Alexa, Start Sero!

As we teased in our last entry, Sero was coming to another popular platform. Well, guess what? It’s here!

“Alexa is Amazon’s voice service and the brain behind millions of devices including Amazon Echo. Alexa provides capabilities, or skills, that enable customers to create a more personalized experience. There are now more than 10,000 skills from companies like Starbucks, Uber, and Capital One as well as innovative designers and developers.”

And now Serotek Corp is proud to announce it too is a part of the growing base of Alexa skills developers, because why swipe this way and that when you could just tell your device to play your favorite Sero audio content?

Here’s how you do it:

  • Enable the Skill in your Alexa app
  • Tell Alexa to “Start Sero.”
  • Alexa will ask you to link your account.
  • Return to the Alexa app and link your app.

That’s it!

The Alexa Skill is currently free for all current Sero subscribers. This offer will not last forever though, so please give it a test drive, see what you think, and if you like what you hear, tell your friends about it!

Posted in Announcements, Blog | Comments Off on Alexa, Start Sero!

A Tax Break You Can’t Beat!

There are two certainties we tend to agree with, death and taxes. Actually, there is a third certainty we can add to the list, and that is competitive prices for your hard-earned money.

That’s really no shocker though, right? Look around the access technology industry and identify just one company who charges less for comparable products.

At the end of this tax season, we want to continue the tradition. We understand Uncle Sam took his bite out of your checkbook, so let’s explore a new means of saving money for the entertainment you love and enjoy on the mobile device of your choosing.

Starting today, we’re going to release new single-platform subscription packages for Sero. Each subscription package will be $6.00 per month (or $5.99, depending on the app store.) These new subscription plans can be purchased within your app. We’re doing single-platform subscriptions for:

  • iOS/tvOS (which count as one platform)
  • Mac
  • Android
  • Amazon Fire OS
  • Windows

Stay tuned for the availability of another platform option in the very near future…

So what will you get?

These new subscription packages include the content and community features you’ve come to love of the Sero experience. This means, among other top selling features, the ability to download your favorite movies, TV series, podcasts, and other content for offline binge listening at home, on your commute, or where ever your travels may take you. Internet availability does not have to factor into your audio leisure.

These new subscription packages will not include email, remote access, or the Media Library. For the full experience you may continue using your current subscription plan. We understand flexibility and want you to pay only for what you desire of your Sero experience.

Take the Break!

So, what do you say? For less than the price of a fast food meal, you can count on a month’s worth of information and entertainment in the most accessible means possible, all from the convenience of your favorite mobile platform!

Are you interested? Go ahead and visit your app store now and seize this competitive promotion for new and existing customers!

If you are indeed a new customer, here are direct links to the respective app stores where the package is currently supported:

Helpful Hints

On iOS, open the App Store and select the Updates tab at the bottom of
the screen. If an update is available for Sero, install it. Otherwise, make sure it’s at least version 3.1.2.

Similarly, on Mac, open the App Store and select the Updates tab at the top of the window. If an update is available for Sero, install it. Otherwise, make sure it’s on at least version 2.1.1.

On Android, open the Google Play Store, activate the “Show Navigation Drawer” in the upper left corner of the screen (below the status bar), and choose “My Apps and Games”. If an update is available for Sero, install it.

And for Amazon Fire OS devices, or Android devices using the Amazon App store: Open the App store app, activate the Left Navigation Toggle at the upper left corner of the screen (below the status bar), choose “My Apps”, then select the Updates tab. If an update is available for Sero, install it.

Questions? Concerns? Leave them in the comments, or get in touch with our very helpful customer service!

Posted in Announcements, Blog | Comments Off on A Tax Break You Can’t Beat!

Love is Blind

We here at Serotek enjoyed this year’s Valentine’s Day just as much as anyone else, but, like some of you, there’s a part of us that dreads the fact we have to set aside one day to celebrate love.

So, in a quiet rebellion against the notion we need a holiday to honor the heart, we are sharing this tender video now, from one of our own beloved staff members and her husband and their positive outlook on life that has made theirs an example worth following.

You know her as Rhonda, the lovely voice taking your calls with all your questions and concerns. In a departure from our usual spiel about technology, join us in watching Rhonda’s love story:

Do you have a love story to share? We’re conscious of the fact many of you have met via our network. If so, leave us a comment! We’d love to read about it.

Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Love is Blind

A DocuScan Plus Endorsement

We regularly receive positive feedback from satisfied customers. Every now and then we pick out some of these unsolicited testimonials to share with you since their words will mean a lot more than our own biased opinions. In that spirit, here is one noteworthy message from one of our DocuScan Plus users, reprinted with permission:

Greetings From Your New Biggest Fan;

My name is Ryan Eversole and I have been using accessibility software since 1997 or so. I have been a beta tester for Dolphin SuperNova for nearly a decade now, I have done beta testing for ZoomText from the time they rolled out a 64-bit solution until present and I have even done beta testing for JAWS.

Beyond that I am the only approved trainer within about 100 miles of my home town for ClaroSoft products like Lightning and Thunder.

Additionally, despite my visual impairment I work full time as both a fully licensed California insurance agent and an I.T. Manager/Consultant. In my spare time I am actually building an invention that is guaranteed to bring blind and low vision mobility and independence to the next level. At present I am working on prosecuting my patent so for obvious reasons I cannot go too far into that piece of my life.

I am bringing all of this up because I wanted it to be clear that when I say I am absolutely floored at how awesome Sero is it is clear that I have worked with the most expensive solutions and I have been actively using assistive technology for a multitude of professional solutions for years now. I can honestly say with 100% certainty Serotek has created an excellent and amazing suite that is at very least comparable to the big, expensive solutions. The fact that I can subscribe for $240/year to Access Anywhere [now known as Sero Premium] means that it would take about 5 years to cost me as much as the initial purchase of SuperNova or ZoomText Fusion. Calculating for the rolling update model Windows has come up with now this means version upgrades that cost money will have to become significantly more frequent, so let’s throw in another $150 every other year, this means that it will likely take 8 years to match in the cost. During those 8 years however I will happily be taking advantage of a much better product with much better solutions.

Case and point SuperNova and their Book Shelf product, it takes 2-5 minutes to OCR a document and convert it into HTML and half of the time the document formatting is completely lost. Not to mention that this is just processing an existing PDF, not including time to scan the document. I was impressed to the point of being a giddy little school girl the first time I dropped 5 pages in my old scanner feeder and ran DocuScanPlus since it took under 1 minute to do everything… To say I was amazed at its speed and accuracy is completely an understatement, I was shocked and to be perfectly honest I was very upset.

My anger was in no way directed at Serotek, but at the corporate giants making money hand over fist from every Department of Rehabilitation office or similar office around the world. How is it that these giants can keep delivering a sub-par product but keep being glorified as if their solution is really a full featured and well-rounded solution? In all honesty I had no idea that Serotek had evolved it’s solutions so rapidly and so far, but none the less I am ecstatic to be aware of it now.

Are you interested in sharing your own feedback? We’re always glad to hear from you! Your questions, concerns, and suggestions on DocuScan Plus or any of our other productivity tools in our Sero suite of products are always encouraged.

