703 TechCon Unplugged: You In?

[Uncle Marv]
Hello friends, Uncle Marv here and welcome to another episode of the IT Business Podcast powered by NetAlly and we are here for the weekly live show, Wednesday evenings, sometimes at 8 p.m., sometimes at 4 p.m., but at least for the foreseeable future, always on a Wednesday. So here we are and tonight we are going to be talking all about TechCon Unplugged, one of the hidden gems of the channel, a conference that we are in the fifth year and it has been a conference that has been very near and dear to my heart. I've neglected talking about it so I wanted to take a little time here and dedicate an entire show about that conference and I've got a couple people to help me with that so I'm going to bring them out of the green room right now.

We have Joe Knezovich with Cyber Onsite Service. Joe, how are you?

[Joe Knezovich]
Hi, how are you doing today?

[Uncle Marv]
Doing good and let me also bring in Kyle Kenyon, pro tech guy. Kyle, how are you?

[Kyle Kenyon]
I'm doing well, how are you, Uncle Marv?

[Uncle Marv]
All right, doing pretty good, doing pretty good. So I know we're going to talk TechCon but let me go ahead and ask you guys, how's life, how is business?

[Joe Knezovich]
Go ahead, Kyle.

[Kyle Kenyon]
Oh yeah, so keeping busy, trying to make some adjustments as not only personal life changes but the business changes. So kind of rocking and rolling with that, enjoying the summer. We've got two kids under the age of five so they're keeping us busy and just kind of enjoying the nicer weather.

I know Marv is treated to that all the time but not so much for us in New England here.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, I did get to spend a few days up there a few weeks ago so I saw your weather. Joe, how is it up in the Midwest? I was in Indiana last weekend so I was close to you.

[Joe Knezovich]
You were down at IU, right?

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah.

[Joe Knezovich]
That's about 150, 160 miles from me, something like that. Indiana has been great. I mean, business has been fantastic.

Matter of fact, for an old man, it's really been a little too much. But I can't complain, I've been blessed. I've been crazy busy but I'm getting by.

I have a guy that's coming to TechCon with me, he helps me a lot on projects and if I'm out of town, he takes over for me for calls and different things like that so that's good. And you guys, I think Marv and you have met him before.

[Uncle Marv]
Oh, okay. Did I like him and he like me?

[Joe Knezovich]
Well, I hope so.

[Uncle Marv]
Apparently, I've heard that I can turn some people off on the first contact.

[Joe Knezovich]
Oh my god, I mean really, if you've never been to TechCon, you want to come just to see you as the MC.

[Uncle Marv]
I'm not so sure about that but thank you for the kind words. So let me just real quick for people that may not know, TechCon Unplugged is the annual conference designated specifically for IT business owners and managed service providers. The event aims to bring like-minded professionals in the IT industry together for a weekend of learning, networking, and business growth.

And this is one of those conferences that was born out of a larger conference experience that we were at, I believe it was 2014 or 2015, a bunch of us were at one of the large conferences. I won't say the name this time but I've said it before and I'll probably say it in the future but for those of us that are smaller IT professionals, whether we're solo or just a few techs, it was kind of a slap in the face to hear people on stage complaining that we were stealing their business and we don't belong in the industry and of course I said bah humbug to that and too bad the man in the van no longer exists. And that was actually when that was born and then of course the original version of TechCon, the UnConvention, came out of that and we basically banded together and said hey we belong let's help each other out and the conference continues to go on today. This year it's going to be held September 12th through the 14th and it's going to be at the hotel at Arundel Preserve in Hanover, Maryland, basically right on the outskirts of DC.

So it's going to be three days there. Tickets are still available. I have no idea how many but I do know that if you are able to sign up and get a ticket you can use a code that I have.

I'll have it listed in the show notes that you can get a little discount, I don't know, 75 bucks off the ticket price there. So be sure to use that and if for some freaking reason you really want to go and money is an issue, reach out to me directly and we'll see if we can't get you there. If money is an issue, money is not the issue.

So reach out and let me know and we will get you there. So Joe, Kyle, you guys are veterans of the conference to some degree. I think Joe you missed last year for the first time.

[Joe Knezovich]
That's correct. I had every intention of going and some family matters came up and I had to cancel but yeah that's the first one I missed.

[Uncle Marv]
All right and Kyle you were there, you were the last two right?

[Kyle Kenyon]
In spirit I was there but not in person. I also missed it.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay so here I am just reaching out to guys saying let's talk about Techcon.

[Kyle Kenyon]
Well I could talk about it. Yeah we're the last ones he picked so.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah no you were the first two actually. This is how great it worked out this week. So well let me, I mean I can of course give my comments on the conference and stuff but I wanted to get some other people on and I wanted to get people I hadn't had on before specifically when I do either the road to Techcon or the voyage home.

Wanted to get some different perspectives. I'll do that again after the conference but when you guys were there I really want to talk about what the spirit of the conference was. So in terms of your perspective you know one the reason you went in the first place and two what was it that made you come back.

Let's talk to that Joe. You've been in the long haul for us except for last year. Give us that perspective.

[Joe Knezovich]
Yeah you're exactly right Marvin. I've been there when it was called the UnConvention. Corey Fruitman I think from instant house call to now and you know one of the reasons that I like it it's not large like the conference you just got done referring to.

CompTIA conference but it's more intimate. You get a lot of time to spend with vendors as much as you want really. For me I like it because you're in the grind every day and sometimes you get away for a few days with other techs you can step back and take a look at your business from being away from it.

I really get energized a lot of times and that's when I usually come back with different tools or things that I can use to make my business better or more secure of course today. But that's one of the reasons I like it and I have a lot of people that I know now since I've been around a while. I've been around a while in a lot of ways.

Gray hair is showing something to tell you one thing but you know I've been in business now 15 years and I've got a lot of friends that come to that and it's good seeing people you know like you Marv and Kyle I don't remember meeting you when you were there. I probably did but I don't remember I guess.

[Kyle Kenyon]
Yeah I think we kind of cross paths a little bit but not enough maybe to you know no hard feelings at all there. Busy busy.

[Uncle Marv]
All right Kyle when was your first time and what was you know the reason that you actually decided to show up and be a part of it?

[Kyle Kenyon]
Yeah so my first time was I think maybe the first or only one in Michigan. Is that being it their only one in Michigan? Yes that was the first yes.

Yeah yeah so that was the first time I went to that. I think what made me kind of want to go to it was that so that would that was my first conference ever. So one of the things that came to mind when Marv asked me about this the whole thing the whole TechCon thing is what why would you want to go to something like this?

Is it for me it was a really welcoming community to be able to go to my first conference. For me it was it was something that was obtainable financially. It was easy to handle and I felt like it was really kind of a small niche like kind of community.

Everyone's together just talking tech so that's what really made it easy for me and I have to say midway through that conference I said I would never want to miss one of these again. Unfortunately I have but it's not because I didn't want to go. So it's very it's a very welcoming thing for new people.

I know some people might be the same position I was in at that at that point in time. First show or maybe new to the business and looking for something to kind of get your feet wet. It was a very eye-opening experience for me.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah I think one of the things that's always stood out for me is you know the large conferences are great to go to if you just want to see tons and tons of vendors. If you want to be entertained I guess and stay for the after parties and the and the receptions. Well I was reception is one but in a sense the presentations I guess you know when you get to see some music stars concerts and stuff and that's a big deal but to be honest that's not why I attend those conferences and it makes those conferences very expensive and I was speaking with somebody earlier today we were talking about attending one of the conferences later this year and the comment was you know conferences are getting to be expensive and for that type of money to go to a large conference I mean you have to know ahead of time if you know somebody going so that you can make plans to meet up and see them because otherwise you could be there for three days and not even see them. So it makes it difficult whereas a conference like TechCon you're going to see everybody you know from the time you show up to the time you leave you have the opportunity to stroll across the room and shake hands rub shoulders and chat not just with the other attendees but the vendors as well.

