Navigating IT Challenges: Mousa Hamad's Blueprint for Business Success

Freddy D: 00:01:46

Hey Superfans superstar Freddie D.

Here in this episode, we're joined by Musa Hamad, a dynamic IT and operations leader with nearly two decades of experience transforming technology teams and infrastructure from the ground up.

Moussa's journey began on a help desk and has grown into a career managing large IT operations, multimillion dollar procurement initiatives and digital transformation projects across the globe. With a deep background in enterprise technology and SaaS, Musa is known not just for his technical acumen, but for his People first leadership style.

He's built procurement departments from scratch, unified complex IT functions and mentored high performing teams to success. Here's a fun fact.

For a time he served as Paul Allen's personal IT professional, giving him a front row seat to the intersection of elite tech and visionary leadership.

Musa brings a unique perspective that blends strategic vision with hands on experience, making complex challenges approachable for both tech professionals and business leaders alike. Get ready for a conversation packed with actionable insights on cost management, IT strategy and a human side of innovation.

Freddy D: 00:03:04

Let's dive in. Welcome Moussa, to the Business Superfans podcast.

Mousa Hamad: 00:03:09

Glad to be here. Appreciate the time.

Freddy D: 00:03:11

Yeah, we're excited. So tell us a little bit about your backstory. You've been in the IT world for a long time, but how did you get there? What's the story?

Mousa Hamad: 00:03:20

Yeah, absolutely. It's one I love to tell. Went to college for Government International Politics and only chose that major because it was natural and easy for me.

School was not a great fit. I ended up not finishing and did a little bit of work in various areas. Got hooked up with some temp agencies. It turned out I could type really fast.

I didn't know that was a marketable skill until somebody told me. Bounced around a little bit and moved to Memphis, Tennessee with a woman I was dating and couldn't quite find a job or the thing I wanted to do.

But I was really adept at fixing her dad's computer. I didn't have the heart to tell him I would just Google things and figure it out, but that's what I would do.

One day, out of the blue, he comes and he says to me, hey. He was a CFO at an automotive group that had a couple Cadillac and Saab dealerships. He said, hey, we need an IT guy.

I remember this conversation like it was yesterday because it changed my life. I said to him, I don't know the first thing about computers. And he said, fake it. And so he hired me on I showed up day one, I said, where do I start?

He said, inventory and So I started going around taking inventory and machines. As I was doing that, people started asking me questions.

And then it just seemed logical to set up a ticketing system and it all kind of just made sense. And what really drew me to it was solving people's problems, providing good support to them and enabling them to do their jobs.

From there I landed a couple of different help desk roles, kind of entry level type stuff.

I would say the big cutting of my teeth was at a law firm called Perkins Coie, which has actually been recently in the news because of an executive order that was signed by President Trump. And from there I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to provide direct IT support to Paul Allen for a couple of years, which was really neat.

But supporting high net worth individuals can be a little taxing and exhausting from a travel perspective. And from there I pivoted into management and was able to convince a consulting company in Washington to give me a shot as their first IT manager.

So they had managed service provider and they wanted to bring it all in house and then dovetailed into SaaS World, a medium sized SaaS company. And I've worked for large enterprise company called Ziff Davis as well. And it just kind of all cascaded from there.

Along the way I did the tech thing, also picked up the procurement thing and then site operations, interestingly enough, management of the facilities. I always joke, I tell people I made my career on doing the things nobody wanted to do.

There's not a lot of glamour in managing of purchasing or back office it, but I took a lot of pride in it and enjoyed the aspect of customer service. One thing led to another. I was able to put together a career I'm pretty proud of.

Freddy D: 00:05:56

Well, you said an important point back there, Moussa.

You started out working customer service and that is a challenging position because you're dealing with people that are unhappy because something is not working on their system or whatever it is. You've got to be a saint to be dealing. You have to have enormous amount of empathy as well as patience.

And you've got to come across as caring to solve their problems. Sometimes it's just the fact that they're able to vent to somebody was what they really needed. And the problem wasn't that big of an issue.

