Boutique MSP Success: Lynn Thames (EP 818)

[Uncle Marv]
Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast. This is the show for solution providers, MSPs, those of you out there that support businesses and we try to help you run that business better, smarter and faster. This is the Wednesday live show and I have a great guest coming up and I did not realize how long it had been since she was on the show.

So of course we're going to get caught up and talk about what's going on with her business. Let me catch you up to speed what's been happening with me and my business. That 365 migration project.

We're like a foot away from the finish line and that hopefully will be done soon. The invoice is prepped and ready to go. If you've been listening to the show, you don't want to hear about it.

If you're new to the show, you don't want me to start it, but you can go back to previous episodes and hear all about that. I did take a trip to Tampa over the weekend and I will explain this because I think this will be something that most of you will probably resonate with and probably like in some degree and hate in another degree. So about a month ago, we moved a client from one office to another.

And if you were on the Facebook, you saw the pictures that I posted where we had a little issue because the client, well, the client prepared to move cubicles, but the cubicle company the day of the move decided, yeah, we're not moving them. So my client had eight cubicles that they did not have in the new space and we had to scramble to find cubicles because they were moving. We had already started moving before they found out they weren't getting the new cubicles.

So we did scramble, we found somebody to move four existing cubicles from another space. And by the way, we're still waiting for the other four cubicles. So I don't know when my return trip to Orlando will be, but that is going to happen.

So I have another office that is being moved. This time it is in Tampa. Now it is only moving up one floor.

So you would think that would be an easy move. Never, never think that is going to be easy. So this is a client that they are downsizing the office.

They are going from about 30, I think it's 36 workstations to, I think it's going to be 21 workstations, give or take, depends on a couple of things. So the office manager, also known as AJ, for those of you that are keeping track of the junior acronyms, has not been over to see the new space because he's in a different part of the state. He's on this side of the state.

And I think he's relying on pictures from people in the office to give him an idea of how this space is set up. And I decided last week, I gotta go. I gotta go see the space.

I know what happens. Things don't get prepared properly. So I made the trip over on Friday.

And as I, all right, I'll tell you this part of the story only because it's relevant. So we had planned on a time to go and see the space. I drive from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa.

I get there half an hour early. I go in and visit the current office. We go to the designated spot to meet the office manager or building manager, assistant, whatever they're called.

Nobody's there. We think maybe they're up at the suite. I go up there.

Nobody's there. We go back down, knock on the door. Nobody's there.

I call AJ. AJ's like, well, can you find security and see if they can let you in? So I go down and I'm talking to AJ.

I'm telling him this, and we're talking about stuff. And he goes, well, before you go see the security guard, call the office and see what's happening. So I'm standing in the first floor lobby on the phone, leaving a message for the building assistant, and people are walking by.

So I leave the message and I go to walk out to the security guard. There, I see a lady who was walking with the security guard going, there he is. Now, for those of you that listen to the show and have never seen the show or have never seen me live, that is one of the worst things to ever have to go through on a regular basis is to have somebody point you out to a security guard.

Now, mind you, I'm there in lockers, a nice shirt. I've got my bags. I'm there with my wife.

It's not like I was sneaking around or doing anything. But yeah, I was getting reported to the security guard. Come to find out, the person who reported me to the security guard was the person I was looking for and needed to talk to about getting let into the space.

Only to find out she never got the email. It went to somebody else and I'm pulling up on my phone the email. I said, well, here it is.

She's like, oh, I'm so sorry. So that's how my visit started. Now, let's move on.

So I get into the space. First of all, no carpet, which, okay, carpet can be installed soon enough. We're two weeks away from the move.

I walk in and there's 18 cubicles, preexisting, great. But remember, no carpet, which means that they have jimmied up all the cubicles so they could yank out the carpet. So Cat5 or Cat6 cables are now disconnected from the cubicles.

I don't know if they're good or not. I go into the server closet, which is basically an open room, no door. There is a nice, closed end wall rack up top, but you can't reach anything without a ladder.

So I pull over a finely clammy, get on the ladder, open it up. Everything looks nice. I'm kind of happy.

34 cables on one side and then two that say WAP. And I'm like, oh, they even have wireless access cables. I'm very happy.

So then we go walking around and looking and I get to where I'm trying to determine how many jacks are in offices and all of the face plates are off and no ends on the cables. So I'm like, all right, so we got to terminate cables. We got to test them, do all that stuff.

Now this space, I told you the client was downsizing. I'm looking and there's no room for the two copiers that the client has. And when I say two copiers, they're regular size copiers.

One of them has an oversized finisher. The finisher is the size of a regular copier. So I call AJ and I'm like, have you given any thought to where these copiers are going to go?

And he's like, oh yeah, they're going to go behind the cubicles along the wall. And I said, well, there's only like 40 inches between the edge of the cubicle and the wall. So it's going to be tight.

I will make it work. He's like, oh, by the way, can you see what the electrical outlet situation is? And I'm like, there is none.

So not only does he need to get electrical over there and I have to run cables over there. These are the types of copiers that need that 220 electrical outlet. So that's got to be done.

So the two copiers I got to take care of. I have to think about where are you going to put the time clock. Where are you going to put the postage machine?

Oh, by the way, we have two other HP printers, network, big old size, and the old 4015s that probably should be retired because they're at least 10 plus years old. Oh yeah, no space for that. And four offices.

Now, when I was upstairs looking at the existing space, I realized that there were probably nine offices. I'll say between seven and nine offices where attorneys looked like they were still coming in on a regular basis, had their pictures up, had their friends and family on the desk and stuff like that. And I said, so do we know which four attorneys are getting the offices?

Oh no, we're still fighting over that because they're going to have to share. So yeah. The reason I say that some of you might resonate with this is because of course you share the same stories, clients telling you things at the last minute, not thinking about things ahead of time.

