Transcript
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Speaker: If you don't know where they're going, you have no idea how to run your business in order to help them run theirs. And these larger companies don't pay attention to what the business is doing.
Speaker: Whereas what we're doing is sitting down with our clients and saying, how do we help you build that out? How do we help you grow your company? 2008 came along, we were we went down to three employees.
Speaker: When you're dealing with failure, going through failure is how you learn things. You're not going to lose your job to AI, you're going to lose your job to somebody who knows AI.
Speaker: Can they replace those employees? Yeah, but then you lose all human touch. And when you start losing all that human touch, you're going to start losing customers. And there comes a point where you've got to have that that capability, that interaction, that face-to-face.
Speaker: What our biggest hole in security has always been is the person sitting behind the keyboard. What's your next play? What's your next move? How do we assist in that move? You can grow and you can learn things, book learning kind of things, but unless you experience it, and when you experience, you're going to fail.
Speaker: There's going to be failures.
Speaker: It was a risk, and I'm glad I took it.
Speaker: This episode is sponsored by Hub International. Protecting what matters most to you. How do you run your business? That's a question that we found you ask your customers by an Arizona Daily Star article a while ago. Right.
Speaker: And so why is that question so relevant for your customers to ask them how they would want to run their business? Right. um I think that that running your business, ah for your client's perspective anyway, is is is important. Because if you're not involved in what they're doing on their client side, and and you're trying to – we do IT services, obviously. So trying to implement an IT services. if you're If you don't know where they're going – you have no idea how to run your business in order to help them run theirs because your whole input is to help them run their business.
Speaker: um and And that's where we've we've really built a ah niche around that because um a lot of the companies now are being bought out by large corporations all over the place. And these larger companies don't pay attention to what the business is doing or how they're You're talking about the the business you serve or the IT company? Yeah, bigger bigger ah nationwide IT companies now are coming in and buying up the small guys like us.
Speaker: um And what they're doing is they're implementing, okay, this is the format. Plunk, this is what you get. There's no interaction with them about how you're running your business and how you're going to do your stuff.
Speaker: um How do you advance with with you know where your business is? Whereas what we're doing is sitting down with our clients and saying, how do we help you? build that out? How do we help you grow your company?
Speaker: um And and that's that's, I think, what's missing with there a lot of large companies and a lot of lot of other IT companies along along the way, too. so Yeah. Great segue. So you've been doing this 30 years? 34. 34 years.
Speaker: In that time, and we're going to get to the foundation of this in a bit, but in that time, How have you seen the industry change from the first yeah yeah days until now? Well, back when we started, it was about building PCs and selling PCs. I mean, that was when I started the company, I started, i built myself a job.
Speaker: I was, ah i loved to do tech work. That's what I did for a long period of time, about 15 years of it. I was the technician. i had a few guys hired around to do technical work and we, off we go. um What morphed, obviously, internet came into play.
Speaker: And that was a huge change. um And then then about 2008, 2009 is when managed services came in, which is all of the remote management and all the capabilities that we had there. So morph of the company, it was literally a, hey, let's sell PCs to let's do networking to here comes the Internet to actually doing managed services and cybersecurity support and now getting into AI. So it's, I mean, it's it's a constant morphing business.
Speaker: Well, I mean, you need to adapt and the fact you've been doing it for 34 years yep means you've been doing something right. Yeah, I hope so. Have you seen lots of ah companies not adapt and stay stuck and eventually die?
Speaker: Yeah, what we call them ah right now is they're usually one man shows. They're a single IT t guy that thinks they're going to do the the whole thing themselves. um And it just they they they usually last a year or two and they're gone. and They just can't compete with with the the scale that we can handle um with with the with not growing. I mean, they they want to stay small. They want to stay the single unit person being able to do all this stuff.
Speaker: And basically they built themselves a job. That's what I learned. i said, Hey, I've got to go from, i can't just be the technician. I have to learn how to run a company. I have to learn how to have employees. I have to learn how, you know, all of that stuff works. And that's, that was a huge change for us.
Speaker: And what was the the impetus to make that change? I mean, 2008. Okay. okay Yeah. The economy in 2008. We had about 15 employees and we were we were what was known as a break-fix firm. We would go to clients as they needed us. we'd They'd call us up and we'd roll the trucks and off we'd go.
Speaker: 2008 came along. we were We went down to three employees. it It hit us hard. and then And then we changed to a managed services platform. And I said, look, this has got to be a company. This has got to be something sustainable. um This has got to be something that we can grow rather than rather than um everybody's just out fixing computers. We've got to actually have something that that you know means something to a client.
Speaker: And i guess during that time, obviously, you've seen lots of change. You've seen lots of things happen, come and go. Is there any experiences you can share with respect to times when you made a ah wrong decision or something that kind of bit you in the ass? I have to, well, I have to thank my wife for the 2008 change because I had made the wrong decision. We we had too many employees. um and And when 2008 hit, she said, you need to get rid of this big office.
Speaker: We need to downsize to this small stuff. and And she told me this before the whole effect. And I was like, really why why why do you think that? What do you think? is She's like, well, trust me, the economy is going this direction.
Speaker: And so I listened. We downsized the office to, we went down to almost 500 square feet, little small space where we're at now on Campbell and Glenn. It was one of the suites. Now we own, we basically run most of the suites on the top floor there. But But it it was it was because of her that we made that change. i would have nosedived. nosdiveed i wouldve really killed the company. but well um and and that was ah that was definitely a learning experience. But I think that...
Speaker: failure is an important thing. I think failure, you know, when you're when you're dealing with failure, going through failure is how you learn things, you know? um and and And if you're not failing, you're not learning because, i mean, you can grow and you can learn things, book learning kind of things, but unless you experience it and when you experience, you're going to fail, there's going to be failures.
Speaker: Yeah. It's one of the things I talk about a lot is We don't teach kids in particular how to fail. Yeah, absolutely don't. Kindergarten, maybe you get a little bit of a hall pass with like old stars. But as you start to go first grade, second and grade, all that, if you're getting C's, D's, and F's, and then, you know, people like look down upon that.
Speaker: Right. Whereas i think a culture that celebrates, hey, look, you failed. Now, how are you going to readjust so you don't fail in the future? Right. I think there's the fallacy there. I've got a real quick story for that. my My son, when he was younger, and he was six or seven at the time and didn't want to go to school and he would be late all the time. And Chris was always, my wife was always pushing him. You got to go. You got to go. You got to go get him already. And so finally I said, let him fail.
Speaker: She said, what do you mean? I said, don't wake him up in the morning. He's not going to wake up and get going on his own. He's going to fail. He's going to be late to school. What's going to happen? Sure enough, the principal called him into his office and he says, were late. What's going on? And since that point, boy, he was on time every day because he didn't want to be down in the principal's office. So he failed, but he learned, you know.
Speaker: it wasn't the The nagging and constant push doesn't always get people to do or rarely ever gets people to do what you want them to. yeah so So the talk about town is AI. Yes, it is.
Speaker: Everything you look at is AI this, AI that. This is a three-part question, kind of yeah different layers. How have your customers handled that, the AI transition?
Speaker: How have you handled that personally? And how has Acacia IT handled that? Right. So customer-wise, i i would say we're still in an early adopter phase.
Speaker: Okay. there's Everybody's using AI. There's AI sprawl everywhere. Okay. I mean, all of the employees are using AI for something. um And what we have worked with our clients, first off, you got to have policies in place. Okay. So we've we've pushed out policy AI policies to all of our clients that use these. Make sure that you've got them in place because you have to know, know you got to put some some guidelines on what they're doing. Okay.
Speaker: um from From where we're going with that, we actually have a, um what's now called the secure enclave environment for AI that that we're going to be pushing out to our clients, where all of the AIs, the clods and the chat GPTs are in a SOC 2 compliant environment. Okay? So that if your people are putting information in there that they're not supposed to necessarily, at least you're in secure environment, it's not going anywhere. Okay?
