February 15, 2025 • 36 mins
Curious about how technology can transform your business into a powerhouse of efficiency and security? Join us for an insightful conversation with Spencer Scherer, the innovative CEO and founder of Newf Technology. Spencer shares his journey from a tech-savvy kid to a leading IT and cybersecurity expert, offering invaluable insights on how to harness technology as a customizable tool for success. His dedication to solving tech frustrations and empowering small businesses shines through as he discusses strategies to make digital operations more secure and efficient.
We'll explore the often-overlooked importance of cybersecurity for small businesses, where even the smallest oversight can make you vulnerable to threats like ransomware. Spencer provides practical advice on preventative measures, such as utilizing password managers and multi-factor authentication, to ensure robust protection. Discover how outsourcing IT needs to managed service providers (MSPs) can offer tailored solutions that enhance security and streamline business processes, turning technology into a valuable asset rather than a constant headache.
This episode also delves into crafting a business-focused IT strategy, where understanding your company's goals is crucial before implementing tech solutions. Spencer discusses how integrating IT with business processes can drive growth and uncover cost-saving opportunities, using real-world examples like a New York City law firm's seamless transition to cloud-based remote work. Learn about the benefits of working with a fractional CTO and creating a technology roadmap to ensure that your systems are scalable and up-to-date, setting your business on a path to success. Tune in to hear Spencer's expert advice and inspiring stories that will motivate you to embrace technology's full potential.
ABOUT SPENCER
Spencer Scherer, CEO and founder of Newf Technology, LLC, a company that provides personalized, hands-on IT solutions to individuals who are looking to simplify and secure their digital lives. With over 10 years of IT operational experience and a passion for helping people feel confident in their technology, Spencer specializes in cybersecurity and customized tech support for clients who often feel overwhelmed by the fast pace of digital advancements. His commitment to building long-term, trusted relationships sets him apart as he empowers clients to take control of their digital operations with ease.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, what is up?
Welcome to this episode of theWantrepreneur to Entrepreneur
podcast.
As always, I'm your host, brianLofermento, and I'll tell you
what, when it comes to ourbusinesses, tech can either make
us or break us.
Hopefully, it is something thatenables you to succeed and not
something that holds you backfrom succeeding.
In fact, before I even came onair here today, today's guest is
(00:21):
in the tech space.
This is obviously a bit of ateaser, and he pointed out to me
Brian, one of your links is notworking.
These are the very importantthings that all of us need to
stay on top of in all of ourbusinesses, and that's why I'm
so excited to introduce you totoday's guest.
His name is Spencer Scherer.
Spencer is the CEO and founderof Nuve Technology, which is a
company that providespersonalized, hands-on IT
(00:42):
solutions to individuals who arelooking to simplify and secure
their digital lives.
Gosh, what a mission thatSpencer is on that all of us
will benefit from.
With over 10 years of IToperational experience and a
passion for helping people feelconfident in their technology,
spencer specializes incybersecurity and customized
tech support for clients whooften feel overwhelmed by the
(01:06):
fast pace of digitaladvancements.
When it comes to that we allknow 2025, this is going to be
the year that things progressfaster than ever before.
His commitment to buildinglong-term, trusted relationships
sets him apart, as he empowersclients to take control of their
digital operations with ease.
If you're hearing this andthinking nothing about tech is
easy to me or maybe you do enjoytech and you just want someone
(01:29):
to look over your shoulder likeSpencer had my back this morning
with one of our broken linksthen that's why I'm excited
about this episode.
I'm not going to say anythingelse.
Let's dive straight into myinterview with Spencer Scher.
All right, spencer, I am sovery excited to have you here
with us today.
First things first welcome tothe show, thank you for having
(01:50):
me, Brian.
Heck.
Yes, I teased in the intro thatyou already personally helped
me, Spencer, which I'm soappreciative about, but you've
got to take us beyond the bio.
Obviously, you love tech.
You love helping others havetech, empower them, not hold
them back.
So take us beyond the bio.
Who's Spencer?
How'd you start doing all thiscool stuff?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Spencer's been tech savvy, tech curious, for years.
I remember getting my firstcomputer and, honestly, breaking
it more times than I reallyshould have.
A couple trips to the Applestore, a couple reinstalls of an
OS and many years of justplaying around and seeing okay,
what can this box with akeyboard in front of it do to
(02:29):
make my life better?
Give me access.
And figuring out as I wentalong on my journey led me to
building custom PCs throughouthigh school for my friends back
when we actually had to lug themto play video games with each
other Completely aging myself,but it's what we did.
And then when you get a poli scidegree and you're working in
(02:51):
smaller nonprofits,non-government organizations or
NGOs and people realize you're a20-smart-year-old tech savvy
person, you become the IT personBrian.
So got a degree in masters ofscience and information systems
and been working for enterpriselevel IT organizations it's
(03:12):
going on about 15 years totalright now and started new
technology to help individualsas kind of a side, but also
small businesses who reallydon't know what they don't know.
You know, know they're great atwhat they do, great at what the
business they started, buttechnology is a lot of scared
for a lot of people.
So we kind of come in and helpthem be secure, compliant
(03:34):
process automation and reallyview technology as a tool in the
toolbox rather than a ball andchain.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, I love that overview, especially because you
hit on so many of the real lifepain points that not only
business owners I feel like thisepisode goes far beyond just
business is that tech in generalcan harness people or hold
people back, or they can enableus to grow.
And one thing that I reallyappreciate about your story,
spencer, is you talk aboutbreaking things, and that's how
you personally learned about theinner workings of computers and
(04:04):
the inner workings of so manydifferent parts of IT.
I want to start there.
I want to start with breakingthings, because a lot of people
get frustrated when they breakthings, whether it's my parents
and something goes wrong ontheir iPhones, or whether it's
any of us in our businesses andsoftware's not working for us,
or our computer's not workingfor us, or we're out of storage
space and we've got to hop onAmazon to find that SSD that we
need to plug in.
All of these things can befrustrations to people.
(04:26):
It seems to me like you takejoy in the things breaking and
finding those solutions.
Talk to me about thatproblem-solving mind that you
have.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah.
So it's definitely partproblem-solving and the other
part, Brian, isn't just fixing,it's the customization about it.
It's what could this dospecifically for me that it's
not out of the box supposed todo?
So really kind of figuring out,okay, how can I optimize this?
And really learning frommistakes.
(04:56):
You click on a button and youget a buyer's, you go okay, I'm
going to be more diligent nexttime.
And really kind of learningfrom mistakes.
When a lot of people my parents,your parents, you know, and I
don't know why it always happens, but every executive I worked
for before a major meeting, ITgoes wrong.
It's Murphy's law to an extremethat I haven't figured out yet
(05:17):
and timing sucks.
We can't control it.
But just what do you do with it?
How do you overcome the uh-oh?
Basically take it from there.
So, whether it's our panel tobe like hey, keep your phone up
to date, you know, maybe let'suse some cloud storage to back
up the family photos andeverything else, or it's the
executive being like hey, youhave a presentation, we have it
(05:38):
saved, it's backed up, let'sworry about the computer
crashing after your meeting.
Just focus on what you need todo and we'll deal with the weeds
afterwards.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, it's funny hearing you say that there's so
many different launch pointsthat I want to go into, spencer.
So we're going to try to go inall the directions in today's
conversation.
But you bring up cloud storage,for example, and it kills me,
anytime I'm interacting with anentrepreneur, if I meet them in
a coffee shop or at a conferenceor even just on the city
streets, and they they say, ohmy gosh, I'm in the middle of a
rebrand.
I'd love to show you the files,but I don't have them on my
(06:08):
phone.
And the truth is for me I mean,I've got everything in Dropbox
and Google Drive.
I've got so many differentplaces that all of these things
are stored.
I find that a lot of businessowners, spencer, they don't even
know what they don't know, andso, for the the topic of cloud
storage, they don't even realizethey could have all their files
in all the places without anyextra work for them.
It can all sink in thebackground.
How do you even begin toapproach a sound IT
(06:31):
infrastructure for people whodon't know what they don't know?
Is it an audit that you do forthem first?
Is it there a checklist thatyou have of how you take
inventory of their tech stack.
I'd love to hear behind thescenes, yeah, so basically
walking in.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
You know every environment is completely
different, even within the sameindustry, but at the end of the
day, it is from a very highlevel.
Can I connect to the outsideworld?
Am I getting emails?
Am I getting my file and am Ikeeping people who shouldn't be
in my network out of it?
So security.
And then from there we do whatI call an IT assessment.
