Simplifying IT Departments for SMBs and Enterprises | Michael Goldstein from LAN Infotech

Rick Veronese: Pathmonk is the AI for website convergence. With increasing online competition, over 98 percent of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in the buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them in key decision moments with relevant micro experiences like case studies, intro videos, and much more. Stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by more than 50%. Add Pathmonk to your website in seconds, let the artificial intelligence do all the work and increase conversions by more than 50% while you keep doing marketing as usual. Check us out on Pathmonk.com. Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. Today we have Michael Goldstein from LAN Infotech. Good to have you on today’s show, sir. How’s it going?

Michael Goldstein: Going great. Happy to be here.

Rick: Perfect. Perfect. Michael, we talked before the show, we met, we talked about LAN Infotech a little bit, but I want our listeners to hear it from you, right? What’s the heart of what your company does and how would you describe it to someone new?

Michael: Again, I’m Michael Goldstein. I’m president and CEO of LAN Infotech. We are a managed service provider in South Florida. So we provide help desk services, diverse services, where we’re everything IT for small and medium-sized businesses.

Rick: Perfect. Perfect. Let’s say I want to work with you, right? Which type of business would I be in, or what kind of industry do you feel you’ll be able to serve the best?

Michael: So I do think that we do a lot of work. My background is in legal, law firms. We do a lot of work in not-for-profits and property management, but I look at today’s IT world—network infrastructure and cloud are a basis for any type of industry that we see today. People that need a consultant, someone that has generalized helpdesk services, you’re in the cloud, you have remote users—we’re kind of a Swiss army knife, to be honest with you.

Rick: Okay. That’s a good point because I was going to ask next, is there a core problem you solve for them? But it sounds like it’s actually maybe a bundle of problems that you might be able to solve for people, right? So what would they be able to expect when they come to you?

Michael: Really an extension of your company. We focus on that small and medium-sized business sector. And then we also have enterprise customers that rely on our expertise. We’re doing different things every single day. Lots of times, small businesses or even medium-sized businesses that have IT staff are lucky to do an upgrade every four years. For our customers, we just want to be an extension of their staff. We want to be, if they want it, their chief technology officer. We want to advise them on hardware, software, and direction. And we also do a lot with a big focus on cybersecurity—just going out and protecting everyone from the small two-person restaurant all the way up to a large luxury hotel.

Rick: Okay. That’s the work part of those, right? It sounds like when you choose a company to work with, because I’m sure it’s a two-way street, right? They select you, but you’re also selecting them because you’ll be an extension of their team, right? That’s very important. Please go ahead.

Michael: I was going to say, it’s all about relationship and chemistry. In reality, the basis of every company right now is tech. If you can’t hit the internet, that’s a problem. You get a weird email, that’s a problem. It’s no different than going through that dating period, marriage, and sometimes even, hate to say, divorce. In reality, you have to like your technology partner, and you have to be accessible.

Rick: Yeah, I can see that. Especially when you talked about helping them protect their companies. That’s definitely a role of a partner because you care and want to make sure their tech setup is safe, the infrastructure is safe, and everything is right on track, right?

Michael: It is. One of the gifts people tell me I have is trying to translate those technical terms into real business issues, right? Sometimes they don’t want to hear the bits and bytes. They want to know, at a very high level, how you’ll protect them, what they have to do, and what it’s going to cost.

Rick: Yeah, those are three key questions. So I wonder, if I’m an enterprise customer, for example, and I want to get in touch with you, I understand what LAN Infotech does. How would I find out about you at this point in time?

Michael: Very big on LinkedIn. I know what you guys do on that side of it. So in reality, I think social is a big thing. LAN Infotech is on all the major platforms. I’m a big LinkedIn person myself, Michael Goldstein. We win a lot of industry awards. We participate a lot in the community. So, hate to say it, your favorite search engine—we probably show up pretty high on there.

Rick: Okay. That’s awesome. Yeah, I did see you have quite a presence on LinkedIn. It’s great to see a leader actually sharing knowledge about their industry, not just for self-promotion, but to give back. Would that make sense?

Michael: Yeah, I think it’s important that we share out in the community—content, fun things, and things we run across. I try to put a couple of personal things up there on LinkedIn so people get to know me, versus just being the cyber guy, the AI guy, or the marketing guy. But nothing too personal.

Rick: Okay, that’s good. You also mentioned that someone might find you on a search engine, right? If they type in the right keywords—they’re looking for IT consulting and services in South Florida—then they find you, right? So in terms of them landing on your website, how important is your website? If you could rate it on a scale from one to ten, one being lowest, ten being the most important thing, how would you rate your website’s importance in attracting clients?

Michael: I’d probably say it’s important. I think now we’re at that eight or nine spot. People sometimes in today’s day and age look you up. Like we’re talking, they’ll find you on social media, do a little research, and maybe they want to look at LinkedIn to get a feel for you. I think ten years ago, we hit that peak where everyone needed a website, and it had to be unbelievable. Then it faded for a bit, but now it’s back again. You and I are in different parts of the world. We have international clients. We do a lot of work with law firms that are never off. You never know when someone at two in the morning is reading your website. So I think it’s important that it’s out there. It’s also crucial to capture that information and give them something so they don’t feel like you’re just another takeout menu for IT or marketing. We spend a lot of time keeping our website updated and getting it evaluated by different opinions and age groups. Web marketing has really come back because of instant access.

Rick: That’s true. I feel like there’s a marketing renaissance, if you will, in the last couple of years, and it keeps expanding.

Michael: I like that term, marketing renaissance. Our company is 15 years old. I came from a larger company, and 15 years ago, I realized that the demographic of who I was selling to wasn’t getting any younger. Social was super important, as was website marketing. We started building those networks and trying to understand the buying patterns of our customers. We’re a 24-person firm, not a thousand-person firm. But in reality, we have to appeal to different age groups to form relationships. Analytics are key. Without them, you don’t know how you’re doing. You can’t just invest money in your website without understanding your click-throughs and performance.

Rick: That’s a really good point. We started treating marketing as data-driven, but it’s also a creative endeavor. I really like your take on that.

Michael: It’s important for every business. I’m not a fan of self-driving websites—you can’t assume people will just follow you. You need to capture attention and engage them. Marketing automation is big now. It helps streamline these processes.

Rick: True. So, in terms of your experience with websites, is there anything you’ve learned about what makes a great converting website? Could be tools, tips, or anything people might geek out on.

Michael: Recently, we did an online event with a tech vendor. Their expert analyzed our website live with hundreds of people watching. It’s like calling your baby ugly. At first, I didn’t know what to expect, but the feedback was valuable. One term they used was “too many white teeth”—referring to stock photos that didn’t feel personal. It’s about making your website authentic and personal. I think it’s important to get other people’s opinions, too, because you might like vanilla while someone else loves chocolate. Perspective matters.

Rick: Interesting. That’s smart—hearing from people who might end up on your website. Why not use their language?

Michael: Exactly. We’ve also revisited old-school marketing techniques like postcard campaigns and bumpy envelopes. It’s about having a blueprint for a campaign and timing it right. Multi-touch campaigns work. For instance, mailing something out on a Thursday, following up with a call on Monday, and so on. Testing and refining the process is crucial. You have to be a little aggressive but not too aggressive.

Rick: I like that you mentioned moving from digital to direct mail. It’s a different, more personal experience. It’s an interesting shift. Let’s switch gears a bit and talk about you as a leader. What are the key tasks you focus on daily as CEO and president of LAN Infotech?

Michael: I try to surround myself with great staff. I’ll review our help desk chats and tickets to get a feel for things. I’m out meeting customers, doing community service, and bringing knowledge to our customers. For example, today I woke up early, went through emails, wrote proposals, had this interview, and have more scheduled. Tomorrow I’m out all day speaking at a school, attending a chamber meeting, and visiting clients. I like having specific focus days. It’s about flow—being flexible yet structured. If I put something off today, it comes back to bite me tomorrow.

Rick: That’s a good philosophy. I like that you mentioned flow. Too much rigidity can break things, but too much looseness lacks structure. Thanks for sharing that.

Michael: Exactly. Recurring meetings, community involvement, and accessibility are key. We use Microsoft Teams for quick communication and collaboration. It’s about balancing flexibility with structure.

Rick: Makes sense. Okay, let’s jump into our rapid-fire questions. Only short and crisp answers are needed. Ready?

Michael: Yep, I’m ready.

Rick: What’s the most recent book you picked up?

Michael: I’m a big spy novel fan. My favorite is Clive Cussler’s series. I like enjoyable reading.

Rick: Have you drawn connections between the fiction you read and your work?

Michael: Yes, especially in series like Tom Clancy’s. They blend old-school war with modern tech. It makes you wonder what’s real and what’s fiction.

Rick: If there were no limits with technology, what’s one thing you’d want to solve that would make your life easier as a leader?

Michael: Making the world more secure. Cybersecurity is a big focus for us. I want to solve that problem.

Rick: Looking back, if you could give advice to yourself when you first started out, what would it be?

Michael: I wish I’d been a better student. Life teaches you lessons, and I’ve taken more tests in the past year than I did in high school.

Rick: Great insight. Michael, thank you for being on the show. If someone forgets everything about this interview