When most business owners are asked how they feel about their monthly spend on their IT, not many of them are very excited – they look at it as a necessary line item under expenses on their income statements. Today’s guest may actually change that perception.
So our guest is Clint Brinkley, the CEO and founder of Your Business Solutions. As a highly successful business technology advisor Clint is different - in a good way. He truly looks at solutions that are designed to help his clients grow – not just being that line item on the expense column. The way he operates, his fees are more like an investment into future growth – and that seems to be very refreshing to his clients.
He’s a 2 time best selling author, been recognized in the INC5000 fastest growing companies, a recipient of the Fast 100 Innovation Awards, and he works with several community projects such as Joe Joe Bear, Computers for the Blind, Wounded Warriors and Cell Phones for Soldiers.
To reach Clint you can find him on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/clintbrinkley/
Or visit his website at www.ybs.us
When most business owners are asked how they feel about their monthly spend on their IT, not many of them are very excited – they look at it as a necessary line item under expenses on their income statements. Today’s guest may actually change that perception.
So our guest is Clint Brinkley, the CEO and founder of Your Business Solutions. As a highly successful business technology advisor Clint is different - in a good way. He truly looks at solutions that are designed to help his clients grow – not just being that line item on the expense column. The way he operates, his fees are more like an investment into future growth – and that seems to be very refreshing to his clients.
He’s a 2 time best selling author, been recognized in the INC5000 fastest growing companies, a recipient of the Fast 100 Innovation Awards, and he works with several community projects such as Joe Joe Bear, Computers for the Blind, Wounded Warriors and Cell Phones for Soldiers.
To reach Clint you can find him on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/clintbrinkley/
Or visit his website at www.ybs.us
Welcome to The TEC Report Podcast
Unknown Speaker :where we help businesses survive, thrive and create value.
Brad Stoller :Welcome, everybody to the tec report, the podcast that is all about helping businesses survive, thrive and create value, especially in our trying environment today. Well, I'm your host, Brad Stoller. So today's episode is a little different than what we normally do. We normally talk about ways that business owners and managers can either manage their operations better, sell more, create more value, and just some ideas to help them navigate through our crazy pandemic times. But today, I've got a special guest will be helping us understand how a changing business environment can actually lead to better operations, better safety for your company, and You can use technology to actually help you achieve greater heights for your business. Kind of cool. So when most business owners are asked, you know how they feel about their monthly spend on their it? Well, you can you can imagine the responses we get. They're not very excited about that, right? So they look at it as a necessary line item under the expense column on their income statements. But today's guest may actually change your opinion of that. So our guest today is Clint Brinkley, the CEO and founder of your business solutions. So I've talked with a lot of managed service providers in my day, and I found Clint to be really different. I mean that in a good way, I've noticed that he truly looks at solutions that are designed to help his clients grow, not just be that line item on his expense column. So the way he operates his fees are more like an investment into future growth. And that seems to be very refreshing to his clients. So some things about Clint, he's a two time best selling author. He's been recognized in the Inc 5000 fastest growing companies. He's the recipient of the fast 100 Innovation Awards. And he works with several community projects such as Jojo bear, which is kind of neat for kids, computers for the blind, big advocate with wounded warriors, and he also works the program called cell phones for soldiers. So just a good guy. So I could go on and on, but I don't think we have enough air time to cover everything that Clint has done for his clients and community. So without further delay, Clint, welcome to the tech report.
Clint Brinkley :Thanks, Brad, I appreciate you.
Brad Stoller :Great. Well, Clint, you've been a very successful entrepreneur over your career, and just like everybody else, so you've had some fun downs just like everybody, you know, including myself, What led you to being dedicated to helping business owners grow through technology?
Clint Brinkley :Well, really what it boils down to is just really having a passion for this. So I started off my early years, I was actually the very first IT person for the school system that I was in, and I'm not going to date myself, but that was, you know, a while back
Brad Stoller :a couple years ago, we'll just leave it at that. We'll just leave it at a couple
Clint Brinkley :years ago. Yeah, it was it was a few years ago. And so that was back in the time when when, you know, you know, computers really wasn't the norm and you know, they were just coming into the into play and everything. I've been into this industry now for over 20 years. So I've seen quite a bit of things. But as I started seeing these things, I just started seeing these computers are really tools to be more profitable and more efficient and People didn't know how to really, you know, adjust to that. So, you know, we're, we're constantly evolving even on, you know, the IT side of things, we have to evolve along with the technology that's out there and live solutions that are out there, so that we can help our clients and our businesses and the community evolve.
Brad Stoller :Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So, well, I know you've written a couple of books, and you've actually achieved best selling status on Amazon. That's tough to do. So you're doing something right. But people don't realize just how hard that is to write one book, but yet you've written two and achieved that status. So tell us a little bit about your books and why you wrote them in the first place.
Clint Brinkley :Well, I've got good stories about both of them. I'll try to keep it short just so we don't spend up too much time here. But really the the first book was called relocating your business and it really just started out as a what not to do and what to do. scenario. And as I was sitting down with my marketing team one day, they said, You've been writing this for quite some time. And this is really a book this. I said, Well, it's not really a book. I said, No, it's really a book, you just, you just got to add a few more details in here and you got it. So, you know, I finished it out. And it turned out to be a great asset to all the companies that we're working with. We worked with just hundreds of companies. And even though it's called relocating your business, it's really a tool to be able to not just relocate, you know, it's right sizing, it's downsizing, upsizing, opening second locations, you know, third, third, fourth, so, you know, locations, things of that nature, and you know, that just so many things whenever it comes to having either a move or additional location, and, you know, there's not just technology tidbits in there, there's business tidbits in there. So you know, there There's timelines, there's things to that nature that you need to think about. A lot of people just think that you can just pick up, you know, unplug everything and move and everything's just gonna work the same. And that's just,
Brad Stoller :that doesn't work, does it?
Clint Brinkley :No, no, no. And I've got, I've got not just facts in the book of, you know, hey, this is a to do list, you need to go on the to do list, but also put stories in there about, you know, so many I can't say all but so many of the experiences that we had, you know, one of which, you know, you just never realize at the time you take over somebody a space that you know, is previously in other companies. I can't stress enough that you just don't need to take take into consideration that all the wiring that's in place is just going to work whenever you come back in. Because, you know, in this day and age, people are coming in after hours and they're cutting cable up in the ceiling and they're pulling it out and selling in because it's copper, right? Oh, you don't think it's gonna be that much copper. But you know, criminals don't really think about that they don't care they'll take, they'll take any, you know, six pack money. That's all
Brad Stoller :right. That's right. That's right. And it's good six pack money.
Clint Brinkley :Yeah. And sometimes even if the wire is left in there, then it's just a matter of, you know, it's been cut somewhere it's been damaged or it may not go where you want it to go. And then they get they get bit by some of these things because they didn't plan for it. My book just helps them plan for so many of the, you know, different, you know, dozens of occasions that are going to come up during their process.
Brad Stoller :I think that book is really invaluable because I know that, you know, I've done build outs and you know, my businesses in the past and it would have been nice to have a source to for me to avoid making all those mistakes that I did make and I could probably help you write the book because I made a few those mistakes, but they're costly when you make them. You know, if Clint Brinkley has made those mistakes and passes them on to you, while you just save you some money, obviously, so if, you buy the book and you can save it for who knows how much you can save on that. So
Clint Brinkley :Oh, to 10s of thousands of dollars, I mean, the client that that made a huge mistake that we were not involved in the whole planning of the process. And everything was going through their office manager, which was actually the receptionist. I can't tell you how many times a receptionist gets deemed responsible for these things. Whenever they have zero experience doing this and you lose good staff because of these things. Because they are they are do put this huge task on them. And then whenever they fail, they're either stressed out or the owner or executives of those companies stressed out And then for whatever reason, they end up leaving the company. Well, it could have been they were blamed, or it could have been, they were just so stressed. They didn't have to be there.
Brad Stoller :Exactly. So well tell us about your next book as well, because I found this extremely fascinating about, you know, you being the target. So tell us about that one as well.
Clint Brinkley :Yeah. So you're the number one target. It's all about cybersecurity. And, and it's exactly what it sounds like. People don't actually realize that. It doesn't matter how small of an organization you are I the one comment that I've heard so many times, it's just rings in my in my head every day is Oh, well. Nobody wants our information. That's right. It couldn't be further from the truth because YOU want your information. And they know that. Yes,
Brad Stoller :good point. Good point. They may not have any use for it, but they know you do. Good point. Looks like Yeah, exactly. So Well, I do know that You know, we talked about this, you know, in the past, you know about target. Everybody's heard about that stuff. Big one that got everybody's attention was the big data breach at Target. And everybody thinks that oh my gosh, they penetrated target. Yeah, tell us that you and I know the story, but tell us how they actually got through to target.
Clint Brinkley :It wasn't actually what it wasn't actually target's fault on this one. I shouldn't say that. They were completely, you know, blameless in this Right, right. However, the the whole situation actually came about because the H-VAC company, they had access into some of the files, which you know, in turn compromised target. So, by having plans in place and having procedures in place, these kind of things could be avoided. At a big scale, even with a target and things of that nature, but you know, it's a matter of making sure that you line out, you know, this is the process that you follow. I don't care if you're part of the company or not part of the company, and we have clients that have to do that. So, you know, they are a vendor for some other big company and they have to adhere to these things.
