In this month’s EnergyGigs webinar, we had the pleasure of speaking with Daniel Lai, the founding partner and head of consultant development at Project Violet, a unique online community focused on developing elite consultants, project managers, and analysts. Project Violet concentrates on three core areas: equip, grow, and connect. The platform offers short-term tools and templates for immediate needs, as well as long-term leadership development, and a curated network to help members build meaningful relationships with advisors and peers. Daniel's goal is to address the common gap in project management training, assisting individuals in developing a more holistic approach to their roles.
During the webinar, Daniel discussed the evolving role of project managers in today’s fast-paced world. He emphasized the significance of fundamentals, such as building and maintaining a project plan, setting agendas, and problem-solving, over merely managing tasks. Project managers must also cultivate a broader understanding of how their work impacts other areas of the business, particularly in complex sectors such as energy.
As AI continues to transform industries, Daniel believes that project managers will increasingly depend on AI tools to handle routine tasks, allowing them to focus on higher-value contributions. This shift calls for a new kind of "PM Plus" who not only manages projects but also brings added value through strategic thinking and deeper subject matter expertise.
Daniel’s insights are invaluable for anyone seeking to advance their career in project management, especially in complex sectors such as energy.
For more information or to contact Daniel, visit Project Violet.
Watch the Webinar:
Transcript:
Jason Assir
Good day, good morning, good afternoon, good evening everyone. Super excited to have you in this month's webinar, joined by an esteemed guest, Daniel Ley. Daniel Ley is the founding partner and head of consultant development at Project Violet. Project Violet is an online community dedicated to developing elite consultants and leaders. And side note, Daniel is probably one of the best consultants I've ever had the pleasure of working with and knowing. So Daniel, welcome to the Energy Gigs webinar. Yeah, it's super, super excited to have you on. Before we get right into it, just real quick, for people new to the webinar, we do a webinar every month on different topics related to the energy industry. What is Energy Gigs? We are a freelance platform for the energy industry. So we connect energy companies to just in time energy talent across the full value stream of energy. And today's topic is Project Management consulting. All things like, and just try to soak up as much knowledge from this guy as possible. So Daniel, welcome again, if you don't mind, share a little bit about yourself. Like tell us. Yeah, tell us who you are.
Daniel Lai
Absolutely. And Jason, you know, I really appreciate those comments. I will say, like every time we work together and we've been on consulting gigs together, you are a phenomenal person to work with. I'd love the way that you listen and you really capture everything and, and when you asked me to be on this podcast, it was an absolute yes right away because everything that you're working on and I want to support and, and you're great. So I appreciate that. But yeah, a little bit about me. So Daniel Le. So I run a, I run Project Violet and it's just, just like Jason said, an online community long term development program for elite consultants, analysts, project managers. I started out working for Ross Perot. I don't know if anyone has. Remember that guy with all his charts? Yeah, exactly. And then so as part of his leadership development program coming out of college, then moved into management consulting, worked for a startup and then they eventually got acquired by West Monroe Partners. And during that acquisition moved into independent consulting, moved around, eventually became a COO at another consulting firm that got acquired. And in this season of my life, really pivoting Project Violet to what I'm really super passionate about. And that's people development. That's something that I've always done throughout my career and really developing not just emerging talent, but people that are senior and leaders. Something that I really am passionate about. And it's something that I hope I can continue forward doing with Project Violet. So that's where I am today.
Jason Assir
That's awesome. Well, very cool. And I mean, just thinking about Project Violet, what was the moment that sparked the idea of Project Violet? What led you to kind of like, hey, this is. I'm going to build this, I'm going to do this.
Daniel Lai
Absolutely. So I'll tell you a story. So this was probably 10 to 15 years ago. I just made manager sitting in this conference room, and this was the first time I kind of got the curtains pulled. And I was sitting in this conference room with the senior partners and the leadership and we were doing performance reviews. So I remember preparing and I had all my talking points. I was a little nervous and I really want people on my team to get promoted. So I had all the right talking points and the proof points to make sure that they can get promoted. And before the meeting started, one of the senior partners stood up in front of the entire group and he said, we are never hiring entry level associates ever again. And I remember kind of the wind kind of falling out of me and thinking, wait, what's going on? Like, why? Why would we just discount this entire group of the workforce that we could really tap into? And as he was giving the explanation and people were chiming in, kind of backing him up, I just kept thinking in my mind like, we screwed up here. This was our fault. We did not have the right things in place. The system, the support, the mentorship to make sure that this individual was successful. And that was kind of the spark that started this whole journey that I've been on, on just people development. And how do we equip, how we grow? How do we connect the right people in different stages of their career and really give them the means to be successful? So that's the story that sparked it. And it's been something I've been doing throughout my career. And now it's just putting everything that I have behind it and really taking something to market that I think will make a difference.
Jason Assir
Wow, that's awesome. I mean, that really resonates because I feel like that is so common in the consulting space, like around consulting firms where they don't have a good way of training you for the job that you're in or the next job that you're going to get. Right career. Right.
Daniel Lai
It's, it's a really kind of like upper out mentality over there. And it's like, you know, survival of the fittest. It's, it's. And it feeds into the culture and the politics and everything. And, you know, I really want to build Something that's a little counter to that and really have people that are struggling and that are thirsting for professional development or leadership development or just upskilling that there's, you know, something out there where they can feel like, you know, they don't have to do this alone. And there's a team that's out there that's supporting them, that wants them to grow and succeed.
Jason Assir
That's awesome. And I mean, I imagine that challenge of just leadership development and cultivating the team that exists, whether it's the management consulting in the energy space as well as technology, probably also engineering consulting, any sort of consulting, right?
Daniel Lai
Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. So the way that we've kind of thought through it and designed it, it's really kind of a three pronged approach. So we equip, grow and connect is really kind of the three focus areas of how we're doing it with Project Violet. So on the equip side, this is kind of your short term, in the moment needs. So when you're a struggling consultant or an analyst or a project manager, you kind of need something right away. And these are like the templates, the toolkits. We have these, you know, bite sized tutorials that are less than five minutes. So it's like you can go there, get equipped, you know, get some guidance and then execute right away. And then on the growth side, this is kind of the long term professional development, right? We have your structured courses, we have our leadership development, the mentorship, the coaching, we have office hours. This is really to help someone kind of grow in their career from emerging, you know, entry level all the way to first year manager and potentially beyond with our leadership development. And then connect is the way that we think about. And this is a lesson that I had to learn is like, you don't have to do this alone. I used to be one of those kind of lone wolf mentality people and I just do the work and then I think the work would speak for myself. And I really think success is really in the agency of others. Right. So you can connect with other like minded people, ambitious professionals. And we have our curated network of advisors, which I would love, Jason, for you to be a part of. And really? Yeah, like teach people. Like the way that you put process diagrams together in the way that you're able to just connect with clients is I think a lot of the great things that you do as well as leading energy gigs and all that kind of stuff, the entrepreneurial aspects. So it'd be great to have you as an advisor and I think a lot of people can learn from you and that's what it's all about. Right. So it's connecting, finding the right people that you can grow and develop your career with. And it's kind of the rising tide that raises all ships. It's the people around you that really pull you forward in your career.
Jason Assir
Yeah. I mean, and how has been the reception like in the market and with it, I mean, with, you know, what's that been like in terms of taking it to market?
Daniel Lai
Yeah, so we're launching next week, so we'll see. Yeah. So this new product we're taking to market next week, we do have a pilot group in there with some consultants and they're loving it. I think the project delivery and consulting bootcamp is one of our structured courses in there. We're going through that together, helping them on their challenges and on their projects and their deliverables. Again, something I'm super passionate about and I think it does fill a gap and something that they've been wanting. I think there was a recent survey that showed like, managers are. 75% of managers are burnt out. And I think a lot of it is because, you know, they're getting a lot of pressure from their leaders to get work done and to focus on operations. But they do know that their people need development and mentorship and coaching. But. But they're just burnt out. They don't have enough time to do it. So I think a lot of these people that are looking for that need to go somewhere to find it. And I'm hoping Project Violet could be that. But yeah, so we'll see how it goes in the next couple of weeks. I'll let you know. But right now, the people that are kind of piloting it are liking it a lot and we're getting a lot of good feedback.
