363: Patience Of Joe-b

Topics:

-Jerry & Sam speak with a guest who may be in witness protection 

-Jerry continues to be frustrated with remote sessions. 

-Sam is wowed by the ability to VNC directly into the touch screen of Toshiba multifunction printers. 

-Swiping up on the address bar of Safari for iOS minimizes it for more website real estate. A nice find by Joe. 

-Customers will sometimes drop computers off and do just a little too much to “swaddle” and protect it. 

-Joe has some theories of Captcha images. 

-We dedicate some time to discuss Sam’s backyard/Zoom background. 

-Sam has one heck of a time getting back into his Amazon account after being locked out due to what they detected as fraudulent activity. 

-One of Joe’s clients has multiple infections of malware on an aging Mac mini. Upon some digging, he finds some crafty malware that burrows itself in a Bookmark folder called “New Page”. 

-Upgrading old networks sometimes is met with underwhelming responses. 

-Jerry has to lay down the law with a client that has legacy email accounts and years of data and sync issues. 

-A previous consultant wanted to bill Joe’s new client for password gathering. 

-Host Gator is a challenge to deal with as Joe unfortunately finds out. 

-The email venting continues…

-A client that Sam has known for many years asks him if he needs to escalate to his tech.  

361: Command Control Power "Almost Live" at ACEs 2020

Topics:

-Sam is recording from his beach front property

-Jerry has the Richard Wingfield starter kit with his goatee.  An homage to our friend and contributor to the show

-Joe could not get his janky mic to work moments before recording the show

-In a recent trip to the market, Sam loses one of his AirPods while taking off his mask.

-While on the topic of AirPods, Jerry has a tip for easily pairing your AirPods with your Mac. An app called ToothFairy: https://c-command.com

-Joe has his fancy pants AirPods Pro and shows off the features

-We go around the horn to show our threads.  Joe is wearing his company logo, PsiMac.  Jerry is proudly wearing a Watchman Monitoring shirt.  Sam is wearing an Origin84 shirt from listener and friend of the show, Michael Thompsen.

-Sam is so far disappointed with the performance of his new MacBook Air.  Jerry wonders if he has too many items on his desktop…

-Joe recently purchased a MacBook Air, right before the release of the latest model.  He has an Apple support story with a happy ending.

-With regards to the fan issues on the new MacBook Air computers, Joe talks about the limited “thermal headroom”.

-Jerry wants us to be guinea pigs to try an app called Turbo Boost, to disable that feature and see if ti helps: http://tbswitcher.rugarciap.com

-Sam decided he did not need a MacBook Pro any longer and he is now regretting that decision

-Joe asks about screen size and remote access. Jerry & Sam both use accessibility features to zoom in to areas of the remote computer.  

-Sam goes commando with his phone and has paid the price.  Jerry wonders about changing the name of the show.

-Jerry has been performing a good amount of iMac repairs and upgrades.  In a recent repair job, he suffers damage to the logic board.  He enlists the help of Command Control Power patron, John Moder of Crisp Solutions (http://www.crispsolutions.net).  John puts him in touch with Computer Repair of Des Moines, who performed incredible work to repair the board.

-Moving to topics related to the current times, Sam has a direct conversation with his employee about what his comfort level is when it comes to visiting clients.  He also wants to make sure that the company supplies him with anything he needs.

-Having similar conversations with clients is also critical to make sure there is no confusion. Especially when they may be paying monthly for a service they expect to receive.

-As we all start adjusting to changes while being onsite, Joe watches in shock as other contractors at a client site are being very lax in their approach to safety.

-Working in this new remote capacity and essentially making your clients be your onsite hands can be awkward. In addition, it can lead to even more awkward conversations about billing.

-Thank you to Justin Esgar, Tim Pearson and the team at ACES!

360: Bum steer Or A No Steer

Topics:

-iMac upgrade needed?  No problem!  Or is it?  Jerry has quite the story to tell…

-It reminds Joe of a PSA from listener Brandon Walter on episode 273: https://commandcontrolpower.com/podcast/tag/take+control

-Supply constraints crossed Joe’s mind as factories and shipping companies are being affected by COVID-19.

-Joe wonders about external SSD options as an alternative iMac upgrade.  Jerry & Sam give their two cents.

-With so many computers in offices offline, it’s possible to get lazy about your Watchman Monitoring tickets. Stay alert!

-“I’m gonna preface this by saying I love my clients.”  -Jerry Zjgmont

-Jerry & Joe banter about walking clients through new purchases

-For making hardware purchases, Joe tends to lean towards Apple Retail and the custom store portal for ACNs.  Jerry has a good relationship with a reseller in the NY area.

