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In episode 444, I mentioned a big announcement and today is the big day. for about the last 2 years I have been hosting our show with PodOmatic. They have a really nice platform, however I wish to be in control of my RSS feed and hosting. There are numerous benefits to this move, including faster downloads for my listeners, and better tracking tools for me. Also, an this is huge, I won’t have to publish the podcast twice. Each episode I have to upload to PodOmatic, then FrugalBrothers.com. You can imagine the huge amount of work that goes into this. Complete show notes at http://frugalbrothers.com/445

Sometimes it’s good to look back and think about the people who make a difference in your life. Over the last few years I have had opportunities to chat with some of the best and brightest people in their respective fields. I have learned a lot, no so much by asking questions, but rather intently listening to them share their thoughts. I wanted to make this podcast about some of the remarkable people I had the privilege to speak to. In episode 402, I spoke with Gene Marks. From him, I learned the value networking, and communicating. Gene is a Fox News contributor. Complete show notes at http://frugalbrothers.com/444

This week I had the opportunity to talk with Chris Mills, the founder of Chrysalis Communications. Chris is an artist with a passion for design. In Chris’s early years he loved painting and drawing, however a former school official tried to convince him that you can’t make money from art, and that he should concentrate on academics. Chris stayed true to his passion for art and found himself with no prior experience working in the world of graphic design. It was the proverbial trial by fire. When the company began scaling back, Chris found himself working as a freelancer. At an interview with a potentially large prospect for a new website, Chris asked one question that lead to his company today. Complete Show Notes at http://frugalbrothers.com/443

Cali Lewis joins us as our guest this week on Business Computing Weekly. Cali has worked hard from her beginnings as a podcaster, to building Livid Lobster LLC. Cali is a fantastic entrepreneur with experience in video, podcasting, television, and technology. Cali also shares with us how she has recently purchased a new studio. Cali attributes her success to building a great team. Her partner John Pozadzides has proven to be a great mentor and astute business partner. Complete Show Notes @ http://frugalbrothers.com/442

Recently one of my favorite YouTube content creators David Di Franco started an Indiegogo campaign to purchase a new Mac Pro in order to upgrade his aging 2006 model. He gave the campaign 60 days to achieve his $3500 goal. However he reached his goal in less than 1 day. Although David enjoyed strong support from a large number of his 100,000 subscribers, he also received more than his share of hostility from the audience. This prompted me to make a response video on YouTube, the link for it is below. My video received over 1,400 views in just a couple of days, and I picked up a number of subscribers as well. Complete show notes at http://frugalbrothers.com/441

This week my guest is Brian Brushwood. Brian is a Magical Entrepreneur. By that I mean Brian who started in the entertainment business as a magician that has worked hard to build a career that enables him to share his content in a wide variety of ways. Brian is also an author and has written books such as Pack the House: The Ultimate, Ever-growing Guide to Increasing Attendance at YOUR Campus Events. Brian also is the host of the TwiT show NSFW, and is the co-host of CordKillers with Tom Merritt. Brian also has a two part Nation Geographic special called Hacking the System. complete Show Notes @ http://frugalbrothers.com/440

I recently has the opportunity to talk with Jeff Weisbein, the founder of BestTechie.com. Jeff has started the website as a side venture in addition to his career as a social media analyst. In 2012 Jeff decided to turn his enthusiasm for technology into a full time business. Jeff has felt that the big tech media outlets have become to mainstream and lack the kind of information that tech enthusiasts have a passion for. BestTechie.com is a place that Jeff and his team are building that offers a no nonsense approach to technology reviews, and product information. Complete show notes at http://frugalbrothers.com/439

This week our guest is Daniel J. Lewis. Daniel is a web designer, graphics artist, blogger, speaker and creator of the Noodle.MX (Noodle Mix) network. Daniel started podcasting to grow his fledgling free-lance web design business. Daniel shares with us his journey from working at a not for profit organization to building his network hosting 10 different podcasts. Daniel began his new career as a podcaster as a hobby with his first comedy podcast “the Ramen Noodle”. He has expanded his business and has become a successful internet entrepreneur. Complete show notes at http://frugalbrothers.com/437

This week Ryan Hanley joins us s our guest. Ryan is the host of the Content Warfare podcast and, the creator of the Content Warfare blog. Ryan is also the Director of Marketing for the Murray Group Insurance Services. Ryan shares with us his journey from working in a cube farm at American Express, to becoming a master of content creation, blogging and podcasting. Ryan has a passion for social media, and has learned how to leverage great content to build his family business. Sponsor GFI Cloud: Simplify your IT management from one unified platform. GFI Cloud is a set of hosted network security tools that can be deployed to computers both on and off your network. Services include Antivirus, Patch management, Web protection, Workstation and server monitoring. Every GFI Cloud customer also receives free inventory and asset tracking as well. For as low as $1.00 per month per computer, it’s a smoking good deal. Success Quote: “Screw it Let’s Do It” Sir Richard Branson Business Failure Ryan had built up a large number of visitors to his blog, however he failed to create an email list. After learning from his mistake Ryan makes that a key to his marketing strategies. Successful Habit: Ryan writes daily without fail. Ryan believes in the importance of writing down ideas immediately Favorite Business Book Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

This episode our guest Jill Konrath shares her journey from high school home economics teacher to becoming a bestselling author, and nationally sought after sales and marketing strategist. Jill mastered the art of selling at Xerox. Jill is the bestselling author of Snap Selling: Speed Up Sales and win More business with Today’s Frazzled Customers, and Selling to Big Companies. She is the ultimate entrepreneur. Jill also writes blogs, and speaker. Her current newsletter has over 100,000 subscribers. Our Sponsors FrugalBrothers.Com: FrugalBrothers is a top North American GFI Software reseller partner. We specialize in small to mid-size business network security products. One of our favorite set of hosted tools is GFI Cloud Success Quote “Never say Never” Episode Highlights: - How she left her job as a high school teacher to work in sales at Xerox - Why she started her own business after having her second child. - How her business collapsed almost overnight, and how she fought back - Jill shares valuable advice about sales and marketing with our audience - How Jill uses LinkedIn to grow her business - How she makes herself a valuable resource - How and why she became an author - She turns challenges in habits, and focus doing better - Her favorite tech is her iPhone - Jill uses a standing desk to read her email so she doesn't get lost online

This week we welcome our very special guest Ms. Melinda Emerson a.k.a. The SmallBizLady. Melinda’s story is an amazing journey from landing her dream job at an early age in television, to gaining a global audience through her creation of Quintessence Multimedia, speaking and blogging. She is also the bestselling author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. Melinda is a widely sought after speaker that champions small businesses everywhere. She also writes a column for the New York Times. She writes for The Huffington Post and other as well. Melinda has built a powerful presence in social media, and has a vast following on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Melinda is a powerful entrepreneur, and yet is warm and approachable. She also is a loving mother, and is extremely genuine. Her goal is to prevent small businesses from failing. Each week she hosts a Twitter talk show that features entrepreneurs from all over the world to discuss small business. Episode Highlights: How Melinda got her start as a television producer At Age 26 she decided to become an entrepreneur How her focus is to end small business failure The 5 reasons small businesses fail How she was inspired by Oprah Winfrey to start Quintessence Multimedia in 1999 How her business fell into trouble in 2005 during her pregnancy and how she almost lost everything How she realized how much peaking and teaching other entrepreneurs How she took a risk by joining the National Speakers Association How she developed the Emerson Planning System to go from employee to entrepreneur Her Aha moment occurred during her lowest moment she had a vision to become America’s Number One Small Business Expert How the stock market crashed right before the publication of her book and bumped until March of 2010 How she turned the publication setback into the opportunity build a following via social media How she came up with the Twitter name SmallBizLady How she developed her Twitter talk show How small business people should use Twitter effectively How Melinda was able to get national exposure with big media thanks to her blog Melinda reaches three million people every week How she a task list with no more than 5 tasks to be accomplished She has a personal assistant that helps her stay organized Her favorite productivity tool is Dropbox and Evernote Her advice to entrepreneurs: You either win or learn in business but you never lose

This week Mike Meyers, the creator of Tech-Zen TV network, and Genius Idea Studio is our special guest. Mike's business centers on embedded systems, network security, video and audio production. In our interview Mike share with us his journey from self taught computer programmer to becoming an entrepreneur. Favorite Success Quote "A Thought is a reality waiting to be realized” Episode Highlights: - How Mike became a self taught programmer - How he employs his favorite success quote everyday - Why he has notebooks full of ideas - How his TV listing business failed - How Mike learned what his weaknesses were ad how to fix them - How he has learned to work on things he is not comfortable with - Mike shares some of his Aha moments - How he got into video and audio through his church - How his Roku app has helped Tech-Zen TV - Mike always has to keep moving ahead - How he reads tech news and security news and ignores mainstream news - Mike shares his favorite productivity tools

