SMB Community Podcast

This article was originally posted June 15, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Six Podcast Reports from New Orleans IT Pro Conference

June 2012 – New Orleans – Jeff Middleton's IT Pro Conference was a great success last week. Two days of panels and discussions on the theme "Trusted Identity: Faith in a Technology World" were very well received. About 150 attendees spent the time in a conversation that wound around through discussions of

– Trusted Advisor roles – Identity Theft – Social Media Privacy Breaches – Hosted Environments – Government Oversight – Unintended Electronic Disclosures – Branding Realities in a Business or Technology without Trust – Partnership and Service Provider Failures – Identity Federation (Facebook, Gmail, Passport, service aggregators) – Social Media

and more!

Naturally, I decided to catch up with some folks and get their impressions of the whole event. I started with Andy Goodman, a long-time community member and leader. Andy has been working for/with SBSMigration.com for almost a year now. He was instrumental in making this event happen – and introducing Jeff's new brand – IT Pro Experts – ITProExperts.com. Here's Andy:

Download the Interview with Andy Goodman (Time 1:11)

Next up, I talked to Ben Yarbrough from Calyptix Security (http://www.calyptix.com/). In the conference, and in this interview, Ben talks about how security devices have really become very different from one another. The feature sets are now quite amazing.

Download the Interview with Ben Yarbrough (Time 2:52)

One of the ever-present members of this community – and Jeff's conference – is Jan Spring from eFolder (www.efolder.net). Jan is an absolute fireball and one of the great brand ambassadors in this community. She gave us a quick sound check.

Download the Interview with Jan Spring (Time 1:00)

One of my favorite people in the SMB space is Jessica DeVita. Jessica has been involved for awhile, but she has recently decided to crank up her participation and "voice" in the community. She is a Microsoft MVP, a speaker at the conference, and is one of the people watch in our space. We talked about the future of our community – and a lot more.

Download the Interview with Jessica DeVita (Time 5:23)

Another one of my favorite people is Mark Crall, now from Storage Craft (www.storagecraft.com) and a former MSP from North Carolina. He talks here about choosing vendors and creating relationships in the channel.

Download the Interview with Mark Crall (Time 2:12)

Finally, I talked to Mitch Garvis, who travels ALL the time. Based in Canada, it is always a pleasure to run into Mitch way down in the Southern United States. Mitch is a Microsoft MVP, a Virtual Partner Technology Advisor at Microsoft Canada, and his blog is at http://garvis.ca. Mitch gives us some great reasons to attend community events, and this conference in general.

Download the Interview with Mitch Garvis (Time 1:23)

My personal thoughts on this conference – and some ideas about what you should be doing to educate your clients about modern discussions of "Trust" and delegation of trust will be posted separately in the "Oceanic" edition of the Freeday Friday podcasts. As soon as I get around to it.

Bottom Line: A great conference as usual. Great community. Great topic. Great discussions. And, as Mitch reminds us: They have beer.

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This article was originally posted May 18, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Reports from the SMB 150 Banquet 2012

May 16th – Los Angeles – SMB Nation put on a nice banquet to celebrate the 2nd Annual SMB 150 Influencers. This was a great event. To be honest, this event started for me about lunchtime as I met with a series of great people that I don't get to see very often.

Download the SMB 150 report now

On Friday I asked Harry Brelsford from SMB Nationto give us a brief report on the event. That's included here. In fact, Harry kicks off the podcast.

While I was in Los Angeles, I interviewed a few folks. So those very short interviews are here as well. Interviewees include Denis Wilson, Terry VanWinkel, and Jerry Koutavas.

I do have to say that I was really impressed that people came all the way from the eastern side of the U.S. But I was more impressed with people who came from Canada, Brazil, the UK, and Australia. I'm not sure how Harry does this, but he really knows how to put on a community event!

And a tip of the hat goes to co-sponsor SMBTN for helping with every stage, including the voting process. Of course, a number of the SMB 150 are in SMBTN as they are strong contributors to the community.

I'm sorry sorry that many 150-ers could not make it. But I totally understand!

Downlodard SMB 150 Report

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This article was originally posted May 18, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Freeday Friday May Podcast Posted – US / UK Edition

This program was recorded and is posted here.

