Nothing Happens by Itself
Copyright © 2021 Karl W. Palachuk
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Yes, I have a Willie Nelson theme song in my ears. I just completed a delightful - and mostly normal road trip. A little personal travel (seeing all my living brothers plus some other relatives), and a little business.
The Providence SMB Roadshow was great. We had people from six states . . . but not Rhode Island. Still, I had never been to RI and it's my show. So I get to pick the cities.
We played a game show: WAIT? What Acronym Is That? See photo.
And my brother Manuel and I did a version of WAIT for the networking event at the Cisco Elevate online event. That was super fun because no one took it seriously and two people went home with major prizes.
Taken all together, it felt very old-school normal. I taught a class from my hotel room, did a vendor event, held a Roadshow, and even had to change rooms at the last minute. They put us in a ballroom that could have held 200. Just another day on the road.
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CISA Steps on MSP Toes
In case you missed my Saturday blog post, I highly recommend you read it.
The Government is Telling Your Clients How to Select an MSP
I will have a follow-up blog post tomorrow on some action steps you can take in response to this.
Gotta say: It's hard to communicate this stuff on social media. I teased this post with the comment that your client won't read CISA's advice but you should. Immediately some folks said that they didn't have to read the doc because their clients wouldn't. I hate responding with "Read the damn blog post before you comment." Just demonstrates that social media is not the place to engage in an educated discussion.
There is good news on the regulation front: This is not immediately effective in our space. But there's also a cautionary element: CISA's advice will be read by some, and taken seriously. And even though it's obviously ignorant of how SMB IT operates, it will "inform" the discussion of regulations going forward.
So read it!!!
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NSITSP Board of Directors and Executive Committee Announced
I know it might look like we're moving slow, but it just takes time to get things done, especially when everyone's a volunteer and we've never done this before. But TA DA! We have a Board of Directors and an Executive Committee for the Board. They are:
- Amy Babinchak, President
- Erick Simpson, Vice President
- Jeff Grenier, Secretary
- Rayanne Buchianico, Treasurer
- Chris Barber, Board Member
- Heather Johnson, Board Member
- Larry Mandelberg, Board Member
With luck, we will have final By-Laws approved before the end of the month, and the beginnings of a budget for 2022. Committees are begin formed and that will also help move things forward.
The Committees formed so far are Finance, Legislation, and Formation (which will determine which committees we need, election procedures, and related matters).
If you haven't joined today, Please Join! It's only $100 and we can use the numbers as we begin to look at legislative activity.
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Have a great week.
-- Karl W. Palachuk
:-)
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Tell Your Story: Three Options
One of the best things you can do to promote your business is to tell your story. There are lots of books on this. I think Daniel Pink's Whole New Mind is a great place to start.
As the story-telling marketing trend emerged, there appeared three basic ways to tell your company's story. The first is explored by Russell Brunson ( Dot Com Secrets and other books). I love his descriptions of story-telling.
Brunson encourages you to create "funnels" that engage the audience in your story. You create a compelling character and invite the audience to follow along. I really like this, and someday I might just do a long blog series on the history of my consulting business and how I ended up developing a flat-fee service model.
But Brunson's method has a downside, if overused. It can feel manipulative. Elaborate funnels (if well designed) don't feel like funnels until you're in the middle of them. You've seen this. You are offered a big purchase (say $2,500) and you say no, so you're offered a smaller option (say $50) and you say yes.
At this point you're in the funnel. You enter your payment info and are offered an upsell of, perhaps, $1,000. If you say yes, you're offered more and more. If you say no, you're offered a $200 down-sell. And on and on it goes.
In Brunson's model, you are more or less the hero. People are engaging with you (or your compelling character). The goal is to appeal to people who want to do business with you.
The second kind of sales story is the true hero's tale. Marcus Sheridan's They Ask, You Answer is a good example of this. Sheridan's book is really about putting content marketing into everything you do. I'm a big fan.
He might get a little carried away, but the basic premise is rock solid: Tell people how you do everything. Every little thing. In excruciating detail. If you've followed me for very long, you know this has been my strategy for more than fifteen years.
This model doesn't explicitly say, "I'm the hero." But it does say, this is what I do. This is how I do it. If you want to do what I do, this is how to accomplish that. It works well for training people to do what you do, but is a little harder to pull off when selling services to clients in other businesses.
