Proactive IT Solutions and Life’s Challenges With Eric Wiechert

[00:00:00] John Morris: There’s a strong chance you’re not that far off from winning in business and at the game of life. It just takes one idea, but you gotta have unwavering belief and burning desire. If you can couple that with a lockdown strategy that’s fueled by heart, hustle, and muscle, you got a shot at winning. There’s one thing that all champions have in common.

[00:00:22] They get shit done. So welcome to the Get Shit Done Experience.

[00:00:29] Well, well, well, we are back at it again. You are in studio here. This is the get shit done experience. We also call it the GSDX podcast. And by the way, if you want to check us out at www. gsdxpodcast. com, we certainly love that across all platforms. We’re talking about Apple, Spotify. We’re even on Amazon. So if you want to go on there and download.

[00:00:50] That would be amazing. How about a rate and review? We’d love that from you. And then, of course, we’re on YouTube. We’ve got our own YouTube channel. Hop over to YouTube and subscribe. It would definitely help us out as we continue to progress in the podcast. I’m here today with one of our absolute bombshell staff members.

[00:01:08] He’s director of help. Desk, right? So we’re here with Eric Weikert. Eric, welcome to 

[00:01:13] Eric Wiechert: the show. Thanks for having me. I know it’s a long time coming and, uh, you know, I’m just thrilled to be here talking about it and other things. And so far all the episodes have been great. So 

[00:01:20] John Morris: awesome. Appreciate it. Well, that means a lot because you happen to be a podcaster yourself.

[00:01:25] You’re doing it more as a side gig, having a little fun with it around the house and, and, uh, but got your own show going. 

[00:01:31] Eric Wiechert: Yeah. So back in 2020, you know, back when COVID hit, uh, me and a couple of buddies, we just were sitting around thinking what else is there to do. We’re all kind of stuck inside. So we.

[00:01:39] Uh, we started kind of a geeky, nostalgic, nerdy podcast talking about Marvel and movies and things like that. So we did that. We had like 150 episodes. 

[00:01:48] John Morris: It’s awesome, man. And then, I mean, that gets you in top one percentile right there just by getting past a hundred episodes. 

[00:01:54] Eric Wiechert: Yeah, it was, you know, we were, we were, uh, releasing a Tuesday episode, a Friday episode.

[00:01:58] It was a lot of work, but it was fun. It was just. Something for us to do. And then we kind of took a pause and then me and my cousin and my other buddy started another one. Um, and we did like a hundred episodes there. So it’s just fun. I feel like I’m in my element, but I wasn’t on camera. So yeah. All podcasts 

[00:02:12] John Morris: geeky though, if you’re being, I mean, let’s be honest, but, um, you know, I’m happy to be part of the network of geeky podcasters.

[00:02:19] Um, that are a little bit, uh, loony and are willing to get on and just talk, man. Just go. Yeah. It’s just fun. I feel like I’m in my element, so I’m excited to just talk shopping. So for folks that are tuning in, um, you’ve had, uh, uh, an extensive career within the it space. Get us started a little bit. Like, how did you get into it?

[00:02:39] Yeah. Were you the type of kid that was just messing around with, with video games, messing around with, uh, soundboards? Were you a dj? Like how did you kind of get into like the technology piece and then, and then when did computers kind of hit you and you’re like, yeah, this is the lane. 

[00:02:53] Eric Wiechert: Yeah, so I, I mean, I grew up on, on video games, on computers, and some of you out there are gonna be like, well, back in my day, man, you’re young.

[00:03:01] Oh man, I was playing Mike Tyson. Punch out, baby. There you go. I mean, my first. Family computer was a windows 95. So right there, it tells you where I was at. I grew up in the nineties and I just remember enjoying playing all the games on there, like, uh, uh, ski free solitaire. Like I was so amazed with the paint program.

[00:03:17] Um, and then we finally got a Nintendo at some point. And, uh, you know, I think it was just a mix of the puzzles and playing video games, solving problems, and then just sitting at a desk behind the computer, just having fun. It was like always a good experience for me. And so when I was growing up, it came like a whoopee.

[00:03:32] Yeah. Yeah, your safety 

[00:03:34] John Morris: zone. Yeah, exactly. 

[00:03:35] Eric Wiechert: So I would go there after, you know, after school or whenever I could. And I would be the, the kind that would, you know, even back from high school, I’d get home from like football practice, whatever. I just sit in the basement and be online all day, you know, AOL clicking away.

[00:03:47] And, uh, if there were it issues, I think it really started, I don’t know, maybe middle school when, you know, my mom didn’t know how to print or family member was having trouble like playing a game or something, I was kind of the go to, you know, even in the neighborhood. So from a, from a very young age, I.

[00:04:02] Knew I enjoyed computers. I didn’t, I never thought I’d be an it support. I mean, what was that about? Right? Like I was, I was good at it and I knew it. And most of the time my resolution was please just step aside. Let me take control. You were the company, a computer guy, like the Saturday 

[00:04:18] John Morris: night live skit.

[00:04:19] Eric Wiechert: Exactly.

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[00:05:03] Peace of mind, powerful innovation, TTSG. com. 

[00:05:07] Eric Wiechert: Uh, and so when I got to college, I knew that I wanted to do something in computers, so I tried to go for an OMS, uh, degree up there. Uh, what was it? Operation management information systems at NIU. And they had a good business program and a couple of years into business, I didn’t do so well with the finance and accounting and all that, like not really what I wanted to do.

[00:05:27] And so I switched majors to just corporate communications, you know, just kind of, I don’t want to say a throwaway degree, but, I didn’t know what that one and 

[00:05:34] John Morris: then figure it out from there. Just 

[00:05:35] Eric Wiechert: get one. And you know, the, the reason I got started in it, it’s all happenstance. I think in life, a lot of these moments happen, whether you meet the love of your life or you, you know, didn’t go to the grocery store.

[00:05:46] And at that moment, at that moment, and my moment, funny enough, uh, my uncle who, you know, I’ve been going to their house, uh, we only lived about 20 minutes away from each other. My whole life. And sure enough on Christmas, right after I graduated, I was a four and a half year student. Okay. Shout out to all those people out there.

[00:06:03] Um, and, uh, we were there on Christmas and his neighbor that I’ve known my whole life, probably since I was like eight years old. Uh, he, he swung by after the family event kind of died down and we all just got in the hot tub. We all like smoke a cigar, celebrate, hang out. And, uh, he’s like, Hey, Eric, so what’s your plan?

[00:06:20] Uh, what are you going to do now that you’re a graduate? I’m like, that’s exactly the combo you want. No, I’m like, so I’m looking at my dad. I’m like, well, I’m hoping to take like a month or two off school. You know, take a little break. I’m, you know, not that I’m that fortunate, but like, I just got done. I don’t know.

