Particle Accelerator: A Particle41 Podcast

Chaos To Clarity: Digital Transformation Secrets For Business Growth

• Particle41 • Episode 39

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See how Sean Farrell, CEO of Quality Data Systems, blends AI, ERP systems, and data-driven clarity to revolutionize customer experience and business operations in this episode of the Particle Accelerator Podcast by Particle 41. With over 40 years of experience and a presence across 14 states, Sean shares strategies for tackling resource challenges, fostering innovation, and building a culture of accountability in the fast-evolving world of automation technology.

🌟 Key Highlights:
• Sean’s journey from professional baseball to leading QDS.
• How QDS navigates digital transformation with AI, ERP systems, and cloud solutions.
• Balancing cutting-edge technology with exceptional customer experience.
• The power of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in scaling businesses effectively.
• Fostering innovation and community impact through the Lion heart Charity.

🎧 Key Takeaways:
 1. AI enhances human potential without replacing it.
 2. Real-time data and dashboards are pivotal for clarity and decision-making.
 3. Leadership capacity drives innovation and competitive edge.

📲 Don’t miss this engaging conversation on tech innovation, leadership, and creating lasting community impact!

Connect with Sean Farrell:
🌍 https://www.qualitydatasystems.com/
💼 LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-o-farrell/

🔔 Subscribe for more discussions on tech innovation, business leadership, and community impact!

#TechLeadership #DigitalTransformation #AI #Innovation #Automation #BusinessGrowth #CommunityImpact #podcast, #particle41

Ben Johnson

[00.00.00]

 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Particle Accelerator Podcast, where we talk to future thinking business leaders about how to accelerate their business and grow their team. I'm here with Sean. Sean, please introduce yourself. 

Sean Farrell

[00.00.11]

 Well, hey, Ben, this is Sean Farrell. I am the CEO of Quality Data Systems, or Cuds here in Charlotte, North Carolina. Uh, we provide automation technology primarily to financial institutions, so things like ATMs and other cash automation devices. Uh, and we operate in about 14 states, from Pennsylvania to Miami to Louisiana. And, uh, we've experienced a lot of growth over the last, uh, seven or so years, but have been in business for 40. And, uh, look forward to having a great conversation today. 

Ben Johnson

[00.00.42]

 Cool, awesome. Excited to have you. What tech trends significantly impacted you or your industry and how did your company respond or how are you guys responding? You know, 

Sean Farrell

[00.00.52]

 I think as an automation company, you know, I get I probably get 200 cold emails a week on all the different sales products. So, you know, I think filtering through the right products and technology in a stack. Um, we have a really good proposal system that has allowed us to be very nimble. And a core value for us is responsiveness. So how do we set up to use technology not just for technology sake, but how does that help us, you know, be more responsive, improve the customer experience? We still have a lot of manual processes that we're working to leverage technology for. We're looking to invest in a new ERP system here coming up, because we just have many disparate systems that don't give us the data we need and don't have us, you know, main center of truth. So I think, you know, that'll be a big focus of ours in 2025. Um, and obviously the, the certainly the wave of the times of like, how do we use AI and AI for good. And so, uh, we do a lot of tech support and I think about HR functions. So how could we create kind of our own private GPT that we would feed it all the data and it would be able to respond back to us our ways that we're, you know, really looking to leverage technology. You know, we've been in office 365 shop for a while. We've gone to cloud infrastructure. So, you know, we just had a huge hurricane roll through here at the time. We're recording this of, you know, Hurricane Helene has done a ton of damage here in the Carolinas. And so the ability for us to, you know, functionally have an office shut down, which we were blessed not to have to. But, I mean, if our office is closed, essentially we can continue operations because we've put together the right technology pieces to function from essentially anywhere. So that has really helped us out a lot in the near term. 

Ben Johnson

[00.02.40]

 Yeah. That's great. Uh, and as a software cloud company CEO, you're talking my language. So that's that's great. Uh, and, um, and we've walked several people through the ERP transition so that that's a really awesome. What if you really had to center around three technology innovations that you're betting on to drive your business growth? What would those three technology innovations be? 

