welcome to Glide chat where we give you the rundown of all things service now let's talk about the now right [Music] now welcome to another episode of Glide chat my name is Michael Lombardo with me is kie Alexander our account executive and customer advocate here live fast that's right kie you've had such an amazing Ascension in the service now space um um I remember just seeing you on LinkedIn one day yeah out of nowhere like you've been here for 10 years and I'm like who is this and what is she doing because you know no one was doing LinkedIn lives still nobody in in the service nowspace sure is doing LinkedIn lives it was pumping as much content through Linkedin which I just think is genius and I knew I had to have you man I had to have you at Cass you you going to believe this and I don't think I told you this before when I kind of was like making my way into the service now ecosystem I took a look and sat quiet in the corner in the cut for a little bit to see like who was creating content how were people displaying what they knew yeah and right away I saw there were several service now YouTube channels and then there was Glide fast that was also doing content so I was like okay service now and glide fast they're the standard of what content creation looked like like so y'all were at the top of the mountain for me yeah and I was like let me when I come out let me present myself in a way where these people at the mountain top where I'm like aspiring to that right and so when you reached out to me I was like I was I would been happy like getting like somewhere down here right I been happy down here but when you reached out to me I was like yo by fast Mike Lombardo reached out to me like I it was literally a pinch myself moment I've had many consecutive hard years in my life many consecutive hard years and so the transition and the pivoted service now and getting the attention of people like you other people in the ecosystem who I really look up to and admire it has been like a shift in my life and it's it's been an amazing journey so far that's awesome that's awesome to hear and you know was funny when you were saying that you know setting like a goal or this would be nice you know that's that's great growth I mean that's the first step of growth that's that's the first step of advance of any sort of advancement career advancement Health ADV you got to like okay here's here's the here's the elite people or thing or goal and hey if I end up here it's pretty good you know that's set your goals high and hey you may not hit that Bullseye but getting close or anywhere it's better and you're advancing you know whatever ever you're Mission or your goals are you know it's interesting because it makes me think about I love sports as you know yeah and Jackie Joiner Cy outstanding track athlete I remember she was being interviewed and they were asking her like how do you how do you do this how do you keep coming back you know event after event Olympic after Olympics and she says something about I always look past the Finish Line right and apparently that's something that a lot of track athletes do look beyond the finish line but I think about like what does that mean in our personal Liv how can weate that into our personal philosophy about how we kind of move through and navigate through career through personal challenges and all of that yeah and yeah so I appreciate you kind of adding that color to that and it just kind of makes me think about there's that really sweet connection between what we do professionally and sports which is probably why I love them right 100% yeah you don't got to tell me I know I'm I'm very competitive and no kidding and I love I love this yeah this thing we do here you know I I feel so compelled to interview you because I'm used to always doing the interviewing we let's do we'll do both we'll do let's do I I get you know well yeah I kind I do have questions for you too but but yeah we this may be we may have to do like an hour long glad at here you know what's it's funny that you say that and I and I kind of you know threw myself back and laugh just now because our very first phone call we immediately just started talking right and then you were like hey yo klie do you mind if I ask you some questions well you are you there's another good thing about you you were very specific and like you did you did your research and for somebody who was new to the space like you were asking pretty pointed and specific questions that would would gauge like what are your intentions as a partner what what's your what's your road map what's your goal are you are you in it for the long haul you you know you were I was in the hoty wow I'm surprised that you even remember that detail of the conversation you'd be surp I remember like you have no idea it's like I can put myself back to like specific customer calls meetings interviews with with team members here like the first I remember like the first time I spoke to people I remember the first time I spoke to you that wasn't even that long ago but I was walking around in my home office and I I remember it like it was yesterday would you credit your ability to kind of remember remember like you know verse scripture places names as a a key part of your success I'm very visual I'm a visual learner yeah I'm very you know very visual so and I'm very emotional yeah so like when I'm talking to you for the first time it's a genuine or or any anytime like I'm very invested in relationships you know I'm very passionate like when I give you my word I mean it yeah I try to remember you know when when I'm talking to somebody let's say that wants to work at Glide fast they have specific goals for them and I when I'm telling them about coming to Glide fast and we're talking about that I'm like committing to helping them fulfill those goals so it's very important that I remember what the promises of making same thing with customers they have specific goals that they're trying to leverage service now for and we are sitting here saying we're the partner to help you do that and it's important to me to to to live up to those and that that's always been my standard and I think that's part of the reason why Glide fast has been successful well it's it's really refreshing to hear that you see that on all the various positions of the table right so you see it on the customer side you see it on the employee side service now side so I'm here and you know I'm from LA but I happen to be in wam because let's go a ler Nation SEL Happ to be in in Boston you know for some C customer meeting meeting service now I did a happy hour yesterday and all of those service now sellers younger sellers newer to the game we're all wanting to know more about your story right they see you as a young guy in the space who has had some tremendous success having had the benefit of interviewing you I'm going to call this now four times yeah yeah a couple times now four times they were they found your story really compelling right I gave them the I told them the story about you're up yeah and how that happened for you and how that kind of you know changed the course of your life the life of your family and your legacy allowed you to really set up situations where you're even changing the lives of us working here at G ass those customers that we serve so seeing how you're extending that passion you have in so many different directions