SMB Community Podcast

Host James Kernan interviewed Yoram Baltinester for this show.

Yoram has been coaching and leading seminars since 1989. His fast, fierce and focused approach has earned him the nickname "The Personal Development Samurai."

While developing a successful high-tech career for large companies Yoram created and refined the LifeDesign Method and the Decisive Action Protocol. These tools facilitate effective leadership, high-quality decision-making, and purposeful engagement with business to create meaningful success without sacrificing life balance and burning-out.

Yoram was involved in multiple startups since 1985, in Personal Development and in the software, hardware, and I.T. industries. He started a Managed I.T. Services company right after September 11th, which he grew and sold in 2013.

In his free time, Yoram loves to travel. In 1992, Yoram and his wife spent a year backpacking around the world, spending most of that time in China, crossing the Gobi Desert into Tibet and then the Himalayas into Nepal and India.

Everything Yoram accomplishes is done using the principles of the LifeDesign Method and the Decisive Action Protocol.

Today, Yoram works with high-performing leaders and professionals and teaches them how to use the Decisive Action Protocol and LifeDesign Method to bring their leadership, teams, and businesses to the next level of success.

Links:

• http://bit.ly/mslp2020
• http://yourultimateworkshop.com/
• http://HeyYoram.com
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/yorambaltinester/

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My friend Ryan Morris (from Morris Management Partners) normally hangs out on the Killing IT Podcast. But today he joined me here to talk about our industry from three different perspectives: Vendor, Distributor, and Partner.

Obviously, we spent most of our time on the Partner side of the equation.

Ryan is a 25+ year veteran of the IT channel. He has lived and worked in the channel from practically every point of view: solution provider, vendor, distributor, service provider, market analyst, business consultant, keynote speaker and industry expert.

Ryan works with clients from small startups to Fortune 50 and delivers services around the world. An award-winning speaker, consultant, and coach, Ryan's vision is to help the IT industry build businesses that thrive in every market.

Morris Management Partners (MMP) is a Seattle, WA-based professional services firm that works with IT vendors, distributors, and solution provider. Our services are designed to help companies optimize business performance, build profitable business models, and develop the skills to thrive.

Web: www.morrismp.com Twitter: @ryanmorris303 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmorris303

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Amy Babinchak is back, this time to question the relevancy of RMM and PSA tools with Amy Luby, founder of SMB Managed Services Community.

The technical landscape is constantly evolving, specifically in terms of security; it's not always a given that our existing tools are still right for the job.

More about Amy Luby: Amy is a successful leader and entrepreneur in the IT Services Channel, with an extensive record of achievement in Channel Sales program development and recruiting IT solution providers. She has strong technical expertise and domain knowledge in the rapidly evolving global managed, cloud and security services marketplace and a proven track record in creating profitable managed and cloud product portfolios, developing profitable Channel sales operations, increasing revenue quickly, and exploiting untapped market opportunities. Amy is founder and moderator of the global SMB Managed Services Community with 3000 active global SMB MSP reseller members.

Amy is also a proven entrepreneur and pioneer in the IT services industry having founded and built one of the first Managed Services Providers (MSPs) in the country and then expanded that into one of the first Master MSPs, defining that business model in the process.

Amy's successes in the Channel have not gone unnoticed. She is the recipient of numerous Channel awards including: CRN Channel Chief and Women of the Channel awards, MSP Mentor Top 250 Influencers, MSP Mentor Top 100 Global MSPs, SMB Nation's SMB 150, and COMPTIA's Industry Leadership Award.

In her spare time, Amy enjoys writing, drawing, yoga and her potter's wheel.

Links: https://www.facebook.com/groups/msprevolution/

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I was happy to catch up with Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First, Surge, The Pumpkin Plan, and his newest release Clockwork.

By his 35th birthday, Mike had founded and sold two companies - one to private equity and another to a Fortune 500. Today he is running his third multi-million dollar venture, Profit First Professionals. He is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the former business makeover specialist on MSNBC. Over the years, Mike has traveled the globe speaking with thousands of entrepreneurs.

If you've listened to his audio books, you'll be pleased to know that he's just as nice and personable in the "real" world.

Note: I've got him tape (well, digital audio) saying that he'll be back to talk about his next book, Fix This First. We covered that for a couple of minutes at the end of the interview. Stay tuned. And if you have questions for Mike when he returns, send them to me!

Mike's new book, Fix This Next, will be coming out in April.

Mike's Links:

• http://www.mikemichalowicz.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/MikeMichalowiczFanPage/
• https://twitter.com/MikeMichalowicz
• https://www.instagram.com/mikemichalowicz/

:-)

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Catch Amy's Q&A with MSP owners Leon Black and John Zanazzi on her recent whitepaper: How to Build a Valuable Local LinkedIn Network. Get clarity on who to target, how often to post and more.

Find Amy's whitepaper here: https://www.smbbooks.com/How-To-Build-A-Valuable-Local-LinkedIn-Network-p/bab02.htm

About our guests:

Leon Black has been in the IT Industry for over 17 years, from enterprise support with Microsoft, Komatsu, Colgate, through to SMB support. Leon started Inspired Techs in 2012 to help small to medium business leverage technology as their competitive advantage and get the most out of their business. Leon is passionate about RnD and keeping at the front of the changes in technology. This allows us to empower our customers and let them really leverage their relationship with us and their technology On a fun note, Leon is an avid skydiver and has over 760 jumps, 5 Australian skydive records and a few different competition medals.

Links: https://www.inspiredtechs.com.au Facebook/linkedin/twitter - InspiredTechs

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This week we had Small Biz Thoughts employee Dylan Dahlquist (Quest) on the show. Dylan is certified in Google Adwords and has been supporting the Small Biz Thoughts brands since 2019. Listen in to hear how he gets paid offering free services to qualifying non-profits.

Dylan Quest is a creative scientist with a passion for communicating complex ideas in innovative ways. His career started in materials research for brain implants, but has since left research work for digital advertising, specializing in Google Ads. His business works with organizations around the globe, many of which are non-profits. He utilizes his background in experimentation and data analysis for his clientele in order to create strategies tailored to their business. Dylan is also a member for the team here at Small Biz Thoughts!

You can reach Dylan at [email protected]

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Had a great talk with C.J. Ezell who launched his newest business, CrossBay Digital Marketing in January. His offerings include web design/hosting, reviews, and local SEO. We also talk about working specific verticals and developing a niche.

C.J. launched his first company in 1998. Twenty-two years later, he is still starting new ventures and inspiring others to do the same. He is a frequent speaker at business building events throughout North America and has a proven track record of success in the technology services and healthcare industries. His current businesses include PointClear Networks a 2018 MSP501 Winner, The Red5Agency, and CrossBay Digital Marketing, a digital media company focused on helping small businesses grow by increasing their online presence and through the use of social media management and advertising.

Links:

Web: https://www.crossbaydigital.com Web: www.red5agency.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cjezell/

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I was very pleased to catch up with Amy Babinchak - One of the new hosts for this podcast - and talk about employee training.

This podcast grew out of a series of private emails we exchanged, which grew from an unrelated topic.

Here Amy spells out how she helps employees gain knowledge on new technologies while helping to create consistent processes across all technicians. She also talks about the regular meetings they have in-house, which improve training and build culture at the same time.

As a side benefit, Amy gives lots of advice along the way that demonstrate how she has built a very successful IT service business with no office and almost zero overhead.

Links:

Check out my Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThirdTier – This is my ransomware and security group. Private and on-topic always.

Subscribe to the blog: https://www.thirdtier.net/ Use the Helpdesk. We only do work for other IT pros.

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I always like to catch up with Chip Reaves from Bigger Brains. Here we're talking about Online Training as a Service.

Chip is a 30-year IT channel veteran who has built five MSP or related businesses and sold four. He's best known as the founder and CEO of Computer Troubleshooters USA, the world's largest IT services franchise network.

In 2012 Chip created the channel's first end-user training platform for MSPs - Bigger Brains.

Chip gives us some strategies for offering training as part of your managed service bundle. It's extremely affordable. In fact, over at the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community, we have set up a way for you to get this training FREE inside your company, get a discount, and even get more than one NFR license.

Check it out now and use the code Karlsentme to get 10% off any Bigger Brains subscription. But even without that discount, you can make huge profits with this service - and educate clients on some products and features then didn't know about.

When you bring value, clients love you!

Client facing site: www.GetBiggerBrains.com

MSP Facing site: https://biggermsp.com/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/biggerbrains

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Featured Guest: Joseph Landes

I talked with Joseph Landes from Nerdio about the specifics of moving clients to the Azure cloud - and the special tools Nerdio employs to make sure you know what it will cost. They also have some cool tools for reducing the cost of running client operations on Azure.

Joseph worked at Microsoft for almost 25 years before joining Nerdio to help MSPs learn how to build a successful and profitable cloud practice in Microsoft Azure.

Nerdio's flagship product, Nerdio for Azure, has helped thousands of MSPs around the world transiton from the on-premises world to the cloud using automation. Nerdio has significant expertise and technical know-how in the Azure space and is the definitive Azure solution for MSPs.

Site: www.getnerdio.com

:-)

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