2024 promises to be eventful with a contentious us election this fall a looming recession according to many economists Jen AI quickly shaping the landscape of how we work and now stock reaching an all-time high why couldn't think of anybody better to be in conversation with than my next guest welcome to 100 days of service now I'm k Alexander we're at the top of q1 in 2024 and I wanted to talk to Michael Lombardo CEO and founder of Glide fast Consulting Mike welcome to the stream let's go drop the horns all right okay everybody if you are joining me live I want you to drop some megaphones some air horns some blue hearts in the chat and if you're joining me on the replay I love you too drop # replay Squad in the chat okay Mike we got a lot to get into listen let me calm myself down because we had a great discussion on the knowledge 4 of May 2023 knowledge 23 electrifying conversation an electrifying environment and I really wanted to ask you some key questions at the very top of the year and perhaps even have you back to see how those predictions are coming along so just four years ago we were in a pandemic and given the world's Chang circumstances I'm curious what is your perspective on the future of service now growth and relevance great question I mean I think I think it's been proven time and time again and um we're going to see more of it that service now is the defining software for for this uh Century right it's truly exciting to see in Good Times service now takes off and in tough times service now takes off when there are layoffs unfortunately or there is a recession or there there is economic uh challenges you know service now is the software that steps up to the plate and helps companies get through those tough times right helps support employees helps support customers helps support operations um and there's no other software platform um that can do that so especially at the speed so you have the speed of of implementation and Innovation but you also have the the mechanics and the capability to support all these organizations so as much as I don't want to see the bad times and and the recession and you know uh anything like that but you know if if it is there it's like it's like um my mother used to tell me prepare for the worst you know hope for the best but prepare for the worst and you know it's like either way if we hope for the best great things happen great service now is going to do extremely well and if if things don't go quite as well you know service now still gonna still G to be here just recently there's been a big acquisition that was announced um I was talking to Chad woods and he heads your go to market about the acquisition that recently has taken place what are your predictions on how this will impact the ecosystem and most importantly service now customers yeah I mean first of all I think you know talk about predictions I think we we'll probably see more Acquisitions this year a lot more um and it's it's really interesting because you know you have to look at the the motivations of of these companies acquiring and being acquired right you know with glide fast we were acquired almost two years ago now and you know it's crazy because like our culture got stronger the morale got stronger our business got better our profitability got better right like all aspects of our business improved and that's because our motivations were different our motivations were not to exit right um the founders weren't here to exit the the employees were not here to cash out right it was it was a strategic move to get involved with more customers you know Apex systems has 75% of the fortune 1000 as existing customers and doing very you know they were doing very little work in the service now world so we were a strategic move for them you know not not in a position where they said hey we already you know we already do service now you can just add to what we do it's it's you are the service now delivery arm for Apex system for the customers that we already support in many other ways so you have to really look at the the motivations you know I think the other partner you're tell you're talking about that was just acquired they were really another partner that was built to be sold nothing wrong with with that uh great people I know I know so many I know the founders I know the a lot of so many of the the Consultants there as well but their motivations were to build a company they did it unbelievably relatively quick I think in two and a half years or something did a lot of Acquisitions I think they acquired like eight companies six to eight um brought them together and then and then sold it and made it made a large profit so um and that's that's great but that's not uh the intention of like a Glide fast the Glide fast we want to be the most dominant service now partner for the next 20 years period that's always been our mission that'll always be our mission um so I think you won't see that company that was acquired you you probably won't see a lot of the same Consultants there a lot of the same leaders there because you know the the the culture may not remain um and I think you're going to see that with a lot of a lot of the other Acquisitions coming up too A lot of the other Acquisitions um that will happen are similar uh companies a lot of smaller companies that were com uh Acquired and combined uh their private Equity owned which means number one goal of private Equity is to make a profit right buy a company for for $10 and sell it for for 30 right I think that's so so it's not it's it's it's the motivations