May 12, 2025 • 40 mins
What happens when your business partners are also your brothers? For Kevin Stock, CEO of RCR Technology Group, it meant building a managed service provider grounded in trust, clear roles, and shared values. In this episode, Kevin shares how a side hustle fixing computers became a full-scale MSP—powered by family dynamics, small-town reputation, and a relentless focus on doing right by clients.
He opens up about the challenges of transitioning from break/fix to managed services, giving up control as a founder, and leading through tough seasons—including a rocky start to what ultimately became their best year ever. From walking quotes live with prospects to letting go so his brothers could step up, Kevin’s story is a blueprint in resilience and relationship-driven growth.
Whether you’re leading a team, scaling a service business, or navigating the complexities of working with family, this episode is full of lessons that last.
Let us help you unlock your business's full potential.
N-able Business Transformation is Expert led and Peer informed.These valuable executive programs are tailored to provide effective guidance and a faster path to a scalable and successful business.
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'Now that's it: Stories of MSP Success,' dives into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in our industry to find out how they used their passion for technology to help turn Managed Services into the thriving sector it is today.
Every episode is packed with the valuable insights, practical strategies, and inspiring anecdotes that lead our guests to the transformative moment when they knew….. Now, that's it.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One, two, three, four .
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I said great, You've got access to QuickBooks, Figure
out how to pay yourself andyou've got a job.
The rest is history.
He's now the VP.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Kevin, you said last year was your best year ever.
Why was that?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
The thing was, it went by in such a blur that by
the time it all ended up and wewere running the numbers, I'm
like that's wrong.
It's got to be wrong.
They it's got to be wrong.
Like no, that's right Awesome.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I'm like oh okay, cool.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Great Welcome to Now that's it Stories of MSP Success
, where we dive into thejourneys of some of the
trailblazers in our industry tofind out how they used their
passion for technology to helpturn managed services into the
thriving sector it is today.
All right, Mr Kevin Stock,president, CEO of RCR Technology
(00:47):
Group in beautiful Finley, Ohio, Welcome to the Now that's it
podcast, Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
Well, I'm super excited.
Fellow musician, I was thedrummer.
This isn't the first musicianright outside of me.
We've had a couple others onthe pod.
I want to ask a little bitabout your background heavy
metal band.
Where'd that come from?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
uh, yeah, well, I mean, I liked heavy metal as uh,
you know, as a teenager andthings like that, and um rock,
you know rock into metal andwhen you're a teenager you're
angry, so metal really likefeeds that rage, right, and um
played around with somedifferent bands and then found
(01:29):
found my place in this liketotally digital metal group and
um started playing keys for thatband because it was it was the
early 2000s and uh, keyboardswere okay and metal at that time
then quickly moved to to turnthe pace and then we, uh, we got
(01:49):
some.
We got a jaeger meister, jaegermeister and rockstar energy
drink sponsorship and ended updoing some small tours with them
, all domestic, but uh, it wasgreat it was.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Did you think you were going to be a famous rock
star?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I was.
We were hoping to get signed,yeah, and we had some offers uh
along the way, um, some legit,some uh, you know you could tell
we're not and um, uh, you knowwe, uh, we had a lot of fun in
about eight years of doing it soat some point though you're
still doing, you're still doingthe band thing, yeah, um, but
(02:23):
you had to get kind of a realjob.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Right.
You're crushing it, running aSprint store.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, yeah.
I started with technology backin high school.
Computer networking really wasthe focus.
Then I got a job in mobile andI thought mobile technology was
really going to be my next stepin technology, was really going
to be my next step in technology.
With the Blackberries at thetime and the Palm Trios and
(02:49):
those kinds of things, I'm like,oh, this is the future.
And it was to an extent, butthat was really the direction
that I was heading.
I became an assistant managerat a Sprint store Quickly within
a couple of months, became thestore manager, then an area
manager.
Then I was running a territoryof seven stores.
Then it was I was overseeingall 32 for that dealership.
(03:11):
All in between, like early tomid twenties way too early with
all that responsibility and Iwas that was sort of the tail
end of that original band doingall that traveling and stuff
like that.
So that was going to be my bigboy job.
And uh, that dealership soldand I went back to school for
business instead of computersand um started uh, started rock
(03:35):
computer repair, which is wherethe rcr comes from, and um, that
morphed into the msp that weare now.
You know, I was justcontinuously moving up in that
company and who bought thatcompany had offered me a gig and
I had thought about it and kindof dealt with those guys for a
little while.
It's like that wasn't thedirection I wanted to head.
Yeah, so I took the severanceand had some time to ponder what
(03:59):
I wanted to do and I was alwaysthe guy that was being hit up
for repairing computers andknowing about technology and
help me out with this and helpme out with that.
And this was in the XP Vistatime period at that point and I
came up with a pricing scheduleand just kind of organized that
(04:20):
and and built it up from therethat's great.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
So you're going to school, and school was really to
try to figure things out, andso you saw an opportunity.
I did.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So I went back to school for business because I
had gone to school for computers.
I didn't really want a job incomputers and networking and
stuff like that.
I wanted to run a business thatprovided technology for
businesses small businessesbecause small businesses were
really the ones that needed thehelp from a third party because
(04:53):
they couldn't you know, theydidn't have the budget to have
it all internalized right.
So I saw that market,especially in our market.
But our market in NorthwestOhio is just wrought with small
businesses.
So I was like, yeah, it'sdefinitely a market to get into.
People are always needing help.
Technology is always advancing.
(05:15):
I didn't realize at that pointthat end users were going to be
so left behind as that went on.
But from computer repair just,but from computer repair just
quickly morphed into commercialneed, small business commercial
need and you know that's whereit heads, to being an MSP and to
(05:36):
being really the internal ITdepartment for a lot of these
small companies that we support.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So you were doing a lot of this on your own right.
You were a solopreneur in thebeginning.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, in the beginning I would say that I had
help from other people.
Yeah, early on, there wasalways somebody else, yeah,
helping out all the way up intobringing my brother on as an
intern.
In um 2013, he was finishing uphis four-year bachelor's for
(06:09):
marketing.
Oh, he's going to kill me fornot remembering what it was
Marketing and, I think, business.
Essentially, he had to get someinternship hours and I said,
well, I'm on this big projectand I had some help, but I
needed some more hands.
So I said, yeah, we'll be ableto do your internship hours,
I'll be able to fill out all thepaperwork for that.
(06:29):
So he started doing the workwith me there and when he came
on, it was more like, hey, Ineed you to kind of run the
office right now because I'mhands-on here deploying
workstations, setting upmonitors, dealing with end users
that are onboarding, creatingthe Microsoft 365 users and the
tenant and doing all that stuff.
(06:50):
Get things situated back at theoffice.
And so he was doing that.
That project wraps and he says,you know, he's got his
internship hours and he's like,hey, I'd like to stay on with
you.
And I say you went to collegefor four years to stay on with
me, are you sure?
(07:12):
And he said, yeah, this is thedirection I'd like to take.
And I said, great, well, you'vegot access to QuickBooks,
figure out how to pay yourself.
And you got a job.
And that was the conversation,and it's all.
The rest is history.
He's now the VP.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
He's amazing.
I've gotten to know Jordanreally well and he's your right
hand man right, I mean he'sdoing a lot of that work.
Absolutely yeah.
Around 2015 is when you reallystarted to get managed services
rolling.
I think is what you said yeah,and you found Enable about that
time although it was, I think,max Focus yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
We signed on initially with Max Focus.
Yeah, what was your ha-hamoment there?
It was finally what I waslooking for.