How to Convert 700 Clients to Managed Services Without Dropping Any

The US/UK Edition of Freeday Friday featured a kickoff question of whether it's possible to covert a traditionally break/fix business into managed services. The question came from a partner with three employees and 700 customers. That told me something about his business and his customers. I talked about what we did in the transition to managed services and gave him some advice.

We also had a few questions about the hiring process, specifically about filtering candidates. I talked about our process and how well it works . . . as long as I don't break the rules and just hire someone. Boy, can that go wrong!

If you would like your question to be the start-off question, just send an email to[email protected]. Please put Freeday Friday in the subject line.

Freeday Friday is a program to give you access to some coaching advice in a totally new format. See details at www.FreedayFriday.com.

Basically, I am offering free coaching advice to a very few people – live and free. The "price" for free advice is that other people get to listen in. The idea is that we all share some common challenges, so we might be able to learn from each other and address those challenges in similar ways. I'm not really a "coach" with a program to sell. I will sell some hours. But this one-to-many format allows me to get information out there and engage in the community.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This article was originally posted May 18, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable.

Freeday Friday May Podcast Posted – Oceanic Edition

This program was recorded and is posted here.

Customizing Cloud Services for Medical and Other Verticals

The "Down Under" edition of Freeday Friday featured a kickoff question about building a cloud package for the medical industry. In particular, how do we deal with a combination of cloud services and one or more servers that remain onsite. We actually have clients with this scenario, so I talk about what we do.

We also had a question about getting started in our business today. Is it a good idea? What would I do differently? So went spent time on that. Then we covered a few misc. questions.

If you would like your question to be the start-off question, just send an email to[email protected]. Please put Freeday Friday in the subject line.

Freeday Friday is a program to give you access to some coaching advice in a totally new format. See details at www.FreedayFriday.com.

Basically, I am offering free coaching advice to a very few people – live and free. The "price" for free advice is that other people get to listen in. The idea is that we all share some common challenges, so we might be able to learn from each other and address those challenges in similar ways. I'm not really a "coach" with a program to sell. I will sell some hours. But this one-to-many format allows me to get information out there and engage in the community.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This article was originally posted April 20, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Freeday Friday April Podcast Posted – US / UK Edition

This program was recorded and is posted here.

Do I Really Need to Try to Sell SBS Essentials into My Client Base?

We had a good show today (45 minutes). Four people posted questions live and we had a good email question to kick us off. The kickoff question was, "Do I really need to sell SBS Essentials?" We talked about when it is and is not the right product to sell to specific clients.

Caller Ken asked a follow-up question: When to sell SBS Essentials and when to sell Foundation Server since they have so many features in common. . . . And lots more!

If you would like your question to be the start-off question, just send an email to[email protected]. Please put Freeday Friday in the subject line.

Freeday Friday is a new program to give you access to some coaching advice in a totally new format. See details at www.FreedayFriday.com.

Basically, I am offering free coaching advice to a very few people – live and free. The "price" for free advice is that other people get to listen in. The idea is that we all share some common challenges, so we might be able to learn from each other and address those challenges in similar ways. I'm not really a "coach" with a program to sell. I will sell some hours. But this one-to-many format allows me to get information out there and engage in the community.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This article was originally posted April 19, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Freeday Friday Podcast Posted – Oceanic Edition

This program was recorded and is posted here.

How Do I sell if I'm Not a Salesman?

We had a quick show today (35 minutes). Just a few questions. The kickoff question was, "How do I upsell clients when I don't want to be the salesman?" I give a little advice and encouragement. and we answer a question from a live listener as well.

If you would like your question to be the start-off question, just send an email to[email protected]. Please put Freeday Friday in the subject line.

Freeday Friday is a new program to give you access to some coaching advice in a totally new format. See details at www.FreedayFriday.com.

Basically, I am offering free coaching advice to a very few people – live and free. The "price" for free advice is that other people get to listen in. The idea is that we all share some common challenges, so we might be able to learn from each other and address those challenges in similar ways. I'm not really a "coach" with a program to sell. I will sell some hours. But this one-to-many format allows me to get information out there and engage in the community.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This article was originally posted March 19, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable.