behind the Acquisitions that'll tell you the future is it still founder Le is the founder still being involved um is the founder going to be there protect the culture um to to con to to hold the trust with service now you know a lot like we've seen over the years we've seen so many partners be leaders of this space and then after acquisition just crumble and just the brand disappears the people disappear and and and you forget their name you know some of the leaders from even just a few years ago we you know new customers don't even know their name when did the Apex Glide fast partnership take place was that in 22 or 21 21 so that April April or June 2021 June 2021 you're still here and it's 2024 January because you easily could have been like I did that yeah and be gone right yeah but you decided to stick around you also mentioned culture just finished reading for the second time well this time it was a listen to Bill mcder chairman of uh service now and uh CEO his Memoir Winner's dream and I actually posted a quote from his book this past weekend that quote being strategy eats uh rather culture eats strategy for breakfast culture is really important to you and you've been here since the acquisition of 2021 still here 2024 can you talk a little bit more about the culture at Glide fast and why that's such a key distinguishing factor from other partners absolutely you know I think the the biggest thing about culture is knowing you're supported right when you're on an island first of all we're doing very difficult projects right these are these are challenging we're we're digitally transforming the largest companies on Earth and a lot of these processes we're changing are you know dozens of years old and the bigger the the the ship the harder it is to move right the thing that's really special about the Glide fast cult is every single person here knows that every other person at Glide fast is there to support them so you know I've I've seen a lot of uh our Consultants who have left that came back you know I always ask them like what first of all like you I know why you left because we had that conversation but why'd you come back and I'll tell you probably more than half of them say where I was you know I'd be asking a question I I wouldn't get any support you know it was it was a very you know um selfish culture of just like I you know me me me you know how do I get to the next level you know at Glide fast we just built something so incredible where people are just they're they're putting others around them first that's the iunu culture of putting the person next to you ahead of your own needs and then guess what when you need something you know there's five six seven eight people right there with their hand down trying to help you up so you know that is the core of our culture and then if you sprinkle in like the level of expertise we have the the high standards the high work ethic um and that starts with me you know if I was leading this company and I'm you know people see me on Instagram at the beach and you know I might party a little bit but you know that's on the weekends right if people people see me working as hard see me travel on a customer sites um you know it inspires you know other people to to work hard and and same thing when you look left and right right um so it's it's just it's truly special truly unique to your other point about me still being here that's what keeps me motivated you know I know there's people counting on me I know you know obviously I'm counting on a lot of people and you know we're not letting each other down and that's what keeps me so excited you know just this past week a Insider share it with me that an elite partner in the IT consulting space um laid off hundreds of their employees and are shifting away from new projects and implementation work toward managed services and Outsourcing a lot of that work overseas I'm curious because no doubt these are challenging times for many folks in the ecosystem what is your perspective on the current state of the partner ecosystem with regards to this and do you think it will evolve in the coming months and years that's a great question you know again you have to look at the motivations of these different companies because some some of these Partners you know service now is just one little line item or one little service that they offer right out of all these other services so it's not as strategic or not as important as it is for like a Glide fast you know Glide fast we are all the way in on service now you know we we only focus on implementing service now if if if we had a whole scale of solutions and you know we're having trouble um retaining the the top talent needed to implement these projects if another partner is upsetting a customer that spends you know hundreds or tens of millions of dollars on a different aspect of that of our business on an offering that we provide and the service now offering is dragging out you know it's not going as well and it's not and it's not and it's hurting our reputation with that customer and potentially hurting that that tens of millions of dollars I I would I would say it's service now is not important either right so you really have to look at you have to follow the money on a lot of these different companies because you know for Glide fast service now is it you know and a lot of these other companies um you know for the vars the the value added resellers service now is just one little thing um so yeah so I think it's funny because you have just like probably four different categories you have the