April 22, 2025 • 16 mins
"Community is not about belonging. It’s about belonging to something that makes belonging matter."
This powerful distinction lies at the heart of our conversation about what genuine community means in today’s business landscape.
When businesses confuse having customers with having community, they miss the transformative power of authentic connection. True community emerges when we help others grow without constantly asking, “What’s in it for me?” The results are extraordinary—customers evolve into passionate advocates, sales conversations shift into relationship-building opportunities, and everyone thrives together.
During COVID, this spirit of community came alive through weekly support calls, where 40–60 people gathered to navigate uncertainty. These calls helped nearly 20 businesses secure PPP loans, sparked marketing breakthroughs, and even led to successful acquisitions. Today, the gatherings continue as a space where people freely exchange knowledge and offer emotional support. Initiatives like collecting donations for food banks and aiding struggling local businesses showed how small acts of kindness can ripple outward with lasting impact.
MSPs often act as “first responders of the business world,” protecting not just operations—but livelihoods. When we embrace this responsibility, our mindset shifts from transactions to transformation. The beautiful paradox? By focusing less on sales and more on service, business naturally grows. When vendors educate MSPs instead of selling to them, and MSPs champion client success over upselling, clients don’t need to be pursued—they seek you out.
Have you felt the difference between belonging to a network and being part of a true community? We’d love to hear your story. Connect with us and share how community has shaped your business journey.
Ken Patterson on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenpatterson16
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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):
It's all about community, mark.
That's the one, like I said, wehave, the best community on the
planet and if we can find waysto help each other and help new
people coming in and just peoplein general, you know, I'm there
, I'm, you know, and I say thisto people and it's funny about
how little people take you up onit.
When you tell them, hey, I'llhelp out, right, it's like no,
(00:23):
I'm not joking about this.
I've had people say to me andI'll say it on here too Look,
find me on LinkedIn, connectwith me.
Mark will have my contactinformation If you need help
with anything, regardless ofwhat it is, you know what I do
for a living, but with anything,reach out.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
This podcast you talk about help.
This podcast is a mission ofhope to help one person every
day through the podcast ofgiving back right.
And you talk about where arepeople at you and I will be
seeing each other in just a fewdays.
Obviously, this episode willrelease many weeks from now, but
(01:06):
that is me giving back right,because I know I'm I'm just one
of hope.
I hope I can help one person inthat room that maybe are in a
spot that I've been in thatcaused me to make the changes I
made, and maybe my story willhelp them.
Yep, or they know that they'renot alone in the world, right,
that someone else has beenthrough it and this is how they
(01:28):
got through it.
So help one another, right.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yep, it's all about community, mark.
That's the one, like I said, wehave the best community on the
planet and if we can find waysto help each other and help new
people coming in and just peoplein general, you know, I'm there
, I'm, you know, and I say thisto people and it's funny about
how little people take you up onit when you tell them, hey,
(01:55):
I'll help out, right, it's likeno, I'm not joking about this.
I've had people say to me andI'll say it on here too Look,
find me on LinkedIn, connectwith me.
Mark will have my contactinformation.
If you need help with anything,regardless of what it is, you
know what I do for a living, butwith anything, reach out.
I may not even know the answer,but I may know someone who does
(02:17):
, and that's a start.
That's how you can start.
So I put myself out here foreverybody because I need help
all the time and if I don't getthat help, I know how stressful
it can be.
So, being able to talk tosomebody and maybe it's someone
you know, someone different likeme I'm different.
If you need to talk to someone,reach out, send me and send me
(02:38):
a message.
I have a few initiatives goingright now.
I and that don't have anythingto do with me, and everybody
should do the same I'm doingsomething right now.
With all the layoffs that justhappened, I put myself out there
and offered myself up foranybody that got laid off to
have a conversation with, maybepoint them in the right
direction.
And, mark, I've even invitedsome of those folks out in
(02:59):
Denver to the event so that theycan come out and meet MSPs and
vendors and just haveconversations and, who knows,
maybe it sparks a job for them,maybe it sparks a link to a job.
But the point is there's somany small ways you can help out
in the community.
You know, like I said, I'mhaving these people just come
out to the event and they'regoing to have the availability
to talk to vendors and MSPs.
(03:20):
Make new connections.
