Jenn Herman, Author and Founder of Jenn’s Trends
by Cheval John
This week’s episode of What’s The Word? features Jenn Herman, founder of Jenn’s Trends.
Jenn’s Trends has been named a Top Ten Blog by Social Media Examiner in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Jenn has author/co-author three books including Instagram for Business for Dummies.
She has been featured in media outlets including Inc. Magazine, Yahoo Finance, and Fox News.
In this episode, you will hear
-how she started Jenn’s Trends
-why businesses should not over-react with the algorithm changes in Facebook
-how she got the opportunity to co-author the Instagram For Dummies Book
-why businesses should embrace live video
Snippet on Vallano Media TV
Full episode on BlogTalkRadio
This episode was recorded on Facebook Live via Blue Jeans Network
Website: www.jennstrends.com
Twitter: @jenns_trends
Quotes from Jenn Herman will be out soon.
Beth Frates, M.D., Founder of Wellness Synergy
By Cheval John
March 7th 2018
Today’s episode of What’s The Word? features Beth Frates, M.D., co-author and founder of The Wellness Synergy.
The Wellness Synergy provides people the tools and skills needed to optimize their health and wellness.
Dr. Frates decided to enter the medical field after a health scare with her father when she was eighteen years old.
In that time, she earned a degree in both biology and psychology from Harvard University and earned her medical degree from Stanford University.
Dr. Frates co-authored the book “Life After Stroke: The Guide to Recovering Your Health and Preventing Another Stroke” published by John Hopkins University Press.
In this episode, you will hear:
-the transition to founding the Wellness Synergy Center
-why moving around can help your brain
-how social media helped Dr. Frates to stand out in her profession
Snippet on Vallano Media TV
Full show on BlogTalkRadio
The episode was recorded on Facebook Live via Blue Jeans Network
Dr. Frates’ Website: www.wellness-synergy.com
Twitter: @BethFrates
You can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcast, Stitcher and Google Play Music.
Quotes from Dr. Beth Frates On:
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
There’s pressure to perform and produce.
I think it was very heavy in the 80s where my dad was living in New York City and running his own company.
I believe there’s similar pressures but I do think it’s a little better.
People talk more about family, work-life balance than they did when my dad was experiencing his health setbacks.
So I think we have made some strides.
I think especially entrepreneurs and those who are responsible for the profits of the company still feels stress about the employees and making sure they can provide a good life for the employees and for the clients or customers or whatever their business is.
I think there’s still a lot of stress.
The idea though is if you don’t take care of ourselves, if we don’t have proper nutrition, exercise, sleep, then we won’t be at our best and we won’t perform at our best.
So the tide is changing slightly in we’re understanding you cannot pour from an empty cup.
If we want to do our best job at work, we really better take care of ourselves so that we are our best for everyone else instead of I’m not important, I just have to get the work done, get the work done, get the next client.
We need to realize we can do that better if we have the energy, if we have a clear mind, if we have a sense of purpose, if we feel good about social connections, if we feel good about our relationships with those around us and with those at work, we’ll be more productive and be able to really give our best authentic selves to those around us.
EXERCISING FOR THE BRAIN
Most who people think about exercise think about the heart which is right.
Exercise is really good for our heart and our cardiovascular system.
We can reduce blood pressure.
We can reduce cholesterol.
We can do a lot of good by exercising and we can even increase insulin sensitivity.
What we don’t tend to think about is what exercise does to the brain.
A lot of physicians don’t tend to know this.
We know know that after exercising, you get an increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which is also called “miracle grow” for the brain.
It helps neurons to make new connections and it also increases neurogenesis.
All very good.
Research shows that if you look at MRI’s, you can look at the hippocampus, a specific part of the brain that is intricately involved in consolidating memories.
So if you want to keep your memory for a long period of time, exercise should be on you list.
One-half of people who are 85 or older have memory problems.
So if you want to be in the half that does not have memory problems, I recommend exercising.
