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441- IT Leaders Need Storytelling Skills w/Matt Thomas · You've Been Heard

• 0:00
  Speaker A: My approach has always been if I'm helping somebody, I want them to understand it in a way. I never want to talk over anybody. I never want to make them feel dumb for asking a question. I want them to feel supported and to be able to explain a very technical thing in a way for them to understand. It's like storytelling. It's figuring out the best way for them to digest that information. And so yeah, when you are dealing with a leadership panel who is fast moving, they don't have a lot of time. They just need to know the bullet points, the most important things and why this is important and ultimately how much is this going to cost. So it's been that approach of mine from the beginning, being able to translate a complex situation into something that's easily digestible.
• 0:58
  Speaker B: After talking with IT leaders, I've come to discover one thing. And it's the same thing, you know, it's the same thing everyone else knows, whether they want to admit it out loud or not. Nothing gets done in any company without it touching it. Nothing. But here's the thing. When everything's on fire, when nothing's working, when the ransomware hits, when the whole business grinds to a halt, it is completely indispensable. You're the most valuable asset in the company. But when everything's running like a well oiled Tesla, you're a line item, a cost center on a spreadsheet. You've done the work, you've built the career, you've earned your seat at the executive roundtable. But having a seat at the table is one thing. How much nicer would it be to actually be heard?
• 1:50
  Speaker A: This is.
• 1:51
  Speaker B: You've been heard.
• 1:52
  Speaker C: Hey folks, this is Michael Moore and I'm here with Matt Thomas, Director of IT and Marketing for Crabapple Roofing. Welcome to the program, Matt.
• 1:59
  Speaker A: Thank you for having me. I'm very excited.
• 2:02
  Speaker C: Yeah. So director of IT and marketing, you don't see that a lot. That's not a usual combination. Good thing that I also share that combination. So we're going to have some fun conversations around that. Let's talk about real quick how you came to be director of IT and Marketing together.
• 2:23
  Speaker A: Okay, so I have been in the IT space for about 20 years now, actually started 20 years ago this year working for small MSPs. It's usually just the owner myself for the first several years, getting the processes down, figuring out everything and growing the company, growing the team, and found that I have a bit of a shelf life when it comes to that scenario of eight years. It's Kind of weird because it's happened twice now. So I started in Augusta, Georgia, was my first IT job and eight years hit, got burnout. And I've always been a creative. Before the visual arts, it was music. So I played in bands, toured the country, got signed to record labels, all that stuff. But it was always like my creative outlet since I was a kid and, and I remember telling my dad when I was going through college or about to go into college, I was like, dad, I don't wanna go to college. I'm gonna be a rock star. So that's where I spent all of my time off. Like I have like two weeks a year that I could take for vacation. It's like, let's blow it all in two weeks. Let's go on the road, let's have some fun and then come back and just grind it out for the rest of the year. So in between first job and then getting burnout 2014, I moved to the Atlanta area and I had started building up a recording studio in my house and I was like producing like metal core bands and like hip hop and stuff. And then I was writing like electronic music on the side and it was just a hodgepodge of all kinds of stuff and obviously wasn't making any money doing that. So I was like, okay, let's dip our toes back into it. And found myself in another small MSP with no direction. And I'd come from a situation where I got to see how it's built and structured and putting the proper tools in place and the importance of proper documentation and internal processes and communication with clients. And so helped the second company build up, figuring out what their verticals are, really structuring it like a true msp. And it started getting some success. But again, it comes to 8 year mark. Get burnout, man. So at that time I was getting heavily into photography and then it became videography and I was just having fun with it, taking photos out in the city or recording live bands. Some videos I put together for them and just started creating some content and then decided, you know what time to do something different. So let me start a video production company. No real world experience doing it. I just knew that I loved it and I was like, we're going to figure this out. And I had a partner at the time who I had more of the business mind of things and I was the creative. And then it kind of all blended together where I learned the business side of the operation and became more heavily involved in that. I ran