Jeremy Weisz 6:55
stereotypes, I love it.
Unknown Speaker 6:56
Yes. And your reference to what moves the needle or who helps To move the needle, I love that being the conduit for us to talk about this and for us to connect because the evolution of us all, let alone the finance leaders to understanding what role we need to play and how easy it is for us to communicate in this day and age given changes in technology and culture, our connectedness, but also the challenges and opportunities that come with that. I will tell you a major driver for that evolution of the CFO role and CFO decision making is that we as finance leaders, and I’m one of those, I’ve never shied away from the idea and the National desire to under understand basis for decision making. That term basis began as a quantify a bowl of numbers driven piece. A basis can also be a qualifiable what I see and hear in the environment around me, but our natural willingness and ability to explain, understand and communicate a basis for decision making. I had my first real time understanding of that back in 2008, when we had our last go round of challenge and crisis, and finance leaders was saying, you know, I just need to understand how we got there and how we can position ourselves to response. And I said, No, you don’t just need to understand you need to communicate it and understand how to communicate it. And that’s what’s led to the sense of connectivity and purpose then, that I become all about and hopefully is the reason why that CEO said, you know, what moves the needle finance leaders.
Jeremy Weisz 8:44
So, what have you heard through your network? What are some of the you know, you don’t have to name companies or people but some tough decisions people had to make right now.
Unknown Speaker 8:54
So I will tell you tough is is an understatement. We’re impacting and finance leaders. have a voice and a responsibility to make decisions during crisis like these are making decisions around their employees, you know, related to headcount related to who is essential and bought non essential to the business during the crisis and potentially around a rebound. They have to make decisions around and communicate decisions not just on the employee side, but client or customer side as well. You know, analyzing and communicating on not just who we can pay will pay and need to work within our own supply chain of delivery, but and they will pay and who be paid by on the client side. You know, these, these numbers have people behind them. And so, you know, time we’re talking about decisions, It needs to be made made around the workforce. And the other half were around the customer or client. And what we’re trying to do is help finance leaders align those two, and understand that one impacts the other.
Jeremy Weisz 10:11
Yeah, it’s really tough. Because if you have a vendor for a long period of time, and you don’t want to tarnish that relationship, but it at this point, there may be something that’s more pressing. What are some of the ways people are navigating that conversation? Is there like a good way of approaching that person or? Well,
Unknown Speaker 10:30
yeah, I will tell you, I thank God that we began this journey to enable finance leaders to have a more confident, competent voice on decisions that need to be made and increase their visibility as an enterprise leader, and a market leader and an industry leader not this way. I’m glad we didn’t began that journey years ago. Because the core foundation for all of this is their willingness to ability to have a conversation. So first, they are no longer the CF knows. We used to call them that right? Oh, here comes the CF No. Right? Yeah, or Here they come, they’re gonna say no, we don’t have the budget. See the pathway? So, you know over a dozen years ago, we began this journey to help prenups are not the CFL. But your question is a valid one. How do you How are they having those conversations? And how, how do they prepare and execute on those. So first off, the key word you use, Jeremy has conversation, it’s dialogue, we’d have to be it is, you know, has to be with a voice a personal voice on behalf of the enterprise voice. So number one, we want them to be authentic. Right, they need to relax and be themselves. And at the same time they need to press to have an actual conversation. And that conversation could be via phone In this current environment, it can be via zoom, or other technology, but it needs to be a dialogue. It cannot be a spreadsheet, it cannot be a number. It has to be a dialogue. So number one, we’re counseling them who to for many of them have been having these conversations with their clients and employees. So it’s natural that we’re selling, the more that you can create that sense of two way dialogue, the better. Second, form and substance matter as well. How many times have you, Jeremy, are the CEOs and C suite leaders you’ve interviewed said, You know, I misread misinterpreted or why did they I am me when they’re 110 feet away from me, or why did they send me an email when they’re one office away from me? Well, now we’re operating temporarily in a virtual remote environment. We’re saying stick to having a conversation and understand that both the substance and the form of the message matters most Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz 13:00
Because people will default to maybe what’s easiest, not what’s best. So they may text someone or email someone and then there’s no context, sir.
Unknown Speaker 13:07
Yeah. And to your point, these, these are big decisions, not little ones, and they’re impacting, you know, both short and long term for individuals, and those by those individuals, their families and the like.
Jeremy Weisz 13:19
So, I’m gonna go back a little bit,
Unknown Speaker 13:22
Nick, and I’m curious, how did you get
Jeremy Weisz 13:24
involved in this starting this community at all?
Unknown Speaker 13:29
Ya know, it’s fascinating. If anybody looks at my background, they’re gonna say, okay, he has it. He has a background in finance, but he was a lawyer. And he was in leadership roles in a variety of different professional services firms with the financial focus. How did that how did this come about? So I was asked, so in a former leadership role in the professional services space, I was asked by the CEO of this firm I need to understand what’s driving your performance and passion. And you know what I sold? I don’t really know the answer to that question. And rather than go away and lock myself in a room and try to psychoanalyze myself, I actually said, Why don’t I asked the people that are coming to me or responding to me? why they’re coming to me and responding to me. And that group that was most frequently coming to me, or asking my opinion, or chief financial officers, given the work that I was doing in my firm was doing so I took seven of them out to dinner, I invited them to dinner, their only connection was that they were CFOs or coming to me, and I took them to a really nice place Jeremy with some really good food, and some really good wine. And I made sure we reporting the wine right down the barriers, and I treated them like a focus group. And I said, Alright, I need to know why are you coming to To me with issues and opportunities that are personal to you, and or really critical to your performance as a CFO, and therefore critical to your enterprise performance. Here’s what they said. He on being a qualified, somewhat selfless listener. So I was competent, right? It wasn’t like I was, you know, they’re asking them stupid questions. They said, more often than not, I was connecting them to a qualified peer to challenge or validate the confidence in decision making. And to them, there was no greater source of qualified competency building and confidence building, then to tap into a qualified network of your peers. And I said, Okay, that’s great. I’m viewed as that connector. On no one thought I was wasting their time so I was efficient and effective. I said, if I created a place where you can tap into that more frequently, with great efficiency and effectiveness than having to pick up the phone and call me. Would you spend time energy and effort to make that the place you went? And the answer was yes. And that became the genesis for creating a network. And I never wanted it to be an association. There’s no offense to the association world. You’re you are historically you are your boundaries are geography, right your market. So Jeremy, you’re in Chicago, I’m in Philadelphia. I wouldn’t know what was going on in Chicago. If my boundaries were chapters or local groups. I wanted the qualifier to be this network for finance leaders by function based upon shared interests in issues, industries and markets. And I wanted his social so the dialogue and reputations were built based upon what you contributed, not what you took, what you contributed with your voice and your mind. And your heart. So we began building it.
Jeremy Weisz 17:04
So the CFO lines and we’ll get to the chro, but the CFO Alliance So, you know, there’s a lot of aspects and dimensions to this to the CFO Alliance, what are some of the things when people explore it and engage with it? What do they get? How does it work?
Unknown Speaker 17:19
Um, so so we do tell people that if you’re looking for a catalyst or lightning rod, for your own professional understanding and development, and by the way, we don’t mandate that you apply everything you learn to, to what you do, it’s not that rigor of a programatic system. What we do tell them that your reputation is predicated based upon your participation and your contributions to enhance people’s understandings. So your incentive incentivize to share. And by the way, what’s the knock on CFOs that I started with, they reviewed as not to Sharing. They were viewed as kind of locked away less social by nature less visible. We said no, the only way into this network is by putting yourself in and making yourself vulnerable to admit what you don’t know. Yeah, and maybe the tough thing. Yeah, is maybe maybe your reputations build on telling someone else don’t make the mistakes I made. Right versus Oh, we have all the answers. Right. So I think that first of all, we know whether or not it’s right. And an individual knows whether or not our networks are right for them. Because it’s a love that idea. putting themselves in there like that. They’re gonna
Jeremy Weisz 18:41
resonate with it, or they don’t I just had someone email me the other day. They said, Jeremy, you’re a part of this network. What do you think and I’m like, you know, you get whatever you put into it for one. So you know, if you’re willing to get out there and make the connection and also, you know, like you said, be vulnerable and share what’s going on. Not just the wins, but like, yeah, some of the mistakes that’s gonna be most valuable for people so they can avoid those things. How do you get people to share and be vulnerable?
