Nothing Happens by Itself
Copyright © 2021 Karl W. Palachuk
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Watching Dreams Come True |
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My long-time friend John Armato experienced both a life-long dream and completion of a years-long project last week: He released his first album, a delightful smooth jazz CD. John is never the guy to do something half-way. So while "major" artists are recoding things on their phone and releasing them to the world, John engaged a producer, a core group of artists, and a couple dozen additional artists from across the country.
The recording started in 2019. And while it was slowed a bit by the pandemic, it made good progress through 2020 as John sent tracks to various artists in a variety of cities, rented studio space for them, and collect additional tracks. It's a very modern production. And, of course, with professional mixing, it sounds like a lush 20-piece band.
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Of course I am happy that my good friend has released his excellent album. But that's not why I'm mentioning it here.
John is a member of my local Sacramento Mastermind Group. The group has been going strong for more than fifteen years, and John's been a member for most of that. So I've seen him struggle with challenges, produce great work, and generally work his way through the creative process more than once.
But it is truly rare that you get the chance to watch someone fulfill a dream they've had for decades. John even released the album on his 49th "drumiversary." That's the 49th anniversary of his first drum lesson.
The closest thing I could compare it to in my life is my book Relax Focus Succeed. Creating something like that is a long process - A lot longer than you image it would be, with a thousand more details than you thought there'd be.
But, that's the way it should be, right?
Really big, amazing, dream-worthy things should not be easy.
I'm reminded of the quip that work is hard - That's why they call it work. Success is hard, too. At some level, it's the challenge that brings meaning to an endeavor. When you look back at your first year in business, or getting to the point where you could hire your first employee, those achievements didn't just happen. They took a lot of work.
I don't think I'm unique in knowing many people who have achieved major goals in their lives. We all know people who have done big things. Maybe even great things. I always try to take note of these things.
In addition to letting someone else see that you applaud their achievement, it's also an opportunity to stop them in their tracks and make sure they enjoy their moment of achievement. Force them to stop and take a mental snapshot of what it feels like to be victorious in this moment.
Graduations and birthdays are great. But we should make a point of celebrating all the other x-versaries in our friends' lives.
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Manifesto Watch
As I mentioned last week, I am working on a bit of a manifesto for our industry. The first two installments were posted last week.
I am proposing nine pillars on which to build this profession. The first two installments are:
Some of these topics may be painful for some people. But I think we only grow as an industry when we begin to evaluate ourselves as an industry and decide that we're ready to take a step up in professionalism. Some piece of that is taking responsibility for our actions as a group.
The time is right for the SMB IT community to take control of our destiny with a big-picture view of what we want to be and how we're going to get there.
I know the posts are a bit long. Please take a look and post your comments and feedback on the blog.
Thank you.
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Note: The all new Social Media Course starts tomorrow. I am very happy to be doing this one. I really enjoyed putting it together. Join us!
Thanks for reading my random thoughts.
Have a great week.
-- Karl W. Palachuk
:-)
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Optimize Your Social Media
Marketing and Advertising
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Starts Tomorrow!
Sign up today.
Optimize Your Social Media Marketing and Advertising
Course 5W23
Taught By: Karl W. Palachuk
Five Tuesdays
- All classes start a 9:00 AM Pacific
Part of the "Social Media Super-Charge" Series for Small Business
This course covers the key elements of designing, planning, and executing a modern social media strategy in the Small Business environment. We cover the use of social media for both marketing and sales.
Most small businesses "use" social media, but don't really have a strategy for using social media effectively. That strategy starts with understanding the strengths and weaknesses of various platforms. And it culminates with a unified approach to branding and how your company presents itself across a variety of platforms.
This course starts with a business-focused overview of social media marketing and sales. We discuss taking control of your brand and managing how you show up on the web. We present a strategy for creating and managing your overall branding across all social media. Finally, we do a deep-dive into automating and managing your social media presence going forward.
This course is taught by Karl W. Palachuk, a social media influencer who "touches" over one million people per month. Karl has been using these social media for more than ten years, and has demonstrated mastery across all of the major social media that small businesses need to be successful.
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Weekly Agenda
Week One - Introduction, Overview. Marketing vs. Sales
- The Plan of The Course
- Take-Aways And Goal-Setting
- What is Marketing?
