559 Techcon Unplugged 2023 - After the Conference

[00:10 - 00:28] Hello, friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast.  This is the show where we talk about all things that we can for managed service providers, IT professionals, solo techs, and even those little boutique shops.

[00:29 - 00:49] How to run your business better, smarter, and faster.  This show is presented by NetAlly, and it is being streamed in honor of George Bardissi.  Welcome to the show. I've got with me two great friends, Paco LeBron from Prodigy Techs and MSP Unplugged,

[00:49 - 01:06] the host of the TechCon Unplugged conference, Paco LeBron. And I've got our community champ, two-time defending champ, Jason Miller from Unbound Digital.

[01:06 - 01:21] Jason, how are you?  Doing great.  How about you?  I'm good.  Paco, have you recovered yet?  I'm tired as all hell.  I'll tell you what.  It was a long weekend. Yeah.

[01:23 - 01:39] Me being me, of course, I have a couple of jobs that were scheduled right as I got back on Monday.  So later in the day, or actually there were meetings.  I agreed to go to a golf outing Tuesday and then I had on sites today. So yeah, I'm doggone tired.

[01:41 - 01:58] Well, let me begin the show by sending out a couple of apologies. So, you know, normally if people show up in Florida, depending on where they are, you know, I'll call them out if they don't take the time to let me know.

[01:58 - 02:14] But because Florida is such a big state, if you're up near, I don't know, Daytona, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Pensacola, you're on the other coast, I don't worry about it. But if you're in South Florida, I'm like, give me a call.

[02:14 - 02:34] So it took until today, but I got a text from my man, Stan, and it said, dude, you come to New Jersey and you don't call me. So I got a call.

[02:34 - 02:55] I got to say, you know, Mayor Culpa to stand now in my defense.  I knew it was going to be bat shit crazy and I wasn't really going to have a whole lot of time. But what I did not take into consideration, Jersey must be a small state because it seemed like anybody that was there from Jersey was like, yeah, it's about 30 minutes.

[02:57 - 03:14] So if that's how big the state is, then I guess I should have I should have did my call out.  So I'm going to give you actually a little bit of credibility, but my understanding is that stands on tour with Channel Pro and that was in Boston during our start of our event. So technically, I don't know if he was there or not.

[03:14 - 03:38] I don't know.  I replied back saying, dude, aren't you in like Ireland or something?  He was doing pictures.  It was Switzerland.  And he said it was back two weeks ago.  But, you know, this is what Stan does.  He flies all over the place. So he would have probably found some way to use his points to travel to Jersey from Boston and then back if it would get him a free ticket and more points.

[03:39 - 04:00] So sorry, Stan.  Next time I'll get you.  And then I also should give my apologies.  I bragged about my uneventful trip home. And for those that did not attend the conference, Sunday morning was supposed to be an additional day of breakout sessions.

[04:00 - 04:21] However, at about nine fifteen, nine twenty during the church session, people's alerts started going off and flights were being canceled and everybody was scrambling. I think half the people that were there had to leave, including the Millers, who always seem to have a travel experience there.

[04:22 - 04:40] We're good at taking planes to our destination but driving cars back.  I don't know what the deal is.  Oh, man.  And I know that Ron Cervantes and his rookie had to. They actually drove from the conference to Philadelphia to catch a plane to make it back to Orlando.

[04:40 - 05:02] Even the great Lady Di had to.  She actually was at the airport before me.  We were boarding around the same time, although she was supposed to leave before me.  My plane took off.  Hers did not. They had to deboard and she ended up renting a car to get on for the remainder of her trip.

[05:02 - 05:23] She was not going back to Oklahoma.  She was traveling on to Boston.  So she I'm sure she'll have the stories.  I probably shouldn't have thrown that out there without her permission.  But I know there were a lot of people scrambling, a lot of a lot of rentals. So glad everybody made it back safe and rest up for next year.

[05:24 - 05:42] Luckily, my travel wasn't too bad, but it was we were waiting for two hours for an Uber from the airport.  And we’re further north than where we usually fly into.  So I think from all those cancellations that kind of just piled up. So there were a few of us in front and then there was just a mob at like eleven thirty at night.

[05:42 - 06:02] And we didn't grab we didn't get home until almost like one thirty in the morning.  Wow. Wow. All right.  Well, Jason, we'll have to.  I saw only one picture from the trip.  So you don't have a video montage of. Of your travels, no stops, no flat tires, no nothing on the way home.

[06:02 - 06:20] He was flying like a bat out of hell.  He was just trying to book it.  Eighty, eighty five, ten hours’ worth of driving.  And the bad part is, is I don't like to drive if it's over six hours.  It's kind of our thing. It's like we'll fly. But when you fly there and there's very few rental cars left, I've learned a long time ago.

[06:20 - 06:35] If you get a flight cancellation email or notice, don't go to the counter.  Don't leave the airport. Just automatically jump on the app, book the rental car.  So good word of advice. We didn't even leave the table.  We're sitting at Techcon, start booking the rental car. You know, it's like we showed up and we're in line.

[06:35 - 06:50] It's like the ladies behind the counter calling out.  We only got five compact cars left.  And there was like, I don't know, 60 people in line. So and there's people walking in from other agencies that we weren't at and saying that, you know, all the other ones have no cars.

[06:50 - 07:06] So we found out later there was two hundred and fifty flights canceled, one hundred twenty five delays from that one airport.  So I think that's why everybody was having issues.  Rachel was on some sort of flight tracker website or something in the car. And she's like, that's why we don't have a plane flight.

[07:07 - 07:24] So, yeah, it's craziness.  Yeah. I don't know how I got lucky.  Normally that would be me with a cracked windshield or something.  But we were only delayed about 15 minutes, had an uneventful flight. So, yeah, something bad is going to happen soon.

[07:26 - 07:41] All right. Well, before we get too far along, let me let me do a quick news segment and then we'll get into the conference and then we'll see how long you guys can hang on while I do my.  Yeah, I said it segments. So.

[07:45 - 08:16] In the news today, I received a press release.  Syncro deepens collaboration with Splashtop to simplify remote access. Basically, they just basically reemphasize because we already knew that they had this partnership and CEO Emily Glass said this partnership demonstrates another way that Syncro helps growing MSPs reduce operating costs.