This program was recorded and is posted here.

Robin Talks About What's Next, Cloud and BDR Promotions, Perennial Campaigns, and More

I had a nice chat with Robin Robins this morning. For those of you unfamiliar with Robin, she's the genius behind the Managed Services Blueprint, as well as marketing programs geared toward cloud integration, managed services, and BDRs.

I always like catching up with Robin because she's full of energy and ideas – but totally focused on the big picture. She just finished a roadshow with Axcient and HP, hitting five major cities. She talks about some of the discussions and lessons learned there. We also touched on Robin's annual Bootcamp in Nashville, which is totally sold out.

Finally, we talked a little about marketing strategies that will work going forward. I asked her about the effectiveness of Facebook and LinkedIn for most MSPs. She gave some nice insights about that, and also about long-term strategies for success. One key lesson is to adopt campaigns you can use over and over again. Despite what you might think, repeating a successful campaign can bring you a great deal of success.

Check out the whole interview here. (Free to subscribers.)

You can find out more about Robin and the Managed Services Blueprint at: ManagedServicesBlueprint.com.

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This article was originally posted March 16, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable.

First Freeday Friday March Podcast Posted – US/UK Edition

This program was recorded and is posted here.

UK Partner Challenged with Time Management. US Partner Wondering About Hiring Techs.

The first UK/US show went off pretty well. Lots of questions. Totally different topics from the Oceanic edition yesterday. We start out with a partner who desperately needs a PSA system. It's actually pretty amazing how many problems are solved with the right PSA tool.

Plus he got a little tough love.

On hiring, we talked about Craigslist, Monster, Career Builder, temp agencies, and strategies for direct hire of part-time technicians.

I am so grateful to the community for their participation here. It really is exactly what I was looking for. I get tons of email and I sometimes end up answering questions six months later. I feel bad, but I can only do so much. This allows me to answer more questions in a shorter time frame. What I was hoping for with this dual show is that there would be a wide variety of topics. That's exactly what we got.

Thank you to everyone who participated – especially the folks who put themselves out there with tough questions about their business. We are a community, and that means relying on each other for support at times.

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This article was originally posted March 16, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. First Freeday Friday Podcast Posted – Oceanic Edition

This program was recorded and is posted here.

Well, the Aussies Kicked Off Freeday Friday with a Great Show

When it's Thursday afternoon here, it's Friday morning over there. So at 3PM Pacific time today, I launched the Aussie/New Zealand/Oceanic edition of Freeday Friday. We got a good recording, and it is available free to Cloud Services Roundtable Members.

Freeday Friday is a new program to give you access to some coaching advice in a totally new format. See details at www.FreedayFriday.com.

Basically, I am offering free coaching advice to a very few people – live and free. The "price" for free advice is that other people get to listen in. The idea is that we all share some common challenges, so we might be able to learn from each other and address those challenges in similar ways. I'm not really a "coach" with a program to sell. I will sell some hours. But this one-to-many format allows me to get information out there and engage in the community.

Besides . . . it's new and fun! And once the idea entered my head, I had to try it.

This recording is the first ever Freeday Friday – and starts off with a very common question for companies seeking to grow from one person to a four- or five-person shop. It's a little rough, but I think the advice is worthwhile.

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This article was originally posted March 5, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable.

Interviews with Chris Bangs from SMB Nation and Dal Gemmell from Symantec

As MVP Nation was winding down in Redmond, I was able to grab Chris Bangs and Dal Gemmell. Chris does a variety of things at SMB Nation, and plays a big role in getting vendors on board. Dal Gemmell is a Principle Product Manager at Symantec.

1) Download the Chris Bangs interview on "What's Up" with SMB Nation. Chris gives us great info on the re-designed SMB Nation website, the Fall Conference in Vegas, the SMB 150 awards, and a lot more.

– – – – –

2) Download the Dal Gemmell Interview on one "Vendor's" view of MVP Nation. Dal is responsible for Endpoint Protection on desktops and servers for the small business market. He gives us some insight on why anti-virus is not enough, and how you might discuss that with you clients. He also gives some info on the integration of Backup Exec and other products with our standard SMB Tools.

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