The Road to the Dallas 100™ – Cloud Communications Group

Buckled in because we're about to hit the road and we're ready to go zero to one hundred. What's up, y'all? I'm your host, Daniel Litwin, the voice of b two b. It's a beautiful Tuesday morning, and welcome to the road to the Dallas one hundred, the biggest show in Dallas since Dallas, brought to you in collaboration with Market Scale and SMU's Cox School of Business. So welcome. If this is your first time joining us live here for the road of the Dallas one hundred, this show is a precursor to the SMU Cox Dallas one hundred Awards, where we showcase the stories behind the fastest growing privately held companies in the DFW metroplex, celebrating the company's founders, their achievements, their business journey, their challenges, but also their strategies, so that we can learn from Dallas's best, and so that you can take your own keys, get behind the wheel, and pave your own road to the Dallas one hundred. If you are a returning guest, welcome back. We're excited to have you all joining us in the hot seat here to tell another entrepreneurial story of success and learning. So let's hit the gas y'all. It's time to jump in. Who are we showcasing today on the show? Well, today we have the pleasure of telling the story behind Cloud Communications Group, which is a leading technology expense management and advisory firm. Known as being the easy button for IT infrastructure, they cater to enterprise sized and medium to large businesses. And in this ever evolving M and A environment of the, you know, what larger economy and also the tech world, Cloud Communications Group excels in providing visibility into IT assets and costs, helping businesses take stock of their infrastructure and craft actionable plans for the future growth of their company. Its founder is an SMU graduate degree earner, Inc five thousand winner, and Dallas one hundred recipient. I'm pleased to welcome cofounder of cloud communications Group and our guest for today, mister Chris Moffitt. Chris, welcome to the show. Welcome to the road to the Dallas one hundred. How are you doing today? Thanks. Doing well. Appreciate the time. Absolutely, man. You know, we're always excited to tell stories of entrepreneurial success and growth in the DFW area. And, you know, each story is so different. Last week, we were telling the story of a restaurant and hospitality group. Today, we're talking an IT advisory firm. But what's so exciting is that in a lot of ways these stories are similar. Right? There are similar, beats of finding your groove as an entrepreneur, of growing as an entrepreneur, and of crafting your strategy as a leader. And that's the through line that's got me amped, and so I'm excited to put you in the hot seat today and learn a little bit from you. So thanks for being here with us, man. Thanks again. Appreciate it. It's gonna be good. So let's start to tell your story. Right? I like to timeline this show a little bit. So why don't you kick us off with the early days? We're talking young Chris. Everybody loves young Chris here. What were those early days like for you in terms of an entrepreneurial leaning? Did you, you know, have that itch and that fire early? Did you see yourself starting a business as you were coming into your own? Or was that, you know, an off distant dream or something that came into focus later in life? Yeah. So it really did come into focus later. I started my career working in a hotel, a hospitality business. I thought that was glamorous, something to be a lot of fun, and, kinda got into the technology and IT business by by accident. You know, fast forward a a bunch of years, and we looked at my cofounder Keith and I looked at at what was going on in the industry and just thought we could do it better. Yeah. Well, I I love that you brought up the hospitality background because, you know, what I found is that most great leaders cut their chops in other industries, and are able to synthesize, these learning lessons from different beats in their career. So like you said, right, you started in hospitality. This was during college actually. Right? You were going to college and working on the side. Actually, it went so well that you decided to focus full time on work in hospitality. Tell me a little bit about some of the the learning lessons from working in the hotel business. Right? In such a customer service oriented environment, you know, really developing your professional chops in that zone. What was that like? Right? What kind of learning lessons did you take away from that? And think back on that experience for us? Yeah. So it was, you know, it really was the the client or the customer first. Yeah. You know, we it was a large hotel that I worked at down in Houston that's not there anymore. But, you know, if you didn't take care of the the clients, they could walk literally across the street and go to Hilton. Right. So we we kinda brought that forward and, you know, trying to be the easy button for our clients within the IT space today is we really wanna we really wanna show service and make it make their lives easier. Totally. What kind of work were you doing there at the hotel? Oh, Oh, it was real high-tech. I was a bellman. I carried luggage. Let's go. Nice. Bright orange uniform, gold buttons, the whole thing. Beautiful. Why didn't you wear that today, man? That swag would have been on point. Yeah. Well, wow. I mean, talk about, you know, really developing your professional, attitude, your professional strategies in an environment where, you know, you're you're gauged on such a short interaction, but it's such a such such a way to, you know, create a positive experience for the customer. Right? What kind of learning lessons did you take away in that sense, right, from being a small piece of a larger pie of positive customer experience? You