You never know where thatconnection could take you.
It doesn't mean that person'sgoing to hire you or that
person's going to do somethingfor you right then there.
But if you make a goodconnection, they may know
somebody who knows somebody andtie that connection together.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
It's a very small world.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, it's a small sandbox we play in Mark, that's
for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So you did mention that's one of your initiatives.
What's your other initiative?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, I do have a a and, by the way, you're invited.
I don't know if you know you'reso busy too, but I do a
community call every Thursdaythat basically it's vendors,
MSPs, and we just go on there.
Some of them have called ittheir therapy session.
Ok, we've done this.
I started it in COVID.
During COVID, I used to doTuesdays and Thursdays and we
had like 40 to 60 people onthere.
(04:06):
It was crazy.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
How could I not know about this?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, I don't know how I think I mentioned it at
the meeting too, but youprobably didn't listen to me.
You only wanted to sing karaoke.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, yeah, you know me, I'm always grabbing the mic.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
But no, yeah.
So we started back then duringCOVID and now it's still going
on Thursdays.
It's every Thursday at 3 PMEastern time and it's just an
hour of Whoever wants to chat.
We talk about everything fromsecurity to food.
It's an open forum.
We don't record it, we don'tput it out on social, because we
want people to be frank and beopen and be able to say the
(04:42):
things they want to say.
So remind me, mark, I'll justsend you the invite to it.
So you have it but anybody canreach out and be a part of that.
We do it every Thursday.
Sometimes we have 10 people onthere, sometimes we have 30
people on there, sometimes wehave 30 people on there.
I don't expect people to bethere.
What I do is I send thecalendar invite for the year and
you don't have to respond tothat.
You just have it on yourcalendar and if you're busy you
(05:05):
don't come.
If you're not busy, you pop on.
If you can pop on for a halfhour, pop on for a half hour and
I think people pick up nuggetsthere of information.
And during COVID we actuallyhelped close to 20 people get
their PPP loans the right PPPloans Wonderful.
We helped a bunch of peoplewith their marketing.
Like there was just crazyconversations during COVID that
a lot of people got supersuccessful.
(05:26):
In fact, they're not on thecall anymore because they got so
busy.
Seriously crazy stuff happened.
One of them got bought out.
Seriously crazy stuff happened.
One of them got bought out.
Like there was a lot of peopleon those calls that had
successful things happen becausewe learned and we did some cool
stuff on there and that's allit is.
It's just doing things likethat simple things.
It's not that difficult.
Even during COVID, when I didthe tour bus thing and we were
(05:49):
driving around the country, onelittle extra thing we did was we
made every MSP pay us in cannedgoods.
We just said, bring two cannedgoods to the event and we'll
lump those all together andwhoever the MSP was that was
hosting us could donate that totheir local food bank.
Very nice or their local charity.
Right, not hard to do, justpull that together and be able
(06:10):
to do things like that.
And I knew that my old citythat I grew up in the one we
were talking about wasstruggling during COVID for the
food bank.
So I figured there must beother food banks struggling.
So we traveled around the wholecountry.
That's what we did.
We just collected canned goodsand stuff that people would
brought in and then we'd give itto the local MSP that was
hosting us and they would bringit to their charity of choice.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Love it.
Amazing, that's awesome of youto do that.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And it's again, it's, it's, it's.
These are things that any oneof us can do.
It's not about me.
It's about sparking ideas forhow you can help.
And, by the way, communitydoesn't just mean us.
Community is about everybodythat we come in contact with.
So that's like I said.
The food banks in your localarea are part of your community.
Help out in any way you canHelp out with places that are
around your organization.
(06:57):
It does do your business well,even though it's not meant to be
that way.
And I say it that way becauseif you're out in the community
doing things like that, thatgets recognized by businesses.
And I think when businesses seeyou out there doing things that
don't have anything to do withtechnology but have everything
to do with the community, it'sjust another way to make
(07:18):
yourself stand out from the rest.
Not that you're doing it forthat reason, but it does help.
So I mean sure you know bottomline too.
We talk about community markbecause I feel like community is
thrown around almost as much ascloud.
Now.
Okay, um, you know what I mean.
It's just a term to people now,and it's not Because you have
customers.
That's not a community.
(07:38):
A community is not aboutbelonging.