[Joe Knezovich]
Yeah and I think I think Martin you're hitting on something there that you go to those some of those other conferences and everything's it like a almost a high level where this conference brings it right down to getting dirty and understanding things my opinion you know you know you can go talk to somebody and the other ones are just to me and even like Kyle said it is very affordable you know you're fed eat well you drink and you can have a good time for not a lot of money you know and if you want to drive there it's even less money yeah so but and where are you from Kyle?

[Kyle Kenyon]
I'm from Massachusetts so a ways away Framingham 20 minutes from Boston 25 minutes yeah

[Uncle Marv]
So I want to make sure that I give a shout out to the people that put this on uh Paco and Rick otherwise known as Taco and Slick Rick from the MSP Unplugged community and they have taken on the reins of putting this on and keeping it as an affordable event that is educational and for the best way to explain it to me is uh people friendly is probably one of the ways I like to talk about it so for those that don't know Paco LeBron is with Prodigy Techs and Rick Smith is with Renactus Technology and both of them are I mean they're considered veterans in the channel now so they helped put together this conference and it is literally designed by IT owners for IT owners and that's why is it really resonates with us because the people that are on the planning committee they're us you know they're not some vendor you know sitting behind some conference you know doors trying to figure out what do MSPs want well the only way you're going to know is if you ask them now I should probably qualify that vendors probably do ask so I don't want a vendor yelling at me for saying that but it's a little different when it's put together by your peers and I think that's one of the things that really makes it great. Kyle when you first showed up and you know the fact that you said you don't want to miss another one even though you did uh what was probably a key takeaway that you remember that really stands out as to why you said that?

[Kyle Kenyon]
I think the value that I got from that show like even if it's just like from learning but even if you just take away from like just a financial standpoint it easily paid for itself I mean many times over if you if you're calculating up till now even that first show that I went to I think you can easily pay for your ticket so if you're just thinking of it from a financial standpoint that's an easy wash for me but the second thing is the community I think it's you know you have the planning committee and you have the people who run the show but I also feel like everyone that's at this convention is you're almost like I don't want to sound too cliche about it but you're like it's like you're part of the show and that's because it's so interactive you're not just you're not just buying a ticket to go watch a presentation and then you sit there and watch take notes right um I think you're a lot of people bring value that you don't necessarily see maybe in the bigger shows um and more of like the presentation type things and of course we have those but um the round table and hallway discussions type of things those are those are huge for me um I think it's uh that's what brings me to something like this.

[Uncle Marv]
All right Joe I'm sure that you and I've chatted about this you know over the years and stuff but what what's the one thing I guess if you had to pick one that would stand out for you?

[Joe Knezovich]
Well I don't know I mean there's so much you know Kyle hit on a lot of it there you know the value that you get from it um the relationships that you build up and like he said the community um you know I've had um the community say something on Facebook or one of the groups and they said hey I know a guy that can help you with that you know uh that's where you know how what's the price you can put on that you know uh and that's because I as I was at the show and met him and talked to him and knew who he was and um so I don't know if I could say there's one thing but uh I think that um you know the last time I was there you know the value of the theme that at that time was security which is you know back then is a big deal today's a big deal um so there's always some type of a theme in a way for the conference but uh yeah just the value the money is a mere pittance

