MSP Radio Acquires Small Biz Thoughts

Hello, friends. Uncle Marv here with not just another episode, but the first episode of 2026 of the IT Business Podcast. This of course is the show for IT professionals, managed service providers, and I'm going to include everybody else in our space that wants to learn how to do their business better, smarter, and faster.

So here we are, and I know that everybody's probably doing some sort of version of new me, new year, uh, reset, blah, blah, blah. And if you listened to my last podcast of 2025, I listed the 10 most excited things that MSPs were looking for. And some of them were true and some of them, eh, maybe not, but here we are.

And I hope that you guys are ready for another fantastic year. Some of you that have been doing this for quite some time and you just kind of muddled through 2025 and you're starting off 2026 wondering, will you make it? Sure you will. We'll all do it together.

And if you're new to our space, welcome, and it should be a fantastic ride. And I'm sure you're going to have lots to hear and talk about when it comes to cybersecurity, AI, and building up that stack. So let me start off with this.

Usually when I get ready to do a show and I look for news items, of course, we're always looking for those big things that are impacting an MSP, whether it's another MSP story, a vendor change, a vendor consolidation, but literally the first story that hit my desk in 2026 is one that has nothing to do with any of the normal names that we hear about. Now, one of the most recognizable names when it comes to MSP talk radio, podcasting, or whatever, MSP radio, the home of the business of tech and a staple in our media world, I'm sure you know by now they have acquired Small Biz Thoughts, an IT service provider university from industry legend, Karl Palachuk. And for a lot of us, that's more than a business headline.

It's a shift into who stewards a big chunk of the MSP playbook that we grew up on. So if you've been around this space for any length of time, you know, Karl's fingerprints are just about everywhere in this space, his books, his checklist, his SOPs, they have helped to define what the modern SMB managed services business looks like, Small Biz Thoughts and IT service provider university have become places where you would go when you were tired of guessing and wanted to get real battle-tested guidance, whether it was on agreements, service delivery, or how to build a true sustainable MSP. Then on the other side, MSP radio and the business of tech has built the reputation as the daily briefing for IT providers, quick pointed analysis of vendor moves, economic trends, the good, the bad, and the ugly of channel behavior.

And if you wanted a quick 10 minute check on what really mattered today in our world, that's where you went. So now we're putting those together. Karl Palachuk, Dave Sobel.

And of course, people are asking, why does this matter to us? Well, let me tell you this. I decided I would just reach out and ask because it seemed like an easier thing to do rather than to try to find more news articles or check out the forums and that social media chats and stuff. So I reached out and what do you know? I got an answer.

First up to answer was of course, Dave Sobel of MSP radio and the business of tech, and he's here on the show with me now. Dave, how are you, sir? Well, busy Marvin, but excited. It's, it's, you know, it's, it's a cool time and thank you for the kind words.

Well, it is kind of interesting because that's usually, you know, not the type of thing you see coming out of, you know, Christmas holiday break is, uh, that sort of a news of a consolidation of, I don't want to say media giants because it's not like you're CNN or ABC or anything like that, but in our space, big news. Well, well, thank you. Uh, and, and, but it's funny because you listened to the description and I just kept nodding.

Like, yeah, that's why this makes sense. Well, like literally like you, you described all the parts and then, then you say, you know, and we're bringing them together. It's like, yeah, that's why.

Like all of the things you just described is why this makes such sense. What I've been doing with MSP radio for, you know, more than six years now. Uh, it feels like it's, you know, it feels like shorter, but it's been a long time is, is that news and analysis and what Karl has built is all the battle tested and the community and the peer driven conversations.

It's like, well, if you put those together, then you've got some really interesting combinations of the ability to do the news and analysis and get that. But then also I have spaces for conversations about it and about, you know, how do you implement this and how do you execute on that? And you said it like, why not just get the best? Right. So that's the, that's the thinking.

So let me ask this question because I'm sure, I'm sure you've been asked this in some form or fashion behind the scenes. I'm going to ask it in public. But you have been a voice that has been unfiltered in our space.

