Vickie Maris | Online Course Design, Digital Content Strategy and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

8 Best Podcast Episodes For Your Must-Listen List

2016-10-25 by Vickie Maris 20 Comments

Photo of people attending Youpreneur private mastermind with Chris Ducker in San Diego — A few of the podcasts featured in this article are hosted by people who participated in this one-day mastermind in San Diego with Chris Ducker. We felt a little like being on top of the world at the end of the day. We’re all members of Youpreneur, which is an online membership site run by Chris. Special guest of the one-day mastermind was Michael O’Neal.

Are you a podcast listener? I am! In fact, I listen to about 60-90 minutes of podcasts a day during my commute to and from work, my walks to meetings across campus, and during my morning workout.

I listened to even more podcasts than usual while traveling at the end of September to San Diego and back for the Youpreneur private mastermind hosted by entrepreneur, author, speaker and podcaster (must-listen podcast, Y oupreneur FM), Chris Ducker. It was a delight to be working among several other podcasters for the day!

Photo of Chris Ducker and Vickie Maris at the Youpreneur mastermind in San Diego. — Chris Ducker and Vickie Maris at the Youpreneur mastermind in San Diego, September 2016.

In this post, I’ve collected a few of my favorite episodes that I’ve heard recently, including episodes from the shows of my friends who participated in the mastermind.

Over the past few weeks, there has been several shows roll in the queue on my podcast player that have had really applicable content for me – boom, boom, boom! I hope these are helpful to you too.

For Making Time for Rest – Ziglar’s True Performace Show

How to find the rhythm in life that God had intended so that we don’t burn out and implode. This episode has insights for driven leaders about how to make time for rest and the importance of it. “Peace is an inside job.” – Steve Smith on the podcast, Ziglar’s True Performance Show, Episode 414.

For Using Story to Sell or Teach – Selling with Story: How to Make Your Customer the Hero

In this episode of the Social Media Marketing Podcast, you’ll hear Michael Stelzner interview Donald Miller, who teaches how to talk about your product or service using story. Gain insights on how to frame your thoughts and ideas into solutions that your customers want. Use terms that your customer will understand. Donald’s teaching on the use of story could also be very helpful to instructors in online or brick-and-mortar classrooms. The interview starts at the 7:08 mark in the recording.

For Decreasing a Sense of Overwhelm – Establishing the Essential with Greg McKeown

Listen to Episode 38 of the How to Be Awesome at Your Job podcast with Pete Mockaitis. He interviews author, Greg McKeown, who wrote Essentialism, the Disciplined Pursuit of Less. This book was, according to Amazon, an instant best seller on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal lists. I ordered a copy which I’m now reading!

For changing practices to reveal more available time in your day – 10 Ways to Find More Time

Photo of Lisa Woodruff of Organize 365 Podcast with Vickie Maris of Online Course Connections, during Youpreneur mastermind in San Diego. — Lisa Woodruff of Organize 365 Podcast with Vickie Maris of Online Course Connections, during Youpreneur mastermind in San Diego.

You will love listening to Lisa Woodruff of Organize 365 Podcast as she helps you organize your household, your business, your paper, your next move. Episode 120 of her podcast has several funny, authentic first-hand stories that will inspire you. Plus, she includes a list of 10 tips of things to do, or not to do, that will help you carve out additional time in your day for furthering your projects along. Lisa is an author and has made several guest appearances on other podcasts in recent months. You can hear her on Youpreneur FM in an upcoming episode with host, Chris Ducker.

For a Better Understanding of the Financial Bubble – Harry Dent: The Sale of a Lifetime: How the Great Bubble Burst of 2017 Can Make You Rich

Listen to Episode 050 of Cashflow Ninja with M.C. Laubscher as he interviews Harry Dent. You’ll hear very direct conversation about the global financial status in 2017. I’m listening to this episode another time.

For My Future Clients Thinking About Creating an Online Course – The Nuts and Bolts of Creating an Online Course

In Episode 487 of The Solopreneur Hour, Michael O’Neal shares his journey of creating an online course.

Photo of Vickie Maris and Michael O'Neal in San Diego — Vickie Maris and Michael O’Neal, The Solopreneur Hour podcast, and creator of Conferencetopia

This is an unplugged look into the ups and downs of capturing content, deciding on an authoring tool and more. If you’re a content expert but not necessarily experienced in creating an online course from your content, you’ll gain interesting insight from Michael’s experience.

