151 – Summiting Mt. Everest and Leading Partner Ecosystems to Achieve Epic Results

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A Channel Leader and Mountaineer Joins Ultimate Guide to Partnering®

What do summiting Mt. Everest and driving massive transformation in channels and ecosystems have in common? My next guest on Ultimate Guide to Partnering is no stranger to these two topics; summiting Mt. Everest and leading partner ecosystems to achieve epic results. Louise McEvoy is the VP of US Channel Sales at Trend Micro. This outstanding leader is also an accomplished mountaineer, having climbed Mount Everest and many other summits. Louise takes us on her journey to learn how her avocation as a mountaineer impacted and informed her vocation as a channel leader and how the two are inextricably linked.

In Louise’s Words

Louise McEvoy has worked in the channel side of the cyber business for the majority of her career. She’s the VP of US Channel Sales at Trend Micro, a global cybersecurity leader, and as a big channel advocate knows that the channel can be a valuable extension of a company’s sales team.

However, there’s a channel transformation underway and that means adjusting quickly to the changing environment; if you like change, there’s no better time to be in the channel than right now!

Besides the channel, Louise’s other life passion is high-altitude mountaineering. Louise’s personal life goal was to summit Mt. Everest; after 14 years of training and climbing the world’s highest mountains, she realized her goal and summitted Everest in May 2018.

Louise is dedicated to helping others reach their “summit”; recently co-leading a group of female technology executives on their first “14er” in Colorado, with three more teams to follow. She’s spoken to many groups and organizations on that topic, knowing that sometimes the hardest things in life are also the most fulfilling.

What You’ll Learn

  • Louise is about Security, Channels, and Climbing (3:40)
  • Her latest trek to Antarctica and why she took up mountaineering? (4:59)
  • How her avocation has impacted her vocation – mindset, being open to change (11:50)
  • Louise’s superpower and philosophy (14:45)
  • Advice to partners and what she sees in the best (19:51)
  • How she is coaching organizations through the Ecosystem transformation (26:10)

Quote From This Episode

“We’re all on a journey to some version of our summit. It’s inviting new people, experiences, and emotions into our lives, the rest will follow and it can be really, really good and accept change and who knows what can enter in your life it could be really, really fantastic like Everest.”

Leaders referenced in this episode.

150 – Celebrating 150 Amazing Episodes with a Five-Timer Guest, Jay McBain.

103 – Partners Optimize for Success to Get More from Core with Erin Figer.

116 – Helping ISVs Accelerate Meaningful Revenue with the Cloud Providers through Marketplaces with Sanjay Mehta.

Our Sponsors

Resources

We are so excited to welcome Athletic Greens as our latest sponsor. My daily ritual has included a “green drink” supplement for over 20 years ago. AG1 is packed with 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals, whole-food sourced superfoods, probiotics, and adaptogens. If you’d like to join me, give AG1 a try. Athletic Greens is giving away a free one-year supply of Vitamin D and Five Travel Packs with every new purchase. Check them out at athleticgreens.com/vincem

PartnerTap is the Founding Sponsor of Ultimate Guide to Partnering. PartnerTap is the only Partner Ecosystem Platform designed for the Enterprise. Their technology makes it easy to align Channel Teams with automated account mapping, letting you control what data you share while building a partner revenue engine.

Transcription – by Otter.ai – Expect Typos

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

partnering, climbing, business, work, vince, mountain, channel, people, everest, summit, partnerships, louise, mountaineering, trend micro, leader, mount everest, meditation, guest, podcast, antarctica

SPEAKERS

Announcer, Louise McEvoy, Vince Menzione

Louise McEvoy  00:00

We’re all on a journey to some version of our summit. It’s inviting new people, experiences and emotions into our lives, the rest will follow and it can be really, really good and accept change and who knows what can enter in your life it could be really, really fantastic like Everest.

Announcer  00:20

Welcome to The Ultimate Guide to partnering in this podcast, Vince Menzione. A proven industry sales and partner executive brings together technology leaders to discuss transformational trends and to deconstruct successful strategies to thrive and survive in the rapid age of cloud transformation. And now your host, Vince Menzione.

Vince Menzione  00:44

Welcome to or welcome back to The Ultimate Guide to partnering where technology leaders come to optimize results through successful partnering. I’m Vince Menzione, your host and my mission is to help leaders like you unlock the leadership principles and learnings of the best in the business to get partnerships right, optimize for success and deliver your greatest results summiting Mount Everest and leading partner ecosystems to achieve your greatest results. My next guest on Ultimate Guide to partnering is no stranger to these two topics. Louise McElroy is a leader in the channel and ecosystems business for Trend Micro. She is an amazing woman leader in this world of partnering and an amazing mountaineer having climbed Mount Everest. In this episode, Louise takes us on a journey to how her avocation impacted and informed her vocation and how the two are inextricably linked during this time of rapid transformation. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed welcoming Louise McElroy. Before we dive into the interview, I’m happy to announce that partner tap has become a founding sponsor of ultimate guide to partnering partner tap is the only partner ecosystem platform designed for the enterprise. Their technology makes it easy to align channel teams with automated account mapping, letting you control what data you share while building a partner revenue engine. Louise, welcome to the podcast.

Louise McEvoy  02:21

Thank you, Vince, it’s an honor to be here. I say that genuinely from the heart. Thank you for having me.

Vince Menzione  02:27

You warm my heart today I am so excited to welcome you as a guest on Ultimate Guide to partnering. You are a leader in the channel and ecosystems business at Trend Micro driving the change and transformation. We’ve all been seeing a woman leader in this world of partnering and an amazing mountaineer having climbed Mount Everest. Wow, and many other amazing summits. So I’m excited for this conversation today.

Louise McEvoy  02:53

Thank you, man, I appreciate that.

Vince Menzione  02:56

We were introduced through three amazing friends, Aaron Fiacre, who I have partnered with for over eight years. And as part of what I’m calling the partner Dream Team, founder of core and someone you’ve worked with over the years.

Louise McEvoy  03:10

And that personal friend of mine now

Vince Menzione  03:13

and a personal one, we’re going to talk about that a little bit to Sanjay Mehta, who has been here on the podcast as well tackle IO, amazing company, great leader and an old colleague of mine, Steven Boyle, who I worked with at Microsoft.

Louise McEvoy  03:28

Yeah, another great leader, as amazing

Vince Menzione  03:31

that we have all these friends in common. But for our listeners, I would like you to tell us a little bit more about Louise

Louise McEvoy  03:40

Louise McEvoy and I’m the Vice President of us channels at Trend Micro and for those of you who don’t know Trend Micro is them the cybersecurity business for over 30 years now. I’ve been with Trend Micro for seven years. So I’m leaving their US channel business we lead with our partners. It’s a partner friendly company. I’m really proud to be here proud to be a trender. I was previously at IBM in their dirty and data management business and some other security companies. I live in Southern California. I actually moved here from Canada 20 years ago, but I can’t move back because the weather is too good in Southern California. Yeah, so I’ve been in the channel majority of my career. I see my brand as channel security and then of course climbing and it’s always fun talking about business and climbing in one conversation. So thank you.

Vince Menzione  04:27

Yeah, good weather. I had a laugh about that because I live here in Jupiter, Florida most of the year. It’s good here, but you have amazing weather in SoCal, we do,

Louise McEvoy  04:36

I must get I do enjoy it.

Vince Menzione  04:39

So you have had a very successful career. And I want to dive into the business and business transformation and partnering here, but we’ve got a cover off on your amazing journey and several other personal accomplishments, like climbing Mount Everest like that is absolutely amazing to me, and you read Somebody came back from Antarctica. So let’s start there.

Louise McEvoy  05:03

And Arctic is a it’s a fascinating place to be. It is I climbed what’s called Vinson Massif. And Vinson, massive is the highest mountain on the continent of Antarctica. And mountaineering is becoming a whole lot more popular now, because of movies like 14 peaks or that documentary, which was, it’s an incredible feat to be able to climb 14 peaks, those mountains over 8000 meters. But one of the other things that’s very popular or becoming more popular in mountaineering is what’s called the Seven Summits. And that’s climbing the highest mountain on every continent. And I set off on this journey many, many, many years ago when I climbed Kilimanjaro in Africa, and then went on to climb Everest and Russia and it just sort of became a thing. And Antarctica was next on my list. And I was able to successfully summit Vinson Massif in Antarctica in January, that was a proud moment. But Everest, being the highest mountain in Asia, it just over 29,000 feet was, of course, one of the Seven Summits as well. And I was able to summon Mount Everest four years ago, which was, it just was one of the best moments in my life, to be honest.

Vince Menzione  06:11

So let’s talk a little bit more about that. And it’s quite an accomplishment, what drove you to this objective? And what was that journey like,

Louise McEvoy  06:18

I didn’t set out to climb Everest. And I do speak at a lot of events about these climbs, which I’m really grateful for that people want to hear more about it. But my foray into mountaineering happened really slowly. And without me realizing it. I always say to people to try something new, because you never know when it might change your life. And that was the case with me. I mentioned at the start, I moved here to California from Canada, I was given a two year opportunity for a job that was in Canada moved to the California, I took it, but I didn’t know anyone here and I had nothing to do after work or on the weekend. And I always say it was the loneliest year of my life, because everything I did was by myself, but it was also the most liberating because I could do whatever I wanted, but it was lonely. So a friend of mine suggested I read a book just to keep busy, and it was called Into Thin Air about the 1996 Everest disaster. As tragic as that disaster was, it gave me this interest in mountaineering, that something I didn’t even know existed. And I became, I would have to say, a little bit obsessed with. And I made a promise to myself that I would someday see the mountain. I had no ambition to climb it because I thought that was way out of my league, but I wanted to see it. And four years later, I was in a different job. And I got laid off. I literally had nowhere to go the next day, and they gave me a severance package. So I went online that night, I found an adventure company that was leaving from Nepal to go to Everest base camp and was leaving in two weeks, there were 16 spots of clients who were they were taking this Diem people had already signed up to this trip, there was one spot left it called my name, and I signed up. And two weeks later, I landed in Nepal. And I had no idea what I set myself up for. But I made the trek to Everest base camp. And when I saw Everest, for the first time in my life, I saw beauty, I knew I had to be on that mountain. And I had already fulfilled one promise to myself of seeing the mountain. So I made a second promise, and that would be to someday climb the mountain. And so I spent the next 14 years climbing around the world climbing the highest mountains in the world. And I took mountaineering courses, wilderness first aid, crevasse rescue, I did everything I could to prepare myself for the mountain. I knew I had one shot, and I spent many years preparing for so if I look back on that journey to the summit, it was filled with people experiences and emotions, and not all good that I had to experience in order to get to that summit. I do believe that we’re all on this life journey. I do think that this applies to us. There are many lessons that I learned from those mountains. And sometimes we have to go through bad things and different experiences and motions. But the biggest thing that I got out of it was get out of my comfort zone and to change my mindset. And I think once we do that we all have this journey ahead of us and helps us get to our version of our summit.

Vince Menzione  09:35

You read a book about a tragic event at Mount Everest right? The last thing I want to do is go climb Mount Everest after that or even see the mountain. Why did you want to go see it first was just curiosity. At that point,

Louise McEvoy  09:47

I didn’t know it really existed as a climbing option and just the way it was described, and I was it was one book that got me interested and then I read multiple multiple books after because I was so bored. I was living at home I have myself in a place I didn’t know and didn’t have any friends. So I just took up reading. And the more I read about the mountain, the more I realize it’s a beautiful place a beautiful, it’s beautiful people. It’s the Himalayas are supposedly stunning. And I just wanted to see it for myself. Again, no plans to climb the mountain just see it. But once I saw it, I realize it’s something I really want to do.

Vince Menzione  10:21

And then a 14 year commitment after that, so there had to be something that drove that was it the community, you got an interest in a mountain climbing, and there was community around that as well and association are what created this flywheel to get you to climb Mount Everest,

Louise McEvoy  10:37

it’s a whole lot of things, you meet really interesting people and people who I wouldn’t normally interact with or intersect with in my everyday life. It got me out of my comfort zone, it’s dangerous. I was on the edge a little bit that way, I liked the danger. I liked the learning there’s so you have to learn about weather patterns. And what is that particular snow that day is different from the snow yesterday. So you have to know that for the curvy mask risk, you have to know that gets pretty technical, how to do your knots and the blaze and the ascenders. There’s just so much to learn and so much to No, I was just fascinated by all of it. And then you get to go to these really interesting countries like Nepal and Tanzania and Argentina and Ecuador, and I’ve climbed in Switzerland and France and Russia and Morocco, all these places all over the world. And, and it’s just it’s an added bonus that you get to experience cultures that you wouldn’t have otherwise. And I would never have gone to Antarctica if it wasn’t for a mountain on an article that I wanted to climb, I just feel very privileged that my interests expose me to things that I wouldn’t have. Otherwise, if I had chosen a different animal sport, for example,

Vince Menzione  11:50

in parallel, you’re pursuing a career How has your avocation impacted your vocation, and are these two inextricably linked,

Louise McEvoy  11:59

so summiting Mount Everest has opened doors that I never imagined in my business life. As you can imagine that a lot of metaphors to mountains and summits in relation to business I’ve been asked to speak and more than 70 times now in five different countries on my life lessons learned from the mountain and how I apply them to everyday life. I was the 493rd female in the world to summit Everest at that time in May 2018. And I’ve been asked by many women’s groups, and within cybersecurity and within female channel groups to speak about motivation, inspiration, and doing something in a male dominated environment. I also know that if you want to accomplish something big, it takes a lot of effort. And that can be tough. But I know that changing your mindset, it’s doable, and anyone can can accomplish hard things like the channel transformation, right? Ever has taught me that. I think we all have the ability to do really hard things. We just have to as I mentioned earlier, we have to get out of our comfort zone except change.

Vince Menzione  13:03

And so that switched on or changed your mindset. Oh, yeah, we talk about mindset here quite a bit on Ultimate Guide to partnering. We talked about fixed mindset versus growth mindset. And I use that term quite a bit coming at Microsoft and the Satya days. And I believe it also impacts partnerships, because organizations either have a fixed mindset to partnership or growth forward, infinite mindset towards partnering. So Louise, what has been the biggest impact to how you’ve approached business and partner leadership being open

Louise McEvoy  13:37

to change? I think we’re in a major transformation right now in all parts of the business. It’s not only in channel, but it’s in sales, marketing, operations, even HR and how we hire and the great resignation or reshuffle all everything’s changing. And in my business, cybersecurity was accelerated with lockdown, which really changed how we work with partners, customers had to quickly adopt the cloud and marketplaces, which also changed how the channel operates. So if we just remained in one place, we wouldn’t be able to grow and adapt. And I firmly believe change is a good thing and being flexible, makes things easier. And I think we have to be flexible when we’re in this massive transformation. It’s a good thing, but we have to be flexible.

Vince Menzione  14:29

So does Louise have a superpower?

Louise McEvoy  14:33

superpower? I asked the same question of everyone on my channel team. We were doing a zoom exercise one day and it was interesting to see that some people superpowers are viewed as someone else’s kryptonite because we all see things different. And I would have to say my superpower is I really like taking risks. I really enjoy challenges and I also embrace change. And so if I tie that back to the big Since right now, I feel personally, I’m in a really good and exciting place with this channel transformation. I think it’s much needed. And I keep saying that I keep saying this, the changes needed and let’s embrace it. I think there’s only good things from here. But I also feel like I’m in my sweet spot because there’s its risk. It’s changed. It’s challenged. I think that I love that. That’s my

Vince Menzione  15:22

Yeah, I love that as well. By the way, I get bored of being in a steady state with business. I love transformation. And boy, are we in an interesting time right now

Louise McEvoy  15:31

we are and it’s much needed. I’ve been the channel for a pretty long time and embracing this. I love what’s ahead. And it’s unknown. But that’s awesome, right?

Vince Menzione  15:39

Absolutely. And we’re gonna dive more in on the business. But I do want to ask you one other thing here, because you mentioned something about liking to push to the edges, I think is the way you described it. And it reminded me of Dr. Michael Gervais, who’s been a guest here on the podcast actually, twice now. He’s a high performance coach. He’s worked with Satya Nadella his leadership team. And he’s worked with Olympic athletes, leaders from all walks of life, and we discuss and he has espoused having a personal philosophy and part of his help. He helps organizations and people frame around mindfulness and purpose do you have a strong personal philosophy?

Louise McEvoy  16:22

I am a big believer in being your best self. When it comes to being your best self. I think it’s starts from the inside out best nutrition, exercise, stress management, being a good person, good heart. I think if we take care of ourselves, first, we can be better for our families, our friends, for our work colleagues, with most things I do, I asked myself, is this the right thing for me and the bigger environment, I work out five to six days a week, but I go to sleep each night doing meditation, I want to rest work my body, but also rest my soul, I encourage everyone to be good to themselves, try to find that peace and that happiness within yourself. And I can’t say that I get to that space every day. But my personal philosophy is to make an effort to be my best self.

Vince Menzione  17:17

Make an effort to be your best self. I love that. What does that look like? What’s the mindfulness practice look like? What does the meditation look like?

Louise McEvoy  17:24

Well, that’s only because my mind is going 24/7 I’m constantly writing little notes to myself and figuring out the next thing. And I think my mind is as active as my body. So it’s forcing myself to just be just sit still and let that muscle my brain just calm down. Otherwise, if you can’t be on 24/7, it’s not fair to yourself. And so that Meditation really is just to be still and be grateful. Be mindful. And though I do that every night before going to bed, just have a short meditation.

Vince Menzione  17:58

I love it. And is there a mantra that comes along with that I am not good at meditation is why I’m asking and I want to learn better how to do this better. A set

Louise McEvoy  18:06

the I do have a mantra and it’s it changes sometimes depending on what’s going on. But it really is how can I be the best going forward? What does that look like? What did today look like? What can I change? What can I do better or sometimes I did the best I could. Sometimes you have to take the pressure I put a lot of pressure on myself and that can be a lot of pressure. So it’s taking that pressure off and just being at ease.

Vince Menzione  18:33

I’m gonna have to practice that tonight. I’m so excited to welcome athletic greens as the latest sponsor to ultimate guide to partnering friends who know me well know I’ve made taking a green drink supplement, part of my health ritual for over 20 years now. And it has made all the difference to my health and well being about five years ago I added athletic greens and now their product ag one has become my go to green drink supplement. I take this literally every single day. Ag one is packed with 75 high quality vitamins, minerals, Whole Foods source superfoods, probiotics and antigens. It literally is replaced every vitamin in my cabinet. I take it at the start of the day and often have a second serving on days when I really need it. If you’d like to give ag one a try. Athletic Greens is giving away a free one year supply of vitamin D and five travel packs with every new purchase. Check them out at athletic greens.com forward slash Vince M zone let’s dive in on business and partnerships and this transformation we have all been seeing I’ve been calling this the rapid age of change and transformation for several years. is now we went through COVID. And now we’re on a little bit of a financial rollercoaster with the markets and uncertainty in the world. As we focus on this partnering, I mean, we are the ultimate guide to partnering. And the one thing I asked all of my guests in fact is what can we do better? Like when partnerships fail? What is the kryptonite, you’ve worked across the hyperscalers, and partner with some of the biggest and best channel partners? What attributes do you see in both the best business partnerships? And when partnerships fail, what is the kryptonite?

Louise McEvoy  20:36

So I think the ability to dive deep, and not try to be all things to all industries, all customers, all analysts all ecosystems, I really like it when a partner picks what they’re good at. And they’re really, really good at that. I think the world is big, and there are so many new things coming into the market, it’s hard not to get caught up in all the noise. But is it really the right thing to be focused on? Should you be a generalist or strategist or a specialist. And in trend micros partner program, we have 1000s of partners, primarily resellers who do similar functions. But the partners who really stand out to me are the ones who invest in a certain aspect of the business, the ones who are able to adapt to change quickly, we’re in the transformation, those who have a specialty that no one else has. So I know I can call on them for that one thing. And the ones who have a voice and are not just another partner who shows up at renewal time. And I would really suggest to partners get out there and build an actual partnership with your vendor commit to knowing their business, get enabled, be a voice for them, and to them, show up, bring your value, not just be another partner out of the 1000s, who might close three or four deals a year, commit to really, really growing together. That’s what I want to see out of my best partners. And I think when you do that, in turn that vendor like the ISV, like a Trend Micro invests in you even more, because there’s this, there’s shared commitment. And that’s what I really enjoy about the partnering. And yeah, we’ve got a lot who will show up just a couple of times a year, but the ones who really strategically want to work together, those are the ones that are that those are the superpowers I think

Vince Menzione  22:25

I coach organizations on what’s the one thing that you do better differently, that differentiate yourself from all the others in this being a shiny quarter, in fact, in a bucket of shiny quarters is the way I refer to it,

Louise McEvoy  22:39

show up different Give me your value proposition. Now we’ve got something to work towards. But if you’re just a generalist amongst the 1000s, it’s hard, right hard to build something that’s a value,

Vince Menzione  22:49

I find also to talk to some of these organizations, especially some of the services partners, and they have this big list of capabilities. So it’s a menu, what don’t you do as an organization and I just coached one organization. And I said to them, wait a second, you’ve developed a security solution for utilities and utilities are on attack right now, a lot of bad actors out there. And they want to shut down the power grids, you should focus in on this one area. And they’re like, Yeah, let’s go do that.

Louise McEvoy  23:19

See, that’s music to my ears, Vince? Yes. It’s exactly what I hear. When I hear from partners. I have this specialty it resides here. I’m not trying to be all things to all people. But bring me into where the business is right here and my strength will shine that’s absolutely perfect when it comes to partnerships.

Vince Menzione  23:34

So let’s dig in more on this transformation. We’ve all been seeing it and I had a conversation about this earlier trend is going through a transformation. Almost all the ISPs moving from especially the ones that had been around for a while had a traditional model, and everything has moved to cloud, SAS, ossifying and cloud across everything. What steps are you and trend doing to pivot the business during this time?

Louise McEvoy  23:57

Oh, we’re doing a lot. But if I can focus on the channel, specifically right now, I’ll tell you the I’m gonna give away my secret sauce maybe. But I’m taking steps that are based on a business book. And it’s we’re all read all kinds of books and try to get new and fresh ideas. And this one is, it’s a book called The Blue Ocean Strategy. And the strategy is about going after a market where your competitors aren’t let them fish air quotes for existing customers in an existing space using an existing strategy. What I’m looking for is going after that market that’s untapped. You just set it right that services partner in a utilities vertical. Wow, that’s new. That’s exciting. That’s untapped. It’s not generous. I want to create my own space, find new customers where we haven’t fished before yet and using air quotes in reference to the blue ocean. So that means we’re looking at partners who we necessarily didn’t consider as a partner before and working with partners in different ways. And that can include how we build them. Maybe it’s not a an on prem license model that’s paid by a PEO that maybe it’s a PAYGO model paid by a credit card. It’s different, right and different is good. And it’s specializing good. I think the cybersecurity space is big enough for everyone. But if customers don’t realize that they need to protect their data, they really, really do. Their data is worth something to cyber criminals, I want this data protected, which is in a big way, a problem that we should all be mindful of. Because it’s our data out there with any interaction we have with a company that requires our credit card or name or birth date, it gives its hotels, Doctor schools, our data is out there, it needs to be secure. It’s a problem we should all have a voice for. So I think it’s cybersecurity is big, there’s a place for everyone. And as it relates to the partnering, I’m looking for those partners who are creating that untapped market who are looking after those part customers we haven’t seen before and creating this blue ocean. Hopefully that makes sense.

Vince Menzione  26:02

So how are you applying this blue ocean strategy to your ecosystem, then are you asking the mall to go fish and find blue oceans to go after

Louise McEvoy  26:10

it’s a balance, so we still need our traditional resellers, we still need this channel moving forward in the way that it always has. But we’re looking at other ways of partnering. Like we’re seeing customers who are becoming partners and partners becoming customers, we’re seeing new entities out there that we never would have thought of as a partner because we knew them in a different way. But a lot of these companies are transforming themselves. And we haven’t be open to new experiences and new change. And so I’m looking at businesses in different ways. How can they be a partner? Oh, there’s a downstream motion here. And that could be a partnership.

Vince Menzione  26:46

Some of us have been talking about this ecosystem strategy. And Jamie McBain who has been a guest here just recently it was back on the podcast, we’ve talked about ecosystems. And it reminded me this conversation about the five seats at the table, right? There are several people influencing the CIO or whoever the decision maker is in the process. And they may not be the traditional reseller. They may be other players, they may be complementary organizations or other people that the that are trusted within the community. And I think what you’re saying here is we need to have those relationships as well.

Louise McEvoy  27:18

Yeah, I think we have to build a community around us. And it might be coopetition, too. Sometimes it’s the competitors who you can build this bond with, because you’re still going after the bad threat actors, and how do you work together in ways that are different and it bends my brain? Sometimes it’s a real business development mindset. I think it’s fascinating. There’s a lot that can be done.

Vince Menzione  27:39

So I want to dive in on the fact that you are a woman partner leader, I have been a strong advocate and ally and the women in the cloud and women in tech world. Was there anything that fueled your success, or were there any barriers you needed to overcome?

Louise McEvoy  27:57

I haven’t experienced a whole lot of barriers. Or maybe it’s because I failed to notice them. But on the flip side, it also doesn’t bother me to be the only female in a meeting or on a speaker’s panel. In fact, I say bring it on. I love that. And I find that it’s the people who supported me the most were the senior executives at Trend Micro who were at the time were all men like you brought up Sanjay Mehta. He used to be my boss at Trend Micro, he supported me and I’m grateful for all that the Trend Micro senior executive team has done saw my potential support and my growth, I feel very fortunate to be honest. As for fueling my success, if I can, I’m going to remain humble here and don’t see the title as a success. But it’s a culmination of hard work effort. I’ve been another put many years of experience in the channel. One thing about me as though is I don’t allow myself excuses. And that part goes back to the meditation at the end of the day, I give it all every day, if I have an off day, which we all have I give more than the next day. I don’t give myself excuses. And that actually came in very handy when I was climbing or training for Mount Everest because I the training involved a lot of effort in it was tired and it was stressful trying to run a full time job and travel the same time. But I made myself a promise I’m not gonna if I don’t summit ever, is it not because I’m not fit. So I went all in and I just didn’t give myself an excuse, and it paid off. And I’m grateful for it.

Vince Menzione  29:30

That metaphor of no compromise is very strong, and it resonates in the way you discuss or describe yourself. Thank you. I also know that Sanjay is a huge ally. We both participate in the women in the cloud movement. And I know that you were very fortunate, I believe, to have leaders like that, who lifted you up. They kind

Louise McEvoy  29:53

of tell you a funny story. So when I went to the Trend Micro team, senior executive team, including scientists that hey, I have obsessed with Everest, right? Yep. Yep. Well, I need two months off work in order to summit Everest without hesitation? Yes, of course. And I said, No, no, I didn’t say two weeks, I need two full months, then you know what the response was? I remember Sunday telling me this directly. He goes, Yes, just come back alive. And I will always be grateful for that. It wasn’t Yes, we had to get this done. You have to do this. You have to make sure someone has a backup blah, blah, blah. But I wasn’t any of that. It’s just come back alive, not summit just come back alive. I was I will forever be grateful for that for not having the pressure of I must accomplish massive amounts of things before I leave, because I already had a lot to do. It was just Yes, we support you. i I’ll never forget that.

Vince Menzione  30:44

And you’re going to be doing something with our good friend Aaron fire around mountaineering in the near future. Is that right?

Louise McEvoy  30:50

Yes. So another funny story. Aaron texted me one day, we didn’t know each other super well. And she said, No, I would like to go hiking with you. And I said, Sure. Let’s do a 14 or in my world a 14 or everybody knows what a 14 Or is it just haven’t decided? Well, I didn’t know that she didn’t know. And it was a mountain over 14,000 feet. And there are a number of them in the US. And she in the background, Google what’s a 14 or came back to on the text message and said yes, I was completely I didn’t know this at all, I just assumed and we did a couple of fourteeners in Colorado and she loved it. And I loved that we had great time hanging out with each other and we did some more climbing and and this isn’t technical climbing. It’s just climbing an altitude. And she set up this women’s we call it chi Summit. And the first one was last September, and we had nine women who joined us in Breckenridge, Colorado, and we climbed to one of the fourteeners in Colorado. Again, not technical, but it is over 14,000 feet. And these women didn’t know what a fourteener was, didn’t think they could ever do something like this hadn’t even thought about doing something like this. And we spent a weekend together. And it was the most bonding experience and different to I’ve climbed with a lot of men. And once a some men, they’ll get to the top of the summit tag it and then you want to go back down and have a beer, for example. Well, the women are different. We’re we we waited for one another and we celebrated. And it was a real moment, it was different. It was It wasn’t better, it was just different. We are going to run this shoe summits again. And we have three weekends booked in September, where there’s that many women who have heard about it and are interested in trying a fourteener. And I’m just so proud of that the women are putting some trust in us and and want to try something new. They’re willing to take that leap of faith and I’m, I’m really proud and incredible that I mean, it was Aaron’s idea to do this. And I’m just I’m really happy that we’re introducing, I don’t know, it’d be about 40 Women maybe on these between these three weekends who are going to be introduced to a fourteener how fantastic right? That is

