Chelsea Peitz, Snapchat Expert and Author of “Talking In Pictures”
By Cheval John
January 31st, 2018
Today’s episode of What’s The Word? features Chelsea Peitz, who is a snapchat influencer and author.
Chelsea works in the real estate industry and has built her brand using snapchat.
Many have thought that a business can’t see the return on investment (roi) with using snapchat because of the content disappearing in 24 hours.
Chelsea basically saw different as she formed a deep friendship with people who are now business partners via the snapchat app.
This has inspired Chelsea to write her book, “Talking In Pictures.”
She also hosts, “Chelschat,” a show about the latest third party apps and softwares to better improve your social media experience.
Chelsea has taken that same concept and launched her YouTube channel by the same name earlier this year.
In this episode, you will hear:
-what led her to join snapchat
-if snapchat will make it through this year
-the process of writing her book
-taking the leap into entrepreneurship
The show was recorded on Facebook Live via Blue Jeans Network
Snippet on Vallano Media TV
Full Episode on BlogTalkRadio
Chelsea’s LinkedIn Account
Snapchat: Chelsea.Peitz
Quotes from Chelsea Peitz on:
JOINING SNAPCHAT
My personality is kind of an all in personality.
So I committed to using it every single day for an entire year.
And I found some people that were in my industry.
Those four people turned out to be my closest friends in life and business partners now.
We have done so many things together.
We have created a community online.
We have created conferences.
If I would have told my mom two years ago that I was getting on a plane to meet strangers that I had never actually met in person, she would have said, “What are you doing, that’s unsafe. What are you thinking?”
There is something to communicating and building relationship with the camera that made me really think about how the landscape of social media and marketing was really changing and how we were creating these very close intimate relationships with people through the cameras in our smartphones that always had with us.
I started using snapchat and I didn’t know what to do.
So I said, “I’ll just make a show and I’ll share marketing tips everyday.”
As I kind of got into that, I kind of became known as the marketing person, the social media person.
Then I started doing a little bit more of my personal life and kind of my hilarious sense of humor.
I started to see an exponential change in the relationships that I had with people and I realized that you can’t do business all the time on snapchat, instagram stories and facebook stories because people really want relatability and relatability is the most underutilized marketing tactic today.
Going into this new adventure, I almost unknowingly built this global virtual board of directors and I can now reach out and collaborate with them and say, “I need somebody to teach me how to do YouTube.”
I have a great snapchat friend who is a YouTube expert.
Or I need somebody to teach me how to do SEO.
I have a great snapchat friend who’s an SEO expert.
The cool thing is that we’ll help each other and it’s like nothing I’ve never experienced before.
For me, snapchat is gonna have a very special place in my heart forever.
I’ll be very sad one day if they don’t exist.
There is something about holding someone in your hand everyday and watching their life.
You can’t fake who you are every single day all day forever.
So people really get to know who you are.
WRITING THE BOOK “TALKING IN PICTURES”
When I sat down with those people, “those strangers” if you will that I had never met before, we went to Salt Lake City and spent the weekend there and I brought my closest friend.
We were sitting in a Starbucks and my closest friend said to me “It’s really weird that it seems like you’ve known each other for years and I’m watching y’all talk and it’s just like you just saw each other yesterday.”
So that made me start to really think “What is different about snapchat” at the time because this was right when facebook live starte coming out before instagram stories.
It wasn’t specifically the platform itself.
It was the key elements that app brought to people which now other apps have.
It was really about the intimacy of the camera and showing your face because neuroscience we can’t help but connect with somebody when we see them eye-to-eye.
It was the psychological triggers of us going in there and getting feedback and wanting more.
It really changed from something that had happened in the past where we post something on facebook or twitter that had already happened to being this real-time visual communication which was a really fundamental shift in how we were creating communities and communication.
I didn’t rally know that when I started writing the book but I knew there was something that I wanted to do.
I documented that entire experience (writing the book) through snapchat and I will tell you that people sent me snaps of them holding my book and said, “I’m so excited. I watched you for a year writing this book on snapchat.”