know, were you given any sort of, specific mentorship on that? Or did you learn to sort of make the most of that role, by just sort of playing the game a little bit, right, and sort of learning how to make the most of being a Bellman and, you know, carrying luggage up? Yeah. You know, it, it it kinda just just learned as you start interacting with people and you learn to empathize with people. That was something that that the organization really pushed was trying to empathize with somebody who may have had a a flight problem that delayed them them ten hours getting there. It could be raining. They could have come in for a job interview that didn't go well. Just try and empathize. And so same with us. We try and empathize with our clients, what they're doing, what they're having to deal with. Well, what's cool about this, you know, career lily pad is that, you know, the audience might be wondering was, like, yeah, we all had early jobs growing up. What does this have to do with, you know, your IT business? But this was actually step one for you getting into the IT world. Tell us a little bit about how you went from carrying luggage to working on the back end of the computer systems for this hotel. Pretty crazy jump. Yeah. It was. And so, it just happened at the time the hotel was being renovated. It had a new GM who happened to be living in the hotel at the time because he was moving to Houston from I don't remember where. K. So I got to know him in the evenings talking to him. He said, hey. We're gonna upgrade all our telephone systems and our computer systems. You know, you seem to know a little bit about this. You wanna try and run this project for us? Us? It's like, sure. Didn't really know much about it. Yeah. What what did you know about computers at that point? Like, what was your professional experience? If I turn them on, I can play a few games. You know, back in the days. Yeah. Games on floppy disks. And honestly, I imagine back in the day, that was like, this guy's an IT professional. Is that right? Yeah. That's great. So okay. So now you're working on the back end of these computers. What kind of immediate, you know, skills did you have to refine going from, yeah, I know my way around a floppy disk to now you're managing the execution of, you know, computer system, renovations and IT upgrades. What did that actually look like in practice? So we had some really good vendors. So I wasn't actually plugging things in or writing code. We had some really good vendors, but we had to manage those vendors and and, you know, really learn the terminology. That was probably the big thing. The industry has a lot of acronyms. So learning that, that helped. Yes. It does. And so okay. So you jump in, you start, you know, building relationships with these vendors. Now, eventually, you end up going to work for one of those vendors. Right? I did. So tell me a bit about that jump. What was your motivation for continuing your career in the IT infrastructure world? What caught your interest? You know, why stake a flag there? It was just, it was a lot more entertaining, you know, than than the hospitality industry. To me, originally, it was kinda glamorous and it might be, but the tech business was a lot more a lot more challenging, a lot more, a lot more to learn. So that was a lot of fun. That's actually what moved me to Dallas. So I was in Houston at the time, came to Dallas with that vendor. What was, what did you find more challenging about the tech industry? Like, what what got you animated about that challenge? It's really learning, you know, at the time, I was a I was a technician. I was was the frontline person this time actually plugging things in and Nice. And it was, you know, learning which color wire did what. And if you type this command, you know, oh, wow. It does that. Right. So those are fun times. I like it. I imagine very hands on. Yes. You peg me as a problem solver. You know, you like getting your hands in the pie and and learning, the the ins and outs of the puzzle. Right? Yes. So okay. Cool. So you you jump into this career now. Right? You've got, your hands full of wires. Right? And you go to work in the larger telco industry during a major overhaul and explosion of that industry in the nineties. So you were working, what, with smaller carriers. Right? That's correct. On the operation side of things. Tell me a little bit about that experience of, you know, building your tech career in a sector and during a time when that sector was experiencing massive growth and an explosion of scale. How did that impact some of the work you were doing, the the general sentiment and attitude of your colleagues, and sort of the the vibe of the industry you were working in? Yeah. It was a really interesting time. Yeah. You know, you had the giants out there of AT and T and Verizon Right. And others at the time. So we had to try and compete with them. So it was a very, you know, entrepreneurial, environment. Very creative. It was a good time. Yeah. We solved a lot. Yeah. Key mentors in those early days that helped you get a better grasp of what kind of leadership was needed in that kind of environment in a massively, you know, growing industry with a lot of scale and a lot of potential. What did that look like for you? Yeah. I did. So there's a guy. His name is, Dan Yost. Okay. And I don't know that he even knew the impact and some of the things he said that stuck with me, but he had a couple. One of them was, you know, don't tell me what you know. Show me what you can prove. Nice. And so I had made a comment to him one time, look, our, you know, our operations are so much better. And he he's like, well, you know, where should they be? And I was kinda like, wow. I don't know the answer to that. So that was a great one. And, he also is the one that encouraged me to go back to school and