super large the big four um who are you know service now is very strategic for them um they've they've grown and I think Bill mcdermitt's done a really good job of of getting those those big four uh Partners you know more involved in service now and committed to service now but again they do have tons of other product lines and in revenue streams uh and then you have you know your vars and we just talked about them that you know service if service now is not taken off you know they don't care as much about culture and as much about the service now kind of culture and morale you know they're not going to retain that top talent it's G and those projects are not going to go well and it's just going to hurt them in other other lines of business so they're not going to as invest as much and you have your Glide fast tier in in uh in our competitors more private Equity owned like I said earlier and and and really just looking for that exit and then you just go downhill to lowcost um offshoring or uh smaller Niche partners and so you know it obviously maybe I'm a little biased but I really feel like Glide fast is just in a league of of our own because we we do have the most expertise we don't have to worry about any other surprises or events like Acquisitions or any pressure there um you know we survived an acquisition I don't think any other partner really has at our scale for sure um so it's just really exciting and that's another reason what keeps me going and keeps me motivated is is the opportunity you know we we've we've been in business nine years now um and it's always been you know a a punch up an uphill battle to to get you know respect to get large customers to to increase business and you know we're finally kind of at the point where we looking around and the other partners are really not on our level it feels like again definitely biased you know I love obvious it's you know it's exciting it's ex well perhaps bias with good reason and and I want to talk a little bit more about offshore because recently when I say recently maybe past couple years please correct me if I'm wrong here you've built a pretty strong team in India amazing team amazing how is GL yeah an amazing team how is Glide fast doing that differently absolutely great question CU you know I think typic there's a there's a by the way I was I was one of these people who who viewed offshore you know I always thought offshore was like a way just to cut costs and you know and that's not what I wanted I didn't want to build just like a a uh to drop in quality just to save a couple dollars so you know we actually started our offshore because uh one of our largest customers wanted to continue working with us wanted to expand uh their portfolio of operations with us but they said hey these other companies have offshore it helps with the cost we you know would you be willing to to expand there and um fortunately we said absolutely but we're going to do it the Glide fast way we're not going to do it just to just to cut costs or just hire anybody that with a low Bill rate we want the same level of quality and expertise that we have in the rest of the world and um fortunately we just have such a great leader over there RJ um and and he saw the same vision of us we're not doing this for low cost we're not going to treat that th that team any different than we would any other team member here at Glide fast we have the same level of expectations of hard work and and Ubuntu supporting each other um and it's and it's worked out I mean you know I say it we're over 100 people there I say we have the best team service now team in India um I still believe it you know I I hear horror stories about other partners in their offshore teams and um and just the the lack of quality and I hear the just nothing but the complete opposite and see at firsthand with glide fast of just of just pure Excellence of delivery so it was really great seeing all of the pictures from Glide Fest India and that is the team wide All Hands kind of a powwow uh meeting good time uh uh Retreat there we go Retreat it was really great to see all of those wonderful pictures from Glide Fest and I'm looking forward to seeing more to come in 2024 do you want to tell us a little bit about what's to come with glide Fest in 2024 no one's listening you can tell me Well F first let's just quickly talk about what Glide Fest is so we do glide Fest we we did our second annual Glide Fest uh just this past May in 2023 in the US and that was uh over 400 I think 400 uh of employees gathering together we were all at knowledge um it was I think it was a three-day event we did sessions learning different aspects of the platform obviously having fun we threw a crazy party um and just and just you know again increasing morale in increasing the culture uh increasing our expertise you know getting better leveling up um we also did the same thing in India in November so you know talk about investing in our offshore I mean we did a three-day Retreat over there um for the you know just because the time difference there's no way we can kind of cross over the travel um for the two events so you know in just hearing you know I I dialed in um and and and did a little speech and and answered some Q&A but just to hear some of the the consultants over there just thanking us like you don't understand like other companies do not invest or care or treat um you know offshore Consulting like like Glide fast does and we just want to thank us and you know it just it just gives you the chills right gives you the Goosebumps and it just again