As I listened to this episode, it gave me a few new ideas of ways to solve problems for my clients as a course designer. He is clear about some of the pain points of the process of course development and implementation. I am looking forward to helping my clients with this process. (Michael, if you’re reading this … thanks for sharing your experience! And it was great to meet you at the Youpreneur private mastermind in San Diego with Chris Ducker! From one musician to another – rock on!)

For online business entrepreneurs preparing to launch a new business – How to Finally Launch Your Online Business Right with Ramit Sethi

Chris Ducker has brought back a few episodes that were the “most downloaded” by his audience when the episodes first aired. These are all gems, but I’d like to call out Episode 185 in which he had a chat with Ramit Sethi. I’ve heard Ramit speak on a few other podcasts and he always provides nuggets of wisdom and experience you can use in your business, but you’ll especially reap benefits for your own launch of a business when you listen to this conversation with him and Chris. Don’t miss out on this! (Chris, thanks for repurposing a few of your episode gems. I had not heard these episodes when they first aired, since I only started listening to your show in the past year. And thank you for holding the San Diego mastermind. What a life-changing event! I’m grateful for your community, Youpreneur, and all the tremendous interaction and content you provide. Here’s a special shout out to everyone who participated in the mastermind! Thanks Julie, Nate, Lisa, Anil, Ramona, Erz and Michael.)

Photo of Youpreneur mastermind in San Diego — Goofiness at the end of a wonderful one-day Youpreneur mastermind with Chris Ducker.

For a fun perspective on sports – Jonathan Oakes talks fantasy football and trivia

Ramona Rice, another participant in the Youpreneur mastermind in San Diego, hosts The Sports Gal Pal Podcast. She helps people, who haven’t been all that sports crazy, understand why folks they love might be screaming at the TV when a game is on! In fact, she likes to help you fall in love with sports – on your terms. In the episode linked above she has a chat with Jonathan Oakes about fantasy football, trivia and more.

Vickie

PS – I’d be delighted to have you join my email list and get updates approximately twice a month on new blog posts, new podcast episodes and resources that I’ve curated for you to help as you plan and implement your online courses and programs. All you have to do is send an email to vickiemaris@getresponse.net and you’ll automatically be added to my list.

Vickie is an elearning strategist, course designer, speaker, musician and farm girl. She consults in the area of online course/program design and development. Vickie earned her MS Ed in learning design and technology from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Purdue University. She is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Her career has spanned over 30 years in positions in corporate America and continuing education in academia.

Be spontaneous in life. It can lead to great experiences!

2016-08-11 by Vickie Maris 26 Comments

Photo of Vickie Maris in front of the B-24, Witchcraft

Are you spontaneous in life? I have become more spontaneous each year. It must have something to do with the feeling I have of wanting to experience life to its fullest while I still have life to live. Also, as I get more organized and better prepared, there is more freedom for spontaneity.

In this article, I hope you’re reminded of the value of doing things spontaneously. Here is the opportunity I recently encountered.

A Bit of Background

Let me first set the stage. I work at a university. The very university where my dad was called in 1955 to start the Aviation Technology Department. Back in the 1940s, he had started to focus his career when he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps and went on to pilot a Consolidated B-24 Liberator in 30 missions of World War 2.

Like my dad, I’ve been known for following my passions. For me that was communications and agriculture. Later, my career morphed into one focused on design of curriculum and distance learning opportunities for lifelong learners – in both corporate America and higher education.

On the side, I am a musician. A farm girl (Connemara ponies and llamas). A podcaster. An entrepreneur. Forever curious.

My interests and passions led me to the project of capturing my parents’ experiences in World War 2 in a digital way that would allow more people to learn from them. I’ve been editing my dad’s book of memoirs from the war. I’ve interviewed him and my mom for various projects including my podcast and a 2-disc cd set of her stories about their young married life and the war. Most recently, I created a documentary style course in Udemy about their lives during the war.

Now for the spontaneous moment

Monday afternoon I saw a B-24 bomber flying past the Purdue campus and my eyes filled with tears. I didn’t even know any were left that could fly. That was the plane my dad piloted for 30 missions during World War 2. Then I went back to work.

That evening, as I’m walking out to my vehicle, I see a B-17 in the air! Oh my gosh. The curiosity about why they were in our air space was overwhelming! I assumed they were at the Purdue University Airport so that is where I headed. No searches in Safari on my iPhone. No calls to anyone. I just drove to the airport and headed through the terminal where I found four war planes – a B-24 taxiing in from the runway and three beautiful relics on the ramp.

