Heather Simek: MSP Life, Lessons & Leadership (EP 872)

Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast, the show for IT professionals where we help you run your business better, smarter and faster. This is our weekly live show and it is being presented by ThreatLocker, you're going to love them. Tonight's show is one that's been a few years in the making.

I'll explain that a little bit more when I introduce our guests, but I want to get right into the meat of a story that I have been asked about if I was going to cover. News that came out and it was quite interesting when I saw it because my first thought was, well, this isn't news, but apparently it has been announced that Kaseya, a global leader in IT management and cybersecurity software, has officially acquired Technology Marketing Toolkit, otherwise known as TMT, the renowned MSP marketing and consulting firm. So, yeah, we knew this was coming.

We knew it was a while, so not quite sure why it's being announced today, but whatever. So the question is, what does this mean? Well, with the acquisition, Kaseya is integrating TMT's proven marketing campaigns, business coaching and peer groups into its ecosystem, giving MSPs access to a broader suite of sales and marketing tools. It now unifies this community.

TMT members will now join Kaseya's extensive global community, enabling collaborations with tens of thousands of IT professionals and direct engagement with Kaseya's product experts. Robin Robbins, we know her as the founder of TMT. She's still there.

She'll take on an advisory role within Kaseya and focus on developing new marketing and sales resources for MSPs. And this move is positioned as the next phase in a longstanding partnership aiming to accelerate MSP growth, improve profitability and build the industry's largest and most impactful community of success-minded IT business owners. So, all right.

So I made the announcement, and I don't know that anybody's surprised. We kind of knew it. And that's that.

So let me do this. Let me go ahead and introduce my guest, because I'm sure that she has some thoughts. And I have another news story that I want to ask her about.

But ladies and gentlemen, my guest, when I first asked her to be on the show years ago, she laughed. But then we have met and seen each other out at conferences all over the place. She is a wonderful ambassador to the MSP community.

Heather Simek is joining us. Heather, how are you? I love the pictures. Remind me to watch whenever I'm at conferences.

Yes, you might get a sniper shot of you. That's funny. Yeah.

Well, thanks for having me. I'm super excited to do this. We've been talking about this for a few years.

Well, I don't know if talking is the right word to use. I've been asking, and you've been like, yeah, I'll do it. And then crickets, crickets, crickets.

We need to run a company. Hey, you know what? When you're as busy as you are, I understand. Yeah.

You were with a fairly large MSP, fairly coveted in the channel. Did you, did I see that you went across the pond to judge a competition? I actually didn't have to go across the pond to do it. I actually, they sent me the synopsis that were submitted for those.

And so I was able to judge from the states. Gotcha. I did do that for overseas.

Okay. All right. So I just got an alert here.

I need to let people that are viewing the show know that normally our biggest audience is over on the LinkedIn. And apparently there is an issue right now between Streamyard and LinkedIn. It's a known issue.

They are working to try to fix it. I don't know if that will be fixed during the show here, but we are streaming live on the YouTube and the Facebook. So, I mean, if you're trying to get us on LinkedIn, you're probably not even going to see this to know to switch over, but people that have seen the show long enough will know that we are streaming on other platforms.

So maybe they'll, they'll come over. So just want to say that we'll figure it out. So let me first ask your reaction to the news with Kaseya acquiring TMT.

I mean, it's been a long time coming, right? The rumors have been out there for at least five years, I want to say. I was going to say, since the year of our COVID, right? Yeah. I think that, you know, there was a lot of talk.

There was a lot of denial. There was a lot of skirting around, probably because there were NDAs signed and things like that. I actually was surprised that it wasn't announced last year because I kind of figured that was the timeframe.

It could have been because of some of the executive changes at Kaseya, maybe it got delayed. I don't do a lot of business with Kaseya. I'm a Datto partner, obviously, and things like that, or was a Datto partner.

But I think they're smart to bring in a marketing aspect to that. It's something that's missing from some of the other bigger companies out there. I know there's a lot of people that follow her, that have signed up for TMT, that have that program in place.

Kaseya might broaden their audience now by doing that. I think there might be some people that leave because they might feel like, well, why didn't she just tell us, you know, for the last five years? So who knows what's going to happen? Yeah, I don't think anybody's going to leave, but it will be interesting to see what happens down the road because, yeah, it does give Kaseya a peer group-like atmosphere. And then, of course, the built-in sales and marketing stuff, so that should be good.

