Born an Entrepreneur with Greg Edwards

Reflect upon the cherished moments spent fishing with your father. How did these experiences shape your inspiration and thoughts?Deeply influenced by his father's extraordinary flexibility and entrepreneurial freedom, he observed his dad seamlessly navigate work and life, leaving an indelible mark. Greg realized that entrepreneurship transcends mere financial independence—it offers a pathway to a fulfilling lifestyle, allowing individuals to chart their unique course.His journey unfolds as an entrepreneur, recruiting friends to work for him during his teens, an early college dropout at 20, and now the founder of Axis Backup. Greg was motivated by early experiences and challenges, so he created Canauri, a company dedicated to reducing downtime and safeguarding crucial data.
Get to know more about his work and story through https://www.canauri.com/ and be inspired by how Greg Edwards epitomizes bold decisions and unwavering determination.
To learn more about myself, Michael Esposito, and find out about public speaking workshops, coaching, and keynote speaking options, and - of course - to be inspired, visit www.michaelespositoinc.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This show is sponsored by dn tenInsurance Services, helping businesses get the right
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quote dn ten dot io and remember, when you buy an insurance policy from
dent ten, you're giving back ona global scale. Hello all, my

(00:22):
entrepreneurs and business leaders, and welcometo the Michael Esposito Show, where I
interview titans of industry in order toinform, educate, and inspire you to
be great. My guest today hasknown he wanted to be an entrepreneur since
he was twelve years old, startingmultiple successful businesses. He now leads a

(00:42):
team through critical thinking, transparency,and his vision for the future. At
Canari. His goal is to makecybersecurity straightforward and successful. That means faster
time to detection and fewer false positives. Canari gives businesses an advantage over their

(01:03):
attackers. Please welcome CEO at Canari, Greg Greg Edwards. Excuse me,
Michael, thank you for having me, Thanks so much for coming on the
show. I was I was alittle hung up on saying Canari correct or
wrong, and I think I saidit wrong, and then I messed up
your name. So I'm so sorry, let's say that again. Greg Edwards

(01:26):
is here with us live in studio. You got it. Awesome, awesome,
So, Greg, this is reallyreally cool you. This is your
I think third company from what Iunderstand, if not for third Company,
right, and you've you've had sucha great experience in the entrepreneurial space of

(01:47):
launching companies since the nineties and evenhaving the opportunity to sell to exit a
company that was a publicly traded company. So just an incredible experience that I
know you're going to be sharing withour entrepreneurial community and our community of business
leaders. But before we get intothis like amazing successful career where we are

(02:10):
today, you knew you wanted tobe an entrepreneur at twelve years old,
and that is incredible. So Ilove if you could share a little bit
about that journey with us. Yeah. So, my dad, who was
a mechanic in a small town inIowa, owned his own business. It
was a gas station and auto repair, so, you know, nothing,

(02:32):
nothing glamorous, but he had asuccessful business. And I distinctly remember being
in sixth grade him calling me outof school, coming to pick me up,
and we spent the day fishing together, and he while he worked very
hard, I mean he would itwas typical for him to work twelve hour

(02:53):
days and work Saturdays and Sundays sometimes, But the fact that he had the
flexibility to be able to do that, and I didn't appreciate as much as
I do today. But I distinctlyremember. The thing I remember was just
being so cool that he called andgot me out as cool so we could
go fishing together, and that thatto me. I mean that sounds small,

(03:16):
but that was the trigger for methat I still remember today. I
wanted that flexibility in my life tobe able to do the things that I
wanted to do when I wanted todo them. Yeah, that that flexibility
and entrepreneurship and business ownership is veryinteresting because it's it's actually tricky. It's

(03:39):
very tricky, right, I mean, as I've as I've learned once I
actually became an entrepreneur and had theI think the longest the longest that I
worked NonStop was thirty eight hours.This was back when I was in my
twenties. But you know, almosttwo days straight without sleeping in there,

(04:02):
wow. And so yeah, youhave the flexibility to be able to go
do things. But you also andI don't work like that anymore, and
I just couldn't. But you haveto be willing to what happened that you
were working for thirty eight hours straight? Was that a recovery program or something?

(04:23):
No, Actually, we did so. My first company was a network
engineering network consulting business specifically for insuranceagencies, and we did these zero downtime
upgrades where we would come in replacetheir server. This is this is old
technology, but we'd replace their serverand by eight am the next morning,

(04:45):
we'd have them up and running likenothing ever happened. And back in the
early two thousands, late nineties,early two thousands, that generally was a
two or three day or deal wherethey'd be down and have to So this
is a particular event with an agencythat we did that with and had multiple

(05:05):
projects going on and that and Iwas very involved in the actual doing of
the technology at the time, andso managing that project and other projects that
we had on going and making sureeverything went smoothly. That was thirty eight
hours of continuous work. That's yeah, and that's some dedication. But you

(05:27):
said willing, and I kind ofwant to. I'm kind of like hanging
on that one there because you saidyou have to be willing to do it,
and you know, obviously thirty eighthours you're going without sleep. I
can't imagine that you're eating too healthyduring those thirty eight hours either, So
it's not like you're getting the nutritionthat you need like an ultra marathon runner

(05:48):
might be getting while they're doing theirultra I'm interested in what that means to
you, to be willing, becauseyou know, again, we have this
beautiful community that listens to the showand they are they're community leaders, their
business leaders, trying to climb theladder, and they're they're successful or just
budding entrepreneurs. And I think thatthe desire that you're talking about in the

(06:12):
word willing is so important for usto kind of like unravel. Yeah,
so I think I mean, lookingback in my mid twenties when I started
the first company, it wasn't evennecessarily that I was consciously willing. It's
just what I did. And Ithink you have to have that drive and

(06:34):
that that desire to want to succeedenough that that it's not necessarily even a
willingness, but it's just what youdo. So it's like tied into your
identity. Absolutely, And I meanI do want to say I've found some
balance in my life since have afamily and you know, have learned to

(07:00):
bring some balance. So I'm notsuggesting everyone go work one hundred hours a
week or thirty eight hours straight forsure, But back to that having the
desire to have a successful business andagain back to the being willing to do
it. I don't necessarily know thatI was consciously thinking, oh, I'm

(07:24):
okay, and I'll go work thirtyeight hours. It was more, well,
that's what we have to do thisweek. Yeah, And I think
it's and what you just said there, what we have to do this week
is the integrity of saying to thiscompany and we're going to get this done
for you and actually delivering on thatpromise. And I think that that's what
leads to the successes that we're goingto talk about later, is that integrity

(07:45):
that you have of standing by whatyou're saying you're going to do, and
again goes into that willingness, islike you're willing to do the hard things.
And I think when we talk aboutthis stuff on the show's that is
it really it's you know, that'sentrepreneurship. That's climbing the ladder is that
you're willing to do the hard thingsthat others might not be willing to do.

