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Demystifying ERP and SAP with Chris Carter · Business Roundtable

0:12
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast. I am your host,
0:15
Speaker 1: David Carr. Super excited to have you back here where
0:18
Speaker 1: we bring people together to accomplish great things, have great conversations.
0:21
Speaker 1: And I've got a brand new guest on the podcast
0:24
Speaker 1: this week, Chris Carter. Welcome to the podcast.
0:28
Speaker 2: Chris.
0:28
Speaker 3: Hey, thanks David. I'm excited to be here.
0:31
Speaker 2: Absolutely now.
0:31
Speaker 1: Chris, You've got we we we're we're friends in the
0:35
Speaker 1: forest too.
0:36
Speaker 2: We're big Star Wars fans and nerds out here too.
0:38
Speaker 2: We love. We're gonna have a great time with the podcast. Chris.
0:42
Speaker 1: You you have a great background and something we haven't
0:44
Speaker 1: talked about on the podcast before or really not very much.
0:48
Speaker 1: Maybe I mentioned in the past, but we're talking about
0:50
Speaker 1: e ERP Enterprise resource planning. We're talking about s a
0:53
Speaker 1: P systems, applications and products. These are acronyms you might
0:58
Speaker 1: have heard floating around out there and you're like, I'm not.
1:01
Speaker 2: Sure exactly what that is or how does that apply
1:03
Speaker 2: to me.
1:04
Speaker 1: Well, Chris is a leading expert in this area, and
1:09
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna we're gonna break you down and
1:11
Speaker 1: get into that today because I'm gonna leverage you know,
1:15
Speaker 1: bringing Chris to you guys and our audience to learn
1:17
Speaker 1: from him, get to understand more about this stuff, so
1:21
Speaker 1: to demystified, if you will. And Chris has created a
1:25
Speaker 1: company called app Royo that you're gonna be able to
1:28
Speaker 1: learn more about, which really helps companies make the SAP
1:31
Speaker 1: work harder for them. And really I appreciate Chris your
1:34
Speaker 1: people first perspective regarding technology AI.
1:39
Speaker 2: So again, super excited to have you here. Chris. One
1:44
Speaker 2: thing I love to ask about our guests is to
1:46
Speaker 2: walk us through your little bit of your.
1:49
Speaker 1: Entrepreneurial journey as a business owner going through this and
1:52
Speaker 1: what got you today to where you're at. You know,
1:54
Speaker 1: app Royo and and the things that you're doing, Chris,
1:57
Speaker 1: want you know and how did you become an s
1:59
Speaker 1: a P expert if you will?
2:01
Speaker 3: Yes, Well, it's my entrepreneurial journey started very early in life.
2:05
Speaker 3: In high school, I decided I was going to create
2:08
Speaker 3: a business card company and it was going to be
2:11
Speaker 3: plastic vellun business cards. I would go through and I
2:14
Speaker 3: would have a fish bowl with a lot of real
2:17
Speaker 3: business cards, but then I would put two of my
2:19
Speaker 3: own in there with the plastic and almost nine out
2:21
Speaker 3: of ten times. The individuals that were picking the cards
2:25
Speaker 3: out who I was trying to sell to, they would
2:27
Speaker 3: pick mine because it was a different touch and feel process.
2:31
Speaker 3: It was all about the marketing piece of it. Fast
2:34
Speaker 3: forward into college. I go off to Georgia Tech. I
2:37
Speaker 3: take my Commodore VIC twenty. Shout out to the good
2:39
Speaker 3: people a commodore, they are back in business. Woo you
2:43
Speaker 3: get my own Commodore VIC twenty back.
2:45
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, apple twoey.
2:48
Speaker 3: I went off to Georgia Tech and I started learning
2:51
Speaker 3: computer science. Lo and behold. My sophomore year, I got
2:54
Speaker 3: an internship at Coca Cola on their SAP system, which
2:58
Speaker 3: was in the bowels of the tell or. At Coca
3:01
Speaker 3: I was working at an old R two main frame
3:04
Speaker 3: with punt cards.
3:05
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, as an.
3:07
Speaker 3: Intern, But it just so happened they were negotiating with
3:10
Speaker 3: SAP to bring in the new X eighty six variation,
3:13
Speaker 3: which was called R three, and I had been playing
3:17
Speaker 3: on there are two and so SAP asked me if
3:20
Speaker 3: I would be interested in working with them. So I
3:22
Speaker 3: literally had got a job right out of college working
3:25
Speaker 3: on SAP. The only thing that changed is I went
3:27
Speaker 3: from a Coca Cola name Batch to an SAP contractor
3:30
Speaker 3: name Badge, and I started from there. That brings me
3:34
Speaker 3: forward to starting multiple companies, investor in multiple companies, writing
3:40
Speaker 3: multiple books. I now have seventeen books and I keep
3:43
Speaker 3: at more. Thank God for technology to be able to
3:47
Speaker 3: help me edit those books because sitting in front of
3:50
Speaker 3: I literally published my first four during COVID and I
3:55
Speaker 3: really got into things called it grammarly and some of
3:59
Speaker 3: the tool to help me with my formatting. And yes,
4:03
Speaker 3: if you have to do in order to publish properly,
4:05
Speaker 3: you have to have properly formatted books. So now I
4:08
Speaker 3: own four companies, a bar, restaurant, seventeen books, and thank god,
4:13
Speaker 3: I have an incredible wife who supports me in these
4:16
Speaker 3: endeavors and the activity is going on there. And we
4:19
Speaker 3: have an investment arm that also works with companies that
4:22
Speaker 3: are looking to get funded and will help with depending
4:26
Speaker 3: upon what the organization is and what. So it's my
4:30
Speaker 3: entrepreneurial journey started young, and it's I will continue to
4:34
Speaker 3: be an entrepreneur and help other entrepreneurs and wait until
4:38
Speaker 3: I pass away, because we've got a foundation now that's
4:40
Speaker 3: going to do the same with my daughter so it's fantastic.
4:44
Speaker 1: Oh that's great, Chris. Well again, that's why I love
4:46
Speaker 1: your energy, I love your background. So the folks that
4:48
Speaker 1: you're listening to this, you know, lean in Chris's gout.
4:51
Speaker 1: You know a lot of experience, and you know, I think, Chris,
4:55
Speaker 1: sometimes people think of that.
4:58
Speaker 2: I work with a lot of.
4:58
Speaker 1: Small business owners are that are up and coming and
5:01
Speaker 1: they get intimidated by some kind of enterrized resource planning
5:05
Speaker 1: software and SAP, and I feel like, you know, they're
5:08
Speaker 1: not understanding this. So can you back it up a
5:11
Speaker 1: little bit for other folks that maybe haven't heard, that
5:13
Speaker 1: haven't experience, break it down for a little bit about what.
5:15
Speaker 2: Does that mean? What does it mean to the business?
5:18
Speaker 2: How do they be successful with such a tool?
5:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, tool like SAP. It's an ERP solution Enterprise Resource
5:25
Speaker 3: Planner as you made reference, SAP just so happens to
5:28
Speaker 3: be one of many, and it actually works for companies
5:31
Speaker 3: that are three million dollars, five million dollars, all the
5:34
Speaker 3: way up to multi billions of dollars. It just depends
5:37
Speaker 3: on how you use it and how you set it
5:39
Speaker 3: up properly, because what it does is it allows you
5:42
Speaker 3: as an entrepreneur to have your HR, your finance, you're
5:46
Speaker 3: shipping and distribution, maybe your warehouse management, maybe your travel
5:52
Speaker 3: and engagement. You're so if you're traveling around the globe,
5:55
Speaker 3: all that gets integrated into one nice, neat clean platform.
5:59
Speaker 3: And I like to say, it's your one record of truth.
6:02
Speaker 3: So instead of using quick Books and Salesforce and then
6:06
Speaker 3: Concur and then something else and then something else, Now
6:10
Speaker 3: you've got five or six disparage different systems. Instead of that,
6:14
Speaker 3: you have one. You have one. You use one interface.
6:18
Speaker 3: It's it's your template, you's your GOUI. It's either on
6:21
Speaker 3: your phone, your iPads or pad, it's on your computer.
6:25
Speaker 3: You always have that one record of truth and where
6:29
Speaker 3: you go in the world, what you do in the world.
6:31
Speaker 3: You can move between the different components or the modules,
6:35
Speaker 3: and it's all built in instead of having to log
6:38
Speaker 3: in and log out, log in law. I used to
6:40
Speaker 3: have Salesforce, quick Books, I used to have Concur. I
6:44
Speaker 3: used to have a warehouse management tool that we would
6:46
Speaker 3: use for some of our shipping and receiving activities that
6:48
Speaker 3: we had for a different comp You constantly have to hey, there,
6:51
Speaker 3: have them plugged in or log back into them. And
6:56
Speaker 3: because they don't stay on where you have this capability
6:59
Speaker 3: and SAP no matter what size of an organization you are,
7:02
Speaker 3: you just have to make sure that you're using it properly.
7:05
Speaker 2: Yeah.
7:06
Speaker 1: Absolutely well, and again Chris, as you're talking about that,
7:10
Speaker 1: because I think sometimes that I remember working with another
7:14
Speaker 1: company and they were.
7:15
Speaker 2: Trying to figure out when do I you'll switch over?
7:18
Speaker 1: And I like what you kind of listed a bunch
7:20
Speaker 1: of those of like, hey, we've got these different things
7:23
Speaker 1: in different places, and I think that's I found that
7:27
Speaker 1: happens quite often. And even when you have an even
7:31
Speaker 1: maybe not SAP specifically, but you try organic, people will
7:34
Speaker 1: go around the system and they'll not use it or
7:36
Speaker 1: they want, oh, I want to do my own little thing.
7:38
Speaker 2: Do you see that?
7:39
Speaker 3: Uh, not as much anymore because you really can't get
7:42
Speaker 3: around the system.
7:43
Speaker 2: That's good.
7:44
Speaker 3: If you're trying to get around the system, it's probably
7:46
Speaker 3: because you're trying to do something with AI and you're
7:49
Speaker 3: trying to build your own activities around that. You're trying
7:52
Speaker 3: to do your own prompting, and maybe you're trying to
7:54
Speaker 3: get data from a different repository of something. Most of
7:57
Speaker 3: the times when you're in an SAP environment. You're in
8:00
Speaker 3: that one record of truth and that's what helps organizations
8:04
Speaker 3: as well. Now they can't supersede the system. They have
8:08
Speaker 3: to use the tool that is there for them to
8:10
Speaker 3: use to benet be a benefit of it.
8:13
Speaker 1: Sounds to me like when they do that, Chris, that
8:14
Speaker 1: you're actually protecting them from you maybe exposure to other things, right,
8:18
Speaker 1: you know, miss bad data or just you know logins.
8:21
Speaker 2: I mean, there's.
8:22
Speaker 1: Unfortunately a lot of bad actors out there that try
8:24
Speaker 1: to get in people's systems that.
8:26
Speaker 3: There really are. There's bad actors out there, and we've
8:29
Speaker 3: been hit at SAP. They've got so many patches that
8:32
Speaker 3: have been coming up because they're continuously updating and making
8:36
Speaker 3: sure that their security profiles are so we as a
8:39
Speaker 3: partner are always validating what they're doing. We send in
8:43
Speaker 3: bug fixes, we send in tickets to them, Hey, we
8:46
Speaker 3: see this activity and we see that going on, and
8:48
Speaker 3: we see this bug needs to be fit. They're continuously
8:51
Speaker 3: getting those. We're probably getting about a dozen or so
8:55
Speaker 3: every week that everybody's got to upload into their system.
8:58
Speaker 3: So from a security standpoint, it's upon us as the
9:02
Speaker 3: end user as well as SAP to make sure that
9:05
Speaker 3: these fixes get put into place and they're validated. We
9:09
Speaker 3: firmly believe in the validation process and making sure that
9:12
Speaker 3: those things move forward.
9:13
Speaker 2: That's great.
9:14
Speaker 1: So when you're working with your clients, Chris ap Royo,
9:18
Speaker 1: you might be seeing, hey, there's a there's something that
9:21
Speaker 1: needs to be fixed or address, so you're being proactive
9:23
Speaker 1: on their behalf of saying, hey, this needs to get fixed,
9:26
Speaker 1: this needs to be addressed.
9:27
Speaker 2: Correct.
9:27
Speaker 3: We are proactive on our customer side as well as
9:31
Speaker 3: as a partner. We make sure that we're validating and
9:34
Speaker 3: we'll send that off to SAP, so our customer will
9:37
Speaker 3: know that we're taking care of that, and our partner,
9:40
Speaker 3: SAP knows that we're we're seeing that and we're shipping
9:42
Speaker 3: that to them so they can make validations and fix
9:45
Speaker 3: it for everybody, all four and eighty three thousand SAP customers,
9:49
Speaker 3: we'll get that.
9:50
Speaker 2: Well, that's that's incredible.
9:53
Speaker 1: Now when you does, just because for the audience purposes,
9:57
Speaker 1: if they don't understand this, if they if they're looking
9:59
Speaker 1: at enterprise rese our software, there's lots of different ones
10:02
Speaker 1: out there, SAP.
10:03
Speaker 2: Is that one, just for folks.
10:05
Speaker 1: That aren't familiar with it, is that kind of industry
10:09
Speaker 1: agnostic is it serves different industries. Talk a little bit
10:12
Speaker 1: about how that helps different companies industries.
10:16
Speaker 3: That's a great question because it's it goes across so
10:19
Speaker 3: many different industries. They literally have a component that fits
10:25
Speaker 3: in for every industry. So no matter if you're in
10:26
Speaker 3: the retail and your CpG, or if you're in a
10:29
Speaker 3: housing industry, or if you're in the finance industry, it's
10:32
Speaker 3: got components within the capability to be able to fit
10:36
Speaker 3: specifically for those industries. From a technical side, where we
10:40
Speaker 3: tend to live, we don't care what industry there, will
10:43
Speaker 3: make sure that that system is up and running, whatever
10:45
Speaker 3: cloud they're choose, whatever APIs that we have to use
10:48
Speaker 3: to connect back and forth to third party systems. We
10:52
Speaker 3: take on that responsibility and the management of that infrastructure.