Unknown Speaker 19:09
Well, I’ll tell you, we use our ears. So I’ve never and never at all directed, managed or led our team here at AchieveNEXT, to build it and they will come. So we’ve created in a 20 473 65 environment of surveying, benchmarking and best practice sharing. And we simply use that data to draw them in to say, listen, your peers are talking about x. Therefore, we think it’s recommended that you join that discussion, or you contribute your voice. And we’ve never done a panel or podium, virtually or face to face. So what we’ve done is say, create an environment online and offline for dialogue. So the my I’m pointing to my ears, my ears, our ears are our greatest source of determining what should be talked about. And environment to be talking about it in. So, you know, there’s there were the connectivity and the dialogue oriented nature of the network leads to the competency building and or focus for discussions in exchange. So CFO
Jeremy Weisz 20:16
alliance that when someone joins what, what are some of the aspects? What do they get?
Unknown Speaker 20:21
Yeah, so so we produce an ongoing series of one to one small group and large group discussions. And in this current environment, that that’s done with technology, you know, we’ll bring together 35 to 50 finance leaders based upon some combination of shared interest or desire to connect on an issue and industry or market and, and we will facilitate a focus discussion for them by either prompting them with questions and our data much like you do Jeremy with your podcasts. We do that in the environment. Then we catalog everything And then we report back. Here’s what we talked about. Here’s what we learned. Here are some barriers or places we need to go deeper. And we take that into the next discussion and we go deeper. So the conversations are given a life and a scale. So you’ve got the intimacy, intimacy of talking with a group that you trust, but connectivity to a much broader network, that are also brought into that discussion.
Jeremy Weisz 21:27
So they get a network, they can a peer to peer network, they can get their questions answered or share, but they also get the insights of the group. Like let’s say you can’t attend one of them. Yeah, you get the kind of the collective insights of the group and kind of what’s going on.
Unknown Speaker 21:43
Yeah. And then you met and mentioned one of the beauties of that network is that time is the greatest asset we’re managing and we know that everyone has the best of intentions to participate in discussions and peer groups like this, but they may not have the ability to do so. We them away to both contribute to an access the key takeaways and learnings and solutions and tools offered in an efficient and effective way. And I think that’s what everybody’s looking for. In this day and age, how do I tap into that most efficiently and effectively? When time is my greatest asset?
Jeremy Weisz 22:18
Yeah, so it’s both of those Anything else? I’m missing as far as you know, how it works, they get the peer to peer network virtually and in person also, benchmarking insights goes reading on your site to you have some assessments as well.
Unknown Speaker 22:34
Yeah, we do. I mean, I think that the CFOs have taught us a lot. My peers in the finance community have said, If we can’t measure it, we’re not going to talk about it, or we’re going to, we’re going to push that to someone to drive so deep until it can be measured in some way. So we believe in assess, analyze, understand, communicate, and and and, and continue To follow that now, in some cases, those assessments already exist. And in other cases, we have to create them. You know, we were the architects behind creating a culture, IQ, a way for C suite leaders to measure the strength of their culture as it relates to the strength of their business. And so because something like that didn’t exist, so part of it is we’ll take off the shelf and, and tested by time and science driven assessments, and we’ll make those available. And in other cases, those are created based upon need and demand for something that does not yet exist.
Jeremy Weisz 23:39
Yeah, cuz I saw an assessment.
