Using Data In A Better Way

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Welcome to beyond you'd why podcast where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually help you discover live your why. And today we're going to be talking about the why of Better Way. So if you haven't yet discovered your why, go to why institute.com just take the free why app, discover your why and then come back because this is much more valuable to you when you know your why. Now if you've discovered your why, we're going to move forward and talk about the why of Better Way. So people with the why of Better Way very good at innovating, taking something that's already there and finding a better way to do it. They're often disruptive in making things better. They can see when things are not done well or could be better and they go in and make things better, always asking the question, how can we improve upon this? And so my guest today, his name is Charles Rath and let me just read you his biography before we get going. Charles Rath is the President and CEO of Rs21. Rs21 is one of the fastest growing companies in the United States and the fastest growing company in New Mexico. RS21 has grown 5,400% since 2015. RS21 is a software design and data analytics company that helps clients solve complex problems and in impactful environments. RS21's current portfolio of work includes innovative projects with Fortune 100 companies and cities around the world. The company is on the front lines of everything from fighting cancer to preparing for hurricanes, from fixing health care to reducing crime. Charles speaks globally on the future of technology, with a particular focus on next generation applications for data analytics and visualizations. Charles holds a Master's degree in Public Policy from American University in Washington, D.C. and a bachelor's from the University of Missouri. Charles lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Ava, and two young boys, Leo and Teddy. Charles, welcome to the podcast.

Great to be here, Gary.

Well, let's do this. Charles, you and I talked three or four years ago at a Korean barbecue restaurant. You and I sat down and I took you through discovering your why and we worked on your messaging for Rs21 right when you were getting going. So that must have been four years ago. It was. And so tell everybody a little bit more about Rs21 so they can get a feel for what your company is like.

Great. So RS21 is driven by two realities today. The first being that we have more information and data at our fingertips to solve complex problems than ever before at any time in humanity. In fact, 90% of the world's data was created in the last two years. So we have this amazing opportunity to make faster, smarter, better decisions. The second thing is that in spite of having all of this information at our fingertips, we are still using our gut to make these critical decisions. And so I saw this amazing opportunity to help large companies, municipalities, the federal government use this information, harness the power of data to make better decisions. And through this journey, we've also observed that those individuals, those organizations that are harnessing the power of data are having exponential results. And that's people like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg. These people understand the power of data, and we want to bring that to more people and more organizations.

So you said 90% of data has come in the last two years. Wow. Now, why is that? That's interesting. I never knew that.

So we all carry these little smartphones in our hands. These are data creators in terms of where we're going, what we're viewing, how we interact with the world. Sensors are huge that can tell you they can inform lights on when they should be turned on or turned off based on pedestrians walking in front of them. They can locate where gunshots have come from. They can tell you when certain areas are flooding. There are satellites, millions of satellites orbiting earth giving us information. It really is an interesting time to be alive if you're a data geek like myself.

So should I be turning my cell phone off when I. When I go outside?

No. Data can be used for good.

Okay, so you take data and you help people make better decisions.

That's correct.

So I don't imagine that you just send them a bunch of spreadsheets. Somebody calls you to work with them. You don't just send them a bunch of spreadsheets and say, oh, hey, here's your data, and go do something with it. How does that work?

So there's two things that we do really, really well, the first of which is helping the customer or client understand the decisions that they are really trying to inform. And that helps us really focus our efforts around what data are we gathering, how are we analyzing it, and then how are we presenting it back to that leader to drive a better decision.

Right.

The second thing is we make the information available in very intuitive and inspiring ways. So human beings are visual learners. 95% of what we process in our brains is visual in nature. And so we specialize in creating custom visualizations that are very easy to understand and interact with. Because if you're going to interact with that data, you're going to absorb it, you're going to understand it, and you're going to be able to make better decisions with it.

So give us an example. People are hearing this now and they're saying, yeah, that all makes sense. I get what he's saying, but. But I need to picture it. So give us an example.

So right now we're doing a large project with a Fortune 50 health care company. They spend about $300 billion a year on treating their patient. And much of this cost is driven by chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, COPD, etc. And one thing that we observed was that about 35% of that $300 billion could be prevented by catching these before they ever develop. And you can use data to understand the behavior of populations of patients. What they're doing. Are they accessing healthy foods? Do they live in a high poverty area? Are they isolated socially? And the list goes on. Are they exercising? And we can use data and we can give this healthcare company that information so they can get their patients in touch with resources to drive down those costs. And we're talking about billions and billions and billion dollars in savings and healthier populations.

