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[00:00:06] Why do we always take pictures of kids when they're missing their forefront teeth?
[00:00:13] Because our parents did it to us.
[00:00:15] I'm flipping through pictures of Roman and he's just smiling and it's all gum and tongue. It's gross.
[00:00:24] What's going on?
[00:00:25] What?
[00:00:26] Photoshop.
[00:00:27] Yeah, photo. We can use AI bots now to insert teeth.
[00:00:33] Yeah. I bet you somebody's already done that.
[00:00:37] I'm sure somebody's already created a filter to fix teeth.
[00:00:43] Yeah.
[00:00:44] Dr. Leonard Shivervitz, DDS to side hustle.
[00:00:51] Everybody needs a side hustle.
[00:00:53] I speaking about side hustles, Roman and I were playing with Chad GBT the other night.
[00:00:59] And he's like, I want to because he knows I can do images now.
[00:01:02] Right.
[00:01:02] And so he got real big in. So we started making like these characters in Chad GBT and we made like a superhero and his twin sister and we gave them a backstory and then we made the enemy and the reverse.
[00:01:16] And then I was like, you know what, let me just see. And I was like, make this into like a traditional 1980 style comic book cover.
[00:01:25] And it looked so good that I went, I have to make this.
[00:01:31] I have to make this into a comic book now.
[00:01:34] But I need to rely. The problem is relying too much on Chad DBT because like I'm still at the point where Chad GBT will not give me more than, you know, a couple paragraphs when I asked for pages of data.
[00:01:46] Because when I asked for pages of data, it says, I need 48 hours.
[00:01:50] And I said, no, you don't. You're a robot.
[00:01:54] So we've been playing around with that. That was fun.
[00:01:57] Also, no liquid death for me today.
[00:01:59] I've moved on. I'm more sophisticated.
[00:02:01] I'm now French Maison Perrier, which stands for House of Perrier.
[00:02:10] So I'll continue with the liquid death theme and say that I did just purchase two cases, not cases in terms of 24 cans, because a box of liquid death does not contain 24 cans.
[00:02:27] It contains eight.
[00:02:31] But I, well, I got a coupon, right?
[00:02:35] Yeah.
[00:02:35] I'm just, I'm a sucker for a coupon.
[00:02:38] I had $6 off a $25 order.
[00:02:42] And so I got.
[00:02:44] You spent $98 on two cases of liquid death.
[00:02:47] Yeah.
[00:02:48] So I got the, well, what used to be the, the, the golfer.
[00:02:57] Yes.
[00:02:57] The debt it's now called dead billionaire.
[00:02:59] Dead billionaire.
[00:03:00] The, the lemonade tea.
[00:03:01] The lemonade tea one.
[00:03:02] Yeah.
[00:03:02] And I also got the green tea version.
[00:03:05] And so those arrived this morning.
[00:03:09] I promptly dropped it, carrying it into the house, but.
[00:03:12] And they all shattered all over the floor.
[00:03:16] Now you're, now your entire kitchen just smells of green tea and.
[00:03:21] Dead billionaire.
[00:03:22] Dead billionaire.
[00:03:23] There's no better way to do it than that.
[00:03:25] Then an ear and an ear.
[00:03:34] The, the, the, the, the.
[00:04:02] The.
[00:04:02] The, the, the.
[00:04:02] The.
[00:04:02] The.
[00:04:02] The.
[00:04:04] The.
[00:04:08] The.
[00:04:19] The.
[00:04:21] The.
[00:04:23] The.
[00:04:26] The.
[00:04:30] A.
[00:04:32] today other than the fact that I have a crink in my neck for my new camera setup.
[00:04:36] I'm trying to figure it out.
[00:04:38] Such a crick in the neck.
[00:04:43] Anyway, you know what?
[00:04:44] It finally is getting cold here in North Carolina, which is kind of good.
[00:04:48] I know you guys have been cold for a little bit, but we actually had our first morning where it was.
[00:04:53] Well, I think it was exactly at freezing.
[00:04:56] We had snow last night. Actually, I got a weather alert last night.
[00:05:00] It said, death-defying rain and snow.
[00:05:04] And I was like, do the raindrops have guns?
[00:05:08] What does that mean exactly, weather?
[00:05:10] Like, is the snow poisoned?
[00:05:13] What? I don't understand.
[00:05:15] I'm picturing snowflakes with little knives being, yay, get them!
[00:05:19] Like, all the way down.
[00:05:21] It's because they don't have an election to sensationalize anymore.
