485 The Accidental Computer Tutor

Hello, friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the I T Business podcast presented by Net Ally, your podcast for business I T support where we try to help businesses. I T professionals help you run your business better, smarter and faster. And we are going to do that tonight by talking with a good friend of mine that I've met finally face to face after many years, a fellow computer tech in the area, Scott Johnson, the computer tutor, Scott also has a podcast that is much, much more popular than mine. So we'll talk about that and in other news, we're going to talk about Kaseya. They did it. I reported last week that they were going to be spending money to what's the best way to describe it?

They were going to buy the naming rights to the Miami Arena, the place where the Miami Heat, our basketball team plays. And I say our, not in the sense that I watched that team but our, in the sense of they are here in South Florida. Kaseya actually has a nice little building down there.

I have not visited yet. Uh I will probably do that soon. I sent another shout out to Scully to find out when you're going to be in the area because Scully uh also known as Matt Scully with Kaseya told me that I would have to visit when he is there. So that is what I am waiting for.

Now, I saw a lot, a lot of comments on all of the social media, both good and bad about Kaseya doing this. And I know that one of the big things that we are all concerned about, if you are an MSP and you are using a Kaseya product, you're wondering why are they spending all this money for a basketball arena when we're their clients and they need to be spending money on us. But folks, they are spending money on us. They're going to a lot of conferences, spending a lot of money doing that.

They're marketing to us. Heck, they've got salespeople calling us 2, 35 times a week. So they're doing what they're supposed to be doing.

Now, we also know that, you know, is owned by a venture capital company or something like that. Um, it'll be interesting to see where they go in the next few years. I know some things are changing with their contracts. My contracts haven't changed but I know that a lot of people have said that if, if they renew it, it uh, automatically reverts to a three-year contract. I don't know. Hopefully, it won't. We'll see. But, uh, it is going to happen.

You will see Kaseya Arena, the home of the Miami Heat happening here soon. Hello Mr. Reed, joining us in the chat. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Wednesday live show where we stream at least for now to YouTube LinkedIn and the Facebook and you can catch us live each Wednesday at this time. If you catch us after the facts, listen, we're on your favorite podcaster. Head over to I T business podcast dot com.

Click the little follow button in the top right hand of the button. Find your favorite podcaster and we will be available in your ears shortly after the show is aired on Wednesday and then you can catch up throughout the week. So I put up a post on Facebook yesterday.

I think it was where I was going to meet with another vendor. I don't know how much of the story I've shared, but I've, I've got a client that is moving into a new building. It has taken them all three years of COVID to move into this building because of materials and shutdowns and all that stuff.

Well, they're finally close to moving in and because of that vendors are able to now go in. I've got their internet service and we were able to put a couple of switches in and get them some access points so that they have Wi-Fi, but we've not put their full network in. They technically aren't supposed to have stuff in the building. But the company that is doing the door access systems and the cameras have their stuff in and what should have been discussed. Oh, 34 years ago, when we were talking about moving into the building, all of this would work because they want to obviously attach to the network. That is my responsibility. And nobody ever wanted to sit down and have a conversation with me about how that was to be done.

Everybody wanted to do their own thing. So I posted on the Facebook that I went in finally to meet with the company and figure out what we were going to be doing. Only to see that they had mounted all of their camera, uh N V R systems, they had mounted the door access systems, they had wired them to a five port, 100 meg switch and then they actually did run a patch cable from one side of the server closet to the other side where our equipment is, even though I have some cable runs already there that they could have used. But needless to say that wasn't the big issue.

The big issue is that they pre-configured their equipment on a subnet that they didn't even ask me about it. They just decided. Oh, well, it must be 1921681 dot something, which it is not a lot of my networks. I don't use that as the default subnet just because of that very reason.

We don't want people just throwing on devices thinking that, oh, well, we'll just throw it on there and blah, blah, blah. So that was, you know, the mistake I ran into yesterday. Somebody thinking that, yeah, we'll just put this equipment in, we'll preconfigure it with static IP S and I know that there's always the debate back and forth. Should you use static? Should you use reservations?

I use static on servers and devices that cannot be reserved but everything that can be, if it needs a static IP address, we assign that from our DH C P server. So I had asked them, you know, when we meet, can I get a list of the MAC addresses and all of that, that way I can reserve them. They bothered, you know, they did not bother to give me that list of addresses, they just pre-configured it. And when I called them after the fact they said, oh, I don't think we can statically configure them through a reservation. So whatever, regardless. But that was my joy. So if you happen to see those pictures on the Facebook, that is my joy that I am living with. Uh the, the client is actually going to have an open house in two weeks. So we've got some stuff to work out.

Now, the open house doesn't mean they'll be moved in. They still don't have their T C O but uh they do want to have all of the Wi-Fi functioning. They've got some TV s uh throughout the facility that they want to have and show their, it's a not for profit clients. So they're going to have a thermometer showing their progress to their goal and stuff like that. They want some other stuff done. So we're going to have some S SI DS to configure, we're going to have some segregation to do and all of that will be fun. So that was my joy. So that is my story uh for I T this week, no other real tech tip and no other real story besides the se A event. Um And with that, we are going to uh get our first commercial out of the way and bring on our guest. So I'll be right back with you right after this. Are you an I T business owner looking to take your business to the next level?

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Contact them today at computers done, right dot com. And thank you so much to our patron supporters, Tom Kyle Clark and Crow. I appreciate you and your contribution to the podcast. Your support helps me continue creating content that I hope you enjoy. And we are back our guest tonight, Scott Johnson, the computer tutor out of or uh I was going to say Orlando, you're actually out of safety harbor Florida, which is on the west coast and you're actually near a good friend of ours. Yes. Yes. I assume you're talking about Mike, the Mike Tech show, the Mike Smith from the Mike Tech Show. Yes. Yes. All right. So, Scott is a fellow Florida man and I wanted to uh have a stretch of podcasts here where I not only talk to other I T professionals. But I wanted to find some Florida representation here.

I've had Mike on the show plenty of time, plenty of times. Uh, but I'm going out and finding some other Floridians here to be on the show. I'm going to have a stretch of them here. Scott. You're the first during the month of April.

All right, I'm going to set the standard then. Right? You are, you are.

Uh, so Scott, we, uh, you and I go back first, let's, uh, tell everybody I had heard of your podcast before your computer podcast. And I had thought, well, maybe I should get this guy on. Never did. That's, you know, life business.

Everything gets in the way. How long ago was that? I'm just curious when you first heard about that 34 years ago, back when, back when you were still doing it, right? And then we actually met, I, I believe it was for the first time in 2021 at pod fest. Pod Fest. Yes, there was a small group just gathering in a room.

I don't remember what we were talking about, but yeah, I remember we were both in that group. Yeah. Uh So I have been meaning for the last two years to get you on the show and I said, Begay, it's time that I do it. So I finally did. And here you are.

I want to thank you for coming on and being part of the show. Absolutely. You're, I, I've just been listening to your opening here and every, this is a really, this is a professional show here. Oh, no, no. We'll talk about a professional show a little bit later as we get into it here.

Uh, but let me set the stage for everybody because I put the title of the show, The Accidental Computer Tutor. And I did that because there are some similarities in how you kind of got started with your computer business and how I, I even got started in computers altogether. I never wanted to deal with computers. I played sports, you know, football, basketball, and track.

I, I did student government. I, I didn't want to deal with computers but when I got to college my roommate was the head of the computer lab and I had to suffer through him bringing computers and parts and hard drives and just leaving them around all our dorm room all the time. And I, I did have a computer because I would do my homework and stuff on that back when they weren't really laptops. They were luggable, you know, the suitcase size right there. I know. And, uh, he convinced me because of all of our goings back and forth that first semester. You know, he would teach me stuff and I caught on quick and I would teach him stuff and he said, well, you have the demeanor that, you know, you should be in our computer lab, you know, teaching people how to use computers.

So, my very first real experience in computers was in the computer lab at my college as a tutor. Wow. Well, yeah, there are some similarities here for sure. So, uh, so let's tell everybody because you and I have shared some stories and computers was not your, your first, uh, thought to be in business either? No, it wasn't. I was interested in using computers.

You know, I had the old Commodore 64 the, the T R S 80 you know, the really early ones. But I was working in just a, a regular office. It was actually a yacht charter company and we had some older Mac computers in there, but this was just in the very beginning days of the internet.

And, um, and I, yeah, I, I used them and they're, you know, they're interesting. But I was just, uh, I happen to be, I was walking into a print shop. I had some printing done and I saw on the counter, someone had left a card there that said I need help with Microsoft Word. Can somebody tutor me or teach me how to use Microsoft Word? And I looked at that and they had a phone number there and I thought, well, I use Microsoft Word.

I could probably do that. So I called the number and I went over and this lady needed help. Just, you know, how do you do, how do you copy and paste how, you know, how do you create a new document, stuff like that? And uh and I was there for a couple of hours and after that, I thought, you know, I could probably, there's probably other people that need help like this. And this would be kind of an interesting little side hustle for me. And so that's why I started when I started, I named the company the computer tutor because that's what I was wanting to do, you know, personal instruction.

That was my, got, my little tagline was personal instruction from a patient teacher because I found out that when, when a lot of people, if you try to learn something from a family member or, you know, somebody that's close to you already, they don't really have the patience usually, you know, it's like, ok, just move, let me just do it and then, and then you don't learn anything, you know, because they just did it for you. So, um, yeah, so I started doing that. But then I found that once I had worked with someone like that and, you know, closely for an hour or two, you get to know people and they ended up, you know, they feel like they can trust me. Well, eventually that computer that we're working on is going to have a problem.

