Yeah.
Hello everybody.
Welcome to my potentially favorite episode ever.
Yeah, that's a big statement of Putin's podcast pops.
We are here with the og, the original Mr. Ryan Simio from Manage xr, and this.
this is an episode that has been like six months in the making, but we are finally here.
Ryan, I could not be more excited.
Welcome into the pop.
Thanks for having me.
It is been a, a long time coming.
We've been friends now for two, three years even.
I'm excited to be here and, and finally happy to get this one on the calendar.
The first 5, 6, 7 cancellations were probably on my end, and then the latter four or five, six were yours.
So we're even.
Absolutely fair.
Yes.
And I love that you said, friend.
Thank you for that.
'cause that is exactly
what I consider you a dear friend, and that's what I kind of love about this industry.
I feel like it can bring people together when you find your, you know, your tribe and you, sir, are absolutely a, a high ranking member of that tribe for me.
So thank you.
Oh, for sure.
I think the industry as a whole is entirely predicated on networking and friendship and.
Partnership.
I think that's the biggest thing.
I think it's having trust in one another to grow and, you know, the expression that everybody uses is a rising tide raises all ships.
And I think that's how the industry as a whole works.
I think all working in tandem to create new content.
To have you as an onsite consultant to have manage XR managing the devices all in tandem together is how we grow the XR ecosystem.
Absolutely.
And it's so needed.
And I always say, you know, there's enough money for everybody.
And, and but more importantly, when you do good you know, good comes back to you.
And I believe that.
And actually Manage XR was pretty much, you guys were the first company that I really.
Kind of considered for the KDE project that we did.
And so I'd like you to kind of just introduce yourself and, and who you are and what you do and, and let everybody know what Manage XR is and why you guys are the best.
Sure.
Absolutely.
So my name is Ryan Simio.
I am a part, I work partnerships over here at Manage xr.
I've been here for around three years now.
I was employee.
Right around 10 or 11, which is kind of cool.
We've now grown a lot since then.
In a nutshell, manage XOR is a device management platform specific to XR devices.
So I always tell people when they ask us about the legacy MDMs or MDMs that they're probably more familiar with, that are managing iPad.
And laptops and phones, et cetera.
We only want to focus on the XR devices.
We have XR centric control and that is our bread and butter is the backbone of how we operate in its entirety.
We work on, I like to say essentially all XR devices, AR and vr.
There are definitely some that pop up overnight that you know, we work on compatibility with, but it's not something we are eager to turn down.
We're a very engineer centric and a very, what's the word I'm looking for?
Very content based.
We are continually trying to create new features and continue to work on new hardware, software different features, et cetera.
And I can attest to that because we'll probably we'll circle back to it, but there's a couple of features that I had suggested in the very beginning and they're absolutely in there now.
Like, I'm like, oh, this would be nice.
And you're like, got it.
And then it was there.
I'm like, holy cow.
They actually listen.
Like that's amazing.
You'd listen to your customers.
What a model concept.
But what you know, so XR is a little bit different in the tech realm of things.
So what kinda led you, you know, into xr?
Have you been in it for a long time?
You know, where did you kind of come from and, and, and why do you like it here in the, in the XR space?
Yeah, totally funny and it's a great question.
To answer it, I was in a role previously at a reseller supporting Apple business and the opportunity to work to support the Meline came up and I thought that'd be fun and exciting.
And this was right around, I wanna say pre COVID.
So 2020 ish.
What I ended up doing was supporting the meline and did not have any experience with it.
I thought it was cool.
I thought it was fun, and frankly I thought it was, you know.
I like to say for Beat Saber or for VR rollercoasters, little did I find out there are so many more utilities for real world experience or education or enterprise training, but that's kind of how I got my foot in the door.
After that, I was there for about.
A year or so.
And then I worked on the other side of things and I was a channel account manager at Meta supporting that reseller to try to grow their business.
And then after I was there for about a year or so, I met the cool guys over at Manage xo.
I met Luke and Brooks and I hopped over here and have been here now ever since.
So probably.
Five total years and in the XR industry as a whole and continually learning every single day about the new advancements and new content.
And, and you know how it frankly is much more than just something you would play beat Saber on with your kids on Thanksgiving.
Y not that there's
anything wrong with Beat Seber.
We love it.
We use it in education.
It's fantastic.
But yeah, it is so much more than a fad, so much more than just a game.
And that's part of the reason behind this podcast and just the work I do in general, you know, 'cause we've both seen firsthand the power that this technology and, and spatial learning, you know.
Holds and when, you know, utilized efficiently, it, it, it's a true, I gotta come up with a new word besides game changer.
'cause it, I feel like that gets thrown a lot, but it around a lot.
