Compliance Unfiltered is TCT’s tell-it-like-it is podcast, dedicated to making compliance suck less. It’s a fresh, raw, uncut alternative for anyone who needs honest, reliable, compliance expertise with a sprinkling of personality.
Show Notes: Happy Thanksgiving from Compliance Unfiltered
Quick Take
In this heartfelt episode of “Compliance Unfiltered”, the TCT Guys reflect on their journey with TCT, sharing personal stories of growth, challenges, and gratitude.
Adam and Todd delve into the evolution of TCT, the invaluable input from clients, and the strong relationships built over the years. Join them as they discuss the importance of client feedback in shaping the organization’s offerings and celebrate the dedicated team that makes it all possible.
Tune in for an inspiring conversation about making compliance management a little less daunting and a lot more rewarding.
Read The Transcript
So let’s face it, managing compliance sucks. It’s complicated. It’s so hard to keep organized and it requires a ton of expertise in order to survive the entire process.
Welcome to Compliance Unfiltered, a podcast dedicated to making compliance suck less. Now here’s your host, Todd Coshow with Adam Goslin.
Well, welcome in to another edition of Compliance Unfiltered. I’m Todd Coshow alongside the Sweet Potato Pie. To your compliance thanksgiving, Mr. Adam Goslin. How the heck are you, sir?
I am doing good, looking forward to heading towards some pumpkin pie myself.
I appreciate that very much. Now, speaking of, did you want to take this time to issue a public statement regarding last week’s Open?
The one that I gacked, is that what you’re referring to?
There were accusations and I just wanted to address them publicly.
Yeah, I’ll retract. I’ll retract, my bad.
No worries. And for those not, you’ll just have to go back and listen to last week’s episode.
That is the moral of this story. So today, we are going to talk Adam, about the fact that here at TCT, we have a lot to be thankful for. So let’s start with our journey. I hope we got here.
Sure thing. So, you know, it’s really interesting when you get these moments where you can just reflect on kind of what’s going on, what’s happened. I mean, you know, I’m thankful to be where I’m at as we’re talking about being thankful.
Man, I had, I don’t want to go back into the depths or, you know, kind of renew my, you know, renew my therapy sessions or anything along those lines. But, you know, the bottom line is that, you know, I worked for, you know, over the course of about a decade, I worked for, you know, one organization that didn’t know how to run an organization and drove themselves out of business. I worked for then two progressively larger a-hole bosses, you know, type of a deal. I walked away from that. I decided, I’ll throw my hat in the, you know, in the do your own business thing. And unfortunately, did that with a couple of business partners. So that was a, you know, lessons learned from all of it. But, you know, that’s kind of how that that’s the pain that I had to go through to kind of get to, you know, get to where I’m at. And, you know, it’s just, it’s been, you know, it’s been an experience kind of navigating to, you know, to where we’re at now. But, you know, they say that those prior experiences kind of shape, you know, kind of shape your future, you know, future actions, activities, you learn from those experiences, et cetera. And, you know, most certainly there was a, there was a lot to be learned from those experiences, shall we say. And, you know, it’s just, it’s, it’s, you know, and it’s been, it’s been interesting kind of watching, watching that evolution, watching this come together, you know, the, for me, you know, I’ve always been a person that likes helping people. And so being able to, being able to leverage that desire and do so in a way that actually helps people with, you know, with their compliance, you know, with their compliance engagements, with their compliance journey, you know, I like, we like to refer to it as making, making it suck less, you know, that that’s really been what it’s been about since, you know, since the beginning. I just, I’m a much bigger fan of an organization that kind of, that rallies around, rallies around a cause can bring that to others. Have that be beneficial. It’s, it makes the, it makes the journey, you know, the journey better, you know, when you’re going from, when you’re going from, you know, starting out with, you know, it being, you know, me, myself and I, and, you know, building the company and add, you know, add another person and build, we build the company some more and add a third, you know, to where we’re at today, you know, and being able to just serve the, you know, serve the clients that are appreciative of, you know, the, the nature of the organization, how, how it works and operates, you know, the, the accessibility, you know, of, of, of our company to them. You know, it’s just, it’s been, it’s been a really rewarding journey over, over the, the course of the last decade plus that we’ve been, we’ve been doing this.
Well, they are why we’re here. So let’s talk about those clients. Let’s start with the style of interaction we have with our client based ad I think that’s a good place.
You know, the interaction we’ve had with the customers has been very, very cool, you know, over time, you know, we, you know, it’s been fun watching organizations, especially in the early days, right? You know, this was a platform that was built, it was built by practitioners, for practitioners. And so it really meant for, you know, kind of a different kind of opening feel, right? This isn’t, this wasn’t something driven by any other purpose other than trying to go solve a problem. And so, you know, but getting the clients in, we had a certain baseline element of functionality that we wanted to be able to bring to the table with a battalion list of things we wanted to go do with it, you know, kind of at launch. But, you know, it’s been a lot more rewarding talking to the customers, talking about what it is that they need, what’s their most important, you know, element of functionality that they’d like to see within the system.
You know, their active participation in, you know, in the improvements that we make to, you know, make to both improving the, you know, the baseline product for TCT, but, you know, also the, you know, kind of the grassroots groundswell that happens when you’ve got, you know, a multitude of organizations provisioning their input, their feedback, everybody being able to benefit from, you know, from everybody else’s suggestions. It’s fun because, you know, a lot of times you’ll be in these discussions, somebody come up with, hey, I’d really like a feature that does fill in the blank. This other person hasn’t even thought about it, right? They didn’t even think about that capability. And meanwhile, the platform’s improving. It’s getting better. It’s, you know, there’s problems getting solved they didn’t even think of, et cetera. And, you know, it’s, you know, it’s fun. I mean, you know, the TCT, the organization, it was never an organization. I like to call the, you know, the investors out there the bags of money, right? You get a lot of organizations that are driven by bags of money. Basically, guys gals with bags of money, you know, roll up and say, hey, I want you to go do fill in the blank. And, you know, we go and, you know, make a product, but, you know, a lot of times it’s driven out of a third party desire to plug a, you know, plug a perceived hole or solve a perceived problem. But in many cases, what it lacks is it lacks the, it lacks kind of that tactile hands on experiential element of it. Yeah, that might go get a specialist and fill in the blank, but it’s a lot different when you’ve got, you know, got a group of people that literally do this stuff for a living that need to solve their own problem. And, oh, by the way, that’s going to be helpful for somebody else, that takes on a completely different feeling.
So, you know, it’s been fun, you know, seeing that, you know, sincere desire to help people doing what’s right, you know, etc., having that resonate with the client base. Just the organization kind of carries a different feel. So it’s been fun having those types of, you know, those types of interactions with the client base.
I agree. And I’ve certainly had that experience in my realm of TCT as well. Let’s talk about some of the clients that are our biggest cheerleaders.
Well, I mean, you know, some of the most fun is, and especially, it happens, it’s funny because it’ll happen on calls, it’ll happen when we’re at, you know, at shows and face-to-face with them, et cetera. I mean, just, you know, I can still remember conversations that I had with folks that were interested in, you know, kind of being part of the solution, you know, that was this organization and, you know, being face-to-face with them back in, you know, back in 2019 and, you know, offering, you know, offering ideas, offering help and assistance, offering, you know, offering brainstorming on, you know, how we could, you know, approach or resolve certain, you know, these are things we wanted to go tackle, you know, and really being ingrained in invested is the word I was searching for, you know, being invested in, you know, in that process and wanting to help, wanting to participate, you know, and whatnot, it’s fun when you’ve got clients that are, you know, kind of that keen on, you know, on the way that we go about doing things and making things better, et cetera.
You know, also when we’re at, you know, I was telling a story recently about we were at one of the shows and having a dialogue about, hey, well, we were just talking to, you know, so-and-so, you know, so-and-so, and, you know, they were, you know, they were, you know, kind of wondering what type of an organization we were, et cetera, almost like we were having an internal dialogue, one of the, you know, one of the existing clients happened to swing by as we were right in the midst of it, and they’re like, who are you talking about? Who are you talking about? You know? You know, who is it you’re referring to, da-da-da, oh, well, it’s, you know, it’s this person there over there, da-da-da, it bill on a minute, I mean, I’m going to go have a conversation with them, you know, just like volunteering just to go over, talk to them, you know, tell them about the company and their experience and, you know, and whatnot, it’s a, you don’t see that, you know, you just, you don’t see that with, you know, with other organizations. It’s, it’s, it is, it is super, super cool to, to, to watch stuff like that unfolding, you know, we got, we, we got some of the best damn clients around, tell you what.