[08:16 - 08:36] Our aim is to set partners up for success with a suite of tools that are cost efficient and help them provide better support to their clients. And basically some of the enhanced features, and I guess they didn't have all of these in the beginning, but now they have what looks like about everything instant remote control.

[08:37 - 08:53] Easy one click access enhanced remote session productivity.  You can transfer files, print and engage within users via chat automatic session logging. Increased efficiency with technician collaboration.

[08:53 - 09:14] So now multiple technicians can simultaneously connect to the same computer, seamless multi monitor support, and they can enable end users to remotely access their work computers by offering end user remote access licenses from that. So a couple of extra things that I knew most of it.

[09:15 - 09:41] If you get Splashtop standalone, you'll get that.  But I don't know how much was integrated initially into the central platform, and now it looks like they have all of these things.  And I will say that I have a referral code. If you are out there and have not yet found yourself an RMM PSA device platform, I'll be honest.

[09:43 - 09:58] I don't know where my referrals when I know I had a couple of people sign up, but I don't know where it is.  I sent an email to them and we'll see how it goes.  And already an endorsement.  Mr. Tom Bull, who? Well, let me read that statement first.

[09:58 - 10:14] Love the Splashtop enhancements.  Tom, we yes, we missed you at the conference, but.  TJ was sufficient enough.  We don't need you to come back. Is TJ was a hoot.

[10:14 - 10:30] Oh, man.  That's crazy.  TJ killed it.  He killed that time there.  So he does not like to be called Tom Junior, though.  Oh, yes. Yes.  Do not. TJ does not stand for Tom Junior.

[10:32 - 10:48] All right.  So, Paco, you had already put on your LinkedIn page the announcement of some of the winners from the conference. And we'll go ahead and say that this year's best partner program went to the tech tribe.

[10:49 - 11:05] And we did reach out to Representative Andrea Welch and she was not able to join us tonight.  She is probably somewhere between here and Australia as she's flying out there. So the tech tribe was there, regardless of what I said about their swag.

[11:05 - 11:27] Great representation there.  Lots of tech tribe members in the attendees.  Best presentation went to Solutions Granted.  Michael Creen would just love to hear me say that about him. But I did not invite him on the show purposely to hear him brag about that.

[11:28 - 11:49] And I'll see him next week.  So I'll make sure he'll be all on my case.  And then best swag in a new twist this year.  It was not simply something that I voted on by myself. We opened it up to the audience and running away with it in what I only can.

[11:50 - 12:10] Perceive as a longevity, a consistency award, somebody who has always been there for us.  They their swag is always on point. Maybe not always the winner, but this year it was Threat Locker was there and new representative Samuel Carmant was the gentleman there.

[12:10 - 12:29] And Samuel offended me.  So I did not ask him to be on tonight.  We'll sort that out later as I am a new Threat Locker user here.  So we were going with that. And of course, the community champ defending his title quite convincingly, I must say.

[12:30 - 12:46] And I'm going to have to bring you know, we're going to get a robe.  We're going to have to get some rocky music next year and, you know, walk out there.  You know, the champ undisputed of all time, Jason Miller. There we are. There we are.

[12:46 - 13:08] Yeah. Where is the belt?  It should be hanging behind you.  Paco took it.  He's a he's a so just to be fair.  Yeah, he's fixing it up for me.  We decided to. Yeah, well, I think you're preparing it for you're preparing it for new future winners, right?

[13:09 - 13:31] New future.  That is correct.  You can't.  We're going to be engraving my leg in there.  No, you go ahead.  You're lying a little bit, but you're good.  OK. OK.  All right. Just make sure. But no. Yeah. So essentially, last year, we were going to plan to give the belt out to kind of in a hey, we're going to give everyone a new one.

[13:31 - 13:49] But when then we decided, all right, well, what if the person doesn't come back the next year?  So we won't have a belt really show today.  So what we were doing is we're going to have a show belt, right?  And presented by the previous year's champion.  But then we're going to have. So this initial one will be engraved because we've already had it printed and made and all that.

[13:49 - 14:04] But his new 2023 community champion belt will be fully customized and he'll be running around as the champ champ of the MSP community.  Yeah. So next year, I'll have to come back one on each shoulder this year. This time, they'll have to wear one.

[14:04 - 14:21] I don't know.  I mean, I carried that belt all over that hotel on the bus, cross town to the bar.  Everybody's just giving me weird looks like it's cool.  It's cool. I'm the champ.  But you got free snacks and drinks out of it. Don't kid yourself.

[14:21 - 14:36] Yeah. Yeah. The hotel guy walked up with it over my shoulder, holding the belt.  And he's like he's like, what's going on?  I was like, I'm the champ. And he's trying to bring up my drink.  You're the champ. Just take the drinks.  You're the champ.  I don't care to pay for my drinks. No, you're the champ. Just take them.

[14:37 - 14:57] So I didn't have to pay for drinks that night.  It's awesome.  Man, just going back real quick.  Tim asked in the chat.  So what was the best swag item?  I'll be honest.  I don't remember anything but their shirt at the swag table. And it was your standard threat larger shirt.

[14:57 - 15:17] I believe this year it was the black shirt, not the blue shirt.  Did they have other swag at their table?  I don't think so.  I think they just had the shirts and maybe some stickers, but I don't count. So just so everyone knows, right, we all of these presentation awards and the community champion award is voted on by the audience.

[15:18 - 15:33] And so for the swag award, this is something that was started by our community with Uncle Marv. So what we've decided is that to be fair, we had to have not only audience poll, but in the event, there's something a little unfavorable.

[15:34 - 15:53] You know, the other half is weighted by what Marv says that he has seen.  And, you know, some vendors need to probably step it up in their swag game as they come in for the new year.  Yeah.  So basically you made it a community award. And if the vote was close, I would be the swing vote.

[15:54 - 16:10] And in this particular case, it was pretty substantial.  Threat Locker won it going away.  So no need for me to intervene.  And I have to decide if I'm going to make them a cup because you gave them a pretty nice plaque. They don't need a mug.

[16:11 - 16:30] The nice finest acrylic that we could find. And speaking of I know this is not going to show on the air very well, but thank you, Paco, for my tech con unplugged engraved embossed glass that I'll never drink out of.