It's going to break and they don't know anybody else that's in the computer business, so to speak. So they would call me. And so eventually I ended up doing, even now I do more repairs and upgrades and new PC set up and stuff like that than I do, you know instruction anymore. So let's go back to the beginning because you said that you did this based off of a card that somebody left now, was this like literally a business card or like a three by five index card that somebody had written out? I need help. That was what it was. It was a handwritten card that they had just left there.

I assume they got permission from that business to, to leave a note there to find somebody. But yes, it was very informal. It wasn't a business card or anything because this was just a, a private person. It wasn't a business that needed help. It was just an individual and that's who I work with today.

Now, it, it struck me as odd that you would see that and think, yeah, I could do that. I mean, so that's just, that's how I react to stuff if I see an opportunity, I think. Well, you know, why couldn't I do that that, you know, now when you first set up that appointment with the person did you have in your mind? Hey, I'm going to make 50 bucks or 100 bucks or whatever it was, that means, was that in your head or you just thought, let me see what this is and I'll be nice, You know? I don't know if, if that person had a price that she was willing to pay.

But, yes, in my head, I figured $25 an hour and I was there a couple of hours. So, yeah, you nailed it. I, I made $50 that day. Nice. And how, how many more appointments did you get before you thought, hey, I could make a business of this because I can't imagine that that one appointment was, was the kicker for you. It was really, it really was.

Yeah, because I, I mean, you figure if, if this person needs help with this, there's got to be a lot of other people that need help, not just with word, but with any other software. And I have always kind of, I've been kind of a natural at learning and, and being able to teach stuff like that. And so I thought it was a good fit for me and, um, I lived in a small town, this, this was up in Maine, a rural town and there certainly were, there weren't even any computer repair shops nearby, much less computer instructor, you know, instructors or tutors. And, uh, so, yeah, I became known in town. I had put the lettering on the side of my car and, uh, everybody knew, um, yeah, I'm the computer tutor. So I was going to get to that because I was going to let everybody know that this couldn't have been Florida because we don't have people that are patient and kind all of those things. Well, except for you and I, you know, we're the only two, right?

Well, Mike now can't leave, right? Yeah, Mike's here now too. Yeah. Uh so you're up in Maine um who? Oh I know somebody else in Maine, Shana.

Na that's another name. That's her nickname, Shana. Shana. Shana. Shana. She used to be with, she left now she's working for an MSP uh I'm assuming somewhere nearby. But uh Shana shout out to you. So you decided to, to turn that into a business.

Now, I, I imagine that it wasn't something that you had thought you would do full time. You, you had a job. Right. Exactly. Yeah, I did, I had a job already.

I did not, you know, I looked at it as a part-time thing that I could do on my own. I could set my own hours and do as much or as little as I wanted to. But what happened over the next couple of years? Uh it, it grew and I was getting more and more busy and I was really fortunate because my full-time employer eventually I went to them and said, look, I've got this other thing going, I don't want to quit but can I just go to four days a week? And of course, they would reduce my salary proportionately as well. But uh so I would, I would take Fridays off and Friday would be the day that I could make all my appointments, do all that, you know, all my computer stuff. And then after a little while I went back to him and said, how about three days a week, Thursday and Friday?

And, um, and of course, while I'm doing that, you know, psychologically, your full time job is what you depend on to pay the bills. You got that money coming in. But what I did was when I went to part time at my full time job, I was putting away those paychecks and just so that I would know from a mental standpoint, I don't really need that money. I'm living on my computer business. And so that way it made it a lot easier to make the switch.

I didn't go down to two days a week. That's when I actually made the jump and, uh, and went into business for myself full time. Now, can I ask what your job responsibilities were that you were able to go to an employer and say, can I drop from five days to four and four days to three? And they were like, yeah, sure.

Well, I, it was in an office. This was actually, it was a yacht charter company and it was in Maine, but none of the boats that we chartered were in Maine, people would call us and they'd want to book a sail boat or whether on their own or with a crew but all the boats were in the Caribbean, we dealt with charter companies who had boats down in the Virgin Islands or Saint Martin or Saint Lucia. And, um, so we would set all that up and that's, that's what I was doing and I'm not, I'm not even a boat person but, you know, I, I got the job because I knew someone for a long time, you know, before we, there's a, that's a whole separate story. But, yeah, uh, they can hire somebody else to do that and that's what they did. All right. So then you decide, you know what I'm doing pretty good here.

I'll make the joke. And at that time now I'm going to assume you and I are around the same age. I, I'm not saying that. So there had to be an idea that you could get in computers.