Sean Farrell

[00.03.06]

 I think I has to be one of them. And it's in our face what feels like every 30 minutes these days. But, um, there is so much power in data and the ability to, like, shortcut things. So I am not a big fan of I can replace human. I am a big fan of AI, can enhance human and allow them to, you know, focus. So again, I ran our sales organization up until this year. Um, so thinking about how to optimize messaging and not that we want I don't want I emailing people, but I think things like doing research, providing relevancy will only enhance what a sales rep can do. So empowering people. So I think I has got to be one. Um, anything we can do efficiency wise with data and dashboards? Um, you know, as a company, our size, which is about 120 people, roughly 40 million in revenue, uh, we don't have a lot of great data dashboards today. So I think with data comes clarity. And as we have different departments with different goals. I think that is going to continue to drive us where visibility and clarity are going to get us results. So I would say maybe we're behind in that. But as as people looking at innovation, I think having correct data, moving more towards leading trends with data and that will really paint a picture of success for our departments will be valuable. And then third, I mean, I, I think anything we can do to optimize workflow and productivity. So leveraging cloud solutions for a work from anywhere, enhancing the mobile experience. So we have over half of our company that is in the field service organization. So how do we put more power at their fingertips to do from their mobile device and not have to rely on a laptop or other devices? So I think really, how do we continue to enhance mobile with maybe an application or again, a new ERP that that can put more at their fingertips, from photographs to checklists and all those things that will make them more effective and efficient are probably going to drive us forward. 

Ben Johnson

[00.05.16]

 Yeah. Awesome. Well, what are the most significant gaps between your digital ambitions and the realities of today? 

Sean Farrell

[00.05.24]

 I think resources is a reality, right? Like at my level, there are things that are nice to have and that you would like to have. But, you know, we're still relatively lean. We don't have a lot of people just sitting around looking for something to do. So, you know, to be able to implement something new, change management and process. It takes resources, it takes experts. Uh, even partnering with partners like yourself, it still takes some internal resources to spin these things up. So I would say that is probably one of our biggest inhibitors, which I'm sure is not unique, is just, hey, who who can I pull a fraction of their time to move us forward when they're, you know, pretty well fully plated now. And how important is this project that I can pull them to, you know, make the change that six months from now, we're going to be 50% more efficient in that department. But today, I don't have the bandwidth to yank somebody out for six months to run the project. So that's yeah, probably our biggest inhibitor is we just don't have a lot of people bandwidth available to implement new things. Yeah. We've, uh, we've been toying around with this idea of, um, capacity. Capability is no longer something that that's like a stricken word. So it's not that I'm not capable to do something, it's that I don't have the capacity. And then when we think about, okay, well, capacity is a function of leadership, right? So it doesn't give capability gives leadership the out right. Like well my my team is just not capable capacity. Is this shared responsibility. Um because if I say, well why don't you have the capacity to help us move, like working on the business versus in the business? Um, a lot of times what will come up in that conversation is the idea of, well, I don't like. What I'm really saying is that I need some new skills. If I had some new skills, I could do more faster, and then I'd create capacity. Uh, and so we've been talking a little bit about how do we create the capacity to do the things we know we should do. Um, and, uh, in that there might be some self training. And then I just read this book, the one thing and in that he talks really about what is the one thing that you can do to create more capacity in, you know, future cycles. And then you focus on that kind of like a debt snowball, uh, 

Ben Johnson

[00.07.41]

 you know, strategy. Um, but that's really cool that, uh, that you're right at the forefront of that. 

Sean Farrell

[00.07.49]

 Yeah. I think any company has challenges with, um, maybe good or bad. A lot of the additional workload falls on your A players, right. So I may create total capacity, but I may only have a subset of my capacity that really has the talent and ability to take on new innovative type things. So it's a challenge for them to always get placed in kind of special projects or things like that, and potentially lead a team and do some fractional doing work. And I think, you know, personally, for us, we we have experienced a ton of growth. So I don't know that I have a bunch of leaders and or managers who are just leading and managing. They are probably, you know, still holding on to some doing work. So that, again, becomes a difficult way to create capacity is we don't have, you know, 12 people that are just leading a team. They're leading a team, a small team, and still, you know, doing kind of some player coach type stuff. 