(07:06):
Or, you know, with Januarycoming up and me being a
political science major techstate of the union, what do you
have?
What are you doing and you knowit's not always bad what are
you doing right?
What can you do better?
You know, and then reallysitting down with these
entrepreneurs, these businessleaders, and taking what I found
and really seeing what theywant their company to be and
(07:27):
kind of merging the two.
Okay, you want to be lean andmean and remote and hire the
best people, no matter wherethey are?
Okay, that's cloud storage,that's laptops, that's VPN or,
for some construction companieswith huge files, how do you
access them?
How do you share them?
How do you co-work with citiesand bid on contracts and that.
(07:49):
So really understanding thebusiness needs and their dreams
of where they see a company inthree to five years and really
merging that together to build aroadmap that works for them and
what they need.
Not everyone needs everything,but everyone needs something.
A roadmap that works for themand what they need.
Not everyone needs everything,but everyone needs something.
But also touching on all theseindustries makes me kind of a
perfect cocktail party, brian.
(08:10):
I could talk about basicallyany industry for about five to
10 minutes.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, I love that, Spencer.
I do think that's one of theunique positions that people in
your place have is you've seenbehind the scenes of large
companies, small companies, andyou just teased us with quite a
few different industries.
Which leads me to this question, because I find that a lot of
times, when it comes to smallbusinesses, for example, they
look at Fortune 500 companiesand they think, well, of course
they have IT departments becausethey have all these employees
(08:36):
and they need somebody who'sgoing to look out for all these
things.
Spencer, you've worked withcompanies, both big and small.
What are some of those smallbusiness needs that people
probably don't realize?
I guess it's twofold.
One, I actually do have thoseneeds as a small business owner
and two, it actually isattainable.
Maybe I don't have a full on ITdepartment like huge businesses
have, but I can reach out topeople like Spencer to get their
(08:58):
help and have their eyes on myside when it comes to my
business.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah, without getting too much on the soapbox.
I think a lot of small businessowners see, you know the 500s,
these huge companies witheverything being done in-house,
and they try to go after thatwhen in reality having a managed
service provider so outsourceIT is an easier and obtainable
solution.
You don't need a CTO, a helpdesk, a sysadmin, in-house
(09:26):
developers when a company likemine or other MSPs kind of round
you out.
But what a lot of smallbusiness owners don't seem to
think about and it's a very hardstory to tell unless people
have been in it and even thenthey're not worried about it
again is cybersecurity.
Just because you are the smallmom-and-pop restaurant or the
(09:46):
smaller hotel chain or somethingregional doesn't mean you're
not on a threat actor's radarfor ransomware and anything else
that they may do.
Radar for ransomware andanything else that they may do.
You know, for a personalantidote I've had a national
construction company get hitwith ransomware and then I
hopped on and joined them andkind of saw this back end of
(10:07):
what happens after the fact.
And then I had a familymember's small hotel get hit
with it and it's the same thingand it's the same problem, it's
the same solution, but reallyhaving that perimeter defense,
no matter your size, isinvaluable.
As people say, an ounce ofprevention is better than a
pound of cure.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah, I want you to go deeper there, because you
call it the soapbox, spencer.
That's the whole purpose ofthis show is we want to be on a
soapbox and get ahead ofpeople's problems and help them
grow their businesses.
And so that point that you madeat the end there about
prevention so many people, yeah,we know what cybersecurity is
and we know that we need it, butmost people don't take action
on it, of course, untilsomething bad has happened.
(10:50):
Talk to us about thosepreventative measures, because a
lot of people one probablydon't realize what they can do.
And two and this is, I guessI'm tapping a little bit into
your salesman brain as well,because you are the owner of
your business and you have theseconversations all the time with
clients and potential clientsis how do we justify the cost of
that?
How do we justify us puttingtime, resources, money, efforts
(11:11):
into preventative measures thathopefully stop something that
may or may not happen in thefuture, measures that hopefully
stop something that may or maynot happen in the future.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So to I'll kind of go backwards first to kind of sell
it it's.
I use the insurance analogy.
We have healthcare, we have acar insurance, otherwise we
can't drive, and we havehomeowners or renters to live
where we do.
Hopefully we never get sick,hopefully we never get into a
car accident and hopefully wepay our annual premium for
insurance and then after that wedon't even think about it.
(11:42):
So you know, again, to use thephrase, an ounce of surgery is
the example and I think everyonecan relate to it and that's
something that, in my position,I'm pretty well versed.
That is, taking these IT ideasand putting them into everyday
(12:07):
layman's terms and otherscenarios that people are
familiar with.
So security, it's insurance,and for that it may also be
getting cybersecurity insurance.
I've been with firms whocouldn't get that protection,
which means they're going tolose clients because clients
require it and vendors need itand everything is kind of tied
together now because of theinterconnection of businesses
(12:30):
and really saying like you'renot getting this, that means
this client isn't renewing andthey're your big ones.
So just kind of really showingthe trickle effect of the cost
of doing nothing.
And then you know, start offeasy, start off small, use a
password manager, something likeOnePass, which I use personally
and I put my entire family ontoit, with shared vaults and
(12:51):
being able to manage passwordsand not think about it.
Two-factor or multi-factorauthentication, getting those
authenticator codes.
The example everyone is used tois your debit card.
I could take your debit card toan ATM, but if I don't know
your PIN, I'm not taking anymoney out of your account.
So using things like that tokind of initially secure the
(13:12):
perimeter.
I was talking with a founder ofa longboard company and he's
like this is the type of personI am, spencer, I don't lock my
car, I don't lock my house, butI understand I need to secure my
business.
I'm like, okay, what car can Isteal from you?
And it wasn't anything worthstealing, but it was there and
just kind of going from thereand really building out what
(13:33):
they need in government andbusiness organizations.
So ABA for law, hipaa formedical, pci for payments are
really driving a standard thatpeople need to meet.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, spencer, when you talk about those things, I
mean you're introducing passwordmanagers, for example, which
that I would also argue I'mgoing to interject really quick
is.
It's also quality of lifeimprovement.
Holy cow.
It makes life so much easierwhen something else is
remembering all of yourpasswords and they're all
completely random and completelydifferent.
It has radically revolutionizedthe way that I have my accounts
(14:07):
across the entire internet.
Just like you, spencer I'm surethat you're this in your family
is I forced my parents, Iforced everybody I know to get
on it, because we shouldn't bestoring these passwords in our
heads or, even worse, writingthem down.
So I love the fact that youintroduced that, but I think it
also shows how many differentpoints of exposure that we have
that we may not realize.
You've talked about bothsoftware and hardware already
(14:29):
here in today's conversation.
Talk to us about your focus onboth of those, not just in the
realm of cybersecurity.
But it sounds to me like youlook at a business's hardware
and you say, hey, here's thelaptops that you need.
I would imagine you and Ihaven't talked about this off
the air, but I would imagine forcertain companies you walk in
and you say, oh, you do heavyvideo editing.
This is the ideal setup for you.
(14:49):
You need this much RAM, youneed this much of a hard drive,
and so a lot of people don'tunderstand those options when
they walk into a Best Buy or goto Applecom.
Talk to us about how much youfocus on both that hardware and
software side of the world.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yes, I think hardware , especially for businesses, is
the base.
You know to use video editing,to use heavy finance for Excel
or engineers using CAD those areresource intensive tools or
engineers using CAD those areresource intensive tools.
So somebody could come in andsay this is the best software
for what you need or for finance.
Here's the Bloomberg terminalor here is the video editing for
(15:27):
Adobe and the files you'redoing and making for YouTube.
But if your computer can'thandle it, it doesn't matter
what you put in front of it.
And for businesses specifically, people are a bit harder on
their business devices.
They're being used 40 plushours a week, almost 365 days a
(15:47):
year.
You know weekends and vacationsexcluding.
So we're looking about 50 weeksa year.
They should last three to fouryears.
And if you have a good financialdepartment that understands you
know the depreciation and thecapital expenses, let them
handle it or find an accountantto do it for you.
But if you're using it forbusiness, you know three to four
(16:08):
.
I've seen companies push it tofive and kind of do a trickle
down of okay, the power usersget it every three and this
becomes a conference roomcomputer just to share slides.
So really having what you needthat's appropriate is paramount.
I had a client who is aninvestment banker who used to go
into Staples every school yearand be like, oh, I'm going to
(16:30):
buy a thousand dollar computerand it's equivalent of leasing
it for $300 a year.
