Joey Pinz Discipline Conversations

#864 Nable Empower 2026: Frank Colletti - Scaling MSP Success in a Changing Tech Landscape 🚀

• Joey Pinz • Episode 864

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What does it take to scale in today’s fast-changing MSP and cybersecurity landscape? In this episode, Joey Pinz sits down with a global tech leader to explore how MSPs can adapt, grow, and lead in an era defined by AI, cyber threats, and increasing competition.

From real-world ransomware scenarios to the evolving role of AI tools like Copilot, this conversation highlights how technology is reshaping decision-making, customer relationships, and operational strategy. The discussion also dives into why traditional high-volume sales tactics are losing effectiveness—and how peer-to-peer engagement and in-person experiences are becoming the new competitive advantage.

Beyond business, this episode brings a personal edge—covering routines, health challenges, and the importance of balance while managing global teams and family life.

💡 Top 3 Highlights:

  • ⚡ How AI is transforming MSP operations and decision-making 
  • 🛡️ The real risks keeping cybersecurity leaders up at night 
  • 🤝 Why relationship-driven sales outperform volume outreach 

This episode blends leadership, growth strategy, and personal accountability into one practical conversation for anyone building or scaling a tech-driven business.

 

 

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Join us for enlightening discussions that spark growth and exploration. 

Hosted by Joey Pinz, this Discipline Conversations Podcast offers insights and inspiration.

 

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Discipline. How does it play a role in your life? How does it drive your decisions? Do you have too much or too little? Every profession, hobby, or passion requires a level of discipline. I have used it in weight loss (+130 lbs.), family death, and found a +25 year business. Am I an expert? Absolutely not! Please join me, as I speak to interesting people and find out how discipline affects their career, life, goals, and decisions. Join me as I talk to interesting people in: #Health, #Fitness & #Wellness: #Business, #Technology & #Science: #Art & #Culture: Website: joeypinz.com All social media @TheJoeyPinz Do you wish to Sponsor? Get the prospectus here: www.joeypinz.com/sponsor

 

 

 

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SPEAKER_00

Enable Empower 2026. What a great event. First time I've ever gone. I was invited by their excellent leadership team. Sold-out event there in Fort Lauderdale were 650 MSPs, great talking tracks, great keynotes. Like I said, the leadership was great. They had this whole nerd area. It was like a cafe kind of area where people can go in and get some help. It was just set up really, really well. Leadership was incredible. MK and Nadia, you know, that helped me and a couple other podcasters that were there as well, but just an incredible event. Was able to have five great conversations. Started off with Nadia, of course, Carasteros and why community wins in the MSE world. I've had the pleasure of knowing Nadia for quite a while now, 15 years. Great for the community. She's just uh really energetic. Great, great conversation. The CEO, John Pagliuka. We have a lot of common. Uh in common, John and I, of course, were uh big Manchester City fans. It was announced at this event that Enable has partnered with them, the official sponsor of their cybersecurity there, the CTO of uh Man City was speaking on stage with John, uh building resilience businesses like a championship team. Vikram Ramesh. Great conversation with Vikram, the CMO. He has an engineer back background, and now he's completely uh in this role now and and and loving it. Really engaging conversation. I enjoy talking to marketing uh people from engineer to storyteller, winning in the AI era. And Stephanie Hammond, oh, what a delight. I got to meet Stephanie when I was there. Um, and she ran the whole Nerd Cafe there. Really interesting insight, turning trust into revenue for MSP growth. Been with Enable. I think she was like number 109 employees, something like that, 105, and there's well over 1900 employees now. Uh great conversation with Stephanie, lots of energy. Um forward to uh working with again with her again in the future. And last but not least, Frank Coletti. Um, another person I have a lot in common with. Um, he is uh scaling MSP success in a changing tech landscape. A lot in common with Frank and a really great conversation, really engaging. The leadership, like I said, team there was tremendous. Really enjoyed my time at Empower 2026. Hi, I'm Joey Pins. And here's my 45-second introduction. After starting my business in the 90s, I started developing poor habits of eating in my diet because I was working way too much. Before you know it, I found myself 340 pounds. The doctor told me if I don't lose the weight, I'm not gonna see my daughter graduate. Took the next seven months, lost 130 pounds. People think there's some secret. Ask me, how'd you lose that weight? Like there's some secret. There is no secret. How'd I lose the weight? Just one word. Discipline. I've had other successes in life, and I attribute them all to discipline. Now I'm not the king of discipline, but I believe that it can help all of us. Friends, colleagues convinced me to start a podcast. The podcast mission: how do we better ourselves and society? I talk to interesting people in health, fitness, sport, wellness, business, technology, science, art and culture. And I eventually asked them how discipline plays a role in their life. Podcast vision, growth through learning from others.

