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The BMK Vision Podcast
The BMK Vision Podcast episodes
- #131 - AI Cyberattacks - Who Owns Your MSP's Security Risk? | BMK VISION ROUNDTABLE
The night two critical PHP flaws leaked before their patches, Josh Peterson asked Gary Boyle what was really happening. Gary's answer: AI has made attackers faster than any MSP can patch, the open-weight models they run have no guardrails, and the frontier models defenders use refuse the targeted vulnerability work attackers do freely.
Then Gary turns the question on MSP owners. Most MSPs became brokers of security, handing backup, cloud and antivirus to someone else, and a thousand unpatched endpoints mean something different when the bots never sleep. He argues against freezing AI development and for learning the tools, because AI security expertise is the differentiator MSPs have chased for twenty years.
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What We Cover in This Episode
- Unpack the PHP flaws that leaked before their patches
- See why security is just code, and why AI can read it- Compare open-weight models with no guardrails to frontier models that refuse- Learn why hackers and developers scanning code do the same thing- Hear what a Bitcoin red team spending $10,000 a day revealed- Rethink patching when a thousand endpoints meet unlimited bots- Decide whether to freeze AI development after a breach- Question whether your MSP is a broker of security- Turn AI security expertise into a real differentiator- Find forgotten API keys before they become a surprise bill----------
Subscribe & Follow BMK Vision
YouTube (Video Podcast):
https://www.youtube.com/@beringmckinleyvision?sub_confirmation=1Learn More About the Vision Platform:https://beringmckinley.com/visionApply to Be a Guest:https://beringmckinley.com/blog#speaker-form----------
SEO Keywords
- AI cyberattacks
- MSP cybersecurity- MSP security responsibility- PHP2Shell- AI guardrails- open-weight AI models- API key security- unpatched endpoints- MSP differentiation- managed service providers- BMK Vision Podcast----------
Credits
Host: Josh Peterson
Co-Host: Gary BoyleProducer: Bering McKinleyEpisode: AI Cyberattacks - Who Owns Your MSP's Security Risk?51 min - #130 - MSP AI Security - How Much Risk Should You Accept? | BMK VISION ROUNDTABLE
Josh Peterson gave Claude a ConnectWise API user with write access to his time entries and did not lose a minute of sleep over it. Then he asks Gary Boyle the question every MSP owner is now facing: where is the actual security risk, and how much of it should you accept?
Gary's answer starts with where API keys really leak and ends with a cheat code. An MSP that already trusts ConnectWise and QuickBooks with everything cannot single out the LLM as the bigger risk, you cannot stop data leaving a small business anyway, and the owners who stay AI-first while their competitors lock everything down are the ones pulling ahead. Together they work out what a sane risk assessment looks like, and where an MSP should be on the levels from one to four.
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What We Cover in This Episode
- Decide what a Claude integration with ConnectWise actually exposes
- Separate one-shotting an app from plan, code and goal- Find out where API keys leak, and why pasting one into an LLM means re-keying- Ask why an MSP that trusts ConnectWise and QuickBooks would fear the LLM more- Recognize when a locked-down Claude has become unusable- Accept that you cannot stop data leaving a small business- Weigh the two forms of risk: leaking data, and holding clients back- Place your MSP on the levels from one to four- Pick two practice projects: dashboards and the PSA-to-accounting connector----------
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https://www.youtube.com/@beringmckinleyvision?sub_confirmation=1Learn More About the Vision Platform:https://beringmckinley.com/visionApply to Be a Guest:https://beringmckinley.com/blog#speaker-form----------
SEO Keywords
- MSP AI security
- AI risk tolerance- Claude for MSPs- ConnectWise API security- API key security- LLM data security- AI governance for MSPs- AI-first MSP- managed service providers- BMK Vision Podcast----------
Credits
Host: Josh Peterson
Co-Host: Gary BoyleProducer: Bering McKinleyEpisode: MSP AI Security - How Much Risk Should You Accept?54 min - #129 - Selling Your MSP - My Price, Your Terms | FROM THE TRENCHES
An MSP owner finds a buyer, signs a letter of intent and starts thinking about the number. Hartland Ross has watched hundreds of those deals from the middle, and he argues the number is only half of what a seller agrees to. The terms decide what you are actually paid, and how long you stay.
Hartland is Founder and Managing Partner of The Host Broker, a brokerage for MSPs and IT services businesses based in Vancouver, British Columbia. In this conversation with Josh Peterson he walks through LOI break fees and exclusivity, how to choose a buyer on fit, how long sellers really stay after the close, and why earnouts exist. Josh brings two deals he saw up close: a $200,000 break fee paid when a buyer walked away, and a seller who realized days before closing that the buyer would inherit his $100,000 hardware investment.
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What We Cover in This Episode
- Unpack a $200K LOI break fee, and why most never survive
- Explain how exclusivity works once an LOI is signed- Decide whose LOI to work first when there is no asking price- Turn the tables and interview the buyer- Rank offers on fit before money- Handle a seller who becomes the problem after the close- Set realistic expectations for how long a seller stays- Weigh price against terms in an earnout- Spot a buyer who needs the earnout to finance the deal- Settle hardware as a service equipment before closing----------
Guest Links
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hartlandross/
Company Website: https://www.thehostbroker.com/----------
Subscribe & Follow BMK Vision
YouTube (Video Podcast):
https://www.youtube.com/@beringmckinleyvision?sub_confirmation=1Learn More About the Vision Platform:https://beringmckinley.com/visionApply to Be a Guest:https://beringmckinley.com/blog#speaker-form----------
SEO Keywords
- selling an MSP
- MSP earnout- letter of intent- LOI exclusivity- seller transition period- MSP acquisition- MSP exit strategy- MSP valuation- The Host Broker- managed service providers----------
Credits
Host: Josh Peterson
Guest: Hartland Ross, The Host BrokerProducer: Bering McKinleyEpisode: #129 - Selling Your MSP - My Price, Your Terms57 min - #128 - MSP AI Apps - Should You Sell What You Built in Claude? | BMK VISION ROUNDTABLE
Josh Peterson built a working app in Claude in a day without writing a line of code, and he already has clients who could use it. So he asks Gary Boyle the question every MSP owner is starting to ask: why not build tools like this for clients and charge for them?
Gary's answer starts with a map of the AI journey and the stage he calls the danger zone, where a build is exciting, easy to make and hard to support. Together they work out what an MSP has to settle before it sells software nobody on the team fully understands, and the decision every MSP now faces.
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What We Cover in This Episode
- Build a working app in Claude without writing code, and see why that changes the MSP's role
- Recognize the parallel between selling websites in 1998 and selling AI tools today- Place a business on the AI journey, from patient zero to level three- Spot the danger zone, where a build is easy to make and hard to support- Plan for the day the tech who built it is out and nothing is documented- Set a goal before you build, the same way you would plan a business- See why the first change request is where an unsupported app fails- Decide whether your MSP becomes an AI software company or keeps reselling Copilot----------
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YouTube (Video Podcast):
https://www.youtube.com/@beringmckinleyvision?sub_confirmation=1Learn More About the Vision Platform:https://beringmckinley.com/visionApply to Be a Guest:https://beringmckinley.com/blog#speaker-form----------
SEO Keywords
- MSP AI strategy
- sell AI apps to clients- build apps with Claude- AI software development- AI automation for MSPs- AI danger zone- proof of concept- Microsoft Copilot- managed service providers- BMK Vision Podcast----------
Credits
Host: Josh Peterson
Co-Host: Gary BoyleProducer: Bering McKinleyEpisode: MSP AI Apps - Should You Sell What You Built in Claude?46 min - #127 - MSP Accreditation - Self-Regulate or Be Regulated | FROM THE TRENCHES
Who decides whether an MSP is qualified to hold the keys to a client's business? Right now, mostly nobody, and Josh Peterson suspects insurance companies are quietly taking the job, the same way an insurer, not the FAA, decided which plane he was allowed to fly.
MJ Shoer is Chief Community Officer at GTIA, the IT channel association formerly known as CompTIA, and ran his own MSP for close to nineteen years. In this conversation he argues the industry has to regulate itself before regulators do it instead, and explains the self-regulatory organization GTIA is building with Texas A&M to accredit the whole MSP business.
