77 – Lead with an Outward Growth Mindset to Make the Greatest Social Impact

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Welcome to the 77th episode of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering™.

I was delighted to welcome a friend Ryan Risley  Principal and Chief Technology Officer of Wipfli’s business solutions consulting practice.

Wipfli is a 90-year young group of 2,500+ professionals focused by industry to help their clients navigate the challenges of tax, audit, strategy, leadership, technology, and more!

Last year Ryan led the team at Wipfli on a deep partnership with Team Rubicon and Microsoft Tech For Social Impact (TSI) – Justin Spelhaug’ s organization –resulting in Wipfli being selected for the 2019 Partner for Social Impact Award from Microsoft US.  

Team Rubicon serves communities by mobilizing veterans to continue their service, leveraging their skills and experience to help people prepare, respond, and recover from disasters and humanitarian crises.  The partnership continues to this day as the teams work closely together pushing the boundaries to forward technologies use within a disaster response and humanitarian aid community.

Ryan’s story is a great example of how applying both a growth AND outward mindset can lead to the opportunity like helping Team Rubicon with their mission.  Ryan and I peel back on his philosophy towards business, what makes a great partner, and his personal journey that led him to this spot in life.

PHILOSPHY TOWARDS BUSINESS

Here are his top three considerations:  

  1. Mindset – Start with an Outward Mindset – Be mindful of your intentions and be sure you’re looking out for others first.  Reducing unconscious bias, limited thinking, and victim mentality.
  2. Story Telling – Learn how to be an authentic and compelling storyteller – Master this to help others see the future they want to achieve.
  3. The Walkaway – A Successful Walkaway is the positive things people think and say to others after an interaction with you or your team.  It’s one of the key ingredients to growth.

PARTNERSHIPS & MICROSOFT 

Ryan’s work goes across several marquee social good organizations where he and the Wipfli team are actively engaged with NetHope and Microsoft’s Tech For Social Impact. The Advisory and technical teams from Wipfli are enabling impactful organizations like Medicine San Frontiers (Doctors without Borders), Save the Children, Operation Smile, and many others in their digital transformation to make progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.  To learn more, listen to my recent episode with Justin Spelhaug, Microsoft Vice President for TSI.

Ryan believes partnerships are less successful when:

  • There are missed expectations (which start at the beginning)
  • There is a fixed or inward mindset
  • One partner feels entitled (e.g. when partners expect leads without earning it).

HIS CAREER AND PERSONAL LIFE

Ryan and his lovely wife, Elizabeth, live a life filled with adventure and purpose as they look to show there is hope, love and beauty in the world.

  1. Starting with philanthropy at an early age, Ryan felt the need to expand his reach to community for his Eagle Scout Project
  2. Hear about the wake-up call in college that got him on a path to success and possibly the “successful walkaway”
  3. How he and his wife apply a “Regret Minimization Framework” to key decisions in their life.                            
  4. Advice from his father to climb the mountains while you’re still young enough to reach the top.

If you are a business leader or partner leader looking to build your business with Microsoft, I encourage you to listen to this discussion. 

LINKS & RESOURCES

As with each of my episodes, I appreciate your support. Please tell your friends about Ultimate Guide to Partnering™ and where they can find us. I’d love your feedback. Please like the podcast and provide comments or reach out to me at @vincemenzione on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also like and follow Ultimate Guide to Partnering Facebook page or drop me a line at vincem@cloudwavepartners.com.

Ultimate Guide to Partnering™  is a rich compendium of what makes successful partnerships and is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Player FM, almost anywhere you get your podcasts!

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Ultimate Partnerships. Ultimate Partnerships helps you get the most results from your partnerships. Get Partnerships Right – Optimize for Success – Deliver Results – Ultimate Partnerships.

Transcription automatically generated by Otter.Ai – Please excuse typos

Vince Menzione 0:30
Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to partnering. I’m Vince Menzione, your host, and for the 77th episode of this podcast. I welcome the friend and a Microsoft partner that got it right working with the tech giant. My guest for this episode is Ryan Risley, principal and Chief Technology Officer at workflowy. A Business Solutions consulting practice focused in on the Microsoft ecosystem. Ryan and I are friends and last year Ryan through his work with Microsoft’s tech for social impact organization led by Justin spell hog. A previous guest on this podcast was the Partner of the Year Award winner for the work they did with Team Rubicon and amazing organization whose mission is to serve communities by mobilizing veterans to continue their service, leveraging their skills and experiences to help people prepare, respond and recover from disasters and humanitarian crises. What’s so impactful about Ryan’s story is that they won this project through applying a growth and outward mindset to the partnership with Microsoft. Ryan and I peel back on his philosophy towards business, what makes a great partner his personal journey, and what led him to this spot in life. I hope you enjoy meeting and listening to my conversation with Ryan Risley. Ryan, welcome to the podcast.

Ryan Risley 1:59
Thank you, Vince. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me

Vince Menzione 2:00
on. I am so excited to welcome you. You’re the principal and Chief Technology Officer of whip please Business Solutions consulting practice. And we’ve known each other for several years, our paths have been crossing multiple times over the years with Microsoft nonprofits, voices for innovation, and the International Association of Microsoft channel partners. So I’m really glad to welcome you today.

Ryan Risley 2:24
Thanks, man. It’s great to be here.

