Lessons from a Career in the Military and Sales with Dave Lehmkuhl

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This is a podcast episode titled, Lessons from a Career in the Military and Sales with Dave Lehmkuhl. The summary for this episode is: <p>Seamless.AI's Director of Sales, Dave Lehmkuhl speaks with The Future of Teamwork host and Huddl3 Group CEO, Dane Groeneveld about lessons learned while building teams while in the military and in sales.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Topics of conversation:</strong></p><ul><li>[0:42] Dave's background in the military and in SaaS</li><li>[3:48] The attributes of a good team and the definition of good teamwork</li><li>[7:27] Highlighting your team and having each others back</li><li>[10:23] Honest and authentic moments</li><li>[13:54] Opportunities for teamwork in being together in person</li><li>[18:59] Competition, collaboration, and celebration as ways of motivating teams</li><li>[26:09] Family teams, and what is different celebrating them compared to work</li><li>[31:29] Dave's dreams for teamwork and balancing professional and personal lives</li><li>[34:54] Thinking about the future of technology and retaining the human element</li><li>[39:22] How quickly the next generation of young minds is adopting technology</li><li>[42:08] Where Seamless.AI hopes to make the biggest impact going forward</li></ul>
Dave's background in the military and in SaaS
03:03 MIN
The attributes of a good team and the definition of good teamwork
03:35 MIN
Highlighting your team and having each others back
02:52 MIN
Raw honest more authentic moments
03:25 MIN
Opportunities for teamwork in being together in person
04:46 MIN
Competition, collaboration, and celebration as ways of motivating teams
06:53 MIN
Family teams, and what is different celebrating them compared to work
05:18 MIN
Dave's dreams for teamwork and balancing professional and personal lives
03:21 MIN
Thinking about the future of technology and retaining the human element
04:25 MIN
How quickly the next generation of young minds is adopting technology
02:45 MIN
Where Seamless.AI hopes to make the biggest impact going forward
03:34 MIN

Dane Groeneveld: Hi there. Welcome to The Future of Teamwork Podcast. My name's Dane Groeneveld, CEO of HUDDL3 group, and I'm glad to have Dave Lehmkuhl, joining me today from Seamless. AI. Welcome Dave.

Dave Lehmkuhl: Hi Dane, how are you today?

Dane Groeneveld: Awesome. Like I was saying to you earlier, it's good to be connected after about 18 months of busyness through the back end of COVID.

Dave Lehmkuhl: It is man. It's amazing how time flies. I remember talking way back and then I really appreciate you reaching out and inviting me here. It's going to be fun.

Dane Groeneveld: I think it's going to be lots of fun and it's been cool following some of the content that you've been creating. And from when we first started talking, hearing about your experiences with teamwork, from your early days, military through staffing, through software. Maybe you could give us a little bit more of a story around your background, just as an introduction.

Dave Lehmkuhl: Yeah, my story's unique but it doesn't take a linear path that's for sure. But so I did ROTC in college and I always said, I'll go to the military until it's not fun. Well, nine years later, I was still having fun, but I decided that I wanted to come out in the corporate. I'd always enjoyed business. I always wanted to do it and came out and I went into staffing and did staffing for a year. And the grass is always greener. I was a young, relatively, I didn't really know what I was trying to find my feet under me in the corporate world in terms of what I wanted to do after the military which is a common thing. And I went into project management and I did that for seven, eight years. And I literally woke up one day and I said, I do not want to do subcontracts anymore. I do not want to write another RFP anymore. And I called my old boss, who was my VP of sales and he got promoted to COO and I said," Hey, you're in staffing. What do you have for me? I want to go back into sales." And he laughed and he goes," Sure, I got a spot for you. I got great." And he goes," it's with us." And he brought me back. So eight years later, seven years later, I came back to the same company and I was with account executive. I came in, I was relatively older I'd say. I was 37, 38 at the time. And then I spent 10 years in staffing. I never thought I would really leave. I still love it deep down. And I came across, we're using software in the office and one day I said, you know what? I said, these guys got something going on and I called up and I said," Hey, can I interview?" And they kind of laughed.

Dane Groeneveld: Wow.

