Mary Thompson on The MVP Show

[mark]: 2:02
today's guest is from south carolina us a she runs her own business world max she's just hitting a second year as a rewarding for as an n v p she's known as the super woman of the inaugural dynamics in event yeah she owns that title the power she is a power a user group chapter leader at columbia south carolina she is the chief maximizer at world max whose mission is to empower people especially women and youth world max is also getting ready to open their second text center for low income is e'll drill into that in a moment you can follow it on twitter and here's a twitter handle people m m o nine o five one one it's pity that twitter doesn't have a feature to go up and up date one twitter handle which of course they do because i have changed my twitter and a monderple times anyhow welcome to the show mary thompson

[mary_thompson]: 3:04
thank you very much thank you very much i don't know if i should like kind of bob out of the way you know this i mean but that's okay

[mark]: 3:13
no and this is a second time you've been on the show of course

[mary_thompson]: 3:16
yes

[mark]: 3:16
or as on the business application podcast but on a different show you're now on mvp which is absolutely phenomenal amazing and today is about understanding your journey because it's such a cool journey um and but you know right now we just talked of er about world max a little bit so why don't we start with world max tell us what you've done there and what's happening

[mary_thompson]: 3:42
yeah i am so excited so it's kind of like this fun you know journey that i've been on and honestly it all started at a guess a ap and a day course and as things transpire you know kind of got my m b p status working with business central and kind of specifically connecting it with the power platform and now here at world max i am power platform company that specializes a very nice market of connecting specifically with business central and working with mostly business central partners and kind of coming in and adding that you to to their skill set so that they can continue with their date job but add some more i guess revenue to their to their product as well so yeah it's what we can do

[mark]: 4:30
so so tell me tell me about your community activities in the space as well

[mary_thompson]: 4:37
that's a whole nother job i feel like sometimes right i absolutely love but i'm doing a lot of different things in the community let's see here so currently the let's women dynamics is a big thing that i'm doing right so i actually work with on a podcas asked with two other m v p females right and we kind of want to say hey we want some more women in here like we're kind of tired of some of this stuff let's let's try to change it so we started podcast we call it like the untold stories right and we just have fun and kind of just talk about like some of the things that we're dealing with and we're growing or following there to kind of just again spread that awareness and community um for you know not just women but just kind of include ive inclusitivity right diversity inclusion um so that's one of the things additionally there's a other women in dynamics i'm kind of larger committee that started out of me and well directions to me an lam this last november so i am lucky enough to be able to hang out with those amazing women vicki krishleys of course the chair there and i have the amazing opportunity to work very closely and under her at bam boom cloud so that was now one of the things that she still wanted to be a part of and so i was also gracious and lucky enough to be able to do that so working in a lot of areas kind of in in women in tech always kind of doing get kind of diversity inclusion and trying to grab from from underneath you know what i mean kind of from like the depths in the reaches that people wouldn't normally think i should be in tack or i'll be good or anything like that right and so i know that you said it was the second text center but i've actually already opened the second text center so we have now to bia south carolina i'll be you know they sound really great i wish that they it takes a long time it takes a long time to really see some fruit out of them you know because it's just so new concept for for these areas but they're being they're doing really good so the first one was in like a local women's shelter sat they've had i think tech for about a year and a half now and so like the quality of life these ladies have a significant ly like different right you know or any of them power up goers will know you know but rome wasn't built in a day right but now

[mark]: 7:14
correct

[mary_thompson]: 7:15
they have access they're able to kind of get a lot of the well things some of them are doing additional training one lady got like her pair legal license so that's all great right we're going in the right direction there and then we opened up a set one just kind of a few blocks away kind of again and maybe of a like lower kind of a lower income area just kind of for the safety of the women at the shelter we had to do that but but yeah so we just got internet kind of up and going in there recently so kind of again needing to start they've been doing a lot of like one off courses so i actually have a goal to get third one is mike

[mark]: 7:58
nice

[mary_thompson]: 7:58
alders to get a third a third text center um going so kind of it more of a rural area so kind of like you mean like community downtown there's also like rural areas that i live close to so that was a thought process um as well and then i'm always just trying to do like one off like i think mentoring and helping in a i think i kind of have a brand of being quite i guess we'll call it vulnerable or or extra right just hard on the sleeve type but i love what i feel like that's a community outreach because i have so many

[mark]: 8:35
totally

[mary_thompson]: 8:35
people come up to me right and and and they're just grinding you know what i mean and they get it right they see somebody that knows you know what it's like to work hard and make something happen especially if you didn't think that you could come from that area right so i love being able to really mentor encourage a lot of it's a lot of females right i think but that's kind of very natural with with my message n i'm open to everyone but i love it's also like a special place out yeah i guess i could talk forever on that i'll leave it at that

