Fail Faster: Wilson's Journey to Growing His MSP

[00:00:16] Well, as an MSP owner, you know, people are looking up to you. What are you doing to improve the lives of your people? I mean, besides a paycheck in some of the benefits, you have to have a vision. You have to be going somewhere. Are you able to communicate that? Are you able to not only communicate that, but are you able to live it? You say, hey, I want to be the best MSP in the state of Florida. Are you saying it? Are you actually doing it? What are you doing? Well, we're going to all of these conferences. I'm getting on podcasts. I'm getting on TV.

[00:00:45] I'm going to tell people our messaging is going to be solid. You start doing those things, people follow you. People will see your energy and they'll want it'll gravitate to you. That's all leadership by example, man. You do stuff like that. People will follow you anywhere. Look out for them. They're going to follow you anywhere.

[00:01:01] Hey guys, Damien Stevens, host of MSP Mindset. And I am very fortunate to be in person at Grocon 2024 with Wilson Bautista, who is the CEO of June

[00:01:18] Cyber. Wilson, thank you for making time during the busy schedule here at Grocon to make time to speak with me.

[00:01:24] Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you.

[00:01:28] Absolutely. So I'm curious, why has this event been worth your time?

[00:01:35] You know, it's really interesting to see how other MSPs are handling their own challenges, right? Specifically when you're coming to this event, it's like, how do you grow? And each of the speakers that come and present have their own take of how you can grow just a little bit. And so just getting the knowledge from those who have done it before, and then also networking with, you know, literally your peers.

[00:02:04] Yeah.

[00:02:04] Right? And understanding what they're going through, and maybe they have an answer to your question, or maybe I have an answer to their challenge.

[00:02:13] Yeah.

[00:02:14] You never know. So it's been really helpful to network and learn from all the presenters here.

[00:02:21] What's your biggest challenge right now?

[00:02:23] Ooh, biggest challenge?

[00:02:26] Yeah.

[00:02:26] I would say, like a lot of MSPs, is getting leads, right?

[00:02:32] And getting good leads, right?

[00:02:34] I have no problem closing, right?

[00:02:36] It's trying to find the need behind the need and get people to switch to you, all that kind of stuff.

[00:02:42] So, like, just from a basic business point is, how do I get leads?

[00:02:50] Yeah.

[00:02:50] How do I get quality leads?

[00:02:52] Yes.

[00:02:52] And how do I convert them to sales, right?

[00:02:57] Yeah. Quality leads is very different than leads.

[00:03:00] Yeah.

[00:03:01] And completely understanding that's a numbers game.

[00:03:03] Yes.

[00:03:04] Right?

[00:03:04] Like, you make a thousand phone calls, you may get two appointments.

[00:03:08] Yeah.

[00:03:09] But if you don't make a thousand phone calls, guess what?

[00:03:11] You don't get.

[00:03:12] You don't get two appointments.

[00:03:13] That's right.

[00:03:14] So it's clearly a numbers game.

[00:03:16] But how do I, as an MSP, explain to my outbound caller, hey, this is what quality means to me?

[00:03:27] Yes.

[00:03:28] Right?

[00:03:28] And that's one of the struggles that I have right now.

[00:03:32] It's like, okay, we do get calls.

[00:03:35] I mean, we do get things scheduled.

[00:03:38] But, you know, it's sometimes not what we need.

[00:03:42] Right?

[00:03:44] So where are you in that journey of work?

[00:03:47] You know, what have you tried to try to get leads?

[00:03:51] So let's see.

[00:03:53] You know, you have your website.

[00:03:55] Sure.

[00:03:55] You know, you do your SEO.

[00:03:58] I had to learn a lot about keywords and trying to figure out, figure all that stuff out.

[00:04:05] Social media presence, right?

[00:04:08] Continuously posting to allow people to see that, you know, we're not just a company that does dull things.

[00:04:13] We're actually people that actually have hearts and really care about technology and how it impacts your business.

[00:04:19] So we do that.