[16:31 - 16:50] So that was so that was made by our longtime community member and contributor, Taz, Michael Cooley. He has been a strong supporter of ours, and he came to me and said, hey, earlier in the year, I want you to send me your logo, but I don't want to tell you what it is until I get to the show.

[16:50 - 17:16] So I was like, well, that's not freaking sketchy.  I don't know what it is.  So when he came to the show, he goes, hey, I want to show you what I got.  And he showed me the glasses and I was like, man, those are super cool.  He says, yeah, I got six of them.  I was like, how do you feel? Because I think the content committee who we wanted to highlight this would be an amazing token to just show that the community is contributing back to those that had contributed back.

[17:17 - 17:38] And he says, absolutely, let's do it. So, you know, I have to give him full credit on bringing those glasses and I was kind of collaborating to really just notate and really highlight the six individuals, YouTube being included that really helped highlight and really contributed to really, in my opinion, the most solid content wise tech kind of plug we've had yet to come.

[17:38 - 18:01] All right.  So now let's talk about that content.  I think, in my opinion, and not that it means much, but this was probably the.  Mm. Most tightly run content driven conference that we've done out of all the ones we've done, does that sound fair?

[18:02 - 18:17] That is absolutely fair.  Yeah.  All of the all of the presenters were on point.  They I mean, it wasn't really a sales fest.  They got up and gave educational content. I think all but one were pretty much ready.

[18:17 - 18:39] I think one that was given short notice.  They still did good.  I think they felt bad that they didn't give the full presentation, but they were fine.  So just to let me know there's no bad presentations were out there. Everything was good on point and kept the audience engaged both in the large sessions and in the breakout rooms.

[18:39 - 19:04] So what do you guys think?  I'm curious to hear what Jason thinks, and I can tell him something there.  Oh, yeah. Yeah.  I thought it was great.  There's a lot of good content.  The breakout sessions were great. You know, we were looking at many more CIA stuff and, you know, you know, Cyber Matt Lee was in there guiding us on that really great breakout session.

[19:04 - 19:20] The breakout session is awesome, too.  Just great content all around.  I mean, if you leave a tech con, don't have at least a few little nuggets of information to go back and have action items, then you aren't paying attention sleeping or something, I guess. But a great, great content all around.

[19:20 - 19:41] Lots of great community led presentations along with vendors as well.  And the biggest thing I like about tech con is, you know, there's not a lot of sales pitches on stage. You know, the vendors come and they give good educational presentations instead of, hey, look at me by my product, the shiny new thing or whatever.

[19:42 - 19:58] So that's kind of what I can think differentiates tech con unplugged versus some of the other shows out there. So, yeah, no, I mean, I think what you both mentioned as far as the content this year, we were very deliberate in what we wanted to bring.

[19:58 - 20:23] Right. We were we were very focused on ensuring that, you know, no matter what size the IT service provider, someone got something, you know, whether it was a great relationship with one of the speakers or any of the attendees to the content to help them further along their journey. We had a little bit of everything this year, and I think we've always strived to do that in the previous years.

[20:23 - 20:38] But this is the first year that we really were focused on it.  We were laser focused on how we were going to deliver it there.  There were sessions that when we were during our planning phase, turned into something that wasn't it. What we talked about to then turn into something else.

[20:38 - 21:00] But the end product ended up being something impactful for everyone that was tuning in. So that with the combination of me inviting a few of my friends in the industry that really know what they do, people like Alex Farling and Marnie Stockman kind of giving their flair and what they do all around has been really great this year.

[21:01 - 21:27] And it just gave a real good.  All around, even keeled strong show that everyone could benefit from.  So I thought it was it was a very good show content wise. Like I said, I've been saying that for many, many months up into it with the committee that this is the one show that content wise, if anything else, if everything went to the hit the fan, I can hang my hat on the content that we presented at this year's show.

[21:28 - 21:47] Yeah. And all of them.  I mean, the titles alone were enough to draw people in. But I think that every session, you know, you go to conferences and you'll see people kind of get up about halfway through and kind of pull out their laptops and start, you know, working or something like that.

[21:48 - 22:05] I didn't see much of that this year.  People pretty much stayed engaged and some of the sessions actually went long because of the questions and stuff. So that's a testament to what our speakers and what you did as our leader this year, you know, kind of enforcing that.

[22:05 - 22:26] Look, make this as interactive as possible.  And it was. Absolutely. So a lot is to thank for the content committee meeting, as I mentioned in all the posts and as I mentioned to everyone there and those being obviously you, Marv, Jason, Diana, Giles, Ron Cervantes, Brian Morris and Joe Knenosvich, who wasn't able to attend.

[22:26 - 22:47] You know, you all gave your Friday mornings for many of the weeks leading up to the event on helping the community just get a little bit out of it.  So hopefully everyone is hopefully appreciative of your efforts, because I know I am. All right. Oh, Jason, just to let you know, we're coming up to the midway point.

[22:48 - 23:09] So I know you've had other obligations.  Are you going to head out or are you going to stay?  I'm good for the moment. All right.  You just want to keep that champ sticker up as long as you can. If you are listening to the audio, he has actually tagged his name with champ in all caps and double exclamation points.

[23:11 - 23:41] Yeah, well, you said you wanted a champ to come on, so I had to like make sure it was in the name.  They kind of like the plus plus. Yeah, I should put plus plus.  That's why I should. But you should.  The best breakfast plus plus. Yeah, there we go. All right. Well, before I wander off on my second topic, there is there anything that stood out to you guys that really, you know, resonated with you as you left the conference?

[23:41 - 24:01] And, you know, even as you went back into Monday and Tuesday, still remembered as man, this this one thing really stands out.  Anything like that for either of you? I mean, like I said, I took away I have a whole list of stuff on my phone of things I want to come back and kind of implement.

[24:02 - 24:18] And of course, you come back from conference, you're trying to catch up and stuff.  So nothing got implemented this week. Of course, I had several large proposals due. But, you know, like I have, like I said, in my phone, since I found a little golden nugget, I put in on my to do a Microsoft to do list and I've got it in there.

[24:18 - 24:37] And every year I do that because I'm bad with paper. If I put it on paper, it sticks in a notebook.  It disappears. I put my to do list. I get back.  You know, there's several things. And actually we had a companywide meeting today talking about the CIS and stuff like that. So I'm about what we're going to do moving forward. We're going to implement and kind of start the process of doing that.

