Harmonizing Music, Analytics, and Authenticity - Peter Ward is RightOffTrack

Anya Smith:
Hello everyone. Welcome to RightOffTrack, the podcast that delves into the inspiring journeys of individuals who fearlessly pursue their passions and their unique success vision. I'm your host Anya Smith, and today we have an extraordinary guest ready to share his awesome story. Meet Peter Ward, a brilliant mind, leading technical teams and analytics platforms. I'm gonna repeat that one more time. Meet Peter Ward, a brilliant mind, leading technical teams and analytic platforms and insights. Hailing from Ontario, Canada. Peter has made his mark living in five different cities and towns across the country. He excels in designing and implementing people inside platforms where he fearlessly takes on big platforms. I'm gonna repeat that one more time. Oh, sorry. Okay. Meet Peter Ward, a brilliant mind leading technical teams and analytics platforms and insights. Hailing from Ontario, Canada, Peter has made his mark living in five different cities and towns across the country. He excels in designing and implementing people insight platforms where he fearlessly takes on big problems and turns them into transformative solutions. But that's not all there is to Peter. Amidst his analytical prowess, he has another striking facet to his persona, a profound passion for music. Music has been an integral part of Peter's life since he can remember, with singing and playing instruments woven to his very being. 15 years ago, he ventured into the realm of professional music, but as life sometimes unfolds, the stars didn't align at the time. However, Peter's story is one of perseverance, adaptability, and a keen

Peter Ward:
Thank

Anya Smith:
sense

Peter Ward:
you.

Anya Smith:
of balancing priorities. With the changes that came for the pandemic, he found a renewed opportunity to reignite his music journey. Now with his band, Sonic's Seen Kids, he's embracing the chance to write, perform, and share his music with the world. Peter's ability to learn, evolve, and make amazing things happen is truly inspiring. From tackling complex insights in analytics and HR technology, to channeling his creativity and authenticity through music. He showcases the power of following one's heart and embracing multiple passions. Join us as we uncover the tale of Peter Ward, an adventurer who effortlessly bridges the gap between data analytics and music pursuits. His story will undoubtedly leave you motivated to embrace your passions and embrace the life of endless opportunities. Welcome to Right Out Track Theater.

Peter Ward:
Thank you for having me. Really excited to be here.

Anya Smith:
I'm excited to have you. And quick shout out to Richard who introduced us. We had him on the podcast a little bit ago and he was like, okay, you need to meet Peter and share his story. I was like, I don't know, let's see, what is Peter all about? And in the prep call, I was really fascinated not just by your people analytics journey, but more about the way you see problems and tackle them. You make it sound like such a... not a big deal. It's like, oh, I saw this opportunity. I just build this whole thing. And then I moved on to something bigger. And then what fascinated me is then your other passion around music. And so thank you for joining us, because I love to hear about your journey, how your brain works and then how you balance all these different creative talents of yours.

Peter Ward:
Yeah, I'm excited to chat through it. And yeah, Richard's been wonderful and just a great ambassador for the People Analytics community. And so I'm really happy he connected us.

Anya Smith:
My pleasure and let's dive into you for a little bit So people on the lyrics is a space that you're currently in Do you want to share if us like where you are today and kind of what path led you here? And then we could dive into the music and or enrollment in there

Peter Ward:
Sure, so today I lead the People and Sites Platforms and Solutions team at HP. And so we basically own everything from solutioning the data extraction, setting up the pipeline, modeling, architecture, data management, data governance to front end UI consumption, and designing the entire experience in which people experience that data. And then as a byproduct, how they use it to make better decisions, how they use it to facilitate discussions, and all those types of things. So today I lead a pretty fully technical team, which quite frankly, I think I'm blessed to have that. Not a lot of analytics teams have invested. in this way. So I'm grateful for, I've been at HP, I think now three or four months. And I'm grateful for the investment that they've made in the space. And I think, you know, it's sort of positioned us to do some really, really cool stuff that I think, you know, will push the boundaries of what I think of what people in the LX teams are doing so far.

Anya Smith:
Absolutely. And can you share a little bit about your back story before HP? And again, you shared with me a little bit kind of some of the depositions that you had. And if you don't mind diving details, like what are some of the challenges you solved? Cause I found that really exciting. We're like, okay, I just came in, was supposed to solve A, not to give it away. And then I solved

Peter Ward:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
like B, C and D.

Peter Ward:
Yeah, well, it's funny because I never really think about the problems in isolation. And I don't know if that's just me or if that's the way other people see it, but it's just typically the way my brain works is I do sort of these constant environmental scans of what's going on and understanding the context, not just from the intro perspective but an external perspective as well too. And there are very few times where we've encountered a complex problem with some kind or... an outcome or a requirement of some kind that's not connected to something else or some way. And so a big part of where I've leaned into these problems is understanding, I think one where the work's already been done is really, really important. And then leveraging those existing solutions to scale things quicker in other places. So that's been a big part. So oddly enough, I started consulting, which is a bit strange. Typically, it's the other way around. But I did start in consulting. And I was lucky enough, like early on in my career, to have a couple of leaders who basically just said they acknowledged or understood that I had this kind of willingness to learn, adapt and fix. And whether it was like, you know, helping, you know, helping this consulting business grow, they recognize that there was, you know, a benefit for them to doing that. But there was times where we would stand up a supply chain facility and I would be training on forklifts and fall arrest. and health and safety and doing the full scale from hire to training to operationalizing that facility. And I just think I've always been like that. I just think understanding that full breadth of how it is, like that's like a really good example of where the context is beyond just, hey, we need to hire 50 people. It's like, okay, where does that fit into the greater kind of like, how do we move from here to there? And a big thing of what I was trying to identify is what's between here and there. today we don't have this tomorrow, and tomorrow we need to have that. And then I sort of use like learning and research and experience to try and bridge that gap. And so I've been lucky enough to have leaders who basically just said, you know, kind of go at it. And I can't, you know, I'm thankful so much. Like that is probably one of the, been the biggest factors of my success. One in particular, when I was working for Siemens, which is a global engineering company, my leader there was like, you want to build learning application, here you go. Here's the technology, go and do it. You want to get involved in the chatbots. And so, you know, like here's a licensed IBM Watson, and you can look at building out HR chatbots and some shared service modules and things around like that. We looked at talent mobility applications and translation applications and all kinds of things. And it was just really limitless. She was just like, you know, you want to look at a divestiture? Okay, here you go. Here's a divestiture. So anything that I could get my hands on, it was open to me. And I think I should credit a lot of my success to that experience because I think there were a number of other things that led up to that point. But I would say that was the biggest one where I was like, OK, this is what I want to do. I want to build employee experience solutions. And even when I think about analytics, and we talked about this a little bit in our prep call, when I think about analytics solutions, the outcomes typically involve employees, right? And they're typically tied to the employee experience. or they're typically tied to something in that space. And so that's where a lot of my passion comes from. It's about enabling something within that employee experience, supporting decisions around something, a moment that matters or things like that. And so that's really where it comes from. I'd say that's probably my biggest one.