And had I not gone over to Tampa to see that space, we probably would be dealing with a lot of other stuff. Now, let me also tell you, we still don't know if they're going to have internet moved from one floor to the other because their ISP lost their right of entry into the building. And if you don't know what right of entry is, that is usually a five-year agreement that the building has the ISP signed so that they can come in and install, extend, or do whatever into the building.

Well, this ISP let that expire a while ago. Don't know. It's been a while.

So the building will not let them in either to move the existing service, which is both a ethernet cable and a broadband cable. So I don't know if that's going to be done. And again, we're moving in two weeks.

What else is going on? I'm sure there's other stuff, but I'm taking up way too much time because you really came here to see the guest that is being presented here tonight. So let me go ahead and do that.

By the way, I just want to get that drink in there. My throat was getting dry for some reason there. So our guest tonight, Lynn Thames of Thames Consulting Group.

It's been on the show. She's been on the show a few times, but I didn't realize that, Lynn, it has been since the year of our COVID that you visited us. I'm so sorry that it has taken this long.

[Lynn Thames]
In 2020 or 19?

[Uncle Marv]
2020. You were on the holiday show with us.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh, right. Right. I remember that.

I remember that.

[Uncle Marv]
So sorry that I took so long to reach out.

[Lynn Thames]
No, that's okay. Time flies by. I didn't even realize it was so long.

[Uncle Marv]
It does. It does.

[Lynn Thames]
I had no idea.

[Uncle Marv]
So how are things?

[Lynn Thames]
Things are good. I, you know, since five years ago, my business has grown and I now have an employee and I have an office. I used to work out of the house the last time we spoke.

Very nice. But now I have, yeah. So now I have an office very close to my house.

That was a requirement for me that I didn't have to drive too far.

[Uncle Marv]
How close?

[Lynn Thames]
1.8 miles.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay. Not bad.

[Lynn Thames]
So I can walk. I mean, I don't, but sometimes I do. I've done it a couple times.

But I could. The idea is there. I could if I had to.

[Uncle Marv]
My office is less than a thousand feet from my house and I never, I don't walk.

[Lynn Thames]
Wait, a thousand feet?

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. I'm basically two blocks from my house is that way.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh, wow. I probably would walk. But I mean, it's hot in Florida.

[Uncle Marv]
It's too hot to walk. I'd sweat halfway down.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. Right. That's the problem.

That is definitely a problem. Yeah. Anyway, I don't walk, but it's a, it's a really, it's in a shopping center and I'm upstairs, you know, there's offices upstairs, retail shops, and it's a great location.

It's very, there's a UPS store in the shopping center, which is, it turns out to be like just an amazing thing because now I'm always getting stuff delivered and, you know, having to ship stuff out. And that actually is probably the best thing that it's, it's near a UPS store. Anyway, and I love it.

I love, I took, my house had so much crap in it from repairing computers, just all the stuff that I had in this house. I took it out, moved it into this office. And I usually come home.

And by this time of night, I would be lying on the sofa now watching some show, but I'm meeting you instead.

[Uncle Marv]
No, I'm sorry to hear that.

[Lynn Thames]
No, it's fine.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. Well, let's start with, I guess, some of the obvious questions. What's it like now to, wow, there's a lot of, there's a lot to unpack.

[Lynn Thames]
There's a lot. There's a lot. Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
So let's start with the question of what's it like to actually have somebody else full-time working?

[Lynn Thames]
It's actually amazing. And I, it started off, so let me think in 2021, I would say August of 21, I had been mauling the idea of number one, getting an office and then number two, having someone help me a little bit. So anyway, well, do you want to hear, I guess you could hear the whole story.

We have time. So my son, my youngest son is married and he went to university of Pittsburgh and he met a girl at university of Pittsburgh and they got married in July of 21. They came, well, they didn't get married till 23, but they were dating anyway.

And they came to visit us. I live in Philadelphia. They came to Philadelphia and they had some friends over.

And one of the friends was my future daughter-in-law's room, former roommate who grew up in our neighborhood, but went to university of Pittsburgh. And she was working for whole foods. She had left college during COVID and never finished and was very, you know, whole foods was a terrible job for her.

She just, she didn't like it. And she started to talk to me about how much she was interested in tech and computers. And anyway, I thought, okay, you know what?

I said, would you work for me for like 10 hours a week? So she said, yes.” And we started off very, you know, it was very easy and it was just, it was two days a week she'd come in.

And, and, you know, at that point I'd gotten another office and I would have her like answer the phone. And first I had her come out with me when I would go out to clients. I just had her follow me and just, just watch what I do.

[Uncle Marv]
Interesting. Now, was she doing any of that as study work when she started off at the college?

[Lynn Thames]
She was an English major, but it turns out that's a perfect transition. I mean, isn't that crazy? It turns out she's got a very good app.

This is a young woman. She is 26 years old. She watches YouTube videos and like installs a dishwasher in her parents' house.

You know, something I would never do. She just bought her own house and she's doing all the remodeling. She redid the kitchen.

She resanded the floors. Like she's very, she's amazing really.

[Uncle Marv]
So either Whole Foods was paying well or you're paying well.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh, I'm paying better than Whole Foods for sure. Yeah, for sure. Anyway, she anyway, so she's got a great aptitude for computer stuff.

And so she it's, you know, I feel like I, and I have, I have a computer science degree, but you don't need a computer science degree to do what we all do. I don't, at least I don't feel you do. I think, I think that aptitude and a desire to do it is more important in my opinion than, you know, having learned theory and stuff about it.

So she's been great. And so it's, she's, we've built it up. Now she's 30 hours a week and she, you know, I, my it, it frees me up to do other things.

I don't have to like, she really deals with a lot of the phone calls. And if somebody brings in a computer that's broken, she'll fix it. Because that's what she's really good at was never something I was actually very good at.

You know, so anyway, it's been working out great. I, I couldn't do at this point, I couldn't do it without her. I mean, I, I want her to stay and I'm going to make sure that she stays with me as long as I can do that, as long as I do this.

[Uncle Marv]
Right. Now it sounds like you, you found the perfect situation that a lot of us talk about where people are trying to look for, you know, technicians and stuff and, you know, they'll get people that look good on paper, but aren't good in person or they come in with an attitude because they think, well, you know, you know, I, I got my degree, so I should be making 80, you know, and it seems like she's right at that perfect spot.

Somebody who, who wants to learn but, but is young enough. And I'm going to say this, I don't want to say impressionable, but moldable in the sense where, you know, she doesn't have all that baggage.

[Lynn Thames]
She didn't have anything preconceived, you know. So, which was really great because then, so I've got, you know, I show her how I do it and, you know, she certainly does some things her own way, but she's also, you know, being so much younger than me, she's sometimes a little more up to date on certain things that I may not be, you know, she, and she's very interested. She loves Apple products, which is great because she always knows what's going on with them.

And I don't really, I don't really follow or, you know, too closely what's going on with that. So she's always very ready to help people with their iPhones or whatever, you know, whatever other situation like that is. I'm trying to think, I'm trying to slowly show her like Microsoft 365, you know, cause she doesn't really do any of the administering of that.

I do all that. So I'm trying to get her to do some of that, you know, teach her that.

[Uncle Marv]
So you took her around with you to clients, what have they said so far?

[Lynn Thames]
They love her. They all love her. When everybody talks to her on the phone, loves it.

Now I have, it's funny you asked that because in the last week I have heard her, you know, you'd be shocked to know that some people can be very annoying on the phone. I'm sure you're shocked.

[Uncle Marv]
Never happened.

[Lynn Thames]
I know. Right. It must just be us.

But anyway, I heard her get a little testy with somebody the other day. And I, I said to her, Hey, you know, you gotta, you gotta tamper that down a little bit. She's like, Oh my God, she was so frustrating.

She wasn't listening to what I was saying. I'm like, I know, get used to that. I know, but right.

You can't, you can't, you know, give it back to them. You have to, right. You have to.

So anyway, but that's okay. I haven't had one person complain about her. Although I have had a few people that have been my longtime clients, they will call and they only want to talk to me.

Yeah. And that's okay. That's okay.

[Uncle Marv]
That don't happen. But you know, as you, I mean, you said you grew, so I assume you're going to keep growing and you know, as you get newer clients they're not going to know the difference.

[Lynn Thames]
Right. And you know what? I, I actually said to her at one point, if people call, you know, cause my business is a mix of, you know, we do some break, fix stuff still.

And we plus the, you know, the service plan, I call them service plans, but I guess the MSP stuff I have. So I told her that she could do all of the break, fix stuff. So there's actually people that I don't even know.

Like she has met them, has helped them and they've paid and moved on. And I, if I'm at the office, I'll meet them and say, hi, you know, nice to meet you. And I don't really know who they are.

And that's okay.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, that's good.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. It's fine by me.

[Uncle Marv]
So I don't want to gloss over that little, that little slide of hand motion you did with the, that MSP stuff. Because of course, you know, the industry, you know, MSP is kind of like the standard and you know, you, you've known I've, I've, I've not been a very good model of the standard. I do a lot of managed services, but I am kind of like the boutique MSP of that.

So you're probably, you know, close to that. You still do a lot of break, fix. I, I only do it when I have to.

[Lynn Thames]
I mean, it's not a lot, right. I do, you know, sometimes I have to, cause these are the MSP clients that their computer, something happens to their computer and we have to fix it. So, yeah.

I mean, as far as like the cold calling of someone with a broken screen or something like that, we don't have hardly any of that. Yeah. I don't get that kind of thing.

[Uncle Marv]
No, but there's a, there's a phrase on your website that I, I liked where it says, don't be stressed by your computer, mobile device or network. We consult service and train.

[Lynn Thames]
Right.

[Uncle Marv]
That sounds like the perfect model for those small businesses that most MSPs would discard.

[Lynn Thames]
Right. So the thing that I have found from, that works really well for me, you know, first of all, there's just the two of us and, and I don't want to grow into a, I don't want to grow into a big MSP. I don't want to.

[Uncle Marv]
Hang on, hang on. I want to, I want to stop and let that simmer for some people.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh, sorry. I'm sure the people are going crazy.

[Uncle Marv]
There's people pinging my phone. Who doesn't want to grow? I've, I've, I've had a vendor tell me that, you know, as I, you know, try to say, I'm sorry, I don't need your stack.

Oh, you don't mean you don't want to grow?

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
That there's a difference in growing and a different in growing.

[Lynn Thames]
Right. I mean, I don't, I don't aspire to be the owner of an MSP with 10 technicians. Like that's not what I want to do.

So I have found this niche and it really works well for me where the businesses that I support are typically, now there's some exceptions, but typically they're like five users or less. So that the very small people, they're the single lawyer that works for themselves. They're, you know, a psychologist, they're accountants.

I do have a couple bigger clients that are, you know, I think the biggest one I'm trying to think, I think maybe has 14 computers and users. And, but there, you know, it turns out that they're actually a low touch. They're not a very needy group.

That's funny. They're like the biggest one. They're not the neediest people I have.

But I find that I just, I just got a new client recently. So I've partnered with a couple other MSPs that won't help people that size. And then if they get a phone call for someone like that, they refer them to me.

