759 State of the IT Business Podcast 2025

Hello, friends, and welcome. Welcome to this very special edition of the IT Business Podcast. I am your host, Marvin Bee, and tonight I wanted to give you a little bit of reflection.

As we just celebrated the MLK holiday and the inauguration of our president, it's about time that I gave you a state of the podcast addressed. But before we do that, I need some of you to take a walk with me down memory lane. And for those of you that are new to the show, or at least new in the last couple of years, you may not know where my beginnings began.

So 1997, I was working at a local computer repair shop. I was managing the tech department, and we were doing a thriving business. And I had been doing work on the side, helping customers at their house and at their business, because our business owner at the time did not believe in providing on-site service.

But he allowed us to do that as long as we would purchase any items that we needed from him. Now he would mark those items up and make a lot of money for himself and not really leave a lot of money for us, and I said, there's got to be a better way. So I started doing some research and figuring out that I could get my own products and support my own customers, and I did that.

And there were other things that happened, but I remember talking to him one morning about the idea of going out and doing this on my own, and he looked at me and said, you'll never make it. You won't survive. You'll be back within a year.

And I said, oh yeah, I'm out. So, in August of 1997, I started my business, and of course, it wasn't the business that you know now, but it was a business that I started on my own, supporting customers and businesses on-site. And here I am, all these years later, of course, I never went back to him, although he did approach me a few years later, asking if I wanted to partner with him as he was looking at a shift in his business.

I said no. Now, how does that relate to tonight? Well, I want to take you back to 2014, which is about the time that I came across this thing called podcasting. And there was a community called Podnutz, where technicians would share their stories, their customer nightmares, and help each other solve problems.

And I thought, these are my people. And I listened, and I joined, and started to co-host some shows, and I will tell you the rest of the story after this, because this past weekend, there was a full-circle moment as I attended the 2025 PodFest conference in Orlando, Florida. This is an event that has been considered one of the largest multimedia expos, and there was a gentleman there by the name of Chris Krimitsos, and he is the founder of the PodFest Expo, and he started his journey in podcasting back in 2013, when he held a small podcasting workshop attended by only 13 people.

And one of those 13 people was a gentleman by the name of Steve Cherubino. Now, Steve Cherubino, for those of you that may not know, was a member of that Podnutz community that I spoke of. He was a podcaster known for his show, Android App Addicts.

He also had a computer repair podcast and did some other stuff. And at the time, he was averaging something around 4,000 listeners an episode. And it was Steve Cherubino that played an inspirational role in Chris Krimitsos's starting PodFest.

So after that 2013 meeting, Krimitsos was inspired to start PodFest in 2014, the first year being held in Tampa, Florida. The conference is now held in Orlando every year and has well over a couple of thousand people in attendance. It has become one of the largest conferences in the podcasting industry.

And the year after the 2020 year of our COVID, PodFest was forced to be a virtual event. And at the time, it set a Guinness World Record, having over 5,800 people attend virtually the PodFest conference. Now, there's a lot of other things I can say about PodFest, but I want to say that last week, Chris Krimitsos was nominated for the podcast Hall of Fame.

And all of that goes back to his inspiration of Steve Cherubino. So what does that have to do with me? You say, well, as I mentioned, Steve Cherubino was the founder of that Podnutz network. It was a group of podcasters like me that shared stories and tips and stuff.

And that community, when I joined, I helped take over a podcast that had sort of pod faded called Podnutz Pro. It was a very popular show, and it was basically a show to help the residential tech, the Trunk Slammer, as some of you would call, and help them support businesses. Now, by this time in my career, I had only been supporting businesses, law firms, medical offices.

And I felt that I could help with that. I became the host and brought back the talent, Matt Rainey, to co-host that show with me. We brought that back October 4th, 2016.

And subsequently, Matt Rainey decided to leave the show, left it to me, and I carried on the tradition and expanded that show and turned it into what it is today. It was rebranded in January of 2022 into the IT Business Podcast. And I think I've done OK.

And I've expanded the show to interview other IT business owners, interview vendors in our space, and interview leaders and influencers that are helping us navigate this MSP space, this technology solution provider space. And I think we've done OK. Now, from the evolution of Podnutz Pro to the IT Business Podcast, the commitment has always been to provide valuable content to the community in an effort to help you run your business better, smarter, and faster.

I depend on you to let me know if we are keeping that promise. Now, in 2023, I actually started tracking the podcast. And at the end of that year, we had 7,094 unique listeners throughout the year.

And I am happy to report that at the end of 2024, that number grew to 8,607 unique listeners. So, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for listening to the show, supporting the show, and I am happy to report that the state of the podcast is good. Now, while the state of our podcast is good, I do want to make sure that I acknowledge the things that are happening in the world around us.