SPEAKER_01

So you haven't had a double espresso yet? I've had two espresso, two singles, so that would count as a double espresso.

SPEAKER_00

I've been told that you're known to have some.

SPEAKER_01

I do single espresso. I see. Not doubles. And how do they help? Um, I do two in the morning, two in the afternoon. Is that right? Yeah, small coffee. Yeah. I don't need a ton of it. I say. Just a little bit.

SPEAKER_00

And if you go without it, what happens? Nothing. I say. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01

I say. I just like to have a little espresso. Good for part of my life. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah, exactly. Not too much coffee, not not too little. What's the favorite club in the bag? That's an interesting question. Uh, there's a love-hate relationship with um the driver. Huh. It's normally good to me, but some days it's not. But I have to say, my favorite club is a FiveI.

SPEAKER_00

In this fast-paced MSP landscape, how do you stay ahead? Introducing MSP Influencer.com, your ultimate hub for MSP news, insights, and community connection powered by Forza Dash. More than 75,000 MSP subscribe to our MSP Influencer Pulse weekly newsletter. Staying informed and ahead of industry trends. Tune in to emerging podcasts from Joey Pins and leading MSP voices, offering essential tips, powerful insights, and success stories. Explore our multi-authored vlogs crafted specifically for MSP leaders, delivering fresh perspectives and actionable strategies. Celebrate excellence with the industry leading Forza Dash MSP Influence Awards, recognizing innovation, leadership, and impact in the MSP community. Join thousands of MSP professionals who trust MSP Influencer.com to grow their business and expand their networks. MSP Influencer.com, where today's MSP leaders connect, collaborate, and conquer, all powered by the Forza Dash platform, helping MSP vendors work effectively with MSPs and helping MSPs grow. A five.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because it's it can help you with a lot of tricky shots. It can. If you gotta keep it low. Yeah, if you want it to roll, sometimes you need it to just roll up up onto the green. Yeah. So yeah, it's a it's it's it's a it's one of my favorite moves. A full five or like a pop. Full five. I like hitting a full five.

SPEAKER_00

Wow. Yeah. And so you're hitting your five 200? No, I wish. 180? Maybe 185 to 500. 185, 190. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I usually you I usually will use it to let it roll an extra 10 or 15 yards. I see.

SPEAKER_00

If there's no bunkers, you want it to chase.

SPEAKER_01

No, but that's when I use it, is when I don't want to use my hybrid or something because the hybrid might be the spray is a little spray might be a little bit too much. I say.

SPEAKER_00

I say. Has has golf benefited your life or hurt it?

SPEAKER_01

Um both in the same round. Mentally it keeps me sane because it keeps me grounded. Yeah. Um, I absolutely love doing it. Yes. Um, it's challenging from a work perspective and a family perspective. So I'd say that's probably the downside. However, I could be at the golf course playing every day.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um and I think physically it keeps you in great shape. It does.

SPEAKER_00

But you're in Ottawa, correct? Yeah, that's correct. So seven months of golf? Eight months?

SPEAKER_01

That's exactly right. Yeah. Thank you. But I have a special place I go to in the DR. And we hit that two to three times just during the winter. Very nice. And then that way it could keep the club swinging. And then we got these things called trackmans and indoor simulations which are nothing like it, but it it allows you to swing.

