MSP Business School

George Bardissi is the Founder and CEO of three companies: Bardissi Enterprises, an MSP based in Philadelphia, PA; bvoip, a channel-only firm that works with other MSPs around the world in the Cloud Communications Space; and MSP Initiative, which was founded in the middle of the 2020 pandemic, as a community and networking entity to help bridge the gap between IT Service Providers and MSPs to collaborate in new ways. In this episode, they talked about Breaking the Boundaries of MSP Growth 2:48 – George stated that he mastered many of the skills he possessed at an early age largely on his own and that he quickly became involved in them. He started an IT services business when he was still a high school student. He was really apprehended entering the school on a weekend when other activities, such as building an access point in the cafeteria, are taking place. 6:25 – Sade recalls her fortunate accident entry into the MSP world. Someone she had previously worked with in 2017 was in and out of the MSP sandbox. From that point on, George pretty much took her under his wing and just sort of showed her a little bit of everything, and from that point on, she actually began to gain a true understanding of what exactly the MSP land is like. 11:38 – Brian says it's nice to see the community now taking conferences and extending them out a little bit farther, as well as adding other choices for participants to come together and finish the day in a different way. 16:58 – George responds to Brian's question on how to delegate and scale up. He believes the most important thing he can tell people is to see Gary V. 20:36 – Tim says that one of the things that they do on a daily basis is hiring salespeople for MSPs all across the nation, and it's kind of amazing how, just a year ago, the mindset had changed so that candidates suddenly had more negotiating power than they had ever had in interviews. However, he will admit that he does feel like it's beginning to turn back a little bit—certainly not to the extent it once did, but it is unquestionably beginning to turn back. 22:37 – Sade stated that right now, all efforts are focused on the new type of structured events that MSP is holding, namely the MSP Community Mines.

Chris Johnson is a cybersecurity compliance strategist at heart. He is currently CompTIA’s senior director of cybersecurity programs and ex-officio chairperson of the CompTIA Security Community. In this role, he champions the abilities of MSPs looking to focus more on cybersecurity. 2:22 – Chris discusses his background in the IT industry. He believes that many of the people who were listening fell into it. He had a lot of nasty jobs early in my career because he was someone who said, "I didn't like working at U Haul anymore," but he also had the chance, during the dot-com era, to sort of get his cut by volunteering for a school system at the time. 7:58 – Brian stated that one of the most significant issues in this sector is that anyone can become an MSP tomorrow. 11:37 – Tim has a question for Chris, which he referred to briefly in the beginning, because not everyone is ready to delve deeply into all of this. There are so many shifting parts, such as he knew a new provider, a new company attempting to enter this area. “How do they engage with you?”, “What are the first steps they take”, “What does that look like?”, “How can they achieve some of the things that you just talked about ?” 16:25 – Brian noted that if we look at CIS as a kind of stepping stone based on trust markets, it's a good area that people can get started today since he's always seen CIS as pretty common sense controls for practically every organization. 22:11 – Brian believes we have a good understanding of the measures an MSP can take to get organized. Maybe we can wrap up the conversation today by talking a little bit about what audit expectations would be for the end user. It's not necessarily about dollars and cents, but what that process feels like because many MSPs have never been a part of an audit for either their customers or themselves. 26:45 – Brian believes that if you want the program to be successful in the long run, you must approach it with the perspective that you are going in to improve your business and make your service delivery stronger and more secure. 29:19 – Chris advises getting involved with CompTIA and the membership because these are good places to find resources that can help you navigate this journey and you don't have to do this to yourself. CIS is a great place to start if you are even remotely considering addressing cybersecurity in your organization, especially with group one being somewhat—he doesn't say simple—but it's kind of linear control one step one.

A-Jay Orr, the founder, and CEO of Simple Plan IT. They specialize in helping businesses specifically those that have government contracts, protect digital assets, and be compliant with all the security regulations that the DOD pushes out. In this episode, they talked about Building Opportunities for Veterans in Transition. 02:13 – Brian asks A-Jay “How did you find your way into the lovely world of IT?”  A-Jay stated that he got into the wonderful world of IT through the military. He was a communication specialist, so his role in the military was to set up communications, tap into satellites, and do other things of that type, which is where he really began his excursion into technology. 8:01 – A-Jay believes that his project management skills helped him transition into the ownership space by allowing him to swiftly evaluate and analyze situations. He wants to acquire military traits and talents so that he can go in and perform such things. 12:41 – Brian is happy to hear A-Jay talk about how he kind of changed and realized that he needs to scale up because he is on the right track and has a fantastic communicator who can be visionary and who really helps define it. .  16:13 – A-Jay says “Being in the military is a unique dynamic in the sense that we could hate each other but we knew that when it was time to go to work”. He said that he could trust them to do their job and protect my life and you could trust me to do the same because the mission came first. 21:05 – A-Jay shares that in Ohio, they are starting this thing, and we are the 22nd state that has this thing going on, and so there are 20, and one of those states that already have them has a veteran chamber of commerce up and running, and so we all get together once a month as a coalition to kind of share best practices and just to inform each other “what’s going on in our different states and our regions” so that we can kind of work together. 24:05 – Robb claims that when Tim and he are hiring, they recruit a lot of people. One of the ways they attempt to relate to people, especially when they are leaving the military, is to give them the impression that they may have been in communications in the military, but when they leave, they can rapidly transfer into sales. 27:48 – Robb asks A-Jay about his resume-writing services and other similar services. 

This week we deep dive into the minds of Enterprise CIO's and see how their concerns can map to the SMB.  The impact of many of the concerns we will discuss will impact the SMB market faster and harder than the enterprise, and MSPs need to be prepared to be leaders and address these issues with their clients and demonstrate value with the solutions.

Show Website: https://mspbusinessschool.com/ Octopus CRM - https://bit.ly/3GwgQkz Kennected - https://bit.ly/3WHCjOc Typify - https://bit.ly/3jOL4qX Hosts Brian Doyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandoyl... Robb Rogers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robb-roge... Tim McNeil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmcneil3/ Sponsors vCIOToolbox: https://vciotoolbox.com OSR Manage: https://osrmanage.com In this episode, we talked about the advantages of having a Virtual Assistant (VA) and how to start working with one. 00:30 – Brian extends a warm welcome to all who join him and his co-hosts, Robb Rogers and Tim McNeil, on their podcast. Also, he mentioned that they're going to talk about something that you should think about when you ask, "How do I scale if I don't yet have the available dollars to hire direct resources or don't want to hire direct resources for some of the administrative tasks in our life?" 01:56 – Brian stated that one of the things he decided to do, as he had done in the past with other organizations he has run, was to reach out to virtual assistants. He understands that many of us have been hearing about virtual assistants in the marketplace and may be confused as to what the true capabilities of a virtual assistant are and what one should expect from this because he believes that sometimes when people enter these relationships, they expect people to just show up at their doorstep and be able to do everything without any real guidance or training. 03:33 – Robb asks one of the biggest questions Brian “What is prospecting really mean to you? because he heard some good, bad, and ugly for prospecting overseas, so what do you mean by that?” 04:06 – Brian responds to a prospecting question. In order to warm up the customer and increase the likelihood that they would comply with whatever your call to action is, whether it be a meeting appointment, demo, or trial depending on what you're doing, there are various methods that go into the sales process. We are attempting to get used to those things. 07:05 – Brian began by discussing how to prepare VA. He also talks about where he got his VA. 13:08 – Tim asks Brian if there's anything he experienced anything that his VA has not been able to accomplish for him. 15:31 – Robb inquires once more about what you can recommend for an MSP owner who is using a VA to assist them with prospecting. What is the first step after watching videos and all that? What is the first action you want your MSP owners to take? 18:50 – Robb also mentions octopus and typify as two examples of coordinates campaigns that use sales navigator lists. 19:10 – Tim stated that there is another company called Kennected that begins with a K, and they have heard some really good things about it as well. It also allows you to schedule social media posts on top of prospecting. 26:53 – Tim concurs with Brian's statement about having his VA work outside US business hours. He also added that VAs are people as well, that they have lives to live, families, and struggles.

Show Website: https://mspbusinessschool.com/ Guests Name: Abe Garver https://www.linkedin.com/in/abegarver/ Company: FOCUS Investment Banking https://focusbankers.com/ Jim Lippie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-lippie-52931/ SaaS Alerts: https://saasalerts.com/ Name: Kipp Stumpf https://www.linkedin.com/in/kipp-stum... Company: ConnectWise https://www.connectwise.com/ Jon Kotman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonkotman/ Luke Ross: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-ross-238b07143/ Kotman Technology: https://www.kotman.com/ Rob Rae: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robtrae/ Datto: https://www.datto.com/ Derek Gabriel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dereksgabriel/ Ignite Solutions Group: https://www.ignitetheday.com/ Name: Vince Tinnirello https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincetinn... Company: Anchor Network Solutions https://www.anchornetworksolutions.com/ Hosts Brian Doyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandoyl... Robb Rogers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robb-roge... Tim McNeil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmcneil3/ Sponsors vCIOToolbox: https://vciotoolbox.com OSR Manage: https://osrmanage.com In this episode, our hosts, Brian, Rob, and Tim, will share their favorite guests and clips from our 2022 podcast selection. 05:45 – Jim began by saying that the majority of MSPs don't realize when a bad actor is actually coming in with authentic credentials from somewhere they aren't supposed to unless they are monitoring. Therefore, it is crucial that we keep informed of what occurs. 12:01 – Kipp notes that while there are numerous distinct evolutionary programs, the owner's program's flagship is actually centered upon four planes. It is your strategy, as well as your life plan, and it is your personal and business legacy plan. Therefore, your life plan is "What are your one-year goals? What do you want, exactly, since it's only a one-year team goal?” 14:57 – Brian claims that Derek's clip is a fantastic episode since it will be the clip we share with you after you have listened to a journey. 15:40 – Derek shares his journey. He started looking for work but was turned down because of his lack of qualifications. He had applied to work as an installer, was using a headhunter, and had once been interviewed at Sprint for a position that sounded absolutely awful: database administrator for reporting, and creating reports for executives. But in the end, wanting a job with the least amount of responsibility. 19:24 – Robb claims that Vince's clip is his favorite episode because it was about how he felt about an anchor and how to deal with anchor network problems, and since Vince is a peer group facilitator and had so many smart things to say. 24:15 – Tim thinks that too many individuals do things well and likes the idea of not placing a lot of emphasis on the income standpoint. They place a lot of emphasis on the revenue generated by each client. You should be evaluated to determine if these are the proper people for you and if they are real. 24:36 – Brian said there are a lot of other variables you can consider besides just pure income and when you start growing to the level where you are at. He always looks at those plans to make sure they aren't overlooking those clients in the middle of the stack. That is also prepared for ascent. 27:27 –  According to Rob Rae, it is simple to predict that, at some point, any organization, regardless of location or size, will find that having in-house IT personnel is no longer necessary. This may be the case in order to protect internal infrastructure, but as far as anything that is coming from the outside, things are moving too quickly.  34:50 – Robb's query is answered by John. It's always preferable to attempt and change a connection or get it moving in the proper manner when you're in that position. This is why we always give 110% effort to say when we're in that position.  40:30  – Abe states that there is so much competition that he has a merger of equal platforms that will be completed soon and he increasingly sees a competitive advantage to call potential clients and informing them that he has sixty-five nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) from all of these buyers for this assignment, which will encourage serious bids from prospective buyers. 45:56 – Brian thanks all of the listeners for their support as he wraps up the podcast.

Show Website: https://mspbusinessschool.com/ Guest Name: Abe Garver https://www.linkedin.com/in/abegarver/ Company: FOCUS Investment Banking https://focusbankers.com/ Hosts Brian Doyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandoyl... Robb Rogers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robb-roge... Tim McNeil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmcneil3/ Sponsors vCIOToolbox: https://vciotoolbox.com OSR Manage: https://osrmanage.com In this episode, Abe Garver joins us today at MSP Business School. Abe Garver is the Managing Director and MSP Team Leader of Focus Investment Banking. 01:00 – Brian asks one of the most important questions: "What does that mean to a market that relies on capital to make acquisitions? " He knows that we've been attending trade shows, discussing MSPs, and speaking with other buyers in the marketplace. There are lots of buzzes around where mna is going during perceptional are becoming somewhat inflationary times there I say recessive times as well. How do those affect valuations, then?” 07:04 – Abe states that there is so much competition that he has a merger of equal platforms that will be completed soon. 11:50 – Abe mentions that he increasingly sees a competitive advantage to call potential clients and informing them that he has sixty-five nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) from all of these buyers for this assignment, which will encourage serious bids from prospective buyers. 13:58 – Robb asks Abe, "That the MSP or buyer who lost three times kind of changed up their plan on the fourth time, what did they kind of change to make themselves more attractive?" Beyond simply changing the procedures to help themselves rise and secure that agreement, what else did they do globally?” 17:33 – Robb and Tim both agree with Abe. They are aware, from the perspective of the buyer, that there are many subtle similarities between MSPs in terms of excellent client service, responsiveness, and communication. 22:57 – Abe says that there are over 600 organizations in the peer groups that meet quarterly in Phoenix, Dallas, Denver, and Orlando who claimed that IT Nation Evolve peer groups are the finest in the country at producing the top MSPs. Basically, fifty peer groups of principals are in between parts of their six hundred. 30:26 – Brian adds that from a valuation standpoint, organic growth trumps acquisition and bolt-on growth, which is something that MSPs should keep in mind. The focus should always be on the service and delivery engines, but make sure that the sales engines are primed.

Show Website: https://mspbusinessschool.com/ Hosts Brian Doyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandoyl... Robb Rogers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robb-roge... Tim McNeil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmcneil3/ Sponsors vCIOToolbox: https://vciotoolbox.com OSR Manage: https://osrmanage.com In this episode, we talked about how to double your sales opportunities easily and what Robb’s team has learned through over one million cold calls. 00:48 – Brian welcomes everyone who joins him and his co-hosts, Robb Rogers and Tim McNeil, on their podcast. Also, he began discussing their topic and focused on something that we know is very important to a lot of people, and obviously, all of us are looking to expand the organization, grow our lead base, and make customer acquisition. 03:21 – Brian proceeds to one of the biggest questions “How can we double our sales opportunities easily and quickly?”  07:37 – Robb shares about what we do in Sales MaturIT. He talks about  Foundations Level > Development Level > Growth Level > Excellence Level > Leadership Level. 17:33 – Robb shows a slide that the numbers show how to grow the sales and marketing department.  20:15 – Tim mentions the issue is the sales rep, particularly in this industry, and Robb agrees that this is one of the more difficult industries to get an appointment in. What tends to happen with sales reps, and this is a general statement that is not specific to the MSP World, is that they stop making calls after four attempts, whereas in this industry you really need at least seven to twelve touches before you get the first appointment, so how do you keep that salesperson motivated and happy? 22:06 – Brian agrees with Tim's remark. Their job as salespeople is to get paid for rejection because the reality is that there is more rejection than acceptance, but it's also difficult to pick up the phone when you're being rejected. 26:22 – Tim discusses some of the direct mailing tactics that are now being pushed out to clients, as well as the things that were successful when they were in the industry and, admittedly, they got away from them for a while because, at the time when they transitioned out of the MSP World, the digital side was up and coming, and even if you could be more successful on the digital side, there is now a lot of white noise out there. 30:13 – Brian wants to focus on how you maximize the team, and what you're displaying is the salary you're paying as an owner for a business developing platform inside the marketer. If you want to maximize the efficiency of those people, this direct mail approach has it all. 36:10 – Robb believes that, in the end, we cannot have a marketing department within a sales department. Marketing does its own thing, and if no one leaves the sales department, which is the traditional approach that everyone uses, they must be coordinated, in sync, and in sync together. 40:15 – Tim stated that the most important thing to remember when sending out mailers is to find a way to stand out. Sending out cards on non-traditional holidays was the most important thing he discovered. 56:25 – Brian ends the podcast by thanking Robb and Tim for sharing their knowledge/information about how to double your sales opportunities easily and quickly.

Show Website: https://mspbusinessschool.com/ Hosts Brian Doyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandoyl... Robb Rogers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robb-roge... Tim McNeil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmcneil3/ Sponsors vCIOToolbox: https://vciotoolbox.com OSR Manage: https://osrmanage.com In this episode, we talked about how we are planning for next year here at MSP Business School. 3:38 – Brian starts talking about planning for 2023. He gives some tips on how he will be going to budget so that he can comprehend the impact of the budget for the following year. 4:55 – Robb agrees with Brian's statement. He expresses his opinion that if you have the client or prospect inside, now is a great time to revisit any proposals that may have kind of ghosted you. You can also use a campaign or other methods to review any proposals. 6:22 – Brian discusses the idea of connecting prospects and sending female energy straight to males. Of course, we also touch briefly on non-traditional holiday fashion, but it's also important to remember that men should always come first when making decisions. It's also the time of year when you should look fantastic in costume, and if they have the opportunity to go out, bring them a gift in real life real form. 10:20 – Brian suggests that you do something nice for your customers, something that your top-tier customers will appreciate, and it could be something simple. 13:43 – Robb agrees with Brian's said. On their side, they no longer focused on MRR in the final month. They only focused on the capital budget that you chased after the project. 20:13 – Robb says that speaking with high-level decision-makers who are difficult to reach is extremely beneficial. So those are the things we like to do at the end of the year when we know a lot of people are on vacation and try to get a deeper conversation with the CEO or anyone else trying to bring it through.

Show Website: https://mspbusinessschool.com/ Guest Name: Emily Glass https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyglass/ Company: Syncro https://syncromsp.com/ Hosts Brian Doyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandoyl... Robb Rogers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robb-roge... Tim McNeil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmcneil3/ Sponsors vCIOToolbox: https://vciotoolbox.com OSR Manage: https://osrmanage.com Emily Glass joins us today at MSP Business School. Emily is the president and CEO of Syncro, an all-in-one RMM, PSA, and remote access tool that helps managed service providers run more profitable businesses. 1:41 Emily an introduction about herself and shares how she fell in love with MSP. She talks about the company, how it grew in a year, and learning the products and needs of its partners. 5:14 Robb inquires about the company's objectives for 2023, what has to be improved, and how to advance in her position. She responds that it's very difficult to make long-term plans in these times of uncertainty, so people and businesses are just doing things one step at a time. 9:06 Robb shares his thoughts about Syncro’s website and says that their employees are very prominent on the website. Emily elaborates on how their company started remotely so the pandemic didn’t really make it any more challenging for them to make adjustments, however being in a remote set up they also have several challenges that need to be overcome and that’s why they have a weekly town hall with their employees and sometimes with their partners - to get to know each other and have a sense of camaraderie. 12:34 Brian points out what Emily said about uncertain economic times and asks what are the common feedbacks they are getting from their partners during these times. 15:28 Emily talks about the challenges of having remote employees and customers. She proceeds that one of the biggest questions in this kind of setup is “how do I communicate the value to my customer?” despite not having any personal relationship or having this different kind of interaction. 21:40 Brian shared his experiences when he was starting out in the industry. How hard it was back then people were barely equipped to start and run a company or how to be leaders for a company and grow it. 23:30 Emily ends the podcast by talking about the things their company is working on right now such as platform reliability and some new features coming up soon.