10:56
Speaker 3: It's the functionality component where organizations either have internal peoper
11:01
Speaker 3: or they hire folks from us that take on those
11:04
Speaker 3: responsibilities of the industry specific aptitude that make sure that
11:08
Speaker 3: they're moving forward. So yes, they do have as many
11:12
Speaker 3: industries as you can think of. They're a part of
11:14
Speaker 3: it and they're working on those every single day.
11:18
Speaker 1: So when when when you when you have a customer
11:21
Speaker 1: coming to you, Chris Uh, I'm like, so there's all
11:23
Speaker 1: these different components, is is it?
11:26
Speaker 2: Because this is why I.
11:27
Speaker 1: Find sometimes for software technology people, I try to do
11:30
Speaker 1: a one size fits all, like here's the whole thing
11:32
Speaker 1: you you know, and you have to figure out how
11:34
Speaker 1: to use it or do I even need all these parts?
11:36
Speaker 2: How do you assess that for a potential client or customers?
11:39
Speaker 3: Absolutely understand that because we do also do the licensing
11:42
Speaker 3: for these organizations. So what we'll do is we'll sit
11:45
Speaker 3: down with organizations so if they currently have SAP, we'll
11:49
Speaker 3: evaluate what evaluate what they have and what they're using.
11:52
Speaker 3: There's a lot of times they have licenses on the
11:54
Speaker 3: plate that it's just shelff. It's just sitting up there
11:57
Speaker 3: and it's doing absolutely nothing but collecting the next to
12:00
Speaker 3: my temperature gauge. So why have those Why use those
12:05
Speaker 3: activities and be a part of that At the end
12:09
Speaker 3: of the day. What you need to do as well
12:11
Speaker 3: is you need to evaluate those activities from the beginning
12:14
Speaker 3: to the end, and then you need to make sure
12:16
Speaker 3: that you're literally making sure that that applications are right,
12:20
Speaker 3: what modules are right, how those activities are being used,
12:24
Speaker 3: and be able to funnel that all together.
12:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's really important Chris, as you're talking
12:31
Speaker 1: through that, because I found, like, to what your point,
12:33
Speaker 1: either there's licenses.
12:34
Speaker 2: Or are not being used.
12:35
Speaker 1: I found this, or there's license that we need people,
12:38
Speaker 1: and like I work with companies and so it's working
12:40
Speaker 1: with somebody like you to figure out what do you
12:42
Speaker 1: need access to you, why do you need access to
12:44
Speaker 1: it for? How long do you need access to it?
12:46
Speaker 1: Helping them because I found like sometimes people are like
12:49
Speaker 1: in a roadblock while I really need to get this,
12:50
Speaker 1: but I don't know how to get to that. How
12:52
Speaker 1: do I do this? So you find out where they're
12:54
Speaker 1: at and what they need for the workflows?
12:56
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, we will evaluate how their systems are being used,
13:00
Speaker 3: what they're doing with those systems. How many individuals are
13:03
Speaker 3: you there's these Uh, there's very unique circumstances of what
13:09
Speaker 3: the licenses can be used, how they can be used,
13:12
Speaker 3: and when they can be used. If you're not using
13:14
Speaker 3: the right ones or valuating the right ones, you know,
13:18
Speaker 3: why are you wasting that money? Why are you wasting
13:20
Speaker 3: the resources? I can take those and I can funnel
13:23
Speaker 3: those to somewhere else and go from there.
13:26
Speaker 2: M h.
13:28
Speaker 1: What would you say, Chris, You mentioned, you know, as
13:31
Speaker 1: you know, a three million dollar annual or way beyond that.
13:35
Speaker 1: What when I came to a company we were looking
13:39
Speaker 1: at they were using, like you said, just quick books,
13:41
Speaker 1: and I suggested to her because at the time he
13:44
Speaker 1: wasn't quite there, but I said, look, I can see
13:46
Speaker 1: the possibility.
13:46
Speaker 2: Of what scaling beyond where she was currently.
13:49
Speaker 1: You know, she wanted to do a million in revenue,
13:51
Speaker 1: and then we went eventually by on my laft we
13:53
Speaker 1: got to over I think seven million in revenue.
13:55
Speaker 2: Chris.
13:56
Speaker 1: So we because part of the reason was we put
13:58
Speaker 1: in the RP in place that helped us do that,
14:01
Speaker 1: particularly because of professional services. There's projects, we were having
14:04
Speaker 1: a track schedule, budget, all of that stuff. Chris, What
14:07
Speaker 1: should they be doing if they're not Maybe they're not
14:10
Speaker 1: there yet, but what should they be considering tracking looking
14:13
Speaker 1: for to when they're like, yeah, we probably should make
14:16
Speaker 1: that transition.
14:17
Speaker 3: You have to having issues with So let's start with finances.
14:20
Speaker 3: If you're having issues with your month, then closes, your
14:23
Speaker 3: quarterly closes, in your year end closes, and it's taking
14:26
Speaker 3: up a lot of time because quick books isn't giving
14:28
Speaker 3: you the information you need start looking at it from
14:31
Speaker 3: an HR issue. If you're having issues from an HR perspective, hiring,
14:36
Speaker 3: letting people go, doing vacation times, monitoring your health insurance
14:40
Speaker 3: is all those types of activities. Another thing that's really
14:43
Speaker 3: good for you is to start looking at an EARP
14:45
Speaker 3: solution that'll help you with those types of things, including
14:48
Speaker 3: onboarding and letting individuals go if you need to. If
14:51
Speaker 3: you're in an organization where you've got product and delivery,
14:55
Speaker 3: start looking at an application like an SAP or other
14:59
Speaker 3: air where you've got warehouse management. One of the biggest
15:03
Speaker 3: things that I see all the time with companies that
15:05
Speaker 3: are starting to make that change. You got your logistics,
15:08
Speaker 3: your distribution, your warehouse. I need to order product from A.
15:12
Speaker 3: I need to get it to B because B needs
15:14
Speaker 3: to do something that needs to get it to CE.
15:16
Speaker 3: C needs to get it to me because I need
15:17
Speaker 3: to package it, and then I need to get it out.
15:20
Speaker 3: A can't do it. Who's my A backup? Who's my
15:23
Speaker 3: B backup? Who's my C. These types of questions can
15:26
Speaker 3: be held inside of an SAP and borough. If A
15:30
Speaker 3: can't do it, you've got B, CD E, n F
15:32
Speaker 3: G under your number your A, Okay, they do what
15:37
Speaker 3: they can fulfill it. They got to fulfilled. I need
15:39
Speaker 3: these orders fulfilled in this amount of time. By this
15:42
Speaker 3: these types of things, those are critical for businesses to succeed.