So when they come to work with you, they come in with a problem and they say, okay, Charles, this is our problem. This is what's going on. Take us through what you do. How does a big data company interact with somebody like that?

So that's the best case scenario. Customer will come to us and say, we have this big problem that we're trying to solve. We have some data that will help us solve it. Generally, they don't have their hands around their own data, but we also think there might be additional data in the world that can help us solve this problem. And so we get together with them, we take them through a discovery process, really trying to focus our attention on what are the actual problems that we're trying to solve. Once we have that nailed down, we look at all the data in the world that could be used to solve that problem. And trust me, there is a lot of information in this world to help people solve problems in really big and impactful ways. Once we've identified the data, then we analyze it and then we present it back to the customer in a way that helps inform their decisions.

So let's talk about that. You don't send them a bunch of spreadsheets. You don't sit down with a bunch of numbers, what do you do? And what does that look like?

So what we realized early on in the company's inception is that we had to create these very intuitive and inspiring visual experiences for people to interact with this information. And I'm not just talking about a fancy Excel spreadsheet. I'm talking about Hollywood quality video game quality experiences that are extremely easy for people to interact with on their cell phone or on the desktop or however they wanted to gather the information. And so it's a funny story. When I first started the company, of course you are 100% obsessed with your idea. In my case, finding a better way, bringing data and information to people to make better decisions. And we realized that the visualization critical in our efforts to make this company a success. And so we started just doing research and looking everywhere in the world for where are people making data approachable and inspiring? And the place that we found it was actually Hollywood. So we started watching movies like the Martian and Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron man. And we would literally wait till the end of the movie, look at the credits at the end, and we would cold call people completely out of the blue and and we would say, hey, did you work on Guardians of the Galaxy? Hey, I love that scene where you were flashing the data. And we'd say, would you like to work with real data? And what we learned was a lot of these designers that work on Hollywood movies are actually freelancers. And so early on, many of our data designers were actually from Hollywood. Now since then, we've evolved quite a bit and we've brought on literally the best in the world user experience experts that actually specialize in how the human brain processes information and data on a screen. So there's this whole science behind how to present information in very intuitive ways. And so we combine the Hollywood caliber, make it look inspiring people with the PhD trained cognitive experts to create these experiences that people use. And what we found is if we can create an intuitive and an inspiring experience for someone, the potential for them to use that data to inform decisions is greatly increased.

You know, we've talked a bunch of times about what it is, your message and whatnot for your company. But to be honest, I never really realized that. To me, when I hear Big Data, it's kind of scary in a way, and it's kind of boring in a way. It doesn't excite me until right now.

That's great. I guess the message is working. Yeah.

Because you know, in my mind, Big Data was lots of data. That you're going to combine to one spreadsheet.

Yeah.

And that's not even close to what you're doing. No, it is, but it isn't.

Right. And so there's two things that should excite people about this. One is that again, if you look at the most successful people in the world, they are as successful as they are because they are harnessing the power of big data. And we are seeing big data applications in our day to day life now. I mean, you turn on Netflix and it will tell you what show you would want to watch. You open your Facebook feed and it tells you what pants you'd like to buy. And maybe three years ago those pants were not something that you'd like, but now those algorithms are getting pretty good. And so there is a real appetite for better use of information. And those people that are forward looking and understand the power of data, those are the people that are going to explode. Whether it be revenue or influence or whatever it is that they're trying to accomplish.

That's what Amazon. You know, I think about Amazon every time I buy something right below as well. You might like this, this and this.

Absolutely.

Maybe I would like that.

Exactly, exactly. So it's not as scary or as boring as it used to be.

Yeah.

Now it is a strategic necessity.

Well, what I meant by that was you guys bring it to your client in a way that's not boring and painful to look at.

