Edward Johnson is the Procurement Manager at ON24, a cloud-based digital experience platform that helps businesses grow. Powered by AI, ON24 provides a system of engagement that enables businesses to scale conversions and drive revenue growth. The ON24 platform supports an average of four million professionals a month, equipped with global offices in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Edward is highly skilled in team and project management, facilities supervision, analysis, and problem-solving. Before working at ON24, Edward worked in facilities management for Dropbox and Keurig Green Mountain, Inc., and as a Construction Foreman for Rain Pro’s.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Edward Johnson talks about ON24’s platform
- The characteristics of a great facilities manager and leader
- How the facilities management industry is evolving — and focusing on compassion, empathy, and interconnectedness
- Why Edward lives a principled life
- Edward shares stories of mentorship — and how it pays off to recognize potential
- How Edward got into facilities management
- The women that have inspired Edward in the male-dominated field
- How to begin your career in facilities management: look into unions
- The importance of technology within the facilities management world
In this episode…
In any industry, this holds true: you’re only as good as your employees. However, there are certain principles a leader should uphold to cultivate healthy relationships and an exceptional work environment.
With 10 years of facilities management experience, Edward Johnson knows that a great leader should be able to mediate between tradesmen and corporate while building up their emotional intelligence to pivot during challenging times. He also emphasizes the importance of maintaining relationships — and trust — between all members of a team. According to Edward, you can improve these relationships by taking the time to appreciate a person and their potential, not just the transaction.
In this episode of Watching Paint Dry, Greg Owens sits down with Edward Johnson, Procurement Manager at ON24, to talk about the qualities of a great leader. Edward discusses his principles of leadership, the people that inspire him, and how facilities management is evolving. Plus, Edward shares all of the exciting things happening within the industry and how you can begin your career! Stay tuned.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
- Greg Owens on LinkedIn
- McCarthy Painting
- McCarthy Painting Contact No.: 415-383-2640
- McCarthy Painting Email Address: info@mccarthypainting.com
- Edward Johnson on LinkedIn
- ON24
- The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE)
- IUOE Stationary Engineers, Local 39
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by McCarthy Painting, where we serve commercial and residential clients all around the San Francisco Bay area.
We’ve been in business since 1969 and served companies such as Google, Autodesk, Abercrombie & Fitch, FICO, First Bank, SPIN, and many more.
If you have commercial facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area and need dependable painters, visit us on the web at www.mccarthypainting.com or email info@mccarthypainting.com, and you can check out our line of services and schedule a free estimate by clicking here.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:03
Welcome to the Watching Paint Dry podcast where we feature today’s top facility managers, property managers and property owners talking about the challenges and opportunities of managing hundreds of 1000s of square feet of real estate and how to beautify and improve their properties. Now, let’s get started with the show.
Greg Owens 0:31
Good afternoon, everyone. This is Greg Owens with the Watching Paint Dry podcast, where we’ve been interviewing and finding out more about this unbelievably fascinating industry called facilities management and all the related services and people that are involved in facilities. This podcast watching paint dry is sponsored by McCarthy Painting. That’s my company. We do painting, commercial painting and residential painting throughout the whole San Francisco Bay Area. If you’d like to know more about McCarthy Painting and the types of projects we do, go to McCarthypainting.com. And we’ve done tremendous amounts of work we are Wow, it’s super crazy busy these days. We’ve got stuff we’re doing for Chase Bank, First Bank, h&m, h&m, retail stores, Google, and many, many more. If you like I said, find out more go to McCarthypainting.com. I’m excited. This is we tried to meet up once before and we didn’t make it. But today, I am excited to have Edward Johnson from ON24 joining us and we’ll find out more about what ON24 is and Edward How are you today?
Edward Johnson 1:52
I’m I’m great. I’m like we were chatting about I think that this is great idea. I mean, I think that there are as many podcasts under the sun these days there are you know, grains of sand on on a beach. And it makes all the sense in the world that there is a facilities management podcast. I just hadn’t really ever thought to look for one before. So. So this is this is tremendous. I was I was excited. I’m sorry, we didn’t get to get together last time. Yeah, no work.
Greg Owens 2:25
It actually worked out. I think I was traveling that day and was gonna have to try to figure out how to do a podcast while at the airport. That can be a challenge. But hey, it’s so things are opening up right now in so many ways. How are you your family? Every you know the people around you your loved ones?