You didn't have to have a degree; you didn't have to have a certification and you actually kept your business focused on residential whereas I went the business route. So I assume that there was much, much easier. But how did you actually structure your business at that point? Did you, you know, did you, you know, do the thing where you went and, you know, incorporated or became a partnership or not a partnership but, you know, LLC or whatever and do all of that and, and really become official back then. Not really. No. Uh, I was just simply a sole proprietor.

And, um, I really didn't even advertise. It's funny what I did was I, I mean, I started doing a, an email newsletter which I still do to this day and that's brought me a ton of business. If anybody in the computer business is not doing an email newsletter, you absolutely should be. Um, but I was doing that and then I went to the local paper, the newspaper and presented them with the idea how about if I write a short column every week with somebody asking a computer question and me answering it and, you know, I had to be very careful that it didn't look like an ad. But at the bottom it would say, hey, if you've got questions, email Scott at this, at this email address.

And, uh, and that brought me a ton of business too. I would go into people's homes. Of course, back then there was no remote access. I went, everything was on site and I would go into somebody's home and they would have a clipping of one of my articles cut out and stuck up on the, on the monitor because they knew if they ever had a computer question or a computer problem. That's the contact, that's who they wanted to, to contact to, to fix it. And, um, yeah, that I, I never had to advertise at all. Nice. Nice. Now, what's the general size of your ticket? It doesn't sound like, you know, it's a big town.

It's not something that I can, I can't walk into my Fort Lauderdale paper and say, hey, let me do a column. No, this was, this was, uh, on the, um, the coast of Maine. The town that I lived in was Walterboro. But there was a, a newspaper that was for the county. It was the Lincoln County News. So it covered several towns probably.

I mean, the population of my town was like 5000, very small. Um, but you know, probably the, the newspaper probably covered 50,000 people, maybe, right. So small now, somewhere along the line, you either decide or end up becoming a Florida man. So, how did that happen?

Well, um yes, we, I was in Florida prior to that. My wife is from Maine and we moved up there when I took that job and she, she and she has a lot of family up there and everything. So we were in Maine for 13 years and then we came back to Florida because uh our kids were going to college down here and we both have parents that were here in this area, Tampa Bay area and, you know, as they're getting up in years, you gotta be around and, you know, take care of things. Uh you know, as your parents need. So that's why we came back to Florida. All right. So we had not talked about that. So you actually are a Florida man. Well, I was born in Ohio.

I, I from Ohio to Florida to Maine. Now, back to Florida in, ok. That just took too many turns and my wife's from Ohio. So that'll be a conversation for a later date as well. I'll draw it out for you. Ok. Now, most of my listeners are using their business for other businesses.

B to B so they're managed service providers. But we do have a lot of solo techs that are doing business and I do have some listeners that are still solo techs and focus on residential. So I wanted to ask you about that.

Now, a lot of times we have conversations about our stack, you know, what are we going to do to provide the cybersecurity and you know, all of that stuff. You don't have to worry about all of that. Like we do as, as, you know, business supporters. But let's talk about what are the types of things you do for your customers because I know on your website you actually have a Scott’s managed service. Yes. Yeah, I call it a managed service plan.

It's not probably what a typical business tech would consider a managed service plan. Uh but it's, you know, for a long time, I was with Budo and, you know, they employed uh the MC Soft Antivirus and, but eventually they just, I don't know, they just faded away. Uh They stopped responding to any tech support tickets and, and then not long ago, I got an email from them and say, hey, this is actually going to stop working now. So you need to switch to something else.

They put their focus in other products. Right. Right. So, unfortunately, at that time, I had already begun the migration away from Budo to what I put together as call, I, I call it my own managed service plan. It consists basically of three components.

I still use the MC Soft antivirus and I've got my, you know, MC Soft Portal where I've got everybody's workstation and I can manage it all of that from there. Uh, I use nine night pro for each of my managed service clients to keep their software updated and patched and everything. And then I also use a service called help desk. Buttons. Are you familiar with that?

I heard of that. Yeah. Yeah. It's, um, if it's a, if it's a business, it's kind of neat.

Remember, um, staples had those buttons where you could hit it and it said that was easy. Well, they have got little buttons like that and it plugs into the USB port and when the user has a problem they just smack the button and it sends a screenshot and message and all the stuff to them, to the people. Well, I don't use that button but I have for all of my managed service clients, they, they have an icon on their desktop screen that has my face on it. It's a head shot of me and it says computer tutor support. And so I tell them if you have something that comes up on your screen error message, you don't know what it is or anything like that. Just click that and send me that form and it sends me all the screenshots and the, you know, the activities that have happened, it shows me up time to see if they haven't restarted their computer in three weeks and, you know, that's probably the fix usually. And, um, so all of my manage service clients have all three of those installed So I can take care of anything security related is what that was that, what that covers anything outside the scope of that. I have a remote support, you know, they can buy hours of time and, and we use that in 20 minute increments as needed. OK. 20-minute increments. Mm. That's interesting. How does that? I have no idea how that compares with what, what most people do most are going to be.