[00:04:23] We also, you know, referrals.

[00:04:25] That's how we get a lot of our leads, like a lot of MSPs.

[00:04:29] Going to conferences, you know, meeting people, shaking hands.

[00:04:34] And then we also have somebody that calls, right?

[00:04:38] Just cold calling, right?

[00:04:40] That's what we've been doing for like the last three or four years.

[00:04:46] Okay.

[00:04:46] But it's, you know, built up over.

[00:04:49] I think we're getting there.

[00:04:51] It's not perfect yet, but we're working towards it.

[00:04:55] This episode is brought to you by Serbosity.

[00:04:57] I started Serbosity because I was an MSP that lost data because I thought backup success meant I could recover.

[00:05:06] And boy, was I wrong.

[00:05:07] If you've ever been there or anywhere close, you know how much your stomach turns over the thought of not being able to recover any version of the data for your client.

[00:05:18] Now, naively, I set off to build a better mousetrap and build a better backup product.

[00:05:23] Until finally, I realized it's all about the people and the process.

[00:05:28] So you have a choice to make.

[00:05:30] Do nothing and bury your head in the sand or level up your processes.

[00:05:34] Now, you can do that by either hiring Serbosity or we'll take all the workload of managing backups off of your plate and test your backups daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly.

[00:05:42] Or you can keep the tech stack you have in place, your existing backup into your provider, and steal my 18 years of knowledge and download that process and add that to your operational maturity today.

[00:05:56] How do you know where to start?

[00:05:58] There's so many MSPs listening to this and it's like, man, do I spend all my day on social media?

[00:06:02] Do I go to every event in the world?

[00:06:04] Do I hire an army of cold callers?

[00:06:06] Do I work on SEO?

[00:06:08] And probably 10 other things I'm not even thinking of.

[00:06:10] Like, it's tough.

[00:06:11] Yeah, it is.

[00:06:13] I always try to tell young entrepreneurs, it's like, what is your target audience?

[00:06:20] What is your niche?

[00:06:22] So for MSPs, who do you cater to?

[00:06:26] Do you cater to medical offices?

[00:06:29] That's awesome that you do, but why are you going to a manufacturing conference?

[00:06:34] Yes.

[00:06:35] Right?

[00:06:35] So you start getting down to your target niche, and then you start evaluating what is my ROI if I go to this event.

[00:06:44] Right?

[00:06:45] And where you spend your time and where you spend your resources.

[00:06:49] So starting there, that's what I always tell people.

[00:06:52] You're going to have to figure out what your niche is, and then figure out where they live and they play and where they eat.

[00:06:59] Yeah.

[00:07:00] And you've got square one.

[00:07:03] Yeah.

[00:07:04] Yeah.

[00:07:04] Interesting.

[00:07:05] Interesting.

[00:07:05] So tell me about your journey, at least the overall, which is I understand you didn't start the normal MSP.

[00:07:16] Yeah.

[00:07:17] They later bolted on some cybersecurity.

[00:07:18] Yeah.

[00:07:19] Totally did not expect us to turn into an MSP, but it gradually became a necessary factor.

[00:07:27] Okay.

[00:07:27] So we started in 2019, late 2019.

[00:07:30] And if you remember, that was like, oh my gosh, there's something that's going on around the world.

[00:07:36] And we did not know it was going to close the entire world.

[00:07:41] Right.

[00:07:41] So I started out as a consultant, purely wanting to support people with their compliance and cybersecurity requirements.

[00:07:49] And then I realized that project-based work, there's a start and there's an end.

[00:07:56] And I also need to eat.

[00:08:00] My family also needs to eat.

[00:08:02] Yes.

[00:08:02] So it's just like, what do we do?

[00:08:03] Okay.

[00:08:04] Well, some of these compliance clients asked us, okay, well, it's great that you know how to find all the things that we have to fix because of some framework.

[00:08:15] But do you know how to fix them?

[00:08:17] Yeah.

[00:08:18] Yeah, sure.

[00:08:18] Yeah.