Edward Johnson 2:45
They’re good. My daughter, thank you for asking Who is 13? She is going back to a brick and mortar school. And that is actually you’re you’re up in the north of the North North Bay, Marin. Yeah, yep. Yeah. So she’s actually going to be starting at the Marin School of the Arts in Novato in September, you know, I’m here in the city, but, but she’s going to be up there. So. So she’s really excited. She’s really excited to go back to school and be around people. So and yeah, I mean, Stein, it’s definitely died. Right.
Greg Owens 3:25
Right. And yeah, I don’t have my own kids. And I have my nephew with me, though, for the summer. And he’s 11. And it’s been really interesting sort of juggling work life balance, and, and, you know, constantly at the end, he just thinks my life is incredibly boring. And I’m like, well, you don’t know anything. Like, you know, this is pretty exciting. All the different things I get to do. Management is where it’s at, kid. Right? Right. Yeah. He was helping out in different buildings and stuff and cleaning. And he’s just like, this is, you know, not fun. But you know, he wants to play video games all day long. So yeah, there’s a
Edward Johnson 4:02
I understand. I’m an avid gamer myself, so I might be playing with him.
Greg Owens 4:07
Yeah, I mean, I did that too. Once upon a time, right. Like for sure. These days, not not as much don’t have that kind of time. And it, it can definitely take up a good chunk of your life.
Edward Johnson 4:21
chunks of your time. Yeah, forget about girlfriends. You’ve got video game. frontage.
Greg Owens 4:27
So tell me tell me about ON24 and what you guys have been up to these days.
Edward Johnson 4:33
So yes, so um, it’s a fantastic webinar platform it it does a lot for gathering a lot of great sales insight. As a product for people when they’re, when they’re holding webinars. I am blown away by this product. And I think they’re positioned really well right now. In the market in that You know, there’s a they, they just do such a great job at gathering insights during webinars for people to follow up with sales. So I’m just, you know, I’ve only been with the company for about five weeks. But it’s great product. It’s a tremendously great culture and environment, I’m really happy to there. And yet, I am now, coincidentally, not a facilities manager. And in that, though, I was for a decade, and I’m happy to Oh, boy, I’m happy to share just about anything about facilities management, I can, I can speak to whether that be the you know, sort of the, the white collar side of sitting at a desk, or the blue collar side of banging nails. I mean, you know, if it’s facilities management related, I did it. I did it for a long time.
Greg Owens 5:56
Oh, that’s Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, and I think people don’t realise that so much these days. You know, once upon a time, it was more of that blue collar sort of person that actually did a lot of the, you know, fix things, fix the leak, you know, fix the door, that kind of thing. But, but it’s gotten so sophisticated, and, and everything’s gotten so specialised,
Edward Johnson 6:19
right. Yeah, you know, I’ve been very fond of saying for a long time that a really effective facilities manager speaks white collar, as well as he speaks blue collar. And, and I think that a really good successful FM really knows how to sort of straddle both cultures, I have found in, in, in my experience, that these are different worlds, and, and sometimes hugely different age ranges these days, as well. So a lot of what a good facilities manager, I think needs to bring to the table is the emotional intelligence to be able to pivot on the dime, and go from talking to an executive about why you need X, Y, and Z and getting the approval for whatever project that’s going on, and then go and talk to, you know, older tradesmen who really don’t give a damn about, you know, returns on investment and a million other things in the in a boardroom. And explain to them in in, in terms that really help them understand why they’re doing things, because, you know, the blue collar world or the tradesmen world, I think, really, they love to know why they’re doing what they’re doing. They’re very task oriented, they’re very, like, you know, they want to do good work, and they want to do conscientious work, but there needs to be value under that as to why they’re doing what they’re doing, and what they’re contributing to the company. And if you can sort of give that message in the right way. You You really welcome into the fold a lot more allies than you do enemies. And, and, you know, I just, I, I’ve enjoyed a lot of success with that philosophy. So, and I’m sorry if I’m getting on a little bit of a tangent here, but yeah, no, not
Greg Owens 8:22
at all. Cuz you’re speaking something I think a lot about I actually have goosebumps, as you were talking about that, because it’s so true, right? I think me as a as a, as a general contractor, and a painting contractor. But I came up through the trades, right? Like I actually, you know, did the work for quite a few years. And I I look at that as like one of my strengths is being able to bridge those worlds and being able to have that sort of emotional intelligence you just taught Yeah, right. Yeah, cuz you’re so right. Like, they want to know that their work matters, like as a trades person, right? And they don’t want to just do things because they’re told to do it. And in some ways that they’ll do that, but it’s not fulfilling, right, they want to see them a little bit more of the bigger picture, the why behind it, you know, the methods to the madness, I sometimes have to relate to them, and then they understand the bigger picture, and then they’re happy to do the work, right?
Edward Johnson 9:18
Yep. Yep. Yep. And I think also, there’s a Converse to that, which is that a good FM can also help, you know, the, the, the executives or whomever sort of try to understand the trades man’s world a little bit more. And, you know, you know, if they understand a little bit more of the value of what their work is, so So here’s an example. I am a huge believer in using trusted contractors more than once. So if I go to, you know, a director or whatever, and I’m seeking approval for whatever for contract for purchase or whatever, and there is business case to be made for why we should go with someone else. I feel it’s a lot my job to say, Well, okay, I understand your position, I understand the dollars associated with this, please understand the value in me saying, Oh, you know, I’m going to go with Greg Owens for this paint job, because I know him. I there’s such an established relationship. And I know what kind of work I’m going to get out of out of him at the end of the day. I know, I know that I don’t need to worry about that. And so sometimes it’s, it’s it’s advocacy in both directions, but it’s also advocacy for the tradesmen to the corporate types, you know, and helping them understand why it’s so valuable to, you know, to treat contractors. I mean, I don’t really see them any different than full time employees in my world, you know, I mean, they’re the ones doing the work at the end of the day. And I will go to the grave saying that, you know, my big motto is, you’re only as good as your guys. So you take care of your guys, because you’re only as good as your guys and their work, touching the walls, touching the framing, touching the whatever, is what you’re ultimately going to be judged on in the end, you know? So, anyway,
Greg Owens 11:25
it’s so true. I just had this conversation right before this podcast with a general contractor, he and I have done a lot of work together. And he’s bidding on a project. And it’s two hours away. And it’s a sizable project. But they keep coming back with more and more sort of requests, like, Hey, can you break everything down, even by sort of, you know, more and more by room and more of a laundry list, we want to, we want to be able to compare, and we want to be able to choose. And at this point in time, we’re both like, when we’ve done work for this client, we’re both like, hey, how can we make this work where where it’s not so painful on this front end, we understand you want all this information, and you want to be able to make sure you’re getting a good job, but at the moment, we have so much work coming in, and you guys are putting more and more and more like just paperwork on us to do this, that it’s that’s your time. It’s so much time. And you haven’t even told us we got the job yet. Alright, so then it’s it’s sort of like, Yeah, why like, and I get it, they’re, you know, they’re, they’re counting money. And they’re, they’re, they’re looking at it financially, but at the same time, it’s like, hey, we’ve done projects for you before, can we just like, like, sign a purchase order? And no, didn’t just get going? Yeah, because they were and and i know what’s gonna happen to you, they’re gonna turn around and be like, like, yeah, okay, you’re approved to go like, now you can start in two weeks still. Right? And it’s like,
Edward Johnson 12:49
No, no, we, we have those two weeks ago, I told you two weeks, exactly, I have had this conversation with, with directors and whatnot and said, you know, look, we’re getting to the point where I’ve asked so much of the bidding phase, that if we, first of all, if we didn’t give award than the contract for the, for the job, I just can’t sit with that, morally, I just can’t, I can’t feel right, because, you know, they’ve done 30 hours worth of bidding, right at this point, and, and they’re not being paid for that, and maybe they shouldn’t be, you know, and I have I have had contractors come to me and say, you know, this is getting to be too much. We’re gonna need to charge you for for some of our waiting time here. Because, you know, you and it was the exact same situation as what you’re talking about the bean counters want, you know, it to be the things to be pivoted and rearranged. And we need to look at it from this, that and the third business justification, which is great, but at the same time, the subject matter expert, who is you is being paid for that. And that’s just not fair. So, I I, and that, again, is one of those places where I think it’s incumbent on a good facilities manager, to advocate for a contractor and say, Hey, you know, they’ve got bills to, you know, they, they, you know, we can have all the terms and conditions in the world, but they have bills they have to pay. So, we need to, we need to be fair, you know, I mean, it’s just, it’s just a matter of being fair. And when you do that, and you show them that consideration, that I think welcomes and then more into the fold of your trust in people that you that, you know, are that the fibres of that relationship have been built in such a way that they’re strong, and you can rely on the future. So, yeah, I get, I totally get it. It’s it’s,
Greg Owens 14:56
as you were talking, I was thinking about some of my like some of the subcontractors That worked for me, right? So sometimes we need to bring in a plumber or we need to bring it in. And they, they, I love that they answer my phone call right away, or they get back to me right away. And they move things around for me to get to fit their projects in, right? Because sometimes I’m like, hey, I need to, I need some help on a project, like, in two days, can you do it right? And then they turn around, and they’re like, they’re super busy, but they’re like they’re working it out? Because they know, I’m going to take care of them for that. Right? Absolutely awesome. Value of relationships, value of that relationship, right? And maybe, I mean, even sometimes I’m like, hey, I need a break on this. But don’t worry, there’s another thing coming up, I’ll make up for it. Right? And they have this trust now that like, they know that, oh, they are the next thing for sure. Whereas, you know, you get somebody new and they say that you’re kind of like, I don’t need a lot of work. I can’t make money.
Edward Johnson 15:57
Yeah, I get it. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So you see, you feel that same, or you’ve seen that same benefit of I love the word trust, I love the word trust, the benefit of ingratiating yourself to them in such a way that, that it fosters trust between you. And I feel strongly that that is where successful projects get done. Because, you know, you can pick up the phone book, not the layout of phone books, but you could Google a million different different plumbers or whatever. But but with no trust in place, work work does not get done. And, you know, as I sort of broaden my way out into the corporate world a little bit more. And I’m not just yet I’m not doing facilities anymore, I find that these same principles, and I do mean principles, are those are those avenues best suited for success no matter what. And it kinda almost doesn’t matter what the industry is a little bit. Because I think in a world where we especially now are so separated from one another, a little bit of humanity with people goes a really, really long way. Yeah. You look like you had a thought. Yeah, no,
Greg Owens 17:21
exactly. I mean, like, you know, I think I think that’s so true. And it goes back to talking earlier about like bridging that gap to the tradesmen, right, like and have spending a little bit of time talking to them listening to them. Or it was funny, because yesterday I had to, I had a building inspector that I had to talk to, we did not hit it off in the first like three or four minutes. Like, he was just, it looked to me like he was angry, not happy. He’s like, why am I here? It’s not done yet. And I had like, I had talked to somebody at his office saying that thing we’re not done yet, but we need you to come in and take a look at a few things anyway. But I had to so pivot, so hardcore, and be like, hey, look, look, I get it. You’re here. You’re having a hard day. What’s going on? Yeah, yeah. How can I? How can I help? We I know we’re a mess. there’s confusion over here in this project? What’s going on for you today? Right? Yeah, yeah, totally. And then, and then we started talking and you know, he’s in the middle of a move, and there’s a personal things going on, and everybody’s done. And then we got down back back to the project. And there was literally like, five minutes. He’s like, well, you guys are almost done. I’m gonna sign off on all these things. I’ll come back for this other thing. And I was like, Hussam. But I it was, it was back to what you were saying that emotional intelligence. And I don’t always put a lot of I don’t know where that comes from. Right. That comes that.
Edward Johnson 18:47
I mean, I think it’s, it’s a, it’s a bite there. It’s a key word or something. It’s something these days that somebody made up or something, I don’t know,
Greg Owens 18:54
somebody made it up. And I don’t know how to work on it either. Right? But it isn’t. And it’s that compassion and empathy and putting your, you know, and pivoting like that, right, being able to go look, whoa, something else is going on here. I’m going to change my tactics.
Edward Johnson 19:11
Absolutely. Absolutely. I think I think it comes from sort of a different business world than our fathers had, you know, that whereas it, we, they, it was much more, you know, sort of hard nose to the grind back in the day, but you know, you know, the, maybe maybe the introduction of millennials into the workforce, you know, that need to need to know their wives and whatnot. I also think that, that getting back to the word principles, that it’s, I think that a person who sort of walks with principles and wants to have like what you were saying empathy and compassion, and whatnot, that maybe that’s timeless, you know, maybe that’s a thing that we’ve all had in the past no matter what, and now, we just are so interconnected that without having, you know, having a more principled approach to everything, but certainly to business, we just, we can’t make those connections in, in in quite the same the same way that we used to. And that was something you said, talking about your, your inspector just reminded me of a quick story, I had a very similar thing I was doing a project Not, not for so this was, this was like the better part of 10 years ago, I was a facilities manager for our Keurig, the single cup coffee maker down in the Monterey Bay Area. And I had an inspector come out one time, and he was signing the job card, and I had always worked really, really well, you know, and, you know, he said to me, something that was really, it ties in with all of this, which was, he said, You know, there are too few of us to go out and do all of the work that we have to do. And I appreciate that, I can trust you that you’re calling us out at the right times, and for the right reasons and whatnot. And you always have your you know, your eyes dotted and your T’s crossed. And he said, that makes a big day in my big difference in my day. Because I have, like 9000 other appointments today, and I got go, but yours is a quick signature, because I again, I trust that you know, that that this is going to be okay. But that’s not where the story ended. Because then a couple of years later, who knows, when we I had an one of our corporate engineers doing a project at our facility, and I wasn’t on the project, but he was cutting a corner somewhere something same inspector came out and, and didn’t like what he was seeing. And he didn’t want us on the job part. And he said, Who are you, you know, the engineer, who are you? Where’s, Where’s it? And he, the inspector called me and said, What’s going on with this project? Well, you’re the one that I you know, you’re one of the good guys, you know, and my office was upstairs on the second floor. And I said, I’ll be right downstairs. And you know, he gave me a little bit of a tongue lashing and said, Hey, you know, I, I expect better from from you. And, and you know, I will sign this, but you need to get this right. And I said, Hey, no problem. And I didn’t say this isn’t my project, this is somebody else. This is one of the corporate engineers project, they’re screwing you. And he knew that he could trust me. And so he was giving me a signature. And then he knew that I was gonna turn around and go over to the engineer and say, this is how we’re doing this project now. Because you’re not going to come in from the east coast and ruin my relationship with my building inspector and then get on a plane and go back to peace. You’ve essentially come out here and bomb that relationship for me, and I can’t have that in my place. And story. So
Greg Owens 23:18
yeah, great, because we’re touching on such such high level really important subjects of trust. And that what you’re pointing to right, there is responsibility, right? Like you literally took 100% of the responsibility even though you you weren’t technically right within the corporate, the corporate eyes, but you’re like corporate eyes, I have this relationship and and I’m going to be responsible
Edward Johnson 23:41
to this absolutely. Absolute end of the day. That’s what it comes down to. So and yes, I know, we’re talking about high level stuff do you have? Are you are you curious about sort of the nuts and bolts of things do these days? Anyway This goes is great. I
Greg Owens 23:57
mean, I’m always fascinated where I’m actually curious about though even more so is as how you’ve, you’ve developed these principles, and you seem to really, really think about these subjects deeply. And we’re a little bit of that backstory toward that because that’s coming from
Edward Johnson 24:15
the truth is that I’m 13 years clean and sober. I was not always the pillar of moral direction that you’re speaking with today. I have some skeletons in my closet. And you know, when my little girl was born, I really needed to, to kind of take that take a hard look at who I was and where I was going. And you know, through the course of you know, 12 stepper in a and, you know, Alcoholics Anonymous really does if you stick with it for a long time, it asks of us that we consider not that we necessarily Live, but we at least consider what a principled life is. And I, you know, that when I had been sober for, I don’t know, three or four years when I started in facilities management. And right away my instinct was that the people that that reported to me were, you know, I was a steward of their success that I was, in that it was, I was being given these people with. And I was given being given these people and what a tremendous opportunity, it was not on the career scale, but on a life scale to, to have some impact in their lives. And so, you know, this was a cheering many years ago. And I’m very proud to say that I got a couple of them through through college, we had a big education benefit, put, put some of them got got a couple of gdds got one guy, one of the most unbelievably talented technical minds I’ve ever known into the electricians union. And that, that that’s a tough you, that’s, that’s, that’s a tricky union. So I really, I, I, my instinct was, when I, when I, when I got into this industry was to try and, and walk that principal path a little bit. And, and to my sort of, wonderment, or I don’t know what to, to my benefit, what I saw was that when we engage with people on a human level, and we actually care about them, not care about them, in the corporate sense, where we care about everybody, that’s a bunch of bullshit, you know, not when you actually care for them, it really ends up being being to everyone’s benefit. And, and so that just goes a long way. So, so, so yeah, so long answer to your question that, you know, I, you know, been sober for a long time. And, yeah, well,