And, stay tuned. We’ve been laying low for a bit, but discussion of upcoming projects is on its way…

Posted in Blog, reviews | Comments Off on A DocuScan Plus Endorsement

Liked It? Disliked It? Review It! On Sero

Sero has always been about connecting you to your favorite content and your community. Now, we’re bringing these two aspects of Sero together. When you listen to a piece of content, now you can tell the Sero community what you think, by giving us your rating and writing a review.

Giving us your rating is as easy as pressing one button. Once you’ve done that, you’ll have the option to write a review as well. And don’t forget that you can share your favorite content on social networks, by email, or even in a text message if you’re running Sero on your smartphone.

Ratings and reviews are available now on Windows, Mac, iOS, Apple TV, and Android. Unfortunately it is not currently practical to write a review on the Apple TV, so instead, Sero will send you an email that you can open on your computer or mobile device to write a review.

So when you listen to something on Sero, whether you loved it, hated it, or just lost interest, please tell your community what you thought, by giving us your rating and writing a review.

Posted in Announcements, Blog | Comments Off on Liked It? Disliked It? Review It! On Sero

Double Your Spending Power on Black Friday

How many times have you come across those gift certificate opportunities where you have to spend a good chunk of money to earn just a little money? You know the ones we’re talking about. Spend twenty-five to get thirty or some such. Well, we know there’s a place for those opportunities, but in typical Serotek fashion, we want to break tradition.

How about this: Spend whatever quantity you want on a Serotek gift certificate, and we will fully match your amount. If you want a one hundred-dollar gift certificate, Serotek will give you another gift certificate of equal value. That would mean two hundred dollars toward the purchase of our popular document scanning app, our intuitive screen reading solution, a subscription to our growing feature set of the Sero app, or a combination of all three!

It just doesn’t make sense to give you only a fraction of your return. We want to double your spending power, but this deal is only good on Black Friday, from midnight to 11:59 PM Eastern Time. The inventory is unlimmited. You just need to seize it!

Are you interested in maximizing your hard-earned money? Yeah, we thought you might be, so click right now to take advantage of this rare promotion!

Posted in Announcements, Blog | Comments Off on Double Your Spending Power on Black Friday

Why You Should Upgrade from Windows 7: Sometimes the Little Things Make All the Difference

It happens from time to time to all of us who rely on a screen reader. You go to a website, and with no prompting on your part, the website starts playing some music, a video, or something else that drowns out your screen reader. How do you turn the sound down, or just make it stop, short of closing the web page altogether? You try to find your way to the stop button or the volume control, but the sound from the web page is making it hard to hear what your screen reader is telling you. Wouldn’t it be nice if your computer could automatically turn down the other sound while it’s talking? Your iPhone can do that, after all. So why can’t your PC?

Now it can, if you’re running Windows 8, or better yet, Windows 10.

Starting with Windows 8, your computer can lower the volume of other sounds while a screen reader is speaking. We call this audio ducking.

Earlier this year, NVDA added support for this very handy feature. JAWS is adding support as well in the public beta of version 18. And today, we’re happy to announce that System Access supports audio ducking as well.

To start taking advantage of audio ducking with System Access, simply open your System Access preferences, go to the text-to-speech section, and check the box called “Lower the volume of other sounds while speaking”. Then press the OK button. That’s it. Now System Access will never be drowned out again.

Of course, audio ducking is useful for a lot more than dealing with the occasional obnoxious website. Say you want to listen to some music, but you also want to multitask. Before, you had to manually turn down the music to hear what your computer was saying. Now, that happens automatically, and when your computer isn’t speaking, you can enjoy your music at full volume.

We know that many of you are still running Windows 7. It has worked reliably for years, and you feel that if something isn’t broken, you shouldn’t fix it. Nobody likes change for its own sake with no real benefit, and a lot of people feel that anything after Windows 7 is just that. But while the changes in newer versions of Windows do take some getting used to, Windows continues to introduce truly useful new features and improvements. Audio ducking for screen readers is one of these useful new features, and it’s not available in Windows 7. So if you’ve been putting off the upgrade to Windows 10, we believe this feature is an excellent reason to take the leap. Once you’ve experienced the convenience of audio ducking, you won’t want to go back.

Remember that Microsoft continues to provide the Windows 10 upgrade free of charge for users of screen readers and other assistive technologies.

Take advantage of the extended Windows 10 free upgrade for assistive technology users.

Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Why You Should Upgrade from Windows 7: Sometimes the Little Things Make All the Difference

The Beta Program is Winding Down but the Savings are Ramping Up!

To show our appreciation for everyone’s participation in the Sero beta program, from now through Labor Day, we’re offering a one-year subscription to our network service, plus a free month, for just $99. We haven’t made this service available for such a low price in years, so don’t miss out. Make sure you take advantage of this special offer before the end of Labor Day!

Haven’t signed up yet? What are you waiting for? Get signed up now!

The move to Sero means entertainment and information from the convenience of a single app across multiple platforms. It means faster updates across the board. It means voice chat and text chat at home on your computer or on the road via your smartphone. It means the ability to download content from our ever expanding library, starting a movie on your Mac or PC and finishing it up on your tablet. You’ll be able to better rate, share, and favorite the content you want and lots more!

If you haven’t checked out Sero, we’ve got a lot to catch you up on! Sign up here and start experiencing entertainment and productivity at its finest!

Posted in Blog | Comments Off on The Beta Program is Winding Down but the Savings are Ramping Up!

From the Staff Files: Cinderella and her Grant Adventure

The following comes from our newest member in the Serotek family, Rhonda Partain. By all accounts she is exactly the primary company voice we needed on the other end of the main telephone line. We have heard great things, and here are her observations as both a staff member and user of our technology:

By now I am sure most of the people who call Serotek know my voice. I’m Rhonda Partain the customer service-sort of tech person you talk to when you forget your user name or want to change your password. I had almost given up hope of finding a job. I had come to the sad realization that fairy Godmothers are only make believe. I guess halfheartedly I had hope one would appear and say some cute magical phrase that rhymes of course and I’d be blessed with a job I would love.

Well, perhaps she was on strike. She never showed up. Yet it turns out persistence really does pay off in the end. I am so glad that Mike Calvo and Michael Fox thought I’d be good at this job. I am grateful they took a chance and hired this girl from Georgia who loves to talk, but who listens just as well. It is awesome to work for a company whose product is one you would purchase and use yourself.

Technology is changing daily it seems. How many of you remember those manual typewriters, finding and hiring readers, typing papers for school and forgetting what you last wrote? I have often felt a bit sad as I looked at all the new technology at trade shows and conferences for the blind. It was fun to play with for a few minutes; it was fun to imagine just how great it would be if I had won the lottery and could purchase it. I felt sort of like Cinderella who knew midnight was coming. She could enjoy one more dance but in the end she’d be back scrubbing the ashes from the fireplace.

Well, I bring you all good news. You need no longer wish for a fairy Godmother, you need not wish for a rich uncle to die so you can win the lottery. Thanks to Serotek the future is affordable. You can have technology that runs on your iPhone or android, or Mac. You don’t have to give it back. Isn’t that great?

The future is exciting; don’t be terrified of change, get Sero-fied and come join the party. I feel like a kid at Christmas when I think of the future. What secret presents are hidden away in Serotek’s closet?

