Name:
Gary

In what part of town do you live?
I live in Kendall.

How long have you lived in the Miami area?
I’ve lived in a Kendall area for about 35 years. I lived here when it was just bushes and rabbits and avocado fields. I’ve lived in Miami for about 42 years. Originally, I’m from Jamaica. My mom and dad moved to New York when I was a little baby and then we moved to Miami.

Did you always think you’d stay in Miami?
You know, I didn’t think I’d always stay in Miami. But, I like being near my parents. It’s nice to have them around to help out with my kids. I’ve thought about moving other places because Miami’s getting crowded. However, my business is here too. My clients are in downtown and Coral Gables. You can do work remotely these days, but you still have to be here.

Would you share a little bit about your family?
I have two sons, they are getting big, really fast. One graduated high school at Columbus. He’s at FIU. They’ve both been competitive swimmers since they were young. My wife, is a physical therapist. She’s been a physical therapist for about 18 years. 

Would you share about what you during the week?
During the week, I like to work out in the mornings and play basketball, sometimes go for a ride. Then, it’s work time. During the day, I’m a network consultant or an IT guy. I mostly work out of my house, which is great. I have to go to clients weekly. And then, I take the kids around, to swimming, and do all the daddy stuff.

What type of networking and IT stuff do you do?
I set up servers and networks, I get people connected to all their applications. And then, I do administration for their networks, and things like backup, disaster recovery, and cloud networking. With the pandemic, people are working a lot remotely, and cloud networking’s been a big thing.

What let you to this profession?
Funny enough, I liked computers when I was younger. But, I used to work at Air Jamaica cargo as a supervisor. So, I wasn’t even near this profession. My wife was studying in physical therapy school, so she was studying all the time. I got tired of working in the airport and she’s like, why don’t you do something else? We thought about becoming an EMT or doing Microsoft with Cisco. I was like, ‘I like computers.’ It worked out well, because she was studying a lot, and I was able to study a lot. I was able to get my certifications to kickstart my career.

There’s been a huge increase in cyber attacks. What types of things do you do to protect yourself and to protect clients?
That’s been a big problem these days. Back in the day, all you had to do was worry about email worms and stuff, but now ransomware has gotten crazy. I’ve locked down all my clients. Now, it’s VPNs only and I push people into my cloud, because it’s a lot more secure there. I’ve been doing this for about 22 years. Within the last eight-nine years, it’s really ramped up every year, getting worse and worse. Ultimately it comes down to the user, I can put as much security you want on the network. But, a user can click on something in an email, and it allows someone in.

You mentioned earlier, ‘put them on your cloud.’ What does that mean?
We run a data center. It’s a place where people’s data resides. People log into our secure site and they work from there, instead of having a local server in their network. They can connect from anywhere in the world and have the same desktop and work the same everywhere. It’s more secure, we have 99.9% up time. We’re in a data center in downtown that is fully redundant with power and backup generators and internet connections.

You’ve been coming by the stand regularly, would you share about that experience?
Oh man, I love your stand. I was introduced to your stand by our mutual friend, David. The shakes are great. The turmeric tonic is awesome. Now my sons and I are loving it, and my mom’s into it too. Your produce is so fresh. I like to take care of myself and eat right. You guys are a part of that, which is awesome.

What do you pick up when you come?
The Rainbow Smoothie is my ultimate favorite. The granola is absolute fire. I keep some of those in my freezer, because you sell out really fast. I’ve been taking a shot of your Turmeric Concentrate every day. I feel pretty good, so I just keep taking it. It’s an organic way to get turmeric, instead of popping pills. And, yours is pretty potent. And, I like how it tastes.

What other spots around town do you enjoy that you can recommend?
I love Thai food. One of my favorites is Bangkok City on Bird Road, right off the Palmetto. Also, I love barbecue and this place used to only be in Orlando, but now they have a location in Coral Springs. It’s called Four Rivers Smokehouse. It’s great barbecue. It’s pretty cheap and it’s great.

What is Miami’s best kept secret?
Crandon Beach. Everyone talks about Miami Beach, Miami Beach, but Crandon is awesome, you can play volleyball and stuff like that. It’s kind of the local’s beach. I love that you can barbecue out there and have a good time. We usually go with the family and have some drinks.

What for you is a worthy splurge?
Cars, I’m big into cars.

What do you have your eyes on next?
I drive a Tesla now. I would love to get a Model S Plaid.

What community events are important to you that you might like to promote or share?
The Dolphins Cancer Challenge just passed. It’s a bike ride and you join up and get donations. They have multiple rides, there’s one for everyone and afterwards it’s a good time to get together. I did the 15 mile ride with my kids.

Would you like to share a pitch about your business?
I’m a network consultant. I deal mainly with businesses. If anybody needs help, you know who to call.

What question, challenge, or words of advice would you like to pose to the community?
I tend to drive around a lot and I think people need to calm down out there. Everyone could relax a little bit, especially here in Miami.

What question would you like to ask us?
Are you guys going to open up a store or stay where you are?

(A+W) We love where we are, we have plans to develop the inside into more of a walk in place, but we are still working on other things first.