Tom this is one of the favorite aspects of my job you let me do a lot of things but this I really enjoy I want to thank you for that I think the audience gets value out of it there's learning that has taken place the other thing Bob too you think about all of the guests that you talked about you know what do they represent they represent a community [Music] so here we are it's the end of the journey the 2022 connected conversation season has wrapped up so what I wanted to do was give basically a wrap up of what I learned by going on this journey and who better to do this with than somebody who I see as a leader a friend a mentor somebody I really respect and really am grateful for allowing me to go on this journey and that's not other than Tom Stanford the CEO of nuvolo is with us today to wrap up the first season of connected conversations Tom how are you great Bobby great to see you and uh thank you so much I feel like um it's so special we got to do the season finale you know I'm so I'm so excited to talk about the journey and just an amazing uh set of learning opportunities over the course of the last year or so so um so thanks for having me Bob yeah of course of course um so Tom briefly since we have you here why don't you give us a quick little background on yourself so I'm Tom Sanford I'm the founder and CEO of navolo on January first I'm so proud to say We'll celebrate our ninth anniversary sort of as uh as a business what an amazing uh journey and run that has been you know where as you as uh as your audience probably knows where where uh service now's largest and fastest growing isv we we we played an instrumental in helping sort of build uh out the isv infrastructure and you know the whole built-on service now uh brand I am I'm so proud to say that we're a leader in that space and uh it's been really exciting and uh mostly the people in the relationships and the partners that we've been able to uh create over the years and of course the culmination of that is really sort of where we are from a connected workplace you know uh perspective an amazing brand an amazing sort of fulfillment of our long-term vision for our company Bob and so you know um uh super excited about that and uh so much more to come to and for me what I'm most excited about from my journey starting over three years ago is how we've been able to become a part of the corporate real estate Community the workplace community and be able to tap into a network of thought leaders to come onto the podcast and speak about what they see Trends in the industry and how nuvolo has really from a brand perspective have been able to ingrain ourselves in that corporate real estate and workplace Community this last year we broke it up into we had two seasons season one and season two for a total of 12 episodes yeah and you said it perfectly so when I started with Kim Castle she talked about keeping things simple and then we brought in Chris Keane from virgins and Kimberly was from cbra we brought in Christine from birdsense and he talked about sensors which have been a big topic you know during the pandemic and post pandemic and he talked about the use cases and and how people really need to deploy sensors from there we met with Carolyn Cirillo um from Miller Knoll she does a lot of the research and insights for them and she gets the data and she what she reported back was people leaders are now investing in the workplace and now soliciting feedback on what they need from the workplace it was pretty much like you said about re-entering to the office then as the season went on we met with Vic bengia from viram Consulting and he started to talk about how leaders need to approach the workplace from a human perspective not so much command and control anymore but being more of an empathetic leader to listen to his to listen to their employees and really understand how they're feeling then we get to Kelly colon who's an amazing she just she just released a book as a matter of fact and the book and she started to talk about how we just went through a shared traumatic event and like everybody went through it we need to understand our interactions with not one another a little better and why somebody was saying what they were saying or feeling what they were feeling that we all went through this together and then the final episode of the season was my brother my brother is very much into diversity and inclusion and he's also he's also a counselor so he talked to us about things like people love the emotional backpack it's emotional backpack you carry everything with ourselves that have all these things that that have gone on over the year gets crammed into this back pack and then we take that into the workplace and how that needs to be contemplated and how emotional pain can feel like physical that Bob that episode was particularly pointed you know and it to me it was The Logical sort of conclusion of a series of discussions but this whole podcast series especially season one it was the manifestation in so many ways of always taking place in the world which is why I was so relevant think about heads down in the Foxhole or in the middle of Crisis no one can show up for work what are the blocking and tackling things that I have to do it's almost like survival mode you know and trying to figure it out and where did these models come from they we never had this before like we were inventing and building models in the ecosystem at day in while we were in the fight and I think the podcast series and a lot of those conversations you know um captured that in such an important way and then of course you know once things settle you know and you have some basic blocking and tackling that