So, in the, in the legal field, which I have a lot of law firms. So they actually like to see point ones. So, you know, everything is, you know, if it's 15 minutes, you know, you can, you can round up to a 150.3, Uh, in that sense, but most, most text I think are either going to do .5 or minimum of an hour. OK. I don't think I've ever known anybody to do 20 minute increments. But it makes Sense.

It, it works most commonly people buy a two hour package and so that we can use all two hours if they want or we can use 20 minutes. And, um, uh, and then I keep track of that, you know, and how much time they have left. Yeah. So John writes in the chat minimum of one hour.

I do a one hour minimum if I go on site, but I just don't, I don't have to go on site very often anymore. And that's what I do. I do a one hour minimum for onsite and mine is a 0.2 minimum for remote. So it takes five minutes.

It'll be a .2, uh, which is 12 minutes and basically it's a .1 just for me to answer the phone and then it's a 0.1 to try to help you. Oh, man. Uh, I, I would, I think it would, it feels like it would drive me crazy to try to get it that, uh, you know, that exact it, it does. But for attorneys they love it or they like, you know what? Just don't even worry about it. So they look at their monthly bill as a retainer as opposed to a manage service. So they're like, look as long as, as long as you're taking care of us, that's fine. Right. And, um, actually, oh, my good friend Tom puts in here, 30 minute Remote minimum, 60 minute on site. OK. So there we go there.

Thank you guys for uh for your input there. Now, this seems to have been lucrative enough. Did you ever think about going after businesses or doing anything more with the business or is this just, just right for you? Like a goldilocks situation?

I really like, uh, I like residential um business. I don't know, it just never appealed to me. And you know, it's funny cause I hear other techs who deal with businesses and they say the opposite, like I could never deal with residential people, you know.

Um, but on the other hand, I've never had a client pre wire everything to the wrong subnet, you know. So, yeah, it's, that's, and I remember when I first started, I, I didn't even plan on doing repair work at all. But one of the people who I had helped, you know, in tutoring, he, he called me one day and he said, I don't know what it is but my CD drive on my desktop computer, it isn't working anymore. And he said, you know, can you fix that? And when he called me, I had never opened up the side of a tower and I said, yeah, I'll check it out hoping that I wouldn't disconnect something and now his computer's dead or something.

But, but yeah, from that point I'm completely self-taught and I'm not sure that you can self-teach and do what you do. You know, you seem to have, there seems like some formal training needs to come into play at some point. You know what? You'd be surprised. There are a lot of people that still, now I did not go to school because those classes didn't exist when, when I got started. So I, I missed that, but I did go through and get some training.

I did get certifications. I did do all of that. I got partner training when I needed it. Uh, I think today if you're trying to do corporate gigs, you probably gotta have a degree and you've got to definitely go through some stuff but to do residential repair that can probably be done very similar to, to the way you did just self teach, obviously be good enough not to, you know, screw anything and, you know, don't lose anybody's pictures for, for sure. Right. Right. And that's one of the things I always, you know, one of the first questions I ask when somebody brings me a computer or if I'm working on one, is there anything in anything important so stored on this computer that's not backed up?

And, uh, you know, if there's not, I'm going to say, you know, I'm going to recommend that we back it up before we do anything because I don't expect to lose anything but things happen. And so that way the decisions on them know you didn't mention this as part of your stack. But do you offer backup service for them? I offer setting up backup service for them. Yes. Uh I recommend two things.

One, I uh I use Marium Reflect which creates a system image backup. I tell people you just need to go to, go to Walmart, pick up a two-terabyte portable drive and I remote in and configure it for them so that it does the backup automatically at one AM. But I, I tell people there's three steps, actually four steps to do the backup and this is on you. I mean, I put the responsibility on them.

You first, when you're done with the computer at night, you restart it and by restart it, I don't mean turn it off and then turn it on. You gotta actually click the restart button. When it comes back up, you plug in that drive and that's how you leave it all night. Next morning, you check the date, make sure the backup happened overnight and then you unplug it and that's the whole process. And I also recommend carbonite, you know, in case there's a local flood or a fire or something, we can at least get their important stuff back. All right. Well, I want us to get, uh, ready here to talk about your new, what is it, the new season of business? Because I, I did want to talk about the fact you did do a computer tutor podcast that day. Uh which is where I heard you and you would share all of the tips and stuff for people and then you actually, you still write the blog, right?