[00:05:25] Yeah. Weather, thanks, weather.
[00:05:28] Well, I'm glad you're good. Things are good.
[00:05:31] I wanted to just put out there real quick.
[00:05:33] I will be out of my house for the first time in many, many years.
[00:05:38] No, I'm kidding.
[00:05:39] But I was elected to speak at Channel Pro next year.
[00:05:44] The New Jersey show, Atlanta and Los Angeles.
[00:05:47] I will be doing a presentation on something.
[00:05:50] I don't know exactly what.
[00:05:52] I think I have an idea.
[00:05:53] I have to write it.
[00:05:53] Obviously, this is all really early.
[00:05:55] But it's going to be related to the biggest issues facing MSPs, which will just be a culmination.
[00:06:05] I'm just going to replay episodes of the show and be like, you know, we talked about it here and we talked about it there.
[00:06:09] We talked about it here.
[00:06:10] And thanks.
[00:06:11] Thanks for my bit.
[00:06:11] That's my bit.
[00:06:12] And then walk off stage.
[00:06:13] There you go.
[00:06:14] Well, and we love our friends at Channel Pro.
[00:06:16] So I'm very glad that you're getting a chance to speak there.
[00:06:19] Yeah, I'm super excited to do not just one, but to do the three shows and kind of start meeting some of the people that are out there.
[00:06:27] I do love it when we when like I do connect with people who have listened to the show before.
[00:06:32] Like, I think I've talked about this before where like, we've had people who have come to us for Halo implementation.
[00:06:37] And they're like, wait, are you Justin from all things MSP?
[00:06:39] And I'm like, I am.
[00:06:40] They're like, that's so cool.
[00:06:41] I'm like, the fact that you know me is even cooler to me than it is that I'm talking to you.
[00:06:47] Like, you don't understand what this does for my ego.
[00:06:50] Yeah.
[00:06:51] And I do want to say, like, Justin, I are real people.
[00:06:55] Like, if you reach out to us on LinkedIn, you know, we will have a conversation.
[00:06:59] You know, I just had one yesterday with an MSP who found us on the show and then didn't realize he lives like five minutes from my house.
[00:07:09] I still would only talk to them over zoom.
[00:07:11] I wouldn't go anywhere near.
[00:07:12] I wouldn't go to their house.
[00:07:13] I'm just kidding.
[00:07:14] I'm kidding.
[00:07:15] Well, that's cool.
[00:07:15] Right?
[00:07:16] Yeah.
[00:07:16] People think we're just in the box and we're not.
[00:07:18] We are.
[00:07:19] We are real people.
[00:07:20] We also do have feelings.
[00:07:22] I'm just putting that out there.
[00:07:25] You know where there's a great place.
[00:07:26] You know what a great place is to share your feelings.
[00:07:28] And that is from the group.
[00:07:39] So we have we have a post from Steven Johnson from the group.
[00:07:43] I'm going to read it.
[00:07:44] Here we go.
[00:07:44] I'm looking to outsource lead generation and appointment setting to a third party company.
[00:07:49] Many I've reached out to are either way too expensive or don't have any guarantees.
[00:07:54] I've been told about this particular company.
[00:07:56] Has anyone used them before?
[00:07:58] Another company didn't seem like a good fit.
[00:08:00] I'm purposely not saying the companies you can go look on post.
[00:08:02] If you have any suggestions, I'd be interested in what works for you.
[00:08:07] This is an interesting topic because.
[00:08:12] The amount of times I've spoken to MSPs about outbound marketing and what we do.
[00:08:19] It blows my mind.
[00:08:22] And there's so many people that are out there that are selling, I'm putting selling in quotes, services for outbound marketing.
[00:08:30] And some of them are friends with us and some of them are not.
[00:08:32] We'll say it.
[00:08:33] We'll just leave it at that.
[00:08:36] The truth is it's less about what you're doing and more about how long you're doing it.
[00:08:45] It's that consistency piece that I think is the most important part.
[00:08:48] Now, as for what Stephen specifically asked, outsource lead generation employment setting.
[00:08:55] I'm going to steal this one from Paul Green because I think his answer trumps for all of this.
[00:09:03] Don't go to a company.
[00:09:06] Find a work-from-home parent.
[00:09:11] Find a parent who doesn't have – like a non-full-time person who's an adult.
[00:09:19] We're not talking about like – you don't want college kids making these phone calls.
[00:09:21] You want adults who have some sort of like understanding of the world to be making these phone calls.
