The Power of GTIA Membership with Dan & MJ (EP 939)

Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast, recording live at IT Nation in Orlando, Florida, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort. We are still on day two. And thank you to my good friends over at Thread for presenting these podcasts while we're here. 

And we are continuing our conversations with GTIA. I had Carolyn April on earlier, but now we've stepped it up. I've got two guests here, MJ Shoer, the Chief Community Officer and CEO Dan Wensley. 

So this will be interesting. Guys, thank you for coming on to the show. Thank you. 

Thanks for having us. I keep wondering if I need to ask very appropriate questions now. No, I don't know whether we're a step up from Carolyn. 

Her research and content that she provides to members is top notch. I can tell you this. As disclosure, I had to disclose with her on there. 

So I was a previous member of CompTIA, mainly for the certifications like most of us. And I was a member. I did look at some of her research way back when. 

And it's interesting to see that she's still doing it, still putting out great stuff. We talked about the, you know, industry outlook report for 25 a little bit. And yeah, still top notch. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Her research is as good as any other research out there. And it's when I was an MSP, it was the number one member benefit I took advantage of. 

Really? Yeah, I used to download that research, I would slap my logo on it compliments of with permission. And we let our members do that today. And I would take that to every QBR meeting, every prospect meeting. 

And I used it to really show how I wasn't just your local MSP, I was connected to our Global Trade Association. And I had this unbiased neutral research that validated recommendations I was making or things we were talking about or just things the customer needed to be aware of what was coming. It was it was invaluable. 

All right. Well, let me let me let me follow that up with asking you the question I'm sure you've answered 100 times. You're an MSP before.

Yep. Now you're working for GTIA. a previously come to you. In a sense, that's kind of like, you know, MSP going over to the vendor side, the dark side. 

What was it that, you know, helped you make that decision to do that? Well, I would respectfully disagree with it's like a vendor in the dark side. It's the brightest side of our industry. Okay. 

You know, we're not a vendor where we're a trade association. We're all about supporting our members. And I'll tell you, this was this was never on my dance card. 

This wasn't on my radar. I didn't expect to be doing this. Right. 

But I will tell you, I have never been more grateful in my career. It is the right thing at the right time for all the right reasons to have the opportunity to have an impact on this channel that we all love so much and to help elevate it and make it so much better than it's been is a gift. So it's yeah, it's anything but dark. 

And it's as it's as bright and as there's as much opportunity to hear here to have positive impact as we've ever had, because now we are solely focused on our members. And so we are driven and passionate and committed to bringing more impact and more value to every one of our members, whether they're an MSP, we use the term IT SP is the catch all for all of the other acronyms out there. But any form of service provider or vendors, distributors, you know, connect wise is an amazing member of ours, great partner.

We're here to help the entire industry be better than it's ever been before. Right. So Dan, let me turn to you now our first time I've met you and interviewed you. 

Is MJ staying close to script? That's not the 20 years I've known him. But no, he absolutely is. And I agree with him 100%. 

So I as a 30 year vendor and member of CompTIA now GTIA also understand the value of this organization from the member side of what MJ talked about. It is absolutely true. And it's vitally important, especially in these emerging times with, you know, our technology advancements in AI, even accelerating this industry faster, the opportunity requirement and value of a community and all of us having these conversations is more important now than perhaps ever. 

And we've been through some enormous evolutionary change, cloud managed services, cyber we're still in, obviously, but now's the time we need to come together as a community. And this is why I want to thank you for what you do to bring the voice of the industry, the technology, the MSPs, the challenges, the upside, everybody has a voice and you know, having folks like you doing this type of work on this podcast, I think you've been invaluable to the entire industry. We applaud you. 

Thank you for it. I appreciate that. Thank you. 

I'm going to use that to go approach some sponsors. Let me ask you this, because I know that you on the vendor side, if I remember correctly, you're at scale pad. Yes, for a while. 

