Now That's IT: Stories of MSP Success

Burnout to Balance: Benji Sawyer’s Journey to Sustainable MSP Leadership

• N-able • Season 2 • Episode 23

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In this episode of Now That’s IT: Stories of MSP Success, we sit down with Benji Sawyer, the high-tech guru behind Sawyer Solutions, to explore his journey from the brink of burnout to building a thriving MSP grounded in balance, compassion, and purpose. Benji opens up about the challenges of working 100-hour weeks, the pivotal moment that forced him to reassess his approach, and the strategies he used to create a sustainable, people-first business.

Discover how Benji transitioned from technician to CEO, the lessons he learned about scaling without sacrificing culture, and the steps he took to foster empathy and care at the core of his MSP. Whether you're striving for growth, searching for work-life harmony, or looking to inspire a values-driven team, Benji’s story offers actionable insights and a fresh perspective on what it means to lead in today’s MSP industry.

Tune in to learn how you can balance ambition with well-being and build a business that thrives without burning out.

N-able also produces Beyond the Horizon. Hosted by industry veterans, this podcast delves deep into the findings of the annual MSP Horizons Report, providing actionable insights to transform your IT business. Listen & Subscribe Wherever You Get Your Podcasts.

'Now that's it: Stories of MSP Success,' dives into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in our industry to find out how they used their passion for technology to help turn Managed Services into the thriving sector it is today.

Every episode is packed with the valuable insights, practical strategies, and inspiring anecdotes that lead our guests to the transformative moment when they knew….. Now, that's it.

This podcast provides educational information about issues that may be relevant to information technology service providers.

Nothing in the podcast should be construed as any recommendation or endorsement by N-able, or as legal or any other advice.

The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.

Views and opinions expressed by N-able employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of N-able or its officers and directors.

The podcast may also contain forward-looking statements regarding future product plans, functionality, or development efforts that should not be interpreted as a commitment from N-able related to any deliverables or timeframe.

All content is based on information available at the time of recording, and N-able has no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Speaker 1:

One, two, three go. We did a SWOT analysis of the company and the greatest threat everyone in the company identified at the time was me killing myself by working too much. And so I was working 100-hour weeks for months straight and they're like you've got to stop, you've got to stop. And when I realized they're right, I've got to stop, I've got to slow down, then it's a matter of affording the people to hand it off to.

Speaker 2:

How did you do that? I mean, how do you approach this new work-life balance? I love work, I love hard work.

Speaker 1:

Physical, I don't know. It's part of who I am. I have a drive to do things, and so it's been difficult in a lot of ways. Welcome to Now.

Speaker 2:

That's it stories of MSP success, where we dive into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in our industry to find out how they used their passion for technology to help turn managed services into the thriving sector it is today. Benji Sawyer, welcome to the Now that's it podcast. Thanks for having me. So you label yourself as the high-tech guru guy at Sawyer Systems? Is that like Superman's Clark Kent identity?

Speaker 1:

No, I'm pretty irreverent just in my own, like everyday life, and we don't do fancy titles, we don't do stuffy stuff. Uh, you know, in fact, in our job postings we're talking about, like, how we're not stuffed shirts. Uh, it got me in trouble when I was in corporate America a lot. Um, they didn't always appreciate my sense of humor and how I approach things, and so now that I have a free hand to do whatever I want, that's something I came up with right after we started the company and really started doing it almost 11 years ago.

Speaker 2:

Co-founder and CEO at Sawyer Solutions. You're a youth volunteer, skier, jogger, gamer when you have free time right when I had free time, I used to do those things.

Speaker 1:

Now I have a business and six kids. That's pretty much all I do.

Speaker 2:

You grew up in a family of serial entrepreneurs, you told me. Grew up in a family of serial entrepreneurs. You told me the mutual friend Boyd Smith, who had an episode just recently. He talks about how rare it is and hard for first-generation entrepreneurs. What was it like growing up around entrepreneurs and how did you think it shaped your future?

Speaker 1:

So I never wanted to be an entrepreneur, just flat. So my parents, they started their first business after they got married back in the 70s. They did radio repair on airplanes and then the Arab Olin Buggers shut all that down because no one flew anymore. They started a business. Painting towers eventually turned into erecting towers, big giant steel towers that don't really get made much anymore.

