Dynamics Corner
About Dynamics Corner Podcast "Unraveling the World of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Beyond" Welcome to the Dynamics Corner Podcast, where we explore the fascinating world of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and related technologies. Co-hosted by industry veterans Kris Ruyeras and Brad Prendergast, this engaging podcast keeps you updated on the latest trends, innovations, and best practices in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem. We dive deep into various topics in each episode, including Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Power Platform, Azure, and more. Our conversations aim to provide valuable insights, practical tips, and expert advice to help users of businesses of all sizes unlock their full potential through the power of technology. The podcast features in-depth discussions, interviews with thought leaders, real-world case studies, and helpful tips and tricks, providing a unique blend of perspectives and experiences. Join us on this exciting journey as we uncover the secrets to digital transformation, operational efficiency, and seamless system integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and beyond. Whether you're a business owner, IT professional, consultant, or just curious about the Microsoft Dynamics 365 world, the Dynamics Corner Podcast is the perfect platform to stay informed and inspired.
Dynamics Corner
Episode 403: ⚠️ Mastering the Art of Podcasting and AI in the Workplace ⚠️
🛑 What is the future of ERP and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with AI?
🛑 What goes on behind the scenes of a podcast?
In this conversation, Kris and Brad sit with Microsoft MVP and popular podcast host Mark Smith. The conversation covers many topics and themes, including the impact of sleep on productivity, cultural perspectives on technology, the evolution of podcasting, personal growth, and AI's role in modern work.
➡️ The importance of reskilling for an AI-driven future and the need for continuous learning in a rapidly changing technological landscape.
➡️The future of AI and the necessity for reskilling in the workforce.
➡️Strategies for scaling podcasting efforts and valuable advice for aspiring podcasters.
➡️The future of technology mainly focuses on AI's role in ERP systems and the evolving nature of consulting.
#MSDyn365BC #BusinessCentral #BC #DynamicsCorner
Follow Kris and Brad for more content:
https://matalino.io/bio
https://bprendergast.bio.link/
Welcome everyone to another episode of Dynamics Corner. What does it take to do all of this, Brad? I'm your co-host, Chris.
Speaker 2:And this is Brad. This episode was recorded on January 13th 2025. Chris, Chris, Chris. What does it take to do all of this? That is a full question With us. Today, we had the opportunity to speak with a guest to learn about that, as well as rules and what is time for money, and he's also another individual that does all of this and then some, With us. Today, we had the opportunity to speak with Mark Smith. Good morning, sir. How are you doing? The man himself and yourself excellent.
Speaker 2:Thank you, excellent. I I really enjoy speaking with uh podcast participants from your location because you come to us from the future that's right, that's right it's tell me what.
Speaker 3:What lotto numbers? What? What's your next lotto coming up? I'll tell you the numbers that win exactly, if you would please do so.
Speaker 2:Um, it's. It's something interesting to think about as well, too, because I think you're 18 hours ahead of us or ahead of me, which yeah, is it. I think he's 18 hours ahead.
Speaker 3:Of us it's morning, to him it's afternoon it's 8 am in the morning for me on january the 14th to him it's afternoon.
Speaker 2:It's 8 am in the morning for me on january the 14th let's see, it's january the 13th here.
Speaker 3:Wow, crazy a is it, isn't it crazy? I tell you what I wish they could. They could update time zone stuff, you know, and, like one, get rid of daylight savings all around the world, and, um, I reckon there'd be a new, modern way of doing time because, you know, the current time system was based on, I think, the railroad system is why they put this concept of time zones. It had to do with the railroad system way back in the day. I remember reading years ago and I just think once again it's something that we've inherited, like the QWERTY keyboard.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's one of those things that have been around and we work with implementations of ERP software and in the case you work with Power Platform and such, which we'll talk about on top of a few other things. But we always tell everybody don't just do something, because you've always done it. I agree with you Get rid of daylight savings time. We don't need it, and I even think we could get rid of time zones, because I think we could adapt to what we do at specific times. We go to bed and we wake up.
Speaker 2:It doesn't need to be it would be so much easier. And then it would be on the same day and you wouldn't be in the future.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, exactly Exactly.
Speaker 2:And also happy new year Same to you and we always see Australia starts the new year off, because early in the morning for us it's January 1st, that's right For those in Australia. I've never been to Australia.
Speaker 3:I have to get over there With the MVP program back when I joined, everybody around the world, well out in the Northern Hemisphere, would be waiting for the 1st of January to find out if they had. You know if you're going to get it for the first time. If you're going to get it and for me it was always the 2nd of January I had to wait till right. It was never on the 1st, it was actually on the 2nd you had an extra day to wait.
Speaker 3:It was weird, it was actually on the second, you had an extra day to wait.
Speaker 2:It was weird. It was weird. Yeah, that is funny it is. It is Several things I was looking to speak with you about today and I appreciate your time and taking the time to speak with us. Even so, from the future, and if anything happens, just let me know so I can prepare as I go to bed tonight for the morning.
Speaker 3:I'll let you know when the apocalypse goes to happen before it actually does, so you've got time to prep.
Speaker 2:I've got 21 hours.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1:He's 21 hours ahead of me, that is crazy.
Speaker 2:It's almost a day that's a day. Is that challenging for you Because I don't even know? Is it challenging for you Because I know here in the United States most of the anybody within that region? Do you have challenges? Do you always go by? You know UTC, or what do you do to?
Speaker 3:adapt. The biggest thing is using things, tools now right to mitigate it, but the hardest thing for me, like my company, is a UK based company and we're exactly 12 hours different, so if I'm doing it 11 pm my time, it's 11 am in the morning there. But getting that crossover in business hours is difficult many times, and so I've just got used to working. I'll work from anything from midnight through to the early hours of the morning. That's like one shift of my day, and then the next shift is in my daylight hours.
Speaker 1:How does that deal with your sleep?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I function pretty good on six hours. If I get six hours, I'm good with that, and yeah it works.
Speaker 2:You think you're good with it. Read the book why we Sleep. I read it recently. Listen, think you're good with it. Read the book why we Sleep. I read it recently.
Speaker 3:Listen, I have an aura ring.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I do monitor a lot and I'm trying to maintain to get to like seven hours of sleep, just because I know it's good for my health.
Speaker 2:But yeah, age is definitely excessive. Oh, it is, it is. It depends on what's going on in my life with the impact on sleep. But there was a period after reading that book I made some adjustments, not that the book told me to make any adjustments. The book just explains the physiological effects of sleep and things on sleep and there were several days that I finally felt refreshed, where I slept the entire I didn't get tired the entire day, which was a great feeling. But you having that staggered shift must be a challenge.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not all the time, right, it's periodic. It's if I'm on a contract with Microsoft and I'm delivering training, you know I'll have a four hour block from, let's say, 2amm or something like that, depending on daylight saving time zones and things, but I'm often doing pacific time in that case in the us um no pacific time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the 18 hours, yeah it's 21 for him that must be crazy with someone who's just close to you, because they would be 23 hours, so they're closer to you geographically but further from you. So yeah, if you really think about this time zone thing, we do need to do away with it, because but like all these things, like you know imperial and metric measurements, you got big countries left and right inside of the roads.
Speaker 3:You got big countries left and right inside of the roads. Those things you know. People will die on their hill of why it needs to be the way it always has been.
Speaker 2:So that's wild when the us was talking about switching to the metric system many years ago I think I was young. I was all for it because it's so much easier to just have. I understand it's so much easier to have one system. But I do also understand why they say we already have so many things in production. But that mentality goes back to what I'm saying Just because you've done something forever doesn't mean you need to do it, and eventually that would fall off. So anything new would be all in the metric system and anything old would eventually either be a treasure or a valuable souvenir.
Speaker 1:But it would fall off A relic If you watch Silo, it'll be a relic. That's a great show, by the way.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Next week's the final.
Speaker 2:Which show is that again?
Speaker 3:Silo, it's on Apple.
Speaker 2:Silo. I'm looking for a new show to watch With.
Speaker 1:Becca.
Speaker 3:Ferguson it's such a good show.
Speaker 3:It's so good. I've just got back into sci-fi a bit because of AI and just how you. What has been sci-fi in the past has become our reality in so many different ways, and so I love this whole concept and also I'm putting myself in because you know, the premise is something happened on earth. They put big boreholes down to the earth and built these like 150, 200, story down into the earth um little cities that 10 000 people live in and, of course, you're just getting a lens of one silo, not realizing that there's 50 of them.
Speaker 1:I'll have to check it out. I just check it out, right.