I think I just saw you. I do, I do, I, yeah, that's every other Monday. I do an email newsletter saying, hey, here's what we're talking about, like some computer tip or trick or scam alert or something like that for non techie people. And then on the blog, it links to the blog post and that's where all the details are for that day. All right. So I want to talk about that. Uh I should probably do a shout out.

One of our good friends from our uh other group that we participate in. Collier was in the chat here. So, so hello Collier. Uh We are going to take another quick break and then we'll be right back to talk about the second season of life.

We've always defined ourselves by our ability to provide solutions to do more with less, build something from nothing to make the money. No, but we've only just begun and we must never forget that our greatest accomplishment cannot be behind us because our destiny lies beyond, For those of you that are listening to the podcast and did not see the video that was a promotion for an upcoming conference Pax8Beyond I will be attending. And that's why I'm promoting that video. I will be there. My good friend, Rob Ray asked me to go and who is going to turn down the godfather of the channel? So Pats Eight beyond, I believe it's June 11th through the 13th in Denver, Colorado. So if you've not uh signed up and you want to be a part of that, uh the first user conference put on by Pats Eight led by Rob Ray, uh should be a pretty, pretty good event. So hopefully we'll see you there. All right, Scott. So I mentioned right before the break there that you and I participate in a group that uh without giving away because most of the tech people don't care. But we both podcast and we not only go to pod Fest, but we participate in some other events. And one of them is a group where we try to help each other as podcasters and we talk about things that work, things that don't, hey, what's good for you? Tips, tricks, blah, blah, blah. So that's what we were in. And uh you have a podcast that I think is fantastic.

It, uh I think it's almost Date Line. I, you know, to wear, I don't know what that means. I mean, it's one of those things where you tell stories that are so fantastic that I think they're appointment podcasting just like Dateline or 2020 on the television that uh most of the time, you know, when you watch TV shows, usually you get some sort of investment in it with the characters.

You see the same characters over and over like a, a S W A T or a criminal minds a CSI, Friends Seinfeld. But with your show, it's a different character every week, a different story every week. But it captures, at least in my opinion, it captures the attention. Oh, what's this story going to be like? So that's what, that's what I'm going for. So, your podcast, what was that like? Uh I think is very fantastic. And talk about a professional podcast.

That's what that is. I'm, I'm just trying to live up to the standard that you've set here. Mark. Um So, first of all, let's, let's hear your version of what the podcast is because I, I think that if I say it, it's going to come across, you know, not as detailed in the will. The, the, the, the summary explanation is, I mean, the podcast is called, what was that like? And the name is deliberate.

Every episode I talk to a regular person who's been through something extremely unusual, like they've survived a mass shooting or they were in a plane crash or they got attacked by a grizzly bear. You know, i it's a huge variety of stories and uh the guests just comes on the show and uh they tell the, the details of what happened. And uh it's, I, I, I do this show because I love stories like this and there was no other podcast doing it. At least not the way I wanted or the way I would want to hear it.

And, uh, and I already, I already knew how to do a podcast because I've been doing my computer podcast and I thought, ok, I'll, I'll do it myself. And, uh, that was almost five years ago. Now, I've got 100 and 30 episodes. Well, I was going to ask, you know, what was it that really triggered you to do that?

Because, you know, the true crime genre is really what's, what's big. And some of them are, some of them are stories, but they're really more in, in, you know, investigation type stories. They are the, the real Dateline type, you know, murder mystery stuff like that obviously isn't always like that because some of the stories are not, you know, they're not gruesome and it's right. But what was it that made you think? Do you know what? I, I would like to do a podcast on that?

It's really, uh, I've always been fascinated by the power of a story. Um, you know, I remember when I, before I did anything with this podcast, I would remember I could listen to some shows and the, the ones that I really enjoyed were where the guest or even the host were, was telling a firsthand story. Uh And yeah, and if they were true stories, that's all, you know, that much better. And, um, I just love that and it's the theater of the mind, you know, when you're talking to somebody who's been through something like this and they're telling what happened firsthand. Um I, there's just a lot of power in that and I just love so many of my episodes.

The guest has gotten into telling this story and it's just such raw emotion because this was a, for a lot of people, it was something that they went through that was extremely traumatic. And there's another person me who wants to listen to them, tell that story and they do that and it's to the, the great benefit of my audience that uh there's a lot of pretty amazing stories out there. So looking at your history of podcast now because you're up to, you know, what 140 I shows 30s, Now, I can imagine now that you probably, you know, have stories all over the place that you can pull from. But in the beginning, how did you actually reach out to those very first guests and say, hey, I'd like to feature your story on a podcast because, you know, there were traumatic events, outrageous events that capture the nation's attention that I always wonder how, you know, ABC NBC CBS. They're, they're going after people all the time. I have to imagine that your guests, they're probably not getting that or are they the people that I talk to? Don't get interviewed regularly.

