Forged In Fire

Episode 36: "What if your business is next to be hacked?' with Todd Mitchell

• Nate Pharmer-Eden & Cole Farrell • Season 1 • Episode 36

Share episode

Todd Mitchell transforms cybersecurity for small businesses by bridging the gap between enterprise-level protection and solo entrepreneurs who lack resources but face the same legal requirements. Drawing from 20 years of Navy experience and advanced cybersecurity training, he focuses on protecting the most vulnerable business owners by taking a people-first approach rather than just securing networks.

• Spent 20 years in the Navy before transitioning to IT and cybersecurity
• Started his business after helping his DJ friend who lost all his music to hackers
• Discovered most cybersecurity companies only serve large businesses, ignoring solopreneurs
• Takes a holistic approach that prioritizes protecting people and information first
• Found success after identifying his true target market: women solopreneurs in finance and healthcare
• Helps clients meet cybersecurity insurance requirements and navigate industry regulations
• Pivoted his business model multiple times, including during COVID
• Emphasizes the importance of knowing who your customers really are and where they come from
• Creates detailed customer avatars to better understand and serve clients
• Found success by niching down rather than trying to serve everyone
• Focuses on human training since 90% of data breaches come from human error

Visit cybersecurity4biz.com to take a free assessment and learn more about protecting your small business.


Send us a text

Speaker 1:

Forget what you've heard. Forged in Fire is where real entrepreneurs come to share the untold truths of success the late nights, the crushing setbacks, the moments that change everything. No fluff, just fire, ready to step into the heat and unlock what it really takes to build a business. This is where legends are made.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another exciting episode of Forged in Fire. I am your co-host, nate Fromm-Reedon. Allow me to introduce my counterpart, cole. How we doing brother. Come on stage, man.

Speaker 3:

Hey doing good man. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2:

The last, like week and a half or two weeks, has really been like a test of strength and like driving determination. But you know what? We're still here, we're still smiling, I'm doing all right. How about you?

Speaker 3:

I love it. I love it. I mean same thing here. So, just as anybody else that I'm sure is listening to this, we're constantly learning, constantly failing, constantly improving and trying new things, constantly working with social media companies that are hacking our accounts. The same old, same old. So I get no complaints. I'm excited for this interview. Very relevant. We'll get into that in a second, but, as always, before we dive in deep, a couple housekeeping items for everybody. First, please leave us a rating and review. This helps us grow. It helps us find more people and educate them on why real estate's amazing. Second, subscribe so you get notified when we have a new episode, just like this one. And lastly, as always, sit back, relax, enjoy the show.

Speaker 2:

Dude, it's going to be awesome. Today we're actually going to be interviewing Todd Mitchell, who is another one of our PyWorks members, so this will be our fourth member from PyWorks who's actually coming to the stage. He runs a company by the name of Cybersecurity for Biz and he does a ton of work when it comes to making sure that companies are remained safe, making sure that companies are not getting hacked. I have been hacked personally. I struggle with trials and tribulations, but enough about me. Let's go ahead and bring him on stage. Todd, how are we doing, brother?

Speaker 4:

Hey, thank you for having me. This is awesome. I'm having a good day and being here makes it even better, so that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

Man, we love it. Love it well. Thank you so much. It is truly an honor, pleasure and a privilege to have you here. So please tell us a little bit about yourself. What got you here? What brought you here?

Speaker 4:

uh, well, I see, um, I uh, I did 20 years in the navy and then, uh, reinvented myself after that. Uh, after I retired from the navy and I became a well, I was already a computer geek, but I made it official by getting an actual degree in IT. And then I started working for the Marine Corps doing software development and cybersecurity for headquarters, marine Corps, all the battlefield software. And while I was doing that I got a master's in cyber security and kind of really focused on on the the cyber side of it. And my best friend was a dj and he got hacked and he uh, so he lost all his music. And a dj with no music's kind of useless, so he's freaking out. He calls me up. He's like you gotta find somebody to help me.

