April 8, 2025 • 20 mins
What does it take to build a successful career in the technology channel?
The answer might surprise you. It's not technical prowess—or even owning a computer. It's relationships.
The journey from industry outsider to respected insider shows how a few key connections can completely transform your career. Entering the MSP ecosystem without a technical background? Your ability to form genuine, lasting relationships becomes your greatest asset.
This approach has even earned a name: the Rob Ray effect—where consistent, authentic interactions at industry events build over time, compounding into a powerful network that opens doors throughout your career.
Success in the channel means pushing beyond your comfort zone: showing up to early breakfast meetings you'd rather skip, staying late at the lobby bar to meet three new people, or sharing random whale facts that make you unforgettable. These relationship-building habits pay off—especially in an industry where who you know can matter just as much as what you know.
Business development exists in nearly every sector—from restaurant beer reps to travel agents to technology vendors—and the core of the job is remarkably similar across all of them. But if you're someone who thrives on connection, craves meaningful interactions, and loves industry events, the MSP channel offers uniquely rewarding opportunities—plus better compensation than many comparable roles.
Curious how your network could transform your future?
Tune in now to discover the relationship-building secrets that can secure your place in the tech world—no coding skills required.
Links to Follow Empower & Elevate Podcast 24/7:
- https://linktr.ee/empowerelevatepodcast
- https://www.youtube.com/@EmpowerElevatePodcast
- https://www.facebook.com/EmpowerElevatePodcast
- https://www.instagram.com/EmpowerElevatePodcast
- https://www.threads.net/@EmpowerElevatePodcast
- https://www.twitter.com/EmpowerElevateP
- https://www.tiktok.com/@empowerelevatepodcast
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/empowerelevatepodcast
Hi, I’m Marc Thomas, Founder and CEO of Current TEK Solutions and CYBER GUARDIANS. If you or someone you know could benefit from our cutting-edge IT and cybersecurity services, we’d love to help. Reach out to us today to learn how we can secure and elevate your business. https://www.currentTEKsolutions.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stan Wensley said to me in that interview.
He said that the industry isreally small and there's only a
handful of people you need toknow to help guarantee yourself
a job moving forward.
That thing is the same when itcomes to the MSPs, the vendors,
the people.
It's all about the people andI've focused on the entire
(00:21):
industry of buildingrelationships on the entire
industry of buildingrelationships.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
You were looking for that right fit right, that right
fit for you, and you weren'twilling to accept anything other
than that.
What makes you the right fitfor that role?
What is it about you?
What strengths do you have thatmakes you that person for that
(00:47):
role?
Help me understand that yeah,absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Um, okay, so ascendio wouldn't talk about ascendio
first and then backtracking whyI'm right for the role, um, even
before I knew it.
So ascendio is a like-year-oldcompliance platform that was
built by CISOs for CISOs.
So you're looking at a bunch ofCISOs.
(01:12):
I used to spend a lot of timetalking with Ryan Weeks.
I love that guy.
I don't know if you know him,but definitely recommend
anything security-related.
Follow Ryan Weeks.
Half the words he says I don'tunderstand, because he's a
billion times smarter than me.
And those are CISOs, those arethe security guys.
I don't understand it, but Ilove it.
It's phenomenal.
But so imagine a bunch of CISOsjust geeking out on security
(01:34):
and building a security platformthat helps with compliance.
So it's not a complianceplatform, it's a security
platform that will help youbecome compliant, because if you
have security it falls in line.
And then they were selling onthe enterprise level with
different CISOs, so a veryhigh-end product.
And then our CEO came on boardabout three months ago, bought
(01:58):
the company, flipped the entiremodel on the side and said the
first thing I have to do, how doyou take an enterprise product
and bring it to channel?
Well, community, community isall of it and a big part of it.
And then your pricing and yourpartnerships and your
relationships with a vendor.
When it comes to MSPs, thoseare also incredibly important.
(02:20):
So first thing he did was hirePaul Redding.
Paul Redding is incrediblywell-known in the community,
especially when it comes intocompliance.
So, um and Paul's plan was tofirst build out the community,
build out the Reddit, build outthe um, how MSPs have the, the
(02:40):
relationship with Estendio, um,and then build out the marketing
go-to markets plan, which isalso a lot of fun.
And then we got to throw theentire business model on its
side.
So they decided first to do nowwe offer any managed service
provider a free partnership fora year that gives them their own
not-for-resale license and thengives them the tools to help
(03:01):
use risk assessments for theprospects and their clients.
