Adam Walter of Humanize IT

[00:00:02] Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a September 19th edition of the MSP Initiative MSP Talk.

[00:00:10] We took a day off this week, we were on the road and back in front of a computer and can

[00:00:15] continue on.

[00:00:17] So we're going to get some housekeeping done which is what we do at the beginning of

[00:00:19] every one of these sessions as you know and then we'll get into the good stuff.

[00:00:24] So mspinitiative.com here you'll find everything that we like to post all in one place

[00:00:29] including this session which is being recorded and we will post it under the sessions page

[00:00:34] or YouTube page or pod catcher page or LinkedIn page everywhere where we can post it but

[00:00:39] it's under sessions on mspinitiative.com you can like forward, download, subscribe,

[00:00:43] you know what to do there.

[00:00:45] Next week finally we are here September 25th and 26th in Denver area we are hosting

[00:00:52] MSP Community Mines our second educational event of the year.

[00:00:57] You'll see this is a two day event packed with panels in the morning and workshops in

[00:01:04] the afternoon.

[00:01:05] You'll find our one, two, three, four MSP panels and eight workshops.

[00:01:12] The panels are kind of like an open forum and we bring MSPs from around the industry

[00:01:16] to talk on various topics and the workshops are targeted based to the speaker and what

[00:01:22] their genre is if you would and they do a two hour session each time twice most of

[00:01:28] the time so that various topics that they cover.

[00:01:31] This event is absolutely 100% free as an MSP to attend and register to attend.

[00:01:36] Obviously, you have to get there.

[00:01:37] We understand that takes a little bit of time and a little bit of money.

[00:01:40] So if you're interested in joining us next week in Denver September 25th, 26th,

[00:01:45] go to mspinitiative.com, go to Community Mines all the information's there

[00:01:49] and how to register again.

[00:01:50] There's no 399, 999, 1299 registration fee.

[00:01:54] It is absolutely free for an MSP to come and attend.

[00:01:57] Yes, we cover food, entertainment, education.

[00:02:00] You just got to get there.

[00:02:02] So check it out.

[00:02:03] Then of course what people probably know is better for is the MSP Community Block

[00:02:10] parties. There are four, four, three now and then of the year.

[00:02:15] Let's do it.

[00:02:16] If you go ahead to Pax 8 beyond in Berlin, in Germany,

[00:02:21] as right another country, October 14th at 9pm.

[00:02:25] We are holding our first ever black party in Berlin.

[00:02:28] There's a very beer theme.

[00:02:30] We're going to the Brew Dog, Dog Tap,

[00:02:33] this brewery and it's huge and you'll love it.

[00:02:36] And a very October fest theme, even though October fest actually ends

[00:02:40] in September, if you actually looked it up.

[00:02:42] I know it's weird.

[00:02:44] Germans.

[00:02:45] So check it out.

[00:02:47] Pax 8 beyond Berlin, black party again, October 13th.

[00:02:50] We'll be there if you're going to be there jumping for the fun.

[00:02:54] Then we're headed to Datto County, Miami, South Beach.

[00:02:58] So we're going to the fountain blue, OK, on October 29th, 930 on property

[00:03:08] door of the venue where the conference is happening.

[00:03:11] So meet us there at Datto County, Miami on South Beach.

[00:03:14] And that one is on again, October 20th.

[00:03:18] Sorry, October 29th.

[00:03:20] Then we're going to the big one, I.T.

[00:03:23] Nation Connect in Orlando.

[00:03:26] And if you haven't been paying attention on social media, this is the one

[00:03:29] where we have the huge big and out, you know, like acts, you know,

[00:03:32] like something somebody that you've heard on the radio or in a music video

[00:03:36] or on your Spotify feed speed.

[00:03:38] And this year that entertainer is Flow Rider.

[00:03:44] You've got to be in the greater Orlando area or you happen to be going to I.T.

[00:03:49] Nation, no requirement, by the way, for any of these three to be going

[00:03:52] through the respective conferences, we would love to see you there.

[00:03:55] But these are for the community.

[00:03:56] So if you just happen to be in the area, you can join us.

[00:04:00] We will be doing this one on the first night of I.T.

[00:04:03] Nation in Orlando on November 6th.

[00:04:05] Again, if you're an MSP.

[00:04:09] Absolutely nothing, no cost other than you need to sign up

[00:04:13] and provide some information for you to join us.

[00:04:15] So free entertainment and concert and block party for the community

[00:04:20] in Orlando, we close out our year in Sydney at DattoCon Sydney.

[00:04:24] So if you happen to be going down under, which it's like fall winter time

[00:04:31] in spring summertime over there, who would have thought?

[00:04:34] So get your swimming shorts on, jump on a plane 24, 24 hours later,

[00:04:38] you'll end up probably in Sydney, Australia on November 12th.

[00:04:43] And at 8 30 PM, we'll be doing a hour block party

[00:04:46] and after party at in Sydney in Darling Harbor.

[00:04:50] So there they all are.

[00:04:52] Lots of entertainment for the whole community.

[00:04:55] Absolutely no cost for you to join us at any of these things

[00:04:57] or for you, the MSP.

[00:04:59] There's some industry offers that you might want to take advantage

[00:05:01] of on the community offers page.

[00:05:03] And then the industry calendar goes all the way until the end of the year.

[00:05:07] And then we start all over again in 2025.

[00:05:10] So.

[00:05:12] There are lots of stuff going on and hopefully you will be able to.

[00:05:38] I am not sure what happened.

[00:05:40] I think we think we lost George.

[00:05:42] Lost George.

[00:05:44] I'm still here for entertainment purposes.

[00:05:49] All I heard is, oh, and then everything just dropped.

[00:05:55] But you are now the new host there.

[00:05:59] Oh boy.

[00:06:04] You got to you got to finish the pitch, Jen.

[00:06:06] This is the backup here.

[00:06:08] You're live broadcasting.

[00:06:10] You got to you got to get this through.

[00:06:11] Is this I mean, I guess while we have you on here,

[00:06:14] you are coming to Community Minds.

[00:06:16] Yes.

[00:06:18] It is in less than a week, which is going to be really exciting.

[00:06:23] And did you know that as a vendor,

[00:06:25] you can attend the workshops yourself as well?

[00:06:30] What if they don't want me in the workshops?

[00:06:32] I'm really loud.

[00:06:33] They want you there.

[00:06:35] The louder, the better actually.

[00:06:38] Usually say, don't invite the Adam guy back.

[00:06:41] I mean, I've got our unicorn shirts and we make a lot of noise

[00:06:45] when we ask a lot of dumb questions.

[00:06:47] Oh, then this is perfect because they're super interactive.

[00:06:51] They want people talking about.

[00:06:54] Oh my God.

[00:06:54] Now he's like in the red room.

[00:06:57] Yeah, sorry about that.

[00:07:01] Technical difficulties.

[00:07:02] I'm working on it.

[00:07:03] But anyway, without further ado,

[00:07:04] we bring on our special guest for today,

[00:07:07] which is from human eyes.

[00:07:09] I T, which I think has not been on the show before.

[00:07:12] So we bring on Adam Walter and Adam, while I'm trying to,

[00:07:17] you know, fix all of the blinking lights on my computer screen.

[00:07:20] Why don't you go ahead and give us a little bit of an

[00:07:23] interruption and some background?

[00:07:25] Yeah, sure.

[00:07:25] My name is Adam Walter.

[00:07:26] For those of you who don't know me, I'm the host of the podcast

[00:07:29] Humanize IT.

[00:07:31] And you see my face on reels and everywhere all over the place.