Speaker 2:I will, I will. I'm looking, as I had mentioned, I'm looking for a new show. I just finished Tulsa King season two last night, so I try to watch one show.
Speaker 3:It's part of my routine to unwind in the evening before I go to bed. So it is an unwinding thing, right, like if I come off a podcast or a, a meeting you know at, you know, between 10 and 11 o'clock at night, um, because I'm doing time zone in the uk, I will just be my brain's fizzing and it just. You need something to settle it, you know you do.
Speaker 1:That's why I do a book and a show before bed and I don't know, silas, when it's like sometimes you watch movies where, like, it requires you to think it's like wow, this is fascinating. Silas, one of them, you know it's like wow it could happen, yeah, yeah that's the thing, right.
Speaker 3:I love any show that's kind of on the brink of reality, and that's why I think I've liked sci-fi again a lot, because in the era of ai that we're living in, you can just see so much more things becoming plausible yes, I agree with you on shows that could be real.
Speaker 2:I don't like those far-fetched. You know chris runs into a bar. You know 14 000 men shoot at him with a gun and he never gets hit, but he manages to kill everybody. Those I don't get into, but those that are plausible I get so into, because it's like that could be real.
Speaker 3:It's believable that it could happen. My pet peeve in movies is when the protagonist almost gets beaten up to the point of death or whatever. But you know they're the protagonist, so they're not, they're gonna win. Yeah. And you know, like in fight scenes and stuff, they almost get there, you know, beaten totally down, and then last minute it's like there's a new wind of strength they have and they come back right and you're just like, come on, like yeah and I have those conversations.
Speaker 2:I said because, if that was, if you watched a bar fight, a bar fight doesn't last for 30 minutes. A bar fight typically lasts for a couple hits and then people are down and out, whatever. The only show that I said will say that I liked and it goes with what you had said, was game of thrones, because game of thrones you could like somebody. You watched them and they did like they, they really did that well because, yeah, yeah, the protagonist was the protagonist until he was dead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's not like three seasons later, where you know he got beat up and shot and he's hanging on, you know, by limb, by limb, that's all good fun.
Speaker 3:You know what though? The only fight type movies back in the day, steven Seagal right.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:His movies it never looked like he was going to lose the fight Right. But you go to a James Bond movie you go to any of these, they almost look like they're going to, you know, get taken out and then they recover and it's like the other thing is some of the hits and fights here like there's no way that person would have come off the ground. Yeah, absolutely correct. And it's the same thing Like episode two of season one.
Speaker 2:We already know there's three seasons. Yeah, the guy's not dying. Yeah, but but with that, before we jump into the conversation. I could talk about this all afternoon or all morning or whatever we are today, but before we jump into the conversation, would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm a guy, I have a microphone 21 hours in the future.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, this is the future. Talking to you, yeah, so what do I say about myself? I love tech, I love life, I love the future of possibilities. I love the fact that we're not defined by who we're brought up. You know, you can change things. One phrase I I love and I read it in a book by this indian author some years ago was the concept of brules, um, which is basically a play on the word rules and the play on the word bullshit. Right, bullshit, rules are brules, and that often we're brought up with these rules in our life that are literally your parents. They were trying to control you in a situation, so they made a rule If you pull a face and the wind changes, your face is going to get stuck like that, right, that's an extreme one, but the thing is is that there's so many more subtle ones that you have through life.
Speaker 3:And the example he gave in the book was, you know, he's brought up in india a culture, of course, where they don't tend to eat cows or meat and a mcdonald's came to town and he saw the burger, you know, and the big juicy patty in it, and he said to his mom, I'm gonna eat that and, like she, like you can't. Well, you can't because religious reasons, blah, blah, blah. He was like, yeah, that was a bullshit rule, that was a brawl. So he goes, he went. Nah, that was the best decision of his life, totally loved it, you know.
Speaker 3:And the thing is is that there's so many subtle ones, of those that condition us, though, in life. And so, you know, in the area of tech, you know Satya, I just watched an hour and a half long podcast of him yesterday that he just recently did, and he goes back to that whole how he moved Microsoft by. You know Carol Dweck's book, mindsets fixed in an open mindset, and I just think that this you can really be, and, of course, if the folks that have a mindset to go, no, you can't. You know, you can do and be whatever you want in this tech space, um, that you want. If you want it like it is possible. I just love the like unlimited nature of things. So I know that's a weird way of describing who I am, but it kind of gives you a feel of how I think and yeah, I appreciate that, I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Uh, something else that you do is you do podcasts yeah, yeah, and I just I just launched it.
Speaker 3:Well, I haven't launched it, I've just recorded my first episode of a total new podcast, uh, tail ender last week. So I've been podcasting for eight years now.
Speaker 2:Um, I think today I just published 641, 41st episode, um 641 episodes in eight years, that's that's amazing and a few few that is amazing, and I see so many podcasts popping up, and podcasts are becoming more popular as far as listenership is concerned, because I, to me, they're easy. I listen to a lot of them because you hear information from other people, right it's no longer just uh, somebody that has a big corporation or a lot of financing, because now you get a microphone, they have many servicesailable for you to publish it, rather inexpensive and you can put Information out. There's a lot of good content Available and I like it.
Speaker 3:There's a rawness to it as well, like even watching this video with Sachi the other day, which was a video podcast. Is how it was done. He had two Interviewers and I feel you get an insight into somebody that can't be fully curated right they asked him questions and you could see he would pause.
Speaker 3:He had to think about how he was going to respond. You could see, in some situations he had to play um very tactfully because he doesn't want to release um nda stuff that's coming, you know. And then there's the whole. You could see him darting around legal ramifications of how he could answer right, and so it was just. It was interesting to see that um, the choreography, if you like, of the conversation and then also the interviewer knowing, when they had exhausted a line of questioning, that no matter how much they pressed it, he wasn't going any further, and to be able to read that nuance.
Speaker 3:And I suppose this is the way I look at it, because last week I did three days of my podcast recording and I record in three days a month. That's when I do my recordings. So I did three days, about eight podcasts a day last week Tuesday, wednesday, thursday. So, and the thing is here, I am, you know, my eighth year of doing it and it could get tired. Yet that week was the most invigorating week to me ever, because I just feel like you keep going to a new level of I so want to connect with this guest that I've got on and really go.
Speaker 3:I suppose what I've come as super, super curious about other people's lenses on whatever, as in their view, what I mean by lenses on the world and everybody has something to contribute and the way they look at it can totally change the way I look at it, and so it's becoming, you know, I was saying to my wife, I'm just loving recording this year. It's just so, you know, exciting to me and I just feel like we're uncovering new concepts and ideas all the time and I use that to feed my narrative and how, whatever I'm working on. So, yeah, it's definitely not I'm not getting sick of it, it's just like I feel like 2025 is just a whole new power band, you know, level up. I feel the same. I feel the same.
Speaker 2:You had so much in there that I want to comment on and I have to wait. So three days a month you do your recordings.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you did eight podcasts a day over those three days yeah that has to be pretty exhausting, number one.
Speaker 2:But also to go back to what you said with the, the being invigorated by the conversation with the guests. One thing I know that I get chris and I talk about this, but I'll speak for myself for the moment. Chris can comment on his thoughts on it, but I have a feeling I understand his thoughts as well from our conversations. That's one of the things I have a passion about with this, I think, with technology, in the way that the world is in the opportunity to meet individuals from different cultures, different countries, different organizations, to be able to talk with them and really get a good understanding not even a good understanding, but just to get, as you had mentioned, the perspective of someone else. It's enlightening in a sense, and I've learned so much from just doing this podcast with the conversations.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I feel the same way, because you do have a brand new perspective of the things that you think you knew or I knew, and realize like, oh, that's a good way to put it, and the fact that, uh, the technology now it allows us to do this right, like I mean, you're 21 hours ahead of me and and being able to learn how do you use certain technology in your part of the world that's different from mine, and it does allows me to go back and rethink of how I should approach certain things as well.
Speaker 2:It's fascinating.
Speaker 1:And I'm white belt for life, right? I always tell Brad that.
Speaker 3:It's like that's my mindset.
Speaker 1:I got to learn it. I got to learn it.
Speaker 3:That is so cool. I'm going to note that one down straight off. It was just like a connecting concept, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very cool it's. Another good thing with the podcast is Chris Adventure. You just many people I've become friendly with too, and you know everybody brings something to it as well, and it's always great to see some someone in person. And I enjoy Chris's saying too, because in this day, 2025, the way technology is moving and how many things are being created, you know it's not like it was. You know, a thousand years ago, a hundred years ago, I mean, how long did it take to you know, for us to forge steel?
