Vlad Mazek – Vladville Blog | Vlad Mazek on IT, Business and Technology

My name is Vlad, I’m the CEO, and my job is to empty this bag of tshirts and stuff it with your money.

Posted: 3:22 am
December 18, 2009

Uncategorized
4 Comments

Hi again, from 30,000 ft again, flying back home. I love Los Angeles, I love the climate, the spots, the energy and the feeling of endless opportunity and people struggling to make it. But I married someone that I love far more than all that put together, so whenever I leave my little quiet village, it recharges my batteries and drives me even harder. Since Sunday AM, I’ve clocked 11 hrs of sleep and am currently on a redeye flight with wifi.. and I’m happy.

One of the most fulfilling moments of this week was meeting and hanging out the people that absolutely love this blog.

Listen, I know it’s been a tough year for many of you – and I’ve tried my best to put on an act that entertains you and cheers you up. It’s been a fantastic year for us, I know from conversations that some of that enthusiasm and energy has rubbed off on you and made you push harder and become more successful as a result of it.

Most of all, thank you for taking the blog for what it is – a venue for fun. For me, hopefully for you. I’ve met so many of you that read the blog and do business with Own Web Now and ExchangeDefender despite (or maybe in spite) of the stuff you see here.

I got to spend the last few days with some very close friends I have in this business and I can tell you that we extend this level of effort because we care and we want to push this industry forward. There is a reason I hit the road and you aren’t only seeing the sales drones and marketing popups.

The day you no longer see me blog, post jokes on Facebook, throw pot shots on Twitter, go out and hang out with people regardless of what their “lead quality” happens to be and the podcasts and webcasts die… is the day that Own Web Now Corp ceases to exist because you’ll know that I’ve moved on.

To those of you that see and feel that in everything I do, that work with us, that keep pushing me directly… thank you.

My mind is racing with 10,000 ideas and agenda points that I’ve accumulated over the last week, all of which I will sum up and tie together over the next 5 hours of flight, but for now I just wanted to thank you for your attention.

Santa Haas and 9 Cloud Deer bring you: 12 Values for MSPs

Posted: 4:45 pm
December 15, 2009

IT Business
Comments Off

Disclaimer: This is going to be filthy. You’ve been warned. 🙂 It’s our final webcast of the year and all four letter words must go!

Twas the night before fiscal closing,
and all through the MSP facility,
not an agreement had been signed,
not even remote monitoring.
Don’t worry, it’s not over,
There’s a light at the end,
With the help of your friends,
Alex from CharTec,
and Own web Now’s very own Vlad…

Register now for this live event December 16th at 12:00PST

I’ll be visiting my friends at CharTec tomorrow and we figure we’d record the lunch talk. Tune in, learn a little about what’s driving the profitability in the market. Nothing that you haven’t read on this blog before but if you can’t reed good, this one is for u.

Flying on the river of excuses

Posted: 9:22 pm
December 14, 2009

IT Business, Vladville
1 Comment

Earlier this morning I battled fog, two accident delays, leaving one of my bags at home and general sleepiness on my way to the airport. I made it on time, and proceeded to spend the next 50 minutes in line as I missed my flight. I got an hours worth of reflecting on how I could fail so bad – trip with potentially millions of dollars on the line, arranged and booked weeks in advance – all blown because I didn’t pack a carryon.

Suffice to say, I got my faith and my work ethic tested. On my drive back to work today I played all the easy ways I could potentially hold my meetings without leaving town. Fourteen hours of travel for what is likely less than 8 hours of meetings. Welcome to the top of the inverted time productivity pyramid.

The Easy Button

The easiest thing I could have done is gone home and figured out a way to do this over the Internet. But 13 hours later, I am typing this blog post about 30,000 ft over the Gulf of Mexico on my way to LAX. I have one thing I’d like to say: you have to keep on fighting.