Speaker: um And then the the the second part of that is we now have software which allows us to ah block them using anything else, AI-wise. So it's it's ah a software that sits on the browsers that when you go to, if you want to go to ChatGPT, it's going to let you go there. It's a site that's not available, but you can go to you know the the main portal and use it you can still use ChatGPT there. so So it's got that main section. Yeah.
Speaker: But I think, um and then where Acacia IT is going is is really we're looking at um how do we assist our clients with with all this. so We're seeing AI come in not from just people using it as a chat GPT kind of thing, but also softwares are starting to to develop AI within themselves.
Speaker: um you know Law firms have software that is a lot of AI based now that it does all the research for them. um that's built into some of the software they're already using. so So what we're trying to do is make sure that we're helping them, guide them in in what decisions to make and where to go with that you know usage. but ah But overall, I think eventually it's it's going to be down to how do we assist them in not only just using the regular ChatGPT stuff, but developing things.
Speaker: In other words, taking the tasks that you have that you're doing day to day, filling out a spreadsheet and and automate those things. Automation is the first part of all the AI. I mean, it really is. So getting those workflows built out. And we're probably going to be hiring developers here in the next year. Six months is what we're looking at to help build that out. We're trying to get them to the enclave first and then we'll go to development.
Speaker: Are you fearful of AI? Now, i I think that there's a lot of talk about losing jobs. I think there's a lot of talk about, but you said it in your podcast. it's it's You're not going to lose your job to AI. You're going to lose your job to somebody who knows AI. And that's really what it is. That's what it comes down to. um I think there's, again, just like when we went you know to the computer when we went to the internet,
Speaker: they were all changes that people feared, right? Because, oh, you know, the internet's going to take over everything and, or the computers going take over everything and we're not going need people anymore. I mean, that was a talk back then, you know?
Speaker: and And I think that the AI is just another step of that. it's we have to We have to re-engineer people. to understand ai and use that and, and, and redevelop those jobs. And that, so will we lose jobs? Yeah, probably. But, but I don't think it's going to be on a massive scale like people are talking about. I think it's going to be, okay, now look, if you want a job, these are the things you have to learn.
Speaker: Let's go over here and teach everybody this, you know? Yeah, people like Mogadot and others, Linson, know, these are the thought leaders. oh They're saying 90%, 95%. Yeah, I don't think so. i in In several years, could that happen? I suppose, but it really, to me, I think it's going to be halted by the the businesses using the AI. Yeah.
Speaker: Um, because, because can they replace those employees? Yeah. But then you lose all human touch. And when you start losing all that human touch, you're going to start losing customers. And, and there's comes a point where you've got to have that, that capability, that interaction, that face to face.
Speaker: So. Yeah. I, in my personal opinion, it'll be 25, 30% down the road, yep not, not tomorrow, not next year. We're talking about some time.
Speaker: Yep. Let's talk about another demon in this cyber world is cybersecurity. Mm-hmm. Yep. And tell us about, give us ah a bit of an arc of a history of, I mean, there's been viruses for a while, you know, but this is a different animal now. I mean, cyber is crazy. Yeah. and And they're using AI.
Speaker: mean, it's the the implementation of AI to to do hacking now is is ridiculous. Yeah. Um, so, so the, so the arc, um, obviously we went from, you know, the prince in, in, uh, uh, Africa wants to send you money kind of things. Right. What, what, what our biggest hole in security has always been is the person sitting behind the keyboard because we can, we can,
Speaker: Layer security, do all kinds of different stuff, block stuff from coming in, you know, block stuff from going out, all kinds of things. but But when that person clicks on the link that goes to the place that does the bad things and fills out information that they shouldn't, I mean, there's only so much we can do.
Speaker: um and And it's ever evolving and to the point where it's becoming so realistic, it's hard to tell. Whether or not that's an accurate email or not. yeah so So that's where we're really at is is we've got to have better ah detection capabilities now.
Speaker: And we're always playing catch up. You're always playing catch up in security because they come out with a new hack this way. Now we have to protect against that. So so it's ever ongoing battle. so It's insane, man, how that all works.
