Introduction to Growth Catalyst Show
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Growth Catalyst Show where we believe that growth could come in many forms, professional, personal, company, sales, you name it. I'm your host, Dan Mahoney, founder of Transcendent Sales Solutions and a guide to a world of growth possibilities. I've spent my career empowering companies and their people with strategies that accelerate growth.
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Speaker
I'm here to bring you stories of these business leaders and their trusted advisors to gain insights into their journeys and learn how they fueled their own growth. Just maybe their journey could become part of your own growth story. Are you ready? Let's grow.
Meet Troy Cobb and His IT Journey
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Speaker
Welcome to the next edition of the Growth Catalyst Show. I'm your host, Stan Mahoney. And my next guest is Troy Cobb, who is the owner and regional sales director of Synch IT. He leads a team of certified technology specialists who provide high quality IT support, managed services, and cybersecurity solutions to small and mid-sized businesses in the Metro Atlanta area. With over 20 years of IT t experience, Troy has expertise in helping companies to optimize their IT infrastructure, reduce costs,
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Speaker
and enhanced security. Troy, my friend, welcome to the Growth Catalyst Show. Thanks, Dan. Glad to be here, man. Thanks for inviting me on.
Troy's New Jersey Roots and Philadelphia Allegiances
00:01:14
Speaker
I'm excited to talk to you. ah So, a New Jersey boy in Atlanta. um so Tell me a little bit about your time in Jersey. and When we say Jersey, I think it's you know Jersey's a little different when you're closer to Philadelphia versus New York, right?
00:01:28
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Totally different accent in South Jersey than there is in North Jersey. And yeah, I grew up right across the bridge, Ben Franklin Bridge from Philadelphia. So unlike North Jersey people who are Giants fans or Jets fans, I'm definitely an Eagles fan and a Phillies fan and a Sixers fan. That's awesome. Well, I forget. I love growing up in Jersey.
00:01:54
Speaker
um go back there at least two or three times a year. I still miss my cheesesteaks and my hoagies. Jersey Mike's comes pretty close, but nobody else ah can come close to those cheesesteaks from New Jersey and Philly. And it isn't always everybody says Gino's or the other one. Those aren't the good ones. there' are no really good Those are the tourist cheesesteaks, right? Exactly, exactly. Yeah.
From Boston University to the Marines
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Out of high school, you went right into the US Marines, correct? No, no. I spent the year in college at Boston University ah playing a football for the Boston Terriers. and do You did now. Yeah, and I got hurt. My my plan was They didn't offer me a scholarship out of high school. So I was going to walk on, make the team and get a scholarship. um ah while You were a kicker. You were a kicker, right? You know what was crazy was all through high school, I was a lineman and a linebacker. I get to be you and they decided they wanted me to be a running back.
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um And so all of that punishment I had inflicted on running backs all those years playing football since sixth grade, um I was getting it all back, you know, being on the scab squad as a freshman at Boston University. So I didn't like being a running back very much. And I actually got hurt the last practice of the season. Guy speared me right in the spine. And I thought I was going to be ah paralyzed.
00:03:27
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And I promised God I wasn't gonna put the uniform back on if I could walk again. ah So when I got out of the hospital, um took a hard look at things. I had done really well in school, but I needed that scholarship money but in order to keep going. And so I said, well, I'm not gonna go home and feel sorry for myself and twiddle on my thumbs. I'm going in the military. I'm going in the Marine Corps. It's called my mom. Yeah, so I called my mom and said, hey, I'm going in the Marines.
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And she was like, why are you gonna do that? let's it I told her how much money I needed to go to school. And she was like, so when does bootcamp start?
Marine Corps Experiences
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Oh my God, well, thank you. that's And that's how I ended up in Georgia, because my last duty station was ah in Albany, Georgia down south. I think that's one of the only Marine duty duty stations, correct? In in in Georgia.
00:04:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's the only one. Yeah, yeah. So you made your way to Parris Island, is that where you did your training? Yeah, yeah, they flew me from Boston down to Parris Island, did my bootcamp training there, and graduated number one in my platoon, they call that the honor man.