get a graduate degree Interesting. Which I finally did at SMU. He was also an SMU grad. So Nice. Yeah. So okay. So he gave you some meticulous data oriented learning lessons. How important has that been in your career as a a tech leader? Right? You know, do you find that that has given you clarity of mind, a strategic focus throughout your career? Think back on on that, you know, the the impact of that kind of, advice. Yeah. That is a great lesson that I learned. So, you know, oftentimes in our operations and again, most of the places that I've worked have been very entrepreneurial. So you're dealing with a lot of different problems that you need to go solve operationally, product wise, whatever. Sure. And if you ask people, most of the time they'll tell you, oh, here's the problem. What the issue is is a lot of times they're wrong because people's perception is whatever has is generally been hitting them kind of in the face most recently. Yeah. And so a lot of times, that's not the case. And so you lose data, figure out what really is driving, you know, whatever it is that you wanna address, that's that's huge. Yeah. That's been really helpful to us. Well, that's cool because it's like, you know, you're you were both given a lesson in being meticulous and data oriented to really help your customers solve specific problems, but at the same time what you're describing is also somewhat of a communication skill. It's also being able to understand, okay, what is the what is the actual challenge the client on the other end of this discussion is trying to express to me? They may not even have the best terminology, the best sense for what the problem is, but there's a real problem there, and I gotta learn to take, you know, zero and turn it into one. Pretty cool. And that that seems like some, you know, holdovers from lessons from your hospitality days too. Yeah. Absolutely. The, the empathy thing I think comes in there. So Definitely. Yeah. Absolutely. Definitely. Okay. So now you are seeking graduate degree. Mhmm. Right? So okay. You're encouraged, in this chapter of your career to take on a graduate degree. Why exactly? What was the motivation to go to SMU and get an MBA? Yes. At the time, I was still looking to move up the corporate ladder. You know, I had some, probably, mid senior level positions at the time to really get to kind of that c suite. You know, again, the advice I got, if you look around, you know, the executive floor, everybody's office on this floor, they've got a they've got a master's degree. Right. So that was it. Nice. Okay. So it was clear that vision towards career success had to include that MBA puzzle piece. So you go to SMU to knock that out. Right? Tell me a bit about that experience. I know there were a lot of formative years, and a lot of important connections made. Think back on your SMU days, what were some of the most important stepping stones for your entrepreneurial journey that, you know, were paved for you or that you paved yourself while getting your graduate degree? So at SMU, the class and the program we were in, I think the average age was, like, thirty four, thirty five at the time. So, you know, it's people that have, you know, been in the workforce and they've done things, And that was part of it. We got to see people who had started companies. We had we had several entrepreneurs in our class. I think our class was about a hundred, something like that. Nice. We had several entrepreneurs. We had several, you know, traditional kind of Fortune five hundred leaders. And so you could kinda see experiences from both sides. And then just the people you met. You know, some of, some of my best friends to this day we graduated fifteen, sixteen years ago. Some of my best friends to this day, I met there. Nice. Yeah. And you at that point, you know, were still seeking that puzzle piece that was going to help propel you on the, you know, sort of Fortune five hundred executive ladder. Right? When did that start to shift towards, actually, I think I'm gonna take the leadership I've learned here and apply it towards an entrepreneurial journey instead. Tell tell us about that spectrum shift. So I think my wife would describe it as becoming the, you know, the the crutch of the old man, if you will. We just started to look and say, man, we can really do this better. Like, there are better ways to do this. There are there are better ways to, you know, solve client needs. And it just kinda kept becoming more and more clear that the way to to achieve that was just go do it ourselves. And that's cool that that just comes into focus by sort of, you know, being in that learning mindset. Right? And, being sort of forced to, in your leadership journey, craft plans of action that then you realize, like, wow, I've got my hands on some gold here. I know that for example, what you propose as a business plan during your entrepreneurship class, isn't that actually what CCG is premised on now. Right? That's correct. So tell us about that business plan. Right? When you say you and your cofounder, which we'll get into here in a second as well, when you said you realized we could be doing this better in the industry, what exactly did you think you could be doing better? What was missing in the industry in the IT advisory space that you felt, you know, we have the Midas touch for? Yeah. So coming from the the carrier provider side of the business, you know, we dealt with companies that do similar things to us. Sure. So they're out there trying to help design solutions and all that. So we got to see a lot of them. And there are some good ones, and there are some that are, you know, not as not as good. Sure. Where, where we thought we could bring benefit was really on the operational, you know, operational roles. We've both been parts of the sales division. So we've kinda got that, you