Dave Lehmkuhl: And they said," have you sold software?" And I go," no." And they go," Well, let's talk." And that was about it. Three weeks later, I was over here and I've been with Seamless. AI now for two years. And came in, I took a step back, if you will. I went back to the account executive role. Now I'm into a sales director role, leading a team of four or five folks.

Dane Groeneveld: That's awesome. And I love there's a theme here. You said it's not a straight line, which I think is the best stories are not straight lines, but there's a theme here that you intentionally pick which team you want to be on, including calling Seamless. AI and saying," Hey, I want to interview. I want to be on your team." So that's interesting. When it comes to picking teams you want to be a part of, how have you tended to define, what are the attributes of a good team or the definition of good teamwork.

Dave Lehmkuhl: I have to trust the people that I'm with and they have to trust each other. I think that's a major element of, that's the first word that comes to my mind when people say teamwork and they go, what do you think about? And I always go trust, because we're going to make mistakes. We're not going to agree. There's going to be highs and lows in this journey together, and we're going to have to trust each other that we're in this together. And when you say something of a different point of view, I trust it's coming from a place of helping the team and not you out for yourself. I'm trusting that you have the best interest of everybody at heart, even though it's a disagreement of sort. So that's number one. Number two is I have to believe in kind of what the team's mission is. So real easy for me, if you take a look at who I was associated with, really up until Seamless, it always had a military element. I was in the military obviously, but then the staffing firm was helping military veterans transition. And as a defense contractor, obviously, so up until now, it's always been that link, that element, but it's always believing in your mission and believing in, kind of what you wake up for every day as part of that team. Why are we doing this? What's our goal? So those are the two big things. If I believe in the mission of the team. And I think the team has a good trust. I trust them, they trust me, we're all in this together. Then I think those are the two big things for me.

Dane Groeneveld: I like that. And you finished on that word together when you've got trust and you've got a shared mission and there's a real sense of togetherness in that team. So that's a key part of the cement.

Dave Lehmkuhl: I mean, and that's a good way to put it because there's going to be tough times. There's many times that there's highs and lows and there's everything in between and you got to have a common belief, you got to have a common goal. And I think that's a huge element of it. And you can look at mission statements. But it's really the leadership on that team. That's going to put into words and have feeling behind that mission statement. Mission statements are great, but what's behind it and can you vocalize it? I think that's a big piece. The leadership that I've been with that has really galvanized a team can take a mission statement and vocalize it and everybody goes, yep, got it. It's real to me now that I hear it and I believe in it.

Dane Groeneveld: You said it, you go through tough times and running sales teams. One of my old bosses used to say it's champagne and razor blades. You're either on a super high or you're on a super low. And I've seen some really neat posts. I think there was one post in particular, you put out there on LinkedIn kind of saying," Hey, this is my team. And they're working hard to bring our product to you, treat them with respect, treat them with kindness. Otherwise I'm going to get on the phone too." I thought that was a great post, great leadership, particularly creating that trust. Having each other's back, you don't see enough of that, particularly in the sales industry. So I love the authenticity. I love the toughness for the team. I thought that was cool. Where did that come from? Was that just heartfelt or is it something you've seen before from others, whether it's in military or industry?

Dave Lehmkuhl: A little bit of both. I'm the elder statesman at the company. I always kind of joke with the reading glasses on and stuff and I have tough skin. I don't really care what you say or do or call me or hang up on me. It really does not bother me. I've been around this block. I always kind of talk to my kids and I go, is it really that bad? I mean, we're healthy, we have a roof over our head. Is it really that bad? No. But when you kind of pick on my younger folks coming in who've been around for about a year and they're doing their best and they're learning and it probably wasn't the best call. It probably wasn't the best opening. But it doesn't take much to say I'm not interested. It doesn't take that much. And in my opinion, if you're going to do that to them, that's fine. Well, then have a conversation with me, but you're not going to just pick on them and walk away and I get it. You don't have to take my phone call. I get it. But at the same time, the conversation, I didn't think it was funny. The reaction to that post, I did not expect at all. It was just something I was like you know what? I want to put this out there because in my mind it wasn't a leadership post. It was a," Hey, come on. If you take a cold call, just say, I'm not interested in hang up." To me, that was it. But the reaction I got was all about the leadership. It was all about teamwork. And even the person on my team who was an SDR. So I have a little bit of interaction with, but not a whole lot. They messaged me and said," Man, I really appreciate that." And I think that's when it hit me that it wasn't about the reaction, it was about actually the leadership of it. And it was funny I didn't really realize it. When I posted that up, it was not a leadership post to me. It was a," Hey, come on. Let's all be better post."

Dane Groeneveld: But it's great. Some of those raw, honest, more authentic moments are our best aren't they?

Dave Lehmkuhl: Sometimes I got to watch with the role and authentic. I mean, there's been times I've typed stuff out on that. I'm like, nah, hang on a second. I'm like, all right, let me dial this back a second. But I think showing who we are is important to our teams and in the good and bad, and I've posted about. In that journey on LinkedIn, for me has been interesting. When I first started, it was all about connections and who I could be a client with and who I can network with. And just a very, if you want to say revenue driven, and then it slowly became almost like this thing for me, that's almost therapeutic where I just post about what's happening a little bit and just kind of put myself out there. And that's been interesting because the more I've done it, I've seen people actually on my team get to know me a little bit better through LinkedIn as well. So it's been an interesting piece.

Dane Groeneveld: That's something that came up in conversation today with one of my teams. We've got a lot of employees, particularly in our staffing organization, PTS. A lot of employees that are out in the field that we don't get to see all the time. And we said today we've got videos. So whether it's on LinkedIn or whether we're putting it on our company app, you can be having conversations, showing some vulnerability, showing who you are, who your family are, what you like to do at the weekends, what you're trying to do at work. And you can create this connectivity now without actually spending one on one time with people. And that's a bit of a game changer for teamwork.

Dave Lehmkuhl: It's interesting, isn't it. I can remember way back when the conference call was even like, you're all gathered around a phone. I mean, you didn't have the speaker phone in the middle of the table and then you had that. One day it was a big deal that we could see the four offices on camera, it was like we invented fire or something and now we have this to the point where a Zoom call was just that's the norm. When I was in staffing, I used to go visit everybody and used to be, that's how we kind of secured the contract and secured everything. And it was everything was in person. And now everything I do is a Zoom call and that's it. And we kind of joke about it after. If there is a follow up call, I go," Hey, can I just call you on your cell like the old days?" And they go," Yeah, we don't need to Zoom." Even though the connection you make with your clients is different. Your team is different. Everything is just changed now because we have increased technology and everybody has a different take on that in terms of how they treat that. And where it fits into their establishment of trust with you as a person.

Dane Groeneveld: There's some upsides, there's also some downsides. If you think back to your early part of your career in the military, where a lot of time is spent together and whether it's training or exercises or whatever it might be in the field, what is it that you think was great about teamwork back then that we're missing today in this more virtual electronic era?

Dave Lehmkuhl: Man, that's such a good question. This may sound very, just rudimentary, but there's something about sweating together. There's something about doing a physical challenge together that brings a team together and you always see these corporate camps where you go out and you kind of climb the ropes together and you do stuff together. I think that's a lot of what it is. I didn't really realize it until later in my career that's what a big part, the moments of my career that I remember the most were the hardest physically. And those were also the times when the team was probably the most together, because we're all either freezing somewhere or it's 4: 00 AM and been up for 28 hours and the only way to get on that plane home was to clean up everything and get it done. But I think there's something about being in- person and doing something physically together that kind of bonds you as a team. And I'm not sure what it is. I'm not smart enough on the psychology of it, but I do think there's something there that kind of has a piece of it. Even playing paintball together, you went out there and you did something, you kind of ran around together, maybe you shot each other in different teams. I don't know. But you did something of that nature physically. And it just kind of brings you together a little bit.

Dane Groeneveld: It does. It's funny. You mentioned paintball. The team I was running years ago, we got together in Orlando. We went, did this paintball and we had people from Mexico, Canada, the U. S., Brits, all sorts of different walks of life and we got out there on this paintball range and people became different animals. This one really quiet, reserved guy. He's like French Legion or something. He's climbing through ditches and climbing up over walls and just getting people when they least expect it. And it created so much camaraderie. Everyone's sitting in the bar afterwards and sharing a few bruises too.

