New Rule: Don’t talk to ANYONE after doing the SPAM Show. Friday afternoons, which during the fixing-OWN-crap timeline used to go to catching up on stuff and kicking ass, have recently turned to the SPAM Show afternoons which are bar conversations I used to have with some top notch people in the business that drove us in the direction that we are in and the company we have become. Having spent the past two years fixing the growth pains in support, in my products, in the staffing, in the billing, in virtually every area that you can mess up when you grow as fast as we have, Friday’s have a special place.

Today the original drinking crew (sans Dave) was together: myself, Erick and Karl. This is sort of like He Man standing in front of the Skull Mountain. It gives me such tremendous energy knowing that I am in line with the thinking and strategy the other two have. I mean, if I were to bet, these would not be the guys I’d go against. So naturally, recording this podcast was a full on bitch-fest: I opened up my inbox and just went down the line of the concerns partners have voiced to me over the past few months. You know the deal: slow economy, no demand for SBS 2008, where are MSP revenues going to go, downsizing, rightsizing, emergence of cheap labor, cheaper competitors, companies not wanting to sign contracts. We went through it all in over an hour long show, with all 3 of us sharing about equal time, just laying the cards on the table. To be in these uncertain times, and to be so much on the ball with the other leaders in this space…. wow. Just wow. It’s been a great week man.

ExchangeDefender Staff Meeting, Vlad in Pimp Hat.

Autotask

First thing is first: When you are in a really good mood and in a competitive market, don’t talk to other people. I was emailing back and forth with Bob from Autotask and telling him about our big presentation on Monday:

“The idea behind this, aside from being able to be a complete ass and laugh at other vendors that can’t even sync their data to AT while we’re making the damn thing _____ and ________”

His response: “_____? Does this say what I think it says?  How much will it cost for the SP?  How much lead time do we have over our competitors?”

It’s free Bob Now, truth is this is the part of Shockey Monkey 3.0 which is coming in May, but we’re bringing it to Autotask first. Why? Well, the announcements that we are making on Monday are going to basically knock my competition on it’s ass when it comes to MSP integration and the value of our services. If you’re in antispam space, if you’re in the web filtering space, if you’re in offsite backup space, if you’re in Exchange+SharePoint hosting space, if you’re in NOC services, if you’re in anything I’m in you’re going to just take a seat. I’m thinking of something more colorful but it sounds better live

Now, after I had a brief talk with Bob where he gave me more ideas on the new product, I did a job interview.

Job Interview

Again, another mistake. Don’t do job interviews when you’re in a good mood. Do them when you are angry at the world and you just want someone that is going to come in with some pixie dust and make it all rainbows and clouds.

When you’re in a good mood you might just be too honest, too honest for the sake of everyone involved:

“Listen… this is a marketing job but I’ll be honest with you, it’s a hustler gig. You’ll be talking to people in the morning, running to the embroidery shop after lunch and closing out the day with a webcast run.”

That’s generally where I say: “Do you find anything uncomfortable about this” and thankfully I stopped myself well before I got to the lawsuit category. The response really blew me away: “Sounds like my kind of thing.”

It’s pimpin’ pimpin’

The Show

The SPAM Show #5 is up. It features Bob Godgart from Autotask (the guy above), Mark Crall, Erick Simpson, Dave Sobel, Karl Palachuk and special star, straight from Tuscaloosa, Chris Rue. Chris had a really moving, wonderful story about Twitter and Frank McAllister. Frank was the oldest SBS MVP around and he passed away about a month ago. Chris shared a very moving story about the summit, about Twitter, about how the whole community comes together. I’ve sent him the mp3, if he chooses to post it I encourage you to check it out at www.chrisrue.com.

Now the show has its fair amount of shenanigans, but we edit it into a very professional show because it is the image of Own Web Now and ExchangeDefender and all the associated parties and it just has a lot of standards. The door is open, if you’re doing something really well we want to talk to you.

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