So that's Ostendio, kind ofminimal, but like your booth
pitch essentially.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, yeah sure.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
But when I look at that and when I had a
conversation with Paul, paulsaid community, community,
community.
And then when I called Paul ortexted him, the reason why he
was so excited about me and Ishouldn't put words in his mouth
, but I'm fairly certain hewould say the same thing is
(03:33):
because of my community skills,my community growing skills and
the amount of effort and workthat I put into growing
community professionally andpersonally within the channel.
Since my very first interview,dan Wensley said to me and I've
said this on a million podcastsand a million times and I'll
always become proud for this Inmy interview that I did not take
(03:56):
seriously and I wasn't going totake the job and I just went in
because it would just be fun.
My first time working on the no, I didn't even know what the
channel was.
I didn't understand any of it.
I'm not a technology person.
I like, up to that day I don'teven think I owned a computer at
the time Like that's, like thatperson Channel.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
My radio has channel, so does my TV.
What yeah, exactly?
I was like what Um?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
anyways, Dan Wensley said to me in that interview.
He said that the industry isreally small and there's only a
handful of people you need toknow to help guarantee yourself
a job moving forward.
That thing is the same when itcomes to the MSPs, the vendors,
the people.
It's all about the people andI've focused on the entire
(04:37):
industry, on buildingrelationships, and so if you and
I were ever to walk into a roomat a conference, people stop me
all the time and they don'tstop me because I'm the most
popular person in the room.
Not even it's, I don't evenknow.
Jay McBain coined it as the RobRay effect.
(04:58):
And the first time I evernoticed anything like this.
It's not from building arelationship.
You go to an event and it's onebuilding a relationship.
You go to an event and it's oneperson it's.
You go to an event and you meet, say at a conference, a booth
time, you might a regular eventsay I'll meet 2000 people, we'll
bring down 100, 500 people.
So we meet 500 people.
(05:19):
You talk to 500 people.
You might have like a fivesecond conversation with all of
those.
Maybe only half of them willever remember you you're not
getting it down to 250 and thenat the lobby bar of those people
, maybe you talk to 50 morepeople over the span of four
days and then three of thosepeople you've talked to before
(05:40):
five or whatever and you nowtalk to them again, but this
time you have a 30 minuteconversation instead of five
minute conversation and youreference the last conversation.
So your relationship is built alittle bit further.
And then you do that every weekcontinuously, not every week,
but often at every conference,for five years, 10 years.
(06:01):
But you scaled up because eachperson that you built a stronger
relationship with you haveanother story that happens at
the next conference, if you seethem or you see someone who I
didn't see you but so-and-so,was telling me that they met you
at the last event, and then Ishould hang out with you and
chat and I'm like, of course,I'll buy you a drink, let's have
a drink, or what do you do?
Or me, I'm like the most randomconversations or like
(06:24):
interesting facts, things I justlike I get, I blurred out
random things and they startbuilding these relationships
with people.
They remember you because youblurted out some me, a whale
fact, there's some interestingwhale fact that I'm like you did
you know this about whales?
And they're like, no, I didn'tknow this about whales.
Like what are you doing?
But then they remember me and Ithink that that community
(06:52):
building skill was somethingthat a it was probably pretty
natural to me.
It's just who I am as a person.
But then because of thecoaching, the mentors that I've
had that since I got into thisindustry, they pushed that
relationship building.
Um, dan would always be likeDes, yes, you have to go for
breakfast, I hate going forbreakfast.
And yes, you have to go forbreakfast, I hate going for
breakfast.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
And yes, you have to talk to people.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I hate having to talk to people at breakfast Like I
am not.
I'm like, hi, no, it'sbreakfast, leave me alone.
But those are those things.
Because it's about, yes, des,you have to stay at the lobby
bar and your goal is to talk tothree people that you've never
talked to before.
Your goal is to do this, um,those that community
(07:27):
relationship building, I think,is absolutely everything, and
probably the biggest reason that, um, that Paul Redding and Ken
Verone were interested inbringing me on board or excited
about bringing me on board.
Um, we were at an event we'reat Beyond event and it was the
first time I ever met Ken inreal life and I walked through
the event with him and we hadseveral, several MSP stuff and
(07:51):
be like, oh my God, you broughtDes on board.
That is really cool, that'svery exciting.
I'm excited to see whatproducts, what you guys have or
have and are doing.
Besides that, I hope that it'smy personality and my ability to
sell, because I do love sellingand I think that I do a good
job.
Really, all I'm trying to do isget people to take 30 minutes
of their day to review oursolution and give us feedback.