Vince Menzione 2:25
So Ryan, could you tell our listeners a little bit about your company wipfli, the company’s value proposition and mission and how its evolved over the years? Sure, Vince,

Ryan Risley 2:36
again, I appreciate the time. It’s interesting people ask about wipfli and I first half to help help them pronounce it. It is our founders named Clarence wipfli from 1930. And actually doesn’t officially stand for anything. But our firm has been around originally as an accounting firm in the Midwest. And we’ve grown over the last nearly 90 years to be a full services organization focused on everything from technology consulting, which is obviously deep, where we work, but also through tax and audit risk compliance, business valuation, m&a, services, etc. So it really the full suite of types of services, but really focused by industry. That’s really the core

Vince Menzione 3:16
of where we’re at. So you’re a technologist and an accounting firm. So you can can you tell our listeners a little bit about your role and the office and what it serves? Sure, absolutely.

Ryan Risley 3:27
So the Business Solutions Group within wipfli is, you know, really the digital practice. It’s really taking a lot of strategic plans and initiatives and really putting technology enablers to it. The real goal for a lot of these organizations try to be 10 times more effective leveraging technology, we work heavily in nonprofit industry, which we’ll talk about a little bit more today, but but also in many others, construction, manufacturing, distribution, financial institutions, healthcare, construction, real estate, etc. So our practice is really focused on helping organizations lift in their digital transformation in ways that they normally wouldn’t be able to on their own or filling in those areas that they might need assistance. So a wide variety, but it’s really focused on us being able to help them create lasting positive impact with the organizations that either they work with as a nonprofit, or, or their ultimate client or customer.

Vince Menzione 4:16
So Ryan, you’ve had some really high profile customers, and specifically in the nonprofit space, we got a chance to work together and our paths crossed in that space. Can you talk to our listeners, a little bit about some of those customers?

Ryan Risley 4:30
Sure, yeah. Now, we’ve been blessed. You know, I think there’s a lot of organizations that seek us out because of, you know, some of the work that we’ve done, but also the potential that they have internally and some of the challenges that they’re looking to achieve. You know, I always look at the perspective that we’re, we’re trying to help organizations solve their organizational issues and challenges in a way that they may not have been able to view that perspective really focused with a human centered design, design thinking methodologies. Some of the organizations we’ve worked with, you probably heard of timber bacaan is definitely a lighthouse project, so to speak. They’re they’re the type of organization that inspires many, from a number of different angles are there, they leverage veteran talents to serve the communities related to natural disasters, or in this case, COVID response are those in the communities that are, are needing food program deliveries, when the volunteers that they work with are at risk. A lot of the organizations we work with are probably brand names to people, you know, in the nonprofit space. Team Rubicon is definitely a highlight, you know, for for many, because of their inspirational vision of helping veterans serve those in their times of crisis. We also work with organizations like Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, a lot of members of net hope, which is a community of nonprofits really focused on digital collaboration. And so I think the key really for us is making sure that we are aligned with their overall initiatives, whether it be serving some of the UN SDGs, if you’ve probably heard from others, the solution or the development goals of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. And the big thing I want to try to communicate is that people work with us because we’re aligned with their ethos, and we can basically move them forward in exactly the place they need, we’re not a blackbox, we don’t just come in, do the work and leave, we truly try to partner with them, we try to understand their ethos, we try to really just embody, you know what they do, and you know, I’ve been accused of becoming emotionally attached to every single one of our clients. And so that’s, that’s really where we’re at, you know, trying to make sure that we are we are aligned with their mission and vision, and we can help them succeed.

Vince Menzione 6:33
And you know, I’ve got to seen your work up close. You’ve had considerable success as a Microsoft partner, and I coach my clients on how to build their brand. And recently, we had our mutual friend Dux, Raymond cyan Dux, Raymond sy, on the podcast, to discuss the importance of relationships to a successful partnership, you have an interesting experience that led to the Team Rubicon account. And I was hoping you might share with that story or share that experience with our listeners. Sure,

Ryan Risley 7:05
yeah. And Team Rubicon again, is we’ve been working with them for a number of years, they were only nine years young or eight years young, when we started working with them. And they were basically born in the cloud to begin with. But they realized that they were at a threshold moment where their systems were breaking down, and they weren’t able to scale. No, they were serving the time, but 80,000 volunteers and coordinating all of their activities across the world. And they found that the systems weren’t connected enough. And we were brought in as part of a task force essentially, internally to help help them with that challenge and determine how we could help them scale. They’re now up over 130,000 volunteers, they’ve formed. Yeah, it’s amazing. And, and they’ve been able to do that and scale, largely due to technology. I mean, obviously, the growth and the mission and the culture are amazing things, and you’ll learn more about them. But the real goal is really about a shared ethos, making sure that there is alignment between the benefactors, you know, folks that may be involved in donation and grants with the organization that you’re serving, making sure you’re thinking of their clients who they serve, as well as the clients they might serve. So Team Rubicon are just veterans who are benefactors of some of the service, as well as the crisis, the folks in crisis the survivors that they serve. So it’s really shared alignment of that mindset. And that vision that really helps us be successful, obviously have to know the technology, that’s table stakes, but really being a partner to these organizations, rather than a vendor is critical. And how did you get introduced to Team Rubicon?

