Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Welcome to another episode of the Growth Focus Podcast where we bring leaders from all across the globe to share their time, their expertise and their insights with us. When it comes to growing businesses. My name is Gary Lafty, your host and also the CEO and founder of the Growth Focus Partnerships where we take the authority voices that our clients have in tech and turn them into pipeline.
So Dean, it's fantastic to have you join us on this episode of the Growth Focus Podcast. Why don't you start off by introducing yourself? Why don't you tell us who you are and what is it that you actually do?
[00:00:52] Speaker A: Sure. Thanks so much. Appreciate you having me on. Love these kinds of conversations.
So away we go, you know. Dean Gartellos, Western Skies Consulting Powered by OTG I talk a little about what that means, but I'm a technology consultant. Help corporations and small and medium sized businesses make smarter technology decisions. Right. Do it faster with a little bit better information versus trying to go out the market and be dealing with sales folks who have an agenda for their company, not yours. And so instead of this vendor capability view of the world, I take a client requirement view of the market and distill that down to only the right options that are the right fit. Aligning requirements with capabilities and then curating that experience for my clients, silencing the noise and yielding an outcome that's typically faster and at lower cost than they can do on their own. And my experience is that savings is maybe 10 to 30%, sometimes a little higher depending on the technology.
And that's simply a result of I'm a vendor neutral resource. I don't have a sales quota for each of these organizations. So they try to get you to pay more. Right. Because it requires their quota. I have no such thing. The other little bit of the special about us is we don't charge our clients. We're free to them because we're compensated by the service provider. So think about the classic broker model. That really is what we do. And it's very freeing because there's no agenda, there's no, there's no directed outcome. It's about achieving the business outcome that our clients need, either in efficiency or in cost, or in both or expansion or in protection or compliance or whatever it is that they need. And so that's kind of what I spend my days doing from a background perspective. I spent almost 18 years with the phone company. I grew up in that organization from a temp out of college to by the time I left, I helped run part of the pricing, offer management Organization with responsibility for the public sector, federal government, state, municipal, education institutions.
And since that time, it's been about eight and a half years doing this. I still do a bit of management consulting and coaching, but primary focus really is in this technology space.
And there's a lot of folks in this kind of place that do what I do. There's that here's your 10 or 50 or $100,000 scope of work to get engaged for us to tell you what you need. And then there's the hey, we're going to come in and assess and save you a ton of money and we'll take just 50% of your savings. You're welcome. Typically, both those folks are being compensated, same way that I am from the service provider. So the wise men say have an irresistible offer. I believe that irresistible offer is we will apply the expertise, the relationships we have in the market and the process to our clients, benefit at no cost to them. So I'm pretty open with that compensation. Yeah, yeah, I'm open to that conversation.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Yeah. In this, in this day and age, you know, our listeners and those who are viewing this, when it comes to being able to, to save costs, especially today, when it comes to growing a business, it's just as important as securing more revenue, securing more sales, because it's revenue that you didn't ever see that you had. And you and I have spoken before about 10, 20, 30% savings and things like that. But when we talk about those kind of figures, that's extra income that they have that they wouldn't have had to spend. So we're going to delve a little bit deeper into that as we go on today. But before we do, Dean, I want to know a little bit more about you. Obviously, you started off your career, as you said, and spent many years within the telecom industry. What bit about your story? Share this with us. What bit about your story explains how you ended up doing this type of work in the first place?
[00:04:23] Speaker A: Sure. You know, it is, I'll call it unremarkable in the sense that I'm a little bit of unique in my vintage of executive and professional because my generation really was the first one that really hopped a lot of companies and a lot of jobs sorting out. Right. And I did spend almost 18 years with the same company. I grew certainly in my time there. And part of that journey was really refining what I now view as kind of my business kind of philosophy and approach and things.
And it's been an evolution where early in my career I thought the faster you could get to the answer was best for everybody involved. And what I've come to appreciate through that journey is that it really is the path and the journey towards that outcome. And the answer is as important, sometimes more important than the actual answer itself.
And it's because it's not just about building consensus. I think it's about providing informed communication and informed decision making for all the stakeholders involved. And by the end of my career that is something I got to be pretty good at. It's what I do in my life today and I enjoy.