That was really cool and that’s something very different about what you can do with these camera first platforms.
You can bring people into your story and become part of your journey.
You can document what you are doing and you never have to sell or give a sales pitch.
You don’t have any sales objections to overcome.
People will come to you and ask you to buy your product or sign up for whatever.
It’s the greatest experience ever and everything I do from here on out is camera first.
I also interviewed people for the book because I wanted to share the community and those people were really part of that journey with me because they saw the different pieces that were happening.
TRADEMARKING CHELSCHAT
You see all these big names and what-have-you and people say, “How did you come up with the name?”
Nine times out of ten, it’s completely accidental.
I was trying to rebrand a couple of months ago and I called my snapchat people that I talk to everyday.
I said, “I just need to come up with a brand name. I’m gonna do a YouTube channel.”
All of them were like, “When I think of you, I think of Chelschat”
It just came out.
It wasn’t anything that I had specifically planned.
People on the street call me that.
Chris Strub, Author of “50 States, 100 Days: The Book”
By Cheval John
January 17th, 2018
Today’s episode of What’s The Word? features Chris Strub, author of “50 States, 100 Days: The Book.”
The live streaming revolution officially started in early 2015 when Meerkat, now defunct, and Periscope was introduced at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
This led to many small business owners joining the live streaming community and building a strong personal brand.
People like Cynthia Bazin, Brian Fanzo and Sabrina Cadini.
Mr. Strub set a goal of live streaming from all 50 states of the United States while volunteering at non-profit organizations.
From the accomplishment of live streaming from every state, he got the opportunity to work with brands in the non-profit sector and was the good will ambassador for The Salvation Army late last year.
In this episode, you will hear:
-what led him to live stream from all 50 states
-the importance of businesses embracing social media
-the relevance of snapchat
Snippet on Vallano Media TV
Full episode on BlogTalkRadio
Website: www.teamstrub.com
Twitter: @chrisstrub
Quotes from Chris Strub on:
FUNDING THE TRIP TO LIVE STREAM IN ALL 50 STATES
At Binghamton, I studied English and Economics.
From the economics perspective, when you think about the value of your life, when you think about opportunity costs, which is if I don’t do this today.
What is the cost of not taking action?
What is the cost of not starting my own business?
What is the cost of just sitting there and do nothing?
For me, the cost of visiting 50 states in 100 days was somewhere around $11,000 to $12,000, which is a lot of money.
In the grand scheme of things in life, $12,000 is not the end of the world.
Certainly when you are comparing that to the cost of college, when you are comparing it to the cost of a graduate degree, it’s nothing.
It can be a drop in the bucket especially if you go to a State University of New York (SUNY) institution like Binghamton.
I’ve been reading this book by Chris Guillebeau, the first person to visit all 193 countries around the world, called “The Art of Non-Conformity,” where he talks about the alternative college experience and the way that the world has changed over these last few decades.
You can really gain so much valuable experience at so much less of a cost than going to obtain a traditional master’s degree just by reading certain books, connecting with certain influencers or download an app that will teach you a new language for free.
That is the philosophy I took with 50 states in 100 days.
I believe that I earned a master’s degree in the United States of travel, live streaming and social media.
That’s very special to think about.
I do not have a piece of paper on the wall to mark it down.
I think that having the chance to speak at conferences around the country, being entrusted with brands like The Salvation Army and working with Humana last year.
These are enormous opportunities that did not require me to get a master’s degree.
I went out and did all of this on my own.
You can make more money, but you can not make more time.
When you are thinking about what you are doing with your time, where are you investing your time, where you are living and who you are spending time with.
Even now in 2018, I have been thinking more and more about where I am spending my time, who I am speaking to, what stories I am watching on Instagram, what am I watching on YouTube, because your time is your most valuable asset.
It’s the one thing that we can not make more of.
When you invest your time in big idea and reading books and learning.
Reading books like “Talking In Pictures” by Chelsea Peitz.