I had looked at other thingsthat were able to supply an RMM
to an extent, but what I wasreally looking for at the time
was something 100% cloud-based,and there really weren't a ton
(08:04):
of options out there that were100% cloud-based, and even in
2015 and before that, it waslike man, I'm not trying to set
up servers and doing all this myown hosting and scripting and
doing all that stuff and thisjust seemed to have the tool set
that I was looking for.
And not long after signing upwith Max Focus, it was moving
(08:29):
back over to Enable as it was asit became and is now, and so
then it was a new rep andlearning that person and stuff
like that.
So I've been able to grow withEnable.
That's been the real plus withthat.
I've been able to grow withEnable.
That's been the real plus withthat.
(08:50):
And you know, starting in theearly 2020s, I guess, was when
we started to do these kinds ofconventions and that kind of
thing.
That's great.
Yeah, 15 was the genesis reallyof my relationship with Enable.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Talk a little bit about that managed service
transition, because up until youbecame a managed service
provider, you were just fixingcomputers and someone needed
something.
You went and did it.
Time and material type work.
Where did you get, do youremember where you got, that
idea of I should just charge areoccurring fee for this and do
this more proactively?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, so I got that idea a couple of years prior
just doing some research andjust the client base that I had
I had a car dealership at thetime and I'm like that's a lot
of users and stuff so I hadpurchased bulk licenses of oh
God, it must have beenTeamViewer, I think it was, or
(09:45):
LogMeIn or something like thatat the time.
And that's how I was managingit right viewer, I think it was,
or some log me in or somethinglike that at the time.
And I, uh, that's how I wasmanaging it right.
So I had this, like you know,commercial grade team viewer and
and that's how I was managingthe, the workstations and stuff.
Like man, I wish I could pushpatches and I didn't have to do
it from a server and and allthis kind of stuff.
And that was that yeah, so umkind of stuff.
(10:12):
And that was that, yeah, so um,I, yeah, I, that was.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I needed.
I needed something like an RMMto do that.
You, as a as a sort of I mean I.
I know you now.
You've been a salesman yourentire life, but you're starting
out as a technician and all ofa sudden you have to become once
.
You sort of move from yeah,I'll fix that for you to yeah,
the problem hasn't happened yet,but you need me.
You're telling a differentstory, right?
(10:34):
You're selling them thatreliability, that uptime, and so
how did you train yourself?
How did you get yourselfcomfortable?
How did you get your customers,your prospects, comfortable
being able to say, sign up forus for X amount a month and
we're just going to take care ofall your IT?
How'd you do that?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, building trust to begin with, right.
So you know, in any community,but specifically in our
community, you gain a fewclients and those clients talk
to other businesses and thingslike that.
And then you get in front ofthose people and you're bold
enough to have the conversationof who's managing your antivirus
(11:18):
or how.
What are what are the reallythe what is the conversation
with a small business?
What challenges do you have asa small business specifically to
technology?
But what are your challengesand how can technology help you?
How could you leveragetechnology?
A lot of times with a smallbusiness, they're interested,
(11:38):
but once they start to researchit they don't understand right
away.
So they needed somebody to sortof translate for them.
And then they're leveragingtechnology for their industry
and sometimes when they weretalking to their vendors and
other partners, they didn'tunderstand.
When they were like, oh yeah,we need to open up this port and
do port forwarding or VPNtunnels or IPSec tunnels and
(12:01):
things like that, they're likewhat do I do?
And it turns out you don't havethe equipment to do that.
We can get you set up with theequipment to do that.
We can get you set up with theequipment to do that.
We'll manage that for you.
And you know we need to makesure that you have one antivirus
throughout your entireenvironment.
And oh, you're hiring remoteworkers.
Okay, because it's this day andage, how do we securely have
(12:24):
you have remote workers andthings like that.
And there's some reluctance too.
You know there's a lot ofquestions of like is that
necessary?
Is it necessary to?
I remember one of the clientsthat we were building up a call
center for.
Do we really need to have adomain controller, an active
directory?
It's like, okay, well, you have.
(12:46):
You know you're building up tothis year.
You're going to have 25employees.
You think you're going toretain all 25 or you're going to
have a couple of those peopleleave.
What's going to be yourturnover this first year?
Do you want to be able to lockthem out of everything right
away, or do we want to have toscramble and try to find all the
devices that they've beenlogged into and keep them out of
(13:06):
them?
And so you know, it was thatkind of higher level knowledge
that once you get in front ofthe people to talk to them about
it and start talking about theimplications of that and start
to tell them this is how wewould handle this.
I've got a plan for disasterrecovery, I've got a plan for
(13:28):
these things that you'reconcerned about", because they
don't have a plan.
They have a concern, but theydon't have a plan.
It's like I already have a plan.
This is how we would handlethat.
Then they start to say, okay, Isee the value in that number
that you're showing me.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
So you talk about building trust, did you?
Obviously, I love thatdescription.
I love how you just describedthe way you're sort of
translating IT right,translating IT needs for your
business, for your customers.
But weren't?
Were you also having businessconversations back then?
I mean, you're talking aboutcar dealerships and were you
(14:05):
trying to figure out what arethe things that are happening
that break down on the businessside if IT fails them?
And then that's one of thoseways to really translate right
why IT is so important.
What types of sort of businessconversations were you having in
those early days of sellingmanaged services?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, I mean as basic as paper or digital, as basic
as saved on a bunch of differentworkstations, or the cloud, as
basic as what is the cloud?
Right?
How can you leverage the cloudto make your business more
(14:46):
efficient while also beingcomfortable with the fact that
your business information is inthe cloud?
Well, how do we becomecomfortable with that?
Well, why don't you have yourown copy of it?
Right, and they're like well, Ican do that, because when the
cloud first came out, it waslike this ethereal thing, right,
and it's like this isn't somemagic.
(15:08):
You're not really up in theclouds, it's just data stored in
a different place than whereyou are.
That's right and that's good,because if your, if your
building goes up in flames,heaven forbid.
Um, you still got your data.
Once we get you, once you get toa place where you can connect
to it, okay, but at the sametime, if something happens to
that data center, don't you wanta copy of it yourself, right?
(15:30):
Oh, that'll make me feel better,great, and it's also going to
make you a heck of a lot moreefficient, because now all you
have to do is save it in theseareas and you're good to go, and
you know it'll scan your device, make sure it finds those
things as well, keeps thosethings in a directory.
Oh, it'll do that.
Yeah, you didn't know it woulddo that.
But I'm here to tell you.
You know, for reasonablelicensing fees and reasonable
(15:56):
support we can make sure thatthose things are done and also
making sure that those thingsare reporting back to some place
.
You can't just trust thatthey're working.
Some people we have to bechecking on that and if
something is wrong, if an updatedoesn't go through, if
something happens with that,somebody's got to be checking on
that and fixing it behind thescenes.
And that just starts to makesense for a small business
(16:21):
person that's trying to be moreefficient.
That's great.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
So brother number one's been on board with you,
but then Derek, your otherbrother, comes on board.
What was his role?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So originally, when he came on, it was Jordan and I
just saying we need you to takesome things off of our plate
that we have that I don't thinkare getting proper attention.
One of those things was ahigher focus on HR, right, and
he had some background in thatand we were able to say, like we
(16:56):
have some benefits, we havesome things set up for the
employees.
We have an idea of what that is, but we need you to be 110%
sure of what those things areand make them better and then
make sure that these things areproperly communicated to the
employees on what it is thatthey, what their benefits are,
(17:18):
and make sure they're good andmake sure they're well taken
care of.
And another thing is ourservice delivery right.
