SMB Community Podcast

My friend and one-time business coach Josh Peterson has agreed to run a new set of Peer Teams – based on the "Managed Services in a Month" approach to managed services.

I hope you're not too surprised to learn that Josh and I have very similar ideas about most things. Many of you have seen Josh speak at conferences or taken his classes from Bering McKinley or over at Great Little Seminar.

This 30 minute interview covers the concept of Peer Teams, "opening your numbers," and business improvement generally.

Learn about what makes these groups Managed Services in a Month Peer Teams vs. any other peer group. What would an entire year of working on this philosophy look like?

NOTE: Josh and I have also scheduled a Live webinar on January 17th to answer all your questions about the Managed Services in a Month Peer Teams. Register for that here: Live Q&A Webinar Registration.

Stuff Mentioned:

Bering McKinley web site: www.beringmckinley.com

Bering McKinley Big Game Sales and Service Retreat: https://beringmckinley.com/bering-mckinley-las-vegas-retreat/ — Use code Karl777 to get the discount mentioned in the call!

Live Q&A Webinar January 17th: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EHZxiaCgQo6k7-Xz3TenJg

Note: I also interviewed Josh about peer teams back in August. See that podcast here.

Find out more and sign up for MSIAM Peer Teams Here.

Josh Stuff:

Bering McKinley is a Management Consulting firm specializing in IT Solution Providers. They have over ten years experience in consulting owners and staff of IT Firms. They proudly provide Blue Chip consulting to small business. Since they only focus on one industry, they have in-depth expertise in all three business units: Sales, Service, and Finance.

Josh Peterson has more than 14 years of management consulting experience. He has run Bering McKinley for five years, focusing very heavily on the most important challenges facing managed service providers.

Josh is also very active as a Peer Team leader. Bering McKinley Peer Teams focus on accountability and constant improvement. He has helped over a thousand companies move to a higher level of success.

Check out the interview here:

Watch the video podcast:

This interview is 30 minutes.

Audio Listen to the Podcast.

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My friend Brooke Ferguson decided to try running her business from Thailand. That was ten years ago and she's still going strong.

Brooke is a Lifestyle and Business Coach. Talk about drinking the Kool-Aide! She started with a three month stint to see if she could really run her business abroad. Then she realized that not only *could* she, but she also thrived. That's when she realized that she never had to return home if she didn't want to.

Over the years she has learned to navigate the world of business overseas, getting paid across international boundaries, and providing amazing service across all the time zones of the world.

To assist her clients, Brooke has developed a massive training that includes 42 videos and worksheets. She has sold this in the past for $600. Now, as she describes it, she has completed all her "bucket list" items and is ready to operate at a much higher level. So she's giving away this training in order to spread her business and best practices to a much wider audience.

Please check out the podcast – and subscribe to that massive training. I have!

Web site: www.businessbackpacker.com

Blog: www.businessbackpacker.com/blog/

Free $600 course mentioned in podcast: www.businessbackpacker.com/sign-up-page

Check out the interview here:

This interview is 30 minutes.

Audio Listen to the Podcast.

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Josh Peterson has been a friend and mentor to me for many years. I am happy to interview him about his company and what he's up to.

Josh is the co-founder Bering McKinley, a consulting firm for MSP's and IT Solution Providers. He has been in the IT Solution Provider arena for the last 15 years. First as an owner, then as a management consultant with Taylor Business Group for 8 years, and now as founder of Bering McKinley.

Additionally Josh is a maniac for strong financial accounting practices being followed at business of all sizes. He believes, as Peter Drucker did: "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it." Josh has a deep respect for anyone who has the nerve to start their own business but also believes that only gets you so far. Sooner or later you have to take accountability for your business and perform at extraordinary levels to enjoy the lifestyle you deserve.

In this interview, Josh talks about the Bering McKinley Peer Teams. Note – that's not groups. Listen and find out why.

Web site: www.beringmckinley.com

Check out the interview here: This interview is 30 minutes.

Audio Listen to the Podcast.

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Lisa Hendrickson

Lisa Hendrickson is "Call That Girl" – an Office 365 and Outlook specialist. In this 30 minute interview we cover her business strategy, supporting O365, migrating email to the cloud, SEO blogging, and much more.

Lisa has grown a thriving business serving several audiences. She created the business to serve end users. But over time she's found herself helping I.T. consultants figure out how to move Exchange email up to the cloud with Appriver's Office 365 offering.

We have recently started selling Lisa's great 7-video training set: Outlook Troubleshooting for Technicians. See http://www.smbbooks.com.

Check out the interview here: This interview is 30 minutes.

Audio Listen to the Podcast.

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Mark Smith is the Executive VP of EH Media, publisher of ChannelPro magazine, as well as CEPro, Commercial Integrator, Security Sales and Integration. In a former life, Mark founded Windows NT magazine.

As I've mentioned in several settings, I'm a big believer that all the really fast-moving technologies are merging and adding TCP/IP into their offering. The key to success, of course, is to add recurring revenue and become a managed service provider.

In addition to some great stories from the past, we also cover the challenges of making money in the years ahead in all areas of technology service. EH Media has created a program to train everyone who's interested in technology service in the secrets of recurring revenue and managed services.

The program is call RPM: Recurring Profits Mastery.

