Podcast appearances and mentions of vickie maris

0:00 Season topics, upcoming programs, Everything DiSC; and direction the podcast is going in Season 4.  0:28 Welcome by the podcast host, Vickie Maris. 1:20 What is an Authorized Partner - Everything DiSC and The Five Behaviors? Vickie Maris is an Authorized Partner and explains what she can provide in this role. You can reach out to Vickie for access to the personality assessments such as Everything DiSC "Workplace," "Productive Conflict," "Agile EQ," "Work of Leaders," and others. 3:00 You can also enroll for facilitator training if you would like to become a certified facilitator of Everything DiSC or The Five Behaviors. Give yourself a couple months of lead time for getting enrolled in one of the virtual sessions. They fill pretty quickly. 3:44 Vickie mentions upcoming interview with Paul Slaggert who is instructor of Day 1 of the 2-day short course, Frontline Leadership. It is hosted by the Kelley School of Business and takes place in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Fall 2023 session is full. The program will be offered again in Spring 2024. 4:20 Developing the Effective Technical Leader is coming up in October 17-18, 2023. It is taught by Dr. Pete DeLisle. Registration is open via the Kelley School of Business website (see link in previous sentence). 6:27 Contract work in the process documentation area and doing process improvement as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Upcoming interviews with my colleagues in the areas of process improvement and project management. 7:27 Thank you for sharing the podcast out and for subscribing to the show (it is free to subscribe). 7:48 You also might see upcoming episodes in this season about shifting the daily routine to include silence and meditation. Vickie shares how that practice helped her with the songwriting for her recent album, Another Universe. Here is the link to the album in Spotify. The music is available in the many other music streaming services as well. 8:51 Introduction of the other podcast, Making of the Album - Another Universe. It is co-hosted by Vickie Maris, Michael Kelsey and Scott Greeson. We talk about the inspiration for the songs and the behind-the-scenes of the recording process for each of the songs. Enjoy the laughter and insider perspectives of three recording artists! Check out the podcast here: https://sites.libsyn.com/446118 10:23 Date of the concert by the Kelsey Greeson Project is Oct. 7, 2023. Artists: Michael Kelsey, Scott Greeson, Vickie Maris and Courtney Von Drehle. Tickets for the show at the TAF Theatre in Lafayette, Indiana are available in Eventbrite. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/617699384487?aff=oddtdtcreator 10:57 Wrap-up      

0:00 Intro - increasing your level of engagement :16 Episode powered by Teach Inspire Connect :32 Thank you from the host, Vickie Maris   1:01 Explanation about the previous pause in the podcast 1:08 Silence in my daily routine 2:10 Benefits of spending time in silence as a part of the daily routine 2:57 Conference talk during the 2022 Purdue Women's Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana 3:11 Silence led to writing and recording songs for a solo album, Another Universe by Vickie Maris 5:25 Starting an additional podcast about the behind-the-scenes  5:38 Recording engineer and producer of the album is Michael Kelsey 6:03 Scott Greeson and Michael Kelsey will be on the mics with me for the new podcast. 6:26 Content stems from one of the videos in my 14-day challenge of livestreaming. This episode of the video series is shared here as audio about ways to better engage in a livestream or video call. 7:47 Daily goal of improving by 1% over the day before 8:28 The videos from the 14-day livestreaming challenge are available on my YouTube channel. Search Vickie J Maris. 9:01 The new songs and my album are available at the channel for Vickie Maris Topic or Vickie Maris Music. 9:20 Techniques for increasing your engagement with followers in a livestream. These tips can also apply towards video calls in Zoom, MS Teams and other platforms. 10:30 Watch a livestream that another person is conducting on a topic you find of interest. Take notes about the experience. What causes you to engage or not? 11:00 Ask a question early in your broadcast. 12:24 Pause to review comments and questions, or let people know that you'll revist the comments feed after the broadcast. 14:35 Contain your "teaching livestream" to 5-10 plus minutes. 16:47 Wrap-up of the podcast episode. Email comments and questions to agiledigitalbusiness @ gmail dot com. 17:03 Request for your positive rating and review. The feedback helps me to evolve the show to best meet listeners' needs. 17:37 To hear my new songs on the album, Another Universe: https://vickiemaris.hearnow.com 17:52 Thank you to my clients of my business, Teach Inspire Connect.      

0:00 Welcome to Season 4 of Agile Digital Business podcast. Introduction by the host, Vickie Maris. Topics of leadership, personal development, team development and team communications. :34 Insight about the music for the podcast and the accordion in the mix. 1:37 Upcoming leadership and team development programs; and music events 2:12 Frontline Leadership, April 6-7, 2022 - taught by Gar Trusley and Paul Slaggert; hosted in Indianapolis, Indiana by the Kelley School of Business Executive Education (this leadership program was previously named Supervisory Development when it was offered in South Bend, Indiana) 2:30 Developing the Effective Technical Leader, April 5-7, 2022, is taught by Dr. Pete DeLisle. The program is held in Bloomington, Indiana and is also hostsed by Kelley School of Business Executive Education. This program was previously called Engineering Leadership when it was offered in South Bend, Indiana. 3:22 Take the Everything DiSC "Workplace" assessment & participate in a 90-minute facilitated discussion (virtual), "What's your style in Everything DiSC?" 4:35 Learn about the custom program you can bring to your team - an experiential learning event with an acoustic rock band about team communications 4:56 Music dates 5:02 Scott Greeson, Vickie Maris & Brady Joseph - music via a FB Live; 8:30 pm EST from the Facebook page 5:35 Concert at TAF on May 7, 2022; 7:30 pm EST - Scott Greeson, Michael Kelsey, Vickie Maris and Courtney Von Drehle 6:47 Notes about the new version of the introductory episode for Agile Digital Business. 7:44 Mention of a possible new show name in the works for the podcast. 8:02 In Season 4, host Vickie Maris is exploring the topics of leadership, personal development, team development and team communications. 8:10 Vickie Maris is a certified facilitator of the DiSC Profile, or more specifically, the "Workplace" profile in the portfolio of content from Everything DiSC. She also facilitates The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team. Both these are Wiley brands.  8:21 The podcast was on hold in 2021 as the business was being launched: Teach. Inspire. Connect.  8:47 Several speaking engagements occurred in 2021 and several more speaking and facilitating engagements are on the books in the new year. 9:11 Background about Vickie Maris 10:51 Feeling grateful for the podcast medium. 11:02 Capturing nuggets of wisdom in leadership, team development and team communications. 11:32 Information about the opportunity to take the Everything DiSC Workplace assessment and to participate in the virtual, 90-minute discussion. 12:33 Information about the team experiential learning event with an acoustic rock band 13:12 In the program, you can select which assessment you would want to have your team take. A few of the options include Everything DiSC Workplace, Everything DiSC Productive Conflict, Everything DiSC Agile EQ and more. 14:40 What is an Authorized Partner - Everything DiSC and The Five Behaviors 15:15 How to enroll in facilitator certification for Everything DiSC or The Five Behaviors 15:45 Thank you for checking out Episode 37 of the show 16:20 How to set up a call for talking about how any of the To join the email newsletter list, text DISCPROFILE to 855-797-1558. 17:18 Include the hashtag #teachinspireconnect when you share out the podcast in your social media channels. 18:07 Let's go out and Teach. Inspire. and Connect!

In Episode 36 of Agile Digital Business, hear insights about leader  selection, and about allowing team members to self select into ideal roles. Vickie Maris, host of the show, teaches in the professional development classroom (and virtual learning spaces) on leadership lessons gleaned from the raising and training of llamas, ponies, and other livestock on her farm. https://vickiemaris.com/coaching http://dawnofpromisefarm.com Show Notes for Episode 36 00:00 Introduction to information about a leader in the USA, NASA astronaut John Glenn - the third person and first American to orbit the Earth. In 1957, he made the first supersonic, transcontinental flight across the United States.  :54 The name of John Glenn is listed in Chapter 2 in the book, Why A Students Work for C Students, by Robert T. Kiyosaki. The list includes 50 people who didn't finish school. There are several presidents, authors, movie directors, playwrites, musicians and business founders and owners on the list. 2:36 Introduction of this episode of Agile Digital Business. 3:13 Leadership development program is referred to: Foundations in Leading Meaningful Change. 3:30 My Zoom call llama, Heartsong, joined me for teaching in a session of a virtual program on Leading Meaningful Change. This lesson was in situational leadership. For information about booking a llama for your next virtual training or online coffee chat: Book the llamas for an appearance -- heartsongllamasonline.com 4:07 Think about how you select leaders for your organization. 4:33 Consider helping out Wikipedia if you use the web tool as a resource. The fundraising campaign is going now, but they welcome your donation at any point throughout the year. (Click the link to donate.) 5:14 Music plays and then you hear a setup to the instructional content. The audio was captured outdoors, and is a download from a Zoom call. 5:46 You will hear the reactions of people who were enrolled in the Leading Meaningful Change Foundations program. 6:12 The latest book by Beverly Patwell is Leading Meaningful Change: Capturing the Hearts, Minds and Souls of the People You Lead, Work With and Serve. 6:30 Vickie Maris teaches a short example about team roles by discussing a llama pack string hiking out on the trail. It's important to position llamas in the best role for each individual llama as they work on the trail. The ideal role for Heartsong in any scenario, is to serve as the lead llama. She selects this role if she is out grazing with the herd in the pasture or if she is working with a group on the trail. 7:40 Consider allowing your teams to self select into the roles they are best suited for. 8:00 Bev invites people to follow Vickie Maris on LinkedIn where you can hear more insights like the one she shared with her llama Heartsong. https://linkedin.com/in/vickiemaris 8:15 Thank you for listening to Agile Digital Business. An invitation to subscribe to the show is included. #teachinspireconnect #agiledigitalbiz

Pete DeLisle, PhD, uses memorable case studies and stories to reflect on  leader effectiveness that you can incorporate into your own style of leadership. He is my guest in Episode 35 of Agile Digital Business. Show notes, time codes and key take-aways: 0:00 A snippet of Pete teaching about the reciprocity behaviors of the Apollo 13 (you can watch the movie as homework!) :35 Intro of Episode 35 of Agile Digital Business :55 Request that you grab a screenshot of the show and share it on your favorite social media channel 1:16 Reminder that you can find key takeaways from this episode and others when you search on: #teachinspireconnect #agiledigitalbiz 3:04 Pete was a guest in Episode 32 of the show for the Part 1 interview 3:30 Welcoming Dr. Pete DeLisle back to the mic! 4:15 Pete teaches in the executive education. You can hear more of Pete's bio back in Episode 32. ... Framing the leader effectiveness theory ... 4:38 Introducing elements of leader effectiveness: awareness of self; awareness of other people (what's going on with them); situational awareness (what's going on around you). Leadership is the ability to influence people with or without authority. 6:42 "Leading without authority, to me, is a much higher form of leadership." - Pete DeLisle, PhD 6:58 The ability to make hard decisions. 7:30 The next element of the ability to lead is foresight. 7:46 Working through the what-might-happen-if scenarios. 8:06 Foresight causes a leader to develop a sense of preparedness. 8:32 Pete talks about the ethos of the US Coast Guard. Their motto is semper paratus. Their underlying ethos is: "We have to go out. We don't necessarily have to come back." 8:50 The last element of effective leadership is commitment. The three levels of engagement include volunteer, duty and reciprocity. 10:30 A question about the stage of a career at which a person thinks about the elements of an effective leader. 11:53 Ensuring that you're taking care of the folks you're working with. "If you don't have folks to do the job, frankly, the job doesn't get done." - Pete DeLisle, PhD 12:37 "We see many organizations that just drive people into the ground. They treat people as if they're expendable. They may be successful for a short period of time, but they don't last long. Sometimes we see organizations that are much more concerned about the welfare of folks, and they forget how to do business." - Pete DeLisle, PhD 13:20 "If I owned this business, how would I be handling this situation?" - a lens to use when viewing the actions of a leader. - Vickie Maris 15:45 References to the movie, and the real-live event of Apollo 13 ("One of the best movies on leadership and problem solving that you'll ever see." - Pete DeLisle, PhD) 17:30 Astronaut Capt. Jim Lovell's act of courage was to say out loud, over the air, in front of everybody, "Houston, we've got a problem." 18:15 The team on the ground had an absolute commitment to help them be safe and to get them home. 20:00 This episode is sponsored by the group coaching and courses offered through Mastermind.com by Vickie Maris. Coaching Group: Introduction to Live-streaming and Engaging in Social Media  Coaching Group: DIY Course Creation and Recording of Direct-to-Camera Videos  Self-Study: DIY Course Creation and Recording of Direct-to-Camera Videos 22:45 If you would like to learn more about Pete DeLisle's schedule for teaching in professional development programs, send an email to agiledigitalbusiness @ gmail dot com, and we'll forward your inquiry to Pete. He is teaching in online environments as well as upcoming in-person events. 23:35 Story of Ken Mattingly on the ground in the simulator troubleshooting while his colleagues were in space. 25:11 Story of hearing Jim Lovell and Gene Kranz speak during the Ag Alumni Fish Fry for Purdue University, 2007. 26:10 Relating the story and movie of Apollo 13 to Vickie's dad, Jim Maris, a military pilot and also an educator. 28:16 Discussion about the times when rules need to be broken. 28:37 Brief story about the D-Day experience in a sky full of B-24s with lights out and in radio silence. 30:40 Pete describes an example of when a leader has to consider disobeying an order. 33:04 Pete shares an example of the captain of a US Navy Aircraft carrier making a decision to take the USS Theodore Roosevelt offline. 37:00 Homework assignments: Watch Apollo 13 and Princess Bride. Closing thoughts: "Leadership. It's about influencing people. It's not about rank. It's not about position. It's not about power. It's about the willingness to suggest to other people that there might be better ways to solve problems." - Pete DeLisle

