If you ask John Harden, community and collaboration are often the biggest keys to success. The director of product – SaaS at Auvik won the CompTIA Community Member of the Year Award. The award, which was presented during CompTIA ChannelCon in late July, embodies this spirit of community building.
John Harden
ChannelPro sat down with Harden after he had accepted the award. We asked for his take on how MSPs can leverage community engagement, build meaningful connections, and manage their businesses more effectively. Here’s what he had to say:
ChannelPro: How does being a community builder help MSPs or businesses overall?
Harden: The MSP world is unique. We all help each other. [You will] never meet a person who won’t sit down and just talk to you. If you’re going through something really hard, there are so many people here who will support you. When I accepted the award, I said I feel like I’m accepting it on behalf of everybody.
There are so many people who took the time to help me build my business into what I wanted it to be in terms of culture, or [helped with] challenges I was facing. I wouldn’t be here without them. And I feel like I’m accepting it on behalf of all the time that people have poured into me. So, how does the community help your business? I would almost challenge that by asking, how could you run a business without having a community?
Read Below: John Harden reacts to his award win on LinkedIn.
ChannelPro: What advice would you give to companies or channel pros who want to start building a community?
Harden: I’m stealing somebody else’s advice here that was given a long time ago. When you look out into the field of folks here at ChannelCon, you see people who are YouTube famous or up on stage. A lot of people are reluctant to step up and say something to those folks. They may think you’re taking their time or that they have more important things to do. But when you take the time to say hi to them, they don’t feel like it is a take; they want to give.
You have to really shift your mindset on having those introductions and meeting those folks. Almost everybody out here has that giver mentality. As long as you are going in with that same giver mentality, the world’s always here — at least at ChannelCon and in the MSP community.
ChannelPro: What advice do you have for MSPs on setting up their businesses so they can take time off and trust their teams?
Harden: I’m a victim of this. I did this for many, many years, and I still do it. You have to be reminded so often, so that’s why I’m saying it here. As an entrepreneur or as a business owner, or as a small to midsized MSP trying to grow the next $1 million in revenue or take on the next 100 customers, you do so many things. It’s important to step back and remember it is not the amount of things that you’re going to do, but the things that you won’t do.
Focus on the needle movers. It’s really important to always be reminded of prioritization because you get caught up in the weeds. You’ll find yourself with more time and actually, you’ll usually achieve more by doing a little bit less by focusing on the things you won’t do.
