Cybersecurity: The Cost of Doing Business (EP 776)

[Uncle Marv]
Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast coming at you from Orlando, Florida at Zero Trust World 2025 and it's been a good day. And I have a surprise visitor here joining me at the booth. Wayne Silk is here and we have no idea what we're going to talk about but it'll be fun, right?

This is going to be fun. I'm glad, you know, I don't think we've ever done one of these, Mr. Marv. We have not.

We have not. It's long overdue. You know what, it's funny because there are so many people I know that always come up to me and goes, oh man, why don't you ever ask me to be on your show?

And I'm like, why do I have to ask? Just tell me you want to be on the show. Yeah, I mean, that's awesome.

Because I spend half my time chasing people and I'm like, I don't want to chase people. I don't blame you. I'm glad that you came by and here we are.

Here we are. So I'm going to do a little close-up on you there. I've got new gear that I'm playing with so I want to see how it works and while we're doing that.

Oh boy, he's adjusting everything. Because Don Sizer was here earlier and the camera kept flowing over to her side. I love Don.

All right, so let's at least let people know. Let's start with what you're doing here because apparently you're doing a session. I am.

We get invited to ThreatLocker. Actually, ThreatLocker is a platinum sponsor of a lot of the stuff we're doing with cybersecurity programs inside of now the Global Technology Industry Association.

[Wayne Selk]
GTIA.

[Uncle Marv]
GTIA. They just signed on. They're actually…

So anyway, they normally have us come and present. I normally come and present anyway a session. But tomorrow I'm going to talk about cybersecurity is the cost of doing business.

Now ask me, ask me where did I come up with that? Gee, where did you come up with that? There you go.

That's awesome. Awesome. Thanks for that.

I was actually on another call for… It was the National Cyber Resilience Center Group that I belong to. I'm actually an ambassador.

They started in the UK, but they're expanding globally. And I actually said to them, you know, cybersecurity, regardless of the size of your organization, is truly the cost of doing business today. You cannot do anything, any type, you cannot have any type of business without having some cyber hygiene in place in order to do that business.

There are probably some business owners that would take issue with that and say that my business, you know, really has no exposure. There's nothing for us to worry about. Well, I would argue that's probably not true because most businesses today are…

Just talked about you, by the way. Yes.

[Wayne Selk]
Sorry.

[Uncle Marv]
Yes, we did. Most businesses today use technology in some way, shape, or form. And in most cases, they're either storing, processing, or transmitting data through that technology.

Whether they manage that technology or not, it doesn't matter. And that's part of the challenge, and that's why I want to have this talk with folks around cybersecurity as the cost of doing business simply because I think the stat in my slide, and this is from the Small Business Administration, 41% of small businesses in the U.S. They reported a security incident to ISC-3. Yeah, ISC-3.

And the Small Business Administration was aware of it. My retort back is, for folks, because a lot of people don't think about it, how many people did not report? Well, I was going to say 41% sounds high.

It does sound high, doesn't it? It sounds really high. Of all small businesses.

Of especially self-reporting. Now, we've got some compliance areas where they don't have a choice, but a lot of businesses do have a choice and choose not to, and 41% sounds high. I know, but that was a 2023 number, by the way.

Okay. And I know in talking to my friends at the FBI, in full disclosure, I am also the treasurer for the Tampa Bay InfraGard chapters, so I do have regular contact with those folks. They, too, are just as shocked and surprised with the lower numbers, because they actually get involved in some of the stuff that may not make it into the same reporting mechanism, but they're also keeping track of it.

So, I know we're probably ahead of your session. People aren't going to see this. Thank God.

But in terms of how are you going to describe the cost of doing business, because I know that when I talk to business owners, a lot of times they'll be like, you know, they know they have to have certain insurance. Correct. Well, that's a cost.

Liability insurance, you know. Cyber insurance. For us, for professionals and stuff, that's the cost of doing business.

They still don't see cybersecurity or IT, for that matter, as the cost of doing business unless they know that bottom number of what does it cost for me to be down. Right. That's the only time I seem to get it across to them.

And you're not wrong with that. And the perspective that the client business has, as opposed to the solution provider that's trying to sell them outsourced services, the client's perspective is all around business risk and achieving their business objectives. It is not around looking at the IT, looking at the overall cybersecurity impact of that risk that it has on the business.

Unless solution providers actually change their talk track and start engaging clients with more of a business risk, business objective kind of focus. Okay, let me see if I can translate that. What I try to get them to do is understand that this needs to be a line item in your budget, just like everything else.

But from what you're saying is they have to come at it from a framework perspective. They need to come at it looking at, all right, what are my business objectives? And I would argue most solution providers don't really get to this level of detail with their clients.

They don't ask them, what is it you do? What are you hoping to achieve in the next year, three years, five years? Kind of figure out what their business model is.

And then from a solution provider perspective, how can you actually help them achieve those objectives, right? So looking at things from a different lens and perspective, if you look at their business risk that's going to stop them from potentially achieving those business objectives in the timeframes that they've allocated, what is it you can do to help them mitigate some of that risk and still achieve those objectives? You don't have to talk to them about technology.

Well, so we've been taught to approach it from the standpoint of what are your goals, where do you want to be, how can we help you technology-wise get there? Sure. But coming at them from a perspective of how can we mitigate risk, that's a different perspective.

Well, for sure it is, right? But when you boil it down and you look at the business itself, whether you're a solution provider or you're a retail coffee shop, in Tampa we have this place that does barista coffees, and no, it's not Starbucks. And their line is longer than Starbucks, by the way.

But my point is they have client information. Do they realize that they have to protect that? Maybe if they realize from a payment card industry perspective the data security standard requirement they have for collecting somebody's credit card information, it's not just about cash.

But as long as they pass their PCI scan or whatever the scan is every year, that's all they need to worry about. Because the credit card company, we don't store it, they do. So the interesting part of those credit card scans, we'll get off on a tangent here for just a second, and I'll bring it back to risk, but you'll understand.

In order for that scan to happen inside of the business against the PCI standard, whether it's Trustwave or pick whoever's going to do the scan, they ask you to punch a hole in your firewall. They ask you to punch a hole in your firewall so that they can come through and be able to scan your internal environment to see whether or not you guys did something wrong. Okay, so I'll say this.

So I've had a few of those. We only do the external scan. We don't allow them to come in.

You don't allow them. Right, so thank you so much for... Okay, I was going to say.

Thank you so much for bringing that up. Okay. Because in most instances, folks that don't have folks that are Captain Marvin running their IT shop, you'd be amazed how many small businesses are like, yeah, okay, I'll have my IT guy open up that hole so you can get through on 4001 and 4002 and you can scan the internal network and make sure that we have everything locked down.

What they fail to realize from a business risk perspective is they just punched a hole in that firewall. They just opened the window to their house. So you went right down the rabbit hole I wanted you to.

Okay, well, that makes sense. And I have this... It's amazing how often we have this discussion.

And it's not just credit card companies doing that scan. It's camera vendors that are putting in legacy stuff where they've got to have an IP address and ports open so that people can, you know, look at their app and see cameras from home. And I'm like, no, there are newer technologies where they don't have to do that.

There's the copy vendors that want to be able to remote in and get copy counts. With their own little managed IoT device that sits on the network, that you don't have any say, rhyme, or reason about what that does. And it's more than one port, by the way.

It's always more than one port. It's usually two to four ports, which is annoying. Correct.

And most of them have vulnerabilities against the ports that they're using. Yes. All right.

So now you see the challenge, right? All right. So you've got this session tomorrow.

You're going to talk about the cost of doing business. And we're going to really talk about the business risk impact. Okay.

Right? Now, are you going to do what we just did here in helping solution providers understand that the words and language that we use have to change? Yes.

As a matter of fact, I start out with, and I think I've done this fairly well. And if anybody is watching and attends the session and has some feedback for me, I'd greatly appreciate it. But I want to bring up our threats.

The threat landscape actually sets our perspective on things. Now, there's different facets to that, right, Mark? Some choose not to believe that the threats are going to impact them.

Others see, oh, crap, that hit Mark. I don't want it to hit me. And there's others that say, oh, that hit me.

I know I need to start working on protecting myself against that. Right? Somehow, an experience shapes our perspective.

From our perspectives, our perspectives then in turn shape our reality. So again, if we use those three examples, well, that's never going to happen to me. I'm too small.