I use them, by the way, that you go back all the way to the days of level platforms. I do. And even before that, I mean, this is where we're here at it nation. 

I was at the first before it was ever called it nation when already believe he was still doing the installs for the PSA for ConnectWise and the first ever event and seeing this community grow to this level and the early days of that evolution of managed services, you know, it took the RMM community and this is where, you know, the dark side of the vendor commentary. Well, I understand it. It is a partnership between the IT service delivery and those of us who are delivering new and innovative technologies and, you know, PSA and RMM were a part of it, but it was a requirement to come together and talk to the solution providers of the day and talk about advancements in technology and maybe there was a better way and a required new way to do service delivery of IT for SMB. 

And that was a real privilege to be a part of that conversation. I just met, you know, another ConnectWise partner here from Big Sur, great MSP out of Tampa, and he helped me see what MSPs were going through in the early days and, you know, that was 25 years ago we were having those conversations and it's great to make those connections today and after this I'm going to his session on M&A, so a continued conversation is critical. Very nice. 

So let me ask this, and it's, again, I think you've answered this probably ad nauseum during this first year of transition and stuff, but a lot of people did not understand the split, although everybody I think by now should understand it, happy divorce, no real issues there, but on the GTIA side, the membership side, I did disclose I was a previous member, and we'll not get into the reasons why I stopped being a member, but now I know that there's been this big surge to get people back. So what is the message that you're telling people now that, you know, certifications are on their side, memberships on this side, here's the reasons, you should look at us once again? Well, yeah, and you're right, there was a two, you know, both MJ and I served on the board a decade ago when we were, or I guess 12 years ago now when we were just members ourselves, and there was a split minds personality because you had to, the revenue for the nonprofit was coming from the certification and training side, and the member organization, which we were both proud members of, and took a lot of benefit from what was also there, but you had to, as a board member, even make sure that that revenue was there for the nonprofit. What has transpired here in 2025, with the sale into PE of those assets, and all of that endowment now being given into GTIA and provides us an incredible amount of money, bluntly, but more importantly, focus to now just grow this membership and really provide value. 

I sat on the board, like I said, with MJ and we commented about this, we were the best kept secret in the industry, because it was so much value, as you mentioned, had Carol and April on here, we do over $3 million in unbiased vendor neutral research every year, and not enough vendors and MSPs are taking advantage of that. MJ and I are here to make sure that's not the issue anymore, that it's getting out there and getting utilized. And I'll just add, you know, through the transition, we actually didn't lose members, we gained members, there was such a positive response to the rebranding and the focus now just on membership. 

Now the good news is for those like yourself who took advantage of CompTIA certification discounts, we've maintained those discounts, because GTIA members now buy enough CompTIA certifications that we qualify as a high-level customer, and we were able to maintain the discount that we had inherently by being the same organization. So that's great. Our mission now is to do more for more.

Historically, we come from a history that was pretty humble, and, you know, our former CEO, who's still the CEO of CompTIA, had a very defined focus on the membership. He always wanted a small, highly engaged membership. He was never a fan of growing the membership as large as we possibly can. 

Dan has brought a needed and welcomed perspective on that, that we have now an opportunity as a result of selling off the CompTIA brand inserts to do more for more and to bring more members in to benefit from the amazing assets that you get as a GTIA member, the investment we make in that research, the investments we make in our cybersecurity programs. One of our historical problems has always been that we have so many valuable member benefits that members often don't know what they should be taking advantage of. So we're refining our messaging to say, hey, MSP, if you join, here's the one or maybe two things that within days of joining, you can more than pay for your membership. 

So the amount of membership is a no-brainer. It's about helping the member understand where to extract value. And once they get that, then the doors open up to all the other resources that are available to them. 

So we're striving for more members because we almost feel like it's a moral imperative. It's almost a shame that more members aren't taking advantage of what we have. And we need to change that. 

