Live Streaming Stars To Pay Attention To In 2016
By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of blog.ditley.com
As we are 28 days away from 2016, we can reflect on how much live streaming changed the way we look at media.
We knew about live streaming from major media platforms like ESPN, who broadcast their sporting events using their apps.
And marketers indicated that they were going to focus more on doing live video this year according to the Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Marketing Industry 2014 report.
That same report indicated that marketers were using YouTube to showcase their expertise and promote their business.
It makes sense to a large degree because YouTube is the second largest social media platform in the world behind Facebook.
Plus, YouTube is owned by Google, the world largest search engine.
So if you are on YouTube, you have a huge opportunity to get your business more exposure due to Google Algorithms.
That is great news if you are a small business owner.
At the same time, you will have to work twice as hard to build your audience on YouTube because you are competing with other business owners.
According to Expanded Ramblings, there are 1 billion people who uses YouTube.
You are among the number of people who are trying to gain an audience with your uplifting message and building a tribe.
So if live streaming is going to continue to be more important going into 2016, how do you stand out from the crowd?
You will have to be more creative on how you use video to gain a loyal following.
This year has brought out live streaming platforms like Meerkat, Periscope and Blab.
Meerkat has in a way become more irrelevant.
So I will only focus on Periscope and Blab.
Periscope is raw video where people can share their lives with the world.
It has allowed many business owners to showcase their expertise and grow their business for the better.
The catch is that the video only lasts for 24 hours and then it is gone.
That allows a person to grow a loyal community and increase their business for the better also.
And with Apple TV now integrating Periscope into their product, your periscope shows will have a much wider audience.
Though I have not used periscope personally, I can say that the live streaming app is a one way street because there is not much engagement with the audience.
Which now leads to blab.
Blab is a combination of Meerkat and Periscope that was launched in April.
The live streaming platform allows four open seats plus you can actually see who is in the room of your show.
You can also see what people are saying about the topic that you are chatting about in your blab.
Plus, if a person that is in the room of your chat wants to join in on one of the four open seats, they can join in the open seat with the host’s approval of course.
That makes blab in my opinion more interactive.
What is also cool is that if you recorded your blab show, they send you the audio and video file of the show.
That gives the person the opportunity to turn their blab shows into a podcasts.
And since podcasts have a much smaller competition compared to YouTube (about 300,000 to 1 billion), respectively, they are able to stand out from the masses of people who are on YouTube.
The biggest difference is that blab is still in beta form and the staff are making improvements to the live streaming app.
That means small business owners, who are using blab in beta, are way ahead of their competition because they are building a loyal community.
Periscope and Blab have allowed people to become thought leaders.
I can guarantee that these live streaming stars will go to the next level in 2016 and continue to uplift people to build their business to profitably for the better.
Here are the 10 live streaming “stars” everyone should look out for in 2016
1. Vicki Fitch-Author, Speaker
2. Robert C. Stern-Owner of Social Leader, USA
3. Victoria Taylor-Owner of Blend Social
4. Jennifer Quinn-Host of The Daily Q Show
5. John Kapos-Owner of Perfection Chocolates
6. Melodee Meyer-Founder of the Fit Free Project
7. Adel de Meyer-Social Media Specialist
8. Saba Sedighi-Founder of iStreamSocial
9. Sarah Moore-Digital Strategist
10. Kohleen Liddell-Social Media Strategist
Do you agree with the list above. Who am I missing from this list? You can leave your comments below.
Melodee’s Journey To Becoming A 5th Degree Blackbelt
By Cheval John
Melodee Meyer is a lady that many people should look out for in 2016.
The reason is because she has accomplished so much in her life that many would dream of accomplishing.
Melodee is a successful business owner, runs the Fit Free Project, spoke at a TedX event and holds a 5th Degree Blackbelt.
Because of her rise in the different levels of karate, she was inducted into the Karate Union Hall of Fame.
Melodee mentioned on my show. “What’s The Word?, that one of her favorite people who inspired her to be successful is Bruce Lee.
I can understand why she admires Bruce Lee.
He was trying to be successful in Hollywood as a martial artist.
However, Hollywood was not ready to give him the lead role in movies because he was not what most people who have lead roles were at the time:
white.
Though he was successful in television, Mr. Lee knew that if he wanted to get his positive message out into the world, he needed a larger audience.
So he went to Asia to film movies which he was the lead character and became a successful movie star in Asia.
And because of his success as a movie star in Asia, Hollywood finally gave him the lead role in a movie which unfortunately was his last movie due to his death.
In the same way as Mr. Lee, Melodee choose herself in order to be a successful entrepreneur for the better.
Will not be surprised if Melodee goes to the next level in her business for the better.
To hear more of her journey to success for the better, here is the video and the audio link to the interview with the guest of honor, Melodee Meyer:
Video version of the interview with guest Melodee Meyer:
https://blab.im/96222749cc5043be86e946537ecb2859
Audio version of the interview with guest Melodee Meyer:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/vallanomedia/2015/11/24/melodee-meyer-founder-of-the-fit-free-project-1
Hard Work Will Always Pays Off For Better
By Cheval John
You put in the hard work towards your business in order to make it profitable.
You see other people achieve their success for the better with their business and wonder why I have not achieved the success yet.
In that instant, you get discouraged and strongly thinking about giving up on your business.
You go through the pity party and will not want to be cheered up by your closest friends.
You complain almost every time and have a crappy attitude about your business situation.
It seems that you are not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in which your finally see profits in your business.
The truth is even if you are not seeing the “splash” in success does not mean that you are not succeeding.
When a person keeps chipping away at solving people’s problems, they are slowly but surely will achieve their breakthrough for the better.
For the sports professional and I will use baseball, a batter goes through a slump at times.
It might seem that they are not making progress to break that slump.
They are working on their swinging mechanics everyday to be a better hitter.
Once they break that slump, their confidence in hitting the baseball returns and they are able to contribute to their team for the better.
I can say that I have achieved small wins everyday since starting my media company three years ago.
Though it is not in the same success to where I can run the business full time, I know that I am getting closer to being a full-time entrepreneur.
One of the small wins was my appearance on Conscious Millionaire podcast being a featured show for the entire day by J.V. Crum III because of the value that was brought to his podcast listeners on how to use Twitter to bring people to their website for the better.
I did not expect this honor of being a featured show because I was solely focused on over delivering valuable information to Mr. Crum III’s listeners.
It is one of those simple reminders that hard work will always pays off.
That is a lesson worth learning if you want to be successful for the better.
What’s The Word? show with guest Jackie Bernardi:
Jackie Bernardi was the guest of honor on What’s The Word? as she shared about being a entrepreneur, her study abroad experience in England and her favorite sports team, which is the Dallas Cowboys.
Here is the link to the video and audio version of the interview with Mrs. Bernardi’s appearance on the show.
Video: https://blab.im/cheval-john-the-great-and-positive-travels-of-jacki-bernardi
Audio: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/vallanomedia/2015/11/17/jackie-bernardi-entrepreneur-and-beauty-industry-business-catalyst
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.