[00:07:34] We love our unicorns, but I was an engineer for 17 years.

[00:07:38] I wrote through the ranks.

[00:07:39] CISSP I published at SANS.

[00:07:41] I got some paper around Streamline,

[00:07:44] Streamline to application security out there somewhere.

[00:07:48] I got tired of the corporate world

[00:07:51] and decided to start my own business doing CIO work

[00:07:53] for small businesses.

[00:07:54] I didn't know what VCO was.

[00:07:56] I just knew that these companies I was working with needed

[00:08:00] some advice.

[00:08:01] So I started working there.

[00:08:02] Eventually, I got asked to start coaching MSPs on how to do this.

[00:08:05] So I took my gap analysis tool, managed services platform,

[00:08:09] and I started helping MSPs understand how to assess a client's needs

[00:08:14] from a business standpoint and translate that into technology.

[00:08:18] In 2021, I bought the gap tool from my partner

[00:08:21] and I turned it into what was now called Humanize IT,

[00:08:25] named after my podcast,

[00:08:27] which will allow you to talk text sales and business with a client

[00:08:31] without actually having to go through huge processes.

[00:08:34] We just released a product recently called Automated Assessments

[00:08:37] where we'll take a gap analysis of picture of your asset inventory

[00:08:42] and give you a project list so you know what to talk to your clients about

[00:08:45] but keep that conversation business focused.

[00:08:49] Our client to fame here is we are an independent vendor.

[00:08:52] 100 percent.

[00:08:52] We are self-owned.

[00:08:54] We did not come from a big sale.

[00:08:55] We came in and bootstrapped this whole thing.

[00:08:57] Everything we have developed has been because MSPs wanted it.

[00:09:00] It was something, a feature they needed.

[00:09:02] And we really want to help drive MSPs to be more consultative

[00:09:06] and less break fix.

[00:09:11] Awesome.

[00:09:12] Well, that's interesting.

[00:09:13] So so you came from the corporate red tape world.

[00:09:17] Yeah.

[00:09:17] What made you want to come into MSP land?

[00:09:20] Burnout.

[00:09:24] Burnout.

[00:09:24] Okay.

[00:09:25] Well, you know, as you rise through the ranks in the corporate world,

[00:09:28] you get more and more process, more and more red tape,

[00:09:33] more and more, less and less doing actual things that matter.

[00:09:37] I ended my career with doing policy generation

[00:09:41] for critical infrastructure as a director of security.

[00:09:44] And so I realized that man,

[00:09:47] there's only so many times you begin told,

[00:09:49] well, we're not going to do that security thing

[00:09:51] because no one else is doing it.

[00:09:52] And you know, plausible, nine abilities, I think.

[00:09:54] And so you get a little frustrated there.

[00:09:56] And my wife's like, why don't you just start a company?

[00:09:58] Like, okay, I'll do consultative.

[00:10:00] I got the ego for it.

[00:10:02] And so that's how I that's how I came into this world.

[00:10:05] And I didn't know much about the MSP world.

[00:10:07] Again, I was a corporate guy.

[00:10:09] I was an ex-core admin.

[00:10:11] I was very good at engineering.

[00:10:14] I never saw myself as going to be a business owner.

[00:10:17] It just kind of life happens and you flow into things.

[00:10:20] And now I'm a software as a service provider who does consulting.

[00:10:24] And we had a little bit of a culture crisis here.

[00:10:32] And we're like, are we a coaching company or are we a software company?

[00:10:35] And we had to redo our market branding

[00:10:38] because we're actually a coaching company that happens to have a tool.

[00:10:42] Every time you buy our software,

[00:10:44] we actually teach you how to talk to clients.

[00:10:46] We have a CIO, a VCIO entire curriculum built up

[00:10:50] to build a account management process from scratch

[00:10:54] so that you can actually evaluate your customers.

[00:10:56] We're all about teaching.

[00:10:58] Even if you don't get into our consulting packages,

[00:11:00] every piece of software we have comes with a consulting package

[00:11:04] where we will help you those first eight weeks and teach you

[00:11:08] and continue to teach throughout the years.

[00:11:12] In fact, this afternoon, we even have the top of the hour here

[00:11:15] our weekly community update where we talk about what you should be working on this week

[00:11:20] as an account manager.

[00:11:21] It's a 20-minute session.

[00:11:22] We run through an event calendar that you can see on our website

[00:11:25] that shows you like, hey, this week you really need to be planning out those Q4QBRs.

[00:11:30] October is the beginning of QB of Q4.

[00:11:33] You should be talking to your clients about budgeting.

[00:11:35] You should be talking to your clients about what does 2025 look like?

[00:11:39] Because now is when they're building their budgets

[00:11:41] and the first person to the table is the first person to get paid.

[00:11:48] Okay. I'm about to flip the device to Tencent.

[00:11:52] You're good. I can talk all day.

[00:11:54] Anybody who's had me on their webinar knows that Adam Walter can fill time.

[00:11:58] If you're ever at a conference like, oh crap, we had somebody cancel,

[00:12:02] their flight got delayed, just go find Adam and say, hey, the topic is codfish.

[00:12:11] I need you to talk about this for 20 minutes.

[00:12:14] I got you covered.

[00:12:16] All good. So let's be honest, right?

[00:12:19] And I argue this number, I feel like almost every day,

[00:12:22] definitely this week for sure.

[00:12:25] Let's say there's somebody who's like, oh, there's 45,000 MSPs in North America.

[00:12:29] Somebody said there's 90. Somebody said 125. Whatever.

[00:12:33] How much is it?

[00:12:35] It's 70. Don't you know? Come on, man.

[00:12:37] 70? No. It's like a, where does the dart hit?

[00:12:41] What are you saying?

[00:12:42] So the majority of MSPs are sub 10 people, actually many sub five people.

[00:12:48] Obviously there are very big ones too.

[00:12:50] So don't want to exclude them.

[00:12:51] But I'm just saying the vast majority.

[00:12:53] How many MSPs say if you run two, I would think the majority are telling you,

[00:12:58] we don't even have the person in the dedicated chair of account manager.

[00:13:03] Well, I tell people, guess what?

[00:13:06] If you're a one man shop, and I just told somebody this last hour, right?

[00:13:09] I'm gonna call. If you're a one man shop, guess who the CEO is?

[00:13:13] If you're a one man shop, guess who the HR director is?

[00:13:17] The CIO exists. It's who is wearing that hat.

[00:13:22] The account manager exists. Somebody is wearing that hat.

[00:13:26] Who is interfacing with your clients and making sure that you're delivering on time.

[00:13:32] It's probably the CEO until you hire somebody.

[00:13:34] And so we tell people, that person owns talking to the clients about what's making them profitable.

[00:13:44] And that's what a CIO is.

[00:13:45] A lot of people in the MSP industry have a misunderstanding of what a CIO is.

[00:13:50] And I think it's because you're wearing so many hats all at the same time

[00:13:54] that you confuse a director level employee with a C-level employee.

[00:13:59] C levels care about profit and how the company is running.

[00:14:03] So in the early 2000s, I'm going to show my age here.

[00:14:06] We didn't have any CIOs with technical backgrounds.

[00:14:09] They didn't exist.

[00:14:11] They were accountants largely that got promoted into this new division called IT.

[00:14:17] And then they would come to us and go, hey, how are we making money?

[00:14:20] How are we saving money?

[00:14:21] They were very focused on profit and loss.

[00:14:23] And then we as engineers had to learn how to speak like CFOs.

[00:14:28] Because I just want to fix the server over here.

