HUGE RejectionCon Announcement!

Hey, hey, what's going on, my friends? Hope you guys are doing awesome. Guess what? We've been working super hard behind the scenes for RejectionCon, and I'm just totally super stoked to be talking about this. Degli, what's going on? It's good to see you in the house. Jim Thrall giving us the boom. I got a boom for you guys too, actually have it right there on the QR code, but hold on, we'll get to that in just a second. So, uh, let me turn the music and kind of hear myself talk and think. There we go, man. I hope you guys are doing great. Um, before we even jump into all the big news today around RejectionCon, the big thing I wanted to just say is thank you. I want to say— so here's the deal, guys, let me just be bluntly honest. When you throw something like this, a conference like this, and it's grassroots and it's done just by us, let me tell you, there's risk involved because this thing could crash and burn. It really could. And I could be the laughingstock— maybe already am the laughingstock of the MS community, MSP community, probably am— but I could be even more, right? Because I'm asking vendors to help sponsor this thing. They're putting their own money in to help with the fees and the costs running this thing. And then I'm asking you guys in the community, am I on to something? Because 100% of your conference pass— not 50%, not 20%, not 99%— 100% of it does not go to me. It goes to a 501 charity that is vetted, that is known. It is called the Rural Tech Fund. I'm going to talk about them in just a minute too. So coming back to this, Guys, I, I mean, there's no other way to say it. I'm taking a risk by doing this because we could end up with like 4 people. So when I started talking to everybody about RejectionCon, I'm like, is there really something here to all of this? Um, and all of you came back, literally all of you. Angel, good to see you on. I see you in that chat. Uh, it's good to run into you at Adam's party on Friday too. It's so good to see you. Literally, guys, this thing, like, it, it is only going to happen if you make it happen. And here's the thing, Why would you not want to go join RejectionCon? I mean, it literally checks every box. It's all virtual, so it's easy to go to. 100% of your funds are going to a charity that I personally know and I've vetted, run by Chris Sanders, a cybersecurity author and expert and speaker and trainer. Also, the content is awesome. I've already seen the conference submissions rolling in. Soon I'm going to leak those and get those out there so you guys can vote for them. Like, there's no downside to this, right? It's doing good for the community, having fun with you and your MSP, getting your folks at your MSP to go learn some awesome new things. There's no downside, but it will only happen if you make it happen, right? And so that's kind of— I'm banking on you, and I'm banking on the community. I tell people all the time, the channel, the MSP Community, is the coolest, most awesome place out there. I need you guys to back me up. I know that this is going to work, but I need 250 of you minimum to come in on this thing. And my personal goal is for us as a community to raise $25,000 for Rural Tech Fund. I really believe we can do it, but it's only going to happen if we come together as a community, right? So there's my challenge to you. There's my pitch. I am putting my name behind this. I'm putting my reputation behind this. I don't really have anything to gain, but I got a whole lot to lose on this thing, right? And so please let's make this thing happen. So if you're like new to this and you're like, what the heck is Wes talking about? I thought all Wes talked about is like Empath. Well, Empath is doing this thing, right? But there's really two companies that are throwing rejection cards, two groups. One is Empath, right, is who we are, helping MSPs grow in their, in their journey, um, all things technology, cybersecurity, finance, operations. We're really building that. But also MSP Geek, the fantastic folks, Kyle Spooner, Mindy, all the amazing folks at MSP Geek are also involved in this, and they're going to help us get this going in terms of making sure we hit the streets and MSPs are aware and MSPs sign up. Okay, so we're doing all of that, which is super cool. But let me show you, unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know all about RejectionCon. But let me, let me show it to you. Here's RejectionCon right here. Let's get this in a much better way to share this. Let's see, I'm going to turn chat off just for a second. All right, folks, That way we can kind of see everything. Let me get back to chat. Where is it? Chat, where did you go? There you are. Chat is gone. Okay, so here is RejectionCon. And I'm just, guys, I'm excited about it. So you can join the waitlist, but guess what? There's no more need for the waitlist. I can finally take this off because now I am proud to announce as of literally a minute ago, the RejectionCon pass is open. You can go sign in and you can get into RejectionCon. I'm gonna show you how that works here in just a second. I'm gonna show you the platform we're hosting this in and how the whole thing's going to work. But you now can get in and register, and I'm really, really pumped for that. All right, so this is RejectionCon, and if you want to know more about what it's got, I got a video here. I kind of talk about it. I stole this right from Apple, right? The misfits, the, the square pegs, round holes. But the whole idea of RejectionCon and what this thing is about, my friends, is, is really just this: it's about doing good for the community. We are going to raise $25,000 for MSPs, for their— I'm sorry, for underprivileged communities. So if you don't know about Rural Tech Fund, I'm going to show that to you in just a second. But what Rural Tech Fund is doing is just absolutely incredible. Also, we're going to go learn. We've got talks coming in. The requirement to get in on RejectionCon is this one thing right here. You must have a talk that's been rejected. I have personally submitted multiple talks to Black Hat and RSA. I've never gotten in. It always makes me sad, right? And so I don't care whether it's Black Hat. I don't care whether it's RejectionCon. I'm sorry, we can get to that in a minute. There's no such thing as getting rejected from RejectionCon. I don't care if it's an MSP conference. If you've had a talk that you know is going to be killer and it got rejected, this is the conference for you. This is our way of saying we're giving a voice to the voiceless. We're making sure that people who have a word to speak have a platform and a place to do it. And I'm telling you, like I said, I have seen the talks roll in and they are across the board and they're exciting. Some folks are talking about diversity. Some folks are talking about building their MSP to get them better. Some folks are talking about cutting-edge technology and things that they know about and they're working on. I'm telling you, it's going to be awesome, right? So we are MSP-focused at every session. So if you are a vendor in the MSP space, come join us. If you are an MSP, come join us. If you're outside of the MSP space but you just love technology, still come and join us. This is still for you. Now lastly, as you can see my cute little robot down here, there's no talk left behind. Nobody, hear me, nobody gets rejected from RejectionCon. Nobody. So if you're interested and you, you like, I want to speak, you will speak. Now I'm only going to be able to have, because this is a startup thing, Bob Miller, who's been helping me, um, COO at Global Data Systems in Louisiana, He and I have talked about this and basically what we've said is, look, here's the deal, the way this is going to work, we're only going to have about 25 spots. So because I don't have unlimited hours to do this thing. So if you don't get in on the first 25, you're going to get in later next year where I'll have livestreams that we're going to do. There will be RejectionCon Part 2s. Like, no one is rejected from RejectionCon. So if you put your talk in, as long as it's a good, legitimately honest talk, I will throw out any that are in bad taste. But as long as it's those things, guess what? You're in. You're, you're absolutely in. So I'm super excited about it. So you can see all the questions around here, everything about it. And I wanted to show you Rural Tech Fund as well, because it's pretty awesome. Uh, let me go bring that up. Um, to have that open. So what the Rural Tech Fund is, it's pretty exciting stuff. Let me go share this, this guy out because the Rural Tech Fund is really about doing something good for our world. We talk all the time about how, you know, we, we really want to see better STEM, better science, technology, engineering, and math, right? We want better— we want more students to be able to hire. We have huge jobs, cyber, and really everything in technology. We all complain about it, legitimately so, but you know what? We got to go fix it. Like, that's the deal. We got to go fix that problem. And so here's how we're going to fix that problem. Here's what we're doing to address it. We— when we go and we sign up for Rural Tech Fund and we donate to them, your funds are going legitimately to underprivileged communities. And here's the cool thing. Chris Sanders himself, the CEO of Rural Tech Fund that runs this 501, told me if we can get $25K, he will join us in a future livestream next year. And they're going to— listen to this. You don't hear this often. Listen, he's going to every penny we've spent. Tell me that's not awesome. You know, sometimes you give to a charity and you're like, ah, went off to the ether, right? I went to— I did a little roundup thing today at the restaurant. I had— would you like to round up to this charity? And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. I don't know where that dollar went. I have no idea. I just trust it went to a good place. How would you like to know all of what we donate and give? We know where it's going. We know what schools we're impacting. Tell me that's not exciting. Wouldn't it be the coolest thing ever to land in an awesome place and be able to change kids' lives. Because you know what we're doing? We're not just technology, computers, robotics, things like that. We're literally changing lives. See, I'm from Kentucky and I don't talk about this enough, but the thing about a lot of these rural areas and actually even in inner cities, you still have some of the same thing that rural tech still gives to you. You have kids that without that kind of exposure, they're just not going to have the ability. They're not going to have the time. They're not going to have the exposure to these things that can be life-changing events. Now, why? You're thinking, Wes, how and why would Rural Tech Fund be a life-changing event for a kid? Because sometimes these kids, all they know is factory life. All they know, they have no idea that they can, from their own home, go and work, you know, not in a coal mine, but doing cybersecurity, making great money, literally changing their trajectory of their family. All because they got exposed to technology and realized, I can do this. And I love technology. It doesn't have to just be IT, but I love all things computers. I love all things robotics. I love all things AI. I love all things whatever. Like, that's, that's what we're about. That's what a bunch of rejects with RejectionCon is all about. That's it right there. That's what I'm passionate about. You know, at the end of the day, when I'm old and I'm hobbling and I can't walk, I don't care about going and starting Perch. I don't care about starting Empath. I don't care. I care about how have I impacted the world around me. Have I left this world in a better place? There's some old proverb that I think it's a Japanese proverb made Chinese, where they say, "Blessed is the man who plants a tree whose shade he will not ever sit under." It's this powerful idea of investing for the future for us. So I challenge you to say, "I'm gonna put this money in. No, I'm gonna sign up to RejectionCon and I'm gonna get, because I know this money is going to impact." some student in some faraway place. Tell me that's not awesome. Tell me that's not what we stand for as MSPs. Tell me that's not something that just gets you juiced up like I'm clearly juiced up right now about. So that's why I'm so passionate about it. That's why I'm putting my name and image and reputation behind RejectionCon, 'cause I'm trusting in you guys that you're gonna go and say, "I believe in that mission too. I'm in on that. Let's go do that thing." Let's go, baby. Let's get this thing going. That's what I'm trusting. That's what I believe you and me and we can do together. So that's what the Rural Tech Fund is all about. You can see more. It's literally just ruraltechfund.org. Google for it. It'll come right up. They talk about their mission, talk about what they do, talk about how you can help, how you can give. That's what we're all about. Look at this. Our impact in numbers: 800+ schools, 150,000 students in all 50 states. That's awesome. We're going to make that even bigger. We're going to make that even better. When RejectionCon lands, I want Chris Anders to come back and you know what I want him to tell us? I want him to tell us, holy smokes, MSPs, the coolest people ever. They gave $25,000 to this thing. Like, who does that? What industry does that? So now that I've said that, now that I've challenged you, now that I've given you the encouragement of why this is so darn cool, I want to show you how you get in on this. We are doing RejectionCon on Crowdcast. That's where it's going to be hosted. I've been looking at a lot of platforms. It's the best because it allows us to do multiple sessions at the same time and it allows us to be able to have all these breakouts and then main stage sessions, main stage sessions. Remember, RejectionCon, like we showed on the website, is right here. It is December 12th, 13th, and 14th. So it's going to start right around 1 PM. It's going to go all the way to about 4. PM. So it's not going to wreck your day for those 3 days. It's just going to be an afternoon time. It's Eastern time zone, by the way. Everything's recorded. So if you're sitting here in Australia watching this and you watch it with us live, no problems. It's all recorded. You can still watch it later. So how do you get in on it? Here's the way we're doing this, baby. Go right here. The QR code is up there, but if you don't trust it because Matt Lee has taught you not to trust QR codes, which I totally respect and understand, right? You can just go right here to Crowdcast.io. /c/rejectioncon. I will have this later today. I'll have it on the website, so you can also click there and go there. But, but on Crowdcast— Crowdcast— so crowdcast.io/c/rejectioncon, you'll come right up, and then you can click view tickets. And here's how you get in. I have two models for you, all right? Two models. The first model is this: pay what you can. So my suggestion is $50. That's— that is a deal and a bargain. In fact, I think that's too low, if I can be honest. I want a lot of MSPs to come to me and say, Wes, looking at the content, looking at what we're talking about, looking at the mission, knowing that my money is all going to charity 100%, $50 is too low. Wes Spencer, you shot the bar too low. I donated $100. I donated $500. I don't know. I'm challenging you. Okay, so, but here's the thing. If you're watching this today and you don't have the money, you're in a tough spot right now. You got laid off. Your boss is just not going to pay to let you in for whatever crazy reason. By the way, send him my way. The Dictator's got words for him or her. It's free. That's it. It's pay what you can. So right here, you choose. I got $1, I got $50, got $500. You choose. You sign up, you pay in, you get your ticket in the door. I will not leave anyone out even though the money is going to charity. I understand that not everybody is going to be in a position they can pay. The other thing we have is an MSP pass. So you might be watching this and being like, look, I am the business owner. I want my entire MSP to go to this. Well, you can do that too, right? So just, just sign up. It's— I'm doing a $500 MSP pass. Again, I think that might be too low for some of you. Look, if you're sitting here and you're a $5 million, you're a $15 million MSP, $500— I'm just going to tell you, $500 is too low for you. You should be paying more, right? Because again, all goes to charity, not Wes. Not Empath, it all goes to charity. So do that, and then $500 will get you in the door, okay? And then what I've got for you is a promo code right here, FREEMSP. So you can use that promo code after. So, so what you do is you pay for the MSP pass, and then when everyone else goes to sign in, they can just either do $0 for the ticket or, or they can put in $50, it doesn't matter. But then when they, when they go to sign in, they can pop in there. Let me just put in $50. So you can see on top, they go to $50, they pop in their email, and then they'll use the promo code FREE MSP, and that will get them in the door completely free. It'll waive all of the passes. But again, $0 if you don't want to pay, right? So my point is— I'm being too wordy here— my point is this: anywhere from $0 to whatever you want to pay, I want to see it in there. All right, so there's the QR code. I want to see you in on this. I got to go jump to another live stream, so I can't continue to keep doing this, otherwise I'd have some questions. Here's my challenge for you on the comments in this video. I want you to do two things. When you sign up, I want you to let everyone know I signed up for RejectionCon, and I want you to share this LinkedIn post out to your community. I want you to tag some other MSPs and tag them to join RejectionCon too. Why? Because we're doing better for this world, my friends. All right. That's what I've got for you. You guys know how much I love you. I'm banking on you. I'm relying on you. Let's go blow this thing up. Let's go get 100 MSPs. Let's go get 250 MSPs in on this and let's go make the world a better place and let's have an insanely fun time learning. All right. By the way, I have a new name for all of us. We're called Rejecticons. How about that? I was like rejectioneers, rejectors, and like Rejecticons. That's who we are. So come join the mighty merry band of Rejecticons. All right. I'll see you there, my friends. I can't wait. Get signed up. Let me know you're in on it. Go tell everyone else. Tag them. All right. Thanks, friends.