755 Holiday Podcast & 2024 Podcast Awards

What is up MSP?! Here we are folks it's that time of year uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT business podcast. This is the last show of the year, the holiday podcast, and it's a show that is unscripted.

So it's going to be interesting. I've got several of my friends joining me tonight. We're going to chat about, Oh, let's see anything they want to talk about looking back on 2024, possibly looking ahead to 2025.

And then of course we have the 2024 podcast award winners. The votes have all been tallied. It was interesting.

I think you're going to be surprised at some stuff here. So we are going to have a fantastic time. We've got a little different setup this year.

Uh, we've got two groups of people that are going to join us. So I've got a group one. They're all sitting in the green room, ready to come on here.

And we're taking a little bit of a break, come back with group two. And then we have an after party after 9 PM and we will be able to bring out the adult beverages and really go at it. So I think we're going to have a great time here.

If you are new to the show, welcome. This probably wasn't the show to watch first, but this is a show for managed service providers, technology solution providers, solo techs, anybody that is supporting business, uh, normally on a regular show, it would bring you tips, tricks, and stories, helping you run your business better, smarter, and faster. We have interviews with vendors and industry leaders.

Tonight will probably be none of that. So I want you guys to sit back and have a great time. I already see somebody, uh, has shouted out to us, Valerie Pierce, uh, down here in South Florida, uh, having a great old time.

It shall be wonderful. So to start off the show here, let me first, what happened? Oh, well, let's do this. Let us just go ahead and, uh, say hello to some sponsors real quick.

Uh, let me do this and say, of course, our legacy sponsor net ally. They have been sponsoring the show for many years now, providing handheld network testing equipment. If you want to check out wired and wireless networks, uh, troubleshoot them, diagnose them, figure out what's going right and wrong.

Net ally is the company you want to look at, uh, head over to idbusinesspodcast.com slash sponsors. And click on the link to get to net ally and look at all the tools there. Uh, super ops, the all-in-one RMM PSA tool, uh, has been a fantastic sponsor for us this year.

You're looking for something to help streamline your business, uh, super ops and see what they can do for you. TruGrid provides secure remote desktop. If you need, uh, your customers to, uh, remotely access workstations, terminal servers, and do it in a zero trust manner, TruGrid is the way to go.

Well, let's go ahead and bring out my friends here and I'm going to do this. I'm going to bring out, first of all, uh, my good friend, Tom Bull out of Jersey, a long time person on the show there and Santa hat on from Two River Computers. What's up, Uncle Marv.

How are we doing? Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. That's merry Christmas.

All right. I'm going to bring out your buddy from the Jersey area as well. Stan, the man, Louissaint from Fluid Designs, Jersey Northeast represented.

All right. And we have everybody. Hi, Tom.

Hi, Marv. Hey. Uh, we have an ASCII representative here, Lynn Williams.

Hey, Lynn. Hello. We'll see if we can, uh, her on task here tonight.

That's going. And he did show up. Uh, Brian Weiss, high tech solutions off the West coast, California.

Brian, how are you? Doing good. I, uh, logged in on my surface. Okay.

So we've got a nice little angle here. My, for some reason, my computer decided to not let my camera or my mic work on my browser. So, oh, it sounds like you need some tech support.

I did, but it was, uh, it was too late to, uh, put in a ticket cause I didn't want to be too late to this podcast. Oh, so let me just go ahead and real quickly run around the room here and ask how things have gone here as we end up 2024, it's a weird time. Because we're trying to end off the year and just forget about stuff.

Be happy. But, um, um, I don't think you were, you weren't on the show this year. Were you? No, I wasn't invited.

I think I was snubbed. Um, now I think you did some other shows and I wonder, that's right. I was cheating on you, Mark.

How was your year? Yeah, really good. I mean, uh, active in all the right ways. Um, you know, we have three separate divisions of the company we have in home, you know, at work and then we have our shop repair shop, so everything was growing, um, you know, good percents all around, so it was a busy time.

Uh, a good time, did a lot of good personal things and having fun with my new grandson. So there was a, it was an eventful year. Let's say all around.

I heard grandson. I saw the pictures on the Facebook. Is it time to be stepping back? Are you looking to hand off and him yet? He's only 18 months old, but, um, but, but certainly to, certainly to TJ, he's, he's in the wings, so we're, you know, we're, I'm looking at the light at the end of the tunnel.

I just pray to God, it's not a train about to run me over. So, but I definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. All right.

Stan, the man, um, let's see. World traveler this year. Did you, did you hit all seven continents that you wanted to hit? I don't know if that was on my list.

The last trip was, uh, to Peru. So did Machu Picchu, rainbow mountain, all that fun stuff. So that was exciting.

That was eight days out there. Um, everything has been fantastic. Uh, this past weekend ski season has commenced.

I know you don't know what that is. Cause you don't know what snow looks like. Um, I'll send you a photo next time I see you.

So hopefully we have a great ski season, but on, and on the business side, everything's been well, right. The clients have been fantastic. Um, we've been very consistent handling work, keeping people happy, which is all that we can do.

Um, and of course on the, uh, the last thing is, uh, you know, having fun running, um, you know, talking to fellow peers all the time, learning what folks are doing, right. I saw you at a show unexpectedly this year. So that was a good time, right.

Just to run into you and be around some people, but, uh, you know, not as many shows this year as I've done in the past in terms of showing up, but, uh, showed up to enough of them and got to have some camaraderie. And that's always a good time. Very nice.

Very nice. Uh, Linn, this is, uh, an interesting surprise getting you on here. Um, are you allowed to speak for ASCII? Well, I am actually, I've been with ASCII for a decade now, Marv, if you can believe it.

Yeah. That doesn't mean they allow you to speak for them. Well, once in a while I get out.

Once in a while. All right. Um, so we saw you a couple of times out and about, and let's just say, I don't think I want to do after hours with you ever again.

Well, I did see, I went Florida with you, uh, at IT Nation. So that was a fun experience for sure. All right.

Uh, how are things for ASCII this year? I know 40th year anniversary. I know there were probably some big, some big goals, some big things you wanted to celebrate. How did that go? Absolutely.

Well, you kind of took my, took my, uh, my, the words out of my mouth there. The ASCII group MSP community celebrated our 40th anniversary this year. So it was a fabulous year.

Our founder, Alan Weinberger is still, uh, the visionary. And, um, we have a lot of great things coming for 2025, but we had a great time celebrating this past year. Um, being the, you know, still vendor neutral after all these years.

And, um, as the channel evolves and the MSP space evolves, ASCII, we keep working to, to meet the need of what's coming tomorrow. So it's been a great year and we're looking forward to a great 2025. All right.