Anya Smith:
that. And one thing that I find, you know, you downplay it a little bit, but it's not just about having these opportunities. Sometimes you may have these opportunities, but that could be daunting, could be exciting and daunting and overwhelming, especially when it sounds like there was a lot of ambiguity around what you could be doing. How do you develop that confidence to say, okay, let's see what happens?

Peter Ward:
Well, maybe it's not always confidence. And I think it's kind of funny because like, I think when we think about learning, we always think about it from like a growth and an interest perspective. But I actually came sort of late into my career here. And I think a lot of my learning came from a need to be competitive, a need to situate myself within industry. It's very difficult to crack the lineup in HR in a position that matters. So it came from a bunch of places. So I think, yes, I'm interested. Yes, I have a growth mindset. Yes, I'm competitive. Yes, I wanna make an impact, right? So I think about learning from all those kind of standpoints but there are other things too, which I think maybe sometimes people aren't so willing to admit which is the opposite of the confidence side, which is I'm afraid to fail. And not because I don't try, I'm always willing to try and I think it's important that we continue to do that. But I've always used learning as a catalyst to prop up that sort of subconscious concept that says, Hey, you might fail if you do this. And that's where the confidence and the courage to say, Hey, maybe the status quo isn't good enough. It helps me prop up that idea. But I think it's interesting that you know, people often talk about growth, like learning just specifically not an area of growth mindset. And for me, it's always been in some ways the survival mechanism. And also my ability to kind of move forward has been like propped on that. So, you know, you could go to this space, you could solve this problem, but you know, maybe you don't have the resources and I would have to pick some of those things up. So I knew in order to self sustain and to manage and develop that, that I would have to teach myself to code or I would need to enroll in courses to do that so I could understand, so I could write a Python script consolidating Excel documents and things like that. Just... It's funny, like at HP we call this scrappy, right? Like there's like an element of like scrappiness to it, but learning has given me that capability to be scrappy.

Anya Smith:
Absolutely. And if I could share, I know that I mentioned to you, I'm finishing up my Master of Science actually submitted last homework. I have just final exams to go, wish me luck. But I was a non-technical person, right? And I met I changed my jobs from PhD recruiting to people analytics. And I was grateful for that. But there was a point in my life, I was like, it's too late for me. I have

Peter Ward:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
kids like I'm in my career at a certain point, like what doesn't make sense to go and change? Like I don't have any coding. And I had this preconceived notion that if I want to be in a technical space, I need to build a computer from scratch and

Peter Ward:
Mm.

Anya Smith:
know software and hardware and all that stuff to even start. And then I realized that you can start. It's going to be difficult. It's going to be uncomfortable. And even now I'm still like having this comfort every time I started new software. I'm like, Oh my gosh, terminal. No, what is this? What is this error function? Google help.

Peter Ward:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
Um,

Peter Ward:
yeah.

Anya Smith:
but, but it does teach you to be more resilient. And I think every time you overcome that for me, it gives me more confidence that, okay, I can figure it out. And that's where I draw my confidence. Not that I know everything, but I can figure it out. Have you had some of that similar kind of experiences that give you the confidence throughout that?

Peter Ward:
Yeah, and I think I try and I think you experienced this to me. I try to be as authentic as possible. My teams know that about me too. I'm not afraid to admit like when I don't know something or when I need to go out and source something, I feel that all the time, you know, especially with how things are quickly or things are shifting with, you know, the generator of AI and things like that and the focus on some of those spaces, you know, so. we're having to learn really quickly, we'll still build the foundation that isn't always there. And so it's like, it's that consistent balance. I experience what you're experiencing on a regular basis, but I think what's crazy to me is the infinite amount of resources. And it's like,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
I find if I tap into one and it doesn't work, but I tap into another one, I could be more successful. And there's like this giant, and I don't know if it's done on purpose or not. But I feel like there's this whole translation exercise that needs to happen with tech, you know, and quite often than not, once you build that humanity and you break down those boundaries between the people who are purely technical and the people who are semi and the people who are non-technical, and you translate all of that technical language to English, you have a bridge and you're able to talk about outcomes. And so that was a big hurdle for me. Like, I always would have to go to my... my data engineers and say, like, I don't know what you're talking about when you mean this, you know? And

Anya Smith:
Right.

Peter Ward:
I'm their technical leader, right? So you have to go into that discussion with a little bit of humility, where I think the buy-in comes in from the teams that are technical, having a semi-technical or non-technical leader is when they can take that information back and process it as a strategy, as an outcome, as an output, as a process, as a thing to go forward. And that's sort of where I think I've been able to do well is to learn it enough, to translate it, to bridge the gap between those teams, and also

Anya Smith:
Yeah,

Peter Ward:
to enable and create a vision that they can stand behind and they believe in. And they know that I understand what it is that they're going through and I can relate to it. And so that's been a big... But I'm constantly doing what you're saying. So you know... It's just

Anya Smith:
it's

Peter Ward:
like,

Anya Smith:
a journey.

Peter Ward:
I feel like now it's become a, it's become like a daily occurrence where I'm just like, what is this, you know?

Anya Smith:
Yeah, and if I can add to that... I think what I learned also, I was a little bit intimidated when I started on my new team, like I'm a recruiter coming in, what do I have to add? But being in people analytics, there is that value, like I know my clients really well. I understand the recruiting space really well, which I was actually supporting. And also I knew how to handle client communications and like make sure they have that follow up and stuff like that. So my point is not about recruiting or even people on the looks like we all have experiences that can help us along the way. Right? Like they are transferable skills, especially related to soft skills. Sometimes even I undervalued them. But I was like, actually most of what you do, unless you are locked in your room, doing something very solo, most of the time you're going to have to interact with other humans on your

Peter Ward:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
path. So soft skills definitely matter.

