#16 – From the Trenches - Building a Healthcare-Focused MSP in Houston (Terry Baylor)

Josh Peterson sits down with Terry Baylor, founder of Lift Life Technology (Houston, TX), who’s moving all-in on a healthcare vertical MSP: HIPAA, cybersecurity, and resilient WAN/LAN for private practices. From corporate IT and credit unions to field marketing, partnerships, and faith-driven leadership—Terry shares how he’s engineering growth in 2025. In this From the Trenches episode, Josh welcomes Terry Baylor of Lift Life Technology to unpack why he’s launching and scaling a healthcare-focused MSP now. Terry’s path runs from early break/fix and coding to two decades in academic healthcare IT (EHR oversight, networking, data center), a Fortune 500 stint, and credit union tech leadership—before going all-in on his own firm in 2022.

Terry explains why vertical focus wins: his team’s deep healthcare background, lived HIPAA experience, and a service catalog that leads with risk, compliance, and security (assessments, WAN/LAN hardening, identity, patching, logging/monitoring)—then adds infrastructure only where remediation requires it. He shares the mindset shift that unlocked speed: stop “building enterprise tools” and leverage the ConnectWise ecosystem plus vendor partners (he’s a Cisco partner), so the company can “go to market tomorrow.”

You’ll hear Terry’s go-to-market playbook: a clear ICP (private practices, concierge/direct primary care, peds/family medicine, OB, behavioral health), local field marketing around the Texas Medical Center, consistent nurture emails with practical cyber tips, and relationship-first outreach—including evangelizing upcoming regulatory pressure (e.g., the proposed Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act of 2024) so practices can prepare. He also breaks down his personal system for prospecting days, community speaking, and mentorship, plus how his faith and leadership lens keeps the team grounded and service-oriented.

If you’re considering a vertical pivot—or trying to make sales feel like service—this episode is a practical roadmap for focusing your offer, tightening your motion, and showing up where your buyers actually are.

Find Terry: Lift Life Technology — lifeliftetech.com • LinkedIn: Terry Baylor Josh’s team: beringmckinley.com MSP healthcare, HIPAA compliance MSP, healthcare cybersecurity, Houston MSP, private practice IT, managed services healthcare, WAN/LAN hardening, vCISO for clinics, ConnectWise ecosystem, Cisco partner MSP Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act 2024, healthcare risk assessment, medical practice security, concierge medicine IT, DPC IT support, patch management healthcare, identity and access management, logging and monitoring healthcare, field marketing for MSPs, vertical MSP strategy

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