Predictable Revenue Starts With an IT Tune-Up: Joe Iannone and Rick Munger

speaker-0: Joe, how are you doing, sir?

speaker-2: All right, thank you.

speaker-0: Right. Happy Tuesday.

speaker-2: What's that? Exactly. Yeah. It's funny. Happy Monday. Happy to everybody says, you know, happy Friday and Thursday. But Tuesday, you know, it's like, what happened to Tuesday and Monday? You know, it's why can't you be happy? If if you see Reed AI come up, just get rid of them, remember? That's our thing. Yeah. It's ⁓ it's kind of funny that and is Simone coming too?

speaker-0: Happy Tuesday.

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, she she should be here. Momentarily.

speaker-2: Excellent.

speaker-0: Right. What's the new with you guys? Anything?

speaker-2: It's b it's turning out to be a busy week, which is nice. It didn't start out that way, but we have a lot of follow up to do and meeting new people, this is the best part of of this. We just it it's funny 'cause a software company that remember you know the VFM we're partnering with a software company. They're upgrading their software and how most pla it's just deferred another couple of weeks. So for us, we get customers It's like it's like the Kentucky Derby. We have the racehorses right in there and they wanna run the race, but we have to kind of put ⁓ on hold because the the APIs with us and and you know this lingo, right? Nay, you know yeah, so you know, we're trying to get connections not just with assets that the software is doing is driving, but also those can the sensor connectors that that we are initiating as an additional option. So that is gonna have to be a few more weeks after that. So it just it's like anything else, you know, it just takes time. But the IT tune ups are really what's what's driving a lot of people to because just there's more susceptibility that people are unaware of and they we think they're taking a proactive approach now. And right, Rick, we're and we're seeing when people don't take the proactive approach. What happens?

speaker-1: ⁓ yeah. Big mess.

speaker-2: Nan, I love how you you're very organized. You got everything laid out. ⁓ we we have to Rick and I have to commend you that we've been on podcast before. Uh-huh. It was more like wing it. And you're like, No, we don't wing it here. We we have everything

speaker-0: Yeah, I'm trying I'm trying not to. I'm trying to, you know, make it ⁓ a pleasant ⁓ experience and structured, yeah, for for the attendees. Yeah. I w I my I I want to ⁓ I want it to be one of the best experiences that they have, you know, ⁓ with an with a podcast. So Whatever that may mean. How many times?

speaker-2: Nate, how many have you blended these and how y how many episodes? Well ⁓

speaker-0: Well technically more than fifty. Yeah, but ⁓ I would say like with the current sort of like planning and strategy behind it, it's really only been twenty this year, I would say. Okay. And really it's probably less than that.

speaker-2: Fifty, okay.

speaker-0: Because the strategy has kind of like been this evolving thing and and ⁓ I didn't w I just two weeks ago got us on to ⁓ Spotify and Apple and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, so that is that is a new thing. I'm look getting into like podcast SEO and all that. Everything all the things that involved with that for discoverability and yeah, it's been quite a quite a ⁓ rabbit hole to go down.

speaker-2: Great. If you wanna use this if you wanna use this as a guinea pig or you wanna you know, whatever you're gonna do, we'll we're here to to help and we don't mind.

speaker-0: Well ⁓ the whole the whole like the whole ⁓ my whole approach anyway. ⁓ Simone Simone, welcome Simone. Quick before I forget, ⁓ Joe Joe is asked to remove the read.ai notes, just so you know.

speaker-3: Yes.

speaker-0: You she ⁓ Simone has control over ⁓ this this particular call, so yeah. but we we were just talking Simone about the ⁓ the experience here on the podcast.

speaker-1: People every having a licensed therapist with you by video, phone, or chat.

speaker-0: Is that is that who's that? Is that Smone?

speaker-3: No, it's not me.

speaker-0: Somebody's got background.

speaker-2: You got background, Rick.

speaker-1: Yeah, I'm turning it off.

speaker-3: Something clay.

speaker-0: Where in the world is that coming from? ⁓ we we were just talking about the ⁓ the experience and and all that. And ⁓ they they were comp complimenting on the ⁓ you know the structured ⁓ nature of the ⁓ the outline and and or the ⁓ the the the guest briefing document and all that kind of stuff. So yeah.

speaker-3: Wonderful.

speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓

speaker-2: I I think you use the word cadence, isn't the word is that the that's the word you use?

speaker-1: That's the word he used.

speaker-0: I I enjoy yeah, like having having a a certain cadence to how things go, the flow, is that what you mean? Yeah.

speaker-2: Yeah, I like that was a great movie. ⁓ cad wasn't that drumline? You get that cadence going, that flow going. And ⁓ there's a great we usually say sequence, but I like cadence because it's a rhythm, it's a harmony, and that's exactly what you're trying to do. In life and in business, you know, we're all about that. Thank you.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-3: No.

speaker-0: Exactly, exactly.

speaker-3: Okay. ⁓ did you update the the outline? ⁓ Okay. Rescending. Got it. Never mind. Yeah. Because this one is saying it's in your trash. Yeah, just like ⁓ no.

speaker-0: Rick Rick sent me his ⁓ updated bio, so that was ⁓ updated the ⁓ the outline.

speaker-1: I just got tied up with too many things and yours was a side note except and Joe kept asking me, Two days in a row. Rick, did you send it? Did you send it? Rick didn't send it. So Yeah.

speaker-0: No problem.

speaker-2: Your Yeah.

speaker-0: Ha ha ha. Yeah, but what what what I was gonna say was my goal, you know, I want to give a good experience to the attendees, but just to make you guys look good, you know. while at the same time kind of fitting it into, you know, the pillars that I talk about a lot, which are like the visibility, the viability, the value of a of a business, right? It's all about growing a business and what ⁓ what that goes into what goes into that. And I think we've talked about I think I mentioned this before on one of our calls, but my goal with the one of the main goals of the podcast is to get connected with people who are who I see as like potential COIs, like centers of influence, you know. So it's like a one-to-many approach in that case. Simone and I were just talking about this earlier. ⁓ she has a ⁓ a partner that she works with ⁓ who's a real estate agent or excuse me, a real estate broker.

speaker-3: Both.

speaker-0: And and they're they're working together to build an app for them. ⁓ so that ⁓ I think it's like a tracking tracking app for agents. Is that right, Simon?

speaker-3: ⁓ So it makes referrals so much easier. I guess traditionally you know. Yeah, I'm not in the in the real estate market in the real estate space. So she came to me and said, Hey, I want to build this app. I've had this idea for a year and a half and ⁓ you know, I f I feel like you're the person to to help me out with it. So basically she felt like in the real estate space, in the industry, real estate agents needed a better way to ⁓ to refer clients to each other. without ⁓ without like the Zillows and the Red Fins you know creating this well Zillows and Redfins and all these other they create this pay to play space. Yep. You know, where the real estates only get get visible to the the market, ⁓ to people who are looking if they have the money to be on those on those sites.

speaker-0: Well what you what we had talked about was how ⁓ you wanted to reach out to podcasts.

speaker-3: Yeah. So we just launched Yeah Agents. the idea is ⁓ so now that we've launched ⁓ the I wanna to get you know just get a list of podcasts that ⁓ that ⁓ Janice can be on. She she's my partner. ⁓ that that speak to real estate agents

speaker-0: Speaking to one minute. ⁓

speaker-3: Or ⁓ get in front of brokers who you know, who work with who work with agents. There's a lot of brokers out there I found out who they don't necessarily work with agents, they just kinda do their own thing. Right.

speaker-0: They are their own.

speaker-1: They just they're just floating around.

speaker-3: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, this app is like we made it we made it so that like the whole referral process is is much more seamless and easy. And ⁓ so now now we gotta let the world know. Or let the United States know. We can't do this so around the world up there.

speaker-2: Nate, do you mention Lobo at all? Because you you we we are in a that

speaker-0: group. not do do you mean on the for for today you mean?

speaker-2: just yeah, I mean to say other groups that are altruistic in nature, 'cause there's you know, we belong to only a handful of those. Most of them of what Simone is talking about, that, you know, people or or groups, they're running at their own pace of for their own reasons where like Lobo and and Roe and and what we got, ⁓ it sounds like Simone has too, is that w we're we're running as a pack. We're running together. ⁓ you know. And it's refreshing to s to see. Simone, do you know about Nate and Lobo and that group that he's involved with? And we're involved with Nate.

speaker-3: That I don't know. Hold it back on me. Hold it back on me.

speaker-0: He's holding ⁓ it.

speaker-2: Hold them back!

speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ Roe ⁓ is a ⁓ Rogelio. He I met him on Lineable actually. Rogelio Rogelio, excuse me. Met him on a lineable, he's in Chicagoland area, but ⁓ he has started up this networking group called ⁓ he calls Lobo, where it's ⁓ you know it's ⁓ opportunity for it's low commitment, no fee. you know, networking group where they meet monthly and ⁓ just ⁓ the whole purpose is to connect people and ⁓ you know ⁓ promote each other's businesses and help each other out and that kind of thing. So that's an interesting idea. ⁓

speaker-2: And that's how we that's how we but there's something special Simone with Nate and with Ramon, there's another guy, Ramon, that does trademarks, right? That does ⁓ passing the mentality is how what can I do to help you versus you know, what can you do to help me? It's just it's the me versus we and the group is all about the we.

speaker-0: License.

speaker-3: And

speaker-2: And ⁓ with with Ramon, he helped us do a trademark and he didn't want anything. He says, ⁓ you scar you guys do this, this is how you know I'm gonna help you. Six months when it when it comes through you'll you'll you'll do we'll talk. And and and it's really the same thing with with Nate. So some special people and and ⁓ sounds like you are too, Simone. So yeah.

speaker-3: ⁓ well I I try to be. Yeah, it's yeah, this this whole ⁓ the the way this this referral system goes with the real estate agents, it's it is pretty cool. ⁓ you know, and it's really a kind of a a corner of the market that I didn't really know was a thing. ⁓ that, you know, a lot of there are a lot of ⁓ real estate agents that get most of their business from referrals. Right. ⁓ And it makes sense. Like if you're you can't keep your client if you're based in Georgia and your client wants to move to DC and you're lo you're not licensed in DC. So you need to find so this ⁓ this app makes it easy to find somebody who is based in DC, check out their profile, see if they're right for your client, refer them to your client, and then once that deal closes, ⁓ then you get paid and And then ⁓ they also pay that platform fee. So we don't get paid until they get paid. So nobody's nobody's putting any money up front. For us as the app builders and the owners of the company.

speaker-0: Very good.

speaker-2: Yeah, I get it. Yeah.

speaker-0: ⁓ b before I forget, Joe, ⁓ your last name. Is it how pronounce it please?

speaker-2: ⁓ it's it's really Ianoney, but ⁓ but I actually say Ianone. I like stomach, Malone. It's just one of those things and

speaker-0: Okay. Easy to remember.

speaker-3: Is it Italian? It is, okay.

speaker-2: It it definitely is. Yeah. I love to cook, I love to eat. Babies, we got five children. Just love life, you know. I mean that's you know, that's just what it's about. You go you you jump in, Simone, or you don't or you're not jumping. I'm a jumper. And and Rick's half Italian.

speaker-3: Well make it Yeah. Okay.

speaker-0: Nice. Very cool. ⁓ and Rick, your last name is Munger, right? Like Munger. Like Charlie.

speaker-1: Long lost uncle, right? Yeah.

speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. ⁓

speaker-1: people don't realize that yeah there there wasn't such a guy. They only remember Warren Buffett, so

speaker-0: Yeah. Well it he just passed away, Charlie, right? That's long ago. Yes. Yeah, unfortunately.