(08:07):
That might say, you know what, I'm going to take a break
now, right right, and beingcommitted to doing that over and over and
over and again. Not necessarily athirty eight hour street because I don't recommend
that, but that that staying committedis also a huge component of that.

(08:33):
I'm inspired by that story. Igot a couple of things I need to
get done in the next thirty eighthours. I want to go back to
your dad, and I believe youruncle Wright, who owned this this gas
station mechanic shop. Did you everlike toil in there and work in there
to where you started? Yeah,tell us absolutely. Yeah, so I
don't remember. I don't want toget my dad in trouble for any violating

(08:56):
any labor laws, of course,but probably around that age of twelve fourteen,
I was there every Saturday sweeping thefloor and started changing tires and changing
oil when I was probably in thatfourteen to sixteen range, and worked all

(09:18):
through high school there on, youknow, after school and on the weekends.
Yeah, you know, it's interestingI had another guest on not too
long ago, and we kind ofhad a very similar experience and that that
you're also sharing too in that youknow our fathers and even for anybody out
there, our parents, our mothersor whatever. But in terms of this
conversation were kind of My father justhad an entrepreneurial bug and he was a

(09:43):
physician's assistant, still is till thisday, but he had he used to
make product on the side, hairand skincare product, and I would help
with that. But going back toyour story here in that just sweeping the
floors and everything, I think thatthat kind of, like, at least
for me, kind of awakened thisbug. So I know that you said

(10:03):
had to do with the fishing tripand the flexibility, but speak a little
bit about the impact of being thereand working. And I mean, because
there's a decision that's made right,you could decide you can be sweeping the
floors going I never want to besubject to owning my own business and having
to do this versus I actually reallyenjoy this work and see the work he's

(10:24):
doing. Yeah, and the interactionswith the customers I think was that was
definitely impactful to me. And seeinghim managing the employees and they all had
you know, it was a smallknit group and they had very close bonds.

(10:45):
And so seeing all of that reallyis what made me want to be
an entrepreneur. And I think itI think it was in my blood.
And I don't remember the exact age, but fourteen to sixteen range. I
also started recruiting my friends to detailcars. And I would talk to the

(11:11):
customers and say, hey, youknow, we had a we had a
car wash there, but then wewould actually detail the cars and charge them,
charge them fifty bucks. And thisis back in the would have been
the late eighties, mid to lateeighties, and so I was recruiting my
friends to do the work and Iwould I would get the I'd be the

(11:35):
salesman and get the business. That'sso cool. It's funny. There's these
little things in our lives that reallylead us to where we are today in
terms of anywhere that we are,but at least in terms of the entrepreneurial
journey. I remember, for usin the Northeast here with the snow coming
down, I would be walking upand down my block with a shovel on

(11:56):
my shoulder looking for a driveway toshovel for five or ten bucks. God,
yeah, isn't it crazy? Howyou know looking back that those are
the kinds of things that we weas kids. I mean, I don't
know that you teach that going andtaking responsibility for your mir own finances even

(12:16):
at fourteen. You know, that'sthat's that's just an interesting dynamic that I
think a lot of entrepreneurs do have. Yeah, it's it's yeah. And
I didn't know that because I wentdown the corporate road first, so I
didn't really know. I just wentthrough, right, I'm gonna go to
graduate college, I'm gonna get ajob. And I didn't know until I

(12:37):
became an entrepreneur. And my coachand I were talking about like my experiences
and and I started and she's like, yeah, you're an entrepreneur. It
was hard for me to accept thatword, to be quite honest, So
I'm actually interested in the word foryou, but it was very hard for
me to accept being saying that I'man entrepreneur. I didn't feel yeah,

(12:58):
So for me, I don't wantthis to sound conceited, but it was.
I think at it may may havenot known the word entrepreneur at twelve,
but I knew that I would bean entrepreneur, whether I knew what
the word was or not, Iknew that I would own my own business,

(13:20):
at least from that twelve or fourteenage. And so when you were
that young, knowing this, whatwhat was the business? I you know,
I, I know that you areobviously into computers and it today,
so I could only imagine. Youknow what Apple was like when it first
came out in your time, Soyeah, so it actually wasn't technology,

(13:45):
and I didn't know, so Ididn't know exactly what I wanted to do
or what that business would be.I actually thought I wanted to be a
chiropractor because we had a successful chiropractorin our town and great guy and looked
like he had a good life.So I thought, oh, that's what
I'll do, and that'll be aneasy way to be an entrepreneur. Didn't

(14:07):
take me very long that that's notwhat I wanted to do. But I
did have a background, again withmy dad's business. He he and my
mom actually bought an Apple two Ecomputer when I was This would have been
when I was maybe eleven, andI latched onto that technology and I was

(14:28):
writing code. I was actually astudent liaison for one of the very first
computer labs put into the state ofIowa and helped the teachers to understand the
technology and and taught them. Andso that's that's where and then was a
was a computer geek all through highschool. And then when I actually needed

(14:52):
to get a job, go aheadand dropped out of college and applied at
a software company when I was nineteenor twenty I don't even remember for sure,
and got hired on with the softwarecompany just based on my experience with

(15:13):
computer systems back you know. Again, this would have been in ninety ninety
three ninety four timeframe, so yeah, so really really then once I once
I started working in the software industry, then that's when I knew technology is
where my career would be. That'sreally cool. It's funny. I had

(15:35):
a different experience with an Apple.I remember my mother brought home the first
Macintosh. So that was during myaround. I was around the same age
as you were at the time whenMacintosh came out, and I remember she
brought that home and I looked atit and she's like, yeah, this
is the new thing and everything.She was really excited about it she was
in education, and I was like, I don't. I don't want to

(15:58):
do anything with that, Like,I don't, I have no interest in
that. And and you know what'scool about your story there too, is
like that was before being a computergeek was actually cool, Like no,
it's oh definitely. Now if youplay video games and you write code,
man, you are you are likethe star football player, right yeah,

(16:18):
yeah, definitely not back then.Yeah, so what did you do to
compensate for your your geeking out oncode back then? What was your go
to? Yeah? I mean,so grew up in a in a tiny
little town in Iowa. So Ihad a high school graduating class of thirty
eight people. So it wasn't wereally didn't have the dynamics that you do

(16:41):
in a larger school system. Imean everybody was friends with everybody, and
so it wasn't that and it wasn'teven I mean, there weren't computer geeks
back then, so it wasn't likethat was even a thing that I could
be, even though I was rightright, So it was you know,