Jason Assir
Well, that's awesome. I mean, there definitely is a gap in the marketplace. I mean, that's almost just thinking about your experience with that partner or that senior person getting up and saying, never hiring, you know, junior people again. It like, yeah, it's like mind blowing. Like.
Daniel Lai
Yeah, it's what people focus on too. Like even in the large organization. So this was kind of like a small startup consulting firm. But even large organizations, I feel like their training is very focused. Like it's compliance driven in a lot of ways. So it's like, hey, you have to take this course on cybersecurity or you now. Everyone now has to watch a five minute video on, I don't know, employee harassment or something. It's just like, it's very defensive positioning instead of having a growth mindset. And there's a lot of reasons for that. They don't want to get sued. There's a lot of legal compliance regulations that they have to follow to make sure people are trained up on those things. Unfortunately, that takes priority over building your skills and your leadership and finding your own mentors within the company. Sometimes that takes a backseat.
Jason Assir
Yeah, makes sense. Makes sense. Well, I mean, so like maybe like getting into sort of project management. I think about like, like all those domains of consulting that we kind of talked about. You know, I think the through line is project management, right? Like a commonality across all those domains. So what, what have you seen in terms of project management? Or how could someone starting in that journey or you know, different parts of that journey, like what are they, what are things that you've seen that really helps elevate their, you know, individual project management game, so to speak?
Daniel Lai
Like, yeah, and I think there's, there's one way to, to, to think about whenever I'm working with, you know, a new project manager or consultant. And you're right, project management is something that I think everyone needs. It's a skill set and a capability that it doesn't matter if you're a developer or if you're, you know, a tester, if you have project management capabilities, you'll be able to drive work forward. And I think that's a capability and something that a skill set that everyone needs to build. But specifically for project management, like maybe the three things that I'm usually asking in the back of my mind when I'm working with someone is like, hey, do they, are they getting the basics right? Do they have the right mindset? Are they adding value to the project? So we can kind of break those down individually, but are they getting the basics right? So if you even think of like professional athletes, they're always working on the fundamentals. You know, if you're a quarterback, you're working on your footwork during practice throughout the week, and these are the little things that people like just kind of don't acknowledge or don't work on. But these are, these basics are really fundamental. If you're say a pianist or a performer, you're doing scales as you're practicing, these are things to keep your skills and your abilities working at the top notch level. On a project management side, it's like, do you know how to build a project plan and maintain a project plan? Number one, I'm actually surprised how Many project managers I've met that don't know how to put a project plan together and they're used to just being handed a project plan and then they're saying, okay, go manage this. So, like, are you doing that? Can you set up, facilitate meetings and drive work forward? Like a lot of times it's even setting up a meeting. Do you have an agenda? These are like the basics, the most fundamental things, right? And so I'm always watching for, for those little things, like, do they have a command of the details? Are they executing with discipline? Are they adding an agenda to every meeting? That and just putting the time in to do that? So those are like the basic fundamental things that I'm looking for. Do they have the right mindset? I would say, are they a taskmaster versus a problem solver? And I know it's not kind of black and white like that and there's kind of some overlap, but I'll take a problem solver seven days of the week. That's one thing that I think that mindset going towards, how can I help solve the problem? How do I identify it? How do I figure out options versus someone who's just looking at the project plan and saying, okay, when's the due date? Who's the owner? Let me point my finger at them and say, when is this? You know, give me a status on this. Yeah, yeah. And I, you know, those types of taskmaster project managers is not what I tend to lean towards. So I think it's having that right mindset. And the last thing I think is adding value on a project. So I think we're moving into an age where just like you said, everyone's gonna have project management skills and capabilities. So you need to be like a PM plus. Like, what is that plus that you're bringing and adding value to the project. Are you kind of taking a step into being, you know, supporting the business analysts? Are you helping build out a process? Are you, you know, bringing some more strategy to kind of the high level conversations on the project that or the system that you're implementing on this project, are you becoming a subject matter expert yourself? Like, these are the things that I think that add value on a project that project managers should really think about. Because I think in the long term, and we can talk about this too, like what AI is doing to this role and how it's expanding and the impact of that on the industry. But you really need to start thinking about, okay, I need to be a PM plus and what is that plus going to be so that I have not only job security, but I'm really adding value and growing my career and my goals and bringing more value really to who I'm serving.
