645 Gregg Lalle - IT Nation's New General Manager

[Uncle Marv] (0:12 - 0:42)
Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast, and yes, we are still live in Orlando at IT Nation Secure. I am outside of the IT Solutions Pavilion. People are funneling out after lunch, so it might quiet down a little bit so there won't be too much noise in the background, but even if there is, you know me, I'll do the best I can to edit it out.

In the meantime, I am actually joined by Gregg Lalle from IT Nation. Gregg, how are you?

[Gregg Lalle] (0:42 - 0:44)
I'm doing fantastic, thank you. How are you?

[Uncle Marv] (0:44 - 0:44)
I'm good.

[Gregg Lalle] (0:45 - 0:45)
How are you finding the show?

[Uncle Marv] (0:46 - 0:55)
I'm finding the show a little bit different from this side. So I have attended as an MSP, but now as a member of the media, I get to watch all the fun go by.

[Gregg Lalle] (0:55 - 0:56)
Different lengths, yeah, for sure.

[Uncle Marv] (0:56 - 1:08)
So, now let's just say for you, the show started off last night with the keynote and the big announcement that you were taking over all of IT Nation, I don't know if that's the exact translation.

[Gregg Lalle] (1:08 - 1:21)
Yeah, so I guess a couple of things there, just to unpack, right? So we kind of came into the IT Nation role about 60 days ago. So I was on the sales team for 14 years, I started there and led our international teams for the last 12.

[Uncle Marv] (1:22 - 1:22)
Okay.

[Gregg Lalle] (1:22 - 2:33)
So I spent a lot of time in London looking after EMEA, we've got about 110 folks there and colleagues, and we have about 47 in Australia doing ANZ. So kind of looking after and managing the business affairs down there. And so this is kind of a shift over from, I want to say leaving the sales role and kind of putting on the community hat.

Something at 53, maybe my age, maybe my altruism, I'm not really sure what, that I'm kind of making that shift. I do know, but, you know, really enjoying the journey. And just the other piece I wanted to kind of start off by saying is that we actually have three experiences going on.

And yesterday morning we had something we call IT Nation Grow, which is we're working with owners who want to focus on the transition to exit, not the transaction, right? You're on LinkedIn now and you see all of these things where, you know, the photograph for someone who sold my business or so-and-so bought so-and-so, right? But that's three to five years in the making if you do it right, you're building valuation strategies.

So we're trying to really lean into the MSPs to help them do that. And of course, we had Automation Nation yesterday as well. So we had two, you know, events going on, two experiences simultaneously before we kicked off.

I hit main stage at five o'clock last night.

[Uncle Marv] (2:34 - 2:41)
All right. Now, I'm not a full-blown member of the ConnectWise family, so some of these questions may sound like they come out of the blue.

[Gregg Lalle] (2:41 - 2:41)
No, go ahead.

[Uncle Marv] (2:41 - 2:51)
But in terms of you coming from the international side on to IT Nation fully, how much of the North American flavor are you going to be dealing with for the first time?

[Gregg Lalle] (2:52 - 3:24)
Well, it's not the first time. So let me say it again. I'm saying 53.

I've had sales careers in North America. I was born and raised here, so not that, but I'd say there's been an influence certainly for the last 12 years of all the colleagues, of all the partners, of all the conversations we've had all over the world and different views and visions. And so I hope to really bring that in further into the community, build something I've always been passionate about, but building, coming with the sales background and being able hopefully to marry the two.

What do our partners need and crave and want, and what is it that we can develop and put our energy into that's really going to help them the most?

[Uncle Marv] (3:25 - 3:36)
All right. So how much in the first 60 days, you said, before here did you get into actually communicating with MSPs and how they want to see things in IT Nation progress?

[Gregg Lalle] (3:36 - 4:38)
So the first stop was in Dallas. We did a vol. So our peer groups were there.

So it was early May. I was down in Dallas. I'll be in Denver in August.

