From a Traumatic Brain Injury to Successful CEO, Stewart's MSP Success Story

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I very early on got my MCSE certification, which I was very happy to have achieved.

[00:00:06] [SPEAKER_01]: But after that, I stopped chasing the certifications.

[00:00:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I needed to understand how to run the business.

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I needed to understand the business, the clients' perspective of value and what they were trying

[00:00:17] [SPEAKER_01]: to get from the technology.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey guys, Damien Stevens, host of MSP Mindset.

[00:00:27] [SPEAKER_00]: This is a special series where we got to spend time at the StarGroam Manage Summit and

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_00]: record live with some amazing MSPs.

[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Special shout out to Joe and Jeff at StarGroam Manage for having us here and letting us spend

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_00]: the time with these MSPs.

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey guys, Damien Stevens, host of MSP Mindset.

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm here with Stewarts, Arizona, and we're going to live at SGM Summit.

[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for your time, Stewarts.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for having me.

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_00]: So we were just talking before kind of everything that live about why are you doing this.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Tell me about that.

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_00]: It's really interesting.

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I've been a business owner for 21 years and I think one of the things that I really discovered

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_01]: about being a MSP business owner is that you really have to have a passion for it.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_01]: You can't just make it on.

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I'd like to make money.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_01]: I'd like to improve my lifestyle.

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_01]: You really do have to have a passion for technology.

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_01]: And for me, IT started as part of therapy.

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I had been injured at 21 years of age.

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I was injured in industrial accident.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I probably should have been killed.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I sustained brain trauma to both MSFers and I was told that I would probably never work

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_01]: a full day again in my life.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_01]: 21.

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_01]: At 21.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_00]: What?

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Can you give us any color of what's in industrial accident?

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_00]: You get back over by a dump truck, I mean?

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_01]: No, I was in a...

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_01]: in a storage facility.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_01]: And the one of the storage tanks, 40,000 gallon storage tank, the door exploded right next

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_01]: to my head.

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I was walking through the area.

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I noticed a leak.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I've been over to look at it and the door exploded.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_01]: 400,000,000 odd pounds of pressure behind the door.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_01]: I really should have been killed.

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_01]: But over a period of about four years, I worked with specialists.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_01]: The leading specialist on the East Coast was my primary physician and after a number

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_01]: of different treatments and medications and things like that, they said, well, this is pretty

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_01]: much your life.

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_01]: This is how you're going to spend the rest of your life.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_01]: You should probably try to get used to that.

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And along at the end of that portion of that journey, I was introduced to a specialist

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_01]: that made some recommendations.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_01]: They said, look, we know you have brain cell damage and what probably makes senses for

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_01]: you to try to encourage new brain cell growth, sometimes it grows, sometimes it doesn't

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_01]: sometimes it grows and it doesn't work.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_01]: But they recommend it some things.

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Go back to school, take some math classes, take some science classes, take some computer,

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_01]: classes.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And during that process, over the next few years of doing that, part time, I realized

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_01]: that I really loved everything to do with computers.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I started out with some mild programming and that was very interesting.

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_01]: So I found myself pushing through some of the problems I was having, some of the communication

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_01]: problems, some of the headaches and I started to notice that I was getting a little bit

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_01]: better, a little bit better.

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And over the next about three to four years, I pretty much made a full recovery.

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I have a few little ticks from it.

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I have some balanced problems when I stand on one foot.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_01]: But for the most part, I'm cured.

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I've completely recovered.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_00]: What a blessing.

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but the real blessing in that was I really did feel like I found my calling.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I really did enjoy the technology.

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_01]: It just worked for me.

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_01]: It was I love problem solving.

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I always had a knack for engineering and this just really fit that.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_01]: And I never probably never would have gone in this direction had it not been for that.

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_01]: So that was the silver lining for me is that I found a passion.