[mark]: 9:12
this is good this is good because you don't know how many other women around the world are going to hear this and see what you're doing and say hey i could do something like this what do you need how could people help you and support you in what you're doing with with this

[mary_thompson]: 9:31
yeah so what do i need i just came from directions um and one of the conversations that we had in there um you know and whether it's just myself and other women to write this is a way that on sleep people can kind of be an ally for other women you know if you have a strong name or you have an opportunity right or basically like if you have a strong name in a specific field right if you think somebody is good right and they're adequate and maybe you're mentoring them down then share the spot like right like give them give them props like in vocal setting or like i'm sorry in like a social setting right and so you know because i was kind of saying that i was like well i don't think my session didn't get picked and that's okay right it kit kind of sounds so spoiled i can't even believe we're putting this on the recording but that's okay because it's true so m yeah and i was like okay well i get it right like my name i have a lot of qualifications right like that's what i looked at him like i feel i feel like i've spoken at many conferences i'm an m p p i sit on a couple of different things i have a huge committee community reach i was voted in by several people that were on the content board to to present for whatever reason the final say like took my name away right just find that happens to so many people but when i look at kind of like the specific content like at the end of the day the person that presented that content over me had a much higher name they've been in the industry for a very long time right and so i totally get that right we've got to fill seats but how is anyone ever going to get a big name if they don't get an opportunity at the big stage right so so that's what i look at you know whenever you see how can how can people help me well it's helping me but it's also help other people right you know whether you give like myself and in world max an opportunity to kind of meet your needs instead of going somewhere else that's obviously one thing but you know i think kind more importantly in continuing to spread that message is you know if you if you have a platform you know kind of kind of share that right and so i was asking my mentors you know could could we cope for and and they're like of course you know um to kind of share that messaging so i think that that's my answer for that mark

[mark]: 12:11
i like it i'm going to draw further though on the subject

[mary_thompson]: 12:14
okay great

[mark]: 12:17
when i say how can people help you you talked about two with the plan of a third center opening up you talked about just getting

[mary_thompson]: 12:26
check

[mark]: 12:27
internet on how things mean you know how do you fund things like internet connections how do you fund people you know with maybe lap tops or computers so they can get on because we work in the cloud d

[mary_thompson]: 12:41
right

[mark]: 12:42
and there's two fundamental things needed to make that possible one as a computer and one is internet access and we're not even talking about then electricity facilities every thing else you know

[mary_thompson]: 12:54
exactly

[mark]: 12:54
that to make a cent run

[mary_thompson]: 12:56
right

[mark]: 12:57
so i come back to how can people help you

[mary_thompson]: 12:59
okay great now that thank you for the focus there so in that capacity i literally penned for internet at dynamics called live you know i said hey molly can i just walk around and kind of share this story so it's super grass roots right now at this point right think that in ways of helping i think interesting right so fund raising is always a thing that people can help but i'm always kind of also looking for a little bit of organization or just kind of some thought leadership because i don't

[mark]: 13:42
no

[mary_thompson]: 13:42
i don't run these text centers i'm fund raising and supporting other people and it's very very grass roots right like somebody came to me nelydadenam come there like look i'll pay for it i would like to stay anonymous just let me know how i can do it and i was like well the way it works is like i call you got two options like you can just trust me and give me the money and know that i'm going to do it but that's a big ask because i don't have a lot to be able to share with it at this point because of the organization i'm working it this to grass suits or or i can call the cable company and then o know we can three weight you and then we have to three weight the other persons so that they say it's okay for you to pay a men so it's it's quite messy you know what i mean in that regards that's what we've been doing and so okay so i'm just really kind of open to ways right what i try to do is kind of git block of money all at one time right so what this what this most recent chunk of money that a fund raised for is going to cover wife services for these two buildings for the next year and so i try to do it in blocks and then i literally just call the cable company pay it there and then they like deprecate it um so yeah and i mean i'm the first time for computers just through donations and asking i spoke at a couple like rotary clubs and got some computers you know donated for this

[mark]: 15:14
nice

[mary_thompson]: 15:14
second

[mark]: 15:15
nice

[mary_thompson]: 15:15
yeah and then for the second text center again just kind of asking around bam boom cloud they did actually fully support and by i think it was five stop computers um

[mark]: 15:29
work it that's so cool

[mary_thompson]: 15:31
yeh yeh so they paid for you know all of the computers there so that's what i've been doing right so i don't i don't know i guess the help would be maybe more organization and more more thoughts you know kind of around that and i think everyone's kind of working on some of these things you know independently of everyone needs laptop rite and there there's a whole supply chain issue thing right now but

[mark]: 15:56
yeah totally have you spoken with britaristed now briterikstad so she's a bizet v p seven times n p coming

[mary_thompson]: 16:08
having

[mark]: 16:08
into an eighth and i recommend you actually reach out and chat to her about that you spoke about the in there some thought

[mary_thompson]: 16:16
yes

[mark]: 16:16
leadership things things around this because her story a very interesting story and i think that it would be worth having a chat i'm pretty sure when i was living in the u k i did a podcast with her so you might even want to go and listen to that full contact but it could be well worth you know and through your m v p portal you would be able to reach directly out to her once you're locked in so it might be worth worth worth doing that just just as an idea which is obviously podcast has taken a unique direction and i like that about it but it's worth looking at what just for those that of course come along to listen to go how can i be like mary and how can i become an n v p and and what's involved tell us what your perspective is of one how you became an n v p what was different after you became an v p so like before once you begot it and then you've been in for a while what's your what's your take aways your hind sights and things that it's worth knowing right

[mary_thompson]: 17:22
a great question so my journey how did it become an m v p it's just really a lot of engagement with the community to begin with right engagement and outreach and impact u and so you know it was just i saw when i got started in tech i was using the forums a lot because i needed the help right and then as i was you know engaging a lot in them then i started to learn the answar so then i started to answer the question and then i saw this thing like m v p right and i'm go big or go home type of girl so i want the best and whatever i am so naturally the goal became m v p right and so how do you how do you become that right and it's just i think like producing a lot of contents really sharing content sharing content and knowledge and it comes in a bunch of different mediums right whether it be you know live speaking virtuals peaking i think really became a big factor with covid right when you took that like live concept out of it and really opened the door except for a lot of people there's of course blogging video even mentring communication on forms you can actually even like add social media post as contribution is not right so like the forms of how you do it are really limitless i always just encourage people to do like whatever is most natural to them whatever is easiest to them to kind of do and like have that be like their medium because people are going to go to different people for certain things anyways right o um but anyway so i just started to create that content as well because what i wanted to be an m v p but also i understood the value and wanted to be able to give back and pay it forward as well right and that just had a really nice effect i mean i was just really genuine in what i was trying to do and and really consistent in that and yeah i can't believe the things i say on podcast but that's okay i often wonder how i got to be become an m v p as well mark because somebody nominated me i went through the application process i didn't quite understand fully how to fill out the form and then i got i got an email that said you know i didn't make it and i was like and that really stings it was quite devastated um i talked to emma darcy about it and she was like why don't you you didn't feel it the form right why don't you reply back to them and say hey you closed it a bit early like can i have a chance to know kind fix this up and so they said yes and then i was really busy and it was only like two weeks and then the power platform community conference on line happened and i was already liked ted up to be a speaker and they were only taking like thirteen people to speak in this whole thing and i was like looking at the people i was like going against and there was like i cannot win a canvas at power automate over like chris hunting verte john leaves right like these things aren't happening but then i saw a ted style talk and i was like oh that's my space right so i submitted anyway so i gave a ted style talk on how the power platform can change your life not technical just completely off the script well not of the script but that's what it was and there was these troll idiots in the in the chat and they were like booing me um and telling me like how terrible it was and everything like this like moving on like this isn't technical like and but of course the community is amazing right and they're like row like you don't know how to read a schedule you're the dummy right like all these nice things and um that was at the end of september like the twenty eighth the twenty ninth or thirtieth right and then magically on october first i got this most amazing email that said congratulations you're an m v p um so i don't know i don't know how i got to be an m v p mark but that's how i got to be an mvp

[mark]: 21:48
that's that that is an awesome story

[mary_thompson]: 21:50
i feel like they're correlated i don't really know but i don't look back i'm so grateful and so you know me thankful for it and i hope that i get to keep it for a long time but i'm going to keep doing i'm going to be the same person regardless right and i think

[mark]: 22:05
totally

[mary_thompson]: 22:05
that that's

[mark]: 22:05
totally

[mary_thompson]: 22:06
what a lot of m v ps really say and understand i mean of course your you have people in their here for like their own stage ride they just like to tooth their corn and they're really frustrating but i don't think that those people like they can't stay in b p for long because it has to be so exhausting right to be like that like to really like ride the ride and put it in everything that you have to continu to be an m p p for like years after year um you have to love it you know what you mean and it just has to be who you are and you just have to really want to help other people

[mark]: 22:41
so true mary thank you for coming on the show

[mary_thompson]: 22:43
thank you very much