Smb Community Podcast By Karl W. Palachuk

Host Karl talked to Cam Roberson, Vice President of Beachhead Solutions about choosing the right security tools.  BeachheadSecure for MSPs provides a PC and device security platform for businesses and MSPs to encrypt data and automate threat responses.  Earlier in his career, he was a product manager at Apple and ran an advertising agency in for 15 years before selling the firm. He also teaches courses at his local community college on business and entrepreneurship. Additional Relevant Information Some more detail on the topic/thesis Cam's interested in bringing to the SMB Community Podcast if interest (with no shortage of examples and energy): SMBs rely on their MSPs for expert and clear-eyed perspectives on their technology needs. That is especially true when it comes to data and system security. But given that the current security solution landscape has been rendered nearly incomprehensible by fancy new (and newer) acronyms, it’s no surprise that businesses seek experts able to tell EDR from XDR and SOAR f

Host Karl caught up with MJ Shoer, the Chief Community Officer at CompTIA. MJ is responsible for leading a team of passionate leaders who deliver programs and benefits to CompTIA's global community of members.  MJ is a 25+ year MSP veteran, having owned his MSP for nearly 20 years before merging into a friendly regional competitor subsequently acquired by a national MSP. MJ was a longtime CompTIA member before joining the team. About CompTIA CompTIA is a non-Profit IT Trade Association. You've certainly heard of CompTIA certifications (A+, Network+, etc.).  At https://connect.comptia.org, you'll find the CompTIA communities, technology interest groups, industry advisory councils, and public sector councils make CompTIA strong. Join today and start collaborating on technology and business-building initiatives, network with peers, open doors to new partnerships, and contribute ideas to shape the future of our industry. There is a place for everyone to connect at CompTIA. Full disclosure: Karl sits on the Execu

Host James caught up with founder of Arsenal, Aaron Asher, to talk Sales Development and Appointment Setting. Since its inception in early 2019, Aaron and his team at Arsenal have worked with 100s of MSPs to provide transparent, no frill lists of services and resources. Link: www.arsenalbg.com  -- -- -- Sponsor Memo: Cisco  Did you know Cisco helps Managed Services Providers directly? Know about the Cisco Partner Program? Focused on helping partners combine managed services expertise and service creation with innovative Cisco technology and proven go-to-market resources, there’s a program option for you. With provider pricing, MDF, and marketing resources coupled with Cisco’s leading technologies inculding Meraki, Duo, and Umbrella, learn more with the link right in the show notes.  https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/partners/partner-with-cisco/provider.html  :-)   

In this special edition, I lay out some information on choosing clients, setting expectations, and getting clients to play their role in your company. This is absolutely essential to building a successful business model. When you look at your ideal client, you need to know what they care about and what they don't care about. What kind of buyer are you? What kind of buyer do you want your clients to be? Those questions will help you decide what matters and what does not inside your company. References and links: - Uncommon Service by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss  https://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Service-Putting-Customers-Business/dp/1422133311/  - My blog: https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com  - My YouTube: https://youtube.com/smallbizthoughts  - IT Service Provider University: https://www.itspu.com  - Customer Service Course at ITSPU: https://www.itspu.com/all-classes/classes/customer-service-for-it-service-providers/  -- -- --  Sponsor Memo: PCMatic    Think you know PC Matic?  Think again.  PC Matic is worki

Cyber Incidents, Cybersecurity Insurance, and SMBs. Host Karl interviewed Ron Pelletier from Pondurance. Pondurance is a cybersecurity incident response organization. Ron is the original Founder of Pondurance, having started the company from his basement in 2008. Ron has over 25 years of cyber security advisory experience. He started his career as an officer in the US Army, followed by nine years with Big Four firm, EY. As a strong consensus builder and customer advocate, Ron is focused on evangelizing the Pondurance brand as well as customer success. There are many kinds of cyber attacks. What's the right incident response for each of these? What are the roles of monitoring as well as actual response? Additional Relevant Cyber insurance policy prices are skyrocketing due to the increase in ransomware attacks. With that higher price comes less coverage. Add to that, more companies are applying for cyber insurance than there is funding. When demand exceeds availability, you get increased rates, and that’s hap

