You Never Know Who Is Watching You
By Cheval John
When someone starts on a journey towards success for the better, they see what their final destination is suppose to look like.
They might see other people’s success and think “why I am not achieving the same success as them?”
In a lot of ways, many sports teams or universities are caught up in the comparison game.
For example, Texas A&M recently completed their renovation of Kyle Field that increased their capacity to 102,000 fans.
That upgrade made them the largest stadium in the state of Texas.
And if that is not enough, Aggie students, professors, alumni and supporters can boast about their stadium as being the largest in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the fourth largest stadium in the United States and the 6th largest stadium in the world.
That will probably motivate their in-state rivals, the University of Texas, to spend a whole lot of money to try and upgrade their stadium to regain the status as having the largest stadium in the Lone Star State.
The reason why I brought up this example is that many of us who are entrepreneurs or even podcasters will compare ourselves to others who seemingly are more successful.
If we see a podcast have more downloads than ours, then we start to question ourselves of whether we are putting out valuable content for our listeners.
When we fall for the comparison trap, we sabotage ourselves from seeing the small wins that we achieve everyday for the better.
Just because you don’t see the same metrics of success in your valuable work does not mean that you are not successful.
Plus, it might not be your time to be in the limelight as yet.
Jeff Brown, who host the Read to Lead Podcast, gave an excellent presentation at Podcast Movement on ““How to Prepare, Polish and Execute Great Interviews Every Time.”
Unbeknowest to him, Dixie Gillaspie, who is an author, speaker and a coach, was sitting in on his presentation.
A few weeks later, he was featured in Ms. Gillaspie’s article, “The First Step to Starting Anything Is Getting Over Your Perfectionism” on Entrepreneur.com.
Even though Mr. Brown has been successful with his podcast and business, his career is going to another level because he was diligent in his preparation in making sure that his presentation at Podcast Movement delivered value to the attendees which led to him being featured in Entrepreneur.
I can say that I know first-hand on how important it is to always deliver valuable content even though I don’t see the results as others for the better
As many of you might know, I have been hosting an online radio show/podcast called “What’s The Word?” on BlogTalkRadio for over 2 years.
Recently, I started using Blab to record my podcast and later upload it to my BlogTalkRadio to air every Monday nights.
Sometimes I would get a little discourage because I did not see the high number of views on the live recordings on Blab like others.
At the same time, I know that people who are there are impacted for the better because: “They Needed To Hear What That Particular Guest Had To Say At That Specific Moment.”
And because of the due diligence of putting out a quality show on Blab, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was featured on Ebony Magazine’s article called “Look Who Blabbing“by Lynne D. Johnson.
Being featured on a major media outlet like Ebony was validation that I am bringing value to people with my live podcast recordings on Blab.
In conclusion, if one person is listening or watching your valuable content, then you are already successful because that one person can open up the doors to you connecting to a wider audience for the better.
Have you ever fell for the comparison trap? You can leave your comments below.
Blue Jays Partying Like It’s 1993
By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of toronto.bluejays.mlb.com
The Toronto Blue Jays have found themselves in a similar position against the Kansas City Royals.
Toronto lost the first two games in the American League Championship Series’ best of seven matchups in Kansas City.
They are trailing the Royals 2-1 and are trying to tie the series today.
So far, they are losing 12-2 with the matchup in the bottom of the eighth inning.
If you are a casual baseball fan who are into post-season baseball, you might believe that Toronto have no chance of tying the series.
If you are a Blue Jay fan, you believe that Toronto can pull off a comeback to win the series and advance to the World Series.
Who can blame the fans of Toronto for feeling optimistic about winning the series.
The Blue Jays faced a similar situation in the American League Divisional Series best of five matchup against the Texas Rangers.
Toronto lost the first two games in their own stadium against the Rangers.
They had the most difficult task of going to the Dallas-Ft.Worth area facing elimination to win two consecutive games to bring the crucial game 5 back to their city.
Not only did they survive elimination twice, they thrived in both of those matchups with 5-1 and 8-4 victories, respectively.
That set up the crucial Game 5 in Toronto.
The atmosphere in Toronto was electric because it was the first time they were in the post-season since 1993 when they won the World Series.
Texas had taken a 3-2 lead in one of the strangest plays in post-season history.
With a runner on third base, the catcher was trying to throw back the baseball to the pitcher after and it hit Shin-Soo Choo’s bat and went into fair territory.
That became a live baseball and allowed the runner to score.
Though the umpires first ruled the baseball dead, they look at the replay and saw that the baseball was fair play and they overturned the first call to upheld the lead at 3-2.
The Blue Jays could have complained about the misfortune of that baseball play and give up.
However, they knew that they had the opportunity to take the lead and win.
The Blue Jays chipped away and was able to tie the game at 3 courtesy of three errors.
Then Jose Bautista delivered a 3-run moonshot to give them a 6-3 lead and cause the fans at Rogers Centre to erupt.
The moonshot from Bautista completed the most epic comeback that allowed the Blue Jays to be in this series against the Royals.
What we can learn from the Blue Jays is it is never over until it is over.
You might feel down and out because you did not get that dream work whether with a public relations firm or got rejected from the dream university.
Just because you feel down about the rejection from the dream work or university does not mean that it is the end of the world.
