Live at ASCII Edge: Powered By Rythmz (EP 917)

Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast and we are streaming live from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the ASCII EDGE event, the last one of the year called the ASCII Cup and a little different background because I am sitting in front of the Rythmz booth inside the vendor solution pavilion. The other vendors are just coming in and setting up and beside me is no one but he is on his way. Steve Copeland from Rythmz is providing internet here and you see the signs out in front of the table there. 

That's me, that's going to be him, and then that is the internet provided by Rythmz so that is what is allowing us to live stream here. He's on his way, but I had to start because it's a 10 a.m. the show must go on kind of thing. What I am going to do is give you just a little bit of history on ASCII and the ASCII EDGE. 

So most of you know the ASCII group has been around for 40 plus years, started in 1984 by Alan Weinberger and it is the largest and oldest independent community for IT solution providers, MSPs, basically to foster collaboration and growth across North America and beyond. We are in Canada for sure and they are looking to expand and a lot of what ASCII does is provide benefits and discounts to a lot of the vendors and programs in the channel. There's some insurance things, there's some other benefits with you know shipping with UPS and getting discounts at distributors as well. 

So that is a big thing and of course the ASCII community is you know sad that Alan Weinberger passed away a little while ago and was fighting the battle of cancer, but we are here paying homage to him and as I'm looking over here because he's here so he's walking up this way, but some of the interviews that I'm getting here are going to be from ASCII members and sharing their thoughts of Alan and of the ASCII group and ladies and gentlemen he is here, Steve Copeland. Hi, good morning. Good morning sir.

How are you? Are we actually live? We are live. They did bring the internet. Okay. 

Rythmz the internet in a box. In a box. Good morning sir. 

Good morning, how are you? I'm fantastic now. Did it make you a little nervous? Listen, I had backups. Yeah. 

So you know, but I just started, I just gave people a little bit of history of ASCII, talked about Alan Weinberger and you're just in time because we hadn't talked about much else. Good, we'll talk about Alan. Yeah, so first thing I want to do is the color is off because the lighting is horrible and I had to turn off the backlighting and do some other stuff because I need to be seen. 

So you look beautiful. Well, I worked on the hair this morning. It looks good. 

So first of all I want to say thank you to Rythmz for providing the internet here and helping us go live. You've done that for me for a couple of events so I appreciate that. We love your, we love, I actually love your podcast. 

Yeah. Like listening to it, I listen to it not just when I'm on. Okay, great. 

When your friends are on, right? Yeah, a couple times with friends, other people. Well, let's go ahead and do that. You said, you mentioned Alan, that's what I was talking about. 

I said that I am gathering some interviews here of, you know, veteran ASCII members that knew Alan way back when, talked about some of the early beginnings of ASCII and stuff. What are your, let's start with fondest memories of that one. Wow. 

I actually have several. I was a trunk slammer. There you go. 

Like right out of my garage, trunk slammer, like barefoot, trying to keep the lights on MSP at one point, 2008, 2009. And I found ASCII and I found Alan and Cherry. I was like, oh, this is all a bunch of crap, right? Really? Yeah. 

I was like, yeah, you don't need them. No, I don't need that. And I went to a show and I remember walking in the show.

I remember Alan greeting me with a hug. Never met me. Just see me online. 

And I don't know if you guys know, well, if you do know me, you'll know that I'm a little bit of a smart ass. A ham. Ham. 

And I'll just greet me with a hug. And he just went, Hey, you know, I'm so happy you're here. So happy to see you. 

Nice. And that was probably my, one of my favorite memories, actually, not just ASCII, but in the channel being accepted. Right. 

And I think that was one of the coolest things. And every time since every moment since Alan would greet me with that same hug. Nice. 

And recently may not remember where he knew, but he still had that hug, still had that moment of just acceptance that I don't think you get a lot of places. It was a didn't matter about what my revenue was or how many seats I had, how many clients I, it was just this. I'm so glad you're here. 

I'm so glad you're part of it. Nice. And it was great. 

It was great. I remember the other one was when I won a thousand bucks. Remember they used to give away the checks. 