know, better rounded or more well rounded view of our industry. Right. Whereas a lot of cases, other competitors of ours don't. Interesting. So what is it about that operational lens that is so critical for helping execute your clients needs. Right? Because if it's something that's sorely lacking in the industry, you'd expect more people would realize that that is a puzzle piece that's essential for success. What does make it so critical? And and why do you think it's unique that y'all, you know, had that sort of secret ammo? You know, I think it, I I think it comes into looking what's gonna happen or thinking a little bit longer term. You know, what's gonna happen at the end of this? So, you know, if we go out and we design a solution and client's like, yeah. That's great. They buy off on it and then we kinda walk away. We don't really know if that that turns into a good experience for them or not. So from the operational side, we had, you know, we had organizations that had to take that day too, if you will, after, you know, a sale and design is done. We had to go implement it. So we kinda look at it all the way through of, okay, how is our design and our work on the front end gonna impact turning this into something that's usable and providing, you know, the ultimate benefit for the client? I like that. So it's not just a focus on let's make sure to pair up our clients with the right IT infrastructure, the right plan of action, the right software, hardware, whatever it might be, but it's actually let's take ownership over the whole journey and make sure that once implemented, we can check back in in a month and say, was our action plan right for you? Right? Like, that that longer vision? Absolutely. We form long term relationships with our clients. That's that's what we're after. We really wanna be part of their team. And it comes back to that problem solving, and and and we wanna help them address what they need. And I think your hospitality background a little bit too. I I it it's cool. You know, I mean, building your initial sort of, antenna for what success looks like in a professional setting being premised fully around customer experience, I imagine helped shape that bigger picture. It's not just about any one individual service. It's about, is who I'm working with having a better experience at the end of this journey than they had when they came in? Is their problem solved, and do they walk away feeling like I had an experience that you know, it's like they can't even define every step. It's just the bigger picture is quality and positive. Right? But also having a meticulous data oriented mindset that you gained from your mentors, made sure that it wasn't just, you know, offering good vibes, but an action plan that executed on their challenges as well. So it's that perfect mix, which has obviously led to all the success. Pretty cool to see. Yeah. And I appreciate it again, and and thanks because I had never put those together until we spoke, you know, earlier for this. Yeah. That's when I put that together. I love it. That's a great point. Hey. That's the, you know, that's that's the power of the road to the Dallas one hundred. Right. Sometimes you forget about that one brick laid, you know. Mhmm. So very cool. So okay. You're a cofounder here. Right? So, Keith Hatley. That's your other cofounder. I'm curious, you know, what that cofounder mix looks like for y'all. Where do you complement each other? And when you were thinking about launching a business, what were you looking for in a partner to go on that very risky endeavor with? Yeah. So he and I have known each other since, since the late nineties. And so we were both at SMU together. We so all those were all shared experiences. And, you know, a lot of times when I say, you know, we just think we could we can do this better, that was us commiserating or or or whatever in an office somewhere. So, but I do think we complement each other pretty well. Our, our wives say the same thing. So that's always a good test. But, you know, Keith is, kind of the sales and marketing focused, and I'm more on the operations focused, generally speaking. So that's just how the the tactical split works. If you had to synthesize y'all's relationship into advice for other entrepreneurs out there, you know, what should entrepreneurial minded folks who've got that fire to start a business, if they think maybe I should bring a partner on board, you know, what should they be looking for to gauge? Is this the right person to go on this kind of endeavor with? That's that's easy to me. The the first one is you gotta make sure, you communicate well. So, you business partnerships, it's it's a marriage. Yeah. And so you won't always agree. So when you disagree, you know, you gotta be able to you gotta be able to talk through it. Yeah. So that's the that's the thing. Have the tough conversations. That's right. Right. Yeah. That's right. Bad news doesn't get better with age. No. Yeah. Right. No. What what gets better, hopefully, is the ability to speak candidly about challenges. Right? And then execute with a solutions oriented mindset. And y'all have clearly been able to do that considering the kind of growth you've seen, especially in the last few years, your INK five thousand win, your Dallas one hundred, win. But let's look at the years building up to that. Right? So you launched the company in two thousand nine, but it doesn't really start until two thousand eleven. Tell us about those early days of building the business. What were the first, you know, foundational blocks that you had to put down to ensure the success of your business? Yeah. Those first few days when you, you know, you stare at the white walls and there's, you know, you can do nothing all day and nobody will bother you. Right. Yeah. So it's, it's truly you know, the beginning, it's truly crafting your message. You know, why why you, you know, in a in kind of an advisory expense side, like, we don't have a product. I can't, you know, I can't show you my new, you know, better football. Right. You know, I have to explain, you know, how are we going to, you know, help you? And so you just have to keep crafting that message over and over and refining it, figuring out what works, what doesn't, you know, and and going from there. Yeah. And I guess also figuring out, you know, it's this is more on the technical side of things, but the business model too and how that is going to heart of your business, which is what you're describing here, right? The kind of customer service oriented, you know, data tied action plan strategies that you can offer your clients, what separates you. Right? Describe that a little bit for us. How did you decide what kind of, business model you wanted to operate, and how was that going to be heart of your business? How did you link those two things together? So, a lot of the work we do is actually a, a brokerage model. It's on the actual business model. So it's it's similar to a real estate agent is the analogy I use Nice. But in the IT space. And so what that lets us do is and and again, in most cases, there are some that are different where some of the things we do are billable. But, in a lot of cases, that lets us kinda cut through that initial, okay. You're a consulting company, so you want me to write you a seven figure check. And then at some point in the future, you're gonna give me the, you know, the same PowerPoint that you gave to the last twelve clients. You know, it lets us cut through some of that, and and really start to build trust because it's like, look, just let us you know, give us something that's that's been a bit challenging. You know, it's almost a, you know, if you don't like it, you can kinda walk away. There's no risk or really low risk. We'll help you sort out some things and you kinda build trust. And so a lot of our growth has been that we're very proud of actually has been existing clients. They've been Cool. You know, looking for us for more and more. I mean, when your company success is being defined by positive word-of-mouth, that means you're doing something right. Absolutely. And that's that's, you know, such a strategic blend of your background and also, I think the goal that you set out for what you can do do better in the industry. Right? You wanted to build a company that executed on solving your clients' IT infrastructure problems, but did so with a long game in mind. And there's no better way to build trust, I imagine, communication solution, here's the classic vendor I recommend you. But you But you sit down, you work with, and you ensure that when they get from a to z, z is actually a, you know, more, robust and, efficient IT infrastructure, and a client that feels more capable of operating with that new backbone in place, which is pretty cool to see, you know, that that sort of focus on specifically the client journey. But, obviously, solving these challenges comes first with understanding where the industry is at. And, you know, building out your portfolio of vendors and of solutions to even offer in the first place, give us a pulse check. When we look at the early twenty tens, what were the IT infrastructure shifts? Where were the winds blowing, in the larger industry? And how did that define the services and the, you know, challenges that y'all honed in on saying we're gonna solve these first as a business to really stake our flag? Sure. Yeah. Great point. So, you know, even a little bit before the the twenty tens, you know, you had higher speed data networks that were available. You know, I remember, you know, the dial up modems and some of those things back in the day. So that's Classic. Yeah. A lot of that's that all should be gone. I hope it's all gone. And then you kinda had a shift toward, you know, the as a service. Sure. So you had people like, you know, a RingCentral, a Zoom that's been putting telephony in the cloud. And then you see contact centers moving to the cloud, and then you start to see more and more applications. And what that does is it makes companies more and more reliant on those networks. And so instead of having applications and things sitting within their buildings, so if they lose connectivity, now people in the building can still work. Right. Now those things are outside the building. And then you also have people working from home after the pandemic. So it's just it's been a shift around connectivity, and and where those applications can live. And so that's that's what we spend a lot of time working on building, redundancy plans and resiliency with our clients on their networks and and applications. Was that the focus all the way back in twenty ten as well? Or did that was like, did you find yourselves having to evolve the kinds of challenges you could solve, your portfolio of potential tools and vendors over the last ten years? I mean, what does that journey look like maturing as a company? They have. So contact center is a space we do a lot of work in customer experience. And so a lot of the platforms, the artificial intelligence stuff, you know, obviously, that didn't exist. Right. And so the the persona of of, you know, what the clients are looking to solve, that that client they're trying to solve for has changed dramatically, you know, over the past fourteen years or so. Yeah. Now, you know, as you were building your business, you know, I imagine there were some initial challenges. I know when we were, you know, speaking earlier to kinda get to learn more about Chris and about CCG, you mentioned scope creep. And I think that's an incredibly relatable business challenge that, you know, as you start your company, you're looking at that, you know, bill, and