Unknown Speaker 23:41
Yeah. Well, I mean, talk about timely in this day and age, the strength of relationships matter most that’s that our cue is predicated upon helping individuals identify and measure the strength of the relationships that are most critical to their individual or Enterprise Performance. How great is that? Right? An actual tool and a way that if you’re going to invest time, energy and effort to increase the strength, don’t you want to measure the impact that our cue is created? With that in mind? You’re not interested, you know,
Jeremy Weisz 24:12
what I liked about the Bloomberg interview? One of the things actually, is they’re asking some real specific, some real, specific questions. And you got in some of the details and you’re like, you kind of just have to experience it me a fly in the wall, one of these groups I’m curious about, you know, you don’t have to go into the full details, but you can. What’s like it would be a controversial discussion, among CFOs What the I take among each other.
Unknown Speaker 24:44
I can give you an example of one. So you mentioned that we created a second, a second Alliance peer advisory network for Chief Human Resource Officers because, by the way, 90% of the discussions that we were having around business strategies Enterprise Performance capital structure, risk management and technology we ended up talking about Guess what, Jeremy people, right? So, the CFO said, from a foundational standpoint, we need to strengthen our a horse, our own enterprise positioning and our own relationships with the greatest assets that we have with our people. So that has to involve an HR leader. When we bring together a group of finance and HR leaders. About 18 months ago, we said, you’re going to create the second network, okay? And you’re going to create the focus foundation and alignment to strengthen that relationship between finance leaders and HR leaders. And they said, You know what, we’re going to be the ones who work with the other C suite leaders, including the CEO to strengthen the alignment between our employee experience and our customer experience, our cx and e x, we want to be able to measure that strength Would that be for finance and HR to own that API? How you prefer discussion PCs, who they decide. So it’s tough by the way to bring finance and HR leaders to have that discussion, right? Because let’s take best finance views HR is too soft and touchy feely. an HR says finance, you get your head in the numbers, you got to understand the impact of the people. We bring them together, and they break down that wall. And one of the ways we broke that down is both said, one of the greatest sources of their pain are the people who drive top line revenue, and the inconsistencies and inability to predict their performance and behavior with some level of uncertainty. So they found a common point of interest that they wanted to focus on, which was whoever’s involved with sales. We need to we need to look at because they’re a great source of our stress and pain, but we’re not in business without them. It’s
Jeremy Weisz 26:57
stressful about it.
Unknown Speaker 26:58
I’m neither One, like uncertainty, like the lack of predictability, like being told, well, it’s hard for me to explain, but trust me the sale is there. Or I’ve had that relationships for a decade. I know the world’s changed what my relationship hasn’t. So just trust me, or I’m an A player, I commit to you and 18 months later, I’m leaving, you know, they viewed a lot of the behaviors in sales as being difficult to predict, manage and understand. And I’m not, by the way, criticizing the sales component. I’m just mentioning that recording. Right. And so the tough question was, well, we all agree, they are the mighty mighty through our business, they drive, drive our top line performance, but we both struggle individually and collectively, with creating consistency in our relationship. It feels really good when we hit the numbers. Or we need the numbers. But what about if we don’t hit the numbers? The relationship feels like it’s on shaky ground? Why is that we don’t have that same relationship with other people inside the enterprise or in other functions. So there are tough discussion has to be had around, you know, how does finance and HR really play in that cx experience where the sales team says, we got this? Right. Were there
Jeremy Weisz 28:28
anything, any commonalities, what did what were some of the things they came up with?
Unknown Speaker 28:34
So I think they both agreed that that, that there’s a quantifiable and qualifiable component to a customer relationship, that some of it is in the numbers and some of it is not, and we need to be okay with that. But we need a mechanism to have consistent understanding and dialogue. And since have we in the equation because the CFO would say, especially in a city situation where an enterprise or performer was flat or trending downward, that the discussions were a lot harder to have. And I go back to why is that? You have no problem having the discussion when things were good. Why is that more difficult for you? And they said, Well, you’re right, because we really don’t have a process or mechanism. We’re we’re involved when things are going well, and trying to aid them in that effort to accelerate that we were still viewed as monitoring the numbers not being admired and involved in the numbers in some way.