[00:06:34] Let me take a moment to breathe. And, uh, it turns out he’s like, Hey, well, can you do me a favor? Um, can you add a, uh, a YouTube video to a PowerPoint that I’m making for my, my company? He’s like, I’ll send you the file. Just, I want it embedded. I don’t want just the link there to click. And this is like, you know, kindergarten stuff for me.

[00:06:51] I’m like, Oh yeah, I’ll take a look. No problem. Not trying to play it off. Like, I don’t know what I’m doing, but like, yeah, I gotcha. So he sends it over on a Sunday. I send it back to him on a Monday. And then two days later, I get a check in the mail for 250 bucks from him. From his company and I’m like, whoa, and I’ll call him B.

[00:07:06] Uh, B, what is this about? He’s like, Oh, don’t just thanks for your help. Like, like, did I look like I was living on the streets or, you know, just like, Hey, thanks. So I asked him, I’m just like, so B, what company do you work for? And what do you, he’s like, Oh, I’m the CFO of this it support company. And I was, he’s like, Hey, by the way, you seem to know a lot about computers.

[00:07:24] Do you want an interview here? And I was like, Okay. You know, this is a couple of weeks out of college and, you know, I just so happen to run into him in the hot tub and about six days later I get an interview and it’s just for a level one position at the help desk. And I did a pretty good job. Um, and they asked me back for a second round interview and he’s like, listen, I’ll get you the interview.

[00:07:44] I know nothing about computers, as you know. The rest is on you. And for me, I just, I really didn’t know what I didn’t know. And it was a little bit scary because I had no experience in the it field outside of my own personal, and that’s all I could really talk to. And the people that I was talking to, I could tell they could read through the BS.

[00:08:01] So even if I tried to go online and like Google, Questions and answers. That was all out the window. I’m like, listen, I just got to bring whatever I have to the table at this moment in my life and go for it. And so sure enough, I got the job and the first day on the job, there was actually two spots open me and one other level one guy, and they gave me the question, which I think was the most important decision I made so far in my career, besides many others is they asked, do you want to be on site for one of our customers where you only learn one thing and their environment, or do you want to be working for our MSP here and learn 25 customers.

[00:08:34] And just, yeah, your mind’s going to be blown. Diversify your, your brain power. And I sat there probably for milliseconds, what probably felt like a year in my head. And I’m like, You know, and, and so I picked the MSP and so that was my first job ever was sitting down and just being, I don’t know, just like my jaw dropped with all the people.

[00:08:54] When was that? What year? That was 2011. Okay. So 2010, we’re working on a 13, 14 year career with MSPs now. Yeah. I mean, I kind of, in a funny way, I kind of feel like Bane, like I was born in it. I was molded by it. You know, this is the only environment I’ve ever known. And so I think that’s the difficult part about, you know, sometimes nowadays.

[00:09:13] Hiring some folks is if you really haven’t experienced it, it’s tough to get into because you got to know a lot and you got to be able to multitask and remember a lot. And so that was one of the really exciting parts was taking that That avenue to go to the MSP, as opposed to just a single customer, because I feel like I would have been, I’ve would have learned it in a couple of weeks.

[00:09:32] And then I would have been like, damn, why didn’t I just, why didn’t I do that? I like, I always like the challenge, right? So that, so that, that was where I got started. It was at an MSP and they were around for a number of years. They were a smaller company and it was nice to just get to know everybody. And your work was very highly visible.

[00:09:46] So that’s kind of where I got started. 

[00:09:48] John Morris: So Eric, um, now as director of help desk for GSD technologies. Um, give us kind of an understanding of like, what does that entail? Obviously, as a director, I know you’re talking about not only the day to day management of a team of people that are 24 7 help desk for, for our customers that are calling in on a regular basis.

[00:10:08] Yep. Uh, but also thinking big picture vision strategy. So kind of walk us through a little bit of like, what is the role entail 

[00:10:18] Eric Wiechert: that you’re tackling on a daily basis? Yeah. Great question. So like you mentioned, a big part of the day is just making sure the desk is running, um, making sure that people are here, they have what they need and, and I need to be able to support them.

[00:10:28] So the biggest thing for me that I like to just make sure the team knows is that I’ve been in their shoes. I started at an MSP at level one. I will never ask them to do anything. I wouldn’t do myself. No work is beneath me. So that’s kind of a day to day activity for me. The bigger portion of this that Tim and I talked about, um, which great episode by the way, Tim, uh, you got to do some more is, uh, that we’re trying to grow the business.

[00:10:53] And I’ve, I don’t want to say I’ve been there and done that, but that’s what I did at my last position. I took us from five people to team of 35 and lots of layers. And we were 24 seven and global. And that was fantastic. And I want to do that here. So a lot of what I’m going to be doing now that we’re all under one building is pre sales activity, onboarding, working with the engineering team, trying to provide solutions for our customers and really add a lot of value.

[00:11:17] So. My hope is at some point, uh, you know, as I start to expand, the team is adding those layers to allow people to grow because I only want team members that want to grow. I don’t want someone that’s sitting here that wants to be level one forever. That’s fantastic. If you love to do that, shout out to those people.

[00:11:31] But, um, I want team leads. I want supervisors and that will allow me to career path, right? Exactly. Keep an eye on the desk, but be able to be out there with new customers, potential customers, because To be honest, uh, the sales team here are doing a fantastic job. I love everything they’re doing. Nick’s episode was fantastic.

[00:11:50] It was real, almost, I’ll say tearjerker, but also very heartfelt. I love the things you guys talked about, but a lot of times they want to hear from the people that will actually be running the show. Absolutely. You know, once the sale is made now it’s in our hands. Uh, of course, sales will get involved if the customer’s unhappy, which we hope doesn’t happen.

[00:12:05] That’s our goal. Um, but. A big portion of that is pre 

[00:12:10] John Morris: sales. So help desk is very much, uh, customer relations, right? I mean, because likely after the sales process, even though we’re going to maintain the relationship and check in and Do QPRs and those types of things and what have you, more than likely the majority of the communication coming in is coming into your team.

[00:12:28] So really they’re upholding the brand promise, right? Yeah. And um, they’re the voice of the organization as it relates to what the customers that we’re interacting with are hearing and feeling from our organization. So Awesome. Based on that, you seem to be a pretty principled guy. In fact, I shouldn’t say seem to be.

[00:12:46] I know you are a principled guy. I was taught a long time ago, right, that, um, somebody asked me, do you want to, do you want to get promoted? I was like, of course, I want to get promoted. He goes, great. Find your replacement. Oh, and, and I was like, okay. That makes some sense to me. Essentially, he was saying, look, you can’t move up in the organization until you have somebody that can take your seat and probably do it a little bit better.

[00:13:13] Um, and then you can progress to the next thing. So in order to do that, you have to have very defined values and principles that somebody can slide into so that as you move up, Um, you’re able to continue to kind of bleed those principles and that purpose into your team. 

[00:13:30] Eric Wiechert: So what does that for you? Yeah, I mean, for me, it’s something that I did well at my last job and the previous job before that, but it’s something I pride myself on where I want to find that person and you know, it needs to be a little bit of a push, but also come naturally to some people.

[00:13:44] I want them to take what I’ve built. And expand on it. I don’t want them to change everything, but I also want them to feel like it’s their baby and take it, make it better. Exactly. And so when I have my monthly one on ones with my team members, I talk about all these things. I want to make sure we’re in line with your career path.

[00:14:00] We talk about the challenges you’re facing, the areas that I want to want you to get to and my challenges for you. And also the folks that are doing their day job, but also being able to take on more responsibility. That’s kind of what it takes to get to the next level. I think it was a common misconception.

[00:14:14] with a few folks I’ve worked with in the past that were underneath me. They, they thought when you move up, there’s less and less work and more and more money. 

[00:14:21] John Morris: No, it’s moving up means that you did your, uh, current role with a level of mastery, but you also did it fast enough that you have more bandwidth.

[00:14:29] Exactly. And I, so you 

[00:14:30] Eric Wiechert: could take on more. Yeah. And I think for me, it is all about finding that right person because What I want to try to build and grow is that culture of why are customers coming to us instead of going elsewhere? And it’s got to be the, the, the processes, the documentation I put in place and the overall culture.

[00:14:48] Um, you know, level one and level two, any level is so important to this organization. We wouldn’t be here without our customers. I wouldn’t be here without my team. You know, that is the most important role. And to find those, I’ll say diamonds in the rough for the team members where you can spot, you know, they’ve got more in them and talking to them and really trying to say, Hey, I appreciate what you’re doing, but I also want to give you a couple of side challenges here.

[00:15:10] Let’s see if you can do it. And if you can do it well, no promises. But the way I operate, just like I think any team or organization is I want to promote the MVP of the team. I’m not going to promote the person that just like goes up and swings once and strikes out, and then they’re afraid to ever hit the ball again.

[00:15:25] I want the person that’s here consistently doing the work and being able to do my job so that when I turn around and move up to whatever’s next is, I feel comfortable. I can sleep all night knowing the desk is run and again, make it your baby. Take what I’ve built and try your best not to wipe everything away and say, all right, guys, come in whenever you want and be mean to customers and yada yada.

[00:15:45] You know, keep the foundation, but build and grow onto it, get add additions and sky, you know, sky roofs or whatever. 

[00:15:51] John Morris: So what are you, what are like three, let’s, let’s say three, four key principles that you have that maybe you were taught and um, somebody else was in that seat that you were, that you were progressing into and maybe you took it and you refined it.

[00:16:04] And then you certainly get to a point in your career where you’re, you’re, you’re typically starting off with somebody else’s principles and values and you’re, you’re adopting those. Awesome. Yeah, eventually you progress in your career and you get to a point where you go. Now I need to establish my own values and principles.

[00:16:20] Yeah. What are those for you that you are bringing to not only GSD technologies, your department, but your people so that they can adopt those. And that’s a reflection of our brand. Yeah. Our brand promise and what customers are feeling. What are some of those principles that you are Are bleeding into the organization.

[00:16:41] Eric Wiechert: Yeah. I mean, there’s a number of different words I can use. And the first few that come to mind are accountability, integrity, um, customer service, um, you know, really just saying what you mean, meaning what you say. And, uh, above nothing else, it’s just a kind of an it joke, but if it’s not in the ticket, it didn’t happen.

[00:16:57] So just having these common. Themes across the board that I want people here who really want to be here. You need to be motivated, hungry, just like you would in any other position that, that I want you to be here. I don’t want you to just take the job to pay a bill. Don’t have a job, have a career. Right.

[00:17:11] And I think, um, you know, my previous, um, bosses love them all. They’ve all been fantastic. And I think they’ve each given me a chapter and new things to learn in my life in terms of, you know, one of my first, my first boss, uh, who taught me about if it’s not in the ticket, it didn’t happen. He’s like, it’s a lot more than that.

[00:17:27] It’s not just, Physical evidence in the ticket. It’s like, be a good person, show it and demonstrate it and have it written on your sleeve that people are going to read right through you in this business, in this world. If you’re not true to yourself and you’re not, uh, you know, showing that action, speak louder than words, then, you know, People are going to eat you up pretty quickly, especially in I.

[00:17:45] T. Because you can’t rub anything or brush anything under the rug. 

[00:17:48] John Morris: No. And you know, it’s interesting because oftentimes, if probably all the time, um, you’re receiving a call from somebody who’s in a worse position than where you aspire to get them. Yeah. So, I would imagine the objective that you have is to leave every call.

[00:18:06] They’re in a much better spot than how they arrived. Yeah. My second rule, 

[00:18:10] Eric Wiechert: I’ve got a whole rules of the road. It’s like rules of the road, but my first one, if it’s not on the ticket, it didn’t happen. My second one is fix the customer first, then fix the issue. I love that they’re calling because they’re upset.

[00:18:21] Nobody calls the help desk because they’re like, Hey, how do you want to just check in? Happy Friday. What are you up to? It’s like, You personally ruin this, John, I’m going after you and your entire bloodline, you know, like, Whoa, you know, so we are the punching bag of, uh, you know, it’s, it’s a thankless job at times.

[00:18:36] So I really feel strongly that we need to, you know, give ourselves kudos and help the team out by making sure we’re, we’re, uh, giving each other pats on the back. But the biggest thing is customer service. And yes, you need to focus on building that rapport. Getting that empathy in and making sure that you understand how important even though I’m just trying to print one thing This is ruining their entire day.

[00:18:57] Yeah, they’re trying to call you for it’s holding them up It’s holding them up and whether or not it’s financial or you know patient driven or whatever it might be Every call is so important for us. You mentioned it not too long ago, but we are on stage anytime we get a call Everything you got going on in your personal life, anything you’re thinking about, pause all that, drown the noise out, and focus on this customer because you are going to make their day.

[00:19:20] And if you can’t, even if you can’t resolve it, I always made sure I left that person either laughing or giggling or like, hey, take a break. I’m going to take care of you personally. This is my name. You call me, I’m getting this to the next team. Who’s going to fix it for you. So you stand by, but if you get nervous, if you feel like it’s take too long, you call me.

[00:19:37] And it was kind of a joke. People made fun of me at my level one position. When I first started, I kept saying, I’m going to get my team on this. I had no freaking team. Just multiple personalities, like I was just, you know, like up in some high tower, like, yeah, I’m going to get my team to go there and there.

