716 QuestingHound's Tech Stack: Why TruGrid Stands Out

[Uncle Marv]
Hello friends and welcome to another episode of the IT Business Podcast presented by our friends at NetAlly. This is the Wednesday live show that we do every Wednesday, mostly at 8 p.m., sometimes in the afternoon, but we are here at our regular time slot and I have a new guest to go along with our new platform and a lot of things we're going to be chatting about tonight. We're going to be talking about our newest sponsor, TruGrid, and I have to say that carefully because there will be some newer sponsors coming a little bit later, but TruGrid came on a couple of months ago and I had been asking them about getting somebody to come on the show and we actually ended up getting another MSP that could come on and chat and another Florida man.

So, this is going to be a very special show. So, John Bowden is in the house with Questing Hound Technology Partners. John, how are you?

[John Boden]
I'm fantastic, Mark. Thanks for having me.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. Well, thanks for coming on the show. We'll get to all of that in just a minute, but I want to start with the big news story that came out today.

There was mention of a departure from a company that Eric Torres was at and, of course, speculation, shenanigans, all of that stuff. Well, it was announced today that Eric Torres will be joining the team over at Pax8. He will be the vice president of channel and community engagement and let's see, there was a quote here.

As we continue to drive partner success through our community engagement events and education, Pax8 is thrilled to bring on more firepower in order to take our programs to the next level. We are doing just that with the addition of Eric Torres and that was said by the godfather of the channel, Mr. Rob Ray, and he continues under Eric's leadership, we will expand our community engagement with the goal of continuing to drive partner growth. So that is the big news in our MSP channel today, and we are already in works to try to get Torres on the show.

It's interesting. He's never been on the IT Business Podcast, so this may be a first. Let's see here.

There's, of course, some other news here. Let me go ahead and say thank you to our sponsors. I mentioned NetAlly as our presenting sponsor, the network and testing analysis experts.

So whether you're deploying, managing, or troubleshooting wired or wireless networks, NetAlly has the tools to get the job done, and I talk about all the time. The EtherScope, the LinkRunner AT, two great tools for frontline network troubleshooting. My mug that I'll be drinking from tonight is sponsored by our good friends over at Super Ops.

Streamline your MSP operations with Super Ops, the all-in-one PSA RMM solution. They're also a sponsor of the Florida Man segment that you'll be hearing later. And then today we are talking about our third sponsor, TruGrid.

Secure remote access to your Windows, desktops, and apps with TruGrid SecureRDP. And unlike other legacy solutions, TruGrid eliminates firewall exposure and internet latency. So we'll be talking all about them tonight.

I'm going to run a little ticker here. I can find out where it is here. Here we go.

So for those of you watching, I've got a little ticker running across the bottom of the screen, and it is kind of a schedule of the final three events that I will be attending this year. Many of you know that this has been a banner year for me, attending almost 13. Well, I shouldn't say almost.

I will be attending 13 events in 12 months, which is a record for me. And those will continue. I just came back from TechCon, which we talked about on last week's show.

The end of October, I will be in St. Petersburg to attend the last ASCII event of the year, the ASCII Cup, and that is October 23rd and 24th. The ticker's all messed up. I don't know.

I got to get a producer to put that all right. So it was running into the event, which is right after that, the next following week, DattoCon, which is October 28th through the 30th, and that will be in the good city of Miami, Florida. And then the week after that, IT Nation Connect, November 6th through the 8th.

That also is in the great state of Florida, in Orlando. So if you are in Orlando, Miami, or St. Petersburg around any of those times, let me know. We'll do a meetup.

And I got a very special announcement from the people over at IT Nation. Because of all the stuff that we did with PitchIT, they're giving me some discount codes to give away. You can get $250 off of the ticket price.

And that ticket code, I did not come up with this. It is MarvinBPodcast250. I asked them to change it.

They said they couldn't. It sounds like a horrible code, but just know I didn't come up with it.

[John Boden]
Sounds like a NASCAR race.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. So very interesting there. So those are the events.

I'll have them listed in the show notes with links that you guys can sign up if you need to and come hang out there. So let's go on to the show. First, let's do this.

John, this is your first time on the show. We actually just met in the last 36 hours, pretty much, as True Grade was trying to help find somebody for this. Oddly enough, you're here in Florida as well.

So let's tell everybody about you and your company.

