Jim Ebert is a Project Manager and Principal Scrum Master at ThreeWill. He has over 30 years of experience as a business and technology leader with demonstrated success in managing and delivering mission-critical projects and initiatives.
Danny serves as Vice President of Client Development at ThreeWill. His primary responsibilities are to make sure that we are building partnerships with the right clients and getting out the message about how we can help clients.
Transcript
| Danny Ryan: | It’s Thursday, September 26th and today I sit down with Jim Ebert to talk about the Swim Across America. He’s going to be swimming 3.1 miles this weekend and he’s raised over $4,000 for the event. If you’d like to learn more, please continue to listen.
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| Hi, and welcome to the Work Together Better podcast. This is your host, Danny Ryan. This is Three Will’s official podcast about enterprise collaboration, how people, process and technology combined to help organizations, departments, and teams work together better.
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| Today I’m with Jim Ebert, senior scrum master.
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| Jim Ebert: | Woohoo!
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| Danny Ryan: | Scrum master, Jim Ebert, nice to see you.
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| Jim Ebert: | It’s nice to be here.
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| Danny Ryan: | You are ready for the big race this weekend. Not, it’s not a race.
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| Jim Ebert: | It’s not a race.
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| Danny Ryan: | Just a swim.
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| Jim Ebert: | Yes.
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| Danny Ryan: | Other people will be racing, but you won’t be racing. You’re in it for the kids, right?
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| Jim Ebert: | Exactly.
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| Danny Ryan: | Excellent. Jim is going to be doing the Swim Across Atlanta this weekend.
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| Jim Ebert: | Swim Across America.
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| Danny Ryan: | Swim across, you can’t swim across Atlanta?
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| Jim Ebert: | I think I’d rather go for America.
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| Danny Ryan: | This Swim Across America and sounds like, are you ready for this?
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| Jim Ebert: | I am.
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| Danny Ryan: | Excellent. How far is it?
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| Jim Ebert: | It’s a 5K so it’s 3.1 miles.
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| Danny Ryan: | Excellent. I heard that the the 0.1 mile is the most difficult part. That’s what I heard.
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| Jim Ebert: | Yes, it’s like when does this end?
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| Danny Ryan: | Excellent. And, you’ve raised a lot of money. How much money have you raised?
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| Jim Ebert: | $4,050.
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| Danny Ryan: | Wow. Over 4,000 bucks. That’s tremendous. And, this goes towards what?
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| Jim Ebert: | Swim Across America has events across the country and each location is a little different. But, for Atlanta they focus in on cancer and specifically around children’s cancer. So, it’s to support funds to help fight children’s cancer.
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| Danny Ryan: | That’s awesome. Earlier this year actually went out with Jeff and we were able to see some of the projects that they’re working on and some of the new trials that they have that they would like to go after. So, it’s great stuff that you’re doing this.
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| So, this how many you’ve done this, is this the second year, third year or second year?
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| Jim Ebert: | It is my second year.
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| Danny Ryan: | Awesome.
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| Jim Ebert: | When I learned that a Three Will was sponsoring it last year for the first time and with my swimming background I thought this would be a good opportunity.
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| Danny Ryan: | You are made for this.
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| Jim Ebert: | Yes!
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| Danny Ryan: | You are made for this and you have got a Three Will tattoo located on several places on your body.
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| Jim Ebert: | Yes I do. One in my chest, one in my forearm and one on my right shoulder slash bicep.
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| Danny Ryan: | You should just bleep that out, Austin. So, with the last little bit just bleep it out so people don’t know what he said.
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| Jim Ebert: | Why?
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| Danny Ryan: | Because, I think it would be funny.
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| Jim Ebert: | Oh.
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| Danny Ryan: | “And, one located on my bleep.”
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| Jim Ebert: | Bleep. Not there.
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| Danny Ryan: | So, I think the tattoos look great and for folks who are just listening and come to the Three Will website and you can actually see a picture of one of said tattoos that Jim has of the Three Will logo, if you’re dying to see it.
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| Jim Ebert: | The company says they are temporary.
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| Danny Ryan: | They are temporary.
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| I sent you over my stamp. You could stamp yourself. I did that for me.
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| Jim Ebert: | That’s true.
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| Danny Ryan: | For me, and it was my whole arm turned black.
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| Jim Ebert: | Right.
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| Danny Ryan: | It wasn’t a very good idea. But, I’m full of not very good ideas. So, if you ever need a not very good idea, I can give you one.
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| Jim Ebert: | It’s good to know.
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| Danny Ryan: | What else. So, this is the second year. What was, what was the experience like last year and what things are you looking forward to for this weekend?
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| Jim Ebert: | Well it’s just really a fun weekend. A good cause obviously, but a fun weekend because there’s things for everybody to do. There’s the 3.1 mile swim, which I’m doing, but there’s also a one mile swim and then they have what they call a Duck Dash for kids. So, it’s just an opportunity for people who like to be in the water and you know, help raise money for a great cause. They have Olympians that are there. So, you get an opportunity to meet several Olympians, which is a neat experience. But, it’s just really, what I look forward to is just being around a bunch of people who are doing a really good thing for a really good cause.