But it really is.
And you know, so seeing the development over the last couple of years as as you have, why do you think.
Vr 'cause I've got my opinions, which we all know.
But why do you think VR has not yet taken off in certain industries like education or, you know, training and, and things like, we're starting to see it in workforce development, but what do you think is like holding people back?
I think that's the million dollar question.
It is a question that I've been trying to answer every single day for five years, right?
How can we continue to grow this market?
I think overarching are a few things.
I think still there's plenty of people who, again, don't realize the utility beyond a consumer use.
I don't think it's firsthand knowledge that there are.
Incredible applications like X reps that are out there for education based entities that you could, you know, students could play football and also have a math utility to it.
And I'll be totally honest too, I don't think today it is as simple as picking an iPhone off, off the you know, the Apple store, putting in your Apple ID and getting ready to go.
It is a process, it is a new technology and with new technology come growing pains and sure it's been around for.
A long while now, but it's constantly developing.
It's constantly growing and it's not something that somebody has or uses as frequently today, you know, as a laptop or as a phone.
So I think the adoption of it is still something that we are continuing to work on constantly.
I think having a, a consultant like yourself is, is massive and, and sometimes overlooked in the VR adoption process, meaning?
I don't think everybody understands the difficulties of adopting XR or the need to have that teach the teacher Part of it, we've seen teach the teacher become almost or.
Let me rather say the success rate of using a consultant or somebody, you know, creating this hands-on environment to start has led tenfold 20 fold to the success of the deployment that just says, here's five devices, you know, thanks for coming out.
So having that adoption process understood from the beginning, much easier to understand it moving forward.
And I still think having somebody like that there is really, really important.
That's incredibly in insightful.
I think you hit on some very key points in there that it isn't as simple as getting an iPhone or getting, you know, the newest, you know.
Android device, whatever.
And I've always said that I think the industry, meaning the XR industry, thinks that it is like they absolutely skyrocket over everything and people are like, what do you mean I can't just buy a quest and use it?
Like I can't buy 10 quests and just use 'em like.
Absolutely not.
No.
And so there's so many things and a lot of times, you know, I get hit with people that have already purchased things and so it's like you
gotta try to catch 'em up and, and there's all these problems before they even turn the device on and you know, and they're always changing.
And one of the things that I always said was consistent was, well, at least if you have manage xr, you know, it doesn't matter.
And then even.
Meta even switched that up on us.
So it's hard for people in the industry to keep up.
So how could you know, how do you suggest that educators can try other than obviously talking to somebody like me, how can they even try to keep up or start to explore, you know, how they could utilize this in their instruction?
I think that's a great question again, and it was one that I was actually talking to a client of ours yesterday, and the general sentiment that he relayed back was
continuing to be curious, and it was learning about the applications that are out there because my question to him was, he's done a phenomenal job at his school.
He's grown it too.
Four different variations of that school from their initial nursing use case to now a multitude of different, and I said, how did you do that?
How did somebody that really.
Might not understand much about VR now in the span of two or three years, grow it to multiple different schools at their college.
And he said it was all about understanding, trying to demo, trying to learn.
And then most importantly, what he said was getting buy-in from other teachers.
And it wasn't literal dollars, it was having other teachers try it out, believe in.
See the utility and get a driving force amongst, this is awesome, this can work, this is future, you know, futuristic technology.
And I thought that was great.
I think going at something so.
N new or exploratory, I guess I'll, I'll still consider it, even though it's been around for a minute.
It's still new and exploratory to a lot of people.
Is challenging, but creating that proof of concept or that use case or showing the utility of this could be great for, you know, middle schoolers.
I'll take it a step back.
I always think about Inex reps. I keep going back to it.
It's a prime example.
I was never somebody who got a perfect score on my math SATs.
I was never somebody that would sit there and read a book all day.
If you could tell me I could throw a football and learn math, I would've never taken that headset off.
That's the difference is there are kids that crave a different type of learning.
But with that being said, I don't think that's common knowledge yet.
I don't think every school in the country is aware of that.
So it's about having teachers and educators continually looking for other alternatives to accommodate, you know, all possible learning styles.
And then keeping curious, understanding what is out there in ways to learn, you know, other than the typical modern or I guess, less modern ways that we're used to.
I absolutely love that because yeah, it's not like there is not one size fits all for education, but yet man, we wanna make it that way, don't we?
Like, other than the switch from the one room schoolhouse, you know, American education is not really advanced much.
Yeah.
We've integrated technology and things like that, but as far as the procedure and sit and getting everything, we have not broken out of that yet.
And I think there's a couple of different reasons, but you know, one is just.
Educators.
Especially post COVID.