And they just referred me this woman who was starting her own business doing medical records. And she couldn't, she was so upset because she could not find any IT people to help her. And she finally got to me and I've helped her, you know, set her up with everything, you know, with Microsoft 365 and protection.

And I have a contact for Ring Central. So I hooked her up with him. So he's going to get her, you know, a phone number and you know, she's thrilled.

She signed up for my contract. So, you know, I'm happy to help her. Cause what happens is once you get them set up, they don't, they don't have a lot of problems.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
And she's going to remember that. And maybe you'll get another referral from her or as she grows, you grow with her.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. Right. Right.

So that really works for me. And I find it's a very underrepresented niche. I do say, I do will admit that there are some of those very small businesses, businesses that don't even realize they need IT help.

You know, they don't even want to, yeah. Until they have an emergency and then they're freaking out, you know, and, you know, I, if I can help someone like that, I will, but then I'll try and get them on a plan. You know, I'll try and say, Hey, you need to, right.

We need to make this more regular, but you know, if I'm busy with my other clients, you know, sorry, I can't respond to you immediately.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. Makes sense. I mean, I, I mean, I have some of those I have, you know, in the legal industry, for those of you that, you know, this might be the first time you're listening.

A lot of my clients are law firms. And of course the bigger firms understand, you know, once you get above 20, 30, 40, you know, they realize they need IT support, but you know, new attorneys, especially these days, they're going to come in. They just think, well, I'll just, you know, I'll get my own 365.

I'll get, you know, Clio, you know, cloud apps and I'm good. I don't need a And until they fall under some sort of compliance and here in Florida, the Florida bar is starting to push a lot of stuff on them with, you know, the maintaining of security data, privacy and stuff. And listen, if it's just a solo attorney, maybe they can do it themselves.

But as soon as they start adding staff and they got to start doing other stuff, they really need somebody to help. So those are the types of situations where we need to step in and do that. And you and I talked earlier, you know, I have law firms where some of their vendors are not in the cloud, right? So they still have to have a physical server.

And, you know, server is like the S word to other MSPs because they're like, you got to rip servers out. I mean, you can't force a client to rip out their line of business app just because you don't want to support it.

[Lynn Thames]
Right. I mean, I feel the same way.

[Uncle Marv]
Allah, you know, that's why people like me exist. We'll support service. So very interesting.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. And I feel that's sort of the same thing, you know, and a lot of these bigger, a bigger MSP will have a bigger stack and, you know, they want you to spend whatever a user, you know, and some of these smaller businesses, they, you know, they can't, they can't spend that much per user or they don't want to or whatever.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, what I have found is they don't need to.

[Lynn Thames]
Or they don't need, well, yes.

[Uncle Marv]
I mean, just simply there can be some modification in your stack. Every client doesn't have to have everything in the portfolio.

[Lynn Thames]
Right.

[Uncle Marv]
Customize it.

[Lynn Thames]
Right.

[Uncle Marv]
You know, it can still be a bundle. It's just a smaller bundle.

[Lynn Thames]
Right. Right. And I don't, I don't have bundles that are like strict, you know, this, this customer has this bundle, this has this, you know, I tailor it to the customer and it, I don't find it hard to keep track of it or maintain it.

You know, and again, maybe not, cause I'm not, you know, I don't have clients that have 50 users, so it's not hard to do. Right. I don't know, but yeah, so.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. We kind of drifted off there. We were talking about, you know, you've got the office, you've got the employee.

Right. I'll just go ahead and ask this. Normally I'd wait till the end, but I think right now is a good time to ask, what are the plans?

I mean, do you have a strategy or are you just winging it?

[Lynn Thames]
Pretty much winging it.

[Uncle Marv]
Where's your marketing plan? Come on.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah, I know. Meanwhile, I have to tell you, I went to college and was a business major. So I didn't know, but I obviously didn't learn anything.

Because I don't have any, no, I, you know what I would, I, what I love and I, and I mentioned it to my employee when she first, not when she first started, but in the first year and she, it was, I think it was too soon to say, but I would love for her to ultimately take over the business because I'm getting, you know, I'm no spring chicken.

[Uncle Marv]
So I didn't say, I didn't see anything.

[Lynn Thames]
I didn't say anything. I know you did it. And I didn't, I'm just saying, you know, I mean, I love, I love what I do, so I don't want to stop yet.

So, and having her work for me allows me some more freedom that I didn't have before. You know, now I can go away on a vacation and really be, be very comfortable so that things are going to be fine. Whereas before I would, you know, going on vacation was a very stressful, it was stressful.

I was always, you know, connected. Now I can really, I mean, I still can't stay connected a little bit, but much less than I had to before, which is great.

[Uncle Marv]
What's the longest vacation you've taken since she started?

[Lynn Thames]
Two weeks.

[Uncle Marv]
Two weeks.

[Lynn Thames]
I took two weeks last June. Yeah. Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
Two weeks.

[Lynn Thames]
Two weeks, man. How's that? And I went to Europe, so I was really, you know, it wasn't like I was missing, my phone didn't work half the time because where we were.

[Uncle Marv]
Right.

[Lynn Thames]
Great.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay.

[Lynn Thames]
I really recommend it.

[Uncle Marv]
So two weeks, you're over there now. So she started in 21, you said?

[Speaker 3]
Yeah. Okay.

[Uncle Marv]
So it's okay. So she had three full years to get embedded in the system and stuff. So it sounds like she pretty much took care of everything.

No real issues when you got back.

[Lynn Thames]
I mean, there were, so what happens is, and this happens all the time to people, when you're not available, things that are emergencies suddenly are not an emergency. Right. So there were things that were left for me when I came back, you know, people either wanted to talk to me or whatever.