Listen in on a group coaching call in Episode 34 of Agile Digital Business, in which podcast host, Vickie Maris, was invited to be a guest presenter and coach. She was speaking with a group of Methodist pastors in Indiana about the basics of live-streaming a church service. Below are the show notes and time codes for this episode: 0:00 Introduction to Episode 34 of Agile Digital Business: Live Stream Basics for Church Pastors "Pastors are interested to learn more about how to engage with their participants in an online environment, and how to market the fact that worship services have moved online." - Vickie Maris 1:41 Episode Sponsor - 3-Session Group Coaching: Introduction to Live-Streaming and Engaging in Social Media Sessions are 75 minutes each Sept. 21; 6 pm EDT Sept. 28; 6 pm EDT Oct. 5, 2020; 6 pm EDT https://app.mastermind.com/masterminds/1607 3:00 Start of the coaching group call 4:35 Vickie provides background about the niche where she has been focused in recent years - how to incorporate social media into the overall marketing mix; and how to engage with students, customers and members within social media 5:39 Engaging in social media can be a fantastic evangelistic tool 6:13 Sharing of a quote from a Kyle Cease video on YouTube: "The reason that you're stressed and scared is because you can tangibly measure what you're going to lose, but it's really hard to see what you're going to gain." - Kyle Cease "We don't have numbers about the future." - Vickie Maris 7:48 Mention of the Scott Greeson Music page in Facebook 7:59 Mention of the Dawn of Promise Farm business page in Facebook 8:16 Perspective of a musician about the marketing for a church 9:22 Mention of where we're heading with voice technology, smart speakers, Google translating podcasts at the episode level for indexing and other changes 10:00 Discussion about a church's social media presence 10:55 A reminder to update the associated website and to put something on the home page that will alert the web visitor that the information on the website 11:26 Frequency of posting on your church's Facebook page 11:44 Mention of a social media post scheduler, Hootsuite.com. Other services are available - both free and paid. 12:26 Hootsuite has an app which allows you to schedule posts or do live posting from your phone. 12:48 A suggested makeup of social media posts (graphics, quotes, videos, photos, Facebook Lives) 13:02 Don't assume that people will see your post just because you have posted. 14:46 Example provided from the business page in Facebook for Scott Greeson Music. Ask people, within the text of the post, to share the post on their personal profiles. 15:32 Suggestion of texting or calling members of the church (or employees of your business) to join the Facebook Live. Let them know the day and time, and explain how they can help out with liking, sharing, and commenting. 17:20 Use a Facebook Business page for your church rather than your personal profile in Facebook. 17:25 Reference to a post on Vickie's page in Facebook, Teach. Inspire. Connect. If you share on a phone tree about your online worship service, do that more than once in the week. Reach out to your email list more than once in the week, and provide instructions in each email about how to access the online worship service. 19:00 Subject headers of emails should be interesting and cause the reader to open the email. 19:36 Sample of an email subject header that would be more likely to grab the reader's attention 20:15 Examples of email sequences from successful entrepreneurs 22:49 Introduction and summary of next section which contains tips for conducting your Facebook Live 25:49 Be sure to look straight into the camera lens as you start your live-stream 26:20 Put your most interesting element upfront in the live-stream 27:23 Example of how to invite those in your congregation or audience to help out by joining the broadcast via their phones and share out the broadcast on their profiles 28:03 A thank you to the participants of the call and to John Randall who invited me to teach on the call and provide coaching 28:34 You can let Vickie know about your experiences in applying one of these tools - send an email to her at agiledigitalbusiness @ gmail dot com 28:45 You can learn more about working with Vickie as a coach when you visit her website. If you'd like to join the next group coaching by Vickie Maris in Mastermind Dot Com, "Introduction to Live-streaming and Social Media Engagement," visit this link: https://app.mastermind.com/masterminds/1607   Description of upcoming group coaching on live-streaming:  Video description is here:  https://youtu.be/xk_uHSu_yZI Gain confidence to push that Go Live button for your course, webinar, training, worship service, mastermind, or other online session when you participate in this coaching group led by Vickie Maris. https://vickiemaris.com/coaching Join others who are new at running sessions in Mastermind.com, Facebook Lives, YouTube Lives, Zoom sessions, and other online platforms.  In addition to the three, value-packed live training sessions (75-minutes each), you also get access to several of Vickie's master class videos on uses of mobile devices for recording that will provide useful reference points as you prepare your own training or presentation. If the dates and times of this series of three coaching sessions does not work for the group members you would like to enroll, please reach out to Coach Vickie through the contact form on her website to request an additional offering of the program. She's been in the trenches conducting live-streams since social media platforms made the technology readily accessible back in 2015. She started with Meerkat and Periscope, and has since moved to extensive use of Facebook Lives, and the recording of videos for LinkedIn for both a globally-renown university, and the promotion of her own businesses. She has also written an ebook on the first steps in establishing a social media presence for your business and how to engage with customers.  Vickie shares her experience which stems from over 20 years designing and marketing online learning experiences for business people in continuing education programs at universities. As a small business owner, she oversees the marketing and communications for her coaching business as well as for her llama and Connemara pony farm, Dawn of Promise Farm. She is co-owner of a music business along with her husband, Scott Greeson. They are both entertainers with a 7-piece band, and have a music/podcast/audiobook recording studio.   Her courses have been featured in the Udemy blog, and have won national awards in the university environment.  Get ready for a fantastic 3-session group coaching experience!   #teachinspireconnect #agiledigitalbiz

Creative entrepreneur, podcaster, author and speaker John Lee Dumas talks with me about strategy and techniques for livestreaming in Episode 33 of Agile Digital Business. Below are the show notes and time codes for this episode of the show. I've included reference links to books and videos that either John or I mentioned during our conversation. 0:00 Preview of content shared by John Lee Dumas "You should be looking, with any Facebook Live, to be solving one problem. You are looking to create a solution to one specific problem, obstacle, challenge." John Lee Dumas 0:39 I welcome you to Episode 33. I am your host, Vickie Maris. 1:27 Importance of listening to the voice of the customer 1:36 This episode is sponsored by Teach. Inspire. Connect. Online group coaching on the uses of Facebook Live for connecting with your audience and for using techniques in social media engagement. I also provide one-on-one, online coaching. 2:21 A challenge ... "Are your products or services, or the content that you're producing, relevant to your customers' clients or students needs today amidst all this change?" 2:59 Reflecting on Episode 29 and the interview with Mark Schaefer, author of Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins. 3:22 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and how we should be considering the model as we create products and services. 4:10 An excerpt is read from the ebook, The Pandemic Business Strategy Playbook. (Visit the link to visit the Businesses Grow website and download your free copy of the playbook.) 4:29 "The longterm relevance of the brand is more important than short-sales." 5:07 Story read from the Mark Schaefer ebook about his time as a sales manager at Alcoa when the company was facing quality programs that was causing a customer to miss delivery shipments. 7:56 Sharing of a review in Apple Podcasts by Reed Stiles for the Agile Digital Business podcast. 8:34 How to provide an honest rating and review in Apple Podcasts. Your ratings and reviews in other podcast directories or apps. 8:59 Introduction of John Lee Dumas 9:34 John Lee Dumas shares that he is now up to 2,600 episodes of his podcast, EOFire where he interviews successful entrepreneurs. 10:33 Speaking of gratitude for this moment and the way that John and Kate fold their life experiences in to the resources they create at EOFire. 11:06 Background information for John about the listeners of Agile Digital Business. 12:06 Making a pivot in Season 3 to help listeners uplevel in how they deliver instruction online; how they engage with customers online (webinars, multiple content experts on a Zoom call, conducting Facebook Lives, etc.) I work with instructors, ministers and others who have had to move from teaching within the classroom or sanctuary to teaching online. 12:59 Facebook Live: What advice do you have for how do we keep people on the broadcast.  "Start the Live with one intention. You have one intention that you are going to deliver throughout this 'Live.' Make it very clear in the title and description of the Facebook Live, what your intention is, and don't deviate from that. You should be looking, with any FB Live, to be solving one problem. You are looking to create a solution to one specific problem, obstacle, challenge." JLD 14:00 John provides an example of a Facebook Live about how to grow your podcast audience. He talks about a technique for keeping focus on the specific intention of the Facebook Live. 15:36 How to use your previous Facebook Lives as reference points you can provide to people who have questions about a specific topic. 16:31 For the instructor who is used to teaching in a time block such as a 50-minute class, would you break that apart in to separate Facebook Lives. John suggests breaking that original 50-minute class block in to shorter sections. 17:50 A question asked on behalf of musicians who are doing music online in lieu of concerts in traditional venues. John suggests doing a longer Facebook Live (more than 10 minutes) in you're entertaining people. 19:02 The longer you stay on with your concert, the better chance people have to stumble across your broadcast. 19:32 I give an example of the Tiny Farmhouse Concert that we were doing from the farmhouse at Dawn of Promise Farm during the shutdown. YOu can see replays in the Videos  19:44 A shout out to members of our 7-piece band, Scott Greeson & Trouble With Monday ... Lee Anna Atwell, Mark Molter, Greg Brassie, Stan Wallace, Kevin Ludwig, Scott Greeson, and myself - Vickie Maris Greeson. (See our online concert for the Virtual Taste of Tippecanoe! It starts at the 6-minute mark in this video from the Facebook Live by the Tippecanoe Arts Federation.) 20:30 A question about uses of audio content in different forms such as the podcast, Free Podcast Course, which starts and finishes with podcast training. Look at audio content in blocks. Create one series, one set of trainings that addresses one solutions.  22:49 For authors, I talk with John about whether or not he recommends creating a podcast of episodes that summarize the book? One of several books authored by John Lee Dumas is Podcast Launch. For podcasters, visit the membership community run by John Lee Dumas and Kate Erickson, Podcaster's Paradise. I am a member and have benefited greatly from the instruction provided and the connections made within the group! 23:57 Thank you to John Lee Dumas and the closing thoughts. 24:18 Please connect by joining my email list. Simply send an email to vickiemaris @getresponse.net   If you're interested in using Get Response for your email list manager and landing page service, please visit my affiliate link to learn more: http://gr8.com/pr/B2LI   GetResponse - an all-in-one marketing software to grow your business Let's continue to Teach. Inspire. Connect.        

What do leaders need to be doing and thinking about in times of uncertainty and complexity? Pete DeLisle, PhD, chats with me on this subject in Episode 32 of Agile Digital Business. In a time when areas around our world have gone from simple to complex, almost simultaneously, Pete's reflections and insights are thought-provoking. Below are the show notes and time codes to help you navigate quickly back to a section you would like to listen to for a second or third time. 0:00 A preview of one of the many insights from Pete. :37 Introducing Pete DeLisle 1:17 Welcome to Episode 32 of Agile Digital Business; reflection on my pivot in Season 3 to bring you topics and interviews that will help you as you make adjustments to the changing needs of your customers, clients and students. 3:32 Sponsorship note - Teach. Inspire. Connect. - Online group coaching in uses of Facebook Lives and other forms of social media marketing and engagement. Current groups are running for church pastors of small to medium-size congregations and for small business owners, multi-level marketers and entrepreneurs. 6:23 Conversation begins with Pete DeLisle 8:40 "What we're encountering is massive, unpredicted or unrecognized change. Sadly, the old solutions don't work." - Pete DeLisle  10:37 Reference to vu ja de and George Carlin, "We've never been here before and it doesn't look at all familiar." 11:09 George Carlin was also informed by Yogi Berra, "We're lost but making good time." 11:27 "The old models don't work." Pete DeLisle 11:42 "The human factors are just as important as what we're trying to accomplish in our business." Pete DeLisle 13:10 More background about Yogi Berra and the New York Yankees 15:29 Intellectual honesty - you're honest about being honest. An effective leader is willing to be vulnerable. Example: "I don't have a clue what's going on here, but we'll figure it out." 16:16 On the idea of resiliency: "The underlying value is human compassion ... thinking what's going on with human beings and the full complexity of it." - Pete DeLisle 17:20 Pete discusses the task vs relationship diagram. "When you're working on one, you're not working on the other." Example: If the task is under control, you got to worry about relationship-related issues; and taking care of your folks. 20:30 We talk about a personal example of how elder care or concern for our families can cause distractions in the work day during a world crisis. 23:29 Story from the 1960s about Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett. 26:43 He mentions that the touch screen display was invented at a division at HP during the downtime. 29:40 "There are only experts on what has been. There are no experts on what will be." - a quote shared by Pete DeLisle 34:07 Concept of absorptive capacity - the ability of an organization to see or predict emerging trends in advance of others. 36:50 Pete gives an example about BASF and the strategic plan that is one sentence long: "We want to be in business 100 years from now." 38:34 Mid-conversation break where I announce the Part 2 interview with Pete DeLisle on the topic of foresight. I also mention my interview with John Lee Dumas. His episode is coming up here in Season 3. 39:34 "Agility is the ability to be responsive in expert fashion to rapidly-changing situations."  44:20 Invitation to continue the conversation in another episode of the show. 45:44 If you would like to send a suggestion for a topic for Pete to cover, please send an email to agiledigitalbusiness @ gmail dot com. You can also send a voice mail through the Speakpipe widget on my website: https://vickiemaris.com/contact 46:25 Thank you to Pete DeLisle 46:44 Reminder that you can find resources that I mention on the podcast by searching on these hashtags, #teachinspireconnect or #agiledigitalbiz   47:35 Please join me to "go online" and teach, inspire and connect! Vickie Maris     4:00 Biography of Peter A. DeLisle, PhD  

While introducing Season 3 of Agile Digital Business podcast, I share about topics and guests of upcoming episodes for helping you make adjustments - with your customers, clients and followers top of mind - to your online and livestreaming efforts during COVID-19 pandemic.  Highlights of this episode: 3:57 Episode 29 interview with Mark Schaefer, author of Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins 4:40 Upcoming interviews with Dr. Pete DeLisle on leadership during times of uncertainty and complexity; 5:16, and with global entrepreneur and podcaster, John Lee Dumas, who co-hosts Podcaster's Paradise with Kate Erickson. 6:39 Being a guest on Inside Voice podcast and interview by Keri Roberts. You can watch the replay of the episode as we recorded it live in Facebook using Facebook Live and Streamyard.  Group coaching sessions: Introduction to Livestreaming and Social Media Engagement Strategy (one group is for small business marketers and marketers who are wearing many hats within departments of larger organizations); the other group is focused for church pastors who have moved worship services online. 7:55 Multi-author book promotion in which you can get up to 14 books (Kindle version) in the self improvement genre for .99 cents each (USD) on April 29-30, 2020. My book, Job Loss and the Cutback Blues: Journey of Grief, Uncertainty and Recovery, is included in this promotion.) See the show notes for the pop-up episode to grab the link to the list of books available in the offer. 7:10 Hashtags: #teachinspireconnect and #agiledigitalbiz Additional time codes and topics of Episode 30: :25 Questions about livestreaming and how to interact in a livestream :48 Description of plans for Season 3 1:00 Making a pivot in order to bring you resources, and interviews with people who talk about concepts and techniques for effectively reaching and engaging with your clients and customers through livestream broadcasts. We'll also talk about communicating with your students online and leading your teams remotely during a crisis. Learn ways to future ready your business or organization to weather disruption. 1:25 Welcome and introduction. I am Vickie Maris, host of Agile Digital Business podcast. I am an author, speaker, digital marketer who is focused on helping you meet your customer or client right where they are in their point of need, and a coach helping you extend your reach and your message using various modes that we have available today in the digital realm - both at our fingertips and within reach of our voice. 1:57 This episode and Season 3 of Agile Digital Business is brought to you by my online coaching group, "Introduction to Livestreaming and Social Media Engagement Strategy." "If you have been using social media channels as a billboard in the past, and are interested in how to develop an engaged community of followers online who aren't just figuratively driving by your posts, graphics, videos and livestreams, but who are engaging with you in the online space, I encourage you to apply to join one of my coaching groups." Vickie Maris I'm currently running a group for small business, and another one for church pastors My work as a marketer, and an online course designer, as well as a published author and a musician, has had me deep in the uses of social media channels, creating podcasts, videos, and livestreams for many years. 2:54 Reminiscing about doing livestreams since 2015 when Meerkat and Periscope came out. 3:35 Learn more about the online coaching groups for learning about livestreaming and for building engagement in your social media channels that converts participation and attendance in your online events, check out https://vickiemaris.com 3:44 Fellow instructors, conference speakers and other connections will be guests on the show in Season 3. 7:16 #teachinspireconnect  #agiledigitalbiz 7:30 Find my posts in: LinkedIn ... https://linkedin.com/in/vickiemaris Facebook ... https://www.fb.com/vjmaris Twitter ... https://twitter.com/vickiemaris YouTube ... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPtD91XYe3dqdJbJH0MKi6Q/videos   9:23 A shout out to Tonya Murray, author of Functioning Hot Mess, who coordinated the book promotion of 14 books at .99 cents each (self-improvement genre). 9:49 Join me in "going online to teach, inspire and connect!" Thanks for listening to the show. Vickie Maris  