It's about belonging tosomething that makes belonging
matter.
That's the difference.
That's what real community is,and I learned.
That's how I always thought ofit, but I couldn't put it on
paper until I talked to EricBowles and Eric Bowles made that
statement to me and I was like,oh my God, that's a hundred
(07:59):
percent accurate, because everya lot of the vendors and a lot
of the companies think, oh,we've got a community, these are
our customers over here.
Really, a community when you metwhen it matters and you belong
to it, it makes it feel like itmatters is way different, and
the way I can explain it becauseof my experience in the past
was the PAX 8 experience.
(08:19):
I helped, I was a big part ofthat community growing when we
grew that from 3,000 members to15,000 members, and they weren't
just members, they weren't justcustomers.
They became stark, raving fansof what PAX 8 did, because we
built them as a community, notas customers.
We helped them be better.
That's how you build acommunity.
(08:41):
When you're helping the peoplethat you serve be better Without
asking for anything in return,you give.
It's not the with them, it'snot what's in it for me.
It's what's in it for you, mark.
How can I help you, how can Iserve you?
And I don't want anything inreturn.
That's community, and so ifmore businesses could take that
(09:05):
approach, they'll start to seewins happen in a much more
organic way.
And, by the way, wouldn't it benice to stop talking about
sales, because I'm so sick ofsell, sell, sell, sell.
We don't have to sell what wedo.
People need it.
Msps are the first respondersof the business world.
You're saving people'sbusinesses the way that first
(09:26):
responders save people's livesand, in essence, you're saving
their lives too, because theirlives are their business.
That's their livelihood, right?
So what better way to do itthan to help everybody be better
?
Help vendors need to learn todo that with msps.
Msps need to learn to do thatwith their customers.
Make them better.
And when they're not talkingabout sales, when you're not,
(09:48):
you know your sales.
People aren't saying, hey, Igot a quote with me, can you buy
some licenses?
Like, come on, seriously, noone wants to hear that.
But what if they call you?
Because they know, hey, youguys educated me on this, this
new thing over, and I didn'tknow anything about that.
And now I need that.
They're calling you for thesale, you're not calling them.
It's a reversal and it's how itshould be done.
(10:10):
Just like I call a doctor whenI have a problem, right, the
customers will stop calling youwhen they have a problem and the
MSPs, as MSPs, will actuallytalk to the vendors when we have
a problem if they bettereducate us as MSPs, right?
So it's this trickle-downeffect, trickle-across.
I don't want to say down,because I don't think anybody's
below anybody else, but I trulybelieve that community is at the
(10:34):
heart of it all and if you doit right, we don't have to talk
about that dirty sales word.
In that aspect, it'll all bebased on relationships.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Relationships are everything, um, and you're
building those through community, through giving back, helping
others become better, cause I'mall about becoming better myself
.
Right, I'm on a journey ofgrowth, um, and we talked about
the the being better giving backcommunity.
My thing is you mentioned, withthe podcast, right being better
giving back community.
My thing is I mentioned, withthe podcast, right, like giving
(11:06):
back, um, trying to leave thingsmaybe slightly better than what
I inherited.
It, right, because, face it, wehave, and we talk about
negativity in the world andeverybody, oh, the world's going
to shit.
You know, okay, what are wedoing to make a difference,
right?
Right, I mean you can have animpact.
Yep, what?
(11:27):
How is all much?
How much impact?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
you're going to make right.
That's up to you A hundredpercent.
And you know, like I said aboutthe, you know people say, oh, I
don't have time.
No, there's always time to dothe right thing.
There's just always time to dothe right thing and it does come
in.
It will circle back.
If you're doing these rightthings and you're working in the
right direction and yourheart's in the right place,
it'll come around, it'll work.
(11:55):
You know, and for me I don'tknow the last.
I mean, I've been doing this along time, over 20 years and for
me I get corny because peoplelike don't believe it.
But for me I get corny becausepeople like don't believe it.
(12:17):
But for me the stories of thepeople that I've helped are way
better than you know.
Some of the dollars I couldhave earned by going down a
wrong path or going to the wrongvendor that you know.
I just couldn't sell my soul tothe devil and do stuff like
that.
You know.
Of course there are vendors whowould probably hire me and try
to use me and but not go downthe road.
