 Everybody, this is Christian Buckley doing another MVP buzz chat, and I'm talking today with Kat. Hello. Hi. So Kat, so for folks that don't know you, who are you, where are you, and what do you do? Who am I? I am Kat Schneider. I'm the wizard that everybody refers to, or at least that's what I've started going by is the wizard. But I am in Florida. I work for a company in Napa Valley, California, called N-Site. And I am basically a power platform developer for them. So this is my first IT job, career switcher over here. Well, proper. So you were, as we say, you were in industry prior? I was in the government public sector prior to this for 15 years or almost 15 years. So yes. Well, there's an adventure. Just telling us again to somebody, it's like I've worked in with product companies that had huge public sector divisions, like never touched the space, never like occasionally I'm brought in as the product guy and they're talking to people and I know plenty of people that it is like, but never had any activity in it. So how is it, how, what's the difference, you know, between government and non-gov? So biggest difference is actually the information that gets put out on documentation for things that work and don't work actually work because I'm in the commercial space. Whereas before, you know, I'd spend a couple of hours trying to make something work that I saw, you know, either Shane Young or Matt Zivani or, you know, anybody putting out there. And it was like, yeah, this doesn't work because this doesn't apply to GCC tenants. Like, sorry, and it's only like written somewhere deep down in the documentation somewhere that you're like, I just spent four hours working on this. Why? You know, you would think that there would be like some enterprising MVP or somebody that would put up just a real simple chart, a comparison thing. Are you doing that? Are you building that? I am attempting to actually provide GCC specific content. So anybody who's working in the US territories that are in GCC, that's what I'm attempting to put together because that's what I did for 15 years is I was in GCC. I was trying to make SharePoint work, trying to make power apps and power automate work and are you so I could go, let's say, go to your site. Well, I'd be able to find here's the feature in commercial. Here's the in GCC. Here's what's works in GCC. Hi, like, are you doing that kind of comparison? Not quite that much. But what I am attempting to do is I'm attempting to build up my content on my website so that anybody who's starting in the power platform, they can get into it and actually start to understand the bits and pieces starting from the beginning, starting from your data. What is this type of data? Why is it important? How does it get used, consumed, put spitback out because of it going through the power apps or power automate or Power BI, whatever it is. But then also like giving some tips and tricks on various things that some people just didn't really think of when they were using power apps. Like power apps is my my thing. Like I love power apps because it essentially is what I was doing in Excel, building in macros and all of that, but online with easier access to the data instead of having to go through ODBC connections and trying to verify that this is there and that's over there and everything's working together. So we started down the path talking about like how have you got in? What was your path to becoming an MVP? So you're building this stuff. So kind of who discovered you? What was the story there? So working in the government space for 15 years. There there's no real like even thought to going down MVP because MVP just does not apply to anybody in the public sector. There's ethical bits and pieces associated with that. So I was actually helping build community within our organizations. Like I presented at our OIT statewide meeting, I think in August of 2020. The Power BI report that I spent a month working on going, hey, look at this really cool feature and look at all these amazing things that you can do with Power BI. Almost immediately switched it up to Power Apps and Power Automate. And I think in October is when we started with our community of practice. And it was just like, I think five, six of us by the time I left the organization, we were up over 300 members within the organization that were in this community of practice and it was more than just Power BI. It was the entire power platform, plus SharePoint, plus teams, all of that. And just anybody and everybody who wanted to work or learn or grow within the power platform and teams, like we were just there for each other. And we kind of had like an internal group that, you know, you see it on the internet in the community as a larger group. But then I went to the Microsoft power platform conference on a whim. I was like, if I'm going to go do power platform stuff, let me go to the first power platform conference. Went to that. I met up with or actually I presented during the community call at live in person in my wizard robes and my wand. But Chris Cognata came up to me afterwards and he was like, hey, I want to talk to you about getting Microsoft MVP. Like seem like the perfect personality for somebody who wants to be an MVP. And I was like, oh, wow, that's that's kind of cool. I hadn't really thought about that because I was in the public sector. So it wasn't something that I thought I'd ever get. Yeah. Um, and then ended up accepting the job that I'm in now. And back in April, like mid April is when I guess the summit was going on. The MVP