Keep Fighting

Every day you wake up, you have a choice. Work hard or take it easy. This morning I didn’t have to wake up at 4. I didn’t have to fight the traffic. I didn’t have to stay in line. I didn’t have to stand in the second line. I certainly didn’t have to stay in the third line after they told me I missed my flight. I didn’t have to make the flight today, or at all. I could have gone home to scrub the brake dust off my new Michelin P0’s. But I went to work. I worked all day. And after this brief break, I will put in about 4 hours of work before I get to Los Angeles. I don’t have to do this, I have a pretty good life – but I have a pretty good life because I do this. It’s just who I am. I don’t know of anyone that is successful and doesn’t have the same work ethic. So if you disagree, you and The 4 Hour Workweek can kiss my big black ass.

…

I have spent the past three weeks talking to partners exclusively. I have been there to encourage, educate, motivate and direct people on how they can take what we’ve created and build it into a virtual cloud goldmine. One overwhelming impression that I’m left with is that most of the people will not make it: and I base that on the endless excuses I got for why things aren’t going the way they should. And in almost every case, they claimed it was not their fault! The amount of bull I have been subjected to would get a 15 year old smacked off the chair in a guidance counselors office for failing PE, I don’t even know the relative translation of that for the grown men and women that drive the small business engine of the world. Here are some of the choice ones:

“Nobody is buying anything until the first”

Are you friggin kidding me? Who are you selling technology solutions to? Welfare recipients? Are they paying for monitoring with food stamps? Everyone is buying, every day. Do you really want to waste my time trying to excuse yourself for leaving money on the table and not asking for the close today?

One day I hope to become successful enough to just turn people away because it’s not the right time of the month/day/year to have a sales call.

“We are taking December off”

Oh yeah, how was 2009? Well, good that you’re rewarding that type of a success with some hard earned time off so you can start fresh on January 1st.. when they are going to be solicited by everyone else on earth.

This type of behavior infuriates me, especially in the SMB sector. Listen: the only time of the year that you will get a sit or an ear of a decision maker in the midmarket is now. Now that they are likely at the home office. Now that they are at parties. Now that they are in a good and cheerful mood. Now is the time to call. The rest of the year you will have the pleasure of talking to their voicemail or their receptionist as you sink to the bottom of the “annoying salesperson” pile.

Think about it: Would you hire someone that took an entire month off?

“We are going to do that in 2010”

Let me say this very slowly and eloquently so that I don’t confuse you with big words: Nothing will change on January 1st. Nothing that is in your favor at least. If you are not able to get your message across tomorrow, you will not be able to get it across next month or next year. It’s really quite as simple as that. You (probably) aren’t an executive at a billion dollar company – don’t act like one. What are you doing this week? Getting a head start on filling out your 10K because you’re not going to move your business one inch forward until Dec 31st?

Every day is an opportunity to do something great.

It’s not easy.

I get a lot of flack about the Always be Pimping moto but right now I am 30,000 feet above ground arranging two webinars for Wednesday, one that got organized two hours ago while I was going through the airport security. Every day is an opportunity to get to the next level. And it’s something that’s been driving me for the past 12 years.

Do likewise.

Social Overload

Posted: 1:54 am
December 10, 2009

Vladville
3 Comments

Earlier this week (which has been a 60 hour workweek already somehow) I got called out for not being “out there enough” and “Vladville doesn’t have enough raunchy stuff anymore” and my favorite “now I don’t have anyone to keep me on my toes.”

Now allow me to quickly address these. First of all, I’m still an ass. Last night we launched ExchangeDefender 5. Today we celebrated:

Now the other p.. well that’s not that simple.

Here is the gods honest truth folks: The fundamentals of running and building a sustainable business have not changed in decades. Yes, the devil is in the details, but if you need a hug group and a guidance counselor to keep your s@#% together that should be a huge sign that you’re not cut out to run a business. There are really a very limited number of posts I can write on Vladville to communicate that. Hurts your feelings? Sorry. There are companies out there that would love to help bleed you dry to the point of inevitability, I don’t have the time for that.