[John Boden]
Yeah, we're neighbors. We're right up the street. We're in South Florida, Deerfield Beach.

I think you're in Fort Lauderdale. So we're very close. I'm with Questinghound Technology Partners.

We've been in business since 2001. We're definitely, I would consider us an MSP. We kind of started out as a traditional bar, working with large corporations, selling projects and hardware and transitioned probably 10 to 12 years ago into the MSP and really dove in hard.

Love it. Enjoy kind of shifting from the enterprise to the small business and really helping small business owners and their teams achieve what they need to achieve and working with them and affecting our community. It's just been really like that segment much more than the corporate space.

And yeah, that's where we're at.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. Let me first ask you about the name because it sounds a little odd and I don't want to say what I found out there on the internet because I don't want it to be wrong and to have myself look like a fool. So tell me, where did that name come from?

[John Boden]
Where did that name come from? It is definitely odd. The name Questinghound comes from a John Macefield poem.

John Macefield was known as the poet of the sea and he used it in one of his poems to describe a clipper ship going off to sea like a questing hound. When I was a kid in the mid-seventies, I was living in Connecticut obviously with my parents and I had a baby sister and they grew tired with life and sold everything they owned and bought a 37-foot sailboat, moved the whole family onto it and we sailed down the intercoastal waterway for about a year and a half. The intercoastal waterway went over to the Bahamas in 1976 and spent almost eight or nine months there and they ran out of money and ended up in Fort Lauderdale.

And that's how I'm here in Fort Lauderdale. And the name of the boat was the Questinghound. So when I started the company, I just thought it was a risk for them, a risk for me and it was unique.

And it really, really we quest for technology solutions all the time. So just like the poem, we're on a quest always to find the right solutions for our clients. So that's where the name came from.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. So the internet was right because that is the story that I got. Although it didn't say that they ran out of money and that's how you ended up in Fort Lauderdale.

But then you guys never got enough money to leave.

[John Boden]
Yeah, I guess. Well, you know what? It's not a bad place to end up.

[Uncle Marv]
That is true. That is true. But you did move a little further north to Deerfield.

So.

[John Boden]
Yes.

[Uncle Marv]
That helped.

[John Boden]
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. And so your company, so you do all the traditional managed services stuff as well. We talked before the show, you guys are doing co-managed IT, which I do a little bit of.

And which thing do you like the best?

[John Boden]
I mean, I think in general, full managed services, going to the clients and really helping them get their IT straightened out, helping them expand, helping them achieve their goals. To me, that's the best. I really enjoy that.

Helping small businesses in our area just be successful. It's very rewarding. That's one of the big things.

The other thing I really find I love about the job is getting people starts in the industry. So kind of on our technical team, having kind of the tier ones, maybe job changing, career changing, coming in and giving them some purpose and getting them going in there and watching them grow and prosper. It's been really, that's another very rewarding part of the job for me too.

So internally watching my team grow and just embrace all the different solutions. It's just great. And if they're thriving, they're great with the clients.

It just, it works all together.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. Do you have a customer avatar or a niche that you guys focus on?

[John Boden]
Not really. It's definitely business based. I mean, I think we focused on accountants and legal fields in a lot of ways.

We have a lot of sales organizations, some service organizations. Companies that are attached to technology. I love companies that really embrace technology, love technology, just cannot consume enough technology, realize that it's a benefit for them when they have good technology and they can differentiate themselves in that arena.

So that's really what it is, a corporate-based arena. We don't really have a niche. It's a broader spectrum.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. Nice. So you mentioned the legal space.

So probably in any given time, 60 to 70% of my business is law firms. And I fell into them around, probably around the time you got started there, 2001. I met them on Thanksgiving, did a network assessment for them.

They had an internal IT. I didn't think I'd get the job. Three months later, they called me up at like 9.15 in the morning and said, how quickly can you get here?

We're firing our guy. That's kind of how I ended up with falling into that legal space. I had a technology review with one of my law firms this morning.

And it was interesting because most of the time, we're fighting with attorneys on how to spend more money and do the things that we want them to do. And I had pulled down the stop ransomware guide from the Florida Bar website and used that to help them with their security requirements because they're an insurance defense firm. So they're getting requirements from the insurance carriers on how to protect their data, how to protect their networks.

And they give them all the security guidelines, secure VPN, multi-factor. And he looked at me, he said, I know we got to do these things. I know we're going to have to spend money.

