November 21, 2025 • 47 mins
Ever seen a CRM project teeter on the edge and wondered if the platform is the problem? We invited Microsoft MVP Heidi Neuhauser to unpack why so many implementations stall, why “more fields” won’t fix adoption, and how a single meaningful win for frontline users can flip the narrative. Heidi’s story starts where many ops leaders begin: thrust into a system no one wants to use. From there, she built a people-first playbook anchored in no-code tools, clear feedback loops, and honest conversations without managers in the room.
We dive into the practical levers that matter most: business rules that replace fragile JavaScript, user acceptance testing that reflects real work, and inclusive design workshops with influencers, skeptics, and tech-averse voices at the table. Heidi shares hard-earned lessons on avoiding report-first forms and explains how to measure success with outcomes users feel, like shaving hours off monthly reporting. For leaders navigating career growth and community, she offers candid guidance on presenting confidently, setting boundaries as a woman in tech, and turning community into a multiplier for learning and impact.
You’ll also hear a fresh take on portals strategy. If Power Pages feels heavy for your scenario, Heidi outlines how WP Portals pairs WordPress with Dataverse to deliver data-rich experiences using familiar drag-and-drop tools, cutting cost and complexity for high-volume use. The theme is consistent throughout: choose the simplest tool that solves the real problem, reuse your work to avoid burnout, and keep pace with change through release notes, user groups, and series like Power Tips.
If you care about CRM adoption, Dynamics 365 best practices, Dataverse, Power Platform, and building portals that users actually love, this conversation is a roadmap. Subscribe, share with a teammate who owns adoption, and tell us: what’s the smallest high-impact win you’ll ship this month?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:31):
Welcome everyone to the latest episode of the
Service X Facts Factor Podcast.
I am one of your co-hosts, ScottLaFonte.
And of course, I'm joined backfrom assignment this week, uh
Mr.
William Quad McClendon.
Will, how's it going, man?
SPEAKER_01 (00:46):
What's up, everybody?
I am super stoked.
Super excited to be back andreally excited about our guests
this afternoon.
Another one of our amazingpeople in our community.
Yay.
Don't leave us hanging.
Who is it?
I was gonna pause.
I was waiting for you to like,you know, hey, we want you to do
an introduction.
I don't have any theme musiclike that that that work alarm.
(01:13):
No.
This one, they've been in thecommunity for a long time, and
it's quality over quantity withtheir contributions.
Um I just absolutely adore thisindividual, and she is flat out
just one of my favorite peopleon the planet.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'd liketo introduce you to Heidi
Newhouser.
SPEAKER_00 (01:29):
Oh, you're making me blush.
Thanks, Will.
SPEAKER_02 (01:33):
Look, I see that little stuff on his face, like
his nose.
You know, here I got a towel.
SPEAKER_01 (01:39):
Heidi's awesome, dude.
Like Heidi, you know, I got Igot plenty of stories that might
just break out and tell themduring the middle of this
podcast, folks.
So definitely stay tuned.
I'm gonna show some restraintand just let Heidi get a chance
to speak, right?
Go ahead, Heidi.
Introduce yourself.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00 (01:52):
Hi everyone, I'm Heidi Newhauser.
I'm a Microsoft MVP in customerengagement, mostly on the sales
and service and marketing sideand power automate.
And I've been working in thisMicrosoft CRM space for a really
long time now.
I'd have to look at my LinkedInprofile.
I think 15 years.
(02:15):
I don't really know.
SPEAKER_01 (02:17):
I just know it's been since uh 4.0, right?
SPEAKER_02 (02:20):
Yes, since 4.0 is it has it like long strain script.
SPEAKER_00 (02:25):
It is.
You know what's funny?
Uh just got a project where I'mworking with somebody who is
upgrading to online.
Get this from 2011.
I was so excited to see itagain.
It was like seeing an oldfriend.
Wow.
SPEAKER_02 (02:42):
Shout out to them for endurance.
An old friend that you haven'tseen in a long, long time.
I think that's how I think it Ican't remember if it was 4.0 or
11.
I mean, I started a little afteryou in the dynamic space.
It's only been about I guess 11years or so.
But I I want to say it wasprobably like 20 ish 11 was the
(03:05):
version.
So crazy how time flies.
SPEAKER_00 (03:08):
I like forgot what it looked like, and then when I
saw it, it's like, how could Iforgotten this?
These are like my formativeserum years.
SPEAKER_02 (03:16):
Absolutely.
So I I guess here's a goodquestion talking about Fort Ford
O.
I mean, how did you stumble uponthis crazy world that we call
dynamics?
SPEAKER_00 (03:26):
Ah, in the same way many of us find ourselves here.
I was doing absolutely nothinginvolved with tech at the time.
I was working in marketing, Iwas working in
business-to-business marketingfor a propane company.
And I happened to work withsalespeople well.
And they're like, hey, by theway, we have this system that we
(03:48):
spend a lot of money on and wecan't get our salespeople to do
it.
Can you figure it out?
And and then a baby system adminwas born who had no idea what
she was doing.
And I feel like that is like avery common path for some of us.
I just kind of went with it, youknow, an opportunity presents
(04:08):
itself, and you can either divein or kind of resist and be
like, no, that's not me.
I don't do that.
I'm in marketing.
Uh, but I I embraced it andgosh, has it been a great ride?
SPEAKER_01 (04:21):
You're being way too modest, man.
I gotta say, like, because likeyou're not just like a casual ad
man who just picked up a fewtips.
Like, you have a uh a profounddeep knowledge on on the
platform and all of itsofferings.
Like you're you're you didn'tjust just just casually dip your
(04:42):
toes in the water, man.
Heidi, you've been an agent forchange.
Um one of your one of myfavorite.
SPEAKER_02 (04:47):
You got thrown right into the fire.
SPEAKER_01 (04:49):
I did.
Love it.
I did.
If you haven't, guys, you gottaattend one of her sessions uh
with with good with Kylie, uh 60tips and 60 seconds.
Like you'll learn in sixtyminutes on top of 60 tips in 60
minutes.
Look, I've got to talk realfast, Heidi.
Challenge accepted, right?
I like No, I mean it's just it'sunreal, man.
(05:11):
It's great.
So what like what if I askedyou, uh what was your favorite
feature over the last you know15 years that you were just
like, man, this is just Oh wow,that's a really good question.
SPEAKER_00 (05:22):
Uh the thing that I got the most excited about that
I think changed my life as ano-code admin was business
rules.
I still use them all the time.
I think business rules weregreat because prior to their
introduction, you neededJavaScript to do all of those
(05:43):
things or whatever language,custom code at the time.
And it put a lot more power inyour system admin slash early
citizen dev hands to be able toget some things done quickly
that make your users happy.
SPEAKER_02 (05:58):
Yeah, I think it's one of the most undervalued
features in the applicationbecause everyone seems to forget
about it, and everyone, everycustomer that I deal with, and I
come in and they had anotherpartner, everything's
JavaScript.
And I'm sitting there thinking,why is this all JavaScript?
When we could have done thiseasily in a business role and
you could have had to be a lotmore flexible.
SPEAKER_01 (06:18):
Yeah.
Very quick.
Business rules, man.
They don't get enough love, man.
I love it.
So when you were when you weremaking this drastic shift from a
sysadmin um into the partnerchannel, you know, what was the
biggest mindset that you had toadopt?
SPEAKER_00 (06:35):
Oh, excellent question.
So I was on the customer sidefor seven years.
So it was quite a while that Iwas working directly with my
employees, which is verydifferent than coming from a
partner perspective, right?
So, like the entire mindset andthinking about how problems
could be solved at theorganization level versus how do
(06:59):
I fix Will's problem or how do Imake Scott use the system?
SPEAKER_02 (07:03):
I don't know if you depict any of Will's problems.
SPEAKER_01 (07:06):
No.
That's a buff conversation,folks.
SPEAKER_00 (07:12):
But yeah, like learning a different dialect on
the thing about like keeping mytime and learning a whole
different way of viewing.
SPEAKER_02 (07:21):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And and and so one of the thingsthat I've learned, and thank
you, Chat GPT, and all the otherAI uh functions in uh is that
you're known as the rescueproject specialist, apparently.
And so from that perspective, Imean, what's the what's the
moment you usually walk into?
Is it like massive chaos?
(07:42):
Is it panic?
Is it just they don't know whatthey don't know yet?
Or is the house on fire and andyou you know you're trying to
salvage whatever you can beforethey you know have to leave?
SPEAKER_00 (07:52):
And it's kind of a little bit of everything.
Uh so have you ever seen a CRMproject that didn't go well?
Uh but sometimes it's really,really off to the point that an
organization is willing to throwit away and start up with
Salesforce or something totallynew and think that that's going
(08:12):
to solve all their problems.
When usually it's a process anda people problem.
I myself am very focused onpeople first for kind of
identifying what the problem is,which I think um a lot of
organizations might not befocused on, right?
They're looking at managementand ROI in the bottom line and
green, yellow, red.
But uh even if you make the mostperfect system in the entire
(08:35):
land, if you haven't given yourpeople a reason to want to use
it or given them some benefitsto themselves, like can you
create a report that saves themfive hours a month and manually
creating something?
If you can do that one thing,that could turn the whole
project around.
So sometimes it's as simple as,oh, you're not listening to your
people.
Here's what they're saying.
(08:56):
Let's do some like sessions andand just see what they think
without managers in the room,right?
Because they're not going totell us the same thing if their
manager is there.
And uh yeah, those are awesomebecause it's a quick, easy fix
and like everybody wins.
Sometimes the house is on fire,though.
SPEAKER_02 (09:13):
Those are hard.
Yeah, and to your point, I mean,I think I've seen it a lot where
you you know it's uh a higherlevel group that's making the
decisions and not involving thethe actual users or the subject
or even just like the SMEs thatare you know in the different
groups, and then all of a suddenit gets thrust upon them and
they're like what is this?
This isn't even what we do.
SPEAKER_00 (09:34):
Exactly.
SPEAKER_02 (09:35):
And they don't and they don't use it, but then all
of a sudden it's like, oh, thissystem's garbage.
So it yeah, seeing it time andtime again, just like you have,
and and it those are the onesthat to your point, I think
there's there's some quick winsI think in that in that one
before that the house you knowbecomes completely on fire.
SPEAKER_00 (09:56):
Yeah, those are more tough.
SPEAKER_02 (09:58):
I see Will shaking his head, he's like, Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01 (10:02):
I I i i it's it's funny, right?
Like, you know, we uh we have welove adoption, right?
I I know you love the topic ofadoption.
I you were one of the very firstpeople I ran into and I was
like, oh, they get it.
Really helped me to see thevalue of the way I started back
in you know uh my day.
Um say back in my day.
Um we we we talk about adoptionum you know amongst ourselves,
(10:27):
we preach it.
