EP161 - An MSP Year to Remember
with Ian Luckett & Stuart Warwick

INTRO

In this episode of the IT Experts Podcast, we're going to take 2023 and give it a bit of a review.

Welcome to the IT Experts Podcast, the only podcast to help MSPs scale to 1,000,000 and if already there get to 5 and go fast. At the end of the day, isn't it all about building a business that works for you rather than you for it? I hope you enjoy the show.

IAN

So, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome to the IT Experts podcast. And if you're listening to this for the first time, happy Christmas because this is being released on Christmas Day, can you believe it? Hey Stuart, how are we doing today?

STUART

Fantastic and Fantastic.

IAN

Great stuff. Well, today, we're going to do a bit of a review of 2023. You know, there's some amazing things that went on in the growth hub this year in the community, in the channel, all over the place, really. And we're going to review our top four podcasts that kind of made a difference. But what a year it's been, hasn’t it, Stuart?

STUART

Oh, it's been amazing, you know. Every year seems to fly by. This year is yet one of those again. And it's always amazing how much you actually get done when you look back.

IAN

And the thing that I that I love about, you know, working in this in the channel is just the different types of people you're meeting at different types of events. What's going on with security, what's going on with leadership, how people are deciding to grow their businesses differently. And we've just seen an absolute, I'm going to use a word, kaleidoscope of just different things that's kind of happened and particularly as the growth hubs kind of grown an awful lot this year as well, hasn't it.

STUART

It has indeed. And I think kaleidoscope’s a great great word cause which whichever way you twist it, you get a different pattern and I think that's pretty good metaphor.

IAN

Might come up with something rather special, wouldn't it? This podcast is a little bit unstructured for some strange reason, but nevertheless, we're going to have a bit of fun with it anyway, so, you know, we are going to share with you some of the some of the things that we've learned and we've heard and what's going on in the growth hub. And then next week, we're going to give you some things so you can get 2024 kicking off to an amazing start. So one of the things that we heard quite a bit this year, as we were going out, talking to people in the channel was that people didn't know where to start when growing their MSPs. I was actually at the Managed Service Summit and I was chatting to some people and I was sort of saying you know, how do you how do you plan your growth? How do you do things differently? How do you? And because there's so much stuff inverted commas kind of out, there in episode 139 of the podcast, where Do I start when I want to grow my MSP, we put together the kind of the format around that. But this is a real blocker, isn't it, Stuart? It's kind of like getting off the starting post. It's how do how do people get moving. What do they need to do. What process do they need to follow because, there is literally so much help and support on all the different elements of growing your MSP and which bit do I need to do first? I've tried some of it and it doesn't work. Marketing takes too long. It's blooming expense. If I'm not actually a marketing person. I'm a techie, so how do I kind of know what that was all about and this was this course, the real this was a really great thinking moment, wasn't it? For a lot of our prospects, clients, channel partners, friends, all that sort of thing. Where the hell do you kind of start when you're not going to go into the details of this, but why? Why do you think this was such a? A massive question

STUART

Well, I think it's like anything, isn't it? It's like. I know I want to grow. I know I want to run in the London Marathon or the Paris Marathon next year. Where do I start? OK, it's obvious cause we all know we'll start at the beginning. What does the beginning look like? Do I buy a peer trainers? Do I get a coach? Do I start losing weight? Do I need to go to the gym first? You know, in relation to the marathon? And all the answers to all the above might be yes, depending on you. So what all do I do? Do I do it? And I think as a result, people get frozen with the size of the goal. But then what piece of the jigsaw do I pick up first? And as a result, they don't do anything. Like or they try something and they and they're guessing. And it's not the right thing for them or it is the right thing and they don't know how to implement it because they're trying to do something that they aren't ready for themselves and that gets frustrating. Like Ohh I've done that, didn't work. But actually were you was it the right thing for you to do at the right time and actually, did you have all the knowledge you needed to be able to execute it for step One because you're trying to execute step 10, yeah, and therefore it wouldn't work, would it? You know, trying to run a whole marathon in the first month of training to do a marathon and you never done. You would fail objectly, and so I think there's a lot of that that goes behind it and so when you came back and you, you, you posed that conversation that you'd had to us. And it was like, yeah, we're, that's what we do. You know, where do you start?

IAN

And we sat here and we get I, think we sat there, he's like, well, it's obvious where to start, isn't it? Well, it's not bloody obvious where to start is it? Otherwise, people wouldn't be, so you know, for us it's obvious because we've got a process and proven methodology on how to scale and grow your MSP, blah blah blah, end of the sales for now, but you know, we kind of know how it works, but.

STUART

Because we live and breathe it every day.