ASCII is a great partner and I think I won't speak for everybody here, but I'll say that, uh, ASCII is great. We'll start, we'll stick with that. Thank you, Marv.

Brian, uh, Mr. West coast. Um, I know MSPs do things differently out there. So how are you doing? Uh, we're doing great.

This is definitely a year of reinvention for us. Um, we're pivoting to be Microsoft first and building out, uh, in ERP and dynamics that we're moving to, to manage our company with, uh, moving away from some of the traditional PSAs you might find out there, just so we can track more things that we're, we're hoping to track all in one place and really get ourselves ready for AI, the future of AI. Um, and bought an office we're remodeling and moving into in January.

Nice. So, um, yeah, looking forward to kind of, I don't know, restructuring, uh, a new foundation to grow from really is what we're doing. So you bought a building.

I, I can't say that I can relate, but the opportunity did come up for us to buy the building that we're at. We, we rent out half of the space and the other half has kind of been empty for a while. So the owner finally decided to sell, offered it to us.

And we said, how much? And when she answered, I was like, I don't think so. Um, but it actually just sold for, um, let's just say this 500 grand more than it should have. Wow.

Wow. Yeah, we, we got lucky. Um, we, we bought a, we bought a 2000 square foot place for $400,000.

Uh, it's a, it's a condo in a medical Plaza, believe it or not. And I actually had to write a business use case, a letter because we're not a medical company. Although we do service healthcare clients.

And, um, and they, they let us, they let us buy the place right across the street from a hospital too. So, so they didn't think an it company would survive in a medical Plaza. Well, I think it's, it's, you know, it's an older Plaza built in the eighties and there's a lot of newer development around.

So part of my business use case letter was, Hey, you know, you're going to continue to lose value. If you only sell this to medical companies, because they've got plenty of other options. And, um, since, you know, I, I brought up COVID and we saw a lot of consolidation happening with, with medical offices, a lot of doctors retiring, selling to the bigger companies that, you know, are kind of swallowing everything up.

And, and so they, they did it, I guess, for proper stewardship to hold property value in the area is really what it came down to, and we're happy to help with the property value by remodeling it. Um, and we've got a big focus on the healthcare vertical, uh, that we're moving towards more of. So I think that will fit well with us.

Let me do this. Let me go back to the chat real quick. Cause a bunch of people have popped in to say hello.

I want to make sure we acknowledge them. Uh, Frank DeLuca, who was on the show just recently. Uh, thank you, Frank.

Uh, old man, Keith, uh, commenting on, uh, your hat, I believe Tom. That was a naughty. Wait, I have a, I have a nice, a nice side.

It says I'm nice. Uh, the man of mystery, Henry Tim in the house. Hello, sir.

How are you? A couple of LinkedIn users. I am assuming one of these is going to be Tim golden because he always comes up as anonymous, uh, Oh, we have, uh, one of the new friends I met at a recent conference, Kate. Uh, love hiking.

Watch you eat you amazing location. Eric Anthony, who was on just before all things MSP. Hello there.

And, uh, let's see. And Keith comments on the, uh, unbelievable price of 400,000 in California. I was going to comment.

So our space here, so we rent just over 2000 square feet. Uh, it's equal size on both sides. So just over 4,000 and the selling price was 1.3 mil.

So the original market value was about eight 50. So half of that would have been about four 25. We, we probably would have done it for that, but we, you know, we, it's not cheap in California.

We got a great deal of our lease that we're getting out of for 2,500 square feet, we're spending about six grand a month on right now. So we're, I'm ready to start putting money towards something that we own instead of someone, something that someone else owns for that. Stan, you're never going to own anything.

Are you, why do you say it like that? That was such a, such a loaded question. You're never going to own it. No, I mean, honest, I will tell you guys this in Jersey, uh, commercial real estate is actually a funded.

Um, I I've, I've had this conversation more often than not. Um, and some of the commercial realtors I know have said that, um, we never fully recovered from COVID, but the financial crisis. So there's, I'm not going to kid.

I kid you not. I drive down the street and there's plenty of buildings for sale. Uh, now where we do have a problem is the whole market.

I can tell you that, right? Um, there is nothing, uh, available in certain price points and, you know, people are bidding on houses before they even see that, so it's like a damn zoo out here, but the commercial properties, I will tell you there are more, um, more available while there's tons of them. Um, and you can, you know, in driving 10 minutes, you'll pass by plenty of commercial properties that are for sale in all, all fairness.

Um, yeah, I have no desire to own, uh, commercial real estate as of now. In fact, I got rid of my physical office last year, which I've had for, you know, 18 plus years, but I was never there. I just collected mail there.

So I got rid of it. So, all right. Now, I guess you're right to say you're right.

Tom, do you own your building? No, I had, I had an opportunity to, but it's, it's kind of awkward because it's in a historic district, uh, of the small town that we're in. Um, and it kind of really limits what I'm allowed to do with it. And it doesn't really appreciate that much in value as a result of that.

So I was also charged with, or, you know, balancing the concept of purchasing as an LLC, purchasing the business, uh, building or purchasing a vacation home. So I really had to kind of choose between the two because I didn't think I could pull off both, especially here in Jersey. It's the property values are ridiculous as Stan mentioned.

It's crazy. So, um, I didn't want to, so as a result, I haven't done either. I haven't bought my building or a vacation home.

So I'm just kind of sitting on the sidelines waiting for something, or I'm going to go, uh, to Vegas. Got a lot of homes down here. No, I was just there.

I was, I was just in Sarasota. Uh, last week and yeah. Are you kidding me? I'm not.

All right. Now I remember that. Mm hmm.

No, once one good snub deserves another. So, so speaking of, I should probably have done this at the beginning of the show. There was a chance that we were going to have an in-studio guest here.

That did not happen. Uh, our good friend, Jason Percival. Oh, well, he did fly into Miami.

He's headed out on a cruise tomorrow. Of course he is. He flew into Miami.

He was going to drive up here and be live for the show, tried to do it. And apparently Hertz did not want to cooperate. And he spent probably an hour and a half in line to get his vehicle.

And, uh, it would have been about an hour and 20 minute drive at that point. And so he would have been here very, very late and then still would have had to get back to his hotel. But I do want to at least acknowledge Jason.

Thank you for trying. And that's better than I would do. So hell yeah.

Plus, plus, wait, to be fair, Jason's in Miami. Like, I don't know what 10 times a year he takes a cruise. Okay.

You're thinking of Jason Miller. No, I'm not. Oh, first of all, first of all, he's addicted to cruises.

Really? Come on, Jason chime in. I know you're out there throwing his, uh, vices out there. I'm telling you he's at least three a year.

It's crazy. Okay. So he's competing with the Millers.