What is the number one killer ofadoption you find with uh a lot
of our customers?
What do you what have you seenthat's just absolutely killed
it?
SPEAKER_00 (10:34):
Uh uh number one killer of adoption.
SPEAKER_01 (10:39):
That sounds terrible.
It sounds like a very bleakquestion.
We'll probably have to edit thatout.
But what is the number oneproduct all died?
No, I'm sorry.
Well, folks, it's not Fridayyet, so hey, maybe we should
take a day early off.
What is the one that just likejust you you you spend we've
been on 12 to 18 months?
(11:00):
You know, companies spendhundreds, even millions of
dollars implementing theseamazing massive applications
only to want to throw it away orstruggle for the next two or
three years with it to leave theplatform altogether.
Um so really I I just you know,I have my feedback, but you're
the special guest.
So what do you think would mostof the time improve the adoption
(11:24):
process?
That's a better way of askingthat.
SPEAKER_00 (11:26):
I think the biggest miss is not including the end
users in the entire process.
And if you're not doing that,it's not too late.
You can involve them at anypoint in time.
But I don't think it should justbe your bringers that you're
involving in the process.
I think a lot of companies willbe like, oh, well, Nick's really
good at CRM, so let's talk tohim and see what he thinks.
(11:47):
Instead of like, oh, Heidi's theinfluencer and she hates it, and
she's telling everyone how badit is and how so, like you need
to find the influencer and youneed to find the stick in the
mud, and you need to find peoplethat are good at tech and people
that are bad at tech, and thenyou put them all in your group
of users together, and thenalong with with your SMEs, along
(12:10):
with the key stakeholders,you're gonna hear what the
problems are, and then all ofthose people in a core group are
going to become evangelists ofthe product eventually because
they they're a part of theprocess, they feel invested in
it.
So my answer is people,actually, and not having the
right people in the room.
SPEAKER_02 (12:29):
That's a great one.
I I would I would tend to agreewith that, seeing it just like
you have so many times, nothaving those right people and
how critical of or inpotentially fatal mistake that
is from a project success.
SPEAKER_00 (12:44):
Yeah, and there's like tech things too, right?
Like don't put 500 requiredfields on a form.
That's a killing.
That was what I walked in on asthe first time system admin.
There were, I'm not joking, like25 required fields on the lead
entry.
Like, why aren't salespeopledoing this?
Like, would you look at this?
Yeah, take 10 minutes to enter alead.
SPEAKER_01 (13:05):
Yeah, we just had that similar situation where
they were like, we went, oh,this required this requirements
like you can't have the entirefield, you though it weren't
required.
It's just not it's notpractical.
That's not what it's there for.
They'll drive you nuts.
SPEAKER_02 (13:15):
Yeah, and then I like the one where there's
required fields on one tab, andthen there's required fields on
tab two and tab three.
Well, yeah, I love that too.
SPEAKER_00 (13:24):
That's that's fun.
Yeah, I think those are bornwhen like it's report driven,
right?
Subs whoever's system architecthas gotten all of the managers
in the room and they're like,What do you need on your report?
And they're like, Oh, this andthis and this, and you can't
have it without that.
Now you have all of theserequired farewell, but your
users don't know absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (13:47):
That's great.
Um, so I want to turn uh ourattention a little bit about you
know everything that you dowithin the community.
Right?
And so, I mean, y you run usergroups, you're you're
constantly, you know, speakingat different engagements, uh,
creating kind of when did yourealize you know community
leadership wasn't just somethingyou enjoy, but something that
(14:08):
you're built for?
SPEAKER_00 (14:10):
Yeah, I think I am a serial volunteer in many ways in
my life.
And this is no different.
Um, and I I actually fell intothe user group thing by mistake
as well.
I I when I became system adminfor CRM 4.0, I started
(14:30):
researching things that I couldlearn.
I stumbled upon what was oncecalled CRM user group, CRM UG.
And I finally had a localchapter.
I joined the local chapter, Iwent to a meeting and found out
there's no chapter leader.
And they're like, would you likeit?
I'm like, sure, I can help.
Why not?
So that was my beginning intouser group leadership.
(14:51):
I had a couple of years ofhiatus, but I always keep
finding my way back into it.
And I think it's just a passion.
I have a passion for this.
I enjoy it.
Uh, I've been told I'm kind ofgood at it, so I keep doing it.
And uh I I really love sharingwhat I've learned.
I think it's because I had sucha hard time finding information
(15:12):
as a new system admin.
I try to give people all of thestuff I didn't have.
That's kind of where it comesfrom for me.
SPEAKER_02 (15:21):
That's great.
Yeah, and I mean, even today, Istill think there's so much
content out there.
I think for someone that's new,especially in the system admin
world, it's overwhelming.
You know, where do you start?
You know, where do you where doyou go?
I mean, what there it's not likethere's a one-stop job, so to
speak.
And so it it becomes, I think,very it it comes to the point
(15:43):
it's like you throw your handsup and you're like, all right, I
don't know.
I I give up.
Like how you just I gotta askthis question.
SPEAKER_01 (15:51):
I know I'm gonna get in trouble because I'm going
completely off um off topichere.
Um so so there are and Iprobably will you could probably
you will punch me in the facewhen I see you in a spring.
Um so first of all, we're gonnaget on this list.
Um there are tons of women inour industry.
(16:15):
Um and I'm not gonna name themall, but on on to with like, you
know, the Juliax, you know, umuh in this bucket of of MVPs, uh
there was some momentum in hey,we needed to have more
representation with women inthis space.
(16:37):
Um that was recent.
You were here for that.
Would you like uh I know Ididn't ask you this ahead of
time, so again, if you punch me,I if I wrap a black eye in my
face, that's because I get it.
Um what how how did you navigatethat?
And what uh I would say uhquality you see that it added if
(17:00):
it did, if you kind of if itkind of sharpened anything, if
it made you better, or maybesomething that others would like
to show or see to make it makethem improve?
Like what would you say aboutthat?
SPEAKER_00 (17:10):
In like the lens of like women in tech kind of
stuff?
SPEAKER_01 (17:13):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:15):
Um, I agree there is a lack of female representation
in this space.
It is challenging, it isdifficult to kind of feel like
we get an equal playing fieldsometimes.
That's fair.
Um, I am often I have awonderful husband who I work
(17:37):
with.
So he often, yeah, right, heoften gets credit for my
accomplishments, and the reverseis not true.
People assume he's an MVP.
He's not, he's never been, henever wants to be.
But I find it very interestingthat as a woman in tech, my
accomplishments get shared by myhusband in tech, which isn't
(17:58):
quite what you asked.
But I am just saying there is aproblem, isn't it yet?
Will it be?
I sure hope so.
So I am involved and I try tohelp other women find their
voice.
I have found some people thatI'm kind of trying to take under
my wing who are tech fluentgraduates or other different
(18:19):
programs that I've met through,and I am trying to just show
them that what they have to sayis important and people care
about and people listen.
And I will 100% continue to doso.
And I thank you, Will, forbringing this up.
I think it's a good topic thatprobably should be talked about
a bit more.
SPEAKER_01 (18:37):
Yeah, 100%.
I mean, it's it's gotta betough.
Like I I I was actually when Iwas talking with Julie a couple
weeks back, like I one of myfondest memories is her like
just essentially puntingsomebody who's a big dog in the
room right in the mouth.
Um, and you know, I'm looking ather, I'm like, damn.
Like, you know, she's holdingher own.
Um, but yeah, she did it, youknow.
(18:59):
I've seen her, I've seen you,I've seen her, and so if she
sees me, I don't want her to hitme.
But um I've seen it.
I've seen yeah, she will.
Um but I've seen you also be,you know, strong and yeah, with
finesse, with tactful and yetfirm.
Um that's hard to navigate intoday's society because there's
so many people on differentsides of the argument.
(19:21):
Um but yet you've alwaysmaintained this positive uh very
factual attitude.
That's been positive, right?
Um, so is is there is there aparticular soft skill set that
folks can use to kind of likenavigate this?
I would say sensitive and veryum, I hate the word triggering,
but it gets me geeked upsometimes, right?
(19:42):
Because learn some more fuck it.
But is there some soft skillthey can use to kind of navigate
that?
SPEAKER_00 (19:48):
Oh man, another good question.
I don't know the right answer tothat.
I can just say I try to approachit again.
I'm glad you're saying this witha positive outlook, but to also
be I'm stealing on your words,be firm with drawing your
boundaries, right?
If you think something or you'reuncomfortable with something or
(20:08):
you want to advocate foryourself, no apologies needed,
right?
Just say it, own it, but be kindto all the people around you
too.
SPEAKER_01 (20:18):
Facts, facts.
SPEAKER_00 (20:19):
Julie probably has a better answer.
SPEAKER_01 (20:21):
Uh yeah, the reason why we haven't done it yet.
We're gonna get in trouble withJulie.
Like, I'm gonna have to like,you know, have the thank God
we're not on camera because likethe facial expressions.
I think I think you and Julieget me in the most trouble.
I have to kind of walk away andturn ahead and smile when I come
in.
SPEAKER_04 (20:40):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (20:40):
I've seen you, Heidi, yeah, I've seen you give
it to people before.
I'm like, ugh, damn, they didn'tknow they were walking into
that, did they?
Um I try to stay on everyone'sside.
That's why I try to stay oneveryone's good way's side.
Yeah, it's all love in the goodway.
SPEAKER_02 (20:51):
But um I I want to go back to real quick, you know,
going back to your your speakingdays, if you can go back to your
uh conference and your firstyour first presentation around I
mean, were you already you knowHeidi the Rockstar then, or were
you like I was like anybody whospeaks for the first time,
(21:12):
right?
SPEAKER_00 (21:13):
Nervous, doubting if my voice matters, like why am I
talking?
What gives me the right?
At the time I wasn't an MVP andall these MVPs are speaking.
I'm like, what right do I haveto stand up and talk about this?
But I did anyway and kind of ledme down that path.
SPEAKER_02 (21:29):
That's great.
That's great.
And so you know, kind ofsegueing off of that too.
I mean, for someone who wants tostart and you know, present and
maybe has a little bit of fear,right?
To your point, they're not anMVP that you know, you know, oh
my god, they see all these MVPsand all these folks that are
always talking or or posting onLinkedIn or uh have their own
(21:51):
blog um sites.
I mean, what would be some ofthe advice that you would give
them?
SPEAKER_00 (21:57):
I think uh partnering up with a seasoned
presenter is always a wonderfulidea.
You don't have to co-present,but what I did recently with
somebody was I stood up next toher for questions, or I will be
there to help if you have techproblems.
I will literally do a song anddance to distract from
(22:19):
everybody.
I did this at Summit as you aregetting everything figured out,
right?
Like all the scary things.
SPEAKER_03 (22:27):
Yes, yes, you did.
SPEAKER_00 (22:33):
Things go wrong, things go wrong for the best of
us, the best situation.
And when we've done this enoughtimes, we know how to roll with
it, how to distract, how to talkand not be afraid to bowl,
right?
SPEAKER_02 (22:46):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I I did it when I waspresenting awards at this last
summit, and I said the same linetwice, and I said, give me a
break, everyone.
It's early in the morning and Ihaven't had my second cup of
coffee.
Right?
And then you just roll with it.
We've presented to your point, Ithink into the world.
Or you may have a a a technicalissue, and that's where all
(23:06):
right to your point, maybepairing up with someone seasoned
was give you like, hey, hey,you're gonna do a live demo.
Okay, maybe you want to do alsodo some videos as a backup.
SPEAKER_00 (23:17):
Exactly, yeah.
Yeah.
And then the other things youcan do is, I mean, when we
attend sessions, you're gonnaenjoy it more when the speaker
is enjoying what they're doing.
So have enthusiasm when you'respeaking.
Show that you like this, andjust have confidence in what
you're saying, even if you haveto fake it till you make it.
SPEAKER_01 (23:37):
Great advice.
We never have anything badhappen during our demos, right?
SPEAKER_04 (23:42):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:43):
Never the demo demons always come out.
Always come out.
I was doing a demo the other dayand I swear the system was
freezing up on me, and I goAlright, well, I know it's not
my Wi-Fi.
You know, uh, so you just gottapass the time and figure it out
and say, okay, you know what?
Chalk it up to the demo demonsagain.
SPEAKER_01 (24:05):
You gotta give it you gotta give it the shot at
the key low uh ahead of time.
Um so uh something I I neverasked you, I said I have to
know, right?
So um I walked into thecommunity, I met some pretty
big, big names, big time folks,and we just I just I didn't know
people were who they were.
They were always welcoming andkind.
(24:26):
And then I had some not sopleasant experiences.
Um which I've had the pleasureof um getting my little uh petty
petty moments in as well.
Um but uh um uh to my point, myquestion is is you have people
that were always extremely kind.
Um you never looked at uh evenyou know looked at me when
(24:47):
you're on stage, who is thisdork?
Um, and uh you've always beenvery welcoming.
Um one of the I'm not saying Iprobably hate, I'm not an NDP
anymore, who cares?
I've seen people who talk aboutit, but very uh I there was a
part part-time of folks who wereactually taking this hands-on
approach.
Um what made you so you knowwhere I mean, why was it almost
(25:09):
like it was personal to be soopen and kind to people and
invite them to do a bit morecommunity?
What was that for you?
SPEAKER_00 (25:15):
Oh well, thank you for saying that.
That was so nice.
Um, there was very much lookedup to as an MVP before I was an
MVP, met this person at aconference and was partially
rejected.
That is why I am very welcomingbecause I didn't like how that
felt, and I will never respondthat way to somebody.
SPEAKER_01 (25:39):
Scott, I never knew that about that.
I didn't know that happened toyou.
Uh, didn't know that happened.
SPEAKER_00 (25:43):
I think that's just the kind of person that I am,
right?
Like, I don't just volunteer incommunity on in my personal
world.
I have a running group, MoncoRunners shout out, where we have
1,400 runners in our local area,and I coordinate all that.
I do all the running meetups, II spend a lot of time
volunteering that I fosteranimals.
(26:04):
I have two foster kittens rightnext to me right now.
Like I spend a lot of timevolunteering, and I think in
general, it's just kind of likemy personality to be welcoming,
warm, and encouraging otherpeople to get involved.
SPEAKER_02 (26:16):
I I have a dog here that you can foster if you want.
SPEAKER_00 (26:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (26:22):
Now, here's an interesting fact.
What I understand is that youknow, you you were training for
a marathon, I think, when youwere awarded the MVP, uh if I'm
not mistaken.
And and so how are you trainingfor uh I mean uh you're all over
the place, I mean, becauseyou're a rock star, but I mean
(26:43):
you're training for this massivemarathon and then obviously
doing content for you know MVPsubmission.
I mean how do you how do you howdo you do it?
How do you manage your time likethat?
Or are you getting like one hourof sleep a day?
SPEAKER_00 (26:58):
And this is insane.
So I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02 (27:00):
I was saying holy crap, that's not that that's not
a marathon, that's a holy cow.
SPEAKER_00 (27:06):
Yeah, that's like two marathons.
I only did it once.
I only did it once.
I just wanted to see if I couldgo that far.
SPEAKER_02 (27:14):
I can do a 50-foot marathon.
SPEAKER_00 (27:16):
There you go.
So I was actually this I knowthis is insane.
But the day that I found out Iwas awarded MVP, I was out doing
my longest training run.
It was a 50k, which is 31months.
I know it's nuts.
I'm perfectly aware how thishappens.
But it was quite fun.
So it was a 10-mile loop, andthen after 10 miles, I stopped
(27:36):
back at the park, get some food,refuel, all that good stuff.
Check my phone because it's thefirst of the month.
I know that's when the MVP stuffgoes out.
So on my second loop, I check myphone, and that's when I found
it out.
That was really fun.
That's not what you're saying,it was just a fun story.
The last 10 miles was awesome.
SPEAKER_02 (27:56):
Yeah.
Yeah, you know what?
Um, I can't even imagine.
I just thinking of running 30miles training, I I'm exhausted
just from just from thinkingabout it.
SPEAKER_00 (28:08):
I mean, it is ridiculous, right?
SPEAKER_01 (28:10):
That's not the that's not I'm gonna break
character here for five.
Well, I'm always breakingcharacter, but I'm gonna break
break real quick.
Dumb question.
Did you ever were you awarded onthe first time?
SPEAKER_03 (28:23):
No, second time.
SPEAKER_01 (28:27):
So uh I gotta ask a question because that people
oftentimes they uh gotta askanother question.
True.
Uh so are you uh like You see, Isee posts and my heart breaks
for them uh because uh you know,i i it it it's a tough pill to
swallow.
(28:48):
Uh you're again, you're thespecial guest.
What caused you not to give upon that?
Like what what was it that justsaid, you know what, screw this
award, I don't care.
It you start hearing people say,it's not that important anymore.
And I know we don't, you know,oftentimes we don't say we're
coming in there to be an MVP.
What was it that made you say,you know what, forget it, I'm
still gonna be freaking awesomein the community.
SPEAKER_00 (29:08):
You know, I mean the MVP I used to be recognized for
something that was like coolbenefit, cool bonus.
Uh and yeah, that was nevergetting an order or not getting
a word was never gonna changehow I live my life in dignity.
Awesome.
That's a great way to do that.
SPEAKER_01 (29:28):
No, it's a great way to look at it.
SPEAKER_02 (29:31):
It really is.
SPEAKER_01 (29:33):
Yeah, I mean, it's cool, like I mean, because it
it's it's there if I know for meit was I didn't I would say the
first the f so uh my journey wasfunny.
It was actually Trish and P andDion that yelled at me and made
me do my first session, and thenit was um Mark Christie who gave
(29:54):
me uh my first real uh you knowuh demo or uh or session at a at
a big platform with the ScottishSummit.
I had no idea it was that large.
Uh so Mark's gonna kick my asswhen he hears that.
Um but it was it was I'm gonnalet him know too.
It was uh uh you know, therewere some folks who were really
good about it, and I thoughtthat I was gonna get because I
(30:16):
did a couple of sessions ortalked and helped out with some
few things, and um and then whenyou realize you're not really
being acknowledged or even inthe community, you know, it just
moment where you're like, Man,this sucks.
But then, you know, I had a goodfriend.
Um A good friend, a couple goodfriends remind me you're not
doing it for accolades, you'redoing it because somebody opened
(30:36):
the door for you.
Um and you're impacting peoplewith or without the award uh
award.
Uh um and then lo and behold, itpopped up as soon as I started
changing it up.
Um I think folks can kind oftake a time and remember it.
Like even without the award, uhHeidi is still gonna be Heidi.
Um Nick is still gonna be Nickand you're still gonna be
freaking awesome.
Um I think this community is souh intimate.
(30:59):
We uh uh we value thoseconnections and those
relationships.
So I think you just keep showingimpact in the community, it
would just keep uh Yogi Rand andwho you are will just keep
rolling.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (31:16):
I know the cool thing about it too.
SPEAKER_01 (31:20):
It's like you're seeing a karaoke at you know
some of these sessions oranything like that, you know.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:28):
Thanks.
SPEAKER_02 (31:29):
Oh, God, that's great.
But I I love it.
I mean to your I think both yourpoints, right?
I mean I I want a posting, likeI get up early in the morning
and like, okay, you know,because the dogs wake me up at
like 4 30 in the morning.
So then I write, you know, somesort of LinkedIn article, I find
the topic, I kind of do someresearch and and put it out
(31:50):
there.
And it's not I'm not doing itbecause I'm an MVP, it's I'm
doing it to your point because Iwant to share my knowledge and
my opinions and expertise.
You may disagree with me, andthat's okay.
All right, um, but at the end ofthe day, it's sharing I think
our passion for what we do andwhat we know.
(32:10):
And I'm trying to I'm trying tobranch out so I'm not known just
as the field service guy.
SPEAKER_00 (32:17):
That's awesome.
I get it from the things I'mactually doing.
So if it's a refresher, like Ihad to work on reporting for
SLAs, and like I couldn'tremember off the top of my mind
which SLA table I need to reporton.
So I made blog posts just incase I ever need to refer to it
again and in case it helpedanybody else.
(32:37):
So if you're wondering why mycontent is all over the place,
it's supposed that's what I'mspecifically working on in my
real life in that moment.
SPEAKER_02 (32:45):
Yeah.
No, that's fantastic.
And I think that's the importantthing too, is right.
I mean, you're kind of lookingat it.
I mean, I've seen a lot of yourposts, and some of them will get
you feel free.
All different I do.
I I read stuff, I read.
Um but you know, you you get itto the point where it's like,
hey, this is for you know, noone, but then you go up and and
(33:06):
you can elevate to those thatare are more experienced as
well.
So it's kind of runs the gamut,uh, which is which is what I
love about you know the contentthat you put out there.
SPEAKER_03 (33:20):
I see Will thinking.
He's thinking really hard.
He's gonna question.
SPEAKER_00 (33:28):
Oh, I think he's frozen.
SPEAKER_02 (33:30):
That's okay.
SPEAKER_00 (33:31):
But he is looking really intent.
SPEAKER_02 (33:33):
He he is looking intent.
He's looking like, oh boy.
So here's a here's a greatquestion for you.
I mean, uh you know right, youryour business re enhanced is is
a family business.
Can you hear see me?
No, we can't we can see you now.
