Now That's IT: Stories of MSP Success
Now that's IT: Stories of MSP Success dives into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in the Managed Service Provider 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.
Now That's IT: Stories of MSP Success
Scaling from Setbacks: How Chris Kraiss Built a Thriving MSP
What if getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to your career? In this episode of Now That’s IT: Stories of MSP Success, host Chris Massey sits down with Chris Kraiss, founder of ClearPath Technology, to discuss his journey from corporate IT to building a thriving MSP—and the setbacks that shaped his success.
Chris shares:
✅ How getting fired pushed him to launch his own MSP
✅ The moment he realized he had to fire bad clients to grow
✅ Why mentorship and partnerships were game-changers for scaling his business
✅ The importance of company culture in attracting and retaining top talent
✅ His real-time insights on leadership, fearlessness, and strategic growth
Whether you're an MSP owner, IT leader, or thinking about making the leap, Chris’s story is packed with real-world lessons on resilience, business strategy, and scaling with confidence.
🎧 Listen now and learn how to turn setbacks into success!
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.
One, two three, four.
Speaker 2:I had married a woman with a congenital heart defect and wasn't quite sure how she would take the news of me getting fired. But when I told her that, she slapped her desk and she's like, good, now you can start that business you've always wanted to start, I started crying. I was really impacted. I mean, I didn't expect that answer, I didn't expect that flood of emotion, but it hit me hard and I felt very supported. So I started that business in Wisconsin and then her and I we ended up with an amazing year. We went to Hawaii and had time and really connected, you know, just had a very strong year and at the end of that first year she passed away. It was a lot. It hit me extremely hard and I had a partner who kind of, you know, limped along, but ultimately I sold that business and my house and I moved to LA. Yeah, you know, like I just I just really it took, you know, a year to kind of come to that, but it was devastating.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Now 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.
Speaker 3:Today we're joined by Chris Crace, a senior IT leader and founder of ClearPath Technology. With over 20 years of experience, chris has helped countless businesses streamline their IT infrastructure, maximize their ROI and align technology and business goals. Thank you for joining the pod, chris. Thank you, chris. So you have an amazing journey and I can't wait to go through it with you. But I want to go back to the beginning of your IT journey. When did you discover the love for technology, chris, and when did you see it as a way for it to not only be be able to make a living, but also make an impact?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say, when I was about 19 or so, I was in college and I was studying English and but at night I would just like tinker, you know, and technology and computers. And back then they were embarrassingly you know, slow and old, but you know I'd play with it. And then it was my girlfriend's mom. She's like Chris, you're you're messing with technology, like why don't you just study technology, you know, why go to school for one thing and then get you know, do all this with the technology? So she's like Chris, you're messing with technology, why don't you just study technology? Why go to school for one thing and then do all this with the technology? So I did, I literally switched my major because of her and, man, that was a great choice Didn't end up marrying that girl, but still thank her mom to this day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the fact that she comes up in the podcast is stuck in your memory. That's right. So let's talk about the podcast is stuck in your memory. That's right. So let's talk about the beginnings of your MSP journey. What inspired you to start your managed service provider business?
Speaker 2:So from there I went to the University of Wisconsin and then went right into an IT career and was in corporate IT for a while and then I got fired. And I got fired and I drove home early on a Monday and my wife was there at home and she's like, oh, you're home early. And I'm like, yes, I am, and and I'm actually here, you know, to stay. But so I a little bit of backtrack. I had married a woman with a congenital heart defect and wasn't quite sure how she would take the news of me getting fired. But but when I told her that she slapped her desk and she's like good, now you can start that business you've always wanted to start.
Speaker 2:And I started crying. I was really impacted. I mean, I didn't, I didn't expect that answer. I started crying. I was really impacted. I mean I didn't, I didn't expect that answer, I didn't expect that flood of emotion, but it hit me hard and I felt very supported. So I started that business in Wisconsin and then her and I we ended up with an amazing year. We went to Hawaii and had time and really connected. You know it was our seventh year of marriage but just had a very strong year and at the end of that first year she passed away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that had to be very difficult for you personally. And how did you get through that? Obviously, you're running a business and then this personal thing happens, tragedy happens to you. So how do you get through that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. In a lot of ways I didn't really, you know, it was a lot. It was a lot. It hit me extremely hard and I had a partner who kind of, you know, limped along but ultimately I sold that business and my house and and I moved to LA. You know, like I just I just really it took you know a year to kind of come to that, but it it was devastating.