He's competing with them. Well, the Millers win all theirs. Jason pays for all his.

Percival pays for all his. That is a difference there. Uh, all right.

So before we get too far along, I want to at least do one of the podcast awards. And, uh, so this year I will say that the voting for the podcast awards was fantastic. Now I did have to eliminate probably half the votes, uh, because people can't follow directions.

But just to show people, I have pages of tabulations here, and it was actually a pretty good contest. And the first thing I want to do is say thank you to everybody that voted. Everyone that did, uh, we'll get a ticket in the gift card giveaway that I will be doing later.

And let's see here. I'm going to get the mug because the mug is already made. And the first award that we are going to recognize is going to be for the best vendor swag of 2024.

And that goes to Moovila, the AI project, uh, base product here. So here is their mug for best swag 2024. And I even got an imprint of their mug on the mug here.

And there it is in real life. And I will have to say that, uh, this, this kind of popped up last minute on the grid. I commented about one of their swag items earlier this year, a pen, the little multifunction pen that broke.

And they said, oops, and they sent me a whole swag package. And I want to say thank you to that. So I did reach out to them to see if somebody could come on and accept the award.

And, uh, Kate Schlarf, uh, of what is it? VP of growth. Yeah. VP of growth marketing.

Yeah. Marketing. So Kate, welcome to the show.

And what do you think? I'm pretty excited. Hi. Hey Tom.

Hey everybody. Um, I'm really excited. Uh, I want to shout out Amanda Kabusta, our brand person who, if you guys have been by our booth and gotten our mini cows or some of the swag, like she works so hard on the recognizable, like purple and different stuff we have.

Although I'm really sad. We, that's a blue cup. I know they discontinued the purple cups.

Like, um, they're super rare now, I guess. Um, uh, but yeah, those are actually brand new ones. So if you're a customer watching, you could reach out to me if you haven't gotten one yet, um, because I'm really sorry that Marv got one before some of you guys, but, uh, yeah.

Don't apologize. You got to the right person first. This is a fantastic size.

It's got a great shape to it. Uh, it is a Yeti folks. It's not a pretender.

So I like it. It's just, you know, fits under the Keurig just fine. Fits in the cup holders in the car just fine.

It's a great shape. I like it. Awesome.

Well, thanks. I'm so glad you liked it. Cheers.

I don't know what you, I don't think you have anything in it. You were turning it upside down. No, I don't.

This is a, the beverage I don't drink out of the vendor stuff. So this will go on the shelf. Uh, it'll go onto the wall of fame and hang up with the other stuff.

Your mug. You'll need to let me know where I need to send the mug. And I will send you an address.

We are super excited. They'll go on our trophy shelf right next to all of our other stuff from this year. A nice one to scoop up right at the end for the holiday.

So real quickly tell the listeners, uh, who you guys are, because as far as I know, you were a new vendor this year. I'd never heard of you before. I'd seen you all of a sudden three or four times this year.

I blew by your booth. And, uh, was it, uh, CJ Arlotto was like, Oh, I want you to meet this new vendor and get them on the show. I'm like, yeah.

Okay. Yeah. So we've only been in the channel about two years, but we've been around as a company about, uh, eight in our current form.

Um, we do AI based project management and resource management. So a lot of professional services, directors and project managers and MSPs we've found get really frustrated with how the PSAs kind of do project management, it's really hard to see things visually in the Gantt charts. There's not any risk detection where it can kind of tell you like, if your schedule is going off the rails or your tickets are, you know, double booked and things like that.

So that's something that we've really focused on is, um, working with MSPs. It was actually an MSP who came to us and asked us to integrate with connect wise, which is how we got started in the channel. Um, and we've been with connect wise kind of the longest.

So you're not at a lot of connect life shows. You wouldn't have the first year, but this year we've launched. Halo and we launched our auto task integration as well.

So we've got three of the big PSAs and we're super excited. We're working with a ton of MSPs and it's, it's just a, an interesting area. Cause not a lot of people are talking about project management with MSPs.

Everyone's into cybersecurity, um, and a lot of those spaces, which is totally important, but, um, we think that project managers in this space deserve some attention too. Yeah. All right.

Yep. We are focused on cybersecurity, AI and compliance. So, uh, we have the AI piece.

We do, we do that. So we, we, ours is less chat though, and it's more, uh, risk detection and stuff. There's a lot of like visualizations to help the AI helps you see kind of where your project's going wrong and how to fix it.

If that was very nice. Well, Kate, glad to have you guys in the channel. Glad that you are a 2024 podcast award winner.

And obviously we will see more of you in 2025. We are, we're supposed to be talking about a show. So we will see you guys next year.

Happy holidays, everybody. And, um, what is that you're wearing? Me? I'm going to blow you up here so I can get a better look at it. I, I, so a lot of people just take a thing and wrap it around just Garland.

So a lot of people in the channel know me because we're purple and they call us the purple project people and they always see me in purple. And I was so bummed. I have a purple Santa hat, but I left it at the office.

We have a, we have a Christmas event for project managers on Friday. So if you don't win anything here with Marv, you can join us on Friday at 12 Eastern and win stuff and see the Santa hat. But I was trying to quickly figure out how I could be Christmassy.

And so this is, this is what I got. Should have been purple, but we'll let it slide. You know, I, I got, I have a little purple on, it's hard to see with the Christmas lighting, but.

Yeah. He's behind you. And, uh, no, I, I shut the flashers off.

There's purple lights on the Christmas tree. So give her a break, Marv. There are, I'm going to tell my boss, I need some purple ornaments and then, then I can do more shows like this in front of my Christmas tree.

All right. Well, Kate, thank you for being available and hopping on. We're going to kick you out now.

Cause I'm going to spend a little bit more time with them before we switch over to group two but look forward to seeing you in 2025. Awesome. Thanks guys.

Have a good one. All right. Uh, let's see, we're getting close on time here.

Uh, normally I try to open it up and, you know, allow for you guys to ask me questions. You know that most of the year I'm the one asking questions and keeping conversations going on the podcast. So anything for me? Yeah.

How's, how'd your business go this year? I took a dive this year. Did you? Yeah. Why? So basically 2022 and 2023 were both record years for me and they were huge project years.

And the short answer is I had $150,000 project this last year. That would have, you know, obviously didn't happen this year. So that was a little bit of a dip in terms of everything else.

Steady. Stable. You know, it's, it's obviously less about revenue and more about profit because you can have, you know, half a million dollar year or a hundred thousand dollar year.

And as long as you make more profit in one or the other, it doesn't really matter. Yeah. So what the revenue is.

So yeah, luckily a few years ago, I got much better at, you know, itemizing everything and pricing everything so that no matter what I did, I was going to make money. There was, there's no more losing money on a project. So that has worked out really good.