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, guys.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Today's episode is sponsored by some of OCD.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I created Serocity because I was an MSP who lost data and had to face my client.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to ever be in that situation.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So what's different about Serocity is that we test your backups binoculars.

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_00]: We do them.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_00]: We test those daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_00]: We manage the backups for you.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: So 80% of your workload is gone and you can focus on your core mission.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And all of the storage is both immutable and unlimited.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_00]: You'd like to learn more.

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Take a look at Servocity.com.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: So why aren't you a tech?

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not talking to you.

[00:05:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I was a tech.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I was, I was an aspiring tech.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: I spent about three years at Honeywell.

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I realized that I had hit a technical ceiling and the only way to break that ceiling was to move into consulting.

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_01]: As I moved into consulting, I realized very quickly that this was going to be a step.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a little bit of a sleazy environment.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_01]: I was being asked to do things that didn't really fit with who I am as a person.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I was being asked to do half the job.

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_01]: We sold this job, let's just implement as much as we need to get out and move on.

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_01]: And I wasn't raised that way.

[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that way.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't behave that way.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And I found myself spending more and more of my own personal time finishing jobs that I wasn't supposed to be finishing for clients.

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_01]: And I realized along that path, and I set my mind to if this is the industry I really want to be in.

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_01]: And I really love this work.

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And I want to do it better than what the industry is providing.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Then I should probably do this on my own.

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's what really started me down the path of let's turn being attacked into being a business owner.

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_01]: So I got my required certifications.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I gained as much knowledge as I possibly could.

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_01]: And I stomached the consulting field as much as I could until I had just had enough and I started the business.

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And that was in 2000, late 2002.

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I had the opportunity to move.

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And I took it.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_00]: But from consulting.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Into owning the business.

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_01]: My business and that was innovative IT concepts,

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_01]: is the business that I started.

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And so, and then how does that end up to where you end up today at your current company?

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_01]: So looking back at 2002, there weren't really good options for PSAs or ticket management systems.

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_01]: There weren't good options for RMMs.

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, I don't think there were any RMMs.

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Right in 2002.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_01]: And everyone was doing kind of break-fix.

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_01]: You did some maintenance maybe, you looked at a server every month and hopefully it didn't have something wrong with it 10 minutes after you logged off.

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_01]: So part of me starting the business was we wanted to do something better.

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_01]: And that we started to develop things that were specific to capabilities that didn't exist.

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_01]: We built the first RMM.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_01]: We incorporated that into SQL database and we were running reports from it's a very, very cutting edge kind of things for that time frame.

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I was in a team viewer PC anywhere, Tom frame, you know that was?

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there was nothing.

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_01]: It was batch files and FTP uploads and absorbing information into SQL and then writing custom reports and those being web accessible.

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_01]: So it was really cutting edge stuff, I mean, look at it now.

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like wow that's really crap.

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_01]: But back then that was the only thing you could do.

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_01]: And it really took a how can we make this work kind of a mindset?

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's really what I've applied all along the way is

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_01]: We don't we don't wait for a tool to become available.

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_01]: We we've done a lot with a little and I think what so going back to you asked me what do I think is unique?

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's our perspective on

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_01]: What we want to provide our customers, what we're willing to provide our customers and the lengths we're willing to go to to make sure that we're providing that.

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I can give you a quick example.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Cyber security in

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_01]: 2019 was a very very small thing.

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Those who understood it were cutting edge, but for the most most of the MSPs

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_01]: through an an entire industry through in a couple of tools and that was it.

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_00]: That's kind of best practice.

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep. So back in 2008 we had made a decision that we were going to build a

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_01]: multi-tiered approach to security. It was in called cybersecurity at the time they had named it.

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was just security and it was mostly antivirus.

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe some spam filtering solutions.

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_01]: As we progressed closer and closer to COVID that became more of a thing but it was still

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_01]: pretty much a niche thing. Nobody really wanted to pay for it. They didn't understand the value of it.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Nobody understood the complexity of it.

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_01]: So once we had COVID it's like oh my god we need all these things.