[00:09:29] You need to create lists for them, which you would have to do for your lead generation people anyway, or find some way to cultivate that information.
[00:09:37] But let them do the calling.
[00:09:40] You know how many times I get phone calls being like, hi, I'm calling on behalf of Eric Anthony.
[00:09:45] We'd like an appointment with you.
[00:09:46] And I would be like, great.
[00:09:47] Talk to my secretary.
[00:09:48] No, I'm just kidding.
[00:09:49] But like those things happen all the time, right?
[00:09:52] Or when you call, it's always at their party.
[00:09:54] So find something like that because they're going to be significantly cheaper than a service.
[00:09:59] Yeah.
[00:10:01] I have some thoughts, as you might.
[00:10:04] You wouldn't be here if you didn't.
[00:10:07] You probably saw it in my face.
[00:10:11] So I will go along with you and say, yes, I think it is important for you to at least try this yourself.
[00:10:19] Okay?
[00:10:20] Because unless you do it yourself, you're not going to understand what goes into it, right?
[00:10:25] I will say that there are experts out there who will do a better job than you.
[00:10:30] And this falls into the category, if you have the money to do it, it's not a bad thing.
[00:10:37] But if you don't have the money to do it, there are other options, right?
[00:10:43] Especially if you have a lot more time than money, you can do it yourself.
[00:10:47] Now, a couple of things that I would say ahead of time is that you do need to find out who your ideal customer is and what your messaging for that ideal customer is before you get started with either plan.
[00:11:02] Whether you're doing it yourself or whether you're hiring somebody else.
[00:11:05] Because your value prop, your messaging, and your ideal client is going to determine who they call and what they say when they call them.
[00:11:13] Okay?
[00:11:14] So I'll say that.
[00:11:15] But then the other thing I want to say is after you get that lead, and this is where a lot of MSPs fail, they don't have the right nurturing program and sales process to properly follow up with that lead.
[00:11:31] No, 100%.
[00:11:32] There's a way to do it, which is what some of these companies will provide to a degree.
[00:11:38] Not always.
[00:11:39] Some of them are just appointment bookers.
[00:11:42] But you need to be able to follow the path for them.
[00:11:46] So I think even before you go to lead gen in an appointment setting, figure out your ideal client profile, ICP.
[00:11:55] And also figure out what that funnel looks like to get them through your sales cycle, which is getting them on your mailing list, having a free consultation, whatever it is.
[00:12:07] Like get a Zoom call.
[00:12:08] Like our sales process, excuse me, our sales process is three phone calls.
[00:12:12] Right?
[00:12:12] That initial, that deep dive, and then that payment one.
[00:12:15] Like that's how we usually went up on our sales calls.
[00:12:20] But your company might be different even.
[00:12:22] Like you need to figure out what that looks like.
[00:12:25] And you need to standardize and basically document that process.
[00:12:31] So this way, if and when you don't want to do it and you want to hand it off to an outsourced company, they follow your way of doing things.
[00:12:40] And this way, you know that they're booking the right types of appointments.
[00:12:44] A great example of this is you can go get yourself a third-party booker.
[00:12:50] And they might be calling people who are – they might just be booking appointments for people who have cracked laptop screens.
[00:12:57] And that's not what you do.
[00:12:59] Yeah.
[00:13:00] Yeah.
[00:13:00] Yeah.
[00:13:00] You know, I've talked to MSPs who have hired a, you know, a lead generation company who were booking meetings for them.
[00:13:09] And they did not even have an agenda, a PowerPoint, anything for actually running that meeting.
[00:13:19] Like you have to have that stuff in place or you are wasting the money spending it trying to get those booked meetings.
[00:13:26] Yeah.
[00:13:27] So, Steven, I think it's a great idea to go look at these things.
[00:13:32] But before you do any of it, I would just hope that you have your entire process laid out first because these companies aren't going to tell you that.
[00:13:41] They're going to just say, yeah, sure, we'll get you 100 bookings a month or whatever it is because they get paid on that.
[00:13:48] They don't get paid on whether or not they're finding you the right customers through your sales cycle.
[00:13:53] So, like, keep that in mind before you sign on the dotted line.
[00:13:56] I would say that there are probably some good ones who will tell you you're not ready yet and will help you get ready.
[00:14:05] Yeah, but they're probably more expensive than Steven wants to spend.
[00:14:10] Probably more expensive than most.
[00:14:12] Good, fast, cheap, and you can only pick one.
