Last weekend we rolled out Office Communications server to go along with our existing Exchange 2007 and SharePoint infrastructure. What an awesome, awesome product. Unfortunately, bringing in IM on a wide-scale like this to the entire company calls for some rules and I need to play ball as well which means pruning a few hundred contacts out of my MSN contact list and keeping it business only.

I hope I don’t offend many of my friends and associates with this move, it’s not that talking to you is a giant waste of time, I just need to limit my corporate exposure to our clients only in much the same way that I wouldn’t take a personal cell phone and chitchat while people expected me to be working.

Anyhow, I hope you don’t take it personal. I will still read your email if you need to get in touch with me throughout the day!

P.S. If you’re paying us, you’re staying on the list. If we are paying you, you’re staying on the list. If you’re not paying us and we’re not paying you, you’re off the list. Update: If you are paying us and you don’t have any of us on your contact list but use MSN or AIM.. contact me and I’ll make sure we get you on.

Also known as CES and I’ll be there. It will likely be my only conference of 2008 with the TechEd being the last minute call, so if you want to get your dose of Vlad, find your way to Las Vegas between 9th and 12th of January.

I know Karl will be there as well, at least according to my wife who figured it out while driving down I-4 and texting. Yeah, I married well So now we just have to get Erick over there and figure out a way to get Pablo to come over.

Though drinking is just not the same when its not on Microsoft’s dime, how can we get Paul Fitzgerald to drop by?

This blog post is powered by Microsoft Nothing 2008, with Susanne Dansey PowerPack for Microsoft.

SMB blogging, for all intents and purposes, is a family. Small, worldwide, dysfunctonal family. The epicenter of that family is the msmvps.com network, or better known as yoda.msmvps.com, the lone server that nearly all of you have hit either directly or indirectly. Susan hosts a ton of MVPs that blog about just about everything and over the past two years little yoda has gone from a single virtual server, to a full Pentium 4 server, to a Pentium D dual core and.. well.. spammers combined with a horrible blogging platform have made the old yoda a little slow.

So today we welcome a new member to this family.. brianna.msmvps.com will be the new Core 2 server dedicated solely to the SQL server backend of the www.msmvps.com

The server is just a small token of of appreciation and a Christmas gift from me to Susan. Susan is the one up there on the left. I host a number of SMB blogs at Own Web Now and frankly, without Susan you never would have seen those nor would Vladville have ever come to life. Susan is the person that encouraged me to blog and honestly, she singlehandedly runs msmvps.com with only the microscopic input from the peanut gallery. She also gets 210% of the crap and complaints about it from the "community" so I figured that with my latest posts on supporting the resources you like the least I ought to do is hook Susan up with some decent hardware.

The msmvps site remains as the most dominant independent source of information and insight into the Microsoft technology, receives $0 funding from anyone, and runs 100% out of Susan's wallet and the blog posts are all put up by the Microsoft MVPs, who also happen to put them up there for free. When you're having a problem, thats the first place that will likely show up in Google. So if thats where you get your info from, take a moment and at least send them your thanks this holiday season.

Merry Christmas Susan!  

Disclosure: I have been a Microsoft MVP in Microsoft Exchange category for two years, each year the reward consists of some swag and a $150 credit in the Microsoft store. How I got the award (first or second time) is beyond me, it carries no professional status value (i.e., it’s not a certification of knowledge or experience like an MCSE) and I generally do not use it. However, it is a great honor bestowed by Microsoft to the enthusiasts of their technology and I am quite grateful for it and the product involvement that has come as a result of it.

Started by the opening few minutes of Simpson’s last night, here is some food for thought..

Some of you feel that you don’t have to support MVPs or really offer any gratification in return for someone helping you. You don’t. Some of you don’t even feel thanks are in order. Fair enough. Some of you feel that the content produced on the Internet is done at the will of its creators, distributed for free to get attention and you can take it or leave it. Very true. Some of you will go to community events like SBS groups, .NET meetings, Linux user groups, bootcamps and mashups without thinking you owe the organizers a damn thing. You’re right!

Point is, you cannot owe someone something if you didn’t agree to purchase it. If it had material value, it would come with a price tag and you would judge if it was worth the monetary tradeoff or not. And since it comes without a price tag it is equivalent to a giveaway. Do you owe it thanks? Sure, if you appreciated it. Do you owe it gratitude? I suppose so, if it gives you a lasting benefit.

In a nutshell, we are a free society with an incentive based monetary system, and if someone is going to offer something for nothing you do not owe them any compensation, personal or commercial.

So you don’t have to. But should you?

Wayne brought up a great point this morning, in a nutshell saying “people can only keep on fighting the good fight whilst they don’t need to think about how to pay the bills. Once they need to think more about money than the job they like doing, they stop to do it.”

Some people thrive on accomplishment. Some thrive on money. Some thrive on personal gratitude. Some thrive on attention. Some thrive on argument and passion. Most people have something that makes them tick, something that self-motivates them to do what they do.

The Answer Underpants Gnomes Are Seeking

South Park is a world famous adult cartoon that places children in rather vulgar adult situations and exposes how in a naive fashion children expose the huge adult flaws in logic.

One of the most quoted episodes is the one of the Underpants Gnomes (wikipedia), in which children are asked to write a paper on economics. They meet the underpants gnomes who sneak into kids rooms at nights and steal underpants.  Gnomes have this colossal operation and setup, designed to make profit with just a few missing pieces. They know where they are (collect pants) and where they want to be (profit) they just need to fill in the middle. This is also known as the “every web 2.0 and dot com business plan, EVER” which is why you see it quoted on nearly every social networking site out there when reviewing questionable business plans:

So, let’s circle this back. When you hear or see someone giving something away for free, you ought to try and answer: How are they going to survive doing that? Are they giving it away to gain exposure? Customer base? Attention? What is step 2?

Same question ought to get asked of the Microsoft MVPs, group leaders, event organizers, user groups, etc. How are the leaders, in the end, being compensated for their work?

The easy answer is the question “Who gives a shit” – after all, if they have the time to write, blog, podcast, video blog, answer questions and participate in the IT events and discussions they likely need to get another job. So what if they get tired, someone else will just fall into their place and it’s not your economic duty to subsidize people with flawed business plans – you’re saving $$$ for the iPod Touch.

And for the record – I don’t blame you. I am perhaps the same. I’ve watched the Evolution of Dance video on YouTube at least 20 times and to my recollection I haven’t paid the guy, or Youtube once. I am sure the guy makes money somehow, somewhere, frankly I don’t care.

But the things I do care about, the things that I enjoy, I support. I love 2 Live Crew music and have purchased every single CD they put out. I love The Darkness, and have purchased the CD’s and even went to a concert. (yes, there is a pattern here, I like it when people do phenomenal things with so few resources / talent). I hate Michael Savage and his beliefs with a passion, but I love his delivery – so I bought his books. I could not fall asleep without Coast 2 Coast AM, and I subscribe to its Streamlink even though the program is available on the AM band and I don’t believe in bigfoot, chupacabras or the JFK conspiracies.

Point is, I support what I enjoy because I care that it survives.

End Game

If you don’t support what you care about, it disappears. If you take what you get for free for granted, it comes back as the nastiest commercial substitute you can imagine. If you can only take, without ever giving, you might get accustomed to that and when you need it there may be none left for the taking.

The loose change bin, do you ever put loose change back or do you only take?

In restaurants, do you ever compensate someone for their hard work – even though it’s their f’n job – or do you just stiff them?

Well, dear friends, it works the same way in Cyberspace. If you don’t support the things you like, they will go away.

If you are a content creator that doesn’t want to run a business but is open to a monetary contribution from the people that enjoy what you do, setup and publish a PayPal address. You can even make a subscription, by making Paypal do a reoccurring withdrawal of a few bucks a month. Whatever the case, you are sharing what you want, the public that appreciates you will send you it feels like is appropriate and it’s not a business, it’s just a way of saying thanks.

For the consuming public: Without gratitude, the courtesy goes away. For the content creators: Be honest about what you want.

If you choose to do nothing, you end up with the insults to your intelligence such as this guys site, and SPF Nation. But if you don’t care, perhaps thats the best you deserve.

P.S. Woops. Had to edit the link to coasttocoastam.com – apparently, coast2coastam.com is an amateur porn site. Thanks to Danny from Nofx for pointing that out.

Anyone that has ever met Karl will certainly claim he is one of the nicest people out there. He is. But when you blog, a lot gets lost in translation. Perhaps the reason most people don’t blog. I can tell you that most people think Susan Bradley blogs with a viking horn hat on, laptop in one hand and a pitchfork in the other. She is also one of the nicest people I know. Andy Goodman has on many occasions told me that there are people out there that are afraid to call / email me because they don’t want to be murdered over the phone. I don’t claim to be nice, but damn.. Check this one out:

First email:

Second, tell me about lunch. I only want to sound like the successful Vlad, not the guy who ends up pissing off more people before 7AM than most people do all week.

Second reply:

And give me credit for not using the phrase “All asshole, all the time.”

Every time you blog, your words are read in the context of the emotional state of the reading party. If they are having a bad day and you say “Indian” the wrong way, you just sounded like a racist. If they haven’t had a proper breakfast and read your blog post in the morning, you could be the guy that ruined their entire day by bringing them down.

Even if you had a grin from ear to ear as you wrote it.

So here is a little blogging advice: Anything negative you ever post will backfire on you one way or the other. There is no such thing as “constructive criticism online” or something you’re posting to get people to see things in a different light. People do not like change, people do not like to be told they are wrong, people don’t like to be criticized, put down, discouraged or encouraged to change.

So you should shut down your blog now, go to sleep, and hide in your little cubicle. Right? Wrong. For every 10 people that cannot look past the words and understand the message (the people that couldn’t think less of you) you will have one person that will now be your friend and your undying advocate because you can talk about both good and the bad. And perhaps people can respect you for being fair, not for being a fanboy. And perhaps those are the only friends that you want, that will give you the good and the bad, for the folks that just like you when you smile are going to be gone the moment you actually need to count on them.

So yes, all asshole, just not all the time.  Welcome to the club, Karl. Andy too. Thank you for making the SMB tech blogs less of a place for people to lie to one another.

This week was supposed to be my first full week of work at the Atomic Tangerine studios.. Monday was a holiday, Tuesday was a sick day and week was more than half over by the time I finished hanging the whiteboard in the studio. And as I stood there, in front of my crooked whiteboard, doodling the week objectives that I could get done in two days, I started reminiscing about the very reason I moved downtown, to improve the interaction I have with my customers. In order for that to become reality I either need to clone myself or optimize the hell out of my daily tasks. I am not sure if I’m the only CEO that thinks about this and I’m sure I don’t have enough brilliant ideas to get this done, so I’m going to let you into my head and you let me know if you’re on the same page.

How do you improve interaction with your clients in a material way? I have two types of clients, technical and business driven. My technical customers include CIO’s, CTO’s, office IT administrators and network operators, they want documentation, howto’s, solution overviews. My business driven customers include IT Solution Providers, consultants and CEO’s who may have a problem in hand and want a blueprint of how to get it done the best way. When I start talking costs and productivity with the technical crowd the eyes start rolling, when I talk tech to the business crowd I see the bobblehead effect.

Point is, neither side wants to hear what the other side is concerned about.

But as this company grows beyond the infrastructure, development and services and now heading into hardware, the pressure I face to stay relevant to both crowds is rising.

It’s not an easy gig either. When these folks interact with me they expect professional delivery, courtesy, compassion… which in no small part makes Vladville an outlet for my alter ego and the reason its so god awful filthy and direct.

