403: I Hope You Find Honest Work One Day

Topics:

All roads lead to automated support…

• Someone tried to hustle Jerry and he exacts revenge.

• Scammers get scammed.

• Is the warrantee on your car expiring?

• Jerry felt like a hero after fixing a client’s difficult 2013 mac. Hint, it had to do with /private/tmp

• Should we officially not recommend hardware updates for 2013 iMac computers since they cannot run Big Sur?

• Joe praises Addigy for their new feature “Addigy Live Desktop” and talks about how useful this tool can be.

• He shares a very helpful tip that solved the common problem of getting stuck while trying to restore from a Time Machine backup with Synology.

• Sam ends up in a familiar situation with a client who just won’t listen to him and ended up getting themselves into a difficult situation when network equipment fails.

• The group shares ideas to help Sams issues with a problem client.

• What do you do if you have a client who won’t take your security advice and they can possibly get themselves into trouble?

• Jerry has a client who likes to mess around with the Unifi gateway.

• He has a Pro Tip for managing the date/time on a UniFi Gateway via SSH.
  admin@ubnt:~$ set date ntp 0.ubnt.pool.ntp.org

• Sam hopes Joe finds honest work someday.

402: Never Lose Your Trash Again!

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Topics:

Happy 400th episode!….2 episodes late.

• Joe dropped his iPhone 11 Pro Max. He ends up replacing it with a new iPhone 12 pro which leads into a group discussion about iPhone repairs and carriers

• He talks about the difficulties he had and the time it took when trying to get two carriers on his new phone. eSIM and physical SIM setup order is important!

• Sam sets up three separate Genius Bar appointments for his iPhone 11, Apple Watch series 3, and AirPod Pro issues. This leads into a second unexpected event that causes him to be locked out of his car.

• Pop quiz - What did Sam forget when he restored his iCloud backup to a new phone?

• The group speaks about being treated as a normal consumer when purchasing technology or speaking with customer service.

• Sam reveals his oversight with Google Authenticator.

• iCloud Drive presents a challenge to Jerry in an experience he had with a client losing a very important file in iCloud drive.

• Joe piggybacks off of Jerry’s story and talks about his client also losing data.

• Should you use the trash to store files? PsiMac may have an offering for you!

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401: Interview With Ryan Grimes Of My IT Indy

Topics:

This week we welcome back Ryan Grimes, President of My IT Indy. https://myitindy.com/

• Ryan speaks about how his business has changed since he was first on the show in 2014 (Episode 43)

• Who consults the consultant?

• The group speaks about UniFi and notification issues.

• Ryan discusses a story about dealing with a client that went silent, and what he learned from it.

• Ryan also shares his personal experience with COVID, and how it affected his personal and business life.

• One of Ryan’s ex-clients was phished after ending the business relationship.

• The group talks about the problems small business owners face.

• Joe brings up the security issues that clients often have which leads to a more in depth discussion about cybersecurity.

• Clients will often zone out on important topics. Sometimes it takes the “cool” features to get buy-in.

• Collaborating with others in our industry can create benefits for us all.

• “Be excellent to each other and don’t be a butthead.”

400: Interview With Justin Esgar & Tim Pearson of the ACES Conference

Topics:

-This week we welcome back Justin Esgar and Tim Pearson of the ACES conference.

-Justin gives a recap of virtual ACES.

-He explains how the plans changed for last year’s virtual conference that was originally supposed to be an in-person conference held in Atlanta.

-Justin and Tim speak about the struggles of having an online conference for the first time.

-This year this ACES conference will be taking over the month of May. Every Thursday (tentatively) from noon to 2:30 EST two speakers and a round table session discussing all the aspects of your business. Throughout the month there will also be a couple of other surprises. Tickets will be on sale in February. First 100 people who sign up get a gift box.

-ACES Conference Slack is open for questions http://acesconf.herokuapp.com/

-What will the roundtables look like?

-Joe and Tim speak about the benefits of attending a conference like ACES.

-Joe tells a story about an experience he had at the 2017 ACES conference that helped him with his business recently.

-For the newly initiated, what is ACES?

-Justin explains why he started ACES and speaks about how welcoming the ACN community is.

-Everyone talks about how interacting with more people helps you improve your business and learn more.

-Tim shares a head scratcher with the group that involves remote access.

-The group discusses internet providers and cellular service companies.

-Justin talks about how they are going to continue the “Women in IT ACES Scholarship”. Three tickets will be given to women in IT who apply here: https://acesconf.com/women-in-it-equality-scholarship/

-Follow Leonard Fienstein on Tik Tok!

399: Interview With Amy McKnight of The Mac Spa & My Mac Mentor

Topics:

-This week we welcome Amy McKnight, owner of The Mac Spa and Mac Mentor. 

-Amy talks about choosing the Fit Bit over the Apple Watch. 

-It spawns a conversation about fitness. 

-She tells us her story about dealing with the pandemic in the early days and how it affected her businesses. She also used it as an opportunity to pursue other avenues. 

-Amy’s goal has been to reach more people in more places. To that end, they have put their classes on Zoom and made them available to customers outside of the Denver area. 

-As they go more virtual, her company is looking for more partners to help broaden their reach. 

-Joe has been doing remote work for a lot longer than any of us and her inadvertently prepared for these times. 

-How much of these changes are permanent?

-Amy’s primary market is the residential space and focus is on empowering people to understand the technology. 

-Classes are more scalable than the break/fix part of IT. 

-Mac Mentor has some core classes like intro to Mac and managing passwords. 

-Both Amy and Steve have a presentation setup with multiple computers and devices. 

-Friday’s are Q&A sessions just for members. 

-Recurring fees for classes is a great way to keep a good customer base. 

-The Class Pass is now available as an affiliate program. Interested affiliates can sign up with Mac Mentor

-Jerry describes how this can fill a niche for consultants that are busy “fixing”. 

-Stress free support appears to be the opposite of Jerry’s experience. 

-Amy ordered a new MacBook Pro with the M1 chip. 

398: Geeks On The Half Shell

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Topics:

-We share a bit about our numbers and how the pandemic has affected income. 

-Being more aggressive about charging for billable time in situations where you might offer a discount in the past. 

-Jerry finds that sharing documents in Microsoft Teams is not as straightforward as other video conferencing services. 

-Microsoft Teams for Mac is not up to the same standards as Windows.

-Adam Codega has suggested a Microsoft tool to remove all things Microsoft. 

-Joe & Jerry continue on about offering discounts and the negative impacts on a business. 

-We all love UniFi product. But Jerry talks about a new URL for administering their products has changed. This seemingly happened without notice. 

-A snag that Jerry hit was that the first account that gets added to the controller is automatically listed as the owner. So if using your company email, you appear as the owner as opposed to the client. 

-John Moder also provided some advice on this topic. 

-On a positive UniFi note, listener Greg talks of an issue similar to Joe’s where a printer wouldn’t see the Wi-Fi network due to an apostrophe in the name. Creating another SSID was once again the resolution. 

-Jerry wants to get into the discussion of leasing network equipment to customers. 

-Another consultancy actually puts their stickers on customer computers, chargers and equipment. 

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