[00:14:31] What are you talking about?

[00:14:33] Yeah.

[00:14:34] I can imagine that.

[00:14:35] So, okay.

[00:14:36] So how did like, is there not a, if you're constantly taking one hat off

[00:14:42] and putting another hat on, when you go to sit down and have this strategic conversation,

[00:14:47] because that's what this is, right?

[00:14:49] This is like, hey, let's get out of the day to day

[00:14:51] unless we'll work on the business, not in the business kind of thing.

[00:14:55] Or do you find that a lot of the people that you work with in MSP land,

[00:15:00] they're just not being taken seriously?

[00:15:03] Correct.

[00:15:04] Because they're asking the wrong questions.

[00:15:06] Hey, George, let's change this webinar today

[00:15:09] and let's just talk about how you're collecting receipts for MSP initiative.

[00:15:14] We're going to really dive into how to upload receipts

[00:15:18] and talk about receipts and how to get them into your accounting system.

[00:15:22] And then we're going to talk about cost center analysis

[00:15:23] and how to bucket each one of those items.

[00:15:25] I can already see you glazing over.

[00:15:28] It's important.

[00:15:29] It's something that needs to be done, but is that the number one priority for you today?

[00:15:35] Now imagine if somebody came in every day and just said,

[00:15:37] I want to talk about receipts.

[00:15:38] I want to talk about receipts.

[00:15:40] Okay, you're going to put them into that bucket there.

[00:15:42] That is now your bucket.

[00:15:44] You are the receipt guy.

[00:15:45] You're the receipt girl.

[00:15:47] And that is all you are.

[00:15:48] And so technical people come in and they just talk about technology.

[00:15:52] Like, hey, you need to replace this PC.

[00:15:54] You need to upgrade this server.

[00:15:55] You need this new firewall.

[00:15:57] You need this new software.

[00:15:58] They're constantly talking technology.

[00:16:00] So they get put into this technology bucket.

[00:16:02] They are not strategic anymore.

[00:16:04] If I have a technology question, I'll come and ask you.

[00:16:07] If you change the narrative, you come and say, hey, company,

[00:16:11] can you tell me about yourself?

[00:16:13] What are you guys making money off of?

[00:16:16] What's causing you problems in that landscape?

[00:16:18] I want to learn about your business so that as technology comes up

[00:16:22] that may or may not help you, I can bring it to you.

[00:16:26] And I can say, oh my gosh, I just read an article

[00:16:28] about those exploding pagers last week.

[00:16:31] Does that can affect your company?

[00:16:32] No, just so you know, that was a specific,

[00:16:34] you know, I can lay it out for them.

[00:16:36] You know, maybe they're concerned about that

[00:16:38] because they use pagers in their company.

[00:16:40] Or maybe a new technology comes out around chat GPT

[00:16:43] and they're really worried about people coming into their website

[00:16:46] and not getting customer service in off hours.

[00:16:48] Well, now I'm going to bring that up with you

[00:16:50] because we know that's a big revenue source for you.

[00:16:52] But if you don't understand your client,

[00:16:54] you can't solve these technology problems.

[00:16:56] You have 10,000 solutions in your head

[00:16:58] that you're right now trying to pick one or two

[00:17:03] randomly to talk to them about

[00:17:05] rather than sitting down and listening to them

[00:17:07] about what their problems are

[00:17:09] that you can solve through technology.

[00:17:12] Okay.

[00:17:13] It doesn't take a big quick switch to the conversation.

[00:17:17] Again, technology is great, right?

[00:17:19] We always talk about technology as just tools

[00:17:22] right? Just tools.

[00:17:24] You know, like we're trying to solve other problems

[00:17:26] and we're just using technology as the way

[00:17:28] to get to a solution, right?

[00:17:30] Here's the problem.

[00:17:33] A lot of MSPs too busy in the day to day

[00:17:35] getting underneath the desks,

[00:17:37] throwing a cable across the drop ceiling

[00:17:39] when they shouldn't, right?

[00:17:40] To go plug something in.

[00:17:41] Four port switch hanging in the closet.

[00:17:43] I'm tall so I just weave it through the ceiling.

[00:17:45] Yeah, I'm not.

[00:17:47] Trust me.

[00:17:47] Like I'm the one who takes all the whole

[00:17:49] drop ceiling thing down with me

[00:17:51] as I fall off the ladder.

[00:17:52] Well, so my point to you is

[00:17:57] in order to have effective conversations

[00:18:00] around strategic stuff,

[00:18:02] you need to do homework.

[00:18:03] And I feel like a lot of the conversations

[00:18:07] going into the meetings with the customers,

[00:18:09] the positioning with the customers,

[00:18:11] the planning sessions with the customers

[00:18:14] or just like, hey, I know what I need in my head,

[00:18:17] but I'm not coming to show them anything.

[00:18:19] And I feel like that's where the disconnect is

[00:18:24] between a decision maker of your customer, right?

[00:18:29] Whatever type of customer they are

[00:18:31] and you being the accountant, HR guy,

[00:18:34] the CIO, the CEO, the front,

[00:18:37] the first line help desk tech support.

[00:18:39] And the person that answers the phone when,

[00:18:43] it's Saturday night and something's melting down.

[00:18:46] Yeah.

[00:18:47] And some of the best CIO level activity I have seen

[00:18:51] has come from level one technicians in the corporate world,

[00:18:54] the people crawling under the desk.

[00:18:57] And the way we changed that was

[00:18:59] we started having them do ride-alongs

[00:19:02] with say the line crews for electrical utility

[00:19:07] or we had them attend town halls with the call centers

[00:19:11] just so they could get a feeling for what was going on.

[00:19:14] And we just encouraged this behavior.

[00:19:16] And what happened was now that they weren't busy

[00:19:20] just looking at the back end of a PC or a server

[00:19:23] and somebody gave them a problem with the organization,

[00:19:27] they're like, why don't you just do this?

[00:19:30] And they're like, I didn't know I could do that.

[00:19:33] My most famous illustration of this is

[00:19:36] a level one technician just came out of community college.

[00:19:39] Okay.

[00:19:40] And he wanted to learn more about the company,

[00:19:42] very curious individual.

[00:19:43] He went on a ride-along with a line crew.

[00:19:45] You know, those people who fix your power lines

[00:19:46] through town?

[00:19:47] He just rode with them for like two hours.

[00:19:50] He came back and he's like, they're still doing time sheets

[00:19:54] by hand.

[00:19:55] Like when we did a time sheet system,

[00:19:56] we built a time sheet system two years ago

[00:19:58] or three years ago.

[00:20:00] Weren't they using that?

[00:20:01] And they're like, well, they don't have any internet

[00:20:03] in the truck and their laptops are kind of like,

[00:20:06] they can't get on the hotspot,

[00:20:08] doesn't really work well.

[00:20:09] So it's easier for them to come in on Fridays

[00:20:12] and fill out all their time sheets for an hour.

[00:20:15] So that's eight people on a crew filling out time sheets

[00:20:17] for an hour.

[00:20:18] He says, so I gave them one of our loner hotspots

[00:20:21] and they loved it.

[00:20:23] And I said, cool, what's the problem?

[00:20:25] I was, he's like, well, it's really expensive

[00:20:27] to do a hotspot for all the crews.

[00:20:29] We have, you know, like 60 crews.

[00:20:31] I'm like, let me worry about that.

[00:20:33] So you're telling me the problem is

[00:20:35] they can't do their time sheets

[00:20:36] or aren't doing their time sheets.

