April through June of 2020 was a serious time. It was scary, and there was an overwhelming sense of "what are we supposed to do?" Days were tense, news was both paradoxical and coming in at a rate unfit for human consumption, and it was exhausting. I was looking for a fun distraction, and a good excuse to shoot some green screen video.
The Idea: So, How's Everybody Holding Up?
At the beginning of the lockdown, almost every zoom call started with some version of "So, How's Everybody Holding Up?". Rather than coming up with a clever name, I went with the obvious for the title of our short web show.
The idea was simple: shoot a DIY, rough video that covered exactly 3 things:
- Gather Data - Cover the top cybersecurity news story of the week.
- Ask Questions - Get a celebrity to say something - anything - about cybersecurity.
- Take Action - Have a real cybersecurity expert give one piece of actionable advice to viewers.
Was It Worth Doing?
Good question, and I think the answer depends on who you ask. If you judge success by the number of people that first learned about Axonius and became a customer solely because they found these videos to be so valuable, then the effort was a total failure. But if you judge success by giving people a couple of laughs at my expense, then I think it was totally worth it.
Cybersecurity is a serious business with real consequences. It shouldn't be taken lightly. But at the same time, I think we all need to find time to find the humor in what we do, step away from the FUD and firefighting, and laugh at something.
Final Episode
When looking through the Axonius resource center this week to decide what content to retire or refresh, we decided to pull the plug on the series. If someone is looking to learn more about solving the asset management challenges for cybersecurity, we have a lot of great content that shouldn't be mixed with a goofy video series. But when we looked back at the series, we realized it had been a year since we shot the videos. So before putting these out to pasture, I decided to do one more.
When you think about how wild 2020 was, what celebrity would be the perfect embodiment of the year? I have a thought, and you can find out what it is by watching the one-year anniversary (and final) episode here:
The Rest
And in case you are like most people on earth and haven't seen every episode of the show, here it is in its entirety: So, How's Everybody Holding Up.
Episode 1 – May 5, 2020
Rotating Identities, Featuring Cedric the Entertainer
Episode 2 – May 8, 2020
A Very Brady Cyber Tip, Featuring Barry Williams
Episode 3 – May 15, 2020
Keep Your Life Safe, Featuring Sinbad
Episode 4 – May 21, 2020
Protecting What Out to Be Private, Featuring Penn Jillette
Episode 5 – May 28, 2020
A Message of Thanks to Cyber Pros, Featuring Lisa Loeb
Episode 6 – July 17, 2020
Protect Ya Neck, Featuring RZA
