The 5% Technical, 95% Human Side of Success with Craig Hollabaugh

What if the most important skill in a technical career has very little to do with technology?

On this episode of the Mile High Success Podcast, Nick Elder sits down with Craig Hollabaugh, a longtime engineer, consultant, programmer, and startup veteran whose career has taken him across industries including medical technology, transportation, petroleum, national security, and solar.

Craig shares one of the biggest lessons he learned as a consultant: doing great technical work is not enough. He says his work is about 5% technical and 95% human relations.

Craig learned this lesson the hard way. Early in his consulting career, friction with an internal team cost him a job. Looking back, he realized his role was not to walk into a company and become the hero. His job was to help the people already there become the heroes.

Nick and Craig explore what that lesson can teach consultants, leaders, and anyone trying to build stronger teams.

They also talk about the major changes AI is bringing to software development. Craig has been programming since 1979, and today he uses agentic coding tools to complete projects at a speed and level that once seemed impossible. But he also explains why decades of experience still matter when directing these tools and why younger developers face a new challenge: learning how systems work while AI can increasingly do the coding for them.

Craig also shares lessons from a career spent largely outside traditional employment. He explains how relationships have helped him move from customer to customer, why repeat clients can be so valuable, and why having a strong online presence can open unexpected doors.

For people starting their careers, Craig offers a simple message: build things, show your work, learn to talk comfortably with people, and focus on developing both compassion and competency.

As Craig looks toward retirement, he is not planning to stop creating. He hopes to combine engineering and art by building kinetic sculptures and one-of-a-kind vacuum tube guitar amplifiers that are works of art themselves.