15:47
Speaker 3: I've seen businesses have a million dollars an hour failure
15:53
Speaker 3: because they lost track of what they were doing and
15:56
Speaker 3: how they're well. Think about it. If you've got a
15:58
Speaker 3: union labor force sitting on you on the floor twiddling
16:01
Speaker 3: their thumbs doing absolutely nothing, Holy cow, you're screwed. You're
16:07
Speaker 3: bored on Monday and say, well, hey, guys, you know what,
16:10
Speaker 3: I just lost US fifty two million dollars because we
16:12
Speaker 3: were down for the entire weekend because I couldn't figure
16:15
Speaker 3: out where to get product from.
16:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so important. I hope as you guys are
16:21
Speaker 1: listening here, you know, think about this about how it
16:25
Speaker 1: affects you.
16:26
Speaker 2: I've definitely seen that. I was a user group leader
16:28
Speaker 2: for another ERP.
16:29
Speaker 1: Years ago because I saw the value of as a
16:32
Speaker 1: project bander becoming more aware, integrated and saw how these
16:35
Speaker 1: things were connected. Chris, like you're saying the optics from
16:39
Speaker 1: the business, I was more in the business development the
16:41
Speaker 1: project I wasn't doing I had to do some accounting
16:43
Speaker 1: stuff because my ran projects, but I was working with
16:46
Speaker 1: that team. I think the value of seeing us and
16:49
Speaker 1: coming together is super powerful, and I think sometimes again
16:53
Speaker 1: people just don't realize how these things are newted together
16:56
Speaker 1: and you're you just highlighted some of those things. So Chris,
16:59
Speaker 1: they can come you, So a client can come to
17:01
Speaker 1: your potential customer come to you and say hey, here's
17:03
Speaker 1: what I'm currently doing, and then can you assess them
17:06
Speaker 1: and give them the guidance as to here's how this
17:08
Speaker 1: would this we would match you up with In this
17:10
Speaker 1: case SAP we do.
17:12
Speaker 3: And as a matter of fact, after this podcast, I'm
17:15
Speaker 3: going to do an assessment organization on another SAP project.
17:20
Speaker 3: They've come to us and asked us to do an
17:22
Speaker 3: assessment because they've acquired another company and they have the
17:25
Speaker 3: same application, but they're not using it in the same way.
17:29
Speaker 3: So they're going to do an assessment based upon what
17:31
Speaker 3: they're buying and what they have, what fits, what doesn't fit,
17:35
Speaker 3: what can they use, what don't they use, what should
17:37
Speaker 3: they maybe modify and put into their environment. So it's
17:40
Speaker 3: an assessment that's going to evaluate there from top to
17:43
Speaker 3: bottom on that acquisition. And we do those all the time.
17:46
Speaker 3: It's amazing what's going on in the market right now.
17:49
Speaker 3: The merger and acquisition side of this industry right now
17:53
Speaker 3: is hot. We go in and will do full assessments
17:56
Speaker 3: of current companies that are being acquired. You need to
18:01
Speaker 3: what you're acquiring, how you need to take out that
18:04
Speaker 3: bit of data because a lot of times, and I
18:06
Speaker 3: get this, one of our customers does seventeen to twenty
18:10
Speaker 3: five different deals a year, just in one year, So
18:13
Speaker 3: we have to go in and we have to assess
18:15
Speaker 3: every single landscape that they have of technology. And typically
18:19
Speaker 3: they all have SAP in one way, shape or form
18:22
Speaker 3: because of the industry there, and so we'll go in
18:24
Speaker 3: and evaluate what they have. We'll also decide what we
18:28
Speaker 3: need to cut out, put into an environment be able
18:32
Speaker 3: to sustain it for itself or that part of the
18:35
Speaker 3: business that they're buying, and then be able to move
18:38
Speaker 3: that into the mothership. How that works and the templates
18:42
Speaker 3: that we built for them and how we will move those.
18:45
Speaker 3: We've got that down to a science because we've templated
18:47
Speaker 3: that activity for them, and we've done that for other organizations,
18:51
Speaker 3: but every company that's out there running an SAP ecosystem
18:55
Speaker 3: or some sort of ERP or want to grow in
18:58
Speaker 3: the ERP ecosystem. It's those types of things that move
19:02
Speaker 3: the needle and really help with organizations on a go
19:05
Speaker 3: forward strategy.
19:06
Speaker 2: It's important.
19:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I could see that, Chris, when you're talking about
19:10
Speaker 1: mergers or acquisitions and making sure that this is all
19:12
Speaker 1: cleaned up, looking good. I mean, if you're buying a business,
19:16
Speaker 1: you want to if they have obviously a SAP and
19:18
Speaker 1: it's really tight to pull together, you're like, man, this
19:20
Speaker 1: is very valuable. If it's in disarray, it hasn't been maintained,
19:24
Speaker 1: and it's just kind of all over the place, and
19:26
Speaker 1: you know, you got little things here and there, and
19:27
Speaker 1: like who's who's Who's who's shepherding this? Who's everything? I
19:31
Speaker 1: don't know that. That's why I see outside of SAP.
19:34
Speaker 1: I see this outsiding in small companies, and that's where
19:36
Speaker 1: I come in and help their teams, like empowering.
19:39
Speaker 2: People, like you're in charge of this, You've got to
19:41
Speaker 2: take care of this. Who's who's watching over this? Right?
19:44
Speaker 3: And you do it? You have to empower them. That's
19:46
Speaker 3: the interesting thing. When we do upgrades and migrations, or
19:49
Speaker 3: we even start to bring we empower specific individuals and
19:53
Speaker 3: we start at the top. I beg CEOs to get
19:57
Speaker 3: involved with these projects. Be the leader that you have been,
20:02
Speaker 3: and you need to be for this, even if it's
20:06
Speaker 3: coming in once a month and patting everybody on the
20:08
Speaker 3: back and thanking them for their hard works and ever,
20:11
Speaker 3: because at the end of the day, you need a
20:13
Speaker 3: C level executive, somebody with the ultimate power to say
20:17
Speaker 3: either yes or no when it comes down to that
20:20
Speaker 3: hard decision. Sure, you have everybody that's going to be
20:23
Speaker 3: working on their different modules and the different activities, the
20:26
Speaker 3: testing and so on, but when the poop, it's the van.
20:31
Speaker 3: You're the individual that they need to come to. You
20:33
Speaker 3: need the knowledge, you need the background, you need the
20:37
Speaker 3: information to say yes or no to make the betterment
20:41
Speaker 3: for your organization's success.
20:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.
20:44
Speaker 1: I can't agree more, Chris. I've unfortunately been in the
20:47
Speaker 1: place where they were disconnected and like all the other
20:49
Speaker 1: people are doing that and they don't really know and
20:53
Speaker 1: you know, and they're and I feel like that people
20:55
Speaker 1: are disempowered, like, well, I guess I can't really make
20:57
Speaker 1: any changes. They have to make the changes, but then
20:59
Speaker 1: they're not to make they don't like, well, I don't know,
21:02
Speaker 1: and so it's not a it's not a clear no,
21:04
Speaker 1: it's not clear yes.