(17:03):
I felt like I fit in witheverybody and play. I mean I'm not
athletic at all, but was ableto wrestle and play football, and you
know, again was not good byany means, but being I mean there
are fourteen boys in my class outof the thirty eight just to put together
a football team. Yeah, youend up getting It's similar to where we

(17:29):
live here in Highland. We seethe boys and the girls getting pulled for
each sport because there's not enough togo around. So they become these multifaceted
athletes, which I think is reallygood for them. I do too.
I mean, you know, Ithink the because now in the larger school
systems and larger cities, it's veryspecialized. You got to pick a sport

(17:51):
when you're ten and that's what youdo. That's it. Yeah, yeah,
that's that was my experience growing upin the city and Queens. You
know. So you you kind ofskimmed over a few things that I think
are also kind of crucial to yourjourney in that you mentioned dropping out of
college and I kind of know alittle bit of the background there, but
I'd love for you to share alittle bit about this experience where you obviously

(18:15):
are are smart guy, a smartkid at the time, and I could
only make assumptions here that you're probablydoing well in school and then you have
to make a choice to drop outof college. Could you share a little
bit about that experience and overcoming youknow, I think that this speaks to
overcoming challenges. Yeah. Yeah,So at nineteen I found out that my

(18:36):
girlfriend at the time mysteriously became pregnant. How could that happen? How could
that happen? And there was noway that I wouldn't be involved in my
you know, I didn't know atthe time, but soon to be suns
life, and so I dropped outof college, actually got a job before

(18:57):
the software gig, got a jobworking in a factory, worked third shift
in a factory, and then inmoved back to my hometown where my dad
had the gas station. So workedthird shift in a factory, got off
at seven am, and rather thangoing to the bars, which is what

(19:18):
most of my coworkers did because sevenam the bars were open to take care
of them, I would go changemy clothes and go to the go to
the shop and work for my dad. And I did that. I only
did that for about nine months,but it really gave me a definite understanding

(19:38):
of hard work and the value ofmoney. I think I think in the
factory, I made maybe seven dollarsand thirty five cents an hour or something
like that. So that experience andworking third shift, I mean I knew

(20:00):
at that, I mean I knewI wanted to be an entrepreneur. I
wasn't sure, you know, howthis was going to work. I thought
at that time, I was thinking, Okay, maybe I take over my
dad's shop. But I really didn'twant to be a mechanic and didn't want
to stay in that small town townculture, which is a beautiful little town.
But I wanted I wanted to getout. And so yeah, so

(20:22):
that was that was certainly a lifechanging event and has been amazing. I
mean that my my son I helpedto We didn't I didn't end up getting
married, but very involved in myson's life all through. We had shared
custody all through his his grade schooland high school years, and so it

(20:48):
turned out very well. And itwas a for me, a great change
and a great growing up experience.At nineteen. Yeah, I mean you're
so young. So first of all, I just want to commend you on,
you know, making that decision tobe a part of his life.
I mean, it's a lot easierfor the guy to disappear. So definitely

(21:10):
want to commend you there. Wespeak so much these days about work life
balance and about you know, creatingharmony between our families and our businesses,
and so I'm interested in what thatlooked like for you at nineteen, because
again I go back to so manychallenges. Right, So we're you know,
I'm forty one now and I seethat as a challenge, right,

(21:33):
and I'm married and we had childrentogether, my wife and I and experiencing
that was challenging. So being nineteenand like you said, not going to
the bar and working double shifts,like between the manufacturing firm and your dad's
shop, what did work life balancelook like, and how did you maybe
find that harmony? Well, soback then it didn't exist. I mean

(21:56):
it was just work, sleep,eat. That was That was pretty much
it. And that was just survivalmode. And I think that anyone in
that and it's it's difficult in anysituation to have balance when you have kids,
you have a full time job,and I think that people need to
give themselves some space and be becauseyou're going to be overwhelmed and it takes

(22:23):
You've got to see that as atemporary part of your life to get through
I mean, and spend time withyour family. But know that you can't
you can't do all of those thingsand do everything perfectly, so you know,
give yourself some give yourself some spacethere. But then as I'm matured

(22:47):
then having that work life balance,and I would say I didn't didn't really
figure that out until my mid thirties. Maybe when you start getting tired of
it. Yeah. I actually semiretired when I was thirty eight and had
I had two successful businesses running,but had business managers that were taking care

(23:12):
of them and took and that waswhen my son was in high school then
at that point, and I workedabout ten hours a week for four years
and spent time, spent time withmy son, got my pilot's license,
did some really really fun things throughthose years. But then I, you

(23:33):
know, then I got bored.So I went from one extreme to the
other. That's wild. I lovesome of the things that you said,
well, I love everything that yousaid, but some of the things I
want to highlight here is is thefirst one is giving yourself space. I
think that that's like so crucial,and I say, give yourself some grace
right, and I think kind ofmeaning the same thing in terms of like

(23:56):
just being forgiving and then that youcan't do everything perfect. I love that
too. I know we're going tobe talking about your your philosophy and just
getting started on things, so we'lltalk about that in a second. But
that has to do with just notalways being perfect. And then the the
other thing that I love is youwere you were saying something around the lines

(24:18):
of like just realizing your your situationand and just knowing that it's temporary.
My my coach and I brought upmerit before. She she when I when
we're working through some hard things together, she says that to me. She
goes, but Michael, just realizethis is temporary. This is just for
now. It doesn't mean it's forever. It's just temporary. So I really

(24:38):
do love that. You know,you you did start some successful businesses,
and I know I really want tokind of like dive into some of those
things. But I'm a little excitedor you you kind of like hit a
little fun spot for me in termsof the piloting license. So since you
took that little four year break,why don't we just take a little break

(24:59):
from business for a second and sharea little bit about this experience as getting
a pilot license. And I seeyou have the sailboats and the boats behind
you, so obviously like a prettycool extreme sport kind of guy. I'm
interested in this. Yeah, Sogetting my pilot's license was something that I
always wanted to do, and Ihad a actually one of my clients,

(25:22):
their husband owned a business that theybuilt airplanes. And so when I saw
a picture of this woman's husband withan airplane, and I said, oh,
what is you know? What's tellme about that? And she made
an introduction. He built these kindof airplanes called a Lancer, which I
knew a little bit about and wasthe kind of airplane that I knew that

(25:48):
I wanted, and so she madean introduction. I spent some time in
his shop where he built these experimentalhome built airplanes, and I started working
on my pilot's license with a youknow, with a certified instructor and a
certified airplane and worked through that.In the early early two thousands, I

