286: Team Expectations

Topics:

-Joe kicks off the show trying to gather Sam’s secrets to hiring only to find that Sam has no method

-Sam shares a story of how relinquishing control can sometimes not work out as expected

-When do you make that first hire? What is the key to knowing this is the time?

-Who should that first hire be? Admin or technical?

-We revisit the topic of finding ways to have your employees learn. Do they do it during work hours or is the expectation to learn on their own time?

-Developing “sane business hours” is a method that Joe and his team implemented to help build a positive culture in the office

-”Jerry McGill” discusses his thoughts on finding a niche market

-A project Sam was working on for a client seems doomed to fail based on lack of collaboration

-”Borderline negligence” is the term Joe uses to describe networking equipment that another company installed

-Jerry raves about Eero after replacing his Ubiquiti equipment in the house

285: MacMini, Why For Art Thou?

Topics:

-After recent hardware announcements from Apple, Jerry, Joe & Sam discuss the Mac mini specifically and where this updated model falls into their client needs. And what about a new iMac?

-Sam is excited about the new iPad Pro (he may have purchased one) but Jerry shoots down new product talk

-TidBITS Content Network is continually proving its value for the team

-Joe has an excellent tip about using affiliate links when doing email marketing like TidBITS

-Based on a listener’s feedback in our Slack channel, Sam recommends SetApp, a subscription service for Mac apps

-Turning on mark down support in secure notes is now a feature of 1Password. Thanks to Joe’s feedback/rant online? Who knows.

-Jerry struggled on-site at a client with an odd Gmail issue with Apple Mail and as it turns out, it was the Keychain.

-One of Joe’s client has an issue where their iCloud outgoing emails are going to spam for recipients. He utilized a blacklist tool to see if their IP or domain was on any blacklists. After working hard to diagnose, it turned out to be the fact that the user was using their ISP’s mail server to send messages.

-FileVault encryption proved to be more difficult for Jerry and it required running Disk Utility from the Recovery partition

-One of Joe’s clients was trying a remote session and found MacHelp Mate!

284: When In Doubt, Whack The Plist

Special Thanks To Our VIP Sponsors!

Topics:

-Sam is at the Jamf Nation User Conference (JNUC) 2018. He discusses his time there and MDM concepts as a whole.

-While at JNUC, Sam spots a CCP shirt on a listener. Big shoutout to Chris Stout of Stout Computer Services

-Joe is Southeast of Sacramento, CA in Bakersfield. On the road, laundry is a luxury!

-Sam had the opportunity to watch a live recording the 100th episode of the Mac Admins Podcast

-To get into technical topics, Joe brings up a nagging issue he has been having with TeamViewer. After his own trials and tribulations, he has come up with a solution that should help others.

-The team also discusses other remote access tools like Bomgar, Splash Desktop, and Addigy

-An issue related to iTunes showing a phantom update when connecting an iOS device creates a head scratcher that didn’t appear to have an obvious fix

-Amongst the many issues Sam has had with his 2016 MacBook Pro, he finally has a resolution to his network lags when switching networks. HINT: go to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

-Jerry is very happy with his Series 3 Watch with cellular and has some tips for using it without your iPhone nearby: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205547

-Joe seems to be alone with his phantom Time Machine alerts. Jerry and Sam consider taking him home.

Thanks to all of our Patreon Sponsors!

283: The Mile High jamf Club - Interview With Weldon Dodd Of Rewind Tech

Topics:

-We welcome back Weldon Dodd of Rewind Tech to the show. Weldon was kind enough to put Sam up and host him in his training space in Centennial, CO

-Joe has a correction from listener Justen Wattenberger in the way he pronounces and writes Mojave

-In Joe’s latest feature request corner, he wants to see shared favorites. Sam would like shared contacts.

