What Nobody Knows About School Business Insider Host John Brucato

Summary

School Business Insider
Episode: What Nobody Knows About School Business Insider Host John Brucato
Host: John Brucato
Date: May 12, 2026

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Episode Overview

This special episode turns the tables, placing host John Brucato in the guest seat for the first time. Recorded in Azerbaijan with recurring guest and friend Aziz, the episode explores John’s personal journey, the origins of the podcast, lessons from international collaboration, leadership philosophy, and the evolving role of technology—especially AI—in school business operations. It’s a candid, reflective conversation packed with storytelling, human insight, and practical examples relevant to school business officials everywhere.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. John Brucato: Personal and Professional Journey

• Background
  • Initially studied and worked in tech with ambitions for Silicon Valley.
  • Entry into school business was unexpected: “I didn’t go to school with the thought that I would become a school business official. …I originally had ambitions to pursue a career in tech.” (A, 02:20)
  • Pivoted from tech after a chance opportunity in a school district led to a passion for impacting kids’ futures.
• Career Growth
  • Became Director of Technology in Buffalo, NY; later pursued additional certifications.
  • Thrust into first business official job with a $168M budget: “Totally underprepared. It was $168 million budget. And they were just like, here, take the keys.” (A, 04:39)
  • Credits strong mentorship and a network of supportive colleagues for his learning curve.

2. Origin and Philosophy of School Business Insider Podcast

• How It Started
  • Second attempt at podcasting—first focused on New York, then expanded globally with ASBO International.
  • Weekly episodes released, featuring business officials from around the world, including South Korea, Oregon, and the UK.
• Mission
  • Professional development and networking: “It’s a great opportunity for new business officials to learn really the basics of the job, and more so the human centered piece of our work.” (A, 09:32)
  • Emphasizes storytelling, vulnerability, and “you’re not in it alone.”
• On Podcasting
  • The challenge of scheduling and producing weekly shows while juggling school business duties.

3. Experiences in Azerbaijan and Importance of Human Connection

• Cultural Enrichment
  • Deep appreciation for Azerbaijani hospitality, food, and openness: “The fact that you can walk up to a complete stranger’s home and they’re like, come, come…you don’t find that in the U.S.” (A, 69:32)
  • Travel allows genuine disconnection from work and fosters new perspective: “This is the first time...I haven’t really thought about work.” (A, 12:34)
  • Strong impression of human connection despite language barriers.
• Project Collaboration
  • Visit sparked by collaboration with Azerbaijani software developers on a procurement tech project.
  • Emphasizes mutual value, collaboration, and making friends first: “They feel like we’re all together, you know, we’re all on the same team.” (A, 26:08)

4. AI and Technology in School Business

• First Encounters and Progression
  • Initial skepticism toward early generative AI, rapid adoption after learning about prompting: “That was a game changer for me because then I finally understood how to interact with this new technology to leverage its power for me.” (A, 34:06)
• Practical AI Use Cases
  • Negotiations and Data Analysis: Used AI to analyze teacher contract stipends vs. neighboring districts, a task which previously took days but was now done in minutes. (A, 37:07)
  • Payroll Reports: Automated comparison and reconciliation, resulting in substantial time savings; integrated with internal documents and communications. (A, 40:11)
  • Language and Communication: Real-time translation for collaboration, simplifying complex topics for diverse audiences, drafting and editing reports.
• Caveats and Trends
  • AI-generated content can be impersonal; important to retain review and personal touch: “If you have to spend that much time going back and forth, I just write the email.” (A, 46:38)
  • Observes challenges as others use AI, sometimes creating information overload.
• Advice: Use AI as an assistant, always review its outputs, and recognize human expertise remains essential.

5. Leadership, Mentorship, and Professional Growth

• Influences
  • Names several mentors: Steve Babino (empathy and humor), Jim Kocation (intelligence and strategy), Jamie Phillips (encouraged broader involvement).
  • Emphasizes collaborative, friend-first leadership: “I drew a lot from him in terms of what it meant to lead and not manage.” (A, 52:31)
• Leadership Style
  • Fosters open feedback, mutual respect, and learning from all team members.
  • Values vulnerability, connection, and situational humility.
• Upcoming Role
  • Discusses excitement and anxiety about becoming president of ASBO New York. (A, 59:59)
  • Focuses on balancing professional programming, networking, and personal growth at conferences.

6. Work-Life Balance and Family

• Support Systems
  • Strong praise for his wife Brady: “I would be nowhere without her. And she’s loving, but also very tolerant.” (A, 62:20)
  • Family support crucial for professional engagement and travel.
• Managing Commitments
  • Stresses importance of unplugging and recharging—difficulty for school business officials notorious for multitasking.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On accidental career pivots:
  “I thought I would be at Apple or Google by now… Why would I want to work at a school district?... There’s so much more to work and to life than just grinding it out.” (A, 02:20–03:30)

• On mentorship and first big job:
  “I could barely explain some of the basic concepts in New York during my interview… If they were willing to hire me at that juncture in my career, then anybody can do it.” (A, 05:53)

• On networking and connection:
  “The human connection is so important because even though I may not understand word for word what someone’s saying…the body language and the way you look at someone in the eye… you cannot get that virtually.” (A, 13:20)

• Regarding AI transformation:
  “That was a game changer…then I finally understood how to interact with this new technology to leverage its power for me and me not battling with it.” (A, 34:06)

• On the podcast’s mission:
  “It’s not just about the technicals… I’m trying to share people’s stories… I want everybody else in the profession to know that you’re not alone in what we’re doing.” (A, 09:32)

• Cultural reflections:
  “There’s so much soul here and just a lot of love… I wish I was here for another few weeks.” (A, 13:54)

• AI as more than efficiency:
  “It’s broken down barriers that otherwise would have been there, whether it be language, culture or anything else.” (A, 51:15)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |:-----------:|:------------------------------------------------------| | 00:38–02:15 | Aziz flips the interviewer’s seat onto John | | 02:20–07:25 | John’s personal and career journey | | 07:54–11:39 | Origins and philosophy of the School Business Insider | | 11:43–16:19 | Azerbaijan impressions & value of travel/connections | | 17:36–21:11 | Favorite podcast episodes, human stories & AI guests | | 21:34–26:34 | Azerbaijan collaboration and value of mutual benefit | | 31:49–47:25 | Deep dive: AI evolution and case studies in school biz| | 51:49–57:38 | Leadership influences and the role of mentorship | | 59:45–66:45 | Transitioning to presidency & family life | | 66:23–68:42 | Reflections on the professional journey | | 69:03–71:45 | Three favorite things about Azerbaijan | | 71:54–73:06 | Closing thoughts and gratitude |

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Reflections on Azerbaijan

• Top takeaways:
  • Food: "The food… Balga Mach is my favorite." (A, 69:24)
  • People: “The fact that you can walk up to a complete stranger’s home and they’re like, come, come.” (A, 69:32)
  • Landscape: “The beauty, the landscape of the country has just been breathtaking… you drive a couple hours and you’re up in the mountains.” (A, 69:37)
• “If anyone’s looking to visit here, you have to stay at least three, four weeks…there’s just so many surprising things about the country I didn’t realize.” (A, 71:18)

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Final Takeaways

This episode is as much about work as it is about life. John Brucato’s story underscores the intertwining of personal growth, leadership, and the evolving challenges of school business. Whether it’s leveraging AI to reclaim professional bandwidth, investing in relationships over transactions, or taking the time to see the world from another vantage, the universal lesson is clear: authentic connection is the foundation of effective leadership and enduring professional fulfillment.