Jeremy Weisz 29:35
Because they were only brought in, in in the negative situations. Yeah, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 29:40
So we started they get brought in, in
Unknown Speaker 29:42
the positive situations they can take EPC we said what was once not measurable now is right in both sales and marketing strength, the relationship can be measured with a score. So if you see a score, you know, bring a financial component to that and say, let’s talk about that score. Let’s talk about how AI can help you move that score up. Right, become an advocate for a partner to the effort in both the good and the bad. Right. So, so I think, I think on the one hand, they said, Wait a minute. It’s not just a an income statement driven discussion, our CRM technology, our marketing technology, now gives us the ability to help them better understand their relationships in their pipeline, but they may not have the same level of comfort or competency number. I mean, how many times Jeremy, if you had a conversation where a finance person says, Let me show that to you, they give you a spreadsheet and you’re like, I don’t understand that. Right? Bring it to them in a way that’s digestible for them, substance and form for those numbers. And I think that’s the big aha, for finance and HR learn to communicate the way that people naturally may prefer to or more often Most comfortably communicate in both substance and form?
Jeremy Weisz 31:03
Hmm. You you’ve CFOs who are in charge of private companies and public companies. And it’s Yeah. Talk to like the entrepreneur CEO growing his company, what point should they bring in a CFO?
Unknown Speaker 31:20
Well, I will tell you there should be a financial focus and a foundation for CFO like input in, in day one, right in the earliest stages. You may not have to bring that in, in the substance in form of a partner FP with a finance, price tag, and the like. There’s so many different options there in this day. Right? But I think you need to bring that that finance competency, a one, like
Jeremy Weisz 31:49
just hire someone who’s maybe on a consulting basis to put some systems in place to but
Unknown Speaker 31:54
I will tell you that world of CFO consulting when I first started this journey around the CFO Alliance used to To be a great career path for finance leaders who are evergreening in their careers, the latest stages still want to stay connected. But I don’t need the rigor and the stress of an a full time position or stakeholder interest. I will tell you that has completely changed. There is a world of opportunity in a diverse population of qualified finance leaders more than willing to work with entrepreneurs and leaders in some capacity. That’s a unique piece. You have some willing to do it for free. You have some willing to do it with very little upfront costs and an opportunity to participate. Have someone willing to do it on a retainer, you have someone to do it by the hour, you have some that have 10 years experience and some that have 40 right. I think it’s such a different world we live in now. gig economy used to mean something completely different than it does today. So I think the DNA piece you can tap into is no longer limited to Oh Hiring a consultant, or, oh, I’ve got to hire an FTP. Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz 33:04
Yeah, I’m curious of your roadmap. Like let’s say in the beginning, I know every company is different, but let’s say in the beginning, okay, you should definitely hire some CFO and a consulting basis or have them participate in some way. And then the next step would be at what point do you decide to maybe bring in a fractional CFO or actually bring someone in full time? Is there a, you know, employee count or a number of revenue or something like that as a general rule?
Unknown Speaker 33:31
Or can I give a kind of give some advice to us to other CEOs who are entrepreneurial who have gone from idea back of napkin to to some level of business performance, the second that you feel lonely and that CEO seat is the second that you need to bring a CFO into your lens for discussion, because that sense of loneliness in some way, shape, or form is about a decision you need to make or would have made or should have made or should make. And there’s no greater source for me as the CEO, and to bounce that off of a qualified finance leader, because he or she will ask the tough questions that are that are most critical to shareholder value, top line and bottom line performance, which is what you have in mind in business. Yeah. So I think the second a you feel that you were you do that physical look around like, Oh, I need to ask a question is when you need to talk to someone who’s been in that seat as a CFO?
