CJ: Live.
Duke: all right.
Me first.
CJ: Okay,
Duke: All right.
Cory, what are we talking about today?
CJ: duke.
Today we have a very, very special guest with us today, and that's super special.
We have the one and only Callie Alexander
Duke: Collie Alexander.
CJ: Collie.
Alexander, sorry.
Duke: Collie, welcome to the show,
Kali: I can't stop giggling.
I'm, I'm, this is so surreal.
It's absolutely surreal.
Thank you so much, both of you, Rob and Corey, for having me.
Duke: and it's a very special day to have you as well.
It's not just that we have Collie on the show, but tell us why you're on the show.
Collie.
Kali: The reason why I'm on the show and the reason why I can't stop giggling
is that this is my one year anniversary in the ServiceNow space, and I am
stoked to be here because I used to listen to you all, all the time, and
now I'm actually a guest on your show.
Exactly a year later.
How wild is that?
Duke: Time, out time.
My phone used to.
CJ: We fell off.
Duke: We've been trying real hard.
Kali: No, I, I am still true to the gospel of CJ and the Duke.
Don't get me wrong, it was a slip of the tongue.
Don't take it personally.
My bad.
CJ: Good cuz I didn't wanna start recording the vh1.
Where are they now yet?
Duke: Yeah, where are they now?
Oh, we're off to a good start.
Okay.
It's gonna be a good one.
I can feel it.
Kali: This is gonna be good.
Let's go.
, Duke: so I guess the main question, right, is what was that moment
that you said ServiceNow is gonna be the thing thing for you?
Kali: You, well, you know, things just kind of.
Fell into place.
My children were graduated from high school.
My youngest was in the 12th grade, and I know when she was in the
11th grade that I wanted to career transition into like a profession to
have like a real job, so to speak.
I didn't know what it would be.
I thought that it would be something in tech, but I didn't
know exactly what that looked like.
Right.
My sister was going through a ServiceNow implementation at.
Her workplace and she is platform owner, and she was like, Hey,
we're going through this thing.
It's called Service now.
It's two words, write it down, and they're doing this free.
ServiceNow Administrative Fundamentals course where you
can take the course for free.
You can take the, exam for free and sign up for all these classes on now learning.
She says, knowing how your brain works, I think this will be the thing for
you signed up on now learning piddled around in there, and I loved it.
I loved how everything fell into place in terms of being like
an all-in-one platform, whether you're looking for improving.
employee services, customer services, customer experiences, technological
advancements, operational services.
I loved how it all fell into place.
And so I was like, let's go.
Let me dive in with both feet and let's make this thing happen.
And from there, the moment I did.
I immediately thought I was banging my head against the wall because
I was like, what did I just do?
I don't understand any of this.
So from there, I just knew that I needed to put myself on a plan.
Fortunately, because I have enough experience being a mom and in other
workspaces, that I knew that if I just oriented myself in terms of
committing to learning, committing to a solid regimen, that I'd be okay.
And fortunately it worked out.
CJ: We often talk about now learning, right?
And we say, Hey folks, , start with now learning.
Get in there and do the ServiceNow Foundations, , intro to ServiceNow if
you have never used a platform before.
Right?
, and from there, just, use all the resources that are there.
It is really great to hear you say Collie.
that.
Now learning is where you got started.
That that resource is a resource that really, , lives up to the
billing right of get, of jump starting someone's ServiceNow career.
Kali: A hundred percent.
I mean, now learning is truly a treasure trove.
If I had discovered now learning before I'd gone to college, I would've saved
myself a whole lot of student loan debt.
Right.
I.
CJ: Say.
Duke: Yeah.
Kali: You heard that, right?
and now learning those, many of the courses are free.
you can go in there right now and spend all day and have a micro
certification and flow designer.
You can go in there right now and have a micro certification, a
atf, you can spend a couple weeks and get , your certification in.
, service now administrative fundamentals.
It has everything you need to know in terms of that foundational skill level
that you need to know to skill up and can create a really good foundation for you
to get some practical knowledge to be able , to move into your first ServiceNow role.
Even the most expensive course, I think, is only $500.
Now, I say only not to be dismissive.
That can be quite a bit of money for some people, but it's not
tens of thousands of dollars.
You know what I mean?
Duke: Yeah.
It's not like, it's not like college money.
And I've, I've said more than once too.
In what other world?
Can you pay thousands to get the cert and ServiceNow?
Cory remember before search and then search came out and then
they started charging for cert and people lost their minds.
CJ: Yeah.
Duke: And I was, and I was like, Hey, listen, , I had tens of thousands of
dollars a school day coming outta school.
Like it would've been way cooler to just get Service Now starts.
CJ: Right.
Duke: I had some Bachelor's of Arts in underwater basket weaving.
Just,
Kali: That served you well.
Duke: it didn't equip me for the world.
It didn't do anything commensurate to the price of the thing.