They're not public speakers. Most of them they're not authors promoting a book. Sometimes we have those. But most of these people are only in the news just that one time because that one weird thing happened to them. And when I first started, I made a list of people, uh, list of situations like somebody that got struck by lightning or somebody that was attacked by a, uh, got bitten by a rattlesnake or something, you know, things like that. And then I started just searching for news stories and I got really lucky with the very first episode.

This wasn't a story for which I was even searching. I just came across it. This is a woman named Jennifer who lives in Texas and she was driving with, in her car at night with her two young girls and, uh, she caused a huge accident. Right. Yeah. Well, it wasn't huge but it was fatal.

Uh, she was pulled into the intersection, um, you know, motorcycle, she didn't see it coming from the left and he ran into her car and, yeah, she, I mean, the title of the episode is Jennifer caused a fatal accident. And, um, and, and on that one, I happened to get the 911 audio from when she called 911 from the road and she was laying, you know, the guy was laying in the road and she was with him. And, um, and that was, uh, it was just, I was very fortunate to have a story like that to start the podcast. And because, and, and I'm grateful to her because, uh, you know, she didn't know who I was, if this podcast was going to go anywhere or if it was wasting her time and, but she wanted to get the word out and, um, and she agreed to tell her story Fascinating.

Now you do get a lot of recordings, 911 calls and stuff like that. So I need to ask from another podcasters perspective. Do you just simply do that by a public records request? I mean, I can't imagine that police departments and places are just going to be willing to give over those records. How did you, how did you get those?

It's different with every jurisdiction. Um, and I deal with nationwide but, and typically they don't even keep those records longer than a year or two. But yes, it's, um, you, you, it is public information request. That's what it is. And sometimes they have to, again, they all make their own rules locally.

Sometimes they won't give it to you if it has any kind of medical information in it because of HIPAA regulations, other places I get full, you know, when they're talking on the phone, they say my name is, whatever this is my phone number. I'm at this address, you know, I have all of that information on some of them. Of course, I, I block that out. I don't publish that publicly.

But, yeah, it's just a matter of contacting the local juris, local jurisdiction, the police records department and, uh, find out who keeps track of it and make the request. Some of them charge money. Some of them don't.

Uh, but you just got to kind of jump into it and see how you can find and some of them, you know, they just, they don't have it anymore because it's been too long. So, what was that like dot com is the place where you can go and find out more about the podcast. You can do exactly the same thing with Scott that you do with mine.

Click on this follow button, uh, find it in your favorite podcast, Catcher folks. If you are, You know, if you listen to any of those shows that we talked about on TV, Dateline 2020 forensic files, uh, this is a podcast you need to listen to, uh, Scott Johnson does a fantastic job of, I mean, the whole process of getting the guests. Uh, I am, I imagine Scott that a lot of these people are reluctant to tell their story in the beginning. Um, do you have people where you've got to go back to them a couple of times or you have to kind of walk them through the process, baby steps, things like that. Yes and no. Um, I, I've had a few people who, it was just too traumatic of an experience that they, they just don't want to talk about it and that's fine.

I don't follow up with those people. I don't, you know, I don't want to feel like I'm pressuring them into doing this. Most people do want to tell their story for one reason or another.

Some of them are trying to raise awareness. Like I've had a woman who was the, the episode was called Jill was kept in a basement and she was a victim of human trafficking for three years. And she wanted to get out and tell me this is what happened.

This is how I got sucked into this and to, you know, to raise awareness for it. So in most cases, they're, they're not reluctant to tell the story, but they're nervous about how, how it works, you know. So I always do a pre chat with them before we, even before the day we were going to record or anything we get on. And so it's kind of like this with, it's kind of like a zoom call where we talk about, you know, this is how it's going to work. Here's what I'm going to ask you, you just tell the story.

It's just you and me. It's just the two of us just, you know, just a conversation between two people. And um I never mentioned the fact that, you know, it's going to be heard by 50 or 60,000 people in the next 30 days because that, that would not help their nerves at all. But I also tell them, you know, if you, if you mess up, if you have to stop and take a drink of water, if you have got to pause and think about how to answer something, that's all fine.

It, I edit this afterward. It's, we're not broadcasting live. Not like right now with you and me. If I say something stupid and it's going to, everybody's going to hear it, you know, you, you know, I don't edit. Right. Right. So, but I on my show, I edit minute by minute literally. So that the guest sounds as good as possible and these people, they don't get interviewed normally, but by the time you hear them talking on the, on the podcast, they are, they sound like professional storytellers. All right. So, and what was that like dot com? Uh head over there and follow Scott and listen to his stories. Uh One of my friends in the podcasting world and learning a lot on how to be more professional on the mic.

Yeah, this is, this has been a blast. I love it, I don't think I've ever done a live YouTube before. This is pretty cool.

