Episode 077 - Living on the Scott "Wilder" Side - The Creator of Intuit's Community and Web3

Chris Detzel: All right, I’m gonna you ready Scott know going.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah i'm.

Scott K. Wilder: I am ready to rock and roll.

Chris Detzel: Right well, let me introduce it so welcome to another peers over beers my name is chris detzel and we're going to live on the wilder side, today we have special guests Scott wilder here on peers over beers hey Scott.

Scott K. Wilder: hey there thanks for having me today I hope it's okay that i'm gluten free and don't always drink, you know, most of the beers that are offered to me that.

Chris Detzel: If you didn't say most so that just means you.

Chris Detzel: Do drink some beers every now and then.

Scott K. Wilder: I do there's some gluten free beers and then every once in a while and nobody's looking I will.

drink a beer.

Scott K. Wilder: But i'm supposed to be gluten free.

Chris Detzel: Well, you know you do the best you can and it's okay to probably cheat a little bit every now and then it's good to know that you, is there a specific gluten free berry like.

Scott K. Wilder: Just take whatever they give me.

Chris Detzel: Just a quick three you got it just put it in it.

Chris Detzel: and

Scott K. Wilder: yeah I prefer more of the clear.

Scott K. Wilder: Clear drinks like Saki vodka so.

Scott K. Wilder: You like don't have those.

Chris Detzel: Okay yeah well, I mean those aren't bad either I mean.

Chris Detzel: i've been collecting a little bit of Scotch and for my birthday my wife got me the.

Chris Detzel: it's the blue label, what is it called.

Chris Detzel: Leah was it she's right there, and she she can hear me but anyways but i've been collecting some Scotch and it's been really good so.

Chris Detzel: Why we don't we can't talk about beer and or Scotch or even though the white stones are clear stuff that you like, but we want to talk a little bit about community.

Chris Detzel: Today, but you know Scott, if you don't know him he's he's like the master of all things communities, I mean he's he's been there, done that, and it's done this job and lead communities for a really long time matter of fact.

Chris Detzel: He and I were talking probably what Scott, like two weeks ago, three weeks ago, and you mentioned, and I was talking to them about you know.

Chris Detzel: At one point in my career, probably, about a year ago, somebody came up to me, says, Chris has its community, the only thing that you want to do, I mean, he said, you know it's a good role and it's good.

Chris Detzel: i'm sure it does well for you, but you know, is there, something that you might want to think of in the future.

Chris Detzel: You know, I was like yeah maybe I don't know I mean, and so you know, I was talking to Scott about that and Scott was mentioning that you did.

Chris Detzel: You did Community stuff and then you kind of went into growth marketing and that kind of stuff and i'm highly interested to to learn more about that you know you've kind of moved your career from that Community but also into growth marketing what what was that, like.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah and more than happy to give more about my background, but I think you know, I was.

Scott K. Wilder: Sorry, the down that we know we can go down that path, if you want, but you know I think it's really important to I mean there's nothing wrong with like focusing 100% on one discipline.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah, but I think you know, even though this is the time, right now, and you know kind of Internet history for Community I think.

Scott K. Wilder: there's still some limitations in terms of large companies and budgets, they put in there and I realized that early on.

Scott K. Wilder: i've worked it into it for many years and then I did Community at Google and I got to mark hedo and mark hedo is definitely.

Scott K. Wilder: Stepping up and putting money into the Community anybody who's been in that space knows about the marketing nation, and so we really built out a very I think very successful Community there.

Scott K. Wilder: But I also decided that point that I needed another power I don't know if it's a superpower or not, but I need another.

Scott K. Wilder: skill set and saw since I was at marquette Oh, and I was learning salesforce etc, I decided to lean into growth marketing and so i'm a big baseball fan so.

Scott K. Wilder: As yogi berra says when there's a fork in the road take it, and so I took both paths of Community and growth marketing.

Scott K. Wilder: And really focused on trying to be the best you know growth marketer growth product person I could be there was also a book that came out a few years before that.

Scott K. Wilder: And so I did both there and then after I left mark hedo still doing some Community stuff but I leaned in even more into the growth marketing.

Scott K. Wilder: At adobe and I can talk a little bit about some of the learnings there and coursera and udacity I still did some stuff in community.

