00:19

Those are some good pictures, aren't they, Mike? Yeah, I'm just wondering why my face came up on the screen while the cop car was there. What is it that you're trying to tell me and everyone else? Oh, man. Like to have fun, man. You think you're a winner, you might be arrested. That hasn't happened in a very long time, sir. I am aware.

01:06

Good, good. All right. So those are some picks from last year's conference. And we'll go through those a little bit later. But let's go ahead and kick off the show. We do have one other person that may be joining us. But you and I will just go ahead and get started.

01:36

Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast, the show where we try to help each other, manage service providers, IT service providers, solo techs, Nimble MSPs, whatever you are. Our job is to try to help you do your stuff better, smarter and faster. This is our regular Wednesday live show and it is the night before. TechCon

02:07

Michael the wannabe winner cream sitting over Wow now on the wannabe Repping solutions granted Attempting a three-peat for the ASCII cup if I'm not mistaken This is true. Yeah I Think it's going fine. I mean look I got a big old target on my back

02:35

We've got people out there coming after me. Al with CyberGuard360 says it's not happening this year. And he's playing the game at every ASCII show. So for everybody that's listening here, Al can't possibly be from every single state that he presents in that he says, this is my hometown. Not even possible. Is he bringing vodka like that? Who cares about the vodka when Solutions Grand is bringing the bourbon? Are you kidding me? I don't know what it is. Bourbon, vodka, what would it be?

03:04

I don't drink like that, so I don't know all my different keywords. I would beg to differ, sir. I believe that I've seen you drink one or two. Is this... Oh, there it is. Oh yeah, there we go. There's a little McKenna. Why does that bottle look familiar? Where'd you get that from? Anytime I'm at an event with you and there's leftovers and somebody can't put them in their suitcase to travel back, who do they come to and say, hey, can you...

03:33

take care of this for us. You are such a giver. You know, you are such a giver. Kind and generous you are, sir. Kind and generous. I help out when I can. I see that. You know what? You might as well just drink straight from the bottle and get this party started. I gotta make sure we land the ship. So one drink and all of a sudden you can't land the ship. I got my drink right here. All right. So we may be joined by another person. I'm not going to say who it is because

04:03

I wanted to be a surprise if they show. Because I'll be surprised if they show. They were kind of excited to be here, but we shall see. Was it the Easter Bunny? Yeah. I will say that Paco and Rick normally would make a show like this, but they cannot. Paco is actually on a plane right this minute getting close to landing in New Jersey at

04:33

pick him up. And I'm sure they'll head over to a bar or something. Soon as they get off the plane in preparation for the show that starts tomorrow. So, Mike, you've been to one of these before. I have. And we didn't get a chance to make it last year, but we did it the year before. All right. Let's see, did you stay you stayed two days at that time? Correct? Yes, sir. And what are your plans for this year?

05:03

So myself and my gargantuan friend, Brian, who is one of our channel account managers, we're jumping in the truck tomorrow morning at about 11 o'clock. It's about a four hour drive. I'm gonna roll up Interstate 95, make our way through Maryland and Delaware and New Jersey and find our way to where we're going, get there. I think there's a little meet and greet tomorrow night. So we'll be there tomorrow. We will be there on Friday. We will be there on Saturday.

05:33

There is some debate as to if we're going to leave super late Saturday, leave super early Sunday. So this is my son's sixth year playing hockey, and he's got tryouts on Saturday and Sunday. And this one kind of pains me because I've never missed a tryout, ever. So I'm going to miss his Saturday tryouts, but I'm going to do everything in my power to make it back home so that I can be there Sunday morning for tryouts. All right. Well...

06:01

I was going to tell you how long you need to stay, but the award ceremony is actually going to be on Saturday night. So I'm going to give you an idea. So I've got to make it through Saturday night, get up super early and cruise back here to Virginia so that I can make it to my son's tryouts on Sunday morning. So we will put you on the clock Saturday night and see you.

06:30

I mean I've said it now like this is Everybody who's listening and anybody who sees this that it's been recorded. I can't back out now because then I'm just a big old liar Well, you know what's gonna happen is somebody will find this clip and play it for your son and be like your dad's dead It's gonna be there Yeah, he'll find it on his own. That dude's crafty. All right, so

06:57

You know, we'll talk about more conference stuff later, but let me ask how are things going at Solutions Granted? Actually, I've got an email trail going back and forth with Amanda. She's trying to get me to update one of our firewalls. Things are good. I really, I mean, like I live a very incredibly blessed life. I have the most amazing people that work with me. I've got

07:23

wonderful partners who continue to believe in us and believe in our mission and put up with the shenanigans that we have going on over there at Solutions Granted. And we're growing every day, adding new employees, adding new partners. It's just, it's a storybook. It's the storybook right now that I couldn't have begun to imagine what it was going to look like 21 years ago when this started. Well, I mean, other than the drinking, what type of shenanigans are we talking about?

