Boyd Clewis teaches people how to enter cybersecurity and build tech careers, drawing on experience solving security problems inside companies. His advice covers hands-on learning, nontechnical routes into security, and helping businesses meet security needs without blocking progress.
Security should enable the business, not block it · Cybersecurity is not only technical work; career changers should not be discouraged · Get hands-on experience where you already work
Audience
41012 LinkedIn followers · almost 340,000 YouTube subscribers, self-reported
Boyd Clewis teaches practical ways into cybersecurity and tech careers, and how security professionals can help businesses move forward safely.
Their advice covers hands-on experience, transferable skills for nontechnical security roles, and understanding a company’s priorities.
Follow their work for career guidance grounded in workplace examples, alongside reflections on learning and professional growth.
Clewis connects career advice to choices readers can try.
For aspiring cybersecurity professionals, they recommend testing a role through shadowing or volunteering at a current employer, and point out that the field also needs project managers, policy writers, data analysts, and compliance officers.
For people already working in security, their American Airlines example shows how understanding a company’s goals changed their approach: instead of simply rejecting proposals, they looked for ways to make them secure.
They also share lessons from setbacks and ambition.
Their account of feeling like a “minnow” among larger creators at VidSummit makes room for humility: listen, learn from people further ahead, and help others coming up.
Boyd Clewis writes about entering cybersecurity and how security professionals should act inside a company.
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Two commitments run through the posts: the field extends beyond technical roles, so career changers should be assessed on transferable skills rather than turned away for lacking a list of certifications; and security succeeds when it enables the business instead of blocking it.
A quieter theme is the value of learning: document fixes until you can design systems, and seek out rooms where you are not the most accomplished person.
The posts use first-person workplace stories, direct questions, and numbered steps; none quote a guest.
Security should enable the business, not block it
Boyd Clewis argues that security professionals need to understand what a company does: their job is to make initiatives safe, not say no.
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In an early security role, shutting down coworkers' ideas on security grounds led people to route around them and cast them as an obstacle to progress.
Later, with a clearer grasp of the company's priorities, they changed their approach: agree first, then find a secure way to proceed.
They call this business enablement and say it built trust and made them more valuable.
As a senior security architect at American Airlines, Boyd Clewis worked in a business built on customer service and travel, with payments made online. Their job was to secure credit card data and prevent fraud, not reject the payments work.
Presented as a change in their own practice, with a direct contrast between their first cybersecurity role and later senior work.
Cybersecurity is not only technical work; career changers should not be discouraged
Boyd Clewis challenges the belief that cybersecurity requires a technical background or a prescribed list of certifications.
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They also criticize professionals who respond to career-change questions with nothing but certification recommendations.
The field includes many nontechnical functions: project and people management, writing and reviewing policy, data analysis, collecting and reviewing evidence before an assessment, and tracking remediation plans.
Their advice is to understand a person's transferable skills before offering guidance, rather than undermine someone's confidence in a field with many entry paths.
The list makes the case: they ask who would manage projects, people, policies, data analysis, assessment evidence, and remediation plans if every security role were technical, then invite readers to name overlooked nontechnical roles.
For people aiming for tech or cybersecurity roles, Boyd Clewis recommends shadowing or volunteering at their current employer before jumping to a new company.
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Shadowing shows whether a role is a genuine fit before they commit, and an internal pivot is smoother at a company that already knows them.
Clewis says being upfront with leadership about wanting to learn can even lead to a position being created, as it did for them.
They call the on-the-job learning expectation getting paid to learn, but stress that people must first demonstrate commitment through online training or a certification before approaching leadership.
They point to Forage job simulations as a place to start and say that having a role created for them was the approach that worked.
This sits in tension with their criticism of certification-only advice: here, certifications are not an entry requirement but a signal of commitment to show a manager before asking for a chance.
In a career retrospective, Boyd Clewis traces the turning point to a mindset shift: moving from fixing isolated problems to spotting patterns, documenting solutions, and building systems and processes to stop the same problems recurring.
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Their advice to their younger self: document everything, take on more than you are asked to, and pursue problems worth solving rather than titles. They credit that approach with leading to a business at 33, global speaking, mentoring, building tools, and working with large companies.
Their timeline: arrested at 19, failed out of college at 20, started in tech support at 22, broke into cybersecurity at 25, and built the business at 33, without a mentor or a blueprint. They went from fixing problems to designing systems that prevent them.