Speaker: And I know that you you protect privacy a lot, so you can't say particular customers. But has there been ah an occasion where and a customer a customer of yours lost everything?
Speaker: Nope. We have, in the last five years, we have had one breach. And that breach was caused by the clients allowing their employees to use their home computers to log into their system.
Speaker: When that happened, that hacker got into that home computer, got into the to the system itself, encrypt ah attempted to encrypt the data. We had actually stopped it before it happened. So we blocked the actual encryption happening. We shut everything down.
Speaker: um We got the cyber insurance people involved. They were shocked that we stopped the attack because they'd never seen anybody stop it before and encrypted. But that is the only breach we've had. What about other people, maybe not in your customer base, lost? Oh, yeah. We've got we got people coming to us every day that...
Speaker: I need IT. t We got hacked. I'm encrypted. I'm whatever. um We had a gal come to us ah from a company. She said ah she sent a $30,000 check because the email that was sent to her was it looked like it was from the the company that she normally does business with. saying, hey, by the way, ah here's that bill, and can you instead of cutting us a check, could you send it through ACH? And she did send the money, and off it went. And and it totally, you know, somebody somebody scammed her. So it it's it's an everyday event. It really is.
Speaker: If you run a business, you know that growth comes with risk. And the bigger you get, the more there is to protect. That's why I trust Hub International. Hub is the insurance broker for my company, and they have helped me to look beyond simply just having insurance to making sure we're actually covered for the risks that we face.
Speaker: As a CEO, that really matters to me. Why? Because I want to spend my time growing the business, not wondering whether we're protected if something goes wrong. So they're not just a sponsor to the podcast.
Speaker: They're actually a company that I trust with my business. Hub International. What matters most to you, that's what Hub protects. If you're building something that matters to you, click the link in the description and see how Hub can help you protect it.
Speaker: So if you're, let's say you're in these companies helping them with their IT stuff, and that's an obvious play, but you also have an interesting purview into how their business is run, right right? You've got an interesting place, especially the way you you, the first question I asked you about yeah how do they run their business.
Speaker: Are there any lessons learned or any insights that you can share regarding how your customers run their business? Oh, we've ah seen a lot of mistakes, obviously. You see the those all the time.
Speaker: um Nothing that was brilliant enough to to overnight success kind of thing. um Most of our clients are 30 to 40 employees, pretty steady size companies. We go on up to about 250 so.
Speaker: but but ah there They're dealing with something new like AI coming in and how it's going to evolve their company um is really the the area that I like to be involved in. How how do we we sit down with them usually on a quarterly basis and say, okay, where are we at? What are we doing?
Speaker: what's what's your What's your next play? What's your next move? How do we assist in that move? you know um We're doing one right now. they're they're um They're actually looking at scaling their model of their business nationwide.
Speaker: so So we're going through, okay, let's build out the the AI infrastructure, the ah the Azure environment, the whole setup network-wise, everything else that we can transplant to the next location so that it's prepped and ready to go.
Speaker: so So that's kind of exciting because they'll probably drag us along to do some of those things. so yeah Let's rewind the clock, 35 years. Okay. You're working at Allied Signal. Allied Signal, yep. Doing it t work.
Speaker: Subcontracted to them, yeah. There's layoffs, you come in and you flip the switch on the subcontract side, right? How'd that all happen? So back in 92, in the aerospace industry, they started laying off all the subcontractors.
Speaker: We had just, ah the the the IT group there had just figured figured out how we're moving from the mainframe that they were using at the time to PC networking, okay?
Speaker: And i had spec'd out all the computer hardware that they were going to use. We were going to build our own. nice um When they started layoffs, I said, you know what? it's it's I also don't like necessarily the corporate environment.
Speaker: my my My problem with the corporate environment is when you want to make a change, it takes 10 different meetings from different, and and it drives me nuts. Yeah. so So I said, well, if i'm going to do something, now's the time. So I went down to the purchasing manager and i said, if you had somebody on the outside that could supply you everything we just spec'd. And they hired from the outside. And that was it? That was it. Started the company. We were building we were building at the time about 40 computers a month. Back then you were making about $1,000 a computer.