summit. Yep. And Chris had emailed me like that the end of it, the Thursday, something like that. And he's like, Hey, I just wanted to let you know, I just nominated you for MVP. And I was like, Oh my God, seriously. So I got that that afternoon and never ever. He's like, you got to fill it out now. You got to do it now. I was like, OK, cool. Like filling it out before the end of April. So I could get it in for the month of May to be considered. And then June 1st, I got the email that says, hey, you're an MVP. Congratulations. So so now that you're a seasoned month long MVP, like what are your takeaways from that process? Don't sign up for the NDA emails on your regular email address that you get all your rest of your stuff in. Yes, because it will get lost. Yeah. So that that was my biggest that I always tell new MVPs to is that it's and there are so many of those so many of those in email. So for everybody else that watch it, it's it's I mean, you have these NDA calls with the various parts of the product teams that are out there. You've got like a monthly call with your category. So there's a business applications call. I've got my M365 apps and services monthly call. But then there's half a dozen others like I'm involved in the teams stuff. I do some power platform stuff. I'm involved in Microsoft for startups calls. I'm involved like there's a bunch of different things. And sometimes it's overwhelming. They'll send you a list of like here, everything that's going on. And not surprisingly, some of them overlap. And so you have to make a decision of which one you want to go to. And and so like, you know, like the Viva stuff that I was really getting involved in the last year and a half, all of them overlap the other existing ones. And so I just had to make a decision and, you know, just don't make many of the Viva calls, watch recordings instead. So it's easy to get, you know, too wrapped up in that. So my advice is always like, you don't have to say yes to everything, you know, watch the recordings. But otherwise, you know, then somebody at your company is asking, it's like, why are you on so many of these calls? Yeah, no, it's been interesting because I'm the first MVP for a company. Our company is only 140 people. They've been around for 15 something years, but they've never had a Microsoft MVP before. And so I got it. And as soon as I was nominated, I was like, oh, I can't say anything. I can't say anything. If I say anything, I'm going to jinx it. And then I let it slip in a meeting with a whole bunch of people. And I was like, oh, gosh. So then I had to like send a quick message to our three like the three partners who basically started up for company. And I was like, hey, guys. So I just wanted to let you know before I made it through the great fund that I got a nomination for Microsoft MVP. And yeah, so just heads up. And I think this is the most amazing thing ever. This is so cool. This is really going to help us as far as like moving forward within the what we're trying to do as an organization. And I was like 100 percent. Like MVPs were get access to some of this information before it goes live and public. And it helps us to then better, you know, move our clients in the appropriate direction for the changes that are coming. So if we want to be the best MSP in the world, then, you know, what better way to do that? It's surprising about that. How many how many leaders and I've worked for companies that have I've been now almost 12 years as an MVP. And I've worked for a couple of companies where they were not supported at all. And and and so and I just had to be very careful that I'm doing MVP things my evenings, my weekends, you know, kind of my time. And it's made it difficult to even to join calls. But sometimes, you know, which is just unfortunate because it's just short-sighted because it's it's just a huge. It is an advantage to companies to have MVPs as employees. You have that visibility, you have a that louder voice within the community to be able to go do things. It's going to open up doors for customers and partners and Microsoft Access and lots of things. Yeah. And especially for for customers, because I have these and sorry, excuse me, words. But talking to Matthew Devaney and talking about, you know, how much work that he's been doing in the community because he's been really helpful as far as helping me build up my blog and get that going. But, you know, talking to him, he says, you know, he gets people, customers now who reach out to his company and want to do work because he's a part of that company, you know. So even just getting your name out into the community, out onto the interwebs and people finding you and be like, hey, I want to I want that person to come work on my project. Like that's even more like. Street credit, if you will, for your company. So, you know, that that brings in some some dollars sometimes. So I don't know. It's it's kind of cool. What so what what what things are you passionate about right now? Like what what technologies? What things are you really like? What are you talking about presenting on right now? So really what I want to present on. And it's kind of a funny story with David and Hugo. They've now called me the Jason Whisperer is, you know, I find Jason to be incredibly helpful, especially because I'm working in power apps. I'm working in Power Automate. Power BI I am also like in that space, like the big three, if you will, the power platform and just getting people to understand the difference between what is a number and what is a string? Like if I