Dave Lehmkuhl: There's always a few of that, and what was funny is that I remember in those times that it was like the run. And I still remember it. It was like St. Patrick's weekend and now St. Patrick's weekend in Savannah is a big deal. The military, I think to this day, it's one of those things that'll never go away, every Friday is usually this big unit run. And it's usually at a slower pace and it's kind of more fun. And it's more of that team building and a little bit of sweat, but not too bad. Well, for this one, it was a Friday and Thursday night was kind of the start of St. Patrick's weekend. So everybody was a little bit like, it's fun day Friday, we're all kind of there. And our boss decided to go," Hey, you know what we're going to do. Let's go a little bit harder today. Let's see how let's see how our hard we can go. But yet still stay as a group." Well, what was interesting was in the beginning, we were like," Hey, come on, that's not fair, this is dumb. This is whatever." But about halfway through, there was a sense of pride. Then it became," Hey, look at us." And now," Hey, we can do this," and everybody else is on a slow pace. And we're the ones running fast. And all of a sudden now we're the ones, as a team doing it. And there was no more complaining. It was more of," Hey, look what we just did." And that's what the boss came out and said, and he was like, he's like always challenge yourself. And he goes," I know y'all went out last night. I know we're on. I get it but challenge yourself," and look what you did. And I remember that. And it was a great, I was younger in my career and I remember saying, that's a really good lesson.

Dane Groeneveld: It is a good lesson. And it shows the importance of teamwork and I have that experience too. I'm much more willing to accept the challenge when I'm doing it as part of a team than if it's just myself because you can easily negotiate with yourself. But it's hard to negotiate with a team of people if you feel like you're letting them down.

Dave Lehmkuhl: Well, I mean, that's going to the gym or that's like Peloton and they link in your bike to somebody else, so now I can exercise in my house, yes, in convenience. But now I'm peddling it against either a stranger or I'm peddling against a friend and now I have this competition, but it's a little teamwork, it's no different than the Apple watch is connected and I can show how many calories I did versus you. It's the same piece if I'm connected with somebody in a challenge, then I'm more apt to go do it than let my little voice inside my head tell me that it's okay I'll get two workouts in tomorrow. And some crazy idea that I have that it's not going to happen. So it's all really the same. It's, can I build a team and can I build a community in some form or fashion?

Dane Groeneveld: Competition, I like the way you brought that up. So a lot of people think about teamwork as everyone working together row in the same direction but actually there's value in competition amongst team members. That's what helps us drive each other along a bit. And you mentioned Peloton. I was thinking the other day, my wife came in, I'm doing the intervals and arms workout on the Peloton and there's this guy and he's way out ahead of me. And I'm like, I'm going to drop the weights now. I'm just going to get up and just power for the next 10 minutes and I'm going to try and catch that guy. And I wouldn't have done if he wasn't out there ahead of me kind of setting that target. So it's a pretty cool concept competition in teams.

Dave Lehmkuhl: It's interesting. And that's something that I didn't get, you don't really get it in the military because it's hard thus you're kind of all one. It's hard to separate yourself away the physical challenges and even the evaluations, you're kind of in there. There's some people that definitely separate themselves. No doubt. There's people you can identify early on in their career and go, he's separate. When you get in the corporate world and what I loved about being in sales and the real reason I went back to it was that, now there's a number. Now I can say, okay, that's you can say what you want about skills and everything else, maybe, but there's a number right there that says on this month I was in third or fourth or first or whatever it was. And the fact that I can be on a team and we really compete, we really go after each other in terms of that number one spot. But yet in the same breath, I can go to that person and say man," How do I write this email to this client? Hey, can you listen to my recording and tell me what I did off here. Is there something I'm doing wrong?" That in my mind is where you have a great team. That's what will propel companies way higher, when you can compete hard and yet help each other in the same day, same breath, then that's really good.

Dane Groeneveld: I love that. Actually, that makes me think of a third C you've said, competition. You said collaboration, helping each other with an email or a sales call. And if you add a third one, celebration, you compete and collaborate and you celebrate that. There's some real glue there.

