SPEAKER_00 0:18

And welcome to the Info Tech Podcast, the podcast that explores the intersection of business and technology. I'm your host, Jimmy Huber, and today we have a treat for you guys. Um, we have Scott Beck from Beck Tech Online. Um, Scott is uh he's a pretty big deal. He is a two-time international best-selling author. He's an award-winning speaker. He has appeared uh at NASDAQ and the Harvard Club of Boston, and he's the co-star of the Amazon Prime documentary Cybercrime with frequent celebrity guest experience uh guest expert experiences on NBC, ABC, Fox, and Global. Did I read your LinkedIn profile correctly, Scott?

SPEAKER_02 1:01

You you did. And you know, Jimmy, with all of that and ten dollars, I can still get a spare box of coffee.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

So oh man, that's that's amazing. No, you you are legit. Um, I've really enjoyed chatting with you just to prep for this podcast. I think our audience is gonna have a lot of fun listening to you. Um, so why don't we start you know at the beginning? Um, what's your origin story? How did Bec Tech come about? Like what got you started in this industry?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Sure. Well, uh I'll I'll give uh a short version. I'm a radio guy that started getting replaced by computers back in '93. And having a young family, I thought I better start learning computers if I want to stay relevant in my industry. I ended up leaving radio, went to work for the government. Someone else was paying me more money to talk, um, which was awesome. But there I got exposed to servers and networks and security and thought, this stuff, this resonates with me. So uh in my 30s, and I went back to college thinking I was gonna make a transition into the computer world. And like many of your your your viewers probably you know when got their Microsoft systems engineer, you know, all those certs, thinking that that was gonna be the end all be all. Like, look at me now. Yeah, sure. 22 years in business, no one's ever asked me for my cert. But went back to school, um, started working for some other people, and uh I had an employer that was not very kind to his staff. And being uh an older person, they had a habit of hiring kids out of college and uh running rough shot over them, and as soon as someone started asking for money, they'd move them out. Uh cut to the chase. Um, I realized that this was not my future, and uh they were billing me out at 13 bucks an hour, or they were billing me out, sorry, at 75 bucks an hour and paying me 13. Wow. So I was like, you know, I need six billable hours a week. I can keep my revenue the same. I'm sure I can find that. And that was the entrepreneurial brain fart that said, all right, let's start buying my own company and do my own thing. And uh I can tell you now, Jimmy, I need a lot more than six billable hours a week now.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Wow, that's crazy. So you you got into the the business mindset early, realizing what the gap is between the people coming in running the business and you know the employees. Well, there's there's overhead there and everything, but you got the bug early to start out on your own. So, what made that that switch flip, I guess? Because you do have a gap there. You got to pay your bills still, you have to, you know, survive to get to that point where you get critical mass. And that's not easy. That's a that's a huge leap of faith that uh most people won't do.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Well, as I said, my my uh I I call it my entrepreneurial brain fart because I did not know about overhead and all those other things. My mind was at the point of if I can build myself out at seven six hours at 75 bucks an hour, I've replaced my income. And that was my my complete focus. Um after about the first year, year and a half of business, I realized I did not have a business. I had a job, and instead of having one boss, I now had 30 bosses, you know, uh as I brought more clients in. Um, I also learned uh doing residential was not a favorite thing of mine. So I was very blessed when I was able to move away from that. But like anyone that opens up uh an IT business, when we first start, you know, there was many uh a month, Jimmy, where I'd go, hmm, mortgage payments due on Friday. Wonder where that money's coming from. I mean, we're hustling, so we'll take money from anywhere. The problem is that that holds us back eventually because you can't scale when you're trying to be everything to everybody. Um it becomes problematic. And and I was blessed that I landed uh uh a few businesses that allowed me to already hit my magical six hours a week. And long before we started talking about MSPs, um I'd come up with a plan of hey, why don't I charge them something monthly billing? And I would physically go on site and sit in front of every computer and delete the tem files or run the D for all the stuff we do automatically now. But I I'd already had that mindset of how can I get some recurring revenue before MRR had become a term. I I was vastly underpricing it, it turned out. But at the time, you know, hey, $300 a month from a client, this is awesome. I can build on this. And then uh, you know, was 2008, the MSP term started really coming around, and and uh I I bought into a program to try to to improve myself and learn more, and you know, start learning more about business stuff. And then uh I I can't make it seem like it was just like an overnight sensation, Jimmy. It worked like if it if it was easy to successfully grow a business, everybody would be doing it.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Yeah, tell me about it. Yeah, but you you sounded like you were early though.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Yeah, yeah, I think it was on the front end. Maybe that was you know what in in the radio days, you sat in a control room playing music and sat there um for a lot of time. So you had a lot of time to think. Um, and I thought I'd always wanted to have my own business. And and once once the doors started opening up and you push yourself, uh the challenge I think for for for most of us that go out on business is getting outside of our comfort zone. And what do I mean by that? Oh Jimmy, I still my Superman cape is still strong. When there's a problem happening, I want to throw that Superman tape on and go be, you know, Superman tech, solve that problem, and have that dopamine hit and go, look at me, I solve something that nobody else could figure out. And that's you know, it's great personally. Uh but as a business owner, if you're trying to grow a business and stop having a job, you can't be Superman all the time. You have to start learning different things and putting yourself out there. Like uh I think most viewers understand that referrals are very powerful. If you get referred into a business, that's your business to lose. I mean, it's it's basically already a given. But how do you have a repeatable system to get enough referrals to be able to grow your business? Oh, chances are you're not because if you're just starting out like I did all those many years ago, I had two business clients. Well, two business clients wasn't gonna pay the bills forever, so I had to go meet others. How'd I do that? Well, I started going out to chamber events, and uh, we didn't have me and I in my area at the time, but business groups. Uh, I I had a mentor early on that said, Scott, it's not who you know, it's who knows you. So you got to get out, get your name out there, put be be willing to be vulnerable, be willing to be outside of the keyboard. And yes, people go, but Scott, you are a radio guy, so you're used to this. I want to make a key point here, folks. In radio, you sit in a room by yourself. There is no real human interacting. And when you do go out on site, you're behind a desk and you you're expected to play. Like if you talk to my wife, she says there was always uh radio scott and normal scott. Because when you're on stage, but we as technicians, as business owners, if we're trying to build a business, we have to kind of be two people as well, right? You have to be able to go out and start talking to people and and be the front of the business. And you know, it's not fun when you're told no or not a fit. But if you don't put yourself out there, you'll never get a yes either.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Yeah. But what what do you tell that that entrepreneur then that is maybe stuck in his in his own head or her own head? Because we've all been there, right? Um, where yes, we want to be the expert in the room and go grab it and fix it. Um, most people, I would think, if they don't have a sales background or maybe aren't extroverted by nature, uh, it's pretty intimidating to walk into a room with a bunch of strangers and start, you know, conversations, making relationships, doing all the things that lead up to eventual sales conversations and closing business, right? That's not an easy thing for a lot of people to switch into, um, whether or not they realize it. You have to realize it first, which what you mentioned, right? So, what's your advice for like getting over that hump and maybe what are some practical steps for people to get into that mode? Because, like you said, there's a lot of no's in that future. I mean, there's you have to have some mental chops to be able to do that consistently well, you know, have a plan, have a process, but be realize that hey, this no isn't really necessarily rejection, it's just closer to a yes, maybe, right? Um, how do you get into that mindset?