IAN

Because we live and breathe every single day. But we know that MSPs don't, they only dip in and out of it maybe if lucky, once a week or when things get harder when they look at the bank balance at the end of the month or the end of the year and they go bloody hell, we haven't grown the businesses as much as we wanted to and this was I guess this is a bit of a sales and marketing thing as well. So listen to your customers and hear what they're saying to you. And don't just say, Oh well, they must know where to start. Uh, because uh, because Microsoft 365 does it all. It does. Well, they there's a reason why someone's asking that question, you know, and I think that's a really key thing, but it is really about C-word isn't it because it's about consistency. Because you you've got your plan and you're and you, you know what you need to do. But we give up so easily. Don't we? We do. We do.

STUART

And which is why 96% or 99% of New Year's resolutions fall, by the way, side by the first week of February. And I think it's also why so many MSP failed to scale and struggle because it's actually about consistency of doing the right thing in the right order, allow that analogy talking about the marathon, because if we start at the wrong at the wrong point it will just be too difficult and we'll give up.

IAN

And if you don't have the, you know don't understand what those individual steps are, when you did you know, failed to scale, right? That's really cool. I'm going to do it. Yeah, I'm going to do it.

STUART

You surprised? I said that.

IAN

I'm not surprised, but I think we should make another piece of content out. Certainly. Certainly at some point. Anyway, back on with the back on with the thing. So that was an interesting episode 139 Where do I start? So look if this year is the year for you for like I want to do something about it. I'm fed up with doing what I'm doing. It is about timing it's around, You know you can actually have quite a successful MSP just by being in business a long time and building a great team around you. But if you want to accelerate that, go and listen to that episode and kind of leaning into that one as well. Episode 146 was, how do I get fresh new leads from my MSP? We've done a lot of work this year with our clients kind of tactically as well on marketing. We've got some great friends you know. Mark Coleman, Dave Sutton and Paul Green. You forgot his surname then. So if he's listening to this, tell me if you listen to this, Paul, cause you say you do, but I'm not sure if you do, but if you do, happy New Year to you and all of those great resources out there for Mark. But we're working. As I said, we're working a little bit more tactically with some of our clients with a framework on that this year. But again, this is weird. It's, I'm not going to say an ugly head because this is an amazing opportunity for MSPs, but a little bit like we don't know where to start. But what would you hear, I'm gonna hit you with a question you didn't ask and ask you now, what would your if in MSP wants to get some starts, getting some new fresh leaves in his MSP in 2024. What's the one? Where should he start? What's the one thing that you would suggest they do?

STUART

Well, there's a question is that me buying for buying time?

IAN

You are trying to buy some, but I know you. Know the answer, so you should you should you should just start talking.

STUART

I think every MSP that we come to says I just need more leads. I want to grow my MSP and I just need more business. And yes, at an into a you know at an intellectual level, yes, if I had more customers, I would have more sales and I would have a bigger business but actually is more Leeds the right thing for you?

IAN

So flipping the question on his head?

STUART

Head I am completely.

STUART

Do you need more leads, or do you need something else? Because if we gave you 10 new customers tomorrow, what would break first? However, saying that if you've got the capacity to cope, then where do you get more leads? It's by attracting the right kind of lead to you. I think in the MSP space it's quality over quantity. And so depending and you're all different out there. You know, we've got clients that are focused, you know, specifically on one to five user clients which many are getting trying to get away from. We've got many that are looking at that 10 to 20-10 to 30 users seat base as at an ideal client and we've got others that are looking purely for 50 to like 900 seats and getting clear on exactly who is right for you, is the starting point and the thing though, though with this, Ian, as we say is it's the boring bit. Everybody's heard it. If you googled it, it would say, Yes, understand your ideal client. If you went and engaged a marketing agency. Who's your ideal? Client and you go well. It's anyone with an IT probably walking. You might be specific enough to say. Anybody with 20 to 40 users. Great. But it doesn't stop there.

IAN

Yeah.

STUART

It goes a lot deeper than there and when you get that bit right. It makes the copywriting the website structuring the middle of funnel, the call to actions so much easy, because you are absolutely clear on exactly who you work for and how you then need to resonate with them. So in 2024, if you want more leads, work out how you resonate at an emotional level with the right client. That's right for you.

IAN

I know you come back to answer the question. Thanks. And it's as simple as that, but it is the hard bit. Go and talk to existing clients. Go and talk while people you're prospecting people and you're having sales conversations. Listen to them. Listen to what they want and but more important, you can listen to episode 146 how to get new fresh leads. Because I'll tell you exactly how to do it right. Episode 144 was an epic episode was and if anybody could who's listening to this, could please share why it was such an epic episode? You'd really help me out so the title of the show was the of having a difficult conversation with our leadership coach Julie Hutchinson. And she is an amazing individual person, human.