[00:20:37] They're coming in, it's costing an hour,

[00:20:39] it's costing eight hours a week

[00:20:40] for each of these crews.

[00:20:42] And we can solve that just by getting a hotspot.

[00:20:45] He says, yes.

[00:20:46] Okay, well, I'm going to talk to the directors

[00:20:48] and I'm going to get approval for this.

[00:20:51] Or I talked to the, I brought the,

[00:20:53] actually I brought the problem up to the sea levels.

[00:20:56] I said, look, this is happening.

[00:20:57] Here's what's going to take to solve it.

[00:20:59] It's 15,000 dollars.

[00:21:01] Are you okay with that?

[00:21:02] I'm like, oh heck yeah, if it helps the crews,

[00:21:04] then let's do that.

[00:21:05] That identification of a problem,

[00:21:07] of a business problem and solution came from a level one

[00:21:11] tech straight out of a community college.

[00:21:13] This was not a high level engineer

[00:21:16] who was thinking complex thoughts.

[00:21:18] They simply listened to the crews

[00:21:19] talk about one of their problems.

[00:21:21] And I started noticing that happening

[00:21:23] over and over again,

[00:21:24] when I listened to my level one techs

[00:21:26] who are under the seats,

[00:21:28] under the tables of these people every day.

[00:21:31] And I get them, hey, while you're out there,

[00:21:33] be a little curious.

[00:21:34] Chit chat with the person.

[00:21:36] What do they do for a living?

[00:21:37] What are the problems they have in their company?

[00:21:39] And you're going to learn a lot.

[00:21:41] And in your engineering brain has the ability

[00:21:44] to solve problems.

[00:21:45] You love solving problems.

[00:21:46] While your name is industry anyways.

[00:21:49] So when you hear somebody complain about something,

[00:21:50] you're immediately going to try to solve it.

[00:21:52] Bring that back to your MSP.

[00:21:56] Say, hey, I think they could probably benefit from this thing.

[00:22:01] Maybe VR, better iPads, more powerful laptops,

[00:22:05] whatever it is.

[00:22:07] Because here's where they're struggling.

[00:22:10] Interesting.

[00:22:11] Now I agree with that.

[00:22:12] 100% agree with that.

[00:22:16] I'm sure you have because most people have one asked.

[00:22:18] I'm going to ask anyway,

[00:22:19] have you ever watched the show IT crowd?

[00:22:21] Oh yeah.

[00:22:22] I think I've seen the whole season about four times through.

[00:22:24] Yeah.

[00:22:24] Yeah.

[00:22:25] Hello, IT.

[00:22:26] Have you tried turning it off and on again?

[00:22:28] That's not really far off in the reality

[00:22:32] that we're still living it in 2024.

[00:22:34] I mean, my big struggle when it comes to,

[00:22:40] all right, let's try this one.

[00:22:43] You said the CEO is the CIO until they hire somebody else

[00:22:46] to do it.

[00:22:47] Right?

[00:22:49] Do you take a tech and move them into that role?

[00:22:53] Are you hiring somebody from outside of technology

[00:22:55] who may be a good people person

[00:22:58] and maybe not a great technology person?

[00:23:03] It's a bit of a what are you expecting?

[00:23:07] I have found that I can teach certain things.

[00:23:11] I can teach you how to fix a PC.

[00:23:13] I can teach you how, well, I used to be able to.

[00:23:14] Now I'm just an old manager who doesn't know anything.

[00:23:18] But you could teach technology skills pretty easily.

[00:23:22] And what I usually tell people is it's really easy

[00:23:25] to take an account manager style like a TAM

[00:23:28] and turn them into a CIO.

[00:23:30] They have both people skills and some technical skills.

[00:23:33] That's your ideal case.

[00:23:34] Somebody who's a TAM, they like going out for a beer

[00:23:37] with the customer.

[00:23:38] They're gregarious.

[00:23:40] That's what you want as a CIO.

[00:23:42] But you also want an analytical mind.

[00:23:45] And so I tell people, yes, you could take a IT level one

[00:23:50] tech and turn them into a CIO with a little bit of training,

[00:23:54] just a little bit of coaching.

[00:23:55] If they're the right person,

[00:23:57] you can also take somebody who knows nothing about IT

[00:24:00] and turn them into a CIO with a little tech training.

[00:24:03] Let them sit down with the techs,

[00:24:04] let them sit down with the engineers

[00:24:05] and spend some time there.

[00:24:07] What a lot of consultants who are making a big bucks

[00:24:10] off of being CIO is will say,

[00:24:12] it's like, oh, it takes 20 years to become a CIO.

[00:24:15] If that was the case,

[00:24:16] then how do people become CIOs back in 2000

[00:24:18] when there was no history?

[00:24:20] They did a great job,

[00:24:21] which is how we got to be where we are today.

[00:24:24] Now I do have the caveat I say

[00:24:26] that now that we're 20 years, 25 years into the IT crowd,

[00:24:32] into the IT field,

[00:24:34] we are starting to see people with 25 years of IT experience

[00:24:38] where they understand the engineering mindset

[00:24:40] and have, we have weeded out the charlatans,

[00:24:45] the sociopaths,

[00:24:49] and we have let the really good engineers

[00:24:54] who are also social rise to the top

[00:24:57] these people are becoming CIOs now

[00:24:59] and directors of IT

[00:25:01] and they're really good at what they do

[00:25:03] because they are able to see the people side,

[00:25:05] the profit side, and the technical side all at the same time.

[00:25:09] And those are very, very good employees.

[00:25:14] The bad part happens when you have an engineer

[00:25:16] who never got that training

[00:25:17] and never got that understanding

[00:25:19] of what it means to be a leader in IT

[00:25:22] and they get put into an IT role

[00:25:24] and they expect everybody to behave like them.

[00:25:26] They don't have any cultural awareness.

[00:25:28] That's where things get dangerous

[00:25:29] and they don't have any profit awareness.

[00:25:31] So you're running an MSP

[00:25:32] and you're not looking at your profit margins,

[00:25:33] you're not figuring out where you need to be going.

[00:25:36] That's dangerous.

[00:25:38] You can't just work harder and make more money.

[00:25:42] And so that's where that CIO mentality is

[00:25:44] you have to have that business knowledge

[00:25:45] and sometimes it's easier to teach

[00:25:47] than on a technical person to become a CIO.

[00:25:50] Sometimes it's easier to teach the technician

[00:25:51] to become a CIO.

[00:25:53] It all depends on the personality of the person.

[00:25:55] Okay. So let's rewind a little bit

[00:25:59] and try and put this into something chewable, right?

[00:26:02] Small company, not a lot of staff.

[00:26:05] How often are they doing account management

[00:26:08] in the course of a 12 month year?

[00:26:10] Is that once a month, once a quarter,

[00:26:13] wait till something blows up

[00:26:15] and they got to replace something?

[00:26:21] So we talk a lot about cadence in our...

[00:26:24] If you go to our YouTube channel

[00:26:25] we get several videos on cadence.

[00:26:27] We talk about in our community all the time

[00:26:29] and it depends on the size and needs of your client.

[00:26:32] So we call a class A client.

[00:26:34] There's somebody who's bringing in the most money for you.

[00:26:37] Say they're bringing in like 20,000 MRR

[00:26:39] or building a 10,000 MRR.

[00:26:41] So we're sitting down and we're saying,

[00:26:43] how long do you want to wait

[00:26:46] till you find something's going wrong?

[00:26:47] A month? A quarter?

[00:26:50] Because a lot of these small businesses

[00:26:51] they'll sit on a problem for a year.