Scott K. Wilder: But then when I went to hubspot, then I went back into Community as kind of like a you know my primary focus.

Scott K. Wilder: And I can talk a little bit about what I wanted to do there there's something called the T shaped marketer.

Scott K. Wilder: And the T shaped marketer says, you know horizontally, like a TEE.

Scott K. Wilder: You know there's certain marketing skills, you need to acquire for your career right, you need to understand data, you need to understand positioning and branding.

Scott K. Wilder: But it also says from a vertical aspect that there's two or three areas that you should really focus on, and so again, you know at that point in my career really decided to focus on growth, marketing and continue with Community.

Chris Detzel: Do you see so we'll get back to.

Chris Detzel: And by the way, great job of bringing that into your career that was awesome and kind of your past.

Chris Detzel: And I always tell people I get off a little bit sometimes and thank you for bringing it back already in the beginning.

Chris Detzel: So when you can only get growth marketing and communities do you see similarities and are places where they can kind of meet and but I mean I just i'm fascinated in your thoughts there, I mean.

Chris Detzel: Because you went back to Community from growth marketing.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah definitely so i've always thought of you know, even when I did Community early on in the communities of product right so some people who weren't community.

Scott K. Wilder: You know they might have more of a kind of a product mindset, some might have more of a kind of like a call it like focused on the moderation and belonging and.

Scott K. Wilder: And all that and some might focus on data or some I focus on integration, so we said that product mindset, so it really was natural for me to think about product lead growth or.

Scott K. Wilder: Marketing let growth and so some of the things I think are really key is growth marketing requires cross functional work right.

Scott K. Wilder: So kind of the philosophy is small teams grow squats move quickly, so I think that's one thing, the second thing would be.

Scott K. Wilder: kind of optimizing the journey right so looking at doing small experiments and tests learning and optimizing further, which I think actually it's something.

Scott K. Wilder: That most Community managers, I talked to don't focus on right this ability to constantly test and you could be.

Scott K. Wilder: testing out a feature and mvp focus it could be testing out content messaging testing out a different onboarding path.

Scott K. Wilder: And then the last thing or next thing would be just being really data driven and you know we're all wrestling with Roi and all that.

Scott K. Wilder: But like what engage what sorry what metrics you look at how do you constantly look in that kind of continuous improvement mindset, you know whether you're trying to focus on the Roi number the engagement number or even like the activation number.

Chris Detzel: Like a yeah I think that you know the data focus pieces, especially like i'll give you some examples of my organization today is we are data company.

Chris Detzel: But you know we, like every other company, you have a hard time can I was connecting business systems together, you know, to talk to each other.

Chris Detzel: When I think of you know all the really rich and Austin data that you can get from Community you know not having those systems connected like you know could be marketa or it could be a salesforce or whatever right it's hard, because you know i'll give you an example.

Chris Detzel: The other day I presented in front of the company.

Chris Detzel: The number of accounts that are in Community that CSM is have or that we have overall right now say we have 65% of our accounts in Community has at least one user.

Chris Detzel: And so, getting that data was extremely difficult, but when I got that data and I showed that to the organization our CEO.

Chris Detzel: Our CMO, are you know chief customer officer at all interested in Oh, and you could do it by CSM and things like that says one.

Chris Detzel: And then you know that lead to more work for me Oh well, we should do that for our partners, and we should do that for whatever, but the way I had to get that information was very.

Chris Detzel: manual but then people started come to me like this one guys like hey I can help you get this automated and everything else, and so we'll see if that happens, but.

Chris Detzel: But that you know when people hear that the CEO is interested in this this, and this, and they can help me do that you know that's really awesome and I think bringing that data to the forefront.

Chris Detzel: You know, is the key and showing the value of that, I mean that's just one small thing smart took some effort but.

Chris Detzel: You know just think what we can do now that way extra burden counter there then eventually we can start thinking about you know when they engage in the Community, you know how much does that influence revenue, how much does that influence you know.

Chris Detzel: Renewal rates and those kinds of things we're not there yet, but that is what those things are key and presenting that information is very important.

Scott K. Wilder: that's awesome that's great to hear your your on that journey and thinking that way, because I think yeah one of the big challenges, as you pointed out, is integrating these multiple systems.

Scott K. Wilder: there's a few companies that are in the market now trying to address that issue.

Scott K. Wilder: But I think it's yeah you know connecting your community to your CRM connecting it to your you know if you have an advocacy platform.

Scott K. Wilder: I think, is really important, and then looking at you know we're in the B2B space so whether it's at the individual level or the account level tying it to you know.

Scott K. Wilder: Revenue revenue growth tied to lifetime value, etc.

Chris Detzel: Yet, but that's hard to do right, but I think that's so you know.

Scott K. Wilder: I want to make it sound like it's.

Scott K. Wilder: it's not a slam dunk and you need lots of beers.

Chris Detzel: or clear alcohol um I do think Skype, though, is is I kind of get into usually my forte is building a community from scratch and then kind of.

Chris Detzel: scaling up, and you know what i've learned over the years is that when you go in there into an organization and you start from scratch.

Chris Detzel: You know a lot of times a company is not ready for what what you get to tell them about connecting to these business systems and everything else, but if you preach or however you want to say it, you know evangelize the.

Chris Detzel: The customer experience of you know let's think about how a customer gets into your system they go to dogs they go to get support they go into to create an idea, they go into the Community they go into if there's like.

Chris Detzel: Five different login six different logins to do these things, and then there's no data to kind of you know, the data is all sporadic you know you can't get.

Chris Detzel: What you need from it, you know it's Okay, at first, but then you get to build a plan to get there at least have in your mind don't say, well, we did this one thing we connected.

Chris Detzel: Enterprise search to some systems that's good that's that's one step now customers can search anywhere and get any information on our stuff.

Chris Detzel: And then you know, can we start looking at case reflection that kind of stuff.

Chris Detzel: And then you go on to the next thing is so next you know his law next, then all of a sudden three years, five years down the road you have this really great fuzzy not just community but self help you know digital self help support can I can, I think if that's kind of your goal right.

Chris Detzel: That we didn't talk about the marketing piece, but I think that.

Chris Detzel: You know as well, depending on what type of community to make sense.

Scott K. Wilder: No, it makes perfect sense, and I think it's a it's a great approach to not trying.

Scott K. Wilder: To boil the whole ocean at once, and you know you need some internal points on the board to show people like you know if you just I mean think about Disconnecting you know the knowledge base experience with the Community experience you know some platforms have it all on one.

Scott K. Wilder: But yeah not and then you know if you start with a customer first it hubspot we like to say, you know customer first versus function out is really key as well, and then.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah you know I think we talked about this one says it it kind of cracks me up that you know most websites out there, you can look at the navigation bar it's kind of like resembles the org chart.

Scott K. Wilder: and

Scott K. Wilder: Right it's like service.

Scott K. Wilder: Support marketing.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah and i'm like and but that's not how.

Scott K. Wilder: You know our customers are thinking they don't think of you know your company or my company, I thought you know, in terms of different disciplines so but I like your approach yeah do you know start simple get some points on the board, and then you know build out build out over time.

Chris Detzel: You know in to shift this conversation a little you, you mentioned that.

Chris Detzel: You know trends within Community and not sure exactly where you wanted to go, but you know the last look community has been around for a long time right and.

Chris Detzel: You know you've been in the space for really long time you know, look at your linkedin it looks like what 2001 at least or maybe even before that so.

Chris Detzel: As you see, the last two years and maybe it's coded type relatable love to kind of get your thoughts and views on you know.

Chris Detzel: From you know you've been doing Community what's changed in the last two or three years if anything to you there's certainly a buzz you know that's at the very least, has changed, and then, where do you kind of see Community going in the future.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah I mean.

Chris Detzel: To put you on the spot, but.

i'm very interested.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah, so I think you know, obviously, you know we all know, cove it has accelerated a lot of this stuff and we know that there's more jobs out there.

Scott K. Wilder: I think this you know focus on data is a big one, and I, you know, made a comment earlier that there's a number of companies in the space trying to think through about how they integrate your data your Community data with other platforms.

Scott K. Wilder: To is, I think this whole integrated experience of you know a lot of times when I talk about Community I try and elevate the conversation to.

Scott K. Wilder: Either customer led growth or Community engagement and what I mean by that is again.

Scott K. Wilder: You know what's that, how do you have what's that customer one what's the customer want to accomplish right, and so they go to an engagement place where they might.