you're saying, Okay. I gotta pay rent this month. I gotta bring clients on. I gotta give myself some capital to actually build out my business, which means maybe you take on projects that aren't ideal, but are gonna bring in a little revenue. Tell us a bit, you know, a bit about that challenge of how you approach scope creep, you know, and how that, you know, created some roadblocks early, but maybe how you maneuvered around those as your company matured. Yeah. That's a problem that, you know, still exists. That one doesn't ever go away. Yeah. I guess so. I think. But, yeah, you know, you're trying to get the dollars in. What do we need to do? So we've had, you know, we've had clients ask us to do things that are kind of, you know, I'd say adjacent to, what we're really good at. Yeah. It's a good client. It actually seems like a pretty interesting problem to solve. So, yeah, we go and do it, and quite frankly, we've done it, you know, not very well a couple of times. And And so But that's how you learn and get better. Right? Yeah. It's how you learn. It's how, you know, you learn to not be distracted by the shiny things kinda deal. But, again, I think the communication helped. We've got really good relationships, I would say, with, you know, with the overwhelming majority of our clients. And so we've gone to several and say, look. We just this is just not us. You know? I don't think it's a huge mess yet, but it's going to be if we don't, you know, get out of this and find a different way to do it. Right. How did you learn to refine what made y'all's offering unique? Right? Because it when when we're talking about scope creep, I imagine it can seem easier to say, okay, they have a challenge, it may not be our core competency, but we can figure it out, we'll get a happy customer and move forward. It takes, you know, a more refined and focused business plan to be able to say, look, even if short term I don't get that revenue, I know that I need to pitch myself with these core competencies because that's gonna build more long term trust because I know I can execute on that a hundred percent versus that one which maybe I can execute on eighty percent. Mhmm. You know, that that's not good enough. So tell me a bit about how y'all refined that that pitch, where you decided to hone in on your core competencies, and how you maneuver that as an entrepreneur, learning when to say no, essentially. What what was that journey like for you? Yeah. So we actually ate a little bit of our own cooking as they say. We, you know, we would sit back and go, I think we're kinda good at this. I think this is what people like. And so we then decided we're gonna go ask. And so we went to we actually had outside parties do it. We had two different groups over about fourteen months Nice. Asked our customers and interviewed them. And some of them were were pretty high level, and then there was a couple that were you know, they were forty five minute discussions. And basically, we asked our clients, you know, what is it you like, and and where are they helpful? And then what could they be doing that they're not? And so that's a great exercise to go through. You'll, if you're not surprised, I would be surprised. Yeah. Criticism and self criticism. I mean, it goes it it's important. Right? You know, how have you learned to refine that skill as a leader? Because, you know, being able to take constructive criticism and apply it and grow from areas of struggle, you know, I think maybe some leaders can take that for granted sometimes. That is a skill in and of itself to be able to humble yourself a little bit. Take that and apply it knowing that the end result is gonna mean, you know, more revenue, a better company, a stronger leader. So how did you refine that skill for yourself over the years? That's another ongoing, I'll call it a battle, an ongoing battle. I don't know that I honestly, I don't know that I've refined it. I think it's it's a work in progress. It, you know, there'll be a lot of times somebody will say, you know, this didn't work. This didn't work. And and my reaction was to be, well, you know, we didn't do what what we wanted. Like and so it's it's almost to kinda deflect or defend. And so, you know, a lot of times there there is a a time and place for that, but a lot of times there isn't. So that's still a work in progress with me. You know, I think that's the best answer. Mhmm. I think, you know, the best leaders and the best professionals are people who see themselves as students Mhmm. For their whole life. There's always something to learn, you know, and always something to improve upon. So that gives me that gives me faith in you as a leader. I like that. I like it, man. Appreciate it. So, you know, I wanna I wanna take a slight detour and, talk a little bit about your wife. Yeah. So she has been obviously a critical force in your life of support, care, love, all the classics, but also of entrepreneurial vision. She actually started her own business nearly thirty years ago. Tell us a little bit about that story and just reflect a bit about, you know, how your wife's own entrepreneurial calling kinda shaped your view of taking this big risk and what that support has meant to you over the years? Yeah. So she is extremely disciplined. Love it. You know, she, she started a business, gets up every day, or, you know, when she started, excuse me, got up every day, you know, eight eight fifteen in the morning and and was going at it. So, you know, at the time, had nobody working with her. It was that internal drive and that discipline. So that helped especially on the early days when I, you know, I mentioned we sat down and looked around at the white walls. It's like, okay. Great. Now what? Yeah. Yeah. You know? And I'm like, well, let's see what the news says and start you know, you can very easily get