welcome to another episode of Glide chat my name is Michael Lombardo CEO of Glide fast Consulting I'm sitting here with Dan Lyons our VP Professional Services what's up Dan not much man good to be here in Boston nice and cold yeah yeah good to be out here with the team love the office love the vibe a little different than uh North Carolina that's right yeah yeah I actually had to break out some gloves and a hat oh man don't tell me that because it's like I'm not there yet because I'm used to the colds but yeah that happens people move uh down south and we get uh we kind of thin out a bit where were you from originally actually before uh North Carolina lived in Chicago oh I know I know oh you do that Chicago is a special type of cold I don't know what it is if it and they call it the windy city that's obviously not that's politics yeah it's not really anything to do with the wind but um the weather or anything but it's just something I just remember I was there for I think I was there for Idol training yeah back in the day I've been there obviously for customers and stuff too but there's just something about walking through those like over those bridges too just the wind the cold wind just oh man it was like it's different than Boston and stuff oh yeah it gets pretty bitter it's a yeah it's a different type of cool have you been here a year yet actually it's just about six months wow yeah wow yeah A lot's been going on I mean oh yeah he came right at the Apex time and yeah yeah we definitely uh didn't really give you the heads up there sorry about that all good you know it's it's crazy but in a good way yeah you know it's all like forward momentum yeah uh we got a lot going on you know it feels like it's been a year but that's like in a good way right yeah you know uh we're always moving forward we are and that's what like that's what's kind of cool is like you know even just talking today it's like wow we've had all the success and we still have all these areas that we can and want to need to improve on yeah and it's just like if if we can even fix and improve you know 10 of this like we're gonna be in a much better position it's just it's exciting you know and I think it says something for like you know just the the the the kind of leaders that we have here where we're already doing great yeah and everybody's still looking at how can we get better yeah and then people are seeing like what the future holds for us and we're getting ready for that not just saying all right we're you know we're the biggest or the baddest and let's stop there it's it's like continuously looking at it's sort of like agile management we're iterating and that's really exciting because you know it just keeps us fresh keeps us in front of customers Keeps Us thinking about you know what our what our peeps want what our team wants and and looking to grow yeah and that's the thing it's like got stay humble you know we can't just say all right we did it we're done we're you know check the box right it's like all right that's you know we're good we're great we got a lot but we we have a lot to improve in the space is just humongous yeah I mean yeah I mean servicenow if you think about it servicenow is gonna do I think seven billion this year and you know Bill's talking you know 15 16 plus yeah you know so if if if if it's this big and this crazy right now at seven imagine double that yeah you know and all the comments that you don't want to think about that yeah one one in one day at a time that's the other thing too is like you know we talked about you know our billion dollar aspirations like all right that's great but like we got that's in five years right that's that's a Five-Year Plan let's what are we gonna do today tomorrow the next day yeah one step at a time let's not overwhelm ourselves exactly and it's interesting you're bringing up humility because that is definitely you know and it takes confidence to be to have humility yeah right to know that there's been need to improve on and that you leave space for that in your life but also I think our clients feel that you know our clients know that we're not just going to talk at them yeah they understand that our team is coming with that that confidence and we know we know what we can do but we also have humility to hear them listen to them uh and that's really it's really great to see you know top to bottom here that we have that humility because that opens up right it keeps our eyes open Keeps Us fresh Keeps Us Down to Earth uh and uh and kind of ready for new things yeah and so uh you and I were talking a little bit in we both worked not at the same time but we both were at the last partner before I started Glide fast and before you joined us so what were you doing before that you said you were doing like another uh stat uh consulting firm focused on Salesforce and yeah yeah so before uh last uh my last organization I ran a Consulting practice as part of a larger organization um and so we implemented uh we're a partner of Salesforce to Google workday and then my practice was around Cornerstone wow so it was really exciting to have a lot in the the talent management succession compensation management uh space but we did a lot uh cross-selling a lot of cross-selling with Salesforce and workday so a lot of the the same technology that you see in the same interactions now you see with servicenow right yeah client needs an integration with their CRM with Salesforce or how many how many clients now have an integration with workday so it's yeah you know a lot of that's kind of you know it's it's really great to see sort of you know a lot of familiar technology in the system space and plus I mean look at what servicenow is you know it's the spine of yeah that must be cool to like kind of just to see the progression I'm curious like how hard was it for that company to deal with multiple different technology skill sets right because you can't be experts in everything right and it's it's servicenow is deep and wide enough yeah yeah for sure yeah I'm not sure if you know you know considering we're like service now is and how broad it is I'm not sure it would have fit in that model but yeah because it does so much right yeah exactly there was the other Technologies were more like Niche yeah yeah exactly yeah but but across all that you still had that an emotional approach the humility the consistency of delivery all those things kind of regardless of whatever the platform was great Consulting is great Consulting yeah you know and you can give your your people you know the room to run the the give them the support and they can they can work across multiple Technologies um and you know you help them sort of you know help them understand and help clients understand how to thread all those together but now with with servicenow it is it's a CRM it's an HR System it's all this stuff procurement now right uh so it's it's interesting because our folks have to sort of see across this whole way field of functionality yep wow it's uh it's it's exhausting it's busy Keeps Us busy enough really we don't need I don't need any other technology right now like we're pretty good here this is not enough to keep us busy absolutely so tell me like a little something about you personally like what what's your hobbies or anything yeah down that alley yeah well uh I've got I've got three kids yeah uh and a 17 year old dog so that takes plenty of time oh wow boys girls uh yeah I got two boys uh my oldest is 14 uh then a 12 year old and then my my little girl uh she's 10. wow and uh she's our Spitfire uh and uh so you know just doing a lot of stuff with them one of the big reasons we