Martial Arts and Tech Triumphs: Charlie Phipps-Bennett's Inspiring Journey from Boxer to UK Tech Star

Mark Smith: 0:37
Welcome to the MVP show. My intention is that you listen to the stories of these MVP guests and are inspired to become an MVP and bring value to the world through your skills. If you have not checked it out already, I do a YouTube series called how to Become an MVP. The link is in the show notes. With that, let's get on with the show. Today's guest is from Weymouth, england. He's the director and co-founder of Zaptia. We'll find out more about that in a moment. He was first awarded as MVP in 2023. Find out more about that in a moment. He was first awarded his mvp in 2023. He's a rising star in the tech industry, generating energy sorry. Recognition as the tech star of the year, uk winner 2023, which was pretty amazing, uh. Co-founder of the power platform duo uh, which I want to know more about. And the founder of the scottish power platform group, which kind of blows my mind based on where he's based. You can find links to his bio, social media etc. In the show notes for this episode. Welcome to the show, charlie.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 1:42
Thank you for having me.

Mark Smith: 1:44
Mate. So much to unpack there, just on the intro of what you know. We've, of course, met in Slovenia earlier on this year, but I really want to unpack this backstory of yours Before we start. Food, family and fun what do those three things mean for you?

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 2:04
So food? Well, I get excited when you mention food. I'm a big eater. I'm not a big cook just because I've got quite a few other hobbies, so I don't usually get a lot of time to cook, but I absolutely love food. Um always been in and around food. Um, my dad and my mum are very good cooks, so uh, yeah, food, food is warming and uh gives me a lot of pleasure. Um, I'd say family is my strength behind me. Um, so you know I've come, come on a journey and my family have supported me. So actually a bit about my background is I was actually adopted when I was very young, so you know the journey I've been through and what my adopted parents did for me put me where I am today. So that gives me my strength and my fuel to get out there and really nail it.

Mark Smith: 2:57
What was the other one, Fun? What do you do for fun? What are your hobbies when you're not doing the tech stuff? What are you up to?

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 3:03
My biggest hobbies are mixed martial arts, so I used to do a lot of boxing. I've now moved into Mai Tai but gym, running any sort of sports I'm a real sports fan.

Mark Smith: 3:13
Gym- running any sort of sports. I'm a real sports fan. Have you had to ever use your skills beyond the sporting arena?

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 3:24
Only once.

Mark Smith: 3:25
Yeah.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 3:25
Only once, luckily.

Mark Smith: 3:26
Street fight.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 3:27
Yeah, usually you avoid the situations.

Mark Smith: 3:31
Absolutely.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 3:33
And usually you can see a situation coming um. But now I I I got attempted to be mugged um about 18 months ago, so obviously straight into the self-defense.

Mark Smith: 3:46
But yeah and um, was it kind of like everything all your you know muscle memory just clicked in yeah, like it all happened within seconds, like before.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 4:00
I remember, like you know the way, the way I executed the, you know the way I avoided, the way I dodged. I didn't mean to do any of that, it just happened. Um. So, as you said, it's all muscle memory. And then you, you, you look back at it and you're like whoa, that was scary how did I do that?

Mark Smith: 4:20
yeah, yeah. So how long was the guy in hospital for?

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 4:23
um, I don't know, it was actually. It was actually two guys, so one of them I managed to take out, and then the other one I escaped from wow, wow, wow crazy, I wow Crazy.

Mark Smith: 4:37
I'm about to put my daughter into Jinjutsu Down the road. A guy from Brazil actually has been training and he starts with four-year-olds, so that's his baseline. He takes them from there.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 4:52
It's one of the most humbling sports jiu-jitsu yeah um, so yeah, it's one of the most humbling sports that I've ever come across why do you say that? Because when I first started it, uh, I was. They call it rolling in jiu-jitsu, so you, you don't spy. You roll with someone. And I rolled with a lady. Um, she must have been 60 kilos, really light compared to me, I was about 85 and it took her 40 seconds before I started tapping out wow and I was, you know, trying to use my strength and everything, but she just used pure skill.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 5:33
Agility executed me 40 seconds. I'm tapping, otherwise I would have been choked. So it's a really humbling but crucial sport, I think, um, but for me, I think, you know, when I have children, I'll teach them a level of mixed martial arts. It's not, it's not so they can be violent, it's. There's a lot of good skills that you learn around discipline, the skill of learning the martial arts itself, the health benefits, etc.