Dave Lehmkuhl: Man, if you want to say one of the one that I'm not good at, it's a celebrate. That's always been one that I always have someone on my team that I kind of designate and go," Hey, can you remind me to celebrate?" And I just get lost in the, well, there's always a next day. There's always the next candidate in staffing. There's always the next job order. And taking that moment to say, no, we're going to go have a happy hour together and celebrate, what June was. And it's a big deal, I have to remember it and I always struggle with it. It's always one that I designate someone on my team to go, please remind me this because I'm going to get caught up in this wheel. That always goes around and never really stops and to celebrate it even on an individual basis. I have my wife of 20 years, who is the person who reminds me," Hey, great job, but we're going to go celebrate and do this." So yeah, that's a inaudible.

Dane Groeneveld: I've got the same problem and it's something that I like your point, maybe asking someone on the team to prompt you that," Hey, we've got to go celebrate," or creating a routine. There was a company I worked for once and we used to work in four week periods because you get 13, four week periods in a year rather than 12 months. So they used to squeeze a bit more sales out of us. And so every fourth Friday routine, you would all go to the bar, the whole company. You go to the bar and the regional director puts his card behind and he's like," Let's celebrate." And you really look forward to that fourth, Friday, and you'd run into someone and say," Hey, I saw your numbers this month. That was awesome" or" Wow, I can't believe you broke that account, how did you do it." And there was a lot of camaraderie that came through that.

Dave Lehmkuhl: I think of and I think maybe a lot of people think of celebrate it's like the big win or the big account, or what you did for number one. That celebrate can be to that person in number six, who just broke through their personal ceiling or as a team you had a bad month, yes. But you know what you implemented the new process or there's something different that you're doing as a team that we can celebrate. And I think that's important and I've been on teams that have struggled at times and then we've come up. And what we found was, if you got into a routine of celebrating, then you found things to feel good about, and then it kind of has momentum. And now you feel good about a few things, even though you had a few hiccups, you feel good, and then you keep going. And again, you said it, the importance of celebrating those wins is really important. And it's just something I'm not great at, but I know it. And I will either literally put a sticky down or tell somebody," Hey, help me here."

Dane Groeneveld: Yeah, definitely. Before we started this today, we talked a little bit about family as teams and there was some great conversation on that topic. But when you think about celebrating with the team at work versus celebrating with the team at home, do you find it any different? Do you find it a bit easier to celebrate with the team at home when someone makes it more obvious, right of passage or whatever it might be?

Dave Lehmkuhl: No. I'm still bad at celebrating. I mean, honestly I am. And again, I have my wife, she's the person that just really keeps me grounded and I've posted about this a little bit on LinkedIn. I think I've talked to you about it. I will that work life balance if there ever is one. My pendulum always swings a little bit to the work. So I have to, A, find time or make time or carve out time, whatever you want to say in terms of family. And then the celebrate is also, I think, as I've gotten older, I've also realized how quickly time goes and my kids now are 18 and 16. I am two years away from them being gone. One goes off to college and one's two years away and they are independent. And I know how this goes. I was the same way. I drew a circle around my house about five hours and I was going to school outside of that. Right now they're not doing that. I think mom has said," Hey, no," but I still think it's still tough, it's still the same dynamic to just, there's certain moments you don't want to lose. And you want to make sure you capture them because they're gone. And that's what I'm realizing more and more as the kids get older that there's just certain moments that you really want to celebrate and you really want take in and just live and be in that moment because it's gone. That's some moment of time.

Dane Groeneveld: I'm definitely feeling a little bit of that myself. In fact, I turned 40 last year. Another one of my friends just turned 40 in February and another buddy who we all went to college with in England of all places, they came out here to California. Pardon me? And we all got together and did a little road trip back in February. And I was like," Man, where did those 20 years go?" Just flew by. And it was cool to be getting together, catching up, celebrating the 40th, but also celebrating that we've all kind of made it to a point of having wives, families, our health, we still enjoy surfing. It was a good one.

