Smb Community Podcast By Karl W. Palachuk

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

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 a

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

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

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

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-t

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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See p

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.] Hosted by Si

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-networks

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 educati

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 can

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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.c

This SMB Community Podcast is the sixth in a six-part series entitled Go To Market with Remote Support Service, with Dave Sobel, Senior Director of MSP Evangelism at SolarWinds MSP. Dave starts out this episode focusing on using the Take Control tool as a way to differentiate yourself from other service providers. More specifically, he has a great analogy about the place of Take Control in your offering. Rather than "selling" this tool, bundle it with everything you do and sell the total service. Reporting is a huge component in that differentiation. You can generate a lot of information per-client and per-user. These are great for showing clients what they're getting for their money. Plus you can access recordings of all sessions, track time, and provide the client with regular tracking information. Even if they never look at these reports, they'll think it's cool that you offer them. The recording option is particularly nice. You can record to the cloud. You can share these recordings with clients. You can

This SMB Community Podcast is the fifth in a six-part series entitled Take Control and the Customer Experience, with Dave Sobel, Senior Director of MSP Evangelism at SolarWinds MSP. In this episode, we touch on many features of the Take Control tool designed to help you improve and manage the Customer Experience with your technology consulting business. Some of these features are built in (and configurable/customizable). Others come into play as a result of agreements or policy decisions you make with the client. Offline options = Create business-focused policies. e.g., what is "privacy" at each client? Work with the client to help them to create their employee-facing policy regarding monitoring and privacy. And of course you can agree on the level of reporting that clients will receive. In fact, you can use this to help the client set policies about which software you are authorized to uninstall and what kind of reporting they expect regarding their employees' computing habits. Dave mentions that you can se

This SMB Community Podcast is the fourth in a six-part series entitled Episode IV: A New Hope for Security, with Dave Sobel, Senior Director of MSP Evangelism at SolarWinds MSP. As you might imaging, the Take Control application from SolarWinds MSP has lots of security built in. In particular, we talk about all the little security-related details that many people don't worry about. This includes securing endpoint connections, clipboard access, passwords, and more. Dave gives some good information on the two-factor authentication you'll experience within Take Control. All that is paired with an authenitcator app that uses unique one-time-use passwords that are managed automatically. If you think about it, a remote control tool gives your staff total access to all client secure data. And with multiple sessions into multiple clients, someone has to make sure that all those sessions are independently secured – and secured from each other. Take Control builds all that security in from the start. We also talked to

This SMB Community Podcast is the third in a six-part series entitled Successfully Implement Your Cloud Service Bundle, with Dave Sobel, Senior Director of MSP Evangelism at SolarWinds MSP. For six episodes, we're talking about how to get the most out of your remote control tools – and make more money. I really wanted to include this discussion of implementing cloud services in this podcast series. As you may know, I am a huge advocate of bundling your cloud service offering in order to maximize profit and client stickiness. So, we start off with a discussion of setting up the agent and creating default configurations. Here's the bundle we are discussing: After that, Dave walks us through mass deployment. This is a very cool feature, and one that you might expect from a remote management tool. Dave also goes into detail about customizing your "terms of service" within the app and protecting yourself legally. After all, remove control of client systems is a very serious undertaking. You need to agree with c

This SMB Community Podcast is the second in a six-part series entitled Break-Fix vs. Managed Services, with Dave Sobel, Senior Director of MSP Evangelism at SolarWinds MSP. For six weeks, we'll be talking about how to get the most out of your remote control tools – and make more money. Right off the bat, you might think that Dave and I would wave our hands and dismiss Break/Fix as a business model. But the truth is, there are still lots of people making money with "on demand" or "as needed" tech support. It is the right solution for some clients. It's also a great way to get started as an IT solution provider. So we start out with our definitions of both break/fix and managed service. The next question is, how do you maximize revenue with the break/fix model? As Dave says, you have to figure out how to use your time as wisely as possible and bill for as much of your time as possible. And even though tools like Take Control were developed to help MSPs make more money by leveraging their time better, they also