Change is a bit scary at first. I upgraded to Windows 10 and I am still here to tell about it. Change is a good thing; just say that to yourself. You won’t crash your hard drive or anything like that, Serotek comes up talking when the upgrade is through. Sero may look a bit different too. Internet Explorer is used instead of the Samnet browser, but it’s not hard to figure out.

Would I lie to you? Well, if you asked me about my weight, my age, or how much money I have in the bank I might, but I swear by all the chocolate in the world Sero is wonderful. Seeing is believing. If you feel worried about anything, if you have concerns, I am only a phone call away. I love helping others; I may not always know the answer but I am resourceful and I will find it out.

I enjoy working with all the staff here at Serotek. A special thanks goes to Brian who mostly has to listen to me; I think Matt is simply amazing how anyone can write all of the code needed to have zero work on multiple platforms is just mind boggling to me. I could hardly figure out when the two trains would collide in Algebra class.

We live, we learn, we grow. Life is a grand adventure!

Posted in Blog | Comments Off on From the Staff Files: Cinderella and her Grant Adventure

Serotek’s Position on Microsoft Edge

Summer months are typically a great time for relaxing and unwinding. We here at Serotek recognize the value of rest and recreation, but as you know, the technology landscape is in a constant shift, requiring us to work overtime in the lab so that your favorite applications work the way they’re supposed to when you’re ready to come back from vacation. We have a number of short-term and long-term goals on the drawing board, some of which we’ll share in upcoming posts, some of which we’ll explore in a soon to be announced series of podcasts.

In the meantime, we bring you the first in a series of articles exploring recent developments in mainstream technology.

Earlier this week, Microsoft released the long-awaited Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Among the most prominent features in this update are several major improvements to the Edge web browser. The Edge development team recently published a blog post describing these improvements. Among other things, that post states:

“we’re proud to say that Microsoft Edge in the Anniversary Update is easily the most accessible browser we’ve ever shipped”.

While we at Serotek appreciate the considerable improvements that the Edge team has made in accessibility since the original release of Windows 10, we must emphatically insist that the claim quoted above is, at the very least, misleading. In our opinion as assistive technology developers, the only way that claim can be considered true is if the word “we” in that sentence refers strictly to the Edge team, and not to Microsoft in general. That’s because in practice, the accessibility of even the new and improved Edge is a significant regression compared to what we always had in Internet Explorer, and even compared to Firefox and Chrome.

There are two main problems: Edge does not give assistive technologies a way to access the raw Document Object Model (DOM) of a web page, which we need in order to fill in gaps in website accessibility. Further, the speed that we can achieve in Edge is hobbled in comparison to all other browsers on Windows.

First, in both Internet Explorer and the Windows version of Firefox, screen readers have always had a way to access the raw Document Object Model of a Web page. This is the browser’s internal representation of the HTML code that makes up a page. This level of access allows all screen readers to provide various features that can fill in the gaps when a website isn’t perfectly accessible out of the box. For example, Serotek has long been known for its C-SAW (Community-Supported Accessible Web) feature, which lets users provide labels for graphics and form fields that aren’t labeled by the website developer. We are also able to implement our own website-specific work-around for accessibility problems, such as when a button or link isn’t properly marked up but just appears as plain text, or when a site doesn’t properly indicate that part of the user interface is currently invisible. Even very popular sites such as Amazon.com and PayPal still have problems like these sometimes.

At Serotek, we’ve always believed that, to the extent possible, we should make our own accessibility, rather than wait for it to be served to us on a silver platter. But to do this, we need some help from the browser. And so far, the Edge team has not provided the level of raw access to a Web page that we need to fill in website accessibility gaps as we do in other browsers. Instead, the Edge team has apparently taken the position that its only job is to provide access to websites that already do everything right in terms of following the accessibility standards. In this respect, the Edge team has done a great job, and Edge’s perfect score from the HTML5Accessibility browser benchmark reflects that. But real websites, even from large companies such as Microsoft itself, do not always properly implement the latest accessibility features of ARIA and HTML5. It’s our job as assistive technology developers to make up for these real-world shortcomings, and so far, Edge doesn’t let us do that job nearly as well as other browsers.

That’s not the only problem. One of the most touted features of Edge is its speed. However, when it comes to accessibility, the speed that any full-featured screen reader can achieve in Edge is hobbled in comparison to all other browsers on Windows. Historically, all full-featured Windows screen readers have provided access to browsers by running some of their code directly inside the browser. Basically, the screen reader gets right inside the browser’s space, and can then access all of the available information about a web page with very low overhead. But now, as part of Edge’s stringent approach to security, Microsoft has decided that screen readers and other assistive technologies must stay out of the browser, only communicating with it from a distance. We don’t have a problem with this limitation in and of itself, but it means that the mechanism that the screen reader uses to get information from the browser needs to be carefully designed for maximum efficiency, and so far, Microsoft has not done this consistently. With Edge, it’s like we’re sucking information through a straw, whereas before, we were gulping from the fire hose. Again, it’s possible for Microsoft to solve this problem without backing down on security, which is also important, but that hasn’t happened yet.

We have provided feedback to Microsoft on both of these problems. Microsoft has been receptive to this feedback, and we look forward to working closely with the appropriate development teams on further improvements. But for now, we believe these regressions are so significant that we cannot provide a level of access to Edge that we consider usable, let alone enjoyable.

Note that Serotek is not the only assistive technology developer to take this position with regard to Microsoft Edge. The following statement is transcribed from the latest podcast from Freedom Scientific:

“There will not be any immediate change to the accessibility of Microsoft Edge. Many people who use JAWS are increasingly using rich Internet applications that are Web-based, so for us, it’s very important that when we do support Microsoft Edge, we do so in a way that gives people a level of access that they expect and that they can rely upon on the job. Perhaps it would be possible to hack around in Microsoft Edge and come up with accessibility of sorts, but that’s not really what JAWS is about, and the reality is that at this point, the hooks have not been put in place in Windows 10 by Microsoft to allow third-party screen readers to make Edge as accessible as Internet Explorer, Firefox, and increasingly Chrome currently are in Windows. […] But rest assured, we want to get Edge as accessible as other browsers as soon as possible, but we do need Microsoft’s help.”

We are in full agreement with Freedom Scientific on this point.

We recognize that Internet Explorer’s days as a top-tier browser are numbered. That is why we are working on significant improvements in our access to Firefox and Chrome. We are committed to providing first-rate access to modern browsers. But Edge still has such serious limitations that we believe our time is best spent elsewhere. We look forward to a time when we can provide excellent Web access through Edge as well as all other modern browsers.

Questions? Opinions? Please feel free to share your comment!

Posted in Announcements, Assistive Technology, Blog | Comments Off on Serotek’s Position on Microsoft Edge

A Pulse Check on the Sero Beta

Since we launched the beta of Sero, a> our “mother of all updates” on Mother’s Day, we’ve been busy making further improvements to the product based on your extremely helpful feedback. At Serotek we’ve always been all about community, and we are heartened to note the community has not failed us in collaborating to make this a product we can all be proud of.