Ben Johnson

[00.08.42]

 Yeah, yeah. Understood. Well, what's the biggest challenge to maintain a competitive edge in your industry? 

Sean Farrell

[00.08.51]

 I would say to make sure and 

Ben Johnson

[00.08.54]

 like, 

Sean Farrell

[00.08.55]

 how is this going to impact the customer experience? So we can do a lot of things that makes the organization more efficient, that moves information around. But if we lose sight of how does the customer get impacted by this? So like we have a system today for tickets called JIRA, which is, you know, 

Ben Johnson

[00.09.15]

 very familiar, 

Sean Farrell

[00.09.16]

 very ubiquitous platform. So by going to an automated ticketing system, there's a lot of tracking. You make sure things don't fall through the cracks, but sometimes you can lose the human element. So as someone like us who is very focused on handholding and delivering an exceptional customer experience, you really have to pay attention to that dial of, you know, there's something like putting an AI chatbot on your website that could be very effective. And but that may be one slight step to take away from dehumanization. And then what's the next step is how, you know, today we have live bodies that answer the phone and take calls and that if you introduce an AI to that, now, you start to dehumanize that. So I think those are things you have to keep in mind is technology is great. And if that is moving the team forward so that they can still provide an amazing customer experience, that's the win win. Can you drive efficiency and improvement? Not to the detriment of your customer experience, 

Ben Johnson

[00.10.16]

 right? Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Um, well, this may help. How do you approach risk management then, when implementing a cutting edge technology or just even a new process? Yeah. 

Sean Farrell

[00.10.28]

 Uh, that is definitely something we've learned in the last year. So we just recently went through a soc2, uh, type two process, which was new for us. That was the first, uh, attempt, which we did. Well. But there's a lot of things you begin to start to have to think through of, just are we going to have a committee that votes on new technology versus a new department being able to just say, hey, we found this cool tool, our department is going to implement it. And, you know, two years go by and like, how did we add eight pieces of software that no one really knew about. We didn't have centralized controls. We didn't have centralized audits. So um, as fraud and the criminals continue to get more creative, you know, taking an infosec secure, strong position is important. And that goes back to not just the tools you put in place. Like there's many great cybersecurity tools, but if you don't have the processes and structure and attitude about it, then as we know the you can have all the amazing tools in the world. All it takes is someone to click that nasty link in the email and you're you're in a breach situation. So thankfully we do not store a lot of PII. So when we look at our overall risk profile, um, we've done a good job of segmenting out, like we just don't have a lot of golden family jewels that are, you know, attachable. But we do have a lot of access to our clients endpoint. So that goes back to security controls. What access to information, all of that being protected by multifactor. Um, so you really have to look at the scale of risk and what is a worst case scenario. And then also the likelihood and is this a risk we're willing to tolerate because we feel good about our controls? 

Ben Johnson

[00.12.15]

 Yeah. Well, what advice can you share about connecting a technology roadmap to the overall business strategy? Like how do you plan? 

Sean Farrell

[00.12.24]

 Yeah, I mean good question. Uh, you know, we are probably not unlike many. We we typically go through strategic planning about now. So September October uh, tends to be strategic planning. Um, a lot of it comes down from corporate strategic goals of, you know, where do we feel like we can improve? Is there additional market share we can gain? What's holding us back? And that often leads to a conversation of, you know, is it a people bandwidth issue? You know, do we need to make hires or are the processes potentially sluggish or need refining. And there's potentially a way to invest in technology to solve that problem? Traditionally we have, I must say, somewhat made the mistake of we have typically thrown people at problems. And now, as we have become much more bottom line, focus through the growth. To me, that's really where that you marry that technology roadmap and go what is available to help us achieve these key business objectives. Um, how is that going to help deliver us the next round of revenue without having to add so much headcount, etc.? Where do we feel like we're inefficient? The systems aren't talking all of that. So I, I think you still have to start with overall business objectives and strategy, and then go to the kind of the whiteboard and go. What technology and where do we feel like we're technology deficient that could help solve those problems? As a first step, as opposed to a let's just throw people at it and every department needs another body and then we'll be there. 