(08:13):
It's a free partnership, so Ithink that there's enough value
in it.
Myself, I like, on a side note,going back to Ryan Weeks, I
remember when the big attackhappened and it was I think it
was Huntress, like the so Kyle,ryan Weeks and somebody no, no,
not Huntress.
I just said Kyle and Huntressis not.
(08:35):
That's the wrong company.
So I apologize ahead of time.
That's okay.
Okay, but Kyle, no.
So Ryan Weeks and a bunch ofother vendors.
They did the risk assessmentchecklist after the attacks on
Kaseya had happened way back inthe day, and I used to go to
conferences and go to peergroups and say this risk
(08:56):
assessment will really, reallyhelp you and people were really
excited about it, but theydidn't know what to do.
The next steps.
So I think that there's a lotof powerful.
There's a lot of power inhaving a tool that not only can
help you assess risks, point outsecurity, but then have a team
behind you that can help youwalk through those steps and
(09:17):
understand how it's.
Sometimes it's not talkingabout compliance.
That's the conversation to havewith your clients.
It's more about security.
And even like talking to vendorsor different MSPs on the floor,
they're like well, we don'thave to deal with compliance.
It doesn't matter, I'm like,but do you have like a baseline
security within your ownbusiness that you're saying to a
client hey, you know what, Idon't want to buy this risk.
(09:39):
I don't want you to be myclient because the risk that
you're willing to buy is not therisk I'm willing to buy.
So using a system like ours canliterally those risk
assessments, you can be like OK,this is the baseline risk that
I'm willing to work with you,are you?
But this is why and walk youthrough those steps with any
prospect and clients, I thinkthere's a lot of value.
(10:00):
At least I don't know.
When I listened to Ryan Weeksso many years ago, that's what I
thought, and so I'm prettyexcited to see what's going to
happen over the next few monthshere at Ascendio.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, no, I'm excited to hear more about it moving
forward right and a betterunderstanding of what the
offering is and what that lookslike, you know, to the channel.
So that's where you're at today.
I know when I first met you, Imet you actually at a conference
(10:29):
Geez, I think we were.
That was in Arizona and youcame to one of our peer group
meetings.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
The big, big.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Probably leading up to the big, big Yep, correct,
correct?
And I know you came into ourgroup and I'm like who is this
person right, like it was.
You had it cranked up and youwere full of energy and it left
obviously a huge impression onme and there was no forgetting
who you were, who Desiree is, solet's talk about.
(11:03):
Obviously you're working for adifferent organization at that
time and you mentioned Colinwith Passportal in the past and
actually Colin recorded anepisode with me just last week,
the podcast here and we go backbefore that.
You know what we, since youtalk about the channel and their
(11:24):
relationships, customerrelationships and business
development.
Did you see yourself?
You talked about oil and gasand not being for you, but did
you really believe that you'dfind yourself in a customer
relations slash, businessdevelopment type role that you
are today or have been withthese past organizations most
(11:46):
recently?
Is that something that youinspired to pursue or is it just
find yourself in that situation?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
to pursue, or is it just find yourself in that
situation?
I fell into it, but Idefinitely was inspired to
pursue it before I knew itexisted.
I've wanted this job probably Iwouldn't say since I was
probably about 21.
I'm going to say so since myvery first restaurant job.
I wanted this job.
I just didn't know it existedand I didn't know what it was.
Job.
I wanted this job.
(12:17):
I just didn't know it existedand I didn't know what it was.
But I tell people this all thetime the business development
role is a role that is in Idon't know, I'm not going to say
all, but in almost allindustries and the role is the
same.
It's the product or theindustry that you're working in
that can.
That can change.
But really the role and I coachpeople all this time I'm like I
(12:38):
fell into business development,but I fell into it from sales
and then, and then businessdevelopment kind of be the next
step.
But to kind of go backtrack onlike what I mean by that role
exists in every industry,starting at restaurants.
So you work in a restaurant.
You have, say, your fooddelivery person, who maybe you
got the food delivery personthat you normally order from,
(12:58):
and then there's this othercompany that's kind of coming in
and they want you to buy theirsteaks.
So they come in and theydeliver a bunch of steaks.
Maybe they take you out fordinner at their another
restaurant that serves theirsteaks to show you how amazing
they're doing and selling thosesteaks.
Or you have like your beer rep.
So say, have you ever gone tolike a Bud?
Or what is Bud American?
(13:19):
Yeah, bud's American as well.
Sure, yeah, okay.
