When it comes to offering MSPs advice on growth and operations, the best insights come from business leaders who have already forged the same path. That’s where Peter Briden comes in. After building and selling PC Networks, Peter joined the TruMethods peer group as a coach for Solutions Providers looking to improve their business.
During his conversation with BrightGauge co-Founder and CEO, Eric Dosal, Peter offers insights on market trends in security and cloud, the challenge of talent acquisition, moving up the stack in a commodity-level business, and how to move out of a reactive spiral by staying focused on what’s urgent.
Moving from MSP Owner to Coach & Mentor: Episode Highlights
- Peter’s introduction and background before TruMethods (0:53)
- The decision process behind selling PC Networks, Peter’s MSP (2:02)
- Moving from MSP Owner to Coach and Mentor (4:35)
- Helping MSPs move out of the reactive spiral by understanding what’s urgent and important (8:20)
- The perpetual education process (10:38)
- What’s more valuable in TruMethods: sharing among peers or knowledge gained from the coaches? (12:17)
- A typical day for Peter (14:04)
- Heating up or winding down: trends in the MSP industry with consolidation, commoditization, security, and cloud (15:05)
- Moving up the stack: how the role of vCIO is instrumental in commodity-level business (18:34)
- Are traditional MSPs capable of changing into a vCIO role? (19:55)
- The easiest way to get started in the vCIO space (24:14)
- Is every business owner a fit for coaching? (26:52)
- The biggest challenge Peter sees MSPs facing: talent acquisition (28:47)
- Managing cloud applications (33:50)
- Rapid-fire Q&A: best business books, best resource for self-improvement, parting advice for MSPs, and how to reach Peter (35:05)
Books as mentioned in the episode:
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy, by Thomas J. Stanley
Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck - Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, by Jim Collins
The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Team Win, by Gene Kim
Want to find out more about The BrightGauge Podcast? Check out all the episodes here.