Communication is knowledge, whether it be through talking, listening or acting with one person or many. Messages are passed around the world every second of everyday. It is our responsibility to make sure we are sending the right messages and having them heard by our audience.
In this course, I learned there are many ways to have your message heard, but the most effective ways require a calculated and conscious approach that takes into account specific people in your audience and their specific needs. These people are your lifelines, they are your messengers. By using the right social media tools, writing with an honest approach and delivering information in a manner that appeals to the right people. Communication can be a powerful tool.
What I learned about myself? I like to write. I enjoy sharing. By being my true self and writing in my own words and expressing my own individual thoughts, I feel proud and confident with my writing abilities. I am now able to identify different writing styles and select the most effective ways to share information on various platforms.
I encourage anyone to try writing a blog. Put yourself out there, see what happens. When your message is heard and a connection is made, it can be one of the most rewarding experiences.
Let’s start from the beginning, fresh out of high school, in love with my high school Sweetheart. The world was my oyster. The question on my mind- What do I want to be when I grow up?
The only answer that ever made sense to me was being a MOM
“But that’s not right, in this day and age, everyone needs a career”, is what recited in my head. A message from teachers, parents and peers. The message held true 25 years ago and still today. In my eyes, education and experience can open up your world to new possibilities so I followed the natural path and graduated as and Early Childhood Educator 3 years later.
On Graduation Day, I found myself asking- What do I want to be when I grow up? My love for children lead me into the most rewarding job as a Student Support Person for the school board. I found great pride and satisfaction helping children overcoming their struggles in the classroom. I learned a lot about diversity, inclusion and developed an empathy for all children in their individual situations. The opportunity was priceless.
Soon after, I was blessed with my own. My dream had come true. I was a Mom of 4 beautiful children. Busy days and sleepless nights. A full time job to say the least. This time in my life had so much meaning and worth. I learned so much and would do it over again in a heart beat if given the chance. But as the children grew, and free time increased. I found myself asking- What do I want to be when I grow up?
Let’s try something new. With some carefully selected courses I gained knowledge in the world of business. I became an Office Administrator for a Financial Planning Office. Eager to learn about a new avenue in life. I enjoyed the process of diving into a subject I had never thought twice about in the past. Then Covid hit and situations turned once again. What do I want to be when I grow up?
On a search for a new freedom and control in an upside down world, I partnered with my number one fan who has been there since the beginning -my husband. Together, we created a consulting business that specializes in business processes, app creation and guidance in the area of maintenance. This business has added a new level to our relationship and has expanded my knowledge and awareness of the world around me. I am very content in my current role but I know it’s just a matter of time before I ask myself- What do I want to be when I grow up?
THE TAKEAWAY:
Life is a journey, and with that comes change and uncertainty. Embrace opportunities as they come your way and never let anyone define you. Keep yourself open to all possibilities by never answering the question:
What do I want to be when I grow up?
I would love to hear any knowledge you have gained throughout your life. Please comment below and share your real life lessons.
A Personal Brand is a unique trademark that captures the essence of an individual. Derived from personal experiences, genetics and the environment. This magical potion becomes your fingerprint that can leave an impression more recognizable then your name.
SUPPORTIVE LEADER WITH IMMPECCABLE PROJECT MANAGEMENT SKILLS WITH KEEN ATTENTION TO DETAIL–Planned a coast to coast Canadian family vacation for 6, which included an all access pass to the National Track and Field Championships where her daughter competed.
CREATIVE MIND AND SOFT HEART FOR ALL LIVING THINGS– turned 10 acre property into full fledged hobby farm complete with alpacas, sheep, chickens, ducks, dog, cats and lizards.
TEAM PLAYER WITH BUSINESS INTELLECT AND CALM AND COLLECTED DEMEANOR– Shareholder in a family owned consulting business that requires working with husband 24/7
DARING AND UP FOR A CHALLENGE– Singlehandedly flew on a 3 hour flight with 2 children under 3 yrs. on Bearskin Airlines.
My Personal Brand helps define the person that I am. By displaying my blog this way, I hope it is apparent that my true light shines through.
Sincerely,
Lisa Grunys- proud Mom of 4, with a quirky sense of humour.
Please feel free to share your accomplishments and tell me your favourite quality that makes you stand out in a crowd. I’d love to get to know you and celebrate the special person you are.
Change is hard! We are taught to keep things the same throughout our lives to make things easier. We all tend to strive for consistency and, like water, stay on the path of least resistance. But what happens when the rapids are too big and the river changes direction unexpectedly? Enter- the Pandemic
Will your business sink or swim?
I have been following one local business DIY Studio Thunder Bay, that took the bull by the horns and used social media to enhance the way they do business.
In Ontario, Covid-19 has devastated small B2C (Business to Customer) businesses. With every lockdown introduced by the government, the forced closures and restrictions are slowly minimizing profits and limiting visits from loyal customers. By not adapting to these changes, “non-essential” businesses are struggling to stay afloat in these unsettling times.
Time to Get Creative- Social Media to the Rescue
B2C businesses need to leverage the power of social media in order to enhance their products. Let’s look more closely at DIY Studios Thunder Bay.
Basically this is a pottery painting Studio that’s as easy as 1, 2, 3…
With lockdowns, the company has created take home kits. These kits can be easily selected through the website and added to the cart for effortless shopping. For your convenience, you may also call in your order too. The website is quite appealing, with large pictures, simple instructions and frequent updates. By offering kits online, staff was able to be reduced which has provided a cost savings for the company. Sales increased as the shopping cart feature automated transactions and created a new avenue to shop that is fast and easy.
They use Facebook and Instagram to update the world on any upcoming news and encourage feedback via these avenues as well. At Easter, they offered 100 Easter Egg painting kits and spread the word through their social media outlets. The kits sold out in under 1 week!
Finally, the website shares the testimonials from valued customers. This also spreads the world and promotes advertising and marketing. Word of mouth is probably the most effective form of advertising there is and the most inexpensive.
Kudos, to this company and many others who have had to step out of their comfort zone, face the waters and push through the current. Social media is a powerful tool that can deliver amazing results. Let’s celebrate these businesses just as DIY Studio Thunder Bay does as they list them on their website under Local Collaborations.
Please feel free to share some of your favourite local business that are affected by the pandemic in the comment area. Let’s use the influence of social media and power of connection to improve our future.
In November, 2020 I captured this adorable video showcasing my dog and my ducks sharing a meal together. I love sharing things that make me happy so naturally, I posted it on Facebook for all my friends and family to see. Friends are fantastic and I cherished all of their heart warming comments. One of my friends suggested I try posting it on YouTube to see how many views I’d receive. I thought sure, why not?
As a newbie to YouTube, I read the basics and created my own channel- very generic–Lisa’s Channel, posted my video and waited. Four months have past, I have 2 subscribers and 16 views. Not the thousands of views I was hoping for…what happened?
1 Billion people of the world tune in to YouTube every month
With 14% of the world’s population checking into YouTube monthly, there is literally videos for every viewing audience imaginable. Here are some tips I stumbled upon on how to increase my viewer traffic.
Make your video appealing to a lot of people. By people, I mean cultures, genres, age groups, countries, genders, demographics, ethnic backgrounds, etc. Once you know who will be watching, you can concentrate on delivering to them what they want to see.
Once you have your target group defined, you can see what they are searching for. Google Trends (https://www.google.ca/trends/) is a good place to start. Knowing what their interests are will help maintain their loyalty.
Gain trust in your subscribers. Listen to their comments. Take note on what videos they enjoyed more then others. Fulfill their requests and always reply to any comments they have. Good or Bad, in an honest genuine fashion.
Stay current and fresh. Entice your audience with new, quality content frequently.
The bottom line is to treat your subscribers as your friends. Friendship is based on trust, on a strong foundation of give and take. A respectful relationship with surprises and fun.
Many things can be in an egg but in this particular egg was the beginning of a new life, a new fact finding adventure and an emotional roller coaster. Who knew all that could be enclosed in such a fragile shell?
We have 4 Khaki Cambell ducks in total, 2 male and 2 female. At 6 month old, on a cold day in January, our well climatized females began laying their first eggs. Since then, we have received 2 eggs each morning. As long as we collect early enough, the eggs don’t freeze. Where we live, it’s not uncommon for temperatures to dip down below 20C. Although we have a heat lamp inside the coop, you can often find our flock roaming the snowy ground outside.
At first, we collected the eggs and ate them. Fact- you can eat fertilized eggs as long as they are refrigerated soon after collecton. We then discovered we had some family egg allergies, what now? Let’s make more……..Incubation time
Keep those babies warm
For under $100 we were able to find just the right incubator to create the coziest home for new little ducklings to be. Nine, fertilized, clean eggs were placed inside. The temperature was set to 100 degrees, the chambers were filled with water for humidity and the automatic egg turner was functional. Now all we had to do was wait 28-39 days for the first crack.