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Hosted by:
John Brucato
Guest Host:
Aziz

(Timestamps are approximate and may vary slightly depending on playback speed and platform.)

Transcript

[A]

You're listening to asbo international's school business insider. I'm your host, john brucato. Each week on School Business Insider, I sit down with school business officials and industry experts from around the world to share their stories and explore the topics that matter most to you. Find out what it means to be a school business official and get your insider pass on all things school business.

[B]

Welcome, John. This episode will be different.

[A]

Yeah, I'd say so.

[B]

Yeah. This time I want to interview you. I've been on your podcast, what, four times? Four times now. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And this is our fifth podcast, and we are in Azerbaijan, and we found this beautiful studio, and I said, why not do a video podcast?

[A]

Yeah, yeah. It's nice for once not to have all the pressure on me hosting the podcast. So thank you for. For taking the.

[B]

I can tell you that it's a really hard job. I've been reviewing all the questions that I came up with. It's. It's. It's tough, you know, it's.

[A]

It's. You know, it's like anything else when you do it enough, it's just like muscle memory. But so far, so good. We're 45 seconds in. You're killing it.

[B]

Okay, now we've done four, and you've been hosting the podcast for two years.

[A]

About two years, yeah. Yeah.

[B]

And when I asked you, you said no one interviewed you. I decided to take that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Job.

[A]

You didn't have to fly me halfway around the world to do it. But I appreciate it.

[B]

It's an interesting environment. You know, it's like two in two in one kind of thing. You know, buy one, get one, get one free kind of thing. So tell me about yourself. Like, who is John? We hear his voice. We hear like a advertisement voice in the beginning, and then his real voice, you know, that's like a pre. Made, you know.

[A]

Yeah. Trying to be efficient.

[B]

That's. I always, like, hear that difference, you know?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now, what can you tell us about John? Who's John?

[A]

I mean, I don't know how much time we have here, so I'll keep it brief. But, I mean, I think what most people know about me is that I'm a school business official. I've been doing that for 12 or so years. But as you know, it's not just one job, it's many. And I think we're very similar where we like to take on multiple challenges at once. And so that's what I've been doing in multiple different facets which we'll get into. But I do host school Business Insider for ASPO International. And this is really kind of how this started. And that's been going on, like we said, for about two years. And it is nice to be on the other side of the, the microphone, I suppose, and be an interviewee. But I've been, yeah, like I said, I've been doing school business for 12 years. It's something I'm incredibly passionate about. But personally, I've had an interesting journey. I think, like many, I didn't go to school with the thought that I would become a school business official because definitely, definitely didn't know the position existed up until, you know, 15 or so years ago. So I originally had ambitions to pursue a career in tech. I went to school for technology and was really into just all things technology. Back. This is back, I don't know, 2006. I thought I would be at Apple or Google by now in California doing something cool there. And what had happened is when I first graduated from college, from university, I started at Yahoo, and I was working in a data center there and was enjoying the work. And an opportunity came up to, to get promoted, but that required me moving out to Sunnyvale, California, which, in hindsight, I'm like, why didn't I do that? That sounds wonderful. But just at that juncture in my life, I just wasn't ready for that move. So everything was going well. And you know how these things work. A friend of a friend, you get introduced, and somebody had been retiring from a local school district in tech as a director of technology. And you know, me being young and arrogant, and I'm like, why would I want to work at a school district? Like, that's, that's not. There's no glamor there. Like, who cares? Yeah. But I just went for the interview and I talked to the individual very informally and realized that there's so much more to work into life than just grinding it out. I mean, being able to be a school business official, you have an influence on the future of kids, which is, which is great. And I didn't appreciate that when I first was kind of looking at the job. So I went through the interview and I said, you know what? I'll give it a shot. So I became a director of tech at a school district up in the Buffalo, New York region and then discovered there's a whole business office that I was completely unaware of. Oh, yeah. And I said, you know, if I'm going to stick around in public education for a while, I kind of want to maximize my abilities and My potential. So I went back to school and I got all the requisite certifications to become a school business official. And I remember I received my certification in May of 2015 and started my first business official job in August of 2015. Totally underprepared. It was $168 million budget. And they were just like, here, take the keys. I said, okay, if this doesn't work out, this is on you.

[B]

It's interesting how like it evolves, right? Like give you that amount of money and you haven't seen anything like that before and now you're responsible.

[A]

And I could barely explain some of the basic concepts in New York during my interview. So I think that speaks to just the dire need of qualified candidates in the profession and just how shallow the candidate pool is, because if they were willing to hire me at that juncture in my career, then anybody can do it.

[B]

I think I'll correct you there, to be fair. When people interview, they don't just look at the credentials, they look at the potential. So I think they saw the potential. That's why they hired you. Or you would be in Santa Fe right now.

[A]

Right, right. That's a good point. And I mean, that's how I tried to hire as looking for a growth mindset, somebody who can learn.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

But I remember that first year was, was heavy. I mean, it took a lot of time because not only was I doing the job, I was learning it at the same time. So they were generous enough to give me a mentor. And it was about the six month mark. I was like, I got this, like, I think I understand. I wasn't calling on him for, for advice and for help and how do you do this? What does this mean? And from then on I've, you know, I've progressed through ASBO New York, ASBO International. And it's just been a really fulfilling career. And you know, I'm working on some other things, as you know, which is really exciting. But, but then on the personal side, I have two young kids, my son is four, my daughter is just recently nine months, and I have a beautiful wife, Brady, who has just been the ultimate partner and very supportive with all of my things that I have going on. Maybe frustrated at times, but overall very supportive and loving.

[B]

So yeah, I tell that all the time. You know, with Naila, if she didn't support me, I wouldn't be here. It's extremely hard without a support. And I think both parties need to support each other. That's what I think. Now it looks like you had not Too much to do. And you started a podcast, is that.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I got bored. Yeah.

[B]

In a school business official job.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe I'll just start talking to people every day. So the school Business Insider is kind of my second pass at podcasting. I had originally started podcasting with a colleague of mine in New York, and we had done that together for say, about two, two and a half years or so, and it was very much centered on New York. So although we had listenership outside of the state, we were. We were focusing on New York centered topics, and for one reason or another, we just kind of went in separate ways. And I partnered up with ASBO International and have been with them for about two years, maybe a little over two years. And so we release a weekly podcast, and I have the pleasure of being able to talk to friends and colleagues and subject matter experts from literally all over the world. And I've talked to business officials from South Korea to Oregon to the uk.

[B]

I didn't know that.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, it's in the catalog. It's, you know, it was about 18 months ago, but it's just been an incredibly rewarding experience because I am learning alongside everyone listening and. And the way that myself and ASBO International kind of couch school Business Insider is that it's just another arm of professional development, and it's a great opportunity for new business officials to learn really the basics of the job, and I think more so the human centered piece of our work and that you're not in it alone. We have such a vast and supportive network, and I wouldn't be where I am had it not been for that network. And I try to get that message across on the podcast because it's not just about the technicals. Although important, I'm trying to share people's stories, just like we're talking about me today. This is what I want to do for everybody else in the profession to know that you're not alone in what we're doing, you're not alone in the work, and you don't need to be an expert, just like I didn't know what I was doing when I had started, but I had people to lean on. And I think I'm trying to really portray that through the podcast and deliver that message, whether you're new in the profession or whether you've been doing it your entire career. So there's something. There's a little bit for everyone. I particularly enjoy our episodes because the AI centered piece is not only a hot topic, but incredibly interesting to me because I do have that technology background, but there's just. Sometimes there just aren't technical topics. Sometimes I'm just telling a story, which is. Those are my favorite episodes. I think the technicals are important, but learning people is more rewarding to me. And so we, we release. I don't know if I said we release an episode every week, which is a labor of love. It's a lot of work to. Because I'm looking for topics, scheduling, reaching out, producing, editing, publishing. So it's a lot of work. I love it. But you know, there's, there's weeks where I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to stitch this together to make our weekly Tuesday release. And it's been a little more challenging lately. The time of the year is really dictates how easy or less easy it is to do it. But. But everyone's busy, so it's tough to, to kind of coordinate. But overall, it's just been an awesome experience.

