Stop running your MSP in your Head | Case Study with Todd Thorson

My name is Todd Thorson. I am the CEO and president of Tang Cybersecurity and Technologies, just a little southwest of Chicago in beautiful Illinois. So truthfully for me, I really determined after about five years in business that I was truly just exchanging time for money. And I realized that, you know, I'm just working 24 7, right? Not 100%, but you're kind of at half throttle all the time. There's no vacation, there's no day off. And if I'm sick or can't show up to work, then I'm not getting paid or the business isn't making money, or I'm potentially losing the clients that I have. So I kind of had an epiphany where I decided I really have to make a change. And that was when I really decided to get a little more active and where I was going to go with the business so that I wasn't just exchanging time for money anymore as a solo shop. Truthfully, I joined at the first event that I did go to for the program, and I have never done any other coaching or mentoring or any programs like this ever. I usually just sort of forge my own way. Typically, that's what I've always done. I've been in technology for 30 years, and usually I just kind of figure it out on my own. And I did an. I attended an event in Nashville where truthfully, it was the other members that really sold me on that. And there wasn't any. There really wasn't any pushy sales thing. Like I had to find somebody to ask to join. Nobody was even pushing that. And that was really, I think, what sold me on joining the program. So I did join while I was in Nashville. So truthfully, for me, it's always been difficult for me to really charge my clients for something that comes easy to me. So that's the way I've sort of been my whole life, really, is that if it really comes easy to me, it was always hard for me to justify that. And what I realized is that the services I provide, and especially now with cybersecurity, the protection that I help my clients achieve, is really worth the money that they need to spend and invest, not only in my company, but in their own company. It's 100% everything that's in my head. And absolutely, without a doubt, I have been talked off the ledge many times where I've tried to negotiate with myself to lower the price when I'm going to go pitch to a client. And really through the reinforcement of all my peers and Coaches that, you know, I just stick to the plan, everything works out and it has, it does, it works. And I am the most skeptical on the planet. Without a doubt. It was absolutely the peer groups that was really what did it for me because the people I met at my first event, who I'm still friends with today and still work with almost on a daily, if not weekly basis, is really where the magic is at. And for me, realizing that other MSPs, some of which are even in my own town, are not my competition. Our competition are the criminals. And we're working together so we collaborate so much on different things and share promotional materials and strategies and other sorts of items like that to really help both of ourselves. And you know, Rising Tide raises all ships. So I joined in May last year. So it hasn't been quite a year, it's been about nine months. The first four or five months I truly spent focusing on the business itself, getting my contracts in order, getting my processes in order because up until then everything was in my head and I was a really good computer guy. And it's the same stuff I've been doing for 30 years. And truthfully it doesn't work anymore. It will not keep my clients safe. And I had to, you know, make sure that I had a technician on staff that I could trust, that I could trust with the day to day so I could focus on working on the business instead of in the business. And so once I got finished with that and started to focus on sales and marketing and targeting existing clients, that was when everything took off. So I was at about 11,000 RM MRR when I joined the program and technically I'm at 22. However, that gave me the freedom to actually part ways with the client. That was not the right fit for either us or them. They did not really believe in the cybersecurity stuff, but it gave me the freedom to go ahead and tell them that it's not the right fit, let me help transition them to someone that's going to meet their needs and budget. And, and so I was able to do that and I would not have been able to do that before because that money would have been so critical. I mean, so that was, that's really where the magic is at with that, is it really gave me the freedom to make choices about my business and be pickier about the clients I choose. Which is nice, that freedom to choose my clients. It's actually part of my sales discussion with my clients is when I'm doing discovery calls or I'm doing Presentations. I am very clear and transparent that I am interviewing and choosing them as much as they are choosing me to work with because we have to be partners in this fight. And so that sort of freedom to understand that I make that choice and I decide. And it isn't just, I got to get this deal because I got to pay the rent this month or I have to pay my employees. That freedom is worth more than any of the dollars could add up to, for sure. Pretty much 99.99% of it was all in my head. And to be able to work through that and have people coaching and mentoring me along the way and encouraging me has really accelerated everything far beyond what I ever thought it would. I'm not sure I would have ever gotten to where I am even today on my own. So that's. That, to me, was very unexpected that most of it was in my head, because the proof is in the pudding when a client goes from 2,600amonth to 8,600amonth, you know, and. And it's still my company doing the services. You know, granted, we've got a whole cyber security stack and a lot of other products that they're getting as part of that service. It's not just about the money. There's the value there, and they see the value, and they've bought into that with us for that program. So that's huge. The me of last year would say I should move faster. I'm typically conservative in a lot of choices and again, biggest skeptic on the planet. So I definitely move slow and conservative, slower and conservatively more than I should have. So the me of today says, trust the process, move faster, get going, and just make it happen. And everything else will fall into place. If you are like I was and you're just not sure you absolutely need to do it. And coming to one of these events is definitely the way to figure that out, because no one is. There's no pressure, for sure. And it's just enjoy it, learn about the process, meet a bunch of peers, and those people will continue to be your friends, really, whether you join the program or not. But if you do, they will become your friends, peers, and really coworkers. And it makes you feel like you're part of a team. So just do it, move it, move faster, get it done.