Speaker 2:you know back from hands. You know, if you look at the amount of time it took in the Industrial Revolution to create things versus the amount of time it does now. Nobody can know everything. You can know some things, and I don't even think anybody can know anything about a particular topic anymore. I think you can know a lot, so you are always constantly learning. So you've done eight years, 641 episodes. You definitely have to have a passion for it and you have how many different podcasts that you do?
Speaker 3:So I have one podcast called the Microsoft Business sorry, that was the old name, the Microsoft Innovation Podcast podcast and within it there is now five shows. So there's the. The og was, when I was just dynamics 365.
Speaker 3:Right, this is pre-power platform days and so it was very much focused around that and so some of the shows have changed names over time or I've retired the show. So as my career kind of transitioned from Dynamics into Power Platform that show, the Power Platform show became one of my key shows. Then I had a show called the Power 365 show where I only interviewed Microsoft FTEs on that show, generally product team type folks on that show. It's now been renamed to the co-pilot show because every Microsoft employee needs to be thinking about selling AI nowadays Now that Microsoft is an AI company, and so that's been a transition that I've made.
Speaker 3:I have another show, that is the MVP show, where I endeavored to interview all the MVPs in Microsoft BizApps and that was like four or five years ago. I started that thinking that I would exhaust that list and I have never been able to exhaust that list and that's only BizApps MVPs. I just made the decision in about November last year is that I'm going to stop just recording Microsoft BizApps MVPs and I'm going to go broader. I'm going to just seek out MVPs that I reckon have a different view on things and tech, and my changes that I've seen and how my career has evolved is that I cannot just stick within the one vertical category anymore, because I feel everything's blending, and particularly ai is blending everything. You know m365 has become massively on my radar in the last year because of copilot, and if you want to edit them with copilot studio, which was a biz apps product, you've got this whole blend now, and now with um foundry, it's like now we're over in the azure space. Um, everything ai has something to do with data. So that means well, you've got to go into to fabric, right? You can't not be in fabric um as part of it, and then security is always prevalent. So that takes you into purview you, and so I'm just finding you.
Speaker 3:Where I've traditionally stayed within the single lane, it's now in the consulting with the, the type of customers I work with. I've got to have this broader lens of microsoft's full offering to bring to the to bear. But of course I'm no longer. My role is no longer working on a specific tool like people. Other people do that, but I need to be able to be able to stretch strategy more broadly across this entire tool set rather than just one. So the exposure is just increasing.
Speaker 3:Then I have this other show called the Ecosystem Show, and that's five of us that go on and we just riff on whatever around ecosystem architecture, and so once again, that's bringing really. It's more aimed, I suppose, suppose at enterprise architects the conversation and really holistically looking at your entire data estate, your entire tool stack and this can involve um outside microsoft. So you know, would that be pega, sap, oracle service, now any number of other products? But how do you really look at ecosystem as an architecture model? Because it really affects where you let data reside, and in the past, most ecosystems are built around a single big thing, like if it's SAP is your core thing, and then it's a case of everyone try to retrofit everything into that one thing, and so you don't necessarily get the best outcome for the organization.
Speaker 3:So that one's just a great one where it's a totally different format than just, you know, one-to-one interviewing. And then the one that I just kicked off is the, the um. The ai advantage is a new show that I'm just uh about. So just uh recorded one episode last week. We'll get probably two episodes more in the can before I go to publish, just so I've got it in a pipeline of that. But this is all about how do I re-skill, no matter what my job in an AI world, so how do I?
Speaker 2:apply the skills I need to grow.
Speaker 3:If I'm a school teacher, if I'm a lawyer, if I'm a CEO, the way you work you need to totally re-skill, and so it's really going to be bringing people on that are what are they doing to re-skill? Because I'm really into AI from a how do I practically apply it? Because I feel there's so much one snake oil out there, there's so much marketing out there and there's so much um theory out there. But I want to know how do I practically move the dial in what I do each day that I can? Because I think the biggest advantage we have as humans that I don't think robots and or ai is going to have is our ability to potentially 100x what we do, because if we cyborg ourselves with AI right, in other words, we use AI to enhance and assist everything we do.
Speaker 2:This is where the sci-fi is coming in right here, just like the good old.
Speaker 3:Well, here's the crazy thing. Right, this device. Right, people have been a cyborg for some time. They just don't realize it's called a, a smartphone. But how much of everything do we do is an extension? Ourselves are now extended to this device in some way, so we are now electronically assisted in just about everything we do all the time.
Speaker 2:Yes, I could talk to you for days. I could already tell, because there's so much to unpack on here. You're doing a lot of shows.
Speaker 1:You are doing a lot.
Speaker 2:I do want to get back to that re-skilling for AI, also with the position of AI encompassing and blending everything together, because in essence it does, because now AI is, I almost think we'll be able to have that point of create me this thing, you go to bed, you wake up and it's there 100%.
Speaker 3:I believe and it's there, a hundred percent I believe that future's coming.
Speaker 2:And then the reskilling is true as well. Some of these things are tough to put your head around. You really have to open your mind and release the bounds. It goes back to your brules, which I'm going to take that as well. We put ourselves in boxes and we think that some things are not possible, ourselves in boxes and we think that some things are not possible. But you have to take a step back, because you do need to think differently when you're working with AI. Just like you know how many years ago we used to go into the field and pick vegetables and then we created machinery to make that job easier and then eventually do most of it for us, right? So then the person that managed the farm, they would do other things, but they had to basically reskill themselves to become more productive, I guess you could say for lack of better terms for the conversation, uh, within there.
Speaker 2:So we need to do that. So I can't wait to hear that one. I I just, can you just throw me on?
Speaker 1:I just want to listen to the conversations and just jump in and just chime in every now and then, get tuned in on those.
Speaker 2:That is, that is fast. That topic is fascinating to me, it's interesting to me, but now you have all these shows so I want to just we're gonna, we'll branch off to the ai and the power platform and stuff momentarily, if we have the opportunity, yeah. But I see a lot of podcasts. I I talk a lot of individuals. A podcast, Chris and I do this podcast and we know what it takes to to to put up the podcast and what drives the podcast to. You know, keep it alive. How do you? How do you do it? So you do three days a month, 24 episodes according. If my math is right, I can do math still soon I won't be able to, and then my smartphone device will be plugged into my head and it would just come up for me. I wouldn't even have to think. It would just say 24 episodes. How do you keep up with it? How do you manage this? How do you produce it? How do you keep up with the work? And you obviously have a family and a job with it.
Speaker 3:You obviously have a family and a job with it. Yeah, so I've always my thing in business and in life. That is my kind of the way I view things is how can I scale Right? How can I scale anything I do?
Speaker 3:When I, when I started my 90-day mentoring challenge I was in London at the time and I didn't want to interview sorry, I didn't want to mentor three or four people a year I was like how could I, how could I mentor a hundred people a year? How could I mentor a thousand people a year? Like right now I'm looking, how can I mentor two thousand people a year? Um, like right now I'm looking, how can I mentor 2,000 people a year? And so I look at everything from how can I scale something? And one of the things that you know years ago, before I got into IT, I was in the medical industry and around manufacturing and clean rooms and I had this mentor that I actually went to North Africa with, who is a scientist for this organization called the Fred Hollows Foundation, and what they do is that a lot of people go blind because they get cataract blindness in that country costing $30, chop out the lens at the front of the eye on both eyes and put in what's called an interocular lens, which is made out of Perspex basically, and somebody that was totally blind can now totally see 100%, and good for him, wow for $30.
Speaker 3:For $30.
Speaker 2:Which currency? Because $30 in the United States isn't even getting you a pen in the opera, in the.
Speaker 3:In the reception room right, 30 us and in in. If I, if you were to do that operation right now in the U? S, that's about a 15 to $20,000 operation. If I was doing it in my country, that would be around a five thousand dollar operation, um to do that right. So here's the crazy thing. So this guy you know um, so the guy went with.
Speaker 3:But anyhow, this big concept around this, this word kaizen, which is a um, a japanese term, right of constant improvement, and so I, I use that, I and and I look at and I look at scaling through batching, if I can stop context switching and get into a mindset of of, let's say, in this case, podcasting. I know my day is going to flow so well because I am not doing podcasting one episode here and then I'm off working on an ERD for a project or sitting down and having an executive discussion in the next meeting. I block out those three days Tuesday, wednesday, thursday because it works well with the time offset for Mondays and Fridays and other people's time zones and I use Calendly for scheduling. I have a lady in Canada that runs all my scheduling of the guests, so she handles. You know, apart from me I will always identify the guest. But just here's an example of scale. But just here's an example of scale.