Peter Ward:
And where it's interesting is that I think, you know, it's like, I talk about this within my teams a lot, which is that, you know, although like I'm the same way I have such a strong focus on this, where HR is really challenged though is we haven't really adapted some of those capabilities, those pure technical capabilities that allow us to own our own destiny going forward. And I'm a huge proponent of that, which is that it's not about just saying, here's where we need to go, but it's also about teaching people how to get from point A to point B, which is like, that's my world, right? I think you're like, you could see that. And so it's like, it's not just about creating a retention model, right? Like, cause you know, we're going to understand who's going to leave and, you know, or what our risk is in this area.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
Because most people don't know how to get from zero to retention model. They don't understand all the things between there, the architecture, the modeling, the pipelines and the extractions and the frequencies and the time dimensions of all those different data sets and how you map them all up.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
That's a super, it's like a really, to your point, it's like a really big puzzle, and you kind of have to figure it all out. But I'm a huge proponent of pushing people to be uncomfortable and understand those things because then they become repeatable. If you do them once on a napkin, at the side of your desk and you write it all out, it's not something you may ever be able to reuse. Whereas quite often, logic

Anya Smith:
Mm-hmm.

Peter Ward:
used around modeling might actually pertain to five or six or seven different things. And so it's like, how can I do it once, make it scalable and then apply it across? But you need some kind of technical foundations to do that. So I'm really pushing people in the public space to... go out and get some of those things. It's important, I think, we haven't necessarily, and it's also tough to retain those skills in HR. I'm hoping we can brand ourselves a little bit better and also create some of that capability within our own space.

Anya Smith:
Can I put you on the spot a little bit?

Peter Ward:
Yes, sure.

Anya Smith:
The performer you said? Okay, so people in analytics, I think people might have different notions or have no idea what that is if you're listening. So what's your pitch? Like what's exciting about people in analytics and why should people care?

Peter Ward:
So, you

Anya Smith:
No pressure.

Peter Ward:
know, no, it's no pressure at all. And I feel like I have this conversation pretty regularly. You know, I always thought it's interesting when I walked around HR tech conferences and didn't see any pure technical people outside of what the vendors are. And especially from a data science perspective, it's a fascinating world. There are so many, so many variables of things and so many meaningful outputs. If you're looking for complex problems and you're looking for really challenging and dynamic data problems. I don't know if there is a space that's more rewarding. Take the sort of evaluation of the positions within HR from a pay scale perspective out of the equation for a second. The challenges are just so, so unique and just a high level impact, like just the ability to influence people's day in, day out work. Have a real impact on the employee experience. That's

Anya Smith:
Absolutely,

Peter Ward:
my pitch, at least.

Anya Smith:
I love it. I love it. No, it's very genuine and true. And if I could also include like, it's not too late. If you're not doing anything technical, but you're like, hey, I'm drawn to this. This sounds really interesting. Or just in general, you wanna explore something new. It's never too late. And where I'm gonna transition to that is also your music career, right? Recently, there was just some big dates happening for you. Can you touch on that side of your passion?

Peter Ward:
Yeah, so I mean, I think, you know, like everybody, before the pandemic happened, we spent a lot of our time commuting back and forth between work, that was the norm at that point. And I've always, you know, had a passion for music, as you mentioned before, I pursued it professionally a long time ago and it didn't work out. That even included me sort of like training professional, like training formally to go to school. So... applied to Berklee and our equivalent to Berklee in Canada called Humber, went through all the additions and all those different processes and things to get into those programs. And actually sort of, I made a career decision change to go the other way. And that was tough, but I put it aside for a little bit and really, really focused on it. I've never sort of put down music, but I didn't pursue it in the same way. And so... when you're commuting three hours a day in a car or on a train or whatever, which is what sometimes my commute was, you lose that time. And when the pandemic lifted, if I can say it lifted, I was able to reclaim a big chunk of my time back, my life, you know, so what is that? Even if I'm on a hybrid schedule, we're talking about like, you know, six to nine hours a week of time, right? So, you know, in doing that, it created this space for people that I have like deep, deep connections with who are in the same experience, the same situation as I am for us to connect and to build and make music again, you know? And I think there's like two kind of distinctions because I think it's, there's a real value and like it's fulfilling to perform and play other people's music. Where my- real passion is, is on the side of writing. I mean, I've done the other side of the coin too, but I really love the writing aspect. And so, you know, I feel like when we came together in the last five months, we basically took 15 years of repressed musical creativity and pushed it all out in three or four months, which has been, it was such a phenomenal experience. But so, yeah, so we just finished releasing our album on my birthday, July 14th, which is cool. Really, really cool. And so now it's about that whole learning thing, you know. It's funny because when we first made this pass, it was about handing out CDs, attending shows, like, you know,

Anya Smith:
All right.

Peter Ward:
shaking hands with the right people, making the connections. And everything has shifted so drastically that we've had to relearn the industry altogether. You know, where you generate revenues in different places, quite frankly, you know, until you're making a lot, a lot of say a lot of, you know, streams, you're not making a whole lot of money on music. So then it's about, you know, how do I relearn social media? How do I, how do I relearn grant writing? How do I like, there's all these avenues. digital marketing, social media, all those kinds of aspects. And we've had to relearn it all and it's been a blast. It's been fun, but it's the same kind of logic as like when, say, going back to become technical. It's like, it's really not different, you know? What's great about it is that you get to like explore. And to me, it's like, I take what I do at HP sometimes or what I've done at my previous jobs and I apply it there. naturally, just to say, how do I bridge the gap between these two things? Here's ultimately what I want to accomplish. You know, it's like I was figuring out a couple days ago, I was like, hey, you know, this is strange, because not a lot of people are into Reddit. It's a kind of a sub community. But by using Reddit, you can actually improve your search engine optimization. That's crazy. Like, I'm just like,

Anya Smith:
Ooh,

Peter Ward:
you know, so it's just things

Anya Smith:
I didn't

Peter Ward:
like

Anya Smith:
know that.

Peter Ward:
that. Yeah, it's just things like that. You know, it's just crazy.

Anya Smith:
That's amazing. And can you talk about your band and where you drew inspiration from? Just like where can people find you?

