732 ASCII Meets Apple (and a DeLorean)

[Uncle Marv]
Hello and thank you for listening to the IT Business Podcast. Before we begin, I want to acknowledge that the audio quality of this episode may not be up to our usual standards. As you know, we recorded live in St. Petersburg at ASCII EDGE and the settings were less than ideal, so you're going to hear background noise, echoes, etc. But I don't want you to worry, you can find detailed show notes and a full transcript available for reference, so you won't be missing any of the valuable insights that we discussed today. Thank you for your understanding and let's get on with the show. Hello friends, Dr. Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast coming at you live from St. Petersburg, Florida. We are in day two of ASCII EDGE, the final ASCII event of the year dubbed the ASCII Cup. And we are here and going to have a fun time tonight. And I have in front of my booth a DeLorean.

And my next guest has spent a lot of time over there looking at it, checking at it. He is a connoisseur of collecting cars. Joe Balsarotti is with me.

Joe, how are you? I'm doing well. All right, so let's just start with the obvious.

What did you think about the car?

[Joe Balsarotti]
The DeLorean is one of those cars I've always wanted. My wife tells me if I buy a ninth car, because I have eight now, that I can move out and the car could stay there, but I won't be staying there anymore. But it was one of the unique cars that I actually thought about buying when it was new.

I just did not have the money for it, but it was so cool. But we'd love to add that one to the collection. Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
I saw you talking to the gentleman that is in charge of the car. He got to drive it in here and I chatted with him a little bit and got some history of the DeLorean and the fact that they don't know exactly how many were made.

[Joe Balsarotti]
I think the record keeping of the DeLorean Motor Company was not something that they were really worried about.

[Uncle Marv]
Right, right. But it is a nice vehicle and they've done a great job making it look, I guess what they call, scene ready or movie ready.

[Joe Balsarotti]
It's the movie edition.

[Uncle Marv]
All right, so Joe, you have been a long-time member of ASCII. You're one of the people that when we look at ASCII in the Vanguard perspective, you've been around for quite some time. So before we get into you and your company, tell us about your lifetime experience with ASCII.

[Joe Balsarotti]
Well, we've been members of ASCII since 1991. Okay. Almost the early days.

Almost the early days. We were one of the first non-software center companies to join and it's made a difference for us. I mean, in those days, you could very easily see the advantage.

I mean, you could see it in black and white or on a spreadsheet. Nowadays, it's a little different that a lot of the benefits are non-tangible ones. It's opportunities to get business from other members, to help other members, to have them help you in other cities, things like that.

And of course, the knowledge. It's one of the best benefits. I'm in St. Louis, St. Louis area. So we're central time. And by the time I log on to the ASCII forum, for example, someone will say, man, there was a bad patch overnight and here's how you fix it and all that. And the people on the West Coast are just like, oh, I woke up.

Yeah, I got three of those calls and thanks. I didn't even have to figure it out. So how do you figure out those benefits?

But in the beginning, it was discounts from the big distributors and it was very easy to see the value.

[Uncle Marv]
Now, you need to look beyond the numbers. So one of the things this year that I've done with ASCII is try to commemorate their 40th year. And they themselves have not done anything major.

Yeah, it's 40 years, but it's business as usual. But in talking to some people about the long standing value of ASCII has been a story that I've tried to pull out of people. And it's similar to yours where, yes, in the beginning, huge discounts and all of that stuff.

But lately, it has been more the relationships, more the partnerships and stuff like that. Is there anything more that you might bring to the to talk about what you've gotten from ASCII over the years when the discounts weren't there as much and ASCII, of course, expanded and has brought more things in? What is it that has kept you coming back?

[Joe Balsarotti]
Well, there's always, I mean, in any organization you join, you have to put something into it to get something out of it. If people just say, OK, I'm a member, they don't do anything, they're never going to see any value. The more engaged you are, the better the return.