is really amazing to me and I wonder in talking to you now when You Face personal challenges how is that empowering you to move through those well Define personal challenges because there's there's a um there's a wide array of that right like sure I was trying to keep it vague I know well yeah I mean right now you know I think it's no secret to the to the people in the community is I'm battling battling cancer which is you know by far probably the biggest personal challenge I've went there and this is my second time battling it and beat it the first time but I got to be there for my family I have to be there for uh my team and you know whatever God kind of has in store and the plan for me I'm okay with that you know and uh yeah it's it's definitely it's a little scary it sucks you know yeah but but um you just got to show up it's the same thing with challenges in business or anything else is like you got to show up you can't run and hide under the covers you just got to face it head on you know my my mother always taught me to to be brave have courage you know don't don't don't be don't let fear control you my it's funny my daughter said said to my wife um something about this Taylor Swift line and I don't know if you're you know Taylor Swift songs but there's there's something like about fear like it's okay to have fear but don't just can't let it control you and it's like my 11 she just turned 11 today is her birthday um she just you know 11-year-old kid to be like to have that emotional intelligence to be like you know you can't let fear control you you know I met Sweet Lorraine your mother I I met your daughter happy birthday to her and you know and I even got a chance to interview your mom which was really special it helped me to I felt like man I got another level of understanding you like getting to that foundation and she was talking about how when you were a little kid how you she would go pick you up from school and how all of the other dads of those other children will be like like oh that's that mic that mic that mic how they were everyone was just gravitated to you like you had this magnetism about you and I wonder do you also know that you have this magnetism that surrounds you now as you go through this particular battle right now there is so much overwhelming support throughout the community that is just like it's unbelievable too it's almost to this challenge yeah it's almost too much because it's like especially in in the first few days of it and the first week you know I was in the hospital I like you don't want to talk to anybody like I don't want I just want shut my phone off but it's like it's crazy because so many people just re what can I do and you know everybody stepping up at Glide fast I mean the ultimate test of Glide fast was in 2020 during covid I went out with cancer I we were still you know we're a lot less mature than we are today and you know not one person quit that whole year and I know some of it's probably due with Co nobody want to really make too many moves but I mean people same thing they were they were Brave they had the courage okay we're going to stick with glide fast we're not running running and hiding running away and it's almost like a given now like you know people are just like oh okay they Glide fast all all right Mike we're with you don't worry you'll get through this we we've seen this we' we've done this before and you know we haven't skipped you know a beat and that's that's just you know speaks to the power of Glide fast and how you know really isn't me you know it's not people think oh it's really not me that's I'm not doing the projects I'm not the one you know fulfilling these customer Visions it's I'm just the one that gets to like you know project that project the the good word of Glide Fest well I think I think that that part of what bring to us is that you set a certain level of of passion I mean because you know obviously you know being a CEO you know CEO is going to set the standard for excellence yeah for delivery but not every CEO is going to come and Empower us with passion right and like a true authentic passion where we can like borrow some of that yeah and then multiply it and use it as a multiplier actually right and it's really been rewarding to see how the leaders are like Rising right now within the organization and everybody in in even in their individual contributor roles they're rising to the occasion of like yo let's do this for Mike you know and so even you know maybe I I'll share this um we are all saying be like Mike who who's who's saying that all of us yeah that's our motive that's our slogan be like Mike yeah I'm definitely I'm definitely I mean definitely not perfect and you know but you know one thing I think I am is genuine like I'm not going to be as you and and I think you know I just try to be the leader that I wanted when I was a TC When I Was An Architect when I you know like that's what I just try to be is like the boss or whatever that I wanted it sucks working somewhere you don't want to be it sucks not getting acknowledge for the hard work you're doing it sucks not getting you know some sort of recognition or bonus for when you work extremely when you go above and beyond you know it sucks when you look at you know somebody not working as hard as you right next to you know so those are things that just bothered me and instead of me you know being the lead that's just like cares about the bottom line or whatever those I I cared about those Concepts of making sure people enjoy working here making sure people are compensated and that I didn't realize it but at the time but that brought in all the other success that that'll bring in the high you know the success and winning deals and you know building a great company and the high retention we're the best retention in the space this is the most this is this space is is probably the most recr you know being a service now technical consultant or architect you're probably the one of the most recruited roles in the world sure especially in Tech and for us to have their retention 93% last 12 months is insane and you know and and I think it speaks to just the people here at glidefast like people care about each other and you know that's got to start with me when I interviewed you at knowledge 23 I I I interviewed a lot of people and those interviews went different directions based on who I was talking to but I always asked everyone the same final question yeah superpower yeah yes what is your superpower and we were locked in in that interview like I we were like yeah you surprised me with your answer to what is your superpower do you remember what you said did I say love that's what you said yeah okay and that surprised me yeah but then I was like that shouldn't have surprised me right because that that passion that you have that empowers us is rooted in love yeah can can you speak about how your superpower is serving you now in this season of your life well first of all I mean I think when you wake up in the morning you have a everybody kind of has that decision um do you want to be a good guy or a bad guy and maybe it's not every day you know for me it's not every day like I I I want to be a good guy like I've and it's funny because one of our other interviews you asked me if I'm like Marvel or and I was like a lost cuz I I'm like not a good comic book follower I'm not I don't know