We got great techs.
They're pretty autonomous, youknow.
They know what they need to do.
We're upfront with them.
I need you to help them, guidethem, keep them on task, keep
(17:40):
them scheduled.
We need you to be a point forthem to say hey, I'm out the
door, but can you make sure thatsuch and such is scheduled for
tomorrow at one?
I just talked to them and Ineed that in my calendar for
tomorrow and he's like, yeah,got it and he's also able to
check on them.
Hey, what's going on with thisticket?
(18:01):
It's getting a little bit oldthings like that.
He's, you know, I guess, theservice manager, but it's just
really a resource to our techteam, which sometimes can get a
little hectic, so they need thatextra support and he's provided
that.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Great, so both your brothers are on board, plus a
bunch of other employees as well.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
What did you do to start to grow the business at
that point?
So really we had our managedservices package right and
that's always changing andmorphing and things like that
but we started to just really itwas more of a system.
So it was something set up thatwe could deliver to our clients
(18:50):
and say this is a package thatwe can sell right.
And a lot of that had to dowith the fact that we were
getting a lot of our licensingfrom Enable and some other
partners, but then also at thesame time we were starting to
talk to some of our other peersand to be able to have those
(19:10):
connections and other MSPs, andthat really helped us sort of
confirm what we have as apackage that we're delivering
Our service offerings to ourclients is legitimate, it's up
to date, our clients islegitimate, it's up to date.
And it just made us moreconfident in front of our
(19:32):
clients to say, as a basepackage, this is what you need
and, depending on your industry,we can beef it up this way or
that way.
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
So how have you continued to give more
responsibility to both of yourbrothers?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
So focus on their strengths right.
For a long time, I wasprimarily the salesperson in
terms of managed services for along time and Jordan was
handling operations and thoughI'm I'm good at sales, he's just
(20:13):
as good or better.
And it was at a certain pointwhere it was just like I'm
getting pulled away from sales alot to kind of deal with some
operations stuff and deal withthe tech stuff and do that, and
it's like it made more sense forJordan to really take on that
(20:34):
sales role and that was just abetter fit for him in general
and he was able to really puthis head down with that.
I took on more of theoperations side and that's
really where managed servicestook off.
That's awesome.
Yeah, that was, I guess, areally good second push in
(20:57):
getting us closer to where weare today.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Yeah, I always hear business owners talk about sort
of right seats on the bus.
You know you want the rightpeople on the bus and then the
right seats on the bus, and sowhen you have your brothers
that's an advantage because youknow them, you know their
strengths, you know theirweaknesses.
But it's also got to be achallenge too, because you know,
in many cases you're askingthem to do something that you're
(21:21):
confident in them doing, butmaybe they aren't yet, and so
what sort of support system?
Um, obviously I'm sure there'ssome tough love in there and and
you have to be pretty directbut what kind of support system
do you guys give each other?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
space yeah that's the support system, is space.
Um, you know, we, we know, weknow.
They know what my expectationsare.
They know what my values are.
They're the same things andthey know when to come and ask
(22:06):
for help and sometimes they knowwhen they're coming to ask for
help exactly what I'm going tosay before I say it, and that's
a really great shorthand withworking with family.
Jordan and I talk about this allthe time we're very similar in
personality but there are enoughdifferences and usually when he
is mad or upset or angry orwhatever, I'm the balance of
(22:32):
that and vice versa, right ofteneach other's devil's advocate.
And with Derek he brings acompletely different dynamic
entirely and just gives usanother lens, especially with as
close as he works with the techguys and stuff on a day-to-day
(22:53):
basis.
He just gives us anotherperspective to think about when
we're making decisions.
But we've got a deep respectfor one another and a deep trust
for one another.
I didn't plan on this being afamily business and we have
plenty of people that work forus that are not family, but with
(23:19):
also having that family dynamicsort of at the top of the
business, the rest of the team,I don't believe feels any kind
of nepotism or anything there,because I will come down on
either one of them just as muchas I'll come down on anybody
else on the team, and you knowif somebody has a problem with
(23:40):
another employee or admin orwhatever the situation may be, I
don't just side with family,because they're family.
If they're messing up, they'remessing up, but we have a pretty
good communication.
I mean, we're a small companyso we need to have good
communication.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Kevin, you said last year was your best year ever.
Why was that?
Well, I wouldn't say that itstarted off as our best year
ever.
We had been implementing a newPSA and right at the beginning
of 2024, we were sort offinishing implementing a new
billing system into thatintegration and it was just a
big learning process and ironingout some kinks.
(24:28):
So it was almost all hands ondeck with regard to admin to
make sure that the billing wasall situated.
Next thing, you know, q1 iscoming to a close.
We look at sales and and it'sit's rough, to say the least, um
, because there was no focus onit.
So, um, we decided to make someadjustments.
(24:51):
We made some adjustments with,uh, um, just, you know how we
were delivering our sales.
Um, know, I had said hey, we'renot just sending quotes, we're
setting meetings to go over thequotes.
We need to be able to, we needto be able to go over these
(25:13):
quotes, live with the person,and I'm okay with virtual.
But just sending a quote thatall they do is scroll to the
bottom and read the bottomnumber isn't getting us where we
need to go.
Okay, so, bottom line, whetherit's a professional services
sale or a managed services, saleor both.
We set the meeting to go overthe quote and if they don't want
(25:37):
to set the meeting, they don'tget the quote.
We won't waste our time andthat helped immensely.
I mean, that was just a hugegame changer.
It also changed how we weredoing QBRs and what we call
technology success meetings, orTSMs.
I started my campaign with theseTSMs a little bit differently
(25:59):
than we did QBR's before, and itallowed me, because not every
client really needs to or willbe available to meet every three
months, and so it made moresense to be able to space those
out a little bit better tobetter serve our clients in the
(26:20):
way that is best for them andset up that schedule for those.
And meeting with your clientswith a prepared deck and opening
it up for questioning for themreally just opens yourself up to
things that your client didn'teven know they needed right.
(26:41):
Or just getting yourself infront of them, mostly in person,
but also virtually, gives themthe opportunity to think about
some things that they need thatthey just weren't bringing up
because they didn't have time tobring it up, because we set
that time aside, be it a halfhour, 45 minutes or an hour.
A lot of times those TSMs willgo over because they'll be
(27:03):
asking more questions about it.
They're curious about things.
That's really what it's allbeen about For the last 15 years
of being in business.
Almost everybody's curiousabout technology.
They want to know about it, butthey want to be safe in it.
We provide all of that for ourclients and sometimes they don't
even know it because, you know,we got to cover that.
(27:25):
We got to say, hey, this iswhat we're doing for you.
By the way, these are theproactive issues that we've
covered and these are the amountof tickets that came through.
And if these proactive issues,if this number is higher than
your ticket count, we're both ina better spot for that Best
that this ticket count is zero.
(27:45):
Our goal is that you have zerohelp desk tickets, so if we work
together, we can get that to abig goose egg.
You know it's not a lot ofthings we want to get down to
zero Our tax bill and ourservice ticket number.
Those are the things that wewant at zero.
Awesome, that's what we try todo.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Kevin, you have had a fire in you since I've met you.
You always come off as a veryapproachable person, but you're
a salesman, as I mentioned, andyou've been doing this for 15
years.
How have you continued to fuelthat fire for 15 years?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
I don't know if it's a good thing, but I don't
celebrate for very long, right?
So successes to me are justlike okay, great, glad we were
there, great High five, sweet,great High five, sweet.
(28:47):
What's next?
You know, I'm always looking atthe next sort of challenge or
the next goal to meet.
