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Kathryn Janicek

Speaking of NCAA Basketball Schools… Go Marquette!

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Picture courtesy of Marquette University 

Is your college in the big dance?

Mine is!

The Marquette Golden Eagles play University of South Carolina Friday, March 17.

While we’re talking about college… I just stumbled upon this on my Mac today.

Tim Cigelske is a Marquette University graduate and teacher. He teaches in the College of Communication.

Here’s a beautiful piece Tim wrote about me in Marquette Magazine a few years ago. Thank you, Tim.

The article was written when I was an executive producer at NBC. Since then, I created my own company. I am now a media coach and a public speaking trainer.

Tim also freelances on the side for some blogs and websites… so if you’re looking for a good writer with an awesome sense of humor… it’s him.

Go Marquette!

Screenshot 2016-09-14 16.14.05

ALUMNI PROFILE: KATHRYN JANICEK

By: Tim Cigelske

Kathryn Janicek does more by 4 a.m. than many people accomplish all day.

As executive producer for NBC Chicago’s morning TV show, her workday starts shortly after midnight

, when she opens her email and begins planning the news for more than 200,000 daily viewers.

No longer does breaking news start on the air. Now, she has to make sure stories are tweeted, posted on Facebook, and followed up on and updated on the website. That’s in addition to deciding where her reporters will travel and what items her writers will craft.

She doesn’t mind the relentless pace. In fact, she thrives on it.

“This really is a lifestyle,”she says. “Not just a job.”

Few in the news media have adapted faster to this rapidly changing landscape than Janicek, Comm ’98. She received an Emmy for outstanding achievement for interactivity and the Illinois Broadcasters Association’s Silver Dome Award for best use of new media.

Taking risks and blazing trails is nothing new for Janicek, who displayed these same characteristics at Marquette. She wanted to be hands-on from the beginning, which is why she chose Marquette’s broadcasting program and Milwaukee’s internship potential after being accepted into prestigious journalism programs at schools such as the University of Missouri.

“The moment I met her, I could see her exhibition of curiosity,” says Dr. Michael Havice, professor of broadcast and electronic communication in the Diederich College. “She wanted to achieve everything at once.”

Havice noticed that Janicek sought out new or challenging ways to tell stories, as well as opportunities for personal and professional development. This included interning at WISN Channel 12 during her freshman year and working as an overnight associate producer at WITI Channel 6 during her junior year. She also was the College of Communication’s president and responsible for organizing a memorial for Chris Farley when he died during Christmas break in 1997.

Ï really wanted to be in charge,: Janicek says. “I definitely went toward the producing and management role.”

Her experience paid off immediately after graduation, when she landed a job as a morning producer for the CBS affiliate in Champaign, Ill. Janicek was destined for bigger markets and arrived in Chicago 3 1/2 years ago as a producer at WGN, which led to her current role at NBC as executive producer of the morning show.

Today, Janicek relishes the responsibility of preparing her viewers for the day. She admits she has little downtime, but that’s just fine with her.

“The newsroom is an incredible place,” she said. “I can’t wait for Mondays.”

How to Be a Strong Woman & Why It’s So Important

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My mother walked into my elementary school wearing white shorts with her leopard bikini underneath. You could see it peeking through.

She was that mad. She didn’t care what she was wearing. She was on a mission.

More on that in a second.

Yesterday, I checked in with a friend.

She now lives in a new city and wants to join a club nearby. The rule is – you have to be sponsored to get in, and the husband in the household has to sign in order to sponsor a woman to join the club. That’s right, in 2017 this club requires her husband’s permission for her to join.

Instead of asking for her husband’s signature, this friend of mine is gathering signatures of her female friends who are members. These female friends have careers, raise children and are EQUAL partners in their households.

Sure, my friend could have chosen to walk away from the club and its archaic rule that she doesn’t like. Instead, she is trying to teach others in the community – men and women – that they should change the policy. By standing up for herself, she is teaching them to STAND UP for themselves. By being a strong woman, she is also teaching her daughter how to stand up for herself.