[00:19:52] And we got a helicopter coming in, you know, like, I had no team, but people always looked at me like, why do you always say that? It’s like, because it makes them feel better that like, literally we, and I didn’t want them to feel, uh, that it was fake. Like I needed to make sure I would write that ticket down, make sure it got to the right team and that they would jump on it.

[00:20:09] You know, at least raise my hand to a level of authority and say, Hey, This one might need to be moved out. Well, 

[00:20:13] John Morris: you had a team, you had, um, you know, you had ownership at the organization, so you have people to lean on, but you weren’t surrounded in a pit of, of a help desk staff members that were like, you know, seal team six of help desk, right?

[00:20:26] You were leaning on the executive team to essentially be like, Hey, look, what’s the brand promise here? How do I live up to this? And all that. And, and the cool thing is like, We’ve talked about this several times. The cool thing about GSD is that we’re, we’re big enough and sophisticated enough to handle large corporations and even to place somebody on site.

[00:20:47] Right. Yep. Um, most of our work is going to be remote monitoring. Right. Um, but we’re small enough to be agile. Yes. To be very friendly, kind, comforting, uh, and to really make certain that we have a level of attention to detail. Yeah. Um, because we’re not just trying to move you through the system to get to the next one.

[00:21:06] Right. So we can take our time and make sure that there’s really strong resolution. Right. Um, And a lot of that has to do with some of the principles that you’ve brought in of making certain that, you know, I, I had a podcast guest who said, make the thing, the thing. And so I was, I was talking to her about like, what’s the, when you get out of bed in the morning, what’s your, like your main focus and her thing was like, number one, what’s the priority.

[00:21:30] And then once you know the priority, make the priority, the priority. So make the thing, the thing. Yeah. And I think that that’s important when you’re a smaller organization Um, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s not necessarily always about speed. It’s about outcome. Yes. And if you can combine both, you’re dangerous in a good way.

[00:21:48] Eric Wiechert: Yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s all about the experience because anytime someone calls in or puts a ticket in, what’s that experience like? And when we work with a number of smaller companies like ourself, one bad spoiled experience is going to spread like a wildfire. Turns me to 10 quick. They all turn and you know, they have a pizza party on a Friday.

[00:22:05] They’re like, man, that helped us. They were over one this week, and that might be the only ticket they put in. So we’re at zero percent. So for us, it’s all about those policies and procedures and the experiences. I expect my team to update tickets daily. So I want the user to know we’re still here. We’re trying to get ahold of you.

[00:22:22] We’re trying to move it along. Um, making sure that we’re, we’re over, uh, over exceeding expectations, uh, making sure that we know we didn’t forget about them and also following up as best we can. We have a small enough team and a decent enough ticket queue where we can follow up the next day to make sure they’re good.

[00:22:39] So just making sure we get that cherry on top and things of that nature. Um, but ultimately making sure every ticket is as important as the other one. We don’t like to brush things aside and say, Hey, this one, I’ll grab it, but I’ll work on it later. Yeah. I want our customers to know that we are here.

[00:22:54] We’re ready. If it’s critical enough, call us. I’ve got a team waiting. They’re excited. This gets them through their day quicker. If believe it or not, please call in. If you got something you can’t wait for, it’s got to be snippy. Um, otherwise send an email in. If we can fix it remotely, that’s my goal. I would love for, you know, 80 plus percent first call resolution, uh, from the level one team.

[00:23:13] Um, I would love for us to be, you know, we’re answering the phone in under 60 seconds on average, every single month, we’re getting tickets within 60 minutes or less. So these are all realities that I want to help the team and the sales team promote is that there’s little things that will help us stand out from our competition and having the ability to be on site, having the ability that, um, you know, I’ve seen it a lot in my three months that I’ve been here.

[00:23:34] Is that we will drop everything at any moment in time just to help a customer out. We’ve got great engineers, great team members that all just want to figure out this issue. And if you’ve never worked in I. T. before, but I’m sure in other organizations, If we can’t figure out why that button is yellow instead of green, we will not sleep until we figure it out.

[00:23:54] Yeah. You know, that’s just it in general. That’s a great principle. 

[00:23:59] John Morris: I T decision makers. This might sting frustrated with it issues, security threats, and the stress of your technology infrastructure. Your technology should blend seamlessly with your business objectives. Technology infrastructure management with limited resources can be exhausting and counterproductive.

[00:24:16] Do you have an MSP, but still have problems and technical hiccups? GSD’s advisement, proactive maintenance, cutting edge, cyber security, cloud solutions, data backup, and local 24 seven help desk can change the game. Your technology should outpace your business operations to allow for growth. And proactive strategies should prevent issues before they arise.

[00:24:38] Get back your time and your money with GSD. Drive business forward. Leave the technology to GSD. GSDNOW. com. So you talk about customer experience and I’m a brand person, right? Mm-Hmm. . So I talk about brand experience and branding is about, in my opinion, is about how you create a community. It’s how you draw people in.

[00:24:55] Mm-Hmm. . It’s how you make people feel when they see your logo, what they associate the logo to. Yeah. As it relates to a feeling. Mm-Hmm. . Um, and part of that brand experience is the customer experience. So you have the employee experience, you have the customer experience. Mm-Hmm. . Um, you certainly have the perception in the marketplace that plays a role in that.

[00:25:13] And so. As it relates to the customer experience that you’re creating, give me, give me one of your most proud moments. I know that I’ve been here twice as long as you for six months and you’ve been here for three months, but already in a short time because we have intimate partnerships. Uh, with our, with our customers, um, I’ve already gotten some amazing feedback or the way that we interact with customers and the response time and, and, you know, feedback that really fuels you as a human being to want to really fight harder within your career.

[00:25:46] Right? So in your time, give me, give me a really cool story where somebody called in, you know, maybe they were on the verge of tears. Maybe they were super upset. Uh, maybe they were. You know, like it was, it was fourth and goal and there’s two seconds left and they need you to come through and like, it makes your heart fall when you, when you relive this story in your 

[00:26:05] Eric Wiechert: mind, 

[00:26:06] John Morris: give us something 

[00:26:06] Eric Wiechert: like that.

[00:26:07] I mean, this one sticks with me because it was my second week on my first level one job at the MSP and one of our biggest customers was a children’s hospital and uh, Dr. Smith. Um, I mean, I don’t know if doc, I’m sure there’s a number of Dr. Smith’s, but I just remember the name. They called because they could not get into Epic EMR and Epic EMR is their patient program that allows them to get medication and give it to the children.

[00:26:30] And he basically, after I gave my intro of, Hi, this is Eric. Can I get your first name, last name, please? Uh, Eric, I need you to listen to me very carefully. This is Dr. Smith. Uh, I’m in Epic. It froze. I clicked the medication button. I need you to tell me right now that it went through. Otherwise, if I click this twice, I might kill a child.

[00:26:51] And I just took a step back, like, hold on, hold on really quick. 