Speaker 1:

Both sets of grandparents were entrepreneurs. One owned a tire store and were farmers. The other one had owned a gas station at one point in time and did a bunch of other things. And so we've always, I guess, had an entrepreneurial spirit in ways.

Speaker 1:

And I very, very strongly remember you know it's a rite of passage I tell my kids, as a Sawyer, you have to paint your parents' office, and so I remember doing that for them. My kids paint, the older kids paint paint the office. We moved into it and stuff and so. But I never wanted to do it there. While they've done a lot of business types of things, they've never been really focused on success. It's never been about making a lot of money, it's more lifestyle for them. So I've made more money than others and I mean there there are times we didn't really have much, and it was a lot of work. I saw how much work they put into it. My friend's parents didn't work nearly as much, and so I never wanted to do it. Growing up it was always I was going to be a physicist or a scientist of some type, not going to be an entrepreneur here I am.

Speaker 2:

So you went to school for physics and then you ended up studying programming and becoming a web developer in corporate world.

Speaker 1:

Yes, Turns out I hate physics. Not completely accurate. I'm a high-level idea guy and when you get into physics, if you don't know, I like the ideas behind the physics. The actual math I despise. And so, yeah, I did it until my senior year in college Realized this was not for me. I'd done programming, a lot of programming. I was actually programming professionally for a company. My dad worked for good money at it as a college student, really enjoyed it and decided that's what I want to do the rest of my my life and so started that so you actually wanted to be a physicist growing up.

Speaker 1:

I want to be, so everyone's like. You should be a scientist.

Speaker 1:

You should be a scientist right and you get told something often enough, you, you do, and so, like, I'm like I like a challenge and so what's the most challenging part of science? Physics, and so so, yeah, I'd always had in my mind to be a physicist, even though I was really, really good at chemistry. I'm going to be a great chemist because I like experiments and there's a lot less math and chemistry and so. But I got stuck in my mind I was going to be a physicist and just stuck there until I realized senior year, I don't have to do this thing.

Speaker 2:

I can be something different. I did the same thing. I went to school for physics. But I went to school for physics because I don't want to be a physicist. I wanted to get into computers, and I thought you kind of had to know physics to work at IBM, only to realize there's plenty of other paths to be able to get there.

Speaker 1:

Yes, that is not generally the primary career path.

Speaker 2:

That's right. So then on the side, you started Sawyer Solutions with your dad and two other men, but you had something different in mind, yeah.

Speaker 1:

It was actually a joint venture. We started the company right. Software is back to tower. The two people we were in business with were both structural engineers and my dad had hired them to help back when they worked at a tower company together 30 some years before we started the business and they're fast friends, know each other a long time and they needed inspection software to inspect towers. At the time the only inspection software was out there were all web-based and the kind of inspections they were doing there was no cell signal or you're putting up a tower that had the cell signal and so we had to write a completely offline method. We were going to write the software they're going to market and sell for us. We wrote the software didn't really get much selling done, so it's learned a valuable lesson there, a lot of valuable lessons on that one.

Speaker 2:

So the power structure thing doesn't work out, but you have an opportunity that comes up that lets you and your wife leave Memphis.

Speaker 1:

Yes, at the time I was working for Brother International, we lived in Memphis. I didn't want to work there anymore. I didn't want to live there anymore. Let me phrase it like that I would have been happy if they had a place in Golden, colorado, and I'm more than happy they let me work there. They did not. So opportunity came up to basically step into the MSP role with a client where my mom worked, and yeah, so we took it on and started being full-time MSP and transitions out of corporate America into entrepreneur life.

Speaker 2:

What was that first stop? What would that look like? Was it more of a break-fix?

Speaker 1:

type of no, it was actually full-up MSP, was it, yeah? And so it was a really good we didn't start with break-fix. They actually were coming from a fully managed kind of style. It wasn't as much money as it needed to be, as we discovered later on, but it was a good starting point for us to start out as this kind of stuff.

Speaker 2:

Now, most of the clients we acquired after that were break fixer a la carte, but that one started out as a full-time. How did you know how to structure that first one? I mean, you had never, had you done, had you seen him, hadn't yeah we just kind of took what they had, yeah, and ran with it yeah so what are they paying? You just pay us the same thing. It was a little more yeah, we were better.

Speaker 1:

We're doing a couple more things he wasn't doing. Right, that's essentially yes, correct.

Speaker 2:

Wow. So that's first of all. That's got to be a pretty unique opportunity, because I feel like most starting MSPs have to go to some manual book, talk to somebody in the community and go, oh, this is what a contract should look like and what should be included in the package. And you actually had a customer that said I need X, y and Z and you said we can deliver that.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, so it's a benefit of personal relationships, but we're in Birmingham, alabama, where relationships are key, and they'd known us for a long time. They trusted us and you know, so we were a known quantity. They were willing to take a risk on.

Speaker 2:

So what did the organization look your organization at that time? What was your role?

Speaker 1:

What was your dad's role? The way we structure the business is my mom and my wife each own a quarter. My dad and I each own a quarter, just because that's the way we structure the business. At the time my dad was running the CEO. It was always designed for me to take over and run it. He's turning 74 this year. That was almost 11 years ago. They knew there's a ticking clock here, right, and so it was always going to be one of the things where they were going to turn it over to us or me and let me run it. So he had a lot more experience running the business than I had.

Speaker 1:

I took one business class in college. It was macroeconomics, which is only loosely business related. So I came from corporate America. I was a senior web developer and I was in charge of mentoring and all this kind of stuff, but it wasn't a business role and so since they had more experience in it, they basically kind, kind of ran the business at first, but it was still run as kind of my business, right. I had the final say so were you?

Speaker 2:

what kind of a visionary were you in those early days? Obviously you weren't the ceo yet, but did you have directions that could you see the possibility and the opportunities with the company and like, what did the, what did the business model, the plan, what did it look like in those early days?

Speaker 1:

so that's a great question and I came to realizing I was a visionary late in life, because I always imagine visionaries walt disney, he's super, super creative, right, because he's held up as a quintessential visionary, right, super creative, all this kind of stuff and I just didn't feel like I was that creative. But I am just in a different way, right, and it's one things where, like you know, you don't think things you know about yourself. You think everyone else has those too, but they don't necessarily. Like. I have a friend who can't see things in his head. That's a thing, right.

Speaker 1:

When everyone's pictured this, he thought it was metaphorical, not actual, literal, and so I didn't really understand that. And so, over the years, I kind of grew into it and it really was about 2018, when I went to the Goldman Sachs program, that I really started understanding that this is actually what I'm for, this is what I'm good at, I can see long term, I can see in the future, get an actual visual picture in my head of what I want the future to look like and direct things towards that. But early on no, early on we were scrambling to make it work, batten down the hatches, figure out this whole new business we've never been in before. Like I mean, we've done msp work for businesses we've worked with, but never done it as an msp, and so trying to make all that work and everything like that, that, that was really what kind of consumed me for the first couple of years what were some of those, like some of those early challenges, entrepreneurial challenges, business owner challenges that you experienced and were they surprising to you?

Speaker 2:

Were they surprising to your wife?

Speaker 1:

It took a lot longer to get our second customer than I thought it would. We were just handed this gift of a first customer.

Speaker 1:

It was a good sized customer and so, like you know, like getting our second customer took a lot longer than I thought and it was a really small customer because it was a two computer shop, right, like you know, and then like so so growing that that's been the most challenging part. I'm not a sales guy, I don't have a sales background, I'm a technical person. Just most MSP owners you have to split, but a lot of them started out as technical people. I never wanted to do sales. I didn't have the skill set for it, I wasn't equipped for it. It still is consistently the most challenging part for us is, you know, we do great and get referrals and all that kind of stuff, but like the actual sales has been a learning experience.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I've known you for the last three or four years now and I would say early on when I met you. First of all, you're very outgoing. You have no problem striking up a conversation, asking a question, and so it's interesting you say you're not a salesperson but you have some of the sales characteristics right, Like you could go to the bar or a dinner or meet some stranger and start talking tech with them.

Speaker 1:

I can. That is a learned trait. I used to and I'll censor this when I was programming. I used to say that I chose my career with malicious forethought so that I could dress casually and be a jerk to people, and it was part of the course, right? Because who thinks programmers are nice guys? No one. And so I was extremely introverted, a wallflower kind of person. So the idea of going up and talking to people is something I've learned to do over the years. I spent a lot of time in BNI. That's why BNI is great for a lot of things, especially when you're starting out. The clients we got out of BNI. You know they got us to where we are, but they're not actually the clients we need going forward. But I learned a lot of things about networking and interacting with people and working on that kind of stuff, and that was very beneficial to me.

Speaker 2:

Talk about the business growing. You talked a little bit about how it took you a little bit of time to get that second client, but how long did it take you to get the third client and the fourth client? And then when did you start to realize, well, we need more staff and we've got to continue to grow. Just what was that evolution like?

Speaker 1:

So I mean it was slow growth at first. We grow consistently, but it took a while because we weren't sure about a pricing scheme and all the normal stuff you start out with a business. We started getting some momentum and then six and a half years six and a half years ago we hired our first employee. Since we started, my dad and I started together. There was already two of us. We overcame that first hurdle of needing to add that first person on, because now there's already two of us, but of course we weren't really making a lot of money that time, that point in time.

Speaker 1:

But we needed a employee there to basically be there all the time as a tech, so that we could do the networking and all other stuff we were doing and still have the phone manned. And so we hired a guy who went to church with me. It was a great fit. In a lot of ways it was a great first employee. But when he left he told me something that I found very gratifying, which is he's like you know, before I went to work for you I thought I wanted to start my own business. Now I realize I do not, and that's a compliment. Well, it's harder than people think, right.

Speaker 1:

They think oh it's going to be easy, and it is not easy. Right, it is really not easy.

Speaker 2:

I think that's what's great about you, Benji, is you're a pretty transparent person. So talk a little bit about the culture. Right? You're starting to hire employees. I mean, it's you and your dad and your dad. First of all, I love my dad, and we agree some days and we don't agree other days, so that had to be an interesting dynamic.

Speaker 1:

It can be, and we've been told by staff several times. We argue too loudly a lot, yeah, but it's nice. I mean I have friends that have come from families they could not trust to run their business with never been a problem for me. You know the fact that this matter is like my parents we may disagree on things, but I know they always have my best interests at heart and so it makes it easy in that regard. But the culture has been. I've been very intentional about that.

Speaker 1:

In 2018, I went through goldman sachs program, which I talked about a little bit, and it really drove home the importance of culture, and I knew that because, you know, I'd worked at some bad places that had really bad culture. Yeah, and you can look them up on my LinkedIn. Actually, one of the things that really drove it home was and this is you know, it's a relevant tangent, so I'll bring it in so I lost a child. Our third child died after a few days and so, against the rules, my boss said go, I don't want to see you for a month. That was not what was allowed, right, right by corporate, but she understood, like, the importance of people, and I came back a month later she sent me home again after I cussed out someone on a phone call and so I was not ready to be back at the office, yeah, and so I realized that I wanted to build a place fairly early on. That really was about the people involved and gave them a place like a refuge to be people, and so I always kind of built the culture with that in mind.

Speaker 1:

I distinctly remember one time in tech you get a lot of men, right, let's just be honest right, most of your employees are going to be guys, and a lot of times, if you're not careful, it can turn into bro culture. And so a couple of my techs were joking around and they started the that's what she says joke and it really irked me, and it really irked me a lot, and I turned around and said guys, you've got to stop Like, this is not acceptable here. I don't know why I feel this strongly about it, but this is not going to fly and I will fire you. And I never, I never threatened my employees, but I, I will fire you if you continue it. That was flat and they didn't like they, they, oh okay, I'm sorry, but I realized later on it was, you know like when I really had to under reflect on it it was, it was because it wasn't.

Speaker 1:

You know it's. It's not the kind of place we want to be Like we want to. You know that've always tried to build culture around people and valuing people, because so often in life that's not the case, especially in our world. I see it so often in my MSPs in my area that just treat their employees like dirt, treat them like disposable cogs, and I think that's morally wrong, and so that's what I'm trying to stop.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think that comes from part of your. You know the way you were raised and, obviously, the family. You're a family man, right, and you have. You're a churchgoer, like you absolutely have your feet on the solid ground, right. That this is what it should feel like to come to work. It should be a safe space, right, we're going to have good days, we're going to have bad days, but you just need to set the ground rules, set the boundaries, because you know it's okay to blow off steam and get frustrated, but not not disrespect.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it's. Let's be honest, it's frustrating. Right? You're going to deal with customers that are upset, and they're generally not upset at you. Yeah, they're so sad and that's okay.

Speaker 2:

So you mentioned this a couple of times 2018, you attended the Goldman Sachs 10,000 small business program. Yes, what impact did that have on your business?

Speaker 1:

That's probably the single greatest impact I've ever had of anything. My business is like flat no holds barred. It took me from being a technician to a business owner. If you ever have anyone who's watching this has a chance to do this program, you a hundred percent need to do it. It's a great program, put put on my Goldman Sachs, a bunch of other people that collaborate together, and it's designed to basically take small business owners, who are generally good at the thing they sell but not good at being a business owner, and turn them into a business owner.

Speaker 1:

Think about it as a business owner instead of the profession. You are right, and that was an absolutely amazing journey. It was really hard, like three months of super condensed learning while you're running a business. That was rough, but it was really beneficial to me. It made me confident that, no matter what, I may not achieve mega success in the world's terms, but I can run a business. I'm confident we're going to succeed. It may not be as fast as I want sometimes, but we'll continue to see and grow. It gave me the tools to make that happen.

Speaker 2:

About this time you took over as CEO, but your dad didn't want to step out, though no, he's still there today. And how did this happen and how did you manage it without sort of awkwardness at that time?

Speaker 1:

Well, it's kind of gradual. After I did the Almost Tax Program I more and more took the lead and stuff and it's very gradual. But everyone all the employees always knew we were very clear up front that like, while my dad, Ken, may have been running the company at that point in time, officially, it was always gonna be me stepping in right, and so everyone knew this was gonna happen. It's a matter of when it was gonna happen. And so it was very, even though I wasn't officially the CEO, it kind of ran thatFO role he likes playing with data and numbers and so I just took over the official title of running the business.

Speaker 2:

So how did you? I know you talked a little bit about the Goldman Sachs program helping you think more like a business owners, but how did you actually transition from the technical work to the business management? What? How'd you learn those soft skills?

Speaker 1:

So when I was working for Brother, I was in charge of mentoring. I was a senior developer in North and South America and so I was in charge of mentoring and building the team in a lot of ways as well as doing the actual technical work. So it kind of started there and I'd always worked on it and stuff. I enjoy solving puzzles and stuff, but at the end of the day you're doing the same thing over and over again because computers act in the same manner. It's not squirrely sometimes, but by and large the same manner. But people are endlessly inventive, right. People are endlessly and I like new things. So therefore I really started enjoying dealing with people in a lot of ways. They're always a new challenge, right.

Speaker 1:

It can be frustrating, don't get me wrong. There are days when I'm like oh my gosh. But dealing with people is kind of the ultimate thing and it stretches me, it does wear me out. It's not my natural inclination, but I understood that if I was going to grow the business, the way I needed to identified at the time was me killing myself by working too much, and so, like I was working 100 hour weeks for months straight and they're like you've got to stop, you've got to stop. And when I realized they're right, I've got to stop, I got to slow down. Then it's a matter of affording people to hand it off to.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so how'd you do that? I mean, how do you approach this new work-life balance? And again, I've gotten to know you uh, you have, you have six kids. Obviously you've got your hands full, but how? Do you, how do you, how do you shed some of that?

Speaker 1:

So it's actually I love work, like, like I um, you know, like I love, I love work. I love hard work, physical, I don't know. It's part of who I am. I have a drive to do things, and so it's been difficult in a lot of ways. I slowed it down. It's kind of gradual over time. Stepping back was difficult. It really wasn't. That's. Every entrepreneur goes through this Handing things off, trusting someone to do the job for you. It really drove home one day when one of the guys had done something and he did a better job at it than I would have. I'm like, okay, that's it. I don't have to be the final of all knowledge. I don't have to be like I'm hiring people, hopefully, who are better at doing the thing than I am, yep, you know, and my job is to give them guidance as needed, and so that's what I shoot for I have the same challenge that you do.

Speaker 2:

It's like I don't know if it was the way I was raised or just my aggressiveness in the situation is if you want something done, right, you got to do it yourself Right. But that's not the answer. When you have a million things, you're responsible for Right Work until you're done.

Speaker 1:

Whatever that looks like I get it from my farming grandparents. Yeah, you know, when there's work to do, you work. Yeah, it doesn't matter how tired you are.

Speaker 2:

You work until the work's done. What are you the most proud of over the last handful of years? Obviously, I know you're not done growing, you're not done transforming your MSP, but what are you the most proud of?

Speaker 1:

The team we've assembled is amazing. It really is. They're a great group of people. It's been fun learning over the years who's going to work in an organization, who's not going to work in an organization.

Speaker 1:

But one of the things we really talk about is care and compassion and empathy, and we have an amazing group of people who are technical in nature right, they do a technical job but they also understand the value of human beings and showing caring and compassion and empathy to people.

Speaker 1:

I've always wanted to build something like you know, like the Ritz-Carlton kind of thing, where people are empowered to solve problems. It may not be technical problems, but problems people have, and so they'll do things and they'll tell me about it. One of our customers was doing their annual or biannual audit of the thing they've got at Plotnitz and they were having a rough time getting through it, and so I think it brought them pizza. We had someone whose mother was in the hospital and they were in Nashville, so they bought them gas cards to help pay for the gas, because they're doing trips two or three times a week. It's ways of caring for each other and caring for our customers and, in addition to solving their technical problems, being great on the technical side too, but just being good with people.

Speaker 2:

There's something neat about you that I thought I'd mention on the podcast. Not too many people do this, but you are a good listener. You listen to people talk about oh I like this author, or I like this topic, or read this book and you have a knack for sending people a copy of a book that you thought they might value.

Speaker 1:

Why do you do that Knowledge? And long ago, when I was young, I thought I had to come up with all this stuff on my own. I don't know where I got that idea, but when I realized that people have tread this path before and there's wisdom to be waiting, like, I want to spread that so that it makes everyone's lives better. Right, like, if you can shortcut me, if I can read your story or read something that you've written, it's going to help me shortcut something. And I don't have to, like, do all the hard work myself, because there's plenty of hard work to do even further down the road. Right, I will gladly do that. And so I want people to you know, have the same benefits that I can.

Speaker 2:

Like whenever I can provide them.

Speaker 1:

We all grow together. The rising tide lifts all boats right and I want to help be that kind of rising tide. Help good people, you know, do good things. That's great.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's what I really love about you, ben. You definitely are a unique soul and it's interesting, the people that you do interact with, guys like Jimmy, guys like Boyd I always hear them bring your name up and it's always positive, right? Oh, I had this conversation, man. What Benji said was really interesting, so you definitely have an impact on folks, for sure. So what's next for you, benji?

Speaker 1:

Oh, what's next for me? I mean, this month I plan on taking a lot of time off. Actually, good for you, spend time with the family, although you know, life always intrudes, you know. But for me, you know, it's really about being more comfortable with who I am.

Speaker 1:

Earlier this year I did something that may sound horrible to people. It may sound great, but I took a think week, modeled after Bill Gates' think weeks, and I went to a cabin in the woods and it was the most refreshing time I've had in my life and I was there by myself, which I'm an introvert, so it was great. I did miss the kids, especially at the first couple days, because I live in a house of six kids and it's insane all the time. It was a little weird. Having quiet time, yeah, but I would get up in the morning, eat some breakfast, go for a hike.

Speaker 1:

I love hiking, hiking and then, since it's Alabama and it's January, it could be 30 degrees, it could be 80 degrees. Luckily it was more like the 70, 80 range. It was beautiful weather on the trails by myself, because it's the middle of January and the week I wouldn't see another soul and I'd hike for three, four hours, go back, eat some lunch and crack open a business book and read until I went to bed that night and just think and ponder and pray and do things that just really replenish my soul. And that was amazing and it really helped me understand that I've got to take better care of myself. I'm the kind of person who traditionally would not do a good job of that, but that if I want to be the man I need to be for my family and for my employees, that I've got to take a better care of myself, and so that's kind of what I'm working on now.

Speaker 2:

I'm glad to hear that I want that as well. So what's next for Sawyer Solutions?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I had this really crazy idea that I'm rethinking. I was working with a sales coach and she was great. Last year we had completed our first 10X. So we started the company. We made $160,000 the first year. Last year we made $1.8 million and so that was 10x bigger than we were when we started. It took us 10 years to get there. I'm like great. So I just finished reading Dan Sullivan's 10x is Easier Than 2x. It's a great book. All of Dan Sullivan's books are great.