00:04:41
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Does not surprise me one bit. um thank Thank you for your service. i really And as a Marine dad, I really appreciate and I love i love all the Marines. um How long did you serve in the U.S. Marine Corps? I was in from 86 to 96. That's a storm. But I didn't actually have to go into battle. I was just enduring those those confrontations. And what was your military occupational specialty?
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My MOS was 2874 electronic calibration. so we fix So there's technicians to fix everything in the Marine Corps, radios, total missile test sets, um anything that's electronic.
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Those technicians that fixed that stuff, um not the ones that operate them, but the ones that fix them, they need test equipment. They need old scopes. They need power meters. They need voltage meters. And we actually fixed the test equipment as well as calibrated all the test equipment that would go out into the field. So I kind of had a pretty cush job when I was in the Marines. In fact, my reenlistment bonus was like $30,000
Career Evolution in IT and Digital Cinema
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to reenlist for a second term because our MOS was considered critical.
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wow Where were some of the places you were stationed other than beautiful Albany, Georgia? ah Beautiful Barstow, California. Where's my other duty station? My first enlistment. I spent some time in 29 Palms where I learned basic electronics. Then they sent me to Albany for my test measurement and diagnostic equipment school. And then they gave me my first set of orders and they sent me back out to the desert and I spent the rest of that enlistment and ah in Barstow. Then when I re-enlisted,
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Speaker
I tried to go to Okinawa. I put in for Okinawa, with Japan. And they said, no, we're going to send you back to Albany. You're going to be a an instructor at the school where you learned your MOS. So I taught electronics my second enlistment.
00:06:41
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Well, my son was on radios and did radio and did communications. And I'm actually one of them, probably one of the few non-Marines that's actually been to 29 Palms. yeah and Oh my Lord. 29 Palms is something else. Let me tell you. Yeah. Yeah. I was fortunate enough to go back when I was working for a company called the Digital Projection.
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um And I actually had the opportunity to fly out there to 29 Palms to try to sell some protectors for a tank simulator. And we got to go on the base and see where they trained the tankers. And a platoon of the Marines came in and just listening to the lingo again,
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um how FN is after every other word and the things, the all the different little acronyms that we use. And I was like, wow, did I used to talk like that? And I think I did. Well, you know, the one thing about the Marines is I don't know how y'all keep track of every acronym. I mean, MOS, military, occupational, but there are so many acronyms. I'm like, how do you keep track of them all? Yeah, it it's crazy. And the the weird things we call stuff, like, ah do you know what a geidunk machine is?
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No idea. That's a candy machine, basically. Why we call it a geed up machine? I have no idea. But you go to the geed up machine, get your a candy bar or something. I'm sure you know what a food bar is. No, I don't.
00:08:13
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F'd up beyond all recognition. ah yeah Oh my God. Yeah. I mean, it's, I love hanging with you guys. You guys are hilarious. Okay. So, so talk a little bit about your, I know you worked at, with Barco and digital productions before ah our conversations, you've traveled quite a bit in those roles. Talk a little bit about that.
00:08:36
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Yeah, with ah Barco, which is an acronym, actually stands for the Belgian American Radio Company. um I got a chance to travel quite a bit, went to Belgium quite a few times. um Traveled the world, really, ah between Barco, another company called Mectine, and digital projection, doing high end projection systems.
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um for 3D virtual reality, for digital cinema. um Also dabbled in direct view LED walls as well. um Like when you go to Mercedes-Benz Stadium and you look up at the, ah that that huge display, that's called a direct view LED d display. um And digital projection got into that um for not the big displays like you see at stadiums, but the smaller ones that you would see in like an office space or or something like that.
00:09:25
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um So that that was a really exciting industry, and and that caused me to do quite a bit of traveling. And when I got into digital cinema, that was the craziest travel of all, because we had to go to a bunch of, we won contracts with a few movie theater groups, like AMC and, um I can't remember the other one we won. But we had to go to every single movie theater and help them move the film projectors out and put the digital projectors in. And then I had to help them set up all the servers in the IT to run the digital, to to push the digital movies out to every projector. And that's where I kind of cut my teeth on IT was when I got into digital cinema. And that took me off.