sort of Next Level conversation how do we think about our employees what are they dealing with at home you know um how do we make the workplace a positive experience think of from a purely practical perspective you know uh we have to make the workplace enticing and attractive and people want to go there there are so many considerations about that so you know so in so many ways I think the podcast series and these discussions were so appropriate and so um timely because it was the manifestation of what was going on uh in the marketplace in a logical sequence what I came to learn from those first six episodes is people like the human aspect of it or I mean I went through it my life you know very well my life significantly changed her yes yes and at the end of the day I work for you but how many times did I call you with something personal as opposed to this is the deal we're working on this is what's happening how many times did I call you it's something personal and I was I wasn't able to do that by the way we interacted with one another and once we got to know each other right we we had a bumpy start too yeah let me let me let me tell you because I think this is so important for your audience and I think people realize that and that is one of the impacts and I think you captured this you know um as well and that is our personal lives and business lives now there's a full intersection of those things it's hard you know we think about we think about the use of Zoom people are people now they're living on their bedroom is their office you know maybe not all the time but some of the time it's just a different world and it requires a different set of thinking and the folks that you had the value is that they're sharing their experiences their their knowledge workers in this context they have a perspective and it's based on lots of conversations and lots of interactions exactly I don't want to invent the Wheel Bob I'd rather use the will that someone else already invented how do we learn learn evolve and you know and even as uh even as solution providers in the marketplace how do we help our customers sort of accelerate that Journey you know uh I think so much of these conversations added value in that context and the hardest thing and the hardest thing is a lot of times it wasn't us sitting across from one another at a dinner table or catching up at a corporate retreat or a conference it was over a computer yeah over a virtual and you don't nobody knows what's going on in the background and a lot of times over the pandemic all hell was breaking loose for me man I know a lot of people yeah and you just don't know what's going on on the other side of that that computer screen and then here me and you are talking about something and it's like and everybody and listen that's the that's the that's the human side of that and we became uh we evolved you know especially those of us that are deep in the space for both of us we're fully committed we have become more understanding more empathetic more plugged into the needs of our employees and any responsible leadership team or CEO that's not doing that um his or her employees will vote with their feet they'll you know this is a this is now for leadership thinking about the workplace thinking about how do we create the most productive hybrid work environment we can thinking about providing flexibility and extensibility all these things we talked about we covered like the context you have these are mandatory requirements uh for uh for leadership and that's why I think this content and this uh this discussion this conversation and all the conversations you had and by the way we're so uh we're so grateful for the domain experts that had had a chance to come on board and participate in I just want to use this form to say thank you to all of them you know um I know there are a whole bunch in season two you know we're incredibly appreciative of that I think their insights are incredibly valuable yeah and that's that's the other thing how gracious everybody was with their time their willingness their enthusiasm the follow-up afterwards we're just at Coronet we had so many people come up yes and really extend their gratitude for having a platform for their voice but also saying um you know they felt like it was necessary and and something that was really valuable for them as well and we we just really appreciate it which is a perfect segue into season two yeah so what we did with season two was we looked for Thought leaders and we wanted folks to tell us okay we just went through what me and you discussed um you know this Global traumatic event then what we really want to do is focus on okay we did that what's the future now so we took thought leaders in each in certain specific areas and we kept them in their Lane and they talked on that we started the season with Anya austrie and I cannot say enough good things about mine amazing that episode was one of our most successful episodes she's a commercial broker for CBRE and she just blew everybody away she blew anybody away about how her take on where commercial real estate was going she talked about market segments she talked about class A office space she talked about different geographies different standards coming into the into the industry and really it was just a phenomenon really she really knows her stuff it was an amazing uh session really especially the the segmentation piece like it was um I hope I think your artist got a lot of value out of that but she was a great guest who numbers prove that the numbers I mean she just really really did a great job then we moved to Robert teed we talked about the future of leadership yeah and coming from