Lauren Surman

LWL Consulting

Founder

Sendoso

Sendoso is the Official Gifting Sponsor of The Friday Live With Lauren Show! Tune in every Friday LIVE on LinkedIn for your chance to win a gifting experience from Sendoso! Link to attend is located in the events tab!

Brand Ambassador

Betterleap

Excited to announce that I'll be partnering with Betterleap - the company with a mission to 10x recruiters productivity. Want to learn how Betterleap can take away some of your recruiting headaches? 

DM me today to learn more OR use www.betterleap.com/laurensurman to sign up for your FREE trial today!

The Friday Live With Lauren Show

As the host and executive producer of The Friday Live With Lauren Show, I’ve created a platform on LinkedIn, YouTube, and X for streaming each Friday. Each episode features industry leaders discussing four topics relevant to their experience. 

The three core pillars of the show is to Learn, Laugh  and Level-Up

Highlights:

Audience Growth: Achieved over 10,000 viewers and 46,870 minutes watched in the past year alone. 

Influential Guests: Hosted leaders with a combined following of 1.1 million+ followers on LinkedIn and over 500k followers on platforms like YouTube and X. 
Engaging Segments: Invited on Michelle Craig to host "High Five Friday," celebrating LinkedIn network achievements and achieving audience growth. 

Skills and Impact:
Content Creation: Plan and produce hour-long episodes with expert guests.
Promotion: Promote shows on LinkedIn, inviting up to 1,000 new viewers weekly.
Brand Visibility: Enhanced my personal brand and used show content for marketing.

Key Guests Hosted:
April Little
Henry Schuk
Amy Miller
Morgan J Ingram
Kevin KD Dorsey
Leslie Venetz
Joel Lalgee
Jen Allen-Knuth
Chaniqua (Nikki) Ivey
+ More

Sponsorships:
Sold sponsorships to B2B companies that would benefit from partnering with the live show. Tracked all analytics and pitched companies on a monthly, quarterly, and yearly sponsorship rate. 

This role has been key in growing my brand and connecting with a wide audience through engaging and insightful live shows.

To be a guest on the show email lauren@lessonswithlauren.co with the subject line "LIVE SHOW GUEST"

and remember... "If you didn't like it, don't come back!"

Host & Executive Producer

The Accountability Group

Grow your network and engagement by posting consistently on LinkedIn for 30 days in this guided group.

Text Blaze

Eliminate repetitive typing tasks and mistakes. Save dynamic text snippets and insert them anywhere on the web.

Kastel Staffing Group

Recruiter

It's Destiny Recruiting

Expert at Video Prospecting, Cold Calling, Boolean Search, Business Development, and CRM Management. 

SaaS Sales Diversity and Inclusion Recruiting - 80% of the candidates we have placed in 2020/2021 were women and those of diverse being, thought and life experiences.

We focus on placing SDR/MDR, Account Executives, Customer Success, Account Manager and Executive Level Sales Leadership Professionals.

Our Specialties: SaaS, Cloud, Machine Learning, Data Analytics, Cyber Security/ Networking and True AI Platforms. Mid Market and Enterprise.

Sales Recruiter

CADY

Regional Studio Sales Manager

Studio Sales Manager

iRemember

Live Instagram Hashtag Printer for events 

We provided live hashtag printers for events all over central and south Florida. 

In the business of helping you capture the moment for years to come, and to get photos in print rather than just on your phone and on the internet. 

By supplying a hashtag printer, we encourage attendees to support your social media accounts, as well as offer the ability to promote future events on the printed hashtag photos.

If I Can’t, My Network Can | Placing The Right People In The Right Roles | Fixing Your Job Search Strategy | Live Every Friday on The Friday Live With Lauren Show

Hi! 👋

I'm 𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧, the Founder at 𝐋𝐖𝐋, a 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 focusing on 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐒, 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡, 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠.

I thrive on the "𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞-𝐢𝐭-𝐨𝐮𝐭-𝐧𝐨-𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫-𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭" mentality, firmly believing that I will conquer any challenge that comes my way. People often describe me as 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜, 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞, and I was even dubbed "The Bad Girl of LinkedIn." My social butterfly nature complements my 𝐮𝐧𝐰𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 on achieving results, as I effortlessly 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞 to create opportunities anywhere I go.

My professional journey has been diverse, spanning hospitality, operations, construction, sales, and now recruiting. My background has equipped me with a 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥-𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐭 - I believe I can work in any industry, because 𝐦𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞. I have successfully managed teams of 100+ individuals, closed deals worth up to $1.2 million, and even had the privilege of serving as Mr. Marriott's personal server.

While my professional life is thriving, my 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞 is being a mom to my energetic 6-year-old, Axel. Balancing the demands of work and family brings joy and fulfillment. In my downtime, I love to hit the range 🏌️‍♀️, snuggle my two dogs, and even make it to the beach for sunrise occasionally.