The California wildfire crisis, it is still happening. There are now 28 people that have lost their lives. Over 205,000 residents forced to evacuate their homes.

More than 17,000 structures have been destroyed. This is going to be considered some unprecedented devastation. They are actually thinking that the estimated damages potentially could reach $250 billion, comparable to the economic losses of Hurricane Katrina.

Now, these are not random occurrences, and they are fueled by a perfect storm of conditions, severe drought, low humidity, accumulated vegetation, and Hurricane Force Santa Ana winds. So I want to acknowledge that our thoughts and our prayers go out in the tech community. We have people there that are affected and have had to either cease operations, cancel events, or themselves be evacuated.

So I ask you in our community to assist in any way that you can. Of course, if you are going to donate, donate to something like the Red Cross, not a GoFundMe page of people you don't know, but the Red Cross will get those funds to the people that need them. Now, as we talk about assisting and helping people, of course, community is something that has been a focus for our channel for the last few years.

We are characterized by a strong community focused approach, and that sets us apart from many industries. And I believe that is driven by many factors. Of course, the first thing that we would talk about is shared challenges.

We often face similar business and technological challenges. It creates a natural bond. And one of the things that drew me to the Podnutz community back in 2014 was the willingness for us to share solutions and help each other solve our problems.

So, of course, peer learning is the second part of that. Technological expertise. We don't know something.

We probably know somebody who does or we know someone who knows someone that does. The emergence of peer groups and community events focused on business development, sales and marketing strategies. Of course, now there is a huge online presence, numerous Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups and other online platforms that demonstrate the need for community interaction among us as MSPs.

We also have to acknowledge vendor involvement. They have been some of the ones pushing for these peer groups and they have been fostering partnerships and helping in our ecosystem growth. I do acknowledge some have done it better than others, but we are all here for the same purpose.

And hopefully that brings us all to a sense of belonging where we can all be part of something bigger than ourselves and creating an even better ecosystem where even competing vendors and competing MSPs can collaborate and thrive. Some of those communities include some of the ones that I have come to know over the years. You may have heard right before this, Eric Anthony on the All Things MSP show, where his mission is to provide actionable strategies and insights for MSPs to improve their businesses and navigate industry challenges.

I have called them my sister podcast, which is MSP Unplugged. My friend Paco Lebron, Rick Smith and Corey Kirkendall, who recently joined them, also have a mission to help MSPs of all sizes and maturity levels get advice on running their IT businesses better and feel supported by the greater MSP community. Many of you know that I am a member of ASCII with a mission to help identify and partner with the industry's best vendors, foster meaningful relationships among members and provide pathways for MSPs to be heard and succeed.

And there are so many others. We mentioned the Facebook groups. There are some I'm going to leave out.

I apologize, but I can think of the IT Business Owners Group, Tech Knowledge. There are the Tech Nibble and Tech Tribe communities, among others. The NSITSP, the National Society of IT Service Providers, the MSP Association of America, all of these looking to help improve the perception and credibility of the IT profession through member driven actions.

The only thing I do want to say as a word of caution, we know that we have talked about the increasing number of events that are happening, the conferences, too many for us all to attend, the increasing number of organizations and peer groups. The one thing I would encourage us to do is work together more and make sure that any of us do not become just another membership organization with very little value. And speaking of value, I want to make sure that I do not forget that one of the things that I've helped pioneer in this industry is diversity in tech.

And I know some of you think, well, that should not be a part of anything we do, but it is, folks, it's life. And we don't ever stray away from anything else. And you guys talk about it in your Facebook groups, in your Reddit chats, in other forums when it's convenient for you.

And I'll be honest, I cannot hide the fact that I'm black, so it is never convenient for me to hear some of the comments that go on in our channel. But it is not just race, diversity encompasses gender, ethnicity, age, disability status, sexual orientation and cultural diversity. And as of 2025, the tech industry continues to face challenges in achieving true diversity despite ongoing efforts to improve representation.

So you may ask, what is the current state of diversity? Well, women remain underrepresented with about 19 percent of the tech workforce being female compared to 49 percent in other industries. We have a racial and ethnic diversity with approximately 15 of tech workforce coming from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. And as of 2020, I know this is going back, but even major tech companies like Google reported that only 5.5 percent of new hires were black plus and 6.6 percent were Latin plus. 

Now, there is an importance that we need to acknowledge in the diversity of tech. Diverse teams bring different perspectives, leading to more innovative solutions and products. They lead to a better understanding of customers because our customer base is diverse. 

It helps with improved problem solving, diverse teams can approach challenges from various angles, enhancing overall problem solving capabilities. So as our industry involves, there needs to be a continuing growing recognition that diversity is not just a moral imperative, but also a business necessity for innovation and success in the global market. Diversity in tech isn't just about representation, it's about creating spaces where every voice can contribute, every perspective can shine, innovation and innovation and truly flourish. 