07:53

I mean, look, you've got to have shown up on one of our webinars that we've done. I mean, there's just all kinds of silliness that goes on in our webinars, trying to bring some education, trying to bring some fun. I mean, look, if you show it, but one of the ASCII events, I mean, there is a good chance that we're passing out bourbon, maybe, not going to lie, you know, because I'm trying to be a winner. And how better to be a winner than to bribe people with booze? Yeah.

08:21

I've been to a few of your AFTE events. Of course, I was at last year's ASCII Cup and watched you win, did a quick little interview afterwards. I was in Tampa or Clearwater or wherever it was over there and met Lisa Loco over there. So she won't be joining you for TechCon. I don't think I've met him. Well if you have, you will never forget him.

08:51

Brian is a gigantic man. Brian's, I don't know, 6'5", 6'6", 270 pounds and you would not want to find yourself on the wrong end of him in a dark alley. Big dude.

09:06

dark alley, light alley, football field. Whatever you want to say, just paint a picture. All right. Good guy though. Really, really guy. Air Force veteran, first job as channel account manager and really, he really, really cares about trying to do the right thing for our partners. Well, very good. Very good. All right, Mike, let me go ahead and say hello to everybody that's watching. We...

09:32

Like I said, this is a live show. It is interactive if people have good and appropriate questions And I see some of the usual suspects out there Cristobal and Jason. Oh look some solutions granted people They've got to be here to hackle us. I was gonna say are they planning some shenanigans? I Could only hope yeah. All right. Let me get a quick tech story out the way. This is something I've started doing recently

10:01

especially when it pertains to a junior. And I have an email that came in at 104 today that I just found funny. And this is the person that, you know, for my regular listeners that, you know, may know the juniors, I have a few juniors I talk about, this is the Cisco certified junior. And he sends an email that reads, let me put it over here so I can.

10:30

look at the screen while I'm talking, it says, I cannot get the phone to power on at the workstation with the outlet jack labeled 242. The ethernet works on the tower labeled client name 31, with a direct connection from the outlet jack 242 to the tower ethernet port. However, even doing a direct connection with both

10:59

blue and black cords from the wall to the phone does not work. I have placed the phone in other workstations at the office and it powers on but not at this workstation. So that's the email I got today and I decided I'm not going to respond because he's Cisco certified.

11:23

And just to give you a little background, I actually might do you have any comments first on I see you laughing there like it all I can say is it takes all types. It takes all types, you know? Yep. So, buddy, you know, I mean, I got to give him credit. At least he tried to troubleshoot this time. A lot of times he doesn't. And granted he swapped out a blue cable and a black cable thinking that that would make the difference.

11:51

Come on, you know the colors always make the difference. I color code for a reason, man. Black and blue. Green in the server room. There's some, you never want to see a red cable, I tell them. And they panic. So, oh, so also here, one of your favorites. Diane is absolutely one of my favorites. Yeah. And Jason, recognizing good old CJ.

12:21

And I love the junior tech. Yep. And, um, you know, like it's Sean Scott rolling in here. Hello, sir. Hello, sir. So the chat is active. Well, looks like solutions granted pulls in a crowd. I should have you guys on the show more often. Yeah, it's all because of us. I do want to say this. So Mike, I know you don't listen to the show a lot.

12:51

I know you poke in from time to time and stuff. And I don't tell you this enough. And I normally don't tell vendors anything except to stop calling me or just answer when I need you, that sort of stuff. So I have been going through a little something with a couple of vendors, getting a little frustrated and getting a little upset. I know that a lot of vendors are getting some heat out in the channel.

13:21

and I'm trying to maintain calm. This is supposed to be a partisan show, although it's really not. I at least tell people who I use. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's right for everybody out there. We have different clients, we have different services, we have different ways that we work. And there's a lot of vendors in our industry for a reason. And some vendors work well for some but not for others.

13:51

However, there are some things that are just absolutely berserk right now. And if a vendor can't get my billing right, when I haven't changed program in three years, maybe four, if you're the one that switches my billing platform, and then try to blame me for being late on my billing, that's not my fault. So that's all I'm going to say on that. I'm sure some people can figure out who we're talking about.

14:21

But I wanted to say this, I want to give vendors props when they're deserved. I don't do a lot of business with you guys. I'll just be honest about that upfront. I did try to do some stuff with you. It just hasn't worked out. But I do some stuff with you. I had a situation, I don't know, two months ago, three months ago, where I was doing a vulnerability scan on one of my firewalls, the one that you guys are managing. And

14:50

I had a little critical errors pop up and I wanted to make some changes, but I then remembered, oh, Solutions Granite is handling this for me. And I forget how I submitted an email or a ticket, but the fact that you called me, of all the people to call, it wasn't some first level tech, it wasn't somebody just responding, thank you for your message, but you literally called me, it was probably 30, 45 minutes.

15:20

Um, that's pretty good. You got to drink that day. I wasn't drinking that day. Obviously weren't on stage at a conference somewhere. No, no, not that day. Uh, so I, I've, I mean, I hear the stories. Everybody talks about how responsive solutions granted is. They talk about, you know, how you guys have just, I don't know, for lack of a better phrase, never done anybody wrong. As far as I know that that doesn't mean it.