speaker-1: Well.

speaker-0: Same ⁓ same ⁓ philosophy though, brought those two together. All right. Well very good.

speaker-3: Great bag.

speaker-1: My copy of the will. So yeah.

speaker-0: Ha ha ha.

speaker-2: You know what they say, if there's a will, I want to be in it.

speaker-0: That's it. Nice. Yeah. All right. So ⁓ we are we ready?

speaker-3: I like that. Yeah, I think we're ready.

speaker-2: Ready for takeover?

speaker-0: just a couple preliminaries. Simona's going to broadcast live to her YouTube channel. So this will be like instantaneous there. And then afterwards, like next week, I'll put it out next Tuesday, ⁓ through the other distribution channels, ⁓ Apple, Spotify, etc., my YouTube channel then as well. I I I add a little more to it. Like I'll I'll include like an intro and then an outro and that kind stuff. But I will provide you with the main video itself edited and all that, right? And then ⁓ I also have been cr including ⁓ shorts so that you you know, those are good for social media and that kind of thing. So if you wanna use those. ⁓ so I will give you all that afterwards next week. So yeah.

speaker-3: ⁓ god I've gotta check my my channel over here because it just says it just says ⁓ live stream. But it doesn't say YouTube, doesn't say anything. Where are we live streaming?

speaker-0: Is that because of Zoom? Did they change their things around? They've been changing.

speaker-3: Yeah, Zoom has changed something. Which is very annoying.

speaker-0: Yeah. But anyways, I also will include ⁓ your link that you guys ⁓ suggested in ⁓ my newsletter in the show notes description of the of the ⁓ and all that kind of thing. So ⁓

speaker-2: And we're like Nate, we're gonna consequently help out too. We just let us know what we can do. We're gonna like like what you do and go to what you do, support what you do.

speaker-0: Right, exactly. Basically it's you take you can use the video yourself if you want, ⁓ in whatever way you choose. Right. And then if you want to like promote the the show that I'm distributing, you know, share by sharing links and that kind of stuff, that'd be great. Social media posts, you know, whoever you come across, just make ⁓ more aware of it and that kind of thing. That'd be that'd be awesome. Great. Encouraging. Hey, there you go. Perfect. Yeah.

speaker-3: Nice. Okay. Well, ⁓ I guess I won't be broadcasting live to YouTube because I have no idea how to do it now without

speaker-1: Well I'm out of here.

speaker-3: So I well we'll r ⁓ do the recording and I will wing it.

speaker-0: Yeah, that's strange. I don't know what

speaker-3: That is strange.

speaker-2: Take if you want to take a minute, Simone. I if Rick, do you think you can help here or what do you think?

speaker-0: They've been changing so much.

speaker-3: Yeah what's going on. Well yeah, I don't want to ⁓ take up too much time to to figure it out. We ⁓ we've we've got that line. I'll just do what what I what we would normally do. Sure. Except without live streaming. Go with the flow. Okay. ⁓ That's just odd. It's odd. Well, ⁓ I think

speaker-0: Okay. ⁓ shit.

speaker-3: Maybe it's because ⁓ well you wouldn't see it probably because ⁓ because but ⁓ but yeah I used to I used to see it and now it's gone. And I hit reset. ⁓ I'm wondering if like maybe you have to change your live stream settings within your account first and then come here and do it. I don't know if

speaker-0: 'Cause I wouldn't be able to, yeah. Could be. I don't know. They probably sever the connection without telling you.

speaker-3: I know, right? Like, yeah, we don't we don't want to work with Google anymore. We don't like them. Anywho. ⁓ all right. I'm gonna hit record so I can record it to my computer. And then we'll we'll just go. All right, here we go. Welcome. Here is a statistic that will sit with you. 72% of business owners say cybersecurity is their number one technology concern. But only 2% have actually done anything structural about it. That gap, 72 to 2, is not a knowledge problem. Founders know the risk is there. They know the systems they Run on our aging. They know their team's productivity hinges on technology nobody is actively maintaining. The reason nothing happens is simpler and harder. ⁓ The cost is no longer optional. Today's guests spend their time in that gap. They help companies see the operational machinery they have been running blind on and fix it before the bill comes due. Today we're talking with Joe Ionone and Rick Munger. And ⁓ they are the owners of Iger Creative. I hope I said that right. Hey guys, welcome and hi Nate. Let's get it.

speaker-0: Welcome, welcome, welcome. So yeah, as j as Simone said, we're joined today by Rick and Joe. Rick ⁓ is the CIO and owner of Iger Creative, which is a IT consulting and business process firm he founded in 2004. Rick has a background in mechanical engineering and computer information technology. He studied at UConn and Central Connecticut State and has ⁓ spent his career as a user interface designer. Data architect and application strategist for companies you have heard of. ESPN, Pitney Bose, Cigna, IBM, United Technologies, Grumman, Otis Elevator, Sikorsky, Travelers, Lincoln Financial, Chase Bank. That is quite a litany. And the list goes on. ⁓ he he has worked across manufacturing, warehousing, retail, oil and gas, healthcare, marketing, and insurance. And he has founded multiple companies and built multiple software products including DOS Planner and QR Meds for Healthcare and VFM, the Visual Facility Management Platform. We're going to talk a little bit about today. So Rick is not just an advisor on this stuff. He act he's actually shipped product out here. Joe Joe Ionone Ionone ⁓ leads business development at IGR Creative and brings a different lens. Joe has spent his career inside healthcare. Food service and hospitality. excuse me, food service and hospitality, military, commercial, and industrial sectors, helping sales and operations team align around strategy. The reason I wanted both of them in the room is because the most useful conversation about operational infrastructure happens at the intersection of two perspectives. The architect who can see how the systems actually work, and the business person who can see why companies keep avoiding the conversation in the first place. That is where we're going to get into today. So, welcome guys. Joe, you have worked across more industries than most consultants ever see in their career. ⁓ when you sit down with a service business today, regardless of the vertical, what it what's the pattern that you see you keep seeing around how they think about their technology and operational infrastructure?

speaker-2: Nate and and Simone, pleasure to be here. I just want to say that right off the bat. And Rick and I are are both honored to take some time out of our day and yours ⁓ to be able to bring up this critical infrastructure and i it's not an oversight so much. It's just it's it's ⁓ and it's funny because in the background I we we have the Iger Creative ⁓ logo, which is Iger Mountain in Switzerland. It's one of the most revered mountain climbing ⁓ destination. And it's it's really For us it's not just a mountain, it's a mindset. You know, we're we're the Sherpers that take people from the baseline all the way up to the summit. And then once you get there, you also have to come back down. A lot of people don't think about that. They think, you know, let's let's scale up and get to the mountain. Yeah, you're right. But you have to come back. We l it's nice to scale up the mountain tops, but we live in the valleys. And and and that kind of leads into what what we're trying to do here is that as Simone had mentioned, a lot of businesses just show up. They show up East Day, they put the computer on and hope that it works. ⁓ even even before this ⁓ the podcast today, there were some technical issues. And it's and it's like, okay, we I know we got to laugh because it happens, right? Just like as Forrest Gump says, it happens. And ⁓ what we try to do is understand that a lot of things happen. You can't take everything out of the equation. But what you can do is mitigate it. You know, we try to free up companies to do what they they're they're designed to do, what their talent brings them to do, not to to put out fires and not have to be ris responsible for the back office, which is usually the IT. You know, we we we think of the IT as, you know, okay, call Rick or call Joe and they'll fix it. But there's a lot that can be done before that. It's just but it's a mindset of being proactive, as as Simone had brought up ⁓ so eloquently and Nate the same the same way. So most businesses though, like you said with the seventy-two percent, seventy-two percent of the aware of cyber, just one aspect, cyber security. Yet only two percent impl have anything implemented for that. This is a statistic. So, you know, and then they're they're concerned when something happens. What we try to do is take the guesswork out of that. We help them to put systems in place. So when something does occur, they're not only used to it, but they don't get emotional. We know scientifically that the brain responds at an emotional level, the primal part of the brain, right? Fight, flee, or freeze. What we try to d work on is the prefrontal cortex. We try to make everything come to a section that is not an immediate response. It's like, okay, we've planned for that. You know, and we fire fire st ⁓ stations, police, EMTs, military, they all have the same theme and that is let's prepare, let's let's do some mock trials so we're ready when this occurs.

speaker-0: Alrighty. So ⁓ Rick, you've been on the techno technical side of this for thirty years. From where you sit, how has the actual infrastructure underneath these businesses changed in the last decade or so? and where are most ⁓ operators still up excuse me, s where are most owners still operating on outdated assumptions?

speaker-1: Question.

speaker-0: Take a time.

speaker-1: Yeah. So the so the first part of your question, the the infrastructure hasn't really changed all that much. The tools change, the players stay the same, type of thing. and ⁓ we we've seen the introduction of AI, we've seen the introduction of of ⁓ newer products and and so-called newer ways of doing things. But when you when you tear it all down. It's a new face on on the same stuff. ⁓ AI is is really advanced automation. ⁓ yes, it can do some of its own thinking, but for the most part, it's still got to be guided by humans. ⁓ the the other tools that are out there, old ones, ⁓ older ones are fading and newer ones are coming in. You analyze them, they have a new face on them. They're still doing the same accounting. They're still doing the same business processes. There's some new tools and new ways of doing things that are great though. and to that end, we're taking advantage of ⁓ and introducing our clients to as many of these new tools as we can in order to get the most productivity that they can, be as most profitable as they can.

speaker-3: Do you say that it's ⁓ like what's happening with with these new tools is really just helping them to helping businesses to do the same things, just faster and easier?

speaker-1: And that's you you hit the nail on the head. It's it's allowing them to do things faster and easier. and like with AI, what can it do for you? ⁓ we've we've implemented it to go and do a lot of the menial tasks of data entry so that way people don't have to sit there and and scrape all the information and enter it into a spreadsheet. AI can do that for you. So those are simple things where There it's it's a wonderful application for that.

speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yeah, we we just had a conversation last week with a AI expert. ⁓ that's that show's coming out here actually today, but on my channel anyway. But he talked a lot about ⁓ you know, you don't want to just let AI kinda do its thing and ⁓ free of human intervention. You definitely have to have to stay on top of it. But ⁓ anyway, yeah. ⁓

speaker-1: It needs checkpoints.

speaker-0: Yes, yes, yes, exactly. All right. So ⁓ let's get into into it, I guess. ⁓ we're gonna start with the first segment here, what business owners, what founders get wrong, ⁓ specifically as it relates to what you guys are apt to have to offer here. And in my mind anyway, it sits in the the viability layer of the V three ⁓ system that I talk a lot about, you know, visibility, viability, and value. So ⁓ internal systems are either supporting ⁓ growth or they're ⁓ eroding it, right? and it seems like the challenge with IT and operational infrastructure ⁓ is that when it's working, nobody knows. It's like out of sight, out of mind, it's invisible. But ⁓ it gets ignored until it stops working, right? That's that's the the problem. And then it becomes a ⁓ One of the most expensive problems in the business ⁓ to solve, right, or to fix.

speaker-3: That's what we call ⁓ no news is good news. Like I don't hear about it, I don't need to think about it. It's all good. Everything's great.

speaker-0: Yep. It's like you don't re you don't think about your the plumbing in your house until you hit a leak, right? ⁓ Yeah. So

speaker-3: Yeah, right.

speaker-1: As an IT technician, that's that's one of the sayings that was always said is if you screw up, everybody knows your name. If you do the good job, nobody knows who you are. Right. Or even why you're justified to work there.