[24:37 - 24:55] We've been doing NIST, but we're kind of want to switch to, you know, CIS for some of the controls and kind of map out our plans and stuff accordingly.  But I think that was one of the most powerful things in my list. Back at my list. The playing for principal loss. That's kind of a good topic there.

[24:56 - 25:17] You know, no one thinks about, hey, what happens when you die in your IT business?  So that was a really good topic that they talked about. You know, what's your succession plan?  Who's taking over the business? Who's giving out all your domains and passwords and everything else? You know, they had the QBR topic. We've been hot and heavy on our QBR.

[25:17 - 25:34] So that was a huge thing to kind of get some more insight as we've redone our QBRs and we call them TBRs, technology business reviews, because we don't do them quarterly.  There's no way we could keep up with all that. So that's a lot. You know, I probably have 20 other things, but that's kind of the kind of the top three, I guess, that stood out in my mind.

[25:34 - 25:55] Yeah, I think for me, it allowed us to reengage with some of the partner with the vendor partners that we have right now.  It allowed us to also see things a little bit differently. As everyone knows, John Dubinsky, he heads our ops team for a lot of the technology needs.

[25:55 - 26:17] And we just had a good conversation of what we're trying to do to move forward on transparency and efficiency and things of that nature. So I think one of the biggest pieces is we were planning to go down one road for our Microsoft 365 management and security and talking with the folks over at Augment, which we had been partners for many years.

[26:18 - 26:42] We decided to go a little bit further in that route on some of the conversations we had with them.  And so utilizing some of those things now that we've kind of shifted to make things easier for our team. And then, you know, it's always a good time for me to crack Andy Cormier over the head a little bit for Synchro on some of the things that we've been looking at, some of the things that were there that we didn't know.

[26:43 - 26:59] And it took an in-person two seconds to say, oh, crap, it's in there.  And so it's been definitely helpful for us as well. I think just engaging with our vendors that we utilize, understanding some things, getting some good product knowledge in the beginning.

[26:59 - 27:17] That's what I was able to do, being that I was running all over the place with things going on.  I didn't get a chance to review the sessions, but they were recorded. So I'm hoping to view that footage and figuring out and as me and Rick figure out how do we make that available to the community?

[27:17 - 27:35] We don't know just how just yet, but we will figure out a way to make that available.  So more to come on that. But we definitely recorded the sessions and audio for a majority of the shows in the session. So for those that kind of missed out who attended, we will make sure to figure out how to get that to you.

[27:36 - 27:59] Well, I will say this, you can always glean stuff from sessions that help in business and oh, I want to implement this or get that tool. But I think the thing that stood out for me this year, different from all the previous years, was how the vendors actually talked about how much they love being a part of these events.

[27:59 - 28:32] Not because of the event, not because of their presentation or how many scans they got, but being able to sit and talk with all of the business owners and talks about how they run their business. It was – usually you hear them and you think it's lip service, but standing in the hallway with people, listening to the vendors, I mean just asking truly sincere and authentic questions was huge this year.

[28:33 - 28:59] Being with them even after hours, they weren't talking about, hey, how can I get you set up with an appointment?  I mean, and I'm sure that came up, but I didn't hear it. And I think that that's the way that conferences are for us as attendees and it was good to hear them reciprocate that and say, look, we enjoyed the opportunity to sit and chat and just talk shop.

[28:59 - 29:16] So that was good.  Yeah, I think the after-hours events, I've been to a few other conferences and the vendors don't really hang out with you, you know what I'm saying, like they do here.  So the vendors are very close knit. They feel like they're part of the whole conference and part of the crowd, I guess you'd say.

[29:17 - 29:33] Hanging out in Uncle Marv's room, got thrown under the bus with Solutions Grant.  Awesome guy. Love him. He's a really cool guy to sit there and chat with and told all kinds of cool sock stories and stuff like that.

[29:34 - 29:54] And never once, not just him, but any of the vendors that we hung out with was a sales pitch after hours.  I mean, it was, hey, let's have some drinks, let's hang out, let's chat.  They were almost like a fellow MSP, just hanging out.  It wasn't like you were like, oh, this guy's going to come sell me something. So that's a difference in this conference for sure, is that the vendors genuinely seem to care.

[29:55 - 30:15] And I think it's probably a good change for them, too.  Some of these larger shows, I don't think they get to do that type of thing.  When you have 7,000, 8,000 people attending a large conference, there's no way they can hang out in Uncle Marv's room and be that cool. But as far as these vendors, they're really, really awesome to hang out with instead of being sold to the whole time.

[30:15 - 30:34] I think it's a different vibe for the show.  Yeah. Yeah. It's the way that the shows are organized as well. I think I forgot what show I was at, but one of my friends that was at a booth, I can't remember now who it was, but they were just like, yeah, we got to stay around and wait till the whole end of dinner.

[30:34 - 30:50] Hall was like two and a half hours or something like that or two hours. And like, yeah, after that, then we're going to get something to eat.  I was like, well, what do you mean? So, oh, yeah, no, we have no time.  They told us not to eat from the lines over there because that is for just the MSP attendees. That's it. I was like, wait a minute. Hold on. So you got all your sessions.

[30:50 - 31:15] The vendor hall is open for X amount of time, like hours, and you can't eat until before or after.  And you have sessions and stuff going on. Yeah. So like for me, I was like, well, that's wrong because I think that's all included. And I kind of understand some of the logistics after doing this for so many years where like, you know, if there is a sponsor of the event, the sponsors are like, well, we don't want to pay for another company's meals.

[31:16 - 31:34] You know, so like we want to pay for the MSP. So some organizers will go ahead and say, well, OK, we can only do this, but you can't do this.  So what me and Rick have done is like, all right, great. Here's the total cost of the event. Here's what the MSP cost will be. And then everything else will be covered from our operating cost anyway so that everybody can join each other.

[31:35 - 31:53] And I think that's the whole point of our event is if you notice the ones that weren't there, either a were just probably conditioned from other shows.  So they usually like, all right, my time's up. And then they go to the hotel or they hang out or they leave. But those that have been our show and the whole point of our show is like everyone can hang out together.