A really great example of using this model successfully in IT consulting is Tom Lawrence of Lawrence Systems. On his YouTube channel, he talks all the nerdy talk, with some business speak from time to time. Prospects find him and realize he knows way more than they do. So they hire him. His approach is honest, humble, and completely transparent.
A third type of story telling is exemplified by Donald Miller in Building a Story Brand. As Miller points out, heroes very often have guides. Think Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker. Luke doesn't have a clue at the beginning of Star Wars, and needs Obi-Wan to show him the way.
In this model, you are not the hero: Your client is. You are the guide. The hero (your prospect) is just trying to lead their life and keep their company as profitable as possible. But then they have a problem and need you (their guide) to help them find the right way.
This is clearly a very appealing approach. After all, it's often not compelling to hear people talking about themselves. Instead, your marketing should focus on the client. And even more than that, it should focus on the client's problems.
The reality is that you can use each of these methods at different times. After all, marketing is forever. You can never stop marketing. That's good because it means that you can try a variety of interesting things. Tell your tale. Be the hero. And then tell the client's tale, turn them into the hero, and become their guide.
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One reason I end up reading so many books is that life is complicated. And each of these seems like a great approach when you read THAT book. But gobbling up all that information allows you to look the bigger picture. And there's always a bigger picture.
Note: Book links are Amazon Affiliate links.
:-)
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New Class:
Super-Charge Your Social Media Marketing
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You only missed one class.
Register now, catch up, and join us live tomorrow
Super-Charge Your Social Media Marketing
Course 5W25
Taught By: Karl W. Palachuk
Five Tuesdays
- All classes start a 9:00 AM Pacific
You're guaranteed to learn something that will make or save you the price of admission!
This course is designed to help you "put it all together" and complete your social media strategy with the most powerful tools at your disposal. While most people approach Twitter, blogging, and podcasting as basic, mundane marketing tools, they are second only to Your Newsletter in positioning yourself as an expert in your field. We'll look at all of these.
This course shows you how to maximize these tools and wrap them into an overall strategy for marketing and sales. But the real juicy goodness is a strategy for creating a magnifying effect across all your marketing. No matter which tools you focus on in this series, the "Super-Charge" takes place with a combination of automated and manual rebroadcast mechanisms. We provide you a detailed process for creating this echo effect. In fact, we literally give you the checklist to make it happen.
Most small businesses "use" social media, but don't really have a strategy for using social media effectively. That strategy starts with understanding the strengths and weaknesses of various platforms. And it culminates with a unified approach to branding and how your company presents itself across a variety of platforms.
This course is taught by Karl W. Palachuk, a social media influencer who "touches" over one million people per month. Karl has been using these social media for more than ten years, and has demonstrated mastery across all of the major social media that small businesses need to be successful.
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Only $299 per student
Delivered by Karl W. Palachuk, author and business coach.
Includes five weeks of webinars with related handouts, assignments, and "office hours" with the instructor. All classes are recorded for download. All classes include suggested "homework" that is totally action-focused and intended to move your company's marketing forward.
This course is intended for business owners and managers. It is particularly useful for Service Managers.
A Few Details . . .
- Each course will be five one-hour Zoom webinars
- There will be handouts and "homework" assignments
- Class webinars will be recorded and made available to paid attendees only.
- All calls start at 9:00 AM Pacific Time
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All the Resources That Are Fit to Print |
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Recent Blog Posts, Podcasts, and Videos |
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Small Biz Thoughts Blog:
Relax Focus Succeed:
SMB Community Podcast - New episodes drop every Thursday
The Killing IT Podcast - New episodes drop every Tuesday
The Cheeky Sales Coach Podcast / Video - New episodes drop every Wednesday
National Society of IT Service Providers News Blog
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SOP: Operational Passwords |
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Selected Recent Videos and Webinars:
A quick guide to my Playlists:
- Total: More than 760 videos on the Small Biz Thoughts channel
- 310+ SOP videos
- 100+ Relax Focus Success videos
Plus . . .
- Training, Courses, Seminars on Managed Services
- Product Reviews
- and more
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Small Biz Thoughts Community News
SmallBizThoughts.org
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Next SBT Roundtable: Lessons from the Robotics Competition |
Huge thanks to Kara for running the meeting Thursday while I ran the SMB Roadshow in Providence.
The meeting was recorded and is available to all paid members.
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For the next SMB Roundtable, my guest is my brother Neil. He's a CAD designer for Boeing. They sponsor a high school robotics team and Neil is the coach. Well, amidst the pandemic, remote learning, and a bit of a recession, they won the international robotics championship.
