Episode 134: All Are Welcome

 

Transcript:

Rich: [00:00:00] Wanna know what the smartest people in the SMB channel are reading? Check out Channel Holic, the industry blog for me, veteran technology journalist and analyst Rich Freeman. Covering managed services, AI, cybersecurity, and M&A, Channel Holic delivers sharp analysis and insider perspectives trusted by MSP executives, technology vendors, and IT investors alike.

If you wanna understand where the channel’s headed next and why, check out Channel Holic at

www.channelholic.news.

And three, two, one, blast off, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another episode of the MSP Chat Podcast, your weekly visit with two talking heads talking with you about the services, strategies, and success tips you need to make it big in managed services.

My name is Rich Freeman. I’m [00:01:00] one of your co-hosts. I’m also the chief analyst at Channel Master, the organization responsible for this show. I am joined physically side by side, my favorite way to do this show, with your other co-host, who’s also our CEO and chief strategist at Channel Master. His name is Erick Simpson.

And Erick, I would ask you to tell the audience where we are, except if they’re watching on video, there’s a giant sign behind them that’s telling them

Erick: We are at GTIA’s ChannelCon 2026 event, Rich, in sunny San Diego, California, my backyard.

Rich: Your backyard, yes. I flew in, Erick took the train in with Riley Simpson, who produces these wonderful shows.

So this is GTIA’s big annual confab, the Chan- ChannelCon show. This is actually the second year in a row that this has been a GTIA event. ChannelCon was a

CompTIA event for many years in the past. Erick and I are regulars at those shows. But as folks will recall GTIA [00:02:00] and the CompTIA split ways. CompTIA went off as its own, became a training business. GTIA now is exclusively focused on community and and the channel, and this is their second big ChannelCon.

Erick: And big it is, Rich. It is, we are right next door to the San Diego Convention Center at the Marriott Marquis San Diego, and it is a giant facility. There’s a lot of folks here, a lot of vendors, a lot of partners, a lot of community hallway conversations, great sessions. It’s one of my favorite shows.

Rich: I totally agree. Look forward to it every year. And let’s let’s, It ties directly to our story of the week as well. So we are speaking to you right now midday on the first full day of the show basically. Yesterday there were some announcements in the, a general session from GTIA and we’re gonna get into the meat of some of what they discussed there in interview segments coming up later in the show.

So we’re gonna be joined by the chief community officer of GTIA MJ [00:03:00] Shaw. We’re gonna be joined by the CEO of the organization, Dan Wensley, to get the inside perspective on what they were talking about here. But I’m gonna give folks just my early 10 cents on what I’m hearing and sensing out of the event so far before we ask the GTIA folks themselves.

And so the announcements that we’ll get into more specifically later in the show, the ones that were most interesting to me, ’cause there were a, a bunch of announcements they made, but there are some AI related announcements in particular, some things concerning regulation and education and standards.

We’ll get into the details. The thing that really kinda struck me as I was digesting all of that news from the stage yesterday, a year ago at this time, it’s easy to forget, GTIA was officially 200 days old. It was a brand new organization and they spent a lot of their time at this show helping people understand what GTIA was, how it was different from CompTIA, how and why [00:04:00] the, the board was excited about what was gonna be possible for GTIA going forward.

And for those who don’t know, essentially CompTIA, sold the training business to private equity. That brought a massive amount of money into this community only nonprofit and put GTIA in a position to do some things for the channel and for the community that really nobody else is positioned to do so they were getting folks kinda charged up about that mission last year.

This is the first year that we’re actually starting to see how that’s gonna play out and get a feel for how those investments might actually make an impact. It will not surprise you at all that the, these big announcements that got my attention yesterday are all AI related. Erick and I both attended a, a, a sort of annual planning event that GTIA does in March for a smaller group of people, and they made it clear there that this AI [00:05:00] transition we’re in is huge.

It is massively challenging for for channel partners, for vendors. That is the, the chan- challenge and opportunity of our times, and so that was going to be the issue that they focused in on. And the stuff that they are announcing here at the show it are things basically that no other organization or kind of organization can do.

No vendor can pull this off. Certainly no M- MSP can do… it would be very difficult. There have been and are ongoing efforts to do this within the MSP community, but it’s a hard thing to do without the resources GTIA has. And so the again, we’ll get into the specifics, but they’re gonna work on setting up a self-regulation framework for the the managed services world here so that all the state and local governments and the federal government do not eventually, as we’ve been expecting for years, come in and impose rules written by people who aren’t really inside the [00:06:00] industry, don’t necessarily understand how it works.

Working with Texas A&M University, GTIA is gonna try to do that from an inside the channel perspective that will have credibility and gain acceptance with state and local governments and the federal government. And then there’s also a separate standards initiative that they’re working on that will actually kinda dovetail a little bit with the regulation framework.

In terms of what it means to be an MSP and the kind of business processes that you need to have and customer inter- interactions that you need to demonstrate that you can do this is stuff that we’ve been talking about in the channel for a long time And even the folks at CompTIA, were aware of these as cha- challenges and opportunities before.

But they’re in a position to do something about it now. They’ve got the the money and the resources to do that. They basically just put their toe in the water today. They announced intentions. It was not fluff, basically. They were very specific about [00:07:00] some very real and concrete initiatives that they’re executing here.

