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Want a peak behind the curtain into one of the best places to work in cybersecurity and the minds of the innovators behind the industry’s leading security operations platform? Tune in to The Howler podcast!
Hosted by Chelsea Lowman, People Experience Specialist, and Mary Newville, People Experience Senior Manager, the culture duo connects with pack leaders on leadership insights, mental health and overall wellbeing, and how they lead their teams to advance our mission of ending cyber risk.
The Howler - Will Briggs -v2 AUDIO
Wed, Nov 26, 2025 11:04AM � 1:08:36
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Arctic Wolf, channel sales, partner program, howl, office expansion, Utah office, Kitchener Waterloo, Harry Potter theme, escape room, amplify series, black tech professionals, Hispanic tech professionals, well-being, follow-up, team engagement.
SPEAKERS
Speaker 1, Chelsea Lowman, Mary Newville
Chelsea Lowman 00:04
Hi, welcome back to the Howler Podcast. I'm Chelsea and I'm Mary, and we are here for our November episode like a broken record. Can't believe it's almost 2026, it really is. I can't talk about it actually
Mary Newville 00:21
it's okay, because I'm like,
Chelsea Lowman 00:24
Where did 2025 go? Did I achieve my goals? I don't know. I feel like I blinked and it was gone.
Mary Newville 00:31
That is how I feel about this year as well. But I think, okay, you don't have to think about it today, but maybe in December we can do a little reflection, because I'm sure even though you blinked and where did the time go that you've made meaningful progress in and grown, I hope some areas that you've wanted to you have, for sure, no doubt, okay, but it is November, when people are listening to this, and in the US we celebrate Thanksgiving, I have a lot of topics in my head, so we're just going to like, this is gonna be the Chelsea intro. What's something you're thankful for?
Chelsea Lowman 01:10
For those listening, I'm a little under the weather. I've got tea, I've got cough drops, so right now, I'm just really thankful for my general health, not feeling 100% and so then it just makes you really realize how much, how you like, have nothing without your health. And I'm always trying to remember when I don't want to work out, or I don't want to do this or that, that there are people that would be so grateful to be able to move their bodies or do XYZ. So I'm grateful for that. Really wishing I was feeling 100% right now, and I just got back from a bunch of travel, which is probably why I'm sick. I got to visit our new office in Kitchener Waterloo. I got to visit our Utah office for the first time. So I'm just really grateful to Arctic wolf for giving me those opportunities, and Mary and Tricia and the HR team for letting me go. And it's just always so great getting to meet people in person that you've been slacking with for three years.
Mary Newville 02:16
Yeah, totally okay. Tell us for listeners, give them a little peek into the new Canada office. If you're not part of the pack, we just opened a new office in Canada. We already had one there, so I should say they everybody moved to this new office. Give us, like, some Cliff Notes, some highlights, some surprises.
Chelsea Lowman 02:36
Okay, well, of course it's gorgeous because it's brand new. So like new paint, new carpet, new everything. It's three floors, just like our office was our previous office, but it's set up very differently, and we're kind of in two different buildings, and there's a Skyway connecting them. For those of you in Minnesota, you know, we have our Skyway downtown, and so they have, like, a little hallway that connects the two buildings, which is nice, so you don't have to go outside. I love that. Yes, and the cafe, so, like the large gathering space is so big, apparently, according to facilities, it's the exact same size as the cafe in Minnesota, but it feels a lot bigger. I was talking to Ben freeze, who shout out to Ben. He was, like, the project manager on this whole project. He said that it's like almost the exact same square footage, but because the ceilings are taller, and, like, the Canada office is longer, where ours is kind of like shorter, and like wider, depth wise, there's just feels so much bigger. And they have this, like gorgeous mural, which I didn't know about the mural. Did you know about the mural?
Mary Newville 03:46
I think I've seen pictures of said mural. Give us a give us Hi. Yes.
Chelsea Lowman 03:52
They had in their Cafe space, which is, again, like the main, big gathering space, they had a local artist do this really beautiful mural. And of course, there's like, wolves in it. But then there's elements that are really specific to Kitchener Waterloo, where the office is located. So it's like, it has the, like, famous bell tower that I think is in Kitchener, don't quote me, and like different elements, like, I think there's a nod to st Jacobs market, and just some of the, like, local things, so, and it's super colorful, which is really fun, because obviously our office is colorful, and, like, the blues, oranges, that, but it's like, all different colors. So it's really fun when you walk in and it takes up a whole, like, big wall. So that was a surprise for me, because I didn't know that that was going to be there. Yeah.
Mary Newville 04:40
Well, I mean, the pictures look stunning, and I'm so excited for that crew up there. I feel like huge upgrades, so I'm glad you got to see it in person. Okay, we need to know. I feel like there's so many things we could say about the Utah pack as well, but I feel like the podcast listeners might find it really intriguing to. Find your new identity post visit to the Utah office, and then just getting this work. Now it's like, well, I have some more questions, so start with that, and then I have some follow ups.
Chelsea Lowman 05:15
So our Utah office is just such a fun crew, and for the second year in a row, they have been doing Harry Potter in the office. And what that entails is, well, all sorts of things, but all of our pack members in that office get sorted into one of the four houses. I did do the sorting hat because they like bought the sorting hat that, you know, does the little lines from the book movie, but I am. I am a Ravenclaw. To my core, it's who I've always been since Pottermore first came out, like a decade ago, 50 I don't know how long it's been I'm a Ravenclaw. So thankfully, the team, even though the Sorting Hat didn't sort me into Ravenclaw, they let me just be a Ravenclaw, a
Mary Newville 06:01
huge privilege, because I don't think anybody else gets to put themselves in their house, their house. Yeah? So, Chelsea, well, you're loved. Because they were like, Okay, fine, you can be. We'll let you choose. Yeah, well, and I think it
Chelsea Lowman 06:16
worked out because it was like, Oh, we have Ravenclaw T shirts left. That works
Mary Newville 06:21
like, Great, yeah, okay, well, we need to know. I mean, there's like, a million things we could share about the details of how amazing this activity is, but I feel like I personally really want to know about the escape room the podcast listeners will get to learn about today too.