I want them to go down or notdo it in the way I want them to,
and I just couldn't do that andI would say, is my wife
listening, cause I don't wanther to know that?
But you know I I won't takethat uh the the money over my
soul.
You know I want to work withpeople, the thing I love to do,
(12:39):
right, that's what makes me.
You know, I'm not.
I'll I'll reverse this.
I'm not as good as people thinkI am at my job.
Okay, I'm only.
I'm only good at it because Ilove it.
So if I believe in, if I, if Ibelieve in the company I'm
working for, I believe in thesolution and I believe in it's
going to help MSPs, cause that'sreally my right now, my focus,
(13:04):
that actually makes me feelreally good.
That's the part that takes meto the next level and that's why
I look like I'm doing a greatjob, because I love what I do,
so I can do it better, if thatmakes sense.
It's just who I am.
It's allowing me to be who I amand I love that part If I can
get out there and do good andhelp people, and you know I've
(13:25):
had so many MSPs come back to meand then, of course, I'll tell
you you know some some thingsduring COVID that really got me
right here.
You know I could I could get alittle emotional talking about
them.
You know we were in Memphis andpart of the giving back to the
community was we would hirelocal food trucks that had no
(13:46):
work Right, because they had nowork, they were out of work.
And the food truck guy inMemphis came out and burst into
tears like two or three timesand gave me a big hug and just
said my wife and I were reallystruggling here.
We have nothing coming in andthis was amazing and you know
all that.
So cool yeah, man dude coming inand this was amazing and you
know all that and so cool.
Yeah, man, dude, it's it solike.
You know things like that,where you're just like, look at
(14:10):
the effect we had just by cominghere and doing what we needed
to do anyways.
But we brought in the foodtruck and gave them some, some
cash.
We got the, the food banks, wegave them the food.
The you know the tour bus driverand the tour bus.
They were out of business thatwe were paying them to drive us
around the country.
The you know the tour busdriver and the tour bus.
They were out of business thatwe were paying them to drive us
around the country.
Right, the hotels we werestaying at.
Nobody was staying at hotels,so these hotels were pretty
(14:32):
thankful at actually rolling outthe red carpet.
Well, at least some of them,some of them had basically
couldn't, couldn't get theirrooms ready even by 10 PM.
It was a weird time, but forthe most part, they appreciated
that we were out there doingthis because it was bringing
money to the economies thatweren't, that weren't getting
(14:52):
anything.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
No, that's amazing, the thing that got you obviously
out there.
You still had the mission athand and it benefited others
right Along the way.
I mean just it was definitely,definitely helpful and those
small things they make adifference.
They do make a difference, theyall add up.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
It's not anything crazy to give some time back and
you don't realize how huge theimpact could be on the other
side, Hi.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech
Solutions and CyberGuardians.
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,
(15:42):
reach out to us today.
Let's secure and elevate yourbusiness together.
It's all about community, mark.
That's the one, like I said, wehave, the best community on the
planet and if we can find waysto help each other and help new
people coming in and just peoplein general, you know, I'm there
, I'm, you know, and I say thisto people and it's funny about
how little people take you up onit.
When you tell them, hey, I'llhelp out, right, it's like no,
(00:23):
I'm not joking about this.
I've had people say to me andI'll say it on here too Look,
find me on LinkedIn, connectwith me.
Mark will have my contactinformation If you need help
with anything, regardless ofwhat it is, you know what I do
for a living, but with anything,reach out.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
This podcast you talk about help.
This podcast is a mission ofhope to help one person every
day through the podcast ofgiving back right.
And you talk about where arepeople at you and I will be
seeing each other in just a fewdays.
Obviously, this episode willrelease many weeks from now, but
(01:06):
that is me giving back right,because I know I'm I'm just one
of hope.
I hope I can help one person inthat room that maybe are in a
spot that I've been in thatcaused me to make the changes I
made, and maybe my story willhelp them.
Yep, or they know that they'renot alone in the world, right,
that someone else has beenthrough it and this is how they
(01:28):
got through it.
So help one another, right.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yep, it's all about community, mark.
That's the one, like I said, wehave the best community on the
planet and if we can find waysto help each other and help new
people coming in and just peoplein general, you know, I'm there
, I'm, you know, and I say thisto people and it's funny about
how little people take you up onit when you tell them, hey,
(01:55):
I'll help out, right, it's likeno, I'm not joking about this.
