The Flag Story: Exporting Company Culture – “Brilliant Jerks in a Lone Wolf City” S1 E1
In case you missed our podcast launch earlier this week we wanted to share a few of our favorite takeaways that were brought up in conversation between two charismatic tech leaders in San Antonio! If we shared all of our favorites (which is basically the entire podcast from start to finish) this blog post would be tremendously long. What we’re trying to say is… if you haven’t streamed our first episode yet – the buttons below are there for YOU to go and give Plug In with TTC a listen!!!
In our premiere episode, host Dax Moreno is joined by local tech legend, noted author, and his brother-from-another-mother, Lorenzo Gomez III. Listen in to hear their stories about unlaunched careers in medicine, building cultures at tech companies like Rackspace, and how they’ve navigated the winding roads of their careers in the growing San Antonio tech scene.
Click on the links below to listen and subscribe!
Key takeaways from Brilliant Jerks in a Lone Wolf City:
Proof that there’s a spot in tech for YOU even if you’re not a techie
How internships (especially in high school) help you find work you like/ don’t like
Moving to a new city can provide so much perspective for the way you view the town you’re living & working in
“Confederation of neighborhoods”
“Bubbles vs Districts”
San Antonio is not a Lone Wolf City – We’re a city that bets on each other
People are in search of their tribe and San Antonio is the city for you to do that
How two best friends from San Antonio created a work culture trend in 3 countries
Our favorite soundbite:
(Minute Marker 37:46-42:32)
Dax:
You talking about London actually sparked something in me because I saw something that happened when you went to London and that was my great BFF-loss moment of wandering the deserts of San Antonio aimlessly without a Whataburger and movie friend. But, I saw a definite change when we were at Rackspace, you went to London for a couple of years and I don’t think you realize you had this power but the community that you walked into the workplace culture and community was markedly different the day that you walked out and said goodbye. I would love for you to tell the audience a little bit about the camaraderie in the culture & in the fun that you instilled into a very performance-oriented business just by being yourself and some of the San Antonio sensibilities that you brought like how did you do that?
Lorenzo:
Well, I think the best story is the flag story…
And, so for the audience, this is a Rackspace US/UK story. In 2004 I moved to London and before I left Dax bought me a Texas flag as a going-away present and had everybody sign it. And I can still Lanham and Graham and all the guys on my team and I was so proud of it so I got to the UK and you know coming from the city of San Antonio where Dax and I grew up.
I had just never met so many people from all over the world I mean it blew my mind. I had never met a person with an accent like that you know from South Africa and I had to go look on the map where these people are from and I felt embarrassed and stupid. But, it was awesome you know everybody was from a different country and had a different perspective and they were so brilliant. So, one day our good friend Yon Anderson, the great Norwegian powerhouse, was working on a program to make the office more energetic, you know to spice it up a little bit, they were trying to win a culture award for the London Sunday Times. So, he says, “hey does anyone have any ideas?” and I said, well I’ve noticed that everybody’s from another country and it would be cool if everyone had something from their country to represent them on their desk, I just find it really cool. And he says, “oh that’s a great idea,” he wrote it down and went collecting more ideas.
And, I remembered, “well Dax gave me that flag” and so the next day I went and I brought the flag that you gave me and I hung it up on the ceiling tile tucked it in. And, the guy next to me was a Rackspace guy named Mike Petrie from South Africa and he heard me. So, he brought his South African flag and hung it. And then the three women in front of us – they were all from England and when they saw our flags they were like “oh no you didn’t.”
They like overnighted three British St. George flags. And, then it went crazy and everybody had a flag. The great operations person from Rackspace, Anna Bowman, came to visit. She saw it, went back to the US, hung her Colorado flag, and then it spread in the US. When I left the UK in 2006 to move back home they asked me to keep my flag. And so the first flag in all of Rackspace, if you’ve been to Rackspace you’ve seen the flags, the first flag to hang was the Texas flag that Dax Moreno gave me that I hung in the UK office.”
Dax:
I didn’t even know half the stuff. I didn’t know the second half of this story!
Lorenzo:
But it’s the thing I’m the proudest of and I remember one day Graham was visiting the Rackspace Australia office and they all had their flags so he took a picture and he sent it to me and it just made my heart you know glow to think that these two guys from San Antonio working on a mission that we loved were able to export this amazing culture you know that helped this global company in one little piece of finding its identity.
And when I think about that story I think this is how we get to spend our time today… channeling all that energy in helping the individuals, the companies, and the organizations in San Antonio, today. Because I think that those experiences really changed both of us and I think that’s what excites us about the San Antonio of the future.
Don’t forget to like & subscribe to receive a notification each time a new episode is published!
Check out our other blog posts and videos here to help you grow in your career at work!