a workplace real estate background perfect person to talk about this stuff and he echoed a lot of those sentiments we saw in the first season about being a leader who lists coming up with now I'm going to gas you up a little bit here Tom so hang on being a leader who approaches problems from a collaborative standpoint yes I don't know anybody better than you who does that were you drawing multiple people from multiple departments and you say this is the problem and you go around the room and I've been on calls where I haven't yet spoken and you've stopped and you said Bobby what do you think of this Bobby I think part of that is we have like you we have a lot of people at navola who are a lot smarter than me and uh that's really the best way to make decisions and listen that's why people work here that's why people uh want to be part of the navola family and um you know we think it's super empowering and of course no one uh personifies that better than Robert and uh Robert teed he's uh you know he's a great industry person a good friend and uh was an amazing guest too so yeah and I again I just want to say it's it's something that people can take away and even from this episode do that you know that's that's the type of leaders we need it's it's not it's not leading with a a heaven Bobby just just a follow-up and I think it's super important we're not out of the woods yet you know this this sort of this this is this is evolving you know and I will tell you it's very interesting as I think about it what's gonna happen here here we are in December right you know it's the end of the year it's going to be quieter for the next couple weeks but what's going to happen a couple of important things in January you're going to see more and more mandates for participation back at the office you're going to see more pressure on payroll unemployment and Tech you know like there's going to be more disciplined reviews of real estate portfolios and space allocations and space types and you know the kind of they go in hand in hand right we want everyone to come back two or three days a week but are we creating a really rewarding and positive work environment for them and is it going to be meaningful and what are the impacts that so it's still it's still the wild west you know out there so it's going to be interesting we we have to keep our foot on the gas and continue to listen we don't have all the answers forums like this allow us to assimilate lots of points of view I think we got to keep doing that and we'll get to that with our final guest from this season you touched on everything that she talked about but we'll get to that in a minute and then from there we have Lauren long Lauren long is somebody who I've worked with in the past she's been in the property tech industry for a long time we were talking about marketing Marketing in the property tax space and just Marketing in general and her message was you have to have you have to be very thoughtful and that's a word you use a lot thoughtful and authentic in the way in which you Market your company your brand your product um it's not something you can just you can always be it can't always be a sales pitch yeah and there needs to be an element of authenticity thought leadership and you providing something to your customer prospects and your your community at large so I really enjoyed that conversation it's a really good session and she's right uh the market has changed and customers are going to be more Discerning right and so uh I think she's spot on um and then this is this is the next episode was the guy that I had always wanted to have on the podcast somebody I've looked up to for a long time and that's Ryan Anderson and you got a chance to meet Ryan Anderson at his event I felt like I was meeting Mick Jagger by the way you know I mean I was too I I mean I've been reposting and and consuming his content for years and what I want to do with Ryan was Ryan what's the future of thought leadership and how do you approach social media and Linkedin and getting your message out there without sounding like somebody who's just using buzzwords and and who's just trying to the kids say clout gain clout on LinkedIn and what he was telling me was his content creation process is thoughtful he'll take something that he reads and he'll think on it for weeks months before he ever even posts anything on it and he comes up with his thoughts and his feelings on it and also behind Ryan he has a whole team that does analytics and research that he's able to surface in his content that's in support of what he does and the Miller and all brand as well and the last thing I took away from him and this is what I said to him they said Ryan I don't care where you work I'm going to consume your content whatever company you work at because I believe in the Ryan Anderson brand yeah and that's because he comes from a place of credibility yeah and he dots eyes and Crosses T's and I think that's you know you think about this concept in social media a sort of validated content you know you can count on it you know there's a certain amount of trust and you know Bobby this is abundant now in our space experts right tell me why you're an expert you know because they branded themselves right exactly exactly you know uh uh uh folks like Ryan uh they are experts you can trust uh we call him experts it's not because he says look at me on the edge no I know I know but he earns that Monica right he earns that Monica yeah so that was a super it was great to have an opportunity to meet him and um a super thoughtful interaction but um I think a great guest and uh really added a lot of value so and then from there the fifth episode of