And I finally got them out oftheir finance brain after the
second call of a blue screen forWindows and I'm like spend the
money, get something that'sgonna last and it's gonna work.
Just put the money up frontbecause you won't have a
headache two months in.
(16:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Spencer, I love that attitude.
I've always loved that quote ofbuy once, cry once, because it
is a difficult lesson to learn,but, gosh, it pays off.
I mean huge kudos.
I'm a big fan of Apple fulldisclaimer.
You talk about the blue screenof death.
Not seen a blue screen since Iwas in college, thank goodness.
And so my Apple products have asense of working for almost a
decade.
If you buy the latest andgreatest which, yeah, it's more
(17:14):
upfront cost, but, to your point, it saves you money over time.
So, listeners, I hope thatSpencer is pushing you to start
investing in this stuff, becauseit's going to set you up for
success.
Spencer, I want to put you onthe spot here.
You didn't know that I would dothis in today's episode, but
you bring up the State of theUnion.
Here we are in 2025.
A lot of people are going tosee tech moving at the fastest
pace we've ever seen before.
(17:35):
What is the state of the ITunion here today?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
and in a new year.
Okay, when you brought up stateof the union and that, I was
glad you pivoted back to IT andother things.
But honestly, you know there'sbeen stuff of technology rapidly
advancing for years Chipsgetting doubly as fast in every
18 months it's called Moore'sLaw, and with AI and software,
that is every six months and Ithink for businesses, a lot of
(18:01):
companies don't like gettingcaught up in the buzzwords or
for technology that bleedingedge, but it's here it works, it
does it and I thinkunderstanding where you can
leverage the latest and greatest, like AI and let's just use
something kind of low level.
Grammarly has an AI for editingand copywriting and
(18:23):
proofreading.
Use it, try it out personally.
Try it out professionally.
You know chat, gpt, gemini forGoogle.
You know Meta has their own aswell for Facebook with Lama and
different other ones.
Try it out, see what it works.
Try it out personally, be achampion of it professionally,
because the people whounderstand it and can use it and
get the technology are going tobe the light years ahead as it
(18:46):
continues to take off and justbe there and be ingrained in
apps and features and softwareand in business processes.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, you brought it up, Spencer, so I'm going to go
there with you.
What is the impact of AI goingto be within the world of IT?
I hope I've seen some behindthe scenes features of ChatGPT
that they're beginning to rollout, where you can screen share
with it and if you're inPhotoshop, you can say, hey, I
don't know how to blend thesetwo layers together and it can
see your screen.
So it says, oh, see this buttonin the lower left, click that.
(19:16):
And then when you click it, itcan see everything that you're
doing.
It's looking over your shoulder.
That's one cool example thatI'm excited to roll out with my
parents.
I keep throwing them under thebus in today's episode, but it's
because this is tech support ata whole new level.
What's your view on thedirection of AI, how it can
assist us?
And I'm going to interject thisbecause I want to give you one
super loaded question, and thatis is it going to complicate
(19:37):
things for business owners?
Because I've already seen andtalking to our listeners and our
guests and all theentrepreneurs and entrepreneurs
that I just know as part ofdaily life is that it almost
feels like paralysis by analysis.
We have so many resources andthings at our fingertips right
now that people don't know whento turn to these, how to use
them, how to have it talk totheir other systems.
(19:57):
What the heck are you doing tomake sense of all this stuff for
people when it comes to AI?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I think, first and foremost it's understanding what
you want and where you wantyour company to be, before you
even consider the technology.
I'll use a former client ofmine, client of mine.
They were a New York City lawfirm and the COO wanted to go
cloud-based remote work ifpossible.
(20:23):
So you kind of have tounderstand where you want your
business to be, what tools youhave, how you can train the
models, use the models, automatestuff, like you said with the
screen sharing.
I do something similar for myown stuff.
If I'm not an expert in it,explain this to me, or if I you
know, just use it forquestioning and bouncing as a
sounding board.
I think the analysis byparalysis is way too true for
(20:47):
technology and also people beingscared by change because and it
is a proven phenomenon withtechnology you are slower in the
beginning, but then you'll beexponentially quicker on the
newer technology than you wereon the old one, no matter how
long you've been using it.
So, like I said, rip off thebandaid and try it, figure it
(21:07):
out, see what you want, see howthis can be a process automation
.
You know, if you're trying toget data out of spreadsheets
feed, chat, gpt one, you know,maybe anonymize the data, maybe.
Just, you know, make it up butsay what trends are you seeing
and maybe really use it forprocess automation, business
intelligence, really analyzingand getting that deeper data.
(21:30):
My dad used to tell me in highschool and college that if he
couldn't get a book, he couldn'twrite the report.
And we have the internet, sothere isn't an excuse not to
have that information and Ithink, with AI and everything
that ChatGPT and everyone elseis rolling out with image
creation, how to theunderstanding, the times and the
specific ones for specificbusinesses, it's going to be a
(21:54):
game changer for people who knowhow to use it and how to talk
to it correctly.
And the best piece of advice Ican give people is, when you're
done talking to an AI, ask howcould I have gotten that result
quicker?
Because it will tell you oh,this is the question, this is
really what you wanted, or thisis how we could have done it,
and it does it for everything.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Boom, spencer, I have never heard that advice.
When it comes to asking AI, thatvery question, I feel like one
way that I've upped my AI gamerecently is by asking it what
would be the correct way for meto ask an AI this question, and
it phrases it so much betterthan I could have.
But even looking at it inretrospect, that tip that you
just dropped on us is hugebecause, again, it's going to
(22:37):
pay off over time, the betterand better that we get at using
it.
But I'm going to go even beyondthat, spencer, because I think
you're showcasing for us in realtime here today what makes your
approach to IT very special isthat when I asked you a question
about technology, you wentstraight to what are your
business goals and it just seemsto me like doing the research
ahead of today's episode is youlove IT, but you love it for
(22:58):
what it does for businesses.
You understand operations, youunderstand growth.
You understand the things thatmatter to real life businesses,
not just from a tech perspective.
Talk to me about that approach,because a lot of people
probably think, yeah, if someonecomes into my business from an
IT perspective, all they'regoing to care about is my IT, is
(23:22):
my technical infrastructure.
Talk to me about that balancedbusiness approach, because I
don't think most people realizethat when someone like you walks
in, it's not to make your techbetter, it is to make your
business better.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yes, I would definitely say there is a tech
side.
Any IT professional will lookat Security, hardware, software,
keeping up to date on things.
So yes, there is always a lensand those are easy things for
any IT professional to do and tounderstand.
But to really go into thatbusiness process, that's like
that next layer of ITprofessional that really
(23:53):
understands how are thingsinterconnected, how are business
processes working.
You know it's not just silentdepartments.
A sales team brings somethingin, it goes to finance, finance
approves it or whoever needs toapprove it.
It then goes to customeronboarding and then it goes to
support and then it goes back tosales to renew.
So to really understand theflows within a business and what
(24:14):
they're doing and how they doit and how they serve their own
clients.
Because at the end of the day,it doesn't really matter what
industry you're in.
It's customer service, tech,legal, financial, professional
services, whatever it may be.
You're serving a customer,whether that's internal or
external, and knowing howeveryone plays nice in the
sandbox Allows you to kind ofoversee and think, ok, this is
(24:38):
what we can do.
Or, you know, for businesssavings.
Do you know you're paying forfour different Adobe licenses
because your departments don'ttalk to one another and finance
just approves it.
So really kind of understandingand knowing.
That is the next level on topof.
Is your hardware up to date?
Is your software up to date?
Are you managing your Internet?
(24:58):
Who is doing X, y and Z interms of policy and compliance?
But then you get into the weedsand you can really showcase
tech as a value add and as aprofit center rather than a cost
center.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yeah, that last point is so important for all of us
businesses.
It goes right back to what Iteased at the very top of
today's episode, that IT shouldenable your growth path forward.
And, spencer, you talk aboutcustomer service.
I want to go there with youbecause a lot of people probably
don't realize what it's like towork with a managed IT service
or have a fractional CTO inplace in their business and
(25:32):
they're thinking how could,spencer, walk into my business
and make sense of the 50different things that I've never
organized and I have no SOPs inplace?
And when it comes to customersupport, I mean, I see on your
website 24-7 proactivemonitoring and if things go
wrong, like an email server,that's the one thing I hear
people bang their heads againstthe wall all the time is my
email's not working.
How do I fix it?
(25:53):
Talk to us about what it lookslike to work with a managed IT
service provider like you.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Yeah.