[00:26:57] John Morris: Okay. That’s deeper than I thought you were going to give me hope. I’ll start deep, but then we’ll go to the more exciting one. But 

[00:27:03] Eric Wiechert: it was a shocking moment where I was able to, with the tools and the documentation and everything we had, I said, please give me one moment.

[00:27:12] This is critical. I totally get it. And with the training that I had, even though it was two weeks in my team, Lee was right there with me. I was able to make sure that we unfroze the session. It only went through once and basically saved his day and potentially saved a life. I, whether or not all that was real or true, I don’t know, but he sounded 

[00:27:29] John Morris: imagine very serious.

[00:27:30] I don’t know why somebody, especially a A learned doctor would call in and say something like that. So 

[00:27:37] Eric Wiechert: I would imagine it was very true. So that’s the deep one that really stuck with me. Another one. Um, I won’t go with the children’s hospital because there’s so many there. I mean, they’re just the greatest people ever just calling in and wishing you praise.

[00:27:50] Uh, there was a CEO of a smaller company who didn’t really know how to work technology. Um, and this was all of four 58 on a Friday afternoon, they called in and said, Hey, Eric, um, you know, I’m having trouble making this PowerPoint. And can you help me? And it kind of went back to my original, you know, how I got the job, you know, just a little flashback.

[00:28:07] So I, I log in and, um, you know, we’re working on the PowerPoint, just kind of, where does this go? How can I make this better? How do I add more text box? Things like that. Um, okay, cool. Well, can we go to the next slide? You know, and so, okay, go to the next slide. And I’ll say this, it, it was an hour and a half later, went through 25 slides.

[00:28:23] Um, this was for the CEO who had a very important business meeting the next day. And by, you know, I’ll say by slide three, I was in my head, I’m like, Oh, I know exactly what they’re doing. They’re just making me do this whole PowerPoint. Aren’t they? And come to find that after they went to their meeting, uh, they called the owner of my company that very next day and, um, told them what I did.

[00:28:43] And on a Wednesday afternoon, six months or six months into my job, I got a raise just from that experience and just going all out, just the kudos I received. And like, I guess that was, you know, me internally just being like, listen, this is white glove treatment. This is what I signed up for. So suck it up and do it.

[00:28:59] But also look at what comes from that. Yeah. The positivity from the CEO, it just made their day, made their sale or whatever it was. That wasn’t why you did 

[00:29:09] John Morris: it. Right. Okay. So where does that come from? Because there are a lot of people who have been like four 58 on a Friday. Oh, I don’t care if it’s a CEO, I’m six months into this job, which means likely you were in your early twenties.

[00:29:20] Yep. Um, and you know, the, the early twenties happy hour on a Friday is pretty cool thing. Right. Cause you’re getting a paycheck. Yep. So. Uh, you hung in there and you gave them everything that you had. That is a principled thing. That’s a purpose thing. So where does, where did that come from? 

[00:29:38] Eric Wiechert: Gosh, um, you know, growing up, I had a great childhood.

[00:29:41] I had, I had parents that were very, um, you know, and are very, you know, close to making sure we’re good people. Um, they taught us great values. My dad worked very hard. My mom was a stay at home mom, so she took care of me and my older sisters. Um, and I think just seeing my dad’s drive, uh, he, he worked for Motorola for 35 years and retired pretty young.

[00:30:02] Um, and just seeing that drive, that motivation, I got into sports very young. I played sports from who knows, T ball to, you know, uh, till they told you, you couldn’t play until senior year of high school. And then I’m like, you know what, I want to take a break from sports when they, when they found out your 40 time was six seconds, they said, they said, you’re done.

[00:30:19] All right. Old man, get out of here. Yeah. Um, and so I think it really came from a lot from my parents. Um, you know, they’re just very compassionate people. Um, we all grew up with a lot of integrity, compassion, and we all talked a lot growing up, you know, just, just at the dinner table, it was very important to sit around and make sure that everybody got things out there, you know, don’t hold back.

[00:30:41] Um, whether it was good, bad or indifferent, how was your day? It was very important to talk about. Um, and I think the customer service in me just came from, I want to have friends. I want to be liked. And I, I, I saw some, you know, kids or people growing up where they were just kind of a holes and they just weren’t very nice or they would, you know, push people down or like be bullies.

[00:31:01] And I didn’t like that. Um, you know, I wanted to be liked. I wanted to have a lot of friends and, you know, eventually a girlfriend, you know, someday when I was growing up. Um, and so I think a lot of that came from just seeing my parents and the demonstration in them. And, you know, um, uh, it’s just been something that’s lived in me for a long time.

[00:31:17] And then my first job ever shout out to Mr and Mrs Weikert. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, you know, uh, I, I, I didn’t know if we were going to talk about this podcast and I, I didn’t want to hold back at all, but, um, you know, a part of what really drives me as well. And what kind of leads back to my parents is, you know, Back in 2012, when I was at my first job, level one job, um, I was there for about a year and eight months and then me and, uh, two buddies from college got in a serious car accident.

[00:31:43] Um, and so it was a fatal car accident. We wrapped around a tree growing, going 70. Good Lord. Um, I shattered my pelvis in 11 places, broke both my arms, a concussion, opened up the back of my head. Um, It’s probably others that I’m not, uh, remembering, but it was a very serious, uh, car accident. So my, my buddy ended up passing away.

[00:32:03] He was the driver. Um, and I was at that job. And so basically I left on a Wednesday and I did not come back until March till you could, this was in August, uh, basically, you know, 12 years ago in a week or so ago. Um, and so that job, you know, when I was in the hospital recovering and going through surgeries, I had like eight surgeries just to, you know, uh, I had to get airlifted and all that.

[00:32:24] So I guess I was bleeding internally. Um, And, you know, the one big thing I noticed about the company I was working for was they were there for me. They made sure whatever I needed, whatever time I needed, and yeah, I’m in and out of hospitals, and I’m trying to wake up and figure out what just happened in my life, and what’s going on, and where’s my buddy, and oh my gosh, he’s gone.

[00:32:43] Uh, and then I finally got home after a couple of months. Yeah, yeah. It was rough. And, and, you know, I finally got home and this was at the point where my FMLA was up and my insurance was kind of making sure, Hey, we need you to get back to work. Um, and so they allowed me from basically my hospital bed at home, cause I had to live on the first floor cause I couldn’t walk yet.

[00:33:04] Um, I was allowed to do. Basic it work like provisioning accounts. And my, my job made sure that I got my 30 hours in, even though there might’ve been sometimes where it’s like I ducked out five hours earlier, I couldn’t make it because I had physical therapy or, Hey, you know, I was really having a bad day or something.

[00:33:20] So. My job was there for me and, you know, I, I owe them a lot for, for that. And, and also during that entire, um, you know, recovery process, my mom was there. She was my full time caretaker. So here I am at, you know, 23 years old, almost, or 24, almost turned in 25. Just 

[00:33:37] John Morris: got out on your own. Just got 

[00:33:39] Eric Wiechert: right back.

