May 6, 2025 • 17 mins
Carrie Richardson and Ian Richardson host the WIN Podcast - What's Important Now?
Serial entrepreneurs, life partners and business partners, they have successfully exited from multiple businesses (IT, call center, real estate, marketing) and they help other business owners create their own versions of success.
Ian is certified in Eagle Center For Leadership Making A Difference, Paterson StratOp, and LifePlan.
Carrie has helped create and execute successful outbound sales strategies for over 1200 technology-focused businesses including MSPs, manufacturers, distributors and SaaS firms.
Learn more at www.foxcrowgroup.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Carrie Richardson (00:00):
Good afternoon everybody.
My name is Carrie Richardson.
I'm a partner at Fox and CrowGroup and your host for the WIN
podcast.
this week on win, we're talkingto people who will be
exhibiting at PAX eight beyond2025.
Mark Sol from Cyber Foxes withus today.
And Mark is no stranger to themanaged services event circuit.
Mark Sokol (00:20):
at least in dog years, it feels like that.
it feels like it anyway.
Yeah, for sure.
Thanks Carrie.
Carrie Richardson (00:26):
So tell us a little bit about how you prepare
for an event the size of PAXeight beyond, and how you
prepare your team to participatein an event the size of PAX
eight.
Beyond.
Mark Sokol (00:38):
For US vendors, there's such a cost in people:
for sponsoring the event, forputting a booth on, for giving
out swag.
There's a lot of factors there.
But to make the best use of ourtime out there it's not just
the booth.
It's not just, hang around thebooth and handing out things.
(00:59):
It's really all of thedifferent opportunities to meet
with sps to get to know them.
And ideally they get to know alittle bit about us at the other
events that are going aroundit.
The other activities that aregoing around it, whether it's
breakfast, lunch.
Dinner the happy hours thathappen and things like that.
And that's really what we'reabout is we like to get out in
(01:19):
front and get out there.
There's so many vendors thatwe've seen in the past that, put
a, wall between the peoplewalking by them at a booth-
that's not us.
We like to have fun.
Because in the end this isabout business and growing in
this case your MSP, but it'sabout getting to know everyone
at a personal level as best aswe can.
(01:41):
With, a hundred thousand MSPsout there, it's hard to do that.
Our goal is to get to know theMSPs and offer just an
opportunity to let them know howwe could potentially help them
in their tech stack.
Carrie Richardson (01:53):
Tell us about how Cyber Fox helps MSPs.
Mark Sokol (01:57):
the core problem we solve today is that there's a
lot of software out there.
QuickBooks is like the numberone that's creating this
problem.
software is taking away theability for an MSP to drop all
of their customers, end users towhat's called "least
(02:18):
privilege".
If you have an admin accountand that person is an end user,
that person opens up not onlyyour customer, but obviously the
MSP is at risk.
Somebody taking advantage ofthat and then moving laterally
through that organization.
And the reason they can't do ita lot of times is because.
(02:39):
All this old software,including QuickBooks, and
there's others out there,Bluebeam Adobe and Sage It's
still a thing.
It's still out there.
Maybe not in the us.
And probably less so in NorthAmerica, but yeah, it's still
out there they wanna update andthe only way to update is to
have this privilege.
Access.
an MSP needs to take downeverybody to lease privilege,
(03:02):
but they can't because it'screating a bunch of tickets
behind the scenes.
Help Desk has to do that, andHelp Desk goes why are we just
doing updates?
That's all I feel like I'mdoing all day long.
We eliminate that.
at the point in time that let'ssay Sage wants that update the
end user would click the buttonand go ahead and update.
And behind the scenes we'vealready set the rules.
(03:23):
The MSP has set the rules tolet that process run in elevated
mode, updated and then backdown.
To a standard user.
So basically everybody reallyneeds to be on there.
You got cyber insurance now-questionnaires that are saying
do you have everybody on leastprivilege and you need to be
able to answer yes if you do andyou're not, that's a whole
(03:43):
different story.