that for the past four Years, the business was with an ex of mine, so I was kind of getting again, burnout on that. Just kind of was losing my drive for it. It's like I'm super protective of passions and monetizing passions for me has always ended in chaos. So it was time to dip out. And I was like, you really try to figure out what I was going to do. And when I had stopped working for the previous msp, I continued on contractually just to help build up the team, help make sure everything's documented. I had so much in my head, I had so much trust with all the clientele as well, that it was going to be a burden on the company for me to just completely disappear. So. And I didn't want to do that either. So I. I stayed on more of like a consultant role, just making sure things were smooth, training up the staff, all that other stuff, making sure that they had my knowledge that they could use moving forward. So when I exited the video production company, I was just looking for jobs and submitting resumes, not really getting anywhere substantial. Of course, at the time it was like during the holidays last year and it's like worst time to try and find a job. So spent like an hour schmoozing it, making it look all nice and some new information, and threw up a post just like, hey, this is who I am, this is what I do. And just looking for my next role, open to some conversations. Funny story is the company I work for now was a client of the previous MSP and the owner, like within five minutes of me posting that on LinkedIn, texted me directly said, hey, so you're looking for a job. It's like, we need to have a conversation. So I was like, okay, let's talk. And the company grew really, really fast. It's a pretty large company, definitely outgrew the MSP side of things. They wanted to establish some internal systems. It's just part of the natural progression of growth. And so had a good conversation with him and he was looking for obviously somebody to help stand up the internal infrastructure for it. Also with him knowing my marketing, really video content creation, a lot of the product that I created for businesses in the previous company was brand stories, some social media content, but mostly awareness, culture, all of that stuff. So that really sparked his interest as well. And he's like, hey, let's make you both you two jobs, buddy. So I was like, all right, let's do it. And for me it works so well because it gives me the best of both worlds. I'm Very busy every day and I get to split my brain in two. So it's like I get the technical part and then I get the creative part as well. And I have teams now to help support that. So I'm not the only one doing everything, which is how it's been in the past. So it's been nice to be in this situation where I can actually teach and bestow my knowledge onto my team and then see them grow exponentially really quick. I've been here since January and within a few weeks my tech lead, who had no real world technical experience, like IT support experience, was very competent. The how to questions reduced the frequency very, very quickly. So have some automation going on with both departments. They're able to run and go, I'm able to steer it, give them direction, provide guidance and all that stuff. And at the same time being a filter for the C suite on, hey, we have all these ideas, it's like, great, I'm your sponge.
• 9:16
  Speaker C: Which. Which marketing helps with.
• 9:19
  Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:20
  Speaker C: That's an interesting piece about marketing is the ability to translate complex ideas into ideas that people can easily take in very quickly. And it's anything that C suite being extremely busy needs. It's to be able to take in a really complex idea really quick and make a judgment call on it. So I imagine that your marketing experience helps there quite frequently.
• 9:49
  Speaker B: If your Internet goes down and you're calling carriers yourself, that's not strategic IT we help teams centralize monitoring, proactive tickets and escalation across every location without capex. Less noise, more uptime, make it boring again, just go to you've been heard.com and answer the seven questions to simplify, streamline and save.
• 10:10
  Speaker A: I feel like even the previous IT experience helped with that because my approach has always been if I'm helping somebody, I want them to understand it in a way. I never want to talk over anybody. I never want to make them feel dumb for asking a question. I want them to feel supported and to be able to explain a very technical thing in a way for them to understand. It's like storytelling. It's figuring out the best way for them to digest that information. And so yeah, when you are dealing with a leadership panel who is fast moving, they don't have a lot of time. They just need to know the bullet points, the most important things and why this is important and ultimately how much is this going to cost. So it's been that approach of mine from the beginning, being able to translate a complex situation into something that's easily digestible.