lost. And suddenly it's five o'clock and you Exactly. Yeah. Right. And then they're saying, why didn't the phone ring? I don't get it. But, that was that was that was really helpful. And she again, she's continued to do it. So she stays pretty focused. Really cool. Yeah. Yeah. Not often do you have, you know, that level of tenured success as a you know, with the nucleus being a marriage, you know, and both of y'all having that kind of entrepreneurial drive and passion. It's really cool to see. I'm sure it it keeps you motivated, you know. Yeah. She's a great sounding board, you know. We'll have a we'll have a glass of wine every so often and bounce ideas off about about the various businesses. And so it's, yeah, it's a good sounding board. Love that. And discipline, a young professional still myself, I'm still learning a lot about the importance of consistency and discipline and how, you know, the small wins build to the point where you don't even notice there's a qualitative change, but suddenly you've been able to achieve so much more. Absolutely. Because you made those thankless decisions that in the moment seem exhausting or tedious, but in the long run determine the success of the next chapter of your life. Right? Absolutely. What what were some of those areas in your career where you found that that inspiration of discipline helped you succeed, and, you know, outshine the competition? It's probably more I'll have to credit Keith, to be honest, a little bit more with this, but, I would say it's the preparation for, for meetings. So coming from kind of the engineering operation side of the business, I have a tendency to, let's just talk through this and it and and let's get a whiteboard and we'll just figure it out. But the discipline to, you know, have an organized path to a discussion, to a meeting, you know, to solution discussions, that that disciplined path is so much more effective than just, you know, winging it. Yeah. Yeah. You you know, talent can only get you so far. Right. It's about hard work and applying yourself. Right? And that's, I think, a tried and true lesson. The most talented people aren't always the ones who succeed. It's the ones who combine talent with gumption and Yeah. Executing day in day out. Right? Absolutely. So alright. Let's go ahead and wrap things up by looking at the now and the head. Right? Your company has grown to the point of being honored with Inc. Five thousand. Y'all were Dallas one hundred winners last year. Correct. Twenty twenty three? Beautiful. So what does y'all's current growth chapter look like? What's your focus as a company, right now? Right? And how is that shaping, you know, where you're hoping to take the company in the future? Yeah. So right now, it's it's really trying to figure out how to deliver on some other things clients have asked us. So I mentioned, customer experience at contact centers. We have clients who are asking us to do more and more that is, you know, kind of retained management of platforms, you know, those kinda those kinda things that involve a little bit more people. They involve, you know, just another complexity. So we're really kinda focused on how do we deliver on that because we don't wanna we don't wanna, you know, kinda repeat things in the past if, yes, we can do anything Right. And then do some of it poorly. So we wanna do it right. And then what about company size? I know y'all have, over the last few years, really made a business decision to focus in on let's serve mid to large sized businesses, let's let's focus in on locking in those enterprise clients. What does that strategy look like in practice, and how are y'all kind of changing your approach to, make sure you can execute on those scaled challenges of an enterprise company? Yeah. Great question. So we are still paying a lot of attention to the enterprise clients. You know, we think they have some unique, unique challenges and unique things that we can help solve. At the same time, a lot of the, you know, commoditization, if you will, of technology is pushing tools down to smaller organizations that used to be reserved for an enterprise. Interesting. You know, an American Airlines call center as an example has had some really sophisticated technology for years. Well, you know, a fifteen person company can have that same level of sophistication now. So we're looking at ways to, you know, to help those that that may be, struggling with how do I how do I apply all this tech that I didn't know I had or had access to, which is a similar to an enterprise, problem. Interesting. Yeah. So, yeah, that that's really interesting because, you know, while, yes, there's a focus to zone in on enterprise sized clients, you're kind of solving enterprise sized challenges regardless of business because of the way the technology has matured. How is that changing y'all's, you know, service approach and your, action plan strategies? Right? Are you finding that you're having to tweak, you know, how you provide value over the last few years as that technology has matured? I hope, I hope what we're able to do, and this is part of what we're working as well, is to take, something that can be really complicated at the enterprise level Yeah. And simplify it a little bit so that it's just as effective at an organization that's not as complicated. So Right. A lot of, a lot of the IT world involves system integrations. And so some enterprise clients will integrate, you know, five, ten different systems on things. Well, a lot of companies that are smaller don't have five or ten systems. So, you know, their integration needs are still there, just the scope and complexity is not. So that's changing a little bit of how we, you know, how we message things in in in our design process. Nice. Nice. Well, y'all are clearly on the path to growth. You're on the road to continued