Scott K. Wilder: do some Community they might like you know dabble in the knowledge base they might like Oh, the Academy, or whatever, so I think that's going to be a trend that accelerates.

Scott K. Wilder: I think, Ai and automation is another big thing and then you know, everybody now these days is talking about social tokens and then fts.

Scott K. Wilder: And things like that, so I think that is you know another trend that's going to accelerate, at least in the.

Scott K. Wilder: You know, in the B2B space so certainly be to see companies that are already doing some really interesting stuff you know you can get an nfc of an inflatable Coca Cola person I don't know if you saw that.

Chris Detzel: I didn't.

Scott K. Wilder: unique sneakers and things like that.

Chris Detzel: yeah it's quite interesting because you hear a lot about this web three oh or web three or however you want to, and I did a little bit of.

Chris Detzel: Reading about it, I still can't completely understand it, but you know what and you can comment on this, but because you probably know more about it than I do.

Chris Detzel: But from my understanding of what I read, I think it was yesterday or day before, is is that you know today there's only a few.

Chris Detzel: Companies that pretty much own the Internet, in a sense, you know it's google's the facebook's and.

Chris Detzel: places like that maybe it's twitter's and how people are engaging in some ways, or at least kind of the big influencers.

Chris Detzel: But you know, over time, that will change will kind of have our own Internet space, you know with all this stuff with blockchain stuff and you know i've seen a lot of buzzwords, to be honest and I don't completely understand them, but I do think it's going to be.

Chris Detzel: An important thing as we move forward, because when you start looking at kind of you know even Web 2.0 and social and everything else that took place that was those were buzzwords then right like when you think of you know.

Chris Detzel: Now it's true when you big data and stuff like that I remember those being big buzzwords but then it became.

Chris Detzel: The real thing, I think, with three is true and it's going to happen that exactly looks like we don't know I don't mean we have some ideas, but what do you think coming to me and i'm on the right track ish or am I way off, and just same bullshit.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah no it's funny no no it's.

Scott K. Wilder: it's funny reason about buzzwords just go off on a tangent for a second.

Scott K. Wilder: So it was 19 1995 I think it was 96 and I was in a room at.

Scott K. Wilder: A company called Jana and and web crawler what color was the largest search engine, then, and we were talking about how to create something called an.

Scott K. Wilder: Internet ad.

Scott K. Wilder: And we were talking about something that like how Okay, so people are going to go to the search web crawler and we want to figure out.

Scott K. Wilder: How to create an ad and we said okay well, maybe we can do an ad if somebody types in a certain word like New York will show them and add related to New York.

Scott K. Wilder: And somebody said keyword and like at that point, it was like you know, maybe a handful of people were using the term keyword for search, you know, and today, everybody is you know that's like SEC secondary so yeah so you know we.

Scott K. Wilder: But getting back on track, I think you were how you're thinking is right, I think this the the main destinations of search engine like Google or.

Scott K. Wilder: You know, we can debate Facebook they're running into some rough times, or you know the apple store that I think those are still going to be there.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah you will.

Scott K. Wilder: find these communities.

Scott K. Wilder: That will be more decentralized they're called dow's where you know the power to the people and the people will manage them but there's going to be a happy medium, because, again, you know why mainly work in this B2B space right.

Scott K. Wilder: And so we did a company is going to turn over the key you know, give the keys of their car their Community they might co design it.

Chris Detzel: there's there's a few out.

Scott K. Wilder: There there's a handful that have been really leaning and in terms of like letting the Community run letting the people around the Community, but I think there's still going to be.

Scott K. Wilder: You know the companies are still going to be owning the Community, because they have liability and stuff.

Chris Detzel: Out there, but you.

Scott K. Wilder: could find you know communities that are just 100% owned by you know the people power of the people a Co op of sorts.

Chris Detzel: yeah I guess it.

Chris Detzel: When I think of that you know it just kind of i'm not computing exactly what that means you know to me like I don't.

Chris Detzel: I mean like I could start a Community today and own it and have people come in, you know and just we all kind of do things but i'm not sure what that means to be on it so it's probably a little I don't know if it's over my head I just maybe haven't done enough research on it, you know.

Scott K. Wilder: It makes sense, I think about decision making, so how decision making is made like you have a Community and.

