SMB Community Podcast

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 cour...

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 m...

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...

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 t...

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...

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 dev...

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 t...

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 deta...

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...

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 lo...

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, Cybers...

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 strat...

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 bes...

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 420M...

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 cre...

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 dow...

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 competi...

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 cybersecuri...

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 re...

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 neces...

Host Amy interviewed Ben Yarbrough, CEO at Calyptix Security Corporation about their new product launch. Ben founded in 2005 and has focused on the Small/SMB space from the start. He is an experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the computer and network security industry. Skilled in Firewalls, Managed Services, Business Development, and Entrepreneurship. Stron...

Host Karl talked to Noelle Johnson, Co-Founder and Learning and Development Partner with Johnson Squared Consulting. Noelle has over a decade of experience working in operations and transforming company culture into a more equitable and happier work environment. She has earned a positive reputation for her expertise and has been quoted in Forbes, Fast Company, Glassdoor, NPR, and more. She has wor...

Host James Kernan interviews Amy Woods from Content 10X. Amy is an expert in content repurposing and the Founder of Content 10x – a niche creative agency. She helps content creators grow their audience by maximizing their return on the content they create. She works with businesses, entrepreneurs and thought leaders, and is the content repurposing powerhouse behind some of the most well-known podc...

Host Karl caught up with Marvin Bee from Fort Lauderdale, FL. Marvin runs MB Systems of South Florida Inc. You may know Marvin at the host of the Podnutz Pro Podcast (see www.podnutzpro.com) . We start out with one of Marvin's famous "Florida Man" news stories along with his own business origin story. Of course that leads to the general issue of dealing with clients who don't quite "get" it. If yo...

Karl caught up his long-time friend Dave Seibert. Dave is a managed service provider, a Microsoft MVP, organizer of the SMB Techfest events, and much, much more. Dave is an internationally-recognized community builder. This includes his status as a Microsoft Influencer and his own ProTier Peer groups. On top of all that, Dave's whiz on LinkedIn and networking. Karl talks to Dave about how he manag...