which one's which and I was rethinking about that which super hero I like and I think I I think Spider-Man I think I like Spider-Man now tell me why you like Spider-Man well he's like just like a regular kid one day and then he's fighting crime at night like without his grandparents know I don't know I just something about Spider-Man I've always wanted to help people you know I've always wanted to help people you know my stepfather was a teacher for like 25 years ironically passed away of cancer when I was 14 but the people at his wake the people that you know that I knew over the years his students like just the amount of people he helped was just like overwhelming for me so that that that's the Legacy I was chasing since I was kind of 14 some some of it passively not not really knowing that's that's what I wanted to do this experience just like the last time I was going through it has pushed me further to like philanthropy and figuring out okay like how can I help more people people in general like I don't have negativity you know competitors I like to compete with and stuff and you know I like to play the game but I'm just I have love inside I don't have hate I don't have negativity and I think that's a good thing and that is kind of fueling like I need to do more to help more people people wow yeah okay you're going through this uh this fight the second time and what you just said to me is that I got to figure out how to help more people yeah no one would push back at all if you said listen I have helped so many people I've given to so many charity organizations and right now I'm going to like I feel the opposite it's weird I feel like I haven't done enough way not enough way not enough I've been blessed I've been blessed and you got to share those blessings you know you have to you need you need this is this is like my role in society like I have to I have to do I have to do more it's my responsibility Mike tell me about how how you grew up you mentioned your stepfather I met Sweet Lorraine I've met your lovely wife and beautiful daughters yeah um tell me those early days what that was like for you because I know you ended up in uh a program called year up which I know that is a big you know Initiative for you and supporting their work amazing program you you are also U an alumni of that yeah from what I understand in my cursory research year up is for like what they would call like at risk youth right tell me about what was going on before you found year up yeah I grew up like lower middle class like basically single mom I had a great stepfather my mother's amazing um but you know like we didn't have a lot my mother worked you know a job two job job and and a half to to support us we had some you know had challenges here and there the heat would shut off whatever in Boston in Boston yeah Everett yeah which is right outside of Boston I thought it was fun when we had the stove you know when we turn on the stove when the heat would shut off and we'd be sleeping in the kitchen that night I thought I was oh we're camping you know I thought so you know but that wasn't like an everyday thing but I had some like you know School trouble you know like I think what my my stepfather passed away like a week literally a week into my freshman year at high school so I was acting out and um went to different high schools tried different high schools and ended up uh getting my GED I think I was 16 or 17 and um I went into like uh I did Plumbing for a while construction and I did um I was like you know I was always I was always a worker so I was working like multiple jobs bartending catering whatever uh waitering but I was definitely lost like I didn't know what I was going to do I was working construction you know with that plumber I was just like I didn't want to do that job do you think you were looking for something you said that you were lost and I'm wondering if you were looking for something yeah I think we all are at that age right like you know um my friends were all going to college you know soon and graduating and I and I was like you know working construction with this with this guy who was a little shady I didn't like him and um and then yeah like one of my friends was like Hey this program y up has like you know it's a computer aspect they pay you you get college credits you get an internship I was like oh all right yeah like what else am I doing like let me just try it and it just I just yeah like I fell in love with it I was you know never late you because they teach you professionalism too you got to go into Boston you got to dress up nice and I just fell in love with that I got a great internship ship at a hospital and did help desk and I was in I so I was in it I was working at a corporate it job at 19 years old it gave me a head start really it was fortunate I think about what you said with year up and the part that I heard was and they pay you yeah and yeah stiping they pay you a stien and I'm also thinking about GCU yeah life as consultant University same thing did you model DCU ah tell me a little bit more yeah so we purchased company Cloud Pires in 2021 I believe and they were they were focused on just like we were focused on hiring the best talent Glide fast at the time always from the beginning and they were focused on hi how do how do we just train people from scratch cuz they're in they were in Cincinnati is not like a huge service now pool talent pool there maybe or whatever they kind of took the opposite approach so I I was like I love it this is you know something I always wanted to I wanted to train more people but we just never kind of made that leap or had the kind of structure to do that we had to stay profitable we didn't have any money you know like the the so once we made that acquisition you know they were doing I think about two students or two TCS a a quarter we threw gasoline on that I think we went up to like 15 or 12 or something and yeah I wanted same thing as Europe I wanted to pay people to come you know you're going to get paid to learn you're going to get paid to build an amazing career you'd be kind of crazy not to do it and yeah it worked out so so well and so successful and everybody's itching to when's the next one when's the next class when's the next class everybody's asking but you know there's I said it in my at the keynote at knowledge this is Art and Science this you know you have to stay profitable you have to there's there's the fun side of the business there's the helping people there's the doing but you also have to have to have the finances to do that and that's the what I call the science of it you know yeah well I also I think that there's the heart and science of it that's a good one too you know yeah because you're you're putting you're changing lives yeah right in so many levels people who work here the customers yeah the people you influence that you don't even know their names yeah the heart and science when I think of I love that better heart and science forget that I love it so I I really I I love hearing that and I listening to you talk I think it was about a year ago it could be off there where you initiated the path to architect yeah program well yeah not my idea I Gotta Give the credit to the rest of the team but yeah yeah and is the team your the company's thought was that that kind of be like a an extension where maybe like GCU may like be like elementary school