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.
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.
Social Media Professionals Houston Businesses Needs To Know In 2018
By Cheval John
January 12th, 2018
Houston has long been known as the energy capital of the world.
It makes sense because the entire city was built directly and indirectly through the discovery of oil in the spindletop area in the early 20th century.
The riches made from the oil boom allowed people to form their own businesses in the growing city.
It even led one former Houston Post reporter Marcellus E. Foster to form the Houston Chronicle in 1901 despite the fact they already had two newspapers in the city with a population of about 45,000 residents at that time.
The Houston Chronicle outlasted the other newspapers to become the official newspaper of record (the Houston Post was bought and shut down by the Chronicle in 1995).
Another result of the oil boom was the creation of the Houston Ship Channel in 1914 which allowed the Port of Houston to become one of the largest cargo exporters in the United States due to connecting with the Gulf of Mexico.
The riches made from the wealthy also allowed them to create the Medical District, the largest area of hospitals in the world, the houston symphony orchestra, the houston ballet and many other places which has enriched the vibrancy of the city.
Why I went through the history lesson of houston you might ask?
Many outsiders only know the city of houston as the energy capital of the world.
They might not understand there is more to this city than meets the eye.
Though the oil and gas industry are the drivers of the houston economy, there are other business sectors which are comparable to other cities in the united states and even the world.
The city has a vibrant music scene where many independent artists create their sound and eventually get discovered by major music labels.
The food industry is very hip as well as they are thousands of restaurants in the city which some have said will take a lifetime to visit.
The above is quite impossible because many restaurants are closing every year while new restaurants are appearing at the same time.
Super Bowl 51 allowed visitors to see the different coffee shops, bars, burger joints, barbecue joints and restaurants the city had to offer.
Visitors also had the opportunity to see the thriving arts and entertainment scene the city has to offer.
They also might have been shocked to know the city of houston is among the few cities in the United States to have the the major artistry of the symphony orchestra, the ballet and the theather based in one area.
Many might be also be surprised to know Houston is among the places where the tech startup community is based.
Matt Mullenweg created this platform in the city of houston in 2003 from a code called b2/cafelog before changing the official name to wordpress.
And higher education institutions like the University of Houston and Rice University has set up incubators to allow startups to grow at a pace where they can be profitable on their own.
The non-higher education company which has also been a resource for startups is Station Houston.
Station Houston was created in March of 2016 to help startups connect with potential investors.
They give workshops on pitching to investors, growing your customer base and building a community around your brand.
Houston is also a hot bed for the social media industry.
Since every business sector must be on social media, they have to understand how to grow their audience and their business through this platform.
Unfortunately, people will have a tough time finding work as a social media professional in the city of houston.
According to Conductor, Houston was not even in the top ten for content marketing work and seo work.
It leads back to the oil and gas industry as they are rules and regulations on what you can report and what you can’t due to the competitive nature of the business sector.
Which leads to this point.
CEO’s, executives and C-Suite will have to be on social media in addition to the employees of each of the business sectors because people transparency from each brand.
They can not afford to do business as usual like they did in the past with comments about certain crisis or a change in the business structure with quote “said in a statement.”
Yes, they have to be very careful of what they say because it can become misunderstood by the public.
However, they can let the public know when an event is happening as quickly as they can, “We will answer all of your questions as soon as we can once we know all the details” in a crisis like an oil spill.
Or in the case of Walmart shutting down 63 Sam’s Clubs stores yesterday without giving their workers any warning about their change in direction of the business.
At least the rest of the workers in other stores within Walmart know they will be out of work soon.
Samantha Kelly, who is a twitter expert and founder of “The Women’s Inspire Network” said this statement in Social Media Examiner:
“CEOs will no longer be able to avoid social media. They’ll become the company’s biggest marketer by engaging with customers and allies more regularly and showing more behind the scenes and the human side, which will increase sales and brand advocates.”
This further explains that leadership from every business sector especially here in the city of houston must be on social media this year or wind up losing business to their competitors who are already there.
It does not mean for them to just broadcast their message hoping to get a sale on the first interaction.
It means taking the time to build trust with their customers consistently.
So they might be wondering how to get started with building a community with their customers on social media.
And which social media agency or professional corporations and organizations can work with.
Here are the top social media professionals here in houston I believe will be the best bet to guide them in taking their social media activities to the next level.
This list is not in any particular order
Kami is the founder of Zoetica Media, an agency which provide social media services to the health care sector, the non-profits and the travel industry.
She has been a public relations professional for more than twenty years prior to founding her company.
Kami is also the co-founder behind the Social Media Breakfast Houston, a monthly event which started in 2009.
Social Media Breakfast Houston is also live streamed on Facebook.
Known as “PR Kristyna”, she provides workshops and seminars about social media to the non-profit sectors.
Kristyna also does some live streaming surrounding tips to using social media to build an audience.