And we know insurancecompanies.
The number one thing for themto do is not pay.
So they would rather do that.
So we help solve that problemfor MSPs.
Carrie Richardson (03:53):
So when you are at an event like PAX eight
Beyond, and you've gotta sharethat information quickly,
rapidly, what's your bestapproach for attracting the
attention of the attendee?
And then delivering thatmessage quickly.
And what's the step after that?
Mark Sokol (04:12):
Sure.
For us, we have a very cleanbooth overall.
We give away a lot of foxes.
We have stuff, foxes.
We have I think three or fourdifferent sizes of stuff.
Fox behind me there there's ourmaster is a terrifying
Carrie Richardson (04:26):
A little scary.
Yes.
Yes.
And like the Auvik Polar bearfrom back in the day.
Mark Sokol (04:32):
And we've been through a few of these and
through these foxes and costumesand everything.
So what we like to do isattract attention by things.
Sometimes we have gamesspecifically this event, we're
actually doing something priorto the event kicking off.
We're inviting MSPs to join usat a baseball games.
I believe it's the Mets andRockies and so we try to engage
(04:54):
pre-event.
just to get to know us becausethe outside of our software
being simple and affordableultimately and solves a huge
problem in this case.
Generally our partners say theyactually like us.
They like talking to us, theylike being with us.
We're fun.
We're not, and we're also not.
In the end, yes, we wanna sellour software, but it's clear in
(05:18):
our interactions that it's morethan just that.
We're not just actively tryingto sell because as it people and
MSPs, that's the last thing.
Don't call me.
I'll call you when I'm ready tobuy.
we know that.
We inform you that we have asolution that can solve the
problem, and you can then solvethis problem as well.
So that's what we do.
Carrie Richardson (05:38):
How do you begin preparing for a pre-day
event like that?
Do you do some outboundcalling?
Is it an email campaign?
how many people participate init?
how many people do you bringwith you?
Mark Sokol (05:50):
yeah.
It can vary.
we've been fortunate enough toform relationships with other
vendors in the space.
So we all take on the burden oftrying to invite people to
these events that we've done.
they're pre-event, they're notmade to overstep what's
happening at the Beyond event,it's a combination of our
internal folks whether it's ouraccount management team that
(06:13):
works with partners 'cause theseare open to partners.
It's not just a prospect typeof event for us.
Our account management team,the sales team that happens to
be calling and talking toanybody that, hey, if you're
gonna happen to be in Denver.
You can come along with us tothis ball game.
And then the, and then yes, wewill send out an email those
that we've met, that we knowthat are in this case, have a
(06:36):
partnership with PAX eight.
we'll send out an email or twoand we'll put it out on social.
all of those culminate intoanywhere from.
25 to, well over close to 150we had on a cruise ship down in
Miami last year.
that's about where we're at.
It takes our team Here we havethree in our events team that
(06:56):
really handled all the logisticsof that.
and then obviously the othervendors will bring their
partners and prospects as welland invite them.
So very successful.
And that is just essentiallynot even selling, that's just
we're having a party basically.
Carrie Richardson (07:11):
So are you doing that so that you'll have
more opportunities to interactwith specific named partners, or
are you hoping for.
Brand new.
Hey, we don't know who theseguys are and they don't know who
we are.
Engagement,
Mark Sokol (07:24):
we're looking for all of that.
the biggest way to get somebodyinterested in what you do is to
hear from a peer.
So it's open.
We love our partners that comein, they talk, they say great
things about us and talk aboutour solutions.
They don't want to hear me oranybody really on our team talk
about our solutions.
They want to hear how we solvethe problem for another MSP, It
doesn't matter if we havenothing more to sell that MSP,
(07:47):
they're a partner for the longterm.
That's the way we look at itand we include them as well.
Carrie Richardson (07:53):
So you've been doing this a long time.