Vince Menzione  32:55

fantastic. That is amazing. And you mentioned something that for our listeners and for me, in fact, when you say technical, I’m assuming you mean you don’t have any special equipment, like you’re not using ropes and things like that. Is that what you

Louise McEvoy  33:09

see, in my mind? You already know what I’m talking about. Technical Yes. So when you know Everest, we have the big boots, our crampons, the spikes on the bottom of our boots that we have a harness and ropes and ascenders like devices to get us up on the fourteeners that are not technical. It is a trail that where it’s we just need hiking poles and hiking boots. So yeah, there’s a

Vince Menzione  33:30

difference. Okay, and then I can come along, then

Louise McEvoy  33:33

you are more than welcome, Vince, anytime.

Vince Menzione  33:35

I would love that, I’d love that. So let’s have a little bit more fun. Then we’ll talk more about hiking and fourteeners. But I have a favorite question that I love to ask. And you’re hosting a dinner party. And this amazing dinner party can be anywhere in the world. It might be on the top of one of these fourteeners or a larger mountain that you’ve climbed. But you get to host this dinner party with three amazing guests. And you can invite any guests from the present or the past to this amazing party. Whom would you invite, and why?

Louise McEvoy  34:11

I’m thinking so I have different sides. To me like we all do the family side climbing business in my latest which is activism. So can I have more than three guests? I’ll go quick.

Vince Menzione  34:21

We could have more than three guests.

Louise McEvoy  34:22

So let’s go okay, parents because families first and my dad’s super sociable my mom knows how to cook and banquets. I don’t have that talent. So they’re a shoo in.

Vince Menzione  34:32

Okay, they’re part of the host party. How’s that? Okay.

Louise McEvoy  34:35

All right. So then my first guess would be Ed vistors. And he so that’s my climbing side right so he’s the first American to climb all 8000 meter peaks without oxygen. I think I have a lot of interesting stories about climbing like bizarre stories. I’m sure his would blow any dinner party away. So ads on my list. Edie Give me

Vince Menzione  34:54

his name again. This jurors had blisters. Okay,

Louise McEvoy  34:57

my next guest This is my activity. Self is Ingrid Newkirk and she’s the president of PETA. I had a life changing dinner last year that set me on a path to discovering how we treat animals in our food industry, fashion entertainment laboratory. So I’ve committed to being a better person to animals. So this dinner is going to be vegan. And Ingrid’s coming along. And then my business self, Elon Musk. I like how he’s changing the world. He’s not afraid, afraid to try new things, which I admire. And he’s successful, but also controversial, which I think is cool. And I want to ride in his spaceship.

Vince Menzione  35:35

Course you have to go to space after all these mountains. Oh, yeah. He is also pushing the edges is absolutely amazing. And of course, I’m going to come along for at least a glass of wine. So what are we serving? Oh, I

Louise McEvoy  35:46

thought that was a given. Yeah.

Vince Menzione  35:48

Is it red? Or is it white? What am I bringing along? It’s a red. Okay, very good. Awesome. Well, Louise, you have been absolutely amazing and so much fun to be with today. For our listeners, any parting words of advice to how they might achieve their greatest results.

Louise McEvoy  36:05

We’re all on a journey to some version of our summit. It’s inviting new people, experiences and emotions into our lives, the rest will follow. And it can be really, really good and accept change, adaptive change mindset and who knows what can enter in your life. It could be really, really fantastic like Everest.

Vince Menzione  36:28

So good. So good. Louise, thank you so much for being an amazing guest on Ultimate Guide to partnering.

Louise McEvoy  36:34 Thank you, Vince. It’s been a pleasure,

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