ITProMentor gets a new virtual home and membership platform

Outsourcing done right

This weekend an exciting thing happened here at ITProMentor.com: we moved to a brand new website with a fancy new design. I encourage my fans and long-time readers to check out the new digs. I can’t really take all the credit though. I knew it was time to give this old blog a facelift, but since I am not a WordPress guru (and not particularly talented in the areas of web and graphic design), I was in a bit over my head given all the things I wanted to accomplish with the updates. Therefore, I had to outsource!

Outsourcing is not always an easy decision to make, especially when you are a very particular person like me. I generally like to maintain as much control as possible when it comes to my own projects, but in this case it was 100% the right move. And I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. A huge shout-out to Brian Houdek Web Design for a job VERY well done. I had no idea how much effort would be involved when we started, but Brian guided me through the whole process like a pro, and I learned a TON from him. For example, did you know about Photopea? Amazing (and free) app for image editing on the web! And so much more. Thank you, Brian. And thank you also to Joshua Chamness, a longtime fan and loyal subscriber, for the outstanding reference.

And a new platform for 2022 and beyond

Last year, our SquareOne Practice Development Group ran on Teachable, which is an okay course-builder-publisher site (I think there are some better ones out there like Kajabi). This year, based on pretty much unanimous feedback from the group, we are ditching that platform. All content moving forward will be published to GumRoad (which is where all of my Best Practices and other written materials live). The group felt overall that the content player and mobile experience of the GumRoad app was just better than what teachable currently offers, plus we were able to collapse logins so that members only have one place to go now for all things related to ITProMentor and SquareOne. Well, I guess two places, really, since we also leverage Teams for our regular formal events as well as informal gatherings. Maybe it’s not perfect but it is a huge improvement in my opinion, over last year.

If you aren’t familiar with SquareOne yet, check out the new Membership page for more details. This includes access to all my courses and writings that can be found in the Shop, as well as our monthly Practice Development meetings. I will leave you with some of the feedback I got from “the class of 2021”:

I love the opportunity to work cooperatively and share in knowledge and experience with each other! The community that is being built is one that can serve at multiple levels and I know it’s really just the beginning! —Adam

The courses are very well presented with great detail and in-depth “how to” guides. A valuable resource for our support team! —Ian

What has been the best is that one gets exposure through the labs and then we gather to come up with questions from a real life application standpoint which helps reinforce concepts. Through the labs I am more confident of what it is that I am applying in production environments with an understanding from the work and the discussion that follows. —Taffie

Direct and straight to the point, detailed enough with just the right balance of images and text to keep me interested for a long period of time. Some of the other materials I’ve used before have just been too wordy, and make you lose interest very quickly. Alex is Best in the Business at this 365 stuff. —Daniel

The new [peer group] offering from Alex is the best value in 365/MSP/IT Training. We got a ton of value out of it last year and we are looking forward to another year of incredible content! —Nathan

Alex has a clear way of taking confusing Microsoft technologies and explaining them in an understandable way. —David

Alex truly lives this statement “Helping IT Consultants for Small & Midsized Businesses Succeed in the Microsoft Cloud”! After taking any of his courses, you will literally leave his classes equipped with the tools – knowledge and hands-on labs, needed to deploy what was taught. His presentation and teaching styles are excellent and he is very responsive to questions/inquiries. He is a subject matter expert in the courses taught. Signing up for his class/program is one of my best professional investments. —John

There, I am generally kind of bashful when it comes to promoting myself, but sometimes it’s what you gotta do.