Yes.
What's the best engagement youwere ever able to create at an
event, either with swag or anevent?
what's the best thing you'veever done and what's something
that you did that you thoughtwas gonna be great but fell
flat?
Mark Sokol (08:09):
Ooh, that's a good one actually.
Some good stories.
So we're not doing it here atBeyond, but some of the larger
events that we've been to wedidn't invent this, but we
started it at times.
We've had a whole bunch ofdifferent characters.
Whether there's a Star Warstheme or a Guardians of the
Galaxy, and we have thedifferent characters you can
take photos with.
(08:29):
you go locally and they haveall these people that'll dress
up and they're reallyinteresting, especially in
Orlando, They're not allowed tobreak character.
So you can't even talk to themabout you go to school, you in
college here, they're literallyplaying the character.
So it's really interesting Butlast year at an event we went
with a transformer theme.
(08:50):
I believe Transformer washaving a movie out.
That's probably why we pickedit, the best part about ours was
you'd have to go through, it'slike an Etsy and you buy these
costumes.
So we had somebody one of ourcolleagues put on the costume.
Between the time of orderingit, having it shipped here.
Having him try it on, havinghim get it on there, basically
(09:13):
he took five steps, fell downthe whole thing.
Fell apart last year, and theonly thing I asked was, did we
get that on video?
Didn't even ask if he was okay.
so that to some extent was abust, in the end it's about us
trying to get attention.
We will have some form ofmascot at times We'll bring just
sometimes that.
The decapitated head of our Foxand partners will go ahead and
(09:34):
put that on, as a thing.
Yeah, we're all about that butyeah, just try not to buy a,
transformer from Turkey a monthprior to an event.
That's what I recommend.
Carrie Richardson (09:45):
I think that's good advice in any
situation.
Actually, I've ended up withsome Halloween costumes that
were questionable
Mark Sokol (09:51):
Yeah.
Carrie Richardson (09:52):
Now order your costumes well in advance.
Have them fitted
Mark Sokol (09:55):
You got it?
Yep.
Carrie Richardson (09:56):
What do you think has driven the most
traffic to your booth?
What things would youabsolutely suggest trying again?
Mark Sokol (10:03):
Yeah it's really the best and you'll appreciate this
as MSPs will as well.
In the end, none of us haveunlimited funds and there's
maybe some out there that seemto have unlimited funds, but we
don't.
And we felt that partneringwith other MSS p vendors we've
done different things where.
I dunno, a passport to avacation and go around to these
(10:25):
five vendor booths and thingslike that.
So including our pre-eventparty.
So those combination of thingsare a little bit more bootstrap,
I would consider.
But they're more effective thananything we've ever done by
finding like-minded vendors thatwe think that their products
are good.
In line with ours, theirculture is in line with ours.
and being respectful in justwalking around and getting those
(10:48):
stamps as an MSP and thenwinning those.
So those have definitely made abig impact.
We think also that when we arethere, if we have opportunities
to do breakout sessions, thoseare great, but 99% of the time
we do a panel.
With other MSPs to talk about,cybersecurity how they're
(11:10):
selling cybersecurity, or wewill have our in-house expert
here Wes Spencer, that's a partof that, does a lot of those as
well.
we have others on the team thatwill speak on our behalf really
just trying to provideinformation to inform the MSP
about opportunities for them Andhow to position cybersecurity
within their services.
Carrie Richardson (11:31):
And so if you're gonna do a multi-vendor
promotion like that, who putstogether the Bingo card or the
passport who takesresponsibility for that?
Mark Sokol (11:39):
In our case, because we've been the initial driver
of a lot of that.
It ends up.
Falling on our team to takecare of a lot of that.
We do such a great job overallat the events we do, we also
bring people into Tampa.
Every quarter we bring a groupand educate them and partner
with other vendors it's a bigburden on our team, but.
