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
From Burnout to Believer: Why Aaron Betts Came Back Stronger
In this episode of Now That’s IT, Aaron Betts shares his remarkable journey—from launching his first MSP in 2005 and losing it all during the financial crisis, to taking a corporate detour, burning out, and ultimately returning to lead Intelesys as President.
Aaron opens up about the hard-earned lessons of entrepreneurship, the shift from break/fix to managed services, and how a life-altering health scare reshaped his leadership style. He shares how he's rebuilding company culture, redefining success, and guiding his MSP toward a $10M vision—all while empowering his team to think bigger.
Whether you’re navigating burnout, scaling operations, or preparing your next generation of leaders, this conversation is packed with insight, inspiration, and practical takeaways for MSP owners, COOs, and IT leaders.
🔑 In this episode, you'll learn:
- How Aaron recovered from early MSP failure and found purpose in a second chance
- What it takes to shift from project-based work to a true managed services model
- The role of culture, leadership, and team empowerment in long-term growth
- Why stepping back can lead to stronger, more intentional leadership
- How to manage personal burnout without giving up on the MSP industry
'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 I don't know how to say this. I used to really obsess about work and I would take it home and it would eat at me, and now it's just always present. Things are always kind of cooking in the back of my mind, but it doesn't bother me. It's exciting, actually, because I'm thinking about where could we go, what new verticals could we look at? What processes could we make better? Welcome to Now, that's it.
Speaker 1: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 2:Mr Aaron Betts, president of Intellisys, welcome to the Now that's it podcast. Thank you, excited to have you here today, aaron. We've got to know each other over the last year or so and what I find really very interesting about your story is and I didn't know this about you is you started an MSP early on 2005. What motivated you to start that MSP back in 2005?
Speaker 1:Well, believe it not, it was my partner. He was entrepreneurial and I was the corporate kind of IT guy and he called me and said, hey, we could do some really great things here together. And man, that was like the scariest moment of my life when I left corporate America to try to build, to build an MSP out of the gate. It started out really well, didn't turn out so well yeah.
Speaker 2:So financial crisis hits right and 90% of your clients were mortgage in the mortgage industry mortgage companies, lenders, yeah, you name it what was that time like for you, Aaron?
Speaker 1:It was gut-wrenching. We lost 30,000 MRR in like 60 days. We made sure our techs were paid. I went 45 days without a paycheck, Wow. And I finally had to say guys, I got things I got to take care of. I can't do this anymore. I just couldn't sustain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what were those next steps you mentioned?
Speaker 1:you left, so I went back to corporate America. I actually created a job for a company. They had outsourced IT and I displaced them. I came in and said, look, I can manage all of this for you, placed them. I came in and said, look, I can manage all of this for you. And I did that for what? About eight years, I guess, until actually a sales representative of Intellisys sold me a Shortel phone system Back in the day.
Speaker 1:Intellisys did a lot of different things than MSP and when I was ready to leave that company I was actually having lunch with that same sales rep because we were expanding and I said I'm done and he goes well, why don't you come be an engineer for us? So I interviewed with the president at the time, Rick Balzer, and he actually talked to me about you know kind of mentoring, techs and being a manager and whatnot. But when I, when I interviewed at the company, they were like oh no, you're going to be a field engineer. And I was like, wait what? But I wanted out so bad that I went ahead and took the job and I did installations, I did engineering, I did you know help, desk work and level two and three escalations for a couple of years.
Speaker 2:Talk about Intellisys in those early days or when you joined. What was Intellisys doing at the time?
Speaker 1:When I joined, we had moved into the VoIP world. We were selling Shortel. We made a concerted effort to focus on municipalities and public sector. So education, municipalities, local government and we were killing it. We were doing really well. After a few years I took a short sabbatical for myself and then, when I decided I needed to find full-time employment again, shortly after Rick actually asked me to come back as the chief operating officer so you, let's talk a little bit about that time.
Speaker 2:You took your sabbatical, so you mentioned you experienced some burnout. I did and you wanted to take some time off and you actually you went into photography back in 2014. I did. How did this break sort of impact your professional and your personal life?