Ben Johnson

[00.13.54]

 Yeah. So, uh, you you come up with your plan in Q4 for the following year. Uh, what process do you have to recalibrate against that? Do you recalibrate against it quarterly or do you like do you have some framework for that? 

Sean Farrell

[00.14.08]

 Yeah. So we have, uh, both an executive team and a senior leadership team. Uh, typically meets somewhere between every six weeks and quarterly, depending on which group that is. I think it's understanding, you know, almost certainly on a quarterly basis. These were the assumptions we made going into the year. And this is what we thought was going to happen. How are we performing against those. Have any new surprises come up? Has the fed raise rates or lower rates. What is that doing to our customer base in financial institutions? Have any of our, uh, goals needed to be shifted based on overall market dynamics? So I, I do think a quarterly cadence and kind of, uh, we don't have a formal report card, but kind of thinking through what's going, well, what needs to be improved. And, um, do we need to move the prioritization so we may have. Five things that we want to do from a technology perspective. And they were ranked 1 to 5. Has five now come up to number two based on market conditions? Or we had an employee exit or we had an HR thing come up. So we really need to get this HR connection done. So I think priorities can always shift even though the list may not. 

Ben Johnson

[00.15.17]

 Yeah. Uh, I've been hearing from a lot of CEOs that this annual planning is kind of, uh, and no one was saying you're doing this, but I've just seen this, this trend for wanting to do time compression. Um, in the, in the software development world, time compression kind of comes with the bag of goods like we get scrums and, um, the, the, the investment is so high that time compression is just like always there. But in business planning, what I've been seeing is, uh, you know, I'm a big fan of OKRs, and you set your OKRs for the year and you have your monthly or quarterly meetings to see how your tracking gets to OKRs. Um, but what I've also found people doing is trying to say, well, what could we could we accomplish all of that in a quarter. Like, what could we validate about the quarter? Um, and then from there, I'm trying to see if my team can get weekly singular goals, like, what's the one thing this week aside from, yeah, I have to talk to the customer and there's work. Work. I totally get that. But what's the one thing that I'm going to do on the business this week that's either going to, you know, make me make future, uh, future cycles more efficient or, um, directly relates to that 90 day goal. So I'm just kind of playing with some ideas of, of taking that annual strategy and seeing if I can really focus on, like what? And the my iOS friends are also doing something very similar, like an iOS. There's like a whole day of planning. Um, so rather than a week, once a year, they're doing a day every quarter. Uh, and so I just I find that fascinating, this kind of like concept of time compression and how to, how to make the, um, the important urgent so that it does get done, aside from the regular minutia of business operations. 

Sean Farrell

[00.17.07]

 Yeah. And I, I actually really like that advice because I think many of our, you know, senior leaders, even middle managers, like they just get stuck in the there's always a fire. Right. And so we do a good job of like training and developing and talking about things that need to get done. But breaking it down to all right, what's one thing you can do this week that's going to move the needle in the next month, the next quarter? I think that I think there's some sound principle there, and I think that would help us. I mean, we talk a lot about calendar discipline, and you've got to calendar some time to actually get stuff done, as opposed to being meetings or answering client phone calls all the time. So to me, that would be a great framework or discipline to wrap around. That is all right. If you've got one key thing to work on the business, like get that on the calendar, get it done, and that's going to make a huge impact over time. So I really like that idea. 

Ben Johnson

[00.18.01]

 Yeah. Um, I totally stole that. Um, so the 

Sean Farrell

[00.18.05]

 best idea is right. We plagiarize. 