STUART

Is it Hutchison or is it Hutchinson?

IAN

Don't even get me on it. I keep calling the Hutchinson and I get in trouble for it. So what I do now is whenever I say it, you'll hear me say Hutchinson. So you got this little high piece. This this little skip in. The middle of it.

STUART

Sorry, Julie.

IAN

Yes, we are sorry, Julie. Sorry not sorry. Thoughts. You know, I've been putting my heart and soul into this podcast for probably I don't know, probably just nearly 100 episodes before you rocked up, and now we're probably on about 100 and 69-170 something. Like that but this show that Julie helped put us together, which was how to have a difficult conversation so on the leadership side of thing. Blew all the analytics out of the water and we kind of don't know why. So at the time of recording, we're looking anywhere between 350-354 hundred downloads a week, which we're delighted with from a niche podcast this one week, this show went out, Julie got two and a half thousand, so she was absolutely cockapoo and delighted because it was something we did on the back of a couple of conversations we had, with some of our clients. So it's like, what the hell has happened here? So obviously Julie’s the golden guests on to this, but you know, talking about leadership, talking about consistency of one to ones and building a great team and owner not needed getting you out the way of the business and all of this kind of great stuff. You know why do MSP business owners, find it so hard to have a difficult, uncomfortable, maybe tricky you know, conversation with their with their people?

STUART

Because it’s with people, not tech. Confused. Well, yeah, you know, to simplify it in in a humorous way. Yeah. You know, technology doesn't argue back, does it? No, it might not work, but it doesn't argue back or it doesn't go quiet. It doesn't go sick or it doesn't say yes when it means no, no, when it means yes.

So yeah, it it's complex, isn't it? And you know, staff also are not one of, but that usually the biggest expense in a in a business and by not engaging in in proper conversation. So let's not say difficult conversations, Proper conversations is you're not getting to the heart of the matter. And so as a result, it gets put in the gets put off. Therefore they don't get feedback. They don't get a chance to voice their opinion. You don't do the same. Therefore, everyone's working in in the dark. The blind leading the blind ultimately because you're not communicating effectively, they're not having a chance to talk to you or be heard. So therefore they're they're having to guess what they think it is you want or try and remember what it was you said. When you last said it, whenever that. And so it becomes. Well, as I said, the blind leading the blind. But conversations don't have to be difficult. I think they're more than difficult in your head. Yes, because you haven't got a process. And if you're not, naturally, you haven't if well, many MSPs have never actually come out of other businesses or been in managerial positions where they've had to manage for people, so it is a bit scary if you go back. If you think back if you're comfortable managing people think that's the first time you ever had to have a one to one or run an annual appraisal, you probably didn't know what you were doing, right? And you either blagged it or you're. Did it or you had?

IAN

A list that someone told you to say. Start at the top and finish at the bottom, and this is how to have.

STUART

Yeah, yeah. This conversation. Yeah. And you probably thought it was waste of time and you could have been doing something better with your time. And and this is What goes on Because when you're an MSP business owner you're busy, particularly at this growing age. And so there's always something better to be doing and I haven't got time to spend an hour or more sitting down chatting about stuff because you haven't got process and you haven't got a framework and you can't see the point and the value, but the value is enormous and it magnifies the bigger you get.

IAN

So if you want to make Julie's episode even more popular, go back and listen to that 144. We'll put all the links to these in the show notes, but the art of having that difficult conversation or said Stuart said the art of having a proper conversation with Julie, which was, which is absolutely cool. OK, last but not least, you know, everyone's busy. Busy being busy, busy doing things. Am I doing the right things? Am I focused on the right thing? Am I being consistent? Probably. If you if you think you are, then you think you're not, then you're probably right. Whichever one it is. But in episode 140 we asked Stuart. How do I find more time in my day? Because you know all the time versus every client kind of comes into the growth hub. They're overwhelmed doing stuff that they shouldn't be doing or should not shouldn't be doing. That's all way round. So they should be. You're focusing on other things rather than their happy place, which we kind of touched on a little bit in the last little last little episode. But you know, people are busy. There's loads of distractions out there there's loads of vendors out there, we love the vendors because they help, you know, keep the channel alive. But also, guys, you're just causing so much distraction every time you bring out a new little shiny widget or a new plugin or a new API, or a new bit, something you got to whack AI in front of anything and that you're going to just turn the heads of all these MSP business owners any any day to have a look at your new product service system, whatever it might be. So loads of distractions out there. Lots of competition out there so that they think there's competition. Because MSPs will do the same things, but we know they don't know why is there such a big thing to it? Why is it particularly in this industry that you know, focus concentration is it and the lack of planning? Is it around lack of understanding as we sort of said on what to do next? Is it the way that the MSP's brains are wired?