I work with real entrepreneurs all day (and night) long. I apologize if my Vladville activity has taken a hit as a result of business success but these days (when I’m not humping alligators in parks) I spend a lot of time in webcasts, conference calls and responding to emails. You know all of those posts that say “We crushed another quarter, record revenue record profits, gimme my Ferrari” – that doesn’t just happen. We work damn hard at it.

So if Vladville isn’t really cutting it for you, here are some other places to find me:

www.facebook.com/ExchangeDefender

Twitter: @vladmazek

Facebook: vlad@vladville.com

There are so many things I want to say, but so little battery life. Tomorrow I’m doing a lunch & learn in West Palm Beach, then off to Cali next week for the final leg of the “Shockey Monkey” tour.

What do you want for Christmas? Seriously.

Open letter to <Backspace>

Posted: 12:17 am
December 4, 2009

OwnWebNow
Comments Off

I just deleted a rather long blog post.. here is the bottom line folks: we’re as open and happy to create integrations that will make you successful. We’ve spent a ton of money developing stuff on our own and will continue to do so – so when you see something available with one company but not another – take it up with the provider of that software, not me/OWN. Not getting anywhere? Switch! Seriously.

I don’t have the time for the drama anymore and I’m not getting in the middle or discussion either – I have my own product line to manage. My response from now on will be sending you a coupon to a competitive solution that has the features you’re looking for – but I will not break the law, contracts or agreements we have in place.

End.. of.. conversation.

Always.. be..

Posted: 12:28 am
December 2, 2009

Events
3 Comments

Rich people tend to make stupid decisions. Stupid decisions that, with eBay’s help, address a big problem in my life: driving the same sports car on consecutive days. This injustice, of my garage, driveway and back yard (redneck style) not being packed with cars from Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini can only be corrected by doing the best job I can as CEO of Own Web Now and promoting the awesome things we do with our partners.

So I’m hitting the road in December to talk about what’s made us so successful in 2009, hopefully get some more folks onboard, and what we intend to do in 2010. Having spent better part of 2009 on the road we’ve built what you’ve asked for – so in 2010 we’re taking that momentum even further. So..

Tomorrow (Wednesday, December 2nd)

My buddy Karl Palachuk is sunsetting the SMB Conference Call podcast. It’s a true pleasure to be among the last few folks to be a guest on his podcast and while my buddy Erick will be doing Bette Midler song on the table, I will be talking about ExchangeDefender 5. As usual, the swag will be plentiful, join us live. Click here to register, it starts at 9 AM Pacific, Noon Easter.

Note: I have lost my voice and while I can talk for about 10-20 seconds, about a minute in I sound like an 11 year old girl with a smoking problem. Just a heads up.

If you are near Grand Rapids, Michigan, I will be presenting ExchangeDefender 5 to the West Michigan Small Business Technology User Group. Specifically, I’ll be talking about the business of managed security with ExchangeDefender 5, showing off a few screenshots and basically trying to explain a few things about consistency in UI design and end user expectations. It won’t be the same thing that Karl and I will be talking about so you’re quite welcome to check it out via LiveMeeting starting at 6:30 PM EST.

Next Week (Tuesday, December 8th)

Two (or three), depending on when my Aussie friends decide is a good time for an Australia podcast, we’re covering the launch of ExchangeDefender. Stay tuned to www.ownwebnow.com/blog for details.

Week after Next (Going back to Cali…)

Pimp tour bus starts in San Diego and goes to San Francisco for Chinese. If you are anywhere along the way by all means stop by, say hi, pick up a tshirt and let me introduce you to some of my biggest friends in this business.

Monday, December 14th: www.mspu.us – I will be in Orange Grove (near Santa Ana) at MSPU HQ hanging out with the staff and talking about our strategic partnership for 2010. MSPU and OWN have a pretty tight relationship so we’re trying to figure out ways to keep on pushing one another forward. If you’ve never heard of or seen any of MSPU webinars, books, presentations… you must live under a rock. But if you’d like to come and help hang the lights off Castle Simpson, give me a ring.

Tuesday, December 15th: SMBTN Los Angeles – My buddy Dave Siebert has invited me to talk to the SMBTN Orange County from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM in Los Angeles. If you’re in Pasadena though.. I’ll see you on Thursday (see below). Since it will be a longer show I’m open to long form abuse, talking about anything you want to know about. Would love to see some of our LA partners come out for a dinner afterwards, on OWN’s bill.

Wednesday, December 16th: www.chartec.net – I will be in Bakersfield visiting my good friends at CharTec. Own Web Now recently developed CharTec’s new MSP service configurator and Alex (AARC & CharTec founder) and I are trying to figure out how to leverage this technology to help MSPs grow more aggressively by removing the burden of quoting and proposal writing from MSPs. If you’d like to know more about that, or CharTec or anything about HaaS, these guys are the ones.

Later that night, I will be visiting SMBTN Fresno, virtually, and Ma’am Susan Bradley will be opening the doors internationally for a brief demo of ExchangeDefender 5 and discussing the value of providing the managed security service that isn’t based on nickel and diming your customers to death (hint: money is not in the addons, it’s in the service and reporting you provide on top of it). I will be on at 7:30 PM!

Thursday, December 17th: www.autotask.net: Autotask is a cloud based PSA solution that helps MSPs automate their service, support and billing every single day of the week (including Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday!) – but more importantly, they are the ExchangeDefender/OWN preferred PSA platform and all of our business support and automation hooks work on their solution to help our partners spend less time managing support and billing of our services. If you’re not familiar, by all means check them out – $29/seat. But even more importantly, they hired a good friend of mine to help manage the MSP community interaction (so his job is making me and you happy) and his first shot comes on December 17th. I’ll be presenting our integration and business model at lunch but you should really check this show out. It’s on Thursday, between 10 AM and 3 PM. Click here to register. Live in Pasadena (University Club of Pasadena).

How do I keep track of Vlad….

Facebook: vlad@vladville.com or Twitter: @vladmazek

Corporate-side: www.ownwebnow.com/blog

Now, I also have an office but in 2009 I’ve spent more than a quarter of the year on the road. So it has become painfully obvious that in order to interact with people I really need to get a cell phone to share with everyone. I’m working on that, should have one very shortly – but in the meantime, get in my virtual world to track the physical Vlad around the world. I’m like Swag Santa this season. Hope you wished for some mindcrack and tshirts.

Thanks

Posted: 3:43 pm
November 26, 2009

Vladville
4 Comments

What a week. After a worldwide press and webcast tour over the last 3 days I posted the following update on my Facebook account (vlad@vladville.com btw):

Now even though it was just 10 AM at the time, it had already been a 40+ hour week for me. One of my buddies from Autotask asked the following question:

“No turkey? Football? Even monkeys have a day off once in a while!”

My response:

“I’ve worked my entire life to get the company to this point where it’s on fire and everyone want’s a piece. If I didn’t stop when I was broke and just trying to get it off the ground I certainly am not gonna take a breather now 🙂 Pedal to the metal man.”

…

Every day you wake up you have a choice. Get up or roll over twice and go back to sleep. The full comfort of bed, the warmness.. it’s certainly a challenge giving that up. Then you hit the shower.. could stand under that stream of warm water all day long. But it’s time to get on with the day, what’s for breakfast? Fluffy scrambled eggs or fried sunny side up? Crunchy toast, fresh veggies. Pancakes with syrup? Yum. Crunchy bacon… salty.. So tasty!!! Time to get dressed and go to @#%^ing work. Or call in sick. Lay around and get that midday nap.. catch up with the DVR or watch your favorite movie..

…

Every day you have a choice to work on being happy, or do what is immediately more comfortable (which typically amounts to nothing).

People talk about living each day as if it were your last.. So how do you imagine your last day on this earth being? Sleeping in an extra hour, slacking your way through the day and being remembered as what? What is important in life?

I am not here to judge anyone, so I will go ahead and explain myself.