There was no, I mean, luckily there were no real, you know, fire alarm emergencies that, I think she had one thing that was kind of an emergency for a client, one of our, you know, contracted clients that she had to go over there. Several times she was over there, but she worked it out. So yeah.

You know, so what happens is stuff that's an emergency, if she'll say, you know, Lynn's away and she won't be back until this date. Some people say, “You know what, I'll just wait. So they wait.

And the other ones that have to have it taken care of right away, you know, they get it taken care of. They're glad that somebody's there to take care of it, you know? Yeah.

Because everybody gets it. You have to be on vacation. But you know, I used to, I used to leave a phone number for somebody else that wasn't part of my business and just like, Hey, call this person if you have an emergency, you know?

[Uncle Marv]
And so they wouldn't call.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. Right. Which, you know, is great to have, to have that someone that will at least cover for you, but it's very different if they don't really know your business and all that, you know?

[Uncle Marv]
It's true.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. And I think I had somebody, I used to refer out, there was a guy I met, did I met you in Chicago? Is that where I met you?

[Uncle Marv]
That could have been one of the trips. Yeah.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. I think I met you in Chicago. So I met somebody else.

[Uncle Marv]
2018? No.

[Lynn Thames]
Right.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. 2018. Yes.

[Lynn Thames]
Right. So I met someone else in Chicago that was local. I mean, sort of local to me, maybe he's an hour away from me.

And he was someone I used to refer out to. I mean, not refer out, he would cover for me. And yeah, I remember he had to once go into a client I had because they had like their firewall stopped working or something when I was away.

I can't remember exactly what was wrong, but anyway. Yeah. So yeah, I don't know.

It seems to be working. It's again, I know it is against all the grain to say, I don't want to grow to be a million dollar MSP, but I don't.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. I mean, that's just horseradish to everybody else. Do what works for you.

That's what I always say. Yeah.

[Speaker 3]
Right.

[Uncle Marv]
And you have now. So 2018 we met and of course, things aren't really much different for me. It's still me doing my thing.

Although I have a nicer office. I've got the same, I've got, well, I'm down one subcontractor, so I'm still doing my business the same way. You've taken on an employee, so things seem better.

So yeah, you mentioned the whole idea of where people are pushing and stuff. You've always done your own thing. You're not on the circuit like a lot of us don't see you at eight conferences a year.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Lynn Thames]
Well, I mean, part of it was because I was alone for a long time. I couldn't take the time. And I loved when I went to the conferences, I loved that one in Chicago with Laurie's, you know.

[Uncle Marv]
The IT business owner's compass.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. She's listening.

[Uncle Marv]
No, she doesn't. She doesn't listen to me.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh, she doesn't listen. Okay. That's fine.

[Uncle Marv]
She might, if she knows you're on, she may, you know, she may listen.

[Lynn Thames]
Maybe. I don't know. I didn't even, I should have posted.

I forgot. But anyway, I did enjoy it, but I don't know. I always used to, it's funny.

And maybe everybody's like this. I would go to the conference. I would listen to all these vendors.

I'd get all these great, oh, this, I got to do this. And what is this? What is this?

And I go back and I wouldn't do anything. I would just do what I was doing. I think I was going to do it.

Or maybe I would sign up for a vendor there. But I don't want to be pressured into, and I'm not saying anybody pressured me at these conferences, but I don't want, if I'm going to sign up with a new vendor, I need to, I need to want to do it. Do you know what I mean?

I don't want to feel the pressure when I'm at a conference. Oh, they're giving me some bargain for today. You know, if I sign up now, I don't know.

It's just how I am. I need to, I need to think it over and demo it and really understand what I'm getting myself into.

[Uncle Marv]
So, so where are you getting your guidance? I mean, do you have people that you talk with on a regular basis in the industry besides, you know, the locals there?

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. I mean, this is going to sound crazy, but I mean, I'm in several Facebook groups.

[Speaker 3]
Okay.

[Lynn Thames]
Um, the IT business owners group, the IT duties group, the, uh, let's see, IT and MSP owners group. I don't even know what they're all called.

[Uncle Marv]
Um, I'm probably in some of those groups too, but I'm not on the Facebook every day.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. So I, and then I have from those groups, I have, I'm going to say met in air quotes, met some friends, you know, that I actually will, you know, message over Facebook or email or whatever to discuss, you know, uh, let's discuss things. Um, yeah, I guess, you know, and I, you know, uh, I guess that's probably a good idea when, now that you're mentioning, I mean, you know, during once COVID hit, like I stopped going to conferences and I never really went back and, um, Really?

Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
I'm sorry. I'm poking around my phone. I'm like, I, I, I'm, I'm in those groups too.

And I, I don't see you posting.

[Lynn Thames]
No. Well, I don't post, I don't post every day. Like I didn't read everybody else posts.

I'm not posting every day. I hardly ever post. I'm just re I'm like a voyeur.

[Uncle Marv]
So, so you're a, what are we called?

[Lynn Thames]
Um, trolls like, like, uh, I'm not a troll, but I, I'm a voyeur. I think I just look whatever other people.

[Uncle Marv]
Oh, here's five notices today from the it business owners group.

[Lynn Thames]
There you go. You know, some people will have a problem and I'll be like, Oh, I have that problem too. Or they'll talk about something.

Um, Oh my goodness.

[Uncle Marv]
They have an AI pal. Did you see this?

[Lynn Thames]
No, I don't. Oh, I did, but I didn't, I didn't click on it.

[Uncle Marv]
Scott Sanders has created it pal. The group's AI is here to get you instant answers and info. Oh my goodness gracious.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh, I didn't see that at all.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah, that was, uh, last week.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh, okay. Wow. So I'm not looking at it all the time.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, somebody would get this message back to Scott. So hopefully he doesn't take offense at Scott. We see this, we're paying attention and we're going to go.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. We're going to go look at it later.