Yeah. Yeah. So let me ask you this, because you have been a part of ASCII both as an MSP and of course now as a vendor. 

Yeah. What's it like on both sides of the aisle inside of ASCII? It's the same way. That legacy of his, it lives on. 

It hugged you, right? When people come together here and ask you, it's different than when you go to like, I'm not going to say the shows, but the big shows, right? You're at a big show and everybody's running around and everybody's like, Hey, it's still great to see, but that community that they built right there. Well, I like the ambiance of it where it's, you know, it's big enough that, you know, you can see other people meet new people spread out. And you know, a lot of the vendors show, but it's small enough that you're, you know, you're going to see your people. 

Yeah. You know, in some of those other shows, it's like, you've got to, you know, you got to coordinate. It's an agenda, right? 1015, I got to go see Marv. 

1012, I got to go see this person. And you got to triangulate a path to get there and stuff here. I mean, granted we're in a nice size space, a nice size hotel, a good city. 

So, but in your hometown, yes, you actually took us to, what was it? Shea's Steakhouse. Shea's Steakhouse. Did you like it? I did. 

Yeah. I had the classic because I had to, I had to start with the basics before going off into some of those other things. It's a classier cheesesteak, I'd just like to say. 

But then we went to Redding Market and we went to El Merkury, which is another great, I'm shouting out my whole city. We went somewhere else with the SonicWall folks, but I'm going to save that to boo him when he's on stage. Horrible. 

Well, the other part to that as a vendor, I know that this is one of the few events, now granted, vendors see each other so much during the year. Three events a day. You guys have camaraderie, you guys, you know, share booth space sometimes and all of that. 

But the difference here is, at the end of it all, at an event like this, the ASCII Cup, it's almost more of a celebration for you, the vendors, than it is for us, the MSPs. Yeah. I've always thought the ASCII Cup was weird. 

It's one of those moments where you actually do get to celebrate the end of the season. There are three events a day. Really, it's absurd how many there are. 

You get to go to these events, you get to go to these things. Don't walk in front of the camera, Stan. We are actually live. 

Thanks, Stan. Come over. You can stand here and be seen. 

Stan, the million-dollar man, folks, in here in the house. There he is. As a vendor, it is kind of cool. 

I like the idea of a cup. I like the idea of, as an MSP, you voted for people. Right. 

And it is truly your vote. I think that's kind of very unique in this industry. I spend $20,000, I win two medals.

I spend $30,000, I win five medals. Right? Right. It's not that. 

It's very much about the community celebrating you and the acceptance of that. I think it's a very unique thing that ASCII has always done, and I appreciate it. Right. 

Now, let me ask you this. This is one of the... Well, you are one of the few people that actually left the industry and then came back. A lot of people will start out as an MSP or a consultant and then just move right onto the vendor side.

I mean, I would let a lot of people pay me to tell them how to do it because I did it well. No, I want you to... I want to talk about... I mean, why would you leave and then come back is the question. Because most people, if they leave the tech industry, they're done. 

They're either burnt out, they're... I didn't leave tech. But you left our space. Right? Well, it's a small bubble. 

There's this bubble of MSP. And I went off and I did my own thing. I enjoyed it. 

I'll give you what it gave me. Perspective. It's a very different perspective coming from another spot.

That's a strange word to hear from you. Perspective? Yes. Um, it gave me a view back into myself, a view back into the space and understanding what truly mattered. 

To me, human-centric IT is more important. Okay. Nice.

The why of why you do technology is more important than just tech. It was fun. Nice.

I did... Like I said, I enjoyed leaving and coming back. I love coming back. And you do.

I came back and was like, oh man, I missed it. I really did. Now, again, let's look back. 

What was the biggest help to you from ASCII as an MSP? Wow. So I remember just trying to figure out the entire landscape. Yeah.

From accounting, to legal, to HR, to buying a laptop. I would buy off of Best Buy at that time. Amazon, you didn't get in two days.

And... No, you had to go and look at that. Actually, was it Best Buy back then? Was it CompUSA or... Oh, right. Microcenter.