[00:08:18] We know how to fix them.

[00:08:19] We understand the technology.

[00:08:20] We're experts at that.

[00:08:22] Okay.

[00:08:22] Well, after you fix it, do you know how to maintain it?

[00:08:27] Yeah.

[00:08:28] I could do that too.

[00:08:29] Maintain that.

[00:08:30] Hey, that's one line of recurring revenue.

[00:08:33] Yeah.

[00:08:33] Like compliance and cybersecurity.

[00:08:35] But then they're like, well, we don't want to deal with like three different companies.

[00:08:40] One for IT, one for cyber, one for compliance.

[00:08:44] Like we'd rather just deal with one.

[00:08:47] Yeah.

[00:08:47] And that's small businesses.

[00:08:49] You don't want to complicate anything.

[00:08:51] So it just turned into, can you do IT?

[00:08:54] Do you have a help desk?

[00:08:56] And the answer was yes.

[00:08:57] And here we are.

[00:08:59] I was just doing the math from where we started and from where we are now.

[00:09:04] Our revenue growth is 647.5% growth.

[00:09:09] Over what time period?

[00:09:10] Over four years.

[00:09:12] Wow.

[00:09:13] Yeah.

[00:09:13] That is a crazy amount of growth.

[00:09:17] It is a crazy amount of growth.

[00:09:19] How do you keep up with that level of growth?

[00:09:21] What do you keep up with that level of growth?

[00:09:21] From a company perspective, from a staff, from a team, from a process?

[00:09:25] Any of this.

[00:09:25] So I would say that the way that we are able to do that is that we leverage a lot of the technology that's out there.

[00:09:37] I definitely know how to delegate the things that I suck at, like marketing, social media.

[00:09:44] I'm like, I know how to do it, but I'm not awesome at it.

[00:09:49] I also know that my time is worth something.

[00:09:51] And although I can do some of these things like write a blog or create a video or social media post and put the content there, that's time that I could give to somebody else that knows it better than me and that could schedule it better than me.

[00:10:07] And I have the time to do what I'm very good at.

[00:10:10] Right.

[00:10:11] So, yeah, if you learn how to delegate and you utilize your people's strengths, consistently upskill, then you'll notice return on benefit.

[00:10:22] So I always say it's like I could train you to do what you need to do, what I need you to do.

[00:10:30] It's easier to upskill somebody that's already on your team rather than try to bring somebody in.

[00:10:36] Yes.

[00:10:37] Yes.

[00:10:38] All the time.

[00:10:39] What do you attribute to that growth?

[00:10:41] Like why have you been able to grow that fast when most MSPs can't grow anywhere near that fast?

[00:10:48] I would say that I am comfortable with taking risk.

[00:10:53] Right.

[00:10:57] It's easy to get real comfortable when you have that MRR coming in.

[00:11:02] Right.

[00:11:03] And like, yeah, I have a consistent flow of cash coming in.

[00:11:07] But the thing is, is that our field is changing.

[00:11:12] Yes.

[00:11:13] Right.

[00:11:13] Our field is changing.

[00:11:14] Like things are getting more automated.

[00:11:16] Things are moving to the cloud or sometimes they're going on prem depending on how that's going to impact you.

[00:11:23] So when you start looking at it from that respect, it impacts everything.

[00:11:28] Mm-hmm.

[00:11:32] What would you say to the earlier you before you've done all these sales and marketing things, knowing that you'd have to go through all the ups and downs and battles, scars?

[00:11:45] What would you say to the earlier you that's just sitting there going, man, I'm trying to figure out, I'm struggling with growth.

[00:11:50] Like what would you say to the earlier version of you?

[00:11:54] Ooh.

[00:11:56] I wouldn't change anything I did because I still have the same kind of mindset.

[00:12:00] I would say fail faster and learn faster because your decision-making cycle needs to be quick because you have limited resources as a small business owner.

[00:12:14] Yeah.

[00:12:14] And you need to be able to delegate quick and make decisions very quick.