[B]

When the budget season hits, everyone is hidden. You can't find anyone.

[A]

Yeah, Yeah. I like to think I'm friendly enough for people to do me a favor.

[B]

Yeah, I know.

[A]

Because there's, there's moments where I'm like, hey, this interview drops and can you just hop on in tomorrow? I mean, you've, you've helped me out before. I'm like, I had somebody lined up, what are you doing tomorrow? You know, um, but it always turns out great. And there's not one episode I, I don't like or wish we could have redone or, or something like that.

[B]

Now let's shift gears. We are in Azerbaijan and.

[A]

Oh, yeah, it's.

[B]

It's an interesting environment to do a podcast in. Now tell me about your experience. We've been here for what, five days now?

[A]

Yeah, maybe six.

[B]

Six days now. Yeah. It's been a long time.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So what do you think?

[A]

I'm blown away. It's just, I mean, I don't, I don't even know where to start. Just from the people and the culture. The food, the food, the food, the

[B]

food all the time.

[A]

You warned me. You warned me. The food culture here is strong. But I think for anyone who has ever traveled, just to see how people live in another part of the world is just fascinating because at least for me, I just get stuck in the grind of the day to day and I think you lose perspective.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And just being able to pick yourself up and move across the world for a week and just see another way of life has just been completely Eye opening. And I think we were talking the other day when we were visiting some different villages. This is the first time that I can remember in recent history that I haven't really thought about work. I've been truly able to just disconnect, be in the moment and really engage with you, with my co workers here, with the people that we've met. And it's amazing that even though my Azerbaijani is atrocious and I don't know

[B]

much, people don't say that. People say that you have pretty good Azerbaijani from the few words that you know.

[A]

But I was reminded why meeting with people in person and that human connection is so important because even though I may not understand word for word what someone's saying or vice versa, the body language and the way you look at someone in the eye and you, it just, you cannot, you can't get that virtually, you know, so just being able to, to have that experience and everyone is so kind and welcoming and welcoming, welcoming us into their homes, people we have never met. It's just.

[B]

Oh yeah, you said that it was, it was very interesting.

[A]

You don't find that in the United States everyone's guarded and, you know, on defense, but there's just, there's so much soul here and just a lot of love and it's, it's been an amazing experience. I wish I was here for another few weeks. It's. We, we've done a lot in a week and I'm. We're at the tail end of my trip and I'm a little tired, so hopefully that doesn't come across on camera, but it's been, it's been absolutely wonderful and I, I cannot wa. Schedule the next trip.

[B]

That's nice to hear. That's nice to hear. But I like how you commented that you got away from what you do from your job and you forgot about it. And I think it is crucial to have that for a business official, especially in the school environment. You're so day to day, you're taking care of transportation, food purchasing, budget, this, that, you know, so many hats. And now we need that charge. If we don't have that charge, we burn out. And I think you pointed it pretty well that get out there and forget about it.

[A]

Yeah, I realized when I was booking this trip, I had not taken one vacation day this year and I was feeling it. You know, I like to think that I can muscle through it, but you know, we were wrapping up budget and I'm like, this has been. Not only was it one of the more challenging Budgets that we've had to put together at my district. But not having an opportunity to step away and recharge even for a little bit was weighing on me. And that clicked when I booked this trip. I'm like, okay, I really need to focus on being in the moment, not being on my phone, checking emails, things like that. Because I used to just worry that if I'm not on top of things, it's going to slip through the crack. But you made a great point, I think, yesterday in our ride back from up north that you don't. You want an office where you can step away.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Right. You want an office where it runs.

[B]

You got to rely on people.

[A]

And that's exactly. I'm very fortunate. That's exactly what I have. I have an amazing staff. So I did not hesitate to make, you know, when I said I'm going to be away for a week and really be away this time. Because when I say I'm going to be out of the office, it's usually just me on email. But I was truly able to just disconnect. And I have no concerns that things are going awry there. I mean, my staff are wonderful. So I'm a little sad to leave tomorrow, but it has just been such an awesome experience.

[B]

Thank you. Thank you for saying that. Now what I remember, I remember one episode from our trip where we were sitting at this restaurant with the loud music and you had your earphones on

[A]

and you were in a meeting and

[B]

I took a video of you. It looked so funny that you're enjoying your time, but you're also kind of took that one hour to go back to work and then get out of it and forgot about it. Yeah, kind of.

[A]

Yeah, that's actually. That's a good observation. Yeah, I had a. I had a meeting with our board leadership and our district administrators to get a. Because every before every board of education meeting, we have an agenda setting meeting. And it just so happened we had a little bit of downtime. We were enjoying some music and everything. And I'm like, oh, well, this is a good time because the music's over. At least I had thought. And I jumped on the virtual meeting. And sure enough, as soon as my meeting started, the singer started again and everyone's dancing, but it was shout out to Apple's AirPods. The voice isolation, those work great. But yeah, I was able to dive into the meeting and then as soon as I shut my laptop, I was back in Shaki Shaki.

[B]

Nice. Okay, let's go back to your podcast. Journey, who you would say was the most interesting episode. I know it's really hard to pick, or you can maybe talk about a type of podcast that you usually do or most interesting podcast that you have done.

[A]

Yeah, it's. As you said, it's challenging to narrow it down to just one episode, but I kind of put them into two buckets. The kind of technical use case episodes, and then the human centered episodes. And so I would say there's a few on the human centered ones where people really opened up and were vulnerable to tell their story, and you really never know how those are going to go and how those will land, because it can be uncomfortable for, you know, I mean, it's. I think it's uncomfortable for people who haven't been interviewed, especially on a podcast to begin with, not even talking about their personal journey. But we had a gentleman who really opened up about his struggle with mental health, and that was really enlightening. And it was. Like I said, I learn a lot in the moment, so I try to be as active as a listener as possible. But you're processing a lot of emotions sometimes when you have these personal stories on the episode. So that was a great one. And then, I promise you, I'm not just saying it because I'm in Azerbaijan, but your episodes are always met with great enthusiasm, not just from me, but from our audience, because the statistics don't lie. People tune into Aziz when you're talking AI. So the four episodes that we've done have been some of my favorite because, again, I'm learning right in step with everybody else, and we've really developed into close friends and a great partnership. So it's even easier to have you on, because now I have my good friend on. It's not just an AI guy.

[B]

Thank you. Thank you for saying that. Now. Um, it actually evolved pretty well, because after our. I remember our first episode, he just reached out, said, oh, Aziz, you published an article on.

[A]

What is that journal called School Business Now.

[B]

School Business Now.

[A]

Yeah. Actually, Cindy Reilman had said, you have to have him on. He's awesome. And so then I read your article, and I'm like, okay, I got to reach out to this Aziz guy and see what the real deal is.

[B]

She's. She's an amazing person.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, she's a connector. And I think we need to learn from those characters like Cindy. What. What she said resonated with me. One day, she. She was at the conference, and she said, I have a goal. Or actually, she said in your podcast too, I Think I have a goal at every conference that I will leave from here after knowing a few new people. Right. Five. Five new people. And that's an amazing goal. I think when you make that a, a priority, when you attend a conference, not just sit at the session and learn, but create those new connections. That's what happened to us. Right. We did our first podcast.

[A]

I think we spent more time talking offline than we did on the podcast because we did the formal interview and then I don't know how we got to talking about it, but I was talking about an idea leveraging AI and school business for. It was after, it was after we were wrapping up.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I think we had talked for another 40 or so minutes.

[B]

Yeah. And then now I'm in. We schedule another meeting. This the next day. Talking about your project now having that topic, why are you in Azerbaijan? How did you know about this? What happened that made you interested in this, in this place?

[A]

Well, I have you to thank. Start. So this all started when we scheduled that follow up meeting the following day from our first podcast. I've been kicking around this idea for years now around digitizing the procurement workflow.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I don't want to get into the details because I don't want this to be about that. But you had said, well, because you have your own software and your own products, you're like, well, I have these developers, these software developers out of Azerbaijan. And I'm like, what's Azerbaijan? You know, it's not, you know, it's not, it's not a.

[B]

It's a small country.

[A]

It's a small country. And a quick aside, as soon as we hung up, I went on a map. I'm like oh, there it is. Next to the Caspian. Yeah. I was like, where is this place? So you had mentioned that you were using some developers out of Azerbaijan. You said, you know, you made an introduction with Famil who runs Logix and he has a great team. And we were just kind of workshopping the idea. I was kind of trying to explain what I was thinking and let me tell you, a great AI use case. We'll get into this later is using AI to help explain what American procurement and New York state specific Procurement is to 20 something year olds that live in Azure Bay. Yeah, we'll get to that. So we were just kind of, I was trying to explain what I was looking to achieve and they thought they had the capacity to take it on as a project. So I started working with our designer canoe Zoomroot, our front end Developer and Yusuf, our backend developer. And it's been 18 months, I think now, almost.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So we've been. We've been developing this product, and I've piloted it with 20 districts, towns and BOCEs. It's a board of cooperative education services in. In New York. And it's been incredible. It's been one of the most exciting journeys I've been on. And we've been working on this for so long, virtually. We wrapped up phase one. We're winding down the pilot in June, and you and I had talked and said it'd be nice to meet with the team and really kick off phase two in person for the reasons I explained earlier about body language, the human connection. It's just so much easier to be in person. And also wanted to see you speak so highly of Azerbaijan, and I'm like, I would love to see it. And. And it was one of those things like, oh, that would be so cool. And you're like, no, we're doing it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm like, oh, okay. Because I'm always up. I'll do anything one. You know. But you're like, no, we have to commit. We're doing it. And then the funniest part was the roles reversed. I'm like, come on, Aziz, we get to.

[B]

I was gonna say that. Yeah, come on. When.

[A]

When. When you're like, I haven't booked my ticket. I haven't booked my ticket. I'm like, well, here's my ticket. This is where I'm staying. I'll see you there, maybe.

[B]

So.

[A]

Yeah, that was. That was an exciting time to think that. And for anyone watching, I'm not well traveled. I may have been to the Americas, but this is my first time across the Atlantic. So to go to Azerbaijan, of all countries, has been absolutely incredible. So all that to be said, I've been able to meet with my team almost every day, and it's just been an amazing experience. And their English is very strong, so it's been easy to help navigate. I don't need you to translate everything.

[B]

Yes, that's very good.

[A]

But they have become good friends of mine. Now. We're not just working on a project. They're not contractors. They're friends. We have made that connection, and it's just we were always friendly. I mean, it's been a very collegial relationship with everyone working with them virtually. But I don't know when to have the experience, to sit and have dinner in conversation and have that experience. You can't replace that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that's what I've experienced here, it's just, it's amazing.

[B]

And it is important to have that human connection, but also having value both ways. You know, you contributing to them and then they contribute to you kind of. It's a, it's a mutual benefit. It's not just one way street.

[A]

Yeah, they, they told me that they, they like working on this project because they feel like we're all a team. It's not me saying, do this, do this. Do you know what is going. You know, we were incredibly collaborative and they told me how much they appreciate it, and I reciprocated that as well. I mean, I think that's how you get work done, is you work together as a team. So although technically I'm contracting with them, they feel like we're all together, you know, we're all on the same team. Yeah.

[B]

And it's funny that you brought up that friendship part. I always tell my team that when we sell our product, we. Our strategy needs to be, we make a friend first, then we sell to our friends.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Because if you don't give a value as a vendor besides your product, you're not a good vendor. That's. That's how I look at it. And I hope that I don't lose that. If you give that kind of value all the time, whenever people sit with you, should benefit from you.

[A]

Right.

[B]

It doesn't.

[A]

Whether you get a sale or not.

[B]

Exactly. Whether you get a sales or not. And that's my message to vendors, you know.

[A]

Well, yeah, let me just piggyback off of that too, because the. A vendor who leads with the sales pitch is tone deaf. Yes. Right. I think to your point, you need to make that human connection and add value in some way. Even if it's just a friendship, it may not result in a sale and it may not result in you moving your software or whatever it is that you're trying to sell. But I think what's more important is you become a trusted resource in the industry, and maybe that results in something down the road monetarily, or maybe it doesn't. But if you're doing this strictly for the money, you're going to be disappointed. This industry is more about the human connection, and I think that's how you've led your work. And I think that speaks volumes to, you know, you're flying all over the place and you know, you know you've made it. When people refer to you by your first name.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, you know, everyone talks about Aziz, but I think it's It's a testament to how you have led your work because you lead as a thought leader first. You're not trying to sell something.

[B]

And that is, I think, an important difference between a vendor and a human. You know, you can become a vendor, but if you lose your humanity and then it's all about sales. All about sales. I take you to dinner at sales. I take, you know, I talk to you, IT sales. You sit at my table, IT sales. But every vendor has this expertise. They are experts in some kind of a field.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Forget about your product and give back on that particular expertise. Go teach these school business officials on that one particular field that you know everything about.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Not everything, but most of the things that you can direct people, you can give them got you moments, you know, you can direct them, guide them to right direction. And I think that is important and you should not expect anything out of it. Now, that's the most important part of this, is that when you give, when you sit down with someone, when you talk to someone, it's not about your sales. It's not about increasing your sales. It's about being human and having that human connection.

[A]

Yeah. My only expectation is of myself to help impart knowledge and help people out.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

That's what I expect. Yeah, I don't expect. I mean, you know, obviously I want my company to do well, but I just want to. I'm here to help people. I'm in solving issues that I have personally experienced in the profession for my entire career. If somebody doesn't want the product, that's fine. You can't take it personal. But at least hopefully I helped in some capacity.

[B]

And it reminds me of Simon Sinek's Start with why. I mean, I really like that analogy. If we lose our why, and if our why becomes what, which is money, then we lose our personality and character. If we continue keeping that why and contributing in any way we can to the school business official job or schools as a whole, that's when it becomes mutual benefit. And I think it talks to what you have been doing as a school business official. Then you started a podcast because you had the why I want to help my colleagues while being a school business official. And then you started bitlogic saying that I want to create a better platform for people to create these RFPs and bids easily. And at that point, if you start saying, okay, now that I have this product, I ditch all of the rest of it and I focus on my sales. That's when I think vendors lose.

