SMB Community Podcast

You read that right. This is not the Premier Episode. It's the primer. It's not even Episode One.

It's Episode .9 - not quite ready for prime time.

Basically, we need to have something here so iTunes and everybody else will start listing the show. We already have a few shows prepared for the big launch May 7th.

Please subscribe now - Don't miss even ONE "real" episode.

:-)

I talked to Zack Rosenberg about his custom video program – Catapult.

As Zack points out, by 2021 more than 82% of internet traffic will be against video, a number that will accelerate once everyone has 5G internet speeds.

Video is pricey and difficult to do, especially when SMB's spend around 2 hours a week on marketing.

Basically, Catapult creates interesting and entertaining videos that you can place on your YouTube channel, social media, etc. The goal is to engage your potential audience and then place your marketing in front of them. Despite what you might expect, the videos are not about you – not about technology.

They are on sports, hobbies, and other topics. The basic idea is that your prospects are interested in lots of things – and that technology is probably not on the list.

Find out more at: www.firecatapult.com

Watch the interview:

Listen to the Interview (mp3)

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I was happy to interview Harry on the official announcement of his new book – How to Be An MSP. It is now officially released. In this interview, Harry also announces another new adventure: A serious focus on the cannabis industry as the largest new vertical opportunity for the next ten years.

Harry is also launching a new site, effective immediately:

http://420msp.com/

I have read the new book and am honored to have written the Foreword. The new book is a great introduction to exactly what it promises: How to Be An MSP.

Many of you know that Harry has previously written books on how to be a successful Small Business Consultant. Well, this is literally a new book on that topic – designed for the 2020's!

In addition to the core focus on building a profitable IT consulting practice, the book takes a deep dive into the hottest new vertical market in North America: The cannabis and CBD market. This is a huge industry that requires an amazing amount of technology

Learn about the book here: https://420msp.com/buy-the-book/C

Visit the new 420 MSP site here: https://420msp.com

Watch the interview:

Listen to the Interview (mp3)

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This interview with Ken Dwight covers a lot of territory.

Ken train IT Pros on cutting-edge virus fighting and virus remediation. He show folks how to dig into the guts of machines to do much more than "remove" viruses.

Rather than "Nuking and Paving," Ken teaches how to dig in and remove all the remnants of viruses – even those left over after AV software has removed the virus.

As Ken points out, a lot of modern viruses are very complicated. Many techs approach this by wiping and reloading the PC. Instead, Ken recommends that you clean out the registry and find the files and folders that are left all over the machine.

Here are a few additional sources he offers:

Virus Remediation Training workshops – https://www.thevirusdoc.com/virus-remediation-training

Recorded mini-course on encrypting ransomware – https://www.thevirusdoc.com/ransomware

Recorded mini-course on cleaning up after a tech-support scammer – https://www.thevirusdoc.com/scammer

Note: Ken offers a 15% discount on the tuition for any of his training. Just enter Coupon Code of KarlP15 at checkout.

Find out more about Ken Dwight, "The Virus Doctor," at https://www.thevirusdoc.com.

Watch the interview:

Listen to the Interview (mp3)

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Had a great interview with Lori Tisinai from the IT Owners Compass conference – www.ITOCompass.com.

ITO Compass is April 27-28 in downtown Chicago, with a reception the night before. Plan to join me there!

I am proud to be the keynote speaker for this conference. And there will be many other speakers as well. Please see the web site for details.

In this interview, Lori walks through some of the agenda, followed by a great discussion of speakers, content, vendors, and more.

Sneak peek: I'm putting on a 2-hour workshop on the last day.

We also talked about women attendees. Lori had a large percentage of women at the conference last year, which is highly unusual in our space. So I am encouraging women to attend by providing scholarships.

Special Promo: First-time female attendees will receive a $100 scholarship toward their enrollment. Contact Lori for details.

Check it all out at www.itocompass.com!

Watch the interview:

Listen to the Interview (mp3)

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I caught up with one of my favorite coaches, James Kernan, a few days ago.

He was eager to talk about the Ten Best Practices for a Successful Sales Organization.

James runs the Millionaire Mastermind Group – Meeting in Orlando March 28-29. For more information, visit KernanConsulting.com.

You can also catch up with James at the SMB TechFest show in Anaheim April 18th.

Here's a quick summary. But please watch the interview to get all the details:

Ten Best Practices for a Successful Sales Organization

• Have a Sales Plan / Sales Strategy
• Set goals and KPIs
• Have USP
• Create a compensation plan that's not too complicated
• Have a way to help the sales team with leads
• Constantly educate the sales team
• Have good communication
• Get the right tools and CRM
• Invest in support staff for the sales team
• Document your sales processes!

Watch the interview:

Listen to the Interview (mp3)

[Sorry for my microphone problems. Something changed my settings and I didn't notice until the recording was done.]

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I interviewed Alex Hoff from Auvik from my hotel room in Chicago. Topic: Managed Network Services: Your Next Critical Opportunity.

Best comment is that entrepreneurs always go where the white space is. Love that. Whenever you create an offering, you need to go where very few people (or no one) are hanging around.

Auvik allows you to monitor complex client networks – with a specific focus on more complicated networks. That means more than just V-LANS: They excel at monitoring networks that stretch across cities, clouds, and various services. As Alex says, we can't stay focused just the equipment inside a client's office. The chokepoint might be somewhere else. And with multiple cloud offerings that you don't control, it's important to know that everything's working as advertized.

Links:

• www.Auvik.com

• email: [email protected]

• The Frankly MSP Resource Centre: auvik.com/franklyMSP
• Blogs for MSPs: auvik.com/franklymsp/blog/
• Auvik on Twitter: @AuvikNetworks
• Auvik on LinkedIn: ca.linkedin.com/company/auvik-networks-inc-
• Auvik on Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuvikNetworksInc

Alex offered a great network assessment starter kit you can get my emailing to [email protected]. Instructions bounce back. I did this and received a zip file with a great set of resources. Free.

Watch the interview:

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I interviewed Amy yesterday on three topics. Two (Third Tier and the SBT Community meeting) were quick. We spent most of our time on the topic of mergers, acquisitions, and "Sell My MSP."

Best comment is a quote from Will Smith. What do I have to do today to keep this going? Where do I have BE to keep this going?

Unlike the massive MSP merger/acquisition stories you see on Channele2e and other places, we talk about the smaller buyers and sellers. After all, the vast majority of "small" businesses are in the $1-, $2-, or $3-million range.

Amy says there are lots of national buyers looking for smaller MSPs to put their brand on. And, she adds, pretty much every market of any size has buyers who are looking for companies to acquire.

Even more interesting, Amy says that small MSPs don't experience the wild fluctuations that you read about in the news. Most of them sell for a number close to their annual sales – and that stays consistent without regard to what the rest of the market is doing.

Plus – we covered a lot more territory. All in all, it was a great interview. Amy is always full of good info.

Sites mentioned:

• Third Tier – www.ThirdTier.net
• Sell My MSP – www.SellMyMSP.com
• Small Biz Thoughts Community Meeting – www.smbroadshow.com

Watch the interview:

Listen to the Interview (mp3)

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I always love to catch up with Chip Reaves from Bigger Brains. This interview is no exception.

Bigger Brains is an educational service that you can resell to your clients. They have more than one hundred e-learning modules for everything from Office 365 to Microsoft Teams, QuickBooks, and more.

The way their service works is that MSPs buy end user licenses in bulk and then sell them to their clients. You can sell one user or ten at a time. You can also include the e-learning classes into your service bundles. It's up to you whether you sell the classes separately, include them at no charge, or bundle them with other services.

After the interview, Chip offered a "Karl" discount to anyone who requests it. Simply use the code KarlSentMe and you'll receive a 10% discount on all licenses.

One cool new tool Bigger Brains developed is called BrainBot.

BrainBot is an app that sends you tidbits of class highlights as well as questions to students after the class is finished. This is based on a well-established educational reinforcement technique. As Chip explains, this application of the material after the class is complete helps the brain focus on the important lessons and reinforces the material. In the long run, students learn more of the material and retain it longer.

There is no additional charge for the BrainBot!

Watch the interview:

Listen to the Interview (mp3)

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I interviewed Pete Langas from Nerdio – GetNerdio.com. Pete is the Sr. Director of Strategic Partnership and Distribution at Nerdio.

Nerdio empowers managed service providers to build and/or rapidly grow their cloud IT practices through what Pete calls a "ridiculously simple IT management platform" for public and private cloud. Nerdio for Azure is the first IT automation technology that delivers easy packaging, pricing, provisioning, ongoing management, and cost-optimization to complete IT environments in the Microsoft cloud. Nerdio Private Cloud is a fully integrated platform that delivers a comprehensive IT environment at your fingertips – including virtual hardware, software, security, backup and disaster recovery, and 24/7 tech-nerd support.

Without Nerdio for Azure, an unoptimized IT environment running in Azure is higher cost than on-premises. You also need expensive engineers to onboard and manage customers in Azure. With Nerdio, you can automatically deploy a complete IT environment in Azure within 2 hours, and without an engineer. Thanks to Nerdio's cost estimator, pricing out Nerdio for Azure is super simple. It easily enables MSPs to comprehensively calculate the costs and savings of running IT in the Microsoft cloud

We talked about several elements of getting started with cloud services for MSPs. In particular, if you're a Microsoft and have access to Azure as part of that partnership, Pete encourages you to deploy those Azure resources with Nerdio as a was to get experience with both products.

Nerdio Links:

• getnerdio.com
• getnerdio.com/blogs
• twitter.com/getnerdio
• www.linkedin.com/company/getnerdio
• www.facebook.com/GetNerdio

Watch the interview:

Listen to the Interview (mp3)

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