[00:14:16] Well, thanks, Steven, for writing in from the group.
[00:14:19] If you want to be from the group, check us out at facebook.com slash allthingsmsp.
[00:14:22] And maybe next time we'll pull your question from the group.
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[00:15:43] So I want to talk something about today.
[00:15:45] We talk about PSAs all the time on this show, and we talk about manipulation of how to deal with tickets and how to deal with customers.
[00:15:53] But there's something that we haven't really talked about, which came up on an ACES After Dark just the other day, which is data collection.
[00:16:02] And I mean this in the regards of, like, what data are you collecting about clients in your PSA and what are you doing with it?
[00:16:09] Because there was a really interesting talk about clients who want reports versus clients who don't.
[00:16:16] And are you collecting data if they don't want reports?
[00:16:18] And I certainly have clients who are like, I want a report every month with all these security things.
[00:16:24] And I'm like, sure, knowing damn well you ain't reading it.
[00:16:28] Right?
[00:16:29] So the topic had come up about how much data do you put in your PSA about a client?
[00:16:37] Are you collecting assets?
[00:16:39] Are you collecting software?
[00:16:40] Are you collecting programmatic pieces about things?
[00:16:46] And why?
[00:16:50] Well, I can tell you that there's a big topic of conversation going on in the cybersecurity world around asset management and making sure that you do have a complete list of all of the assets being used.
[00:17:05] Whether that's hardware, whether it's software applications, whether it's cloud applications, whether it's data repositories.
[00:17:11] Because if you don't know it's there, there is no way you are defending it.
[00:17:18] And so that's become a big conversation.
[00:17:21] And I think that's part of this, right?
[00:17:23] Because a lot of your PSAs will collect or at least store that type of information.
[00:17:28] Yeah, but even to a degree, because I think the problem is when we talk about, let's talk about assets just for a second.
[00:17:33] And I mean, physical assets.
[00:17:35] There's such a breakdown between what a client thinks asset management is and what we think asset management is.
[00:17:41] Because a client wants to know about every keyboard and trackpad and power adapter and things that don't report back.
[00:17:48] Like there's no way to know the serial number of this keyboard.
[00:17:50] There legit isn't.
[00:17:51] I even tried with OS Query.
[00:17:54] It will only pull the serial number if it's plugged in via USB.
[00:17:57] So there's no way to – that's what the client wants.
[00:18:00] And that's not what we're holding or necessarily what – from a cyber – because do I need to protect this keyboard?
[00:18:07] Maybe.
[00:18:07] What if someone swapped it out without, you know, a modified Bluetooth one?
[00:18:11] I don't know.
[00:18:12] I'm making an issue.
[00:18:13] But –
[00:18:13] No, but it's a valid point.
[00:18:14] Right.
[00:18:15] So there's that problem to be said.
[00:18:19] That's number one.
[00:18:20] Number two, I think in problems of asset management is trying to get a platform to collect data from 90 other platforms that may or may not play well.
[00:18:33] Right?
[00:18:34] Great example.
[00:18:35] We run into this as our industry all the time.
[00:18:37] Our Halo PSA ties into our Meraki.
[00:18:40] So we pull all the Meraki data into clients and we sign.
[00:18:43] However, Ubiquity very famously doesn't have an open API to do anything with.
[00:18:52] Yeah.
[00:18:53] How many access points do you have at this client?
[00:18:56] No.
[00:18:59] Well, and that's – to me, that's an issue, right?
[00:19:02] Because if you can't know that they're there, how are you possibly managing them?
[00:19:08] Except manually.
[00:19:09] And that's a lot of work.
[00:19:10] And keep in mind, look, there are ways to find that out.
[00:19:13] Obviously, I'm exaggerating for the sake of this story.
[00:19:16] Yes, you can sign into Ubiquity web interface and get the information.
[00:19:19] Whatever.
[00:19:20] I don't need everyone.
[00:19:21] People are listening right now going, you should know how to do this.
[00:19:24] I know how to do it.
[00:19:26] But the question – so then the question comes down to is, are you doing anything with this data?
[00:19:32] So the software one came up in this call the other day.
[00:19:36] Another consultant who has built out their own kind of PSA was showing that they're keeping track of all the software that are on a device.
[00:19:45] And so I asked, because I was very curious about this, do they have some sort of agent that's pulling that information into their PSA or are they manually doing it?
[00:19:54] And it turns out that their triage person, anytime the client calls and says, I'm having a problem with X, then records that that person has X.