Here are a few highlights to date and some notes on future plans:

Thanks to your helpful feedback, we have improved the voice chat user experience, especially on iOS. Sero now announces when people enter or leave a chat room, and automatically reads new text chat messages. You can turn these announcements on or off on a per-computer or per-device basis. And on iOS, you no longer have to tap and hold a button to talk if you’re not wearing a headset. Instead, Sero uses your iOS device’s built-in echo cancellation capabilities to make sure that people don’t hear themselves echo. We also added support for Bluetooth headsets on iOS. Note that we have not yet brought these enhancements to Android. Please accept our apologies for the delay, but we will change this very soon.

You’ve asked for better navigation. We’ve made it easier to get around various parts of the network, such as forums, bookmarks, and your newspaper, especially on mobile devices. In particular, the Back button now consistently behaves the way it’s supposed to.

Also in support of better navigation, we’ve been working on a much-improved search feature for content within Sero. About a week ago, we rolled out the first phase of this highly requested feature. When you search for content, Sero will now do a much better job of showing the most relevant search results at the top, and your searches will often finish faster as well. Now we’re just about ready to roll out the second phase of our work on search. On all platforms, the search box will now be on the same screen as the list you’re currently looking at, and search results will automatically be filled in as you type your query. We believe these improvements will make it much easier to find the content you’re looking for within Sero.

Of course, we’ve also implemented many smaller improvements and bug fixes. For example, on Windows, you no longer lose your place on the home screen when it periodically refreshes. Also, the home screen and other list views now automatically refresh when they receive focus. For example, if you read and delete your new email, then come back to the home screen, the number of new messages at the top will update to reflect this change.

And we’re not done yet. As we mentioned above, we will soon be enhancing voice chat on Android. After that, we’ll improve downloading of content to your PC or device; in particular, we’ll make it easy to download content in the background while you move on to other tasks. We’ll also add the ability to post voice messages to the forums on all platforms that let third-party apps use a microphone; that means all platforms except Apple TV.

We know that you love all of the great content available within Sero, and we want to make it easy for you to share the love. So we’re going to add the ability to rate and review content, share it on social networks, and follow your friends’ ratings and reviews. We’ll also make it easy for you to keep tabs on your favorite described TV shows, so you’ll never miss a new season or episode again.

We realize that for Windows users, one of the most controversial changes that comes with Sero is the death of the SAMNet browser. Unfortunately, it’s just not feasible for us to maintain our own browser anymore, and it doesn’t really make sense for us to do so, with all of the great options available these days. We realize that not all of these options work well with our System Access screen reader just yet. In particular, we’re going to be enhancing support for Firefox and Chrome within System Access. And once Microsoft has finished adding the necessary accessibility support to the Edge browser on Windows 10, we will fully support it within System Access. While the SAMNet browser that you’ve known and loved for years will be going away, you will have some great new options to take its place.

Of course, we’ll continue to polish the Sero app and fix bugs as we prepare to move it out of beta. Your feedback will help us make Sero the best that it can be across all of the platforms we support.

Think that’s it? Hold on, sit still a moment longer.

You see, even after Sero comes out of beta, we have big plans for the future of this app. The word “Sero” means connected, and we want Sero to keep you connected to all aspects of your life. For us, one of the most exciting developments in recent years is that after decades of being the sole province of geeks, home automation is now finally ready for the everyday person. We think we can make it even easier for you to take advantage of all of the exciting possibilities for more independent living that home automation has to offer. Our work on home automation is still in the research and early development phase, but we are confident that with Sero, we’ll be able to bring easy home automation to whatever platform or platforms you use. Stay tuned! This is only the beginning.

But, right now, the best thing you can do to help move this project along is to jump into the beta program and get your friends to do the same! The more people we can get to kick the tires, the smoother the ride for everyone involved. We’re fast approaching the maximum number of available seats for the beta program, so please don’t assume you’ll have time to check things out later. Right now is the time to get in there and enjoy all the features of the Sero ecosystem absolutely free!

Posted in Announcements | Comments Off on A Pulse Check on the Sero Beta

Sero: The Mother of All Updates

What the heck has the Serotek team been up to? Working hard in the basement for you of course! And what has all that resulted in? Well, one of our most comprehensive updates. In fact, you might call it the mother of all updates!

We’re calling it Sero. On the surface, it’s going to be a universal experience that will bring together our software services under a single app. “Sero,” after all, means “connected,” so it only made sense to develop an interface that will keep you connected across different platforms. It’s the first time in assistive technology history that users can enjoy a consistent user experience regardless of whether you’re on Android, iOS, Amazon Fire, or Apple TV.

The move to a single app means a great foundation for upward mobility. We can now deploy faster updates across the board. It means voice chat and text chat at home on your computer or on the road via your smartphone. It means the ability to download content from our ever expanding library, starting a movie on your Mac or PC and finishing it up on your tablet. You’ll be able to better rate, share, and favorite the content you want and lots more!

Yes, there will be some changes. For one thing, you’ll note we have done away with the System Access Browser. We’re no longer exclusive to Internet Explorer. Sero makes room for the kind of choices everyone else enjoys at their keyboard, but the intuitive nature of DocuScan Plus, System Access, and the former SAMNet will not be lost. Experts and novices alike will be able to immediately learn and leverage all the tools you’ve come to love and rely on for work and personal leisure.

We’re very excited about this step in our development. We think it has a lot of promise and is one more sign that times for the traditional assistive technology industry really have changed.

And, we would love for you to be a part of the final stretch of the development. We want you to be a beta tester. You’ll be among the first to kick the tires on our new universal app, and as long as you’re a participant in the beta program, you’re going to be able to enjoy all our services completely free of charge, but please sign up now because there is a limited number of seats to hand out. Please note the beta program will launch Sunday, May 8.

Ready? Join us in this next chapter of our persistent growth!

Posted in Announcements, Assistive Technology, Blog, Serotek | Comments Off on Sero: The Mother of All Updates

Happy Holidays From Your Friends at Serotek!

We want to take a moment to wish you and yours a very safe and relaxing holiday season. Wherever you may find yourself reading this note, we hope nothing but the best for you in these days of festivity and reflection.

If you celebrate Christmas, may it be a merry one indeed!

Regardless of your holiday adherences, remember the gifts should be the least of our priorities. The most lasting bonds and memories are forged among friends and family, and we here at Serotek are glad to count you among our own. If it should happen that misfortune greeted you this past year in any shape, please accept our sympathies and our desire for you to experience a lift of spirit in the New Year.

Yours as always,

Your Friends at Serotek

Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Happy Holidays From Your Friends at Serotek!

24 Days of Christmas coming early

Blindfold Games and Serotek are celebrating this season by giving away a game a day to some lucky winners.

Blindfold Games creates iPhone, iPad and iPod audio games for the visually impaired community.  They’ve built over 20 games, including Blindfold Bowling, Blindfold Dominoes, Blindfold Solitaire, Blindfold Pong and Blindfold Air Hockey to name just a few.

To enter the give-away, send an email to xmas@blindfoldgames.org. 

You need to send an email each day you want to participate, and tell us which game you want to win.  You’ll get that game, and coupons for all the upgrades and unlimited use that the game offers.