So part of it is a readjustment, a reacclimating to North America, which is a lot of what I'm doing is making sure I get FaceTime with North American partners so they get to know me and who I am, because again, just lack of interaction. So I think hopefully once they get to know and understand what we can do and how we can help, not just the people that are in our community now, but again, I want to be really clear that part of my mission is to not just serve 16,000 ConnectWise partners. Traditionally, that's where it's resided.

Our inspiration, our frameworks, our tools are good regardless of what software you're using. And we're going to welcome those people. If they want to learn and take their business to higher ground, we want to share those things with them as well.

So we're trying to open it up, not only amongst the tool sets, but also amongst the communities. I've interviewed a lot of other people that are running communities. I'm going to try to bring them together.

Right in November, it should be a fabulous organization as we roll out really the community of communities message.

[Uncle Marv] (4:39 - 5:04)
So all of this sounds like it's just simply one word, growth. You had the pre-day event yesterday. I did not get to attend that.

And outside of, you know, the key words of AI and cybersecurity, growth seems to be the complete focus here. How much push do you think we're going to need to see with growth for MSPs to really feel like a change is here?

[Gregg Lalle] (5:04 - 5:59)
Well, I think growth might be something we are talking about now. But if you talk to Peter Kujawa, if you know Peter, if you've spoken to him, he'll talk to you about business efficiency and knowing your numbers. And that benchmarking is essential to what we do.

So sure, it fuels growth and you know what your event numbers are. But there's a whole host of things and levers. How do you act and what do you do within the business?

So I think it's a high degree of focus, but there's certainly other topics we hit on as well. And I think the development leadership teams and scaling, there's a human element side that we continue to focus on as well. And even as I said from main stage, we're going into the health and well-being, which is really critical.

Right. The more I guess you really, of course, everybody understands it. But the more everybody's in this, it's a demanding world, man.

It's noisy. And you know that there's so many things out there and people need to slow down no matter who you are. People slow down every now and then and just take it easy.

And it's as you know, like I said, it's just demanding.

[Uncle Marv] (5:59 - 5:59)
Right.

[Gregg Lalle] (5:59 - 6:04)
So I think all of those things interest me about trying to help people, including myself, manage the chaos.

[Uncle Marv] (6:04 - 6:25)
Right. So for people who we understand, IT Nation has always been connected to ConnectWise, kind of a part of it. It seems as though now IT Nation is going to branch off on its own.

And we know IT Nation for the two conferences. What is in store for IT Nation as it does this breakaway?

[Gregg Lalle] (6:25 - 7:17)
Yeah. So I would say, you know, maybe a little division or equality. So it's not it's an intentionality to share the stage more.

ConnectWise is always going to have the place in IT Nation. ConnectWise is always going to be a premier sponsor. Right.

That's the institution. We're still IT Nation isn't its own company. However, everything short of that, my intention to all the vendors and the solution partners I talk about is to ensure that we give them opportunity and help them go to market plans to the community as we grow the community to make sure they can keep growing and achieving their goals as well.

So I think, again, I use the word intentionality a lot to make sure that we come into November, you're going to see a lot more different faces and places on the stages that I hope that are going to be welcoming to people where maybe they thought of it as a purely ConnectWise community and then are going to look and go, this is an industry powerhouse and really look at it.

[Uncle Marv] (7:17 - 7:44)
Well, I think that that has always been the case. I mean, when you look at some of the things like PitchIT is something where you're bringing in new and developing vendors and the fact that you allow vendors to be here, even if they're not in the ConnectWise ecosystem and stuff. So I think that that's always been the case.

But this new intentionality of making them feel more welcome, I think is going to be good. And that's great for us as MSPs.

[Gregg Lalle] (7:44 - 8:32)
Yeah. I think it's the vendors, but it's also the MSPs themselves. Again, I don't care if you're using a competitive tool.

If you can come and come to our peer groups and you can improve a bit by over 30 percent, which I have testimonials and that'll be coming to light. You can still use something else and still get that benefit. The ConnectWise folks are going to still get that, still have full access to that as they do.