The number one thing an eventsperson has to have is
(12:03):
organization, maybe tenacity.
There's probably other things,a little creativity but in the
end it's about being organized.
even if it's a little bit ofmayhem, it's like that duck on
the pond.
You see that duck and littlefeet are going, 90 miles a
minute.
that's what you wanna see.
You wanna see that duck on thepond, that's cool.
everything's fine.
And behind the scenes, a lot ofwork, a lot of activity to get
(12:25):
things done, things go wrong,and no one knows because there's
all been recovered.
And so that's the mostimportant thing.
So yeah, we like to.
especially if it's our idea andwe're coming other vendors, we
work together and just end toend, take care of all of that.
Carrie Richardson (12:40):
So before PAX eight, you're hosting a group
of MSPs.
At a baseball game, once youarrive on the floor, how do you
organize a lead collection atyour booth?
What happens after somebodyexpresses interest?
Do you round robin thoseopportunities to your team?
how do you fairly distributethe leads that you collect at an
(13:01):
event?
Mark Sokol (13:02):
Oh great question.
In some ways it may not befair.
So how we are set up is byterritory we have six owners
which includes.
The world, not just the US andCanada, and essentially a large
event like this kind of spread,there's so many partners that
(13:24):
PAX eight has that come intoDenver at that time.
It generally tends to workitself out.
Evenly in that case.
Some of the smaller events wemay do local or something, then
it's almost not fair 'causeyeah, just somebody driving
over.
But in the case of the Beyondevent, we find it's been good
including international attimes.
It's a good spread, a good mixof people that nobody on the
(13:48):
team in any territory feels likethey've been left out
Carrie Richardson (13:52):
Obviously foxes are a good swag item, but
what else have you seen thatpeople really went nuts for at
an event?
Mark Sokol (14:00):
Yeah.
we've tried every variation ofWTF what the fox, that kind of
stuff.
Any version, you can use Fox inplace of another word We love
giving out shirts and so we'llhave every size from small to,
very large.
we try to make sure that wehave those.
The interesting thing aboutwhat we've learned about shirts
is that it has to actually feelsoft.
(14:22):
we've had some burlap sackshirts that were just awful and
they would shrink the first timeand now they're like a halter
top.
So we've learned we've learnedthat better material, it's worth
spending a little bit extramoney for it.
'cause people tend to wear it.
one part of our solution isblocking, living off land
attacks.
it's a little clever pithy,block, you block him block her,
(14:44):
right?
So we try to be clever.
last year we came out with aversion of a sticker.
I'm not a sticker person.
I don't put any stickers.
I don't like 'em, I don't want'em on anything of mine.
But apparently a lot of peopledo.
So we have a version of thesticker with our logo.
But we had a really cleverlooking a rapper fox, and last
(15:07):
year and that was a big hit.
We don't have them anymore.
Those went pretty fast.
So I'm sure if we were goingaround even at Beyond.
they're gonna have that stickeron the back of their computer.
The other thing we're doingjust from a promotional aspect
is we're actually at beyond thisyear, we're on the key card.
we actually sponsored the keycard.
Carrie Richardson (15:26):
nice.
Mark Sokol (15:27):
Everybody there is gonna see our name right?
With a clever little thing.
I won't give that away.
but it's a clever little quirkything I've been saying this
since I've been at Cyber Fox forthree years, ultimately
cybersecurity?
we are, serious aboutcybersecurity, but it doesn't
mean that we have to be justserious people.
it doesn't have to be one orthe other.
(15:47):
So we like to be cute.
We like to be try to funny, welike, to, get somebody's
attention there.
And again, that goes to us.
Trying to be more than just asoftware vendor, but a partner.
Maybe at times a friend but atleast a business friendly.
And so that's our thing.
Carrie Richardson (16:05):
All right.
Thanks Mark.
It was great to catch up withyou.
It'll be great to see you atPAX eight beyond this year.