Dave Lehmkuhl: I mean, when I left the staffing company and I came to Seamless and I transitioned teams, I only changed jobs a few times in my life. And switching teams to me is scary because the amount of time you spend at work, man, you better pick the right team or that's just not going to be a fun experience. But what I got reminded of again, is that there's a constant team, I can switch teams at work and do all my stuff. And this work from home and technology, has changed a little bit because now for the first time I'm work from home. And I step outside of my bonus room/ office here and I'm into dad, so if that deal went bad, if it's a bad week, a bad month, whatever it is, my team downstairs doesn't care. They want dad and I transition roles and I'm on that team. And that team is celebrating report cards and varsity letters and all that stuff. And so I have to transition kind of my psyche a little bit, and I can't carry that over. And that's something that again, in the work from home space, I had to learn that. And that became, interesting. I'll say it again, my wife said," Hey, I hear you can vent to me, but you come down, you're dad." I'm like," Yeah. All right. I got it. You're right." It's you have a constant and the constant for me is that team with family.

Dane Groeneveld: For me too, the family's always been a big anchor in a positive way. Kind of gives me something to stay grounded with. Like you said earlier, and to really work for. Making the time for family is really important too. I try and go overboard with the silliness, the goofiness, because I'm like Mr. Serious at work. So I got to come home and just let it all out. I would say, let my hair out there but not much up there. It's fun. When you think, you said work, life balance there and there's this whole movement around work, life integration. And some days, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, sitting on vacation on your laptop, some people might call it integration. Some people might call it a workaholic. Who knows? But you are working for a software company now that's bringing some pretty cool AI to play and we're going to continue to see AI, robotics and other technologies help people become more efficient in the world of work. What are your sort of hopes and dreams for teamwork in that dichotomy of in the professional life and in the personal life?

Dave Lehmkuhl: I hope we never lose the element that we're humans and that we have feelings. I think it's easy to forget that and you can say it in a text or an email, or and now you're in Zoom or a Slack channel and there's another person, there's a real person. I mean, that's not just an image and a figure. That's a that's a human. And I think that to me will always be the element of teamwork, is that we all have to understand that we are humans and being humans mean I'm going to have emotions on some day, and I'm going to have, ups and downs in my energy levels. And I'm going to have, these crazy decisions that I try and make good decisions all the time, but sometimes I may make a bad one and I don't think automation can replace that. I mean, at some point of time to be on a team, you have to have a real connection with the people that you're with. And that's the goal. Now you can automate a lot of things, but in the end you really have to have that connection. And what's interesting to me was we were in the pandemic when I interviewed for Seamless here and I had always interviewed face to face. We always had that eye to eye connection in terms of the trust. And I can sit across some from somebody and get a really good feel and just understand if I trust them or not. Because this is my career and I want to learn and I want to grow and obviously it was a W2 and this was the first job where I didn't do that. I just had a Zoom call and I really had to really take a step back and go, what did I get and is that enough for me to trust? And that's all part of it. I think we can work remote and we can do a lot of automation, but in the end there's got to be some human connection to where we trust each other and then we can go back. We can go back to automation and being in Zoom, but there's how often you come together as a team to do those celebrations and that silly stuff and to kind of bond and a physical activity or something, there's got to be an element of that. You can't get rid of that entirely.

Dane Groeneveld: It's interesting that whole concept of interviewing through Zoom and how to stay human, it won't be too far until the technology lets us. You think back to Star Trek, when they could go into those rooms, it all sudden become a jungle and they're going on these exercises together. There's an argument to say, soon we'll be able to put in our goggles and our special suits that give us these real look and feel and touch experiences. And maybe we can sweat together. Who knows?

Dave Lehmkuhl: I went to see a client who was into the virtual reality and augmented reality and they took us on a tour. I didn't get to put on the stuff. It was behind glass. Like," No, you can't. You're not going to touch that." But they did show us this thing and I had never seen it before, but it was this little small robot. It was probably three and a half foot tall. Yeah. And you could log into the robot and then the screen would be like this and the robot would go to the person's office like it was you except you're on the screen. And I thought about that and I was like, well, I'm trying to understand. I was like, can't you just do a zoom and bring and have the same thing. But in this case it was like somebody was walking into your office and saying," Okay, I'm here." It was your physical face. It just took me back and I was like, man, is that where we're going? I mean, to the point where, hey, hopping on a huddle or Slack or hopping on a Zoom call. Now it's, the robot would show or you put on your glasses and Dane is there in full, and what I perceive on my glasses as full physical statue but he is not really there. Maybe, it's, I just hope that in all of that, we still remember there's a human there and that we don't lose that human element.