Mark Schaefer, author of Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins, is my guest on Episode 29 of Agile Digital Business. He provides many valuable insights and examples of how companies can be reacting in the COVID-19 global crisis to remain relevant in the eyes of their customers. 0:12 "We have to think about the context of this moment..." 1:15 Welcome in to Episode 29 from host, Vickie Maris 2:20 A shoutout to Amanda and Jerry for submitting questions for Mark 2:34 Music 2:41 Introduction of Mark W. Schaefer. He is author of 7 books including Known and his latest book, Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Conmpany Wins. Mention of episode on Edge of the Web Radio hosted by Erin Sparks. 3:24 Experience as an instructor in the executive education classroom. Mark Schaefer taught a day of instruction on social media in the Digital Marketing Certificate program in its former structure of a 5-day program taught in Chicago, Illinois and done in collaboration between Rutgers University and the University of Notre Dame. (the university links will take you to the currently-available options for Digital Marketing Certificate programs at both institutions) 4:04 #agiledigitalbiz is the hashtag to search to find resources mentioned. I also use the hashtag, #teachinspireconnect 4:20 Marketing Companion - podcast that Mark co-hosts with Brooke Sellas 4:31 Digital Transformation - podcast that Mark co-hosts with Douglas Karr 4:48 Mark Schaefer was a speaker at Social Media Marketing World #SMMW20 5:04 Mark's opening comments of the interview 5:50 A thank you for the blog post on the businessesgrow.com blog: 7 Non-obvious coronavirus implications for marketing 6:37 These are unnerving and unprecedented times ... 7:05 "I can't imagine an event in my lifetime that would cancel baseball. Or cancel the Kentucky Derby..." 7:52 Looking at the relevance of our business in this moment. Quote to share ... 9:24 "It's time to reflect on this for all of our businesses. What we have built. What we love to do. What we're proud of. May not matter right now. We have to think about the context of this moment." Mark Schaefer, author of Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins 10:19 "We need to be sensitive that we're going through a process of grieving. Our customers are grieving. The unmet and underserved needs of our customers are changing." "We have to look at applying our core competencies in a way that is relevant to this moment." 10:45 Examples of companies that have shifted to meet current needs:  "They are re-imagining and reframing their business in this moment." U-Haul is offering free storage for a month to college students who are being evicted from their dorm rooms. 13:30 I share an example of how the global crisis with the spread of the coronavirus has effected my focus, and I mention how deep breathing has been helpful. 14:56 Client asked Mark how do you sell in an environment like this. Question to ask: How would you sell to someone at a funeral? ... You would say, I'm sorry for your loss. What can I do to help you. What do you need from me right now ... I want to be here for you."  15:50 I mention how important it is to reach out and ask for the voice of the customer in the moment. 16:31 Discussion about the explosion for opportunity to innovate. 17:27 "The beauty of America and the beauty of capitalism is that people are just frantically driven to figure it out." 18:30 Example of innovation by a furniture manufacturer in a previous global crisis. 21:48 I mention the topic of voice interfaces and ask for examples of how a digital voice assistant has been used during the crisis. Mark shares that what he has been seeing has been focused around safety, comfort and meeting basic human needs. 24:02 "People are really seeking human connection right now in a big way." 24:25 Discussion about how revenue streams for speaking and consulting have changed drastically. Review core competencies and how can you reframe to meet the needs of your clients now. 26:15 Q/A - questions submitted by members of my LinkedIn book club group that was set up to review Mark's book, Marketing Rebellion. 27:12 Jerry Cunningham asks if Mark has any BDPs of companies taking care of their super loyal customers. Example given is from the tech industry. 30:18 A theme of the marketing rebellion book is that today, two-thirds of our marketing is occurring without us. 30:40 Extraordinary approach of making customers feel they are a part of the product development team. 30:55 Question from Amanda: Something I have been thinking as I begin looking into starting my own local business, how do I poise myself as an authority locally? I was reminded in a post how “Businesses are taking a tremendous hit right now. The flow of goods is disrupted beyond anything that we have ever seen.” It seems like it will be all the more important once the flow of traffic goes back to normal to have a clear marketing plan to let it be known you’re still in business. 33:50 Discussion about how to take people on the journey with you if you're developing your voice in the industry and establishing authority; or the other option is that you're already an authority. 38:00 Music 38:01 I wrap up the episode and challenge you to Teach. Inspire. And Connect!   Thanks for listening to the show! And for reading through the show notes for Episode 29.  Vickie #teachinspireconnect #agiledigitalbiz #podcast   Note: Links to Amazon in the show notes for the podcast are typically affiliate links. This means if you click on a link and order the book, or the product, I would receive a small percentage of revenue from the sale of the product. Thanks for you support of the show. I also welcome you to support the show through a subscription in any monthly amount at my Patreon account: https://patreon.com/vickiemaris  

In Episode 27, hear an analogy of how the removal of a broken bridle from a reining horse during a championship-level ride can relate to our choices to either support or interfere with our marketing and technology teams as they offer strategies to future ready our businesses. Welcome in to Episode 27 of Agile Digital Business podcast where Season 2 is focused on the voice platform. I am Vickie Maris, a digital futurist, voice platform evangelist, and host of Agile Digital Business podcast. I like to challenge you to see the future of your business through the lenses of your future customers, clients, association members and program participants. Through the listener community in Patreon, you can engage in discussion around the topics covered in the podcast that will spark ideas for how you can flex your strategy and align the way you communicate about your products and services in ways that your customer is asking for today.  This episode is "freestyle." I'd like to bring you up to speed on where I’ve been. If you’ve been listening to the show on a regular basis, you’ve heard me talk about our music. My husband, Scott Greeson and I, are songwriters and entertainers. When we book for festivals and concert venues, we are often performing with our friends in the band, Trouble With Monday. We also perform as a duo, trio and other combinations of the musicians in the band. Our world was rocked on Jan 31st when we learned that our sound man, Bryan Metzger, had passed away of a heart attack while on vacation. There are still moments when it is hard to believe that he’s gone. We have been practicing many of the tools that I have written about in my books for processing grief in healthy ways that lead us in to the future rather than dwelling on the past. But believe me, there are moments when that is a lot easier to say than to do.  Scott and I are leading a day retreat, Changing Life Journal Writing Retreat, to help you with advancing your writing projects and journaling on March 7th at an Airbnb in South Bend, Indiana near Notre Dame. We’re looking forward to spending time in the quiet to reflect, to write, to plan and to support each other in a few moments of quiet conversation during the day. If you would like to join us for the event, there are a few spots remaining. It’s listed out on EventBrite.    One of the reasons I started delving in to understanding the voice platform and how musicians, authors and businesses should be preparing, was because we haven’t had great results when asking Amazon Alexa if she has information about Scott’s music or about my books. I have been working on changes to my website and other marketing in order to make my content more discoverable. Here’s the curiosity - since my books are self-published in Amazon, you would think that it would be really easy for Alexa (created by Amazon) to dip in to a data pool that would provide her with details about the titles, author, or content. But she isn’t yet very informed so, I am, one very slow step at a time, updating my web pages, claiming my author panel in Google, updating my About page, improving load time on my site, and several other things.   One of my favorite episodes in the voice space during recent weeks has been the 100th episode of Inside Voice. The episode is titled, Marketing Tips by Leaders in the Space. I highly recommend that you listen to it. The show is hosted by Keri Roberts. There is a focus on voice technology with educational and innovative content. I often listen to episodes of this show during my commute. Because of that, I use my voice to take notes by asking Siri to “make a note.” I have developed a process for putting a keyword in the first sentence of each note so they are easier to search for later when I’m developing a podcast episode or writing my next book. For instance, I might say, Siri, make a note, and then my first sentence will be, Podcast next episode, period. Include my notes from episode 100 of Inside Voice podcast, period. Helpful tips for my listeners. Period.   One of the concepts shared by Stuart Crane of Survey Line and Voice Metrics.io is that his companies are collecting leads by voice and creating tools to help other companies use voice for lead generation. The tool,  surveysbyvoice is a product of Survey Line. Stuart also talks about a new platform his company has available called engagebyvoice.com voicemetrics.io For details about tickets for Voice Summit, Oct. 5-8, 2020, in Washington, DC: https://www.voicesummit.ai/tickets   I have recently proposed a conference talk on the topic of future readying your professional development center to survive and thrive in an age of self-education, AI and other digital disruptions. I’m looking at how trends in self-education, uses of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the advance of digital voice assistants are shaping lifelong learning. It’s such a fascinating space. I’ve heard Dr. Joe Dispenza say on videos in YouTube that in the age of the Internet with all the information that is available for free, ignorance is a choice.   Scott and I will be playing music for a private event on Saturday night with a couple of our other fellow musicians. After that event, I head out to Social Media Marketing World Conference. I’ve attended that event since 2014 and find it to be one of the best run conferences around. I do admit that I liked it better when it wasn’t so huge in terms of numbers who attend, but it still is an amazing place to get energized about techniques and tools for marketing and engaging in social media with your customers. In fact, it was at one of the previous editions of this conference when I learned about Flash Briefings in a breakout session for podcasters. Last year, I gleaned several great pieces of content for developing a YouTube channel and for taking advantage of LinkedIn and the fact that there is so little original content posted by LinkedIn users. That hasn’t been a category that I fall in as I have loved to post short videos on LinkedIn about leadership lessons and tips for working with teams that I pick up from the time I spend training our llamas and Connemara pony. In fact, I just posted a new video last night on my LinkedIn feed, that I recorded while sitting in the barn aisle with the llamas. I talk about developing trust among your team members. A few days prior to that, I shared a link to a video on YouTube of an amazing ride by Dan Huss on his championship reining horse, a Quarter Horse, Ms Dreamy. The bridle broke during the early part of the ride. Dan chose to continue the pattern. He reached down to get the swinging bridle out from between the front legs of his mare, and then rode her as if there was no tomorrow. By putting a 2nd hand on the reins, he was disqualified but it didn’t deter him. Every turn, every change of speed, every sliding stop, was delivered expertly and calmly by his horse through communication she was receiving from Dan by slight changes in his seat and legs; and a demeanor that reflected their long-time connection. It made me think of the things we’re all doing to get our businesses future ready for voice. Are you pulling your marketing team up to a halt to assess the situation, to approve of every equipment change and to get legal involved? Or are you reaching in while they are still at full speed and getting broken equipment out of the way so that they can take the company (your team) to future success by opening up channels to better listen to your customers in the ways they want to be communicating with you? I hope it’s the latter. As I’ve been listening to and watching videos of Dr. Joe Dispenza talking about speaking intentions about the future and speaking gratitude about the future as if it already exists, I’ll leave you with this thought to consider for the next part of your day, “What is the greatest ideal of myself that I can be today?”    Friend, I love you and appreciate you being here listening and learning. Now, please join me in the quest to teach; inspire; and connect!

Host of Agile Digital Business, Vickie Maris, shares nuggets of life insights to help with embracing future change. From decisions about a degree program to reminders about the value of journaling and to speaking your life intentions each day, to selecting your next employer or business opportunity, Vickie provides brief insights to help you prepare for tomorrow. This episode of the show is sponsored by: Stories, Song and Satire by Scott Greeson & Dr. Will Miller; Feb. 16, 2020; 6 pm ET; Tippecanoe Arts Federation. Time codes, show notes and quotes to share with others are below:  0:00 Introduction and music :11 A welcome to Episode 26 of Agile Digital Business. Season 2 is all about preparing for the voice platform. :51 Description of the request by Coach Ido Singer to share wisdom for the One Last Thought Podcast by Coach Ido Singer. "Bite-size nuggets of wisdom." 2:06 Announcement of the episode sponsor: "Stories, Songs and Satire." It's a show by stand-up comedian Dr. Will Miller and singer/songwriter Scott Greeson. Tickets are available at the door on the night of the show, Feb. 16, 2020, 6 pm ET at the Tippecanoe Arts Federation. Joining Scott for the music portions of the show are Kevin Ludwig, Lee Anna Atwell and Vickie Maris Greeson. Other shows mentioned where Scott Greeson and his band, Trouble With Monday, will be playing in 2020 include The Taste of Tippecanoe festival on June 20, 2020 and the Ouibache Music Festival on Friday, September 25, 2020. You can listen to Scott's music at the digital streaming location of your choice or on his YouTube channel, Scott Greeson Music. Nuggets of Wisdom shared for the One Last Thought podcast by Ido Singer ... 5:08 "Seek an employer who encourages professional development and who covers the cost of it. Seek one that permits the pursuit of your own side hustle so that you can develop multiple income streams." 5:44 Authoring books and seeking ways to better market them was the very thing that led me to the voice platform and the creation of Season 2 of the podcast to help others learn how to prepare for voice. 6:23 "When you create a list of your goals, don't just leave it there in a list. Take your goals and work backwards - reverse engineer - figure out what steps you need to take to get to the goal and put those steps in your calendar." 6:42 "Lean in to change." 6:47 "Don't sweat your selection of a major in school or of your first job. It's going to change throughout your lifetime." 7:28 "While you are working - either as an employee or as a consultant or business owner - be preparing for your next job or your next piece of business." 7:41 "Keep a journal." (Two of the books that I have authored and published and stemmed from my journal and ideas that I didn't let slip away because I had written them down.") 8:48 "Always be working with a coach, no matter what phase of life you find yourself. Whether you are an athlete, a business professional, a stay-at-home mom, a CEO of a company, everybody should be working with a coach." 9:10 "Use your voice. Speak your life intentions in to being. Let your brain hear your own voice. Visualize and speak your accomplishments in to being. It is so important for our brains to hear our own voices." 9:33 "Embrace new technology." 9:45 "When you shine your light, you co-create opportunity for others to shine." 9:54 "Stretch yourself by looking to learn things that are outside of your lane." 10:59 "Keep in mind that you have established 95% of your habits by the time you are age 35, so when you are facing change or if there is something that you deliberately want to change about your life - the 5% is pushing against the 95% that already has a routine in place. So know that you'll have to be very deliberate about it. Capture awareness of your thoughts. There are many things that you can study about this that are available for free out on the Internet. But I just want to plant that seed that changing something about your routine is not going to be easy. You will have to have awareness of your thoughts, adjust your mindset and be deliberate. You can do it!" 11:56 "Speak intentions about your future everyday. Visualize where you are going to be in moments of your future. Place yourself in those moments. And speak about them - speak about them out loud - to yourself, to your maker. Don't worry about the details of how you get there, but be intentional about visualizing being there." 12:31 Join me this week. Let's go out, and teach, inspire and connect! Thank you for listening! Vickie PS - Please subscribe to this show and also subscribe to the podcast by Ido Singer, One Last Thought.    

Voice-first resources are featured in Episode 25 of Agile Digital Business podcast. You'll hear about Amazon Alexa Skills highlighted in a book by Bradley Metrock of the "This Week in Voice" podcast, to an interview with Bobby Kovey, The Credo Company, participant in a talk on preparing for voice, presented by Vickie Maris in Certificate in Executive Management at the University of Notre Dame.  You'll also learn about a new book by Susan Westwater and Scot Westwater, Voice Strategy: Creating useful and usable voice experiences. Enjoy! Vickie * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  0:18 Setup of Episode 25 and a welcome. 1:19 Vickie Maris introduces the upcoming interview that airs at the end of this episode with Bobby Kovey, The Credo Company, who chats about the value of an FAQ page on a website in this era of voice search. 3:28 Mention of an episode in the show, "This Week in Voice," hosted by Bradley Metrock, CEO, Score Publishing. The episode published on Nov. 7, 2019, (Season 4, Episode 10) is titled, "More than just weather and music: 200 ways to use Alexa." This is also the title of Bradley's book about Amazon Alexa Skills.    4:37 Review of several of the Amazon Alexa Skills that are featured in the book, "More Than Just Weather and Music: 200 Ways to Use Alexa." 5:22 Example of an Amazon Alexa Skill by PayPal that lets you send and receive money using your voice. 6:06 Vickie Maris provides a reminder that you can listen to this podcast, Agile Digital Business, when you ask your Amazon device, "Alexa, play the most recent episode of Agile Digital Business." 6:57  A reminder that it is possible to manage the recordings of your voice made by the Amazon Echo device right from the device with a request from your voice. 8:10 A reminder that there is an Amazon Alexa Skill, a Flash Briefing, that is published for this show, Agile Digital Business. 9:22 A shoutout to Len Clark, a colleague who broadcasts about Notre Dame sports who has also created an Amazon Alexa Skill, Notre Dame Football, that will give you latest in Notre Dame sports such as game day weather, kick-off times or tip-off times, etc. 9:59 Information about books I've been reading: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big," by Scott Adams, comic strip artist of Dilbert. 10:54 Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark. A book that I'm reading for the AI and Ethics Book Club at the University of Notre Dame. 11:40 Video resource from Voice Summit 2019, July 24, 2019, that is available on YouTube. A session at 2:59 in the session is by emcee J.P. Poulter of Vixen Labs.  17:44 Also from the July 24, 2019 video from Voice Summit 2019, go to the time code of 38:57 seconds, for a conversation between Scott Quartner who is a VP with T. Rowe Price and Vijay Balasubramanian, CEO and Founder of Pindrop. Their chat is about security and authentication in voice. 18:59 A new book by Voice Strategy: Creating Useful and Usable Voice Experiences, by Susan Westwater and Scot Westwater.  20:44 If you would like to voice record your next book, you can use a service like rev.com to get the audio file transcribed. 21:40 you can leave a voice mail for me using the SpeakPipe widget on my website, https://vickiemaris.com/contact 24:00 Interview with Bobby Kovey, The Credo Company, after he had participated in the executive education program, Certificate in Executive Management. "Things that you can use, that are proven best practices. You can walk away from the program with knowledge from proven experience that you can use." 25:45 Bobby Kovey discusses his plan to add an FAQ page to the company website to help their content be more readily discovered by potential clients who are searching for consulting companies that do work in government relations. 28:20 A thank you from the podcast host to Bobby Kovey for participating in the interview. Let's teach! Inspire! and Connect!     #agiledigitalbiz #voicefirst #teachinspireconnect