The Collings Foundation had brought the planes to West Lafayette, Indiana as part of its tour. I talked with several of the people representing the foundation including the B-24 pilots, and signed up to take a flight the next morning.

You can see the recording of my Facebook Live stream from the evening before my flight and during takeoff of the B-24 when you visit my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/vjmaris.

I can’t believe I had the opportunity to be in the aircraft in which my dad logged the majority of his flying hours during World War 2. To sit on the floor in the belly of the aircraft while the engines fired up and it charged down the runway has almost left me speechless. At least temporarily. But I know this spur-of-the-moment decision to follow the plane to the airport and to sign up for a ride, will enable me to add first-hand material to my online course about World War 2, and to the talks I give about my dad’s life as a leader, as a pilot and about the war.

Photo collage of B-24 bomber pilot and his wife Lucille Maris. — My mom and dad, Lucille and Jim Maris, with their dog, Blondie. My dad got Blondie in England while fighting in World War 2. Here you see them in Murfreesboro, Tennessee while dad worked as a test pilot on the base in Smyrna in 1945.

Flight in a B-24

During the flight in the B-24, I took pictures and video that will be added to my course in Udemy, Life of a Pilot’s Wife During World War 2. I’m thinking of creating an additional course that focuses more on the aircraft and the experiences of the flight. Honestly, I’m not really sure what is next. But I have to say, that my spontaneous decision to drive to the airport Monday evening instead of heading home, and to make room in my schedule for a flight in a B-24, was life changing and unforgettable for me.

This is the turret in the tail of the B-24 where the tail turret gunner would sit during flight. I took this photo during the flight on the B-24, Witchcraft, which was on tour at Purdue University with the Collings Foundation.

To walk and crawl about the aircraft as it was in flight made me acutely aware of how tight the spaces were in which the crewmen worked. I had tears in my eyes over the dangers they faced with each flight and the causes for which they were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

My advice to you – be spontaneous. Keep learning. For a lifetime.

Vickie Maris is a podcaster, author, instructor, musician, & Lean Six Sigma Black Belt who passionately shares insights on teamwork, leadership, learning & life. In her eclectic life, she plays acoustic guitar and piano accordion, is a singer/songwriter, and performs in the band Scott Greeson and Trouble With Monday. She and her hubby, Scott Greeson, live on a hobby farm in Indiana with llamas, rabbits, a Jack Russell Terrier, Connemara pony and one, in-charge, cat. Vickie also has an Etsy shop in which she sells llama roving, yarn and Angora rabbit fluff.

Commemorating the Anniversary of D-Day | June 6, 1944

2016-06-01 by Vickie Maris Leave a Comment

Photo of the Bad Penny and her crew — James R. Maris, pilot, and his crew of the Bad Penny. They are shown here with the Straight Flush in Topeka, Kansas prior to flying a long-distance fuel consumption test on their way to combat. They eventually flew missions out of a base in England. The crew flew most of their 30 missions in the B-24, the Bad Penny.

The anniversary of D-Day is June 6. My dad, James R. Maris, was a pilot who flew a B-24 in the battle. It was the second combat mission for him and his young crew. Together, those 10 brave men, took off in their plane nicknamed the Bad Penny, in the early morning hours from an airfield in Wendling, England. The Bad Penny was one of approximately 13,000 other aircraft in the air that day for the allied forces.

It has been my honor to help capture both my mom’s and my dad’s stories through the years. As a child and young adult, I was with my dad on many occasions as he spoke to audiences riveted to his every word about the dangers, the fears, the seemingly-impossible feats, the aviation marvels and disasters, the celebrations of victories, and sadness over losses of life.

More recently, I have interviewed my mom, Lucille Maris, telling her stories about being a young bride to this brave pilot and leader. You can learn more about how she dealt with the challenges of those times in the two-disc audio set, Stories of a Stateside Bride, and in the self-study course in Udemy, Life of a Pilot’s Wife During World War 2 (this link will take you to an enrollment page in which you can gain access to the course for just $10).

Please join me today in remembering the men and women who fought in the battle of D-Day or who were somehow associated with the event.

To hear my dad, Jim Maris, tell about his D-Day takeoff in the bomber, the Bad Penny, visit this link or watch the embedded video below.

You can also hear me read a couple of my dad’s stories when you click this link to listen to this episode of the podcast, Heartsong Fit With Vickie Maris. This is a special recording for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. You can also click on the player below.