Speaker 4:

So we hit, you know, hit up Google and started looking up all these cybersecurity companies and they're all have an audience of large and enterprise level businesses and we were literally like 10 pages deep before we found somebody that would do small business. And then we called them and they're like oh yeah, we love small business. You got to have 250 employees, 10 million in revenue, five guys in your it department. It's like that's not a small business, you know it's like. So I ended up helping my best friend myself in my spare time, you know, for free, uh, and then he brought a couple other people to me and then over, uh, the next year or so after that, uh, he just kept poking at me and poking at me with his entrepreneur spirit until he convinced me to open my own business. So I came into this very mission oriented of being the little guy helping the little guy, because nobody else will basically.

Speaker 4:

So my goal is to bring corporate level, enterprise level, whatever you want to call it cybersecurity down to a sole opener that needs it.

Speaker 4:

And you know, because, as, as, depending on what industry you're in, but you know people in the healthcare industry or the financial industry that you know, like a bookkeeper, for an example, it doesn't matter with the laws of how they have to protect your, you know, your, their customers, financial information. Those laws are the same. It doesn't matter if you're running Jackson Hewitt or if you're. You know your, your, your wife, doing a side hustle, paying off the Christmas debt. You know doing taxes for a couple of months at the, you know, in the spring, on the dining room table. It's the same laws, the, the, but they don't have the opportunities to get proper cybersecurity in place because all the tools and all the expertise is all geared towards, you know, enterprise level businesses. So that's kind of where I made my passion and kind of made my niche is I'm the guy that brings the whole IT department and cybersecurity down to a sole opener whole IT department and cybersecurity down to a sole open source.

Speaker 3:

That's fantastic. I love that you mentioned basically where you started from, how you kind of felt the pain initially and how most business owners start. They feel the pain. They can't get a solution, so they create a solution. So tell me more about a little more about where you're at now and if you can kind of dive in a little bit more of the journey. So, like you kind of mentioned the beginning and you kind of mentioned building up, give me some more details.

Speaker 4:

So, yeah, basically what I do, I've kind of ended up my business. I'm in the fifth year and my actually has changed quite a bit over time, which I'm sure you've heard that from plenty of other people too. I'm not doing anything even close to what I thought I was going to do when I first started this, and what's happened with me is different laws have fell into place that created a need and people start calling me up asking me to help, and then I realized that there was certain areas that people really needed help with. So I've tweaked what I do to make sure I answer those needs. I have kind of a holistic approach to cybersecurity, right? So big companies, they're all worried about securing the network and it trickles down and some of their people get protected.

Speaker 4:

I look at it the other way. I'm looking at people and information and going from the bottom up right, our most valuable assets as a business owner are people and information. I mean, if you don't have customers and you don't take care of them and you don't have that data, you know people always think the information is not worth anything. Well, you know Google, you know Facebook, you know all these companies, companies, they're multi-billion dollar companies and they don't actually charge for products, they're just getting your information and selling it. So information is definitely worth money to good guys and bad guys. Uh, so protecting that is is critical, and it just I guess my passion was you. I had the answer in my head of how to keep people safe, and you know I just want to make sure that as many people as possible know that, and so I like spreading the awareness, I guess you'd say.

Speaker 4:

But as far as my journey itself is, I've worked with a lot of probably 75% of my customer base is sole openers working from home. A single employee. You know, maybe you'll have a virtual assistant on contract or something, but it's, it's basically a one man shop with, you know, a laptop and a home router, and so we need to do and most of them are not that tech savvy, so you know it's an area that they don't know a lot about. It are not that tech savvy, so you know it's an area that they don't know a lot about it. And so you know I'm there to guide them through the journey of getting good software, making sure their computer is set up correctly and making sure that they're doing what they need to do with not just the software. You know there's more than just putting an antivirus on your computer.

Speaker 4:

You have to take a look. You know how you collect this information. How do you store this information? What are you doing with it? You know, is it encrypted? Does everybody have access, or is it controlled? You're the only one that can see it.