So you have like your Budbusiness development rep who
would come in and be like oh, wehave this new beer that we want
you guys to sell.
Why don't you guys come to ourparty and we're going to sell
and we're going to do this?
So I knew that role existedwhen I when I was working in
(13:39):
serving bartending and at firstI wanted to be the beer rep, but
then I also was like I don'tneed to drink that much more and
I'm kind of useless after likea certain period of time.
Like 11 PM, like I can do thelobby bar, but it takes like 11
pm is kind of my cutoff.
I'm like I'm going to bed.
So I didn't really want to livethat like scene and then fast
(14:06):
forward through a couple ofindustries of watch that that
same role and same thing happen.
I ended up falling into traveland worked as a travel agent for
a few years and in the travelagent you'd have the business
development role of the tourcompanies or WestJet, like the
airlines, but the tour companieswere the ones I really liked
and then the vacation packageswere the ones of course.
So say, we'd have like WestJetvacations, their rep would come
(14:28):
in and be like if you sell thismany packages, these are the
this.
They tell us about this hoteland this hotel and this hotel,
and you would get like a $500budget that you could go on a
working fan.
So they would bring you down toa resort in Mexico and you
would do tours of hotels all day.
They're fine dining you andit's amazing.
Or in the tour company.
(14:49):
So there's this company calledOn the Go Tours.
I went to Egypt with themAbsolutely amazing and Miles
Walker, who also works in theindustry now, was our rep on the
go tours.
So he took us to Egypt and wedid 10 days.
It was absolutely amazing,great tour.
Of course they're like doingall these really, really cool
(15:09):
things.
And so I looked at Miles Walkerand I was like I want your job,
but we're in travel and whenoriginally I started applying
for these jobs, the role when Ilike I said when I got the
interview at Passportal and Iwasn't taking seriously.
I turned down jobs in travel inthe role that I wanted, the
(15:30):
business development rolebecause the wage that they pay
was really really low, becauseit's heavily involved in well,
you're going to be traveling toEgypt and insert wherever three
times, like you're going to betraveling six times in the
remaining trips.
You going to love the job, butthe age range that I was I kind
of aged out is like financialwas more important than than
that, so I couldn't accept therole.
(15:53):
So then, all of a sudden, I gotintroduced to the channel and
this role that exists, that Ihad dreams about and I loved,
and it's all about relationshipbuilding.
It's all about traveling todifferent conferences.
I also have a passion forconferences.
That's a kind of another story.
I've heard conferences aroundthe world in many different
industries.
They blow my mind.
(16:15):
They're just so interesting andso there's just so much to
attending, working and doinggood execution at a conference.
So I was like workingconferences, going out for
dinner, taking people out,getting to see cool things,
getting to see amazing speakers.
This is a phenomenal job andthe industry itself pays a lot
(16:37):
more than travel.
So, okay, maybe I found myindustry, um, and then actually
got.
This is why miles I talk aboutmiles walker and then I was like
miles you should work over hereand got him to move over here
too.
And I have to say, like I lovethe business development role,
so so much.
Um, I love sales, I do.
I love closing.
(16:58):
I love sales like to me, saleslike I talk about closing.
Um, I got on a call yesterdayand, like I said, I'm doing
follow-up.
Cold calls not really cold,because they're listing from the
people who attended the eventsand they scanned your booth
badge.
So people have scanned, sopeople have scanned and said
like you're, you know you'rescanned, you're gonna get a call
back.
And this gentleman I calledyesterday was like I don't want
(17:20):
to talk to you.
I was like okay, cool, likeabout to hang up.
And he's like I just want totell you that I've received too
many phone calls and emails fromyou guys.
It's the follow-up from theevent.
And he said since the event,all of you vendors are just
calling me all the time and justtrying to like sell me, and I
don't have time for this.
And I'm like I absolutelyunderstand, I a hundred percent
understand.
It sucks, but it's also ourjobs.
(17:42):
You're like going to aconference means that's what's
going to happen.
Anyone who's listening.
If you don't want that tohappen, you create a vendor
email for the event, youregister that way and then you
get your follow-ups to thatvendor email.
That's neither here or there.
So I call the guy and he'stelling me about how upset he is
about vendors reaching out.
(18:02):
But then he holds me on thephone for 15 minutes because
he's interested in the product.
Now, if I hadn't emailed himand hadn't called him, he never
would have remembered to reachout to us to tell us that he was
interested in the productBecause he's busy, because, like
you just said, he's way toobusy to talk to vendors.
(18:23):
He's way too busy.
