Video: How To Run Your IT Business With MSP Unplugged

I believe that when when one MSP coughs we all catch the cold right so our goal is to help them be better immunized and be ready to go man so that we're all doing it and doing the right thing right because we already know that the MSP industry is not regulated it's not out there it's kind of sometimes can be the ww west hey Channel insiders welcome back to channel Insider partner POV I'm your host Katie boso and I am so so excited because today I get to interview two of the three hosts of podcast MSP unplugged I'll be joined by Paco LeBron and Corey Kirkendall two MSP Leaders with Decades of experience in it managed Services MSP unplugged is all about helping other managed service providers run their it businesses better as you'll hear the best way to solve and avoid problems and issues as an MSP business owner is to learn from others in the community who have already been down that road I'd now like to welcome Paco LeBron CEO of Prodigy TCH and a member of the MSP unplugged podcast welcome Paco great to see you hello hello how's everyone doing today really really good and joining you we of course have your your newest member of MSP unplugged and a very well-known face and voice within the industry Cory Kirkendall president and CEO of 5K Technical Services welcome Corey hey good to be here good to be here on a Thursday morning man so I'm loving it we love that we have you and of course I do have to give a shout out to Rick Smith he is the third musketeer of this Trio for mspm plug CEO and founder of renatis Technology he was unable to be here today but since he's not here I do get to bully him that my LinkedIn request is still pending with him so if you guys could let him know I will let him know did not come to play but we miss you Rick thank you for accepting that request now that you'll know about it and thank you you so much to the both of you for being here today I have been wanting to do this for a while and the reason that we couldn't do it was because our friend Paco got married over the last couple of months so yes you took the plunge how is that feeling how are you doing since then you know great you know I I think you know when we had uh chatted a little bit too you know I got to marry uh uh my life partner my uh she's uh one of those where you know from the beginning of my journey into this MSP thing I always say there was a moment where if she could have ran she could have ran and she did not and so I just appreciate her that much more for her sticking through it and now being wetted with me so now that we're married it's always one of those where we always look at each other like huh was this really the wisest thing you probably could have done right now but uh but no love her to death and uh really appreciate all that she does for the support and so yeah we uh got married in October it's been a a great last couple months just working with intention and uh we're starting this new Retreat of like what are we planning to do for our ourselves in our life similar to like having a business retreat so we'll be uh looking forward to that as our new uh bounded uh Endeavor I like this so a retreat for planning your intentions as a couple if this is like you run your MSP I feel like your marriage is going to be super squeaky clean it's going to go really well congratulations again and like I said I'm so excited to have both of you here what works out great now is now we have Corey as a part of the podcast now that you're a part of the team you've been in a few episodes so far been listening Corey talk to me about what it's been like for you with MSP unplugged and what I love about this podcast first of all is I'm sure what brought you over because you guys are msps you're solution providers in the channel and you're out here with your podcast that's been going on since I believe 2021 giving other people advice on how to run their it business and I think it's fantastic so Corey what has it been like since you came on board and What attracted you to be a part of uh being a content creator yeah so you know I mean watching and and hanging out with Paco and Rick for a minute you know and I love what they do and they know that I I believe that when when one MSP coughs we all catch the cold right so our goal is to help them be better immunized and be ready to go man so that we're all doing it and doing the right thing right because we already know that the MSP industry is not regulated it's not out there it's kind of sometimes can be the ww west and so whatever we can do to help strengthen one to keep our name and the MSP industry at the top of the list as it needs to be we need to make sure we're training and and training this knowledge out there for a lot right I think one of the episodes we talked about is I look at msps and what we do is kind of like a church group right somebody's either going through it about to go through it just coming out of it or whatever it is so we all have been there and it's lonely at the top and so sometimes you know you got to get around other leaders other like-minded people to just ask those questions and be freely say hey I'm having a challenge with employees I'm have them challenge with finances or what does the contract look like and we just want to give them an outlet that they know they got somewh to talk to and we've been there before and we're willing to share that information with them I love to hear that I love to hear it and before we dig more into the podcast because I've got a bunch of questions about that I want to make sure that I'm building trust with the audience and letting them know like I said you two really are msps you got some great titles so I want to have a chance to have each of you describe your business who your clients are the verticals they touch and just dig into that a little bit uh Paco can we start with you tell us about Prodigy texts how long you've been around and essentially what do Prodigy TCH we are a managed service provider uh providing uh security Focus not in mssp as a lot of people are uh adopting those uh four-letter uh acronyms I know me and Corey can go back and forth on on on what that means right but I think that you know our Focus from the past 12 years that we've been around is really in the construction manufacturing and the employment law firm sectors and really for us really just diving into those businesses and really understanding that cyber security is not this big thing it's really more of a how do we make sure that you are defensible as possible so that you're not deemed negligent to your end users and so that's what we try to strive for with all of our clientele love that and talk to me Corey same question tell tell us about 5k the kinds of customers that you have in the verticals they touch yeah for sure have 5K Technical Services located in Allen Texas been doing it now for about 16 years are are we focused on the legal industry a lot of lawyers nonprofit and in the construction industry as well one of the reasons we really started this in the nonprofit space and we do a lot of what we call mega churches down here we are just like Paco we are Security First not an mssp but an MSP that is very cognizant and and lead with security and and minded from that perspective because we think that that's the most critical and important piece of how you guard and trust your data and one of the