My pricing for my stack is really well. And of course, charging for all of your labor really makes a difference. So how do you, how do you handle it? If you quoted a hundred hours or, you know, five days, whatever, and you go over.

So a little secret here, you have your low and your high hours for the project. So your minimum hours has to be enough for you to get paid. So at the very worst, you're going to break even.

So if I've got a project that a server install and I am doing 10 hours as a project rate and I go over, I bill those 10 hours at a rate that's going to pay me 20 hours at a minimum. Does that make sense? It does. What if it's 30? I want to jump in on this.

So I'm going to tell you why I'm jumping in Tom. So I don't know if Tom set up or Brian set up, but I know that Uncle Marv and I are in a similar setup, meaning that we're both solo shops. Right? So that's an advantage, meaning I know I've been doing this 25 years.

I know how long it takes me to do something, right? There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. I know I can set up a computer and if it's a client that I have an image done, which I have those, I can set up a computer in 10 minutes. Cause all I'm doing is putting it on and grabbing an image.

So there's no time. I don't charge by time. I'm, I'm a, and Marv shared his way, but I'm going to tell you right now, it's really value based billing.

The whole time based billing thing needs to really go the hell out the window. Well, it does. Well, think about a new client.

What if you onboard a new client and you specify that it's going to take you two guys, two days, and it ends up taking two and a half days or three days because there's things you didn't find during the initial meeting. Okay. There's so for me, an initial meeting is not an initial meeting.

What I do before taking on any client I don't know is they need to pay me usually about 2,500 bucks on up for a full blown assessment. It's not, I went into your server room and just look, Oh, we know everything that you have. That's just what it is at the end of the day.

And if I'm bringing somebody on right at the, in some way, is that really a project? I don't consider that a project, right? I consider a project if I'm going to take their server and migrate it from their server to some new piece of hardware or take them up to Azure or put them in SharePoint, right. Or do an email migration. That's the stuff I'm talking about when we talk about projects.

But if I'm taking a client on, look, I know a lot of MSPs here, a lot of MSPs here will even onboard a client for free, right? I mean, I do charge an onboarding fee and it's usually one month of service, right? That's it. And it's really just, you know, just to get something out of the guy. But at the end of the day, before that, I've already charged them for assessing them.

I literally tell people; I cannot give you a quote on something if I don't even know what you have. Yeah, I do the same. I do the same thing.

I used to charge, you know, I kind of, in effect, do the same thing. I charge them for the proposal creation. And if you end up going with me, then I'll take it off or I'll make it part of the entire project.

If you don't, you pay me and you take your shopping list somewhere else and go hire somebody else. Yeah, I don't give anything back. Yeah, I wouldn't do that.

I don't do that either. It's not a part of, I don't give you credit going forward, you pay for the discovery and then you go forward there. But like I said, if you have teams, and I know that there are people who struggle with this, because I talk about this, I talk with them all the time.

We're like, well, we thought our tech was going to take, like you said, Tom, 10 hours, and they took 20. I just had a conversation with an MSP the other day, because I do help them out when some folks need help. And they have a tech who legitimately spent eight hours on something.

And I said, what did he do? The only thing you have here is a hypervisor role installed, and a domain controller installed. That's not a domain controller yet. It hasn't been promoted.

It hasn't, it's only been joined, right? Nothing else has happened. So you tell me what this person spent 10 hours on. And in case you're wondering, I got whatever he claimed to do in 10 hours, done in 30 minutes.

So I don't have a staff, so I don't deal with that part of it. And I will tell you guys something, if I said, Brian said on the job training, if I send somebody out to do some something, I always make sure that the job is flat rated. I don't want to hear, I work like a mechanic shop, right? I don't want to hear, well, it took two, listen, it's an access point, you're mounting access point, that shouldn't take you more than 30 minutes.

It's already programmed, you're going to take the old one down, put the new one up and get out of there. I'm not paying you by the hour, I'm paying you a flat rate. And if you take 20 hours, that's your problem, but it shouldn't take 20 hours.

I just say that Marvin, I believe, have an advantage to people with bigger teams, because unless you intimately know what your people are capable of doing, which a lot of people don't. Well, it's not necessarily about what they're doing, what they're capable of, but sometimes things pop up at the site, that's an unexpected thing. Yeah, but what's your project scope? So right about scope, because I get it, I get it.

What I'm what I'm asking or what I'm what I'm commenting about is how do you guys go back? And you said you forget the scope creep. That's one thing. But it's like some like terrible thing all of a sudden rears its ugly head.

What do you do? But what's a terrible thing? So I flat rate if it's within, let me explain. If it's within the scope of the project that I outlined, there is no going back to you. I know, but it's outside of the scope.

No, I think what you're saying, if it's outside of scope, then that's completely separate. That's a that's a new order. That's whatever.

That's got to be separate. So, you know, but often, you know, it's often urgent, right? Like you got to fix it now. And it's like, no, no, I don't.

OK, so that's your choice. Urgent. I don't want to leave the guy because the problem with those situations, Tom and Tom, I can talk about this for the next two hours.

Well, we can argue about it for the next two hours. No, it's not an argument. Guys, let me get you guys in the green room and you can chat about it.

You're right. You're right. Mark, you got to move along.

You're good. Well, it's not about being right, because we look, I did a whole presentation all last year about making sure you make money. I'm just telling you, I'm a one man shop.

I've been over a million dollars for five years from it every single year. Why is that? Because I charge properly for my time. But I can be at the client site and give you a quote, depending on what it is.

Right. If you can I can write a quote. I don't have five people I got to go to and talk to.

So if you approve the quote and you say, go ahead, well, let's do what we have to do. But I don't know what would have been an urgent situation unless you have a server down. Right. 

I mean, what do you do then? Surprisingly enough, Brian didn't jump in once there. And I know he's typing. He wrote it all in here.

I know. He's typing. He's typing it there.

So what is your plan B? What happens if something is unsuccessful? Well, I think what Tom was bringing up is there are some changes that you're in the middle of where things are down and you'd love to pause and have a meeting with the client. And hey, there's extra costs to move forward. But the client's down and you're causing them costing them extra money with downtime.

So if we run into a situation where we're making a big change, say it's a move to a new line of business app or a new server and they're down, typically what we should have in place and we try to do most of the time is that what happens if down? Can we revert back to a situation where, hey, we're not going to make that change quite yet because we realize there's a bigger mountain to climb here. We're reverting back to a state where they're at least back up and running. Project hasn't been completed, but now it's kind of a going back to the drawing board discussion with the client at that point.

So you guys flip people over. You take a server down before your new one is up. I'm just asking.