speaker-0: Right. Yeah. Yeah. What is it you do here? Yeah. ⁓ Yeah. so so Joe, going back to that it's the seventy two percent ⁓ stat that you mentioned here. what what's going on in that gap there? Why why does the concern not translate into action?

speaker-2: It's probably a combination of complacency, just a little bit of ignorance, ⁓ thinking the same thing that, you know, if if it's not if nothing's happening wrong, then why am I thinking about it? But yet, you know, we we have two services that we do focus on and and I I know we'll get into it. We call it the IT tune up, which an assessment, ⁓ w we gather information of what's important, not just cybersecurity, but you know, software updates. integration, optimization, efficiency. There's a whole there's a whole slew that that makes it better. And ⁓ but it's it's probably it's not it's not a malicious ⁓ you know event that's occurring by founders, owners, you know, vice presidents, any any key people of an association. It's just that, you know, we're busy. We're busy. We show up and we expect things to run. And I think we own most of us own cars or some type of a vehicle, right? Yeah. And you know, to think that you're not gonna you're gonna get by with a no no oil changes, ⁓ and no tune up, ⁓ not putting gas in the car, and and just doing the basics, even car wash or just you know, just analyzing, you know, what's happening, i it's not gonna last. I mean, you're probably gonna get from A to B, but if you're ready to take a four hundred mile trip or a two hundred mile trip, what do you think the chances of somebody that has been proactive and doing all those things ahead of time to somebody that's never had an oil change or never had a tune up or never done anything. They just want to get in their car and, you know, expect it to go.

speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. You can't account for luck though, Joe, in that case.

speaker-2: No, and and and you're right. I mean common sense is not common, right, they say, but we we just try to make it easier. All we all we're trying to do, Rick and I, is just make people aware. And if they're aware, then they can act more responsibly. ⁓ and that's and then unlike other MSPs, multi-service providers, mana service providers, is that we show them. Like we will take ⁓ through the process and we'll also

speaker-0: Ha ha.

speaker-2: Show them what we did. A lot of MSPs do not do that. They i they want to keep it a secret. They'll charge every month, whether they you use their services or not. We're more fractional IT support. So that's that's how we're a little different than most, is that we're project based. We come in, we help, we're outside, educate the team, whatever questions you have, you know, we'll we'll help them. ⁓ and that's where I think that most companies think that this is an expense. you know, where it should be an investment. It's two mindsets, it's two attitudes that are completely different. ⁓ but once they understand that they have a a team of of people and we have a team that that work with us, it's they're all specialists, that they will understand it's like going to a dentist, right? We all have to go to a dentist. Even if you have no cavities, you have to go because you're trying to avoid pain, you know, depending on on what you have. ⁓ I I just rather go and get it over with and and make sure that I know and then they always give you a proposal. Here's what you're here's what's going wrong. Yeah and then you take it wherever you want to do. ⁓ and it's just like us. We're just we're just overseers. But the best part is we'll st we'll step back. We'll educate and step back. And I think most companies just think of IT and and Rick can chime in on this. They have their own idea of what IT companies are and or even departments within IT ⁓ companies. And we're there to support IT ⁓ in within companies in addition. If if you don't have any or you have one or two or you have a dozen, then we're there to s help support them. We're not the bad guys. We're actually the very good guys because we're just pointing out what needs to be done.

speaker-0: All right. ⁓ I'm there I'm gonna have a follow up to that here in a minute. But ⁓ so Rick from from the technical side, when you are walking into a small business that's been operating on the same setup for five or ten years, let's say, ⁓ what what's the gap between what the owner thinks is happening and what is actually happening ⁓ on the network, let's say?

speaker-1: Yeah, I think some of it goes back to what Joe mentioned at the at the outset was is it's often it's not malicious. It's the owner is looking at what's what's the biggest priority on their on their radar. It's getting their own product out the door, whatever that is. And ⁓ to that end, yes, a lot of the thought pattern is if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Also, when it comes to security, they're looking at it and saying, well, Why would anybody ever want to attack me? Well, it's not about attacking you. It's about using you as a pawn to get to some other guy, is what they really want, you know, or use your resources so that way you get blamed and they don't. So ⁓ but ⁓ for the most part we're we're when we walk into a place, we're we're looking at their facilities and yes, we're analyzing the age of their equipment, the age of their software, And ru in the old days, running old software was not a problem, but in the age of the internet, that spells security problem. You know, so so ⁓ we're we're looking at at these things and looking for any kind of exposures that we can. ⁓ security being a major thing that we look at, but we're looking Make these things work faster, better. Yes, it sounds like the six million dollar man, but it's ⁓ we can rebuild it better, fast.

speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ okay, so this is kind of an open question to both of you. Do you do you I'm assuming, but what what is it costing businesses to kind of just let this ride and not be proactive?

speaker-2: Yeah, I mean there's I mean there's a course that I took, statistical analysis in in college, and I got a lot from it, you know, it's funny if you're a business guy, right? You're taking a course like that. But it was a course also on life, because no matter what decision you made, there's a probability to it. And no decision has a probability. It's people think that if you make no decision, then nothing will happen. No, it's if you make no decision, two things are gonna happen. It's it's either gonna be a bad thing or it's gonna be a good thing. And even if it's a good thing, it might not be a great thing. It could have been better. And you know, so the the i it it goes back about what do people perceive their day as gonna be. Like Rick had said, you know, they're in the business to do their business. ⁓ if they're a yacht maker, they're there for to make yachts. But To make a yacht and we and and this is what's great about our bit, we really are passionate about what we do because we can meet so many different businesses. This applies to every business pretty much. We haven't seen one that we haven't tackled the other day. ⁓ we had an oil refinery. fellow come to us from Saudi Arabia and it and they want to be able to visually see what's going on. ⁓ and we're we're gonna help ⁓ So but the point is that it that everybody needs to to do their business. The what they do not need is they don't need things to happen in the back of the house that is gonna delay them. And there's a cost to that. So really again, to think of this as more of an investment than a cost would be better for most businesses to see it that way. You know?

speaker-0: Yep. Gotcha. So ⁓ it when it when it happens, and I guess this can be for you, Joe, ⁓ you using that phrase of the IT IT tune up, you know, specifically kind of bring like you said mentioned earlier, it's kind of like maintaining a a car or vehicle, right? Keep it keeping it tuned up. So what would you say changes when a business owner treats it ⁓ the way they would treat their car? ⁓ you know, as far as like, you know, regular tune ups and that kind of thing, ⁓ instead of being more reactive on the other side when something breaks.

speaker-2: Right. Yeah, so everybody every business has a budget to work with. You know, and what this is what this does is help them take that budget and allocate it accordingly. New computers, you know, n new server, ⁓ employees, new employees. You know, it it's funny 'cause we were we were talking with a a company the other day, very successful in their in their space. Their space is Is educating executives to communicate better with their teams. And it this is this is exploding right now because the amount of people that qualify people that want to come to work for a company is less than it ever was. It used to be that people want to go to work. Yes, they needed to make money, but you know, they put in 30 years with company. I would, you know, I would say, you know, raise your hand. If you get a group, you know, we'll go to two, three hundred people, a thousand people, and we'll ask the same question. maybe a d a dozen or so people raise their hand. They just it it's just not there as as it was. Now with companies, they they're aware of this. So to have their employees show up for work and contribute and know that the executive level is also wanting to contribute, to bring the best out of them, to make an environment that they not only a a surviving but thriving. It's not it's not about the paycheck as it was, perhaps. Once ⁓ but it's more. It's about the the collaboration, the the especially in the younger years for a lot of people coming into companies, they want to do the best they can. You know, it it's funny there's a guy, Arthur C. Brooks who is a a professor at at ⁓ at Hobbit, and he brings this this concept together all the time and that's about satisfaction, happiness. especially at work, you know, and when businesses understand this not just about employees, it's about employees being satisfied so they are doing the work the best of their ability. And with AI and with these ⁓ these systems in place, you're able to get more out of the employees. You and and really to your your question, Nate, is that with IT tune ups, we work with businesses to Formulate what's the most important thing to take care of. Is it is it cybersecurity? I think everybody would agree. Is it software that's outdated? any integration, any automation that could be done with manual tasks like Rick had mentioned in the beginning. These are all the things we look at. We rank them and we price it out with a proposal. So at the end of all this, they will have a proposal that they help to create, right? And they're gonna Bring on key people with departments and everybody's gonna be on the on the same communication level. So they're gonna have that budget and they're gonna be able to do it's like it's like eating the elephant. How do you do that? One you one bite at a time. You can't do this all at once. You know, you just take small little parts of it and then and just solve that. So we make it very comfortable with them because what happens a lot of times they lose hope. Simone, you you brought this up is that People lose hope that, ⁓ you know, new software's gonna cost us ten thousand dollars. I don't have that right now. So what do they do? Nothing. Okay. And and we find out or a lot of institutions, ⁓ you know, there's a university we're based on in Connectic Connecticut, I'm from Massachusetts. There's a university in Connecticut, can't say the name. We did some work with them, and we did just a regular flyby, a casual external penetration, and found out that there were two ports that were exposed. There was outdated software. There was integration that should have been done better. They had a staff of, you know, about a dozen people in the IT. And when we turn over ⁓ that information, it seems like the business psychology is let's figure out what happened there and protecting their jobs and titles more than more than protecting the institution. And you know, in Columbia University, this is public information, is that There was a breach and 300,000 people were affected. Now, what is that? It means a cost because they have to provide ⁓ a a malware software that protects against malware, and that cost alone is going to be tremendous. But the brand, Nate, the brand someone. Yeah. That's the problem is that, you know, there's so many companies that we know of that that took hits because of their field. complacency, the complacency with just letting things happen instead of taking a proactive approach.

speaker-0: Mm-mm. So the the cost in that case is the damage it does to the brand, not to mention monetarily. So it's kinda double ⁓ double whammy there. Right. ⁓ at least two if not more. But

speaker-3: A a question. ⁓ sorry, Nate, jump in here. so would you say that it's a bit of doing some work on on their on their mindsets and and kind of helping them to shift their beliefs a little bit before ⁓ before you can even really work with them or before they can adopt ⁓ adopt what it is that you're you're trying to do.

speaker-2: Yeah, you know, so we bring up a good topic. Like you said, we we're working with a company ⁓ that that's all they do. They work with corporations starting at the executive level, but the buy-in has to be not only with one person. The that person that's so called in China, and we we deal with all C levels, is that they bring in, we ask them to bring in other people from other departments, even if it's a medium sized, small business, whatever it is, is that We want them to have that type of communication and engagement so the so the that mindset is not just one person but a collection of of minds and you know what challenges it's all about the challenges, the needs, you know, the pain points. Everybody wants to talk about pain points. Well, people have them. And and to hide them is just to d defer that to a later date instead of this is your one chance. Take it. Let's bring everybody in, get a contribution, and then everybody feels like they've contributed. And you know what? What Rick and I are okay with with it because we're out to help them. We don't want the cred the last thing we want is credit. We want it we just want thank you for for helping us to be more aware of the issues that we have and the cost of it was minimal compared to what we got out of it. And we're not just planting the seed now for Simone. We're planting it for the future.