How much do we need, that’s the question.
There’s a lot of research still going on around that.
But, the recommendation is to accumulate 150 minutes of moderate intense physical activity in the week which is like a half hour, five days a week.
If you want to exercise more on the weekends, you could be doing half hour, both days on the weekends or you could be doing an hour both days on the weekend depending on your schedule.
You get all the benefits that exercise can give to all your organs including your brain.
The ten minutes come from the United States Health and Human Services Department which holds all the data something like 8,000 studies that were done on exercising.
They found that if you exercise ten minutes, yes, just ten minutes every day for a total of 70 minutes, your chances of getting sick or dying goes down dramatically.
If you are not exercising three days a week for 30 minutes for three months, you are considered at a sedentary level, which means sitting down.
If you are considered sedentary, you have an increased risk of a heart attack and a stroke.
SOCIAL MEDIA
I did not want to get involved with social media.
I did for a very long time use LinkedIn because that’s very professional.
You set up your account and you connect with people.
It seemed as if I didn’t have to have interaction.
You would connect or not connect and that would be it.
I wasn’t very involved with messaging or posting or anything.
So that worked for me really well.
Our department of physical medical rehabilitation at Harvard University which is based at Spaulding Rehab Hospital has a lot of great research and a great program.
In April of last year, the department said, “We’re all doing great things, but nobody knows what we are doing. We have to get up with the times. Yes, we’re physicians, but we need to promote our programs in order for them to survive and thrive.”
So they encouraged us to get on Twitter and post.
I have a colleague, Dr. Julie Silver, who basically set me up and taught me about Twitter.
I’ll never forget I did not know how to tweet.
I did not know how to retweet.
I did not understand if someone put an @bethfrates that meant they wanted you to retweet.
There’s a whole world of twitter that I did not know.
As I was figuring out twitter, I found it to be remarkably fun.
It was enjoyable.
It was not drudgery because I like learning about other people.
I like learning what other people are doing.
It’s fascinating.
It’s great to see what other people are doing and posting.
I am involved with many different physician groups and I’m also involved with other patient groups.
I feel like I’ve gotten a lot out of Twitter.
In fact, I have actually made friends from twitter that I would have never have met.
Some are not even in this country (United States).
Certainly not in my state or in my department.
I gained friends and some colleagues I might be presenting with.
I have gotten opportunities like this and other podcasts to do because of twitter.
I’m finishing a book proposal hopefully this year and I have been told that you need to have a following of some kind.
They have asked me, “How many people follow you on twitter?”
It helps if you have some followers because then the publicist thinks, “Okay, she could potentially sell this book. There are people who are listening to her.”
So that might help me.
Jen Oleniczak Brown: Author and Founder of The Engaging Educator
By Cheval John
February 28th, 2018
Today’s episode of What’s The Word? features Jen Oleniczak Brown, founder of The Engaging Educator.
The company helps organizations find their authentic voice to be successful.
Jen worked in a museum when she started the company on the side in 2012.
As of today, The Engaging Educator has served more than 30,000 students across 33 states.
Jen written a book called “Improv(e), Using Improv To Find Your Voice, Style, And Self” from her experience in running her business.
In this episode, you will hear:
-what led Jen to found her company
-why she self-publish her book
-why people should engage on social media
-how her acting background helped her to be successful with her company
This episode was recorded on Facebook Live via Blue Jeans Network
Snippet on Vallano Media TV
Full Episode on BlogTalkRadio
You can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcast, Stitcher and Google Play Music.
Jen’s Company Website: www.theengagingeducator.com
Twitter: @JenOleniczak
Quotes from Jen Oleniczak Brown on:
SELF-PUBLISHING A BOOK
I just found a self-publisher that I liked.
A close friend designed my front and back cover.
Of a million edits beyond anything, there’s is still one error that people keep pointing out to me and I’m like, “Thank You”
OVERCOMING FAILURE
I teach people to make mistakes and to fail.