(26:11):
was actually flying on nine to eleven. We were in the air practicing radio
out so communic no communication while you'rein the air, What do you do.
And so we were flying and againin Iowa, we were flying north
of Cedar Rapids Airport and we're outthere for about an hour with with our

(26:37):
radios off. And as we cameback into Cedar Rapids, which is a
pretty small airport, regional airport,there were all of these commercial jets lined
up on the taxiways, which justdoesn't I mean typically, you know,
there's a few flights per hour,not lots and lots of flights like you
see in the large airports, andlanded the tower was just odd in their

(27:03):
communications with us. They were theywere very sparse in their communication were usually
they're very talkative. We land taxiin and there's all of these private jets
and in all of these people inthe FBO, which is a fixed base
operator which is where we go outof and walked in and the first tower

(27:29):
fell at about that time, andand so that was a very surreal event.
But that and I'm going I'm goingdown a rabbit hole with that story,
but I mean that that's something thatwill stick with me forever. And
so we didn't get the announcement whilewe were had the radios off that every
you know, every flight in thecountry was grounded, and that's why all

(27:52):
of these jets were at our airport. But we had no idea of that,
and no idea until we parked planeand walked in and found out what
was happening. So I'm sure thatwhile you were in the air though,
and you saw these planes there thatyou started probably thinking about some there could
be something going on. Well,we had actually we were far enough.

(28:18):
We were sixty miles or so northof the airport at the time when all
of the so we didn't see anyof the jets coming into land. Oh,
no idea what was going on?Oh okay, And until we were
coming in on final and about youknow, at about two to three miles
out from the airport, as you'restill descending and coming into land, that's

(28:41):
when we saw all of this activity. And then we're like, wow,
you know, something's going on,right, But the tower wasn't wasn't communicating
with us other than cleared us toland and taxied us to where we needed
to go. Mm hmm wow.That I mean, it's an incredible story
there. So to continue on.Then with my pilot's license, this friend

(29:10):
that owned the Lance air building businesscalled me and said, I have an
interesting project that you might want tobe involved in. He had a lance
Air with his lance Air three pointsixty that he was building for a for
a customer, and the customer actuallycouldn't get his medical license, so couldn't

(29:33):
get his actual pilot's license and wasn'tgoing to be able to fly the plane.
And so now he's got this planethat's mostly finished, still needed to
be painted, needed avionics, andneeded interior. But the builder and my
friend didn't have the cash to finishit out, and said, do you

(29:56):
want to go into partnership with me? I'll do all the work. You
just pay for all, you know, everything that we need and can be
half owner of this. This isand this is before I even had my
license. And this is a retractablegear, high performance airplane that you don't
I mean, it's not your firstairplane kind of planet. And I said,

(30:22):
yep, let's do it. Andso bought bought in, or at
least became partners in this plane beforeI even had finished my license. So
do you still own the plane?And I still own the plane today.
So this is a high performance It'slike speaks so much to your your entrepreneurial
journey though, right where it's likequick decision making, not no regrets and

(30:47):
and just going for the best ofthe best or the most high performance out
there, which is pretty cool.And this plane is a blast to fly.
It's so it's a single engine plane. It's only one hundred and eighty
horse power, but it goes abouttwo hundred and twenty miles an hour.
Wow. And so for a smallplane, that's that's really fast, right,

(31:12):
pretty significant. And so you gotyou got your pilot slights to your
piloting. And then the other thingI see is the boats behind you in
some really cool pictures. Yeah,so I'd love So that's that's something I
haven't taken on yet. But wantto get my love to own a sailboat.
Love the Caribbean and want it,would want to be able to spend

(31:36):
more time there. But something Ihaven't done yet. Oh man, I
got to hook you up with mydad. He's a big time sailor and
he and several other family members andfriends sailing friends of course. They yeah,
they book a trip down to theCaribbean and they go around, they
bounce around to all the different islands. And he's been begging me to come
on that trip with him, andit's always a challenge for me, but

(31:59):
it's an amazing trip. And I'mI'm assuming that you might even have maybe
looked into something like that or havedone something like that already. I have
and I've done some of that.But I want you want I want to
be I want to be the captain. And you know what, It's so
funny because he does talk about that. I'm like, what's the difference.
He's like, there's a big difference, Michael, huge. That's awesome.

(32:23):
So let's get so uh, we'regonna get back to the businesses. And
and you know what I think tooin what you just said there and I
and for for everybody to really capturehere is that while you know, we
talked about work life balance and harmony, and I know that it's not so
like time blocked. It's not likethis minute, I'm going to work on

(32:44):
the business. This minute, I'mgoing to go and have fun. But
I believe that's why, why whywe use the term harmony in this conversation,
is that there is this harmon harmonythat happens of like really grinding,
really working, and then also kindof being able to build something to where
you want it to be, totake the time off off, to be
able to have fun and enjoy yourchildren and enjoy life, because that's like

(33:06):
why we work. So I wantto get back to you now in terms
of you starting your very first businessin nineteen ninety eight, what that journey
was like and how it started leadingto the other opportunities that you have in
front of you today. Yeah.So back in nineteen ninety eight, and
this was good timing and luck toand taking the opportunity. But back in

(33:34):
nineteen ninety eight, everyone was havingto replace their computer systems because of Y
two K, and so there justweren't enough technical people out there to get
all of this done before before theend of the end of the century.
And so I had background with insurancesoftware and with hardware, and I essentially

(33:59):
went door to door to these insuranceagencies and said, hey, I'm an
expert in the specific software, whicha company called Applied Systems. I can
do these upgrades of your server,do them with zero downtime, and bring
your system back up so that youwalk in the door with your staff at
eight am. You'll be up andrunning and in nineteen ninety eight, nineteen

(34:23):
ninety nine. That was like theeasiest sale that could ever happen. And
I didn't realize that at the time, and I didn't consider myself a great
salesman, nor do I today,but it was such a great product and

(34:49):
the the ability to do that forcompanies was a no brainer for them.
And again I'm the thing is thoughI'm four years old at that point,
and the fact that they trusted meto do that is a little amazing in
retrospect. So I must have beenan okay salesman at the time, but

(35:14):
that's how it started, and itreally was I think in retrospect because of
Y two K made that an easytransition. What was I remember that that
Y two K fear of everything happening, and I kind of remember why I
had to do it, like thedials of the zeros everything going to zero.