Probably a 10 second fix. It's like somebody not being able to find a remote control and be able to turn on the tv.

Mousa Hamad: 00:06:44

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:06:44

And it's simple as that. But the fact that they got it off their chest, they feel like they're wonderful and really appreciate it.

And they became a super fan just because of the fact that you listened to.

Mousa Hamad: 00:06:54

Yeah. I'll say two things to that.

The first is I've often told people one of the jobs that actually prepared me the most for my life in the corporate world was waiting tables.

You think about the idea that you're there to provide exceptional service to a person who's coming to spend their hard earned money on an experience along with the food and the skill set of anticipating need, the skill set of providing service in the face of less than ideal conditions, being able to prioritize things were really things that I picked up along the way.

As I progressed in my career and advanced more into the leadership side of information technology, I often had this tough track that I would give to people that said, look, you can go about supporting people one of two ways. You can be standoffish and be the typical IT person, or you can provide exceptional support with grace and empathy.

If you're going to do the former, you better be really good at your job because people are not going to tolerate otherwise. But if you do the latter, you're going to get a little bit of grace because you're not going to be able to solve every problem right away.

You build a relationship and that's how you make those super fans within the business.

Freddy D: 00:08:02

Yeah, it's all about the relationships. And you said, another key thing that I want to emphasize is creating that experience, because that's what people are going to remember.

They're going to remember how you made them feel. Yeah.

Mousa Hamad: 00:08:16

There's a quote that somebody has said.

Freddy D: 00:08:18

Where it's like, remember what you still remember how you made them feel.

The whole experience of whether you're onboarding a company with a new IT system, how that experience, what the expectations you set up for that business, because you set up the proper expectations, you minimize challenges internally for that business because at least they have an idea of what's going to happen, what's going to take place, and they can plan appropriately for their business versus being in a reactionary mode. So if you set that up, you've already started to create a super fan out of that business because they can know, okay, we got to pivot.

This is not going to work. This is going to be shut down. They can plan and that creates an experience that they can say, man, Musa really set us up nicely.

Mousa Hamad: 00:09:07

Yeah, and I'll add a little bit to that, too. One of the things is if you build that solid foundation and you do all that great work that you said, but lead and lean in with empathy.

You create an environment where we all know, what does Mike Tyson say the plan is? Everybody's got a plan till they get punched in the mouth. Nothing's ever going to go perfectly.

So when you've created that relationship with your customer partner, you're better suited and able to handle any pivots that are required to achieve the outcome.

Freddy D: 00:09:34

Oh, absolutely. Correct. Stuff's gonna happen. But if you've got that relationship to your point earlier, they're gonna go, okay, well, you know, Musa's working on it.

Hey, he's got it and he's gonna take care of it versus the other guy. They're gonna say, this guy's supposed to be an expert, you know, and all of a sudden the whole conversation is different.

This guy's full of crap and maybe he's not and it just. Train wreck.

Mousa Hamad: 00:09:57

No, absolutely.

Freddy D: 00:09:59

So that's really the fun. So let's talk a little bit about how you evolved into the leadership role.

Mousa Hamad: 00:10:06

Yeah, because I mentioned earlier I was doing a little bit of that high net worth individual support and realizing that wasn't really sustainable. And I think, I don't think this is true for everybody, but this was true for me. I reached a point in my career where I had a decision to make.

Did I want to become a more technical resource to a business or that I want to focus more on the leadership side. For me, as much as I love the tech, the idea of becoming an expert in just a couple of things and focusing on that wasn't exciting.

I've been playing sports since I was 5 years old. I've coached youth sports all the way through adulthood. I'm just obsessed with the idea of building teams.

It was a natural progression for me to want to go to the management track. It's difficult to break into that. I was very fortunate. I found a company that was looking to hire their first IT manager.

You know, we talk about an NFL draft. You try to find high value picks in the later rounds. I convinced them that I was that late round pick that would have high upside.

They took a chance on me as their IT manager with no experience. And the benefit to them was I wasn't big salary heading. They gave me that opportunity.