Now you have and you'll get tens of views on, oh, all right. There's that sound. And you, my friend as a fellow Florida man. This is the part of the show that is titled Florida Man or Random question. But I know you, you're a Florida man. You, you understand the Florida man phenomenon? Well, right. I sure do. Yeah, I experience it all the time, all the time. All right. So we don't even have to ask because Scott already told me he has a Florida man story. So Scott, let's hear it. What do you have?

Well, this is, this is what happened. I was, you know, on my podcast, I play for my, uh, for the Patreon group. Anyway, I have separate bonus episodes where I play a 911 call and I talk about the story that went with it.

Well, on one of those episodes, the caller was me And they heard me calling 911 because I was on my way home from an appointment. I think it was a computer appointment actually driving down, uh, the road here in Florida. And, uh, I was on the phone with a client actually, and I'm speaking with a client. She's talking and suddenly I said, oh, no, I gotta call you back and I hung up because walking down the sidewalk where next to the road where I was driving was a young man, probably 25 30 years old, completely naked. Nothing on at all. And so I, he was going the opposite. What's that? It's a Tuesday night for us.

Well, uh, I, I, he was going the opposite direction. So I had to, I wanted to call 911 and let somebody know obviously something's going on here. So I quickly went up and turned around and I was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher as I was kind of following this guy, you know, to see where he's going to go. So I could let them know where to send the police.

And, um, I pulled over into a parking lot so I could still see his progress as he's walking down the sidewalk. And, um, another man approached him from behind, carrying something like a t-shirt or shorts or something to try to, you know, hey guy, put some clothes on here and they started fighting the, the naked man didn't want any clothes. And so, and, and then he turned around and ran. So now a naked guy is running away from the guy with the clothes. And so I got back on the road and started following him again. And eventually the police officer showed up good Clearwater policeman.

And, um, and that's, you know, that's when I left. But a few minutes later, maybe 20 minutes later, I got a phone call and it was that policeman that had stopped and he just wanted to let me know what had happened. And this was, there was apparently some type of a group home nearby and this man had gotten out and didn't want to wear any clothes. And so the guy that was chasing him with the clothing was one of the employees at the group home just trying to, you know, kind of Get him back in. So, but they, he was taken to the hospital for evaluation and um but he wasn't, he wasn't hurt or injured or anything. But um it made for an interesting story because now my listeners get to hear me. Call 911. There you go. Very nice. Very nice. Well, it's interesting that you had mentioned a naked man in your story because I the first two stories that I was going to choose, I was going to have you pick one for me. But I came across this story just a few hours ago and I'm dedicating this one to our Florida man friend, Mike Smith. And I'll just read the title nude Florida Man. Steal school bus in Pennsylvania puts dead deer inside.

You know, I read the headline of that. I didn't read the story, but that was just today, right? It was, yeah, that is how the Florida man operates. So a Florida man was arrested in Pennsylvania.

Uh, actually it happened yesterday. They reported it today. So he was arrested Tuesday after authorities said he stole a school bus and loaded it with a dead deer to fertilize his garden. So this is uh, in the Carroll township in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania. So Mike Smith, when you listen, you need to let me know where Dillsburg is. So while patrolling the area, officers noticed a school bus driving through the parking lot of a supermarket with its lights flashing intermittently, it exited the parking lot. Uh They attempted to do a traffic stop, however, it just came to a stop, then took off, came to a stop, then took off. And after a short time, uh, the bus continued to a neighborhood where the driver fled on foot into a wood wooded area. And as the man fled, he started stripping off his clothes. And despite its efforts, the man was arrested in the nude. And uh that makes for a great Florida man story in the state of Pennsylvania.

We are now we're exporting our Florida men. We are. So I'm going to have to start doing um soli solicitations for give me your Florida man in whatever state you live, right? Because they always, and I think I did this a couple of weeks ago where I was talking with somebody after the show and I had an alert pop up and it was a Florida man in like Kentucky, but they had to state the man was from Florida.

Wow, I'll bet Kentucky has some stories too. They probably do. Um All right, Scott. Well, I want to thank you for coming on the show and thank you. It was my pleasure. It was a blast. Thanks for giving us your computer history and giving the solo techs and residential tech out there.

Hey, the residential business is still booming. You can still make a go of it and uh be in the computer biz and for sharing your uh what was that like, podcast information. So, all right. And if anybody is listening and has a crazy story, I'd love to hear it. All right. So that's going to do it folks for this episode of the podcast.

No, uh post show tonight. And I will be back next week. I do have another Florida man on uh Michael Goldstein with Land Infotech. He is from right here in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He's actually only about two miles from my office. So we're going to share stories and uh have some Florida man talk ourselves. So, on behalf of my good friend Scott Johnson, that's going to do it for tonight, we'll see you next time and until then.