that have been leading up to this point, not just in the AI itself, but in all the underlying technologies, money can only flow out from investors for so long before the investors are going to want to see a return. Now, some of these investors will be able to, whether you know, two or three or four or five years, but when you start to have hundreds of investors with so much capital laid out, if they're not realizing success in some form, they're going to start calling that money back in. So, I think this is going to be the year where we start to see that that bubble burst. I've been in I've been in the IT industry and information security industry long enough that I have seen multiple bubbles burst. I was around 2000 with the dot-com bust, and you could see you could see it coming. I mean, you had companies that didn't have a product, they had a promise, but not a product. And I see a lot of that with AI. There are so many AI products out there that just they're very niche or they're not delivering on their promises that I think it's going to bust this year. And one prime example I like to give. So, after I do the podcast, I have the transcript, and what I like to do is just highlight, just bold the speaker’s name and the timestamp. I tried four different AI applications, including Copilot, and I could not get any of them to complete that simple task. If an AI product in 2026 cannot complete a simple task like that, it's not going to do all the things that businesses think that it's going to do for them. We're just not going to realize it. And if the companies can't realize the return on that promise, then they're not going to pay for it. And that's where you're going to have the investors start to get upset. So that's my first one. I will turn it over to you, Saeger.
Saeger Fischer: 35:38
Yeah, that's it's so interesting because it's definitely, I mean, it's all anyone's talking about right now when they come into our, you know, in our conference room on Mondays to kind of give us the pitch on their products. I hope you're right, because even just from like an environmental standpoint with AI, I struggle it with it. Now, that said, what we have been seeing on my side of the fence is just the rise of the agentic SOC, you know, it's the industry's answer to so far, what I like to say, like a math problem that humans are no longer able to solve because of AI. So, I'm very interested to see what happens to the traditional SOC as we know it today. Because in my mind, just with the rise of AI and how it's being weaponized, it's hard to imagine not fighting AI with AI. I'm not saying there, the human component will disappear entirely at all, but I'm just very interested to see where we go with that and what balance we find. Because that's been a lot of part of the conversations. What's going to happen with those agentic sock companies out there? We'll see.
Jess Vachon: 36:57
Yeah. Interesting. Because I haven't really been considering that, but yeah, that's definitely one to watch. And we'll start to work on that at the end of the year. Another thing I think we're going to see for this year is around quantum computing or what we will call post-quantum computing, that era. Projections are, you know, 10 years that it's really going to become mainstream. But I believe in 2026 we are going to see the first almost commercially viable product that starts to break public key encryption. There's the Mosca equation, which is out there, which tells companies how they're supposed to be preparing. I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Mosca speak, I want to say, four or five months ago. It was very enlightening what he had to say about post-quantum encryption, but also that everyone was basing their plans on what he had said. And he pointed out, look, I said these things three to five years ago. So, the timeline that you're looking at of 10 years, you need to pull that in three and five years, which means post-quantum encryption, that period of time for cybersecurity is upon us. If you're not planning right now, you're already behind. We look at AI, AI went into kind of a dormancy phase in development for a long time, and then it exploded three or five years ago and caught a lot of us in cybersecurity off guard because we hadn’t, we hadn't been focusing on A. But post-quantum computing, we've known about it for a while. I think a lot of people, me included, didn't pay attention to it, especially when AI came about because we had to focus on that. Yep. But it's here, and this 2026 is going to be a year that changes everything. If you take that in-person conference that you attended, no, there's a professional organization I'm a member of that he spoke to us. I think it was probably 15 or 16 of us that he spoke to. So, it was uh it was a very unique situation. I'm very grateful for it, but I walked away with a whole lot of work that I had to do moving forward.
Saeger Fischer: 39:11
Yeah, I think um my I would the I don't know if anyone I mentioned the IBM whiteboard series, but Jeff Crumb, who leads them, does this fantastic kind of prediction for what's to come. And usually, he's pretty spot on. So, I would definitely encourage anyone to go and watch that whiteboard series. I'm sure we could probably like link it after this, but he's got some fascinating predictions and he's usually pretty spot on.
Jess Vachon: 39:43
Have you heard of a product called Island?
Saeger Fischer: 39:46
Yes.
Jess Vachon: 39:47
Okay. So why don't you, and I'm going to talk about why this is going to be on my list for this year, but why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about the Island product?
