Agile Digital Business

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 28 of Agile Digital Business I share an interview with a loved one who experienced the uncertainties that came with World War 2. This episode is a shift from the topic of voice interfaces and smart speakers that I've been addressing in Season 2 of the podcast.

00:30 A mention of the global crisis of the spread of COVID-19

1:07 Setup of the interview with Lucille Maris about her experience of saying goodbye from a hotel rooftop in Topeka, Kansas as my dad, Jim Maris, flew over with his crew in their B-24.

1:49 The background music starts as I talk about the characteristics of courage, faith, tenacity and the ability to face uncertainty during times of change.

Tweetable: "That was just what we all did [during World War II]." - Lucille Maris, 97, wife of Jim Maris, an US Army Air Corps bomber pilot #quote #aviation #mindset #uncertainty #coronavirus

2:35 Talking about the unknowns associated with World War 2 - an event that reached around the globe.

3:05 Steps that my 97-year-young mom is taking to maintain her good health during the threat of the coronavirus. (Drinking water, exercising, meditation, prayer, eating well, chatting with friends over the phone to stay in community.)

4:45 Preview of audio that is included in the next episode, 29, which is my interview with Mark Schaefer, speaker, consultant, and author of seven books. His most recent business book is Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins.

5:45 An invitiation to you to subscribe to this podcast, Agile Digital Business. Please share this episode with a friend, family member or colleague.

6:03 Mark Schaefer talking about the importance of thinking about the context of this moment, and how we as business owners and organizations respond.

6:58 "We need to think within the context of this moment...We're going through a process of grieving, I think our customers are going through a process of grieving. We need to be sensitive to this - the unmet and underserved needs of our customers are changing dramatically." Mark Schaefer

7:10 The show notes are available at my blog here in Libsyn, https://vickiemaris2.libsyn.com

You can also search on the hashtags: #agiledigitalbiz and #teachinspireconnect (resources from other content sources that I think you might find helpful).

8:15 Interview I had with my mom, Lucille Maris, in 2014 as she recounted the story of saying goodbye to my dad in 1943. He left Topeka in the B-24 bomber with his 10-member crew. They buzzed the top of the Hotel Jayhawk and waved the wings of the aircraft to say goodbye to my mom and the three other wives standing atop of the hotel.

14:08 Working on the editing and additional writing to my dad's memoirs from World War II. I'm adding mom's perspective as a stateside bride on the homefront.

15:29 Summary of the work of Professor Jim Maris at Purdue University as Department Head of Aviation Technology. He also continued to teach a course in Aviation History and did public speaking about his perspective as a pilot in World War II.

16:45 You can find the video documentary course in Udemy at https://udemy.com/u/vickiemaris

17:25 Invitation to you to join my broadcasts from my Facebook page to share excerpts from the 30-day journal, Changing Life After a Life-Changing Event: 30 Journal Prompts and Stories to Help After a Loss.

18:39 Thank for listening to Episode 28 of Agile Digital Business. The next episode is the interview with Mark Schaefer.

#teachinspireconnect #agiledigitalbiz

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 an impromptu episode of Agile Digital Business, I capture a conversation with my mom, Lucille Maris, about her recollection of how she heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

As we were talking, her friends Pat, and later, Margaret Williamson, joined us.

If you would like to see the Facebook Live that we recorded at the same time, visit, http://www.fb.com/scottgreesonmusic

#pearlharbor

#teachinspireconnect

#agiledigitalbiz

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