That season was Simon Davis you cannot in the workplace a purposeful intent you can't have a podcast you can't have an event without Simon Davis in attendance or contributing to it um he's been around forever me and Simon go way back uh we have a lot of history together we we've helped each other out here or there and Simon Simon has a great way of giving a hot take without it coming off as arrogant I think but what Simon is trying to do with his purposeful intent and if nobody has been to one of these events I recommend you going um what he's doing with his events and what he does with his content and his thoughts that he puts out there is a very straight ahead I think he has a big frustration with the way people approach technology the way they they gather the requirements for technology and the way they ultimately Implement technology to where they're not soliciting feedback from end users they're not soliciting feedback from employers they're talking over people's heads you know it's uh yeah it's the classic uh classic symptoms yeah yeah and he just really he just really comes in with a a really good take on this stuff and again through his his purposeful intent uh conference series I mean he's listening to the experts on a regular basis and he's bringing in all the heads of workplace from diverse verticals and it was really interesting to hear his take at the end of the day the biggest thing I took away from that episode was just not soliciting enough feedback from the people who are going to benefit from or ultimately use the things that are being put foreign I'm very grateful for his participation but I I think I'm going to spend a lot of time with you I think you've learned a lot from him and all of us benefit uh from that so one really appreciate you know him coming on and participating and sharing you know this this whole the whole sort of purposeful you know um uh Insight uh that he provides and also I think he's been a great mentor you know and teacher for you and of course navolo and all of our uh constituents benefit from that so super appreciative of that in both in both areas and now which leads us to our final episode which was man this was very serendipitous is the way it's one of my favorite words but I was actually speaking to an industry colleague of mine and asking him to go on the podcast and he said well I'll do it but I have somebody else in mind and that's Carrie Aldridge from CBRE and Carrie Aldridge works for Susan Rossman um who heads up gws uh Global workplace services at CBRE um where they're most concerned with space planning and the workplace and Gathering the insights to deliver to the prospects customers industry CBRE doesn't charge this report yeah it's the annual workplace insights report that's not the exact term for it um but we've posted the link we've shared it out uh multiple times but Carrie gathers all this information and she has the data that's the nice thing about Carolyn cirilla Ryan Anderson and Carrie Aldridge we have people who have actual data that comes from the work it's experts that come from the people uh who are actively no hyperbole Bob no hyperbole just the facts and I think that's super important not and what we found out and the timing was great because we did the podcast and then the report came out and I was at a conference and I listened to again Kim Castle our friend who referenced the report it's all it was very very serendipitous to conclude the year with this report with one of the authors of the report and I I couldn't be I couldn't be more grateful to have her and what we found out in this episode and this goes back to what you were kind of already going there about five minutes ago to where the theme what's changed in the workplace is understanding how the workplace is being used and really understanding truly what the word utilization means and utilization sometimes gets interchanged with allocation that's not the case and that's the way I used to plant space this department has this many seats um so that means the building is 100 allocated based on these departments now corporations need to understand how well their buildings their portfolios their floors are being utilized how many people working through the door walking through the door where are they going in the building how much time are they spending there what spaces are the correct are they having are they having a positive experience right and I just again there's a lot of gratitude coming out in this podcast but to be able to speak to the author of that I've read that report for years every year it comes out I read it I look at the ground I gotta look at the pictures um so I look at it look at the pictures that pull them out I send it to the junior sales reps and say hey when you're talking to your prospects or your customers reference this ask them this is true for them use it share it say hey I read this what do you think about this is this about it now and nowadays now of course and it's so timely and again for the content and for the podcast and for her as a guest it's so timely because the the report has never been more important than it is right now new models New Vision new thoughts you know you're an intensive sort of experience and so you know uh I think the timing was amazing and um you know and uh I think just added a lot of add a lot of tremendous value there as well so that that 2022 um I I couldn't first of all first and foremost I want to thank you um for allowing me to do this allowing me to share my 20 years of contacts and experience and creating this this connected conversations podcast that's resonated with a lot of people and that's not me I'm not I'm not blowing smoke this