We want to change that. And we will change that. Well, I was going to say that even when I was a member, I don't think I was aware of stuff outside of going to an event, whether it's the ChannelCon or a local event. 

I didn't see a lot of the networking forums that were available. Of course, granted, a lot of times we always look at, oh, what discounts can I get through vendors and distributors and stuff? You guys are vendor agnostic, so there's a lot of research based around that. But what are the actual benefits for people that have had their head in the sand or just simply haven't paid attention? What are the other benefits that people can get? So I'll touch on a few of the most widely consumed ones. 

You mentioned events. Yes, our ChannelCon events. And so keep in mind that GTI membership belongs to the company. 

And whether your company has 10 employees or 1,000 employees, every employee has full access to the benefits. So free admission to all of our events, whether that's a regional community meeting taking place in North America or the other five global regions we have around the world or a ChannelCon that we put on in North America every year or in the U.K. every year, that's one. Access to our member education library. 

We've got 30-plus and growing online courses that you can self-pace, you can take with an instructor. There are many different ways you can engage in that that will help you in your business. There's our cybersecurity resources that I mentioned, whether it's our ISAO, our Cyber Threat Intelligence, where our analysts do the report that's understandable in plain English to either act on something or just be aware of something to protect you and your customers. 

We have our cybersecurity trust mark. We mentioned the research. And it goes on. 

There are meetups. We have a thriving mentorship program. So whether you're new to the channel as a young person getting into business or you're a midlife career changer, we have an incredible mentorship program that is growing leaps and bounds. 

And we've got regional meetups happening. So that's just the scratch of the surface. And there's so many volunteer leadership opportunities for you to get involved. 

Look, we've got the best people in terms of our staff and our members. We've got a plethora of resources to help you grow your business. We have an amazing global community. 

We have a philanthropy program. We have a charitable giving program that actually changes lives in the communities where our members live and work. This year alone, under our new structure with our new endowment, the board authorized $2 million in charitable donations. 

We hit that mark. We have put $2 million into the local communities where our members live and work, making a difference for people getting into tech or adjacent to tech. That can't be understated. 

That's unprecedented in the channel. And it's a point of pride for members. So there are so many reasons. 

We will help individuals advance their careers. We will help businesses advance their business objectives. And through them, we'll help the end customer reach their goals. 

So across those four pillars of people, resources, community, and advancement, there's so much to take advantage of and be proud of. All right. Who gets to pick those charity organizations? Our members.

Members do? Yes. Nice. All submissions are driven by members. 

So we have a full board and a full committee made up of members that are allocating where those funds are going and why they're going. And then we're partnering with other organizations and events to do matching on some of the great charity work that other entities, including IT Nation, and other big events do as well. Okay.

It is member-directed where those funds are going. All right. So Dan, I'm going to shift gears here a little bit. 

I did ask this question of Carolyn, and I will ask you from a different perspective. I asked her if she was happy because I've seen people in organizations go through transitions and you can tell if they're happy or not. She said, of course, yes.

When you came aboard as CEO, I imagined that in this organization you didn't have to go through and do a morale check or anything like that. Everybody, at least as far as I can tell, loved what they did, were on board, and, of course, loved the change with being able to focus on one thing instead of two organizations. How do you see that with the people there? Here's what I – and I know all these people pretty well. 

I've been a member for 30 years. I've sat on the board. I went to all the channel cons. 

So I knew a lot of them and wherever they came from in their career to end up at GTIA. So I knew they were dedicated. I knew they were in the right place for the right reasons.

You always talk about right people in the right seats. What has impressed me the most from folks I've had pretty strong and long relationships with, as MJ said, my mandate to the board was we're going to do what's possible here, and we are going to grow this organization. And if I'm not the right CEO with that vision, then don't hire me. 

But I want to come in and do right by this organization and give back to this industry that has given me so much. What I love about not only our staff, but frankly our members themselves, the most engaged ones, they want to grow. They want – they are inspired by the opportunity we have ahead of us. 