I love setting goals and goingafter them and I really have a
passion for what we do and Iwant to deliver it to more
people and to get out there anddo better.
You could always do better.
Sometimes I need to be reeledback and stop and smell the
(29:08):
roses a bit.
My peers have helped talk to meabout that.
The people that I know andrespect in business have the
hate.
Slow down, look at what you'vedone right and it's like okay,
yeah, no, you're right, you'reright, I should, I should look
at that a little bit, a littlebit more.
(29:28):
But my family and and and mypeers and things like that have
been helpful in in reeling meback and and the fire's there
because I have kids now and Iwant to make sure that they're
well taken care of and thingsare set up for them, not to
(29:51):
spoil them or turn them intoterrible people.
I want them to be functionaladults, but I want to be able to
provide um futures for them anduh and and their children and
things like that as we go.
So not that that's all on myshoulders, but still I mean, um,
(30:13):
you know what legacy I guess?
Speaker 1 (30:17):
what is?
Speaker 2 (30:18):
that, that I don't know.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
It's uh, I wake up every day with it and it could
be a nuisance or it can beabsolute motivation yeah, I
think it's that, uh, that rockstar in you, right, that metal,
that metal, uh, front man orwhatever it was like yes, yeah
like you've got, uh, you gotsomething that, um, that again I
see in other business owners aswell, but you love what you're
(30:42):
doing, right.
And I think that's just reallyawesome to see.
So you mentioned your peers.
You and I are together thisweek.
We're amongst our peers talkingabout a bunch of different
things.
Can you talk a little bit aboutattending things like these BT
events business transformationevents, as well as joining the
peer groups, has helped yourbusiness.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Well, it's been transformational.
I'll tell you that, and I meanthat we did the CEO hot seat
yesterday, and that was brutalas we anticipated that it would
be as we anticipated that itwould be.
But when we ran some of the dataand just looking at our revenue
(31:25):
and things like that, you cantell literally when we started
coming to these businesstransformation events with
Enable and joined the peergroups and things like that, you
literally see exactly a pointwhere the revenue does a
humongous increase.
And it's because I was able totalk to so many different MSPs
(31:50):
from not necessarily mygeographical area that were fine
and comfortable being open andhonest with what they do and
what they do not do.
And what they do not do is oneof those sobering things to
learn.
And so I go through and look atall these different notes that
(32:11):
I've taken since we startedthese peer groups.
I have I don't know how manynotebooks that we've been given
and I'm like, oh man, we allright, we did this, we, we are
working on this.
You know, it really gives us apath and and uh, uh, allows us
to be able to set, uh, obviousgoals and and and and specific
(32:31):
goals on what we want to do.
And these things you can't doover, you can't always do
overnight, but you can startworking your way toward them.
And that's when you see thatrep that keep seeing that
revenue climb and keep going.
And then sometimes you go offtrack.
So you come back to one ofthese, one of these business
transformation events and said,hey, don't forget, this is what
you needed to do.
(32:51):
You've been off track.
You got to get back to this.
Thank you, thanks for thereminder and man, the support.
You know what a lot of these, alot of these MSPs are coming
from different states, differentcountries, and I got the
business cards and I receiveemails from them, and I receive
and I send emails to them andwe're hooked up on LinkedIn and
(33:16):
some of them I get text messagesfrom, and so we're, we're
building relationships, um,domestically and internationally
, um, just to help each other,just I mean and some of this too
is like, um, a support group,right, like, doesn't it feel
sometimes like you do?
(33:38):
You're in a support group andwhen I hear these other people
talk about their challenges andtheir successes and wins, I
don't even have to talk, I canjust say, oh yeah, definitely I
hear you.
It's like a church almost.
It's like you know what I mean,when everybody's kind of vibing
on the same thing and thenthere's that healthy debate you
(34:01):
can sit at.
I was just at lunch today.
There was a really great debatehappening and some people are
very bold in their stance andthey're they're absolutely they.
They feel like they'reabsolutely right in the way that
they're doing things.
And across the table is otherpeople with.
They feel like they'reabsolutely right in the way that
they're doing things, andacross the table is other people
that feel like they'reabsolutely right and they may be
(34:23):
For their market and whatthey're doing.
They may be absolutely right inthe way that they're thinking
that's right, but you get to seethat, you get to see that
opinion, you get to see thatother side of the table, and
there's not really a whole lotof opportunities to do that as
an MSP.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Awesome.
You have one of my favoritequotes Talking about the peer
groups.
You know, small businessesalways get caught up in the
day-to-day right.
If it's just that one hour,hour and a half, you know a
month where you focus on thebusiness instead of focusing in
(35:04):
the business, that's the benefityou get right Just being able
to take that time to focus onwhat's the bigger picture.
And you, I think you've done abetter job as you guys have
grown and you've delegated someof your responsibility, your old
responsibility, to yourbrothers and others in the
organization to really focus on.
I've got to focus on thebusiness all the time, but being
(35:25):
able to have the peer groupsand that group around you, that
support structure, like you said, pretty awesome, pretty awesome
to see.
And I love your peer group inparticular.
I love to be able to pop myhead in there once in a while
and hear what you guys aretalking about and when you guys
able to share that growth, thatsuccess that you had.
It was pretty awesome to seehow proud you were of that too.
So congrats, man, thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
That was a good year.
Thank you.
Yeah, I, and the thing was itwent by in such a blur that by
the time it all ended up and wewere running the numbers.
I'm like that's wrong yeah,it's got to be wrong.
Um and uh, you know we workwith dave and instrumental and
things like that, and and uh,like no, that's, that's right,
(36:08):
awesome.
I'm like oh oh, okay cool.
Well, that's fantastic greatgood job so talk about what's.
What's next for RCR is more ofthe same.
Right, we're going to evaluateour pricing and our stack and
(36:33):
make sure that it's up to snuffright and, as we're acquiring
new clients, we need to makesure that our pricing is still
good for our market.
But you know, with all thingseconomy, we need to make sure
that we're pricing it correctlyto be able to scale.
But, man, I mean it's going tobe more of the same.
(36:58):
I'm honing in on those TSM's,I'm finding out what's good
content and what's not goodcontent in those things and then
continuing to focus on ourmarketing and networking toward
(37:20):
our vertical right, reallyfocused on the vertical, because
all the other business thatcomes in, most a lot of it we
will take, but our marketing andhow we're focused, how we're
focusing our business, is goingto be on our vertical and the
other stuff will come inorganically and we'll take it as
we can and and um, you know notbe not be completely yes, men,
(37:44):
to everything, but it's, youknow you don't always get
business in your vertical butyou know you can help, you know
an opportunity that comes about.
But really our focus is ourvertical, um and uh, just
becoming experts in that.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Awesome.
So, kevin, I always like to askthis question on every single
podcast.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
My last question when did you know?
Now that's it.
Wow, I guess we've had somechallenges over the years.
Right, it's been 15 years andit's not all been ups right, and
the downs are like man, how arewe going to get out of this?
(38:29):
How are we going to move fromthis, whether it's a client that
you know you're going to loseand that maybe ends up happening
, or whatever the situation maybe, and you think that's the
lowest Right, and Well, you know, a couple of months go by and
it's not even that, wasn't eventhat.
(38:51):
One isn't even the worst.
That wasn't that.
Things were way worse than that.
And all we did was just you, youknow, get back to the basics
and do what it is that we'regood at, and and push on and
it's like, wow, we've.
When you look back what we'vegone through, it's like I, we're
(39:11):
going to be able to make itthrough everything we're going
to be able to.