Jeremy Weisz 34:33
Yeah. And what I like about when I talk to CFOs, or fractional CFOs, is they their decisions are led by data. Mm hmm. And so a lot of times, I feel like decisions are made out of gut and maybe not data. Exactly. Or maybe
Unknown Speaker 34:53
my word basis Jeremy remember, we started this discussion I said, basis is a quasi quantifiable term and Honestly, when you’re probed by a financial user usually trying to, with sometimes inadvertently understand the basis you’re using to make that decision. Right? To your point.
Jeremy Weisz 35:13
Yeah, and when I say people, I mean myself, no. So can people go to your network? Or do they to say, who do you recommend? Here’s my situation. How do other leaders and CEOs, entrepreneurs use workouts? I’m
Unknown Speaker 35:30
one of the one. Also we have a passion for connectivity. We’ve, you know, our tagline is trademark making connections that count. And the count by the way, was a play on words for our finance leaders, helped means both matter and we were also saying count as in numbers themselves. I will tell you, we we have a mantra in our networks. We’re not an either or equation. We’re a both and equation. We want to be a go to source for you and a go to source for others. Yes, we’re going to protect privacy and confidentiality. So things can happen behind the walls so that you can talk freely. But we want to be an aggregator and invite as many people in. So our networks are meant for people to come in, try and or pose a question or at least say, Can I pose a question? How do I do that most effectively?
Unknown Speaker 36:21
And outside people can do that.
Unknown Speaker 36:23
Outside people can do that through through our team, yes. And through our platform. Now, once again, we will make sure that it adheres to a code of conduct and a sense of privacy and purpose, because we know also, we want purpose for you. You may have a question, Jeremy. And I may say, here’s the best way let me our team, do how best to get that question answered. Where it’s going to be stickiest and most resonant with someone looking and are seeing are wanting to respond,
Jeremy Weisz 36:50
huh? Yeah, it’s really cool. I love it. There’s definitely what pops up to me is like, I feel like every company when it starts needs like a CFO roadmap or some kind of roadmap of, of, you know, when you engage and at what point and what level, I guess you could say,
Unknown Speaker 37:10
well, and so much of what our CFOs are willing to do for each other are gratis and off the clock. I mean, I will tell you, that’s what makes this network fun is the questions that are posed. You can imagine right now given the crisis and that we all work through in terms of, you know, the, the 2020 issues, we’ll call them. Now more than ever, people need the ability to, to say, am I crazy? Or I’m not alone in this right? And or tell me what you think. Tell me what you’ve done. What do you recommend I do, or here’s what I think I’m going to do before I do it. What do you think? Yeah,
Jeremy Weisz 37:49
people need a sounding board and some validation around it. Um, Nick, first of all, thank you. I have two last questions I asked within spread Insider, but I just want to thank you for taking In the time you know you have 10s of thousands of people that you’re connected with and communicating with especially in this crazy time so I totally appreciate it and people should check out achievenext.com and achievenextnetwork.com to see what you have going on and check out the other content you have out there for sure. Um, I always ask since inspired insider what has been a low moment or challenging time and how you push through and then on the flip side, what’s been a proud moment something that you’re especially proud of a milestone or something like that.
Unknown Speaker 38:33
Well, I will tell you low moment has been a while I will tell you when you I want to give a piece of advice to everyone because this ties to my low moment. I believe we’re living in an age of life and career lattices not ladders. Picture a lattice which is a series of ways to pivot and move across, down and around and and not a straight line. I up and and from my generation Gen X we were groomed and taught climb the ladder. And so I’ve had a lot of frustrating moments where I’ve had to explain my redefinition and my journey and my desires that drive my passion for my career, and the intersection between my personal and professional lives. There’s a consistency there. And so the low points have been frustrating. Why do I have to explain why I’m not a lawyer practicing law? I have a lot of respect for the profession. But after a while having to start there and explain becomes extremely frustrating and stressful to you to my passion, and my energy level. And so I my greatest source of frustration has been seeing the how slow it’s taken for us to start to embrace career and life lattice movement, not ladder movement, and I suggest to everyone One and everyone don’t get typecast. Don’t feel that there’s only one path and that path is up or sometimes a path down and around is going to lead you to the greatest source of personal enjoyment and financial success.