And that’s where my mom comes back in…

I was in sixth grade when my mom marched into the principal’s office at my elementary school. She was furious after I told her that I wasn’t going to be allowed to take a test for an accelerated level junior high math class.

The boys could take it – girls couldn’t.

We were living in Sandy, Utah at the time. And no, this wasn’t the 1950’s… it was 1988.

When my teacher explained to my mom that the test was designed only for college-bound students to be able to place into a higher math class, she was livid! Why wasn’t her daughter invited to take the test? I had the grades and the skills, just not the “right” gender. Unhappy with my teacher’s answers, she took her fight to my principal’s office.

What makes the story funny (because the fact that she had to fight for me at all is certainly not funny) is that my mom was so livid when I came home that day and told her what was happening… she jumped right off of her sunning chair in the backyard, threw on her shorts, grabbed me and walked me back into school. White shorts, leopard bikini and all. 

She didn’t care. She was going to make things right.

My mother always stood up for her three daughters.

She taught us to do the same.

Her white shorts and leopard bikini were funny, but what makes the story memorable is that my mom let nothing deter her from standing up for me. This is what strong women do; strong women stand up for themselves.

I am surrounded by strong women.

We learn from each other, inspire and support each other.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Happy International Women’s Day.

I teach women how to be stronger, more confident and how to stand out in their field. Let me teach you how to stand up for yourself and get the media you deserve. Sign up here for my free media class I’ll be teaching in April.

New Writer & Column in the Chicago Sun Times

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Have you heard Shia Kapos (of Crain’s Chicago Business fame) is now with The Chicago Sun-Times?

Check out her new column “Taking Names.” It launched this month. Shia featured my story of finding Mr. (Ted) Wright in Chicago (on a dating site) & our Florida wedding. As a media coach – my job is to help people look and perform the BEST when they’re in the media… so it’s a little weird to be asked for MY story.

Here’s the wedding story: http://shiakapos.com/finding-mr-wright/

Nice mentions for Chicago’s Nuts on Clark, The Franklin Room, Mike Potts, Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos, Emily Henderson, Robert Deason, Alan James & The British Photographer – Photography (oh, and the OkCupid dating site). Thanks Shia!

Here’s what I’m using to keep my Florida beach wedding glow. Who wants one? I’m placing a bulk order TODAY! $25, no tax, no shipping, no commitment. Get 2 for $45!♨️ Message me ASAP!

People love this self-tanner, including the beauty editors over at Marie Claire who rave that it “gives you more than a glow.” It also treats your skin with vitamins A, C, and E for antioxidant protection. This is a must before you take any professional pictures, go on TV – hit the stage… or hit up a family reunion.

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Do you have a media appearance soon? Getting on stage or have an important interview? Click here to learn how to improve body language, increase engagement, perfect your pitch and make sure your audience retains your message.

It’s Not Only What You Say, It’s How You Say It

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Public speaking isn’t just when you get on stage. You’re using public speaking skills (or not using them) when you’re in front of any customer, employee or team. When we practice our public speaking – it’s rarely on a stage in front of thousands.

Hiring managers – and managers who train employees – don’t always take this skill into consideration. Just as important as it is for your employees to know the company culture, history, menu, services, software, offerings, sales, new promotions — they must know the company’s “voice” and how to use it in public when around clients, vendors, potential donors and customers.

The way your employees speak to customers is very important. It’s not just the content — but it’s also in the delivery.

They may know the menu – and all the ingredients… but how does your wait staff talk to your customers? How do they greet them? How do they handle (in their voice reflection) when there is an issue?

I witnessed really good public speaking training during my honeymoon. We stayed at Lauberge de Sedona. The hotel is a spa resort … and the staff’s delivery matched the tone of the resort. This is so important.

It was at the front desk where I noticed this first… then at dinner that night.

Along the creek, the service staff spoke in hushed tones while they intricately described each dish, asked what kind of water we wanted, or brought new silverware. The sound and delivery was seamless. This was definitely their intention.

I would have ordered pretty much anything from our waiter that Saturday night. His delivery made you imagine that each dish was that smooth and tasty — and that the ingredients would make you feel as velvety and calm as his words were as they fell upon your ears.

And that’s the point. Sales, marketing – developing content. In order to do this and get the most bang for your buck – you need to make sure your delivery is perfected.

Their speaking voices didn’t detract from the sound of the creek running next to the tables… instead, their voices amplified the feeling of nature that surrounded us.

When at the bar inside, there was no clanking of glasses or raised voices calling attention to another staff member. They always walked to the employee to speak to them – never shouting.

The valets never honked, whistled or raised their voices when trying to get the attention of another valet. They still softly jogged (sometimes ran) to get cars — but their voices never interrupted the sound of the birds in the trees. It was so perfectly orchestrated. They were highly efficient, but without loud noises accompanying the efficiency.

We were supposed to stay just three nights and fly to LA next, but we stayed. We stayed there because of the feeling we had… and that feeling was created by their people. Their well trained people.

It’s something you can’t always tell about a company by reading their website. We didn’t know how much we’d enjoy the resort until we arrived. Their location and offerings attract customers — but I found out while there, that many people are return guests. That’s where their staff and training comes in. I’ve left or not done repeat business with companies because of unfortunate training of staffs. Lauberge’s people make customers want to become repeat guests.

Do you need help with public speaking? Your staff’s public speaking? I teach how to tell your story online, on video, on stage and in the media. I work on your messaging, delivery, body language, and appearance. Let me know how I can help. Click here to book time with me.

 

 

 

Producing the Best You

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You’re an expert in your industry.

You’re smart and you worked hard to get where you are right now.

You’ve seen other people in your industry used as an expert in the media.

You’ve seen the interviews on TV. You know, with the right training – you could be on TV or quoted in a magazine article.

 Portrait Session

You have a story to tell – but you don’t know how to get the attention from the media.

You want to learn how to present better in public – how to tell your company’s story – and keep the interest of your audience.

You need someone to show you what to wear, how to speak more passionately and how to deliver your message in a way that will stay with your audience. Maybe even call a few TV stations to land you appearances.

That’s exactly what I do.

Kathryn interviewing World War II veteran, Delton “Wally” Walling, at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii (2015)

Kathryn interviewing a World War II veteran at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii (2015)

 I’m Kathryn Janicek. I’m the media coach and public speaking trainer people reach out to when they want help presenting at a higher level, telling their story to attract dream clients – or to gain media attention.

I spent 18 years in media across the United States, coaching talent, producers and writers before switching my focus to helping entrepreneurs and corporate executives move up in their careers – and how to sound and look like the expert that’s inside of them.

HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

63ddb859-0af7-4a51-98d0-ceb078536384 I use my experience in media, coaching talent and writing stories that make people take action — and use it all to produce the best YOU.

I interview you to dig up your story, find out what about you will turn on the media – and give you a strategy on how to achieve your media and public speaking goals.
LET ME PRODUCE THE BEST YOU.

Email me, tweet me, Facebook me… let’s start working together.

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Here’s a look at practices that your business can put in place to prevent these incidents, plus tips to diffuse them, should you be caught in the crosshairs.

Prevention means training

Justine Sacco, Adria Richards, Gene Morphis and their employers were forced to deal with the aftermath of their tweets. For Sacco, Richards and Morphis, that meant finding new jobs. For their companies, it meant healing their bruised reputations. But in fact, according to Rob Begg, VP of enterprise strategy at Hootsuite, a popular social media management tool, both situations were preventable.

Most businesses lean on social media policies to detail rules and acceptable use, but that alone isn’t enough, Begg says.

“Most companies are pretty good about having social media policies in place, but what most lack is social media training,” he says. “Not everyone understands what’s private and public or what you can and can’t share. Not many employees understand why all of this is so important.”

In addition to tactical training on how to use social media, corporate training should also cover the strategic side, Begg says. For example, employees should learn how to curate and share content that reflects their personal and professional brand.