success. And so, you know, y'all success story is one to to learn from, and I'm excited to see where CCG continues to go as a company in the next several years. My last set of questions here is, about the Dallas one hundred. Right? So you won, last year. Right? You were part of the class of one hundred for twenty twenty three. Tell us a little bit about what that experience was like for you and your team. What did it mean to win that award? And how has it continued to, sort of set the tone for this next chapter of CCG? Yeah. So it, you know, it's a great honor. It's a it's something that, you know, we've seen, you know, just in local media for a long time and decided to finally get try and get involved in. It also, I would say, on a personal note, was a lot of fun. So we had we had the whole company there, which again, there's not that many of us. But we had, you know, we had a couple of tables. We had, you know, everybody's, you know, significant others were there. And so it was a lot of fun. Getting to see other, you know, people, some of them that we knew, some of them that we've, you know, gotten to know. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to, you know, hopefully we're part of this class again this year. Definitely. Yeah. And even, you know, more broadly, SMU has played a key role in advancing your career in, you know, being sort of an incubator for your entrepreneurial fire in a lot of ways as well and scoping out a plan of action for where you wanna plant your flag in the industry. You know, if you under reflect and and give a a brief summary of what that experience did for you, how would you define it, and, you know, what advice would you give to others looking to refine their leadership or entrepreneurial chops considering something like SMU as an option? Absolutely. So the, the the school has, great networks. So, you know, I'll go out on a limb and say, you can learn finance and you can learn accounting, you know, probably on YouTube these days. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm sure you can. But the difference is is the people that you're around. So you're gonna learn things from them. They're gonna learn things from you. There's people that I met at the school that I'll call for advice that has nothing to do with business. What do I do about, you know, I've got a thing I wanna do with my son. What's your opinion? So just those kind of connections. And I'll tell you from us, if if somebody calls us, you you know, and they're referencing the school, we'll generally take the call. So I think that's that's a really important thing in the business world, just that connection to the school and what what the school has in North Texas. And, you know, I know, you know, so many of the connections you made there continue to propel the business forward, whether that's in the form of clients, folks that work at the company now, right, with you and have since the very beginning. So, you know, if anyone out there is listening, you're considering a graduate degree. SMU is the place. SMU is the place. Absolutely. And And we're not just plugging it because this is the road to the Dallas one hundred, guys. Alright? But cool, man. Chris, thank you so much for joining us on the show today. This has been a fantastic opportunity to to learn about your approach to entrepreneurial growth, to, you know, refining your leadership chops, but also just general business success in the IT world. For, you know, a landscape that has so much evolution in terms of the value proposition as technology matures and, you know, you gotta learn new lingo and be able to solve new challenges. Y'all are clearly at the forefront of keeping the the true long game in mind for customers, and it's serving y'all well. And so I'm excited to see where growth continues to take y'all here in the next few years. So Awesome. Thanks. Appreciate your time. This is good. It's been it's been such a pleasure. Totally, man. Again, folks, we've been chatting with Chris Moffitt. He's cofounder of Cloud Communication Group. And, Chris, if folks wanna learn more about Cloud Communications Group, they wanna get in touch with CCG, maybe tap into your services. Where can we point them? Yeah. Go to the website. It's, cloud com dot net, and you can find all of that. Easy peasy. Love it. Absolutely. Alright. Chris Moffitt, cofounder of CCG. Thank you so much for joining us on the show today. Thanks. Appreciate it. It's been such a pleasure. Absolutely. Alright, folks. So this has been another episode of the road to the Dallas one hundred. And as we explained earlier, this is a road to the SMU Dallas one hundred awards. The application to be part of the twenty twenty four class of the Dallas one hundred Awards closes this week, July twenty sixth. Again, applications for, being part of the d one hundred close this week, July twenty sixth. So if you yourself consider yourself an entrepreneurial genius, you wanna show the world what you've accomplished as an independent DFW business, or you know someone in your circle who you think deserves to be nominated, get that application in. You got three more days, and who knows? You may just find yourself being part of the twenty twenty four Dallas one hundred Awards. Anyways, folks, we are gonna hit the road the rest of this summer as we showcase the stars of the Dallas one hundred. So as you gear up to find out who the twenty twenty four Dallas one hundred class is, we're gonna keep telling the stories of Dallas' best in terms of entrepreneurial leadership and business growth. So make sure you watch out for the winners of the d one hundred awards, the biggest celebration for successful entrepreneurs in the big d. But till then, folks, I'm your host, Daniel Litwin, the voice of b two b. We'll be back in a few weeks with another episode of The Road to the Dallas one hundred.