They say if you find something you love, you never really work a day. And gosh, I found that to be exceedingly true.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: It absolutely is. You've got to enjoy what you do, haven't you? Because life is difficult enough as it is that, that, you know, dealing with founders and tech, founders and tech leaders. Day, we call it the spaghetti. You know, we wake up every morning, we try and find one end of the spaghetti and then we spend the rest of our day trying to get to the other end of the spaghetti. And it's just a convoluted mess every single day.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: I like that. No 100%. And you know, I spent a lot of my career kind of being the adult in the pool from a decision standpoint. I always laugh. I run into some of my colleagues and with what I do today, it's not lost on them that I spent most of my career lovingly referred to as sales prevention because pricing and some things and really the reality is once everybody realizes that we're all on the same team, same colored jersey, pricing and sales work very well together. And we really achieved some success in my corporate life that was remarkable at the time over a five year period.
But I think it is that, that recognition that how we communicate, how we bring the folks involved in either the decision or that'll be impacted by the decision is as important as any decision we make. And that still lives now in my current environment because I'm helping companies make decision on technology which impact operations. But sometimes I end up in some coaching type conversations with executives about what culture this means for them, you know, and I think, I think that is my, my opportunity to continue to impact beyond the technology just in how we do business. I, I, I, I believe so strongly that how we do business is perhaps more important than that we do business.
And I and I just. Because one kind of leads to the other. But there's a lot of people in the world that can just get stuff done and I think how we get that stuff done Truly does matter.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely does. And yeah, that phrase, as you just said, how we do business is better than just doing the business.
We have fallen out of what we call the relationship business. And this trust recession, that's the buzzword for this particular year of moving into Q1 for next year. We hear this all the time now.
How do I get heard out there? My message just gets lost in that sea of sameness when everyone's calling themselves the expert. No one's the expert. And if I could just have a conversation, I could build trust. But I can't have enough trust to build that convers.
And I think this is why one of the challenges is that we're hearing that businesses, it's getting harder to grow because we're losing that personal touch, we're losing that relationship way that we used to do business. So that being said, Dean, when you look at tech companies trying to grow right now and you help them grow now, what kind of feels different to you? What are your insights? What feels different about the game compared to a few years ago?
[00:08:40] Speaker A: You know, I think there is this recognition that that relationship is all important, not just kind of important.
And it's all directional too, by the way. It's not just a client relationship, it's not just an employee relationship or a leadership.
It's how all of these individuals in seats interact and relate to each other. And I think there was such a pull and maybe a desire for this deep automation and efficiency.
And the AI conversation has I think shed some light on some things that people had maybe some intuition on prior to AI when it was just automation, whether it was process automation or other things about this concern about losing touch with the humans involved. And so it's really, I think required folks to really refocus a little bit on that conversation. And I think there's two camps. There's the I'm never going to do this camp and there's the I'm going to automate and implement AI everywhere that I can to create as much efficiency and reduce friction and all the things, right? And you know, either, either extreme like in anything is not going to succeed.
It just, that's not how things typically work in any topic, right? So it's kind of that in the middle. And what I love about what I do is because it's not like I have a product or a solution that I'm trying to pedal, right? I meet a client where they are because of my, my, my reach, the breadth of the market. I am happy to help somebody that wants to Be on the. The front leading edge. I'm also happy to help a laggard who's like I am risk averse but I know I have got to evolve. And so a year ago's brand new thing is maybe something I'll get to next year. Right. But I have the ability to meet folks where they are and help them on the journey wherever they are. And, and why that matters is they have to know what they want. I have to be able to understand what they want and then I can help paint a path towards it. And I think that relationship to get to my relationship with them, theirs to their client and what they're trying to serve. Understanding the culture of their employees.
I had a travel agency that was trying to modernize their contact center and they had a lot of very rich tenured employees. You know, 10 and 20 years some of them. And so. Right. The latest and greatest in the market seemed unobtainable to them because they were used to a handset or sometimes a headset and some of the legacy systems. So great. And why are we would never try to push that than an AI driven. Right. Somebody looking over your shoulder every second environment that would. That would not help them succeed. Right. And so part of my job was to help curb that enthusiasm from the market bringing them to that client and then also helping the client with how to communicate some growth and expansion in the technology and the interaction they can have with their clients because their clients needed. Needed to evolve too. That's what led them to the point of trying to modernize that contact center. And so but it's. It is caring truly about that interaction, that relationship in and out. I've got clients now that were friends before they became clients and I've got friends now that have become friends because they became clients.