21:05
Speaker 3: Cannot be wishy was you need to make executive decisions
21:09
Speaker 3: as an executive that company. You need to do it now.
21:12
Speaker 3: We need to make this change in this organization. We're
21:14
Speaker 3: going to go to this cloud. We're going to do this.
21:16
Speaker 3: We got to make these changes based upon X, Y
21:19
Speaker 3: and Z. Do I have your approval? Yes or no?
21:23
Speaker 3: And they need to put on their big boy or
21:25
Speaker 3: big girl pants and say yes or no. And then
21:27
Speaker 3: if you're going to say no, tell me why we're
21:30
Speaker 3: not going to do it. What do you know that
21:33
Speaker 3: we don't know that are gonna that's gonna make a
21:35
Speaker 3: change in this organization because we've laid it out and
21:38
Speaker 3: why this is important to this organization. Now you move forward.
21:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, I we were talking before we're
21:45
Speaker 1: doing this recording. I'm going to be speaking at a
21:47
Speaker 1: conference later this month to that about how do we
21:51
Speaker 1: help those those folks in the in the they're not
21:53
Speaker 1: the executives, so they're trying to provide that feedback to them,
21:56
Speaker 1: whether there's a cybersecurity instead of internal auditors.
22:00
Speaker 2: You know, I SACA.
22:01
Speaker 1: These folks that are trying to help and get this feedback,
22:04
Speaker 1: but then they're like, but I'm not getting a response.
22:06
Speaker 1: It's like it goes up and it just it's like
22:09
Speaker 1: floating up there somewhere. It's like, what's going on here?
22:12
Speaker 2: Right?
22:12
Speaker 1: And technology is changing you just mentioned a million dollars
22:15
Speaker 1: an hour or whatever. I mean, there's things that are changing,
22:17
Speaker 1: and we're like, hey, nobody's addressed. You know, nobody's making
22:22
Speaker 1: action here.
22:23
Speaker 3: So, David, I'm known as kind of an arsehole in
22:27
Speaker 3: my industry. I am the people. If I ask you
22:30
Speaker 3: for something, you got twenty four hours to respond to me.
22:34
Speaker 3: I am not a nice person when it comes to that.
22:36
Speaker 3: My time is valuable. Time is valuable, Our work is valuable.
22:42
Speaker 3: If you are going to sit there and pooh pooh
22:44
Speaker 3: because you think you've hired us, guys, gals, I've one
22:49
Speaker 3: hundred plus companies sitting behind you waiting for us to
22:54
Speaker 3: help them because they trust us. Hire us because we're trustworthy.
22:59
Speaker 3: We know what we're going to do, how we're going
23:02
Speaker 3: to do it, and we're gonna make you a success.
23:05
Speaker 3: So you come out of this thinking that you can
23:07
Speaker 3: stick your nose in the air and I need to
23:09
Speaker 3: kiss your backside. You're absolutely wrong, because I will literally
23:13
Speaker 3: and I've done this before. I will tell you thank you.
23:17
Speaker 3: This project is no longer fits our go forward strategy
23:21
Speaker 3: as an organization. You obviously don't feel that this fits
23:25
Speaker 3: your organization. My team cannot move forward in this manner.
23:30
Speaker 3: We are breaking our contract. I'll sign the contract, say
23:33
Speaker 3: thank you very much. Go find yourself some offshore company,
23:36
Speaker 3: or go find yourself some company that you feel more
23:40
Speaker 3: comfortable with. Who are going to kiss your backside? We
23:44
Speaker 3: will not. We're going to tell you the truth. We're
23:46
Speaker 3: going to tell the bodies are buried. We're going to
23:48
Speaker 3: tell you how we need to dig it up, how
23:50
Speaker 3: we need to go through the process, and how we
23:52
Speaker 3: need to deal with an autopsy. And it's straightforward, it's
23:56
Speaker 3: not that difficult. Listen to us and you will succeed.
24:00
Speaker 3: Mess around what is that f a FO? These days
24:04
Speaker 3: the kids are doing trying to remember what that means?
24:09
Speaker 3: Find out. I don't know. I can't live in any case.
24:13
Speaker 3: You're being strange.
24:14
Speaker 1: That's why I have you on the podcast because united
24:17
Speaker 1: connected and and that's what honestly, I'm the same way
24:21
Speaker 1: Chris I'm the same way, and that I'm not going
24:24
Speaker 1: to sugarcoat it for you. I'm not going to like
24:26
Speaker 1: play games. Uh, this isn't a power play. It's just
24:29
Speaker 1: this is what's needed. How do we get it done together?
24:33
Speaker 1: And if you want to play the game, then you
24:35
Speaker 1: can go play the game somewhere else. And there's unfortunate
24:37
Speaker 1: people that want to do that, and they and and
24:39
Speaker 1: and and businesses that hold on.
24:41
Speaker 2: To people like that.
24:42
Speaker 1: In my experience, they're just self sabotaging in the long run.
24:45
Speaker 1: Whatever reason you think that this person is quote unquote
24:48
Speaker 1: valuable in the company, I'm telling you.
24:51
Speaker 2: You know, listen, let's it's.
24:54
Speaker 3: All the time. And it's funny. There was a major
24:56
Speaker 3: lawsuit in the SAP ecosystem about one of the companies
25:00
Speaker 3: that was doing an SAP upgrade and they were suing
25:04
Speaker 3: the consulting firm on it. And I happened to know
25:07
Speaker 3: one of the project leads on that environment because we've
25:10
Speaker 3: worked together. I've been doing this since nineteen eighty nine.
25:13
Speaker 3: I'm not just some fresh pop out of the fresh
25:15
Speaker 3: aer academy. And so he and I would talk every
25:18
Speaker 3: once in a while. He would just be banging his
25:20
Speaker 3: I can't get them to do this. I can't get
25:22
Speaker 3: them to do this. I can't. They don't even know
25:24
Speaker 3: how to do their testing. And I'm like, what are
25:27
Speaker 3: they doing? Why are you still well? They're this and this.
25:30
Speaker 3: Come to find out all of a sudden that they
25:32
Speaker 3: had backdoors, so much detail that they hadn't told the firms,
25:37
Speaker 3: plus their teams were so ill prepared to do any
25:40
Speaker 3: of it, even after they were begged to make sure
25:43
Speaker 3: that they were ready. And then they wanted to modify
25:46
Speaker 3: a system. SAP is not a system you modify in
25:49
Speaker 3: any way, shape or form. You do not fit SAP
25:52
Speaker 3: to fit your business. You fit your business to fit
25:57
Speaker 3: into the best case scenarios of an SAP environment, because
26:01
Speaker 3: the use cases are built by SAP and the current
26:05
Speaker 3: partner community of the four hundred and eighty three customers
26:08
Speaker 3: that are out here. You modify or try to modify,
26:13
Speaker 3: that's when trouble starts and it causes time and additional money.