Not only the incredible endowment, obviously, but what can we do with those funds to inflect change and positive results for all members. So that's what I've loved about it is everybody's buckled down, working harder than perhaps they ever had, and I think enjoying it along the way. Now, we're not going to talk money per se, but I do want to ask, does the change make it easier to do things now? Yeah. 

We've both been in for-profits for a long time. So not only being a non-profit, and we can't just legally share the amount, but we have said this on public record, that this endowment will allow this organization to operate in perpetuity. There is enough money to do much bigger things, invest even more in membership, and do it for a very, very long time.

For folks like me who have now kids coming into this industry, this will be the platform in the community for them and their kids. All right. Well said.

Do you want to know if I'm happy? MJ, listen. Nobody can tell if MJ's ever happy. You can be across the room, and we can tell if you're happy.

Listen, I'm not the sports reporters that ask the obvious questions. I try to ask those ones that make you think. Oh, that's great.

So let me ask this, though. What new has happened or will happen that will kind of draw members? Let me rephrase that. How are you going to woo me back in? There we go.

Oh, wow. I mean, when you're looking at the two of us, why wouldn't you come back in? I'm going to let MJ talk about the value and all the investments we're making there. What I want to say to you is the only way this community is strong is if all voices are at the table.

And as I said on the outset, I think having you as a part of the community and your voice and these questions that you are asking of us and others is mission critical. We are a lesser organization and a lesser community unless we include folks like you at the events, at the table. Every time we've got a community, I'd like you to be there because it's a requirement.

We're going to be better off if we have it. I'm going to woo you by the research and all that good stuff, but it's imperative we get you to the table as a member because our community needs it. Yeah, well said.

And we're going to focus on value, right? Look, we may be a nonprofit, but we clearly understand that our members are for profit, and they're in business to make money and to provide for their employees and to help their customers grow. So we're really going to focus on impact and value. And targeting a direct correlation of this benefit to that value and that impact so that you can look as an MSP and say, Oh, I see how that benefit is going to positively impact my company.

Help me be more profitable. Help me stay ahead of this or that. It's all around value and impact, and it will be very clear in the messaging.

You can even see it in our one pager that we have at our table now. It's a simple message. Would you invest $450 to make your business better? Who wouldn't, right? And we're only highlighting four ways that that $450 will come back in spades.

So we're going to continue to refine that messaging, make it very clear, and then we're going to show our members through the member experience that what we're saying is not only true, it's true times X. And then our members will say it for us. Because you know what? Dan and I can sit here and say it all day long, and we're good at stating our value prop, but it's a whole other thing when our members say it. So outside of the certifications, because now that's a separate deal, there are other organizations.

Some I have been a part of, am a part of. There are more organizations now coming in, talking about raising the level of professionalism, making us better. All tides raise all ships.

I forget this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Riding tides raise all boats.

We got to come up with a new one, though, because climate change, rising tides, that's a bad connotation now. That's true. But the question is, what is going to continue to make GTIA stand out as an organization? I don't want to say against all the others, because I think we all have a place, but there's a lot of noise out there about which to join and where to get the value and stuff.

There is. And, you know, there's a place for every community. And one of the things we did very successfully at ChannelCon is we partnered with some of those communities, and we had 12 other communities come in for community pre-day.

And Dan and I kicked it off with one of the leaders of those communities, and we did a fireside chat. And it was a terrific day. And, look, we are the only platform that can bring every community together to help everyone pursue their mission.

And, you know, I think back to my days as an MSP, right? I was engaged with ConnectWise. I always came to IT Nation because that addressed my stack. That addressed my technology needs and the education I needed there.

And the CompTIA community at the time gave me what else I needed alongside that. And some of these other communities are providing different things that people like, whether it's an active chat or, you know, not tiny, but smaller, local get-togethers, you know, just ways to connect. And we're happy to help facilitate all of that.

