Melissa Hockenberry of First Things First Training & Consulting

[00:00:01] Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to October 10th. It's just flying by. We're well into football season and well into the gauntlet of September, October, November, which is a very busy time in MSP IT land.

[00:00:16] So, MSPinitiative.com, we're going to get our housekeeping done here, then we'll get into the good stuff.

[00:00:20] This is where you'll see most of the stuff that we do, including a recording of this session once it's available, which shakes you to our podcast, our YouTube page, like, subscribe, download, forward, share, all that good stuff.

[00:00:31] It is there. Thank you for everybody that came out to MSP Community Minds, both in Nashville and then Denver back a couple weeks ago in September.

[00:00:39] We had a really good community-based event, including panelists and expert workshop holders.

[00:00:45] We like this format. I think we got really good feedback from it.

[00:00:48] We're going to work with other communities going into 2025 to continue this style of format, so stay tuned.

[00:00:54] So thank you, everyone that was involved. For everyone else, I'm sure you probably know us better for our block parties.

[00:01:00] And there's not one, two, three, but four more for the rest of the year.

[00:01:04] So if you're headed down or over or into Germany for Pax 8 Beyond Berlin, we will be there.

[00:01:12] And on October 14th, which is this upcoming Monday, we will be taking you to a Oktoberfest-themed venue, which will be very fun.

[00:01:20] And so at 9 p.m. on Monday after, and it's in the schedule.

[00:01:24] So if you look at your Pax 8 Beyond agenda, you'll see the MSP Community Black Party is there.

[00:01:29] We will be taking you to BrewDog Dog Tap place, which is like a brewery-style feel in Berlin.

[00:01:36] So make sure to register ahead of time. We'll see you there.

[00:01:39] Then I'm going to turn right back around, head into hopefully a dried-out Florida, and hopefully everybody down there is doing okay.

[00:01:47] I heard that the second of two hurricanes has like lost some steam coming into Florida.

[00:01:52] So be safe. But we're hearing that everything should be okay for Miami at DattoCon.

[00:01:58] So we're going to be on property inside of the Fountain Blue at Live Nightclub, which apparently is a pretty popular place down in South Beach.

[00:02:05] So on October 29th at 9.30 p.m., you're going to walk into the hotel lobby of the conference venue and bam, you're going to be right there at Live Nightclub.

[00:02:12] We have the whole thing locked out for you. No need to walk out the front door and get on any buses.

[00:02:18] So we'll see you there. Make sure to register ahead of time for DattoCon in Miami.

[00:02:24] Then, you know, as if we don't like Florida enough, we're headed up from Miami to Orlando for IT Nation.

[00:02:32] And on November 6th, like we've been doing for the last eight years in a row this year at Icon Park,

[00:02:38] again, we will be bringing you the MSP Community Block Party with our entertainment headliner this year is Flo Rider,

[00:02:47] because we're in Florida. So not why not Flo Rider? Because that's kind of the name of the artist.

[00:02:53] So definitely join us for that free, you know, event for the MSP community and concert here.

[00:03:00] Make sure to register ahead of time. And then, you know, since we like planes and apparently a lot of time in the air to catch up on binge watching of series of TV shows,

[00:03:08] we're headed to DattoCon Sydney. So we're headed the second time this year headed down to Sydney.

[00:03:13] Apparently, we've been missing you guys for so many years because, you know, COVID locked your island down.

[00:03:18] So we came twice in a few months. So on November 12th, which is the second night of DattoCon Sydney,

[00:03:24] we're going to literally make a right hand turn out of the hotel venue, walk down maybe five minutes and we will have a party for you on November 12th at 830 p.m.

[00:03:34] in Darling Harbor in Sydney. So check out our community offers.

[00:03:38] And if you can take advantage of them, great. And our industry calendar, which takes you all the way to the end of the year,

[00:03:44] which I don't know, 300 plus events, plenty of things to go to. They're all there for you.

[00:03:48] That is the housekeeping. And we're off to the third time we're bringing our guests on to the podcast today.

[00:03:58] Melissa Hockenberry, who I'm sure will tell you a lot of things about her Datto Autotask and DattoCon

[00:04:04] and Autotask community live history because she's probably been at many of them. Welcome back to the show.

[00:04:10] Thank you so much. You're doing things in threes and four. So I'm glad I'm one of the third times here.

[00:04:15] That's quite an impressive run there. I get to go to Newark in the next couple of weeks.

[00:04:20] That's like New Jersey.

[00:04:23] I got nothing.

[00:04:24] Jen loves Newark. She just finished watching Sopranos not long ago. So she's all about Newark.

[00:04:29] There you go. Well, Jen, I'm 50% Italian, come from a hundred percent Italian mama. So I live Sopranos actually.

[00:04:36] So, but she could have been on the show.

[00:04:41] So, yes, I was looking at that DattoCon. I'm like, man, I was just talking to somebody this week about Paris.

[00:04:46] I got to do the DattoCon Paris with Magnus, who was just on the channel program, all-star thing.

[00:04:54] And I've done Barcelona. I did the UK. That was actually not, oh, I did the Netherlands. That was beautiful.

[00:05:01] I got to do, I got to do Kuchenhoff, the eight weeks when the garden is in full bloom.

[00:05:09] I was actually there during that time.

[00:05:11] And that was amazing because we never really had time around those events, right?

[00:05:14] Like literally people are like, oh, it's so luxurious.

[00:05:16] So you're like, yeah, the airport really nicely signaged.

[00:05:20] But the hotel lobby looks really nice and the lobby bar is busy, but like about short of that, I see that in the airport.

[00:05:26] And yeah, no, I get it.

[00:05:28] I remember the very last Autotask Community Live, right?

[00:05:33] It was at the Diplomat in Fort Lauderdale or Hollywood, whichever it is.

[00:05:37] And I remember there were like Bill Clinton was there. Hurricane came in like the week before, like it got the place cleaned up just in time.

[00:05:47] And like, but like the rest of the area was not happy, you know, in terms of like they were still cleaning up things.

[00:05:54] So, you know, interesting how that all works.

[00:05:56] And for anyone that hasn't heard me say it in the last two days, I saw that Disney World and specifically Cinderella's Castle has been through 77 hurricanes prior to the one that's there right now.

[00:06:08] And it's never been damaged.

[00:06:09] So I don't know what they built that out of, but apparently they figured it out.

[00:06:13] We should take a page.

[00:06:14] It's magic.

[00:06:15] Yeah, Mickey Mouse.

[00:06:17] They have a force field around it that is no one else figured it out.

[00:06:22] Yeah, they don't make them like they used to.

[00:06:24] No, well, that's true.

[00:06:25] I can't imagine what that thing's made of.

[00:06:26] We may not want to know what that thing's made of.

[00:06:29] It's all in the magic for sure.

[00:06:31] We have to do the underground tour.

[00:06:33] Maybe they'll tell us.

[00:06:34] Yeah.

[00:06:35] So it's interesting, right?

[00:06:37] They brought back Autotask Community Live as a pre day to DattoCon.

[00:06:43] So it's like a whole like last year, they only expected 300 people to show up and I think 650 people showed up to that pre day.

[00:06:50] So Autotask is still very much in the conversation.

[00:06:52] I don't know if you knew that.

[00:06:54] I did.

[00:06:55] I did.

[00:06:55] You know, because I can take credit literally.

[00:06:58] I was one of the that used to be the first boot camps we ever did.

[00:07:03] Len DiCostanza, myself and Steve Noll did the very first one in Nashville.

[00:07:09] A matter of fact, I don't think we did it the first year.

[00:07:11] We just did the regular like two and a half day conference.

[00:07:13] And then the first time we did it, the three of us did it and that became kind of a absolute element of those those pre days.

[00:07:24] And my last DattoCon Paris was the I think it was the first time I did not present my on my own.