So firstly, it's understandingand getting that relationship
built of what are theexpectations for the business
and really knowing, okay, are wejust overhauling IT, are we
doing business processes or, youknow, do they have boots on the
ground of you know a help desk,maybe a sysadmin or whatever
they need, and really kind ofknowing that relationship and
building upon it for thebetterment of the client.
And then using the tools thatan MSP has at their disposal, of
(26:29):
partnerships with the bestsoftware, getting that value
added, pricing, knowing who togo out for for this software,
that process or that thing.
We've seen it before when mostbusiness owners don't need to
worry about migrating an emailserver and maybe will do it once
in their life if they're thatold that actually had on-prem
email.
We've seen it.
We've done it multiple times.
(26:49):
We're not inventing the wheel.
I'm a firm believer thateveryone does what they do and
you should use them for whatthey do it.
I'm not moving anymore, brian.
I'm too old, I can't pay myfriends in pizza and beer, so I
hire movers now because that'swhat they do.
They can look at my furnitureand go.
The bed goes in this way, goesout.
The truck Boom.
They don't scratch up my wallsthe way I would have done and
(27:10):
they're not yelling pivot likeRoss and friends for 24 hours.
So, finding the best for whatyou need and understanding and
having that relationship andthen having the MSP really know
what you want from it and havingthat conversation of saying,
okay, yes, this is what we needto do, this is what I want.
I'm being open for thoseconversations because it's a
(27:33):
fresh set of eyes.
If somebody who isn't in thebusiness they're going to be
like, why are we printing toscan?
And I've seen that inbusinesses they printed invoice
only to scan it back in or whyaren't we using things with
DocuSign or Adobe Sign or cloudstorage or file sharing
externally?
And I think no industry willever be paperless or not have a
(27:55):
confusing process.
But trying to understand andask those questions and think
about how technology canautomate, clean up and improve
the daily functions and you kindof stole.
One of my other favorite quotesis buy once, cry once.
It's a lot easier to set thingsup correctly, even if you're a
small company and you're inevery group as the CEO or
(28:16):
founder, rather than setting itup incorrectly and then being a
100-person company and trying toput up walls and departments
and sharing, because Solomon'sknot is already there.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, spencer, you just introduced a term that
makes me facepalm so hard.
I've never heard of print toscan and it terrifies me that
probably more people than Iwould ever imagine are doing
exactly that.
So it's such a great showcaseof why we can't read the label
from inside the jar.
Sometimes the things that we'redoing make no sense, but we
can't even see it because we'reso close to the work that we do
(28:51):
and it takes someone like you towalk in and say, hey, hold on,
guys, there's a much better wayto do this so that our
businesses can flourish.
So I feel like we've talked alot today about the why, the
what, the how, but I want totalk about the when, because a
lot of people probably continueto kick the can down the road,
and you've talked about theimportance of preventative
measures.
But even beyond that, even justthe strategy, the infrastructure
(29:11):
, the foundation that we have inour businesses, a lot of people
are probably thinking, well,what's the pain point, what's
that trigger point for me toreach out to someone like
Spencer and say, hey, let's lookat my business, let's start to
figure out where the opportunityareas are?
Is there something that is agreat time for people to turn to
you.
Is it when they have a new hire?
Is it when they reach a certainpoint in their business growth?
(29:32):
When the heck should we starttaking this stuff seriously?
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Without just getting everyone to email me.
And I would say now, brian, isthe honest answer, because you
know you wait too long and youstart letting things just work.
And you know, I'll use anexample of a former company I
worked for.
They were 15 years behind onsoftware updates.
They were running oldinfrastructure.
(29:57):
They were actually paying15,000 a year for bare minimum
Microsoft updates for some oftheir software.
Setting it up now, even if it'snot the end-all and be-all
solution, just having somebodysay, okay, I am a new business,
how do we set this up?
Or what do I need at day oneand what do I need at day 100?
(30:19):
And building that roadmap tonot only grow with the company
but make sure the technologykeeps up as well.
You've seen it, I'm sure, on alot of business cards and trade
vans et cetera.
Companyname at gmailcom andtrade vans et cetera, company
name at gmailcom, at hotmailcom,and it's a very easy lift to
(30:40):
kind of have that professionalemail.
Or setting up file sharing andthe walls and the groups early.
Like I said, if you're a 10person company, you may be in
every group because you're theCEO, you're the CFO, you're the
CTO, you're the sales guy, buteventually, god willing, you're
going to hire a CFO, so youwon't be doing the financials,
you won't be doing the tax, youwon't be making those cold calls
(31:00):
, but guess what?
The groups will be there, thefolders will be there, the
structure will be there thatwill allow you to grow.
It's far too often I get calledin and it's a fire drill.
Things aren't working, and itcould have been preventative,
just because of keeping up andunderstanding what you need to
do and when you need to do it.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Yes, well said.
It alludes to one of myfavorite Chinese proverbs ever.
Which is the best time to planta tree was 20 years ago.
The second best time is rightnow.
Sure, whether we know that wehave needs or not today, 12
months from now, we're going tobe so glad that we ironed things
out and straightened things outand built a strong foundation
to grow from today, so we cantake that action today in order
(31:42):
to be ready for tomorrow.
Spencer, I so appreciate thoseinsights.
I love asking this question atthe end of every episode because
it's super broad and also itnot only opens up to your
expertise with we talked abouthere today, it, but also the
fact that you're one of us.
You are a fellow entrepreneur,and so, with that in mind,
what's your one best piece ofadvice?
(32:02):
You dropped so many nuggets ofknowledge.
You called out the fact that nobusiness owner should ever have
at gmailcom as their businessemail address.
I love that you pointed thatout.
So, with your entrepreneurialhat on, what's that one best
piece of advice that you want toleave our listeners with,
regardless of where they are intheir business journey?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
I think you know, being an entrepreneur and a tech
person, the piece of advicethat I kind of go with and I'm
finding really helpful on thisjourney of growing a business
and being there is that ifyou're the smartest person in
the room, find another room.
There's people who've done itbetter, done it differently, and
(32:42):
really just being open toadvice and input and feedback
and really just saying, okay, Itook the hardest jump of a
professional journey.
I actually said I have abusiness idea and I started it.
Now, find the people that canreally help you and nurture you
and grow with you whether it'san advisor or a former person
you used to work with andbecoming that mentor.
(33:02):
But really leverage who you canto help you out, because odds
are someone's done it before andyou can learn from the mistakes
and save yourself time, moneyand a headache.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Boom.
Very well said and veryvaluable advice for all of our
listeners.
I'm so appreciative of that.
Spencer, I know that people aregoing to be keen to check out
your website.
You lay things out sobeautifully.
I'm also going to plug this forlisteners.
Benefit is that you're supertransparent and open with your
packages, your prices, all thedifferent types of solutions
that you offer.
(33:34):
So, spencer, I really admirenot only the knowledge that you
have and the expertise that youhave on offer for your clients,
but also the way that you dobusiness.
So, with that in mind, dropthose links on us.
Where should listeners go fromhere?
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Yeah, so the website is new.
So, as in Nancy EWFtech figured, it's quick and easy.
Or you can find me on linkedinat spencer eshare s-c-h-e-r-e-r,
or just email me directly asshare at newftech.
Reach out, I'm here.
Questions, comments, whateverit may be, even if it's
(34:07):
something silly, as hey, I juststarted, I need a new business
laptop because my work's beenproviding one for 30 years.
Let's start there, let's do itand you know we'll take it and
we'll grow with each other andhelp each other out to be the
best we can be.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yes, I love that attitude and that mindset.
Listeners, you see how openSpencer is just about helping
you move forward in yourbusiness.
This is someone who gets it notjust from an IT perspective but
from a business perspective,and I think that's so important
to have a partner like him inyour corner to set you up for
success this year and far beyond.
So you already know the drill.
We're making it as easy aspossible for you to find all of
(34:42):
Spencer's links down below inthe show notes, no matter where
it is that you're tuning intotoday's episode.
So definitely click right onthrough.
You'll find his businesswebsite, nooftech.
You can click right on through.
You don't need to remember itor the spelling or any of that
stuff.
Just click right on throughfrom the show notes.
We're also linking to hispersonal LinkedIn, so don't be
shy in reaching out to him.
Otherwise, spencer, on behalfof myself and all the listeners
(35:02):
worldwide, thanks so much forcoming on the show today.
Thank you for having me Brian.
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanksfor tuning in to yet another
episode of the Wantrepreneur toEntrepreneur podcast.
If you haven't checked us outonline, there's so much good
stuff there.