Brad Stoller :Yeah, exactly. So it's not, it's not always what people think. And I've heard a lot of business owners, especially as smaller business small, medium sized, like, Well, you know, we don't have anything valuable, like you said, to others, maybe not. But to you, yes, but also your clients. So that's their information that gets out. And there's a PR nightmare, that can I saw a stat or 80%, and you correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm, I'm new at this, right. But I heard that 80% of cyber attacks are targeted towards small business owners, you know, so that ought to get your attention. And I've also heard another stat that 60% of those who were targeted, eventually go out of business, because the damage that it causes. So this is a great book for anybody that,boy, if you really want to get caught up on, you know, the things you can do to prevent just the whole whole gamut of cybersecurity, Clint, you had a great book and I think everybody should read that. That should be a, especially today's environment. That should be a very, very top of the chart books, I guess for everybody to read. So, well, let's talk about your business here. So when we spoke earlier, and from the research I've done, okay, you weren't normal. I mean that in a good way. Mostly managed service providers. spouses are good to tell any of that stuff I know. But most managed service providers, they simply provide technical help to keep an office or offices of the clients operating, if you will. You seem to go to another level. And what you actually seem to help your clients actually use technology to become part of the growth plans, right, which is a little different. So tell us a little of why you feel technology should really be almost like a not almost but it should be a growth tool. Not just that evil thing on the expense side of the income statement?
Clint Brinkley :Yeah. So really what it boils down to is technology is here to help us innovate and streamline. And some companies small, it's usually the smaller companies that don't see that yet. They think of it as a line item expense, just like you were talking about. But with a little bit of preparation and some discussions with your executive teams, I sit down with C level people all the time. And my question to them is, what are you going to be doing this year, next year, five years from now? You know, do you have an exit strategy? You know, what are your growth plans? Are you planning on buying companies? Are you trying to sell the company? Are you doing this? And so we're asking some very critical questions. And believe it or not, sometimes we don't get answers to these things until we ask these kind of questions. They have to think about it. But because they think about these things that helps us help them and that's where It's all about we want, we want to ask that critical question to make you think, so that we can help you get over obstacles and hurdles and growth problems that you've been having, and things that you haven't considered yet.
Brad Stoller :Well, that and you brought up a really, really good point because it sounds to me, yeah, the word that keeps coming through my mind, as you're talking about this is you are a partner - not a vendor. And I happen to subscribe, that same philosophy. I don't like to be thought of as a vendor either. Absolutely. So we share that and hats off because I know that is actually so rare in a managed service provider industry, that usually somebody picks up a phone Hey, my, my server blew up. Like, there's a whole nother story on that. But But anyways, that's what a lot of people think of when they think of, oh, he's the computer guy that takes care of the network. But that's not exactly what you're subscribed to. And I think that's very admirable. So, hats off to you on that. That's great. So I know we talked a little bit about this already with a target everything. But I want to go back to this a little bit because this is such a big, big, it's a problem. And it's not getting, it's not going away. It's getting more and more and more. So the topic of large companies data security, but it's the smaller businesses are being attacked more and more by cyber criminals. So what can really happen to the smaller businesses when they don't keep up with the most current and they said current cybersecurity methods? And what do you feel every business really should do? Not only protect their clients, but also themselves.
Clint Brinkley :Oh, man, that is such a loaded question. And it is I
Brad Stoller :know a and I'll tick tick tick tick timers will be on this all day.
Clint Brinkley :So let's just kind of pick this apart real quick. So, uh, you know, first of all, you know, I even wrote an article about this. I posted a Few things on LinkedIn recently, of me being you know, an entrepreneur, business owner and I own multiple businesses, I still own multiple businesses. And I you really have to look at your strengths. You know, what, what is it that you know, you know, without a doubt is your strength. And it might be running your particular type of company, whatever industry that you're in, just be prepared to check your ego. And don't, don't be so headstrong that you can't, you can't ask for help. If you can actually, you know, get to a point where you can ask for help or admit that okay, I don't know enough in this category. I need to enlist an expert. I listen to experts all the time. I have somebody else that does all my taxes. I'm not an expert in taxes. Right. You know, I whenever I go to the doctor, I don't second guess what he says. I just said, Okay, well, if that's right, then that's right. So I you know, I have to have to accept what they say. Oh, now not all IT people are created equal. And what separates us apart really is the fact that I started my career such a long time ago, but I come from an entrepreneurial entrepreneurial family, so really businesses in my blood. So as I started looking at these things, I look at things not just from my perspective as to what I want to sell somebody what the solution is I want to sell is I look at it as if, if I'm running this company, what needs to be in place to be able to make sure that my staff is working efficiently? You know, maybe we can cut some things here. So if we can, if we can process more efficiently, we don't have to have 11 staff members, we can have 10 staff members and that's great. And it's all about efficiency. So, you can't get over efficient, but you know, you can definitely make sure that you put the right amount of, of effort on things putting the right software's in place putting the right hardware in place with without all that, you have a tendency to create a recipe for disaster.