26:17
Speaker 3: Of course, it got thrown out of court because they
26:19
Speaker 3: found out how stupid they were. But you don't do
26:23
Speaker 3: those things and then think that you're you, Oh, you're you,
26:26
Speaker 3: you wronged me. I'm sorry. That's just it's nonsense. Yeah.
26:32
Speaker 1: People try to turn the tables and blame others and
26:34
Speaker 1: are like, look, you're asking me to do things that
26:36
Speaker 1: are not and like you said, modifying, adjusting it changing things.
26:41
Speaker 2: I want to ask you.
26:42
Speaker 1: I know we're uh, I don't want to let exit
26:45
Speaker 1: this podcast without You're a tech person, you know, and
26:49
Speaker 1: we talk about as things evolve and there's now AI,
26:53
Speaker 1: and I'm sure say obviously it is involving AI and
26:56
Speaker 1: how we're using the tools, but talk a lit a
27:00
Speaker 1: little bit about how you're seeing that, not just as
27:02
Speaker 1: an SAP, but I think there's people concerned out there,
27:05
Speaker 1: maybe that hey, I'm gonna lose my job, or this
27:07
Speaker 1: is coming in or this this program is going to
27:09
Speaker 1: remove my job. Talk a little bit about that concern
27:11
Speaker 1: or that that that out there about AI and technologists
27:16
Speaker 1: in general, even s a p like is that going
27:17
Speaker 1: to take I've been doing this and now is it's
27:19
Speaker 1: going to take my job or adjust what I'm doing?
27:21
Speaker 2: Talk talk a little bit about that, Chris.
27:24
Speaker 3: I appreciate that because I actually wrote one of my
27:26
Speaker 3: four best sellers is The Mastering of SAP with AI.
27:30
Speaker 3: It's the green book right there, and it just so happens.
27:33
Speaker 3: I firmly believe that AI is not going to take
27:37
Speaker 3: away your job, but it's going to make you a
27:39
Speaker 3: better person at your job. It's going to be better capabilities,
27:44
Speaker 3: it's going to make you a smarter human. Whatever tasks
27:47
Speaker 3: you're doing now, Will it take away some of the
27:50
Speaker 3: menial tasks? And that sure and absolutely well. And there
27:55
Speaker 3: are companies and activities and things that it will definitely
27:59
Speaker 3: take and do once you get the prompting down and
28:01
Speaker 3: you get the activities wrapped around. Absolutely, But I make
28:05
Speaker 3: that claim in that book, and I actually have two
28:07
Speaker 3: other books on AI that I've talked about. It will
28:10
Speaker 3: strictly make you a better human being, for your company,
28:15
Speaker 3: for your life, hey, even for your wife, and for
28:18
Speaker 3: the activities that you want to do to better yourself.
28:22
Speaker 3: Use it as a training mechanism, Make it as a
28:25
Speaker 3: training activities for your company. Use it as a tool
28:28
Speaker 3: for learning how to prompt properly to do finance or
28:32
Speaker 3: create an ROI based solution for your HR or your finance,
28:36
Speaker 3: or your shipping and activities. Use as an external component
28:40
Speaker 3: for your sales and marketing activities. All these things you
28:44
Speaker 3: can do with AI. So it'll take away tasks will.
28:48
Speaker 3: I don't think it will take away your job unless
28:51
Speaker 3: you give it the reason to take away your job.
28:54
Speaker 3: When your boss comes in, it says, look, you're just
28:57
Speaker 3: you're lazy. You're not here on time, you're not doing
28:59
Speaker 3: the things you need to do. I can get somebody
29:01
Speaker 3: who knows how to prompt knows how to use the
29:04
Speaker 3: AI tools, and I can get them because they're going
29:07
Speaker 3: to be a benefit to my company and to the
29:09
Speaker 3: organization as a whole. That's where I see AI really
29:13
Speaker 3: going and really driving business value for those organizations and
29:18
Speaker 3: for the humans who know how to use it.
29:21
Speaker 1: That's that's great that you're saying that, Chris. We're going
29:23
Speaker 1: to put a link to the books. You guys can
29:26
Speaker 1: go find Christmas books, and we're going to make sure
29:28
Speaker 1: again connect with Chris on LinkedIn and all that will
29:31
Speaker 1: make sure it's all in the show notes. Also, I
29:33
Speaker 1: would encourage you guys, if you're listening to the podcast,
29:35
Speaker 1: if you guys have questions or comments, please go ahead
29:37
Speaker 1: and leave them in there. Whatever the platform, whether there's YouTube, LinkedIn,
29:40
Speaker 1: wherever you're hearing this, wherever you're taking this in listening
29:43
Speaker 1: watching us. We want to we'll make sure that gets
29:45
Speaker 1: back to Chris that he can respond to as well,
29:48
Speaker 1: and we appreciate the engagement and sharing. I'm encouraged when
29:52
Speaker 1: you say that, Chris, I agree with you. I think
29:55
Speaker 1: that for those that embrace it as a tool a
29:58
Speaker 1: funny story, I'm gonna doing environmental consulting since the late nineties.
30:02
Speaker 1: Chris and I remember we never didn't we didn't use
30:06
Speaker 1: GPS units like that was like we didn't have you know,
30:10
Speaker 1: we did, we had surveying, did ways of different doing serving,
30:13
Speaker 1: but GPS units were new, and I remember like people
30:15
Speaker 1: were like, oh, I don't know about this technology. I'm
30:17
Speaker 1: intimid about it. And this is just GPS back in
30:19
Speaker 1: the day. But then understanding and incorporating the spatial Lada
30:22
Speaker 1: and how can we use it more and just the
30:23
Speaker 1: evolution of how they could use it more. This is
30:26
Speaker 1: so exciting and it's just it's again understanding and this
30:30
Speaker 1: is a major evolution. I A is a major tool
30:32
Speaker 1: and revolution. But I believe just like whatever it was
30:35
Speaker 1: one hundred years more than one hundred years ago when
30:37
Speaker 1: cars were first introduced, like, right, what's the car going
30:40
Speaker 1: to do?
30:40
Speaker 2: You know? We got horses for that. I'm right.
30:46
Speaker 1: Uh, and and I mean, I so just I think
30:50
Speaker 1: embracing that and leveraging it and saying like, Okay, how
30:53
Speaker 1: can this help me be a better person?
30:55
Speaker 2: And I saw your post. I was talking about you
30:57
Speaker 2: before we recorded today.
30:58
Speaker 1: You made a post on your LinkedIn about how it
31:00
Speaker 1: can help me be I'm a better person. And I
31:02
Speaker 1: agree the people that embrace that and they say, okay,
31:04
Speaker 1: how could this help me? How can I use this
31:08
Speaker 1: to be better? Those folks will different, differential of themselves.
31:11
Speaker 1: But if you, if you dig in your heels, right,
31:13
Speaker 1: you're saying same thing with like, hey, I'm not going
31:15
Speaker 1: to use that SAPI. I don't want to use it.