[Uncle Marv]
to go really you know uh you mentioned the networking aspect of it of course that is huge when you can you know go into a room and know the majority of the people in the room you know or at least half uh or you go to one of these larger conference and walk into a room and not know anybody uh that is huge so I just attended the reason I was in Indiana at IU was I was attending a National Junior Achievement Reunion Conference and that conference has not happened since 1995 I think but a bunch of us have gotten together over the years the last time we were able to do this was uh 2019 before COVID so uh there's a bunch of us that get together because that conference it was a one-week conference per year for Junior Achievement and if you don't know Junior Achievement it's an organization that teaches kids about business and economics it was a company program which was after school when I attended and I was fortunate to win company of the year president of the year and then go to the national conference and then attend later as a staff person so I attended two years as a delegate and then nine years as staff so we were talking about and I've actually got a whole set of podcasts that I did for another show that I'll be releasing from of all the interviews I did where we talked about what made that conference so special and it was one of the things that it was very hard to describe to outsiders but to each other we knew exactly what it was because it was a conference that you could not see people for an entire year show back up and get right into the groove of it and pick up pick up right where you left off the year before it was such an intense ride for that week or 10 days and you worked side by side I mean it's I know I'm rambling and people are like dude what's he saying but trust me it's one of those things where I attended nine years of staff some of the people there attended 20 25 30 years and listening to them reminisce about the conference and talk about what's happened since then some of these people are such good friends that they've attended each other's weddings they've you know you know known each other's kids as they've grown up they've attended you know events flown across the country they visit with each other year after year they know each other and to some degree better than the people they went to school with the people they grew up with it's just something you can't explain I say all of that to say this the Techcon conference the MSP Unplugged community going back to pod nuts days is that type of community for us I think where when you're sitting in your office and you're like man I've got a problem I got to figure out you know what to do you know you're not looking for somebody local to help and a lot of times you're not calling the vendor you're calling somebody in this community or emailing or texting or whatever and you know what

[Joe Knezovich]
they answer yep and they're all always willing always willing to help yep and I am too I think

[Kyle Kenyon]
there's that there's one big thing about the community here to speak on that is there's someone if you're not if let's say let's say ubiquity is not your specialty there's someone in the group that their specialty is ubiquity and insert vendor product here there's somebody out there that's a there's an expert in it that's most likely in this community or they know somebody who is and I think that's huge like it's where to if you're just don't have somebody to help you through something like that or somewhere to reach out it's an it's a very tough position to get out of but when you have a group like this somebody knows somebody at least so yeah it's especially

[Joe Knezovich]
go ahead Joe especially for a solopreneur you know I mean if you have 10 employees you know there's usually somebody that's an expert on something there but when you're by yourself you need to bounce something off of people sometimes so yeah I was going to say it's

[Uncle Marv]
a little different than a peer group now and you know peer groups are usually small you've got people and you do share you know business ideas and strategies and bounce stuff off of each other but sometimes your peer group is limited as to what they have access to or knowledge yes they may have people to refer to but when you've got a community as big as you know MSP Unplugged you know a few hundred people strong and you multiply that by all the people they know you know you've got thousands of opportunities to find somebody who can help you with a product or service or a problem and anything like that so very good let me shift to the vendor side because that's one of the things that always comes up is most of the conferences the vendors not only pay for but they drive the content this conference a little different yes we do have some of them that are sponsoring and paying but they're not driving what happens at this conference so let me ask your guys’ opinion and viewpoints on how you've you know perceived the vendors not just you know by you know being able to talk with them but their presentations and how

[Kyle Kenyon]
they are while they're at the conference I’ll go first um so you're talking about strictly related to this conference yes yeah um I’ve like now i don't have a ton to compare it with but from my standpoint it's i never felt really that the vendors were pushy or salesy i felt like there were a lot of times um and maybe there's some vendors that don't fit this mold but a lot of times they're available to answer questions and you know even if you gave them a tough question they were there to answer that um there's a lot of vendors that are really great at that some that were maybe still learning that aspect of the show um and as far as content um i felt like it was so far like pretty good content i just maybe like i wanted more of it but you know there's only you know it's only so long so uh at least that's kind of my overhead of

[Joe Knezovich]
it yep joe yeah i um the vendors are um again it's more intimate again that it's not as large as some of the bigger conferences so you have time to talk to them um i try to visit every one of them um you know i know that they they're there and they pay something to be there so you want to try to use them if you can if they have something that you can use so i attempt to do that um but i don't i don't feel every time I’ve been to one i didn't feel anybody was pushy at all you know they just they'll talk to you and you know they give us a call if you're interested you know sometimes afterwards you still get the calls afterwards i mean that's just a given uh you know they're going to grab all the names that were there they're going to give you a buzz and follow up but while you're there i don't i don't feel that they're pushing anything on you they just want to answer your questions and that's what i like you know

