I Miss Writing About Networking – But I Don’t Know What to Say Yet

I Miss Writing About Networking – But I Don’t Know What to Say Yet

A lot has happened since my last blog post. I changed jobs at the beginning of 2024 and work for a vendor now, I left The Art of Network Engineering Podcast at the beginning of 2025, and honestly I’m still struggling a year later.

Throughout all of my posting I’ve always made it a point to be brutally honest and authentic. So, I decided the only way to keep writing to keep being brutally honest and authentic.

Let’s rewind a little bit

In late 2023 I was presented with an opportunity to apply for a couple of different positions at Zscaler. One was a Healthcare SE and the other was Demo Architect. By now you’re probably wondering what a Demo Architect is and I’ll explain that in a moment.

I had such a great conversation with the hiring manager for the Healthcare SE position. But, the fact of the matter is that I have absolutely no Healthcare experience. I had all the other relevant experience; I’m technical, I can establish a rapport with people pretty quickly, but I just didn’t have the healthcare background.

The Demo Architect position, however, is a mashup of everything I’ve been doing my entire career. As Demo Architect I maintain an environment that is built to look and act like an Enterprise Network. This Enterprise network pumps data traffic into Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange, then when you login to our Demo tenant it looks as if a real organization is using the products.

I know how to build and maintain enterprise networks!

As a Demo Architect I learn about new features and then create content that explains them to our Sales Engineers.

I’ve been creating content for years! Including learning new concepts and boiling it down to the important pieces and sharing my knowledge with my students as an Adjunct Professor, and with the networking community through my blog.

The best part, coming from Professional Services where I had to do tons of late night cutovers and maintenance windows is that there are no cutovers and maintenance windows! It’s a demo environment! If part if it is down we just jump in and fix it. If something needs to be upgraded it we just jump in and upgrade it. No scheduling, no change approvals, just doing the working when it’s most convenient for the team.

So, its a lot of work that I really enjoy doing, and I won’t say the job doesn’t have stress or pressure, just not the stressers and pressures that came with running an enterprise network, or working in Professional Services.

I’ve been in my new role for two years now and I honestly really enjoy the work that I do, and the people that I work with! I work with some extremely talented people, and I’ve gotten the opportunity to travel to some really amazing places. In February of 2025 I got to travel to India, and I had an amazing time!

The Podcast

Now, if you’re familiar with my involvement in The Art of Network Engineering podcast you might know that we started in the middle of the pandemic. Everyone was stuck at home, so listening to a podcast was one of the more entertaining things of those days.

Right from the get go we took off and soared to incredible heights. We quickly got sponsors, we met some of the most notable names in networking and had some of the most memorable conversations. And, I made some pretty amazing life long friends.

Fast forward a few years and life is starting to return to normal. People go back to work, and the numbers start to drop. They don’t just fluctuate, they do a very steady descent.

Over the last few years it felt like no matter what we did to try to maintain our audience the numbers just keep falling.

Sponsors are engaging with us less and less. Our once thriving community gets quieter and quieter.

Other members of the team had the discipline to draw a line in the sand with the podcast. I, however, did not. They do what they can, when they can, and nothing more. They were right to protect their time and energy. But there’s a lot of work that needs to be done…

Episodes need to be planned, recordings scheduled, interviews, editing, posting on social media, planning giveaways, running the business side of things. There’s a lot to do.

Some folks pick up slack here and there, but as life does it gets busy. When someone else is not able I pick up the slack.

And, I’ll be the first to admit that I was not very good at the business side of things…

Over time I end up putting in a ton of work for very little in return and in the summer of 2024 I burnt out, but I kept going.

Finally, in the fall of 2024 I crack. I’m working two full time jobs between my day job and the podcast and I just can’t do it anymore.

I tell the team I’m out. I almost closed down the podcast simply because it seemed like no one was interested in helping me, so why would they take on the entire thing?

But, Andy spoke up and said he wanted to take on the brand and keep the show going. At this point, I just wanted out. Andy and I made plan that by the end of 2024 he would take over the show and as of 2025 I would be out.

I won’t lie…

I miss it. I miss podcasting. But I don’t miss the stress of recording, editing, scheduling posts, trying to be an active presence on social media, and managing the business side of things. If I could just interview people and record episodes I’d love to find away to get back into podcasting, eventually, maybe.

Part of me wishes I could go back and do things, maybe, differently. But, I also have a lot of time back in my life. More time for self care, more time for my family, more time for the extracurricular things I like to do, like photography.

I miss doing a lot of things, but what I’ve realized is that I’m still healing from the burnout. I want to work on my photography but every time I think about posting on social media and everything it takes to be a successful content creator my body recoils and I want to run from it to protect myself.

My creativity is starting to heal

I’ve really put a lot into my photography in 2025, and I intend to do more of the same this year. I get outside and take photographs. I’ve started to sell my work at a local artists’ guild, and I recently had a pretty big sale! I also joined the Board of Directors of the Artists’ Guild and I really enjoy the contributions I am making to this community of Artists.

I was also gifted a film camera. I’ve NEVER shot on film until now. When I was younger I used those disposable film cameras, but nothing with manual settings. Film has really forced me to slow down and be more intentional with my compositions. I can feel that slowing down and intentional focus spreading to other parts of my life, and it’s been extremely helpful.

I can feel the spark coming back. The desire to write, to share my experiences and my stories. I recently lead an Intro to Photography workshop and I felt alignment like I’ve never felt it before. And the best parts, my students learned a lot from the workshop, and the next one is already on the books!

This is me healing

This article is me healing. It’s taken a lot of time to figure out what to write about. I want to study for a big cert and take you on my journey, but I’m not ready. I want to share all the cool things that I’m working on with you, but I’m not ready.

If you’re reading this, thank you for sticking with me, still supporting me after all this time. I appreciate you.