Dane Groeneveld: Me too. I was listening to a podcast with my daughter the other day on AI and the future. And I said, what did you think afterwards? She's nine. And she was like it, I don't like it. I was like, why don't you like it? And she goes, well, if AI really takes over, where will the humans be? And she was like straight onto it. And they didn't actually talk about that in the podcast, but you could see her gears were turning. So there is an importance for us to, even as the technology continues to improve, to keep that human connection, as you say, really central.

Dave Lehmkuhl: And I think that I went to a conference and they put up a picture of a family and it was from early 1900s like 1905 or something up like that. And I forget what year, but it said," Hey, does anybody who the mom is in this picture?" And the whole audience was like, no. And they're like, well, that was the first fatality of a traffic accident. And they said, but that hasn't changed technology and the cars have come and now we're progressing. And then they talked about kind of technology with the cars that are going to be automated. And they were like, if you think that's not coming, it's coming and it's going to be here. And then they went in to talk other technology and such, but it was a very drastic or a very clear picture of technology doesn't wait. Technology will keep progressing and it will progress faster and faster as we get more into it. And I tell my kids all the time. I don't think they'll be driving. I don't think they'll have driver's licenses in their lifetime. I think they'll be fully automated and heck it maybe illegal to drive a car. Because that's a human element and not technology.

Dane Groeneveld: Actually, one of my advisors the other day we were talking about and going back to fatalities on the road and other things we were saying that the cars of the future will be so smart that they'll see what's coming, they'll talk to each other, the cars, and they'll be like," Hey, I need to get past." And it's not actually that wild concept. So I can see that happening. It's funny, with that speed of technology, innovation and acceleration, I think, and this is what I said to my nine year old daughter that doesn't like AI. I said, we can't bury our heads in the sand, because it will keep marching forward. So let's embrace it. Let's find the technologies that might let us spend a bit more time together this week. Or might let us have more connection with workers or community members or learn something new, but we can't hide from it. I actually think the world, and particularly the world of work and teams can become better if we get the right technologies and we use them in the right way. We're probably just all a little bit flooded and fatigued by how much change we've gone through and how early some of that tech is. A lot of it still breaks.

Dave Lehmkuhl: I am fascinated by this generation that we're going to have coming behind us. Who went through the pandemic, who has now seen technology has now seen a world that depending on one age, my kids understand, I went to work, for the most part there's a lot of work from home. My kids look at this and go," I'm not going to an office. I'm not doing that," and how they embrace technology, that's not a new concept. I mean, younger kids grasp on the technology so quickly and what's that going to look like? I think it's going to be really fascinating to see how this whole time period, this last 3, 4, 5 years of pre- pandemic, pandemic time, post- pandemic, and technology that has supported it. I mean, I think they're going to adapt to it a lot quicker and I think new technologies will be mainstream much quicker than what you and I experience right now.

Dane Groeneveld: I think you're right. I think it's definitely there. And there's so many more use cases, so many more users who are willing to be those early adopters now, and it's more affordable. So you're going to see there's a lot of stuff going on, but you're going to see what floats to the top pretty quickly, which is exciting. So as you look out Dave, and you think about where Seamless. AI is at and where your career is at, what's your sort of big focus next six months, two years, where do you think you guys will be making the biggest impact in teamwork.

