welcome to another episode of Glide chat my name is Mike Lombardo CEO and founder of glidefast today I'm sitting with jeppe jadina the operations manager at Glide fast jeppe how are you great how you doing today great man it's uh not Friday but it kind of feels like Friday a little bit right it's Thursday it's Thursday we're almost there you know you and I have known each other a long time we go way back to our uh school days at Europe up right y and man we've come a long way first of all I just want to say how proud I I am of you and um and thank you for for being there to push me you know we pushed each other right we were a big part of uh you know always making sure we were on time making sure we were getting our work done and and I value our friendship that we've built over the years I appreciate that you're basically running a manage services project um where you have a team of how many people uh well we got about 40 to 50 people on the project but I got a good um about 15 people that report to me directly okay uh we have different tiar broken down so I basically manage the tier one and tier two uh portions of our team and it's basically a 24x7 support for this customer a large customer and basically like what's your your day-to-day responsibilities like are you making sure like what are you what's your responsibilties uh well um basically um maintaining all the we have set up as tasks and URS that come into our Q um and we have each tear that we assigned these tickets to so we can review um and support all our tenants which we have about started with about 60 we're well over 100 now so that continues to grow our team has been continuing to grow as well um for the additional support but basically we just um maintain the daily functionality of um the product and the application and all the different apps that we just running and supporting every day all on service now yeah and and and what's a tenant like what is a tenant uh a tenant is basically uh just another name for a customer okay they basically utilize the applications okay um and whenever they run into any type of issues or um configurations challenges and stuff like that they reach out to us and they'll open up that support uh ticket which is what we refer to is a task or you are um and that's what gets um dispersed out to my team and I basically just make sure that everyone is um on top of response and getting issues resolved right making sure they're following up with the tenants in a timely fashion and make sure we could just get them uh resolved ASAP basically so the the platform is just running up to par with no issues and listen like when I first because this was this was you know when you when we first started this a couple years ago this was like our first project of this kind 24 by7 support and slas and all that I swear to God like when we got it like your name just I'm like oh my God this is Joey I need Joey for this role to lead this because to me there's nobody more responsible responsive I mean I you said it the other day huh dedicated dedicated I mean you said it the other day you're like Mike just so you know I haven't like taken a sick day since I started to years ago and like which is not healthy either you need to take a couple you know some vacation stuff but you're just so committed dedicated and reliable I think that's like your strongest trait is reliability well and I think that is fortunately what brought this great opportunity for me and that's why I probably resonated on your mind with this project it's yeah I I know there's a a big responsibility with it and making sure it's running 247 um and I just I was up for the challenge I it's it's something I strive for keeps me going that's great and then so before you came to Glide fast you were at a large Financial firm um running help desk for for I mean you were there for what 10 uh 15 years 15 years wow that's unbelievable and what was your main responsibility there uh well I started off as just a regular help desk um employee um 15 years ago and then I worked my way up to team lead yeah and then we uh at one point decided to integrate our help desk with desktop support and morph into much larger team um and then at probably like the last five years is when we started working more with uh Operation Center just to align everything into one big unit yeah um and that's basically what I was doing my last uh couple years there just basically being the team lead for the help desk desktop support and our Operation Center that's awesome yeah and like you're just so look like 15 years like that's that's like the Loyalty dedication dedication you have right of just being there and uh wow so what what are some of the things you've learned over the last couple years of you know because that's like it's like obviously a big change a big step in your career coming to Glide fast leading the team you know and uh obviously a lot of new things so like what what's uh some of the things you've learned the biggest thing is it allowed me the opportunity to show that I can be a real leader um even though I was doing that at my previous employment um I wasn't really given the opportunity to um make real decisions for the team um it was more a little held back so with with this great opportunity I felt that I could really um show my full skills of how I could be a leader and continue to grow because it also made me realize I do want to be a leader and and I want to continue to grow in that path I mean I I love technology that's what got me here but I definitely seen see myself growing into much more of a leader for uh my team and just for the company in general that's awesome and I I love hearing you talk about your team because you're like you know I love my team they're great I I was blessed that um the way I I I put it especially as Mike said where we were sort of thrown into this project put together it was definitely I mean jumped in the ocean but um had no problem just swimming to the shore and my whole team I mean really has just been backing us up the whole time they I mean they've done a great job I have no complaints um in that department they they've really helped cuz I mean without a good team it doesn't matter how good of a leader you are you're not going to get anywhere yeah there's such like a thing about strength and numbers you know what I mean like if four individual people are trying to do something like versus four people working together to do something like I'm trying to find like I'm doing it you know for knowledge coming up and glide Fest and I got a big keynote for for our company and I'm trying to find like an image or something that like explains that what we're just talking about like how like Glide fast is special because like the you know the team is working together to push the rock rather than one person at a time to push this big you know rock up