Speaker 3:Why.
Speaker 2:LA. Why LA? Yeah, that's what everybody in Wisconsin wanted to know too, Like you know Los Angeles. But uh, for me I had gone out for a business trip and just was really tired of cold winters. Uh, I told A that it took 18 months for my bone marrow to thaw out, so I hated the cold, Always did so having a permanent summer was really nice and then just very different. I was ready for different everything and I just loved the challenge. La is like crazy tough and I liked that.
Speaker 3:I appreciated that Was it a little, was it a little bit of therapy, sort of getting away from Wisconsin and sort of starting something fresh. Obviously, you never, you never completely leave home, yeah, but just sort of getting away and starting something fresh.
Speaker 2:It was yeah, it was what my, my heart needed. And you know, if I had it to do over again, I'd probably do it differently. But you know, that's what I did in the moment. And there was a time in LA where I came to kind of a like decision point. You know, was this a season? Was this temporary? Was this in no, no, like I can do this. I this in no, no, like I, I can do this, I want to do this. You know. And that was really when I kind of began the msp part of my journey. Yeah, um and uh went from being a solopreneur, which is what I was kind of committed to yeah like I'm just gonna do this on my own.
Speaker 2:I had a friend who owned a chick filet and he's like chris, like if I have an employee that drives their car through my lobby I might get out of paying unemployment, but probably not, and I it was. It struck some fear into me, you know. I'm like I don't know if I want to deal with all that, and so I was solopreneur just the IT guy doing that thing for a while. And then I listened to a podcast with Dave Wilkerson.
Speaker 2:He's a friend of the family you know the Enable family and he just made a lot of sense to me and so I reached out to Dave and I said, would you help me? And that really because I didn't want to do it on my own.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I didn't have to, and so I began to build the true MSP and really build a solid foundation. My first hire was actually an administrative assistant. It was not a tech, which is unusual, I guess, but she was also my cousin, so I knew I had a good, trustworthy person. And she's still with me to this day, eight years later, and, yeah, it's been an amazing journey.
Speaker 3:And she's great. I've met her and she's sort of your better half there, right? I mean for sure, yeah, that's great. So take us back to those first sort of months and years of going from solopreneur to MSP. What was it like getting that business started in LA?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a journey of confidence, like you know. I had to become more confident, you know, and more capable, and and so I began to practice you know confidence, kind of fake it till you make it which is really good in LA. You know that's a, that's right, that's a strength of LA. But I did, I, you know, I walked into you know offices and businesses and I just said, hey, you know this is what I do and, um, and you can trust me and and that was kind of my value, I was like cause, trust is a high, you know, highly valued commodity in LA. You know it's it's not frequently there but, um, but I just say here's, you know, just talk to these people and so you know you can trust me. And then you know, let me do for you what I've done for them. And so I began to kind of build the business with those conversations and and following through on my word showing up when I said I would, you know, keeping promises.
Speaker 3:That Midwest or East coast work, uh, work, uh mentality. Yeah, that goes a long way in in California, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a little unusual. Yeah and um, I was my, my proposition, my value proposition, and and then it created the kind of clients I wanted. And so I had this kind of initial, you know, growth spurt and got all a lot of great clients and then a few kind of not so great clients. Yeah, and I read a book by mike mccallow. It's called pumpkin plan and it's basically you just you put clients on a pumpkin catapult and you launch them. You know, I just love the imagery, yeah, and so I did that, like I went through and I I fired about five different clients. Yeah, and so I did that Like I went through and I fired about five different clients and it was very nerve wracking it was, it was terrifying.
