Get to know the dynamic Kelsey Blankenship Lackland, the new Channel Development Manager at CyberQP.

Kelsey was mistakenly nominated as the 'best guest' on a podcast she had never been on. Her career journey is anything but ordinary, and we unravel the twists and turns that led her to this pivotal moment, examining the fresh responsibilities that come with her leadership role. We also sneak a peek behind the curtain of event planning and content creation, along with Kelsey's insights from co-hosting 'Actually a Podcast'—all while fostering deep connections within the MSP community.

We share a few laughs over the unexpected demographics of our listeners and dissect the strategy behind selecting the most effective platforms for connecting with clients. The cybersecurity stakes are high, and we don't shy away from the critical discussions on privileged access management and user verification at CyberQP—with a side of light-hearted IT jokes to keep things lively. So come for the insights, stay for the humor, and leave with a broader perspective on IT professionalism and cybersecurity awareness.

=== Links from the episode

CyberQP Website: https://cyberqp.com/

Podcast: actually, a podcast

Facebook Group: actually a podcast

=== Show Information

Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/

Host: Marvin Bee

Presenting Sponsor - NetAlly: https://www.netally.com/

Supporting Sponsor - SuperOps: https://superops.com/

Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store: https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ

Become a monthly supporter: https://www.patreon.com/join/itbusinesspodcast?

One-Time Donation: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/unclemarv

Transcript

00:10 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IET business podcast, the podcast for IT professionals. No matter what you do, my job is to help you do everything that you can in your business to support other businesses better, smarter and faster. This obviously is an audio podcast and it is brought to you by SuperOps, the future-ready unified PSA slash RMM platform for growing MSPs. Check them out. They're a new sponsor to the show. Head over to ITBusinessPodcast.com and click the link. You'll see what they're all about. Pretty good people. Today I am joined by Kelsey Blankenship Lackland and we're going to have some fun, I think. Kelsey, welcome to the show.

 

01:00 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Hi, thank you.

 

01:01 - Marvin Bee (Host)

I think we're going to have some fun too, all right, Normally I would put a little caveat here talk about what we're going to talk about, but I think I'm going to start with a question, and this is going to prove to the folks that the show is truly unscripted.

 

01:18 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Let me start with the question.

 

01:22 - Marvin Bee (Host)

I reached out to you three weeks ago on LinkedIn, introduced myself and let me start with the question of what did you think when you saw my hello out to you?

 

01:37 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Well, I thought it was very funny. I'll start with that Part of that message. Was you reaching out saying that we should meet, which I get that frequently enough? I know someone mentioned you, but you said we should meet because I had been nominated as a best guest on your podcast and I had never been on your podcast.

 

01:57 - Marvin Bee (Host)

No.

 

01:59 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

So that I mean it gave me a pretty good laugh and then I thought you know, okay, it's just foreshadowing, obviously like yes, I should join you and be on here, because the people think that they've already liked what they've heard.

 

02:11 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Of course. So somebody thinks something very highly of us. So I said do you know what, if that's going to happen, let me reach out and let's also say that we probably could have done this sooner. I mean, I've seen you out of the shows. I don't know if you've seen me.

 

02:28 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yes, I have.

 

02:29 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Okay, did you know who I was before I sent that introduction?

 

02:34 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I did because I'm decently active in a couple MSP online groups and you get mentioned here in there. I actually joined a live stream that you were going on live right afterwards, and so the people hosting were being cognizant of that and they were like, hey, we need to get off so Marv can start. You know like yeah, yeah.

 

02:56 - Marvin Bee (Host)

All right, interesting. Well, now I have questions Like who are these people and what did they say?

 

03:05 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

No, exactly that. Like hey, like we need to. You know, hop off of this. It was the all things MSP stream that we did not that long ago. And then it was Henry Tim who was like hey, this next one's starting. Like you know, let's scoot on that way shift our attention and not steal his time.

 

03:22 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Oh, very nice. Two good people there, eric Anthony and Henry Tim.