Happy Holidays

Posted in Announcements, Blindness and Low Vision, Serotek | Comments Off on 24 Days of Christmas coming early

RWF 39: Learn about USABA

Listen to RWF 39: Learn about USABA
This is a very special RWF. First of all it’s the final show for 2015.  I want to take some time off to just enjoy the holidays and recharge.  Second its very special because of my guests!  Today I have the pleasure of chatting with two representatives of the The United States Association of Blind Athletes.
This is a fantastic organization dedicated to promoting fitness and sports for the blind community. Some of the topics we discuss include:

     
  • Kevin’s athletic backround
  • Disabled and “abel bodied” athletes  competing side by side
  • USABA and the millitary
  • The National Fitness Challenge

Facebook: United States Association of Blind Athletes
Twitter: @USABA1
Sign up for the USABA  e-newsletter to be notified of opportunities across the U.S. and learn more about their athletes
Kevin Brousard
Membership & Outreach Coordinator kbrousard@usaba.org
719-866-3019
Courtney Patterson
Marketing & PR Manager  
cpatterson@usaba.org
719-866-3222
h3>Contact Bill!

To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com.
You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This will be the final RWF posted on this site. To keep up with all future RWF episodes go to http://kociaba-fitness.com and sign up for our email notifications
Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on RWF 39: Learn about USABA

RWF 38:Lou Schuler A career in Fitness

Listen to RWF 38:Lou SchulerA career in Fitness This week my guest is the esteemed fitness journalist Lou Schuler.
Lou is  an award-winning journalist, a certified strength and conditioning specialist, a contributing editor to Men’s Health magazine and author or coauthor of many popular books about diet and strength training.
His  latest book,Strong, came out November 10, 2015.  Lou  wrote it with  Alwyn Cosgrove as a follow-up to The New Rules of Lifting for Women, which is by far their most  successful of the five books in the series.Some of his other titles include;The Lean Muscle Diet with Alan Aragon, The Book of Muscle (with Ian King), The Home Workout Bible (with Mike Mejia and many other contributors), and The Testosterone Advantage Plan (with Jeff Volek, Mike Mejia, and Adam Campbell)
 He  recently self-published his  first novel, Saints Alive.
We cover a lot of ground in this conversation including:

<

ul> 

  • Not great at marketing
  • The early years
  • Working for Weider
  • Why he got certified
  • Meeting Alwin
  • The “new rules” books
  • How the books differ
  • Genetics makes a huge difference

    <

    ul>
    h3>Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com.
    You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.E

  • Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on RWF 38:Lou Schuler A career in Fitness

    What’s New at Serotek?

    You guys may’ve heard the Tek Talk broadcast the other night where Mike Calvo and Matt Campbell covered some changes at Serotek. Didn’t catch it? Click here and listen at your leisure.

    Or, if you’d rather read about some of our changes, here’s a breakdown:

    Windows 10

    It’s clear by now that although Windows 10 attempts to make Windows 7 users feel at ease with the return of the Start menu, the new operating system unapologetically builds on the foundation that Microsoft laid with Windows 8. The cornerstone of this foundation is an application platform and user interface style that has gone by many names. It was once called Metro. Microsoft later referred to apps based on this technology as “Windows Store apps”. We have often called them “modern apps”. Microsoft currently prefers the name “Universal Windows Platform”. Whatever you call it, it’s even more pervasive in Windows 10, from the moment you enter your password on the Windows sign-in screen.
    You’ll also find the new style of user interface in the Action Center, where you can review and respond to notifications, and in the Settings app, which is the modern equivalent of the Control Panel. Even the Start menu, meant to entice Windows 7 users, is based on the newer user interface style. And of course, you’ll find it in the Windows Store and the apps that you can download from there.

    So what does this mean for screen reader users? Naturally, that depends on the screen reader. In our opinion, other screen readers have done the bare minimum to make the Windows modern UI accessible, but they haven’t made it truly usable. For the most part, they’ll just read whatever control has the keyboard focus, and leave it to the user to use screen review commands to figure out the context. We knew we could do better.
    We still believe in providing the best automatic access possible, rather than forcing the user to use stick shift, so to speak. So in many parts of Windows, such as the sign-in screen and the Settings app, you’ll find that System Access reads much more automatically than other screen readers. Of course, our automatic access isn’t perfect, and we plan to keep improving it. And there are other little touches that you’ll find along the way; for example, when you talk to the new Cortana app in Windows 10, System Access will stay quiet, so Cortana can listen to what you have to say.

    But beyond simply presenting more information automatically, we believe we can provide a fundamentally better user experience in the Windows modern UI than any screen reader has attempted so far. That brings us to the next thing we want to talk about.

    Webify

    One of the most unquestioned assumptions of Windows screen readers has been that they should mostly leave keyboard navigation up to the applications and the operating system. After all, Windows has always made it possible to move through all of the controls in a user interface by pressing Tab and Shift+Tab. But what happens when keyboard navigation is an afterthought, as it so often is in mainstream apps? What happens when application user interfaces become more like web pages, freely mixing content and UI controls? Must we use clunky screen review commands to explore and understand these apps? Fortunately, a better way has been right under our noses all along, especially for those of us who live in the SAMNet browser.

    If you’re a frequent user of SAMNet on Windows, or even if you simply do a lot of web browsing with System Access, then you’ve probably come to love the way that we provide access to web pages. Like other screen readers, System Access lets you move through a web page with the arrow keys, as if you were moving through a document in Notepad or Word. But we’ve always taken it a step further. System Access has no special mode for filling out forms. We’ve always believed that making such a distinction between browsing a web page and filling out a form is unnecessary and clunky. And it seems that our users agree; people tell us that our approach to browsing web pages is smoother than anything they’ve experienced with other screen readers.

    While we were working with Windows 10, it occurred to us that there’s no reason why native applications couldn’t work the same way. Why should it matter to a user whether something is a web page or an application?
    After all, modern Windows apps are a lot like web pages in the way they freely mix content with user interface controls. Often they even include things called links, like a web page. So why shouldn’t you be able to navigate these apps like a web page?

    Now, with System Access, you can do just that. We call this innovative new feature “Webify”. It starts with modern apps in Windows 8 and up.
    Whenever you’re in one of these apps, you can navigate it like a web page. This means you no longer have to use clunky screen review commands to explore an app; just arrow through it. In some places we can even detect headings, so you can jump around with H and Shift+H. Other quick navigation commands also apply. Want to get to the next button on the screen, without laboriously tabbing through everything else in between?
    Just press B. Of course, just as with a web page, System Access will automatically recognize when you’re in an edit box, so you can just type; there’s no switching between modes.

    We’re using Windows modern apps as the initial proving ground for this concept, but we believe it can be applied much more widely. You may have already noticed that by default, System Access now webifies the Windows task bar. We recognize that you might prefer the old way of navigating the task bar, so you can choose not to webify it. But we encourage you to try it and let it grow on you. And we look forward to extending our Webify technology even further. For example, the Ribbon in Microsoft Office has long been a source of confusion. But just wait until we webify it within the next few months; we believe that will make it easier than ever to explore all that Microsoft Office has to offer. As a preview, you will soon have the option to webify the Ribbon in WordPad.
    And of course, we welcome your feedback on other aspects of Windows and popular applications that can benefit from being webified. Ultimately, we want you to be able to learn just one way to use your computer, and have it just work everywhere.