Kane Simms, co-founder and co-host of VUX World was my guest in Episode 24 of Agile Digital Business. Season 2 of the podcast is focused on preparing your business for the voice platform. This is Part 2 of my conversation with Kane. We talk about world-class voice experiences; a definition of an Amazon Alexa Skill; our experiences with creating a Flash Briefing; and we chat about the starting point for a marketing person who is looking to establish a presence for their brand in the voice platform. At the end of the show, you'll hear me share my excitement about what is coming in 2020! Enjoy! Vickie Maris Host of Agile Digital Business, author, speaker and digital marketer   Time codes, notes and tweetables:  0:00 Preview of upcoming content in Episode 24 of Agile Digital Business 00:43 Music and welcome from podcast host, Vickie Maris 3:40 Introduction of Vickie Maris by musician, Scott Greeson 3:55 Setup of the episode and the host shares background about her guest, Kane Simms. His co-host of VUX World is Dustin Coates. 4:48 Kane says hello to listeners. 5:32 Vickie asks Kane about his definition of a world-class voice experience. Tweetable: "A world-class voice experience is something that is either engaging and entertaining, or something that gets out of your way and lets you just get on with the task." - Kane Simms 6:14 Mention of the company Earplay and work they have done on the Jurassic World Revealed skill. To access this skill via Amazon Alexa, state "Alexa, visit Jurassic World." Here is a promotional video about the Alexa Skill: https://youtu.be/GtZrakZfOMQ 6:41 Mention of another company, Xandra, that worked on The Wayne Investigation and the Dunkirk Experience, a skill launched alongside the Dunkirk war film. 7:50 Importance of sound design and creating a sound environment. 8:00 Reference to Voicebot.ai site that contains research reports in many voice platform subjects. Kane shares that 71% of people trusted human-recorded audio more than robotic style of voice. 8:50 Utility type of Skill is one that helps a person get something done. 9:19 An example is the TuneIn Skill that you can enable on your smart speaker in order to play a podcast that you would like to listen to via your Amazon Echo. 10:36 Another example mentioned, that required conversation design, was the Virgin Trains Skill that can be used to hear train schedules or to order a ticket. 11:02 Kane provides a definition of an Amazon Alexa Skill.  Tweetable or LinkedIn post: "A skill is essentially a voice app that is created by a third party to increase the functionality of Alexa [or the Google Home Assistant, Samsung Bixby, etc.] Google defines an Action as anything the Google Assistant can do." - Kane Simms #agiledigitalbiz #AlexaSkill The concept behind a skill is that "you're teaching Alexa a skill." 12:43 Discussion of "in-app actions" to do something like book a table at a specific restaurant. This action will pre-populate the restaurant app with the specified data like number of people in the party and time of the reservation. 13:38 Vickie reflects on Episode 14 and her interview with Brielle Nickoloff in which they discussed the order that Amazon Alexa seeks data pools to return results when a person asks a question of the voice assistant. 14:48 Reference to the Amazon Alexa Skill for this podcast, Agile Digital Business. 15:08 Kane discusses the Flash Briefing they launched for VUX World and the opportunity that exists. 15:51 Example given of skills created by Peter Stewart and Dr. Teri Fisher. 18:20 Questions posed about how long people listen to Flash Briefings. Will they be OK with a longer piece of audio? 20:15 More details provided about the Skill by Dr. Teri Fisher, founder of Alexa in Canada and the Voice in Canada Flash Briefing. He created a new Flash Briefing every day for 500 days. Here's a YouTube video of his TEDx talk from October 2019. 21:05 Tweetable or LinkedIn post to share: "There are definitely opportunities for Flash Briefings to fit in to someone's morning routine if you can provide value, if you can get the format right, and if you can stick to it and be consistent with it." - Kane Simms #voiceassistants #agiledigitalbiz #AlexaSkill 21:50 Vickie reminds listeners of topics covered in past episodes of Agile Digital Business. She also reflects on her activities of podcasting, speaking at conferences, 23:50 She shares about a way to support the podcast or to become involved in the listener community at Patreon. https://patreon.com/vickiemaris 24:57  To get notified of upcoming podcast episodes, workshops and online group    Send email to teachinspireconnect @ getresponse.net 25:22 Invitation for you to join Vickie's upcoming 30-day journaling group. The first group is designed to help you develop the practice of journaling or to get back to journaling. You can use the new journal, Changing Life After a Life Changing Event: 30 Journal Prompts and Stories to Help After a Loss, or bring a different journal to the online group. For more details: https://vickiemaris.com/30dayjournal 27:14 A starting point for a marketing person who is wearing many hats and would like to establish a presence for their brand in the voice platform. 28:08 Exercises for a company to do when thinking about how to get started in the voice platform.  Tweetable: "What does the conversation look like that you're already having with your customers?" - Kane Simms #voicefirst #vuxdesign #voc Tweetable: "Do the homework on these channels yourself...If you don't use Siri, start using Siri. If you don't yet have an Echo, get one." - Kane Simms 31:04 Vickie talks about social media can make the world smaller. She met Kane and learned about the VUX World podcast through Twitter after she replied under one of Kane's videos.  Kane sent a DM and offered to chat with Vickie on the podcast. 32:43 Kane talks about how he met his co-founder, Dustin Coates, who has written a book on voice application development. Dustin's book: Voice Applications for Alexa and Google Assistant. 34:23 Mention of the value of sharing older episodes that cover specific topics listeners are asking about. 36:14 Follow Kane in LinkedIn, https://linkedin.com/in/kanesimms or in Twitter, https://twitter.com/kanesimms 37:13 Kane offers an invitation to reach out and ask your questions about making a great conversational experience for your customers. 37:47 Tweetable: "This is not something that is going to go away. We need to be paying attention to what's happening in voice." - Vickie Maris, #agiledigitalbiz #podcast #voicefirst 37:59 Thank you to Kane Simms for the interview. 38:24 Vickie wraps up the episode with another thank you to Kane and a thank you to listeners. Note: Please include #agiledigitalbiz in your tweets and posts of questions and comments related to episodes of the podcast.          

Listen to insights about what voice means for your company in this conversation I held with Kane Simms, VUX World. He and I have a fun conversation about preparing for voice and designing for the voice platform with the customer in mind. This is Part 1 of a 2-part interview for Agile Digital Business. Kane is not only the co-host of VUX World, but also co-founder of a consultancy and voice design studio. 0:00 Welcome and introduction of the episode by host, Vickie Maris :30 Intro music; request that you subscribe to the show so that you don't miss Part 2. :56 Scott Greeson provides intro; more music 1:07 Introduction of guest, Kane Simms, co-founder of VUX World; and reflection on theme that occurs in the conversation of "meeting customer needs." 2:07 Tweetable: "It is so important to start first with the customer." - Vickie Maris #agiledigitalbiz #VOC 3:04 Welcome of guest Kane Simms who has a voice design consultancy and design studio. His co-founder is Dustin Coates. 3:59 Kane responds to the podcast host; explanation of quiet voice because of baby sleeping downstairs 4:57 Kane Simms provides background of how he got started in his work in the voice platform; experience as a musician and study of marketing at 5:48 Tweetable: "Marketing is meeting and anticipating customer needs profitably." - Definition Kane Simms recalls from his time at university. 6:41 Audio production, writing and user experience design were skills that Kane brought together in the hosting of his podcast, VUX World. 7:27 Established a design and development studio that creates voice experiences for agencies and brands. 7:40 Vickie talks about why she shifted the focus of her podcast, Agile Digital Business, to the voice platform. 8:05 Kane and Vickie swap stories about experiences as musicians. Hip hop, rap, meets American singer/songwriter. 11:41 Vickie shares the example of how she and Scott Greeson utilize a production company for the digital distribution of music they create.  12:20 Discussion about having or creating an Amazon Alexa Skill for the music (life as a music artist) or for the podcast. 14:20 Mention of the website, whosampled.com 16:41 Mid-roll request that you subscribe to the podcast, Agile Digital Business. Mention of how to reach out via social channels:  https://twitter.com/vickiemaris https://instagram/vickiemaris  https://fb.com/vjmaris  https://linkedin.com/in/vickiemaris 18:31 Kane discusses how his podcast led to the design consultancy. His searches about voice eventually led him to This Week in Voice podcast and Voicebot podcast in the USA. A few months later, he was asked to give talks. By the end of the first year, he was giving workshops with his co-founder. He's now working on a variety of projects through the consultancy. 21:25 Thank you to Kane for being a guest on the show. 21:56 Invitation to share your questions or comments about this episode via the social media channels and to subscribe to VUX World podcast. 22:40 Closing. Let's go out and "Teach. Inspire. Connect!" Please listen to Part 2 of this episode for the rest of the story! - vjm   #voicefirst #agiledigitalbiz #teachinspireconnect

In this bonus episode of the podcast, I share a thank you to members of my book launch team. The new book is a 30-day journal, Changing Life After a Life-Changing Event: 30 Journal Prompts and Stories to Help After a Loss, by Vickie J. Maris.   In addition to the shout outs to the graphic design team, editor and book launch team members, I share a sample of the reviews and a section of the audiobook recording for Day 15 in the journal, "Be in community."  Below are the time codes for this episode of Agile Digital Business. Season 2 is about the voice platform, voice first search, and preparing businesses for meeting our customers where they are searching for our products and services. Time codes for Episode 21 - Agile Digital Business 0:00 Intro and comments :48 Another podcast episode sparked my interest in how to make my content as an author and our content as musicians 1:24 "Older ways of marketing are not working like they used to. We need to be making adjustments to meet our customers where they are, and how they are searching." Vickie Maris 2:10 Introduction of Episode 21 by Scott Greeson. 2:29 Changing Life After a Life-Changing Event: 30 Journal Prompts and Stories to Help After a Loss is the new journal that has been published in Amazon and Ingram Spark. 3:00 Invitation for you to be a part of the book launch team and help out by reading the journal, and then doing a rating in Amazon along with writing an honest review. 3:35 Author's thoughts about the remaining pieces to finish of the audiobook format of the journal. 3:50 Thank you to the book launch team members. 4:24 Listen to a review of the journal, Changing Life After a Life-Changing Event. 5:14 Second of the two sample reviews of the journal. 6:45 Author's description of the journal. 7:30 Author talks about the healing benefits of the practice of journaling. 8:02 "Journaling allows you to reflect." 8:40 Revisit Episode 18 of this podcast to hear a different chapter of the journal. Chapter 20 is included at the end of the podcast episode. Video of Episode 18 in YouTube Episode 18 in Apple Podcasts 9:13 You can help out by ordering a copy of the journal from Amazon, and then by rating it and writing an honest review after you have read it. 10:20 Mention and thank you to the graphic designers who worked on the book cover, to the interior page designer of the book and to the editor (11:46). 13:01 Find my other books when you visit my author page in Amazon. https://amazon.com/author/vickiemaris 13:27 Reminder to subscribe to the podcast, Agile Digital Business, if you're not already subscribed. 13:35 Promo of an upcoming interview episode that stems from a conversation I had with Kane Simms of VUX World.  15:09 Sample of audio from the narration of the audiobook version of Changing Life After a Life-Changing Event: 30 Journal Prompts and Stories to Help After a Loss. This is Day 15: Be in community. 19:08 Wrap-up of Episode 21. Thank you for listening, and for considering being a part of the launch team. 19:35 Invitation to attend a book reading at the Opera House Gallery of Contemporary Art. Scott Greeson and I will play music for you, intertwined with readings from the journal. Dec. 14, 2019; 3-5 pm ET, Delphi, Indiana. 21:04 Thank you from the author and podcast host, Vickie Maris. Let's go out and Teach. Inspire. Connect! #agiledigitalbiz  #teachinspireconnect   https://vickiemaris.com

Welcome to Episode 20 of Agile Digital Business.  Recorded on the move with my Insignia Lavalier mic, my iPhone and the BossJock app. You may hear a bit of air handling noise and construction work in the background. I'll be back in our music studio in a future weekend for the recording and editing of the next episode. I am Vickie Maris, author, speaker and digital marketer focused on helping businesses prepare for the voice platform.  Today, I'm at the CMED Conference - Conference on Management and Executive Development - and wanted to spend a few minutes reflecting on topics in the sessions I've been attending. I just finished speaking on a panel in a concurrent session where I shared background about one of the executive education programs that represent for the university. We had some very fun conversation about relationship marketing. During the Q and A, I recommended Mark Schaefer's new book, Marketing Rebellion: May the Most Human Company Win. I was also excited to learn that a few of the universities represented in the room have podcasts - I know I'm biased, but I'm such a believer in a podcast being a fantastic way to provide content for clients and prospects of your programs. It's a way for me to share the content with you as well as to get it to stick in my own mind better. As a lifelong learner who loves to teach others, it's important to me that I not let the nuggets of wisdom and insight drift away in to the pages of a notebook or iPad, never to be viewed again. I often will create a short video for my YouTube channel, LinkedIn profile, Twitter handle or Facebook page to reflect on key takaways, but I also want to share a few takeaways here with you in the podcast. I have a longer interview scheduled with Ali El-Ammori whom you heard in Episode 19 after he had participated in an executive education program where led a session about leadership in a digital era and the topic of preparing for the voice platform in particular. Another program participant, Bobby Kovey, also spoke with me on the mic. His episode is on the agenda for the next few weeks of the show. Kane Simms, podcast host of VUX World, will be talking with me next week, and I'm getting a conversation scheduled with my colleagues Scot and Susan Westwater who run the agency, Pragmatic Digital. Oh my goodness, I'm so excited about this topic and about all of the interesting guests who have agreed to chat with me on the show! It's exciting to me to be at this milestone of Episode 20 for the podcast. I started out the show a couple years ago talking about online courses and learning experience design, which was my focus at the university at the time. But after a slight career shift, I put the podcast on hold for about a year as I got my feet on the ground and a new topic of interest began to unfold. It was when I was putting the marketing plan together to let people know about the audiobook of my latest book, that I started asking questions of our Amazon Alexa about my book, and found out that I needed to learn how to put that information at Alexa's virtual fingertips. Season 2 of the podcast is my journey of learning about the voice platform and sharing that information with you, so that you can be preparing to meet your customers at their point of inquiry. learn more about how our customers are using their voices first in search. OK, let me take a few minutes to share with you several of the interesting takeaways from the CMED sessions. The opening keynote with David Cooperrider was fantastic. David is co-author, along with Diana Whitney, of the book, Appreciative Inquiry. He's an author of other books as well. I mention the Appreciative Inquiry book here as it is one I've used for the foundation of session I've taught on the subject. The concepts have helped me keep a positive focus in the way I interact with colleagues at work, in the podcasting space and students I work with on our farm with the llamas. I was inspired yesterday to re-read the book.  He spoke of the work of Barbara Frederickson, University of North Carolina. In my notes, I captured the following quote, "as people cultivate more hope and joy, we become more intelligent and we get more creative." Another quote I wrote down is "the more we touch hope, it changes the actual structure of the neuron patterns and can even change bio patterns that [otherwise] lead to heart disease." He shared statistics about the world population growth and how trends are showing that more are moving in to the middle class group. It's expected that there will by 9.7 billion on the planet by 2050. In data from Brookings, David told us that 1 person escapes extreme poverty every second; 5 people per second are entering the moddle class; the rich are growing too but at a slower rate of 1 person every 2 seconds. A quote from David Cooperrider, "Middle class drive demand in a global economy; and middle class are far more demanding of their governments." He said that 2/3rds of consumption come from the middle class. Compared to today, the middle class will add 1.7 billion more people to their numbers by 2030. I'm going to add a sidenote here. I predict that this is an indicator of how important it is for your company's products and services to be able to be found on voice search. It this very large group of consumers is going to be driving demand - combine that with using their voice first in search - then we need to be showing up in their searches. David also shared with great feeling that the number of people living in extreme poverty around the world is decreasing by 217,000 each day, and that 92% of the world's children have access to education (this is compared to about 40% 20 years ago). In an concurrent session about the technique of reflection in the executive education classroom, Jon Branch, University of Michigan, shared his model of learning design. The participants in the room had a very interesting discussion about reflection and instructional as well as technology tools available for conducting moments of reflection. In honor of that session, I would love to have you pause this episode, as long as you're not driving or doing a workout in the moment, and write a key takeaway from this episode that you can share in your social media. Please include the hashgtag, #agiledigitalbiz, in your tweet or post, so that we can read each other's takeaways and share them out further. I would also love it if you left me a voicemail using the Speakpipe widget on my website at https://vickiemaris.com/contact The keynote session on Saturday morning was by Dr. David Flint. His company is the Value Creation Company. As an opener, he played a video of the song, The Company Way, from the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. It's a pretty hilarious duet by the mailroom manager and the lead in the show, Pierpont Finch. The music warmed my heart personally, as that was a musical I was in during my senior year of high school. If you've not seen the movie or the musical, I highly recommend it. David used the funny song to spur discussion about what company even means and how to create value and rareness as part of your value proposition, and to be on the alert for eroding factors that could take away from value or the rareness of your company, or the project you are working on.  We worked through questions related to his VReel model while in small groups. It was a very interesting session. In the concurrent before lunch, I participated as a speaker in the panel discussion about programs for development of executives in management and leadership. I got so energized in the sharing of ideas during the question/answer session. As I'm sure you know, networking with other participants is always a huge value-add at a conference. A lot of that took place during the breaks and the lunch. I'm brimming with ideas! I know, shocker, right! The keynote after lunch was a great session by Lauren C. Miller who is a leadership coach and instructor with Carnegie Mellon University. She had several very intriguing stories that stemmed from her coaching of an MBA student about resilience and energy management. She facilitated a discussion about how we individually determine if it's time to give up on something or if it's something that requires an extra dose of resilience. As I think of some of our group discussion yesterday, and if I think of this podcast as an example, what it needed was a partial pivot from its original topic. I have been so extremely energized to share information with you, that I'm excited about each upcoming episode and it pains me to have to wait until a weekend to have the time to carve out to create the content for you. As a digital marketer and relationship marketer, this topic of voice is a big one. There is a lot of content out there about voice app development and the tech side of things, but not a lot about how to make the shift in our organizations to prepare for it. That's what is driving me to glean content and process it for you, then deliver it in this show! Thanks for listening to Episode 20 of Agile Digital Business. If you'd like to give a shoutout to my husband, Scott Greeson, who creates the amazing music beds for my podcast, please check out his latest album, Riverside, on your favorite digital music player. You can find his tunes - and I'll list a few of them here - If I Had a Train, Suburban Boy, Moped Man, and two that we wrote together, Cutback Blues and Minnesota. They are all out at YouTube, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Spotify and other digital locations. Now, let's go out and Teach. Inspire. And, Connect!   https://vickiemaris.com http://scottgreesonmusic.com  