[00:07:30] Like I just was supervising the six workshops that we did in there.

[00:07:34] That made my heart happy to hear that was coming back and that there was such a great response because, you know, in reality, conferences are 100% about education like good conferences.

[00:07:43] That is truly not just a word they throw around.

[00:07:47] It's about like you walk out better using the product.

[00:07:50] I just in the last year have taken the time to trademark the phrase, a trained customer is a retained customer.

[00:07:58] I like that. That is that is clever.

[00:08:03] I did.

[00:08:04] And I said it for years because we never want to put the emphasis on education because we're thinking cost center cost center.

[00:08:11] And I'm like, no reduction in attrition, like knowledge, like we will stay with the ugly product.

[00:08:18] We know more than skipping to a new one.

[00:08:21] Now, now the cost of changing has been reduced greatly.

[00:08:25] However, it's still people like what they know.

[00:08:28] And some of the people that you most need to win on software like PSAs are accounting and finance individuals, and they will stick their heels in and like just make your life a living hell.

[00:08:41] Lack of a better word, if you choose to change and any PSA that has that accounting, you know, financing, invoicing, billing, that kind of element to it.

[00:08:50] You have to consider that that person and that person is not going to like it.

[00:08:54] And if that person doesn't like it, your revenue is not getting out the door.

[00:08:58] So this is, this is, this is all there is to it.

[00:09:00] You know, cause you know, we talk, I talked to a lot of people on both sides of the aisle, MSPs and the vendors who sell them things.

[00:09:10] And, and, and in both conversations, I'm like, what is your ideal customer?

[00:09:16] Right? Like what's the profile of who you're trying to sell to so that we're not having, you know, the wrong fit.

[00:09:20] And it's funny when I talk to the vendors, particularly software vendors that sell to MSPs, they're like, well, we need an MSP that has adopted a PSA.

[00:09:29] And I'm like, okay.

[00:09:31] I was like, here's the problem.

[00:09:33] A lot of people buy it and then never do the right thing to use it.

[00:09:38] And like, that's where the mileage varies conversation comes in.

[00:09:41] Right.

[00:09:42] Where like, you know, like they're, you know, we always hear they're only using 10%, 15%, 20% of the thing that we're talking about.

[00:09:49] And then, you know, and then when you go to ask the question, right?

[00:09:52] Like when they're like, Hey, you know, do you tie into this?

[00:09:56] Like, I know plenty of MSPs.

[00:09:59] So you're the comment you just made earlier that are not invoicing out of their PSA.

[00:10:03] And I'm like, that's half the magic.

[00:10:05] No, like if that part isn't turned on, I think you're missing a lot of the whole point.

[00:10:10] Yes.

[00:10:10] Yeah, definitely.

[00:10:11] I was just talking to a peer that's doing some work with HubSpot.

[00:10:16] And I said, you know, all I can tell you from 18 years of working in software and two or three of those of just doing straight implementations, all I did for a while, is that people, you need to dedicate someone to the process.

[00:10:28] And then you need to embrace training, embrace training other individuals, your newest people, embrace your new people going directly to that vendor to learn, because then you stay up to speed on what is new.

[00:10:44] What's been released.

[00:10:45] You know, a lot of times we want to grapevine our training.

[00:10:48] And that's not the way to do it with those platforms.

[00:10:50] Like let somebody who has the time go learn from the vendor and good vendors should have opportunities for your new people to be trained directly from them.

[00:11:00] That doesn't cost you any money.

[00:11:01] I mean, I, I 100% agree with, I know you can tell I'm not getting my paycheck anymore.

[00:11:08] But in reality, I, I mean, I agree in the certifications and those kinds of things.

[00:11:12] Those are great to have, but there should be a way to get at least your average end user up to speed without having to pay, you know, additional costs to that because there's going to be turnover.

[00:11:22] There's going to be a way to get at least your average end user up to speed on the customer.

[00:11:23] And you want adoption to your platform.

[00:11:26] You want those brand new people to have learned directly from the source, be using it better than everyone else in the company.

[00:11:32] Right.

[00:11:32] And have that one thing up like as a new employee, what a great feeling to be like, I know this better than the dude who's been here three years because of how I've been trained.

[00:11:41] I like that.

[00:11:42] So, so then the conversation just this past week, I was having with someone who was like, well, the side product that ties into the PSA,

[00:11:52] the PSA ecosystem product that everybody's, you know, whatever you're using to run your IT services business, technology business is complicated to set up.

[00:12:01] And I'm like, but the PSA is complicated to set up.

[00:12:04] Like who sets up the PSA, a real PSA, not just a ticketing system, a real PSA.

[00:12:10] Can what's this?

[00:12:12] You did it.

[00:12:13] What's the shortest amount of time at all to get that running?

[00:12:16] 10 hours, 15 hours, 20 hours.

[00:12:18] Like it's not key star drive.

[00:12:20] But no, not at all.

[00:12:22] And that was a frustration early on.

[00:12:25] You know, when auto test was new there, we had an occasional salesperson who might want to sell it as a word document.

[00:12:35] And that was insanely frustrating.

[00:12:37] And luckily that got fixed pretty quickly.

[00:12:41] And we had a really good team that understood selling value, but that's the challenge is it's not, I mean, I would say honestly, 20 to 30 hours and real dedicated hours.

[00:12:53] Not like, oh, watching YouTube.

[00:12:54] Hear this guys.

[00:12:56] When you're watching this episode, 20 to 30 hours.

[00:13:00] Yes.

[00:13:01] Like we, like, when I see some vendor asking for two or three hours and you're talking about plugging into a system that takes 30 hours to deploy.

[00:13:13] I mean, are we having, are we having the argument about it's complicated?

[00:13:17] I mean, we are talking about a complicated conversation.

[00:13:20] No.

[00:13:21] Right.

[00:13:22] And I think the thing to remember is this.

[00:13:24] If you do this, as with everything, you're doing it in a phased approach.

[00:13:28] Right.

[00:13:28] So that's not saying you're not using auto task for 30 hours.

[00:13:32] Right.

[00:13:32] In reality, auto task, connect wise, whatever, there's elements that you can get up and running on.

[00:13:36] The problem is everybody does that little bit.

[00:13:38] Like you said, I'm using it for ticketing.

[00:13:40] I mean, I remember the phone calls in the like 08, 09 kind of crashing recession time where people would call and be like, you're a really expensive ticketing system.

[00:13:48] And I wouldn't deny that.

[00:13:50] Like, you're right, because we're not a ticketing system.

[00:13:53] Like you've got to start using this other elements and get rid of these other and save yourself the time.

[00:13:59] And that's the problem with it is that those 30 hours don't have to come in the first three weeks to get some value.

[00:14:04] You can get up and running quickly with some of these systems on the basics, but then you've got to be ready to continue to do phase three and phase four and phase five to get yourself completely together.

[00:14:16] Time out.

[00:14:17] Time out.

[00:14:18] Listen, there's a lot of newer.

[00:14:20] There's newer players in this conversation.

[00:14:22] Right.

[00:14:23] Yeah.

[00:14:24] There's a problem.

[00:14:25] The self-guided implementation usually fails.

[00:14:29] I'm just going to be honest with you.

[00:14:31] Right.

[00:14:31] Like, hey, let me go through the document.

[00:14:33] Let me watch the videos.

[00:14:34] Let me click what they clicked in one and see if I like because these people who tried that route tend to not have enough dedicated time to go to follow it the path to get to the end.

[00:14:46] Right. They'll start and then they'll get busy and then they'll come back and then they'll forget where they and then by the time it's done, it's half set up.

[00:14:53] And then, you know, listen, I understand that, you know, time has a value.

[00:15:00] And if somebody's charging you consulting to do it, but if you know how much more expensive is it to have a half working thing running for years.