So.. over the past almost 5–6 months I’ve taken what I’ve learned on the road over the past two years from some of the very best people in the business and I’m slowly starting to implement it all. The “needs” analysis has been overwhelming to say the least but the challenge of remaining direct without adding in intermediaries (sales staff, partner managers, customer service reps and other relationship-inhibiting roles) is not an easy task.

I have two pieces of advice to offer based on my personal experience:

People want to hear from you. Not from your CTO, not from “The Genius Employee”, not from the bobblehead sales guy. They want to have some level of comfort in knowing that this company they trusted with a critical piece of their solution actually works on providing that solution.

Get a camera. I have a Microsoft face-tracking one that I record my blog posts (not Vladville) and PR pieces on and I do two exercises: ass-check and blabber-check. Ass-check is the feeling of sincerity I need from what I’m saying – if it looks canned or arrogant it gets chopped. The blabber-check is the scanning for answers to questions nobody asked – there is no need to ramble on about unrelated details when people just want an overview. Camera will unveil these personality (professional?) flaws immediately. You can flow face-to-face if you have any personality, you can’t judge body language, intimidation, concern or humor through the written word – you always come off like an ass, guaranteed.

The final bit of this puzzle is relevance. Who gives a s… what I think? If you asked ten of my clients if they cared, all 10 would say “none at all” because I am not addressing their complete and immediate concerns. This is one question that none of my peers could ever help with, so I looked at how one of the most irrelevant companies gets this done – Apple Computer. Apple has been irrelevant (market share) or on the verge of extinction for at least two decades yet they manage to get people to stop and pay attention to them whether they are launching a crippled iPhone or a more glossy laptop case. I’ve studied Apple very closely and seen just what makes Steve so powerful – They are about one thing and one thing only. All seemingly done by one guy. Seriously, Apple Computer is a one man show that at any time talks about only one product. Go to their web site – easy, they released an OS. Now, go to Microsoft’s – holy clustercfuck, mobile phones, office, Live Search, articles, screen savers, livecare, Silverlight? What is this page designed for, a cow inflicted by ADD? Now, guess which company is more successful..

Point is, Apple makes the audience care about what they are talking about, whereas I am about whatever you want me to be right now. While the hooker approach works in person, indirectly via the web (newsletter, video, podcast) you pick a story and beat the crap out of it. I chose to copy Apple. I feel it is the only way for people to stop and hear you out, because anyone will spend 10 seconds to get your take from your area of expertise – but they won’t spend 30 seconds to hear the top 10 list.

How do you stay relevant in your customers face? Food for thought…

Lots of inquiries about Erick’s book on MSP Sales. I said I’d have it up over the weekend, and since its already almost the next weekend it stands the reason that the book sucks, right? Must have changed my mind about it, didn’t want to beat up my friend for writing a crap book in public?

Far from it.

The book is 500+ friggin pages, and unlike his first book, this one isn’t double spaced. Not to mention that the text is thick and there are no pictures. It’s just taking me a little longer to read it and give it its proper review and tell you what you’re going to gain from it. Let’s face it, if I just skimmed it and told you to buy it by paraphrasing its back cover you’d never listen to me again. Credibility matters here.

I don’t write about politics on this blog but watching tasering video of an annoying little entitled prick really made me proud of my alma mata, University of Florida:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqAVvlyVbag

Why is it so hard for people to show some respect for the law, comon decency and decorum? You are a student at the University of Florida. You are in a classroom. You are attending a speach by a US Senator. Show some respect, this isn’t a football game and you aren’t yelling at the Chief Osceola after he spikes the war spear into the Gator logo at the 50 yard line, you’re in an academic setting and expected to behave like a student.