I don't have anything anybody wants. They're ripe for having a reality where they're going to get compromised. They may not know when they're compromised, right?

Well, yeah, they may not know, and they may not realize they are looking at the perspective of I don't have thousands of dollars that I'm worried about or I would pay, but I'm like, okay, would $1,000 be a hit to you? Because they don't care. They're just going to throw a number out at you until you pay.

Right. And by the way, they already know how much your cyber insurance policy is. If you have one.

If you have one. Right. Because they've been living on your network for a while.

So threats shape our perspective. Life shapes our perspective is a better way of looking at it. Perspective shapes our reality.

And the fun part is our businesses run off reality, not off of perspectives. So the other part that most folks fail to acknowledge, even if they're the business owner for the solution provider or even the small business, is they still report to somebody. Right.

Do you know who they report to? Well, their clients, the customers. They report to the business entity, the very thing that they created in most cases.

And they don't look at their world through the lens necessarily of that business entity. Okay. Are you talking about reputation?

Are you talking about annual reports? Are you talking about owner's profit? Risk.

I'm talking about... Right. I'm talking about all of that.

Right? And so my talk is actually not only to help them understand that they need to identify, they need to find the things that are going to hurt them, but they haven't figured out what those are yet. And that's really the risks to the business entity.

Okay. Right? Yep.

And make sure the best starting point is actually look at your business objectives. So even as a solution provider, look at your business objectives. What is it you want to achieve?

[Wayne Selk]
Right.

[Uncle Marv]
I will tell you, most folks need to have a business plan. Some have actually pushed back and say, Wayne, why do I need a business plan? I know what I want to do with this business.

But here's where it goes sideways. And I have to remind them, the business entity needs to know who it is. We've seen enough sci-fi movies to realize AI is a perfectly good example.

Pick Transcendence, pick iRobot, pick any of those kind of movies that have that stuff. They need to know their why. So the why is actually the business plan.

Right? The risks that will stop that entity from being successful should be the things the employees of the organization are looking out for on behalf of the business entity. Right?

I mean, because let's face it, we have the brain. The business entity doesn't necessarily have the brain. But we have to put ourselves in the business entity's perspective in order to see there's more to what's going on than I don't have anything anybody wants.

Right. Or I'm just too simple. Or I'm too simple.

Right. I'm too small. We don't put anything on the internet, blah, blah, blah.

And I just tell them, I said, look, do your people browse the web? You're on the internet. Exactly.

So, very interesting. In some way, shape, or form. Yes.

You're on the internet. Okay. All right.

So that's your session tomorrow. Sounds like it's going to be fun. I think.

And you'll probably have a lot of people smarter than me giving you different scenarios and questions and stuff. Is it interactive? I will try to make it as interactive as possible.

It's only 30 minutes. And it's, yeah, it's tough. So, it's just a breakout session.

But I mean, certainly, we could rinse and repeat this at other sessions and make it a little bit larger. Maybe we do it at a channel con coming up in July in Nashville. Nashville, Tennessee.

So, anyway, let's talk about that. What, you don't like Nashville? I don't like Tennessee.

You don't like Tennessee?

[Wayne Selk]
No.

[Uncle Marv]
I mean. I've only been there once, and it was not a good experience. I understand.

I mean, it's very commercialized today. Yeah, I don't know about that. Yeah, true, but I'm not bothered by that.

Well, I mean, but have you gone to any of the honky-tonks downtown on Broadway? On Broad Street? No.

No. I was shocked. My name is not Darius Rucker.

Kid Rock. Jason Aldean. Anyway, but I was shocked.

My wife and I went there a couple years ago. I was speaking at another conference, and we went inside the Kid Rock's honky-tonk. Five levels.

Okay. Each level is a different music genre with its own bar. Really?

Interesting. It was very cool. All right.

I mean, I should probably plan on going. It just won't be this year. Okay.

But let's talk GTIA and ChannelCon, because I, first of all, full disclosure, I used to go to ChannelCon.

[Wayne Selk]
Right.

[Uncle Marv]
I haven't gone in quite some time. The last time I went, it was in Hollywood Beach, Florida. Ah.

And I believe that was the last year I was a member of GTIA, formerly known as ChannelCon TIA.

[Wayne Selk]
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
I mean, why? I can't say that on air. Okay.