[Uncle Marv]
You'll see if a it pal can help me get an instant answer.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, so why don't you tell me, what do you find useful about these conferences?

[Uncle Marv]
Well, what do I find useful? I get gossip. That's what I get.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh yeah. I'm not interested in that.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay. No. So here's the thing.

So I, the very first thing is the networking and the community. So the biggest reason that I want to go to a conference is because of who is there and who am I going to get to see whether it's a vendor, whether it's another MSP, another friend. Um, that's why I'm there.

Um, but the problem is a lot of the reasons that I get to go are because of the podcast. So I do go and you know, it, it helps me to get content. It helps me to meet vendors.

Uh, one of the big things I'm trying to do is, you know, get more vendors on the show, one to get MSPs exposure to the vendors. Um, because it's not really about what I use and what we talk about on the show on a regular basis. There's tons of other vendors out there that could be a better fit for somebody in the show.

So I will continue to try to do that. Um, now that also determines sometimes if I go, because if I can go because of the podcast and a vendor will take care of me, then I'm going to go, but I can't spend $2,000 or more to go to every conference.

[Lynn Thames]
And that's kind of where I, like for me, you know, I certainly couldn't go to 80. I don't want to go to 80. I don't want to spend my money.

Honestly, you know, I have all that money to fly to different places. If someone's going to, you know, yeah, someone fly would fly me out there. I would go to all of them.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. But yeah, I get a couple of them. So I do attend a lot of the ones in Florida because I can drive to that one that, that saves me a little bit.

Uh, and it works. So, um, and by the way, speaking of conferences, you and I've already talked, uh, one will be near you in October.

[Lynn Thames]
And I'm going to go.

[Uncle Marv]
The ASCII cup will be in your neck of the woods.

[Lynn Thames]
And I will go to that.

[Uncle Marv]
And I will be there too.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah, that'd be great.

[Uncle Marv]
We will have seen each other in person for the first time in eight years.

[Lynn Thames]
Right. And so we can duck out and go to a better restaurant in Philadelphia.

[Uncle Marv]
Cause Oh, really?

[Lynn Thames]
Well, yeah, I certainly know them. All right. Yeah.

I'm going to take, you're not going to get out of there.

[Uncle Marv]
You're not going to make me eat Philly cheesesteak or something. Right?

[Lynn Thames]
No, no, no, no. I mean, although you should, but if you, if you haven't had one, but if you haven't, we don't have to eat that.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay. So I should probably ask you this because now that you've said that normally I've got a of people that we try to hang. So what's going to be the limit on the number of people that can go with this?

[Lynn Thames]
Oh, well, I don't know.

[Uncle Marv]
I mean, how big is your car?

[Lynn Thames]
Oh, we can use my, well, my car, my car's not that big. It's only going to, it's only going to fit five tight. I have a little electric car, five small people, five small people.

[Uncle Marv]
All right.

[Lynn Thames]
Um, but we can Uber. I mean, there's Uber, you know, we can get anywhere. No, that's not a problem.

Where is it? Do you know where it's going to be in Philadelphia? Should we talk about this here?

I don't know.

[Uncle Marv]
I don't know.

[Lynn Thames]
Okay. I'll look it up.

[Uncle Marv]
Um, yeah, there's so many events between now and then I've got to figure out Dallas and Orlando and no Denver first.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh, Denver's nice.

[Uncle Marv]
Yes.

[Lynn Thames]
Denver's nice. Is that the Pax 8 one?

[Uncle Marv]
Pax 8 beyond.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh yeah. I should go to that. I use Pax 8 for all my stuff.

[Uncle Marv]
So let's see. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. The Sheraton Philadelphia downtown hotel.

[Lynn Thames]
Sheraton. Is it a given address?

[Uncle Marv]
Yes. 201 North 17th street.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh, okay. Okay.

[Uncle Marv]
Ooh, there's a map.

[Lynn Thames]
No, that's a nice, that's a good neighborhood.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
I'm just trying to see how far it is from the airport.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh no. It's like, uh, you, you can't, you have to take a, you can take the train or an Uber. What?

[Uncle Marv]
A train from the airport?

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
I don't think so.

[Lynn Thames]
Why not?

[Uncle Marv]
Then I'll need to come in with somebody.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh yeah. So you're not, so you know how to do it. Oh, well, I don't know.

Train or an Uber or, or you're not going to rent a car, right? No, no. Well, we'll talk about it.

I'll, I'll get y'all set up. We'll talk about it. Yeah.

Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. So let me check on time because we are, we have not followed the customary schedule for this evening. So let's do this.

Let me take a quick break and recognize the sponsors for the show. And the way that I do that is just, I'm going to quickly show their banners and have a quick chat about them. And let's see here.

First of all, the IT business podcast is brought to you by NetAlly, the number one ally in trusted network testing and support, fast, reliable network testing. And when I go up to the ASCII cup, um, let's see, that will be October. So that might be the last month of my agreement with rhythms, the internet in a box.

And, uh, basically if you have access to cell service, you have access to internet and you don't have to rely on, uh, paying the event or whatever, uh, for internet. And as an MSP, you can provide internet in a box to your clients at remote locations. And while I'm traveling to those events, I will be supported by B VoIP, the VoIP company that provides reliably clear VoIP.

That is poorly worded. So I hope Bernice never sees this. Uh, they are one of the travel partners for 2025.

Uh, let's see here. Also TruGrid, uh, secure remote access, remote work with zero compromise. And they basically will give you remote access without the VPN.

And my gear sponsor this year that got me the great video equipment that I will be able to do videos from the conference, LionGuard. They help protect the attack surface. And I had a chat today with somebody.