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-2: If that makes sense. I'm I'm hoping it does. You know, as a as an Italian I I love to have a garden. So everything's with everything's food. I I I I make a great pesto, I'm told. It's all organic, basil, parsley, you know, garlic all that. And and I put it together and you know what? I think I give out more than I actually eat. Because and we have pesto parties sometimes. We'll bring people in, show them how to make pesto and

speaker-3: Does it make sense?

speaker-1: ⁓

speaker-2: They're happy and they make it on their own. And and it's okay. I don't I don't lose anything. I I game people because they feel better. We do the same thing with the business. When we educate them and bring them in and show them what we did, they may not want to know everything about, you know, what is going on. But do you wanna so when you get your car fixed, I remember I have five I'm blessed with five children and four girls, one boy. ⁓ yeah, God God really took care of nothing like you know, so I'm Women in your life and and I love ⁓ believe me, ⁓ is that I always mention, especially to the to to my daughters, is that when somebody fixes your car, just ha take a couple extra minutes and go over what they what they did. And do and and I'm telling you, they at the end of it, they asked the right questions and they felt comfortable about what people did and and the mechanics or whoever was, you know, in charge of their vehicle and and the and and what they did, they felt that they also took an interest and And and maybe you can't do everything all at once, but you still have an understanding of what it ⁓ what's being done and and Rick does a great job with this. ⁓ he's not just be my partner, he really does ⁓ I you know, we we teamed up years ago because unlike most people, they they just want to do it and get it done. ⁓ Rick has a really compelling story when he worked for a company that he had ⁓ he was in one cubicle, another guy was in another cubicle, and the members of The employees used to used to be able to come to both of them. The one guy would just do it and get it done. And and wouldn't tell them anything. And Rick, I hope I'm telling the story right. But Rick would just take that extra few couple of minutes and if they wanted to know, he'd explain it to them. And then afterwards the other guy said to Rick, he's like, Why would you want to tell them about what you know, what we do and what what you done done? And and Rick, what did you say to to him?

speaker-1: His opinion was he he was all about protecting job security. And ⁓ and I told him, I says, No, you're thinking about this all wrong. The whole idea is to give away as much information as possible. And he says, But but why? I s and he said, Because if they view you as a source of information, they're gonna come back to you all the time. So you not giving out the information, now they're viewing you as somebody that's in the way. Yeah. And

speaker-3: It become more of a resource rather than just ⁓ the guy, the the the guy with the wrench, you know, that just fixes all the nuts and bolts. Like I can actually come to you for information and and you can help me and point me in the right direction. I can I can get anybody to to with the wrench to fix the nuts and bolts, but the person who's gonna sit and explain it to me in a way that I can understand, well, that's the guy that I wanna keep around.

speaker-0: Having having been ⁓ the the salesperson who had to go and talk to engineering, I can I can totally appreciate this. ⁓ because

speaker-2: You know what the funny thing here is? Watch this. It's like with that attitude that Rick and I have, and it transfer all our team members, is that we're almost putting ourselves out of business sometimes because the the more it's like in a, you know, if you have a medical situation, ⁓ I help with the community and I'm involved with that too. I I try to get involved with just a little bit of everything that I do. You want to triage so that people get better with the initial ish issues that after a while that they'll have a good understanding. So we we educate ⁓ a enough and and people that want to learn more will help them more. So they're solving a lot of these things even before they they get to us. So how does that help the company? Goes back to what you're saying, Nate. How does it help the company? It saves them money when they call us.

speaker-0: So much time saved.

speaker-2: Exactly. And it's like we're putting ourselves on a bit but we're not because ⁓ we're helping t them to think about it a little differently. So when they do call us, we're really helping them. You know, we're really getting down to something.

speaker-0: You don't you don't feel like you're being a burden on

speaker-1: The funny what what ends up happening though is after a while of doing this in this fashion, of giving away the information to to ⁓ help promote you know better educated ⁓ clients, ⁓ I find that my wife is getting asked questions and people are expecting her to know. She says, Look, just because I'm married to guy doesn't mean that I know all these things.

speaker-0: Right. Right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah. There's gotta be a joke in there about pillow talk. I don't know.

speaker-2: ⁓ yeah.

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-2: Go ahead. No, there is there is one. There is one. And you know, our wives keep us very hum when we you know our wives know each other even though we're two and a half hours away. You know, I say I li my favorite pie is humble pie, slightly warm with a little French vanilla ice cream and some nutmeg.

speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. Favorite dessert, yeah. ⁓ all right, so can you can you guys give us an example? You can anonymize it if you if you want to, of a business that thought their technology was fine right up until the moment that it wasn't. ⁓ what was going on underneath ⁓ that no one could see and you know ended up being bad.

speaker-1: That would give you a good one. ⁓ I I had a ⁓ an assignment at a at a client, a large insurer, and they said, ⁓ one of our departments is is having a problem. And can you can you ⁓ walk down the hall and go go check it out and find out what's going on? Well, that department was in charge of eleven urgent care centers around the nation. And One of the problems they saw, they saw IT as being the the big impediment and they didn't want to go through IT. So they hired some ⁓ some people and ⁓ did it themselves. Well they created a whole system with using Excel and using Microsoft Access, which was great, except the size of running eleven urgent care centers, large urgent care centers. ⁓ the amount of data that was coming in took 30 days to process. Just to process the incoming information. So by the time they got the decisions, ⁓ the the ⁓ information back to the urgent care centers, the people in charge over there couldn't make the decisions because it was 30 days too late. No they needed the information right away. So they they asked me to to step in and see what I could do. So we stepped in, ⁓ took a look at it. First you look at they were they're underpowered. They're running everything off of a desktop, off of a laptop. It wasn't gonna run that way. Moved it to an official database, not Microsoft Access. ⁓ basically gave them the right tools. Once you supplied them with the proper tools, now everything ran in three days. Data coming in on the first day, they could make their decision on the second day and put it into action on the third day.

speaker-0: No.

speaker-1: They were done. ⁓ the the company claimed that I saved them two hundred million dollars. I wish today that I got paid as a percentage.

speaker-0: Mm. Was was that yeah. ⁓

speaker-2: From now on.

speaker-1: Example of of taking a look at the situation and saying, look, you're using the wrong tool set. Let's let's get you up to date. Let's let's address the problem.

speaker-0: I I would imagine the two hundred million was just in man hours. Not to mention the ⁓ all the mess that it created.

speaker-1: Part of it was man hours, part of it was real was real money because it was sales not being achieved.

speaker-0: Okay. ⁓ the opportunity costs, yeah. Good green. ⁓ okay, great, great example. ⁓ all right. So let's get into your framework, your approach to things. how you're actually thinking about this. So ⁓ mo ⁓ most business owners out there, if they're being honest, they probably would say that they have no real idea what a healthy technology and operations posture is.

speaker-3: Yeah.

speaker-1: Exactly.

speaker-0: even looks like for a business their size. So when a f when a founder ⁓ hires you guys, what is the actual work that gets done here? So first off, I guess walk us through the cadence of an IT tune up. So you talk about weekly, monthly, quarterly, what's happening at each of those intervals and why does that cadence matter?

speaker-2: Yeah, Rick, I'm gonna let you go ahead because

speaker-1: Well the way you start the cadence the cadence matters. ⁓ we usually recommend a quarterly review. and part of the reason is is because business most businesses run at a particular speed. ⁓ and if and certainly there are companies that go and and do their IT tune-ups either on a continuous basis or they do it on a monthly basis. ⁓ A lot of times you're not gonna find anything or you're not gonna find anything of significant value ⁓ with with the cadence being too fast. ⁓ that's why we feel that doing it on a quarterly basis, you're actually we're actually going to find something of value that they can actually work on. ⁓ something that that is ⁓ of of significant nature.

speaker-0: So do you d do you have people who re irregardless, they would they would prefer a more, you know, monthly situation because they're just that, you know?

speaker-1: For for certain for for certain aspects, ⁓ they would prefer yes, we ⁓ we would implement ⁓ for instance a a security system. So maybe they bring us in ⁓ and as as an example, they bring us in, we look at things and find ⁓ a security defect of of some nature. ⁓ so we implement a security program of ⁓ at least we recommend one that's that's US made and We we in would install that and monitor it over a period of time. That's continuous. ⁓ so we look at that and if it brings up particular issues, we'll make the customer aware of that. But the other ⁓ quarterly reviews we would still continue to do, but those are going to look at other things like business processes, automations, other ways to help the the customer ⁓ either. save money or implement things to allow them to make more money.

speaker-0: So Okay. Are are you sending out, you know, regular updates and that kind of thing, or is it you're you're just getting together with the business owners and the stakeholders and going over the the review at that point?

speaker-1: Yeah. We go over the review at that point after we do it. ⁓ one of the one of the latest things that that we did is ⁓ we did a review for a chain of pharmacies and ⁓ they were complaining that they're losing money to the ⁓ insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers that are not reimbursing them. ⁓ we looked at it and says, Well, with your online systems, you're you're out here, you're Hosting these videos, what if you gave your clients a way to recommend associated products? By that I mean is if a prescription makes you sick to your stomach, because that's one of the side effects of the prescription, why not recommend the peptobismol, the other things that help the patient with nausea? ⁓ So so tie in these products so that way they're going to ⁓ be a benefit and they're front of mind for the client. So it's a little bit of marketing, but it's also a way to now help the client ⁓ with an idea that is a fairly simple thing. So

speaker-0: As far as like get getting technical here on the the ⁓ the IT tune ups, what are what are you actually inspecting?

speaker-1: Ooh. ⁓ we're looking at security. We're looking at ⁓ business automations, we're looking at interfaces to ⁓ other products. ⁓ either either the lack of an interface or that they're using an interface that they shouldn't. Maybe that interface is not secured. ⁓ we look at ⁓ the way ⁓ people are using online. products to find out if if they're protected. Are they using a VPN? ⁓ is it possible for somebody to break in and ⁓ steal information from them? Are they are they ⁓ complying with various standards like HIPAA or ⁓ SOC2 or or there's there's a a a ton of different ⁓ different standards that ⁓ that they would need to go to

speaker-2: Yeah.

speaker-1: ⁓ so you we're doing all of that and and ⁓ and in the end we're also looking at things like I mentioned with with the pharmacy one, ⁓ even looking so far as to say that coming up with ideas for them to ⁓ improve their sales processes. And then with that we're implementing the IT systems to help them do these gotcha ideas.

speaker-2: And and and and Nate, let me let me just add if I can. So I mean we have a whole checklist of you know, if you mention cybersecurity, you know Can we do a penetration test? And there's different types of that, right? Just to see vulnerabilities, areas of what's the password policy going on? Like who has the password? How complex is it? ⁓ what are their roles? What are the permissions for the the different employees? What what level? Is there a zero trust strategy in place right now? ⁓ what it you know, HIPAA laws. Rick was mentioning about, you know, healthcare facilities. What are the HIPAA rules and and how is that IT affected? ⁓ if you talk about hardware, what is the age of the network infrastructure? ⁓ do you have a desktop hardware? Is it up to date? Now there are mobile devices tied into this, you know? ⁓ software assessments, we'll go through some of the software. What is the is there a license that's coming up? What is the process? What's a current system? ⁓ it it really is looking at How about a disaster recovery assessment? I mean, in other words, we we beer down in this. We're not just and and what we do is we share, we'll send out we'll send out this assessment to people so they can complete a lot of it and have it done. So by the time they get to us, they're talking about it. And that's what this is what I mean. So there is just like you have a structure in this podcast.

speaker-0: Mm.

speaker-2: You have to have some cadence, like you said. And we're and we do that right off the bat with them.

speaker-1: ⁓ the issues that Joe brought up a a great issue. ⁓ everybody might think, may think of of doing their backups and making sure that their system is protected. How many people actually do a test of the restore to make sure it works?

speaker-0: Do you I was just gonna ask or what what are the things that like maybe an internal team ⁓ overlooks that you guys are actually ⁓ finding? I'm gonna that's obviously one of them there. But yeah.

speaker-1: We we had a client that was a a a ⁓ large medical ⁓ they were heart surgeons. ⁓ five doctors in the practice, ⁓ maybe thirty people in the office ⁓ helping them out. And ⁓ they had office manager that's supposed to be doing the backups. It was their responsibility in the in the accounting office to make sure that the tapes got loaded every day. Simple tasks. And in those days, okay. They're adults. We didn't check on them weekly to find out if they were doing it. The system goes down, they call us. We got things back up, but the data was three months old. So, and that was just from the recovery that we were able to do. We went to the accounting office to look for the tapes to say that, okay, we need something to bring us from from 90 days old to current day. Where's the tapes?

