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#872 NerdioCon 2026: Will Ominsky - 🚀 Scaling Smarter: How MSPs Win in a Fast-Changing Tech World

• Joey Pinz • Episode 872

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🚀 What does it take for MSPs to thrive in a world of rapid tech change, AI disruption, and rising client expectations?

In this episode of Joey Pinz Discipline Conversations, Joey Pinz sits down with a leader in the MSP ecosystem to break down how managed service providers can scale smarter, improve profitability, and stay ahead of the curve.

From automation and Microsoft ecosystem optimization to the real impact of AI, this conversation dives into practical strategies that help MSPs reduce complexity, strengthen security, and create better work-life balance.

You’ll also hear how leadership, personal growth, and stepping outside your comfort zone play a critical role in long-term success—both in business and life.

💡 Top 3 Highlights:

  • ⚙️ Automation = Freedom: How standardization and “do it once, repeat many” transforms MSP operations 
  • 🔐 Security & Growth Combined: Reducing risk while increasing business value and scalability 
  • 🤖 AI Reality Check: Why AI isn’t about replacing work—but creating new revenue opportunities 

This episode is packed with insights for MSP owners, IT leaders, and anyone navigating the future of technology and leadership.

 

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Join us for enlightening discussions that spark growth and exploration. 

Hosted by Joey Pinz, this Discipline Conversations Podcast offers insights and inspiration.

 

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Discipline. How does it play a role in your life? How does it drive your decisions? Do you have too much or too little? Every profession, hobby, or passion requires a level of discipline. I have used it in weight loss (+130 lbs.), family death, and found a +25 year business. Am I an expert? Absolutely not! Please join me, as I speak to interesting people and find out how discipline affects their career, life, goals, and decisions. Join me as I talk to interesting people in: #Health, #Fitness & #Wellness: #Business, #Technology & #Science: #Art & #Culture: Website: joeypinz.com All social media @TheJoeyPinz Do you wish to Sponsor? Get the prospectus here: www.joeypinz.com/sponsor

 

 

 

 

 

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SPEAKER_00

NerdioCon 2026. What a great event. What an absolutely great event. They're in Palm Springs, California. I believe it's their fifth or their sixth. First one I've been to. I was I reached out and I was graciously invited by the entire marketing and sales team, PR. Just a wonderful event. The Star Wars team was there. The opening day was May 4th. So, of course, May the Fourth be with you. May the force be with you, excuse me. But just wonderful event, great theme carried through of Star Wars. I've never seen it done so well before. This is the best I've ever seen it done well, uh, really well. And the attention to detail from the leadership team, from the marketing team was absolutely incredible. Wonderful keynotes. Um, I attended all the MSP, of course, related ones and lots of great MSPs. I had great side conversations. The vendor hall was was pumping and thriving, a lot of great vendors there, but just an absolutely wonderful event. Um, glad I was a part of it. We set up a podcast station there and we had four great conversations. The first was was with Vedeen, the CEO, an absolute pleasure. A gentleman, kind, smart, uh, first time meeting him, a walk through some you know where he was, where he is now. Uh you know, Nerdio was nothing a mere seven years ago, in 2018, I believe, is when it started. Um, meeting his partner, partner Joseph, and wonderful conversation with Vadim, building the future of MSP cloud success. The next conversation was with Will Lominsky. I've had the great pleasure of knowing Will for six or seven years now. We haven't talked in the last couple of years, but to see his career just skyrocket is is inspiring and makes me happy and and um really, really impressive. We were able to catch up a bit, uh, scaling smarter how MSBs went in a fast-changing tech world. Great conversation with Will. The third was with Amal Dalve. Great conversation. Amal was really, really cool to talk about some of the older technologies in the 90s and the 2000s that we're both familiar with, that we both kind of came up with. Uh, from code to product leadership, building what matters. We uh real candid conversation. He exchanges, shared some of the things that he uh asks people on interviews, and really great conversation. Smart man, uh, where he grew up in India to where he is now. Really, really great conversation with Amal. And then lastly, with Christian Brenkoff, wonderful young man, very open, very smart, author of five books, holds all of these titles and awards. He was at Microsoft for a while, and uh really smart the way he uh systematizes everything, and um, he was really candid too. At the end of the conversation, he shared something that he generally doesn't talk about, but it was a really great conversation with Christian. I really, really enjoyed it. I thank the whole team there at Nerdio, Liz, team, and marketing and PR and sales and leadership uh to have me at this wonderful wonderful event. I hope to come back to come back soon. Thank you so much for watching and listening. Hi, I'm Joey Pin. And here's my 45 second introduction. After starting my business in the 90s, I started developing poor habits of eating and my diet because of working way too much to find myself at 340 pounds. The doctor told me if I don't lose the weight, I'm not gonna see my daughter graduate. I took the next seven months and lost 130 pounds. People ask me, How do you do it? What's the secret? I need to lose weight, how'd you do it? How do I lose weight with just one word? I've had other successes in life and I attribute them all to discipline. No, I'm not thinking of discipline, but I believe that it can help all of us. The podcast vision is how do we better ourselves and society? I talk to interesting people in health, fitness, sports, wellness, business, technology, science, art and culture. And I eventually asked them how discipline plays a role in their life. Podcast vision and growth through learning from others.

