Always.. be..

Rich people tend to make stupid decisions. Stupid decisions that, with eBay’s help, address a big problem in my life: driving the same sports car on consecutive days. This injustice, of my garage, driveway and back yard (redneck style) not being packed with cars from Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini can only be corrected by doing the best job I can as CEO of Own Web Now and promoting the awesome things we do with our partners.

So I’m hitting the road in December to talk about what’s made us so successful in 2009, hopefully get some more folks onboard, and what we intend to do in 2010. Having spent better part of 2009 on the road we’ve built what you’ve asked for – so in 2010 we’re taking that momentum even further. So..

Tomorrow (Wednesday, December 2nd)

My buddy Karl Palachuk is sunsetting the SMB Conference Call podcast. It’s a true pleasure to be among the last few folks to be a guest on his podcast and while my buddy Erick will be doing Bette Midler song on the table, I will be talking about ExchangeDefender 5. As usual, the swag will be plentiful, join us live. Click here to register, it starts at 9 AM Pacific, Noon Easter.

Note: I have lost my voice and while I can talk for about 10-20 seconds, about a minute in I sound like an 11 year old girl with a smoking problem. Just a heads up.

If you are near Grand Rapids, Michigan, I will be presenting ExchangeDefender 5 to the West Michigan Small Business Technology User Group. Specifically, I’ll be talking about the business of managed security with ExchangeDefender 5, showing off a few screenshots and basically trying to explain a few things about consistency in UI design and end user expectations. It won’t be the same thing that Karl and I will be talking about so you’re quite welcome to check it out via LiveMeeting starting at 6:30 PM EST.

Next Week (Tuesday, December 8th)

Two (or three), depending on when my Aussie friends decide is a good time for an Australia podcast, we’re covering the launch of ExchangeDefender. Stay tuned to www.ownwebnow.com/blog for details.

Week after Next (Going back to Cali…)

Pimp tour bus starts in San Diego and goes to San Francisco for Chinese. If you are anywhere along the way by all means stop by, say hi, pick up a tshirt and let me introduce you to some of my biggest friends in this business.

Monday, December 14th: www.mspu.us – I will be in Orange Grove (near Santa Ana) at MSPU HQ hanging out with the staff and talking about our strategic partnership for 2010. MSPU and OWN have a pretty tight relationship so we’re trying to figure out ways to keep on pushing one another forward. If you’ve never heard of or seen any of MSPU webinars, books, presentations… you must live under a rock. But if you’d like to come and help hang the lights off Castle Simpson, give me a ring.

Tuesday, December 15th: SMBTN Los Angeles – My buddy Dave Siebert has invited me to talk to the SMBTN Orange County from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM in Los Angeles. If you’re in Pasadena though.. I’ll see you on Thursday (see below). Since it will be a longer show I’m open to long form abuse, talking about anything you want to know about. Would love to see some of our LA partners come out for a dinner afterwards, on OWN’s bill.

Wednesday, December 16th: www.chartec.net – I will be in Bakersfield visiting my good friends at CharTec. Own Web Now recently developed CharTec’s new MSP service configurator and Alex (AARC & CharTec founder) and I are trying to figure out how to leverage this technology to help MSPs grow more aggressively by removing the burden of quoting and proposal writing from MSPs. If you’d like to know more about that, or CharTec or anything about HaaS, these guys are the ones.

Later that night, I will be visiting SMBTN Fresno, virtually, and Ma’am Susan Bradley will be opening the doors internationally for a brief demo of ExchangeDefender 5 and discussing the value of providing the managed security service that isn’t based on nickel and diming your customers to death (hint: money is not in the addons, it’s in the service and reporting you provide on top of it). I will be on at 7:30 PM!

Thursday, December 17th: www.autotask.net: Autotask is a cloud based PSA solution that helps MSPs automate their service, support and billing every single day of the week (including Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday!) – but more importantly, they are the ExchangeDefender/OWN preferred PSA platform and all of our business support and automation hooks work on their solution to help our partners spend less time managing support and billing of our services. If you’re not familiar, by all means check them out – $29/seat. But even more importantly, they hired a good friend of mine to help manage the MSP community interaction (so his job is making me and you happy) and his first shot comes on December 17th. I’ll be presenting our integration and business model at lunch but you should really check this show out. It’s on Thursday, between 10 AM and 3 PM. Click here to register. Live in Pasadena (University Club of Pasadena). 

How do I keep track of Vlad….

Facebook: vlad@vladville.com or Twitter: @vladmazek

Corporate-side: www.ownwebnow.com/blog

Now, I also have an office but in 2009 I’ve spent more than a quarter of the year on the road. So it has become painfully obvious that in order to interact with people I really need to get a cell phone to share with everyone. I’m working on that, should have one very shortly – but in the meantime, get in my virtual world to track the physical Vlad around the world. I’m like Swag Santa this season. Hope you wished for some mindcrack and tshirts.