Ashish Rana on The MVP Show

[mark_smith]: 0:54
Today's guest is from Ontario, Canada. He works at Velasio as the senior solution architect. He was first awarded as MVP in 2020. He speaks to various communities,university, tech talks and other in-person and virtual events.He's passionate in learning and implementing technologies like Bitcoin, Ethereum blockchain and Hyperledger blockchain.So it'll be interesting to unpack that with him.You can find links to his bio, social media, have them in the show notes. Welcome to the show Ashish.

[ashish_rana]: 1:28
Thank you very much Mark, it's a pleasure to be here with you after a long time. So I'm very inspired by your show and to become an MVP.

[mark_smith]: 1:38
So good, so good to have you on there. Tell us a bit about life in Ontario. Food, family and fun, what do you do when you're not working?

[ashish_rana]: 1:47
So I live in Toronto, Ontario.It's one of the happening cities in Canada. So what's new here? Quite a cold when compared to other parts of the world and we have very long winter time so I'm not used to the sometimes when I moved to Canada like a few years back I was not used to this kind of happening when I moved here. Now around when it comes to food I'm actually still and from when I moved here I'm more like a foodie guy.I'm not like overweight but at the same time I like to eat different kind different food and all so which is very much available in Ontario when it comes to Toronto and in the different here.People move from different places. You'll find any kind of food, everything available at a single place. If you go to any market, you find pretty much all the variety of food from different countries available and authentic things. So you can actually try different things,try different culture, get into those things, right? So it's more like a multicultural country which gives you experience on not only Canadian but also from different other parts of the world. Indians and all those different variety of cultures we have,right? So that's happened quite frequently and I'm a social guy, so I'll use to go and network with people.

[mark_smith]: 3:27
Nice, nice. What do you do in Toronto? What do you do for fun there? What do you do for fun in Toronto? What's, I know you've got the great lake there. I know there's a whole underground city in Toronto. What do you get up to?

[ashish_rana]: 3:47
Yeah, so I work from home mostly, but whenever I get a chance, I go to downtown Toronto, where you see a underground pathways. It's called Toronto Path, where whole new cities actually, like all the different places built inside it, where you simply go and walk around because it's a very cold outside. So again,that's more like a temperature control to a certain extent, which provides more like all the pretty, pretty option available, which on the top of the city. it's underground, pretty much all things are there. But now when it comes to cold,Canada is very probably like one of the best way to organize cold, like if you go to Dubai or any other country in Middle East is very hot. So they actually built infrastructure to control that temperature. So you don't feel it until unless out of 24 hours, you just go out for So similarly here, until unless you're going out for a few minutes,you'll feel cold else everything. It's pretty much temperature control, right? So you don't feel that cold even it's a six or eight months in a year, right?And again, Canada is one of the founding countries for all the new one of the technologies which we are working on as a decentralized financial or defined systems.Now what they're doing in apart from Microsoft community on the BizApp side, just what exactly they're doing, what upcoming things are coming up on the market, product side, new launches,etc. So I'm very much interested in to involved on those other communities apart from Microsoft BizApps.

[mark_smith]: 5:35
So tell us a bit about that, you know, particularly in light of what's going on in the world right now. What's your perception of these alternative finance systems?If you like that, you know, the blockchain potentially provides.

[ashish_rana]: 5:52
Sure. So blockchain, as we know, pretty much all the system at the moment. Globally, it's as application side is built on centralized system, right? We have a centralized database. If you consider any apps which you and me working on, which controlled by one network system, right? Which basically centralized the data, like control the information. What exactly I'm not going to talk about the more as a currency side of blockchain Bitcoin,but I just want to more focus on the technology side.know it's more like decentralized. So it's a distribution ledger which actually controlled by hundreds to thousands of nodes which are nothing but a network of computers.Something we learned like basics of networking when we are in schools we actually learn about how the network was, how the different layers of the networking it's exist right.So very similar concept we have on the blockchain side which basically take a reference of another information and So the ledger is so such a secure and it take a reference of one of their blocks actually and make a chain every let's say depending on the technology you work on. After every some frequency or currents the block is going to create it which stores some information. So that's again a lot of companies nowadays what they are doing. Few is based in Toronto, Ontario, some in US.a decentralized application which will be used by more like a business, let's say, take an example for Walmart or you take an example, banks in order to use, in order to not exactly replace but just try some new innovative technology, how they can provide access to their vendors, to their different departments to use the decentralized technologies, right? So that's again, it's a very kind of innovation where we are going ahead of not only using centralized technology and go into that tech space. And the next part of this whole blockchain is the currency point of view, right? Where they are financial and other things happen. You talk about the coins and other things, tokens and everything come into the picture, right? So that's a whole different world of discussion on when it comes to the tech side,right? Financial side.So I'm not a financial expert, but yeah, I try to learn as much as I can on those sides.

[mark_smith]: 8:23
Nice, nice. Is there any crossover in what you do to what you do with the power platform or dynamics?

[ashish_rana]: 8:34
Yeah, so what exactly it does, like a few years back, I, when I get introduced to the technology was one of the meetup in downtown Toronto.I liked about it and I spent some time to learn there's a tons of information available nowadays because it's again a very big community. You go to Twitter space and you'll see so many things going on around it. So it's a similar type of community which we have is Microsoft's app site. 

[mark_smith]: 9:02
Okay, so then tell me, tell me what are you specializing in on the BizApp side?