and then you kind of go to like maybe graduate school with paa architect what are the thoughts there exactly I mean listen people want to grow yeah just you know every just like you have your goals I have my goal every single person from I don't care if you're sweeping the floor I don't care what your role is you want to know hey is this is there I have goals that I want to do personally is the company I'm working at going to support me in that are there opportunities to grow at this company so we we know that's that's something we have to do again do you have the means to do it can you do it do you know how to do it and the path to architect I think was that first step that glidefast took to take okay you're not a you're not uh junior anymore you're you know a senior TC you're looking to get to that next level okay here's the education here's the the road map on how to become an architect I haven't seen any other partners making that investment because they're worried about today today today and we're we're looking at the future and and then on top of that we've now we've rolled out bpc 2.0 we're working to get a TC to senior TC program so that'll keep all those things will keep happening you know more Bon uses like I know we're getting off track a little bit but we're up to I think 15 different bonuses a month now that we give out and I guarantee next year there'll be 20 you know I believe that because when I interviewed you almost a year ago it was less it was less I I think there I think it was like 11 or something and I WR down the exact number I I just I just got the updated we just rolled out this month we'll have a new one called the positivity award no it's called oh it's got a cool name uh Josh is over there Josh shout out Josh he came up with the idea of just just giving an award for someone for somebody who's like an oh The Optimist it's the uh Optimist of the month award you know just somebody who's just being positive that's dealing with a tough customer that's that's you know dealing with maybe something at home or you know just being positive I mean the power of positivity is just like you know you see somebody that's like got their head down the negative and then you see somebody that's just positive that looks at every situation as the positive angle their life is just going to be better sure and they're GNA have better outcome the path to architect I want to kind of get a little bit more because and the reason why people ask me about it all the time and I have some cursory understanding of it someone asked me the other day like well what does that in they wanted to know more of the specifics someone outside the organization yeah what does the specifics look like or what can you share about that in terms of the internal support are those folks going to the CTA program through service now no no no it's our own it's our own program it's our own program oh yeah yeah yeah yeah we built yeah it's yeah yeah I I wish I could give credit to to to the people who built it it's slipping my mind right now but uh I know there's a lot of people who helped out a lot of Architects that that that jumped in there but yeah it's our own program it's a shadowing thing it's an education you know um it's it's not a super long program but it's it's it's similar to the to service now where they have you know a set of things that they want you to do the lessons to teach you I think the service now program is a little bit more about presentation yeah and just polishing ours is ours is a little bit more hard skills I think too um because the hard skills are are just as important as the as the soft skills sure okay let's let's shift gears a little bit I spoke to you in January of 2024 having a convers ation with you about what are your predictions for 2024 the year ahead we're now scary was that right we're now at the end of Q one next week we kick off Q2 curious about your thoughts predictions about what Q2 May hold for the ecosystem well I was saying it's scary because we were spot on on some of the things we said you talk about it with the part with the partner ecosystem in particular we and I didn't have inside knowledge on much but you know there were there were like two major Acquisitions like within a week of of our of our uh conversation and and and we called that uh that there would be more this this quarter and this year you know there's a lot of tur turmoil at different partners CEOs changing over leaving retiring being retired um so you know I I think we're we're going to start to see some Fallout from the Acquisitions you're going to start to see you know just Acquisitions are tough we're very fortunate our acquisition went extremely well still going extremely well but some of these larger companies that you know these really super massive companies you know AR don't have as aren't going to have as much focus and caution around the the the employees and the customers so you're going to see some friction you're going to see a lot of customers unhappy making moves you're going to see a lot of employees a lot of Consultants unhappy making moves but uh I think we'll still see some more consolidation um we'll probably see some you know two two or three Elite Partners getting gobbled up um you'll probably see a couple new partners popping up from people from other Acquisitions you know starting things up and every time there's a there's a hiccup in the economy service now does better customer need to adapt and adopt more digital workflows to pick up the slack for maybe layoffs that they have at organization so and then when the economy does good and they're hiring a bunch of people they need technology to to help pick up the slack there too right so you know service now is just so well positioned you know you look at every other massive technology company in Silicon Valley that had layoffs service now didn't it's interesting it's it's it's going to be interesting to see how Q2 works out because um you know q1 for Gast was great um and I'm I'm really interested to see some customers you know further invest in service now on Q2 so what I documented you say was that your prediction for Q2 is about two to three Elite Partners going through some type of acquisition this year I don't know if this year okay this year yep and and we will revisit this you know at Q4 for sure and you also talked about and I think that this is going to is natural too new you believe that you will see new partners popping up in the service now ecosystem something you also said was that and the customer side customers will continue to evolve throughout this economy this is a election year we have some significant Market catalysts with that being said yeah and that customers are going to need technology to pick up the slack and this is where now is well positioned with offering customer workflows and workflows generally speaking so I I'm looking forward to seeing how you know your your predictions you know will fair in the in the year ahead I think these are are really spot on and looking forward to it let's let's talk about in Q2 we also have the premier event for service now knowledge 24 knowledge 24 comes quick every year quicker quick quicker every year yeah comes quick yeah what for those who have not had the experience of knowledge what can people expect to witness well you got pit this year so that's that's uh that's new but did what do you know