Vince Menzione 8:33
That’s a great question it, you know, serendipity rules, sometimes, but I think it’s driven by what I call an outward mindset. So there’s no midomi they know I live in Washington, DC, I’m within a bike ride of the Capitol, I have a fairly big mouth. And I know a little bit about technology. So I started volunteering basically to be a technology advocate, helping our elected officials understand the importance of technology and how it affects both our communities and organizations and and what the policies that can do to drive that. And as part of voices for innovation. Through that engagement, I, I was asked to be a Microsoft expert at one of the conferences very large conference many years ago. And our our booth, as a Microsoft expert was next to the Microsoft philanthropies. And we basically started to talk about some of the initiatives that they had many years ago, this is prior to tech for social impact, etc. And so that relationship grew over time and becoming more known in that circle and being available and, and helpful to amplify that mission. I was really part of that success. And, you know, again, it’s about leaning in, and I’m happy to talk more about outward mindset, as well, and how that relates to that, but it was serendipity plus mindset. I would say that, that how that happened.

Yeah, you know, what I like to point out here too, is that, you know, people think that with working with Microsoft, you just work with a partner development manager or maybe an account rep. And it sounds like you know, you’re related. clips were threaded throughout the organization, you were working with the voices for innovation, big plug devices for innovation, a group that we both been involved in a group that does great work around advocacy on areas that, you know, a lot of areas that we all care about, but that those relationships actually led to the serendipitous introduction to a potential client. And it wasn’t like an account rep, picked up the phone and called you and said, Come on in. Right, it was a different type of relationship that got established.

Ryan Risley 10:29
Yeah, absolutely. I would also say that it was on my volunteer time, like it was, it was my give back, you know, you always try to find, you know, the best alignment for what you are passionate about what the world needs, what you can be compensated for, as well as, you know, that could be just satisfaction, as well as what you’re good at. And that’s, it’s a Japanese term called Iki. Guy. And so I always seek to give my time to things that I feel like those are the kind of juxtaposition of all those four things that’s really what happened, you know, I leaned in, on my own time to learn and distribute that goodwill, it feels genuine to people from what I’ve been told, because it is it’s, it’s a really do feel like it’s better to try to lift all the boats, as many as you can with with some of your superpowers. And so, yeah, that’s really how it’s happened. Iki guy,

Vince Menzione 11:16
that’s a new term for some of our listeners, what is it? What does it stand for? What does it mean,

Ryan Risley 11:20
it’s a Japanese term, it’s ik IGA, I, there’s great books about it, and everything. It’s about finding your purpose in life. And what I’ve learned really is over time that the folks that are the most happy in life are the ones that are doing those four things. And at the center of it is your purpose and mission. And they’ve studied folks that have the most centenarians in the world in Japan, and determined that these are really the communities that thrive the most with the people that live the longest and happiest, are those that are are doing the juxtaposition of those four things.

Vince Menzione 11:51
Or we’re gonna do a little research and provide information in our show notes about Iki. Guy, I think this is really an interesting topic area. I also wanted to appeal back to on some of the work you’ve done in the nonprofit space We’ve been living in this time like no other. What are you seeing now that you didn’t expect to see in your client base?

Ryan Risley 12:12
Yeah, that’s a great question in terms of what we’ve seen, I mean, obviously, it’s not, we’re not able to even talk about technology and enablement and nonprofits, if we don’t bring COVID into the mix. There’s a famous sad touristic cartoon that says, what was the what was the key driver for your digital transformation. And there’s a checkbox that says COVID-19, I think the thing I’ve seen the most that surprised me is the grit that has been shown by the organizations we work with, and the ultimate inclusion that that’s generated. So the technology, creating greater inclusion, but it’s actually been able to generate because of it, you know, I have a story actually about that grit, and dedication. And we had a plan to do an on site. We call it an idea framework. It’s, it’s about imagine, design, execute and assess. And it starts with a Human Centered Design workshop workshop was supposed to be in person in the UK and the southern side of UK in the pool area and was slated to be in early March, which everybody remembers, that’s kind of when things started to close down. The client was dedicated to do it, we were going to be in person we were cleared for takeoff, literally, we had our flights booked everything. And then us closed flights to actually I think the UK close flights from the US. And at that point, the client was like, we’re still gonna do it, we’re all gonna come together in a conference room here you guys can dial in, and our staff are just like, I don’t think that’s gonna work. 20 some people with you know, a program you think is sponsored by three m based on the number of post it notes, we just don’t see how that dynamic would work. And so I would say lucky Lee unluckily, then the UK lockdown, and they couldn’t leave their homes either. And so we had to pivot. We didn’t just port it to technology, we rethought the process, within eight days, kept the schedule had the sessions. And here’s where the grit and dedication came from the net net was we included 15 more people from around the UK, specifically for inclusion of beneficiaries, the volunteers dialed in from places that are too far to dry, if they wouldn’t have afforded the time and expense to get there. So we were actually able to make it more inclusive, where everyone was equals. And we were able to do it on schedule and actually for less money. And so net net grit and inclusion, I think are the really key things, you know, that really helped that process. And that was the Royal National lifeboat institution. They serve as the volunteer coast guard for nearly 200 years. For the UK. You know, we’ve

Vince Menzione 14:30
been seeing a lot of this in the technology sector, right, a lot of the events that went virtual this year. And what I’ve experienced with Microsoft and some of the other technology giants and leaders is that more and more people can attend the event now that it’s virtually versus couldn’t afford to get the plane ride or the teeny responsible. There’s just been this, I guess, more inclusion in terms of the technology sharing that’s been going on in our sector.