But those initiatives are just getting started. They’re gonna play out over some period of time. We’ll see what kind of impact they ultimately have. But it is an interesting down payment from the new CompTIA, from GTIA, in terms of the role that they can play in the channel that again, that they are uniquely positioned to play.

Erick: And I don’t think, Rich, I’m sure you’d agree, that there, there isn’t any other organization, single organization, that could pull this off. GTIA’s, mission is, bringing everyone together. It’s an industry association. It’s an organization that where everyone is welcome. Reminds me of what’s that line in oh my goodness Poltergeist, right?

All are welcome, right? All are welcome. And what we see here, and I’ve been a member of CompTIA since I had my IT practice, before it was even an MSP, so since 1997 if you [00:08:00] go back far enough, right? And it was one of those leading organizations that, we could come and not feel like we were on one side of a vendor relationship or another side of a vendor relationship.

Even the vendors come to participate and, join these groups that put these, these initiatives together. Everyone has a voice. We all feel like we’re Strengthening that, that MSP channel feeling of community that you and I have talked about many times on this show that you just don’t get in other industries, right?

It’s this rising tide lifts all boats. And, GTIA, with this funding that they’ve got, right? It’s not just having a mission, a vision, and a desire to do good. They now have the funding to really propel it. So it, right place at the right time.

Rich: And you made a really important point there.

I said before, no one else is really in the [00:09:00] right spot to do this, and I mentioned vendors. They’ve got money at vendors, right? And they’ve got resources, and no shortage of vision. But in order for regulation, self-regulation to work, in order for standards to work, everybody has to be part of the process.

Vendors, but absolutely the the, the MSPs and the resellers, and the entire industry kind of has to come together, and it has to be brought together by an organization with the credibility to act on the best interests, in the best interests of the channel, as opposed to just themselves or just a vendor and so on.

So that’s a big part. So yes, absolutely. They’ve got this great nest egg of money here and so on that they can draw on and great relationships and great volunteer resources. But it’s also just the fact that this is Switzerland basically for as close to, you know- Yep … for the channel as you get, and that’s essential in this scenario.

Erick: It makes it okay for competitive vendors to come together and work together [00:10:00] in this environment, where without GTIA that would be very difficult to do.

Rich: So your your tip of the week is perfect for this show, Erick, because like we said, they’re focusing in on AI. That is the issue of the moment.

Part of what makes it complicated for the channel is just how fast it’s changing. But let’s look beyond stuff that changes fast for just a few minutes.

Erick: Rich. And, again, pulling from my roots as an MSP, we MSPs, we get distracted by bright, shiny objects quite a lot. And this week’s tip of the week is all about, okay you’re trying to figure out AI, you’re trying to, chase what your clients want and respond and react to that.

But one thing that, that shouldn’t change are your business fundamentals. And sometimes when we’re running down a path at 100 miles an hour, we take the eye off the prize, which is making sure that we’re running a profitable, growing business. So I wanna bring everybody back [00:11:00] to some fundamentals and talk about the importance of identifying the things that need to be addressed financially from a team perspective, from a staffing perspective and just a couple of low-hanging fruit things that you and I talk to MSPs all the time about.

Sales, like the top one lead generation and sales and how they want that so badly because most MSPs, and there’s, the exception, but most MSPs are led by technical leaders, right? There are a handful of MSPs that I’ve worked with directly that are led by sales leaders, and guess who wins in the race to acquire more customers?

It’s typically the sales-led MSPs. So one thing that I’ve noticed, Rich, is MSPs will focus a lot of time, energy, effort, and money in making sure that their technical team are trained and certified, and that is [00:12:00] because they stand behind that work. But sometimes they fail to realize that the folks that are leading the sales initiatives need just as much, if not more, ongoing training for sales.

Just because you took a, a sales training course 10 years ago doesn’t mean you’re good. Continual sales training. I know myself, I’ve been through probably six or seven different sales trainings, and I still feed myself on- Things that I forgot, right? Going back and rereading some books or going back through some training and go, “Oh my goodness, yep, I used to do that thing, and I’ve let it go.”

And, sales is a process. There’s seven steps to it, and when you miss one of those steps or think, “I can shortcut it. I don’t need to really do that one ’cause it’s an existing client,” we miss promoting the value of our organization and, avoiding getting, negotiating on price.

So sales is just one thing, right? Financial governance, looking at the bottom line, understanding [00:13:00] our true cost of service delivery and how close we’re meeting our projected profit margins based upon looking at all of our customers, what it’s costing us to deliver service to them, and then what we are receiving in return from our invoices.

Sometimes there’s a big, you know, gap there, and MSPs are like everybody else. We’ve got clients that we’ve had for years, and they still haven’t been trued up to our current pricing model, so it makes it difficult the longer that we don’t do that kind of thing. And then keeping clients that we shouldn’t be serving anymore, clients that aren’t growing, clients that won’t subscribe to our, next gen cybersecurity offerings, those types of things.

So I just wanna bring the focus back to the basics of running a, a growing, profitable organization, so we don’t take our eyes off of that. And, one thing that I urge MSPs to think about when they see a new bright, shiny [00:14:00] object come across their desk, like AI, ask yourselves one question: Will this make us a better business or just a busier one?

