by Lea Strickland | Jun 21, 2016 | Focus on Business Radio Show
Website SEO Myths and Realities
Host Lea Strickland talks with returning guest Robert Sherwood of Oak City IT about SEO myths and the realities of search engine optimization, website design, and the four elements of SEO Plans: 1. Keyword Research; 2. Implement a Keyword Strategy; 3. Optimize Images and include alt tags; and 4. Have a content strategy including release scheduled and social media tools. If your small business has been thinking about investing in a new website or just made the investment, you need to be sure that you have maximized that investment impact by understanding search engine optimization, why it matters, and how it works. SEO Myths include: Google will find me, I don’t have to let them know my website is there. Other myths and realities address developing a SEO strategy, maximizing your visibility with website design, and how often to update content.
by Lea Strickland | Jun 14, 2016 | Focus on Business Radio Show
HAHA – Health and Happiness Align. Liza is joining me today to discuss how laughing is one of the healthiest things we can do for our bodies and minds.
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Liza obtained her Masters of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2015. She discovered laughter yoga during a 2014 summer internship in Guanajuato, Mexico, where she was implementing and evaluating a support group intervention for women in rural communities suffering from depression and anxiety. She happened upon a laughter yoga class in the city where she was staying and after attending and loving the class (of course!), decided to include laughter yoga in the support group curriculum as a bonding and relaxation activity for the participating women. It was a big hit, and often highlighted in exit interviews as a favorite part of the program. This led Liza to further investigate the practice and explore ways to bring laughter yoga to North Carolina. In January of 2015, she founded Health and Happiness Align (HAHA) and has led countless classes for local businesses, senior centers and assisted living communities, health groups, and community organizations and meetings. Her classes have been heralded as a fun and exciting retreat activity as well as a valuable wellness practice. As she continues building her business, Liza hopes to bring laughter to the forefront of wellness conversations, as the benefits are exciting and numerous, and laughing something everyone can do
Laughing releases endorphins, the intake of fresh oxygen, the cardiac exercise, and the signals it sends to our brains. The most powerful finding, however, is that these health benefits occur regardless of whether or not the laughter is real or fake, meaning we don’t need humor, or external stimuli, to take advantage of laughter as a wellness strategy. We can simply force ourselves to laugh for no reason. Laughter yoga helps us do this, as laughing is contagious, so while it is hard to force yourself to laugh for no reason when you’re by yourself and nothing is “funny,” doing this in a group setting is much easier, and actually quite hilarious.
HAHA on Social Media:
Facebook: HAHA: Health and Happiness Align (https://www.facebook.com/HAHAthroughlaughter/)
Instagram: hahathroughlaughter (https://www.instagram.com/hahathroughlaughter/)
LinkedIn: Health and Happiness Align (HAHA) (https://www.linkedin.com/company/health-and-happiness-align-haha-?trk=company_logo)
by Lea Strickland | Jun 14, 2016 | Focus on Business Radio Show
Host Lea Strickland talks with Americlaims founder and business insurance expert Bob Freitag about the types of insurance coverages businesses need and how the claims process can make or break a business.
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Bob began his insurance career over 20 years ago after graduating from Western Carolina University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration while majoring in Business Law. He was accepted into an internship program with the world’s largest insurance broker, Marsh & McLennan, in London, England. He worked in the North American Commercial brokerage division and received formal training at Lloyds of London in London, England.
After returning from London, he spent the next ten years working with insurance companies in claims and underwriting. During this time, he handled major claims for Fortune 500 companies throughout the United States. He handled thousands of hurricane, fire, flood and tornado property damage claims.
Bob realized during this tenure with insurance companies, that many policyholders needed assistance handling their claims. That recognition lead him to found AmeriClaims, Inc. in 2003. AmeriClaims only represents the insured, and not the insurance companies. For over a decade now, AmeriClaims, Inc. has helped insureds with every aspect of their property damage claims. Whether it is a fire or flood, to their home or business, AmeriClaims public adjusters are here to help customers navigate through the complexities of filing a large insurance claim.
Bob thanks for being on the show today to talk about this important area for businesses. Too many businesses are underinsured, uninsured, and just don’t understand the complexities of getting the right coverage for their operations. So let’s start the conversation today talking about how to identify the proper coverages for individual businesses.
by Lea Strickland | Jun 14, 2016 | Focus on Business Radio Show
Host Lea Strickland talks with millennial entrepreneur Paul Loeb founder of DropTrack, a file-hosting service providing simple tools for artists and producers.
