Justin Fessler’s Post

My first Father's Day had some mixed emotions for me: Last weekend we buried my 66 year old uncle after he contracted an incurable, incredibly rare brain disease called, CJD, Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease. One to two people out of every million people get diagnosed with CJD each year (400-500 deaths annually). The disease was so progressive and my uncle declined so rapidly that he was in hospice by the third month since the onset of symptoms. My uncle had such an impact on my life so I’m going to do my best to honor him as so many did last weekend via a celebration of his life. He was an extremely loving husband, father, brother, and friend. He was a successful business man who built himself from nothing and was incredibly philanthropic. He was an all around amazing human being, and did his best to take care of himself and those close to him. He welcomed me every time I saw him over the last ~30+ years with a smile on his face saying “hey, how you doin’?” in his fake Jewish mafia voice, followed by a kiss on both cheeks just like ‘the Don.' Oh, did I mention that he had an amazing sense of humor? He was an inspiration to our family, and someone we all loved and looked up to. He was honestly one of the best people I have ever known. This is not to mention his incredible family that he leaves behind, whom I love with all of my heart. My aunt more than matches his humility and generosity and is such an incredible person.  She’s a bright, shining light if there ever was one. In terms of my cousins, I’m lucky to be related to them. They're both incredible people, just like their parents, and will continue to do them proud! The saddest part is that my cousin is also expecting her first child later this year, and my uncle won’t have the chance to meet his first grandchild. He won’t be able to hold and cuddle her, see any smiles, capture any first steps or celebrate any birthdays. And as a new dad, I selfishly want him there with my family for all of those milestones with my daughter as well. (All of this literally brings tears to my eyes every time I think of it.) None of this is written for sympathy, rather for two reasons… 1) I want to honor this man that I’ve looked up to my entire life and celebrate the time I had with him. And candidly, I wish I spent more 1:1 time with him because he’s fucking awesome and none of us had enough time with him! 2) I intentionally post this to show my vulnerability as a human being. We are all faced with difficult events and situations throughout our lives, and this is one of those times for me. This is a call to motivate you to be more mindful and to hug your loved ones more often and to keep them close. You never know when you won’t be able to hug them again. My uncle deserved more time with his family than this and had so many things to look forward to. But life isn’t fair. Make sure you make the most of your life so you don’t miss out on what’s important! We will miss you, Unc! #foreverinourheartsmindsandsouls

Thank you for the spotlight, G2Xchange!

Today officially marks my last day with Yext. I’ve learned a lot over the past 2.5 years, have made a lot of new connections, both personally and professionally, and want to thank everyone who contributed to our successes. I especially want to thank LC Cook for the opportunity to work with/for her, as well as Vernon Aldershoff , David Daniel Hernandez , Justin Rich and Jennie M. for your hyper teaming, collaboration, and being an amazing work family! On to bigger and better things. More to follow next week!

I do my best to keep my personal life off of LinkedIn, but this is one I needed to share! I’ve had a pretty fortunate and fulfilling career so far, but that success is unparalleled to my most humbling and challenging obstacle that stands ahead of me….. becoming a dad!!! GovTech world, please meet Ayla Georgie Fessler (born at 7:42am on Tuesday, December 12, weighing in at 6.68 lbs and 19.5 inches), the newest member of the community who in about 23-ish years will be disrupting the space just like her dad did 15-ish years ago! The sheer joy and excitement that you’re bringing into our lives is something that your mom and I will look forward to every day as we watch you grow and flourish!!! P.S. mom and baby are doing great, and if you need me, I’ll be over here on paternity leave being a dad (still reachable, just slower to respond)! 👉🏻 👨🏻🍼🍼

Every toy counts!!

Thank you to all of those who put their lives on the line to serve our country! And thank you to every active soldier (and military family/spouse) who continue to protect the freedoms of this United States! Happy Veterans Day weekend! #veterans #veteransday #servicemembers

If you haven’t seen the new OMB guidance around Digital First Public Experience, it really lays out the hyper focus on the “Customer,” which is more or less defined as anyone who interacts with the Federal government. FINALLY, a holistic approach for EVERYONE (individuals, business, organizations - state, Tribal, or otherwise) to have access to government resources and services regardless of their “diverse abilities.” What I'm just as excited about is Yext’s alignment to the new guidance! While a lot of it talks about implementing a Content Management System (CMS) strategy with governance policies for retiring outdated, duplicative content, it’s clear that there is reinvigorated attention around the findability/accessibility of content and resources to directly answer citizen questions through personalized, user-centered experiences, self-service, and SEO. That's exactly where Yext provides an AI-Search platform that seamlessly integrates with your CMS to make citizen lives easier - allowing them to ask natural language questions and dynamically be driven answers and resources that directly answer their questions on your agency's website or via SEO across the web! We also put GUARDRAILS on GPT to avoid hallucinations allowing the government to TRUST what the LLM is outputting because it’s based on YOUR content, not the world wide web. If you want to learn more about where Yext can help your agency meet your customer where they need you, come talk to us! Lexi Bohonnon LC Cook David Daniel Hernandez Justin Rich John McGraw Nick Sinai Chris Bagley Emily Vose John Park Brad Weldon Ella Fitzgerald Justin Fleshman, PMP Heather Caudle Mike Hauser Scott Lieberman David Gombos Jose Vejarano Suran De Silva Michael Lin Heitham Ghariani Howie Cohen Scott M Betts Melvin Brown II Paula Starr Chris Welch David Angelus Ratima Kataria Brad Schoffstall Farshad Broumand Anil (Neil) C. Cindy Orellana Good Damian Rodriguez Lattrice Goldsby Sylvie Williams Omar Bouaichi, AMP Scott Feinstein Catherine Moore Zach DiFranza Melvin Mooring, II https://lnkd.in/enBuGWJF