And I think there is no substitute and shortcut to building relationships. It takes energy and time and authenticity. I mean I think what you'll see in 26 is a March towards authenticity in interaction.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: Yeah. I think we totally agree that this is, this is definitely what we're seeing as well Dane. That you know that people want to be. Want to be seen as their authentic self. And although AI and obviously we can't have a tech podcast without mentioning AI somewhere along our conversation. But they now AI is very efficient but it does take the humanoid out of it. It does take that relationship building facility away from the founder, the leader, the sales guy from there it can.
[00:12:42] Speaker A: Right? It certainly can and is more than willing to. And there are AI organizations that are happy to Peddle that. Right. But it doesn't have to. There are some things that AI is incredibly well suited for that does take some interaction out of the daily, but I think it's important interaction that nobody really wants to do anyway. Password resets is a great example. Ain't nobody want to get on the phone or answer a phone asking for somebody to reset a password. That is a push button activity to get a text to whatever. Same thing with accounts receivable I think can be that way. There's a few other things we're going to get in that.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: But.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: But it's. Yes, AI does that, but it's. It's how you do it and how you use it. And AI can be an incredibly strong orchestration tool to bring disparate tools together to provide a dashboard for leadership. Right. As an example of a healthy way to leverage that. I just don't want to get lost in that. That AI can be this end all. Be all. Yeah, it's just, it's another tool. It's more expansive. I think it'll be more impactful than the Internet was on business. And I realize the gravity of that statement, but I believe it's true.
But like everything, it's going to be how we implement and how it can endure through implementation rather than a fad that's a bubble that pops. Which we saw with the Internet, right?
[00:13:54] Speaker B: Yes, we did. Well, that leads nicely into what I really want to talk about now really Dean, is companies choosing their next step, choosing vendors or partners when it to comes when a company, when it's time for them to choose whatever they need to choose for their business. And they're looking at various vendors, they're looking at different partnerships out there. What do you watch for that tells you they're making a calm, confident decision rather than a rushed and stressed decision which may come back and bite them at some stage.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Certainly. And I think every leader has made decisions in both of those camps in their career.
Certainly that's where I live from a technology perspective as a vendor neutral kind of advocate and resource. I my first advice to any organization on any topic, not just technology. So this isn't about Western Skies and otg. Right. But find a vendor neutral resource. There are available in every field of play and I've got relationships with most of the fields of play, whether it's HR things and payroll things or insurance things or technology things obviously, or software operational considerations or staffing. I mean that that vendor neutral thought is so important because I think that that legacy sales model is antiquated and broken because it incents the wrong types of behaviors, because it doesn't have the outcome of the client necessarily in mind is what creates those motivations.
Right. What do I mean by that? Sales quota? Right. Total build revenue. Right. All of those things that are hallmarks of sales organizations. Yeah. The best sales organizations say we are here to meet our clients needs and all of that. And I think that they intend that and they mean that and they might believe that, but the fact that you're incenting a salesperson to sell at the highest price they can sell because two times more of their quota is bit of contrary to getting the best outcome for the client. Right. But now the market and competition, Competition's great, but that's, that's what you need. You need to bring somebody in to help foster that competition. And by using a vendor neutral resource, it's not something you spend your time on. They do the legwork. That's what I do. Right. I provide all that legwork, distill those things down so the competition and executives and leaders make informed decisions, not research. I'm spent. I mean, I think that's the biggest point.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: This is a great point to come into.
You put, you've spoken many, many times about clearing the noise, clearing the clutter so that people can make those decisions. What's a moment with a client, Dean, that still makes you smile because you help them cut through all that noise and help them change things relatively quickly for the better.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: Yeah. So this is one of my favorite stories, but it wasn't what I would call a successful outcome from my perspective, meaning I didn't get. There was no deal for me here. I got engaged with a large organization.
They were trying to improve their connectivity map.
Right. They had a bunch of different vendors, they were overpaying for circuits and they spent six months or so on this project. Finally, One of their CIO's colleagues said, Six months, I think you need to talk to Dean. Right. So they introduced me and it was a great. Hey, we're done. We're about there. And I'm like, I understand.