Speaker 3:That shows a lot of maturity. There are still MSPs that I talked to today that they don't see the difference between good revenue and bad revenue right. It's hard for them to walk away it may have been a past relationship, their first client, whatever, and and for them to look back and go, ah, I know I'm losing money, but it's a, it's a, it's a family friend or whatever it is. And so you made that hard decision early on and said or whatever it is. And so you made that hard decision early on and said we're going to define what our ICP is, our ideal client profile, and anybody outside of that, anybody that's losing money, we're going to shed them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it actually wasn't the money, Really it was yeah, assholes.
Speaker 3:Really, I'm just keeping it real Interesting. Maybe you can beep that out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you that up, but like I just didn't want to deal with them, I'm like, wow, like this is terrible. Why would you say that to me, or my tech, you know, like we can't do this. And so, yeah, it was really that was the category that I was ejecting. And then, right after that, I got so much new business yeah, I kind of, and it wasn't related, yeah, directly. New business yeah, I kind of, and it wasn't related directly, so I called it spiritual you know, cause it was unexplainable, you know.
Speaker 2:And I was like what happened? Like why did all these people come in? I had two clients that uh got bought by bigger companies, and so both those companies scheduled meetings with me and I knew what they were going to do. Like I get it, you know. Like yeah it. You know, like, yeah, you know, thanks for all your, your help. But we've got our own team now.
Speaker 2:And so I met with the first one, a big medical, you know, pe startup, and they had bought one of my doctor's offices. And I'm just like I, I, you know, I, I knew they were gonna fire me, so I just was having fun with the conversation. I'm like, what do you guys do? How do you manage your computers? How do you manage your endpoints? You know how's that going for you? And uh, and they're like, yeah, well, we're using this. I'm like, okay, but that doesn't do patch management. Like I don't understand. Like how do you really do it? And they're like, well, we actually wanted to talk to you. You know like, do you think I could, you know?
Speaker 2:And then a cpa firm same thing happened. They got bought by a bigger company and I said so you know how's your it company. And they're like yeah, we, we really like them, like that's great, you know, I'm glad to hear that. And then, as the conversation deepened, they're like you know, our it company actually doesn't do that. You know, how do you? You know how do you do that, why do you do that?
Speaker 2:And they then they end up firing their it company and bringing us in too. So both those cases we ended up moving into the bigger clients, and that was literally one month after both of them, one month after I fired those other clients. So that's been interesting. And now, keeping it very real time, I I was fired recently by a client and I was fired recently by a client and it was not because of performances, because they just moved into a different model, basically, and I actually agreed with them, but it was a big client and it hurt financially and I waited I actively waited to see what would happen, whether this spiritual process would continue and it didn't Not the same way, but something's happening very real time.
Speaker 2:It's not completing yet, but I've now had three conversations with providers of services that are highly complementary and synergistic to ClearPath, that are all nationwide, and so it's interesting now to see, like I'm not getting clients, I'm getting groups of clients, I think. You know, just keeping it real, I'm not sure, but I think that I'm now moving into groups of clients and client attractors and partnerships, which is honestly way more fun for me. I love seeing my partners succeed, and so it's a new season again and it's a really a great season.
Speaker 3:I love it. That's exciting. So I've gotten to know you. I think I met you first time four years ago and ever since the first time I met you, I've always seen you as someone that's pretty outgoing and not afraid. You know, can talk the talk just like you mentioned Not an IT, not an introvert. Have you always been that way? When you started out as a technician, did you always want to get out and speak to people, or did you have to build that as a business owner that I need to be more of a salesperson?
Speaker 2:yeah that's a good question. Yes, good questions. I think that, uh, my, that is have grown and, you know, into my mid 20s and my 30s I had to do quite a bit of healing emotionally and, you know, internally, and I ended up kind of coming out of my shell, you know, in a lot of ways, and finding who I am, and even to this day I'm almost 50 now but I really feel like I'm kind of coming out of my shell, you know, in a lot of ways, and finding who I am, and even to this day I'm almost 50 now but I really feel like I'm still beginning or progressing in the embracing of myself and who I really am and what I'm capable of. I kind of love it Like. I feel like it's like opening Christmas presents. I don't know, this might sound really weird, but I just feel like I love this process of continuing to grow and discover who. What can I do? How far could I go? You know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that about you, chris you always come across very positive, even though I'm sure there's a lot of bad stuff, difficult stuff going on in the background. You find some way to put a positive spin on stuff and keep positive in front of everybody. How do you do that? How do you do that on a daily basis, because life's hard right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is, and for me that process is a spiritual one. My relationship with God has been extremely dynamic. I grew up in traditional Christianity and in my mid-20s I kind of began a process of deconstruction and coming out of that environment and beginning to pursue God in a way that was much more one-to-one. Yep and try to figure it out, you know, and these last few years have been extremely freedom-giving in that area. My relationship with God has been very, very life-giving, and so part of my deal with him is I want to learn to live without fear and anxiety. You know, like completely.
