September 6, 2007
Appreciate David Houston for posting his response to the GroupLeads Challenge publicly here at the Funcave.
I think The Fisher’s Bridge: A Story from nearly a year ago pretty clearly outlines my ideas about community and what it really takes to make it happen.
To get down to brass tacks, it boils down to 2 things…
- It takes people who care enough to actually get results
- It takes people who aren’t asses to other people
Even since posting the GroupLeads Challenge less than 2 weeks ago, I’ve seen the brand-spanking new PALs mercilessly attacked before that program has even fully started, due to little more than what I perceive to be the petty jealousy of others…and it quite frankly makes me want to punch something.
How freaking stupid do people have to be? A major vendor starts an initiative for our community to give greater voice to things we’d like to see happen…and folks immediately start peeing on it like whiny little dogs.
I don’t ask any other Lead to run my group for me, nor would I ever in a million years presume to tell anyone else how they should or should not run their group. But I will tell you that for Alabama SMB I have been actively working, above all else, to forge…
Vendor relationships for group speaker/content/biz relationship opps
Why?
Because Alabama SMB wants that. They want to be involved. The members want to build their businesses by forging those relationships.
Why?
Because they are serious businesspeople, no matter if they are a solo practitioner or are a footsoldier in an army of employees.
Anybody else out there other than Alabama SMB members interested in forging those kinds of relationships with vendors? Show of hands, please.
GroupLeads, as an organization, has done exactly jack and squat in that particular area for Alabama SMB. Hands up if they’ve helped you and/or your group in that area. Anyone?
The amount of whining about how vendors don’t take SMB/SBS folks seriously is ludicrous. Don’t like being ignored? Then get serious about building the group. Instead of trying to fill every seat with crumb-munchers just to boost headcount, work to stock the group with quality folks who have the intelligence and the guts to tell a vendor, in a respectful way…
I appreciate you trying to reach out to me, but your program is just not working for me. I’d be happy to chat with you more about the reasons why, and some ideas I have that I think might improve your program, and benefit the both of us.
What wasn’t included in the XChange vid (which had absolutely zero to do with the GroupLeads Challenge, FTR) were any pictures documenting the fact that after speaking to vendors on behalf of my own company and its goals, I would immediately talk to them about Alabama SMB, including…
- Who we are.
- What we do.
- The types of members we have.
- Who I could talk to in their organization about coming to speak to us about their solutions, or some other relevant topic related to a business reason for technology, etc.
I can fully appreciate how hard it is to be the leader of a group. I’ve been at it since 2005. It’s grinding work, with little to no reward.
But part of the responsibility of being a leader is being the driving wheel. Come hell or high water.
If you aren’t able or willing to do that, then…
YOU = LINO aka LEADER IN NAME ONLY
No better than that guy behind the curtain. Maybe making lots of noise, flashes, whatever…even to the point of scaring the bejesus out of people. But, in the end, all amounting to neither jack nor squat.
|| posted by chris under community, opinion, rant || comments (3) ||
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July 29, 2007
There’s a thread running in the Managed Services Yahoo group that really struck a nerve with me.
Who else has been finding it more than a little frustrating trying to partner with hardware companies? I’m talking box movers. PCs, servers, laptops, etc.
Because honestly…
Right now the choices come down to who sucks least. Here’s my take on a couple:
Starts with D, Rhymes with Hell? The terms of their Solution Provider program are laughably bad. No logo. Can’t even mention Dell, unless you are paying for an ad with a picture of their equipment. No returns.
To which my brain goes…
Tilt!
That’s not a partner/channel program I want to get involved with. Sounds more like indentured servitude.
HP? I’ve been looking for the way in, off and on, since starting my business. It’s kind of like a grail quest now. But I don’t have time to run around looking for some obscure clues or hidden link on their website.
And to be honest…
Even if I could find the way in, I’m not all that crazy about pimping someone else’s brand.
Building equity in a business is all about putting your name, your logo, and your branding in front of people. Not someone else’s.
Someone on one of the lists recently discussed his past stint at reselling, which he termed a “whore’s market.”
And I’ll tell ya…
I understand what he’s saying. I’ve done enough reselling to know…
It is a royal pain in the tookus. And based on what Mark’s talked about regarding his experience selling hardware…
I don’t need a big logistical and staging nightmare on my hands. Forget that!
People don’t hire me because I have vendor logos peppering my business card. In fact, I only have 1 logo other than the BWT company logo on my card, and that’s the Small Business Specialist logo.
In fact, my next batch of business cards will have the SBSC logo removed completely. That robin’s egg blue license plate is costing me too much consulting work in mid-market to enterprise customers. So it’s being nuked.