Check out the show's websiteand all the show notes that we
talked about in today's episodeat thewantrepreneurshowcom, and
(35:23):
I just want to give a shout outto our amazing guests.
There's a reason why we aread-free and have produced so
many incredible episodes fivedays a week for you, and it's
because our guests step up tothe plate.
These are not sponsored episodes.
These are not infomercials.
Our guests help us cover thecosts of our productions.
They so deeply believe in thepower of getting their message
(35:45):
out in front of you, awesomeentrepreneurs and entrepreneurs,
that they contribute to help usmake these productions possible
.
So thank you to not onlytoday's guests, but all of our
guests in general, and I justwant to invite you check out our
website because you can send usa voicemail there.
We also have live chat.
If you want to interactdirectly with me, go to
thewantrepreneurshowcom.
(36:06):
Initiate a live chat.
It's for real me, and I'mexcited because I'll see you, as
always every Monday, wednesday,friday.
Hey, what is up?
Welcome to this episode of theWantrepreneur to Entrepreneur
podcast.
As always, I'm your host, brianLofermento, and I'll tell you
what, when it comes to ourbusinesses, tech can either make
us or break us.
Hopefully, it is something thatenables you to succeed and not
something that holds you backfrom succeeding.
In fact, before I even came onair here today, today's guest is
(00:21):
in the tech space.
This is obviously a bit of ateaser, and he pointed out to me
Brian, one of your links is notworking.
These are the very importantthings that all of us need to
stay on top of in all of ourbusinesses, and that's why I'm
so excited to introduce you totoday's guest.
His name is Spencer Scherer.
Spencer is the CEO and founderof Nuve Technology, which is a
company that providespersonalized, hands-on IT
(00:42):
solutions to individuals who arelooking to simplify and secure
their digital lives.
Gosh, what a mission thatSpencer is on that all of us
will benefit from.
With over 10 years of IToperational experience and a
passion for helping people feelconfident in their technology,
spencer specializes incybersecurity and customized
tech support for clients whooften feel overwhelmed by the
(01:06):
fast pace of digitaladvancements.
When it comes to that we allknow 2025, this is going to be
the year that things progressfaster than ever before.
His commitment to buildinglong-term, trusted relationships
sets him apart, as he empowersclients to take control of their
digital operations with ease.
If you're hearing this andthinking nothing about tech is
easy to me or maybe you do enjoytech and you just want someone
(01:29):
to look over your shoulder likeSpencer had my back this morning
with one of our broken linksthen that's why I'm excited
about this episode.
I'm not going to say anythingelse.
Let's dive straight into myinterview with Spencer Scher.
All right, spencer, I am sovery excited to have you here
with us today.
First things first welcome tothe show, thank you for having
(01:50):
me, Brian.
Heck.
Yes, I teased in the intro thatyou already personally helped
me, Spencer, which I'm soappreciative about, but you've
got to take us beyond the bio.
Obviously, you love tech.
You love helping others havetech, empower them, not hold
them back.
So take us beyond the bio.
Who's Spencer?
How'd you start doing all thiscool stuff?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Spencer's been tech savvy, tech curious, for years.
I remember getting my firstcomputer and, honestly, breaking
it more times than I reallyshould have.
A couple trips to the Applestore, a couple reinstalls of an
OS and many years of justplaying around and seeing okay,
what can this box with akeyboard in front of it do to
(02:29):
make my life better?
Give me access.
And figuring out as I wentalong on my journey led me to
building custom PCs throughouthigh school for my friends back
when we actually had to lug themto play video games with each
other Completely aging myself,but it's what we did.
And then when you get a poli scidegree and you're working in
(02:51):
smaller nonprofits,non-government organizations or
NGOs and people realize you're a20-smart-year-old tech savvy
person, you become the IT personBrian.
So got a degree in masters ofscience and information systems
and been working for enterpriselevel IT organizations it's
(03:12):
going on about 15 years totalright now and started new
technology to help individualsas kind of a side, but also
small businesses who reallydon't know what they don't know.
You know, know they're great atwhat they do, great at what the
business they started, buttechnology is a lot of scared
for a lot of people.
So we kind of come in and helpthem be secure, compliant
(03:34):
process automation and reallyview technology as a tool in the
toolbox rather than a ball andchain.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, I love that overview, especially because you
hit on so many of the real lifepain points that not only
business owners I feel like thisepisode goes far beyond just
business is that tech in generalcan harness people or hold
people back, or they can enableus to grow.
And one thing that I reallyappreciate about your story,
spencer, is you talk aboutbreaking things, and that's how
you personally learned about theinner workings of computers and
(04:04):
the inner workings of so manydifferent parts of IT.
I want to start there.
I want to start with breakingthings, because a lot of people
get frustrated when they breakthings, whether it's my parents
and something goes wrong ontheir iPhones, or whether it's
any of us in our businesses andsoftware's not working for us,
or our computer's not workingfor us, or we're out of storage
space and we've got to hop onAmazon to find that SSD that we
need to plug in.
All of these things can befrustrations to people.
(04:26):
It seems to me like you takejoy in the things breaking and
finding those solutions.
Talk to me about thatproblem-solving mind that you
have.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah.
So it's definitely partproblem-solving and the other
part, Brian, isn't just fixing,it's the customization about it.
It's what could this dospecifically for me that it's
not out of the box supposed todo?
So really kind of figuring out,okay, how can I optimize this?
And really learning frommistakes.
(04:56):
You click on a button and youget a buyer's, you go okay, I'm
going to be more diligent nexttime.
And really kind of learningfrom mistakes.
When a lot of people my parents,your parents, you know, and I
don't know why it always happens, but every executive I worked
for before a major meeting, ITgoes wrong.
It's Murphy's law to an extremethat I haven't figured out yet
(05:17):
and timing sucks.
We can't control it.
But just what do you do with it?
How do you overcome the uh-oh?
Basically take it from there.
So, whether it's our panel tobe like hey, keep your phone up
to date, you know, maybe let'suse some cloud storage to back
up the family photos andeverything else, or it's the
executive being like hey, youhave a presentation, we have it
(05:38):
saved, it's backed up, let'sworry about the computer
crashing after your meeting.
Just focus on what you need todo and we'll deal with the weeds
afterwards.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, it's funny hearing you say that there's so
many different launch pointsthat I want to go into, spencer.
So we're going to try to go inall the directions in today's
conversation.
But you bring up cloud storage,for example, and it kills me,
anytime I'm interacting with anentrepreneur, if I meet them in
a coffee shop or at a conferenceor even just on the city
streets, and they they say, ohmy gosh, I'm in the middle of a
rebrand.
I'd love to show you the files,but I don't have them on my
(06:08):
phone.
And the truth is for me I mean,I've got everything in Dropbox
and Google Drive.
I've got so many differentplaces that all of these things
are stored.
I find that a lot of businessowners, spencer, they don't even
know what they don't know, andso, for the the topic of cloud
storage, they don't even realizethey could have all their files
in all the places without anyextra work for them.
It can all sink in thebackground.
How do you even begin toapproach a sound IT
(06:31):
infrastructure for people whodon't know what they don't know?
Is it an audit that you do forthem first?
Is it there a checklist thatyou have of how you take
inventory of their tech stack.
I'd love to hear behind thescenes, yeah, so basically
walking in.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
You know every environment is completely
different, even within the sameindustry, but at the end of the
day, it is from a very highlevel.
Can I connect to the outsideworld?
Am I getting emails?
Am I getting my file and am Ikeeping people who shouldn't be
in my network out of it?
So security.
And then from there we do whatI call an IT assessment.
(07:06):
Or, you know, with Januarycoming up and me being a
political science major techstate of the union, what do you
have?
What are you doing and you knowit's not always bad what are
you doing right?
What can you do better?
You know, and then reallysitting down with these
entrepreneurs, these businessleaders, and taking what I found
and really seeing what theywant their company to be and
(07:27):
kind of merging the two.
Okay, you want to be lean andmean and remote and hire the
best people, no matter wherethey are?
Okay, that's cloud storage,that's laptops, that's VPN or,
for some construction companieswith huge files, how do you
access them?
How do you share them?
How do you co-work with citiesand bid on contracts and that.
(07:49):
So really understanding thebusiness needs and their dreams
of where they see a company inthree to five years and really
merging that together to build aroadmap that works for them and
what they need.
Not everyone needs everything,but everyone needs something.
A roadmap that works for themand what they need.
Not everyone needs everything,but everyone needs something.