Speaker 1:Personally, it was what I needed absolutely. I just had a chance to kind of reflect where, where had I been? Where was I now? Gave me the opportunity to be creative. I am a creative person but I don't always get to do that in the engineering world and I also learned some hard lessons about running a business or building a business again. When I did my MSP, I was the technical side. Now I was everything, and it was really interesting because it really took the fun, the love of photography out of the scenario for me. I found that I'm much more of a let's find a shot and set it up and make sure it's right and get it, than run and gun a wedding or, you know, deal with families and things like that. It was a real shock to me that that creativity kind of waned a little bit yeah.
Speaker 2:So talk about you. You make the right choice. You step away. You're doing something completely different than you've been doing your entire life. You have a chance to sort of reset reset your mind. What was going through your mind, though? That sort of brought you back into the, towards Intellisys, like what? What were you thinking about?
Speaker 1:It was financial. We had four kids going to college that year. We're a blended family and have seven children and you know that IT paycheck was okay. So I was actually looking for a sales engineering job. I thought, you know, that's something I think I could do really well. I understand product, I understand how to explain product and I'm fairly personable, I think. So I thought, you know, that could really be a good avenue for me. And so I was actually talking to Rick at lunch just to see if he could open some avenue for me. And so I was actually talking to Rick at lunch just to see if he could open some doors for me. And that's when he said, well, would you consider? And I thought, oh, hadn't never thought about that, and decided to take the plunge.
Speaker 2:What was different about Intellisys the second time when you came back?
Speaker 1:That's a really good question. The second time I put a lot more focus and I worked with Rick a lot on culture. There were some real challenges in the early days of Intellis, as I felt, with just how people enjoyed or didn't enjoy their jobs, and so it was really about creating an environment that we wanted to work in and that we enjoyed coming to work in, and I think we've built a really good team over the years. I was also in charge of the service department and at first it was just, you know, making sure help desk was running, and then it expanded a little bit, and then it expanded a little bit and finally I was basically running everything except for sales and payroll.
Speaker 2:Wow. So you're focused on culture, which obviously is very important, not only for the business, but for you personally, right, you want to work with a group of folks that want to be there and want to really enjoy being around each other. But you also helped with an operational shift, right? This was about the time when you guys were traditionally a project break, fix time and material company and you made this shift towards managed services. What were you thinking? Why did you want to do that?
Speaker 1:That was kind of actually one of the thoughts I had when I met with Rick and we talked about this position, just because I remember seeing the potential that we had when it was just me and my buddy as like kind of trunk slammers, right, and we actually built to like five techs and whatnot in a very short period of time. So I really thought that a lot of our clients would come to us because we've done the VoIP phones hey, can you help us with a VLAN, hey, can you help us? We're having network trouble and we got, we understood it, you know, and so it just seemed like a natural transition. But our focus was still municipalities and that is a very challenging vertical for MSP.
Speaker 2:For sure. So what was that transition, like Aaron, from VoIP to MSP? I mean you're thinking differently about how you're very much more proactive, right.
Speaker 1:Yes, we had to build processes, we had to make a shift in the thinking of the techs, which was very challenging. It was a lot of kind of reviewing tickets after the fact, like hey, you know, we probably shouldn't have billed for this or hey, we probably should have billed for this, and really getting everybody on board to kind of that forward thinking, right the proactive engagements and creating those processes that were going to help the clients. Call us less and not more.
Speaker 2:So the last two years has been really, really interesting for you as well. A lot of change right. You experienced a health issue and then Rick, your founder, came to you and said I'm thinking about retiring.