SPEAKER_00

What's that Tooth of the Shark? Or is that Porto? Tooth of the Dog. Tooth of the Shark. That's right. You're close. That's good. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I don't think I've ever played in in DR. Uh it's very cool. Yeah, I can imagine.

SPEAKER_01

It's right along the coast. There's eight holes right along the coast. But they got a better course there called Die For. And it's right on the Chivon River, and it's got this amazing cliff, and you're playing on the cliff. So many undulations and um very unforgiving. But forgiving if you hit the ball in the right spot. Or if you really get the roll in the right way.

SPEAKER_00

I I I try to talk people out of golf when they say, you know, I should start. I say, are you sure? You know, I mean, yeah. Because it's wonderful, but it'll keep you up at night.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. It does.

SPEAKER_00

It's time consuming, like you said, the family, it's expensive.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, all of the above. But there's just this addiction when you hit the ball the right way. Oh, it'll tempt you. You see the tracer in your brain, and it's like, oh my god, I did that. Okay. I just gotta repeat it. That could be good. And then you figure it out, and then you didn't. And you go home all depressed. But you go back again the next day for the next beating.

SPEAKER_00

I I would take some uh new hires, like high-level hires, and I'd take them out on 18 holes, and you could tell a lot by a person by by after 18 holes. You know, are they a club thrower? You know, do they how do they react after a bogey? How do they react after a birdie? You know, you could just tell a lot a person just because it comes out there. The truth comes out and those and and those and that green.

SPEAKER_01

I got all kinds of different friends that operate in different ways on the course. It's such an emotional roller coaster. Really, really I laugh at yeah, you gotta stay level-headed. You do. Short memory. Gotta forget. Look at the masters, look at the ending of that masters. I mean. Absolutely incredible. Stay focused.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And the analogies go on forever, right? You never have the same lie, right? It's just like life. You know, play it as it lies, right? You know, you can't.

SPEAKER_01

You'd love to pick it up and clean it. Sure, sure, sure. It's not possible. So drop it, yeah. And drop it nicely. Oh, I'm impeded by no, you're not. You're gonna leave it right there. Hit it off the car path. Oh, that's really good. I don't do that.

SPEAKER_00

I try not to do that. Yeah, yeah. By the way, you talk about the masters. Did you hear about the um the cyber attack, what they did, uh the ransomware? So when you go to the have you ever been?

SPEAKER_01

Not to the masters, no. Wonderful. Yeah, I've been in four years. I got to go to the U.S. Open and the Ryder Cup this year, but not the Masters.

SPEAKER_00

The Ryder Cup, yeah, that was something. Long Island there, yeah. They don't allow your cell phones there at the Masters. So you're there all day without your cell phones. So what some of these bad actors did is they found out who the significant other was of the person that was there, contacted them and said, Hey, they're in jail. We need $5,000 to bail them out. And they couldn't be contacted to validate it. So the Augusta Police Department got hundreds of calls saying, is this legitimate? Is this really happening? And how did these bad actors find out that these people had were at the masters? Through social media. Incredible. Well, think about that. Think about how quite that's very sophisticated. Very sophisticated. Very sophisticated, and they had no way to defend themselves. How's the espresso?

SPEAKER_01

Average.

SPEAKER_00

What makes a good espresso?

SPEAKER_01

The bitterness and the strength. It's a little watered down. I call it the click-click when you actually have a real machine that actually grinds the beans. Is that what you have home? Absolutely. Of course you do. It's fully dialed in. Uh and it's a ritual too, right? It is, it's a whole thing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. It is a ritual.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's what I find. And it's not long. It's not this big, long ordeal. There's not like a lot of liquid. Sure. I actually called me a double, you see. There's a double, not a single, I can tell.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah, the the the actors are here. So let's so we're here at Empower. Yeah. Biggest event you Enables ever had, sold out 650 uh MSPs. Uh great, great vendor showing down there. You're doing a great job up there on stage. What are some of your goals this week?