Businesses can easily cover both in an hour-long session, he adds. “You don’t need to make this arduous. When you’re onboarded at Hootsuite, for example, a social media coach shows up and says, ‘This is how we look at social media, here are the things you should think about before you share something.'”

Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management, says that, in his 30-plus years in crisis management, 90% of incidents have been entirely preventable through training.

“Crises that originate online like viral tweets are easily preventable, which is why it reflects so poorly on your whole organization when something like this happens,” he says. “It makes people question your training, hiring and supervision.”

Training employees on social media best-practices has other advantages, too: “Not only do companies that train employees have a better chance at avoiding embarrassing or destructive situations,” Begg says, “they benefit because well-trained employees feel more comfortable sharing the things that companies actually want them to share.”

5 steps to defusing a social media crisis

https://kathrynjanicek.com/714-2/

How to get someone to know, like and trust you

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Your content is good. You know your material. You know how to put words together in a way people want to read.

You’re nearly there.

But the game isn’t won yet.

No matter how strong a writer you are, you won’t grow the vibrant audience that supports your business until you fit one more piece into place.

Let’s take a look at what that might be …

The reality is, your audience won’t pick up real momentum until you’ve mastered the “know, like, trust” factor.

Face to face salespeople have known this for decades, but some content marketers are still struggling to get it right. Unlock this reader response for more comments, social shares, and followers. For invitations to guest post. And for a transformation in your blog, your business, and your reputation.

Interested?

I hope so, because I’ve got 30 ideas for you …

10 ways to get known online

If you’re a Copyblogger reader, you know that high-quality content marketing attracts attention and builds your reputation — it lets people see who you are and why you’re worth listening to.

Your audience grows in proportion to the quality of content that you create and deliver.

How do you “become known?”

 

  1. Get clear on who you’re talking to: Don’t talk to “everybody”. Identify your buyer persona and tightly position your content for that buyer.
  2. Assert expertise in your niche: Use content to position and prove yourself as an authority. Give your ideas names and labels, and present formulas alongside empirical evidence. This approach has far more impact than simply spouting your opinion.
  3. Create the right content: Research, ask questions, and dig deep to ensure you create content your target niche wants to consume.
  4. Develop a valuable free product: Use it as an incentive to build your email list. Jon Morrow’s Headline Hacks is an excellent example. First discover what’s keeping your audience up at night, then offer a detailed solution packaged in an eBook, special report, or white paper.
  5. Encourage sharing to a wider audience: This expands your network and helps more people get to know you. Social media simplifies the mechanics of sharing, but to leverage its power you must be remarkable in some way … thought-provoking, engaging, stimulating, entertaining, etc.
  6. Build relationships with key influencers: In the authority stakes (as in all of professional life), who you know is almost as important as what you know. Use social networking and blog post commenting to attract the attention of influencers in your topic. Don’t be a suck-up, but do be smart and tactical. After all, you won’t be the only one vying for attention!
  7. Create a popular blog: Focus on your topic, express your personality, and use it as a base to express your unique perspective. Some great advice sites are out there to help you get better at this. I like Pushing Social and Boost Blog Traffic.
  8. Interview the experts. This proven technique lets you tap into the audience of an influencer (and cheekily position yourself with them).
  9. Guest blog: If you write articulate, interesting, and unique guest posts for relevant blogs, you can tap into a whole new audience. It’s the quickest way to get known by more people.
  10. Get creative: Content marketing isn’t all about the written word. You can explore webinars, product reviews, podcasts, infographics, white papers, ebooks, and video to name a few. What would appeal to your audience?

10 actions to build likeability online

Imagine two people with an identical product and an identical price.

One person comes across as boring and impersonal. The other is charming, interesting, and makes you feel good. Which one would you rather do business with?

A high profile alone is not enough to convert prospects into customers. You must also build relationships to nurture your likeability.

