Back, back, back in the day…
Since we’re none of us together IRL this ITNation, I thought it only fitting to post our memories of all things ITnations (and a couple of just gratuitious Managed Sales Pros pics) from 2013 onwards (as that was our first one…)
Here are some of my memories from my first ITNation in 2013.
Arnie Belleni’s opening sequence. In 2013 I was an attendee, not a sponsor, and still didn’t know enough people to be invited to a party that went to 4 AM, so I still went to all the morning sessions. And frankly, this may have been my third or fourth channel event, and I was still blown away by the production quality that went in to them. I remember sitting in the audience being absolutely excited to be a part of the channel, even though I barely knew what the channel was at the time. I still get that feeling from time to time at well-produced events!!!
In 2013, Simon Sinek was the keynote. I was still “young, scrappy and hungry” and I hadn’t found my “why”, and I must have talked to any MSP at every conference reception who would give me five minutes. about our new cold calling business. We weren’t even CALLED Managed Sales Pros back then, we were called Cold Calls Lead Generation, and we weren’t even a managed services specific outbound company. Tracie hadn’t even joined the company yet. I hustled hustled hustled hustled hustled and hustled some more that year.
I was still breastfeeding this little monkey, so I had to bring along my nanny, April and her 3 year old son, and my little Charlie-bop. Charlie didn’t start sleeping through the night until she was five, so this was a rough ITNation for me. We went to Disneyworld afterwards.
Back in 2013, I sat through allllllll the how-to sessions, as we still did all of our calling and note taking in our clients instances of Connectwise, and I was hoping to learn how to do it better. One of the things we learned from Connectwise events is the only thing that isn’t scalable is exceptions – so we ditched Connectwise for another CRM and moved all of our clients onto OUR CRM. We did this because we wanted to train all of our callers to use one system in one way, and all of our managed services clients used Connectwise just a little bit differently, and if we couldn’t access their system for any reason, we couldn’t work, and if we couldn’t work, we couldn’t bill. So while ITNation taught us a lot about our client base, it also taught me a lot about running a monthly recurring revenue based services business.
My favorite picture from this event was a special moment at the Disneyworld Hallowe’en parade. Disneyworld became an annual tradition for us post-ITNation, and this particular trip wasn’t my first trip to Disneyworld, but it was April and Kort’s first trip to Disneyworld and it was absolutely magical for all of us. This picture is special to me because it may be ONLY picture of April’s son sitting still long enough for a snuggle – he loved everything about the magic of Disneyworld! (As do I….)
And for anyone who doesn’t remember what prospecting in Connectwise looked like waaaaaay back in 2013, it looked like this.
Stay tuned to the blog for 2014 through 2019….
And I hope you’re all as excited as I am to hear Gino Wickman speak this week!!! Thank you to Connectwise for making passes so affordable for virtual attendance this year – I hope all Connectwise partners support this event. I may not always see eye to eye with every vendor (and who does?) but I thought this was a magnificent gesture on their part – not all partners just starting out with Connectwise can afford the week of travel and the high attendance price for this show – this year, everyone can afford to go, and I hope everyone does!!!
You can still register here: https://www.connectwise.com/theitnation/connect-na