Tell me about your vision.
Very my vision for my organization and my company is to be the leading
technology provider of managed services in the state of Texas.
That vision includes being able to provide incremental support for
small to medium sized businesses when it's around cyber security, managed
technology services, voice over IP systems as well as interactive
conferencing systems and in doing so with exceptional customer service
and productivity to be able to watch organizations grow not only their
footprint but also in their revenue generation.
All right.
Someone doesn't just happen to be in the cyber security space or
security space per se.
So how did you land in that?
They tell me about it.
Great question.
How did I land in the cyber security space?
It starts a long time ago.
So when I was younger, I used to like to fiddle around with technology.
This was before the digital era, the digital age.
I don't want to age myself too much, but ultimately I was always
curious in technology and as I grew into the technology realm, started
schooling for it, going to the University of Texas at San Antonio.
I started to understand that with all the technology that's coming
out today, that there's threats behind that, that there's misuse
of technology and services.
And I wanted to get a better understanding on not only how to
leverage this technology for benefits, but also to be able to protect
our end users, to be able to protect ourselves against any type of
malicious use of this technology to take advantage of individuals.
So it became my mission to get a better understanding and then want
to be able to help those and others in the community.
It's very fair because I interviewed a lot of leaders and entrepreneurs
and it's not uncommon for an entrepreneur to think about security
very far down the road.
And sometimes it's very late in that aspect where some things go
was bad and then they think about, oh my gosh, I should have secured
something.
Oh, I should have done this.
Maybe I should have taken a backup.
And I think that's a great thing to have people get aware of this
aspect of, you know, I need to take steps right now to do so.
I'm glad that someone does that.
My question for you then how, because I know you personally, I
met you one time and you are founder, if I'm correct, of DocuMation.
How did that all start?
How did that all come about?
So starting over at DocuMation, DocuMation started over 35 years ago
as a family owned and operated printer copier company.
And as that company grew, a lot of their partners saw the need for
managed network services.
Well, we've got these printers.
We have these copiers, these scanners, and I'll date myself, these
fax machines.
How do they interconnect?
How do they stay secure?
We need help with this.
We don't have an IT person on staff.
And one of the individuals that started our managed IT services is
Preston Wolpo, who's now our co-CEO.
I've known Preston for a long time, have known his family for a long
time through relationships at Community Bible Church and the like.
And it just, there was an opportunity to build out this division, to
build out this company.
And Preston tapped me on the shoulder of knowing of me and my background
as being a previous IT director and said, hey, we're trying to grow
something.
We're trying to start something here to be able to help support our
clients and continue to establish deeper partnerships and protect our
clientele.
So is this something you would be interested in?
And I'll tell you, Harry, it wasn't something I jumped into right off
the bat.
This is an emerging field.
It's still a very new field where managed services hasn't necessarily
populated throughout the US and the world yet.
So it was very, it was a very much a leap of faith jumping in.
And I said, what the heck?
Let's start something from the ground up.
Let's see what we can do to grow the organization.
And it was tough in the beginning.
It was very tough because a lot of our partners did not know what a
firewall was, what a server was, what hosted email was.
So as we try to educate our partners, it sure sounded like we were
trying to do some type of magic trick and pull one over on our
clients.
Well, you're just talking gibberish things of that sort.
But as our partners grown and technology has evolved over the
years, it's become less of an education and having to convince our
partners.
This is what you need to be safe.
It is now common knowledge and it has helped us grow to where we are
today.
And it's just been a blessing to be able to see our division grow
from where it was to where we are now.
Wow, that's awesome.
What would you say are that during the time held you back from where
you were, where you are now and what you could have done better?
Because a lot of times we don't realize it.
We learn a lot from our mistakes, but a lot of people learn a lot
from someone else's mistake and they can jump hurdles.
So as billion entrepreneurs, if they can see someone did a mistake
and they can avoid that for themselves, that could essentially
save them 10, five years of their life.
And that's very, very valuable.
I will tell you what really held me back was myself.
That's going to sound very interesting.
My own stubbornness, my own thoughts that I knew what I was doing
better than individuals that have been experienced in the field.
Since I was younger, I always wanted to prove myself, always
wanted to try to be the best in whatever I did.
And I wasn't one to accept help or advice.
And that wound up becoming one of my biggest downfalls is continually
trying to do the same thing over and over again and expecting
a different result.
That's the definition of insanity.
And what it finally took me to was a breaking point in my own career.
It was a situation where I sat down with our now co-CEO and he said,
look, we've got a plan.
We've got a process.
I need you to follow the plan.
I need you to follow the process.
If you want to do your own thing, that's totally fine, but you can
do your own thing somewhere else.
And it was a very fair and honest statement.
And it made me sit there and think I've done everything in my power
to try to grow this division, to grow my income, to extend our
reach and it hasn't worked.
So I had a what the heck moment.
Let's give it a shot.
Let's see what happens.
Once that happened, he gave me plans, advice.
I started listening to the pointers.
I also started digging deeper into some literature.
There was books by Tim Grover by Chris Voss, all kinds of David
Goggins, for example, really absorbing what it takes to not only
be mentally strong, but also how do I accelerate my career in my
path with negotiation skills, with being able to understand
technology and being able to be a better businessman.
And once I started doing that and broke that barrier, my career,
my success has taken off.
And I always sit here today and say, man, when is the next shoe
going to drop?
When am I going to be held back again?
When is there going to be a regression of my progress?
And I sit here and think my sphere of influence, I got to make sure
that I got the right people on a corner.
I've got other entrepreneurs and successful businessmen.
I have my wife.
I have family and friends to be able to help make sure that I'm
staying on track, keeping focused, and I'm not reverting
back to where I was.
But also, I continually evolve.
On my team, I have my executive team and I have them check me.
Hey, by the way, are we heading in the right direction?
Are we doing the right things?
Are we doing what's best for our partners and our organization?
And that's where I never did that in the past and was what really
held me back is having the right mentors, having the right consultants
and diving into additional literature to ensure that I'm continuing
to educate myself and evolve as business.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for
giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming
a Vision Pro yourself.