31:17
Speaker 1: I want to like somebody else is. And I think you,
31:19
Speaker 1: you know, you're just kind of dig in your own grave.
31:22
Speaker 3: Great, well, that's the problem we have in the sap
31:24
Speaker 3: ecosystem right now is fifty seven percent of the sap
31:29
Speaker 3: ecosystem when it's staff members and such, fifty seven percent
31:33
Speaker 3: right now are the age of fifty or older. That's
31:38
Speaker 3: a crazy number. Right now. We're not getting younger. We're
31:41
Speaker 3: not getting these young people. And you look at these
31:44
Speaker 3: individuals that come in. We've got about eight percent that
31:47
Speaker 3: are in the from the teens to the twenties. Then
31:49
Speaker 3: it's like thirteen percent from twenty to thirty, and then
31:52
Speaker 3: another three or seven to eight percent that are in there.
31:55
Speaker 3: For it is a old humans game right now in
31:59
Speaker 3: the sa becos, and we need to educate younger people
32:03
Speaker 3: and they want the whizbang new tools. AI is the
32:06
Speaker 3: tool they want to use. They want to use chat, BBT,
32:09
Speaker 3: they want to use Copilot, they want to use tools.
32:11
Speaker 3: They want to use all these tools to better their careers,
32:15
Speaker 3: better their life, to better their day to day activities.
32:19
Speaker 3: And so it's one of those tools where you better
32:22
Speaker 3: embrace that where you are going to be retired.
32:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, one hundred percent. And to your point, it's
32:28
Speaker 1: great that I love the breakdown that you said there, Chris,
32:30
Speaker 1: because I see this right now. I've been in the
32:33
Speaker 1: AC architecture, engineering, environmental consulting space for twenty five years.
32:37
Speaker 2: I'm fifty one.
32:37
Speaker 1: I'm in the Gen xers, but I'm seeing a gap
32:40
Speaker 1: in the leadership space as well of guiding and mentoring
32:44
Speaker 1: people those millennials, especially the Gen zs, and so my
32:48
Speaker 1: passion is to help work with folks like you of
32:50
Speaker 1: saying hey, we're trying to build this. How do we
32:52
Speaker 1: mentor and guide and empower those folks to stop up
32:54
Speaker 1: to start learning this stuff to work with the team, right, Chris.
32:58
Speaker 1: And that's why I want to have you on the
32:59
Speaker 1: podcast because here listening to this as a business owner,
33:02
Speaker 1: if you're in that place, your company is going to
33:04
Speaker 1: be so much more valuable and better off if you
33:06
Speaker 1: get these folks in there and understand this and grow
33:09
Speaker 1: with your company, right Chris, Get them in.
33:10
Speaker 3: Early, get them bringing up early. Yes, you're going to
33:13
Speaker 3: have individuals that are going to leave your organization after
33:16
Speaker 3: you bring them up and you've moved them forward in
33:18
Speaker 3: your organization. But at the end of the day, you're
33:21
Speaker 3: going to have these successes, and those are the successes.
33:24
Speaker 3: I've always said, no matter where I go on the
33:26
Speaker 3: corporate ladder, I am always reaching a handbag to try
33:29
Speaker 3: to help somebody get to the next rung as well.
33:31
Speaker 3: I'm trying to get better. They need to get better.
33:34
Speaker 3: As long as we're working together and in tandem, we're
33:37
Speaker 3: going to keep moving up that corporate lander or of success.
33:40
Speaker 3: Just so happens that I happen to be the chairman
33:42
Speaker 3: and CEO at this point time, Well, I want to
33:45
Speaker 3: cut some other people to come up, and I want
33:46
Speaker 3: them to take over. I don't want to be doing
33:48
Speaker 3: this for the rest of my life. I've got an
33:50
Speaker 3: incredible wife that likes to travel and she wants to
33:53
Speaker 3: spend some time with me. She keeps selling me. So
33:56
Speaker 3: I need individuals to be successful as well, and every
33:59
Speaker 3: company should look it. Reach those hands back down the
34:02
Speaker 3: ladder and bring people up with you. Hell, have five
34:06
Speaker 3: or six of them on the same rung and working together.
34:08
Speaker 3: You never know who's going to reach that out for
34:10
Speaker 3: that hand and grab onto the next rum and keep
34:14
Speaker 3: driving success with those individuals.
34:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, definitely to your point. And Chris, I think
34:20
Speaker 1: finding multiple people. Don't do one source of failure, one
34:25
Speaker 1: person that knows all. That's a classic mistake. But I
34:28
Speaker 1: do see that happen quite obviously the business. This person
34:30
Speaker 1: knows it all. It's in their head. They figured to
34:32
Speaker 1: figure it out. I'm like, yeah, what happens to that
34:34
Speaker 1: person if something happens and.
34:37
Speaker 3: Then the owner gets all for clemt that, Oh my god,
34:39
Speaker 3: they left me. I trained them. You know, this is
34:41
Speaker 3: why I don't reach my hand. No, it's because you,
34:46
Speaker 3: you as the leader. You didn't make the choice to
34:49
Speaker 3: bring in more individuals and to help them help them.
34:54
Speaker 3: You're not going to sit there and do a mentoring
34:55
Speaker 3: program for twenty people, got it, But you know what
34:59
Speaker 3: you are going to I see a couple of bright,
35:01
Speaker 3: shining nuggets that you think can make diamonds, then you're
35:04
Speaker 3: gonna put them up. It's the Ge mentality. G Jack Welch.
35:08
Speaker 3: He did this perfectly. He would have ten to fifteen
35:11
Speaker 3: executives across that VP level and they would be down
35:15
Speaker 3: there and they would swap rolls, and they would continuously
35:19
Speaker 3: swaps to see who is learning and who could pick
35:22
Speaker 3: up the different variations. Some of them would and all
35:24
Speaker 3: of a sudden go off to run a different company,
35:26
Speaker 3: and then someone else would go off to a different
35:28
Speaker 3: and then that would be taken in them and they
35:31
Speaker 3: would lead, and you would have a couple that would
35:33
Speaker 3: go up, and it would continuously. It's like a reversed funnel.
35:38
Speaker 3: You know, you're trying to get as many into the
35:39
Speaker 3: bottom to see who comes out the top. Well, sales
35:43
Speaker 3: is the opposite. You want to bring as many in
35:44
Speaker 3: to see who comes out at the bottom. And Ge
35:47
Speaker 3: did that, and that's why I love I considered Jack's
35:50
Speaker 3: philosophy is Jack Welch. His philosophies were fantastic and I
35:55
Speaker 3: love that between him and Bill McDermott, two mentors that
35:58
Speaker 3: I just love and follow and was fortunate enough and
36:01
Speaker 3: actually that chet jpt on aibook is dedicated to Bill McDermott,
36:06
Speaker 3: who's now the CEO of Service Now. When he was
36:10
Speaker 3: at SAP, I looked at him as a leader who
36:12
Speaker 3: I wanted to be like, and I wanted to push
36:15
Speaker 3: myself towards. Very fortunate to work with him in some
36:17
Speaker 3: of the activities around SAP, and those are the types
36:21
Speaker 3: of individuals. You look at what they did and how
36:23
Speaker 3: they're always bringing people up. They're always trying to help
36:27
Speaker 3: the next one, and that I think we're lacking a
36:30
Speaker 3: little bit here in America today and even the world,
36:32
Speaker 3: and we need to start looking at that. I don't
36:34
Speaker 3: care what your creed, your color, your religion, who we are,
36:37
Speaker 3: who you go to bed with, and that doesn't matter me.