One of the best advice a person can follow from her is this: “Do not post the same content to other social media platforms because each of the platforms have different audiences and it comes across as lazy” #paraphrased.
Kristyna worked as a social media volunteer during Super Bowl 51 last year.
Rebecca is a social media professional who provides services to small businesses.
She is also a certified evernote consultant and businesses who needs helps with this platform can find her.
Rebecca is the founder of Social Media Day Houston, a one day event which brings together speakers on different social media topics and is indirectly part of the global Social Media Day event which was started by Mashable.
She also had the opportunity to work as a social media volunteer during Super Bowl 51 last year.
Kristy is a former journalist and producer, who is the Vice President of Public Engagement for Drive West Communications.
She is also the creator of #chatsnap, the first twitter chat talking all things surrounding snapchat.
Kristy has done some snapchat takeovers including one for her former employer, KTRK-TV, a Houston media station.
She has also been featured on top blogs including Hootsuite and Social Media Examiner.
Ken is the founder of Watson Knowledge Services, a agency which provides small businesses with social media audits and consulting.
His main expertise is instagram.
Ken started #chatgram, the first twitter chat about all topics surrounding the instagram platform.
He also worked as a social media volunteer during Super Bowl 51 last year.
BOBBIE BYRD AND LISA STAUBER
Bobbie and Lisa are the co-founders of Quirky Owl Media, an agency which provides social media services to small businesses.
It is the parent company of Blog Elevated, an annual conference which brings together speakers on topics surrounding blogging.
They also co-host #blogelevated, a twitter chat which is an extension of the conference and was featured in Hootsuite’s blog.
They have spoken at Social Media Day Houston last year.
Eric is the Digital Director for Go To Marketers, a Canadian based company.
He has spoken at Social Media Marketing World twice and was featured in media outlets like Forbes and The New York Times.
Eric has also been the guest speaker at Social Media Breakfast Houston and has build a strong online presence.
Anh is the founder of Amplified Marketing, which provides services for mid-sized organizations.
She is also the co-host of #mobilechat, a twitter chat about topics surrounding mobile technology.
Anh has made appearances on Livestream Universe and has spoken at Social Media Breakfast Houston.
MADALYN SKLAR
Madalyn is a twitter expert who has build communities via Twitter Chats.
She was among the first to live tweet at a conference event when Twitter was in the early stages.
Madalyn hosts #twittersmarter, a chat about topics surrounding twitter.
She is also the host of #socialroi which recently celebrated it’s one year anniversary and is produced by Manage Flitter.
Madalyn has made many appearances on many media outlets including Al Jazeera and the Huffington Post.
Jillian is an instagram expert and influencer.
She blogs at Cup of Charisma, where she shares tips on fashion and social good.
Jillian is also an account supervisor at Integrate, an award winning digital agency.
She was among the speakers at the inaugural Hispanicize Houston event last year.
Jillian has spoken at Social Media Breakfast Houston and was featured in the Houston Chronicle.
Basya is the founder of Pink Cilantro, a digital agency which focuses on social media and data.
The company has worked with brands like AT&T.
She has spoken at Social Media Breakfast Houston about data focused social media.
Ashley is the founder of Mouth Marketing, LLC, a marketing agency which provides consulting to small businesses and startups.
Their specialty is LinkedIn because they have grown their business through the social platform.
Ashley has spoken at Social Media Day Houston in 2016 and 2017.
She has made an appearance on media outlets including Texas Business Radio and Voyage Houston.
Aimee is the founder of The Black Sheep Agency, a marketing company which works with non-profits and for profit businesses who does social good.
She has been recognized by the Houston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 in 2014 and has been featured in media outlets including the Houston Chronicle, Fast Company and the Huffington Post.
Her company took part in former first lady Michelle Obama’s campaign, “Better Make Room” which brought one billion impressions on social media.
There you have it, the list of social media professionals who I believe will add value to your corporation and organization.
Did I miss anyone who you believe should be on this list? You can leave your comment below.
Lauri Nilo, Social Media Manager at Simply Measured
By Cheval John
Today’s episode features Lauri Nilo, social media manager for Simply Measured.
This interview was recorded months before Simply Measured got acquired by Sprout Social.
You will hear
-how Lauri’s entrepreneur mindset led her to start her blog
-how she helped grew the readership of the Gonzaga University Student Publications’ Bulldog Blog by 1,141 views
-the importance of studying abroad
-the one person she admires past or present who she would spend one day with
Snippet on Vallano Media TV
Full episode on BlogTalkRadio
Simply Measured’s website: www.simplymeasured.com
Lauri’s LinkedIn Page
Quotes from Lauri Nilo On
COLLEGE STUDENTS GETTING INTERNSHIPS
I think it’s really important for college students to have an internship before they graduate so that they can see what it’s like in the working world.