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: What tapes?

speaker-0: Really.

speaker-1: They had lost not only had they not done it, they lost the tapes. They lost all the tapes that they had. They nobody nobody was doing it. So

speaker-2: So Simone, it goes back to what you were saying and and you're very intuitive about this. I can I can tell is that are people asking the right right questions when they go to work? Or are they just showing up for work? You know, and and but if they if they're empowered and the communication is there and the a and and the the people in the executive positions ⁓ allowing them to be open and adventuresome and curious. I would say that, you know, curiosity is a good thing. It didn't k it might have killed the cat, but but it honestly actually is a great thing in business because if leadership listens and they know people are trying to be curious for the right reasons, then everybody wins. And this is what we're hoping that they they do. is that they're just asking the right questions. It's like the Socratic method, right? The Socratic method is just not providing the answer, but getting down to the root challenges. What are the issues? What keeps them up at one o'clock in the morning? ⁓ or if it's not keeping up up then maybe they should be aware of it at least. You know, it it it goes back to what okay, so that person that we mentioned, does a person the next day say, oops Or do they really value their position and want the best? And look, things still happen, even though you have the best intentions, you do the best job, and that's really where we help out too, is that we just make those oops less often. And when the oops happens, we just have a system that will be able to get it back online quicker. And and because it's backup systems, right? You know, why do we run true tests all the time? I mean the

speaker-0: Mm.

speaker-2: The the best surgeons in the world test all the time. They run through scenarios of things that could happen. And, you know, we invite businesses we love when businesses are doing that, not just doing what they do best, but thinking about what innovations they can do for the industry. Because the businesses all this AI stuff that's happening, we love it by the way. I I Rick Rick will tell you that I challenge AI all the time. And You and and Nate, I think you know what I'm where I'm going with this because we got visual facility management on there. I'm not gonna get into it, but you educate AI so it's thinking properly. You educate people the same way so they're thinking properly for the right reasons. Because we're humans. We wanna think the we want good things to happen. Most of us want good things to happen. ⁓ and we really want it to happen for the company if we're fully engaged.

speaker-0: So having testing set up, backups, what other things do do businesses need what what does a thoughtful IT posture look like other than that?

speaker-2: Well Rick is think while Rick is thinking, see how Rick's apostry is thinking, is that while he's thinking, ⁓ depending on if it's healthcare, ⁓ look there's regulations by the way. I mean there's regulations of the water businesses. And are they being compliant? And we if we if we can't do we bring in experts that are specific for that industry.

speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

speaker-2: to make sure they're meeting those obligations. So yeah, definitely testing, ⁓ practicing, ⁓ regulations, ⁓ making sure things are up to date. ⁓ when the when we do IT tune-ups, remember it's not everything has doesn't have to be done now. It does it. Or or it doesn't have to be done weekly. Like for instance, cyber protection, you can see that every day. We're tied in with a company that you get you could get a report every day if you wanted to. ⁓ but it's more important that you get a report of issues every day.

speaker-0: No, that's what that's what if everything is important then nothing is, right?

speaker-2: Exactly, exactly. Exactly. And then updated software. I mean, you know, you don't have to check that every, you know, week or quarter. ⁓ but you should you still should check that. So again, there's there's very important things and there's there's other things that that are as important but in a sequence, in a cadence, like you said, you know.

speaker-1: Catching.

speaker-0: Well, let's get into ⁓ VFM, ⁓ shall we? So I'm guessing that most people out there have not heard of VFM. ⁓ they probably ⁓ once they realize what it does, or probably like this where has this been all my life? You know, most likely. So Rick, you you built this as a product. Can you walk us through what VFM actually does? I think ⁓ Joe described it ⁓ somewhere along the line as integrating facility data, asset tracking, maintenance schedules, and KPIs into a a nice dashboard. what else?

speaker-1: And yes, it does all of those wonderful things. ⁓ the idea started very simply. The notion was is that that ⁓ we were involved with a particular client. The the client was showing us this is our our dashboard from our facility management system that we have, and it's showing all these wonderful pieces of data. But it occurred to me, I says, so so ⁓ you've got ⁓ seven buildings on your property. How can you tell? Show me, show me all the ones that have heating problems. And they're going, ⁓ okay, we they're gonna go here, we gotta go there, we gotta, ⁓ no, let's change this. He says, Well, what if you could just bring up a picture of the the site plan of your property? Yeah, and you can say, Show me the heating problems, and three buildings would light up. And then you click on the building and it drills down to okay, it'll show you.

speaker-0: Mm.

speaker-1: which floors of the building are having particular issues. Maybe it's a a bad thermostat, maybe the furnace is bad, maybe the ⁓ the air conditioning is is not working in particular floors, or it's too cold on one and too hot on another. Little issues like that. So

speaker-3: We see that in T V shows.

speaker-1: So the idea was basically to apply a picture, a blueprint of a building, a site plan of a major property, whatever it might be, so that way the person can now see the data rather than just try to find it in mountains of reports.

speaker-0: Yeah. Way easier. It's like l it's like the difference between looking at a spreadsheet and looking at a chart, right? Like Yeah. The it's immediate, impactful. You can see where the all you know all the outliers are and all that kind of stuff. I think that's it seems obvious. No

speaker-3: Right.

speaker-1: I use a hotel example ⁓ where I say that ⁓ I said suppose there's a ⁓ hotel with with ⁓ a shower problem, there's a leak on floor five. And then the the maids are reporting that there's ceiling problems on floor four. Nothing specific more than that. And on floor three, there's wallpaper peeling. And they don't know why. Okay. Not until you line it up with the picture do you find out that all of those rooms are lined up underneath each other.

speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Right.

speaker-1: Right. So so this is where this the power of the picture comes in. And and that's what we're really bringing to the market here.

speaker-2: And the the best part is that so really this this was a project that Rick and I both ⁓ came up with and work with and you know, my my side, the business development side, hi his side operations and how the magic is behind behind the the curtain. ⁓ but to better understand you know, visual facility management and we we ask, you know, if you go to Google, you y you type in visual facility management, you'll I get creative there and others. But what makes us us a little different is And let me just step take a step back, and I think Rick we probably agree on this one, is that you'd have to say what is a CMMS system, which is computerized maintenance management system. Yeah. And and this is a system that's used for ⁓ for organizations to manage assets. And there are there are a lot of those out there.

speaker-0: That's that's more kinda like the the common industry lingo, would you say? C ⁓ S. Yeah. It is.

speaker-2: Yes. That's right. Now with with VFM Visual Facility Management, we're also using either their CMMS system or we have one that we you know can utilize, we can integrate with one. We can do a lot with CMMS systems because it's taking that system and Utilizing the extraction and documentation of all assets in the build an asset can be anything from a compressor, a pump, even a fire extinguisher. I mean you think of it, envision an empty building and then putting anything in there, computers and you know, servers and anything. ⁓ documenting that, making sure that you keep up with the age, the service that has been done on it, ⁓ because again, it goes to budget, because every year. budgets have to be revised and and what what needs to be replaced. Okay. So you take that system as just on a spreadsheet most of the time. But if you can put that on a visual dashboard that you can now see some visual and intuitive visualizations. In other words, when is something going to probably break?

speaker-0: Yeah. And the potential ⁓ cost of that.

speaker-2: Well well now you got something. ⁓ because those are analytics that everybody would love to have and you know we're trying to help them with it. Again, we we have a questionnaire that that people will will just ask them to think about. You know, do you have blueprints for the facility? What are your key areas of monitoring? HVAC, electricity, water, cyber sec security, maintenance scheduling. What are the performance ⁓ metrics that you what you need? Is it energy, is it downtime, is it safety? It like we we talked about compliance. Is it compliance? ⁓ do you currently have a CMS system? And they will say yes or no, whatever. We'll we'll and then we'll work with what they have or we'll provide one. And then those insights that we talked about, is you're just trying to determine how long you can get the use out of the assets that you have. Now this this does bring in the the documentation for manufacturers. Manufacturers, depending on let's say it's piping, they'll they'll know pretty accurately on certain flow how long piping will last. So how valves, you know, th these are things that are important because look if it's a hospital setting and something goes down, they can't use the water or electricity or or some cyber attack occurred. You better believe it that, you know, they have to be they have to have some systems in in place already. So I'm hoping that's answering the question a little a little bit more, right?

speaker-0: I think so. I think so. What ⁓ so y since you're the bus business development side, Joe, ⁓ what at what point does the the the founder or the facility manager go from a polite interest to actually wanting this in their building? So how do you know you've got ⁓ at that?

speaker-2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like right. It's not about get them, it's ⁓ got the interest interest. It's about helping, right? So so with look with the IT tune-ups, that's simple, right? Every business needs them in some form or another. With the visual facility management, I would say that the facilities of all types definitely could use the same MS system. They get a record, they they they have to document, they have to keep up on on all compliances. So that's a given. I I i i it but Now where smart buildings are coming into play. So I would I would say that if you want to think about this, Rick and I subscribe to at least two or three ⁓ facility type of of management and you know periodicals. And and we see every week that more buildings are required to be smart. What does that mean? It means that let's say with HVAC, that the temperature, the thermostats are tied in wires. wired or wireless to a server, to a software. And then if it's if it's tied that way, then we can put that on a visual dashboard. Okay. ⁓ gauges, you know, s whether it's ⁓ Johnson and controls or Simon Siemens or any other of the other ones, we can take their their information and put it on a dashboard. Now Are those are already existing? Yeah. I mean the the operations manager will see that the gauges are where they are. He just goes to a a central location. But is are other people that should be seeing that? Are they seeing it in an instant? We can say we'll say, yes, you can also see that if that's a a KPI, if that's a key performance indicator, we'll put that on the dashboard. So it's really comes down to you know Do okay, so if you're thinking about it, mostly medium sized business, manufacturing facility, hospitality, obviously, hospitals, educational facilities, manufacturing facility, even breweries. You know, we joke, right? You know, we l we love given that, you know, we're we're gonna climb the mountain with you, but we're gonna come down and have a couple of beers and burgers and just and talk about the stories. Because everybody loves stories. You know, Plato said those that tell stories rule society. And he wasn't wrong. Because everybody wants a good story. You know what the best stories are? The stories that involve other people and it's a success story. We're where we're we were also involved and we're honored to do so because we love the we have so many stories on people that we've helped and avert some major issues. That's that's the thing. You don't the minor stuff you can get over, the major ones are difficult to get over.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-2: You know, we just don't want to put ⁓ in that position.

speaker-0: I actually have a story about ⁓ hiking up a mountain with a keg in of beer in a backpack. Yeah. Yeah. I get a couple That was hard. Six miles. ⁓ anyway, ⁓

speaker-2: Great stuff. I climbed up Mount Washington. I mean that's the highest peak we have over here.

speaker-0: This is Mount Rose near ⁓ Tahoe so yeah. ⁓

speaker-2: Great. Yeah. Well we get we're gonna have a couple of burgers and beers on that one. And Simone, please we can have wine too, by the way. If if if beers aren't your specialty. ⁓

speaker-0: Yeah. Why is why it's about

speaker-2: Crude de tay platter. I crude de tail.