You're good.
It's all good.
You know, your your business isa family business, right?
(33:54):
I mean, what's the secret to torunning this business at home
with your husband and everythingwithout losing your sanity?
SPEAKER_00 (34:00):
Oh, we work in separate spaces.
We don't lunch time.
That's it, he's right behindyour dust to be funny, but we do
finish we do very differentthings, right?
I'm on the business side, thepeople side, he does chat, he
writes code, he does customintegration, he writes power
automate connectors.
So we have a very complimentaryskill set, which is why we work
(34:23):
together, it goes along reallywell.
Uh our clients are able to getthe best of both worlds, and uh
we work well together, which isgood.
SPEAKER_01 (34:38):
So I have to ask a question, Tidi.
Out of all the things thatyou've written about and have
been involved with, you know, Iknow you said you love business
rules.
But in recent years, which is atopic that you think more people
would pay attention to thatwould just if they did it
tomorrow, see an instantimprovement in there, you know,
(34:58):
whether app building or youknow, applications in general.
Like what do you think thatwould be?
SPEAKER_00 (35:05):
I my answer to that is training and user adoption,
right?
That does get cut out of budgetsall the time in implementations.
And when you're when your hoursare creeping up or scopes
getting expanded, that's thefirst thing that gets cut down
on.
So again, I'm the people youhave good user acceptance
testing too.
That's another thing that Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (35:25):
Nope.
I I totally agree.
It you know, and and it kind ofbrings me to this next question,
right?
Because you're the people personand you're probably on a lot of
calls with with your customers.
Uh, and I know you have toldyou.
I mean, have you ever had anysort of or have any fun stories
where hey, you're in the middleof a call and all of a sudden,
you know, one of your kids comesin the room and is asking you
(35:46):
questions and is on the camera.
I mean, have you everexperienced any of those?
And you know, and if you have, Imean, how I mean what you know
100%.
Is everyone laughing or is everyyou know customers like, what's
going on?
SPEAKER_00 (36:00):
I mean, everyone's understanding, right?
We live in this world where manypeople are remote or working
from home.
More often than the kids, it'sthe animals.
We have a lot of animals.
And my cats will walk across thekeyboard, or these foster
kittens.
Yesterday, I was doing a call,like walk jumped onto my
(36:22):
keyboard and smacked off mycamera.
So, like, it all justdisappeared, and then I don't
know why this little like webcamjust cascaded into this crazy
set of like things falling innoise.
It was horrificallyembarrassing, but they just
laughed.
We just laughed together.
SPEAKER_02 (36:42):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, I've had it where becauseI have French bulldogs, and you
know, the microphone on Teams issupposed to noise cancellation,
right?
Well, apparently, this oneparticular time it did not.
And the two dogs were snoringtremendously, and they're like,
Scott, are you are you having ahard time breathing?
I'm like, what are you talkingabout?
(37:03):
Like, I hear like I said, oh no,that's Darth Vader over here.
He's you know, he sounds likeDarth Vader, so I call him his
name's Yoda, but he sounds likeDarth Vader.
I said, No, that's just my dogsnoring.
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (37:17):
My dog, we have a sensor on the driveway, and it's
hooked up to our like GoogleEcho type device.
So every time it trips, it saysa visitor has a rack, and then
the dog parks like crazy.
So usually the noise cancelingworks, but I'm never sure.
I'm like, I'm so sorry about thedog.
SPEAKER_02 (37:38):
Oh yeah.
Someone comes to the door, dropsoff a package, there's a dog.
Interrupt.
I'm really sorry.
Uh Will are still with us?
SPEAKER_01 (37:50):
They're animals.
SPEAKER_02 (37:51):
Oh no, awfully quiet.
I've seen Will I've experiencedWill at all.
Are you guys able to hear me atall?
Yeah, we hear you.
SPEAKER_01 (38:00):
You just quiet.
I'm shocked.
I've been trying to talk.
Sorry, I'm having internetissues here at uh at wonderful
Orlando.
So anywho, um, no, the dogs arephenomenal.
I love animals.
Um, so yeah, dogs are great, andwe all know how large how long
or how loud my my puppy was orcan be so or could have been,
but anyway.
(38:20):
Long story, not gonna dead inthe mood.
So I have one question for youguys, because like you and Nick
have an awesome, phenomenalbusiness with re-enhanced
technologies that uh you guyshave that are coming out.
SPEAKER_00 (38:33):
Ooh, so our specialty area on the power is
that are using both WordPressand data.
There's WordPress things fromWooCommerce or Gravity Forms and
some other form submission appsthat you can add on on the
WordPress side.
But the really exciting one thatwe just rolled out is called WP
Portals.
So I don't know if yourlisteners are PowerPages fans,
(38:56):
but we're not, because they'reoverly complicated and required
liquid code, and they're fine ifyou want to play in the
framework of Power Pages, butonce you stray from that, or
once you want to do something alittle bit different, it gets
really complex.
And we've had really poorresults with clients that we've
implemented those for.
(39:17):
Nick has been architecting thisWordPress alternative for a long
time.
He's had this vision for morethan a year and it it worked,
guess.
We have a Microsoft Gold partnerwho is currently using WP
portals.
So their entire portal instanceis being hosted at WordPress.
(39:38):
That means a WordPress admin canmanage it, not a skill, not that
you're not skilled in WordPress,but you don't need special
skills and special codinglanguage capabilities.
You can just drag and drop anddo things in WordPress world and
use Dataverse data.
It's been super exciting.
I think they do um, what do theydo, 10,000 cases a week in
(40:02):
there?
Like it's a high volume thingfor a fraction of the cost of
power pages.
So very, very excited aboutthis.
SPEAKER_02 (40:10):
Okay, we need to pick your brain, uh, Heidi.
We're gonna have to we're gonnahave to chat uh sometime after
the holiday because I I have a ause case where I don't think
power pages is necessarily goingto be applicable to a a
customer.
So yeah, we definitely need tochat.
That sounds awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (40:26):
Yeah, anyone is welcome to chat with us about
this.
We're very excited.
We're ready for customer two toonboard.
Customer one got everythingworking splendidly, so hopefully
we can have more people gettingon this.
It's pretty exciting.
SPEAKER_02 (40:42):
That's great.
So I guess uh you know, I knowwe're we're coming close to the
end here, um, but you know,definitely have a a question
again, you know, because you'reyou know, you and Nick, and I
mean, you're balancing all thisstuff, you're working, you know,
behind you know walls togetherand um you know trying to you
(41:03):
know juggle all the differentcom you know constraints and and
demands on you, right?
You're uh a parent, yourpartner, an MVP, you speak, you
do stuff at at uh UG groups.
I mean, how how do you balancethat or what would be your
recommendation even to others tosay, hey, you can do this
without burning out?
I mean, what's your what's yoursecret to all that?
SPEAKER_00 (41:26):
Oh yeah, it's you know, diversifying your content
so you can use it many differentplaces, right?
Like you're not having to do 500things.
I can take a presentation that Idid at Summit, and then I can
chunk it up into lots ofdifferent ways.
So it's not it's not superoverwhelming.
Um, and the user group stuff,that's just like fun bonus time,
(41:50):
right?
We meet in our user groupquarterly, so that's just four
meetings a year.
We meet for two hours.
So you do have to take that timeaside, but I don't think it's an
overwhelming amount.
And the information that I gotfrom the different speakers is
well worth the time commitmentto attending those and putting
it all together.
(42:11):
Um, and if anyone wants tospeak, we do 45-minute sessions
online teams.
I would love to have you at thePhiladelphia User Group, and you
should attend too, because it'sfantastic.
SPEAKER_02 (42:20):
Yeah.
You know, I I was I lived in inthe Philly area in person,
right?
For quite a while.
SPEAKER_00 (42:26):
You so we to be totally honest and candid, we
have had a really hard timecoming back to in-person after
the COVID effects.
We typically will host them inperson, but we'll also have them
online.
So what I try to do is have onepresenter in person and then one
presenter on Teams, which hassome benefits to it, but we
(42:50):
still aren't getting that manypeople showing up in person.
It's usually me and maybe asmall handful of other people.
So hybrid.
SPEAKER_02 (43:00):
Excellent.
No, I'd love I'd love to attendone of those uh sessions.
So you have to you know send itmy way.
I'd love to listen in or orpresent or talk.
Perfect.
Send it my way.
SPEAKER_00 (43:19):
December twelfth.
SPEAKER_02 (43:22):
I'll be there.
Well, not physically, but I'llbe there.
Awesome.
So Will, any any partingquestions for Heidi?
I know you're chomping at thebit, but you're usually good at
the last question or two.
SPEAKER_01 (43:39):
Heidi is phenomenal.
So um Heidi, what are some, youknow, to any of the new aspiring
individuals in this industry,what what what's like if you had
to sum it up in a paragraph,what is some, or what is
something you'd probably tellyour past self that you wish you
knew that would help make thisjourney a bit better?
SPEAKER_00 (43:59):
This community is extremely welcoming and willing
to help, afraid to reach out tothe people that you've met at
conferences, that you have seenon YouTube channels, that you
follow on LinkedIn.
Like I will answer yourquestions.
I will help you if I can.
So I would say don't be afraidto reach out and ask for help or
(44:20):
ask for different resources,right?
So depending on if you're a newCRM system admin, I create paid
resources.
And like if you need fieldservice help, you can reach out
to Scott and Will, and they canpoint you to the right people.
So don't be scared to reach outto all of us.
Maybe we'll be future friendsand we'll swap Christmas cards.
SPEAKER_02 (44:41):
There we go.
Perfect.
All right.
Um, so I I mean, I guess uh ingeneral, Heidi, any any parting
comments for our listeners, uh,you know, any wisdom, any
additional wisdom goes uponthem.
SPEAKER_00 (44:57):
Oh become familiar with your CRM out-of-the-box
tools toolkit and know the righttime to implement those
out-of-the-box tools over all ofthe fancy customizations and
code that you could do.
And uh never stop learningbecause this product never stops
changing.
(45:18):
So follow the release guides orfollow this great series on
YouTube called Power Tips that Ido with MVPs Malcolm McCullough
and Kylie Kaiser, where we gothrough all that stuff because
this will continue to change,and you better be willing to
change with the product, or youare going to be left behind.
SPEAKER_02 (45:36):
That's awesome.
That's great.
Thank you so much, Heidi.
We appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01 (45:40):
Thanks for having me.
All right, Heidi, you and Nickare phenomenal, and you guys are
great, and we just love havingyou guys.
So this has been great.
Appreciate it.
Sorry for the drops in and out,Scott, and Heidi.
Uh my internet's been dead, so Ihad to switch devices.
SPEAKER_02 (45:52):
So maybe next time we need to have Heidi and Nick
on and do Battle of theNewhousers.