Speaker 2:And so when we got fired by the big client, I didn't sleep. I was full of anxiety, to be honest with you, and that bothered me more than the loss of the client. Like damn it, like I really thought I had made some better progress here. And so I went back to him like listen, like you know we, I need some more help here, clearly, you know. So help me understand how to keep moving this fearlessness back until it simply is part of. It's the way I live, it's just what I do, and so he's helping me, it's real time, and you know. And so we're in this process. And then I've surrounded myself with other people who are incredibly insightful and helpful, and I've I've almost come to believe that it's not about being fearless, um, but it's. It's about being connected to other people who are in a state of no fear in that moment. So when I'm in a state of no fear and they feel it, they can come to me, and so now, together, we are in a state of fearlessness.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's beautiful. So we've definitely had conversations, you know, offline and I love how this is working for you and I love the interactions that you have. Again, I love the positivity. It's interesting.
Speaker 3:The MSP community, I think, is a, is an is a unique one in which there's definitely some some competition. Right, we want to own sort of our market, but in the end, msps want to help each other. I mean, we're here this week, we're getting a bunch of colleagues together and this is all about moving our businesses forward, or at least a part of our business forward, and so I think you're that point about connecting with others is really, really powerful in the MSP space, right, because you don't know everything, yeah, and you haven't. You know, maybe you haven't gone through an acquisition before or you haven't tried to try to sell a part or a piece of your organization or a business, and so being able to have people to bounce ideas off of this is really powerful, that's right. So let me ask you this You're starting the MSP off in LA and you're and you're starting to go from solopreneur to entrepreneur and you got a little business. Was there ever a moment where you thought about giving up and saying this? This isn't for me.
Speaker 2:Only at the very beginning. But as the tougher things have happened in growth, I can honestly say I haven't. I just tend not to give up to a fault. I probably hang on too long, but in this business I haven tend not to give up to a fault. You know, I I probably hang on too long, but in this business I haven't gotten to that point.
Speaker 2:The toughest parts of this business have been hiring great people and and then contributing to their greatest good and inviting them to contribute to clear past greatest good. And so I I probably have grown the most in leadership and hiring practices, you know. And then, yeah, just learning how to really help you know my people and asking where do you want to get to? And the answer is usually they don't know. And so not just asking that, but being part of that journey and, at the same time, making sure that ClearPath is being served well and our clients are being served well. So I would say, if there's, you know, I haven't thought about giving up, but the toughest moments have been with those employees and making sure that there's bidirectional value adding.
Speaker 3:I think that's really powerful. I mean, you mentioned Dave, and Dave and I worked together for a long time and I always remember, when I was a young tech and trying to figure things out, and having him as a mentor to say, like he came to me and said, well, what do you want to do, like, long term? I'm like, I love my job, I'm making good money, and you know there's bad days and good days, but he's like no, what do you want to do? Do you want to be a CIO? Do you want, you know, to really have that long-term plan for me and I thought that was pretty unique and so for you to be able to provide a very similar you know conversation with your. You know you're there, you're family, right, you spend most of the time with people you work with right, and so you know they need to be mentoring you and guiding you and being there to be able to bounce ideas off of. So that's pretty powerful, huh.
Speaker 2:Yes, and they have to be trustworthy because the company is, you know, supplying all of us with a livelihood and so, yeah, it's really a fun challenge to learn how to contend while learning how to expect. You know from, as giving and expecting at the same time Speaking of trust.
