Smb Community Podcast By Karl W. Palachuk

I always see Mr. Tim Conkle on the road - as places like ChannelPro. Luckily, I got to catch up with him on the SMB Community Podcast. Tim Conkle - The 20 Tim holds over 30 years of entrepreneurial success in the Information Technology and Services sector. As a leading voice in the Managed IT Service Provider space, Tim is dedicated to developing simple, solid IT solutions for SMB clients and MSPs (Managed Service Providers) across the nation. His notoriously energetic nature, along with his deep-rooted passion for technology, has helped him forge solid customer relationships built on trust, dependability, and service. Tim currently serves as President & CEO of Roland Technology, President of the Board of Directors for Cytracom, and is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO). As CEO of The 20, Conkle is the driving force behind a business revolutionizing the IT industry. By utilizing a proven multi-million dollar sales model and an execution framework that he

Dominica DeGrandis is Director of Digital Transformation at Tasktop, where she helps customers improve the flow of work across value streams. Responsible for introducing customers to flow-based aspects of digital transformation, she guides IT teams and business teams to learn and adopt new ways of working to improve performance. Dominica is the author of “Making Work Visible: Exposing Time Theft to Optimize Work & Flow.” She is a huge fan of using visual cues to reveal mutually critical information across organizations to inspire change and spur alignment. Dominica lives in Seattle, WA with her husband and extended family. Dominica DeGrandis Here we talk about metrics, work flow, and the great benefits of minimizing WIP – work in progress. We also talked about engaging managers in the discussion of work flow and metrics. DeGrandis is excellent at seeing how processes work and finding ways to help participants literally see how work flows through the system. She advocates using Kanban boards to create a vi

I think I met Jamison about 2006 at SMB Nation. Since then, he has bought a few companies, built a few companies, and sold a few companies. Even today he owns a few companies. He calls himself a serial entrepreneur, but I consider that a parallel entrepreneur. Personally, I think all small business owners should have at least two companies. But that's another story. Here we chat a bit about TimeZest, a calendaring add-on for ConnectWise. Then we move to EOS - the Entrepreneurial Operating System - as described by Gino Wickman in his book Traction. There are many, many books filled with advice for business owners. Jamison likes the EOS model because it is most easily applied to small business. In fact, as he says, it can be self-applied without a coach. But there are some obvious advantages to having a coach who can help you have those difficult meetings and keep things moving when you get stuck in the weeds. Jamison has been a "serial entrepreneur" for over 20 years. He has a wealth of experience i

I met Allen Edwards all the way back in April of this year. I’ve already seem him at events in two states. We even shared a beer (or two) in Albuquerque. Allen help IT Professionals create great processes. Allen Edwards began his I.T. career in 1994. He founded his first I.T. company in 2002, and in ten short years led his firm through a transition from break/fix to MSP, from custom ticketing to AutoTask before moving to ConnectWise Manage, and a final sale of the business. A sought-after MSP and Process expert, Allen helps Business Leaders and their teams while building meaningful, growth-centered relationships that support next level performance. Link: https://EurekaProcess.com Enjoy the video interview: Download Audio:

In 2008, Brooke Ferguson, MBA packed up her business consulting practice and moved it online. Her objective was simple: keep growing her business while she saw the world. Brooke spent a number of years traveling, while keeping Thailand as her “home base.” Eventually, she realized that she wanted to make beautiful Krabi, Thailand her home. She has since set up her business beachside, and helps others from around the world discover their own personal and business alignment. I don’t normally post photos this grand, but look at that landscape! Here we talk about Brooke’s newest book – The Levels. This is, basically, her approach to using the laws of the universe to understand our personal universe AND how we can use this understanding to influence our success. She uses the language of physics to describe our relationships, our business, and our general activities. Then she connects this to the world of self-awareness and even meditation. Best quote: “No one’s going to argue with the person who’s angry and wants

I caught up with my brother Manuel after he returned from a triumphant tour of Europe and the UK. He’s got some cool things going on the second half of the year, including a big Coaches Mastermind event at CompTIA’s ChannelCon. We talked about Manuel’s coaching and consulting, and then did a deep dive into a few topics. First up: Culture! How do you create culture on purpose? And what happens if you let it grow by itself? I love Manuel’s assessment that it has to grow from the top down . . . or else it will grow from the bottom up. Second: Manuel is organizing a “Coaches Mastermind” opportunity at ChannelCon – Free to attendees. This is a limited event due to the size of the room. First come, first served. To make sure you don’t miss it, sign up for Manuel’s newsletter here: https://manuelpalachuk.com/ Enjoy the video interview:

I always love catching up with Jeff Ponts from DataTel Solutions. If you attend a few conferences a year, you are likely to have seen Jeff somewhere. Jeffery Ponts is COO/Executive Vice President and founder of Datatel Solutions Inc. Datatel Solutions is an Integrated Communications Provider (ICP), and systems integrator focusing on marketing, delivering, and managing best-of-breed data and telecommunication products, services, and applications through the independent sales channel for small to medium size enterprises (SME). As Jeff says, his company does the "heavy lifting" for IT companies that want to resell telecom services. Datatel works with more than 500 agents and 4,700 end customers. In this podcast, we cover a bit about the past and a lot about the future of the telecom industry. Jeff gives some great information about the reality of 5G connectivity and SD-WAN. He makes an interesting point that 4G will be around for a LONG time because it's impractical to have millions of 5G antennae all

I caught up with my good friend Joshua Liberman for this SMB Community Podcast. Josh is a great community leader and the owner of Net Sciences in Albuquerque, NM. Joshua Liberman In this podcast, Josh walks us through the various elements they offer (and bundle) for their clients. I asked Josh to talk about this because it’s the basis for a presentation I’ve seen him make. Josh has worked on this offering for a long time – and sold a lot of these services over the last several years. Note, Josh relies on SonicWall and Datto for their key services. Since Josh brought this up, I asked him why brand names and vendors matter to him. The handout Josh mentions can be downloaded here: How We Secure Your Network. You can catch up with Josh at www.netsciences.com. Watch the interview: Listen to the Interview (mp3)

I interviewed Mas Malik from Virtiant.com for this SMB Community Podcast. Mas is the VP of Sales and Marketing. Mas Malik Virtiant provides “Disaster Recovery as a Service” – without the onsite BDR hardware. It is VMWare-centric and able to recreate your environment in the cloud, so “failover” to the cloud can happen without users needing to repoint IP addresses or make other changes. As they describe themselves, Virtiant is “An all-in-one software-defined platform built on a scalable architecture that resides on commodity hardware. Virtiant is the only on-premise solution available today that can replicate a company’s virtual environment and enable normal IT operations to run while the primary production environment suffers an outage and is being brought back online.” Find out more at: www.virtiant.com Watch the interview: Listen to the Interview (mp3)

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)

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-

This interview with Ken Dwight covers a lot of territory. Ken Dwight 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 o

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

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

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: ROI@Auvik.com 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-network

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.” Amy Babinchak 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 –

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 educa

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. Pete Langas 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 Azu

Many people know Len DiCostanzo from his years at Autotask and Datto. Now he’s out on his own, helping IT consultants under the moniker MSP Toolkit. Len is a huge fan of ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) and best practices. He’s also dedicated to models that focus on recurring revenue. I ran into Len at the NexGen Conference and Expo in December. We sat in on each others’ sessions and took notes about each others’ advice. We mostly agree on best practices! A mainstay of the channel community, Len provides thought leadership and best practice guidance to technology channel vendors, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and other Business Technology Service Providers (BTSPs). Most recently, Len was SVP of Channel Development at Datto where he focused on helping partners drive recurring revenue with Datto’s cloud-based solution portfolio. Len was with Autotask for a decade prior to Autotask being acquired by Vista Equity Partners for the second time, and merging with Datto in December 2017. You ca

Erick Simpson is my long-time friend and fellow coach. My good friend Erick Simpson, formerly the Co-Founder, Senior Vice President, and CIO of SPC International, is now out doing consulting on his own. This is his first interview in his new role as an IT Business Transformation and Channel Growth Expert. Erick is an author and consultant, a former MSP, a great coach, and one of the pioneers of the Managed Services business model. In this interview, Erick talks about how he recommends filtering which prospects should become your clients. I love the discussion of how to determine whether a client has a strategic approach to business. Hint: Ask them. Along the way, we tell a few stories and Erick throws out some good book recommendations (besides his own). Erick’s new web site is at http://www.ericksimpson.com – and you can sign up for his newsletter there. I did. Watch the Podcast: This interview is about 30 minutes long. Listen to the audio podcast