Scott K. Wilder: You know you're you're the grand poobah and so you can make all the decisions, but you could open it up to you know 20 or 30 other people and make it a real.

Scott K. Wilder: kind of democracy, of sorts, and if then if you're also you know selling tickets online or something right, how do you share in the profits, so that those are just some ways to think about it.

Chris Detzel: That isn't okay okay that's super interesting.

Chris Detzel: yeah it's it's this is really cool stuff because you know it's definitely going to be the future of some sort and we don't I mean we have some ideas, I guess, but it'd be fun to see fun to watch.

Chris Detzel: What.

Chris Detzel: Other things that I know you wanted to talk about today, but.

Chris Detzel: So i'll give you another chance you have any questions for me or.

Chris Detzel: Not here to.

Scott K. Wilder: You talk about you know beers clear alcohol or anything you want.

Chris Detzel: Oh, I do have alcohol, sometimes, but you know it's funny I don't really I drink, maybe once a week and might have a drink or two at the most, I just you know I think up too old to really.

Chris Detzel: drink, you know a lot and I don't drink too much hardly ever.

Chris Detzel: So if I could have one or two beers like to my wife hey do you want to.

Chris Detzel: Do you want to drive.

Scott K. Wilder: and drink and drive and don't don't drink and tweet or don't drink and text.

Chris Detzel: You know it's very good advice, because I seem I see myself sometimes grabbing the phone at a red light and i'm like you know what let's not do that so.

Chris Detzel: Well hey you know.

Chris Detzel: I do kind of want to run something by you just a.

Chris Detzel: it's a it's a conversation that I had with.

Chris Detzel: donnie weinstein the other day last week and appears it appears and yeah I think you know him and and I want to know, like cuz you've been doing this for a long time and.

Chris Detzel: You know one thing that we have for realtors community is executive support in a big way, and you know i've also had to wear you know.

Chris Detzel: At other companies where I would have executive support those executives leave and then you've got to start rebuilding that back up, and it was extremely difficult and, at the end of the day.

Chris Detzel: It pretty much didn't work out, I mean like so just want to get your thoughts on you know when you look at building communities.

Chris Detzel: Online B2B communities, what does that executive support look like to you and How important is it.

Scott K. Wilder: I think it's really important because you're always trying to get resources.

Scott K. Wilder: I think that also you know I did hear that interview and there's a lot of good advice there Thank you know other things I would add, is.

Scott K. Wilder: You know if you're a smaller company or the founders really involved, I would really like getting the founder involved, and I can talk a little bit about my experience with Scott coker get into it when we launch that community.

Scott K. Wilder: And, and I think also.

Scott K. Wilder: find the naysayers the traditional naysayers it could be corporate communications because you're worried about what you're saying it could be legal.

Scott K. Wilder: It could be privacy right you really want to partner with those folks as well, and then you know, obviously we're all dealing with like we talked about earlier, the Roi issue, so if you're trying to figure out how you can tie it to Roi.

Scott K. Wilder: Even if it's inferred Roi or even if it's multi part of a multi attribution model so there's three homes founder the naysayers and then you know multi attribution or some you know some sort of Roi.

Chris Detzel: But I definitely think you know if you can get the founder CEO those kind of people involved and I agree, you know, having a great relationship with legal and security and.

Chris Detzel: Communications could be really a key point, I really think of the communications piece, because you know our communications person she's all for Community and she's you know.

Chris Detzel: So it's hard for me to you know, like well Okay, but it's it's a really good point, and you know, one of the things that i've done in always said and.

Chris Detzel: You kind of like saying no I don't know if you're saying, not to do it, but when there's people in organization that just don't believe in Community or whatever.

Chris Detzel: You know my goal is not to convince them that community is going to work because you can't really convince people necessarily that hey yeah okay you're right Chris.

Chris Detzel: I mean it's really just going out and proven it, but then finding those people and spend your effort that.

Chris Detzel: With those executives that do care and getting that buy in and then over time you hope to you know get that other person's buying if that's really needed, you know I mean I don't know that I waste that much time the name says, you know.

Chris Detzel: Maybe it's not a waste, I mean, I mean the the department, you mentioned, you have to have legal and security but it's I mean.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah I mean they have to be part of the.

Scott K. Wilder: Part of the journey.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah and you know, so I think, the more you can get them involved and.