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like Wow. Wow. That's, I mean, every movie theater. Yeah. but Well, we didn't win the contract for every movie theater, but we had pretty big AMC premiere. I can't think of the other one that's up in Nashville. The headquarters is up there. But um yeah, we we did quite a bit.
00:10:37
Speaker
I haven't been in the movies in so long. I can't even remember. The only one I know is AMC. I know it's like you turn on streaming. It's like, yeah, it'll be on streaming eventually, right?
Founding the Metro Atlanta Veterans Chamber of Commerce
00:10:47
Speaker
Yeah. so So, you know, before we get talking about Cinch IT, one of the things that I want to talk to you about, and I know it's one of your passions, and I'm honored to serve with you, is on the board of the Metro Atlanta Veterans Chamber of Commerce. I mean, you you it took you a while to get that even approved and launched. Talk a little bit about that.
00:11:09
Speaker
Yeah, sure. um I was, I just started Since IT and one of my goals with Since IT was to win some government contracts for IT support. And so I was having a hard time getting that going and I saw this email about a conference that was going on down in Orlando to help veterans be able to do business through SAM.gov. So I signed up for it and flew down there.
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And I met this lady and she was telling me about her business. And she said, the other thing I do is I'm the president of the um Jacksonville, Florida Veterans Chamber of Commerce. I said, Veterans Chamber of Commerce. I never heard of that. So it's a Chamber of Commerce that's focused on veterans, military veterans that are entrepreneurs or business owners. And she said, the reason you never heard of is because Georgia doesn't have one.
00:12:05
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I was like, really? So I googled it and I'm like, yeah, you're right. Georgia doesn't have a Chamber of Commerce for veterans. And she said, if you want to get one started, I'll ahll help you. And so I thought about it and got in contact with her and got the whole thing rolling. And then I brought in, Force was one of the first guys to join the board and help me get it launched. So I ah give him credit with being a co-founder. And it took, man,
00:12:34
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almost nine months to get our 501c6 approved. And that was the the toughest part. And then finally we got it approved I think in February of this year. And then we did our grand opening in April. And now we're growing slowly but surely and putting events on the calendar and and just trying to grow this membership and start really doing something.
00:12:57
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Some things I think ah be really help veteran veterans that are entrepreneurs or already business owners and and just need some some ah so some good information.
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and resources in order to grow. And that's what we want to be there for. Because there's so many resources out there, and people just don't know how to get to them. And we want to be that that hub um to to bring the resources to our veterans that are um want to be business owners or are struggling business owners trying to grow.
00:13:30
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Well, you're it's a labor of love for you for doing it and giving back to the community. And like I said, I'm very proud to be part of it and helping you grow that for our veterans. So, because we can't give that back enough. Thank you for so much for for everything you do for the board as well. Really appreciate you jumping in there and providing your leadership and your guidance. And I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.
00:13:52
Speaker
Well, it's it's it's all it's the least I can do. And, you know, I want to switch to Cinch IT.
Launching Cinch IT During COVID
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So after traveling and you didn't even really talk, you traveled the world with doing video the video business production, with digital productions. What was your reason and your thoughts about starting Cinch IT? And kind of give us your thoughts to become an entrepreneur of your own business. Let's take a moment for a quick word from our sponsor.
00:14:21
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This episode of the Growth Catalyst Show was brought to you by Transcendent Sales Solutions. Whether your company is facing uncertainty, declining sales, or resource limitations, Transcendent Sales has the solution. Their team has decades of experience helping businesses find alignment to meet their growth goals and transforming underperforming sales organizations into revenue producing market leaders.
00:14:41
Speaker
They take a hands-on, results-oriented approach to solving sales challenges. Visit TranscendenceSales.com to learn more and subscribe to the biweekly Growth Catalyst newsletter for insightful growth strategies. Transcendence Sales Solutions, empowering businesses to reach new heights. And now back to the show. Yeah, um I put in for a couple opportunities with the last company I was with and and didn't get them. And I was kind of disappointed because I was ready to you know, try to try new things. I hardly ever stayed in the same role for very long. I was always looking for a new role um just just to keep things, you know, exciting for myself. And I kind of felt stuck. And then COVID happened and the business was really suffering because I wasn't doing digital cinema anymore. I had moved on to um selling into the live event space. So when COVID came, there was no more live events.