Chelsea Lowman 06:39
Okay, so, yes, there's all sorts of different elements. It's like a four week long thing that they do in their office each week. There's different activities. Like the week I was there was trivia week, which was really fun, but yes, they turned a whole conference room into an escape room. And I wish I could visually show you all what this escape room looked like, but it was, I was so impressed. I couldn't believe it. And it was all just pack members who had, like, brought in their bookcases, and they're like, fake fireplace and their bed and all these things to, like, make this escape room. And apparently they found the escape room online. So, like, the hard part was the hardest. Part was done. They just had to, like, follow the instructions. But when I tell you that escape room is the hardest escape room I've ever done, and I do, I'm not like a huge escape room person, but I usually do a few every year with friends or through work or something. You know Harry Potter, right? Like you've read all the books, yes, yes, I know Harry Potter, but I will say, going to Utah made me realize, like, I know Harry Potter, but I don't know Harry Potter, like some of those people, like, I love the books, and I reread them every few years, but I just don't have it in my brain to, like, memorize those small details And people really go into the backstories of, like, all these different side tertiary characters where I'm just like, I'm just here for the fun, you know, like, but anyway, you didn't really need to know Harry Potter that much to do the escape room. Like, it definitely helped. But you could have figured out some of it, maybe without knowing the books too well, but we didn't escape in an hour. Unfortunately, it was very hard. But, yeah, they did it. Since it was set up in one of our conference rooms, they just put on a Zoom meeting so it was recording the whole time so that you could, like, watch it back and laugh at yourself. Okay, that is so clever. Well, yeah, it was just so cool.
Mary Newville 08:41
And that office really is just shout out to the Utah pack. Such a I mean, the whole pack is special. The Utah pack, they're so creative and sweet, and a really, really cool community there. Okay, I do feel like we also need just a highlight, amplify.
Chelsea Lowman 08:58
Oh, wow. We're really, we're really just a boom, booming
Mary Newville 09:01
it, yeah, I and I still have more. So I'm just, you know, keep moving along. We I feel like the podcast gets needed to know about amplify. Tell us about it and like, one highlight.
Chelsea Lowman 09:14
Okay, so amplify is a series that started here in Minnesota four years ago, four years ago. Um, and here in Minnesota, the goal and the vision is to connect, sustain and elevate black tech professionals in the Twin Cities area. And we've been doing that event again for the last four years. And this year we had Tiffany Daniels come speak, and she's amazing. If you are able to find any sort of speech or anything of Tiffany Daniels online. You need to watch it. So we did that in Minnesota in September, and then for the second year in a row, we've also hosted amplify for Hispanic and Latino tech professionals actually know. So this is the second second year. So last year we did it in the San Antonio office, and then this year, no, this is our third year.
Mary Newville 10:11
I don't think so, but I could be wrong either way,
Chelsea Lowman 10:14
because did it, we do it in San Antonio, and then last year we did it with tech moms in Utah, and then we did it again this year.
Mary Newville 10:22
Oh, I forgot about the San and I don't remember an event happening in San Antonio, though,
Chelsea Lowman 10:27
but we've lost the lore a little bit, but we have hosted this event, I think, yeah, for the second Well, we know the second year in Utah, and I was able to be in Utah for it, and we had some local Hispanic tech leaders come in, and we did a panel, and there was all sorts of, like fun net we had a fun networking game going on, and the most delicious tacos, just like street tacos, you know, like horchata and something else. Everything was so good. And it was just like a lovely evening of networking and connecting. And it was so nice to meet Utah pack. But shout out to our Lobos leaders who led that event, because it's no easy feat, getting all of the community partners involved, the panelists, the food, coordinating the event, flow and the space. It's one of our smaller offices. So even trying to, like, make the room work for so many people, they had to get really creative. And again, it was so great to see even outside of those leaders, so many of the Utah PAC members were volunteering to help set up volunteer during the event to greet people. They stayed late to help break down the event, like when I showed up at the scheduled time for the event setup. The room was already set up because they had had people that were just like, oh, we can just do it now.
Mary Newville 11:55
Really a special community. Shout out, Utah. We've been here Great. Last but not least, I have a story.
Chelsea Lowman 12:03
Okay, great. Well, and also, if you could weave into your story what you're grateful for. We just skipped over, I just answered, and then you didn't answer.
Mary Newville 12:12
I'll try to weave it into my story. We'll see how that goes. Okay, okay. Well, firstly, today, on the podcast, we have will Briggs, he's our senior vice president of Channel Sales. Will brings over a decade of experience in technology and security sales with a focus on strategic channel, program development, distribution and partner relationships and profitability, he leads our go to market alignment and operational efficiencies within our EMEA and ANZ channel efforts. He also has responsibility for the channel strategy, vision and execution of the Arctic wolf partner program globally. Will oversaw Arctic Wolf's transition to 100% channel go to market strategy, and along with his dedicated channel sales and marketing team, will launch the Arctic wolf partner portal and the Arctic Wolf On Demand training program prior to Arctic, wolf will specialized in growing the channel business with top partners at code 42 Dell EMC and compelling technologies. So that is Will's bio. But another thing about Will is he is like our go to howler, if you will, not howler, as in podcast fan, but if you didn't know if you're not part of the pack, we literally howl around here, and I feel like whenever we need someone to close out a meeting strong will Briggs is called to the floor. So I thought it could be fun to tell a story of how I first came to experience the howl as a precursor to this conversation. Okay, so basically, when I joined our Dick Wolf, Kristen Dean, our chief HR officer, she sent me an email, and the subject line said, H, O, W, L, L, with a bunch of exclamation points, howl. And then she wrote me a nice little note about joining. And then she signed her note. PS, we howl around here a lot. Smiley face. And I remember getting that email and thinking to myself, like, is so cute, that is so clever, like they're the Arctic Wolf, Wolf Pack, they howl. And I had, I did not think she meant that literally. I thought it was just kind of a colloquial, like a little saying, you know, like, we howl, we're the Arctic wolf pack. Fast forward to my first week at Arctic wolf I'm in an all company, all hands, and there's, like, you know, 500 of us at the time all on a zoom because it's 2020, so it's covid, and our CEO at the time was our co founder, Brianna Smith. Check out podcast episode number one if you want to get to know him better. He's great. But he was just chatting away in this all hands meeting, and he was sharing an update, and he said, I think that deserves. Is the how 321, and everybody unmutes like literally, without no pauses, no delay. It's just all the screens go off mute, and the whole Zoom meeting erupts in people howling. Meanwhile, I am just sitting there like at home. This is so awkward. I cannot believe he meant literally. This is so weird. I've never held in my life. I don't know what to do. So that is how I first learned the how. And then one of my first projects was designing our onboarding program. So of course, joined our Dick Wolf since 2020 you know that we howl in pack prep, which is onboarding, and it's a fun finale to being done with onboarding, but it also helps people fully get on board with this unique, quirky part of our culture. But actually, five years later, it's been really cool to see how the howl sticks and unites us across all of our offices and cultures. It's kind of quirky, weird, but once you do it one time, you're like, so what did you did, you know, we how old, like, how did you first realize, like, Oh, this is a thing that we're doing. This is happening.
Chelsea Lowman 16:19
I'm sure. I can't remember if it's in our comms, like in our in our comms leading up to the first day, but probably on the I don't think anyone told me we how old,
Mary Newville 16:31
why you started. We would have had the email that was like. So basically, that email from Kristen is what inspired our new hire comms now. And they all start with how, welcome to the pack, and then they end with, PS, we howl around here a lot, so we hint at it. Yeah, okay, but you don't seem to be as, like, traumatized, like, the moment that we were like, We're howling wasn't so happening. You were saying we're doing it.
Chelsea Lowman 16:59
I'm a theater kid, so I mean, that's something to me. I'm like, Okay, sure. I also like my career before this was like standing on fields and courts in front of like 20,000 people. So it doesn't really like nervous but, but I also had friends working here before I started. So I think I did know that we howled. I can't really remember, to be honest, but it definitely didn't faze me. I was like, Okay, let's do it. Okay.
Mary Newville 17:30
Well, let's do it. Let's Yeah, get to know will breaks a
Chelsea Lowman 17:34
little bit better. Let's do it. Alright. Welcome to the podcast. Will we are so excited to have you.
Speaker 1 17:43
Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me. You know, I've heard about this podcast, the Howler I've watched, I've participated in many times, but this is the first time that I've been invited by you and Mary. So thank you for having me.
Mary Newville 17:59
We're excited. I'm excited for the pack to get to know you better. I mean, part of the whole thing with the podcast is, back in the day, we all knew each other, but now we have employees all over the world, and they know, you know, we know each other's names, but we don't know each other the way, like you used to run into someone every single day in the break room. So I think this will be fun for our global pack to get to know you better, and I am excited as well.
Speaker 1 18:25
We're all going to become really good friends in the next few minutes here.
Chelsea Lowman 18:31
So if you listen to the podcast, you know we always we like to ease into it with a fun little conversation at the beginning. And Mary and I were chatting like, what do we want to talk to will about? And we felt like there was only one thing that we could talk to you about. Do you have a guess what? What we might what we might want to chat about?
Speaker 1 18:50
I I have a feeling what I know what's coming, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.
Mary Newville 18:57
Oh, now I want to talk about whatever that is, yeah, what do you think it is?
Speaker 1 19:04
Well, I think, you know, I've been at article for a while here, and some people have coined me with creating the howl. Is it? Is it? Is it related to that?
Mary Newville 19:20
Yeah, I cannot believe it.
Speaker 1 19:24
Yes, I don't know if it was my idea way back in the day, but
Chelsea Lowman 19:31
well, okay, well, let's set the record straight. Wolves created howling in general. You didn't create howling, but maybe you did create how like an Arctic Wolf?
Speaker 1 19:42
Yes, that is correct. That is actually
Chelsea Lowman 19:45
like National wolves, society on us or something.
Speaker 1 19:51
Yeah, the quick story on that, you know, many, many years ago, and I think this was when. The the office was still in in Sunnyvale, and it was a small office in Sunnyvale, maybe the size of a Starbucks or a Chipotle or something like that. And we were doing QBR sales and marketing. Was doing QBR reviews. And there was, there was an individual that did a very good QBR and I just happened to howl after it, like, good job. And the rest is history. I think at the time it would have been, you know, Brian Nesmith, who's chairman of our board now, Nick, Nick Schneider, Elaine Roush would have been there. Sam McLean would have been there, and maybe a few other people's, but that's, that's the one time, the first time I remember howling and, and it's a great I love, I love, I love the howl, right? It's great when we complete a goal or or win, right? To give a howl and celebration. And it's, it's been great how we have such a good culture here at Arctic Wolf and community and and how every new wolf or member of the wolf pack has embraced the howl at some point.
Mary Newville 21:14
So that's, well, we need to like, we need to take it back. You're going too fast in this story for me, so you just like, spontaneously embrace your wolf identity and howl in this QBR, and then everybody is just like, business as usual, whereas, kind of a big reaction, like, you know,
Speaker 1 21:32
I think people at first were like, what it was that I'm like, Hey, we're artic wolf networks. We can't howl, right? Give me a howl over here. I, you know, like it is. I do remember the location of it. I do remember that it was a, it was a, it was a big team meeting at the time. I do remember a few individuals kind of laughing when I did it, and then it kind of grew from there. The reason for it was a, you know, a cheer, a celebration and and why the howls, just the fact that what we were, you know, our company name is Article of networks, yeah,
Mary Newville 22:09
well, you know, it's funny, because when Chelsea and I were like, brainstorming, like, what we wanted to do for the intro, we were talking about how whenever Kristen needs someone to end a company meeting, it's always Like, where's will will get up here and leave the howl. So we wanted to, yeah, that was exactly I didn't know it was you that it originated from. So I'm glad we just wanted to know, like, how did you become, like, the official mascot, slash official Howler for Arctic Wolf?
Speaker 1 22:37
Well, I've always had, I've always had, I've always been animated my entire life, and and, and this, this goes back to, you know, my days growing up and my childhood. And then, you know, my first time of being very animated. Was in college when I tried out and became a d1 atom, and I was the d1 mascot for the University of Kansas, the Kansas Kay hawks, and I was Big J. And you know, once you put on the suit, you can do whatever you want there, right? You can jump around. You can be animated. You can go down Allen Fieldhouse stairs. You can try to pie the Texas Red Raider. You can dress up as the Missouri Tiger as a plant. So I've always loved dressing up in mascot costumes, I guess you would say, it. And, you know, every, every good organization, company, has to have their own culture, or their own mascot, if they, if you will, or their own, their own uniqueness. And I think that's kind of what, what's cool about Arctic wolf here is that, you know, we, we we embrace the how, yeah,
Mary Newville 24:03
I will admit, like, I do think there's a little bit of magic in it, in that, like, it is cool to see all these years later, how that quirky, little random thing that we all do really unites around the World.
Speaker 1 24:19
I would, I would concur for sure, Mary and it, you know, at the organization, as long as I have and nine plus years, and the fact that it's still going, you can have long celebratory howls. You can have short howls. You can have one clock howls. You can write howls and emails, which I do to this day. Yeah, this day all the time, when, when I'm celebrating, you know, our team members, our acquisition team members, our channel team members. Or a win with a partner, the howl goes a long way, and out in the field too. Like, you know, partners want to partners want to see us. How old the article they still see. Like. Hey, give us a howl from the article of team members, and it's pretty cool to see how it's grown, not only inside of our organization, but to our partner community and our ecosystem and alliance partners and even our customers as well.
Mary Newville 25:17
Can you give us like which are you willing to give the audience a couple examples of like the one clap howl versus, just like an everyday howl versus, like, big celebration. Howl, yeah. Literally, a demo, yeah. All right, perfect. I'll start with,
Speaker 1 25:41
so, okay, so the one clap hobble started when there was a lot of congratulations, a lot of celebrations, a lot of wins, a lot of promotions, a lot of people like, I think it actually started during sales and marketing QBR, when there was a lot of, like, wins we had, and just a one clap Hall, All right, everybody, let's give it one cap, clap howl. So it's like, quick, right? It's like a and then there's the long howl, which is, and then you could be like, you know, you could be walking in the Minneapolis office or another office, and you could pass somebody that to give a job, maybe a fist pumping out, you know, like,
Chelsea Lowman 26:25
I don't think I've ever seen that one,
26:28
that one is the less common, one that is the most common, yeah.
Chelsea Lowman 26:39
Okay, we need to take this clip because, you know, we we have all of our new hires howl and onboarding, and sometimes we do get questions of like, how do you howl? What's the howl? So I feel like we could just take this little clip and be like, here are different examples of ways you could howl here
Mary Newville 26:58
and from the founder, the originator of the how, okay. This is the main thing, wait, okay. I feel this will
Speaker 1 27:06
be, I am not saying I am the originator of the howl. People have coined me as that clarify that I want to take it away from anybody else that might think they were
Chelsea Lowman 27:18
okay, okay. I feel
Mary Newville 27:22
this would be a good segue to, you know, what did you want to be when you grew up? How'd we get to where we are today? But before we do that, because you said you were really animated when you were a kid, all the way to when you were a kid, like, what's like, a classic will story that, like your parents always say, like, Oh my gosh. When I was three and he first started talking, he said this crazy thing one time at brunch, or you told your teacher something crazy at school, or, like, what did this animated will first? Oh, on the scene of life.
Speaker 1 27:53
I think, I think graduating elementary school and going into middle school there were, there was a series of movies that were very animated and outside the box. Austin Powers being one of them, and and zoo lander being another, that were just like, and I really liked the movies. I guess they were really good movies. But like, you know, I think I really grew into, like, doing fun stuff, like in high school at uh, and I'd have to think of a story here that, no
Mary Newville 28:29
worries, I just didn't know if there was, like this, like classic, like story from you, like being animated as a child, that you're like, that's kind of like folklore in the family.
Speaker 1 28:40
I mean, I was always, Well, the funny guy, I always did April Fool's jokes. When it was April Fool's days, that was my, one of my favorite days. You know, there was this one time that I, I had a, I had a, how do I describe it? I had put whipped cream on the top of my mom and dad's door on a plate. Oh, no, so on the doors cracked open, right? They go into the door, and then the whipped cream fell on their head, like pranks, little pranks like that, like I would do, do all the time. Yeah, I love the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. And one time I tried to leave with a buddy, this was driving leave Minneapolis and go, like, do everything Ferris Bueller's Day Off did in the day. Oh, wow, recreate the movie, but we got stopped by our parents.
Chelsea Lowman 29:48
Oops. How far did you get? But it sounds like not far,
29:51
not even to Wisconsin.
Chelsea Lowman 29:54
Okay, yeah, so how did we go from a d1 mascot to. Senior Vice President of Channel Sales, like, walk us through that journey.