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Paul’s bio:
Paul Loeb is known as a young, charismatic, tech and business savvy self-starter, president of indie record label, and now founder/CEO of the new artist-friendly music platform called DropTrack.
DropTrack is an innovative file-hosting service providing simple tools for artists and producers, has been playing at the intersection of music and tech since his age was in the single digits.
DropTrack’s pioneering founder has always been a music-consuming self-starter. Loeb describes himself as “a big nerd” who’s been programming websites and apps since the promising dawn of the 21st Century. Add that to playing piano, clarinet, guitar, and trumpet—plus a keen ear for what drives dance parties wild—and you’ve got a Renaissance Man for the post-Pro-Tools world.
Loeb began his career by making himself valuable to tech-needy neighbors in Aurora, CO. Starting in 1997 at age ten with his first start-up, Paul’s Computer Basics, he made house calls teaching fundamentals and fixing problems. Clients included grandparents, elderly neighbors, and a neurosurgeon. “My mom drove me to people’s houses and sat in the living room with a book” he remembers. “I started by charging $10/hour –which was a lot to me, but to an adult it was a huge bargain. Eventually I raised my prices to $20/hour. All these years later, my mom says she should have gotten a percentage of my earnings!”
Loeb had his first taste of making commerce flow more smoothly online when a neighbor’s hockey equipment store needed a website, so he created thehockeystore.com. He later hosted a web server from home called LoebNet. His mom searched for computer classes to keep him interested but couldn’t find any that challenged him and/or allowed 13-year-olds to attend. Loeb relates, “In the long run, my Mom says I just figured everything out on my own.” Now Loeb is figuring out how to capitalize on digital music’s evolution, continuously evolving his approach in the era of free-floating music files and overabundant digital data.
by Lea Strickland | Apr 26, 2016 | Focus on Business Radio Show
Scott founded the acclaimed Eye Cafe & Caffe Driade in North Carolina, USA. He has over 20 years of experience in the Specialty coffee industry. His obsession with discovering phenomenal coffee transitioned into direct working relationships with the world’s most exemplary farmers and producers, and roasting that coffee as Carrboro Coffee Roasters. Along the way, Scott has worked as a barista, green coffee buyer, roaster, consultant, Cup of Excellence Head Judge & World Barista Championship Head Judge & trainer ; which has taken him to international barista competitions around the world, from Nicaragua to Japan. Judging competitions since 2003, Scott has been one of a few WBC Certified Head Judges & the only American in 2007-13. He is currently a Head Judge for the Cup of Excellence program around the world & works with CQI, most recently with a USAID funded development program in Myanmar.
Since 2004, Carrboro Coffee Roasters , with over 25 years of combined experience in roasting & the retail coffee industry, has been Chapel Hill/Carrboro’s premiere small batch coffee roaster. Carrboro Coffee is a local business with a worldwide reach that focuses on, works within, and gives back to the community they live in, and the world at large. The coffee is sourced with these ideals in mind. Along with that all important consideration of finding the best quality and tasting coffee in the world; they source thru Direct Relationships with the farmers, and offer Certified Organic & Fair Trade coffees. They are also careful to source coffee that is grown and processed humanely, and allows the farmers the means to live decently. Owner Scott Conary regularly travels to coffee growing countries around the world to establish and support their Direct Relationship model.
At Carrboro Coffee Roasters, they are constantly working on finding the best roast profiles for each new coffee before selling them. Each roast is individually tailored to the specific needs of the coffee—they let the coffee tell them how to roast it, rather than impose a standard ‘style’ or roast degree. Every coffee is different and must be respected for its unique characteristics…at Carrboro Coffee Roasters, they feel this is their most important responsibility after farmer relationship building—to act on behalf of the coffee and ensure that all of its intrinsic glory can be realized in the cup.
Scott welcome to the show.
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by Lea Strickland | Apr 19, 2016 | Focus on Business Radio Show
Guest Robert Sherwood- Founder of Oak City Technology located at The Frontier Building in RTP, shares his five (5) questions of website design. Rob is a graduate of NC State University, Eagle Scout and a native of North Carolina. Oak City Technology was founded in 2013 andfocuses on small business Web Development and SEO.
– Why is SEO important for small businesses
– Why having a mobile friendly website matters
– Our community program that donates 25% of our work hours every week to local certified 501c3 Nonprofits, Charities and Veterans Organizations.
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