I’m not going to disagree with you in any way, shape or form. Now, is it just that clients are just simply that nice? Well, I’m
I mean, we’ve had all sorts of different things happen over time. I mean, we have clients that literally will like swing by the booth at the PCI conferences and be dropping off various treats at the booth. We’ve got Paul that swings by with bags of kind of specialized candy and whatnot. Of course, that ends up going back to the boss, AKA the wife type of deal. But no, I mean, he comes by and he’s always awesome.
We had another organization that’s an avid, they’re avid podcast listeners. So I know I’ll be getting a text once this one posts, but we got Heidi and Jeff that is a pro Jeff, Heidi made him cart a box from North America to Europe just to swing by the booth to make sure that we got that in hand type of thing. It’s like, it’s that type of thing. It’s fun. You know, really one of the cooler parts of it for me is the nature of the relationships that we build. You know, it’s not just like your atypical, you know, vendor client relationship. This is a relationship where, you know, I’ll pick up the phone and talk to somebody that we’ve met through the working part, but it’s more friendship than, you know, than work. You know, we’ll text each other in the evening or, you know, send something over the weekend or, you know, whatever, and, you know, having, you know, just phone calls to check in, keeping in touch with people after they’ve retired. I mean, share, oh my God, Sherry, a great, great example, you know, one of the seriously sweetest, nicest people on the face of the effing planet. And you know, I’ve stayed in touch, stayed in touch with her and I actually miss, I miss her raise the sunshine. But, you know, the, you know, staying in touch with her, it’s just building that type of relationship, you know, and yes, we have astoundingly nice clients, you know, type of thing. So, you know, that all plays into it as well. But no, it’s just, it’s been, I’m very thankful for the type of relationships we’ve been able to have with our clients over the years.
Absolutely. Now this is one of my favorite aspects, so I was hoping that you could talk a little bit about client input into the releases that TCT puts out, not just about that.
Yeah, well, you know, I said earlier, when we started out TCT, you know, and, you know, it was practitioners building a solution for themselves that happened to be useful for other people, you know, we literally walked in and we, I don’t know, we had like 200 ideas of things that would be good ideas to go do. And, you know, it’s been, you know, once we went ahead and dialed it on, started onboarding people, et cetera, you know, we really made a point to be actively engaged with the, you know, with the clients regarding their needs, getting their inputs, lining those, lining those kind of morphing our release process. So whatever, our first release after we, you know, after we went to production, it was a lot of ideas from TCT, but over time, and not too long to be brutally honest with you, the releases started to morph from cool ideas that TCT had for the product to serving the needs of the, of the customer base. And, you know, at this point in the game, honestly, the inclusions in our releases are, are almost a hundred percent client requested functionality that they’ve wanted us to go and get into the, into the platform to make their lives easier.
You know, they’re, they’re actively engaged in, you know, in that process. We, we recently, you know, one of the things that, that the, you know, the customers wanted was a, you know, just a simple streamlined interface for when they’re, when their control owners needed to submit evidence that a nice, clean, easy interface for their control owners to go in and just get their stuff done and move on, you know, type of a thing without all of the, you know, volume of power that the, you know, that the, that the platform has, they just want to go blinder mode and, you know, get their stuff done. And so, you know, it was fun because at the, at the most recent conferences, we released what we call easy cert. And the easy cert interface is, it is just, you know, the users can go in, get their stuff done. It’s clean, keeps them on track, tells them exactly what they need to know, et cetera. And the best part about that was the fact that the clients hadn’t seen it yet. And so we literally worked standing in the booth at the show with the demo going and, and calling, you know, calling over, you know, over clients, hey, come on in, check us out, et cetera. Their, their response was just overwhelmingly positive about, you know, about the, the, the features, et cetera. So it’s fun when you’re getting the input from the clients, you’re integrating that into your release schedule, you’re releasing the product, and then you have the opportunity to, to talk to them and get their feedback, get their input. You know, the, the, the, the best part is, is that, I mean, we’ve got clients that span such, is such a broad spectrum of certifications, standards, your personalities, approaches, different businesses do different things, different ways. You know, even within the same business, people will do, do things slightly differently, et cetera. And it’s just, it’s awesome being able to, to get all of that kind of tactile input feedback and iteration working for work, really working on behalf.
It’s almost like TCT and the client base working on behalf of the client base, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s just a freaking fun, it’s just a freaking fun relationship to be able to, to be able to experience.