[31:53 - 32:14] We're not secluding the vendors like you can't intermingle with the MSP because we're not we know you're up to no good.  And then the same way, as far as the IT service providers and MSPs, hey, you know, you can talk to them.  They're not going to bite. We've already informed them. Don't sell to you. So this is not the place to be. And like you say, you have people like Michael Cream, Matt Lee, you know, we're all hanging out.

[32:15 - 32:31] So my buddy, Jose Torres, who runs Demon Low Media, who covered the event and recorded the sessions and stuff, we were at an after-hours at the hotel bar. And I’m just amazed and just conversating with Matt Lee. And if you haven't had the chance to talk to Matt Lee, he's probably one of the smartest dudes I know.

[32:31 - 32:48] And we were talking about drone footage and how and all this. And so after the whole night, he just left.  He says, man, this is why I love being able to do what I do, because it's like smart people like that to just make your brain just go like that. And so that's the whole point of the show, essentially, is what I'm rounding out, is that we're all inclusive.

[32:49 - 33:08] Doesn't matter what side of the aisle you are on as far as MSPs or vendors.  It's all a place for everybody to kind of collaborate in a true IT community event. Yep. Very nice. All inclusive. And yes, I picked that word purposely. Inclusive.

[33:08 - 33:26] Oh, Miss Rachel. Hello. How you doing? Hello. I just got home from baseball.  I was going to say, why are you still in your work shirt? Because I went to baseball. Yeah, we had a little shin dig here earlier than she had to take off and take her son to baseball practice.

[33:26 - 33:45] So we have tournaments this weekend. Did you make it home for the championship game or whatever that was?  Yes, we pulled in and the championship game started. Oh, well, just like the diva is here. Let's play. Yeah, I'll let you get back to it. All right.

[33:46 - 34:10] So beautiful. So, yeah, the inclusive word I use specifically for a reason.  Man, she's slamming the door on me. So I'm trying to force. So let's just let's just start with. Yeah, I said it in the middle of one of my breakout sessions.

[34:11 - 34:28] I said the phrase you don't need to be a seven figure MSP. Now, let's put a little context around that, because if you just pluck that line out of thin air, just like a politician, it can be taken out of context.

[34:28 - 34:45] And I'm sure it has been. And I'm sure that our town crier and that is the name that I have given to George Bardissi. Because as soon as that session was over, I knew that he would run to somebody and said, you know what, Uncle Marv said.

[34:46 - 35:03] And so let it begin that all that is happening. But let's go back. And like I said, put a little context around it. So my session, along with Brian Morris, was entitled How to.

[35:05 - 35:26] Survive and thrive as a boutique MSP. And this is something that I have over probably the last year have become very comfortable in using that phrase, and it was a phrase that I came up with, mainly in spite of the people telling me, man, don't use that.

[35:27 - 35:45] Don't use that phrase. That's just sounds so horrible. And I'm like, why? I mean, we've been we've been throwing out names and terms over the years from Trunk Slammer to solo tech to emerging tech to I think you guys are using nimble MSP.

[35:47 - 36:05] And you know what? I like the fact that I'm a boutique shop.  And there's nothing wrong with that. Now, what I should say is, as the words were coming out of my mouth. You got that little replay thing going, oh, oh, oh, here we go.

[36:05 - 36:28] And let me first say that.  The people that use the term in the industry, there is nothing wrong with that term. And if people are running to Chris Weiser and Robin Robbins and Paul Green and saying this uncle Marv guy said that, no, no, no, that's not what I said.

[36:28 - 36:44] Those programs are great. The million dollar MSP is an admirable goal if you are just starting out. And for the most part, if you are an MSP that is going to grow and scale, you know what?

[36:45 - 37:07] You better hit a million at some point in your business if you're going that route for a lot of people.  That's not the route they choose. And I've been doing this. This is my twenty seventh year. And I'm happy where I am at. And I believe that people should be allowed to be happy where they're at.

[37:07 - 37:25] And if you would like to call what I do a lifestyle business, that's fine. I'm living the lifestyle I want. But the larger MSPs, if you're a business owner of a five million dollar MSP, aren't you living the lifestyle that you want?

[37:26 - 37:45] Whether it's, you know, buying the cars or the house or taking trips or it's no different.  If you're living the lifestyle that you want, then you should be happy. And the only people that I need to make happy in my life are me, my wife and my clients, not anybody else.

[37:46 - 38:03] So the session was really a way to help those that are struggling because there are people that want to grow. There are people that are just starting out and they need a road map as to what to do and how to survive in this business.

[38:03 - 38:21] We are in a time where I think it is easier and harder at the same time to run an IT business today. The tools out there are so readily available and in a lot of cases they're inexpensive and you don't need a lot of startup money.

[38:22 - 38:43] But at the same time, the commoditization of our industry is killing a lot of people. And I'll say that it is hurting larger MSPs just as much as it's hurting the smaller ones because it's the larger MSPs that are fighting the battle with companies coming in and undercutting prices.

[38:43 - 39:04] And I'll say this, don't blame the solo techs for that.  There are some large MSPs that are cutting prices way worse than the small MSPs. Now, I did not want to do this as a soapbox, but I have papers ready in case.

[39:05 - 39:28] So I want to I want to add on to a couple of points that you said, and I think that people need to understand a few things. You know, when you and I got involved to become, you know, I'll just straight out say is leaders inside of this community and other communities when people have followed us.

[39:30 - 39:53] There was a lot of misinformation being spread into the into the industry that you had to do things a certain way to be successful.  And there was a lot of opinions being spoken as fact. And I will continue to keep saying that your way may be a way to do it, but it's not the only way to get to the million dollar mark.

[39:53 - 40:13] Now, I understand that at a certain point of revenue threshold and profitability, you then have to tweak things a certain way after that to scale. Totally understand that part. But I think what you just mentioned, too, is that, you know, I forgot what the stat is, but I think it's something like 95 percent or 90 percent or 99 percent of all I.T.

[40:13 - 40:30] service providers. MSPs are nowhere near the million or close to the million.  There's not a lot of million dollar MSPs.  So of that base, the question is, are they running things the right way? Meaning there are those that are struggling, but what are they struggling with?

[40:30 - 40:52] Is it to maintain profit? Is it to be consistent with what they're getting as far as their day to day pay?  Is it can they be more efficient by tweaking some automation and tools that can work a little bit better? So there's a lot of that. Right. And understanding that there are different ways to get to where you want to go at the threshold that you want to get to.