[00:26:55] They'll dealt because they're scrappy just like you.

[00:26:57] They're trying to just get their business going.

[00:26:59] They'll sit on a problem for a year.

[00:27:00] So on a big client,

[00:27:02] you want to be meeting with them,

[00:27:04] say they have a lot of change coming through.

[00:27:06] You're looking at it once a month.

[00:27:07] I had clients I met with once a week

[00:27:10] and because they're going through rapid change

[00:27:12] we were bidding out a new process for them.

[00:27:16] But then as we moved through

[00:27:17] and got into more of our stride

[00:27:19] we were meeting once a quarter

[00:27:20] to review where we are going,

[00:27:23] make sure we're still on track.

[00:27:24] Hey, here's what's coming up in the next quarter.

[00:27:27] What do we, are we still on track to do all this stuff?

[00:27:30] Is your business still doing well?

[00:27:32] Do we need to revise any of this?

[00:27:34] A quarterly business review is forward looking.

[00:27:37] Even though it says review

[00:27:38] it is forward looking.

[00:27:40] What are you doing next?

[00:27:41] You're going to talk about five minutes

[00:27:42] on what you did last quarter

[00:27:43] but then you're going to spend the next hour

[00:27:46] talking about where are you going.

[00:27:49] You're reviewing with the business

[00:27:51] what they're doing

[00:27:52] so they can tell you about the business

[00:27:54] so that you can adjust your strategy going forward.

[00:27:57] But for small clients

[00:27:59] there's not a lot of moving parts there.

[00:28:01] You might meet once a year via a phone call

[00:28:04] to say, hey how's the hot dog stand doing?

[00:28:06] You're selling a lot this year?

[00:28:07] Any major issues?

[00:28:09] You do anything new next year?

[00:28:11] Let's talk about it.

[00:28:13] That makes sense.

[00:28:14] That tracks.

[00:28:15] All right.

[00:28:15] So size of customer changes cadence

[00:28:18] could be weekly, could be monthly,

[00:28:19] could be quarterly, could be annually.

[00:28:21] But probably annually is the longest period.

[00:28:25] I would not wait any longer than annually

[00:28:30] because what happens then is

[00:28:32] what if everything's going really well?

[00:28:34] You haven't been to the client in a long time

[00:28:36] so we have something called a client engagement score.

[00:28:38] So if you're meeting with the client regularly

[00:28:40] the score stays up here.

[00:28:41] You brought them donuts,

[00:28:43] you gave them a phone call

[00:28:43] say how are things going?

[00:28:44] Hey we're having a beer event.

[00:28:46] Hey we're going to the MSB community mind.

[00:28:47] You want to come with us to the party?

[00:28:48] You know you're doing things to keep that human relationship going

[00:28:53] and if you meet once a year

[00:28:55] you're giving 12 months

[00:28:56] for somebody else to come in

[00:28:58] and do a better job

[00:28:59] of maintaining that relationship than you.

[00:29:01] You might be doing just fine as a technician

[00:29:04] but that relationship matters

[00:29:07] and so you have to see your your client

[00:29:10] as almost like you see your partners in life.

[00:29:13] If you were dating somebody

[00:29:14] and you waited a year to talk to them again

[00:29:16] how's that relationship going to go?

[00:29:19] What about you know your family?

[00:29:21] Some of your family members you don't want

[00:29:22] you don't talk to very often

[00:29:23] and that's fine because you know what

[00:29:25] that you do your touch base once Christmas

[00:29:27] and that's all you need.

[00:29:29] Some of your family members

[00:29:30] you need to be seeing daily

[00:29:31] you need to talk to them daily

[00:29:33] you need to talk to them on how they're doing

[00:29:35] you touch base with your kids

[00:29:37] same thing with your clients.

[00:29:38] Some of them you're going to want to meet yearly with

[00:29:40] some of them eventually you're going to fire

[00:29:42] because there's not a good fit for your culture

[00:29:44] and some of them you're going to want to meet with

[00:29:46] like weekly or monthly

[00:29:47] depending on what's going on.

[00:29:50] That's fair and then how much you know a lot of

[00:29:55] you know a lot of people have said

[00:29:56] it's not a new topic but it's worth since we're on it

[00:29:59] like hey when you come and meet with me

[00:30:01] I just expect you're gonna ask me to buy something

[00:30:04] like this is more of a car dealership meeting

[00:30:08] in the sales office rather than a

[00:30:10] let's talk about you know other things meeting

[00:30:13] and it's like well if things are changing

[00:30:16] you know this is the counter right

[00:30:18] things are changing and we're trying to tell you

[00:30:20] you need to you know counter and address for those things

[00:30:24] most of the time that doesn't come without some sort of

[00:30:27] financial cost to it right like if it doesn't it doesn't

[00:30:31] but unfortunate technology lands it usually does.

[00:30:36] How do you like you know mellow that you know that story a little bit.

[00:30:41] So let's talk about red flags for a second

[00:30:44] if your client starts talking about you're always asking me for money

[00:30:48] that's a red flag right that should be flipping and flying in your face saying

[00:30:53] you're doing something wrong.

[00:30:55] Your your client is see you are a best buy now

[00:30:58] if I walk into best buy I know I'm going to get a terrible price on technology

[00:31:03] we all know they charge freaking too much money for a cable

[00:31:07] but sometimes you're desperate and you just need to get something

[00:31:10] like I need a laptop because I'm flying off our conference tomorrow.

[00:31:12] All right that's how I got my last laptop you know I walked in

[00:31:17] gave him a credit card and I walked out are you a best buy

[00:31:20] are you just somewhere where we see cash registers

[00:31:22] or are you a consultant are you coming in with advice.

[00:31:27] Are you being invited to meetings.

[00:31:30] Hey we'd really like to have George come to this meeting

[00:31:32] because we need his we need him to think about this stuff.

[00:31:36] So to stop being told like why if you ask yourself a question

[00:31:41] why don't my clients listen to me that's another red flag.

[00:31:44] If you're asking yourself that question giant red flag just as if a client were to say

[00:31:50] you always ask you always want me to spend money.

[00:31:53] If they if you are starting to ask why isn't my client listened to me

[00:31:56] that's a red flag saying you weren't listening to your client enough.

[00:32:00] You aren't asking them questions about what's going on in their business

[00:32:04] and so they're complaining about other things.

[00:32:09] So and they're not going to listen to you when you come talk to them about stuff

[00:32:12] because you're disconnected from their bottom line.

[00:32:15] When you pitch a server a firewall a technology solution

[00:32:19] and you don't understand how that's going to affect their profit margins

[00:32:23] or their priorities for this quarter that's why they're not buying

[00:32:28] and you're trying to convince them about security you're trying to convince them

[00:32:31] about principles you're trying to convince them about best practices

[00:32:34] and the back of their mind are thinking I need to make payroll at the end of this month.

[00:32:39] I've got a huge community event coming up where I've got to make sure our product gets out to market

[00:32:44] and you want me to install firewall it's working just fine.

[00:32:50] It's not affecting the way I'm delivering my product.

[00:32:53] So you can say hey look you got a big event coming up next month

[00:32:56] your firewall has been throwing 60 errors a day.

[00:33:00] If we don't get this replaced before that big event you might disrupt that event.

[00:33:04] I would like to get this replaced before the end of July

[00:33:07] so that we can make sure that everything's smooth next month.

[00:33:10] Now you have their their attention.

[00:33:13] That's fair.

[00:33:14] That's fair.

[00:33:15] How much information is too much information?