In the same way like the Toronto Blue Jays, you must keep the faith and believe that everything will work for the better.
When you have that positive believe and put in the hard work and be patient, the doors will open for you to succeed for the better.
In the same way that the Blue Jays fans erupted for joy after the moonshot by Bautista, your true fans will explode with applause when they see you succeed.
The Resilience Of Kansas City
By Cheval John
The Kansas City Royals was facing elimination in the first round series against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.
The Royals, who won the American League Central Division, all of sudden was down 6-2 after a two-run home run by Carlos Correa and a solo home run by Colby Rasmus.
Many thought that the game was over.
I felt confident that the Astros was going to move on that I had posted this video on Instagram of the home run.
And even the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott posted a early congratulations to the Astros with this Tweet reported by the Houston Chronicle
The Royals had other ideas.
They slowly chipped away at the lead with straight singles that loaded the bases and then scored each of the baseball players to 6-4.
Then the ultimate shock came when hit a sharp ground ball that was deflected off the glove of reliever Tony Shipp and then took a strange bounce and went off the glove of Correa that allowed both runners to score to tie the game at 6.
A batter later, Alex Gordon hit a ground ball that was deep enough that allowed the go-ahead run to score to make it 7-6.
Then in the ninth, Erik Osmund hit a two-run home run that put the nail in the coffin for the Astros and forced a Game 5 in Kansas City.
The Royals believed that they could make a comeback to win the matchup and have the opportunity to win the series against the Astros.
We can have the same mindset like the Royals in believing that we can be successful in our business even if we are drowning in debt or are struggling to be profitable with our business or our lives.
When we keep the positive mindset of believing that we can be successful in our business and life for the better, everything will start to work out for the better.
What’s The Word Episode
Here is the episode of What’s The Word? with guest Gordon Tredgold, author of FAST.
Mr. Tredgold shared about how the “FAST” method has helped him to turn around fortune 100 companies and also run his first marathon at age 52.
Blabbing Towards Success
By Cheval John
I recently had the opportunity to share about the live streaming platform called Blab on SEMRush’s blog.
SEMRush is an SEO and Analytics company that provide analytics reports and also competitive research on different companies.
I shared about how Blab has changed live streaming and also the do’s and don’ts’ when you are participating in a Blab chat.
I’ve been using Blab to record my podcast, “What’s The Word?” for almost a month and have an account with them for 66 days.
I can say that Blab is a game changer for podcasters and even for sports writers in a huge way.
Once they are finished with their blab shows, if that same episode was recorded, the blab team will send you the replay of your blab show in audio and video format.
This is an example of one of my episodes that was recorded with guest Kayla Chatkewicz of Smyelin Media, Inc on Blab.
Later, I uploaded the same interview with Ms. Chatkewicz for my podcast on BlogTalkRadio.
All I have to say is that Blab will be one of the most popular live streaming platforms in the future because they are making improvements to their platform everyday.
To see more about the dos and dont’s when you are participating in a live blab chat, you can check out the article here on SEMRush.
Houston Is Not “Kind” To Stephen F. Austin State
By Cheval John
Photo courtesy of www.gobearkats.com
The city of Houston has not been good to Stephen F. Austin State University in recent years.
The Lumberjacks were looking to snap their winless streak against their arch-rivals Sam Houston State University at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
Unfortunately for them, they came out winless after a 34-28 matchup loss to the Bearkats that was played in front of record crowd of 26,990.
The Lumberjacks won the inaugaral “Battle of The Piney Woods” held at NRG Stadium (formerly Reliant Stadium) in 2010.
Since then, they have lost to the Bearkats.
SFA had everything going for them in the first half as they held the Bearkats to only 3 points and only 171 yards of total offense.
At the same time, the Lumberjacks has connected for two touchdowns to make it 14-3.
One might believe that SFA would have continued their momentum going into the second half.
That was not the case.
Sam Houston exploded for three huge punt returns, (two returned for touchdowns and another that set up a field goal by Luc Swimberghe) that gave them a 24-21 lead.
The two punt returned for touchdowns was courtesy of Gerald Thomas (78 yards) and Yedidiah Louis (53 yards).
The Lumberjacks could not recover from the punt returns and ended up losing to the Bearkats for the fifth consecutive year.
We played well enough to win, for the most part, with the exception of maybe three plays, but that seems to be the same song, fifth verse,” Coach Conque said to the Houston Chronicle.
The lesson that can be taken away is that no matter how hopeless it seems to achieve your goals as a writer, podcaster, etc., you must continue to work hard to get that breakthrough.
Sam Houston kept on working hard despite being out of rhythm in offense and in the end, found a way to defeat their arch-rivals Stephen F. Austin.
And speaking of continuing to work hard to gain your breakthrough, I can finally share with you the What’s The Word? episode with guest Alissa Trumbull, co-founder of the #BizGalz Twitter chat.
The first two times in trying to air the episode, they were some wi-fi connections problems that caused me to put out the episode on a different time from the normal Monday night time slot at 8 p.m. eastern, 7 p.m. central.
Like they say, “Third Time Is A Charm.”
Here is the link to the video version of the interview with guest Alissa Trumbull.
And below is the podcast version of the interview with Mrs. Trumbull.