 

03:26 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

They are some of the best Nice shout outs there.

 

03:29 - Marvin Bee (Host)

So let me tell the audience who may not know who you are. You actually work for Cyber QP.

 

03:36 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I do indeed.

 

03:37 - Marvin Bee (Host)

I should probably first, before we go any further, say congratulations, you just got promoted.

 

03:42 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I did. Thank you. So you are now the time of year.

 

03:47 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Yes, you are now the channel development manager.

 

03:51 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I am.

 

03:51 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Although I'm a little curious because you were the community engagement manager before that.

 

03:59 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yeah.

 

04:00 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Hey, definitely better. Thank you very much. Thank you Before that. Now I know I could have gone to the LinkedIn thing and seen what the differences are. But what are the differences?

 

04:10 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yeah, so it's funny because I actually have written out very detailed descriptions of each of those roles, because I like to write Um, but basically they all were a lot of the same thing. Um, when I was community coordinator, which is what I started as I came in and I was um, I was hired by Jimmy Hansel Um, another great Jimmy name. We love Jimmy Um and so it was he and I. We were the only marketing team and we were really showing out at events. That was 2022. Um, we were just at every event we could be at, and so I was on top of deliverables and making sure that contracts got signed by the relevant people that needed to sign them, and also shipping things, and actually all of our booth and every accessory that goes along with trade shows lived in my living room. Um startup life. So, um, as time went on and the team grew, we were able to shift that to. We now use a warehouse for that and I make sure to tell everyone how much I love that service.

 

05:15

Um, the people at my local FedEx probably missed me because I was there all the time, but so the next role that I got actually was more of like a just, you've already been doing all these things. So let's kind of shift your title, because I wasn't necessarily coordinating and I guess I was coordinating people, but it was just a little bit more relevant to what I was doing. And now I'm doing less logistics things and more content focused things. I'm still going to events, I'm still speaking, like all of my outward role still looks the same. Um, it's kind of more just the behind the scenes. That has changed.

 

05:49 - Marvin Bee (Host)

All right, Well, again congratulations. And uh, we'll look forward to great things.

 

05:55 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yes.

 

05:58 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Uh, so that's your day job and you are also. I think the reason you actually got nominated is because you run a podcast. When you run a pocket, you co-host a podcast.

 

06:10 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I do, I am half of a podcast. Um, and it's funny, I saw you caught yourself there it is called actually a podcast.

 

06:19 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Yeah, I was going to say that you and Morgan McBride.

 

06:24 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yes, who was not able to join us today, but she sends her love Um, and I will happily represent both of us while we're here. I actually do have a cardboard cutout of her head, so if this were visual, I could pull that out.

 

06:36 - Marvin Bee (Host)

You could do that. Morgan probably said oh, it's just Marv, don't you do? You do that.

 

06:40 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

No, no she's actually not working this week and I was like no, I got it, I'll handle it.

 

06:45 - Marvin Bee (Host)

So just me, just you. Yeah, you're enough, thank you, and that's what our parents tell us.

 

06:52 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yeah, yeah, they definitely tell me I'm enough.

 

06:57 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Uh, so the podcast Actually a Podcast. Uh, you guys started uh not quite a year ago.

 

07:05 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yeah, yeah, that's right. We March of last year, um, but I will say it was born quite a while before that. Um, morgan and I, oh, feels like a lifetime ago. Um actually used to do a monthly webinar series, called it new kids on the flock. Um, she worked for gradient MSP at the time, so flamingos were all the rage and, um, we had two other hosts with us and Mary Signorelli was our fairy flock mother and we had a just a monthly you know little monthly webinar where we got together and we talked about career advice. You know, we interviewed people and their tips and advice that they had for working in the space and it was a lot of fun.

 

07:50

Um, once Morgan no longer worked at gradient, people pretty quickly were like please tell me that y'all are going to keep doing that. And it's funny because people weren't really joining the webinars when we were doing them. But you know, once it was like, oh, they aren't going to happen anymore. People were like, wait, don't stop now. So that was like November, December, so we've got the holidays, you know, there's a lot of other stuff going on and we were like, let's just set it down for a second, we'll think about it.