Rich: Yeah. That is a great question to ask every time the, the next tool, the next something comes along. And two thoughts kinda came to mind as you were talking there. And first of all, this is never-ending ongoing work. ‘Cause like you were talking about, like you said, sales and sales training, you continue to refresh those skills over time.

We’ve spoken a ton of times on this show about how it’s a different kind of customer relationship, a different kind of outcome-oriented sales process. So that’s a perfect illustration of, making sure that you’re keeping the skills sharp in terms of the right way to sell. And then the o- other thing that popped into my head as you were talking there, ’cause you were talking about, really having a grip on fundamental KPIs around the business and keeping an eye on those.

And I was talking [00:15:00] earlier today with somebody here at the show who had used Claude. B- so C- Claude was plugged in via MSP to all of this company’s data, and so it was a relatively easy thing to basically say, “Create me a dashboard-

Dan: Yep …

Rich: that shows me these 10 things, and then every morning, update it for me at at 8:00 A.M.

so I can get a quick…” I- that it’s like you don’t have an excuse anymore, folks. If, i- you can’t afford the tool or it’s gonna be too hard to pull that view together it is easier than it has ever been to get a view on the fundamentals so that you’re paying attention.

Erick: And just imagine then taking that dashboard and showing it to a client and saying, “Hey, why don’t you let us build you a dashboard?”

And that begins that whole AI conversation, which then leads to first we gotta put some guardrails around the data and cybersecurity and all these other things. It, becoming customer zero is one thing, but becoming customer zero with AI to improve your own business [00:16:00] first, cherry on top of that ice cream.

Rich: All right. We’ve got more good stuff for you after that ice cream. We’re gonna take a quick break. When we come back on the other side, we’re gonna be joined by GTIA’s MJ Shoer and Dan Wensley for some insiders take on that organization, where it’s headed, what’s going on here on the sh- a- at the show.

Stick around. We’re gonna be right back

All right, and welcome back to part two of this episode of the MSP Chat Podcast, our spotlight interview segment where we are very pleased to be joined by one of the busiest people in the channel for the next 48 hours. His name is MJ Shoer. He’s the Chief Community Officer at GTIA, the organization hosting this fine event.

MJ, welcome back to the show. Thank

MJ: you. It’s good to be here with you both. Good to see you, MJ. Yeah, same.

Rich: So for the few people in our audience who are unfamiliar with you and unfamiliar with GTIA, just give them a quick [00:17:00] little overview of both those things.

MJ: Quick little overview. So I started an MSP in 1997 up in the Seacoast of New Hampshire, sold that about 11 years ago in 2015, and through all that, wound up here as GTIA’s Chief Community Officer.

But throughout the time I had the MSP, I was also a member of the organization, so I’ve got a, I’ve got a pretty unique set of lenses that I look at things through as a former member, as a former member of the board of directors, and now as a staff member. And so GTIA, for those who don’t know, is the Global Technology Industry Association.

We were formed after we sold the certification and training business of CompTIA, so our roots are as CompTIA. So we are a 44-year-old trade association at this point, but the GTIA name and brand is just a little over a year and a half old at this point, and our focus is on serving the IT channel. Our mission is to bring everyone together.

It’s where the IT channel connects and grows, [00:18:00] and the channel sure showed up this week at ChannelCon.

Rich: That’s for sure. And the particular way that you are serving the channel right now, and this makes perfect sense for a ton of obvious reasons, is around helping the channel through the AI transition.

MJ: Yep.

Rich: So yesterday at the show, you personally on stage announced several initiatives, AI-related initiatives going on. We wanna get into those individually. Okay. But before we do that, from a big picture point of view what is the unique role basically that you see GTIA performing in with respect to helping the channel through the AI transition?

Sure, sure.

MJ: So l- look we, over that 44-year history, we have seen numerous periods of change and evolution. The one thing that is a constant in this industry is change. And however, this particular curve or whatever you wanna call it, has all the hallmarks of being different from those that came before.

When it was cloud, we knew where it was going. When it [00:19:00] was cyber, we knew where it was going. AI, I think the big question is where is it going? Where is it going? You’ve got everything from the, the doomsayers who say AI is going to exterminate the human race that would be pretty awful, to those who say it’s going to destroy hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs, to those who are now backpedaling on that and saying, “Wow, we’re actually seeing job creation.

Oops, we got this wrong.” So there’s a lot of flux. There’s a lot of uncertainty That also breeds a tremendous amount of opportunity. So our role as a trade association is to help guide our members with actual real-world information to avoid that hype cycle. And look, as an industry, I think we’re coming out of the hype cycle finally and starting to see some practical applications of AI.

But our role is to help keep our members informed, help [00:20:00] answer the questions that they’re having, help facilitate them coming together, whether it’s in small groups locally or at a large event like this, to share knowledge, share concerns, share best practices, and navigate change. And this won’t be the last period of change, by a long shot.

Erick: So MJ, keeping on that theme of, the, the new unknown-

…

Erick: And educating the channel.

MJ: Yep.

Erick: You’ve announced a new alliance with your old friends at CompTIA and a new resource center.

MJ: Yep.

Erick: So what makes training and education from an industry organization like GTIA different than other types of training and education that are out there for partners?