[ashish_rana]: 9:05
So what I does differently,build and get into the IBM Hyperledger, which is again very much involved in one of the foundation courses. So I actually did a certification recently just to understand this, how the tech work actually behind the technology behind the scene. And now the next phase is basically, I'm not actually not at the moment,not decided to get into an involved into full-fledged into the space. learn something new and it may help me in future to to involve in some of the new innovations, right? So,you know, things are changing very fast. So, I like to just substitute it in the market.

[mark_smith]: 9:46
I like it.

[ashish_rana]: 9:46
I'm not planning to make any make any application on blockchain, but there are certain companies who is trying to do it, right?So, because still like it's a very new space, very new technology, we don't know the future, right? How things will go, how that option will work when it comes to So that's a still I'm on I'm I'm actually keeping myself updated on the tech side and let's see how things will go right so That's that's going on but I tried to Involve as much as I can when I'm not doing anything else like not exactly doing and working on a project or designing sales or marketing application.

[mark_smith]: 12:01
Tell me about your day job. What do you do? What's your bread and butter in the BizApps world?

[ashish_rana]: 12:13
Sure, so I started my career after my MBA sometime in 2014.So how I introduced into the business application, I would just like to give a quick walkthrough. So when I was in MBA, I found and I used to teach and you learn about a lot of case studies business, failure successful and all these things, right? and all during my MBA,I personally found, there is a, in all the companies, it's either a fail or success, there is a technology behind the scene. So it's technology is more like an enablement, right? If you talk about any business right nowadays, they have website, they have actually some or multiple application running.So application nothing but the technology for us, right? You consider as let's say a customer service application or any kind of app, pick any industry.only possible with the technology. So that's one of the things I personally liked. The tech is one of the industry,which get into all the different industry and domain and penetrate inside and bring the new system and give you new perception and the whole new space for the consumer and for the customers. So that's why I thought, okay, let's get into the app or the application side of things. There was tons of different application you have.of my friend introduced me to a business application, more like a digital transformation, not focus on Microsoft, but just a application which controls some sales data. As I worked on that project after my MBA, I realized there is something big going on and I get into the more discussions, local meetups actually, understanding the network and start building the network on LinkedIn. And I personally found there is a lot going on which I knew about during that time. I get into the Microsoft business application. I joined a company as a Microsoft partner and I started working as a consultant to learn about that product, right? To learn about the business application.So from, it's almost like eight to nine years now, I'm 100% doing more like consulting, designing, architecture,and all those things. And 100% focus on CE. To go into the accept her, which is now FNO,now you have FNO retail. So I get into a retail implementation, some manufacturing implementation. Even I try to learn and get into financial implementation for FNO.And during that early stage, I personally found that this is something that's not exciting business,right?So then I get into the whole picture of customer engagement side, which is more compared to if finance is more easy to do it and create some quick values to customers, right? So that's I introduced to it. And from there, I'm able to get a good success actually working here, again, I did the same thing. I went to multiple events. I watched your videos.What exactly going on? Then I introduced to there's something called as MVP.Right. So then I understand, okay, what is an MVP? Then I start meeting people. I understand what is an MVP, how to become one and all those things, right? So I thought, okay, let's actually joined one of your 90 days mentoring session, right? Which is sometime in 2019 or 2019, I think.Which gives me tons of information how to be an MVP. And then I started following people who are existing MVP,trying to contact them and understand, get a mentorship around things. And I start contributing to community.

[mark_smith]: 16:35
I love it.

[ashish_rana]: 16:37
Yeah, so the thing is, during that whole journey,actually, found. So what I was thinking, in order to become an MVP for the first time, you have to do 100 or 120or 70, pick any random number, number of contributions. And while doing it, I found it's not about number of competition, it's not about a number of contribution,it's about how quality contribution inside it and I thought okay I have to make it very good quality content created not exactly just creating writing blocks every day for next three months right it does not make sense so then I start picking the issues and the things I'm learning in start writing blocks so sometime I in a month I, I started putting on medium.com, which is one of the blog, the content website, which gives more reach to me. It's like,if I just focus on WordPress, which is limited, right? So the blocks I return in 2020 or 2021, it gives me average view of right now, 6,000 to 7,000 in a quarter. So if you consider, let's say, every single block I return, which give me view of the 15 to 16,000 views in a year.So that's I realized that's a power of the quality you need to write. So then I focused on writing. I keep writing it, I publishing it, and at the same time, I thought let's get into speaking also. Let's get into virtual or in-person events and start speaking and build all those things. So I try to do all the different type of contribution serving community, right?So that's something I started doing it and the whole thing started for the MVP side. Then one day I thought okay I think I'm good I'm ready for to be an MVP so I reach out to MVP let please nominate me and Joel Instron one of the MVP he recommended me and he promote me and actually now I'm sitting here almost like third or fourth

[mark_smith]: 19:10
I love it, I love it, I love it. Last question for you, what's been the best thing since becoming an MVP?

[ashish_rana]: 19:18
The best thing after becoming an MVP is the network actually, the kind of network I'm able to build after being an MVP. It's not about title, it's about how you are serving people and what kind of contribution you are able to make. So contribution in a sense,mentorship. In last two to three years, I'm able to mentor almost like 25 people who are now joined one these guys was not sure what exactly they are going to do and how to be a part of the, let's say, Power Platform Consulting or Business Application Consulting, right? So that's one of the things because they reach out to me. I'm able to provide a mentorship. I use, ask them to just follow your heart and the path where you want to go, right? And that makes a big impact at the end of the day, right? Because we are providing the some real changes in the community.