SPEAKER_01

Look, for me, it's the connection of the partners. Do we have our formula right? Is the playbook right? Are we doing the right things? We introduced business transformation, our peer groups, you know, Rob Wilburn, uh, David Weeks, and Rassy. They have been uh running this program for the past 18 months, and we leveraged Empower to kind of bring it all together. And so to me, when I see those peer groups, when I see those groups all coming together here at Empower, it all of a sudden elevated it. And I was like, okay, we got that right. And then we look at our customer success team, the way we interact with our team. We made some changes to focus in on certain ICP type MSPs, like an MSP that's one through ten employees, operates differently and needs a little bit of help in a different way than these guys that are doing these massive roll-ups. You're talking to COOs and CEOs with private equity backed. And so, how do we serve them? So we actually divided up our customer success team. And what's happening is here that I think the reason we got so many partners to come out is because we engaged with them and they're like, absolutely, I'm gonna come. And so I felt that. And then we've got our VARs, our value-added resellers, so just another layer of MSPs that are a little bit higher up in the market. Um, when we bought at Lumen, they brought on a channel. Guess what? We got them here too, and you're like, wow, we've never experienced that. Wow. And then our value-added distributors in like non-English speaking countries, you know, we have Italy represented, we have Brazil, we have Spain, we have France and Sweden.

SPEAKER_00

Colombia.

SPEAKER_01

I talked to somebody from Colombia, and so they're here, and so they're gaining the same thing. And so for me, my biggest goal has been okay, did we get the channel engagement right? Channel's number one for us, we're a channel first company. Um, and so that's what this is all about. And then, hey, is are the releases of the products that we heard Mike Adler talk about on stage? Are those the right ones? Well, a few custom a few uh claps out there, everybody's engaged with Drass, everybody's excited about Google Workspace. Um, and well, we introduced Enzo. And Enzo came up on stage. Enzo. Enzo, Enzo. That was John, not Enzo like the Italian Enzo, John's comment. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right. That was really cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So, um, so that that that to me was really important.

SPEAKER_00

Um when MSPs are choosing a security partner, what question should they be asking?

SPEAKER_01

They should be asking them when they should be looking at the firm. Is the firm reputable? Is the firm there for them when stuff goes down? Our job is to be there when it's messiest. Yeah, right? When things are great, things are working, and I'm not just talking software, because software they call support. You got your traditional way you serve your customers, but in security, we just heard Dave K Dave McKinnon on stage, our CISO, it's how do you respond? Are you there to help them? Sometimes they just need uh to hold their hand and figure it out because some little thing happened, but sometimes things completely blow up, and then that's where our our teams um really kick into gear and it makes the customer feel great. So what they should be doing is evaluating what's that experience gonna be like. I mean, there's great software out there, but it's the humans behind it that make a difference for them. And that's a big difference. And that's you know, I think that uh plays well for Enable because that customer-centric mindset that we have when we brought in when we bought Illuminan brought it into the portfolio, uh Mike Adler said to us, he said, Hey, listen, everyone get ready. Like we're a security company now, and we need to act different and we need to respond different. Um, we're not just not just a server that's going down, it's people's businesses completely. And so it's a shift, mindset shift that we've had.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and it's evident here. I talked to so many MSPs here, and it's just a wonderful event. Your leadership has been great too. So I'm a former MSP, right? And I talk to MSPs all the time, and I work with a bunch of them. And the three things that keep them up have been pretty consistent five or six years. First is cybersecurity. If their clients get hacked, they're gonna have to allocate resources, they're flat rates, so they're gonna lose money, they're probably gonna get fired, they may even get sued. Number two is human capital. How am I gonna keep my people happy? How am I gonna get more engineers if I need them? Unemployment and IT here in the state is like one percent. I mean, it's uh very, very difficult. And then third is just growth. Private equity has put in hundreds of millions of dollars into the MSP market. Their friends are selling their MSPs, getting nice cars. How am I gonna grow organically or through acquisition? How does Enable help?