Starting May 17th, I'll be teaching a new course on how to create your managed service offerings and go from "zero" to 100% managed services. It's called MSP Kickstart and it's a detailed 6-week online course.

The price is only $997.

But I requested a limited time discount! Check out the details at http://ehimpact.co/order-kickstart.

Then enter code kpkickstart to save $202. That makes your final price $795!

You literally need ONE new client to pay for the whole course.

Here's what you get:

Week 1: Adopt the MSP Mindset so you can position your company to take advantage of the cloud service opportunity

Week 2: Create a Profitable Offer so you can focus your efforts on the clients that will most likely buy your new offer and generate the fastest profits

Week 3: Service Agreements. You'll create the 3 key agreements so you can start selling your new profitable offer.

Week 4: Client Meetings. You'll be scheduling client meetings and learning what to do before, during and after the meetings so you can sell benefits, overcome objections and get signed agreements.

Week 5: Tools. You'll learn the right tools, checklists and processes so you can start running your managed service business after you've made a sale.

Week 6: Generating Leads. You'll learn how to use the 68-point checklist strategy to schedule "free network checkup" sessions so you can CONVERT those free network checkup LEADS into new clients.

Note: This is NOT the Cloud Five-Pack training. Go see SMBRoadshow for that. There is almost zero overlap between this course and the Cloud Five-Pack training.

Check out the interview here: This interview is 30 minutes. Audio Listen to the Podcast.

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Harry Brelsford is the founder of SMB Nation. In this interview Harry announces a new Marketing as a Service platform called Pivot. We talk about marketing and analytics in the SMB community – and a lot more. See http://SMBNation.com/pivot.

Harry stresses that modern marketing requires analytics. You are wasting money if you just do a little SEO and buy Google ads. In addition, there are lots of things involved in marketing that the average MSP owner can't do or shouldn't do. You really don't have time for analyzing your clients, split-testing ads, and all the other modern elements of marketing.

Subscriptions start at $300/month. You need one one client to pay for that.

Links mentioned in our conversation: http://www.smbnation.com http://SMBNation.com/pivot http://www.blabpredicts.com/ http://www.lumapartners.com/lumascapes/social-lumascape/

Check out the interview here:

This interview is 30 minutes. Audio Listen to the Podcast.

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Manuel Palachuk (yes, we're related) is a business coach, author, and trainer. This week he announced the launch of the MSP Pro Acedemy – a training and certification site for managed service providers and IT Professionals of all sizes. More details at www.mspproacademy.com.

In addition to launching the academy, Manuel has started an Indiegogo campaign to speed up the release of the first course materials. Contributions there will get your great prices on his book, the Academy, and more.

For more about Manuel's coaching, visit www.ManuelPalachuk.com.

Check out the interview here:

This interview is 30 minutes.

Audio Listen to the Podcast.

Links mentioned in this podcast:

Manuel's Coaching: ManuelPalachuk.com

MSP Pro Academy: MSPProAcademy.com

MSP Pro Academy Indiegogo campaign: https://igg.me/at/mspproacademy

Coaching Offerings: https://www.manuelpalachuk.com/start-here/program-fees

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Debbie Leoni is my life coach. I thought it would be useful to introduce her to the SMB IT community. I get questions about why I have a life coach coach and how that's different from a business coach. I hope this interview answers those questions.

You can learn more about Debbie from her web site at www.debbieleoni.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook. She has some great Facebook "Live" videos. So keep an eye out for those.

You can buy Debbie's book – I Am Fearless – from her web site, on Amazon, or over at SMB Books.

Check out the interview here:

This interview is about half an hour.

Audio Listen to the Podcast.

Links mentioned in this podcast:

Debbie's Fearless Web Site

www.debbieleoni.com

Debbie's Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/deborahannleoni

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I had a great chat with Kendra Lee on the subject of Hiring and Managing Your First Sales Person. We talked about writing ads, choosing a "hunter," setting goals, and managing them through the first year.

It was a great discussion. You can learn more at http://www.klagroup.com. You'll find Kendra's blog there as well.

If you're interested, you can request a free half-hour consultation with her.

Check out the interview here:

This interview is about half an hour.

Audio Listen to the Podcast.

Links mentioned in this podcast:

KLA Group:

http://www.klagroup.com

Kendra's Blog:

http://www.klagroup.com/blog

Karl's Blog:

http://blog.smallbizthoughts.com

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You know I'm all about SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures). So I was happy to talk to Raj Goel about his "SOP Culture" project. He has defined a series of SOPs for I.T. Professionals. They are available on a subscription basis.

Check out the interview here:

This interview is about half an hour. Links mentioned in the video are linked below.

Audio Listen to the Podcast.

Links mentioned in this podcast:

Andy Parkes' Blog:

http://andyparkes.co.uk/blog

Jay McBain on the most visible leaders in the channel:

http://www.jaymcbain.com/2016/10/100-most-visible-channel-leaders-2016.html

Raj on Creating Obvious SOPs:

https://www.brainlink.com/creating-obvious-sops/ Raj on SOPs:

http://www.sopculture.com/secret-to-brainlinks-success-process-and-sops/ VIDEO that you should watch before or after this interview: https://youtu.be/HD-8eB20M6c

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