    Windows 10’s rough edges

    In some ways, Windows 10 is even bolder than Windows 8 was. A case in point is Windows 10’s new web browser, Microsoft Edge. Edge is a drastic change from Internet Explorer, and this level of change was bound to impact users of screen readers and other assistive technologies. System Access has some experimental support for Edge, but it’s nowhere near ready for everyday use yet. Like other third-party screen reader developers, we are still waiting for Edge’s accessibility support to mature. According to a blog post from the Edge team late last month, Edge’s accessibility support is still “getting to good”. Microsoft continues to recommend that users of third-party screen readers use Internet Explorer for now. Naturally, we agree with that recommendation.

    So what happened? Why isn’t Edge ready to use with third-party screen readers, despite the long preview period for Windows 10? Naturally, we can’t speak for other assistive technology developers. But we at Serotek were surprised by just how completely the Microsoft Edge team broke with the legacy of Internet Explorer, particularly when it comes to accessibility. For as long as we’ve been in the screen reader business, our methods of accessing content in Internet Explorer, via Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) and the Document Object Model (DOM) interface, have been more or less unchanged. But Edge throws all of that out and introduces a brand new way of accessing web pages, based on Microsoft’s newer UI Automation (UIA) interface. This level of “out with the old, in with the new” is unprecedented in our experience; even the infamous Windows Vista didn’t change anything this drastically.

    Naturally, the brand new accessibility implementation in Edge isn’t perfect. We have provided our feedback to Microsoft, and we will continue to do so as Edge’s accessibility support matures. When it’s ready, we will fully embrace Edge as the preferred web browser for Windows 10. We look forward to the day when Serotek users can benefit from the excellent work that the Edge team has done to produce a modern, standards-compliant, secure, and fast web browser for Windows.

    The impact of Edge extends beyond the Edge web browser itself. For example, the Cortana app uses the Edge browsing engine to display search results and other information. Some other apps, such as Groove Music, are also based on Edge. As Edge’s accessibility and System Access’s support for Edge improve, access to these other applications will improve as well.

    There are some other aspects of Windows 10 that are brand new and not yet usable with System Access and other third-party screen readers. For example, the Mail app in Windows 10 is not yet accessible. Stay tuned for future developments on that front as well.

    In short, Windows 10 brings dramatic changes on many fronts, and like the operating system itself, accessibility on Windows 10 is still a work in progress. We at Serotek look forward to continued improvements in the accessibility of Windows 10, and we will take full advantage of Microsoft’s ongoing work to provide the best possible user experience on this exciting new operating system.

    Sero, the future of SAMNet and iBlink Radio

    Of course, we realize that today’s online world is a lot bigger than Windows. People expect to access their favorite content, social networks, and services wherever they are, whether on the go with a smartphone, around the house with a tablet, or while sitting in front of the TV. Our slogan, “accessibility anywhere”, is just an empty phrase unless we embrace these platforms too.

    We were quick to recognize the importance of these newer platforms. When Apple took the unprecedented step of adding built-in accessibility to the iPhone in 2009, we jumped at the chance to bring some of our content to this exciting new platform, and iBlink Radio was the first iOS app to cater specifically to the blind community. We later expanded iBlink Radio to provide access to much of the content on SAMNet. Today, in addition to iOS, iBlink Radio is available for Android, Amazon Fire OS, and the Mac.

    However, we realize that the level of access to our content, community, and services has become inconsistent across platforms. Some important aspects of SAMNet, such as voice chat, remain exclusive to Windows, while others, such as the forums, are currently unavailable on Android.
    We also recognize that our branding is confusing. What is the System Access Mobile Network, and what exactly does it have to do with System Access the screen reader? And why is SAMNet buried in the iBlink Radio app?

    We know you like things to be simple, and so do we. That’s why we’re unifying our content and services under one app and one name across all platforms. We call it Sero, which means “connected”. The Sero app will give you a consistent interface to all of the content and services that you love from iBlink Radio and SAMNet, across Windows, iOS, Android, and Mac. Yes, this means that voice chat, along with voice messages on the forums, will be coming to iOS, Android, and Mac. You will no longer have to be chained to your computer to hang out with your friends in our popular voice chat rooms.

    Of course, there are always new platforms and devices on the horizon.
    For example, you can find the iBlink Radio app on the fourth-generation Apple TV. When we release Sero, it will be available on the Apple TV at the same time that we release it for the other platforms. Note that there will be some limitations in Sero for Apple TV; for example, third-party apps don’t currently have access to the microphone in the Apple TV remote, so there will be no voice chat on the Apple TV. But we will bring as much of Sero as we can to this exciting new platform. And when Amazon eventually sees fit to make their Fire TV devices accessible, Sero will be there as well.

    In short, Sero will take accessibility anywhere to a whole new level. On your computer, on your tablet, on TV and on the road, Serotek continues to evolve right alongside your personal needs.

    For current customers, we appreciate you sticking with us through these exciting changes. For prospective customers, what are you waiting for to jump in and try us out for yourself?

    Posted in Announcements, Blog | Comments Off on What’s New at Serotek?

    RWF 37:Effective Goal Setting With  Georgia Dow

    Listen to RWF 37:Effective Goal Setting With  Georgia Dow
    This week  I am very pleased to bring back one of my personal favorite guests,Georgia Dow. 
    Georgia has over 20 years of experience in teaching and counseling. With degrees in Psychology and Education, a Master’s degree with Distinction in Art Therapy as well as two-time Canadian Jujitsu Champion, she specializes in treating anxiety and stress management for both children and adults. She is a popular  speaker at seminars and  conferences internationally. Additionally, senior editor at Mobile Nations,  Georgia writes about and reviews Apple-related and connected devices.
    Some of the topics we discuss include:

       

    • The importance of taking care of yourself
    • Enjoying the holidays
    • Don’t beat yourself up
    • “because I can”
    • Small steps to achieve big goals
    • Which approach is best for you?
    • addressing your weaknesses
    • New things  are usually uncomfortable
    • checks and balances
    • Learning from your failures
    • and lots more

    anxiety-videos.com

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com.
    You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on RWF 37:Effective Goal Setting With  Georgia Dow

    RWF 36: Kelly Starrett

    Listen to RWF 36: Kelly Starrett 

    Coach Kelly Starrett founded San Francisco CrossFit with his wife Juliet. Since opening its doors in 2005 as one of the first 50 CrossFit Affiliates, this athletic training center has become the prime coaching resource for reigning Olympians, national and world champions, tri-athletes, runners, and recreational athletes alike. Kelly’s focused coaching and warm personality brings his professional training as a strength coach and a doctor of physical therapy to life for brilliant coaching in a positive environment. Kelly is an inspiration to nearly everyone he meets, causing even superior athletes to re-examine their physical capacities and reach higher levels, and motivating beginners to believe in their natural ability to excel.
    Kelly received his Doctor of Physical Therapy in 2007 from Samuel Merritt College in Oakland, California. Before starting his own physical therapy practice at San Francisco CrossFit, he practiced performance-based physical therapy at the world-renowned Stone Clinic. In current practice, Kelly continues to focus on performance-based Orthopedic Sports Medicine with an emphasis on returning athletes to elite level sport and performance. His clients see exceptional results from his progressive blend of manual physical therapy and strength training. Kelly’s clients have included Olympic gold-medalists, world-class extreme skiers and X-Games medalists, dancers with Smuin, San Francisco, and Sacramento Ballet Companies, military personnel, and competitive age-division athletes.
    Kelly’s background as an athlete and coach includes paddling whitewater slalom canoe on the US Canoe and Kayak Teams, and leading the Men’s Whitewater Rafting Team to two national titles and competition in two World Championships.
    Here is just some of what we discuss:

       

    • Genetic testing
    • Obsessed to learn
    • You have to coach a lot to be a good coach
    • How the fitness community has changed
    • Writing “Becoming a supple leopard”
    • What’s wrong with modern medicine
    • And much, much more…

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com.
    You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport

    Posted in Real World Fitness | 1 Comment

    Serotek on TekTalk and New Announcements!