[00:15:12] And then what I come to what I hear and I don't know what your experience is, but I'm sure you'll tell us is like sometimes they almost have to hit the reset button and start from scratch because it's so dirty.

[00:15:22] Like it almost doesn't. It's like too hard to clean up. You almost need to re implement.

[00:15:27] Yes, I can't say that I heard my knowledge of that. I would have to say is probably six to eight years old of how often but I definitely had clients who would come back and be like, can we just start again?

[00:15:39] Right. Because you and I don't know what vendors are doing to do a better job of that, because I know there was discussions in the House of Autotask of like, how do we help people with that?

[00:15:49] I don't know what Halo does or any of those guys. But when it comes down to it, I want to add to your point of, yeah, you try to give the dedicated hours.

[00:15:57] The other thing is that people are not good brainstorming with themselves. When it comes down to this process, you have to have somebody to bounce things off of.

[00:16:05] You know, as a as a entrepreneur right now, I value the humans I still have in my life that I can say, is this a crazy idea? Does this make any sense?

[00:16:13] Because it makes perfect sense in my brain. Right. And I'm I'm currently setting up my own like little CRM and I'm like, boy, that makes sense.

[00:16:20] And then I show it to even my husband and he's like, what do you mean by that? And I was like, but it'd be perfect sense. Right.

[00:16:25] You have to vet these things out with someone else because everything makes sense in our brain.

[00:16:30] And then you put it out in the wild and people are like, what did you mean by in source?

[00:16:34] Like in source from this source or in source from that source or is what about this?

[00:16:39] You honestly need a group of people. And if you're trying to do it by yourself, a if you're a one person shop, you're probably killing yourself with PSA.

[00:16:47] In all sincerity, I just you've got to find a different way to get things started and and think through.

[00:16:52] I keep pushing my clients to think, think two or three years down the road.

[00:16:57] And it's actually not that hard to do. Think about if I add three people to this, is this going to make sense?

[00:17:05] And maybe you're in a peer group or something like that. Right.

[00:17:08] And you need to go out and bounce that off to that peer group where you just have people you've met at DatoCon or IT Nation or something like that.

[00:17:15] Get those people and get them together and be like, hey, guys, I'll do this for you guys and gals.

[00:17:20] I'll do this for you. You do this for me. I just need a gut check on the structure seems to make sense to me,

[00:17:25] but does it make sense to you? And there's a point where other people can't always inform.

[00:17:30] But you have to have more than one person helping you out on this.

[00:17:34] That's fair. I think part of the problem. And we talked about this on the past sessions, but like.

[00:17:41] You know, and you as an implementer, at least in your past, like somebody comes to you, they're like, what's what are people normally do?

[00:17:48] What do you recommend we should do here? And like these are business decisions, right?

[00:17:52] Like the software, like do you morph your business to how the software works or do you morph the software to how the business works?

[00:17:59] This is like the age old question that, by the way, in 2024 is still happening.

[00:18:04] It is still happening. So like, by the way, like, you know, let's say you set it up.

[00:18:11] Like in the default mode, just to get it off the ground. And then you do add those three, four people.

[00:18:16] Now, all of a sudden, you might need to change this thing. It needs to work differently. Right.

[00:18:21] And like this is part of the people don't have the process down.

[00:18:25] People haven't documented how they're doing what they're supposed to be doing.

[00:18:28] And when it comes time to finally do that. Like they're almost restarting.

[00:18:36] Yes. And a couple of things I'll add to that. Simplicity is your friend at the beginning.

[00:18:41] Right. I have a tendency, I'll tell you, I implemented a accounting of what I want to say, a fund based accounting system in my church probably over a decade ago.

[00:18:51] And the like person, the MBA in me who had a few too many financial accounting classes had this massive structure of numbering sequence.

[00:19:02] And, you know, and now my friend comes in and takes it over and she's like, who did this?

[00:19:06] And I'm like, that would be me in my like 40s when I wasn't smart.

[00:19:13] But it's true. Like simple is your best friend, because if I decide those ticket priorities or sources or whatever, just to make it an easy conversation don't fit for me, then I'm changing three and not 33.

[00:19:26] Like, so if you're really not sure, just keep it simple.

[00:19:29] And I know that sounds like what people hear, but you don't, we get excited and we start to think of all the different ways of what I could do this and I could do this.

[00:19:37] And every single time you're looking at a configuration system, I would always say to people, think about how identifying that data is going to help you make decisions.

[00:19:46] And if you can't think of a way that that tag or, you know, priority or whatever is going to inform a decision, don't do it.

[00:19:55] Keep it at the higher level. And then when you can answer a question with it, bring it in.

[00:20:00] But that's the hard part of this. I mean, and I think, and you're not going to get it all right the first time.

[00:20:07] I just read a great book called Finish by Johnny Cuff.

[00:20:10] And it really talks about how much perfectionism is just your outright enemy.

[00:20:15] Like there are people who have been a day away from launching their whole new, you know, like beautiful line of art and they've ripped the art up and shredded it.

[00:20:25] Because what if somebody doesn't like it or what if we do this or what if, and I always say to people, if your what ifs are like 10 to 15 to 20% likely to happen, forget about them.

[00:20:36] It's great that you're thinking through those scenarios, but you got to work to the 80% of the time.

[00:20:40] You know, you can, we can have an hour long discussion on a scenario that takes, that happens one in 10 times.

[00:20:46] That's fair. That's fair. Analysis by paralysis or whatever they say.

[00:20:50] At the end of the day, here's the problem. This technology industry that we all circle around.

[00:20:58] I mean, the average, you know, company tends to have a lot of different things that they're juggling, right?

[00:21:05] Because that's, you know, like, hey, if I sell more, I make more.

[00:21:09] And it's like, if you sell more, you have to deal with more.

[00:21:13] I don't know if it's actually profitable for you.

[00:21:15] And see, this is comes back to the whole business conversation again.

[00:21:19] Like, number one, bad customer, more time, you're not making money.

[00:21:23] Number two, just because somebody else says they're doing it doesn't mean that you should be doing it.

[00:21:29] If you can't find a way to do it scalably, profitably, consistently, reproducibly, then you're doing a lot of one-offs.

[00:21:35] A lot of one-offs mean that there is no documentation.

[00:21:38] It's all in your head.

[00:21:39] And the next person coming in behind you is relearning.

[00:21:42] None of this scales.

[00:21:43] None of this is good.

[00:21:44] This makes this business hard.

[00:21:47] And by the way, when you're putting in a system to help you do this, if it's not consistent and reproducible, how does the system help?

[00:21:57] Correct.

[00:21:58] You're just continually doing things every single time, and it's different.

[00:22:01] And, like, that doesn't get you anywhere other than nowhere.

[00:22:06] Yes.

[00:22:06] And the last year, I've had interesting conversations with people about, well, who are you and what are you about?

[00:22:11] That sounds real, you know, deep.

[00:22:13] But that's the reality of it.

[00:22:15] Your statement of just because someone else is doing this with this product means you can.

[00:22:20] No, you're right.

[00:22:21] It doesn't mean it.

[00:22:22] Nor does it mean you should.

[00:22:24] Nor does it mean it's healthy for you.

[00:22:26] Nor does it mean it's going to improve your customer experience.

[00:22:28] You know, just selling more of a product could actually take down your profitability.

[00:22:33] Because what does that product look like to invoice?

[00:22:36] How easy is it to service?

[00:22:38] How easy?

[00:22:39] I mean, all of these elements you have to think of.

[00:22:40] And to that point, right?

[00:22:42] Like, I think we've all, especially in the peer group lane, which is great, by the way.

[00:22:47] If you can, do it, right?