Scott K. Wilder: You know, in the kind of decision making process and kind of you know, bringing them along you know yeah you there's only one or two or three of you doing community, so you know you have to kind of you have to manage your time carefully.

Chris Detzel: You mentioned into it and and having a so a lot of our executives here at real to.

Chris Detzel: Our from their back probably more like 2010 12 or something like that, but you know they the culture and everything else they loved you know and so.

Chris Detzel: Tell me a little bit about that you know kind of where Community started there, and you said that the CEO or founder there was into it, or he was literally into.

It.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah.

Scott K. Wilder: So when I when I was there.

Scott K. Wilder: So I was managing the commerce site small business quickbooks COM it's also managing digital marketing and the business problem was that all the product managers and all the marketing people said we want lots of content on the website right everybody wants content and.

Scott K. Wilder: You know, because of my age, I was influenced by this movie called show me the money.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah very much.

Scott K. Wilder: So I said well show me the money because I don't have the budget and.

Scott K. Wilder: Teams just wouldn't step forward and show me the money so.

Scott K. Wilder: So I talked to Elliot who I was reporting to them and said, you know i've done a lot of community in the past how about if we test out this Community thing i'll just like fire up a server and.

Scott K. Wilder: You know and see what I can do, and give me six months mvp even though people weren't using that term then and he's like go for.

Scott K. Wilder: More or less overnight, we got lucky and the community took off big time, and so we kind of had proof of concept, then, and you know we we had proof of concept and.

Scott K. Wilder: But then I needed some money to really scale it, you know we're really bootstrapping I mean basically it was kind of me and my little cube and.

Chris Detzel: My server.

Chris Detzel: and doing your other job.

Scott K. Wilder: Doing my other job, so I actually tried to figure out Okay, how do we approach this so I prepared a presentation to the sea sea sea level team and Scott cook the founder.

Scott K. Wilder: I actually gave the presentation with legal right so at that time I was like okay who's you know, like yeah because I was worried that legal would be really concerned.

Scott K. Wilder: Based on some previous work I had done.

Scott K. Wilder: And I want to talk to Scott cook and he was really big on something called what he called then use your contribution systems.

Scott K. Wilder: And so, he was really trying to figure out how to leverage, you know the wisdom of the crowd and to create content, so he loved the idea, and then I presented at the sea level staff meeting.

Scott K. Wilder: and Steve Bennett, who is the CEO went around the room.

Scott K. Wilder: And he said okay this guy wants this money he wants this is the vision, this is the plan, who.

Scott K. Wilder: What do you guys think and he asked each of each of his direct reports and each one said yes.

Scott K. Wilder: except for one and one said well i'm concerned that this is going to like an employee is going to go on the Community and say something negative I think we've all run into that.

Chris Detzel: statement.

Scott K. Wilder: Sure, and his response was.

Scott K. Wilder: You mean you hired somebody you're concerned about.

Scott K. Wilder: So so that's when it really took off, and it really kind of evolved into something called live community, which is in turbo tax, where people can ask the Community questions.

Scott K. Wilder: into this whole ecosystem of pro advisor accountants who are you know really customers have into it, who are helping others, so that that's kind of the like the backstage of the stage of the into the story of into it.

Chris Detzel: You found it that Community you're the founder, I did not know that wow keep going well i'm so like wild here I love it.

Scott K. Wilder: Take a walk on the wild side.

Chris Detzel: yeah yeah I can't wait to keep talking keep going.

Scott K. Wilder: yeah, but when you talk about the intuit culture, so one of the things that into it did you know I would say, this was I don't know if there's a silver bullet and making Community successful, but it was a maybe a bronze bullet.

Scott K. Wilder: Was into it had a tremendous focus on building leaders in the company like they really operationalize how to create create leaders.

Scott K. Wilder: Through like courses through mentoring through exercises, you know we have we all have ingrained in our ourselves ingrained in our heads he's.

Scott K. Wilder: You know they're kind of little mottos little slogans, but they really meant a lot like learn teach learn, so the best way to learn something is to teach it.

Chris Detzel: And so, he always says that all the time, and that is our motto.

Chris Detzel: Learn teach learn.

Scott K. Wilder: Okay.

Scott K. Wilder: So that's where they got it.

Chris Detzel: that's where they got it.

Chris Detzel: They use that's awesome you're just.