what they had last year they it was somebody big uh red hot not red hot CH I I forgot who they had Fergie whatever was Fergie there I think they were in sko the black IPS either way I mean they were at sko yes they were at SK yeah so I mean you're going to have it's going to be a lot of fun yeah you know there's there's always the fun aspect there's going to be great great dinners you know happy hours parties you get the Glide fast party on Wednesday night you get the service now pit party on on Thursday um a lot lots of learning Lots around gen everyone's going to be jumping in those gen sessions I'd love to see we should actually quantify what percentage of the sessions are around involve AI I guarantee let's take let's make a prediction maybe 25% about 25% of the session around I think so maybe 20% it's just it's just a great it's Vegas you know you get the Vegas like just Just Energy you know but let me ask you this yeah since we talked a bit about people who are leveling up in their career yeah it was October of 2022 I believe when service now CEO predicted or said this my initiative is rise up we want to skip a million people in the service now platform by the end of 2024 so there's going to be a lot of people a lot of different personas at knowledge 24 imagine what would you do if you were a person attending knowledge who was just breaking into the ecosystem maybe looking to land that first role how would you be navigating those Waters it's hard because like even you know everything we just talked about you know I just said how much I want to help people you know I wish I could hire everybody yeah and just you know that you know just teach them more Glide fast University you know it's hard for for partners which because there's two different aspects of the market if you're you're somebody wants to get in the service now Consulting space or you know become an admin or whatever there's two sides of it there's the partner World which we live in and the customer world and you know it's hard for a partner because is you know a partner like life like whatever and the of our competitors we're under pressure to deliver high quality results and we're getting paid a lot of money to do that and it requires a lot of expertise y so it it it's a very delicate balance of how you take somebody that has very little experience or expertise and then justify that selling it to a customer and also you know being successful you know helping them be successful um which is why we created a glast university because we can control it it's a three-month program there's shadowing there's Mock implementations and we can't do that unlimited you know because then I have to take those people and we have to make sure that they're adding value for customers and we're getting them utilized and all that and a lot of Partners don't even have that right so a lot of other partners like listen we we're just just trying to keep the lights on we can't you know bring in a junior person so and then you have customers that are they need that expertise right that's why they're hiring Glide fast that's why they're hiring an admin an admin or an architect internally because they don't know either so they don't want to hire somebody that just doesn't that knows just as much as them because that doesn't get them anywhere so you're in a very difficult situation if if you're new coming into the space Someone Like You you you created a differentiat differentiation right you you created a brand you went out you you took a risk you put yourself out there you started showing passion you started showing something completely different other than just somebody reaching out saying Hey I want to do service now sure you know so so I'd say number one is figure out a way to differentiate yourself thanks to Bill McDermot there's a million people trying to work at Glide fast trying to work at a customer whatever so you really got to differentiate yourself the other thing that's tough and I you know because I'm thinking if I if I was just starting out trying to get my foot in the door you know the the other the other thing one way you maybe one way you can differentiate yourself and I think and no one's going to like this I mean imagine going to a customer or a partner and saying listen I'll work for free I'll work for free when's the last I've NE Never Never As glad fast nine years no one has ever offered that that listen I'll intern I'll do whatever I want this so freaking bad I'll intern I'll work for free I want I want to just be part of GL I want to just be part of the service now system you know because everybody that's there's a line right there that's why everyone you know they want that 100 Grand that Bill's promising them right sure there's got to be a ton of investment from you maybe you can't work for free you got a family I understand that that's the whole per that's the whole purpose why Europe was formed sure to pay you because people have kids and everything and that's why glast University was born but it takes so much forget about you know offering to work forget about the financials aspect you got to learn this stuff it took me I can't tell you how many 24-hour days you know I'd work every all day trying to learn service now go home at night try to learn service now for months years I mean years right and you're not alone with that I was just speaking to Doug one of our SE Ops architect and he was saying echoing exactly what you're saying now like like does not stop it never ends and he's an architect yeah and service now thank you very much R&D at service now they keep rolling out new stuff right like new products the products get deeper and the products get wider so you're never going to be an expt expert you got to stay on your toes there's two new releases every year you got to make sure you're really built for this and you really want this right cuz this is not an easy thing which is why there's such a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if you can make it so I know I'm on a tangent here but definely he this yeah you got to differentiate yourself you got to be willing to work I have like flashbacks of like me in the Attic like trying to fre at like midnight trying to figure out what the hell this business rule means or you know script include those are not you know those are those are it's t I wasn't a developer so I had to like learn everything well I think that you gave some really solid Insight here and it's it's difficult to hear you know you got to be a differentiator you know you just can't do the vanilla resume do the the the courses as they're prescribed you got to figure out how you're going to kind of differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack and mean and I think about you know coming into the ecosystem myself and I remember saying dog on it bill you putting a million people out here how am I going to get ahead of that pack exactly that that was really like top of Mind how am I going to do that because it's like Off to the Races we're competing right now when you say a million people he's he's a he's a marketing genius I think a lot of people got excited like oh I can go make 100K in reality you know you're not going to just walk in and get a job offer if you have no experience you know well let let me let me share something with you I know I know a couple people happen to exactly you know but they did something to