March 13, 2025 • 20 mins
Damien Davis of ServiceNow continues to share how his personal challenges have shaped his leadership approach and drive for impact. He recounts his journey of overcoming loss, advocating for mental health, and using his experiences to fuel resilience and growth. Damien discusses the power of authenticity in business, the importance of listening to customers, and how organisations can shift from a product-driven to an outcome-driven mindset. He also shares practical tips for building a strong personal brand on LinkedIn and highlights how ServiceNow fosters transparency, employee engagement, and AI-driven business transformation.
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Matt Best (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Growth Workshop Podcast with
your hosts, me, Matt Best andJonny Adams. In this podcast,
we'll be sharing insights fromour combined 30 plus years
experience and hearing fromother industry leaders to get
their thoughts and perspectiveson what growth looks like in
modern business. We'll cover allaspects of leadership, sales,
account development and customersuccess, alongside other
(00:23):
critical elements required tobuild an effective growth engine
for your business. This podcastis aimed at leaders from exec
all the way down to linemanagers. Hello. Welcome to the
Growth Workshop Podcast withmyself, Matt Best and Jonny
Adams.
Jonny Adams (00:39):
Well, we're super lucky Matt, that we've got
Damien Davies from ServiceNow.He has got a great career at
ServiceNow, one of the largestorganizations, over 26,000
individuals, and he's one of thefirst 100 employees there.
Damien, knowing a little bitabout you and your own personal
life and the journey that you'vebeen on, there's normally the
way that the personal world ofpeople's lives can cross over
(01:02):
with the career. And so how isyour personal life you know, in
the last number of yearsimpacted your own growth in your
career and so forth. Share alittle bit about that, if that's
okay.
Damien Davies (01:12):
Yeah, sure. Look, I've been quite comfortable
telling my personal story foranyone that doesn't know.
Literally, at the time I joinedServiceNow, so back in 2011 I
actually made international newsheadlines just prior to joining
service now because I was partof a small charity team that
infamously climbed the wrongmountain as part of the three
peaks challenge. Rewindslightly. I tragically lost a
(01:35):
very close family friend. Hisname was Wayne Wilson. I lost
him to leukemia, and he was just26 years old. And it was, it
was, it was obviously tragic,very upsetting. So me and his
brother, we formed the charityteam set off to do the three
peaks challenge. And you know,when we messed it up, we climbed
a mountain called Stop baninstead of Ben Nevis. People say
how I was on. Have I got newsfor you? The BBC satirical news
(01:58):
show, it made headlines outsideof the UK, and the extra
publicity resulted in a lot oflaughs and a lot of fundraising
for leukemia research. AndWayne's mum nominated me to
carry the Olympic torch in the2012 games as part of their
heroes in the community, youknow, campaign, and I was
chosen, and I carried theOlympic torch, and I was proud
enough to keep it, lucky enoughto keep it it hangs on the Mall
(02:20):
in my home office. So if you'reon a zoom or a team school with
me, you might see it in thebackground on my home office.
Fast forward a decade, and in2020 I tragically lost my
brother Kieran to suicide and aclose family friend Greg also to
suicide in the same year, andthat gave me motivation to
really promote well being andmental health and suicide
(02:42):
awareness. And then, of course,we went into lockdown. But as we
started to come out of thevarious lockdowns, people at
work said, Look, you're doing agreat job on social media and
internally at ServiceNowcampaigning for mental health,
people have talked aboutfundraising ideas, and someone
said, why don't you go and redothe three peaks and do it
properly this time? So in 2022,redid, the three peaks
challenge, smashed it the rightone. Yeah, really strong team
(03:06):
raised an incredible sum ofmoney for mind, it was a
colossal team effort, but weraised over 100,000 pounds for
mind, you know, it's just openeddoors and opportunities I then
get invited along to come and dopodcasts, to go and be an after
dinner speaker, to tell my storyand turning some of that tragedy
into triumph. And I actuallyread very recently that, like,
grief doesn't just break us, itactually breaks us open, but
(03:30):
what we use to fill the gaps isvery much what can change the
outset of our lives. And I knowI can wallow in pity or I can do
something really positive aboutit, and I think that goes back
to my mantra of making animpact, and why I'm very, you
know, passionate, enthusiastic,and probably most of the time,
very positive about making adifference and turning those
(03:51):
very sad stories into positiveoutcomes.
Jonny Adams (03:55):
Thank you for sharing that and your openness
as well. Does it drive you,Damien, does it? Does it get you
up in the morning that this,this feeling, and in that sense?
Damien Davies (04:03):
Yep, let's do this in a positive mindset. And
mindset is everything. So, yeah,it absolutely drives me, very
driven, very focused, verydetermined.
Jonny Adams (04:12):
And as this sort of that formulation between, this
is a people oriented podcast,also, it's the business sort of
element as well. When you gothrough those lessons and those
experiences in life, how haveyou taken the experiences with
your your brother, Wayne, thatthe three peaks and let's not
talk about the first attempt.Let's talk about the second
attempt, because that'sbrilliant. How can you
transition some of thoseexperiences into into your
(04:34):
working world? Are therespecific things that have helped
you?
Damien Davies (04:38):
Absolutely, and again, look, every day in my
job, it's about having thatpositive mindset, like, what's
today's task? What's today'sgoal? You know, I've met with
customers this week talkingabout some negative experiences,
but like, say, I just look at itas feedbacks a gift, and I'm
gonna go me. It's not personal.They want to turn something
negative into a positive.They're all supporters and
(04:59):
champions. They. Of the company,and I love the product, they
just had a negative experience.And my opportunity, in my role,
was to listen to that, and Isay, channel it into one of
those buckets. Just approach itwith a positive mindset. You
know, it could have woken upthat morning, had a really
rubbish day, and taken it on thechin and taken it rather
personally, but no, just take itobjectively. So I'm turning some
of those, you know, personal,you know, experiences into a
(05:21):
work experience, and it, I say,just makes me very driven and
very focused.
Matt Best (05:25):
One thing that fascinates me about that Damien
is I have a background incustomer success and running
Customer Success teams, buildingCustomer Success organizations.
And I think so often, especiallywith those new into that career,
think of customer success andthink of customer support and
all of those different thingsthat we that we do with our
customers as we're working notagainst them, but not
(05:46):
necessarily seeing them side byside. And I think actually, what
you've just shared there, andit's linked, for me, this links
all the way right back to yoursort of authenticity point
earlier on in the discussion,having that authenticity around
wanting to listen to thecustomer and wanting to
understand their challenges sothat you can help them is
fundamentally why you know whywe're doing this and how we can
(06:08):
be successful. If you're outthere thinking, what do I need
to do to be successful in acareer, a customer facing
career, be it sales, be it CS,account management, marketing,
whatever that might be,actually, authentically
listening and seeking tounderstand the challenge so that
you can help someone. I mean,it's probably the foundation of
of any of those roles andsuccess in those roles. Would
Damien Davies (06:31):
100% and I think I'm lucky that I come from that
you agree?
support background. Not everyonein CS leadership does. It's not
just authenticity actually givesme credibility because I've
walked in their shoes, I've beenon the Help Desk, I've had the
headset, I've done the login andflogging who in some first line
support hasn't done that at somepoint in their career, you know?
But like, I'm able to listenwith credibility because I can
(06:54):
empathize with some of thechallenges. But what something I
heard quite recently was, let'sstop talking about products,
solutions, technology, let'sjust talk about what is the
business outcome. So it doesn'tmatter if the customer is in
pharmaceutical in financialservices, public sector,
whatever the organization,whatever the role, there is a
business objective and abusiness outcome. How can we use
(07:16):
our various products, solutionsand technologies to drive that
business outcome, so listen towhat they're actually trying to
achieve, and then figure out howwe get there. So I think that's
the foundation.
Jonny Adams (07:26):
So I've got a bee in my bonnet about this, right?
Okay, and it's a bit of achallenge, because as an
organization, we truly believein outcomes. My opinion of
software sales as a whole, if wethink about the professionals
within that organization, I feellike there's still a gap of
organizations being outcomefocused in software. What I mean
is, for example, as consultants,we have to be a holistic,
(07:48):
strategic focus, because some ofour work is abstract. It's not a
product, etc. Do you think as awhole, across all sort of
software providers and and thatarea of the world, you know,
huge, huge businesses right outthere. Do you think sales teams
and business and commercialteams are truly strategic and
focused around those aspects, orare they just sort of siloed
(08:10):
around just selling products,iconic convey about and
transaction? And what's yourview?
Damien Davies (08:15):
My view is, I think it's probably somewhere in
between. Think everybody has thedesire to do that. Maybe they
haven't matured or setthemselves up to truly see that
North Star, but certainly inServiceNow, I see a huge want to
do it, and it's all aboutworking together as a team and,
like say, listening to thecustomer, understanding what
(08:35):
their problem is, and whetheryou're a solution consultant in
pre sales, whether you're aclient director or an account
exec, whether you're in customersuccess, whether you're in
development, product managementor engineering, everyone is
working towards a common goal.And it might sound like it's so
you know, too good to be true,but everyone is working with
that goal in mind, and then it'sup to the leadership team to
(08:56):
make sure that they're notoperating in silos, and that we
bring everyone together to worktowards that common goal.
Matt Best (09:01):
How have you and the team at ServiceNow been able to
to execute that practically?Because, again, a background in
in software technology, and Ithink a lot of a lot of it comes
down to agility. For me is that,you know, you pick up those
startup organizations in there,and everyone's really, really
clear on what it is that you'redriving everyone can think in
(09:22):
that way. And then you getthrough those different phases,
and maybe get to phase four toPhase Five of the journey, and
some of that gets a bit lost in,or can get lost in some areas.
I'm not saying it happens all ofthe time, but there's obviously
that message from the top thatsays, This is what we're doing.
But how does that distill downto individual leaders and to
individual teams?
Damien Davies (09:43):
Well, think it's all about communication and
transparency. Now, let's bequite clear, it's not always
brilliant, right? I mean, I'vebeen through some some internal
restructuring andreorganizations myself over the
last 12 months, and you know,everyone has a desire to do it
brilliantly. HR, a greatcorporate comms team. Be great.
Sometimes, when you haverestructured and
reorganizations, you know, youget the rumor mill people talk,
(10:05):
and that rumor mill cansometimes move faster than the
corporate comms plan. So it'sabout leaders getting in front
of that and how they address itand tackle it. Like say, we
don't always get it right allthe time, but then take that as
a learning failure is anopportunity to learn and grow. I
know it's such a cliche term,but it is just because we don't
always get it right. If you havethe will and the desire to get
it right, let's take where itdidn't go right as a learning
(10:28):
opportunity and make it betternext time. Is that fair?
Matt Best (10:31):
I think so. And that maturity of the organization to
do that, and I think it's sortof permission as well. And that
goes back to that authenticitypoint again, which is, if you're
setting out in your career, oryou're looking for the next
step, you don't have to besomething different at work,
bringing your authentic self andhow you working out, how that
then fits into the organization,and how you can leverage that.
(10:53):
Otherwise it becomes very, veryhard work.
Damien Davies (10:55):
Exactly, and look, 26 plus 1000 employees,
right? 10 billion in revenue.These are figures that are
publicly listed. We're stillgrowing at 22% year on year.
Growth, even at those staggeringnumbers, we've added nearly
10,000 people over the last fiveyears. When you grow at that
pace, not everything is going togo flawlessly. So we need to
(11:16):
work out where things wentwrong. There are almost
certainly individuals in theorganization that have not had
the best ride or the best careertime, but we also get loads of
accolades that are employeedriven glass door and various
recognition that doesn't comewithout a good culture and
without the will and theembracement or the embracing of
those employee engagementprograms we spoke about earlier.
(11:37):
So that shows that when you getthose employee surveys and those
employee engagement scores thatmost people are getting it
right, and then we can use thosepeople that aren't as a learning
opportunity.
Jonny Adams (11:49):
But if we look at the business, a lot of
organizations are talking aboutAI, and AI is all about the
future, and people find it hardas humans, to look to the
future. It can be sometimescreates anxiety or a little bit
of concern, but ServiceNow havebeen on this great journey. What
does 10 years look like fromhere about ServiceNow, I really
want you to paint that picturefor us. If you can do it.
Damien Davies (12:07):
Crikey, we'll be on the moon by then. As a kid, I
was always a fan of sciencefiction. Tomorrow's World,
watching that and watching likewhat does it look like in the
future? What does ServiceNowlook like in 10 years? I don't
have a crystal ball, but I seeit as again, you know, maybe a
trillion dollar company, thestock price would be 4x, what it
is now, maybe we've got 100,000employees, I don't know. But
(12:28):
ultimately, I'd like to seeServiceNow in every single
organization in the world,whether they're a small
business, big businessbenefiting from that AI
automation technology that freeshumans up to better things.
Jonny Adams (12:41):
Well, I think Damien, the reason why we love
having guests like you on thepodcast is all about simple,
practical frameworks. We're allabout giving back to the
audience, and we're going totransition into a bit of that,
where you're going to share afew ideas for the audience. We
work with a lot of professionalservices and financial services
individuals actually consultantsthemselves. And it's all about
building the brand and buildingtheir own brand. And you've
(13:03):
really driven that. You've gotover 10,000 followers on
LinkedIn. I'm sure you get moreinflows of requests than
probably you going out in themarket. But if you had to build
a bit of a framework to help anindividual build a brand on
LinkedIn, what would be a coupleof the points that you would
share?
Damien Davies (13:18):
Yeah. Look, I really enjoy using LinkedIn as a
platform, like other socialmedia platforms, it had its
flaws, but the benefits are theopportunities that it provides.
I think I've been using it forover a decade. Started out by
putting an online TV on, youknow, and hoping that a
recruiter might see it and getme better job opportunities.
Then realizing that actuallythere's a social feed to it as
well. More consciously in thelast two years, I took a very
(13:41):
deliberate intention ofincreasing my personal brand.
LinkedIn is a great platform forthat, and I just read some
tutorials. It's like, rightengage with meaningful content,
right to other people in theServiceNow ecosystem, other
business leaders like Imentioned, Stephen Bartlett,
right? You know, looking at hiscontent, engaging with that by
liking and commenting on hisposts and other leadership
(14:03):
posts, because then anyone in mynetwork, it will come up in
their feed the other and say,Oh, Damien Davies like this, or
Damien Davies commented on this.So showing me, but it's also
showing meaningful content. Ifthey then like that and read it,
they're like, ah, Damien, referme to this content. So in the
back of their mind. That's oneway. Of course, I'll post my own
content, and, you know, I'llpost updates on service now,
(14:26):
clearly, on impact on ourecosystem. Quite often turn in
human elements, because peoplelove to see the human side of
it, right? Like, if I'mtraveling or I'm doing a
podcast, I'll post about it onLinkedIn. People like, what's
Damien up to today? You know,what a service now up to? And
it's that human element. Itmight be a happy hour in a bar,
it might be in the gym, it mightbe in a podcast, it might be a
(14:49):
conference or an event. Peoplelike to see what's going on in
the world. So publishing stufflike that, as well as in between
that, you know, championingmental health, talking about
fundraising act. Activities, orjust general tips and tricks on
mental health and well being andbeing vulnerable and
comfortable, sharing my personalstory, giving that authentic
brand. Like I said, brand isabout what people say about we
(15:12):
can market ourselves, but brandis what people say about you
when you're not in the room. Andlook at all these companies with
great brands, Nike, coca, Cola,we can name drop all these
companies that have got a greatbrand have invested heavily so
that we talk about them whenthey're not marketing
themselves. ServiceNow has beenvery intentional marketing
ourselves as the AI platform forbusiness transformation. There
(15:33):
you go, Chief Brand Officer, Iname dropped that one in market
is how we want to people toperceive us. Brand is how others
see us and personal brand is nodifferent. So if you're in your
career, whatever level you're atmaturity, you want to use
LinkedIn as a framework. Yeah,start posting a couple of times
a week. Don't do it every day,or certainly not two or three
times a day, because you don'twant it to be noise and lost.