Well, we need to... Look, I want to personally invite you back, right?

[Wayne Selk]
Okay.

[Uncle Marv]
Because I've heard... Listen, I will say this. I've heard things are better.

Much better. I've heard that there is a super focus on the IT professional, the MSP, and all of that. The whole IT channel.

Okay. And now that we sold off the certification side and we're just back to the trade association...

[Wayne Selk]
You want in?

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah. Go ahead. It's going to cost you.

But now that we sold off the certification side, our focus is squarely back on the IT channel.

[Wayne Selk]
Okay.

[Uncle Marv]
I mean, so, you know, we have so much fun. I mean, we had... Look, just for your users.

Yeah. There was a lot. I mean, we were self-funded as an association.

Having the certification side. But now we're funded, excuse me, funded in perpetuity with the sale of that side. And we get to run the business off of the interest we make on the money of the sales.

All right. So let me say this. Okay.

There was some clickiness within the organization. At least that's what I felt. And there was a lack of interest in certain groups and individuals if you weren't, you know, full lock and step with everything, which I'm not because, you know, I'm a boutique MSP.

I don't follow all the typical MSP stuff. I don't blame you. You got to do your own thing, man.

Yeah. So I kind of felt that there was something missing in the community aspect of it. Sure.

So I'm like, why am I paying for this if I'm not part of the community? No, I get it. And I think I understand a little bit about where you're coming from.

But I would encourage you to come back, have another look because any kind of clickiness, because we're all in this together, right? I'll give you my perspective. Well, and let me kind of soften that up.

There's always going to be clicks. I mean, it's just... But we should be one click.

It's the nature of being in a group or, you know, there's always going to be the groups of people that, you know, kind of congregate together and stuff like that. And there's always somebody that will feel left out. But from my perspective of somebody who's active in the channel, it was a lot.

Look, I'm sorry for that. You know, I will apologize. You don't have to.

You weren't there. Probably not. Probably not.

But since I've been a part of the association going on three years, March will be three years. Yes, but when I see it, I shut it down. I'm like, hey, you need to get out of your comfort zone and go have a conversation with some other folks and expand your horizons a little bit.

Regardless if it's the advisory council set, the ISAO executive steering committee, we now have a cybersecurity global task force. We've got the cybersecurity interest groups. We've got the MSP interest groups around all the regions.

There's a lot seriously going on, and we're not slowing down because we are member-led. We need people like you, Dr. Marvin, and your quirkiness of an MSP to come in because you share a different perspective on things, right? And that's needed.

Liz, I tell this to folks all the time, especially when it comes to the threat intel and the information sharing, but more importantly with things that you're doing inside of your business, you might be able to solve for... because you might be doing something perfectly awesome inside of your MSP, but no one knows about it because you're not sharing it with anybody, right? I mean, think of the good feeling for someone going, holy crap, Mark, I didn't even realize I could be doing it that way.

Do you know how much time, energy, and effort that would save my business? It'd be nice. Well, you're going to have to come back.

Well, I'll have to see if I have something to offer. But no. You do have something.

So here's the thing. So I see a ton of people on LinkedIn doing that obligatory announcement that I'm proud to now be a part of such and such group. There's a lot.

A lot. I mean, we have 74, 78 people in the advisory councils alone. That doesn't include...

It's a terrible question, but is that too many? No, because they're broken up. So there's nine.

I think there's nine industry advisory councils, and I think we have anywhere from 10, 8, to 11, or 12 people on each industry advisory council. So I would say no. Okay, nope, that sounds better.

You know, I mean, so no. I mean, when you look at it from the overall, it sounds like a lot when you bring them all together. But when you break them up into their individual little aspects, I don't think so.

[Wayne Selk]
Okay.

[Uncle Marv]
I don't think so at all. All right. What are the initial pushes that you guys...

Because, to be honest, I've seen all those announcements, but I haven't heard, like, here's our objective, you know, this year, in the next two years, or anything like that. Well, our objective for the rest of this year, and hopefully we can get it done by July, the board has asked us internally to actually focus on closing out the transition. Because we're...

That still isn't complete? Well, so we're going to be 43 years old this year. Okay.

And we are standing up new finance, new HR, new... Okay. So we're operating in startup mode.