SPEAKER_01

Well, uh number one, uh I think our peer groups are a great way to help these guys get through it. Why? Because we put like-minded MSPs together in a room. And guess what? They share all the stats you just talked about. And they challenge each other. And we sit in the room and we facilitate, and that gives us the visibility that we need. And are they operating the right way on their EBITDA? Are they thinking about it the right way? Are they if they want to sell their business? What do they need to do? What does it need to look like on the front end, on the back end? Um, and then their fully labor loaded cost. So they are they thinking about it the right way? Who better to do that than their peers? Right. And what Enable does is brings them together and it creates that community. Um, and there's a void in the market. Like we've it's been great that we've been able to lean in. We spun the company out in 2021. That was a main reason was to make sure that we could do this, and that and that, you know, it starts at the top. John believes in that, I believe in that. I remember when John called me when we were spinning out, and he says, Okay, I got the name. And we had three names on the table, and not one of them was Enable. And I come from the original Enable, and he says, Hey, we're going back to Enable. And it was on a Sunday afternoon, and I said, I was quiet. And he says, What's wrong? You don't like it? I said, Well, I love it. I said, But I are you ready? I said, because what it means is it means partnership, it means we got to be there for these guys, um, and it means another level of service. And so we've we've we've he goes, Well, that's exactly why I want it. I was like, All right, I can get behind that, but I'll call you out if we're not doing that. And so we've lived up to that, and I think that carries its all itself all the way through from product management to customer success, and it's all intertwined right now.

SPEAKER_00

What keeps you up at night, Frank?

SPEAKER_01

A lot of things. Uh, but I'd say probably um number one, always worrying about getting that email that someone has been attacked. Um, and then was it on our watch? And how are we gonna respond? Like it's it's not a matter of if it's gonna happen. We know it will, right, but are we prepared? Are we prepared and have we did the right stuff? And there's a lot of moving parts. We operate globally, uh, we serve 140 countries globally, so these things can happen um anywhere. And so what keeps me up at night is this that constant 24 by 7 is this gonna happen? When's it gonna happen? And then we get into the war room, and then the war room starts and it creates a cycle and it throws everything else for a loop. And guess what? You still gotta hit your quarter, you still gotta do all, you still gotta retain your customers, you still gotta keep your customers happy. Um, but you're dealing with this, and that becomes that that priority. Wow. Um and then my people, you know, I mean you know, I manage a fairly large organization and and they're spread out across the globe. I mean, 55% of enabled employees are international. Wow. And so it's a you know, it's it's it's uh as a leader, you're always thinking about how do I build the right org? Are they motivated? Do we have the right leaders in place? And so as you expand and build, are we doing the right things for them? And there's a lot of geopolitics going on right now, so keeping that balance is you know, that keeps me up at night as well.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it sure does. And what if discipline wasn't about punishment, but about unlocking your best self? I spent two and a half years writing discipline for greatness, because discipline changed my life. And I know it can change yours too. This isn't a theory. Inside, you'll find real practical steps you can use immediately to focus better, build stronger habits, reduce stress, accomplish your goals, and bring more balance to your life. Whether you're trying to get healthier, improve your career, or simply feel more control. This book gives you the framework. Start today. Grab your copy of Discipline for Greatness at JoeyPins.com slash book. Thank you. Look at the masters. Look how clever these actors are getting. I mean, who would have thought that? That's a that's why I think they can't have their phone for the whole day, so now they can't verify anything. So they're calling their partner and their partner's worried about them. Okay, I gotta get the balance. Yeah, I mean, it's uh uh it does AI scare you? Does it give you pause? Are you optimistic?

SPEAKER_01

You know, so at f it does in the way that it's transforming things. Um, I think, you know, for me, AI hit me when I was for the first time ever, we had connected co-pilot to to our back end. And I had, you know, it and I didn't realize the power of it until I asked it in preparation for a board meeting. I was like, hey, give me the last, you know, year over year review of our ARR, our win rates, and I just and all of a sudden it came out and I spent about 45, about an hour and 45 minutes just analyzing. I was like, this is so powerful. And then I was like, okay, I'm bought in. I like this. And I got home a few weeks later, and there's my daughter on her iPad talking to Gemini on Google. Amazing. And I was like, wait a minute. Now I got nervous. I was like, what does this mean? But then I started talking to my MSPs. Um, and then I started, and we went to RSA and everything just, you know, it's like six months ago we weren't talking about it as we are today. And so when I come here today and I talk to these MSPs, well, here's this opportunity. Like, it's just another wave of this managed services play that I've seen over the last 23 years, and then there's cycles or there's things that you start chunking together in technology. We've seen that in the 2000s, we've seen that in the crashes, and so I'm like, okay, here it is again. How is it gonna play out? How do we position ourselves to help our partners? So I see it as a great opportunity uh for MSPs to really take advantage of that in their business because I know a lot of small medium businesses are not ready for it. And they're gonna look to who? They're MSP, who's in charge of their technology to give them advice and consulting to do it.

