RocketMSP Podcast

Steve Taylor joins us to share about his MSP experiences and his podcast RocketMSP.

Video Transcription
Harry Brelsford 5:21
now, so let me get this straight. So you have I get the vendor guest thing. And we resemble that over at SMB nation as well. But you also have people who are doing the work carrying the bag thought leaders, so it's not just vendors, it's I think what I heard,

Steve Taylor 5:39
correct, I, you know, while I was the guy who for the first several years in my MSP, I was afraid to sell. So instead, I would just find things to keep myself busy. Oh, yeah, I've been using Zendesk, now let's switch to auto task or whatever, like, I would literally, I would just switch tools to keep myself busy that way, didn't have to go sell, you know, and I would pick up clients just not nearly as quickly as if I went out and sold. So because of that, I've, I've got this deep love for, you know, new, new shiny objects, and new gadgets, new toys, I've always been like this even since I was a kid. And that makes, you know, sitting down with a vendor really fun and exciting for me, because, you know, I'll sit down and I'll take a look at some of these tools, you know, look for your dashboard, and whatever else. I'm like, I have no use for us. But it's so pretty, I just, I just want to play with it. So I get the opportunity to do that. But, um, sometimes I just want to teach msps how to how to do something better. Yeah. You know, right now, especially with the cybersecurity landscape, and everything that they're doing with executive orders, and all that good stuff. Right now, it's more important than ever, for us as msps. To do right by our clients, and to make sure that, you know, we're, we're just delivering the best service we possibly can.

Harry Brelsford 7:13
Yeah, yeah, I concur. You know, here's the thing and nice, nice turns in the conversation. This isn't my first recession's okay, but I've been around the block before. And I'm still here. So that's the good news. And what do we have we had.com, early 2000s, we had a wait, then that went on for a little while. And then and then we had the pandemic. And I'll tell you, I am a better worker, I am a better service provider, I'm a better friend in a recessions because I revisit the basics of good business behavior, my attention level goes up, etc. What what, Steve, what's happened to me in the past is when times were good, you know, my early small business server days, sort of my thing, at least, my blind spot is you get a little comfortable, you get a little comfortable and like, you know, Friday, it's sunny, I think I'll go for an afternoon bike ride, which is fine. But you get a little comfortable. But boy howdy when a recession hits. I'm, I'm taking stairs two at a time and sharpening the saw and all those other, you know, phrases, they use some business books. Does that make sense?

Steve Taylor 8:35
Absolutely does. In fact, I mean, you said it 2008 that housing crisis kind of lasted a while. So I was I was starting my company in a recession, like a crazy person. Yeah. And, you know, I'm, I'm still around. So I'm doing something, right. It's, it's different when you're in a recession. I remember. I actually went hard with the whole podcast thing. Shortly after the pandemic started, you know, there was, there was that period where I thought, you know, maybe Resident Evil was based on a true story, and I panicked, and then I checked myself out of it and and then I started going hard with the with the podcast thing I think I've done I think I've done probably 100 interviews now in the last 14 months.

Harry Brelsford 9:32
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Finally, and we'll circle back to you next quarter. I want to make you one of our regular I call them analysts but you know, be fun to double click in there with some actual topics next time, right. So now now that people got to know you, where can people find you? I was kind of googling and is there a preferred URL, where can we find you?

Steve Taylor 9:58
So if you go to RocketMSP.io. Yeah, I Oh yeah, cuz someone already owned rocket MSP.com, okay, and maybe even dotnet. So I thought I Oh, it doesn't really matter for SEO. It's just harder to remember they are. So yeah, if you go there, you'll be able to see the podcast schedule. I'll be giving that updated later today. You'll see all the guests that I have coming up in the next month or so. Oh, yeah. I'll also be able to see about the accountability groups that I run. But I don't I don't want to pitch a whole bunch of stuff here. rather just

Harry Brelsford 10:36
Yeah, yeah. Oh, no, no, no, I'm looking at it. Yeah, I see our friends over at vero soft and yeah, yeah, you're getting some good argument. You're getting some good guests. final final question. So are you still carrying the bag? Are you still an MSP out servicing some clients? For a little while longer? Okay.

Steve Taylor 10:59
I'm not looking for new clients. And in fact, I'm about to start my exit strategy here from the MSP, just because I really enjoy this. And I think not I think I know that the the longer I kind of wait to stop doing the MSP stuff, the harder it's going to be for my clients, because I'm not able to, you know, necessarily keep up with things as as well as a full time MSP. Yeah, I'm seeing everything at face value at surface value. But I'm not diving super deep into how how to configure all these tools and do it correctly. And still, that stuff cybersecurity, I mean, over the last couple of years, this is this is really picked up. And it's it's frustrating, because they've made it so easy. You can just sign up for a SaaS service. And now suddenly, you're ransomware entrepreneur.

Harry Brelsford 12:10
Yeah, yeah, no, I still. Well, don't challenge me. But I think I could still rattle off what is it the seven layers of the OSI model? Yeah, I you know, we you suffice it to say we go back to old school days where you actually had to memorize that stuff. And you know, this that the other kids today, what are you gonna do kids today?

Steve Taylor 12:33
don't even realize there is an OSI model? I am. So I went to a vocational school for the last two years of high school. And I got my Cisco. No, I did not get my sister. I got my Novell NetWare. CNA five, in my junior year of high school. Yeah, that was that was in 2000 2001. Right when we shouldn't be worrying about network anymore. And then I did two years of Cisco CCNA training. And the teachers just the first teacher really didn't teach very well. The second teacher was great, but at that point, the damage was done. I don't remember how the scoring worked. But let's say you get like seven points for putting your name on the test. I'm pretty sure I got six. Okay, so I did not do very well on that. But I remember, you know, the OSI model was was part of that. And, you know, we need to learn the different. The ta 568. A and 568 B. And we had to like make cables. And it was it was awesome. It was such a great

Harry Brelsford 13:45
Oh, and that's when I carried the bag back to my point about the 90s right when I was carrying the bag at the the firm and I was downloading drivers at 2am. And I mean it was the those were great days and there's days I miss it. But well, Hey, Steve, we're gonna catch you next quarter. We're in q2. So enjoy the early summer and we're gonna circle back to you and double click into one of your topics. I'll I'll work with you on that. You got a lot of topics to pick from.

Steve Taylor 14:14
I definitely do. Hey, thanks so much for having me on here, Harry.

Harry Brelsford 14:18
All right. Okay. Thanks, Steve. Take care.