Peter Ward:
Yeah, so I think where we drew inspiration from was we have always had a really... Where I grew up in Mississauga, we had a really tight musical community. And there was a point where that community kind of ceased to exist. People dispersed, people moved all over, but that community for the longest time represented like a support network for everybody. So you have... maybe things aren't the best for you at home, you have this community you can escape to. Maybe it could be anything, but this community was like a place that just embraced and brought people in. And it was just an opportunity to sing and dance and escape. And not just escape, but even to express and share and all those different types of things. It kind of supported all that. So Sonic Scene Kids is basically a call for that scene revival, for the scene that we grew up in, for that community that gave us that net benefit. And we sort of like as a band feel that that's missing. And so that's what this really represents for us is an opportunity to create that community again and to give people that place to have that outlet, you know, in that. support and that feeling of that, right? So that's what the music's all about. I think, you know, people will hear the nostalgia in it. You know, I would call it the early 2000s nostalgia.

Anya Smith:
Yes, yes, absolutely.

Peter Ward:
And, you know, with something new and a little bit different and it's very unique, but that's really what it's all about for us. It's about creating that space for that community.

Anya Smith:
You know what's funny with this whole effort, Peter, of doing the podcast, it changed my perspective on people in the best way. So the other night we were at a concert as well with my husband, which we don't do a lot of our three kids, but we were out and I was looking at this venue full of people, open air concert, whatever. And now I'm thinking like, what's that person's story? Because

Peter Ward:
Mmm.

Anya Smith:
I realized everybody has a story and we're not this one dimensional, what's your job story. We all have passions, things that make us feel alive, challenges, you know, all of that. We're a mix of this fun, you know, adventure-seeking kind of pursuit. And I love your story because to me it shows like, hey, I could be doing something really well in one area and have this creative passion. And I believe it probably intertwines a little bit, right? It probably gives you energy in one area that helps the other. It probably has like creative

Peter Ward:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
ideas that you're using in analytics for your... For your been, so could you touch on your experience? Like where is maybe, you know, the overlap is one area feeding another, or are you finding some interesting kind of learnings or ways one is supporting one another?

Peter Ward:
Oh, always, always. Like it's, you know, so if I'm not on a call and I don't have headphones in there's music on in my house. More often than not, there's music on more than one floor, like, which drives my wife insane, to be honest, but it's like, you know, it's, you know, it is what it is. But so there's an element of which that like committing to this, like this creative project and solving these problems and being together with people. Here's a great example, right? So like people are trying to solve this analytics problem of high performing teams. What do we define as a high performing team and all those different types of things? Well when I get into a room with these people that I'm so close with and we're distinctly different, distinctly different upbringings, distinctly different backgrounds. We all hear the same song, but we hear it five different ways. It speaks to that moment, that experience of when you have all those perspectives come together in this really beautiful way. And it creates this experience that's uniquely mine. It's no one else's. No one else gets to experience that. And I always think about when I'm thinking about high-performing teams and all that other stuff, how does that resonate? How do those things crossover? And I think they do. I think to your question with energy, like to me, the thought of having that at the end of my day, you know, at the end of my day, I'm going to get together with these people who are going to, we're all going to share this uniquely, this moment that no one else in the world is going to have. And it's going to be an opportunity for us to express potentially what we've been feeling for a day, for a month, for a year or whatever. And that's all going to come out naturally in the music. And we're all going to share it. And it's like, it's just, it's just a pure outlet. And then that energy lives on for like a week, two weeks, three weeks. You know, it's like, it's just, there's so much energy provided by it. You know? So when it comes down to like at the end of the night, I'm like, Oh, I really got to go on and make sure that I'm doing, I'm posting on every Tuesday and Thursday and doing what I need to do to make the engine run from a social media perspective. Which we do kind of cohesively as a band. It's, it's not, doesn't feel as much like work. You know? when you're doing something you love, it's just, it's the great parts. I wake up in the morning and that energy feeds into my work life, you know? So I don't know. I just think there's crossover. I think you need that purpose. I think you need personal purpose and professional purpose. I think you can have both, you know?

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
And both, one can feed the other. When I was living in the Rockies, that's like, literally, it was like, that was our mantra. It was like, you know, solve a really complex problem and summit a mountain after work, you know, the sun's up to 11, you have five hours to do that, like finish at five and go and do that thing that you need to do. And then when you do that, and you get down in the morning, you're probably tired and all those different types of things. When you get up in the morning, that energy feeds right back in. It's like,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
you know, we're super like, super protective of like, sort of my friends that were like of energy, like the idea of energy is just really powerful, you know? And so go get it when you can get it, you know, find ways to have that alternative purpose that helps feed energy into the other side of it. And then it also, I think, gives you some self-realization about what's important on both sides of the house, you know?

Anya Smith:
Yeah, I love that. And again, I wanted to share this because to be something that I'm discovering, to be very full of myself, I've been looking for that. And I felt a sense of something was missing. Like, I'm very grateful for my previous job. And I learned so much and I made great money. Again, I'm very grateful. But I just feel like I could be doing more. And like, I didn't really have a purpose. And I was so long in front of it. I have this purpose and I know what to do. And I was like, well. I'm not fixing cancer, I'm not like AI

Peter Ward:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
coder. Like what's my purpose? To me, the purpose team has to be this monumental, life-changing thing that you have to have a special skill. And then they're like, you know what? I need to lower my expectation in the best way and just be like, what do I actually enjoy and how can that help people and really rediscover things that I'm good at and kind of tying that to something that can help people. And like, it's been beautiful. Like this podcast to me, humbly serves as my purpose. Like, you get to connect with people like you, learn from you, and I hope other people can see that you can tie different parts of your life in a way that builds that path to your purpose, gives you energy and inspiration.

Peter Ward:
It's not one or the other.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
And like even when it comes to my music and my work, my family's involved in it. Like they have a part in it, you know? Before we play, my son Bennett, who's three, he comes down and he plays drums with my drummer for 15, 20 minutes. And he lives it with us, you know? And he lives it and he will have that experience for the rest of his life. And we do that too, like, you know, wherever I can have conversations about experience and purpose, even if it's work related or whatever, like those conversations, they just live, it's just open communication in our house. And it's between our friends and our family and all those different types of things. It's and I think that that's what's so important is like, I don't I don't do one thing and then leave this other chunk out. Because

Anya Smith:
I'm

Peter Ward:
like,

Anya Smith:
going

Peter Ward:
that's

Anya Smith:
to go ahead

Peter Ward:
the

Anya Smith:
and

Peter Ward:
natural

Anya Smith:
start the presentation.