REM motivates you to to just want to do well for our customers and in in our in our team members um but this year but this year but this year I don't know I don't know anything no everybody mute yeah everybody mute goad I'll say this we're definitely having Glide Fest Glide Fest is definitely happening it will be an inperson event um it's not going to be in Vegas you know there was an overwhelming majority that did not want surprising I don't know I still can't figure out why everyone doesn't want to go to Vegas but you know not everybody I guess wants that fast party kind of craziness um you you know what it is people really enjoyed the the in 2022 we did it in Montana middle of nowhere Big Sky Resort and that was so cool because there was no distractions right like we were hanging out together there was so many laughs there were so many you know so much bonding and I and I think that's what it is that you know people like forget about Vegas like I don't care about the party and I want to hang out with with you know with the person who lives in California right like the person I I get to just hang out with on slack and in Zoom you know sure sure good times okay well well in case you want to come back and make some announcements you know where to find me maybe we'll make the announcement here maybe we'll there we go there we go I love that idea definitely some conspiracy theories there's there's definitely some people want to go to Canada people want to go to Hawaii but I'll tell you what Hawaii is not happening okay okay there's other places there there's other great places okay so I I actually pulled some folks from your organization Glide fast and Robert G he one of your service delivery directors I believe and itom architect Robert correct me if I'm wrong here here's his question my question for Lombardo with much you said uh oh with much of the push being an AI this year which product line area of the platform do you foresee having the greatest benefit from it hey I Tom come on come on uh wait you so you said say w with Gen AI yes yeah you know I think it's going to do so much for the core platform I I think really in the customer support aspect so really on CSM like with virtual agent knowledge searching and and case deflection like I really think I think people are truly underestimating the the case deflection that's going to happen here unfortunately it you know it may eliminate the need for let's say support agents or help Des agents as many as them but again we're going to repurpose those jobs for more meaningful work right but it's I think case deflection is the biggest benefit that we're going to see in the most dis in that in that industry is probably going to be the most uh disrupted or or that role of just Frontline tier one support and I think everyone's underestimating that sure that reminds me uh I want to talk to ask you a question Dave Wright service now as Chief Innovation officer he published an article early this week on January 15th and this is a quote from that article if the disruptive potential of AI became crystal clear in 2023 then 2024 will see tangible business impact basically indicating that last year's AI Stampede will give way to more purposeful strides and those of you listening I'll leave the link to that article if you're interested in reading it in its entirety what are you looking forward to this year around geni innovations that are coming out of the partner ecosystem and how are you incorporating AI into Glide fast strategy yeah great question and and you know I just to comment on Dave Wright's quote there I you know I think last year was just the year of like okay this is a thing and and I think everyone spent the year trying to figure out how to bring it into platforms and in everyday life like service now okay now that this is a technology that because everyone's been talking about for 10 years but the this the technology really hasn't been there um so now that we have it I think they spent the last 12 months you know really trying to to integrate it right and figure out where's the best places for this um I'm most excited about like virtu like I said virtual agent tier one support I I know uh like case summarization I think is going to be big so looking at a mass amount of records and and and being able to decipher having AI decipher that and and shorten it up and sweeten it up into into here's a uh two sentences on exactly you know what these thousands of incidents were and and what the root cause is or potentially could be um so you know I'm just really excited to see to see it in practice right like to actually see um virtual agent automatically creating uh conversations CU before you had to manually set set up here's what I think you know somebody's going to say or ask and here's what would I want you to do with it that's going to automatically get created um and now at Glide fast you know Glide fast is is is we're using a little different way right I think a lot of people are are saying hey you know we're the AI exp you know the partners are saying hey we're the AI experts we'll help you implement it you know we're we're not we're not really going down that route right away we're we're saying hey we're leveraging AI to to further our business so we created unbelievable uh product called a agile genius shout out Tyler and that is basically an AI powerered uh tool that helps us autocreate Workshop agendas de's epic stories for those who follow me on LinkedIn I'm sure you see me post it we just posted a new video on that on our YouTube channel it's really exciting and