Whatever it is, we will be ableto power through it and um, and
that's that's, that's it,that's when I, that was my.
Now, that's it.
It's like there's there's not awhole lot that that we're not
going to be able to powerthrough, shift, change, adjust
(39:34):
and, uh, and make it happen.
We've made, we've gone, we'vegone this far and everybody's
everybody's got motivation andthe fire to keep going, and so
that's exactly what we're gonnado.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Congratulations, kevin, on all your success.
Can't wait to see what you knowthe next 15 years looks like.
I wish you and your brothersand the rest of the RCR crew the
absolute best of luck and thankyou so much for being here.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Thanks, chris.
One, two, three, four .
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I said great, You've got access to QuickBooks, Figure
out how to pay yourself andyou've got a job.
The rest is history.
He's now the VP.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Kevin, you said last year was your best year ever.
Why was that?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
The thing was, it went by in such a blur that by
the time it all ended up and wewere running the numbers, I'm
like that's wrong.
It's got to be wrong.
They it's got to be wrong.
Like no, that's right Awesome.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I'm like oh okay, cool.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Great Welcome to Now that's it Stories of MSP Success
, where we dive into thejourneys of some of the
trailblazers in our industry tofind out how they used their
passion for technology to helpturn managed services into the
thriving sector it is today.
All right, Mr Kevin Stock,president, CEO of RCR Technology
(00:47):
Group in beautiful Finley, Ohio, Welcome to the Now that's it
podcast, Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
Well, I'm super excited.
Fellow musician, I was thedrummer.
This isn't the first musicianright outside of me.
We've had a couple others onthe pod.
I want to ask a little bitabout your background heavy
metal band.
Where'd that come from?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
uh, yeah, well, I mean, I liked heavy metal as uh,
you know, as a teenager andthings like that, and um rock,
you know rock into metal andwhen you're a teenager you're
angry, so metal really likefeeds that rage, right, and um
played around with somedifferent bands and then found
(01:29):
found my place in this liketotally digital metal group and
um started playing keys for thatband because it was it was the
early 2000s and uh, keyboardswere okay and metal at that time
then quickly moved to to turnthe pace and then we, uh, we got
(01:49):
some.
We got a jaeger meister, jaegermeister and rockstar energy
drink sponsorship and ended updoing some small tours with them
, all domestic, but uh, it wasgreat it was.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Did you think you were going to be a famous rock
star?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I was.
We were hoping to get signed,yeah, and we had some offers uh
along the way, um, some legit,some uh, you know you could tell
we're not and um, uh, you knowwe, uh, we had a lot of fun in
about eight years of doing it soat some point though you're
still doing, you're still doingthe band thing, yeah, um, but
(02:23):
you had to get kind of a realjob.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Right.
You're crushing it, running aSprint store.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, yeah.
I started with technology backin high school.
Computer networking really wasthe focus.
Then I got a job in mobile andI thought mobile technology was
really going to be my next stepin technology, was really going
to be my next step in technology.
With the Blackberries at thetime and the Palm Trios and
(02:49):
those kinds of things, I'm like,oh, this is the future.
And it was to an extent, butthat was really the direction
that I was heading.
I became an assistant managerat a Sprint store Quickly within
a couple of months, became thestore manager, then an area
manager.
Then I was running a territoryof seven stores.
Then it was I was overseeingall 32 for that dealership.
(03:11):
All in between, like early tomid twenties way too early with
all that responsibility and Iwas that was sort of the tail
end of that original band doingall that traveling and stuff
like that.
So that was going to be my bigboy job.
And uh, that dealership soldand I went back to school for
business instead of computersand um started uh, started rock
(03:35):
computer repair, which is wherethe rcr comes from, and um, that
morphed into the msp that weare now.
You know, I was justcontinuously moving up in that
company and who bought thatcompany had offered me a gig and
I had thought about it and kindof dealt with those guys for a
little while.
It's like that wasn't thedirection I wanted to head.
Yeah, so I took the severanceand had some time to ponder what
(03:59):
I wanted to do and I was alwaysthe guy that was being hit up
for repairing computers andknowing about technology and
help me out with this and helpme out with that.
And this was in the XP Vistatime period at that point and I
came up with a pricing scheduleand just kind of organized that
(04:20):
and and built it up from therethat's great.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
So you're going to school, and school was really to
try to figure things out, andso you saw an opportunity.
I did.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So I went back to school for business because I
had gone to school for computers.
I didn't really want a job incomputers and networking and
stuff like that.
I wanted to run a business thatprovided technology for
businesses small businessesbecause small businesses were
really the ones that needed thehelp from a third party because
(04:53):
they couldn't you know, theydidn't have the budget to have
it all internalized right.
So I saw that market,especially in our market.
But our market in NorthwestOhio is just wrought with small
businesses.
So I was like, yeah, it'sdefinitely a market to get into.
People are always needing help.
Technology is always advancing.
(05:15):
I didn't realize at that pointthat end users were going to be
so left behind as that went on.
But from computer repair just,but from computer repair just
quickly morphed into commercialneed, small business commercial
need and you know that's whereit heads, to being an MSP and to
(05:36):
being really the internal ITdepartment for a lot of these
small companies that we support.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So you were doing a lot of this on your own right.
You were a solopreneur in thebeginning.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, in the beginning I would say that I had
help from other people.
Yeah, early on, there wasalways somebody else, yeah,
helping out all the way up intobringing my brother on as an
intern.
In um 2013, he was finishing uphis four-year bachelor's for
(06:09):
marketing.
Oh, he's going to kill me fornot remembering what it was
Marketing and, I think, business.
Essentially, he had to get someinternship hours and I said,
well, I'm on this big projectand I had some help, but I
needed some more hands.
So I said, yeah, we'll be ableto do your internship hours,
I'll be able to fill out all thepaperwork for that.
(06:29):
So he started doing the workwith me there and when he came
on, it was more like, hey, Ineed you to kind of run the
office right now because I'mhands-on here deploying
workstations, setting upmonitors, dealing with end users
that are onboarding, creatingthe Microsoft 365 users and the
tenant and doing all that stuff.
(06:50):
Get things situated back at theoffice.
And so he was doing that.
That project wraps and he says,you know, he's got his
internship hours and he's like,hey, I'd like to stay on with
you.
And I say you went to collegefor four years to stay on with
me, are you sure?
(07:12):
And he said, yeah, this is thedirection I'd like to take.
And I said, great, well, you'vegot access to QuickBooks,
figure out how to pay yourself.
And you got a job.
And that was the conversation,and it's all.
The rest is history.
He's now the VP.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
He's amazing.
I've gotten to know Jordanreally well and he's your right
hand man right, I mean he'sdoing a lot of that work.
Absolutely yeah.
Around 2015 is when you reallystarted to get managed services
rolling.
I think is what you said yeah,and you found Enable about that
time although it was, I think,max Focus yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
We signed on initially with Max Focus.
Yeah, what was your ha-hamoment there?
It was finally what I waslooking for.
I had looked at other thingsthat were able to supply an RMM
to an extent, but what I wasreally looking for at the time
was something 100% cloud-based,and there really weren't a ton
(08:04):
of options out there that were100% cloud-based, and even in
2015 and before that, it waslike man, I'm not trying to set
up servers and doing all this myown hosting and scripting and
doing all that stuff and thisjust seemed to have the tool set
that I was looking for.
And not long after signing upwith Max Focus, it was moving
(08:29):
back over to Enable as it was asit became and is now, and so
then it was a new rep andlearning that person and stuff
like that.
So I've been able to grow withEnable.
That's been the real plus withthat.