My guiding motto is simple yet powerful: "𝑰𝒇 𝑰 𝑪𝒂𝒏'𝒕, 𝑴𝒚 𝑵𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝑪𝒂𝒏." I believe in teamwork and collaboration. By working together and using the strengths of our network, we can accomplish remarkable things. Building 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 is important to me, and I'm dedicated to making a 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 on the lives of those I work with. 

If you're seeking a driven and results-oriented partner in recruitment or looking for expert guidance in your job search, 𝐃𝐌 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲!

Cisco

Driving innovation in UCS networking for the next generation of smart connectivity and optimization.

Engineering Product Manager

Andromedary Instinct

The Andromedary Instinct is a weekend shop for weekend people, just a few blocks from downtown Sunnyvale, California, and a few electrons from marketplaces like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and even Poshmark. 

We sell computers, components, electronics, and the occasional odd surprise, from the 20+ year collection of Robert Novak. We also coordinate technology consulting services for select customers, with a focus on Linux, networking, virtualization, and best practices.

Proprietor/Consultant

Indyramp Consulting

Internet communication consulting and hosting/presence services. Web, mail, shell, and mailing list services on various UNIX platforms. List hosting for various computer and music interests.

Owner/Consultant

Flexpool.io

I provided technical and process guidance to users of Flexpool's Chia, Ironfish, Ethereum Classic, Zilliqa, and Ethereum cryptocurrency pools. I also created and refined  support policies and procedures, trained new support staff, and tested internal and external software for the pool. I wrote most of the public ongoing "official" documentation for pool events and transitions. 

From getting started with farming and mining, to handling transactions and optimizing environments, I created documentation; communicated status and solutions through Reddit, Discord, Telegram, and Zendesk; helped with troubleshooting, provided interactive and queued support; and brought a healthy dose of snark and proportion to over 100,000 crypto miners and farmers worldwide.

Flexpool.io ceased operations on November 1, 2023.

Support Manager

Supermicro

I lead people and drive process improvement for a Fortune 1000 company that's pivoting into more than just selling boxes. 

- Driving product management for three flagship infrastructure management platforms (composable disaggregated infrastructure, cluster software orchestration, and mobile/multi edge IOT) and a legacy suite of management products from individual server command line to web UI scaling to 10k servers
- Leading a team of product engineers, supporting them and encouraging them to develop from a workload heavily weighted toward clerical work to productive and impactful projects. 
- Delivering industry/market and domain knowledge to high level management products, helping to position competitively while meeting customer and partner needs
- Championing a model shift for software products to enable 800-1000% revenue growth in two years
- Building forecasting models for enhanced sales practices to improve customer satisfaction and 50% license revenue growth

Manager, Software Product Management

WEST COAST KAPPA CAR CLUB

Brought the oldest Kappa car club in the world back from hibernation in 2018. 

Secretary (2018-2022), President (2019-2022), and member of the Board of Directors of the West Coast Kappa Car Club, an organization that provides connections and events for owners of the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice roadsters. 

Managing and encouraging communication to and between club members as well as promoting and organizing club runs and events. 

Handed the reins over to other officers in spring 2022.

'09 Sky Redline

President and Secretary

After nearly 15 years in big data (on both sides of the vendor relationship), I've been focusing for 2 1/2 years on enabling national channel partners around Cisco datacenter technologies. Telling stories, putting pieces together, helping partner engineers do the same, with humor and context and proportion in healthy volumes along the way. 

Drove nine figure sales even into the midst of worldwide turmoil.

Datacenter Technical Solutions Architect

Technical Solutions Architect (2017-present, Consulting Systems Engineer 2014-2017) in Software and Solutions Innovation - Americas Partner Organization 

For four years I empowered ISV partners in big data to navigate and take advantage of the Cisco ecosystem, speaking at customer and partner events, bringing my own decade of hands-on big data and analytics experience in hardware and software to customers alongside our mutual sales teams, and clearing the path within Cisco for partners like Splunk, MapR, and Platfora to make the most of their relationship with Cisco's datacenter organization and related businesses.

I wear the Big Data hat. 

I evangelize and develop big data opportunities around software partner products and Cisco technologies. Working with channel partners, independent software vendors, and our own Cisco sales force, I'm here to help enhance Cisco's big data story for the benefit of our customers and the rest of the world.

Focused on ISV partners (MapR, Platfora, Splunk, IBM Big Insights), Cisco's channel and sales partners, and the internal Cisco teams who sell and support Cisco UCS and the big data ecosystem. As of fall 2017 I focus on Splunk and the US Central region, and beyond.

Big Data Partners Technical Solutions Architect

BayLISA

BayLISA is the premiere San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley group for professional system administrators. As a member of the board of directors, I am actively involved in promoting the organization and its events, finding speakers and benefits, and working with other organizations with similar/parallel/congruous purposes and pursuits. 