Ben Johnson

[00.18.07]

 Yeah. I borrowed with pride. Um. Yeah, I think there's like this idea of surfing chaos, right? The emails and the phone calls and the meetings, they kind of are the, ah, the chaos of life. And we can just hang in on that stuff. Uh, and then, um, really, then we get through a week, we feel like, well, I really didn't get anything done. But if there was an intention to do that one thing, it can also lead to a lot of satisfaction. Like, um, you know, hey, I just launched my mind for last week was that I needed to launch my performance review system. Um, it went live yesterday, and so that was my one thing I had to get everything just like. And so different people were helping me. Um, but that was the goal for the week. Everybody was super clear that we're going to launch that. And then for this week, it's a specific campaign. And so different people are moving different parts of that goal. But everybody's super clear that that's like that's going to be the thing. And I'm just observing. Not only that, it's um, that we're all aligned, which is really awesome, but that it's also giving us something to celebrate. Like, yeah, we did that one thing that was the, um, that was the, the thing we put in the water upstream and we saw it come down into the ocean. Um, so yeah, it's it's also giving us a little bit of a morale boost to see that we can accomplish these bigger things. 

Sean Farrell

[00.19.26]

 And I think from a leadership development standpoint, if you find that as your leader, as a leader, you're not getting that one thing done. That goes back to how can I get my next person down to take 2 or 3 things off of my plate in a week, which is going to help them grow? And because I'm, you know, I'm transparent. I'm not getting my one thing done. So becomes some kind of shared ownership, as you say, in that teamwork. And I think that's. That's a struggle for a lot of new leaders, is they want to do everything, and then all of a sudden it's like, well, what? What can you trim or prune so that you can get the important stuff done? And by the way, that also grows the people that could step into your shoes next, whether that's a year away or five years away, how do you grow your people? And we're all about leaders, creating more leaders. And that's one way to do it. 

Ben Johnson

[00.20.11]

 Yeah. So that brings this capacity discussion right to the surface. Right. Like you, you didn't hit the one thing like I needed you for that and you weren't there. Well but I had all this other stuff okay. Cool capacity now is the is the topic and then well, but they don't know how to do these things that I know how to do. And so this concept of SOPs all of a sudden becomes the one thing. Right. Well, if you if you sat down and wrote it up, um, you know, we some of my most senior technologists were doing architecture and, um, it seemed like architecture was this elusive thing that they could not train someone else to do. It was, oh, it takes creativity and experience. Yes, it does take creativity experience. When there's not an SOP for what does it mean to enter into a new technology system. And so when we broke that down and that became the one thing like to define architecture, what does it mean to do that? And then what we came down to, it was it was really simple. It was a set of research that needs to be completed and a set of drawings that need to be decided upon. And yeah, there's tons of work in those two things. So it may seem like oversimplifying, but when we broke down all the research that was required to to be able to deliver an architecture and then all the drawings that we could potentially choose from, then the creativity was just simply saying, well, that that particular type of drawing is not appropriate for this system. Okay, we can take that out. But to kind of boil the ocean and see what the what the finite set of things that might need to be done are and have that in an SOP. All of a sudden like now architecture can be delegated. So like the an SOP can be a phenomenal deliverable that creates capacity that 

Sean Farrell

[00.21.55]

 that has been one of our biggest keys to success. Just to pile on that topic. Uh, I think we've implemented or have documented about 1100 SOPs the last two years because we were in that situation of we had a ton of new people coming into the organization, and we're trying to train, and a lot of this is coming out of people's brains, and it's like, we gotta document this stuff. So it becomes a much faster learning cycle. And so that that has been certainly transformative for us. Cool. 

Ben Johnson

[00.22.23]

 Well, what lessons have you learned from tech initiatives that failed to deliver expected value? Trying to go back and think if we've had a failure. Um, 

Sean Farrell

[00.22.39]

 you know, we've had we got 98% of the way doing a phone system migration. And right as we were getting ready to port numbers like that, like the whole UI kind of fell apart. And what we were trying to do. So like we had to pull the plug on that at the last minute. So, I mean, we probably wasted, you know, a ton of manpower setting that up, etc.. Um, I remember and it's going back a long way. Like we we went down the wrong ERP path probably back 2007, 2008, and literally had bought it and was trying to implement it. And one of our main things is we typically have a master customer. So, you know, if you know anything about banking. All right. So Bank of America headquartered here in Charlotte. Well they have 10,000 locations. And so our typical contract is with the Home Office. And then all the other children kind of fall under one agreement. And the provider we had selected, which was primarily in the HVAC space. Um, each individual location needed its own contract. I was like, uh, that's not gonna work. So we we had, uh, at the time, probably spent 20 grand. We had I mean, we were trying to go live with the software, and when we had that training, it's like, well, what do you mean? It works that way? So we have a much more rigorous selection process than we did 20 years ago. 