    Tis that season for tech announcements big and small. Here at Serotek Matt and Mike have been in the basement putting touches on some of our popular products, and we think you’re going to like what we have in store.

    Peak your interest a little? Well, suffice to say we are coming out with our own take on the Windows 10 experience. Why should you spend time stumbling about the intricacies of a new operating system, when you could…Oh, but we are getting ahead of ourselves.

    You know, one thing we’ve always been proud of at Serotek is the way we’ve pushed the envelope on our slogan, accessibility anywhere. For our team it’s never been just another cute tagline. It’s been the centerpiece of our innovation, as early as the release of the iBlink Radio app, and now, with all the competing platforms and ecosystems, it’s even more important to meet you on the device and operating system that suits your lifestyle. And, why not introduce a few new features along the way? So, we are going to…

    I know, that’s getting annoying, isn’t it?

    Well, tell you what, why not join us Monday, November 16 at 8:00 PM over on Accessible World’s TekTalk. Mike Calvo and Matt Campbell will be on hand to discuss some upcoming announcements you won’t want to miss!

    Again, we’ll see you Monday, November 16 at 8PM Eastern. Follow this link to tune in:

    http://accessibleworld.org/announcements/1889

    Posted in Announcements, Blog | 1 Comment

    RWf35: Mentel Muscle with Logan Christopher

    Listen to RWF 35: Mentel Muscle with Logan Christopher
    My guest this week is Logan Christopher.  http://legendarystrength.com  http://supermanherbs.com
    Logan Christopher is a physical culture Renaissance man. If it has to do with working out and using the body he’s at least tried it. Still he has a number of specialties: being one of the best kettlebell jugglers in the U.S., working on a wide range of bodyweight skills, and being a performing strongman. One of his most famous feats is pulling an 8,800lb antique firetruck by his hair.
    He created the Peak Performance Trinity to help people get the most out of their physical training, health, and mental training.  As a certified hypnotist and NLP Practitioner, he is also one of the leaders in the field of applying mental tactics towards achieving your goals in the gym.  Towrds that end he recently released one of the most complete guides on how to improve your training and almost anything else in your life through better mastery of the power of your mind.
    Here is some of what we discuss:

       

    • Why he wrote the book
    • Changing the belief
    • Overcoming mentel blocks
    • Hair power
    • Don’t try this at home
    • Honoring the strongmen of the past
    • Its more than mentel toughness
    • The danger of over psyching
    • Anchors
    • Two ways of  reaching your goals
    • NLP
      Ant extract and cricket powder

    • order the book

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com.
    You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on RWf35: Mentel Muscle with Logan Christopher

    Rwf34, an Interview With Sue Falson

    Listen to RWF 34:Am in depth interview with Sue Falsone My very special guest this week is Sue Falsone  http://suefalsone.com  . Born in Buffalo, NY, Sue received her bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from Daemen College in Amherst, New York. She continued her education by earning a master’s degree in human movement science, with a concentration in sports medicine, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sue FalsoneSue has presented at numerous international conferences in areas focusing on pillar strength, integration of physical therapy and performance training, and comprehensive kinetic chain assessment and rehabilitation. She’s a Board Certified Clinical Specialist in Sports Physical Therapy (SCS), a certified athletic trainer (ATC), certified orthopedic manual therapist for the spine (COMT) and a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS). She worked with the Los Angeles Dodgers for 6 years and holds the distinction of being the first female head athletic trainer in any Major League sport! Sue is currently the Head of Athletic Training and Sport Performance with US Soccer’s Men’s National Team.

    She was named a Distinguished Alumni at Daemen College and has been inducted into her high school’s Athletic Hall of fame. Here are some of the topics we discuss in this long awaited interview:

     
    * Her education
    * Atheletes Performance
    * Her time with the L.A. Dodgers
    * acupuncture vs. Dry Needeling
    * much more about Dry Needeling
    * Working with Laree Draper
    * Yoga as part of a S and C program
    * Her personal fitness program

    ### Contact Bill!

                                To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at [kociabafitness@gmail.com.][1] You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.
    
    Posted in Real World Fitness, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Rwf34, an Interview With Sue Falson

    The Silent Killer: Is It Attacking The Heart of Your Business?

    Let’s set the scene with a quick little metaphor.

    Some years back, a man we’ll call Tom, half-noticed he was tired all the time. Tom lacked energy, had trouble getting going at times, and little stamina.

    Tom was a busy man and didn’t give much attention to the symptoms. He just figured whatever it was would pass. Finally, a relative of his, we’ll call her wife, persuaded him to make a doctor appointment.

    The doctor informed Tom he had a heart blockage, and bypass surgery was required.

    Shocked, Tom said he’d get something scheduled. It would probably take a month or so to arrange his schedule enough to get it done.

    “Sir,” the doctor replied, “we are not releasing you from this hospital without getting this taken care of. You are at tremendous risk as we speak. This needs to be done in days, not months. If we let this go, you won’t be here in a couple months.”

    The severity of the situation was laid out. The truth is the symptoms were there for quite some time. Tom just didn’t recognize them for what the problem really was.

    And even when the issue was pointed out, the severity still wasn’t a reality. It had to come down to a measurable amount of time before fatality was possible for Tom to take action.

    Want to know something?

    Everything Tom experienced with his health could be pulsing through the arteries of your business right now.

    There might be certain signs you think about in the back of your mind, but aren’t aware of what they really mean, or the urgency they represent.

    Maybe you feel like something isn’t quite right in your business, but the busy schedule justifies ignoring it for now.

    Sluggish sales?

    Difficulty getting a head of steam going in client growth?

    Have bursts of fiscal energy, but weak stamina?

    If those signs meant your business was actually trying to warn you it was floundering at the heart and could fail tomorrow, would that motivate you to look into it today?

    Possible diagnosis.

    If high blood pressure is the silent heart killer in humans, low technology is its equal in business.

    Check this out.

    Let’s assume for instance, you are a small vending operator. I know you’re not, but let’s assume. Play with me here.

    Arriving at the shop, the truck has already been loaded with much more product than needed, to account for unexpected sales.

    The route is methodically serviced according to a static schedule on the clipboard. Along the route, you find out sales at one account are very low because of a problem with the top selling machine over the weekend, and no one bothered to call it in.

    You have to take time from the route to repair the machine, but eventually you get back out there.