Here are ten ways to become better-liked online …

  1. Be authentic and express your unique voice through your content.
  2. Be real: If you come across as a dull, faceless company you’ll simply turn people off. Instead boost your popularity by writing with passion, sharing your stories, and getting personal.
  3. Be nice! It sounds obvious but unfortunately it isn’t. Don’t annoy or badmouth people. Be helpful, responsive, and generous with your time and your attention. Your audience will love you the more for it.
  4. Initiate a two-way conversation: Invite your audience to engage and interact with you. Invite comments on your blog posts and ask questions in your autoresponder sequence.
  5. Be relevant: Listen, research, and ask questions to discover your audience’s pinch points. Package your ideas into thought-provoking blog posts, share solutions on a webinar, or drip ideas through an autoresponder.
  6. Be visible: While the written word is powerful, it’s not the whole package. Incorporate video interviews, Google+ hangouts, and podcasts into your content marketing strategy. Allow your audience to hear you speak and see your body language.
  7. Put your face to your name: Remove the egg from your social media profile, display an engaging picture on your website, and tell your business story in a captivating way on your About page.
  8. Get your social media ratio right. Remember the 95% relationship building, 5% selling formula.
  9. Be generous: Share content and promote other people. Don’t expect people to share your stuff if you don’t demonstrate a commitment to do the same.
  10. Deliver social proof: If your numbers are good, show the tweets and shares of your articles or publicly state your subscriber numbers. Content that has attracted a lot of attention will attract even more.

10 factors that build trust with your audience

While you’re delivering your truly valuable content, you’re not selling, but you are paving the road to eventually selling a product that’s related to your content down the line. When it comes to selling online, authority and likeability alone are rarely enough — you need to become truly trusted.

Here’s ten ways to gain trust online …

  1. Give away (some of) your best stuff: The web is swamped with free content. If you want to stand out, even your free offers must be remarkable.
  2. Don’t disappoint: If you say you’ll post an article every day, post an article every day. Break your promises and your credibility evaporates.
  3. Be consistently good: Train your audience to expect a certain level of quality from you and constantly deliver. When you do, they’ll come to you first rather than going elsewhere.
  4. Incorporate testimonials: Let a third party vouch for you by sharing their experience of your work in their own words. It’s a great way to demonstrate how you deliver a positive experience.
  5. Use case studies: Real-world stories give examples (and proof) of your work and demonstrate your capability.
  6. Don’t steal: While it’s wise to be open to ideas that you tweak to make your own, never plagiarize. It’s wrong. (It’s also stupid and counterproductive.)
  7. Avoid jargon and pompous language: Keep it simple, be approachable, and cut the rubbish. We have inbuilt BS detectors and are adept at sniffing out the bad eggs.
  8. Apologize when you need to: You’re not always going to get it right. When you make a mistake, put your hand up, acknowledge the error, and state plainly that you’re sorry. Your audience will respect you far more than that futile attempt to hide it away.
  9. Give your audience space: Use content to allow your audience to choose you — in their own time. Whether they come to you in a day, a week, or a decade, you’ll get far more respect than that sleazy salesman who just won’t go away.
  10. Offer guarantees. When your audience is ready to buy, reduce their risk. For example, offer a 30-day trial, or money back guarantee. Your sales will benefit.

Over to you …

When you combine the elements of know, like, and trust to your content and actions, magic ignites. You become an authority on your subject, and you build a tribe of fiercely loyal followers who can ultimately become loyal customers.

But results like these take time and effort. You need to put the work in — to fight hard for your space. And you can never give up.

I’m game.

How about you?

Help for busy businessowners

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I need help.

A lot of help.

And I get it.

I’m not afraid of asking for help anymore.

My time is worth too much money. I finally realized how to delegate when it’s not worth it for me to do it.

With the onslaught of apps offering the services of freelancers — it’s a helluva lot easier now to get the help I need.

There are apps for masseuses to come to your house, you don’t have to leave your house for a spray tan, manicure… you name it. I can’t remember the last time I did a big grocery shop. They come right to my door now. Which is good when you live on the third floor.

Have a business plan to write? Need help with chores? I love TaskRabbit. I just booked help from a few people to help us move (packing), I use it for yard work when I’m swamped at work — and I’ve asked TaskRabbit’s for help picking up prescriptions when I’ve been sick. It’s too easy. 

 

Storytelling on Twitter – Dig Beneath the Surface of Twitter (Part Three)

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Dig beneath the surface of Twitter

Know your readers, increase your following and develop content with a few simple tools

If you’re Tweeting for your newspaper’s account, promoting the newspaper on your own personal account or just want to advance your skills in driving people to your stories, Twitter offers simple tools to help you grow your readership.

Twitter Analytics

Access your account’s metrics by logging into analytics.twitter.com with your Twitter username and password. This is where you can see your impressions, profile visits and the number of followers you’ve gained. Look at highlights and review summaries from previous months. This is where you see the big picture of what’s working and what isn’t.

To know more about who is following you, from your Analytics home page, click on Audience. Here, you’ll learn about your followers – where they’re from and what they’re interests are. This is valuable information to help make sure your following on Twitter isn’t just growing in numbers. You’ll be able to evaluate if you’re reaching your target audience, the readers who need to know your news.

If you want to dig even deeper, compare your following with others. Click on “+Add comparison audience”, which is below the drop down menu for “Your followers.” This will give you the ability to see how your following compares with different age groups, demographics, lifestyles, consumer behaviors and mobile platforms.

Also from your Analytics home, you can see how your Tweets faired, and how much people are engaging with your content. Evaluate what’s been getting some pick up. And, if something you cherished wasn’t engaged, could a photo or video have helped to boost interest?

Speaking of, pull down the menu for “More”, and open “Videos” to track how many views your videos earned and how long people watched them.

Sometimes it may surprise you which stories go viral and which just don’t connect with an audience, but the more you become familiar with your audience and its behaviors, the more you can tailor your Tweets to raise engagement and readers.

Lists

Create Twitter lists to compile a resource for followers to find other members of your news team.

  •      From your main Twitter account, open your Profile and Settings, and then point to Lists. On the right, you can “Create a new list.”
  •      Name it, describe it and choose to make it public.
  •      Then, from the Lists page, you’ll be prompted to find people to add to your list. Enter your colleagues’ names.
  •      Once you find their account, click on their home page. Next to the “Follow” button, you’ll see three dots.
  •      Click on those, and choose Add or remove from lists.
  •      This will bring up a menu of your list or lists. Check the box for the list you want your followers to use.

There you go. Your list has begun. Now, you can link to it and point your readers to your entire organization’s coverage. This in turn helps you to gain more followers and readers when your colleagues create lists that link to you.

Some journalists also use lists to create community specific information. This helps to filter content and makes your account more valuable to your readers looking for local information.

Advanced search function (digging up information for a story)

This last quick tip on the Advanced search function on Twitter taps into your drive to dig and uncover information by using your research skills and instinctive curiosity. By using this, you’ll pull up much more information than you would if you punch in key words into the main search tool.

 

In this tool, you have a dozen fields where you can plug in key words, phrases, people, places and dates to find trends, mentions and to see how your name and your organization’s name surface in other accounts. This can also help you to find people to follow and come up with story ideas by surfacing what questions people in your community are asking, such as “Anyone know what happened at the Circle K on 101st Street?”

The advanced search not only provides you with insight on how people are talking about your reporting and your organization’s reputation, but it also puts your finger on your community’s pulse, helping you to create better content and stay ahead of your competitors.

Looking ahead

The reality is there are many ways people find their information, but it is more important than ever that the public is driven back to your professional reporting and valuable information.

Twitter is a vast cybersphere, where just like in print, on your website and the rest of your life for that matter, it is up to you as to how far you will take it.

But this platform is one powerful way to help you tap into a readership already looking for breaking and credible news. You have the ability to refine it and help your readership grow!

As it was from the beginning of your journalism career, the mission remains the same: deliver crucial and timely information and spark important conversations.