(15:54):
But couple of meaningful things.Also. Think about what you're
writing. Is it going to resonatewith people that are reading it?
Are they going to gain somethingfrom it? Either, Oh yeah, look,
you know, Damien's at anotherconference, or he's on a plane
again, or, Oh, actually, Damienwas talking to customer X, and
they discussed this topic, andthat really resonated with me.
Share that. Share content thatyou think is going to land and
(16:15):
inspire conversation. But likeso it's not just about posting
your own content. It's about howyou engage with others as well.
So it's a long winded answer totips and tricks.
Jonny Adams (16:24):
You know, just on that point of view. I think
what's really interesting, it'smore of a question, Has LinkedIn
evolved too closely toInstagram? Is there too much
personal posts, or do you thinkit's businessy enough? What's
your viewpoint on that?
Damien Davies (16:37):
Well, if it's too personal and doesn't mean
anything, I'll just scroll pastit. You know, some people may
choose to do personal, personaland that's great because, like,
say, humanizes us, right? It'sjust a social media platform.
Like, if we're meeting in anoffice, and we then go for a
happy hour in the pub, and we'retalking about personal stuff,
like, social media is just thedigital version of that, of what
we would do in our businesslives anyway. Like, if I'm
(16:59):
traveling to Sheffield, London,Miami, wherever I'm going, and I
meet someone, and then we'regonna go and have a
conversation. Oh, you know, ifyou've got a family, are you
into sports? Sharing personalstuff is fine. If it's relevant.
It's not Facebook, it's notInstagram, and it is how I view
it, as the business social mediaplatform, but sharing personal
stories and personal wins, like,if you've achieved something,
(17:20):
why not share an achievement?Even if your family's achieved
something, like, let's say myson plays drums, or, you know,
my other son, you know, both ofthem do kickbox, and they just
got their latest belt. If I wantto share that with my business
network, that's because I have alot of friends in my business
network who I want to share thatstory with. But I'm also
thinking about, how am I goingto share that story? Like on
Facebook? It might just be,congrats boys. You know, you got
(17:42):
your blue belt on the workthing. It might be really proud
of my boys. This is a result ofgrit and determination. You
know, don't make it too fake.Make it authentic, but make it
relevant.
Matt Best (17:52):
I just wanted to add on the on that sort of, that
branding piece. And I thinkwhat's really important there,
Damien, as you said, is thereminding people. It's how
they're perceived. How well do Iknow what that is? How well? How
do you test that?
Damien Davies (18:04):
I don't know, ask people.
Matt Best (18:07):
But do you... is that something that you would do?
Damien Davies (18:09):
I mean LinkedIn as metrics and stats, right? You
can go to your profile and youcan see, right, how are my posts
performing. You can see whatyour your engagement score is in
terms of people that actuallylike comment and react to it.
And you can see your impressionscore. Marketers love that.
Like, if you're in marketing andyou get a million impressions,
they're like, great. That's howmany people have seen my
content, but then how manypeople have liked and commented
(18:30):
and engaged with that? Now,stats wise, and I've done the
analysis, LinkedIn says that 2%is good. So if you've got 2%
engagement, that's good. And mypersonal content. You know, when
I track it, somewhere betweenone and a half and three so it
shows that it's engaging, it'smeaningful. So that means, if
1000 people like it, 1000 peoplesee it, and only 20 people
(18:51):
comment on it, that's actuallypretty good by LinkedIn
standards. And that, you know,you can search that on what the
engagement score and what's goodengagement. So that's one way
people can track and measure ifthey feel that, you know, is it
making a difference?
Matt Best (19:05):
Yeah. And I guess the other way, as you said, is just
ask people. It's like, you know,talk to clients like, what's
your perception? Like? You mightnot ask your mates down the pub.
You might get a differentresponse.
Damien Davies (19:14):
Sometimes you don't need to ask. I've been at
conferences and I've had peoplecome up to me say, Oh, you don't
know me, but I follow your postson LinkedIn, and my wife just
rolls her eyes and says, Oh, whothe hell does he think he is?
And I'm like, Who's that? Noidea that is great. I mean, I
get a warm feeling from that. Isthere something wrong with that?
I mean, is that too vain or toomuch personal pride? And someone
(19:35):
comes and says, oh, oh, yourstory really resonated with me.
Or, you know, I've even hadpeople say I was really
struggling and I read yourcontent on your brother, and
actually, I'm in a better placenow. That's life changing.
Matt Best (19:45):
Yeah. I think that's a great place to end. Goes right
back for me to that authenticitypiece, Damien. I mean, I think
this conversation is testamentto how you live and breathe that
and and driving impact andreally kind of bringing in.
Along those, as Jonny said,those practical tools and tips
and things that people can takeaway from from this discussion.
(20:06):
And on behalf Jonny and I'vethoroughly enjoyed having you on
thank you so much for comingdown.
Damien Davies (20:10):
Thanks guys, thank you for having me.
Matt Best (20:14):
For more insights. Make sure you subscribe, and if
you enjoy the journey, don'tforget to leave us a review.
Your feedback fuels our growthuntil next time, keep up that
forward thinking mindset.Goodbye.
Hello and welcome to the Growth Workshop Podcast with
your hosts, me, Matt Best andJonny Adams. In this podcast,
we'll be sharing insights fromour combined 30 plus years
experience and hearing fromother industry leaders to get
their thoughts and perspectiveson what growth looks like in
modern business. We'll cover allaspects of leadership, sales,
account development and customersuccess, alongside other
(00:23):
critical elements required tobuild an effective growth engine
for your business. This podcastis aimed at leaders from exec
all the way down to linemanagers. Hello. Welcome to the
Growth Workshop Podcast withmyself, Matt Best and Jonny
Adams.
Jonny Adams (00:39):
Well, we're super lucky Matt, that we've got
Damien Davies from ServiceNow.He has got a great career at
ServiceNow, one of the largestorganizations, over 26,000
individuals, and he's one of thefirst 100 employees there.
Damien, knowing a little bitabout you and your own personal
life and the journey that you'vebeen on, there's normally the
way that the personal world ofpeople's lives can cross over
(01:02):
with the career. And so how isyour personal life you know, in
the last number of yearsimpacted your own growth in your
career and so forth. Share alittle bit about that, if that's
okay.
Damien Davies (01:12):
Yeah, sure. Look, I've been quite comfortable
telling my personal story foranyone that doesn't know.
Literally, at the time I joinedServiceNow, so back in 2011 I
actually made international newsheadlines just prior to joining
service now because I was partof a small charity team that
infamously climbed the wrongmountain as part of the three
peaks challenge. Rewindslightly. I tragically lost a
(01:35):
very close family friend. Hisname was Wayne Wilson. I lost
him to leukemia, and he was just26 years old. And it was, it
was, it was obviously tragic,very upsetting. So me and his
brother, we formed the charityteam set off to do the three
peaks challenge. And you know,when we messed it up, we climbed
a mountain called Stop baninstead of Ben Nevis. People say
how I was on. Have I got newsfor you? The BBC satirical news
(01:58):
show, it made headlines outsideof the UK, and the extra
publicity resulted in a lot oflaughs and a lot of fundraising
for leukemia research. AndWayne's mum nominated me to
carry the Olympic torch in the2012 games as part of their
heroes in the community, youknow, campaign, and I was
chosen, and I carried theOlympic torch, and I was proud
enough to keep it, lucky enoughto keep it it hangs on the Mall
(02:20):
in my home office. So if you'reon a zoom or a team school with
me, you might see it in thebackground on my home office.
Fast forward a decade, and in2020 I tragically lost my
brother Kieran to suicide and aclose family friend Greg also to
suicide in the same year, andthat gave me motivation to
really promote well being andmental health and suicide
(02:42):
awareness. And then, of course,we went into lockdown. But as we
started to come out of thevarious lockdowns, people at
work said, Look, you're doing agreat job on social media and
internally at ServiceNowcampaigning for mental health,
people have talked aboutfundraising ideas, and someone
said, why don't you go and redothe three peaks and do it
properly this time? So in 2022,redid, the three peaks
challenge, smashed it the rightone. Yeah, really strong team
(03:06):
raised an incredible sum ofmoney for mind, it was a
colossal team effort, but weraised over 100,000 pounds for
mind, you know, it's just openeddoors and opportunities I then
get invited along to come and dopodcasts, to go and be an after
dinner speaker, to tell my storyand turning some of that tragedy
into triumph. And I actuallyread very recently that, like,
grief doesn't just break us, itactually breaks us open, but
(03:30):
what we use to fill the gaps isvery much what can change the
outset of our lives. And I knowI can wallow in pity or I can do
something really positive aboutit, and I think that goes back
to my mantra of making animpact, and why I'm very, you
know, passionate, enthusiastic,and probably most of the time,
very positive about making adifference and turning those
(03:51):
very sad stories into positiveoutcomes.
Jonny Adams (03:55):
Thank you for sharing that and your openness
as well. Does it drive you,Damien, does it? Does it get you
up in the morning that this,this feeling, and in that sense?
Damien Davies (04:03):
Yep, let's do this in a positive mindset. And
mindset is everything. So, yeah,it absolutely drives me, very
driven, very focused, verydetermined.
Jonny Adams (04:12):
And as this sort of that formulation between, this
is a people oriented podcast,also, it's the business sort of
element as well. When you gothrough those lessons and those
experiences in life, how haveyou taken the experiences with
your your brother, Wayne, thatthe three peaks and let's not
talk about the first attempt.Let's talk about the second
attempt, because that'sbrilliant. How can you
transition some of thoseexperiences into into your
(04:34):
working world? Are therespecific things that have helped
you?
Damien Davies (04:38):
Absolutely, and again, look, every day in my
job, it's about having thatpositive mindset, like, what's
today's task? What's today'sgoal? You know, I've met with
customers this week talkingabout some negative experiences,
but like, say, I just look at itas feedbacks a gift, and I'm
gonna go me. It's not personal.They want to turn something
negative into a positive.They're all supporters and
(04:59):
champions. They. Of the company,and I love the product, they
just had a negative experience.And my opportunity, in my role,
was to listen to that, and Isay, channel it into one of
those buckets. Just approach itwith a positive mindset. You
know, it could have woken upthat morning, had a really
rubbish day, and taken it on thechin and taken it rather
personally, but no, just take itobjectively. So I'm turning some
of those, you know, personal,you know, experiences into a
(05:21):
work experience, and it, I say,just makes me very driven and
very focused.