• 11:03
  Speaker C: There's actually a lot of crossover and with marketing and it that I think many people don't realize, I'm sure you've seen it in what you do, but there is a lot of crossover, especially now with AI. Right. I mean we're looking at a new way of people using content and people that are not people using content. Right. I mean we're looking at new ways of people finding us new ways of people exploring and coming to their own conclusions. And marketing now sits very close to it in that regard because they need to understand a lot of those concepts to be able to understand how to effectively reach their consumers.
• 11:49
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 11:49
  Speaker A: Being able to use an AI tool for research, for strategy, for content rollout scenario is super helpful. Definitely helps speed up the process. My marketing manager, she's a very hands on like she likes to create graphics and every once in a while I'll throw in something in ChatGPT and I'll create like this graphic and when I initially started doing that, she's like, oh no, you're like trying to replace me. He's like, no, no, no, it's not to replace anybody. It would have taken me hours to create this. Now it's not perfect, it's not what we want to put up. If it's just going to go up on the TV like in the office, that's different. But if it's something that's going out, like she's designing something and for me to explain the changes, there's also a bit of a language barrier there too. For me to be able to explain the changes that I see in my head, it was just much quicker to throw her design in, have it revamp and then hand it over to her and be like, you're to not post this, this is just to give you an idea.
• 12:49
  Speaker C: Yeah, this is what I'm looking for.
• 12:51
  Speaker A: It's much quicker, much more efficient. Just saving time wherever I can to help her do her job and to her feel like she's still contributing in doing what she loves to do.
• 13:02
  Speaker C: Yep.
• 13:03
  Speaker A: So we're all jumping in on it. We're right in the middle of rolling out Claude for everybody in our company developing custom solutions based off of the position and tasks and things like that and the whole culture behind it from top down has been this is not to replace anybody. This is how can we grow this company over the next couple of years without adding more overhead.
• 13:25
  Speaker C: We gotta think if these are solutions that are open to everybody. Right. Using those tools is one thing. Right. You're gonna have to use Those tools to stay relevant. Right. Working and implementing the correct way and designing the right business solutions around them. That's your strategic advantage.
• 13:46
  Speaker A: Yep, yep. So with most C suite scenarios, it's all right, let's do this, let's get this done. Like when we want the biggest solutions possible is laying down that base foundation of the proper strategy, the proper structure, starting small, building that solid foundation, rolling it out slowly, controlled. So there, there has been a little bit of pumping the brakes on my end when it comes to those conversations, but we try to work as fast as possible, but also within the guidelines that, you know, we've set up for a proper rollout.
• 14:22
  Speaker C: Well, the good news is that AI implementation mirrors a lot of what the good IT implementations have done in the past. Right. Having good data, making sure that you lay out that structure, paying attention to people and processes and how they're implemented correctly throughout the system, getting all that stuff right helps with the AI implementation.
• 14:45
  Speaker A: Oh, for sure. And that was my approach coming into the company because they didn't have any structure in place. I came in, I knew what tools I wanted. I was already familiar with the company, which helped out a lot. But I also spent a good bit of time sitting down with people and talking to them and observing and figuring out their workflow and what could be improved. Okay, I see you've got to do lists all over the freaking place. Let's get you in ClickUp and see how you like that. Like this could probably help you keep a little more organized. So, yeah, just being strategic, laying out the foundation and policies and procedures. And that was a big thing too, during this whole process. My tech lead, he's in charge of all the SOPs, at least the draft creations of everything that he's doing. We have solid documentation throughout our department for sure, and we're INGESTING Everybody else's SOPs and kind of creating these libraries that they can go to.
• 15:46
  Speaker C: Very nice, Very nice. Have you guys dived into on the marketing side yet? Aio sometimes also referred to as geo.
• 15:55
  Speaker A: Haven't yet. I'm still kind of laying down the foundation on the marketing side because it has just been blasting me ever since I got here. But yeah, that. That's on the horizon. Really diving into that. We're in the process of revamping our website, revamping all kinds of things. You know, actually putting together marketing strategies, pumping out ads, call to actions, lead gen, all that stuff. So part of that process is getting to the aio. So.