Speaker 1:So in 2023, we had a blizzard in California if you can believe that, yeah and we got seven feet of snow with three to four or five days, something like that, and we just couldn't dig out and the streets they couldn't keep up, and so we were trapped in the house for 10 days and had a feeling that the roof was going to collapse. Right, it was really kind of scary and I got to a point where I couldn't sleep. Anyway, long story short, my son and I shoveled snow off the roof for two days straight and three days later I had a heart attack.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And and it was scary, I bet, but it really puts things into focus. It really gave me kind of a focus of enjoying everything I do, right, Making sure that you're making the most of every moment. And so when Rick came to me and said that he was thinking, I thought he was joking. Yeah, but I think part of what did that is I had always told my wife at Intellisys, because I don't always enjoy IT work, and she'd say why do you keep working there? I'd say, you know what I'm learning, and as long as I'm learning, it's a good environment for me.
Speaker 1:And so I went to Rick and I said you know, I kind of feel like I'm tapped out, I'm topped out. And he goes well, are you ready for this chair? And I just kind of laughed. I said, well, yeah, I mean, I basically run everything anyway. That's a joke, right. And he said well, good, because I'm going to retire. I just thought that's not possible. You've built this company, you've run it for 30 years, there's no way you could retire. But sure enough, we started a transition. Took us about nine months to really kind of put everything in place and August 1st of last year I took over as president. That's great Congratulations. Thank you, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:So this has to be. This is a big change, right? You have a major health event. You sort of have a rebirth of. This is what's important to me every single day. You know your family, all that's important and then you're given this opportunity, which is good on one hand, because you're tapped out. You sort of can't grow anymore in the role that you're in, but it's a lot more responsibility. So I'm sure you're thinking about all these things, aaron health and happiness and all that stuff. What ultimately made you decide this is the right decision for me to take over?
Speaker 1:I talked a lot with my wife and, I don't know, it was kind of the same thing that drove me, I think, to leave corporate America. The first time is that here's an opportunity and I'm a firm believer in, you know, when a door closes, a window opens. And this was just an opportunity, I think, for me to say I deserved my MSP, I deserved what we built, and it wasn't our fault that the world collapsed on us. Um, and and really show that um, I have the skills and the desire and the love of the team and the love of the company to take us to a new level. And it was, I think, really that drive to say I want to double us in size and I think we can do it that that ultimately, you know, made that decision you obviously been an entrepreneur, a business owner, before.
Speaker 2:This isn't your first time running MSP, but in tell us this was a little different beast right so you're taking over something that's a bit more mature, a bit more evolved, a bit more established. So there's a little bit of a transition period. As you meant, talk a little bit about how Rick helped you sort of mentor through that transition, what that was like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's been really great and, to his credit, he has been hands off, but he is there. When, you know, in the early days there were a few conversations of, yeah, I don't think this was the right choice, you need to come back, and partly in jest, but you know, there was that fear of it's all on my shoulders and when that settles in, it's a very humbling experience to know that I don't just have a family that's responsible for me I have 11, but he, he's always been there. And now the role is, you know, advice. Sometimes I get a if I were in your shoes, which is a little bit stronger advice, but most of the time it's. You know, hey, let's take the blinders off, let's make sure you're seeing all the angles, and then you make your decision.
Speaker 2:He ultimately had belief in you, because what Intellisys is today is because of you, right, you had taken Intellisys from this VoIP company and turned it into a true managed service provider over the last couple of years, and so you've built this team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess it's hard for me to take credit because we worked very closely together throughout all those years, but yeah, I mean, ultimately we we built a very strong name in Southern California for MSP, um and, for you know, for VoIP. You know this was Rick's baby. There was no way he was going to turn it over to just anybody. So that you know, that was very comforting to me to know that the belief was there and obviously the support and the backing was there as well.
Speaker 2:So talk a little bit about your role as a leader. You obviously were running sort of the operations side. You had the techs underneath you. We talked a little bit offline about the questions you get from techs, about you know, what should I do here? How do I support this? But as you move into this new role, how has your leadership style had to change? Are you still in the weeds with the techs? Have you been able to step away and focus on the business?
