Gary Casagrande’s Post

Transcript

Hey folks. It's Thursday, July 25th. I am in the office in Boston. It's a cloudy but hot day. You might hear a lot of background noise because I'm in a shared office space today. But it's Thursday, July 25th, and I have three thoughts. The first one is conferences, so they're obviously back. There was a lot of conversation in 20/21/22, even into 23, on what's the value of conferences given that we've learned. How much we can get done remotely? Web casts, webinars we can do. We can do virtual conferences. How much would in person conferences come back? They're obviously back. They are back, back. How do you measure value from a conference? Do you measure it a phrase I used to use all the time. Do you measure it on a spreadsheet or do you measure it in a Microsoft Word document? Is it about building relationships? Is it about seeing people that you haven't seen in a while? Is it about hearing from the head of the SEC or other smart people at other organizations that are your client or prospect organizations or even competitors? Or is it about advancing a deal in your funnel? Is it about moving a, you know, talking to a client? About something, an offering that you have or, or a piece of technology or a service or a new product line that you're getting into. It's, I think it's important to understand what conferences mean to you as an organization and get that agreement across the board. Because otherwise some people are measuring conferences different ways than other people. And suddenly it's suddenly there's that friction internally on should we go to this conference? How many people should. Send having an understanding on how as an organization you measure the value of conference. I think it's hugely important and it's something that I don't think we focus enough time on. Communicating with clients thought #2 So I, I remembered in my 30s having this sort of epiphany. And this is going to sound so stupid or to some of you, I bet, but clients are humans. Even though we're in a B to B world, many of us clients are human beings. And so the, the, you know, this, this thought that, oh, I can't pick up the phone and call the client, they are XYZ. That manager with their ABC service form firm, you know who they are, they're human being when they wake up in the morning, it's someone who has a job to do, who's looking out for their clients and they will do anything in a conversation with you if you can help them do that. And so I'm always a big fan of, you know, there's this, oh, if, if it's if we want to, you know, service the client, we have to say yes to everything or we need to make sure that. You know, we are always reasonable. Well, that's a true thing when you need to always make sure we're reasonable in our approach, but it's unreasonable for us to say no to certain things. That's not true. Many clients are like, I don't want you to do stuff that's different for me than you're doing for others. I don't want bespoke processes because it increases my risk as a client for the things that you do for me. Or I want you to push back, you know, senior level folks that some clients organizations regardless who your clients are. For me, their asset managers for technology firms, they might be, you know, other third party administrators for the whoever your client is, OK, have that open dialogue, have those real conversations. Make them aware at certain levels of things that aren't working at other levels so that they can address it. I think I said this in one of my previous three thoughts Thursdays. We're all quite frankly one big team servicing the end investor and most people realize that. Because clients are simply people. Third thought for today, giving back in charity. Um, there's, or there are a number of organizations that are attached to the Global Fund services industry, but it doesn't matter what industry you're in, OK, Finding a way to attach yourself to and get involved in what your company does, to give back to community and to give back to those in need is important. But then also on top of that, doing some stuff yourself. I'm involved in a couple of nonprofit organizations and boards, finding a way to balance out the. This is my job, this is my personal life, and how can I give back? I think it's hugely important, especially as you get older. You know, I have a son and I know that's my legacy, but my legacy is more than just being a dad, more than just who my son is. It's the way that I can impact not just him as a human being and as a future, whatever he wants to be in the world, but also the impact I can make on society and take a. Take a very pragmatic approach to the fact that I come from a position of privilege to be able to work in this industry that I'm in, to be able to to be able to give back and to be able to help others. We aren't here just for ourselves, and I think that most of us know that. But calling it out and saying we do something with that power, do something with that privilege, do something with your time. You have no idea the impact that we can make if we all just do a little bit more. That's it, that's for today. I'm in Boston today. I'll be in Boston again next week. I look forward to talking and hearing from all of you, many of you who continue to reach out to me. Have a great week and I will talk to you next week with three more thoughts.