• 16:23
  Speaker C: Yeah, well, the good news is that SEO is a Good foundation for AIO anyway. Right. So the general practices there. So after that there's schema changes, the way that you post stuff, so it's digestible by the AI so you can get more mentions and stuff like that. So if, if you're laying down the basis of a good SEO strategy, you're already on your way there.
• 16:49
  Speaker A: Right.
• 16:50
  Speaker C: And after, it's just tweaking how you put out blog posts, how do you know putting FAQs on your website and tables on your website so that it can pull those into the AI engines and stuff. So exactly.
• 17:03
  Speaker A: The AI part, it's going to take a while. It's going to be an ongoing process.
• 17:07
  Speaker C: Oh yeah.
• 17:08
  Speaker A: But probably we'll end up bringing in somebody else on the IT side of things just to help facilitate the volume that we'll be working out as far as that goes, which will then free me up to really dedicate a lot more time on the marketing side. Because I have a lot of ideas. It's just finding the time to do.
• 17:26
  Speaker C: Oh yeah, I'm sure it is. What are some of your challenges that you're working through now?
• 17:30
  Speaker A: Challenges? Time. Time is always the biggest struggle. Right now is just finding the time to do everything. So it's being realistic on expectations and rollouts and things like that. If a new idea comes through right now, it's, hey, we're slating this for Q2 of next year, like, right. Anything else is big. Like we're gonna have to defer unless it's like mission critical. So time is one of the biggest things.
• 17:59
  Speaker C: Sounds like. Then also prioritization. Right, right.
• 18:02
  Speaker A: Again, that kind of goes back to being able to interface with leadership and say, okay, I hear you, I love this idea. I want this as well. Realistically, we're going to need this much time or we need to hire somebody just being realistic with it. But yeah, I mean, that's kind of really the biggest struggle. Things right now on both ends running very smooth, very happy with how things are going right now, so very nice.
• 18:31
  Speaker C: And you've got a lot of stuff on your plate. So let's talk a little bit about documentation. You mentioned it before, coming from an msp, you know how big documentation is. I've also spent time in msps, by the way. You get so much experience, especially from smaller MSPs because you end up wearing many hats. Right. But documentation is one of the biggest ones. Talk to me a little bit about documentation and how you're using it in this role.
• 18:59
  Speaker A: So one of the tools that I started Using a little later in the game at the previous MSP was Hoodoo. And so before that was locked spreadsheets or like a word doc of some sort that's stored in like OneDrive or something that's just housing all of the essential keys to the company. And a while back thinking this isn't the safest way to go about this, so let's find a better solution that can always house that information. Not only login information, but systems information. Every bit of detail about the network, about the rules on the firewall, what's allowed in and out, everything you can think of, documentation wise, would just reside in that company that we had set up in Hoodoo. And the owner of the company was always provided with access to their vault. So they never felt like or holding them hostage in some way. Like, you've got your keys, like, this is your company now. We're keeping it safe and secure for you. We'll hand this over to you in a secure fashion if it comes to parting ways. So coming on board here, I'm finding that everybody's got spreadsheets and things are written down. We got some generic passwords floating around. So it's like, okay, so one of the initial to do items is let's tidy all this up. Let's.
• 20:20
  Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
• 20:21
  Speaker A: Let's put some solid documentation together. Because I got fractional documentation from the previous company whenever I came on board. So still kind of putting the puzzle pieces together for a little bit. But yeah, that was one of the first things I got was I just signed back up for Hoodoo for the company and just started throwing every bit of information and documentation in there. Beyond that, it was a matter of making sure passwords are changed. We've got a secure password policy. There was a little bit of documentation through all the departments and I kind of helped encourage everybody. It's like, hey, you need to start writing down your SOPs. You need to have something for your role. So it's like if you want to bring in somebody else to take over this position or you need an assistant or you're going to leave the company, like you want to be able to leave this information with the company. So it was a big push towards that and it was adopted very quickly. Everybody loved the idea because they wanted to be able to like pull up something. Right, right. They needed to explain a process. Okay, cool. Go into the accounting folder. Over here is all of our SOPs or whatever it is, and they can just pull it up. So adoption of that was, like I said, very quick. They were very excited for that. But yeah, I mean, as far as. Yeah.