I've been able to grow withEnable.
That's been the real plus withthat.
(08:50):
And you know, starting in theearly 2020s, I guess, was when
we started to do these kinds ofconventions and that kind of
thing.
That's great.
Yeah, 15 was the genesis reallyof my relationship with Enable.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Talk a little bit about that managed service
transition, because up until youbecame a managed service
provider, you were just fixingcomputers and someone needed
something.
You went and did it.
Time and material type work.
Where did you get, do youremember where you got, that
idea of I should just charge areoccurring fee for this and do
this more proactively?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, so I got that idea a couple of years prior
just doing some research andjust the client base that I had
I had a car dealership at thetime and I'm like that's a lot
of users and stuff so I hadpurchased bulk licenses of oh
God, it must have beenTeamViewer, I think it was, or
(09:45):
LogMeIn or something like thatat the time.
And that's how I was managingit right viewer, I think it was,
or some log me in or somethinglike that at the time.
And I, uh, that's how I wasmanaging it right.
So I had this, like you know,commercial grade team viewer and
and that's how I was managingthe, the workstations and stuff.
Like man, I wish I could pushpatches and I didn't have to do
it from a server and and allthis kind of stuff.
And that was that yeah, so umkind of stuff.
(10:12):
And that was that, yeah, so um,I, yeah, I, that was.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I needed.
I needed something like an RMMto do that.
You, as a as a sort of I mean I.
I know you now.
You've been a salesman yourentire life, but you're starting
out as a technician and all ofa sudden you have to become once
.
You sort of move from yeah,I'll fix that for you to yeah,
the problem hasn't happened yet,but you need me.
You're telling a differentstory, right?
(10:34):
You're selling them thatreliability, that uptime, and so
how did you train yourself?
How did you get yourselfcomfortable?
How did you get your customers,your prospects, comfortable
being able to say, sign up forus for X amount a month and
we're just going to take care ofall your IT?
How'd you do that?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, building trust to begin with, right.
So you know, in any community,but specifically in our
community, you gain a fewclients and those clients talk
to other businesses and thingslike that.
And then you get in front ofthose people and you're bold
enough to have the conversationof who's managing your antivirus
(11:18):
or how.
What are what are the reallythe what is the conversation
with a small business?
What challenges do you have asa small business specifically to
technology?
But what are your challengesand how can technology help you?
How could you leveragetechnology?
A lot of times with a smallbusiness, they're interested,
(11:38):
but once they start to researchit they don't understand right
away.
So they needed somebody to sortof translate for them.
And then they're leveragingtechnology for their industry
and sometimes when they weretalking to their vendors and
other partners, they didn'tunderstand.
When they were like, oh yeah,we need to open up this port and
do port forwarding or VPNtunnels or IPSec tunnels and
(12:01):
things like that, they're likewhat do I do?
And it turns out you don't havethe equipment to do that.
We can get you set up with theequipment to do that.
We can get you set up with theequipment to do that.
We'll manage that for you.
And you know we need to makesure that you have one antivirus
throughout your entireenvironment.
And oh, you're hiring remoteworkers.
Okay, because it's this day andage, how do we securely have
(12:24):
you have remote workers andthings like that.
And there's some reluctance too.
You know there's a lot ofquestions of like is that
necessary?
Is it necessary to?
I remember one of the clientsthat we were building up a call
center for.
Do we really need to have adomain controller, an active
directory?
It's like, okay, well, you have.
(12:46):
You know you're building up tothis year.
You're going to have 25employees.
You think you're going toretain all 25 or you're going to
have a couple of those peopleleave.
What's going to be yourturnover this first year?
Do you want to be able to lockthem out of everything right
away, or do we want to have toscramble and try to find all the
devices that they've beenlogged into and keep them out of
(13:06):
them?
And so you know, it was thatkind of higher level knowledge
that once you get in front ofthe people to talk to them about
it and start talking about theimplications of that and start
to tell them this is how wewould handle this.
I've got a plan for disasterrecovery, I've got a plan for
(13:28):
these things that you'reconcerned about", because they
don't have a plan.
They have a concern, but theydon't have a plan.
It's like I already have a plan.
This is how we would handlethat.
Then they start to say, okay, Isee the value in that number
that you're showing me.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
So you talk about building trust, did you?
Obviously, I love thatdescription.
I love how you just describedthe way you're sort of
translating IT right,translating IT needs for your
business, for your customers.
But weren't?
Were you also having businessconversations back then?
I mean, you're talking aboutcar dealerships and were you
(14:05):
trying to figure out what arethe things that are happening
that break down on the businessside if IT fails them?
And then that's one of thoseways to really translate right
why IT is so important.
What types of sort of businessconversations were you having in
those early days of sellingmanaged services?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, I mean as basic as paper or digital, as basic
as saved on a bunch of differentworkstations, or the cloud, as
basic as what is the cloud?
Right?
How can you leverage the cloudto make your business more
(14:46):
efficient while also beingcomfortable with the fact that
your business information is inthe cloud?
Well, how do we becomecomfortable with that?
Well, why don't you have yourown copy of it?
Right, and they're like well, Ican do that, because when the
cloud first came out, it waslike this ethereal thing, right,
and it's like this isn't somemagic.
(15:08):
You're not really up in theclouds, it's just data stored in
a different place than whereyou are.
That's right and that's good,because if your, if your
building goes up in flames,heaven forbid.
Um, you still got your data.
Once we get you, once you get toa place where you can connect
to it, okay, but at the sametime, if something happens to
that data center, don't you wanta copy of it yourself, right?
(15:30):
Oh, that'll make me feel better,great, and it's also going to
make you a heck of a lot moreefficient, because now all you
have to do is save it in theseareas and you're good to go, and
you know it'll scan your device, make sure it finds those
things as well, keeps thosethings in a directory.
Oh, it'll do that.
Yeah, you didn't know it woulddo that.
But I'm here to tell you.
You know, for reasonablelicensing fees and reasonable
(15:56):
support we can make sure thatthose things are done and also
making sure that those thingsare reporting back to some place
.
You can't just trust thatthey're working.
Some people we have to bechecking on that and if
something is wrong, if an updatedoesn't go through, if
something happens with that,somebody's got to be checking on
that and fixing it behind thescenes.
And that just starts to makesense for a small business
(16:21):
person that's trying to be moreefficient.
That's great.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
So brother number one's been on board with you,
but then Derek, your otherbrother, comes on board.
What was his role?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So originally, when he came on, it was Jordan and I
just saying we need you to takesome things off of our plate
that we have that I don't thinkare getting proper attention.
One of those things was ahigher focus on HR, right, and
he had some background in thatand we were able to say, like we
(16:56):
have some benefits, we havesome things set up for the
employees.
We have an idea of what that is, but we need you to be 110%
sure of what those things areand make them better and then
make sure that these things areproperly communicated to the
employees on what it is thatthey, what their benefits are,
(17:18):
and make sure they're good andmake sure they're well taken
care of.
And another thing is ourservice delivery right.
We got great techs.
They're pretty autonomous, youknow.
They know what they need to do.
We're upfront with them.
I need you to help them, guidethem, keep them on task, keep
(17:40):
them scheduled.
We need you to be a point forthem to say hey, I'm out the
door, but can you make sure thatsuch and such is scheduled for
tomorrow at one?
I just talked to them and Ineed that in my calendar for
tomorrow and he's like, yeah,got it and he's also able to
check on them.
Hey, what's going on with thisticket?
(18:01):
It's getting a little bit oldthings like that.