SPEAKER_00 (45:57):
Ooh, he's a hands.
He's not a new houser, but youshould call Nick a Newhouser.
That's the point.
SPEAKER_02 (46:03):
It would be fun to watch just because of that.
SPEAKER_01 (46:05):
You know what we need to do?
We need to have Malcolm andHeidi on.
Malcolm, Heidi, and Kylie onnext time, too as well.
Malcolm is hilarious.
Um by the way.
I hope you listen, bud.
SPEAKER_02 (46:17):
All right.
So awesome.
Well, thank you, Heidi, for uhjoining us today.
We greatly appreciate it.
Love your wisdom, love thecontent you put out there and
and all of your contributions tothe community.
Uh thank you to our listeners,as always.
And until the next time, this isScott and Will for Service X
Factor, and I hope you enjoy therest of your day.
Welcome everyone to the latest episode of the
Service X Facts Factor Podcast.
I am one of your co-hosts, ScottLaFonte.
And of course, I'm joined backfrom assignment this week, uh
Mr.
William Quad McClendon.
Will, how's it going, man?
SPEAKER_01 (00:46):
What's up, everybody?
I am super stoked.
Super excited to be back andreally excited about our guests
this afternoon.
Another one of our amazingpeople in our community.
Yay.
Don't leave us hanging.
Who is it?
I was gonna pause.
I was waiting for you to like,you know, hey, we want you to do
an introduction.
I don't have any theme musiclike that that that work alarm.
(01:13):
No.
This one, they've been in thecommunity for a long time, and
it's quality over quantity withtheir contributions.
Um I just absolutely adore thisindividual, and she is flat out
just one of my favorite peopleon the planet.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'd liketo introduce you to Heidi
Newhouser.
SPEAKER_00 (01:29):
Oh, you're making me blush.
Thanks, Will.
SPEAKER_02 (01:33):
Look, I see that little stuff on his face, like
his nose.
You know, here I got a towel.
SPEAKER_01 (01:39):
Heidi's awesome, dude.
Like Heidi, you know, I got Igot plenty of stories that might
just break out and tell themduring the middle of this
podcast, folks.
So definitely stay tuned.
I'm gonna show some restraintand just let Heidi get a chance
to speak, right?
Go ahead, Heidi.
Introduce yourself.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00 (01:52):
Hi everyone, I'm Heidi Newhauser.
I'm a Microsoft MVP in customerengagement, mostly on the sales
and service and marketing sideand power automate.
And I've been working in thisMicrosoft CRM space for a really
long time now.
I'd have to look at my LinkedInprofile.
I think 15 years.
(02:15):
I don't really know.
SPEAKER_01 (02:17):
I just know it's been since uh 4.0, right?
SPEAKER_02 (02:20):
Yes, since 4.0 is it has it like long strain script.
SPEAKER_00 (02:25):
It is.
You know what's funny?
Uh just got a project where I'mworking with somebody who is
upgrading to online.
Get this from 2011.
I was so excited to see itagain.
It was like seeing an oldfriend.
Wow.
SPEAKER_02 (02:42):
Shout out to them for endurance.
An old friend that you haven'tseen in a long, long time.
I think that's how I think it Ican't remember if it was 4.0 or
11.
I mean, I started a little afteryou in the dynamic space.
It's only been about I guess 11years or so.
But I I want to say it wasprobably like 20 ish 11 was the
(03:05):
version.
So crazy how time flies.
SPEAKER_00 (03:08):
I like forgot what it looked like, and then when I
saw it, it's like, how could Iforgotten this?
These are like my formativeserum years.
SPEAKER_02 (03:16):
Absolutely.
So I I guess here's a goodquestion talking about Fort Ford
O.
I mean, how did you stumble uponthis crazy world that we call
dynamics?
SPEAKER_00 (03:26):
Ah, in the same way many of us find ourselves here.
I was doing absolutely nothinginvolved with tech at the time.
I was working in marketing, Iwas working in
business-to-business marketingfor a propane company.
And I happened to work withsalespeople well.
And they're like, hey, by theway, we have this system that we
(03:48):
spend a lot of money on and wecan't get our salespeople to do
it.
Can you figure it out?
And and then a baby system adminwas born who had no idea what
she was doing.
And I feel like that is like avery common path for some of us.
I just kind of went with it, youknow, an opportunity presents
(04:08):
itself, and you can either divein or kind of resist and be
like, no, that's not me.
I don't do that.
I'm in marketing.
Uh, but I I embraced it andgosh, has it been a great ride?
SPEAKER_01 (04:21):
You're being way too modest, man.
I gotta say, like, because likeyou're not just like a casual ad
man who just picked up a fewtips.
Like, you have a uh a profounddeep knowledge on on the
platform and all of itsofferings.
Like you're you're you didn'tjust just just casually dip your
(04:42):
toes in the water, man.
Heidi, you've been an agent forchange.
Um one of your one of myfavorite.
SPEAKER_02 (04:47):
You got thrown right into the fire.
SPEAKER_01 (04:49):
I did.
Love it.
I did.
If you haven't, guys, you gottaattend one of her sessions uh
with with good with Kylie, uh 60tips and 60 seconds.
Like you'll learn in sixtyminutes on top of 60 tips in 60
minutes.
Look, I've got to talk realfast, Heidi.
Challenge accepted, right?
I like No, I mean it's just it'sunreal, man.
(05:11):
It's great.
So what like what if I askedyou, uh what was your favorite
feature over the last you know15 years that you were just
like, man, this is just Oh wow,that's a really good question.
SPEAKER_00 (05:22):
Uh the thing that I got the most excited about that
I think changed my life as ano-code admin was business
rules.
I still use them all the time.
I think business rules weregreat because prior to their
introduction, you neededJavaScript to do all of those
(05:43):
things or whatever language,custom code at the time.
And it put a lot more power inyour system admin slash early
citizen dev hands to be able toget some things done quickly
that make your users happy.
SPEAKER_02 (05:58):
Yeah, I think it's one of the most undervalued
features in the applicationbecause everyone seems to forget
about it, and everyone, everycustomer that I deal with, and I
come in and they had anotherpartner, everything's
JavaScript.
And I'm sitting there thinking,why is this all JavaScript?
When we could have done thiseasily in a business role and
you could have had to be a lotmore flexible.
SPEAKER_01 (06:18):
Yeah.
Very quick.
Business rules, man.
They don't get enough love, man.
I love it.
So when you were when you weremaking this drastic shift from a
sysadmin um into the partnerchannel, you know, what was the
biggest mindset that you had toadopt?
SPEAKER_00 (06:35):
Oh, excellent question.
So I was on the customer sidefor seven years.
So it was quite a while that Iwas working directly with my
employees, which is verydifferent than coming from a
partner perspective, right?
So, like the entire mindset andthinking about how problems
could be solved at theorganization level versus how do
(06:59):
I fix Will's problem or how do Imake Scott use the system?
SPEAKER_02 (07:03):
I don't know if you depict any of Will's problems.
SPEAKER_01 (07:06):
No.
That's a buff conversation,folks.
SPEAKER_00 (07:12):
But yeah, like learning a different dialect on
the thing about like keeping mytime and learning a whole
different way of viewing.
SPEAKER_02 (07:21):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And and and so one of the thingsthat I've learned, and thank
you, Chat GPT, and all the otherAI uh functions in uh is that
you're known as the rescueproject specialist, apparently.
And so from that perspective, Imean, what's the what's the
moment you usually walk into?
Is it like massive chaos?
(07:42):
Is it panic?
Is it just they don't know whatthey don't know yet?
Or is the house on fire and andyou you know you're trying to
salvage whatever you can beforethey you know have to leave?
SPEAKER_00 (07:52):
And it's kind of a little bit of everything.
Uh so have you ever seen a CRMproject that didn't go well?
Uh but sometimes it's really,really off to the point that an
organization is willing to throwit away and start up with
Salesforce or something totallynew and think that that's going
(08:12):
to solve all their problems.
When usually it's a process anda people problem.
I myself am very focused onpeople first for kind of
identifying what the problem is,which I think um a lot of
organizations might not befocused on, right?
They're looking at managementand ROI in the bottom line and
green, yellow, red.
But uh even if you make the mostperfect system in the entire
(08:35):
land, if you haven't given yourpeople a reason to want to use
it or given them some benefitsto themselves, like can you
create a report that saves themfive hours a month and manually
creating something?
If you can do that one thing,that could turn the whole
project around.
So sometimes it's as simple as,oh, you're not listening to your
people.
Here's what they're saying.
(08:56):
Let's do some like sessions andand just see what they think
without managers in the room,right?
Because they're not going totell us the same thing if their
manager is there.
And uh yeah, those are awesomebecause it's a quick, easy fix
and like everybody wins.
Sometimes the house is on fire,though.
SPEAKER_02 (09:13):
Those are hard.
Yeah, and to your point, I mean,I think I've seen it a lot where
you you know it's uh a higherlevel group that's making the
decisions and not involving thethe actual users or the subject
or even just like the SMEs thatare you know in the different
groups, and then all of a suddenit gets thrust upon them and
they're like what is this?
This isn't even what we do.
SPEAKER_00 (09:34):
Exactly.
SPEAKER_02 (09:35):
And they don't and they don't use it, but then all
of a sudden it's like, oh, thissystem's garbage.
So it yeah, seeing it time andtime again, just like you have,
and and it those are the onesthat to your point, I think
there's there's some quick winsI think in that in that one
before that the house you knowbecomes completely on fire.
SPEAKER_00 (09:56):
Yeah, those are more tough.
SPEAKER_02 (09:58):
I see Will shaking his head, he's like, Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01 (10:02):
I I i i it's it's funny, right?
Like, you know, we uh we have welove adoption, right?
I I know you love the topic ofadoption.
I you were one of the very firstpeople I ran into and I was
like, oh, they get it.
Really helped me to see thevalue of the way I started back
in you know uh my day.
Um say back in my day.
Um we we we talk about adoptionum you know amongst ourselves,
(10:27):
we preach it.
What is the number one killer ofadoption you find with uh a lot
of our customers?
What do you what have you seenthat's just absolutely killed
it?
SPEAKER_00 (10:34):
Uh uh number one killer of adoption.
SPEAKER_01 (10:39):
That sounds terrible.
It sounds like a very bleakquestion.
We'll probably have to edit thatout.
But what is the number oneproduct all died?
No, I'm sorry.
Well, folks, it's not Fridayyet, so hey, maybe we should
take a day early off.
What is the one that just likejust you you you spend we've
been on 12 to 18 months?
(11:00):
You know, companies spendhundreds, even millions of
dollars implementing theseamazing massive applications
only to want to throw it away orstruggle for the next two or
three years with it to leave theplatform altogether.
Um so really I I just you know,I have my feedback, but you're
the special guest.