15:49

Probably hasn't happened. Somebody's got to be upset with you somewhere, right? It has for sure. Absolutely. I mean, we're not perfect. We're human. Follow me around for a day. You'll see it quick. Well, I've seen you drink, so... You drink. I've seen you play cards. I do like a little poker. Yeah. But I just wanted to say that I probably should have said it to you before, but I figure now's as good a time as any. You guys have done a great job.

16:19

should probably give you more business. Now I appreciate that. Look, it's, we're not right for everyone, but no one is. Everybody finds the right company, the right vendor, the right support out there. And when you find it, just be patient, be kind, be generous, be courteous, and realize everybody's gonna have a bad day, but the bad day isn't what defines you, it's what happens on the other side of the bad day that defines you.

16:49

So occasionally I get to jump in and do something to help somebody because it feels like the right thing to do and we're just going to keep on being each other. I had an interesting call with a partner that tried our MDR service a year ago and it just wasn't for them. But they came back because they wanted to give it a second shot. But the reality is what they really want is they just want somebody to do everything for them. It's like, I just want to install it and I don't want to touch it. We don't have time. We can't.

17:17

is like, look, we're a do it with you kind of organization, not do it for you. It's like, I don't expect you to be awake in the middle of the night and to take care of threats and look at logs and do the research and do the threat hunting. I said, that's all the stuff that you really are paying for us to do. I said, so we talked about what they were using. They really love their web root. They're using Black Point Cyber. And I said, I'm not sure that anybody can do a better MDR job with web root.

17:47

than them. I think they're probably the best at it in my opinion. And that may offend somebody else. But if that's what you love and that's what works for you, it's like, why are you back to change something that you like? Don't do it. We said, talked about several other topics but at the end of that, the engineer at that point in time says, you know what, you might be the first vendor that has ever told me don't buy my stuff. He's like, you're just honest. Like, well, if I lie, you'll figure it out quick enough.

18:15

No point in lying about it.

18:19

I mean, that's the same philosophy that we've been told to use as well when you're evaluating a relationship with a new client, you know, be open and upfront and say, look, this may not be a good fit, or I think this is a good fit for this reason. So I don't see anything wrong with that. Especially when everybody's too busy trying to do everything for everybody and we've realized we can't. So

18:48

Pick the things that you're good at and do those. Support the others in the industry or even your competitors if they're doing it great. Tip the hat and figure out what you need to do to do better. I mean, that's the way I look at it. I agree. And there's a whole lot of space out there for all of us. And it's getting, it is getting more crowded every day, but you can truly differentiate yourself as a vendor because that's who we are.

19:17

we can truly differentiate ourselves by praising those that are doing the right thing for the right reason. Like, look, would I love to win every solutions granted head to head against Huntress? Of course I would. I'm not stupid. I mean, like, look, I'm the CEO and founder. I'm a bit of a capitalist. I do like making money, you know, but at the same time, I want to be honest and honorable about what I know and what I know that they're incredibly capable and good at doing. And if somebody loves them...

19:46

And it's the last thing in the world I'm going to try to do is just talk about it. It doesn't work for me. And it wouldn't work for me in the long-term even if I did talk you out of it. All right. Absolutely. All right. So let's go ahead and move along. It looks like our other friend isn't going to come but let me go ahead and do a quick little thank you to some of the people that helped make this podcast work. And that would be our sponsors. That would be the presenting sponsor NetAlly.

20:16

Basically your number one ally for handheld networking diagnostic tools. You've heard me talk about them. Yes, I do use them. Absolutely fantastic. Thank you. Net ally. Visit itbusinesspodcast.com and sponsors and check them out. Net ally.com. Our live show presented to you by Computers Done Right, a full service IT provider offering managed services and consulting, cybersecurity website.

20:44

yada, yada, yada, computersdoneright.com. Our good friend, John Reed is here. Yes, good and appropriate are the questions and comments that I would like in the chat. And instanthousecall.com, a remote support company designed for small businesses, all the same things as the big boys, easy to deploy, crop platform compatibility, full UAC, customizable branding.

21:11

and a 15 day trial, you don't even have to put in a credit card. Cory Fruitman, a good friend of the small business community, head over to InstantHouseCall.com and check them out as well. All right. And I want to before we go on. So I know I made fun of you in our LinkedIn post that Solutions Granted was pimping you like you were trying to win something. But let's not.

21:39

Let's not dismiss that so much because I have in my hand a mug for last year's best swag winner Magnus Box. And this is what I was going to present to them this year before handing out the prize to this year's winner. Unfortunately, they will not be able to make it. So

22:06

Mike Slodowski, you're going to have to send me information on where to send this, but Michael, this could be you. You know what? I don't think you've won a best swag from any of my trips. I haven't. And you know what? And that really pains me because Mark, I guess I need to do a better job of presenting my Swiss Army pen from China. I'm going to tell you my Swiss Army pen from China.