[Uncle Marv]
yeah it's a little different when you're not having your badge scanned every few feet right um yeah it's a tough one i mean i know they got to do it they've got a they've got a show a return on investment for going there and that sort of stuff but it is it is nice to just not feel that pressure you know to just go up and talk and feel like they let me ask a question and as long as you're not worried about whether or not you know I’m qualified or not right that has helped i mean some of these vendors i think and specifically the ones that have come to this you know more than a few years they get it they understand that i don't want to say reputation but the fact that the more that they can help us regardless of whether they use or we use their product or not the better it's going to be you know we're going to remember the vendors that helped us you know even if they you know aren't our vendor if they've got an idea to help us in our business or if they're willing to guide us to another vendor that would be more suitable that's you know it's like the old Macy’s thing in the Christmas story or whatever that show was what was that movie i believe i believe a few more of the lyrics go ahead yeah miracle on 34th street right okay is that it

[Joe Knezovich]
you know i can tell you i just reached out to one of the vendors that was there that i was there two years ago yeah you know looking at you know because i remember him being there i was interested in what they had at the time i didn't um use them but I’ve called and I’m probably going to pull the trigger on them you know and uh you know i told them where i saw them and i think they're coming this year

[Uncle Marv]
also if you want to say their name we can check solution solutions granted they will yep solutions granted i don't know if Michael’s going to be there or if it's big boy Brian

[Joe Knezovich]
but or Lisa loco but shows him on the website uh yeah but career

[Uncle Marv]
Michael Crean yeah but he's well we'll see yeah you know he's all gobbled up in the sonic wall ecosystem now but uh he'll be there that that's something that really

[Kyle Kenyon]
is like joe said it's something that he didn't fit him at the time but i think i remember Susan granted and i actually love their presentation um it wasn't something i needed or used at the time but you do remember them for that and what they brought what value they brought to the show and i think that that speaks to i mean any vendor out there that's looking to do the right thing that's what you do you want to bring value to the show and then here here's joe two years later they didn't sell joe the two years ago but they just might do it now and that's in part because of the uh the reputation they have and the impression that

[Joe Knezovich]
they made at the time yep so Marvin the good Marvin no go ahead you know you know the conference you mentioned right off the beginning i remember going to that and there's a ton of vendors there yeah but it's like i felt like a fish out of water it's like if i wasn't a million plus i didn't feel like they interested me you know where here i come and you know they just you are who you are and hey can we help you so um yeah

[Uncle Marv]
i so i was going to make a comment earlier and i was debating on how far i should go with this but let me just say that i know probably 60 to 70 percent of these vendors and I’ve heard of them all i mean i do know them all but in terms of my dealings with them I’ve talked to about 60 or 70 of them and these are vendors that i would say have good vendor etiquette meaning that whether they're the right fit for us or not they're not going to make us feel bad about it and they're not going to make us feel less than if we're not in a certain you know type of category for them whether it's a million plus or whatever um i mean solutions granted you know they were mentioned earlier i mean you just need to sign up with one thing you know right there's not a huge minimum now I’m not going to say that for some stuff there shouldn't be a minimum that's you know I’m not judging that but the fact that solutions granted has made it a point of saying yeah you don't need to have a minimum with us just one it's all it takes um yeah i mean i can talk about super ops Monjur you know tech marketing engine i use threat locker I’ll say this I’ve been a packs eight partner since 2016

[Joe Knezovich]
i haven't bought one thing from them i use i use packs eight yeah right great um total was