So I have another story here. So when I was at Pax8Beyond, I was interviewing with Brad Gross, and we talked about a new ruling that was going to come down where the FTC was going to fix the subscription rule where consumers and businesses would be able to cancel subscriptions as easily as they had signed up for those subscriptions. And we talked about the fact that, you know, most of that was probably geared towards people that had, you know, the Netflix’s and those streaming services.

And when you go to, you know, try to cancel, you can't find a cancel button. You got to call. But it also was going to extend into industries like ours, where businesses and vendors would also have to give us the ability to cancel as easily as we signed up.

And we have heard stories of people who could not cancel because they, you know, didn't, you know, send the email before 12.01 a.m., or they had to speak to their rep before they could cancel, and then their rep was unavailable and all that stuff. So that was supposed to change that. But yesterday, it was announced that the federal court has blocked the Federal Trade Commission's efforts to change this click-to-cancel rule.

And it was supposed to offer a straight, forward, and simple cancellation method, clearly disclose all material terms of subscriptions before collecting payment, providing secure, explicit, separate consent from consumers for recurring charges, and then prohibit deceptive or misleading practices related to subscriptions. And this was supposed to take place on the 14th. It has now been shut down.

And the 8th, what is it? The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit Court struck it down, saying that it failed to follow legally required rulemaking procedures, which includes the fact that they did not conduct a required preliminary regulatory analysis for rules expected to have an economic impact exceeding $100 million. And then they claimed that there was lack of public input. Come on, really? They probably started it because of the public input.

Yep. You know, as far as it kind of coming over into our industry and stuff, I'm not sure how they would be able to regulate that because you purchase a license, depending on how you're purchasing it. Well, we talked about that a little bit.

And really, it has to do with renewals only. So it doesn't affect the actual contracts themselves. So it's not like you can, if you're in a three-year agreement, you're in a three-year agreement.

Right. So I only had one client. No, I'm sorry.

Excuse me. I only had two clients that I had any auto renewal in the contract. And it was strictly a resale situation.

And we had best practice where we reached out to them and said, we're just reminding you, this is your 60-day mark. If you were going to be canceling this, you have to let us know in the next 60 days. So we didn't hide that it was in there.

We respected our client and we were confident with what we were providing for them. And so I don't know. Maybe other MSPs have a lot of auto renewals in there.

We just didn't. I wasn't worried about it from the standpoint of an MSP. It was more of the standpoint of MSPs and vendors, where MSPs were complaining they couldn't get out of vendor contracts where they would be stuck.

And circling back, I've heard that from Kaseya. I have not had that issue, but I only bought that out. So they didn't change any of that for me, maybe if I was using their platform and things like that.

Well, you're special. I'm sure they would have. Yeah, I just didn't.

I'm definitely more of the ConnectWise partner, for sure. I got you. I do have a product.

I won't say who it is with, but I allowed myself to be suckered in by the stupid rule. I did not cancel a trial before the date kicked in. But that was on me.

So I wasn't blaming them. I made one request saying, hey, look, I forgot to do this. And they said, no, you're stuck.

Luckily, it's a small amount, so it's not killing me. It's not like it's a $5,000 a month thing. So I'm just going to use that.

Actually, I'm not using it because it didn't fit the need that I had for the client. So it was a proof of concept trial. So it was a thing where I actually only got two licenses.

So they didn't force me to get whatever the minimum was. But I'm stuck with the two. I mean, it's like $40 or whatever.

That's on me. Yeah, I did that once for a gym membership or something, and I stuck it in my phone. And I said, must cancel on this date.

Yeah, that's what I usually do. Yeah, it's annoying. I totally understand.

All right. So let's talk a little bit about you for a minute here. So most of my listeners probably know you.

And they know that you have been in our industry for quite some time. I won't say how long. But I just had a reunion.

That's probably about the amount of time that you've been in the industry. You just recently, I don't know how much you're willing to talk about. But you're not working right now.

You're on a break. As Rachel and Ross would say. I'm doing a little bit of consulting for some people.

Just kind of helping them out. It's not going to be permanent or anything. You're right.

I was with my MSP for almost 14 years. And there were some personal things that were happening in my life. And mental health reasons, just a whole lot of reasons.

It was time for me to leave and kind of take care of some of those things. And I'm still probably a little bit grieving. I loved our MSP.

I loved our clients, our vendors, and our employees. Who I still talk to every day, it seems like. So part of me doesn't really feel like I've left.

Because I'm still involved in some aspects. But the other side of me is the realistic side. Saying I'm not going back to what it was.

And so there's a grieving period. And I'm certainly going through that process right now. Trying to figure out what my next steps are.

I've spoken to some vendors. I've actually spoken to old clients about if I could fit in there somehow. I've spoken to other MSPs.

And I'm not opposed to anything. Of talking about anything. But I needed to take this time to just kind of take that stuff back.

Right. Well, listen, I commend you for that. There are lots of us where, I mean, listen.

I've been doing computers for quite some time. I've had this business 28 years. And there are times where I'm like, I probably need a break.

Yeah, I think people should take breaks. Whether or not they should quit their jobs. I did not make that decision.

It took me several months to make that decision. I think I kind of made it in November. But then made it, I actually gave notice in April.

Gotcha. So it really took a long time. All right.

So I want to say, you know, I hope all is well. But I'm also going to say thank you for taking a break. Because I got you on the show.

That was probably the only way that was going to happen. That's so funny. Probably, yeah.

That and your best friend and Taylor Swift helping to. Oh, Taylor Swift, huh? Oh, you talked to CJ? No, I didn't talk to CJ. We talked at IT Nation.

I'm not a huge, I like Taylor Swift. I am not a Taylor Swift fan like some people in this industry. No, but that was the reason we were like, the three of us were chatting.

And Taylor Swift came up. So I had CJ's ear for two minutes. And we use that to switch over to you.

And she was like; you should do the show. Yeah. And you were like, yeah.

I actually spoke with her today. Yeah. About stuff unrelated.

All right. But she is the biggest Taylor Swift fan I have ever met in my life. I am not.

So let's move on. I think I know four songs, maybe five. I have a nephew that loves Taylor Swift.

So we know a lot more than we should. So let me ask you this. So I know that you, did you officially get your start in IT in 1985? Or was that just a little customer service role that you kind of? So I originally started in network.

Okay. I was on the network support desk. So I worked for a company called Allstate Enterprises, which was a sub of the big Sears industry.

Sears and Allstate, they were owned together. And they kind of had Sears Consumer Finance, which is who I worked for. And they were part of Sears Mortgage Corp back then in the eighties.

So it was a little, it was kind of like a startup company around 200 people. I actually met my husband there. Really? We worked in different departments.

But he was IT also. And so I started in network and did all of that. And then I kind of graduated up to programming, like job control language and things like that is what I did there.

And then I worked for, I was the 25th employee of Discover Cart, which was also owned by Sears Consumer Finance. So I was the 25th employee there. And then we moved to California.

And so I worked for Vyser out there, which is a data center. And I started there as the supervisor of their support desk, technical support. And then I went up into an executive account manager role there.

All right. So the obvious question I have to ask is, is that what you went to school for? I mean, did you grow up a geeky nerd? So I actually, I actually graduated high school at 16 and started working. So it was, it just came very natural to me.

Computers, IT, science was just a very, was very natural. Interesting. Yeah.

So graduated at 16. So you did not go to college. Is that what you were saying? You just went straight to work, huh? I went straight to work.

So you were a Sheldon? Well, I, no, no, I wish, but yeah, no. And then, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm pretty relational. And I think that was the other thing.

A lot of people in IT, especially back then, um, they were like behind the scenes and they weren't in front of like the customer and things like that. And I was able to go back and forth between the two. So I was able to be on the technical side and then also be on the relational side.

So you were the intermediary because back then geeks were not seen. They were not. And, and I wanted to be seen and I was super fortunate.

I, I had some great mentors, Ralph Boulware, who was the CEO of Fiserv and in the California region at that time. He took me under his wing. I was his right-hand man, Terry Carstensen, who actually, I think she just retired from Fiserv.

Um, I mean, they, they were, they were both great and I reported directly to both of them. And so I got to see it from that executive level of how to do budgets and how to, how to do that whole thing. And they, they gave me their largest client to manage.

And, um, I was super fortunate in the roles I played. All right. So managed services wasn't around back then in the form that we know it.

So how did you, how did you slide into that? Yeah. So, um, I, we were back here and I used to work for our church in the area. And so I ran their office and assimilation and, and all that in their IT.

And one of the overseers was an original owner of my company. Um, our, our company was owned by three gentlemen and then it went bankrupt. And, um, anyways, I came in, he asked me to come work for him and I didn't want to.

And so we, we, we went back and forth for a couple of months and we agreed that I would come in and I would help him set up his processes and help him interview for somebody in that position. And then I was going to go off on my merry way. And yeah, that was like 14 years later.

Yeah. I see. That's, that's what happens, right? You get, you get settled somewhere, you get comfortable and they probably, probably didn't let you leave.

Right. Well, I, and I don't think they knew like what, what I could do, what I couldn't do type thing. Um, and I really struggled though.

It's funny. I, I came in and I'm like, okay, so what is it like it's it, but what do you guys do? And I, I probably struggled for nine months. I guess I was just slow and I'm like, so you don't create anything and you don't design anything.

You just buy stuff and resell it to people. I'm like, I don't get it. Why don't they buy direct? So I, I had a real, I had to really embrace it, but it took a long time.

I'm like, well, where's your test environment? They're like, yeah, we don't have one. We don't, we don't create anything. I was looking at it from a developer background and I'm like, well, where's our analysts? Where's our testers? Where's, where's all this? And they were like, yeah, no, we just buy and resell.

But it's really no different than other industries. I mean, think about your car. You don't buy a car from Ford, you know, you go to a Ford dealer or you go to a used car lot or some other thing.

You don't buy direct from the manufacturer. I just had not been exposed to that before. Okay.

So I was like, well, why don't they have their own internal departments? Like I had never heard of managed service before. Gotcha. Gotcha.

And now I can't imagine not being part of this industry. I love this industry. Okay.

I'm glad you said it that way because now actually, let me go back before I ask you this question. Do you remember when we first met? Nope. You told me to be honest.

That's fine. That's fine. And here's, and here's the kicker.

It was, it was at a bar. Did you know that? Not surprised if we were at a conference. Yeah, it was a conference.

And I was being, for some reason, Desi was like walking me around. Oh. And she's like, you should know that person.

You should meet that person. And she tapped you on the shoulder and said, you two should know each other. I do remember that.

Yeah. And I'm like, who is she? And why should we know each other? Um, but at every conference that I have seen you at, it's not a whole lot. Don't think that we're all at conferences all the time.

Uh, but you, you, I thought you attended a lot of conferences and I thought you knew a ton of people, a ton of people knew you, liked you. And I'm like, so she's got it going on. Um, but as I got to learn, um, okay.

I'm sure you, uh, yeah. Um, but the fact is every time I heard you speak about things in this industry, it was with a passion that I, I mean, there are people that if they make a lot of money, they have passion. And if they don't make the money, they're upset.

I mean, it's, you know, there's those people that, you know, there has to be that, uh, that carrot at the end of the stick. Um, I didn't get that sense with you. I got the sense that you just, you just love the industry.

You loved your job. You love your MSP. And, uh, I did.

Why is, why is that? And I, you know, I, I just gave him another call, another client. I had somebody reach out to me and say, Hey, I'm looking for an MSP. And I said, go to my MSP.

They're like, they're not there. And I'm like, I still love them. Go to them.

So explain to me, I understand. I get the idea that you grew up liking this stuff and it interests you, but why do you love it? So the MSP world, in my opinion, is like no other industry. There's IT everywhere.

Um, but, but the MSP, I think I, I describe it as a family. And, and, and the reason why I say that is, um, if somebody is in trouble in our industry, even though we are competitors, we will rise to the occasion and help them. And there's not a lot of industries that can drop, um, and that can trust each other like that with their customers.

There've been breaches, you know, there was, you know, from, from these big companies and, and, and these are the livelihood. I mean, you've heard, um, several people talk about, you know, the Kasei event and things like that and, and how their business goes. And, um, people are willing to help each other and share not only, uh, procedures and policies, but give their honest opinion on vendor solutions.

And, and there's none, I'm trying to, I'm only worried about myself. You're worried about the community. It's truly a community.

And I cannot think of another industry that is truly based on community. And it doesn't matter if you're the 500,000 MSP, or if you're the 20 million MSP, it doesn't matter. What matters are the people.

There you go. So I do have two industries that I kind of think may fit this. So, uh, when I first started, I did a lot of auto body shops.