[00:22:49] Like, and I've seen some very good success stories coming out of, hey, instead of learning out of a book,

[00:22:55] who's giving you ideas that haven't been really spelled out on what does it look like to actually do it,

[00:23:02] go talk to somebody who actually did something.

[00:23:04] And then find out from them why it worked or why it failed.

[00:23:09] I actually learned more from why it failed.

[00:23:11] But I digress.

[00:23:11] That's just me.

[00:23:13] Bottom line is there's a lot of people who get up on the screen, a session, a breakout session, a PowerPoint,

[00:23:21] that tell you a lot of conceptual things, right?

[00:23:24] Like, it's no different than, you know, school in a lot of cases, right?

[00:23:28] They're like, well, here's the theory behind this.

[00:23:30] And it's like, what's the real world story here?

[00:23:32] How does this apply?

[00:23:33] And so this is the problem I find constantly and still today in technology land, right?

[00:23:38] Like, you don't know what's happening until your boot's on the ground and you're in the middle of it, number one.

[00:23:45] Number two, you know, you may not have the same capability as the next company, right?

[00:23:49] And so, like, you're dealing with a different set of cards, okay?

[00:23:54] So, like, I want, you know, if you want to learn what's the best way, what's the most efficient way to run your business,

[00:24:01] if you can, and I've been lucky, right?

[00:24:04] I've been able to walk in many technology businesses, many MSPs, and, like, open behind the curtain and actually see how it's done, right?

[00:24:11] But Darren Crane, thanks, says, CW Manage took over 40 hours of training in two months.

[00:24:19] Hold on, let me finish reading this.

[00:24:22] And two months to build before going live.

[00:24:24] That was about a decade ago.

[00:24:25] Refined over the years, we couldn't leave if we wanted to.

[00:24:29] True?

[00:24:29] It's like it takes a keen vision of your operations, finance, GL mapping, chart of accounts, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:24:34] Darren, I'm with you, man.

[00:24:36] And, like, here's the problem.

[00:24:38] If you think about this, you said this was a decade ago.

[00:24:41] So, start now.

[00:24:43] If you were to re-implement ConnectWise Manage today, would it still take you 40 hours of training?

[00:24:49] Would you implement the system differently?

[00:24:51] You might because your business has changed over 10 years, right?

[00:24:54] There's probably more people, more clients, more products.

[00:24:57] And, like, by the way, the finance people need to be in the mix.

[00:25:00] To Melissa's point, here's the problem.

[00:25:04] A problem.

[00:25:06] When you're starting out, the finance person's outsourced, right?

[00:25:10] You're going to a third-party bookkeeper, a third-party CPA.

[00:25:14] They probably don't even understand how your business really works.

[00:25:19] They're just trying to get your taxes filed for you, right?

[00:25:22] The way your PSA wants your GL to be mapped is probably completely different than what they think.

[00:25:28] Because they don't understand your business, right?

[00:25:30] Like, they're dealing with everybody.

[00:25:31] Plumber, lawyer, et cetera.

[00:25:33] So, like, this comes back down to, you know, like, how do you maximize, you know, your business running, right?

[00:25:44] It's a combination of internal people, you, outside, et cetera.

[00:25:48] You know, it's a big point.

[00:25:50] But probably, you know, and I don't want to speak for you, Melissa, but, like, there is a little bit of gold in having somebody giving you some of the answers up front.

[00:26:02] Rather than waiting to learn every answer the hard way and then having to redo something.

[00:26:08] That's just me.

[00:26:09] What do you think?

[00:26:10] I 100% agree.

[00:26:12] I mean, I am probably in my 30s.

[00:26:15] I still believed in, like, reinventing the wheel because, you know, oh, I've got to do this.

[00:26:19] It's got to be there.

[00:26:22] But I've become wise in the fact that you should learn from other people's mistakes.

[00:26:27] Mistakes.

[00:26:28] Darren, I do see that comment.

[00:26:30] At this point, could become a ConnectWise consultant.

[00:26:32] I totally understand that.

[00:26:33] And you know what?

[00:26:34] The more mistakes you make, the better consultant you would be, to be honest to you.

[00:26:37] But it is definitely true.

[00:26:39] And I think that's why what you said there is really important.

[00:26:41] There are people who do actually understand the MSP DNA, if we want to call it that.

[00:26:45] And that is a huge benefit when you can find someone who's doing that bookkeeping or something

[00:26:51] like that has some concept of even just the SAS model, like, you know, just understanding

[00:26:55] some of those things because it's not easy and it takes a lot.

[00:26:59] And when you do first start out, you know, you're looking at, yes, outsourcing that person.

[00:27:04] And but I think owners don't realize they can explain things a little bit more simply

[00:27:10] than maybe they try to.

[00:27:11] Or maybe they get an interim person who understands it, who can translate it to those third parties.

[00:27:16] But I want to speak to the point you said a little while ago about, like, hooking up

[00:27:20] software to these PSAs, right, that are not necessarily.

[00:27:24] I mean, I'm going to go to Datacon, Melissa, and there's going to probably be 100 vendors

[00:27:29] there.

[00:27:30] I don't know.

[00:27:30] I didn't count, but I'm going to go find out.

[00:27:32] And they're going to sell me every possible thing that can hook into that system.

[00:27:37] Okay.

[00:27:38] Like everything.

[00:27:38] And like to the point where I don't want to take you too far off topic, but like people

[00:27:43] are going to buy stuff.

[00:27:44] They're going to swipe their credit card.

[00:27:45] They're going to get the show special.

[00:27:47] And six months from now, that thing that they just put in that's supposed to connect didn't

[00:27:51] even get implemented.

[00:27:53] Okay.

[00:27:53] So like this happens all the time.

[00:27:56] So anyway, go ahead.

[00:27:57] And I want to point to that because I work with clients where I think owners don't understand

[00:28:03] the impact of that on their team.

[00:28:07] I've had more than one client where I've talked with the team and they're like, wow, they're

[00:28:12] going to go to this XYZ show, right?

[00:28:14] And they're going to come back with new tool.

[00:28:15] And then we're never going to get into it.

[00:28:17] And we're going to bounce this way.

[00:28:18] And that we don't, owners do not see the ripple effect of doing that to their team.

[00:28:23] And ultimately to their clients, like that's one of the things I look at, like, what does

[00:28:28] this changing over?

[00:28:29] I'm working with someone who has changed CRM packages four times this year.

[00:28:35] And this year, this year, are we even working at this point?

[00:28:40] Like why?

[00:28:42] And I get it.

[00:28:43] And they were never very far into it.

[00:28:45] And I think they found the one, but it's a matter of really, um, you know, I do videos

[00:28:51] every week and the weeks that they're longest.

[00:28:53] They're the week that I spent the least amount of time on it.

[00:28:56] It's the old adage, right?

[00:28:57] I'd written you a shorter letter if only I had more time.

[00:28:59] And that's the point with any of these processes.

[00:29:02] If you sit down and think about who are we, what are our goals?

[00:29:07] I could, I could diatribe on the lack of goals in owners.

[00:29:11] Like how do you, you're functioning.

[00:29:13] You've got, and you just need to focus on two or three things and always put your decisions

[00:29:21] through there.

[00:29:22] And if you're going to a show, it's okay to go look at new stuff.

[00:29:26] But is it applying to the three things you want to do in the next year?

[00:29:30] And who is going to own, who has the bandwidth, that's a word some hate, but it's a true statement,

[00:29:36] to actually implement this tool?

[00:29:39] Is it going to meet a need that you and your team have agreed is a true need and a challenge

[00:29:47] and it needs to be fixed?

[00:29:48] And if it isn't, take a card, walk away, watch a demo, leave it.

[00:29:53] Because that is, I think that's the challenge.

[00:29:56] I just think, especially if companies grow, they are accustomed when they're that small company

[00:30:01] to be like, I'm just going to buy this, not going to be a big deal.