reasons why we did it and started out with the religious organization is is that we started out and wanted to bring big Enterprise technology and support down to small medium business and religious organizations from that perspective and really we looked at it is how do we use technology to better their business to build and grow the kingdom in the way they needed to get done and they had a big need and we were able to fill that for them and on the flip side we have the lawyers and the construction side because they all have a need and a dependency on technology and they have the understanding of where we want to go one they're Professional Service organization but they also rely on technology so it's an easy conversation when they get it to say Hey how do we move forward can I ask you a quick question about the mega churches because I I did speak to another MS P earlier this year green bean it where he talked similarly about protecting churches and those budgets I got to say are inconsistent and and obviously because you're working with a religious organization so what is like a need that stands out to you that you're often going back to them and constantly talking about that they constantly need from you that kind of stands out from the law firms and the the manufacturers and construction sites when you look at the mega churches some of the churches we support have a minimum of 10,000 users these congregants they go through on every Sunday that's in online and in person three four services and when you look at it they have what they call a church management system that has a a database of all their information their bank accounts what they're giving their children's information their work it's a lot and because the church you know is a heart of giving doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do then they become easy Predators for people who want to take advantage of that situation because they expect them to not turn up security systems not have the right PCS not have those things and that's really not the case and so we go in there and say yes we want to make sure that you're able to do those things and do the work that that God has called you to do or whatever your mission is doing but we also want to make sure that you're doing the right thing to secure that information because again when an attacker comes at you they don't just go after you to get the whole piece but if I got Social Security numbers healthare Insurance kids numers social security numbers all that information from a church then I'm you're right for the picking right because they know that your defenses are down and it just makes sense and so those are the places where we go in to really help them because they do have a lot of information a lot of information that that needs to be secured and protected something else the two of you had brought up mssp I I'm in the same boat you know I think right now we're hearing a lot of folks want to tack that on uh because they're like it's just an extra s and we pretty much do that already I'm like no do you do you have your own sock like you got you got to tell me that you have that otherwise I don't believe you is that something that you find now going into the the MSP unplugged podcast is that something you're often finding out in the field so to speak where people are calling themselves that not realizing how they they don't technically fit that criteria Corey we we were just talking I see you like lots of nodding over there talk to me about your experience with people is it they just don't know or they just don't care well yeah I think it's that could be kind of a religious and a political conversation all buil into one right and that's that goes down a path I think it's it's it's a marketing piece and it sound good in some cases they don't know and and it may be that they don't care but our take on it is is agree you got to have your own sock own dedicated people from that perspective I look at it as that people who do support and people who do security are not wanting the same because the people who do support they want to get you up get you past the situation and go down that path get you back rning and work people who are in security says they don't really care about getting you back up and run because at that point they're collecting evidence and moving forward right very different mindset and where it comes down that pack and plus I have have to have the skills and expertise to be able to understand Telemetry attack vectors miter all that good stuff and a typical support person won't have that so that that piece is we are an MSP that is security focused but we are not an mssp we will partner with one that has those skills and things from that perspective and that's just the right way to go from that perspective Paco why don't you build on that for me who who's coming up to you out there and saying there well you don't have to name names but who's coming up to you out in the field saying like yeah we're in mssp do you grow them right away and say like oh so you have your own sock or is that something where you're feeling like you you say okay big brotherly I got to tell them this is what you're signing up for when you call themselves that what's that experience like for you now Katie we're an inclusive group here we don't make anyone feel any their certain way of how they're calling themselves we respect every Every Which one of them on how they want to call themselves but what I will say is that I think there was just such a big marketing push from either vendors or from processes or people in community having the word mssp is the thing to do and so I truly believe it's still being open up for interpretation of what does mssp mean right and I think a lot of us do align with how Cory said and how you mentioned where if you have a sock and and you're understanding these things there's there's two different mindsets between them but I will go back to you know my good friend Matt Lee who was over at PX eight right now but while doing his cyber Matt Lee thing that he does reviewing I forgot what document it was that was released um that specifically where the government reviews nmsp is an MSP is responsible for the security of data for an individual or for a company so if an MSP is responsible for security there is no such thing as an mssp because the MSP should be focusing on security items I am paraphrasing so you know if Matt Lee believes I said that wrong I definitely correct me but this is a great session where I was listening because he was talking about how you know you're filling out these uh cyber Insurance questionnaires and things of that nature where you don't want to improperly represent yourself because there may be other assumptions associated with those four-letter acronyms right and so for me those that say they are mssp I listen I hear what they're talking about but it's not my place to tell them hey you're wrong because I think that we still have not defined what an mssp is I just happen to know that I'm not going to classify myself as one and we just are doing the security Focus because I truly believe in this day and age you cannot be an MSP and provide managed services without considering the cyber security piece of it because your end client still believes you're doing it quote unquote all so it's your responsibility to show them what can be done and if they deny it then that's a whole another conversation preach brother preach yeah take us to church take us there you said sound very similar to I I was talking to Henry Tim earlier this year from Phantom and he is another MSP part of the tech degenerates where he's very big on potentially he not not a very popular idea but wanting there to be more regulation within the MSP industry because there is not a very high bar people can kind of come in and almost call themselves whatever they want to a certain extent and not know any better the person that that doesn't help is the end user the person who the the business who is relying on you to keep them safe and keep them up to dat and keep them secure so I I do think that that is an important conversation we should be following when we get into 2025 of are there going to be more regulations are there going to be more of a Crackdown and I look forward to seeing how that conversation escalates because we know it will now that we've dug into a little bit more about your professional anecdotes and some of the things that you're focused on I think that gives the audience a great idea of what MSP unplugged is about but let's dig back into the history of it this is podcast you're also on YouTube so a video podcast I would venture to call it this is something that's been around for several years now but Paco it's really your brainchild it was something that you brought to the table after you had a pretty negative experience at some of the events that you were going to and felt that msps like you were not being heard can you walk us through the history and kind of the the conception of MSP unplugged you know essentially like you said um you know really the the main point of the MSP unplug community that just so happens to have a podcast and an event uh tied to it is really trying to understand the under $3 million MSP less than 20 employees and having them have a voice of a collective heard for whatever the case they want to be heard for whether that is vendor conversations again like Corey mentioned you know operational efficiency financial literacy which is a number one small business killer let alone in the MSP space and just bad information uh given all around in the industry and so back in like 2015 is really where the the podcasting has kind of built into this new form and so in 2015 we were at a a well-known event I will not say any names of what the event was and there was a panel that was going on at the time and the moderator asked his panelist hey what do you believe is your biggest hurdle right now to grow your MSP and without skipping a dime he says hey it is the solo preneur msps it is and then he began to associate terms with a solor run MSP Pizza Tech a man in the van um trunk Slammer Johnny ponytail and so what he did not elaborate and I'm assuming you know he did not mean this in Mal intent is there are those that don't care about their clients and they're doing these things Fly by Night they're charging a rate they get burnt out and then they exit with no remorse leaving the client kind of open to know knowing no more no less so when a reputable MSP no matter what their size are they are now being looked at as kind of the old you know the the old salesman at a a car dealership you know they always have that stigma where salesman at a car dealership you can't go in there which that's changed too but you know there's always that stigma of am I going to get the the proper value and information from you and so when that comment was made in the group which probably two-thirds of the audience were running their business themselves it kind of left a lot to be wanted and so there was a dinner later that night that said Hey what if we threw something for ourselves right and so there was an independent vendor at the time they had a little small event and so during this time me and my former business partner Jeff Jeff halish started to think maybe there's a way for us to really do this differently and so we belonged to another Network a couple years later we then decided to throw techon unplugged which then tied into our MSP unplugged podcast and really was just an adoption of that podcast from where it was and renamed and rebranded so you know according to Amy Luby we're the longest running MSP podcast and you know if there's anyone word I'm going to take from a veteran is Amy Luby Carl pelich or Eric Simpson so the fact that she said we're the logest running MSP podcast I'm going to take it but really the the guise of that was we just kept getting tired of seeing two scenarios one as I mentioned before the under three million uh less than 20 employees even if they're running it solo we not getting the love that they should be getting because the technology has advanced so much which back then wasn't really viewed at that point but the other side of it was you had all of these business owners really putting all their efforts in putting all their resources their energy their effort sacrificing time with their families only to come up short and they felt they were burnt out and then exit to go back into Corporate America and so what we realized is again mentioning of operational efficiency financial literacy but just bad information at the time hey buy these tools and you're going to make it and so they would overstretch themselves and overextend themselves to a point where they just couldn't make it happen and they had to do what was right for themselves and for their families and it was just something that just did not sit right with me having gone through my own struggles to try and start the business and make it stabilized and expand in the way that it is now has really dawned for us to say we really need to provide an outlet for those to say these are our experiences this is what we personally did to succeed because at the time transparency wasn't very big at the time nobody really wanted to talk about the ugly side of success no one wanted to talk about where they were issued a lawsuit for a bad loan and now they have to figure out all right what do I got to do they don't talk about hiding the car from being repossessed because you were trying to figure out how do you pay this bill for that bill getting into bad agreements for financial sake and trying to get over the hump of that there was none of that happening back in the day and especially for our size and for those that had made it did not follow the you know there's this saying where they say if you are able to take the elevator up for Success it's your obligation to send that elevator back down and there wasn't really a lot of that for at least our size msps or at least for our communities thus us creating this Avenue creating this outlet and hopefully providing some value to some of those that were listening thus why the podcast is where it is today there's more where this conversation came from come back on Tuesday for part two thanks so much to Paco and Cory for joining me today and thank you as always for watching or listening you can watch more episodes of Channel Insider partner POV on Channel insider.com or check us out on youtube.com/ Chanel inssider newws and Trends you can also listen to us as a podcast on your favorite podcast listening platform don't forget to like subscribe and follow wherever possible so you never miss an episode once again I'm Katie boso and I'll see you next time

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