So what do you think would mostof the time improve the adoption
(11:24):
process?
That's a better way of askingthat.
SPEAKER_00 (11:26):
I think the biggest miss is not including the end
users in the entire process.
And if you're not doing that,it's not too late.
You can involve them at anypoint in time.
But I don't think it should justbe your bringers that you're
involving in the process.
I think a lot of companies willbe like, oh, well, Nick's really
good at CRM, so let's talk tohim and see what he thinks.
(11:47):
Instead of like, oh, Heidi's theinfluencer and she hates it, and
she's telling everyone how badit is and how so, like you need
to find the influencer and youneed to find the stick in the
mud, and you need to find peoplethat are good at tech and people
that are bad at tech, and thenyou put them all in your group
of users together, and thenalong with with your SMEs, along
(12:10):
with the key stakeholders,you're gonna hear what the
problems are, and then all ofthose people in a core group are
going to become evangelists ofthe product eventually because
they they're a part of theprocess, they feel invested in
it.
So my answer is people,actually, and not having the
right people in the room.
SPEAKER_02 (12:29):
That's a great one.
I I would I would tend to agreewith that, seeing it just like
you have so many times, nothaving those right people and
how critical of or inpotentially fatal mistake that
is from a project success.
SPEAKER_00 (12:44):
Yeah, and there's like tech things too, right?
Like don't put 500 requiredfields on a form.
That's a killing.
That was what I walked in on asthe first time system admin.
There were, I'm not joking, like25 required fields on the lead
entry.
Like, why aren't salespeopledoing this?
Like, would you look at this?
Yeah, take 10 minutes to enter alead.
SPEAKER_01 (13:05):
Yeah, we just had that similar situation where
they were like, we went, oh,this required this requirements
like you can't have the entirefield, you though it weren't
required.
It's just not it's notpractical.
That's not what it's there for.
They'll drive you nuts.
SPEAKER_02 (13:15):
Yeah, and then I like the one where there's
required fields on one tab, andthen there's required fields on
tab two and tab three.
Well, yeah, I love that too.
SPEAKER_00 (13:24):
That's that's fun.
Yeah, I think those are bornwhen like it's report driven,
right?
Subs whoever's system architecthas gotten all of the managers
in the room and they're like,What do you need on your report?
And they're like, Oh, this andthis and this, and you can't
have it without that.
Now you have all of theserequired farewell, but your
users don't know absolutely.
SPEAKER_02 (13:47):
That's great.
Um, so I want to turn uh ourattention a little bit about you
know everything that you dowithin the community.
Right?
And so, I mean, y you run usergroups, you're you're
constantly, you know, speakingat different engagements, uh,
creating kind of when did yourealize you know community
leadership wasn't just somethingyou enjoy, but something that
(14:08):
you're built for?
SPEAKER_00 (14:10):
Yeah, I think I am a serial volunteer in many ways in
my life.
And this is no different.
Um, and I I actually fell intothe user group thing by mistake
as well.
I I when I became system adminfor CRM 4.0, I started
(14:30):
researching things that I couldlearn.
I stumbled upon what was oncecalled CRM user group, CRM UG.
And I finally had a localchapter.
I joined the local chapter, Iwent to a meeting and found out
there's no chapter leader.
And they're like, would you likeit?
I'm like, sure, I can help.
Why not?
So that was my beginning intouser group leadership.
(14:51):
I had a couple of years ofhiatus, but I always keep
finding my way back into it.
And I think it's just a passion.
I have a passion for this.
I enjoy it.
Uh, I've been told I'm kind ofgood at it, so I keep doing it.
And uh I I really love sharingwhat I've learned.
I think it's because I had sucha hard time finding information
(15:12):
as a new system admin.
I try to give people all of thestuff I didn't have.
That's kind of where it comesfrom for me.
SPEAKER_02 (15:21):
That's great.
Yeah, and I mean, even today, Istill think there's so much
content out there.
I think for someone that's new,especially in the system admin
world, it's overwhelming.
You know, where do you start?
You know, where do you where doyou go?
I mean, what there it's not likethere's a one-stop job, so to
speak.
And so it it becomes, I think,very it it comes to the point
(15:43):
it's like you throw your handsup and you're like, all right, I
don't know.
I I give up.
Like how you just I gotta askthis question.
SPEAKER_01 (15:51):
I know I'm gonna get in trouble because I'm going
completely off um off topichere.
Um so so there are and Iprobably will you could probably
you will punch me in the facewhen I see you in a spring.
Um so first of all, we're gonnaget on this list.
Um there are tons of women inour industry.
(16:15):
Um and I'm not gonna name themall, but on on to with like, you
know, the Juliax, you know, umuh in this bucket of of MVPs, uh
there was some momentum in hey,we needed to have more
representation with women inthis space.
(16:37):
Um that was recent.
You were here for that.
Would you like uh I know Ididn't ask you this ahead of
time, so again, if you punch me,I if I wrap a black eye in my
face, that's because I get it.
Um what how how did you navigatethat?
And what uh I would say uhquality you see that it added if
(17:00):
it did, if you kind of if itkind of sharpened anything, if
it made you better, or maybesomething that others would like
to show or see to make it makethem improve?
Like what would you say aboutthat?
SPEAKER_00 (17:10):
In like the lens of like women in tech kind of
stuff?
SPEAKER_01 (17:13):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:15):
Um, I agree there is a lack of female representation
in this space.
It is challenging, it isdifficult to kind of feel like
we get an equal playing fieldsometimes.
That's fair.
Um, I am often I have awonderful husband who I work
(17:37):
with.
So he often, yeah, right, heoften gets credit for my
accomplishments, and the reverseis not true.
People assume he's an MVP.
He's not, he's never been, henever wants to be.
But I find it very interestingthat as a woman in tech, my
accomplishments get shared by myhusband in tech, which isn't
(17:58):
quite what you asked.
But I am just saying there is aproblem, isn't it yet?
Will it be?
I sure hope so.
So I am involved and I try tohelp other women find their
voice.
I have found some people thatI'm kind of trying to take under
my wing who are tech fluentgraduates or other different
(18:19):
programs that I've met through,and I am trying to just show
them that what they have to sayis important and people care
about and people listen.
And I will 100% continue to doso.
And I thank you, Will, forbringing this up.
I think it's a good topic thatprobably should be talked about
a bit more.
SPEAKER_01 (18:37):
Yeah, 100%.
I mean, it's it's gotta betough.
Like I I I was actually when Iwas talking with Julie a couple
weeks back, like I one of myfondest memories is her like
just essentially puntingsomebody who's a big dog in the
room right in the mouth.
Um, and you know, I'm looking ather, I'm like, damn.
Like, you know, she's holdingher own.
Um, but yeah, she did it, youknow.
(18:59):
I've seen her, I've seen you,I've seen her, and so if she
sees me, I don't want her to hitme.
But um I've seen it.
I've seen yeah, she will.
Um but I've seen you also be,you know, strong and yeah, with
finesse, with tactful and yetfirm.
Um that's hard to navigate intoday's society because there's
so many people on differentsides of the argument.
(19:21):
Um but yet you've alwaysmaintained this positive uh very
factual attitude.
That's been positive, right?
Um, so is is there is there aparticular soft skill set that
folks can use to kind of likenavigate this?
I would say sensitive and veryum, I hate the word triggering,
but it gets me geeked upsometimes, right?
(19:42):
Because learn some more fuck it.
But is there some soft skillthey can use to kind of navigate
that?
SPEAKER_00 (19:48):
Oh man, another good question.
I don't know the right answer tothat.
I can just say I try to approachit again.
I'm glad you're saying this witha positive outlook, but to also
be I'm stealing on your words,be firm with drawing your
boundaries, right?
If you think something or you'reuncomfortable with something or
(20:08):
you want to advocate foryourself, no apologies needed,
right?
Just say it, own it, but be kindto all the people around you
too.
SPEAKER_01 (20:18):
Facts, facts.
SPEAKER_00 (20:19):
Julie probably has a better answer.
SPEAKER_01 (20:21):
Uh yeah, the reason why we haven't done it yet.
We're gonna get in trouble withJulie.
Like, I'm gonna have to like,you know, have the thank God
we're not on camera because likethe facial expressions.
I think I think you and Julieget me in the most trouble.
I have to kind of walk away andturn ahead and smile when I come
in.
SPEAKER_04 (20:40):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (20:40):
I've seen you, Heidi, yeah, I've seen you give
it to people before.
I'm like, ugh, damn, they didn'tknow they were walking into
that, did they?
Um I try to stay on everyone'sside.
That's why I try to stay oneveryone's good way's side.
Yeah, it's all love in the goodway.
SPEAKER_02 (20:51):
But um I I want to go back to real quick, you know,
going back to your your speakingdays, if you can go back to your
uh conference and your firstyour first presentation around I
mean, were you already you knowHeidi the Rockstar then, or were
you like I was like anybody whospeaks for the first time,
(21:12):
right?
SPEAKER_00 (21:13):
Nervous, doubting if my voice matters, like why am I
talking?
What gives me the right?
At the time I wasn't an MVP andall these MVPs are speaking.
I'm like, what right do I haveto stand up and talk about this?
But I did anyway and kind of ledme down that path.
SPEAKER_02 (21:29):
That's great.
That's great.
And so you know, kind ofsegueing off of that too.
I mean, for someone who wants tostart and you know, present and
maybe has a little bit of fear,right?
To your point, they're not anMVP that you know, you know, oh
my god, they see all these MVPsand all these folks that are
always talking or or posting onLinkedIn or uh have their own
(21:51):
blog um sites.
I mean, what would be some ofthe advice that you would give
them?
SPEAKER_00 (21:57):
I think uh partnering up with a seasoned
presenter is always a wonderfulidea.
You don't have to co-present,but what I did recently with
somebody was I stood up next toher for questions, or I will be
there to help if you have techproblems.
I will literally do a song anddance to distract from
(22:19):
everybody.
I did this at Summit as you aregetting everything figured out,
right?
Like all the scary things.
SPEAKER_03 (22:27):
Yes, yes, you did.
SPEAKER_00 (22:33):
Things go wrong, things go wrong for the best of
us, the best situation.
And when we've done this enoughtimes, we know how to roll with
it, how to distract, how to talkand not be afraid to bowl,
right?
SPEAKER_02 (22:46):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I I did it when I waspresenting awards at this last
summit, and I said the same linetwice, and I said, give me a
break, everyone.
It's early in the morning and Ihaven't had my second cup of
coffee.
Right?
And then you just roll with it.
We've presented to your point, Ithink into the world.
Or you may have a a a technicalissue, and that's where all
(23:06):
right to your point, maybepairing up with someone seasoned
was give you like, hey, hey,you're gonna do a live demo.
Okay, maybe you want to do alsodo some videos as a backup.