You can learn so much just from taking action on what some of these influencers are recommending.
It is not rocket science to get a Gary Vaynerchuk book.
SETTING GOALS
The more you define your goals, the more you understand what success looks like for you, the better you can understand the importance of taking these steps along your journey.
For me, I think I have been a victim almost of not setting goals high enough.
In 2015, my goal was to visit 50 states in 100 days, that was it.
Know what happened, I visited 50 states in 100 days and then I looked around and said, “Now what happens?”
You almost expect the universe to deliver you something if you achieve your goal.
You are not promised the next step up.
You have to know what’s next.
BUILDING A STRONG NETWORK
If you are podcasting, if you are writing a book or going to a social media conference, what do you want to get out of it?
I’m blessed to have a lot of people from houston deep in my tribe like Rebecca Councill, Kristy Gillentine and Kristyna Torres-Cruz.
They are all such incredible special people.
I want to leave each conference with at least person who is in my circle.
BUSINESSES EMBRACING SOCIAL MEDIA
I would say that the biggest change we are seeing is good customer service being the new marketing.
We as customers come to expect, maybe not necessarily this great institutional social media strategy.
If I send them a treet, if I send them a facebook message, am I going to get a response?
What is the value of that response?
This one person said at Wendy’s, “how many retweets for free chicken nuggets for a year?”
Wendy’s said, “Eighteen million retweets”
So this person went out and get eighteen million retweets.
This was not a planned campaign.
It was a customer service representative at Wendy’s intelligently replying on-the-fly and that turned into one of the most brilliant social media marketing campaign of all of 2017.
What did it cost Wendy’s?
A couple hundred dollars of free chicken nuggets?
So I think that businesses need to be able to listen better.
They need to be able to understand the conversation that is taking place around their brand.
I would start with focusing on the micro-level.
Making sure that if someone is looking for a response from your brand, that you are answering it.
I think you are going to get a lot more return on investment (ROI) from starting there than you might get from trying to envision this enormous awesome social media strategy that only promotional.
Michelle Muenzler, Author and Nicknamed “The Cookie Lady”
By Cheval John
January 10th, 2018
Today’s episode features Michelle Muenzler, who is an author of many books and a speaker.
She has spoken at many conventions around the state of Texas including the Houston Comicpalooza.
The backstory of how I met Michelle happened when I was a last minute substitute to moderate a panel about how writers use social media to build brand awareness for a self-published author at Comicpalooza last year.
I had always heard a lot about Comicpalooza and how it was filled with celebrities who build their status with past shows.
Living here in Houston the last couple of years, I knew this was my opportunity to attend the famed event, so I was happy to moderate the panel.
While preparing for the writer’s panel in the meeting room, Michelle walked in asked if anyone wanted cookies she made.
I gladly accepted and I got to hear her presentation at comicpalooza.
In this episode, you will hear:
-what led Michelle to become a fiction author full time
-the importance of social media
-her favorite sports team
-why she left Twitter
-why she brings cookies at every convention she attends
This episode was recorded on Facebook Live via Blue Jeans Network late last year.
Snippet on Vallano Media TV (I had dropped my bag which had the computer and my screen had turned green. Thankful the computer is o.k.)
Full episode on BlogTalkRadio
Website: www.michellenmuenzler.com
Quotes from Michelle Muenzler on:
SPEAKING AT CONVENTIONS
Conventions are a lot of fun.
They are a lot of work, but a lot of fun.
I’m naturally kind of an introvert, so extroverting for a weekend takes a lot of work and mental preparation and a little body armor.
There’s something about just being able to go in and be on a panel with a bunch of other writers and just kind of talk shop that I know is really enjoyable.
The fact that comicpalooza (houston) invited me back two years in a row has been awesome.
I’m hoping to go again this next year (this year).
I do a lot of the Dallas area conventions, the small library conferences up at Roanoke (Texas).
Austin (Texas) has armadillo con which is always a lot of fun.
So it’s a great way to connect with people and hang out with other writers.