The Vlad

I am, what most people would consider a workaholic. Almost everyone would also agree that this is a bad thing. Except I don’t consider what I do for a living as work. This is just who I am. My company and what I’ve created to this point is something I’ve imagined a long time ago and put in ridiculous hours to get to the point where it’s at. And it’s far, far, far from perfect. I wake up every (well, almost every day since I do a lot of all nighters) day trying to make what we do a little more perfect, get myself a little better at what I do.

Not every day is heaven and not every all nighter is fun filled excitement of trying to find the missing semicolon or mismatched bracket – but it all in a way goes towards what I do – and that’s making it easier for millions of people to communicate and share information. Small, insignificant.. but I think I do a better job at providing that than anyone else out there and every day is an adventure of addressing what I (or we) suck at and making it better.

My wife often jokes with me about Mr Burns’s line from The Simpsons: “I just wish I spent more time at the office.” and to a lot of people that is just a crying shame – yet I spend more time with my kid and my wife than most other people I know. But that’s why I go to bed at 2-3 AM and wake up at 6-8 AM. I know what’s important to me and what’s important to so many people that count on me.

What motivates me? What drives me? I grew up in a car family, in Italy. My dad worked in the tire business and seeing a Ferrari at UPIM or in front of COIN was like walking up to a masterpiece. I currently live in Windermere, FL and the road I take to work every day has a nice 2 mile onramp. On which, every day, rain or shine, I floor all four hundred something horses underneath me, burn a little bit of Michelin thread and get that roller coaster feeling for just a few seconds. And despite being picked on by my friends, I consider it a privilege to wear a suit every day, to tie a tie and realize that all the hard work has gotten me and my family the best things in life. From a Rolex to a house that we don’t even use half of, to a lifestyle in which my only goal each day is to just get better at what I do. Every day.

Not for everyone..

Every employee that makes it through the 90 day probation period and shows they can handle everything I throw at them flawlessly gets the Morpheus moment, to pick the blue pill or the red pill:

Making it big doesn’t happen in 40 hours. It takes a lot of extra effort, coordination, management and perpetual pursuit of perfection – doing more and doing it better each and every day. You can take your average raises that correspond with how much you exceed the expectations of your role and go on your marry way before 9AM and after 5PM. But if you want the big bucks.. much like this business, you have to earn them.

Very, very, very, very few people ever take the big money road. That’s not a bad thing, they just have other things in life that are more important that their perfection at their craft. Some people want a big family. Some people want to contribute their time to charitable causes. Different people find joy in different things. The important thing to note is that you cannot have it all.

So today, on this Thanksgiving, I hope you’re happy and thankful for what you’ve got and you dedicate your each and every day to the mark you leave on this world.

Channel needs a huge kick in the ass (weekend reading)

Posted: 5:47 pm
November 20, 2009

IT Business
3 Comments

Channel, which is the name stupid marketing people at big hardware firms call the collection of VARs, MSPs, resellers and computer builders, is dying.

(you might not like what I have to say)

Let’s not argue about that, we have the numbers to back it and the number is growing rapidly.

And it’s not just the assortment of Action Pack pirates, SPFs, fly-by-nights and other types I’ve shamed over the years on Vladville. Legit IT Solution Providers have taken a big hit in 2009 and it keeps on getting worse.

My check for a motivational speaches bounced. So I’m going to be honest with you.

Today was the first positive conversation with an MSP that I’ve had in at least two quarters.

Not positive in a sense that they are making a killing in the marketplace, but positive in a sense that they see some hope and ability to grow their margins through innovation and doing something new that their marketplace responds to.

You know what it doesn’t respond to? Everything that worked up until now: Large projects, large migrations, large network designs, huge purchase orders and massive upgrades. That stuff is in the past, along with a $12,000 server and $2,000 tape drive. Right under that $4,000 laptop.

In 2009 I’ve been sitting patiently, biting my lip as people pitch one doomed scenario of the recovery after another. See if you’ve said some of these:

SBS 2008 promises to be huge for our business..
Lot’s of interest in EBS..
I think Windows 7 will launch an upgrade cycle..
The economy is coming back, baby!!!