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What We Cover in This Episode
- Compare how an insurer and the FAA decide who flies, and what it means for MSPs
- Unpack why an insurer might pay $30K of a $50K incident cleanup bill- Weigh what government regulation could do to small MSPs- Explain why it is easier to become an MSP than a genealogical researcher- Introduce CRITS, the consortium GTIA launched with Texas A&M- Map what an accreditation of an entire MSP would measure- Connect AI and cybersecurity, and the new Managed Intelligence Alliance- Debate whether the Trustmark was ever worth more than a logo- Set the bar: a checkbox on every cyber insurance form- Trace how CompTIA became GTIA----------
Guest Links
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mshoer/
Company Website: https://gtia.org----------
Subscribe & Follow BMK Vision
YouTube (Video Podcast):
https://www.youtube.com/@beringmckinleyvision?sub_confirmation=1Learn More About the Vision Platform:https://beringmckinley.com/visionApply to Be a Guest:https://beringmckinley.com/blog#speaker-form----------
SEO Keywords
- MSP accreditation
- MSP self-regulation- MSP regulation- cyber insurance for MSPs- GTIA- Cybersecurity Trustmark- CRITS- self-regulatory organization- MSP standards- managed service providers----------
Credits
Host: Josh Peterson
Guest: MJ Shoer, GTIAProducer: Bering McKinleyEpisode: #127 - MSP Accreditation - Self-Regulate or Be Regulated40 min - #126 - MSP Owner Sales - Never Leave Without the Next Meeting | BMK VISION ROUNDTABLE
Josh Peterson opens with a claim most MSP owners will recognize: the owner who says he can't sell and the owner who says he's great at it often end up with the same pipeline. The difference, Josh argues, is not talent. It is the steps both of them skip in the first meeting.
He walks Gary Boyle through the order of selling and the four things every first appointment has to produce before you leave the room: a budget, a time frame, the next meeting date, and a referral request. Then he shows how to stop chasing prospects by making the proposal a formality rather than a surprise.
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What We Cover in This Episode
- Sell yourself first, the company second, and goods and services last
- Build rapport by getting curious about the person, not their golf trophy- Ask for the referral at the end of a first meeting- Set the next meeting with a command instead of a question- Anchor the prospect's deadline and work backward from it- Estimate revenue from headcount to open the budget conversation- Frame the IT budget as a share of the prospect's revenue- Deliver proposals instead of sending quotes, and trial close before you write them----------
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SEO Keywords
- MSP owner sales
- MSP sales process- first sales meeting- set the next meeting- sales call next steps- order of selling- IT budget- referral request- trial close- MSP proposals----------
Credits
Host: Josh Peterson
Co-Host: Gary BoyleProducer: Bering McKinleyEpisode: MSP Owner Sales - Never Leave Without the Next Meeting42 min - #125 - MSP Effective Hourly Rate - Why Time Entry Finally Matters | BMK VISION ROUNDTABLE
Josh Peterson has pushed MSP owners to enter all forty hours for more than twenty years, and lately he has noticed something new: they have mostly stopped arguing. Gary Boyle thinks the reason is money. Labor costs keep rising while contracts priced years ago never moved, and owners who want to know where the margin went end up at the timesheet.
The two work through the one number Josh says explains nearly every weak service P&L: the effective hourly rate on your agreements, measured against the rate you would charge for a project hour. For most MSPs it comes out at roughly half.
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What We Cover in This Episode
- Explain why MSP owners have stopped fighting time entry
- Connect complete time entry to agreement gross profit and utilization- Trace how frustration with managed services is reviving project and hourly billing- Show how rising wages erode contracts that were never repriced- Calculate the effective hourly rate on a managed services agreement- Compare a $95 agreement hour against a $200 project hour- Diagnose weak service revenue and gross profit from a single number- Make time entry stick by explaining what leadership will measure with it----------
Subscribe & Follow BMK Vision
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SEO Keywords
- MSP effective hourly rate
- effective hourly rate vs standard rate- managed services agreement profitability- agreement gross profit- MSP time entry- technician utilization- service gross profit- MSP pricing- labor costs- project billing----------
Credits
Host: Josh Peterson
Co-Host: Gary BoyleProducer: Bering McKinleyEpisode: MSP Effective Hourly Rate - Why Time Entry Finally Matters11 min - #124 - MSP Action Items - How Detailed Is Too Detailed | BMK VISION ROUNDTABLE
Josh brought a live client problem to this one. He had given a single leader about thirty action items for one initiative goal, and that leader told him it felt like being treated like a child. The feedback was fair. The instinct behind the thirty items was not wrong either, and that tension is the whole episode.
Josh Peterson and Gary Boyle work through where action items actually belong in a strategic plan, when a step deserves to be its own task, and how you tell whether a plan is working or the quarter simply went your way.
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What We Cover in This Episode
- Locate action items correctly: yearly plan, quarterly initiatives, monthly goals, weekly actions
- Separate a genuine action item from a step buried inside one- Understand why a consultant over-specifies, and where that stops helping the client- Spot action items that carry no link back to a larger goal- Resolve the trap of ten things that are all kind of the one thing- Prioritize and time bind, so what is next is settled rather than renegotiated weekly- Catch the drift that happens when good ideas keep joining the weekly meeting- Ask the uncomfortable quarterly question: did I pick the right initiatives, or did the year help- Reframe results over a one-year horizon instead of a one-month one- Accept a C plus process when it produces A plus results----------
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SEO Keywords
- MSP strategic planning
- action items- strategic plan execution- managed service provider- EOS level 10 meeting- quarterly initiatives- weekly meeting cadence- accountability- micromanagement- business coaching for MSPs- prioritization- time horizon----------
Credits
Host: Josh Peterson
Co-Host: Gary BoyleProducer: Bering McKinleyEpisode: MSP Action Items - How Detailed Is Too Detailed23 min - #123 - MSP Owner Pay: Stop Paying Yourself Like an Employee | FROM THE TRENCHES
A million dollars in revenue, a hundred and eighty thousand to the owner, three percent left at the bottom. The owner is not careless. They are comfortable, and comfort is what stopped the examination.
Read the full breakdown:
https://beringmckinley.com/blog/msp-owner-pay-why-you-should-take-profit-instead-of-a-salary?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=short&utm_campaign=ep123&utm_content=short1Watch the full episode:
https://youtu.be/9ypR77IFGIMApply to be a guest on the show:
https://beringmckinley.com/blog#speaker-formLearn more about the BMK Vision Operating System:
https://beringmckinley.com/vision#MSP #ManagedServices #BMKVisionPodcast #MSPOwner #Profitability #BusinessGrowth
1 hr 12 min - #122 - AI Outreach for MSPs: What to Ask Before You Sign | BMK VISION ROUNDTABLE
An MSP owner asked Josh Peterson a question with an obvious answer, right up until you look at it closely. He pays fifty to sixty thousand a year for a capable appointment setter. An AI outreach service quoted him thirty-six thousand to do more of the same work, across far more of the market. He goes on the sales call either way.
Gary Boyle settles the technology question quickly, then moves to the part that decides whether the money works. A vendor controls nothing after the email lands, so a click reported as a lead marks the boundary of their control rather than a lie. The buyer's job is to name the outcome first and make the vendor answer against it. The back half is about fixing your message before you buy any channel.
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What We Cover in This Episode
- Whether cold calling still works for MSPs in 2026, and what actually changed
- What an AI outreach vendor can control, and the hard line where their influence stops- The single question to ask before signing with any marketing vendor- Why the buyer is often the one doing the lying- How AI killed the purchased broadcast list and what replaced it- Why your ideal client profile matters more once the channel gets ten times faster- Auditing the message your owner, salespeople and appointment setter each give- Bonus: the thirty-day rule for killing a deal without losing the contact----------
Hosts
Josh Peterson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshdpeterson/
Gary Boyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyboyle/----------
Subscribe and Follow BMK Vision
YouTube (Video Podcast):
https://www.youtube.com/@beringmckinleyvision?sub_confirmation=1Learn More About the Vision Platform:
https://beringmckinley.com/visionApply to Be a Guest:
https://beringmckinley.com/blog#speaker-form----------
SEO Keywords
- AI outreach for MSPs
- MSP marketing vendor evaluation- MSP appointment setting- Cold calling for MSPs- MSP sales messaging- Ideal client profile- MSP pipeline management- Managed service providers- BMK Vision Podcast----------
Credits
Hosts: Josh Peterson and Gary Boyle
Producer: Bering McKinleyEpisode: #122 - AI Outreach for MSPs: What to Ask Before You Sign34 min
About The BMK Vision Podcast
From the publisher's feed
Welcome to The BMK Vision Podcast — the show for MSP leaders, IT professionals, and the vendors who support them. Hosted by the team at Bering McKinley, each episode delivers real-world insights,…
strategic guidance, and no-BS conversations to help you grow, scale, and profit in the managed services space. We challenge outdated models, highlight proven standards, and share stories from the front lines of consulting. Whether you’re just getting started or running a mature MSP, this podcast helps you bring clarity, structure, and profitability to your business.