is I I always try to end my podcasts with some form of gratitude towards my guests because a lot of my own for years so I want to thank you for enabling us to do this allow us to put the new Volo brand on it and really getting behind something Tom this is one of the favorite aspects of my job you let me do a lot of things but this I really enjoy and I want to thank you for that nobody and it's my pleasure and uh you know we we enjoy it and uh I think the audience gets value out of it there's learning that is taking place the other thing Bob too you think about all of the guests that you talked about you know what do they represent they represent a community and you talk about this all the time right from many of these people you've known for years some cases you know more than a decade and for us at navolo we have staked our brand on the connected workplace this is what we do it's not just what we do it's who we are you know and we understand the implications of that and we were going to work hard every single day this podcast and this commitment this uh this ecosystem of guests um should give everyone an indication of what our long-term commitment is to building connected workplace being part of the community I think these things are are amazing and a great way to reach people and to inform and to help and so um so thank you Bobby you know uh for all that you do and and your guests as well we're very very very uh appreciative of all the folks who came on gave their time you know and participated as part of this process uh so special thank you to them as well so before I talk about the future of this podcast in 23 we got a new theme for the third season that we're are going to be launching as as January rolls around Tom what what can we expect in 23 for the the new Volo brand you know this is for us you know for us this is the uh realization now of two years of intense listening two years of innovation two years of sort of product development in this new sort of operating climate and I think I don't think one of the things we've done I think exceptionally well is kept our ear to the ground you know stayed focused on our mission and so the completion of the build out of the connected workplace the ability to offer our clients and our partners you know a seamless connected workplace solution a seamless connected workplace uh experience Bobby right at the same time people are out of the Foxhole now you know uh they are now they now can focus on planning on thinking about 2023 and 24. on did the Tactical Solutions and capability is that they sort of thought about in 2021 are some of those going to work are they going to have to evolve and think about more uh we're going to help them answer those questions we're going to listen intently to them and we're going to really work to deliver a world-class connected workplace capability uh to the marketplace but for 2023 Bob it's the realization of what has been a two and a half year Sprint to be able to offer you know modern iwms full connected workplace on a single platform built on servicenow you know uh and uh I'm super excited you know uh about the AirHead and I think just you know on on a on a human level on a personal level we're going to be able to make the workplace experience better for people simpler for people if our customers and our partner's vision is how do we make that workplace experience meaningful um we should be able to contribute to that and I think if we do uh we'll be successful you know so super excited about the year ahead and you know um getting back as close to normal Bobby you know uh as possible so that's the thing I'm looking forward to the most terrific so for everybody who's joined Along on this I I can't thank you enough for all the guests for everybody who sent me a message for everybody who stopped me at a trade show thank you so much um this has been a very fulfilling thing for me to embark on take on it there's a level of vulnerability there it requires and I just really appreciate uh the community and everything that we've been able to build this year so with that said in 23 we're going to kick off the third season and what we're going to do is take it back to the human element and our guests will be challenged with what is their why why do they do what they do I I want to get out of tactical conversations around what Technology Solutions are right how what do we need to do about hybrid work I want to hear about the people I want to hear about why they get up every day and are passionate about corporate real estate or the workplace for me it's been a 20-year Journey something I've invested in my time energy in I built a lot of friends I've built a lot of relationships and at the end of the day I've been able to help lot of large companies with some very big Brands out there I can name drop with the best of them I've helped them succeed and I've had people say thank you we did Even though whether it's technology a Consulting service or in the practical sense of just helping somebody in the workplace way back when when I was a facility planner but that's going to be our season three what is your why and we're going to really get into it with some folks so with that said I'm Bob mustachetti this is connected conversations season one and two of 2022 are over I wish everybody a happy and healthy holiday season this is Tom Stanford the CEO of nuvolo he allowed us to do this he provided us this ability to create this platform we're grateful for him and I just again want to wish everybody happy holidays and thank you for coming along with us on this journey again connected conversations I'm Bob monticetti and I'll see you on the interwebs in 2020 today foreign