[Music] I understand that you are the Duke of service now that's what the word in the street is tell me a little bit about your service now Journey how you got here um well uh I inherited service now about 15 years ago at the company I was working with and I was kind of the least busy least technical uh person in it at the time so they kind of said that guy doesn't look like he's got much to do so let's give service now to him so I like to think that I am kind of the Prototype version of where where you can go uh with service now cuz I went from literally like nothing I was a nothing person in it and kind of Look At Me Now um the platform was very easily accessible I could build profound apps that sell solutions that were way above my pay grade and uh I kind of got bitten by the bug with that and you know here I am today and I just I love the app I'm always impressed by the volun to story couple that with you said you were the least technical person in the room and look at me now you are a bit of a legend within our ecosystem and you have a podcast you have anointed certain people within the ecos system as Titans everyone is looking to uplevel their skills and gain that visibility to also be anointed a Titan I want to talk to you a little bit about your podcast CJ and the Duke because it has been gamechanging for me tell us a little bit about it well first of all that means extra coming from you collie um and it's not I can't say it's my podcast it belongs to Corey Wesley and I you may have seen his picture he's like uh he's the new king of service now uh his picture is everywhere here uh um but we've been doing the podcast for about 3 years and uh we just wanted to have kind of an honest person's um take on service now you know the every vendor's got stories to tell but of course they're going to S they're going to tell those stories right because they have services to sell and product to sell and we just wanted to be kind of a neutral everyday person view on not only the cool things that service now can do but but how to level up and how to how to um mature and how to get what you want out your service now career and since we've pivoted more into that self-improvement direction the viewership is really taken off yeah one of my favorite episodes of CJ and the Duke is the episode where you did the requirements Gathering oh that was a good one I love that episode because it gave a window into the type of work that you would be doing as a technical consultant and Gathering and creating stories tell me a little bit more about that I think where most beginners struggle is that they have an academic approach to learning service now like what can the books and pieces of paper tell me about the app and a few years ago it really dawned on me that service now is a lot more like a trade or a craft in terms of like at some point it doesn't matter how much you read at some point the returns stop coming in on that and you literally have to use your hands and you have to build stuff but then the next question after that is but what do I build like I haven't been in it and so that episode was all about the breaking the it narrative it's like it doesn't have to be it that's the miracle of the platform right and for the past that's what I've been saying for the past 15 years so um so that episode was just born out of a necessity to show people here's here's the questions that you ask even if you're asking yourself right um in order to find the things that you can build on the platform to Showcase all these skills that you're getting yeah there are a lot of beginners coming into service now yesterday during bill MC's CEO of service now during his keynote address a good part of his address in the beginning of his address focus on rise up his ambitious bold initiative to scale up 1 million people on the service now platform by the end of 20124 and I know that there's a special place in your heart for people coming into the ecosystem whether they're kind of fresh out of high school or out of the military or if they're midlife and doing a career pivot such as myself yeah and I also know that not only is there special place in your heart but you you actually help folks do this tell me about what are some of the biggest some of the other pain points people are coming into the ecosystem with and how are you able to guide them well it's kind of dovetails into the last answer it's really a case of if if you want to get good at this you have to be able to build to Showcase The credibility there's no way of going from book to talk um there's no way of going from book to resume to interview and so you really have to build things to a figure out the right answers for yourself and also have something like tangible to um to project your credibility with and um I think if I it's not exactly what you asked me but I'm going to go ahead and say this anyway is that um I think some people have a shyness about them it's like well I didn't grow up an it right or I haven't had an IT career and it's again you don't need to and I've always said that some the most interesting talent in service now space didn't have that it really helps to have some completely different background so that you can again you can interrogate yourself and you could build apps that align to you know all the all the work that you've done in your past right um and so you everybody's got involvement in uh social institutions in uh past jobs every level of job right I I I build apps out of stuff I did in high school for work um and so you can really lean into your past experience and embrace it don't be shy about it recognize that it can be a competitive Advantage if you can take what service now does well and apply it to that past yeah I love that you've created a bit of a organic finishing school so to speak and you're actually showing people how to do this this being taking those past experiences and give and creating a digital solution around that so Bravo to you but I do want to switch gears just a bit I want to talk about Titans of now okay it is on my huge amount of things that I want to accomplish is to get to a point where I am now a Titan tell me about that podcast YouTube series and what are some of the things that excite you most about it Titans of now came at a time where service now was growing very rapidly and so was the partner ecosystem around it and so the official channels were filled with kind of what you think they are right take the biggest Partners who are uplifting us the most financially and give them a lot of Spotlight and I still saw a lot of people that were moving and shaking that were pulling a whole bunch of people up in their wake and really putting the whole team on their back and running for a touchdown right and these people might not be involved in you know the biggest top five partners and so the chances of them getting Spotlight were kind of slim to none and I had a little bit of a voice at the time and I just really wanted to you know what I mean I wanted to throw my weight behind the people I thought were you know punching way above their weight and and and moving the ecosystem on their own yeah today at 400 p.m. we're at knowledge 2023 you and I will be speaking to some of the folks here at knowledge tell the folks a little bit about what we'll be talking about we are going to be talking about how building a nice personal brand for yourself can get you what you want how it greases the wheels and just makes life easier for you and ways you can't even imagine like you know ever since I started getting a more uh active presence and and a larger audience I find like I get to skip technical interviews half the time and I encourage you know every time I'm up for a new gig or something and they're like I will just skip the technical interviews no please don't but I'm glad that you did you know it's so it it it greases wheels and it opens doors for you that you didn't have before and so um and you yourself have gone from you know not knowing anything about service now to I mean look at where we are and so how can we deconstruct that and uh give you actual tactical nuts and bolts so you can do it for yourself and that's what you and I are going to present on I cannot wait for it I cannot wait either final question Rob the Duke Fedor what is your superpower um irrational self-confidence and you started here we're at knowledge 2023 in Las Vegas Nevada what happens in Vegas leaves Vegas and out into the world and you heard it here from Rob the Duke the irrational self-confident fedori let's go