Ben Johnson

[00.24.03]

 Yeah. That's cool. Sounds like just like the discovery and just really getting getting all the, the, um, get everything aligned, like what the needs actually are super helpful. I've seen folks want to kind of build software and then give feedback and build software and get feedback, which the agile development cycle lends itself really well to. Um, but it's super costly. Uh, rather than like, hey, could we have some design up front, fully think it through, give a lot of because the design is cheap to change. So a lot of times this cost of change is is heavy, right. We need to find a way to, um, make our best our a better effort in the first iteration. How do you cultivate a culture of innovation and fluency in your organization? 

Sean Farrell

[00.24.51]

 I think the culture of innovation is easier than fluency, for sure. Um, you know, I am a big believer in there's always a better way to do it. So I don't know if that goes back to the athletic background. Uh, I use the term often, like we have an allergy to complacency. So to me, there's always, like, tweaks that can be made. What process is broken? How can we better implement. So I think culturally people are willing to share what's broken. And, you know, always looking for better ways to do it, which fosters that culture of innovation. Fluency is tough because I think that goes back to change management. And it's hard because people have been doing something for a year, five years, ten years the same way. And now you introduce this fantastic new way to do it with a new software piece. And they they have trouble. So it goes back to implementation training. Um, we went to a dedicated trainer for our field service force about two years ago. Uh, so we knew that there was consistency in the experience. We were covering the right information, um, versus kind of ad hoc pulling people in to do training. So I think something similar would apply. Uh, as you start to look at change management, whether it be a new software product, new ERP, like really investing in the onboarding, training and ongoing training and making sure. Like we're going to probably move to more required fields because we found data can get very dirty because some people use all caps, some people don't use caps, some people spell it out, some people use the abbreviation. So those are things when you think about fluency, having SOPs, standards required fields are things that will make, make and keep the data clean that we are, uh, thinking through as we head into this new ERP implementation. 

Ben Johnson

[00.26.42]

 Cool. Well, can you share an experience? Uh, or or just maybe give some advice on what you would tell, um, peers beginning their digital transformation, or maybe somebody just starting their career. 

Sean Farrell

[00.26.57]

 Yeah. I mean, 

Ben Johnson

[00.26.59]

 I go back to probably the foundational, foundational principles of like, how is communication working today? So if you are not digital, you may have a lot of, you know, paper flying around. You may have processes that take a while. So just like how do you give people quick access to information across a platform? Is there an a more immediate way to communicate things like teams and slack and all of these messaging things? Communication to me is a foundational principle of of successful business. And that's one of our goals, is to be the best communicators in our industry. Second is access to information. So if you're not digital, you may have only a small subset of people that get a certain set of reports on some given time frame versus as you look at that digital transformation journey, moving more towards real time data lagging and leading indicators, you know, are we on target to hit our goals? That's going to drive the profitability we need. And I have certainly found that most employees want to be successful. They want to do a good job. But if they don't understand what winning looks like and how they impact the overall success, that can lead to disengagement, right? They can start to feel like a cog in the wheel. If they don't understand what is my purpose and how do I contribute to the overall success? So I think availability of data and access and clarity are key. 

Sean Farrell

[00.28.31]

 Um, and then speed. I mean, technology is typically going to bring you speed. So not having to type up a proposal in a word document and edit it and da da da da da. And it may take you a week to 30 days depending on your industry versus like, wow, we have a templated proposal. It takes me 30s to adjust the components and now I can be more responsive. So I think speed and the way you can move to the customer would probably be the third, uh, important topic of digital transformation. So those would be like take some steps, look at your processes, what takes the longest, and is there a way to move that into a digital world that's going to make it faster, better, etc.? 