We're not competitive to any of that, but we are that big open tent where they can all come together and have a voice to accelerate all of our goals to help make this industry better. And from an unbiased perspective, the value we bring to those communities is millions of dollars’ worth of research and investment. So go be a part of those peer groups.

Go be a part of those, you know, support IT Nation. Support your PAX 8 Beyond. Support your CASEA Connect.

Do all of those things. But for a few hundred dollars to get access to millions of dollars’ worth of research, we want those other communities and those other peer groups to be leveraging us as well. Our content is free of charge to them as well.

And if we can help perpetuate them. So we're here to be a platform, a, you know, community of communities is an overused term. We're here to support all of those.

None of them are competitive to us. We're the only nonprofit in this space doing this type of stuff. And we're there to support them.

And come to ChannelCon, use our research. It's there for the industry to be leveraged and utilized. You say come to ChannelCon.

It's in San Diego in 2026, right? Yes. You missed a good one in Nashville. But, man, we're going to have a good time in San Diego.

I did. And, listen, I loved it when it was here in Hollywood, Florida. It was much closer to home.

So I was going to ask you, yeah, Nashville this year, San Diego next year. Have you already picked a site for 2027? We will announce that in 2026. We have, but we're in final negotiations.

And don't forget about EMEA. We just did ChannelCon EMEA in London, and we'll be back in London next November as well. I'm not going to London.

It's a nice city. I'm sure it is. So you do have a global initiative as well.

Yes. So, I mean, a lot of times we always talk about it as though it's only the Americans. Right.

So how is it looking outside of the U.S. with growth? It's kind of inspiring. We have five other communities. So North America is the U.S. and Canada.

We have U.K. and Ireland. We have the Benelux region, which is Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. We have the DACH region of Germany, Austria, Switzerland.

We have ASEAN, which is a 10-country consortium in Asia-Pac. And then we have Australia and New Zealand. Dan and I were in September.

We were out in Australia for our ANZ Community Forum and Spotlight Awards, which was amazing. And then we went to Jakarta, and we were blown away. We had almost 260 people show up for that meeting.

And they were so engaged and so hungry for what we bring as a trade association, really interested in what's going on in the other regions. Some of those countries are a little more advanced than others in terms of the MSP business model. And so there's a huge appetite for some strong basic education around that, very cybersecurity-focused, very tech-forward-focused.

And so it's great to go out. Our DACH region is growing. It's terrific to have that global presence.

And one of the things that we're working on, and we formed this year something called the Global Leadership Committee, which are the chairs and the vice chairs of all of our member groups around the globe. And we bring them together quarterly, twice in person, twice virtually, to share learnings and best practices, successes and challenges, so that we are truly bringing the global community together to help everyone understand how to perfect a given business model, address a given technology trend, sharing the challenges, helping us learn from all of them what we can do as an association to support them globally. And we may build something for one region, and then it rapidly spreads across the others.

That's a differentiated value for us as well. The ability for Carolyn April and her team to do global research, as well as provide the regional insight into it. MJ's point, some regions are ahead, some regions are laggards.

But being able to, as a North American MSP, to understand what might be going on in other markets who are either ahead or behind is insightful, impactful, and powerful. And we're the only ones who are able to do that. So I think there's another example of a differentiated value we're bringing to members.

All right. Well, I was going to ask another question, but we've gone over our time, and I know I'm being stared at for the next spot here. So I knew it was going to be a challenge to get both of you in here and truncate the conversation.

But we'll have to do this again at another time, and especially after the first full year, see how you guys are doing. I would love to do that. Maybe when my membership has been approved and passed through, we'll see how it goes.

I think we know how that's going to happen. All right. So Dan Wensley and MJ Shoer from GTIA.

Guys, thanks for stopping by. Thanks so much. It's been a pleasure.

All right, folks, that's going to do it, and I'm going to take a quick break here. We'll be back with more from IT Nation in Orlando. Holla!