I mean, it's like any other business. The more time you spend on it, the better your result is going to be. But a lot of it is relationships and what that brings to the table.

And it may not just be relationships with other members, colleagues and such. The social event, as part of this, to be at the lobby bar and talking to vendors. And maybe what they have to offer is not something right now that fits your business or you need, but you keep it in the back of your mind.

And maybe that person moves to another company or something. But you've already got that relationship set up. And I've been lucky.

There have been a couple of vendors who over the years have come to me and said, we want you to try this solution. I don't think it's right. No, no.

We're giving you the solution. We want you to try it. We want the feedback.

And I mean, it's a definite benefit for our company that sometimes we're included in that. And it's because I go to a lot of these events. I participate in our forum.

I give feedback, good or bad, to the vendors. And you get a result.

[Uncle Marv]
Relationship building is a two-way street. And the fact that a lot of the vendors that are here make themselves available. They're sitting in the sessions with us.

They're here. A lot of other conferences, they may just show up for their time at the booth and get in and get out.

[Joe Balsarotti]
And there are always a couple, even at these events that you don't see. And they usually don't last long because they don't get the result because they're not engaging with people. And you need that.

You want to deal; I don't care what kind of business you're in. I don't care how long you've been in business. I mean, for my company, this is our 41st year.

But I've been in the industry for almost 46 now. It doesn't matter what you're doing. It matters that you're comfortable with people.

And you got to spend time. You have to get to know them. And when there's that level of comfort, then you're going to have a better result.

I mean, you're going to engage with the vendor more. They're going to get a better result. You're going to get, if you have a problem, you know who to talk to.

You can cut through this red tape and get things done. And that's another thing that ASCII has helped over the years. When there's a big problem with a large company, a distributor, a vendor, whatever, and multiple members have been impacted, and ASCII's gotten involved and kind of consolidated all those problems and gone in front of the vendor, then things get done.

As an independent, our voices are small.

[Uncle Marv]
You work together, your voice gets heard. There you go. So I want to do a quick transition because you've talked a lot about your participation in ASCII, but one of the things I think people have looked to you towards is some advice and some stuff.

And I heard somebody mention, you know, Joe, do you make it to every single event? And you do get to a lot. But let me ask about your business because obviously it's set up in a way that allows you to participate more.

So tell us about your business. And I mean, you know, over 40 years in business, obviously a lot has changed.

[Joe Balsarotti]
A lot has changed. We've morphed the business three or four times. If I'm talking to someone on the street and they say, what do you do?

I say I own St. Louis's oldest computer store because that they understand. You know, if I tell them, well, I do industrial electronics and anti-obsolescence for aerospace and defense, that's not going to do it. I own a computer store.

Oh, okay. You know, well, what about this, that and the other thing? But we started out, hence the name Software to Go, with three locations, pure retail, software only, because everybody and their brother had a computer store in 1983.

Yep. And it's like, okay, that's not where we want to be. But the hole we saw to fill was that once someone bought a computer and that initial bunch of software, the computer stores didn't want to deal with them anymore because the big ticket and the profit was gone.

So we came in basically like bookstores were in those days, rows and rows of software. Between the three stores, we had like $350,000, $400,000 of inventory sitting on the shelves. But unfortunately we became the bad guys.

Because time and time again we had to tell someone, no, you want this for business. Okay. BPI accounting will not run on the Commodore 64 you just bought.

You know? So we got into hardware. And hardware meant that you needed a service department.

You know? So that was the first really morphing. And then we realized that retail was not going to be it.

So we consolidated to our one location that was the vast majority of the profit and volume anyway. And after that, somewhere, I don't remember the year, I remember it's like they want us for our brains. That's what they're coming in.

It doesn't matter if it was an engineer from McDonnell Douglas trying to bounce something off. What about if we do, you know, or if it was an individual, you know, who just wanted to be on the cutting edge? Or if it was, you know, a business saying, you know, if I buy a computer, what can it do for me?