So let's just do it all and let's get it out the way and protect ourselves. And I was kind of taken aback. I said, do it all?

Are you serious? And he actually was.

[John Boden]
I was just in a sales call a couple of weeks ago and we were like one minute in. And next thing you know, one of those insurance forms comes flying over the desk. They're getting very good, very detailed.

What EDR are you using? Hold on. Can you fill this form out?

I'm like, oh, okay, we can. Don't worry about it. So those insurance forms have been good for business for sure.

I think people are just worried about it. It's like, can you do this? They don't understand what it is.

It just makes, can you do it? It's about trust and take care of business. Just do it.

[Uncle Marv]
Do any of your clients use Time Matters as their case management software?

[John Boden]
No, we don't have Time Matters.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay. Did you freeze up there on me?

[John Boden]
I think so. Hold on one second.

[Uncle Marv]
Yes, folks, we are live and he'll be right back. It's a very quick refresh. Works fantastic on this new platform.

I'll tell you about it later. You're back.

[John Boden]
I guess I got too excited. Or maybe the insurance people are here.

[Uncle Marv]
No, you said no to Time Matters, so we cut you out. Yeah. So that's a platform that a couple of clients use, which the reason I brought that up is some of these platforms, they're still tied to terrestrial servers.

So how are you finding that in the legal space?

[John Boden]
I mean, we're starting to see a lot. Clio is a big one. A lot of people are going to that and they got a pretty good sales pitch, I think, depending on the niche of where it's at.

We still have some legacy servers, but more and more we're seeing them go to the cloud. So it's working out really well. We're a Microsoft shop and we use business premium and it's a really good story when you kind of start tying that whole cloud together and you can show the attorneys, hey, you can go work out of your house.

You got a VoIP phone system, everything's there. And then all of a sudden the pocketbooks start to open up a little bit. So it's been a good story for us in that vertical.

[Uncle Marv]
So you're probably leveraging SharePoint storage, but for the cloud apps like a Clio, a lot of those things, they have their own data storage to sync their forms and stuff like that. Are you finding that you're having to use other solutions to bridge the gap?

[John Boden]
No, we haven't had an issue with that. I think most of the, you know, they still will use SharePoint in a, you know, not a huge way. Most of our clients and they'll use the Clio side of it, but we have not had to bridge the gap.

We do have an Axcient solution that we can provide as well. The old Anchor solution if they need, but there's, you know, we support Box and some of the other ones out there too, if they need to have some other storage systems at that as well.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. So let's turn to why we got you here and how we met TruGrid. So I've been a user of TruGrid.

I don't even know how long, four or five years, and they recently became a sponsor. And I said, you know, that gives you a slot to come on the show. And we talked about having somebody else that uses TruGrid that can attest to, you know, its merit other than me, other than somebody at TruGrid.

So we came to you. So let me just, you know, open the question and you can answer it however you want. Why are you guys using TruGrid?

[John Boden]
It's the best solution we've found at a very affordable price. And they're a great company to deal with, I guess is the best way to put it. Remote access was always a pain.

We've been about the same amount of time, four or five years. We started just before COVID. Thank goodness.

We had, we were seeing, we were taking on clients that were being breached with open RDP. I mean, 10 years ago, that was a big thing, right? RDP.

And they had to open and people are getting hacked. I'm like, you're getting hacked because it's, you know, it's easy to hack. It's not a big deal.

And so we really were trying to close that down. And then remote access, I mean, we were a continuum partner that included LogMeIn, which was okay, but the monitor situation with double monitors and the printing. And so we really were just struggling to find like, we need to find a solution that's just easy that we can deploy out there.

And, oh man, did I freeze again?

[Uncle Marv]
Well, go ahead and keep going. Cause we can hear you. So keep talking.

[John Boden]
And then I'm not sure why the camera's freezing, but I'm sorry about that. So we actually are an ASCII member, which I think you, I can see you are an ASCII sponsor out there as well. And they were a vendor of ASCII and, you know, we started using them and we really liked it and we really weren't going full out with them.

We kind of were just testing the testing and then COVID hit and all our clients were like, Hey, we're going remote like tomorrow. We're like, Oh my God, what are we going to do? And we rolled it out, man.

And you know what? They did a great job. They really, to me, saved us.

I was very nervous because they're still somewhat of a young company back then, but they're able to handle it. I mean, the issues we were having in our Microsoft and their data centers really couldn't keep up in some regards as they're trying to figure out as everybody's going remote. But that really showed us that this product works.

It's simple for our guys to monitor. It's simple for the customer. It's built in security.

It integrates with Active Directory and Entra ID. It just had all the easiness and the security and then RDP is RDP. It's great.

So, you know, that's really the reason that we've chosen them and we've stuck with them over all this time.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. I've got a couple of questions, but I'll go ahead and do a quick promo on TruGrid while you do a refresh there, and I'll bring you back. So for those that do not know and could not tell from John's explanation, TruGrid does remote access, and it's secure remote access, and it allows employees to work securely across desktops and applications from pretty much anywhere.

It is a cloud-based solution, and as he mentioned, it integrates with Active Directory, so you don't have to actually create any new credentials or anything like that. It's Windows integrated, Active Directory integrated, multi-factor authentication, and is pretty much a zero trust application, so if you don't want them to have access to, you know, files and printers and all of that stuff, you can configure all of that right in the console. John, one of the things that I was doing before TruGrid is I was using the firewall solution we were doing, you know, VPNs through the firewall, and it was a separate login, then we had to do a separate authentication software to go through that, and it was fine.

It was better than, you know, what we were trying to do before with, you know, log me in or whatever was out there, and it was clunky because we had to assist with installing the VPN client on the user station. We had to give out the passphrase to do the initial setup, and a lot of our clients didn't want us doing that. They didn't want us touching an end-user's home station, and TruGrid was the solution where we said, well, look, they can install it themselves, and they're set up to log in using their email and password.

Boom. Easy as that.

[John Boden]
Yeah, I agree. It just was as simple as can be, and, I mean, again, especially during COVID, a lot of people did need to use their home computers, and it was not something we really recommend or we like doing, and it's just easy. I mean, that's really what it comes down to.

It's an easy solution that's secure that people understand. We really, I mean, knock on wood, we don't get complaints for people. Once it gets set up, it just runs and keeps things going, so, yeah, I can't say enough.

It's been really great, and really, they really helped me out during COVID, and, you know, we all were freaking out during COVID, and that company, I know they went to the, they were crazy busy as well, and they really stepped up, and I remember that, and those things, to me, last, so I'm happy that they've continued to evolve and get better and more efficient. It's been great.

[Uncle Marv]
So, you mentioned COVID, and the client, actually, that I sat down with this morning was one where we actually, they were in three different offices at the time, and it was something where, when they needed to make their main office remote, it was like, how fast can you do this? And I said, I'll have you up and running tomorrow. I mean, it was literally going in and adding everybody to the groups and sending, you know, I just modified the PDF instructions that we created for them and said, email to this to everybody, and you're good to go.

So, it was another thing, you know, another feather in our cap, I guess, that he just looked at us, and he said, man, that was awesome, and it just made it to where, you know, we're not going to look for another IT solution provider, because you're providing us things that are easy and secure and just work.

[John Boden]
Yeah, I agree, totally. Just, it's one of those products that I did worry about in the beginning, especially back then, but I just, we don't worry about it anymore. Yeah.

It's just easy, and it's secure. It makes us look good. I mean, the two-factor embedded already with it, just all the different things are in there, and I feel good.

It's just, it's been a great product for us.

[Uncle Marv]
Now, I'll ask this just from an MSP standpoint of how you present it to your clients. I know some people, it's just part of the stack, and they're paying a per, you know, per computer per user price. How are you doing it?

Is it something that you're including, or is it an add-on?

[John Boden]
We actually add it on. So, you know, we do have, with our subscription with Continuum Connect-wise, we have, oh my God, Screen Connect, whatever it's called now. I think it's back to Screen Connect.

So, but, you know, that's okay. So, if they want to have a secure remote solutions, we sell them in packs, like five or 10 or 20, just to make it a little bit easier. And then, so it's an add-on for our clients.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay.

[John Boden]
So, it works out good. It's a secure remote add-on. We've never had a complaint.

I don't feel like that's something, because not everybody needs it. So, if you need it, great, we got it. And here's a, you know, just what, how many users do you need?

You know, it's not three. Okay. Well, you're in our five pack, you know, it's not seven, and you're in our 10 pack.

It makes it a little bit easier to sell, and it's been great.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. So, I've done a combination where for some clients, it's just included as part of their deal. And for others, it's an add-on.

I've not done the packs though. I've actually just, you know, this is how many licenses you have. This is what you're paying for.

I was going to try to switch it because I'm getting tired of, you know, all of the solutions that we have out there that consolidate our billing for us. I haven't found one yet that'll go and grab the true grid billing for us. So, we still have to check that ourselves.

Have you found anything to do that?

[John Boden]
No, that's another reason we sell packs because sometimes it's a little hard. We try to run some reports and some true ups at the end of not really every month. It's a very affordable solution, which is great.

But we try to do it, I think, every quarter. It's like, hey, how many licenses do we have deployed? And then we kind of true up, but you're right.

We don't have those licenses popping down automatically.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. So, we've had as many as 15 people watching the show. I'm assuming some of these are true grid folks.

So, Brandon, if you're listening, that might be something to think about, putting on the roadmap, integrating into some of these billing solutions.

[John Boden]
Yeah, I like it. I second that motion.

[Uncle Marv]
Let me now go back and ask, since I went ahead and asked about your stack and stuff, for the regular MSP, and I'll just leave it at that because we're having conversations in our channel about what is an MSP versus MSSP versus solution provider, blah, blah, blah. But for you guys, when you're doing your pitch to a prospect and stuff, are you coming in with managed services packages or are you tailoring things specifically to each customer? How are you going about that process?

[John Boden]
For the most part, we want to qualify before we really get to that. Hey, have you ever consumed IT like this? There's a couple, there's net new, right?

They never had IT. Typically; those are on the smaller side. Then we have clients that already have IT and maybe are frustrated or looking to make a move for whatever reason that is.

I've outgrown my provider or I don't get any response. It seems to be a big one lately. We'll figure out where it's at.

We're really getting a little, we used to be all over the board, but now it's like we got our stack. For us to be successful, I really feel we have to deploy what we know, deploy our stack. It's really, we have kind of one size fits all.

We will make minor adjustments depending on what the client is and if there's some really outstanding needs, but this is what we're going to do for you. It's going to include the security, it's going to include the helpdesk, include the backup, and here's the number. That's typically what we're doing going in.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay. At my last conference, TechCon, one of the breakout, one of the topic discussions was standardization. Some people were talking about their stack, some people were talking about processes and stuff.

When it comes to the stack, are you guys standardized? Were you using the same product across the board, like a firewall, switch, that sort of thing? Is it all standard?

[John Boden]
95% of the time, I would say, yes. It's all going to be standard.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay.

[John Boden]
Yeah, we use a Meraki firewall, Meraki switches and access points, which have been wonderful for us. We do support some sonic walls, but in general, we really want to try to get our stack in there.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. So those of you that are hopping in, because I see it's odd here, I can actually see multiple listening platforms, and so I'm watching people come in. For those that don't know, we stream live on YouTube, LinkedIn, and the Facebook, so I'm seeing people all across that.

So if you knew, I'm talking to John Bowden with Questing Hound Technology Partners, and they are based here in South Florida. Now, it says you're based in Boca Raton. Is that where the office is?

[John Boden]
It's in Deerfield Beach.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay. But Boca sounds better.

[John Boden]
You're probably looking at some marketing. We're based in Coral Springs, in Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Palm Beach.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, Boca sounds good. It's Boca, the home of IBM, right?

[John Boden]
That's right. The birthplace of the PC. On Estridge, my kids went to middle school there.

[Uncle Marv]
Really?

[John Boden]
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay. But not to FAU?

[John Boden]
Not to FAU, no. To Mighty Owls. I love FAU.

[Uncle Marv]
It is a great place.

[John Boden]
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
Great. Let's see here. Let me see if I have any other questions here.

[John Boden]
Barbara, I want to talk about one more thing, too, because it's an important piece, especially when we're talking about making... I would say when we chose...

[Uncle Marv]
TruGrid?

[John Boden]
TruGrid, we probably weren't thinking about this as much as we do today, but when we're starting to evaluate, it's great. Places like ASCII, Evolve, we're involved... I remember, too, kind of do that first level of triage.

So I know, okay, we're getting kind of a decent amount. But one of the things lately, really the last couple of years, is it's more than the product set, because there's a lot of vendors out there in the MSP space. You know how it is.

There's 10 vendors we can go pick a certain solution for. And I'm really starting to get very picky about the company itself, the culture of the company, who's running the company, who owns the company. Are they really trying to continue to evolve and make their product better?

Or are they really just trying to suck the money out of it? Is it a private equity plan? I'm not saying all private equity is bad.

So I think it's really important to take a look at the culture of these companies and make sure they're aligned with my goals, which is to get a great product at a great price that's continuing to get better and better so I can go give that great service to our clients. And I really feel TruGrid is in that. We have a number of, you know, in our stack now that are really more so, hey, there's a lot of other solutions out there.

I'm not saying one's better than the other. And I definitely want to say TruGrid’s better. But make sure you look at the culture of the company, who's running it.

Do they really have the best interest of the MSPs? Are they trying to make their product better? I really do feel that TruGrid fits in that, that kind of legacy, you know, product that I want to be in a company that's going to continue to grow and evolve.

So I do want to let people know that TruGrid fits into me. They're going to check that box too when I'm going down evaluating new vendors to this day. So it's important, really.

It is. You're in this business. You've seen what happens.

Great companies get bought and then they don't evolve. And it's the same product that we've been using for 10 years with no, you know, it's not evolving at all. So I just, I want to make sure people understand.

I feel that they're a good company, you know, that you want to do business and they care.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah.

[John Boden]
Really care about the success of their partners as well.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. One of the things that I've liked about TruGrid is that they, they know their lane and they've stayed in it. You know, they're not trying to do all these add-ons and dip their feet in this, this pool and, and stuff like that.

They've consistently been working on their core product and making it better.

[John Boden]
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
And that's really what I want to see in a company. They are truly MSP friendly, which is another thing I look for.

[John Boden]
Yeah. Support is great. Get right on with them.

And you know, if there's an issue and generally it's, you know, you know, resolved pretty quickly.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. And I will say this. There was probably a point in time where I worried about the fact that my customers could actually just call them as well.

And I know that they sometimes were like, well, we'll send you back to, you know, the partner that's hold it to you. But you know, when it's crunch time and somebody can't get on, I did have somebody that was overseas and I, it was at a time I wasn't going to be available and TruGrid helped them and they got them on. It was a weird little issue with where their IP was in, you know, the, you know, the blocked country list and stuff.

We had opened up the country that they were supposed to be in, but the IP didn't match, you know, that sort of a thing. So I like that.

[John Boden]
It's not easy. Remote access is very challenging. And it's usually someone like in their home office, like me and their camera keeps freezing, you know, what's going on with the internet connection or their video card or whatever it could be.

So there's, there's a lot of nuances around remote access. You know, that's like the, oh, you need remote access. Okay.

It's like, we got it for sure. So really they're playing in a challenging space on top of it all, which is one of the things I think you, we all have to look at. Cause it's always remote access, you know, it's always been an issue in the past for us.

[Uncle Marv]
I like what one of my customers did and I didn't think about doing this early on, but one of my law firms before they allowed their staff to work remotely, they actually had to provide the specs of their system and their home internet, you know, the provider, the speed, are they working with a cable? Are they wireless? And they came up with a list of specs that said, this is the minimum you have to have.

If you want to work from home, we're not going to provide it for you, but you've got to prove to us that this is what you had because early on, we had that issue where there were people that were working, you know, they had the internet on one side of the house, but they're trying to work on the other office into the attic, you know, and no Wi-Fi connection.

[John Boden]
It's always some, I giggle at the tickets that come in, you know, Hey, I can't connect.

[Uncle Marv]
So that was just fantastic. So of course I took their sheet and adapted it for everybody and said, Hey, give this to your employees if they want to work remote. And it, it solves a lot of those ticket problems.

You know, you don't get those calls because the customer will actually qualify that before they're allowed to contact us. Well, you said you had this speed. What, what's your speed test say?

[John Boden]
Right, exactly.

[Uncle Marv]
This is going to open up a can of worms. I don't want us to go into numbers and stuff, but did you get in on the ASCII deal? The very first ASCII deal that was a very, very favorable price.

[John Boden]
Maybe. I mean, we've been for, I mean, we've been, this is like, we've got to be one of the first few companies for them, I'd imagine, right?

[Uncle Marv]
Okay.

[John Boden]
Five years ago.

[Uncle Marv]
You were, I wasn't, I actually, and this is, this is me looking at a new company. I'm like, eh, I don't know. And it was literally, I don't know, three months after that deal ended that I went back to them and said, hey, you know, that deal that you got, could you, and they're like, no, we can't do that.

But I got a good one. I'm not going to complain. I'm happy with my deal.

They haven't changed it. They haven't raised the price for me. Anyway, I know that they've, you know, if you're joining now, you're not going to get, you know, the deals that, you know, John or I have, but it's still a good price.

[John Boden]
It's a very affordable solution. Pricing is not going to be an issue.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. If you're looking at, because we had one client where we literally did spec out, they were a SonicWall client and we spec'd out a, you know, remote secure appliance with the licenses, with the additional bandwidth, with support and my, you know, additional management time. And they were like, you know what?

Just, just stay with TruGrid.

[John Boden]
That's no way. You can't come close to competing financially with another old firewall.

[Uncle Marv]
So do you have a story that you tell customers that if they're, you know, kind of iffy on it? And I asked that and I'll preface this with my story is, you know, we have a lot of people that are like, well, they don't want to use their own stuff. They don't want to have to use their phone.

We don't have to, you know, all these little hiccups. And I have to tell them, look, I have a not-for-profit with two very nice ladies that are much older than I, if they can do it, you can do it.

[John Boden]
Yeah. I don't know if there's so much. I mean, everybody, you know, we have certain clients that, I mean, two factor.

I mean, it's just the reality nowadays, right? So either a client's got to provide some kind of device or not. I mean, there's some great solutions with Meraki and some access we give them via conditional access and so forth.

But we've had a few, but not much. It really doesn't come up. You know, RDP works well.

And we talk about it. It secures it. It's the biggest breach point or was a lot of times the biggest breach point.

And we've, most of our clients just easy to use. We have a training video. We have a couple of people on our team that are great at training and holding hands and walking people through it.

And once they see it and do it a few times, like you said, it's just easy and it gives them the ability to kind of work remotely, work anywhere. And it's not been an issue. We really have not had; I haven't had to sell it really.

This is the secure remote access solution. You want it? How many users will train you on it?

And it's been fine. So that we haven't had any pushback.

[Uncle Marv]
Very nice. Very nice. All right.

Well, John, I want to thank you for coming in and chatting about TruGrid and chatting about your company. I know you didn't plan on that originally but thank you for that as well. And look forward to chatting with you again, maybe at one of the ASCII events, maybe the ASCII cup in Tampa or St. Pete. Maybe. Okay.

[John Boden]
We'll see. I haven't committed yet. I have, there's a, you know, there's a, you saw the shows, right?

They're stacking on top of each other.

[Uncle Marv]
Yep. They are, but at least they're all down here where we can drive and that'll be fantastic there. Yeah.

So yeah, if you don't make it over to, you know, the West coast, you've got Orlando, you've got Miami.

[John Boden]
So you're like 15 minutes away from my office. We can go grab lunch. We can do that.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah, we can definitely do that. Um, so there you have it folks. Um, Florida man, uh, since John is new to the show, um, I know he was happy to say he had a Florida man story and it's, it's tough because normally John, what I do is I ask people that are out of state to see if they can have a story to challenge Florida man.

So in your case, you know, a lot of the Florida man stories, but it's always, yeah.

[John Boden]
A lot of times South Florida too. It seems like maybe Tampa and South Florida.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. So let me start with this. I'm actually going to share, uh, let's share this video here because this is absolutely insane and this is a new platform.

So let me bring this up here and get this started. So it's not, it's not a video that I can actually download folks. So if you're, you're watching the show, normally I get, you know, but this is something that I had to grab from the X, formerly known as Twitter.

And it's from a poster that is named only in Dade. And I hope I did this right. So let's play this video.

Of course it has a warning on it. This video contains graphic content. So that was the video.

Let me stop this here.

[John Boden]
Oh my God. It looks like my office at lunchtime.

[Uncle Marv]
So that was a stop sharing. Okay. Uh, so if you were watching the video, yes, that was a naked man in broad daylight.

And the story actually, this is too ridiculous. So the initial heading says that it was 800 Brickell Avenue. And for those of you that are savvy enough to know the address, we have a company down there by the name of Kaseya that has offices at 800 Brickell Avenue.

Now that wasn't necessarily what the story was about. It was just basically, uh, just a naked dude who, uh, sometime in the morning was repeatedly, was reportedly having issues. They don't say what the issues were.

They don't say it was alcohol. They don't say it was a mental state. But, uh, he was approached by law enforcement.

He fled with a knife, jumped into the ocean, swam around the east side of Brickell key for about 10 minutes. Um, in that story, they only showed the video from the front, but later on there, I, and I tried to look for it. He actually got pulled out of Key Biscayne by Marine officers.

Uh, but the part of the video that you saw were bystanders, uh, attempting to subdue him. So that is a, that is a Florida man story for tonight.

[John Boden]
That's where we live. Are you recruiting people to come in? I don't know.

I think it's still; they're still coming.

[Uncle Marv]
So, so I will say this and she doesn't watch the show, but I'm sure this will get back to her. But Don Sizer, uh, from the great state of Pennsylvania tends to believe that there is nothing South of Florida. I mean, South of Orlando in the state of Florida, that's worth visiting.

And I challenged her to come down here and find out for herself. So we do, we can't have it. Come on.

We got the keys.

[John Boden]
We got South beach, great weather year round.

[Uncle Marv]
We got Los Olas.

[John Boden]
We got golf. We got fishing, outdoor sports, restaurants everywhere.

[Uncle Marv]
We got, um, we got, what's that guy's name? That, um, the guy that plays soccer for us.

[John Boden]
Messy.

[Uncle Marv]
Yes. Messy. And his new ole, ole, ole, ole commercials.

[John Boden]
Yeah. Make it $50 million a year. Yep.

[Uncle Marv]
Just so you know, this is basically going to be for me and you, anybody listening probably doesn't care. So we are just literally three blocks from that stadium.

[John Boden]
Lock car. I used to, I remember going there as a kid, watching the strikers play a lockers Fort Lauderdale strikers.

[Uncle Marv]
Yep.

[John Boden]
Oh yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
And, uh, so when, first of all, when we heard that, you know, the Miami soccer team would be taken over the stadium. My first fear was that we would have parking issues with all the people coming up from Miami who didn't want to pay for parking. The stadium would come into our neighborhood and park in our streets and stuff.

So that has been subdued. But then of course, when Mr. Messi joined the team, yeah. Traffic is traffic is nuts.

Uh, when that happened, I mean, cones literally for miles, uh, on all different directions of the stadium and stuff, it's, it's a site.

[John Boden]
It is. It's been fun though, right?

[Uncle Marv]
It has. Yep. And fun.

All right. So enough of Florida man stories and stuff. Uh, John, thank you very much for coming on and I'll send a nice little thank you to, uh, Brandon and Jennifer, uh, from true grid that helped make this happen.

I want to thank them for coming on as sponsors and basically more for putting together a product that works. It's easy. Uh, so folks again, check the show notes.

Um, I've got open dates into October. So we'll have lots of shows, both live and audio, uh, head over to ID business podcast.com and check out some of the earlier shows. I do want to let everybody know this.

Here's, here's the story of tonight. Uh, I didn't even tell my guests, but I am working on this new platform. What's not new, but it's new to me.

Restream. So that is why you see me doing a little bit of stuff, uh, on and off air here. And I'm doing that because I'm going to be doing some stuff with Amazon, hopefully.

And I want to thank those of you that have supported the show, not by becoming a patron or subscriber, but by using my Amazon link on the website to make your purchases. I'm starting to see some good numbers. So I want to say, thank you.

I want to say, continue to do that. If you have not done that very easy, just go to the website, click on the Amazon link at the top. You can save it as a shortcut.

And if you use that as your starting place, you shop on Amazon as you normally do. Your prices are the same, but there's a little kickback for me as an affiliate. And that would be the way that you can support the show.

And there's going to be some promotional coming up for the holiday season. So I want to gear up from that. Uh, I want to do my black Friday special as an Amazon live.

So that's what I'm working on folks. And I hope that you'll, uh, support me in that and keep doing that. And let's see, I don't know who's on next week.

Cause I didn't bring my schedule with me, but I want to thank John Bowden from questing hound technology partners, uh, from joining me tonight and that's going to do it folks. Thank you all a lot of people in all three platforms tonight. Thank you for watching live and trying to find my, my video for outgoing stuff.

Uh, so I want to say thank you folks. Uh, that's going to do it. And until next time, Holla!

Thanks Marv.