This episode I had the pleasure of speaking with Stephen Heywood of The TTB Network. Stephen is currently a Youth Pastor at his church, as well as an internet broadcaster.Stephen shares his journey of building an internet broadcasting network from humble beginnings to a new media presence. Incorporating high technology with a passion to help others, Stephen began from his home office studio.Today his network can be found on the TTB website, the Roku player, Tunes and more. Favorite Success Quote “ There is no such thing as failure unless you stop trying” Episode Highlights - Favorite success quote - How Stephen started live streaming and internet broadcasting - How he was inspired by Chris Pirillo and Leo Laporte - How he started on a limited budget - How he created a structured internet show - Internet TV is the future of TV - Why he choose video as his medium of choice - Stephen attributes some of his growth to the Roku player - How his internet broadcast led to his consulting business - Why he created the TTB Network - Stephen explains why he is creating niche programming - Stephen discusses Podtrac and advertising - How he is monetizing his network with sponsorships and advertising - Advertising to smaller buy more loyal audiences - How Stephen develops multiple income streams - We discuss a mind sharing Google+ hangout - Why Stephen needed to rebuild the network from the ground up - Using social media to promote the TTB Network - Stephen discusses sharing information with other podcasters - Stephen believes you should visit at least one trade show per year - Stephen discusses how he maintains a work life balance

I have had the opportunity to interview quite a number of people over the last few years. One of the most amazing stories I have ever heard was during my interview with Alykhan Jetha or A.J. for short. His family fled the tyranny of Idi Amin to the Congo. Only to become refugees again and settling in Canada. A.J. had a burning desire to succeed as a computer programmer, and through hard work and determination. has built his company Marketcircle.The company is dedicated to Apple business users with products such as DAYLIITE and Billings Pro. His company today employs 36 people and servers clients in 100 countries. I have often thought about converting the video recording of A.J. to our audio podcast because of the amazing story A.J. gives us. This man is truly an inspiration for many entrepreneurs, and I wanted to share it with you on The Business Computing Weekly podcast.

It is time of me to purchase a new workstation computer for my home office. I had several criteria the new computer must meet. 1. It must run my business productivity and media editing software quickly. Microsoft Office, Microsoft CRM, CyberLink PowerDirector and Wirecast 2. The new computer will need to run multiple virtual machines 3. The new computer must have a warranty 4. The new computer must have upgradability 5. The new computer must be quiet 6. The new computer should be able to play some of the latest games. After all, I got to have a little fun now and then 7.The new computer must be unobtrusive 8. Must have 32 Gigs of Ram (for Video, and Virtual Machines) 9. Must cost less than $2,000 I considered A Apple Mac Pro (2013) model price not announced as well as an iMac using boot camp. I looked Dell, HP and Lenovo desktops. Each one was a compromise. The most difficult issue was buying a machine at the price I wanted to apy and the features available. An i7 quad core iMac with 32GB Ram wit 3 TB Fusion Drive was $3468.00 A Dell Precision and HP Z series were way over budget The reasons I went with custom PC: #1: Control over the design of the system. I am able to pick the components that I want rather than a manufacturer limiting my selection. I am able to build the computer with higher quality parts. #2: I am able to build the machine with higher quality parts for less money #3: I know exactly how the system was built. I am particular about cable management for example. #4: One word. Value. I built my custom PC for hundreds less than a box builder such as dell. #5: After my warranty if something breaks I can repair it myself, rather than deal with a big box company support policies. #6 I can upgrade my computer without voiding the warranty. #7: I don't have to deal with tons of trialware. It is a clean PC. The only real solution was a custom PC. There are several sites that you can use to help configure a system. One of which I used is CyberPowerPC. I then went and took a part list and ordered parts through New Egg. Here is how my new custom PC for about $2,000 ended up. Case: Fractal Design Define R4 MotherBoard: GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD4H CPU: Intel i7-4770k Soclet 1150 RAM G. Skill Ripsaw 1866MHZ DDR 3 4 X * SSD Kingston SSD 240 GB HDD: WD Cavier RE 2 TB Black Video Card: ATI Radeon 7950 with 3 GM DDR 5 Memory Wireless N Network Card Cooling: Corsair H100i Liquid Cooling PSU: SeaSonic X Series X-850 80+ Gold Certified

This episode of Business Computing Weekly I want to share with you 10 different ideas to increase sales, and build customer loyalty. Episode Highlights: - Increase Your visibility in your community by networking and joining community organizations- Rewarding current customers with exclusive content- Offer referral programs to current customer to bring in new customers- Offer non competing businesses a link exchange- Make good use of downtime for marketing- Create and maintain a blog and update it on a regular basis- Add links from vendors or suppliers sites you your own- Fill your site with helpful information and content- Get busy with Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook- Work on your website! Make sure its fast clean, and easy to get useful information- Create your own mastermind group using Google+ communities or LinkedIn group.