Microcenter. Microcenter. So I was just knowing, hey, you could do this this way. 

We have this partnership. Right. And that, I think, was the hugest thing. 

And it wasn't just tech. It wasn't just licenses. It was accounting, to HR, to just... And I think the best thing about it was sitting there with people like yourself, right? We own a business. 

You own one in Florida. I own one in California. And understanding that we could talk and it's not a problem.

Yes. That was a big deal. Well, you know what? That was probably one of the things because when I started, late 90s, businesses did not talk to each other because it was competition.

Yeah. And the only people I knew were people that were around me. I didn't know how to get in touch with somebody from another state.

And it wasn't until an ASCII group, I think I got a podcast group around 2014 that I started to... You and Joe Rogan doing podcasts? Oh, yeah. Me and Joe. You know, guys. 

And that's when I started to be like, wow, I can interact with others in a calm and collective way and share knowledge and stuff. So it was great back then to do that. I apologize, folks. 

I'm looking here because I'm watching people as they walk by. I told you when we started that we're in the vendor hall. Our ADHD is going crazy.

Well, they're all setting up and stuff. And I was sitting here looking at booths. And another thing that you get to do as a vendor is, you know, try to compete with others, not just for booth space and time and all of that, but looking around.

Some of the booths are nice. Some of them are good. People forgot how to be a vendor in this space. 

It's really funny. I was at ScaleCon and shout out to that by accident. Tahar, Ahmed and MSB Camp.

People forgot how to be a vendor. So we have a table now in front. When you leave, this table's gone. 

We keep it open. And I see people do their booths and they put the table out and they sit behind it like this. And they wait for somebody to come up.

You're not going to be here. No, I won't. You'll be out and about.

No, they'll be walking around talking. They'll be walking around. We grab people. 

Let's talk. Let's have a conversation. Sometimes it's not about 5G or internet or Rythmz. 

It could be about anything. You and I have had multiple amazing talks. None of them about 5G.

No. And I think that's great. Although, what do you think about the fact that 4G is going away soon? It's not.

It's not? That's what I heard. Somebody said that. Somebody's not necessarily.

All right. 4G is going to stay. What is happening? Or is it just the fact that everybody wants to push to 5G and the next band that's coming out? Because they've started to talk about the next band.

6G. Okay. If that's what they're going to call it.

It's actually called 6G. I've actually experienced it. It's amazing.

Yeah. It's just bigger bandwidth, same bandwidth, same band. Okay.

So it's just reorganized. It's not new technology. It's not anything.

As much as it is just the same band. Talking about live. Come on in, Brian. 

Jump in. We're live. Come on in, dude.

No, it's okay. Walk in front of the camera too. We're doing a podcast. 

You know what that is. Walk right in front. We're good.

3G is gone. 3G has now been absorbed. Okay. 

3G's gone. Right. 2G's gone. 

They're all the same bandwidth. So just channel utilization? Yes. Pretty much. 

Okay. So at this point, what you can get out of a 5G unit is about one gig down. Okay.

It's moving to 10 gig. What you'll get out of 6G is absurd. The problem is it hasn't really changed.

1G, 2G, 3G was 17 miles apart. Right. 5G needs to be five miles from the top.

That's a lot. Yeah. That's a lot of towers and saturation.

That's the problem. But the 5G antennas are small. Okay.

Now- And no, it does not kill the bees. So here's a question though. Is there going to be a time where we can just simply get our own antenna at our house and get whatever we want? I think there's going to be a time where we're walking around with a little hat.

No. I'm not walking around with a hat. Speaking of- I'm getting you an antenna.

Speaking of, we're going off topic here. So last night, I don't even remember the place that we're at. First of all, it was a half mile walk. 

Thank you, SonicWall. That sucked as cold as it is. Should have had our Uber there. 

Got one back. We're sitting there eating dinner and walking by is somebody in a Yeti costume. Amazing.

And the first thought is, is that Steve? Is that Steve? Is that Steve? No, it was not me. So, sorry. I just- No, no, no. 

