Twins Talk Tech Leadership

A New Year brings incredible optimism and an expectation for greater success and growth. You’ve likely met with your leadership teams and have identified opportunities, but goals and roles have to be refined and clearly defined. You cannot wear every hat as this takes away from establishing and executing the strategic vision of your organization. CEO of TruNorth Dynamics, Ole Gjerde shares the importance of successfully shifting the mindset from working in your business to working on your business. TruNorth Dynamics is a leading provider of Microsoft Dynamics solutions, providing solutions and improving efficiencies for SMBs.Some of the highlights:TruNorth Dynamics branding.Pros and challenges of embracing a remote model.Tips to go from working in to working on, including delegation and a culture of creativity. Hire great people and let them 'make magic happen.'Leadership and development include training, coaching and mentoring with clear expectations and a level of accountability. 'It's coach up or coach out'Insight into some of his goals for 2024.Connect with Ole on LinkedIn and visit trunorthdynamics.com/

We are privileged to speak with and learn from incredible leaders. What a bonus when we are able to share those voices with our listeners. We invited one such leader to lend from his experience of working with driven leaders and from building successful organizations.  Andrew Montz is a Vistage Chair and the Founder & CEO of as1, helping technology service companies accelerate revenue, scale and improve organizational culture, where teams learn to build and lead as 1 team. Some of the highlights include: Lessons learned from scaling multiple tech services companies.Why he enjoys the challenge of the ‘constant changing of technology and constant puzzle of business growth.’Building leadership teams and their ability to execute and finish the vision.Andrew believes in 'mission driven leadership' and becoming an evangelist with your customers and/or shareholders.His role as a Vistage chair.Andrew’s recommended books.  To learn more about Andrew and his work, connect with him on LinkedIn and visit as1.team/ 

QBRs are invaluable investments that support MSPs and their mission to keep clients informed and treated like a true partner in the development and execution of a strategic technology roadmap. With the advancement of tech, AI and hybrid models, it becomes more imperative that CIOs and CISOs have resources to champion their efforts. Brian Doyle, Co-founder and CEO of vCIOToolbox shares about the evolution of account management and about the importance of community. vCIOToolbox is a trusted partner to MSPs providing an account management and advisory SaaS platform for Account Managers, vCIOs, vCISOs, and Technology Leaders.Some of the highlights include:The framework of vCIOToolbox and how they help MSPs drive strategic outcomes.Their experience from being a PitchIT Finalist and participant in the 16-week accelerator program created by ConnectWise.The strength and support of the community. ‘Your competition could also be your collaborators when you build an ecosystem of trust.'MSP Business School podcast and vCIOToolbox University.To learn more about Brian, connect with him on LinkedIn, follow the MSP Business School podcast and visit vciotoolbox.com

When was the last conversation you had about vulnerabilities and how to best position your organization against cyber attacks? These conversations may not be comfortable, but they need to happen. Matthew Koenig, VP, Channel Sales at Nodeware® by IGI CyberLabs shares his thoughts on the importance of addressing and identifying vulnerabilities. Nodeware provides vulnerability scanning with complete and continuous visibility of your network and its assets. Some of the highlights:Tips for MSPs including having a proven sales methodology, asking questions and ‘selling the outcome.’ Matthew says that he will ask 'why me and why now'?'If you have to sell on price, walk away.'Impact from PitchITMatthew is also offering a 15-min consultation to any MSP with questions about vulnerability testing and the cybersecurity landscape. Also follow Matthew on LinkedIn and visit nodeware.com

How you navigate technology, marketing and public speaking can make all the difference for professionals and organizations looking to stay relevant and experience incredible success. Kelly Stone serves as the Chief Marketing Officer at Channel Program; a sourcing and optimization network for MSPs. Some of the highlights from this episode include:The value of storytelling.Recap of IT Nation 2023.Marketing Trends including the impact of AI.Channel Program’s NaviStack offering to empower MSPs to visualize and communicate with their vendor ecosystem.IronMans, public speaking and worthy causes. Find Kelly on LinkedIn, reach out if you are looking for a keynote speaker and visit https://channelprogram.com/ to learn more about the community and about tools and resources for MSPs. Also, register for access to NaviStack by visiting https://channelprogram.com/navistack

What does it mean to be intentionally radical? What are you willing to do that may seem extreme to your competitors? Are you willing to put it all on the line for your clients? Radical with innovationRadical with being customer centricRadical with organizational cultureBeing intentionally radical is at the core of Thread, a platform empowering MSPs to deliver service right where the end user is. Katie Vreeland, Head of Marketing with Thread joins us to share about:Her marketing leadership journey.Winning PitchIT Accelerator competition.Thread corporate culture & mission.Who she would like to be mentored by.Marketing outlook in the sector. To learn more about Katie, connect with her on LinkedIn, visit getthread.com/ and be sure to click the ‘Book a Demo’ button on the main page.  