We've been getting so much put on us and slammed, and we're seeing so many people leave the profession.
And now you're seeing states that are making you take like a test to prove that you're not gonna teach leftist ideology, and it's such an unknown.
Landscape right now and uncertain that it's a very risky kind of field.
So with all that like kind of darkness and uncertainty going on, there's still always light in there.
So I like to kind of talk about that.
And, and where do you see some of the most exciting, you know, opportunities that you've seen to utilize kind of this technology?
And it doesn't have to be in education, but just
in general.
What's the stuff you're excited about?
I think there's a lot of cool things.
I, I like to harp on education 'cause I have a soft spot for it.
My wife is an educator.
I think that.
You know, if I was in this position, you know, or excuse me, you know, a, a middle schooler x amount of years ago, this would've resonated with me.
So, for education based, I think about, children that might think college is the only answer.
And it's certainly not.
But I do know there's plenty of people who do think that's the only route when you could take a child and show them different CTE applications and have them understand, hey, there's another world.
There are other jobs, there is other avenues, or excuse me, there are other avenues that might be better fit for me.
I think that's awesome.
I think giving kids at an early age, just hope and promise of.
Other things to do with their life other than college is the only way you get a four year degree and then you figure it out is awesome.
I think with that being said, we're working with companies all the time that, you know, amaze me with their ideas or different content.
We work with one that does end of life care for seniors, and what they actually do is they create content around their childhood homes or fun memories that they can put them into VR in.
Nursing room nursing homes or aftercare support to kind of give them that sense of home and, and calming sensation.
I think that's incredible.
We work with another company who creates life events and 360 videos, and you could create a catalog and I, I just got married a couple months back and what they
specialize in our, 360 videos of your wedding or anniversaries or milestones, how cool would that be to show, you know, your son, daughter, mother, father at some point.
All of these milestones in virtual reality.
Like I think that there's education of course, and then there's other just fun, you know, memory type content that you could have out there.
Another one that I love too is public speaking.
I, I think that, you know, when, again, we could bring this back to education or it could be just.
General training, but public speaking is an incredible, skill to learn.
It's something that I use every single day.
I wish I had more time to learn when I was you know, in grade school through college.
But you're doing presentations, you're talking to customers all the time.
You're talking to colleagues.
You can do that in vr.
You can understand what it's like to do it in an auditorium or put yourself in these uncomfortable, you know, settings that you really can't replicate at that intimately.
So I think from life skills to education to unique ways there, there's, it constantly amazes me how I'm always getting on with different people and always learning about different content.
And I think that's what I love most about it is I tell people all the time in the last meal, does this exist or does that exist?
And I said, you know, if you can think about it, it can be done in vr, which I think is really cool.
Oh, absolutely.
Those are some wonderful things that you shared.
I love those.
And you know, you mentioned public speaking and so many times, you know, people just they're like, well, you know, imagine 'em in their underwear.
Well.
That doesn't work for everybody.
We need something else.
And public speaking, everybody always goes right to like a, a presentation or you know, like an actual speech where it is literally just talking.
And I think, again, especially post COVID, a lot of this, and not to sound like that old person, but you know, a lot of these youngins, they can't even.
Call and make their own doctor's appointments.
And it's like, when did that, you know, whole switch happen?
And okay, we everybody recognizes it.
So what are we gonna do to try to fix it?
And like you said, you know, that's what I always say about Vira.
We're only limited by our imagination, so let's do it.
And did you have them film your wedding in 360?
No.
Funny enough, like three weeks after I got married, they came to us and reached out credit tennis for the program and I said, you guys are three weeks late because you would've been booked if my wife knew that this was something that we could have done.
So no, we did standard definition, but I would've loved a 360 video.
I'll tell you, I'll tell you that.
And I would like to point out that I've still yet to see pictures of said event.
So I hope that you will be rectifying that situation
yes.
I, I'll send you over some pictures.
I promise you, I promise you it's real.
All right.
I have not been harping on you too bad, but I was like, wait a minute.
I haven't seen any pictures yet.
For those of you who are, you know, 'cause it's audio only, but Ryan looked amazing before, but he also lost a ton of weight for this wedding and everything.
So he is looking great.
So we worked really hard for it, so I wanted to, to see the, the end result.
I will share them.
You got my word after this.
Perfect.
Thank you.
Mission accomplished.
But yeah, so you get to, you know, talk with different companies and things like that and see all of the, the cool things that are being done.
And what do you see as the challenges though moving forward?
You know, and we talk about it a lot and how can we reach more people and, you know, we know we gotta get buy-in and things like that, but what does that actually like mean to you?
What are, you know.
The roadblocks that we can identify and actually target besides just the obvious, they don't know what it is.
That's totally fair.
I think a couple off the top of the head, and I think some that manage X are really good at are just like customer feedback.
Similar to what you said, you know, customer feedback and support.
We as a company are very agile.
We're very product focused.
That's the word I was trying to articulate with.
For product focused.
And we, I always tell you constantly, this product is based off of feedback from everybody and that's how this works.
So I think one is listening to your customers, listening to where they would like this feature or that feature or when they need help with this, given that between adding features and.
Our customer support, which Wesley leads.
I know you're a big fan of his.
I am personally a big fan of Wesley.
I think that's another big one too.
I think people have a lot of questions.
People want phone calls.
They want hands-on learning.
They need to.
Walk through this with somebody that's been in it that understands it.
I think that's a big one too, which is another thing that Manage xor loves to do is, you know, lean on our support team to assist with all of our clients when it comes to our support.
I think beyond that, it's just finding out ways to help the end user.
I think it's very easy to somebody to come to you.
Hey, we want X reps. I'll keep coming back to it.
Five licenses.
That's it.
But then the question is, well, what else are you using it for?
And they say, oh, we're using it for education.
We love X reps. Okay, well what about and Frank House?
Have you heard about, you know, a way to leverage it in history?
No, I haven't.
Great.
Well, we have our Discovery XR library where you can explore all these different types of content.
So again, with that initial barrier, to circle back to your question, I think it's continuing to educate from our side as well as your side, as kind of these.
I don't want to say, you know, like leaders, but I just meant like XR knowledgeable people to continue to educate those that might need it.
Because a lot of the times it's all they need is just a little push in the right direction.
Well, I didn't know that.
And then you look and discover XR and you see public speaking training or you see other applications that you had no idea exist, which is kind of my point is these all come up every single day.
Maybe they are just under the impression that it's only used for math and football, but there's such a wide variety.
So I take it upon myself to try to educate as much as I possibly can to grow the game, sort of is what I like to say.
It's when I tell people, you know, you gotta wear Mets hat, you gotta grow the game.
That's how I feel is my responsibility over here is to grow XR as a whole.
And again, you know, a, a rising tide raises all ships.
So it's working with partners to promote their content for real use cases that will then grow scale and size at these.
End users.
Absolutely.
And again, you know, you're kind of hitting all the good points here.
You're making all the, the, the right statements and stuff, so, it, it's hard for me to even think, you know, Ooh, he missed that or what, that, you know,
you're
learned it from you.
That's why I listened to you for two now.
So now, now I'm like, you know, disciple, I,
that's right.
now I know how to do.
Yes.
I will not make you drink any Kool-Aid or go to, to Ghana, so you're, you're good.
Or Yeah, it was, it was Guyana.
Guyana, yeah.
So you're good there.
You know, we've been talking about manage XR and stuff like that, but we haven't really explained for anybody that doesn't know, like, can you just kind of tell me what Manage XR is and what it does?
I kind of skipped right over that.
My bad.
Yeah, great question.
So, manage XR, again is a management platform for XR devices.
What we wanna do is simplify user adoption and give the end user total control, and that stems from.
A custom home screen.
So when you put that device on your head, you are ready to go wifi connected in a custom experience is what we call configurations that you have crafted for your end user.
You can device stream, so I could see in real time what you or the students are looking at.
You could have multiple streams at once.
You're able to see multiple students at once.
The way that I like to explain it in.
Layman's terms.
As I tell my wife, she's like, Ryan, I have no idea what you do.
And I said, that's fine.
I said, you know how you use Chromebooks?
And she goes, absolutely.
I said, you know how you check if the kids are using Spotify and you have the analytics behind what they're doing, applications they're into, et cetera.
That's what Manage XR is for VR devices.
So we give that power back to the end user to be able to control what the consumer, or in this case, students or, and whether it's enterprise, you know, we do cover more than this education, even though I love going to it.
Has control of, so it gives that user confidence and most importantly, a layer of security as well.
Yeah, it, it GoGuardian, I think is the name.
Like, that's what I try to tell people.
I'm like, it's kind of basically, you know, tell educators that's your, it's your GoGuardian for xr, but it's, it's also so much more too in that you know, people, again, and I think this goes
into why there's such a roadblock with the adoption and use of XR, is that people don't think, like, you know, they think, oh, if I get 10 headsets, like I, I just have one account and I can go.
No, you can't.
And so there's so many things in such, you know, a need for it that they might not even know to begin with.
And as somebody who used to go down every Sunday, like I said, with my husband and my dogs, and put every headset on and do everything individually, that's just not practical.
And nobody's gonna do that.