SPEAKER_01

I don't understand. What kind of things would you sew? Um, well, to these days it's, you know, pants are ripped, or you know, this blanket got ripped up by the dog or something like that. So I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00

Are you using a machine or are you using a needle?

SPEAKER_01

No, by by hand. I used to use a machine. I actually have a machine. I haven't had a chance to set it up yet. So um I'm I'm excited to set it up. It's like a good thing to do in the winter, you know, and you can't I don't do any winter sports. So it's like collect all like the broken ripped stuff and then you know put it together. So you started sewing in like high school, you said? Middle school. Middle school, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's incredible. I don't uh my mother used to, but I don't know anybody else who does it. It's like a lost art.

SPEAKER_01

Like nobody's everything's disposable these days. That's the problem. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

If there's a rip you t you toss. Yeah, you toss it. You click on Amazon and it's at your door, you know, new things that you're doing in a couple days. Yeah, it is kind of a lost art, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, because my mother used to take a lot of pride, come to think about it. Curtains and things like that. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I haven't got into the I feel like that's like when I get a little bit older. It's create new things, you know, instead of repairing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right. How long have you riding motorcycles?

SPEAKER_01

Uh about five years now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

One down, six up.

SPEAKER_01

Uh yeah, yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a lot of fun. My daughter actually just graduated college um on Sunday. Whoa. Um with a degree. Um, she went for automotive tech. And so I'm very excited for her to move home. I'm gonna get her signed up for the motorcycle class, and I'm gonna get her a bike, and then we can ride together because I don't really have a solid riding partner right now.

SPEAKER_00

And you're in the northeast.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. So your time is kind of limited. You can't have it. Very limited, yes.

SPEAKER_00

You had a very tough winter.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Oh, this winter, you know, it's funny. In the northeast, we've been complaining. Not a lot of snow, a lot of snow, and then we get this winter with snow, and we're all complaining about the snow.

SPEAKER_00

This was a I was telling you, it was a full month of like thing over 32 degrees, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it was it was brutally cold. You know, I um I've cut down my work travel, but during that time I was like, hey, I'm I'm available for any any trip. Any trip may be more warm. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and fishing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I I hear you either golf or you fish. You don't do both.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I don't golf. So there you go. I like going to top golf, but aside from that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's just something peaceful about fishing, isn't there?

SPEAKER_01

It it is. Like you get to sit there and reflect, and you're kind of out there in nature. And I feel like a lot of that stuff, like especially with younger generations, is being lost. I like to garden too. Um and so, like, to me, they're kind of somewhat related, like being able to sustain yourself, you know, grow plants. I'll catch trout and I'll grab some tomatoes from the garden and put them on the grill. Like it's it's fulfilling, you know?