-Joe quizzes us on the domain 1e100.net (hint: it is owned by Google)

-Sam addresses the rumors about how he spends his CCP per diem and where he sleeps at night

-Weldon gives us the scoop about his business and how it involves MSP clients as well as an Apple Authorized Training Partner

-Weldon begins a conversation about how to onboard new employees and the team shares their thoughts

-One of the methods that Sam used was to have the new hire document your steps so he/she learns how to create documentation and you get to critique the way they create notes

-Joe has a client that he respects that gave him good unsolicited feedback on his new hire. She became a barometer and may be a future method for vetting potential new employees

-Weldon compares that to a situation where he was brought on board to help vet a new educator being brought into his son’s school

-Sam has a bone to pick with Joe about a new client referral that he cannot shake

-On the topic of referrals, Weldon talks about his good business relationship with Amy McKnight and the team at The Mac Spa

-Joe asks Weldon about his decision to go all in on MSP and how difficult it was at times to say no to potential business

-After heavy experience with companies like Microsoft and Cisco, Weldon realized he was the only one on his team that could handle certain tasks. So it made him sharpen his focus on things that he and his entire team could be awesome at.

-A big congratulations to Weldon for his successful presentation with Randy Saeks at JNUC 2018!

-ACEs Conference is back for 2019! It will be held in Kansas City, MO June 4-6. Visit http://acesconf.com/ccp/ for special pricing for CCP listeners.

282: Interview With Allen Hancock of Watchman Monitoring - Zendesk Private Ticket Creation

Topics:

This show is brought to you commercial free, thanks to our Patreon sponsors.

On this episode we welcome long time supporter of the show and owner of Watchman Monitoring, Allen Hancock

-Some news for Allen and the team is that they have hired Ben Mason. You may know Ben from his excellent support at Gruntwork.

-Hiring new staff and remote vs local employees becomes an interesting topic of discussion

-Allen has a big announcement in that they are changing the way they handle Zendesk Tickets. Listen to find out more about Zendesk private ticket creation and how Watchman Monitoring takes full advantage of this.  

-Watchman Monitoring can also work with Zendesk’s Essential Plan

-Zendesk Private Ticket creation is the new feature that allowed this integration to happen

-Looking for help with these features?  Watch the Watchman Monitoring webinar 

-If you need quick assistance, visit http://watchmanmonitoring.com/schedule to set up a time for support.  Pro Services options are available as well.

-Allen will be in Los Angeles for MacTech Conference 2018
Visit http://conference.mactech.com/go/ccp to find out about special pricing for CCP listeners

-The Watchman Monitoring community forum has been recently revamped.  You will no longer receive emails from the forum unless you request to watch a topic or receive responses to your posts.  You can also vote on features.

Visit http://community.watchmanmonitoring.com to be a part of the Watchman Monitoring community. Get involved!

278: Interview With Adam Codega Of Stenhouse Consulting, LLC

Topics:

This week we welcome Adam Codega of Stenhouse Consulting. Adam is well known in the Apple community and is very active on Slack to work with his fellow consultants. So it was fitting for him to join us on Command Control Power.

A little bit about Adam:
He has been in IT since 2011 and a full time admin since 2014. He works with Rhode Island consulting firm, Stenhouse Consulting with a team of roughly 14 technicians.

-Stenhouse technicians have various areas of expertise and about half are Apple focused

-They also have a good relationship with the Apple Retail, which has proven to be a useful resource for them.

-Adam talks about the activation issues with Office 365

-Testing and deploying new technology is not something Adam shies away from so the group discusses how to approach that with clients

-He discusses the nuances of having to sell a solution to a client at times before being able to test

-Backing up Synology NAS devices become a topic of conversation 

-Backblaze B2 astonishingly has no method of alert if containers become out of sync

-A second Synology with shared folder sync can become another file server at the ready. It can serve as a dual purpose Hyperbackup destination at the same time. 

-A key point is to ask your clients how much their down time is worth

You can find Adam on Twitter and Slack: @adamcodega