Peter Ward:
thing to do. It's like, OK, this is like, let's compartmentalize this thing goes here. And. And that thing goes there. And now I know that I have the benefit of being able to do that. Not everyone can do that. Some jobs create a really need to compartmentalize. But I think where you can, it's not a bad idea to explore that piece of it. You know,

Anya Smith:
So, I'm going

Peter Ward:
it's

Anya Smith:
to start

Peter Ward:
like,

Anya Smith:
with the presentation.

Peter Ward:
it's not family or work. It's not family

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
or music. It's not, you know, if we decide to go on a tour, it's going to be on understanding how that works for our family and for the music. and for work. And I think it's like sometimes it's, it's comfortable to be in the box. It's comfortable to be like, if I do this, then I can't do that. Because that would mean, if you have to figure it out, you have to do that thing that I'm talking about, where you find what's between point A and point B. And there's lots of things that you have to solve for. But if you can do that, I think it's equally rewarding. And it means that, you know, that You know, my wife got to hear recordings of the music and, you know, she was getting previews and things like she was like, holy, I can't believe this, you know, it's just like, so to be able to share that with family in that way is just like. it's an experience in itself it's like it's it makes it all worth it, you know.

Anya Smith:
Yeah. A, I have a question. What's Bennett's reaction to your music? Is he just grooving out to it?

Peter Ward:
Yeah, he loves it. It's funny because he's like renamed all the songs to something that makes sense to him, you know, so

Anya Smith:
Is there a silly name that you like from his recommendation?

Peter Ward:
Yeah, he calls one of them, he calls it superhero song, you know, I'm not really sure where that came from, but he does call it superhero song. So that's one that sticks out. That's probably the one that he sings the most. And that in itself, like again, like we're talking about things that matter, right? You know, because I've included them in those things, he runs around the house when we're not doing music, talking about music and singing our songs, you know? And it's just... You know, I don't what that does to my heart is like, you know, it's just it's my heart is so full when that happens, you know, and I feel like we're giving him an opportunity to explore purpose, you know, whatever that looks like for him, too. So it's cool. Really cool.

Anya Smith:
I love that when I talk to parents and even myself, like, I don't think what we do on our own is always easy. It takes time and their sacrifice. But to your point as a parent, or even just as a role model, it doesn't have to be just for parents. When we take on that journey, we give other people permission to do that for themselves. And we give them the permissions like, hey, there's not one path or one track. And I'm pursuing my passion. So what's your passion? Why not see how that makes you come alive too?

Peter Ward:
Oh, yeah. And I think, you know, the best thing we could do is like expose them to as many things as possible. And it's we, you know, when he was very young, we an uncle of mine lives about two hours, I think, east of Alaska, in BC.

Anya Smith:
Oh, cool.

Peter Ward:
And we actually took Bennett and drove him all the way throughout, like, from Calgary all the way up to us. So about 12 hour drive through the mountains. And like, those are things that like in you know, based on your recent trip, you know, that it's like, you can see the mountains in a picture. And then when you're there in person, they make you like, they're so immense that they make you want to almost cry. Like they're just like, they're so powerful. When you think about just like that experience of driving into the mountains and seeing them, you know, it's like, so those experiences every time you can share those things, I'm lucky enough that I've had a couple people in my life. who have pushed me to basically say, hey, look, you need these experiences. This is what it's for. And these

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
things will give energy back into whatever else you're doing in your other aspects of life. But make sure you go out and get those mixed experiences. Make sure you chase those moments that really matter, those memories that are for forever. Because those are the things that get me up in the morning. And quite frankly, they actually drive me to do better in my professional life.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
That may not be the case for everybody, but I know that's my experience. Like that's how I feel. You know, I feel renewed. I feel energy. I feel energy. And I feel it makes me want to give more to that experience, too.

Anya Smith:
Absolutely. And funny thing, when we were in Glacier, I posted just a picture of it without even commenting where we're at. And like, you just messaged me and I'm like, is that Glacier? I was

Peter Ward:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
like, wow.

Peter Ward:
so that was crazy. So I mean, if you can picture doing, almost what I was doing full time was analytics when I lived out west, which was in Lake Louise. It's a town of 1,000 people, right? And it was like, quite frankly, we were there for almost two years. And every single day after work, we hiked pretty much nonstop for like two years. We just. we just, and it's funny because you met a couple different types of people that when they moved there, they either sort of went inward and like, you know, had a really hard time with the isolation or you had people who sort of expressed themselves outwardly and just said, hey, I'm here. I might as well roll around in the snow, you know, because the snow is here from, you know, from October to June. So Like I might as well figure out what this is all about and go get some experiences. And, you know, so you just, obviously there's more on the spectrum than that. But like, I just feel like, you know, if you're going to put yourself in that world, and it's the reason why we moved out there was to go out and get those experiences. And I have now I have a lifelong love for the mountains. And people call me whenever they need. Recommendations on food, hikes, national parks. itinerary, where do I drive, how do I do it, where do I start, what kind of car should I get, all those different, you know, if I have this kind of hiking capability, what should I do, you know,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
and so I'm like, I'm almost, I have this like side consulting gig, except they do it for free,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
just helping people live the mountains.

Anya Smith:
See, so if you're in the audience, you're like, okay, I thought I was coming in to just learn about these people on Lilix Space. Here you are getting so much more. You're getting music recombinations. You're getting all these insights from Peter, so like one-stop shop for lots of insights, for insights about how to live fully. So I love that. Thank you for sharing all of that. And... The thing I wanted to add to that is that, sorry, I'm spacing out. I'm just going to think about this question for a moment. Um, sorry. What would I have in mind? I'm going to edit all this out. talked about. So I had a good question. I was like thinking about it. And then I got fully distracted by this idea. Let me pause on that. Sorry. So funny. Okay, we talked about that. I'm just gonna pursue some of my questions. I'm so grateful that these days I have an editor who is gonna help me do all of this.

Peter Ward:
It's the same in music.

Anya Smith:
Yeah, you're just gonna roll with it. Gosh, I had such a good question and that's why I was like, oh, I'm gonna do this. So we talked about traveling, we talked about all this and we talked about music and it got so tracked. Let's see, is there anything that we did not talk about that you wanted to hit on from, oh, sorry, this is what I wanted to ask. Getting back into my little groove over here, I wanted to ask you like. You know, how did you, you seem like, you know, I think there's a stereotype about analytics, how it's, you know, maybe like very specific kind of person who's very maybe straight and direct, but then talking

Peter Ward:
Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith:
to you, you have all of these creative passions. I feel like you're redefining and challenging that stereotype, which I'm a hundred percent all about. And then you talk about, you know, family and purpose and all those things. So can you share like, what was your path to finding, you know, how to live your own success journey, and kind of what are your right priorities.