22:32

fantastic, but you've got to understand the story behind it because it's not just the object. Okay, I know I have, don't I have like three of those? You might, you might. Like if I had one on me right now, I'd go through the entire presentation just so that you could get the full effect. Well, unfortunately, I can't go across the room. I've got all the swag garb is over there. I tell you what, you could, you'd go a long way if I could get one of those jackets. I told you that's...

23:02

Yeah. Man, like, well, I feel like I should probably just go get a bunch of them made and see if I can sell them at the booth. I mean, because that's a bit of a heavy lift to be giving away. Yeah, it is. It's got to be special. It's spider jackets. I mean, it's not like I went to Costco or Sam's Club and pulled in some of the Kirkland specials. Like, you know, I got a really nice, good quality jacket. Yeah.

23:30

Yeah, you are not the first person that's asked for that. And if I started giving those away, I'd be broke quick. Yeah, we'll figure something out. We will. But that's my contribution to the conference. Aside from being the emcee and host, I get to pick the best swag. So I'll walk around and visit. I think we've got 14 or 16 vendors joining us this year. So I'll grab a bag and run around the room and we'll check everything out.

24:00

Do the vendors get any points for creativity on how they try to sell you or give you their swag? Because if there's a storytelling component to it, I'm going to win that one for sure. So let me say this. The Pax8 event, there were a couple that tried really hard and had almost persuaded me to

24:29

to give them the prize. So there is something to be said. I'm not going to give the formula because the formula changes depending on the venue, depending on the item, depending on the presentation. It's a gut feel at that time. So, okay, there's a chance. Yeah. That's all I need. I just need to know there's a chance. If there's a chance, I'm in. There's a chance. There's a chance. There's good.

24:56

So Mike, let me ask you this. So from time to time, I'll have people on and we always do after the conference meetings and everybody talks about what they learned at conferences. Once I've had other MSPs like me before a conference and we talked about, hey, what do we expect to see or to get from the conference? And the reason I had asked you and some other people to come is as a vendor.

25:23

I wanted to get a little perspective as to how do you guys look at a conference pre-conference? What are the things that you're looking to get out of it? Is it just something where you're trying to put together your target audience, your avatar? How do you approach attending a conference? Showing up sober is a good way to start.

25:48

That's a really good way to start. And all this talk of drinking and everything, people probably think I'm a raging alcoholic, but honestly, I barely drink at all. I think for us, we're very focused on making sure that we're going to conferences where MSPs go. We're not going to conferences where there's end users, we're not trying to sell direct. So that's a big criteria for us. Also, we're not as interested in

26:18

Not that I don't love super large MSPs, but what I think we're really, really good at is giving every MSP at home. And so while we like the big ones, there's a really long sales cycle sometimes to some really large MSPs, especially some of these roll-ups where you're starting to talk about they're managing 30, 40, 50,000 endpoints in that roll-up. So we really like to focus on...

26:46

I mean, we definitely have a bunch of one-man shops that we take care of, but we're really looking for those MSPs that they know that they just can't add an S to the name and they don't want to be an MSSP, but they are security first. They're security focused. And so finding those conferences where these MSPs are going, that they want that good collaboration, they're looking for somebody to partner with that can do the 2 a.m. on a Tuesday work so that they don't have to. I think that's the best way to do it.

27:15

those are the type of environments that we're looking for. You know, doing some bigger shows, we've done the Kaseya Connect Conference in Vegas, we're gonna do DattoCon down in Miami. We are just signed our contract today, so it was already signed for the IT Nation event in November, so we're back there again this year. So doing those big shows are really important to us, but honestly, I like the small shows, I like the intimacy.

27:42

I like the chance where you really get to spend a good amount of time talking with people and helping them work through their problems. So I was going to ask about the booth experience because I know that a lot of times vendors are seen as they've got to get the numbers. They've got to obviously get that return. I don't know what you guys spend on the conference. I'm not going to ask. I have an idea. And I know that the numbers get up there.

28:10

And to recoup that, there's got to be some investment in getting the right people to join you. But I know that there's probably a ton of tire kickers at the booth. And how do you wade through all that? I mean, you do this long enough and you really start to understand when somebody's asking the right question for the right reason. And you can pick up on it quickly. It doesn't take you long.

28:37

to get through that to understand where somebody's just wasting your time or somebody who's genuinely interested. For us, some of this is also about those who show up get a vote. So when you go to some of these larger shows that I mentioned earlier and you are dropping tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes even pushing to a hundred plus thousand dollars to do some of these shows.

29:03

I never really consider that I'm going to find that I'm breaking even the first year that I've done it. I know it's going to take a little bit of time, especially when you start to deal with some of the larger, more mature MSPs that maybe only go to these shows and they don't go to some of the smaller ones. You will find that quite often that you'll find the larger MSPs that will go to a Datto Con, go to Kaseya Connect, go to an IT Nation, go to a Rite of Boom, go to some of these other larger shows. This is a long game.

