Technology Leaders Lift Their Voices, Bright Lights, Helping Us Achieve More

I hope you join me here in celebrating another milestone.

One Hundred and Twenty Five Episodes with exceptional leaders - I have been so fortunate and hope you'll join me in celebrating this special edition of Ultimate Guide to Partnering.

I started Ultimate Guide to Partnering when I left Microsoft. I began with a conviction that technology organizations often struggle to understand the complexities and best engage with the technology giant. I had a great run of 60 episodes. Regrettably, I put it on the shelf for two years.

During Covid and last summer, the world was on fire. I brought the podcast back with a renewed conviction that we in the tech sector have both an opportunity and an obligation to lead at this time.

I was reminded of my belief and conviction that "partnering" during this time will ultimately be the key accelerant to success and ultimately survival. I renewed my mission to help technology organizations achieve their greatest results through high-performance partnering through the podcast and my work.

Ultimate Guide to Partnering has become the place for the best in the business to lift their incredible voices to this community.

One Hundred and Twenty-Five Episodes. I feel blessed to have so many amazing friendships and guests - leaders from all walks of life come to Ultimate Guide to Partnering to tell their story - to share their mission to help us be and achieve more.

Women Leaders Lift Their Voices

This season, we featured several fantastic woman entrepreneurs, leaders in their field, and my valued friends joined us.

Brea Starmer

Brea Starmer - whom I've known for many years and a leader on a mission to shape future work joined us?to share how one leader inspires others to achieve what we all thought was just potential.

Melissa Mulholland

Melissa Mulholland an early guest while still at Microsoft and a friend rejoined the podcast this summer. Melissa has had a meteoric rise and now as CEO of Crayon - a global technology leader joined to discuss her passion for technology, partners, and future-focused leadership.

Merrie Williamson

Merrie Williamson, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, whom I met on a Women in the Cloud panel discussion, joined for a candid and wide-ranging conversation on pushing through boundaries and why empathy unlocks potential.

Jennifer Didier

Jennifer Didier joined to discuss her mission and passion to act as a catalyst for Women in Technology, empowering more women to join the technology sector.?

Erin Figer

My amazing business partner Erin Figer, the most expert person I know on partnering with Microsoft, joined us to help partners optimize for success and discuss her incredible journey to woman CEO.

Better Connecting with the Tech Giant

I find that so many organizations struggle to navigate the technology giants like Microsoft. So I asked four Microsoft US leaders to join this round of discussions to help partners better understand and best engage with the tech giant.

Oguo Atuanya?

Oguo Atauanya, the leader of Microsoft's scale partner business, joined us here for the first time to discuss his mission to create value and innovate with precision, working with Microsoft's largest scale partners.

Brent Combest?

Partner favorite Brent Combest came back to the podcast to discuss his five principles for success to help partners better optimize with the tech giant.

Jim Lee

Jim Lee, the head of Microsoft US Professional Services and a friend and colleague from my days running Public Sector Partner Strategy at Microsoft, joined us to talk about his organization's renewed focus on partner success. Yes, Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) working more closely with partners!

Heather Deggans

My most recent episode featured Heather Deggans, VP of Partner Marketing. Heather is a truly authentic, transparent, and passionate leader. I'm so excited for Microsoft Partners that Heather is now in-role leading Partner Marketing in the US Global Partner Solutions Organization.

Industry Leaders and Experts

In this last round of episodes, we also had many industry leaders and partners that have gotten it right, building successful partner businesses.

Frank Rauch

Frank Rauch from Checkpoint, a long-time channel leader, came to discuss the evolution of the channel and how his organization is evolving to address the transformation.

Jay McBain

Fan Favorite Jay McBain was back to help the channel understand how technology ecosystems need to organize and behave differently during this time.

Bob Evans

Bob Evans, who's Cloud Wars is doing an excellent job tracking and ranking the most influential cloud vendors, joined to discuss what he has seen during this rapid transformation and the progress of the top technology organizations.

So many amazing guests, so many great stories than an able us and help us learn to be better, more empathetic, more powerful, and achieve more.?

On a Personal Note

On a personal note, many of you know, I lost one of my biggest fans this year to COVID. My mom Roseanne, or Rosie, as we all call her, passed away after contracting COVID this year. She was and is such a bright light to me.

I'm reminded of the famous quote by Dr. Viktor Frankel, "The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.”

I choose to continue to shine a bright light through my work, and now more than ever, having you all here to support me and help grow this platform has meant so much to me.?Thank you from the deepest place in my heart.

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