Speaker: so And this is, you know, local yeah or he Phoenix? No, local. Yep. Yeah, now Honeywell up there in Oro Valley. so yeah Wow, that's crazy. i Talk about the evolution of a... Yeah. it was It was a risk, and I'm glad I took it. I mean, i looking back, I don't know that I would take the risk later in life.
Speaker: Because when you start having kids and you start doing those things, it's 23? Yeah. three yeah yeah That's what I'd tell people that are sub 30 years old, like yeah go out make tons of mistakes, yeah take the risky side, lean into it because you know what?
Speaker: You have a, you have a kind of a hall pass right ye to be able to do that. Yep. And always learn. Always learn. You're going to learn from the mistakes, but always read the books, do the stuff. and I mean, I'm i'm constantly on on podcasts and and audiobooks because I'm an audiobook guy.
Speaker: um And I think I'm listening to three different books right now. you know So, so, but I'm, even I'm still learning and, and part of that learning is you're going to learn, okay learn the next steps, but then you also have to learn leadership. How do you lead? do You have to learn, uh, you know, how to, how to functionally run a business. I mean, there's, there's all kinds of things out there. And the more you absorb when you're younger, the, the red, the more ready you're going to be, you know, as things, as things progress and it'll go fast.
Speaker: It really does. Yeah. If you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would you be doing? You know, i I was an aerospace engineering major at the of A when I was there. um And that's how I got into Allied Security. They put me in as an internship at first.
Speaker: um Would I be doing something in that? Maybe? i don't know. i I fell in love with the computers when I when i was at Allied Signal. I just did. um so so But ah if if if we were to say, okay, what's what's your next phase? Okay. um Obviously, I think we're looking at, you know, do we build out an AI company?
Speaker: I'd love to do that. I think that'd be a great move. Do we do we um do something in business consulting where we're talking to other companies about, you know, That sort of thing. But I think that's that's probably the range of where I would go now. if i Back then, I don't know, though. i i was i was scattered then. and And computers actually really brought me into a focus.
Speaker: Another great segue. So you're like following my playbook here. yeah With respect to acquisitions happening in the industry, I know a lot of roll-ups, a lot of private equity knocking on doors.
Speaker: Has that ah ever been enticing Not yet. No, I'm not ready yet. I think we're looking at five to seven years yet. We're still growing. 30% last year. How many employees you have? 14. So we grew 30% last year. We're looking 25 to 30% this year. And
Speaker: um and i'm having fun you know i'm now I'm now no longer doing any technical work. I'm i'm you know doing some of the outside sales, and I'm doing i'm doing some of the ah client meetings still with our larger clients. And and and so I'm not involved in the the daily grind that the guys are. um But we have a fabulous team. I mean, just knock it out of the park team. And I have to give credit to a part of that to my wife, who's now our COO. She's actually...
Speaker: yeah my right hand. I mean, when we brought her in as COO, everything in my head got put into policies and procedures and how we operate and how we do things. And, and that, that was, that, that was another phase for me in growing where I was going. So. Do you get anybody from the outside saying, man, maybe you shouldn't work with with your wife or was that? a like Yeah, not i I've heard a lot of people talk about how can you? We literally um are in the same office.
Speaker: So she has her desk in there. I have my desk in there. And and we have been together for 25 years as of October and been the best of friends. And we just don't have much problem um Working together. i What I learned, and I learned very fast when we were dating, she said to me, we were we were arguing about something and and I got louder.
Speaker: and And she says, you can say it as loud as you want. I'm not going to change my mind. and i and i And I really put that as that was probably the last real argument we had.
Speaker: Now we discuss things. you know Yeah, we have differences, sure. But we discuss how we do things. And same thing in business. And and so it's um you know there's we we try to unplug on the weekends and when we go on vacations and and not talk business, um which is sometimes hard because you know we're we're in it every day. But yeah.
Speaker: It's crazy. Yep. Talk to us about your your community involvement. I know that you're the chairman of TMM. Tell us about that. So I started getting involved in nonprofits um a few years back. About 40% of our clients right now are nonprofit.
Speaker: and And I really see the the need and the... um what what they're trying to do with a lot of these nonprofits. TMM, Christy actually asked me to be on her board um about two years ago now, and and I'm chair now.
Speaker: um And we have, Christy has done an amazing job of turning that place around. We went from about three board members to now we're about 14. um We had an event about a year ago that that we said, let's just try and make $10,000 on it. We did that.
Speaker: We're now taking that event and we're pushing upward of $100,000 this year. This is the ah fashion show thing? Yes. Yeah. Runway to Resilience is what called. him um So, yeah, so that's going gangbusters. I really enjoy that. um It's also helping develop those leaders in those nonprofits to understand business. I mean, we we actually yeah brought in a coach for a little bit for Christy to help her get through some things. And yeah.
Speaker: um understand how you have to teach them how to be a CEO or CEO because because they're very used to doing the nonprofit work, um but they but they don't necessarily know how to run a business, which is what they're doing. So it's, yeah.
Speaker: And now I'm also chair over at Trott. We just picked that up. Yeah, you're a horse guy, right? Yeah, yeah. We have horses at home. Yep. I love of horses. we've been I've been into horses since I was in my mid-20s.
Speaker: yeah And the mission of Trott? Trot is therapeutic writing in Tucson. It is therapy writing for... They do therapy writing for um disabled kids, for veterans, for um just about anybody that's got any kind of physical handicaps and things like that. And and it's...
Speaker: And they really take into account, I mean, when you see them walking those kids on those horses, those kids are beaming. And they've got to walk around this side, walk around this side, of walk around front. and they're So they're taking very good care of of how they're doing it.
Speaker: But it's it's just amazing to watch the change in the kids or the change in the vets as they're doing these things. Because it's it's it's a connection with that animal. And the horses are just amazing. so Yeah, horses can definitely sense a lot of um yeah motions and whatnot. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Yep. Insane. ah Tell us about, um, legacy. So i think we're give or take the same age. What do you want to be remembered for if you, um, know, look in the future and, uh, what, what's your legacy?
Speaker: Giving is my legacy. ah Helping people is my legacy. In business as well as in in the nonprofit industry. um one One of the things that I always tell our guys when they start with us, I said, okay, what what do we do here?
Speaker: and First 90 days, I'll always ask them, what do we do here? And their response is, oh, we know do tech and we do this. I said, no, no, no, but what do we do? Yeah, well, we we you know they fumble a bit. said, what we do here is we help people.
Speaker: That's it. You're here to help people. We have to do that with IT, t but we help people. so So that's what I would like to be remembered for. Helping people, helping nonprofits.
Speaker: Yeah, that that see that speaks right to the the fairway, down the fairway of your you know true value of a company, right? That's your true value is your people. ye Reminds me of a story of this giant production in California. They brought in all these these ah buses full of people. They had planes. They went up and they were doing the filming these crazy acrobatics in in the sky.
Speaker: And um as they were sort of pulling up their parachutes, the one guy said, man, it's incredible that Red Bull has this massive budget to do these these commercials and whatnot. And the guy from Red Bull looks at him says, we're not, we don't sell energy drinks. We're a marketing company that happens to have an energy drink component. Exactly. exactly's And that's exactly what we are. we We are a company that happens to help people.
Speaker: We just use IT t to do it. Yep. Incredible. If you had the ability to ah share dinner, a bottle of wine with somebody, with anybody ever that has lived. My mom.
Speaker: Your mom? Yeah. she She passed away about three years ago. Yeah. She was the the matriarch of the family. um she was She was the oldest of six. And so when we moved down here from, from we moved Minnesota to Wisconsin and then down to Tucson.