29:32

I know that that's not necessarily how some people do it, but for us, I knew that this was gonna be slow and steady wins the race. And so we're playing the very long game. And I think like me as a consumer, some new emerging company that comes out, they might get me to look, but I'm not so sure that they're gonna be around, because a lot of businesses fail in the first three years. It's a huge percentage of businesses that fail in the first three years.

29:58

So it might take me a time or two of seeing them before I'm gonna want to trust them. And so I think that if that's how I'm buying, I assume that lots of other people are buying that way. And so I'm just gonna bide my time and keep showing up.

30:12

Does it matter where your booth is? Oh, yes. Oh my goodness, yes. And I say this because we, whatever the competition was last year for the ChannelCon CompTIA event, I don't know, it was driving attendees or whatever it was, but we got second place.

30:37

And so there were some things that you got. And one, we got to choose the second booth placement of every single vendor. And we were right near the door walking into the expo hall and the amount of traffic that we got was crazy. So yeah, booth placement absolutely matters. I don't know what the magical formula is that they use. I mean, obviously...

31:03

The more money you pay, you get a platinum sponsorship, you get a diamond sponsorship, whatever it is, you get a bigger booth, you get better booth placement. But yeah, I mean, I have absolutely firsthand seen it very recently how that booth placement can make a world of a difference. I would think that being right by the door is a hindrance because it's almost like a bottleneck. So a lot of people, once the crowd shows up, a lot of people are flying by. And I mean, that's what I do.

31:33

I almost skip the door booths. Man, I will take the door position every time. Every time. I mean, it's like jumping out of a plane. Now, I know you've never done this before, but in the military when you're doing a static line jumping out of a plane and it's you and a couple hundred of your buddies all on this plane and you're all trying to get out of the plane like this, I'd rather be the first guy in the door because you don't have some jackass behind you pushing you out of the plane and just everything going wrong in between.

32:03

Give me the door every time. All right. Well, that makes sense. And I think of it like one of those marathon races where a thousand people are at the starting line and you want to be at that first to get out and not be stuck in the herd behind you. I get that. And then of course, dealing with people like me who that first run around is just for swag. I don't want to talk. Just give me your swag. I'll come back. I'm good with that.

32:33

I'm good with the Kmart shoppers. I got you. I got a contest to run. It's not about Kmart. It's not a blue light special. You are man. You're just running around grabbing stuff. That's a Kmart shopper. That's it. You're just out there getting stuff. When you come to the office, you'll understand. You'll see the swag room and what happens to everything that I grabbed there. And of course, you can get a solutions granted.

33:03

I'm gonna tell you like that mug would look sweet with that Spartan head on there. Hmm. I think would look fabulous Yep, so I did this last night. I just put it together and did that we can get one ready for you Look, man. Look if this whole IT thing doesn't work out for you. You got a job right there That looks professional I'm always I'm looking for a backup plan

33:29

There's a really good, I don't know if you've ever seen it, but Arnold Schwarzenegger has got this, it's not a TED talk, but we'll call it a TED talk, and he talks about Plan B. He's like, far too many people put way too much effort into Plan B. In his opinion, there's only one plan. Because if you start planning for Plan B, that means you've already admitted failure. That is true. I don't know that I completely believe in what he said, but it's a pretty interesting talk to listen to.

33:58

Listen, when you're talking about the types of things that he does, you know, in places where there can only be one winner, you know, there can only be one Mr. Universe at a time. So that makes complete sense. You know, if you're in a movie making 20 million, that's your job. There shouldn't be anything else in the way. But once that movie is over, you're looking for the next gig. I mean, so to a degree, that doesn't make sense. And

34:27

Listen, I do stuff like listen, I got the podcast, I got the shirts, the mugs. That's all filler time for me. I mean, I can't work this job 12 hours every day and be saying. And unlike most people, like, you know, there's you mentioned about going to X number of conferences a year. And I'm one of those people where I try to keep it, you know, around four, I can't, I don't want to go to 30 conferences.

34:56

But I know there are some people that do. And I'm like, the way that I run my business, I gotta be here. And I choose that. And even if I were to have a staff of five, six, seven, I don't know that I could still be on the road that much and do all that stuff. I run the business. The business is my first responsibility. That is my family. And then everything else comes after that.

35:23

I think you've got a good mix of it the way that you're doing it. You do see some MSPs that every time we show up, and when I say every time, I'm like, we might show up two to four conferences a month. It seems like every time I turn around, the same smiling faces are there. So I'm like, man, how are you running your business? I am very fortunate because it is now my job to go out there and bring my charming, good looks and magnetic personality to the world.

35:52

and hopefully get people to see and believe in the solutions granted story. And that's really, and when there's a problem and then I can step in and, you know, help guide and direct it in the right direction. But yeah, it's, it's amazing how many times you see, you know, and I'm not going to mention any names because wow, there's just a couple though, and Mark, you know who I'm talking about? There are a couple MSPs out there that man, they are literally at every stinking show. Yeah. Yep.

36:22

And I do, I myself thinking how, now granted, I know that they have staff, but even if they have staff, you gotta be there at some point. So, but there's also there, you know, a lot of these companies, they're remote, you know, their staff is remote. So even if they're home, they're not seeing them anyway. So I guess that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, it's.

36:46

As much as this has become a primary responsibility for me and my company is to go out and have these speaking engagements and show up and meet with our partners, meet with new partners, my world doesn't stop. The amount of emails aren't stopping, the amount of meetings that people want to have with me, the amount of phone calls that are happening, none of that stops. It just becomes, take my X factor on a normal day when I'm at home and...

37:15

crank it up a bit. That's what it's like when you travel for this stuff. Yeah. Now, going back to your travel, so I know that at most of these events, you're the person that gets up on stage and does the presentation, whether it's a pitch, whether it's an educational talk, whether it's describing your product. How often are you switching that up? And how much prep do you have to do before each event?

37:45

to do that changing up? I will say every time, like, so even like at ASCII this year, I'm doing the same exact talk in nine cities, but every single time I do it, I'm saying something different. I am using PowerPoint slides to guide me through the journey of where I wanna take people, but I won't say it's completely different because,

38:14

70% of it is the same, but there's another 30% that just stuff comes out of my mouth that I don't know where it comes from And it takes me on a different path and a different journey I did a thought leadership piece at Taylor Big Big two weeks ago And it was a Brown leadership and around leadership That is not a point of looking at it as suffering and it was the first time I've ever done this talk track That one made me nervous like I still I mean

38:42

I still get nervous every time I get up there and do it. I'm still wondering, it's like, when somebody is in the back of the screen like, you're a fool, you don't know what you're talking about, get off the stage, you suck. Like, you know, it's all those things that run through me. It's like, when is somebody gonna figure out that I'm not really what I'm saying that I am? A little bit of that imposter syndrome runs through me every single time. But I definitely, I've got a ritual, I've got a routine, you know, it normally starts off with doing some pushups.

39:11

I don't know why, but that just kind of gets the blood moving, gets me pumped, gets me going. And then I'm doing one to two run throughs of the presentation before I get up on stage and do it just to make sure that I don't completely lose my mind and forget where I'm going. All right. Listen, preparation routine is key. The wife makes fun of me for stuff because I have a routine for stuff.

39:40

Even for the big, so are you a big college football fan? Um, I mean, well versed enough in it to talk about it, but I'm not like I'm spending my Saturdays watching it because I've got, uh, you know, too many things going on. I got you. So I am a Florida state fan. Uh, there was a time where I was going to go to Florida state. I got a full scholarship, not for sports, but I got a full academic ride.

40:09

there, but I wanted to go and play football. Deion Sanders was there. And I'm like, that can't happen. And I think he had just come after T. Buck, Terrell Buckley or whatever. I don't know if you know those names, but I do. So Deion Sanders now at Colorado. And so these games were on this weekend. And she looked at me and she goes, do I have to leave the house for you to watch the game?

40:36

Because that's when she first met me was back in the 90s when it was all Florida State. And it was a thing. Yeah, I had a routine. I had my meal prep. I had the room had to be a certain way, the TV, and don't call me during the game. Is that what you call a routine and other people might call OCD? People can call it what they want. I'm asking you. I'm like, I'm just looking for your opinion on that state.

41:06

It's called concentration. It's, you know, a single mindedness. I'm watching the game. I don't need to be disturbed with other stuff. I do the same thing at work. You know, close the door. I got to get this proposal done. Don't bother me. You know, unless there's a server on fire. Have you ever heard of Ian Richardson percent? I know the name. Why do I know the name? Um, so

41:35

He and his wife, he sold his MSP, his wife sold her business, and now they've formed a new company together. But he has this really cool, he was on with us on a webinar with us one month. And then I saw him do this presentation at Jennifer Blame's show that was down in Florida. And he was just talking about the amount of time that gets wasted.

42:03

for most people every day by the interruptions that come to them. And he was talking about it based in the mission, vision and values and how important it is to get your staff to understand that if they're aligned with the mission and if there's vision and values are there that they can make some of these decisions and do them on their own and stop interrupting people. And he's run some really interesting calculations as to how many times and how much, like if you get interrupted eight times.

42:32

And some people will think, oh, well, you know, if I'm getting interrupted like eight times a day, it's only two to three minutes. So who cares? You know, what we are talking about, you know, 16 to 24 minutes. But it's not that because you're in a train of thought, you're working on something, you get interrupted, you pull your focus out of that, you go to answer whatever it is or take care of what it is. And you don't just immediately jump right back into where you left off. You know, you've got that transition period to get back into it, to get your mind moving in that same direction. And then to finally find your way back in. So that's a good thing.

43:01

that two to three minutes is probably more like an eight to 10 minute, maybe even 12 to 15 minute. And then if you start adding up, if it's 10 minutes and it's eight times, well, now it's an hour and 20 minutes every day. And that's a lot of time that is kind of, you don't want to say wasted, but it's a lot of time of being distracted from something that you were working on that was probably really important. And while those questions are important.

43:29

if we really train and believe in our staff and give them the right way of thinking about how they can execute some of these decisions on their own, when they really align with the core values of the company, you can see a lot of different levels of success. And I thought it's just a really cool way that he presents it. Yeah, I'll have to go back and see if I came across that name somewhere. I do remember the name, but I definitely know the concept because I've studied that in some of my time management books.

43:57

and talking about the value of time. And it's one of the reasons why I choose to only do so many conferences. You know, when you when you look at the time away from the office, you know, yes, you're going to learn stuff, you're going to be able to network and, you know, have those friendships that you would not otherwise have. But, you know, if you're away three business days in the week, you know, there's

44:26

I don't want to say there's a price to be paid for that, but you have to look at the value of what you're gaining versus what you're taking away, in a sense. And you do that rule with everything. From the time you get up, to the time you become active, get you started in your work and your day and all of that. And you have somebody telling you it's time to go? No. So I've got somebody who is like when I saw my son, Gabriel, who's 12.

44:55

I was telling him tonight, it's like, give her, I'm going to be on this podcast. They're going to be on there with uncle bar. He's like, well, can I come on? I was like, give her, I'm not sure that's that kind of show. So he's standing here in my office, giving me the look. He's like, it was like, can I do it? Can I do it? Is this the hockey? Is this the hockey guy? Yeah, this is a hockey kid. Oh, bring him on. Bring him on. Come on. I'm being told to bring you on. Now you're not going to be able to because it's in my ear, but Gabriel, you can come say hello. Hello, Gabe. How are you? He says hello. Hi.

45:24

tryouts this year for, uh, yeah. Hey, Gabriel, I'm going to give you my headset. See.

45:34

Can you hear me Gabriel? I can. All right, so nice to meet you. First of all, welcome to the show. You are now being broadcast to tens of people at the moment. This will be re-broadcast. So you've got hockey tryouts this weekend. Yep, I do. Are you excited? Very excited. Is this your first team or is this a team that you've been on before, but you still have to try out?

46:01

I've been on this team before, but I still have to do the tryouts. All right. Are you pretty confident that you'll, you'll make the team? Mm hmm. All right. And what position do you play? Defense. Okay. Uh, like the defensive line, like right in front of the goalie or more towards the midfield, I'd say between the hash marks, maybe between the hashes. Okay. All right. Um, did your dad make you wear that shirt? That's a.

46:30

Another question I should ask. No. You know what that shirt is? Huntress. Okay. Shitty by nature. Sure. All right. Now, Gabriel, I understand that your dad may be missing some of your tryouts and he's never done that before. Are you, are you okay with that? Yeah. I mean, he's got to do work and everyone needs to work. I'm saying so.

47:00

Well, your dad's trying to win some prizes too. So he's, you know, he's got to put in some work to do that. And he's got to win me over for, you know, a nice mug. So a nice mug. All right. Well, Gabriel, did you want to say something in particular, uh, to be on the podcast? You want to pimp your dad in any way?

47:29

Uh, you should definitely look into his business. I am a customer of your dad's.

47:38

I don't know what you guys are talking about, but I'm just going to assume it's good. Okay, good. It is fantastic. Well, Gabriel, thank you very much for hopping on the show, and thank you for joining in, and thank you for being understanding if your dad misses part of your tryouts there. I'm sure he'll make it up to you in other ways and make it to all your games and stuff. All right? All right, sir. Nice to meet you, and thanks for coming on. Thank you.

48:06

Thanks for watching.

48:09

Dude, you're going to be in some trouble. Yeah. Why? What did you do to me? I'll let him tell you afterwards. I'm going to tell you, like, I mean, I am so blessed and fortunate with the children that I have, but I'm going to tell you like that dude is my hype man. It's so, he is such my hype man. Did you hear him? You should try out my dad's company. I didn't hear him say that. Yeah.

48:38

Uh, look at here, Lisa Loco, where's the dog? Oh, where's the dog? I don't know. Leroy is over there hanging out somewhere. I don't know where he's at. All right. Well, sir, um, you got the brunt of the questions since our other person did not come, Ms. Amy Luby was supposed to be here. Oh man, I would have loved to have been on here with Amy. Formally of Acronis. She is now coming to the conference representing the MSP revolution. She's got a presentation that.

49:07

she'll be doing for us as well. I've chatted with her. She has her Hype song picked out. Did you get yours picked out or am I going to have to do one for you? I mean, I can pick one out. I mean, I've got two go-tos that I can just give you one of the two, or we can get really creative with it. All right. Well, after we get off the live show here, we'll chat about that and get that going.

49:34

So Mike, anything else you want to say to the folks out there in preparation of con unplugged 2023. No, I think, you know, whether it's tech con unplugged 2023 or any conference that you're going to come with an open mind, you know, come to understand the journey and this path that you're on in this exploration.