[A]

You lose the why, you lose the why. And I'll tell you one thing, if you need a refresh and a recharge on the why, come to Azerbaijan. Because the way of life here, I feel people are more connected to each other and are more grounded, you know, you know how it is in the US it's just a grind. It's a rat race a lot of the time, but things have slowed down and there's appreciation for. For life, unlike I've seen before. So, yeah, you need help on your why. Come to Baku.

[B]

Come to Baku. That's a good advertisement. Okay, now let's talk a little bit about AI, because we always talk about,

[A]

always talk about AI.

[B]

Now, what was your learning curve? How did you start implementing AI? What was your first initial starting point, and how are you implementing it right now? What is that range between when you started and where you are right now?

[A]

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[B]

Yeah. And beginning.

[A]

Yeah, I thought it was kind of silly. I mean, it was. If you think back to 2023 and what chat GPT was compared to what it is now, it's not even the same thing.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Not even the same thing. Just in three, four short years I used it. I'm like, oh, it kind of sounds human. It's. I don't know, it would get stuff wrong and it would hallucinate often. So I didn't see a practical application at that juncture. But then what was it? The next release was like a few weeks after that or a month after, and it was a completely 3.51. 3.5 came out. It was like, oh, now I'm starting to see what this could be. Was still clunky. It couldn't work with numbers and analysis very well. So I started using it more for narrative assistance, proofreading things like that treating it as a kind of a low level assistant, I suppose would be the best analogy.

[B]

Or editor.

[A]

Editor, yeah, yeah, maybe, yeah. Just having IT help me with, with drafts and reports and things like that. And really where the tide changed for me was after our first or second episode we had together, we did an episode really focused on prompting and how to effectively prompt. And that was a game changer for me because then I finally understood how to interact with this new technology to leverage its power for me and me not battling with it, you know, back and forth. Like you in your presentations, you have these different phases. I was in the frustration phase and I was about to throw it out because I'd be 15, 20 minutes into arguing with AI only what am I doing? I could have just done it myself, right? But I, I stuck to your advice and I. And I stuck through learning and really understanding how to effectively use AI. And now it's an everyday application in my life, whether it's planning a trip to Baku or it's integrating Claude into Excel to help build out incredibly robust spreadsheets and reports that I'm no longer having to Google formulas and reverse engineer them to the way I need them to. Using it with bidlogic has been an incredibly helpful use case, but you do something in your trainings that has been incredible, where you use it to translate in real time, like interpretation. Interpretation. I didn't know it had that capability until I watched you do it live. And I was inspired because that has made my life easier. As I referenced earlier, working with my team, because even though their English is. Is strong, there's just certain things that I can.

[B]

It's really hard.

[A]

The expression on their faces, I can see whether it's on camera, in person, I know they're like, what are you talking about? And it's been. It's allowed me to take complex concepts, whether it's with my company or with my board or my community, and reframe them in a way that anybody can understand. So you can tell AI to act as a board member, act as a community member, and then I put all my jargon in there as a school business official, and it distills it down into something manageable. And so I've started doing that to proof presentations that I've had because I've been doing the same thing for 12 years now and I don't want it to get stale. So I've been using it to kind of refresh the way I approach and I attack different issues and, you know, some really great use. I'll give you two examples. This was two years ago, maybe three years ago. We were in contract negotiations with our teachers.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And one of the proposals from our teachers unit was their claim was all the coaching stipends and co curricular stipends in their contract were way under. When you compare them to neighboring districts anecdotal at that point I'm like, okay, well like any business official, I need to see the data to agree or disagree. So I said, do you have some examples of districts that you feel are similarly positioned to us and yet we're still underpaid? And they gave me three. And as you know, every contract and every district is different. If nothing is standardized, everything is like the naming nomenclature is all different. So I pulled, I was able to pull the three other district contracts and look at their, their coaching stipend amounts and again structured very differently in some cases. So I'm looking at this and I have four contracts open. I have hours in the three surrounding districts and I'm looking at this and I'm putting it into Excel so I can do my own analysis. And I may be like 40 minutes in and I'm getting frustrated because like this is going to take me all week to just to.

[B]

It's really hard to put things together

[A]

just to transmit all the data. And I'm like, there has to be a better way. And I'm like, you know what, maybe AI can help me with this. So I told it, I said, act as an expert negotiator in the best interest of my school district. We're negotiating with the teachers union. Their claim is that our coaching stipends are way underpaid when in comparison to these three other districts. I've provided you with the, my district's contract as a baseline and these three other contracts which I named out as a comparison model. I need you to analyze this data and let me know where we fall short in comparison. Give me the average and where our district kind of falls in line. Please put that into a chart or graph or I don't remember exactly is a pretty long prompt. And it was churning. This is a couple of years ago. So it wasn't as quick. And the first pass was like, wow, now I see the light when it comes to AI. What would have taken me week, week and a half to put together was done in 45 seconds, minute and a half maybe it wasn't perfect. I had to go back and tweak it and it gave me a good starting point. But I realized this is where the time save is going to be. And I've been using it in that way ever since. Second use case we do something in New York called payroll comparison reports. Probably most districts do it, but you basically look at the current payroll versus the last payroll and look for any anomalies making sure people getting paid the right amounts.

[B]

Yeah, a lot of districts do the same exact thing. Yeah.

[A]

This is my favorite example because this is one of the more complex models that I've worked on. And the first example I use ChatGPT. This example I'm using Copilot, which is not my favorite.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But we're Microsoft district so for PII with it. Yeah. To ensure that the data is there and safe, I'll use it. So payroll comparison report. I will get the report of our ERP software and I've structured a prompt which I won't go through that. But where the beauty is is that I have a repository where all of our board of education minutes are loaded. So our district clerk after the each meeting will put the minutes into this shared drive. And I have connected that to the copilot agent and I've also uploaded the teacher and well all the employee contracts as reference documents. So what happens now is I will provide two payroll comparison reports and it will analyze them. It'll reference the board minutes to ensure that there have been appointments to reconcile if there have been changes. And it'll look at the contract to make sure that the dollar amounts are correct given on the current fiscal year. It knows what fiscal year to look at based on the dates of the documents. It knows what contracts to look at and where in those contracts to look. And it also knows to reconcile board minutes to ensure that those actions were taken by the board to appoint someone to increase or decrease whatever the salary changes are. So the end result is a, these are good, these have been reconciled. A yellow like take a look at these in red like these. These are an issue that has saved me so much time. And the best part is it also will draft a follow up email to my payroll clerk, Erica.

[B]

Oh wow. With the pointing out the.

[A]

Could you explain these? And one of my favorite moments was I told her I was working on this just to test it out.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it drafted the email. So I copy and pasted it into Outlook and I sent it to her and it said hi Erica, I hope you're doing well, blah, blah, blah, blah blah. And she comes into my office. No. Four minutes later she's like, why did you write that email? So weird. We were just talking. Why do you. Why did you say, hi, how are you? Yeah, I'm like, I'm sorry, that was

[B]

just like, you need to read the emails before you say, I did, but

[A]

I wasn't thinking that. It was like we just spoke, so why would I say, hey, how have you been? Or hi, how are you? You know, but that, that process, that workflow for me has saved me hours and now I can take, I can take those saved hours and devote them to something else that, you know, isn't a menial task and really needs my attention.