[40:52 - 41:09] Now, I remember when I first started being part time and when it was the pod nuts days, it was you and John that everyone wanted to aspire to in our in the small community at the time. And because of your revenue and how you ran business and everyone wanted to thrive to that level. Right.

[41:09 - 41:28] And so for different viewpoints of different people, there are different layers or different levels that they want to get to and feel that they are successful and they can see that by seeing the people that you have. The other piece that I will mention is, like you just said, on the price changes, the being able to understand.

[41:29 - 41:52] We have such an advantage now with the technology and things that we have available where we can be much more agile to make the shift of things and go to a certain point that a bigger MSP or IT service provider cannot. That's a bigger ship to turn in order for us where we can be a little bit nimbler with what we have going on.

[41:52 - 42:15] This is something Matt Lee has preached for many years where with the way that they have now MSPs and IT service providers that are smaller in size have a much better advantage than they are with bigger MSPs in regards of certain regulations, things that are coming out and constantly changing in the industry. There's a better opportunity for us to be able to do so.

[42:15 - 42:39] And of course, Matt, if I'm misquoting you, definitely call me out on it.  But this is kind of the theme of what I've gotten for and what we thrive to let everybody know is that, yeah, someone else bigger than you might call you a trunk slammer or a pizza tech or etc. But if you're doing right by your clients, there's no shame in that game of being able to understand, learn and grow because everyone has their own journey and how they get there in their own time frame as well.

[42:40 - 43:09] So one of the concepts that we did not get into and I've been trying to put together a presentation on what is a boutique shop. And the first explanation that comes to mind is you look at stores like a Walmart or a Costco, BJ's, Sam's, those stores get big for a reason.

[43:10 - 43:32] Home Depot, Lowe's and they are considered the big box stores or the one stop shops and they do great. But there is a segment of society that literally makes fun of Walmart because of the crap that goes on there and the type of clientele that walks in there.

[43:33 - 43:58] And boutique stores were designed for a charming and more personal experience, which to be honest, my customers, as far as I know, that's what they want. And I've actually gotten customers that were with MSPs that got treated as a number, got commoditized and were simply trying to sell on price.

[43:59 - 44:16] We can go on and on and on, but the bottom line is being boutique can mean a lot of different things. And whether it's specializing in a niche or it's providing that – I think Brian was trying to talk about providing a premium service.

[44:18 - 44:39] Those are things that smaller shops can do. Larger shops can do them as well. I'm not saying that they can't. There are some that can, but a lot don't. And they want to try to hound us on the services that we provide and the way in which we provide them and whether we provide an SLA and 24-7 support or blah, blah, blah.

[44:39 - 44:57] And the bottom line is most of our clients don't need that. So not that it shouldn't be offered. There are a lot of places that do need that. But a lot of clients, they just want to know that you're available and reliable and that you're not going to lie to them.

[44:59 - 45:23] And that's what we do. So as you are hearing out there the cries that Uncle Marv said, you don't need to be a seven-figure MSP, take that with a little bit of caution. That is merely to say that if you're small and you're struggling, stop staying up at night fretting that you haven't made it. You can make it.

[45:23 - 45:45] And if you decide to stay small, fine. If you're trying to get big, then there's a community of people out there that will help you get big.  There's nothing wrong with being a million-dollar MSP. Nothing wrong with being a $10 million MSP or more. Everybody should be able to do what they want. But what I'm going to say is don't be trying to slam on me for doing what I do.

[45:46 - 46:12] And the last part I will say to that as well is everything that he said, especially if you are at night fretting, don't be afraid to ask for help. Because we are in a community now much better than where we were many years ago where there are open arms and there are the ability to gain help from like-minded people that are willing to give.

[46:13 - 46:32] The main reason why me and Marvin do what we do, why Jason, it's not a coincidence that he's been voted the second year as the community champion of what he gives and what he asks. I think there was a story he mentioned that he was helping a few people while at the conference because people have the ability to go to him and they feel comfortable being able to do so.

[46:32 - 46:50] So if there is someone out there that you would like to bridge that relationship, just ask because more than likely they're going to be willing and wanting to help you as well.  And Jason, before you say something, I know you're getting some way in there. The Millers have probably one of the best business models in our community.

[46:50 - 47:07] They're not 100% MSP, but they dominate their market.  Yeah.  Sounds good anyways.  Yeah. So we try really hard to do a great job and just be a sounding board for what you're saying.

[47:07 - 47:24] I mean, I don't think it matters what size you are.  It doesn't matter how you run your business. I mean, as technicians and engineers and run the MSP, I think we all strive to follow a set of standards to make sure our clients are secure and things are done right.

[47:25 - 47:40] But there's a thousand and one different ways to do that.  So everybody's different.  Everybody can achieve it their own way. But I don't think there's any need to say that a boutique shop is any less than somebody making millions of dollars.

[47:40 - 47:59] I mean, it's until you're more nimble.  We've always run our business, even though we're larger than a few people, which I don't even people say, you know, the show like, oh, you're large.  Whatever. You know, I still think we're a small MSP. But, you know, we try and stay nimble as well, even though we have more employees.

[47:59 - 48:17] But employees are great.  But they also equal headaches.  And Mark knows this.  He's had people and he's had to let them go.  And he's had people go.  But I mean, and Paco shakes his head.  So sometimes being small has advantages. So you don't have to be that big, you know, $10 million MSP out there.

[48:17 - 48:36] And the nimbleness, I don't know.  I'm sure it's the same in your area, but it helps us, you know, take over the competition because they don't change fast.  Their customer service is bad.  They're not good at what they do. And customers complain and they switch to somebody that is good at doing what they need to do.

[48:36 - 48:52] So, you know, if they're switching from a larger MSP to a smaller one, there's a lot of reason for that.  And usually it's customer service and getting what that customer's actual fit and need is.  And sometimes that is not a large MSP. So we've taken customers from way larger MSPs than us.

[48:52 - 49:16] And it's really helped out and being able to be nimble and quick to do things. And I love merger and acquisitions for the reason of when somebody bigger acquires someone that's about my size or a little bit bigger, they built a great culture and they acquire those clients and they lose that culture because it's a bigger MSP that just doesn't understand either.

[49:16 - 49:36] Meaning they're going into a new market or they've taken over and don't have the interest intricacies.  I love those type of equity. Anytime I hear a bigger MSP acquire my competitors, it's always great for me because then I just sit back and I just wait and I may play the waiting game slash tossing a little bit of those nuggets to here.

[49:36 - 49:53] And then they just like clockwork.  I've had this has happened already four times in my area and same thing.  And then I know from the field of leads that come in that someone got acquired. It's now the ability of standing out, making sure we put our best foot forward to prove what we do, what we do at our size.

[49:54 - 50:14] Yeah, I do want to tag one more quick little story to this. I had a conversation today with a larger company that has a couple of clients down in my area and we had a chat this morning about possibly helping support them.

[50:15 - 50:35] And there was a point in the conversation where I thought, you know what?  This probably isn't for me.  And I told them I know of a larger company that would probably be able to support what you need. And the phrase that hit me was, well, you know, we may want to have somebody be available, you know, within a couple of hours.

[50:36 - 50:53] And I said, that's not going to be me only because, yes, I could probably do it most of the time.  But the one time I can't, it might be a problem. And I said, so if you're if you're offering to our SLA's and then they kind of backtrack and said, well, wait a minute.

[50:56 - 51:12] That's not what we meant.  And we're going to give it a go and see if it works.  So I have a good relationship with the MSPs in this area and we refer business back and forth. So it is interesting.

[51:13 - 51:30] Oh, we had a very long email in the chat here.  Let me get my glasses to make sure I can read this properly.  Kevin says, this is such an important conversation.  It's all about perspective. It's something you gain through experience.

[51:30 - 51:48] Unfortunately, to your point, people fix to fixate too much on the top line number versus a bottom line number and lifestyle.  There are plenty of seven and eight figure service providers out there that are barely profitable and miserable. I was one of them at one point perspective.

[51:49 - 52:07] You know, I should probably. Paco, you were there in 2015 when all of this started for us, and I will say that I forget most of the conversation of the panelists that was up on the stage.

[52:08 - 52:34] I remember one panelist and he's not the one that triggered all of this.  He's the one that gets all of the blame.  He gets most of the stuff.  Because he led the discussion, but it wasn't him. It was somebody at the end of the panel that made the comment that I'm an eight man MSP and we're making 600 grand and I blame the trunk slammers.

[52:36 - 52:52] And at the time I looked around and like, what the hell?  Why are you blaming us? Because at the time, I mean, I consider myself a solo tech and I figured I was in that trunk slammer conversation and I thought, now this was 2015.

[52:53 - 53:14] I'm a solo tech making 300 grand.  What's wrong with this formula?  What's wrong with the math?  Can I curse on your show?  Yeah.  It's because of the shitty sales process that is why he's at 600 grand at eight people.  That's why. But it was just that's what started the discussion for me as to why is this a problem?

[53:14 - 53:33] Why is it my problem?  Why are you blaming me for your, again, shitty sales process?  And here's the thing.  I mean, we say that, but we don't know his situation.  I never was able to talk to the person. A lot of times we always say, the big push right now is to $300 a user.

[53:33 - 53:49] $300 a user.  Well, that's not doable in every area of the country.  There are just some places that will not support that. Even down here in South Florida, I know that there are MSPs that are pitching 175 users.

[53:50 - 54:06] But when they're going after new business, and the reason I know this is because I've gone up against them and they have discounted their services to $95 a user.  That's what I'm competing with.  So it depends on the market.  It depends on the company. It depends on so many factors.

[54:07 - 54:23] But the whole idea that why not look at within?  What is it that we are doing that we're not profitable to the point where we want to be?  Now, it could have been that 600 grand was fine. Right.

[54:24 - 54:39] Obviously, he still had the eight employees.  It wasn't like he said that we were getting ready to fire one because we're losing money.  He didn't say that.  But maybe it was that fixation on I've got to be at this number. Man, I've got to have a – I don't know what it was.

[54:39 - 54:55] Right, right, right.  It could have been the bottom line, too, that he just was at such a thin margin that he just was miserable and had to figure out how to do things, too, as well. So like you said, it's definitely an inner – because like you said, like Kevin mentioned, you don't know someone's story.

[54:55 - 55:16] So I'm going to reel back what I said earlier and really understand that you don't know.  And they could be advertising and really just doing things as far as well, and you just don't know what you don't know. And I think that's the biggest thing about our industry is that if we don't make the effort to try and know what we don't know, that's where we get into the big pitfalls.

[55:17 - 55:43] So again, to bring this back to TechCon Unplugged, the idea that we had almost 100 people sitting together all from different areas of the country, different size businesses, all with the same goal in mind is how do we get better? How do we work together to make this industry better, to make our business better?

[55:44 - 56:08] And there was no issues outside of George trying to blast me.  But it was great, and that's what we need.  We didn't have that back in 2015.  We have that now. And thank you, Paco and Rick and Jason and everybody that's in our community that is doing things to help each other grow and succeed.

[56:08 - 56:55] And we're not fighting and bickering about things.  Absolutely. And it turns out it was the story that I did use about the Florida man who got arrested trying to use his human-sized homemade hamster wheel to go from Florida to London.

[56:56 - 57:12] So I just wanted to give a shout out.  I like folks.  If you have Florida stories and you want me to share them, send them to me.  Of course, I will need to verify them.  But that was the story there.  I have a story for you.  You have a story? Yes.

[57:12 - 57:29] Okay.  That probably could compete to the Florida man story.  All right.  Awesome.  All right.  You guys are on point. So like two weeks ago, three weeks ago, there was a White Sox game.

[57:29 - 57:46] It was a Saturday, I think, evening.  And there was a weird situation where two women were shot.  They were grazed by a gunshot. And they could not figure out why.

[57:47 - 58:03] They were closed down the stadium.  They tried to figure out what's going on.  They had to cancel the vanilla ice concert that was right after the White Sox stadium.  And it wasn't because of the threat of where the shooter was or things of that nature. It was a matter of they needed the stadium open for investigation.

[58:04 - 58:25] A week later, they revealed that the way that what happened in getting shot was a woman smuggled a handgun into the stadium. So that's A. And the gun accidentally went off and grazed her and the person next to her.