have a one and it's just by itself, that one is a one. It's a number. But if I have a one and it's in double quotes or single quotes, that's a string. And there's a big difference in the way that the system is going to handle those. And if you need it to act as a number, you're going to have to make a transformation if it's a string. If it's a number and you need to act as a string, you're going to have to do a transformation that way too. So understanding data types, but also just understanding how to use the various tools, like specifically within power apps. Like I might have walked myself into a hole with Michael Roth and said that I was going to do a whole blog series on the power apps forms control and understanding that because he just randomly put out on Twitter. He's like, so what have you like mastered lately? And I was like, forms controls, I own those things now. I know exactly when things go into the control, when they get manipulated through the control and how they get out of the control. And he's like, what? I want to see this. So I tried to put it forth for MPPC 23. It didn't get selected, but that's not to say that I have no hopes for getting selected in other events in the future. So I do plan on giving that presentation if it will get selected. Well, you know, that's the kind of thing there's lots of user groups in regional events that would love that kind of stuff. So like we were talking about, I've got a session I'm doing in August in Australia, which I'm going to do after that. I'm actually, it's a larger event, but I'm gonna be kind of cutting my teeth on that one, trying some things out. And then I've got some user groups that I'm gonna be doing later in the fall around it to further refine it. And then we'll likely, and this is for those that don't present, I already have an idea of splitting that into at least two different sessions. So two different titles, but built off of that same content based off of the feedback, based off of those interactions or lack of interaction that you're telling as well, but you constantly evolve those things and try things out. But yeah. No, I've definitely thought about doing the user groups because it seems like the user groups you have more opportunities to present, whereas you also don't have to necessarily be in person sometimes. Right. And me being here in Florida and some of these user groups being all over the place, like it would give me more of an opportunity to get out there and give those presentations than an in-person event at a conference where everybody's there and they're paying lots of money for and it's just all over the place. It's a different level of stress around that. It can be nerve-wracking depending on it because you want to give quality, you want to give people what they want and need for that. Yeah. You know, user group, you can be a bit more relaxed and make it more of an interactive, more of a conversation, share what you've done, the ideas there, then talk about it. So it's just different. I wish that a lot of the bigger events were more like that. Yeah. Well, so I just went to EPPC 23. It was a fantastic event, but there were so many sessions that I wanted to go to that I had to pick and choose which ones am I going to? And if they would have just allowed even just, not just the slides, but some of those presentations because a lot of the slides with the content that was being given, it was demos. So, you know, without seeing the demo and you have three or four slides that are like, hey, this is what we're going to do here and this is what we're going to do there. Right. You don't really get the content. It's useful. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's, hey, that's been the benefit. One huge benefit of doing hybrid is being able to make a lot of that content more accessible but now is in-person events start springing up again. I know plenty of people, long-time MVPs that don't record their sessions because they only do, they only do those sessions for paid training or paid events. And so that they hold on to that intellectual property which can't blame them. That's their... It's their right. You'll take it. Yeah. That if somebody's going to pay for it, I totally understand, you know, keeping that under lock and key. Yep. So... Well, very cool. Well, Kat, great meeting you and talking about your origin story here. So, that's the way I would like to phrase it anyway. So, for folks that want to reach out with you, connect with you. Like, where do they find you? Where are you most active in social? So, I'm active on LinkedIn and Twitter. Both of them as you're a wizard cat, but you're as in Hagrid saying you're, Y-E-R, a wizard cat. So, that and then my website is yourwizardcat.com. Very cool. Well, I'll have those course links that are out on the blog post. It'll be out on the YouTube and out on, you know, be able to find it out on the podcast as well. And hope to see you. I'm sure you'll be there at the next MVP summit next spring. But are you doing the Power Platform event in Vegas as well later this year? I will be there. Yes. I will probably be there as well. So, we may have to catch up there. Yes. I know Lindsay and Natalie, Lindsay Shelf and Natalie Linders. We're both talking about, yes, we're gonna be there and we are going to, you know, celebrate our MVPs while we get, or when we get there. So, we're getting around to drinks to celebrate. So. Well, congratulations again on your new MVP. Thank you. I appreciate it. Talk to you soon. Yep. Thank you for having me. I'm gonna have a good one. Wow. Wow.