Speaker 1:

And I was like what's our next 10x going to be? What are we going to do here? And I was talking to her about it and I was like, yeah, we can do it eight years. And it's like you're really comfortable with eight years. Why don't you push it further? I'm like I'm comfortable eight years. The math adds up, I can do it pretty easily in eight years, I think. So I decided I would try to push it to six years. So that was this year's goal, was like kind of launch that off.

Speaker 1:

And after doing that, I'm not sure I want to do that Like I want to be Right. And then how fast, how much effort I want to put into getting there Right. How much sacrifice is worth it. Right, I have six kids. My oldest is now 17. She turns 18 in January. Our youngest two are turning five in a month. There's only so much time with them, right, I can. I can build a bigger business later. Right, and I've missed a lot of their times.

Speaker 1:

Sure, I sacrificed a lot to, to to get the business to where it is, and so I'm really taking time to think like, what is it I really want to do? Yeah, and rethink my plans, and I'm probably right now, which I may change, but right now I'm leaning towards you know what? It's okay to be smaller. I can be a small big. You know, a small giant if you will have an outsized impact, one of the things that IT has delivered Oftentimes you know this because I'm not wearing it, but I have the no-jerk shirt, which is infamous around Enable.

Speaker 1:

One of our core values is if you're a jerk, it ain't going to work, and we mean that for our customers. We mean that for our employees, because often, too often, in our industry, people are just talked down to, they're belittled, they are made to feel small because they don't know something that the technician does, and that's wrong, morally and ethically wrong, and so I want a mission to change that about our industry, to make it so. The industry is one of actual service. Right, we are providing a service to people. Technology is how we're delivering this, like it's around that, but it's to a people. Right, we were doing this to people, for people, and we need to take that into account. And so, you know, our actual mission is to change the way that technology is delivered so that it's one done with caring and compassion, and so that's a big, lofty mission. And I just I'm just still getting like that's not the finished, polished version of the mission statement. I'm still working on that, but like, but it's okay if it takes a while to get there.

Speaker 1:

We're not the only ones Like I'm not saying that we're the only ones who had this idea. Cause I know we're not like most, most of my, like my friends that I've met through these enable events. We all share the same idea in this regard. I'm just the one who's most openly talking about it and so you know it'd be easier to make that impact if I was a hundred million dollar company. But I've also got to balance that against the actual personal weight and measurements, what it's going to do my personal life.

Speaker 1:

So I don't really know what's exactly next, except for I want to keep pushing down the road of trying to show people that this is how it should be done.

Speaker 2:

Have you started to think at all about the long, long-term plan, like where you want this to go? I mean, there was a succession plan for you. Is that what you think might be?

Speaker 1:

there for I mean, your kids are young, right? Yeah, well, I mean, they have an age range. The plan's always been, in this case it's to make it a lifestyle business. I don't really plan on selling it anytime soon, yeah, but to potentially, you know, have it where the kids can take over if they want to I?

Speaker 1:

There are other businesses out there that I really admire. There's one who's turned his business recently into an esop and so the employees can can take ownership of it. There's another business it's actually a crane business out of out of memphis. They turned themselves into a non-profit. Half their profit every year is reserved for growth of the company and half their profit is donated to charities. Wow, and the owners, like when they started what the owners bought it out from their dad and when they took over they set their how much money they'd ever make and like that's been it and so like they're they're not cashing in, like they're in, they're very free how much money they have and stuff. There's lots of options and that kind of thing for me to figure out. I don't really have a driving urge to work on that right now, but I do think about it from time to time. Awesome.

Speaker 2:

So the last question I want to ask you is when did you know? Now that's it.

Speaker 1:

So I was driving from Memphis when we first started doing this. I was still working for Brother, and so I'd drive from Memphis to Birmingham to do things. I had a lot of time banked and stuff. And so I remember driving down the road and, as you mentioned, I'm a man of faith and I was like is this really it? I have this long prayer because it's four hours in the car by myself and a guy would answer this is it? I'm like are you really sure? And the guy answered yes. I'm like, okay, then I will do this until you tell me otherwise. And so that's when I realized that's it. I'm doing this until I'm told otherwise.

Speaker 2:

So great, benji, it was a real pleasure having you this week. I am so honored to have met you in the last couple of years and gotten to know you well. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you very much.