SPEAKER_00

Frank, is there a question you wish more people asked you?

SPEAKER_01

There's a few. Um you know. The question you know, I a lot of people ask me, you know, about leadership, and that's a fairly straightforward question. Um how do you scale businesses? Um one of my strengths and one of the things that I've been able to do over the years is really just figure out how to take resources and make them motivated to scale and grow with the business. Our business is moving really quickly. Um and if people were to drill in and say, I have this, you know, I have these hundred things. How do I make them, you know, one plus one equal three? And that's one of the skills. If people ask that, that's an area where I can bring a lot of value. Um not many do. They ask you this straight up for how do I grow faster? How do I land new customers? And it's like, okay, pretty straightforward. But the question is, how do you scale with the resources you have and the people you have to and deal with your today's problem while planning for the future?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I end up talking to a lot of MSPs who say, well, we would put on sales on pause because we don't have you know support enough to do it and to support to handle more. Nice problem to have, but you've really got to, if you want to grow, you can't you can't be there. No.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it's interesting. You go back seven, it depending on which market, in North America specifically, five years ago, seven years ago, MSPs were still landing customers, and there was not an MSP, an incumbent in the in the customer. Today, ask anyone on the floor, there's an MSP and they're ripping out an MSP. So it's a much more competitive space. You have all of these roll-ups in there that have like nationwide. Now they're going international with all of their acquisitions. Um, and so everyone's touching on everyone's toes. And guess what? Like now they're really realizing, oh boy, I need to, I need to scale my organization to you gotta land new customers because attrition is reality, not because a c not the MSP doesn't do a good job, but there's other roll-ups happening in their customer base, and so they're just naturally going to a threat, and you need to build those cohorts to in and to to ensure that your business continues to sustain itself.

SPEAKER_00

Has there been let's say 10 years ago, is there something you believed 10 years ago firmly you believed in that you no longer believe now?

SPEAKER_01

I would say I don't know, I don't know if there's one thing that sticks out in my mind um you know that I that shocked me. Um I'll tell you this, I didn't think that the MSP space in the last 23 years would be at the space that it is today. Really? Yeah, I mean look, I started, you know, I started back in 2003 working with MSPs that were doing brick fix, they were doing project-based business. And who would have thought that these businesses would have evolved? If you would have asked me, hey, I wouldn't have expected the level and sophistication of the MSP as to what they are today. It's what actually keeps me going in this thing. I got a lot of good friends, a lot of good colleagues had dinner with them last night. They've moved around to different MSPs, they've gone through a few different exits, and they're like, I remember back when you guys started talking to us about this, and I was like, I would never have imagined that the sophistication and the amount of private equity that would have gotten into the man services space.

SPEAKER_00

It's almost uh private equity is almost legitimized. Yeah, you know, I mean it's hundreds of millions of dollars. My MSP was not for sale, but that did not stop the offers from coming. Right. You know, and uh it was 2019, and I just got an offer I couldn't.

SPEAKER_01

And it was and it was interesting, you know, when we speak to Wall Street and we talk about the SMB. Well, what's happened is because the private equity firms have been investing the money that they have, well, it has legitimized it. They understand it, they've seen it, how it's played out. And so, you know, that that to me is really exciting because we get to we get to go all the way through, you know, different different uh scales of businesses.

