For MSPs, advice is everywhere. It’s execution that separates stagnant businesses from those that grow.
That’s the message from Greg Jones, senior vice president of MSP success at Kaseya, who published his first book, The Best of 1 Minute Wednesday, earlier this year. Jones has spent years distilling practical guidance for providers through his 1 Minute Wednesday online series. After gaining huge traction with more than 5,000 weekly viewers on LinkedIn, he compiled the top lessons from across the channel into a book aimed at helping MSPs take meaningful action.
The book features 150 practical MSP growth tips from channel leaders, with 100% of profits donated to Alder Hey Children’s Charity.
Jones recently talked with ChannelPro about the inspiration behind the book, the power of the MSP community, and the mindset shifts providers need to move from intention to growth.
Q: What Started You on This Journey to Write a Book?
Jones: I started 1 Minute Wednesday about six years ago now. It began as a one-minute business tip that I posted on LinkedIn each Wednesday. And it quickly gathered a huge following within the MSP community. I’ve done it every single week. I’ve never missed a week, whether I’m on holiday, over Christmas, or any period. Then, a lot of MSPs said, “You should start putting this into a book.” Eventually, I decided to do it.
Q: What Will MSPs Find in The Best of 1 Minute Wednesday?
Jones: There’s a mixture of business, sales, marketing, advice, and finance. I’ve made it really easy for any MSP to pick it up and get value irrelevant of where they are on their journey. It’s community input. So many industry legends are in there, like Gary Pica, Rob Rae, and loads of MSPs who are doing incredible things. Everybody who is in the book has been featured on 1 Minute Wednesday, obviously. I’ve just articulated and transcribed their video message into actions and a tip. And then I put 50 of my own tips at the back of the book. So, in total, there are 100 tips from people around the channel, and 50 from me — the best tips of 1 Minute Wednesday.
Q: Why Was Donating to a Charity an Important Part of this Project for You?
Jones: I’m a business ambassador for the Alder Hey Children’s Charity. I’ve worked with them for probably about eight years now. They serve over 330,000 children a year. It’s the largest children’s hospital in the EMEA region. I decided to give all of the profits to them.
Q: How Has Your Book Performed Compared with Your Expectations?
Jones: The power of this community is incredible. I expected to sell a few copies to help the charity, but it became a No. 1 bestseller on Amazon in three categories in the U.S. and three categories in the U.K. And that was on Day One just by the community getting behind it. Not just MSPs, but vendors also were getting involved and buying copies for their teams. We’ve had a couple of vendors that bought many books to give out at events to help MSPs. I always knew this community was beautiful and powerful, but I was blown away.
Q: What Is Some of the Messaging that Stands Out as Especially Impactful for Channel Professionals?
Jones: There are a lot of tips in there that challenge the status quo and encourage thinking outside of the box. The one thing I would want people to take away, which resonates in many of the tips in the book, is to take action, don’t procrastinate. And more importantly, what I want is for it not just to change the trajectory of your business, but the lives of the people of that business. So, giving owners more time back and creating a better quality of life for their families as well as their employees.
Greg Jones
The value they will get really depends on where the MSP is on their journey and their business operational maturity. Make sure you are open-minded when you read the book. Also, actually action it. Cascade that information back down into whatever is most relevant for your business. There were so many that when I catalogued the literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tips, I was blown away.
Q: What Advice Would You Give to MSPs that Want to Step Outside of Their Comfort Zone and Drive Real Growth this Year?
Jones: I would say definitely, yes, we’re in the technology space as MSPs, but think of the technology as secondary. Position yourself as a go-to-market business. Focus on sales and marketing because you’re never going to be perfect. You need to focus on the growth element.
If you look even outside of our industry at the most successful businesses or the brands that you associate with, they dominate because they’re very good at sales and marketing. As MSPs, we tend to forget that and not focus on it. So that’s really important.
One more thing is to set goals and have somebody to hold you accountable. The higher you move up the hierarchy, arguably, the less you become accountable because you’re the one setting the vision and goal. You still need an accountability partner, whether it’s a family member, a loved one, or maybe a peer.
Q: What’s next for you following the book’s success?
Jones: People are asking for Volume 2 because there are so many tips still out there. I’m still processing that in my head because of the trauma of getting the first book out. I am certainly not a wordsmith, and it was challenging for me to do. But I wanted to give back to the MSP community because it got me to where I am today. I owe everything to the MSP community. So now, I want to help MSPs across the globe grow and scale. I don’t know what will be next, but it’ll certainly be about empowering others and helping MSPs grow.
Images: Nadun — stock.adobe.com, Anjali Fluker/ChannelPro, Kaseya