Together, we can build a more inclusive, more dynamic and more powerful technological future. And speaking of future, we have all seen the reports about the thriving nature of the MSP space, and how much it's growing. And the reports that in 2025, 91 percent of MSPs will cite profitability as their priority for the upcoming year.

64 percent of MSPs already reported revenue increases in 2024 and 67 expect further growth in the next three years. MSPs are focused on several key areas, new customer acquisitions, revenue growth and profitability. And while I acknowledge that I also experience growth and I expect to keep growing, one of the things that I want to caution us to do is to not forget customer experience.

It makes no sense to bring in new customers through the front door while we ignore current customers and churn and allow old customers out the back door. That is something that we continually hear in our space. So with that being said, what's next? What is going to happen moving forward in 2025? Well, as many as you know, my business keeps right on trucking along.

I have had a lovely run with customers that have been loyal to me. I have lost very few. In 2023, I did lose two to acquisition.

They were both acquired by larger organizations that had either internal IT or national staff. So, yes, I lost those. And then I lost an opportunity for another client with 70 seats because they wanted a different MSP experience.

But I am still profitable even with those losses, and I continue to strive to keep that profit high and to go out and get business. So you might see a change in the no marketing mantra. I may have to market, which means that March, which is typically my month of marketing guests. 

I will probably double down on that and it will be money and marketing March as we look to increase our business also in 2025. And what does that mean for the podcast? Well, we will continue to. Improve upon the strong momentum that I had back in 2024, 2024 was probably the most active I have been with over one hundred and sixty five episodes, I thought that I would be slowing down in 2025.

Doesn't look like that will be happening. I will be attending again the IT Nation conferences, both Connect and Secure. I will be once again attending Pax8Beyond, at least two of the ASCII success events.

And my travels will start this year as early as February as I will be attending for the first time ThreatLocker Zero Trust World in Orlando, Florida. And then right after that. My podcast will be covering the Florida Man Games March 1st as a member of the media there. 

But you're asking, what does that mean really, Marv, for the podcast? Well, we will continue to do our best to deliver actionable advice on critical topics, anything that we can do to provide you with managed services, best practices. You can expect ongoing coverage of industry news, major announcements and shakeups in the IT and MSP sectors. And we will maintain our commitment to featured guest interviews with seasoned IT professionals, business owners and industry leaders, providing valuable insights and strategies for success.

So with that being said, I also ask, what can you do to help the podcast? Well, of course, I can always ask you to listen and watch when you get the opportunity. The best way to do that is to find us in your favorite pod catcher. We're on almost every platform.

You can search for Uncle Marv and find the IT Business Podcast. If you can't find it, head over to the website, itbusinesspodcast.com, click the follow button in the top right and you will find all of your pod catchers there. And for those of you that are watching now, I would encourage you to continue watching on your favorite video platform.

We are streaming every Wednesday on YouTube, LinkedIn and the Facebook. And just so you know, my show will always. Always strive to provide whatever we can without sacrificing monies, we do have sponsors, yes, but that is simply so that I can provide you the best that I can with better equipment, with being able to pay for travel.

I do not take money away from my day job to do this. I would love to say that I could afford to do it on my own, but I can't. So, yes, we do have sponsors.

We do have people that support us. There are some of you that support Kofi, which is the platform that we moved away from Patreon to go to. So you can do that.

You can also do something as simple as buy me a coffee on the website. There is a little coffee icon at the bottom of the screen. You can click on that by one, two or five coffees.

You can also go to buy me a coffee slash Uncle Marv and do that as well. And then the one thing that I can ask you to do that does not take any extra money out of your pocket is to shop at Uncle Marv's Amazon store. The link is in the show notes or you can head over to the website and click on shop Amazon. 

Amazon at the top. Save that link as your starting page. When you shop Amazon, there is no change in what you do.

Amazon just gives a little kickback, one, two percent on the things that you buy. And that can also support the show. So I ask you to do those things.

I ask you to help keep the conversation going. If there's ever a comment, a question, show topic idea. You can always send me a message on either of the social media platforms or an email to Marvin at ITBusinessPodcast.com. And I listen and I respond to every message that I that I get.

You can refer new guests. You can suggest new vendors to talk to. You can find other MSPs that have done a great job and share with others their experiences and their good fortunes.

As for me, I'll just keep doing this. Because I get good feedback and good engagement and we need it. And with that, folks, I want to say again, the state of the podcast is good.

I will be here at least another year, providing you the best that I can with product stories and tips in an effort to help you run your business better, smarter and faster. I ask you to join me whenever we have a live show or listen in your pod catcher when you get the chance. And that is going to do it for this evening show.

Thank you for your attendance. We'll see you next time. And until then.

Holla!