Reboot

Howard M. Cohen returns to this Substack with renewed inspiration and a clearer, crisper approach. As always, please do the R-R-R, read, respond, and recommend!!!

I’ll start by thanking all you readers for your patience. If you follow my other Substack, “What Do You Want” you know that I fell and broke both my arms early last July. Recovery has been challenging but consistent.

During this period of recovery, I’ve had a great deal of time to think about what I would want to change about this Substack. Looking back, I realized that I was overthinking and overdoing it. Too many sections. Too much needing to read down to find regular features. It just wasn’t the dialogue I originally envisioned having with the channel community on a regular basis. As usual, simpler would be better.

Revisiting my original reason for launching this Substack helped. As many of you know I write a column, “The Evolving MSP” for Redmond Channel Partner magazine, which succeeded my earlier column, “The Changing Channel” eight years ago. All told I’ve been writing that column for nearly 15 years. I also write “The Citizen Developer” for Application Development Trends and “Practical AI” for PureAI Magazine.

All three share one core objective: to talk about the reader and their world rather than the vendors who sponsor the publications. In 35 years as a channel executive all I found myself reading about were mergers, acquisitions, nasty strategic moves, new products, new executives, and other news about vendors. There was relatively little to help me make my business work better. The objective for me was and still is to write only about my reader, talking about strategies, best practices, observations, or anything else that would help them find ways to improve their business.

As news spread of my serious injury, many of my long-time and more recent friends from the IT channel reached out to see how I was feeling, and how my healing process was progressing. It was an excellent reminder to me that I owe my entire career and the total enjoyment I’ve experienced in it to the channel community. That’s who I write for and about, and that’s who I’m devoted to helping in any way I can.

I named my company and this Substack “TechChannel Results” and I call myself a “Senior Resultant” because most every great experience I’ve had in this channel has taught me that it’s all about results, and nothing else. All the effort in the world doesn’t grow a business or increase success until and unless it delivers results.

So, in “TechChannel Results” my goal is to always discuss those amongst us who are achieving results, those who have thought deeply about how to consistently achieve results, and anything that illuminates ways in which we all apply the technologies emerging all around us to help clients grow their businesses, knowing that their growth will fuel our own.

Let’s Discuss

Over the past 16 years since I left “active duty” in the channel and became a full-time freelance writer, my best experiences have been the articles I’ve written that inspired responses. Today, I always try my best to foster conversation. I want to keep learning from all of you and share what we discuss with others so they can contribute to the conversation as well.

Share your observations with me and let’s get them out there. Just email me at hmc@howardmcohen.com.

When I say something that triggers your thinking, click “Leave a Comment” at the bottom of the article and share your thoughts. I’m constantly discussing channel concepts with friends throughout the industry and will often come back in future blogs with answers to your questions or expansion on what you’ve shared.

Looking forward to continuing to grow my channel friendships and help lift the entire community to new heights of professional recognition and respect.