Jeremy Weisz 40:13
Yeah, I think you have a book titled climb the ladder. It’s not the ladder or something.
Unknown Speaker 40:17
Yeah. How did you know? That? Yeah, are you? Okay? We are I am working on a book that really takes that concepts and try to make it feel for individuals. Give them some sense of purpose and pathway towards that. And, look, I hope I’ve provided that to the people I interact with. I try to lead by example, but I’m constantly learning to that’s just why I’m thrilled to get connected to you and your networks and your podcast.
Jeremy Weisz 40:42
I mean, it’s interesting because people you know, they people have an identity with sometimes their profession and so there’s like a deep seated, almost, you’re going against your identity if you if you are a lawyer and you define yourself as a lawyer and you do something else, you’ve almost gone against your identity.
Unknown Speaker 41:00
Yeah, Jeremy in 2002, I wrote an article called running from the law, which was a personal No, it was a personal story that of my story of having to explain to my family and friends why I was pivoting. And it got published by a legal publication that did not make reference to my age. And I remember receiving phone calls from individuals in the profession who said, more power to you. I give you my sense of respect that you are steering and driving and embracing your passion. And for you maybe the practice of law was not your passion but I give you more credit for saying go for what is and but it wasn’t easy because you know, yeah, I think my god bless my father’s still alive in a major influencer for me, but I think he’s still refers to me as a lawyer is appointed asked, What does your son do?
Jeremy Weisz 42:00
You know, my business partner john Corcoran calls himself a recovering attorney. And obviously we you know, help businesses run a lunch or podcast but he says I’m a recovering attorney. That’s what he says. So he totally relate to that.
Unknown Speaker 42:14
I I won’t use that overly because I didn’t first that it’s like a disease. Like I have so much respect for the professional people in it just wasn’t my passion. Yeah,
Jeremy Weisz 42:26
right. I think Yeah, he says tongue in cheek, but yeah, totally. Um, what about On the flip side, a proud moment, a milestone. I am in my passion you’re in you need to be
Unknown Speaker 42:36
you know, it was he was recently Jeremy. And so we had the opportunity to have some prominent business leaders asked to meet with our leadership team here to AchieveNEXT. We’re very curious as to what we were up to us. Now. I shouldn’t say usually up until that day. The storytelling behind AchieveNEXT was done by me. And in this case, my team offered to tell the story to these leaders and they did a phenomenal job. I think I was smiling ear to ear, because it was the first time that I had the opportunity to say this wasn’t my vision. It was our vision. And they not only influenced that vision, they now could articulate it better than I could. And with the same authentic, their own sense of passion and purpose. That’s probably my proudest moment, because it’s hard to explain what we do. You run these networks, and you have these solutions. And we don’t make a widget, you know, and so, I’ve always had to explain it. And now to have a team explain it in the way they did better than I would. I was like, that’s my moment. If I don’t have another moment again. It’s my moment. Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz 43:56
Pass passing on that vision and that direction, and have Other people see it and be able to communicate it. First of all is Nick Thank you. Everyone should check out achievenext.com and achievenextnetworks.com any other places we should point people towards online or, or to you
Unknown Speaker 44:12
know, I mean, I really hope that during 2020 and are and what we’re facing that that each of your listeners has taken a moment to reflect on on Is there someone that I had connected with in my past that I have not connected with it, I should. And I suggest you go do that and make a rigor around that. Because that’s really what was the genesis of all of this was in our discussion was people said you, I went out of my way to bring like minded people together who would challenge or not even like minded like functions, who may approach things differently and there was great value in that we can all do that. And I hope that you know, that’s a great kind of action item that can come out from this beyond going to ask looking for us to help them do that, which we’re always happy to do. Thank you so much.
Jeremy Weisz 45:02
Check out what they have whether your CEO CFO chro, or anyone the C suite. Are you just running your business? Check it out. Nick. Thanks so much.
Unknown Speaker 45:11
Thank you Jeremy.