(35:36):
But what was the reality of this? So the reality was on January
first, two thousand, I hada flight to Mexico booked to go on
vacation. That's how confident I wasthat nothing was going to happen, and
it really didn't. I mean,these systems had to be upgraded because there

(35:58):
were systems that would fail. ButI had tested all of our clients' systems,
knew that everything was going to befine and and not and it really
turned out to be a non event. But there was fear that every computer
in the world was going to stopworking, and I knew that that wasn't

(36:21):
going to be the case, butsystems certainly had to be upgraded. That's
interesting, So you kind of like, I think it goes back to seeing
what the need is and adapting yourproduct to filling that need, right right.
Yeah, And and that's again goingback to that sales I'm sure that
I had that confidence when I wentin to say, and you know,

(36:45):
and everyone else's the sky is falling, and I'm like, no, here's
what we need to do, andtold them exactly what they needed to do
and did it and everything worked.Yeah. I heard you talk about that
boardroom confidence that you had at thetime, and I'm interested in that twenty
four year old what led to thatconfidence, because I know there's more to

(37:07):
it than just I believe just thiskind of like ignorance of who you're speaking
to, but more of this interconfidence, that of the knowledge that you had
at twenty four years old, SoI'm interested in that if you could share
a little bit more about that.Yeah. So one of my first clients,
and this wasn't an insurance agency,but actually was a financial services firm,

(37:29):
and I distinctly they were split offfrom a multinational, billion dollar,
multi billion dollar company and a reallygreat client of mine early on, and
I can remember sitting in the boardroomwith these fifty and sixty year old people
and going over what their budgets weregoing to be for the coming years,
and not even I wouldn't necessarily saythat it was a confidence it certainly was

(37:55):
a confidence thing back then. Mayhave been somewhat of an error against thing,
but it was because I knew thetechnology, I knew what they needed
to do, and was able topresent and lay that out and for whatever
reason, and I can't explain it, had no fear to go and speak

(38:22):
to who. You know, now, I'm looking at a twenty four year
old and thinking my twenty four yearold self, like, you should have
been very scared going into those meetings, and it it never was. It's
fine, it's it's it's the youdon't know what you don't know, right,

(38:42):
I think right, right? Andand I think, I mean,
I think that there's that certainly thatbecause I didn't know any you know,
I didn't know that I shouldn't bedoing that and I and I absolutely shouldn't
have been because I could could doit. But that, yeah, there
was no one telling me you can'tdo this, So that that was.

(39:06):
And I had some great mentors toothat were telling me you can do anything
and you you just have to godo it. Tell us a little bit
more about those mentors. So whoare some of those people? So definitely
my dad and had an uncle thatwas very very instrumental in that early development
that also owned his own he ownedan accounting firm, and he was he

(39:34):
was very instrumental in that giving methe confidence to go do anything that I
set my mind to. I mean, it's it's so important, like to
have those people in our lives.And if you don't have one in your
life, go seek one. Golisten to a book, a podcast,

(39:55):
something to be able to hear thatyou can do anything. I know,
I just listened to Adam Sandler's speech. He was just inducted in the Mark
Twain some sort of great accomplishment Ican't remember exactly what it is, but
has to do it Mark Twain,And in his speech he spoke about that
about his dad and his mom.He was fortunate enough to have parents who

(40:15):
supported him in this way of sayingto him, you can do anything,
and he says that they essentially brainwashedhim to believe he could do anything.
And then he said he married hiswife and he was like and again another
woman in his life who came inand said you can do anything. And
so he scaled up and started doingmore and then forming the friends around him

(40:35):
from SNL saying you can do anything. Yeah, And that's that's the kind
of experience that I had with myparents and with my wife now that it
was very much that you can godo anything. I didn't and I didn't

(40:55):
appreciate that until probably into my midthirties that I didn't even realize that other
people didn't, you know, didn'thave that, Like I just thought everybody
like, like, why aren't morepeople doing this? And why aren't you
know? I'm like, Okay,maybe their circumstances weren't the same as mine,

(41:16):
and certainly it wasn't. I didn'thave a silver spoon with my dad.
My parents weren't wealthy, but thatwealth of ability that they gave me
that I again didn't appreciate until Irealized how valuable that was. Yeah.

(41:37):
No, not everybody has it,and that's why again I encourage everybody listening
to pick up a book, topick up an audio, to go watch
some YouTube videos, to start surroundingyourself with people who do have that mindset,
because I mean, that's like whatgot me to where I am.
I think my parents always encouraged meand always believed in me, but when
I went through my hardest times,it had to do with picking up Tony

(42:00):
Robbins cassettes and tapes and starting toread and listen to and actually put in
some work about self development. Soit really helped me and believing in myself
and the interconfidence. It's funny thatyou mentioned Tony Robbins. One of one
of my experiences with my uncle wasthat he took me to La and this

(42:22):
is I was I think I wastwenty at that time, so this is
during that timeframe of I think Ihad quit from working in the factory.
I don't remember exactly what I wasdoing for work at that point, but
he took me to La to aTony Robbins event. Wow, And here

(42:45):
I am no experience with Tony Robbins, and he had been a Tony Robbins
fan at that point. And I'min this room with a bunch of fifty
year olds thinking how old you know? All these old people well, and
they're standing on their chairs clapping andyelling, and it was just that excitement

(43:08):
that I'm like, Wow, Iget if he can motivate all these old
people, there's got to be somethingto do this. Yeah, so you
know that. And one of thefirst books, one of the first business
books or not even necessarily business bookthat my uncle recommended to me that I
read around that age, was NapoleonHill's Think and Grow Rich, Yeah,

(43:31):
which is iconic. Yeah, Thinkand Grow Rich. It is certainly one
that we talk a lot about onthe podcast, and it's kind of what
inspired this podcast itself in that forme, learning about Napoleon Hill's story and
the journey through Think and Grow Richof going and interviewing all of these these
titans of industry, which is wherethe title comes, where my intro comes

(43:52):
from to some extent, was thatthat's what I want to do in order
to learn from people like yourself,So so thank you for adding to Napoleon
Hill's book there in the podcast.As we progress in your journey here,
so ninety eight, you start thisfirm, you have this wonderful interconfidence and
you're you're building it out. Youhave this expertise on exiting companies, which

(44:15):
I'm sure we're going to talk alittle bit more about as we as we
progress here, but again you havethis expertise and exiting companies. So you
did so with that company and startedthe new one, or so actually still
kept that and that I still ownthat business today. I unfortunately or fortunately

(44:36):
not sure which, but sort ofignored it for years and years while I
was growing an off site backup anddisaster recovery company. And then as i've
as i've been building the cybersecurity company, but have actually started growing that network
management and what's called a managed servicespractice again and the technology I really got