moved down to uh North Carolina from Chicago is because we can be outside for most of the Year yep so we're just an hour or two away for some great hikes that's awesome I love hiking yeah yeah and not like hikes like you got to be an expert right yeah yeah we're not talking like 10 000 yeah good elevation this is you can go on a Day hike go see a waterfall then go to a brewery yeah that's cool yeah and so that's what New Hampshire is kind of like yeah yeah so getting the kids out they get some fresh air uh coach my kids soccer um you know just kind of dad stuff and then you know things around the house but yeah um and then outside of that just you know just you know just my wife and I like to go on a lot of date nights and get out nice I'll make sure the kids I'm overdue for a day night with my wife yeah we're just talking about that we're overdue um oh that's awesome and yeah I mean even though it's only been six months like it's really been a pleasure to have you here because you I think you came and brought in a level of experience that we didn't really have a Glide fast you know and I think a lot of us kind of just like came up a lot of us were developers and consultants and we kind of grew into leadership roles where you kind of had that leadership experience you've you've had some of those conversations with customers already like you know exactly kind of what customers were looking for so I really appreciate the level of expertise you brought in and and uh and also the flexibility because it's definitely been like uh okay you know I think you know people who maybe weren't as Brave or you know could like maybe would have been like I don't know if what's going on here you know and yeah and I appreciate you kind of sticking it out with us and and and being flexible so we could work through work through the acquisition work through some of these changes and I'm so excited to see like you know you grow and the whole organization grow I think we have a really bright future ahead of us oh yeah for sure you know I I think the the Common Thread right is that you know you got a great culture yeah you know we're leaning forward there's a lot of opportunity and you're always going to have some amount of change in turbulence and you know you know kind of seeing how you are and how you are with the team and you motivating the team and and everybody's attitude it really kind of um you know just sort of put any of that change in perspective right we're still moving forward uh and uh I think the team has done a great job of of stepping up you know like you said a lot of folks that they have a lot of great experience in their own way and now now we're sort of helping them kind of uh tie that all together and what a tremendous team our our leadership team is turning out to be they're going to be yeah absolutely amazing that's exciting our customers are going to benefit the most yeah uh what's one thing you want to leave our audience with we always ask one thing you can maybe leave the audience with maybe people aspiring to be in leadership roles or or work their way up you know in their careers what do you have for advice yeah I would say um kind of kind of to what we were just talking about is is be Fearless there's there's always um there's times you're gonna have in your life where you can choose to sort of lean in be you know expose yourself to to learning kind of do you get to Dive Right In right because in the end of the day you know you don't want to be uh sitting think oh I should have done this I should have done this so and there's and there's no better teacher than experience and how do you get experiences by doing by getting that right you can hypothesize all day but the real test and the real feedback is from our clients and our customers because that's ultimately number one for for what makes us better so I'd say for for folks if you're you know thinking about getting into Consulting and you're not sure if you can make that job do it because you can take what you've learned you can apply you just need a little you just just need to um you know sort of buckle up a little bit Yeah and and and what you'll learn I was reading a um a book the other day of just kind of like how much people grow in a year you should look back on yourself and look at yourself a year later and be like man I really didn't know anything and that's okay yeah because it means that you've grown right so year over year every year I mean it's even like looking back from you know six years ago yeah a year ago it's so funny to hear that you know because as you're talking I was thinking like yeah like be comfortable in the uncomfortable right the more you're comfortable with being uncomfortable the the more you improve but to think about what one year does to you I mean especially in our business right it's like because we're just I mean if you look at what Glide fast was a year ago it's like night and day yeah we hired over 100 people I think maybe more right in a year and you know let now we're Apex like they you know just think about just a few handful of things yeah yeah it's um that's great advice one year what what a difference one year makes and you know and it's like you should be seeing that happen right and if you don't see that happening and you know another thing I was just thinking about when you said about Consulting I was afraid to get into Consulting too yeah and I I remember like I don't know if I can do this like Consulting like this like when you've never done it it's there's this whole like you know I don't know if it's like from movies or pop culture or whatever that puts this stigma on like Consulting and what it is to be a consultant what's that George Clooney movie oh is it up in the air up in the air yeah where he just flies around all the time yeah it's it's not like that in our world right yeah I just one day said you know what I'm just gonna do it yeah and it's like for me when I went from corporate world to Consulting and it was like the the handcuffs were pulled off me oh yeah because it was more originally it was like sit down at your desk in your Cube and shut up don't don't get don't make too many waves don't outshine the boss don't piss anybody off right just stick to your job and don't do too good either you know and um and then consult world it's just like go you know especially in the startup life yeah absolutely and and you know one thing I tell my kids all the time is when we're trying to do something difficult or they have something difficult in front of them they probably roll their eyes at me about this but I tell them the struggle is is the destination the struggle is the path yeah right you know everybody wants something better for themselves but what they don't realize is the real benefit is is is is is when they have to take those risks and struggle through things so you don't know something you got to study you got to cram yeah you got to figure something out on the Fly you gotta uh and that's the joy and that's the beauty of Consulting is is you get a Off the Wall question and you you've never heard that before and now your brain gets like forced into like hyperdry to like figure it out and then in a year of that you've gone so far and that's that's the thing that I think uh people need to you know understand is is they have so much potential and you just have to have a little courage and a little um be a little fearless and you'll get there love it yeah all right thank you for joining us for an episode of Glide chat make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube and Spotify thank you guys [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music]