You get to hang out with fans and booksellers.
It’s like a giant happy family.
SOCIAL MEDIA
It can be a terrible distraction, but also a wonderful way to connect.
I tend to mostly hang out on Facebook because I can control a bit better how much I’m interacting.
I used to do a whole lot of Twitter, but I found myself obsessing too much over reading every single thing that every single person on my feed posted and it just got to be way too much.
I can’t shut my brain down enough to kind of let it be for the day and interact whenever I happen to cross over.
It’s been really great for getting writer news like information on markets.
Information on what’s going on in the industry.
Get to chat with fans and hear about everyone’s cats.
It’s allowed me to kind of get in touch with a lot more people.
FACEBOOK BEING HER FAVORITE PLATFORM
I think I like it because it’s a slightly longer format, but not too long.
It’s happening somewhat real time, well Facebook algorithms aside from how they keep screwing with the order we see everything.
People are posting whenever they feel like it.
They can post longer things about what’s going on in their lives.
You have a little bit of a chance to kind of react to it and talk about it.
It’s all consolidated in one space.
So it’s not quite as lengthy or like thrown out as a blog is.
I keep track of a number of blogs.
But I have a little bit of trouble just connecting with them on that same personal level.
There’s just something about being able to instantly interact on Facebook, but with it not being too short.
Like a comfort medium.
BRINGING COOKIES TO EVERY CONVENTION
What I found at conventions as a short story author is it’s a little bit easy to kind of disappear.
Even a lot of novelists kind of struggle with standing out.
It’s a very highly competitive industry full of fantastic writers.
So you want to stand out a little bit.
I found number one, the cookies kind of helped people remember me based off of that.
In addition, I also am rather the introvert and I found the cookies kind of helped give me a safety net or a magical shield a la Captain America minus flinging it at people.
When in doubt, pass out the cookies.
I can meet people and just randomly walk around and be like, “greeting stranger, have a cookie.”
It’s made it a lot easier actually to meet people and to break ice and to not get all caught up in my own head.
It’s been very useful for that and people actually recognize me.
At armadillo con this year (last year), someone came up and they’re like, “oh my gosh, you’re the cookie lady from comicpalooza.”
It works.
I spend the entire day before every convention baking those 700 cookies.
So it’s a lot of work, but a lot of fun and everyone loves cookies.
Do Not Underestimate The Power Of Twitter Chats
By Cheval John
We have heard predictions of how twitter was going to be bought by a major media company by a certain time.
We also heard how Twitter was not relevant anymore because they were not “growing” in user base.
Some saw twitter as a place where people spam others hoping to make a sale.
I can understand what they mean due to the constant automated direct messages from people who are asking to like their business page or subscribe to their blog.
The truth is twitter has always been relevant since it began in 2006.
Just because they have 330 million active users compared to Facebook’s almost 2 billion users does not mean Twitter is not important.
No other social media platform (with the exception of snapchat) have come close to where you can interact with anyone in “real time.”
There is a level playing field when you can chat with a celebrity or with an “influencer” any time you want to on Twitter.
Those who think Twitter is not relevant are missing a huge opportunity to stand out from their competition.
They do not realize the majority of journalists from media organizations have Twitter accounts.
Most of them will share another side of themselves and also interact with their fans.
The smart entrepreneurs will take the time to build a relationship with the journalists on Twitter and sometimes see the behind the scenes of what they are working on for a news cast.
This can save them from ending up in the journalists’ spammer list because most companies still use the dreaded press release in order to get placement in the media outlet.
If they share the journalists’ article consistently to their audience on twitter, the journalist will notice.
Unfortunately, most corporations and organizations uses twitter as a broadcast only channel to promote their events to the journalists on the platform.
They think the golden days of advertising still works today.
When they do not see the quick results from their tweets, then they whine like spoiled brats wondering why their campaign is not working.
They also will blame Twitter and tell everyone it is not worth the investment because they did not see the results they were hoping for.
That is probably why they thought social media was a fad because it clearly went against the conventional wisdom of advertising.