 

08:15

So we really hit the ground in January of last year for the first year. Figuring out, we knew we didn't want it to be a webinar anymore. Um, it's really hard to get people to join a visual platform at a specific time. Um, and we want to come to people in the way that they want to be approached, so we shifted to a podcast. We decided it would just be the two of us and, um, we hit the ground. Running from there, we've learned everything we know about podcasting with them the last year, nice it's been a lot of fun.

 

08:46 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Now did you find the video part, something where you know people were getting tired of video. I mean, we're coming, still coming off the pandemic. You know people are zoom crazy yeah.

 

08:59 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Um, definitely that had to be part of it and I think also it had to be a little bit of our time. I think we were doing like one PM central, so I guess it would have been two o'clock Eastern, but I just feel like there's a lot happening at that time of day. It's tough to get people. If that's their lunch break, they're going to go eat their lunch, so it's hard to get them to join. Um, I think even offering a recording is great, but how many recordings do you really go back and rewatch? I will say there are some, I've made it a point to, but I love to watch them on two times speed. Give me that information quick. Yeah, you can't do that when it's live. Yeah, it's amazing.

 

09:40 - Marvin Bee (Host)

So speaking of I should preface this by saying Jimmy is going to be on my live show tomorrow night.

 

09:47 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Oh, we love that. So, I'll have to tune in.

 

09:49 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Yeah, hope that will be one more. I may get a double-digit viewership.

 

09:55 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

He definitely brings in the viewers. I will say people love Jimmy. Yeah, with good reason. He's a good man.

 

10:02 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Good man. Now what you say I was going to reiterate is true. Watching a, a video podcast or webinar webcast, I mean, there's really got to be an incentive Now for people to watch. I just concluded my networking one-on-one series and that got some good viewers, but of course, there was the promise of a free gift.

 

10:28

That they could get and you know it wasn't for everybody, it was one gift, but it was a nice gift and my regular viewers I Mean they're not a ton that watch live, but apparently they go back after the fact and we'll watch and listen. So I hear what you're saying. Put it in a format that people can come back to yeah, on demand, and that'll make much sense. So Let me go back and ask you this question a little different way. So you were doing the webinar series and people asked if you know if you're going to keep doing it? What was the feeling when you made the shift and said we're going to do it a podcast. And I'm going to ask you this because I've listened to your show and you guys yourself have said that it's hard to be consistent, it's hard to be regular how did, how did that shift to go?

 

11:24 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

So I will say, with what we were doing with new kids, it was one a Regularly scheduled thing. We were working on it during the workday. You know we were using our work emails and it was also tied into work like us. Actually, we talked about what we do and what our roles look like, and you know how we can help MSPs. And because it was I Mean, I guess it was company funded by gradient there was always a reminder to tie it back to MSPs, and so that was something that anytime we were creating you know what we wanted to talk about there was always okay, and how does this relate to MSPs? So now that we're doing it on our own, we don't have that reminder. Also, I mean, there's a lot of really good content out there for MSPs, but we've only ever lived on the vendor side, so that's a little bit more of what ours is relevant to, because that's our experience. We've definitely. I mean, you know MSPs are at the heart of what we do, so they're still involved.

 

12:32

But I'd say there's no one else Dictating what we can or can't talk about, like there was before and I don't mean dictating in a bad way, it's just like there had to be, approvals there had to be, like, actually no, you're going to talk about this, here's an outline.

 

12:46

You know stuff like that.

 

12:47

And now it's completely up to us and we don't do it during the work day because it's not work, it is for fun, it is our hobby, and so that's Proven also to be a little bit tough, because she likes to go to yoga after work and you know I like to go to my fitness classes after work and we're going to have dinner with our families, you know we're going to see our friends, and so then it got to the point that she and I were getting on after 11 pm my time, which is midnight her time, and so it's just hard to Stay motivated sometimes just like, oh no, we can push that to another day, we don't need to work on it today.