And they just have the domain expertise because it's been around long enough. So I'm trying to break through. We're trying to break through a little bit and say, hey, other people have communities or they, again, maybe take a picture of 30 people and call it a community.

I'm not really sure what goes on there, but we have institutional fundamental change and transformation plans that we can enact and we can help you, as we talked about before, achieve accountability, inspiration and accountability, the two key words that MSPs need to live and grow and learn by.

[Uncle Marv] (8:34 - 8:46)
So I want to go back and just say the fact that we as North America, of course, we're a little bit tunnel vision. We see things only from our point of view. But where is IT Nation growing globally?

[Gregg Lalle] (8:47 - 9:53)
So we've got really robust communities going on in Australia, in New Zealand, again, where we've centered in the theater of operation. So UK, Ireland, and now we're expanding into continental Europe. So you see the Dutch market, you see Nordics, you see areas that are, we would say, Western developed thinkers that kind of gravitate towards that and are able to, you know, really, they're mature markets from an MSP perspective, because they've been seated by us and our competitors for 20 years.

And so they're further along in their journey. But in different markets, there's different rates of which we proceed and what content is valuable. So in certain areas, VARs are still the dominant player and they still need a lot more of opening and building managed services, right, where a lot of people here may think that you either did that already or you're done, right?

And so I think you look at the markets we're going into. But really, we have pretty good and we'll continue to grow. But I see Central Europe, but also still UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand.

We have hundreds of partners, if you add them up. Peer groups as well as connect partners, but peer and IT nation, hundreds of partners in those regions.

[Uncle Marv] (9:53 - 10:11)
Okay. Let's take a little personal twist here now. You have dealt with international.

In this new role, are you going to be relocating in any form or fashion? And I mean that by coming here to the home office in Tampa and dealing with the heat that we have.

[Gregg Lalle] (10:11 - 10:41)
Yeah. Well, I've been down in Florida since I graduated Penn State in 92. And that tells you my age a little bit, which I'm not afraid to say I'm 53.

Sometimes people do the math and go, oh, you're older than you look. No. So, you know, I came down to Florida right away.

So, you know, through the past decade, because I traveled so much, there was never really, I'd say, a home or residency. We had a place in London, I had a place in Sydney, so I had places to go, but I still kept my residency.

[Uncle Marv] (10:41 - 10:42)
The home base is always here.

[Gregg Lalle] (10:42 - 10:47)
Yeah. So, it's not really relocating, having to pack up a bunch of stuff. We did a little bit of stuff, but it's, you know, I travel light.

[Uncle Marv] (10:47 - 10:57)
I like to hear that. I like to hear us Floridian sticking it out and hanging around. And, you know, with all the people moving in, we're still here.

Home values are going up, that's for sure.

[Gregg Lalle] (10:58 - 11:00)
By you too. I'm sure it's gone crazy.

[Uncle Marv] (11:00 - 11:19)
Yeah, it has. It has. All right.

So, I know it's been a whirlwind for you, and you've had several interviews with others. I don't know, you know, if there's a question that tires you the most, but let me ask, what's been the best question you've gotten so far since being here and having the news announced?

[Gregg Lalle] (11:19 - 12:04)
The best question that's been asked of me? I don't know. I think it's similar, and it's more about the strategy and where we're going.

And I think it's just a clarification about the time in chair, my transition now, and what we have the ability to impact and do. So it's, they're all been centered around, I don't know that there's been anything direct that's really been like, wow, that's a really challenging question. It's more about understanding the strategy.

I think people want to know, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. Like I said, the team that's been assembled is there, if you know any of them. They've built and carried the institution for many years.

This goes back to, again, going back to Arnie, David just walked by. You know, the people that have been here helped build this over a long time. So the people that are here have been here a long time as well.

So yeah, I don't think, I wish I'd come up with a zinger for you. I don't know.