Jason Assir
Interesting. I mean, the AI component, I can see that being like some people maybe just inviting their AI agent to a meeting and like, okay, my job's done. I'm just going to drink a pina colada. And that capital project, that's totally going to be fine. No problem. Like, the AI's got it, right?
Daniel Lai
Yeah, that's definitely happened. So all the little things like that are going to be taken over by AI really soon. And so I really think people almost to the point where like project. I don't think the project manager role or the program manager role will go away, but it's definitely going to be a lot higher leverage. I mean, if you want to jump into the AI stuff, we can talk about it.
Jason Assir
I mean, we're definitely going to have you back because there's lots of, lots of meat there, for sure. I guess just thinking about like energy, you know, more broadly, like, what do you think makes sort of project management unique in the energy sector? Like what, you know, what have you seen? I know you've worked with clients all. We're both in Houston, Texas, which is global energy capital of the world.
Daniel Lai
It's a rite of passage here. You have to work for.
Jason Assir
Even if you're in ballet, you got to eventually, like do something.
Daniel Lai
Yeah, exactly. You got to do a tour of duty in the energy sector or the corridor. Yeah, that's, that's a great question. I, I, in my first energy project, I was doing project management and change management for I was just blown away by how many different industries it really touches and how complex projects can be. So I go to, and these are like the giant energy companies, but it touches all of them in a certain way. So like you, I go into this giant building, go to the top floor, and I'm talking to scientists, geologists, you know, they're exploring the world, trying to figure out where they can extract oil. Go to another floor and you're talking to someone who's working with heavy machinery and the maintenance and the supply chain to get those into the drills and the drill bits that they need to use and all the safety and regulations that they have to do. It's like almost reminiscent of healthcare in a way because they track things like how many people have died on site. It's incredibly important and dangerous. And there's entire kind of supply chain logistics and maintenance that goes with that. And then you go to another floor and then all of a sudden it feels like you're being transported to New York and you're on a trading floor. Like, this was ridiculous. And I was thinking this looks a lot like a trading floor and all the people are in suits and their hairs are slicked back and they're fast talking kind of traders. And you realize, oh, when a barrel of oil is put together and it gets shipped from point A to point B, that barrel of oil can get traded a dozen times and people are making money off those trades and that's part of the industry as well. So you're having all. And then, yeah, you think about like the logistics and then, you know, you're, you're moving barrels of oil from land to sea. So now you have this kind of marine aspect of, you know, dealing with ships and when, you know, you got to change ownership and there's demurrage. And I remember, yeah, working with like just one ERP system that kind of threaded all those different areas and how complex it was. So I think energy is one of those most, one of the most complex industries in that it touches so many different aspects. Yeah, it's got digital, it's got physical, it's got science, it's dealing with the earth, it's dealing with logistics, supply chain, you know, custom machinery all the way to, you know, having a whole financial accounting apparatus to support trading and all the regulations. And then you get into renewables and that gets even more localized. Like how do you deal with renewable credits? How do you even. The whole aspect of creating renewables, how do you get, you know, cooking oil from all these different restaurants, bring them together, make them go through a refinery and come on the other end and you have jet fuel. Like it's, it's one of the most complicated industries. And if you're, if you're working on a project like an ERP system that touches all those different areas of a company like that will be one of the most complex projects that you'll ever have.
Jason Assir
Yeah, yeah. I mean the scale of projects and energy, it's just incredible. Right?
Daniel Lai
It's crazy. Yeah.