[00:12:18] So fail faster.

[00:12:19] Learn faster.

[00:12:21] Fail often.

[00:12:23] Learn often.

[00:12:24] And then be able to take risks.

[00:12:27] Right?

[00:12:28] Try to understand the technologies that you don't understand that are cutting edge.

[00:12:34] Like people are afraid of artificial intelligence.

[00:12:37] I said it.

[00:12:38] Yes.

[00:12:38] Right?

[00:12:38] But how do you leverage artificial intelligence to improve your business?

[00:12:42] And I'm going to tell you one of my secrets is that we use artificial intelligence.

[00:12:47] We've created an application internally that basically looks up a name of a person, given the name of their person, their current role at the company and the company.

[00:13:00] Right?

[00:13:00] We give those three inputs and then it creates a sales sheet.

[00:13:04] And we give it a specific prompt.

[00:13:06] I want to know about this person.

[00:13:08] Tell me about the industry that they're in.

[00:13:10] And tell me about some of the challenges those industries are having, companies are having in this industry.

[00:13:18] Tell me, give me five talking points.

[00:13:21] So when I go into the sales call, I have all this research done.

[00:13:25] And it wasn't me researching it.

[00:13:27] It was my agents that were doing it.

[00:13:29] So that saves, I don't know, an hour.

[00:13:34] Wow.

[00:13:36] What is your take on AI in terms of wait to adopt?

[00:13:44] If you haven't adopted already, you're too late, somewhere in the middle.

[00:13:49] Like what's, where do you see that?

[00:13:51] I think that if you don't leverage technology, whether it's AI or whatever, you're going to find yourself obsolete.

[00:14:02] Right?

[00:14:03] It's like people said, oh, the computers aren't going to be anything.

[00:14:07] You know, that's not going to be anything.

[00:14:09] They laughed at the idea and here we are.

[00:14:11] People laughed about the whole Alexa idea.

[00:14:14] Yes.

[00:14:14] Right?

[00:14:15] Talking to a thing and it's giving you answers.

[00:14:19] They all laughed at it.

[00:14:20] But guess what?

[00:14:20] Everybody and their mother has an Echo in their house talking to Alexa.

[00:14:25] So you have to be able to leverage the technology that exists now.

[00:14:30] Why?

[00:14:31] Because it's going to help your business.

[00:14:33] And then you can turn around and talk to your clients and say, hey, I've got this awesome tool you should take a look at.

[00:14:38] But that's something that we're not doing as MSPs.

[00:14:42] Do you see within your team or yourself or your clients fear with regard to AI?

[00:14:50] I don't think I see fear as much as I see just lack of understanding of its capabilities.

[00:14:59] Right?

[00:15:02] Because we know that people are watching out for folks that would potentially have their roles replaced by AI.

[00:15:10] Yeah.

[00:15:10] But we've also seen that there's people watching out and making sure that, like unions are making sure that, hey, the toll workers aren't working anymore because they have now an automated system and they have AI built into it.

[00:15:25] But we've now put them to a different role, a different task that's a little bit higher level that they can do because AI can't do that.

[00:15:36] I think it's important that people stay on top of what AI can do and be able to use it to improve not just their business but also their client's business and be able to give solid examples and use cases.

[00:15:54] Do you think this being able to ask those questions and talk through how this works and what to do and how to adopt it is core to your role as an MSP?

[00:16:05] Or do you see it more like when the internet was coming up and you're going to be an MSP or you're going to be a website designer?

[00:16:12] Right?

[00:16:12] And those are usually two different companies because they've been separated a little bit.

[00:16:18] Like, where do you think this will shake out?

[00:16:21] I'll tell you, everything's changing.

[00:16:22] Yeah.

[00:16:23] Right?

[00:16:23] We're like a lot of things.

[00:16:26] And you have to be able to pivot.

[00:16:31] Like, I'm sorry, but if I know how to create a website and I have somebody on my team that knows how to create a website, well, I'll be that web development company for my client because they need one.

[00:16:40] Yeah.