[00:33:18] Meaning like people tend to just not read things right?

[00:33:24] Like you can send as much you know you can send information

[00:33:26] you can send updates you can send newsletters

[00:33:28] you can send one sentence email I don't know but like bottom line is

[00:33:33] in between those meetings how do you effectively communicate?

[00:33:37] Because technology lands let's face it it's not exactly like uneventful right?

[00:33:43] I mean I feel like every other day every other week something's going down and like

[00:33:48] whether it's Microsoft or Amazon or CrowdStrike or whatever right?

[00:33:52] Something's happened.

[00:33:53] And again that's that relationship components

[00:33:57] and a lot of the channel vendors will try to get you to oh look

[00:34:01] we'll automate this report so you can send it to your client.

[00:34:04] And we'll help you with these these alerts.

[00:34:07] Alert fatigue has been identified as a problem since I was a tier one tech.

[00:34:13] Like people would click okay on alerts and they didn't even know they did it.

[00:34:19] Today you have so many reports so much noise going to your clients

[00:34:22] because this is good information I should send this to them too.

[00:34:26] And so you got these giant portals that get built like

[00:34:28] the client should want to know this information.

[00:34:30] No it's like QuickBooks.

[00:34:32] I use like three things in QuickBooks on a weekly basis.

[00:34:35] Great invoice.

[00:34:36] Does it do a ton of things for me?

[00:34:37] Yes I'm doing payroll, I'm doing my P&L report and I'm attaching receipts when I remember.

[00:34:45] You know what else to do?

[00:34:46] A thousand things do I want to report on all those things?

[00:34:49] Oh it's just going to go into the waste paper biscuit.

[00:34:53] So you need to decide what do you want your client to know?

[00:34:56] And so our rule of thumb is if you too much information if you're in a meeting with a client

[00:35:01] and you mentioned firewall like a QBR you should probably be fired.

[00:35:05] It's too much information.

[00:35:06] They don't care what a firewall is.

[00:35:08] They really really don't.

[00:35:10] Until it breaks.

[00:35:12] What they care that the internet is up.

[00:35:14] Yeah.

[00:35:14] If you hear somebody talk about what's the internet?

[00:35:16] The internet starts at your PC.

[00:35:19] So if you want to get into a technical argument the internet starts at your PC

[00:35:25] and it goes up to the Wi-Fi then it goes up to the internet router.

[00:35:30] And so you got your AOT11, you got your full stat going up to your layer seven firewall which

[00:35:35] is kicking out to an upstream router.

[00:35:37] And so people say the internet's down.

[00:35:39] Okay well you as a technician are like okay which part of it?

[00:35:43] And it's your job and you're gonna assume router or you're gonna assume the Wi-Fi

[00:35:47] and you're gonna go figure it out.

[00:35:49] You have to translate what they're saying.

[00:35:51] They don't care where the Wi-Fi router is.

[00:35:52] They don't care what a firewall is.

[00:35:53] They don't know the difference between the two.

[00:35:55] All they know is that their connectivity to ESPN.com is not working.

[00:35:59] And so when you're talking to your clients remember that.

[00:36:04] Yeah I was gonna say it's an important time of year for ESPN.com all that fantasy football going on.

[00:36:10] Master's tournament is responsible for one of my biggest upgrades to a pipeline ever.

[00:36:15] Really?

[00:36:16] Yeah the C level offices could not stream the master's tournament in HD.

[00:36:23] This was back when live streaming online just was first out.

[00:36:27] And we said well it's because our pipe isn't big enough and they said how much is it gonna cost?

[00:36:32] And we said like so like 60,000 a month.

[00:36:34] All right we're done do it.

[00:36:36] 60,000 a month?

[00:36:38] What kind of internet are we talking about here?

[00:36:40] Welcome to corporate man.

[00:36:41] Oh dude this is like multiple fiber lines bonding from different carriers on some crazy

[00:36:48] like high availability.

[00:36:49] Oh you know just it's not a matter of plugging in one line man.

[00:36:52] If you're if you worked at the corporate level ever especially at the large corporate level it's

[00:36:58] it's a to-do.

[00:37:01] 60,000 dollars on corporate internet.

[00:37:03] Ah I don't remember what the actual number was but it was it was significant round there so.

[00:37:09] Yeah I'd be like.

[00:37:11] They knew that they were growing as a company and this was just the first red flag

[00:37:15] that tipped them off that.

[00:37:16] So why wasn't the pitch hey we can just bring in direct TV and plug it right into the side

[00:37:22] put the satellite out the window call it a day.

[00:37:24] That's not cool.

[00:37:26] It got the job done.

[00:37:28] We had already had the project pitched to them this just fast tracked it.

[00:37:33] I understand you surely got two verses one stone on that one.

[00:37:37] Yeah.

[00:37:38] That is funny.

[00:37:43] Where do you see things going here like generally in MSP land right?

[00:37:47] Like you know a lot of money still out there a lot of big mega MSPs have been formed right?

[00:37:55] A lot of mergers and acquisitions have happened but like you a lot of people were in corporate

[00:38:00] America and I argue and I challenge anyone listening to this by the way go back to 2020

[00:38:07] and then 21, 22, 23 and 24 and add up all of the layoff announcements in technology

[00:38:13] since that time till now.

[00:38:15] We've lost more jobs in the tech industry than we've added.

[00:38:19] And I mean you can argue with me I bring your receipts but I would say I'm not seeing

[00:38:24] so and so companies adding 10,000 new jobs.

[00:38:27] I just see cutting, cutting, cutting, cutting and they've been cutting since 2020 okay.

[00:38:33] So like what does that mean?

[00:38:34] Does that mean that there's more people like Adam who were in corporate America set up you

[00:38:39] hey my own IT shop consulting whatever because I got laid off from a big company or

[00:38:46] is it shrinking?

[00:38:47] Is it going the other way?

[00:38:50] You know it's technology.

[00:38:53] It's like look at the automotive industry, look at historical industries that have matured

[00:38:58] when it comes to technology.

[00:39:00] The low end will always be streamlined and commoditized.

[00:39:05] Eventually PCs will not be something you support any.

[00:39:08] They'll be something that are bought and tossed away like phones.

[00:39:11] You will manage the software and that's it from a central console.

[00:39:16] You don't have to really troubleshoot them very often.

[00:39:19] And that's because we're just maturing as an industry.

[00:39:23] What is doing really well is consulting the practices.

[00:39:27] CIO level, fractional CIO helping companies understand how to make money with technology.

[00:39:32] We're seeing a ton of MSPs especially small MSPs making a killing like 80% margin

[00:39:41] on compliance as a service.

[00:39:44] If you're a 10 man shop and you're sitting there thinking okay we want to get out of

[00:39:48] break fix, we want to get into something that's going to make us some money.

[00:39:54] Compliance as a service people is where it's at.

[00:39:57] Eventually all these insurance providers are going to start requiring that these

[00:40:01] mid-sized companies have SOC2 compliance or something similar.

[00:40:06] They're going to make that red tape and these mid-sized companies,

[00:40:10] these small companies are going to ask who's going to help me with this.

[00:40:12] Right now they're going to look to CPAs to help with their SOC2.

[00:40:15] They're going to look to another industry.

[00:40:18] They should be looking to you.

[00:40:20] And if you don't get on this compliance as a service bandwagon,

[00:40:24] it's going to be just like as if you didn't adopt the cloud back in 2010.

[00:40:28] It's going to be like if you didn't do VMware in 2005.

[00:40:32] It's going to be like if you did not move into active directory in 2000.

