Happy Monday, everyone.

I'm sorry to start on a down note, but one of our community needs you. I always embrace the community because we ARE a community. We are human beings, going through everything together. We share opportunities and challenges as an industry made up of people.

As of Sunday, it looks like the death toll from the Lahaina fires will be over 100. And the destruction of the historic old town is nearly absolute. I'm sure you've seen the pictures of the aftermath.

Sadly, a long-time member of our community has lost everything. Uli Kirkegaard lives in Lahaina, HI. He and his wife Neide lost their house to the fires last week. I woke up Friday to a note from Uli that he had lost the house and his business. As he said, the business will survive. But the house is literally a pile of ash and melted metal.

I blogged a bit on this. See the link below. But here's the key message: Please contribute a little something to Uli's Go Fund Me appeal. Any amount will be helpful.

Click Here: https://gofund.me/b9c99deb

Consider what you'll pay for coffee, tea, and monster drinks this week. Maybe match that amount for a fellow community member. If nothing else, connect on that site and send Uli a note. Emotional support and prayers are always helpful as well.

AND - A big thank you to the community that has already contributed. I've seen Harry Brelsford (SMB Nation) and folks from the ASCII Group spread the word online, as well as lots of individuals. We really are one community!

-- -- --

Okay - now all the rest of the newsletter is guaranteed to be less serious. :-)

-- -- --

I have always used the term community a lot. Way back, more than twenty years ago, I defined myself in part as a community member. See my book and blog Relax Focus Success. At the time, I defined myself as

Sadly, I had a divorce some time ago. But I still define myself as

In all, there is community. And, really, it's overlapping communities. Most of us have a community among our neighbors, our friends, our church, our business connections, and people who share our hobbies.

My recent trip to Southern California (SMB TechFest) and Las Vegas (ChannelCon) was a great example of the overlapping communities. I had many conversations with people about technology, of course. But I also had conversation with folks about robots, collecting sci fi paraphernalia, music, magic, travel as a hobby, photography, and many other things.

As humans, we get together for some "one" reason, but we naturally connect about the other things in our lives. It often starts with families and past experiences. As you have conversations with the same people again and again over years (and decades), you eventually become real friends.

I love the fact that I recognize the spouses and children of many friends on Facebook even though I've never met them personally. I love the fact that I *have* met many family members of IT community members, and seen children grow from kids to adults.

The stereotype that nerds are all introverts and have no social life has been largely dispelled by social media. We are all social creatures and the social side of community is the most natural thing there is.

I am grateful for the communities I belong to - online, in person, local, and around the globe. Thank you for being part of this community!

The Channel Company's XChange event is headed to Nashville next week. And I'm headed to Nashville because I haven't been there in two years!

Join me – Seats are limited and filling up fast – secure your spot now!

Register Here

I'm going to represent the National Society of IT Service Providers. I'll have a booth in the vendor hall AND I'm doing a presentation on the 22nd. I'd love to see you there!

Get all the information and details at https://na.eventscloud.com/ereg/newreg.php?eventid=715029&reference=kp

All paid professional members are welcome to run for office. Whether is our Board of Directors or one of our committees - ALL of them have at least three openings.

We appreciate your membership. But we also need volunteerism. Many people email me and want to know how they can volunteer. This is a great opportunity. We have been a member-led, bottom-up organization from the beginning. That requires YOU to lend your voice to our leadership. Details at https://nsitsp.org/elections.

If you're not a member, please join today. Company memberships start only $150. Visit https://nsitsp.org/join.

Our intro training for TCP/IP continues August 16th with a click-by-click intro to Building the Small Business Network.

So far, we've covered Intro to DNS, Introduction to TCP/IP, Troubleshooting TCP/IP. We finish off the series with a basic introduction to plugging in the equipment and turning "stuff" into a network. Documented, of course!

Next up:

August 16th

9:00 AM Pacific

Info here: https://www.smallbizthoughts.org/building-the-basic-small-business-network/

This is a members-only event. All members are encouraged to bring your whole staff. That way everyone has at least a common, basic understanding of what it takes to build a network in the 2020's. (It's a lot easier than it used to be. But that's true for all technology.)

Who said August is the slow month with the dog days of Summer? Must have been politicians on vacation. The rest of the world is rocking! So much activity.

I've added a few events to the calendar. If you know of any upcoming in-person events, please send them my way. We're now scheduling into 2024. So all those dates are welcome as well. Thank you.

Please share this newsletter if you enjoy it.

Have a great week. And stay safe.

:-)

Links below in the events calendar - or at WhereInTheWorldIsKarl.com.

Taught by Larry Mandelberg

Author and Coach

- Five Tuesdays

- August 15th - September 12th

BONUS: I am buying a copy of Larry's book for everyone who attends this course!

Every business that has failed did so because of leadership’s inability to adapt to change. Learn how to prepare for the inevitable changes your successful business is racing toward now, and the changes continued success will impose on you in the future.