Once I was able to slide into that seat, it felt natural, you know, recruiting, hiring people, getting them to work in a cohesive way, focusing on the support of the business and helping grow the business. One of the biggest things that served me well in leadership was advice my mom gave me. When I became a supervisor at a bagel shop when I was 15.

My mother was a restaurant manager her whole career. And she said, don't ever ask your people to do something they haven't seen you do.

When taking that and leaning into the building of teams, it just kind of all felt really natural for me and I've always enjoyed it.

Freddy D: 00:11:46

Yeah, that's where good leadership comes in because you've got to be able to get in the trenches with the team. I've been in leadership roles for a while.

In the last opportunity I was involved with, I really helped get some of the people transformed because I was in there doing the things that they needed. It was teaching them by doing it with them. That was the approach they used to help several individuals learn a process and set up an SOP for them.

But I did it with them. So we created it together, the SOP for the task that we were looking for. So we both had ownership in it. It wasn't me directing it.

This is the way you're doing it. We worked. We created it together. They had complete ownership. One of the things that I've learned is that's one of the game changers in management.

Get ownership of the team.

Mousa Hamad: 00:12:41

Ownership of the team. Part of the way you do that is by giving them ownership of the outcome they're trying to drive.

You're centered around the idea of building super fans. The importance for any business is that often overlooked function. Those folks in the back office doing it work.

If you drive them and get good engagement and satisfaction, that's infectious to the rest of the business. It drives a good outcome. It does start with leading from the front. Big believer in that.

So what you said resonated in terms of being alongside them and building those processes and things like that.

Freddy D: 00:13:11

Because you're doing it together.

It's very different if you tell somebody to do something versus saying, let's work on this thing together and then at some point let them continue running with it. That's where a transfer of ownership takes place. When you empower people. Successful businesses understand this. They know how to empower their people.

Unsuccessful businesses have more of a directive boss employee mindset. And that never ends well.

Mousa Hamad: 00:13:43

No, it doesn't. I think a lot of people miss an opportunity where there's those types of folks that lean into the idea of being directive leaders.

I've found that you can still direct, but it's a lot more effective when you ask questions, when you ask well positioned and well timed questions. And hopefully you've built a type of team where those types of questions aren't off putting. It's like, oh, this is something I didn't consider.

This is something I didn't think about. And it drives a different type of conversation.

Freddy D: 00:14:12

Absolutely.

Mousa Hamad: 00:14:13

Yeah. And gets away from just dictating orders, which nobody wants to work in that environment.

Freddy D: 00:14:19

No. And now you've created a camaraderie in this because now it's more of a brainstorming session.

Even though it's a leadership approach, but it becomes a brainstorming session and everybody walks away like, wow, that was great. We got this thing figured out and everybody's happy.

Mousa Hamad: 00:14:35

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:14:36

So let's pivot a little bit here, Moussa, and share a story of someone that had an IT situation and you came in and turned that thing around.

Mousa Hamad: 00:14:48

Well, I think I would have to go back. I always say either, like, the build or rebuild teams.

Probably one of the ones I'm most proud of was the first one at the consultancy where there was no IT infrastructure. You come in, there's no staff. They'd hired one other individual to work alongside me.

Luckily, we built a really good bond and actually remained friends till today. He's ascended to being a director of IT himself at a company. I'm very proud that I had a hand in helping guide and mold him. I think that was it.

The expectations of that business, of the tech support they received, was very low. There was no real formalized process. You were lucky to get feedback and response within a few days on any issues. The networks were spotty.

All these things that you don't want out of your IT infrastructure, they don't enable your people to do their job, which drives revenue for the business. What we did was we chopped wood. We said, what's the first thing we gotta do?

Well, the plumbing's broken, so let's get reliable Wi Fi, let's get reliable ISPs. Let's get that rolling. Once you focus on that. Okay, that's great.

Now, the biggest thing that you've done by getting the plumbing to work is you've gained the confidence of people around you because now they're not having to worry about, am I even going to be able to reach SharePoint or get to my email without using the hotspot on my phone. From there, it very quickly became conversations with business leaders. A really big emphasis for me.