The arc is not presented as purely upward: they describe losses that hit their bank account, confidence, and sense of calling, and say they kept solving problems and showing up.
Put yourself in rooms where you are not the most accomplished person
Boyd Clewis treats being unrecognized as useful.
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At a creators' conference, they had roughly 340,000 YouTube subscribers but were surrounded by people with audiences in the millions.
Nobody knew who they were, and they say they hope it happens again: anonymity let them focus on learning, ask better questions, and see the room expand what they believed possible.
Their principle is to learn from people ahead of you while helping those behind you.
They warn that if you are always the most accomplished person in the room, it may be protecting your ego instead of expanding your thinking.
At VidSummit, a cybersecurity and business speaker used to being recognized attended an event where nobody approached them and chose to spend the time listening to people further ahead.
If you are an IT professional or career changer looking to break into cybersecurity, this post explains why practical application matters more than technical knowledge or titles alone.
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It offers a concrete path to gaining relevant experience through existing employment.
Boyd Clewis stresses that technical roles in cybersecurity require practical, hands-on experience that often outweighs certifications alone.
For those starting out, they advise actively seeking shadowing or volunteer opportunities within their current organizations.
They frame this as 'getting paid to learn' but emphasize that individuals must first demonstrate a commitment to learning.
For brands planning a campaign
A training company could position its entry-level programs as essential 'experience-bridging' tools, or a corporate training module could encourage employees to pursue internal shadowing opportunities.
This offers technical professionals a crucial perspective: security is not a barrier to progress but a function of it.
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Newcomers can learn why they need to view their technical role through a business lens.
Clewis highlights that effective cybersecurity roles require a deep understanding of a company's core business objectives. They explain that once their role and the organization's priorities—such as customer service and digital payments—were clear, their focus shifted from simply saying 'no' to security threats to securely saying 'yes.' Clewis calls this 'business enablement,' an approach that builds trust and avoids unnecessary organizational conflict.
For brands planning a campaign
For enterprise security consulting firms or executive leadership training programs, this content makes a clear case for selling security solutions that drive revenue and operational continuity, not just mitigate risk.
This is a vital resource for anyone who feels unqualified for tech roles.
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It shows why modern security functions need diverse skill sets and validates non-traditional career paths.
Clewis challenges the common industry narrative that cybersecurity is exclusively a technical field.
They identify numerous non-technical roles essential to cybersecurity operations, including project managers, policy writers, data analysts, and compliance officers.
They advocate encouraging and supporting people transitioning into the field, regardless of their initial technical background.
For brands planning a campaign
A diversity and inclusion initiative within a tech firm could cite this post to support hiring non-traditional candidates for governance and compliance roles. Educational platforms could market non-technical career-changer tracks based on these needs.
This is a strong piece of professional biography and motivation.
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It offers a blueprint for professional maturity, showing how technical success often depends on systemic thinking and personal resilience rather than a linear career path.
Clewis shares a candid account of their career, including overcoming early life setbacks without traditional mentorship or blueprints.
They explain that their professional success came from shifting focus: moving beyond fixing isolated problems to designing scalable systems and processes.
They advise those looking to scale a consulting business to seek mentorship and take initiative.
For brands planning a campaign
Personal coaching or executive mentorship services could use this narrative to emphasize the value of experienced guidance and strategic, proactive career development.
This offers a mature take on professional success.
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It cautions against ego and reminds professionals that even those with large platforms remain students of their field. It also makes the case for community engagement as a driver of professional growth.
Despite having 340,000 YouTube subscribers, Clewis reflected on attending major industry conferences as a 'minnow' among high-profile peers.
They valued the chance to learn from those further ahead and contribute to community growth, rather than being the center of attention.
The post emphasizes humility and continuous education over personal acclaim.
For brands planning a campaign
Industry conferences and professional networking platforms can use this observation to promote humble learning rather than a focus on status and high-profile appearances.
Boyd Clewis challenges the idea that entering cybersecurity requires a technical background or a list of certifications.
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They ask who would manage projects, people, policies, data analysis, assessment evidence, and remediation if every role were technical. Career changers, they argue, should be assessed for transferable skills before being discouraged.
A direct question, a list of nontechnical functions, and an invitation to comment.
For brands planning a campaign
A training partner can build a webinar segment or lead magnet around mapping transferable skills to security roles. It offers a constructive counter to certification-only messaging and a clear path for career changers.
Boyd Clewis recommends shadowing or volunteering with a current employer before changing companies.
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They explain how this can test whether a role is a fit and help employees pivot with an employer that already knows them.
They also advise asking leadership about learning goals and demonstrating commitment through training or certification.
Forage job simulations are named as a starting resource.
Numbered reasons, a first-person example of creating a role, and a named external resource.
For brands planning a campaign
The company can propose a practical workshop on finding internal security projects and turning them into a first role, with a handout of exercises for approaching a manager.
Using an American Airlines senior security architect example, Boyd Clewis contrasts an early career spent blocking coworkers' ideas with a later approach: saying yes and finding a safe way to proceed.
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They call this business enablement and connect it to understanding company priorities, building trust, and becoming more valuable.
A before-and-after personal story, a named employer example, and a coined term.
For brands planning a campaign
A training company can position a session or course module on stakeholder alignment and security as an enabler. The story gives the webinar a concrete, memorable frame beyond technical instruction.
Boyd Clewis recounts being arrested at 19, failing out of college at 20, starting in tech support at 22, entering cybersecurity at 25, and building a business at 33 without a mentor or blueprint.
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They advise documenting solutions, taking ownership beyond what is asked, and pursuing problems worth solving. The post ends with an offer of mentorship for IT professionals scaling consulting businesses.
A chronological personal narrative with direct advice and a postscript offer.
For brands planning a campaign
A cybersecurity training partner can use this narrative as a webinar opener or case-study hook, then transition into a structured curriculum. The mentorship framing also lends itself to a community or cohort offer rather than a one-off event.
After attending VidSummit, Boyd Clewis describes having almost 340,000 YouTube subscribers yet going unrecognized among creators with much larger audiences.
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They found the experience useful for focusing on learning, asking better questions, and building community, and warn against staying the most accomplished person in the room.
A contrast between recognition in cybersecurity and business and anonymity at a creator conference, followed by a principle about community.
For brands planning a campaign
A campaign can draw on Boyd Clewis's creator-community angle for a webinar or content series about learning in public and growing through peer groups. It extends the partnership beyond technical training into audience growth and community building.
Across the posts, Boyd Clewis teaches through first-person stories, direct questions, numbered steps, and plain language.
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They mix career advice and workplace examples with invitations to share or comment, hashtags, and a postscript offer for mentorship or consulting.
First-person narrative, numbered advice, engagement prompts, and resource links.
For brands planning a campaign
A webinar or sponsored series should give Boyd Clewis room for personal stories and concrete steps, not a scripted product pitch. Short LinkedIn posts can drive registrations by posing the career problem the training solves.
Clewis's posts document one employer relationship and one resource recommendation.
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They write about having worked as a senior security architect at American Airlines and point readers to Forage's job simulations when advising them to build hands-on experience before asking for a security role.
American Airlines
Employment
Clewis writes about working as the senior security architect for American Airlines.
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They recount that the company's priorities were customer service and travel, most payments came in online, and their job was to review anything using credit card data, secure payments, and prevent fraud.
They contrast that clarity with their first cybersecurity role, where they had not understood their role or the business and were seen as blocking progress.
Because the post describes a past position, ask whether they are available for a current contract.
In a post on breaking into cybersecurity, Clewis recommends Forage as a source of job simulations to help people build hands-on experience, and links to the company's offerings.
Boyd Clewis writes short first-person LinkedIn posts about entering cybersecurity and how security professionals should behave inside a company.
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Start with two pieces that set out the core arguments: security should enable the business rather than block it, and cybersecurity is not only technical work.
Both use stories and give readers something to act on.
A career retrospective traces the arc — tech support at 22, security at 25, a business at 33 — while a conference post shows the creator side of the work, including a YouTube channel.
The posts often pair a workplace story or direct question with concrete steps, then invite comments or mention mentorship and consulting.
Cybersecurity career entryNontechnical security rolesBusiness enablement in securityDocumenting work and building systemsCreator community and networkingCareer-change mentorshipSecurity architectureLinkedIn postsYouTube channelFirst-person workplace storiesIT professionalsCareer changers into techSecurity practitioners
Both teach entry into IT and security through personal experience, ending posts with a mentor-style offer or an open question.
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Melvin Williams walks through an Active Directory home lab phase by phase, explaining group-based access control and least privilege as skills used in Help Desk and Service Desk roles. Boyd Clewis makes the parallel case that career changers should build hands-on experience before asking for a role.