As Secretary (as of March 2011), I am responsible for keeping documentation, keeping track of board actions, and further promoting the organization's activities. 

As President and Secretary (as of November 2011), I'm borderline insane but working to improve the public face and internal consistency of the organization.

President, Board of Directors

Disney Interactive

Current: Senior sysadmin for BI platforms at Disney Interactive. 

Primary platform expert for ~700 server 5-domain Cisco UCS C-Series integrated environment. Hardware and infrastructure deployment, troubleshooting, upgrades, and cross-training. 

Project and daily support for Cloudera Hadoop clusters (~200 nodes, ~2PB). Support and troubleshooting for HP Vertica and other analytics software from the bare metal up. 

Originally hired as Senior SA in infrastructure services, system and service scaling, personality balancing, and lunch. Worked with Linux Containers process isolation (lxc), VMware ESXi 4, some puppet, some cobbler.

Later: Sole front-line/infrastructure/architecture admin for Disney Interactive (formerly DIMG/Playdom) BI systems from spring 2012 to summer 2013.

Senior System Engineer

Playdom

See Disney Interactive listing. Playdom was acquired just before I joined, but my first business cards featured the Playdom social games.

Senior Linux System Administrator

I'm a server and infrastructure guy with a penchant for the big picture and a lifelong love of technology.

I'm not looking for new opportunities at this time.

Ask me about my homelab, and ignore the huge backlog of projects. I've redone my home networks for the end of my Meraki licenses. I've worked in networking and storage although it's been a little while. I was last a developer in 1993. I've never waited tables (even database tables) but respect those who do. I admit what I don't know and learn quickly. 

Today I'm an engineering product manager for UCS networking in the compute business at Cisco. 

From 2022-2023 I was product line manager for software management products at Supermicro. 

From 2018-2020 I focused on channel partner enablement, partner sales engineering, solutions engineering at Cisco. 

From 2014-2018 I played storyteller/matchmaker between big data ISVs, Cisco channel partners and internal sales teams, and occasionally a customer or 100. I've been doing big data since late 2003/early 2004 (really) and Hadoop since probably 2008 (CDH1). I presented at partner events and public conferences including Strata+Hadoop World (2x) and Cisco Live (4x, Distinguished Speaker). 

On the first day at Cisco (right after lunch), I pushed a half million dollar deal over the edge with my personal experience outweighing a competitor's positioning. From then on, I brought context and proportion to challenging situations, helping our customers succeed and our sales teams make money. I believe those two should not be mutually exclusive, and I consider it my mission to bring them together wherever I work. 

Before Cisco, I was a senior level Silicon Valley systems operations professional with nearly 20 years (different years, even) of production UNIX system administration in multiple varieties of UNIX (Solaris, Linux, BSD) as well as experience in other desktop and server platforms. I built a proven history of delivering enterprise class scalable server, network, and disaster recovery/business continuance environments within stringent budget and time restraints.

I blog at rsts11.com and rsts11travel.com. 

Specialties: Big data platforms, hardware, and education; system administration, hardware planning and management (even clouds need hardware), Hadoop, written English (documentation is our friend), UNIX-based email systems, coffee preparation & procurement, operations team building and sustaining. 

I'm not a developer or coder although I can read or tweak some code. I don't have an MBA or a PhD. 

I'm not looking for new opportunities at this time.

🚝Robert Novak

Went to Cisco HQ at Santana Row yesterday to catch up with a new coworker. ("New") Rob Rosen

Kinda sad that I'm extremely unlikely to run into Friea, Wissam, or Carl there anymore.

But I did see Buttercup on the third floor.

Halfway through Novel November 2025 – Need to take a break?

This post covers my third Novel November video. If you want the latest videos as they go up, subscribe to the Andromedary Instinct YouTube channel. This one features some time in my car and a late night recording in the home office/studio, with a mid-month success update and a tip on avoiding story burnout. See the other parts of this series here:...

Open article: Halfway through Novel November 2025 – Need to take a break? by rsts11.com

Halfway through Novel November 2025 – Need to take a break?

As the year winds down, I'm probably going to have a post on rsts11.com about my 2025 health journey. It hasn't gone as well as I'd set my goals for back in March, but I made a lot of progress that I'm pretty proud of. 

If this is something you'd be interested in reading about, drop a comment, or feel free to drop into the messaging (a couple of you did that when I posted a big change on Facebook, and I appreciate that and support your journey). 

If you've posted anything about your health journey this year, feel free to share and I'll check it out and amplify it a bit if you like.

Open article: rsts11 - Robert Novak on system administration by rsts11.com

rsts11 - Robert Novak on system administration

taplio

The Battle

Lauren Surman

🚝Robert Novak

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score🚝Robert Novak's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Lauren Surman

🚝Robert Novak

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}🚝Robert Novak's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance Score🚝Robert Novak's LinkedIn Performance