-TidBITS Content Network (https://tcn.tidbits.com) content and affiliate links in articles are a dynamic duo to drive quality traffic to your site.

359: There’s Billable Work Hiding In that Closet

Topics:

-We dive right in with Joe telling a story of inadvertently having a client take apart a Magic Mouse.  So she can’t use her computer but she can now use the Zoom app on her iPhone.  So there’s that.

-Speaking of Zoom, Jerry has a hell of a time trying to use Group FaceTime with friends.  So they moved to Zoom.

-Joe has seen an uptick in work this past week.  Jerry & Sam can’t say the same.

-Jerry has an odd issue with a client who lost his admin account on the Mac.  Sam is now his buddy after assisting via Messages.

-Another interesting development that Jerry is seeing is people pulling old computers out of the closet to work with.  He is referring all of those clients to PsiMac.  Joe will happily take them.

-Live, during the show, we receive word that Jon Brown of Grove Technologies has returned as a VIP sponsor!  Thanks Jon!

-Joe asks Sam for some updates on his MSP contract.  He has taken the new approach to itemize all the services he offers.  He also hopes that it provides incentive for clients to inquire about additional services that his company offers.

-Sam’s new MSP is going out this week to a potential client

-In recent weeks, Joe sent out a newsletter to offer Watchman Monitoring for free to clients.  He provides an update of how clients responded.  Just the information alone that he gathered from Watchman Monitoring allowed the beginning of conversations for possible next steps.

-When clients unsubscribe from your newsletter, it can feel personal.

-While on the subject of Watchman Monitoring, enrollment codes is a great way to allow self enrollment: Enrollment codes

-The Aces Conference: The Prequel is on for May 19-20 and Command Control Power will be participating.  Sign up to be a part of it all! https://acesconf.com/aces-conference-the-prequel/

-And don’t forget, Aces will be in Atlanta in October: https://acesconf.com

357: Interview WIth Chad Keith Of Atlas Solutions

Topics:

-Chad Keith of Atlas Solutions joins the show

-Chad originally called his company “Behind The Mac” but decided to change the name to work well with Apple Business Manager and the Apple Consultants Network

-A listener since the early days of the show, he shares how moved to a monthly services model and hearing fellow consultants was very encouraging.

-At one time, Apple had run a ‘Behind the Mac’ ad campaign: https://9to5mac.com/2018/06/14/apple-behind-the-mac-ad-campaign/

-Chad discusses how it did not take much convincing for most of his clients to move to the MSP model, explaining how the even keeled billing approach appealed to them.

-Calculating monthly pricing for new clients can be difficult and needs ongoing attention

-Having mentors that have been through this is key to developing a plan for pricing

-With clients reaching out, defining a point of contact will help streamline requests

-In the current climate, Chad discusses how his business has been affected with support and travel

-He also talks about how local businesses and communities are affected by COVID-19

-If you haven’t seen John Krasinski’s “Some Good News” broadcasts, you are missing out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5pgG1M_h_U

-Joe shares some ideas for contactless food distribution

-Jerry goes to get pizza dough for the family and quickly changes his mind after seeing the conditions

-A short discussion brews about the loans available from the Small Business Association: https://www.sba.gov/page/coronavirus-covid-19-small-business-guidance-loan-resources

-The healthcare industry has changed through all of this and technology has been making more possible while keeping our healthcare workers safer

-Chad Keith has a podcast of his own called “Overcoming Average” http://overcomingaverage.libsyn.com

-Link Tree is where Chad has all his available contact and social media information: http://linktr.ee/atlascarolina

356: The Mean Sister

Topics:

-Jerry starts a roundtable discussion about accessing remote computers using TeamViewer

-MDM has some answers but not everything is automated: https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/How-to-control-a-Mac-running-macOS-10-14-or-higher/ta-p/44699

-Joe talks about burning technical capital when working with a new client

-Some of these situations remind Sam about an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGXWjyGP4KY

-Jerry & Joe don’t let Sam off the hook when attempting to clarify questions related to rogue MDM enrollment

-Nit wit, numbskull, imbecile - great descriptions for certain types of clients

-Joe uses the term “inelegant” to describe allowing remote access & MDM enrollment

-Moving away from the remote discussion, Sam decides to spin his own yarn about a Windows based client that caused a lot of grief for him and his team

-A good relationship can quickly turn uncomfortable when a problem is not resolvable in short order

-This problem manifested itself as slow internet speeds

-Sam finds multipe unmanaged switches hidden underneath desks

-Focusing on the ISP, they decide to switch to the backup ISP as the first priority and the cable ISP as the failover.  But the problems only get more complicated from there

-Both Joe & Jerry hone in on weather related issues with relation to Optimum Online and external lines

-What was the resolution?  Listen to find out!