No worries. Where did we go? We went to the- I ran up the steps for the art museum, the Philly steps. My whole team was last.

That's so high school-ish. Exactly why. They're like, you can't do it. 

I'm like, absolutely, I can. They did with a cigarette hanging out of my mouth and ran the hell up. Yeah. 

Did you take a picture in front of the statue? Yep. They all got pictures. I think they videoed me running just- So there is a video of me actually running.

Did you do the whole scene where, you know- Yeah, I jumped- No, no. I mean, like you ran in the park and jumped over the bench and- Yeah, yeah. And the kids running after you.

Yeah, I punched a couple of meat, slabs of meat on the way. No, I ran up the steps, Martin. It was just one shot.

Sweet. That's only like a mile from here, isn't it? Yeah, we Ubered. Unlike Sonico.

Yeah. Thank you, Corey. Love you.

Oh, okay. Did we finish the 6G conversation? Did we? Well, once we get to the five-mile saturation and the smaller disks- 6G's a lot faster. It's really kind of cool. 

I've seen it. I saw it at the Mobile World Conference. They're just pushing, pushing.

We're going to have to get new phones? No, it's the antenna on the front. Okay. I don't know. 

You know, I'm sure Apple, anybody's going to tell us, oh, you got to get a new phone. That's called planned obsoletion. And yes, they've been doing that for years.

That hasn't changed. But no, you don't need- Apple actually, when Steve Jobs was alive, Apple was the- when they went 3G to 4G, Apple was the one that did not let it go 4G until it was done. Oh, looky here. 

Looky here. Yeah, there we go. I wish I had the second camera, folks.

I've never seen anybody walk that not soberly. That is- look at that walk. That is some walk.

That is- I'm not sober this morning. That is- come over here. We were talking about you, so I want to make sure people see.

Obviously, you must be doing- you must have a date or something. Hello. You look amazing.

You know, I put on my nicest black t-shirt. All right. Corey Clark, folks. 

SonicWALL. And I've already shouted you out. It wasn't good.

No, it was the half-mile walk. And the cold. The cold and the rain afterwards.

Now, where was that, folks? I didn't- you know, I didn't do a picture and a- Where'd you guys go? I wish I knew. It was a restaurant inside of a hotel. We went from one hotel. 

We walked six blocks. Scenic tour. Oh, you went to Connery. 

You went to the Irish Pub Cutters? No, it was past that. Okay. I think like five miles past that in the cold, without rain.

Great job. What- good job dragging Marv into the cold from Tampa. Never, ever actually seen a raindrop.

Welcome to Philly. The raindrop wasn't the problem. Let me explain the problem, folks.

Here is the deal. If you've seen my picture on the Facebook, and people are making fun of me- The Facebook? That's good. The Facebook.

On the internets. So the temperature was, what, 59? Yeah. But it's the feel-like temperature. 

So in Florida- So it's like 58. In Florida, if it's 59, the feel-like is probably 65. Yeah.

So I've dressed as though, okay, that's fine. I get here and it says 59, but it feels like 41. Yeah.

Let me explain. At 45 in Florida, iguanas fall out of the tree. Yeah.

That's cold. Yeah. So 41 here was cold. 

That's why I'm still wearing this. So it's a chill. The chill factor.

How was dinner? To walk half a mile in there? Dinner was fantastic. Good. Good.

I was basic. I had a burger. Not a cheesesteak.

There wasn't even a- Or a broccoli ravioli. It's not a cheesesteak restaurant. It was a steak restaurant.

Steak and burger. There was filet mignon. What else was there? I mean, they had ribeye.

Ribeye. They had octopus. Yeah.

I don't eat those. Yeah. I tried it. 

I had a little bit. If anything is smarter than me, I won't eat it. So pigs.

Gotcha. Gotcha. When are you on stage, man? Right before him. 

11-something. 11-15. All right.

You knew Alan when he voted too, right? I don't know if names give a face. Alan. The other.

Yes. Yes. Yes. 

Yes. Let me step- Wow. That's on camera, man.