Anywhere I've ever gone is I set up monthly syncs with all leaders of various groups to understand, hey, what big things do you have coming? What's going on in your world? What are you worried about? What is working? What isn't working for you.

And you take that information and feedback, it informs how you prioritize the initiatives and the things you're going to do. So you learn things like, oh, the computers we're rolling out really aren't up to spec for what the business needs.

So we go out and take care of that. And you just chop wood a little bit at a time. Then you have the need.

You hire another person, you make sure that they're a good culture fit that focuses on the customer support aspect. You put in a ticketing system, you're building the foundation and you're earning trust.

And that trust gets you the feedback that informs what you need to do to better support the business. And I don't think.

I mean, there's been multiple places where I've been part of a turnaround of a department, but I think your first one's always one that you're proud of. Right. And in that situation where it really wasn't ground up, built, I took a lot of pride in doing that.

And all the people that I did it alongside and keep in touch with most of them till today. In fact, one of the folks that worked with me, a young lady, just had her first child and she sent me a picture, said, hey, just had the first kid.

And so that's when you know you've built something special with a team. When we're talking 10 years later, they're still in touch with you, sharing about what's going on in their lives.

Building that team is what allowed us to be successful, which ultimately drove the success of the business. That particular business, Blueprint Technologies, was the fastest privately held company in the state of Washington at the time.

When I started as their IT manager, we went from 300 to 700 employees in 18 months. It was definitely a badge of honor that we built them up and scaled them quickly.

Freddy D: 00:17:50

We had a couple of things that I want to reiterate. The people, especially in technology, can get frustrated when stuff doesn't work. And that frustration affects their attitude at the office.

It affects their productivity and the business overall. If they're frustrated because stuff's not working, they can't just flip it off.

That frustration can be carried over to a prospective customer, an existing customer. So for SMBs to really think about that technology, because in today's world, we live by it. When I was working one company, the Internet went down.

Everybody got frustrated because they can't do their jobs. It just turned into a negative thing.

Mousa Hamad: 00:18:34

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:18:35

The other thing that you brought up, and I want to reemphasize is making sure your technology is current. Years ago, I got picked to speak at the Mold Makers Association. I was selling manufacturing software at the time, but I was told, I can't sell.

I cannot talk about my product. I'm supposed to provide value and education. So I was like, what am I going to talk about?

And I came up with something that really hit people right across the forehead. And that was compute time. Because if you think of engineering, especially in the manufacturing space, the system's got to calculate to generate.

Especially if you're doing programming for milling machines, lathes, and wire EDMs, it's got to calculate the tool path and everything else that may take 15, 20 minutes back then to do the calculation before it displayed the output. So what's that guy doing for 20 minutes?

Mousa Hamad: 00:19:37

Whittling his thumbs.

Freddy D: 00:19:39

Whirling his thumbs. And now that tool path is not exactly correct. He makes another tweak. Guess what makes the tweak? Just keeping it simple.

You calculate two hours a day times loss. Now take the company's burden rate times those two hours, times five days, times four weeks.

And I says, you're too cheap to spend 6, 7, $10,000 on upgrading the computer. You're spending that so you get faster productivity. So your guy's not sitting there twiddling his thumbs for two hours a day.

He never looked at it from that perspective.

Mousa Hamad: 00:20:19

Right.

Freddy D: 00:20:19

You could see the blank looks on their face. And then everybody's kind of going, wow, that makes sense.

People came up to me and started asking me questions after the presentation, but I went through a whole presentation of think time. That person's thinking, so he's not being productive because he's, you know, he's being productive, but he's thinking.

And to the point that you were making. And that's where I was going with making sure you're running the most efficient technology. So you're maximizing your.

Throughput is everything in today's world.

Mousa Hamad: 00:20:52

It is. And so many businesses try to thread that needle. Years ago, one of the jobs I had, he was at a law firm.

And I developed a really good relationship with many of the partners. One of them always cracked me up because he'd see me in the hallway go, hey, overhead, what's up?

So many businesses think of the back office IT function and it is overhead. Let's not get it twisted. But if that is not operating well, you are losing money in the front of the house.

Freddy D: 00:21:18

Exactly what I just said.

Mousa Hamad: 00:21:20

I think so many folks need it. I don't want to beat Your audience over the head with it.

Freddy D: 00:21:24

But that needs to. Yeah, because it's cheap money today, especially back then, we're talking tens of thousands of dollars.

Today you go to Costco and pick up a new laptop under a thousand bucks, but it's faster and does a multitude of other things.

Mousa Hamad: 00:21:41

Yeah.

And I think part of it is, I think there's a challenge with a lot of folks in technology that they've resigned themselves to accepting that the business is not going to be willing to spend. And so they're almost not willing to push their ownership or their CEOs in a way. And again, you hit the nail on the head.

You can get a CEO to pay attention when you start talking about money out the door.

So many folks in tech leadership and back office functions, if they were to focus on that, I think they would find that they would drive better outcome for their budgets, which would allow them to serve the business better. Let's not get it twisted.

machine when an $: 1800

Freddy D: 00:22:31

.: 0000

Mousa Hamad: 00:22:59

Right.

Freddy D: 00:23:00

And if you implement some better technology, some better follow up systems, you could, you know, just a small increase would be significant to your business.

Mousa Hamad: 00:23:10

Right? Yeah, yeah.

But getting folks to make that investment understand that I think that's what's incumbent on us as leaders of those functions, which are often overlooked in terms of the value they add to the business. We have to find a way, tell a story to our ownership groups and to our CEOs that meets them where they are.

One of the things that I learned early on is my problem is not the most important problem to the business.

Even if I go to them and say I need these two firewalls that are $10,000 and if we get them, it'll solve our bandwidth problem, all they've heard is that I need $10,000. I've got to tell them why. I need that $10,000 and why it drives value to their bottom line to get them to come along.

So I think when you talk about technology leaders and folks that lead those back office functions, we have to become better storytellers. We have to be able to meet our audience where they are to drive the outcome that we're seeking.

Freddy D: 00:24:04

Well, I'm going to make it real simple. CEOs after three things. What's it cost me, what's it do for me, and how fast am I going to make my money back and make a profit?

Mousa Hamad: 00:24:16

That's right.

Freddy D: 00:24:17

No more than percent. There's no more than that.

Mousa Hamad: 00:24:20

I read this article and it talked about when you're trying to ingrain something into someone, three things is a sweet spot. You do more than that, you've overloaded them with information. You do less than that, you haven't given them enough.

You went to the three things and you hit those three things. Well, you should be able to drive the result that you want.

Freddy D: 00:24:41

Absolutely. I mean, that's how I used to sell. I got out of the technical aspect because that's not what they're interested in.

There are three, four other software tools in the same space. They all do the job. My conversation wasn't about how well we can do this and flip that. I mean, where's the business strategy, where you want to go?

This is what it's going to do for you. This is his investment and this is how fast you're going to make your money back.

We had that type of a conversation and I blew away all the competition because they were busy talking about features and benefits. I'm talking business strategy.

Mousa Hamad: 00:25:15

Yeah, that's storytelling and I think you're able to do that. When you came into those discovery calls and conversations, you asked a lot of questions. You learned quite a bit.

And I think that's one of the things I would impart to your audience.

Those folks in that SMB space that when they're going out to purchase, look for the people that are seeking to learn about you and your business because they're going to empower you to then go back and sell internally and think you would have been the type of partner that I would have gravitated to. The folks that are just saw this feature and that feature, to your point, they're going to miss out eventually.

Freddy D: 00:25:48

And you know what you're doing too. You're creating that super fan internally that you partnered with to start talking and learning about that business.

They're the ones that's going to be promoting you internally to the upper management.

One of the things I used to do, which was a lot of fun, is I would do a whole ROI and sit down with the engineering manager or the manufacturing manager and we will put together the roi. Whose roi? Was it mine or was it theirs?