[00:33:40] Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, my mom was my, my biggest caretaker and she was there and we just, we bonded so much. Um, uh, you know, during that time, because it was basically from like 7am when I was waking up till 10 or 11, going to bed, that she was there with me. My dad was still working. He was, he was working his last couple of years.

[00:33:58] And so. He would be home at dinner and he would, he would do the best he could. And even when I was in the hospital, I mean, he came every day after work. That’s awesome. My mom was there every day and she was the one pushing me. She’s like, listen, get your butt out of bed. Like you got to start moving whether or not I wanted to, you know, I had for her.

[00:34:13] I had a wheelchair and then I had a walker and then she would watch me do laps and things like that and we would, it’s kind of silly. We would like just watch daytime TV and just laugh and just kind of enjoy ourselves. But also she had the hard part of like, Hey, she had to give me shots every day to make sure I didn’t have blood clots.

[00:34:29] And so 

[00:34:29] John Morris: how does, how does something like, so in the conversation with Nick Brazil, yeah. Who’s kind of, you know, you guys are running in tandem now. I mean, as it relates to this organization, you guys are. And, you know, when, here’s the cool thing about podcasting, right? Especially when you’re doing a company sponsor podcast, you have a chance to bring on some of the staff members.

[00:34:48] Yeah. There, there is an open conversation. You learn some things. So I’m learning this for the first time. It’s kind of taken me aback. So I asked Nick, like, how does something kind of life threatening like that change your Perspective, not only on every day that you’re here, but also like on how you approach business and kind of his thing was like, nothing’s too big now, right?

[00:35:15] Like it’s, it’s, um, not to say that it’s easy in any way, shape or form, but nothing is too big. Nothing is like, um, oh my gosh, overwhelming. Right. And it kind of centers you that, Hey, we’re going to get through this. Yeah. How is that kind of. How does that translate into how you approach work? Because I would imagine, correct me if I’m wrong, when you’re on your, close to your death bed, right, um, and you come out of it, and you’ve got this amazing support system from your family, and they’re kind of pushing you and driving you, and you come out of that, and, um, it never leaves you though, right, right?

[00:35:59] So. How does that help you approach your day to day and just how you approach somebody who has a problem where they think it’s huge and you can sit there and go, this isn’t that big, you know, this isn’t that big of a deal. I know it’s big to you. But look, I’m going to get you through this. 

[00:36:14] Eric Wiechert: Yeah, I think if nothing else, it has really put a lot of things into perspective in terms of just like, You’re right.

[00:36:21] Nothing is as big or as bad as being on your deathbed. Um, and even when I was in the hospital, I kind of relate to Nick. Like this was that I’m like, listen, I’m in a hospital bed. I’m 24. There’s kids in the children’s hospital that are born in the hospital and they stay there. And you know, there’s always somebody that has it worse than you.

[00:36:38] So that was my motivation to get my butt out of bed and to go to physical therapy and being like, listen, man, yes, this really sucks, but somebody has it worse. Not saying that helped, but it was a motivator to just say, like, listen, dude, suck it up. Buttercup, you either lay in bed and you crumble and you just, you know, wither away or you actually get out and do something.

[00:36:58] And I think, you know, as it pertains to work, um, you know, I suppose any like negative feedback from customers or any frustrating moments or any, you know, like, uh, I’ll just say bad days at work. It kind of helps me point back to certain days where it’s like, you know what? This is not that bad. You know, you’re still working.

[00:37:18] You’re still earning a paycheck. Yes. This is a shitty situation But let’s look at the positives. What can I learn from this situation? What what can I get as a takeaway from here? And how can I make myself a better person and I think going to kind of the sympathy part of things where somebody might say Oh my gosh, I you know, I tripped on the way in and I skinned my knee I try to make sure I stay grounded in the sense that A paper cut to somebody could feel like a broken arm.

[00:37:43] Absolutely. Uh, so they’re going through some shit and that’s their stuff. I, I will never try to compare it to the 

[00:37:51] John Morris: reason I bring it up though, is because when you’ve been some through something that big, yeah, it helps you. I would imagine that it does. It helps. Well, I could probably speak to this too, I guess.

[00:38:02] Um, but it helps you with perspective and by having that powerful of perspective, it helps you to have, um, a posture. With somebody who’s dealing with a problem. Yes Um to to really just yeah like clarity like for instance, there are some people when they see blood they get calm There’s other people when they see blood they panic They freak people in in a situation like you’ve lived through Probably when there’s a difficult stressful situation you probably because of that journey Are now calm.

[00:38:40] Yes. And that’s probably a fantastic attribute for somebody who’s working at help desk. Cause you’re, you’re absorbing somebody else’s panic and lending calm to 

[00:38:50] Eric Wiechert: it. Yes. And, and I think that’s one of the. Things that, um, you know, if, if you speak to anybody that’s maybe worked for me before is it’s not just about the job, you know, we’re all humans and we need to be able to help each other out.

[00:39:05] And so if I see something, if I see somebody that is acting a little bit off or they seem a little bit down, I want to just go have a chat with them. How can I help them through this? Not saying, Hey, let me go tell you about my story and like, all right, mine’s worse. So suck it up and get back out there.

[00:39:18] But how can I help them through maybe a difficult situation, whether it’s personal or at work and you know, I’m no psychologist, I’m no doctor, I’m no therapist, but, uh, I can use some of what I went through to just try to help them out. Yeah. And just kind of, you know, if they need to cry it out, if they need to take more breaks, if maybe, you know what, if I noticed they need to take the day, I’m going to be the one to force them and be like, listen.

[00:39:39] It’s okay. We have these days head home, sort through it, come back when you’re ready, come back when you’re fresh. Create a great employee experience as well. Exactly. 

[00:39:47] John Morris: Well, I don’t want to make this into the Maury Povich show, but that’s a touching story and we’re certainly glad that you’re, that you’re here with us.

[00:39:53] Yep. Yep. I do want to get into, um, there are companies out there that have, uh, let’s say a CIO, a director of I. T., an I. T. manager, and maybe they have 400 employees, 100 to 400 employees. And even with 100 to 400 employees, a staff of three Handling all of the technology, the I. T. has got to be extremely difficult.

[00:40:19] On the other hand, we have small to mid sized business owners that we interact with that have, let’s say, 15 employees and their general manager who just happens to, you know, know how to flip on a computer and knows enough about it and was really good at Zelda when they were growing up is, um, is given the task because they have limited budget.

[00:40:42] To handle, um, all of the it. So as an MSP, we kind of have the ability to bolt on to both. Can you elaborate a little bit on how the larger company we can lend support to the experts because they are experts already. We’re not coming in to be the expert, right? We’re coming in to clear. Take things off of their plate so they can be even bigger experts and think strategically, whereas the small to midsize business owner, we’re going to become everything for them and protect their asset.