But also touching on all theseindustries makes me kind of a
perfect cocktail party, brian.
(08:10):
I could talk about basicallyany industry for about five to
10 minutes.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, I love that, Spencer.
I do think that's one of theunique positions that people in
your place have is you've seenbehind the scenes of large
companies, small companies, andyou just teased us with quite a
few different industries.
Which leads me to this question, because I find that a lot of
times, when it comes to smallbusinesses, for example, they
look at Fortune 500 companiesand they think, well, of course
they have IT departments becausethey have all these employees
(08:36):
and they need somebody who'sgoing to look out for all these
things.
Spencer, you've worked withcompanies, both big and small.
What are some of those smallbusiness needs that people
probably don't realize?
I guess it's twofold.
One, I actually do have thoseneeds as a small business owner
and two, it actually isattainable.
Maybe I don't have a full on ITdepartment like huge businesses
have, but I can reach out topeople like Spencer to get their
(08:58):
help and have their eyes on myside when it comes to my
business.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah, without getting too much on the soapbox.
I think a lot of small businessowners see, you know the 500s,
these huge companies witheverything being done in-house,
and they try to go after thatwhen in reality having a managed
service provider so outsourceIT is an easier and obtainable
solution.
You don't need a CTO, a helpdesk, a sysadmin, in-house
(09:26):
developers when a company likemine or other MSPs kind of round
you out.
But what a lot of smallbusiness owners don't seem to
think about and it's a very hardstory to tell unless people
have been in it and even thenthey're not worried about it
again is cybersecurity.
Just because you are the smallmom-and-pop restaurant or the
(09:46):
smaller hotel chain or somethingregional doesn't mean you're
not on a threat actor's radarfor ransomware and anything else
that they may do.
Radar for ransomware andanything else that they may do.
You know, for a personalantidote I've had a national
construction company get hitwith ransomware and then I
hopped on and joined them andkind of saw this back end of
(10:07):
what happens after the fact.
And then I had a familymember's small hotel get hit
with it and it's the same thingand it's the same problem, it's
the same solution, but reallyhaving that perimeter defense,
no matter your size, isinvaluable.
As people say, an ounce ofprevention is better than a
pound of cure.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah, I want you to go deeper there, because you
call it the soapbox, spencer.
That's the whole purpose ofthis show is we want to be on a
soapbox and get ahead ofpeople's problems and help them
grow their businesses.
And so that point that you madeat the end there about
prevention so many people, yeah,we know what cybersecurity is
and we know that we need it, butmost people don't take action
on it, of course, untilsomething bad has happened.
(10:50):
Talk to us about thosepreventative measures, because a
lot of people one probablydon't realize what they can do.
And two and this is, I guessI'm tapping a little bit into
your salesman brain as well,because you are the owner of
your business and you have theseconversations all the time with
clients and potential clientsis how do we justify the cost of
that?
How do we justify us puttingtime, resources, money, efforts
(11:11):
into preventative measures thathopefully stop something that
may or may not happen in thefuture, measures that hopefully
stop something that may or maynot happen in the future.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So to I'll kind of go backwards first to kind of sell
it it's.
I use the insurance analogy.
We have healthcare, we have acar insurance, otherwise we
can't drive, and we havehomeowners or renters to live
where we do.
Hopefully we never get sick,hopefully we never get into a
car accident and hopefully wepay our annual premium for
insurance and then after that wedon't even think about it.
(11:42):
So you know, again, to use thephrase, an ounce of surgery is
the example and I think everyonecan relate to it and that's
something that, in my position,I'm pretty well versed.
That is, taking these IT ideasand putting them into everyday
(12:07):
layman's terms and otherscenarios that people are
familiar with.
So security, it's insurance,and for that it may also be
getting cybersecurity insurance.
I've been with firms whocouldn't get that protection,
which means they're going tolose clients because clients
require it and vendors need itand everything is kind of tied
together now because of theinterconnection of businesses
(12:30):
and really saying like you'renot getting this, that means
this client isn't renewing andthey're your big ones.
So just kind of really showingthe trickle effect of the cost
of doing nothing.
And then you know, start offeasy, start off small, use a
password manager, something likeOnePass, which I use personally
and I put my entire family ontoit, with shared vaults and
(12:51):
being able to manage passwordsand not think about it.
Two-factor or multi-factorauthentication, getting those
authenticator codes.
The example everyone is used tois your debit card.
I could take your debit card toan ATM, but if I don't know
your PIN, I'm not taking anymoney out of your account.
So using things like that tokind of initially secure the
(13:12):
perimeter.
I was talking with a founder ofa longboard company and he's
like this is the type of personI am, spencer, I don't lock my
car, I don't lock my house, butI understand I need to secure my
business.
I'm like, okay, what car can Isteal from you?
And it wasn't anything worthstealing, but it was there and
just kind of going from thereand really building out what
(13:33):
they need in government andbusiness organizations.
So ABA for law, hipaa formedical, pci for payments are
really driving a standard thatpeople need to meet.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, spencer, when you talk about those things, I
mean you're introducing passwordmanagers, for example, which
that I would also argue I'mgoing to interject really quick
is.
It's also quality of lifeimprovement.
Holy cow.
It makes life so much easierwhen something else is
remembering all of yourpasswords and they're all
completely random and completelydifferent.
It has radically revolutionizedthe way that I have my accounts
(14:07):
across the entire internet.
Just like you, spencer I'm surethat you're this in your family
is I forced my parents, Iforced everybody I know to get
on it, because we shouldn't bestoring these passwords in our
heads or, even worse, writingthem down.
So I love the fact that youintroduced that, but I think it
also shows how many differentpoints of exposure that we have
that we may not realize.
You've talked about bothsoftware and hardware already
(14:29):
here in today's conversation.
Talk to us about your focus onboth of those, not just in the
realm of cybersecurity.
But it sounds to me like youlook at a business's hardware
and you say, hey, here's thelaptops that you need.
I would imagine you and Ihaven't talked about this off
the air, but I would imagine forcertain companies you walk in
and you say, oh, you do heavyvideo editing.
This is the ideal setup for you.
(14:49):
You need this much RAM, youneed this much of a hard drive,
and so a lot of people don'tunderstand those options when
they walk into a Best Buy or goto Applecom.
Talk to us about how much youfocus on both that hardware and
software side of the world.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yes, I think hardware , especially for businesses, is
the base.
You know to use video editing,to use heavy finance for Excel
or engineers using CAD those areresource intensive tools or
engineers using CAD those areresource intensive tools.
So somebody could come in andsay this is the best software
for what you need or for finance.
Here's the Bloomberg terminalor here is the video editing for
(15:27):
Adobe and the files you'redoing and making for YouTube.
But if your computer can'thandle it, it doesn't matter
what you put in front of it.
And for businesses specifically, people are a bit harder on
their business devices.
They're being used 40 plushours a week, almost 365 days a
(15:47):
year.
You know weekends and vacationsexcluding.
So we're looking about 50 weeksa year.
They should last three to fouryears.
And if you have a good financialdepartment that understands you
know the depreciation and thecapital expenses, let them
handle it or find an accountantto do it for you.
But if you're using it forbusiness, you know three to four
(16:08):
.
I've seen companies push it tofive and kind of do a trickle
down of okay, the power usersget it every three and this
becomes a conference roomcomputer just to share slides.
So really having what you needthat's appropriate is paramount.
I had a client who is aninvestment banker who used to go
into Staples every school yearand be like, oh, I'm going to
(16:30):
buy a thousand dollar computerand it's equivalent of leasing
it for $300 a year.
And I finally got them out oftheir finance brain after the
second call of a blue screen forWindows and I'm like spend the
money, get something that'sgonna last and it's gonna work.
Just put the money up frontbecause you won't have a
headache two months in.
(16:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Spencer, I love that attitude.
I've always loved that quote ofbuy once, cry once, because it
is a difficult lesson to learn,but, gosh, it pays off.
I mean huge kudos.
I'm a big fan of Apple fulldisclaimer.
You talk about the blue screenof death.
Not seen a blue screen since Iwas in college, thank goodness.
And so my Apple products have asense of working for almost a
decade.
If you buy the latest andgreatest which, yeah, it's more
(17:14):
upfront cost, but, to your point, it saves you money over time.
So, listeners, I hope thatSpencer is pushing you to start
investing in this stuff, becauseit's going to set you up for
success.
Spencer, I want to put you onthe spot here.
You didn't know that I would dothis in today's episode, but
you bring up the State of theUnion.
Here we are in 2025.