[00:30:03] But it's like the, you know, it's like the rope, you know, right near the source, there's

[00:30:07] a little bit.

[00:30:08] But when I whip that whip at the very end, there's a massive lash and the bigger your

[00:30:13] company grows, the more of the people at the end of that lash are feeling it.

[00:30:18] And you don't think they are, but they are, I hear it.

[00:30:21] I hear it all the time.

[00:30:22] And it can impact your customers too, because if your people feel out of sorts and discombobulated,

[00:30:28] unsure where they're headed next or what they should be using or doing, that comes out in

[00:30:32] your experience.

[00:30:33] That's fair.

[00:30:34] No, I mean, discombobulation can be surely felt.

[00:30:36] That I'm with you on.

[00:30:38] I mean, at the end of the day, like there are more mature MSPs that I've run into, like

[00:30:43] they'll have a time of year where they evaluate things that they're potentially going to put

[00:30:48] in for the next year, right?

[00:30:49] Like they're very, like they don't let change happen on the fly.

[00:30:53] They schedule change, right?

[00:30:55] Which is awesome.

[00:30:56] If you have the temperament and the, you know, proper timing in your business to be diligent

[00:31:03] like that, that's awesome.

[00:31:04] For everyone else, right?

[00:31:06] To your point, they stumble upon something as they're walking through and they're like,

[00:31:09] oh, that looks nice.

[00:31:10] And all of a sudden out it comes.

[00:31:12] I would just argue the question.

[00:31:14] And like when you're shopping, right?

[00:31:18] If I go to buy a car before I even walked onto the lot where that car lives, assuming

[00:31:24] you're not having a car delivered to you.

[00:31:27] I've probably done some homework, right?

[00:31:29] And what some of the homework I would do before I buy is tell me what the implementation process

[00:31:34] looks like.

[00:31:34] Do you have that in a document?

[00:31:36] Can I understand what a typical workflow of that looks like?

[00:31:39] And how much time is required and who in my business is required to be involved?

[00:31:44] If I can get those answers now, I can make a time, you know, analysis, right?

[00:31:50] And I think that that's time is money, especially in a service-based business like an MSP.

[00:31:54] So like if I can make that time analysis upfront, then the hard dollars may actually be the

[00:32:00] smaller part of what I'm putting into this, right?

[00:32:02] Anyway, so a couple of things.

[00:32:06] So he did say he redid his chart of accounts based on service leadership 10 years later,

[00:32:10] I think, Darren.

[00:32:11] Thanks for mentioning that, which I'm not surprised that happened.

[00:32:15] Dagley comes in and says, I think as business owners, if we outsource our accounting, bookkeeping

[00:32:18] or any other services, it is our responsibility to spend time with those people, thoroughly

[00:32:21] go over operations in that regard.

[00:32:23] Just like we don't expect the same from our clients.

[00:32:26] Hey, I'm with you.

[00:32:27] Here's the thing.

[00:32:29] Is it unfair to say, Dagley, that a lot of MSP business owners, and maybe this is why

[00:32:35] Melissa is saying, hey, like, why don't they have their mind made up, right?

[00:32:39] On what they're actually about and doing.

[00:32:41] Like they backed into MSP land.

[00:32:44] Maybe they're in internal IT or they were in corporate America.

[00:32:47] They bumped out website, MSP logo, boom, out MSP.

[00:32:51] They never did chart of accounts before.

[00:32:53] They never did balance sheets before.

[00:32:55] Like they understand what's in the bank account.

[00:32:57] Do they even understand what profit and loss statement looks like?

[00:33:00] No.

[00:33:00] So they go to a finance person to say, help me do this because I don't know what I'm doing.

[00:33:05] Here's the problem.

[00:33:06] A generalist, which you'll find in any small Main Street America who doesn't understand

[00:33:12] what the MSP business looks like, is going to set things up like they would for everybody

[00:33:17] else.

[00:33:18] Plumber, the doctor, the lawyer, the architect, who knows?

[00:33:22] PSA brings a whole different complexity to things, right?

[00:33:25] Like they're expecting like you have your game together and like the outsourced bookkeeper

[00:33:30] that does a couple of hours, a month of work probably doesn't understand that.

[00:33:34] That's just my two cents.

[00:33:36] It's what I've seen so much so that some of the peer groups that were referencing through

[00:33:40] this call, like go back.

[00:33:42] And the first thing that they talk about is you need to restructure your chart of accounts

[00:33:46] to assume that someday you're going to sell your business.

[00:33:49] Not a bad concept, even if you never do.

[00:33:52] Because the way that somebody looks at your business when they're buying it is not the

[00:33:57] same when you think about starting up your first QuickBooks account.

[00:34:01] Yes, definitely true.

[00:34:03] And, and Dagley, I think you're right.

[00:34:04] You'd said, you know, we, we should be giving them that insight.

[00:34:07] And you're right.

[00:34:07] I think the problem is sometimes owners don't know themselves when they're getting started

[00:34:11] to be able to truly explain it.

[00:34:13] But 100%, it should be, it should be an explanation.

[00:34:16] It should be, it should be pretty clear to make sure they can understand what they need.

[00:34:21] Right.

[00:34:21] It's like, well, you tell me the right way.

[00:34:23] And it's like, okay, I'm going to get you to the point where you can file your taxes.

[00:34:27] That's not the same, right?

[00:34:29] Like, like the PSA doesn't care about your taxes.

[00:34:32] You know, they didn't build it with that in mind, pretty sure.

[00:34:35] Sure.

[00:34:36] So like, you know, but if you go to the finance, like if you go to a CFO or an actual finance

[00:34:41] person that was in a larger MSP who like lived it, their opinion on things is going to wildly

[00:34:46] differ.

[00:34:49] I would, that's probably the people that the PSA builders went to and said, why should

[00:34:53] the system work the way that you want it to?

[00:34:55] And explain it to me.

[00:34:57] That's my guess.

[00:34:58] I could be wrong.

[00:34:59] That's what has, I think that's, what's morphed it over the years.

[00:35:02] Definitely.

[00:35:02] Even just understanding geographies, right?

[00:35:04] My, my accountant actually just reached out to say, Hey, by the way, I thought you had

[00:35:10] a client in California and you might have to file a separate tax return.

[00:35:14] And I was like, I might have to put a disclaimer on my services.

[00:35:17] They're not available in California.

[00:35:20] I mean, it's true.

[00:35:21] Like these are the little things you learn and you're like, Oh, I don't want to have to

[00:35:25] do that.

[00:35:25] You know, depending on what I had there.

[00:35:27] So it's, it's all the ins and outs, but getting a professional, I fully embrace.

[00:35:32] And then understanding where the maturity is of your company.

[00:35:36] You know, that's with, with what I'm working with now.

[00:35:38] You know, I'm trying to work with clients to get the customer success team launched.

[00:35:43] Now, customer success is not account management.

[00:35:45] It is not the services team.

[00:35:47] It is a separate team.

[00:35:49] I know it's crazy, but some of the best, some of the best MSPs I've seen will have somebody

[00:35:54] who's really focused.

[00:35:55] What size MSP are you like puts in a customer success person or people?

[00:36:01] Like how big are we talking here?

[00:36:02] Cause like.

[00:36:05] Yeah.

[00:36:05] So it's a good question.

[00:36:07] Yeah.

[00:36:07] You're like, wait, how can you get to that point?

[00:36:09] It could just be one person.

[00:36:10] So I want to clarify that it could just be one person, but usually it's somebody who is

[00:36:14] well-staffed on their services team and pretty well-staffed on their sales team.

[00:36:19] And they're ready for somebody who's just going to focus on retention of customers and

[00:36:23] revenue.

[00:36:24] And that can be, depending on how well organized you are, that could mean that you're a 15

[00:36:30] to 20 person, or maybe you're more like a 25 to 50 person, depending on your organization.