[Wayne Selk]
Got you.

[Uncle Marv]
Because, you know, this is all brand new stuff we're having to deploy. Okay, so things that people like me wouldn't know behind the scenes. Right.

Yeah, there's probably a lot of stuff that is just, you know, more than legacy. I mean, we're talking about things that have been set in stone for so many years that have to be undone, rethought. Right.

Reimagined. Refocused. The whole rebranding effort.

You know, our marketing team did a great job of getting the branding all set and ready to go. You know, we're having to not recreate the database, but we're moving all of the database content into HubSpot. You know, I mean, there's just creating new e-mail templates, creating new workflows, create, you know, I mean, webpages.

We have to rebrand all of the content over the last, heck, just in the three years I've been there, all the content that my team generated. So you're rebranding all the past content as well. We have to rebrand a lot of that or redo it.

Right. In a lot of cases. Oh, and we kept the research side too.

So Carol and April came over from the research team. Carolyn and April, they're still there. I know those names.

From the research side. All right. So any changes on the horizon for ChannelCon itself?

No, not really. I mean, we're still focusing on the only thing I think the team is looking at is potentially changing some of the track names. So, you know, we had MSP, we had sales.

Obviously, we have a cybersecurity track, which you probably didn't know since that started under my watch in August of 22. I was just in the MSP side, ignored everything else. There's talk about doing an M&A track.

You know, there's talk about doing a lot of different things. But most of the changes that we make are due to member input and member feedback. Okay.

And it's always that way, at least since I've been there in 22. In three years, which I haven't been there in three years.

[Wayne Selk]
Right.

[Uncle Marv]
I think it was the year of our COVID that I did the drop. Yeah. I mean, there was a lot that happened during that whole COVID time.

Oh, yeah. All right. Yes.

So, yeah, you guys, if you get an event in Florida, I'll be there. Okay. Well, so, you know, we rotate between east, central, and west.

[Wayne Selk]
And west coast. Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
We include mountain and west. So, next year will be west. No, it should be central, I think.

Since, well, I guess… Is Tennessee east? I don't know.

Do we consider Tennessee central? Nashville? I don't consider it east, but I guess it is.

I don't know. Because we were just in Atlanta the year before. So, then that's central.

So, central, even though it's like… But if you look at the map of the United States, Nashville is kind of northeast. Yeah, if you take 75 north to Ohio, it goes through.

Yeah, it should be further. Yeah, I know, right? I usually say east of the Mississippi or west of the Mississippi.

Right. That's usually what I say. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I get it. Because the year before, Atlanta was in Las Vegas. Okay.

So, next year should be either Vegas, San Diego, LA, somewhere out there. Yeah, I mean, it would be great. Utah?

Ah, dude, I'd love Utah. Really? Yes.

I love Utah. I was joking about Utah. No, I love Utah.

Really? Heck, yeah. What's in Utah besides…

Mountains and snow. …skiing and sister wives? The Great Salt Lake.

Okay. The Cascade Range is absolutely amazing. Is that like touristy stuff to really do?

Yeah. Can you do all that in a day? Even in the summertime, you can go on top of Snowbird.

You can still ride the big…

[Wayne Selk]
What's Snowbird?

[Uncle Marv]
Snowbird's one of the big ski mountain resorts. Okay. I don't ski, by the way.

Well, that's okay. Do you like the outdoors? I mean, I like the outdoors.

I don't like the snow. Well, that's fine. That's why I live here in Florida.

Right. I get it. But you can take the big cable car up to the top and look around and see all the wildlife and the big, beautiful mountains.

I can fly over and look around, right? Well, no. It's a different perspective.

Okay. Uncle Marv. Yeah, true.

Okay. I was joking about the Utah. No, I like Utah.

All right. But Colorado's not bad. Yeah, but I do Colorado every year.

Yeah, that's true. Hacks 8 Beyond. Yeah, Beyond.

That's true. I mean, so where haven't you been? Where haven't I been?

Yeah, Grand Canyon. I was little, but I was there. Right.

I don't remember it, so I should go again. I did the Cascades. Yellowstone?

Grand Teton? Yeah, somewhere in there. Yeah.

I haven't been to the Dakotas. Oh, the Dakotas are fun. I used to live in South Dakota.

