Last updated on February 1st, 2023 at 2:48pm
Meet Matt, a multi-talented member of our Delivery and Support team. Positive attitude included - just don't ask him about cats.
1.Our team members know you as a jack of all trades. What's your day-to-day like at cloudtamer.io?
My focus at cloudtamer.io is building organic and lasting advocacy for our brand with our customers, partners, and even my peers. The bulk of this work over the last year has been spent building out training programs and content aimed to educate and inspire this audience. In 2020, we launched our Partner Training Program and have since run the week-long session four additional times, building our partner base to 60+ people from over 15 companies. Additionally, I provide ongoing training program and content support for key cloudtamer.io customers like CMS, Indeed, and Verizon.
Outside the world of training, I often work in collaboration with my peers in marketing, sales, and operations to program and create multimedia or experientially-driven content – YouTube videos, webinars, animations, music compositions, VR meeting spaces, emojis...anything that might make someone chuckle/inspired.
2. With such a range of talents, what's been your favorite project at cloudtamer.io?
Hard to choose just one favorite, but the first partner training we held was just before the pandemic lockdown. It was held at our office in Fulton, Maryland with a group of 12 partners from 7 companies spending better part of a week living and breathing nothing but cloudtamer.io. Not only did partners leave knowledgeable and confident about the cloudtamer.io platform, but they were excited by the people and culture behind the product as well as the business opportunity available. The company happy hour that capped the partner training sealed the deal for me, as I sat back and watched partners and our team come together to talk shop while listening to music, throwing darts, and having a drink or 3 to celebrate.
3. What's your go-to productivity trick?
I do my best to balance each work week with small activities that pull me away from my own immediate work and tasks. I take breaks every hour or so, walk around my home office, make some coffee, maybe listen to some music, or strike up an ad-hoc conversation with a co-worker I haven’t talked to in a while. This helps me maintain focus and energy throughout the day and helps me not burn out when faced with a heavy project load.
When it’s nice out, you’ll find me outside, work or otherwise. At least a few times a month from April – October, I’ll pack my laptop, a sandwich, and my hammock and find a secluded spot to work in the many wooded parks around Baltimore County.
4. What personality trait do you attribute most to your success?
Positivity.
The ability to stay positive, especially in stressful or high-pressure situations, was an attribute I saw and tried to emulate when working in the world of event production. Producing large one-off events is a perfect storm of working with lots of different parties, often with conflicting priorities and timetables, mixed with an endless barrage of unforeseen hurdles and tough decisions. The best event producers in the world keep cool through it all – keeping a level head and ultimately staying positive. I know that staying positive has helped me overcome some huge obstacles over the years and has helped me stand out in a world that doesn’t hesitate to focus on and amplify the negativity surrounding us today.
5. What led you to this career?
Lots of luck, lots of risk taking, and surrounding myself with insanely smart people.
I’ve had the opportunity to work in the performing arts, event production, field services, consumer electronics, brand marketing, and partner/agency management. Each of these steps was a combination of some great luck/timing while not being afraid to take on a project or role outside my comfort zone. And it was never done alone; constant collaboration with people I consider to be pioneers in their respective craft, many now who are lifelong friends.
6. It seems like you do it all. Any hidden talents you're keeping from us?
Many at cloudtamer.io still don’t know that I went to school for Vocal Performance and sang in the Mid-Atlantic region as well as over in Europe for a bit before realizing I needed to get a real job. Needless to say, my knowledge of scales and my superior breath control has not translated well to the cloud security industry.
7. Now for the fun stuff. If a movie was made about your life, who would play you?
A genetic hybrid of Sean Astin, Parks & Recs-era Chris Pratt, and that guy who played Rufio in Hook.
8. If you could snap your fingers and become an expert at one thing, what would it be?
Repairing anything electronic. My love of technology, audio, and electronics runs deep, so my home is filled with components, computers, speakers, amplifiers, and all sorts of devices that all, with time, will break or fail. Sure, I have a good soldering iron and multimeter to diagnose and fix what I can, but I’m more of a part-time Jiffy Lube mechanic than the Formula One wunderkind I dream to be.
9. This debate has been going on since our All Hands meeting: dog person or cat person?
A dog person. Furthermore, anyone that tells you they are “a cat person” is more often than not a paid actor put in place by Big Feline to perpetuate the myth that anyone can like cats.
Want to join Matt on the Solutions Delivery team? We're hiring!