And why small businesses, mid-sized businesses and even micro-businesses will always win because they are using Twitter to build a community around their brand.
One of the methods they use to build a community is hosting a Twitter Chat.
A twitter chat are conversations with like-minded people surrounding a hashtag.
Think of it like a focus group that happens every week.
The topics can range from social media marketing, how to build a successful blog, or how to host events if you are in the event planning business.
The brands can use these twitter chats to learn more from the community.
They can even get topic ideas for their blog.
Most companies produces a recap from the twitter chats on their blog and feature the best answers from the participants.
This is another way for the company to highlight their community and share their expertise with their audience.
This is the cherry on the cake for the participants because they are contributing to the twitter chats and also getting exposure to the host’s blog audience.
The participants in turn can share the twitter chat recap to their audience on social which gives the brand exposure to prospective clients.
They can also create a press page on their website featuring the recap from the brand’s blog.
It’s a win-win for both the twitter chat host and the participants.
For those who are looking to run a twitter chat in the new year, here is a list from the most successful twitter chats.
#TwitterSmarter: Thursdays at 1 p.m. eastern time
Twitter Smarter is hosted by Madalyn Sklar, a podcaster, business coach and houston social media power influencer.
She started the chat in mid 2015 after her podcast by the same name became very popular.
The chat talks about ways to use twitter wisely and has a plethora of guests.
Twitter Smarter also became very popular due to the number of participants who are there on a regular basis.
Another reason for the fast growth is Madalyn has hosted another twitter chat for five years surrounding the Go Girls Community prior to starting Twitter Smarter.
#ContentWritingChat: Tuesdays at 11 a.m. eastern time
Content Writing Chat is hosted by Express Writers.
Topics surrounds putting out quality content, having a content calendar, seo, etc.
This chat also features guests who shares valuable information to the community.
Each month, they have open forum in which they ask the community tips on improving their content.
#ChatGram: Tuesdays at 1 p.m. eastern time
Chat Gram is host by Ken Watson, a houston social media power influencer
This is the first twitter chat surrounding the use of instagram.
Participants share on topics like the importance of instagram stories and how to spot bots.
The chat also has guests who are experts on instagram.
#ChatSnap: Wednesdays at 2 p.m. eastern time
Chat Snap is hosted by Kristy Gillentine, a former journalist and houston social media power influencer.
This is the first twitter chat all about snapchat.
Participants attend this chat to learn about building a community on snapchat, how businesses can benefit from snapchat, etc.
This chat also features guests who are experts in all things snapchat.
#MediaChat: Thursdays at 10 p.m. eastern time
Media Chat is hosted by Aaron Kilby, vice president of sales and marketing for Artisan Colour.
Guests have included experts ranging from social media to live streaming.
#WinnieSun: Wednesdays at 2 p.m. eastern time
This chat is hosted by the co-founder of Sun Group Wealth Partners, Winnie Sun.
It features different experts from the finance industry who share tips on managing your money.
Topics also surrounds social media which Winnie Sun has leverage to gain the right clients for the company.
#BlogElevated: Mondays at 10 p.m. eastern
Blog Elevated is co-hosted by Bobbie Byrd and Lisa Stauber.
Topics range from improving your blog to using live streaming.
The twitter chat is an extension of the blog elevated conference which brings in speakers who are experts in blogging.
Both co-founders are houston social media power influencers as well.
Did I miss any twitter chats from this list? You can leave your comments below.
Podcast Anniversary Milestone Worth The Wait
By Cheval John
February 7th, 2018
Today’s episode of What’s The Word? featuring Kate Frappell, Design Lead at ManageFlitter is a very special show.
Kate is also the co-host of It’s A Monkey Podcast and is the producer of the popular twitter chat, #socialroi, hosted by Madalyn Sklar.
This episode marks the fifth year anniversary when I started the podcast on this very day.
I basically used my cell phone to host the show because I felt at that time I did not have the resources to spend on a microphone or editing type of equipment that goes into podcasting.