Uh, you have, uh, uh, you've not taken lightly some of the comments that you have made about people in our space. Uh, I have seen Karl as a little more reserved, a little more conservative. Um, how does that fit now that you blend these two things together with your personality and what Karl has built? It's a really good question.

Thank you for that. Uh, so I think by the way, I will always say like people are multifaceted, right? And, uh, I always like to think that I am particularly, I'm thoughtful and authentic and truthful. And by the way, Karl's all three of those things too.

Uh, and, and so it's, we have different, sometimes different tones, uh, but also the ability to move in different spaces. The way that I talk to people in coaching scenarios or in community meetings and that kind of thing is really different than, than some of the times that I do analysis. But by the way, you need the analysis to do really good coaching and really good, good, you know, mentoring and community driven, and remember I've done some, I've done a lot of that stuff.

You know, I was the community head for several vendors that, you know, I helped launch peer groups in Europe. I was an HTG founding member back way back when of an HTG group. Like I've done that work before.

So it's, it's, for me, it's just a matter of like, Hey, I'm just putting on another hat again to understand there is a difference in working with a community than there is the voice that I may be using when I'm talking about analysis, you know, they're both authentic and they both come from a real place. I think they come together kind of nicely. Um, and I think that it puts me in a position to be able to help MSPs, which is always the mission.

Now for the listeners out there, don't think that I just reached out to Dave. I also had to reach out to Karl and he of course also said, yeah, I'd be happy to do this. So he is here as well.

Karl, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

All right. So Karl, I'm sure that you have, uh, had your bout of phone calls and emails as well, and, uh, spent your first few days of 2026, just answering questions. And of course the real simple question I think most people asked us, we didn't think you were going away.

You, why are you selling? What are you doing? What's going on? I'll start by saying I don't answer the phone. So I didn't have any phone calls, but, uh, I'm not going anywhere. Um, I, and part of this is, you know, when we talked in the press release, one of the things that Dave said was that he's going to be the steward of my work.

You know, I've got a body of work that it's sort of like, okay, I don't want to spend the rest of my life caretaking. Right. So, um, one of the things that I was really attracted to is Dave didn't just come with, you know, Hey, here's some money.

He came with a business plan. And I mean, I don't know, I can't remember like 27 pages. It was a business plan.

Karl got the 27 page version. There is a 72 page version that actually also exists. So yes, there's a plan.

Okay. So, so, uh, and I'm not going to, you know, what I want to do is get back to what I tried to do a long, long time ago, which is spend my time writing books, traveling, speaking, coaching, and, uh, sitting on a beach whenever possible. Yeah.

So, uh, so there will be more books and now that my brain is free, uh, I think we'll get two out this year. All right. So I guess the next, uh, question is whose idea was this originally and how did that first conversation go? Well, originally I went to market wanting to, you know, find a caretaker for small biz thoughts and it service provider university.

And, you know, we had, I don't know, a dozen people who, uh, contacted us and were interested at some level. Um, and then it literally, when I saw Dave's proposal, I'm like, okay, if this is real, then he's clearly the front runner, like instantly. Instantly.

So, um, you know, I don't know if you want any more detail, but that's kind of it. Okay. I mean, it, it kind of is that simple.

I mean, Karl was shopping. Right. And then I, then I became a, I was aware, by the way, we're friends.

We've been talking for a long time. He's always been like, oh, I'm thinking about, I might sell it, might sell it. But, but then there was a process.

There was actually, and we acknowledge in the press release, James Kiernan was the broker and worked on finding Karl. Um, so that's a process of soliciting. So people were made aware that he was looking to shop it.

Um, you can appreciate there's some NDAs around that. You don't talk during that portion of it. Um, and you know, and then I had that bit of like, well, okay.

If that's an option, I should think about it. Right. And I spent a bunch of time thinking and understand, and, and, and I just Karl said, and I built a plan.

I said, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it right. The way that I'd really, and I want to think through all of this. And we did a bunch of work and, and I talk about the whole process, but like literally sat down with my wife and my financial advisors and the bankers and did all of that to build the plan.

And then we battle tested it ourselves to say we were comfortable with it. And then I went to, so then when I, when we all thought it was good, then I took it to Karl and said, here's what we would do. And I have to say, I was, I was a little surprised because there were, you know, people who were interested.

There was a bunch. I was not surprised by, and there were a few I was surprised by, but Dave, I was like, it was out of, you know, nowhere. I was like, what, huh? Really? That's kind of what Dave does.

He just kind of hangs in the wings and then just poof surprises everybody. Well, we've also worked together a lot. Uh, we put out a product on our 20 years ago.

Uh, and we also, you know, we do the killing it podcast with Brian Morris. So, you know, we see each other all the time and we've worked together a lot. So there's probably an element of familiarity.

Some of these, you forget that like, Hey, you know, you might want to do this with your friends. Right. Right.

Maybe that just makes the most sense. And so when, again, when we, when we came up with the good, the, the business plan on this side, it was like, okay, this is just an obvious idea. So the press release and your, uh, post on LinkedIn, pretty straightforward, uh, says that everything's just kind of, kind of stay as it is.

It's not a rebrand or anything like that. People read that and then they think back to other people that have said, nothing's going to change. And then something changes.

So, uh, it, are there plans six months down the road, a year down the road? What, what, what are things really going to look like? Well, so, I mean, I, I don't, I'd say like I wrote a bit, I've got a business plan. I have a five-year execution plan that extends with two more years of seven projections of like what I think we should do with this, but I think I want to address like the fear of that. Everyone worries about change.

Like I get that, right? The idea is, is you've got something that's beloved and you, you'd like things about it and you don't want it to change. I will tell you the reason why I think this combination works. I use an analogy in my planning of chocolate and marshmallow.

Like you have like the two entities separate were like chocolate and marshmallow. Right. And they're both delicious.

But by the way, when you put chocolate and marshmallow together, not only do you have chocolate and marshmallow, but you can also make s'mores. Right. And so that's some of my ideas is, is the reason these are important.

Things that I want to be the steward of is because they have intrinsic value the way they are. That doesn't mean that when I put them with other things that they aren't more, let me get more value. And let me give you an example of that.

Right? So Karl's community, the SPT community, you get access to all of Karl's stuff. Well, coming very soon, you're going to get access to all of Dave's stuff too. Like all of it there's.

So, I mean, for example, my plus subscribers get, um, vendor analysis briefings, like every month we put out better analysis briefings. We put out monthly insider reports on what's going on in the industry. We put out channel chatter material in terms of like analysis of all the vendor moves, Karl's community is getting all of that.

Because that's what, that's the combination of the, you know, of taking business of tech and adding that to what Small Biz Thoughts does. Like that's better. Right.

That's my thinking. On the question of change, I constantly change what I'm doing. You know, like pretty much every year I say, okay, we should try this.

And you know, a year later decides, well, either it flew or it didn't. And if it didn't, you know, we just walk away and nothing happened. But if it did, then we, you know, we push it even harder.

So I'm constantly trying new things. And that part is, it sort of fits well with saying, okay, Dave's going to add something here and something there. Yeah.

But even though you've tried new things, Karl, that the essence of what you've built has always been there and has always been the same when this came up. And when you decided to shop and when you came across, you know, the discussion with Dave, were there any like non-negotiables of, you know, I need for this to stay because this is what people have lived with for 30 years. Well, so I will say this.

One of the filters that Dave passed early on is I didn't want somebody to buy these resources and simply throw them away, you know, consume them into their community and then just ignore them. And very quickly, there were literally a clear line between potential buyers who valued the resources to be able to build something bigger and those who just wanted to, you know, spend some money, put something in there and walk away. And you know, I really did want somebody who was going to build on this and keep those resources available and, you know, also grow them, you know, stuff gets old and it needs to be rewritten once in a while.

Right. Dave, you've now got to deal with vendors in a little different way because I believe you have to be a little nicer to have them be a part of the community. Right? So I'll chuckle and go, do I like, do I? So let's, I love the joke and by the way, poke at this, but also let's, let's, let's observe a couple of things.

Vendors want the MSP community to thrive. Well, ultimately that's what I want. Right.

I happen to believe that the best way to, to make it thrive is actually lean into delivering value for MSPs. That's just the value. And I don't need every vendor to believe in what I'm doing.

I just need the right ones that are interested in like actual community and in actual news and actually all the same things I've always been done. I don't need all of them. I just need the right ones.

So I look to call to the vendors. It's like, Hey, I've got, I've had media packages for years. I continue to have media packages.

They include more cool stuff now, but on, but the principles are about delivering value to the MSP. And you know, like Karl's got a very clear set of guidance for it. By the way, I do too.

I really clear ethics guidelines that dominate everything that we do. And, you know, part of the review that we did, I know for both of us was the compatibility of the two states. It's like, Oh my God, these things are compatible, right? Like there's, you know, and by the way, our, my lawyer, at least said exactly the same thing.

It was just like, Oh wow. You have no problem synthesizing, you know, these, the, your ethics statements, your transparency statements, your approaches, like my lawyers were like, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That's totally good.

You're absolutely approaching this the same way. So I would just look and say like, I think it's about the value to the provide to the MSP, to the owner operator, to those working at that. If we're delivering that, then the right vendors are going to come along.

And I really do believe that independent media and training and community is intrinsically important to what this, this group, the MSPs and the MSP community needs. And I'm putting my money where my mouth is like more. I always kind of almost more than anybody else.

I would laugh and go like, I'm just put, I believe in this and I'm going to continue to grow this business to do that. If MSPs believe in it too, there's a place for you to come call home. It's also the case that if you build a big enough watering hole and there's enough MSPs, vendors don't have any choice.

You're going to say, okay, you might've given me a bad time, but you got the audience and that's ultimately what they want. Right. And also the integrity that if somebody gives them a bunch of money, he's not going to water down the stories.

And we've seen that in this industry, the media for the most part has been dominated by vendors. They, they don't bad mouth. Anybody who, uh, you know, is a platinum sponsor at a conference or in their magazine and I'll smile and I want everyone to think about, do I, do I speak truth or am I bad mouthing? There's a real big difference between the two.

I will tell you, I want to be, I want to provide news and analysis and insights that are data driven, that are based on fact and analysis and informed. And I have opinions and I separate the two and I tell you what my opinion are. And I will not always tell you sunshine, unicorn and rainbows because I don't, I don't think that's the world we live in, but I also want it to be fair and I give everyone an opportunity to speak and give them a way of, you know, justifying their own position.

Yeah. I think I've been fair in everything. You have, you have.

And let me clarify. I never meant to say that you bad mouth anybody. You have been very good at things.

Um, I know that I, I sit on that, that wall as well sometimes and thinking, do I speak my truth as an MSP or do I try to, you know, cradle that with the podcaster perspective and I've just basically said, you know what, I've got to speak my truth as an MSP, yes, I do the podcast. Yes, I have vendors on, but there are vendors who will probably never be on because of things that I say, not because I bad mouth them, but because I might say somebody had a bad experience and we talk about it and it's not my fault if somebody has a bad experience and it may not be the vendor's fault either. And maybe the, you know, there's all these things that have to happen.

I think the best thing in this industry is for everybody to be able to have an honest and open discussion about what we need to do to move things forward and for all of us to continue to thrive. That's really all it is. You, again, I love coming on your show, Mark.

We're very much in alignment on that. And I want to build spaces for that, right? Like I, like one of the things I look at is, is for now I'm shepherding the SBT community. I want to make sure that that is a space for, for those conversations.

I want people to come there and get education and learning and investment and have a space to have real conversations about how to be successful. Karl says all the time, you don't, nobody, you don't have to do it alone. Well, you got to have a space for that.

And that's, that's where I, where I want to continue to invest in. Right. Uh, before I try to wrap stuff up here, I do want to ask if either of you are ready to share, uh, the models for the, the programs, because I think, I don't think Karl, when we've been on the show before, I don't think we've ever talked about.

What does it mean for somebody to be a part of Small Biz Thoughts? And, you know, we know that a lot of stuff is membership based and then there's free stuff and then there's webinars. Uh, can you guys quickly describe that for people as how that will be going forward? Well, historically, uh, in Small Biz Thoughts, you know, the core of the resources per se is the stuff that I put together, all the podcasts, all the, uh, the white papers and the books and the, you know, everything. So, so that was a piece of it, but also, you know, obviously community, we get together in a live zoom call and in the pandemic, it was, I don't know, many, many times a month now it's, you know, once a month, but, uh, you know, that's a piece that people actually rely on.

Plus we believe that, you know, if you're going to improve your business, part of what you have to do is invest in your people. And so providing the opportunity through IT Service Provider University allows us to just help our members grow and grow and grow. And, uh, some of them, you know, we have like 30 classes.

Some of them have taken 25 of those 30 classes, which I think is pretty impressive, right? And some of them have sent their entire team to a class. And so it really is an opportunity for them to just focus on their business with a little guidance. And it's a lot cheaper than coaching.

Although I do coaching, so don't, you know, I'll also take your money there, but, um, you know, there's no coach who charges less than what we charge for a year of membership. And I can, I don't want to go everything Karl just said continues to be the case. Everything he just said continues to be the case.

And now you also get all of the stuff that comes from business of tech as part of that. So if MSP radio owns three brands now, this is the business of tech, which is the news and analysis, SBT, which is the community and IT Service Provider, which is the education. I, they all work together in collaboration, but you can consume the parts that make sense to you.

From my perspective, the business of tech is still going to be a daily podcast and a website and a bunch of newsletters, and you can use get all of that stuff right now. There is, there is a, you know, has been, we launched plus last year. Um, you know, plus that plus content is going into the SBT community because that makes sense.

Um, I think that makes a great way of complimenting the two and it doesn't make sense to me to have two communities when I was already like, I have just this extra stuff. Let's put it in SBT, right? That makes perfect sense to me. But in terms of the value there, then what's, you know, what's to come? Hey, uh, we've got 30, 30 classes now.

Well, we should have a 31st, right? There should be a 31st class and there should be a 32nd class. And, and so now the work will be, well, what do we add? Like where, where can we add some additional value to continue doing that because it's successful, people rely on it and I want to do more of that. That, that makes a ton of sense to me.

So that's the thinking is, is, you know, what's to come. I don't know. Our next class seems like a good idea.

Uh, we're going to be, uh, Karl and I are doing a live stream together on my show. I'm going to be at the now at all the community members meetings, because that's because I, I manage the community. Right.

And so there's that piece, you know, you, people talk about like small changes. Well, you know, funny. I happen to be married to a video producer.

You should expect she's going to show up and help run some of my meetings, right? Because she's the behind the scenes genius behind some of the live streams. Why wouldn't I use that resource in SBT? So you're going to see things like that, you know, are changes. Well, yeah, there's, of course they make a little sense operationally, but the spirit is not going to change.

Well, there you have it folks. The, uh, the goal, as they said is simple, uh, honor the legacy, protect the community and, uh, continue to build the foundation. Um, Karl, you've written what? 20 to 21 books.

Uh, just over 25, 25. Okay. And you said, you think you're going to be putting out two of you already started them? Well, the, the next edition of relaxed focus succeed will be out.

I hope the first quarter of this year. And then, uh, and then another one that's totally it focused, which will be published by Small Biz Thoughts. Okay.

Uh, folks, if you have not ever checked out one of Karl's books, first of all, where the heck have you been? Uh, he's got some of the best books in the industry, uh, all geared on managed services, whether they're managed services in a month service agreements for SMB consultants. Uh, the list goes on, as he mentioned, 25 books, uh, two more on the way. And, uh, he's not going away.

He's going to be here and he and Dave will be continuing, uh, this on. So Dave, Karl, thank you guys very much for coming on. Thanks for having us.

Thanks for having us, Mark. Great, great chatting with you. All right, folks.

There you go. Uh, the big news of the year, the, uh, an asset deal basically to, uh, to make our media stronger and to do everything that they said, uh, that is going to do it for this first episode of 2026. I'll be back of course, with a live show, uh, real soon.

We're going to talk about new year, new MSP and all the things you should plan on to, uh, provide better service and make more money in the coming year. We'll see you soon, folks. Until then Holla!