I partnered with, I partnered with PPG paints and they got me into a lot of body shops. And they had an organization called iCar that was not run by any of the national brands. It was actually run by local body shop owners.

And they would bring in texts from other body shops to teach and stuff like that. Not a real community per se, but at least they did that. And then, uh, years ago, when we started having some of the big bad storms come through Florida for hurricanes and stuff, this has been a new thing where the electrical companies all will now help each other out.

And when you see a storm coming, you know, trucks from out of state are lining up to come in and be ready to help. That's kind of what the MSP industry is, except there's much more camaraderie and we don't necessarily have to wait for an event, you know, a catastrophe to come together. So that's where I see it.

Yeah. And I, you know, I think people genuinely like each other and when I first came into the industry, um, I was in, I was running the MSP for a few years before I actually started going to events. And, and I went to my first event and, um, everybody was just welcoming, like, you know, they kind of just noticed me and started talking to me.

I met, you know, John Harden that way. And, um, I just love the MSP world. I love what it stands for.

I love, and maybe because I have the IT background that, you know, I've been doing it for almost 40 years that, that to see where it starts and then watch it evolve. And MSP has evolved. I mean, it started as break, fix, and then it turned into managed service.

And now it's kind of evolving into more regulation, security, and AI. And, and so it's an industry that is ever changing. So do you buy into the fact that we're going to be MIPs soon, the managed information provider or whatever Pat said we were going to be? You know, I think whether or not it's called that or where we're going to be, Keith is just blowing it up.

Keith. Yeah. Keith has conversations on his own.

Keith, I think you need to come to GTIA before you come to Chicago. And I will make sure that I walk you around. Um, I think our, our, I think there are going to be some managed service providers that are going to stay the same.

Right. I think there's going to be other managed service providers that are going to evolve into different roles. Um, and whether that's, would you call it MIP? Yeah.

MIP or more of a, um, what was the old term? They, they used to, I mean, all these acronyms. I don't know, but it's, uh, the original solution provider. The, um, what was the term in the, in the early 2000s? I forget.

Yeah. That's, that's what I'm trying to think of. And I can't think of what it is.

I think there's going to be different spots for different MSPs. I don't think everybody's going to like, not everybody stops break fix. There are still break fix MSPs out there.

They still have a large section of that's where their business is. Well, even if you are trying to call yourself a fully branded MSP, stuff still breaks within your MSP clients. I mean, it's, it's so I get that.

So, I mean, I struggle with, you know, I've got two clients that are technically break fix, although I have agents on them. So they are part of my managed stuff, but they don't operate in the managed service way that my other clients do, where I can truly manage everything. So, right.

Yeah. We have the same thing. So we had our TNM clients and that trusted advisor.

Yes. That was the term I was thinking of. Thank you.

So, yeah, we were kind of a hybrid that way. I didn't have a lot of TNM clients, but, you know, we would, we sell licensing and things like that. And then if something happened, we would come in on a TNM basis and fix it and stuff.

And if you price it right, you know, TNM break fix is still profitable. I mean, if people are willing to pay the rate, you know, I have one client, they're a retail store that doesn't think they need monthly support. But when they call me, they know they're paying my top level price.

Absolutely. Yep. So they also know that I may not get there right away because they're not managed.

So they have to wait on the pecking order. So let's do this. I have a couple of other questions, but I think it's going to start us into another long thing.

So I want to make sure that I say thank you to the people that helped make this show go. So let me, first of all, say thank you to ThreatLocker. They are the presenting sponsor for the show.

ThreatLocker is totally changing the game with their Zero Trust endpoint security, keeping IT pros and businesses safe from the latest cyber threats. And then, of course, all of the other sponsors we have, NetAlly, Rhythms, LionGuard, DesignerReady, TruGrid, and OneStream. And I do not want to forget some of the individuals that are also giving monthly to help support the show.

So thank you for all of that. You can see all of these over at itbusinesspodcast.com slash sponsor. Or you can go directly to our presenting sponsor ThreatLocker, itbusiness.com slash ThreatLocker.

And then I should probably also say that we are in the middle of the longest running Prime Day that they have ever done. It is four days this year. And it started yesterday.

And I did not do a little video to promote and say, hey, if you shop on Prime Day, use my link to support the show. So I'm going to take a little bit of time to do that right now. Amazon Prime Day 2025 is bigger and better than ever, running for an unprecedented four days from July 8th through the 11th.