36:40
Speaker 3: What matters to me is are you a good human being?
36:43
Speaker 3: And can you help others? Because I need to help
36:46
Speaker 3: others to make my company successful. If you can do
36:49
Speaker 3: those things, we're gonna get along great. And I'm gonna
36:51
Speaker 3: help you and you're gonna help me.
36:54
Speaker 1: Chris, I love it and you're the same lane length
36:58
Speaker 1: on that. I want to serve. I want to help
37:01
Speaker 1: more reach more people. That's why we have this podcast.
37:04
Speaker 1: I know we're getting the into the podcast, we're gonna
37:06
Speaker 1: have to become back Chrisca. This is just so much
37:08
Speaker 1: fun in enjoying the conversation with you. Absolutely, you know,
37:14
Speaker 1: as we wrap it up, I just I like to
37:16
Speaker 1: ask our guests. You know, we cover a lot of
37:18
Speaker 1: different things and if if, if, if you would just
37:21
Speaker 1: say a key takeaway or an action for that CEO,
37:24
Speaker 1: that business leader that's listening right now, Hey, Chris, you
37:28
Speaker 1: know what what do you how either whether to you know,
37:31
Speaker 1: prepare or improve their their organization, whether they're currently with
37:36
Speaker 1: the air in the f or they're they're considering it
37:38
Speaker 1: or what what What would you say?
37:39
Speaker 3: What was that?
37:40
Speaker 1: What would you want to do? What was what's the
37:41
Speaker 1: first action? One of the things they can do today
37:44
Speaker 1: as they leave listening to this podcast.
37:47
Speaker 3: First thing is call me, call me and ask a question.
37:50
Speaker 2: There you go.
37:51
Speaker 3: I am not on the clocks, so you don't have
37:53
Speaker 3: to worry about compensations. You don't have to worry about contract.
37:56
Speaker 3: Call me and ask a question. I answer hundreds of
38:00
Speaker 3: questions every month, and I'm you know, I used to
38:03
Speaker 3: have my phone number out there where I told people
38:05
Speaker 3: just call me if you've got a question. Then all
38:07
Speaker 3: of a sudden, I'd get bombarded by questions. But then
38:09
Speaker 3: I got bombarded by everybody asking for to send their resume,
38:13
Speaker 3: and I was like, wait a second, I'm not hr
38:16
Speaker 3: you got to go through a process. I can't just
38:18
Speaker 3: So what I'm gonna ask you to do is join
38:20
Speaker 3: me on LinkedIn, send me a chat or yeah there's
38:24
Speaker 3: the chats because David chat on it is send me
38:28
Speaker 3: a chat and say, hey, you listen to the podcast.
38:30
Speaker 3: I've got a question about what we're doing or what
38:32
Speaker 3: we're looking to go through. I can set up a
38:35
Speaker 3: time to talk. I have my own team's accounts, I've
38:38
Speaker 3: got my own zooms. I don't have to do it
38:40
Speaker 3: as part of the company, even though it is on
38:42
Speaker 3: the company. I will. I will set it up. You
38:45
Speaker 3: can ask me any question you want, ask me what hell?
38:49
Speaker 3: You can even ask me what color the sky is
38:51
Speaker 3: this week? Right now, it's kind of a sunny gray
38:53
Speaker 3: outside in Wisconsin in a couple of days. It's going
38:57
Speaker 3: to be victory, yellow and Blue at Georgia Tech.
38:59
Speaker 2: When I'm done there, you go.
39:01
Speaker 3: I that being said, just contact me and say, hey,
39:04
Speaker 3: I heard the podcast. I really liked what we're doing.
39:07
Speaker 3: Can resonate with what you've been doing. I've got a
39:10
Speaker 3: couple of questions. Can you help me with the direction
39:12
Speaker 3: that I can go. I may send you to a
39:14
Speaker 3: company if you're down in Atlanta. I work with some
39:17
Speaker 3: partner companies down there that are fantastic individuals. Off I Kantope.
39:21
Speaker 3: If you're looking for something from an Oracle or Dynamics,
39:24
Speaker 3: or maybe use some things with service now. Hell, I
39:26
Speaker 3: might even send you directly to mister McDermott. Say hey, Bill,
39:29
Speaker 3: this company contact me. They don't have service now, They've
39:32
Speaker 3: got some things that they could do with AI. You
39:34
Speaker 3: got somebody in that neighborhood that you can help them
39:37
Speaker 3: out with. Contact me, let's have a conversation. And if
39:41
Speaker 3: I'm in a no location near you, I like bourbon
39:44
Speaker 3: and I like coffee, So depending on the time of
39:47
Speaker 3: the day.
39:49
Speaker 2: Out Well, I'm so glad you're here.
39:53
Speaker 1: Chris Aproyo, You guys go check out apro dot com
39:56
Speaker 1: and check out his books. We'll put it in the
39:58
Speaker 1: LinkedIn the Lincoln connection here as well in our show notes. Chris,
40:03
Speaker 1: thanks for being here and we look forward to having
40:04
Speaker 1: you come back again.
40:06
Speaker 3: Well, David, I'm excited that this was a fantastic conversation.
40:09
Speaker 3: But if you want to show you something, I just
40:10
Speaker 3: got to my collection and I knew you would like
40:13
Speaker 3: this because I kept him out here just for you.
40:15
Speaker 2: Oh look at that grogo Star Wars with cookies.
40:19
Speaker 3: Yes, just for you. I kept them. It's part of
40:23
Speaker 3: my Uh, I'm all.
40:25
Speaker 1: The forces with us. I changed my off a little bit.
40:28
Speaker 1: I'm you guys are going to see some more Star
40:29
Speaker 1: Wars stuff in the background there. So we're working on
40:32
Speaker 1: my little life labor there. Uh No, I think it's
40:35
Speaker 1: this is life, this is connection, this is being real.
40:38
Speaker 1: I love that, Chris, and I'm looking forward to grabbing
40:42
Speaker 1: coffee or bourbon or whatever the keys might be when
40:44
Speaker 1: you're in town here in Socow.
40:46
Speaker 2: Thanks everybody for listening. Thanks again Chris for being here.
40:49
Speaker 3: Great to see again, David. We'll talk soon.
40:51
Speaker 1: All right, Thanks everybody until next time. All along the
40:56
Speaker 1: podcast and we'll look forward to you here. Are you
40:59
Speaker 1: having you on the ex one, Thanks everybody, mm hmm.