SPEAKER_00 (23:17):
Exactly, yeah.
Yeah.
And then the other things youcan do is, I mean, when we
attend sessions, you're gonnaenjoy it more when the speaker
is enjoying what they're doing.
So have enthusiasm when you'respeaking.
Show that you like this, andjust have confidence in what
you're saying, even if you haveto fake it till you make it.
SPEAKER_01 (23:37):
Great advice.
We never have anything badhappen during our demos, right?
SPEAKER_04 (23:42):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:43):
Never the demo demons always come out.
Always come out.
I was doing a demo the other dayand I swear the system was
freezing up on me, and I goAlright, well, I know it's not
my Wi-Fi.
You know, uh, so you just gottapass the time and figure it out
and say, okay, you know what?
Chalk it up to the demo demonsagain.
SPEAKER_01 (24:05):
You gotta give it you gotta give it the shot at
the key low uh ahead of time.
Um so uh something I I neverasked you, I said I have to
know, right?
So um I walked into thecommunity, I met some pretty
big, big names, big time folks,and we just I just I didn't know
people were who they were.
They were always welcoming andkind.
(24:26):
And then I had some not sopleasant experiences.
Um which I've had the pleasureof um getting my little uh petty
petty moments in as well.
Um but uh um uh to my point, myquestion is is you have people
that were always extremely kind.
Um you never looked at uh evenyou know looked at me when
(24:47):
you're on stage, who is thisdork?
Um, and uh you've always beenvery welcoming.
Um one of the I'm not saying Iprobably hate, I'm not an NDP
anymore, who cares?
I've seen people who talk aboutit, but very uh I there was a
part part-time of folks who wereactually taking this hands-on
approach.
Um what made you so you knowwhere I mean, why was it almost
(25:09):
like it was personal to be soopen and kind to people and
invite them to do a bit morecommunity?
What was that for you?
SPEAKER_00 (25:15):
Oh well, thank you for saying that.
That was so nice.
Um, there was very much lookedup to as an MVP before I was an
MVP, met this person at aconference and was partially
rejected.
That is why I am very welcomingbecause I didn't like how that
felt, and I will never respondthat way to somebody.
SPEAKER_01 (25:39):
Scott, I never knew that about that.
I didn't know that happened toyou.
Uh, didn't know that happened.
SPEAKER_00 (25:43):
I think that's just the kind of person that I am,
right?
Like, I don't just volunteer incommunity on in my personal
world.
I have a running group, MoncoRunners shout out, where we have
1,400 runners in our local area,and I coordinate all that.
I do all the running meetups, II spend a lot of time
volunteering that I fosteranimals.
(26:04):
I have two foster kittens rightnext to me right now.
Like I spend a lot of timevolunteering, and I think in
general, it's just kind of likemy personality to be welcoming,
warm, and encouraging otherpeople to get involved.
SPEAKER_02 (26:16):
I I have a dog here that you can foster if you want.
SPEAKER_00 (26:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (26:22):
Now, here's an interesting fact.
What I understand is that youknow, you you were training for
a marathon, I think, when youwere awarded the MVP, uh if I'm
not mistaken.
And and so how are you trainingfor uh I mean uh you're all over
the place, I mean, becauseyou're a rock star, but I mean
(26:43):
you're training for this massivemarathon and then obviously
doing content for you know MVPsubmission.
I mean how do you how do you howdo you do it?
How do you manage your time likethat?
Or are you getting like one hourof sleep a day?
SPEAKER_00 (26:58):
And this is insane.
So I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02 (27:00):
I was saying holy crap, that's not that that's not
a marathon, that's a holy cow.
SPEAKER_00 (27:06):
Yeah, that's like two marathons.
I only did it once.
I only did it once.
I just wanted to see if I couldgo that far.
SPEAKER_02 (27:14):
I can do a 50-foot marathon.
SPEAKER_00 (27:16):
There you go.
So I was actually this I knowthis is insane.
But the day that I found out Iwas awarded MVP, I was out doing
my longest training run.
It was a 50k, which is 31months.
I know it's nuts.
I'm perfectly aware how thishappens.
But it was quite fun.
So it was a 10-mile loop, andthen after 10 miles, I stopped
(27:36):
back at the park, get some food,refuel, all that good stuff.
Check my phone because it's thefirst of the month.
I know that's when the MVP stuffgoes out.
So on my second loop, I check myphone, and that's when I found
it out.
That was really fun.
That's not what you're saying,it was just a fun story.
The last 10 miles was awesome.
SPEAKER_02 (27:56):
Yeah.
Yeah, you know what?
Um, I can't even imagine.
I just thinking of running 30miles training, I I'm exhausted
just from just from thinkingabout it.
SPEAKER_00 (28:08):
I mean, it is ridiculous, right?
SPEAKER_01 (28:10):
That's not the that's not I'm gonna break
character here for five.
Well, I'm always breakingcharacter, but I'm gonna break
break real quick.
Dumb question.
Did you ever were you awarded onthe first time?
SPEAKER_03 (28:23):
No, second time.
SPEAKER_01 (28:27):
So uh I gotta ask a question because that people
oftentimes they uh gotta askanother question.
True.
Uh so are you uh like You see, Isee posts and my heart breaks
for them uh because uh you know,i i it it it's a tough pill to
swallow.
(28:48):
Uh you're again, you're thespecial guest.
What caused you not to give upon that?
Like what what was it that justsaid, you know what, screw this
award, I don't care.
It you start hearing people say,it's not that important anymore.
And I know we don't, you know,oftentimes we don't say we're
coming in there to be an MVP.
What was it that made you say,you know what, forget it, I'm
still gonna be freaking awesomein the community.
SPEAKER_00 (29:08):
You know, I mean the MVP I used to be recognized for
something that was like coolbenefit, cool bonus.
Uh and yeah, that was nevergetting an order or not getting
a word was never gonna changehow I live my life in dignity.
Awesome.
That's a great way to do that.
SPEAKER_01 (29:28):
No, it's a great way to look at it.
SPEAKER_02 (29:31):
It really is.
SPEAKER_01 (29:33):
Yeah, I mean, it's cool, like I mean, because it
it's it's there if I know for meit was I didn't I would say the
first the f so uh my journey wasfunny.
It was actually Trish and P andDion that yelled at me and made
me do my first session, and thenit was um Mark Christie who gave
(29:54):
me uh my first real uh you knowuh demo or uh or session at a at
a big platform with the ScottishSummit.
I had no idea it was that large.
Uh so Mark's gonna kick my asswhen he hears that.
Um but it was it was I'm gonnalet him know too.
It was uh uh you know, therewere some folks who were really
good about it, and I thoughtthat I was gonna get because I
(30:16):
did a couple of sessions ortalked and helped out with some
few things, and um and then whenyou realize you're not really
being acknowledged or even inthe community, you know, it just
moment where you're like, Man,this sucks.
But then, you know, I had a goodfriend.
Um A good friend, a couple goodfriends remind me you're not
doing it for accolades, you'redoing it because somebody opened
(30:36):
the door for you.
Um and you're impacting peoplewith or without the award uh
award.
Uh um and then lo and behold, itpopped up as soon as I started
changing it up.
Um I think folks can kind oftake a time and remember it.
Like even without the award, uhHeidi is still gonna be Heidi.
Um Nick is still gonna be Nickand you're still gonna be
freaking awesome.
Um I think this community is souh intimate.
(30:59):
We uh uh we value thoseconnections and those
relationships.
So I think you just keep showingimpact in the community, it
would just keep uh Yogi Rand andwho you are will just keep
rolling.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (31:16):
I know the cool thing about it too.
SPEAKER_01 (31:20):
It's like you're seeing a karaoke at you know
some of these sessions oranything like that, you know.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:28):
Thanks.
SPEAKER_02 (31:29):
Oh, God, that's great.
But I I love it.
I mean to your I think both yourpoints, right?
I mean I I want a posting, likeI get up early in the morning
and like, okay, you know,because the dogs wake me up at
like 4 30 in the morning.
So then I write, you know, somesort of LinkedIn article, I find
the topic, I kind of do someresearch and and put it out
(31:50):
there.
And it's not I'm not doing itbecause I'm an MVP, it's I'm
doing it to your point because Iwant to share my knowledge and
my opinions and expertise.
You may disagree with me, andthat's okay.
All right, um, but at the end ofthe day, it's sharing I think
our passion for what we do andwhat we know.
(32:10):
And I'm trying to I'm trying tobranch out so I'm not known just
as the field service guy.
SPEAKER_00 (32:17):
That's awesome.
I get it from the things I'mactually doing.
So if it's a refresher, like Ihad to work on reporting for
SLAs, and like I couldn'tremember off the top of my mind
which SLA table I need to reporton.
So I made blog posts just incase I ever need to refer to it
again and in case it helpedanybody else.
(32:37):
So if you're wondering why mycontent is all over the place,
it's supposed that's what I'mspecifically working on in my
real life in that moment.
SPEAKER_02 (32:45):
Yeah.
No, that's fantastic.
And I think that's the importantthing too, is right.
I mean, you're kind of lookingat it.
I mean, I've seen a lot of yourposts, and some of them will get
you feel free.
All different I do.
I I read stuff, I read.
Um but you know, you you get itto the point where it's like,
hey, this is for you know, noone, but then you go up and and
(33:06):
you can elevate to those thatare are more experienced as
well.
So it's kind of runs the gamut,uh, which is which is what I
love about you know the contentthat you put out there.
SPEAKER_03 (33:20):
I see Will thinking.
He's thinking really hard.
He's gonna question.
SPEAKER_00 (33:28):
Oh, I think he's frozen.
SPEAKER_02 (33:30):
That's okay.
SPEAKER_00 (33:31):
But he is looking really intent.
SPEAKER_02 (33:33):
He he is looking intent.
He's looking like, oh boy.
So here's a here's a greatquestion for you.
I mean, uh you know right, youryour business re enhanced is is
a family business.
Can you hear see me?
No, we can't we can see you now.
You're good.
It's all good.
You know, your your business isa family business, right?
(33:54):
I mean, what's the secret to torunning this business at home
with your husband and everythingwithout losing your sanity?
SPEAKER_00 (34:00):
Oh, we work in separate spaces.
We don't lunch time.
That's it, he's right behindyour dust to be funny, but we do
finish we do very differentthings, right?
I'm on the business side, thepeople side, he does chat, he
writes code, he does customintegration, he writes power
automate connectors.
So we have a very complimentaryskill set, which is why we work
(34:23):
together, it goes along reallywell.
Uh our clients are able to getthe best of both worlds, and uh
we work well together, which isgood.
SPEAKER_01 (34:38):
So I have to ask a question, Tidi.
Out of all the things thatyou've written about and have
been involved with, you know, Iknow you said you love business
rules.