No, at all costs, we try not to. But there has to be, you know, there is a cut over time that happens. And sometimes you can't inspect what you expect that things are all up and running properly until you've made that cut over and you have some end users actually starting to use it.

Right, or it may appear to work from our end, but then they go to use it and things aren't working. And if we can't quickly fix it and we realize it's a bigger fix that's needed, we're hoping to be able to revert back and not have to force ourselves to move forward with something that's not ready to use. Um, there's so many different projects.

It's like, give me a specific project and I can give you a more specific answer, I guess. Um, well, we're not doing that. Mark said he's putting us all in the green room.

We're not doing that at all. So why don't we do this? A great question that would be normally, you know, a fantastic thing for a regular show. But this is the holiday show and group two has been patiently waiting.

So we are going to, uh, go ahead and do the, uh, let's see the holiday montage. And, uh, while I'm doing that, you guys will be booted to the green room and then I will bring on group two. You're welcome to come back at nine o'clock for the after-hours and, uh, we can go more into that.

So hang with us, folks. We'll be right back. All right.

We are back with part two of the it business holiday podcast. And for those of you that are listening by audio, after the fact, that was the video montage that you can head over, uh, in the show notes, there will be a time index that you can go over to YouTube and watch that. Even though the show was live streamed on Facebook and LinkedIn as well.

But, uh, uh, you can go see that there, uh, part two, and it looks like we have a full house. Uh, I usually over-invite and everyone doesn't show, but tonight it looks like they did. So we have with us here, Diana Giles from Skyline IT Management, Bradley Gross, the attorney for all technicians, uh, Brandon from TruGrid and Joe Balsarotti decided to show software to go.

Dawn Sizer, third element consulting and Matt Linn from Thread. Everyone. Hello.

Hello. Hello there. Who am I? So, uh, I know some of the people from group one are still in the, uh, in the green room there.

Anybody want to comment on their, uh, bomb that grenade that Tom Bull threw in there at the I think a lot that needed to be said about projects was set. Okay. I was ready for the cage match.

I heard Jake Paul was going to throw his, uh, his himself into that fight too. I think that's the first time I have seen that side of an MS, MSPs before, I think. Oh, that was mild.

You got to pay attention more, man. You're a, you're new to the, uh, to the podcast. You got to pay attention here.

So, uh, let's see. MSPs, uh, Dawn, Diana and Joe. Um, how has your business been this year? Really good.

Ours has been so-so. So-so. Yeah.

We we've had a lot of our clients who are long established businesses and, uh, almost a dozen of them retired and closed or retired and sold. So that was a change. So I had two clients that sold and I have one that's ready to retire.

So I, I feel you. Dallas, how about you? Uh, I'm having a record year. Um, of course, still very small.

Uh, I did have a client that was sold and, uh, so I no longer will have that client, but in that case, it was okay. Brad, we know you're doing fantastic. Well, I, um, yeah, things are good.

The MSP world is starting to recognize the fact that, uh, they can't just keep moving forward with just purchase orders and invoices and, you know, have a stable environment. So, uh, yeah, it's been good. 2024 has been a good year.

All right. And you did the launch of the MSP terms. Finally.

That's right. It's finally been launched. It was, uh, it's interesting when you are working with companies and developers as an attorney, and then suddenly you're the client and, uh, yeah, I've, I've learned that, um, while I don't drink, if you're going to work with software developers, that's a good time to start, uh, Brandon true grid, uh, has been something I've actually been touting more and more lately.

A nice zero trust remote access, uh, program. How are things with you guys? It's been going good. Excuse me.

It's been going good. Um, business has been more than steady. We've been getting a lot of customers.

We've actually, I think there have been quite a few MSPs being sold because we're usually part of those transactions, getting everything moved over and changed around. Um, we are also just this morning kind of updated and released our RDP inspector tool that's right on our website. It kind of just scans all your ports for you and let you know if everything's good or not good, gives you a pretty detailed report.

So yeah, exciting stuff's been going on. Yeah, I was going to, I was hoping you wouldn't bring that up. I tried to use that.

It was on your website back on December 10th. Yeah, I clicked it and it said, Oh, if you don't want to wait here, we'll send you an email. Yeah.

And then the email came back and said, sorry, ran into a problem. Try again. Yeah, it's yeah.

So we reworked some stuff on it and even I tested it today and I didn't have any open ports on my computer, but it's just a laptop that I don't even use RDP on. So. All right.

So I will try that again. One of the things we really did to it too, was we rechanged the whole experience of it. So that's what you're really going to notice.

It was kind of dumped on us by developers. You know, it was our plan, but then when we got it, it wasn't, we kind of doctored it up and made the experience a lot better too. You'll see when you try it out.

Okay. All right. So we got a developer theme working here, Matt with Thread.

Any developer problems with you guys? Uh, naturally, uh, always. Yes. But, um, we, uh, we've been in the business a few years now, so ironing those out as we go, but, uh, yours has been great.

Um, personally, uh, if you see me disappear off the stream at any point, my wife is 39 weeks pregnant, so that would be why I won't be on here too late, but, uh, but yeah, business is going well as well. We're, we're growing quickly and, uh, definitely seeing great uptake with the agent to get AI side of things. Right.

Right. Is your go bag by you or by the door? Uh, one, one's by me, two are in the car and one's by my wife. Okay.

All right. Uh, let's see here. I go, Brad, let me, uh, get this out of the way because you were in the running for a podcast award, which is why I asked you to come on.

However, that's not a word. There's nothing that there's nothing good that follows the word. I do want to see this.

Let me say this. Um, the voting was wonky and it was neck and neck, but here's what's funny. So for the best episode, a show that you and I did way back show number four, one, one estimates versus job quotes versus statement of work.

Okay. That was over a year ago. Wasn't even a part of 24.

It's the second most downloaded show in 2024. Okay. Well, sometimes it's an oldie, but a goodie, you know, it's, uh, it's fine.

It's weird because you know how many people I paid to vote? Oh, I'm sorry. Wait, never mind. Keep going.

Mark, you were saying you were saying. So I just thought that was, you know, a funny thing. Fantastic thing that, um, I, I like it when there are what they, I guess they call them green shows that, you know, are still relevant down the road.

So that obviously was a good one and people are still downloading it. So thank you very much for that. You're welcome.

There was a lot of good info in that. Yeah, you're right. That was, uh, wow.

That was well over a year ago. Yeah. I think it was February 23.

It's like close to two years ago. So, okay. Well, I accept the, uh, doesn't that give me a lifetime achievement award, maybe something.

Give me something to work. I need a couple more years to kind of build up, you know, the lifetime stuff. Well, I'm building up, you know, for that award.

