Jimmy Huber: Welcome to another episode of the Info Tech Podcast where we explore the intersection between business and technology. I'm your host, Jimmy Huber. And today we have another MSP owner on. I always enjoy talking into the MSP space. It's kind of my wheelhouse and I tend to geek out a lot. So I'm looking forward to it today. Leo from Healthy Technology Solutions is in the house. Leo, thanks for being a part today. Leo Bletnitsky: Hey, thanks for having me. I love doing these. Jimmy Huber: Yeah, you bet. We were chatting a a few things earlier. Leo's like a scuba diver. He's been all over the world. he lives down in Florida and has had an MSP for quite a long time. Leo, give us a little bit about your background, you know, kinda how you founded HTS and kind of what brought you here. Leo Bletnitsky: Actually I'm in Las Vegas most of the time. We have a small presence in Florida so I kinda go back and forth. But I'm in Vegas, Jimmy Huber: gotcha. Leo Bletnitsky: I'm in Vegas most of the time. I think most people have heard of this little town here in Las Vegas. Jimmy Huber: Yeah. I I think I've heard of Lo is it Las Vegas? Is that what the the proper term? Yeah, yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: It's Las Vegas depending on it's Las Vegas Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: or Las Vegas depending on how you did in the casino. Jimmy Huber: There you go. That's a good one. Leo Bletnitsky: so I how did I get here? you know what? I I ended up running a value-added reseller in Oakland, California for 10 years, right out of right out of college after having an IT job and got tired of the taxes and the the the horrible government and business climate and traffic and everything else. And long term I was gonna long story short, I was gonna become an FBI agent. applied, got a letter saying I was I was hired, failed the medical. Jimmy Huber: wow. Leo Bletnitsky: I had some hearing loss from the from the military that I went with when I was younger and I didn't know about it until that test. And suddenly I'd already sold the business to a larger competitor. And suddenly I had a job for the first time in 10 years and couldn't really handle it. So went back to one of my clients that had moved their corporate office to Vegas. And I'm like, hey, what do I do? And he said, Well, come on out. You're back in business. And it doesn't violate your non-compete. So I ended up Jimmy Huber: Wow, that's crazy. Leo Bletnitsky: Vegas started over again. and the rest is kind of history. been you know, came here right at the wrong time when housing prices were high and the economy was about to crash. so that was not fun. but it all worked out in the end. Vegas is a fun town, and now you know Central Florida, where which is the other part of area where we have staff, it was a lot of fun as well. Great, you know, great folks and good business climate in both areas. So very happy to be here. But looking for other areas as well, looking for acquisition opportunities for smaller MSPs that want to join a larger team. so we can end up anywhere else in the country that's but it has to be business friendly. Jimmy Huber: Yeah, yeah, I love that. We were talking a little bit earlier about the MA space. And let's get into that just a little bit because private equity, I think, is a huge part of our industry, right? you get to that magic ebita number, you know, everyone wants to merge, wants to get big enough to get bought out. And it it's interesting that it's great for the owners, but maybe not necessarily the employees that are left behind, the customers, the experience, the cultures that are built. So What's your perspective on that as as you mentioned, like, yeah, we're looking to, you know, grow by acquisition maybe, and bring people into the fold. It's not easy, right? w what's your perspective and and what what's the best way you think to approach that? Leo Bletnitsky: So done two transactions in my life. I sold when I was was escaping California and that was a good actually good experience other than the fact that we didn't get as much as we Otherwise, I thought that we could have because it was a fire sale. I thought I was going to be going to Quantico for FBI training. I wasn't going to be in business anymore. So I had to make do the do the sale. And then the second time we merged with someone here in Vegas. So it was an utter failure. kind of almost a Ponzi scheme on their part. So I had to unwind from that. But I learned Jimmy Huber: Wow. Leo Bletnitsky: a whole hell of a lot and made me a lot better. so that was my experience. The What I'm seeing a lot is there's a lot of small mergers or you know, medium-sized companies, you know, small, medium-sized companies like mine finding somebody that is, you know, that has one or two employees, couple hundred thousand in revenue, but that's struggling. Those are great. Opportunities because you're bringing somebody that's struggling but has good skills, maybe some people skills, because they're able to get some clients. But there's a difference between running a business, which I'm sure you know, and doing tech. So I love doing tech, I love talking to people, I love doing sales. Doing those things at the same time is the worst job in the world. so Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: it's it's you know, being creative and being technical at the same time. being social and being technical at the same time. Those are not things that really go together. So you can do one and then switch gears, do the other, but you can't go back and forth because you sp you waste so much time in trying to reorient your brain that you don't get anything done. so yeah Jimmy Huber: Yeah. It's it's inefficient. Sure, lots of overhead. Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: for those little guys to join a bigger team where the infrastructure is there. And not a lot is going to change for them. They're going to get to do what they like to do, which is why they ended up in the MSP space in the first place. They like tech. But they may not want to deal with taxes and regulatory and you know and and HR and all that stuff. and tool choice choosing tools, which is everyone's got the best tool in the world until it's implementation time. And then it turns out half of what they told you they could do doesn't work. It's kind of Jimmy Huber: Yeah, we've all been there. Yeah. Tell me about it. Leo Bletnitsky: like hiring. You know, that person is an expert in Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: everything until you hired them and asked them to do complete a project. Then it was like, well, no one's ever. Yeah, absolutely. Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Yeah, it's real easy to pass an interview. Yeah. Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: So so for the smaller guys, I think it's great. For larger companies, two peers merging, that's harder because someone's got to be the boss. And and one of the things I was told when I was first starting out a long time ago was that you don't want to have partners that are 50-50. If it's 50-50, It is kind of like being in a marriage and no one is right and no one is the boss. And someone's gotta be the boss. even if it's not overt, but someone's legally gotta be the boss. and then when you're talking about private equity, that's when things can really fall down. But even two peers merging can cause all kinds of cultural problems and client issues and pricing and things falling through the cracks. I have not done that other than That one merger that was an utter disaster. So as Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: we're looking forward, I'm looking for the smaller guys that want to join a bigger team and have a little more flexibility, more freedom, the ability to take a vacation without, you know, without their cell phone attached to their ears, they're walking around, you know, a Disneyland with their family or or or like I used to do in between diving in Hawaii. I'd be walking somebody through this is back in the Novell days, walking somebody through, you know, restarting the backup service and wasn't quite working. And the, you know, the the the call out comes, okay, next dive's coming up. And like, hey, I'm I'm going diving. I'll call you back in 45 minutes. And then you know, you surface and instead of socializing and Jimmy Huber: man. Leo Bletnitsky: enjoying your vacation, you're you're doing server support. so that's Jimmy Huber: Yeah, I've been there. Leo Bletnitsky: not a that's not a fun vacation. Now myself and everyone on my team when they're on vacation, they're on vacation. so that makes life a lot better. so again, Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: it just depends on who you mer who you merge with. Jimmy Huber: Well, I gotta believe that culture's kind of where it starts, right? Like you gotta make sure you can work together and you got the same, you know, core values and and beliefs. But then yeah, it it's almost like hiring an employee, like you gotta be able to find the right seat on the bus, right? Like we're infotech went through EOS a few years ago for those that that know that term, right? And it's all about having the right type of person and the right role that's needed for the company. Or else, like you said, even if you can multitask and you know, wear the tech hat, wear the sales hat, marketing hat. You can't do that sustainably. and even if you can, you're you're working yourself almost into a prison because you can't get away. I mean, my wife's got pictures of me standing in the ocean, you know, on quote vacation with a phone up to my ear, dealing, like you said, with some problem. I've totally been there. and that was just, I think, my world for I don't know, ten years or so when we first got started. Like it that's just was just normal. and it's hard sometimes to paint a picture for for owners that are that entrenched that hey, there there is a light at the end of the tunnel. you just have to get up out of the trench. One one of my mentors said that you've been in the foxhole that which is great, you know, linking arms with your team, but you got nobody calling in the airstrikes. You're the general. You should Leo Bletnitsky: Yeah. Jimmy Huber: be up on the hill overseeing the battlefield, but you gotta pop your head up out the trench first. so I completely agree. Yeah. Go ahead. Leo Bletnitsky: Well, it's also it's also the opportunities lost because when you're when when you're in you know in an MSB space, you we're responsible for our clients being able to do their job, being able to do their business. You know, we work with a lot of healthcare organizations, construction, you know, law firms, you know, architecture firms. So but our healthcare clients, if their systems are down, they can't see patients. They literally it's other businesses can do some stuff. Jimmy Huber: Yeah. It's a big problem, sure. Leo Bletnitsky: But you know, so we have a responsibility to take care of these people. So when the option is a as the owner slash tech is I take care of this this this client and make them functional again, or I respond to the RFP in time, you you you have to take care of the client because you have a responsibility. You that's the other one's not a guarantee, and you Jimmy Huber: Right. Leo Bletnitsky: have no fiduciary responsibility or just ethical responsibility. to submit that on time versus you do have to respond to your client because one you've had a relationship there they're paying you to do something plus it's just the right thing to do and so it internally Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Yeah, it's a great point. Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: it feels terrible because you know you're losing opportunities. Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting that we all have to like look at the urgent and the important, right? And when those merge and we're only dealing with the urgent, you can never it's almost like you're on a hamster wheel because you sh you gotta look at the important stuff, I feel like it should take a priority, but that's really hard when you're just you're almost addicted to just getting things done and and feeling like you got a lot accomplished 'cause you've been busy for a whole day and yet you really didn't do anything to move the needle forward long term, right? So like do is that Ben your experience, I mean, it sounds like you've gone through a lot of the I mean, I I feel the same things I have. What do you tell people that maybe don't know what they don't know? how do you start to kind of get those mental gymnastics going to get yourself to that place eventually? Leo Bletnitsky: know, it's and I you know thinking back, if I had done things a little differently, I would be at five X where I am now. But hindsight's 2020 and now you know you have certain way of doing things, certain certain clients, certain staff, and now making a change is is harder. but the one thing I would say from early on is One, always pay yourself. Make sure you you make sure you're getting paid because I've for I missed a lot of paychecks. I've never missed a payroll. I've been doing this 30 years. I've never missed so my staff has never been paid late other than the one time that the payroll company screwed up. and you know and they Jimmy Huber: Nice. Leo Bletnitsky: they took care of it was one day late, which is still terrible. But I've never missed payroll, but I personally have not been on payroll many, many, many times. So the main thing is to structure it to where you can still pay yourself. But don't be afraid as you, you know, when you're when you're by yourself and you add one person, that's 50% more payroll. That's that's hard. From two to three is a lot easier. From five to six, that's a that's a such a small fractional increase. And at that, once you get to that four or five and staff range, then choosing to be overstaffed is actually not a bad way to go because what that allows you to do as the owner is to start stepping back and doing the owner job. And customer service it you know stays high while you're taking that step back. And right now, and I'm saying this is I've got about 200 resumes to go through because we're down one person, but in my mind we're down two because I actually had wanted already wanted to hire. I was already I'd already done the posting before the person quit. I wanted to hire another person. Well now I got I have to hire two. so that Jimmy Huber: man. That sucks. Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: It it is what it is. But then again, I'd I've been needing to go through those resumes for three days. And it's been really, really busy because of client onboardings, meetings with folks that have not been able to be put off, but that urgent stuff oftentimes steps on important stuff. And it's really Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Yeah it it Leo Bletnitsky: learning to you know t like it was it one of the sharks was I of Watch the videos talking about how you've, you know, if you actually just no matter what, do the things you that you said you need to do, and even and ignore even some of the really important things that pop up or really urgent things that you're in the long run, you're gonna be better off. And I'm not necessarily Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: there yet, but I'm working Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: on it, work in progress. Jimmy Huber: I think we all are. I mean, we're in the service industry, right? So it's really hard, at least for me, when I see a problem, I want to jump in and fix it. Like that's almost that dopamine rush, right? And like I wanna jump in and be the hero. And if it's a small thing and you're the owner, you gotta step back and say, Hey, I should really only be working on things that only I can do. And while I do that, I should be working myself out and documenting and making sure that somebody else can do that next time, right? And That's a that's an intentional thing that it took me a long time to realize that was a problem that I had and and like actually put the steps in to do that because it's more work short term. I gotta I don't want to train Bob. Bob is slower than me. I just want to get this done and over with. That's quicker. Well, yeah, for that time, but what about the next time? You know, so I I completely can relate to the the conundrum that most owners have that just think like they want to get stuff done quickly and yet don't realize what they're doing. And hurting themselves, you know, more long term. So let's switch gears a little bit. You know, HTS, you said you work in in the medical field. What is that