Speaker 3:How transparent do you try to be with your employees about the directions, the ups and downs of the company? Obviously, I'm sure they realize that you were losing that large client. Did you guys have a discussion? Well, this is how we're going to get through this together. These are the sacrifices we need to make. How did you handle that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did. I have a morning huddle with everybody. I just said here's what's happening. They're going away and here's the plan. Here's how we're going to move forward together. Here's what's needed from you as an individual and as a team. It probably sounded a lot better in my head than it did to their ears. We've been quite cohesive in this season, but this is very real time. We've got some time to see how that all went.
Speaker 3:I wish you the best of luck. I'm confident that you will find a way through it. It's interesting. It First of all, people. Most people don't like change. In general, I feel like IT technicians are very resistant to change Right. Once you do it one way, why would I change the way that I do it? Because there's a better way to do it. There's an easier way to do it, so that's great. Let's talk about culture. You've obviously built, I think, a really amazing culture For you to be able to say I'm going to fire clients because they don't treat us right. That's pretty powerful. What's the culture like at Clear Path?
Speaker 2:I love our culture, I love our people and the best thing I did was hire my cousin. She really is the better half you weren't exaggerating.
Speaker 2:She is amazing, and it's not just how hard she works. She's a very hard worker but people naturally come to her. She was a social worker before joining us in Chicago, so she's seen some tough stuff and she's dealt with a lot and so she's just a natural empathizer, a natural people person and she cares a lot. I mean just an amazing woman, and so you know our people tend to go to her to be honest.
Speaker 1:You know it's great.
Speaker 2:I don't, I guess I don't create warm fuzzies, but but that makes us a good team and you know she really has filled in a lot of that for me. Served our employees quite well. Bridges a lot of gaps, you know, between employees, between employees and customers, you know, fills that in, so I feel like I got quite lucky.
Speaker 2:I mean, working with family can be catastrophic and for me it's nothing but amazing, and so I I don't consider that a skill. There's definitely a lot of luck there, but at the same time, you know, our culture is strong and so we've got, you know, a great team. We do have some people overseas, you know, have some people in LA, and I just love the hybrid interactions, the teamwork between remote and on-site it goes quite well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, with all that teamwork, it actually goes quite well have you thought about how you will maintain that culture as you grow the business?
Speaker 2:I have thought a lot about that, yeah, and for me it comes down to partnerships, you know, and choosing those right people with which to grow. And then I'm finding it easier to be transparent. You know I now enjoy it and so, inviting them into this journey, I've invested in some executive leadership and brought my team, some of my team, into that and that language. Those tools have been quite helpful, and I've done that with a couple different programs. But you know, I'm trying to build those pillars so that as we grow, we are building on pillars and not on quicksand. And at the same time, I do feel like I'm experimenting. You know it's a bit of an experiment as I go, but it feels really strong.
Speaker 3:So far Excellent. I love it. I think if you keep that positive attitude and bring that energy that I know you have, I'm sure it will continue to last. If you want to think back over the last several years, what have been the most rewarding moments for you as a MSP owner?
Speaker 2:oh, man, it's been so fun and in so many ways, for me it's hearing the stories from my employees about, you know, the families.
Speaker 2:A couple of them had babies this year and, you know, realizing that clear path is extending into families and, you know, know, supporting kids.
Speaker 2:But then in the businesses that we serve, you know, just last week we had an administrative assistant who was an extremely, you know, solid part of a business that left unexpectedly and then the owner called us in desperation and you know we have done a lot of handholding through that situation and you know, just a wave of gratitude, you know, coming into the company from that client Like, oh my gosh, what would we do without you? And so I see that as a rewarding, not just, you know, to hear the thanks but to know that these systems we've invested in, you know the tools, you know the products that we've gotten to learn and know, and that we can rely on them and use them to actually do such good as well as that normal daily maintenance that we never will get thanks for. It's fun for me to see that maturity with real fruit and real results in a time that is, you know, really tough for one of our clients. Wow, but I know we sorry one more thing yeah.
Speaker 2:I just know we're adding that kind of value, Even if we don't hear the thanks. I know that the better we do at our jobs, you know, the smoother things will go for our clients.