Ryan Risley 14:54
Yeah, I would agree. I think to your point about the breadth of the impact, I think the dissemination of information has been vast. We just had the net hope summit, which was again 82 countries, I think dialed in the Microsoft inspire conference, we had hundred and over 100,000, I think was 115,000 people, it’s usually in the 40 to 50,000 range. Yep. So the expansive reach has been amazing. I wonder and I’m curious for the audience here, if you found the same level of depth of conversation and connection from that, and that’s, I think the the thing that we all strive for and yearn for. I think getting the message out to that many people is extremely empowering. Yeah,

Vince Menzione 15:32
I agree. I do think you lose something with the static messages, the pre recorded videos, it’s when there’s some sense or semblance of interaction that’s still going on. And organizations we had ducks on last last episode. You know, he got to host a Microsoft event and act as a, an emcee, if you will. And I think that added a level of engagement interaction that kind of added to made it more inclusive for people watching. I do think that that is an issue. And of course, we all miss getting together for you know, lifting a cocktail afterwards, because we’re not, we’re not together in person like we would normally be. So we do miss that. I

Ryan Risley 16:12
do miss that for sure. Yeah. And ducks is great at man in the I think it was the fire conference, actually, who’s the anchor desk? But yes, I tell people we people meet during the day, and they connect after the conference. And it’s just kind of a interesting dynamic, how you can actually have things move forward after hours more than more than they would during the day.

Vince Menzione 16:30
Yeah, I can’t wait to get back out. I mean, I think we all are feeling that way. After the amount of months we’ve spent indoors or cloistered. So let’s talk a little bit about your successful relationship. We talked about the Microsoft conference here, you’ve had a successful partnership with Microsoft. And, you know, I focus in on what makes great partnerships as a successful Microsoft partner. from your experience, what do you believe it takes to be a successful partner with Microsoft?

Ryan Risley 16:57
It’s a great and complicated question. And I’m sure lots of folks are wondering, you know, first of all, it’s not the ryan show here, there. There’s an entire firm of experts that are our disposal here that are deeply involved in many channels within Microsoft, my focus really is on the nonprofit side, working with pretty much everybody in the seila community, we have an entire large focus on the OCP side, as well, really to help move that forward. And we do that because there are different types of goals and different alignment. And it’s really important to have solid relationships that are genuine. I think the biggest thing I could say for somebody looking to be engaged with any vendor, truthfully, not just Microsoft platform provider that you might work with is, is to come with solutions, not questions. I think that there’s plenty of questions out there. What should I do? What do you think I should pursue? And I hate to say it like this, but there there’s a lot of people asking the same question. So when someone comes with a, this is what we’ve been doing. This is where we’re seeing success. We’re about to invest more in this area, we’d like your opinion, or lift? Or can you unlock this for us? Or can you help socialize, they get off that call with that walk away? They’re like, Huh, they seem to have it together, you know. And that walk away is what you look for. And that’s the point of growth is what is driving towards that walk away that feeling that people get when they get off a call with you? Was it worth the time? Was it Oh, now I got more homework. Because we always look at a call going okay, why am I the one with all the bullets here, it’s important to have a really strong walk away. And the goal is not to seek that as a goal. But it’s, it’s being genuine and, and it’s leaning in. And it’s thinking of that as an outward mindset to give not to receive.

Vince Menzione 18:40
So successful walk away. Can you peel back on that just a little bit more for our listeners?

Ryan Risley 18:45
Yeah, I haven’t read this somewhere. So I can’t attribute it right now. But it may have been an amalgam of many things that that have seen in my life. But the best propagation of success for people are what they say when you’re not in the room. Hmm. And a walk away as you get off a call, you end this podcast, whatever it might be. And it’s what you do next. It’s what you think the next 1520 seconds? It’s like, an evaluation of was my time worth doing that? Or is there an action item or scribbled something down during it? And I really want to follow up with it’s the vigor that the person ending the conversation follows up on or takes action on or reflects on a picture, you know, you walk out of your virtual office, and let’s say if it’s at home, your spouse or whatever, so what were what was that call you’re on? You seem really excited. Oh, you gotta hear this. That point is the walk away. And a lot of times, we’ll do like a one word close in our meetings just to see how everyone’s feeling that’s supposed to capture what the walkaway is, what are you feeling right now and when people verbalize it, you say excited, that’s fantastic. Most people don’t say perplexed, disgusted, frustrated, whatever it might be. So that walkaway is kind of to me that the key success for people talking well about what just happened to be a proponent of your work, you know, just to move things forward and that that you know, starts to ring through the halls or virtual halls in this case. They’re after.

Vince Menzione 20:00
So how do you teach a successful walk away?

Ryan Risley 20:03
Hmm.

Ryan Risley 20:04
Take planning, truthfully, it takes empathy. We have a, we have a mindset internally to the firm here at wipfli. It’s actually required training for everybody in the firm called The Harbinger training. And in our job training Harbinger AR big er. And it’s a process by which you really looking at people not as vehicles to get somewhere or obstacles preventing you to do something or irrelevant, like they can’t help you. It’s really looking at what their needs are, and how can you be most helpful. We call the outside triangles and etc, but but really looking at where they need to be, and how can you be helpful to them. And when people lean in like that, it it creates a whole different dynamic, you know, if you’re a salesperson, you’re saying, I got to close these four deals by the end of the month to hit my numbers. That’s great. That’s your inside triangle. But you can do that by making sure you’re aligned with the people’s goals that you’re helping, you know, somebody has to implement their system by the end of the year, because it’s in their goal. That’s great. So how can you help them hit that, you know, if you’re working with a client, or a vendor, or even even a friend or family member, it’s really a strong mindset to really think about other people’s goals. And this is, you know, it’s, I would say, table stakes. If you’re in any sort of business or relationship with another organization, you probably already have that. But it’s really important to be mindful of it. So to your point, how do you work towards a walkway? You start with your mindset? What am I here for what’s definition of success, and to me, it’s making sure that I know what they need, as much as I can or discover, and that we’re giving, so that when they go through their walk away what their next steps are, they’re the ones taking action, we don’t have to press or push to move it forward. They’re taking the internal focus of control.

Vince Menzione 21:35
I love that, you know, I coached my clients on growth mindset being one of the key ingredients to successful partnerships. You mentioned Harbinger, I was looking at up here, it’s the Harbinger Institute. And we’ll provide some links. Was there any specific training or things that came out of that Harbinger experience that you can share?

Ryan Risley 21:53
Yeah, I mean, there’s a book, I think it’s leadership and self deception? I think it is, it’s like the first book, it’s like the one on one, wake up, and you read it, you start going, wait a minute, Is this me? Is this an intervention? It’s important because you can, my wife blames me for this sometimes. But I, there’s so much we learn, and I do try to apply it at home too. But this is one thing that really helps really, in your entire life. If you feel like you’re not being accurately portrayed, or you’re not being heard correctly, you know, you really want to check yourself at the door first, and make sure that your mindset is right. And you mentioned mindset already. I’ll go into that later. But yeah, it’s it’s, that’s the first step. And there’s tons of different trainings, we’re not related to them, other than we receive their, their services.

Vince Menzione 22:38
No, I love that we’re gonna provide links to the book in the show notes, would you say the name of the book was leading with deception is

Ryan Risley 22:44
leadership and self deception, I

Vince Menzione 22:45
think is the leadership and self deception. Okay, we’re gonna provide links to that one in our show notes. So what about partners that didn’t get it? Right, like, what would you wish you had said to them?

Ryan Risley 22:56
That’s a great question. You know, being involved with a partner community, we’re, we’re always looking for ways to help those partners get a foot in the door. And, you know, that’s part of kind of the amcp mindset is navigating, you know, the the communities is one of the hardest parts, you might have really an intentionally focused people that are skilled and talented. But if they don’t have the right outlet, or they’re not, you’re not closing enough business, I think the key is making sure that they have the right mindset that they’re plugged into the right channels, maybe they just needed a soapbox, you know, some sort of amplification to get there to get their solution out, just getting getting their story. Maybe they just need help, you know, getting their story told to the right people. And so trying to do that left, so the folks that maybe aren’t as successful. They I’ve heard and this is this is a generalization, but I’ve heard blame, like why aren’t they giving us more leads? or Why don’t I get a seat at the table. And if you look at it from a, from a purpose perspective of trying to execute organizations are trying to de risk it’s was early on probably 10 years ago, I was inside of us a meeting with a vendor. And there was a small partner saying, look, you haven’t given us any leads. And it was amazing. It sounded a little like a shark tank reply. They said, We haven’t shown us that you can be successful at anything yet.

Vince Menzione 24:10
Wow. And it would bite their

Ryan Risley 24:13
crush. And I’m like, well, and they said, look at it from our perspective. We’re trying to have the community be successful with our technology, we’re going to put more effort and energy into people we know that can can do it on their own, because we’re not going to help your finance and accounting straight internally. We’re not going to help you retain your people. We’re not like that’s not that’s not on their job challenge or problem. So it’s really about taking internal focus with control, showing that you can be successful and getting into the right channels with that success, you know, and that’s where we try to lift and I’m always happy to spend time with folks, you know, just just to help them with that. And I’m not saying we’re doing it right. But there’s some things that are really intentional. And it starts again, you already mentioned but mindset.

Vince Menzione 24:53
Yeah, I totally agree with you here on this topic. I do think that a lot of organizations go into partnership with Microsoft is in Example. And think that they’re going to be overwhelmed with leads and opportunities and not recognize that they really need to do their own lead generation, they need to build their own brand. And, you know, ducks and I talked a little bit about brand building on the last episode. So I think it ties in terrifically to that topic. Yeah, absolutely. So I’d like to pivot here. As you know, from listening to other episodes, I am fascinated with how people got to a particular spot in life. And I like to give back to our listeners to help some of our early career professionals to get to that spot in their lives. So Ryan, for our listeners, can you take us through your personal professional journey? Yeah, how

Ryan Risley 25:39
far back to and start.

Vince Menzione 25:42
As far back as you want to go.

Ryan Risley 25:45
I’ll talk about like a milestone kind of threshold moments. For me, I think, early, early days, most people know me, as the same person talking to you right now, as I would be on a call with just one person and I try to be myself, I don’t really hide that. So that’s the number one thing first is kind of that authenticity, I really try to be just myself all the time, sometimes it’s gotten my hand slapped going, you need to be a little more serious. But we are serious about making change happen when it needs to. So when I was in, gosh, grade school, or whatever it was, it was in Boy Scouts. And that kind of laid a framework for a lot of the things and beliefs about cheerful service, and really making sure that you’re giving as a default. And there’s some psychology studies that say how much volunteering and giving does for your internal psyche. It’s just an amazing endorphin. Right. And so I was pursuing my Eagle Scout, basically, my dad was was deeply involved in that, and my my dad fell ill with Lyme disease, the Eagle Scout project, as most people know, is really focused on having all of the components donated, like you’re not supposed to spend a dime. A lot of folks do great projects, you know, they’re related to churches and rehabilitation, and it’s labor can’t get people to volunteer. But when my dad filler with Lyme disease, I really felt that more people didn’t know about it. And this was back, when date myself in the early 90s, it wasn’t nearly as prevalent in terms of people knowing about it back then. And so I really want to make sure that, Okay, I’m gonna make my Eagle Scout project, Lyme disease awareness seminar, and I’m gonna invite the governor and had an expert fly in who was the, at the time the renowned expert on Lyme disease propagation, and really held this session to help inform and raise awareness and in the process, and that was kind of the first point where I’m like, Okay, first of all, have a good intention. But yourself, try to help as many as many others as you can, with the same activity. And it was a great, you know, it was a good pause, because it was helping, obviously, many others with with some of the manifestations of Lyme disease at the time that we were going through in a family. So that was kind of the start of it. And then from there, it just continued to propel in the process, you know, being involved in college, and philanthropy has been part of my ethos, I use that word, again, because of the endorphins that come from working with organizations that have great missions and purpose. And then I continued, and the thing I found over the years was that there’s a lot of people that ask, Hey, who wants to be involved in or everybody’s heard the term voluntold? When somebody is in a meeting, and nobody’s speaking up, and then the finger comes to you going, Vince, I need you to follow up on this, would you be willing to any worse than it happens, but found the people that are most successful are the people that lean in and be the first or second to raise their hand not to wait till you’re called on and that if I could kind of summarize just about all of my, my undergrad and high school and all this stuff, as I goofed around, probably imagine that, but I also was engaged, I raised my hand and say, yeah, I’m up for that. Let’s, let’s try it. Or in my early career, I was actually an environmental chemist by training, most people don’t know that. Just being involved and just taking the initiative to do things. And being somewhere. You know, they say that success in life is partly about just being there. I think Woody Allen 80% of success in life is just about showing up. I may have this wrong, but

Vince Menzione 28:56
that’s about right, I think yes. So. So this environmental engineer, I’m going to put I’m going to jump in here because I find that fascinating. How did you make the shift or pivot from environmental engineer to technology? Oh,

Ryan Risley 29:08
gosh, that’s a story. So I was a chemist, environmental chemist, biology and chemistry and undergrad. And then I was really sworn to really get into toxicology, environmental toxicology, that was my love. This is going to be kind of funny, I guess. But I learned later, you know, I started into my graduate program selection, all this stuff. And I learned that once you have your PhD in toxicology really get in just a few main areas that can actually pay and most of them deal with effluent and effluent is runoff from basically, it’s fine. You can bleep that out.

Vince Menzione 29:37
But you know, you were you would be spending most of your time. Yes,

Ryan Risley 29:40
I didn’t want to be Dr. Phil on the expletive. So I pivoted towards an MBA and started doing that. And then I pivoted again, after I moved up to Washington, DC and I wound up getting my Masters of Science and Information Systems, which was really my love. I graduated. I thought everybody did computers, but I learned later that that wasn’t the case. So I just combined this Next,

Vince Menzione 30:00
and then how did you find your way to wit play and to this space? Yeah, it’s

Ryan Risley 30:04
been a great journey. I mean, it’s been 20 years, people would probably be surprised to think I haven’t changed jobs in 20 years, a company I’ve worked for has changed names four times, but it’s not changed jobs. So it’s just been an amazing journey. I, I always need to be stretched. I’ll say, by the things that I’m focused on the people that I work with the the noble purpose that we’re serving, I think it’s really critical for folks to really look at where they’re at. And are they creating a life for themselves based on their own wants? Or are they doing it based on the wants of the people around them? And they don’t remember who said it, but they said that you’re the, you’re the product of the five people you spend the most time with?

Vince Menzione 30:42
I think I think that was Jim Rohn, if I’m not mistaken,

Ryan Risley 30:45
yep. Jim Rohn. And it’s really important that you do take survey to that, that if they’re not the right people, you don’t get rid of them. But be mindful that you’re not going to get support necessarily from those people. And I’ve had a just an amazing community of support, my wife is the rock, she’s not not next to me or behind me, but ahead of me, in all situations. And I think it’s important that you have those types of folks around you to be supportive, and really just create a world for which you want to live. And I’ve been very, very fortunate that the organizations that I’ve been with and over time, have given the latitude to, to let that flourish at the same time. So let’s say that that’s, that’s probably the biggest thing in my careers, is leaning in, taking initiative, having great purpose and mission, being authentic, having great people around you, you know, all those things combined, create, you know, just a world. That’s why he says I’m real positive, but I have kind of created a positive attitude around around what we do. It’s, it’s been been very fortunate.

Vince Menzione 31:40
So was there a best piece of advice that someone gave you that led you on your path to where you are today,

Ryan Risley 31:47
you know, it’s been a long journey of folks, I have a story that real brief, but it was basically my honors thesis in undergrad, my my thesis sponsor basically ripped me to shreds on my first draft of my thesis. And I haven’t told this story before. But it was a it was a wake up call, I had done very well in school and always got good grades. But this was the first like, individual contributor like you’re on your own, this is a big deal. And I didn’t probably take it as seriously as I should have in the first release. I just kind of assembled things. But I didn’t have a kind of a steel thread running through the thesis. And there was more reading than my typing on the paper. And it was brutal. And it was perfect. It was exactly what I needed at the time. And that was a that was a kind of a pivot moment for my college career, which also helped me understand I was like, yeah, you can’t just coast through this one, this is a big deal. They’re putting with honors on your degree, this, they don’t just let you pass through this as a board of faculty that you’re going to be presenting to. It’s the it’s the endorsement of your thesis sponsor. So I’d say if I look back at my life, that was there’s many, but that was a nice, Hey, get good, honest feedback from people who care about you is critical got to have that you got to people who aren’t going to be quote unquote, bobble heads, and just agree with you office.

Vince Menzione 33:02
Yeah, I would agree. And, you know, it sounds like this, you know, lead to maybe that successful takeaway, right? Because you didn’t have the thesis put together the way it should have been at that point. And maybe that’s helped you to focus in on what you’re doing now. Or the way you approach business.

Ryan Risley 33:18
Yeah, we are the sum product of everything we experienced. So it’s, uh, yeah, I agree.

Vince Menzione 33:23
So you know, you mentioned your wonderful wife, Elizabeth, a little bit earlier. And I know from having been in your company and broken bread with the two of you that you had some amazing pursuits and obsessions that you explore. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about what you do when you’re not working?

Ryan Risley 33:41
Sure, you know, I think it’s everybody’s coping, you know, with with COVID, and the inability to hug our loved ones, you know, safely and travel and do those things. We do typically love to travel and get the experiences from that. There’s a phrase called the overview effect that I think it’s critical when you travel to look back at your life, when you’re not in it and get perspective. What are you doing that you love? What are you doing that you would rather not? So that overview effect is really critical to term, I think, for me when the astronauts go up in the space station, or head out to the moon, so that that’s core and you know, as we look back at our lives, and kind of writing our own epithet, as we go, we follow the regret minimization framework. And the goal is really making sure that we’re not going to regret a particular situation, if we haven’t tried something or it’s not a YOLO you only live once for mentality, but it’s it’s really about being intentional with our with our time. If I boiled it down, it’s it’s trying to give both hope and showing a beauty in the world. And this is going to sound cheesy, but my wife, she’s a cultivator. She’s a giver. She spent 15 years as a critical care nurse. She’s just the most empathetic person you’ll meet and she loves to bake for people. And so she works with the the US Botanic Garden, you know, sharing rare species, you know, in photographs of every stage of their life, you know, on, on social and with their friends, and it’s just a We’re always in tumultuous times, it seems like and it’s really important, I think, to share that there is hope. There’s beauty. There’s positivity in the world. So I think that’s fine to boil it down. And one thing that’s, that’s kind of the core, I love

Vince Menzione 35:11
your point of view. And I would encourage our listeners if they’re, if you’re accepting friends on Facebook, because I have been a friend of yours on Facebook, and followed your trips, and your journeys and your drones, you know, coming up in Monte Carlo and other amazing places and castles. And it’s been great to follow along. I love I love your point of view on this, Ryan, you have, you know, a great, what’s the word I’m looking for vigor around life, I guess is what I would say.

Ryan Risley 35:39
Yeah, add to that real, just real briefly, somebody asked me why we do this photo journal trip logging. We’ve been doing it for since we were married in Indonesia. My dad, you know, as I mentioned, Lyme disease, he got sick very early in life and his guidance to me, and this is probably another guidepost, as he said, climb the mountains, while you’re still young enough to reach the top, wow, that he waited, and until retirement, and he was ill and couldn’t travel. And so I think that drove a lot of what we do, because I kind of take take time to do that. And we see what technology can work from anywhere. But really important to do that we would post pictures to show me we’re healthy and safe, as well, but it just kind of kept going. And it’s been since the late 90s. So yeah, I think that’s another piece. I know that I didn’t mention that. But that was a big piece of drives kind of some of our thirst for for getting out.

Vince Menzione 36:25
And can you tell our listeners where you’re living right now?

Ryan Risley 36:28
Yes, we’re based in the Washington DC area, those knowmia I love being in on or under the water. So we live, in my opinion, one of the most dynamic communities I’ve seen. It’s a floating houseboat, downtown Washington, DC, it’s nothing fancy. It’s not a yacht. It’s a floating shoe box, really. But it’s about community. And I just find that that green time, you know, being near on or under the water, hopefully not under, if you’re on a boat, it’s been really helpful and rejuvenating, and the community is just absolutely amazing as well.

Vince Menzione 36:57
It’s amazing. I love that. I love that about your journey. If you had a personal billboard, and this is a metaphor, actually, for a message you would send out to the world, what would you share on it?

Ryan Risley 37:07
You know, and hopefully people see this already. But you know, it’s if you have a story to tell, you have to be able to compelling have be compelling when you tell it and you have to be authentic, whether it’s advocating for Technology Policy, or trying to convince your spouse that you should buy a boat. You have to be compelling and authentic with your storytelling. And I think if I had a billboard, it would say something to the effect of learning to be an authentic and compelling storyteller. It’s really critical. That’s how tell stories passed down from generations. That’s why StoryCorps and all these organizations have have great, great missions and purpose. So I would say that

Vince Menzione 37:42
be a authentic and compelling storyteller.

Ryan Risley 37:46
Is that Yeah,

Vince Menzione – was that how you rephrase it? I love that. I love that. You know, we’ve had conversations I had Lonnie Phillips on the podcast earlier this year, we talked about authentic conversations, right? I think during this time, more than ever, right? There’s this we maybe because we’re all united around what we’re a common issue that we’re dealing with, with COVID people have kind of opened up the communications change, we’re much more forgiving of, you know, the dogs and the barking in the background of our calls, are the kids jumping in or just you know, showing up without having shaved? Or done their hair? I don’t have hair to do but other people do. And I do feel like there’s a compassion around this, or that wasn’t maybe they’re not and other times,

Ryan Risley – Yeah, I would agree. I think I’ve met more pets of co workers and clients than ever. And you know, I would say are connected communities. It takes effort and initiative, but even internally, we’re learning and connecting, walking around people’s backyards with a video camera, we never would have done that, you know, otherwise. So I think that there’s there is a intimacy when you aren’t connected. It’s just kind of this juxtaposition is kind of strange, in a way. But I think we’ve come closer together even though we’re further apart.

Vince Menzione 38:59
Good point. So if you were hosting a dinner and had the opportunity to invite any three guests from the present, or the past, to attend that dinner on your houseboat, I’m assuming right? You hope you have enough room for five or six at the table. Who would you invite and why?

Ryan Risley 39:17
That’s a great question. Present past you know, so for those folks that know me know, I’m a fan of electricity and Elan musk. My father My grandfather was actually a commercial electrician, which is I think where that started, but I would pick Thomas Edison is a brilliant inventor, but also a business person. Nikola Tesla because they had a long standing feud, if suppose people know or at least that’s what they say. And I would also invite Ilan musk to moderate kind of an intervention discussion between Edison and Nikola Tesla, there’s a lot of unresolved pain there. I think that we could get to it would be very soothing for all of us, I think to get that in that dinner discussion.

In there they had competing technologies for a lot of people might not know this who haven’t studied Right, we had AC, which was Edison’s approach. And in Nikola Tesla had DC direct current versus alternating current alternating current one because the entrepreneur in Thomas Edison pushed for it. But there are many who believe that the direct current was the right approach, right? In terms of transmission and so on. And then Elan musk. That’s an interesting one as well. Did you see that? He just came out with the tequila. I mean, that’s amazing. Yeah.

And it’s was one of the pictures from ages ago on his website. If you zoom real close into the one of the windows of the houses of the solar roof, it was there. And yeah, they sold them for 250 a bottle, and they’re on eBay for like, 11 grand now. So

Vince Menzione 40:39
yeah, wow, crazy. It’s crazy. What what? Well, some some amazing guests, I would love to be at the dinner. I just be some amazing conversation. And maybe the debate will continue for for many years to come. So we mentioned the book that you that you mentioned earlier leadership and self deception. Is there another book that you would recommend or have gifted often for our listeners?

Ryan Risley 41:03
Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think a lot of it gets down to understanding what a growth mindset is. And any I tried to embody that a little bit with some of the discussion here. But growth mindset versus kind of fixed mindset. I actually was a late discover of Carol Dweck book. And it’s, it’s really critical. I think that, folks, it’s called mindset, the psychology of success, or the new mind, the new psychology of success, I should say, it’s been out for a while. And it’s really helpful for people to read and understand where they are, what is their self talk, when a situation comes up? Are they taking responsibility? Or are they blaming? Or are they looking at opportunity that could come from a particular scenario, and I think it’s really critical that the people that that I’ve seen in my life, be successful, and be outward are those that that really capitalize in a positive way on the opportunities and the strengths, the connections, and really make sure that they’re making change in the world. And so I think it’s really critical that folks read that are released, take it in for themselves as a kind of a level set or a measurement book for how to work with them their own mindset, that, yeah, I’m positive. Sorry.

Vince Menzione 42:07
Yeah, no, I think it’s a great book. It was, in fact, it was one of the first things that Satya did at Microsoft, when he became CEO. Was everyone in the company got a copy of Carol Dweck mindset book. And so I’m gonna make sure we put that in our show notes, Brian, because it is it is a terrific read. So Ryan, I want to thank you for your time, which I know is so precious and for being such an amazing guest. Do you have any closing remarks or advice for our listeners?

Ryan Risley 42:34
Yeah, that’s that’s a great question. And I think if I could summarize some of the discussion we had today, it’s really about, you know, being authentic, which I think you’ve heard from many others. But really working towards a walkaway we talked about, but starting with an outward mindset. And that’s really trying to intentionally help people in the process of going through your life, using your superpowers to be the change you want to see. And I’ve heard that from others. But it’s important to be able to tell that story and have effective outcomes, but starting with an outward mindset. So I can summarize that starting without my outward mindset can yield great results.

Vince Menzione 43:11
And you have had some really great results. Ryan, we’re going to put some links in our show notes. One of them I think about specifically was Team Rubicon. And that presentation on stage with I think it was Brad Smith that one of the Inspire conferences and the work that you did that culminated in such a great outcome for this organization. So we’re going to make sure we put that in our show notes. I want to thank you so much for joining us today been a tremendous quick guest, a good friend, and say hello to Elizabeth for us as well. I will I know she’s in the audience somewhere and she’ll be waving but thank you again for joining the Ultimate Guide to partnering. Right.

Ryan Risley 43:49
So thank you. Thank you, Vince. Appreciate the time. Thanks for getting us out there.

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