Really? Just outside of Rapid City. Yeah, I did five years at Allsworth.

Okay. Yep. I had Mount Rushmore in my backyard, by the way.

Got pictures to prove it? I do. Well, they're not on my phone.

I had an appointment shoot back then. I should probably do a trip up to like Oregon, somewhere up there. Oregon's pretty.

I will tell you, so in full disclosure, my father-in-law lived in a bedroom community for Portland called Tigard. So my wife and I would go up quite a bit to Portland. Portland was beautiful when we first started going.

Right. Not so much anymore? It just went downhill with not so much.

I don't want to say it was about the politics. I think they were trying to do their best to open up the illegal drugs and make them legal, thinking that folks wouldn't care so much. Okay.

That whole debate. Anyway. You're talking about beyond the weed thing?

Oh, yeah. I mean, everything was legal in Oregon. Everything.

All right. I don't want to go anymore. And so Portland, I don't know if you remember back in 2021.

No, it was even before then. 2017, the riots. I remember those.

I just don't remember why. And part of me didn't care because it was up there. Anyway, there was all kinds of hullabaloo around the actual why.

And I still don't think people realize why they were even rioting, quite honestly. But the city is a shell of its former self. All right.

So take Oregon off the map. Well, at least until they're finally cleaning everything up again. Yeah, but listen, I'm getting old, man.

Oh, trust me. So I'm only going to have a few places to go. I only want to travel west of the Mississippi once a year.

So that limits stuff. I get it. Where do you live now?

Fort Lauderdale. Oh, that's right. Yeah.

I'm in Tampa. Yeah. Yeah.

It's a long drive for me. It is. Well, it's four hours.

But I go. Yeah. I drive to Fort Lauderdale, too.

If I have a conference, I need to be, too. Oh, I thought you were going to say a party. No, I don't.

Las Olas. No. Shooters on the water.

Las Olas. Boat shows this week.

[Wayne Selk]
Yeah, no.

[Uncle Marv]
Fleet Week and all that. Yes. Yes.

No, I've had a boat. Actually, I've owned two boats at the same time. No.

A sailboat and a deck. Is that a big deal to have two at the same time? No.

Well, yes. It's a lot because you have to pick which boat you're going to go out on for the weekend if your wife lets you go out for the weekend. That sounds worse than golf.

It does, actually. It does. No.

We gave up boats after Hurricane Irma took them both out. Oh. So we lived on the water in Tampa.

That was a fun year, too. That was. All right.

Well, sorry to bring you down.

[Wayne Selk]
No, no, no. It's all good. It's all good.

[Uncle Marv]
Slow down the podcasting. I'm glad. I forgot that you lived in.

Most people do for some reason. I don't understand. I don't know why.

Everybody, they're always, I'm at Fort Lauderdale. Oh, yes. Now, Dawn Sizer says it's because she forgets that there's, you know, another part of the state south of Orlando.

Well, that's true. Well, right. Because most of the conferences we go to as an industry are here.

Yeah, Orlando and Tampa.

[Wayne Selk]
Orlando, Tampa, Vegas.

[Uncle Marv]
That Mendoza line for them. Right. Yes.

So, but yeah, down there, Fort Lauderdale, great place. Nice. Yeah.

It's between West Palm and Tampa. And I choose to go to neither of them as much as possible. I get it.

I get it. I trust me. I understand.

I get it. All right. Well, Wayne, it has, I was going to say it's taken far too long, but it hasn't really been that long.

But you've been passing in the night and you've been saying, when am I going to be in the show? And here we are. Right.

I'm glad. I'm glad you said yes. And it's going to be, you know, on video.

Right. That'll be cool. Everybody can see my gray hair.

That's why I'm shaving. That's why I'm shaving. Most folks don't even realize I have three grandkids.

I wouldn't have realized it either because I didn't ask. Well, that's true. Okay.

But here's the question though. How old are their grandkids? My youngest, the youngest is a granddaughter and she'll be six in July.

My middle grandson will be nine and the oldest grandson will be 11. Okay. So, you just opened the door for some stuff there because, you know, that could just mean that, you know, your kids were getting it on early.

That could absolutely be true. My daughter did not have the first child. Actually, the oldest grandchild is from a previous relationship with my son-in-law.

My daughter started at 27. Okay. Well, that's not bad.