Mark Smith: 6:01
Yeah, yeah, but I think it is critical in today's day and age to have the ability to physically defend oneself if you need to, you know.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 6:12
Yeah, more importantly these days right.

Mark Smith: 6:15
Yeah, because that whole. You know, I've had a nephew that was just walking down the street and some guy just came up and didn't even know he was approaching and clocked him and took him out, put him in hospital and had no idea that, and you know, yeah, so I think it's important and I think I think particularly important in today's day and age. So I'll put both my young'uns through their training because it's so close to me as well. I just think it's a no-brainer, it's just one of those skills that I think if they can pick it up from very young, it'll be much more muscle memory for them if they stick with it. So let's see be much more muscle memory for them if they stick with it. So let's see. Anyhow, a couple of things in your intro that I'm interested in the Power Platform Duo.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 7:04
what is this? So me and my old business partner I say old business partner, he's currently my business partner, alex we are the Power Platform Duo. I say old because we've just gone through a merger, so I'm now not the co-founder of Zaptica, I'm actually the delivery director of Synapse. So we've become there was two directors two directors become the four and become this bigger entity. But yeah, we were the Power Platform Duo. We set that up. We started geeking out in Power Apps, creating games, making Power Apps a fun platform tool to learn and taking away from the seriousness just to show that there's another way to learn power apps without just building your standard ticketing system or hr tool etc. And yeah, we did a lot of sort of youtubing around that style of videos there's a bunch of stuff about that on linkedin.

Mark Smith: 8:06
Recently someone haven't some some chat was having a go about not being happy that people were like building games and stuff which were not really practical use cases for I don't know if you saw that.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 8:18
There's a whole thread I haven't seen that, but I'd love to see it because I don't know. I think it teaches you some good foundations, especially when you try and give yourself a really challenging game like minesweeper or something where you have to think about nested galleries and how to get around that, what you do about the performance, um. So there's a lot of fundamental concepts of actual development that I learn through developing complex games or what we class as simple games, but actually when you start to build them, you're like, damn, this is complicated yeah, yeah, I've always impressed like scott the dora always took that attitude from the get-go with it and created stuff that you're like oh my gosh, how did you think that I like out?

Mark Smith: 8:58
I I know there's a lot of logic and math and stuff also on what you're doing there, um, so I yeah, pretty epic. Let's move on to the next thing in your intro Tech Star of the Year, uk winner. How did that come about? What was that for?

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 9:18
That was amazing. So, yeah, that was in 2023. I got invited, so I got nominated for this UK Tech Star of the Year reward and I was like what's this all about? And it was, you know, being recognized as a rising star in the industry. And then I realized that it came from a client who actually nominated me based on one of the implementations I did. And then it was also backed up by some of the community work that I had done, particularly talks in those sort of areas around performance enhancements and accessibility, because I was at the time building quite large-scale enterprise applications, so they're obviously important topics when you're building an application like that. And then it was the same year that I got rewarded my super user status on Power Apps forums, my MVP so it all came together quite nicely.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 10:21
I don't know why I won it. I was amongst some great talent. You know there was people like Chris Hunting, huntingford, and you know other great stars out there that were up for the award, um, but chris was there to support me and, you know, brought me a beer after and we had a great time and great evening. I don't think he remembers it because I, uh, carried him home in a taxi, but yeah, it was. It was a great. It was a great awards evening and I felt really privileged to be provided that award and that sort of recognition.

Mark Smith: 11:37
There's another thing we have in common. That is regarding Chris.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 11:42
It's a common habit of his.

Mark Smith: 11:44
Mine was with him in. Where were we? I was going to say Norway, but no, it was Sweden. We were in Sweden at the time and we were staying in a hotel together. We were doing a launch of the Swedish user group Power Platform user group the inaugural meeting, which was a couple of years ago now. But yeah, we had a good night out and we had the next day free, so it was all good. So, um, sarah lagerquist took us on a tour about around the islands and stuff was just a you know, banger of a time.

Mark Smith: 12:18
So, um, but yeah, the the last one here. Scottish power platform user group and this is what kind of was like. I've got this Because I've seen the Epic logo right, which is the big hairy coup rider, all in colors, but you're in Weymouth, england, and Scotland seems to be at the other end of the country.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 12:39
How did?