I am most interested in how you teach all the skills of programming, machining, mechanics, and design to high school students in their spare time. Even when there's not a pandemic and remote learning, how is this possible?
Join us for all the juicy details. Link at the top of your Community Dashboard.
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And don't forget to check out the September Community Newsletter.
Don't miss it! You can watch the video here:
The September news email went out at the same time. It is members-only. If you're a Community member and didn't get the email, contact us and we'll figure it out.
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Members get free classes! New members - remember that you get massive discounts on our classes over at Great Little Seminar. Monthly subscribers save $200 per student. Annual subscribers attend for free. Grab your discount code in the Community and then head to GLS to register for class.
If you need something, please post a question in a forum or email Kara (your Community Manager) or me.
:-)
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I ran into about four of these USB power outlets that didn't work.
Just a quick reminder that a backup system that relies on constantly plugging and unplugging a USB cable might not be a good idea. Just sayin.
:-)
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What's Here?
This calendar lists two kinds of things: LIVE in-person events from any organization that focuses on the SMB consulting community; and MY events, whether live, webinar, etc.
If you have live events on your calendar that may be useful to others in the SMB Community, please let us know. We'd be happy to list them.
Of course: Everything here is subject to change based on Covid. Click the links for the latest details. Please send updates so we can post them.
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September
Midsize Enterprise Summit+
September 19-21
Dallas, TX
Channel Live
Sept 21-22
Birmingham, UK
ASCII Success Summit
September 22 & 23
NY / NJ area
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Event
San Diego, CA
Sept 23-24th
IT Partners
Sept. 29-30
Disneyland, Paris
IOTSSA Cybersecurity Expo
Sept 19-30
Charlotte, NC
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October
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Live Event
Oct 6, 2021
Raleigh, NC
DTX 2021 (Digital Transformation)
Oct. 6-7
London, UK
DattoCon 2021 - Now virtual
Oct 13
SMB TechFest
October 13-14
Anaheim, CA
SMB IT Professionals National Conference - Australia
Postponed!
. . . Maybe next year
Sherweb Accelerate
Oct 18-20
Hollywood, FL
More Info: https://info.sherweb.com/accelerate.html
Channel SEC London
October 19th
London, UK
Kaseya Connect IT
Oct 19-22
Las Vegas
NexGen+ 2021
October 24-26
Anaheim, CA
Join me Live!
Acronis #Cyberfit Summit
October 25-27
Miami, FL
ASCII Success Summit
October 27 & 28
Orlando, FL
I'm hoping there's a trip to the Gold Coast in my future. Stay tuned.
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November
Channel Partners Evolution
Nov. 1-4
Las Vegas, NV
Managed Services Summit Live
November 2nd
Amsterdam
Kaseya Connect Europe
Nov. 2-4
Amsterdam
ASCII Success Summit
November 2 & 3
Washington, DC
IT Nation Connect North America
November 10-12
Orlando, FL
IT Nation (Connectwise) Evolve Peer Groups
November 15-19
Sydney, Aus
Managed Services Summit North
November 16th
Manchester, UK
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Live Event
Nov 16, 2021
Los Angeles, CA
Women of the Channel Summit West 2021
November 16-17
Palm Springs, CA
Acronis #Cyberfit Summit
November 18-19
Schaffhausen, Switzerland
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December
Women of the Channel Summit East 2021
December 6-7
New York, NY
ASCII Success Summit
Orange County, CA - December 8 & 9
Acronis #Cyberfit Summit
December 8-9
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Event
Dallas, TX
Dec 9-10th
SMB Roadshow - Las Vegas!
Las Vegas, NV
Dec 14th
Join Me Live!
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If you know of in-person events we should list, please let us know.
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January
Send us your updates!
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February
Acronis #Cyberfit Summit
February 17 - 18, 2022
Singapore, Singapore
Xchange+
February 27 - March 1, 2022
Dallas, TX
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March
Cloud Expo Europe
March 2-3, 2022
London, UK
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April
Send us your updates!
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May
Send us your updates!
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June
Send us your updates!
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July
Send us your updates!
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August
CompTIA ChannelCon 2022
August 1-3, 2022
Houston, TX
More Info: Coming after ChennelCon 2021 ;-)
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Note: If you know of any in-person event for SMB Consultants, please send info to karlp@greatlittlebook.com. |
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Small Biz Thoughts is a subsidiary of Great Little Book Publishing Co., Inc. |
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