Speaker 1 30:04
Okay, yeah. So, right out of college, I really wanted to try some place new. I didn't want to so going to the University of Kansas, growing up in Minneapolis, I didn't want to stay in the Kansas City area, and I didn't want to be in the Minneapolis area. This was also at the time of the recession, so the late 1000s, it was very hard to find a job, and there was a few openings in Dallas and New York and Chicago. And I landed on taking a position in Chicago. I majored in finance and transportation logistics and totally outside of finance, because there was no finance jobs at the time. So working in transportation logistics, and the best way I can describe it is my role was assisting a seller who was, who was trying to to add customers with with freight that they wanted to load on two trucks, and how there was kind of a matching game of they would find backhauls, pretty much is what it's called in the industry. So like how I would describe this is a truckload of, let's say electronics, goes from Los Angeles to Minneapolis for target target, like they dump them in in Minneapolis, and then that truck needs to get back to Los Angeles, right? And they don't want to go back empty handed with no freight or no dollars, or no dollars associated with it. So we would, we would have customers that would fill those trucks where they didn't have to pay a premium for their own truck, but they were using somebody else's on a back call. So like, they would fill, like one of my customers had doggy doors, so we put all bunch of doggy doors on there. Really cool job. Learned a ton. Learn how to cross your t's and dye your eyes. You're in transportation, logistics. All the trucks moving all the time. There's traffic, there's pickup hours, there's there's certain requirements to get into shipyards, some or into, you know, distribution facilities. Is it a 53 foot van is a 48 foot van? Is it a 53 foot reefer? Is a 48 foot reefer? Do you know that ice cream is considered toxic, a toxic chemical when it's transplanting? Yeah, and they have to have certain licenses and requirements. Now notice, back in the day, I don't know about today, but yeah, if you were shipping ice cream, yeah, if you were shipping ice cream, you had to have a certain license. Now, I'm going to have to google that after this call, because I wonder if it's still true. But yeah, so a lot of moving, moving pieces. So in that job, I really learned how like operational process, start to finish and out of follow up. I didn't want to be in transportation logistics, right? It wasn't, it wasn't my for me long term. So one of my buddies worked at an organization at the time that had an SDR team, and I joined that team, and I smiled and dialed for a year and a half, and then became, then kind of worked way up, much like here, right? So I was a, I was an SDR, and then I was partner development rep, and then I was a AE for a while, an AR for a while. And when I really got involved in channels and in the channel, I always liked the channel. I worked well with the channel. I knew how to activate the channel, but I was in an AE at the time, and the organization I was working for wanted me to move to Texas and Dallas, and I didn't. I didn't really want to move at that time. So I said, what else do you have? And I want to stay here at this organization, but I'm not. I'm not moving to Texas. It's just not the right time. And they asked me to help cover one, a partner, which was CDW at the time, and run the CDW relationship. And I was and we are at the right time with the CDW relationship and our champions there. And we, we killed it, and we crushed it, and I've been in the channel ever since then. So then that was channels. And then I, you know, I, when I started here, I was the first channel account manager with Arctic Wolf. So it was Brian Nesmith, was the CEO at the time. Nick was the VP of sales. Both of them worked at organizations that were previously 100% channel and they had the idea in mind of being 100% channel organization. So I started as the First Channel account manager, and with Nick and Brian, helped build the channel program. Which still is what it is today. I mean, obviously it's evolved. It's global. It has new, different benefits and requirements, but that it's still the same piece of paper that we started with that evolved. Sometimes you gotta zig and zag too, right? And, and, and I really thought I would be a seller the rest of my life, right? I when I first took that step into channel, I was like, Oh, I don't know this is gonna work out. I think I'm really a seller. I'm an AE. I want to be, but I mean, that opened the door for so many new relationships and new opportunities and new motions and new skill sets that I never, never thought of thought was possible. So I tell many of the team members here in sales and marketing too, when like people are zigging, zag going the different direction, because sometimes there's more opportunity, right?
Mary Newville 36:07
So fun wisdom for the day. That's true, though, if everyone's going one direction, yeah, I love that. Well, so one of our questions too, like, you know, you're talking about selling through the channel. For people that don't really understand what that means, or are new to Arctic Wolf, or maybe they're joining or haven't been part of a company that sells strictly through a channel, tell us a little bit of what that means and how that how it all works.
Speaker 1 36:36
Yeah, yeah. So, so every, every every you know, sizable end user organization has has an IT department. They have a business applications department, they have a bunch of different business units that all leverage technology to help them, to help them run their their business right? And and these, it business units. These IT directors, right? They need help. They need advisory services. They need recommendations. They need consolidation and help with picking the right vendor and the right software and the right products for their business, right? And it's really hard to, let's say, go to Apple for all of our laptops, and then go to zoom directly for our for, for zoom, you know, for meetings, right, online meetings and stuff like that, and and anywhere else For different technologies. So so they rely on a trusted advisor, and those are, those are our channel partners, which are 2000 plus strong now, these partners, these partner reps, have great relationships with their end users and provide them to technology product and services and advice and recommendations on the products they should they should pay. It also gives us a very big force multiplier, right? So our sales team is roughly, you know, sales, sales is roughly 400 individuals, right? We we have a partner network of 30 plus 1000 people that can sell Arctic Wolf. So it's a force multiplier, enabling our partner community to sell on Article sometimes. So I have this old deck that I'd have to dig up from back in the day when for new hire, when I used to talk about channel, right? And try to try to really just make it as simple as possible. And I say, you know, when you need to go grocery shopping, you don't go to the paper towel store for the paper towel. You don't go to the toothpaste store for the toothpaste. You don't go to the cleaning store for the pine salt, right? You go to target, where you can get it all at one place. You go to cup foods, you go to you go to Amazon, where you can go to one place. That is what our end users do as well. They go to one place where they can purchase all their their products and services and and they get, they have, they have great relationships there they get, they get volume commits and and discounts associated with, with, with the amount they purchase through them. So, yeah, that's the partner network.
Chelsea Lowman 39:43
So interesting. I will say, as someone, I didn't know what the channel was before I started here. Obviously I've learned throughout these last three years, but really also great to hear it directly from you too. And I think those analogies are really helpful for people that haven't. Clue what the channel is. Okay, so in your opinion, what's one thing that most companies get wrong about, like building successful partner programs and selling through the channel? Um, that's a good one. I think
Speaker 1 40:27
at the end of the day, people buy from people they like, right? So you gotta have, you gotta be likable, and there has to be a mutual benefit in partnership, right? There has to be, hey, here is what we offer. And the partner is like, oh yeah, we need that. Because we don't offer a different product. We haven't built it ourselves, and we have customers that require it's a little bit of product market fit, but if there's not that there, it's never going to be successful. The second piece of that is so, right? Like, like, people buy from people are like, there. There has to be a, you guys gotta like each other, right? The article, the vendor and the partner need to like each other. And then two, there has to be product market fit for the for the for the partner. And then, and then three, like, on our end, we need to have champions within our partners, people that go to bat for us. That's that that win with us, that stick up with us, that continue to help us activate new partner reps, enable new partner reps that just are champions and fans of Arctic Wolf. That's what makes a successful partnership, right? You could go into how many accounts do they have and, and what is their average user size? And do they sell them to this segment or that segment? None of that matters if, if you don't have that connection, like that partnership piece there, like you both, like each other, there's not the fit for the partner and, and you don't have a champion. So,
Mary Newville 42:07
well, how do you scale the efforts? I mean, like you said, there's 400 salespeople and 2000 channel partners, and through that 30,000 partners. So how do you scale that likability and scale the relationship building so that you can create champions.