[58:25 - 58:41] But the funnier part about it is how she got the gun inside of the stadium.  It was between her belly fat that she went ahead and brought the gun into the stadium and it went off. Now that is some funny stuff.

[58:41 - 58:56] And that was.  How long would you even bring it in there?  She probably forgot it was there.  Probably.  I mean, here's the thing.  The metal detectors did not detect the gun in her belly fat.  Yes. And went off.

[58:58 - 59:13] Oh, gosh.  Oh, my.  Jason, what do you got from Tennessee?  So yesterday.  So, you know, you always want the recent stories.  Yesterday in Knoxville, which is about an hour and a half from us, we're in John City. Sixty four year old guy.

[59:13 - 59:30] We walked into a little Caesars.  He's impatient for getting his pizza.  So he decided to go back to his car and he wasn't happy.  His pizza wasn't hot and ready.  He went back out to his car, got an AK-47, and walked back in. It was threatening the employees to get his hot and ready pizza.

[59:31 - 59:50] So and this is just yesterday.  And so he decided to brandish his gun and threaten them so much that the customer instantly handed them their hot and ready pizza.  Just trying to get him out of there. Needless to say, the guy was arrested and the little Caesars employee went on record stating that if he waited two to three more minutes,

[59:50 - 01:00:06] he'd had a hot and ready pizza in his hand and not in jail.  So.  I was shot, but, you know.  So I'm going to show a picture real quick and I'll have to get a picture to put in the show notes with a link to it. But that is the picture.

[01:00:07 - 01:00:23] And funny enough, we were talking about this store earlier.  This happened outside. I shouldn't say outside at a Walmart where a Florida man stole excavator, drove it through a Walmart wall.

[01:00:26 - 01:00:42] According to Gainesville police, the man stole a large excavator and drove it along Southwest 42nd Street, knocking down power lines before driving it into the wall of a Walmart. No injuries were reported.

[01:00:43 - 01:01:01] So what's the guy trying to gain from this?  That's the whole point.  It's like you can't rob a Walmart with.  Yeah.  So this this this happened last night.  So the story was updated this morning. But it says that it doesn't say why he stole it yet.

[01:01:02 - 01:01:19] And it does not say if alcohol was involved.  But he drove it through what appears to be the automotive department of Wall Start of Walmart. So that is your Florida man story of the week.

[01:01:21 - 01:01:40] All right.  Oh, look who joined us.  Giles Giles.  You know, Lady Dots Giles.  Yeah. We won't talk about how offended her new BFF was that I called her Giles instead of Lady Di.

[01:01:42 - 01:02:04] That would be our inside story there.  Oh, and our.  Yep. And TJ, our newly anointed.  Now, here's the here's the thing. So normally when we have people show up for the first time and try to be a part of our group like Sydney that came with Ron, they're tagged rookie.

[01:02:06 - 01:02:29] TJ, however, does not get such a tag.  So we'll have to come up with a nice designation for TJ and.  Tom Bull. Oh, my goodness, Gracia, we'll have to come up with a nice designation as Tom's replacement at future conferences.

[01:02:31 - 01:02:46] So, all right, guys.  Hey, thank you for hanging out the entire time.  I didn't think you guys would do that, but I appreciate it.  Thank you very much.  And thank you for your insights. Any last thoughts that you want to say about anything tonight?

[01:02:46 - 01:03:12] The conference. Just get involved as best as you can.  You know, shows like these are all over.  If you're unable to get to a tech con unplugged, there's the online community group. If you are invited to just get involved with a lot of what they have to offer presentations, people, good people to meet, good people to catch up with.

[01:03:13 - 01:03:30] Again, go out there, get into an in-person show.  You won't know on the hallway conversations that could probably change the trajectory of your business.  Yes. Kind of the same thing. Definitely a lot of the hallway conversations are what make the conference awesome.

[01:03:31 - 01:03:48] And TechCon provides plenty of hangout time with all the attendees.  And being a small group of 100 people or less, it's really easy to hang out with people and enjoy good hallway conversations and little nuggets to accelerate your business. But I'm ready for TechCon 2024.

[01:03:49 - 01:04:04] I don't know.  So let's wait for it to be announced.  It was like, give me a minute.  We are finalized. I have mentioned it to a few people. We are finalizing where that it will be.

[01:04:06 - 01:04:24] It'll be probably the same time frame in the fall of 2024.  It will be East Coast again. But I will.  We will designate a post here soon once we finalize all the details. But just look out for a recap video and the announcement of where we will be here coming up soon.

[01:04:25 - 01:04:43] So I'm working with our lovely marketing strategist to figure out when is the best time to drop that for sure.  All right. We will anxiously be awaiting that news for next year, folks. If you've enjoyed anything that we've talked about tonight, it is the fact that TechCon Unplugged is the conference to be.

[01:04:44 - 01:05:02] So plan on attending next year, 2024, no matter where it is.  It is going to be a fantastic event.  Paco, thank you very much. And thank Rick, please, for assisting and putting on the conference and being part of the host city in Jersey there.

[01:05:03 - 01:05:20] The cup says Woodbridge, but the hotel was in Iselin.  And I don't know what that means, but it's one of those weird like it's Woodbridge and they share the same zip code. It's we have something similar.

[01:05:20 - 01:05:38] He is also host of the MSP Unplugged podcast.  They do a couple of shows a week there.  They have the MSP Unplugged community of which Jason Miller is a member and is very active and very hopeful. And that is why he is now the two time community champ.

[01:05:39 - 01:05:55] And Jason, you have to be back.  You have to defend or hand off the belt is actually what you probably should do.  I'm coming off the top rope, baby.  I mean, come on. That's going to do it, folks, for this live show.

[01:05:55 - 01:06:11] I want to say thank you again to my guests.  I want to say thank you to our sponsors of the show.  Net ally is our presenting sponsor.  Computers done right. Sponsors are live stream and instant house call dot com is also a presenting sponsor.

[01:06:11 - 01:06:26] Head over to IT business podcast dot com.  Catch up on previous shows.  Click any of the links there to follow us to support our sponsors, of which Syncro I mentioned earlier is a sponsor as well. Click on that affiliate link and we'll see if it works.

[01:06:27 - 01:06:35] That's going to do it for us.  We'll be back with another show next week.  Same time until then.  Holla.