I know. I'm right. Right.

If you just say name, I'm just like, I don't know. Talk to him. I think that's important, right? Celebrating people that did some amazing things is amazing.

What is your favorite? Hi, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Steve Copeland's podcast. What is your favorite memory of that? Of ASCII.

I mean, it's always the ASCII cups for me. That's usually when I saw him was at the ASCII cups and he always showed up. Most memorable for me was when I realized he started having health issues, but he was still showing up.

He was still here. He was still present. He still worked like he always worked, right? He didn't stop working.

That says a lot about a man. And I talked to Jerry about this as well. Like I said, it really says a lot about who he was and that he still cared going through all the health issues he was going through about this organization, this community that he created.

So huge. Now back to Marvin Bee's podcast. Very nicely done.

I'm going to go inventory. Thank you, sir. Thanks for stopping by.

Corey Clark was on our wall, folks. Good guy. Don't listen, no matter what anybody says.

What he said about Allen. I can bet you that there were probably 80% of people at the events that did not know he was sick. Yeah.

Well, you and I knew. I knew. I knew.

It was last year, I think. Yeah, we both knew, but nobody really knew. I was talking to his wife yesterday morning.

I spent a lot of time with her. It was so sudden that he was sick and then he was really sick. Yeah.

Just an amazing legacy. Yeah. And folks, she's here.

Oh, yeah, she is actually. She came in late Tuesday and she's been a part of everything. She has sat and talked with everybody the same way Allen would.

And she made sure she walked up to my son as part of my company and she walked up. And I remember I was just listening inside and she goes, I don't remember your name, but I know you're important. How are you? And I was like, that's really cool.

Yeah. So when she saw me, she was talking to somebody else and she stopped that conversation, reached out her hand and said, and you are? And I said, Marvin Bee. And she goes, oh, yes. And it was absolutely amazing to see.

I've watched her like a queen. Yeah. Like she just jumped in and grabbed it.

It was fantastic. So all right. Let's also talk about the fact that you, Corey did not mention this, but for two years straight, Solutions Granted had won the ASCII Cup.

They were going for the three-peat last year and they were dethroned by Rythmz. No, it was Pax 8, actually. Last year.

I thought you guys won last year. No. Oh, you didn't.

Well, why am I here at this booth? I don't know. I should be at the Pax 8 booth. But you guys did, you know, sweep a lot of trophies though, right? Yeah, we did good.

I think we came in fifth. It was our first year this year. We'll see how it goes, but I think we're doing okay.

Rob. Rob Ryan. Another, actually another legend in the channel.

And not just a legend as a, ooh, I'm Rob Ryan. Actually a decent human. Absolutely.

Very good human. Like I've known Rob since level platform days and one of the main people I look up to. Ken Patterson's here.

Did you see him? Yeah, he was actually here earlier. Yeah, he just came down. It's dressed like he was coming back from the club.

Karaoke. He just went to karaoke. But the amount of help all of these guys have done.

To me, to other smaller vendors, bigger vendors, coming into space, going out of space. That is one of the things that ASCII's really built on as well. Is that you asked about that earlier about the vendor.

How does that work? We do care about each other. We do like each other. And we help each other be better.

Not make sales, be better. Right. And I think that's important.

So MSP's love Rob because he'll be at the bar. And if you come up and talk to him, he'll talk to you. Doesn't matter who you are.

Like you said earlier about vendors, you know, remembering to be vendors. But he'll sit at the bar. Now, granted, he was watching the game last night.

Oh, yeah. Couldn't get interrupted. I kept making fun of him.

He's from Canada. I'm not happy with him. But they're up three games to two now.

So he is he's going to be walking around with a little puffed out. Surprised that I wonder if there's going to be the cigar. Oh, yeah.

It's coming out. It's coming out. OK.

All right. They're bringing in food. They are.

You guys get to eat in here. We do get to eat early. I get to go on stage in a minute.

So I get to present. OK. What time you got to go on? Because we probably got to end this.

You know what time you're on? Yeah. What time is it? Where's your handler? What time is it right now? It's 1030. I was supposed to be on 1020.