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Those are things that we had developed back in 2010.

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_01]: When COVID hit and everyone was touting cybersecurity, I guess I guess I could get in trouble for saying this.

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_01]: But most of the IT companies that were claiming to be cybersecurity experts were implementing one tool.

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_01]: That's not a cybersecurity solution.

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_01]: We have been reluctant today. We're even reluctant. Sitting here in front of you,

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I hate to say I'm a cybersecurity expert because I feel like no one fits into the criteria of

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_01]: expert because it moves so fast that the best you can do is have

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_01]: take a close second to where it actually is.

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And I've always had a problem with saying I'm an expert unless I know every single thing about it and

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_01]: maybe that's just a me kind of flaw. But I really like to that.

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I feel like you really need to know everything about the entire thing in order to say

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_01]: expert. So I feel like it just moves so quickly that nobody can really say expert to that level.

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And I guess that's okay. But expert in cybersecurity seems to be a really broad scope of

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I implement a tool that I barely understand to. I have cutting edge tools and I'm monitoring and

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_01]: maintaining those on a daily weekly monthly basis if necessary to achieve a goal.

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's what we do. And there are other MSPs out there that are doing just that and

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER_01]: don't want to take away from them. But we've been driving for that since 2008 to 2010 time frame

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_01]: when we made a decision that was going to be a necessity down the road, whatever they were going to call it.

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_01]: We're really ahead. And we wanted to be ahead of it. We really wanted to be ahead of it.

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_00]: So does that mean you've integrated with best breed tooling or that you are like you built your

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_00]: heart stack. Like you don't use any EER, XDR, 80 year. We do. We don't design our own tools anymore.

[00:11:55] [SPEAKER_01]: That's one thing that we moved away from. That was something that became its own segment.

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And we didn't want to be tool developers. But we are very careful about the best in breed

[00:12:07] [SPEAKER_01]: tools we use. In some cases we don't use best in breed tools because the best in breed

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_01]: tools have too many conflicts with other tools. So it really is a we used to describe it as a

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_01]: multi-layer, a blue-ed, pre-fest kind of philosophy. A single layer of anything doesn't work.

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Multiple layers intertwined, working together, give you the desired result. And again that is a

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_01]: what is changing within this tool or the need in which you're using this tool and how do we need

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_01]: to accommodate for that? How do we need to change? And that's an expertise all on its own.

[00:12:47] [SPEAKER_01]: That's a very strict set of policies to ensure that the tools that you're integrating work with each

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_01]: other and achieve the desired outcome. And from an MSP perspective it can't be ridiculously over

[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_00]: priced or obviously too expensive. Yeah, yeah it's going to be priced for the market

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_00]: you're serving. So it sounds like you guys have developed a really interesting

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_00]: cybersecurity practice. But I'm kind of curious what's more interesting to me is the mindset.

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_00]: So how do you hire for that? How do you expand on that? How do you make sure that's not just

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_00]: you? How do you actually make sure that goes across your team? That can be the difficult part in hiring

[00:13:36] [SPEAKER_01]: technicians. For a very long time technicians' worth was measured by the number of certifications they had.

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And I've often found that the guys who, the guys who are really passionate in the industry

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_01]: are the ones that don't end up chasing the certification path at all. They see the value in

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_01]: spending the time they have the passion to chase after the, ooh that thing's interesting. Let me

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_01]: go look at that. I'm always looking for the person who has the passion, who has the aptitude.

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Not necessarily the certification levels. Yeah, I think those are, if you're going to chase those

[00:14:16] [SPEAKER_01]: it's nice to have a few. I very early on got my MCSE certification, which I was very happy to have achieved.