I've had people say to me andI'll say it on here too Look,
find me on LinkedIn, connectwith me.
Mark will have my contactinformation.
If you need help with anything,regardless of what it is, you
know what I do for a living, butwith anything, reach out.
I may not even know the answer,but I may know someone who does
(02:17):
, and that's a start.
That's how you can start.
So I put myself out here foreverybody because I need help
all the time and if I don't getthat help, I know how stressful
it can be.
So, being able to talk tosomebody and maybe it's someone
you know, someone different likeme I'm different.
If you need to talk to someone,reach out, send me and send me
(02:38):
a message.
I have a few initiatives goingright now.
I and that don't have anythingto do with me, and everybody
should do the same I'm doingsomething right now.
With all the layoffs that justhappened, I put myself out there
and offered myself up foranybody that got laid off to
have a conversation with, maybepoint them in the right
direction.
And, mark, I've even invitedsome of those folks out in
(02:59):
Denver to the event so that theycan come out and meet MSPs and
vendors and just haveconversations and, who knows,
maybe it sparks a job for them,maybe it sparks a link to a job.
But the point is there's somany small ways you can help out
in the community.
You know, like I said, I'mhaving these people just come
out to the event and they'regoing to have the availability
to talk to vendors and MSPs.
(03:20):
Make new connections.
You never know where thatconnection could take you.
It doesn't mean that person'sgoing to hire you or that
person's going to do somethingfor you right then there.
But if you make a goodconnection, they may know
somebody who knows somebody andtie that connection together.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
It's a very small world.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, it's a small sandbox we play in Mark, that's
for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So you did mention that's one of your initiatives.
What's your other initiative?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, I do have a a and, by the way, you're invited.
I don't know if you know you'reso busy too, but I do a
community call every Thursdaythat basically it's vendors,
MSPs, and we just go on there.
Some of them have called ittheir therapy session.
Ok, we've done this.
I started it in COVID.
During COVID, I used to doTuesdays and Thursdays and we
had like 40 to 60 people onthere.
(04:06):
It was crazy.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
How could I not know about this?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, I don't know how I think I mentioned it at
the meeting too, but youprobably didn't listen to me.
You only wanted to sing karaoke.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, yeah, you know me, I'm always grabbing the mic.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
But no, yeah.
So we started back then duringCOVID and now it's still going
on Thursdays.
It's every Thursday at 3 PMEastern time and it's just an
hour of Whoever wants to chat.
We talk about everything fromsecurity to food.
It's an open forum.
We don't record it, we don'tput it out on social, because we
want people to be frank and beopen and be able to say the
(04:42):
things they want to say.
So remind me, mark, I'll justsend you the invite to it.
So you have it but anybody canreach out and be a part of that.
We do it every Thursday.
Sometimes we have 10 people onthere, sometimes we have 30
people on there, sometimes wehave 30 people on there.
I don't expect people to bethere.
What I do is I send thecalendar invite for the year and
you don't have to respond tothat.
You just have it on yourcalendar and if you're busy you
(05:05):
don't come.
If you're not busy, you pop on.
If you can pop on for a halfhour, pop on for a half hour and
I think people pick up nuggetsthere of information.
And during COVID we actuallyhelped close to 20 people get
their PPP loans the right PPPloans Wonderful.
We helped a bunch of peoplewith their marketing.
Like there was just crazyconversations during COVID that
a lot of people got supersuccessful.
(05:26):
In fact, they're not on thecall anymore because they got so
busy.
Seriously crazy stuff happened.
One of them got bought out.
Seriously crazy stuff happened.
One of them got bought out.
Like there was a lot of peopleon those calls that had
successful things happen becausewe learned and we did some cool
stuff on there and that's allit is.
It's just doing things likethat simple things.
It's not that difficult.
Even during COVID, when I didthe tour bus thing and we were
(05:49):
driving around the country, onelittle extra thing we did was we
made every MSP pay us in cannedgoods.
We just said, bring two cannedgoods to the event and we'll
lump those all together andwhoever the MSP was that was
hosting us could donate that totheir local food bank.
Very nice or their local charity.
Right, not hard to do, justpull that together and be able
(06:10):
to do things like that.