In the business world, change lurks around every corner. And the more successful you are, the more change your business will face. But no business ever failed due to external forces or finances. External forces can be anticipated and deflected, and finances are always lagging indicators of prior bad choices. Businesses always fail because success always brings change and unfamiliar problems without instructions on how to handle them. Without knowledge, experience, or instructions, leadership is forced to guess.

Author and Coach

Week Five - Putting it all together to become a sustainable, extraordinarily spectacular organization

Delivered by Larry Mandelberg, author and coach.

Includes five weeks of webinar classes with related handouts, assignments, and "office hours" with the instructor.

This course is intended for business owners and managers. It is particularly useful for the Owner or Operations Manager.

Meets Certification Requirements for:

This class will be recorded. Each unit is generally posted within 24 hours of the live class. These recorded units will become the On-Demand class and you’ll have lifetime access to it.

SMB Community Podcast - New episodes drop every Thursday

Our YouTube IT Consulting channel now has more than 9,180 subscribers and 710,000 views!

Subscribe today and don't miss a thing!

You can always check out my YouTube Channel and subscribe at https://www.youtube.com/smallbizthoughts

OR my Relax-Focus-Succeed Channel at https://www.youtube.com/relaxfocussucceed

I own both the

AND

IT Service Provider University.

That allows me to provide a unique benefit that no other community can: All Community Members have access to all of our courses at no additional cost!

No one has a better selection of courses geared 100% for SMB IT consultants. Really. We have twenty-five cources on Finance, Management, Service Delivery, Sales, Marketing, and even running the Front Office.

We literally cover every aspect of running your managed service business. We do ten live classes each year and the rest are always on demand.

If you're a member of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community, this may be your greatest benefit - use it! Just taking twenty courses will save you $7,980!

Grab your discount code in the Community and then head over to ITSPU.com.

-- -- --

See the article above. The Introduction to TCP/IP and Troubleshooting TCP/IP Trainings are posted in the Community.

The final course is:

August 16th

You can find out more about these in the What's New area of the SBT Technology Community site: https://www.smallbizthoughts.org/category/whats-new/.

I created these trainings by request of a Community member. The goal is to make sure you and your techs have a solid understanding of the basics of TCP/IP - the protocol that runs the world.

Get all the details and a much longer description in This Blog Post.

Here's the last Community News video:

I would love to hear your experiences with restaurant robots. In Sacramento, many Korean and Japanese/sushi places now use some variation of this robot.

This one - a Kura - wanders around playing music, delivering glasses of water, and chatting with patrons. And I assure you - no one is losing their job. The robot takes care of a lot of basic chores while lots of servers are scooting around.

I love the 21st Century. I think I'll spend the rest of my life 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.

More Info: https://mspinitiative.com/msp-community-minds/

More Info: https://event.thechannelco.com/xchange-august

More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/events

More Info: www.cmitsolutions.com

August 30 & 31

Toronto, Canada

More Info: https://events.ascii.com/

:-)

Sept. 6-7

Boston (New England)

More Info: https://events.channelpronetwork.com/channelpro-smb-forum-2023-boston

More Info: https://getnerdio.com/nerdio-training-camp/#trainingregister

More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/events

September 20 & 21

Chicago, IL

More Info: https://events.ascii.com/

More Info: https://www.canitcon.ca/events/canitcon-2023-banff-1

Sep 18-21

Huntington Beach, CA

More Info: https://summit.sandlerpartners.com/2023

Sept 28-29

Scottsdale, AZ

More Info: http://bit.ly/kernanmastermind

Oct. 2-4, 2023

Miami, FL

More Info: https://www.dattocon.com/

More Info: https://getnerdio.com/nerdio-training-camp/#trainingregister

More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/events

Oct 9-11

Washington, DC

More Info: https://msspalertlive.com/2023

Oct. 10-11

Atlanta (Southeast)

More Info: https://events.channelpronetwork.com/channelpro-smb-forum-2023-atlanta

More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/events

Oct. 16-18

Miami, FL

More Info: https://promo.acronis.com/summit-2023-pre-register.html

More Info: https://getnerdio.com/nerdio-training-camp/#trainingregister

More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/events

More Info: https://www.smbtechfest.com/registration.asp

October 18 & 19

Washington, D.C.

More Info: https://events.ascii.com/

More Info: https://www.smbitpro.org/conference-2023/

More Info: https://events.channelpronetwork.com/content/2023-events-registration

More Info: https://www.connectwise.com/theitnation/evolve/agenda

More Info: https://getnerdio.com/nerdio-training-camp/#trainingregister

More Info: https://www.connectwise.com/theitnation/evolve/agenda

:-)

More Info: https://web.cvent.com/event/70970f2a-39dd-46ad-9469-1c6e7733071e/regProcessStep1:74825d1d-ed84-4213-ac63-741430f5a2d4

More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/events

More Info: https://navigate.ascii.com/

Dec 7-8

Phoenix, AZ

More Info: https://kernanconsulting-mastermind.mykajabi.com/mastermind-event

More Info: https://getnerdio.com/nerdio-training-camp/#trainingregister

:-)

Send us your updates

More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/events

Send us your updates

More Info: https://www.mspgeekcon.com

View this and previous newsletters at