MJ: Yeah, look, you k- I’m not gonna say that what we have to offer is better than other things that are out there, but we are laser-focused. We have one sole purpose in life- … and that is to serve our members and to help our members continue to grow profitable businesses and have positive impact [00:21:00] globally around the world.

I have a very out there existential view of what this industry really is all about, and it’s about changing lives. The, the hundreds of thousands of organizations that are delivering technology and IT services into the millions of businesses globally have the ability to change conditions on the ground where people live and work.

And what we’ve always known is that when opportunity and economic growth come into a country, a region, what have you, good forms of government are shored up or born. And when those things don’t happen, bad forms of government are born or take over. And so we have a moral ethical imperative as an industry to do everything we can to help make the world a better place.

So with that singular focus on helping that to happen, the education has a very [00:22:00] defined purpose to it. And so we will develop things that make sense to develop for our members, who are companies, and the hundreds of thousands of employees that they have, all of whom have access to our member benefits, or we’ll partner with the right organizations like our Longtime friends.

K- it’s like we, I don’t know, it’s like we like threw our sister out or something. I don’t know, but we still we still talk to each other. We still like each other. I- that’s a bad analogy. I gotta find a better one for that. But, it’s great ’cause we’ve got a couple CompTIA staff here who

And we’re all having this crazy reunion. “We miss you.” But look, CompTIA, nobody does technical certification for the individual better than CompTIA. So it only made sense for us to license the AI Essentials library and bring it to our members at no cost. It, why wouldn’t we? And then the other things we’re doing are all about helping the organizations and adapt to this.

So we will always endeavor to do the right thing for the right reasons. And if it makes sense to partner versus create, we will [00:23:00] partner, always.

Erick: Yeah. There’s a great responsibility that comes with the ability to deliver tho- those services- Yes … and build community.

MJ: Yep, yep. And look, we’re the big … the o- you asked what’s unique about GTIA, and what I would say is the, the other thing that is always unique, always has been, but we are the one neutral, unbiased, open tent.

We are a non-profit, but we understand our members are for profit. So we have a very unique ability to bring programs to the membership that help them be better businesses.

Rich: So e- to that exact topic the unique abilities that an organization like GTIA has, two of the things that you announced from the stage yesterday that are especially interesting have to do with topics really nobody else in the

Th- they’re important topics that almost no one else in the industry can deal with, regulations and standards.

MJ: Yeah.

Rich: So let’s start with regulations. Sure. Talk just a little bit about what it is [00:24:00] that you are now doing with Texas A&M-

MJ: Yep …

Rich: in terms of creating a self-regulatory organization.

MJ: Sure. So look, th- this is what a tr- this is what trade associations were built to do, right?

And I think historically we’ve kind of- I don’t know, danced a little on the edge of this but now with our defined purpose and singular focus just on the membership, we’ve got the ability to do some things that, that prior to might have introduced some complication into the equation.

Look we all understand that there’s no there is no professional standard accreditation in this industry. There’s no stamp that I can put that says, “Yes, you are…” W-look, when I started my business in ’97, you could make the argument, what business did I have starting that business? ‘Cause nobody stamped my credentials and said, “Hey, you’re qualified to do this.”

I was, but people took my word for it. We’ve heard through a couple of sessions today how critically important trust is now, more than ever, [00:25:00] and I think that is a real inflection point around this topic. State governments, federal governments around the world, the European Union as a consort- not consortium, a a grouping of governments.

Everybody’s looking at this. Nobody can figure out quite how to do it. And look, lawmakers, by and large, eventually will have technologists who decide to go into public service at some point and have the correct background to talk about these things. That doesn’t exist today, and it’s probab- it could take a generation for that to change, for all we know.

My gosh, I remember testifying before a House Select Committee at the, in the US Congress Maybe I’m gonna guess maybe it was like I’ll say 2007 I don’t think there’s much change in the types of questions that that, elected officials are asking in 2026. That is terrifying. So if we don’t act, the government eventually will act, and it [00:26:00] probably won’t be good for the industry because you’ve, you- you’ve heard it in the keynotes today.

You’ve got businesses that are two or three people, you’ve got businesses that are 200,000 people, and everything in between. And if the government comes in and tries to regulate this space and establish the professional standards, I fear for a significant percentage of the existing members that we have.

Will they be able to stay in business and meet those requirements? So we either lead it or we get led by it. So Texas A&M has experience doing this in other industries, and they’re bringing that expertise to the table, and members are stepping up and helping to fund the work that is going to need to be done because we need to pay Texas A&M to do the work, but they have the knowledge, they have the skill set, they have the resources.

They have a school of law. They have a school of government. They’re uniquely positioned. Obviously, they’re one of the largest public universities in the United States, but they also have very unique capabilities by having the Bush [00:27:00] Presidential Library there. Bush the dad, not the son. Although may- who knows?

Maybe they’ll co-mingle, but that’s a different story. But they’ve got the infrastructure to work with regulators, work with legislators, and have us as an industry present the roadmap, and the goal is to have government look to that work and say, “You know what? That checks the box. We don’t need to write laws, but we can just put out that if you need to hire an outsourced IT service provider, they need to be accredited by the Industry Trade Association and verify that they can secure your business properly.

They can help you implement AI responsibly and securely.” You’ve heard it talked about over the last 24 hours about the criticality of the state of data, the criticality of securing it more so than ever. AI and security, you might as well just call it AI security or, I don’t know, some ac- [00:28:00] somebody will come up with an acronym, God help us, but they’re forever intertwined.