It is a damn shame that a taser is needed to teach people that…

As for my young, proud white civil rights brothers fighting the oppression.. How very Martin Luther King of you.. No, wait… I’m thinking about the wrong King. I meant Burger King – like the place you’ll be working 3 months from now after you drop out of college because instead of going to class you’re laying on a field with a sign strapped to your back. I hope the back of that cardboard is still blank, you’ll need it to write tearful slogans that will make people throw change at you from their cars.

What… a… waste.

Ever seen this one in the mirror:

Job description: IT entrepreneur

Required Skills and Experience:

– Strong interpersonal skills with a focus on teamwork and ability to foster / manage relationships across multiple departments.

– Self-motivated professional, self-starter, proactive and able to handle multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced environment.

Allow me to translate that for you:

Today is going to be a bitch and you can’t be an asshole about it. People are going to put unreasonable expectations of you, you will be disrespected, belittled and forced to answer stupid questions asked by stupid people who are seemingly in more successful roles than you are. Through it all you’re expected to act as a professional, work through the day and deal with the stress, plan for the unexpected, respond to the unplanned and explain the situation to people that don’t really care. [to be continued]

Winners tend to motivate themselves. They tend to rise above the rest, meet the challenge and excel where others fail. They don’t need external parties to help them get to where they have already visualized themselves at.

Or at least thats what the bullshit motivational books say. If you’re one of the above, I envy you. Kudos.

I am one of the most driven people I know but even I have down days when things just get to me. Point is, I know my limitations. I also know that when it gets tough there is nobody that will pat me on the back, tell me it’s all going to be OK and that I should just put my panties back on and stop being such a little pussy. Tough chance of that improving now that people get the impression that I like to work naked. (google: humor)

So what to do…

I don’t have the desktop calendar of Tony Robbins and I firmly believe in the demotivator that states: If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.

I rely on my partners.

My partners know me, I genuinely enjoy talking to them, hanging out with them and working with them. So when I have a rough day, I can always count on a partner to pat me on the back when things are going bad, give me an ovation when things are going good and give me a friggin medal when things are going great.

I (and OWN) have been very fortunate to work with a lot of great partners. The other day I made a very tough final decision, hammer and nail in hand, to change the direction of my involvement when it comes to partners and I felt pretty rotten about what I said.

But today, I got to talk to a partner, and a friend, Tim Barrett, who took nearly an hour during his busy day to just talk to me about it. Few hours before that, Susan chatted with me for about 20 minutes. Right before I finished working for the day I got a call from one of my partners, Garrett Chipman who pretty much made my day. Dana Epp also did a lot of encouraging stuff for me today and…

… and its just nice to know that even on tough days, even in a professional setting and a professional environment you are lucky if you have friends that pick you up, kick you in the ass, and push you along the way. You’re not going to make it as entrepreneur if you can’t constantly motivate and challenge yourself, but having friends that can back you up and inspire you when you need it is more than I could have asked for.

In the end, this is why I write this blog and why we run Own Web Now the way we do. I try to do a lot of good and honest stuff (even if its not pleasant to hear) for my partners and while the AMEX is thanks enough, I am always blown away when they back me up the way they do. People ask me how I manage to do so much in a day – so now you know the secret – I have thousands of cheerleaders.

Today was a rough day. Even though the trouble lasted only about 40 minutes and affected just a handful of people its yet another smack in the face of the perfection that we strive for. Bah. I was out having lunch with Jen and bailed out early (thanks for picking up the check, you rock!) to realize I am not Google yet. Anyhow, I had this in the corner of my third screen all day long, it kept on looking at me while I was taking calls during the storm, updating the blog, checking on status reports, on the solution, looking what caused it, troubleshooted it with partners and so on. This was an IM I got at about 5 AM:

Morning V, before I got swamped again with work today I wanted to let you know that your last four posts rock – in particular the one about being mean and beloved and the one about Karl. I don’t care if you think you can’t write, you can, and you do it well. The best thing is that you write like you speak and so even though you are far away, I always have a little piece of Vlad on my desktop.

It’s good to have friends on days like today.. Now, off to Montana to breed sheep.