Speaker 3:So on the weekend I extracted from the Ignite website every single person that delivered from Microsoft an Ignite session on AI, right, cross-reference that. So I extract that, I give it to my scheduling lady and I get her to put that into a spreadsheet. Was their session, what was the session title, what was their name, what's their linkedin url, which she has gone and looked up on linkedin for that person, right? I then reached out to 63 of those people with a personal message about the Ignite session. They did and I'm not saying I want them to come and talk about that particular session, I'm saying, hey, I want to talk about AI with you. And I then, basically, you know, created a template, swapped out their name, their session and that was it, and added their email address. And so I went through, sent those all out Now today, because of time zone, right, coming on with the US, et cetera. Now they're flowing in and podcasting gives you unbelievable access.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:I don't care if Judson at Microsoft, right, who's like one level down from Satya, did a session, I've emailed him, I've reached out to him, right, and of course one of my things are you might feel you're not the right fit, so who on your team is? And so this morning I have an email here where this guy has introduced me to the lady that authored microsoft graph wow that's excellent.
Speaker 3:I've looked her up on linkedin. She's a vice, so she's a vice president of that category and he has referred, referred her and she's in the email thread now with her boss saying, hey, you should come on this podcast.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. See that's the way to do it. I like that. Yes, chris, I'm taking notes, don't you worry.
Speaker 3:And so and here's the other thing, the number I've had multiple CVPs from Microsoft on the podcast. I would never have that access to these people outside of having a platform that allows me to elevate them.
Speaker 3:Just wouldn't be interested, wouldn't be interested and so I do everything on a scale. So, as I say, she does all that scheduling and so there's a two-part process to that. I always do a briefing call right with them where we're going to think about topics and themes, but also lets them feel comfortable that because for a long time was funny in podcasting I'd have people reach out and go you should have grilled that person on that point. You should not let them off the hook on that like and I'm like listen, I'm not a celebrity tabloid I'm gonna hold you to an account like.
Speaker 3:The last thing I want is my guests to feel uncomfortable on the show, because I want them to come back next year or the year after as they've progressed in their careers. I want it to be a good experience for them, and so that's extremely important to me. And so what else do I do?
Speaker 2:That is important, by the way, and we have the same belief with that is we want to have a conversation with somebody because we want people to come back to speak with us again, but we also want other people to speak with us. So some think that the podcast is meant to be a point to put someone on the hot seat. I mean, yes, you can ask them questions if you know of something or whatever, but you do have to know when to stop, because it's important and I think that's where some podcasts become more successful, because the people listening to it can relate to the conversation.
Speaker 2:It's not rehearsed and it's not a marketing, you know, again, for the sake of the conversation, it's not a pre-planned, pre-fabricated conversation. It's a real world conversation with, in your case, some of the members of the Microsoft team that you know hold positions for products or areas that are significant, and that's a key point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we focus a lot on the human side because you know there's always going to be technology and people behind the product, but we want to know who that person is. You know they're someone that they can relate to, like what Brad is saying, right, and it's seeing from someone else's perspective and where they're coming from. So in a way, for me, the way I view it, it's seeing from someone else's perspective and where they're coming from. Um, so in a way, for me, the way I view it, it's almost like an indirect mentorship, because I'm sure people are maybe listening and said hey, that sounds like me.
Speaker 1:How did they get there? And then they share their story. It's like, oh, I see the path they took and, um, and hearing that in return it. That's what I thrive and I enjoy that getting to know people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like it. I like it. So, just to wrap that out, I um so use cattle calendarly to do all the scheduling. That just aligns all the different time zones right so easily. Um, and then I do the podcast recording. I use riverside like this, even like I'm impressed with your guys background. I haven't seen that feature that I could change out that background and I noticed it was on the land in as well. Um, are you on the very expensive plan?
Speaker 2:I don't know. It was one of those I paid for the year um. I'll have to look at the plan to see which plan we have.
Speaker 3:It's the same plan as me, because, as in from the, the plan above, this is like tens of thousands of dollars, it's like yeah it's, it's weird how they go. It's like economical because I was like one day I was like book a call with us to talk about the next level and what you get. So I had this call and it's like, yeah, it's about ten thousand dollars a year. I'm like, yeah, I'm a hobby podcaster. Like that ain't necessary.
Speaker 3:Like this is just all I want to do is allow another person on my account, right, so I could have a separate login, which is that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's funny how that goes. It goes from one person to two people, but the cost for one to two people you might as well write your own software.
Speaker 3:I think it is a great tool, though it makes. I can't say enough how and they just keep improving it. I've never come across a piece of software.
Speaker 2:They keep dropping value all the time yeah, every day and I really appreciate the technology that. When chris and I started, we started like most people. We started with teams, then we went to Zoom go to meeting or Zoom.
Speaker 1:Then we went to Zoom.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, as we got more into it, had more guests and sort of you know for lack of a better term was found on sort of niche. We're like we really need to be able to have separate audio tracks, separate video tracks and. Riverside's method of locally saving and uploading those so you get the web recording and those is wonderful, because I can't tell you how many calls we've had with individuals such as yourself that are way away and you have internet issues, you have connectivity issues and when the final publication comes, you can't even tell that there was a challenge.
Speaker 3:So this dude blew my mind last week. He was from Spain and he works for Microsoft on doing a lot of their stuff that goes to YouTube and so I wanted to do a behind the scenes like how does it all work? And he blew my mind with Riverside. He gets, he gets his get hit the the interviewer from Microsoft to log on on a smartphone into Riverside and just set that up at a on you know, a tripod or whatever, and that's another total, different camera view, so I can actually be logged in twice with my phone as another camera whoa wait, wait a second, wait a second.
Speaker 1:So yeah, unbelievably man mind-blowing because you can just mute the phone right while you just have another video and think about it, and so one of his things that he does is hold on a second so I can record.
Speaker 2:I'm so if I logged in on my phone right now, right right now, you in on my phone right now, right now you could join this session right now.
Speaker 1:And have a different camera angle.
Speaker 3:And now have a camera angle up to the side or wherever you place it, and it's going to record its own channel, right, its own video. So now you're just creating B-roll that you can use to mix up. So this guy, what he does for the topness at microsoft, what he does is he jumps out of um character and talks to his audience while he's interviewing somebody, as he does this.
Speaker 3:So what he does is that he'll turn to the camera and go can you believe what this guy's saying? And then when they do that, cut that up and post. It looks like it's just perfectly and he'll do a cup. You know a couple of those that will never make the cut, but on camera, on the video, it just might look so cool because he's just like breaking the third one is you know so to speak from a dramatic perspective.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they use riverside too that's, yeah, I can't say enough how great riverside is. But, chris, you know exactly what I'm thinking. Because because, do you remember the time? We had a time where chris logged in? I logged in, we went, everybody was in the same room and we couldn't, you know, get it all together. We wanted the camera, but the microphones were picking up. It became a challenge because of the feedback.
Speaker 1:But now, with that, wow it's such a I'm always learning from you mark, because last time we spoke, you gave me some stuff you both?
Speaker 3:would you know if you're both in the same room? On that scenario, both got mobile phones right, so now you got two other cameras. You're going to add the additional camera feeds right to the maximum that riverside will take.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's eight people you can have into a call which.
Speaker 1:I'm mind blown. Now I am Chris. This is See, we're always learning something from Mark. You see, his OG's been this for a long time. I'm learning, I'm learning.
Speaker 2:It was 641 episodes it's so I see a lot of podcasts coming and going in. You know the course of my day and the course of my week. And I understand it.
Speaker 3:Is there even a loo? What they're committing to?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I was going to say. So a question I have here and what you just spoke about with you know some of the things having someone help you. There is work behind it. It does look easy to just sit down and have a conversation, but there's post-production if you want it to look well, if you want it to sound well. So I see a lot of them come and go, but you've been doing it for eight years 641 episodes shows that have transitioned appropriately as the times change, because you need to update and stay fresh. If you could give advice, or two things one advice to somebody who's interested in starting a podcast or who has a podcast, what you think that they should know, or some words of wisdom to be successful with starting a podcast, continuing a podcast, and what it takes for a podcast to be produced.
Speaker 3:I would say the fundamental thing that you need to nail is the ability to listen, and I know it's not technical or anything, but the reason that I've gone so long is that my fundamental goal from day one was to use the podcast. The reason the selfish reason I started podcasting was I needed a practical way to learn how to listen.
