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PODCAST

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories, and tips for the MSP and IT Professional)

The IT Business Podcast is a show for MSPs (Managed Service Providers) and IT Professionals providing business network support and managed services. Each episode delivers products, stories, and tips that help the MSP and IT Pro run the business better, smarter, and faster, covering everything from pricing and packaging to operations, tools, and service delivery. You’ll hear candid conversations with working MSP owners, system admins, vendors, and industry leaders who share what’s actually working

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All Episodes

00:44:01

Uncle Marv’s MSP Confessions (EP 1045)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/07/16

I start by sharing a real-life update on my mom’s health and how that’s pulled my attention away from work and the podcast, because I believe family and personal life have to come before business—even when you run an MSP and a show that people count on. I talk honestly about what it feels like to keep pushing through while your head isn’t fully in the game, and why I’m finally letting the community in on what I’ve been dealing with. From there, I walk through several “confessions”: clarifying what I

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01:07:13

MSP War Stories with Mike Smith (EP 1044)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/07/09

Mike Smith joined me live in South Florida after a day on-site with a client, and we turned his trip into a full-on therapy session for MSPs dealing with Adobe, ISPs, and over-engineered networks. We dig into Acrobat crashes, painful uninstalls, and why I lean on tools like Ninite Pro and Action1 to deploy and patch software without all the bundled nonsense. From there, we pivot into law firms that demand every browser under the sun, iCloud users getting winmail.dat instead of PDFs, and how a simple

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00:35:13

Pivoting Beyond Your Dream Job (EP 1043)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/07/07

Melanie Curtis joins me to talk about pivoting careers, building a coaching and speaking business, and choosing family, boundaries, and fun over the nonstop hustle grind. We start with Melanie’s shift from investment banking into pro skydiving, then from skydiving into coaching, driven by a subtle realization that her “dream job” still wasn’t the whole story. She unpacks the decision to lean into life coaching when it wasn’t cool, how she navigated the fear of it being a scam, and what it took to

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00:31:38

Facing Fear in Business (EP 1042)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/07/06

Melanie Curtis joins me to unpack how skydiving, world records, and adversity actually map to client issues, cash flow stress, and growth decisions inside an MSP. We explore smart risk‑taking, realistic timelines for “overnight” success, and how to build an IT business that matches the life you want instead of someone else’s revenue goals. Melanie explains why fear around leaving a steady paycheck feels like mortal danger, and why that reaction is normal for MSP owners whose livelihood supports

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00:20:48

Maximizing SaaS Usage Visibility with ScalePad (EP 1041)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/07/03

This conversation starts with a confession: I’ve been living in Lifecycle Manager just for hardware reports and ignoring the big SaaS management piece sitting right in my Pro license. Ryan breaks down how ScalePad pulled in tech from their Produce8 acquisition to build a SaaS management layer that finally gives MSPs visibility into the cloud side of the stack—apps, users, time in app, and historical usage—so you can see what’s actually being used and what’s burning budget for no reason. We also zoom

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00:20:47

Automating MSP Payments with FlexPoint (EP 1040)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/07/03

I caught up with Victor Lopez from FlexPoint live at Pax8 Beyond in Salt Lake City to talk about one of the least‑loved parts of running an MSP: getting paid. Victor breaks down how FlexPoint sits alongside QuickBooks and your PSA to automate accounts receivable, from credit card and ACH payments to client self‑service through a portal, all while keeping your existing billing workflows intact. We get into cash‑flow friendly features like same‑day ACH funding, short‑term financing that lets clients

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00:24:40

Absolute Security Joins Pax8 (EP 1039)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/07/02

Gene Kim brings a channel-first perspective to Absolute Security’s move into the MSP space, after years of working as a reseller and service provider himself. He shares how Absolute grew from the “LoJack for laptops” days into a firmware-embedded platform already present in over 600 million devices worldwide, enabling location, geofencing, and security controls that don’t depend on the OS. We dig into real-world concerns MSPs have today: increasing attacks targeting providers, management tools being

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00:47:46

MSP Boundaries With Aggressive Vendors (EP 1038)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/07/02

I share some summer MSP war stories—court reporters with broken Wi-Fi, a small airport’s noisy digital logger, and my go-to Windows commands for quick network checks—and then I get honest about vendor behavior that crosses the line. From hidden billing and broken portals to reps calling my wife’s cell phone, I lay out what respectful partnership should actually look like in our channel. === Chapters 01:05 Show Kickoff and Summer Plans 05:00 Managed Switches Versus Real Problems 10:11 Airport

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00:21:44

Kim Simmonds Live: Stop Letting AI Write Contracts...

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/07/02

Kim Simmonds is back with me live from day three of Pax8 Beyond 2026, and we’re talking about what actually works when you mix AI, contracts, and MSPs. Cloud Contracts 365 uses AI where it makes sense—review and redlining—on top of contracts that are built the old‑fashioned way by lawyers who live in this world every day. We walk through how the platform leans on MSP-specific playbooks, machine learning, and LLMs to flag legal risk without letting the robot be the lawyer. Kim shares some of the wild

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00:28:32

Lessons From Pax8’s Ryan Walsh on SMB AI Adoption (EP...