and that's just gonna cut down clerical work right it's not going to replace people it's not going to replace the business process consultant you know a lot of conspiracy theorists you know we rolled out this app I'm sure there was some conspiracy theorists they it all there going to replace jobs here we go no it's it's not going to happen it's just it's gonna help us save time help our customers save a little bit more money and also focus on more meaningful work right so instead of spending that 20% of time you know story grooming and and clerical work and typing and in clicking it's going to pre-populate stories for US based on Raw uh Workshop notes and then allow us to groom from there and allow us to have more convers meaningful conversations with our customers around refining and improving their processes we're also using AI you know we have two other products coming out for just internal use so leveling up our consultant profiles helping streamline our our our operations and by the way we run our entire business on service now so it's all integrated in the platform so so so we're adding our own AI on top of the platform because I think if if if we ask service now to build it they'd charge us for it so we we we'd rather just build it for free sure you know I just last week I was in conversation with an economist at a well-known investment firm and he was talking about the possible looming recession ahead I like to shift gears a little bit and talk about what this means for organizations what's that stake for organizations you know for potential service now customers a barricade would be to move cautiously maintain operations as usual what's at stake for customers that maintain current operations as usual or the status quo you know it depends what they do with the rates I think if if interest rates do get cut I think we're going to see another kind of Bull Run as they say I I think we're going to see like uh the economy speed up you're going to see uh the housing market improve um you know the car Market's really interesting now with the high interest rates um but I I do think you know just the the pain over the last couple years um companies are making Cuts so I think there are Cuts Like happening um you know the Fortune 500 we're seeing we're seeing layoffs we're seeing riffs uh but that could be right sizing you know because uh and it is right sizing I think you know during during covid and the in the boom that we had you know companies kind of were printing you know the government was printing money they were handing it out to companies they were hiring like crazy people moved remote you know so I think a lot of it is uh a lot of the Rifts and the cuts we're seeing were were needed right to again like help these companies andove more efficient uh and and operate more efficiently I'm not as uh as pessimistic really as I was even like I was a little more worried last year early last year about the economy and stuff I actually really optimistic about the future because because we do have that uh Power to just lower rates and that speeds things way up sure uh and and makes room for more investment opportunity sure I want to shift gears a little bit and talk a little bit more about leadership next week service now sales kickoff will be taking place in Las Vegas at the MGM Hotel interestingly enough I was talking recently with Tori Saleem your sales uh senior uh Vice President of Sales about strategic leaders ship so I wanted to ask you about this and get your thoughts in September of 23 the MGM witnessed a Cyber attack they were held like people were not able to do anything within the MGM everything was frozen it caused a lot of disruption the CEO took a position that was very unusual he decided that he wasn't going to pay the ransom yeah when that happened at Caesar's they paid the ransom everything got back on track now this CEO decided that he was not going to pay the ransom and gradually got back access to all of the systems I want to talk to you about leadership during challenging times it ended up being a big win for him that decision right I want to talk to you and ask you about leadership during challenging times can you talk about how you lead Under Pressure yeah um I definitely had some challenging times you know starting a business nine years ago with not you know any money really we had no investor we had no uh safety net I had a little child at home um you know and me and my partner just said hey let's just try it and we've had lots of challenges lots of challenges around making payroll and um you know uh getting new customers and lawsuits and and uh then ultimately further further on covid uh cancer I had stage four cancer during covid that was the craziest year of my life 20120 and uh that was um you know through covid and cancer same time right it was nuts um but but you know for me I've kind of always perform I don't want to say performed better under pressure but like you know when when my back's against the wall I have no choice but to push back right you can either you can either crawl a ball in the corner or you can push back um so sometimes like I think when I'm comfortable I'm comfortable I'm not like going above and beyond I'm not maybe working as hard but you know when my back's against the wall and I'm motivated and I have to survive you know and that's kind of how Glide fast was really built was just like we have to survive we have to be successful for our customers or or we can't make payroll we we we have to do these we have to go above and beyond we have to make that extra phone call