SPEAKER_00

So I started the MSP back in the 90s, Frank, and I was working way too hard and stopped playing soccer and other things, you know, and I'm eating getting, you know, 14, 16 hour days, you know, and die is put in the backseat. Next thing I know, I'm in front of the doctor. She tells me I'm at 340 pounds. So I had gained all this terrible amount of weight. I didn't know I was that big. I knew I was getting bigger. Didn't know I was that big. Wow. She says to me, if you don't lose this weight, you're not gonna see your daughter graduate. My daughter was just born. Scared the life out of me. You know, I'm driving home, punching the steering wheel. I can abuse myself all I want, but it it's much bigger than me now, right? I was in my 20s, I felt like I was invincible. I had this beautiful girl that somehow I helped bring into this world, spent the next six, seven months, lost about 120 pounds, and kept it off. You know, you can't look at these things as finishing lines. These are lifelong changes. When I tell people this, they always say, What's your secret, what you do? And I say, There's no secret, just discipline. Routine, motivation, focus, all in a routine. How does uh discipline play a role in your life right now?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I'm governed by it. Oh yeah, I'm very disciplined in the things that I do. Um I maintain a very, you know, physic uh uh a strong physical regimen at three, four days a week. I'm always training. I always uh I eat what I want. I like my coffee, I like certain things, but I understand balance. I actually have a tattoo. Um that's all about balance, and it's why is that people always ask me? It's like a lot of things in the air that I need to maintain. Um, and discipline is really important. It's making sure that you're doing the things consistently because there's a lot of players or a lot of people that can come in and they can be good for a little while, but to be good for a long time, you need to build that mess, that, that muscle memory to do it. So I have a routine in the morning, I have a routine the way I do things. Um, you talk about kids, you know. I've got two daughters, nine years old. And twins, yeah. Twins, you gotta be there for them. You gotta make sure that you got a routine with them, and uh you gotta stick to that. And like, and and I think that's really important. A lot of people lose sight of it and they just say, Oh, it's today, I'll do it tomorrow, I'll start tomorrow. No, no, it's gotta start now. Like, can't start tomorrow, can't start tonight. It's gotta be a consistent thing that you do. And if you change it tomorrow, then the next day you just gotta counterbalance it by doing the opposite. You know, people watch calories and they want to go into deficit, just watch your calories and balance it out. And I think you can maintain it. I you probably understand that quite well. Yeah, given that transformation you've been under. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um 46 inch ways to 32. But you know, the the the thing is people have to it it it's it's consistent. People can it gain it back. It's yeah, but a lot of routine, I I hear you saying there. Yeah, a lot of routine. And as a kid, it was always the same?

SPEAKER_01

Um for me, it was more it started when I went to college from a studying perspective. There's a certain way I study, there's a certain way I learn. Um I've had to change my routine. Last year at Empower in Berlin, I almost didn't make it. Wow. Um, and so I'm 52. At the time I was 51, and I travel a lot, and I'm on planes, and I work out, but I was late, you know, uh weightlifting and I was not stretching. And so what happened is it all caught up to me, and I got sciatica down my right leg. And it was bad. Um, to the point where I was taken to the hospital and I had to like work through that entire cycle. And you know, I called John and I was like, hey, I'm not sure I'm gonna make it. Um, but what happened was I went to see a spine uh got an MRI, went to see a spine specialist. He says, Listen, um, the good thing is he was very similar to my age, and um he goes, Hey, there's nothing wrong with you, you're just getting old.

SPEAKER_00

Too many birthdays.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, he's just you're just getting old. He goes, That's the good news. And he goes, the bad news is you're gonna have to change who you are. You gotta make Frank Coletti 2.0, you gotta change your routine. So I actually had to change my main stage presentation, and it made it all about routine. Wow. And since then, I've had to incorporate yoga and Pilates into my lifestyle, and I thought, okay, I could do this, but I'm probably as flexible as a concrete block, and so it's a journey for me, but I've been doing it, it's three days a week, guaranteed. Before I get on a plane, before I golf, before I do something, it's now become part of my routine, and I think that's important is that your body tells you something. Sometimes you miss the signals, and sometimes you know, it locks you down, and you're just you know, and that's that's transformed me into a new discipline and into a new routine that I'm following right now. Wow. So it's funny how life, it's funny how life uh takes you on that journey.