Speaker 2:Interesting. I like that.
Speaker 3:Right, I'd been in management positions for so long. I was really good at telling people what to do and that I was the smartest person in the room always. Right, that's how I accelerated my career, because I was generally the smartest person in the room, and with that comes a belief that you're moving beyond a white belt right to use your medical.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was good, that was good and, and I want to, um, I really wanted to like, honestly, I had a sign on my computer, uh, like a post-it note on my screen, which said shut the fuck up, um, which was telling me because I would see that ask your question and then shut up, let them tell. You know, not have to add my story to everything. You know why my view is this and blah, blah, blah. No, it's, let's make them the superstar and let's really listen, and that's why I've learned so much, so much, so much from my guests. So that's the fundamental thing. The other thing don't expend money on tech. Do it for the minimum you can until you realize that this is something you seriously want to do. And on day one you might be serious, like I just saw someone mentioned this morning on another call that I had with a guy in Brazil and he was saying yeah, I've just been invited to be a guest on this podcast and you know this individual started this podcast. I've just finished mentoring him on my 90-day mentoring challenge last year and he's doing like so many things and I know it's almost like he's trying lots of things. But will he be podcasting in a year's time? I don't know. It'll all depend on whether that's the thing that sticks for him or not. So but then you get these people that go out and go. Well, it's all about the tech. I need to go get all the best tech I need.
Speaker 3:You know, I never had the sure. As you know, um, what is it a sure sm7. I never had that. On day one, when I was sitting in Nottingham in the United Kingdom doing a world travel in my cousin's apartment, I had my laptop on my surface on my. The camera was on that, the microphone, that was it. You know. The hum of the fan came through in the audio. It was low tech man, I.
Speaker 3:But the thing is, sometimes you just got to get going and then trust the process that you'll get better. With time your things will become more important. This is my fourth microphone. I think I'm on now, as I have, you know, learned and seen others, and you know my wife is about to get into podcasting and I didn't get her a Shure SM7B. Rode have got a brilliant podcast microphone out there, which I think is you know where this one's. This microphone's been around for years and used in the audio industry. It's the. The newer ones are designed for um for the. You know the world of podcasting, but if you get a blue yeti I'll come and kill you never get a blue yeti microphone.
Speaker 3:It is the shittiest sounding over so many background noises with that right, um, that that somebody could ever use, um, but yeah, so you iterate over time and, like even Riverside, you know the current software that I'm using. I've been through four different other softwares even that were dedicated for podcasting, outside of those ones, like you know, I've recorded on Skype for business. I wouldn't say I record on link. I think Link had gone by the time I first started podcasting.
Speaker 2:Wow, talk about a time machine.
Speaker 3:It's crazy. It's crazy the stuff that. But you get better and you get better and you know there's multiple different formats that you can do podcasts in. That's why I've just found recently I'm branching out into like only last year did I do a solo podcast for the first time, recording where I riffed for 30 minutes myself and I was like, wow, I had never done that and I usually took 30 minutes talking to myself on air.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, it was crazy, it's crazy and as long as you get something out of it for yourself, that's all that matters matters.
Speaker 2:What you had just mentioned is important To me. Listening to you goes to your point and that is also something that I have learned. I get anxious sometimes to speak because I don't want to lose my train of thought, so I try to jot down notes of things so I can go back to it, because I want to hear what you have to say. Because speaking with someone like you, you have so much to me in the short words that you're saying Like you just talked about some things, but you uncover it so much about what it takes to be a podcast about. You know you don't need the tech, you just need the process. You need to, and I think also not having the tech helps you with the process, because you learn how to progress, not just saying I have the fanciest mic and now the microphone's not working, so this is garbage, it's you kind of have to go through the evolution of it, which is important.
Speaker 2:And the big thing is the passion for it, which what I heard you say I'm just going with you, like these are the things that I was thinking with it, telling you my story. Right, what you just told me not to do, I'll do so it's. But for you to be able to sit and talk with yourself and just go off and talk says a lot, because you have a passion for the podcast, you have a passion for the topic that you want to speak about, which is another thing that you know. If I could throw in something is is you have to have a passion behind this, because it is. It is a lot of work, and if you think of it as work or you think you're going to get X from it, you're not, it's, it's something that you have to do, it for the reason of passion, and we, we have planning calls too, when I tell everybody, chris, and when we talked, also, it's, you know, if it's relatable and somebody can get something from it.
Speaker 2:And every single time I say, even if it's only me, yeah, because my goal is that somebody can get something from the podcast, even if it's myself, and I've always appreciated learning from the individuals that we speak with, and you do it by listening.
Speaker 3:Totally, I love it. I love it. It's not cheap, by the way. So my wife, we've got into business together in the last 24 months 12 months really.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I want to hear that story too.
Speaker 3:And so she went through our accounting system and look at what the cost to run the podcast was, and I'd never done that. It costs 18 000 us a year for me to run my podcast. That's not including any of my time, that's just the outgoing bills. I pay to run the podcast because I don't do my post-production. I outsource all that. So for each one of those shows I have a different post-production editor, and this is once again going to scalability.
Speaker 3:If my editor falls over because they're in countries all around the world, those editors, I don't want to lose my entire, all my episodes because my podcast, uh, post-production person decides it's not for them anymore or switches career or whatever, right. And so, yes, yes, I have individuals that do all that work for me. Um, my thumbnail cover art a guy in nigeria does that for me. Um, so it's definitely a multinational run operation. I've got people in Australia, people in the Philippines that are doing those different editing of those artifacts and then, of course, and then you've got the whole publishing schedule making sure it's going out, it's getting posted on social media, that you're writing the right, you know, blurbs, titles, all that kind of stuff which you know.
Speaker 3:I use Riverside as my hosting platform and it has a functionality in there that made my podcast viewership really jump when they bought it out, which was they had embedded AI and they give you five potential titles for this episode based on the content in the transcript. Well, you know, just take the mvp show, for example. If you go back three years or four years, you would say, hey, it's brad on the mvp show, that's the title of it. I'm listening. Hey, it's christoph on the mv.
Speaker 3:Like, wow, that's a real hook me into your episode opening line right. Yet now it's much more. You know detailed. You know I remember having a lady on from Turkey on the show and you know it brought Turkey into the title, it brought a couple of other things and of course it just expands the viewership because now people that are going, oh my gosh, somebody else in Turkey is doing this and they're all listening to it, they're sharing it with their friends. Look at this. And so the AI functionality got really, really good. It's funny. Now I'm thinking of turning that off and not paying for that feature. It's an extra $20 on Buzzsprout because I feel that their LLM behind it is still 3.5.
Speaker 1:I did notice that.
Speaker 3:And I'm like that's not a good title. That title is no longer good enough for my expectation now. It was way better than what I had, and the other thing I noticed is that it takes too much from the opening preamble as the primary thing of the podcast. Because LLMs are inherently lazy in that right. They'll take the first little segment and go bang. I'll go with that. Where I'm wanting to go, I want the meat and potatoes towards the mid and latter half. That's what I want your description and title to be based on, and so that's still going to require manual interaction because it means when I copy the transcript to say, come up with a title, I'm only going to copy from after we've done the preamble, the intro, once we're in the meat and potato. That's what I want you to build me the description and or title on. So that's a new thing that I'll be adding to the podcast this year and using just to enhance it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a good call out, because we do use Buzzsprout and I do notice that it picks up very well in the first maybe 10 minutes of conversation and after that I'm like, what is it talking about? That's not even close to what we were talking about, and so? But Brad's been giving me all the descriptions, so it's been, he's been my AI.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I do use the Riverside AI for some. But, um, you know, we've been experimenting with the descriptions. Uh, you know, with some guidance and trying to, as you had mentioned, just get, get it to become more catchy and something to pick up on that actually encompasses what somebody could expect to listen to, to bring up but, also every episode's not for everybody as well, so it's it's.
Speaker 2:It's the other thing with the podcast is you know you can't expect to have a million people listen to every single episode. You just have to put it out and see that.
Speaker 1:It helps someone.
Speaker 2:Well, I think I mean even over time. So you could release a podcast. And I've noticed that you could release a podcast in the first week or two it's, you know, small listenership and then you know, a year later, you see, like something we spoke about last year, all of a sudden it starts spiking. Yeah, all of a sudden it starts spiking. Yeah, you know, so it's. It's one of those things with podcasts being, I always say it's timeless. Yeah, you don't know when it will show up, where it will show up, how it will show up.