speaker-0: ⁓ all right, so Rick, you you've been building software systems for decades. You have dose planner, QR meds, VFM. What makes visual operation system actually useful in the long run versus you know, maybe like the normal dashboards that f ⁓ the business owners have been using ⁓ and abandon?

speaker-1: Yeah, lemonade.

speaker-0: Six months.

speaker-1: Right now, the the idea when we first thought of this and applied it, ⁓ believe it or not, it was a novel thing that's that is not common in the industry with facility management. So we looked at it a little further and said, well, one of the ideas is let's make this available as a plug-in to all these other systems. And that's good because now it adds a visual capability to them. And as Joe was was just mentioning about the idea of saying let's now let's add real-time sensors. Okay, that could be as simple as ⁓ tie into the nest thermostats that you may have in your hotel. ⁓ but it also could be something much more technical, like a ⁓ petroleum refinery and they're measuring the fluid that's going through the pipes, and they're trying to predict when are these things gonna wear out. Well, they want our system they want to pop up on our system so that way they're gonna get a warning in advance before the oil pours all over the ground. So so ⁓

speaker-0: Yeah. Environmental and ⁓ economic disaster in that case, yeah.

speaker-1: Correct. So I mean we're yes, we looked at all these things in order to bring these ideas into into the ⁓ limelight so that way we can make a truly a a product that's ⁓ worthwhile to stick around. So

speaker-0: Okay. So ⁓ R y Rick, you're you're also obviously we talked about this earlier about how you're ⁓ focused on AI technology and as it is applied to IT and business operations. So what would you say, just to kind of shift a little bit here, what would you say is ⁓ changing for small to mid sized service businesses right now because of AI, and what do you think they should ignore?

speaker-1: ⁓ right now there's AI engines being produced every day that that can be used for certain things. ⁓ Chat GPT is used and mainly is focused on helping you helping people create ⁓ better writing, ⁓ better text. Yeah, it's good for that. ⁓ Claude is great for doing more scientific type of things. ⁓ There's there's ⁓ AI engines that are out there to ⁓ help ⁓ programmers do their coding so they can get it done a lot faster. ⁓ The list is endless. I mean it's there's so many different things that that it can be applied to. So

speaker-0: Yeah, okay.

speaker-2: It it goes back data, but it goes back to what you were saying and and Simone was saying too is that with AI. You want to use it effectively and efficiently to to to to gather a a collective amount of information, right? That's mundane that we don't want to do anyways, but gather it into an area because the decision ultimately we just need to make it faster. ⁓ it's not i and you if you have more information, if you got all the facts It's just allowing you to get past that one. So you can address another one. So so really but it's not used to make the decision for you. That's when AI gets dangerous. And you had said that in the beginning of the program a little bit. Is that when when you allow AI to gather the information and make the decision, ⁓ and I and again I we use it all the all the time and I've actually ⁓ prepped it. to ha to try to make a decision and they're getting smart. They're saying no we can't make the dis because there's liability. Right. And you know, they they understand that really they just should present it. Present the cases. And the better you ask the questions of AI, the better information you're gonna get back. Yeah, that's what we're finding. ⁓ it's very intuitive to a point. But ⁓ and it's funny, I was on a pod well, I was on a podcast this morning

speaker-0: Mm-hmm.

speaker-2: And there was an artist there and she was very good. And and somebody asked her the question of what's AI doing with all the the artists? They're losing their jobs. And she said, and I chimed in too, is that when AI can suffer like humans, then we might be able to have that discussion.

speaker-0: Yeah. One thing AI can't do yet.

speaker-3: That's the angst of an of a true artist, right?

speaker-2: No be yeah, because

speaker-1: Yeah, exactly.

speaker-2: I mean she does she does a lot of work with pain that's happened in the past and putting it in art and people love it. And it's the same thing with IT, with business, is that I'm gonna give you one other statistic that the issues right now is that a lot of the older f workforce are retiring. And you know what's happening out there? This has been happening for years, is that they're taking their information, their knowledge, their secret sauces that they were working with on all these different shifts, first, second, third shift. And this is retiring. And a lot of the the comp the smart companies before they retire, like well before they retire, a year before they retire, not only are they asking them and they'll pay them a little extra to educate the next group coming in, but they're documenting all that intri intrinsic intrinsic cultural knowledge specific to their industry and specific to their business. And and they're putting it in a place that is valuable. That's what AI is good for as well.

speaker-3: Yeah, sure.

speaker-0: That ⁓ that that kinda hit the headlines here recently w ⁓ with Meta who is forcing their employees to train AI to replace them, which is

speaker-2: Yeah, that's not good. That's that's not what you

speaker-3: Right.

speaker-0: That's kind of the opposite end of the spectrum there.

speaker-3: Yeah.

speaker-2: You wanna you wanna teach you wanna so again just think of A as accumulation, not teacher, accumulation. And then once that data is accumulated, the next group of people, ⁓ unlike what matter, I'm not gonna get into it, but unlike what they're doing, you want the new people coming in to be empowered that way. To have that so the baseline increases to not zero information. No, we have this information. By the way, person's done it for twenty years and now ⁓ we would like you to take that information, now incorporate your what makes you great on that base and then work from up from there. So yeah. So exponentially you get better.

speaker-0: I think this was wasn't this the promise of ⁓ higher ed? Like giving everybody a leg up, ⁓ and you know, allowing them to kind of like do a leapfrog of sorts, you know. anyways. ⁓ it's interesting, interesting idea. ⁓ okay. Well, very good. So ⁓ we we talked a little bit about earlier, ⁓ about I know I want to be mindful of the time too. ⁓ we're at almost two thirty now. Are you guys okay? Or

speaker-2: Good. We're good.

speaker-0: Yep. Okay. All right. ⁓ we talked earlier ⁓ about how you will give the give the businesses that you're working with, especially on the IT tune-ups, kind of like a list of things. And they get they get to work on it before you actually get there. That way it's already kind of like in their active memory and they're ready to talk about it and that kind of thing. So as far as the the work that you're doing with the IT, the the ⁓ the v the VFM and that kind of thing, what has to be true about the the business strategy, the the sales process, the the revenue system for what you guys do to actually help, in other words.

speaker-2: You understand the question, Rick?

speaker-0: Okay. All right. Yeah. Do do do do they need to have certain things like a like ⁓ certain things already kind of like in place, a baseline? In other words, are there are there maybe maybe another way to put it is are there businesses that you can't help because they're lacking certain things? So

speaker-2: So some of the challenges that we've had, let's put it that way. Some of the challenges we've had with working with businesses like that are number one, allowing us in. Trust. Trust. Do they do these businesses trust you enough to let you into their castle? Right? Yeah. Let down the drawbridge. I mean, it's funny, in the middle age, I I like to bring visuals. The most vulnerable time You know, say you have a castle, you're letting a drawbridge down. Do you know the most vulnerable time of of that when the the castle had to get supplies, right? They had to get food, they had to get all kinds of stuff. When was the most vulnerable time of that of the castle? Right, when the drawbridge is up. Yeah, exactly. Because after that, the drawbridge is up, there's a moat, you know, it's all stone, you're not gonna be able to penetrate it. It's the same thing with us with businesses, is that

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-2: They have to have a real commitment and a buy-in. You know, if you don't have that attitude, Simone, you brought this up already too. If you don't have that ⁓ willingness to trust, so Rick and I have to build up a certain level of trust, fill the immediately with a business. Are they ready? You know, it's like, are they ready for a change? Do they have the budget for a change? You know, I mean these are all nobody wants to talk about money, but That's why we try to do a proposal. We rank things of the most important is cyber the most important thing. Okay. Cyber protection, most important thing. And we by the way, we have companies that we we we work with that have been proven that that do it at the best cost efficient level. Okay. We ha we have, you know, it's is you're not gonna get the enterprise level. You're gonna get a level that, you know, is is feasible within your budget. ⁓ replacing software. Do you have to replace it now or can you just update it? You see, to be compliant in a certain industry, let's pull in somebody to figure out how past due you are. We're gonna find most people are that they're the smarter ones have kept up. The other ones are just trying to survive. And ⁓ you know, Rick, you you probably have specific examples of this, but it it really is that that trust that they have to give us to come in and set passwords and you know. Sent in different levels of passwords. Would you tr I in other words you would you have to say, would you trust somebody with that type of you know, information or integration?

speaker-0: ⁓ I mean I I you know, I think f ⁓ it would have to come down to the size. You know, if if I'm a large company with many employees, I would think that would be one of those things where unless I had a a fully functioning, you know, IT department on hand, obviously. And even then, yeah. I yeah, I would I would think that ⁓ that would be an ideal scenario where we could hire someone like you guys to come in and say, Hey Take this over because I don't have the the means or the ⁓ the wherewithal right now to hire an entire dedicated department.

speaker-2: So that that's why I need that's why I need there's more right now than ever, there's more fractional IT support than ever. Because a lot of companies they they can't afford a IT department anymore. ⁓ they may not even need an IT department. Or if they have one, they maybe they can reduce the size a little bit and have us come in. Remember, we're agnostic that way. We're not yeah, we come in with no agenda except for what the project is.

speaker-0: Right.

speaker-2: We go in, we solve, we show you, we get we get out. If you want us around on the sidelines just to monitor things, we're gonna be there for you. But there is no business. So the problem with businesses, a lot of time we find is that there's a business culture. There's and we know we know this with human nature. There's things going on in there that, you know, even the boss doesn't know. And they should they should know because if they had buy-in from the right people,

speaker-0: Sure.

speaker-2: then then they would have this. But that's some of the shortcomings that we're finding. I hope that answers your question, is that just to build that trust and to be able to get in and solve these problems.

speaker-1: Go ahead, Rick. One of the things that that we always try to do is be that trusted advisor. That's the position we're taking. We're not going to become a a ⁓ used car salesman. We're not there to make the quick hit and be in and be out. ⁓ but we we have added to our our offering the idea that we are fractional. And by that we're we're gonna come in, we're going to be there when you need us. And then we're gonna step away so that way you can still afford us without having to go broke. And you can get the job done to your satisfaction, knowing that we're only a phone call away should you need us to come back for some reason. And we've got many clients that that fall into that category. ⁓ that that they say, okay, you know, we've ⁓ we've used you for ⁓ you know a week here or two days there or whatever it might be. And then we don't hear from them for for two or three months. And then they're going to give us a call back and say, hey, you know what? We need it to come in and and finish working on this. Whatever that might be. Whatever the task might be.

speaker-3: Yeah.

speaker-0: That's super convenient, I would think, for some certain businesses. ⁓ so that's a great service. All right.

speaker-1: the smaller ones, it's it's a way for them to to take advantage of having ⁓ more knowledgeable people and still be able to run their business without going broke.

speaker-0: Exactly. They wanna be proactive. They wanna do what's right, but they don't wanna have to you know they maybe they can't hire somebody full time like that. So that's

speaker-3: Yeah. I'm in house.