[B]

And that speaks to how business officials are extremely busy and they are usually busy to learn this technology too. But if they don't learn the technology, then they wouldn't save that much of time. As I said, it saved you what? Hours?

[A]

And compounded across an entire year. I don't know how much time that a couple weeks maybe I'm getting back in my life that I'm doing something I don't really want to do anyways because it's boring and tedious.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, so let AI do that. You know, take, take those tasks that you don't want to do that you can offload with confidence that if it's a data analysis, you know, you're still the expert.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You still need to review the data and the results and the reports that are spit out of ChatGPT. So don't think that AI is going to replace your function in the business office because you still know what to look for. AI is not perfect. There are still nuances that we as humans pick up on that we need to be looking out for. And, you know, for all the things I love about AI, what I hate about AI now is maybe not so much AI, but the way people use it is as soon as I start reading an email and I can tell it's AI, I tune out. It's like, yeah, that is like a pet peeve of mine where it's. I guess it's like, it's like the equivalent of sitting at the dinner table and somebody's on their phone. It's like they don't. You're with them, but they don't have the respect enough to put the energy into being with you. Same thing with an email. Just write an email, you know, I mean, unless there's different circumstances. But AI has made everybody an expert in everything. And it's become really challenging. As a school administrator, when you get a diatribe from a parent or a community member who now is an expert on education law, xyz. Oh, my gosh. You know, so that has been, is a blessing and a curse because now that other people are really starting to leverage it, it's almost slowing us down a little bit. Because if you, if a parent's sending this lengthy email citing different law and, and things like that, now you have to go, you know, cross reference it and all that.

[B]

You use your AI to respond.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, but it's still now AIs are talking right now. Machines talking to machines. But you still have to take the time to read the email. But you know, when you get those emails that have, you know, AI bold, certain letters like the subject you're talking, you couldn't even unbold the, you know, so as much as I appreciate AI, I think those circumstances have made life a little bit more challenging. But you know, I don't know where, where we see ourselves in a few years with that. But you know, if it's machines talking to machines, I don't know what we're going to be doing.

[B]

And I think the important difference would be is when, if you use AI to send an email, what you would do, you would, the copilot has it, Gemini has it, the Gmail has it.

[A]

Right.

[B]

There's this little button that can write an email for you. You don't say, write me an email that describes this law, what you say, you open it, you start speaking what you're trying to say in the email. And the AI restructures it, right. AI puts it in paragraphs, it puts in your new lines, but then you have to read that before you send it because if you don't read it, it puts so meaningless stuff that you don't want it to send.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'll give you an example. We, I was sending an email and I said I'll meet you at the session. And then it says I will see you at our future sessions. There is no session. Future sessions.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I'm talking about tomorrow's training. Right. I'm referring to a single thing, but it doesn't have the context.

[A]

And to me it's like if you have to spend that much time going back and forth, I just write the email.

[B]

Just write the email yourself.

[A]

Yeah, but I mean, it's where my frustration lies right now with AI is a parent is they can say, I'm really angry that my students pick up time is five minutes earlier than it was last year. Write an email to the district explaining my, my issues and site law.

[B]

And then you get the email you don't get.

[A]

And then I'm like, oh my gosh like, you know, that, that those are the tough ones because they're just copying and pasting it out of AI and sending it off. But you know, AI works for you, the individual. So it has no sympathy for me, the administrator, when I get this lengthy email that could have just been, hey, a simple phone call, can we talk about moving the bus time? You know?

[B]

Yeah. Be fair. Yeah, that's. I mean, there is no gotcha, it's a community. It's not you and us kind of thing. You know, sometimes people think that way. And what I don't like about the parents point of view, sometimes when parents and even sometimes board members, because their parents do, they would bring up something that is their kid. But come on, we have thousands.

[A]

We serve all kids.

[B]

We serve all kids. It's not about that particular kid that doesn't like this textbook or doesn't like this material. It's not all about that.

[A]

Right.

[B]

We need to consider every single person.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that's what I made that joke to one of our board members saying that they, they commented on curriculum or we're using this curriculum, but we need to switch to that curriculum kind of thing. And I said we're hiring a person like instructional director. Would you like to apply? That's, that's what it comes to.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If you hired an instructional director or super assistant superintendent for instructions, it means that you trusted them.

[A]

Right.

[B]

That's their job. And you trust, you continue trusting.

[A]

Right.

[B]

If you have a problem with that person, replace that person. Right. But do not dictate what they need to do. Right. Because your perspective is only a single perspective anyway.

[A]

You know, maybe one training you could do, you could develop is like an AI etiquette on how to appropriately use AI. That would benefit a lot of people.

[B]

Yeah. Another thing that I'd like to tell people is that imagine you have an assistant and you give your job to your assistant. Your assistant does the job, then you take that. Let's say it's a report for Board of Education. You take that report, don't read it, submit it to Board of Education. There's a problem with that report. Who is in trouble? Will they come after assistant or you? Yeah. They pay you to have the responsibility.

[A]

You ultimately have the final say.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

So don't just offload it to AI and assume everything that's processed, produced is 100% accurate. Yeah. Just like you wouldn't do that if you gave it to an intern or an assistant.

[B]

Exactly. So if you, when you start. Not if you. But when you start Treating AI as your assistant, then everything resolves, right? Because you trust your assistant for the work, but you have to review it to make sure that it's correct.

[A]

Right.

[B]

It's if it's not correct, you're in trouble kind of thing.

[A]

Can I give you a very recent personal AI use case?

[B]

Go ahead.

[A]

So here. It's not called Uber, it's called Bolt. Yeah, I took a Bolt yesterday, day before. I don't remember when, but my Bolt driver knew a little bit of English, but he's from Russia. We had a full on conversation. It was like, it was like a longer ride because of traffic. We had a full on conversation using our translation feature. It was amazing.

[B]

Oh, phone.

[A]

Russian and English. It was, it was great. And now, you know, he, he sent me a message on WhatsApp and he's coming. He said he's going to New York with a friend of his. At some point I was like, hit me up. But I don't know. That wouldn't have been possible without AI. You know, I have a new, I have a new friend who is from Russia but lives in Azerbaijan driving Bolt, who may come to New York at some point in the future. But that was just such an amazing experience because we, I mean, we had plenty of time to talk because of traffic. We talked about all sorts of things, but it wasn't just surface level stuff because it was, we didn't know each other's language. We were able to actually just have a conversation like we both knew each other's language. It was amazing.

[B]

And that brings us to AI not being just your efficiency director. You know, that creates efficiencies. It can actually create human connection.

[A]

That, that is a great point. And that's where I have learned to appreciate AI more is it's, it's broken down barriers that otherwise would have been there, whether it be language, culture or anything else. And just from a creativity standpoint, I've been able to workshop ideas with somebody who I can assign as a creative director or something like that. You know, it's allowed me to, it's allowed me to get inspired a little bit more than if I was just in my own head trying to figure out solutions.

[B]

Important name in school business world who influenced your leadership? Because we have a lot of school business officials and we go to conferences. We have those who just hide, don't want to talk to anyone, don't want to interact and we have those like you. Cindy Railman is one of how. He's one of them. That they're everywhere. Everyone knows Them, their name is everywhere. And I think part of the leadership is to help people. And when you help people, people know you now. Who would you say influenced part of your leadership in this role?