[00:16:41] Right?

[00:16:42] Now, of course, there's going to be some things that we just don't have the competency for that we would outsource.

[00:16:49] But it doesn't mean that we can't build that competency because we see the market need and it differentiates us from all the other MSPs.

[00:16:59] Yeah.

[00:16:59] MSPs have to be willing to pivot into things that they're uncomfortable with or else they're going to find themselves obsolete.

[00:17:10] I think that's great.

[00:17:11] Well said.

[00:17:13] How do you see it, AI-related, in terms of how big of an impact you think it might happen versus cloud computing or cybersecurity or a lot of the more recent trends?

[00:17:28] So I would say that AI has been here for a long time.

[00:17:34] It's just gone mainstream.

[00:17:35] Mm-hmm.

[00:17:36] Right?

[00:17:36] And everybody's now starting to use it.

[00:17:39] Now they're also seeing some of the drawbacks of using it.

[00:17:42] Yeah.

[00:17:42] Right?

[00:17:43] I think that at the end of the day, this is going to be a utility that people are going to use.

[00:17:54] We have to be, as humans, disciplined not to just blindly follow what AI says to be right because we've already seen hallucinations happen.

[00:18:04] And we've seen some of the impacts from, I don't know, legal documents getting cited that don't exist.

[00:18:11] Yeah.

[00:18:11] You know, and stuff being made up about a million other things that AI says.

[00:18:16] So I think that it's going to be used as a tool to improve our lives and improve our productivity.

[00:18:23] I don't think it's going to replace the actual ability for a human to have an imagination.

[00:18:32] Right?

[00:18:32] We have to be able to use our imagination to utilize that tool to give us what we need to be more productive and effective in what we do every day.

[00:18:42] Yeah.

[00:18:42] Mm-hmm.

[00:18:43] So I can tell you're passionate about a lot of things, but one of them seems to be developing leaders.

[00:18:49] Why is that so important to you?

[00:18:54] That's a good question.

[00:18:55] It's really important to me.

[00:18:57] Like, I started my adult life working in the Marine Corps.

[00:19:01] And every Marine is a rifleman, but every Marine's a leader.

[00:19:08] Right?

[00:19:08] You go through some misery together.

[00:19:10] Right?

[00:19:11] And you learn a lot about your character, about what your challenges are, what your weaknesses are, what your strengths are.

[00:19:21] And my role as a leader for the folks in my company is I want to build you up.

[00:19:28] Yes.

[00:19:28] Right?

[00:19:28] Because at some point, like, we are here temporarily, like, in this life.

[00:19:35] And I'm not getting religious or anything, but we only have snapshots in time to make an impact on somebody's life.

[00:19:41] So if I have an opportunity to make an impact on you and improve your life, either personally or professionally, I'll take that opportunity.

[00:19:50] Because it's my responsibility as your leader to do that.

[00:19:53] So I don't just look at it from my company perspective.

[00:19:57] I look at it from a community perspective.

[00:19:59] I look at it from an industry perspective.

[00:20:02] And, you know, just trying to do something like this, which is not the most comfortable thing to do is talk about this kind of stuff in front of people.

[00:20:11] Hopefully this kind of conversation impacts a lot of folks to, you know, work on self-improvement and leadership.

[00:20:19] Where did you struggle when you decided, hey, it was just a national competency.

[00:20:25] Like, I want to develop leaders.

[00:20:26] This is why this is important.

[00:20:29] Where I actually struggled?

[00:20:30] Yeah, like, was there some pain point or struggle of developing leaders that forced you to say, I'm going to double down and make this a competency or a zone of excellence?

[00:20:43] You know, when I was, so I went through enlisted boot camp through the Marine Corps.

[00:20:51] And when I had an opportunity to go to officer candidate school, I took it.

[00:20:56] Right.

[00:20:57] And I really did learn a lot about myself, about like my body aging and I'm not able to keep up with 22 year olds that are running sub sub six minute miles.

[00:21:08] Yeah.