You cannot separate them for now ever forward. So we’ve got to do that, and it’s better to do it as an industry, and there are many other industries that have done this and have benefited by it: aviation, motion pictures, you name it. So the goal is to raise the respect and the credibility of this industry to all the other industries that are out there that have an accreditation to assure the end customer that you’re buying from the right type of organization.

Erick: MJ, you and GTI are no strangers to dealing with complex issues and topics and Have a history of, including lots of different people in these kinds of initiatives. So can you double-click into the, the approach to additional folks being included? Who’s gonna be included or invited to participate in helping design the SR?

I know Texas A&M you mentioned, but- Yep, yep … like from the community, [00:29:00] give us your thoughts on that.

MJ: Yeah so look we’re we’re recruiting funding partners to help, pay for this over the next several years. We’ve got several vendors, several MSPs that are organizations that are on board and more joining.

We’re gonna get that group assembled, and then we’ll make a- we’ll do a nice press announcement and share all of the parties that are doing that. But the key is, again, because we are a trade association, every GTIA member will have a seat at the table, just like the three of us right here, on what’s going on.

So as the work streams are developed, as work is happening, as research is being done, as model legislation is being written, all of that, GTIA members will have the opportunity to review it and give their input. Because again, we have to do it as an industry. Let’s be very candid about it. My MSP back in the day would not be able to step up to the table and fund this.

We weren’t, at that point in time, we just weren’t making enough money to do it [00:30:00] overall. It would be a significant expense item. So yes, the larger organizations are gonna help do that, but we’re ensuring that every organization gets access to the work early and has the opportunity to provide input so that it truly is representative of what the industry not only needs, but wants.

So we definitely wanna make sure that this work is done thoughtfully and as a way to bolster and improve businesses, not threaten businesses, and that’s the big worry. If we don’t do it, whatever gets done will threaten businesses.

Rich: Before we lose you, Andy, one last thing. So regulation. Yep. You announced some exciting things about regulation.

The other issue you’re taking on that really only an organization like GTI can theoretically is standards.

MJ: Yes.

Rich: So give us a quick overview of the Managed Intelligence Alliance.

MJ: Yeah. I just … So the alliance is terrific, and they’re very parallel and complementary initiatives. So we fully expect that the work of the alliance will back [00:31:00] right into the work of the consortium, meaning the standards that the alliance produces are very likely to become part of the accreditation framework and model on the regulatory side, just like our cybersecurity trust mark will be part of that.

So the Managed Intelligence Alliance is to address the fact that there are no standards around the delivery of AI services right now. And as we’ve been talking about, there are a lot of concerns about the underlying data that AI has access to, the prompting that people are putting into AI and not always into Guarded models but into public models.

We heard stories this morning about significantly private financial information being leaked publicly through an innocent prompt by an employee on a non-approved AI tool. All of the issues we’ve dealt with for so long now, security, shadow IT, uni- It’s all converging around AI. But there are no [00:32:00] standards for that.

So the Managed Intelligence Alliance will create the standards, and every GTIA member has a seat at that table. So again, there, there are founding members that will set the governance for the alliance. We’re hiring a director for the alliance. GTIA is making a significant investment in this.

We’ve got a group of vendors, distributors, MSPs, all standing up and doing the, all of the governance work to put the alliance in place, and then all members will have access to the alliance work streams and work products with the goal of creating credible, scalable standards around the delivery of AI services like we have today around the delivery of many other types of technical services.

So it’s a super exciting time. And yeah it’s a terrific… there’ve been– I mentioned it yesterday from the stage, there’ve been so many examples of this over our forty-four-year history. Members came to the table to create the A+ [00:33:00] certification, which created the certification business that created the sale that, that has endowed GTIA.

It’s just, it’s such a great evolutionary example. The ISAO came from a member who said to, the association’s the only place for, for this to live. PAX8, they did a great job defining what managed intelligence what the whole concept of managed intelligence is, and they recognized that GTIA was the right place to suggest forming an alliance to build these standards.

So that, that’s membership at work, right? That is membership doing what membership does best. It’s a trade association doing what a trade association does best, and every member will benefit

Rich: Yeah. MJ, thank you so much- You’re very welcome … for taking some time. This was actually very clarifying and helpful.

Good. I understand both initiatives better.

MJ: I’m glad.

Rich: For folks who wanna get in touch with you and maybe learn more about what we’ve been discussing- Yeah … where could they go?

MJ: Look, I’ve got the easiest email in the channel. It’s [00:34:00] M-J-S-H-O-E-R @gtia.org. It’s just my name @gtia.org. So anyone’s welcome to, to drop me an email.

You can always go to membership @gtia and just pop a quick inquiry in. It’ll make its way to the right people or r- if, certainly, if it’s not me. But yeah, happy to talk with anyone. This is what I do. And we’re building some great things here.

Rich: All right. Fantastic. Thank you very much, Thank you, Joe

MJ Shoer. We- Pleasure … appreciate having you on the show. Folks, Erick and I are gonna take a break. We’ll have more coming to you live from GTIA ChannelCon 2026 in just a moment.