He's, you know, I guess, theservice manager, but it's just
really a resource to our techteam, which sometimes can get a
little hectic, so they need thatextra support and he's provided
that.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Great, so both your brothers are on board, plus a
bunch of other employees as well.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
What did you do to start to grow the business at
that point?
So really we had our managedservices package right and
that's always changing andmorphing and things like that
but we started to just really itwas more of a system.
So it was something set up thatwe could deliver to our clients
(18:50):
and say this is a package thatwe can sell right.
And a lot of that had to dowith the fact that we were
getting a lot of our licensingfrom Enable and some other
partners, but then also at thesame time we were starting to
talk to some of our other peersand to be able to have those
(19:10):
connections and other MSPs, andthat really helped us sort of
confirm what we have as apackage that we're delivering
Our service offerings to ourclients is legitimate, it's up
to date, our clients islegitimate, it's up to date.
And it just made us moreconfident in front of our
(19:32):
clients to say, as a basepackage, this is what you need
and, depending on your industry,we can beef it up this way or
that way.
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
So how have you continued to give more
responsibility to both of yourbrothers?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
So focus on their strengths right.
For a long time, I wasprimarily the salesperson in
terms of managed services for along time and Jordan was
handling operations and thoughI'm I'm good at sales, he's just
(20:13):
as good or better.
And it was at a certain pointwhere it was just like I'm
getting pulled away from sales alot to kind of deal with some
operations stuff and deal withthe tech stuff and do that, and
it's like it made more sense forJordan to really take on that
(20:34):
sales role and that was just abetter fit for him in general
and he was able to really puthis head down with that.
I took on more of theoperations side and that's
really where managed servicestook off.
That's awesome.
Yeah, that was, I guess, areally good second push in
(20:57):
getting us closer to where weare today.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Yeah, I always hear business owners talk about sort
of right seats on the bus.
You know you want the rightpeople on the bus and then the
right seats on the bus, and sowhen you have your brothers
that's an advantage because youknow them, you know their
strengths, you know theirweaknesses.
But it's also got to be achallenge too, because you know,
in many cases you're askingthem to do something that you're
(21:21):
confident in them doing, butmaybe they aren't yet, and so
what sort of support system?
Um, obviously I'm sure there'ssome tough love in there and and
you have to be pretty directbut what kind of support system
do you guys give each other?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
space yeah that's the support system, is space.
Um, you know, we, we know, weknow.
They know what my expectationsare.
They know what my values are.
They're the same things andthey know when to come and ask
(22:06):
for help and sometimes they knowwhen they're coming to ask for
help exactly what I'm going tosay before I say it, and that's
a really great shorthand withworking with family.
Jordan and I talk about this allthe time we're very similar in
personality but there are enoughdifferences and usually when he
is mad or upset or angry orwhatever, I'm the balance of
(22:32):
that and vice versa, right ofteneach other's devil's advocate.
And with Derek he brings acompletely different dynamic
entirely and just gives usanother lens, especially with as
close as he works with the techguys and stuff on a day-to-day
(22:53):
basis.
He just gives us anotherperspective to think about when
we're making decisions.
But we've got a deep respectfor one another and a deep trust
for one another.
I didn't plan on this being afamily business and we have
plenty of people that work forus that are not family, but with
(23:19):
also having that family dynamicsort of at the top of the
business, the rest of the team,I don't believe feels any kind
of nepotism or anything there,because I will come down on
either one of them just as muchas I'll come down on anybody
else on the team, and you knowif somebody has a problem with
(23:40):
another employee or admin orwhatever the situation may be, I
don't just side with family,because they're family.
If they're messing up, they'remessing up, but we have a pretty
good communication.
I mean, we're a small companyso we need to have good
communication.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Kevin, you said last year was your best year ever.
Why was that?
Well, I wouldn't say that itstarted off as our best year
ever.
We had been implementing a newPSA and right at the beginning
of 2024, we were sort offinishing implementing a new
billing system into thatintegration and it was just a
big learning process and ironingout some kinks.
(24:28):
So it was almost all hands ondeck with regard to admin to
make sure that the billing wasall situated.
Next thing, you know, q1 iscoming to a close.
We look at sales and and it'sit's rough, to say the least, um
, because there was no focus onit.
So, um, we decided to make someadjustments.
(24:51):
We made some adjustments with,uh, um, just, you know how we
were delivering our sales.
Um, know, I had said hey, we'renot just sending quotes, we're
setting meetings to go over thequotes.
We need to be able to, we needto be able to go over these
(25:13):
quotes, live with the person,and I'm okay with virtual.
But just sending a quote thatall they do is scroll to the
bottom and read the bottomnumber isn't getting us where we
need to go.
Okay, so, bottom line, whetherit's a professional services
sale or a managed services, saleor both.
We set the meeting to go overthe quote and if they don't want
(25:37):
to set the meeting, they don'tget the quote.
We won't waste our time andthat helped immensely.
I mean, that was just a hugegame changer.
It also changed how we weredoing QBRs and what we call
technology success meetings, orTSMs.
I started my campaign with theseTSMs a little bit differently
(25:59):
than we did QBR's before, and itallowed me, because not every
client really needs to or willbe available to meet every three
months, and so it made moresense to be able to space those
out a little bit better tobetter serve our clients in the
(26:20):
way that is best for them andset up that schedule for those.
And meeting with your clientswith a prepared deck and opening
it up for questioning for themreally just opens yourself up to
things that your client didn'teven know they needed right.
(26:41):
Or just getting yourself infront of them, mostly in person,
but also virtually, gives themthe opportunity to think about
some things that they need thatthey just weren't bringing up
because they didn't have time tobring it up, because we set
that time aside, be it a halfhour, 45 minutes or an hour.
A lot of times those TSMs willgo over because they'll be
(27:03):
asking more questions about it.
They're curious about things.
That's really what it's allbeen about For the last 15 years
of being in business.
Almost everybody's curiousabout technology.
They want to know about it, butthey want to be safe in it.
We provide all of that for ourclients and sometimes they don't
even know it because, you know,we got to cover that.
(27:25):
We got to say, hey, this iswhat we're doing for you.
By the way, these are theproactive issues that we've
covered and these are the amountof tickets that came through.
And if these proactive issues,if this number is higher than
your ticket count, we're both ina better spot for that Best
that this ticket count is zero.
(27:45):
Our goal is that you have zerohelp desk tickets, so if we work
together, we can get that to abig goose egg.
You know it's not a lot ofthings we want to get down to
zero Our tax bill and ourservice ticket number.
Those are the things that wewant at zero.
Awesome, that's what we try todo.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Kevin, you have had a fire in you since I've met you.
You always come off as a veryapproachable person, but you're
a salesman, as I mentioned, andyou've been doing this for 15
years.
How have you continued to fuelthat fire for 15 years?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
I don't know if it's a good thing, but I don't
celebrate for very long, right?
So successes to me are justlike okay, great, glad we were
there, great High five, sweet,great High five, sweet.
(28:47):
What's next?
You know, I'm always looking atthe next sort of challenge or
the next goal to meet.
I love setting goals and goingafter them and I really have a
passion for what we do and Iwant to deliver it to more
people and to get out there anddo better.
You could always do better.
Sometimes I need to be reeledback and stop and smell the
(29:08):
roses a bit.
My peers have helped talk to meabout that.
The people that I know andrespect in business have the
hate.
Slow down, look at what you'vedone right and it's like okay,
yeah, no, you're right, you'reright, I should, I should look
at that a little bit, a littlebit more.
(29:28):
But my family and and and mypeers and things like that have
been helpful in in reeling meback and and the fire's there
because I have kids now and Iwant to make sure that they're
well taken care of and thingsare set up for them, not to
(29:51):
spoil them or turn them intoterrible people.