Scott K. Wilder: supposed Conference, so I took that.

Scott K. Wilder: I took that playbook though of leadership and I actually used it to train our moderators.

Scott K. Wilder: to train our power users in the Community, to help them become leaders in their own you know their on their own platforms in their own worlds.

Scott K. Wilder: And that was something that had a tremendous impact right it's all of a sudden, and you know I wish more people more of us Community people would focus on this is like if you're a moderator or Community manager.

Scott K. Wilder: You need leadership skills they might be more in the virtual world than in person.

Scott K. Wilder: But that's definitely needed and then, if you're building out kind of your champions and i'm into is also really big and co design way, so we talked about leadership and.

Scott K. Wilder: Consumer driven innovation customer driven innovation sorry, and so you know, one of the things I took from that experience was working with customers to design your product.

Scott K. Wilder: and working with customers to make decisions and I got.

Scott K. Wilder: A little flat flat at first, but I used to invite customers to my staff meetings.

Scott K. Wilder: and have them.

Scott K. Wilder: Here you know, have the team hear it from the customers and have the customers make decisions with us kind of you know, maybe it was like the we talked about web three maybe there's a little bit of web three back then.

yeah.

Scott K. Wilder: But, so I think you know, in terms of culture, there was the leadership, there was the customer driven design, you know there's other aspects as well all that I leveraged for Community all that i've leveraged for growth product lead growth.

Scott K. Wilder: tremendous impact, you know, I think that you know as we think about our careers, and you know i'd be interested in, you know how you would answer this is, you know which company really influenced, you know your.

Scott K. Wilder: Your professional DNA, the most.

Scott K. Wilder: And then, for me it was into it.

Chris Detzel: yeah for me.

Chris Detzel: Well there's two pieces to that question to me, you know are two companies, one is forced to research, so I worked there for about nine and a half years.

Chris Detzel: In my early early 30s maybe you know it's late 20s when I started.

Chris Detzel: And you know it was kind of the true business type of company that I get to work, for you know, like, for I was doing inside cells and stuff like that, but then.

Chris Detzel: I really started get to talk to leaders George colony is the CEO forced to research, you know and just just kind of his teachings and.

Chris Detzel: And things like that, and really going to help me to understand the business side of things, you know, and I was my job was there was more of a.

Chris Detzel: sort of had to deal with Community but basically it's called an advisor and what I would do is work with the leaders of enterprise architecture folks.

Chris Detzel: connect them to peers build agendas, to get them to meet on site case studies, all those kinds of things getting in front of.

Chris Detzel: each other and basically like scotiabank and taco bell talking about the enterprise architecture practice that kind of stuff and just the people I met there, and you know I still have a good friend there from in France that I go see every now and then his name is for cash and so.

Chris Detzel: So that company was really you know, it was a huge.

Chris Detzel: It was a big deal for me and then the other piece, though, is after Forrester.

Chris Detzel: I went to a company called wreck cell and REC cell will not right after but kind of right after.

Chris Detzel: This guy and, as a matter of fact, he was the founder also have peers over beers Michael Sandoval.

Chris Detzel: But him and his his boss devilish cena so they devilish lead an e commerce team in a B2B company that was super old school 70 years old, you know that's never done digital anything.

Chris Detzel: And so they started E commerce and like 1015 company or to countries and then we started social communities and live chat kind of when you think of.

Chris Detzel: Like the social peace communities live chat ratings and reviews That was all under Michael and me.

Chris Detzel: And we had a developer, and we did some really cool things but just the relationships that they built the.

Chris Detzel: adjust focus that they had you know and getting shit done was just amazing, and so, for me it was.

Chris Detzel: It was more of the relationships and what they taught me, you know, Michael was an extremely patient teacher.

Chris Detzel: I mean I caught on fast ish but you know, whenever it came to digital things Forrester didn't teach me that you know.

Chris Detzel: Michael and devastation the team yet around him taught me all those things that it just didn't know the language or understand it at all, I guess, he was like I don't know what the hell, that is, or.

Chris Detzel: Digital marketing what the hell is that you know and data oh my God data is the hardest thing still but you know it's you know digital puts you in that.

Chris Detzel: kind of going back to the data pieces all digital is all things data right like it's just makes you focus in on.