This is the first in a series of interviews we'll be doing with Field Effect in 2022. Host Karl talked to Toby Nangle, Global Channel and Partnerships Lead for Field Effect.  We start out by agreeing that it's going to be another tough year on the cybersecurity front. Toby has worked extensively in the Education Technology, Cloud, IT Infrastructure and IT Security sectors. His expertise lies in developing cohesive channel strategies, identifying and developing the shortest path to revenue for new technologies, and implementing the necessary internal and external structures to support channel partnerships. Field Effect works to bring simplicity to a complex process of delivering top-notch cybersecurity. Their primary product is Covalence, which bring great security monitoring from a wholistic approach. Rather than deploy a variety of “DR” (detection/response) tools, Covalence monitors all traffic on both your on-site and cloud networks with one portal. Alerts are managed through a central system and delivered

Host Karl caught up with Vince Gerasolo of DaVinci Network Solutions of Toronto, Canada. In April of 2020, Vince started an experiment with a four-day work week for his business. Now it's been almost a year , so we checked in to see how things are doing. On top of everything else involved in managing and growing an IT business, Vince was working remote, increasing his staff size, and dealing the the pandemic. And in all of that, the four-day work week seems to be working. I dug into the details and Vince was very forthcoming with information and advice about how to get started with your own four-day work week. As you can imagine, there are lots of things to consider. You can contact Vince on LinkedIn or via DaVinci. https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincegerasolo  https://dvnt.ca/  -- -- --  Sponsor Note: Are you still using on-prem file servers and VPNs to share files with remote workers? Egnyte is a business class cloud sharing solution that works more like your on-prem server than other solutions. With a secur

Host Karl caught up sales trainer and coach Gil Cargill to talk about the importance of business-focused communication during sales calls. You hear it all the time: Don't talk about what you sell; talk about the client's needs. But how do you actually do that? How do you guide the conversation away from the price and still get the sale? Gil gives us some tips - and Karl back to get some juicy details. Too many technicians think clients care about technology. They don’t. They care about how you can improve their profit, improve their productivity, or help with cashflow. Gil gives some great tips on how to get the conversation started, and to get the prospect to buy in to a productivity audit. His approach is very conversational and is totally focused on the client rather than the technology. Contact Gil for his free starter evaluation: Web Site: http://www.gilcargill.com  Phone: 310-447-4102 :-) Sponsor Memo: Linode Linode – a top Infrastructure as a Service provider, as voted by G2 and Trust Radius, has resou

Host Karl interviews Christopher Barber, a Maryland MSP. Chris' MSP is called Cheaper than a Geek. Chris refers to himself as the Chief Nerd at Cheaper Than A Geek. They are an MSP that’s about to celebrate 22 years in business just outside of DC and Baltimore that specializes in the smaller SMB space. Chris currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Society of IT Service Providers. Chris and Karl discuss the economy, focusing on service delivery during a pandemic, and the economic challenges and opportunities in these strange time. We also discuss Chris's goals for the NSITSP and why he is involved in this important organization. More About Chris and Cheaper Than A Geek: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherjbarber/  https://www.cheaperthanageek.com/  More info on NSITSP Visit https://nsitsp.org  The NSITSP is a professional association representing SMB – small and medium business – IT consultants. They focus on education, professionalism, and promoting the interests of IT professionals ev

I love talking with Dave Seibert for lots of reasons: One is his optimism. Before we hit the record button, he just kept going on and on about all the great opportunities he sees in 2022. So I hit record and made him slow down a bit. Dave is a longtime community builder, managed service provider, influencer, Microsoft MVP, and organizer of the SMB Techfest. We sat down for a year-end review and look into the new year. We start with an update on SMB Techfest and their plans for the new year. Q1 (January) and Q3 (July) will be virtual events and Q2 (April) and Q4 (October) will be live, in-person events. As Dave points out, he does his event four times per year because our industry changes all the time. And that's a good transition to our actual show contents. Our industry is typified by "change." Well, the pandemic has sped that up considerably. Dave helps us reflect on what we learned in 2021 and what he sees ahead in 2022. More than half the show is spent on opportunities in 2022! Links: SMB TechFest – quar