It's been a few years since wegot to hang out, so I'll look
forward to, seeing what you gotthere this year.
No hints on the key cards.
Mark Sokol (16:20):
You'll find out you check in.
Alright.
Carrie Richardson (16:22):
thanks very much and we will see you in June
at Pax eight Beyond.
Mark Sokol (16:26):
Thanks Carrie.
Good afternoon everybody.
My name is Carrie Richardson.
I'm a partner at Fox and CrowGroup and your host for the WIN
podcast.
this week on win, we're talkingto people who will be
exhibiting at PAX eight beyond2025.
Mark Sol from Cyber Foxes withus today.
And Mark is no stranger to themanaged services event circuit.
Mark Sokol (00:20):
at least in dog years, it feels like that.
it feels like it anyway.
Yeah, for sure.
Thanks Carrie.
Carrie Richardson (00:26):
So tell us a little bit about how you prepare
for an event the size of PAXeight beyond, and how you
prepare your team to participatein an event the size of PAX
eight.
Beyond.
Mark Sokol (00:38):
For US vendors, there's such a cost in people:
for sponsoring the event, forputting a booth on, for giving
out swag.
There's a lot of factors there.
But to make the best use of ourtime out there it's not just
the booth.
It's not just, hang around thebooth and handing out things.
(00:59):
It's really all of thedifferent opportunities to meet
with sps to get to know them.
And ideally they get to know alittle bit about us at the other
events that are going aroundit.
The other activities that aregoing around it, whether it's
breakfast, lunch.
Dinner the happy hours thathappen and things like that.
And that's really what we'reabout is we like to get out in
(01:19):
front and get out there.
There's so many vendors thatwe've seen in the past that, put
a, wall between the peoplewalking by them at a booth-
that's not us.
We like to have fun.
Because in the end this isabout business and growing in
this case your MSP, but it'sabout getting to know everyone
at a personal level as best aswe can.
(01:41):
With, a hundred thousand MSPsout there, it's hard to do that.
Our goal is to get to know theMSPs and offer just an
opportunity to let them know howwe could potentially help them
in their tech stack.
Carrie Richardson (01:53):
Tell us about how Cyber Fox helps MSPs.
Mark Sokol (01:57):
the core problem we solve today is that there's a
lot of software out there.
QuickBooks is like the numberone that's creating this
problem.
software is taking away theability for an MSP to drop all
of their customers, end users towhat's called "least
(02:18):
privilege".
If you have an admin accountand that person is an end user,
that person opens up not onlyyour customer, but obviously the
MSP is at risk.
Somebody taking advantage ofthat and then moving laterally
through that organization.
And the reason they can't do ita lot of times is because.
(02:39):
All this old software,including QuickBooks, and
there's others out there,Bluebeam Adobe and Sage It's
still a thing.
It's still out there.
Maybe not in the us.
And probably less so in NorthAmerica, but yeah, it's still
out there they wanna update andthe only way to update is to
have this privilege.
Access.
an MSP needs to take downeverybody to lease privilege,
(03:02):
but they can't because it'screating a bunch of tickets
behind the scenes.
Help Desk has to do that, andHelp Desk goes why are we just
doing updates?
That's all I feel like I'mdoing all day long.
We eliminate that.
at the point in time that let'ssay Sage wants that update the
end user would click the buttonand go ahead and update.
And behind the scenes we'vealready set the rules.
(03:23):
The MSP has set the rules tolet that process run in elevated
mode, updated and then backdown.
To a standard user.
So basically everybody reallyneeds to be on there.
You got cyber insurance now-questionnaires that are saying
do you have everybody on leastprivilege and you need to be
able to answer yes if you do andyou're not, that's a whole
(03:43):
different story.
And we know insurancecompanies.
The number one thing for themto do is not pay.
So they would rather do that.
So we help solve that problemfor MSPs.