Welcome back again to part two of this episode of the MSP Chat Podcast, our second spotlight interview segment where we are very pleased to be joined by the other busiest person- … at this event this week. We spoke with MJ Showrer a little bit earlier. And now we are speaking with Dan Wensley, the CEO of GTIA.

Dan, welcome to the show.

Dan: [00:35:00] Thanks, Rich. Thanks for joining us here at ChannelCon.

Rich: I really appreciate you taking the time ’cause there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on, and you’re the guy to talk about it with. Before we dive into that I’m gonna assume by this point in the show people know what GTIA is and what it’s about.

From your perspective as the CEO, what makes GTIA unique in the channel?

Dan: Yeah. There’s a lot of unique features as the nonprofit trade association for the global IT channel. A few of those things are inherent in our name, being the association being a nonprofit. As a 30-year member of this organization myself, what makes it unique is this is the neutral ground always where this industry comes together, takes on challenges, talks about challenges, works together to better the entire industry as well as either our individual businesses, our own careers, our own growth, our own comprehension of what’s going on in the marketplace, and this is the neutral place to do it.

We as [00:36:00] GTIA attend literally hundreds of other events throughout the year. All are outstanding and are needed but this is the place where we come together to work in a neutral environment together.

Rich: So a year ago at this time at ChannelCon GTIA was approximately 200 days old.

Dan: Yes.

Rich: By my math, that makes you about 565 days old-

At this point. So with the passage of time looking back at that last year since the last ChannelCon- Yeah … where would you say you guys have made the biggest impacts m- made the most progress?

Dan: Yeah, so we, in, in taking on this job myself a little over a year ago, GTIA rebranded January 9th of 2024.

So we’re… A couple of initiatives were really important to the board and myself in taking this role. The, at the top of that mandate was to deliver more value to more members, and that doesn’t mean just more content, and that doesn’t just mean more members but it means the [00:37:00] impact that we have on our members and to grow the number of members to add more voices.

So we sat down as an executive team, and frankly as the entire GTIA team, along with our members, and said, “What are the foundational pillars we wanna build this association on?” And first for me has always been people. The- what I’ve gained out of this from a relationship standpoint, we’ve talked a lot about it here at ChannelCon, it starts with the people making sure that we’ve got the right people in the room.

So building the people, making sure that we’ve got the people involved in this trade association as a member, as an active voice is vitally important and I’ll share some of the results of that, we’ve had with that. The second is the resources that we develop. Are they the right ones? Are they the needed ones?

Are they, most importantly, being utilized? So we’ve made a huge effort to frankly market or communicate the great resources that this organization has always delivered, as well as if it needs funding, we fund it, increase it, and if it’s not gonna get [00:38:00] used or not supported into the market we’ve stopped doing it.

The second is the community aspect. This is, this entire industry, because we’re in technology innovation, because we’re the channel, it requires us to come together and work independently together as a membership organization and group. And the fourth pillar that we put in place was actual advancement, to take ownership of return on investment from a member, and that can be making that personal connection.

That can be one of our research reports that helps guide your business. That can be just being involved in the community, but making sure that advancement is a part of it. So what your question was, how have we, d- done over that period of time, we have seen incredible growth in all of those areas that I’m extremely proud of.

Last year at ChannelCon we talked about share the vibe and that, that will continue to permeate everything we do because this community is about the vibe. This year, we talked about the channel effect. This is the [00:39:00] largest ChannelCon ever done. We had 600 MSPs join us. We had 145 vendors all neutrally located in a great technology fair.

Our curriculum and our content was all curated by our members, what they wanted to see. So we’ve hit great numbers, growth, what we do with TTIM location and coverage. We have a long way to go, but I’m super proud on foundationally the activities that we’ve done as a trade association that’ll set the stage for even greater growth in the future.

Rich: So two of the most interesting things that you announced here at the show at the show are the self-regulatory organization initiative with Texas A&M and the Managed Intelligence Alliance, and I wanna get into both those with you individually. But outside of those one of the opportunities for you guys coming out of the separation from CompTIA is you guys have a pretty sizable endowment which creates all sorts of possibilities for you in terms of what you can do for and within the channel.

Are there any [00:40:00] examples outside of those two I, I just named from the last year where you’re really starting to put that money to work and get some impact from it?

Dan: Yeah. A couple of ways. So we do the big, grand announcements that we’ll talk about, and those initiatives are so gonna be vitally important on a global scale, but I- let’s talk about the local.

One of the things I’m really proud of is we launched our local chapters. One thing we heard from members immediately is, “I love what I get out of this membership and this association and community. We need more of it,” especially in this day and age. The speed of advancement, I’m sure you’ve covered it.

You have well. It, this transition period is happening so rapidly. There may… My opinion is there is no more important time to come together and to be communicating and collaborating as an industry. So our local chapter program has set up a framework so that we can allow local chapters to open immediately.

Don’t wait for ChannelCon. Don’t wait for your Spotlight Awards. Don’t wait for all these other great things that we’re known for and do well. Let’s start meeting on a [00:41:00] quarterly or monthly basis locally a- and having these conversations. Take the research we’re delivering, have conversations as peer a- MSP to MSP.

We’ve opened the floodgates for that. And before announcing it, we had 16 local chapters around the world, four of which I believe, or I’m sure MJ shared with you, have already met and we announced it here at ChannelCon. So the membership immediately said, “Yes, this is what we need. I can’t wait for the big event at ChannelCon.

