New Year’s Goals for 2017
By Cheval John
As we are into the new year, I want to reflect a bit on 2016.
2016 was regarded to some as one of the worst years ever.
They were a lot of tragedies that occurred that everyone of us wished did not happened.
Others will tell you that 2016 was a time of growth in their personal and business lives.
I am in the second boat because I have grown a lot in my business career and discovered some history here in Houston.
And the possibilities of live streaming has allowed me to record my show, What’s The Word? in front of a live audience via my Facebook page.
Of course, I had to deal with the challenges of working at a coffee shop while growing my business.
But those challenges did not stop me from producing content that solved the problems of my audience.
I will let you know that I don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions because people will break those resolutions in less than 3 weeks.
However, I will tell you my New Year’s goals:
1. To contiue to provide value to my audience on a daily basis here and on my social media channels.
2. To finally have an office (co-working space) where I can fully operate my company.
3. To continue to surround myself with people who will uplift me to be my best self and also give me constructive criticism.
4. To continue to stay away from toxic people who will try and bring me down.
5. To attend as many conferences as possible like Content Marketing World, Podcast Movement and Summit Live UK
6. To speak my mind more due to the bulls*** I see
7. To achieve my financial goals for my company
8. To interview Thalia, Richard Branson Ciamhie McCrory and Cathy Hackl on my show
I truly believe that many of you will have an awesome 2017 because you have put in the hard work and dedication into your business and careers.
So let’s make 2017 the best year ever.
Side Note: I will be blogging everyday for the next two weeks about the top 10 restaurants and coffee shops in Houston in anticipation of Super Bowl 51
Top 10 Livestreamers To Follow In 2017
By Cheval John
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOaYkoihqQL/?taken-by=chevaljohn
The world of livestreaming has evolved into a major force for social media.
Meerkat, which was the first platform to kickoff the livestreaming revolution in 2015, disappeared earlier this year.
Vine was shutdown while Periscope officially merged into the Twitter platform.
Instagram joined the livestreaming community with Stories, which by the way copied Snapchat.
Facebook’s platform went further by creating live video in their stories platform, which allows anyone to be live for 60 minutes before the video disappears.
And Facebook themselves created their own live streaming platform that allows anyone of their 1 billion plus users to go live on their accounts.
My guess is that Facebook will continue to dominate social media and even be the place where live streamers will broadcast their shows.
Which leads to the unfortunate “demise” of blab when the executives decided to shut down their service and leave many people who were still on the platform scrambling for other platforms to broadcast their shows.
The ones who left blab before their initial shutdown spread out to different emerging platforms like huzza.io, crowdcast and bluejeans network.
Note that bluejeans network was around for 7 years before they became a major force for live streamers.
Plus, the blue jeans network and huzza.io had the technology that allows anyone to simulcast their shows to facebook live.
Who knows what livestreaming platform will be around in 2017.
In the same manner, many livestreamers have flourished this year.
While some have disappeared from the livestreaming world.
I have decided to create the second annual “Top 10 Livestreamers To Follow In 2017.”
The criteria for making the list above is that a livestreamers show have to broadcast their shows on a weekly basis and also deliver value that solves their audience’s problems.
So without further ado, here are the top 10 livestreamers to follow in 2017.
1. Vicki Fitch
Mrs. Fitch is the direct sales expert and host Vicki Fitch Live on Facebook Live, where she interviews authors and other livestreamers who are making a difference in the world.
2. Ross Brand
Mr. Brand is the host of Livestreaming Universe, a show that features other livestreaming stars in the world.
Mrs. Wilkerson is a 2000 Olympian Gold medalist and is a motivational speaker as well. She served as an analyst for NBC during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. What is impressive is that she has embraced livestreaming and host her own show on Facebook Live on Sunday nights.
Jennifer host her popular Jenny Q Show on Facebook Live, where she interviews authors and livestreamers.
She moved her show to Facebook way before the shutdown of blab.
Mr. Jackson is the co-host of “The Show Live” and is know as the livestreaming lawyer.
Mrs. Hoverstad is the other co-host of “The Show” and is herself an attorney
Camila is the vice president of the Gulf State Home Buyers. She produces livestreaming videos on Snapchat to show her clients the process of buying a house.
Melodee, known as “Master Mel” is a fifth degree blackbelt and a TEDX speaker
Victoria is the owner of Blend Social and provide advice about livestreaming and business on Snapchat.
She is one of the founders of the upcoming Summit Live UK
10. Sarah Moore
Sarah is the founder of Eleven Lights Media, have achieved a lot more success with her business and was named among the “Top 50 Snapchat Accounts To Follow” by Mashable.
Honorable Mentions
Stacy is the host of Bible News Radio and host of Periscope VIP with Stacy Lynn Harp
Mr. Kapos is the owner of Perfection Chocolates in Sydney, Australia
His shows on Periscope transformed the company into a “global” brand.
Vincenzo Landino and Amy Schmittauer
The co-founders of Aftermarq host a weekly recap show about the changing world of livestreaming and social media called Afterthoughts
Taking A “Break” From Houston, Texas
By Cheval John
Happy that @Toyota is solving the needs of their customers. #avalon #letsgoplaces #houston pic.twitter.com/M9E2Fm7QVx
— Cheval John (@chevd80) December 15, 2016
It was truly exciting to have the new 2017 Toyota Avalon for an entire week because it gave me the opportunity to visit Huntsville, Texas and also The Woodlands, (a Master-Planned Community in the Houston area).
I used to live in Huntsville for 15 years due to starting college late (graduate from Lone
Star College in 2007 and from Sam Houston State University (SHSU) in 2009) before moving to the Houston area in 2014.
It was in that small city of over 40,000 that I became an accidental entrepreneur, a podcaster and an author.
What made the trip to Huntsville and The Woodlands more fun was the fact that the avalon had a Sirius XM stations that allowed me to discover awesome stations that was dedicated to jazz music and of course, ESPN Radio.
The trip to Huntsville from Houston is approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes.
The fact that the gas was still close to full was really impressive to me.
As I arrived on the SHSU campus in Huntsville, I saw that they were constructing new buildings.
And ate at the old Humphrey’s Bar and Restaurant and saw that the company had repainted the outside of the store.
A few days later, I decided to drive the avalon to the LSC-Montgomery campus to see what has changed and also see one of my former career counselors on the SHSU satellite campus adjecent to the community college.
SHSU opened the satellite campus in 2012 and it was truly awesome to let the career counselor know what has been happening in my business career since moving to the Houston area.
And of course, I had the opportunity to interact with the public relations representative, Carolina Guana, Vice President (Multicultural/Hispanic practice) at Allison+Partners, Greg Thome, Regional Communications Manager for Toyota and other influencers who were part of the Toyota Press Tour during the Houston Rockets matchup against the Sacramento Kings at the Toyota Center in downtown houston.
What I learned during the week with the avalon is the importance of business colloboration between the Toyota Corporate Office and the Gulf Coast Toyota Distributors (GSTD), which has been in business since 1969.
The representative from the dealership explained that the Gulf Coast Toyota is it’s own business and they have build a strong presence in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.
Gulf Coast Toyota also have done great work in the communities in the states where they serve.
What I also learned is that Gulf Coast Toyota was responsible for getting the naming rights of the Toyota Center, where the Rockets play their home matchups during the National Basketball Association (NBA) season and the naming rights for Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, the home of the FC Dallas soccer team and the site of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivison (FCS) National Championship matchup.
What I can tell you is that Toyota has stepped outside the box to contact bloggers and social media influencers in addition to the tradional media because they understand the changes that are happening in the media world.
They also understand the importance of customer service and they strive to provide solutions that will ease the concerns of their customers.
I have a strong intuition that more and more businesses will be turning to bloggers, podcasters and social media influencers in the near future when they are launching their new products and services.
And thanks to the week long loan of the Toyota Avalon Car, I had the opportunity to take a “break” from Houston, Texas.