So it's like a catch 22.
We have to do that and I lovedoing it.
I can mentally get over thefact that they don't want to
talk to me, but I also know that, based on the information that
I have of the compliancesolutions in the industry, what
we're doing is beneficial andhelpful and if it means that if
(18:45):
I pick up the phone and call andfind value to an MSP, that can
help them sell more.
Ken Verone brought the companythat he worked for on, mainly
using compliance and then otherthings, of course.
From like zero, like threeemployees, to like a hundred
million plus in 18 months,that's a conversation worth
(19:06):
having, and so I get through it,but definitely the calling is
not my favorite.
I like the business developmentside, hi.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech
Solutions and Cyber Guardians.
We know business owners likeyou want to focus on growing
your company, not worrying aboutIT problems or security threats
.
That's where we come in.
Our team uses AI to protectyour business from cyber risks
and keep everything runningsmoothly.
If you're ready for peace ofmind and a stronger future,
(19:37):
reach out to us today.
Let's secure and elevate yourbusiness together.
Stan Wensley said to me in that interview.
He said that the industry isreally small and there's only a
handful of people you need toknow to help guarantee yourself
a job moving forward.
That thing is the same when itcomes to the MSPs, the vendors,
the people.
It's all about the people andI've focused on the entire
(00:21):
industry of buildingrelationships on the entire
industry of buildingrelationships.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
You were looking for that right fit right, that right
fit for you, and you weren'twilling to accept anything other
than that.
What makes you the right fitfor that role?
What is it about you?
What strengths do you have thatmakes you that person for that
(00:47):
role?
Help me understand that yeah,absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Um, okay, so ascendio wouldn't talk about ascendio
first and then backtracking whyI'm right for the role, um, even
before I knew it.
So ascendio is a like-year-oldcompliance platform that was
built by CISOs for CISOs.
So you're looking at a bunch ofCISOs.
(01:12):
I used to spend a lot of timetalking with Ryan Weeks.
I love that guy.
I don't know if you know him,but definitely recommend
anything security-related.
Follow Ryan Weeks.
Half the words he says I don'tunderstand, because he's a
billion times smarter than me.
And those are CISOs, those arethe security guys.
I don't understand it, but Ilove it.
It's phenomenal.
But so imagine a bunch of CISOsjust geeking out on security
(01:34):
and building a security platformthat helps with compliance.
So it's not a complianceplatform, it's a security
platform that will help youbecome compliant, because if you
have security it falls in line.
And then they were selling onthe enterprise level with
different CISOs, so a veryhigh-end product.
And then our CEO came on boardabout three months ago, bought
(01:58):
the company, flipped the entiremodel on the side and said the
first thing I have to do, how doyou take an enterprise product
and bring it to channel?
Well, community, community isall of it and a big part of it.
And then your pricing and yourpartnerships and your
relationships with a vendor.
When it comes to MSPs, thoseare also incredibly important.
(02:20):
So first thing he did was hirePaul Redding.
Paul Redding is incrediblywell-known in the community,
especially when it comes intocompliance.
So, um and Paul's plan was tofirst build out the community,
build out the Reddit, build outthe um, how MSPs have the, the
(02:40):
relationship with Estendio, um,and then build out the marketing
go-to markets plan, which isalso a lot of fun.
And then we got to throw theentire business model on its
side.
So they decided first to do nowwe offer any managed service
provider a free partnership fora year that gives them their own
not-for-resale license and thengives them the tools to help
(03:01):
use risk assessments for theprospects and their clients.
So that's Ostendio, kind ofminimal, but like your booth
pitch essentially.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, yeah sure.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
But when I look at that and when I had a
conversation with Paul, paulsaid community, community,
community.
And then when I called Paul ortexted him, the reason why he
was so excited about me and Ishouldn't put words in his mouth
, but I'm fairly certain hewould say the same thing is
(03:33):
because of my community skills,my community growing skills and
the amount of effort and workthat I put into growing
community professionally andpersonally within the channel.
Since my very first interview,dan Wensley said to me and I've
said this on a million podcastsand a million times and I'll
always become proud for this Inmy interview that I did not take
(03:56):
seriously and I wasn't going totake the job and I just went in
because it would just be fun.
My first time working on the no, I didn't even know what the
channel was.
I didn't understand any of it.
I'm not a technology person.
I like, up to that day I don'teven think I owned a computer at
the time Like that's, like thatperson Channel.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
My radio has channel, so does my TV.
What yeah, exactly?
I was like what Um?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
anyways, Dan Wensley said to me in that interview.