So can you kind of touch on how it allows the educator to man, or the user to utilize all of their devices without ever having to even put one of 'em on?
Yeah, great.
So Menning XR is entirely device agnostic as well.
So you could have a wider range of different manufacturers put into Men xr.
You put Men XR based upon the device a little bit differently, but Mening XR gets drawn on the device right when you get it.
Once Menning XR is on the device, it is good for the life of the.
Behind the screen on a web console right here in New Jersey or all the way in Germany, it does not matter.
I can control what the end user sees.
So what we would do is we would go and we would create what we call configurations.
Configuration is what the end user is going to see in its entirety.
And most importantly, what you are allowing that end user to see.
So you have the power to pick apps, 360 videos WebEx XR links, preloaded wifi network.
And my favorite, because I like the customization customization content, the home screen.
So, 3D backgrounds mixed reality.
We can make it a pass through.
But what it will do is create this custom environment that has your apps on there.
You could break them out into different tags, you could break them out into different colors, shapes, sizes, really, really cool.
Make it how you want it.
So for an educator, you can make it the school mascot or the school name for an enterprise.
You can give it that custom touch and put your logo on that.
So it feels this personalized end user experience.
From there, you go into your device section where you could see all the devices that you have that have managed XR loaded on it, drop down to your configuration, click the configuration we just created.
And in the span, if I like to say about five, six seconds, but it depends on your wifi connection.
Sometimes even quicker, you could push it out all to those devices.
Once that configuration is on all of those devices, you could even go into that specific device.
And like I said, screen stream check mac address, battery battery on the headset, battery on the controllers.
You could check the location, which is great.
I tell people all the time, it's not, you know, all that small of a device, but they like to get legs sometimes.
That's super important to have.
So you could tell granular device information as well.
And then I kind of alluded to it before, but inside our console you can get analytics based upon device usage, app usage, and you could also look into our Discovery XR portion.
So you could see different content providers, different resellers, different kind of, content creators as well.
So whatever we could do to try to simplify your initial XR journey, or even if you're all the way in it and you have plenty of devices, but you just want a new flavor, you just want new content, you could check all of that and manage XR as well.
That's a fantastic description.
You did wonderful there.
And, and you know, you mentioned the, the streaming and things and, and that's one of the things I always hear from educators.
They're like, well, I, I can't see what they're doing.
And I'm like.
And like.
They can only do what you've allowed them to do.
And do you, when they're on, you know, when you say, oh, your assignments in your Google classroom, do you walk around and look at every one of their screens the whole time?
Because I guarantee Yeah, you don't.
So why is it different?
You know, with xr it just seems to be the easiest reason to say no.
And so I always say that if a student gets to something they're not supposed to, then it's because of one of two reasons.
A, they've got some other hacking level skills, which.
I always reward effort.
So like, good on you.
That could be a new career field right there, or an adult made a mistake.
'cause Manage XR has all of those safeguards in place and, and you really are receptive and you listen to your customer.
So it's like you can feel good.
That they're not doing, you know?
And, and, and then also like, let's give the kids, you know, they're like, oh, we can't give any leeway.
You know what set some high expectations?
Because back when I had the, you know, in 2018 when I was using the Oculus GOs, we didn't have Manage XR or anything.
I told the kids that I could see what they're doing at any time and I pulled my phone up and guess what they all thought.
So, and there was high school kids too.
You know.
They never had that opportunity and they loved it so much and it was so engaging that they didn't do the wrong thing because they know they would lose it.
And so I think that gets lost too.
'cause everybody's like, well, we want kids to be intrinsically motivated.
Yeah, okay.
Because we all work for free.
So like, I don't even listen to that anymore.
I'm gonna do whatever it takes to motivate my kids for life after school.
And, and VR does that.
And so Manage XR is the tool that allows you to be able to do that.
Agreed on all of it.
And I think, you know, even from a device screen stream perspective, 'cause I, I think that's a huge tool and a big one for educators.
Sometimes it's seeing what the.
Student is doing.
And a lot of the times it's actually a facilitation tool because you think about, Hey, I'm frustrated.
I don't know what this is.
You get a kid that maybe is having, having a sour day and they don't wanna be there and they say, Hey Ms. Shannon, I don't wanna do this.
I don't wanna plug into this.
Well, that's fine because what you can do from behind your desk or at your desk behind your computer screen is force command them into applications you can see on their screen.
So you can make sure.
Johnny or Sally is doing the module they're supposed to do.
So even if it's, you know, not necessarily spying on them, even though it's important to do, I, I'm not gonna lie, I know my wife has 20 up at once and is quick with the YouTube and Spotify to shut 'em down on the Chromebooks so it has other utilities.
You know, a facilitation model is super helpful as well.