Speaker 1 42:26
Yeah, I mean, there's there, there, there's a there's a bunch of different like motions and programs that we have in place, right? So I think the first thing is, like, of those 2000 partners, 2000 plus partners, it's the 8020 rule, right? So 80% of our business comes from 20% of the partners. That's roughly, let's just say, 400 partners. Those are all managed by our global Arctic wolf team, right? So they we have resources assigned to those partners, so they know that they have a channel resource that wants to win with them together, that is responsible for enabling them for responsible for demand generation, escalations, account management, right the the all aspects of that. They have a resource that is invested in them and winning together two I would say, like channel. Marketing does a really good job. So this would be Alex Stanton and the extended team. There a global channel program that has programmatic features and functions that does enablement, brand and awareness for our program. So for example, we have a monthly newsletter that goes out the partner Howell, that provides all sorts of updates on what is going on with our program, new products or features that have been released, wind, stories, any kind of incentives. It's just a monthly newsletter of what a partner needs to know about what's going on with Arctic Wolf. Other programs include, we have a partner Advisory Council, which is our top partners, where we share and get feedback at we have champions Club, which is a roughly 120 to 150 members, where is another avenue to continue, enable and get feedback from we do many, we do many things on LinkedIn in terms of brand and awareness. So yeah, there's, there's a bunch of different avenues that we're continuing to make ourselves aware to a part our partners, activate our partners, and then enable our partners to win.
Chelsea Lowman 44:37
Do we ever have like in your career? Have you ever had to break up with partners. Oh, yeah. So, like, how, like, how do you make that decision? And just, like, what's that? What's that?
Speaker 1 44:51
You know you always want to be a good breaker upper, if you're, if you're in the channel, because you don't know when you might have to. Be with them again. You know, like most, most of the partner breakups or terminations that we have are a lot of them come from mergers and acquisitions. They acquired a company that has their own offering, that offering is very competitive to ours. They clearly call out, hey, this worked for a while. Now it's not going to work. We both know it's not going to work. Let's end it, and it's amicable, and we part ways, and we retain our customers and bring them to another, another partner. There's been a few that have been escalations, right? Whether it be account management, escalations, customer related escalations with the partners, accounting escalations that we've had to, that we have to deal with and resolve. And then, you know, there's some partners you just sign, and you think they're going to be a good opportunity, and they just end up not being a good partner, right? And you You notice that they're not acting in the way that you would expect them to act. They don't. They don't know. And if you're, if they're not acting in a good way, that you are the way you expect them to act, you don't want to be a vendor in that portfolio, right? If they have a bad brand, or if they have a bad name, or something like that. And we've had a few of those as well. Yeah, that's not, that's not fun breaking up with a partner, but it's the name in the game. It's part of the biz, right? I'm actually breaking up with one right now. I just got off one. Yeah, so you're gonna bring that up,
Chelsea Lowman 46:36
but sorry, too soon, too soon, after the break. Knows about it, yeah, apologies. What else?
Mary Newville 46:50
Oh, what are you gonna ask us? I'm so curious,
Speaker 1 46:53
I wrote down a few questions here. Oh, for us,
Mary Newville 46:57
never, ever had a guest ask us.
Chelsea Lowman 47:02
Well, I mean, maybe just like, What do you think? But never, like, prepared with questions.
Speaker 1 47:09
I was gonna ask you guys. What are you guys most excited about for Arctic Wolf and our team in 2026 calendar year 2026 or it could be 20 like fiscal 27 like, but What? What? What are you guys most excited about?
Mary Newville 47:34
I'm excited for the continued global growth and just how that changes the pack for the better, as we like introduce new people and culture and support all these individual cultures, but also still make us feel united as a pack. There's so much
Chelsea Lowman 47:57
Go ahead. Charles, well, I was gonna say, that's exactly what I was going to say. So, plus wanting to marry,
Speaker 1 48:05
yeah, I mean, just on your guys's side you I mean, there's been a lot of growth in terms of, like, the global expansion, and you guys in, you guys having to support that. And I don't get to see the day of, like, you know, spinning up different countries and entities and making sure that we're licensed correctly, and all the HR related activities that go into that. But that's like, that's huge.
Mary Newville 48:31
Yeah, totally. I mean, and so many people work on that, and our role really comes in, in supporting culture, engagement, onboarding, making sure all these new places are excited about the how and how do we create connection, community, belonging, access to resources, but
Chelsea Lowman 48:47
yeah, but that's a good segue, because we do love to touch on culture when we have our guests here, and we usually like to focus on one of the culture tenants. So this time, we wanted to ask you about own the outcome, which, as you know, is one of our culture tenants. So how do you personally live out on the outcome and or do you have any stories of pack members you've seen successfully, like anyone on your team living out on the outcome recently?
Speaker 1 49:17
Yeah, first of all, I love own that. Outcome. And I think if you have, if you are experiencing a challenge, or if you see an opportunity, like having, having a plan on what, what you want to what you want to do, in terms of, like the path that you should follow, and the thought process to to either activate that opportunity and win with that opportunity, or if it's an escalation to resolve it. I think you know something with the with the channel team here. I think. They have a lot of great ideas and and you know which ones are, which on which one are. Which ones do we want to hang our hat on, or which ones do we want to invest in and win with? And asking them, like how they would do it and how they would think about it, and putting it on yourself as the individual, if you have an escalation or a challenge or an opportunity, like, what are you going to do to get it done right? And, and, and a lot of times, I think our team at Arctic Wolf, they have a ton of resources to help them validate that this is an escalation, this is a concern, this is an issue. This is an opportunity. And they, and a lot of them, have a great idea on how to fix it. They just want validation from their their colleagues, that yes, this is true, and yes, you're thinking about this the right way, and yes, go do it right. So I don't know if that's exactly what you're looking for. But I I asked my team members all the time was like, Okay, how do you think we should handle it? How do you think we should resolve it? What do you think about it? And nine times out of 1010, times, 99% of times they're thinking about it the same way I would be thinking about it. I think, I think they just want validation that this is the this, this is this is how the rest of the team is thinking about it. So what you were looking for there, but that's how I kind of put it together. The second one I think, is very important to sales and marketing and channel, is Follow up. Follow up. Fortune is in the follow up, I see so many missed opportunities by simply not following up, that's part of owning the outcome, right? I have a problem. Yeah, it's just, it's simply following up, right? Not leaving anything open. No hanging chads. I don't know if we Yeah, like, like, follow up. And if, and if you follow up, you'll win most of the time. Very insightful, huh,
Mary Newville 52:23
forfeit is in the follow up. Is that
Speaker 1 52:25
what you said? Fortune? The fortune is in the follow up.
Mary Newville 52:29
Fortune is in the follow up. And I do, yeah, the part, so
Speaker 1 52:32
like the part, a partner said that to me one time and generation, Dwayne Gilman is a fortune. His kind of mantra is, fortune is in the follow up and and I even noticed with my myself, sometimes that I, you know, oh, I forgot to follow up. Oh, I got like that. This is still hanging out there, even if it's a quick email, like, hey, just following up on this from last week. This is done. We close this out, we're good, yep, we both have confirmation there that it's been followed up on, yeah, and a lot of times in sales and in channel, and you win by following up, right? Yeah. We wanted to talk to wanted to talk to you about a partnership opportunity. We reached out to you two weeks ago, you never got back to us follow up, right?
Mary Newville 53:26
Yeah, totally. Because sometimes too it's not that people aren't interested, and even if you're not in sales, like maybe you reached out to someone like to grab coffee for mentorship, or you're, you know, trying to get a new opportunity. Maybe the person who emailed is just busy, but the persistence in the follow up,
Speaker 1 53:43
like a positive, aggressive follow up. I'll, I'll give another example too. Is like, you know, like a family friend son wanted an opportunity here at article as an STR or, yeah, and he texted me right and I was traveling or something, and I forgot to text him back, and then I saw his parents three, four months later at a wedding, and I'm like, Hey, he, he reached out, and I wrote him back, like, hey, look, he never followed up. Was the end of the story. Like, he just didn't follow up, and you gotta, you gotta follow up to you get the yes or the No, or like,
Mary Newville 54:26
you know, you're so right that it is about owning the outcome. Because I feel like, when you just put whatever you're doing, if you just put it out there and like, expect someone to email you back, or expect them to do their part, versus, like, just checking in, are we good to go? Like I said, you know, it really makes sure that there is success.
Speaker 1 54:44
So Mary, I have a I have a whole follow up process on how I manage my email box with hundreds and flags. Maybe you can have me on for another
Mary Newville 54:56
productivity email session. Okay? Cliff Notes. I'm genuine what's the Cliff Notes? I'm genuinely curious.
Speaker 1 55:04
The cliff notes, are i The big fan of flags? I manage everything through flags, and I go through my flags once a week to make sure everything's
Mary Newville 55:17
followed upon. Oh, okay, yeah, I don't do flags. I do snooze. That's my flag. I'm like, Oh, right. I never heard back. I should say something or I did.
Speaker 1 55:35
And then in Slack, I use starred if I need to get back to I haven't been able to figure out how to manage black effectively. Yeah.
Chelsea Lowman 55:46
Black for me is the remind me. Like, remind me about this tomorrow at 9am and then it just keeps remind. It stays in your like reminding until you check it off. Yeah. Anyway, do you have any other like organizational tools that you use?
Speaker 1 56:07
I mean, I got, I got some post its over here. I got a, I got a to do
Mary Newville 56:15
list here. Okay, we're a pen and paper guy.
Speaker 1 56:19
Oh, yeah, I haven't I need to probably dip into leveraging one note or something else.
Mary Newville 56:30
I mean, I feel like whatever works for you. Okay, well, tell us here before we I know we're approaching the end of the hour and we have a rapid fire that we love to end with, but we have two questions we like to always ask. One, what excites you personally, what our mission and cyber risk, what gets you out of bed every day and keep coming back to keeping coming back to Arctic Wolf.
56:54
Yeah, like I would say that.
Speaker 1 57:01
I would I would say, like being with the team, right? I love being with the team, seeing the team in action, meeting with the team, right? I get to see the team all the time here in Minneapolis, but then, like getting out to other cities and metros in the US and seeing the team and checking in on them and making sure they're doing and they have everything they need, and then meeting with partners and like seem to a partner meeting go well and like, and everybody's smiling, and we have a joint plan together, and we have action items, and it just like that, that that's What I love doing, is being with the extended article team and our partner community. I think it's pretty amazing to see the amount of growth that we have had as an organization. To be the leader in security operations, to have the biggest commercial sock in the world, to have 10,000 over 10,000 customers, right be able to pump your chest about that, and then it, then it's, you know, yeah, that's kind of it. It's also kind of cool to see people on the road with articles gear that have like, Oh, I'm a customer of Article four. Oh, I, you know, I, I'm a partner rep. So like, our brand and our awareness is, is getting out there and and you never really end cyber risk, right? Like you're just always marching towards that. So I really look forward to the next closing out FY 26 years strong on the second half of FY 26 and and, and FY 27 and we have a great you know, our our partners, is at an all time high as well as our customer, NPS, so we just gotta keep going.
Mary Newville 58:47
Yeah, keep going. Keep following up, keep zigging and zagging.
Chelsea Lowman 58:53
Yes, um, we also always want to touch on well being with our guests while you're here and so quickly. What does well being look like to you? What does that look like in practice? Are you you like to go for walks? Do you meditate, things like that? And then, how do you also support your team's well being?
Speaker 1 59:13
Yeah, so I think, I think it is very important that you take time for physical well being as well as mental well being. We all have very busy lives, right? Not only here at the wolf but outside of that, with our friends and our family and and and you know that there's there's ups and downs all the time, but taking time for yourself is important that, I mean, that is one thing that I have really leaned into here the past couple of years, is making sure that I'm I'm spending adequate time with my my my best friends and family, and then also times for me, for both physically and mentally. Now I'm more of an early guy, right? So. If I can get up at 5am and get an old man walk in, that's what my daughter calls him. What are you going to go on? Old man
Mary Newville 1:00:11
walk Yeah. You're like, Yes, I am,
Speaker 1 1:00:15
whether it's whether in your basement at a gym outside. You know it's getting colder here in Minneapolis here, so it's mostly gym or outside, but I really what helps me clear my mind, mentally and feel well physically is probably an hour on the the treadmill or walking. At some point it's mostly cardio. Haven't hit the weights yet, but yeah, well, yeah, that's important. I mean, that's important, and I think I'm learning that more and more as I get older, the importance of making sure to take care of yourself, and I encourage my team to do that. You know, I think what's awesome about Article Two is we're very young culture, right? Young friends here, young families here, so we all get the importance of work life balance
Chelsea Lowman 1:01:07
for sure. Okay, love, did you take your old man lock this morning?