And I knew that my old citythat I grew up in the one we
were talking about wasstruggling during COVID for the
food bank.
So I figured there must beother food banks struggling.
So we traveled around the wholecountry.
That's what we did.
We just collected canned goodsand stuff that people would
brought in and then we'd give itto the local MSP that was
hosting us and they would bringit to their charity of choice.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Love it.
Amazing, that's awesome of youto do that.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And it's again, it's, it's, it's.
These are things that any oneof us can do.
It's not about me.
It's about sparking ideas forhow you can help.
And, by the way, communitydoesn't just mean us.
Community is about everybodythat we come in contact with.
So that's like I said.
The food banks in your localarea are part of your community.
Help out in any way you canHelp out with places that are
around your organization.
(06:57):
It does do your business well,even though it's not meant to be
that way.
And I say it that way becauseif you're out in the community
doing things like that, thatgets recognized by businesses.
And I think when businesses seeyou out there doing things that
don't have anything to do withtechnology but have everything
to do with the community, it'sjust another way to make
(07:18):
yourself stand out from the rest.
Not that you're doing it forthat reason, but it does help.
So I mean sure you know bottomline too.
We talk about community markbecause I feel like community is
thrown around almost as much ascloud.
Now.
Okay, um, you know what I mean.
It's just a term to people now,and it's not Because you have
customers.
That's not a community.
(07:38):
A community is not aboutbelonging.
It's about belonging tosomething that makes belonging
matter.
That's the difference.
That's what real community is,and I learned.
That's how I always thought ofit, but I couldn't put it on
paper until I talked to EricBowles and Eric Bowles made that
statement to me and I was like,oh my God, that's a hundred
(07:59):
percent accurate, because everya lot of the vendors and a lot
of the companies think, oh,we've got a community, these are
our customers over here.
Really, a community when you metwhen it matters and you belong
to it, it makes it feel like itmatters is way different, and
the way I can explain it becauseof my experience in the past
was the PAX 8 experience.
(08:19):
I helped, I was a big part ofthat community growing when we
grew that from 3,000 members to15,000 members, and they weren't
just members, they weren't justcustomers.
They became stark, raving fansof what PAX 8 did, because we
built them as a community, notas customers.
We helped them be better.
That's how you build acommunity.
(08:41):
When you're helping the peoplethat you serve be better Without
asking for anything in return,you give.
It's not the with them, it'snot what's in it for me.
It's what's in it for you, mark.
How can I help you, how can Iserve you?
And I don't want anything inreturn.
That's community, and so ifmore businesses could take that
(09:05):
approach, they'll start to seewins happen in a much more
organic way.
And, by the way, wouldn't it benice to stop talking about
sales, because I'm so sick ofsell, sell, sell, sell.
We don't have to sell what wedo.
People need it.
Msps are the first respondersof the business world.
You're saving people'sbusinesses the way that first
(09:26):
responders save people's livesand, in essence, you're saving
their lives too, because theirlives are their business.
That's their livelihood, right?
So what better way to do itthan to help everybody be better
?
Help vendors need to learn todo that with msps.
Msps need to learn to do thatwith their customers.
Make them better.
And when they're not talkingabout sales, when you're not,
(09:48):
you know your sales.
People aren't saying, hey, Igot a quote with me, can you buy
some licenses?
Like, come on, seriously, noone wants to hear that.
But what if they call you?
Because they know, hey, youguys educated me on this, this
new thing over, and I didn'tknow anything about that.
And now I need that.
They're calling you for thesale, you're not calling them.
It's a reversal and it's how itshould be done.
(10:10):
Just like I call a doctor whenI have a problem, right, the
customers will stop calling youwhen they have a problem and the
MSPs, as MSPs, will actuallytalk to the vendors when we have
a problem if they bettereducate us as MSPs, right?
So it's this trickle-downeffect, trickle-across.
I don't want to say down,because I don't think anybody's
below anybody else, but I trulybelieve that community is at the
(10:34):
heart of it all and if you doit right, we don't have to talk
about that dirty sales word.
In that aspect, it'll all bebased on relationships.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Relationships are everything, um, and you're
building those through community, through giving back, helping
others become better, cause I'mall about becoming better myself
.
Right, I'm on a journey ofgrowth, um, and we talked about
the the being better giving backcommunity.