differentiate I guarantee you they did well they bought their own P there we go that's it because to be really honest with you I I kind of I set this the question up initially where I said there will be new people there but what I should also include is that there are not very many new people there yeah so when you are a new person and you're at knowledge you are one of a few because they're not because other people are not willing to go that extra extra step it's the same thing with people like um I'm interviewing someone or whatever and they I've said this a few times so sorry if you hear it but it's like people like oh I don't have the CT I be like hey do you have do you have your implementation sirt uh you know and any of the products or you know oh you know my old my company wouldn't pay for it or I let it expire and the the the the people out the the crowd out there will come at me and say with the Pitchfork saying certifications are not everything it's experi yes I understand that and I and I'm not saying certifications is everything but not having a certification in the field that we're we're all working to be in shows laziness or oversight or that you don't care or whatever you have to explain why you don't have it if you had the CT you don't have to explain it right and it shows that you're committed right it shows lack of commitment to me if you don't if you let your shars expire you know if you're a doctor if you're a surgeon and there is there is a sht you have to get every two years and you and you go and you're interviewing at the hospital like oh yeah sorry I don't have my surgeon sir but I've I got 20 years experience I mean isn't that good enough I've been doing it you know but you don't have your C like this you're a surgeon and there's a surgeon certification like it's a no-brainer you know and so that's what I think the the commitment you can see with with different people in different aspects and different jobs I think about what you said in your time at your up because you talked about you you were talking about what that kind of day looked like what that opportunity was like for you and part of what you said was yeah we had to like show up on time and then you said as an aside you know because they were teaching us professional skills as well yeah now that aside is a big thing huge it's it's that especially for different people speak on it well some people just don't have the soft skills you know some people especially in an urban youth setting we grew up Rough Around the Edges you know we don't necessarily know how to talk in the workplace you know swear I'm not a good uh I swear a lot so I'm not a good uh I didn't learn that guess on that much but you know like like you know dress the way you dress like you can't say that here you can't dress like that here you can't you got to be on time like some of the core things about just being a good employee is not taught just like in in school like you're not taught how to do taxes someone's going to teach you to do that you never going to learn and uh that's something that y knew right off the bat is like not only do we have to teach the technical skills or the finance skills for the finance track but we also have to teach the soft skills of professionalism you know you saying that reminds me of of my my brother he recently retired he's a retired foreman and he does this thing with his children he has young adult children and he'll take out his young adult children and their friends to like happy hour or something once a month or periodically and he will completely pay for it the only thing is you have to be on time yeah if you are not on time then you're paying for it yeah and he's there's been times where some of the friends will call from the parking lot he's like no you're not here you're late yeah exactly and he holds the line on that right that's smart and he talks to my children about these small things that make a big difference and the main thing and my parents drilled into it so that's what he's got it naturally about you got to be on time like make yourself undeniable by doing the small things I don't care no excuse I show I've show when I show up to meetings it's 30 minutes 45 minutes an hour early I'll just be sitting in the parking lot and cuz you know why cuz for me I have the worst luck there's going to be a meteor that comes out of space face and hits the the street right in front of me and I'm stuck and you know the the worst thing even if it's like the most legitimate excuse like when you walk in front of a customer or a your boss or whatever and you're like oh I ran out of gas the dog ate my homework doesn't matter if it's true it's still like be better you know like it's no excuse like it's you know you're especially if you're trying to tell somebody something like there's nothing more disrespectful I think than well there's plenty more disrespectful but that's definitely a huge I think of sign of disrespect by not being on top yeah and it's something that you can easily control for like like control the things that you can control go an hour early what if you have to be there at noon I never understood I worked with a lot of people I never understood why people would just time it to be there at noon like just be there at 11: right right like and then if you're there at 11:15 it's fine I'm glad that we're drilling down on this because I think a lot of times people like want to skip over the soft skills because there's an assumption that they have yeah it's easy or the Assumption doesn't matter yeah but if if you're arrogant I don't want you here if you're if you're not going to support your team I don't want I don't care how smart you are uh if you're not going to support the person next to you if if you're going to be disrespectful arrogant no way that's the quickest way to get out of GL fast or or not get here I got a chance to go to the Glide fast office in New York last year last last week am I talking about service now yeah I got a chance to go to the not yet not yet we'll take it's a nice not a bad office huh oh oh man beautiful office a feeling what a feeling you get when you walk in that office like crazy listen I got emotional yeah it's emotional it's emotional because it's the office it's the view it's the people it's the energy within the city crazy it it's just the whole environment it made it really made me emotional because I was like oh I got to step my game all the way up you know like being here it makes you be like okay let me let me reorganize myself and and show up better how can I be better where are the areas where I can be better I love your outfit by the way I didn't compliment you look phenomenal very professional thank you I didn't compliment you I'm listen I'm here at the walam Glide fast office I I got to show up right I can't come in here like a slouch so when I was when I was in New York I got a chance to meet one of our Glide fast Architects Ryan Gillespie yeah he's a man and you talked and you talked about having Architects that show up and support their team about two weeks prior to that I hopped into what we do internally called the share share the wealth and it was his team that was on that call and it was so cool because we got a chance to see the the team that he works with and now how each of them add like an very important piece to the puzzle of how we deliver for our customers I just wanted to share