It’s better to fail than to wonder what if.
It is such a powerful thing to fail because when you are in your worst, I think you learn the most because you are at the lowest possible point you could be in.
In that same sense, when you want to create something, it’s never gonna be perfect on the get-go.
It’s always gonna be something.
How I see failure is by knowing my definition of success.
My definition of success is doing something and pushing forward.
So failure for me is doing nothing.
As long as I am not sitting back and waiting for the world to happen to me, then I’m succeeding.
If the first step back that sets you back and causes you to quit, then you probably aren’t doing the right work.
I think it’s like one of those ideas that if you love what you do, the hard times are worth it.
I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
I couldn’t imagine being anything but what I am right now.
I look back at how upset I was when I quit acting and I was like, “Oh, that so strange” because now you can’t get me on stage.
I hate it.
I have no interest in doing it.
I’m glad I didn’t end up on a movie or something that made me a lot of money because I feel like I would not be as happy as I am right now.
IMPROV AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Improv is listening and responding.
That’s it.
At it’s core, you listen to what’s happening around you.
Not just with your ears, you’re listening with your eyes.
You are seeing what is happening around you in all senses and responding to your environment.
If you think about social media, we are not only taking it in, we are responding to it.
We are adding our opinion.
We are adding attention to it.
When you are truly thinking about being social on social media, you want to be having conversation.
You want to be responding. You don’t want to be spouting out information.
If you are spouting out information, then you have a firm reason about why you are doing this like your means to an end.
Is it just because this is what you do and this is the only thing you do?
Then that’s not social.
It’s just informative.
If we were having a conversation like this, it won’t be fun if we’re not listening or paying attention to one another.
If you ask me, “Jen, tell me about your book” and I start talking about my dog, then it’s a disjointed thing.
I think people do that often on social media for some reason.
The facebook change is attempting to bring it back to the roots of having a conversation like I say something, you say something, I say something back.
In improv, that’s actually called a three line conversation.
I see all of my interactions on social media as a three line conversation where my job is not to negate what someone else said.
My job is to add something to it, even if I disagree because it’s all just opinions.
Instead of saying like “hey you think that social media needs to be super social, but I like to consume things,” I negated what you think.
I’m just choosing to be social in this too.
I think people are running for the hills because we’ve automated so much.
You can’t schedule everything anymore.
You have to communicate.
You have to be part of something.
You can’t just say, “Well, I’ve got my month scheduled out” or “My social media intern can run this.”
Critical conversation is not attacking people.
Examining behavior isn’t attacking.
It’s asking someone to practice what they preach.
You are just calling them out on what they are saying.
Dr. Joyce Knudsen, Founder of The ImageMaker, Inc® Communications Group
By Cheval John
February 21st, 2018
Today’s episode of What’s The Word? features Dr. Joyce Knudsen, founder of The ImageMaker, Inc® Communications Group
It was recorded on Facebook Live via Blue Jeans Network
Dr. Joyce is the author of ten books including “Refusing To Quit: True Stories of Women Over The Age of 60”
She is the host of “The Twelve Minute Inspiration,” where she interviews authors, business professionals and entrepreneurs on making your time count during your lifetime.
The show is on the Gab Radio Network.
Dr. Joyce has been featured in many media outlets including Forbes.
I first learned of Dr. Joyce last year through the twitter chat called #winniesun, hosted by the co-founder of Sun Group Wealth Management, Winnie Sun.
Her simple approach to being a giver of wisdom allowed her to build over a million followers on Twitter.
In my personal opinion, she is more knowledgable of the social media industry than half of the social media professionals.
In this episode, you will hear:
-her thoughts on podcasting
-how she built over a million followers on twitter
-why people should focus on giving value on social media
-why she does not believe in retirement
Snippet on Vallano Media TV
Full episode on BlogTalkRadio
You can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcast, Stitcher and Google Play Music.