[00:36:37] And I'm not, I'm not delusional to think that sometimes this person's going to do some

[00:36:42] true account management stuff, but ideally I think the, I think MSPs that are moving

[00:36:48] through a good maturity model are looking at these kinds of things.

[00:36:51] They're looking at a success team and saying, okay, how does this impact my growth?

[00:36:56] And the thing about this person is they keep an ear to the client and an ear internally,

[00:37:02] right?

[00:37:02] So they might be that listening device you need to say, Hey, you know, CRM number three, could

[00:37:09] we, you know, just reality check here.

[00:37:12] You know, I can't keep track.

[00:37:13] They can't keep track.

[00:37:14] You know, that sort of thing.

[00:37:15] So, so they're sort of, they're an overseer of a lot of different things, but that's what

[00:37:20] I'm finding when I start to talk with people, some really good companies that I see as some

[00:37:26] of the best MSPs have dedicated some time to this.

[00:37:30] Now it's really hard to get them in my ideal of not doing selling.

[00:37:34] Cause I honestly think these people should not be commission-based at all.

[00:37:37] Um, but that's a hard thing.

[00:37:40] It's a cost center.

[00:37:41] It's like, you know, I honestly think that our old financial accounting model probably

[00:37:44] needs to be blown up when it comes to a SAS life.

[00:37:47] And we need to look at things a little differently, but that's pretty big institution for me to

[00:37:51] take on.

[00:37:52] No, no, I get it.

[00:37:53] Yeah.

[00:37:53] I mean, okay.

[00:37:55] So you're, you're at a different maturity level when you can number one, afford this.

[00:37:59] And number, but number two, I mean, you know, retention is not a small topic.

[00:38:03] It probably could do a whole hour on just this conversation probably, but, um, I would say

[00:38:11] definitely in SAS land on the other side of the aisle, it is an analytic that's scrutinized,

[00:38:17] right?

[00:38:17] Like your churn or your, you know, which ties to your attention.

[00:38:21] It's one-to-one, you know, it's very strongly monitored, scrutinized.

[00:38:25] And like, you know, they throw all sorts of fire at it.

[00:38:28] Like in the MSP, Melissa though, like in your experience, the people you've worked with,

[00:38:32] are you finding MSPs getting to a point where they're concerned about their churn,

[00:38:38] which is why they need to put customer success in?

[00:38:40] Or is it like, are we flipping it around?

[00:38:41] It's like, if you don't fit, put something in place now, this is going to be the result.

[00:38:46] And we're just being proactive.

[00:38:47] Is that, is that what we're doing?

[00:38:49] I think it's more proactive.

[00:38:50] Yeah.

[00:38:51] In most cases.

[00:38:52] Now I have had people contact me and be like, Hey, I haven't lost a customer in 18 years

[00:38:56] and I've lost five in the last year.

[00:38:59] And so it's like, what's, what's happening.

[00:39:00] And so they're looking into that, but I think it's proactive and proactive is hard.

[00:39:05] People can't seem to justify, but to me, when you say, you know, afford, I could actually

[00:39:11] honestly say many people don't realize how much they're spending by not having one, right?

[00:39:16] How much their service team is doing the job of what a success manager would do, or how

[00:39:21] much their account management or even outside sales are ending up doing the job of what a

[00:39:25] success manager would do.

[00:39:27] And that's why the majority of this comes into play because I also run into a lot of

[00:39:32] MSPs that don't have job descriptions for their people.

[00:39:35] And they, I'm like, well, you tell me you can't afford this, but do you know if anyone's

[00:39:39] even doing any of this?

[00:39:40] Do you know if that second or third support tech that you swear you need could not be maybe

[00:39:46] avoided if we took all the escalations and conversations from the support team and got

[00:39:53] them into one person, into one house, into, you know, from the biggest clients?

[00:39:57] So, I mean, it's a tiered approach.

[00:39:58] You have to, you can't do success at the same level for every single client.

[00:40:02] But I do make the case that I think people think about it probably too late and they don't

[00:40:08] think about, and I think in the, in the environment where you're in, which I'm hearing a lot of not,

[00:40:14] a lot of people are not talking.

[00:40:15] I'm getting a ton of new logos, right?

[00:40:17] That's not the environment I'm hearing.

[00:40:19] I'm hearing more so we're retaining and we might have a logo here and there, but that to

[00:40:25] me is, okay, this isn't just about retention.

[00:40:28] This is growth because when we get with people and now in my mind, a customer success person

[00:40:34] does still do a business review, but they really are at a higher level of true strategy.

[00:40:39] If I'm doing my customer success job well, I understand to a large degree where my client

[00:40:47] is and where they want to be in a year and three years and five years.

[00:40:51] So I'm their strategist, not just like their technologist and we are aware and I'm helping

[00:40:58] them get there and I'm digging deeper and building rapport, which builds retention, which builds

[00:41:04] revenue.

[00:41:06] Hey, listen, you know, the reality is that you got, I think number one, if you're a smaller

[00:41:15] MSP, five, three, seven, you know, luxury maybe at that size to do something like this, but

[00:41:22] the problem's still there.

[00:41:24] Right.

[00:41:24] Like, right.

[00:41:26] Yeah.

[00:41:27] Although, although I do, I've had this debate, I'm going to call it a few several times,

[00:41:33] right?

[00:41:33] Like the, well, Hey, if they, if they're a business and they're under a hundred employees

[00:41:39] and they needed an MSP, then they already have an MSP.

[00:41:42] And so the only way you're getting new customers is if you're taking them away from another MSP.

[00:41:47] I'm not sure I subscribe to that.

[00:41:49] I really don't believe that of the a hundred percent of businesses that would qualify and

[00:41:54] be able to afford an MSP, true proper MSP that, you know, I believe there's a large percentage

[00:41:59] of businesses that don't have them and that need them.

[00:42:03] Like, I still think there's a lot of upside now.

[00:42:05] I guess geography probably plays into that, right?

[00:42:08] If you're in a rural area and, you know, and there's just only so many people I understand,

[00:42:13] but like, you know, take the NFL markets, which cover about 80% of the population of the United

[00:42:19] States of America.

[00:42:20] Okay.

[00:42:21] NFL and dollar general.

[00:42:23] So sorry, that's their business model.

[00:42:26] So dollar general, take the dollar general slash NFL market.

[00:42:30] Um, there, there's a lot of net new businesses that start on a regular.

[00:42:35] And, and if you're, and don't get me wrong, they close to, they close to, but you know,

[00:42:41] if they can make it, well, I know if they can make it past the first three years, generally

[00:42:46] they're on a track to, you know, growth.

[00:42:49] Right.

[00:42:49] But if they fail in the first three years and they weren't going to make it anyway.

[00:42:52] Right.

[00:42:52] So, or, you know, that's what I've heard.

[00:42:54] So I think that there's a lot of opportunity out there.

[00:42:58] Um, the question Melissa may be for the people that are just seeing a logo here and a logo

[00:43:03] there, they're really probably not concentrating on marketing and sales.

[00:43:09] True.

[00:43:10] True.

[00:43:10] Yeah.

[00:43:10] But I think, um, so I think there's a point where you need to understand the experience

[00:43:17] you're putting people into before you keep driving on the, on the marketing and sales

[00:43:23] side of things.

[00:43:24] Yes.

[00:43:24] You have to pay the bills.

[00:43:25] You have to pay your people.

[00:43:26] Right.

[00:43:26] But there's, it comes a point in your company where you're starting to get a pretty good

[00:43:30] cycle.

[00:43:31] It's not ideal, but you have to then wonder, okay, if I've got these logos currently in house

[00:43:38] that I'm, that are loving what I'm doing.

[00:43:40] Right.

[00:43:41] I'm phenomenal.