we have to spend that extra hour double-checking our code we have to you know so because that's like been ingrained in us for so long since day one you know that's always been who we are part of my DNA that's the best way to sum it up like in 20120 I just remember like I was bald at some point during 2020 2020 I was bald the lockdowns just happened our uh I think the month of April was the worst our C you know a lot of our customers a lot of customers across the board just put a pause on things because they just didn't know what was going on people start you know before even people started really shifting to remote work it was just like just it felt like everyone just stopped working and everything the revenue like dropped and I just remember like just get your get your stuff together Shake It Off stop you know don't cry about it and just get to work and that's what I did I mean I couldn't travel cuz I had cancer but nobody else could any either none of my competitors could no customers were going out of the house anyways so I just got on LinkedIn I started you know messaging tons of customers tons of service now reps taking as many meetings as I could and it worked out like and and then and then all of a sudden when people like woke up out of that April coma and just like we just shipped out 2 200 laptops to different employees we didn't track any of them you know we need to get that into service now that's when like you know service now Market started getting crazy uh taken off again and you know Glide fast was right there and you know service now reps were like oh Lombardo just messaged me let me ask him if he can do this project the customers hey hey we have this need coming up can you help us with this so you know I I remember that day almost like it was yesterday of me just saying just don't feel bad for yourself shut up get back to work do what you've always done you'll get through it and that's the mentality I try to try to have all the time I try to teach my kids too okay you just dropped a few bombs let me let me let me do a little summary yeah 2024 years ago pandemic hits you get diagnosed with cancer this yeah right before that actually right before that yeah Thanksgiving 2019 on the day I get diagnosed with stage four cancer Thanksgiving Day so for folks who don't know anything about the staging of cancer stage four is the most aggressive staging yes yep okay 2019 that November come into January a few months later we go into a pandemic Co lockdown happens business drops we're now in 2020 you're you're on LinkedIn you're like well what what do I have access to I have LinkedIn I can message people we got to keep this business going we about that o to life you come out of 2020 next thing you know you build the business back up up you get into a partnership with Apex in 2021 a year later yeah that relationship turned out to be I don't know but I could be I may correct me if I'm wrong perhaps the most lucrative uh uh acquisition in the ecosystem at least at that time you could I don't know the term I don't know the exact terms of the new one that just got announced yet okay but uh I hear I hear it might be more it might be a little less so okay we'll say for for at that time yeah at the time largest acquisition yep largest acquisition and y'all get on your googler because I did some research and I was like what and you still here yeah what did that feel like for you why are you still here yeah like it's weird because you know you think like you sell we sold the company for I just say 350 million right um all didn't go to me that we got private Equity investment they they got a big piece you know we sold to them in 2020 by the way um and I negotiated that deal from from the hospital bed by the way too you know it was the largest acquisition you know crazy crazy amount of money but you know it wasn't like uh you would think like this would be the biggest celebration and like you know this is it this is the Finish Line you know again for me it wasn't the Finish Line like I don't know I was working I was working the next day like I you know I don't even think we went out that night I don't even know I gota I gotta like I gotta like look back to my calendar that day like I don't I don't even think like it was just like all right now we have to make good on the word we gave to to the people acquiring us um and and we we got a lot of work to do you know and we've improved so much I mean we've improved our profitability our our our our Topline you know uh our culture has gotten a lot better we brought in some uh great leaders with Ohad and Chad woods and um and I think our team has really embraced it I think the best thing about our team is like I think there was a little bit of like hesitancy of like oh my God here we go another large acquisition and I sat in front of the whole team and I gave my word like guys I'm not leaving this is not gonna and I did a whole presentation here's why this is different here's why this will be successful you know and um and I think it's cool because you look at it a year and a half two years later everything I said kind of came true like you know I didn't I didn't run off you know our our culture got better our profitability got better there's more bonuses there's more ways to make money you know we're having more fun we're making more investments in into ourselves and each other I think that's what keeps people more excited too is like you know Mike actually did what he said he was going to do and things actually worked out the way he said it would um but yeah like I don't know