Brad Stoller :Yes, exactly. And for those of you listening, I can attest to the efficiency of Clint Brinkley. When we are talking, he's like, done, and I'm getting all these messages. I get emails, I get all this info that we just talked about two seconds ago I got and that's how efficient you are. I know you even do you're impressed me so much. I actually when we when Clint and I were talking about, hey, how do you do your sales proposals? It doesn't take you a lot of time because Oh, hang on a second off, and I got a sample right there. He showed me how he doesit It just is and he does this right on the spot. And probably the most efficient person I've ever run across other than my wife.
Clint Brinkley :So you want to credit this to his I've read a book A long time ago from Andy Grove. Andy Grove used to run Intel he was one of the founding members out there and he created a system and John Dewers is now You know, one of his disciples that, you know, goes out there and preaches it because we've lost Andy, you know, several years ago, but it's all about creating OKR's and in which his objectives and key results. And that's how Google was built. JOHN Dewar actually sat down with the two founders of Google, and they implemented this and still right to this day. And that's how I run this company.
Brad Stoller :Yeah, and you run it very, very well. I will attest to that. So, so I know we've covered a lot. But what didn't we cover? I mean, my questions - I can only ask what I know about what should business owners factor in when it comes to their networks growing their business mistakes they make? What did we miss so far?
Clint Brinkley :So I mean, we've talked a lot of high level things and without trying to get into the weeds. Really, it's a matter of taking a really close look at you know how your network is set up. Don't Don't make the mistake of just saying, Okay, well, I've never had a problem. So I'm good. I've done these podcasts and these interviews and things like this for many years now, I remember back in in 2017, that one of the interviews that I was doing at the time, we had just crossed over the billion of the 1 billion hacks of the year. And this was what even all the way through the year at that point time, right, we were in about the time of this year, so mid year, and as we got to the end of the year, and as we get to the next year, we're crossing into 10s of billions of attacks every single year. So it's not a matter of if you're going to be hacked. It's a matter of when you're going to be hacked at some point because you don't put everything in place. The reason that people get hacked is because they don't have good processes and procedures in place to be able to make sure that these things don't happen. There. They don't even know sometimes that they've been hacked for a very long time in that and that's a scary thought. So, you know, there's a lot of preparation that needs to be, you know, taken a look at, look at your systems with a with a very close magnifying glass and make sure that you've covered all your bases. And never think that you know, I'm good, you know that that's, that's that's like telling the doctor not only to take that pill and then the week later you die. That's what you're setting yourself up for.
Brad Stoller :Yeah, exactly. So well, Clint, tell us a little bit about Okay, so people are might have some questions here. I would think they do and hopefully they'll reach out to you or at least somebody and get some of these. These answered my advice is talk to Clint because I think you know business First of all, where all do you cover? I know you're in the Houston area but where all do you actually service?
Clint Brinkley :So we headquartered in the woodlands, which is Just north of Houston, of course, we take care of all the Houston area. We have an office in Dallas, we also have an office in Midland, Texas, way out west. And as far as our coverage area is concerned, we dispatch all over Texas. In in all respects, we actually most of our clients that have headquarters here, they'll have satellite offices in other states. So we we are technically coast to coast at this point. We haven't we don't have any international clients yet. But that's just because we haven't been exposed to that opportunity yet. But we've got a growing staff of people that can handle people from coast to coast with technology these days, 90 plus percent can actually be done remotely. We have a vast, you know, area here that we actually stage and ship systems all over the country. Yeah, exactly. So how do people get ahold of you when they do other questions? Uh, well, it's real simple. They can go to our website. It's, uh, YBS.us it's not a.com. But you can find it find us there, you can find me all over social media. Best Place to contact me probably is on LinkedIn. So if you want to find me on LinkedIn, Clint Brinkley, you can find me on there. I've got an Instagram account. So I mean, I'm all over social media, you just you, if you if you type my name in Google, you will find most likely.
Brad Stoller :Sounds great. So Well, once again, a special thanks to Clint Brinkley, for taking the time out of his busy schedule today to really help us all get a better perspective on growing your business with technology. So Clint, thanks again for being with us here today.
Clint Brinkley :Oh, thank you, Brad. I appreciate the opportunity.