Speaker 3:So also my six most successful, you know, is and based on the number of um downloads. Sometimes they're just my most surprising. You know, right now my most successful podcast was with a guy in France and it was about doing UX and UI for power apps. And this guy had no experience on power apps or at all, and he wasn't a Microsoft person, right, he was a designer. And it's my most download watch episodes of all time.
Speaker 1:Interesting, that's interesting.
Speaker 2:I went for somebody outside the game yeah.
Speaker 1:I'd be curious to see ours was actually the architecture behind Business Central, which is something we had done with a Microsoft product manager, and I was like which is something we had done with a Microsoft?
Speaker 2:Product manager, yeah, product manager. And I was like huh and yeah.
Speaker 1:sometimes we're surprised by some of these statistics. You know that there's a market for people that are trying to understand what is keeping up enterprise software and those are most listened and tuned in Interesting.
Speaker 2:There's a lot to it. Well, Mr Mark, I have a million questions for you, but I'm trying to be respectful. Do you have more time? Yeah, we can talk forever then we can talk forever then about the podcast stuff, because you've blown my mind on so many things. I'm still hung up on the camera. I still have my favorite new term called brules. You had taken white belt for life from Chris. I'm going to use brules going forward.
Speaker 1:I will say, though, if I take a quick pause, I do want to say thanks for introducing us to Podpage, because it allowed us to kind of move and kind of grew up a little bit right and then went to PodPage to redo our website, and so that's very, very helpful tip. So I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you, we're still going through the transition to PodPage and everything's on PodPage. But, as you know, we had moved over there just before the end of the year and we've been doing this for close to four years now. I can't even believe that it's like you you've been doing it for eight.
Speaker 2:For us it's almost four years. It'll be four years and a few months and we have all that content that was brought over and now, obviously, some of the features that are in PodPage we didn't have before. And again, with the time commitment, we're just going in slowly and adjusting. What needs to be adjusted for the previous episodes and that's what Chris and I talk about is that we'll eventually get to it and the new episodes.
Speaker 3:We get the new stuff. That is another one PodPage and Riverside are the two staples, in my opinion, that you need to have, because a hundred percent featuring functionality, right it's, it's riverside buzzsprout and uh okay, yes yeah, and pod page.
Speaker 3:I think, like my goal this year is to get more audience participation, and Podpage has a thing called voicemail on it where somebody can literally click a button, they approve their you know to take audio and they can record something right, and so that AI advantage show of multiple times encourage people given a bitly link. You know I've created a bitly link, so a short link for them to be able to access it and leave me a voice message, because then I'm gonna play that voice in a future episode and address whatever it is, um, or, or speak to whatever they talk about, but it's allowing that person now to come into the show, right, and that's such a cool feature.
Speaker 1:That is a cool feature.
Speaker 3:I've had it there for as long as I've had PodPage, which I don't know how long, how many years it is now but nobody's ever used it. I've never encouraged it, I've never talked about it. But I'm wanting a much more a participant, uh engagement in the podcast, if possible using audio rather than yeah, that'd be cool.
Speaker 1:Found on the bottom right hand corner, that's it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's it record your voice.
Speaker 2:No, that's pretty amazing well with that, just you know, just a conversation with us. Nobody's listening. We're going to be doing a few things this year similar to what you're doing, just to grow in and branch out. Have you ever done any live podcasts? I thought of doing live podcasts. You're talking about the voicemail to get the audience participation. What about time zone taken out of the whole conversation?
Speaker 3:obviously podcast, which then you then syndicate afterwards. Yeah, so for a year, about a year and a half, I did a weekly one. Uh, live, fully live. Uh, so live stream to youtube. Um, people would be commenting, like I use obs to to run that configuration on desktop. Um, I did it with a mate in the us, in florida, and we would banter and you know. But the thing is, what we noticed is that the audience you would always get your audience that were the same people we didn't find after a year and a half that were attracting new people. It was just the same core of loyal followers that wanted to put stuff in the chat and be in the banter and that type of stuff. And so I knocked I knocked it on the head because it just didn't seem to be going anywhere and that engagement numbers, right.
Speaker 3:One of the things I think that people like podcasts is that they listen at a time or watch at a time when it's convenient for them. And what I noticed when I started this, it was all around commute. What I noticed when I started this, it was all around commute People. If they're on a train or on a bus or whatever method of commute in their car. That's when they would put the podcast on. The problem with a live in a global market is that there's only going to be a fraction of people that their time is free right now when your time is free, that their time is free right now when your time is free, and so that's why I've never, you know, even Riverside has this new full live function and stuff that you could do.
Speaker 3:In Florida, I was at a conference and I set up three cameras on a rig, all running off my Surface laptop, and I did full live streaming from the conference floor. This was pre-COVID and the amount of people that watched the live was minuscule. Heaps of people watched the after the fact and I would just like I was in the middle of the expo area and had a whole area cordoned off big backdrop. You know all provided by the conference organizers. They thought it was epic. Right, we're going to do live streaming from the floor. And you know Charles Lamana, for example. I did a 30-minute off-the-cuff interview with him, both on cameras. Boom, I had two chairs. I was in one chair, he was in the other. We just sat down and we'd just riff on stuff. But once again, the live was more effort to keep it live. And you imagine conference Wi-Fi? Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Although in this case I actually had wired. One of my prerequisites to doing it is that they had to give me a wired internet connection just because I knew conference Wi-Fi is notoriously bad. And then the following year Microsoft had me do that in Atlanta at one of their conferences. And man, it's just such a once again it's more fun the actual engagement in there and you'd have people standing around the peripheral watching what was going on. But the tech is so amazing that we could do this on what. I could fly from the other side of the world in my suitcase, equipment-wise, and provide this amazing, you know, high fidelity experience. So I've definitely played with all these things, um, but it's the traditional podcasting and mainly audio, but I'm going more and more to video podcast now. Um is is kind of the model it's worked no, I I I agree with you on it.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think the live is fun and it's also live is good because if you, as you mentioned, the post-production, not even the post-production but the post-broadcast individuals can still watch. But I know I listen to a lot of podcasts, like you said, and it's always of opportunity I can listen to it during the day.
Speaker 2:I listen to it usually while I'm working in the background, and then I'll pause it if I have a meeting or something. So it's rare that I listen to a podcast from end to end because I don't have the opportunity, as you mentioned. If I'm commuting somewhere or if I'm out walking, I stop and go.
Speaker 3:But I do like the live aspect of it because, again, like you said, you get the cool factor of being maybe at a location and doing something live and then also, you know, maybe limit the post-production that you need to do, because it's just yeah, you know one, and done right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I've been practicing. I can do it pretty well now with the stream, deck and ob using obs you know, stream deck is amazing.
Speaker 3:Right in anything from Elgato is. I've just bought more Elgato stuff this week and for me I've got to bring that all in from overseas because it never hits where. You know New Zealand for years, but I don't know if you've noticed. They've just bought out a hub for the Stream Deck, a USB hub that you've actually got to unscrew and it fits inside it and gives you this on-desk hub as well as an SD card reader and stuff like that. It's for the Elgato. That's the latest, this one here with the knobs and stuff.
Speaker 2:I don't have that one, I have just the one with the buttons.
Speaker 1:I use it for the longest time.
Speaker 3:That's exactly what I have have you got the foot pedal one under your desk as well. No, I got the foot pedal one.
Speaker 3:I'm looking at you now in my Elgato HD cam through an Elgato teleprompter, which is, just honestly, this alone. Every person that does Teams calls needs to get this config because it allows for such a much better personal experience. And you're never going. You know what's the audience reaction. What's the audience reaction on other screens. You're seeing it right in front of you and I was in this Teams meeting the other day and I was saying let's call them truth bombs that not everybody wanted to hear um, the truth, right, but the thing is, as I was saying it, I was able to read everybody's reaction. Five other people on that call their faces were right in front of me and I'm talking right into the camera, so I knew I had their attention. I could see how they responded to what I was saying and it just creates a much more personal experience when you can, you know, have this.
Speaker 3:And it was only MVP summit. Last year I had another MVP because this they weren't even shipping these around the world. Pick it up for me, bring it to conference and have it. And and added he was. He was, uh, he's another, uh, you know, podcast, a content creator, and he was like man, why did you buy this, you know? And like, guess what? He has one now because it's just, it is so awesome Much better than like camera attachments that have these little like mirror effects and you put your iPhone in. No, it's a proper dedicated, there's screen, the reflection is a proper extension. It flips it all by default. I can teleprompt it as well, if I, if I, uh wanted to do that. Um, but yeah, solid, solid more tips yeah, I'm, just I'm.