We're going to figure out a way to get them on the show so I can talk more reliably about designer ready white label web design, because I've been talking about them for two months and I don't think I've described them correctly. Uh, except to say that they do my business website, which is okay. I mean, it's better than it was.

It's better than it was five years ago when I had some stupid little 1985 coffee cup on it. So that is, so that is our sponsors for the show. Thank you everyone.

And let's see here. I had another question I was going to ask you about, but I think we'll skip it because we already talked about what your thoughts are on industry best practices and what it's like to be a boutique MSP, because I'm going to, I'm going to put you in that category.

[Lynn Thames]
Okay. Okay.

[Uncle Marv]
If you like the name boutique MSP.

[Lynn Thames]
I'll accept it. Yes.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. Uh, Lynn, I saved you the drama of having to come up with a story to challenge Florida man, which is what we used to do.

[Lynn Thames]
Did you look at any of those books I mentioned to you?

[Uncle Marv]
Well, officially no.

[Lynn Thames]
Okay.

[Uncle Marv]
But I have his name and I have links to all of his stuff and I was going to basically, um, well before, before last weekend happened, I was going to spend time doing it that Saturday, but I'll probably end up doing it this Sunday because I have to make a trip back up. It's a long story, but yes, there was a name she gave me. Do we want to talk about it?

[Lynn Thames]
No, you get, you can, you can talk about it. I did start reading one of his books.

[Uncle Marv]
You did.

[Lynn Thames]
We talked about it. Yeah. I'm just looking up what's the name of it.

[Uncle Marv]
Is it a Florida book?

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah, it's all in Florida. It's all based in Florida.

[Uncle Marv]
Nice. Well, what we're talking about, Florida man. And, uh, if you are not familiar with Florida man, just go to your internet, the Google search, type in Florida man, and any date you want, that will be your birthday or something.

And you'll see a crazy story tonight. I'm going to give you two quick stories. Uh, one of them will have a video, but last week I shared some stories about a name, a man with the last name cocaine that decided to go a little berserk.

Well, there was another man that was arrested with a wallet full of cocaine at the magic kingdom. So a 44 man, 44 year old man from St. Augustine, Florida identified as Dustin Lee Wallace. It's always great when they give all three names, uh, was arrested after attempting to bring a wallet containing cocaine into Walt Disney world's magic kingdom park.

Uh, the incident occurred at the security checkpoint near the magic kingdom bus loop where a Disney security officer noticed Wallace's wallet appeared unusually bulky in that he had become visibly nervous when asked to remove it from his pocket. Since I am in the, in the presence of a very refined woman, we're not going to go into why a security man was noticing a bulgy pocket. Uh, but upon inspection, the officer observed a bag of powdery substance and the rest is history.

So as a result, he has been banned from Walt Disney world property. Uh, he also was turned over to the Orange County Sheriff's department. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge of cocaine possession.

And his case is currently proceeding in the Orange County circuit court. So, um, yeah, that's almost as good as those are not my pants, but the video that will accompany this story, you guys will like on Easter Sunday in Jacksonville, Florida professional animal trapper, Mike Dragich known as the blue collar brawler was called away from his family dinner to respond to an urgent wildlife situation. A local woman while letting her dog out spotted a seven foot alligator slithering past her patio.

So with no time to spare and no specialized equipment at hand, Dragich improvised using two trash cans to corner and ultimately secure the agitated reptile. That's really all I need to say about the story because, uh, when you see it, um, yeah, he's barefoot. I think he doesn't have a shirt and, uh, he must've been right down the street where this occurred, because why else would you be barefoot?

If you were called away to go attack and capture a gator, unless it was right down the street from you. So I will have the link to the video there. And for some reason, my listeners love a good gator video.

So those are your Florida man stories for today.

[Lynn Thames]
That's funny. Well, the, uh, the books that I recommended are filled with Florida man stories. Yeah.

Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
Um, I will, uh, at some point talk about that. You gave me the name Carl Hyacinth, right? Was his name.

And, uh, I'm going to figure out a way to reach out to him and maybe we can share a Florida man story.

[Lynn Thames]
That'd be great. So it would be fun.

[Uncle Marv]
All right, Lynn. Uh, it's been too long. We've got to, we've got to do this again.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. Okay.

[Uncle Marv]
We'll do it again in October for sure.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. I'm looking forward to that. That'd be great.

[Uncle Marv]
Um, anything that, I don't know, did you have anything you want to share with anybody else about, uh, you know, what life is like now that, you know, you're in an office, you've got a full-time employee starting to think about all those golden years.

[Lynn Thames]
Uh, I mean, not really, but you know, I, it's a little closer than it used to be. Let's put it that way. Um, no, I mean, let's just, let me think, what am I thinking about?

You know, I, like I was saying to you before, sometimes I feel like my days are led by, by what's in front of me. You know, what's the emergency at hand, you know, and then every day, you don't know what emergency is going to what the phone, you know, someone ringing the phone or sending you an email is going to be, but you know, it makes it interesting. And I like that.

I like that aspect of it.

[Speaker 3]
All right.

[Uncle Marv]
I mean, maybe not too much of an emergency, but you know, Hey, how far away are we going to be from your office when we come up to the conference?

[Lynn Thames]
Well, I'm not in Philadelphia. My office is not in Philadelphia. It's right in the suburb, but it's, it's 20 minutes, 25 minutes depends on the time of day.

You know, we can't do rush hour, but if we you could come see it.

[Uncle Marv]
I thought you were going to say we can't do night.

[Lynn Thames]
No, no, you can go anytime nighttime in Philly. I mean, no, no, you can, you guys are going to be fine.

[Uncle Marv]
You guys do steal your professional athletes cars. Don't you?

[Lynn Thames]
We do.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. Wasn't that a, who was it that just got his car stolen and he did a whole video.