[00:21:09] Right.

[00:21:09] I was, I was like the third to last out of the entire company from a run, a three mile run.

[00:21:19] And my run time was 2030.

[00:21:21] That's pretty good.

[00:21:22] It's still pretty good.

[00:21:24] But I was just like, man, like, I've got to lead Marines.

[00:21:29] Yeah.

[00:21:30] Right.

[00:21:30] And I am, I'm not, I'm not able to keep up with these young guys.

[00:21:35] Yeah.

[00:21:35] Right.

[00:21:35] Right.

[00:21:36] And so it's just like, okay, well, I've got to work harder.

[00:21:39] Right.

[00:21:40] And this is just an example, like just physical strength and physical capability.

[00:21:45] I have to be, I have to be as strong as my, my other lieutenants.

[00:21:50] Right.

[00:21:50] Because the expectation is there.

[00:21:52] So yeah.

[00:21:53] Challenging it hurt, but you did it because you wanted to, you wanted to lead by example.

[00:21:59] And you wanted to show the Marines that you would eventually take.

[00:22:02] I had 113 in Afghanistan that said, oh, a Lieutenant, he's in shape.

[00:22:08] Like if I can't be out of shape, if he's in shape, because if he's out of shape, then

[00:22:13] it gives me an excuse to be out of shape.

[00:22:15] Right.

[00:22:15] Right.

[00:22:16] So it was, it was a challenge, uh, because as an older person, cause I went through officer

[00:22:22] candidate school at 32, it seems like it's like, oh, that's not, that's not old at all.

[00:22:27] But let me tell you, when you see these guys flying past you, you feel real, real old.

[00:22:32] Yeah.

[00:22:33] And when you're taking the Tylenol every night because the pain, you're, you feel old, but

[00:22:40] you, you want to make sure, um, that you rise up to that challenge.

[00:22:44] And, and I think I did.

[00:22:46] I mean, that's just one example of many that I could give, but it's just the physical aspect

[00:22:51] of, um, of that has changed, like changed my mindset.

[00:22:55] Like I need to, I need to be better, not just for me.

[00:22:58] Right.

[00:22:59] But also for the people that look up to me and that are, are going to take orders from

[00:23:03] me.

[00:23:04] How do you translate that into life as a MSP?

[00:23:09] Oof.

[00:23:10] All right.

[00:23:11] So, well, as an MSP owner, you know, people are looking up to you.

[00:23:19] Yeah.

[00:23:20] Right.

[00:23:21] So what are you doing to improve the lives of your people?

[00:23:26] Right.

[00:23:28] It's a good question.

[00:23:29] That's, I mean, seriously, it's like, uh, because they're looking, I mean, besides a paycheck

[00:23:33] in some of the benefits you have, you have to have a vision.

[00:23:37] You have to be going somewhere.

[00:23:39] Are you able to communicate that?

[00:23:41] Right.

[00:23:41] Are you able to not only communicate that, but are you able to live it?

[00:23:45] Right.

[00:23:46] Uh, you say, Hey, I want to be the best MSP in the state of Florida.

[00:23:50] Okay.

[00:23:51] Are you saying it?

[00:23:52] Are you actually doing it?

[00:23:53] What are you doing?

[00:23:55] Like, well, we're going to all of these conferences.

[00:23:57] I'm getting on podcasts.

[00:23:59] I'm getting on TV.

[00:24:01] I'm going to tell people our messaging is going to be solid.

[00:24:04] You start doing those things.

[00:24:05] People follow you.

[00:24:07] People will see your energy and they'll want, it'll gravitate to you.

[00:24:12] And that's all leadership by example, man.

[00:24:14] You do stuff like that.

[00:24:16] People will follow you anywhere.

[00:24:17] Look out for them.

[00:24:18] They're going to follow you anywhere.

[00:24:20] So that's how you do it as an MSP.

[00:24:22] Yeah.

[00:24:24] Uh, I, I'm curious what, why you felt like there's part of me, it seems it's really obvious

[00:24:31] that you became an MSP, but for a while it seems like most MSPs, they turn their

[00:24:36] nose up at traditional managed services, right?