He said that the industry isreally small and there's only a
handful of people you need toknow to help guarantee yourself
a job moving forward.
That thing is the same when itcomes to the MSPs, the vendors,
the people.
It's all about the people andI've focused on the entire
(04:37):
industry, on buildingrelationships, and so if you and
I were ever to walk into a roomat a conference, people stop me
all the time and they don'tstop me because I'm the most
popular person in the room.
Not even it's, I don't evenknow.
Jay McBain coined it as the RobRay effect.
(04:58):
And the first time I evernoticed anything like this.
It's not from building arelationship.
You go to an event and it's onebuilding a relationship.
You go to an event and it's oneperson it's.
You go to an event and you meet, say at a conference, a booth
time, you might a regular eventsay I'll meet 2000 people, we'll
bring down 100, 500 people.
So we meet 500 people.
(05:19):
You talk to 500 people.
You might have like a fivesecond conversation with all of
those.
Maybe only half of them willever remember you you're not
getting it down to 250 and thenat the lobby bar of those people
, maybe you talk to 50 morepeople over the span of four
days and then three of thosepeople you've talked to before
(05:40):
five or whatever and you nowtalk to them again, but this
time you have a 30 minuteconversation instead of five
minute conversation and youreference the last conversation.
So your relationship is built alittle bit further.
And then you do that every weekcontinuously, not every week,
but often at every conference,for five years, 10 years.
(06:01):
But you scaled up because eachperson that you built a stronger
relationship with you haveanother story that happens at
the next conference, if you seethem or you see someone who I
didn't see you but so-and-so,was telling me that they met you
at the last event, and then Ishould hang out with you and
chat and I'm like, of course,I'll buy you a drink, let's have
a drink, or what do you do?
Or me, I'm like the most randomconversations or like
(06:24):
interesting facts, things I justlike I get, I blurred out
random things and they startbuilding these relationships
with people.
They remember you because youblurted out some me, a whale
fact, there's some interestingwhale fact that I'm like you did
you know this about whales?
And they're like, no, I didn'tknow this about whales.
Like what are you doing?
But then they remember me and Ithink that that community
(06:52):
building skill was somethingthat a it was probably pretty
natural to me.
It's just who I am as a person.
But then because of thecoaching, the mentors that I've
had that since I got into thisindustry, they pushed that
relationship building.
Um, dan would always be likeDes, yes, you have to go for
breakfast, I hate going forbreakfast.
And yes, you have to go forbreakfast, I hate going for
breakfast.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
And yes, you have to talk to people.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I hate having to talk to people at breakfast Like I
am not.
I'm like, hi, no, it'sbreakfast, leave me alone.
But those are those things.
Because it's about, yes, des,you have to stay at the lobby
bar and your goal is to talk tothree people that you've never
talked to before.
Your goal is to do this, um,those that community
(07:27):
relationship building, I think,is absolutely everything, and
probably the biggest reason that, um, that Paul Redding and Ken
Verone were interested inbringing me on board or excited
about bringing me on board.
Um, we were at an event we'reat Beyond event and it was the
first time I ever met Ken inreal life and I walked through
the event with him and we hadseveral, several MSP stuff and
(07:51):
be like, oh my God, you broughtDes on board.
That is really cool, that'svery exciting.
I'm excited to see whatproducts, what you guys have or
have and are doing.
Besides that, I hope that it'smy personality and my ability to
sell, because I do love sellingand I think that I do a good
job.
Really, all I'm trying to do isget people to take 30 minutes
of their day to review oursolution and give us feedback.
(08:13):
It's a free partnership, so Ithink that there's enough value
in it.
Myself, I like, on a side note,going back to Ryan Weeks, I
remember when the big attackhappened and it was I think it
was Huntress, like the so Kyle,ryan Weeks and somebody no, no,
not Huntress.
I just said Kyle and Huntressis not.
(08:35):
That's the wrong company.
So I apologize ahead of time.
That's okay.
Okay, but Kyle, no.
So Ryan Weeks and a bunch ofother vendors.
They did the risk assessmentchecklist after the attacks on
Kaseya had happened way back inthe day, and I used to go to
conferences and go to peergroups and say this risk
(08:56):
assessment will really, reallyhelp you and people were really
excited about it, but theydidn't know what to do.
The next steps.
So I think that there's a lotof powerful.
There's a lot of power inhaving a tool that not only can
help you assess risks, point outsecurity, but then have a team
behind you that can help youwalk through those steps and
(09:17):
understand how it's.