Carrie Richardson (03:53):
So when you are at an event like PAX eight
Beyond, and you've gotta sharethat information quickly,
rapidly, what's your bestapproach for attracting the
attention of the attendee?
And then delivering thatmessage quickly.
And what's the step after that?
Mark Sokol (04:12):
Sure.
For us, we have a very cleanbooth overall.
We give away a lot of foxes.
We have stuff, foxes.
We have I think three or fourdifferent sizes of stuff.
Fox behind me there there's ourmaster is a terrifying
Carrie Richardson (04:26):
A little scary.
Yes.
Yes.
And like the Auvik Polar bearfrom back in the day.
Mark Sokol (04:32):
And we've been through a few of these and
through these foxes and costumesand everything.
So what we like to do isattract attention by things.
Sometimes we have gamesspecifically this event, we're
actually doing something priorto the event kicking off.
We're inviting MSPs to join usat a baseball games.
I believe it's the Mets andRockies and so we try to engage
(04:54):
pre-event.
just to get to know us becausethe outside of our software
being simple and affordableultimately and solves a huge
problem in this case.
Generally our partners say theyactually like us.
They like talking to us, theylike being with us.
We're fun.
We're not, and we're also not.
In the end, yes, we wanna sellour software, but it's clear in
(05:18):
our interactions that it's morethan just that.
We're not just actively tryingto sell because as it people and
MSPs, that's the last thing.
Don't call me.
I'll call you when I'm ready tobuy.
we know that.
We inform you that we have asolution that can solve the
problem, and you can then solvethis problem as well.
So that's what we do.
Carrie Richardson (05:38):
How do you begin preparing for a pre-day
event like that?
Do you do some outboundcalling?
Is it an email campaign?
how many people participate init?
how many people do you bringwith you?
Mark Sokol (05:50):
yeah.
It can vary.
we've been fortunate enough toform relationships with other
vendors in the space.
So we all take on the burden oftrying to invite people to
these events that we've done.
they're pre-event, they're notmade to overstep what's
happening at the Beyond event,it's a combination of our
internal folks whether it's ouraccount management team that
(06:13):
works with partners 'cause theseare open to partners.
It's not just a prospect typeof event for us.
Our account management team,the sales team that happens to
be calling and talking toanybody that, hey, if you're
gonna happen to be in Denver.
You can come along with us tothis ball game.
And then the, and then yes, wewill send out an email those
that we've met, that we knowthat are in this case, have a
(06:36):
partnership with PAX eight.
we'll send out an email or twoand we'll put it out on social.
all of those culminate intoanywhere from.
25 to, well over close to 150we had on a cruise ship down in
Miami last year.
that's about where we're at.
It takes our team Here we havethree in our events team that
(06:56):
really handled all the logisticsof that.
and then obviously the othervendors will bring their
partners and prospects as welland invite them.
So very successful.
And that is just essentiallynot even selling, that's just
we're having a party basically.
Carrie Richardson (07:11):
So are you doing that so that you'll have
more opportunities to interactwith specific named partners, or
are you hoping for.
Brand new.
Hey, we don't know who theseguys are and they don't know who
we are.
Engagement,
Mark Sokol (07:24):
we're looking for all of that.
the biggest way to get somebodyinterested in what you do is to
hear from a peer.
So it's open.
We love our partners that comein, they talk, they say great
things about us and talk aboutour solutions.
They don't want to hear me oranybody really on our team talk
about our solutions.
They want to hear how we solvethe problem for another MSP, It
doesn't matter if we havenothing more to sell that MSP,
(07:47):
they're a partner for the longterm.
That's the way we look at itand we include them as well.
Carrie Richardson (07:53):
So you've been doing this a long time.
Yes.
What's the best engagement youwere ever able to create at an
event, either with swag or anevent?
what's the best thing you'veever done and what's something
that you did that you thoughtwas gonna be great but fell
flat?
Mark Sokol (08:09):
Ooh, that's a good one actually.
Some good stories.