I want them to be functionaladults, but I want to be able to
provide um futures for them anduh and and their children and
things like that as we go.
So not that that's all on myshoulders, but still I mean, um,
(30:13):
you know what legacy I guess?
Speaker 1 (30:17):
what is?
Speaker 2 (30:18):
that, that I don't know.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
It's uh, I wake up every day with it and it could
be a nuisance or it can beabsolute motivation yeah, I
think it's that, uh, that rockstar in you, right, that metal,
that metal, uh, front man orwhatever it was like yes, yeah
like you've got, uh, you gotsomething that, um, that again I
see in other business owners aswell, but you love what you're
(30:42):
doing, right.
And I think that's just reallyawesome to see.
So you mentioned your peers.
You and I are together thisweek.
We're amongst our peers talkingabout a bunch of different
things.
Can you talk a little bit aboutattending things like these BT
events business transformationevents, as well as joining the
peer groups, has helped yourbusiness.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Well, it's been transformational.
I'll tell you that, and I meanthat we did the CEO hot seat
yesterday, and that was brutalas we anticipated that it would
be as we anticipated that itwould be.
But when we ran some of the dataand just looking at our revenue
(31:25):
and things like that, you cantell literally when we started
coming to these businesstransformation events with
Enable and joined the peergroups and things like that, you
literally see exactly a pointwhere the revenue does a
humongous increase.
And it's because I was able totalk to so many different MSPs
(31:50):
from not necessarily mygeographical area that were fine
and comfortable being open andhonest with what they do and
what they do not do.
And what they do not do is oneof those sobering things to
learn.
And so I go through and look atall these different notes that
(32:11):
I've taken since we startedthese peer groups.
I have I don't know how manynotebooks that we've been given
and I'm like, oh man, we allright, we did this, we, we are
working on this.
You know, it really gives us apath and and uh, uh, allows us
to be able to set, uh, obviousgoals and and and and specific
(32:31):
goals on what we want to do.
And these things you can't doover, you can't always do
overnight, but you can startworking your way toward them.
And that's when you see thatrep that keep seeing that
revenue climb and keep going.
And then sometimes you go offtrack.
So you come back to one ofthese, one of these business
transformation events and said,hey, don't forget, this is what
you needed to do.
(32:51):
You've been off track.
You got to get back to this.
Thank you, thanks for thereminder and man, the support.
You know what a lot of these, alot of these MSPs are coming
from different states, differentcountries, and I got the
business cards and I receiveemails from them, and I receive
and I send emails to them andwe're hooked up on LinkedIn and
(33:16):
some of them I get text messagesfrom, and so we're, we're
building relationships, um,domestically and internationally
, um, just to help each other,just I mean and some of this too
is like, um, a support group,right, like, doesn't it feel
sometimes like you do?
(33:38):
You're in a support group andwhen I hear these other people
talk about their challenges andtheir successes and wins, I
don't even have to talk, I canjust say, oh yeah, definitely I
hear you.
It's like a church almost.
It's like you know what I mean,when everybody's kind of vibing
on the same thing and thenthere's that healthy debate you
(34:01):
can sit at.
I was just at lunch today.
There was a really great debatehappening and some people are
very bold in their stance andthey're they're absolutely they.
They feel like they'reabsolutely right in the way that
they're doing things.
And across the table is otherpeople with.
They feel like they'reabsolutely right in the way that
they're doing things, andacross the table is other people
that feel like they'reabsolutely right and they may be
(34:23):
For their market and whatthey're doing.
They may be absolutely right inthe way that they're thinking
that's right, but you get to seethat, you get to see that
opinion, you get to see thatother side of the table, and
there's not really a whole lotof opportunities to do that as
an MSP.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Awesome.
You have one of my favoritequotes Talking about the peer
groups.
You know, small businessesalways get caught up in the
day-to-day right.
If it's just that one hour,hour and a half, you know a
month where you focus on thebusiness instead of focusing in
(35:04):
the business, that's the benefityou get right Just being able
to take that time to focus onwhat's the bigger picture.
And you, I think you've done abetter job as you guys have
grown and you've delegated someof your responsibility, your old
responsibility, to yourbrothers and others in the
organization to really focus on.
I've got to focus on thebusiness all the time, but being
(35:25):
able to have the peer groupsand that group around you, that
support structure, like you said, pretty awesome, pretty awesome
to see.
And I love your peer group inparticular.
I love to be able to pop myhead in there once in a while
and hear what you guys aretalking about and when you guys
able to share that growth, thatsuccess that you had.
It was pretty awesome to seehow proud you were of that too.
So congrats, man, thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
That was a good year.
Thank you.
Yeah, I, and the thing was itwent by in such a blur that by
the time it all ended up and wewere running the numbers.
I'm like that's wrong yeah,it's got to be wrong.
Um and uh, you know we workwith dave and instrumental and
things like that, and and uh,like no, that's, that's right,
(36:08):
awesome.
I'm like oh oh, okay cool.
Well, that's fantastic greatgood job so talk about what's.
What's next for RCR is more ofthe same.
Right, we're going to evaluateour pricing and our stack and
(36:33):
make sure that it's up to snuffright and, as we're acquiring
new clients, we need to makesure that our pricing is still
good for our market.
But you know, with all thingseconomy, we need to make sure
that we're pricing it correctlyto be able to scale.
But, man, I mean it's going tobe more of the same.
(36:58):
I'm honing in on those TSM's,I'm finding out what's good
content and what's not goodcontent in those things and then
continuing to focus on ourmarketing and networking toward
(37:20):
our vertical right, reallyfocused on the vertical, because
all the other business thatcomes in, most a lot of it we
will take, but our marketing andhow we're focused, how we're
focusing our business, is goingto be on our vertical and the
other stuff will come inorganically and we'll take it as
we can and and um, you know notbe not be completely yes, men,
(37:44):
to everything, but it's, youknow you don't always get
business in your vertical butyou know you can help, you know
an opportunity that comes about.
But really our focus is ourvertical, um and uh, just
becoming experts in that.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Awesome.
So, kevin, I always like to askthis question on every single
podcast.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
My last question when did you know?
Now that's it.
Wow, I guess we've had somechallenges over the years.
Right, it's been 15 years andit's not all been ups right, and
the downs are like man, how arewe going to get out of this?
(38:29):
How are we going to move fromthis, whether it's a client that
you know you're going to loseand that maybe ends up happening
, or whatever the situation maybe, and you think that's the
lowest Right, and Well, you know, a couple of months go by and
it's not even that, wasn't eventhat.
(38:51):
One isn't even the worst.
That wasn't that.
Things were way worse than that.
And all we did was just you, youknow, get back to the basics
and do what it is that we'regood at, and and push on and
it's like, wow, we've.
When you look back what we'vegone through, it's like I, we're
(39:11):
going to be able to make itthrough everything we're going
to be able to.
Whatever it is, we will be ableto power through it and um, and
that's that's, that's it,that's when I, that was my.
Now, that's it.
It's like there's there's not awhole lot that that we're not
going to be able to powerthrough, shift, change, adjust
(39:34):
and, uh, and make it happen.
We've made, we've gone, we'vegone this far and everybody's
everybody's got motivation andthe fire to keep going, and so
that's exactly what we're gonnado.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Congratulations, kevin, on all your success.
Can't wait to see what you knowthe next 15 years looks like.
I wish you and your brothersand the rest of the RCR crew the
absolute best of luck and thankyou so much for being here.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Thanks, chris.
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