[A]

There's a few people. Former superintendent and good friend of mine, Steve Babino. We started out as colleagues in my. This is back in 2015 when I started in school business and he was the assistant suit for hr. I was business official and then he moved up to superintendent and I learned a lot from his, his leadership. He leads with a lot of empathy, but he always levels with you and he always has humor in the way he approaches things. And I try to do the same thing. And working for him was just an absolute pleasure and it was heartbreaking when he retired. But he was just such a kind, passionate. Shouldn't say was. Is. He's still around. Is such a kind and passionate human being and just. I drew a lot from him in terms of what it meant to lead and not manage. My current superintendent, Jim Kocation, is just. I met him, he's a great, he's. We've become friends. He's, you know, he's a great leader. He's just incredibly intelligent guy and I'm just so fortunate to have had the pleasure to work with him. He's, he's retiring in the next year or so. So that's. I don't try not to think about that because I'm going to miss him dearly. But he's just been very inspirational, very strong leader, strategic, sound in his decision making and just, just a good human being and a few other people in our field. Jamie Phillips is a great friend of mine. She's a business official in New York. Had it not been for her, I probably wouldn't be where I am with, you know, I'm stepping into ASBA New York president, this conference coming up in June.

[B]

I'll be there.

[A]

You will be there. I'm excited you'll be there. And she has just been such an amazing influence in my life, both personally and professionally. She. And she's been in school business her entire career. And she was the one that got me involved in local chapters and committee work and things like that. And that's how you get involved is you start locally and then you're like, oh, maybe I can be on this committee at the state level. And then, oh, maybe I'm gonna be in this committee and international. And then you're hosting a podcast and starting company and going to Baku. You know, life move out to quick. Life comes at you quick. But Professionally, those have been those that have inspired me most and continue to. I mean, I'm still working with. I still talk to Steve every now and then just to touch base and see how he's doing. And he's got a house in Florida that he. He goes to. And, you know, obviously I'm still working with Jim.

[B]

He's.

[A]

He's amazing. And Jamie's one of my best friends. So it's just been. Those three people have been really influential in my. My leadership in. In school, business and otherwise. It's just been. I don't know. Yeah. What kind of leader I would be heading up in for them.

[B]

And it's so interesting that when you have someone around you and they can say a few sentences, that it would be just regular conversation, but it would hit you differently. Right. Yeah. Do you have that moment?

[A]

Yeah. I think when those people like that say the exact same thing that somebody else does, it weighs on you differently.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

You know, if there's a difference when I have a conversation with. With Jim about a tough topic versus maybe somebody else, because I. I respect what he has to say and I listen intently with what he has to say. Not. Not implying that I don't listen to other people, but it weighs on you differently. And I think a lot of that comes from the human connection, too, because, like, for instance, with Jim, he's not just my boss, but he's my friend. So I don't want to let him down on a professional or a personal level. So, yeah, I don't. And I don't suggest that you have that kind of relationship with everybody because it makes the waters pretty murky. But there are certain people in your life and in your professional career that I think if the chemistry is right, you can have both. And I'll be honest, there's times that we have to silo that relationship where he may not agree with my approach to something and I may not agree with how he's doing something. But the beauty is that we both are comfortable with each other. And I can say, Jim, come on, this is not going to work. And he can do the same thing to me. And that doesn't impact our personal relationship or professional relationship negatively. We can silo those things and be very honest with each other. And I wish that on all school business officials that have a strong superintendent. Like, it just. It makes coming to work a lot more easy. You look forward to it when you're. You're working with your friends, you know. Yeah.

[B]

And open door. Right. Like, you can. You can tell Me, anything. And I wouldn't care. Yeah, kind of, kind of approach, because it will not offend me. Yeah, you can. The other day, my. We just hired the salesperson, and she's young. She's very young. She's still in. In college. And one day I've been sending her my sales meetings with. With clients. And one day I sent her this video and she watched it. The next day we have a meeting. And she's very hesitantly said, aziz, can I give you a feedback? Would you be open to that? I said, of course. Yeah, I would love that. And when, when as a leader, you want to receive that feedback and correct yourself, people become comfortable.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And then she said, you know, you had that meeting with that person, that person was very arrogant. And you ask the question. When you talk to arrogant person, you don't ask the question. You lead with what you will do. And she said, for example, you asked, can I share my screen? You wouldn't say that. You would say, I will share my screen now, because they're arrogant. They want to be in control. No, I appreciate it so much. And people sometimes don't realize those people who work, we work with, like our team don't realize that they can come and tell us their thought and not be afraid that they will get in trouble.

[A]

Isn't that such a rewarding feeling too, that they are comfortable enough to come to you. Exactly. And say, listen, like, I think it works on multiple levels. Like, they, they trust you. They know that you trust them. And they're vulnerable enough to say, can I give you a little bit of feedback? Because they want you to be successful, they're not looking for you to crash and burn. They want. They want you and them to do well. So I think that speaks to strong leadership when your staff can come to you and be honest with you. And yeah, it's a great feeling. Yeah.

[B]

Now we're going to Ed Summit. Are you ready to become a president? Is there a difference between vice president and president? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

I mean, one of my best friends, Ron Clamser, he's president right now. And it's just how the timing is amazing, just how life works out that way. But I'm excited to, to come after him. And, you know, I, I should have mentioned him too, and other people that influenced me. But is Ron, He's. He's an amazing man, but I see how hard he works and I have big shoes to fill when he. When we cycle. So he'll go to past president. I'll be coming in as president, then my other good friend, Ruby Harris, she'll be president elect. So am I ready to become president? The answer is no.

[B]

You're never ready.

[A]

Never ready. It's a big. It's a big job. And I don't want to let the association of New York down, but I'm hoping I can rise to the occasion at Ed. Summit is going to be probably one of the better ones this year. I'm really excited about it.

[B]

I've been hearing it.

[A]

Yeah, We've. We've restructured the programming a little bit, have changed the schedule and how the days fall, and I think. And it's all based on association member feedback. Yeah. So, you know, you can't please everyone all of the time. But I think we've really thread the needle in terms of meeting our attendees and our association members where they want to be in experience in a conference while still being able to balance the importance of professional development, strong content, and also incorporating that networking and social aspect. So I think. I think we've been able to balance those three legs of the stool pretty well. So I'm talking. I've been talking it up, so I hope it goes well, But I'm very much excited for. For that conference. And that's next week.

[B]

Is it next week?

[A]

Yes. Oh, my gosh.

[B]

Yeah, it is.

[A]

That's. That's why Brady is so frustrated with me, because I'm. I go to Baku, come back, and then she's. She'll be at the conference, too.

[B]

And I would say the most important person who influences you would be Brady.

[A]

Of course it is.

[B]

Because without her support, it's. It's really hard.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

I say that all the time for Naila, you know, I think. Yeah.

[A]

I don't know. I don't know how she does it because I have a lot of things going on at once and we have a young family. She has a very.

[B]

Especially with those small kids. Yeah.

[A]

She is a very important job. So. No, I don't. Yeah. I would be nowhere without her. And she's. She's loving, but also very tolerant. I've been making the joke that with. We've been going over our calendars because she sometimes travels for work too, and this is not an endorsement, but we have one of those family screen calendar things, so they sync all of our calendars together, so when you're washing your hands at the kitchen sink, you can see a month at a glance or whatever. That has been huge.

[B]

It's an amazing thing. I need to get it.

[A]

Oh, Aziz, now you Know, like in your kids are older, so if they have their calendars, they can put the. You can sync all their events so you know like where everyone is planning to be. But the month of June is just. All the calendar events are red. It's just red.

[B]

Tell me about it.