So we're not doing it here atBeyond, but some of the larger
events that we've been to wedidn't invent this, but we
started it at times.
We've had a whole bunch ofdifferent characters.
Whether there's a Star Warstheme or a Guardians of the
Galaxy, and we have thedifferent characters you can
take photos with.
(08:29):
you go locally and they haveall these people that'll dress
up and they're reallyinteresting, especially in
Orlando, They're not allowed tobreak character.
So you can't even talk to themabout you go to school, you in
college here, they're literallyplaying the character.
So it's really interesting Butlast year at an event we went
with a transformer theme.
(08:50):
I believe Transformer washaving a movie out.
That's probably why we pickedit, the best part about ours was
you'd have to go through, it'slike an Etsy and you buy these
costumes.
So we had somebody one of ourcolleagues put on the costume.
Between the time of orderingit, having it shipped here.
Having him try it on, havinghim get it on there, basically
(09:13):
he took five steps, fell downthe whole thing.
Fell apart last year, and theonly thing I asked was, did we
get that on video?
Didn't even ask if he was okay.
so that to some extent was abust, in the end it's about us
trying to get attention.
We will have some form ofmascot at times We'll bring just
sometimes that.
The decapitated head of our Foxand partners will go ahead and
(09:34):
put that on, as a thing.
Yeah, we're all about that butyeah, just try not to buy a,
transformer from Turkey a monthprior to an event.
That's what I recommend.
Carrie Richardson (09:45):
I think that's good advice in any
situation.
Actually, I've ended up withsome Halloween costumes that
were questionable
Mark Sokol (09:51):
Yeah.
Carrie Richardson (09:52):
Now order your costumes well in advance.
Have them fitted
Mark Sokol (09:55):
You got it?
Yep.
Carrie Richardson (09:56):
What do you think has driven the most
traffic to your booth?
What things would youabsolutely suggest trying again?
Mark Sokol (10:03):
Yeah it's really the best and you'll appreciate this
as MSPs will as well.
In the end, none of us haveunlimited funds and there's
maybe some out there that seemto have unlimited funds, but we
don't.
And we felt that partneringwith other MSS p vendors we've
done different things where.
I dunno, a passport to avacation and go around to these
(10:25):
five vendor booths and thingslike that.
So including our pre-eventparty.
So those combination of thingsare a little bit more bootstrap,
I would consider.
But they're more effective thananything we've ever done by
finding like-minded vendors thatwe think that their products
are good.
In line with ours, theirculture is in line with ours.
and being respectful in justwalking around and getting those
(10:48):
stamps as an MSP and thenwinning those.
So those have definitely made abig impact.
We think also that when we arethere, if we have opportunities
to do breakout sessions, thoseare great, but 99% of the time
we do a panel.
With other MSPs to talk about,cybersecurity how they're
(11:10):
selling cybersecurity, or wewill have our in-house expert
here Wes Spencer, that's a partof that, does a lot of those as
well.
we have others on the team thatwill speak on our behalf really
just trying to provideinformation to inform the MSP
about opportunities for them Andhow to position cybersecurity
within their services.
Carrie Richardson (11:31):
And so if you're gonna do a multi-vendor
promotion like that, who putstogether the Bingo card or the
passport who takesresponsibility for that?
Mark Sokol (11:39):
In our case, because we've been the initial driver
of a lot of that.
It ends up.
Falling on our team to takecare of a lot of that.
We do such a great job overallat the events we do, we also
bring people into Tampa.
Every quarter we bring a groupand educate them and partner
with other vendors it's a bigburden on our team, but.
The number one thing an eventsperson has to have is
(12:03):
organization, maybe tenacity.
There's probably other things,a little creativity but in the
end it's about being organized.
even if it's a little bit ofmayhem, it's like that duck on
the pond.
You see that duck and littlefeet are going, 90 miles a
minute.
that's what you wanna see.
You wanna see that duck on thepond, that's cool.
everything's fine.