Saeger Fischer: 39:56
So, they have an enterprise. What's called an enterprise browser. Have you, what has been your and where's the right, and now there's companies like Netskope have their own option, Palo Alto has their own option. So, it basically, you know, in simple terms, instead of using a consumer grade browser like standard Chrome or Safari for work, like Island provides a Chromium-based browser that's basically designed specifically for corporate environments. So embeds security, governance, and productivity tools directly into the browser itself rather than you know bolting them on with separate agents or extensions. There's probably a lot more that I could get into, but that's a conversation. I'm having those conversations with folks two or three times a week.
Jess Vachon: 40:52
Yeah, and I'm not surprised. So, for the security people out there, you might look at island for uh browser isolation, but it is capable of doing so much more than that. It can displace all the hardware you have to have. If you want to talk about zero trust, it is really a product that is going to deliver zero trust. You could hire someone tomorrow, tell them to go pick up a laptop at their local computer store, bring it in, give them the link to the island browser, and they're off and running. You can give them all their applications; you can do all your role-based access control. It is going to be a game changer. It already is a game changer, which is why we're all these, yeah, you can get rid of your VPNs. Yep. Your organization can save a tremendous amount of money in both IT, but also in securing your organization. That is why you're seeing all these other big companies now, they're pivoting because they've seen that Island is taking their customers, and I can understand why Island is taking their customers. So, I think this is the year that Island is going to upset the security industry. It's going to upset the computer industry as well. And I would not be surprised if someone aggressively goes after them for acquisition in 2020.
Saeger Fischer: 42:09
100%. I and the thing about Island too is that, you know, not to make this a sales pitch for them, but one, they're an amazing organization to work with. And two, they are constantly innovating. I mean, it is unlike any other company I've worked with before, in that, you know, a lot of times you know, you'll ask them, well, is this feature available? And they'll be like, oh, it's on the roadmap. And it's like, you know, and then you like wait and then it's, you know, narrator, it hasn't even been put into, you know, production to get on the roadmap. Um, they really move quickly. It's remarkable. So, I think that's a great prediction and spot on for you to bring up. Like I, we are having these conversations on a daily basis with folks that we work with. So, it's very top of mind. It saves a lot of money for people and is solving a lot of headaches with heavy, you know, VDI environments and Citrix and all the things. So that's a good prediction.
Jess Vachon: 43:06
Well, thank you. Yeah, that's one of those products that uh I always picture it this way. If you if you've seen the meme where the guy is sitting in between two women and he's got supposedly his girlfriend on one side and he's looking at a woman on the other side, it's uh it's usually a meme about, you know, I have something great, but there's something else over here. And so, the Island product was kind of that moment for me where I was looking at security products and a plan over here, and all of a sudden, I looked at Island and went, wow, this is this is completely new. This is unique, there's nothing like it, and this is a game changer.
Saeger Fischer: 43:39
So yeah, in my mind, I think they're in the same bucket with like the WIZs of the world, you know, as far as like their trajectory and kind of like what the I mean, that company, Wiz in general, just like that was fascinating to watch, how that just exploded. You know, I forget what the metrics were within their first year, but it was truly remarkable. So, I think Island is in that category for sure.
Jess Vachon: 44:03
Yeah, absolutely. And it reminds me of I don't know if you're familiar with Drata, they make a governance risk and compliance product. Drata is another one of those products that really changed the whole game for governance risk and compliance platforms and their innovation cycle. I mean, every three months they're putting out new features and the companies built by governance risk and compliance professionals, so really spot on. I don't I don't have a prediction to make about them, but they're definitely a company to watch going through 2026 because they're on an upper trajectory. They started out just doing smaller startup companies and now they're moving into the enterprise-sized companies. So truly unique to watch. Now, I think my last prediction is that we're going to see a significant cybersecurity event at the federal level, and that is going to be due to lack of a cohesive vision for what we should have for cybersecurity at that level. I think the gutting of CISA is certainly going to have an effect on that. There are good people still at CISA, yeah, but I think they're struggling to do the right thing because a lot of the really brilliant people that developed the CISA organization are gone, and some of the positive direction the organization had been moving in has been uh changed for political gain. So, I think the eyes that the government needs to have on the infrastructure are not there right now. And either the North Korean government, the Chinese government, or the Russian government is going to take advantage of that back if they haven't already.
Saeger Fischer: 45:41
It's I think unfortunately, I think you are correct. It's sad. It's and you know, it's they did so, and I'm not saying they don't do this anymore, but they contributed so much. Just inform just information. Just, you know, so where who's going to step up and take the place of that? Who's going to be the guiding light, the single source of truth that you can go to? Like, is there a place now that you go to instead to get your information where you're like, okay, this is information that I can trust. This is where I need to like focus my attention and if that what they're saying is something that I need to be aware of and put top of my priority list.