A lot of people are going tosee tech moving at the fastest
pace we've ever seen before.
(17:35):
What is the state of the ITunion here today?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
and in a new year.
Okay, when you brought up stateof the union and that, I was
glad you pivoted back to IT andother things.
But honestly, you know there'sbeen stuff of technology rapidly
advancing for years Chipsgetting doubly as fast in every
18 months it's called Moore'sLaw, and with AI and software,
that is every six months and Ithink for businesses, a lot of
(18:01):
companies don't like gettingcaught up in the buzzwords or
for technology that bleedingedge, but it's here it works, it
does it and I thinkunderstanding where you can
leverage the latest and greatest, like AI and let's just use
something kind of low level.
Grammarly has an AI for editingand copywriting and
(18:23):
proofreading.
Use it, try it out personally.
Try it out professionally.
You know chat, gpt, gemini forGoogle.
You know Meta has their own aswell for Facebook with Lama and
different other ones.
Try it out, see what it works.
Try it out personally, be achampion of it professionally,
because the people whounderstand it and can use it and
get the technology are going tobe the light years ahead as it
(18:46):
continues to take off and justbe there and be ingrained in
apps and features and softwareand in business processes.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, you brought it up, Spencer, so I'm going to go
there with you.
What is the impact of AI goingto be within the world of IT?
I hope I've seen some behindthe scenes features of ChatGPT
that they're beginning to rollout, where you can screen share
with it and if you're inPhotoshop, you can say, hey, I
don't know how to blend thesetwo layers together and it can
see your screen.
So it says, oh, see this buttonin the lower left, click that.
(19:16):
And then when you click it, itcan see everything that you're
doing.
It's looking over your shoulder.
That's one cool example thatI'm excited to roll out with my
parents.
I keep throwing them under thebus in today's episode, but it's
because this is tech support ata whole new level.
What's your view on thedirection of AI, how it can
assist us?
And I'm going to interject thisbecause I want to give you one
super loaded question, and thatis is it going to complicate
(19:37):
things for business owners?
Because I've already seen andtalking to our listeners and our
guests and all theentrepreneurs and entrepreneurs
that I just know as part ofdaily life is that it almost
feels like paralysis by analysis.
We have so many resources andthings at our fingertips right
now that people don't know whento turn to these, how to use
them, how to have it talk totheir other systems.
(19:57):
What the heck are you doing tomake sense of all this stuff for
people when it comes to AI?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I think, first and foremost it's understanding what
you want and where you wantyour company to be, before you
even consider the technology.
I'll use a former client ofmine, client of mine.
They were a New York City lawfirm and the COO wanted to go
cloud-based remote work ifpossible.
(20:23):
So you kind of have tounderstand where you want your
business to be, what tools youhave, how you can train the
models, use the models, automatestuff, like you said with the
screen sharing.
I do something similar for myown stuff.
If I'm not an expert in it,explain this to me, or if I you
know, just use it forquestioning and bouncing as a
sounding board.
I think the analysis byparalysis is way too true for
(20:47):
technology and also people beingscared by change because and it
is a proven phenomenon withtechnology you are slower in the
beginning, but then you'll beexponentially quicker on the
newer technology than you wereon the old one, no matter how
long you've been using it.
So, like I said, rip off thebandaid and try it, figure it
(21:07):
out, see what you want, see howthis can be a process automation
.
You know, if you're trying toget data out of spreadsheets
feed, chat, gpt one, you know,maybe anonymize the data, maybe.
Just, you know, make it up butsay what trends are you seeing
and maybe really use it forprocess automation, business
intelligence, really analyzingand getting that deeper data.
(21:30):
My dad used to tell me in highschool and college that if he
couldn't get a book, he couldn'twrite the report.
And we have the internet, sothere isn't an excuse not to
have that information and Ithink, with AI and everything
that ChatGPT and everyone elseis rolling out with image
creation, how to theunderstanding, the times and the
specific ones for specificbusinesses, it's going to be a
(21:54):
game changer for people who knowhow to use it and how to talk
to it correctly.
And the best piece of advice Ican give people is, when you're
done talking to an AI, ask howcould I have gotten that result
quicker?
Because it will tell you oh,this is the question, this is
really what you wanted, or thisis how we could have done it,
and it does it for everything.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Boom, spencer, I have never heard that advice.
When it comes to asking AI, thatvery question, I feel like one
way that I've upped my AI gamerecently is by asking it what
would be the correct way for meto ask an AI this question, and
it phrases it so much betterthan I could have.
But even looking at it inretrospect, that tip that you
just dropped on us is hugebecause, again, it's going to
(22:37):
pay off over time, the betterand better that we get at using
it.
But I'm going to go even beyondthat, spencer, because I think
you're showcasing for us in realtime here today what makes your
approach to IT very special isthat when I asked you a question
about technology, you wentstraight to what are your
business goals and it just seemsto me like doing the research
ahead of today's episode is youlove IT, but you love it for
(22:58):
what it does for businesses.
You understand operations, youunderstand growth.
You understand the things thatmatter to real life businesses,
not just from a tech perspective.
Talk to me about that approach,because a lot of people
probably think, yeah, if someonecomes into my business from an
IT perspective, all they'regoing to care about is my IT, is
(23:22):
my technical infrastructure.
Talk to me about that balancedbusiness approach, because I
don't think most people realizethat when someone like you walks
in, it's not to make your techbetter, it is to make your
business better.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yes, I would definitely say there is a tech
side.
Any IT professional will lookat Security, hardware, software,
keeping up to date on things.
So yes, there is always a lensand those are easy things for
any IT professional to do and tounderstand.
But to really go into thatbusiness process, that's like
that next layer of ITprofessional that really
(23:53):
understands how are thingsinterconnected, how are business
processes working.
You know it's not just silentdepartments.
A sales team brings somethingin, it goes to finance, finance
approves it or whoever needs toapprove it.
It then goes to customeronboarding and then it goes to
support and then it goes back tosales to renew.
So to really understand theflows within a business and what
(24:14):
they're doing and how they doit and how they serve their own
clients.
Because at the end of the day,it doesn't really matter what
industry you're in.
It's customer service, tech,legal, financial, professional
services, whatever it may be.
You're serving a customer,whether that's internal or
external, and knowing howeveryone plays nice in the
sandbox Allows you to kind ofoversee and think, ok, this is
(24:38):
what we can do.
Or, you know, for businesssavings.
Do you know you're paying forfour different Adobe licenses
because your departments don'ttalk to one another and finance
just approves it.
So really kind of understandingand knowing.
That is the next level on topof.
Is your hardware up to date?
Is your software up to date?
Are you managing your Internet?
(24:58):
Who is doing X, y and Z interms of policy and compliance?
But then you get into the weedsand you can really showcase
tech as a value add and as aprofit center rather than a cost
center.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yeah, that last point is so important for all of us
businesses.
It goes right back to what Iteased at the very top of
today's episode, that IT shouldenable your growth path forward.
And, spencer, you talk aboutcustomer service.
I want to go there with youbecause a lot of people probably
don't realize what it's like towork with a managed IT service
or have a fractional CTO inplace in their business and
(25:32):
they're thinking how could,spencer, walk into my business
and make sense of the 50different things that I've never
organized and I have no SOPs inplace?
And when it comes to customersupport, I mean, I see on your
website 24-7 proactivemonitoring and if things go
wrong, like an email server,that's the one thing I hear
people bang their heads againstthe wall all the time is my
email's not working.
How do I fix it?
(25:53):
Talk to us about what it lookslike to work with a managed IT
service provider like you.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Yeah.
So firstly, it's understandingand getting that relationship
built of what are theexpectations for the business
and really knowing, okay, are wejust overhauling IT, are we
doing business processes or, youknow, do they have boots on the
ground of you know a help desk,maybe a sysadmin or whatever
they need, and really kind ofknowing that relationship and
building upon it for thebetterment of the client.
And then using the tools thatan MSP has at their disposal, of
(26:29):
partnerships with the bestsoftware, getting that value
added, pricing, knowing who togo out for for this software,
that process or that thing.
We've seen it before when mostbusiness owners don't need to
worry about migrating an emailserver and maybe will do it once
in their life if they're thatold that actually had on-prem
email.
We've seen it.
We've done it multiple times.
(26:49):
We're not inventing the wheel.
I'm a firm believer thateveryone does what they do and
you should use them for whatthey do it.
I'm not moving anymore, brian.
I'm too old, I can't pay myfriends in pizza and beer, so I
hire movers now because that'swhat they do.