00:15:39
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The dealers that I used to sell to were basically sitting on their hands waiting for COVID to end. We thought maybe it'll last a month or two and then things will get back on. But then a month or two turned into six months. And then at six months, we were like, this thing could be an indefinite. We have no idea when this vaccine is coming. It's going to happen forever. I know, right? When is this going to end? Yeah, we have no idea when this vaccine is coming out and if the vaccine is really going to work.
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah. So I started looking around trying to figure out what my next move was going to be. And, um, the, the federal government, the administration that was in at the time, cause I want to be political, um, was offering a, a, a deal where you could take up to a hundred thousand dollars out of your 401k, uh, without paying a penalty and in order to start a business. And I had at midnight on um December 20th to make the decision or the deal, they didn't know if the deal was going to be put back in by the next Congress. So I pulled the trigger, grabbed the money, and I had already interviewed with several franchises. and In my search for franchises, I found Since IT. And I said, well, I understand exactly what Outsource IT is because
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The whole time I was at Digital Projection, we had always used outsourced IT. So I knew all the pain points of dealing with an outsourced IT company. um And I never thought of it as being a franchise.
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So I really liked the way this franchise was set up because what I'm finding and as I meet other um IT t franchise owners is that since IT is pretty unique in a way it's set up. um So we have a centralized help desk um and they're trained in and on the payroll of the franchise or and they're in Boston, a really, really well trained group of professionals. So when our clients are brought in,
00:17:44
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They have a a great help desk that they can call, a responsive help desk that they can call. um And 90% of the time, those are the guys that will remote in and fix the problem. um Those other 10% of the time is when one of my techs will come on site and fix the problem. And I like that setup because the local techs are my guys that I keep trained and on my payroll, while the central help desk is the responsibility of the franchise or and it's a a really good setup and and I've been really, really, really, um I don't want to say lucky because I did a lot of preparation and I work really hard and and know and because of the way Cinch is set up and the support that they give me, I've had a pretty good success over the last couple of years of growing this business.
00:18:37
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That's an amazing story, the way you started it. You did your research and found the right franchise. And I know that's not always easy.
Cybersecurity Misconceptions for Small Businesses
00:18:44
Speaker
um One of the things I i love about the Cinch IT website is I looked at it. And the first thing you see is a real simple question that a lot of business donors don't ask themselves. What is your IT situation? yeah And, you know, my working with a lot of business owners, I see a lot of times what they think their IT situation is, it really isn't. So what are the one of the biggest mincon misconceptions you see business owners have as it relates to their IT? That they're safe, that they're not vulnerable, that they're too small, nobody's looking at them.
00:19:26
Speaker
And that's exactly who they're looking at. They're not looking at P and&G. They're not looking at big companies like Coca-Cola. Their cybersecurity is so tight, it'd be very difficult to get in. They're looking for that low-hanging fruit, that small business owner with less than 50 employees who thinks he's hiding over in the corner. Nobody's looking at um trying to hack into his IT infrastructure. You are the target.
00:19:52
Speaker
you know People keep thinking it's the big companies that are the targets. They're not the targets for the most part. It's the smaller companies. I forgive the numbers. I think and what's scary is 60% of small businesses that suffer a cyber attack um end up going out of business because they just can't recover from it.
00:20:15
Speaker
wow well and you know Truth or myth, I think we always hear about all the big companies. there' you know I'm not going to name any, but you know this big company got hacked, this big company got hacked. I think the the misconception is, the truth is, a lot of business owners think, oh, well, that's not going to be me because but there's more of those too because we don't hear about the 50 or less companies or about 100 or less employee companies to get hit. Do you say that's truth?