Melvin Williams documents their current lab work as a learner and asks readers what to study next. Boyd Clewis offers retrospective career and workplace guidance drawn from senior and consulting roles, rather than build-along technical content.
Both counsel cybersecurity professionals and use personal experience to argue that credentials alone do not make a career.
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Kyser Clark writes about holding 19 certifications and deliberately slowing down, echoing Boyd Clewis's warning against answering career questions with certification lists. Both also treat conferences and peer relationships as part of professional growth.
Kyser Clark's material points to a podcast episode format and conference culture and community, with posts directing readers to that audio or video work. Boyd Clewis writes self-contained LinkedIn posts built on workplace stories and discusses consulting and mentorship offers.
Both advise understanding what the customer or business actually needs and earning trust during problems rather than avoiding them.
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Kishor Rao's account of an outage that made the news and the root-cause follow-up aligns with Boyd Clewis's argument that security should enable initiatives rather than block them.
Kishor Rao focuses on the customer-facing technical account manager and customer success roles inside software companies. Boyd Clewis focuses on cybersecurity careers, security practice inside an employer, and training and mentoring for that audience.
For a cybersecurity training company planning a webinar and content partnership about breaking into security roles, Boyd Clewis offers a relevant LinkedIn audience: about 41,000 followers in the 8 October 2026 snapshot.
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Selected posts speak to career changers, IT professionals moving into security, and people seeking mentorship, including those without technical backgrounds.
Boyd also cited almost 340,000 YouTube subscribers in a 5 October 2026 post; the figure is self-reported.
Ask for recent webinar registration or attendance results and sponsored-content performance on career-transition or security-skills topics, plus an audience survey covering geography, job function, and seniority.
If YouTube is in scope, request channel demographics for age, gender, and geography.
Boyd Clewis's posts offer no sponsorship programme, media kit, rate card, or published partner terms.
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Their commercial content centers on their own services and recommendations: one post invites IT professionals seeking mentorship for their consulting businesses to message them directly, while another names Forage's job-simulation exercises as a free starting point for people moving into security—a recommendation, not a disclosed paid placement.
They also say they have spoken on global stages, without specifying an event series, package, deliverables, or requirements.
Their post about attending VidSummit, a creator conference, frames it as a learning experience rather than a booked engagement.
For a cybersecurity training company considering a webinar and content partnership, ask them to specify format, deliverables, exclusivity, usage rights, timing, and price.
A cybersecurity training company is launching an entry-level and career-transition programme and wants a webinar plus an ongoing content partnership about breaking into security roles, aimed at IT professionals and career changers.
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This is a strong match.
Three of Boyd Clewis's posts answer the questions that audience actually asks.
One pushes back on certification-only gatekeeping and names the nontechnical roles security teams still need — project managers, policy writers, analysts, compliance staff — giving the training company a constructive counter-argument and a ready-made course map.
Another lays out practical steps for gaining hands-on experience inside a current employer, including shadowing and showing commitment before approaching leadership.
That translates directly into a workshop exercise.
A third, built on an American Airlines security-architecture example, reframes the job from blocking work to enabling it — a memorable way to open a session.
The career-reinvention post supplies a registration-driving origin story, while the creator-conference post supports a peer cohort or community angle rather than a single event.
Distribution is credible: about 41,000 LinkedIn followers at the 8 October 2026 snapshot, plus a self-reported almost 340,000 YouTube subscribers.
Before booking, agree deliverables, exclusivity, usage rights, timing and price; no sponsorship programme, media kit or rate card is published.
Ask for recent webinar registration and attendance results and any survey covering job function, seniority and geography; no audience composition data is published.
When to choose a specialist
A security tooling vendor wants a scripted, product-led demo series for senior detection engineers, with fixed technical talking points, a mandatory demo script and no career-advice framing.
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It also needs verified information about practitioner seniority before committing budget.
The posts do not show the format the vendor is buying: they offer short career advice for people entering or moving within the field, with no product demonstrations, long-form technical walkthrough or transcript, or detection-engineering content.
The nearest commercial signals are a postscript inviting IT professionals who want mentorship for their consulting businesses to message directly and a recommendation of Forage's free job simulations.
Neither is a sponsorship offer, so paid product-demo work cannot be assumed.