Sometimes it just takes force commanding a student in to get them a little bit more jazzed up about it.
Yeah, absolutely.
And you know, like I say, I always say like, basically any keystroke, you know, that's been done on the, on the headset, you can see and manage.
And, and that's also great because it gives you great data too to see what's being used, what isn't.
And I've always been a huge fan of the Discover platform because you can try stuff, you know, you can see what's out there, get those ideas and I'm just.
Super excited that you guys exist and it's, and for anybody that knows, manage XR is the only company in the XR space that I have personally set a, an exclusivity with.
It's a handshake deal, you know, straight up Frankie, Val style.
But you gotta love the Jersey boy.
And you know, I, and, and, 'cause there's other software out there and this is nothing against them.
I always say I am not.
Against anybody.
I'm just for manage because it actually was you, Ryan, who I first met at Manage.
And you know, I always say the only guiding principle of Putman Consulting is what's best for students.
And you had that same mentality and you guys have actually.
As a company have lived that motto and there's nothing that I haven't asked or come to you with and you guys haven't been right there.
Everybody doesn't get this level, but you know, I can just text Ryan and be like, Hey, and, and, and he is got me.
So, that is just invaluable and, and I can't thank you guys enough for being as awesome as you are.
And so as we're kind of coming towards the end, I, I wanna ask you, is there anything that you know, you think that, you know, we haven't covered or that you want people to know, you know, about XR manage a, any of it that, that you'd like to share?
I, I guess to start, I, I'd be remiss to, to not mention Luke, our CEO Taylor, our head of product, John, our head of engineering, Wesley, our head of customer support.
It is a a lean team at Manage xr, but every single person is rowing in the same direction, and I think that's super important.
We do value feedback, just like you said, and I'm not gonna sit here and take credit for how those things are fixed or how those different features are created.
Our team really believes in helping you guys out and, and learning and understanding and realizing that the customer are the ones that are seeing it on the ground floor, whether it's you as a consultant or an educator themselves.
So, I give a lot of credit, frankly, all the credit to our team behind the scenes because without them, the product wouldn't be as, I might be biased, as incredible as it is today.
So, much credit to them.
But my question to you would be.
If you had to pick your favorite or most mm, your most used manage xr feature.
If, if you had to break it down to your number one, this is what I use in every classroom.
This is why it should be mandated on all, you know, devices and education so that teachers are enabled.
What would you think is the number one feature?
Ooh, I like that.
Putting me back on the spot.
Good thing you, good thing you girl.
Could be the the celebrity guest on whose line is it?
Anyway, fantastic show, by the way, Ryan Styles Colin Mockery.
If you guys are fans of the pop, please hit me up.
I actually, I think the thing that I love most about Man XR is the ability to.
Customize each experience even down to the student level.
So I remember in the beginning you could have.
The kiosk mode.
When I first started working with you guys, you had kiosk mode, but you could only kiosk an app.
And so I said, well, it'd be really neat if you could kiosk a video or, you know, a website or a web link or something like that.
Because otherwise you had to, you know, adjust the configuration or whatever.
And you guys not only like you doubled down on me, you gave the feature where you can kiosk a video now but you also made the.
Invisible visible feature.
So, for those that have never used or don't know, you can have a configuration and students can only choose from the apps in, in exp the, the content that is on in that configuration.
Well, when you have a video or something like that, it actually downloads it to the headset, which is fantastic because then you don't have to have the internet and stuff to use it.
But it can take a while.
You know, it's just like any other device, whatever the internet speed is.
So if you redo a configuration and it doesn't have all those videos and stuff, it, it deletes off the headset and then you gotta redownload 'em.
Well, you guys were like, all right, I see you and I raise you, and now you added the invisible feature.
So I can have my configuration keep all those videos and everything on there.
I just make them invisible for the students, so then they can still only pick from what I want.
And I'm saving myself time in the future because I don't have to remove everything and do everything.
So it was like, you kind of like double kicked me.
You're like, oh, you want that?
Okay, here you go.
Here's two features that accomplish what you want.
So, yeah, it's awesome.
Like, yeah.
Yeah.
You guys listen, so I, I love that.
The, and I tell the teachers too, like, you know, it, it, it goes on back to the most basic principle of human behavior.
If then if I want a new car, then I have to have money.
If I want money, then I have to have a job, whatever.
Well, if I want to play X reps. Then I have to finish this, this lesson.
Well, they can be in the lesson and doing it, and while, while they're doing that, you can then go onto your computer, make the reward, whatever the motivation visible.
And so then when they finish it, now it's there.
And it wasn't there when they started.
Like, so that real time input and ability is, is just a, a complete game changer in my mind.