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-0: So ⁓ all right, let's talk a little bit about ⁓ the multiplier effects here. what what are the changes downstream when this is implemented well in a business? mainly because ⁓ w like we talked about, ⁓ a lot of this is risk avoidance, ⁓ but not necessarily that's not necessarily the whole thing, right? So when ⁓ a business owner, a founder gets ⁓ into that, you know. proactive mindsets as far as technology is concerned, what would you say starts working in the business that they did not maybe expect?

speaker-2: I mean with the IT tune ups, when we're finished, ⁓ they're gonna know where the biggest security gaps are, they're gonna know whether aging hardware is putting operations at risk, ⁓ are they compliant? And where automation can reduce some of their their cost. And and honestly, in the end, it's gonna make everything better. It's gonna make the team better because they're gonna be focused on other things, you know. I mean, even a bakery, you know, they're they're there to make bread. They're there to make pastry. I mean, if you walk in, I mean, do you do you think they want to be worried about any IT operations, their scheduling, their billing, their operations, how much they're ordering? They nobody really goes into business to do that.

speaker-0: This is this is the clo the the emyth book, right? That's what this is. You don't you don't see that side of the entrepreneur.

speaker-2: Yeah if you're a manufacturer, that's the other issue that you have is that software for for the operations doesn't talk to the software for billing. Like if you complete a part, ⁓ how do you know it's completed and where does that information go to the the the accounting department to now bill the customer? How does it get shipped out?

speaker-3: Until you get into it.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: If you're

speaker-2: You know, I mean all these

speaker-0: How do you know when to reorder?

speaker-2: All this stuff that you know has to tie in. And at heart, we're integrators. So if you had to say, okay, well, what's that? It means integrating all this together to make it seamless. So when somebody walks through that door and buys a loaf of bread, that that's all the operator needs to know that you're gonna make them happy. There's a smile on your face, everything's going good, the smell's beautiful. And you just a happy customer has left. Yeah. And they're coming back.

speaker-0: Yeah. Okay. so ⁓ Joe, going keeping keeping me going along here with you. ⁓ you mentioned that ⁓ better onboarding, faster provisioning, standardized employee setups actually help to drive retention within the company. Pic probably you know, I'm guessing because it makes them feel confident that the company knows what the heck they're doing, right? That's part of the part of the thing, right?

speaker-1: There's other there's other ancillary ⁓ benefits. ⁓ in some cases they get ⁓ better rates on their insurances ⁓ because they have more efficient systems or their systems are kept up to date and they're now compliant, so they're gonna get a better rate. ⁓ Yeah, there's there's there's other types of things that you wouldn't even stop to think of normally. So

speaker-2: So so Rick had just done a Rick just did a presentation for the Better Business Bureau of Connecticut, the largest one that in Connecticut. Just happens to be that state. And, you know, s definitely cybersecurity came up and and they were, you know, to have ⁓ questions with w with Rick. But I think Rick found out that in addition to cybersecurity, that that people are thinking of other things. And Rick, w what would you say one thing that perhaps kinda

speaker-1: I think

speaker-2: shocked you that didn't shock you that people asked the question of besides cybersecurity, obviously that's one of them. But but you know and these are businesses, right? All different sizes. What what do you think stood out the most when you were done helping them that day? Kind of better reflect

speaker-1: wanted to know is is if if the systems they were using were sufficient in in today's environment. Are are they are they ⁓ in the best position to to continue making a profit? that was that was part of the issue. They're saying, you know, can you come in and evaluate what we have so to tell us, you know, is our tool set good? Can we can we make any improvements? That's And and this is a lot of what we do too.

speaker-0: Were they asking like, you know, should we implement I AI to get better? Is that kind of like the underlying question there?

speaker-1: things because and a lot of that's because of the hype that's in the news. Everybody, you know, is saying, well, you know, I should use you can use AI and and that's fine. My my theory is that think about the business purpose that you want to what is it you want to achieve? Don't just use it just because somebody said it in the news. Think about something and then look at the AI and and

speaker-0: Yeah, course.

speaker-1: Look at it to help you solve a problem.

speaker-3: Mm-hmm. It's not just a flashy new toy.

speaker-1: Flashy toy, it's about what kind of business problem is it gonna solve for me? And if you can't think of that, then don't bother, don't waste your time. but it's it's think about the business problem first and then say, okay, what tool set can can we use this to fix that? And AI is definitely one of those things that you more than likely these clients can can do. ⁓ they can apply to fix that.

speaker-0: So I'm I'm assuming then, Rick, that ⁓ once they've worked with you, they've gotten their infrastructure up to snuff, that's a better time to implement AI than to kinda like, you know, slap dash bolt it on top beforehand.

speaker-1: ⁓ never just bolted on top of something that needs to be ripped apart. No. recently Joe and I were contacted by a mergers and acquisitions company that is looking to to ⁓ say help us come in and and clean up these companies. There's a company that needs to be sold, but their IT is in a mess. So w we want to retain you to ⁓ send you to the client, get them up to speed. So that way the acquiring company ⁓ will will have ⁓ something worthwhile to invest in. So

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-2: Nate brings up a whole nother he brings a whole nother ⁓ facet into this is that, yeah, there's been a couple of companies that have approached us that of buying or selling. And, you know, how many companies in that position that are in that i that they are their files up to date? ⁓ software up to date? Like who wants to buy a house that needs a a coat of ⁓ like more than a coat of painting or the roof has to be in other words, the more that's done, the better you look good when you're selling or acquiring.

speaker-1: Right.

speaker-2: And that's and that's another service that we provide for companies that they just want to get their house in order, literally. And they want to be in a position so when the lawyers are coming to make a decision, they have everything that they need. And and so that's another reason why to do the right thing, to keep up these in your business. Not to not because businesses are selling, but it's like at least have that mindset. Yeah. You know, at least have the mindset. Are you we are you ready for any type of change is a big change that's gonna happen or a little change that's gonna happen, some change. Just you know, be ready.

speaker-0: Fellow. Yeah, that goes back to kind of what I talk about, ⁓ visibil visible, viable and valuable, right? If you are building a viable business, that by definition makes it more valuable. You know, ⁓ after speaking to, you know, business brokers and that, like it's they would data, right? Having data on the business, what it can do, a predictable pipeline, ⁓ you know, orders of magnitude more valuable than ⁓ otherwise, so for sure. ⁓ all right, so speaking of ⁓ getting into that, ⁓ If you if you're if you're investing in ⁓ proactive IT, visual operations, ⁓ AI ready environments, speak you know, going into ⁓ d do you ⁓ do you have an idea on what, you know, from your perspective, people that you've spoken to, how that actually ⁓ affects the actual valuation? Have you heard numbers thrown out there at all or?

speaker-1: Not anything not anything specific. It it depends on the company and and what the condition is. So are they a half million dollar company? Are they a ten million dollar company? It's no, I haven't

speaker-2: I just think that's

speaker-0: But it's it's obviously significant enough that it's worth our time and investment.

speaker-1: And and Joe brought up the analogy comparing it to to real estate where where people are positioning the house for sale. They're they're staging it. Right. It's a similar type of operation.

speaker-2: Nay, what they told us is that by having that ability that we can provide for them, it just makes one less thing they have to worry about. It just makes it's just one thing that they can check off. it's like we were talking to some hedge fund ⁓ people the other day and They were, you know, they were talking to us and what can w what value can we bring and how can we complement their business? And we're we we did bring up the visual facility management and we said, Well, you know, if these people are ⁓ investing tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars into a into a business, literally a business, a manufacturing business, would it behoove them not like a big brother thing, but why wouldn't they want to be tied into s to that visual dashboard as well? And the answer is they would. They would want to. And they would be able to have all that information that the manufacturer themselves have. ⁓ make sure yeah, that they can keep up and and why as a manufacturer and you're getting this funding, why would you say no? If you if you're saying no, that's another clue. If they're saying no to something like that, might not be the people you want to give money to. But if if they're open and they say, Sure, why not? I mean we got nothing to hide. We you tie into it and w look at it and check your assets that you've invested five hundred million dollars. You know, you can you can see it yourselves. So we we're gonna see that's a whole probably a whole nother realm that we're gonna be able to to help, you know, moving forward.

speaker-0: Hmm. Awesome. All right. So let's get into our rapid rapid clarity round here. ⁓ for the for Joe here. ⁓ the single question every founder at should be asking about their technology infrastructure this quarter.

speaker-2: Is it up to date? Is it doing what it's supposed to be doing for you?

speaker-0: Okay. ⁓ Rick, ⁓ the first step for a founder who has never done a structured IT assessment.

speaker-1: ⁓ First step basically is to express that they trust us looking into their system. That's that's like the very first step they have to take is to at least express that trust. Yes.

speaker-0: Keys of the castle, yeah. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ okay, Rick again, what what's one signal that tells you a business has crossed from acceptable risk into negligent risk?

speaker-2: The Donna Drawbridge.

speaker-1: Oof. Part of it part of it's the the ⁓ the the company culture that that I don't care type of ⁓ attitude, ⁓ believe it or not, is is ⁓ first sign. And then when you start digging into it and you find out that that ⁓ yes, ⁓ I I don't care about ⁓ updating these old systems and and ⁓ so it you find that that attitude now ⁓ invades or or pervades ⁓ is pervasive across multiple systems and now causes problems. It starts with the human factor.

speaker-2: It goes back to further. So the un university that we're familiar with, Rick, that we did a a external penetration test, you know, just to gather the basics and we presented it to them, and they basically said that we'll take care of it, which means that they have to cover their bases. That's not negligible. ⁓ it's not anything we could do, because we found out we we're willing to help, and we would have done it at a really reasonable rate, but because they're trying to protect their selves, their titles and whatever else that's trying to protect, that's w that's when it becomes a a a real issue.

speaker-0: Mm. ⁓ okay, so this could go to either of you ⁓ or both. ⁓ if a founder is going to invest in exactly one piece of operational infrastructure in the next twelve months, what would you recommend it be?

speaker-3: Hmm.

speaker-2: You mean besides having I T tune ups?

speaker-0: Well, that's kinda like you know.

speaker-1: In today's environment it's it's super important to ⁓ to to to take a look at and and ⁓ protect what you have. it's in the old days, ⁓ when when our grandfathers around, they had little doors where they the milkman would come and they deliver the the the milk. And the little door was outside your your door, they would they would ⁓ open it up, put a couple of milk bottles in, and and then you could From the inside you could grab it. You remember this joke remember?

speaker-2: Of course I do, but I don't want I'm not saying it.

speaker-0: But anyway.

speaker-1: In today's environment, that's a security risk. You've got this opening into your house, right? So ⁓ these are the type of things that you'd have to be looking for. So one piece of operational infrastructure is close and lock your doors, right? So yes, do that IT assessment, ⁓ look at your cybersecurity and make sure that you're protected. That's that's number one. Okay, now let's look at the process behind. behind the firewall, let's go take a look at everything. Let's make sure you're operating at the best capacity to to give the best result.

speaker-0: N nowadays it's kind of table stakes, you know. ⁓ just gotta gotta have that.

speaker-1: Yeah. It never was that way in in the past, but but these days that's the environment we live in.

speaker-2: So so Nate, it's lot to do, and we've all gone through this, and Simone, you know that as well. If if if you want to tie into things, you get you get codes on your phone, right? So we're gonna send you a number, you know, and and make sure you put the number or or address the number of bridges because you're not a bot. Or you know, so you gotta we think those are funny, but you gotta have those. And and different people will get different levels of security. So can you Look, if the president is is gonna be an embezzler, okay. But it's at some point, you know, everybody gets caught. Everybody gets caught. And if you have somebody like ⁓ if you have a company like us that's that's set aside and not within the company, you're you're gonna tend to probably do better. Because remember, we're just after the project. We're not protecting our jobs, we're not protecting anyone.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-2: You know, we'll get paid no matter what because we're doing a job. So I I

speaker-3: You can tell the truth. You can tell the the CEO or whoever's in charge the truth without worrying about

speaker-0: You you guys are the you guys are the the proverbial court jesters in other person.

speaker-2: Well, security. I think we're the we're more secure. Yeah. I don't know, but ⁓

speaker-1: We don't the bells on our toes then.