• 21:42
  Speaker C: So with your CLAUDE implementation you got going on right now, what are some of your plans on how to utilize CLAUDE to take your documentation to the next level there?
• 21:52
  Speaker A: One of our initial projects that we created on the IT side of things was like an SOP library. So we fed it all of our documents and with it being a project, obviously we can control access, right?
• 22:07
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 22:07
  Speaker A: So we can share it with whoever we want and then revoke whenever we want. But essentially the SAP library is there to obviously house all the information we fed it. And oftentimes on the tech side, that one step makes total sense to you. There's probably three broken down for somebody to easily follow instead of like reading between the lines or trusting that. Oh yeah, I had this experience, so I understand this step. So we had it crawl through and make recommendations, some tweaks. We have it all. Like whenever it pulls it up, it'll pull it up in tax form. So you can just get into the chat and just be like, printer setup. It'll pull up a list, get you to choose. Okay, cool. I want to look at that one. Give you all the steps. If we can ask it to create a company branded PDF of this information in case we wanted to print it out. All the branding information, all the design information is baked in.
• 23:03
  Speaker C: It's nice branding skills.
• 23:05
  Speaker A: So yeah, it's all there. So every project, it's all baked in.
• 23:09
  Speaker C: Because I would recommend any company to have.
• 23:12
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 23:12
  Speaker C: IT Set up that branding skill as one of your first skills you set up because it is reports and any possible thing you want, deck slides and all that stuff comes in as branded. And later on when you're making custom programs, you can also use that skill as well to brand your programs.
• 23:32
  Speaker A: Yeah. So branding obviously is huge for me.
• 23:35
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's really nice. So what do you like most about your job? What fires you up the most?
• 23:41
  Speaker A: So while I've had shelf life with it in different ways, even with creative ventures coming up with solutions, solving problems, making somebody's life at work just so much easier. Because most of the time, especially in the tech field, like you don't hear from somebody usually unless there's a problem, they're pissed off.
• 24:01
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 24:01
  Speaker A: And the whole world is crashing. The awesome part about this job is you get to play hero every day. Whether it's solving a problem that somebody's facing on their computer or creating this beautiful branding video that properly shows them exactly who they are authentically with their message. Just coming up with solutions every day. That's all I do all day long. It's like solving problems, uh, coming up with solutions, testing things. Like, I mean, that's what gets me up every day. I've. I've got about an hour drive into work every day and I don't even care. I'm just like, all right, cool, let's go.
• 24:44
  Speaker C: That's awesome. When did you stop thinking technical and start thinking more like a business owner type piece?
• 24:55
  Speaker A: Yeah, so that kind of came in before I had my own business. So with the previous msp, it was just him at the time. The operation was all over the place. He had a solid client base. I had the skill enough to pick up and go. I was given full autonomy and freedom to run it how I saw fit. And I took a lot of pride in what I was doing. I wasn't just hopping on remote sessions or making on site visits and solving a problem, bailing like, I was developing friendships and relationships with clients. I was their trusted source every day. They always knew that they can call me and I would never make them feel bad about it.
• 25:40
  Speaker C: Right.
• 25:40
  Speaker A: I was always there to fix whatever problem that they were experiencing at the time. So I took the owner role, even though I wasn't an owner in the company very seriously. I treated it like it was my own. Yep. And obviously having my own company definitely helped that grow exponentially because it was all on me at that time. You had to. So starting with the MSP side and taking on full ownership of the position of the operations made me feel like a business owner and I treated it that way. And then obviously going through my own venture really gave me that sense of ownership when it came to the job. And whenever I came here, I was given the freedom to create the system that I needed in place to support the company. And I didn't think twice about it. It was just get up and go like, let's make this happen. And so every day that I come here, I treat this as this is my company in every way. Support, presentation, representation, all of that.