that because when you talk about Architects really showing up for their team Ryan Gillespie is one of them the way that they talked about his support of them yeah even getting him a cape because of how because of how he shows up showed up and and saved the day yeah that that's a real thing here yeah and he doesn't just show up for Glide fat like he shows up for the community you saw like him posting the pictures like this is my guy right here you know like you guys need to if you don't know him you need to and her and stuff so like he isn't just you know he's one of them he he embod he's like you know I knew of him knew him like before Glide fast well before and I KNE I always wanted him at Glide fast because he's like the you know he he's just so passionate yeah and colorful and I'm like this is he is Glide fast you know yes he is so like he I think he knew he was coming here one day anyways like I we both knew it when he showed up to the Glide fast service now uh knowledge 20 23 Afterparty with a cape on I was like we GNA be friends forever yeah he's he's crazy but he's he's like just all in like that's that's that's like you know it's it's a special thing about cast like it's you're you know you're you're you're either in or you're not like you know like it's if we're in we're in all the way that's what I that's what I've always lived by if I'm doing it I'm doing it a th% listen I have I have a final question for you okay you were talking earlier about your time with Europe yeah and you were saying you know I I was lost and I asked you well do do you think you were looking for something you're like yeah I think I was looking for something and I finally found that thing yeah in this season in your life what are you looking for now well recovery for one I got to beat this freaking thing and then yeah like like I said I got I got to figure out how I can just make a bigger impact out there um you know it's funny because I forget one point you're bringing something up and I thought you're going to go a direction of like why why are you still how are you still motivated because you know there's been a lot of success here and you know my the partner my co-founders are they're you know retired or whatever they're doing and I'm still here like even through the battle that I'm facing I'm on the computer more than I was before you know it's like I I'm just like I don't know what it is I just like oh this is what I was thinking the sports thing I don't know what it is that why I'm so competitive in this why I have to hit our goals grow the company make sure people like Ryan are loving it here making sure you're growing making sure you you know I just love it like that's my number one thing I don't like I like snowmobiling I like snowboarding I like hiking I like you know I love spending time with my family obviously that's got to come first but this thing that we do I just cannot like accept not going all in like I can't 75% it like it's killing me right now that I'm not on a plane to close a deal I love it and I and one of the reasons this this is why I was thinking about it because you're talking about aiming for the Stars aiming for the moon since day one there has never been a ceiling here there's never been a goal the goal has been to grow the gr the goal has been to deliver great outcomes for our customers the goal has been to make sure people love working here but there's never been a number or an end a Finish Line that's what I was thinking about there's never been a Finish Line so when you you say that Runner said or that track star said looking beyond the finish line for me it was beyond the ceiling you know because it's like we hit 10 we just hit five million we just hit five million in in Revenue H holy Millions like what Millions you know to me that was such a ridiculous word in in you know Millions I'm not goingon to you know I never really but and it's like we had 50 million all right now we're at 75 now we're at 100 now we're at so there's never been like okay we're done and I think that's what that track star me in their world is finish line for me I always think of sailing and I always think of like there's no sailing I haven't seen it yet okay you you're now talking about we're now getting deeper into mindset and I think that is a differentiator for you is that infinite mindset yeah infinite game is something that's I forget what that is but somebody somebody wrote that when you said infinite somebody has a theory infinite game there I think that's I think that's what it is it's like just infinite and that's really what it is it's just like it's it's infinite for for me you know well you know you say listen let's get that million let's get that 10 million that 25 that's 75 man we at 200 yeah but it's not about money either but that's one thing actually I want to make sure okay cuz it's not about like stuff in my pockets and like that's just how to measure the success that's like the championships for for Kobe yeah right it's just a it's a measuring stick that's how you measure it did we win the championship yes or no you know did we hit did we hit our targets yes or no did we you know and and you know sometimes you make it to the playoffs and you you don't make it to the championship or you know you lose to the Heat and somehow in round one you know or whatever it was listen everybody stumbles from time to time but but that's still you know still a great season you know you still set these records you still you know and it's like well get them next year you know and and that's so so I know I'm throwing out a lot of numbers with money and I didn't mean to interrupt you but it's important for everyone to understand that the numbers are just a measuring that you still have to measure profitability all that but for for me personally my personal financial wealth is not it's important to me I want to make sure my kids are good and there was a time I I needed to like make sure I could pay my mortgage you know which I skipped that a couple times starting GL fast I don't know it's hard to explain it's just it's just the win it's the win that matters it's the it's the like you know seeing one of my sales reps close a $1 million deal like you know it's the it's the yeah we just beat this other company on this deal like it's just bill mcder just sent me a text like that like those things motivate me way more it's like cars love cars right I have have a couple nice cars they just get you from point A to point B and you know when I'm like when I first get a car or when I first started getting nice cars it's like oh my God it's unbelievable but eventually that fade and the most fun like the best times I have don't require money you know like the best times I have like with friends working closing a deal with my family like going out and spending money is like you know once you get past a certain point just doesn't matter I'm glad we landed here and that we had the the the privilege the benefit to hear your thought process behind that because and I hope we keep a lot of this in because when I talk to people who don't have direct connection they ask me about that about you they think it's money I know yeah they they ask that about you just as recently as yesterday you know yeah and so it's good to hear to get that perspective and we got it documented so we can feed it out to the world like well this is what he said and this is