No, it's 11th. I'm saying your handlers are here. They would have been.

They're all staring at me. They would have been giving us the finger and everything. They're not.

They're not even paying attention. No. Mackenzie's eating.

Mackenzie's eating. Yeah. Where's Leonard? I don't know.

He's really short. It's hard to find him. Where is he at? He's around here somewhere.

It's good. I do love that you drove up here. She came up.

I didn't drive. I came up. Bitchin' Camaro.

I just got here. Yeah, I got you. No, it's great to actually.

I really do love hanging out with you. We had an early day. Yes.

We got to hang out and just talk. You know, that's the legacy. I think that, you know, as you become a human, you do that.

As you get older, there's a legacy of just being a good person. I think Alan really. Yes.

And here's the other thing. Somebody that I interviewed talked about the fact of Alan being able to build this to be sustainable without him. That can only be done by hiring the right people.

Who care. And so the people that he has put in place. Jerry, Jesse.

All of them have that same temperament, that same demeanor, that same drive and purpose is to be good and do good. I think it was not building it to be a community but build it to actually be part of it. I think that's something that they do really well to continually improve each other.

Right. And that was legacy. Instead of just, I have a community.

It's cool. It's $20. Come in the door.

Right. It wasn't. It wasn't the.

I don't know if you know this, Marvin. I may not have been the cool kid. It wasn't the $20 at the door.

Come in. Right. It was you're accepted.

And that was nice. You had the. I'm sorry, Marv.

Marv is really upset. He didn't call him a cool kid right there. I just literally watch his face.

Listen, when you're a cool kid, you don't have to be, you know, remind yourself. But is it like Michael Jordan said, you know, you don't have to call yourself the greatest other people, other people. That's all right.

All right. Well, let me do this. Let me go ahead and start to end off the show here.

Thank you for setting up this live view again. We weren't sure this was going to happen, folks, only because of logistics. Well, of course it does.

That's why there's rhythm boxes all over the place. By the way, tell people about that. I know you brought the box and, you know, people that have come to the show when I had it, they just would walk up to it and be like, really? That's internet.

When I walked through TSA the first time and the guy stopped me, he's like, what is this? Like internet. And inside that box, you have got, you know, three different, three different, they're called radios. So let's talk about the three different radios.

That's more. So three different radios, multiple carriers, all three carriers bonded together, unlimited the way we did it. And when I build it, here comes the pitch.

Go ahead. It had to be untethered, unlimited, unlimited and had to be very, very part of it when we came up with this idea. And it's not a brand new idea.

It's not anybody's idea. Like, hey, put internet in a box. That would be cool.

Like, I'm not, I'm not Fisk versus Tesla, right? So when we came out, we did this. I had to have certain things happen. I had to have certain things work.

It was this grand design of having it all come together that came out. So Rythmz, we do a boxes, we rented a price. I can, well, you'll hear me later today.

I can tell people how to make, raise their price, $10 a month and have internet back. So a very, very good, very, very fun product. It's fun.

I'm enjoying it. It's nice. It's a very, it's a very good solution for, we have somebody else walking.

Very famous guys. The best part is right in the front of the camera. There is nobody else that I want to walk in front of that camera more than you right now.

Come on. Now you got to go in line. Now you got to go in line.

There you are. Ladies and gentlemen, that was great. We really thought this was an audio podcast.

No, no. This is live, baby. Yeah.

You're live. You're live on LinkedIn, Facebook, everything. Yeah.

That's excellent to spend time with you. I love the fact that both Barbara and I went, yeah, we're not going to work. Yeah.

We're talking about memories of asking, I'm talking about memories of Allen. Somebody that knew him really, really well. I know you.

Yeah. We're talking about that. What is your favorite memory? Because very clear.

I know Josh is very young looking. So we have been asking members together for at least a year, maybe two or 20. What is your favorite memory? Well, to get off the beaten path of other things, the simplest, quickest one was on the stripper bar in Atlantic City.

It was a pole. I'm sorry. Ladies and gentlemen, the internet is crapping on.

I'm sorry. It's Rythmz fault. It was 11 years ago and he just grabbed it and jumped up and worked his way down for a moment.

And I said, well, that's not something I saw coming. I think it was 11. I think it was 2014 in Atlantic City.

It was during the party group. Okay. During the cup.

During the cup. It's kind of in character at the same time. It is actually.

You did a great job and I got a photo for it. So it's still well-preserved. Nice.

2014 is when I left the industry. I almost wish I'd come back just for that. Yeah.

Yeah. And so many discussions we've talked yesterday. Ellen liked big topics.

Yeah. To talk philosophy, ethics, criminality, law. Morality.

I had a big long conversation about morality. Sure. He wanted to talk about philosophers and law and morality.

And it was really hard to have just a very basic, how you do it. Yeah. He never really had a, how was your lunch? How was your lunch conversation? It was big.

No, if it was how you were doing, it was how are you doing? And like he would dig. It was great. So those together formed the breadth of the depth.

Very nice. Shrimp of philosophy. And if you want the PG version, I'll have a separate audio podcast with Josh.

And now I must take my leave. All right. Look at that.

How do you agree? No, you don't. No, you don't. That was great.

All right. What were you doing now? I think we should, I think we should end it off. We should.

We should probably. Yeah. Like the way to end it is with Josh Lieberman's butt.

That's what you probably should have taken a picture and just have it. That was the end. That should have been it.

But it isn't. But we'll end it off this way, folks. Steve Copeland Rythmz.

Check them out. Portable internet in a box. You can use them emergency backup.

You can use them for events. You can use them for a lot of other things. You can actually leave it in there permanently if you have to.

Is it a response? Blah, blah, blah. I don't need to sell. I wrote a book.

What? I wrote a book. Did you? Wait a minute. Did you write a book? I actually wrote a book.

Did you AI write a book? No, I actually wrote a book. Really? I've been writing a book for maybe two years, like a year. How to choose the right technology partner, not just MSP, software providers, everything.

And what does it actually mean? And so it's a word book. Yeah, there's pictures there. It's okay.

You'll be fine. No. And then my future wife is a librarian, Devin.

Hi. And she kind of sat on me and goes, finish it. Wow.

So we did. Okay. We'll be looking for that.

I'm assuming it'll be on the Amazon and all the places to get books. I'm just going to give it away. Really? Yeah.

I don't need to be. Who wants to be a writer? A lot of people do. Really? Yeah.

There's tons of YouTube videos about, you know, use AI to write a book and make money. Passive income. Passive income.

That's what they say. But you got to work to make it passive. I remember somebody telling me, I remember 2008, 2009, MSP of passive income.

Oh yeah. Monthly recurring. Monthly recurring.

Passive income. No, not it. All right, folks.

That's going to do it here. Live from ASCII Edge, the ASCII Cup in Philadelphia. The last event of the year.

The 2026 schedule is out. Eight more events that are happening. I did not prep and have the list here ready for you.

Coming to a city near you. There'll be a link on the show notes when we get this edited. That will have that list there that you can see.

And listen, it's a free event. And if you live a certain distance away, you get a free hotel night. That's actually pretty cool.

I like that. Don't get that at the big companies. The big conferences.

I don't have a free hotel room. You got to pay, and then you got to pay again. And then pay and then pay.

So, all right. Oh, they're up. So, we should know.

Oh, there's my handler. There's the great Mackenzie. Literally staring at the two of us.

It's okay. Get on camera. You're all right.

Come on. Come on in. The great Mackenzie, ladies and gentlemen.

Mackenzie. She's the one who actually helped put this together. Make it happen.

And made sure you showed up. She did make sure I showed up. Multiple people made sure I showed up.

Yes. So, that'll be it. Thank you for watching.

And we'll see you guys soon. I'll have actual other interviews from the conference popping up on the website soon. Look for those.

I'll have the link to The Rythmz website. Check them out. That's going to do it, folks.

We thank you for spending time with us. Until next time. Thanks, guys.

Holla.