A lot of times what you learn in the classroom can be different from how things are actually implemented in the real world.
Let’s say for example, I anted to be a social media manager when I was in college and I thought that this is what being a social media manager meant and then I just went straight into this position and I found out like, “Oh no, this is not what I want to do.”
That’s why you need to have an internship before you graduate so that you have a better realization I guess of whatever it is you want to do.
STARTING THE TWITTER CHAT #SIMPLYCHAT
I started #simplychat because I really was looking into engaging the community that we have on twitter.
When I looked at the data, I found that impressions were not the roadblock for us, it was getting the people to engage back with us.
So I started asking questions in the tweets I posted and then I was like, “Okay, what can I do to really get this community together?”
Then I learned about twitter smarter and I was like, “Okay, how can I create a community like twitter smarter” because that’s an example of an amazing community.
I was like, “Well, why can’t simply measured start their own twitter chat?”
So I talked to my manager about it and wrote up this whole proposal of expected outcomes and why we should do this.
Together we decided to give it a try.
It’s going pretty well.
OVERCOMING DOUBTS
I think it’s natural for people to have doubts when they are taking a step in what they consider a risk.
So I definitely had some doubts but glad I took this opportunity at simply measured.
MENTORSHIP
My main mentor is actually my manager.
I remember talking to her about this during my interview process and she mentioned that it’s really important for her to not really be seen as a manager, but as a mentor.
So she is my biggest mentor right now.
There’s so much I can learn from her.
For example, anytime I write copy for twitter, sometimes I’ll mull over it for like 15-20 minutes and then I realize, “This is 120 characters, I probably should not be spending fifteen minutes on it.”
So I’ll send it over to her.
She’ll look at it and ten seconds later, it’s ten thousand times better.
FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
I like twitter in my role as a social media manager because it’s easy to learn from other people about building relationships on social media in general.
On a personal level, my favorite is definitely instagram because it really challenges people to present their best side which is a good thing and a bad thing.
I think it’s really fun to look at other people’s lives through this curated fashion.
It’s All Right To Be Selfish
By Cheval John
I had expected to go to another level this year because of the wins I accomplished the previous year:
Speaking at two social media conferences (social media day lima in ohio and social media day houston)
Working as a volunteer at the social media command center during super bowl 51
Getting interviewed on some live streaming shows.
I was hoping the business was going to take off because of these wins.
That was not the case.
It seemed like I was going backwards.
I ended up working full time again as an employee at a lodging company because it was the right thing to do and my business depended on it.
From that, I realized that I was not getting any younger and I needed to watch out more for myself.
So I started exercising again since in more than a decade and hired an online personal trainer by the name of Monique Kabel to get me on the right track.
The interesting part is Ms. Kabel is based in Canada.
I found out about Ms. Kabel through Instagram because she was posting uplifting messages on her account.
She competed in the World Beauty Fitness and Fashion (WBFF) Competitions and knew a lot about getting ready to compete against others in the fitness industry.
She was not like half of those who would post their photos with a link to a product or service most of the time because of their influence.
Or try to sell to people when they connect with them.
She basically shared inspiration to those who needed it and also show a lot of her workout routines on instagram stories.
So I decided she was the one to be my personal trainer and it was the best decision.
She uses the Trainerize app to put together personalized workout routines that fit me.
This was the best alternative to going to the gym because of my work schedule.
At the same time, I learned a lot from my employers because they started from the ground up in the hotel industry.
Their example of how to be fiscally responsible to the point that I have become more disciplined in how to spend money.
This also helped me to keep Ms. Kabel as my personal trainer too.
It seemed like I have neglected my business (producing content here via blog post and podcast) due to this transition back to full time employment.
I realized that I needed to be selfish and take care of me first in order to be more creative and take care of the business.
Looking back on it, this year was not a setback at all because of the valuable lessons I learned from this experience which I will share with you now:
You Must Take Care Of Your Health
I can’t emphasize this enough.
Do not fall for the so-called hustle culture of working non-stop until you get results.
Being smart with how much food you consume and the amount of time you exercise can play a part in whether your business will succeed or not.
Also, get enough sleep because you can’t be creative if you are tired all the time.
Surround Yourself With Like-Minded People
They will always lift you up when you least expect and will never bring you down just to feel good about themselves.
Focus On The Process
When you aim for the results, you lose track on enjoying the journey and end up producing crappy content.
The true social media influencers (fitness included) focused on providing value to their audience and appreciated the journey to that success.
They were the ones that helped me to make it through this transitional year which will launch me to the next level in my life in 2019.
To conclude, here are some of the people you should follow on instagram if you want to start the new year right
Mindy Harley
David Marshall
Elizabeth Marshall
Lesley Maxwell
Ainsley Rodriguez
Michelle MacDonald
Joan MacDonald
Ryall Graber
Abbie Liu
Jenn Hermann
Jessika Phillips
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