They can look at my furnitureand go.
The bed goes in this way, goesout.
The truck Boom.
They don't scratch up my wallsthe way I would have done and
(27:10):
they're not yelling pivot likeRoss and friends for 24 hours.
So, finding the best for whatyou need and understanding and
having that relationship andthen having the MSP really know
what you want from it and havingthat conversation of saying,
okay, yes, this is what we needto do, this is what I want.
I'm being open for thoseconversations because it's a
(27:33):
fresh set of eyes.
If somebody who isn't in thebusiness they're going to be
like, why are we printing toscan?
And I've seen that inbusinesses they printed invoice
only to scan it back in or whyaren't we using things with
DocuSign or Adobe Sign or cloudstorage or file sharing
externally?
And I think no industry willever be paperless or not have a
(27:55):
confusing process.
But trying to understand andask those questions and think
about how technology canautomate, clean up and improve
the daily functions and you kindof stole.
One of my other favorite quotesis buy once, cry once.
It's a lot easier to set thingsup correctly, even if you're a
small company and you're inevery group as the CEO or
(28:16):
founder, rather than setting itup incorrectly and then being a
100-person company and trying toput up walls and departments
and sharing, because Solomon'sknot is already there.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, spencer, you just introduced a term that
makes me facepalm so hard.
I've never heard of print toscan and it terrifies me that
probably more people than Iwould ever imagine are doing
exactly that.
So it's such a great showcaseof why we can't read the label
from inside the jar.
Sometimes the things that we'redoing make no sense, but we
can't even see it because we'reso close to the work that we do
(28:51):
and it takes someone like you towalk in and say, hey, hold on,
guys, there's a much better wayto do this so that our
businesses can flourish.
So I feel like we've talked alot today about the why, the
what, the how, but I want totalk about the when, because a
lot of people probably continueto kick the can down the road,
and you've talked about theimportance of preventative
measures.
But even beyond that, even justthe strategy, the infrastructure
(29:11):
, the foundation that we have inour businesses, a lot of people
are probably thinking, well,what's the pain point, what's
that trigger point for me toreach out to someone like
Spencer and say, hey, let's lookat my business, let's start to
figure out where the opportunityareas are?
Is there something that is agreat time for people to turn to
you.
Is it when they have a new hire?
Is it when they reach a certainpoint in their business growth?
(29:32):
When the heck should we starttaking this stuff seriously?
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Without just getting everyone to email me.
And I would say now, brian, isthe honest answer, because you
know you wait too long and youstart letting things just work.
And you know, I'll use anexample of a former company I
worked for.
They were 15 years behind onsoftware updates.
They were running oldinfrastructure.
(29:57):
They were actually paying15,000 a year for bare minimum
Microsoft updates for some oftheir software.
Setting it up now, even if it'snot the end-all and be-all
solution, just having somebodysay, okay, I am a new business,
how do we set this up?
Or what do I need at day oneand what do I need at day 100?
(30:19):
And building that roadmap tonot only grow with the company
but make sure the technologykeeps up as well.
You've seen it, I'm sure, on alot of business cards and trade
vans et cetera.
Companyname at gmailcom andtrade vans et cetera, company
name at gmailcom, at hotmailcom,and it's a very easy lift to
(30:40):
kind of have that professionalemail.
Or setting up file sharing andthe walls and the groups early.
Like I said, if you're a 10person company, you may be in
every group because you're theCEO, you're the CFO, you're the
CTO, you're the sales guy, buteventually, god willing, you're
going to hire a CFO, so youwon't be doing the financials,
you won't be doing the tax, youwon't be making those cold calls
(31:00):
, but guess what?
The groups will be there, thefolders will be there, the
structure will be there thatwill allow you to grow.
It's far too often I get calledin and it's a fire drill.
Things aren't working, and itcould have been preventative,
just because of keeping up andunderstanding what you need to
do and when you need to do it.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Yes, well said.
It alludes to one of myfavorite Chinese proverbs ever.
Which is the best time to planta tree was 20 years ago.
The second best time is rightnow.
Sure, whether we know that wehave needs or not today, 12
months from now, we're going tobe so glad that we ironed things
out and straightened things outand built a strong foundation
to grow from today, so we cantake that action today in order
(31:42):
to be ready for tomorrow.
Spencer, I so appreciate thoseinsights.
I love asking this question atthe end of every episode because
it's super broad and also itnot only opens up to your
expertise with we talked abouthere today, it, but also the
fact that you're one of us.
You are a fellow entrepreneur,and so, with that in mind,
what's your one best piece ofadvice?
(32:02):
You dropped so many nuggets ofknowledge.
You called out the fact that nobusiness owner should ever have
at gmailcom as their businessemail address.
I love that you pointed thatout.
So, with your entrepreneurialhat on, what's that one best
piece of advice that you want toleave our listeners with,
regardless of where they are intheir business journey?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
I think you know, being an entrepreneur and a tech
person, the piece of advicethat I kind of go with and I'm
finding really helpful on thisjourney of growing a business
and being there is that ifyou're the smartest person in
the room, find another room.
There's people who've done itbetter, done it differently, and
(32:42):
really just being open toadvice and input and feedback
and really just saying, okay, Itook the hardest jump of a
professional journey.
I actually said I have abusiness idea and I started it.
Now, find the people that canreally help you and nurture you
and grow with you whether it'san advisor or a former person
you used to work with andbecoming that mentor.
(33:02):
But really leverage who you canto help you out, because odds
are someone's done it before andyou can learn from the mistakes
and save yourself time, moneyand a headache.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Boom.
Very well said and veryvaluable advice for all of our
listeners.
I'm so appreciative of that.
Spencer, I know that people aregoing to be keen to check out
your website.
You lay things out sobeautifully.
I'm also going to plug this forlisteners.
Benefit is that you're supertransparent and open with your
packages, your prices, all thedifferent types of solutions
that you offer.
(33:34):
So, spencer, I really admirenot only the knowledge that you
have and the expertise that youhave on offer for your clients,
but also the way that you dobusiness.
So, with that in mind, dropthose links on us.
Where should listeners go fromhere?
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Yeah, so the website is new.
So, as in Nancy EWFtech figured, it's quick and easy.
Or you can find me on linkedinat spencer eshare s-c-h-e-r-e-r,
or just email me directly asshare at newftech.
Reach out, I'm here.
Questions, comments, whateverit may be, even if it's
(34:07):
something silly, as hey, I juststarted, I need a new business
laptop because my work's beenproviding one for 30 years.
Let's start there, let's do itand you know we'll take it and
we'll grow with each other andhelp each other out to be the
best we can be.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yes, I love that attitude and that mindset.
Listeners, you see how openSpencer is just about helping
you move forward in yourbusiness.
This is someone who gets it notjust from an IT perspective but
from a business perspective,and I think that's so important
to have a partner like him inyour corner to set you up for
success this year and far beyond.
So you already know the drill.
We're making it as easy aspossible for you to find all of
(34:42):
Spencer's links down below inthe show notes, no matter where
it is that you're tuning intotoday's episode.
So definitely click right onthrough.
You'll find his businesswebsite, nooftech.
You can click right on through.
You don't need to remember itor the spelling or any of that
stuff.
Just click right on throughfrom the show notes.
We're also linking to hispersonal LinkedIn, so don't be
shy in reaching out to him.
Otherwise, spencer, on behalfof myself and all the listeners
(35:02):
worldwide, thanks so much forcoming on the show today.
Thank you for having me Brian.
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanksfor tuning in to yet another
episode of the Wantrepreneur toEntrepreneur podcast.
If you haven't checked us outonline, there's so much good
stuff there.
Check out the show's websiteand all the show notes that we
talked about in today's episodeat thewantrepreneurshowcom, and
(35:23):
I just want to give a shout outto our amazing guests.
There's a reason why we aread-free and have produced so
many incredible episodes fivedays a week for you, and it's
because our guests step up tothe plate.
These are not sponsored episodes.
These are not infomercials.
Our guests help us cover thecosts of our productions.
They so deeply believe in thepower of getting their message
(35:45):
out in front of you, awesomeentrepreneurs and entrepreneurs,
that they contribute to help usmake these productions possible
.
So thank you to not onlytoday's guests, but all of our
guests in general, and I justwant to invite you check out our
website because you can send usa voicemail there.
We also have live chat.
If you want to interactdirectly with me, go to
thewantrepreneurshowcom.
(36:06):
Initiate a live chat.
It's for real me, and I'mexcited because I'll see you, as
always every Monday, wednesday,friday.
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