There are exclusive Prime member deals, tech and business essentials, and also support for small businesses. If you head over to itbusinesspodcast.com, there's a little Amazon button at the top there. You shop, save that link, keep it as a shortcut, a favorite, whatever you want to call it, so that any time you do your Amazon shopping, just click that first.

You don't have to buy anything at the Uncle Marv store. You just go to that link first and then search for whatever you want. And I thought I had links to, I wanted to show people what some of the.

Can you drop it in the chat? Sure, I can do that. Let me on the fly here, go to my page, grab the link. And it's going to be in the show notes for sure.

But let me drop it in the chat. And Amazon is the link there. Oh, I didn't sign in.

Hey, Heather, we just weren't ready for this. That's OK. Let me sign in here while we do that.

Let me ask you another question while I'm doing this. OK. A lot of people have been very willing to give advice to those that are either just starting out or those that are not so far along on the path.

Do you find yourself giving advice to people that are just starting out or people that are smaller MSPs and want to get as big as the one that you were at? If I'm asked. If you're asked. Um, actually, yeah, at Secure last year, I met a brand new MSP out in Oregon, Oregon, and he was just starting out and things like that.

And I've had several calls with him. I've had several calls with his staff in the last 12 months trying to help them navigate and um, kind of set up their, their mainframe of what needs to be done and stuff. So, uh, I tend to help a lot of MSPs.

I mentioned I've been a ConnectWise partner for a long time and it seems like towards right after IT Nation, I tend to get a lot of phone calls from MSPs, smaller MSPs trying to set up agreements and connecting how they do stuff financially and things like that. So, um, I, I tend to work with a lot of the smaller MSPs on that side. Now we are, I think that's one of the things I like about MSPs is that when I had questions coming in, people would kind of help me and direct me where to get my answers.

Not necessarily like, oh, sign up with this vendor or this vendor, but more conceptual about, well, this is what this vendor does. And, oh, you're looking for that. Well, these are the three vendors that are, um, top of their chain and, and kind of like that.

And so I think it's super important for us to help the people entering this industry that we help mentor them. And, and, but you also got to be careful because, you know, if they're coming in and they're starting their business, um, sometimes you have to be a little gentle with how you give your advice. Yes.

Yes. There are people I know that are trying to, they try to be hard and steadfast with what you've got to do this. And it's like, yeah, maybe not.

And it doesn't work for everybody. The way that I ran our MSP versus the guy down the street, we're different people and, and we have different clients and we have different employees and what works for me might not work for them. Yeah, that is true.

So folks, while we were going through that, I just put the link in the chats. And as I mentioned, it will be in the show notes. So if you're riding along in your car and you just need to click it on the phone, it'll be there as well.

And, um, you know, we didn't talk about your position at the MSP. Um, you were vice president. So that means that it was pretty big.

Uh, 3.5 million. Okay. So average, I would say small to small to medium.

All right. Number of people there, 10 to 15 or more. There were 15 with two openings that they've now filled.

So we ran between 15 and 17 typically, but we were pretty lean, but we also didn't have our help desk. We didn't get a lot of level one tickets. Um, we, we got more, we had some enterprise clients, some seasoned clients, some technical clients.

So, uh, we didn't get a lot of like password resets and things like that. Um, it was typically something that would take a little more, um, time to resolve, uh, either with Microsoft or one drive or something like that. Did you have co-managed clients? We do not, not on the MSP side on the T and M side.

I did. Okay. Yeah.

All right. So, um, and you know, for a small MSP like that, you were multiple hats. So I was also the executive account manager for all the accounts.

So, um, I was pretty, pretty involved. All right. Uh, we kind of started to talk a little bit, uh, when we were talking about the names, the acronyms and stuff and what MSPs will become.

So if, if you got to ask, or if somebody got to ask you the question about, you know, what changes you see happening in our space over the next, let's say three to five years, what do you think's going to happen? Well, you know, obviously AI is going to take a huge step into that. That's the big thing right now, right? Is AI and, and how are we going to integrate it? Not necessarily eliminate jobs but change jobs. And, and how are we going to structure our companies? And how are we going to help our customers structure their companies? And I think that, um, I would caution people to make sure you really understand what the customer's needs are instead of just jumping on that AI bandwagon.