And behind the scenes, a lot ofwork, a lot of activity to get
(12:25):
things done, things go wrong,and no one knows because there's
all been recovered.
And so that's the mostimportant thing.
So yeah, we like to.
especially if it's our idea andwe're coming other vendors, we
work together and just end toend, take care of all of that.
Carrie Richardson (12:40):
So before PAX eight, you're hosting a group
of MSPs.
At a baseball game, once youarrive on the floor, how do you
organize a lead collection atyour booth?
What happens after somebodyexpresses interest?
Do you round robin thoseopportunities to your team?
how do you fairly distributethe leads that you collect at an
(13:01):
event?
Mark Sokol (13:02):
Oh great question.
In some ways it may not befair.
So how we are set up is byterritory we have six owners
which includes.
The world, not just the US andCanada, and essentially a large
event like this kind of spread,there's so many partners that
(13:24):
PAX eight has that come intoDenver at that time.
It generally tends to workitself out.
Evenly in that case.
Some of the smaller events wemay do local or something, then
it's almost not fair 'causeyeah, just somebody driving
over.
But in the case of the Beyondevent, we find it's been good
including international attimes.
It's a good spread, a good mixof people that nobody on the
(13:48):
team in any territory feels likethey've been left out
Carrie Richardson (13:52):
Obviously foxes are a good swag item, but
what else have you seen thatpeople really went nuts for at
an event?
Mark Sokol (14:00):
Yeah.
we've tried every variation ofWTF what the fox, that kind of
stuff.
Any version, you can use Fox inplace of another word We love
giving out shirts and so we'llhave every size from small to,
very large.
we try to make sure that wehave those.
The interesting thing aboutwhat we've learned about shirts
is that it has to actually feelsoft.
(14:22):
we've had some burlap sackshirts that were just awful and
they would shrink the first timeand now they're like a halter
top.
So we've learned we've learnedthat better material, it's worth
spending a little bit extramoney for it.
'cause people tend to wear it.
one part of our solution isblocking, living off land
attacks.
it's a little clever pithy,block, you block him block her,
(14:44):
right?
So we try to be clever.
last year we came out with aversion of a sticker.
I'm not a sticker person.
I don't put any stickers.
I don't like 'em, I don't want'em on anything of mine.
But apparently a lot of peopledo.
So we have a version of thesticker with our logo.
But we had a really cleverlooking a rapper fox, and last
(15:07):
year and that was a big hit.
We don't have them anymore.
Those went pretty fast.
So I'm sure if we were goingaround even at Beyond.
they're gonna have that stickeron the back of their computer.
The other thing we're doingjust from a promotional aspect
is we're actually at beyond thisyear, we're on the key card.
we actually sponsored the keycard.
Carrie Richardson (15:26):
nice.
Mark Sokol (15:27):
Everybody there is gonna see our name right?
With a clever little thing.
I won't give that away.
but it's a clever little quirkything I've been saying this
since I've been at Cyber Fox forthree years, ultimately
cybersecurity?
we are, serious aboutcybersecurity, but it doesn't
mean that we have to be justserious people.
it doesn't have to be one orthe other.
(15:47):
So we like to be cute.
We like to be try to funny, welike, to, get somebody's
attention there.
And again, that goes to us.
Trying to be more than just asoftware vendor, but a partner.
Maybe at times a friend but atleast a business friendly.
And so that's our thing.
Carrie Richardson (16:05):
All right.
Thanks Mark.
It was great to catch up withyou.
It'll be great to see you atPAX eight beyond this year.
It's been a few years since wegot to hang out, so I'll look
forward to, seeing what you gotthere this year.
No hints on the key cards.
Mark Sokol (16:20):
You'll find out you check in.
Alright.
Carrie Richardson (16:22):
thanks very much and we will see you in June
at Pax eight Beyond.
Mark Sokol (16:26):
Thanks Carrie.
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