[00:41:16] Exactly. So describe that a little bit. 

[00:41:18] Eric Wiechert: Yeah. So, I mean, for the bigger company, a lot of times what we see is that they’re spending a lot of money on their I. T. resources. They have level 2, level 3, engineers or sys admins that are doing level 1 work. So, they’re misusing their money in that sense where these guys, these three guys or gals, they’re probably getting bombarded daily with tickets and they’re trying to prioritize and move stuff around, but at the end of the day, If they’re level two or higher, they’re not really going to enjoy the work because 60 to 70 percent of tickets coming in are going to be level one.

[00:41:47] So what we’d like to do is we’ve got the whole level one, level two team here. Let us take the low hanging fruit stuff off your plate. We’re not trying to take your jobs, which is a common mistake, but a director 

[00:41:57] John Morris: of it doesn’t want to mess with copy machines, for instance. 

[00:42:00] Eric Wiechert: Exactly. Yeah. I mean, they don’t want to mess with that stuff.

[00:42:02] Or, uh, Email password resets a lot of requests nowadays, you know, distribution lists and groups and, you know, access to teams and folders and provisioning. That’s all going through. And that’s stuff that we can easily take on from them, you know, and we want them to then focus on growing their business. So use these level two sysadmin since engineers.

[00:42:22] To get your business to the next level, whatever that is a new ERP system, a new name it, you know, we would like to help you get there. So let our team take the stuff away from you. That is bogging you down. It’s just, you wanted to get to that project today. You wanted to hang this TV, but you can’t because you got 14 tickets that just came in and Oh, by the way, someone can’t figure out the conference room.

[00:42:42] Click share. Yeah, now I got to run there and do that. So all these things can be, most of these things can be fixed. So the, 

[00:42:48] John Morris: the, the. Productivity is something that you are really helping the C suite and the director level folks to deal with, not only with their staff, but for them themselves. 

[00:43:00] Eric Wiechert: Yeah, we want, you know, our goal is, I’m sure a lot of folks like those mid sized businesses are getting people that are, you know, let’s say director level or above that just go to the CIO.

[00:43:11] Hey, I got a, I can’t print. They go to the CIO and, and I don’t know, I don’t know all the relationships obviously, but if I were them and I were the CIO, I’d be like, man, you’re paying me this paycheck to like, 

[00:43:22] John Morris: help you. So I’ve got the letters in front of my name. I’ve got the title, but. I’m doing 

[00:43:28] Eric Wiechert: level 

[00:43:28] John Morris: two 

[00:43:28] Eric Wiechert: work.

[00:43:29] Yeah. And I think one smart move for them is, Hey, I’ve, I’ve invested in this partnership with GSD and we are here to help support all these efforts. So, you know, I can’t tell the CEO to say, Hey, pick up the phone and call the help desk, the CEO all day, but for anybody else in the organization, that’s a certain level or lower that doesn’t require that VIP treatment call into us and to get those 

[00:43:51] John Morris: resources.

[00:43:51] Right. So, yeah. You know, they might have to hire four people at let’s say 60, 000 a year. You’re talking about 240, 000 in payroll. Plus they need two weeks vacation. They call in sick. Sometimes they’ve got emergencies. You need to provide them with insurance. Uh, 401k, you’ve got, so that 240 is probably really 280, 290 when all in, um, and on top of that, you have to manage them.

[00:44:19] Yep. Whereas you could probably for a third of that, set it and forget it, set it, forget it. And probably instead of having four people have, you know, you’re have 10 that are focusing on it and, uh, are 24 seven available. Yeah. Plus, um, Employees get, get, get recruited away to another place. So now you got to unwind them.

[00:44:43] Whereas if you’re working with a MSP like GSD, um, you know, they’re, they’re there to support you. You don’t have to unwind that unless the, you. Decide to go to another company at some point, but we have a very high retention rate. So 

[00:44:57] Eric Wiechert: exactly. And, and, you know, the best part is, uh, everybody operates within our box.

[00:45:02] I know, uh, Tim talked about it. I know Nick talked about a little bit, but when companies come to us, our team is already so proficient on all of our tools. We just bring you into that box and then we can operate pretty quickly. Not saying it’s a day or two turnaround. We like to go through a nice implementation process, onboarding process to make sure when we were answering those calls day one, we sound.

[00:45:22] And feel confident as opposed to just, Hey, tomorrow we’re 

[00:45:25] John Morris: like of somebody who’s a 

[00:45:27] Eric Wiechert: bolt onto your organization. Exactly. We want to feel like that extension. We want it to be a partnership. And I think the biggest thing is just making sure they feel comfortable, um, and that they chose the right path. And a lot of that comes down to, you know, what is your cost of your, of your employees?

[00:45:43] John Morris: So, um, Let’s talk about the small to mid sized business owner because this morning as we were setting up you walked in and we were having a conversation as folks in an office will about what the what’s going on in the day and so on and You kind of were making a joke about the fact that you know Um, with, with what’s going on with Russia and China right now and all the phishing scams and all these different things, there’s a strong chance that, you know, a small to mid sized company might have 3000 attacks on them, um, that, that a company like us may have caught that they didn’t feel exactly, um, that in a morning, in a morning, is it that 

[00:46:22] Eric Wiechert: bad right now?

[00:46:23] It is that bad. I mean, now with the help of AI, which I’m sure that, you know, for everything that’s good out there, there’s, there’s a bad, probably 

[00:46:31] John Morris: 80 percent bad. 

[00:46:32] Eric Wiechert: Uh, and so right now, even since we’ve started this podcast, I’m sure there’s been an, you know, another thousand that’s hit our servers, just, you know, all they try to do a lot of times, Oh, by the way, I have to hurry up and go get a 500 gift card from target for, Oh yeah, exactly.

[00:46:46] Yeah. Do not redeem. Don’t do that. Um, that’s so funny. Uh, and so, you know, to think about. How often we’re getting attacked. And what they’re really doing is right now they’re just trying to use your email address and every possible password in the world. And without two-factor authentication. Some of our customers, even a week ago, one of our customers actually, they got in and they created a new account.

[00:47:06] They actually set up a rule on the inbox already, and then they started to send emails from this account to others to just try to infect the whole company. And once they get enough of those accounts and they get into need to, then they do ransom. Right. So there’s a whole mix of different ones. Nowadays, we see the ones where errors pop up saying, you got to call this number, you’re infected.

[00:47:26] And when they do, it’s the 500 gift card thing. Uh, we’ve got the phishing where you click the link and sure enough, now they’re in your system automatically. Um, and, and that’s, and that’s scary. And I think one of the things a lot of companies probably don’t think about is how often you’re getting attacked and we see it on the backend, we can go into our systems and Barracuda and all in, in Meraki and all that and see those things.