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/07/01

I’m catching up with Ryan Walsh at PAX8 Beyond to talk venue vibes, partner trust, and what their latest SMB Pulse Report reveals about real-world AI adoption, spend, and results for small businesses. We unpack why so many AI projects get stuck in pilot mode, what MSPs are missing, and how to move fast with secure agents that clients can actually trust. This conversation starts with the shift from Denver to Salt Lake City and why the new convention center layout changes the feel of the entire event

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00:21:54

How Evergreen Scales MSP Acquisitions (EP 1036)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/07/01

I’m talking with Evergreen co-founder Ramsey Sahyoun about their Berkshire-inspired, buy-and-hold approach to MSP acquisitions and what makes their decentralized model stand out in a crowded M&A market. We dig into how Evergreen evaluates deals, supports owners who stay or exit, and why AI-driven automation and ERP consulting are becoming real revenue engines. Evergreen has quietly become one of the biggest players in MSP acquisitions, but they’re not running the typical private equity roll-up

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00:27:37

Why GTIA Matters For MSPs (EP 1034)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/07/01

We’re on the floor at Pax8 Beyond in Salt Lake City with GTIA leaders Dan Wensley and MJ Shoer, talking about ChannelCon 2026 in San Diego and what’s changed since the CompTIA transition. They share how GTIA rebuilt from zero infrastructure, doubled IT service provider attendance year over year, and is leaning into education, research, and community to deliver “more value to more members. We also dig into the new AI and innovation awards, the GTIA ISAO, and a major collaboration with Texas A&M to

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00:21:26

Cynthia Schreiner Talks MSP Community (EP 1033)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/06/30

Cynthia Schreiner joins me live at Pax8 Beyond to talk about her first year at Pax8, what makes their partner community feel different, and how she’s using AI and automation to transform event operations. Catching up with Cynthia at Pax8 Beyond 2026 in Salt Lake City, we dig into her move into the Senior Manager of Channel Engagement role, what it’s been like working alongside channel heavy hitters, and why this first Beyond feels so energizing for partners. We get into the real value of MSP

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00:23:09

Secure Business Communication with Traceless (EP 1032)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/06/30

Gene Reich from Traceless joins me live at Pax8 Beyond to walk through a fresh way MSPs can protect identity, data, and high‑risk business communications from modern phishing and social engineering attacks. We talk tools, workflows, and the realities of building a security product that respects the MSP business model instead of competing with it. This conversation starts with a simple question every MSP wrestles with: how do I really know who’s calling my helpdesk and how do I safely share passwords

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00:21:21

AI Automation for MSP Scalability with Pia (EP 1031)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/06/29

David and I sit down on Radio Row at Pax8 Beyond 2026 to talk about the real-world impact of AI automation on MSP operations and service delivery. David shares how Pia moved from educating the market pre‑ChatGPT to now serving a much more AI‑aware MSP community, and why waiting on the sidelines is a risky growth strategy if you want to keep up with demand. We walk through Pia’s Engage stack—PiaChat in Microsoft Teams and resolution‑driven smart forms that turn conversations and requests directly

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00:18:06

NSITSP Update: Taxes, Repair, Safe Harbor (EP 1030)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/06/26

Statehouses have been busy, and the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity at UC Berkeley found that in 2025 alone, state governments passed 99 cybersecurity-related bills, creating 393 new statutory requirements. Most of these new laws hit public schools, state agencies, cyber insurance policyholders, and critical infrastructure, which means your client base is becoming more regulated even if MSPs aren’t named directly in the statutes. I walk through how this shows up in your day-to-day work as new

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00:26:32

Rev.io - PSA Built Right (EP 1029)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/06/26

Brook Lee and I catch up in Salt Lake City and dig into why she joined Rev.io, how the company evolved from telco billing into an AI-first PSA platform, and what “good leadership” actually looks like from the vendor side. We talk about why most PSAs are still glorified ticketing systems, how that hurts sales, marketing, and finance, and why a modern platform has to be something the entire MSP can actually use without a 600-dollar-an-hour consultant. We also get into Brook’s unapologetically spicy

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00:54:55

Synology’s Trust Problem For MSPs (EP 1028)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/06/25

Synology has been a go‑to for a lot of us because of price, reliability, and that rich app ecosystem, but the recent changes around Active Insight, drive “compatibility,” and DSM 7.4’s storage efficiency are raising serious questions for MSPs. In this episode, I share what I’m seeing in production, how client quotes balloon when you go “all Synology,” and why these policy decisions feel less like engineering and more like a cash grab that erodes trust with partners. From there, I pivot into some

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00:18:50

Acronis GenAI Protection For MSPs (EP 1027)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/06/24

I’m live at Pax8 Beyond 2026 in Salt Lake City with Acronis Channel Chief Officer Alex Ruslyakov, breaking down how Acronis is protecting GenAI, simplifying MSP operations, and helping partners scale smarter. We talk AI security, automation, CyberFrame, and a new partner program that bakes business growth tools right into the Acronis platform. From there, we zoom out to the bigger Acronis platform strategy: automation, agentic AI, third‑party integrations, and a unified console designed to cut tool

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00:20:52

David Meister On Securing MSP AI (EP 1026)

Uncle Marv"s IT Business Podcast (Products, stories,... ·

2026/06/23

I caught up with David Meister from Check Point live at Pax8 Beyond to dig into what they’ve really been building for MSPs the last few years. You probably know them from Avanan on the email side, but David walks me through how Check Point has pulled together Avanan, Perimeter 81, Cyberint, and the Lakera AI security acquisition into a single, multi‑tenant MSP platform with consumption‑based billing, no minimums, and no lock‑ins. === Chapters 00:19 MSP AI Security Launch 02:03 Expanding Check

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