Yeah, it's interesting. There is this divide in our world and in business and you see it in government between the people that are the owners of the data and the spreadsheets, let's call them the data nerds, if you will. And then there are the decision maker, and they are both chronically frustrated. The decision makers don't know how to create pivot tables in Excel. They don't know all the data, where it's at, how to use it, what technology to use. So they're chronically frustrated they can't interact with the information. The data nerds are frustrated because this decision maker isn't using their information. And there's a huge communication divide. And so a lot of what we do, empowering both those groups, empowering the decision makers for the first time to actually be able to interact with the data that they have and the information in the world to make a better decision, to run different types of scenarios, to understand what ifs. And then the data nerds were actually using their information many times for the first time to inform critical decisions facing an organization or a community or the List goes on.

So the bottom line is you're just. You're helping people make better decisions using data that they can actually understand.

Yes. Faster decisions, smarter decisions, more defensible decisions, better decisions.

So let's talk about this concept of time compression and how you help influencers, leaders, compress time.

Time compression is a huge component of what we do. Executives are under the gun to deliver fast results. Shareholders want to see increase revenue and profits as quickly as possible. And data can help people inform those decisions much more quickly. Something that used to take three, four, five years and were ultimately made on a gut feel you can now make in a matter of weeks or months and can really drive resources and drive efforts on those areas that are going to. They're going to accomplish your objectives.

So when you first started out, you were resilient. 21. Right, right. Resilient 21. And resilient was a big word. I don't even understand it. What does resilient mean?

So the. The name of the company is Resilient Solutions 21. So Resilient Solutions for the 21st Century. And so resilience is an organization or a community's ability to bounce back in time of adversity. And so many of the company's early projects were focused on either helping communities bounce back from a hurricane or helping an organization bounce back from a financial downturn and really using data to help help them thrive.

And so I guess let's talk for a minute about the crazy success you guys have had. You said it was 5,400% growth. Yes, in the last four years. If I'm listening to that, I'm wanting to know, how the heck did you do that? How did you get 5,400% growth?

So in the beginning, it was word of mouth, frankly. I mean, we were helping organizations completely turn things around, see problems in new ways, and the word just spread like wildfire. And so, I mean, we didn't market at all the first three years of our business. It was so powerful what we were doing, that we were able to just grow organically in that way. Wow.

And how would you describe the importance of having the right message? Because your message has changed a little bit over the years, I think. How has that been valuable to you?

Well, I think back when we first talked about my business, Gary, and that was four years ago, and we were talking about the message that I had at that particular moment over some delicious Korean barbecue. And the message back in 2015 was just give me all your data and we'll figure out what your Problems are, you know, send me your orphans and your structured data and your unstructured data. Let us take a look at it, really understand what your problems are, and then we'll solve it. And I had an opportunity to share that with you. And you said, charles, your message is kind of scary for people. Like, people don't want you rummaging around in their closet. Maybe have more of a message of optimism and promise. Craft your message around the opportunity that's there and how you can take someone from being good to great and even beyond. That was a pivotal moment for us, Gary. And I'll always be thankful for that conversation because I started changing the message at that very moment. And I attribute a lot of our success to that very night.

Because in all of our messaging, for all of us, nobody wants to hear how crappy they are.

Right.

I mean, I don't want to hear that. I already know how crappy I am at certain things. I don't want to hear someone else know it.

Right.

Yeah.

And no one wants you to remind them that they're not making the best use of their data. And here's what all their problems are. A message of promise has landed way more effectively for us.

Yeah. How do we help you leave a legacy? How do we help you get there faster? How do we make what you've already got that's good. How do we take that to great.

Exactly.

And people like that.

Right? They love it. And it's.

It's. And they like you.

Yeah. And we've built an amazing team. I mean, we've been able to attract some of the world's best data scientists and designers and computer programmers. And our message is very sincere. If you harness the power of your data, you're going to have exponential success.

And right on your website, I see you say, you know, we believe the power of data can unleash human potential.

It's remarkable. Again, if you look at the most successful people in the world and you think about what has got them there.

Data. Have you got a favorite story or favorite company that you've worked with?