Mousa Hamad: 00:26:16

Well, it was theirs, Freddie. But I will say one thing. I don't know that anybody's ever described building an ROI as fun. So you're definitely a unique animal in that way.

But it certainly was the ROI for the business for sure.

Freddy D: 00:26:28

Right.

Mousa Hamad: 00:26:28

They owned it. You were providing a service in that way.

Freddy D: 00:26:31

Because now I gave the tools to my inside superfan, wanted the technology, they had the tools. When they presented it, it wasn't diluted.

Where I created it, transferred it to them, and then they tried to explain it to the management, it was theirs.

Mousa Hamad: 00:26:48

Yeah, that's really good.

And I think when we talk about those technology leaders and back office leaders, you start by building super fans within the team and they become an asset to you and to the business. But it's also important to build superfans with those vendors and those relationships that you're trying to build.

They give you the tools to enable what the business does. And I think if you do those two things, the third domino is your customer base.

And when I talk about customer base, I'm talking about internal employees to a business. Because as an IT leader, that's who I'm serving. If I serve them well, then the fourth domino is we go out and get customers that use our product.

That's where the CEO gets met and says, oh, this is why Musa wants to go buy these two firewalls.

Freddy D: 00:27:34

Right.

Mousa Hamad: 00:27:34

To circle it back to that example.

Freddy D: 00:27:36

Oh, yeah, absolutely correct. And really, it takes the whole ecosystem to be involved. You need to transform that whole ecosystem.

What I call business superfans, brand advocates, superfans schooler. Now you got a supplier, you're in a bind. You've got a good relationship with the supplier.

They're going to go out of their way to help you through that bind.

If you've always been complaining to that supplier about why this delivery is late and that didn't show up and this was the wrong part, stuff happens, right? But you handle it with finesse and say, hey, you know, John, I appreciate the ship. It's the wrong part.

They're still really grateful for your effort to get it out here. Can you get us the next one tomorrow and we'll be fine. You didn't chastise them.

Mousa Hamad: 00:28:20

Can't beat him over the head for a Mistake.

Freddy D: 00:28:23

Yeah. And so they're going to go out of their way because you handled it eloquent to make sure it's taken care of.

And then in the future, they're going to remember you. Two other companies are looking for a particular part who's going to get favored 100%.

Mousa Hamad: 00:28:37

100%. That's spot on.

It goes back to the thing we talked about, where if you're supporting somebody, you can be prickly about it or you can be empathetic about it. And that latter approach is always going to yield better results. What's the saying? You catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar.

So I think that applies with the people you support. It applies with the people that you buy from. It applies the whole ecosystem.

Freddy D: 00:29:02

It's everybody. You got distributors, you've got suppliers, you've got ancillary businesses, you've got complimentary partners.

Mousa Hamad: 00:29:11

Yeah, I'll tell you a really good example of that. When I was at a company during the start of the lockdowns for the pandemic, a large portion of our workforce were on desktops.

Now all of a sudden, we've sent everybody home and I had a supplier that I worked with and I needed 500 laptops, had a really good relationship with the supplier. We met weekly. It was cordial. We had a text thread where we would talk sports. It was a really good dynamic with these folks.

Well, guess who got 500 computers pretty quick. Right.

And then you look like a superhero because you've made super fans of your supplier, who then are going to put you at the top of the list when you need those 500 laptops, when everybody in the world literally is playing for the same thing. It's a really good example.

Freddy D: 00:30:01

Yeah, it goes back. People do business with people that they like and trust.

And, you know, one of my sayings in my book, Creating Business Superfans is people will crawl through broken glass for appreciation, recognition.

Mousa Hamad: 00:30:15

Yeah, that's very true. As long as you give it to them in a right and meaningful way.

Freddy D: 00:30:20

Yeah. Genuine, not artificial.

Mousa Hamad: 00:30:22

Yeah, it's gotta be genuine. And people can tell the difference. Yes, people can tell the difference.

When you're paying lip service to get something in the short term versus laying the foundation for a strong relationship and partnership, it doesn't always yield something in the next month or the two months, but when you need it, it's there because you've done all of that intentional work. And I think that's a really good point.