Jason Assir
You know, like a work breakdown structure. Right. For a project and energy. I mean there's like so many lines of things and, and well, I'm curious like in terms of what themes maybe you've come across. I know, like, like agile. We've, you know, I know we talk, we've, we've come across agile a lot. But like are you, I mean, for example, agile, are you finding that's Being adopted or like, or in energy or like what are, what are some trends you're seeing?
Daniel Lai
Like, yeah, yeah. And taking it back to energy, like I do think agile is being adopted and it's so interesting because in energy you have like a very strong digital aspect and then you have the physical aspect. So it's kind of a lot of the times on the physical side there are certain deadlines or due dates that require kind of a waterfall approach. So you'll see a lot of projects there have specific milestones they need to hit at specific times. They can't go live on certain time periods because of regulation or things that need to get done at specific times. And then on the digital side you'll have people that are working completely in agile and they're doing those two week cadences, they're doing all the scrums. And then especially as a project manager, you need to kind of figure out how you marry those two together a lot of the times. So you end up with this. A lot of people call it wagile or whatever, but it's like you have an agile component that needs to deliver outputs that kind of feed into a waterfall system to hit specific deadlines. And there needs to be that coordination between different types of PMs that are running different systems, different methodologies, and how you piece all of these things together. So that's definitely something that's very common in the energy section for sure.
Jason Assir
Yeah. I mean, well, I mean, that's great. I'm just thinking now about mistakes, right? Like what is a mistake or one or two mistakes maybe you've seen consistently that you see project managers make when they're managing a very complicated project.
Daniel Lai
And this is kind of going with the theme, but like there's so many different kind of ways of doing things, different methodologies, different systems. There's the physical, there's the digital. I think a lot of times on these big complex projects, a project manager is given a project and unfortunately they kind of just look down and focus on their project and they don't realize that the outputs or the things that their project is delivering or going live with may have impacts across the enterprise, across the organization that they don't know about. And even if you're a project manager and there's a PMO that sits above you, or you think there's portfolio management going on. I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a project manager is to think that there's someone that understands your project and the dependencies across other enterprise projects. Yeah. So I think if you're a project manager, you have a project and you have specific deliverables or outputs or things that you are pushing into production, you need to ask the question, okay, when we move this into production, what are the impacts across the enterprise? What other projects are going on right now that I don't know about that might have dependencies or inputs into my project that I need to go ask someone about? And sometimes just raising your hand and saying, asking a portfolio manager or someone in the pmo, hey, this is one of our critical milestones coming up. Do you know of any other projects that might be impacted? Or do you know, we made an assumption on this dependency that it's going to still be in, in production when we go live? Do you know if there's a project working on something that may change something in the code or in this process? And sometimes just raising your hand and asking that question will kickstart a whole enterprise view of dependencies and milestones and figuring out, hey, do we need to delay this project? Because this project has priority and it's going to change something that will influence your project. So I think a lot of project managers just focus on their project and their milestones, their deliverables, their due dates. But a good project manager, and I think something that everyone needs to ask all the time is like, how am I impacting other projects in flight that aren't live yet? And how am I impacting stuff in production already?
Jason Assir
Yeah, that's great. So it's, I mean, kind of going back to the, what you mentioned around. If you're just a taskmaster, just focused on like checking the five boxes that you have that you know you're on the hook for, but you don't see that bigger picture. Your project, you could hit all those five boxes, but you could still have a project that doesn't run well because you weren't looking at the broader perspective, would you say?
Daniel Lai
Exactly, yeah. Or you'll push something into production and it'll break 10 things, you know, in other departments that you had no idea you know, actually impacted.
Jason Assir
I think that's great. Yeah, I mean, I think you and I have both experienced this where we've been on a project in the energy space with a big client where, you know, it's, it's, there's, there's a lot of change and there's a lot of things happening in the portfolio and yeah, like just that having that broader view or trying to get that broader view, keeping that broader view, like, is a good, it's Just great career advice in some ways, right?
Daniel Lai
Yeah. If you don't know what that broader view is, ask and learn. And don't ever assume that someone else is taking care of it. That's one thing that I think everyone learns at some point in their career. If you assume someone else has their, you know, their hand on, on, you know, or their foot on the gas pedal or, or, or watching these things more often than not, it's actually missed.