New Course Videos Created in Response to Student Feedback

2016-05-26 by Vickie Maris Leave a Comment

Photo of Video Thumbnail How to Leave a Review in Udemy

Providing an instructor with feedback about a course is not only helpful to the instructor, but can benefit you and your fellow students. In a self-study environment like Udemy, the ratings and reviews are very insightful. I also receive feedback from students via my Facebook group and other social media locations.

In one of my courses in Udemy, Learn a Simple Approach to Creating an Online Video Course, I’ve recently added two new course videos for my students. Both of these videos are responses to questions I’ve been asked by students.

Value of Leaving Course Feedback for an Instructor

If you’re already a student in the course, you’ll find the first new video in Section 1. It teaches how to provide a Udemy rating and review, and how to edit feedback or a rating if you’d like to make a change. I also touch on the value of leaving feedback about a course – whether it’s for a course in Udemy or other online platform. (see embedded video below)

The second video is in Section 4 – Bonus Material. I share my decision about using talking head (or direct-to-camera) videos for this particular course.

As you take a course, please consider providing your instructor with feedback, and feel free to ask questions. It not only benefits you and provides opportunity to increase your learning and retention of the content, but it helps the instructor improve in their technique and in the content they provide for all students.

Link to the above, embedded video: https://youtu.be/4XOJMBuZHfI

Creative Inspiration Comes From Attending Road to the Horse

2016-03-23 by Vickie Maris Leave a Comment

Photo of Nick Dowers on Day 1 in the Road to the Horse competition — Nick Dowers, horse trainer and Road to the Horse competitor, with the #7 horse from the Four Sixes Ranch Remuda. Day 1 of the competition. Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky.

It is always a good thing to get out and network. For business owners and entrepreneurs, that might take the form of leaving your desk, your social media channels, or your content creation, so that you can attend a seminar, a conference or other live event. For researchers, it might mean getting away from the lab or computer and participating in a conference or volunteering for an outreach activity. Changing your venue on occasion can be so valuable to the creative process.

In March 2016, I took a few days to attend Road to the Horse at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky. It’s a colt starting event and competition between three internationally-known horse trainers. The competitors in 2016 were: Nick Dowers, winner of the event (check out the video on his home page!), Richard Winters (another home page video worth watching!), and Clinton Anderson.

Photo of Remuda and cowboys at Road to the Horse — Four Sixes Ranch cowboys with the Remuda at Road to the Horse, 2016.

I made a point to meet and shake hands with the trainers, as well as with the youth participants, with other spectators, with vendors, and with the horse breeders from the Four Sixes Ranch which had brought the unhandled, 3-year-old Quarter Horses in for the event. (See the three trainers at work during the competition in the videos on my Facebook page: http://www.fb.com/vjmaris)

Networking | Making Connections

In the process of meeting people at Road to the Horse, I met world-renown trainer, Dan James, from Australia, and found out he shares my love of Connemara ponies. He had been a trainer for my late friend, Sue Clarke, who bred Connemara ponies in Australia. She had been for a visit to my farm in Indiana several years ago. Dan and I reminisced about our favorite Connemaras and the characteristics of the breed.

Photo of Horse Trainer Dan James on Swampy with Vickie Maris — Horse Trainer Dan James on Swampy with Vickie Maris at Road to the Horse

Stepping away from my day-to-day world at Purdue and into this different venue has already provided me with an idea I shared during a strategic planning session in the week following my return, and it inspired a message I delivered from our farm on a Periscope broadcast about attending live events in your niche to get inspired.

The take-away I hope you get from this post is to change your venue every now and then, as well as to interact with your peers and mentors outside of your normal routine. You never know what it might bring to your career or who you could add to your network by making the effort to connect.

If you’d like to see my new friend, Dan, and his business partner, Dan Steers, in their appearance in Australia’s Got Talent (with two of their horses on the stage), check this YouTube video out. They are amazing! https://youtu.be/cWlFFGhmaGM Or you can visit their website to learn more about their horse training: http://doubledanhorsemanship.com/

Vickie Maris is an online course designer, instructor, podcaster, and coach. She is also a university administrator and program designer. In her eclectic life, she plays acoustic guitar and piano accordion, is a singer/songwriter, and performs in the band Scott Greeson and Trouble With Monday. She and her hubby, Scott Greeson, live on a hobby farm in Indiana with llamas, rabbits, a Jack Russell Terrier, Connemara pony and one, in-charge, cat. Vickie also has an Etsy shop in which she sells llama roving, yarn and Angora rabbit fluff.