Ali El-Ammori of A-1 Telecom shares a conference takeaway in Episode 19 of Agile Digital Business. Podcast host, Vickie Maris, recently gave a presentation on businesses preparing for voice search. Ali was participating in an executive education program when he was a part of the discussion on ways business can be preparing for voice and integrating voice portals in to their customer interfaces.   While he was participating in the event, he was also sending information back to his team so they could make adjustments to plans in order to better align for voice search, and customer uses of video in the path to a purchase. This episode is a preview of an upcoming interview with Ali El-Ammori, for a future episode of the show.  If you have questions that you would like for Ali or Vickie to address in the upcoming episode, please send an email to agiledigitalbusiness @ gmail dot com. #agiledigitalbiz #teachinspireconnect Host of Agile Digital Business - Vickie Maris, author, speaker, idea coach and digital marketer helping businesses prepare for voice first searches https://vickiemaris.com  

I take you behind the scenes in the recording of the narration for the audiobook, Changing Life After a Life-Changing Event: 30 Journal Prompts and Stories To Help After a Loss. In this episode, I share an example of how I use a digital voice interface for clarification on name pronunciations. Episode 18 also includes a "sneak listen" to Day 20 of the journal, which is about having intentional thought life to help curb anxiety. Here are the show notes and time codes for Episode 18 of Agile Digital Business: 0:00 Welcome to the episode :25 Using a feature of the voice platform as an author/narrator; and a sneak listen of the audiobook. 1:10 Season 2 of the podcast is a focus on the voice platform, voice first and voice search. 1:27 Music and introduction of the episode 1:53 How my narrating of the audiobook leads to use of voice platform features available on the Web. 2:18 Recording several versions of the name associated with a quote in the journal, Henri Nouwen. 3:09 Microphone is on the right side of the Google search bar and is handy for several types of searches. 3:30 Samples of possible pronunciations of Henri Nouwen. https://www.howtopronounce.com/henri-nouwen/ 3:48 Final pronunciation of the name used in the audiobook recording. 4:02 Request that you share this episode of Agile Digital Business with a friend. 4:08 Instructions for how to get notified when the devotional journal is published. Send an email to agiledigitalbusiness at gmail dot com. 4:45 To find the resources that I share in my "Vickie Maris" social media channels, follow the hashtag, #agiledigitalbiz and #teachinspireconnect. If you include one or both hashtags in your post, I'll be able to find it and retweet your tweet or add a thank you to your post. 5:49 If you are interested in trying a subscription to Audible and getting your first book downloaded for free, please use my affiliate link. (see next entry) 6:18 My first book available as an audiobook is Job Loss and the Cutback Blues: Journey of Grief, Uncertainty and Recovery After Being Let Go. https://www.audible.com/pd/B07R2F4FS6/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-149425&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_149425_rh_us 7:33 Opportunity to listen to a section from the audiobook that I'm currently recording, Changing Life After a Life-Changing Event: 30 Journal Prompts and Stories to Help After a Loss. 8:25 Ways to break a pattern of negative self-talk. 8:38 Activity of writing a song or a spoken request to Scott to share about value I've brought to others during the week. 9:14 Use of audio podcasts and YouTube videos for reframing your thinking. 9:25 Quote from an article by Linda Espisito about the importance of awareness to anxiety. 10:04 Exercise to write out two or more sentences about how you are bringing value to the world today. 10:17 Alternate example of asking a fellow entrepreneur to create a video of encouraging words while at the Youpreneur Summit. 11:00 Prayer in the section, Day 20, in the devotional journal. 11:27 Moped Man song on the Riverside album by Scott Greeson (this is an instrumental version in the podcast). 11:38 My shoutout to my husband, Scott Greeson, for creating the music that I use on both Agile Digital Business. The tunes are instrumental versions of: If I Had a Train, and Moped Man, from the album, Riverside. http://www.scottgreesonmusic.com You can stream music by Scott Greeson in Pandora, Spotify and other digital directories. At the Riverside is the third song that I mention at the end of the episode.      

Show notes and time codes for Episode 16 of Agile Digital Business Season 2 is about the voice platform, voice first, and voice search marketing.   :03 This is Part 2 of the bonus content shared during the session by Vickie Maris on voice first and voice search in the module, Leading the Strategic Enterprise. Business leaders were studying design thinking ethics, marketing, and were introduced to voice search, voice first, and thoughts about how voice search marketing can be a part of the digital marketing strategy. :26 Introduction to the show. :40 Welcome to Episode 16 of Agile Digital Business with host, Vickie Maris. :51 Points from a blog post at the Pragmatic.digital website. I highly recommend reading this article. Here's the location: https://www.pragmatic.digital/blog/basics-of-voice 1:01 A summary of the quote in the blog at Pragmatic.digital: Gartner stats about early adopter brands ... the data predicts that businesses that redesign their websites to support visual and voice search by 2021 can increase revenue from digital commerce by as much as 30 percent. 1:33 This is a section about being strategic about your company's sonic branding. Word choice, tonal inflection and expression are playing a role in your brand's persona. 2:21 I am a fan of all things voice: podcasting, use of smart speakers, audiobooks! 2:28 In my work as an author, it's part of my strategy to make sure that I narrate each of my books to have them available in audiobook format at Amazon, Audible and other places where you can download audiobooks. If you're not yet a subscriber to Audible, you can follow this path to subscribe and you will have the option of selecting my book as your free download. It's Job Loss and the Cutback Blues: Journey of Grief, Uncertainty and Recovery After Being Let Go. My second book is a 30-day journal, which I am currently recording in studio. It should be available in audiobook, paperback and digital formats (for Kindle or Kindle readers) in approximately early November 2019.  For your free trial of Audible, and the option of using your free book credit on my latest book, follow this URL (I'm an affiliate for Audible): https://www.audible.com/pd/B07R2F4FS6/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-149425&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_149425_rh_us 2:44 I describe the audience persona for this podcast, Agile Digital Business 3:24 Sharing content in the podcast that aligns with what you are interested in learning for your business success. 4:16 You can send in your ideas for future episode topics by  4:36 To become a supporter of the show and to get access to the once-a-month Q&A episode that I will be posting in my community out at Patreon, please visit my Patreon account, https://patreon.com/vickiemaris 4:48 Introduction of Part 2 of the bonus content shared with participants of Certificate in Executive Management in the module, Leading the Strategic Enterprise. 5:30 Reminder to listen to Part 1 of the Bonus Content which I have included in the podcast. It is episode 15 of Agile Digital Business. We left off with the information that Marcus Sheridan shares about creating the "80 percent video" for your business. 5:55 I provide examples of brand evangelists. The first one mentioned is Guy Kawasaki who is with Canva and Mercedes Benz, USA. 6:15 My second example of a brand evangelist is Brielle Nickoloff who is with Witlingo. You can hear my interview with Brielle in Episode 14, "Importance of a voice portal on Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant." 6:52 Discussion about the value to a company when one or more of its employees are developing a personal brand as they evangelize for your organization. 7:17 An idea: Rather than recruiting for a brand evangelist, why not hire a customer who is already serving in that capacity? 8:17 "As we are in this season of voice, it seems like a really great fit to have someone on your team who is in that role of brand evangelist." Vickie Maris 8:52 In the section on personal brands: "As you develop your own personal brand, and you lean in to your area of expertise, you can create content that your marketing team can use as they are promoting. They can link to it; they can make reference to it in other articles; they can use it all throughout the social media channels. It's a really impactful way to develop authority in a vertical niche." Vickie Maris 9:18 Consider the example of a CEO who is also writing a blog on a regular basis about their own area of interest and expertise. Or, maybe you can think of a person on the team who has their own podcast; or it could be a person who is sharing expertise in a personally-branded YouTube channel. 9:45 "Consider what type of content you can drive. What can you contribute for your organization that no one else knows?" Vickie Maris 9:54 "You might seek out a publication or two that you can label as your 'goal publications,' such as writing an article for Forbes or a guest post on a blog that is aligned with your expertise." Or you could seek to be a guest on a podcast. 10:17 "Now that Google is transcribing podcasts and indexing them at the individual episode level, every time that you add content in a podcast in your area of expertise, you're making it easier for your organization to be found upon search." Vickie Maris 10:36 "An increasing percentage of searches that I like to think of as the 'I'll just Google it' type of screen searches, is moving over to voice search - Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, Alexa, others." Vickie Maris 10:56 "Is your content represented at the top of search in those voice queries?" Vickie Maris   Reminder: Part 1 of the Bonus content from my session during Leading the Strategic Enterprise is Episode 15. And, my conversation with Brielle Nickoloff is Episode 14 of the show.  If you are not already subscribed to my show, Agile Digital Business, I invite you to join me on this journey of preparing our businesses for voice! You can subscribe for free in Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google and several other podcast directories. I would appreciate if you would help others learn about the podcast and this Season 2 with a focus on voice, by taking a screen shot and sharing it with a friend, or use the social sharing buttons on the show notes blog page at https://vickiemaris2.libsyn.com to send it out to your favorite social channel. Thanks for listening! Vickie Maris Author, speaker, digital marketer studying voice first, and idea coach #agiledigitalbiz #teachinspireconnect In the interest of full disclosure, a few of the links above that take you to my books are my affiliate links.               Final section of bonus content from the talk given at the University of Notre Dame in the Certificate in Executive Management on voice search and how it can fit in an overall marketing strategy   Pragmatic.digital A recent blog post that shares the Basics of Voice Garnter has gone on record as stating that by 2021, early adopter brands that redesign their websites to support visual and voice search will increase digital commerce revenue by 30%   Another section that stood out to me is the thought about your organization’s sonic branding. How your brand sounds can be critical in building your customer relationships. According to the article, word choice, tonal expression, and inflection all are playing a role in your brand’s persona. I would love to hear from you about how your company or organization is giving thought to your sonic brand and steps you’re taking to develop its persona to align with the persona of your target audience. When I think of you, my listener, I picture the participants of the executive education sessions I’ve taught at the university or the people I’ve spoken to after I’ve given a talk at a conference. My thought is that if you’ve been fascinated enough with something I’ve shared, to stop by to visit with me about it, then you just very well might be in my podcast listening audience. I would love to hear from you! You can send me an email at agiledigitalbusiness@gmail.com or you can leave me a voice message   Same ending as previous episode.  

As I was preparing for the talk I gave last week about voice search and the shifts in how our customers are seeking information about our products and services, I created a document of bonus content. It included references to several interesting marketing statistics and trends and a few points mentioned by other presenters during the 2 1/2-day module, Leading the Strategic Enterprise. As a news brief, I've recorded part of the bonus content here for you in Episode 15 of Agile Digital Business. This episode is 6:30 minutes in length. Here are the time codes and themes of the episode: 0:34 Introduction to this brief, news episode that features part of the content that I shared with students at the end of my session last week as bonus content. I was teaching about voice search and preparing our businesses for the digital realm.  :49 Mention of the book by Mark W. Schaefer, Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins 1:02 Reference to Episode 12 of the podcast where I provide a short commentary about Mark's book, Marketing Rebellion. 1:33 Maintain a customer focus 1:43 Insight from Jagdish Sheth who was a guest on Episode 190 of the Marketing Book Podcast, hosted by Douglas Burdett. 1:59 I mention the book, The 4 As of Marketing by Jagdish Sheth and Rajendra Sisodia. The 4As are Acceptability, Affordability, Accessibility and Awareness. Douglas Burdett and Jagdish Sheth talk about the 4As and how they differ from the 4 Ps - product, place, promotion and price. There was discussion about how the 4Ps can sometimes be internally focused. 2:30 Jagdish mentions the trend of having a marketing officer report in to a finance position. He talks about the differences when a CMO reports in to the CEO. 3:11 Another section of the Bonus Content is about the question of "who is in charge of our digital footprint?" 3:23 "Digital disrespects departments," according to international consultant and instructor, Taru Jain, CEO of Futuremarketer. He teaches in the Digital Marketing Certificate program offered by Rutgers University. He regularly posts interesting content on digital marketing and future trends in LinkedIn. I suggest that you follow him in the social media platform to keep up with the news he is sharing on a regular basis.  3:59 Joe Urbany, professor of marketing at the University of Notre Dame, taught in a professional development session for executives last week at the university. He shared information from research by Whitler, Krause and Lehmann on the percentages of people on boards of directors with marketing experience. (the average was 2.6 percent). Whitler, Krause and Lehmann research in 2015, shows that including a person with marketing experience on the board can create positive impact on shareholder value. 4:46 I share insights from Marcus Sheridan whom I have heard speak on several occasions at Social Media Marketing World Conference.  5:15 Mention of the predictions that video along the pathway to purchase for 80 percent of the purchasing decisions in 2019.  5:27 He suggests that we have a video available for each of the 7 questions that our customers ask most frequently about our products or services. He also recommends that we take the 7 videos and mesh them together for an "80% video," which is a video that answers the questions that are getting asked 80% of the time.  6:11 Thank you for listening to Agile Digital Business podcast, with host, Vickie Maris. 6:18 Let's go out and teach, inspire and connect! You can join the online community of Agile Digital Business listeners here: https://patreon.com/vickiemaris      