Website: www.drjoyceknudsen.com
Twitter: @drjoyce_knudsen
Quotes from Dr. Joyce Knudsen on:
LISTENING TO YOUR AUDIENCE
People do not listen.
They are listening to figure out what to say next.
So they are not really interested in what someone else has to say.
I call those fake people because people that are interested in other people listen.
They not only listen to what they have to say, they look at the person’s expression, the nonverbal which we are being judged on.
We are not being judged on conversation.
We are being judged on gestures.
Only seven percent of what you say is really going to be heard or counted.
It’s very interesting.
I am a communication specialist.
So I know a lot about how people perceive and everything is perception.
There is no such thing as something that is true.
It is your perception of what is true.
Perception is reality.
USING SOCIAL MEDIA
There’s a lot of true takers on Twitter.
I’m a true giver.
Takers are asking you to do something, wanting to introduce you to some kind of new thing.
I’m not there for that reason.
I’m there to just spread the word about joy and love and giving around the world.
I feel that I’ve had a really good life.
I have obviously learned how to have a professional and private life that is a good one.
That is what I want to teach other people and I hope my tweets are doing that.
OBTAINING DOCTORATE DEGREE LATER IN LIFE
I think I was born wanting to learn especially since the doctors told me I could not given my eyesight.
I always was a learner.
At 38, I went back to college for a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree.
I waited a while after that because I was tired of spending time in the books.
I think at the age of 48 or 49, I went to get my doctorate degree because I figured in my image profession which a lot of people do not know what that is.
They think you only take people shopping or you do their colors or you’re a makeup artist or something like that.
Those are hard skills.
I wanted to do much more with soft skills.
With the empathy.
With the helping people to believe in themselves.
Like I say in my twitter handle, “You are enough.”
So I went back to school and I was in pyschology and maybe three-quarters through, they changed the psychology cirriculum to human services and you had to work for a doctor for two years in order to get the degree.
I said, “Wait a minute, I’ve got my own business, I had it for 20 years, I do not really want to work for somebody now and give up my business.”
I ended up getting the degree in human services with an emphasis on psychology and self-esteem image.
I can’t stop learning.
If there was another degree, I’m going for it.
I’m a continuous learner.
If you sent me a book, it would have to be an audio book or a large print book.
I take a lot of continuing education courses.
I like to learn.
Every answer you get it’s gonna be very simple.
I’m not simple, but I like to boil things down to their lowest common denominator.
DEALING WITH A VISION IMPAIRMENT
When I went to school and I was called cross-eyed and four eyes, I evaluated myself.
I did not know any other way to see it.
My eyes do not work in the middle.
They do not see up.
They don’t see down.
They don’t see the side.
They don’t work together.
So cataract surgery is something they are wanting me to do.
When I was leaving home in my early 20s, I said to myself, “Everybody’s got to deal with something.”
So this is what God gave me and I can handle it because God does not give anything you can’t handle.
So I decided at that time, I was gonna be the best I could be and help as many people as I can.
There was no looking back because I’m not going that way.
Why would I go back to when people calling me names and telling me all these things that were not true?
I actually look in the dictionary a lot of things people were calling me and I thought, “That’s not me, I’m a research company.”
I said, “Okay, you know, I look regular.”
I feel I’m special because of it.
I have a special condition.
That’s why I do as much as I do because I don’t want to let one day go by without some new experience and some new friends.
I guess that’s just me and I wish other people would be move that way.
They don’t realize how many friends they could have.
I’ve made another several wonderful friends on facebook.
I work with gab radio network and they are wonderful to me.
I feel so lucky.
But then, it is not always luck.
I’ve worked hard to get these relationships with people where they know Joyce is not full of it.
She’s really the real deal.
I was so happy to meet Winnie (Sun).
She was my first favorite person on Twitter.
I love her.
She’s just great.
I really love twitter.
I see myself as the hundred year old person who still on Twitter helping people as I have to give up my business by then.
They say when you get older, nothing changes except for that you do everything slower.
I have a sense of humor.
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.
Share this: