July 2024 Content Wrap-Up

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I can’t believe we’re already in August. I honestly don’t know where the time went.

Wait. Scroll down. THAT is where my time went. But I’ve been enjoying myself. When you can cherry-pick your work and only do the things that you love, time flies. At the start of the month, most of my kids came to visit us for 4th of July celebration and the lake. Good fun with extended family in a rental house in Herriman followed by a quiet weekend and an empty house for the weekend following. It was a quiet month for travel, but a lot of activity…and change…happening around me. No major events, but lots n’ lots of meetings as I help build out the governance practice at Smarter Consulting, in case you missed the PR. Details below.

On the content front, I’m staying busy with the CollabTalk Podcast every Thursday, the pre-recorded #MVPbuzzChat interview series posted every Monday, the new Project Failure Files live streams every Monday morning, and the monthly Guardians of M365 Governance shows. Being scheduled for August are two, possibly three webinars, more of the shows outlined below, and further progress on two of three planned books. I’ll share more details soon. For now, here is the content that I produced (and published) in the month of July:

Working with Smarter Consulting

That’s right – as an independent consultant, I’m working with Sharon Weaver and team to build out a Governance practice, detailed below. I’m also helping with marketing, partner management, and doing some client work. We have some big plans taking shape, so be sure to watch this space for more updates.

  • Introducing New Microsoft 365 Governance Services [blog]
  • Launching New Governance Services [Smarter blog]
  • Maximize Your Microsoft 365 Investment with Smarter Consulting’s Governance Offerings [Smarter Consulting]
  • Building an Effective Microsoft 365 Governance Strategy [Smarter blog]
  • The 3 Roles of Management [Smarter blog]
  • Conducting an M365 Governance Self-Assessment [Smarter blog]

Web Shows

I’m starting to get the hang of this live streaming thing, and the quality is definitely improving. As you can see from this list, I’m slowly starting to venture into the world of video shorts, publishing them to YouTube, Instagram, and anywhere else that supports portrait mode videos. And with Guardians, we’ve added fellow MVP Joy Apple as a permanent co-host. I’d love to increase the frequency of the show to twice a month, but with all that is going on, that may have to wait until the new year. Lots more coming to this category. In fact, I need to harass MVP Shari Oswald about our idea for a new bi-monthly series…

  • Project Failure Files: Bridging Communications Gaps, Ep.3 [blog | YouTube]
  • Project Failure Files: The Balance Between Tools and Technique, Ep.4 [blog | YouTube]
  • Project Failure Files: Consistency in Messaging and Approach, Ep.5 [blog | YouTube]
  • Project Failure Files: Ignoring Leadership and Team Dynamics, Ep.6 [blog | YouTube]
  • Project Failure Files: The Impact of Ratings, Rankings, & Reviews, Ep.7 [blog | YouTube]
  • It’s not about quantity of praise but about quality of praise #ProjectFailureFiles #Shorts [YouTube]
  • The importance of the project post-mortem #ProjectFailureFiles #Shorts [YouTube]
  • You gave a performance review without actually talking to the person? #ProjectFailureFiles #Shorts [YouTube]
  • Summary of Guardians of M365 Governance Episode 7 with Richard Harbridge [blog | YouTube]

Interviews

The podcasts are continuing to grow and expand, with plans to create separate YouTube channels for each so that I can more easily promote each. If you want to get to know Microsoft MVPs and RDs from around the world and hear their origin stories about becoming MVPs, then tune in every Monday for a new interview. And the CollabTalk Podcast episodes continue to roll out every Thursday (unless it falls on the 1st of the month, like today) with guests talking about business and technology and modern workplace culture.

Ask Me Anything

Only 7 new episodes from the Microsoft 365 AMA series were published this past month, but don’t you fret — many more episodes have been recorded, and I’m expanding on this project, as well. The domain has been secured, the new YouTube channel  established, and there will soon be a standalone website and promotions around this expanding series. While I’ve been doing all of the post-production, the new site will have more admins and additional content types. Planning to make some announcements later this fall.

  • How can I restrict who accesses my PDFs in Copilot? #M365AMA [blog | YouTube]
  • Why am I not seeing new posts in the Teams mobile client? #M365AMA [blog | YouTube]
  • How do I add SharePoint folders into Teams channels? #M365AMA [blog | YouTube]
  • Why does a long source URL corrupt my SPO migration? #M365AMA [blog | YouTube]
  • How far back can I restore my deleted emails? #M365AMA [blog | YouTube]
  • Which Microsoft app is best for managing projects? #M365AMA [blog | YouTube]
  • Is it possible to livestream a Microsoft Teams meeting? #M365AMA [blog | YouTube]

Content Strategy

One of my long-running projects continues to build, with plans for a book sometime in mid-2025, as well as a subscription service for people/small companies looking for strategic marketing help.

  • Content Strategy: Crafting Compelling CTAs [blog]
  • Content Strategy: Storytelling in Content Marketing [blog]

Other Articles

I penned a couple of other articles that didn’t fit into one of the categories above.

  • Maximize The Value of Your IP with AI [blog]
  • Celebrating Independence Day [blog]

Music

There is no shortage of planned Blue Plate Special posts, sharing from the catalogs of some of my favorite bands over the past 40 years. I’ve been focusing heavily on the 80’s new wave genre, but slowly adding more modern bands. You’ll soon see more of a focus from the 90’s and 00’s, but still with the alternative, indie, electronic elements.

  • Blue Plate Special: ABC [blog]
  • Blue Plate Special: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark [blog]
  • Blue Plate Special: Crowded House [blog]
  • Blue Plate Special: Siouxsie and the Banshees [blog]

Blatant Self-Promotion

And finally, some blatant self-promotion. You’re welcome.

  • Five Reasons to Follow Me on YouTube [blog]
  • June 2024 Content Wrap-Up [blog]

And that wraps up the month of July. No travels in August, but more great content as I close out the final month and achieve my goal of daily blog posts for THREE YEARS! What will I do when I reach that goal? I haven’t decided. We’ll just have to see when we get to that fork in the road…

Christian Buckley

Christian is a Microsoft Regional Director and M365 Apps & Services MVP, and an award-winning product marketer and technology evangelist, based in Silicon Slopes (Lehi), Utah. He is a startup advisor and investor, and an independent consultant providing fractional marketing and channel development services for Microsoft partners. He hosts the weekly #CollabTalk Podcast, weekly #ProjectFailureFiles series, monthly Guardians of M365 Governance (#GoM365gov) series, and the Microsoft 365 Ask-Me-Anything (#M365AMA) series.