[00:20:01] And that's my problem with data is anything that's manual is always wrong.
[00:20:06] Because as soon as they delete that program, you don't know, right?
[00:20:09] So – or they have programs you don't know about.
[00:20:12] So it has to be automated.
[00:20:13] But then again, you're pulling that data in.
[00:20:17] Are you going to do anything with it?
[00:20:19] And so that begets this circle of should we be collecting it?
[00:20:24] Why?
[00:20:25] How?
[00:20:25] What do we do with it?
[00:20:26] And like, is it for reporting or is it for cyber?
[00:20:29] Is it for – to say that you have the biggest data repository, you know?
[00:20:37] I could make a joke there, but I'm not going to.
[00:20:41] And I say that in terms of assets, if it needs to be managed, it needs to be on a list.
[00:20:49] If it needs to be protected, it needs to be on a list.
[00:20:52] And that's the basic litmus test for me as to whether or not I need to be tracking that.
[00:20:59] Now, I think it's an excellent point that what if you have an asset that you can't update automatically
[00:21:06] because there's not an API or it's not discovered automatically by your RMM or your MDM,
[00:21:13] that's a problem because now you've got to create a recurring ticket to check on that asset periodically
[00:21:20] to make sure that it hasn't changed.
[00:21:22] We have that.
[00:21:23] We have our – every Wednesday, my ticket system explodes
[00:21:30] because we have recurring tickets to check on a whole bunch of synologies we still have out there
[00:21:36] with steps on what to do because we have no –
[00:21:39] Because mission critical.
[00:21:40] Right.
[00:21:41] And there's no tool out there that we use.
[00:21:44] Maybe we can use something like domotes or whatever it is, but they're expensive.
[00:21:48] To pull that data in.
[00:21:51] Right.
[00:21:52] So we run into that issue of – now we're even – we're in a worse position in my position.
[00:22:02] I'm going to pull the curtain back.
[00:22:03] Because now we only have like half of the data.
[00:22:06] Yeah.
[00:22:07] Which is worse than no data.
[00:22:09] Because I think if you had no data, you can claim incompetence or lack of knowledge.
[00:22:16] Not really incompetence, but like the lack of knowledge of things exist if you have no data.
[00:22:19] If you have some data, you're like tiptoeing and being like, I got something, but I don't know what.
[00:22:25] And then if you have all the data, now you have what my friend Ben Morales calls as BDE, big data energy,
[00:22:32] which I promise him I'd make a T-shirt out of.
[00:22:37] But does the client care?
[00:22:39] Because the question it comes down to is on a monthly – like when we send our invoices once a month,
[00:22:46] our invoice says the list of the devices and we have all the devices listed as part of an automated through Halo.
[00:22:53] What we don't list on there is the operating system of every device, the users on every device,
[00:22:59] all the software or how many versions of Teams is across the board,
[00:23:02] how many versions of Adobe are across the board to make sure people are updated?
[00:23:06] Because assumingly everyone is always updated, which obviously they're not.
[00:23:11] And we would never tell a client, well, half your fleet is on 14.7 and the other half is on 14.71
[00:23:17] because we just didn't get to it because we don't want to open Pandora's box on that.
[00:23:21] It's not really our fault.
[00:23:23] There's a reason why, but whatever.
[00:23:26] So do we need that data then?
[00:23:29] What are we doing with it?
[00:23:30] And that keeps coming up over and over again because we should be doing something with it.
[00:23:36] Should we be reporting on it?
[00:23:37] Should we not?
[00:23:38] What does the client need to know?
[00:23:40] I think the client needs to know very little actually unless the client requests it.
[00:23:46] Which they will then throw it away.
[00:23:48] Follow me.
[00:23:49] Follow me here.
[00:23:50] I'll use your 14.7 to 14.71 example.
[00:23:55] Sure.
[00:23:56] What is the purpose of having that information?
[00:23:59] That purpose of having that information is so that your team knows that they have X number of devices still on 14.7 that need to be upgraded.
[00:24:10] That's the point.
[00:24:11] The point is for you.
[00:24:12] The point is for you to better manage, be more efficient at managing and be defensible, reduce your risk knowing that you have done all the right things.
[00:24:24] And yes, you are going to sometimes have a gap where you have 10 on 14.7 and 10 on 14.71.
[00:24:31] But as long as it's documented and you have a plan for remediating it, that's defensible.
[00:24:38] Like you can say we have an automated process for updates.