Speaker 4:

You know all these different types of things and help people get internal business policies and procedures together so that as their business grows and they bring in more employees just like if you've had a job working for a big company before you know you go day one HR hands you a big old clipboard full of stuff and says here, read all this and sign, saying you read it. You know, no-transcript, you want to have these. You want to have all that information and all these ideas thought out ahead of time and written down so if something bad happens you can just pull out a paper and go down the checklist and you don't have to try to think too much. So that's that's a lot of my goals, too, is getting people prepared, because nowadays you even mentioned it kind of at the beginning of the show hacking. It's not an if, it's more of a, when we just need to be prepared.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I love it. Oh my gosh, it's resonating home so much. So so many different questions, but let's, let's start here, let's, let's go in this direction. Can you tell me a little bit about some of like the struggles and trials and tribulations that you went through? You've mentioned that you've been in business for, you know, five years now and you pivoted a number of times and you're now doing something that you never thought you were doing then. But what triggered those kind of pivots to be able to, you know, make that maneuver, to be able to keep your company afloat? But also, what else was it, especially coming from helping your friend out that was a DJ, going into actually now running your own entrepreneurial business? What kind of struggles did you go through then too?

Speaker 4:

So first, starting out, I ran into a couple of struggles. The first thing was he was supposed to run the business and I was just going to be the cyber geek. And we went for a couple of months waiting on him and then I realized that that wasn't going to happen. So I decided to go solo, and so that set me back a couple of months. On paper I was already a legit business, but I hadn't finished filing all the stuff. And then, about the time I really decided to go solo and get this together, covid hit. So my plan originally was I'm going up and down Main Street shaking hands and handing out business cards and hitting up all the little mom and pop shops on Main Street. And that idea is gone because now everything's closed and all that. So I decided to ship to virtual. So that's my first. One was like okay, we got to figure out how to make this work, you know, via zoom, meeting or whatever, um, so I come up with ways of doing that and and pivoted. And then the next big pivot was uh, still, even though I'm doing it virtually, I'm still targeting. Going up and down main street. I'm thinking I'm hitting up all these Italian you know, mom and pop Italian restaurants and local little boutiques and things like that. And so I was kind of targeting that audience. And meanwhile I have people calling me and looking for my services and I'm helping them out. And then so what happened?

Speaker 4:

One day I was in on Alignable at a workshop and they had us write down a bunch of everywhere we spent time, money or energy in marketing or advertising. So it's like, oh, half an hour on Facebook, half an hour on LinkedIn, half an hour on Alignable, half an hour on here, you know, you know a hundred bucks on Google ads, whatever. And I wrote all that down. And then on the other side of the paper they're like write down your last 10 clients and then draw arrows where they came from. Well, two things went off. One was I realized all my clients were coming from Alignable. So I'm like why am I wasting my time on everywhere else? I needed to dive headfirst into Alignable, so. But the other thing was, after that was over with, and I'm sitting there looking at that list of 10 clients and I realized they're all solopreneur, bookkeepers and tax preparers and mental health professionals that work from home. And I'm like I'm over here chasing around. You know, luigi, the 55 year old white guy in a muscle shirt that owns an Italian restaurant. And meanwhile I got all these working women, women working from home, that are calling me up, that need me, and I'm like I'm in the wrong spot, you know.

Speaker 4:

So once I went back and took a critical look at who my ideal customer was, and not just you know the industry, but you know sex, religion, race, ethnicity, income level, you know, and draw that little cartoon character of them, you know kind of figure out exactly who they really really are. Of them, you know kind of figure out exactly who they really really are. And once I did that I also realized at that same time, looking at TV ads and a whole new light, because I realized all the big companies have been doing this. I mean, you haven't seen an old white guy in a McDonald's ad in 40 years. You know it doesn't mean I can't get a cheeseburger, but their target audience is young, mixed ethnicity, inner city mom trying to raise a family on a budget, you know. And all their ads look like that. They've all, you know all the people in their ads and it's like.

Speaker 4:

So I kind of completely shifted gears and started focusing more on, you know women working from home that collect a lot of information in the financial industry and the healthcare industry. And once I actually made myself available, phone started ringing off the hook. And about year three, it was a struggle of trying to fit in exactly and get my brand awareness. But once I got my messaging correct, the last two years were just blown up. I mean my, I met my sale, my annual sales goals last year. I met him in June. That's the nice problem to have right in June where you're looking around going wait, I, uh, I'm done for the year.