Man, they're like, it's like choosing my favorite child. That's tough. We get so involved and invested in the organizations that we work with. The project that we did in Mexico a few years was probably the most powerful thing that I've ever worked on because it touched so many lives and it focused on the problem of youth violence, kids that were being subjected to criminal activities or were committing violent acts. So over 50% of the youth living, of people living in cities in Mexico are under the age of 24. And the United States Agency for International Development came to us and wanted to know how could we use data to address this problem and address it at its core? What is driving youth violence in cities across Mexico? And we turn to data to solve that problem. And what we learned was that cities in Mexico, their gut reaction, and that happens here in the United States as well, when crime spikes or when violence spikes, is to throw more law enforcement at the problem. And many times it actually exacerbates the challenges given a kind of a chronic mistrust between civilians and government. And what we learned was that in many cases, that didn't solve the problem. And in many cases, by looking at data, we learned that the reason why there was a lot of criminal activities from children was because they were bored, because there were no parks or recreation centers or gyms or soccer matches to go to, or that maybe it was a neighborhood where there were a lot of no parent households. And so kids weren't being supervised. And so we really have had an opportunity to have an impact in those communities because we've been able to allow them for the first time to understand really what's going on in these communities, what is the root cause, what's driving it? And so they can effectively channel resources to actually solve the problem.

That is awesome. That had to be a very rewarding one to work on.

It really is. And we are a passion driven organization. We enthusiastically seek projects that we think are going to have a positive impact in the world. And we've been blessed to work with some of the most innovative people in the world.

It's interesting, you know, when I think of what you do from the perspective of your why, as in finding a better way and then sharing it. That's what you do every day, all day. You know, that's the essence of your business. Right?

It really is. And I'm just in love with what I do. Couldn't be happier. Every day is finding a better way. In fact, our tagline for our business is there's a smarter way. Yes. He's so perfect.

Yes. You know, in, from my perspective, when people talk about passion. Okay. When what you do is in line with why you do what you do, you will have passion for what you do. Right. So you are a perfect example of that. When every day revolves around helping people find a better way to do whatever they're doing through the use of data. Couldn't get any better.

I agree. I'm living the dream.

Yeah. I mean, you're living the Better Way dream.

And, you know, we've been able to, you know, work across our organization to help other people find their why as well, which has been critical. I mean, I think that self awareness and that realization of what really makes you tick.

Yeah.

And then understanding how to apply that in an organization or for your business in a way that is going to scratch that itch, I mean, that's everything that unlocks the door to your success.

So that's perfect. Tell us a little bit about how you got into this. Go a little bit back in your life and tell people, kind of bring them forward, and we'll see how Better Way has kind of played out in your life. Because I remember you were telling me when you were even younger, you were the only guy that left your town to play Division 1 football, right?

That's right, yeah. And even before that, I like to tell the story about kind of my first experiences with a Better Way around data. My father and I loved to go fishing in Lake Barkley in Kentucky. And like many fishermen, invariably it's called fishing for reason and not catching because we'd go out for 10 or 12 hours and we had, you know, we had six or eight fishing holes that we would go to and we didn't know where the fish were. And we'd try a hole for an hour and a half or two hours and we'd go to the next and the next. And many times we'd come home tired with no fish, and my dad would be in trouble because we were gone for 12 hours. And then one day he brought this little magical device to the boat and it was a fish finder. So now instead of kind of blindly going to all these different holes and spending, you know, two, three hours and running out of gas in the boat and etcetera, we would sit at a hole for two or three minutes, we'd look around, we'd see if there were any fish there. If there weren't, we'd go to the next one and we'd be home before noon with a boatload of fish and a happy wife and mom in my case. And so that made an impression on me early on. There's a smarter and better way to do things. We can make decisions faster, we can get more productive results more quickly. And that kind of set the foundation.

For where I am today all the way along. And then how did you decide to get into data?

So I moved out to Washington D.C. in 2001 to go to graduate school. Naturally, for a Better Way person, I think Public service is a calling because there's just so much opportunity for massive impact. And I think there's so much chronic dysfunction in our institutions in many cases. I went out to get my master's degree in Public Administration, Public Policy from American University. Shortly thereafter, 911 happened, and it affected me personally. Many of my neighbors were killed in that horrific act. And the nation just rallied around this patriotism and this higher calling to figure out how to protect our homeland and how to prevent really bad acts like that from happening again. And I was really moved by that, and I felt like my contribution to that effort was better analysis, better data brought to the table to help inform some of these most critical challenges facing our nation at the time, and did that for 10 or 12 years. And of course, Washington, D.C. is a very powerful place to work. It's also a very frustrating place to work. And I observed that even with this data and information, many times, we weren't making the best decision as it related to allocating our resources. So I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to work at an even more technical organization called San Diego National Labs. Traveled all over the world helping cities become more resilient to disasters and solve their most complex challenges. And even then, I saw that even the most progressive countries and cities in the world weren't harnessing the information they had at their fingertips. So saw that, saw an opportunity, and started RS21.