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| Danny Ryan: | That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Again, it’s at Lake Lanier Islands again?
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| Jim Ebert: | Correct, yes.
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| Danny Ryan: | So, Saturday morning, what times the race start or what times the events start? Here, I’ll call it an event.
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| Jim Ebert: | For the, depending on the distance it’ll be different times, but for the 5K since it’s the longest, it starts at 8:30.
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| Danny Ryan: | Awesome.
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| Jim Ebert: | I hope to swim maybe as fast as I did last year. It took about an hour and 20 minutes.
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| Danny Ryan: | And, for those who might not know this, I love doing these because I would get to learn little tidbits about people, about little things that I never knew about. People who work at Three Will, which is Jim does have a permanent tattoo.
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| Jim Ebert: | Yes.
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| Danny Ryan: | On his shoulder, which means what?
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| Jim Ebert: | So, there are two Chinese symbols. The first symbol means swimming and the next symbol means person. So, together they stand for swimmer.
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| Danny Ryan: | Nice. And, you have to bleep that last part out. When he talks about what they stand for. Okay?
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| I’m sorry you tried to be serious, it means swimmer. And, I love the fact you aren’t, you’re a Three Will-er because before you had this done to your body, what did you do with the two, the showing it to people to make sure that they did?
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| Jim Ebert: | Oh, yes, so of course you go out to the internet and do a search on what Chinese symbols mean swimmer, and then they come up with pictures. So, I’m “it’s the internet. Let me go check it out.” So, I literally took it to three different Chinese restaurants, held it up and said, “what does this mean?” And, everybody said the same thing, they said “swimmer.”
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| Danny Ryan: | Did they all laugh after they said that too?
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| Jim Ebert: | They were intrigued about why I was asking.
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| Danny Ryan: | Told the cook in the back, “this guy’s..”
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| Jim Ebert: | No, but they were, walking in, I was “I don’t want a place to sit. I just want to know what this means.”
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| Danny Ryan: | “It also means our Peking duck special. But, that’s because they’re swimmers too.”
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| Jim Ebert: | Yes.
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| Danny Ryan: | What else? I’m sorry. I’m getting a little silly. What else? Anything about this Saturday or anything that folks should know about the event?
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| Jim Ebert: | For me also personally, you know cancer affects a lot of people and this year I’m doing it also in honor of my stepmother because she has gone through, just recently finished treatment for what’s called myeloma cancer. So, fortunately she’s recovering and doing fine, but it is something that’s, it’s a arduous process to have gone through. So, I’m also doing this to kind of represent her as well.
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| Danny Ryan: | What a wonderful tribute. That’s awesome.
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| Jim Ebert: | Thanks.
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| Danny Ryan: | That is really, that’s cool. Do you have something on you that had something about her in tribute or?
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| Jim Ebert: | No, no, it’s just, I just keep.
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| Danny Ryan: | I see this in race, like when we do races we’ll do things like that. Either a tribute to or a memory of and those types of things.
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| Jim Ebert: | No, these Three Will tattoos are pretty much all over me.
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| Danny Ryan: | You’re well-branded.
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| Jim Ebert: | Yes, Three Will marketing.
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| Danny Ryan: | We have to train you on what to say. What does that mean and what is Three Will to you, okay?
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| So, after we’re done with this, we’ll put you through our standard training for “this is the response to what Three Will..”
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| Jim Ebert: | Right. When people say, “what do you do?”
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| Danny Ryan: | Mumble something about SharePoint.
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| Jim Ebert: | Microsoft.
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| Danny Ryan: | Leave me alone. It’s off hours.
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| Jim Ebert: | I’m just a scrum master.
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| Danny Ryan: | Excellent. Well, I really appreciate you doing this. Appreciate you also just, you don’t get all the credit all the walkers get around here for staying in shape. So, well done for you.
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| Jim Ebert: | Thank you.
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| Danny Ryan: | For staying in shape. I think if you, it’s just really important for us to, at work, we’re better off if we’re all taking good care of ourselves and I think swimming is just a wonderful thing. Way to stay in shape. You’ve just, for me, it’s almost like you combine everything together. You get the cardiovascular, you feel stronger afterwards. It’s just, you just feel great after a good swim. So, way to keep it up.
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| Jim Ebert: | Thank you.
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| Danny Ryan: | Way to keep your body maintained, good stuff.
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| Jim Ebert: | It gets harder every year.
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| Danny Ryan: | It does. I’m sure they have some older folks out there too?
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| Jim Ebert: | Oh, they do.
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| Danny Ryan: | Yes, yes, cool. Well, thank you for taking the time to do this, Jim. Thanks for all you do at Three Will, too.
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| Jim Ebert: | Thank you.
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| Danny Ryan: | Awesome. Thanks. Thanks everybody for listening and have a wonderful day. Bye bye.
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| Thank you for listening to the Work Together Better podcast. We’re available on SoundCloud, iTunes, Stitcher, and Tune In.
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| If you’re looking for a partner to help you craft a modern digital workplace in the Microsoft cloud, please come by and see us at threewill.com that’s the number three spelled out, W-I-L-L.com.
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| Thank you and have a great day.
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