SPEAKER_00

It sure is, yeah. There's nothing like picking something from your garden and eating it. Correct. Yeah, it's wonderful, yeah. Have you always been out of Boston?

SPEAKER_01

Um Well, I've always been out of Massachusetts. So I grew up in the western part of the state and I've been in uh the Boston area for the past 20 years or so.

SPEAKER_00

Didn't pick up an accent though, Willie.

SPEAKER_01

I did not. That's the thing, like Massachusetts is so small. You go to the West, there's that you don't have that Boston area, yeah. Springfield area, yeah. It's only an hour and a half away. It's not even that far.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I'm from New Haven, of course. Okay, yeah. We didn't have it there, but but what a different and even the Providence stories is different. It's very different.

SPEAKER_01

That's a different accent down there, too.

SPEAKER_00

And then another hour south of me, Long Island, a completely distinctful accent. The region is full of accents.

SPEAKER_01

It really is. And it's it's so my mom always laughed because she she grew up in the Springfield area and and still lives out there. Um, but she's like, I can always tell when your wife is not happy with you because the Boston accent comes out so because my wife grew up in Boston, you know. She's like, it's either the middle name or the Boston accent. She's like, I know you did something.

SPEAKER_00

I played soccer with a uh uh a friend of mine whose parents were from London and he didn't have an English accent, but I don't know what beer number it was, but a certain number of beer, all of a sudden, an English accent. I said, Paul, are you like holding it back? Like what is it? Normal conversation. And of course he wouldn't remember anything, but yeah, it's it's fascinating. Oh wow how accents were.

SPEAKER_01

I'd be trying to figure out what numbers, six, seven, you know?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, I don't know what it was. Everybody would say, okay, Paul's uh yeah, he's British now. Yeah, yeah. That's great. We're here at NerdioCon, the annual event, huge event, Will. What are some of your goals this week?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, really my number one goal is to connect with as many MSPs as possible. I think that's one of the things that I really enjoy about this event is being able to have that personal connection. So much of what we do every single day is over Teams, you know, video calls, but having that like real personal connection, being able to talk, get to know people better. It's uh super rewarding. How does Nerdio help MSPs? Yeah, so we help in a number of different ways today. You know, I think the the number one way where we help MSPs is we help them achieve their goals by being more profitable, being able to secure their customers and grow their customer base. You know, more specifically around technology, we focus on the Microsoft ecosystem. Whether that's Azure Virtual Desktop, Windows 365, or all of the great features in Microsoft 365, uh, specifically business premium is where most of our value is, um, whether it's Defender or Intune, um, application management, uh, policy management, all of that.

SPEAKER_00

And what does the Nerdio platform give the MSP that they can't just get going directly?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so we I like to say we extend the native capabilities of Microsoft. So what we've done is built our software specifically targeted towards MSPs. And one of the key features is do it once, repeat it many. And so what an MSP can do is they can set up standards inside of Nerdio that they click a single button and apply to every single customer. So things like customer onboarding, instead of taking hours or days, it takes literally minutes to press a button and onboard a customer.

SPEAKER_00

And when an MSP is looking at there's plenty of competition in in the area. When an MSP is looking at Nerdio and your competitors, what questions should they be asking?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they should really be asking things around security, partnership with Microsoft, and I would also say future-proofing or forward thinking. A lot of my conversations at this event have really been about technology is changing faster than it ever has before. Um, and so you know, picking a vendor that not just supports you today, but that has the resources and ability to think forward, anticipate where the industry is going, and support me for years to come.

SPEAKER_00

What's it what's the best thing about I mean, I I knew you before, I mean, I could I looked you up by the way. Six almost seven years you've been at Nerdia. Yeah, yeah. I remember talking to you at your previous game, and um it's incredible how time just goes by. What's great, what's the greatest thing about working with the MSP community?

SPEAKER_01

You know, I I think it's what's the greatest thing for me is the rewarding aspect of it. There's, for example, there's uh an MSP I was just talking to a couple hours ago, and one thing that he said to me was astounding and was so rewarding. He said, Well, I can coach my kids t-ball. You know why? Because you guys were able to help me optimize my business, figure out how to acquire new customers, and automate many things that I was having to do before where I didn't have that work-life balance. Like for me, I'm not saving lives, I'm not a brain surgeon, but we really can help human beings uh and people in that way. It's so, so rewarding.

SPEAKER_00

That is rewarding. You know, you know, I'm a former MSP, I talk to MSPs all the time. It's been pretty consistent over the last seven, eight years at what keeps them up at night. Three things. One, cybersecurity. They're worried about their clients getting attacked. And if they get attacked, then they have to allocate resources, they're probably gonna be fired, they may even be sued. Two, human capital, how are they gonna keep their people happy? How they're gonna get new engineers. Unemployment in IT here in the States is I don't know, one percent. It's crazy. Yep. Third is just growth. Private equity has poured in hundreds of millions of dollars. Their friends are selling their MSPs. How am I gonna grow?

SPEAKER_01

How does Nerdio help? Yeah, we we actually help with all of those areas. Um, you know, one of the things that I talked about in one of my sessions actually earlier today is Nerdio is that layer that makes managing Microsoft technologies, which is really at the core of what MSPs do, very easy. They can go take a recent college grad or high school student and have them trained up in managing all of their customers in these very complex technologies. And so what that allows them to do is not have that one expert who is a very big risk if they go get a job offer somewhere else. Um, uh, it allows them to hire from different pools of candidates. They can now look at employees and hire people that have empathy, that have good bedside manner and customer service, which are incredibly important, as you know, for MSPs, and then be able to, you know, take take the technology and train them up on it very easily. In terms of the MA story, because they have standardization across all their customers, their business is actually now more valuable. So if they want to go get acquired, they can say, well, this is exactly how we do things. This is exactly how all of our customers are set up. Here are the standards, like Nerdio, we have CIS policies built in. So with the click of a button, an MSKP can push out the gold standard of security policies to their customers. So that again makes them more valuable for MA, but also reduces that attack surface so they're not kept up late at night necessarily worrying about uh what's gonna happen next with my business.

SPEAKER_00

It provides a great level of comfort, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01

It does, it definitely does. And then you also think about what we do with virtual desktops. A lot of MSPs, they haven't adopted widely virtual desktop technology, but in the event of a breach, that same tool that you're using to manage Microsoft 365, in a couple clicks of a button, you can spin up a brand new clean desktop-based, server-based environment with Nerdio. And so you can keep that compromise environment segregated. The insurance companies can do whatever they need to do and actually have people productive very quickly. What keep as far as the MSP community, what keeps you up at night, Will? Uh, you know, what keeps me up at night? It's you know, the big one is all the MSPs that say, I know I should be doing this, but I don't have the time. You know, that really, really worries me. I think MSPs are very intelligent, they know what they need to do, but they're also, you know, fighting the inertia of, you know, the the day-to-day, you know, the customers calling them up, opening tickets, spending time with printer jam issues, you know, whatever it might be. And you know, that's something I spent a lot of time thinking about here at Nerdio. How can we make it very easy for them to actually implement the things that they know they should be doing?

SPEAKER_00

I know when I was an MSP, we wanted to partner with Microsoft in a lot of areas, but they they weren't really ready for us. They weren't multi-tenant. But that's exactly one of the main functions that Nerdio does, your platform.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, exactly. If you look at the Intune for MSP's program from Microsoft, they've actually identified Nerdio as one of the companies that helps maybe fill those gaps and you know brings to the industry. But I also think the other thing about Intune for MSP, it's a signal for MSPs to realize Microsoft actually cares about the MSP community. They're making more investments in that. They're partnering with more people, they're spending more time in the MSP community.

SPEAKER_00

Great keynotes yesterday yesterday for MSP. Um lots of exciting, exciting things happening on the platform.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

What's the difference of the the biggest uh what are the biggest outcomes so far this year that we're announced? What gets you most excited?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so I'm really excited about the um tenant assessment that we now have in our product. It really allows MSPs to shorten the sales cycle to go acquire new customers. They can quickly go to a brand new you know prospect. They can assess where they stand today and where they should be, and it really highlights, you know, whether their current MSP is doing a good job or not, or their internal IT person. So I'm very excited about that. Uh I'm also excited about PSA integration, you know, allowing MSPs to be able to get all of that data, the telemetry, the things that they're doing in Nerdio inside of the PSA that they've been working in. It removes a lot of friction from their internal teams, especially as they use Nerdio a lot more widely across all of their customers.

SPEAKER_00

Will, is there a question you wished more people asked you?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's a really, really good question. Um I don't know if there is one. I get asked a lot about the thing that that that makes me excited. Where is Nerdio going next? Yeah, right. That makes me excited because it really forces me to think, well, where are we going next? And is that the right area? Um, you know, I I think uh I get asked for discounts a lot too. So I don't know, maybe a little bit less of that. But um, you know, we're always happy to do whatever we can to make it work.

SPEAKER_00

Your brand deserves to be in front of the right audience decision makers, entrepreneurs, and professionals who are ready to take action. That's exactly who listens to the Joey Pins podcast. Thousands of engaged business leaders and consumers tune in every week. Millions of views and listens across YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Sponsors see real impact, higher engagement, brand trust, and conversations. We offer strategic partnerships tailored to your goals, including targeted ad placements, branded guest appearances, multi-episode and event sponsorships. Make your brand part of the conversation. Let's grow together. Visit JoeyPins.com slash sponsor to explore sponsorship opportunities, or email us at sales at joeypins.com. The Joey Pins Podcast, where brands and thought leaders connect. Hopefully, I'll get asked next year at NerdioCon. But what do you if we're having this conversation again in a year, Will, what do you think would have changed? What do you think would be?

SPEAKER_01

I think we're talking a lot more about AI. I think that the train has already left the station. Uh, I think you know, a lot of people are fighting against AI, and it doesn't matter if you're fighting against AI because your customers are using it whether you want them to or not. I'm very excited about some of the new features that'll be coming out in Nerdio over the next 12 months to really help MSPs figure out the security aspect of AI and also how they can make money on it. Because I believe there's an opportunity there, not just for selling a copilot license and making whatever margin Microsoft gives you on that. I think there's going to be a whole new wave of AI-managed services around government governance and protecting AI, making sure there's no shadow AI and maybe even some more things around, you know, providing skills to people that um can help that CPA firm process more tax returns, maybe. I think MSPs are uniquely suited to be able to do things like that.

SPEAKER_00

How has AI affected the Nerdio platform?

SPEAKER_01

Uh it's affected Yeah. So, you know, I would say you don't see a ton of AI actually directly in the platform because we're not one of those vendors that says we're just gonna slap on a fancy chat bot and boom, we have AI. That's not the right way to do it and not what we're looking for. Uh what you have people have seen is as we've continued to grow um and scale, we are not slowing down in our product in terms of our release schedule. We are bringing new features out to market almost every six weeks. We are using AI internally to keep the speed without having to raise prices and raise costs. We haven't had a price change at Nerdio um in four years, I think. Yeah, and but we're giving more features, you know, more benefits. We're keeping up with demand um for all of that. So we're really looking at AI to be intelligent uh within our platform.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I get to talk to MSPs daily. I'm very fortunate. And I heard I was at an event a couple weeks ago, and some MSPs at a round table said that their clients are saying to them, You're using AI now, why aren't you charging us less?

SPEAKER_01

Hmm, interesting. I I can see why a customer would ask that. I think a lot of it is education. I think there's gonna be a lot of education that needs to come both to MSPs as well as their end customers, just like you know, in the early days of cloud, customers were saying, Hey, I moved to the cloud, shouldn't it be less expensive? No, no, no, that's not actually it. Sometimes it's more expensive, but the efficiencies and the gains that you get make it worthwhile. I think that's gonna be a very similar parallel for AI.

SPEAKER_00

Will is there's something, let's go back, I don't know, 10 years. Is there something you believed firmly then that you no longer believe now?

SPEAKER_01

I don't know if I remember everything that I believed 10 years ago. It's changed so, so fast. Um, you know, actually, I'll I'll I'll give you an example. Um I firmly believe that virtual desktops would be in every single IT computing environment back then. I'm a virtual desktop guy. That's what I was doing back then when we met, even. Um, and you know, that hasn't come true. Uh I still uh, you know, I think people to some extent can't get over the fact that I still need some type of device to view what's happening in my virtual session. I think some of it is cost. I think uh some of the stuff that's happening with AI driving up hardware costs is gonna get more and more people on there. Um, but yeah, I think for for whatever reason, it it's not there yet. I think Microsoft is gonna be releasing some things over maybe the next 12 months or so that's gonna um, you know, open up some of that. A lot of it is consumer driven, right? When you need to go get a new laptop for your high school kid, you still think I need to go get a cheap device. You don't think about a cloud PC, right? And I think as consumers start maybe uh it becomes more approachable to them with costs coming down, we will start seeing that entering more and more businesses. But the TAM there, the amount of people using it is still growing, right? It's a very healthy business, but um, I think the consumer side will maybe drive a little bit more of that.

SPEAKER_00

It's an exciting time.

SPEAKER_01

It is, it really is. There's a a lot of new stuff, it's moving very, very, very fast. And I'm fortunate enough um to be with an organization and in the MSP community to be able to help coach and guide and figure out some of these challenges.

SPEAKER_00

I talked to Vadim earlier. I think he said he started Nerdio in 2018.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So you're six and a half, so you got there.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, you're very there right at the beginning.

SPEAKER_00

Right at the beginning. What's changed then from now?

SPEAKER_01

Uh well, number one, the size of our organization. But, you know, I think what's maybe more important is the things that haven't changed. You know, we said back then we're gonna educate MSPs, and we still spend a significant amount of time and investment in educating MSPs on how they can be better and get the outcomes they want. We said back then we're gonna be an outside in organization. And I truly believe we are still an outside in organization. So it's kind of fun to watch the evolution of Nerdio where we kind of keep some of those core covenants that we had back in 2018 and help them propel us into the future while also being able to scale and grow and see the number of uh MSPs that are using us today. It's exciting, isn't it? Yeah, it really is. I mean, we we always take a step back in some of our leadership meetings where we say, you know, is this real? Like we we could have never imagined, you know, back then. We hoped back then that we would have this scale, but it's it's pretty cool when I get up on stage at our company meeting. Um, you know, back then our company meeting was 15 or 20 of us in a room. Now it's 500 people, and I'm standing on a big stage talking to everybody. It's pretty neat.

SPEAKER_00

And your leadership is very impressive. Yeah. And it's uh working with your team just for this event. I mean, it's so well run, the theme, the uh it's it's just an absolute pleasure. Did you lose weight?

SPEAKER_01

Uh I've I've lost a little bit of weight. I found that not being on the road as much and cutting out alcohol from being on the road, you know, really makes a significant difference. I I also think um both of my kids moving away and going to college gave me a little bit more free time and like, okay, I'm getting a little bit older. I need to think about what I'm doing here.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. So I started my MSP in the 90s, right there in New Haven, just south of you, and I was working way too hard, 14, 16 hour daytime. I'm not sure if I told you this or not, but uh you know, I was in my 20s, you know, well, and I was I felt I was invincible and I wasn't exercising anymore. And I'm in front of the doctor, she tells me I'm at 340 pounds.

SPEAKER_01

Oh wow, wow.

SPEAKER_00

So I knew I I knew I was getting big. I didn't think I was that big. And she says to me, if you don't lose this weight, you're not gonna see your daughter graduate. It scared the life out of me, right? It scared me and it pissed me off. So I'm driving home, punching this thing, you know, what did I do? I can this is my pie hole, I'm doing this myself, I can abuse myself all I want. Spent the next six, seven months, lost about 120 pounds and kept it off. You know, they you can't look at these things as finishing lines, right? These are lifelong changes. So when I tell people this, they always say, Well, what's your secret? What'd you do? And I say, Well, there's no secret, just discipline. Focus, routine, motivation. How does discipline play a role in your life, bro?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it plays a huge role in my life. You know, I think um about you know, from when I started at Nerdio, uh, I I was the main say one of the main sales guys, right? And my discipline was I'm gonna respond to every MSP quickly. I'm gonna have inbox zero by the end of the day. Everybody's gonna get fast response. And now at the position where I am today, overseeing the entire MSP business, you know, I have to have the same level of discipline, but it's maybe more varied. You know, I need to make sure I'm spending time with product and we're going the right direction there, time with marketing that we're getting the right message out there, the right time with our sellers that we're communicating the right message to MSPs, that we're supporting them. And then also having discipline to spend time and get feedback. Uh, understand that I don't have all the answers. Uh, I've I've been here for a while, I've been in the MSP community for a while, but there's so much that I can learn. So I really like to take a chunk of my day and go out there and learn from other people. And I think discipline is incredibly important as well as with discipline and having that work-life balance. Like as you know, you're working 14-hour days. It's very easy to be excited about this, spend all time in work, but having time to let your brain kind of process everything, think about things. That's why I like to go fishing. Um, really being able to do that is is also important. It's easy to overlook that, though.

SPEAKER_00

It sure is. As a kid, were you was discipline talked about in the household, or was it kind of exemplified?

SPEAKER_01

It was definitely exemplified. So both my parents were the first uh generation to go to college. They also both went and got their master's degrees and they were both in law enforcement. So there was a lot of uh discipline, yeah, like you know, higher education and spend time with your studies, do sports, you know, go out there and be well-rounded. Uh I was in scouting for many, many years. Um, so there was a lot of discipline growing up. Uh, I think one of the other things around discipline um that I learned from some mentors too was make yourself uncomfortable. I I really impressed that on my kids. I had this mentor, he went maybe to a little bit to the extreme, but this this guy, he would change which wall his bed was on every single month because he's like, I want to wake up uncomfortable for a little while. And so I I really try to retain that. I make myself uncomfortable. I put myself in uncomfortable situations, and I really credit that to a lot of my success.

SPEAKER_00

And you think you carry that through being a parent as well?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I I definitely do. I I, you know, will go have those uncomfortable conversations with my kids. They they don't like that. Um, but you know, I encourage them to make themselves uncomfortable, to go try new things, to not be afraid of trying new things. You know, everybody out there generally I found wants the best for people, right? And so most of the time, people are gonna make fun of you because you fail. They're gonna be supportive that you actually tried something. And uh, you know, I think that's a really important lesson to give to everybody, whether it's in, you know, your personal life or even in business.

SPEAKER_00

Will has there been something in the last month or so you changed your mind on?

SPEAKER_01

Uh AI, most definitely. In the last month. Yes, in the last month.

SPEAKER_00

Where was it then and where is it now?

SPEAKER_01

Before I was looking at AI as like this kind of tool that I can use to help me rewrite emails, right? Like really, really surface level. Um, and I credit Vadim with a lot of this. Vadim was uh exposing to me some of the things that he's using AI for to make him more efficient, to make him um understand the business more and the trends more. And I I have set up on you know on a personal level so much with AI in my routines. Um, you know, you get into a Teams call these days and you have the recorder in there. Most of the time you never go back and look at the recorder. I actually have AI going back and pulling out these are the action items, these are the things that I could have done better. These are the things you know, and really using that to improve myself every single day. What motivates you, Will? Uh, you know, what really motivates me is making other people happy. You know, I really like seeing other people find their their happiness, whether it's their career goals, whatever motivates them. I really try and spend time internally at Nerdio as well as our MSP partners. What motivates you? Do you want to be an MSP that just gets to geek out about tech all day? Are you an MSP that wants to grow your business to get acquired and then figure out how we can make them happy and get that outcome that they want? There's nothing more exciting to me than, you know, working with a new employee, even and saying, well, what are your goals? You want to lead a team? That's awesome. Let's figure out how to get you there. And then eventually seeing them lead the team. That's so rewarding and makes me, you know, very happy every day to come into work. What makes a good leader? You know, I think a good leader is very different than maybe a good manager. You know, a leader is somebody that you get excited about working with, somebody that you can trust, somebody that has a vision and provides clarity on that vision, somebody that can unblock obstacles and will, you know, fight for their team members. I think there's a lot of different qualities that make up a really good leader. Um, but I look up to Joseph and Vadim, you know, I've been with them for six and a half years now. You know, they they definitely exemplify that great leadership. People that I really trust, I think that's probably the number one thing. I trust them. Joseph and Vadim have come to me with ideas. We're gonna go do this. And in the back of my mind, especially in the early days, I'm like, oh, I don't know about this. And every single time we've been able to show that that was, you know, the right reason. It was the right direction. Maybe didn't get the outcome we expected at the beginning, but it always worked out in the end.

SPEAKER_00

Can a leader be made or are they born?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I think that's a really, really tough question. I think um, I think a little bit of both. I think people are probably born with some leadership qualities, but I think if those are not developed over time, um, then you know they might sit in the background. I also think some of it's around desire of the individual. Do you want to be? Not everybody wants to be a leader, and that's great. That's totally fine.

SPEAKER_00

I've had to have uh some tough discussions with employees that were managers and thought they were leaders. Because the ego gets in there a little bit. Yeah. It can be have you ever had this kind of what's the difference between a leader and a manager?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so I I I definitely think you you hit on a key one there, right? There's a little bit of that that ego thing. Like a leader is I I would say is probably a little bit more selfless, right? You know, I think um looking out for others, that's a great quality. You know, you look at great leaders in your your personal life, people that you look up to, and there are people that are there for you, that support you. Um, they're not doing things for their own motivation. So I think being selfless is a is a huge thing on that. And there are certainly, you know, people out there who will do things, you know, very selfishly. And you know, that can be a big difference between maybe a manager and a leader.

SPEAKER_00

And it we should note that they're both very important. They are, of course they are. Both, yeah. Not to think that one's better than the other, but we need managers, we need leaders. Well, when I asked you before about motivation, you didn't say it, but what I heard it will was impact. Yeah. Yeah. So how do you measure success given the motivation of impact?

SPEAKER_01

You know, I I measure it a lot on um, well, it depends whether it's internally with the team or with the MSP, but I think on the MSP side, it's really, you know, when they when we survey them and we talk to them and they um let us know the the changes that have actually happened in their business, where we it's we've laid out this plan, they've followed the plan, and then they have seen that actual impact to their business. Whether it's you know, a better outcome, happier employees, more revenue, more margin, those types of things are really, really important. I think internally you can see impact with people just being happier, um, people moving into different roles or um growing with their career.

SPEAKER_00

So your final message this week to MSPs will is what?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's technology is moving incredibly fast. Go look at the partners that you have out there in your portfolio. Maybe it's Nerdio, maybe it's not, um, but there's a lot of help out there. And I think that's what MSPs really need to realize is you don't have to do it all on your own. It's one of the things I love about the MSP community. You can come to an event like NerdioCon, you can talk to Nerdio as well as many other vendors. You know, we have Huntress here, we have PAX8 here, as well as other MSPs who are trying to figure out the same thing. That's what I love about this being a community. We're all trying to figure out the same things, maybe a slightly different flavor, different way of doing it, different region, different size customers. Uh, but we don't have to do it all on our own. We don't, we don't. Well, great, great to see you. Thank you so much for it. Yes, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I really, really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for having me here. You'd be well. Yes, thank you. You too.

SPEAKER_00

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