 

13:24

I will say that listening to other podcasts fires me up for our podcast, though I think like, oh, that's great, like that's such a good topic, or like I get really inspired. I'm like I want to. I want to inspire people. So whenever I do start to feel in a podcast funk, I definitely do just start go listening to other shows more Kind of get back into the swing of things nice, nice.

 

13:45 - Marvin Bee (Host)

So I had a question that just left me because you went in a different direction. Well, let me ask this because, since the show is not necessarily MSP centric, it's not tied to the business. Now you do talk business. You've had some guests on. You have my good friend Don Sizer on. Yes, yes, we have and you allowed her to curse.

 

14:13 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I know that was so funny. I actually she has her own podcast that I also really. Yeah, she does she allow cursing on her podcast?

 

14:19 - Marvin Bee (Host)

I do on mine. People just for some reason are afraid to. I don't know why, because you know I have sponsors, but they don't control what happens here.

 

14:29 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yeah, I don't know. Even with our own I think about. I'm like my grandma might listen to this. I don't know. You know I post that I was part of something I worry about. You know my grandma mostly that's the main person I think about whenever I'm like I should be careful.

 

14:45 - Marvin Bee (Host)

So I used to worry about that with my family and my clients. That's probably the biggest thing, especially as an MSP, because a lot of what we do on this show sometimes is talk about our clients. Yeah, I mean just what you know you and I talked about right before the show. Yeah that would be a topic at some point in the future on the show. But because you're doing this on your own, do you find yourself talking only about, like the stuff that truly matters to you, because sometimes you guys talk about personal stuff.

 

15:21 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yeah.

 

15:21 - Marvin Bee (Host)

I mean personal stuff.

 

15:25 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

That's the thing. You know. We have this great big freedom now that we didn't have before, and so there are. Sometimes we're like, oh no, we couldn't talk about that. And then we're like, well, actually, no, we can talk about that. Yeah, this, this is ours, we can talk about it. And I think some of the topics that we hit on are often discussed in any kind of public setting and Working against that stigma like there's a little bit of power in that yeah, of course, keeping in mind that we are publishing this on a public platform, anyone can go find it and go listen to it. Like you, stand by it. You know, like we do have a couple. You know we're not mentioning negatives about people by name. We're not trash companies. Like you know, we are being as real as we can while also being smart about certain topics.

 

16:16 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Yeah.

 

16:18 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yeah, no, that great big freedom is. It's an interesting hill to climb because we were so excited to not have someone that we had to get approvals from, and now it's like gosh, what do we do now?

 

16:30 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Yeah, so do you know how much of your audience is Other vendors, that are your friends, the people that you work with regularly, or how many are MSPs who might be partners?

 

16:43 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

So I don't have that exact data. I will say that we publish through Spotify for podcasters and it gives us a really cool breakdown of the demographics who listen. We can see what countries people are listening to, in, what gender, what age range, so like that's all really cool information. But as far as vendors versus partners or MSPs, I think that we both kind of just assume that no one listens and so we're always surprised when someone says they do. But I have found, like I, I think vendors listen more, but then I will be at an event where we're running into somebody I haven't seen in six months and they say oh, I just finished the most recent episode of your podcast. I'm like you listen. So we don't have a great way to measure it right now. I think in our Facebook and LinkedIn groups it is mostly vendors, but we are working on making sure that we are not Vendor focused, because we do want it to be community and industry driven. Yes, we do. Okay, yeah, absolutely.

 

17:55

I don't have one we also have an Instagram.

 

17:58 - Marvin Bee (Host)

You have an IG.

 

17:59 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

IG, I just I got an IG.

 

18:01 - Marvin Bee (Host)

I don't know what I'm doing with it, but I have one.

 

18:04 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

You know I have thought about that how, like Instagram, TikTok, they are not new user friendly.