Host Karl caught up with Vadim Peskov, CEO and Founder at Diffco. The company develops mobile AI and computer vision solutions. Vadim has a lot of expertise in FinTech, cybersecurity, and B2B software development. He is also an advisor at Alchemist Accelerator and numerous startups. He is an expert and speaker who combines years of experience in AI-enhanced applications and Computer Vision, Cybersecurity, VC, and product design. The Diffco team has been developing powerful Android and iOS apps, AI-enhanced solutions and back-end architecture since 2008. The company specializes in transforming any business visions into revenue driving products for startups and SMBs, or complex scalable systems for enterprise companies. Links: - https://diffco.us  - https://www.facebook.com/diffco.us/  - https://www.linkedin.com/company/diffco  ----- Sponsor Memo: Are you still relying on a frustrating patchwork of legacy solutions? Modernize your cybersecurity and data protection with Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud. It’s a singl

Host Karl talks with Scott Sandland from Cyrano.ai, a company that is developing smart "AI" software that will help counselors address some tough emotional issues. Scott started out focusing on teen suicide and has built up systems from there. Scott is the former world's youngest hypnotherapist. A few companies (and decades) later he is the CEO of a company focusing on artificial empathy and strategic linguistics. As a former executive director and CEO of a mental health clinic and longtime technologist, he has experience leading purpose driven organizations. He has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, Psychology Today, Forbes, and Entrepreneur Magazine. Scott has presented his AI work at the United Nations AI for Global Good Conference and is a frequent guest lecturer at various universities. Here we dig into AI chatbots that are attempting to do good things - with empathy and strategy. We also dig into some of the current issues with AI and ethics. Scott's company builds and has patented an A

Host Karl talked to Matt Solomon and Kevin Lancaster from Channel Program. They are producing a series of new programs for the SMB IT Channel, including Channel Pitch, Channel Explorer, and Channel Cash. Kevin is the CEO and Matt is the Chief Business Development Officer of the new company. They have joined forces again to start Channel Program, an innovative collaboration platform uniting the best Channel Partners (MSP's, MSSP's, VAR's, IT Service Providers, and Consultants) with the best Technology Vendors out there. Kevin and Matt previously led ID Agent, one of the fastest-growing start-ups through acquisition in a 2 year period. The new programs are: Channel Pitch - Allows MSPs/Channel Partners to attend anonymously and provide valuable feedback to the vendors. For vendors, they get 7 mins, (even playing field), cut out the fluff, and get direct feedback. Channel Explorer - Video platform, allow both MSPs and Vendors the ability to build a brand, thought leadership, community. Channel Cash - Launching th

Host Karl interviews Harry Brelsford and Scott Lopez about maintenance as the great new MSP opportunity. Scott is the creator of AOM - Alternative to OEM maintenance (AOM). Technology entrepreneur Harry Brelsford has teamed with Austin-based ZPI to bring the AOM World ecosystem to market to drive MSP success. Harry is best know for the SMB Nation community and several other startups including 420MSP. Link: https://aom.world/  -- -- -- Sponsor Memo: Acronis Are you still relying on a frustrating patchwork of legacy solutions? Modernize your cybersecurity and data protection with Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud. It’s a single solution that combines backup, anti-malware, and endpoint protection management. As an MSP, you can easily improve clients’ security posture, eliminate complexity, and generate more recurring revenue. Learn more about Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud at https://Acronis.com.  :-)

Host Karl interviewed Manoj Srivastava, General Manager of ID Agent and Graphus. Today's employees have a better understanding of cybersecurity risks than in years past, but it can still feel like a massive undertaking to get everyone to complete even the most basic of training. While hacking into a system is difficult, sophisticated social engineering attacks tricking users to give away their credentials is far more common, meaning anyone can fall victim to these scams. Manoj explains why training is not enough. He believe cybersecurity awareness should be embedded into the culture of an organization, with employees understanding how their daily behaviors contribute to the cyber environment. Links: www.kaseya.com  www.idagent.com   www.graphus.ai    About Manoj Srivastava Manoj Srivastava is General Manager, ID Agent and Graphus, where he focuses on products that help managed service providers (MSPs) and IT professionals protect their customers – small and mid-sized companies – against cybercrime. He overs