[00:24:39] I'm too good for it.

[00:24:40] There's too much business.

[00:24:42] I'm only MSP.

[00:24:44] I'm just a security guy or just a compliance guy.

[00:24:47] Was that always obvious to you or did something drive you to say this makes sense?

[00:24:53] Well, I mean, I think a lot of us in tech are, are introverts.

[00:24:57] It's true.

[00:24:58] We just don't want to talk to people.

[00:24:59] And as much as I'm like talking to you right now, I really don't like talking to people.

[00:25:03] I really don't want to be out there.

[00:25:04] Me too.

[00:25:05] But, and, and it was really hard.

[00:25:07] I go back to my military experience.

[00:25:09] It's like, I'm talking, I'm, I have to lead by example for 113 Marines in Afghanistan.

[00:25:15] They're expecting me to talk.

[00:25:17] If I'm, if I'm look an inch of week, they're going to, they're going to feed off that.

[00:25:24] Right.

[00:25:24] So for us, it's, it's really easy to just kind of turn inwards and be like, yeah, I, you know, this is my comfort zone.

[00:25:34] I only do IT.

[00:25:35] I only do, you know, cybersecurity.

[00:25:37] I only do compliance stuff.

[00:25:39] But when you're in a position where it's just like, Hey, you got to get out of your comfort zone or you're not going to eat.

[00:25:47] And you start looking at things like, and if you're not going to eat, guess who else is not going to eat?

[00:25:52] Everybody else on your team is not going to eat.

[00:25:54] Right.

[00:25:54] And do you want that on you?

[00:25:55] Right.

[00:25:56] I don't want it on me.

[00:25:57] So I'm going to work my damnedest to get stuff done.

[00:26:01] Yeah.

[00:26:02] What are you, um, the most excited about right now?

[00:26:07] What, what's, uh, interesting to you?

[00:26:10] Ooh, there's a lot of, a lot of things that are exciting for me right now.

[00:26:13] I've got a lot, I've got a lot of, a lot of things going on in the fire right now.

[00:26:17] Um, besides like that AI, AI app I was telling you about, like, I've been, I've been really learning how to script and code.

[00:26:24] Things that like, I didn't really care for before, but I'm like, I want to know what this technology does and what it can do to, uh, improve my business.

[00:26:34] And so I've been really focusing on how do I, how do I make this better?

[00:26:38] Right.

[00:26:39] And it's, it's caused me to think literally logically, right.

[00:26:44] Uh, on how to create a prompt or how to create the code to give me exactly what I need and how to improve it.

[00:26:53] So it's back to that fail fast, fail often.

[00:26:55] So I get, I get excited talking about it.

[00:26:58] Cause like, I'm, I'm like, oh man, I failed.

[00:27:01] Like why?

[00:27:02] And I'm always asking myself why.

[00:27:04] Right.

[00:27:04] So that's like, kind of like the big thing right now is like, how do I, how do I make this tool that I've just created developed on my own?

[00:27:13] How do I make it better?

[00:27:14] And how do I leverage what it's giving me to increase, you know, social media presence or improve my sales?

[00:27:25] Like, is it helping me convert the leads back, you know, the leads to, to a sale, you know, recurring revenue?

[00:27:34] No, that's, that's what I'm really excited about.

[00:27:36] So.

[00:27:37] What language are you learning?

[00:27:38] What language?

[00:27:39] Um, so I'm like right now it's Python.

[00:27:42] Nice.

[00:27:43] Yeah.

[00:27:43] Getting into Pydantic stuff and Pi packages and all the different pieces there.

[00:27:49] Don't, don't talk too quick, man.

[00:27:53] I just have good developers.

[00:27:55] One of my favorite quotes from one of them is I really get frustrated when the computer does exactly what I told it to do.

[00:28:00] Yeah.

[00:28:00] Yeah.