50:00

You know, in the infamous words of Matt Lee, you know, cybersecurity is not a destination, it's a journey. So, you know, let's make sure that we're all working together and trying to discover together. And don't think because you're a one-man shop, you've got nothing to offer somebody like Kyle from Huntress. You know, while Kyle's running this ginormous organization, and I can't even tell you how many hundreds of employees they probably have today and what they're doing. You know...

50:26

We are an industry and if we treat this industry more like a family, if we treat it like a team, and we come with those ideas that everybody has something to give and everybody has something to learn from everyone else, I think we start to see a difference in these conferences that I will personally enjoy more. I like it when I get challenged and I like it when somebody teaches me something new every day. All right, great words for Sarah and I think that's why a lot of people like you. Yeah, well, you know.

50:54

Maybe that's one of the reasons why I don't know. That's the bourbon. Absolutely. Of course, the bourbon. All right. Well, folks, we're going to wrap this up. We're not going to be doing a Florida man tonight. Although let me tell you, let me at least give you a headline that you can look up. I'll probably put a link in the show notes. But some of you, first, I will acknowledge that yes, over the weekend, there was a...

51:23

dude in central Florida that nabbed and caught on record Florida's second to largest alligator at almost 14 and a half feet 935 pounds. So yes, that did happen. And it was a beast. But let me leave you with a headline that I think you will enjoy and go looking for.

51:52

a Florida man in homemade human hamster wheel arrested while trying to walk to London. I don't even know what to say about that.

52:11

Uh, that's a whole other show, man. All right, Mike, uh, thank you very much for, uh, hanging out tonight and we'll see you at some point tomorrow. Uh, I'll be flying in, getting there around noon. You're hopping in the truck. So we'll probably see you just an hour or so before kickoff.

52:39

We're going to be there before that. I think we're planning on being there around three. Okay. We're going to get on the road at 11. It shouldn't take us more than four hours, hopefully a little bit under. We'll be there around three. So yeah, we'll find you. We'll find you. You know, it'll be good to see you because it's been a little while. It has. It has been a couple months and let's see, we might be so distant. So tomorrow, so September, October, I don't.

53:08

Oh yeah, end of October ASCII Cup. Here in DC. Yep, and then IT Nation, I'll be there as well. When the ASCII events are any conferences here in Washington DC, it makes it incredibly challenging. It's so much easier when we go to a conference and it's out of this area, because you're at the hotel, you're there, you're waking up, you're in it, you don't really have anything else to focus on. When I'm here and it's like, oh, okay, well, I might as well go ahead and take my daughter to school.

53:37

and get that done. Oh, wait, you know, I might as well just go ahead and run by the office and go ahead and take care of this. Oh, well, now I'm getting myself behind, so I better get my ass and get going and make it over to the composites. Yeah. I don't like them when they're here near as much, but you know, it does save on some expenses. I got a trick for that. Just stay at the hotel. Just tell your mom. But that goes through the whole save some expenses. Trying to be fiscally responsible as well, sir. All right. There you go. There you go. Well, you'll figure it out.

54:06

But we'll see you tomorrow first and then you can figure out ASCII Cup. It'll be interesting to see if you can pull off the three-peat there at home. I'm going to be disappointed if I don't do it. I am a ridiculously competitive individual if you don't know this about me. So if I don't do it, I'm going to be really disappointed. But if it doesn't happen, I'm still going to be thankful that I did do it two years in a row, which hadn't been done before.

54:36

Yeah, but it's, I'm going to say your competition looks steep this year. There's, I've seen some of the, some of the goings on. Um, you know, you're not the bulls. You're not the 90, you're like the 98 bulls, not the 93 bulls. Oh, whoa. Okay. You know, if there's any way you're making any comparison between me and MJ, I'm good. I'm going to go ahead and take it regardless of what year you're trying to place me in.

55:06

If I'm in there with Dennis Rodman and Michael Jordan and that era of bulls, I'm good. Sure. I'll take it. All right. We'll see how you hold up under all that scrutiny. That's right. All right. So folks, Michael Crean Solutions granted. A very good company and one that I use and I'll have to start doing more according to Gabriel. Thank you all to everyone that hung out here and participated with good and appropriate

55:36

questions and comments. Lisa Loco was there. Giles, Cristobal, John Reed, Sean Scott, others. Thank you all very much. If you are listening to this by audio, just keep doing what you're doing. Find us on your favorite podcast or on any of the apps. Otherwise, head over to itbusinesspodcast.com and check out all the shows we stream just about every Wednesday night here on all the social medias.

56:05

YouTube, LinkedIn, the Facebook, and now Twitch. You can find us the IT business podcast. That's going to do it, folks. We are going to head out here. I've got to go pack and get ready so I can fly up to Jersey and meet anybody there. If you're nearby, I don't know if you can get tickets at the door. So you'll have to get them for next year. Michael, thank you for hanging out. And for everybody there. That's going to do it. And we'll see.

56:34

Oh, getting a little choked up there. Sorry. Don't worry, Marv. I'm going to see you tomorrow. You don't have to get choked up. We'll see everybody later until then. Allah.