[00:43:42] People talk about wonderful companies, right?

[00:43:46] Like I am, they are going to be advocates and they are going to connect in there.

[00:43:50] And to me, if you're not getting enough new logos, the instinct is immediately to go.

[00:43:58] I need up my sales and marketing effort.

[00:43:59] And I want to say, before you throw people into that funnel, could we understand what it

[00:44:04] looks like to be one of your clients?

[00:44:05] Could there be situations where it's not a good experience?

[00:44:09] And so you need to work on getting that a little bit better before you open the gates.

[00:44:15] It's like a soft opening in retail, right?

[00:44:17] So I opened the doors to my brand new store and I let people sort of flow in and I understand

[00:44:23] where are going to be my challenges.

[00:44:24] Where's my technology?

[00:44:25] Maybe not going to work.

[00:44:26] Where are people not going to understand the flow?

[00:44:27] Where are they going?

[00:44:28] And then three or four weeks later, I actually announce it to the public.

[00:44:33] I think that's where we need to think a little bit more is that if I am having this slow

[00:44:37] time, that I'm not immediately freaking out and going sales marketing crazy, I'm actually

[00:44:44] starting to say, am I listening to my customers?

[00:44:47] Do I have places where I'm actually surveying them?

[00:44:49] Am I taking in information?

[00:44:51] Am I taking in what my team is saying?

[00:44:53] Might be challenges or what have you.

[00:44:55] Because maybe one or two logos is actually all I can take on.

[00:44:58] Like I need more, but I'm really not sure I can give a good onboarding experience if

[00:45:02] I got five logos next month.

[00:45:04] And so all of those things, I think you have to answer, you ask some good questions when

[00:45:09] you're looking at a vendor, like how much time, where's the documentation, how I'm going to

[00:45:12] implement it, who has to be in the room.

[00:45:14] You know, that's the same thing I think you have to look at with this is like, what happens

[00:45:18] if you actually do succeed with the sales and marketing effort?

[00:45:21] What are you putting them into?

[00:45:22] And do you have the structure to give a good experience?

[00:45:27] Because I'll tell you this, one or two logos that's having a good experience is a whole

[00:45:31] lot better for you than five that are just hating working with your company.

[00:45:38] That's fair.

[00:45:39] I always somehow wiggle this into the conversation.

[00:45:44] Chick-fil-A.

[00:45:46] Okay.

[00:45:46] I'm now down to grilled chicken only.

[00:45:48] Sorry, guys.

[00:45:49] You know, like the spicy chicken sandwich is out for me, but it's okay.

[00:45:52] So do the grilled nuggets.

[00:45:53] They're great.

[00:45:56] They figured out how to get a lot of people through the drive-thru process really fast

[00:46:03] and like efficient.

[00:46:04] And like they did the tablet thing and they're, you know, they're not, you know, even if they're

[00:46:07] backed up around the corner, they send Sony take 10 minutes to get through like the 35 cars

[00:46:12] that are sitting there.

[00:46:12] And like, but the drive-thru has been around for since four fifties, right?

[00:46:17] Since the highways were built, right?

[00:46:19] Like they figured out a way to take a single location and scale it.

[00:46:24] Right.

[00:46:25] And hopefully other places have learned and figured it out too.

[00:46:29] Yeah.

[00:46:29] At the end of the day, to your point, I don't know if it's customer journey mapping.

[00:46:36] I don't know if it's interviewing your existing customers to figure out what's good or bad.

[00:46:40] Maybe it's a combination of both.

[00:46:42] Customer experience has been talked about for as long as I've been in MSP IT lands.

[00:46:48] But to the point of how mature does your MSP have to be in order to step back and actually

[00:46:54] spend time on it?

[00:46:55] Actually, I don't think you have to be very big, but when you start adding more people,

[00:47:00] you said, Hey, you said earlier in this call, Hey, what if I had three people to this?

[00:47:04] What does it look like?

[00:47:05] That's the, that's the jump right there.

[00:47:08] Right?

[00:47:08] Like if, can you get somebody else that isn't you to deliver as consistently as you did by

[00:47:14] yourself?

[00:47:15] Like that, that's the first challenge, right?

[00:47:18] So I think that experience can take it too long.

[00:47:22] It's true.

[00:47:23] And it's, it's coincidental.

[00:47:24] I didn't even plan this, but my, my video that launches today, because I do one weekly

[00:47:29] is talking about that exact same thing, delegating what is in your MSP to other people.

[00:47:34] So you as an owner can grip growth.

[00:47:36] So you can say, I'm going to hold on to the growth of my company, but you do that through

[00:47:42] something as simple as I'm going to go walk through this.

[00:47:45] The number of owners that love to still procure and quote equipment is hilarious to me.

[00:47:51] So I love these people.

[00:47:52] I truly love them, but, but they're like, it's my baby.

[00:47:56] And I, so you schedule a teams or zoom meeting with yourself to record and transcribe exactly

[00:48:01] what you're doing and you talk through it like a software trainer, anything you're doing

[00:48:05] on the computer screen, you are talking about what you're doing so that that transcription

[00:48:10] alone, especially if you're using like copilot or something, that's going to make it pretty

[00:48:13] already becomes your documentation, right?

[00:48:16] And then you sit in on a meeting with the people you're going to delegate this to, and

[00:48:20] they follow that documentation.

[00:48:22] You have the documentation pulled up electronically.

[00:48:23] You cannot interject.

[00:48:25] They have to do it as you tell them.

[00:48:27] The moment they start to do something wrong, you can then say stop and you fix your documentation

[00:48:32] and they start up following it again.

[00:48:34] Because when you're done, that might seem tedious, but when you're done through like

[00:48:38] one hour meeting, there's a good chance that you have one or two quoting scenarios that are

[00:48:42] already covered.

[00:48:43] Now you have the documentation for it and you oversaw the first time the person did a quote.

[00:48:48] They're done.

[00:48:49] And now you can start to go do that other stuff.

[00:48:51] So yes, I, I embrace and love the smaller MSPs a hundred percent.

[00:48:56] And I think too many times they discount themselves and say, that's for the big guys.

[00:49:00] And I want to say, you know, customer experience can be a listening post.

[00:49:04] It can be calling one customer a week who you service that week and asking them three questions

[00:49:09] and, you know, and just having a bit of a conversation and trying to get and taking good notes again,

[00:49:15] transcribing recording, like it's all so much easier than it was 10 years ago.

[00:49:19] And so use it to your advantage to understand what this all looks like.

[00:49:24] That's interesting.

[00:49:24] I might try that.

[00:49:25] My team often tells me that I must use a different Google because I find things that they never

[00:49:30] found.

[00:49:31] And I'm like, I don't, I don't know.

[00:49:34] Yep.

[00:49:34] And that's it.

[00:49:35] Get full of the meeting and open it up.

[00:49:38] And there may be better tools, but that's the easiest one in my mind.

[00:49:42] I might have to go to a live video on trying to teach people on how to properly pack their

[00:49:48] carry-on so that they don't have to check their back.

[00:49:51] Yeah.

[00:49:52] That is a, I think that's a valuable tool.

[00:49:54] And with the amount of traveling you're doing in the next four weeks, like you are, yeah,

[00:49:59] you are definitely the one for it.

[00:50:01] So.

[00:50:01] I mean, I mean, you know, I, I several, you know, I, if I told everyone that's ever come

[00:50:06] into my, my organization, I just said this yesterday, if I can teach you how to properly

[00:50:10] negotiate and how to live out of your carry-on bag.

[00:50:14] So you don't have to check one.

[00:50:15] Then I've, you've come in, I've given you valuable life skills that you will use forever

[00:50:20] and ever.

[00:50:21] I tell you, I, I, it was absolutely, I studied abroad in Denmark and learned how to pack when

[00:50:28] I was in Europe because I didn't do it well before that.