00:20:43
Speaker
and And here's the other scary part, Dan, that is true. Here's the other scary part and why you don't hear about it. Because they're looking on the outside of hackers that are trying to get in when more than 75% of the time when you get hacked as a business, it's one of your employees that doesn't. Either they're disgruntled or they're not foolish, but um they They make mistakes. They click on the wrong link. yeah They decide to download something. It can be something as simple as, I need your printer. I might say, hey, it's time to update your your printer. you And it's not really Brother sending you that that information. It's a hacker saying, hey, it's time to update your printer software. And you go ahead and click on the link. If you don't have the right cybersecurity in place, boom, you just let malware onto your machine.
00:21:37
Speaker
One of the companies I used to work for used to send out emails every month, and one of them to all their employees was, hey, we have some extra trips on the sales trip. If anybody's interested in going to Hawaii, click here. And they would go. And it was and again, how many people would click on that? It was a phishing email. And they would be like, ah you flunked your ic IT t security test. you know Yeah.
00:22:01
Speaker
Yeah, we have a program like that where, man, they sent the Google on the other day that almost got me out. You probably got it too. It said that ah you've been added to a Teams meeting.
00:22:13
Speaker
a new group on Teams, click on this link to see what group you're added to. and I was just about to click it. like Who would put me on a new team? Oh, you guys. and i could um We have a button called Catch Fish. If you know the fishing attempt, I clicked on Catch Fish and the confetti fell down on the screen. and And, uh, I, I got some points for catching that fish. I see a lot of them now through text. Like I got one the other day from the state about toll, like my toll pass, like you're, you're overdue on your toll pass and, you know, and it looked, it looked legitimate and you're not, you know, you got the fine and i'm I'm like, wait a minute, I got plenty. And sure enough, that's what it was. So, but you're still, you can't believe anything anymore. So, you know, talk about, uh, some of the services that you guys offer in Cinchit to businesses.
00:23:05
Speaker
Sure. um one of the One of our plans is called a core plan, which is a plan we bring all of our clients in on. And as the sports pillars of support in that core plan, um one of them is being that that support you you're going to need from the help desk. um When you call into our help desk, when we when we finished your onboarding. We've got all your information about um pretty much everything there is to know about your IT and it's sitting right in front of that technician's face so he can doesn't have to ask you a bunch of stupid questions that you think they should already know. um They can pretty much go in and and help you figure out what the problem is. Another thing we do is vendor support. um If you have a printer problem, if your internet goes out, if your phones go out,
00:23:56
Speaker
You don't, you don't have to call your printer company or your phone company or your ISP provider. You just call a sense out desk. We're going to call those people for you because we've already got that set up um as being and an account manager for you. And we can go in and work with um Comcast or AT and&T or whoever it is.
00:24:14
Speaker
in order to figure out the situation. ah Plus, we get a different level of support than you would get because we're an MSP. ah Comcast has special technicians set up on their help desk to talk to MSPs, and we can get it solved probably a lot quicker than you can.
00:24:30
Speaker
Yeah, the only way the only way you get that from a person like us is you tell them you're canceling your account, then you get the good support, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then we do cyber security, basically around your email, um we're going to archive your emails, we're going to um put some cybersecurity tools in place to keep you protected. We also offer a cybersecurity training program so your employees will get, like we were just talking about, a ah fishing a simulated phishing attempt once a week. If they catch the fish, then they get some points for that. um If they don't, then um they click on the link, they fall forward and click on the link, then they go to a cybersecurity training class, about a five minute video, they have to watch and answer four questions.
00:25:16
Speaker
And as ah as their education and cybersecurity progresses over time, they build up a score. And so everybody's score starts off in the red, and the goal is to get them to um keep doing the the catch fish and the training classes and get their score into green. Because um we manage your physical firewall, but there's there's a second level of cybersecurity protection that you need. And that's through educating your employees with the cybersecurity training. So that's your your second form of firewall is educated employees. And I recommend to all my clients to add on our cybersecurity training package to our core packages. It's essential.
Identifying Ideal Clients for Cinch IT
00:26:03
Speaker
Who is your ideal client?
00:26:06
Speaker
An ideal client for us is a company with 10 or more employees. um Typically, we work we like to work with construction companies, engineering firms, architectural firms. um Companies that are growing in particular are great clients for us. um Any client, one thing you would a lot of people would think is, well, they already have.