Matt Best (05:25):
One thing that fascinates me about that Damien
is I have a background incustomer success and running
Customer Success teams, buildingCustomer Success organizations.
And I think so often, especiallywith those new into that career,
think of customer success andthink of customer support and
all of those different thingsthat we that we do with our
customers as we're working notagainst them, but not
(05:46):
necessarily seeing them side byside. And I think actually, what
you've just shared there, andit's linked, for me, this links
all the way right back to yoursort of authenticity point
earlier on in the discussion,having that authenticity around
wanting to listen to thecustomer and wanting to
understand their challenges sothat you can help them is
fundamentally why you know whywe're doing this and how we can
(06:08):
be successful. If you're outthere thinking, what do I need
to do to be successful in acareer, a customer facing
career, be it sales, be it CS,account management, marketing,
whatever that might be,actually, authentically
listening and seeking tounderstand the challenge so that
you can help someone. I mean,it's probably the foundation of
of any of those roles andsuccess in those roles. Would
Damien Davies (06:31):
100% and I think I'm lucky that I come from that
you agree?
support background. Not everyonein CS leadership does. It's not
just authenticity actually givesme credibility because I've
walked in their shoes, I've beenon the Help Desk, I've had the
headset, I've done the login andflogging who in some first line
support hasn't done that at somepoint in their career, you know?
But like, I'm able to listenwith credibility because I can
(06:54):
empathize with some of thechallenges. But what something I
heard quite recently was, let'sstop talking about products,
solutions, technology, let'sjust talk about what is the
business outcome. So it doesn'tmatter if the customer is in
pharmaceutical in financialservices, public sector,
whatever the organization,whatever the role, there is a
business objective and abusiness outcome. How can we use
(07:16):
our various products, solutionsand technologies to drive that
business outcome, so listen towhat they're actually trying to
achieve, and then figure out howwe get there. So I think that's
the foundation.
Jonny Adams (07:26):
So I've got a bee in my bonnet about this, right?
Okay, and it's a bit of achallenge, because as an
organization, we truly believein outcomes. My opinion of
software sales as a whole, if wethink about the professionals
within that organization, I feellike there's still a gap of
organizations being outcomefocused in software. What I mean
is, for example, as consultants,we have to be a holistic,
(07:48):
strategic focus, because some ofour work is abstract. It's not a
product, etc. Do you think as awhole, across all sort of
software providers and and thatarea of the world, you know,
huge, huge businesses right outthere. Do you think sales teams
and business and commercialteams are truly strategic and
focused around those aspects, orare they just sort of siloed
(08:10):
around just selling products,iconic convey about and
transaction? And what's yourview?
Damien Davies (08:15):
My view is, I think it's probably somewhere in
between. Think everybody has thedesire to do that. Maybe they
haven't matured or setthemselves up to truly see that
North Star, but certainly inServiceNow, I see a huge want to
do it, and it's all aboutworking together as a team and,
like say, listening to thecustomer, understanding what
(08:35):
their problem is, and whetheryou're a solution consultant in
pre sales, whether you're aclient director or an account
exec, whether you're in customersuccess, whether you're in
development, product managementor engineering, everyone is
working towards a common goal.And it might sound like it's so
you know, too good to be true,but everyone is working with
that goal in mind, and then it'sup to the leadership team to
(08:56):
make sure that they're notoperating in silos, and that we
bring everyone together to worktowards that common goal.
Matt Best (09:01):
How have you and the team at ServiceNow been able to
to execute that practically?Because, again, a background in
in software technology, and Ithink a lot of a lot of it comes
down to agility. For me is that,you know, you pick up those
startup organizations in there,and everyone's really, really
clear on what it is that you'redriving everyone can think in
(09:22):
that way. And then you getthrough those different phases,
and maybe get to phase four toPhase Five of the journey, and
some of that gets a bit lost in,or can get lost in some areas.
I'm not saying it happens all ofthe time, but there's obviously
that message from the top thatsays, This is what we're doing.
But how does that distill downto individual leaders and to
individual teams?
Damien Davies (09:43):
Well, think it's all about communication and
transparency. Now, let's bequite clear, it's not always
brilliant, right? I mean, I'vebeen through some some internal
restructuring andreorganizations myself over the
last 12 months, and you know,everyone has a desire to do it
brilliantly. HR, a greatcorporate comms team. Be great.
Sometimes, when you haverestructured and
reorganizations, you know, youget the rumor mill people talk,
(10:05):
and that rumor mill cansometimes move faster than the
corporate comms plan. So it'sabout leaders getting in front
of that and how they address itand tackle it. Like say, we
don't always get it right allthe time, but then take that as
a learning failure is anopportunity to learn and grow. I
know it's such a cliche term,but it is just because we don't
always get it right. If you havethe will and the desire to get
it right, let's take where itdidn't go right as a learning
(10:28):
opportunity and make it betternext time. Is that fair?