[Uncle Marv]
very good when I’ve dealt with them uh i am i say i do use scale pad and who else on there um so but all of these at least as far as i know have all you know been good vendors in the channel there's one vendor that i actually you know what I’m going to say it and I’m going to get some heat for this but so i got a call today from a rep at a vendor that i use because my rep left and this was the new person calling and they wanted to introduce themselves and i said okay not a problem i actually picked up the phone and talked to the person for a couple minutes and i tried to let them know that listen i just went through all of the stuff for my stack i actually removed a couple of products which were substantial monies for them so it was noticeable when i removed those products i still have some other products i actually have a meeting with another division of that company in a couple of weeks because i do want to upgrade another product that i have with them I’ve got about 10 items that are coming to end of life soon and i want to upgrade those which means i would stay with the vendor now obviously i wouldn't stay at the level that i was before but i would stay with them and but I’ll be honest I’ve been pulling stuff from this vendor just because of the way that they've acted over the last year or so and I’m sure people are starting to guess who that vendor is and i I’m kind of treading water because i have a feeling that my new rep is listening to the show because one of the things that he's like oh i heard you have a podcast what is it so i told him the name of the podcast but later on as I’m trying to get off the phone and he's trying to ask me questions and all of this stuff and he's really digging in deep I’m like dude you're not understanding I’m set I’m good and he's like all right so how are you planning on growing your business and at that point you know i had said no politely a few times and at that point I’m like look I’m trying not to be rude or blunt here but you don't need to know that i felt bad but at the same time I’m like I’m trying to get off the phone let me go and you don't need to know how i run my business but sorry about that

[Kyle Kenyon]
yeah i just you had to bet i think we've all had the calls yeah yeah it's um it's an awkward position to be in and it's just you try to get out of it whatever it may be so yeah it's

[Uncle Marv]
tough and i like i said i try not to bash on vendors but sometimes you just got to but let's bring some sanity to this there's a message here in the chat you may not be looking to change part of your stack when you meet a vendor at a conference but things can certainly change a few months or even years down the road thank you lady die yeah that's for sure which is what happens a lot you remember those good interactions you remember the vendors

[Kyle Kenyon]
and yeah needs change sure i think i mean even for example i think we've probably all changed something since the first time we went to one of these conferences right i mean that's i mean it's bound to happen something changes whether you've the company changes and you don't like how things are run anymore or you need something different or more capable for what you're doing in your business i think it's always something that you're keeping

[Uncle Marv]
on your radar well the whole idea is that if you're progressing in your business or you know the term they all want to hear is if you're growing in your business and you're adding endpoints and adding clients well of course what you started with may not scale with you to the level that you need or as you add services and you find a better fit because it does more of a certain thing or it integrates better with another thing that happens that's I’ll be honest my first RMM i still have because i haven't found anything that integrates with the rest of my stack but if i change that RMM i have to find two other products to add to my stack because that RMM integrates with a couple of packages it's one of those weird things um and of course there's you know to say i want you to bundle with them but it's they're not a fit for me right now

[Joe Knezovich]
so i know paco and rick put their heart and soul in this that's for sure yes you know for the conference to be successful and like i said if nothing else you want to come anybody listening to just see Marvin as an emcee you'll enjoy it

[Uncle Marv]
listen that's not a reason to go to a conference but I’ll uh I’ll entertain as much as i can so let's go ahead and real quick if i mean even with all the stuff that has been said if there was somebody that you know were talking to for the very first time or somebody reached out and said hey i heard you talking about the conference but man i don't know is there is there one more bit of advice that you would actually say you know to them to say look this is you know yes all of that's good but this is why you need to go anything that you guys can think of

[Kyle Kenyon]
that would be that extra icing on the cake yeah i can i can think of something i think and it almost might go into another part of this this this podcast but there's one particular moment i remember it was it was after the conference we were at Dave and busters which uh if you're not familiar is a uh it's basically like if to Fridays and chucky cheese were the same thing um and it's we were sitting in our room we had a nice private room um and i was talking to tom which i think both you guys probably familiar with um very active in the community always there help um and he said oh so what do you do for computers like endpoints and i said oh i build all my own okay and i mean i literally would hand build everything so and i was like there's no way anything's going to be better than building my own thing and i was really in this thing because he says how much time do you spend building it we went through all the numbers and stuff and he said just buy a dell or Lenovo or whatever hp and take all that time back and buy a warranty for it and at the time i was like oh yeah sure lets you know that sounds good and i didn't necessarily think the idea was going to work for me but when i made that change so much time opened up and it made things so much easier not only for me and you know we can talk margins and all that other stuff but the fact that if anything goes wrong with that computer the way i run things is Lenovo’s there next day to fix it so it's i couldn't fix it any faster if i wanted to um so that one thing has i don't even know what to equate to it as a number but it's just 10 times over as has made me want to go to this conference um it pays for it all this other stuff whatever however angle you want to look at it and it makes a an easier experience for my customer and an easier deployment for myself um then maintenance all down the road all that stuff so i think that's one of the big things and that didn't even happen in the conference that happened at like literally a guest or dinner conversation on arcade okay so i talk about these hallway conversations in the community and i think that really sums it up is just one of those things that just it's that happened and that's real and that's i think that happens all the time and we probably all have our own stories about that but that's a huge thing for me i had a very

[Joe Knezovich]
you know a very similar experience where i used to uh it seems like every time i went to buy a switch i was just buying a switch you know i would try this i would try that and then i was talking to and everybody probably knows john Dubinsky and you know we were just setting again not in the conference having a beer and he sat me down he says joe have you ever thought about standardizing he said why learn all these different things at waste time and he it's like duh he's right you know you know i use dells i use ubiquity you know i have standardized i just don't you know I’m not going to change unless i have to change basically when it comes to hardware and in Kyle i used to do the same thing with building computers and i still do it for customers that want a custom computer but they're time consuming it's happening you know so but you never the thing is you don't know what you don't know exactly yeah sometimes it doesn't click until somebody says it to you you're right yep and I’ve and by god I’m not perfect by any means i I’m a mess you know compared to probably most of you guys but i make it work you know in my business

[Uncle Marv]
so here's another tip that i just started doing probably in the last two months so not just with you know building and prepping computers and stuff but the whole delivering the system to the client setting it up blah blah blah so this client that I’ve been working with they're primarily laptops but i would always have the laptops at my office where i could prep them put my agent on and stuff and then i would drive out there connected to the network do you know it's a 30-minute drive to the client and then I’m there 30 minutes to an hour connecting it to the network and then of course the 30-minute drive back so I’m there you know two hours most of the time if not more and i had been thinking about this before but i thought it was such a ridiculous thing to do but there was one day where I’m like i got to do it i don't have time to drive over there i don't have time to do this uber i selected uber package delivery they showed up at my office i handed them the laptop box they drive over give it to the client that all the clients had to do is open it up plug it in and i can remote in and finish the stuff and that alone in drive time saved me an hour yeah you know apart from everything else so you know any little thing to get back time is huge because while I’m driving you can't do anything

[Joe Knezovich]
you know you can talk on the phone you can't do invoices you shouldn't be anyway

[Uncle Marv]
yeah so I’m not saying somebody hasn't tried it but so all those things in terms of time the building computers i built computers as well i was building them for my law firms until i got to the point where i realized you know what I’m spending way too much time doing this and this was right when i was getting into some of the networking stuff and you know setting up multi-office connections and I’m like i need to be spending time on all this other stuff and they're willing to pay for the warranty you know so I’m like why not do it and yes you know and for me it was great too because at the time my one client had three offices you know one was here in fort Lauderdale one was in Orlando one was in Tampa well I’m certainly not driving to Orlando or Tampa just to repair a computer so having hp warranty on those systems i mean i had a power supply one time that i was able to have hp take care of and i didn't have to worry about driving four hours to deal with that so yeah anything you can do to get back time all those tips you know standardizing uh having manufacturer you know support from start to finish you know not just support but think about it from the sales perspective you know if you've got to buy you know multiple machines and you know you can give them a call and find out what deals they have what models match what you have i mean i remember spending hours researching specs i am not got time for that i remember with um one of the companies that's not

[Joe Knezovich]
I know we offered them to come to the conference but um when i was new to intermedia my sales rep said hey joe if you get you know you got a customer call me and I’ll get on the phone with you know we'll do a conference call and they did and you know he's the expert I’m not the expert yet because i wasn't selling that much of it you know i have become more of an expert i don't know if i ever be an expert at it but that's what you want you know they're the ones that can help you sell it and they did you know i got you know i don't know 21 phones or something like that in a business that's not bad you know for the commission yeah so that's what you want like