Speaker 3:That's right, that's it. I remember the days of the MSP when you'd make that sale and you'd, all of a sudden you'd you know, their call volume peaked up a little bit because they've been saving all those problems, uh-huh, and then you started solving the problems and it was oh thank you so much that one's been out there forever, yeah. And then at some point in time they stopped calling you and they're like do we even need you anymore? But you've made life so good for them that not there's problems anymore.
Speaker 3:So yeah those are fun, chris Grinding challenges For sure. All right, so you talked a little bit about the real time what it's been like for ClearPath but how about the future? What do you envision the future to be like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for ClearPath it's going to be a lot of growth. We have invested in a solid platform for the last few years and we're just now ramping up the sales engine marketing so we're primed for a lot of success, a lot of growth. And with that comes the challenges right of how to maintain that ethos and make sure that people are still happy doing what they do in new ways or a new scale. But I envision bringing it with with that growth, the ability to bring in more resources for helping the maturity level, or, you know, the capability levels of our people in the ways that they've always wanted to grow or always wanted to learn.
Speaker 2:This executive leadership stuff. You know it is life-changing. You know you start applying some of these tools to the home life you know marriages and relationships as well as at work, and it really is life-giving. And that holistic return on investment is what I live for. I love, you know, the off the clock successes as much as on the clock, and so experimenting with ways, not just in our people but in our customers, and how we can add even more value and, you know, create that uh, unbelievable customer experience every time, or a lot. I just that's where I get really excited. So, as ClearPass scales, I'm intentionally freeing myself to create those experiences internally and externally, and I'd love to have you know just a whole bunch of new stories for you next year, let's do it again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, where we can share that kind of growth.
Speaker 3:That'll be great. So if you were to start all over again today, Chris, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
Speaker 2:I would have started with confidence and I would have done anything I needed to do to build and support confidence in myself and remove fear in every possible way and support confidence in myself and remove fear in every possible way. And then I would have invested a lot more money. I'm kind of a grassroots entrepreneur, you know, but I would have just gone out and gotten you know investors and just dumped money into that known good engine and I would have scaled faster.
Speaker 3:That's good. What advice would you give someone today that's looking to start their own MSP?
Speaker 2:first of all, I would say know thyself. You know who are you really, you know what, what are you capable of, and from there, build in all the places you are not and find people or processes that can do the things that you just don't do. I love the expression that if you, if you really work on your weaknesses, you're gonna have slightly stronger weaknesses, and it's true, like we're good at some things and we're not good at other things, so it's okay. You know, like it's okay, like we're good at some things and we're not good at other things, so it's okay, you know, like it's okay. You're a great person, even with all those weaknesses, and so you know, find ways to do what you do and fill in all around you all the things you don't do.
Speaker 3:That's great advice, chris. Thank you for sharing that. All right, I'd like to ask one last question.
Speaker 2:When did you know? Now, that's it. Yeah, yeah, I've been thinking about this question now, that's it.
Speaker 2:And I I've had several moments, you know. I shared one with my, my late wife slapping the desk saying how you can start that business. You know, full of support. That was amazing. Another one was when I talked to Dave and I'm like here's what I want to do, to be honest with you. The reason I called him was to help me acquire an MSP. And it's embarrassing, you know, because and I told, I told him five minutes into this conversation I'm nowhere near ready to acquire an MSP. What am I talking about? But could you help me get ready?
Speaker 2:You know, and so, you know, working with him, you know, uh, and in that conversation, that initial conversation, realizing I wasn't there but I could be, you know, and I and, and believing I could be, that was a big deal. And then the last one for me, now that's it, uh, what, what is it Now? That's it, now that's it. I had okay, now that's it. What is it now? That's it, now that's it. I had okay, now that's it was when I realized that firing, or getting fired, was the beginning of something good as a paradigm shift, not as a one-off, but, you know, as a spiritual reality. You know a law. You know, for me, a law that is as constant as gravity. You know good things are coming.
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness, that's a lot of confidence building, yeah chris, it was really an honor to have you on the podcast this week. I can't thank you enough for being here. It's been a pleasure to be an acquaintance and hopefully, a friend and I. I look forward to talking to you again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely a friend. Thanks, Chris. Awesome, appreciate it.