But in recent years, which is atopic that you think more people
would pay attention to thatwould just if they did it
tomorrow, see an instantimprovement in there, you know,
(34:58):
whether app building or youknow, applications in general.
Like what do you think thatwould be?
SPEAKER_00 (35:05):
I my answer to that is training and user adoption,
right?
That does get cut out of budgetsall the time in implementations.
And when you're when your hoursare creeping up or scopes
getting expanded, that's thefirst thing that gets cut down
on.
So again, I'm the people youhave good user acceptance
testing too.
That's another thing that Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (35:25):
Nope.
I I totally agree.
It you know, and and it kind ofbrings me to this next question,
right?
Because you're the people personand you're probably on a lot of
calls with with your customers.
Uh, and I know you have toldyou.
I mean, have you ever had anysort of or have any fun stories
where hey, you're in the middleof a call and all of a sudden,
you know, one of your kids comesin the room and is asking you
(35:46):
questions and is on the camera.
I mean, have you everexperienced any of those?
And you know, and if you have, Imean, how I mean what you know
100%.
Is everyone laughing or is everyyou know customers like, what's
going on?
SPEAKER_00 (36:00):
I mean, everyone's understanding, right?
We live in this world where manypeople are remote or working
from home.
More often than the kids, it'sthe animals.
We have a lot of animals.
And my cats will walk across thekeyboard, or these foster
kittens.
Yesterday, I was doing a call,like walk jumped onto my
(36:22):
keyboard and smacked off mycamera.
So, like, it all justdisappeared, and then I don't
know why this little like webcamjust cascaded into this crazy
set of like things falling innoise.
It was horrificallyembarrassing, but they just
laughed.
We just laughed together.
SPEAKER_02 (36:42):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, I've had it where becauseI have French bulldogs, and you
know, the microphone on Teams issupposed to noise cancellation,
right?
Well, apparently, this oneparticular time it did not.
And the two dogs were snoringtremendously, and they're like,
Scott, are you are you having ahard time breathing?
I'm like, what are you talkingabout?
(37:03):
Like, I hear like I said, oh no,that's Darth Vader over here.
He's you know, he sounds likeDarth Vader, so I call him his
name's Yoda, but he sounds likeDarth Vader.
I said, No, that's just my dogsnoring.
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (37:17):
My dog, we have a sensor on the driveway, and it's
hooked up to our like GoogleEcho type device.
So every time it trips, it saysa visitor has a rack, and then
the dog parks like crazy.
So usually the noise cancelingworks, but I'm never sure.
I'm like, I'm so sorry about thedog.
SPEAKER_02 (37:38):
Oh yeah.
Someone comes to the door, dropsoff a package, there's a dog.
Interrupt.
I'm really sorry.
Uh Will are still with us?
SPEAKER_01 (37:50):
They're animals.
SPEAKER_02 (37:51):
Oh no, awfully quiet.
I've seen Will I've experiencedWill at all.
Are you guys able to hear me atall?
Yeah, we hear you.
SPEAKER_01 (38:00):
You just quiet.
I'm shocked.
I've been trying to talk.
Sorry, I'm having internetissues here at uh at wonderful
Orlando.
So anywho, um, no, the dogs arephenomenal.
I love animals.
Um, so yeah, dogs are great, andwe all know how large how long
or how loud my my puppy was orcan be so or could have been,
but anyway.
(38:20):
Long story, not gonna dead inthe mood.
So I have one question for youguys, because like you and Nick
have an awesome, phenomenalbusiness with re-enhanced
technologies that uh you guyshave that are coming out.
SPEAKER_00 (38:33):
Ooh, so our specialty area on the power is
that are using both WordPressand data.
There's WordPress things fromWooCommerce or Gravity Forms and
some other form submission appsthat you can add on on the
WordPress side.
But the really exciting one thatwe just rolled out is called WP
Portals.
So I don't know if yourlisteners are PowerPages fans,
(38:56):
but we're not, because they'reoverly complicated and required
liquid code, and they're fine ifyou want to play in the
framework of Power Pages, butonce you stray from that, or
once you want to do something alittle bit different, it gets
really complex.
And we've had really poorresults with clients that we've
implemented those for.
(39:17):
Nick has been architecting thisWordPress alternative for a long
time.
He's had this vision for morethan a year and it it worked,
guess.
We have a Microsoft Gold partnerwho is currently using WP
portals.
So their entire portal instanceis being hosted at WordPress.
(39:38):
That means a WordPress admin canmanage it, not a skill, not that
you're not skilled in WordPress,but you don't need special
skills and special codinglanguage capabilities.
You can just drag and drop anddo things in WordPress world and
use Dataverse data.
It's been super exciting.
I think they do um, what do theydo, 10,000 cases a week in
(40:02):
there?
Like it's a high volume thingfor a fraction of the cost of
power pages.
So very, very excited aboutthis.
SPEAKER_02 (40:10):
Okay, we need to pick your brain, uh, Heidi.
We're gonna have to we're gonnahave to chat uh sometime after
the holiday because I I have a ause case where I don't think
power pages is necessarily goingto be applicable to a a
customer.
So yeah, we definitely need tochat.
That sounds awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (40:26):
Yeah, anyone is welcome to chat with us about
this.
We're very excited.
We're ready for customer two toonboard.
Customer one got everythingworking splendidly, so hopefully
we can have more people gettingon this.
It's pretty exciting.
SPEAKER_02 (40:42):
That's great.
So I guess uh you know, I knowwe're we're coming close to the
end here, um, but you know,definitely have a a question
again, you know, because you'reyou know, you and Nick, and I
mean, you're balancing all thisstuff, you're working, you know,
behind you know walls togetherand um you know trying to you
(41:03):
know juggle all the differentcom you know constraints and and
demands on you, right?
You're uh a parent, yourpartner, an MVP, you speak, you
do stuff at at uh UG groups.
I mean, how how do you balancethat or what would be your
recommendation even to others tosay, hey, you can do this
without burning out?
I mean, what's your what's yoursecret to all that?
SPEAKER_00 (41:26):
Oh yeah, it's you know, diversifying your content
so you can use it many differentplaces, right?
Like you're not having to do 500things.
I can take a presentation that Idid at Summit, and then I can
chunk it up into lots ofdifferent ways.
So it's not it's not superoverwhelming.
Um, and the user group stuff,that's just like fun bonus time,
(41:50):
right?
We meet in our user groupquarterly, so that's just four
meetings a year.
We meet for two hours.
So you do have to take that timeaside, but I don't think it's an
overwhelming amount.
And the information that I gotfrom the different speakers is
well worth the time commitmentto attending those and putting
it all together.
(42:11):
Um, and if anyone wants tospeak, we do 45-minute sessions
online teams.
I would love to have you at thePhiladelphia User Group, and you
should attend too, because it'sfantastic.
SPEAKER_02 (42:20):
Yeah.
You know, I I was I lived in inthe Philly area in person,
right?
For quite a while.
SPEAKER_00 (42:26):
You so we to be totally honest and candid, we
have had a really hard timecoming back to in-person after
the COVID effects.
We typically will host them inperson, but we'll also have them
online.
So what I try to do is have onepresenter in person and then one
presenter on Teams, which hassome benefits to it, but we
(42:50):
still aren't getting that manypeople showing up in person.
It's usually me and maybe asmall handful of other people.
So hybrid.
SPEAKER_02 (43:00):
Excellent.
No, I'd love I'd love to attendone of those uh sessions.
So you have to you know send itmy way.
I'd love to listen in or orpresent or talk.
Perfect.
Send it my way.
SPEAKER_00 (43:19):
December twelfth.
SPEAKER_02 (43:22):
I'll be there.
Well, not physically, but I'llbe there.
Awesome.
So Will, any any partingquestions for Heidi?
I know you're chomping at thebit, but you're usually good at
the last question or two.
SPEAKER_01 (43:39):
Heidi is phenomenal.
So um Heidi, what are some, youknow, to any of the new aspiring
individuals in this industry,what what what's like if you had
to sum it up in a paragraph,what is some, or what is
something you'd probably tellyour past self that you wish you
knew that would help make thisjourney a bit better?
SPEAKER_00 (43:59):
This community is extremely welcoming and willing
to help, afraid to reach out tothe people that you've met at
conferences, that you have seenon YouTube channels, that you
follow on LinkedIn.
Like I will answer yourquestions.
I will help you if I can.
So I would say don't be afraidto reach out and ask for help or
(44:20):
ask for different resources,right?
So depending on if you're a newCRM system admin, I create paid
resources.
And like if you need fieldservice help, you can reach out
to Scott and Will, and they canpoint you to the right people.
So don't be scared to reach outto all of us.
Maybe we'll be future friendsand we'll swap Christmas cards.
SPEAKER_02 (44:41):
There we go.
Perfect.
All right.
Um, so I I mean, I guess uh ingeneral, Heidi, any any parting
comments for our listeners, uh,you know, any wisdom, any
additional wisdom goes uponthem.
SPEAKER_00 (44:57):
Oh become familiar with your CRM out-of-the-box
tools toolkit and know the righttime to implement those
out-of-the-box tools over all ofthe fancy customizations and
code that you could do.
And uh never stop learningbecause this product never stops
changing.
(45:18):
So follow the release guides orfollow this great series on
YouTube called Power Tips that Ido with MVPs Malcolm McCullough
and Kylie Kaiser, where we gothrough all that stuff because
this will continue to change,and you better be willing to
change with the product, or youare going to be left behind.
SPEAKER_02 (45:36):
That's awesome.
That's great.
Thank you so much, Heidi.
We appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01 (45:40):
Thanks for having me.
All right, Heidi, you and Nickare phenomenal, and you guys are
great, and we just love havingyou guys.
So this has been great.
Appreciate it.
Sorry for the drops in and out,Scott, and Heidi.
Uh my internet's been dead, so Ihad to switch devices.
SPEAKER_02 (45:52):
So maybe next time we need to have Heidi and Nick
on and do Battle of theNewhousers.
SPEAKER_00 (45:57):
Ooh, he's a hands.
He's not a new houser, but youshould call Nick a Newhouser.
That's the point.
SPEAKER_02 (46:03):
It would be fun to watch just because of that.
SPEAKER_01 (46:05):
You know what we need to do?
We need to have Malcolm andHeidi on.
Malcolm, Heidi, and Kylie onnext time, too as well.
Malcolm is hilarious.
Um by the way.
I hope you listen, bud.
SPEAKER_02 (46:17):
All right.
So awesome.
Well, thank you, Heidi, for uhjoining us today.
We greatly appreciate it.
Love your wisdom, love thecontent you put out there and
and all of your contributions tothe community.
Uh thank you to our listeners,as always.
And until the next time, this isScott and Will for Service X
Factor, and I hope you enjoy therest of your day.
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