Jess Vachon: 46:21
Yeah, for me, um, there's an organization called Ions, I-A-N-S, that has excellent individuals that are professionals in the organization. You can purchase services through IANS. I all these people I'm mentioning, I don't even do business with them. I'm just yeah, yeah. No, I'm pressed by them. So, I just want to put that out there. Sponsor the podcast. Yes, please sponsor the podcast. But they have some individuals there that are they're out in the trenches doing the work, and they bring some really good guidance forth to the industry. You know, there's some common voices that are out there, there's some really good podcasts that are out there that have some good information to share. There's the CISO Society, which is out there, yeah, which is I don't even remember how many of us are in there now. I think we're over 2,000 members. So, we're talking, sharing information, creating white papers, creating guides, and sharing those. I mean, when you have all of us doing the same type of work, it makes sense for us to start sharing some knowledge there. But yeah, hopefully things you know change in the government. I hope someone from the government is listens to this podcast and says maybe we should do some more with you know, bolstering CISA and making sure that it's capable of truly defending the uh IT infrastructure of the nation because it's vitally important to the defense of the nation.
Saeger Fischer: 47:42
Yeah.
Jess Vachon: 47:43
And to and to our privacy, right? Each of us values our individual privacy, and I think we need to trust that our government is valuing that equally.
Saeger Fischer: 47:53
So, it's hard to get folks to understand or care until it like directly impacts their day-to-day. I'm waiting, you and I discuss, I'm waiting for any of anyone else that's obsessed with the show The Pit. I'm waiting for them to do an episode where it's focused on like what happens when everything breaks, like just from like a tech perspective. Like that to me would be like a truly fascinating because I think people just like when you're going into these hospitals, like you don't think just about every how everything there is connected until it impacts you. You just don't even give it a second thought because it just works. So that's an episode I would like to see. So, if anyone from the pit is watching this podcast, that's my point.
Jess Vachon: 48:40
I would like to see that as well. And I've actually I've worked in healthcare, so I've I know what happens. You've lived it happened. I'd be happy to consult the pit. So yeah, I this has been a great conversation, and I want to thank you for being here because one, I think you give the perspective of someone who is non-traditional to the industry coming in and being very successful and you know, highlighting you people get to see, like, oh, I can learn all of this. Saeger learned all of this, and Saeger's successful. This is a good example for me to follow. So, I know there's a lot of people out there struggling, wondering if they should go into cybersecurity or not. And I say, yeah, if you're if you're hearing commonalities with Saeger's story to your own story, then then absolutely do it. And you know, if you if you have even hobbies that are challenging, like a marathoner, that's a challenging sport to choose. If you do something like that, then then you might have the temperament to be in cybersecurity. If you've been in education, you definitely have the type of temperament to be in cybersecurity. I've hired people who are bartenders, uh, police officers, uh, former military authors of books. So, you can come from any industry and be successful in cybersecurity if you if you just want to apply yourself and you have the ability to learn. But all those skills you bring, those intrinsic skills, matter. And I Saeger's story is a is a prime example of this. Taking your life lessons, taking what you've learned, taking the challenges you've overcome, and deciding that you can do something new and being successful at it. And I've had the pleasure of being able to watch you for a few years in different segments of the industry, and just so happy that you ended up at Omada. I think that was a brilliant choice on their part to bring you aboard. And I know they would agree with me as well.
Saeger Fischer: 50:37
Yeah, they're good humans. And thank you. Yeah, I think to your point, you just if you have a curious mind, and I think we did a lot of folks, you know, back pre-COVID, a big disservice when we're basically like, I think the belief was, oh, if you get a degree, there's going to be a job, you know, in cybersecurity, there's going to be a job waiting for you right when you graduate. And so, I think it created this misconception, which was just woefully just so unfair to those that decided to pursue this career and just now has created this bubble. And I wish I had an answer for it. I can just say, show up to the events, your local events, find a mentor. I if you uh I love working with folks, I love reaching out to like, you know, engaging with folks in the community, happy to answer any questions that you might have. Find your people and just keep working at it, do the capture the flag events, just keep chipping away and you know, ask for help because it's not easy, but it's worth it. It's a great career. It really is. It's a great career, but there's plenty of resources available for help if you need it. So happy to help in whatever capacity or is needed or wanted for anyone listening that's thinking about getting into it.
Jess Vachon: 51:48
That's awesome. Thank you for closing that up for us. To our listeners, if this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, share with someone who needs it, and let us know what conversation you want to do next. Until next time. Bye.
Saeger Fischer: 52:02
Bye. Thank you. Appreciate it, Jess.