So right now, so my, my next target goal is to hit a thousand shows. And that going by the pace that I did this year, um, it's probably going to be in a couple of years. I will not repeat the pace I did this year.

Uh, this year was 165 show. It's too much. Got to slow it down, Marv.

Yeah. So Giles, a bit of a warning. Don't, don't do over a hundred shows in a year.

Yeah. I just uploaded 32 today, number 32. So I, I've got a long way to go.

Oh my goodness. Gracious. There, uh, Joe.

Yes. I'm trying to look at all those pictures back there. Yeah.

Me too. Let me, let me, let me blow up your, uh, your screen here so I can see. Um, are those all, those are all famous people, right? Is that Rick Springfield or is that Rob Lowe? What is that? Those are all autographed photos.

This is the basement office. Oh, look. Photo and, and this is probably a little too close, but the other wall is filled as well.

So I don't see Marv up there. I was never on Star Trek. No, it's not all Star Trek.

Most of it's Star Trek. Not all Star Trek or movie or TV. Somebody famous.

I'm not famous. Send me an autograph. You'll make the wall.

Uh, so Dawn, um, there was a concern that you might be spicy this evening. I've had a day, you know, y'all have, we all have those days where just like, this is why I drank today. It was one of those days.

Was it, uh, customer related, tech related? No, no, actually. Um, we're, we're growing by leaps and bounds and we had to, um, integrate a PEO in this year to account for, yeah, a bunch of your, probably a couple of your cringing too. Um, anytime you get, um, enough percentage of your people outside of the state that you're in, it's hard to do payroll, so you have to get somebody else to actually like run some of that stuff so that they can do it appropriately.

Anyway, um, we were onboarding into that. They were supposed to go, go live today with it. And we had initially onboarded back on 11 22.

Uh, it was like the day after Thanksgiving, got our initial onboarding done, and it was so bad that like every slide that we had with our information on was all wrong. And we're just like, maybe, maybe we should put a pin in this and, you know, come back to it when the info is right and they're like, nah, we're good. It'll, it'll, it'll be fine.

It'll update in the background. We'll get this right. Oh, blah, blah, blah.

It'll be like next business day. It was still not right today. So does that mean people didn't get paid? No, it's, it's fine.

Payroll doesn't actually start until January because I knew, you know, like you just know nothing ever goes quite right, but they got a nasty gram today. That was a whole lot of like, fix it, escalate it. Or I'm putting all of this bullshit that you have done on LinkedIn.

And they called me up and they're like, we don't take threats kindly. And I'm like, oh, sweetheart, that wasn't a threat. No, no.

I don't think you understand. I was explaining what was happening. I love it.

So we're clear. This is how this is going to work. They got it fixed today.

So we're, we're fine. But I was, I was not having a good day till about three o'clock. All right.

There's still, I had, I had one of those that I used up all my Christmas wishes today, two of the clients that you never can get to the decision maker, you know, it's Dawn, don't worry. One, one of the, one of those days it flips the other way. One walked in and said, here, here's the signed paperwork that you wanted three weeks ago.

And the other one called and said, I've got a, a retainer check ready for you if you want to come over. And by the way, thanks for the bottle of wine you dropped off yesterday. So I think that's what it was.

We dropped off Christmas presents yesterday and magically they all woke up today. So just give out Christmas presents, Dawn, and then everything will be great. You know, it's funny.

I went out with a potential client on Tuesday or just walking a big property and looking at the stuff and having a conversation, we went out for a burger sold like a gazillion dollars worth of stuff. It was a fantastic conversation, had a really good time. And then this is what happened today.

So like, apparently the, the rule is I can never have burgers again. I'm not sure if that's really what the statement is, but like, it's the yin and the yang, correlation and causation, right? Is that really how this works? I have no idea, but like I had a really good day on Tuesday and then today was just kind of. Uh, Joe, there was a question in the chat.

Was that a copy of PC Anywhere on one of your shelves? Uh, wow. Hmm. Wow.

That's old school. Looking means that it's somewhere. No, I didn't think it was PC anywhere.

I'm trying to think what they, they, uh, I have older PC. Anywhere would be new compared to. To lap link pro a LANtastic.

What else? No, I'm getting flat. Dawn't trigger me, man. Like word, perfect flash calc 4.2. Let me tell you word.

Perfect is still the best word processor ever attorney. Three 86 minutes. Uh, MS-DOS five upgrade Norton utilities.

Yeah. We don't have time Joe for all, but Giles, you're right. Uh, one of the hardest fights that I've ever had was trying to get an attorney off of word, perfect.

Five, one perfect. And on to Ms. Word WordPerfect. Word.

Perfect. It was like the beta max of word processors. It was superior in technology.

It was superior in every way, but it just didn't take, just didn't take group wise friends group wise. That's all I'm saying. It's group wise.

Actually took it's just Microsoft, uh, destroyed it. Well, they gave them the old code. Yeah.

I knew somebody who was very high up at that company. And when windows came out, Microsoft would feed them older. Uh, versions of the code base as opposed to what they're doing now with their stuff.

Oh, I'm sorry. Wait, we're still on video. Never mind.

Go on. Anyway. Yeah.

So they would have to constantly revise it magically. Microsoft word came out and beat them, beat them to the punch. All right.

So I was waiting for one of the, uh, award winners to hop on and doesn't look like they're going to show up. Does that mean it goes to me? Not a must be present to win because I already made the mug. So, um, the next winner of the podcast awards, so best episode of 2024 episode six 23 mastering marketing for MSP growth, uh, Scott growth strategies, here's his mug and absolutely fantastic that a marketing show from no marketing Marv would be one of the most downloaded, uh, of all the shows there.

So, uh, congratulations to Dave Scott for that episode. Sorry, Brad. I tried.

I'm thinking, you know, growth sounds gross. We could change that. Scott, we can work something out here.

Your next book. That's actually just have your own cup made and it's almost like the same thing or just, you know, scratch out the one you have just a year and. Cause he has one of my cups already.

That's right. I do. Normally, if I was in my office now, it would be sitting in the background with my TRS 80.

So there, Joe, come back show of the year award for Brad. Hold up. So we'll have to come up with some new awards.

There you go. The rerun, the rerun award. I'm working for that lifetime achievement.

That's what I'm working for. Keep pushing that quote versus fee thing. And yeah, we'll be, we'll be all right.

Almost made a mug for Brad. I accept that. Okay.

I'm not proud. I'll accept it. Almost made it.

That's good. That's fine. You know, I think everybody should have just got a mug.

You're not quite good. And I've heard that from my parents, so it's fine. I'm really, I'm okay.

It's a, it's all good. It's fine. Now I need my therapist.