I don’t need partner programs that assume it’s the only vendor program I will ever be dealing with. All I’m looking for is something that allows me to build out the customer solutions I need, without some crazy revenue commitment or insane barrier to entry. I don’t need a bunch of other crud rolling around.
Simple for me, simple for them.
Is that too darned much to ask?
|| posted by chris under business, hardware, opinion, rant, thumbs down || comments (1) ||
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February 26, 2007
as if the previous missteps haven’t been enough to convince someone in redmond to re-examine their oh-so-edgy viral marketing campaign for their crappy, half-baked media player…
it’s absolutely mind-boggling that anyone would be stupid enough to green-light a drive-up blast of music at 3a on a sunday in a residential area.
and in the ‘hood, no less.
be glad the driver didn’t get one helluva beat-down from local residents.
speaking personally…
i’d have been rolling out with the biggest louisville slugger i could get my hands on.
this has gone on long enough.
microsoft, from all of us here at the funcave…
wake the !@$% up!
|| posted by chris under clueless, kma, rant, thumbs down || comments (1) ||
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February 9, 2007
now they can say that at least they didn’t send anti-terrorism & bomb squad units on a wild goose chase all over beantown…
obviously giving bostonians yet another reason to be the surliest people on earth…
all to promote the dumbest animated show ever.
seriously.
aqua teen hunger force? who came up with that piece of garbage?
i seriously think you have to be hopelessly addicted to prozac to even follow the stupid thing.
or at least smoke meth to understand what meatwad is saying.
gimme a truly ironic & comedic cartoon.
not some monstrosity dreamed by up by some skiv flying on e who couldn’t stop touching his happy meal.
sealab 2021 was awesome, altho it couldn’t survive the tragic loss of harry goz.
or gimme me somethin’ like frisky dingo…now you’re talking!
altho the best animated show you’ve prolly never heard of is the venture bros.
heck, running antelope will watch any of those last 3 with me…and she pretty much hates anything animated unless it’s named family guy, american dad, or has a big disney logo on the box.
|| posted by chris under clueless, rant, thumbs down || comments (0) ||
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July 28, 2006
mothership has set forth some additional details about the impending release of internet explorer 7.
what’s interesting is that ie7 is slated to be released as a high-priority update when it appears via the various updating mechanisms.
which means that if you use automatic updates, windows update or microsoft update…
ie7 will be thrown at you, ready or not.
and depending on your wsus configuration…
you might get wsus’d by it right out of the gate as well.
and despite reports that the installer will present users an option to defer installation…
it’s my firm opinion that any admin who relies solely on the hope that end-users will click the correct box at exactly the right moment…
should go ahead & start working on a getting a broker’s license right now.
i’d also like to know how often the notices for installation aka nagification messages will reappear.
know folks who will sometimes load something just to make the nagging go away for a while.
maybe mothership should just go ahead rename ie to microsoft internet mother-in-law?
and yeah yeah…so the current versions of the ie7 beta are removable…
assuming your os wasn’t hopelessly fracked by installing it.
but even if the ability to uninstall makes it in the final release of ie7…
removing it won’t keep ie7 from being reinstalled again via the nagification method.
hello hamsters…
let me introduce you to your new favorite toy…
never fear tho!
in an amazingly convoluted & clumsy orgy of hindsight, mothership has released a tool that will block ie7 from being auto-installed.
oh sure, they could just recategorize the upgrade to a lower level of importance, so it wouldn’t be on the list for automatic installation with the standard default update settings.
thing is, kiddos…
that would let it pros make the decision to add a major new component with significant impact on the stability & functionality to the machines & systems under their care on their own deployment & testing schedule.
what do you think this is, a democracy?
oh heck no…
much better to” upcategorize” a major release of your browser, basically terming it a security patch so that it steamrolls on down to the overwhelming majority of your installed base semi-automatically, depending largely on how well end-users are paying attention…
consequences be damned!
mmmmm…
why is benevolent strong-arming so magically delicious?
all this reminds me quite a bit of the blocking tool they released for windows xp sp2, with one major difference.
at the very least…the ie7 blocker tool has no expiration date.
unlike the sp2 blocker, which conveniently expired on april 12, 2005.
that’s right kiddos…
the absolute worst time of the main tax deadline season for something like that to come a’rolling in to any given accounting firm here in the good ol’ us of a.
sure made for a great time for me personally.
big huge belated thanks for that to the mothership, by-the-by.
oh yeah…
the ie7 blocker requires validation too.
which, incidentally, always reminds me how enjoyable getting screened at the airport is by comparison…
|| posted by chris under beta, mothership, rant, thumbs down || comments (0) ||
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