That's awesome, man. And so I'm thinking now about the people that are listening to this podcast. And a lot of them are going to be data people. A lot of them are going to be Internet marketers, people that have data but don't know what to do with it. I'm one of them. I'm getting lots and lots of data. My goal for this year is to help 1 million people discover their why, how, and what so we can have a bigger impact. So I'll be gathering lots of data, and I want to be able to utilize that to help them understand themselves better. You know, in the past, it's been more what I've observed and what I've seen, so much of it is in my head. But now I'm starting to get more and more data, and. And now what do I do with that? Where do I store it? How do I utilize it? What should I do with it?

Well, first of all, I think you're thinking about the problem in the right way, so you should be applauded for that. Meaning that you're collecting a lot of information and you know that there's power in that information, you're not sure what to do about it. And so I would advise you to first think about what are the decisions or outcomes that I would like to get from this information that I'm gathering. Don't start trying to dive into your data right out of the gate. Go out and buy a bunch of fancy technology and platforms and whatnot. Take the time up front to think through what would I like to do with this information? What insights would I like to glean from this data? What types of decisions or actions would I like to take based on this data? And from that it will really focus your efforts and that will drive your selection of technology, your methods, your outputs, and the list goes on.

So I have like a lot of people that are going to be listening to this. I'll have people on an email list, let's say. And so then do you take those people? Now I know their why and I'll know their why, how and what, so I'll know how to speak to them, but I don't know a lot other than that. So do you then take your list and send out a survey or how do you gather the data? What are most people using for that?

So, I mean, the possibilities are literally endless, right? And so many times our customers will have data that they're collecting. For example, we worked with a healthcare company that was really focused on trying to address diabetes in their patient population, right? So they had a lot of claims data, they all had a lot of information on their patient. But one of the things that they didn't have was anything about how their patients were actually making purchasing decisions around healthy food. Right? And they had no idea how to get that information. You know, what do you go out to every grocery store website and try to understand what the cost of food is and what the purchasing behaviors are. So in that case, we actually did crowdsource data collection where we actually sent people out to every grocery store and convenience store in this particular area. And we could tell this healthcare provider that your patient is living in a neighborhood where there is just not affordable food. There are only convenience stores. The closest grocery store is 8 miles away. An apple costs $3 at the 7 11. And that really fundamentally changed their understanding of their patient's livelihood. And so then they could get more proactive about putting their patient in contact with resources, SNAP benefits, etc. To help them put healthy food on the table. They didn't know that data set even existed in the world. So there's amazing things can happen when you pair the data you have and know with the data that is out there that you didn't even know existed. And that's what we help customers do.

So if I'm listening and I want to start utilizing my data, obviously you don't want the small operator like myself and some of the others contacting you because that's not your market. Who would you like contact you? What kind of companies and organizations or countries even would you like to work with?

So we're looking for the most innovative people in the world that are looking to drive exponential game changing, industry disrupting activities. We tend to work with large organizations, Fortune 100 companies, municipalities, counties, nations that are trying to solve the world's most complex problems.

Okay, so if they want to get a hold of you, what's the best way for them to contact you?

Go to our website, www.rs21io. Go to the about us page and send us an email with your challenge and your the problem that you're trying to solve and we'll be right in touch with you.

So that's how it works. People just contact you and say, hey, this is the problem I'm facing.

Like I said earlier, most of our business is driven by referrals. So someone has had an incredible experience solving a problem. They've generated a bunch of revenue or they've saved a bunch of money and then their friends contact us.

Last question. Is there anything I haven't asked you that you would like me to have asked you?

I think we've got it covered.

I think we got it covered too. Awesome. Charles, thank you for being here. I appreciate you spending the time with us. Again, thank you for being here.

It's my pleasure. Thank you, Gary.