Can we get her on the screen here, please? Can we dial her into this conversation? Oh my goodness gracious. So Brandon and Matt, as, as vendors on the show, you've, you've heard a lot of MSP griping. How has it been for you? How has your relationship with us as MSPs been? So, I mean, speak, speaking on our side, it's been great, right? Well, first of all, I was with an MSP for 10 years before we founded Thread.

So I grew up through the compliance side, up through account management. We worked with financial service companies. So I had a hundred private equity and hedge fund customers underneath me right around the time that the SEC decided that they cared about cybersecurity.

So I've, I've lived some vendor horror stories from that side. But yeah, it's been great. We're, we're, we're having our first inaugural Thready Awards at the end of the year, which will be a big fun.

Most, most fastest response, most innovative stuff like that. So we're super excited. Nice.

Brandon, so most of the time we talk good about you. Sometimes we'll talk crap about TruGrid, but. I want to hear it.

What do you got bad to say about me, about TruGrid? I don't hear it that often. So I'd like to hear about it. It was a customer griping and I said, look, you can use TruGrid or you can go to a full SaaS model and, you know, redo your entire network and be no trust everywhere.

And they're like, oh. Yeah, you don't want to do that. You don't want to do that.

No, I think I have a pretty good relationship with our, with all my MSP customers for the most part where it's a partnership, you know? So a lot of times I'll even reach out to somebody and just say, Hey, we've had some new features and stuff. Let's talk about this. And, you know, I don't have a lot of products that we're selling.

So in order for, you know, me to get, you know, I guess, get more money that my customers have to get bigger, you know? So like if it's, that means a customer, my MSP customers, their customers even have to get bigger. So to just add on the licenses, I don't have alternative products to really sell. So we just, you know, try to offer up better solutions or offer us as our alternative, some of the stuff.

Like one of the onboardings I did today, they were using Screen Connect. And so they said that they just wanted a different solution. So, okay, here we go.

And we set it up and they seem like they're pretty happy with it. So overall, I think we do pretty good with our MSP customers. Like I said, and if it usually, if something comes up, usually it gets through a back channel and it gets taken care of very fast.

Yeah, your tech support has been good. So any problems that has come up, if I couldn't solve it, actually, I think one of my clients contacted you guys directly and you took care of them. They unexpectedly went over to, I don't know, Egypt or Dubai or something and didn't tell anybody.

Had that geo-blocking on, huh? Yep, of course. That's usually how, when they find out their employees are on vacation and stuff, they're like, I can't get in. It's like, it's because you're in Mexico, man.

You're supposed to be in Arizona. So, yeah. No worries.

No worries. All right, let's do this real quick. I know we're behind schedule, but I want to make sure that we do the Wheel of Names and do this gift card giveaway.

So, of course, everyone that voted this year, well, let me rephrase that. Everyone with a qualified vote this year is on the wheel. There were about, I'll be honest, I think 22 votes got disqualified.

Those are the ones that voted for me, right? I see where you're going with this, Mark. So, these are the people that are here, and I'm going to do a couple of shuffles so that you can know that I'm not doing this in a fixed manner. So, we're going to spin the wheel, and I don't know if you're going to hear when the name gets called.

But a $50 gift card, and I don't know if it's going to be an Amazon or Grubhub, but here we are. That was very, really close. That was very close.

Nicole, I don't know if Nicole is watching, but Nicole, you just won yourself a $50 gift card. Thank you very much for participating, and it'll be great to hear. Hey, Marvin, I didn't get back to you.

I can do a $100 gift card if you want to spin it again. I'll do Amazon. Okay, sorry, Nicole.

Oh, maybe just give it to the one that was right next to her. That's kind of like Brad, you know what I mean? I know, I know, I know. By the way, that's all I'm saying, all right? Spin your card now.

Go ahead, vote for it. I know this thing's blurring it out, but I'm not above this kind of thing is what I'm saying. I'm really not.

I'm okay with it. So, here we go for another gift card that will be worked out with our friends over at TruGrid spinning here. I can't see this wheel spinning.

Yeah. Oh. What's going on there? What are you hiding, Marvin? What are you hiding? Chris Rose.

Chris Rose. Okay, just shoot me an email, Marvin, with their contact information. I'll have Jennifer get it sent out tomorrow.

All right, will do. So, there we go. All right, so with that, let me take that off.

And it does not look like our last podcast winner is going to make it. And Brad, no, you can't have their award. This is just horrible.

This is just horrible. You just keep reminding him he didn't win. Well, the short reason is because he also was in the running for this award, an award that he has already won in the past, and it would have been the first two-time winner.

Most awesome. However, another first-time event has taken place where the same person has won two awards in the same year. And with that, the best guest for 2024, Dave Scott of Scott Growth Strategies.

So, he has won the best guest award for 2024. He's got the look. Of course he won.

It was this, it was this. So, he was supposed to be here, but I don't know. Probably blew me off.

We'll see what happens there. Send a postage due, because he wasn't here. You know who's never blown Marv off? I'm already thinking ahead, Marv.

I'm already thinking ahead. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right.

So, I want to do the same thing that I did with group one with you guys. Any questions for me? And please, no hot grenades. No hot grenades.

Well, then I'm out. That's like Shark Tank. Well, I'm out.

I'm just going to mention how cool it was that the iguana was on the sizzle reel for the year. That was pretty wild. So, we've had this funny conversation going on for a couple of years now about how there's a business model with these iguanas in Florida.

Because apparently there are iguana catchers. What is the deal with the iguana catchers? Explain to me how this works again. So, the official term is iguana, let me get my phone out here.

Are they an exterminator? It's not an exterminator. It's an iguana removal specialist. All right.

So, we've thought about this pretty hard. And we're like, if we catch them when they're little and we just train them and then we air tag them, we have them trained. We know where they are, right? So, when people are calling and they're like, hey, I need you to come remove my iguana that we may have let loose in the neighborhood.

We can be like, dude, get in the truck. And then you just take them to the next neighborhood. And it's a monthly recurring revenue source.

I mean, right? It's more like iguana retrieval at that point. Exactly. Exactly.

So, this is the thought process. So, when the Sizers get their Florida vacation home, that'll be their side hustle. That's the side hustle, yeah.

Iguana retrievals. I think you should have put a little Christmas wreath on Iggy for that picture, for that video. Was there a name for that iguana? Okay, it's not like Iggy and I are best pals.

Just because he comes up to the door every day doesn't mean that he does. So, let me show you this. This was him the other day blocking my car.

And then I had to chase him up the tree. He's yours now. I'm not sure which.

That is a good-sized tree. Iggy is probably bigger than most of your dogs. So, yeah, Iggy comes to the door and he bangs on our door.