• 26:53
  Speaker C: What do you think that maybe you do that other IT directors don't? That makes the difference?
• 27:01
  Speaker A: I'll be honest with you, I don't know a lot of other IT directors. I've interfaced with a few on the MSP side, but from what I have seen in the past, especially depending on the size of the company, is just being out of touch with what's actually happening. Just directing your minions and you've got so and so breathing down your neck to have this Certain result. So you gotta make it happen. All right, guys, get to work. And instead of like really understanding what it's like to be the boots on the ground every day, no matter how busy I am, I'm always involved in some way on that level. I always want to make sure that I'm in the know, that I understand the problem, that I understand what people are going through, what my team is going through so that I can support them and then they can be effective at their job. So I guess in my own experience, where they go wrong is maybe taking that leadership role that they have to the point where they lose touch.
• 27:58
  Speaker C: Yeah, that's a good one. I think you hear right about that. I think you can get too far removed from the day to day and when you do, you don't quite understand the little things that are adding up and eating away at the team.
• 28:16
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I make it a point to have weekly check ins, weekly meetings. I'll sit both teams down. Let's talk. I mean, let's talk about what you're doing. What are you going through? What are you struggling with? How can I help you? I want it to be an open floor for anything. My office is always open. You're having a bad day, you're struggling with something, let's talk, let's find a solution. If it means that I have to step in for a bit and drive it to help, that's totally fine. I'm not here just to sit and just make sure it gets done.
• 28:53
  Speaker C: So what's one myth about it leadership that you wish would go away?
• 29:00
  Speaker A: I guess the technology itself is just too complicated. Like going back to being able to tell a story, to be able to relay information. Like, yeah, technology is complicated, but it's also easily understood if you can tell the story right.
• 29:18
  Speaker C: I love that you keep coming back to that storytelling. Right. Because that's such a marketing 101, really. Right. Is that storytelling? It is a definite marketing concept that plays well within it.
• 29:32
  Speaker A: If you can do it well, yeah, absolutely. It's like the fear is just so complicated. I'm never going to understand this. It costs too much. Whatever the storytelling part of it kicks in and you explain in a way that they can understand. And as far as cost goes, here's the reason why, and this is why it's important. It's going to cost some money, but guess how much time it's going to save the company. Guess how much easier, Guess how much safer you're going to be being able to relay that information in a way that hits your audience in the way that is the most effective. I mean, that's. I think it's a huge skill to have on your side.
• 30:08
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's a good skill for anyone in IT to have. It's a skill that is extremely needed if you're the director of IT and marketing at the same time. It's good. And there's lots of different ways to tell stories. So I think that comes over in marketing. I mean, there's so many different ways to tell stories. There's so many different ways that you can get points across. There's so many different methodologies that exist to tell stories. Everyone has their own methodology, so it's really interesting to see that. So if there's anything that you feel that the C level executives need to hear or business owners need to hear, what would that be?
• 30:46
  Speaker A: I guess just kind of going back to kind of a previous statement about it doesn't have to be too complicated, it doesn't have to be too expensive. There's a reason why solutions exist and why they cost a certain amount of money. With proper implementation, it's just going to make your life easier in the long run. I've dealt with different levels of the C suite section where you've got your younger side that's quick to adopt, quick to understand, and you also have the older crowd that is very hesitant because in their past experience they may have gone through something similar and it went horribly wrong. So then they're always going to put up that block like, oh no, we're just not going to do it. No. Had a terrible experience. We just had one where it's like a mobile carrier switch that we negotiated the IT side did and it's going to save the company a quarter of a million dollars over the course of like five years just for switching services. And that project was shelved multiple times by senior leadership that just had a bad experience in the past. So it was that fine storytelling approach of hey, not only is there a dollar amount here, but like, it's going to be okay. There's a support system in place to
• 32:09
  Speaker C: handle this and here's how we can walk through this so that you're not going to relive the past again.