We are excited to feature the PitchIT Finalists again this year. There were 27 companies that participated in the ConnectWise Accelerator program. Of these, 3 were selected to be Finalists and present their pitch live during ITNation. The PitchIT winner for 2023 was Thread, a platform empowering MSPs to deliver service right where the end user is; to help MSPs create ‘service magic. Bobby Jacobs, Head of Growth shares:His leadership journey.Service co-pilot and Ask co-pilot. Benefits of integrating Thread with PSA (Professional Services Automation) systems.Highlight the importance of the ConnectWise community.Being a Microsoft partner and case study.Experience being a PitchIT Finalist.One of their core values is 'be radical' and this showed itself at the Conference with their suits and co-pilot theme. Connect with Bobby on LinkedIn and visit getthread.com/ to learn more. While you are there, book a demo or click follow the provided link:  getthread.com/meetings/bobby193/threadteamdemo

CyberQP, Jimmy Hatzel:What does the elevator pitch sound like coming from Jimmy Hatzel, the VP of Revenue at CyberQP? CyberQP offers Access Management for MSPs including protecting customer admin accounts and automating their security stacks. We touch on their ‘Just-in-Time’ accounts and how CyberQP continues to put forth more QGuard feature enhancements.  Did we mention that this has to be one of the absolute best companies when it comes to merch and booth design? Follow Jimmy on LinkedIn and visit Cyberqp.com to learn more about this amazing company.   Costa Chatjiantoniou, Sherweb:Head of Sales, Sherweb Cloud Services, Konstantinos Chatjiantoniou aka Costa speaks to the importance of supporting their strategic partners and the ITNation community as a whole. We briefly touch on the new partnership with SentinelOne and gain insight into Sherweb’s enhanced offerings including their White Label help desk platform.Connect with Konstantinos (Costa) Chatjiantoniou on LinkedIn and learn more about this cloud services and solutions provider by visiting sherweb.com/

Reed Warren, iT Valuations:Are you ready to determine your value? We welcome back Reed Warren, CEO of iT Valuations to get an update on his organization and about their involvement with ITNation. iT Valuations supports IT services and tech firms to value their businesses and to facilitate M&A activity - Mergers and acquisitions.  Reed shares what you can expect in 2024, including the progress of their 'Valuations as a Service Program' and their 'Business Value Transformation Services Program'. To learn more about Reed or to have his team help you navigate an exit strategy or to obtain a true assessment and valuation of your organization, visit itvaluations.com/Michale Crean, Solutions Granted:Special update with Solutions Granted is that they have been acquired by SonicWall. SonicWall viewed this leading MSSP as a key piece for enhancing its managed detection and response offering and overall managed services support for MSPs.Some of the highlights from this conversation:Impact of his keynote message (Leadership is a Privilege)How Michael and his team show up to Conferences including their mindset, booth design and of course their team themed dress and apparel.To learn more about Michael and Solutions Granted, visit solutionsgranted.com/

ITNation 2023 was simply amazing. Capturing the magnitude of the Conference was not easy to do, but we aim to deliver. What makes this Community so special? Listen in as we bring to you interviews and highlights from this amazing event. In this episode, you will hear from Victoria Bruns, Manager, Marketplace and Vendor Solutions Specialist with ConnectWise. She, along with Will Dowling, served as the masters of ceremonies for the Conference. Vicky gives a breakdown of the Conference and what the 7,000 attendees can expect (4,500 in person and 2,500 virtual). With 170 exhibitors, we can only expect to see this Conference continue to grow. We also speak with Raffael Marty, EVP and General Manager, Cybersecurity with ConnectWise. ConnectWise is a leading platform of software & services built for Technology Service Providers. Raffy is also a speaker, author and highly sought after technology thought leader. Some of the highlights include:His leadership style and how he manages his time, including strategy and coaching. ConnectWise has a Cyber Research Unit (CRU) with a focus on researching threats.Announced a new partnership with MicrosoftTheir continued dedication to supporting EDRs with their SOC services.Learn what ConnectWise will be focusing on, including hyper automation, AI and their shared platform called AZIO.What he enjoys about public speaking.His experience as a target shooting coach for a National Sports Team in Switzerland.Follow and connect with Vicky, Raffy and their company ConnectWise on LinkedIn. You can also learn more about Raffy at https://raffy.ch/