Uh, I, you know, I, it's definitely going that route. It's, it's probably, it's already here and it's already being used in so many, I mean, Google kind of uses AI, you know, for the last, you know, eight years or whatever in its own little way. And it's just continuing to evolve and things like that.

So, um, I think we have to keep an open mind, but I think that we have a responsibility to make sure that we are protected as MSPs and our customers are protected from themselves and that people just aren't going willy nilly and downloading a bunch of these, these AI apps, because they're coming out like every day, there's like a different one that's coming out. And, and we have to make sure that we're talking to our customers and our employees and making sure that they understand what those risks are when they do things like that. And they have to; we have to be their counsel.

We have to have time to research that and not just give an answer off the hip of, oh yeah, that's a good one. That's a bad one without really understanding what the background is and what they're trying to achieve. All right.

We're going to take a big shift here in the questions. What is the biggest non-tech non-business related thing that you like in our space? Uh, well, non-tech, I love the relationships. Okay.

Right. I, I love the networking part. I love the commodity.

I love, I love all of that, um, both on a personal level and a business level. So it kind of, they kind of go hand in hand, I feel in our industry. So we're able to talk tech and then we're able to talk about our families.

We're able to do, you know, a whole bunch of things. All right. Good answer.

No, I'm, I'm all about relationships. That's probably my big thing. Yep.

Um, okay. Did you straighten your hair for this or is that your new style? No, I live in Chicago. It's just flat.

It's, it's always curly when I see it. I'm like, I'm like you permed your, or not permed, you straightened your hair for this? No, it's, it gets wide in the summer from all the humidity. So I have to put a lot of product in.

Like in Nashville, I won't be pretty. Like I will be like a big fur ball in Nashville. Really? It's just terrible.

Okay. And then, uh, we talked about Taylor Swift earlier, said you're not really there. What is your favorite, uh, singer or band group? So it depends.

Um, I, it depends on what I'm doing. Um, if I'm really trying to concentrate on something and, um, and I need to focus, I am Southern rock all the way. Allman brothers.

I'm, I'm Leonard Skinner. For some reason, it, it keeps me focused. Um, you know, if I'm kind of in a metal mood or whatever, I love a good Steely Dan.

I love Steely Dan. So it kind of depends on what I'm doing. You know, I love country.

Rob Ray is probably cringing. Rob Ray knows nothing country. Yeah.

I told him, I told him he should get Hardy to come to the conference. I saw him in concert. Really? I did.

Okay. So Chris Stapleton, you know, I, I'm, I'm big on that. So I, it depends on what I'm doing.

Um, my music tastes will change. You know, I, I like some blues. I, you know, yeah.

Have you ever heard of it? Have you ever, okay. They're not true blues. Once I heard of them, but have you ever heard of the group Larkin Poe? No.

Okay. No, but I'll write it down. They were introduced to me by, uh, Mackenzie Brown.

And, uh, I started listening to them and it's a couple of songs in there. I'm like, okay, that'll work. Now, can I ask you, what's your favorite artist? So I purposely don't have a favorite.

Yeah, I don't either. I grew up, um, that's the best way to describe this. Uh, I was not in a band, but I was, I was in choir both in church and in school.

And I was in a couple of musicals. I, I directed musicals. Really? Yeah.

And, uh, I was Gabriel in the, uh, um, the Shiloh on Shiloh's Hill, that musical. Okay. Yeah.

What other musicals were you in? Um, Man of La Mancha and some other stuff. I mean, it wasn't great, but I was in there. So I have all sorts of music styles.

Yeah. Uh, my go-to, actually, let's do this. Do you have your phone nearby? I do.

And just so you know, I was in Greece. Really? Yeah. Uh, let me guess, who did you play? Did you, you didn't play Sandy, did you? Yeah, I was a beauty school dropout.

Okay. Uh, I was also a head customer. Um, and so I think the director just kind of did it because he was just a nice guy.

And he wanted me to be a part of it. All right. What's your, uh, what's your platform that you listen to? Uh, I probably, I got YouTube.

Do I have it on here? I do have YouTube. Okay. So do you have a history thing? I just got my, I'm not even logged in.

Oh yeah, I am logged in. Okay. So what I was going to do is ask you to ask you to go to your song history.

And what was the last two to three songs that you listened to? So I'll give you my list while you're pulling up yours. Where do you find history? Oh, I don't know. I don't.