Cool.
See, I told you, we listen, we like either on the ground floor that are, are vital to the success of, of creating different, features.
So whatever we can do to help you out, we'll continue to do.
And I would like to also give a shout out to the team because Yes, obviously you're amazing and they are all as well.
I've not met anybody who hasn't been wonderful.
Even, even my guy Mike, who, who likes to, to hammer you every now and then, but he, he a good dude.
So, the whole team is, is wonderful.
And so.
In that respect, is there anything, you know, obviously they can reach out to Putman Consulting, of course, and, and you know, I'll put the links and everything in, in the episode stuff for this.
But is there any way you suggest if they wanna find out more about manage or anything, you know, where should people look besides obviously me?
Yeah, I was gonna say, to be honest, at this point, you probably know the system better than I do.
I'm not even gonna lie.
So they could obviously hit you up.
They can go on manage xr.com.
They can also request a meeting, I think for, different end users that are interested in a management platform for education.
Absolutely.
Hit myself up or Shannon.
And then I think for ISVs that are looking to further promote their application to every Manage XR user and want to get on the Discover XR platform.
Again, you could hit myself up, Shannon up or go on the website, but.
We love new applications.
We're constantly adding new content.
I think it's a, a superpower for growing XR as a whole.
So if you're an IHV and you're not yet on our Discover XR platform where you could highlight your application on our internal manage XR console and give free demos to all manage XR users, we'd love to have you on there.
That's a fantastic point.
I'm so glad you brought that up as well too, because I, I didn't, I'd be very miss if we didn't actually.
Point that out.
Again, especially when you're looking at different companies and, and what content is available on a consumer device versus, you know, an enterprise device and all of those kind of things.
I'm always telling people just put it on manage, like put it on the Discover platform,
then everybody can get it, you know, and I don't know why you wouldn't.
X reps is on there if anybody would like you know, so
And it's entirely free.
It's nothing but free marketing.
We, what we wanna do is grow with the ecosystem.
So we wanna give our current users more applications to use and we wanna give ISVs that work with Manage xr, more opportunity to market their software, their content entirely for free.
And it's so easy, like as a consultant, you know, I'm helping people all the time.
Just this morning I deployed virtual life support to a school, so I was able to, you know, with the share code, I put it right in their account, they're ready to go.
You know it.
And yeah, of course the end goal is that educators learn how to do that on their own.
But that's, if that's.
What's keeping us from being successful, then I'll just put it on there.
Like, you know, like, we'll find these things.
And so it's so easy to deploy and yeah, managed XR doesn't take any money.
They don't even, like you said, they don't, we don't even know if anybody downloads it.
Like it just is for the, the company.
And so, more people need to hit that up.
Yeah, if people do download the application the contact, so if I go into your application, I go into X reps, and then I go into little contact button.
I don't get a notification, I don't see what gets downloaded.
There is user data where you as the content owner can get that download information, but there is no middleman.
I don't see anything.
There is no selling aspect that is nothing but free marketing.
And it makes my life easier because when I'm on these calls and I'm on these demos, I can continue to show educators or enterprises all these different use cases that maybe they didn't know existed.
And it's all at my fingertips in our Discover program.
Absolutely discover for sure for the win.
Ryan, this has been absolutely amazing.
I could, I I, I could gush about you all day and, and manage and you know, I've, I've said it on a lot of the times, but I truly.
Consider you a friend in and out of the XR industry,
and there's nothing I wouldn't do for you.
And I'm looking forward to multiple successes and us getting together to be able to enjoy the only true New York football team go Bills and we can go to
You know,
together.
feeling is and.
I know.
Well, you know, I mean, a, for everybody that doesn't know.
Ryan is a Jets fan, so he's, he's had some blows, but the closing countdown, I, it is, is still looming and I did not go with the Jets question just 'cause I feel so bad for you on that.
But,
Appreciate.
I appreciate you.
You're welcome.
I thought I figured, you know what?
Give him a little break.
And so I actually have a fantastic closing countdown question for you.
And he is, Ryan is also, I, I, I, I feel so horrible for him, but I agree and, and I love his fandom of the New York Mets.
And so what are your top three favorite memories of the Mets that you personally like experienced?
So when somebody says you're a Mets fan.
Talk about this for three hours.
Now you, now you found what I
Mm-hmm.
I would say.
Man, there's so many to choose.
Not the now.
Now we're gonna all the podcast listeners immediately
Then I click
Now it's me and you talking to ourselves with nobody else.
That's fine.
I like it.
I would say most importantly, I think one, one is just watching 'em with my dad.
It's, it's a special bond that we have and I look forward to it all the time.
There is not a meds game that I've watched.