Absolutely. Well, we couldn’t have a conversation about being thankful without mentioning the personnel at TCT. So let’s talk about that. Well,
Um, you know, from, from day one, you know, I talked about it earlier, you know, earlier today where, you know, when it started, it was me, myself, and I. All three of us were, you know, hauling ass, hauling ass, I don’t know, probably 18 hours a day, you know, type of a thing to get, to get this party started. And, you know, building it up, getting another person in, building it up, getting another person in, you know, there’s, you know, the, probably the coolest part for me, I told the story about the, about the, you know, when we first started this, when we were doing the, you know, kind of, couple years of designing the, the, the, the TCT platform, what we wanted it to do. I, I talked about it was four, four dudes in a room above a garage. And, uh, really it was four dudes in a room above a garage. And we had, uh, a fifth that was helping with sanity checking, you know, what we’d come up with. It wasn’t going to work and things along those lines. So technically it was, it was five people involved. And one of the freaking most awesome pieces is of the five people that were involved in that process, four of them are directly integrated and engaged with TCT today. And that is just freaking cool to have, you know, that level of longevity of the, of the core folks that have been involved with the, you know, with the platform.
But, you know, from the, from those humble beginnings, you know, and it was a lot of blood, sweat and tears. You know, we, we layered on a myriad of different, uh, different folks, different functions, uh, you know, different realms of responsibility, um, you know, within, within the organization, it’s been, uh, you know, it’s been really, really cool. Uh, you know, and I’m unbelievably blessed to have the team that I’ve got here at TCT. Um, I know the clients are thankful for them. I am too. Um, but you know, it’s a pleasure to work with the, with the capable individuals who are knocking it out of the park and taking responsibility seriously and striving to move TCT forward. Um, you know, we’ve got a really good, good group of people. I mean, one of the things that, that, that we hear continuously, um, you know, in terms of client feedback, input, et cetera, especially around, um, kind of the, the, the onboarding capabilities and experience, the day-by-day support, uh, capabilities that TCT provides, uh, the fact that, you know, we’re willing to add any industry standard certification to the platform that a client needs. Um, you know, all of those things are, are, are things that we constantly hear, uh, you know, really positive feedback, you know, back from the client base. And, you know, that’s why I say, I know the clients are, are thankful for the folks that we’ve got here at TCT. Um, you know, because, you know, they take, they take their kind of role and responsibility seriously, uh, in terms of what they’re doing for, uh, doing for the customers, um, you know, and that shows the client, the clients see it.
I, I can’t tell you how many, you know, how many times either, you know, through direct interaction or feedback that have gotten from somebody, there’s a lot of companies out there that just, they, it’s, they seemingly don’t give a crap about their clients. I don’t, I don’t understand it.
It seems like a foreign concept to most organizations that the, the, the role of a, of a service provider is to, um, I dunno, provide service. Uh, and it seems like a foreign concept to many of these organizations, but I dunno, man, I just, you know, I want to, I want to, I want to go old school. I want to do things the way they, they, they should be done. Um, you know, and the way that, uh, the way that people should be able to expect, um, you know, that’s what, that’s what, you know, kind of centers, centers, TCT, but, you know, there is absolutely no possibility that, that we’d be having this conversation if it weren’t for, you know, all the awesome folks at TCT. So I’m, uh, I am eternally thankful for them.
Indeed. As am I. Harning shots and thoughts for the folks this week, Adam.
Well, it has been a wild ride, a wild adventure. It’s always fun to get an opportunity to kind of take a look back. You know, I think about the crazy nut job that decided to start this company, you know, when you decided to go build the system to make compliance management suck less. And, you know, it is humbling to see how TCT has grown, you know, a person at a time and developing a company over these many years that truly makes people’s lives better. You know, it’s not been easy, but it’s been real rewarding.
You know, it’s been a long road. We have a lot more things that we’re gonna, that we’re planning on doing and going to do to help make, you know, compliance management suck less for everybody in the industry. So, you know, for everybody that’s a customer, a partner, employee or friend of TCT, you know, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support. You guys are the reason that we exist and we’re really thankful for you.
And that right there, that’s the good stuff. Well, that’s all the time we have for this episode of Compliance Unfiltered. I’m Todd Coshow and I’m Adam Goslin, hope we helped to get you fired up to make your compliance suck less.