Speaker 2:I'm light years behind mark now because the this I was been practicing over the break the holiday break of, you know, being able to switch scenes, transition scenes and everything. I mean OBS we don't use OBS, we just use Riverside. But for some of the other recordings that I want to do in 2025, I've been messing with OBS and with the Steam Deck. I mean the Stream Deck. Excuse me, the only thing I used the Stream Deck before was to like copy and paste on the Mac.
Speaker 3:Show hidden files and copy and paste plain text. That was it. My favorite feature is having all the time zones that I work across, having all those clocks on it.
Speaker 3:Oh right, in front of you I can see Seattle, london, singapore, chicago, new York, sydney, brisbane, madrid, zurich, vienna Sorry, that's Brussels, what was the other one not Brisbane? And I've got all those times there. So when I have a guest come on I'm like, yeah, I can see kind of what time they're in straight away. And then the other one I love is a color picker from the stream deck, so there'll be a color on screen and wherever your cursor is, you just hit the button. It gives you the hex code on it. I've used that a lot.
Speaker 2:I have to use it more. I have to use it more. Maybe I'll get. The issue is I have multiple setups. I like to move around.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I have basically three workstations here to work with, so I need to just pick one and Pick a spot. Pick a spot and make it cool, like yours.
Speaker 3:When I set up my studio which was, once again, this is only a more recent thing Like I've got sound attenuation on the walls and stuff like that. It made it so much easier. Like I used to record from anywhere on the road and you could tell in the audio quality the experience, that type of thing. Now I purposely, like I often every conference I go to oh, would you do a podcast live from the conference? No, nope, it's just. I know when I've got everything at my fingertips it's going to be a much better output. It might seem fun to do at a conference, but I'm like that means I've got to have a bunch of microphones. You know, I've got to take my road um caster desk.
Speaker 3:No, no, that's a hassle for me to lug that around the world um I do have a roadie kit though that is, is that size my entire road kit now, and, uh, that's pretty epic for doing podcasts at an event.
Speaker 1:Podcasts in the road.
Speaker 2:Having a dedicated workspace is important because it's easy to just sit down and do, versus set up and do and then break down or whatever We've tried to do, some live and some on the road and you learn everything. You have to try everything and you learn uh is is is what I can say with it, and too.
Speaker 3:And it's fun, the learning, it is fun.
Speaker 2:It is the creativeness is the fun part for me, um, and the meeting the individuals as well, too. I, I have so many things. I have so many things back to the AI conversation that we started off with. I have so many things, I have so many things back to the AI conversation that we started off with. You know, not to take away from the podcast portion of it, but, um, so you had mentioned, um, ai and you know, basically just blending everything and the need to reskill. Um, where do you see AI in the future of ERP software, even power Platform, and now you have, you know, with Copilot Studio, everybody can create their own piece of it Now, within ERP, the word you know. Last year the word was Copilot. This year the word is Agent, which was the tail end of last year Within your, because you work with Power Platform at this point, outside of the podcast, where do you see AI as it fits within the future of the ecosystem?
Speaker 3:People might not like my answer.
Speaker 2:I like your answer.
Speaker 3:I can already tell I think it's all going to disappear, as in. What I mean by that is that the concept of you and I interfacing or building out solutions is what's going to disappear. You know, in the power platform we have a tool called power automate. We have power apps. We have power BI All what I would call the hammer, the screwdriver, the pliers of our industry. Right, they're the tools that we use Now. You might have F&O, you might have Business Central, you might still be on a Narvision system, right? Or NAV system.
Speaker 3:The thing is, these are all software that were designed for us to keyboard in data, run a report, get data out of, look at inventory levels, look at manufacturing data, look at where we are up in the business process. I think all that's going to be abstracted away from us in our day-to-day lives. So I'm not saying that software is going away. I'm not saying Power Automate's going away. But if you have I'm a power automate consultant in five years time on your title, I would be shocked because that will be. Oh yeah, remember that software. We know it's running behind the scenes, but all our interfacing, all our comms will happen via uh apis into that data. We don't care where it is, we don't care what the interface over it is, or we will choose the interface based on what we're doing right now. So I think that our role as consultants in this space is going to dramatically change in the next five years. Right, I don't see a long-term strategy of becoming a power automate expert, you know from an automation layer.
Speaker 3:I don't think RPA has been a long term strategy in my career.
Speaker 2:I think you hit that because and I think it's accelerated and it's something that you have to grasp your head around. If you look at the conversations on agents, how agents will work in their specific functions, and then the, the ability of the AI to model and do things, you will have and I say this abstractly you will have data that exists and, as you had mentioned, I'll be able to say I want to see this, wait a few minutes, and it will be there. So that interface that you have, we primarily focus with Business Central. I think that will change as well, too, because now the order entry system, looking at the sales orders, like that whole interface, will change to where?
Speaker 1:An agent does it for you.
Speaker 2:Well, the agent will get the data in Agent can process some of the data, can do some of the analysis. There's certain things that can be automated, that people review, but how you review it will change and how you take that data and process it will change and what you process will change because these systems are getting faster, more structured, so that dynamic ability to process will change as well.
Speaker 1:Mark, you hit a point there that I feel I have the same opinion, where the consultant you are today will be different within the next couple of years, because you're so used to the technical aspect of putting all together, architecting it. It's no longer that. It's almost where the consultant will become more of a conversational business consultant rather than a specific product, because as a consultant, you have to look at the bigger picture and when you look at a bigger picture you're looking at different technologies. Right, it's now becoming that. It's going to shift. It's going to be pretty wild.
Speaker 3:Massively.
Speaker 2:It will go much quicker than it has because we can say that it has evolved over time with the way that technology has advanced with data processing, with computer processing and architecture processing. Chris, to your point, I agree, or view that as well. It's your business knowledge and how to adapt to that and work with things is going to be important Right now, even looking at ERP implementations, again focusing on Business Central, now that they've introduced the D365 stack, I'll call it with Power Platform and all those tools Power Automate, power everything, power Agent, ai you no longer just say let's limit it to the box of Business Central for a business to process the requirements that they have. It's how can we piece all these things together to give someone what they need to become where they'd like to be within their business? I'm in alignment with you in that sense that it will all disappear. It will just be like one of those robots, right, or one of those systems where it's all just there. Just give me this.
Speaker 3:I don't care how it's all connected Give me this.
Speaker 3:I think we'll have input devices which could be in. It could be they could be tactile input devices, they could be visual, they could be auditory input devices, right? And then I think we're going to have all our screens and you're going to go, you know, bring me up the three month forecast on product X and put it on that screen there and it would have context of you pointing. If you had a projection screen or whatever I can put on my iPad and it will have the context of all those devices. But when you ask for that data, it will just be formatted without the chroma, without the noise of every interface and it will just be data. So I'm feeling that how we interface in the future from a visual element will look a lot more like really, really awesome graphic design on steroids and no interface.
Speaker 3:You won't need a hamburger menu because you're not going to go. Go up there open. Like you know, the whole concept of navigation is going to go away, right, why will you need navigation? You'll just command through to your next level. Wherever you want, you'll go. I need to drill deeper into those numbers and, by the way, all our enrichment feeds on any data set.
Speaker 3:So if we're talking about a customer. It's found overnight the latest news item regarding this customer and how it's going to actually plummet their ordering potential over the next three months, and your system's already updated with that data and said, hey, we're going to need to mitigate that by bringing on three new customers over in this area, but you didn't think that that's what you needed to do, but it's gone. I know that this is going to be the outcome. Based on patterns of the last 15 years, I think that we're going to be just like being able to operate at whatever speed our mind will let us go at, and so I think, man, every consultant is going to need their skills to develop master communicator skills. You're going to have to be able to communicate at all levels.
Speaker 2:I've said this to somebody a year or two ago. I said relationships is going to be the important part of this industry, and what I mean by relationships is what you said the ability to communicate, the ability to share knowledge and I'm going to take back what you said as fast as our minds can process. So we're saying, and for the sake of this conversation and it's a fun conversation, it's all prediction based on our thoughts Within five years, we'll be in that state. I'm going to say, within 10 years, we're going to go back to a word that you said, and I wanted to talk about this as well, too along with the AI, we're going to be cyborgs. You're talking about the context of devices, I think, if you look at what we have done medically with individuals which is great with the ability to hear again, with the ability to see again.