Speaker: Moved down to Tucson. I had ah five aunts and uncles and their kids. And so we have huge family here in town. um and And my mom was the the leader of the crew. I mean, she was it was always, everybody would go to mom's house. and And yeah, miss her. Yeah, it's c incredible, isn't it? Yep, it is.
Speaker: we just got back from Argentina and we took my boys to see their grandmother and, and just, you know, i don't think they've seen each other in five, six years, you know, and when you're a little kid, that's a long stretch of time. So it just kind of brought me a lot of joy and, and you know, sadness as well in some ways, you know, cause she's so far away. I mean, yes and so, um, yeah, these, these people that touch us and and bring us joy, right.
Speaker: Sometimes, uh, you know, technology can help obviously with FaceTime and things of that nature, but, Nothing beats just being able to to spend face-to-face time with folks. Exactly.
Speaker: Any messages you want to share with with our audience regarding how to grow a business or any any sort of um you know pitfalls they should avoid? Surround yourself with good people. um When you're building a business, hire the people and And I've heard the saying, hire slow, fire' fire fast. I don't know about hiring slow, but fire fast. If they don't fit your your um way of doing business, your structure, your culture of your business, get them out.
Speaker: Because it will I did that in the past, and that's something I definitely learned from. Hired a couple guys that that did not fit, and they ruin the culture of your company. and and But you're afraid to let them go because can you replace them kind of thing? And you'll find somebody. Trust me. Let them go.
Speaker: Get them out. um and And don't be afraid to fail. I mean, really, it's it's it's about trying the different things so that you can grow. um You're going to fail and and learn from it.
Speaker: So um it's it's it's those little micro-advancements every single day that that make things go. so any Yeah. Anybody you you look up to in business or mentors, you said it earlier? Oh, sure. um ah you Tim Medcoff.
Speaker: ah He and I hang out quite a bit. He's a great guy. Mark Irvin. um yeah I tend to put myself in rooms with Humberto Lopez because he's he's ah an awesome guy. I love what he's done. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah gives you a different perspective, man. When you talk with these guys, this is a rare pleasure I get on this this side of the table, and I know you had podcasts as well, is, man, you get some deep insights and it gives you a little bit of a recharge. Right.
Speaker: So when I'm doing my thing and I think, you know, what would Umberto do or what would yeah what would Greg do? Exactly. There's just so many different angles to to business that it's it's kind of crazy. Right.
Speaker: It is. I've looked at people say, well, you know, going grow the business to a point where you want to sell it. But why, if I can not be involved in every day-to-day operation and I can be on the outside and I can do the things I love to do, why would I ever sell it?
Speaker: You know, so as so I'm looking at that quite a bit because a lot of people are saying, yeah yeah, you know, you're five, seven years, you want to sell the business. Well, what am I going to do? Because because really, i love doing this. And and why would you why would you ever want to change that? You know, ah why would you want to give that up? I mean,
Speaker: I think after two years of doing this podcast, we we're not even there yet. I want to put together a little compendium of sort of wisdom. Yeah. i would say that's one of the elements that is the same across different business leaders. Right.
Speaker: They build a business and they they build it to to build. They don't build it to sell. Right. Whereas the outside sort of romanticizes the idea of an entrepreneur. Oh, you build it because you're going to sell it. Right.
Speaker: Way different mentality. It is. Yep. And I've thought about, you know start you know, selling it and then starting up other companies and doing all that stuff. But from a ground up starting another company,
Speaker: is a lot of work, right? and and And when I've got one that's running functionally really, really well, you know, and and can grow. So... That's true. Yep. Well, Greg, this has been a great opportunity to to share some thoughts with you and learn from you.
Speaker: um i you know, we see each other all the time, so I'm really glad that we were able to make this happen. Yeah, I'm glad we made it happen. Yeah, it took a bit. With our schedules and going back and forth. So it's great. And um I would say that we're...
Speaker: Keep our eyes out for how you grow in your company, Acacia IT. Best of wishes for you to expand to Phoenix and beyond. Yeah, appreciate it. And we'll talk to you soon. Great. Thanks for having me. Cheers, man.