[00:28:01] Well, I mean, what's awesome to, and this goes back to like what AI has been doing is like when my code doesn't work, I go to chat GPT and I'm like, what the hell's wrong with my code?

[00:28:11] Right.

[00:28:12] And it's like, oh yeah, your indentation is wrong.

[00:28:14] I'm like, damn indentation.

[00:28:15] Yeah.

[00:28:16] It's so stupid.

[00:28:16] Right.

[00:28:17] And you're just like, ah, you use the spaces instead of the, the tab and you're like, oh, I didn't know.

[00:28:23] But at least with the help of AI, you can figure that in minutes, not hours.

[00:28:26] Yeah.

[00:28:26] Right.

[00:28:27] Yeah, exactly.

[00:28:28] Exactly.

[00:28:29] But I have found that sometimes it leaves, leaves out lines of code and, and I'm like, why isn't this working like it did before?

[00:28:37] It's because like 10 revisions ago when you started changing things and copying and pasting stuff, um, chat GPT didn't put those five lines that had the, the, the format that you wanted for your report.

[00:28:50] So it's just stuff like that.

[00:28:53] So Wilson, you have learned a lot of things.

[00:28:57] You've developed a lot of skillsets.

[00:28:59] If there was one thing that you could give to others, what would that be?

[00:29:04] Like, what, what is it that you'd say?

[00:29:05] Hey, reach out to me.

[00:29:06] I'd be happy to help with this.

[00:29:07] Um, so I, I always tell people about like what we do at June cyber.

[00:29:13] We're, we were really a compliance focused MSP and a lot of MSPs think of compliance as the check in the box.

[00:29:22] Right.

[00:29:22] Um, but I think that's a disservice to, to all of the clients, right?

[00:29:28] There are a lot of GRC tools out there, the governance risk and compliance tools out there that say, okay, do you have two factor authentication on?

[00:29:36] Okay.

[00:29:36] That's box checked.

[00:29:37] Oh, are you, are you managing your users?

[00:29:40] Oh, okay.

[00:29:40] That's another box check.

[00:29:41] What I would say is like, if you have questions about compliance and how it impacts your clients or you should reach out and talk because when you're, when you're able to explain why a control exists and why these objectives exist, the people that you're telling to do, do this will invest in you because you know what you're talking about.

[00:30:08] Right.

[00:30:09] You're an expert.

[00:30:10] So from, from my perspective, MSPs, you got issues with compliance or you don't understand why things are or how do you sell compliance?

[00:30:19] Let me know.

[00:30:20] That's a, that's an amazing gift.

[00:30:22] Thank you.

[00:30:23] Let me flip that, flip that around.

[00:30:25] Okay.

[00:30:25] What's one thing, all these folks listening that you would ask?

[00:30:29] What is it you'd like?

[00:30:29] Can I ask for leads?

[00:30:30] Yeah, you can ask for leads.

[00:30:32] You can ask for something for Christmas.

[00:30:33] If you have leads, give them to me.

[00:30:34] Yeah.

[00:30:34] I want to close them.

[00:30:38] Um, you know, uh, I want to learn from like some of the challenges that people have had just like just general in business.

[00:30:49] Right.

[00:30:49] It's not just, uh, like tech, tech issues.

[00:30:52] Like I want to know like what people are, are seeing or that's coming up that, that may impact our industry.

[00:30:59] Right.

[00:31:00] I want, I want to be challenged.

[00:31:02] I want somebody to tell me my idea is dumb and I want them to give me a reason why.

[00:31:06] Um, so having those really challenging conversations, um, with people, something that I would, I would love to have.

[00:31:17] Yeah.

[00:31:18] Well, make sure to take advantage of that, uh, for everybody that's listening, um, and reach out to Wilson.

[00:31:25] Wilson, this has been amazing.

[00:31:27] Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule at GrowCon to speak with me and to be on MSP Mindset.

[00:31:33] Yeah.

[00:31:33] Hey, thanks for having me.

[00:31:34] Appreciate it.

[00:31:35] Absolutely.