During my conversation Brielle Nickoloff, lead, product marketing, for Witlingo, she and I discuss the value of moving quickly in the voice platform. Hear how Amazon Alexa searches data sources to respond to voice search as well as insights about voice portals for your customers. Nickoloff has a background in linguistics and neuroscience and user interface design. Her unique combination of degrees led her to Witlingo, which helps companies build voice experiences. Here is our conversation and the associated time codes to help you locate key moments in the interview:   :29 Introduction from Scott Greeson :42 Vickie Maris introduces the upcoming interview with Brielle Nickoloff, Witlingo. Vickie and Brielle met while attending the voice panel during Podcast Movement 2019. 1:53 Vickie provides background information about Brielle and her work in the voice community. 2:48 Brielle speaks three languages and has several publications to her credit. You can read more at her LinkedIn profile. 3:49 Reach Brielle via email, brielle @ witlingo dot com or through her LinkedIn profile. 4:08 How Brielle was led to the voice space. She had been double majoring in Neuroscience and Linguistics with an intent to go to Medical School. 4:32 A seminar in her linguistics program about profanity; she did a paper about why people get so frustrated with robot.   5:27 Her transition to voice for her career. 5:58 Vickie talks about taking a graduate level linguistics course during her undergraduate program 6:50 Brielle talks about the point at which she decided that she was not interested in taking the MCAT which had been part of her original plan 7:38 Contemplation of becoming a coder and attending a coding boot camp or other learning activities it would take to work in the voice space 8:21 A conversation with a best friend who was studying art and design had been sending job postings to Brielle about Google needing designers and linguists 9:03 Exploration about a career path in user experience design. 10:03 Voice design and roles in a "voice" career 10:30 Brielle began as a voice designer with Witlingo 11:22 Brielle is in a position at Witlingo that didn't exist a few years ago in this budding industry. 11:56 Reasons explained for the growth of the voice platform. 12:07 With voice, you don't have to learn how talk. 12:31 "We're finally at a point where this technology can understand us and speak back to us. Alexa was the first one. She helped make it mainstream." 13:03 "We need so many people in this field." 13:38 Vickie asks "What does a business need to do today to be ready for voice and how people are incorporating it in to their daily lives." 14:40 We're now at a point when you're in a room asking people if they know about voice assistants, everybody has at least tried it." 15:10 What does it mean to pay a company to build out a voice experience for you? 15:28 Witlingo has refined its offering to a SAS (software as a service) product for their clients. https://www.witlingo.com/ 16:02 "With a website, you wanted to build your SEO roots early on when text-based search engines came out. Those who started building out very strong, rich content on any search engine were the ones who would be pushed to the top." Brielle Nickoloff 16:35 "There is no such thing anymore as seeing the 10 blue hyperlinks on Google's first page." 16:44 "If you a voice assistant a question about a brand, a company, anything; what you get back is one, single answer. It's not a bunch of options anymore." 16:56 "Even in text-based search engines, that has been a shift we're seeing as well." 17:30 "There is quite an interesting parallel between that and what is going on with voice." 17:56 "Our product is designed so that you can sit down and record FAQs about yourself or your company... It makes so that people can find what people are searching for about your company." 18:38 "There are two things to consider with voice - the content creation and the content consumption." 19:35 "In a few years, it will be an absolute table stake for your brand to have a presence in voice. 19:52 A voice assistant will first search its own, internal database. If they can't find the answer there, they move out to the voice web. In Alexa's case, it is the Alexa Skills. Then, she'll go to the web search. Alexa is powered by Bing. The Google Assistant is powered by Google. 20:51 "Planting those voice roots very early on" is important. 21:00 Web content is not designed to be consumed while you're listening to it. 21:18 "People usually use long term searches when they are conversationally asking for things." 21:38 Include general things that you want to be an authority on. 21:56 "If you are building out that rich, voice-based content, then you're going to have a leg up in the future when the algorithms are more refined and able to actually pull an answer from third-party skills in areas where you are an authority." 22:44 Invitation to grab a screen shot of this episode with Brielle Nickoloff, and share it out with your friends and colleagues. 24:00 How to add the podcast, Agile Digital Business, to your Flash Briefing on your Amazon Echo device so that you can ask Alexa to "play your flash briefing." 25:30 "We're getting a lot of traction with marketing executives who have signature power." 26:00 "We're seeing everything from B to C; B to B.  27:12 "40 percent of adults use voice search every day and that is growing rapidly." 27:44 "You have customer care: You can easily reach your customers by providing answers and information they would need, just by asking." 27:58 There is also the digital marketing aspect. You can surface first when users are searching. 28:20 Episode about adding the Alexa Skill for the podcast appeared rapidly in search results in iTunes in the top two rows of options. 30:01 "We're banking on the idea that any serious business that has a website, a Twitter, etc., that voice is the next table stake to consider." 31:02 Brielle describes Flash Briefings that you can create for Alexa users 31:24 "If you add a Skill to your Flash Briefing lineup, you never have to remember the name of the Skill to invoke it anymore." 33:06 Witlingo team is excited to be able to provide the Flash Briefing capability to companies interested in creating a Flash Briefing for their customers to enable. 33:45 Vickie provides the example of connecting her RSS feed for her podcast with her Flash Briefing Amazon Alexa Skill 34:19 Opportunity to grab embed code from your portal with Witlingo, which allows you to feature the voice of your users providing feedback. 35:05 On being "platform agnostic." Special Offer from Witlingo to Listeners of Agile Digital Business 35:34 Brielle mentions an offer for the use of Witlingo tools for listeners who would like to try the service. If you mention that you heard about the company via Agile Digital Business podcast, the company will get you set up for a year of use of service for free. Brielle can provide more details. (Check with Witlingo about the length of this offer.) 36:56 Vickie provides an example from her experience as an author, and the importance of publishing your books in audiobook format. Her first book, Job Loss and the Cutback Blues: Journey of Grief, Uncertainty and Recovery After Being Let Go, is available as an audiobook through Amazon, Audible and other locations. The book she is about to publish will also be available as an audiobook. 37:24 Conference, Digital Bookworld, is mentioned by Brielle. Bradley Metrock (https://twitter.com/bmetrock) created the conference. It's about publishing in the age of voice and the age of digital books. 37:35 Alexa conference is now called Project Voice. Brielle highly recommends this event as well. 38:03 Show notes are in the podcast Libsyn blog, https://vickiemaris2.libsyn.com 38:29 Thank you. 39:06 Music closing                    

Transitioning with your customer in the digital realm before it’s too late – businesses, prepare for voice search by @vickiemaris #teachinspireconnect #agiledigitalbiz Agile Digital Business Episode 12 featuring news, references and commentary about the voice platform and voice search   From the Resources Handout prepared for a conference session talk in June 2019; revised for a talk in September 2019   2:56 Articles and blog posts on voice search Voice Search is Coming. Is Your Business Ready? How voice search will revolutionize your business – Article in Inc. https://www.inc.com/magazine/201906/amy-webb/voice-search-optimization-alexa-smart-speaker-retail-shopping.html 3:08 Why Tech Giants Are So Desperate to Provide Your Voice Assistant An HBR article by Bret Kinsella about why Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others are investing in voice technology. “Voice assistants represent the third UI and technology platform shift of the past three decades, following the web in the 1990s and smartphones about 10 years ago…The shift to voice doesn’t require any training. Users simply ‘speak’ as they do naturally.” 3:20 Voice Search Statistics, Facts and Trends 2019 for Online Marketers “Voice search and SEO is not the next big thing; it is today’s big thing.” In this blog post by Bradley Shaw, learn more about voice search predictions and data, from voice accuracy to audiobook data to uses of searches prior to a visit to a local business. https://seoexpertbrad.com/voice-search-statistics/ 3:35Hey Google, Alexa, Siri and Higher Ed Impact on how we deliver, search for and market higher education. An article in Higher Ed by Ray Schroeder, Dec. 12, 2018 https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/hey-google-alexa-siri-and-higher-ed 3:46 The holidays ushered in a smart speaker explosion starring Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant: Smart speaker sales grew 78 percent in 2018. Rani Molla wrote this blog post on Vox on Jan. 8, 2019 to review the statistics surrounding the explosive growth of smart speakers in the market.  https://www.vox.com/2019/1/8/18173696/amazon-alexa-google-assistant-smart-speaker-sales-npr 4:04  Foursquare wants to know how creepy you think its new “Hypertrending” feature is The above is the title of a blog post on 9To5Mac from March 10, 2019. It addresses the approach taken by the Foursquare app company to test how readers feel about the app’s ability to heat mat the locations of people at restaurants and other businesses in Austin, Texas. https://9to5mac.com/2019/03/10/foursquare-hypertrending-feature 4:17 Who’s listening when you talk to your Google Assistant? This is an article in Wired in July 2019 that covers the topic of “who is listening to your conversations” from your Google Home Assistant. Google has made a statement about its process of having contractors review .2 percent of the recorded conversations. They say the data is not associated with an individual user of the assistant when it is being reviewed. To read more: https://www.wired.com/story/whos-listening-talk-google-assistant/   Alexa FAQs For instructions about the commands to use when talking to Alexa on a Smart Speaker, and its many capabilities, visit this FAQ page in Amazon. https://amzn.to/2ZAnQFS To review your voice recordings in the Alexa app: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201602040   Google Voice Search FAQs For instructions on how to manage your Google Voice and Audio Activity, visit the “Data and personalization” link in the left-hand navigation of your Google Account.   Books 4:27Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins by Mark W. Schaefer – I read this book in Spring 2019, and took copious notes. Mark was the closing keynote at Social Media Marketing World conference in 2019. I recommend that every marketer and every business leader who has a marketing leader reporting to them should read this book. We are in a different marketing environment today than even just a few years ago. Years of marketing experience in business (or academia) and old methods for buying and placing digital advertising, and ways of engaging with customers are causing customers to block ads and/or to seek education and entertainment that is ad-free. If you aren’t already changing your plans currently to align with the new marketing revolution, this book will cause you to re-think what you’ve been doing in your marketing efforts.   Podcast Episodes 6:27Book Marketing: Voice Search For Authors With Miral Sattar – The Creative Penn Podcast Joanna Penn, author and podcast host, interviews Miral Sattar about the steps you can take in 2019 to help voice-activated assistants find your book upon request. In this episode, they touch on a variety of subjects from updating meta data on your web pages so that the snippets are answering the questions that people are asking in their attempts to find your books, to the importance of the audiobook format, to the differences between on-screen searches that are typed in a search engine such as Google, to asking a voice-activated assistant for a result. 7:179 Ways That Artificial Intelligence (AI) Will Disrupt Authors and the Publishing Industry You don’t have to be a book author to benefit from this episode of The Creative Penn Podcast. Joanna Penn tracks through a list she has created that indicates we’re on the cusp of disruptions for authors and the publishing industry. Penn runs a multi-six-figure business as an independent author and speaker. She is published in 86 countries. Her energy and enthusiasm about AI is contagious. The insights she shares as she outlines the ways that authors and the publishing industry could be effected can provide ideas for your own business plan for the future. 9:30 Understanding Voice Search and the Future of SEO For interesting insights in to how voice is changing the “search” industry and what we might need to be expecting as businesses of the future, take a listen to this episode of Skill Up podcast. This is another episode that I’ve played more than once so that I could take notes on my second time through. Epsiode 7: https://www.hubspot.com/podcasts/skill-up/s01/e07-voice-search-future-seo   10:08 Measuring Position Zero’s Impact on Your Business – Searchmetrics Podcast, Episode 7 This is a discussion on the difference between rich snippets and featured snippets. There is no process for submitting for featured snippets. Are you optimizing your content? Are you formatting your content in a way that it can answer a specific question? https://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/podcast-voices-of-search-rich-and-featured-snippets/   10:38 Businesses – Prepare for Voice Search – Agile Digital Business podcast You may have heard of voice search, or use of voice-activated assistants such as Alexa which is the assistant for the Amazon Echo smart speaker. There is also the Google Home Assistant or Microsoft’s Cortana, Apple’s Siri, and others. As people gravitate towards voice for search, it has brought about a marketing niche that is often referred to as voice search marketing. Voice has been referred to as the next big thing. The data is showing that it IS the big thing we need to be preparing for in business and marketing of our products and services. Vickie Maris, host of Agile Digital Business podcast, discusses trends and definitions related to “voice,” in Episode 10 of the show. Season 2 of the podcast is focused on voice and voice first searches, and how businesses can prepare for the platform. Find all episodes at the blog: https://vickiemaris2.libsyn.com 12:05 Voicebot.ai For a look at the research available about voice, and to learn more about the technical side of the platform, I highly recommend viewing the website and the white papers available from Bret Kinsella and the team at Voicebot. Bret is also the host of the Voicebot podcast. Take a listen to an episode and visit the website. You won’t regret it. https://voicebot.ai/author/bret/   12:44 Reminder about the homework assignment for taking steps to update your website for "voice." It is available for download at my Patreon account, https://patreon.com/vickiemaris     Sample of recent tweets around the hashtags: #voiceactivatedsearch and #voicesearch SEMrush - @SEMrush  - Sept. 10, 2019 #VoiceSearch started off as a hit-or-miss concept. It’s now a hugely popular way of helping us go about our daily lives. @himanshurauthan uncovers 7 strategies of how you can optimize your site to return more answers from voice searches.* Audeliss Search - @AudelissPeople – June 17, 2019   Voice-activated systems are a $49 billion market. Now @Google is using #AI to make #voice recognition work for #people with #disabilities: (link: https://buff.ly/2FaQjKr) buff.ly/2FaQjKr @Forbes #inclusion AIMC Biz Solutions @aimcbizolution – June 14, 2019  As of 2019, 20% of all Google searches are voice-activated – a number that’s expected to leap to 50% as early as 2020. Voice search is here to stay. It’s growing – and businesses who don’t embrace it now are going to be left scrambling in the very near future.   13:46Webinar Replays Podcasting in the Age of Voice Webinar – Aug. 26, 2019 Pragmatic and WIT Lingo hosted an webinar with several guests that provides interesting insights to the “voice” scene in Q3 2019. https://youtu.be/C2uY1dGRIZE 14:31Glossary of Terms  AI – Artificial Intelligence Sample tweet from @Capgemini (Intelligent Automation Platform) about AI: Explore how #AI based insights enable wealth and #AssetManagement firms to leverage the strengths of the advisors, uncover areas of improvement and promote best practices. 15:20CCPA – California Consumer Protection Act Starts Jan. 1, 2020 - https://ccpa.jebbit.com/ “By its terms, the CCPA protects the private information of California residents even when they’re outside the state. This means that, if you sell anything to or market anything to or gather any data on California residents, you’re subject to the CCPA’s provisions and need to be ready.” Kerry O’Shea Gorgone (guest post on the Grow blog by Mark Schaefer) 16:05 Flash Briefing – A Flash Briefing is a term related to Amazon Skills for Alexa-assisted devices. It’s a short (10 minutes or less) news update that Alexa can read or play. 16:25 GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation Enforced May 25, 2018 In statements on the EU GDPR website it says that the GDPR is “designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe and to protect and empower all EU citizens’ data, and reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy.” https://eugdpr.org/   16:57 Intent – The meaning of whatever a user has verbalized to a voice-activated assistant.   17:04 Machine Learning – It’s an offshoot of artificial intelligence. Machine learning makes assumptions that machines can learn from data. As patterns are determined, decisions get made with little or no human involvement. 17:18 Position Zero – The top search result in a screen-based, keyword search in a search engine such as Google. It’s above the ads; it’s above the snippets. It’s the position used in voice search. 17:35Screen Search – A screen search is the type of Internet searching that was previously thought of as traditional. It involves typing of questions, key words or phrases in a search engine such as Google or Bing. A method of typing and a screen are involved. The search results are displayed in multiples per page. 17:58SEM – Search engine marketing 18:02 SEO – Search engine optimization SERP – Search engine results page* 18:05 Skill (Amazon), Action (Google), Capsule (Bixby for Samsung) – Amazon calls these “voice-driven capabilities” that can run on their respective platforms. Google calls these Actions. For Bixby, they are capsules. Consider the Amazon Alexa Skill for an example. I’ve created an Alexa Skill for my podcast, Agile Digital Business, to make it easy for Amazon device users to ask Alexa to play my Flash Briefing for the podcast. The Alexa Skill can be found on search in the Amazon Skill store. If a user knows the name of the Skill they are looking for, they can request it of the assistant by saying, “Enable [name of Skill].” For the podcast, I set the Alexa Skill up with the blue print provided for a Flash Briefing. It saved me from having to code, and it enables a user to search in their Alexa app for the specific Skill to add to their Flash Briefing.* 19:05 Smart Speaker – A smart speaker is also known as a voice-activated assistant, and several other terms. Examples include the Echo by Amazon (assistant is Alexa) or the Home by Google. Sonic Branding – Phrases such as “tone of the copy,” “find your voice,” and “it should sound like our brand,” have a literal meaning in this era of voice search. Sonic branding is what your brand sounds like as it is responding, verbally, to your customers.* 19:22 Utterance – This is the term used to describe the vocalizations a user has with a voice-activated assistant. 19:31 Voice – Any interaction that allows you to control a computer program using natural speech. 19:40 Voice Commerce – Transactions for goods and services conducted via voice search and commands given to the assistant in the smart speaker. Users can connect their accounts such as Amazon. 19:55 Voice First – The phrase, voice first, refers to the first in a string of searches, starting with a voice search, that a user conducts. They may go to a screen search after getting an initial response from an assistant. 20:11 Voice Search – A voice search is a question asked by a person talking to their digital assistant (voice-activated speaker or voice-activated assistant) such as Siri or Alexa. The assistant uses meta data to return one result that best aligns with the question that was asked. 20:46 Voice User Interface (VUI) – This is an interface that allows a person using voice for search to interact with a device when there isn’t a screen involved. 21:00 BIO – Vickie Maris Voice first, voice platforms and preparing content so that it is more discoverable in voice search are topics that have the focus of Vickie Maris, author, speaker, digital marketer and idea coach. Vickie is the host and producer of Agile Digital Business. Season 2 is devoted to the fast-moving adoption of smart speakers and uses of voice-activated assistants in a variety of forms. Through her podcast and conference talks, she helps business owners and marketers plan their transition of content for improved discoverability in voice search. Vickie has also studied and taught social media marketing and engagement, and development of online learning experiences in scalable business models for executive education units. Her career spans over 30 years in industry and academia. At the university, she is responsible for the sales, marketing and evolution of non-degree programs for business people in leadership, supervision, and business analytics. She has also held roles in marketing and business development in the fields of agriculture and engineering at Purdue University where she led a team that developed and marketed online certifications in Lean Six Sigma and project management. The online courses attracted over 1,400 business professionals per year. Vickie has served as a communications director for a non-profit and as an account manager for an advertising and public relations firm. She holds her Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma. Her degrees from Purdue include a B.S. degree in Agricultural Communications and MS Ed in Learning Design and Technology. Vickie is a published author and a recording artist. Her books, podcasts and music can be found in Amazon, Apple Podcasts, Apple Music, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Pandora and other digital locations. She and her co-writer/musician husband, Scott Greeson, reside on their farm with their llamas, Connemara pony, and cat, Frank. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  23:04 To find the resources that I mention in my conference sessions, search on #teachinspireconnect and/or #agiledigitalbiz. You’re invited to connect with me in LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/vickiemaris; emails = vmaris@nd.edu or vickiemaris@gmail.com   * Indicates a content reference that was added after this document was audio recorded as part of Episode 12 of Agile Digital Business podcast. If you’d prefer to listen to my recommendations about these resources, plus my added commentary, check out Episode 12 of the podcast. The episodes of the podcast are available here: https://vickiemaris2.libsyn.com

Gary Vaynerchuck is on the Voicebot List for 2019 Top 10 Influencers in Voice. Neil Patel is a marketing thought leader, and named by Entrepreneur Magazine as a creator of 1 of the 100 most brilliant companies. Both are preparing their companies for voice. Between the two of them, they have many successful businesses. In Episode 11 of Agile Digital Business, I summarize both their sense of urgency about preparing your business for the voice platform and tips provided by Neil for updating your website for voice. There are changes you can make to your website that will enable the assistants to more readily find and serve up your content when your customers search for your business with their voice. Here are my notes from the episode along with the time codes: 1:11 Introduction to Episode 11 by Agile Digital Business host, Vickie Maris 1:30 Voice search is the focus of Season 2 of Agile Digital Business podcast 1:52 Sense of urgency for businesses to get ready for voice search 2:10 Summary of video on the GaryVee YouTube channel in which Gary Vaynerchuk is being interviewed by Charles Warner of Innovation & Tech Today. They talk about several subjects from block chain to esports to voice. The conversation in the video about voice search is towards the end of the interview. 5:35 Thoughts about getting your website ready to be easily found in voice search 5:45 Enthusiasm about the podcasting platform since it is voice. 6:54 Preview of last section of this episode which includes four tips from Neil Patel in a video on his YouTube channel, Neil Patel. 8:55 Poll uploaded on my Patreon account where you can respond to the single-question survey. Visit this link and click the "Posts" tab in the left-hand navigation. https://www.patreon.com/vickiemaris 9:29 Sense of overwhelm about voice, voice search, voice first, and being ready for heavy uses of voice during search. 10:16 Mention of the need to get my own website updated so that it better represents my books, podcast, and speaking.  11:22 Location of the Agile Digital Business membership area in Patreon and the free access to the homework assignment that accompanies this episode. You are welcome to download and work on the homework assignment no matter if you support the podcast in Patreon or not. 12:18 Summary of 4 tips from Neal Patel 12:30 Confirm that your site is https compatible (rather than http). 12:55 Build authority within your domain. 13:36 Verify that your site loads quickly; at least 4.6 seconds or faster. You can use a Google Developer tool to check the speed at which your site loads. Do a search on Google for "site speed, insights," and you'll see the link to the tool.  14:15 Include short answers in your content that respond to the questions being asked by your customers. It is suggested that a blog post be at 2,200 words or more which allows Google to index your site for more terms. 15:18 Bonus Tip #1 from your host, Vickie Maris 15:27 Review your About page in your website and be sure that it is current. It should represent your brand really well. You can include questions and answers. For an example: Vickie Maris About Page 16:23 Bonus Tip #2 FAQ page 16:33 Create or update your FAQ (frequently asked questions) page for your website. 17:15 A summary of commentary from both Neil Patel and Gary Vaynerchuk that while the majority of your search traffic may not be coming from voice search, it isn't too early to prepare. 17:45 Updating the site, one page at a time. 18:02 Keep a positive mindset about the changes to voice search, whether you are leading the effort or doing the coding. 18:23 Thank you for listening to Episode 11 of Agile Digital Business 18:56 Sharing of the frequency of the podcast episodes. 19:17 Music under Vickie's statement that we Teach. Inspire. Connect. 

You may have heard of voice search, or use of voice-activated assistants such as Alexa which is the assistant for the Amazon Echo smart speaker. There is also the Google Home Assistant or Microsoft’s Cortana, Apple’s Siri, and other others. You may have also heard the older phrase of "voice attendants." As people gravitate towards voice for search, it has brought about a marketing niche that is often referred to as voice search marketing.  Voice has been referred to as the next big thing. The data is showing that it IS the big thing we need to be preparing for in business and marketing of our products and services. Here are the topics addressed by host, Vickie Maris, in Episode 10 of Agile Digital Business: 2:24 Voice is the next big thing 2:38 Statistics on smart speakers, and basics of voice in blog posts available at Pragmatic.digital/blog 3:12 Reference to llama training and the teenage students' uses of voice-activated assistants 4:17 Should B2B businesses leverage the use of voice? 4:50 Voice search or keyboard and screen search? 5:28 Can the media find your company in voice search? 6:03 Vickie's prediction about SEO and on-screen searches 6:23 Attending Podcast Movement 2019 in Orlando, Florida 6:48 "Voice" panel discussion at Podcast Movement 2019 7:42 Alexa Skills and Google Actions 8:06 Voice search marketing and voice search 8:16 Talk given on smart speakers and voice search marketing by Vickie Maris at the Social Media and Digital Marketing Institute, Minneapolis, MN 9:02 Updating digital content so that it appears in results 10:06 Request that you grab a screenshot of this episode and share the episode in your favorite social media channels 10:54 Definitions of voice search and voice-activated assistants as well as voice search marketing 11:56 Interest in marketing of a book was what led Vickie Maris to explore and learn about voice search marketing 12:18 Publishing a book in digital (ebook for Kindle), paperback and audiobook format 12:42 ACX and Audible (This is Vickie's referral/affiliate link to Audible. You can use it if you would like to try out Audible for listening to audiobooks. The URL below for Self-Publishing School, which Vickie Maris participated in online in 2018, is also an affiliate link.) 12:55 Self-Publishing School 13:04 Pew Research data on audiobook consumption 14:19 Recommendation to listen to Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn; Episode 437; 9 Ways That Artificial Intelligence Will Disrupt Authors and the Publishing Industry 16:44 Voice-first mode of using a smart speaker 17:37 Position zero in search results 18:33 Listening to voice of our customers 18:53 Adjustments to improve function of website and web content 20:22 Poll on Patreon account about possibility of homework assignments in future episodes of Agile Digital Business to prepare for upward trends in voice search 22:00 Email your ideas for upcoming episodes in Season 2 of Agile Digital Business to agiledigitalbusiness @ gmail dot com  22:26 Quote about leaders from E.J. Smith Let's continue on this journey to Teach. Inspire. Connect.  

On this episode of My Biz Bestie, Maelisa and Amber embark on a challenge: to find a business bestie for Vickie Maris. Vickie met Maelisa and Amber at Social Media Marketing World and was intrigued by the idea of finding a biz bestie. The gals thought that this would be a fantastic idea for an […]

On this episode of My Biz Bestie, Maelisa and Amber embark on a challenge: to find a business bestie for Vickie Maris. Vickie met Maelisa and Amber at Social Media Marketing World and was intrigued by the idea of finding a biz bestie. The gals thought that this would be a fantastic idea for an episode. Consider this the Tinder of podcasts, but for biz besties! Vickie shares a bit about her life and why she is looking for a business bestie on episode 28 of My Biz Bestie. Listen in to hear if she is just right for you! Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join The My Biz Bestie Community today: My Biz Bestie Facebook My Biz Bestie Instagram

In this episode of Agile Digital Business (formerly called Online Course Connections), Whitney Kilgore, PhD, of iDesign takes a student-centered approach as she talks of techniques she uses to help faculty and content experts get more comfortable in recording videos for online courses. She also shares several tools and resources that you will find helpful, no matter if you're doing online course design for your customers or for your students. I think you'll agree with me that Whitney is a master in learning experience design!  Flipgrid: https://info.flipgrid.com/ Yellowdig: https://www.yellowdig.com/ Practice: https://www.practice.xyz/   This episode is part of the online course collection of episodes listed at http://vickiemaris.com. Part 2 of the interview with Whitney appears in a few episodes later in the show.   To connect with guest, Whitney Kilgore ... Twitter: @whitneykilgore Email: whitneykilgore@me.com Website: idesignedu.org   To connect with podcast host, Vickie Maris ... Twitter: @vickiemaris Email: info@vickiemaris.com Website: vickiemaris.com Join Vickie's mailing list to receive updates of new episodes, online Twitter chats and other ways to collaborate: vickiemaris@getresponse.net Note: Episode revised 07/29/2019

Here are three approaches to developing content for an online course platform such as Udemy.  I describe techniques I have used including: Creating an online course around a topic in which you have a high level of expertise and passion. Invite a content expert(s) to join you in developing a course. This person could also serve in an on-camera role for course videos. Journal your experience in learning a subject, and then create course content from your notes and experiences. These techniques are ones I've used in courses I've created at the university as well as in my courses on Udemy and other platforms. http://www.udemy.com/u/vickiemaris http://vickiemaris.com  

Learn about the focus of the show, Agile Digital Business, and the background of the host Vickie Maris. She shares a story about the importance of listening to the voice of the customer before launching in to content creation or the development of a new product or service. Music in the podcast is by Vickie Maris and her husband, Scott Greeson. See the latest album, Riverside, for the versions of the songs with lyrics. You can find more details about the podcast, Agile Digital Business, and the books by Vickie Maris when you visit: http://vickiemaris.com 

Podcast host, Vickie Maris, and her husband, Scott Greeson, share their takeaways from living unplugged for a few days at Fox Lake Resort in Marcell, MN. Planning and preparing meals; fishing; exercising; following a morning routine; and living without digital devices for a few days were all aspects of the week that contributed to relaxation and rejuvenation. Learn more at the website, http://heartsongfit.com.

I chat in the studio with my husband, Scott Greeson, right after we had played a music gig with the band at the Indiana Bacon Festival in Delphi, Indiana. Other topics of the show include my accordion lessons via Skype with Bev Fess; details of the Bacon Fest gig; and my annual trek to Accordion Camp where I have met and learned from professional accordionists Bev Fess, Murl Allen Sanders, Ron Borelli, Gary Blair, Ilmar Kuljus, Dick Myking, and many more. Friends and fellow accordionists who attend camp make the event a reunion of sorts. Show notes for Episode 20 can be found at http://heartsongfit.com/camp20   Thanks for sharing this episode with a friend!  

Take a walk with Vickie Maris and Dana Drenzek on the trail around the main wolf enclosure at Wolf Park in Battle Ground, Indiana. Learn about the establishment of the park in the 1970s and the activities being conducted to observe animal behavior and to educate the public. You'll hear about the wolves, coyotes, foxes, bison and other animals at the park. Dana also talks about the internship program and the sponsoring membership. Vickie and Dana even meet up with Monty Sloan and intern, Jeremiah, during the conversation, and Vickie gets her first opportunity to pet a wolf. For more details, see the show notes at the Heartsong Fit website or visit wolfpark.org

Discover how to be meaningful with your course content and how to connect with your students in the online environment.To truly connect with your students and deliver value, you must be passionate about sharing your knowledge. Yes, there is money to be made in online course creation, but if money is your main driver there will be a disconnect between you and your students.One important aspect when it comes to connecting with your students is that you have to be comfortable in your presentation.There are many ways to present your material from on camera talking-head style videos to voice over PowerPoint, Keynote, or screen capture. Your material can also be supplemented with PDF documents, audio files and any other resource you feel would assist the student in achieving their learning objective.Here are some really good tips to increase engagementSmile a lot.Start to smile before you hit the record button. This is important whether you are presenting in front of a camera or recording a voice over.As a side note here, if you are live streaming on platforms such as Blab or Periscope the same thing applies. Start smiling before you go live. You want to appear happy and excited to be there as soon as your broadcast starts. Don't wait for people to join your broadcast before you start smiling.Present every piece of information as if the student has never heard it before.You know your material, you've probably presented it a thousand times. There is no doubt that some students taking your course have already had exposure to your topic and have varying degrees of understanding.But there will also be students in your course who are hearing this information for the first time and these are the students that you design your presentation around.Be excited and energetic in your presentation.We've all been there. Someone is presenting either on stage, in the classroom, on video or television. They are totally present. They are passionate and there is a positive energy to their presentation. They are smiling and their body language is open.Before you know it you are being swept along in the presenter's energetic flow and totally absorbed in what is being said.Now, that is engagement.When you follow these simple yet highly effective tips you will find your students will not only be engaged, they will also tend to be more forgiving if you make a mistake or encounter technical difficulties.Stay on topicProbably one of the quickest ways to lose the attention of your student is to lose focus, go off topic or try to pad your information out with fluff. More is not better.People's time is precious and your objective is to deliver the information in the shortest amount of time while ensuring a high level of clarity and understanding.Using Social Media Tools To Engage With Your StudentsIn recent times, there have been a number of new innovations in the world of social media, two of which stand out.Blab and Periscope. Both of these platforms offer live streaming video and bring their own unique offerings to the table.As these technologies mature and become more accessible, the landscape of online teaching will change. Students will come to expect access to instructors via these platforms.Both Blab and Periscope allow students to interact and communicate with the instructor in real time and are ideal for short tutorials, Q&A sessions, and live coaching.As online instructors now is the time to embrace these new technologies.The other benefit of broadcasting and interacting through platforms such as Blab and Periscope is that not only are you interacting with your current students, but anybody interested in your topic can join the broadcast and listen to your information and maybe even purchase your course.Students are more likely to purchase future courses from you because they know you are accessible and happy to answer their questions.Create An Avatar Of Your Ideal StudentThis is a powerful way to connect with your students. Write out a detailed bio of your ideal student.Not just - “male, aged 35 - 45, likes cars”.Create a detailed story about your ideal students, their home and work life, dreams, and aspirations, fears, and frustrations.Then when you are preparing your material have your avatar in mind. Are you addressing your ideal student's fears and frustrations? Will your course bring your student closer to achieving their hearts desire?Then when you present your material, imagine you are talking directly to your avatar.You can find out more about Vickie at http://vickiemaris.comResources and sites mentioned in this episodeHere are some affiliate links to Vickie's courses -Aviator's Wife Tells of Home Front Life During World War 2 - $10Learn a Simple Approach to Creating an Online Video Course - $15Periscope: How to Improve Your Scopes and Grow Followers - $15