This is happening so rapidly.” So I’m really proud and excited about the reaction we’ve had. But those peer groups and those local chapters are really gonna accelerate and bring those voices to ChannelCon annually

Rich: Regulations and standards, the self regulatory organization, the Managed Intelligence Alliance, both of those are addressing issues that have been longstanding, long-known needs in the channel.

And it strikes me that you guys diving in to [00:42:00] address those right now it reflects maybe a moment of maturity within the channel, that the channel has reached a point where it really is ready to get serious about both of those, and maybe even maturity for GTIA in terms of it being ready to wade into those two complex issues.

Dan: Yeah, couldn’t agree with you more. We- you’ve covered this well. We’ve had these conversations for years, if not decades, about anybody able to hang out a shingle and call themselves an MSP. We… It really escalated when cyber became so, so vitally important to the SMB market and to our industry a- and MSPs.

Now it, we have to do it or it will be thrust upon us. And one of the obligations we have as the Global Trade Association is to help the members come together and set those standards as the industry before other regulatory entities, whether it be government, state, local, or federal, come and start de- deploying it upon us.

We this case study has worked [00:43:00] very well and proven in many industries, and our industry hasn’t had it. There is no other organization to put that together. Now, the question was how, right? So we have the funding. How do we do it? The opportunity to partner with Texas A&M and their facility and their framework, ’cause they’ve done this for other industries before, again, is a, is an act of maturity.

Let’s not try to do it on our own. We need our members. We need the voices. They will be a part of it, but now we have a partner in Texas A&M U- University who has the wherewithal the, the processes to go to governments once we build this for them. And ultimately, GTIA will hold the standards for the industry that, again, will benefit all of us.

Rich: And the ability to work with a Texas A&M on this, this kinda goes back to the endowment as well ’cause that they don’t work for nothing. So you’ve gotta have the financial heft to forge that kind of relationship with them, and then in doing so, give yourself a much greater [00:44:00] chance of success.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. And our board got right behind this. So we brought it to them. We’ve had board members, Kimberly Penn, who’s on our board, has been down to Texas A&M University twice. She’ll be joining us in October when we do our first formalized meeting. And they really supported this initiative. We have a p- pretty robust, smart, intelligent, leading edge group of board members.

They, as you have, as I have, talked about this for years. And you’re right, this is the opportunity to do it, and we’re really confident in the framework that we’re gonna be able to deliver it on.

Rich: On the standard side of the the Managed Intelligence Alliance, there are a lot of different kinds of standards that could potentially come out of an organization like that.

What are your hopes for the, the, the kinds of standards that organization will build? Does a lot of it come back to not really being able to hang that shingle up and call yourself a managed intelligence provider?

Dan: Yeah. The alliance that we stood up is going to set all those ideas.

We are in our first stages. We had a [00:45:00] phenomenal partner and member in Pax8 who said, “Look, this needs to be done.” That voice was loud and they really beat the drum on it. Again, we took it to the board and said, “We all agree that this needs to get done and we are putting the real dollars behind it.

We’ll be hiring internally at GTIA to support it, as well as supporting it financially out in the market.” The alliance itself those members who participate in its formation in the… will set what’s the priority. Does it need to be standard? It’ll also work in lockstep a lot with the SRO project, because ultimately how we manage intelligence and AI will obviously have a piece to play in the SRO project as well.

But they need to be done independently but to, to collaboratively, and we’re excited about that. That will be determined by our members. Our job here is to support it both financially and structurally, and that’s what the board is committed to do. So we’re excited about that one.

Rich: Yeah. No, you have the the resources financially to [00:46:00] spearhead both of these.

And then you also have the, the membership and the relationships and the connection within the channel. Talk a little bit both on the regulation side and the standards side about how the fact that it’s GTIA that’s driving this will e- enable the voice of the channel to be heard, the the channel partners themselves to participate in this process.

Yeah.

Dan: And we’ve done it before. This isn’t this isn’t unique. This is how CompTIA got started with A+. This is how the ISO came to GTIA. It was originally a member organization in ConnectWise who’d start, stood up the ISO and realized that as a, a single vendor or member in this industry, it was going to be better supported with GTIA or the, or CompTIA at the time in a trade association environment.

So we have a good track record of being able to do this. And now with, with what we can do on the funding side and the structure side, it’s the, it’s time we take on these projects.

Rich: All right. Dan you’ve been very generous with your time. I really appreciate it. Thank you very [00:47:00] much for having us here at the show.

It’s been a good one. Yeah. So we really appreciated it. Folks, we are going to take a quick break here. When we come back on the other side, I will be rejoined by Erick. We will share some final thoughts about these conversations with Dan Wensley and MJ Shoer as well as the show, have a little fun, wrap up the episode.

Stick around. We’re gonna be right back

And welcome back to part three of this episode of the MSP Chat Podcast, coming to you live in San Diego, California, from the 2026 GTIA ChannelCon Conference. Wanna last thank you both to Dan Wensley and MJ Shoer for joining us. You have no idea how much demand there is for their time at this show today and tomorrow and yesterday we appreciate them taking some time out for us.