So I, I'm on the Amazon. Larry Fleet. What was that? Uh, a singer by the name of Larry Fleet.

Okay. And Lynyrd Skynyrd celebrating the last 50 years. It was the last album I listened to.

All right. So my last songs were Be My Eyes by Pentatonix, Lost and Found Darius Rucker. Oh, I saw him in concert.

He's so good. And What He Didn't Do by Carly Pierce. Oh, interesting fact.

My niece, who I just saw yesterday, she is doing some blog work for her. For Carly Pierce. Oh, look, Des.

Hey, Des. What's in the house? We were just saying that you introduced us. She probably doesn't remember either.

No, I'm sure she does. Yep. I'm sure she does.

So, all right. Heather, we are coming up to the 10 minute mark. And I have a Florida Man story to read.

And usually I'll either have a couple to pick from, but I didn't want to put that much pressure on you. And of course, I didn't want to have you try to bring a Florida Man story a pose. But here is one of our wild tales.

Earlier this week, Lee County Sheriff's deputies responded to a truly bizarre and frightening incident. And the reason I picked this story is because a man visited the home of Nicholas Flores in Lehigh Acres. He was age 31.

And the person was there hoping to buy a PlayStation 5. Okay. Okay. So a little bit of techie stuff there.

Should have been a simple transaction. But instead of making the sale, Flores allegedly attacked his would-be buyer. He choked his friend, tied him up, and even threatened him with a machete, all in an apparent attempt to rob him.

Wow. So Flores now faces. Yeah.

So he faces a list of charges, including robbery with a weapon, kidnapping, and of course, possession of a controlled substance. So, yeah. If you are on those platforms trying to buy stuff and you go to somebody's home, if you're in Florida, be prepared.

You might be kidnapped and choked and threatened with a machete. Well, you shouldn't be going to anybody's home. You don't know.

Anyways, you should always go to a well-lit area. Yes. Or a Walmart parking lot.

I mean, it's crazy. Definitely a well-lit area. Yeah.

Gas station. Something. I was just going to say, if something's crazy is going to happen, you know it's going to be a Walmart.

At least they're dressing at Walmart. Yes. There we go.

All right. Heather, what'd you think? No, no, it was fun. I appreciate you having me on.

Well, thank you for finally agreeing to come on the show and even got Des to come pop on. I don't think I've ever seen Des in the chat. Yeah.

I'm looking forward to, and I had asked you earlier if you were going to ChannelCon or anything, so I'm sad you're not going to be there, but I understand, but. Yeah, I just didn't plan properly. I had already decided months ago to take the summer off, so no events for me until late August.

Okay. Are you going to Exchange or something or what's in late August? No, Exchange doesn't want me. Oh, that's sad.

Everybody wants you. Nope. Let's see.

I think I'm going to be, there's something in Orlando. I don't remember what. And then there's the ASCII Cup that's happening.

And then IT Nation Connect, DattoCon will close out the year. Okay. So you will be busy.

Yes, I will be on the road again. So. I appreciate you having me.

Thank you very much. Thank you all for tuning in and again, apologize to people that were not able to see this on LinkedIn. I don't know what the issue was that happened with the live streaming.

I assume that I will just have to upload the video manually or I will redirect you guys to the YouTube where we always keep all of the videos for this show going. But I want to thank you all for tuning in and hope that you got some good information from my friend, Heather Simek. And I know you're on a break, Heather, and I know you've designated time to just, you know, kind of relax and take a few moments and stuff.

But is there any slight hint to what you think you might be doing? No? No. Okay. Thought I'd ask.

Thought I'd try to get a little exclusive here. I'll let you know. All right.

I will let you know. To do that. All right, folks, that is going to do it for this live episode of the IT Business Podcast.

Of course, you can catch all of the episodes in your favorite pod catcher. If you don't have one, just head over to itbusinesspodcast.com and click the follow button at the top right. It'll bring them all up.

We're on a bunch of platforms so you can have us with you anytime you're on the go. And maybe you should also sign up to be alerted on the social. So when we do go live, you'll catch us there.

And as I mentioned, we are on YouTube, LinkedIn, and the Facebook. Don't know what we're having next week, folks. But I know we've got a couple of guests signed up for the other live shows.

So tune in. Same time, same channel. That's going to do it.

We'll see you soon. And until next time, holla. Bye.