Matt Best (10:31):
I think so. And that maturity of the organization to
do that, and I think it's sortof permission as well. And that
goes back to that authenticitypoint again, which is, if you're
setting out in your career, oryou're looking for the next
step, you don't have to besomething different at work,
bringing your authentic self andhow you working out, how that
then fits into the organization,and how you can leverage that.
(10:53):
Otherwise it becomes very, veryhard work.
Damien Davies (10:55):
Exactly, and look, 26 plus 1000 employees,
right? 10 billion in revenue.These are figures that are
publicly listed. We're stillgrowing at 22% year on year.
Growth, even at those staggeringnumbers, we've added nearly
10,000 people over the last fiveyears. When you grow at that
pace, not everything is going togo flawlessly. So we need to
(11:16):
work out where things wentwrong. There are almost
certainly individuals in theorganization that have not had
the best ride or the best careertime, but we also get loads of
accolades that are employeedriven glass door and various
recognition that doesn't comewithout a good culture and
without the will and theembracement or the embracing of
those employee engagementprograms we spoke about earlier.
(11:37):
So that shows that when you getthose employee surveys and those
employee engagement scores thatmost people are getting it
right, and then we can use thosepeople that aren't as a learning
opportunity.
Jonny Adams (11:49):
But if we look at the business, a lot of
organizations are talking aboutAI, and AI is all about the
future, and people find it hardas humans, to look to the
future. It can be sometimescreates anxiety or a little bit
of concern, but ServiceNow havebeen on this great journey. What
does 10 years look like fromhere about ServiceNow, I really
want you to paint that picturefor us. If you can do it.
Damien Davies (12:07):
Crikey, we'll be on the moon by then. As a kid, I
was always a fan of sciencefiction. Tomorrow's World,
watching that and watching likewhat does it look like in the
future? What does ServiceNowlook like in 10 years? I don't
have a crystal ball, but I seeit as again, you know, maybe a
trillion dollar company, thestock price would be 4x, what it
is now, maybe we've got 100,000employees, I don't know. But
(12:28):
ultimately, I'd like to seeServiceNow in every single
organization in the world,whether they're a small
business, big businessbenefiting from that AI
automation technology that freeshumans up to better things.
Jonny Adams (12:41):
Well, I think Damien, the reason why we love
having guests like you on thepodcast is all about simple,
practical frameworks. We're allabout giving back to the
audience, and we're going totransition into a bit of that,
where you're going to share afew ideas for the audience. We
work with a lot of professionalservices and financial services
individuals actually consultantsthemselves. And it's all about
building the brand and buildingtheir own brand. And you've
(13:03):
really driven that. You've gotover 10,000 followers on
LinkedIn. I'm sure you get moreinflows of requests than
probably you going out in themarket. But if you had to build
a bit of a framework to help anindividual build a brand on
LinkedIn, what would be a coupleof the points that you would
share?
Damien Davies (13:18):
Yeah. Look, I really enjoy using LinkedIn as a
platform, like other socialmedia platforms, it had its
flaws, but the benefits are theopportunities that it provides.
I think I've been using it forover a decade. Started out by
putting an online TV on, youknow, and hoping that a
recruiter might see it and getme better job opportunities.
Then realizing that actuallythere's a social feed to it as
well. More consciously in thelast two years, I took a very
(13:41):
deliberate intention ofincreasing my personal brand.
LinkedIn is a great platform forthat, and I just read some
tutorials. It's like, rightengage with meaningful content,
right to other people in theServiceNow ecosystem, other
business leaders like Imentioned, Stephen Bartlett,
right? You know, looking at hiscontent, engaging with that by
liking and commenting on hisposts and other leadership
(14:03):
posts, because then anyone in mynetwork, it will come up in
their feed the other and say,Oh, Damien Davies like this, or
Damien Davies commented on this.So showing me, but it's also
showing meaningful content. Ifthey then like that and read it,
they're like, ah, Damien, referme to this content. So in the
back of their mind. That's oneway. Of course, I'll post my own
content, and, you know, I'llpost updates on service now,
(14:26):
clearly, on impact on ourecosystem. Quite often turn in
human elements, because peoplelove to see the human side of
it, right? Like, if I'mtraveling or I'm doing a
podcast, I'll post about it onLinkedIn. People like, what's
Damien up to today? You know,what a service now up to? And
it's that human element. Itmight be a happy hour in a bar,
it might be in the gym, it mightbe in a podcast, it might be a
(14:49):
conference or an event. Peoplelike to see what's going on in
the world. So publishing stufflike that, as well as in between
that, you know, championingmental health, talking about
fundraising act. Activities, orjust general tips and tricks on
mental health and well being andbeing vulnerable and
comfortable, sharing my personalstory, giving that authentic
brand. Like I said, brand isabout what people say about we
(15:12):
can market ourselves, but brandis what people say about you
when you're not in the room. Andlook at all these companies with
great brands, Nike, coca, Cola,we can name drop all these
companies that have got a greatbrand have invested heavily so
that we talk about them whenthey're not marketing
themselves. ServiceNow has beenvery intentional marketing
ourselves as the AI platform forbusiness transformation. There
(15:33):
you go, Chief Brand Officer, Iname dropped that one in market
is how we want to people toperceive us. Brand is how others
see us and personal brand is nodifferent. So if you're in your
career, whatever level you're atmaturity, you want to use
LinkedIn as a framework. Yeah,start posting a couple of times
a week. Don't do it every day,or certainly not two or three
times a day, because you don'twant it to be noise and lost.
(15:54):
But couple of meaningful things.Also. Think about what you're
writing. Is it going to resonatewith people that are reading it?
Are they going to gain somethingfrom it? Either, Oh yeah, look,
you know, Damien's at anotherconference, or he's on a plane
again, or, Oh, actually, Damienwas talking to customer X, and
they discussed this topic, andthat really resonated with me.
Share that. Share content thatyou think is going to land and
(16:15):
inspire conversation. But likeso it's not just about posting
your own content. It's about howyou engage with others as well.
So it's a long winded answer totips and tricks.
Jonny Adams (16:24):
You know, just on that point of view. I think
what's really interesting, it'smore of a question, Has LinkedIn
evolved too closely toInstagram? Is there too much
personal posts, or do you thinkit's businessy enough? What's
your viewpoint on that?
Damien Davies (16:37):
Well, if it's too personal and doesn't mean
anything, I'll just scroll pastit. You know, some people may
choose to do personal, personaland that's great because, like,
say, humanizes us, right? It'sjust a social media platform.
Like, if we're meeting in anoffice, and we then go for a
happy hour in the pub, and we'retalking about personal stuff,
like, social media is just thedigital version of that, of what
we would do in our businesslives anyway. Like, if I'm
(16:59):
traveling to Sheffield, London,Miami, wherever I'm going, and I
meet someone, and then we'regonna go and have a
conversation. Oh, you know, ifyou've got a family, are you
into sports? Sharing personalstuff is fine. If it's relevant.
It's not Facebook, it's notInstagram, and it is how I view
it, as the business social mediaplatform, but sharing personal
stories and personal wins, like,if you've achieved something,
(17:20):
why not share an achievement?Even if your family's achieved
something, like, let's say myson plays drums, or, you know,
my other son, you know, both ofthem do kickbox, and they just
got their latest belt. If I wantto share that with my business
network, that's because I have alot of friends in my business
network who I want to share thatstory with. But I'm also
thinking about, how am I goingto share that story? Like on
Facebook? It might just be,congrats boys. You know, you got
(17:42):
your blue belt on the workthing. It might be really proud
of my boys. This is a result ofgrit and determination. You
know, don't make it too fake.Make it authentic, but make it
relevant.
Matt Best (17:52):
I just wanted to add on the on that sort of, that
branding piece. And I thinkwhat's really important there,
Damien, as you said, is thereminding people. It's how
they're perceived. How well do Iknow what that is? How well? How
do you test that?
Damien Davies (18:04):
I don't know, ask people.
Matt Best (18:07):
But do you... is that something that you would do?
Damien Davies (18:09):
I mean LinkedIn as metrics and stats, right? You
can go to your profile and youcan see, right, how are my posts
performing. You can see whatyour your engagement score is in
terms of people that actuallylike comment and react to it.
And you can see your impressionscore. Marketers love that.
Like, if you're in marketing andyou get a million impressions,
they're like, great. That's howmany people have seen my
content, but then how manypeople have liked and commented
(18:30):
and engaged with that? Now,stats wise, and I've done the
analysis, LinkedIn says that 2%is good. So if you've got 2%
engagement, that's good. And mypersonal content. You know, when
I track it, somewhere betweenone and a half and three so it
shows that it's engaging, it'smeaningful. So that means, if
1000 people like it, 1000 peoplesee it, and only 20 people
(18:51):
comment on it, that's actuallypretty good by LinkedIn
standards. And that, you know,you can search that on what the
engagement score and what's goodengagement. So that's one way
people can track and measure ifthey feel that, you know, is it
making a difference?
Matt Best (19:05):
Yeah. And I guess the other way, as you said, is just
ask people. It's like, you know,talk to clients like, what's
your perception? Like? You mightnot ask your mates down the pub.
You might get a differentresponse.
Damien Davies (19:14):
Sometimes you don't need to ask. I've been at
conferences and I've had peoplecome up to me say, Oh, you don't
know me, but I follow your postson LinkedIn, and my wife just
rolls her eyes and says, Oh, whothe hell does he think he is?
And I'm like, Who's that? Noidea that is great. I mean, I
get a warm feeling from that. Isthere something wrong with that?
I mean, is that too vain or toomuch personal pride? And someone
(19:35):
comes and says, oh, oh, yourstory really resonated with me.
Or, you know, I've even hadpeople say I was really
struggling and I read yourcontent on your brother, and
actually, I'm in a better placenow. That's life changing.
Matt Best (19:45):
Yeah. I think that's a great place to end. Goes right
back for me to that authenticitypiece, Damien. I mean, I think
this conversation is testamentto how you live and breathe that
and and driving impact andreally kind of bringing in.
Along those, as Jonny said,those practical tools and tips
and things that people can takeaway from from this discussion.
(20:06):
And on behalf Jonny and I'vethoroughly enjoyed having you on
thank you so much for comingdown.
Damien Davies (20:10):
Thanks guys, thank you for having me.
Matt Best (20:14):
For more insights. Make sure you subscribe, and if
you enjoy the journey, don'tforget to leave us a review.
Your feedback fuels our growthuntil next time, keep up that
forward thinking mindset.Goodbye.
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