STUART

It's about control. We forget that we're in control of our time and we grow up or we start a business and actually it's defined by our time. You know what we do literally in front of our nose, you know, fixing this, fixing that, picking the phone up to that. Responding to a text for that or a ticket for this fitting in that getting under the server that. Ordering this sending the invoice out for that it's constant doing and it's obvious what you need to do, but as you get bigger and you take on that first team member, you get more clients. What you we forget is that we're in control of our time because time, time is all you've got at the time and you're trying to fill the time. You have no customers. And you've got no business. Then you get one customer and you fill all of your time serving that one customer because it's the first customer you've ever got, you haven't got anything in place. So it takes time to do everything. So you fill your time, then you get 2 clients and you fill your time with two clients. But after a while, it's not about what you do with the clients, which shouldn't be, but you've been trained by yourself to define your time by what you do with client. And so taking a stopping as we as we would have said in the in the in the original podcast stop because you are in control. Take stock stock and stake stock you know wrong whining. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stock and take that.

IAN

That wasn't as good as failed to scale. OK. Fail to scale was pretty good. Yeah, I'll do a webinar on that. And like, dedicate. Yeah.

STUART

Stop, take stop. Yeah. Today, yeah. Alright, that was it. OK, alright. Of where you're spending your time and realize that you can redistribute what you do with that time. You can delegate stuff you can not do stuff and focus on the things that are most important to you depending on what is important to you. And that brings us back to having a plan, knowing what is going to make the biggest difference this week, next week, next month, this year. And I think it boils down to that control you are in control of your destiny. What is your destiny? Where do you want to end up at the end of this year and what is it that you are going do with your time to get there.

IAN

And what you can do differently next year, than you did this year?

STUART

Yeah.

IAN

What's going to make that shift change? What's going to make that that pattern interrupt?

STUART

It is and they these are all cliches, but cliches are cliches because there's wisdom in cliches when you boil it, boil it down. And so you know what got you here isn't necessarily likely to be what gets you there. So just remember, if you're feeling like you haven't got any time, remember you're in control of your time.

IAN

Very sobering thought to end there, almost like you telling everybody off. But why not indeed? You know, we just wanted to give you a bit of a sharp blast listening to listen to over the over the Christmas break and kind of just to share with you again that you know, if you want to make 2024, if you're curious how to make 2024. Better than 2023 and you will only be able to decide what that looks like. You know the growth hubs growing. You know, we're working nearly 50 MSPs now. We've had some amazing traction with, you know, speaking on some international stages this year, which has been brilliant and just go and hit the website mspgrowthhub.com on there we've now got an events page which has got recordings of all our webinars, help you with some of the things around leadership, how to build my business, how to grow the business how to, you know, get more leads and sales and things. And we've got an amazing Facebook group. I think there's about 450 MSPs in there right now. Go and hit that scale with confidence Facebook group. But you know, most importantly, if you want to know what the next best thing, the next step is for you, go and hit the quiz, go to the on the website. Go and hit the quiz and we have a MSP mastery quiz and it will share with you some information about where you are right now where you want to be, what's kind of in the gap and when you're ready and if the time is right, just reach out and hit the button to have a chat with either themself or Stuart, and we'll help you get closer to owner not needed. We'll hope you get closer to where you want to be running that profitable business that you running rather than you're running itself.

STUART

Yeah, Ian. Brilliant. You know, go find whatever you need in terms of resources to help you make 2024 a great year. But just remember, we're about to close down for Christmas. I hope you can close down for Christmas. Have a great time. Be present with your family or friends. Whatever you're doing and look after yourself. You know some quality time out to have a think. Plan, drink and be merry, as Ian would say, and let's get ready for what next year has to hold because it's not just a year in isolation, it's just part of the journey.

IAN

And it's up to us to decide what we want to do next year. So thank you. You know, from me particularly for, you know, all the support we've had on the podcasts. If you're still listening to this point, do us a favour and pop over to iTunes and give us a rating and review that would be brilliant. And yet all the support from all the all our clients, all people that will be meeting in the channel and everybody out there. So enjoy yourselves, have a great time and catc up with you in the new year. Take care.

OUTRO

So, I hope you enjoyed the show. If you did, I'd love it if you could leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to learn more about how to take your MSP to a million, or if you're already there, go faster, then come and join Stuart Warwick and myself in the Scale with Confidence Facebook group, the link is in the show notes. You can enjoy the rest of your day and I look forward to connecting with you soon.