Discover how to be meaningful with your course content and how to connect with your students in the online environment.To truly connect with your students and deliver value, you must be passionate about sharing your knowledge. Yes, there is money to be made in online course creation, but if money is your main driver there will be a disconnect between you and your students.One important aspect when it comes to connecting with your students is that you have to be comfortable in your presentation.There are many ways to present your material from on camera talking-head style videos to voice over PowerPoint, Keynote, or screen capture. Your material can also be supplemented with PDF documents, audio files and any other resource you feel would assist the student in achieving their learning objective.Here are some really good tips to increase engagementSmile a lot.Start to smile before you hit the record button. This is important whether you are presenting in front of a camera or recording a voice over.As a side note here, if you are live streaming on platforms such as Blab or Periscope the same thing applies. Start smiling before you go live. You want to appear happy and excited to be there as soon as your broadcast starts. Don't wait for people to join your broadcast before you start smiling.Present every piece of information as if the student has never heard it before.You know your material, you've probably presented it a thousand times. There is no doubt that some students taking your course have already had exposure to your topic and have varying degrees of understanding.But there will also be students in your course who are hearing this information for the first time and these are the students that you design your presentation around.Be excited and energetic in your presentation.We've all been there. Someone is presenting either on stage, in the classroom, on video or television. They are totally present. They are passionate and there is a positive energy to their presentation. They are smiling and their body language is open.Before you know it you are being swept along in the presenter's energetic flow and totally absorbed in what is being said.Now, that is engagement.When you follow these simple yet highly effective tips you will find your students will not only be engaged, they will also tend to be more forgiving if you make a mistake or encounter technical difficulties.Stay on topicProbably one of the quickest ways to lose the attention of your student is to lose focus, go off topic or try to pad your information out with fluff. More is not better.People's time is precious and your objective is to deliver the information in the shortest amount of time while ensuring a high level of clarity and understanding.Using Social Media Tools To Engage With Your StudentsIn recent times, there have been a number of new innovations in the world of social media, two of which stand out.Blab and Periscope. Both of these platforms offer live streaming video and bring their own unique offerings to the table.As these technologies mature and become more accessible, the landscape of online teaching will change. Students will come to expect access to instructors via these platforms.Both Blab and Periscope allow students to interact and communicate with the instructor in real time and are ideal for short tutorials, Q&A sessions, and live coaching.As online instructors now is the time to embrace these new technologies.The other benefit of broadcasting and interacting through platforms such as Blab and Periscope is that not only are you interacting with your current students, but anybody interested in your topic can join the broadcast and listen to your information and maybe even purchase your course.Students are more likely to purchase future courses from you because they know you are accessible and happy to answer their questions.Create An Avatar Of Your Ideal StudentThis is a powerful way to connect with your students. Write out a detailed bio of your ideal student.Not just - “male, aged 35 - 45, likes cars”.Create a detailed story about your ideal students, their home and work life, dreams, and aspirations, fears, and frustrations.Then when you are preparing your material have your avatar in mind. Are you addressing your ideal student's fears and frustrations? Will your course bring your student closer to achieving their hearts desire?Then when you present your material, imagine you are talking directly to your avatar.You can find out more about Vickie at http://vickiemaris.comResources and sites mentioned in this episodeHere are some affiliate links to Vickie's courses -Aviator's Wife Tells of Home Front Life During World War 2 - $10Learn a Simple Approach to Creating an Online Video Course - $15Periscope: How to Improve Your Scopes and Grow Followers - $15

In today's Episode of the Online Learning Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Vickie Maris who has created on of the most unique courses on Udemy - a real living history course.  She has interviewed her mother about life as the wife of a US Airforce Aviator during World War II.  We also have an interesting discussion about Periscope - the new live streaming App from Twitter. In this Week's Episode: Vickie Maris In this Episode Vickie and I discuss: How Vickie came to put her course together How she first created a DVD set and the complexities of that set up How Vickie came to pull all this information together How Vickie came to learn about Udemy and create her own course Vickie's use of the great new live streaming App Periscope How to save your periscopes to your iphone How to reuse your Periscope broadcasts in your courses How Margueritte Beaty creates a template to backdrop your Periscopes to create a 16:9 presentation Why Vickie thinks Chris Ducker's Periscopes are inspirational Some of the stories shared by Vickie's mother in her course Find out More About Kristen's Courses Check out Kristen on Udemy at https://www.udemy.com/u/kristenpalana/ Get Vickie's courses for just $15 with Coupon Code OLP15 - or just click on the link below. Aviator's Wife Tells of Home Front Life During World War 2 - Get his course for just $15 by clicking on this link. Find out More about Vickie You can find out all about Vickie on her website at www.vickiemaris.com Mentioned in this Episode Check out Periscope TV here - https://www.periscope.tv Chris Ducker can be found at http://www.chrisducker.com Margueritte Beaty's Periscope Template video can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsM2YR74wUo New Media Europe - Manchester, England - 12-13 September 2015 Follow this Link to find out all about how you can get your Tickets to New Media Europe 2015 Ready To Be Heard! This unique conference is aimed at podcasters, bloggers, social media visionaries, content creators, entrepreneurs, marketing professionals and new media enthusiasts who are looking to up their game through the effective use of new media tools ‒ such as podcasting, blogging and social media ‒ in their endeavours. During this two-day event, you will have the choice to attend over 24 sessions prepared by some of the best speakers in the world. From general ‘know-how' sessions and technical workshops to inspiring keynote speeches ‒ you are going to be equipped with the new media knowledge, ideas and inspiration that will make you stand out from others in your niche! Networking events throughout the whole weekend will enable you to connect with other like-minded individuals. Top 3 Reasons to Attend: 1. Education. Only the best speakers have been selected to help you stay abreast of the top trends in new media. 2. Networking. You will have the chance to connect with others in your field during scheduled breaks, parties and meet-ups. 3. Inspiration. By collecting ideas and meeting individuals from your area(s) of specialisation, you will be inspired to take action and follow the steps to success. Who Is Going To Be There? Rub shoulders with like-minded individuals and experts. During the New Media Europe Conference in September 2015, you are going to meet other podcasters, bloggers, social media visionaries, content creators, entrepreneurs and new media enthusiasts! This is the most outstanding new media conference to hit Europe in 2015. Why Should You Attend? We have seen how new media can help entrepreneurs and businesses to thrive. This event is your chance to connect with the latest trends, practical tools and most of all, successful individuals from around the globe. By attending New Media Europe, you will find out why paying attention to new media is the single most important thing you can do this year! How to Apply for Tickets Follow this Link to find out all about how you can get your Tickets to New Media Europe 2015 - Don't forget to use Coupon Code "Podcast" to get 20% of the price of your ticket! (Affiliate Link) Other Places Mentioned in this Podcast Discover New Media Creative and all their amazing Audio Talents at http://www.musicradiocreative.com Subscribe to the New Media Europe Show Podcast on iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/new-media-europe-show/id998535275 Subscribe to Nick Loper's Side Hustle Show Podcast on iTunes here Subscribe to Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income Podcast on iTunes here Subscribe to Jaime Tardy's Eventual Millionaire Podcast on iTunes here Subscribe to Amy Porterfield's Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast on iTunes here Check out my New Audio Book From Passion to Profits with Online Courses - Liberate Your Inner Expert, Teach the World and Get Paid for It! Follow this Link to Access and Download the rest of this Audio Book for Free Join the Online Learning Club - my Facebook Group for Online Learners This is my Facebook Group for the Online Learning Community and you are most welcome to join us.  Just click on this link to go to the Page and ask to join the Group. [spp-reviews]  Full Disclosure: these are affiliate links. If you click on this link, you will not pay any more (you still get the full discount) but I will earn a Commission. If you do buy a course, please email me at john[at]jbdcolley[dot]com and tell me about it. I would love to thank you personnally for supporting The Online Learning Podcast! Don't forget you can still access the Course and the discount without going through the Affiliate Scheme by simply searching for the Course on Udemy and using the Coupon Code at Checkout in the normal way. If you do this, Udemy will receive their normal commission and the Course Creator will get the whole of the balance. It is entirely up to you.  

Click for Shownotes Today’s Guests The College Checklist Podcast is the podcast dedicated to guiding you through the complex world of college admissions. Host Lauren Gaggioli interviews experts from all areas of college admissions, college search, financial aid, scholarships, test prep and more to empower you to take control of your family’s college admissions process. Rosemary Nickel, Chief Motivator of Motivating Other Moms, created M.O.M. with the purpose of providing a support system for entrepreneurial moms. Allowing them to be their selves, to provide a safe and secure environment where they are surrounded by other entrepreneurial moms that are supportive and understanding of the struggles that come with being a mompenuer. Vickie Maris‘ desire is to help you run a fit business in which you are working within your purpose, and to lead a fit life. You’ll see that theme woven through her blog, podcast, Heartsong Fit With Vickie Maris, ebook, Social Media First Steps:  A Guide for Business, and other online products and services. She intertwines these themes with her passions for lifelong learning; for working smarter, not harder; for making the most of every moment. Inside This Episode Conference Takeaways, Tips & Tools  Wordswag – add awesome text to your photos in seconds Call Loop – quickly and easily send voice and SMS text messages to your customers, contacts, and subscribers in just a few clicks The Guests’ Podcast              Must Read Book BizChix Episodes mentioned in this episode Episode 46: Wes Schaeffer is The Sales Whisperer® Social Media Episodes Episode 50: Social Media Marketing World Recap with Michael Stelzner, John Lee Dumas, Cynthia Sanchez, Pat Flynn, Dan Miller, Sue B. Zimmerman, Erik Fisher and More Connect with Lauren The College Checklist Podcast Twitter Connect with Rosemary Motivating Other Moms Podcast Closed MOM Group On Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Connect with Vickie Heartsong Fit Podcast Thank you so much for listening.  If you enjoyed the episode, please consider subscribing in iTunes  and Stitcher and leaving a rating and or review.  This helps us continue to be featured in New & Noteworthy so that more people can find us. Click here to join the Biz Chix community Thank you to our Sponsors:   

Spend time on Dawn of Promise Farm with Vickie Maris and her podcast guest, Brad Bixler, farrier, journeyman pipefitter and adventurer who travels the world. Life of a Journeyman Pipefitter During the episode, Brad trims the hooves of Kerrymor Madison, Vickie's Connemara horse. The conversation covers the life of a working man who travels around the United States to the location of the work. He is a journeyman pipefitter. Travel to See the World When Unemployed Brad shares of his travel adventures that fill his downtime and keys to his ability to live life relatively stress free. He talks about setting goals and then visualizing yourself as having reached the goal and living in your changed life. During the conversation, Madison, the impatient horse, continues to interrupt and demand attention. Lucille Maris Talks About Life on the Homefront During World War II At the end of the episode, Vickie interviews her mom, Lucille, about her time in 1943 during World War II, as her husband, Jim Maris, was in flight training at George Army Air Field in Lawrenceville, Illinois, and Lucille lived with several other military wives in a small apartment in Vincennes, Indiana. You can learn more in the show notes at http://heartsongfit.com/15 and you can also visit www.statesidebride.com

Come along with farm owner and animal trainer, Vickie Maris, as she cares for her llamas and Connemara pony during evening chores in the extreme cold of winter. You can learn more about her Dawn of Promise Farm and what it is like caring for livestock in the winter when you visit the show notes for the episode at http://heartsongfit.com/14

Scott Greeson, singer/songwriter and entertainer is my guest on Episode 13 of Heartsong Fit With Vickie Maris. He is also my husband, so that makes him an extra special guest! Scott has been helping me with the podcast behind the scenes. He's an expert with the recording equipment and use of the software, ProTools, that we use in our music studio. In this episode, we share insights from behind the scenes of several of our music gigs and recording projects. Scott shares the reasons for his fondness of the tune, Heart of Gold, by Neil Young, and why he chose to sing it during a Celebration of Life service. He tells a story of his late wife, Janet Greeson, and the role she played in his learning to play harmonica. We also share news of the release of Lee Anna Atwell's new cd project, Burning Heart, which was recorded here in our studio, Hoosier Surf Records. Her amazing songwriting talent, along with her beautiful vocals and keyboard playing, are all showcased on this disc. (in the links below) You'll hear us banter about the band, Scott Greeson and Trouble With Monday, and our recent Christmas concert. We tell a special story about how the pieces of my latest project, Stories of a Stateside Bride, came together on a Friday night with a bit of divine intervention. We wrap this episode with a live recording of one of Scott's tunes, Roadside Lullaby, which we played at the Eye Opener Cafe on Dec. 20 during a Christmas gig. Reference Links for Episode 13 Soller-Baker celebration of life. Wabash Gypsies disc of instrumental guitar music by Scott Greeson and Kevin Ludwig - link to album on iTunes Scott Greeson's music website - www.scottgreesonmusic.com Battle Ground United Methodist Church - Church where Scott Greeson serves as worship pastor and also the venue of the Christmas concert by Scott Greeson, Vickie Maris, Lee Anna Atwell and Trouble With Monday Stories of a Stateside Bride - Told by Lucille Maris - 2-disc audio program available through cdbaby as a physical cd set or digital download. - www.cdbaby.com/artist/vickiemaris Heart of Gold by Neil Young - Link to Heart of Gold digital download on Amazon.com Roadside Lullaby - Youtube video of Scott Greeson's original tune; photos in video are by Terry Lyons. Link to Roadside Lullaby video in Youtube Scott Greeson Music Channel in Youtube To book Scott Greeson and Trouble With Monday, contact booking agent, David Leonards, International Entertainment Bureau. Burning Heart cd - original tunes by Lee Anna Atwell, keyboard player and vocalist in the band, Scott Greeson and Trouble With Monday. Sample in iTunes of the new instrumental tune, The Witness Tree, which is the last track on the 2-disc audio program, Stories of a Stateside Bride. It is by Scott Greeson and Malachi Jaggers. Website of the artist, Rena Brower - Scott mentions playing music while Rena was creating a water color painting during the Christmas Concert at the Delphi Opera House 2.

Vickie Maris lives on a farm where she trains llamas.  She is an entrepreneur, author, health coach, and worship musician.  A lady with many talents, yet feels overwhelmed at times.  She discusses how she use scriptures to guide her into her purpose.  Vickie have real talk about women in music ministry and the challenges of inducing new styles of musical praise.  She found power in prayer and strength in friendships to overcome obstacles.  

Mary Mitchell, health counselor, shares wisdom in this interview with podcast host, Vickie Maris. While the conversation was conducted in early 2013, it has been repurposed for this show so that you can benefit from Mary’s insights. She shares several very useful tips and concepts for busy people who are striving to improve their eating habits. Her tips can help you in your weight loss journey as well. She addresses the primary and secondary foods. Before her conversation about secondary foods, Mary describes the importance of finding balance in the primary foods: career or purpose, physical activity, spiritual activity and relationships.   Responding to Cravings In regards to healthy snacks to satisfy a craving, she reminds us about the importance of responding to a craving by drinking a glass of water first, then waiting about about 15 minutes. If you’re still having a craving, then respond with a healthy snack. But more often than not, you were actually dehydrated when you first noticed the craving, and the glass of water will take care of the situation. Drink up!   Did You Work Out Today? I have finished the workout program, Focus T25, and recently started the new in-home fitness program, 21 Day Fix, with Beachbody trainer, Autumn Calabrese. Hear a quick description of this new program that includes 30-minute workouts and containers for food portion control. Also hear a reminder of why it’s important to listen to your body.   If you’d like to easily track your own fitness stats, blood pressure readings, inches lost, and more, you can you can set up a free account through my Beachbody website. https://teambeachbody.com/heartsongfit   Let's connect!  There are many ways you can connect with me on the social web. LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram are a few of my favorites. You can find me at these locations with the handle @vickiemaris (https://linkedin.com/in/vickiemaris, https://www.twitter.com/vickiemaris or http://www.instagram.com/vickiemaris).   I also appreciate when you subscribe to the podcast for free in Apple Podcasts or other podcast directories.    At the end of this episode, you'll hear a story from my mom, Lucille Maris. I have been  interviewing my Mom, for a book I am working on about my parents’ life during WWII. It stems from the memoirs my dad, Lt. Col., James R. Maris drafted about his 30 missions as a bomber pilot.   There will be more about the book in later episodes. For now, please enjoy this delightful story that Lucille shares about the day she and her girlfriends ran to the top of the Hotel Jayhawk, Topeka, Kansas, to wave farewell to their husbands as the men buzzed the top of the building in their B-24 bombers and headed on their journey overseas. Future episodes of the podcast will close with additional short stories told by Lucille to Vickie.