speaker-2: Yeah.

speaker-0: ⁓ very good, very good. All right. Well, I appreciate you guys for joining us. it's been great conversation. Good talking to you. So if there's one thing that ⁓ I'd like listeners to take from the conversation, it's that ⁓ operational infrastructure is not necessarily ⁓ about a cost. it's it's sort of like the like we said earlier, like the table stakes. You it's like on the the foundation on which you build everything else, right? can't you can't really ⁓ can't really grow anything ⁓ on shaky ground. And so you can't really integrate AI, which everybody is wondering about, into a business that's d you know, basically held together by duct tape. ⁓ and the founders who are getting this right don't treat a IT and facility operations like s like something ⁓ to handle after after the fact, right? They're it's it's it's part of the work that they're doing currently ⁓ and so that ⁓ it doesn't become an emergency later. If what Joe and Rick have sh shared today resonated with you and you're realizing that your technology and facility infrastructure has been running ⁓ on hope instead of a system, head to agricate dot com. Their team works with companies ⁓ across just about every industry to put ⁓ structure beneath the operational machinery of the business. Rick and Joe are the people I would want in the room when these decisions are getting made. yeah. So

speaker-3: So ⁓ if this conversation made you realize that you are not sure where your biggest growth constraint actually is, whether it's your operational infrastructure, your sales process, or something other, something else, take that growth ceiling assessment and we'll put the link in ⁓ in the show notes at ghdunlimited.com. It only takes five minutes and helps you to see which part of your growth engine needs attention first. And also Before we go, we want to ask you to subscribe to the Growth Ceiling Podcast, wherever it is you listen, and ⁓ and share this with others and also to let us know what your what your biggest takeaway was. Sorry. My mother's phone is ringing and she's not even here. Anywho. So thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time.

speaker-2: Yeah, people can can reach us on LinkedIn and you I think you have all the information. We'd love to be able to help. We do offer free s consultation because how can we help if we don't know? You know, and you you shouldn't be charged. You shouldn't be charged for that. So it's you know, Rick and I we do this all the time. You know, it's it's ⁓ it it really helps everyone. ⁓ 'cause that's at the end we want people protected and to do the business they they really should be doing. But thank you very much, both of you.

speaker-0: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for joining us.

speaker-3: Thank you. Thank you for joining us.

speaker-2: Have a great day. ⁓ thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Simone. Thank you, Nate.

speaker-0: I'll be in touch, guys.

speaker-1: Thank you. Bye.

speaker-0: Yeah. Alrighty.

speaker-1: were off? All right. Thank you every

speaker-0: Hey no problem. Yeah. Happy happy to have you guys. It was a good conversation. ⁓ I'll I'll be in touch. I'll send a ⁓ a follow-up email with a link to all the things so you won't have to worry about it. I'll I'll put in the email like some ideas and what you can do with it just as a reminder, you know. So Okay. Yep.

speaker-1: Yeah, sounds good. Thank you.

speaker-0: Yep. Take care. Be in touch.

speaker-3: But it's

speaker-0: Alrighty.

speaker-3: ⁓ boy. Okay. So it looks like somehow I was not recording to this computer, so which means I'm gonna have to take the fathom and edit it down. So Which I didn't wanna have to do, but I'll do that.

speaker-0: ⁓ So you ⁓ normally you record local on your

speaker-3: No, normally I just broadcast it live to YouTube but couldn't do Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ which I am miffed about right now. Because that means I have to do an extra step. It just says I click the live stream button and it just says ⁓ I've got this red button that says stop the live stream. It doesn't tell me where it's live streaming. I see

speaker-0: I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. Yeah.

speaker-3: I see Simone to no take your is it's I'm live streaming to to Fathom, apparently. And that's not where I wanna be live streaming. I wanna live stream to YouTube.

speaker-0: So we're probably live streaming right now. ⁓ okay. Yes, so this is a setting and fathom ⁓ on the pro version.

speaker-2: Nah.

speaker-3: ⁓ is that what it is?

speaker-0: I forgot to mention I think I might have mentioned mentioned that ⁓ a long time ago. But anyways, if you want if you want the the best quality fathom recording that you can get, it it basically takes over Zoom's ⁓ streaming. Yes. I don't understand quite how it works, but apparently apparently doing so allows it gives it a higher quality video output. So I'm not a hundred.

speaker-3: Does Okay.

speaker-0: I've had people ask me like what is this being streamed? Because that pops up during the conversation when the it when the fathom kicks in and I'm like, No, don't worry about it, it's just fathom. Like I can't really explain it, but

speaker-3: Let me go to my settings because I want I want it to do what the way it did it before. and right now, yeah, yeah. okay, enhance recording, record gallery mode with improve recording quality, auto-record and schedule, disable recording in progress, blah blah blah. That's on Zoom. ⁓ If I do this and so turn off the enhanced recording.

speaker-0: You have to go into Vathom to turn it off.

speaker-3: Yeah. Must be viewing the the meeting in gallery mode yourself, not available in Zoom basic. ⁓ huh.

speaker-0: There you see it.

speaker-3: Interesting Yeah. Okay.

speaker-0: Yeah. I'd like to f one of these times when we don't have a guest to tr to test out the riverside recording. Just that way, you know, we can kind of work out the kinks because I'd imagine it's gonna be

speaker-3: Yeah. Okay. Do we have ⁓ guests next week?

speaker-0: I don't I don't think we have one r lined up right now.

speaker-3: Alright. So next week sounds like a good time to do it. So after two something else.

speaker-0: Yeah. Nineteen. Yeah, I think we could do nineteen. We don't have anybody signed up yet, so

speaker-3: Vem cá.

speaker-0: Alrighty. Well, sounds good, good good conversation. I felt like you they th they're a couple of good guys. You

speaker-3: Yeah, they are. And I apologize, I was falling asleep.

speaker-0: Ha ha ha.

speaker-3: ⁓ I think ⁓ part of it is ⁓ I don't know, I didn't sleep well last night. And then the other part is ⁓ I guess I really have to own up to the fact that I don't like coffee. I don't drink coffee. which doesn't help my anemia. ⁓ I just, you know, low energy kind of. It's just and apparently that's a symptom.

speaker-0: Rough night. Yeah.

speaker-3: of of of sickle cell. It's just not not ⁓ I'm like constantly sleepy. It doesn't matter whether I got a good night's sleep or not.

speaker-0: Yeah, 'cause your your body's constantly trying to fight, right? That's the

speaker-3: Yeah. It it's fighting for every bit of oxygen I can give it. so I just started taking chlorophyll. So I'm hoping that that will help a bit.

speaker-0: So with the it's about oxygen, is ⁓ sickle cell?

speaker-3: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, my a lot of my red blood cells are moon shaped rather than oval shaped. The oval shaped ones carry all the oxygen. The moon shaped ones carry little oxygen and so so my body doesn't get oxygenated the way it should. Yeah. Including my brain, which is

speaker-0: Mm-hmm.

speaker-3: Very interesting to think about.

speaker-0: Yeah. Hmm.

speaker-3: Mm. So yeah, like and it's an issue I've had like for forever and I never really I never really understood what it was. I w I remember going to a nurse when I was at some job I had years ago. I think it was it was on the when I was working for the Department of Interior. I think I went to the nurse there because I just kept falling asleep at my desk. I don't know. She put me in a chair and was like, Take a nap. You're just tired, take a nap. And well, she put me on the oxygen machine and she was like, Yeah, your your oxygen is just low.

speaker-0: Well,

speaker-3: But yeah, whenever they test me, it's always low. ⁓ and it then they'll be like, Take a deep breath. I'll take a deep breath. It goes up and then it goes back down again.

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-0: Can't constantly ⁓ be huffing and puffing all day.

speaker-3: Exactly. Exactly. So yeah, it's it's it's been an ⁓ so like if I'm not I I try to keep my hand moving and everything. If I if I go to to church and I'm listening to the sermon, I'll hear the beginning of the sermon and then I'll fall asleep and then I'll hear the end of the sermon. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That that sounded like it was a good one. Yeah. I I agree. Amen. Amen. Mr. Home Yes. All right. Okay. So yeah, now I know what's going on with my live stream situation. ⁓ my goodness. Okay. So it just takes over the chart.

speaker-0: So you you shut it off now?

speaker-3: Well I shut it off ⁓ in my Fathom account.

speaker-0: Does it give you the option now in in the Zoom to do it? Turn on?

speaker-3: On the Zoom, it says I can stop. I can stop live streaming, which means I'm good it's just gonna stop the recording, right? ⁓ into Fathom. Rather than there's a live stream button at the bottom. Yeah, it just says stop live stream. but yeah, so I'm gonna I'm gonna try it again. I'm gonna open it up, open up Zoom. ⁓ I turned it off in Fathom.

speaker-0: Probably. Yeah.

speaker-3: So I'ma see if I'm if I'll get my ⁓ get my options back. I can live stream to YouTube. My goodness. Crazy.

speaker-0: Yeah. Well, you know, give it shot. Start start one up and test it out, I guess. And see if that worked. ⁓ it was it it was a checkbox inside of Fathom you had to sh turn off, right?

speaker-3: Yeah. Yeah. it should it just says enhanced recording. Record gallery mode and with improved recording quality. Guessing that's that's it?

speaker-0: Mm.

speaker-3: ⁓ I don't record all meetings.

speaker-0: Yeah, that's that's that's the one. ⁓ it uses does it mention Zoom on there?

speaker-3: Yeah, it's under the Zoom, you know, fully enabled, blah blah blah, Zoom.

speaker-0: I I contacted them about it ye p it's probably been over a couple of years ago now. That and what they told me is that it uses the the ⁓ live stream feed from Zoom. Apparent apparently that's a higher quality. Otherwise it's seven twenty P

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-3: Yeah. Which I'm okay with most of the time. I'm most of my Zoom record ⁓ my yeah, my fathom recordings are just for me. I'm not, you know, yeah sending it out to anywhere.

speaker-0: Yeah. The the key advantage with ⁓ Riverside is that the studio function allows you to record everybody who's in on the call records locally to their hard drive. And then at the end, everyone uploads simultaneously. The downside is you have to wait until you've uploaded it.

speaker-3: So Right. So you have to wait to to all

speaker-0: Yes, depending on the connection, that could take a lot longer than yours, you know. Like I I think I have a pretty decent connection here. It's ⁓ a hundred and I think it's a hundred and ninety up and down. So it's pretty darn good.

speaker-3: think mine is good. ⁓ although lately we've had we've had ⁓ you know a couple of issues. It's been, you know, in and out, but it's back to being steady now, I think. But then you will also have those people who are just not super tech savvy. Depend on them to do what you want them to do is probably gonna be

speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. We'll see. That's why I want to try it out first and see what that

speaker-3: Now can can Riverside work with just like yours and mine, maybe? And and if the guest doesn't doesn't do it, would it still be or would it just be you and me on the screen while they're talking?

speaker-0: I I think if you're gonna do it, everybody has to do it. I think that you can opt for slightly lower quality video. Okay, so if I remember right, there's an option where it it's an either or. So you either everyone is recording local to the hard drive or it's actually streaming. I think there's streaming as an option. So But it's lower quality. It's lower quality, yes. It would be more like what you get out of what we've been doing essentially, so

speaker-3: Hm. Okay. All right. Well, nothing to do but to try.

speaker-0: Yeah, worth a shot. We'll see how it goes. It works either way, so yeah, you know.

speaker-3: Ha ha ha.

speaker-0: All right, well I will ⁓ be in touch and ⁓ have a great rest of your week and yeah, I'll see you next week, I guess.

speaker-3: Bye bye.