About This Episode

Ross Brouse is the president and COO of Continuous Networks, an IT company specializing in “making IT personal.” As someone who’s always curious about how things work, Ross shares his experience with the delicate balance between being involved in all aspects of your company and trying to control every outcome. He gives us a glimpse at how the DEY (Do Everything Yourself) approach taught him some very valuable lessons about the importance of letting go and trusting your team. 

1:36 – We talk with Ross about his path to the MSP world, how quitting a job was the best decision he ever made, and why flexibility matters when it comes to your MSP’s operations and offerings. Ross also shares his journey from film school to IT, and how running an MSP is incredibly similar to making a movie. 

6:16 – We discuss the things that make Continuous unique, and how their team managed to shift from the commodity world to the consulting world. Ross also shares how Entrepreneurial Operating Systems changed the way he approaches everything about the company – not just with clients, but internally as well. Ross tells his engineers that they are “80% psychologist and 20% technologists” and that as long as they keep that in mind, they’ll do the right thing. 

10:45 – Ross shares a story about how losing $200K on a single salesperson was the wakeup call he needed in order to finally get the company’s sales and marketing on track… and how to avoid that mistake yourself. 

20:30 – Ross explains how consistent discipline and owning responsibility for every success and failure at the company helped him break out of the cycle of control and ultimately find growth and success. 

 23:13 – Ross updates us on how this mindset shift and pivot are going, and leaves us with parting thoughts about growth and change.