So, you know, we need to be working on the consulting end, the labor categories, this kind of thing rather than selling stuff. But we've never stopped selling stuff. It's still we are now full service.

We have customers in 42 states. Almost all buy referrals. A company buys a division or someone moves.

They'll keep us. Because we give a very personal level of service. And I empower my staff to always think like owners.

And I think that's one of our differences. That even the 19-year-old tech that I have now, he's the young one. My service manager has been with me since 06.

Even my admin now 10 years with me. So I don't have big turnover. But they all can make decisions.

Everybody except the kid because he's 19, he can't. But they all have credit cards. If they need, you know, if someone's out and they need to go to Best Buy and buy a cable to get the job done, you know, on site, go do it.

You know, I don't want them wasting time with this. So they're empowered to think like owners. Make business decisions that are best for the customer and us.

[Uncle Marv]
You were telling a story, and I don't think I was supposed to be involved in that conversation, but I ended up moving a little bit towards, you were talking about your receptionist or office assistant. First of all, you talked about the way that you got her to come on board. And then you were talking about what she was doing to help a customer that kind of surprised you.

Can you tell us that story?

[Joe Balsarotti]
Well, my right hand, my office manager, last week, she's been with me 10 years. And as you've already alluded to, I have a lot of cars. And a lot of them are classic cars.

And there's a McDonald's that's halfway between my home and the shop. And I would go through, get a large Coke on my way to work. Got to have the caffeine and sugar to start your day.

And it got to be that instead of pulling up and hearing, welcome to McDonald's, the speaker's like, hi, Joe. Nice car. Large Coke.

Anything else? And this would happen, I think they just assumed if there was a cool car driving, it must be Joe at a certain point. But even the regular car, this lady knew me.

And I was looking for some non-technical help. I just needed another body to answer the phones, be there for UPS and deal with the day to day so I didn't have to. And I got to the window and I said, if you're ever looking for something else, here's my card because I'm looking for somebody.

And about three hours later, she was at the shop. Well, I don't know computers. I said, no, I'm looking for somebody just to help me with the administrative stuff.

So, oh, okay. Needless to say, if you're doing McDonald's as a middle-aged lady or if you can be in an office environment, she opted for the office and joined us. And a couple months ago, I hear her on the phone because one of our niches, I didn't go out to get it, we have a lot of retirees.

Retired executives, retired CEOs, retired managers and their spouses because they want that level of service and support. They want to keep what they had in the working environment but they wanted a home. Now it's two individual machines and the big thing is I can't play bridge today.

What's wrong with I can't get online to play bridge or get on the country club website or whatever. So I hear Karen on the phone with this lady and she's like, oh, no. Now, look at the top.

Do you see my pointer? Now, when you click this, see that little paper clip? There's the attachment.

Now, and she's walking her through how to print an attachment on Yahoo. Okay? Which is, you know, it's an individual.

They've used it. That's what they're using. And she gets done with all that.

Okay. Yeah, no call any time. Hangs up the phone.

Oh, she calls all the time. She just can't remember how to print an attachment. So I just take care of her.

Okay. I mean, it never got written as a ticket. It never went to the techs.

My admin took care of it, which is fine because the way we bill, they sign up, even individuals can sign up for a support program for the year. So it's not like we're losing billing or anything. But my admin had gotten to the point where some of this stuff was easy enough that she's helping these individuals with this.

It's like, oh, I got a level one tech I didn't know I had.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, it's something where, I mean, obviously she's been there long enough. I'm sure she's, you know, weaved her way into the intricacies of your company. And that sounds like a perfect fit to where she can just, you know, obviously she's probably the first person they talk to when they call in anyway, so they're familiar with the voice.

Yeah.

[Joe Balsarotti]
And again, like I said, I want them to think like owners. I want them to be empowered. Karen thought she could take on that job, and she did.

You know, great. I mean, why not?