Chris Detzel: That kind of stuff and you think of like the digital marketing team at any product company or any team really.

Chris Detzel: it's about data data data and always testing and seeing what works what doesn't work what messed up you know, and all that kind of stuff anyways that's where I kind of learned.

Chris Detzel: You know that you know i've always had the they'll get you know i'm kind of this.

Chris Detzel: Just tell me what to go, do you know kind of stuff and i've had over time to really be a little bit more strategic rather than.

Chris Detzel: These tactical things you know i'm good at getting shit done but it took me a long time, and I still struggle to some degree.

Chris Detzel: You know, with that higher level strategic focus, because one thing you told me to do something i'll do it, but you know that's what that taught me is.

Chris Detzel: Is that you know stood out Chris you know we're not going to get to the entire year roadmap in three months or less you know.

Chris Detzel: He can't do it, you know let's focus on these three things you know this this quarter and then next quarter will work on that other stuff So hopefully that answers the question but that's really funny is.

Scott K. Wilder: Good I love your.

Scott K. Wilder: Your passion and your desire to learn and that last thing you said reminded me of another into it slogan which maybe you guys have there is focus on the critical few.

Chris Detzel: i've heard that yes, yep.

Chris Detzel: it's another.

Scott K. Wilder: to it, you heard that a lot of it into it.

Chris Detzel: yeah it's something that Chris Highland he's our CEO.

Chris Detzel: And you know he's very you could tell it's it's he did this said in provo when I was at Emperor and he actually recruited me to relate to, but you know he focuses in on those few that he knows, is going to get.

Chris Detzel: The job done, I mean he is everything you're talking about and all the things that you know he's he's implemented in his his leadership, you know and it's quite interesting.

Chris Detzel: To hear you talk, you know, because you were before the Chris Highland stuff right and you're seeing all that stuff so obviously leadership before him.

Chris Detzel: Before he was even there you know kind of had that same philosophy, because you have some of that same same stuff so that was this is really fun, this was crazy weird to me because I hear that same stuff that I mean you know.

Chris Detzel: So maybe i'll try to recruit you to do something new.

Chris Detzel: yeah where do you fit in and I just awesome.

Chris Detzel: So.

Scott K. Wilder: I think you know into it also I just had, I mean great leaders.

Chris Detzel: Right yeah.

Scott K. Wilder: The end of the day, it's for me and i'm sure if you know for a lot of people it's like who you gonna like go work for.

Scott K. Wilder: Within the team you're going to be with you know you want to work for a leader who's you know it's inspirational you click with WHO you're going to learn something.

Scott K. Wilder: You know Steve Bennett was at intuit he was he was good brad Smith, is a legend you know brad Smith, he was there when I was there, he just left a year ago, or two years ago, and now he's.

Scott K. Wilder: Basically reviving or the economy and West Virginia and he's the President of Marshall college, I mean think about how many you know very successful Silicon Valley CEOs you know who do do something like that.

Chris Detzel: it's it's crazy like, if you look at all the leaders that that company has produced.

Chris Detzel: it's just it's insane and really cool to hear you know another person that is outside of my company if talk about the same shit.

Chris Detzel: You know, like oh my God, you know Scott gets this you know he he lives my life or you're you're teaching your learn to learn you're doing the learn teach learn stuff.

Chris Detzel: You know that it to it kind of put out there, you know, and my co does it our leadership team for the most part does that you know and that thinking is just.

Chris Detzel: it's it's crazy to see like you see it like people here at rel to now I mean it's just it's just focus focus focus yes it's learn to learn, but it's also you're getting stuff done you're you're making things happen, we know exactly what to do to get this company to the next level.

Chris Detzel: And that I think comes from that mindset so Scott, this has been great we definitely lived on the wilder side today, for me, anyway, it was really awesome to talk to you.

Scott K. Wilder: Well it's always great to take a walk on the wild side, Chris with you, and like I said, you know we connected, a few weeks ago, for the first time, and you know from.

Scott K. Wilder: From the bleachers you know I really can see you know your passion and what you're doing with this podcast and your work, and so, and you got a great learning mindset which is like so important, so thank you for inviting me here.

Chris Detzel: Well, thank you and well thanks everyone for another peers over beers i'm Chris Detzel and Scott wilder Thank you again for coming really appreciate it.

Scott K. Wilder: Thank you.