Ben Johnson

[00.29.12]

 Yeah, I love that. I think a lot of times, um, as leaders, we need to at least know the outcomes we're looking for before we go engage experts. Before we start delegating. Right. We're going to delegate a piece of our business off to somebody. And so we need to at least know what we're looking for. Uh, because it's often too easy to delegate and just say, like, show me stuff. And then when I see what I like, I'll know. Um, and, uh, so, like, being super clear on what, uh, what we're expecting and what would actually help the business. And, um, you know, you end up explaining the business many times and not getting fatigue on that. Like, let's make sure people understand the context and what you're really targeting. Um, because I know, uh. Like like I used to kind of do do this with finance in a way. Like, I don't know how to tell you to do what I want. I just know when you show it to me, it'll find out. And so putting the time in to really understand what I want in that area was, like, super helpful. Um, so then when I am working with experts, they can say, well, sure, like here's that. But and there's this other stuff. And I was able to get to the point a lot, a lot quicker. 

Sean Farrell

[00.30.24]

 And I'll give one example, just because we were talking about before we recorded here. But you know, project management is a big part of our business. It was typically taking our project managers, maybe upwards of 45 minutes to recap a project call. So rather than coming at it from, oh, like we got to figure out how to do this, I thing it was, well, hey, I see a lot of people are using. I know it seems like that would really cut down on the amount of time. Why don't we pilot that? And sure enough, by using an AI note taker, that summary, that 45 minutes. And these are people that are running anywhere from 10 to 15 projects at a time. So you can multiply went from 45 minutes to 5 minutes to summarize the transcript. Clean it up and get it out to clients. And it's like there's an actual business impact to the technology as opposed to. I see Nvidia stock is doing well. We should invest in AI. So again, coming at it from what is a cumbersome process and is there a technology that can solve for that. And let's test it and boom off you go. 

Ben Johnson

[00.31.25]

 Well, I love to, uh, ask some questions here. Um, the podcast is a little bit like an NCIS episode, right? I asked similar questions to all my guests. What was your first job like? How did you make your first dollar? For me, it was I was 13 years old and I had a paper out. But what was it for you? 

Sean Farrell

[00.31.41]

 Uh, I think my first job was actually after college, and, uh, I had the opportunity to be a professional baseball player. So, uh, was had a privilege being drafted by the Oakland A's and played one season before I, uh, messed up my shoulder and made a robust $700 a month as a minor league baseball player. 

Ben Johnson

[00.32.02]

 Nice. Nice. That's awesome. That's awesome. Um, well, then this question may me, uh, chime in here. So what toy or hobby did you have as a child that inspired what you do career wise today? 

Sean Farrell

[00.32.14]

 Uh, so I did grow up, uh, playing sports. So I think, um, I had a particular love for baseball and football. Uh, and when I transitioned into the business world, uh, I really fell in love with sales, and, uh, I am an extremely competitive person, so, uh, that was a really good way for me to kind of get those competitive juices out. I really enjoyed winning. Uh, and certainly as I've grown in my career, it has been much more about helping people and helping clients be successful. So a lot of that comes back from the athletic background of, uh, especially in baseball, you fail often. And so, uh, learning from a lot of things and how to adjust and make adjustments has been a key to success. Awesome. 

Ben Johnson

[00.32.56]

 Well, what was your favorite and least favorite course in school? 

Sean Farrell

[00.33.02]

 Oh, uh, I always enjoyed math, and I also majored in psychology. Um, so I always enjoyed learning, like kind of how people are, the way they are and how they think. So that was very engaging. Um, I'm not much of a history guy, so kind of that like social studies and history. And, you know, I can tell you when the War of 1812 was, but I probably can't tell you what we were fighting over at that, uh, given time. So, you know, history and a lot of just like, the dry, um, kind of sociological stuff is probably my least favorite. Yeah. 

Ben Johnson

[00.33.36]

 I love the intersection between psychology and math. Like, if I could make people make more sense than, uh, than than it would, then it would be good for me. I like 

Sean Farrell

[00.33.46]

 that. Yeah. And, I mean, just all the brain chemicals and whatnot is just to me, it's fascinating. You know, as we are in an area where mental health is certainly very, uh, front of mind for a lot of people. It's just very interesting to understand how all those things work. 