I don't know why. And then when we go to the door, he runs away. That's me.

I blame it on the iguana. I confess. It's just me again.

Where's my mug? Hey, Marv, can't you put like a tent sign on the iguana? Have him go down the street, watch my podcast. Yeah, I already contracted with a plane that'll go on the beach. Vote for Brad 2025.

It's coming, Marv. It's coming. It's coming.

What are we going to ask you? So, let me ask you this, Marv. Yeah. Do you plan on doing the same, more or fewer shows next year, not shows or podcasts, events showing up at these industry events? Events? And why? So, I tallied it up.

So, I took 12 trips this year, nine of them tech show related. I think that's my max. So, I will probably do the same or less.

Lightweight. So, Marv, when I was actually thinking of an idea for like a... I was actually going to bring this up to you and I kind of forgot about it. But you know how everything got really crazy around election time and stuff like that? No.

And so, it got me... Well, whatever, it did. Anyways, I started thinking, wouldn't it be cool to do a show where you have two vendors and they kind of debate each other? They have similar products and they do kind of like a debate and you're like the moderator. Do you think that would be cool? Be cool for me? I don't know if it'd be cool for me.

Why? I mean, we kind of already had it going on in the first episode tonight, right? Yeah, we could do that. So, I'd be interested. Here's the only thing.

I mean, obviously, there would need to be rules of engagement. Yeah. Of what's allowed to be done and, you know, because here's the problem.

Some vendors have things that happen in the trenches that should not be discussed in public. So, things that happen, you know, and that must be off limits. But yes, anything public can be discussed and debated.

And there should be MSPs in the audience besides me that can, you know, ask questions. I do want to clarify too. I will not be the one debating.

I was going to say, who do you want to debate? That's really the... No, that's what I'm saying. It's not... It would be... I'd make Peter do it. I'd like to nominate our CEO, Mark Leiv.

I'll throw him in the ring. Yeah. Let's do it.

But who would you guys debate, Matt? I mean, I think we have a different POV on the way to service customers, right? Okay. So, throw Cloud Radio in there, throw Invarosoft in there. Folks who have platforms or products that are customer facing, but from a different lens.

And we could duke it out. So, TruGrid versus any SASE product? Sure. Because, you know, SSL VPN is going away for most vendors.

So, you can't compete against that anymore. Just bring them on and I'll let Peter figure it out. He's pretty smart.

So, I'm confident. And at the end of the day, it's kind of like it should be done. You know what I mean? If that way customers can see it, especially if you're not going to disparage each other, you're going to sell your product and side by side with somebody else selling their product.

And you can touch on points. And I think it'll be beneficial for both parties. What does everybody else think? Do you guys think that's a good idea? Brian says he'll debate a Microsoft first approach.

Brad, I don't think you could draft the waivers because I've already got a mono-e-mono for you and another attorney in the channel. I have no competition. You think you're Conor McGregor.

That's right. I wish I had his bank account. I wouldn't be on the show, but all right.

I love the apartment if I had his bank account. You would not be worried about this mug. You'd be on the show because you want to win the mug.

That's, you know, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. So we'll see.

We'll see what 2025 has to bring. Yeah. And maybe the winner of the debate, the audience gets to vote who wins.

And then maybe they get a mug. Oh, by the way, it's not easy to make mugs just so you know. It's not like I can just crank them out.

That's weird because I've already cranked one out with my name on it. So I'll send you the vendor's name. It's fine.

All right. So let's do this. We're after nine.

We're into the after hour slot. So let me go ahead and do an official end off of the podcast. So those of you that are listening, this is the last you're going to hear of the IT business podcast for 2024.

And of course, I want to thank everybody that hopped on tonight to be a part of it, as well as the guests that have joined me all year. And a shout out definitely to all the vendors of the show, my legacy vendor, NetAlly. They've been with me through thick and thin, and they have already signed up for 2025.

Super Ops has joined us as well this year. I have a verbal commitment for 2025. TruGrid, Brandon is here representing them as a partner for this past year.

We haven't chatted yet, Brandon, but we shall. Matlin with Thread. You guys were sponsors of the IT Nation Pitch It project this year.

Thank you very much for that. I will say this. I'm looking for some other sponsors.

I need a music sponsor and a couple of other things that I'm working on, one of which is the Florida Man Games. Those of you that have paid attention to the show know that every week on the live show, we have a Florida Man Challenge. And last year was the very first Florida Man Games.

And if you don't understand what that is, follow the links in the show notes. The games are pulled straight from the headlines. Last year, they had an evading arrest obstacle course.

They had a chuck a gator through a drive-thru window. Let's see what else they had. They had a beer chugging jousting contest.

So far, this is like a Tuesday night. Yeah, these are all pulled from real headlines. So they are doing their second annual games on Saturday, March 1st.

And the reason that's a big deal is I will be there, not as a participant, but I have been approved to be a media member. And I will be covering the Florida Man Games from the state fairgrounds where the Florida Man Games will be held. We will be live streaming from them.

The only issue is I cannot live stream any of the events, but we will be trying to get a hold of any of the participants. If you want to attend the Florida Man Games, again, it's going to be on March 1st. And it is going to be held at the St. John's County Fairgrounds in Elkton, Florida.

And for those of you that don't know where that is, it's basically in between Daytona and Jacksonville, left out in the middle of the woodsy, swampy area of Florida. I'm going to say this now. I fear for your safety.

Marv, you're going to be interviewing these people? Yes. So you've just thrown a gator through a window. How does that make you feel? What are you going to ask these people? Florida Man is a tax media sponsor.

It'll be great. But if you want to go, general admission is $45 and VIP tickets are $145. So come join me.

I mean, what does the VIP get you? Now I'm involved. I need to know. All right.

So I will be giving you more details in the weeks to follow. But just to let you know, that's what's going to be happening March 1st, Florida Man Games. I mean, do you get your own gator for $145? Do you get to throw a gator at Marv? That's worth $145.

Exactly. Yeah. I don't know.

All right. I see what you guys are doing. What happens when I don't get a mug? All right.

So for those of you listening, thank you very much for downloading and subscribing to the show. We hope that you will stay with us in the coming year. Those of you watching live, stay with us.

We're going to have an after party where we will talk about throwing gators. Again, I want to say thank you to everybody that has made the show what it is. It was a fantastic year for me.

Thank you very much. I could not have done 165 shows without the sponsors, the listeners, and all of my guests who every time I asked to come on the show, they came on. So thank you guys very much.

That's going to do it. We are going to end off here with the holiday montage once again. For those of you here that are staying for the after show, just stay right on.

Those of you watching, we'll be right back. And everyone else, we'll see you in 2025. And until then, Holla!