No. No. I was trying to, you know, bring your age down.

Our three will be nine this year. All right. Yes.

I have nine. And Amy will be six. What?

Well, that's because of other circumstances.

[Wayne Selk]
I get it.

[Uncle Marv]
Age-wise, it would be appropriate, but I have no biological children of my own. And my stepson, I'm going to guess by maybe a year or two. Okay.

We won't say that on air. All right. We'll talk about it after.

All right. Fine. No worries.

So, all right. So, there you have it. Wayne has three grandkids.

Three grandkids. Actually, it sounded like you said two biological and one... Two biological and one is...

We don't count him? No, I do count him. He's the oldest.

He's the oldest because my son-in-law... Now, are they down here in Florida? No, they actually live in Louisiana.

Louisiana? Where in Louisiana? Well, Ryder lives in New Orleans, just outside of New Orleans.

And Mamie and R3 live in Punctual. All right. So, as long as we're spilling fun facts, I was born in Shreveport and grew up in Alexandria.

Yeah. Are you an Air Force brat? Yes.

Yes, I am. All right. England Air Force Base.

[Wayne Selk]
Yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
And I was there for just a little bit, and then my dad transferred. We were in California, but I don't know for how long. Then we were in Topeka, Kansas, then Germany.

Nice. And then we moved back to Satellite Beach, Florida. Right.

My parents divorced, and I told my mom I want to stay here. There you go. And that's how I became a Florida man.

Nice. I mean, I guess with Air Force because there's also a big Army base there, which is... The name is escaping me at the moment, but the Army base outside of Shreveport is huge.

And I think I can talk about this now. They had a full mock-up... Statute of limitations gone?

I think it's not classified anymore. They had a full Afghani village, Afghanistan village that they had built. Inside the base?

Inside the base. Inside the base proper. And it was training for Army and whatever to work and do patrol.

So they actually had Afghanis on the post. Goats, chickens.

[Wayne Selk]
Wow.

[Uncle Marv]
The tents, just like you would see in Kabul on the news. All right. So we better fact check this because I don't edit my shows.

So if this goes out and I get in trouble... I'm coming for you. Well, don't do that.

I'm pretty sure it's not classified anymore. All right. Yeah, because we're not engaged over there anymore.

Not that we know of. Right. I mean, that was years ago.

I mean, that was years ago I was out there. All right. I don't know what's happening.

I know that people are leaving, and I think there's an event. So let's go ahead. And, man, we have talked for a while.

We have. And I enjoyed it. It was good.

See, you should come on before. I know.

[Wayne Selk]
You're right.

[Uncle Marv]
I just need to say, Uncle Marv, it's time. Listen, this is what I tell all the vendors, all the associations. You've got news, call me.

I'll report it. I'll get you on. I'll expose you.

Well, that's not the way. Great. I don't know if I wanted that kind of exposure, Uncle Marv.

But, you know, I have a little less formal of a format that, you know, we can talk about some things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like it.

No, it's all good. Yeah? Are you going to Shakira?

Yes. All right. I will definitely be at Shakira again.

Yep, I will be there. You know, I co-started that with Jay Ryerson. Really?

Yeah. Didn't I know that? Jay and I started IT Nation Shakira.

Okay. Now it's at ConnectWise. We'll have to chat more.

Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Because I need for you to get Lardo to, you know, get me some more stuff. Sure.

You want me to call him now? No, he won't answer. Oh, no, he picks up the phone for me.

Okay. Yeah, I need a budget for some good steak knives. Is that what it is?

Yeah.

[Wayne Selk]
All right.

[Uncle Marv]
He said he would, but I don't know that he always follows through. All right. I will tell him.

I'll send him a cryptic message. Steak knives, Uncle Marv. Make it happen.

That's what I'll just say that. How's that? He is so going to hate me.

I promise you, I'll text him. Okay. We'll end the show here and then do that.

So, here we are. I think we're coming to the end of day one here. I don't know if I'll have any more, but I do have the live show tonight, which by the time you see this, it will have already happened.

But we'll be back with more from Zero Trust World here in Orlando. Thank you to Wayne Silk for stopping by and having some fun. Thank you, sir, for having me.

I really appreciate it. All right, folks. We'll see you soon.

Holla.