[00:40:38] It's a pretty bold statement.

[00:40:41] It's what we're seeing.

[00:40:44] Yeah I mean SOC2 is not a small effort.

[00:40:46] I mean like there's an entire sub-industry that came out just to

[00:40:50] support SOC2 and that's just one framework right?

[00:40:54] Well we're also seeing a bunch of independent vendors come up like

[00:40:57] Compliance Scorecard, big shout out to Tim Golden there.

[00:41:01] Building tools that allow MSPs to do compliance as a service easily.

[00:41:05] We integrate with them at Humanized IT because we know it's that important.

[00:41:09] When you're doing a QBR, when you're automating your QBRs,

[00:41:12] there should be a module in there that says here's how compliant you are with CMMC.

[00:41:17] Here's how compliant you are with SOC2 and it's not just a checklist.

[00:41:20] It's a big industry.

[00:41:22] So we plug into Compliance Scorecard so that you can get a snapshot of that during your QBR.

[00:41:28] And then when somebody says hey why are we why do we have so many at-risk items there?

[00:41:32] I'm like well we need to set up another meeting to talk about compliance

[00:41:36] which you're paying for right now or if you're not paying for it.

[00:41:40] Hey if you really want to talk about all these at-risk items over here

[00:41:43] then you need to engage us in our compliance as a service

[00:41:46] so that we can get that done and we'll have separate meeting for that

[00:41:49] because it is a big item.

[00:41:51] But also the margins are huge in it.

[00:41:54] It's not installing a server where you're getting a 20 to 10% margin.

[00:41:58] On Compliance as a Service, it's all consultative.

[00:42:03] That's fair if you're charging for your time properly.

[00:42:07] Yeah and that's where anything if you're giving away

[00:42:11] Compliance as a Service for free you got bigger issues

[00:42:14] and again that comes through the engineer who thinks that they can just work harder

[00:42:17] and make more money.

[00:42:19] You got to have that business component to your mind.

[00:42:21] You have to have somebody who can help teach you how to be better.

[00:42:26] How to think like a businessman.

[00:42:28] That's fair so by the way that is the line of this episode.

[00:42:34] If you're not doing Compliance as a Service

[00:42:36] that was like and you gave me so many examples right?

[00:42:40] Like basically like you're doing it wrong.

[00:42:43] Yep you're going to turn into a Best Buy here in about five years.

[00:42:48] You'll be and we all have seen it.

[00:42:50] Microsoft's undercutting you.

[00:42:52] Dell's undercutting you.

[00:42:53] Lenovo's undercutting you.

[00:42:54] They're going direct to consumer.

[00:42:56] You can see it happening.

[00:42:57] If you don't see it happening watch reddit.

[00:42:59] People are complaining about it all the time

[00:43:01] about how the Microsoft resellers are hitting their companies directly

[00:43:05] and undercutting their value.

[00:43:08] And so that is going to continue to happen with every piece of technology out there.

[00:43:14] You know what they can't do?

[00:43:16] They can't do Compliance as a Service.

[00:43:18] They can't consult with the company the way you can.

[00:43:21] You know your local area.

[00:43:23] You know your town.

[00:43:25] You know your people.

[00:43:26] And when you build that relationship you can keep that going

[00:43:30] and there's no Microsoft Lenovo or MDM provider that is going to undercut you

[00:43:35] because you have the relationship with them.

[00:43:38] That's fair.

[00:43:39] That's fair.

[00:43:40] I feel like that only scales to a certain point though.

[00:43:43] Correct.

[00:43:43] But the margin is big enough that it doesn't matter.

[00:43:46] I'd rather have 10 clients with 80% margin

[00:43:49] than 20 clients with 20% margin.

[00:43:53] No, that math tracks 100%.

[00:43:56] That math tracks all the time.

[00:43:58] As long as you know again,

[00:44:02] as much as if you're not in the compliance business

[00:44:03] you seem you're in trouble it sounds like

[00:44:05] but you better know your numbers too right?

[00:44:07] Like in order to understand what's profitable

[00:44:10] yep you need to understand how you make money right?

[00:44:12] Yeah.

[00:44:13] You have to understand how you're going to make money five years from now

[00:44:16] and that's what I say.

[00:44:17] Move into consulting.

[00:44:18] That's why we at Humanized IT really double down on the fact that you need to consult.

[00:44:24] People ask us do you do warranty lookups?

[00:44:26] No, we do depreciation because that's what the CIO cares about.

[00:44:30] Do you do this?

[00:44:31] Do you do asset management?

[00:44:32] No, because the client doesn't care about that.

[00:44:35] What they actually care about is are you helping them make money?

[00:44:38] Are you helping them get a competitive edge over their competitors in the marketplace?

[00:44:43] Are you making their jobs easier?

[00:44:46] These are things that you need to be working on.

[00:44:48] If you're not working on those you are falling behind.

[00:44:52] 100%.

[00:44:52] Now I track with all of that so that's interesting.

[00:44:56] So Humanized IT is a coaching company

[00:45:00] that happened to have built some software to help with that process.

[00:45:03] Yes.

[00:45:04] Got it.

[00:45:05] With client delivery.

[00:45:07] Okay and as an MSP do I pay for coaching

[00:45:12] as a subscription model or do I do it an hour?

[00:45:16] We're month to month cancel anytime you get our tool.

[00:45:19] We'll help you find revenue with our tool automatically.

[00:45:21] You can build your stack in there and we'll automatically look at your PSA

[00:45:24] and look for gaps in white space for you.

[00:45:27] So your account manager doesn't have to be highly technical.

[00:45:29] Just click a button and here's all your projects.

[00:45:32] So but then in the meantime we are always helping you learn.

[00:45:37] So the first six weeks we're working with you one on one either in block sessions

[00:45:42] or once a week or when you want to to learn about how to segment out your clients.

[00:45:47] How often should you be meeting with those classes?

[00:45:49] How often should we be in class of these?

[00:45:51] How do you generate more revenue through better relationships?

[00:45:55] Those are things we're teaching you and we happen to have a tool that plugs into

[00:45:58] your PSA so you can present what you're doing to your client

[00:46:00] so you can spend more time listening from them.

[00:46:04] You can build a QBR in our software in like six minutes.

[00:46:09] Sounding takes you to log in, click sync because really a QBR an effective QBR

[00:46:14] to go back to an early question in this in this webinar.

[00:46:17] You can build an effective QBR with zero prep.

[00:46:20] You need a pencil and a piece of paper because your job is to listen to the client

[00:46:25] about what's going on in their business.

[00:46:26] That's your primary focus 90% of your meeting should be listening to them

[00:46:30] about what's going on so you can take those problems back to your engineering

[00:46:33] team and solve them and say, hey look we've got a great way for you to make more money.

[00:46:39] I love that message.

[00:46:40] I think everybody can understand that that's plain English.

[00:46:43] It's not techno Babel where they don't know what you're talking about.

[00:46:47] I made $36,000 MRR as a two man shop doing just consulting.

[00:46:52] I love that.

[00:46:53] I did that for years.

[00:46:54] That's how I was able to buy a software company to convert into what I wanted.

[00:46:58] You as a 10 man company or 10 person company,

[00:47:01] how much could you make if you did more consult to the processes?

[00:47:06] I feel like the consulting thing has kind of gotten buried in the,

[00:47:11] hey well manager services has to be done as this bundle thing and you all need to go this one way.

[00:47:17] Because that makes the channel money.

[00:47:19] It doesn't make the MSP money.

[00:47:21] So all the marketing is around, hey resell this, resell this, resell this.