SPEAKER_02 9:49

For me, uh, I'm very goal-oriented. So when I started going out to places, I'm I remember going to my first couple of chamber events, Jimmy. You go in the room, you don't know anyone, you feel intimidated, you don't even want to stick your hand out, you're a wallflower. And the first couple, that's what it was. For for me, it was being analytical, kind of looking around the room, figuring out how these things work. And then I realized, no, set a goal. All right, my goal for this event that I'm going to is meet five new people. Are they going to be a fit? Are they not going to be a fit? At that point, I didn't care. I just it gave me a number to shoot for so I could go stick my hand out and say, Hi, I'm Scott. Uh now I I've it's fairly polished now when I'm out places, and people will say, Oh, what do you do? I mean, I've got I've got that whole thing worked out now. But back then, it was like, hey Jimmy, how are you? I'm Scott. And I would ask questions about them, and I wait for them to ask me about myself. And it made it it was still awkward, Jimmy. But let's be let's be honest. If you're not used to doing this, and I wasn't, it's gonna be awkward. But set your goal, drive towards the goal. For me, it was five. And if it's an hour and a half event or a two-hour event, if you can't meet five people, I mean you're you're gonna walk up to the bar or get a drink, or or maybe there's light food, there's gonna be people right there. So there's an opportunity to say hello. It all starts with a hello. Now, as you move along, uh I I already have my I don't want to say a shtick, but you know, you you get more polished at presenting yourself. Sure. And people call it an elevator pitch. Uh I just want to be able to get permission from the person to give them more information. And there's there's ways you do that, like have have an interesting, you know, if Jimmy, if we met and you said, What do you do? And I said, Oh, I'm an IT, they've already drawn a picture in their head what that is, and they've moved on. Sure. Because they they have a preconceived notion. Um, but if you have something interesting that you can say is is uh AI efficiency. I mean, pick pick some job title or description, and what you're trying to get them to do is go, uh Huh? What's that? And they'll ask you, oh, well, what is that? And then that's permission for you to talk more. Yeah. So that's just meeting people in events. That was a small thing. The first first step was uh set a goal. How many people do you want to meet? And as you do more of them, it gets more comfortable. Because it is hard sometimes to move away from behind that keyboard, especially if you're an introvert. And we're talking, and people are going, yeah, he he's an extrovert. I really wasn't. Did I mention you were in a room by yourself? Really easy, but you had to you know you develop uh uh by practicing, like you didn't become a good IT guy by just watching YouTube videos. You had to go do it. Well, you're not gonna become a great business owner unless you meet other businesses, and how do you do that? Well, you gotta go practice it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

And I gotta believe that being a little awkward and a little vulnerable is actually refreshing to people. Uh, if you're not what's the term uh LinkedIn now, it's being pitch slapped, I think. Like everyone is coming up wanting to hear about themselves, and it's almost like, man, if you just ask a couple questions to people, they'll open up. And most of the people in that room are in the same boat as you. They might not really want to be comfortable being there, you know. It's not like you know, it's a competition. And I love the fact that you're you're setting goals that are pretty attainable too. So you can walk away. Hey, I got five no's or whatever, but I I met my goal. I met the five people. Now I've got a little more confidence for the next event or what have you.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Well, yes. And then after I started being able to meet the five people, it was like, okay, well, what can I do with these five people? Oh, I should have a follow-up and say, hey, it was pleasure meeting you at such and such, and then start developing. Okay. But but a system has to start somewheres. And the somewhere was you know, from behind the keyboard, meet five people. All right, and then you'll continue to develop. But that I mean that's just one aspect of of of how to build a business. Really, the the big mind shift is stop being a tech and being a business owner. And that that one I'm 22 years into this, Jimmy. I'm still learning. I'm still because every time you hit a ceiling, you gotta figure out how to get past that ceiling. Like like when I started, obviously I had zero. I got to 180,000 after a few years in, and I thought as a as a solo person doing 180,000 a year, oh my God, when I worked for people, I was making 40,000, 44. Look at me. Woohoo! Oh yeah. Oh, now I gotta take cost of goods out. Oh now I had to take taxes. Oh, I had to do so it really wasn't. But as you as you start to grow, and and you know, my first hire, oh my god, that was like, how do you hire someone? You don't get trained that in in school or in computer class. Totally and how you hire the right person. I can give you great examples of yeah, I was gonna say I can give you great examples of of how not to hire because I've done those. Yeah. Um, but it it's it's everything's gonna be a process uh learning.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Um yeah. I think that's it's a it's a key piece to understand that your job is not necessarily to take care of your uh clients or to hire people, whatever, but your job is to grow yourself personally because you are the limit of your business. Like, um, and that's something I think that has to be intentional. Um, and it's it's a mindset that you generally don't start out with, like you alluded to, you know, hey, I I just didn't want to be somebody's you know employee. I wanted to be my own boss. And then you learn along the way, oh, there's a little bit more, you know, to that. Um, I had to learn that the hard way many times, hitting those plateaus over the years. Um, it's it's definitely not for the faint of heart because yeah, whether you've done it two years, 22, 32, whatever, unless you still have a learning mindset and a willingness to grow, you're you're gonna hinder you know your business. So I mean, is that is that true?

SPEAKER_02 15:56

It is 100% true. And I was gonna say the scariest thing that I can think of it is is, you know, I go to industry conferences. I like to learn from my peers. I mean, that that's uh another great way. Sometimes it's great learning from the stage, but I find I learn even more around the dinner table and then the hallway sometimes. Um but I met a gentleman that had been at his business, I'm gonna put air quotes around it, for 32 years. And he was asking me some questions and I was trying to learn a little bit more about him. But I'm going, after 32 years, you hit a certain dollar amount, you have never moved beyond being the technician. And his his greatest concern and his emotions was the fact that, you know, he was ready to retire. Uh but he had nothing to retire from. He didn't have a business that he could sell, there was no investment without working. Yeah, he he had a job, and he he rudely found out that it that didn't come with a 401k, it didn't have the investments, it didn't have so here he is at the end of his professional career. And other than having a job that has sustained him for 32 years, he's now like, what do I do? And man, that that that that's a tough cookie to crack. So it's yeah, yeah, you know, if you don't want to end up being the what do I do now that I'm at the end of my career, and you don't have an asset to to to to sell or or uh to to be able to invest or whatnot, that's that's scary as hell to me.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Yeah. So let's talk to that person then that's starting to realize that. Maybe they're not, you know, 30 some years in, but they're you know 10 years in or 15, right? Um what do you say to them to get them to maybe that next level where they can, you know, kind of come out of the day-to-day and and to start building a business that's not reliant on them? I mean, you're out on you know, the speaking circuit. I mean, you've you've written books, you're you're speaking. So obviously you've done this, right? Like your team can function probably mostly on their own without you know the the owner there, which I think is whether people know it or not, the goal, right? You can't exit, or at least you're much less valuable as a company if it has to have you for anything, really.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

For the last five years, I've been out of the business at least 12 weeks of the year. Wow. Yeah, that's great. And profit. That's awesome. So that that is kind of the goal. But how how do you get started is to realize where do you want to get to? Like if all we do is sit behind the tickets and all we do is the tech all day, every day, and into the evenings, where are you gonna find the time to better yourself to learn? Yeah. For for me, I I realized it was getting around peers and trying to learn from those that have already figured some stuff out. I mean, they've already made some mistakes, so I could shortcut some. Um, when I made my first hire, I mean, that was a leap of faith. I I didn't have funding in the bank to do it, but it was like, okay, if I can get this person in answering the phones, uh helping with some basic bench tech or password resets, you know, that that low-level stuff, it can free me up to go do some other stuff. But it was a leap of faith. Like, okay, I'm bringing this on. And and how I thought of it was, okay, it's gonna cost me how much over the next three months? Okay, I got a three-month ramp here then, because I had a 90-day probation period. So uh and everybody's gonna be in different states, there's gonna be different laws. But in my mind, there's a 90-day probation period. If I can get them trained, get some stuff off me, and I can start trying to get out and do more business, will I be able to support the salary? And the answer was around resounding yes. Bingo. You had to actually step off the ledge, and that certainly motivated me to go find some more money. Like there was no scene behind. It was, you know, sink or swim. And uh I've I've found that's been one of the driving forces of my my career is um you got to take that leap of faith, believe in yourself, and then go get it.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Like, yeah, yeah. And you mentioned peer too. I want to talk about that a little bit because I think doing it alone in an ivory tower or what have you is is pretty depressing. At least I think there's there's power in other people that um can come around you and and get in your head. And if you've got, you know, eight or ten people all telling you the same thing, you know, hey, they might be right. Uh I know that it could be onto something, Jimmy. You never know. Uh Pier, peer has been a huge part of infotech's growth and me personally. Um, so you know, we're talking about that person that's starting to figure some things out. There's definitely a sweet spot of when to start in Pier. Some people aren't quite ready for it yet. Others, yeah. If you've been around for a long time and are stuck, I mean, there's there's definitely ways to do that. Um, what would you say to somebody that that is thinking about that, or what what's your experience been working with, you know, at least for for me, other people have really become friends and and mentors along the way. Um, I mean, I'm in the the True Pier incubator and underneath, you know, the Casse umbrella there. And they put you in a pod with other people that are roughly the same size as you but in different markets, so you're not, you know, competing. And oh man, like the amount of shortcuts, like you said, to get further faster by just being a little vulnerable and listening to other people has has completely uh made it been a game changer for for infotech. So, what's your experience been with that? And are you still in a peer group at your stage? And how's that been? I I'm actually in two peer groups.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Okay. I'm I'm one in our industry, in the IT industry, but I'm also in a peer group locally of other business owners that are from different industries. Ah, okay. Because I wanted to learn other concepts and things that are people doing, whether it's hiring or what it just kind of got outside of the echo chamber of IT. And I think that's the biggest thing I'm gonna say on this, Jimmy, is peer groups are great, but I think we've all been on Facebook groups or Reddit or something, it just becomes an echo chamber of negativity. And the people you don't want to mimic are the people that are still stuck like you are. I made a conscious decision, I want to learn from people that have figured some stuff out and move up. And why do I think peer groups are so important is nobody else is gonna understand what you're going through. The same way as a peer because they're they're living it or they've they've lived it. Like we we may have others in our lives that we talk to, but if they don't own a business and they don't understand the pressures of what it is like to try to make payroll or mortgage payment or the bills or the vendor, and nobody's taught taught you how to uh do profit first and have money aside, like these are all things I had to learn as as I developed. But if you're trying to do that on your own and your only outlet is to go on to a Facebook group and say, hey, I'm having this problem, and you're you're hearing from other people that are the same size or smaller that haven't figured it out, that that's a self-uh, that's a spiral of death. Yep. So I was looking for peer groups where there was where it was balanced. Now, the ones I joined to me cost me money. But at the time that I joined them, again, it was a bit of a leap of faith. But it was organized. I knew there was people uh in there that I had already met and talked to that had figured it out. And I thought, okay, if I spend this kind of money to join this peer group, A, I'm gonna have to get active. I need to learn and I need to implement because I'm spending the money. I got to make this stuff up somehow. Uh, and I remember my banker at the time when I joined my first peer group and I was spending uh not a small sum of money. I'll I'll put it that it was over a thousand, but less than two. But when when when you're a small business doing 200,000 per month, it wasn't a small chunk of chain. And my banker was like, Why are you doing this? This is insane. And two years later, I remember he came to do uh a review and he goes, Oh my god, the return of investment was so amazing. Like that was one of the best things you ever did. But if you're gonna go into a peer group and think you're hitting an easy button and everything's just gonna be perfect, that's not the case. You're getting a chance to go to university without having to go to university, but you actually have to learn and implement. Implement's the biggest thing. I don't know how many people I've seen come through different peer groups where I've been at, or or as you can tell, you know, I'm very shy and I would never give my two cents worth. Um but I can all I I've gotten pretty good over the years, Jimmy. Now, if we have a conversation of knowing, hey, this guy's got some real potential. He he, you know, I can see this trajectory. Yeah. Uh sadly, I also talk to people and go, unless he changes the mindset, they're gone.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

They're they're gonna be gone within a couple of years because you can definitely tell. Yeah, I I I agree. I have the same experience, I think. Um, you you have to invest some time and some some resources into it, and you get out of it what you put into it. But if you do show up, do the homework, listen to people, it it does pay off. Um, and I I think that's a huge um step in anyone's business journey is to realize, whether it's a peer group or not, that you need mentors in your life. You need other people that are further along that you can grasp to. And and I gotta feel like, you know, um, even you, like coming on today, you mentioned before, like, you know, giving back and and paying forward. A lot of my guests have said, you know, hey, they get into the latter parts of their career or further along, and they want to do that for other people. So I gotta believe that if if you're out there and you're struggling, um, just reach out to your community, to your chamber. There's people around you probably that are willing and and wanting to help and and to reach down and and to to bring you along. Um, you just have to put yourself out there. So I I think that's uh that's a powerful message that hopefully resonates with people today because you know you're you're proof of that working. And I know there's a lot of others out there that that have a similar experience.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Um and a mentor doesn't always have to be physical. Like I've learned, you know, I've I've got a bunch of books up here. Mike McAllowitz with uh the pumpkin plan and profit first were some of the first business books I read that was like, wow, that's an interesting way to look at business. So from a very high level, pumpkin plan. If you're if your business is to grow the biggest pumpkins and compete, you know, those ton pumpkins, do you spend all your time with the little ones out in the field, or do you spend your time on the ones that can be big? That was the mind shift for me, going that that's when I realized chasing home users for that $60 bill probably was not going to get me to my next goal. I needed to focus on pumpkins.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Yeah, the bigger pumpkins.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Talking about profit first and putting my so my point being do you have to be in a peer group? I think you probably do. If you're not in a position where you you could join or invest, there you can put comments out, you know. Uh uh, Chris Voss never split the difference. Another great book. If you if you're an introvert that doesn't like the interactions, that Chris Voss stuff uh helps a lot, especially when you're trying to build your sales process.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

It it it it was invaluable. But mentors can be that. Hearing Jimmy and Scott talk and mention a couple of books and picking them up and reading them and going, oh crap.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

But it always comes back to implementing.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Yes, yeah. You can read endless books, but if you don't do anything or change, it doesn't really help you. Yeah, I'll put those in the show notes. Those are I've read those, both of those have been uh influential for me too. Uh the realizing that everything you're doing is a negotiation, whether you realize it or not, is super powerful. Um, there's lots of of tidbits in those those books that are I think fantastic. Um before we wrap it up today, though, I want to get into just a little bit of your your current day-to-day. So uh, you know, I've looked you up before this podcast. I mean, you're all over. We chatted before, and I I mentioned this earlier, that you're you're larger than life if you look on the internet and and look at all your speaking stuff and your books and everything, but you're really down to earth and a really chill, cool guy, too. So walk us through that and and how you know you got to the point where you were getting called by, you know, ABC, NBC, all this stuff. I mean, that's not something that just happens overnight, right? What's that journey been like and how has that benefited you and and your business?

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Uh it's something that I've I've worked at cultivating. So really, it started back when if you think back 12, 13 years ago when cybersecurity was what's starting to become uh a topic. I I was blessed. I had two clients. I had a local chamber of commerce and I had the CPA organization from my province. And I went to them, I said, Hey, you know, we probably should be putting on an educational session for your members. And they're like, Oh, no one's gonna want to listen to that. And I remember they for the CPA, they put me on the first day of the event, first session. The first one was sold out. Um, nice. There was a lot of interest. But by putting yourself out there, uh, that then led to some bank managers having to been in the room. The bank managers then introduced me to some other folks who then, of course, with my uh I guess I do have a slight advantage having worked in media that I can I I know how to give sound bites, which is a skill you can learn. Sure. Um, you know, everybody can can learn that, but that then led to my first TV appearance, which then led to more. It just starts to snowball. And some of those events, like for like the books, uh, the one that's up there, that was uh a fundraising one that was done for uh a children's hospital. Now, um I had to pay to play it. Meaning I I got to be an author, but the books don't just make themselves. Um, I I hope someday to be like a Chris Voss and get paid to put a book out. But when you're starting out, the chances of a publisher coming, hey Jimmy, I would really like to give you $50,000 and X percentage of the book sales. Would you write me a book? That's likely not going to happen to anyone here. Sure. But you can find projects that you can get involved with. And the reason I did that book was there was I there was 16 of us, I think. So collectively we got together and were able to fund putting the book out. And uh we had a mentor and it ended up becoming an Amazon bestseller, and now I can use that in my nice my talk. So it was an investment uh for a marketing asset, yeah. Which then uh all things digital to 2.0 was the name of the book. I'll put that in the show notes too. Yeah, 20 2016, I think. Okay, okay. Um but it's it's it's it's putting yourself out there and getting out there. And to me, uh if you're in IT, there's gonna be organizations, whether it's in in your niche, that the if you're in construction, there's construction organizations, uh uh law societies, you know, whatever the case is, they have to put on educational content for their members. If you're not getting in front of them saying, hey, did you see the thing in the latest news about whatever cyber event it was, we should probably put on an event. Um, to put together a seminar or a webinar really isn't that hard. And if you're in a peer group, I bet you there's people that have already done it and probably share the slide decks, and it's gonna be uncomfortable the first one or two. Yeah, but that's okay, that's normal progression. Uh I'm a professional and was paid for 12 years. You know, I've I've I've stepped on stage, and and this isn't meant to be bragging, but you know, tens of thousands of people and introduced bands. I've done that. Yeah, it's scary as hell, but it's not as scary as stepping out on stage in front of 1,500 business people, but you get used to it. And if anyone ever tells you they do public speaking and they never get nervous, they're full of crap. Oh, yeah. Everybody does. So totally what what I've learned from professional athletes, what what I've again trying to learn is they they don't say they're nervous about the big game, they're excited about the big game. And for me, doing the public speaking, that was a mental shift. I'm not nervous about getting on stage, I'm excited. Let's get going. I get my hands, I'm rubbing my hands backstage. You know, this is gonna be great. Let's get going.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

Get all that energy, sure.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Oh, yeah. And once you once you change that, it's great. And listen, we all suffer, and I don't care what human it is, and I heard I can't remember who said it, but I I've seen it multiple times. We all suffer as humans. Who am I to deserve this? Who am I to be going on stage? Who am I to be a successful business person? And when I watched the uh uh Garth Brooks had a uh a video on his life, and he was sitting at the campfire and he was talking about who was I to get the the the gigs in Oklahoma? Who was I to? And I was like, we all suffer from it. It's a human trait. Once you realize that and you start trying to get your head around that, you can start focusing more positive energy. Because guess what, Jimmy? We all have that trait. We all suffer from the same who am I complex. And you have to just get by it. Like, do you want to have a business or do you want to have a job? Do you want to provide for your family? Do you want to be able to retire, or do you just want to be a tech? And and I I I it never makes me happy to say it, but I've met a few people that it was like, you know, you're probably better off to go get a job.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Yeah, it's not for everybody, but I I love the fact that you're breaking it down into small bite-sized steps. I think that is that is key to just, hey, every day work on your sales plan just a little bit. Call a few people, show up at one event. You know, like uh we are in the construction uh vertical and we're starting to do lunch and learns for our construction clients that are larger. And we've done a few of them. They've loved it so much that now we've we've actually monetized that and turned it into a recurring paid engagement. But it's a small thing, you know, for you know, a handful of people in a room, but they they get a bunch of value out of it. So it's not like you have to go from the help desk to on stage, right? Like there's there's pieces that you can do, but it's it's that consistency and and almost being uncomfortable or comfortable with being uncomfortable and putting yourself out there, getting out of your comfort zone and growing, you know, bit by bit. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_02 34:18

Well, I'm glad you mentioned the launch of learns because that's actually how I started going to clients and doing those little educational things for clients. Sure. And once I was getting positive feedback with that and realized it was being well received, that's why I went to the organizations and said, Hey, your members. Sure. And then I got the members, and from the members, now I now I went to the insurance industry that weren't clients and said, Hey, your clients need to know about and because I had other things behind me, I could show them and getting testimonials every time I've talked. So that's you know, even my free engagements or my paid engagements, I always try to get a testimonial so I can put it back up on my website. Oh, yeah, that's perfect because it builds credibility. Oh, yeah. And it just it makes life easier as as you develop. But if if someone went and looked at my website or or got my marketing, that didn't just show up overnight. That was those baby steps, as you said, like the line learns and got comfortable with that. Then went, okay, let's go instead of 12, 14, 20 people at a client site that I already knew the people, let's go do 40, 50 of businesses I don't know. Yeah. Oh, sure. Uh I I've done some industry ones that I've been on stage, uh from ASCII to TMT to some others, and I'll, you know, bigger numbers. But sure.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

Yeah, but you're you're still on your your steps in growth too.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

Yeah. Well, yeah, you're you're not gonna get out from behind your keyboard and go step on stage in front of uh 2,000 people and and go, but if you can, awesome, go do it. Sure. Sure. But sure. That's not as likely. Yeah, you you and I are not advocating go from nothing to on stage in in Nashville or some other big site to do it.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Well, I gotta believe too in a in a age of celebrity. Yeah, yeah, and and in an age of AI where everything is becoming scrutinized, and hey, is this real or not? I gotta believe that the in-person events and the you know, the handshake, the meeting people eye to eye is only gonna be more sought after and more valuable and set you apart versus the ones that tend to you know do the other way and bleed back into the background and and aren't willing to put themselves out there. So I I think that's great advice all around. Um, Scott, what's one thing here as we as we close? 2026, I mean, there's change happening everywhere. What's the one piece of advice that you would have to wrap it all up, like a practical maybe step or two that people can do right now, wherever they're at, to move their business forward? One or two things.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

Well, Jimmy, one one is mindset. Decide what you want to do and start getting your mind right to move in that direction. Yeah. Um really, I think that's the biggest one. That and that was the biggest hurdle for starting out. You gotta get that foundation right, know where you're going. Like and then the second one is get moving. Like you can't steer a parked car. So you have to have some motion in order to be able to go. So one is get get the mind right, know where you're trying to go, and two is start doing it.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

Whatever those baby steps are.

unknown 37:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:29

Because what got you to where you're at today is not gonna get you to your goals of tomorrow. You're gonna have to adjust and change. Uh, 2026, I'm adjusting my team as we continue to grow. We're we're you know, I've I've hit that next healing, and it's like, okay, how do we get through this to get to the next one? And it's gonna be an ongoing thing. But I can tell you, Jimmy, this will be my last comment because I know we got a wrapper down. Uh, when I first started out wondering, you know, where the pay where was the payment for the mortgage coming from, I have different challenges. You know, that wise philosopher Mace once said, More money, more problems. Um, it's true, but I'd much rather have my problems today than the problems I had before. Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Yeah, you got to give yourself options. Well, it has been great uh listening to you, Scott, and then chatting today. Hopefully, if you're out there, you've you've caught a couple pieces of wisdom that you can take and help yourself in your own business and move forward. Um, if people want to reach out to you, Scott, I mean, I'll put a lot here in the show notes um where people can find you. But what's the best way um to get a hold of you or or BeckTech in general?

SPEAKER_02 38:35

Uh website or my my email, which incidentally my my other takeaway is I actually don't manage my inbox anymore. Someone else does that for me because uh you can be stuck in your inbox forever. Sure. Um but it's Scott at BeckTec, B-E-C-K-T-E-K dot C A.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

Awesome. Well, Scott, I really appreciate your time today. Um, it's been uh fun chatting with you and learning about your story. Um, and I really appreciate your time. Thanks for having me on. You betcha.