 

18:12

I've been on. I've been on Instagram, you know, since early college, and so I've had the chance to learn how everything works and it just becomes a second language. But then watching someone come to it and be brand new, like I actually taught my best friend this summer how to post her story. We were seeing Taylor Swift in Seattle and, like, I tagged her in a story, and whenever you do that, then the person that you tagged can then repost to their own story, and she never posted anything. So I was teaching her how to do all of it, and it's just there's got to be a way to make this more intuitive for someone who's never used it before.

 

18:46 - Marvin Bee (Host)

So I will be a little transparent here. Yes, I'm on the IG, but I'm a boomer, I'll just be honest. So a part of me is like I don't get it.

 

18:57 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I don't know if.

 

18:58 - Marvin Bee (Host)

I don't know if I want to get it, but that's what all the kids are talking about. You know, put your business on IG. I'm like, no way my clients are there.

 

19:09 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yeah, I feel very strongly about. I mean, I love marketing. I've always had a passion for it. I feel very strongly that not every business needs an Instagram. I mean, just think about what brands do you follow on any kind of social media? You know, if you don't even have an Instagram, like you don't know who's on there, you don't know, like, who even cares. I think sticking to the platforms that make sense for you are important and that you don't need to have. You don't need to have a TikTok if you're not trying to reach people who use TikTok.

 

19:41 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Well, here's the way I look at it when I'm sitting in a meeting, either trying to get a new client or having a QBR or some sort of meeting, those clients aren't looking at me and saying hey, when are you going to update your TikTok?

 

19:56 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yeah, you're right.

 

19:58 - Marvin Bee (Host)

So I go where they are, and most of them are nowhere you know, I'm too busy trying to.

 

20:04

I'm trying to get on the golf course with the CEOs. I'm trying to figure out their little industry groups and how can I weasel my way into those without having to pay a fortune Right Give up time. I'm trying to figure out. You know how to. You know how to buy their company lunch without spending a fortune. You know all those little things Because that's what I'm doing. I don't see any of my clients on any of the platforms. I see a couple on LinkedIn.

 

20:35 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yeah.

 

20:35 - Marvin Bee (Host)

And I see a couple on Facebook, but it's not a situation where I can reach out to them and say hey. By the way, if you need network support, call me.

 

20:46 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yeah.

 

20:46 - Marvin Bee (Host)

But I'm sure there's ways to do it.

 

20:48 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

There, absolutely is. Yes, it's a matter of just being relevant for whenever they're thinking about something you know, network support like. Oh well, you know, I saw this on Facebook last week. But yeah, I say, don't kill yourself trying to create Instagram content, especially if you've never been on Instagram before this this year. Yeah, that's my advice that you didn't ask for.

 

21:13 - Marvin Bee (Host)

As a millennial, I'm going to ask you for more advice.

 

21:20 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I may have to start a consulting fee.

 

21:22 - Marvin Bee (Host)

So let me ask you this because, for all practical purposes, your, shall we say, relatively new to the channel, and that's not about your age, that's about your years in our industry. I think you started in; I’m going to say 2020.

 

21:39 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Yeah, so 2021 kind of. I actually I've had an internship on the enterprise side of things while I was in college. You know, I worked for another enterprise company on a maternity leave contract, so it wasn't very long, but so I've had little bits and pieces here, here and there, but fully in the space January of 2021, I actually what? This coming Thursday will be my three year Three year, okay so.

 

22:13 - Marvin Bee (Host)

So, as you know, I'm primarily an MSP. For some people that want to acknowledge me as an MSP, and I kind of run the line. I talked to vendors, not just for my business but for the podcast. You're kind of doing a little bit of now you've reached out to MSPs. So what do you think of our little channel?

 

22:35 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Sorry, there was a little bit of lag there, but what do I think about the little channel? I think it's a really cool place to be. I actually had someone this weekend ask me how I even got into the space and I explained how I knew this person, who then met me. I met this person and then I met this person and how it all kind of fell into place. And I tell anyone who comes to work in this industry that, like these, people all take care of each other, no matter what side you're on. There is something to learn from someone. Someone is happy to introduce you to someone else. Like everyone from at least in the space I surround myself with, everyone is very supportive and wants to see everyone succeed. Of course there's the competition and the nastiness that there is probably everywhere, but I think it's a really cool space to grow and learn from so many different walks of life and points of views. I'm very happy to have found my way here and I don't plan on leaving.