Peter Ward:
Yeah, I don't know. And it's funny that you say that, because sometimes. Sometimes I think about that, right? Cause like I don't, I wouldn't say I'm less geeky than your stereotypical people in the next person. Like I do, you know, spend my time, my spare time researching things that I'm trying to figure out or just generally interested in how things are changing and stuff like so I'm happy to kind of geek out and do that world. I think, I think where I tend to be a little bit different. is I try not to think about things sort of one dimensionally. I think that's where I'm a little bit different. It's like so many people are trying to solve a problem for one outcome. It's like, if I can understand what it means to retain people, then we'll retain them. We'll retain the right people. And then all the questions that are around that are secondary, which in my opinion, I think, is, my brain, they don't work secondary, they work in the same on the same wavelength. And it's that, well, do we even want to retain those people? Are those the people that we want to retain? How do those people fit into like the broader culture of what we're trying to accomplish? You know, and so I think like my fascination around things like when I talk about employee experience, really, like we're talking about culture, you know, is a big part of that too. And I'm not less interested in that. You know, just because I work in people analytics, therefore, I'm not interested in talent mobility. To me, they're all one is an enabler of the other. Like it's an understanding. It's a mutual relationship of those two different things. It's like it's a shared relationship. So I don't differentiate those things. I don't silo the work that we do. I think we have, I think we probably got to break down some of those walls around siloing. What it is that we do? Well, we do reporting. OK. Why? For what? For who? Like, what purpose does that serve? It's like, well, it's so easy just to say we do reporting and we generate an Excel file once a month and we ship it off to these 10 people. That's not really the way that I think about it. When I think about things like UI, UX, I'm like, why would we even send them a? an Excel document when I can give them this experience in an application, in a mobile application where they can filter, sort, and understand all the different types of things. So then the question is like, so is that reporting? Right? Now, people are like, well, it's getting a little bit blurry here. Is that reporting? Because they're like interacting with an application now. And this is where I like, I don't try and sort of apply kind of traditional labels to what it is that we do. You know, it's this idea of like... You know, the data model supporting all things people data, but people data can range anything from like a call center to expense data to like your traditional HR data of, you know, that sits in a in a in a HRS or HCM, you know, but I don't like, I just don't think of the, the boundaries around that I guess my relationships, you know, throughout my career have always been a cross functions. with IT, with finance, with the business, with the offshore call centers and understanding how those operations work and all those things. So I think that's probably maybe the differentiator. I don't sit in a vacuum, I'm not interested. And I think quite frankly, we'll achieve less outcomes if we live in that vacuum. So it's like, you know, and I always sit, like we talk about this a lot where it's like, okay, you want a predictive model, but really. we're having a hard time describing what's happening. So before we maybe take a, maybe we start modeling what should happen, we should actually have a good hand on what is happening or what has happened. And so there's just things like that, just focusing in the right places and having the right conversations. But I think my personal life is what helps ground me to that is that when people get on a call with me, it's not just... Hey, I have these 10 things I need to check these boxes with you. I think it's important that we like we continually hold and share our humanity. Right. Like that is what builds trust and loyalty and all those different types of things. My wife says this thing to me and it makes me laugh. She always says, you know, she says, Peter, when you mate, you mate for life. And I think that's so funny because it's true. When I build those trust relationships, when I have that shared humanity, when I have those experiences with those people, those are people that, they're lifelong connections for me. They're expanded beyond the company, expanded beyond the organization. But, while we are in that sort of organization, we're very, very productive and we accomplish really, really big things. And quite frankly, those people are honest enough with me through that conversation to say, hey, actually, you're considering this prioritization, but you actually should be considering over here. And a lot of times through that natural discussion, we land in a place somewhere in the middle where it's actually like, no, our North Star's actually here. It's a combination

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
of these different things. But I find until you break down those walls and you're able to sort of like... really have conversations that embrace your humanity, which is funny because like, you know, we, I frequently talk to my teams about my own music, like, which

Anya Smith:
Of

Peter Ward:
is

Anya Smith:
course.

Peter Ward:
a bit weird, which is a bit weird, but at the same time, they ask about it and they're interested and they know that I'm doing it. And so when I go into, when I go into a weekend and I have something big happening for me that's related to my music, Or they go into their weekends and they have really something big about their specific interest Those are things that we care about and share and I think they create a dynamic that enables Like that when I go back to like the you know, the band playing in the room Playing all different things and they're coming together. They're all hearing the same thing and with the different and it comes together to make this beautiful mess That's that's what the humanity piece doesn't work too. It gives it like it gives that it enables that team trust, the team outcomes, loyalty, shared vision, all those different types of things. They never have to worry about that dynamic in my world.

Anya Smith:
That's awesome.

Peter Ward:
I hope.

Anya Smith:
I want to be part

Peter Ward:
I hope.

Anya Smith:
of your team. I want to be part of team Peter.

Peter Ward:
Yeah, it's like it's yeah, so it's cool. I mean, I think you know, I guess that I've been lucky enough To have a couple of lanes of avenues for people to say literally like open it up and go for it, you know

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
and a part of that I credit to Myself for putting myself in those positions to do it and part of it. I credit to leaders who Make that a possibility And so if I can give anything to the people who work with me and it doesn't have to be on my team it could be people who I meet in the analytics community, or it could be people who I meet on other teams that are kind of trying to accomplish some of the same things. I try and give them that same laneway and understand how to navigate it, how to move through it, and all those different types of things. Because that part can be very overwhelming, right? It's like, there's a reason why people have a hard time getting from point A to point B when point B is like a mountain. It's like, if I use that summit analogy, You know, if you just take it a switch back at a time, it doesn't seem so bad. But if you're like, well, I got to climb 1500 meters. Well, what do I got to do to get there? Do I have to run 20 minutes a day? Do I have to, oh, it's kind of, you know, so it's like, yes, there's complexities between here and there, but sort of when you can chunk them up and make them more manageable, I feel like people are able to do that. And then when you get to that summit, and this is a true story, I had someone do that last week, they took my itinerary list and they summited a mountain out west. And they were like, we were like almost in tears. It's like just what an experience it was, you know, so it's the same at work for me, you know, if I can, all of these things that we're trying to accomplish, all the things we're trying to change in the people on Xspace, they're just a bunch of summits for me, you know. So it's cool. And that's, you know, it's chasing those experiences and ultimately you hope that those experiences lead to a really, really positive impact for the organization. And I think more often than not they do.