Sometimes it's not talkingabout compliance.
That's the conversation to havewith your clients.
It's more about security.
And even like talking to vendorsor different MSPs on the floor,
they're like well, we don'thave to deal with compliance.
It doesn't matter, I'm like,but do you have like a baseline
security within your ownbusiness that you're saying to a
client hey, you know what, Idon't want to buy this risk.
(09:39):
I don't want you to be myclient because the risk that
you're willing to buy is not therisk I'm willing to buy.
So using a system like ours canliterally those risk
assessments, you can be like OK,this is the baseline risk that
I'm willing to work with you,are you?
But this is why and walk youthrough those steps with any
prospect and clients, I thinkthere's a lot of value.
(10:00):
At least I don't know.
When I listened to Ryan Weeksso many years ago, that's what I
thought, and so I'm prettyexcited to see what's going to
happen over the next few monthshere at Ascendio.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, no, I'm excited to hear more about it moving
forward right and a betterunderstanding of what the
offering is and what that lookslike, you know, to the channel.
So that's where you're at today.
I know when I first met you, Imet you actually at a conference
(10:29):
Geez, I think we were.
That was in Arizona and youcame to one of our peer group
meetings.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
The big, big.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Probably leading up to the big, big Yep, correct,
correct?
And I know you came into ourgroup and I'm like who is this
person right, like it was.
You had it cranked up and youwere full of energy and it left
obviously a huge impression onme and there was no forgetting
who you were, who Desiree is, solet's talk about.
(11:03):
Obviously you're working for adifferent organization at that
time and you mentioned Colinwith Passportal in the past and
actually Colin recorded anepisode with me just last week,
the podcast here and we go backbefore that.
You know what we, since youtalk about the channel and their
(11:24):
relationships, customerrelationships and business
development.
Did you see yourself?
You talked about oil and gasand not being for you, but did
you really believe that you'dfind yourself in a customer
relations slash, businessdevelopment type role that you
are today or have been withthese past organizations most
(11:46):
recently?
Is that something that youinspired to pursue or is it just
find yourself in that situation?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
to pursue, or is it just find yourself in that
situation?
I fell into it, but Idefinitely was inspired to
pursue it before I knew itexisted.
I've wanted this job probably Iwouldn't say since I was
probably about 21.
I'm going to say so since myvery first restaurant job.
I wanted this job.
I just didn't know it existedand I didn't know what it was.
Job.
I wanted this job.
(12:17):
I just didn't know it existedand I didn't know what it was.
But I tell people this all thetime the business development
role is a role that is in Idon't know, I'm not going to say
all, but in almost allindustries and the role is the
same.
It's the product or theindustry that you're working in
that can.
That can change.
But really the role and I coachpeople all this time I'm like I
(12:38):
fell into business development,but I fell into it from sales
and then, and then businessdevelopment kind of be the next
step.
But to kind of go backtrack onlike what I mean by that role
exists in every industry,starting at restaurants.
So you work in a restaurant.
You have, say, your fooddelivery person, who maybe you
got the food delivery personthat you normally order from,
(12:58):
and then there's this othercompany that's kind of coming in
and they want you to buy theirsteaks.
So they come in and theydeliver a bunch of steaks.
Maybe they take you out fordinner at their another
restaurant that serves theirsteaks to show you how amazing
they're doing and selling thosesteaks.
Or you have like your beer rep.
So say, have you ever gone tolike a Bud?
Or what is Bud American?
(13:19):
Yeah, bud's American as well.
Sure, yeah, okay.
So you have like your Budbusiness development rep who
would come in and be like oh, wehave this new beer that we want
you guys to sell.
Why don't you guys come to ourparty and we're going to sell
and we're going to do this?
So I knew that role existedwhen I when I was working in
(13:39):
serving bartending and at firstI wanted to be the beer rep, but
then I also was like I don'tneed to drink that much more and
I'm kind of useless after likea certain period of time.
Like 11 PM, like I can do thelobby bar, but it takes like 11
pm is kind of my cutoff.
I'm like I'm going to bed.
So I didn't really want to livethat like scene and then fast
(14:06):
forward through a couple ofindustries of watch that that
same role and same thing happen.
I ended up falling into traveland worked as a travel agent for
a few years and in the travelagent you'd have the business
development role of the tourcompanies or WestJet, like the
airlines, but the tour companieswere the ones I really liked
and then the vacation packageswere the ones of course.
So say, we'd have like WestJetvacations, their rep would come
(14:28):
in and be like if you sell thismany packages, these are the
this.
