429: Technical Therapist

428: Easing into Managed Services with Allen Hancock

Topics:

This week’s episode of Command Control Power will be a patron only feature. You can find this episode if you are a supporter of Command Control Power on Patreon. You can also click on the Support link in the menu above. If you are not yet a supporter, feel free to sign up! We think you will enjoy hearing it. Let us know your feedback if you do. In the meantime, enjoy a highlight from an older episode.

427: Guest Host - Tim Pearson of CreativeTechs

Topics:

• This week we welcome long time supporter of the show, Tim Pearson of Creative Techs.

• Tim joins us as a co-host.

• He talks about traveling on the ferry to do onsite work.

• The group discusses the wildfires out west.

• Tim shares a story about the time he made a mistake of wearing a Star Wars shirt, causing his meeting to go way overtime.

• The group helps Tim with approaching a mistake he made in his business.

• Jerry’s talks about the “Screwdriver Effect”

• Getting fired by a client is a great opportunity to take another look at how you do things.

• Everyone discusses MSP and contracts with clients.

• How are the group members finding new work throughout the pandemic?

• Sam explains how he started getting referrals from the Apple stores.

• The group talks about the Apple Consultants Network program and its benefits.

• What is everyone seeing regarding to employees coming back to the offices?

• Some people work better in offices and some at home.

• Do you have employees or paid friends?

426: Who Am I?

Topics:

• Jerry & Joe discuss client credibility.   

• Jerry recently did work with a client who made changed without consulting him.

• How do you build up credibility with your clients?

• Jerry takes photos of projects he is proud of as a method to show his work to other clients.

• What is the most effective way to communicate what you do with your clients?

• Clients don’t always have the same image of you that you have of yourself.

• Joe describes how he uses keywords on his site to appeal to potential customers.

• Photos are worth a thousand words.

• A good URL shortener that Jerry recommends is bitly.com.

• There can be tremendous benefits when there is an inherent level of trust with the client.

• Some clients want to know exactly what you do for the money they’re paying and some just completely trust you.

• When there isn’t a level of trust between you and the client if can make things difficult.

425: The Appointments You Make Are Equal To The Appointments You Take

Topics:

-Jerry shakes Sam’s tree to get the skinny on a fancy pants email signature he has from Wisestamp.
-As a part of his updated signature, Jerry includes features like a “pay now” link and social media buttons.
-One concern Sam has is including the Harmonizely link to book time.
-We continue part of a conversation from a “patron only” episode.
-What are the fees of waiting for payment vs a fee of a credit card transaction?
-Sam uses Moonclerk, integrated with Stripe for credit card payments.
-Harmonizely is now a full part of Sam’s workflow. He is now convincing Matt on his team to do the same.
-simplybook.me has acquired Harmonizely and has added to their already impressive features.
-Joe talks about a book called “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris.
-Sam talks about the mindset he needs in order to be able to take tech support calls.
-As part of being cautious with available time, Jerry explains methods used to curate his available time on Harminzely.

424: Ducktape and Popsicle Stick Solution

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Topics:

• Jerry recently took the Addigy Certified Expert training

• Text Sniper is an incredibly useful tool that is like OCR for your screen: https://www.textsniper.app.

• Jerry uses it during a presentation to capture text for notes.

• Addigy integrating Splashtop is a welcome addition to their feature set for remote support.

• Joe tells a funny story about Outlook reminders in his latest peeves corner.

• He prefers first party because he likes to know Apple’s solution first and know the ins and outs.

• The group discusses Mail issues.

• Western Digital MyCloud Drive isn’t our favorite choice for customers.

• We have to choose the right equipment or software for our clients based on what is right for them but also what we can support well.

• Sam shares a funny story about trying to talk to a tech person at Staples.

• Should the group start a show where they go to local stores and ask tech questions?

• Joe talks about the times before he was an Apple consultant and shares the story about how he found out about the Apple Consultants Network.

• Is Sam Neo from the Matrix?

• The crew talks about older, unreliable software like Retrospect

• Jerry has an internet recovery issue with a local Mac mini acting as a content cache