The platform I still use to this day to launch this show, blogtalkradio, made it simple for non-tech people like me to schedule the show and allow me and the guest to dial into the platform.
From there, the show goes live as an online radio show and then they process the interview and turn it into a podcast feed to distribute to iTunes (now apple podcasts), stitcher and google play music.
I honestly had planned to start the podcast in january after I had created the account with blogtalkradio.
However, the guest basically changed her mind and let me know she could not be a part of the podcast.
This taught me a lesson which I basically would recommend to anyone who is thinking about starting a podcast.
Never ask someone outside of the people you know very well to be a guest on your show if you are just starting out with a podcast.
Most of the time, the outside people will be nervous because they do not know what to expect if you are launching a podcast for the first time.
It is much better to have a track record of your show when you are pitching to most of the big name people because they want to make sure that your podcast fits their business or their brand.
My first guest was a professor at Sam Houston State University (SHSU), who had served in the white house during the ford and reagan administration.
I will admit that a bit of miscommunication led to a shaky start in the early going of the show.
But when the guest arrived, the show went well and had over a 1,000 downloads to my surprise.
In the first year and a half of hosting the show, the majority of my guests were professors and college coaches from S.H.S.U.
From there, the guest became more diverse due to the fact that publicist were reaching out to me to interview their clients and even from building long term friendships on social media.
Then the live stream revolution changed the direction in how I host the show.
Meerkat was launched in february of 2015 and was introduced at South by Southwest the following month of the same year.
Ironically, Periscope was launched in March of that same year and became an “instant hit” with consumers.
The live video platform, blab, was launched around mid-summer of 2015.
This app was the first to host entirely on computer and not on smartphones which gave people like me who did not own phones with apps at that time to participate in the live streaming revolution.
It also had the ability to record the live stream which would be saved as an mp4 video and a mp3 audio which made it easy for me to upload to blogtalkradio.
This also made me realized that I would need a quality microphone to make the live stream work.
So I bought my first microphone and jump right in the live streaming revolution.
As the saying goes, social media changes in an instant.
And that is what happened to the live streaming apps.
Meerkat disappeared within a year and blab basically disappeared in that same time frame.
While Periscope later integrated with Twitter and Facebook Live was officially launched in early 2016.
What is interesting to note is that the smart video companies have pivoted their services to be as compatible with the bigger social media platforms which are dominating the live streaming revolution.
Platforms like Zoom and Blue Jeans Network, which has been in business for years before the live streaming revolution, integrated their platform with the likes of YouTube Live and Facebook Live.
So now I am recording all of my podcast using facebook live via blue jeans network and today’s episode is part of it.
In this episode, you will hear:
-how Kate decided to become a designer
-how she became the lead designer for ManageFlitter
-what inspired Kate to live in Canada for an extended period of time
-the importance of live streaming
-why businesses should embrace social media
This episode was recorded on Facebook Live via Blue Jeans Network in January of this year before ManageFlitter’s one year anniversary of hosting the #socialroi chat.
Snippet on Vallano Media TV
Full Episode on BlogTalkRadio
Website: www.katefrappell.com
Twitter: @katefrappell
Quotes from Kate Frappell on:
STARTING THE #SOCIALROI TWITTER CHAT
I think mainly we just wanted to get the manageflitter name out there and better build relationships with our customers and our audience.
From our point of view, get inside the minds and find out what products they are using, how they are using them, why they like certain things and learn from them so that we can implement it into the internet social as well.
It’s been really good.
When I first started, I was like, “Oh, I’m not sure this twitter chat thing is all about” and now, I really like it.
I think they’re great.
I’ve met a lot of great people through twitter and joined all sorts of different twitter chats and had opportunities like this to talk on podcasts.
It’s been really good.
Great exposure as well.
That’s sort of the journey for #socialroi.
BUSINESSES HOSTING OR PARTICIPATING IN TWITTER CHATS
Twitter chats are an opportunity to log in and chat with other like-minded people or people who know more than you.