Tell you what, give me your information and just let me do what I do. So in just about a week, I came back with some options for them and lower than what they had, what they'd achieved.
And I saw the recognition from the cio. Like I just, like I literally just told you, the CEO and the board, here's the direction we're going to save them this much. And. And they're using the cable company to do their aggregation across the nation, not just the cable company territory. And I said, boy, there's some operational risk to that. That doesn't. They're telling you, I know why, I know what they're telling you. I know why they're telling you, but here's some truth. And anyway, they went down and I said, and they said, I, I can't, I can't pivot. We're. We're a week away from signing this agreement. I said, okay, well then you need to go back to them and tell them to come down another 15%.
And he's like, they're never gonna do that. I've been beating them for three months on this now, and they've come down and ratcheted their way down. I said, I believe you. I said, but do that right. You have to tell them, hey, I have this. You can't show em the quote. That wouldn't be. I don't show quotes across vendors. I said, but tell them, right, I've got this other option. 15%'s pretty compelling. To put the brakes on this, you need to do better. Guess what happened, right? It came down another 15%. And when he came back and said, oh, my God, I can't thank you enough. How do I. What do I do now? And I'm like, in terms of trying to pay me, right? He said, you've done this for us. And I kind of said, you know, my model is I get paid when you do something by the service provider. The fact that you had something in flight and we were able to make it better for you, I'm glad we did that. But this is how I'm able to help you in whatever the technology plan is. And I've worked with them over, you know, since that time. But it's that, that kind of light bulb that there was that disbelief, true disbelief in the first conversation I had with them about, yeah, I've been doing this for six months, dude, what are you going to do that's going to be better? Well, he had talked to the cable company, he talked to the various phone companies, he talked to some of the smaller Internet providers.
Right. So the story that he got from the cable company about aggregating them all was really appealing. The problem is they're not ideally suited to do that. There's a lot of other folks in the market that are.
And so.
Right. And. But it was that light bulb go on. When first, what I told him was true ended up being true. Second, that I wasn't there to try to get paid for the sake of getting paid right now.
He was like, just draw up an invoice. And I kind of just am reticent to do that. Sometimes I have. Where it seemed appropriate that I get more engaged from a management conversation than truly a technology decision.
But.
And then, you know, you have a friend for life now, right?
[00:19:40] Speaker B: Going back to the relationships is what we said. Relationships start somewhere and they start with good intent and keep that a good intent and good things and then grow from there. I love that. I actually love that, Dean. So I want to dive a little bit deeper into what you, you know, into a potential scenario, what you just said. So there's obviously this.
When people engage in new opportunities and new partnerships and new products and new services, there's, there's this excitement. You know, they've done the deal, they got in, everything's ready to go. Where do you, where do you see good opportunities most often get stuck after the first excitement phase wears off? And then how do they get unstuck from that?
[00:20:19] Speaker A: You know, I think, I think every implementation has some form of hiccup, whatever it is. And I think it comes down to the relationship that's there with whatever the provider is, whether it's technology or something else, about being nimble in response. And I talk about this even with my son and the kids I've coached over the years or businesses. It's not really about what happens, it's about what happens next that matters. Right. How do we respond to these things and these hiccups when they show up.
And I think it's, it's having that outcome driven thought instead of the aggravation or frustration of the moment and sometimes having to help recenter folks on that outcome driven thought away from the frustration of the moment.
But, but I think that's an element, it's a philosophical thought, not a tactical action. Right. But, but I think it, it's an important element of that path in that journey. And it goes back to how is the decision made on whatever it is that's being implemented. And that's a really important element. And it is in this way. And this is why I do things the way I do. You don't talk somebody into doing something right. There's no sales job to be accomplished. Because when you get somebody to do something that goes against what their instinct or their gut or whatever it is, when that hiccup shows up, because it generally will, what's their immediate reaction? I knew I shouldn't, right? Switch that decision from talked into something to we need to attain this outcome here's. The path that we need to pursue in order to do so. That same exact hiccup shows up. What's the response? Okay, what do we do now? Right. Where are we? We're on our way. Right.
And there's no substitute for that origin story for a decision.
Does that make sense?