how he feels about that this is his perspective this is how he's growing um you know differently right now in this phase I want to make sure that we don't leave anything on the table let's talk a little bit about about generative AI okay let's talk about that generative AI yeah we talked about differentiators I'm going to talk about generative AI as a disruptor service now's um Chief Innovation officer Dave right Dave right y he talked about how generative AI I'm paraphrasing is basically a novelty in 2023 however the year 2024 generative AI needs to be put to work and that's sort of like service now slogan put generative AI to work yep what are your thoughts about Ser uh Glide fast bringing a generative AI product to Market where do you see that is right now I kind of see generative AI like I used to have aquariums growing up right we go to the the the pet store you buy a new fish they put it into a plastic bag with some water you put that plastic bag on top yes you put it on top of the aquarium let that that fish acclimate right so I kind of feel generative AI is sort of that new fish that's coming into the aquarium it's a good analogy talk to me a little bit about how you're introducing generative AI here within how Glide fast delivers for customers yeah I mean like the first thing we did is like how can we leverage it to better our business just like kind of I think everyone's trying to do and not not necessarily what service now but you know we we came out with um our first product and then quickly two behind that and I'll just talk maybe about one or two of them but agile genius I'm sure pretty much everybody's heard about that it cuts down on clerical work it fills in blanks it saves 25% of the um requirements Gathering phase of an of a service now implementation so that is direct uh benefit we pass back to our customers I mean everybody's geni everyone's looking for more efficiency how can we save time how can we get more done with less like that the that's the key right does that save customers money when it's cutting down 25% of course of course and it and it allows us and the customer to refocus on more important things other than grammar you know populating raw notes into story forms it it allows us to review stories ra and edit and modify rather than having to start from scratch test cases and epics and themes and you you know it's it continues to go from there and then the other product we had which I loved was um was just leveling up was basically taking all this data from a raw um service now user profile and actually creating a con uh service now consultant profile in PDF form that is basically we can pass off to customers of service now to say here's collie here's her experience here's our certifications and that was just such a gruesome process for us manually to have to you know go through each word document every 3 months and updated and that was literally somebody's full-time job that they didn't want probably right and we were able to leverage gen to now it's a re again a review process rather than a start from scratch you know those two examples are great examples of how J will be using the workplace and in service now just different flavor right it's all going to save time it's all going to increase the the user experience it's all going to uh save money you know or or repurpose um you know boring job just like service this was the service now promised from the beginning we're going to allow you to focus on more important aspects of your job right and that's just this is just the Next Generation so it's delivering on that promise absolutely yep okay so you you talked about and this is where people the people who are kind of pushing back about the introduction of generative AI in the in in in business right and generally it's just overall the push back is well this is taking away jobs you mentioned that we had someone that is working exclusively maybe not exclusively maybe part of their role was like put getting these these consultant uh profiles together is that person's role now eliminated oh no they yeah no they just doing other stuff do more important things so more impactful work for the company oh yeah but no longer doing that kind of a tedious administrative function exactly yeah yeah yeah and that's and that's you know that's typically because there's there's there's always something to do yeah yes there's always I mean there's when somebody says there's nothing you know you hear it all the time don't tell me you have nothing to do there's always something to do even when you're working in a restaurant go pick up the broom and sweep the you know floor go wipe the Conners time to lean you got time to clean that's right exactly and so you know there's always room for more and I think that's like the early days of service now like I think back when I was a customer the the you know boots on the ground people are always you know hesitant or some people are you the negative people you know oh this going to take our job this is going to do it's like no it's not it's gonna allow you to be more efficient you know it's going to you know it's going to remove some of the chaos and the unknowns but some people like that chaos the unknowns CU they they want to just hide under the sheets get their paycheck go home you know at 5:00 every day so that that's the biggest challenge for servers now is the detract the detractors the the negative people out there that that don't want it because it's gonna they don't want to improve that's the reality there's some people out there just don't don't want don't that you know whether subconsciously or whatever for whatever reason self-preservation they don't want to improve well you know and perhaps that thought of a self-preservation is perhaps a bit of an illusion right yeah oh it is an illusion 100% speaking about service the promise of service now yeah what are your thoughts about service now delivering on the promise of it being a no to low code platform I mean it is today it is it is I mean you can't get much more listen if you want a Ferrari you're going to need high octane gas ass to put in that thing when you do an oil change it's going to cost you five grand when you you know there's there is a cost to high efficiency there is a cost to high Automation and that is expertise you know you can't have uh I think of a better example you know you don't like like the key to start a Ferrari is not a kids toy key chain right it's a freaking Ferrari key yeah you know and so with great you know I always say with great power comes great responsibility right and you got to make an investment to do that so so it's never going to be just just press the start button you know you just not it's just not going to happen needs to be personalized it needs to be developed it needs to be built best practice needs to be followed great architecture models need to be created and and there's just no hiding from that it's just but but but the good news is it's worth it it's the the the juice is worth the squeeze the juice is worth the squeeze that's it that's it collie thank you for joining me on the episod of Glide chat I hope we got the camera working here welcome to Boston so H so happy to have you thank you for having me yeah let's go go do you have a topic in mind that you'd like to discuss reach out to us at glast.com And subscribe to our podcast for new episode thanks for listening