From Karl: Everyone is a little overwhelmed with the fast-changing world of cybersecurity and what we should be doing. I wanted to give folks some clear, precise guidelines and questions about starting this process. I go into some detail on the questions and process I recommend for engaging EVERY client in this discussion. I make reference to the model cybersecurity training you can access and download from https://www.mspwebinar.com. You can view the entire 1-hour video (recorded live with a client in November 2021), and download the PowerPoint in PPTX format. Download it, remove my branding and graphics, and create your own version. Hey, it's easier to edit my stuff than to start with a blank page, right? And if you are a member of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community, you can access example resources for data handling documents and the sample client-facing cybersecurity questionnaire. If you're not a member, sign up now at https://www.smallbizthoughts.org.  ----- Sponsor Note: Gozynta Did you know t

Host James Kernan interviews Dakota Fitzgerald from the new TDSynnex to discuss the Tech Data-Synnex merger and what it means for IT Service Providers. Dakota is the SYNNEX StellrCloud Cloud and Platform Strategist. Her background is in coding, development, and mass communications. In her current role, she works to develop new and innovative Cloud Strategies that provide resellers with the competitive advantage they need to navigate disruption and thrive in the Cloud arena. By connecting passionate people to powerful platforms through purposeful partnerships, TDSynnex is becoming the leader for Digital Transformation in the channel. Through end-to-end solutions, support, and services, Dakota works to serve reseller partners, vendors, and colleagues in making TDSYNNEX StellrCloud the obvious destination for all Cloud needs. More info at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dakota17fitzgerald/  And of course . . . https://www.tdsynnex.com/  ----- Sponsor Memo: Acronis Are you still relying on a frustrating patchwork of

Host Karl talked to Corey White. Corey is a proven security industry veteran with more than 25 years of success building and implementing security strategies and leading consulting teams. His work encompasses virtually every industry, including government, high tech, hospitality, critical infrastructure, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. Corey is disrupting the modern approach to cybersecurity with Cyvatar.ai, making cybersecurity effortless for businesses with fully managed customer-centric security solutions that are mapped to business outcomes. As the industry’s first membership-based, cybersecurity-as-a-service (CSaaS) company, Corey’s mission for Cyvatar is to transform the way the security industry builds, sells, and supports cyber solutions. Corey also served as the SVP of Worldwide Consulting, Chief Experience Officer at Cylance and as the Southwest Director of Consulting for Foundstone & McAfee/Intel Professional Services. He’s an avid lover of bio-hacking, manifestation, and meditation. He

Host Karl talked to Larry Mandelberg, one of the founding members of the National Society of IT Service Providers Board of Directors. Larry is a long-time technologist and business consultant. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Businesses Don't Fail, They Commit Suicide. Larry is a "serial entrepreneur" who solves complex business problems for companies in a wide range of industries. He represents the fifth generation of his family’s business, inheriting 150 years of successful organizational experience. Larry has experience in all stages of business growth. He has launched four start-ups, led a merger, and conducted a successful turnaround. When the NSITSP was formed in the Summer of 2021, Larry was selected as one of the Board members. He brings a great deal of experience in non-profit boards as well at professional businesses and business success. Links: https://mandelberg.biz  https://mandelberg.biz/mandelblog/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrymandelberg/  https://businessesdontfail.com  For inf

Host Karl caught up with Toby Nangle, a channel sales pro with Field Effect. With a 23-year career in technology channel sales, Toby has worked extensively in the Education Technology, Cloud, IT Infrastructure and IT Security sectors. His expertise lies in developing cohesive channel strategies, identifying and developing the shortest path to revenue for new technologies and implementing the necessary internal and external structures to support channel partnerships. Field Effect works to bring simplicity to a complex process of delivering top-notch cybersecurity. Their primary product is Covalence, which bring great security monitoring from a wholistic approach. Rather than deploy a variety of "DR" (detection/response) tools, Covalence monitors all traffic on both your on-site and cloud networks with one portal. Alerts are managed through a central system and delivered to MSPs. Of course it also connects to your PSA and other tools. If you're interested in offering a successful managed security practice, the