(44:59):
burnt out in that business and theman properly managing a network back in the
early two thousands was so much workand so hands on. And now the
technology and the cybersecurity is in placeto make that I don't want to say

(45:20):
it's super easy, but to makeit manageable and scalable. Now, yeah,
so speak about and I'm sorry,gun Well, I was just going
to say, it's starting these othertwo SaaS companies through out of that managed
services business. Is how I've donethat right and exited exited from the offsite

(45:44):
backup company from the other one.And speak a little bit about that ignoring
of the business because you said youdon't know if it's good or bad,
but obviously it worked out well.And I think that that had to do
with delegation. You said, youhave some managers, you have high level
managers running the operations, and sothere's a lot of delegation that has to
come in. There's a lot ofself discipline too on your end to not
step in, right, even ifyou were a little burned down and didn't

(46:06):
want to step in, but there'sstill Yeah. So that actually when I
started us what's called Access Backup andthat's the off site backup company that I
sold to a publicly traded company calledJ two Global. That when I started
that company, I started it withthe intent of hiring a business manager,

(46:30):
implementing the technology and stepping away andstarted it with that intent, and that
I mean, that was difficult andrewarding all at the same time, because
it was it was this sounds ridiculous, but it was hard to not go

(46:52):
to the office and hard to setthe boundaries. And what I did is
set so that the business manager thatwas running it, we met once a
week and he would only bring meunless you know, something was absolutely on
fire. We would meet once aweek and deal with any issues or decisions

(47:14):
that needed to be made. Andthat that was very difficult from being a
hands on doing everything to making thattransition, but it's it is one of
the things that made that company verysuccessful. Where did you learn to do
something like that? So I wentthrough a coaching program and it was called

(47:39):
the Strategic Coach, and I wentthrough that system and that's really what changed
that mindset. So I had hadalso read the e myth and for Getting
Michael Gerber yeap, and so thatthat was an influence, and then Strategic

(48:04):
Coach is really what helped me toimplement that. M Yeah, Michael Gerber's
book, I mean, and there'sso many, so many others Traction and
such such great ones that speak aboutthis. And it's this way of delegating,
right because as and I was Iwas the ultimate E myth or and
it's the entrepreneurial myth where you think, oh, you have something that you're

(48:27):
good at, that you love,that's what you should go do as a
career, and it turns out thatyou end up hating that thing because it's
it's the only thing you do.And that was my life in the early
two thousands and got to the pointwhere I started to hate technology and I
love technology, uh and so hadto had to step back, and the

(48:52):
E myth was was critical in thatthinking process. That's incredible, it's funny,
it's it relates to something that I'mexperiencing right now in my life.
We spoke earlier about the two companiesthat I have, which is dan Ten
Insurance and then Michael's Posito, Inc. Which is what brings us to the
brings us on the podcast here,and I was actually just talking about this

(49:13):
with my coach Merit about the programthat I just launched and really doubling down
on michaelas Posito, Inc. Andfocusing a lot of attention there. But
I had a big fear and wewere talking about this, I said,
you know what, I don't wantMichael's Posito ink to turn into is something
that I get tired of doing becauseI'm so passionate about public speaking and podcasting
and doing all this, and Idon't want to turn it into where it's

(49:35):
like my job. So it's funnythat you're bringing this up, and you
know, I read the e mythand I didn't even think about it that
way of what you're saying right now, of like turning your passion and being
like, I'm gonna turn this intoa business, which is kind of like
what I did with Michael's Posito,Inc. And probably what my hesitation is,
I'm doing certain things there. Soit's funny that you bring that up.
Very ch Yeah, yeah, andI think that going into it consciously

(50:00):
as you are to think about notand I'm not sure where that harmony is
the word you used earlier, wherethat harmony comes in, but it is
a conscious you you need. Youabsolutely have to go into it consciously where
you're not going to let this businesstake over you. If that If that

(50:25):
makes sense, that's exactly it.And that's that's what my fear was,
and that's what I was telling herabout was because I was like, I
want to speak on stages. Iwant to be traveling and going and write
a book. And I have allthese ideas and not that's just ideas,
but but desires uh within me andyou're you're implementing them already, and that's

(50:45):
exactly right. And so I'm like, but then I'm like, but it's
going to consume me and I andI don't want to give up family and
I want to give up n tenand I want to give up the things
you know, right, right,So I me, you know, I
think I congratulate you on everything thatyou're doing, and like, I think
you you just have to be consciousof that and keep that in mind as
you're going for and just not letit consume you. Yeah. Yeah,

(51:07):
And but it's like what you justsaid, But what we started with with
your thirty eight hours, it's like, because you have that desire because it's
like from within, it's so hard, it's so what you are all about
that it can easily do that,it's not. It's just like what you
just said about having a step awayfrom the business where it was. It
sounds funny to say that it's hardnot to go into the office, but

(51:29):
when you're so emotionally invested and sopassionate about something. It's not work anymore,
and that's there's such truth to that. You know that it's marketing anymore.
And I actually felt guilt for notgoing into that because I knew I
had employees there working when I wasn'tgoing into the office. And it was

(51:53):
a massive sense of guilt, whichalso sounds weird, like you're not going
it because like I wasn't in doingit the first It took me several months
to get to the point where Icould learn to enjoy doing other things.
Right right, you know you havethis and I kind of want to stay
here for a second. I knowit might go into to Canari, but

(52:15):
you have this way with employees whereyou you certainly respect them, which which
I hope all employers do, butbut you certainly respect them and have this
way where they you really bond withthem. And this is very important to
your values from what I've picked upfrom you. I'm interested in where that
stems from. You mentioned it withyour dad earlier on as well, in

(52:37):
terms of uh seeing how how hewas with his employees at the at the
shop, and I'm just interested inthat your philosophy on working with with a
team yeah, So it really stemsfrom transparency and so being being transparent in
not only how we're spending our time, but our financials and where the business

(53:00):
is going and what's happening next.So that that, to me, is
the core of that philosophy is transparency, and it's something that I've strived for
differing levels of success through my career. But that I have an open door
policy, which lots of people saythat, and you know, and I'm

(53:23):
work from home now since the actuallywe started doing it before the pandemic,
which was fortuitous for us. Butanyone we have we have a weekly all
staff meeting and as part of that, anyone can ask me anything, and
if they're not comfortable asking it infront of everyone else, they can pull

(53:45):
me aside offline and they would tellyou, I'll answer anything. And that's
that's where that and again it's thattransparency of we're all in this together.
We're doing this together. And Icertainly am not semi retired now. I'm
working harder, I feel like now. But I do have some balance and

(54:07):
harmony in that because I'm so excitedabout the technology that we're delivering, and
I got bored when I was semiretired in my early forties and sold the
last business, and like, Okay, I still got I've got the next