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_01]: And but but after that, I stopped chasing the certifications. I needed to understand how to run

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_01]: the business. I needed to understand the business, the my clients perspective of value

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_01]: and what they were trying to get from the technology. So for the most part, you'll see with

[00:14:41] [SPEAKER_01]: really valuable technicians they start off looking at certifications as an entryway. And then

[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_01]: everything else is what are you doing? Not what have you achieved. Yeah. So that's, that's what we

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_01]: look for in technicians and I, and I've assembled a very good number of technical people who can think

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_01]: outside of the box and, and who question things on a regular basis. And that's really where I think

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_01]: you get, you really have a cutting edge solution or or best in class protection is by continuing

[00:15:14] [SPEAKER_01]: to ask the questions. What could we do better? What has changed? Is this product relevant to our

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_01]: to our stack? Is that does the stack need to be completely revamped because of something that's

[00:15:27] [SPEAKER_01]: changed? There's always that, there's always that thing that comes up in the industry that you're

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_01]: not expecting that you have to change your mindset. You just can't retrofit your tools into a new

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_01]: problem all the time. So you really have to have that mindset, you have to have those procedures

[00:15:43] [SPEAKER_01]: that you follow when things are working so that they work really well and they're not. And you can

[00:15:50] [SPEAKER_00]: shift in adapt very quickly. I love this. This is really core to what I believe as well. And I call it

[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_00]: how have you hired for people like that right? If you're not looking for the checkbox of the

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_00]: surre or maybe, you know, just in a five to six periods, people are very different. Two people

[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_00]: five years experience or what have you so is there any way you feel to figure out or help

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER_00]: discern this is the kind of person that is really hungry and learning and this kind of things

[00:16:21] [SPEAKER_01]: that you shared? There are tell-tale signs of people obviously in person interviews are really

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_01]: nice. You get to really stare into a person's soul and I think that's very valuable. I never

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_01]: under estimate the power of handshake when you're trying to figure out what a person is about.

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Since COVID, we've spread out to some of our technicians, I see them once a year at the holiday

[00:16:49] [SPEAKER_01]: party. So making those determinations of who that person is over digital media can be a little more

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_01]: difficult. But we go through a process where typically the process starts out before me.

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_01]: A team will go and look for a person, they'll interview, they'll look at their credentials,

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_01]: they'll have these conversations, they'll ask the questions that give the applicant an opportunity to show

[00:17:19] [SPEAKER_01]: who they are as a person what they would be about and how they would fit into the team.

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And then from there, once the team has decided on someone I get the final say of,

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I want to see what makes you tick because when you enter into any job, you're really saying,

[00:17:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to dedicate the majority of my life to working. You're going to spend more time with

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_01]: your co-workers than you are with the people you chose to spend time with, your friends, your family,

[00:17:48] [SPEAKER_01]: your children, and that it better be a good fit. So it's process and we've gotten it

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_01]: terribly wrong with people. I've hired some people who are, I say they're really good sales people.

[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And they sold me that they were the type of person that we needed in the company and would fit well.

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And maybe they didn't turn out so well. But again, that's where work in progress as well.

[00:18:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think we could probably talk forever and a love that's a culture and hiring aspects

[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_00]: would love to talk more about that. But I want to make sure folks know how to connect with you

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_00]: to work. So whether it's social, whether it's website, again, most owners listening if they

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_00]: are intrigued by what you're doing or talked about, how should they find you get connected to you?

[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's the way to connect with us is LinkedIn or our website. The website address is a

[00:18:42] [SPEAKER_01]: quality success and agility is spelled AGI-ITI. So agility-success.com and our our our phone numbers

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_01]: out there, contact information is out there. And but if you if you want to get in touch with me,

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_01]: LinkedIn is a good place to look for me and the company. So those are those are the best ways.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Awesome. Did just for everybody who's looking up on LinkedIn give me your name so they can

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_01]: start. And Garza really. There it can be. The company name is agility-AGI-ITI.

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_00]: agility with an eye. With an eye. Makes sure to take the opportunity to connect with Stuart.

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for giving time out of your schedule at STM Summit to speak with me.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. Absolutely. Thanks, Stuart.