[A]

Just red. I mean, you know, you know, she had. See it. So leading up to Azerbaijan, she had a. She had a conference she had to be at. So I was with the kids, I had the budget vote. She came back, she had like a girls weekend. And then the following day I left for Azerbaijan. I get back tomorrow and then we have. Four days later we have the education summit conference. And then I think we're going to. We're on a trip with some friends. It's just, it's a lot and we've been dreading. I don't say dreading, but we've been anticipating this month for a couple months now. And now that we're in the. We're in. We're in it. June just started, but she's a trooper. She's amazing.

[B]

Okay. And with eight hour difference, it's also challenging. Do you think you'll be ready? Will you be napping?

[A]

The answer is yes. No, no, no. I will. I will be ready. I will not be napping. I only. Thankfully I only have one presentation, but I have a lot of hosting to do. Ron and I are hosting the awards dinner, which I'm incredibly excited about. We were tape. We're doing kind of like an Academy Awards vibe to it, so we'll be dressed to the nines in our tuxedos, posting everything but that. That'll be fun. But I'm hoping I get home on a. On a Tuesday evening. The conference doesn't start until Sunday, so I'm hoping I can adjust. You told me it's easier to adjust going back than it is. Remember the first couple days, I tell

[B]

a lot of things, you know, and then turns out differently, you know, don't trust my words.

[A]

It took me three days to.

[B]

It did me a day to adjust and it took you three days?

[A]

Yeah, I was not used to it.

[B]

Yeah, you were napping all over the place, remember? Whatever.

[A]

I was up for 34 hours straight. I couldn't sleep on the plane. It was. It was a lot.

[B]

And you didn't sleep after you went home too? No, it was hard time to get to.

[A]

It was. I don't know if it was one of those things where I was so tired, like my body couldn't.

[B]

Couldn't.

[A]

It couldn't Shut down as I was like, wired. I don't feel adrenaline or what, but you, you know, I left it like 12:30 Eastern Standard Time, and I got here at 10:30am the next day. So I just started all over again and the sun was out and you don't when you're in it. And I'm, you know, I'm meeting everyone. We went for lunch. I met the team for the first time in person and we were doing a lot of work. And you're going, you're go, go, go. And then the sun sets. You're like, oh, my gosh. I've been up for a couple of days straight, but I think I was just so enthusiastic to be here and I just wanted to take everything in. I just couldn't shut my mind off. So it took me a couple days to get into the rhythm and now I'm just going with the flow.

[B]

So give me a few sentences on your journey as a school business official. Just to conclude your journey as a school business official, doing podcasts and now having bit logic. How's that journey been and do you like it? What's next?

[A]

What's next? Brady doesn't want to hear that. This has been, I think if I could sum it up in one word, would be unexpected because I told you I went to school for technology. I thought I'd be on the west coast in Silicon Valley, and I am doing quite the opposite.

[B]

So

[A]

this has taught a lot. This journey has taught me a lot about myself, a lot about what it means to be a colleague, a friend and a leader, and hopefully a creative. I'm hoping that bidlogic helps people in ways that. And solving problems that we've had for decades. And it just has been an incredible experience, professionally and personally. I've met amazing people, too many to name on this podcast. And I, as I'm talking, I'm thinking of more names, like, I should have mentioned them. They're gonna kill me. But I think it boils down to just the connections that I've made that I appreciate most. The fact that you and I are sitting here in Azerbaijan and, you know, when I was telling my friends and family where I was going, they were like, what?

[B]

Why?

[A]

Yeah, and I love explaining why. I love explaining why because it's the story of our industry. It's the story of how you and I have become close friends and why being human first is so important. And if it was a transactional thing and it was, you know, anything other than what it is now, I wouldn't be here so that has been my journey, and that is just been such. It's been such an amazing experience, and there's a lot more to do. There's a lot more work to do. What's next? I don't know.

[B]

Time will show.

[A]

Time will show. I go with the flow. So if an opportunity presents itself, maybe that's my next step forward. Or maybe I just. I think Brady would appreciate me just relaxing a little bit and not taking on new things. But regardless of what path I take, I'm just fortunate to have people like you in my life, to have people like those that I've mentioned here in my life. And had it not been for you and them, I don't know where I'd be today.

[B]

I would. I would say it's mutual. That's one. And then I want to close it off with. What would be the three things you would remember from Azerbaijan? You know, it's just. I want you to think what you've been through in this six days. It was a fast pace, but a lot.

[A]

I'm ready to take a nap after this. The food

[B]

was the best. Is that, like. Is that in a ranking order? Or is you started from three to up to one? Or like, is it no order at all? No.

[A]

I don't know. I forgot.

[B]

Okay, so no order. Let's just give us three.

[A]

Three. So the food. Balga Mach is my favorite.

[B]

Balgaab.

[A]

Gutab. Good time.

[B]

Gutab.

[A]

See, I gotta work on my language. The people, the fact that you can walk up to a complete stranger's home and they're like, come, come. And they'll let you in and tell you about their history and what they work on and what they make. It's just you don't find that in the U.S. and I think just the beauty, the landscape of the country has just been breathtaking because we're situated right on the Caspian Sea. But you drive a couple hours and you're up in the mountains. And when we were up in Shaki, it was just stunning. You're literally situated at the base of all these different mountains, and some still have snow on them. And it's just. It's been a very cathartic experience. It's been absolutely wonderful. And I'm sad to leave. I really am. I can't believe we did so much in a week. I think that's why I'm so tired. It's not the time change. We've been go, go, go. But if anyone's looking to visit here, you have to stay at least three Four weeks at least. Because that's. Then you get. Then you get the experience. And there's just so many surprising things about the country I didn't realize, and it's just my own ignorance. And this country has been through so much, and there's such a cross section of culture here that I wasn't expecting. Yeah, I mean, the. You know, it. Azerbaijan being under Soviet control for. So I didn't know that. And I mean, that kind of woven into the architecture and the food, and you see Lottas everywhere.

[B]

You know,

[A]

I know you asked for three. I'm rambling at this point, but you have such a blend of. There is such a blend of architecture here. I mean, you have 6th to 8th century buildings with modern architecture that's influenced from France. It's just such a cross section of culture. It's amazing.

[B]

Great to have you in Boko Zarbaejan. Thank you for coming. I know it was my idea first and then it was your pushing me later.

[A]

Yeah, I am a pusher. Yeah.

[B]

But I really appreciated our time together. I really enjoyed, you know, you going around especially. And this is my message, whoever will come to Azerbaijan, don't be a picky eater. You know, just.

[A]

Okay. Yeah. Disclaimer. Try everything.

[B]

Try everything.

[A]

You may not like everything. Try everything.

[B]

Yeah, you never know what you're gonna like. But, um, the. It is. It is very interesting that we're doing this podcast.

[A]

This is.

[B]

This is random, by the way.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Like, it's. We didn't plan it.

[A]

Yeah. The whole. You know what the planning was? This is. This is how you operate, Aziz. Like, hey, do you want to do a podcast? I'm like, where you're like, in Baku. I'm like, yeah, on what? You're like, I don't know.

[B]

Yeah, we don't know.

[A]

We'll figure it out. It's going to be on video. I'm like, okay, yeah. Yeah.

[B]

And then we came here, we found this studio. It's just incredible experience. We're sitting in Buckle. We're doing a podcast about school business officials. It's been great experience for me too. So thank you very much for coming. It was a great podcast. Thank you for being you as John and talking about you as John and your journey to us, hoping to do this again in the future.

[A]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for tuning in to School Business Insider. Make sure to check back each week for your favorite topics on school business.