Speaker 4:

Okay, I got to make new goals, so, uh, but but I the story behind that is you have to know who your audience really is. I mean, down to that little avatar I said in my case it's, you know it's, it's, it's the. You know a minority-based woman working from home. You know, uh, um, dealing with the struggles of not being able to get a hold of resources and things like that, uh, to help protect our customers information. But once I figured out exactly who it is, now you're like where do they hang out? Who else do they know? And, most importantly, where do they go to for advice? Who's their mentor? Because that working. You know, in my case that was like, okay, yoga instructors, parenting groups, life coaches, things like that right, because now those are the places I need to be hanging out, you know, and the people I need to make friends with.

Speaker 4:

Because if you want a referral partner, you want the referral partner that is giving advice to all the people that could be your clients. You know, and it's like so now you know, and once I did that and started making because we all do like, I'm sure, a lot of your, your, whether they do it at Alignable or other social media networks. But you know, most entrepreneurs are doing some kind of network, b&i Chamber or something. You're going to these events, you're meeting all these people and I guess my advice is be intentional Make sure that you're not just meeting a bunch of random business owners in all different industries. You want to be in front of the group. That's the ones you need to be talking to, the ones that are all and I treat everybody.

Speaker 4:

I don't do, I don't do I guess what do you call it direct sales at all? I treat everybody like the referral partner. I talk to most of my clients the same way. I'm talking to you. I just tell them what I do and who I do it for. If they're interested, great. If not, maybe they know somebody, whatever you know. So that's kind of how my approach to life has been. I hate direct sales. I hate salesmen that get you on the phone and won't let you go until you say yes, and all this other stuff. So I'm not doing that to anybody else.

Speaker 3:

I think that's awesome. I mean, there's so many things that I think we really got to dial back to for a second there that you mentioned that are fantastic. Earlier on Juan, you mentioned about decision making and making sure you're prepared and no matter what it is, it's just not getting into a panic and having a plan. I think that's fantastic. Another huge one is that you mentioned tracking and like we will dial this hill. We talk about this every single episode, with every person. One of the reasons most people fail is because they're not tracking.

Speaker 3:

And so you went even deeper and you were talking about okay, where are my leads coming from? Oh, they're coming from this source. Okay, now that I know that, let's double down on that, like you said. And then further you said okay, well, they're all sharing this, this same thing. So let's create this avatar, right, let's find these people, and then let's adjust our messaging to this, and I think that is so good. So, and then, obviously being intentional with that messaging, so can you go into that a little more? Meaning, you found these people, you have the people you're targeting. What are you saying? And I don't mean specifically for your client, necessarily, but what are you saying, what are you trying to Explain to them? To get them to bite, because a lot of people have a challenge. Okay, I found the person that I want to talk to or sell to, or whatever it may be, but now what do I say to them? How do I actually move forward?

Speaker 4:

Right, so that's an awesome question. I've done it a couple of ways. One is generic research going to SBA's website and looking up demographics of industries and who does things like that. But then also just talk to some of your clients or find the one that you wish you had as a client and talk to them and say hey, you know why. What do you think cybersecurity? In my case, you know with cyber, you know. So what do you think cybersecurity is? What do you need? What are your pain points?

Speaker 4:

And for me, I had a discussion with a couple of my clients and their biggest problem is they try to get, they have to get cybersecurity insurance. It's it's mandatory to connect. So if let me back up a step if you're doing payroll or filing other taxes for other people not for yourself, but like if you're one of these companies that does payroll and taxes for other companies you have to connect to the IRS's database. In order to do that, you have to have cybersecurity insurance and a few other things. So these guys are all trying to get cybersecurity insurance. Except if you can't prove you're doing prevention, the cybersecurity insurance is doubling your rates or won't give you a policy at all anyways, because they're not just going to pay for all the stuff that you leave damage in your wake because you're doing nothing to prevent it. You know, so, kind of like with your house, I mean, you call State Farm and say, hey, I let my kid play with matches, I don't have smoke detectors. Can I get house insurance? And they're going to be like, oh no, you know. So it's kind of one of those things you know and know, um, and once I did that I just really started listening to what my clients were and then I found out what those pain points were, and so now that's my advertising messaging.

Speaker 4:

You know, you do you need help. You know, uh, getting security in place to meet your needs. Your insurance rates, you know, uh, you're trying to get lower rates on cyber insurance and you gotta. You know, or you're a tax preparer and you got all this. You know the irs is asking you a million questions about what do you do about this and that, and you don't even know what they're talking about. You know I'm the guy you need to call. I can help you get the answers, you know. So that's that's. That's what I kind of shifted was I made my messaging kind of very niche, specific to what what those specific clients were having problems with.

Speaker 2:

This is so good. This is so valuable. Anybody that's listening pause, stop, rewind, play this whole thing all the way back, because there's so many gems, so many nuggets have just been dropped. Talking about pain points, talking about targeting your avatar, talking about even what an avatar is and how you define it. Every company is going to define an avatar a little bit different. This has been amazing thus far. I just want to throw that out there. So talk an avatar a little bit different. This has been amazing thus far. I just want to throw that out there. So talk to me a little bit about um.

Speaker 2:

Choose words carefully here, if you, in terms of marketing and outreach and pivoting, what does it look like now? We're five years in. You've talked a little bit about alignable, now to be able to touch base and network, but what else are you doing? Because we started with Main Street and going down and trying to figure out how to build an own pizza shop, but now COVID is hopefully gone, you know fingers crossed. So now what does it look like for you to be able to get that same avatar?

Speaker 4:

So for me, I think it's just becoming available. So my, my whole marketing strategy is this I guess to parents is on shows like yours and just kind of get myself in front of more people. And you know somebody, somebody out there may be like Holy crap, I need to talk to this guy. I'm going to call Todd, you know, or, or there may be, you know, or maybe it's like oh, I know, I know somebody who needs this, and I think that's kind of key is just my sister, who has nothing to do with entrepreneurs or any this kind of stuff. Gave me some of the best advice I ever got, and at the time she told me it. To me it didn't make any sense, but now, looking back at it, it was dead on.

Speaker 4:

Nobody's buying cybersecurity. They're buying me, they trust me, they're going to. They don't even know what I do. I mean, you know I'd go in and work on your computer for 20 minutes and then leave and you had no idea what I even did. You know it's like, but so they're buying me, they're buying, they're, they're, they're, they're looking at me, they're going. Hey, this seems like a pretty straight up guy. I trust him. I'm just going to let him deal with all this junk and he'll tell anything.

Speaker 4:

I got to take care of and, and so once I kind of got that attitude in there when I realized I'm actually selling myself and just being myself and people gravitate towards that or not, you know, uh, and and that was kind of the key, you know you, you can't, you can't sell to everybody, and that was one of my big error when I first started out. That was my. You know who needs cyber security? Everybody. Everybody needs cyber security. I can think of a use case for every person on this planet or why they need cybersecurity. But you can't market like that. It's like, you know, you can't be all things to everybody, because then you're nothing to nobody. You know kind of a thing, and I think especially for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs. You know smaller businesses. I always tell people that my the big box analogy right. I always tell people the big box analogy right. And you have to kind of twist this around in your brain loosely because we're not all selling products. But you know I can't compete with Walmart.

Speaker 4:

If all you want is basic something in a box that's cheap and easy, you're going to go to Walmart and get it. You know I use great jelly as a perfect example, right easy, you're going to go to Walmart and get it. You know, I use grape jelly as a perfect example, right? If you want a jar of jelly, you're never going to, I'm never going to be able to make a jar of jelly cheaper than what they could put on the shelf in Walmart. But if you go to Walmart, all you're getting is grape jelly, right?

Speaker 4:

So if you want to make jelly for a living, you need to make the rhubarb jelly with a hint of lime that you're never going to find in Walmart, because now they got to come to you to get it and you got to find the people who like that specific kind of jelly and aren't worried about just buying a jar of grape jelly, you know. So it's knowing your audience and knowing your little piece of the world, and don't get caught up in a rat race of trying to reproduce economy of scale and market to, you know, the masses with the generic stuff that they sell at the big box store, cause you're never going to beat out that. You know you don't. You don't have the million dollar a month ad budget that Walmart has. You're never going to beat them.