[00:22:09] Speaker B: Yeah, total sense. Absolutely. And I love the fact that especially with tech and our listeners and our subscribers here, they're very good at what they're product led or service led, but they're not usually great at coming into the limelight. And although we still see majority of us into founder led sales, whether they're doing 5 million, 15 million, 20 million, we appreciate that you can't convince someone because that buyer's remorse is going to kick in somewhere along the line. And if the competition the way it is just makes it even harder. So that's a really good cost.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: The cost, the personal cost of, of talking somebody to doing something. Because guess what, their, their view of you now is forevermore. Right?
[00:22:47] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. And that, and again, it goes right back to that, what we talked about right at the very beginning. If you want to build trust and have a relationship, you got to do it right from the start. And it's not a one off thing, it's a continuous thing. It's everything that you do towards that. So if someone was listening, Dean, and wants one thing to focus on, because we've covered quite a lot today, if, if someone was looking at one main thing to focus, to grow with more, let's say, more clarity and kind of less chaos. You know, I've always used the phrase, our role is to create clarity from chaos. All right. Because there's chaos out there in the world.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: If they had to focus on one thing, what, what would you tell them to start with for this quarter and why?
[00:23:25] Speaker A: You know, you know, I would say, I'd say maybe, maybe I'll give you a technology related answer and I'll give you maybe a philosophy, business leadership answer. Okay.
The business kind of philosophy, I would say in this first quarter is let you be driven by optimism for the good that's in store. That's the first thing. Start with that. Beginnings are always exciting, sometimes a little scary. But attitude reflect leadership. And so wherever you are in an organization, you're in a leadership position. Different one, different spans. Even if you're an individual contributor, there's a leadership position that you have amongst your peers. Right. So anywhere in there, start with optimism. That's the first thing I would say. Second is be open minded. Right. I think disparity in thought and civil discourse and seeking to understand are all elements and required tools that any leader has in accomplishing any mission.
So optimism, openness. Right.
And then the third, I would say is accountability. Right. Be accountable for the things that are that, that either you do or happen on your watch. Because wherever you sit in that organization. Right. The buck stops here at a certain point. And if everybody has kind of that, that ability to own what happens, the outcomes, good or bad. And you know, you always hear you praise folks for success on the team, but you own the failures as a leader, I think there's a lot of truth in that.
And I think your people, wherever, both above and below, truly respect that. That's a way to foster further relationship. It's a way to get people in the future to realize they really mean what you say, you know, makes future decisions a little easier. So those may be the three elements I would say from a leadership standpoint. Optimism, open mindedness, and accountable. Right. Those three things I think are pivotal. From a technology standpoint, I'd say, you know, a little bit of a broken record, but security and AI and how are you going to leverage and implement through 2026 and security all important. It's not a matter of if there's going to be an event, it's when and then what's the impact of that event. Right. From an AI perspective, it's scary. It can be. There are smart ways to implement that are low risk.
It's about finding the right problem you're trying to solve. And if AI is the right tool to solve that problem, not just came back from the conference and I need to sprinkle some AI in right to my environment. Right. That's not the answer. Right.
But boy, if you think the cost of securing your environment and implementing AI is high, just wait till you see the cost of failing to do so.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I think that's a fantastic point to end on. Dean, it's been absolutely great. Thank you very much for sharing your insights. Now if people want to get hold of you, perhaps potentially work with you or find out more about what you actually do, what's the best way they can do that?
[00:26:32] Speaker A: Sure love that. Thank you so much. Succeed with Dean.com try to make it easy right there. There's a little bit about me. You've got links to podcasts where I'm happy to add this.
There's way to get on my calendar and you know, happy to talk if you have questions, even if you don't think you have a project that's not a problem.
I think there's no such thing as meeting too many good people. Please reach out if you have a question in technology or in some other way. If I can, by God, then I am happy to do so. My only real goal is to leave you better than I found you. And I really do mean that. And I think you'll find that if we, if we get in touch. So I appreciate that opportunity.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: I'll make sure my team puts the your details on the show notes at the bottom so they can just do that one click and get through to you. So all that remains to say is Dean, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you very much for your time and sharing your insights with us. It's been absolutely great.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: Oh, thanks so much. It's been my pleasure and I love this conversation. I appreciate you having me on and, you know, enjoy the rest of your day and your week. And I have great hope and expectation for 2026 for you, for all your listeners. And away we go. Onward and upward.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: Absolutely. Thank you very much, Dane.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: Thanks. Take.