the hill or something like that you know I mean one thing I'd have to say and I mean most people will be like oh just saying that but I really found team te actually means something at this company yeah um I I I I really believe that because uh working at my previous employment and other jobs a team gets thrown around so easily yeah and I really feel here that I've had many times had to rely on my team my team members rely on me and when we say team yeah it actually means team it makes a big difference yeah it's like we're going a battle together you know what I mean and it's and it is a battle like it's it's not easy dealing with all the amount of you know requests and and problems that come up right and making sure there's you know you're meeting your slas and you know same thing with me like I try to be involved in as much as I can and I try to help as many people but there's sometimes like I need help I need to help others other people are coming to me for help and it's like you know just knowing that you have somebody there when you need it and you know it's it's special and you know I've worked at other other places where you know it just it wasn't as real like it's it's real here you know good or good or bad by the way like the good the good is real and the bad is real too like you know or or the things that need Improvement and we're always working on trying to get better and that's something definitely could quote me on like I all my 101s or any meetings I have with any of my team members it's I I I stress the word team and how we we actually really utilize it and to appreciate appreciate that and use the team and I mean that's what we have our resources for that's the great thing I mean people that aren't on the same project as us we still work as a much larger team you put something in our our chat that one of our 400 employees sees and even though they're not on that project they may know an answer or a tip they'll jump right in there and help you and I mean that has no doesn't help their project or anything just the willingness to go and do that because they're another the Glide fast team member exactly it shows that they really do care yeah I mean we we help each other you know what I mean and that way when when that person needs somebody somebody's there to help them right I think that's that's what makes us unique but what's something you learned back so back when we were in school at the the nonprofit called Europe up not Europe up Europe up which everybody always got that that right I can say Europe on here yeah we can say Europe we can say Europe shout out Europe and um great unbelievable shout out Gerald we love Gerald uh the founder and CEO uh what's something you learned all the way back then I mean I was 19 how you were like 21 right like what's something you learned all the way back then that you've carried over even to today I would say the most important thing uh two things was professionalism and punctuality yeah um I mean I learned that I mean something as simple as a good solid handshake willing to be on time uh knowing how to sometimes dress professionally for certain situations I mean could just go light years ahead like the biggest thing that's stuck with me is is the punctuality yeah just to being reliable to know when when there's certain deadlines certain times that you have to be there for um to be accountable yeah um it it really goes a lot way and it shows um your dedication the difference of wearing a shirt with a collar on it versus t-shirt it's it's it's just a little bit more but it goes a long way like people okay you just have a certain level of respect and that's what Europe taught us right I I I'm totally with you on those two being punctual was a big thing we never wanted to get an infraction dressing up the right way that was that was and we love doing that by the way we loved be getting on the train going to Boston dressing up being on time and then the network was I would say if I had a third like how important your network was and and just um you know building relationships with people and uh you know what I always Lov that you used to say or you said a couple times and I actually I say that now when I'm I go back and talk to Europe students and even other people like I'm mentoring and you used to say you know at work I'm Clark Kent and then I get to go home be Superman what did you mean by that uh well basically I mean to know when to separate your work life from your own life and I mean I think everyone is like a superh Herald I mean in real reality in reality I mean we whatever it is you do right you could be Superman Batman but there's always a clock Kent in a Bruce Wayne and there a time and a place for everything and at work is I mean when you may have to be clock Kent or Bruce Wayne but when you're done with work and you're on your free time you could be Superman or Batman and I mean because basically Superman and Batman is the real me or you yeah clar Kent is that is the professional glasses and that shirt and TI you going to put on a go to work and it's okay to do that and to separate it doesn't mean you're one or the other you can be both just know when to separate your professional life from your personal life yeah and I always like kind of envy that you because I'm I'm such like an open book to a fault right and not that like you're dishonest or anything but like I just remember you saying like Mike the people that I work with just think I'm like into work and like drawing and like that's it they don't know like anything and it's not like you're out Robbin banks at night or something but you want your brand right talking about personal brand like you want your brand at work to be Joey's this hard worker and you know I think he just go Homes at night goes home at night and thinks about working you know and like we we know he's going to be there on time early the next day and he's going to stay late like that's what you want your work and and that's your work life like this is my work life and this is my personal life like sometimes I struggle with separating the two but I think it's real important for people coming up in their careers to know that go to work be Clark Kent be Bruce Wayne get your job done and then go home and be Superman Batman have fun yeah exactly so what's next for you Joe uh at fast what you know I know you love the leadership path you know where do you see yourself growing into I mean sky's the limit uh so I don't know I I really really am Garen towards um just continuing to grow in this leadership path I mean I I look forward to having more people under my wing um more responsibility this guy's a limit pretty much I mean to the moon to the Moon baby all right thanks for joining me Joey and thank you for joining me audience and uh make sure you like And subscribe our videos and tune in to the next episode [Music]