Speaker 1 1:01:11
I did. I did. I was up at five and I was on the treadmill by 530 at 10% incline for oh, yeah, so I was sweating bullets today.
Chelsea Lowman 1:01:28
Well, I was going to say for me, sometimes walking is my meditation. Like, it's really meditative, but that sounds more like you were working out, like you were fighting up the hill.
Speaker 1 1:01:39
Yeah, Chelsea, it just depends. Like, sometimes I I'll have, like, no music on no TV, and I'll just be clearing my mind. It's also good idea to think about, like, what you got to get done today, but from personally and professionally, right? It's like, Oh, these are the five big things. But other times I got music, Blair, and other times I got the news on, so it depends. Nice. What about you, Mary? What do you do?
Mary Newville 1:02:11
Gosh, I've been really I started grad school this fall, and it has really whipped my routine, just like throwing it out the window, because I just feel like, any minute I have, I'm trying to, like, understand con like, statistics, like, alright, papers and such. But I am someone that loves getting a good workout, and I like to do strength training in the gym, in my apartment, and just put some good music on, move my body. And then I'm also a journaler. So I'm just someone that, like, I again, have a really out of practice with it as of late, but it just helps me process what's going on in my head, and, like, ground myself by just taking a little bit just to write whatever's on my heart. So and music. Music is a game changer for me. Helps with my mood, helps me focus. So I try to be intentional. Just if I'm working, just put some music on. It'll like. It helps me just dial in
Chelsea Lowman 1:03:13
amazing. Okay, well, with that, we have come to the end of our hard hitting questions, and now we are getting to our fun rapid fire. We ask these same five questions to everyone, so just first thing that comes to your head, okay, don't think about it too much. I can't wait for this. All right, let's go best concert of your life, Rolling Stones inside, outside, set the stage
1:03:41
outside arrowhead, 2015,
Chelsea Lowman 1:03:44
okay, cool, yeah. Okay. Your favorite word,
1:03:49
my favorite word, Tiddly Winks.
Mary Newville 1:03:56
Do you use that in your regular Yes, okay,
1:03:59
we're not playing tiddlywinks. We're not messing around.
Chelsea Lowman 1:04:05
I've never heard that word before. A place on your bucket list.
Speaker 1 1:04:12
I'd love to go to Thailand both like Bangkok Phuket, like the beach side and the city side. I think the culture and the food would be awesome, yeah.
Chelsea Lowman 1:04:24
What's something that people often get wrong about you? Oh, that's i
Speaker 1 1:04:47
i might think I'm athletic because I'm such a big guy, but I'm kind of not coordinated. Oh, are you clumsy? I'm kind of clumsy.
Chelsea Lowman 1:04:56
Okay, okay, okay, fun. Um, what's the, what's a recent, clumsy thing you've done? Like, do you actually hurt yourself? Are you more just, like, run into things and
Speaker 1 1:05:11
I, I ran into like, a glass wall not too long ago. Like, a kitchen. I was like, just leaning the other way, and it just, don't you know what I'm talking about, yeah, I'll bring you to the scene of the crime later, not full body, just like a side of the head.
Chelsea Lowman 1:05:37
Yeah. Okay, okay. Okay, last one, give us a snapshot of an ordinary moment in your life that has brought you joy.
Speaker 1 1:05:48
Yeah, I think, I think in the summertime in Minnesota, we live by a trail, and I really enjoy bike riding with the entire family and the kids most of the time. It's a two mile ride to Maynard's, which is a more house, yeah, get some lunch and and cocktails and then, and then bike back. Yeah? My, my kids really enjoy biking. I enjoy biking with them. So I would say the that we do a lot of that in the summer that brings me happiness,
Mary Newville 1:06:15
yeah, like a great summer.
Chelsea Lowman 1:06:18
Seriously, you
1:06:20
have to come with some time, bring your bikes out.
Mary Newville 1:06:23
Family brings family bike ride
Chelsea Lowman 1:06:27
to Maynards. Okay, amazing. Well, you survived. Will thanks so much for doing the podcast with us.
Speaker 1 1:06:35
Very much. And thanks thanks Mary and Chelsea for doing this and and I've only seen a few of these, but I know a lot of people enjoy them, and you guys are doing a great job at them. So thank you very much. Yeah, thank
Mary Newville 1:06:49
you for being here. Great for the greater pack to get to know will breaks better. So thanks for coming today.
1:06:55
Alright, you guys enjoy the rest of the day.
Chelsea Lowman 1:06:58
Okay, wow. Another great conversation with Will. He's another person that I haven't really talked with a lot, so it was great to get to know him.
Mary Newville 1:07:07
Yeah, totally, and learn about Channel Sales and how that works. I agree 100%
Chelsea Lowman 1:07:14
okay, well, it is November, so here at the pack, we are celebrating indigenous heritage month. So make sure you are in the IP wolf Slack channel so that you can stay up to date on all of the fun things that they have planned for this month. Also, this month is Veterans Day and Remembrance Day. So I know our military support pack have a really lovely event plan and are doing their toast in their office. Also, if you're a veteran listening, make sure you keep your eye on the on hallway Slack channel so you don't miss out on a little special treat. But otherwise, as we close out the month of November, we'll start to gear up for the holidays here next month. So be on the lookout for more holidays fun here soon.
Mary Newville 1:08:02
Yes, so exciting. Always a good time here at Arctic wolf come the holidays. Also, someone just told me yesterday, Amanda on our team, she said, November 13 is World Kindness Day. So hope we can, you can do a little spread some kindness this month. But if you're not part of the pack, and want to be part of this one of a kind community and help us on our mission and cyber risk. You can find all of our open jobs at Arctic wolf com, backslash careers. We will talk to you in December bye.
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