• 32:17
  Speaker A: Right.
• 32:18
  Speaker C: What universal best practice do you feel is actually detrimental?
• 32:24
  Speaker A: I guess just kind of pulling out of more recent experience. It would be a best practice on a business owner or senior level position where you're constantly looking at money on the books and foregoing solid solutions because it costs too much initially. Say there's an Initial cost element, but over time it saves a bunch of money.
• 32:50
  Speaker C: Yep.
• 32:50
  Speaker A: It's like cutting that initial check to get the process started. But that ROI is like seven months. Yeah, like okay, it hurts. It hurts in that moment. Like oh really? But okay, seven months, it's recouped.
• 33:04
  Speaker B: Cool.
• 33:05
  Speaker C: Yep.
• 33:05
  Speaker A: Then we're saving a ton of money after that.
• 33:08
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's a really big difference. And I think sometimes in that same vein, I think that sometimes people look too short term on the books rather than going what is my long game here? Yeah, I agree with you on that. I think that that's a really big one. Right. So what is it looking like 18 months from now?
• 33:31
  Speaker A: For me specifically 18 month, let's call it, goal is successful execution of solid AI solutions for the company that continue to not take anybody's job. It enhances their work experience, it makes them way faster, way more efficient at their job and increases the revenue for the company exponentially without having to bring on anybody else on a large scale. So if you want to take your company from 80 to 100 and say 150 million or something like that, utilizing the AI powerhouse that we have at our fingertips, getting ahead of it, I feel like that's going to be where I see at least this company being in 18 months globally, tech wise, in general. I still feel like AI is going to be a huge part. AI is definitely going to be still huge in 18 months. I feel like the conversation is going to go from this cool tool and development and all this other stuff to real strategy, data, AI governance, having processes in place to properly roll this out or keep it in line. So I feel like it's going to become more and more. There's a lot of things that will be automated for sure. It's just going to make our job so much better and easier and more effective than it is to like take anything away.
• 35:02
  Speaker C: How do we keep track of it, all those automations.
• 35:05
  Speaker A: Right.
• 35:06
  Speaker C: How do we make sure that the people that built those automations that walk away, that we can still maintain them?
• 35:13
  Speaker A: Exactly. So you're talking really well thought out policies in place that protect that proprietary information. You're going to take your skill somewhere else for sure. But you're not going to steal a skill, you're not going to steal a custom app that you created.
• 35:29
  Speaker C: No, but what about the ones that people create and don't tell you about the shadow AI?
• 35:35
  Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
• 35:38
  Speaker C: So what's that gonna look like 18 months from now?
• 35:41
  Speaker A: Yeah, we're brand new into this and it's already on the docket, it's already something being thought about and trying to create good strategy around that to protect it, to keep it where we control the access. So yeah, I mean it's still a learning process, a lot of research into what other people are doing, taking it slow, developing solutions, rolling it out and
• 36:08
  Speaker C: making sure those solutions provide the outcomes that everyone wants.
• 36:12
  Speaker A: Exactly. Doing that, making sure that these solutions that are being worked on actually save substantial company time and aren't just cool tools.
• 36:23
  Speaker C: Right, right.
• 36:25
  Speaker A: So there's certain things that will be cross department and within whole departments there's going to be a lot of one offs too, based on somebody's workflow.
• 36:34
  Speaker C: So it sounds like to me what you're thinking is the future is AI maturity. Right. And AI governance. Right. And AI security and companies coming to grips with how to finally integrate that in, into their solutions, into their companies and stuff and be able to get the outcomes that they want.
• 36:59
  Speaker A: Exactly.
• 37:00
  Speaker C: I like it. Hey folks, this has been Michael Moore. I've been here with Matt Thomas, director of IT and Marketing for Crabapple Roofing. Thank you so much, Matt, for being on the program. We really appreciate it.
• 37:12
  Speaker A: Thank you for having me. This has been excellent.