My thing is you mentioned, withthe podcast, right being better
giving back community.
My thing is I mentioned, withthe podcast, right, like giving
(11:06):
back, um, trying to leave thingsmaybe slightly better than what
I inherited.
It, right, because, face it, wehave, and we talk about
negativity in the world andeverybody, oh, the world's going
to shit.
You know, okay, what are wedoing to make a difference,
right?
Right, I mean you can have animpact.
Yep, what?
(11:27):
How is all much?
How much impact?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
you're going to make right.
That's up to you A hundredpercent.
And you know, like I said aboutthe, you know people say, oh, I
don't have time.
No, there's always time to dothe right thing.
There's just always time to dothe right thing and it does come
in.
It will circle back.
If you're doing these rightthings and you're working in the
right direction and yourheart's in the right place,
it'll come around, it'll work.
(11:55):
You know, and for me I don'tknow the last.
I mean, I've been doing this along time, over 20 years and for
me I get corny because peoplelike don't believe it.
But for me I get corny becausepeople like don't believe it.
(12:17):
But for me the stories of thepeople that I've helped are way
better than you know.
Some of the dollars I couldhave earned by going down a
wrong path or going to the wrongvendor that you know.
I just couldn't sell my soul tothe devil and do stuff like
that.
You know.
Of course there are vendors whowould probably hire me and try
to use me and but not go downthe road.
I want them to go down or notdo it in the way I want them to,
and I just couldn't do that andI would say, is my wife
listening, cause I don't wanther to know that?
But you know I I won't takethat uh the the money over my
soul.
You know I want to work withpeople, the thing I love to do,
(12:39):
right, that's what makes me.
You know, I'm not.
I'll I'll reverse this.
I'm not as good as people thinkI am at my job.
Okay, I'm only.
I'm only good at it because Ilove it.
So if I believe in, if I, if Ibelieve in the company I'm
working for, I believe in thesolution and I believe in it's
going to help MSPs, cause that'sreally my right now, my focus,
(13:04):
that actually makes me feelreally good.
That's the part that takes meto the next level and that's why
I look like I'm doing a greatjob, because I love what I do,
so I can do it better, if thatmakes sense.
It's just who I am.
It's allowing me to be who I amand I love that part If I can
get out there and do good andhelp people, and you know I've
(13:25):
had so many MSPs come back to meand then, of course, I'll tell
you you know some some thingsduring COVID that really got me
right here.
You know I could I could get alittle emotional talking about
them.
You know we were in Memphis andpart of the giving back to the
community was we would hirelocal food trucks that had no
(13:46):
work Right, because they had nowork, they were out of work.
And the food truck guy inMemphis came out and burst into
tears like two or three timesand gave me a big hug and just
said my wife and I were reallystruggling here.
We have nothing coming in andthis was amazing and you know
all that.
So cool yeah, man dude coming inand this was amazing and you
know all that and so cool.
Yeah, man, dude, it's it solike.
You know things like that,where you're just like, look at
(14:10):
the effect we had just by cominghere and doing what we needed
to do anyways.
But we brought in the foodtruck and gave them some, some
cash.
We got the, the food banks, wegave them the food.
The you know the tour bus driverand the tour bus.
They were out of business thatwe were paying them to drive us
around the country.
The you know the tour busdriver and the tour bus.
They were out of business thatwe were paying them to drive us
around the country.
Right, the hotels we werestaying at.
Nobody was staying at hotels,so these hotels were pretty
(14:32):
thankful at actually rolling outthe red carpet.
Well, at least some of them,some of them had basically
couldn't, couldn't get theirrooms ready even by 10 PM.
It was a weird time, but forthe most part, they appreciated
that we were out there doingthis because it was bringing
money to the economies thatweren't, that weren't getting
(14:52):
anything.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
No, that's amazing, the thing that got you obviously
out there.
You still had the mission athand and it benefited others
right Along the way.
I mean just it was definitely,definitely helpful and those
small things they make adifference.
They do make a difference, theyall add up.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
It's not anything crazy to give some time back and
you don't realize how huge theimpact could be on the other
side, Hi.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech
Solutions and CyberGuardians.
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,
(15:42):
reach out to us today.
Let's secure and elevate yourbusiness together.
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