My guest for this episode of the podcast is Dux Raymond Sy. With over 20 years of business & technology experience, Dux is the CMO & Public Sector CTO of AvePoint an award winning Microsoft partner and 2017 Public Sector Partner of the Year Award winner. He is a Project Management Professional (PMP), a Microsoft Regional Director (RD) and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) who has authored a book, white papers, industry articles and delivered interactive presentations to over 10,000 people in major industry events worldwide.

I asked Dux to join and discuss his role at AvePoint, their continued success partnering with and through Microsoft, his personal and professional journey as an immigrant to the US and his amazing reputation in the Microsoft Partner ecosystem as an influencer - and I asked him to share how he developed this prowess with our listeners.

We discuss how he joined AvePoint, the company's value proposition and markets, how he created a brand on social and became an "influencer" shortly after writing his book and the advice he would give partners on successfully working with Microsoft - what makes a great partnership and what to avoid.

I asked Dux to share his advice for anyone looking to build their social brand with our listeners, he also shared two links to presentations he gave at Microsoft's 2015 Worldwide Partner Conference:

* When to Use and How to Leverage Relevant Social Media Channels. "

* Time Saving Techniques that can Elevate your Social Media Engagement

We dig in on AvePoint's Value Proposition, Ideal Customer Profile and the Award Winning Platform they built to support Microsoft Public Sector's business, http://citizenservices.org/.

Dux also provides our listeners very insightful advice on how to best engage with Microsoft and things to avoid when first engaging the field organization.

As with each of my episodes, we spotlight Dux's personal and professional journey from his native Philippines and what he learned from his family to the successful career partnering with Microsoft and achieving his dream of meeting industry legends Bill Gates, Satya Nadella and Tim Berners-Lee.

Some nuggets:

* Quote he lives his life by - Stay Humble and Hustle Hard.

* His passion for giving back and his recent mission trip to Uganda to set up technology - we include a link to a blog he wrote about it HERE.

* AvePoint's philanthropic work: