Podcast Episode 104: Episode 78: Special Edition with Marcus Lee

Description

In this special edition of Rockcast, we sit down with Marcus Lee, the Web and Mobile Manager here at Spark. Along with describing what a typical day looks like in this dynamic arena, Marcus talks about building out Rock Mobile requirements, his first trip to the Rock Experience Conference, and the fun of hosting family dance parties.

Transcribed Content

This episode of Rockcast is brought to you by Rock partner Triumph Tech, a full service specialist partner. Rock partners provide crucial support for Spark Development Network and important services for the Rock community. Connect with Triumph Tech today at rockrms.com/partners. Welcome back for a special edition of Rockcast, where we talk to staff and community members who are doing big things in the Rock community. Special people. Special people. Podcast. Yes. Thank you, John. I'm Emily Forman. That was Jon Edmiston. Sorry. And our special guest today is Marcus Lee. Marcus is our web and mobile manager here on the Spark staff. Welcome, Marcus. Thank you. So what does a web and mobile manager do? I don't know. Why don't you tell me? I think it's web and mobile. Right? Yes. Web and mobile. Did I say did I not say web and mobile? No. You did. You did. Okay. It just seemed obvious, so I just thought I'd ask an obvious question. Okay. But I would say, , we we've been doing websites for many years. But when we hired Marcus, it was great because it was the first time we could really release that to make sure that it was done well, done correctly. And it's just been such a pleasure to have you on the team. And now you're leading a whole small team of of people to help with. It's pretty exciting. Yeah, it's been great, great being here. It's been a journey and it's been exciting. So Marcus, I think we're coming up on a year of you being on the team working with Spark, right? Yeah, just about, we're almost there. Almost, it's pretty exciting, time's been flying. I know. Yeah. It still feels almost yesterday, kind of, except for removed all the way down the office now. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. They're saying the days go by or days are long and the years are quick. Yes. That's exactly what's been going on here. Yeah. And we've we've grown our office space twice, I think, since you came on. Yes. And it's all been we haven't moved. We've just been blowing out walls and moving down the hall. Right. Yes. And blowing out walls while we're in the middle of working. Yes. It's just been fun. Yeah. That's exciting. We even actually hosted a master class before we had doors at the end of the corridor. That's right. Mhmm. That's right. It was a little awkward. It was, but we didn't move people in to that area. It's just the fact that you could see the metal studs was not to the bar that we usually to have. Well, the awkward thing with renting property and not owning it, especially if it's in a reasonable nonprofit rental rate area, is that the building managers are gonna do what the building managers are gonna do in the time frame they're gonna do it. Yeah. There's a lot of crazy stories during that last build out, just Yeah. Weird, wild stuff. I'm not sure it's all been totally resolved yet either. I know. There's there's still a punch list yet to do. Yeah. Or the fact that last week, Nick got locked out of his own office because the doors, when you push them too close to the wall, locked themselves, and then the cleaning people, for some reason, decided it would be great to shut all the doors in the whole office. Locked them out. We don't have a key for that that office, and then when we went to ask for the key, they're , well, you're gonna have to get a locksmith to make a key. It's , well, should we get a key, , least one? I get it if we if we messed up or we wanted it rekeyed, and, , , I get it, but there's just stories all the time. You never know. You never know. Yeah. Sometimes it's well, Marcus, that's just to say thanks for joining us on the adventure. Yeah. It's great to be here. Yeah. The story's in the trenches. We can't really let on some of the time. It's pretty good though. Alright. So Marcus, tell us how you came to run across Spark. So I had spent about a year between the last agency that I was with, and then when I contacted you guys and just doing freelance and helping launch businesses on the East Coast, and then I decided it was time to be part of a team again. Spark is actually not too far from my house, and I didn't want a really long commute, especially since prior to that, my commute was walking from my bedroom to my office. Kinda hard to be. I'm sure. The area, you guys were advertising in the area, and it looked a really good company to to work for. And so that's kind of how it started. Yeah. Yeah. I liked what your your values were. That was really important to me. Mhmm. So We always interview kind of values first, where I was interested in just knowing who a person is and how they fit. We really to build that compatibility in the team, so Yeah. Yeah. I put my my best value based costume on for the interview. Is that what you call Lederhosen? That would have been awkward. He didn't really wear that to the interview. Just starting a rumor. So Marcus, tell us a little bit about what your average workday might look here. I so I come in at 04:00 in the morning. Starting rumors back at us. No. But I do come in around seven. Mhmm. Seven or 07:30. And then it's emails, checking the reports of how our projects are doing, which some of them make me a little sad and some of them make me happy. And then after that, I kinda I go through all of our Asana tasks that are across the web development team or the web design team and see, especially for the projects that are in testing phases to see what's coming from the clients. And then usually by the time I'm doing that, it's time to do our daily standup on our team. And so we do our standup and kind of go over what went well yesterday or what didn't go so well yesterday. And then what everybody's trying to accomplish for that day. And then after that, it's usually for me, it's off to the races either designing or coding or having random meetings with John in the hallway. It happens. That's most and then a lot of answering questions. Sometimes I use the back door so I don't get