SPEAKER_00

Your body is speaking to you, it tells you, and you had to make a change.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and then there's this other thing. I travel a lot, and so I got these young daughters. So every now and again I'll play cats in the cradle. Oh just so I can listen to make sure I know when I'm back in. And these are part of the routine things that I do because otherwise you miss them. You know, they're nine, they're gonna be 14, then they're gonna be going to college, and then life's gonna change immediately, so you really gotta balance these things out. Um, so anyways.

SPEAKER_00

It's wonderful. Has there been anything in the last month or so you changed your mind on?

SPEAKER_01

Um I would say that the approach to the way that we're engaging new prospects I have. Um, you know, being in sales for as long as I have, you know, you have a certain playbook that you run. We we evolved that playbook. It's got to change, or you're not relevant. But what's really happened is we've had to focus in on much more um peer-to-peer, face-to-face type events. So we introduced um events that allow us to talk to business owners about their businesses. And what that's done is we get them in a room, there's 15 or 20 of them, we do a lot more events, but smaller events that are more uh meaningful and um leave a lasting impression on them. And what that does is it just unlocks the door. There's no discussion of products, it's a discussion of their business. And they're like, we spent the whole day with you guys, and you haven't talked about Enables products. What happens next? The follow-on playbook is we have a boot camp for their technicians, and every single one of them sends their text to spend time with our nerds, spend time with our SEs, our product managers to get the full landscape of our business resilient platform. And so what happens is they come back from that, and then the owners call and say, Hey, we want to try this product out. We're like, great. And so that's been a change for us, and it's harder because it's not volume, it's about focus, it's about knowing who you're gonna target, um, and then putting the right resources behind doing it. So that I strongly recommend people thinking about that because our business is all relationships, it always is. But this type of approach, especially with the amount of information going to people, you have to connect. And that connection happens in in face-to-face conversations and dinners, and and that's that that's been a change for us. And so we'll we've implemented that, and so some in some of our less mature MSP markets like Germany. Now we started to do that, and all of a sudden it's like now that's starting to accelerate, and we're having conversations with people that we didn't have before.

SPEAKER_00

Great approach. I know the peer groups completely changed the way I did business, you know, when I did it. Yeah. And then to be able to have a vendor partner that you know you can rely on, that's not always trying to pitch you, it means it means the world to you. It does.

SPEAKER_01

And if they don't go to those sessions and knowing they're not getting pitched, right? We we what do you guys do? Well, we help businesses deliver business resilience, and how do we help you guys deliver that to your SMB customers? And how do you guys actually monetize your services? And the conversation naturally then leads to our products. Um, so it's great, it's worked out well. We did a we did an amazing event at the US Open Um at the Ryder Cup. We had a small group of people, like meaningful events. Wow. Uh we brought them to the city uh cities, our bank, and we we spent time with them in Manhattan. They got a chance to speak with their you know the chief economist, and you have these events, and so now they're coming back home and saying, Okay, well, we're gonna partner with these guys and we've got to work with them. They really get it. And so it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00

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SPEAKER_01

It was uh yeah, it was great seeing you there as well.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. If anybody's watching, listening, how can they get in touch with you? What's the best way?

SPEAKER_01

Easiest way uh is uh frank.coletti at enable.com. And also you're active on LinkedIn. Yeah, and hit me up on LinkedIn, of course. That's uh Frank Colletti. You'll find me straight up there. Frank, thanks so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Really appreciate it as well. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you for listening andor viewing Joey Pins Discipline Conversations. Please share this episode with one or two of your friends who you think may benefit from the episode. Our website, www.joeepins.com. There you find lots of resources, and you can join our mailing list. Please follow us on all our social media, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Podcast information, the video version of our podcast is on YouTube. Please subscribe. Audio is on all major podcasting platforms. Please follow them. And if you like it, please consider giving five star ratings. We're really appreciated. Thank you again for listening or watching Joey Pins Discipline Conversation.