Ben Johnson

[00.34.00]

 Yeah, totally. Well, what quote from a famous person lives in your mind rent free? 

Sean Farrell

[00.34.07]

 Uh, so one of my favorites, uh, I believe it's J.J. Watt, and it's, um, success is not owned. It's leased, and the rent is due every day. Um, so to me, that goes back to, uh, we got to figure out how to add value every day. How are we making impact? And if we were successful yesterday, that doesn't necessarily mean we're going to be successful today. 

Ben Johnson

[00.34.28]

 Yeah, I love that. Yeah. Making every day count. Um, yeah. Love that. That's great. Um, what was the greatest invention or discovery in your view? Uh, in the past 300 years? 

Sean Farrell

[00.34.42]

 Past 300 years? 

Ben Johnson

[00.34.44]

 Um, 

Sean Farrell

[00.34.47]

 I mean, I would think it would have to be. And I hope electricity was in the last 300 years. But. Yeah, it was. I mean, if you think about all the things that draw power and the progression of how that led to even like Wi-Fi internet that most of us can't deal without. I mean, it seems like electricity and power has been probably, maybe the most transformative, uh, Formative invention in the last 300 years. If I had to go with one. 

Ben Johnson

[00.35.10]

 Yeah, I had to. I had the opportunity to go on a guys camping trip. We set an intention to go climb a fourteeners in Colorado. Uh, and, um, and I was the guy that had the Delta two max, which is like a big exterior battery. Got an alternate, you know, basically, I came prepared with a dual battery system in my Tacoma that, uh, so I could charge everybody's devices, and they gave me a ton of crap for it at the beginning. But then about halfway through the trip, when they're FaceTiming with their wives and, uh, keeping tabs on, on work things, they're like, yeah, this this is all right, you know, staying staying, uh, where there's some place with electricity. It's not that bad. 

Sean Farrell

[00.35.50]

 Wisdom and foresight. Correct. 

Ben Johnson

[00.35.53]

 Right. Exactly. Uh, one guy at one point woke up from a a night of restless sleep and was like. And I. And I'm sleeping on the ground, and I own an RV. Like, what am I doing here? Right? Uh, a bunch of CEOs going on a rugged camping trip. It was fun. Well, if people liked what you had to share today, how should they connect with you? 

Sean Farrell

[00.36.15]

 Yeah, so I love connecting on LinkedIn, so LinkedIn is a great spot to find me again. Sean Farrell, CEO of UDS. Um, our website is Quality Data systems.com. And we also have a big charitable, uh, we believe in being a force for good. And so we also have a 501 C3 called Lionheart Charity. So we want to be a great business so that we can impact the communities in which we serve. Uh, so certainly if you're interested in helping on that front as well, would love to connect and see how we can partner together to make the world a better place. Yeah. 

Ben Johnson

[00.36.50]

 Tell me a little bit more about the mission of Lionheart Charities. 

Sean Farrell

[00.36.54]

 It started very broad. Um, so we, you know, making sure we could take care of employees. It is very local, focused. We certainly there are plenty of other countries in the world that have issues we're solving. We found we did not have to look very far to come up with problems to solve. So, you know, we have had a big focus on first responders, veteran care. Um, we do a lot with like, breast cancer and, uh, those components, um, and then really have a heart for those serving, uh, in the community. So we've got a new partnership with least of these Carolinas that provides support for foster care families and children. So if you are doing good work in the community, we want to come support that. And that's kind of part of our purpose statement here, which is our purpose at SHS, is to create a flourishing dynamic between company, employee, customer and the community we serve through the love of Jesus. So that's one way we execute on that. Awesome. 

Ben Johnson

[00.37.53]

 Well appreciate that. And, uh, yeah, it was great to have you on the podcast today. I look forward to hearing, uh, where, uh, where this mission takes you. 

Sean Farrell

[00.38.02]

 I appreciate you having me on, Ben. Look forward to it. 

Ben Johnson

[00.38.04]

 Awesome. 

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Benjamin Johnson

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