And there's people laying down the down payment on a house so that they
can get an mba and they still don't know what they're gonna do after.
CJ: And some people are putting down houses, not just a down payment.
Excuse me.
Duke: I'm glad the price isn't any more expensive, but if you think it as a value
statement, not a pure cost statement.
Kali: Absolutely.
And, and I think the point that I'm trying to make is that it's not cost prohibitive.
Right.
You know, you can, , talk to a friend or a couple friends and be like, Hey,
I'm, can I borrow, $50 here and there and put together enough money to be
able to get certified in something?
And I think that that's a true value for people who are looking to career pivot.
I'm a midlife career pivot, so I, I might be a little different than the
typical person coming into service now, but, It was just so practical for
me and, and I, love the opportunity and really took advantage of it.
Duke: Collie.
I'm really curious.
Corey and I will get a lot of people , who ask us straight like, I wanna
get into service now, what do I do?
Right?
And then we drag out, well, you go to now learning, and then you get your
pdi, and then you da, da, da, da, da.
But it doesn't sound like anybody did that for you.
So how'd you figure out what to do?
Kali: Ah, yeah, so the first thing I did was I got on the
Googler, I call it the Googler.
I just typed in ServiceNow, and then I went to YouTube and I typed
in ServiceNow just to see what was out there in the ecosystem.
The third place I went was to LinkedIn and typed in.
Hashtag service now to see what was already out there, to
see like what real people were actually doing and talking about.
And to also get a sense of the community, if there even was an
active community around the ecosystem.
And man was there.
that's how I found CJ in the Duke, just by typing it into to Google
and then typing it into Spotify.
I started watching the live streams.
At that time, they were happening on Friday that the ServiceNow developer.
Advocates we are hosting.
At that time it was Lauren, Chuck, and Earl.
Now PNA is on the team, and I would watch those every Friday.
At first, I just watched, I didn't say anything.
I observed for a long time, even on LinkedIn.
I just observed for a long time, just like.
Who are the personalities?
Who are the folks here?
Who are the content creators, who are the thought leaders?
And started following those pages.
And that's how I discovered you and Corey.
That's how I discovered Jace, Chuck Tomasi and all.
Tim Woodruff.
Uh, all M g p o w.
I hope I'm got got those letters correct.
That's how I found all the players.
And then I just started kind of watching, like what do they do?
I found out there was a Slack channel.
Oh, let me get an invitation to that.
And I just observed that was it.
So that happened in June and it wasn't until July that I actually
got that now learning account.
my mom always said when you walk in the room, read everything
before you start asking for help.
So I applied that here, like just observed, started watching it.
Then I said, okay, let me go ahead and start creating an account.
Let me start going through some learning plans.
And then once I did that, things just started to fall into place.
And then I also was able to get a sense of where and how I
could fit in to this community.
CJ: I'm gonna distill some of that, for me because the first thing that
I like that, that you said really boils down to intellectual curiosity.
So, you approached ServiceNow with an intellectual curiosity about
the platform, about the community, about what this is all about, right?
Like just trying to discover and learn whether or not this is something that you
should invest in discovering and learning.
. And I think through that you not only discovered that, yes, this is
a place where I can, make a career pivot, but this is also a place where
the community is, awesome and it's, this is like a good place to be.
It feels like a, a nice vibe.
Right.
And.
What I like about that, ? Is that I don't know that we've, touched on that
before, but being intellectually curious about this probably helped speed up your
onboarded into the, ServiceNow ecosystem.
Kali: Yeah, I like to say that, I follow the God of
curiosity, that's my main thing.
And I think that that has served me well here and just served me well in life,
whether it's in parenting or in other roles that I've had, that having that
curiosity, kind of a, a bend will kind of keep me up at night in a good way.
Right?
It'll help me be like, oh, so that's how a sub flow works.
Right?
And be excited about that, you know?
CJ: Yes.
Yes.
And that's what separates like folks who get this stuff down and at the
core of your being versus the folks.
So end up doing this as just a job and look, it's okay, To do this just as a job.
But when you get it, when it resonates right deep down in your soul, you
wake up in the middle of the night, like, damn, that's how flows work.
Kali: Yeah.
Right.
And be excited about it, you know, and then can't wait to
get up that next morning at 3:00 AM to start it all over again.
You know?
So I, I think you're right.
I think I, that curiosity, Ben, was something that, and continues to keep
me really committed to this continues to make me wanna talk to people like
you and the Duke and various people in the ecosystem, you know, with my
a hundred days of ServiceNow podcast.
CJ: Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that podcast by.
Kali: Thank you.
Duke: when did you make the transition from just learning on your own
to learning out loud in public
Kali: Yeah.
Yeah, that's a really great question.
Duke: And also I'll, I'll tack another question onto it as well is how was
it that you were so good out the gate?
Kali: Well, well, thank you.
CJ: Yeah, that one right there.
Kali: well first of all, you know, learning out loud, I'm a
school teacher by trade, right?
I've taught trigonometry.
I taught first grade, fourth grade.
I've taught gifted students and.
One of the things that I learned as being a teacher is that if I had my
students teach their neighbor, their partner, their friend, they felt
vested in that teaching process, right?
They felt vested in their friend knowing the information.
So that meant that they were gonna study and they were gonna learn a
little bit better because they wanted their friend to know it, right?
And so I was like, okay, I'm gonna use that same strategy
when it comes to ServiceNow.
Even as a yoga teacher, it's the same thing.
You know, I would always partner my class up, as in when I was teaching yoga,
okay, we're gonna learn this arm balance.
You two get together, you two get together, you two get together.
And.
The way that that starts to build community and the way that the
learning just escalates so quickly.
I wanted to apply that to ServiceNow, but I wanted to do it in a virtual space.
One of the things that I learned over this kind of pandemic
season was how to use a camera.
I'm like, okay, I got a camera.
I know to use a camera.
I see that the ServiceNow community, they already are doing live streams
on Friday, so the community is primed for more live stream content.
So, Fortunately, I had the skillset to do it, so I didn't have to
get over that technological hump.
I just needed to be sure that I was communicating in a way and knew
the material enough and be brave enough just to turn that camera
on and , let's start the stream.
I did it that way because nobody else was doing it, and
I had to get ahead of the pack.
Bill McDermott said, we're gonna skill up a million people by the end of 2024.
Well, dog gun it.
I better get at the head of this 1 million people.
Right.
CJ: Amen.
Amen.
I love that, right?
Like, a couple things in there, especially towards the end, right?
Like it's, you know, nobody else was doing it, so I did it.
I love that.
the awareness of the market and where it's going.
And it's like, look, you know, nobody's gonna do this for me.
And, and people are coming, like, there are other folks coming and
they're, you know, I like to look at it like they're coming for my lunch.
Right.
And so
Kali: Right.
CJ: and I gotta eat ? So the first thing I gotta do is I gotta go,
I gotta run faster, I gotta train harder, gotta do all that stuff.
Cause people are coming, right?
That's the thing that motivates me all the time, right?
Is that people are coming.
Kali: If I can add to that, at that time, mind you, I'm still a
single mom of three children, two teenagers, one young 20 year old son.
And I was losing my job at the same time, and I had three months of pay
that I had and I was like, I have to make this thing pop in three months.
I have to hurry this thing along.
Now, when I started in ServiceNow, I hadn't lost my job yet.
It wasn't until like about September, so I knew I needed to, when I got that call
that, okay, three months my, that's it.
I was like, okay, I have to get a job by December.
And I have to do this quickly.
So I felt like, okay, well I have a few months in the bank.
I'm already studying.
I'm already skilling up.
Let me make this a little bit faster.
Let me put some velocity into this.
Let me put my foot on the pedal.
And that was really the motivation that I needed to do this
because I was losing the job.
But really the most important thing was I wanted to model this for my children.
I wanted them to see like, wow, my mom turned this thing around for us.
CJ: Oh, that's love.
That's right
Duke: It's funny, , I'm going through my LinkedIn messages and it's like, yep.
November 30th is when you first reached out to you know, start,
asking for tips , to accelerate it.
, CJ: so if I can abstract that to another step in the process you set a goal.
Right.
you know, you started off, you had this intellectual curiosity,
you did the things nobody else was doing, And then you set a goal, and
then you went to attain it, right?
Like you worked hard, you, but you set what your definition
of success was at that point.
And so that gave you something as a target.
to work towards so that you wouldn't wake up one day and think, maybe
I don't want to do it today.
Maybe I'll do it tomorrow.
Every day you woke.
up.
You had that goal that you were working to.
So my guess is that kept you pushing, right?
Kali: That absolutely kept me pushing, and I love my children so
much and I know how important it is for certain behaviors to be modeled.
I remember the first time I saw my father speak publicly it was at a Dear
neighbor's funeral and in the, at the end of the obituary and all that stuff.
They said, would anybody like to come up and speak?
Now, I was a small child.
My mother is extremely claustrophobic, extremely shy, agoraphobic.
And when they asked if someone would speak, my father jumped up and ran to
the microphone and I was like, whoa, what the heck is happening right now?
And I saw my father speak about my neighbor, Mr.
Hunter, with such eloquence and be received so well.
I was like, I wanna be that, that's in me.
If, if it's in my dad, that's in me too.
And so I said to myself, I want my daughter, my two sons to say, wait a
minute, I can make something happen for myself too because my mom did it.
So if it's in her, it's also in me.
So when I'm long gone from here, my children will still have their lives live.
And I want them to be like, oh yeah, my mom left this in me.
This is the gift she left me.
CJ: I love that.
Right?
Like So many times, we all think about the thing that we're doing, we're doing,
doing it for ourselves, but so often a bigger motivator is when we're doing
things for others, and not that this compares to doing something for your
kids, but when I think about All the stuff that I do in the community, right?
Like it's all to give back and even when, I really don't feel like
it, you know, like, it's like, all right, well we gotta record the pod.
Here we go.
Right?
Kali: right.
CJ: Because there are people out there who, , who this helps,
and so that's a driving force.
So I love that.
Kali: I like the point you're making because I like to think
that the work that I do contributes to the community as well, and.
It is the exact same thing.
Whether I'm modeling this for my children or I'm modeling this for the next
group of folks who are coming into the ServiceNow ecosystem, there is this.
Other thing that's within me is like always doing
something for the next person.
Like that's something that I've never been able to shake, even during the times
in my life where I wanted to shake it.
It's just like I'm always volunteering to do something.
when they say, Hey, can someone come up and do such and such?
And does anyone have extra time to do?
I'm always that person.
Right?
And for years I used to not like that part about me because I felt
like it was taken away from other things that I could be doing, but I.
As I became older, I realized that, wait a minute, that is part of my
superpower that I like to give back.
CJ: Yes.
Duke: It's even more precise than that because your persona is like a center
of gravity in the ServiceNow community.
like your interviews that you do . like, does anybody tell
you No when you invite them?
Cause I'll be straight, I was trying to get the same kind of
mm, that same vital essence when I was doing titans of ServiceNow.
And I got told no all the time, the time.
Like way more nos than yeses, especially from this guy here.
CJ: So I, so I have to admit, duke, I have to admit, I have told you no a lot, right?
I, I've never told, I've never told Collie no.
Duke: say yes to everything, unless it's the Duke guy.
But you see what I mean?
I think that's part of your superpower.
If you, if you don't mind me saying, so Colli is that.
There is a magnetism to the personality where people want to
talk to you about ServiceNow stuff.
Kali: Well, I think that that's kind of you, Rob.
And yes, people do tell me no, but part of what I do is I try to call
those people forward that I interview.
So in a way it's sort of like a, an attraction marketing type of thing, right?
So I put it out there.
You and I Rob done some ServiceNow kickbacks in the LA in the hundred
Days of ServiceNow podcast.
And.
I pay attention to who shows up in that stream, who's leaving comments,
who's sending me connection requests?
What's taking place in the dm?
What kind of conversations can I have with those folks?
And that way the invitation becomes pretty natural, right?
The people who say no are usually people that I really don't have a relationship
with, and that taught me a ton too, right?
CJ: yes.
Right?
if you want to get someone on your podcast and they say no, you
need to create that relationship so they feel comfortable, right?
Kali: A hundred percent.
CJ: You know, duke, I don't know that we've been told No cha, any guest
that we've asked on this podcast, when I think about it, We have a few
that have still pushed us off, right?
Like we haven't been able to record with 'em yet, but I think sometimes
that's partially on us as well as them.
But I don't think we've been told no.
Right?
I mean, everybody wants to be on CJ and Duke, right?
We're the bomb.
Kali: That's right.
That's right.
Word up.
Duke: I'm glad someone else is saying it, not me.
CJ: Oh, come on, man.
Like, ego is not one of those things that I don't have, right?
Like tell you in a minute, right?
Be humble.
Nah.
Duke: So, Collie, what was the first CJ and the Duke episode that
you listened to where you're like, yeah, I can listen to more of this?
CJ: Ooh.
Kali: Ooh, that is a good question as I go over to my Spotify
app, what is the first episode?
CJ: what is an architect
Duke: Yeah.
What is an architect?
Yeah.
Kali: I know I listened to that one.
You know, I can tell you this.
Those first few episodes that I listened to, I had no idea what
the heck y'all were talking about.
Duke: Fair.
Yeah.
Kali: I had no idea what you were talking about.
and what I noticed is that over time, and this was such a.
Interesting synergy over time.
It seemed like you started creating episodes just for me.
Right?
It, I felt like I was that, that that person in church where you feel
like all of a sudden the preachers preaching just to you, because it
seemed like the information started to shift toward beginners and people
entering the Service now ecosystem.
Before It seemed a little bit more in depth for folks who
were already in the trenches.
And I didn't know what you guys were talking about, which is why I would listen
to the episodes again and again and again.
But some of the early episodes that I thought were really cool is that
it's one where you had, you were talking about, cohorts and boot camps
and how to navigate through those.
So those were the ones that started to catch my attention.
Then you started to go through the different roles and things like that.
there's a time where, Duke and we've had these conversations, you can say, oh
yeah, we talked about that in CJ and the Duke, and you'll start saying something.
I said, no.
It kind of went like this because I would listen to those episodes over and over
again, like they never got old to me.
And then the, each time I would listen to 'em, I would glean
a little bit more information.
It felt a little bit more equipped to talk about the platform.
CJ: it's so funny that you say that because that was an
intentional shift, and it worked.
I'm just sitting here thinking as you're, as you're talking that.
we started to see that there were a lot of folks looking to
answer the ecosystem, right?
And we were like, well, we need to make some content for these folks so that they
know that, you know, there's somebody out here for them, that they're not out
here alone, that there's a lifeline.
If they reach out, the community's got their back, And so we started trying
to create some content to push that message out there And it landed, right?
Like you caught it.
It's just so great like That just feels really good.
It feels really good to hear because like it wasn't an accidental pivot, it
was an intentional, message shift for a little while, to reach folks who were.
New to the industry new to the ecosystem, who had, you know, some experiences
in, in some parts of the ecosystem that might have been not so good.
Right.
And trying to, paint a better picture for 'em.
Duke: The tides really caught us on that one though, right?
Because it was, the dawn of the boot camps.
And in a week you'd get a hundred, 200 more follows.
Invites people asking questions, well, what should I do in the ServiceNow
ecosystem after I get my, CSA or whatever.
They didn't even know what jobs were available or, you know, they
didn't know how to answer when you were saying, well, what do you
wanna actually do in the space?
They didn't have the option.
So it was kind of like, a good time for us because we never had to ask,
what are we gonna talk about today?
It was just like, which of these,
CJ: Yeah.
Duke: title are we doing today?
Right?
CJ: You know, duke, one of the things that strikes me, , and you say this a
lot, but I'm gonna say it this time, , when a lot of these folks came into the,
, ecosystem, they want to pick I om right?
Like IT operations management because they didn't know that I om in the
ServiceNow power lands, is in depth IT infrastructure, And not, managing
people or managing operations.
Duke: that used to be huge.
It kind of died down a little bit, but there was a time, yeah, where
it was like every non-technical person I was meeting was like, oh,
I wanna go into, I'm like, wow.
Are you sure?
CJ: Yeah.
I mean there's some parts of it om that I'm probably only
marginally technical enough to know.
Kali: but see, this is where the podcast really becomes a value to us
new folks, because when you go through now learning, you don't understand.
The technical depth that it om requires, right.
But when you listen to the podcast, you're able to get a
different practical perspective.
. And you know, as I'm looking through , my Spotify , and the episodes that I listened
to, I remember April, 2022, . What to build to up your skill and ServiceNow.
That was the episode.
? Right after you interviewed Dante Hooker and you had me hooked on that one.
April, 2022.
That episode had me hooked.
I was listening to that over and over again.
Right.
But then there were some earlier ones too.
But you even had the learning ServiceNow was now learning.
That one kind of gave a little bit more understanding about how
I should approach now learning.
There were so many episodes in there that just really helped.
Folks to navigate the ServiceNow space.
Even the one where you talked about like how do you, , what
to do at your first knowledge.
Now, at that time when you did that episode, I'm like, yeah, I'm not sure
when I'm gonna go to my first knowledge, but I'm here for the long haul.
Let me just listen to it.
And crazy enough, I was able to go to Knowledge.
CJ: So how was that?
how was that going to your.
First knowledge, like talk about that experience because I know, I remember my
first knowledge and it was, it was wild.
Duke: Were you at 11?
Corey?
Was that your first?
CJ: I was at the what, 13 was it?
13?
13.
That was my first one at the Aria
Duke: Oh, okay.
I love telling people that my first knowledge was in a tent.
Kali: In a,
CJ: as my say.
Duke: but it was a tent.
Like there's literally poles holy this.
Kali: people were there?
Duke: Oh my goodness.
No, no, no.
That's like knowledge nine or, uh, but knowledge 11 it
was just like a pavilion tent.
Like it was a big, huge tent, but , okay, the expo hall shoot.
I know you guys ask Holly this, and here I am talking, but, but the
expo hall was probably no bigger than an elementary school gymnasium.
Prob probably a bit smaller
Kali: Well, it show ain't that way now.
Duke: Yeah, and it's just like, it was like one circuit, it
was like one circuit of booths.
So there was like the outer circle of booths and the inner circle of booths.
And you walked around once and you've seen everything in the expo hall.
And then maybe you go up to, the bar to get yourself a glass of wine.
I, I, I remember it was like, . I may have got my wife in without paying.
And, my wife.
Got all dressed up and like walked into the expo hall and it was
basically like the entire expo hall just turned and looked at her.
Why is she dressed up so fancy?
But it's just like, that's the size of it, was that someone could stop the
whole thing by walking into the room.
Kali: Wow.
CJ: crazy.
Duke: And I was like, oh man, maybe someday I'll learn enough and maybe
I can have a speaking session too.
And then knowledge 12 at two of them.
CJ: Nice and I still haven't spoken in knowledge.
I've been duck,
Duke: We gotta fix that.
CJ: been ducking and dodging it.
Kali: Now that's wild.
That is, that's wild that you've never spoken honest, because at this year's
knowledge, your picture is everywhere.
CJ: Right now, how cool is that?
but Collie back to you.
tell us about your first knowledge and how you felt showing up
Kali: Man, it.
Oh man.
It was electrifying.
It was truly Electrifying.
I walked in the hotel and it was just like action.
From the moment I'd stepped my pinky toe in there, it was
like everything was popping.
People were everywhere.
Going to see Bill McDermott and his keynote address and all those
people there, all of those drones there, the cameras, the lights.
What, what was really crazy for me is that Bill McDermott is, Speaking and I'm
thinking that I'm getting there early by getting there like 15 minutes early.
Oh no.
By the time I got there was standing room only.
So anyway, I'm standing in the back and I'm listening and I'm taking notes.
It's dark and all of a sudden someone like a few feet from me
says, oh my God, Collie Alexander.
And I'm like, what?
So it was, it was just crazy know like on everybody knows hundred
days of service now, and I'm like, wow, this thing is working.
It's really working.
CJ: That's awesome.
That is awesome.
I love
Kali: Yeah.
Shout out Felipe.
CJ: you.
that for you, right?
Because that's like your first knowledge and you're like, I don't
know what this thing is about.
I don't know what's going on here.
I'm just, you know, bill, big Dermot speaking.
I'm gonna go to the speaking hall with everybody else, right?
And I'm just gonna, and then people are like,
Kali: Well wait, wait a minute, wait, wait.
In case you're listening to this bill, I'm not at all suggesting that they
was shouting, my name over yours.
We was in the back, but neither here nor there.
It was a huge moment for me.
CJ: I love that.
That is so awesome.
That's freaking amazing.
Let me rewind this back, ? So, today's your one year anniversary
being in this ecosystem, right?
Kali: A hundred percent so my one year anniversary.
CJ: Okay, so this is your one year anniversary.
Knowledge is four months ago.
Two, three months ago.
Three months ago.
So before you had been in this ecosystem for a full year, you
are showing up at knowledge and people are calling out your name.
Kali: I know I'm still processing this, but the thing that I'm even processing
more is that I was able to speak.
Had knowledge with one of my mentors, Rob, and I, this is the
person that I'm listening to every day in my ear on the podcast.
So a lot of this stuff has really been surreal.
You know, I felt like I've had like a lot of hard years in my
life, but 2023, man, this my year.
CJ: I know the feeling.
Kali: Yeah.
Duke: What a knowledge to be.
The first knowledge though, too, it was the greatest knowledge I've ever been
to, but have that one be your first.
It's just like, oh yeah, let's learn to drive in the Ferrari.
CJ: Right.
I agree.
I, I, I do think it was the greatest knowledge I've ever been to and.
Yeah, so, so for ha to have this one Cali be the first one that you showed
up to, and have all of this stuff happen.
That's so cool.
But , I know you're always like, oh, CJ and the Duke, you
guys up in, but listen, right?
Like nine months into your tenure in Service now and folks are
screaming your name and knowledge, like folks, it's possible.
if you don't take anything else from this episode, no.
That it is possible and we are sitting here speaking to someone who
has done it so you can do it too.
Kali: People say, oh, well you're lucky, and that kind of thing.
And I tell people I am the un luckiest person in the world.
But the fortunate thing is, is that I don't have to rely on luck, Because I
have my brain, I have a sense of tenacity.
I know that I'm gonna get things done.
I know that I can go into now learning.
I know that I can carve time aside to skill up, and I know that I can make
myself and push myself out there.
So if, when I can get fear out the way, and I don't have to rely
on luck, that actually positions me to really take advantage and
make my way within the ecosystem.
So definitely if I can do it, I really, if you put your back into it as Ice
Cube says, definitely it can be done.
CJ: Talk.
That talk.
That's what I'm talking about.
Kali: Hey.
CJ: That's.
Duke: Outsider looking in though, you have such an intense
bias for action, and I, I take
CJ: I like the way you phrased that Duke.
Duke: Col and I had a call just before this, we were
talking about bias for action.
So it's kind of fresh in mind, but I don't wanna take anything away
from the people who ask, right?
Because they don't know.
But.
Just think for a bit on how Collie did it.
It's not like in nine months she just, she, she lucked out on the
one person who gave her the formula to get there in nine months.
Because if that was written down somewhere, everybody would have it by
now and everybody would be , getting to collie's level at nine months.
But not a lot of people are.
Why is that?
Cuz Collie did it differently.
CJ: Right.
Duke: bias for action, like even I wouldn't be like out here rolling
out super high production content so that I can experiment on something
that I've just learned, you know?
CJ: Yeah.
Duke: But there was, there was coly out like every single night doing it live.
No editing.
Come on now, just.
I just learned how to do a UI policy.
That means y'all are gonna learn how to learn how to make a UI policy.
And I think a lot of people might be, fearful.
Like it could be humiliating , to go live and front of an audience, teach something
that you just learned and be wrong, but that didn't seem to cross your mind, or
at least it didn't seem total for us.
Kali: Well, yeah, not so much.
I think a lot of times we spend the general, we, the editorial, , we
spend a lot of time asking for permission, like, okay.
I'm not gonna do this because I don't see anybody else doing this.
And if I saw Tim Woodruff and this person do it and all these other people, then
maybe it'd be okay for me to do it.
But since they're not doing it, I shouldn't do it.
And I think a lot of times that we cut ourselves off because we're
sitting around waiting for permission.
When if we just go ahead and just take the bull by the horns,
we'll find greater outcomes.
And that's what I, I wanted to do, Earlier I said , I wanted
to get in front of the pack.
Right?
You talking about Bill, talking about letting a million
people in this ecosystem.
Well, doggone it, I got 999,999.
Is that the people to get in front of?
You know?
And, and I had to find a way to do it right?
And I think, and here's the thing, I have found a way, and this is something
that I really impressed upon my children.
And then I said, uhoh, I have to prove this, , that, I mean, this.
I've used to teach my children like, don't let a no stop you.
, let a no mean either not now, or let me find my own way.
And I used to tell this to them all the time.
So now that I didn't get into any type of cohorts or boot camps or anything like
that, so I'm like, okay, let me use that.
No, as a motivation for me to get myself out there and.
It really worked for me, and I'm grateful that it did, because it proved to me
that I can use a negative situation and flip it on its head to make it
a positive one to move me forward.
and that's the thing that I wanna impress upon people, is that, you can take a
negative situation no matter what your circumstances are, and you can flip that
thing around and change your situation.
CJ: Don't let him know, like, stop you.
And don't ask for permission, right?
Like, these are things that I've internalized in my life.
I was, I was gonna say career, but it's not even my, it not
even my career, it's my life.
Right?
Like, don't let him know, stop you and don't ask for permission.
And, just because something, someone else isn't doing something
doesn't mean that you can't do it.
Right?
And just because they think it's hard doesn't mean that it's impossible.
Right.
You know, the, there are all of these things that, can be done if you actually
have that bias for action, right?
, and if you put it to, put your mind to it and go out there and do it.
, and not afraid to fail, right?
Because to me, f failure is just a bump on the road to success.
And so you, but you gotta start, you gotta start.
Duke: own path can be profound.
why would you wanna learn how I learn?
I only had I T S M and even before ServiceNow, my whole life was i t
sm and it was just but some of the most exciting stuff in the space at
hackathons, the old innovation of the years, the stories we tell at Knowledge
is all stuff that's not I tsm it's the, you know, it's the crazy stuff.
And it's just like, every person has their own set of unique
experiences and thoughts and.
It's like build around that.
Kali: Yeah.
CJ: Ooh, that's, yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Duke: not only do you not need permission, but , even if I told you
how I did it, forge your own path.
And I think it's like, it's another thing I saw Collie doing early on,
our conversations around, you know, the, the retreat planning app.
Kali: Yeah.
Duke: we sat down so long and just tried to figure it out together.
It was like super huge and complex and I'm like, I don't even
know how to do this, but darn.
There's all kinds of cool stuff you can try
CJ: Yeah.
Duke: and I remember this presentation I did at knowledge
about, , how innovation happens.
It's like if you read the story about how mountain bikes were
invented, . It wasn't like bite companies said, Hey, I got an idea.
It was just people who were taking like, Stupid 10 speed vagabonds and trying
to go down mountainside with them.
Like, go really fast on these thin, on these tiny, thin
wheeled like road bikes, right?
And you know, very quickly find out those wheels won't cut it.
So now it's like, I'm a welder.
I'll make some big ass wheels, I'll put my on this bike.
The mountain bike was developed by a bunch of people who were just
like, ah, we'll just do it our way.
We'll figure it out.
I dunno.
why I was so passionate about saying that one, but it's just like, there
is a sense of like, do it your own way and then you, could be the person
bringing the mountain bike to the community, Because you built some app
that thinks about work differently.
CJ: here's what else it does, It's that when you do it your own way and you
share that back with the community, like what Coli's doing, when you
share that back with the community and now there's one more way out.
There's one more blueprint.
One more guide book.
One more guide post.
Where other folks can look and say, well, I can do it that way.
And maybe they, you know, cuz some folks want, want, you know, and they're
always gonna want, the, the blueprint, just tell me how to get from A to Z
and I'll do, I'll be the best person getting from A to Z that you can find.
Just tell me how to do it.
Right.
There's always gonna be those folks out there, and not everyone learns the same.
Not everyone has the same kind of personality or characteristics.
And so having multiple, , role models out there of success, That folks can pull off
the shelf and say, well, maybe this one works for me or this one works for me.
And I think right now, right, this podcast, right this episode is giving
folks another one of those roadmaps.
, Kali: I sure hope it does.
You know, when I was a small child, we used to spend our summers in Pine Bluff,
Arkansas, with my great grandmother, God rest her soul and , you know what
the height of technology was for her.
The height of technology for her was ha being the first person in
her town to have indoor plumbing.
That was the height of technology.
And when I think about her, and I think about my ancestors on one side
and my children on the other, and I think, wow, this was the height of
technology for her, And then my children and what I wanna model for them.
I feel so empowered and.
And in that way, I don't let fear stop me.
And I know that a lot of people talk about, well, what about if you're afraid?
What about if you're shy?
And it's not to say that I don't have any of those characteristics.
I don't think about those things.
They're really a non-factor for me.
It's not to say that I don't become afraid and that kind of thing, but
I'm not gonna let them stop me.
And I think that.
Something else that I know that comes up.
People are like, well, what if someone, everyone in the ecosystem is so nice.
Let me tell you, I've gotten some dms that were just scathing.
You know, I have gotten some scathing dms on LinkedIn about, the work that
I'm doing and I should have done the UI policy differently and that kind of thing.
And I remember the first one that I got, the first really bad
one, like multi-paragraph one that I got, I was like, okay.
That hurt.
It's now over.
Let me carry on.
Right.
when we think, or we expect people to be really nice or the community to be really
welcoming and for the, the vast majority of the community is, but you know, those.
Every once in a while there would be that one that pops out and that will
be the one that will hurt you the most.
But then when you realize , oh, this is just par for the
course, let me keep going.
Right?
And I created the 100 days of service now, and I think that probably happened
in maybe episode five or something.
And I'm like, dang, I still have 95 episodes to go and this is
what I had to look forward to.
And for a split second, I actually thought about, well, maybe.
I'm not bill for this.
I'm like, wait a minute, hold up.
Ancestors on one side, children on the other.
Let me keep going.
And my intention was, okay, now that I've gotten like the base level of
knowledge, I've gotten a few micro certs.
I got my certified system administrator credential.
Okay?
I know if I do this thing every day for a hundred days,
I should be able to get a job.
I should be able to land my first role.
Because remember, I had that.
three months of income.
And I said, okay, let me just keep doing it.
And I, my intention was to do it every day, but by episode seven, I
think it was, I got my first job offer from Mike Lombardo at Glide Fast.
And I was like, oh my God, it's working.
I've gotten in front of the partner that I wanted to get in front of and.
After that, I said, okay, I only need one job, so what I'm gonna do now?
So I started to shift my content.
So I was like, okay, well if I can use this content for myself
to land a job, maybe I can do something else to help other folks
get a job, and started doing these.
Livestream coaching where I would take people who are new to the
ecosystem and mash them up with people who are vets in the ecosystem.
And maybe there could be some type of rapport that's created and maybe
they could showcase themselves in a way that they can also land a
job and so I continue to shift.
The conversations and now it's become, even different still.
And I'm excited to see, because I'm just on episode 43 now, not even
episode 50, I'm no longer doing them.
each day, you know, I've gotten a job, things have gotten busy, and so
now I'm just, you know, going with the flow and seeing what comes next.
And I'm excited for it.
CJ: that's amazing.
Duke: Do you have a website that links out to each of the days?
Kali: No, not yet.
But you can find all of the episodes on LinkedIn and eventually they
will live on Colli right now.com.
Duke: Okay.
We're gonna have links in the descriptions to both of that.
you just, you, you basically searched the a hundred days of ServiceNow hashtag or,
Kali: Absolutely.
On LinkedIn you can search the hundred days of ServiceNow.
Hashtag and you know, keep in mind Colli right now.com.
Perhaps by the time this episode comes out, maybe that will be a thing.
Duke: we'll put both links in the description just, just in case.
And then, yeah, so wow, we recorded a lot.
Today.
CJ: Yeah.
Duke: We're at 50 minutes of record, so,
CJ: This is crazy.
But to wrap it up, Collie, you've been in the ecosystem for a year now, right?
What are you looking for your next year?
I mean, you've had a very eventful year, right?
Like so how do you plan to top it?
Kali: I don't, I have some personal goals and I'm not sure if I'm ready
to reveal them just yet, but I have some exciting things that are to come.
I'm always thinking about the next thing.
I absolutely wanna take the podcast even further.
I wanna have more.
Conversations and professionally, you know, I moved into the sales
side of things at Glide Fast and I'm really excited about that.
So I'm looking forward to doing some unique things in that space
and really delivering customers the best implementation possible, in the
capacity and the role that I'm in now.
CJ: That's awesome.
Well, I won't, I won't ask you to share your goals, but I do look
forward to seeing you hit them.
Duke: Will place my bets though, for sure.
All right, Collie, thanks so much for joining us.
It was really quite a pleasure.
Quite, quite an honor to have you on the show.
Thank
Kali: Thank you so much for having me.
It's, it's, it's a dream come true.
Duke: All right.
Enjoy the rest of your day.