Anya Smith:
I love that. And one final topic I want to touch on, the fun one, is around failure and struggle and things that are uncomfortable because that's what I wanted the podcast to also touch on is like the real stories because people can look at Peter's like, he's

Peter Ward:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
creating this wonderful culture on these teams and look, he's starting his own band. How amazing, right? And he has

Peter Ward:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
things kind of, his shit is figured out. He's got this balance and priorities, right? But is there anything that you feel comfortable sharing around like maybe, what were some of your pivotal learnings or challenges that shaped your framework for like what success is to me? Like what do I want to do? What am I passionate about? And help you balance all those things.

Peter Ward:
Well, so the one thing, and I share this with my team too, and I think everybody has a little bit about it, but I don't know if that's talked about enough, is that it's not that I don't wake up in the morning and feel like an imposter. Like, you know, I have that same situation that I have to kind of grapple with every day. You know, have I done enough? Have I learned enough? Am I accomplishing enough? And so that's one thing I'll say is like, normalizing that idea. to make it not a thing is not a thing, but to have those conversations is really, really important because it's easy to be like, it is easy to be like, wow, like Peter went from here to there. And now it's like trying to accomplish all these things. He's really well positioned. It doesn't necessarily always feel like that. That's not the experience along the way. But I would say like, you know, failures have been around. When you have an idea of the art of the possible, you're like, I have this thing that's going to cure cancer. But the audience you're pitching to is trying to cure diabetes. That's a really common failure for me. It happens all the time. Whereas I have a grandiose idea. I think it addresses a really big gap. I think it helps. You know? It helps solution a lot of things. But the emphasis on that gap is not there. And so a lot of the failures have been around understanding how I communicate to those people who don't necessarily prioritize things in the same way. So it's like, you could invest a ton of time building something that you think is super, super important. And a great example is like the first time we kind of launched the chat bot when I was working at Siemens, we kind of thought like, this is the experience that people want. And it backfired drastically. And we had to reprogram the entire thing.

Anya Smith:
Oof.

Peter Ward:
And that's when I picked up Design Think. I was like, never again. I'm never doing this again. And so now, always whenever we're designing solutions and platforms, it's always with Design Think in mind. It's always like, how do we do that? But I think we fail every day at something. Or it just happens so frequently. So I can't think about. There are just so many of them. So I'm like trying to think of like, what would be a really good one? But yeah, I just don't think it's, and the other side of that is, naturally you have to make decisions about your career that have to do with your personal piece of this too. Which is that, on a human level, for example, when we lived out West, my dad passed away. And we made a decision to come home as a result of that. Therefore, sacrificing this experience to live in the Rockies, but to be closer to family and all those different types of things. So it's simple to be like, whoa, he made this jump from X-Roll to Y-Roll, you know? And that's what a really, really good, like there are all the things in between that don't, that are not part of the sort of natural story of those things, especially when it comes to corporate development and things like that. But they... Like, nothing ever happens without those things being a factor in your life. And so, you know, it's just kind of interesting how things play out. But I don't know. It's not a straightforward path. Some people do five years or two years or one year. And I just remember thinking to myself for the first probably seven years of my career, I felt like I was playing catch up. I felt like I had to compete. I felt like I and. And I'll share this with you here is like, I finally feel like I'm at peace there. I feel like you, once you find that purpose, once you find that, that settlement, that sweet spot. Is that you get a little bit of comfort and you get a little bit of that peace. And I think, you know, purpose is a big part of that, you know, and having that alignment with what it is that you want to do and what the vision is and all those different things. But. It takes a long time to get to that point where you can have that piece where you're not like, you know, what if I lose my job tomorrow? What am I going to do? Or how do I stand up? Like, how come this person makes more money than I do? They're doing the same job as me. And there's so many things that inter workings to all that. And at some point, whatever it is for it's different for everybody when you can find that piece and you can settle into that groove. I think the path starts to clear a little bit too. You're making decisions from a point of like, making decisions from a sense of purpose is so much different than making decisions from a point of survival. So

Anya Smith:
that.

Peter Ward:
I think it's really interesting, yeah.

Anya Smith:
And you mentioned, could I just provoke you and ask a little bit, like, so you said you found that peace and it sounded like it was an accumulation of time and experiences and also

Peter Ward:
Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith:
finding purpose. Are there any tips that you'd give for somebody who's maybe on that path still right now? Like, hey, I really do want to get to the point where I'm feeling more peaceful and feeling more purpose. Like, is there anything that helped you find that balance you could share?

Peter Ward:
Honestly, it's so much trial and error. It is so much trial and error. It's like, you know, it could be the right manager. It could be the right job. It could be the right organization. I think what I've tried to do along the way, and sometimes it's been perfect and sometimes it hasn't been, is align myself with companies that share a lot of the same purpose and vision that I do. I really try and do that. It doesn't always work out. It's not always like, hey, this is a perfect fit. I thought when I worked in the public sector for health care here that I would really, really influence the front end. And that didn't necessarily happen. It didn't necessarily happen in the way I envisioned it in my mind. And so I made a transition to a new role. But I always just thought if I'm in the health care... side of it, then I'm going to really be able to help in this space. And it didn't materialize that way for me. And so it's just, I think it's a lot of trial and error. It's a lot about like self-discovery and what you like and what you don't like. And I always have this thing where it's like, you know, I started out sort of more on the HR partner side of the house, practitioner, and now I'm on pure technical. And there really isn't a whole lot that lives in the middle, you know? And so, you know, and that's the, you run into that whole like dual purpose piece of it. Like, what do you, what do you kind of want to do? And so one thing I could say is, one thing I would encourage is advocate for what it is that you want to do, because it doesn't exist, it doesn't mean it can't exist, you know? I know a number of people who have, you know, created their own roles, you know, created new experiences, created, and you know, HR's just at the cusp of this. right? You know, we're just at the cusp. And I think it's, it's really cool space to be in. And there's going to be all kinds of new and interesting roles that don't exist tomorrow that exist today. So if you advocate for them today, maybe you can help us get to them faster tomorrow, you know.