[00:47:25] Here's a marketing strategy to resell this.

[00:47:27] This is a $300 billion industry to resell

[00:47:31] and they've turned to MSPs and to resellers.

[00:47:33] So it's easy because I know that if I sell this license,

[00:47:36] I'm going to make 20 cents on the dollar or 20 cents on per license.

[00:47:40] And if I sell more of these, I'm going to win.

[00:47:43] But what you don't know is that's not your license.

[00:47:45] That is Microsoft's license.

[00:47:47] And they're eventually going to undercut you when those margins get down to 10 cents

[00:47:51] because it's no longer worth having you as the middleman.

[00:47:55] But consulting, consulting will never be undercut.

[00:47:58] Consulting is something you can do via compliance as a service, via a CIO,

[00:48:05] consulting practice or whatever.

[00:48:07] And you can do it as part of your practice and it will generate revenue for you

[00:48:10] because now you're selling projects that your client wants to buy.

[00:48:15] Fair.

[00:48:16] So we listen to the client, we create projects based on what we listen to

[00:48:20] and then they pay you at 80% profit margin for the work.

[00:48:25] Yep.

[00:48:26] I love that.

[00:48:27] I'll source the work to somebody else.

[00:48:30] Who's IT by design?

[00:48:32] Send the work to them and you just go out and consult.

[00:48:35] Okay.

[00:48:36] I think for everybody who's been trying to just win the rat race,

[00:48:42] maybe need to do a business model shift sounds like.

[00:48:46] Get out of the rat race and go.

[00:48:48] We were consultants in the late 90s.

[00:48:50] Our job in the late 90s was, hey, I heard about this worldwide web thing.

[00:48:55] How do I get my inventory out there so people can peruse it?

[00:48:57] Because I saw the car dealership down the street did that.

[00:49:00] I don't know how to do it.

[00:49:01] So suddenly we became HTML experts.

[00:49:04] I mean, prove me wrong here.

[00:49:07] Talk to anybody who lived through the dot com.

[00:49:09] Like anybody who was in through dot com knew HTML because that's what was the biggest problem.

[00:49:13] We knew how to build PCs because you could order it from Dell and Gateway,

[00:49:18] but was it cheaper?

[00:49:20] It was cheaper to build a white box and deliver it and then offer your own warranty for that back then.

[00:49:25] And then eventually Dell and Gateway undercut us all with HP and we didn't build white boxes anymore.

[00:49:30] No one builds white boxes unless it's for a specific use like a gaming machine or a high end

[00:49:35] machine for a workstation.

[00:49:38] Even then you still go to the manufacturer.

[00:49:40] Eventually every technology thing you have is going to go that direction,

[00:49:44] but your consulting will always be there.

[00:49:46] People will always need to know how to accomplish technology in their business.

[00:49:52] That's fair.

[00:49:53] Where people find more information about you, your company, your community,

[00:49:57] your YouTube, your podcast, all that good stuff.

[00:49:59] Definitely.

[00:50:00] You can go to humanizeit.biz.

[00:50:01] You can check us out on social media.

[00:50:03] We are on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Spotify, Apple.

[00:50:06] You check us out.

[00:50:07] You Google, hit humanize it.

[00:50:09] You'll find us.

[00:50:10] Look for the unicorn.

[00:50:12] We'll be at MSP Community Minds next week.

[00:50:14] It'll be our first time there.

[00:50:17] So find me.

[00:50:18] I was thinking about putting up a post that says I will talk about D&D.

[00:50:21] I'll talk about fantasy novels.

[00:50:24] I'll talk about hunting and fishing.

[00:50:26] And I'll talk about QBRs.

[00:50:27] You're going to fit into that crowd perfectly because the whole point of Community Minds is just,

[00:50:33] let's take down all of the superficial conference stuff and let's just talk about

[00:50:38] things that work and don't work.

[00:50:40] And you walk away with a lot of good information because nobody's trying to sell.

[00:50:45] Like I'm not trying to pitch you to go to this thing, to swipe your credit card,

[00:50:49] to go to eight sessions later, to then figure out, you know what I mean?

[00:50:53] We're all sharing.

[00:50:55] And if you want to learn more, everybody just exchanges their information.

[00:50:58] And then afterwards when you go where you go, right?

[00:51:00] But it's amazing what happens when you put everybody in the room that has that mindset.

[00:51:05] And then all of a sudden the juices get flowing and people let their guard down

[00:51:09] a little bit.

[00:51:09] And then all of a sudden real conversations happening rather than just the surface level stuff.

[00:51:15] Building relationships.

[00:51:16] Relationships matter no matter what industry you're in.

[00:51:18] Relationships matter.

[00:51:19] I think you'll love it.

[00:51:22] So looking forward to seeing you in Denver next week guys.

[00:51:26] I know there's like 18,000 events probably closer to 300 to 500 events a year.

[00:51:31] I know like you got your businesses to run in.

[00:51:33] By the way, Adam if you know my percentage, you can if you want to

[00:51:36] contest it, I'm sure you will next week when you see me in person.

[00:51:39] Is that only 8% of the 100% of IT companies, MSP companies

[00:51:46] that could go to an event only 8% make it the one in a 12 month period.

[00:51:51] So 92 never make it.

[00:51:54] They stay at home.

[00:51:55] I'm planning on next year really heavily investing not in conferences as a vendor,

[00:52:00] but rather in building a community of webinars that actually means something to people.

[00:52:05] So you don't get to travel.

[00:52:07] You should still be able to get this great education.

[00:52:09] And I'm not planning on making any money off of it.

[00:52:11] I plan on doing this because it's the right thing to do.

[00:52:14] It's the right direction to go.

[00:52:15] I love that's great.

[00:52:16] That's great.

[00:52:17] The question is let's make sure people actually learn about it and show up.

[00:52:21] Because if you don't show up and you don't learn, what are we doing?

[00:52:24] Craziness right?

[00:52:25] Hope everybody goes back and rewatches this one.

[00:52:30] Go to check out human eyes IT, check out MSP community minds.

[00:52:33] We're going to be pumping a lot of content after next week because it's just going to

[00:52:36] be a week of content really between a couple different things going on in Denver.

[00:52:41] Adam can't wait to meet you in person again.

[00:52:43] And we'll talk shop because you're good at that.

[00:52:47] And I'll throw a little bit of Philly Flair in there when I get a chance.

[00:52:50] For everyone else, this session will be on MSP initiative.com.

[00:52:53] Under sessions will be on YouTube and Facebook and LinkedIn and your pod catcher and go back

[00:52:57] and then check out human eyes IT's podcast as well.

[00:53:00] Sounds like they got a good series coming and they're doing some good stuff.

[00:53:03] So check that out.

[00:53:05] Two hundred and fifteen episodes.

[00:53:07] Beautiful.

[00:53:08] I love that's great.

[00:53:09] It's a lot of content.

[00:53:09] I think because we are in Denver next week, I'll double check with Jen if we're going to be

[00:53:14] doing sessions Tuesday, Thursdays, Thursdays next week like we do mostly every week.

[00:53:18] If not stay tuned.

[00:53:19] We'll post the schedule for next week online and for everyone else,

[00:53:23] hey, there's all the big conferences that just seem to be jammed into like,

[00:53:26] I don't know, a three month period.

[00:53:28] So hopefully we'll see one of the ones that we talked about in the beginning.

[00:53:31] Catch you on the flip side.

[00:53:33] Take it easy Adam.

[00:53:34] Hey, thank you.

[00:53:35] Have a great day.

[00:53:36] And you too.