Providing Value To Your Community
By Cheval John
December 11th, 2016
I had the honor of interviewing Rachel Miller on What’s The Word? about a month ago as she shared her story about becoming a social media strategist.
It was a dream come true because Ms. Miller has played an important role in my journey to become more proficient as a social media specialist and running my business, Vallano Media, LLC.
She was also the co-host with Brian Fanzo and Christin Kardos serving as the moderator of one of the most popular Twitter Chats at the time, #sbizhour.
I had interviewed Mr. Fanzo on the show early last year.
A few months later, I had interviewed Mrs. Kardos about her career as a community manager.
The story of how I discovered the awesome trio of #sbizhour happened in 2014 after I had quit a large retail chain I worked at for about four years while I was building my business (I submitted my two week notice to the human resource department there).
I was at the tail end of finishing my time as a freelance sports writer for the Huntsville Item as I was about to move to the Houston area at the end of July of 2014.
I heard about Twitter chats from people I was following on the social media platforms.
One of the Twitter chats I had discovered was #sbizhour, which was called #sshour in it’s first year of existence.
I saw how they ran the show as a Twitter chat and a Google Hangout and was really impressed by their multi-tasking skills.
As they changed the name from #sshour to #sbizhour in 2015, the Twitter chat got even more popular and was always trending on Twitter.
At the same time, live video was starting to get more popular thanks to Meerkat and Periscope.
I had no idea that they had moved their show to the live streaming platform called Blab later that year.
And when I got use to #sbizhour being streamed live on blab, I found out that the social media platform saved the audio and video of the live stream show if it was recorded.
That opened my eyes to the possibility of letting my audience see the live recording of What’s The Word? and even interact with the guest after the show was over.
It was because of Ms. Miller, Mr. Fanzo and Mrs. Kardos that I am now recording most of the shows on my business page on facebook live via huzza.io.
As #sbizhour continued to grow in popularity, each of the co-hosts has gotten more business opportunies for themselves.
Ms. Miller became a community manager for Pure Matter, a company co-founded by Bryan and Courtney Kramer.
Mr. Fanzo had gotten more speaking opportunities at major conferences including Social Media Marketing World.
And Mrs. Kardos became the community manager for Jay Baer
As the workload got extra for the trio, they decided that it was best to shut down #sbizhour after almost two years of providing value to their community.
What I can tell you is that Ms. Miller, Mr. Fanzo and Mrs. Kardos accomplished a lot in the short time of hosting #sbizhour than many businesses have done in their entire existence because:
1. They listened to the needs of their community
2. They were transparent with their community
What would happen if many businesses followed the example of Ms. Miller, Mr Fanzo and Mrs. Kardos in providing value to their potential customers?
You can leave your comment below
Using Values As A Standard For Business
By Cheval John
I am trying something new in 2017 for Vallano Media, LLC.
Every Saturdays, I will be putting together a recap of What’s The Word? where you will see the show notes from each episode.
Today’s recap is the episode with the guest of honor, Dr. Betty Uribe.
Dr. Uribe shared about her upcoming book, Values: The Secret To Success In Business and Life.
The show was recorded first on the company’s facebook live page via the huzza.io live video platform before converting into an audio format to air on blogtalkradio.
You will hear about how she had to make a difficult decision to move to the United States with her mother and siblings
You will also hear about how people close to Dr. Uribe envisioned her dining with the most powerful people on the face of the earth.
And why she believes that having true values will allow anyone to be successful in their businesses and lives.
Video snippet of the interview with Dr. Betty Uribe:
Full podcast episode of the interview with Dr. Betty Uribe:
Links to Dr. Betty Uribe’s website and social media pages:
Website: http://drbettyuribe.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DrBettyUribeValues
Instagram: drbettyuribe
Twitter: @DrBettyUribe
Upcoming live shows on BlogTalkRadio for this week:
January 12th at 2 p.m. eastern, 1 p.m. central: Tamara Thompson
January 13th at 1 p.m. eastern, noon central Ai Zhang
Who would you like to be featured on What’s The Word?
You can leave your comment below.
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