 

23:40

So you're stuck with me.

 

23:43 - Marvin Bee (Host)

I'm not stuck with you, I don't use you guys yet.

 

23:46 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Oh. I just met me as a person. No, you don't know what you did by sending that LinkedIn invitation, Barb.

 

23:56 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Well, you know what the next conference I'm at. Let's see what's coming up next. I don't think I'm scheduled to be anywhere until March.

 

24:04 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Wow, yeah.

 

24:06 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Yeah, I can't be on the conference trail.

 

24:10 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

That is completely fair 12 months a year.

 

24:14 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Look at me checking out my calendar to see where I'm at Calendar.

 

24:19 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I like it.

 

24:20 - Marvin Bee (Host)

We'll figure it out. We'll chat afterwards and talk about that. Let me ask you this what is the most annoying question you get from us as MSPs?

 

24:32 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Oh, the most annoying question I get from MSPs. Well, I'd say, probably in my role, because I'm marketing and while I am typically one of the first people that MSPs encounter at an event, it always comes back to pricing and I have zero control over what anything is priced at. So that's probably one where it's just like I cannot be helpful here and I wish I could just explain. I mean, I do try to explain. I am marketing. I have no control over what your account is going to look like or anything like that, but if you talk with the team, they could probably help you out somewhere. So I'd say that's probably the first.

 

25:18

The only other thing I can think of is whenever I'm finally going to bed at an event and somebody's like oh, like you can't be leaving us so soon. Oh, I do this every week. I actually do have to go to bed. I find that to be interesting for MSPs. A lot of times these events are kind of a break from your business. You're getting away you probably don't have your wife or kids with you, or your husband and kids and it's like oh, this is a great time. I'm with my peers, we're at the bar, we're having fun, and for me it's like this is a Tuesday and I have to get up and do this again and again, and again and again, like this is work for me.

 

25:58

So I think that's probably always just a tough battle to have.

 

26:02 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Yeah, a lot of people treat it like vacation and I can't. No, I just can't, because a lot of times I'm actually doing work while I'm there as well. But first of all, I don't want to say I don't drink, but I don't drink as much as some of those people want me to drink.

 

26:24 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I'm right there with you. Right there with you.

 

26:28 - Marvin Bee (Host)

My goodness gracious, all right. Well, Kelsey, we should probably talk just a tad about CyberQP, although I'm going to have you back on later and just have a show completely about that. But for people who are like, ok, you don't talk about any tech at all, yeah, we will. CyberQP, basically a privileged access management company. Yep, you guys are like kindred souls with Was it Cyber Fox?

 

26:59 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I'm sorry, I'm looking up for my shirt.

 

27:01 - Marvin Bee (Host)

I'm looking at my shirts because I think, yep, I got your shirts together in the rafters.

 

27:07 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Kindred souls. I love that. So Cyber Fox is also in the privilege access management space. We do a little bit of different things. I know of MSPs who use their products and ours and they can speak to it much better of how the uses are different. But yeah, we have a couple different tools just designed to help automate and increase your security. I could start with the questions I ask whenever I speak on stage how often are you rotating your privileged account passwords?

 

27:44 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Never.

 

27:45 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Exactly, I get that a lot. Honestly, I need to have a cricket sound ready to go on my phone whenever I ask that, so I can just hold it up to the microphone. And then also we have end user verification for your help desk, so you can verify the identity of who's calling in straight from your PSA. Your texts don't have to leave and then you have that peace of mind that your customers are verified. That's a very brief overview. We do a lot more than that.

 

28:13 - Marvin Bee (Host)

All right. What's another question that you may ask?