Mark Smith: 12:39
that one come about.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 12:41
Yeah, you've hit the nail on the head. I actually live probably as far away as Scotland as you can get. But no, at the time I was working for a um power platform consultancy based in Scotland. However, I was working remote, I wasn't living in Scotland, but it was quite apparent to me, based on my client base and based on discussions I was having with regular sort of clients and people of interest in Power Platform in Scotland, that there was no type of community there. It was obvious that on Azure you know Glasgow Azure group absolutely incredible bunch of guys and they were doing a fantastic job but there wasn't anything similar that I was aware of for Power Platform. So I approached my organization and said you know, would you allow me to start this up? You know it will require a little bit of sponsorship first. Did you want to get behind it? And they were very supportive. So I decided I'm going to set up this Scottishottish power platform music group. And then, once I departed from that consultancy, you know, I said, look, I want to own this, so I bought it to myself and then I bought the right people to help me.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 13:56
So you know, we're now a team of four um stewart, ranny and uh, josh, and yeah, we try and put in-person events on all the time, so next week I'm actually flying to edinburgh. We've got our next in-person event. We've got some really exciting news with some collaboration that we're looking into. The events are only going to get bigger and better and we also run the virtual events, but the whole story behind it and the reason behind it is there is a lack of community for power platforms, specifically for people in Scotland. So that's what we're trying to target. You know you go to Manchester there's a lot. You go anywhere up north there's a lot. But you get to Scotland and it seems like you've got some incredible talent there but no one's coming together.

Mark Smith: 14:44
So here's the crazy thing, though right, because the Scottish Summit is pretty much synonymous with the power platform, and and back at that time when Christy and Connolly started it it was you know I went to the first one because I was living in the UK at the time and, um, nothing was going on in Scotland then. And no, everyone said, you know, told them there's no way this event will be successful because there's nobody into it. And of course, of course, it's a mega event now. And then what surprised me is that I expected at that time because I've founded heaps of user groups over my career in Australia particularly that I thought that would have been a natural byproduct at that time. But this came years later.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 15:29
Yeah, it came years later, but we're in discussions with Mark Christy around the collaboration. We've both recognised what we're doing. I'm attending the Scottish Summit. The company's one of the sponsors. I'm really looking forward to it. Work closely with the guys. We're actually building them the application for the registration, which is super exciting, um, but yeah, we're regularly in chat. There's gonna be some exciting news coming soon around that, because we recognize that we're probably stronger if we bump heads and get behind this together, because ultimately, this is for the people in scotland right, so it's not about me. It's right, so it's not about me. It's not about Mark. It's not about anyone else apart from those in Scotland serving the power platform.

Mark Smith: 16:17
Yeah, but I mean, of course, being based on the geographic location. It really does serve all the United Kingdom. You know, as a no brainer, I mean part of the fun I feel of it was. You know a no-brainer, I mean part of the. The fun I feel of it was, you know, for me was getting on the train in london and you know, training all the way up into edinburgh and then beyond.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 16:36
It was part of the part of the excitement of the event yeah, we do get quite a few people just traveling for the user group, and I know it's different for a summit because you're going for a couple of days traveling just for an evening event. You either have to leave work early, do some flexi hours, and it's surprising how many people actually get on a train and travel. And we've had people guest speakers come. Obviously we sponsor them, but you know, we've had people come up hours on trains and stuff, and then obviously my commitment to get there every time as well. So, yeah, but that's part of the fun, right nothing.

Mark Smith: 17:15
I think that you know what covid probably showed us and I think I I feel it even more post covid is the power of in person, is something magical in the human connection that can be made which you'll never make through a screen. You know a team's meeting or something like that, and I think that the human nature of what we saw with COVID was that people crave that to a degree and and my wife just recently went, you know, traveled three hours to go to an event in another city and you know which is something that could have been logged on and you know you could have been one of the virtual attendees and stuff but out of it came these amazing business connections that will flow into a whole range of areas. That will flow into a whole range of areas you know one was. You know somebody in Microsoft that'll. You know an internal person that's already growing into something quite big for our business.

Mark Smith: 18:18
And then you know connections to the US Chamber of Commerce, which is just other business doors being open and then into government, because it was a thing at Deloitte's from memory, but it was this in-person thing which you would never get. That you know connection, I feel outside of it, and so it doesn't surprise me that people travel, particularly because in our community there's this real sense of family within our community and oneness and like-mindedness that the whole in-person thing just accelerates, I feel.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 18:58
Yeah, absolutely. I think this is one of the strongest communities out there in the tech world. You know, my background was sort of traditional software development and then when I hit the low-code technologies and you know I tried a few of them Nintex, mendix, you know before I stumbled across the Power Platform.