If you are an entrepreneur and you want to learn about, let’s say, social media marketing, you could jump on the #socialroi chat and find out how you can improve your return on investment using social media.
Everybody in the chat talking about the same thing.
We have different topics every week and you can just learn so much as an individual or as a small business.
You can meet people who give you business opportunities.
It’s sort of a never-ending cycle.
I think it’s really worth putting the time into networking.
From a personal point of view, I mean a lot of entrepreneurs starting out are very busy and there is a lot of networking events that you physically have to attend.
But for a twitter chat, you just have to log in.
You do not have to even leave your desk.
I think it’s fantastic.
LIVE STREAMING
I think it’s still growing to be honest.
I do watch some live streams, but they are not the first thing I go and look at.
If I log into facebook, I’m sort of just scrolling through my newsfeed as I am used to.
But, I will click on the occasional live stream and they end up being very valuable.
So I think it’s just a matter of time before people kind of adopt and get use to watching these live videos and understanding who’s behind the businesses that are hosting them.
I think I read recently that 80% of people would rather watch a video than read something, especially people on social media.
I think it’s gonna be good.
I think it’s really going to take off.
The other thing as well is it’s evergreen.
For example, even if someone’s not watching this video right now, it’s going to be on your facebook page and people can come back and watch it at any time.
PODCASTS
Podcasting is becoming more popular definitely.
Even if you look now at the amount of softwares that are out there to help with podcasting.
One of the big problems we have with the monkey podcast is not getting enough analytics.
The fact that Apple is actually building this software to look into the analytics of podcast listeners is saying a lot like where podcast is going, how popular it is, why people are listen to it.
Business people and entrepreneurs are going to need it if they are going to take on podcasting.
It has a lot of potential especially with mobile devices now.
It’s nice to listen to something other than music sometimes.
WORKING REMOTELY
We use slack internally.
That makes it super easy to message each other.
Slack made a huge difference in opening that communication online.
Plus, the time zone is not terrible.
9 a.m. in Sydney, Australia is about 2 p.m. pacific time here in the west coast of Canada.
So I have the morning by myself and then the afternoon, everybody is online.
It’s basically like working in Sydney, Australia in the afternoon.
It’s been really good.
Twitter obviously helps as well.
Everybody is on twitter quite a bit because the whole product surrounds twitter.
I would say that there’s e-mails as well and a little bit of skype.
Really, I just have to credit slack.
ON MOVING TO CANADA
What led me to come over here was I’ve always really liked Canada for some reason.
My aunt would give me travel guides to Canada for Christmas.
In 2015, I did a lot of traveling to New York, East Coast Canada, West Coast Canada and Alaska before going back home.
I got a taste of the different parts of Canada and most of the highlights which is sort of the nature of the bus tours.
I really like the west coast of Canada and knew I wanted to come back here.
I kept working and saved money.
Then I was like, “You know what, I really want to go and live there.”
I applied for my visa and I got it.
I had a chat with Kevin (Garber), who is the boss of Manage Flitter and he thought about it for a bit and said, “Look, we rather you keep the job and work remotely than quit.”
I said, “Thank you.”
I really like the team.
It worked out really well.
That’s how I ended up here.
BUSINESS OWNERS OR EMPLOYEES WORKING REMOTELY
I would recommend it in the sense.
If you have not worked remotely before, it’s a whole new adventure.
Make sure you put the time into your day and have the discipline to work, but also have the discipline to switch off because you can just stretch your work day out forever.
I’m finding a good balance and the flexibility is amazing.
So sometimes, if I want to do something fun in the morning, I can and then I can start my day a little bit later and I’ll be online when everyone in Australia is online and I can work a little bit late into the night to make up for that.
It’s a huge learning curve from a working career perspective.
If you go to a new place, it’s a whole new culture to learn.
You make a lot of new friends.
You have to put yourself out there.
It sort of pushes you outside of your comfort zone which is really important I think.
Who would you like to be a guest on What’s The Word? in the future? You can leave your comment below.
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