This episode of Business Computing Weekly, I had the opportunity to discuss the GFQ Network with it's founder Andrew Zarian. Highlights include; -How Andrew launched his first podcast -The humble beginnings of the GFQ Network - Andrew's thoughts on broadcasting - Internet broadcasting versus traditional broadcasting -Difficulty in discovering New Media programming -Managing The GFQ Network -The creation of the International Association of Internet Broadcasters

This week, we are pleased to present our interview with Cliff Ravenscraft. Cliff has turned podcasting from a hobby to a profitable enterprise. Today Cliff is best known as The Podcast Answer Man. During the interview we discuss the following. Why Cliff chose podcasting over blogging, and video How Cliff made the decision to follow his passion for podcasting into a career How Cliff developed the Podcasting A to Z course Why Cliff doesn't promote Sponsors of his shows What a typical day is like for Cliff Where Cliff hopes to be in five years from now.

Studies show that 60% of online shopping and 70% of internet pornography traffic occurs during normal business hours. It is wise to establish careful monitoring and control of internet usage at your business. 1: Lost Productivity A small business with 50 employees with average costs of $20.00 per hour each = $1,000 per hour. If each employee wastes just 1 hour per week  on the internet, and not working  it costs $52,000 per year in lost productivity. That’s less than 15 minutes per day per employee. Some recreational use maybe ok, but within pre-approved limits, and times. 2: Malware and Viruses. By not restricting  where employees may visit on the web, they may find themselves visiting compromised, and malicious websites. This can wreck havoc on your business. 3: Compliance Issues Employees may be visiting personal webmail or files sharing sites, and downloading copyrighted material. If this is restricted by company policy, it shows a good faith effort on the companies part should litigation occur. Employees have been known to download competitors copyrighted material and bring about a lawsuit because of it. 4: Big Costs to the IT Department Bandwidth is expensive. Employees using peer to peer file sharing, streaming video and other bandwidth intensive services cause a huge hit to your resources.This doesn’t factor the hit to the performance of your network with the additional traffic. 5: Bad Behaviour Unrestricted internet access can also lead to employees visiting adult websites, gambling and other undesirable websites. This could cause problems, including potential lawsuits should these be viewed, even accidentally by another employee. 6: Employees Looking Elsewhere Many unhappy employees use their work hours to shop their resumes to competitors. They could also be transferring valuable data as well to services such as dropbox. 7: Monitoring The Internet May Make Your Business Safer Actively monitoring your business internet usage may reveal some safety concerns. For example an employee searching for guns or workplace violence. 8: Monitoring Can Help Employees Can Improve Customer Service Knowing that their internet usage is being monitored can help make employees more aware of customer privacy concerns. As they understand the company is taking measures to protect customers, the employee too will keep privacy and security in mind. 9: Monitoring Employees Can Benefit Employees You can use the monitoring results to iden

Five Things You Must Know about Email - Avoiding Misunderstandings 1: It’s Not What You Say It’s How You Say It My father gave me some great advice as a child, "It's not so much what you say, it's how you say it". Although at the time (I was 8 years old) I didn't fully understand the implication of that statement, I have come to realize the wisdom of those words. My Dad taught me a lesson about how through inflection, the ultimate meaning of what I was saying could be completely different than the words I used. 2. We Need Verbal and Nonverbal Cues to Interpret The Message Humans have a built in ability to read the emotions of others. When we speak to another person face to face, we observe their body language, facial expressions and size up the "emotional "state of the other person. Thus we can differentiate sarcasm, humor, annoyance from our conversations with others. But what happens when we attempt to convey our thoughts through text only? 3. People Are Ego Centric Because we are all basically egocentric, we tend to read email from the emotional state we are in, rather than the sender. We have no visual or audio clues as to what the sender is trying to convey. Because email is a rapid form of communication, we tend to read it, and respond to it at times too quickly. It is so easy to fire off a short email, which may not convey your full message or meaning. 4. Almost Half of Email Messages are Misinterpreted An article written  in 2006  the Christian Science Monitor covers two researchers Michael Morris, and Jeff Lowenstein, who were performing a study of this very subject. A humorous side note to their research is the two had had never actually met, collaborated on the project via e-mail, had a falling out based on miscommunication from one of their emails. The study concludes that 56% of email is interpreted correctly by the receiver, yet nearly 90% believe they interpreted the message correctly. Those who use a phone call to communicate find a much larger degree of success in relaying their message to others, and the receiver correctly interprets the message 76% of the time. The study concludes, that though highly effective for multiple offer negotiations, email should be supplemented by phone calls so a rapport maybe constructed. 5. It’s Difficult to Build Rapport by Email Alone Our business is built around providing Network Security and Email Protection products via direct sales. Each lead we receive gets a phone call,