Speaker 1:What's that been like? That's been a really interesting development for me. I'm a very easygoing person. Rick often told me I'm too nice, and so two things have happened. One I've had to put on that president hat right, and I've had to learn to hold people accountable in a way that I probably hadn't before, because I don't have a choice that I probably hadn't before because I don't have a choice. And at the same time I've really tried to empower the team to take ownership and make decisions and then come to me with their decision and if they're really unsure, we'll decide together. But I wanna know what you think we should do, because I really believe that if you give people the tools as Rick did for me, right If you give people the tools as Rick did for me, right if you give people the tools and let them make choices, they're they're going to make the right choice most of the time. And as long as you've got, you know, your, your guard rails, you'll be fine talk a little bit about your, your change in perspective.
Speaker 2:You know business perspective, life perspective, over the over over the last several years, you've had more ups and downs than I think the average business owner has ever had. So talk a little bit about where your sort of perspective is now and how that's changed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know the first few months was just all about survival. We had a fire that almost burned the mountain down and you know you're few months was just all about survival. We had a fire that almost burned the mountain down, and you know you're trying to take on a new role and you're trying to think am I going to have a house to go back to? So it's really taught me to compartmentalize. When I'm at work, it's 100% work, and when I leave, it's time to turn off if I can. And for the most part I think I do okay there.
Speaker 1:But at the same time I used to really I don't know how to say this I used to really obsess about work and I would take it home and eat at me, and now it's more. It's just always present. Things are always kind of cooking in the back of my mind, but it doesn't bother me. It's exciting, actually, because I'm thinking about where could we go, what new verticals could we look at, what processes could we make better? Because ultimately, the better the company runs, the easier my life gets, so to speak. But I've started to put people. That, I think, is really going to help drive the team and drive the company. We're looking at building a new sales funnel, which I'm really excited about. So, yeah, it's really about putting people in the right seat on the bus. That's fantastic.
Speaker 2:So, aaron, interesting, we may have to start a book club, stephen and I, because you're not our first published author that we've ever had on the podcast. Well, I'm not published yet. All right, talk a little bit about your novel that you're working on right now.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm actually working on two. Okay, I have one that's in the editing phase right now. It's a young adult portal fantasy. So think, like I don't know, narnia meets Dungeons and Dragons Awesome. And I'm currently working on an urban sci-fi novel and you know it's interesting. I've learned a lot from the writing process, and part of that is you have to be okay for criticism. You have to be okay to have something that you've put your heart and soul in ripped to shreds, in the knowledge that what is going to come out on the back end is going to make it better, and I've tried to apply that always in my work as well. You know we get constructive feedback and it's not always pleasant, but knowing that the end result is going to be better. So, yeah, I'm excited. That's my kind of my, you know, outside of work hobby and hopefully someday I'll have something for you guys to read.
Speaker 2:Can't wait and maybe it'll be a Netflix series or a video game, I'd be okay with that.
Speaker 1:Awesome, very good.
Speaker 2:So talk to us about what's next for Intellisys.
Speaker 1:That's a good question. We're going to build, like I said, the sales funnel. We're probably going to look at a few new verticals and really lean into operational efficiency. I absolutely love these business transformation conferences. I get so much out of them and there are actionable things that we go back with to really focus on the business. And you know, we're currently, as a company, between three and 5 million and I want to see us at 10 million.
Speaker 2:So I love to ask this question to every single one of the guests that comes on the podcast. Aaron, when did you know? Now that's it now that's it.
Speaker 1:That's a tough one. So back back when my first wife was was pregnant with our first child, I was working at a data center at night releasing ibm mainframe jobs, and all these guys that were in the offices had these microsoft books on their desk mcSE stuff and I read through one of them and I was like this makes sense and it was kind of I think. Then when I said, yeah, I could do this and I could probably make some money at it and support my family and I've always loved computers. So it was kind of like never look back. That's great. I never went to school, meaning I don't have a degree. It's always been the school of hard knocks for me.
Speaker 2:But here I am, aaron. It's been a real pleasure. I'm so happy that I've gotten to meet you and get to know you over the last couple of years. I love your optimism, your personality. I can tell that you've been through some things in your life, but I can't tell it from the way you interact with each other. I mean, you're an amazing guy. Well, thanks, I wish you the very best of luck. I wish Intellisys the very best of luck and thanks for being here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you, appreciate it.