[00:24:42] It didn't work on these 10 machines.
[00:24:44] So we created tickets to do it.
[00:24:46] And it's only been three days.
[00:24:48] Right.
[00:24:50] Right.
[00:24:50] The automated process thing I think is a real tough one also.
[00:24:53] And I don't want to go too far into that today because I know that drives down a path about PSAs.
[00:24:58] Because there's a lot of things where we talked about you should be automating certain tickets when things are happening.
[00:25:04] But then you need to have enough staff to handle it.
[00:25:06] Otherwise, your ticket system becomes a snake that's chasing its own tail.
[00:25:11] Right.
[00:25:13] But the idea of collecting the data from the client, because you can get really gnarly with how much data you collect.
[00:25:22] Here, I'll give you another example.
[00:25:25] When we were originally building your computer inventory, which we stopped building, one of the things that I thought was important that clients wanted to know was how many minutes they're using with phone.com.
[00:25:36] So we built an API to pull that information into this dashboard that they can see.
[00:25:41] Never once in 16 years has a single client said to me, how many minutes am I using in phone.com?
[00:25:47] But for whatever reason, I was like, this is a data point I know I can pull in and I can show somebody it must be important.
[00:25:53] And there's where I'm going with this.
[00:25:55] How do we determine what is not important?
[00:26:01] So I'm going to use the phone example for a minute.
[00:26:04] Now, 16 years ago, when people were still paying, I don't know, were we paying for long distance 16 years ago?
[00:26:10] I don't know.
[00:26:11] I can't remember.
[00:26:13] I mean, back then when you were paying per minute for long distance, that would have been an important number.
[00:26:20] So I would say if it's mission critical, if it affects the budget, and if it affects the risk.
[00:26:29] I like that.
[00:26:30] I like those.
[00:26:30] I like the criteria.
[00:26:33] I like the criteria because if it affects the mission critical part, that's obvious.
[00:26:37] I think that that's a go-to, right?
[00:26:38] You should know all the mission critical pieces, right?
[00:26:43] Does it affect the business and does it affect the risk?
[00:26:46] I'm sorry, the budget.
[00:26:47] The budget and the risk.
[00:26:48] The budget piece, I think, is important because whether or not someone has a piece of software on their computer may or may not affect their budget.
[00:26:57] But it may affect their – you know what?
[00:26:59] I think it's a two-out – you know what it is?
[00:27:01] It's good, better, cheap.
[00:27:02] It's pick two.
[00:27:03] If it affects two things – I don't know why I'm holding free fingers up.
[00:27:06] If it affects two things, if it affects – if it's mission critical and it's risk or it's mission critical and it's budget, that is a guarantee you need to track that asset, whatever that asset may be, right?
[00:27:19] Digital or not.
[00:27:21] If it's only one of them, I think if it's mission critical, it must be.
[00:27:26] I think if it affects risk, it may not be because it depends.
[00:27:30] If it's only affecting risk and it's not mission critical and it's not affecting the budget, the question is how risky is it?
[00:27:36] Right.
[00:27:37] I was going to say there's levels of risk.
[00:27:39] Right.
[00:27:40] Because my go-to example for this always is Spotify, right?
[00:27:44] Which I get so much heat for not having a Spotify.
[00:27:47] People – whenever I go out with my friends in the car and I have Apple –
[00:27:50] I know, me too.
[00:27:50] I have Apple Music playing.
[00:27:51] They're like, you don't use Spotify?
[00:27:52] I'm like, no.
[00:27:53] They're like, how do you live?
[00:27:54] I'm like, like a human.
[00:27:58] But Spotify for the longest time on a Mac was such a crap program.
[00:28:02] It would actually cause problems with the Mac itself.
[00:28:04] It would cause the computer to lock up.
[00:28:07] I mean, this is years ago we're talking about.
[00:28:09] So the question is, is Spotify in that case enough of a risk that we have to actually pull the computer to determine who has Spotify and or stop it or crash it or do we care?
[00:28:23] The answer for that is usually no.
[00:28:27] But I'm sure there's programs out there that would matter.
[00:28:30] For example, if clients randomly install a third-party VPN software, right?
[00:28:37] Are you pulling the information from your assets and logging the data saying this user – I mean, then you can go even further and say, I'm going to pull the – I want to log everything.
[00:28:49] And I want to know when this user installed the program at what time because it turns out they install the VPN at 9 p.m. at night on a Friday.
[00:28:58] Clearly, there's something up.