Audience fit is also unproven: the only verified figure is about 41,000 LinkedIn followers, with no breakdown by job function, seniority or employer.
Ask for a recent audience breakdown and examples of scripted technical work before committing budget.
The story-led, plain-language teaching style visible across the posts also cuts against a tightly scripted, no-narrative format; forcing it would discard the main reason people follow this creator.
A worked campaign example
Campaign angle for the training company: "Getting paid to learn — how to build your first security role without leaving your current job."
Running order for a 45-minute live webinar co-hosted with Boyd Clewis: the first five minutes use the business-enablement story, contrasting an early career spent shutting down colleagues' ideas with a later approach of saying yes and finding a safe way to proceed; the next twenty minutes walk through finding shadowing or volunteer work internally, showing commitment through training or a certification first, and approaching leadership with a specific learning goal; the following ten minutes map transferable skills onto nontechnical security roles — project management, policy writing, data analysis, compliance, evidence collection and remediation tracking; the last ten minutes are live questions and the cohort offer.
Support assets: a one-page worksheet for requesting an internal shadowing assignment, a printable transferable-skills checklist and a short follow-up email sequence.
Drive registration with three LinkedIn posts in the pattern they already use — a direct question, a numbered set of steps and a closing prompt for replies.
Post one asks why cybersecurity is treated as certification-only; post two lists the steps for gaining hands-on experience without changing employer; post three carries the career-change story and the signup link.
Agree deliverables (three posts, one live session, one worksheet, one checklist), a six-week exclusivity window, usage rights for the recording, a booking date and a fee from scratch; no rate card is documented.
Measure registrations, attendance rate, worksheet downloads and cohort conversions, and ask for comparable past webinar numbers before setting the fee.
Choose Melvin Williams when the webinar or content series needs a build-along demonstration rather than a talking-head explanation of how to break into security.
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Two posts document a phase-by-phase Active Directory home lab: creating departmental security groups such as GS_IT_Staff and GS_HR_Staff, moving from per-user permissions to role-based access control, delegating local administrator rights on a workstation without granting domain admin, and verifying the result.
Each post asks the audience what to tackle next — Group Policy restrictions or NTFS file permissions — giving a training partner a ready discussion hook and a lab sequence to split into modules.
For an entry-level IT or service-desk audience, this shows the day-to-day work more concretely than career-advice posts do.
The tradeoff is framing and audience.
The posts stay inside the lab: they explain how a task was done, not why someone should move into security or how to land a first role.
A career-transition programme would need to supply the motivation, pathway map and transferable-skills argument.
The two posts show written documentation, not a course, cohort or taught format, and do not establish willingness to appear on a webinar or take sponsorship.
Ask about those formats and opportunities before committing.
Boyd Clewis is the stronger pick when the campaign centers on the career decision rather than the technical task.
Choose Kyser Clark when the deliverable is a podcast or video conversation rather than a written guide, or when the programme wants the certification question argued from the other side.
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The posts promote episodes of The Hacker's Cache: one explains why attending only two conference talks and spending the time networking paid off; the other argues that holding 19 certifications did not automatically produce better pay, better opportunities or a healthier career, and that hands-on experience and avoiding burnout matter more.
The second post offers a ready-made counterpoint for a session on what certifications can and cannot do.
The interview format and conference-community angle suit a co-hosted audio or video partnership.
The tradeoff is message alignment.
A company selling certification preparation would partner with a creator who argues that more credentials do not fix a career.
That can be an honest, credible framing, but it will not read as promotional for a certification product.
The two posts announce episodes without showing how they are structured or taught.
Ask for episode structure, workshop materials, audience numbers and commercial terms.
Choose Kishor Rao when the audience is career changers aiming at customer-facing technical roles rather than hands-on security engineering, or when a session needs a story about handling a live incident.
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The posts trace a path from developer to professional services to QA management and back into customer-facing work as a technical account manager.
They describe an outage in which the account's usual engineer was on leave, communication with stakeholders mattered more than having an answer yet, and a root cause analysis closed the loop.
For a programme covering account management, customer success or support escalation, that is closer to the actual job than generic advice about entering security.
The tradeoff is subject fit.
Neither post covers cybersecurity roles, security tooling or certification paths; both focus on technical account management and customer trust.
A security-specific curriculum would get a strong service story but no course content, hands-on exercise or worksheet.
Ask about content and sponsorship availability before committing.