[Uncle Marv]
you said the vendors matter yes they do well speaking of vendors let me do this let me say thank you to the vendors that are helping to sponsor this show of course i mentioned at the beginning that the show is powered by net ally you can simplify network testing with rapid reliable tools for seamless connectivity and instant visibility trust your network with the industry's leading handheld solutions you've seen me drinking from a cup if you're watching the live show this mug is sponsored by super ops and unlock your MSP potential streamline your operations elevate your service super ops is your all-in-one platform for managed success and we also have a supporting sponsor here true grid they offer managed service providers a streamlined solution for remote desktop access empower your clients with seamless secure remote access no firewalls needed and of course head over to the website folks click on sponsors you'll see all the links there are other sponsors that support the show in other areas and we appreciate them and we're trying to do partnerships with them so support them idbusinesspodcast.com slash sponsors and of course if you just want to support the show yourself uh you can become a Patreon but probably the best way is to use my amazon store link if you head over to the website there's an amazon tab at the top you click that better yet you save it as your home link to amazon and anytime you shop amazon will give a commission on anything that you purchase no change to you they take care of it all and that is a good way to support the show so all of that is great and of course super ops also sponsors our Florida man segment and I’m not going to make you guys do a Florida man challenge but i do have a great thing to say about the state of Florida it is not as crazy as you might think but Florida has recently been ranked as the second best state to live in the nation yeah i said it and I’ve got documentation to prove it according to a recent wallet hub study Florida has been ranked as the second best state to live in America for 2024 driven by its strong performance in areas like quality of life safety and economic opportunities I’m sorry the safety one just gets me right but so there were five key dimensions so it was affordability economy education and health quality of life and safety we ranked 10th in safety by the way so i will have a link to that but it's interesting with the guests that i have on the show do you know which state ranked higher than Florida right higher than Florida was number two which state was number one

[Joe Knezovich]
how about Texas no Massachusetts really Massachusetts

[Kyle Kenyon]
so the onion article this is from but i don't know but you guys had a 50 50 shot i was just in both of your states yeah so well which one did you like better mark yeah there you go

[Uncle Marv]
listen they're both great states for very different reasons it's true actually i didn't spend a lot of time in Boston when i was there so I’ll have to come back and visit again uh probably i don't know 2027 maybe pencil you in so all right guys um that's pretty much it i didn't want to burden you down with questions or stuff any other comments that you may have thought about from tech con that

[Joe Knezovich]
we should mention get a ticket and come to the show to the conference

[Uncle Marv]
all right and if you're listening to the show make sure you tell paco and or rick uh that we talked about them gave good reviews here so get you guys to come out so Techcon unplugged dot com again September 12th through the 14th and tickets are very reasonable at 349 everything's included well you shouldn't say everything you still got to pay for your travel and your hotel but while you're there once you're there you don't have to worry about food you don't have to worry about entertainment the food is a plus for those of you that remember so but uh use the code in the show notes and get yourself 75 bucks off or if you're truly hurting reach out to me and let's see if we can't get you there so all right guys thank you very much for coming and hanging out thanks for having me thanks for having us all right so again joe Knezovich cyber on-site service and Kyle Kenyon pro tech guy Massachusetts and Indiana represented so i am going to end the show the same way we started I’m going to play a video which is a 2023 recap i apologize to those of you that might be listening back on audio only because you will not hear the promo video and the reason is because it's a minute and 49 seconds long so I’m not going to have that be an intro outro so you'll hear you'll hear the regular intro and outro but if you want to see the video there will be a link to head over to one of the social medias and you can watch it there but that's going to do it here for our show we try to be here every Wednesday at some form or fashion check out our website for additional resources and past episodes if you enjoyed today's discussion i never really asked for this but I’m going to say it now leave a review and share the podcast with your friends and your support will help me reach more it professionals like us and get more people coming to Techcon so that's going to do it for tonight on behalf of joe and Kyle i want to say thank you for watching and or listening we see you next time and until then holla