How can you find the truth when everything is in flux? 20 Great Answers with Philip Meyer, Founder & CEO of Catalyst 345

Philip Meyer, Founder & CEO 345 Catalyst, may have “left the house” but he’s definitely still part of the Microsoft family, taking his three and half decades of expertise into the world of training and consulting. 

Join your host and Executive Creative Director Barrie Seppings as he quizzes Philip with ‘20 Questions’, uncovering how a stressful blood pressure exam led him into IT, why you should keep your kids ‘poor and busy’ and why you shouldn’t trust commercial AI with your business data.  

Welcome back to this month’s “Plugged In, Switched On” podcast from Splendid Group.  

The interview format at Plugged In Switched On is very simple: we ask every guest the same 20 Questions and invariably we get 20 different (but always great) answers. Here are some of our favourites from our interview with Philip Meyer, CEO of 345 Catalyst :  

• What did Philip at school think he was going to go and do?  
• If you had your time again, but you couldn't do anything in technology or marketing, what would be your dream job?  
• Was there a moment in your career where it became clear that you just learned a very valuable lesson?  
• What's the underrated idea or tactic that you think is ripe for a comeback?  
• What's the most unexpected situation you found yourself in thanks to work?  

Philip Meyer has over 47 years of experience in the computer software industry and 34 at Microsoft. He’s now a Partner Technology Strategist, where he helps service providers architect secure, scalable, and hybrid solutions based on Microsoft technologies. Philip has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Science and Marketing from University of Technology, Sydney, and a Modern Marketer certification in Business and Marketing Strategy.  LinkedIn 

Barrie Seppings is the Executive Creative Director of The Splendid Group and the host of Plugged In, Switched On. Connect with Barrie on LinkedIn. 

Thanks for listening!

If you want to learn more about Splendid Group , see some of our work or meet any of our people, visit splendidgroup.com

Chapters

• 2:40 Question 1: What your company or brand selling and why should anybody pay good money for it?
• 4:15 Question 2: Did you grow up dreaming of working in technology or becoming this kind of evangelist and educator? What in high school, late high school, did you think or perhaps were encouraged to go and do for your career?
• 6:13 Question 3: What part of your job, your day-to-day, do you just naturally enjoy?
• 8:38 Question 4: What's the one career move or moment you wish you could go back and undo?
• 10:21 Question 5: Who have you learned the most from in your career, even if perhaps it was what not to do?
• 11:36 Question 6: Over these 34 and a half years, how have you been able to motivate yourself to continually lean into change?
• 13:05 Question 7: What do you do to maintain your physical health or your sense of wellness when your job is demanding, but also sometimes can be sedentary?
• 16:14 Question 8: Is there an industry or a subgenre or a segment of the market of the audience that really needs to get talked to a little bit differently in terms of talking them into technology solutions or getting them adapted to technology?
• 18:01 Question 9: What's the campaign or event or idea or launch something you've seen out there in the marketing world, and it doesn't have to be restricted to technology, you've seen that you really wish you'd done or you'd been a part of?
• 19:08 Question 10: What's the one thing in this industry? We are talking about the tech industry, now that has gone on for too long and really needs fixing.
• 21:36 Question 11: What's the one question you'd ask an agency if you knew they had to tell you the truth?
• 23:27 Question 12:How do you make the call between collaborating with someone or particularly helping someone who's in your team and then stepping back and letting them do their own thing? What are the flags you're looking for?
• 25:31 Question 13: What's a long-held belief about marketing that you no longer hold, and what caused you to change your mind?
• 26:35 Question 14: What tactics or approaches are you seeing, particularly with the partners that you're working with that are having the most effect, and what are you pulling back or advising people to pull back from?
• 28:42 Question 15: What buzzword or concept is getting too much airplay in our industry right now?
• 31:54 Question 16: What do you get out of bed for? You've been at this close to 35 years. Why do you keep doing it?
• 33:03 Question 17: What's the most unexpected or unusual situational or location you've found yourself in thanks to work, thanks to your employment?
• 35:27 Question 18: What was the pandemic and the lockdown experience like for you, and what's residual? What's been a forever change from that?
• 37:40 Question 19: When you were at Microsoft, did it feel like that was a place, it's one of the largest companies in the world? How open and accommodating were they?
• 40:22 Question 20: Do you have a secret weapon that you use in the workplace or in your career, and if you do, will you tell me what it is?