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Yogi Berra Was A True Influencer

By Cheval John

Photo Courtesy of www.frontiermedia.com

Photo Courtesy of www.frontiermedia.com


Yogi Berra was one of the most recognizable people in the sporting world.

He personified what it meant to be a great baseball player and a great person.

This past Tuesday, Mr. Berra passed away at the age of 90.

Mr. Berra won 10 World Series championships with the New York Yankees.

He also was a part of history when he caught Don Larson’s no-hitter during the 1956 World Series.

Many can say that he was Mr. Yankee because he had the heart of the champion and also played a huge role in making the Yankees the most recognizable brand in the world.

And he even transcended the sports world in a good way.

For example, ESPN’s College Football live did a segment of Mr. Berra’s famous quotes as it pertained to each college football team who were vying for a chance to make it in the College Football playoff.

And many people whether in the sporting world or outside of the sporting world had their reactions to the passing of Mr. Berra.

And each of the Major League Baseball teams had a moment of silence for Mr. Berra

One of the things that many should understand is that Mr. Berra lived his life to the fullest and stayed true to himself.

He will be truly missed by everyone.

And to close this post out, here are some of Mr. Berra’s famous quotes below that everyone including entrepreneurs can live by:

“It ain’t over till it’s over”

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”

Arrogance Always Leads A Team To Lose

By Cheval John

The New York Giants had the football matchup won against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Sunday night.

They were leading Dallas 26-20 with under two minutes to go and were in the red zone to possibly seal the win.

New York had forced three Dallas turnovers in the matchup.

Most of the time when a team have three or more turnovers, they should lose the game.

On the fourth down play, quarterback Eli Manning was flushed out of the pocket and threw the football away that resulted in the turnover of downs.

That football play by Manning left Dallas with about 1:40 to drive about 80 yards to take the lead.

Quarterback Tony Romo, who is currently leading the NFL with 4th quarter comebacks, was able to led the team down the field that included a game-winning touchdown pass to tight end Jason Witten to stun the Giants.

If Manning had taken the sack and not try to throw a touchdown pass in the red zone, Dallas would have only had less than a minute to go down the field and they would probably have not won.

Let’s just say that Manning gave Dallas an early Christmas gift that benefited Dallas.

When businesses don’t look at better options that will make them better, they will end up driving their company to the ground.

They will have the arrogant attitude that the old way of doing business still works in this day and age.

Companies who stay with the mindset of the old way of doing business will end up losing their customers and will be like Blockbuster, Kodak and the Giants.

When companies or solopreneurs take the time to listen to feedback from their mentors or customers,
they will always win new business and build fan loyalty.

What’s The Word?

Hope everyone will check out this episode of What’s The Word? with guest Scott Barlow, who is the founder of Happen To Your Career.

He shared about his journey to how he started Happen To Your Career and also his podcast by the same name.

Check Out Business Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Cheval John on BlogTalkRadio

Video courtesy of the NFL

Achieving The 200th Episode Of What’s The Word?

By Cheval John

The journey to podcasting has been a fun and challenging.

There have been times when I thought about giving up on my podcast, “What’s The Word?” on numerous occasions because I “felt” that no one was listening.

Also, I thought about giving up because I had some cancelations of some guests almost at the last minute.

I could have been like the majority who quit their podcasting journey by their 50th or 100th episode because the average downloads of a podcast episode is 141 according to the website, School of Podcasting

However, I knew that I could not give up podcasting because I loved to interact with the people who did not allow self-doubt, naysayers, etc. to stop them from achieving their goals in order to make the world better.

I can say that I am apart of the few who have continued to podcast because I had my 200th episode last night and interview a great friend by the name of Nicole Welch on the platform, BlogTalkRadio.

Check Out Podcasting Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Cheval John on BlogTalkRadio

Mrs. Welch host a fantastic podcast called “Real Time, Real Men Only.”

She is a person who knows how to lift people up and her journey to podcasting is very unique.

I could have done the 200th episode without a guest and shared some of my favorite episodes from my show.

However, I felt that it was important to stay in the routine of bringing on guests who are making the world better by sharing with the audience on how they overcame their obstacles on their journey to success.

I will say that podcasting is not easy because you have to put in the work and dedication to make it work.

For example, last week, technology did not coorporate and I could not get the episode of my show at the designated time at 7 p.m. central on Monday night.

I could have thrown in the towel at the moment and said, “It was not meant to be for me to record the 199th episode of the show.”

As I learned during my time as a podcaster that if you want to be successful, you must be consistent in putting out your show at a scheduled time that will allow you to grow your listener base.

In this case, I knew I had to get the episode in for that week even if it was not at the designated time at 7 p.m. central on Monday nights.

Luckily, I was able to record the 199th episode with my Twitter friends, Chris Barrows and Bree Kelley and share the show on Friday afternoon.