Speaker 3:

I love that and you're diving so much into like niching down and like finding the thing that you're the best at and becoming the face of it, or your company is becoming the face of it and like being the go-to person for that, like you said, and then not only from a marketing aspect, but then you legitimately do become the best of that, because that's all you focus on and that's what gives you the competitive advantage. So I think that's so, so good. Something that we struggled with starting up is what exactly do we focus on? And most people do, like you mentioned. We can make a use case, like you said, for anybody out there, but what do we really help people with? Okay, well, we don't want to do flips, that's not our bread and butter. We don't want to do this. So we do multifamily only and, just like you said, okay, well, I don't want to do these big corporations, I want to do a solopreneurs and specifically XYZ in that. So I think that's awesome yeah.

Speaker 4:

That's what happened with my. You know, that was what I was kind of talking about, was? You know? I'm over here looking for restaurant owners like Luigi, and meanwhile my phone's ringing off the hook and it's all these women that have a very specific problem. The IRS won't renew their whatever, won't let them connect because they can't prove they have this and this, and that was a very specific thing. And I'm like, oh, I know how to solve that, Okay. So now I just kind of and then target that area. And you know, they go to all their friends, because anybody going through that struggle knows other people going through the same struggle, and once you help one of them, they go tell all their friends, and now you've got 10 more clients.

Speaker 3:

Love it, Ned. I think he's ready. What do you think?

Speaker 2:

Oh, my goodness, I think so. I think it's time. This is good, this is exciting.

Speaker 3:

All right, todd, here's what we're going to do. So we're going to do the fire round, right? And basically we're going to ask you a couple questions. We ask to every single guest. You can answer succinctly, you can answer at length. Whatever you want to do, we're going to do our best to and to not expand on what you're saying. It usually doesn't work, but we'll see what happens this time. So, with that being said, here we go. What separates top performing entrepreneurs from the rest of the crowd?

Speaker 4:

You're breaking up. Say that again.

Speaker 3:

Hey, we got to cut that music out, I think, and then just put it in afterwards. All right, let's try this again. We'll edit that out. What separates top performing entrepreneurs from the rest of the crowd?

Speaker 4:

Their ability to adapt.

Speaker 2:

What is a daily habit that's contributed to your success?

Speaker 4:

Time management. My calendar runs everything. My wife's always asking me what do you want to what? What do you do with this? What do you? I don't know. Look at my calendar. I just do whatever my calendar says.

Speaker 3:

Love that what is a piece of advice that you'd give to yourself if you were starting again?

Speaker 4:

definitely learning more about finding my niche, because I didn't find it until year three and if I'd have found it in year one I'd be retired by now. No, no, it wouldn't be that bad, but uh, yeah, I definitely wish I would have figured out that whole thing with niching down a couple of years before that what is your favorite business book?

Speaker 4:

that is weird because I don't actually have one. I've had some experience with, like the Clifton Strengths and the leadership things and I really like those, but I did have a book. Actually no, I do have an answer for that. My grandmother bought me a book when I was 18, right when I was coming in the Navy and looking at what I was going to do. I thought I was only going to do four years and not 20, but and I was going to get out of the Navy and open my own business and she bought me a book called Growing your Business or something like that.

Speaker 4:

I don't know. This is 40 years ago, so the title is probably, and I can't even find the book anymore. But it was about a guy who was basically talking about how to get your business up and running, but it was high-level, generic, but it was that kind of planted some seeds in my head of, well, you could do anything if you just get a plan together. Basically was what his point was. As long as you just get a plan together. Basically was what his point was. You know, as long as you got a plan and follow the plan you'll get to where you're going.

Speaker 3:

I like that really good. Do you know the name of that book offhand? Did you say that?

Speaker 4:

I think it was like growing your business or something like that okay, all right, sounds good.

Speaker 3:

What is your favorite part of owning your business?

Speaker 4:

flexibility. So, uh, for time, I should say more specifically uh, my long-range goal for my life which is actually kind of short range because now it's only like 10 years away instead of, like you know, 100 or whatever, when you're a little bit, uh, I plan on semi-retiring into a full-time rv life and, uh, you know, if I have my way, in a couple of years we'll be having this conversation and I will. You'll be seeing the Grand Canyon out the window of a motor home behind me.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I love it, man. I can't wait Moment that happens. Come on back, Cause you know, our house is your house.