stopped by people walking down the hallway trying to get to my office. Yep. The team's gotten a little bigger since you first started, I think. Well, it's a very dynamic area too. I mean, not only are the tools for the websites getting more and more within Rock each version, but now with the mobile, it's another new area that is taking up a lot of time in learning. Right. Yes. And we're still building that out, so we need help from your team trying to determine what the requirements would be. Yeah, we've been having a blast just seeing what we can and can't do in mobile, and then working to see what we can get expanded to make things even more flexible for the churches who are gonna be using Rock Mobile. So we're excited on that one. Pretty great. And I know we had a great response from churches that were interested in being a part of the launch projects, helping to fund the build out of features and so you probably have had a chance to connect with a couple of those too. Yes, yes, yeah. We've got a couple of those and there's a few that might have to wait a little bit further down the line. Yeah. , requirements wise. Yeah, definitely. Some have a lot of requirements, some have a few and Right. Yeah. No two churches are the same. No, No. Even when they think they're the same, they're not. That's true. And it it might not be the same from today to tomorrow sometimes. That's actually very common. In basically every project that we've done, the church has had some sort of change internally during the project. So it's changed either the scope of the project or some of the requirements from their team. So it's been interesting. Maybe who's approving it or Yes. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. So you said, a very dynamic place to be. So Marcus, you had the opportunity to attend your first Rock Conference last month. Yes. What were your impressions? These people are wild. No, it was great. It was it was really it was actually a great time being able to connect with the community members and just see how excited they were about Rock in general, about learning more about it. Some of the tracks, know that the rooms were overcapacity, chair which is just wild to see, , okay, people really, really, really were interested in all of that. So it it made me happy to see. Yeah. People love getting together at that event. Yes. We try and explain it to the staff ahead of time if they haven't been yet, but I don't I don't know that we have the right words to do it justice. Yeah. You have to experience it. I think you do. Yeah. I I don't know that there's anything that you could have told me prior to the conference that would have exactly prepared me for how the conference totally was. What was the biggest surprise? Probably the enthusiasm of the community members was probably the biggest surprise for me. I knew that just kind of, , being in Rocket Chat and seeing, , people helping each other back and forth, I knew that, , the community was there, but just seeing, the enthusiasm is just how it was really expressed at the conference. Yeah. It's a very open welcoming place. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. Don't really run into that type of community too many places. I'm trying to think if I've ever run into anything that anywhere before. I mean, with raving fans, this is a book called that. It's it's it kinda reminds me what it is. , they're just fans of what they do, what they get to work on. The community itself is a fan of the of the community. That's , it just perpetuates energy. And our job is to just run and get out of the way because it can roll us over, you Right. Just try to meet the needs as much as we can, but it's yeah. It is hard to describe. I think that's what a lot we hear the same thing from a lot of the sponsors. They're , oh, we hear community, but then we come here, was , oh my gosh. This is this is really community. Yeah. So Yeah. Yeah. So that's probably the biggest surprise we have up our sleeve for staff who haven't yet been. Yeah. And you survived. I survived. It's a bonus deal. Yeah. So Marcus, tell us a little bit about your family. So I've got four kids from ages two all the way up to 15. So I've got one who's getting ready to learn how to drive and one who thinks that she should already be able to drive. And then the two in the middle are just not interested in driving at all. So it's really interesting there. I have a beautiful wife, Megan, and she really keeps me grounded because I tend to be a dreamer, but not grounded in a, hey, those dreams are never gonna work, but think through that a little bit because sometimes I do kind of get off the rails and just try random crazy things. She makes sure that I don't get on ladders that are way too high. Oh, that's good. , we appreciate that. Yeah. You, Megan. Sometimes she reminds me of the stacking ladders and it's not a good Oh. Thing. So No. Yeah. Yeah. Mhmm. Things that. Yeah. But in general, things are really wild around our house with the four kids. We have three dogs. So there's always some sort of chaos. So peace and quiet might be a little hard to come by in some days. Most days, there's no such thing as peace and quiet. These are the good days. Yeah. So what do you do for fun in your free time? Typically, it has something to do with hanging out with the kids. Mhmm. We do dance parties. That's awesome. Yes. How do you get an invite to said dance party? You just show up apparently because sometimes the cousins will show up and then they're just in the dance party. It's just what happens. Coworkers? ? I think my address is on file. Although it says that I live in The UK, so that might be kind of we we figured that out. Oh, that we got that adjusted. Yeah. Dance party in The UK. That sounds good to do Hey. Have sign up for that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's probably our our biggest thing. For a while there, house projects, renovating a house. We just renovated a house up in Flagstaff. So I to do things that for fun. Yeah. I think I remember you saying you got a lot of help from your two year old in that renovation project. Yes. Yes. We almost started a YouTube channel called Scarlet Helps. Being the youngest is hard. Yeah. Yeah. She really tries. She really does. She just doesn't understand some of the general concepts. We're not just taking a hammer and trying to put it through a wall. We're trying to put nails in or take nails out specifically. Paint rollers Mhmm. Are made for the walls or the ceilings, but not rugs. Oh, that's a good lesson to know. Yes. Yes. That room has a brand new rug now. Sometimes you just need to learn by doing, and she has probably learned that now, I bet. She's learned much. So there you go. Is there a whole branch of art that's experiential art? Isn't that a thing? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you're raising an experiential artist. Oh, man. Maybe. That's pretty great. Yeah. So what about other hobbies you've had? I know lately you haven't had time for a lot of the passions that you've had, but I know you're a gifted artist too. So other hobbies one of my big things is I general generally end up turning my hobbies into my work. Mhmm. Yeah, so for a while, one of my hobbies was restoring motorcycles, and I turned that into a side gig for a couple years where I would buy motorcycles that needed to be fixed or restored or something and put those together and sell them just to make money on the side, even though I enjoyed riding a lot. The same thing with cars. I'm very hands on type person. I used to be really big into music. I enjoy music a lot now, just listening to it, not as much playing it or making it. Explain really into music. Really into music. So one of the things I'm working right on right now is actually speaking, public speaking. And part of that for me is learning an NF song because it has many cadences in it, and there are a lot of words over a short period of time. So I am actually enjoying learning that song a lot. That's cool. Yeah. So it's it's fun. And I know John is really excited for that concert. Yeah. I'm looking forward to this. I'm a NF fan of the I to hear it. Is this concert happening here in in our world headquarters of Spark? I believe so. I hope so. Maybe we should live broadcast. Maybe we should. How do I find out more information on this? We just need a website. Oh. Who makes the I wish I knew someone. Don't know that I know anybody who makes websites. I just haven't seen any concert posters on the walls yet. Duly noted. We might have to look into that. Yeah. Yeah. If you knew anybody that could design one. Designers, those guys. But you also played in a band for a long time too, didn't you? I did. I I played in a band for oh, I don't even remember how many years. A lot of years. We got signed to a record label. We had some interesting phases with vocalists in the band. So our band actually ended up, most of us ended up working for the label, either doing artist development or production or as songwriters for other artists in the time that we were trying to get everything back together, know, working the right way for our band. So after that, I ended up owning multiple recording studios. I had three recording studios running at the same time here in the Valley. Oh, wow. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So I was very very into music then. I bet. That's what I meant by what do you mean into music? Gotta pull the things out of this guy. Yeah. I'm I'm kind of a private person. So that's that's one of those things. Until the concert. Until the concert. Right. Yeah. Once Or this podcast. Or this podcast apparently. Yes. How many instruments do you play? So I grew up playing every single brass instrument, a few woodwind instruments. In my living room right now, I have two guitars, a bass guitar, a piano, a drum set, and I feel there's something else in there. Probably a recorder or something. Any chairs? Chair yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well, there's a big sofa. That's a lot of instruments. Yeah. And we have there's others that are packed away in the closets and in the garage and stuff. Wow. Do your kids play stuff? But they're all learning. They're all learning. So Daniel is learning trombone right now. Quinn did cello for a while, but she's actually more into singing and she's been learning piano. Scarlet naturally plays everything, which has been really interesting. She has very good good rhythm and she is good at matching pitches. So that's that's pretty to see develop. Yeah. Yeah. Cassia is very artistic, and she likes to sing, but she doesn't play anything. Yeah. You have a very musical house, hence the dance parties, I guess. Yes. Yes. Yes. We Sing alongs are sort of another thing that the kids to do a lot. Cool. Yeah. Well, Marcus, we are thrilled to have you on the team. I know the community is very interested to meet you if they didn't at the conference, now they get to know you a little bit better here. I'm sure there's many more things you could tell us, but we'll have to come back for that another day. Another day. But you can know a lot more about Marcus if you work with him on a project, doing websites or true. That is true. Some of those little private things come out just a little bit whenever I get into conversations with people about their websites. And maybe not everyone realizes that we do Rock websites for churches. I think that's one of the things that has been a little bit less promoted than some of the other things, but Sparkability Group does build Rock websites. Yes. We were building lots of great Rock Rock websites. Excited about a few that are getting ready to launch right now. So, yeah, they're fun. Cool. So if you're looking for one, , can we just put a plug out here for you? Yes. Yes. If you're looking for a Rock website, you can get in contact with either myself or with Jason. Yes. But you can check us out on sparkabilitygroup.com and get more information there. Fantastic. Thanks for joining us today. And thanks for having me. And you community can join us next time we have a special edition podcast to learn a little bit more about the people we work with. Do a church that loves the idea of using Rock but hasn't taken that leap yet? With managed hosting, churches of any size can get access to Rock's amazing technology, hassle free. With just one click, Rock's managed hosting removes the roadblocks that might stop a church from switching to Rock by making the process simple. Churches get the ease of a SaaS church management system without losing any of Rock's powerful features. Are you ready to take the next step or share with another local church? Visit rockrms.com/hosting today.