[Uncle Marv]
So, Joe, those are great stories. And I wanted to get you on to share them just to give others a glimpse into, you know, some of the different ways that we can utilize our office staff to assist and the fact that you empower them to the level that you do. I don't, I think I would know maybe two other MSPs that would give even one credit card to a staff member, let alone all.

[Joe Balsarotti]
I've only been burned once, and it wasn't bad. So, I mean, you need to invest in the staff. And, I mean, we also do profit sharing.

So, they're invested. And I want everybody pulling in the same direction. Everybody needs to be pulling the same direction to move the company forward and to take care of the customers.

I mean, that's why it's worked for us.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, that's great to hear. And I want to thank you for taking some time away to come sit with me and chat. We've known each other for years, haven't done this.

So, I appreciate that. And I thank you. And for those out there that are either ASCII members or even if you're not an ASCII member and you get a chance to meet up with Joe, sit down and hear some great stories and learn some stuff.

And if you want to be in business 40 plus years, join ASCII. All right, Joe, I'll let you get back to the DeLorean and back to the show. But thank you very much.

And for those of you watching and listening, thank you very much. And be sure to check out the show notes. I didn't mention our sponsors, but I want to thank ASCII for having me here.

I want to thank Rhythms for powering the podcast. And of course, our good old friends, NetAlly, SuperOps and Thread, and TruGrid for secure remote desktop. Don't forget them.

Check everything out, support the show, and help me keep talking to folks like Joe and everything here. So, that's going to do it. We'll be back with, I think, a couple more podcasts here at ASCII in Tampa.

And we'll talk to you later. Holla. Hello, friends.

Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast. And we are coming at you live from St. Petersburg, Florida. And we are starting day two of ASCII EDGE, the final ASCII event of the year.

It is here with the cup. And I am going to actually make a little note here because this particular episode is not live. But for people who are watching, watch this video later.

I have a second camera. Sitting in front of us is a DeLorean from the Back to the Future movie. And I'm going to let that go for a little bit.

And people can watch that. People are showing up and taking pictures. So, if it gets loud during this recording, that is why.

Now, on to my guest here. When we showed up to ASCII this year, we were greeted with what we thought was another conference. But it actually turns out to be a little partnership going on here.

And joining me is Terry McAdams. And he is out of Wichita Falls, Texas. Exactly.

Yes. Not get that mixed up.

[Terry McAdams]
Your luggage didn't go to Wichita, Kansas. That's the joke back in the day. All right.

[Uncle Marv]
So, Terry, you're with a group here known as ASMC. And tell us what that is because I don't want to mess it up.

[Terry McAdams]
It's the Apple Solutions Marketing Corporation. We're actually a membership organization very much like ASCII. And that's why there's like this natural kind of connection there.

So, we used to be called the Apple Specialist Marketing Corporation. But Apple did away with that particular moniker, that name. And said, you guys can't use that Apple Specialist term, right?

Because we used to be Apple Specialists. But anyway, so we are here today. I was familiar with ASCII group years ago because before I actually joined the ASMC, I was in the ASCII group.

And then I had to kind of make a business decision all the time.

[Uncle Marv]
It's like, well, what am I going to get my best value?

[Terry McAdams]
And being the Apple group was more specific to us. So, I saw more benefit there. So, that was in 2007.

And then here two years ago, the ASCII group, another member, Jeffrey Boyd, he was also a member of ASCII. And he saw the connection that, hey, maybe we should partner up. And so, he got the leadership involved.

He's on the board of our group. And lo and behold, they made a deal. And we're able to include our ASCII membership as part of our ASMC.

So, we're not the same. We're not merged. But there's definitely a partnership.

So, we love being in this. We're trying to get our traditionally retail-focused folks into the managed services world. And so, some of us are a little ahead than others.

And so, we're just trying to help our fellow ASMC members get involved. And it's also beneficial to ASCII members existing because we're another resource in the Apple world. You know, it ranges from the curiosity of, ooh, what is that?