looking like these days? Because like you're in one of those industries that, like you said, it's almost like manufacturing or finance, right? Like they can't have downtime. Like that that equates to not only money loss, but it could be literally life and death. If if there's some process Leo Bletnitsky: Correct. Jimmy Huber: or something in the background, you know, in a hospital it doesn't work, like that's a big problem. So What do you see these days in a you know, we were mentioned a little bit earlier talking that, you know, AI and and cyber is completely different and change a lot of things than even a few years ago. and there's seems like there's a breach in trust. People don't know where to go. There's so much white noise out there and and things that are fake, and you know, AI is just making that worse. So what are you guys seeing currently and and what are the the trends and how do you react, I guess, in the current climate that we're in? Leo Bletnitsky: Yeah, so you so so we're about like our business is about 60% healthcare. So and then 40% everything else, but a lot of that's construction, engineering, architecture, some CPA firms, some law firms, you know, even have a little bit of retail. And in the healthcare space, where the bigger gotcha is, is that we are on the hook potentially for HIPAA fines. So in addition to the regular risk. litigations and class action lawsuits that happen in I you know around IT and IT breaches. We also have the ability to get fined and you know and and both criminally and civilly then you know go have the Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights going after us. So we have to be really cognizant of that from a security standpoint. And we at this point, because we don't have to take every client, we make a conscious choice if they want to be our client, they have to be willing to have a a minimum baseline of security. And that's it's just mandatory. and with that being said, this year I I predict that you know this next, I would say 12, 18 months are gonna be the most breaches in history. because Jimmy Huber: Wow. Leo Bletnitsky: you have all of the other all the things that have always been happening. But on top of that, throw in all the AI tools now that make you Jimmy Huber: Sure. Leo Bletnitsky: know that make phishing emails instead of it being in broken English. It's now in perfect English. Instead of, you know, before, you know, people can only do what what their technical abilities allow them to do, from from from nefarious purpose purposes. Now you can have Claude write code for you. And, you know, and you, you know, have some Claude do some of it, Chat GPT do part of it, and then you just have to know enough to put it together. you know, and throw in the AI finding flaws. There's the amount of of social engineering now with you know with the with the various voice you know voice tools voice augmentation tools the fake videos you can now do fake video calls you know so there's there's companies out there I saw at a trade show recently their whole deal is that they add an agent to your all of your calls that determines if the person you're talking to is real or not so so teams and yeah Jimmy Huber: my word. We need that already? Leo Bletnitsky: teams and zoom calls Where I mean a lot of big companies are hiring North Korean spies as employees because they're pretending to be from the UK. And you know, and it and it's and they're in a big call center somewhere in North Korea. Jimmy Huber: wow. That's just wild. Yeah, I mean it it's almost like at what point does it turn a corner? Because, you know, you've got the statistic I read a couple months ago is like twenty-six percent, I think, of the all the stuff on the internet is now AI generated. I'm sure it's much higher already. And it's like if the models are being trained on themselves, it's almost like the snake eating its own tail, right? But I don't think we've seen that yet. It's only getting, you know, worse. And so now, yeah, to have to come up with solutions to deal with cutting through the noise of what used to just be like, yeah, if you hop on a Zoom call, it was a human. Like we really have to like make sure it's not fake for every interaction, phone calls, interviews, all this stuff. Like, how is that beneficial? Like, are we moving forward or are we moving backwards? Leo Bletnitsky: Well it's very beneficial for the for the dirt bags that are stealing. It's just not beneficial for the, you Jimmy Huber: Well, sure. Leo Bletnitsky: know, for the for the for the normal people. there was there was that breach, not breach, but the theft last year in Hong Kong, where there was a the CFO told the controller to wire money on a team, on a team or Zooms call Zoom call, and Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: and there was a whole the whole accounting team was on that call. It turned out that the controller was the only real person. Everybody else was fake. And he wired like $22 million. so you know that was Jimmy Huber: wow. my goodness. That's just wild. Leo Bletnitsky: C there's a CNN article on that. so that's happening. yeah, that that's just gonna keep getting getting worse. We can't Jimmy Huber: Well here Leo, I'll I'll put my hand in front of my face so you can it'll prove. I'll there, I'm human. That was that was a trick I saw that the Leo Bletnitsky: Yeah, I'm not quite sure that that's I'm not Jimmy Huber: some AIs they can't handle it if you put your if you put your hand up it fakes it out. Or something like that. But yeah, that's true. Yeah. It changes so fast. Leo Bletnitsky: Until the next iteration. And the the development cycle now is we have a company that we're working with that's doing some development work. that we're helping them like create a product that they're selling, but the but we're kind of a development partner. They are making changes so quickly. We make a request for some major feature addition, and it is in the product the next morning. And we're talking major Jimmy Huber: Nice. Leo Bletnitsky: like API call, API connections, pulling data from other vendors. I mean, just amazing stuff that that we've been asking companies like Caseo or ConnectWise to do. And 10 years later, there's no movement. These guys are doing it in one day. so Jimmy Huber: Wow. That's crazy. Leo Bletnitsky: But that means they can also people can also do the same thing for malicious software development and malicious tools and everything else. So we just have to be extremely conscious about how we're protecting both training our end users, training our internal staff, training our end users. If if one of our staff calls, don't give them your password because we will never ask for it. and Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Yeah, the social engineering piece is even more, I think, relevant than I mean it's always important, right? That's the weakest chain the weakest link in the chain for security is the humans. but yeah, I mean I don't think any of us go through, you know, the last year without hearing of somebody that we're connected to that got breached, hacked, identity theft, something's going on. And it it's only increasing more. So is that good for our industry? And yet like our d there's gonna be more demand, obviously. But if you don't have good trust relationships with your customers and your vendors and everything now, like you're you're kind of at a disadvantage, even more so, right? I mean, 'cause it's only going the other way. Leo Bletnitsky: Yeah, and we and we're relying on a lot of vendors too. You know, we have all these security tools that are looking at systems, you know, the checking for you know, for Microsoft 365, you know, token theft and account takeovers. I mean, we had one this morning. luckily we have a great tool that not locks it down in in like three or four minutes and gives us a Jimmy Huber: sure. Leo Bletnitsky: forensic analysis. So we're we're filled we're pretty confident with that stuff until the next thing comes out. And what Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: is that next thing? I don't know. and Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: that's the scary part. You is have to have to stay on top of what's available, what's out there. And Yeah, it's it's Jimmy Huber: Yeah. It seems like Leo Bletnitsky: good and bad. Jimmy Huber: Yeah, totally. And and it seems like our conversations are shifting more a or away from like the tool stack and the server updates and the refreshes and the hardware to more business related. Like, hey, what are your processes? How are you gonna get more efficient? Do you realize that these tools are actually exposing you over here that we need to button up? Like it's it's more strategic, which I think is good. and it's it's kind of taking our our support industry to the next level, right? Like We aren't seen as just the the commodity that resets passwords and does you know reactive support on help desk tickets. We're actually seen as strategic partners that were in, you know, boardrooms more and executive team meetings and like part of you know guiding our clients' business growth, right? So I think it's an exciting time if it's done correctly. If you're not prepared to get into that. I think somebody else is gonna come knocking on the door and your competitors are gonna say, Hey, we haven't had that, you know, why why don't we have these other services? Right. So do you see that in in your market? Like are you constantly having to evolve your offering or is it more, you know, hey, we have our relationships are in place, we just kind of move with the time. Leo Bletnitsky: So it's it's kind of both because it you know in some cases clients come to us and say, hey, we're looking for X. Do you know someone? And then it's such our choice. Do we go, no, no, no, we do that and figure it out real quick, or maybe we we already have that knowledge. and then right now with AI, everybody, every unemployed person, whether their last job was dishwasher at McDonald's or you know, or you know, or we're a software developer. They're all AI consultants because they know how to use ChatGPT. and and they and they've Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: installed the you know Claude Cowork. Well, that doesn't make them an expert in anything, but they're all Jimmy Huber: No kidding. Leo Bletnitsky: they're all consultants. Well, you know, so so who who is best suited to help our clients with their technical challenges and processes? Someone that's been working with them for years and or you know, or Joe Blow, former dishwasher that took a couple classes. Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: But a lot of times they people present themselves, hey, I am an AI consultant for the healthcare industry or for the construction industry. And what does that really mean? The clients, the customers are not necessarily sophisticated enough to understand the difference. And it's not because they're stupid, it's just that's not because that's not what they do. You know, it's it's kind of like I talk to my know physician clients. When I do medicine, my patients die. When you do IT, that might be the same deal. Not the patients, but your systems might die. So you stick in, you stay in your lane, I stay in mine, and we'll collaborate to get the best solution for you and you know, and the most efficient way to deliver that for us. That's really the ultimately, you know, the same thing with my you know, my legal clients. You know, when I when I play lawyer, my clients go to jail, even if it was even if it wasn't because of a criminal matter. I'll talk them into jail. so I'm gonna stay out of the legal stuff and let the lawyers do that. We'll just make their systems work. so. Jimmy Huber: Right. Yeah, we're we're supporting and and adding what jet fuel to the fire, right? Like it's a it's a nuanced thing to be able to allow a business owner, a professional, to lean in to what they're doing. While some of them might think they could do IT like we can, but it's like, hey, it's not even a good use of your time. Like you should be doing things like I alluded to before, only you can do, right? And I think that's a a huge benefit. To having those long-term relationships because they should learn to trust you and then they don't have to learn all the new things. Yeah, be aware that AI is out there and there's you know deep fakes and all this stuff, but how to deal with it and and what to do, that should be your trusted advisor, right? That should be your MSP. And so yeah, it's it's refreshing to hear you say that because I I don't think a lot of our industry is willing to go that far, right? They want to sit behind their keyboard, hide in the help desk, they don't want to talk to anybody, like let's just keep the systems running. And I think they're leaving a lot on the table. when they're not willing to get to know their clients at a really deep level and develop those deeply entrenched res responsibilities like you mentioned. I think that's a game changer. Leo Bletnitsky: Absolutely. No, you have to know your client's business because otherwise you don't I mean it's yeah, otherwise you can't add value. If we're just by you know as directed, how does someone, you know, how does the client, whatever their industry, how do they know how to direct us? It's Jimmy Huber: Mm-hmm. Leo Bletnitsky: kind of like, you know, when I go to the doctor, I don't tell the doctor what pr what medication I need. I don't tell the doctor what procedure I need and how to read my numbers. The doctor tells me the the readout of what is my health doing? You know, that hey, you know, your vitamin D levels aren't high enough, whatever the case might be, I'm not the one. you know, it's like we have a lot of pain doctor clients. And the joke is patients will come in and they tell them, I need an oxy30 and a, you know, and a and a GABA patent. And and the doctor will go, where'd you go to medical school? And the response Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: is, well, no, I'm a construction worker. Okay, so why are you telling me what medication I should prescribe to you? And vice versa. Yeah, Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Yeah, you gotta stay in your lane. Leo Bletnitsky: no, exactly. I'm not going to tell the doctor what you know what my condition is and how to handle it, or what scalpel to use if they have to do knee surgery. it's Jimmy Huber: Sure. Leo Bletnitsky: that's that's not my deal. They shouldn't tell us what tools we should be using, and you know, it's so same deal. So it's it's it's respectful collaboration and the and valuing the knowledge that someone has spent many, many years. Developing. Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Yeah, I love that. so what do you say to the younger generation? Because I think a lot of our audience is is probably a little bit earlier in their career. we have a lot of small mid-sized businesses that that will listen to these. you know, you've been around for a long time. So what spit some wisdom on us of what you've learned maybe in the last six or twelve months, you know, going into this ev ever increasing cycle of change, you know, in our industry, which is already, you know, built around change. What's the best advice you've got for somebody maybe getting into the managed service world or trying to, you know, grapple with with the current state of affairs? Leo Bletnitsky: I mean there's there's there's two things I would say. One is this is something I had my very first boss out of college, he would lose his mind if he asked, hey, why are you why are you doing X? And the response, if the response was ever, that's how we've always done it. He would his head would explode. So I Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: kind of learned that. Just because you've always done something a particular way doesn't mean it's the right way to do it. So that's that's one. It's always, you know, be be willing to change if you're provided with good good evidence. But I think the number one thing in technology, and this is something that I always say to my team constantly, is if a client calls and asks you to do something and you do it perfectly, you do it perfectly, but you don't know why they were asking you to do that, you have you're an utter failure. You're a complete failure. Because Jimmy Huber: That's a good one. Yeah. Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: if you don't know Why are you doing it? Is that the right thing to do? Is that the is that the right action to take? Is that good for them? Is that good for you? Is you know you you need to understand because there might be five different ways of doing it, better, cheaper, faster, whatever the case might be. If you ask those questions, that's where the better relationships come in. Because as long as you're dealing with the right people, someone asks you to do something and you and your response is. We could do that and it's gonna cost you X. And I'm okay with it because we're gonna make money. However, I don't think you need that because you have this other thing that does the same thing and you don't need to spend money twice. Now, clients gonna appreciate that. They Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: now they're realizing, okay, you just turned down a sale because it's because of what's best for me. The next time Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: you go come to them and say, hey, you really need this this thing, whatever this thing is, or this widget, this software, whatever, the conversation is different. You're not always trying to sell something, you're trying to take care of the of the customers' issues. So that to me Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: is the most important most important thing. Jimmy Huber: Yeah, no, I love that. internally we call it, you know, be the consultant and not the order taker. And ultimately I think our clients are paying us to tell them even if they're wrong, right? Like that's a nuance. but that's a a a a skill that I I believe is really valuable. Like you said, I mean if we were just doing everything that they want us to do, they could probably get that for a lot cheaper from other people that aren't as experienced as us, but that's not where the value is, right? we know our lane and we we knew need to ask those probing questions to to yeah, to get behind the the s not just the symptom, but figure out root causes and you know, prevent stuff in the future. So I I completely agree. yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: Yeah. I mean a big problem for a lot of IT guys to become try start companies like the one man shop that, you know, former, you know, you were help desk supervisor or you were you were just, you know, you were the mid mid-level IT guy, you know how to do the mechanical things. You know how to set up servers, you know how to, you know, install EDR soft or whatever the case might be, but you've always been directed to do it by someone else that understands the business reason for that. Now you are the consultant, but you've never been in those conversations. It's a lot harder to understand really know what you're doing and why you need to do something. and what is the business reason for that? It's not just, you know, the business is not there and they're not buying technology so that we have something to do as IT providers. They're doing it because they need the tool to solve a problem. And so you have to understand their business. Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Yeah, I love it. I feel like I could talk to you for hours. but to land this plane, Leo, how can people get a hold of you if maybe something that, you know, we talked about today resonated? sounds like you're in, you know, Vegas and in Florida, but you'd probably talk to anybody, right? what's Leo Bletnitsky: Absolutely. Jimmy Huber: the best way to yeah, to reach out to HTS and maybe start a conversation? Leo Bletnitsky: Sure. And I actually we have a small presence in San Antonio too, but it's really just one one help desk person happens to live there. Jimmy Huber: Nice. Sure. Leo Bletnitsky: so I'm totally open to expanding to Texas as well. so our website is healthy tech solutions.com. And my email is Leo B at HTSFast.com, which also points to the same place. Jimmy Huber: Perfect. Leo Bletnitsky: and we're at 702-553-3200 for on the phones and I'm always I'm on LinkedIn. I'm I'm everywhere. so always willing to connect with someone, especially if they're looking to maybe join a larger team. Jimmy Huber: Yeah, I love that. Well we'll definitely take all that and put it in the show notes too so people can link and easily find you. Cause yeah, I I think there's always more opportunities as the changes evolve, right? Staying current and up to date, but also yeah, being willing to look at your options. And if if that is, you know, understanding that hey, maybe I'm in a role that I don't love, it's not always in your best interest to keep going the same way for long term, right? So having those conversations I think with people is there's not a really a downside to learn more about yourself and ultimately, you know, grow in your career and be as as happy as you can, right? 'cause that shines through to your your customers and your clients. So, Leo Bletnitsky: Before if someone's curious of whether they should become a learn a scuba dive or not, I can give them I can give them I I can give them lots of reasons as to why the answer is yes. Jimmy Huber: There you go. There you go. Yes. I T by day, scuba knighting by night, or vice versa, with Leo. Yeah. Leo Bletnitsky: Yeah. Either either wine. I love night dives as well. Night dives are we see some of the coolest stuff that's asleep so you can get close and personal. so Jimmy Huber: that's that is awesome. Yeah, we'll definitely have to have you back, Leo. I feel like there's there's a lot more we could talk about. But I really appreciate your time today and and for sharing kind of your wisdom. And hopefully, you know, for our listeners, they'll reach out to you if something kinda piqued their interest. And yeah, I just wish you all the best. Really appreciate it. Leo Bletnitsky: Appreciate it. Thank you very much for having me. Jimmy Huber: You bet.