In recent history that I can remember that I have not texted my dad the entire game, regardless of the time, regardless of the day.
It's that bond I have with my dad that I think makes the games most special.
When it comes to other moments, I remember another moment.
I was a young kid at Shea Stadium actually.
We got on the field.
My dad's brother worked for the Hall of Fame, and we got to meet Bobby Valentine and at lidar.
But I, I will say.
Lastly, it was probably that playoff run last year.
It was, I, you know, as long as my wife is not listening, second to getting married, that was probably the best, you know, stretch or, or time in my life was that playoff run last year.
Having them come back, they fell short, but it was still it was a good story and it was a fun watch.
So.
The Mets in general have been good and bad to me, but nonetheless, I'm addicted to 'em every single night.
My wife knows 6 45, 7 15, even if it's West Coast, 10 10 starts, the Mets are on the tv.
and you were at one of the games, weren't you
last year, because you know, we of course were texting, so you actually got to be in person at one of them,
Yeah, my first one and I'm actually going next week, next Tuesday, so I'm very excited.
It's four though from central New Jersey.
All the way to get into Queens is a little bit of a hike, but I spend no expense for my Mets.
I get out there.
There you go.
See, I love it.
Exactly.
And, and I can't hit on that, especially the, the, your connection with your dad.
Like that's what the bills are for me.
You know, like my youngest memories of sports are on Sundays watching the bills, you know?
And as a family and you know, my grandparents and everything, even.
You know, just growing up with sports and all of that kind of stuff.
And so it's so different and, you know, as a, a tortured fan base especially 'cause two years ago when we had that bet on the opening game of the VS.
See, I don't, I don't give it to you enough because you want a tortured fan base.
Like the jets are bad, but the, the bills at least tease you because they're good.
That's the difference.
Right.
The bills are in the mix every year.
The jets are like, you
Now I, but I mean, we had
our
in by October, but the bills get you so close.
They give you so much.
and like, you know now like we do, but like back in the day, you know, we had the longest stretch of not making the playoffs, so it's like, yet we still show up and you're still
You know who's got that title now?
the Jets, right.
There you go.
My man.
Yep.
and it's like, Ted Lasso always said, you know, it's the hope that kills you.
And it is like, you know, like.
And I, 'cause, you know, being from Syracuse, I'm a big, you know, Syracuse fan as well.
And it's like, for a long time, you know, especially in football you know, going into the game, you know you're gonna lose.
So it's like, it's also like, not like even fun 'cause you know, you're gonna like lose, at least like when there's hope that you could win.
It gives you a little bit of spark, you know?
But yeah, the Chiefs can suck it, man, because, I'm so unbelievably over all of that and don't even get me started.
But yeah, I'll, I, I love it and I would like to end with the fact that, you know, the bills are the only true New York football team,
Listen, I'm a Jersey boy.
You can put the Jets in New
right.
Yeah.
You're like, Hey, that's not insult for me.
give the Jersey Jets.
I don't matter.
Yeah, exactly.
Jersey Jets.
No, their, their training camp is in Flo and Park, so they're right around the corner.
See, and for those that might not know, and I don't, you know, Jersey's got some of the best food too.
Like man, when we were, when we were up there, my brother lived in Hoboken too, so we'd go get some of those sandwiches.
Oh.
So I was like, you know what, that's actually, I'm not hating on New Jersey right now.
So.
No, nah, New Jersey.
New Jersey gets enough hate, and I'm telling you, it's, it's because of the airport.
Once you stretch out from the airport, there's more than the smokestacks.
It's the garden state for a reason.
I defend New Jersey every single day and I love it here.
So there's a lot more to offer for like vegetables, right?
The garden state and salty cured meats.
Two things.
New Jersey is great at.
well see.
And I think it's like the northeast in general, like my mom was just in Syracuse, so she came back with 440 little neck clams and her and I had a clam bake like.
I was about to say, I don't think they went to waste.
Right.
That's the best part.
Yeah.
And salt potatoes, like nobody knows salt potatoes like you, you and up, you an upstate if you know some salt potatoes and people are like, it's just potatoes with salt.
I'm like, no, it's not.
It's a specific, specific, ah, specific potato specific salt specific process.
No, it's not.
Got a lot to offer.
I'm telling people.
Just gotta give it a chance.
Exactly.
Well, Ryan, this has been absolutely amazing.
It's always like just having a, a catch up with a friend.
I can't thank you enough.
Everybody like, and subscribe or whatever.
All that young and crap is that they say.
And and, and, and thank you so much for your time.
It's been amazing.
Oh, you're the best.
I, I can't wait for the next one.
All right?
Yes sir. Thank you.
Thank you.