[00:47:45] We can go to, you know, office 365, the security portal and see that, wow, you know, you’ve had a lot of activity today from Russia, from China, from all over the world, Indonesia, everywhere where people are just trying to get in. And that’s just sadly the state of where we’re at. So as much as they’re trying to get in.

[00:48:01] John Morris: So for a small to midsize business owner, you know, let’s say 15, 20, 25 employees, you know, um, it’s not just about getting your phones and your emails set up. You’re talking about protecting your baby, right? Your business is your baby. We know this in many cases, you, you, you’re, it’s your oldest child. Yeah.

[00:48:17] Um, because you probably started your business before you had child one, right? So your business is your baby. It’s your livelihood. Yeah. Um, Um, not having an MSP that is effective in protecting the organization along with handling the day to day of, of allowing you to operate in a technology driven world is a very dangerous thing because when it’s too late, it’s too late.

[00:48:46] And then you’re, you’re swiping a check. That might be your life savings to get back into your own company. A 

[00:48:51] Eric Wiechert: hundred percent. And I think that’s what I really enjoy about the box that we operate within is anytime you’re talking to sales, we’re not trying to oversell you on products. We are trying to tell you that this is the type of product.

[00:49:02] Package that will keep you secure, safe, and also we’ll, we’ll supply you with the help desk and just, you know, your day to day activities. But if you, if you decide to take all but one piece of the pie and the piece of pie is maybe you’re not taking our Barracuda or something like that, you’re at risk.

[00:49:18] And if we don’t manage that, then who does, and if like you just mentioned, if somebody clicks that email. We couldn’t catch it. There’s some bad folks out there. Yeah. And when it’s too late, sure. We’re going to do everything in our power to help you out. We’re not just going to say, well, you’re SOL, right?

[00:49:33] Good luck. And Godspeed, you didn’t buy that from us. That’s not our, that’s not our MO. We are here to try to fight and help save some stuff for you. But if you don’t do it up front, then that’s, that’s very dangerous. 

[00:49:43] John Morris: Yeah. Um, big vision. Yeah. Right. We know the mission. We know what you’re doing on a day to day, big vision, kind of, where do you see Um, not only where do you see the department, where do you see your progression?

[00:49:56] Like, yeah, what’s the, what’s the big thing for you? What are you focused on? 

[00:50:01] Eric Wiechert: Yeah. I mean, right now I’m focused on, you know, making sure the team is fully functional. Making sure we document is one of the biggest things because without documentation, I think not even in it, in any aspect of any department, just to be able to, Know that you can expand and then think of all the time you’d save by not sitting there having to train somebody on this over and over and over again, just document, make a video.

[00:50:23] And so right now it’s making sure we have our processes down. The people are here, we’re documenting, we’re growing. And then the big vision is going from a team of five people to 10 to 15 to 22. I would love to say to stay in this building, maybe we get the backpack warehouse to ourselves, but, uh, move into a bigger building and, and, and expand our customer base.

[00:50:41] And, uh, you know, whether they’re small customers or big customers, we welcome them all them all. And, um, you know, I think the vision for myself is how can I just continue to add value to the company and then working with Tim and team, what does that mean? Because like we’ve talked about earlier, I would like somebody to take my job.

[00:50:58] That’s my goal of that job is how do I work to So efficiently that I’m challenging myself to do something new and that somebody else wants it and that somebody else wants it because that’s the scary part of some of the jobs that we have, um, and at certain levels is if it looks scary, nobody’s going to want to go hear it.

[00:51:16] And, and, you know, it’s kind of funny that, you know, back when I was level one at my first job, I would say, See, you know, all the C level people and managers, man, they’re going in and out of that meeting room all day. That must be fun. I’m stuck here on the phone. You don’t know what’s happening in that meeting.

[00:51:29] And then you get into the, on the other side and you’re like, man, I think I, you know, I caught like 40 percent of the meeting and I wasn’t really called upon. I was just there to be of assistance. But yeah, you’re right. It’s, it’s all about, you know, Finding what’s next for me and working with Tim and team as to what does that look like?

[00:51:46] Um, but i’d like to stay close to the desk, you know, that’s that’s my baby. I feel like it’s my business my baby and You know, I never want to get too far away to where somebody can’t come up to me and say, Hey, Eric, we’ve got an issue with this device. What would you recommend? And the minute they sniff that you’re out of it and you don’t know, yeah, that’s dangerous.

[00:52:03] You’re no longer in the circle. 

[00:52:04] John Morris: So obviously the premise of the podcast, the get shit done experience is coming from GSD technologies. So we’re all about getting shit done. Um, what are you, you know, we know what we do as an organization. We know our way. Um, we know. You know, the, the style, the stance that we have, um, that, you know, it’s all out, man.

[00:52:24] And we, we operate, right? It’s, it’s measured twice, cut once, right? But we’re going fast. We fast with a smile on our face. What is your, um, what is your philosophy on getting shit done? Are you a planner? Are you impulsive? Are you, uh, um, are you super organized? Like what is, how do you go about doing it? 

[00:52:44] Eric Wiechert: I am very proactive.

[00:52:46] Okay. I want to a answer questions before they’re asked B resolve issues before they come up and see already have tomorrow plan today. I feel like in it, if you don’t do that, then you’re, you’re screwed because you can plan maybe 20, 30 percent of your day, but the rest of it’s going to be a mystery because users are calling in stuff’s breaking down.

[00:53:05] Somebody can’t get into their email, whatever you get. Taken away because maybe there’s a building outage, but for me, it’s all about being proactive. And if I’m not, I feel like I’m behind. I feel like even, even for this podcast today, I was trying to, you know, even yesterday, just make sure I’m ready, mentally ready to come in, even though I’ve done podcasts before, but like, shoot, I want to make sure we hit these talking points.

[00:53:27] I want to make sure, you know, I’ve got it all together and I’m not too nervous or anything, which I’m not, this was great. It’s such a comfortable conversation. But I think for me and the rest of my team, I try to instill that in them is like. Make sure you’re prepared because I want to put the fire out before it starts.

[00:53:41] That’s the whole game of it is who is going to potentially escalate something. And why is it because of time? Is it because of the situation? Let’s get to them. Let’s kind of move the puzzle pieces around and make sure that we’re ready. 

[00:53:54] John Morris: Awesome. You heard it here for first folks. It’s about preventative maintenance.

[00:53:59] Yes. It’s about being prepared. And it’s about operating with a style and he’s in a posture, uh, that, uh, is kind and warm and welcoming and has a level of speed to it. Right? Yeah. So Eric, I want to thank you for being on. I want to remind you, sir, you got shit done. I did. Thank you. Cheers. Cheers. Can your business handle 50 people?

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