From Pip to Zip to Peep
Pip- the first crack in the egg, lets the duckling breath air outside the shell
Duckling makes the pip hole a bit bigger. Often you can see the beak and feathers poke out of the hole.
Zip- enough strength is gained and with a push, a crack forms around the shell
The duckling pushes out to freedom- Peep
Within an hour of emerging, the ducklings begin to walk around and dry off.
They remain in the incubator for about 12 hours and then are moved into an area with a heat lamp. Instantly, they are fully functional ducks, doing all the typical duck things- running around, peeping, eating, drinking, trying to swim in their water dish and finally walking into your heart.
Vacationing with a family of six can be a challenge. We are just too many people to fit the average standards for accommodations, dining and vacation packages. Therefore, BUDGET is the biggest problem. Here are 2 of my favourite island vacations we had without breaking the bank.
Azores-Sao Miguel Island, Portugal
This beautiful island is located in the North Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe. Only a short 4 hour flight from Boston, this island holds a lot of natural beauty and it remains somewhat of a secret to the average tourist, making it an ideal location for a reasonable holiday.
Picture cobblestone roads, farmland, volcanic rock formations, and natural hot springs. The island itself is only 40 miles long and 10 miles wide so exploring it by car is the logical choice. Instead of renting a big mini van, we ended up renting two small cars for almost half the price as the mini van. Downside- we couldn’t all travel together. Upside- we chased each other through the tight streets and roundabouts, throughout the country side. It felt like we were in a real life video game! Plus, we were able to gain more trunk space for our luggage. Picture 9 days of clothes for 6 people. The trunk space was nice! With our own car we were able to explore this magnificent place at our leisure.
Four letters is all you need for accommodating a family of six on a budget- VRBO. We rented a stunning house with a pool overlooking the ocean. It even had a path leading down to a private natural pool on the edge of the ocean. Unfortunately, weather in February is not the warmest for swimming but one day it made it up to +25C and we enjoyed it poolside. Unforgettable.
Why February, you ask? Less crowds + offseason for tourists= cheaper holiday. For a family coming from the north, the weather is absolute heaven. Especially to enjoy the phenomenal hiking, mountain biking, canyoning and of course, those amazing hot springs which are abundant across the whole island.
What did we eat? To be honest, not a lot. We visited Sol-Mar, which is basically equivalent to Walmart in North America, but picture everything written in Portugese. Adding to the adventure, we were tasked with trying to translate labels into easy meals we could make in the rental. I thought spaghetti would be an easy meal until I brought home tomato paste instead of tomato sauce. I tried seasoning it with sugar. Memorable meal–not good at all. For lunches, we were very resourceful, everyday I packed our cooler bag with sandwiches and fruit to munch on. We saved a lot of money doing this and made the most wonderful memories imaginable.
Maui, Hawaii
Hawaii on a budget? Is this an oxymoron? Not for us it wasn’t. Hawaii is very pricy for sure, but if you vacation a certain way it can be quite affordable.
Getting there. We collect travel miles, so fortunate for us, Hawaii is one destination that we had enough airmiles to travel to. This was a huge cost savings for us as, 6 plane tickets can cost a pretty penny. To prepare anyone who hasn’t been to Maui, as soon as exit the airport you will be hit in the face by the most magnificent smells of the tropical air. It will fill up your senses, giving you all the feels, no matter how tired you are after that long plane ride. So worth it.
When we arrived we rented the big minivan at the airport, hit up Costco for groceries and cruised on over to our rented condo overlooking the ocean. Costco membership is key. With a family of 6 you need big portions, Costco is where it’s at. We don’t even have a Costco in our hometown but even still, the membership was worth its weight in gold when saving money. Plus, our condo had outside BBQ’s. We barbequed outside poolside every night. Some of our favourite memories were made here, plus, it gave us a chance to chat with other guests who in turn, passed us on some of their money saving tips and hidden secrets of Maui.
Our family LOVES beaches. And what do islands have? Lots of beaches! Two beaches are not the same. Maui has 30 miles of beaches making each day a new adventure. The island itself is about a 48 miles long and 26 miles wide making it very explorable by vehicle. Pack a cooler bag lunch, rent some snorkels and hit the beach. A tropical paradise everyday for pennies.
Vacationing with children is one of the most rewarding things that I have ever done. Not a day goes by where my children don’t talk about an experience or memory we had on one of our trips. Concessions have to made in order to meet a specific budget and I’ll do it every time because a Party of Six vacation may not be cheap, but it is Priceless.
Please comment below with any island experiences you may have had or any vacation saving tips you have to offer. Can’t wait to plan our next holiday!
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 