366: Do You Think I'm An Idiot?

Topics:

-Jerry poses the question to the group: what if clients want to downgrade from macOS Catalina?

-Turns out Jerry has a real situation that dealt with this very issue. It turned into a cluster but it did require a Time Machine backup and reinstall of the previous OS. 

-An inadvertent sales tactic for Joe is reaching out to a client who has been sitting on a proposal for a long time and saying they will close the ticket. Astonishingly, it causes clients to immediately respond. 

-After two visits to a client, Sam experience issues out of his controls, one with Apple and one with Jamf. He describes how it just makes him look bad. Joe and Jerry can relate. 

-Jerry has a great relationship with an Apple Authorized Reseller, Micro Decision Systems in NY. Richard Cooperman has always made the client experience easier. In a recent instance, Jerry describes having a tough time swapping out a recently purchased problematic computer.  Jerry personally offered to step up to the plate for the customer but Richard came through in the end. 

-Sam can’t wrap his head around the mess at a new client. Various application and operating system versions, status of admin accounts, compliance are all factor that are making his head hurt. 

-Jerry hits the nail on the head when describing unexpected hours and a hurt to the bottom line. 

-Jerry is reminded of being frustrated with clients that always seem like they have something better to do. 

365: Interview With Richard Wingfield Of Envision Design

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Topics:

-This week we welcome back Richard Wingfield, Head Geek at Envision Design in Houston, TX.

-Richard has talent in photography and has taken a picture a day on Instagram @rbwaia

-Joe recommends a guided meditation app on iOS called Waking Up by Sam Harris.

-Sam has experienced float tanks as a form of meditation and relaxation.

-Working to calm your “monkey mind” can take practice.

-Currently, Envision is only working with their clients in a remote capacity.

-On the topic of photography, Joe mentions the Front Steps Project in Neeham, MA.

-Richard discusses some of his key components in working with his clients in a managed services capacity, like Synology, Dropbox, Barracuda, etc.

-As more of our clients work from home, we discover just how many only use their iPhone as a hotspot or those who are just stealing their neighbor’s wifi.

-Most of Richard’s clients have been respectful of not having his team in and much of their staff is still mostly remote as well.

-He did have one that needed onsite work to set up surveillance system for a client that just completed a new space as the pandemic hit.

-Sam has a client that has had a very tough time with video conferencing, even though their network and ISP speeds are very stable.

-Richard had suggested a device called Domotz to Sam, to investigate network related issues at his client. Richard installs Domotz at all of his clients as part of his services to them. Domotz has a hardware device that can be installed but even more handy is their Synology app.

-Domotz charges $19/month per site and includes a powerful feature set for reporting, network topology, and device priority.

-Richard put considerable effort into making billing changes in his company. In part, it was in response to clients not understanding what his monthly charges were for. In these changes, he split out costs for actual support time, called Consulting & Support and costs for items they may resell, called Software & Services.

-These changes to his billing procedure helped, especially when clients may look to shop around.

-Richard talks about minimum standards for signing and working with any new client.

-Some clients only learn after something happens.

-Syncing is not backup!

-As a gesture to his clients, Richard and his company gave many hours on top of MSP support to assist remote setups.

-Give a listen to Richard Wingfield’s new podcast, The Black Hole Cafe. He records the show with his daughter and the first episode is dedicated to coffee: https://www.theblackholecafe.com

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.  

362: Fear Inoculum

Topics:

-CCP is on video!

-Jerry has commentary on his cohosts’ appearances

-Jerry & Joe are fancy coffee drinkers. Jerry’s coffee of choice is Afrique and he uses a Baratza Virtuoso grinder.

-Joe, a major fan of the band Tool, shows off the new album, Fear Inoculum, along with visual props. He also shows some of the artwork from his friend, Alex Grey. 

-Sam had the opportunity to see a Tool show as well

-People deleting emails to free up space aggravates Jerry immensely 

-On the topic of clearing out mail, Joe assisted a customer in freeing up space with their ISP’s free email account. 

-Jerry has some show and tell to help visualize a story about storage space on an iMac. He uses a product called Grand Perspective.  Clam AV was taking up a tremendous amount of space, possibly with quarantined items. 

-Jerry discusses taking away markups on hardware to help his clients out

-What show would be complete without Sam discussing his buddy with a restaurant

-Sam does a rare repair for him as he replaces the logic board for a 2017 MacBook from his own 2016 MacBook

-Jerry does his best Sopranos impressions 

-Apizza is a thing and there are different theories as to how it came about 

-An entire section of the show is dedicated to the food service industry 

-Joe has “a buddy” who has a USB tester called “Is it me or is it USB”.  Command Control Power is offering these free to our Patreon sponsors at the $25 and above level. And the t-shirts are coming! (Better late than never)

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