Check Out Social Networking Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Cheval John on BlogTalkRadio

The episode was great because both Mr. Barrows and Ms. Kelley shared valuable insights on Twitter chats, social media and the fact that Ms. Kelley was going to be the community manager for Mr. Barrow’s podcast, “Why I Social.”

The other lesson I was reminded of when achieving this milestone of the 200th episode of What’s The Word? is that no one can succeed in life without help from their friends.

Mr. Barrows and Ms. Kelley helped me to get to the 200th episode by when they took time from their busy schedule last week to be on the 199th episode.

I am forever grateful to the both of them.

Another thing that will separate the minority who are successful in their careers as a podcaster, writer, etc. and achieving their goals of living a fulfilled life for the better is that success does not happen overnight.

They understand that they will have to put in the hard work and dedication in order to achieve their dream life for the better.

They also understand that people are looking up to them to be successful in their careers as a podcaster, author, writer, author, etc. because they want to be inspired to be successful for the better as well.

So I can say that achieving the milestone of the 200th episode of What’s The Word? will inspire me to achieve my goal of being financially independent so that I can live a fulfilled life and make the world better.

Achieving Career Success Is Hard Work

By Cheval John

Sometimes things might not go the way you planned it if you are trying to build your business or achieve your career goals.

Life always “gets” in the way of your plans.

The ones who are successful are the ones who understands that they must adjust to what life throws at them.

At times, they might complain about the fact that they did not get into the desired university like Harvard.

Or complain that they were not drafted by a specific team if they are a professional athlete.

However, they decided to push through their shortcomings on not achieving their desired goals and work very hard to be successful.

That is what separates the most successful people who are in the minority and the rest of the world who decide to complain and feel sorry for themselves.

Jerry Rice, who is the all-time leading receiver in the National Football League (NFL), was overlooked by many major universities because they thought he was not the right fit for their football programs.

So he ended up playing football at Mississippi Valley State University in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

During his time in the FCS, he excelled as a wide receiver and even had a huge campaign during the 1984 season when Mississippi Valley State scored 629 points that helped them to gain national attention.

After his collegiate career was over, he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ners, where he won two Super Bowls in 1989 and 1994, respectively.

In the process of winning two Super Bowls, Mr. Rice became the all-time leading receiver in the NFL.

Mr. Rice did not allow the setback of not playing in a major collegiate football program to stop him from making it to the NFL.

Instead, he worked extremely hard to become one of the best receivers in the game of football and was able to achieve greatness as an NFL wide-receiver.

It is always important to never allow setbacks to ruin your chances of achieving your dreams as a writer, podcaster, professional athlete, etc.

If you put in the hard work and dedication, you will enjoy the richness of achieving success in your dream career.

Have you faced any setbacks on your journey to a dream career? You can leave your comments below.

Video courtesy of the NFL Network

Pushing To Achieve Your Career Goals

By Cheval John

Photo Courtesy of Stuart Miles

Photo Courtesy of Stuart Miles


The thing about chasing your dreams as a writer, public relations practioner, sports professional, etc. is that things will not come easy.

You might think there is an easy path to achieving success.

That is not the case.

For example, those who aspire to play professional in Major League Baseball (MLB), have to go through the different levels of the minor league system.

If that person is really good, they will get called up to the Majors within a few years or even a year.

Now let’s delve deeper into the minor leagues.

The people who are in the minors don’t have a huge salary like their counter parts in the majors.

They have to travel for most of the year and probably have to pay their own way as well.

That can lead to them having stress and even doubt their abilities to be a major league baseball player if they have been in the minors for such a long time.

Most might think about quitting their journey to become a major league baseball player and will end up giving up on their dreams of playing baseball in the MLB.

For those who keep their dreams alive, they will eventually achieve their goals of playing baseball in the Majors.

People like Alan Zinter.

Mr. Zinter spent a long time trying to make it to MLB.

At that moment, he had a family to support and it seemed like he was not going to achieve his dreams of playing baseball in the Majors.

I can guess that they were times that Mr. Zinter wanted to quit.

But he saw that he had to keep on chasing his dreams because people were looking up to him.

Eventually, Mr. Zinter kept his dreams alive and made it to MLB in 2002 with the Houston Astros and again in 2004 with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Though it was short lived, Mr. Zinter achieved his dreams of playing Major League Baseball.

Maybe you had thought of quitting your podcast, blog, writing career, etc. because not many people were listening or reading your blog.

You might have been feeling a sense of defeat because you see others are successful with their blogs or podcast with the high number of downloads or viewership.

The truth of the matter is that everyone have faced that sense of defeat and wanted to quit at one point or another in their writing or podcasting journey.

I know I have at one point or another wanted to quit podcasting or blogging.

The thing that has kept them going with their podcast or blog is they understood that it is a marathon and not a sprint.

The truth is that people are watching you whether you see it or not.

You have to keep on pushing towards the obstacles in order to achieve your goals as a writer, podcaster, professional athlete, etc.

You might never know who you will be impacting for the better when you finally achieve your goals of succeeding as a writer, podcaster, etc.