Welcome to Ctrl Alt Deliver: MSP Service Delivery Mastery.
I’m Jeni Clift, joined by my husband and business partner Nick Clift. Together, we spent nearly 30 years building, scaling, and eventually exiting our own MSP business.

Over that time, we learned something fundamental.
Great service delivery isn’t just about technology or growth. It’s about leadership, clarity, and knowing when it’s time to evolve.

In this episode, we’re joined by Zhaun Bhana, a long time MSP leader who spent more than two decades building Leap Consulting into one of Perth’s standout MSPs before stepping into his next chapter in the industry.

Zhaun has lived the full MSP journey from scaling and mergers to ownership stress to exit and life after the business. Today, he works closely with MSP owners across Australia, New Zealand, and globally, helping them navigate growth, consolidation, and transition with clarity and perspective.

In this conversation, Zhaun challenges MSP leaders to ask a question many avoid.
Are you still waking up with the same energy you had five years ago?

We explore founder burnout, identity, and the hidden danger of staying in a business out of obligation rather than purpose. Zhaun shares why value breaks down when customers can’t clearly see differentiation, why MSPs that look the same end up competing on price, and why innovation that looks identical isn’t innovation at all.

We also unpack what really goes wrong during MSP acquisitions, why the second acquisition is often the most dangerous, and how customer experience is shaped far more by relationships and communication than by tools or contracts.

This episode is a candid, human conversation about leadership energy, value creation, and what it really means to lead an MSP through change, whether that change is growth, consolidation, or deciding what comes next.

If you’re an MSP owner questioning your direction, your energy, or your long term path, this conversation will resonate.

Listen to this episode and explore more Ctrl-Alt-Deliver conversations at
https://www.ctrl-alt-deliver.blog/episodes

Explore more about Zhaun Bhana
Learn more about Evergreen and MSP M and A insights
https://www.evergreensg.com/

Welcome to Ctrl-Alt-Deliver: MSP Service Delivery Mastery.
I’m Jeni Clift, joined by my husband and business partner Nick Clift. Together, we spent nearly 30 years building, scaling, and eventually exiting our own MSP business.

Over that time, we learned something fundamental:
Great service delivery isn’t built on tools alone. It’s built on trust, consistency, and relationships that last.

In this episode, we’re joined by Karl Palachuk ,one of the original architects of the managed services model and a trusted voice in the MSP industry for nearly three decades.

Karl has built and sold MSPs, advised thousands of service providers, and written more than 25 books on how to deliver IT services in a way that is profitable, predictable, and sustainable. Long before “MSP” became a buzzword, Karl was helping the industry define what good service delivery actually looks like.

In this conversation, Karl reminds us that MSPs don’t do business with contracts or technology, we do business with human beings.

We talk about why the strongest client relationships are built on genuine connection, why the best clients actually want you to succeed, and why loyalty isn’t created through heroics, but through consistency and trust over time.

Karl shares why customer service should never be a department, why process and discipline protect relationships, and why managed services remain the foundation that allows MSPs to evolve — even as AI, cloud, and new technologies continue to emerge.

And yes, we talk about the ultimate test of service delivery success: knowing you’re in the right place when you’re invited to the Christmas party.

This episode is a reminder that while technology continues to change, the fundamentals of service delivery do not. If you want clients who stay, teams who thrive, and a business that lasts, this conversation will resonate.

Listen to this episode and explore more Ctrl-Alt-Deliver conversations at: https://www.ctrl-alt-deliver.blog/episodes

Explore more from Karl Palachuk

Learn more about Karl’s work and access his books and resources:
https://store.smallbizthoughts.com/

Discover Relax, Focus, Succeed:
https://relaxfocussucceed.com/

Listen to The Killing IT Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-killing-it-podcast/id1463295432

Welcome to Ctrl-Alt-Deliver: MSP Service Delivery Mastery.
I’m Jeni Clift, joined by my husband and business partner Nick Clift. Together, we spent nearly 30 years building, scaling, and eventually exiting our own MSP business.

And here’s what we learned along the way:
Great service delivery isn’t about working harder or being more reactive. It’s built on visibility, discipline, focus, and leaders who understand how to balance people, process, and customer expectations.

This episode is a little different. It’s just Nick and me behind the microphones.

In this Deep Dive, we reflect on key moments from past Ctrl-Alt-Deliver conversations and unpack the ideas that made us stop and rethink how service delivery really works inside an MSP.

We talk openly about the hidden cost of poor time visibility, why overwork often goes unnoticed until it becomes resentment, and why technicians should never be left to decide what is or isn’t billable. We explore how lack of focus creates complexity, slows delivery, and damages customer trust.

We also dive into why marketing often fails MSPs when it isn’t aligned with real delivery experience, and how testing your own business as a customer can reveal gaps no dashboard ever will.

Throughout the episode, we share real stories from our own MSP journey, including mistakes we made, lessons learned the hard way, and the changes that had the biggest impact on service consistency, team wellbeing, and client relationships.

This is an honest, practical conversation for MSP leaders who want to improve service delivery without relying on heroics, burning out their teams, or overpromising to clients.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why transparency around time and capacity protects both teams and clients
• The real cost of overwork and why it often goes unseen
• Why technicians should never decide what gets billed
• How focus and standardisation improve service quality
• Why MSPs cannot be everything to everyone
• The danger of marketing that promises more than delivery can support
• How to test your own MSP as a customer
• Why collaboration and partnerships matter more than ever
• Lessons learned from projects that blew out and acquisitions that didn’t go to plan
• What we would do differently if we were building an MSP today

If you’re serious about strengthening service delivery, building trust with your clients, and creating a business that scales without chaos, this Deep Dive will resonate.

Listen to this episode and explore more Ctrl-Alt-Deliver conversations at
https://www.ctrl-alt-deliver.blog/episodes