Mark Smith: 19:19
Everybody makes mistakes.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 19:22
It was try before I buy type thing. And then when I hit the Power Platform, I realized, wow, there's actually people going out their way to support other people in what they're trying to achieve, whether that's a business problem, whether that's career. And for me that was enough. And then, once I started receiving help, I was like hold up, I can help people as well. So I wanted to start helping and that's what really got me driving to start doing a load of the things on the community. It wasn't just set up a power platform music group. It was going on the forums every day and checking for problems and how I can provide solutions, whether that's. I put aside half an hour to an hour. Sometimes it was only 15 minutes because that's all I had and you know I'd read something and I'd have to move on, but it was whatever time I could put aside. I would for the community, because the community has served me so well.

Mark Smith: 20:21
How did you get your first exposure to the community?

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 20:25
So I was working for a consultancy in London and they did have an MVP and I was like, well, what's an MVP? He was called Hanyong, he's based in the US and he was an MVP in Power Automate. Um, and I was like, well, what, what is a MVP? What does Power Automate MVP mean? And you know, he explained it, took me under his wing and I was like, okay, and then when I, when I was first learning the Power Platform you know how it is, you stumble across YouTube videos, you stumble across people's blogs, forums, and I started seeing these people that I was regularly, you know, learning from, and they were all mvps and I was like, wow, I want to be one of these.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 21:15
Like they were essentially a role model and inspiration. I know it sounds really cliche, but I was like, damn, these, these guys are cool because actually I've just learned how to do something and you know, I'm still being paid by my employer, but I've managed to be successful based on reading someone else's blog that they've taken time to actually write. If they didn't write that I probably wouldn't have achieved it. So I was a bit like I want to be that guy. So it kind of went from there.

Mark Smith: 21:46
Tell me. There's so many questions I want to ask. It's good that those listening there's going to be another episode recorded with Charlie which is around more the business side of what he does, but what's involved in setting up a user group what he does, um, but what's involved in setting up a user group.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 22:11
So there's a few sides of it. I think the first side is sponsorship, and how are you making it attractive for an organization to even get involved, or a charity or community or people's personal money? Um, so you know it, it's a lot of marketing. It's a lot of, okay, put yourself in their shoes. What would I want? What exposure would I like? What are you, what are you gonna do for me? And you know, um, I've naturally been good at that, um, at the marketing side of things and thinking, put myself in someone else's shoes, saying, okay, you're asking me for my money, but what do I get from it? Um, so it's working out that.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 22:52
But then you have the event organization side of things. So finding a venue, um, finding the appropriate venue with the right technology, um, the one thing that we like to do with the scottish power platform user group to keep it quite different to other user groups is we move around scotland and we find exciting venues. So we've rented out cinemas, we've rented out theaters, we've done pubs. We, you know, we're trying to keep it different and exciting and cool venues every single time, but that does take time to actually go out and find them, and it's kind of why we're a team of four, because there's so much to do. So you know, there's one person who does a lot around the event side of thing.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 23:30
There's one side who does a lot around the accountancy side of things, the sponsorships, there's one of us who do the sort of marketing side of thing, and then there's someone who's actually looking after the speakers and the sessions and trying to group them, because actually you want to make this attractive for someone to say I'm going to take my time out in my evening that I could be spending doing xyz, because I want to go listen to this person or learn this. So how can you make it interesting, how can you keep it exciting? And a part of that, I find, is keeping up to date with the technology yourself. That you're. You know you're pushing. So obviously we're pushing power platform.

Mark Smith: 24:08
All four of us are in power platform consultancies and in these types of roles I know I could go on for ages um having this discussion, but we're already four minutes over time. Um. So, charlie, thanks so much for coming on. Uh, look forward to talking to you soon.

Charlie Phipps-Bennett: 24:23
You're very welcome. Thank you for having me.

Mark Smith: 24:29
Hey, thanks for listening. I'm your host business application MVP Mark Smith, otherwise known as the NZ365 guy. If you like the show and want to be a supporter, check out buymeacoffeecom forward slash NZ365 guy. Thanks again and see you next time. Thank you.