Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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.
Chelsea Lowman 0:01
Music. Welcome to the Howler Podcast. I'm Chelsea
Mary Newville 0:06
and I'm Mary,
Chelsea Lowman 0:07
and we are so excited to be celebrating our one year anniversary. So we are doing a special live recording. We've got some folks with us here in Minnesota, we have some folks with us online on Zoom. So we're just gonna get started, because we have a jam packed hour of fun and stories, and we're gonna introduce you to some pack members. So we're just gonna jump right in. Does that sound good? Yeah, that's okay, great. All right. So if you listen to the podcast, you know that we always ask all of our guests the same rapid fire questions at the end of each episode. They're just fun questions to get to know them a little bit better. So we thought we'd get started with playing the same rapid fire game, but we are putting a little twist on it, and we are going to play to see how well we know each other. So we're going to answer the questions for each other, but we also want to invite a special guest from Minnesota, so I'm making a lot of eye contact with people
Mary Newville 1:15
over here. So who are like avoiding our I know everyone,
Chelsea Lowman 1:19
everyone's trying to not make eye contact with us here in Minnesota. Okay, is anyone interested in coming up and playing this game with us?
Mary Newville 1:27
Cool,
Chelsea Lowman 1:30
come on up. Oh yeah, you're on the podcast. Okay, everybody?
Mary Newville 1:34
Cole started two weeks ago. So, right. Welcome new hire, Cole.
Chelsea Lowman 1:41
Okay, we have a mic for you. Do you want to introduce yourself really quick? My
Unknown Speaker 1:46
name is Cole Pixley,
Mary Newville 1:48
great. What do you do here? I
Unknown Speaker 1:49
just started an incident response here.
Mary Newville 1:51
Awesome. And two weeks in, what's your favorite thing about running with the pack? So far,
Speaker 1 1:56
there's so many good things, but I have enjoyed meeting a bunch of the people who I've worked with, and it's been funny to know them. I feel like I've only been here two weeks, but I got to know them way more than two weeks. Awesome.
Mary Newville 2:07
I love great testament to the pack culture.
Chelsea Lowman 2:09
Yes, and two weeks in, and you're already going to be a superstar on the podcast. Okay, so we're going to get started. We'll just kind of all ask the question. Mary and I are going to write our own answers, and then I'll kind of ask you the question as well. So don't worry. Okay, the first question is best concert of your life. Okay, be thinking of your answer while we write down. Okay,
Mary Newville 2:39
I'm still getting my nerves out so it's hard to write because my hand is shaking.
Chelsea Lowman 2:44
Okay, okay, let's start with guessing each other's, and then we'll finish with yours. Okay,
Mary Newville 2:52
okay, my guess for you, Chelsea is a Beyonce concert. Do I know which one or a tour? It's funny,
Chelsea Lowman 2:59
because I knew you were gonna say that, and I and it is not my favorite concert. I do love Beyonce. I do love Beyonce, but my favorite concert was Stevie Wonder. I went by myself. I knew that. I know it's okay. I went by myself because none of my friends would come with me. It was the Songs in the Key of Life tour. He played the album top to bottom, best musicians I've ever heard. That was my answer. Okay, I've been really stressed about this because I have this fear that I'm not gonna get any right. And it's like, Chelsea doesn't know Mary. I have no clue. I was gonna guess maybe some sort of country concert. What do you think, what vibes are you getting from Mary right now? Pop star, oh. Pop star, okay, I was thinking like, I can't even think of a country person. Um, Luke Bryan,
Mary Newville 3:56
okay, great guys. It was country. Oh. Dan and Shay.
Chelsea Lowman 4:01
I knew you liked Dan and Shay too well. Actually,
Mary Newville 4:04
friends, their synergy. This one, I also went to solo because I couldn't find anyone to go with me, and I bought my tickets last minute. So they're like, $75 and like a couple rows from their center stage, best concert ever. Wow. My lungs, made friends with the people next to me. Okay,
Chelsea Lowman 4:24
if you get nothing else from the podcast today, go to concerts by yourself.
Mary Newville 4:29
Concert of your light, okay,
Chelsea Lowman 4:31
Cole, what's the best concert you've been
Speaker 1 4:33
to? So I haven't been to that many concerts. However, I also went to this one sort of by myself. I think, think the best one I went to was my first concert. I was Coldplay, and I went, like, my freshman year of college, and I was, like, my first, like, big concert, and my friend texted me that morning. He's like, Hey, I just got some free tickets this Coldplay concert you want to go? I'm like, Sure. Why not? Let's go. So I went, and he was, like, several rows up ahead of me, so basically there by myself. And it was, it was pretty cool. It was wild. Wow. I enjoyed it fun.
Chelsea Lowman 5:10
Cole. Plays on my list. I just haven't gotten to it yet. Okay, next question. Favorite word, Cole, let's, let's start with you, Cole, what's your favorite word?
Unknown Speaker 5:22
I need a moment.
Chelsea Lowman 5:25
Okay, okay, okay, well, Cole thinks I'm gonna guess Mary's. Oh, well, I wrote down Mary's. I'm gonna guess that Mary's is magical. Oh my gosh, we can end the podcast now. I got one question, right? I'm feeling great. Okay.
Mary Newville 5:47
Oh, okay. So Chelsea's is hard to guess, because Chelsea has so many Chelsea isms, and I feel like I should know this, but my guess is going to be respectfully because if you don't know Chelsea personally, she loves to say, respectfully, insert sassy cops. And it sounds so delightful. And I say it all the time now too,
Chelsea Lowman 6:11
that is true. I mean, if you add a little respectfully, it makes it okay to say, um, no, my question, which now I'm like, Did I spell this right for the whole world to see? Is reiterate,
Mary Newville 6:21
oh, that's now that you say that I didn't know that. I know you think the nerves are getting to me. It's okay, it's okay.
Chelsea Lowman 6:27
Okay, cool. Have you had time? Yeah, I
Speaker 1 6:29
think the one that came to my head immediately was depends, like it depends. Okay. People ask me a question, usually the answer is, well, it depends, depends.
Chelsea Lowman 6:38
Okay, like that. Okay, last question, Cole, we're gonna end with you on this one. Okay, so you have plenty of time to think about it. Give us a snapshot of an ordinary moment in your life that has brought you joy.
Mary Newville 6:53
Okay, I'll guess yours, Chelsea, okay, and I think yours was, recently when you were in Ireland. Oh, okay, overlooking the cliffs of more.
Chelsea Lowman 7:14
I mean, that did bring me joy,
Mary Newville 7:16
100% Ordinary, ordinary. It
Chelsea Lowman 7:19
wasn't that's not my usual day today. I said, when I'm in my hammock staring at the sky and reading, okay, I love that brings me a lot of joy. I could sit in a hammock for like, eight hours, probably, and not think a single thought, which is great. My guess for you is, I'm gonna cheat. I have two. One is, it's Saturday morning. We wake up, we walk with Winnie to the farmers market. We get some flowers, we get a pastry. We just we slay Saturday morning or anything to do with your niece and nephews, like spending time with your family, hosting birthday parties, anything like that. Okay,
Mary Newville 8:02
so the lesson of this game is like, Chelsea knows me really well, and I don't know her as well, but yes, I put bedtime stories with a, e and f, cute. Also, Saturday morning farmers market, no plans is like my perfect Saturday morning. Okay,
Chelsea Lowman 8:17
love, all right, Cole, what's an ordinary moment that brings you joy.
Speaker 1 8:23
I would have to say, weekend mornings, often, the wife and I will have cup coffee or tea in the morning, and maybe, for lucky, get some donuts and we just sit and talk and maybe watch a TV show in the morning. But it's one of my favorite was that,
Mary Newville 8:39
what's your go to donut place we
Speaker 1 8:42
live in? Eagan, so puffy cream donuts. And my favorite donuts an old fashioned,
Mary Newville 8:46
okay, yes, sorry, what you cut you off you were saying it's just
Speaker 1 8:51
a good way to sort of reset myself for the next week. Just take some time to ground myself and enjoy some good stuff and discussion my wife. So
Chelsea Lowman 8:59
love that. Yes. Okay, well, thank you, Cole for being on the podcast and playing our game. Let's
Mary Newville 9:06
Yes. Thanks, Cole. Okay, as we transition here, firstly, thank you all to everyone that came today is really a celebration of the pack, and we're excited to share pack member stories and highlight culture from wellness to pack gives back and to so many different pack members and the things that make the pack really special. So excited for our featured guest today to be the pack. We have lots of guests online, but before we get into that, we thought for fun, most of the podcasts we spend getting to know our guests. So this is an opportunity for you all to get to know us a little bit. And in celebration of one year, we thought you'd take you back to where all first started, and who doesn't love a good meet cute story. So yeah, we're gonna tell you how Chelsea and I met and how the podcast came to be the Cliff Notes version, because it could get lengthy. So we'll keep it to the fun parts.
Chelsea Lowman 9:59
It. Could get lengthy, okay, for those of you that don't know what a meet cute is, a meet cute is what happens in, like a rom com movie, or in like a romance book, where the two characters, where the two characters, this is what it is, where the two characters, it's how they meet. So like, they bump into each other on the street and then they end up at the same party that night where, like, time
Mary Newville 10:23
falls out of the shopping cart and it rolls to the person's car, and they pick it up and hand it to them, and the rest is history.
Chelsea Lowman 10:30
Exactly. So Mary and I say that we have a meet cute, and this is our story. So we have to go back to a little over two years ago, I was at my former company, and I had decided it was time for me to figure out what my next step was. And I had texted my group chat of friends, which included some current Arctic wolf employees, and I said, Hey, I'm quitting. Haha. And my friend Schaefer. Shout out. Matt Schaefer still works here. He texted me on the side and said, You have to come work at Arctic Wolf. It's like the best place I've ever worked. And I said, Oh, okay, cool. So I like looked up the company. I didn't see any corporate social responsibility roles, which is what I was currently doing, but I figured it would be good just to make connections anyway. So Schaefer said, regardless, you have to meet Mary, like you just have to meet her. And I said, Okay, sounds good, like I love to network. And he said, Okay, what do you want me to tech to tell her when I reach out? And I said, Well, just tell her you have a friend who's like, looking for her next steps, and that you think us too should be connected. So from my point of view, Schaefer sends Mary this message,
Mary Newville 11:47
okay, intercede me on LinkedIn one day. And you know how on LinkedIn, on the right hand side of your screen, it'll say, like people you should get to know, or people you should meet, something like that. I see Chelsea profile there, and it says, like, Director Corporate Social Responsibility, or corporate and social responsibility, responsibility for the Timberwolves. And I think that's an important point, because I see her and I'm like, Yeah, I should get to know her. She does a lot of get. Her whole job is giving back. They're the wolves. Were the wolves. They give back. We give back. We're both big players in the Twin Cities scene. I was like, we should collaborate. Like, I'm imagining doing something super cool, like a basketball game, and like, the pack give there, and we're giving back. And it's like, super cool. So I reach out, and I basically say something like, would love to collaborate. Would love to meet. I think we could do some really cool things together. Would love to learn from you.
Chelsea Lowman 12:42
So I get this message from Mary, wanting to collaborate. And so I immediately text Schaefer, and I go, What did you tell her? Like I I'm trying to leave my job. Excuse me, I'm trying to leave my job. I'm not trying to collaborate with other companies. And Shaffer goes, I didn't even, I haven't even heard back from Mary yet, and I didn't tell her your name, your title, or where you worked. I just said I have a friend. So the very same day, and this was the same day y'all, the very same day that Schaefer reaches out to Mary on my behalf. Mary reached out to me unknowingly. So we like connected. We were reaching out to each other, yeah, on the same day, not knowing. And so we end up, this was May I remember, so we end up having a zoom call. We chat. I remember just hitting it off. We had, like, such a great conversation. We were talking a lot about CSR, and Mary was just very upfront at the time, like we don't have a position, but I had offered to stay connected if you ever wanted to just chat CSI, I was happy to, like, share best practices or or whatnot. And so we just committed to staying connected. And so we had scheduled a coffee for like, two months later in July. I remember this, and
Mary Newville 14:00
yeah. And serendipitously, I had just posted for two roles on my team right before that coffee. What I do remember from that first meeting was thinking like Chelsea had talked a lot about like, when you're able to give people a way to meaningfully give back, they're able to connect with each other, which connects them more to their workplace, and when they can do good in the world, it helps with just employee morale. I just remember hearing so many tenants of, like, wanting to create a great workplace culture. And I thought to myself, like, I feel like if she was open to a shift in like, what the inputs are like PX is, is a lot of like, what she enjoyed about her CSR role. So we've meet for this coffee. Yes, we have this. We just catch up on everything in life, except for the actual open job that was just like sitting there, like
Chelsea Lowman 14:50
we talked about anything and everything for 45 minutes, and then right at the end, I was trying to figure out the best time to be like, so this job that you posted, and then I. Remember, I think we were talking about, like my jewelry or something. I don't even remember. But then Mary goes, so I don't know if you'd be interested, and I just remember immediately going, oh my gosh, I've been waiting to bring up this job, but I didn't know how to awkwardly bring it up. So we laugh about that. And then fast forward the interview process, and here we are. Here we are, and so and so, that's how I came here to Arctic Wolf. And then pretty early on, Mary had caught wind that I'd always dreamed of starting a podcast. Yeah,
Mary Newville 15:35
Chelsea would like go on and on about how she was trying to convince her friends to start one, and she had researched the equipment, started in Evernote, came up with a logo, set up meetings. This is true, and how nobody was, like, getting excited, except for her, but I'm hearing all this, and I was like, Huh? I've been kind of dreaming about, like, how do we connect the pack? I think a podcast is such a cool medium because people can listen while they're walking, doing dishes, driving, and we're so big now. Like, how great would it be to, like, connect with people no matter where they're at in the world, no matter what time zone, meet them where they're at, versus having them have to be in their email to to hear from our leaders or or to hear from us. So I was like, we should start a podcast, and I knew she'd be excited, because I knew it was her dream. It was, I mean, I knew it was like a win, yeah?
Chelsea Lowman 16:24
And, and at first, Marie wanted me to do it alone, yeah? I was like, You should do this for Arctic wall. And I said, Absolutely not. If we're talking culture, Mary has to be involved. And it's not fun to do it by yourself. It's better to have a teammate, to be part of the pack. So here we are a year later. Shout out to Trisha and Kristen, our leaders, for supporting us. We started with a little three episode pilot. We weren't sure how it was gonna go, and now here we are, 13 episodes. This will be our 14th episode. Yes,
Mary Newville 16:56
it's been such a fun ride. So speaking of 14 episodes later and a year of the podcast later. What are, what is like one of your some of your favorite moments? Yeah,
Chelsea Lowman 17:06
it's hard, because every podcast, I like something different, and all of our guests have been so great. Some that stand out too, that really stood out to me when I think back, are Claire leveraged episode. It was so great to just hear her talk about starting the EMEA business, and, like, some of the challenges, but the wins and how they find joy through, like, the opportunities and challenges. And just her talking about the importance of mental health and well being that just really stuck with me. I remember, like getting emotional on recording that one and then another one that really surprised me. I mean this, in a good way, was our episode with Andrew Burbach, because we both went in not knowing how it was going to go, because a lot of our other leaders, we kind of had had maybe more interaction with, or we knew, like, more fun things about them going in and with burbs, we really were like, We don't know what this is gonna be. And he ended up being so easy to talk to. It just about to me, how he talks about his team, how he supports his team, and just like, yeah, the way he he talked about the team and, like, all his little like, nuggets, he really, like, um, made it really personable too, like, with like, little water cooler stories, yeah, like, throughout. So it was great that what those two stood out to me. What about you?
Mary Newville 18:35
Um, okay, well, firstly, I mean, I agree. I love Claire's episode, and Andrews was one of those ones. We just walked out. We're like, Oh, that was so fun. Like, I'm excited that the rest of the pack is going to get to know Andrew better today, and, like, learn random things about his family and tips and tricks, tips and tricks about subway coupons. But I will say, like, personally, like, a little funny favorite moment is Adam Mars, and it did make the bloopers, because apparently Chelsea and I remember this much differently than it happened, but in terms of being a great team and being a pack together, Adam Marie's episode was episode number two, and we had just finished the episode with our founder, co founder, Brian Smith, so we were, like, very nervous as our first one we were talking to the co founder. So going into Episode Two, were, like, we got this, this is going to be great. And we are like, Oh my gosh, I can't wait. Like, what if we ask this question, and then we'll just kind of be, like, shooting the breeze. And we just wanted to open with this, like, broad open question of, like, What's What didn't we ask? Like, what's on your head, or what's in your head, what's on your heart, or, what are you looking forward? What
Chelsea Lowman 19:37
are you what are you most looking forward to? Or something like
Mary Newville 19:40
that. For some reason we thought that was going to be, like, open Pandora's box and lead to this, like supernatural, like awesome conversation about, like, security. And we asked Adam that, and he said, Well, in our memory, he said, fall, that was it. And fall, literally, I could just see being Chelsea, just like. Organic eyes through the zoom of like, oh my gosh, what do we say? And Chelsea's like, what's, what's your favorite thing to do?
Chelsea Lowman 20:06
I was like, what fall activities do you like,
Mary Newville 20:09
we were like, oh, chili cook offs. What's your recipe? Anyways, it was just we that didn't make the podcast at all. It got cut. But like, we think back, I think back to that moment. It was just we went in with, like, all the confidence in the world. We were ready for the best Convo ever. And then we were like, fall,
Chelsea Lowman 20:25
crickets, crickets. But then so we had
Mary Newville 20:27
Alex play it back for us. We're like, we need to include this in the bloopers. Like, can you play the question him saying fall and then insert cricket noises? And he sends back a clip. He's like, I don't know what you guys are talking about. And he literally, Adam is going on about fall colors and the weather and his family. So yeah, I think our nerves just yeah, in that situation,
Chelsea Lowman 20:47
we had made up a story we did, and that's not exactly what happened, but it was a funny it was a funny moment, and I remember still being nervous, like it was still the second episode. So I was still nervous, but we felt more confident going in because we'd at least done one, yeah? So we were like, Okay, we like, know the rhythm and things like that. And then I think that, yeah, that question just really threw us. But when we we pulled it back together, yeah? And with the beauty of editing is we just cut that part out, yeah? You guys would never know. And on a serious note, I
Mary Newville 21:18
will say I really loved, actually, Adam Mars episode, he talked so much about well being, setting boundaries, prioritizing his family, and also trusting his future self. And I've loved that line of like, I trust that future Adam who's going to take care of whatever comes his way. I don't need to be anxious about it now. Love that that stuck with me. And I love getting to sit down with Nick, our CEO. I he had so many good nuggets to share. I could I loved his teaser. If you haven't listened to it, you have to listen for his. He says there's a kiss of death characteristic that he looks out for in interviews. So if you haven't listened, go listen to find out what the kiss of death is. But he also talked about like, how to be successful in like, you know, continuously making your your plans, tweaking them, executing against them. And also, another spoiler, he talked about the three ingredients you need to be successful, and we have it here in spades. But if you want to know what is, you got to listen to Nick's podcast. You have to listen to episode
Chelsea Lowman 22:13
number. Don't quote me. Okay, five, six. Anyways, lots
Mary Newville 22:18
of good moments. If you haven't listened for sure, go back. Yes.
Chelsea Lowman 22:21
And speaking of Nick's episode, we're gonna play a fun little clip before we bring on some PAC members to interview. We got a lot of feedback after Nick's episode that everyone loved this one moment of the episode, which really surprised us, and it apparently is an audience favorite, yeah, so we're gonna play a little clip so that you all can. Can check out this audience favorite moment from Nick's episode. What's your favorite word?
Unknown Speaker 22:54
Favorite word?
Chelsea Lowman 22:59
We can leave it out of you.
Speaker 2 23:03
I don't know if I have a favorite word. I don't know. Wait,
Chelsea Lowman 23:07
have you never been asked your favorite word before? No, oh, really. Okay,
Unknown Speaker 23:13
you guys have you guys have favorite words?
Clare Loveridge 23:17
I actually can't say that on this podcast.
Unknown Speaker 23:22
Glorious grit.
Speaker 3 23:28
I guess if you searched my emails, I say awesome, too much.
Unknown Speaker 23:31
No word.
Speaker 4 23:33
It's actually too variegated, pedestrian,
Dan Larson 23:40
pressure, congratulations. Okay,
Mary Newville 23:43
well, Nick, from a board member perspective, I was gonna guess it was either execution or candor. Are those up there?
Speaker 2 23:54
I don't have a favorite word. I like, I love all words.
Mary Newville 23:58
Oh, we got so much feedback about that one. Like, randomly people be like, like, I remember Nikola Hall, I was visiting the UK, and she was like, oh my goodness, my daughter and I were watching and we laughed out loud. We thought that was so funny. And we just random people
Chelsea Lowman 24:10
told us they loved Yeah. So everyone should think about your favorite word, in case you might ever be asked the question. But that was a fun little moment. But Mary, it's time to talk to some pack members. I'm
Mary Newville 24:22
so excited because we want to celebrate the pack that makes this place such a great place to work. So we are going to invite up Madison. Zander, Matt,
Chelsea Lowman 24:32
okay, give us a minute as we get situated.
Mary Newville 24:35
Madison is our office services manager located here in the Eden Prairie office.
Speaker 3 24:40
I feel like I'm a contestant on the prices right, and I've just been called down.
Mary Newville 24:46
Welcome scooting, yes. Okay, Madison, we're so excited to have you on the podcast today, because you reached out after listening to Kristin Dean, our chief HR officers episode, and you shared that it made you tear up. Tell us about what impacted you,
Speaker 3 25:01
yes, well, if any of you don't know, I am a new mom. I have a one year old at home. She's my girl. Her name is Hadley, and I think you know, when I was listening to Kristen's podcast, well, one she is our leader in our org, and I always love listening to anything she has to say. And I think it just caught me off guard when she mentioned, you know, when she found out she was pregnant, she kind of panicked, and was like, I have to quit my job. There's no way I can be a good employee and a good mom. And I was just sitting at the desk listening, and it just hit me, and I was like, wow. Like, not enough people talk about that, you know, I had those same thoughts. I still have those same thoughts, and I think that was something that just really resonated with me. And then she kind of goes on to say how silly that was, because she's rocking both. And I say, I'm rocking both.
Chelsea Lowman 25:52
You are rocking both. Thank
Mary Newville 25:53
you.
Chelsea Lowman 25:54
So from your perspective, what makes Arctic wolf a great place to work for all, including women? Okay,
Speaker 3 26:00
how much time do I have? Because I could say a lot, you know, I would just say our benefits are amazing, I mean, and I speak from the US side of things, and for me, it's the people. I mean, I am so fortunate where I get to come to an office every day and I get to interact with a bunch of our pack members. And for me, they really care about me. And I felt that I, you know, people wanted to know what I was up to. And even now, like in the hallway, the people still ask me, Hey, how's your newborn? How's your daughter? And I'm like, she's one. But thank you. So yeah, I would say our
Mary Newville 26:38
people well, and I think, I think what's cool at Kristen's story too, as she goes on to talk about how that's like part of her mission is, she wants to make work great so that people can fulfill their purpose and like, thrive in both areas of life. So it's cool to see you being another example of doing that. And I feel
Speaker 3 26:55
very supported to be able to be a pack leader here today, to also encourage those so thank you.
Chelsea Lowman 27:01
We've got a lot of pack members to talk with, so we're gonna keep it rolling. We also are gonna have Mandy McKenzie join us. Mandy is a director of product, and she is located remotely in Massachusetts, so give me a second. Oh, Mandy, yeah,
Speaker 5 27:21
I've just lost my video for some reason. I don't know why I'm gonna try and get it back. I don't know why it jumped off. So do you want to circle back to me and skip ahead?
Chelsea Lowman 27:30
Yeah, okay, yeah, that's where we can come back. Sorry to keep going.
Mary Newville 27:34
This is actually the perfect segue. Thank you, Mandy, for teeing this next part up, because when you're recording a podcast, you never know what's gonna happen, but sometimes there's surprise guests, random laughs, bloopers, things you don't mean to say. So let's take a peek back at some of those from the last 12 months. And
Chelsea Lowman 27:58
I wanted to touch on something that I think both Colette and Anna said, which is, mental health is really everything every day, right? Like every decision we're making for ourselves, whether it's how much sleep we're getting or what we're eating or how we're treating those around us all affect our mental health. I'm
Anna Taylor 28:20
really sorry. That's my carpet fitter, banging on the door,
putting carpets in upstairs. And they want, and they want and they wanted, well done, Chelsea, and they wanted a show with a join. I'm so sorry. They were knocking and I was really trying to ignore them.
Speaker 6 28:47
Ready, okay, ready? Gotta have the logo present. Nope,
Unknown Speaker 28:51
I don't care. I'll answer to whatever. Okay.
Chelsea Lowman 28:53
Anglic Mott, that's it, okay. Oh, no, you're crying. Are you sad? No one gets your name right. Is that what we're crying?
Unknown Speaker 29:01
Yeah,
Dan Schiappa 29:05
no, it's, it's things like forgetting that we have a big event, you know, coming up next week, and I've committed to something and I for, you know, those, those type of things, yeah, I I'm an idiot. What my wife calls me is an encyclopedia of useless knowledge, like I remember things that don't matter, but I forget the things that do. So one of those things,
Chelsea Lowman 29:29
who gets to decide what matters and what doesn't
Dan Schiappa 29:32
matter? I think I've answered that one for you already. That's
Chelsea Lowman 29:38
true. That's true. Your wife. Okay, so many moments get cut out of the podcast. Like it, we, we, we could spend a whole hour sharing our bloopers, but those are just some moments where things just don't go to plan, or someone says something really funny that sometimes just doesn't make the cut. But it looks like we have Mandy back.
Unknown Speaker 29:58
Are you with us? Hi. Morning, I'm
Unknown Speaker 30:00
back. Can you hear me? Yay.
Chelsea Lowman 30:05
Okay, well, like I said, Mandy Mackenzie, Director of Product located in Massachusetts. So Mandy actually reached out to both Mary and I on LinkedIn, and I remember both of us slacking each other, like, oh my gosh, I just got this really nice message on LinkedIn, and the other is like me too. So Mandy, you actually listened to the podcast before you started working at Arctic Wolf. So could you share a little bit about how the podcast influenced your desire to join the company?
Speaker 5 30:36
Yeah, and it genuinely did. I had taken a break, and I was starting the search for my new role, my criteria were was I wanted to work with nice people and have a company that had a strong culture. I wanted a manager that cared about me and someone that I could learn from, and I want to do a fun at work. I stumbled across the challenge accepted podcast first before the Howler. And I love listening to Adam and Ian and learn loads about the company and cyber security and all the stuff that they were talking about was very content heavy, and I've really got a lot out of that. But then when I stumbled across the Howler and you two were you're giggling and you're laughing, sort of caught me immediately, and I found myself chuckling along with both of you. You both made working at Arctic wolf sound really fun, and I loved your vulnerability and your, you know, admitting your imposter syndrome of being new to the podcast world, and you just captivated me from the start. And then as I started listening to all the guests, Mark's one was hilarious, where he just decided to bring the hot sauce challenge himself. And I loved how leaders had a sense of humor. Christian's one also i i I was really impacted by that. I loved her vulnerability. I loved her admitting her apprehension about being a mom and having a career. And I loved her mantra and related with just working hard and being kind. And Claire's one really hit me as well. Because firstly, I loved how you both were interested in each other's cultures and being a global organization, how you were trying to learn some slang and learn sort of cross culturally, which is important as well, and I got quite careful. She was so committed, and she was sick at the time, but she was showed up, and she was so passionate about her commitment to the role and dedication to Nick and the team. So I felt really connected to that Dan's one. I loved his Disney trivia. I loved how he put family first and how he was such a dedicated dad, and also his work ethic and his leadership style. So there were so many reasons to join, and all of those leaders just sort of spoke at a culture that I wanted to be a part of.
Chelsea Lowman 32:49
Wow. Mandy, we got to get you to film a commercial or a PSA or something, yeah, podcast. Thank you so much. Well,
Mary Newville 32:56
and I need to know like you said, we made sound working at Arctic wolf sound like it was so much fun and you wanted to work with nice people and have be part of a strong culture and have a manager that cares about you, that you can learn from. Have we delivered on the promise? Tick,
Speaker 5 33:13
tick, tick, I've honestly, I've never worked at a company where the leadership are just so genuinely themselves, so open to suggestion. And I've had multiple leaders reach out to me when I you know, to just say, Hey, I'm here if you need me, how can I help? Like, do you want? Do you want to know my version of that? And then cross culturally, like, cross functionally, everyone's just so willing to help. It's not siloed in your swim lane. If there's something that somebody needs to jump into, they don't stick to to the job they do, they you know, they're willing to help. And then I think the biggest thing is working remotely, you would assume that you would feel a little bit disconnected and not part of the culture, but you as a company have really engaged remote workers and the global organization, and really, I think, make pack members feel radically connected, no matter where they are, so
Mary Newville 34:07
radically connected no matter where they are.
Chelsea Lowman 34:09
Okay, love, we're stealing that in px. Well, thank you so much, Mandy. We're so glad that you found the podcast and that you decided to join us here at Arctic Wolf. So with that, thank you, Madison and Mandy for our impact testimonials. We're going to keep the party going. We're going to hear from some more PAC members and share some more just culture stories. So I am going to invite Ryan Garza onto the podcast. Ryan is a concierge security engineer, two newly located in our Frankfurt office. Ryan used to be in Minnesota, but now he is in Frankfurt, Germany. So welcome to the podcast, Ryan.
Speaker 7 34:59
Hey. Thank you so much. So great to see you all the way from Germany. Mary and Chelsea, congratulations and your anniversary. It's a big deal. That's and I know we all had some specific questions for me, but just because we were talking and we're just hanging out, right? It's a celebration. It's a party, right? Do you mind if I share my favorite concert for a second. So because that time of year, yeah, so, because it's that time of year, and I'm a Minnesota guy, home of Arctic Wolf, HQ, right? It was actually usher a few years ago at the Minnesota State Fair, and what I loved about it is that, like, he might as well not even have been there, because it was like this big otter sing along for right? Everybody knows all the words to every song. He would start singing every song, and it was like everybody knew all the words. And it was like this big outdoor sing along is a beautiful night of Minnesota. We don't get many of those right, so, but yeah, it was, it was great. And thank you for reminding me of that. But, but yeah,
Chelsea Lowman 35:56
but Ryan, the question is, were you alone at the concert
Speaker 7 36:00
I was not and that's what makes those memories so great, right?
Chelsea Lowman 36:08
Great. Okay, well, we're excited to have Ryan on the podcast again. We want to continue to share more about our one of a kind culture, and so a big part of that is our pack unity initiative, and Ryan, you have played such a big role, not only with IP wolves, but just supporting and promoting PAC unity as a whole. So our first question you were part of a small committee that we put together last year to celebrate indigenous heritage month for the first time here at Arctic Wolf. It was very exciting. So can you just share a little bit about how participating in that committee impacted you personally?
Speaker 7 36:47
Yes, first of all, shout out to all of my Wolfpack colleagues that contributed that whole effort. Like that was that was amazing. It was so organic, and it just like came together like so well, with so much input from so many people, and just really became something beautiful that I was really beautiful that I was really happy to be part of. But yeah, so just to kind of fill folks in a little bit. So what we decided to do last year for digits Heritage Month was do a focus on Native American storytelling. And so as part of that, we just kind of decided that I would actually end up sharing some of my experiences as a kid, you know, growing up as a person with some indigenous heritage. And I think what was so special and just so so impactful and meaningful about the whole experience was, I think just anytime you get a chance to share a little bit about, you know, your culture and heritage with someone, I think that that's a pretty unique experience that not everyone gets to have, you know, very, very often, and just really experience that I really recommend, you know, people have, you know, at least once in life. But I think that was what was so, you know, so, so great and so special about that experience
Chelsea Lowman 37:52
for me, yeah, and if you don't mind me sharing, I remember you reaching out after, after the month and after that event specifically, and just sharing that through the process of leading the storytelling event and also just working on the month as a whole, like you were reconnected to part of your heritage and culture that you hadn't been connected to or hadn't been as connected to more recently. So I thought that was so special, that through work, you were able to reconnect to your culture in a way which you don't necessarily see in all workplaces. So
Mary Newville 38:25
the next question, Ryan, it's fun, because if Ryan was here in Minnesota, I guarantee without a doubt he'd be front row here to support so from the beginning, you've always been such a supporter of pack unity and culture and people here at Arctic Wolf and then seeing you step into leadership of our IP indigenous peoples alliances, it's been so cool. You and Jonathan, I have to say, if anyone in the pack was looking for a warm community indigenous peoples, you walk out of their monthly meetings, and it is just the most warm, supportive, encouraging of human being group ever so, so grateful for your leadership. But Ryan, tell us, why is pack unity important to you
Chelsea Lowman 39:07
at Arctic Wolf, and
Mary Newville 39:07
why did you decide to get
Speaker 7 39:08
involved? This is another one of those. How long do I have things I think I could and Chelsea, it sounds like you could talk forever about this too, based on your own sort of experience and background. But actually, I've been thinking about this a little bit since you'll ask me to be on and I think what I kind of distill it all down to is that, you know, it feels like, you know, we all do this, this thing, with eight hours of our life every day, right? It is part of the world. Pack whatever it is that we do and how we contribute. And, you know, yeah, you can just punch the clock and go home and live your life. And that works great for a lot of people. But I think anytime that you can connect more deeply with that eight hours of your life that you spend doing that thing every day, and really like feel invested in that, that eight hours, I think that you know that can't help but spill over into other areas of your life. Mean, you're gonna feel happier and healthier. You're gonna appreciate your friends and family and hobbies and community and all those other things in your life that bring you joy. And like I feel like that in turn, kind of spills back over into that other eight hours. And you know, it makes you, you know, a better teammate, a better contributor, a better listener, a better leader, a better all of those things, and it just kind of creates this self perpetuating cycle of wellness, I guess, since that's kind of a big focus in our company right now, and, and I think, you know, those are all, I mean, you know, really great. You know, reasons that you know, yeah, I think organizations should invest in things like you all are doing with with pack unity, and at least that's you know, been my experience. So I can speak to that for sure,
Chelsea Lowman 40:48
Ryan, we are so lucky to have you at the pack. You're just a gem of a human. I feel like we need you back on the podcast, because I could hear you talk for hours. You should be you should take our jobs, is what I'm saying. No, no, no, we really appreciate you. Everything you do for pack unity, for IP wolves, the way you support culture in general. So I know it's a late night for you, so I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening. Thanks for being on the podcast.
Speaker 7 41:16
Awesome. Thanks so much. Congrats again. Thanks. Okay,
Chelsea Lowman 41:20
we're gonna keep it moving. We now are going to invite Eric Mickelson to join the podcast. Eric is also a concierge security engineer too, and he is located in our Pleasant Grove Utah office. Okay, welcome to the podcast, Eric.
Unknown Speaker 41:37
Thank you.
Chelsea Lowman 41:39
Okay, so we're just going to jump into the first question. We have Eric on because he is part of a group that has built our silver wolves program. So first, Eric, can you tell us a little bit more about what silver wolves is and how it got started? Well,
Speaker 4 41:56
it got started about a year ago, and it was one we really started getting into VTO at this store, sorry, I said, this store at this building, and we're thinking, hey, you know, what can we do that's a little different than you'd be used to, something that we can use and show our show our knowledge. So we try to, just like bifurcated path, long, the offer, actually, you know, providing a needed service. But also, why can't we learn and do some practicing and so forth? So came up with this idea of silver wolves, and we decided that we're going to go to senior citizen centers, clean their homes, what's whoever you can get in front of and teach them how to not be victimized by the crooks. So kind of, and at the same time, we're able to go up and take a moment to feel like a professional, take a moment an expert, actually. And that gives you a lot of boosts, a lot of awareness, and it kind of kills the the monster that they already called the the imposter syndrome. It helps knock that down, because you start feeling like you're a part of something huge. And so we started doing this, and we made it, we started making some partners. We made a partnership with the a place out here that's over three, three, excuse me, three counties, and so far, we've done about 20 of them. Wow, just about 20 of the visits, and everyone, it'll be a lead. And it's like you just feel this effervescent thrill of doing a good thing. And Mary knows what I'm talking about,
Mary Newville 43:47
I got to witness it, and she was there for our
Speaker 4 43:49
best one. And so we're going to keep doing it. I just went over to actually, I have a phone call with the Department of home, Department of Health and Human Services at Utah, and we're going to see how far we can take this. And I would love to get in front of as many seniors in Utah, where we could actually impact like the FBI numbers to where we, if we if we get that many seniors in front of us at some time, maybe we can actually see a decrease in the Utah numbers over any of the other states. It's a big idea, but wow, yeah, we can do it. But I say a challenge accepted for sure, for
Chelsea Lowman 44:31
sure, it's it's so amazing I haven't gotten to witness one yet live like Mary did, but Eric always does a great job of sending me the pictures and recaps after and it truly looks like every PAC member that does a silver wolves visit to your point. Eric leaves just like so fulfilled. They feel like they've made such an impact. So for those listening, we are working on rolling out the silver wolves program globally. So. There will be a place in Confluence where you can go, pull the PowerPoint, pull the flyers, get all the information so that you can do your own silver wolves. Visit wherever you are in the world if you're interested in using your VTO that way. So stay tuned.
Mary Newville 45:15
Yes And kudos and thank you, Eric and the entire plum and Grove team that has developed silver wolves. It's such a testament to the spirit of the pack of wanting to do good together and and pursue our mission of ending cyber risk. So it's pretty
Speaker 4 45:28
cool, because when we actually get a new request to do a to do an event, it takes about 30 seconds to fill up people to actually volunteer and go do it. So it's kind of one of one of those things that's a battle, which is a good thing. So,
Mary Newville 45:44
yeah,
Unknown Speaker 45:45
so far so good.
Mary Newville 45:46
Yeah, it's amazing. Thank you, Eric. Okay,
Chelsea Lowman 45:49
thank you so much, Eric. Keep up the great work in Utah. Thank you. Last culture
Mary Newville 45:55
focus here is going to be on well wolves and wellness. At Arctic Wolf, we're going to invite Amanda lumson, our people experience specialist located in the Newcastle, United Kingdom office, and also Kyle Harwood. He's our manager of security operations located in the KW office. Amanda and Kyle are two of 30 well wolf ambassadors that we have across the globe. We have two in every office, and two in our for our remote pack as well. And they have gone through two days of training and been certified to support and be a resource for their colleagues going through a mental health challenge. So it's an really cool program. Every single person, every single one of our well off ambassadors, is really passionate and caring and and we wanted to invite them to share a little bit about the well wolf ambassador program and wellness at Arctic Wolf. So welcome to the podcast, Amanda and Kyle, excited to have you here. Do I want to make sure it looks like Amanda's off? Mute? Kyle, okay, you're good too, Amanda. We'll start with you. Why do you think the well wolf ambassador program is important, and what motivated you to apply to be one of our ambassadors, specifically for the Newcastle office and EMEA region. Yeah, sure.
Speaker 8 47:05
So I guess I feel that a lot of the time we focus quite heavily on physical health, and obviously that's a huge thing. It's really important that we do that. But I guess without our mental health, we don't have our physical health, and I guess it is sometimes easy to overlook our mental health amongst everything that's going on in our lives all of the time, whether that be work, personal stuff. And I guess we've all sometimes, at some point in our lives felt a little bit overwhelmed, experienced stress or poor mental health, or had friends or family members that have gone through something similar. Burnout is a big deal. I feel like sometimes we underestimate burnout, um, and sometimes we can't see the wood for the trees. There's loads of stuff going on in our lives, and sometimes it might be difficult to switch off with these things. And I guess there's sometimes things that we can do to help that, whether it's exercise, um, whether it's going for a walk or even a boob just taking some time to just check out a guest for yourself. But I guess the main thing for me is just letting somebody know that you're there to talk to them, and that they have somebody there that you know you can listen and just be there to support somebody, and letting that person know that you are there to help and support them. And why is it important to me? I guess I keep saying, I guess, sorry, I feel like I'm a bit nervous.
Mary Newville 48:29
You're doing great. Yes, you're great.
Speaker 8 48:32
Yeah. So in terms of the training, I honestly, it was amazing. It was just so cool. I'd be among so many other people that share the same passion, and it was a really cool opportunity to do all of the role play and just play out some different scenarios, and just being able to help people and direct them to the support that they need. We have our Employee Assistance Program, which is a 24/7 support network that we can direct our colleagues and friends and family too. And I did actually find this quote, which was, it's not stress that kills us, it's our reaction to it. So my role as a well being ambassador is to help people manage that reaction and give them the tools that they need, such as, like I said before, the employee assistance program, so you can speak to a counselor, potentially, you can talk through your options and just diffuse that reaction.
Chelsea Lowman 49:28
We were just laughing a little bit when you said when you shared your quote, because it's actually kind of relevant to something we're going to share at the end. So the PX team always on the same wavelength over here, but that's amazing. Thank you. Amanda Kyle, we have a question for you. I know you've been an advocate for mental health and well being at Arctic wolf for a while now. So what impact have you seen from the program being in place? And I guess, what motivates you to continue to be an advocate?
Speaker 9 50:00
Yeah, yeah, no. Thanks for the question. As far as impact goes, it hasn't been around that long, but once we started to kind of get it out there, started hearing more and more success stories in our channel, and just other members of this team kind of reaching out, saying, Hey, I ran into this situation, or I came across this instance. I had this scenario I wasn't really ready for. But, and you're hearing these success stories, which is, which is great for someone like me, because I love hearing the perspective on how people are handling different issues, because that's one of the big benefits of having this all over the world now too, and all our offices is people have different stressors, different challenges, different concerns in different parts of the world, whether they be single person at home or shift worker with kids or everything in between, but seeing that impact and the amount of people with their not only their success stories, but also their challenges and how they overcame them, it's been huge for me. Personally, I think I've had something like 11 or 12 people reach out in the short time we've been together, and it's not always either for resources. Sometimes it's just people saying, well, I didn't know anybody really wanted to have this conversation. And now we have a whole list of people who are ready and well,
Chelsea Lowman 51:14
amazing. It's been so special seeing the well, Wolf Ambassador community come together and what you all have started to create. I know Mary and I, we're not official ambassadors, but we're lucky enough to just be in the channel to help support the program, and every day, I feel like we are talking about how jealous we are that we are not official ambassadors. But again, the way you all support each other, you support the pack, it's just so special. So thank you both so much for being here and for all you do as our well wolf ambassadors. And with that, we would love to play a little clip. I think the one question we ask every podcast guest is, how do you prioritize your mental health and well being, for yourself and for your team? So we've put together a little clip of some gems and nuggets that we've heard throughout the past year.
Adam Marr� 52:13
One thing I've realized is you can't be on all the time.
Dan Larson 52:17
My approach is just to, like, set limits. So I, for example, I have slack on my phone, but I don't have notifications turned on. And like, everybody knows that I tell, I tell my leaders, I tell my peers to tell everyone. I say, you know, if it's, you know, after hours or whatever, like, I don't pay attention to Slack. So you can call me like if it's really important,
Clare Loveridge 52:43
what I will say is that I get up at five o'clock every morning and I go to the gym every day.
Adam Marr� 52:49
You really are on call 24/7 and it's no different. Now, being on a security team, you're on call 24/7 and but you've got to step away from work. You cannot work all the time. You can't think about work all the time. So it's really been a lifetime of building up ways to responsibly step away from work. And by responsibly, I mean you make sure that someone else is going to answer the calls or filter them before they get to you for time periods,
Clare Loveridge 53:18
going to the gym is a necessity for me. It's part of a routine, and if I don't do it, I'll struggle.
Colette Henry 53:26
Thing I've wanted to do for a very long time was to participate in a therapy program, and it took me a while to find one, and I finally did it and loved it.
Clare Loveridge 53:38
And sometimes doing the best that you can do at work gives you mental wellness, because you feel like you've achieved something.
Dan Larson 53:45
You gotta be gone. It takes a big chunk of your time, but you gotta, kind of, you know, balance the scorecard out a little bit by saying, all right, I had to be gone five days a week last week. You know, maybe it'll take Monday off to, you know, go, reset and reconnect. On the whole front
Clare Loveridge 54:02
intelligence. But actually for me, cognitive behavior therapy was probably the most powerful thing that I've ever done. If I could encourage anybody to do something to help themselves increase their EQ or to think about different ways to deal with it. That changed my life.
Speaker 10 54:22
One thing I've been doing to prioritize my mental health. I've actually been prioritizing my sleep.
Adam Marr� 54:28
Again, I make these contracts with my future self, and I say, well, at 9pm I'm gonna go deal with those. But from, you know, six to nine, I'm gonna spend time with my kids and really focus on that, and be present. So it's it's being deliberate, and also realizing that things like sleep, things like disconnecting from work, things like hobbies and recreation, I learned early in my life, for me, working out is really important, whether it be, you know, hiking, mountain biking, going to the gym, I've got to get that physical exercise, and they make me better at my job. So
Anna Taylor 55:00
my dream during lockdown was to be able to work in the city and be able to live by the coast, and that dream has come true for me. So I spend a lot of time in the evenings, at the moment in the dark, but at weekends, walking my puppy and exploring the coastline of the North East, which is just gorgeous.
Chelsea Lowman 55:19
Okay, so as you can see, lots of advice shared throughout the podcast episode. So I encourage you to listen to the podcast. We also have a special mental health and well being roundtable episode, which you saw clips of, and just one last plug for our well wolf ambassadors, our EAP, our Employee Assistance Program, and also our mental health and well being. Pack unity Alliance is a really amazing safe space for people to share as well. And as always, the PX team, yeah, for any sort of loan, if
Mary Newville 55:57
you're part of the pack, 100%
Chelsea Lowman 55:59
Yeah, okay, well, we've come to the end. We've come to the end. We did it. So as you if you're a listener, you'll know that Mary Well, even today, Mary is eloquent. She's so well spoken. She always really gets to the heart of like, the message or whatever we're trying to portray, and I just kind of say funny things throughout the episode. So Mary's definitely the heart, and she always has such great advice. And so we kind of have like, a Mary's words of wisdom segment that I coined in some of the episodes. So Mary is going to end with her Mary's words of wisdom. But before that, we're gonna play a little clip of a time where she was going to share some inspirational words, and they just missed the mark, just a little bit. So we're gonna play that clip. Now,
Mary Newville 56:57
I once read a book, and this analogy has always stuck with me. But the author loved to skydive, and he said that his instructor told him this is a kind of graphic analogy, but it breaks so fast, but roll with me. But he talked about how it's if people had that have died from like a skydiving accident, it's not the impact that kills you, like it's not the first bounce, it's the second because when you first hit the ground, obviously there's that impact, but it's when you, like bounce and hit again that, like your shattered bone from the first bounce, like puncture your organs and then you bleed out. So, very graphic analogy there, but I kind of like, has always stuck with me. I'm like, if we let the first impact crush us like that's what it's not actually the worst. It's not the first impact that that breaks us. It's that we let the first downfall, the first hardship, the first low, be the end instead of rising above it.
Chelsea Lowman 57:55
So reminder, it's not with your bones puncture your organs. I just, I'll never forget we were and you, you did pull it back together, like you got to the point. But I'll just never forget I was like, Why is she talking about bleeding out on the podcast, like it was, and Claire's face like it was just, it was such a funny moment, and we laughed about it so hard. As soon as we stopped filming Alex, our Podcast Producer, the his first words were like, I'm was crying at the skydiving accident story. Or it's not even an accident. That's what it's turned into in my brain, the skydiving story. So now it's turned into, like a funny little because, of course, the HR team has seen the clip already. It's turned into a funny little, like, don't bounce phrase that we have.
Mary Newville 58:44
So Amanda said, it's not the stress that kills you, it's your reaction to it. I was like, that was the better version of what I was trying to say. It's not the failure that kills you, yeah, you respond to it out the punctured organs and the burning out. But anyways, on that note, thank you all so much for coming to the podcast and just being part of the celebration of the pack and our culture and the people that make it so special every single one of you being part of that. Chelsea and I were talking a little the podcast, and I was like, I feel like the perfect way to end is to talk about where we started. We had this dream, we had this idea. We had, like, awkward moments along the way. We had fails, like that inspirational story gone wrong with an executive listening. But at the end of the day, like one of our culture tenants is to innovate, to an advance and to innovate, you need to be willing to take risks. You need to be willing to step out of your comfort zone. You need to be willing to kind of like, fall down and have funny moments. And we hope that this way of connecting the path through the podcast is inspiration to all of you to follow your dreams and to innovate, to advance in whatever way that looks like for you as we are on our journey to end cyber risk. So it's been really fun.
Chelsea Lowman 59:55
I think that's a wrap. Yes, with that, thank you for being here. You. And it'll be fun for you that Listen Live, to listen again and see what made it, what didn't make the cut, what did make the cut. And we will be back with our regularly scheduled program next month. I think we have Lane Rauch on with us. So thank you for listening, and we will see you next time you