That point is applicable to business, regardless of size, whether it's a large enterprise or a small mom and pop shop.

The way you treat the people that support your business, both internally and externally, is going to drive a massive result for your business if you do it the right way.

Freddy D: 00:30:56

Yeah. And then your thing, too, is remember, say thank you.

Mousa Hamad: 00:31:00

I think we lack a little bit of gratitude in this world. Sometimes we take the things that we're owed for granted.

Freddy D: 00:31:05

Yeah. Thank you. Express. A little gratitude goes a long way. Hey, thank you for that extra effort. The other thing I talk about is the unexpected extra.

You send them a little gift card or something that says, hey, you really helped me out on that thing. Might be your supplier, complimentary business, et cetera. I just want to say a little extra. Here's a $10 Starbucks cup.

Freddy D: 00:31:23

It doesn't have to be a lot.

Freddy D: 00:31:24

It's the fact you did it.

Mousa Hamad: 00:31:26

I'll tell you what. I had one instance where I was working with an account executive who was selling some software into the business I was working for.

We closed the deal. Throughout the course of that, she and I discovered that we have an affinity for the same type of books.

At the end of the deal, I sent her a book as a thank you, a copy of a book we had talked about. Wouldn't you know it, a couple years later, she was different company, I was at a different company, she was my account executive again.

And the relationship was already on such a strong foundation because of that little bit extra I did to show gratitude for the work she'd done previously. And when you can take the opportunity to make it even a more personal touch, that goes such a long way for people, they remember that stuff.

They really do. But they'll remember the gift card, too. I think when they get the unexpected next level of gratitude, it makes you memorable.

And when you're memorable and you come across somebody again, you're going to get their best effort.

Freddy D: 00:32:20

Absolutely correct.

Mousa Hamad: 00:32:21

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:32:22

Musa, it's been a great conversation. You and I could talk on this for several hours. Definitely.

Mousa Hamad: 00:32:28

It's flown by. I didn't realize how long we've already been going.

Freddy D: 00:32:31

Yeah, we've been going for a little bit of good conversation. Great. And how can people find you?

Mousa Hamad: 00:32:38

Yeah, absolutely. So for Now, I'm on LinkedIn specifically and exclusively, Moussa Hamad. The name's going to be up on the title of the podcast.

Freddy D: 00:32:46

Yeah. Watch show notes as well.

Mousa Hamad: 00:32:48

Perfect.

And, you know, feel free to reach out if you've got business problems you want to chat about, if you're trying to get some cohesion with your leadership team. Whatever. One of the biggest things that I love is solving problems and helping people think about problems in a different way.

Always welcome a good conversation and a good connection. Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn for now and I look forward to hearing from some members of your audience.

Freddy D: 00:33:08

And then you've starting off your own consulting business, right?

Mousa Hamad: 00:33:11

I am and just really focused on that business process, business procedure, kind of leadership, cohesion and things like that. And so shortly here to follow. To be honest with you, I didn't expect as much traction on podcasts as quickly as I was doing my reach outs.

So the site is going to be forthcoming here soon, but in the interim you can find me on LinkedIn.

Freddy D: 00:33:30

Great. Asad, thank you very much for your time. We definitely look to having you on the show down the road.

Mousa Hamad: 00:33:36

Thank you so much, Freddie. It's been a pleasure.

Freddy D: 00:33:41

Hey superfans. Superstar Freddie D. Here.

Before we wrap, here's your three A playbook power move to attract ideal clients, turn them into advocates, and accelerate your business success. Here's a top insight from today's episode. You don't earn trust with technology.

You earn it by showing up with empathy, fixing the unglamorous problems, and serving your people like they matter. So here's your business growth action step.

Schedule one conversation this week with the frontline employee and ask them what's slowing you down and how can we fix it together?

If today's conversation sparked an idea for you, or if you know of a fellow business leader who could benefit, share it with them and grab the full breakdown in the show.

Freddy D: 00:34:26

Notes.

Freddy D: 00:34:26

Let's accelerate together and start creating business superfans who champion your brand.