And the beat(down) goes on.

Why?

Because the taste and market demand have fundamentally changed.

You know how all those corporate IT jobs that people made 6 figures for watching a monitor and eating Cheetos never came back? You know how all those outsourced IT jobs are still in India and China? You know how people still seem to be buying those junk Netbooks left and right that the industry as a whole is losing a ton of money on?

Things change.

Profit margins change.

Demand changes.

We’re in the middle of it. And it’s a crying shame that with all the traveling, speaking and talking I’ve made it well into November for a single new idea to come to the market.

If you are waiting for the margins you used to get in 2005/2006 to come back, go look for a job now.

If you are waiting for an OS or device to bring back the margins you used to get in 2005/2006 to come back, go look for a job now.

If you’re thinking that expertise in the past is going to translate into success in the future, for the love of god, launch a training company and suck any money you can from the people dumb enough to think that doing shit the same way you did 5 years ago is going to make them profitable again tomorrow.

Now I have been working with a few friends in HTG and execs Autotask / ConnectWise / LPI / Kaseya on something new and while people are excited, there is a lot of hesitation to come to terms that things have changed. You’re as likely to uncover a business that is going to pay $50-$100 / workstation management as you are going to sell a $4,000 laptop.

Not saying that there isn’t a sea of people willing to pay $4,000 for a laptop, but that sea is drying up.

This isn’t a college thesis or a thought-provoking blog post… it’s just the way things are.

In order for “the channel” to survive, it has to change. It’s gotten you this far, right? But what now.

P.S. I wonder how big the market is for a “2012” or “The Day After Tomorrow” style book for the MSP industry…

My time with the Droid

Posted: 8:10 pm
November 19, 2009

Mobility
4 Comments

There has been a lot of hype around the Droid phone from Verizon and with a few of my friends getting one and not sharing any impressions I had to go and check it out. I spent about half an hour playing with it: It’s cool, but not impressive. Sticking with the iPhone 3GS.

Here is my initial impression: the keyboard is too small to be far more useful than an on screen one. The web browser is impressive, but zooming in to read the content is painfully slow. One thing that did surprise me was the collection of apps, it doesn’t look like anything I have on the iPhone would be difficult to replace with the Droid and Android 2.0 marketplace. The other impressive thing – camera. Absolutely amazing. Ton of features but still sloooooooow.

Biggest disappointment: GPS. The GPS detected me about 6 blocks (over a mile) away from where I actually was. The device was not as snappy as expected. The picture album left quite a bit to be desired, even though the device is far more feature packed than the iPhone in nearly every area.

In my opinion, Droid might be the best smartphone that isn’t an iPhone. But as much as it pains me to admit this, and give Apple more kudos or money, the iPhone simplicity and smoothness wins. While I wish I had better 3G, the Droid requires extra $ to enable Exchange 2007 access and there is no tethering. So yeah, better 3G but still the same dirty telco tricks that will make this yet another device that’s a slave to it’s carrier.

Wanna know something about ExchangeDefender 5 and money from the clouds?

Posted: 11:10 am
November 19, 2009

ExchangeDefender
1 Comment

If so, today is your lucky day. Erick Simpson from MSPU is hosting a webinar today and we’re going to be talking about how to position the cloud as a managed service. First half of the conversation is about various cloud options, what they mean, who is making money off them and how.

Then we talk about the actual MSP side of the cloud, or stuff that has traditionally been called “hosting” and how OWN has made a ton of money for it’s partners over the past two years with pretty much the same tools one would expect.

Click here to register; Seating is limited

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/252488307

It starts at noon EST, or roughly 2 PM. Yes, we’ll be talking about ExchangeDefender 5 since that’s pretty much what everyone wants to talk about and everyone within OWN is muzzled about it. Trying a bit of the Steve Jobs process because I don’t want the usual backchannel bs to get in the way of what this really is – a total game changer for anyone using anything but ExchangeDefender (assuming your run a business to make money of course)

Vlad Mazek – Vladville Blog