- What is Sales?
- Developing a Funnel System
- Schedules – Manual and Automated
- Which Social Media are Best for You?
Week Two - Google, Apple, SEO, And Managing Your Company's Meta Data
- Meta Data Basics
- Taking “Control” Of Your Google, Apple, and Other Meta Data
- SEO Checklist
- Data Maintenance
- Organizing and Tracking Meta Data
- Meta Data in the Big Strategy
- Choosing Social Media platforms
Week Three - Graphics Overview And Tools Management
- Graphics Overview
- Branding Basics
- A Storage Strategy
- Updates, Versions
- Graphics in the Big Strategy
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Week Four - Automating Your Social Media Marketing
- The Benefits of Automation
- Pacing – Creation and Publishing
- Popular Tools
- Free vs. Paid
- Focus on Your Prime Social Medium
- Strategy, Planning, and Tracking
- Hiring/Outsourcing Assistance
- Automating Social Media in the Big Strategy
Week Five - When to Pay for Advertising and Tools
- Free - A Great Place to Start, and Often the Most Expensive Option
- Comparing Tools, Features, and Prices
- Start Small – Don’t Buy Everything You Find
- Get the Most from as Few Tools as Possible
- Avoid Trying to Do Everything and Measure Everything
- Measuring Your Success
- Social Blade
- Social Bluebook
- TubeBuddy
- HootSuite, etc.
- Paid Tools in the Big Strategy
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Only $299 per student
Delivered by Karl W. Palachuk
Karl W. Palachuk, blogger and author of the most popular books on managed services.
Includes five weeks of webinars with related handouts, assignments, and "office hours" with the instructor. All classes are recorded for download. All classes include suggested "homework" that is totally action-focused and intended to move your company's marketing forward.
This course is intended for business owners and managers. It is particularly useful for Sales Managers and Marketing Managers.
A Few Details . . .
- Each course will be five one-hour Zoom webinars
- There will be handouts and "homework" assignments
- Class webinars will be recorded and made available to paid attendees only.
- All calls start at 9:00 AM Pacific Time
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All the Resources That Are Fit to Print |
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Recent Blog Posts, Podcasts, and Videos |
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Small Biz Thoughts Blog:
Relax Focus Succeed:
SMB Community Podcast - New episodes drop every Thursday
The Killing IT Podcast - New episodes drop every Tuesday
The Cheeky Sales Coach Podcast / Video - New episodes drop every Wednesday
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SOP: Responding to Viruses |
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Selected Recent Videos and Webinars:
Note: We started auto-posting the podcasts to YouTube. Those are not listed here as YouTube Videos since they're listed under the podcasts above.
A quick guide to my Playlists:
- Total: More than 730 videos on the Small Biz Thoughts channel
- 275+ SOP videos
- 40+ Relax Focus Success videos
Plus . . .
- Training, Courses, Seminars on Managed Services
- Product Reviews
- and more
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Small Biz Thoughts Community News
SmallBizThoughts.org
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Thursday is the Monthly Roundtable - Don't miss it |
Richard Tubb from the UK joins us live for the SBT Roundtable - Thursday June 3rd at 9am Pacific.
Of course we have a Community meeting every Thursday. And we're going to test out a new Zoom option on the June 10th meeting. Stay tuned for the details.
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Last week's members-only DNS Training has been posted. See the What's New section in the Community. Comments and questions welcome.
. . . and the new June News is out!
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Friday was the final Friday of the month, so we posted the June Newsletter and video.
If you missed the email, and you're a member, you may have accidently removed yourself from the list. Contact us and we can help..
The New Ecommerce program is going to be launched in June!
I felt a little bad about asking Kara about this, but she didn't seem rushed or frustrated. We will "go live" soon, and already have a few Ecommerce working group members who are ready to put up sites.
You can get an idea of what we're up to by visiting https://modelmsp.com and clicking on the View Demo button.
This program is only available to SBT Community members.
. . .
See you Thursday at 9AM Pacific time! The link is at the top of your Community Dashboard.
If you need something, please post a question in a forum or email Kara (your Community Manager) or me.
:-)
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I tip-toed out into the world and discovered this fun tip bucket
Location: The Dessert Diner, Sacramento midtown.
:-)
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What's Here?
This calendar lists two kinds of things: LIVE in-person events from any organization that focuses on the SMB consulting community; and MY events, whether live, webinar, etc.
If you have live events on your calendar that may be useful to others in the SMB Community, please let us know. We'd be happy to list them.
Of course: Everything here is subject to change based on Covid. Click the links for the latest details. Please send updates so we can post them.
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June
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Hybrid Event - But you can attend LIVE!
June 9, 2021
Dallas, Tx
ASCII Success Summit
June 16 & 17
Cincinnati, OH
IT Nation Secure
June 21-23
Orlando, FL
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Event
Omaha, NE
June 24-25th
Channel Sec Europe
June 24th
London
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July
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Live Event
July 8, 2021
Atlanta, GA
ASCII Success Summit
July 21 & 22
Chicago, IL
Retail NOW 2021
July 25-27
Nashville, TN
Black Hat USA
July 31-August 5
Las Vegas, NV
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August
IT Nation (Connectwise) Evolve Peer Groups
August 2-6
Englewood, CO
Defcon 29
August 5-8
Las Vegas, NV
SMB Roadshow - Manchester, UK
August 10th
Tentative . . . but count on it!
More info: https://www.smbroadshow.com
Join me Live!
SMB Roadshow - Cardiff, UK
August 12th
Tentative . . . but count on it!
More info: https://www.smbroadshow.com
Join me Live!
SMB Roadshow - London, UK
August 17th
Tentative . . . but count on it!
More info: https://www.smbroadshow.com
Join me Live!
ASCII Success Summit
August 18 & 19
Raleigh, NC
IT By Design Build IT LIVE 2021
Aug 30 - Sept 1
Jersey City, NJ
IT Nation (Connectwise) Evolve Peer Groups
Aug 30 - Sept 1
Gold Coast, Aus
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September
CEDIA Expo
Sept 1-3
Indianapolis, IN
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Live Event
Sept 2, 2021
Boston, MA
SMB Roadshow - Vancouver
Sept 7th
Join me Live!
SMB Roadshow - Toronto
Sept 9th
Join me Live!
SMB Roadshow - Montreal
Sept 14th
Join me Live!
Managed Services Summit Live
Sept 15th
London
SMB Roadshow - Providence, RI
Sept. 16th
More info: https://www.smbroadshow.com
Join me Live!
Channel Live
Sept 21-22
Birmingham, UK
ASCII Success Summit
September 22 & 23
NY / NJ area
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Event
San Diego, CA
Sept 23-24th
IT Partners
Sept. 29-30
Disneyland, Paris
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October
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Live Event
Oct 6, 2021
Raleigh, NC
DTX 2021 (Digital Transformation)
Oct. 6-7
London, UK
DattoCon 2021
Oct 11-13
Seattle, WA
SMB IT Professionals National Conference - Australia
Oct 15-16
Surfer's Paradise
Join me Live. I'm going to do my best to be there!
Sherweb Accelerate
Oct 18-20
Hollywood, FL
More Info: https://info.sherweb.com/accelerate.html
Kaseya Connect IT
Oct 19-22
Las Vegas
ASCII Success Summit
October 27 & 28
Orlando, FL
I'm hoping there's a trip to the Gold Coast in my future. Stay tuned.
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November
Channel Partners Evolution
Nov. 1-4
Las Vegas, NV
Managed Services Summit Live
November 2nd
Amsterdam
ASCII Success Summit
November 3 & 4
Houston, TX
IT Nation (Connectwise) Evolve Peer Groups
November 15-19
Sydney, Aus
Managed Services Summit North
November 16th
Manchester, UK
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Live Event
Nov 16, 2021
Los Angeles, CA
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December
ASCII Success Summit
Orange County, CA - December 8 & 9
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Event
Dallas, TX
Dec 9-10th
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If you know of in-person events we should list, please let us know.
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January
Send us your updates!
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February
Send us your updates!
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March
Cloud Expo Europe
March 2-3, 2022
London, UK
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April
Send us your updates!
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May
Send us your updates!
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June
Send us your updates!
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Note: If you know of any in-person event for SMB Consultants, please send info to karlp@greatlittlebook.com. |
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Small Biz Thoughts is a subsidiary of Great Little Book Publishing Co., Inc. |
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