 

28:17 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Oh, who here loves doing password resets? I love it. That's so good, and I actually. I also really like to open with did y'all hear about the cybercriminal that got away last week?

 

28:36 - Marvin Bee (Host)

You know what I thought? I saw a story that I tagged, but I didn't go back and read it. Tell us.

 

28:41 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Well, he ran somewhere.

 

28:43 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Yeah.

 

28:44 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

That was it. Oh, a joke, see that. The millennial glasses for that guy.

 

28:51 - Marvin Bee (Host)

The millennial got the boomer.

 

28:55 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I love to open with that because I feel like everyone's already like I saw something that was like there are three things that people are thinking whenever you come out on stage who is this person, how are they going to help me, and how long do I have to sit through this? So I love to open with that because I think it kind of sets, puts everyone at ease and it's like, okay, I might want to listen to what she has to say.

 

29:14 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Hey, you got, you got our attention.

 

29:18 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I am always open to other IT jokes because I'm going to have to start throwing some new ones in there eventually.

 

29:26 - Marvin Bee (Host)

All right. So there were two major events last week. One was Florida broke up a like 130 person human trafficking ring.

 

29:39 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Oh, wow.

 

29:41 - Marvin Bee (Host)

And then ransomware victims are being offered payment extension plans. Oh my God. That's some of the stories I tagged that I was looking at.

 

29:52 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Well, one of these days I'll throw everyone off and I'll actually reference one of those instead of just my ransomware joke.

 

30:00 - Marvin Bee (Host)

A British library puts their catalog back online after an attack in 2023. It could have been like three weeks ago. All right. Well, we will get back on and talk about that and I promise I'll be ready for the jokes.

 

30:18 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Hey, the whole point is to catch you off guard.

 

30:22 - Marvin Bee (Host)

It is All right. So, Kelsey, apparently you and I are going to be friends.

 

30:28 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I mean, I've already got to make a friendship bracelet for you.

 

30:32 - Marvin Bee (Host)

You've thrown down the gondola. I'm going to make you a mug. Oh, I love that. I'm going to make you a BFF mug. That sounds great. I forgot to do that, whatever.

 

30:41 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I see you in March. That's when we'll swap.

 

30:44 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Alrighty, that'll be the case. All right, folks, so I'll have the links in the show notes. Uh, Kelsey, let me go back and grab your official title here Kelsey Blankenship Lackland, the channel development manager for Cyber QP and co-host of the show actually a podcast, along with Morgan McBride.

 

31:07 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

I like your announcer voice. That's fun, thank you.

 

31:11 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Has gotten me nothing.

 

31:14 - Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland  (Host)

Well, can't win them all.

 

31:17 - Marvin Bee (Host)

Can't win them all right. So we are definitely going to do this again. We'll see you guys out on the road. Head over to the website, folks, and check out those links and I'll have both of those, as well as links to the Facebook and LinkedIn groups and Kelsey's book of jokes. We'll start to create that for everybody.

 

31:38

That's going to do it soon, folks Um, actually that was a terrible outro. That'll do it If you get this and listen in real time. Check us out tomorrow night live Wednesdays at 8 PM. We're going to have Mr. Jimmy Hatzel on and we're going to talk about AI as a service. That'll do it. We'll see you soon, and until next time, holla Bye.

 

Kelcye Blankenship-LacklandProfile Photo

Kelcye Blankenship-Lackland

Channel Development Manager

Kelcye is the Channel Development Manager at CyberQP, with a dynamic marketing background and a passion for the MSP channel. At CyberQP, she travels to various channel trade show events to grow and manage community relationships, both with other vendors and organizations in the MSP space and with partners alike. When she's not on the road, she helps curate content for the brand's social pages and has her own podcast with industry colleague and friend, Morgan McBride, titled 'actually, a podcast', meant to provide a fresh look at ways to help make the channel community more collaborative, inclusive, and a supportive space. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Emerging Media and Communication from the University of Texas at Dallas, and in her free time, she enjoys kayaking, reading as many books as she can get her hands on, and spending time with her nieces