00:26:32
Speaker
an IT guy on staff, that's probably not a good referral for you, but it actually is. We have several clients now that have a single IT guy on staff, and we join with them and do a co-managed setup to give them more bandwidth. And then their IT guy can focus on the big picture stuff, and we're going to handle the everyday problems that come up. So he's not swamped with the everyday problems and can't get the big picture stuff done.
00:27:00
Speaker
So that's also a good client for us as well if they have an IT manager on staff. So talk to business owner like, all right, their IT situation, wherever they're in right now, wherever they're at, what are some things they should be looking at right now and they should be doing it if they're not, or or maybe they are, maybe they're not, but give some tips.
Improving IT Security: Key Steps
00:27:20
Speaker
Yeah, um great, great question. So if you are receiving a lot of phishing emails,
00:27:27
Speaker
um you You probably don't have the right cybersecurity in place. um We have some tools we can put in place that will, I'm not going to say eliminate phishing attempts, but it will reduce the amount of phishing attempts that you see. um Another thing you want to think of is Do you have a firewall in place? If you don't have a physical firewall, I'm not talking about Windows Defender. I'm talking about a physical firewall sitting in your IT closet that's between your Comcast or AT and&T connection and the rest of your IT t network.
00:28:02
Speaker
and And what we do with that firewall, what that allows um our help desk to do is actually our NOC team, our network operations center. They can view traffic going in and out of your IT network and they'll get an alert anytime there's a red flag. um I remember one franchise that brought on a client and they didn't have a firewall. They put the firewall in and he said, Hey, you know, we did your onboarding.
00:28:29
Speaker
You got these 20 employees, they're all in the US, but somebody's pinging your server from Taiwan. Do you have an employee in Taiwan? And he had no idea somebody was stealing patent information from him from Taiwan on his server. Wow. And that's the kind of stuff you just don't know about unless you have the right technology in place and and IT professionals like Sense IT to help you manage your business.
00:28:59
Speaker
that's That's some good tips. ah So tell me a horror story that had a good ending. Pick a juicy one.
Lessons from an IT Security Breach
00:29:11
Speaker
Or a success story. I got one. I got one. So a nonprofit called me and one of their employees somehow had gotten their Office 365 admin ah password.
00:29:28
Speaker
Got in and found some emails from the CEO of the nonprofit um and found letters that she had sent out to the board. And on those letters were um compensation as well as bonuses. And they took those letters and emailed it to everybody at the nonprofit. Oh boy. Yeah, it was really bad.
00:29:59
Speaker
So we had to lock all that down for her. um Because they were trying to do their own IT, and they were just bringing in a guy anytime they needed a band-aid on something. But she learned from that that we really got to have professionals in place that can lock all this down for us and monitor it and make sure we stay safe. And so now,
00:30:26
Speaker
um that that they That nonprofit recovered from that, and they're growing again, and doing it. It's really a great nonprofit. I really appreciate what they're doing for the community. And that that could have killed them. That could have put them out of business. But now that everything's running smoothly, they're growing again, and they're they're doing really well in serving the community.
00:30:51
Speaker
Well, in the optimal word you use is the word. They look at IT t you they with a band-aid, and I can't stress enough to business owners that they can't look at IT t that way. um I've had the pleasure of working with you with a mutual client, and I've seen the good work you do and how quickly you've been able to you know help the client you know with their IPT infrastructure, and you and your team are top-notch. Thank you. Thank you, Dan.
Contact Information for Cinch IT Services
00:31:20
Speaker
Last question for you, i if there's any business owner out there that's interested in learning more about Cinch IT and your services and how you might be able to help them, what's the best way to get a hold of you? Best way to get a hold of me is to either email or call. Email is troy.cob at cinchit.com. You want to check out our services before calling me, go to www.cinchit.com or give me a call at 678-8. 899-9590. Troy, I want to thank you for all that you do for business owners and all you do for the community and veterans and I appreciate you taking the time today to come on the Growth Cattle Show. Thanks for having me on, Dan. It was a lot of fun.
00:32:15
Speaker
I'm your host, Dan Mahoney, and I look forward to our next journey together. If you've enjoyed the show, please subscribe and leave a review. Until next time, keep growing.