Anya Smith:
I'm loving this. There's so much wisdom and I just appreciate, Peter, again, how authentic you are. You know, again, if you're listening to this and you're in that space of I'm not quite there yet, I hope this gives you a little bit more confidence and peace to say it's a process. If you're not quite there, that doesn't mean you're failing or it's not going to happen. It's just a point of self-discovery and you fine-tuning. Maybe this one doesn't work, but I'm understanding better what I like and not like so I can get to that part that genuinely makes me. feel like this is it for me, like this is peaceful, this is purposeful, so continue on. If you're on that path, I hear you, I see you, I can relate to you,

Peter Ward:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
and I wish you luck on finding that right thing for you.

Peter Ward:
And I think if you can be authentic, it helps you navigate the constraints sometimes of a traditional organization.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
And it really comes back to that whole point I was making about, you know, like making that humanity upfront. It really makes a big difference in terms of like navigating those conversations about what's right for you and what's right for the organization and being authentic with yourself about who you are and what you bring to the organization and how you can move things. And sometimes that means you have to go out of your way to, like in my case, to teach myself all the technical side of things and to go back to school for the technical side of things and to retrain and upskill and learn database foundations and dimensional modeling and data architecture and all those things that I hadn't

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
done before, but you have to do them and they make you uncomfortable. But I think when you're going towards that thing that you feel is like your purpose or your direction, it's a lot easier to move that way. So I just think being authentic to yourself and being authentic with other people is a huge thing. It's like, you know, sometimes we have to sort of have to tear down those kind of traditional walls of what relationships should look like within an organization and what we should and shouldn't communicate and all those different types of things. It's by no means saying, hey, everyone at Work has to be like, we have to be best friends with everybody. But it is about saying when you understand somebody and their authentic self, that it's a much more productive relationship for sure. In my experience, I would say.

Anya Smith:
Absolutely. And I want to clarify one point, like that we keep saying authentic, and that doesn't mean being nice all the time. That doesn't

Peter Ward:
Yes,

Anya Smith:
mean

Peter Ward:
yeah.

Anya Smith:
always smiling, tell people how great they are, right? It's also about just saying, hey, I can give you honest feedback, and I want the same in return because we understand that being nice and kind is different. Kind means like I care enough about you to say,

Peter Ward:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
give you difficult feedback because I want you to get better versus like, hey, you're just doing great all the time. So I love the authenticity piece here. Absolutely.

Peter Ward:
Yeah, it's like being true to who you are, you know?

Anya Smith:
Bring your music passion, bring your hiking passion, all of you to work, whatever that is for you, right? And help other people have, again, that permission to do the same. And that will also help with work outcomes, which is awesome. Oh, Peter,

Peter Ward:
I think

Anya Smith:
this

Peter Ward:
so.

Anya Smith:
is so much fun. I appreciate your authentic self. I appreciate the wisdom you bring. And again, I know I'm coming to you for advice on hiking destinations and trips, because that's what our kids are doing, of three boys. pretty much life right now. But was there anything that I missed and do you wanna share where people can get in touch with you if they have questions, if they wanna connect?

Peter Ward:
So musically, you can connect with me on any of the social media platforms that's on Nixie and Kids. And professionally, I'm just on LinkedIn. I'm kind of like a, you know, just that's my platform. You know, I'm not doing anything sort of outside of that space. Work keeps me super, super busy. So that's good. But

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
happy to connect with, you know, anybody who's sort of trying to navigate this journey or trying to go through it. I'm still trying to navigate it. for me too that I need to figure out for myself, you know? And so I'm happy to share stories and get the same stories back so I can learn from other people as well too. You know, this is my, when I talked about, you know, my music being about, you know, you have community revival and we're creating that experience and that space for people to come together. This podcast, so thank you for having me on, is my sort of like... invitation to do the same here in this space.

Anya Smith:
Yeah, let's support each other and everybody listening, I am so grateful for all of you. The podcast has just launched and I just want to shout out to if you're listening, I am so grateful that you're spending the time with us learning and hopefully finding something new that can help on your own journey. but I appreciate you also, if you have insights or questions from this episode, please share those with us. I read every single post, tag us on social media. I see those five star reviews, so again, kudos, you're amazing for all of that. If you wanna share your feedback in a review form, would love to hear that, and again, I genuinely take all of your feedback and appreciate it. I wanna make this better along the way, so thank you for joining this journey. And Peter, when you're ready, I have three short bit questions before we wrap up, so let me

Peter Ward:
OK,

Anya Smith:
know.

Peter Ward:
let's do it.

Anya Smith:
Okay, ready? Okay, I love it. First one. success to me is.

Peter Ward:
Those are short questions.

Anya Smith:
Disappointing.

Peter Ward:
Success to me for music, I'll give you that one. This

Anya Smith:
Okay.

Peter Ward:
I have this one ready to go. Would

Anya Smith:
Cool.

Peter Ward:
be

Anya Smith:
Okay.

Peter Ward:
playing a show to a hundred strangers who I don't know and them knowing who we are and having the opportunity to sing and dance and just love life, you know.

Anya Smith:
Let's make it happen. Sonic Seen Kids, let's make it happen. Let's make that success story happen here, so love that. Okay, second one is, if I could have a superpower, it would be...

Peter Ward:
Hmm. Maybe flying. Yeah,

Anya Smith:
Okay, why? Am

Peter Ward:
maybe

Anya Smith:
I flying?

Peter Ward:
flying. I don't know. I just feel like it would enable so much travel, the ability to see

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Peter Ward:
so many places and things like that. I think more experience is quicker.

Anya Smith:
because you're all about that. I love that. Okay, last one in the positive context, going off track is

Peter Ward:
going off track is summiting a bunch of mountains. That's what it means to me. Whatever

Anya Smith:
I

Peter Ward:
those

Anya Smith:
love it.

Peter Ward:
mountains look like, whatever those mountains look like.

Anya Smith:
Yeah, physical, mental, aspirational. Love it. Oh, Peter, this was so much fun for me. I so appreciate your time. I hope people had a new glimpse of people analytics if they were not aware of it or if they are. I hope you got a different side of Peter that maybe you weren't familiar with. So I appreciate your insight, your wisdom for connecting with this audience. And thank you for everybody who's listening. Thank you again for coming right off track with us. We appreciate you.

Peter Ward:
Thank you for having me.

Anya Smith:
My pleasure.