Like in a zoo, you know. Ooh, what are those animals? You know, all the way to...

[Uncle Marv]
There is a separation that exists in our world. And even though a lot of us will use Apple products like, you know, iPhone, iPad, most of us have only dealt with either a one-off in an office where somebody brings in a Mac because they're either doing the, you know, the video or graphic portion of a business and then everything else is PC. Or we've dealt with mobile device management for compliance with HIPAA and stuff.

And that's about as far as I went. Right.

[Terry McAdams]
Well, and that's where those of us who really focus in on the Apple products, although we're cross-platform. We support both Windows and Macs. My heart, of course, is in the Apple ecosystem.

But I was in the Air Force for 20 years and had the opportunity to grow up through in the 80s and in the 90s. I knew it's early 2000s. I got to grow up as a network administrator, although that was not my primary job.

I was an avionics. But I happened to take that opportunity to learn. And so that's what I had to work with the DOS machines back in the day with autoexec.bat, config.sys, IRQs.

[Uncle Marv]
Right. Okay. You've said the correct terminology.

[Terry McAdams]
So ultimately, I like computers. It really doesn't matter. So I kind of grew up in all that.

But my love, if you will, of Apple is not, I'm not like some people. I mean, we've got on the Apple side, we've got people who hate PCs and don't want to have anything to do with them to the people like me who, hey, you know, I'm good. One, I am able to take my passion of helping people with technology and turn that into money, you know, and I enjoy what I do.

So that's kind of what we're trying to do here is trying to merge, try to bring in an opportunity for us to learn more. Also, the ASCII group offer up another resource. And so we want to, you know, we just want to enjoy helping others as well.

So that's kind of what happens.

[Uncle Marv]
So before we get into some of the things that we're trying to do together, tell me a little bit about you personally and your company. You have your own company called Mac Tech?

[Terry McAdams]
Mac Tech Solutions. So back when I was still in the Air Force, I had been a member of the Apple users group in Wichita, Kansas. I was stationed at McConnell Air Force Base up there.

So I entered in 1984. That was my second base. While I was there, got big into the Apple stuff, Apple community, ended up helping people by going over to their house for free from the user group and helped them out with something.

And then when I moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, I was stationed at Shepard Air Force Base at that point. I thought, gee, I could probably charge for this. And so part-time out of my spare bedroom, I started my business.

1996, January 1st was the official date. And went from there and got involved in the dial-up days of internet where it took an hour and a half to get a computer online, dial-up days. And so got to get all that kind of thing and then eventually retired in 2004.

And so then was also cultivating a relationship with Apple as part of the Apple Consultants Network, and also becoming a service provider and a reseller and all of that. Got all approved. And because I was in the market, I was a small, what Apple called white space.

There was no coverage. So that's kind of how I grew up. And then as an Apple reseller, just in the retail focus, I still had my business customers just evolved and grew and all of that.

Became a member of ASMC, ASCII group first and ASMC, and now I'm back.

[Uncle Marv]
So that's a quick and dirty way of saying it. In terms of the business, because I think most MSPs on the AC side have this, I don't want to say misnomer, but our idea probably is that most of your business is going to be that residential. It's going to be the iPhone, the iPad.

And unless you can find a business, maybe like an engineering firm or somebody that's going to be all matched, that the business side of the world is not as robust as our side. Is that true? What's the difference?

Or can there be?

[Terry McAdams]
Well, and I'd like to believe that even though I love the Apple platform, if you will, but I pride myself on being balanced, really on understanding the advantages of each platform. The only thing I haven't touched really very little at all is Android, but obviously iPhone, iPad and Windows machines, I'm pretty balanced on that. And so there are some, I think both platforms absolutely have their constraints, but there's such overlap in their capabilities that it really comes down to a choice of what the customer wants, the advantages of each platform.

There's, you know, all of that. There's availability, there's much more, but more is always good, right? Just because you have a more of something doesn't make it all good, right?

There's a small segment of more that's the best. Well, typically the Mac doesn't get anything but the best stuff because it doesn't become profitable for a lot of companies unless they can make it really good because Mac users are willing to spend the money, but they're not, and I say Apple users, not just Mac users, but they tend to, they're willing to spend a little more money. But I think that IBM has already proven by the studies and things they've done, because, you know, IBM, interestingly, right?

Started the PC revolution, and yet they're out of the hardware business, and when they go down and they're able to look at it objectively, they've got a ton of Macs. They are, I think, Apple's biggest customer.

[Uncle Marv]
Really?

[Terry McAdams]
And so they use mobile device management, all that stuff. They've deployed, you know, a lot of devices to airlines, all that kind of stuff. So in the business side of things, I have, because of the cloud, really too, and Microsoft being there, Microsoft, I have to give Microsoft credit back.

When Steve Jobs came back, he invested, if you think about it, $100 million. Yeah, for you and me, that's a lot of money, but in that realm, that $100 million was not all that much. They got a non-voting stock out of it, and then they promised Microsoft's office for five years.

That's all they did, and that turned the corner, I think, for the Apple community, and then from now on, now it's like Microsoft has gotten humbled, right, over a number of years here, and not just because of Apple, but because of the internet, and so Apple kind of benefited from that, and so I think that is, for the most part, is not a fair assessment of what can be done on the Apple side of things. I think because you've got Microsoft Office versus cloud, so many applications on the cloud, that really doesn't matter that much.

There are very specific things that PCs absolutely do better and can only do, right? Now, some of that's made better because we have virtualization, we have parallels, and VMware, although with the Apple Silicon transition, we kind of had a little hiccup there for a little bit, but now with Microsoft officially supporting ARM architecture, then that's now bringing back our ability. Right, and I have not gotten back into it, because I've sold a ton of parallels in Windows to do just to run QuickBooks.

QuickBooks is available for Mac, but it's not as robust. There's one of those cases. It's good enough for most customers, but there are cases where they're doing project management, they're doing all kinds of other stuff that they needed the full version of QuickBooks.

Now, QuickBooks, of course, has now gone crazy on their price, and so now that's making people go on annual and all that kind of stuff, and so that's kind of pushing people, making some decisions. So it's a changing world, but I think it's an unfair assessment for the most part.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay, that's fine. Like I said, I work very little in that space, and over the years, I've had some applications, for instance, when people want to connect remotely, a lot of times the only solution was to go PC, and if anybody had a Mac, they had to buy a Parallels license, but now a lot of my remote applications, there's a Mac version, but you don't have to do that anymore, so there's more compatibility that's being done and everything.

So, all right, well, that's good. Now, going back to this synergistic relationship between ASMC and ASCII, what are some of the things that you have seen that has allowed the partnership to flourish? I was walking down this morning, I ran into one of your friends, and first thing he did when he pulled out his card, he said, if you ever need hardware, if you ever need this, I imagine that's the easy partnership.

A lot of us can't just go to our distributor and buy Apple stuff, but what other opportunities are available?

[Terry McAdams]
Just partnering up, and even in a co-managed potentially, a lot of the traditional MSPs with Windows and all that, don't even want to touch it. They just say, hey, I'd love for you to partner up and you take care of the Mac or Windows, or I'm sorry, Windows, but the iPads and the Macs and whatever, and that's possible all the way to just simply hardware, or even partnering up and providing a little, sometimes a little free help. I've given a little free help.

I'm sure we've all helped each other out. Hey, could you go and take a look at this and kind of get you pushed in the right direction? That's what I've done with several ASCII members already.

I've provided 10 or 15 iPads, a few Macs, and I'm great. It works well for me just to do a one-off here and there, too. I forget who it was exactly, but I got a referral.

This larger company was hiring this marketing person. They're going to work from their house, and so I shipped it to their house on an iPad and a Mac, and they weren't going to do any management or anything like that, just a small, and that helps our numbers, right? And it takes care of you guys.

I don't have to deal; we deal directly with the customer. They did an ACH, paid me right up front, and the credibility of working through an ASCII member gives me a lot more security in that I'm going to get paid and don't want to take the credit card fees and all that, so it works out really well, I think.

[Uncle Marv]
Now, we should probably clarify, because I know I've talked with you and some others that we can't actually buy our hardware through you because of the Apple agreement.

[Terry McAdams]
That becomes gray market, and Apple takes that extremely seriously. That is a grounds for immediate termination of our contract.

[Uncle Marv]
So the partnership doesn't mean a place for us to buy hardware, but we can allow you to sell hardware to our clients and do it through a partnership.

[Terry McAdams]
Right, and most of us, it's beneficial in the sense that we're absolutely not wanting to violate that trust of trying to, and if you need us to sign the partnership agreement or whatever it is, I don't have any problem with that. So just to make sure our lines are clear, but that's absolutely not what I'm after, and I know Jeffrey and some of the others, that's not what they just want, because again, it's helpful for us to get those numbers out, and I can't always promise a commission or anything, but if it's a good enough order, I can probably throw some love your way.

[Uncle Marv]
So when I saw you guys yesterday, you had a group meeting. I saw that you got exposed more to the managed services world, and one of our good friends, Bradley Gross, stepped in to give you guys a presentation. Let's talk about cyber security and stuff.

So between Bradley and other things, what has been the big step for you guys when it comes to managed services?

[Terry McAdams]
Well now again, some of us have been doing this for a little while. Now I'll admit, I have a retail store, and I've got my regular B2B customers, and I have dipped my toe into the managed services. I have a staffing agency that has 50 Macs and 40 iPads that I manage using Apogee as one of our tools, and I use Syncro, and anyway, but I'm learning more and more about the legal aspect of it.

I had an agreement that I got to come to you, and I know that needs way different needs than today especially. So learning all about the legal aspects of it, but I'll tell you my biggest challenge right now, I'm here to tap in, and I'm overwhelmed with all the tools.

[Uncle Marv]
A lot of tools.

[Terry McAdams]
Like yesterday, oh my god, I think those are all important, but I'm not, in most cases, not there yet, but I need to get most to the basics, and I'm afraid of missing out on something. There's going to be some gap. So being exposed to it, it's great.

It comes with the other side of it being overwhelmed at the stage I'm at, and so some of the optimizations, business automation, all that kind of stuff, I'm baby steps right now.

[Uncle Marv]
Baby steps. There is a lot, and even those of us that are seasoned in this space, it's a lot for us because things change so much and all of that, but no worries, Terry, and of course, you've got now 1,500 new buddies and pals that are in that space and asking, so.

[Terry McAdams]
Oh no, and I've said I've been here before, but it wasn't back this through 2007, so it was certainly managed services then, but not what it is today.

[Uncle Marv]
Much different now.

[Terry McAdams]
So I'm glad, a lot of it, I've just been real, in fact, some of the same people are still in leadership when I was a member then, so this organization is great. Like I said, we're trying to figure out where we're at with our Apple group, but we're glad to be here. We're trying to get more of our members, because again, they're having to have that mind shift, so we're trying to help out and do our part to get them moved into this, and then that, by extension, the more we get our members more participating with ASCII, then it's going to benefit them and the group as well.

[Uncle Marv]
It'll be great. So I look forward to spending more time with you guys and maybe dipping myself back into some Apple products and look forward to seeing what ASCII and ASMC can do together. So Terry, thank you for stopping by.

Well, thank you. All right, and that's going to do it, folks, and I'm going to bring up the DeLorean picture as we exit the screen here for those that are watching the video, if I post it. I don't know if I will, but anyway, thank you all for listening.

We'll be back with more recordings here from ASCII Live in St. Petersburg, and we'll see you soon. Holla!