Dave Lehmkuhl: In teamwork, we're growing. That's public out there, we're hiring and it's fascinating to me on a culture of a company. Who you hire and then how you adapt them into your culture, into your rhythms. And how that plays out. I love teaching. I love sharing some of my experience with the team and having that bond, if you will, of teaching and then seeing them use it. I get the biggest thrill, not out of my wins on my side and I still do accounts. I still do meetings. I do all of that, but I get the biggest thrill out of when my team wins. And that to me, seeing someone who's new to the account executive role, to come in, to learn it, adapt it and then, and get a win, and you can see the confidence and you can see it grow and I've now been here enough to where they are now becoming leaders. And they're now becoming team leads and such like that. And now they're learning leadership of what it means in certain situations. And it's so much fun. People just ask and say," Well, what's it like? And I go, it's just fun." I just come to work. I have fun. I'm around great people. And it's just been an absolute pleasure to come to work and just learn so much. I mean, I'm two years into software sales. I'm a rookie. I'm a baby in terms of software sales. And I come and learn every day but I enjoy spreading what I can in terms of knowledge of sales as well to my team.

Dane Groeneveld: And just that wisdom and life experience, particularly when you say you're dealing with early career SDRs and that type of thing, there's a lot that they stand to gain from sort of your insights and experiences.

Dave Lehmkuhl: I mean, I'm so jealous. They have their entire career ahead of them. They're just soaking and you can see it, they're soaking it all in. I turned 50 last year and I was like, man, I'm two years into this. And I was like, you guys are 24, 25, 27, whatever it is, you have the entire runway ahead of you? And it's really just fun to kind of be a sounding board for different ideas and to share some experiences and then learn together too. I'm still learning with them, from folks in the company and we learn together. So it's just fun. I mean, I tell people, they ask me all the time, what it's like at Seamless and I go,"It's just fun. It's just a fun time."

Dane Groeneveld: That's so cool. I'm so glad for you, Dave. I think that's a great outlook on the future of teamwork, fun and learning.

Dave Lehmkuhl: If you're always learning and you keep it fun, you know what? You won't burn out. You won't have a bad team, as long as you get better every day, then you're okay. And that's why I try and tell my team. That's why I try and tell my kids, and that's the hardest thing is telling myself that. Is all right, come on, let's learn something today. And it's easy to forget that on yourself. You can say it, and then you look around and go, wait, did I learn something today? Am I having fun? That goes back to that celebration and a whole lot of stuff like that.

Dane Groeneveld: So it's a good sub fun.

Dave Lehmkuhl: I mean, before we take off, thank you for this. This has really helped me think about a lot of things on teamwork and leadership that I haven't thought about in a while, man. So thank you for this.

Dane Groeneveld: No, thank you. You're a natural. I mean, if summarize, there are a few really poignant points through you really pointy at points through this last 47 minutes of conversation. I love the way you opened up on teamwork's all about trust and mission. Because if you've got those, you've got a lot of togetherness. I thought that was awesome. I loved referring back to what you learned in your military days on sweating together really drives it. It's the cement, the glue in teams. I thought that was super cool. And the way you introduce that concept of competition in teams, which led us on to talking about collaboration and celebration. There's just been so much that's come up. That's been great. And those final two points, fun and learning. If at the end of every day we check off and say, did I have fun? And did I learn something today? Teams are going to go great.

Dave Lehmkuhl: There it is. Well, thank you again. I really appreciate it.

Dane Groeneveld: You bet. Thanks for joining me today, Dave, and we'll talk again soon.

DESCRIPTION

Seamless.AI's Director of Sales, Dave Lehmkuhl speaks with The Future of Teamwork host and Huddl3 Group CEO, Dane Groeneveld about lessons learned while building teams while in the military and in sales.


Topics of conversation:

  • [0:42] Dave's background in the military and in SaaS
  • [3:48] The attributes of a good team and the definition of good teamwork
  • [7:27] Highlighting your team and having each others back
  • [10:23] Honest and authentic moments
  • [13:54] Opportunities for teamwork in being together in person
  • [18:59] Competition, collaboration, and celebration as ways of motivating teams
  • [26:09] Family teams, and what is different celebrating them compared to work
  • [31:29] Dave's dreams for teamwork and balancing professional and personal lives
  • [34:54] Thinking about the future of technology and retaining the human element
  • [39:22] How quickly the next generation of young minds is adopting technology
  • [42:08] Where Seamless.AI hopes to make the biggest impact going forward


Today's Host

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Dane Groeneveld

|HUDDL3 Group CEO

Today's Guests

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Dave Lehmkuhl

|Sales Director at Seamless.AI