Speaker 4:

I'm already. I'm working on it. I got a truck and a trailer and I do a lot of traveling and I sort of work a little bit here and there while I'm doing it, but as internet accessibility is my enemy, so once I tackle that beast and figure out how to get good internet, I'm gone, if you want that.

Speaker 3:

Starlink. It's coming, it's on its way.

Speaker 2:

So what is something new that you've implemented into your business that's helped drive your success?

Speaker 4:

Something new. I would say more training. For me it's been cybersecurity training Everybody. You know, statistically, 90% of data, over 90% of data breaches, are caused by human error. Okay, so you know. You see, in Hollywood you're getting hacked by some guy in a hoodie in his mom's basement clacking away at a keyboard. That's not how you're getting hacked. You're getting hacked because you're clicking on some stupid email that you shouldn't have clicked on, that you shouldn't have clicked on. So that's what I focus on, I think, is teaching people how to recognize these phishing emails and quit clicking on stuff.

Speaker 3:

Awesome, awesome, awesome. You survived, so that was awesome. I really liked your answers. I think that was incredible. So look, as we wrap up here, I'd just love to recap this whole thing. So, one, it was good hearing your initial thing, how you got into this right, Like feeling the pain, not having a solution and creating one right, the entrepreneurial struggle, finding people's info, your decision-making kind of going through that, going through tracking, reviewing the data, finding your target audience, niching down, being intentional, going through messaging so many good things that we recapped. So I have two final questions for you. Number one where can people find you? Number two any final advice?

Speaker 4:

So where can people find me? My cybersecurity4bizcom with the number four. Uh, on my website I've got a lot of useful information. There's a short couple of questions, um and uh. You could take some free assessments, uh, kind of get an idea of some of the questions. I'd ask if we were talking and give you an idea where you're, because a lot of people think that, oh, I got, I got Norton antivirus, I'm good. It was like, no, there's not. There's a whole bunch more to it than that. Oh, but that's, that's where they could find me and a bunch of useful information. Schedule a free consultation and we could chat and see if it's a good fit or not.

Speaker 4:

And what was the second question, final advice, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, final advice. Final advice is you know for any solopreneur out there, just, you know, we're not all experts in everything, so you have to know what it is you're good at and not be afraid to bring in other people to do things. You know whether you're hiring employees or whether you're 1099 contractor or you get a good collaboration effort going or something, but bring in people that know what they're doing. Don't don't, don't think that just because you're the best plumber in the world. That means you know how to do finances, you know that's that kind of thing, that's. That's. That's my biggest advice, I think because that's Because I think that's why most businesses fail, because you become a sole opener. You got that hat on that says I'm the chief financial officer, I'm the chief technical officer, I'm the chief operating officer, I'm the chief marketing officer. No, you can't be all those things at once. You got to know your limitations.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, this is so good. Oh, again, if you're listening, pause, rewind, play this back. Nicole and I, we talk about this all the time. How, when we got into real estate, we thought it was a me, me, me, I, I, I kind of situation. And no, real estate is a team sport, very similar to so many different fields, for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs alike.

Speaker 2:

Don't feel like you have to wear every single hat. One of our favorite books, who, not how? Dan Sullivan, right. So make sure, make sure, make sure that you reach out, make sure that you work together, Make sure that we collaborate. We can go way faster, way farther when we work together as a team. But, with that being said, thank you all so much for tuning in to this exciting episode of Forged in Fire. We're looking forward to seeing you all on the next one. Todd, thank you so much for coming through. Our house is your house. You're always welcome. So soon as you get that RV, you got the grand cannon behind you. Give us a call once you figure out the internet issues, we'll have you right back on thanks for tuning in to another episode of forged in fire.

Speaker 1:

If you enjoyed today's raw, unfiltered stories, don't forget subscribe and leave us a review. Your feedback helps us bring more real-world insights to entrepreneurs like you. Be sure to join us next time for even more lessons, struggles and breakthroughs on the road to success. Keep forging ahead.