[00:50:31] So I learned the hard way of dragging luggage, you know, across the tarmac because I had to

[00:50:36] change planes and it was internet from that point on.

[00:50:39] I did not, I didn't roll that way anymore.

[00:50:43] So some tips, if you're listening to this one air tags, get them, you will find your bags

[00:50:49] way faster when they're lost.

[00:50:51] And trust me, they'll pay for themselves.

[00:50:53] They're very inexpensive.

[00:50:54] Two, you do not need 14 pairs of shoes to go on a trip.

[00:50:59] You just don't need it.

[00:51:01] Stop at, I don't need cowboy boots in my, in my bag.

[00:51:05] Okay.

[00:51:05] Like hold off on the footwear.

[00:51:08] Can we do that for a second?

[00:51:09] All right.

[00:51:10] And like, then we'll get into properly now that we have the ingredients for what's going

[00:51:16] to go into the bag, then we'll talk about how to properly stack the recipe so that you

[00:51:20] can put it all in the bag and it will zipper and you will just take that on with you.

[00:51:24] And I'm going to tell you right now, I don't care when I get onto the plate.

[00:51:28] I'm not one of these, like have to be group one guys.

[00:51:31] Okay.

[00:51:31] And I'm sorry for the Southwest people because apparently there's going to be assigned seating.

[00:51:34] So it's coming.

[00:51:36] I just want to make sure my bag makes it up there.

[00:51:38] As long as it's on the plane with me and I don't have to like let go of it.

[00:51:41] I'm good because then I know I don't have to wait.

[00:51:44] And I don't know.

[00:51:44] I know it's going to come with me off the plane, like a game onto the plane.

[00:51:48] Those two things happen.

[00:51:49] We're good.

[00:51:52] Definitely true.

[00:51:53] Definitely true.

[00:51:54] That's I'm not the same way.

[00:51:55] I'm traveling and I'm traveling by myself.

[00:51:56] So I just want to not have to check it because I have a two hour drive once I get off that plane most of the time.

[00:52:01] And I just want to get off, not be looking for that luggage and rolling.

[00:52:05] And yeah, the thing with luggage is big containers are not your friend.

[00:52:09] Like smaller pieces of things fit inside of things and around and then the corners underneath.

[00:52:15] Yes.

[00:52:15] Yes.

[00:52:15] Here's another way out of this.

[00:52:18] As long as that backpack or that bag can fit underneath the seat in front of you, you'd be surprised how big they can get.

[00:52:25] Oh, yeah.

[00:52:26] My backpack weighs more than my carry on luggage.

[00:52:29] I have my backpack because we had 42 pounds before and my carry on is usually 40.

[00:52:35] Slip on a small bag.

[00:52:37] You can get a rather large bag.

[00:52:39] It still fits underneath the seat in front.

[00:52:41] Yes.

[00:52:42] A hundred percent.

[00:52:43] Yeah.

[00:52:44] I love it.

[00:52:45] Georgia School of Traveling.

[00:52:46] Okay.

[00:52:48] Traveling, customer journey, traveling, it all fits together.

[00:52:51] It does.

[00:52:51] I like it.

[00:52:52] I like it.

[00:52:52] Maybe I'm going to start doing this.

[00:52:54] Where do people find these videos that you're talking about?

[00:52:56] A little bit more about you and what you actually help with.

[00:53:00] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:53:01] So they can find the videos on YouTube.

[00:53:04] First Things First Training and Consulting.

[00:53:06] We're just at FTFTAC.

[00:53:08] So first initial of all those words.

[00:53:10] I also post them on LinkedIn.

[00:53:12] So, but I would love, I'd love a couple more subscribers.

[00:53:14] So anyone can humor me with that.

[00:53:16] I'm like so close to, so close to a landmark milestone.

[00:53:19] And it's a tiny amount, but, you know, just a couple more will put me over.

[00:53:23] And I am, I'm helping a lot of people with employee coaching, but I'm also doing the customer

[00:53:28] success team review.

[00:53:30] So I do have actually, there's an assessment they can take on my website.

[00:53:33] So if you go to FTFTAC.com, go underneath the resources tabs, you'll see the take the assessment.

[00:53:39] It starts to help you see, are you ready for this?

[00:53:42] Right.

[00:53:43] So it asks you some questions.

[00:53:44] And then if you're kind enough to give me your information, which I will not sell, I can reach

[00:53:49] out to you and we can have a discussion about where are you and where do I think you need

[00:53:52] to be?

[00:53:53] And a lot of it is business maturity, like you said, but some of it, I think smaller companies,

[00:53:57] like, please don't discount yourself.

[00:53:58] If there are people listening to this, they're like, I'm a three person, I'm out.

[00:54:01] No, no, no, no, no.

[00:54:03] Please fill out the assessment anyway, because the questions that are in there are going

[00:54:06] to help you think a little bit bigger.

[00:54:08] And I'm always happy to have a conversation about why did I ask those things?

[00:54:12] Why are they important?

[00:54:13] And what is that going to help me do?

[00:54:15] Because what we're asking there are some structure, organizational structure items,

[00:54:20] as well as who's in, I big thing that you'll learn as you grow as a company, the more people

[00:54:25] on board with an effort, the less of an effort it is.

[00:54:28] So you've got to have more people believing in what you want to do.

[00:54:33] And that goes for any of it.

[00:54:34] So this readiness assessment certainly sets you up for customer success, but it really

[00:54:38] just helps you understand the maturity of where you are and what you might be able to take

[00:54:42] on.

[00:54:43] So yeah, FTF, www.ftf.com, FTFTAC.com and find me on LinkedIn.

[00:54:51] All right.

[00:54:51] So there's that.

[00:54:53] And so for anyone that's going to be at one of the four places that we talked about in

[00:54:57] the beginning of this, right?

[00:54:58] Berlin, DattoCon Miami, DattoCon Sydney, IT Nation Orlando.

[00:55:03] Like, hey, like we can do the digital thing all day long.

[00:55:07] Let's do the in-person thing.

[00:55:08] So like drop us a line.

[00:55:10] Let us know you're going.

[00:55:11] And we'll meet for a beer, a sandwich, flow rider.

[00:55:15] Who knows?

[00:55:16] Right.

[00:55:16] But like love the opportunity to see people in person as much as possible while we can.

[00:55:20] And hopefully everybody in Florida is like not drowning and like above water.

[00:55:25] So please, again, stay safe if you're in that zone.

[00:55:28] We want to see a dry and, you know, functional Florida later on next month there for both

[00:55:35] the DattoCon Miami and or IT Nation Orlando events.

[00:55:38] And if for some reason you go to Melissa's LinkedIn and subscribe and like you want an extra bonus

[00:55:45] after you take the assessment, you can send me a message and I'll give you some tips, more

[00:55:49] tips on how to make sure you can get all that stuff in your bag.

[00:55:53] I can share.

[00:55:54] It's a great plan.

[00:55:56] Guys, this session was recorded.

[00:55:58] You'll find it shortly on mspinitiative.com under sessions.

[00:56:01] Thanks for following us.

[00:56:02] We do these a couple of times a week, but obviously we're going to be on the road for a

[00:56:05] little bit here in gauntlet time of MSP land.

[00:56:08] So definitely follow us online as we're gallivanting around airports.

[00:56:12] Melissa, I'm sure I'll be talking to you soon, maybe on the fourth time.

[00:56:16] I'll come back with a tutorial on how to run the Chick-fil-A drive-thru.

[00:56:21] I think it's a great plan.

[00:56:22] I'm a huge Chick-fil-A fan, so find me up.

[00:56:26] Take it easy, guys.

[00:56:27] Catch you on the next one.

[00:56:33] Hey, Jen.

[00:56:34] Thanks.