Jason Assir
Yeah, that's like the limbing following the limbing over the cliff.
Daniel Lai
Yeah, exactly.
Jason Assir
Well, very cool. I, I mean, so please do guys, everyone ask questions of Daniel. I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep asking. I got lots of, lots of good questions for you, but the, the Q and A is open, so feel free to ask any questions that you have. So for. Imagine you're just in early in your career and you're just getting started as a pm. You know, what are like two to three skills that you think, you know, someone should focus in on to, to really propel their career forward, would you say?
Daniel Lai
Yeah, that's a great question. I think especially if you're early in your career, one thing that you really need to get, understand and try to work on is. How do I put that? I'll just say, like leading without authority. I think that is something that's. Which includes communication, includes influence, you know, how to be persuasive, understanding people in a different way. So a lot of times when you're a pm, you're in this weird pseudo role quasi. You're kind of, you're not a leader and you're not accountable things, but you are responsible for driving work forward. And so that's in a way, kind of in a lead position, but you have zero authority. So you need to figure out ways to communicate to the people that are actually doing the work to try to motivate them to hit their deadlines or to give you information that will help with other dependencies. And it's all about communication. It's about learning about different people, different types of people, and what kind of levers that you can pull to motivate them or to have them be engaged and interested in your project to get work done. I think early in your career you think you're just going to move up and then you'll be a manager with authority, and you just tell people to do things and they'll do it. And that is, you know, probably that never happens, no matter what level you are. So if you start thinking about building those skills, about how do I lead this team even though I don't have authority. I'm just kind of the lowly, the lowest ranking project coordinator or project manager on the project. How can I talk to people, build relationships and help influence the outcomes of the project when I don't have necessarily the title to get the job done?
Jason Assir
That's, I mean that almost sounds like, is it like a Jedi mind trick? Like, you know, you're looking for whatever?
Daniel Lai
Like, yeah, there's a lot of different skills and tricks that I think you learn along the way to help just connect with people, but also to, to help motivate them to do, to do good work.
Jason Assir
That's great. So I mean, I think like getting into AI a little bit, like, you know, how is that role changing with a chat GPT LLM, you know.
Daniel Lai
Yeah, this is actually a really interesting topic. We were working with a client as actually a private equity firm in New York and they were using ChatGPT and they were using it with their lowest level analysts to go in and actually take all their meeting notes and then summarize all their meeting notes for these expert calls. And one of the questions the senior leaders asked was just like, hey, what are we losing by having our junior associates just have the meeting notes taken for them? And I even think of like in my early stage careers, a lot of my learning was listening to meetings, figuring out what were the right meeting notes to take, what were the action items, the decisions, and how do I kind of synthesize all that information into a very consolidated and you know, a consolidated summary that was executive level ready and that's that in itself, the iterations of doing it. I learned a lot from where now AI can just do it in two minutes where before it would be like an hour long event for me to do after the meeting occurred, to try to reread and reread my notes, figure out what was the right way to summarize it. But so that's a question out there, like, what are we going to lose out on kind of our emerging consultants, project managers, analysts, what are they going to lose out on from a learning perspective? Because AI is just doing it for them. So that's one question. But I do think that AI is a tool that we're all going to use and if you don't learn how to use it, you're probably going to carve yourself out of the market fairly quickly. Yeah. So what's really interesting is I was listening to a podcast with the product manager from OpenAI, which is ChatGPT, and he was asked how many product managers they have in the company and he said about 25 to like 30 product managers. And I know this is an exact comp for project managers. Like a product manager is not a project manager. I understand that, but it was interesting and I looked up how many engineers there were in OpenAI and one ratio that you can just tell how they leverage this role is what is the ratio between product managers to engineers? And in most software companies it's like 5 to 1 or 10 to 1. But having 25 product managers entirely in OpenAI, I think their ratio was like 40 to 1.
Jason Assir
Wow.
Daniel Lai
Which is crazy, right? So you have one product manager to 40 engineers and they're pumping out features like every week out of. Out of OpenAI. And I think that's going to be something similar to project managers in the future. I think with AI, the leverage that you can get with one project manager is going to be in that like 40, 40 to 1 ratio. So, like right now it might be like one project manager to two to three projects. In the future, it's probably one project manager to 10 to 20 projects. Just because of what AI can do. Yeah. Like, if you think about. Sorry, I know I'm rambling, but like, if you have AI attending like every single meeting and it's recording and people are comfortable with it, of course it's summarizing the information and synthesizing it for you. You don't have to be in every meeting to be able to understand what's going on in different teams and then kind of understanding where they stand on different milestones and deliverables. You know, time things that would usually take two weeks to get done could get done in two hours kind of thing. So I do think the ratio is going to change. And that's why I really emphasize you need to be a PM plus now, because, you know, that role of just being a task manager, that's going away. Like someone who just comes to a meeting and takes notes and then sends out meeting summaries. That's gone. So you need to figure out what other value you bring to the table.
Jason Assir
No, that's good. I mean, I was never really good at that to begin with, so I'm glad.
Daniel Lai
Oh, yeah.
Jason Assir
Well, I know we're almost at time, so if anyone has any questions, other questions, please do ask now. Otherwise I'm. I'm gonna jump in. One last question that I have for you and. Yeah, so what's one thing that you're most excited about in the coming weeks? Obviously you're going live, but like, you know, that's obviously the big, big one. But like, what do you think about this, like, in terms of. For Project Violet, you know.
Daniel Lai
Yeah, it's, it's such, it's so rare and it's such a privilege to do something that you're passionate about, that you love, that is valuable in the world and someone that. Something that people will pay for. Like, that's the whole ikigai concept, I think. So I'm really looking forward to seeing if this works out because I'm so passionate and I love people development and I'm really optimistic about what Project Violet can do in the careers of emerging consultants, analysts, project managers. I'm really hoping this works out because I would love to be able to do this for the rest of my career. So that's something that I'm optimistic about, looking forward to and we'll find out soon if it's sustainable.
Jason Assir
Super awesome. I think you've hit on something that's really, really needed in the marketplace. I've always felt like there's, there's the junior talent. There's so much talent out there that just, they just need a little bit of, you know, guidance. And I feel like a Project Violet really can provide that. And so for a consulting firm, I really see this Europe platform as a, as a way to, you know, find that diamond in the rough and really sharpen that, that talent and so that they're ready to hit the ground running, you know, for, for a client. And I mean, it's almost like that, you know, buy low, sell high. Right? You find talent that no one else is looking for, run them through Project Violet. Right. You come out with a stellar consultant on the back end and then you take market share.
Daniel Lai
Right.
Jason Assir
It's kind of.
Daniel Lai
Exactly.
Jason Assir
So I think, like, for. If anyone wants to, you know, learn more about Project Violet, how do they get a hold of you? How can they follow your work? Like, what's.
Daniel Lai
Absolutely. Yeah. So I'm happy to give my email out. So it's dlairojectviolet.com you can also go to projectviolet.com and then there's a subscribe button if you want to learn more of when we're launching and get updates on kind of how things are going. And LinkedIn is a great way to reach out to me too. So I think my handle is just Laidaniel. So L A I D A N I E L if you put that at the end of the LinkedIn, I guess.com or the URL, my profile will pop up from there.
Jason Assir
Awesome. Well, Daniel, thank you so much for, for being our guest this month. Awesome excited for, for your, your grand, grand opening if you will and love to have you back. I mean, I'm sure in six months I, you know, it'll probably have a robot right next to us talking. You know, it moves so fast. But I'd love to have you back again.
Daniel Lai
I would love to be back. This is a lot of fun. Thank you, Jason.
Jason Assir
All right, y'all. Well, thanks again everyone for joining this month's webinar. We will be back next month. We don't really have a topic yet, but if you have one that you want us to, to to to talk about, like carbon capture in the Gulf coast, let us know. All right, thanks, everyone. Talk to y'all soon.
Daniel Lai
Thank you.
Jason Assir
All right, see you then. Bye.