[Uncle Marv] (12:05 - 12:10)
No, that's okay. Here's the only zinger I'll come up with. Where does the future of Shawn Lardo stand?

[Gregg Lalle] (12:11 - 12:28)
Oh boy. Is he paying you for this? I'm looking under the desk now.

No, I've got to talk with him for, you know, all summer with the pitches stuff, so. Yeah, no, look, Shawn is extremely passionate. He is.

I love that. If you'll notice, probably a lot of stuff when I talk or speak, there's a lot of passion that comes out. I'm not a very laid back person.

[Uncle Marv] (12:29 - 12:35)
A lot of connect-wise people are all passionate and you can hear it. So yeah, I see that.

[Gregg Lalle] (12:36 - 13:37)
Yeah, and so we've been working really hard to figure and reimagine what pitch it looks like on a grander scale. I want people to think bigger and not be constrained by how we've done things because that's always been the case too. If you've been away for a while and you come back or you have, you know, change in leadership that gives you a change in perspective.

You talked about kind of the North American, you know, way of thinking, which I highlighted before too, is one of the frameworks we use was the Eastern versus Western thinking. Western, I've got a problem. Here's your solution.

You get right to it. I'll tell you what your answer is. Kind of that, right?

Eastern or in some of the, you kind of circle around a little bit and you say, are we doing what's right? How about if we did it this way? You'd spend more time questioning so that you're more solid and resolute in where you land than rushing to get there.

A lot of time expediency is where we're at. Get it done. Get it done tomorrow.

You don't spend enough time, or we don't, directly, but spend time thinking and creating. So allowing yourself the ability to create and make it different if you want. Think bigger.

Think bolder. You may end up at the same spot but allow yourself that freedom and flexibility. Start with a clean whiteboard and what about what if and put it up there and see what happens.

[Uncle Marv] (13:37 - 14:11)
Yeah. My football coach used to say, you know, you can have the fastest speed on the team, but if you're running fast in the wrong direction, you know, so being able to think and adjust and have the speed, but also the agility to measure if what you're doing is right. I think you guys have taken a very good approach to it and I appreciate that, so.

Any other big news? I know that we've had the ConnectWise Secure 360, we've had a lot of stuff, announcing your new position here with IT Nation. Anything else?

[Gregg Lalle] (14:11 - 14:45)
No, I just look forward to kind of getting on with the planning for Connect, right? So some of this stuff, if you think of kind of chapters of how they unfold when these events unfold. Now we have IT Nation in Australia at the end of August.

I've got Evolve in Denver in the beginning of August. But really, again, starting to put in a lion's share about who are we going to bring for Connect? Who are we going to bring as guest speakers?

Who are we going to bring for, what is the variety that I'm going to bring and the spice of some of these things? And I want to cadence. We're going to bring a lot of things, hopefully, that are going to make a lot of people excited for different reasons to come and be part of the event experience.

[Uncle Marv] (14:46 - 14:59)
All right. Great. Well, I will be in Orlando for IT Nation Connect.

I'll be covering the PitchIT stuff, and then we're doing stuff all summer with IT Nation. So I will get to watch and see how things go.

[Gregg Lalle] (15:00 - 15:00)
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv] (15:00 - 15:01)
I think it'll be pretty good.

[Gregg Lalle] (15:01 - 15:04)
That's awesome. Well, I'd love to have you there, and I'd love to have a sit down if we get in our schedules.

[Uncle Marv] (15:04 - 15:13)
Will do. So, Gregg, thank you very much there, folks. Gregg Lalle, and I believe the official title, General Manager of IT Nation.

[Gregg Lalle] (15:14 - 15:20)
General Manager? That's fine enough. I won't be insulted.

I'm sure there was Senior Vice President and General Manager. That's all right. That's for my mom.

[Uncle Marv] (15:20 - 15:31)
All right. That's it, folks. Gregg Lalle with IT Nation here, and we'll be back with another episode here from IT Nation in Orlando soon.

Talk to you later. Holla!