(54:28):
thing to go do, and I'vegot additional things that I want to go
do, and it's reinvigorated. Andnow that I feel like I have that
capability to consciously not let the businessbusinesses consume me, then I'm much more
comfortable in going and growing additional businesses. Yeah, and we're certainly going to

(54:53):
be talking about new technologies. Idefinitely want to get into AI. But
I just want to go back tothis employee thing in that. So why
is that so important to you tobe transparent, to be there for them,
to have that open door. So, I mean, I think it's
a motivation and a success of thecompany is really where I see that leading

(55:15):
to. I think, as asan employee of a company, if you
don't know the motivations of the ownershipor the CEO or the board of directors,
then why are you there? Andwhy would you be willing to give
up your life to spend your timeworking for these people that you're making them

(55:37):
wealthy? Why would you do that? And so that that's what it all
stems back to for me because Iwouldn't. I mean, I at this
point I would be a horrible employee, But if I were an employee,
I would want that. We wentto an unlimited vacation policy about Oh,

(56:00):
I don't know if it's been tenyears. At least it was in the
It was in the off site backupbusiness, and we carried it into the
cybersecurity business, so it has tohave been close to ten years kind of
before that was cool and and reallyfor me it was like, Okay,
I've been doing this for fifteen yearsand working. You know, I I've

(56:23):
worked hard. I some I retiredfor a while and then you know,
working hard again. But I takeas much vacation as I want, and
I have the flexibility to go doif I need to go pick up my
kids or go to a softball gameor what you know whatever. I had
that flexibility, and I thought,why why wouldn't everyone want you naturally want

(56:47):
this, but why couldn't we dothis? And I mean it is the
thing that we struggle with is makingsure that people take enough time off and
that they and that they disconnect becausea lot of times what happens now is
people like, oh, you know, I'm going to take a week off,
but I've got my laptop and I'llbe working. Well, you know,

(57:07):
okay, but you need to youneed to disconnect and you need to
have some time to sharpen saw.I love that that you said that to
sharpen the saw, because that's exactlywhat I was thinking about when you when
you said that about disconnecting. Andthat goes to Stephen Covey's book The Seven
Habits, which is again sharpening thesaw so important. And what I love

(57:29):
about what you're saying too, aboutthe way that you treat your employees is
attaching them to their purpose. Becauseevery company has its own purpose, and
you, as the founder, youhave your purpose for driving the company,
but why are they working there?And they need to be attached to a
purpose. And by you having thetransparency, the open door policy, creating
the flexibility, you create that purposeand then which in turn with this,

(57:52):
with this, this policy, thisvacation policy, they then are so attached
to the business that they actually don'tabuse things like this, they actually use
it properly, which is which isreally great from from an owner's perspective to
see. I think it's really cooltoo when I meet with with potential new
hires and of course with my teamto see that they're so bought into the

(58:15):
vision and so brought into why they'rethere. And I and I really really
love that. I want to justgo to the company that you ended up
selling, which which you which Ibelieve did the disaster recovery. Is that
correct? Yeah? And you youactually had a very pivotal moment during Hurricane
Sandy, and I'm just interested ifif you could share a little bit of

(58:37):
that, that experience and what maybeled to the sale of the company and
it going public. Yeah, soa couple of things there. So what
Access Backup was an off site disasterand offsite backup and disaster recovery company,
and we were doing what today isvery common, but back then it wasn't

(58:57):
even called the cloud, but wewere doing cloud back up and then recovery
to the cloud. And it wasa private, private data center that we
built to be able to do this. But we would recover company systems so
that they could run remotely, whichback then was very novel. That just

(59:17):
the way it is now. Butduring Hurricane Sandy, we had nine simultaneous
recoveries that we did on the EastCoast. For one that I specifically remember
was an insurance agency in Manhattan thathad twelve feet of water at their building's
door, and so they couldn't evenget to their building, let alone work

(59:42):
from there. So they actually wentto upstate New York and worked remotely through
our system for from what I rememberwas about three weeks time that they worked
remotely. There was another company thatwas in Sylvania. They were a little
over ninety miles from the coast,but such severe power outages that no power

(01:00:08):
in their in their building and itwas going to be weeks before they had
power, so they ran completely remotelyoff of our system. And again this
is back before remote work like thatwasn't even a word. You just went
to the office and worked. Sothat was that was huge in the development

(01:00:30):
of that company, and we leveragedthat from the standpoint of marketing. We
went went to the East Coast anddid several interviews and produced we didn't they
weren't commercials that you would have seenon TV, but put it on our
website. And really I think thatthat those interviews that we did, that's

(01:00:57):
what then ultimately led to our saleand acquisition. So that was Pivotal in
that company. And then also aroundthat same time, we started to see
the rise of ransomware happening. Sothis in that twenty twelve timeframe is when
we first saw the instances of ransomwarehappening. And what ransomware. Fundamentally,

(01:01:20):
what ransomware is. It locks allthe files on your either individual computer or
entire network, and then you haveto have a password to unencrypt them,
and they hold that password for theransom and so that's essentially what There's a
little more complicated and complications to itthan that, but that's essentially what ransomware

(01:01:40):
is. And I started seeing thathappening back in twenty twelve, and between
twenty twelve and twenty fifteen, ourOFFSETE backup clients, twenty percent of that
client base had we had to dofull on recoveries because of ransomware. And
this is before you were even seeingransomware in the news. And so that

(01:02:05):
was the other piece that really mademe start to look at how can we
how can we protect these businesses sothey don't have to go to their backup
and to their disaster recovery to beable to keep up keep the business going
during a ransomware attack. It's incredible. While you're telling me about all of

(01:02:28):
this, it's just again you're seeinga need and filling that need is again
you're finding something else and you're going, wait a second, there's there's a
big need here, which no wonderwhen you say it's kind of been easy
and it's got to do with timing. But you know, it's that old
saying about success and opportunity and howit all it's all about preparedness, is

(01:02:52):
that you throughout have seen all ofthis stuff happening, and you were prepared
and you saw the opportunity and youseize the moment through this this quick decision
making, which is pretty darn cool. And then so so that's how you
started now with where we are todaywith Canari. And when we were in
the pre somebody else called it thegreen room, and I was like,

(01:03:14):
that's cool. I got a greenroom here at the MICROSPSIVA show. So
while we were in the green room, I'm gonna start using that one.
Uh you were you were mentioning tome. I had asked you about the
name and just the pronunciation and everything, and you're kind of sharing a story
about the name. Uh, it'sit's always so cool to hear a founder
share how a name came about.Would you be willing to share a little

(01:03:37):
bit about that with us? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So we started
out as Watchpoint Data and started outas what's called an MSSP so managed security
services practice, and we were utilizingoff the shelf products to be able to
minimize the risk of cyber attacks aand ransomware specifically, and ultimately we were

(01:04:01):
still even with the best of thebest tools and best practices, ransomware was
still getting through. And so that'swhen we started developing our own tool,
which is now Canary, and launchedthat in twenty twenty one as its own,

(01:04:23):
separate and our own software. Sothe name Canari comes from what we
use our canary what are called canaryfiles or bait files, and it's all
part of deception technology. So you'reputting bait out for the attackers to hit,
and once that bait is hit,then you set the trap essentially.

