SMB Community Podcast

Host Karl chats with Bob Coppedge on his book The MSP'S Survival Guide to Co-Managed IT Services Bob has written the only two books on the topic of Co-Managed IT services and has helped numerous MSP's improve their Co-Managed pratices. Resources and links: https://Simplex-IT.com https://CoMITs4MSPs.com https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrAQXmClGb2X6GH1WgaNyZA --- --- --- Sponsor Memo: SBTTC This po...

Host Karl speaks with Jeffery Ponts. Jeffery is COO and Co-Founder of Datatel Solutions Inc (www.datatelsolutions.com) which was founded in early 2003. Jeffery has more than 30 years in the telecom business, the past 19 as an entrepreneur. Jeff and his business partner, Daniel Langton, have grown Datatel Solutions into a national entity. He has more than 30 years of telecom and technology industri...

Host Karl chats with Dave Sobel from MSP Radio and The Business of Tech (and the Killing IT podcast). Dave is regarded as a leading expert on IT and managed services, cloud computing, and virtualization, and is a featured speaker at industry events including Channel Partners, Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, IT Nation, SITS London, and as a CompTIA trainer at multiple events, and is often q...

Host Karl caught up with three c-level folks from CWell Marketing: Lane McDowell – CEO /Head of Customer Success at Cwell Marketing Owned and Operated IT Service Business for 9 years in the Northern IL area. Through trials and tribulations and lots of marketing dollars spent, they were able to crack the code on Intent based marketing for MSPs. After he sold his MSP, he knew he still wanted to work...

Host Amy speaks with the Zack Fair on web filtering with SafeDNS. Zack is the Business Development Manager at SafeDNS and an IT enthusiast SafeDNS breathes to make the internet safer for people all over the world with solutions ranging from AI & ML-powered web filtering, cybersecurity to threat intelligence. Moreover, SafeDNS strives to create the next generation of safer and more affordable w...

Host Karl speaks to Charles Preston on Human Risk Managment (HRM), Security awareness training, amd simulated phishing. Charles Preston is the CEO & Founder of usecure, the Human Risk Management (HRM) solution that is transforming the way MSPs strengthen their clients' human security posture. With a wealth of experience in selling technology solutions to SMBs, Charles has amassed a number of key s...

Hosts Karl interviews Andy Liverman Anderson is the CEO and Co-Founder of DataStream Insurance. Andy has close to a decade of experience in cybersecurity and technology with leadership roles at Envelop Risk, Dispel, LiquidSpace, and Lovely. Andy is also the host of the podcast Cyber Security Dispatch. Before transitioning to technology, he was a Wall St. credit research analyst covering the insura...

Corey Kirkendoll is the President & CEO of 5K Technical Services. 5K Technical Service, is an award- winning Managed Service Provider (MSP) company that is committed to establishing solid IT solutions for Small-to-Medium sized Businesses (SMB) throughout the North Texas area. Corey is recognized by his peers as an IT Expert. Through his leadership, his relentless focus on being process-oriente...

Host Karl talked to author and entrepreneur Jennifer Bleam about her new book: Simplified Cybersecurity Sales for MSPs. By now, the majority of your listeners have accepted the mission to protect their clients. If they don't learn to sell cybersecurity effectively, countless small and medium sized businesses will be financially and personally affected. The future of those businesses depend on the...

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...