[00:29:00] You can go down that rabbit hole.
[00:29:02] But in that case, if they're installing the VPN, that's a high risk and potentially affects the budget.
[00:29:10] Yeah.
[00:29:11] And, you know, we do this all the time.
[00:29:13] Think about it.
[00:29:13] As an MSP, when you vet a new vendor for a tool in your stack, one of the questions that you typically ask is, do you have an API that links to my PSA so that if somehow I go from 10 users at a client to 15 users at a client,
[00:29:31] I know to bill that client for those five additional users.
[00:29:35] That's important.
[00:29:37] That is one of those budgetary examples.
[00:29:39] And if we ask for it from our vendors, clients are going to ask for it from us as well.
[00:29:46] Yeah.
[00:29:47] I think that is – I never thought about it that way to just straight up start asking people, are you compatible?
[00:29:52] Because, like, when you go into – for us, when we go into Halo, we look at our integrations page and we see what's there.
[00:29:58] But then there's the button that says custom.
[00:30:03] Right?
[00:30:04] And I never thought, like, yeah, maybe a vendor may not be working with Halo directly, but they have that custom integration to go in.
[00:30:10] You know, we keep track of the computers that come in from our MDM and from Adagy and Datto.
[00:30:17] But I did realize that we don't actually have a pull-in from Simple MDM, which is one of the MDM providers we were also using.
[00:30:26] And now it's got me thinking, like, what do we need to – because they have an API.
[00:30:29] Like, what do we need to do to make that work?
[00:30:31] You know?
[00:30:32] And then should we be using something like OS Query?
[00:30:35] Which, by the way, we should find someone to do an entire episode on OS Query.
[00:30:38] I just recently found out about this thing, and it blows my mind.
[00:30:42] It's cross-platform compatible.
[00:30:44] There's amazing ways to do this.
[00:30:45] We should talk to somebody.
[00:30:46] But should we be using OS Query to query all of the USB ports on the device so we have all that information?
[00:30:54] Because then again, what's – if somebody loses a keyboard, is that mission critical or is that high risk or is that affecting the budget?
[00:31:06] So keyboard, no.
[00:31:08] USB drive, yes.
[00:31:10] So we do – okay, so there you go.
[00:31:12] So the problem is that we have to actually pull all that stuff and log it somewhere, but then do we report on it?
[00:31:21] So this is where I actually think you use an RMM or an MDM and create monitoring scripts for these types of things if they're not already built in, right?
[00:31:33] Yeah.
[00:31:33] If somebody plugs in a USB and that's weird, it's unusual, you've set a rule that that's weird for that client, then you should get notified.
[00:31:43] Like, it should throw off an alarm in your RMM, maybe create a ticket, say, hey, somebody stuck a USB drive in this computer, and they don't usually do that.
[00:31:53] Yeah, but that sounds like it requires a lot of, like, the two letters I don't like saying, to figure out whether or not, you know, USB drive usage is higher than the risk.
[00:32:07] So, yes, I mean, you could do it with that agent in a box.
[00:32:14] Or you could just set it as a policy, right?
[00:32:17] And so that if anybody sticks in a USB drive, it gets flagged immediately.
[00:32:22] Now, that's one way to do it.
[00:32:24] The other way to do it is prevent it from happening at all, and that's to create a policy on the computer that says they can't use USB drives on that computer.
[00:32:33] Yeah, which is easier to do on a PC than on a Mac.
[00:32:36] I'm putting this out there because, yes, you can do it on a Mac, but on a PC, I think it's built into the Windows security protocols to, like, disable USB drives without disabling USB other devices.
[00:32:52] Yeah.
[00:32:53] Yeah.
[00:32:53] Not on USB drives would be the word I'm looking for.
[00:32:57] You know, that kind of brings up an interesting part of this because it's also data.
[00:33:01] We're kind of straying from assets here a little bit into configuration.
[00:33:06] And I know that that's a thing that there are some new vendors out there who are actually watching configurations, whether it's on endpoints or whether it's on cloud applications like 365, where they're looking constantly for configuration drift and either letting you know or remediating.
[00:33:26] So, again, though, let's take this back.
[00:33:29] If there is a configuration change, that information gets recorded to your PSA.
[00:33:35] There's your data point.
[00:33:37] Then what do you do with that data?
[00:33:40] Do you report on that to the customer?
[00:33:43] I don't think you report to the customer, no, but it is something you need to take a look at as the MSP.
[00:33:49] To be on top of things.