wasn't really excited I I was telling you earlier like partied more we were more excited when we won that service now partner of the year the first year and and I think it was 2022 that was the win you know what I mean like that was like finally we're getting we're getting uh recognized in the respect that we've always thought we deserved you know so you you win so then 2021 2022 you wi partner of the year we then go to 2023 last year yep you repeat yeah service my Elite partner of the Year 2023 for Americas yeah for the Americas yeah we won Global and and we won Global Elite partner of the year for 22 we won America's Elite partner of the year for 22 then 23 we won uh America's a leite partner of the year and customer workflow as a leite partner of the year so it's like four Awards in two years never been done before uh it crazy crazy how does the customer benefit from these accolades well you know the accolades are just a reflection of the work we're doing for them right um you know service now's largest customer is our largest customer right we're the number one partner in into that largest customer we're working on the largest project service now has the biggest challenges the most difficult project and by the way that's how Glide fast started you know when we when we started really getting um when glidefast was established the first projects we were getting were subcontracts from service now on projects that were not going well you know we had Mia at top Aaron myself right others like um getting calls from service now Professional Services like hey this Project's on fire I don't know if you guys want it we're like give it to us we'll we'll we'll do whatever we can you know we we're committed we we'll make it right and we and once we started turning around some of those really difficult projects then it was like then we we created raving fans like calling you ever see a pul fiction calling the wolf yeah you know like that's that's what we that's what we gained a reputation of uh and then and then it just started multiplying from there last year you landed uh footprint now in the UK talk about what's in store as you expand overseas yeah yeah we I mean we have such a phenomenal leader Adam Godfrey over there um is he's a Savage you know he if you if you we just dropped a podcast a Glide chat on our YouTube and Spotify if you want to check it out we we we talk about um you know a marathon he ran in the Sahara Desert I think it was like a 120 degree temperatures oh my goodness it's not just a marathon it's a marathon every day for three days and on the last day it's a double Marathon so what's that uh it's over a hundred miles uh you know in in in in four days or three days in the Sahara Desert he's he's crazy uh yes that is that's wild yeah it's like too much I wish he I wish he just did like you know one or two marathons like in in the cold or something I don't know but um you know he so he's just got this incredible worth ethic he has so many connections over there customers service now um so in and you know just just like when we went to India you know people have been asking for Glide fast in in for years you know when are you going to bring that quality of delivery when are you going to bring that excitement when are you going to bring the the the the fun and uh the hustle into the Amia Market because again it's needed right a lot of the again what's the motivations of other partners just money we're not driven by money we're driven by results we're driven by Passion we're driven by um our will to dominate this space so um that's really that's what's in store what what's in store is we're going to do the same thing we did in the US we're going to dominate the market I'm very patient I'm very big on timing you know um I I never wanna I take people's careers very serious you know so I wouldn't uh I never want to like make a move somewhere and it's like oh if it doesn't work out it doesn't work out like if this if we're going somewhere if we're going to India if we're going to Amia we're going to dominate it's going to work we're going to have the business we're going to have the the right uh Consultants um and we're going to win and then we're going to take it over you know we you start with you start with one or two wins um you start being consistent uh you start delivering you start building the right team and then you dominate all right so you heard it here plans to take over emia got it heard it okay so we have a lot of folks that are entering the service now ecosystem right now today as we speak and we also know that you have Glide fast Consulting University curious from you if you were starting this service now ecosystem today yes what would you do to chart your success and land your first service now role yeah first of all like you know I I did start I was a help desk guy and working at a hospital and they bought service now and they asked me if I want to be the admin and I I didn't really know what that meant but I I said yes so I think the first thing is is saying yes um the second thing you know saying yes to the right opportunities because you know we're presented with opportunities every single day and you know it's about saying no to the wrong opportunities and yes to the right one so that's first and foremost uh second is the is the work you know I wasn't a developer by trade you know I I had built some websites I was building websites for for some local businesses I was actually funny fun fact I was actually creating websites for uh different restaurants around the hospital I worked at and I was