[Lynn Thames]
Was it a Philadelphia? Was it an Eagle?

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah.

[Lynn Thames]
Really? I didn't, I didn't hear this. Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
Do I get to go look this up real quick?

[Lynn Thames]
Look it up. I didn't hear this. I figured I would've heard that around here.

[Uncle Marv]
Yep.

[Lynn Thames]
We've got the Superbowl champions here. You have to come, you have to, you know, wear an Eagle's hat. Don't wear the sports team, any other sports team here.

That is the only thing.

[Uncle Marv]
I think I'm going to come in just green, just in case. I mean, it's like, it's like St. Patty's day every day in Philadelphia.

[Lynn Thames]
That's right. Go birds. Go birds means hello.

Goodbye. How are you?

[Uncle Marv]
Yes. Here we go. Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver, AJ Brown had his luxury villain vehicle stolen overnight Sunday into Monday morning, April 21st from his residence.

Uh, the car was a 2022 Mercedes G my back valued at approximately $250,000 taken around 3 45 AM. Uh, the surveillance footage captured a single suspect entering the unlocked vehicle. Now, how was the vehicle recovered?

Brown quickly took to social media, posting on Instagram and the X to publicize the theft. He offered a deal to the thief. If the car was returned, he would not press charges.

However, if the car was not returned, he was going to see about it.

[Lynn Thames]
Does he live in Philadelphia or near he may not live here.

[Uncle Marv]
It says his residence in the Philadelphia area.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh, okay.

[Uncle Marv]
That's all it says.

[Lynn Thames]
Wow. I did not hear that, but then I don't watch the local news anymore.

[Uncle Marv]
So, so apparently he was, apparently he was tracking the vehicle's location with the GPS system.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. He probably has an app, right?

[Uncle Marv]
And so the, uh, yep. So the car was found in Camden County, New Jersey.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh yeah. Camden is the, the garden spot of New Jersey.

[Uncle Marv]
It's called the garden state, right?

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. Yeah. No, right.

That's all I'm going to say about Camden.

[Uncle Marv]
That's the heart of the garden.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. And in case there's anybody from, uh, New Jersey listening, I'm not going to diss anything.

[Uncle Marv]
So apparently it wasn't simply returned to him. Apparently, uh, the police were alerted to where it was and they showed up. And when the suspect parked the car at a construction site, officers moved in, uh, the suspect I died identified as 25 year old Lewis cigar, uh, attempted to flee, but was apprehended after a short foot chase.

[Lynn Thames]
All right. It could be like a Florida man story. Maybe not a little more.

[Uncle Marv]
I, I, I wanted to, I wanted it to go for a couple of days. Cause I right.

[Lynn Thames]
Right. But, um, that would have been fun. Now that would have been a better story.

[Uncle Marv]
Might've much better story. But the fact that he said, look, just bring it back. No charges, no charges.

[Lynn Thames]
Right.

[Uncle Marv]
And he even, I remember when, uh, in the video, he made the comment of saying you was quick too. Cause I guess he said the, the camera went off at three 42 and he was gone by three 45.

[Lynn Thames]
Wow.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, if it was unlocked, yeah, it was unlocked.

[Lynn Thames]
Was it, I mean, wasn't in his garage and it was outside his house.

[Uncle Marv]
I'm going to assume it was outside.

[Lynn Thames]
Um, I don't know.

[Uncle Marv]
I'm just guessing, but I'm also going to assume too, either there was not a key and he, you know, Jimmy did.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
Or he had one of those special tools because you know, now with the keyless fobs, yeah, you can, so you know what, that's a story I should have talked about. There's a tech story that says that you should not keep your fobs by the front door because the signal can be, Oh, it can reach.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. From the outside. So somebody would just extend the signal, use the fob to start the car and take off the car and go.

[Lynn Thames]
Yeah. Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
So I wanted to do a story.

[Lynn Thames]
I wanted to test that, but I think my key has to be in the, my has to, my key has to be very close to start the car. Although maybe that maybe with that tech thing, it could extend it.

[Uncle Marv]
I don't know. I know that. Um, so two things, one, my fob alerts me when it leaves the car.

So I think it has to be pretty close to where the thing is. And two, I know that I cannot be the one that tests it or else I'll have another incident of being reported to the security guard.

[Lynn Thames]
Oh yeah. That's yeah. Yeah.

That's, that's a sad state of affairs.

[Uncle Marv]
That's where we live in.

[Lynn Thames]
I know. I know. I'm sorry to hear that.

Sorry that happened to you. Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
We've come so far, but Oh, not so much.

[Lynn Thames]
No, no. Right. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a pendulum, I guess.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. Yep. Every four or eight years.

So, uh, with that and, uh, I do want to say thank you to Lynn for, uh, responding and, uh, coming back on the show. It had been a while and I wanted to get you on, especially since you had not been on the it business podcast. Thanks for, for coming out and spending some time.

Congratulations on the office space and the great employee. That sounds like it's going to be a windfall for you for years to come.

[Lynn Thames]
And, uh, yep.

[Uncle Marv]
Uh, we'll have to see as she starts to take over, we'll get her on here and talk about what a great mentor you had been over the years.

[Lynn Thames]
I hope so. I hope she'd say that.

[Uncle Marv]
All right, folks. Thank you. Uh, you can find all the information for Lynn in the show notes and on the webpage, uh, she'll have a guest profile up there.

So reach out, say, hello, come visit us when we are in Philadelphia for the ASCII cup at the end of October. And you can be one of the lucky five to go with us to an undisclosed Philly restaurant.

[Lynn Thames]
Right.

[Uncle Marv]
Uh, all right, folks, that's it. I will be back next week. We'll have more shows and until then