They tell us about this hoteland this hotel and this hotel,
and you would get like a $500budget that you could go on a
working fan.
So they would bring you down toa resort in Mexico and you
would do tours of hotels all day.
They're fine dining you andit's amazing.
Or in the tour company.
(14:49):
So there's this company calledOn the Go Tours.
I went to Egypt with themAbsolutely amazing and Miles
Walker, who also works in theindustry now, was our rep on the
go tours.
So he took us to Egypt and wedid 10 days.
It was absolutely amazing,great tour.
Of course they're like doingall these really, really cool
(15:09):
things.
And so I looked at Miles Walkerand I was like I want your job,
but we're in travel and whenoriginally I started applying
for these jobs, the role when Ilike I said when I got the
interview at Passportal and Iwasn't taking seriously.
I turned down jobs in travel inthe role that I wanted, the
(15:30):
business development rolebecause the wage that they pay
was really really low, becauseit's heavily involved in well,
you're going to be traveling toEgypt and insert wherever three
times, like you're going to betraveling six times in the
remaining trips.
You going to love the job, butthe age range that I was I kind
of aged out is like financialwas more important than than
that, so I couldn't accept therole.
(15:53):
So then, all of a sudden, I gotintroduced to the channel and
this role that exists, that Ihad dreams about and I loved,
and it's all about relationshipbuilding.
It's all about traveling todifferent conferences.
I also have a passion forconferences.
That's a kind of another story.
I've heard conferences aroundthe world in many different
industries.
They blow my mind.
(16:15):
They're just so interesting andso there's just so much to
attending, working and doinggood execution at a conference.
So I was like workingconferences, going out for
dinner, taking people out,getting to see cool things,
getting to see amazing speakers.
This is a phenomenal job andthe industry itself pays a lot
(16:37):
more than travel.
So, okay, maybe I found myindustry, um, and then actually
got.
This is why miles I talk aboutmiles walker and then I was like
miles you should work over hereand got him to move over here
too.
And I have to say, like I lovethe business development role,
so so much.
Um, I love sales, I do.
I love closing.
(16:58):
I love sales like to me, saleslike I talk about closing.
Um, I got on a call yesterdayand, like I said, I'm doing
follow-up.
Cold calls not really cold,because they're listing from the
people who attended the eventsand they scanned your booth
badge.
So people have scanned, sopeople have scanned and said
like you're, you know you'rescanned, you're gonna get a call
back.
And this gentleman I calledyesterday was like I don't want
(17:20):
to talk to you.
I was like okay, cool, likeabout to hang up.
And he's like I just want totell you that I've received too
many phone calls and emails fromyou guys.
It's the follow-up from theevent.
And he said since the event,all of you vendors are just
calling me all the time and justtrying to like sell me, and I
don't have time for this.
And I'm like I absolutelyunderstand, I a hundred percent
understand.
It sucks, but it's also ourjobs.
(17:42):
You're like going to aconference means that's what's
going to happen.
Anyone who's listening.
If you don't want that tohappen, you create a vendor
email for the event, youregister that way and then you
get your follow-ups to thatvendor email.
That's neither here or there.
So I call the guy and he'stelling me about how upset he is
about vendors reaching out.
(18:02):
But then he holds me on thephone for 15 minutes because
he's interested in the product.
Now, if I hadn't emailed himand hadn't called him, he never
would have remembered to reachout to us to tell us that he was
interested in the productBecause he's busy, because, like
you just said, he's way toobusy to talk to vendors.
(18:23):
He's way too busy.
So it's like a catch 22.
We have to do that and I lovedoing it.
I can mentally get over thefact that they don't want to
talk to me, but I also know that, based on the information that
I have of the compliancesolutions in the industry, what
we're doing is beneficial andhelpful and if it means that if
(18:45):
I pick up the phone and call andfind value to an MSP, that can
help them sell more.
Ken Verone brought the companythat he worked for on, mainly
using compliance and then otherthings, of course.
From like zero, like threeemployees, to like a hundred
million plus in 18 months,that's a conversation worth
(19:06):
having, and so I get through it,but definitely the calling is
not my favorite.
I like the business developmentside, hi.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech
Solutions and Cyber Guardians.
We know business owners likeyou want to focus on growing
your company, not worrying aboutIT problems or security threats
.
That's where we come in.
Our team uses AI to protectyour business from cyber risks
and keep everything runningsmoothly.
If you're ready for peace ofmind and a stronger future,
(19:37):
reach out to us today.
Let's secure and elevate yourbusiness together.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.