(01:04:49):
And so we didn't want to bethe canary in the coal mine, be
the dead little bird in the bottomof a mine, and so wanted some
thing that had a powerful name buttied to that idea of the canary,
and so we came up with Canari, which isn't a real bird, but

(01:05:11):
sounds like a badass predatory bird thatgoes and attacks these cyber attackers. That
was my favorite part. That's whyI wanted you to bring up then said
badass bird. I was like,all right, sorry if that was a
long winded answer to get there.Oh no, I love it. I
love it. You know, it'sreally cool to think of it that way.
So tell us about Canari and whatyou're doing with it today, because

(01:05:34):
I know that you have big plansfor this company as well. Now,
yeah, so so Canari what itis a deception technology company that we detect
and stop ransomware that's actively running.So this is ransomware that's gotten past all
of the other defenses and now isactively running on a network, actively encrypting

(01:05:57):
files. And what we do iswe recognize that ransomware running, detect and
then stop and kill it in lessthan a second so that the damage is
mitigated and that it doesn't spread throughoutthe rest of the network, and encrypt
all of the files. So themost recent ransomware that's out there will encrypt.

(01:06:23):
These are some testing that was recentlydone two hundred and twenty two thousand
files in four minutes. Oh wow, so quick. It moves really quick,
and if you can't stop it inthat less than a second, then
exponential damage is being done every minutethat it's running. Yeah. And I

(01:06:44):
know that you're like one of thoseyou bring in a crew and everything to
be able to manage your companies.So I want to just move into the
whole exiting of companies and what thatlooks like for you and as you start
working through these different things with youremployees, is there any other tips that
you could share in terms of exitingand what that might look like for a

(01:07:05):
business owner who is building a companyand exiting. Yeah, So I think
it's important to again to go backto the transparency and let employees know what's
happening as a company transitions through andany startup and that's that other than the

(01:07:25):
managed service business that's now going ontwenty five years that I plan to maintain
and run forever as long as longas I possibly can. The idea of
a startup is to start, buildit and ultimately exit and sell it.
And so I think being transparent withthe employees, letting them know that from
the beginning, setting up stock optionplans so that they have incentive and financial

(01:07:49):
incentive on the exit. I thinkthat those are all critical from an employee
and an overall business standpoint. Yeah, I love that because, uh it's
funny again just going back to Meritin my conversation with her, you know,
she she's said that to me too, is you know, when I'm
looking at investors and everything coming intothe business, she goes, you know,

(01:08:11):
nobody's investing in a business that theydon't have a five year plan exit
strategy. So so it certainly iscritical to the whole thing. You know.
As as we start concluding this,uh, I'm always interested in,
you know, the forces behind someonelike you who has built companies, who
has founded companies and you know alot of times they live by a mantra

(01:08:36):
or something. And for you inour conversation, it has to do with
with FDRs man in the arena.And while it's a very long, uh
statement paragraph story, I know thatyou have it's I was just gonna say
that, So we're not going toread the whole thing, but I would

(01:08:59):
be in did in you sharing onwhat it means to you and maybe if
you could maybe just kind of likeparaphrase a little bit of it for our
audience. Yeah, so what theman in the arena is? Sure,
Yeah, and you know what,while you're working through that cough, which
we all appreciate the you muting it. I know. Brene Brown talks about
it too in her talk about theman in the Arena, And what I

(01:09:23):
love that she shared in her talkabout it is that, you know,
unless you're that person in the arena, that's that's there, that gladiator taking
the hits, taking the punches,taking the bruises, it's like, then
you're a spectator and uh and neitherone is bad or you know that,
but there's a choice between the twoand to have a really great respect for

(01:09:45):
the people who do decide to stepinto the arena. Yeah, sorry,
sorry for that. I'll got alittle coughing episode there. Sure, but
yeah, it really is that beingthe man in the arena to me,
a man or woman in the area, you know, to me means that
you're willing to take the risk.You're really you're willing to take the punches

(01:10:05):
to see something through and to besuccessful. And if you're not willing to
do that, then be a spectator, and that's okay, but if you're
going to be in the arena,go all in. Yeah. Lebron James
is another one who I know hasthat in his locker. Actually he has
the entire probably the same quotation thatyou have behind you there. Just just

(01:10:30):
an amazing quote. I think anybodylike I don't know it off the top
of my head, but certainly golook it up. It's FDR's quote man
in the arena, and and whata wonderful mantra to live by and to
carry forward. And anybody that walksinto your office or obviously zooms with you
can see it right behind you there. I want to thank you so much

(01:10:51):
for joining us today on the podcast. It's it's always incredible to have an
experienced entrepreneur were like yourself, who'sconsistently building and selling and creating and managing
companies and employees and all the rest, and then obviously also being in tune

(01:11:12):
with reality of family life and andlike you said, attending softball games and
enjoying life as a pilot, asa sailor, as so many other things.
So really really cool having you ontoday. Thanks for having me.
This is fun. Yeah, itwas great. Is there any handles social
media handles that people can find youon or that you would like them to
know about. Of course that'll allbe in the show notes. Yep.

(01:11:35):
So the best place to find meis on LinkedIn, So just search Greg
Edwards and Canari which is c AN A U R I And definitely definitely
add the Canari to the Greg Edwardsbecause there's more than one of us out
there. That's the best way tofind and connect with me. Cool.
Cool, Yeah, I certainly suggesteverybody to go check out his LinkedIn page.

(01:11:58):
I was there today, I visitedyou. Thank you well, Thank
you so much for coming on thisshow. Thank you for listening to The
Michael Esposito Show. For show notes, video clips and more episodes, go
to Michael Esposito Inc. Dot combackslash podcast. Thank you again to our
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back on a global scale. Thisepisode was produced by Uncle Mike at the
iHeart Studios. In Poughkeepsie. Specialthanks to Lara Rodrian for the opportunity and

(01:12:44):
my team at Michaelsposito Inc.