Luis Alvarez was named the leading MSP in cannatech in the May issue of Marijuana Venture Magazine. Not only does Luis portray the domain expertise but he has commitment to the industry to go with it. With his commitment and goal driven team he has been able to successfully enter and stay up to date with this extremely fast moving industry. Watch as Luis shares his tips and tricks to breaking into a new industry.
Video Transcription
Harry Brelsford 0:00
Yep. Hey 420MSP, Harry back with Luis Alvarez in Central California, sir, I have a surprise for you. In my monthly column that Marijuana Venture Magazine, we’re getting some traction, we’re getting good conversations in the May column. So by the time we post this up, the magazine will be just a few days away a couple weeks away. But I have named you as essentially the leading MSP and cannabis technology, my friend, I’ve done some research. And I’ve got even better news for you that I have that photo of us having one of our first conversations in Chicago two years ago, in May, when you were up on stage for IoT, and I introduced myself and we took a photo in the booth, and I found the photo high resolution. And I’ve suggested to the editor, Garrett Rudolph, that we use that as our piece of art. But, sir, I do want to give you a shout out because I have, you know, gotten to know I think we have about 100 MSP signed up over here 420MSP and we need to grow that but you know, people got a little distracted with the world events. But of the MSPs I’ve seen, not only do you have domain expertise, but you have commitment, I see some people who they kind of waver on their commitment. Uh huh. No, no, Harry, and I want to talk about that your commitment is what really made this I’m you know, I assume domain expertise and infrastructure with any MSP. So check that box. But your commitment, talk to me about it?
Luis Alvarez 1:48
Yeah, I mean, whenever we take something on, having been in this business for 20 years, now, there’s a lot of things that, you know, can distract you from your core business. And so whenever you start to think I’m really good at doing this, here’s an opportunity to do this other thing either added to the portfolio, or really just take a left turn and go that direction. The question is, are you willing to commit to doing that? And you have to sit down and ask yourself, Am I willing to commit am I’m, you know, my all in on this. And then you need to take your leadership team, your trusted advisors that are part of the organization and say, Okay, this is what I’m thinking, what do you guys think let’s, you know, let’s, let’s shoot bullets at it. And sorry, for the metaphor, but you know, let’s try to to really decide whether this is something we want to do or not. And after that, if we’re all still committed to it, you know, if we all sign on and say, you know, offer one One for all, then then that’s the direction that we’re going to go. And it’s not an easy road, not an easy path a lot of times, usually takes a lot of effort. But if you keep that commitment in mind, and remind yourself why you started that journey, you’re going to be successful at it.
Harry Brelsford 2:59
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, it’s essentially it’s like a startup, right? You’re, you’re taking it on a new vertical, and it has the behavior of a startup and with my own company, I’m known for SMB Nation. When we had the team all come together and focus on something we were typically successful or successful, our satisfaction, for example, we messaged heavily around Windows XP migrations in 2014. So we did a pretty good job of that. But when I don’t nail it with the the team, and my customers, and so on, unfortunately, we put it back on the shelf. And I give you an example. I probably could have done a better job in retrospect, but you know, you’re busy running a company. But Luis, we tried that concept of marketing as a service. There’s these providers out there like mine matrix, and they’re gonna, they’re going to help you do your newsletter, they’re going to help you do your social, they’re going to help you to your blogs, we were going to take it to a whole nother level and actually just do the typing for you. Right. So it’d be your name, and we ghost write it and submit. And, again, I probably would have handled it differently, knowing what I know today. But we ran into some structural blocks, and that is the MSP down in the small business space, couldn’t pay what we needed to be paid to give them professional attention. And so I’m just kind of echoing that, that when we’re focused on target, it works. And when we’re unfocused and off target, it doesn’t work.
Luis Alvarez 4:37
Every time. I’ve learned that lesson over the last 20 years,
Harry Brelsford 4:41
Yep. Well, sir, I just wanted to say congratulations, and when we get when we get you back, we’ll have the actual column we can put up on the screen and give you a kudos, you know, kudos and send you maybe with Easter coming up. I can probably find some gold wrap coin So we’ll send you will send you a gold coin. All right, thanks. Take care. You too.