only asking for compensation with lunch and breakfast so I I had I had one place that I did a website for that were that were paying me in in breakfast sandwiches I had one place that was giving me lunch so I never paid for breakfast or lunch but I didn't charge them for the website so it was cool but the work ethic so you know once I from that day I got that admin role you know my life completely changed you know I I became completely obsessed with service now I was lucky I had uh a great friend SV shout out SV um my friend Stephen who we both just head taught he taught me how to build websites actually and then I got him involved in the service now world and just you know 24 hours a day I mean I literally mean 24 hours a day we were trying to learn this thing called service now you know we did not have NextGen you know we didn't have Glide fast University there wasn't you know we had Chuck tamasi you know we had Jace you know we had Jace we had a Wiki we didn't have the docs site you know we didn't have nearly as much content as as you do now and service now wasn't as as sophisticated either right it was early on 2010 2011 but you know it just it took such dedication in in late nights in a lot of work to to really get to the level um where you can you know be confident uh be you know and understand the platform and know what you're doing and make sure you're following best practices and so if you're not ready to put in those hours you're not going to get anywhere that's just a reality sure I'm going to do a little summary I heard you say that you started at a service desk y you said say yes to the right opportunities and no one to say no to the wrong ones yes you that's in life too and that's in life sure y you talked about an insane work ethic and then finally piggybacking off of that is is dedication being committed to doing those late nights so I appreciate that so listen I have I want to end this with some rapid fire questions if you're down for that okay all right you ready for some rapid fire let's go let's go okay bear or bull bull permission or forgiveness neither explain I don't like asking for either got it got it got it got it oh gosh okay if you could travel to any period in time past or future where would you go I was want to say neither as well you like you like the he and now right yeah yeah I don't want to look back too much and I don't know if I want to know what's in the future either yeah I'm just yeah present got it got it got it my mother always tell me stay in the present if you could have any superpower what would it be I could have any superow power I like helping people right so I've always wanted to I've always wanted to help as many people as I could so if I could be like a superhero like super like H like I wish like super strength fly all that yeah I don't know I probably wanna fly you you want to fly where would you go I was just like not have to ever get on a plane again that's fair that's fair think you don't to fly you know be great I love that okay what's your favorite dance well my kids are really into dance um so I I love their dance my my my youngest my six-year-old does a recital literally every night and literally makes us tickets SK makes a QR code on the ticket and like pretends to scan it and like literally so I I love my my kids dances right on right on favorite flavor of ice cream vanilla what's your favorite Cara song Thunder that a sang by Aaron Johnson LinkedIn or IG LinkedIn thousand times no doubt right who's your favorite superhero Superman's coming to mind but I there's probably that's because of Shaq and the Lakers uhuh yeah yeah I like Shaq too yeah I'll go I'll go with Superman Marvel or DC Marvel yep what kind of hobbies do you have I love snowboarding snowmobiling is probably my number one I love uh water skiing I love jet skiing I love being on the boat um I love work work's a big hobby hobby for me I love hiking too I like I like I like outside stuff getting anything I can do to get off the computer and laptop because that's what I do so much so anything I can do to get outside get out off the computer did you pick up a hobby during the pandemic I think the jet skiing and the snowmobiling really because again it's like we went up to New Hampshire where like you could leave your house without being arrested and again like being like kind of being part of the the nature and stuff and being outside what one word do you want associated with you uh loyal loyal I love that okay final question Lakers or Celtics you know the answer to that Mike Lardo I want to thank you so much for joining me I appr appreciate you being here for your 2024 predictions now and hope to see you back before the next quarter so we can see how this year is evolving absolutely thank you for having me thank you for all you do for the service now community and and so many people on the service now space 100% I'll see you next time wow wow wow wow so you heard it there from the mayor q1 in 2024 don't go nowhere you know what's coming up a little bit later this month I'm going to be joined by by senior vice president of training Alex Darby on January 30th imagine you get the brand new service now implementation now what to do does it just stay up on the Shelf as shelfware or how do you enable your team for adoption we're going to have Alex Derby to talk about all that and how perhaps he can help your team with better adoption so I can't wait for this one he's one of my favorite people in the service now ecosystem and there is so much more to come but until then stay kind be curious [Music] bye