I found both conversations were were great. I found the one with MJ especially helpful because as I [00:48:00] said earlier in the show, I was in the audience, I was kinda taking in these announcements about the standards initiative and the self-reguli- regulatory organization initiative.

Very interested in both, but they had a lot of ground to cover in a relatively short amount of time, so we really only got kind of a high-level view of what that was about. And hearing about it from M- MJ really did reinforce for me what we were talking about at the top of the show in terms of what an organization like GTIA that is m- focused exclusively on the channel and the community and what’s good for the community and has the resources to pour into that can do.

It, they announced we’re gonna be working with Texas A&M on this, and I figured, great they probably know something about SROs at Texas A- A&M. Now I feel like I’ve got a better understanding. They made the decision that the right way to approach this regulatory issue which is out there, looming over the channel, is to find someone who’s really good at [00:49:00] building SROs and partner with them.

So it wasn’t just that they had relationships at Texas A&M University. Texas A&M, it turns out, according to MJ, is an organization that is particularly good and has particularly good experience creating SROs. And GTIA, with support from its members, has the budget to hire the best, Texas A&M, to work on that with them and really increase their odds of success there.

And then again, on the Managed Intelligence Alliance where they’ve got reach into the community. They’ve also got a very strong relationship with PacSafe, which is anchoring that initiative. But again they’ve got the the wherewithal and the budget and the vision to come up with and execute the right way to do this thing that a lot of people would like to do, but it’s very difficult to do.

So that, that was very helpful context for me, and it does, w- again, like I said before, we’ll see how it plays out, but it gives me a little more [00:50:00] confidence that maybe both these things do work out in a way that is helpful for the industry.

Erick: Yeah. And you heard exactly what we were talking about in in the beginning part of our conversation today, Rich, is just how, agnostic and inclusive GTIA is to bring in…

they’ll pick the right partners to lead some of these initiatives, but every GTIA member has an opportunity to contribute as well and provide their opinions and feedback. And, you just don’t get that type of a universe of partners across all vertical markets they’re serving, across all vendors, across all solutions they’re specializing in.

It is a very, the most representative group of folks that you’ll find in, you know, in our community.

Rich: And I really enjoyed hearing that answer from MJ, ’cause it was something that I was wondering a lo- about a little bit. Obviously, it’s very much in the spirit of [00:51:00] GTIA to be inclusive in that kind of process.

But I was just wondering how inclusive, would they be. Would there be, like, a feedback period? But I very much like the direction that they’re going in where and, all are welcome who are interested in being a part of that process, and that’s great.

Erick: Yeah. And it didn’t surprise me.

I’ve been involved in helping, craft some of the managed services certification, things like that. And it was al- and some of the working groups, you and I have both participated back in the CompTIA days and some of those working groups and delivering products and assets for the members.

And I’ve always felt very included and, and appreciated, during the whole… all of those engagements

Rich: All right. Folks, that leaves us with time for just one last thing. And this week, in honor of our location in sunny southern California, this is a story that’s coming to us from the beach, and it’s actually, it’s a little bit like classic MSP chat because folks you might remember if you are a, a longtime member of our [00:52:00] audience here episode 96 was entitled Surfjacked. That was in honor of a news story involving a, an otter, a surfing otter that loved surfing so much that it was stealing surfboards.

We’re going back to animals and surfing again because recently in Pacifica, California, in the northern part of their state, they held the 10th Annual World Dog Surfing Championship. Did not know such a competition existed. For anyone out there, I will just say i- if you’re thinking the idea of putting a dog on a surfboard is the kinda thing that the humans would be into and maybe the dogs wouldn’t, we- we’ll link to a news story about this competition with some photographs.

Check out the photos. These dogs are into it. And there’s a little bit of of evidence for that in the story here. The third place finisher in this year’s competition is a miniature pinscher named Rusty. Rusty became a surfer at four months of age. His human put him on a surfboard just to take a picture, and Rusty [00:53:00] didn’t wanna get off.

And then Rusty just started learning how to ride waves apparently. So who knew? Dogs, they’re just like people. They love to surf.

Erick: Love that story.

Rich: Folks, we love all the stories we’ve been gathering here at the ChannelCon conference. We’re actually gonna have an interview segment for you in next week’s show that was also recorded here at ChannelCon, so a little bit more ChannelCon goodness coming to you in a week’s time.

Until then, we’ll simply remind you that this is both a video and an audio podcast, and that means that if you are listening to us right now but you’d like to check us out on video, go to YouTube, look up MSP Chat. If you’re watching us but you’re into audio podcasts, go to Spotify, Google, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts look up MSP Chat there.

You’re gonna find us there, too. Wherever and however you find us, please subscribe, rate, review. It’s gonna help other people enjoy the show just like you do. This show is produced by the great Riley Simpson, part of the team with us here at Channel Mastered, where we work with vendors to [00:54:00] build, grow, optimize thriving MSP channels.

You can learn about all the many ways we do that at our website, which is located at www.channelmastered.com. Channel Mastered has a sister organization called MSP Mastered. That is Erick and his team working directly with MSPs to help them grow and optimize their business. You can learn more about that at their website.

That’s www.mspmastered.com. So once again, we thank you very much for joining us. We’re gonna see you in a week. Until then, please remember, as we always urge you to, you can’t spell channel or ChannelCon without [00:55:00] MSP