Speaker 2:If somebody has a challenge with one of their limbs because of an accident or maybe something. When they were born they had a challenge and they can put a hand on them so that they can navigate easier. You can put some of these devices, I think, where that information will just be there. It's weird, in a sense, that you can think it and it will come, based upon all the information that's there, even today, with the phone, as you had talked about, or on the computer in conversation.
Speaker 2:I'm anti using the phone, like when we're eating dinner and such, so we can have that human interaction, unless it's the concept of sharing something or we're talking about something, we need to look it up. But how often do you look things up now and how fast do you get the response? Even now, with all the search engines no longer listing the websites, they give you the AI summary first, and then you can link to the websites for further information. So that is not that far off Before some of us would dream that this isn't our lifetime. I'm an old dude. This is my lifetime.
Speaker 1:We'll see this the way you mentioned earlier, mark um. You know you, when you described yourself, it's, it's, it's. You know you got to think outside the box now be able to not be confined within the parameters of what that technology does you. You have to really think about that now further and learning about other products and services, and then allows you to become a better business consultant rather than a power automate consultant yeah, so totally, and I think people need to get smarter about time horizons.
Speaker 3:You know I need to get this done because it's you know, it's going to be too late, otherwise I'm 53 and as and I've so I've had 30 years in a career, right, and I feel like that and, by the way, that's my third career, so I had, I had two others prior to going into IT and at my age I feel like I'm just starting over and I've got another 50 years to go, right, and so I think that some things around, oh, you need to play, you need to be fast, because it's going to be too late. I am now looking at how I'm educating myself. Is, for the long, another 50 years, right? And I know that, if I can point to people that are 50 and they think life's on the decay, we're on the tail end, we're in our final years. You know it's a path to retirement.
Speaker 3:Here I'm just like man, the, we're just getting started and and when you talk about cyborg, I think you know within 50 years we could, we could become a mortal right, meaning that every medical condition is solvable and the only reason people die of old age it's not because of old age. It's a disease in old age. Right, it's a degenerative disease generally that kills old people. So I think there's no reason why the body couldn't last 150 years if it was medically maintained from. Everything was repairable.
Speaker 2:It's not only that, it's you supplement it. We talked about the cyborg with the mind, with information. Those are all parts of aging, unfortunately, where cognitively you slow down. For lack of better terms, it's just a part of age. But if you can augment that with being a cyborg, all of that information is still there. You don't forget that information. You can repair and enhance your body in a sense to keep it moving. Like, what do you need to keep moving? You need oxygen, you need blood what is who's to say?
Speaker 1:this is like sci-fi this is sci-fi on steroids in a sense, why can't you take all of you, put it on a system that someone had a conversation with you and that could be long gone, but someone could still have a conversation with me. It's possible.
Speaker 2:It's absolutely possible. It's possible now. The function of your heart is to pump blood. The function of your lungs is to expel waste. You put oxygen in your body. It goes and collects waste, so you expel the waste. Who's to say that can't be a mechanical function that works with your body? And look how small the phone is. The challenge is now we do have those devices that can keep individuals alive in the hospital, but they're large devices. Drop those devices to where it can be small. Thankfully we have pacemakers. We have other devices like that today.
Speaker 2:Just imagine that At scale. At scale for the rest of the bodily functions. Chris, to your point, you'll be around forever. It's sad that the world's population will have a challenge.
Speaker 1:My mind will be around forever, but it will even be your mind at that point.
Speaker 2:You'll just have all of the information of the world.
Speaker 3:We don't have to worry about world population sizing because so many countries, including China, some of the biggest populations in the world, Japan, etc. They're all in a population decline because of government policy and now human nature selfishness, if you like. I don't support a kid. That's my money yes, are you crazy? This is about my life?
Speaker 2:no, I don't know. I've talked to many generations behind ours and they don't want you so.
Speaker 3:So there's that whole thing. I don't think we're going to overpopulate.
Speaker 2:I think, if anything, we're declining in that, thankfully, yes, I want the turtles and the birds to live, to be honest with you, I say that statement. I say with all sincerity I care for the planet and the animals and the structures of the planet. I don't want to say more so than people, but more so than people. But I think the population will go down. I say that in jest, because now your companion will also be a cyborg Dude you can fit in an SD card forever.
Speaker 1:That's it. You can fit in an.
Speaker 2:SD card. I mean, we say some of this in jest, or at least I do, but it's add the sci-fi to it.
Speaker 2:If you go back, even to the sci-fi movies, all that stuff seems to be coming true, like with the imaginations, yeah, but the advances in technology are are increasing exponentially in shorter periods of time to where you you had mentioned, mark. 50 years is a new horizon. It's not a decline, it's I'm just starting. Add more ability to not have some of the declining features of age and you will be 120 years old, sitting down saying, ok, yeah yeah, yeah, I'm thinking this with my process. This is will we ever get to a point where nobody works?
Speaker 3:I think the problem is the word work and the understanding of that. Are we going to get to the point where we don't have to trade time for money? Absolutely? Are we ever going to stop creating? Are we ever going to stop inventing? For me, my goal right now is to eliminate creating, uh, doing trading time for money, right as soon as I have got the mechanism, which I'm well on the way to doing is allowing money to produce money, um, which is what most wealthy people do, right, they use mailbox money chris to create wealth.
Speaker 3:Yeah, is that? Then? I have got like an unlimited supply of projects I want to work on that. Don't make money, but they're projects. I want to work on their ideas. I want to bring to life my oldest son. He's 19, and the property I'm on here is an acre and a half and he goes. You've just created Minecraft in real life and I'm like that's exactly right, that's exactly what, because we used to play Minecraft all the way through, you know, as younger years. And now I have created a real Minecraft that it's not blocky but it's me creating the world like trees, plants, food, everything, um, you know I've got a centropic forest and everything that I'm developing because I want to one reduce my sustainability footprint. But I have unlimited projects. I have unlimited number of countries and locations I want to see and people I want to go see and spend time with, and um, if I didn't have to trade time for money, that would be epic, sooner or later better that is the goal but I'm still back.
Speaker 2:talk about getting something from the podcast. I got the most from this, I think that definition of work, trading time for money. It goes back to the concept of what we started the episode with. What we just mentioned is you have to change your thought process to the limits that you know today, Because those limits won't be there, or those boundaries or those rules. It all comes together. Those rules that we have that tell us how we have to do something, keep us in a box, and the reality is we don't have to stay in that box in the sense and can move forward and have to look at things differently. All this within my lifetime too.
Speaker 1:You only have a couple of years on yourself Fascinating within your lifetime.
Speaker 2:I'm just. I don't even know what to say anymore. And it's not that I ran out of things to say.
Speaker 1:I'm just left speechless because my mind You're going through science fiction.
Speaker 2:My mind is processing so many things with the conversation that we've had this morning, this afternoon, this evening it's. I could do this for days and for hours, but we do have to trade time for money, uh all of us in the year of 2025 but uh, mark, thank you for taking the time to speak with us.
Speaker 2:It's been an enlightening conversation. We didn't get a chance to talk a lot about the power platform stuff that I had hoped to. Hopefully we can do that at some point in the future. I know you have a busy schedule. I'll reach out to you afterwards and maybe we can go. Good, we can try to keep it.
Speaker 2:It's a powerful platform, but I don't know with us, this group, but, uh, thank you for all that you do, thank you for all that you do, thank you for all that you do for the community and the podcast that you have. If anyone's looking to maybe get in contact with you to learn about some of the great things that you're doing, find more information about your podcast, find about your roadblocks in real life and some of the other great things that you work on, how would they do so?
Speaker 3:So LinkedIn, best way to get me. You can't miss me. Nz365 guy. In fact, if you just type that into any um, llm or search engine or whatever you want, all roads point to rome, as in they will, they'll all point to me.
Speaker 2:Nz365 guy excellent and I love that sign. I've been waiting for a sign just like that for years. I'm going to have to get one. Chris, we'll have to make it.
Speaker 1:I shared one with you. I know I just have to order it.
Speaker 3:I really appreciate the background. Yeah, that's it. You got a spot for it. You both got spots for that absolutely, I'll put somewhere. But thank you again for your time.
Speaker 2:We appreciate it. Look forward to speak with you again soon. Ciao, ciao.
Speaker 1:Take care, mark ciao, ciao thank you, chris, for Take care, mark you, for all of our listeners tuning in as well. You can find Brad at developerlifecom, that is D-V-L-P-R-L-I-F-Ecom, and you can interact with them via Twitter D-V-L-P-R-l-i-n-o dot i-o, and my twitter handle is mattalino16. And see, you can see those links down below in their show notes. Again, thank you everyone. Thank you and take care.