[00:33:50] Now, the other question then also is, and this happens a lot, a lot of MSPs, I think, are not charging enough money to warrant putting these tools into their stack.
[00:34:03] And some of them are stuck now at a 125 range.
[00:34:10] Which, by the way, I don't remember where I was reading this.
[00:34:12] Somebody had posted that they charged 125 British pounds per hour.
[00:34:17] And everybody in that place was like, you're so expensive.
[00:34:20] And I was like, I don't know how things work over there.
[00:34:23] I really had to have a phone call with our friend Pete Matheson.
[00:34:25] But the US-based ones that are in that $125 per device range, I feel like they're getting their asses handed to them at this point.
[00:34:37] Because you buy into so many of these security tools, you're not making any money now.
[00:34:44] So what do you do?
[00:34:47] That's the disparity, right?
[00:34:48] If you walk up to somebody who is selling managed services for $125 per user, run.
[00:34:57] Okay?
[00:34:58] I'm sorry.
[00:34:59] And I'm probably hurting some people's feelings who are in this group.
[00:35:02] But we've gotten to the point where security is not optional.
[00:35:06] And in order to have the security tools in place to not only protect your clients, but to protect yourself,
[00:35:15] you're going to be charging more than $125 a month per user.
[00:35:19] It's not feasible anymore.
[00:35:21] If you feel hurt by the words of Eric Anthony, please reach out at facebook.com slash group slash all things MSP.
[00:35:28] Do, do, do, do.
[00:35:31] If you're watching at all, youtube.com slash at all things MSP.
[00:35:34] I just made Eric Anthony laugh so hard that he started coughing.
[00:35:37] That's where we're at now.
[00:35:38] But you're right.
[00:35:40] People need to push that thing.
[00:35:42] So I think let's just try to tie this up with a bow, right?
[00:35:45] Yes, collect information that is pertinent to make your business be better for the customer.
[00:35:57] Find ways to automate what you do with that data.
[00:36:01] You don't necessarily need to report on that data.
[00:36:04] But do collect as much as you possibly can because you never know when there's going to be something either A, terrible happens,
[00:36:14] and you are on top of it looking like the hero.
[00:36:17] Or B, you have this data to be able to come back and say, listen, we can make these things more efficient
[00:36:24] and therefore free up our time, therefore to get more customers.
[00:36:30] And now you can handle two customers at the same time that you normally used to be able to handle one
[00:36:34] because you've collected that data, figured out what to do with it,
[00:36:37] seen how it interacts with the rest of the processes for that customer or you.
[00:36:44] Right.
[00:36:44] There are so many things that you can find out by using data, whether it's to become more efficient,
[00:36:51] whether it's to lower your risk, whether it's to lower your costs, whatever it is.
[00:36:55] Don't be afraid to collect that data because a lot of times the data collection is automated, right?
[00:37:01] It's the data reporting and making it useful that actually takes the time.
[00:37:07] So collect the data, but then only spend the time appropriately to actually get the things out of it to make your business better.
[00:37:16] And I will say there is one piece of data that most people do not collect and that they should,
[00:37:21] and that is the name of the CEO's dog.
[00:37:24] Because if you can talk to the CEO about their dog and name the dog by its name,
[00:37:30] you are in like Flynn, baby.
[00:37:36] Check us out.
[00:37:37] I don't even know where to go with that.
[00:37:38] That's why I'm ending it right now.
[00:37:40] Check us out at facebook.com slash group slash allthingsmsp.
[00:37:43] Watch all of this in high-def glory, youtube.com slash at allthingsmsp.
[00:37:47] Check out my new zoomed-in camera that I'm going to work on over the next couple episodes.
[00:37:51] Follow us on all of your favorite podcasting tools, but you're listening to us right now.
[00:37:55] Do leave a comment in the Facebook group.
[00:37:57] Let us know you hurt us, that you like us, that you love us, you hate us, whatever.
[00:38:01] We'll take – if it's hate, it's towards Eric.
[00:38:03] If it's love, it's towards me.
[00:38:04] We'll take it like that.
[00:38:05] Any last words before we say goodbye, Mr. Anthony?
[00:38:10] I just want to say that that last comment is not very data-driven of you.
[00:38:13] Nope, not at all.
[00:38:14] It's because the data proves the other way around.
[00:38:16] Everybody loves you and hates me, but that's it.
[00:38:18] I'm Justin.
[00:38:19] Bye!
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[00:39:03] The All Things MSP Podcast is a BizPow LLC production.