    Even though sales were up on a couple accounts, which was awesome, you found a few accounts didn’t even need to be serviced. You did anyway, because you drove to this part of town and are standing at the machine. You aren’t about to come back just for this one in a couple days.

    Arriving back at the office a bit tired and quite late, money is counted. Data is entered, and the truck is again overloaded with product for tomorrow’s prescheduled–some need filling and some don’t– static route. You finally go home.

    Everything seems simple enough, right?

    Until one day a company develops software which taps into 21st century technology built into today’s vending machines.

    This software will alert the office if there is a break-in, if there’s a lack of sales due to a problem with a machine, or prevent loss of sales when a preset amount of sales or empty selections exist.

    This software will let you remotely inventory machines from the office over a cup of coffee. So, only what is needed to fill today’s route is loaded on the truck. There is no more overloading the truck with product that won’t be used.

    It will even determine dynamic scheduling–whether there is a need to service a particular account that day or not. No more traveling to locations only to find out they don’t need servicing.

    It will allow dynamic scheduling of routes around a problematic machine which saves lost sales, and increases route efficiencies at the same time.

    Basically, this software streamlines a company right into idol truck time sitting in the lot.

    The truck sits in the parking lot nearly half the time it did before even though sales have actually increased due to the smart data the software produced.

    Of course, that means there is opportunity for more accounts, more sales, more profits.

    For the same or even less time spent previously, nearly double the sales can be achieved. Now that is using technology to make your company heart-healthy, right?

    There is one problem.

    Remember the symptoms you experienced? Sluggish sales, trouble getting some momentum going, and burst of energy with weakened stamina? Remember you didn’t really know what the signs represented?

    That’s right. You don’t’ even know the lack of technology is creeping its way through your companies arteries like bacon grease towards the heart. You aren’t aware artery cleansing technology exists yet.

    Or if you do, you haven’t been able to take the time to look into it, or so you think.

    Okay, just like Tom, you’ve now been made aware of the problem to your business and you think, “Wow, I see why I’ve been struggling. I need to get this taken care of. It will take me some time to get this worked out, maybe a few months.”

    If there were a business doctor in the room he or she might say…

    “Sir, you don’t understand. You are at tremendous risk as we speak. If one of your competitors approaches your clients with the customized route servicing they can supply through innovative technology, your business won’t be here in a couple months.”

    Sound familiar?

    Even though you know what caused the symptoms in your business, and understand the severity of the situation, there is still a problem. There is the matter of finding some cash to get the blockage removed.

    You estimate roughly $20,000 is needed for the software, additional vending equipment, and accessories to allow the software to do its job. You’ve allowed for the outfitting of current machines, but also equipment for the additional accounts you’ll get with all the extra time you’ll have.

    It’s a chunk of change, but that’s okay. You’ve calculated the return on investment will take only six-months or so to occur.

    There is one last blockage to clear up. It will take a few days to get an appointment at the local bank, they’ll gather your information, send it off to some underwriter who doesn’t know anything about your character, and it’s pretty certain in three-weeks they’ll deny you anyway. They don’t lend money for equipment that you don’t have accounts for yet.

    Besides, there is a loan for the truck and the distributor is floating the vending machine financing already, there is little chance they’ll go for it.

    The answer? Again technology.

    There are companies that not only understand business situations like yours, but they use technology and non-traditional methods to approve loans.

    Imagine if you decided right this instant you needed that software. You went on-line, gave a reputable lender your bank information, QuickBooks information, even your social media feeds. They looked at you as a business owner: your ability to pay, character, and stability.

    You aren’t evaluated by some post-recession statistics, but personalized information accumulated through today’s technology.

    Here’s what’s amazing.

    You could decide now you need the equipment and software, go on-line to apply for the money, get approved, have the money transferred to your bank, order the equipment the business needs, and find it took less time to do all that than it did driving to the last vending site you found didn’t need servicing that day.

    Reality is, by the time your traditional bank notified you of a denial, you could already have removed the artery clogging sales problem in your business and be using your new technology to potentially double your sales.

    Tell me technology isn’t crucial to business success today.

    If you aren’t using technology in your business, and your competition is, how much longer will your business be here?

    Don’t ignore the signs and symptoms. Don’t wait until you suffer a fatal attack at the heart of your business.

    I know you aren’t a vending contractor. I can guarantee you though, there is blockage cleansing technologies in the heart of nearly every field today.

    Find out where it is in yours, and use it.

    If you need finances to get it done and know you will be a success, you can always get in touch with a reputable technology driven lender like Kabbage.

    They are a 21st century, technology driven lender serving an unmet need of business owners with a plan and a passion.

    You can red more about what Time, Forbes, Bloomberg, and MSNBC say about Kabbage.

    Disclosure. I receive nothing for mentioning Kabbage on this post. I simply feel it is an innovative lender using technology to help companies reach goals otherwise blocked by traditional lenders. Borrow responsibly.

    []: http://www.kabbage.com/

    Posted in Entrepreneurship | Comments Off on The Silent Killer: Is It Attacking The Heart of Your Business?

    RWf33: Krista Scott Dixon -From Academia To Nutrition Coach

    Listen to RWF 33: Krista Scott Dixon -From Academia To Nutrition Coach

    Krista Scott-Dixon finished her PhD in 2002. She taught at York University and did a brief stint in public health, publishing three books along the way. She escaped academia altogether in 2008 (and never looked back).
    she currently serves as the Lean Eating Program Director at Precision Nutrition. She’s coached three cohorts of the Lean Eating program, helping hundreds of women get and stay fit and healthy.
    She’s run Stumptuous, a noncommercial, no-BS website for women’s weight training, since 1996.
    In this in depth and informative conversation we discuss:

    • Discovering womans bodybuilding
    • Her personal physical transformation
    • Transforming is great but maintaining it is the bigger challenge
    • Eat well but don’t miss  out on what life has to offer
    • Fitness should be fun
    • Why she started her website
    • Finding your tribe
    • Emotional eating
    • You can binge eat BUT eat slowly
    • The “screw it” moment

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com.
    You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | 1 Comment

    RWf 32: Georgia Dow –Mentel and Physical Health

    Listen to RWF 32: Georgia Dow –Mentel and Physical Health My very special guest this week is Georgia Dow.  Georgia has over 20 years of experience in teaching and counseling. With degrees in Psychology and Education, a Master’s degree with Distinction in Art Therapy as well as two-time Canadian Jujitsu Champion, she specializes in treating anxiety and stress management for both children and adults. She is a popular  speaker at seminars and  conferences internationally. Additionally, senior editor at Mobile Nations,  Georgia writes about and reviews Apple-related and connected devices. Some of the topics we discuss include:

    • her Martial arts backround

    • The emotional value in failure

    • Most parents are way to over protective

    • the double edged sword of technology

    • The “Apple Watch”

    • Training must be fun to be effective

    • Physical activity enhances mentel capacity Bill’s Tai Chi challenge

    • Don’t like to stretch, watch this!

    • anxiety-videos.com

    Contact Bill!

                    

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com. You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on RWf 32: Georgia Dow –Mentel and Physical Health

    RWF 31: Juliet Starret –entrepreneur, humanitarian and athlete pt. 2

    Listen to RWF 31: Juliet Starret –entrepreneur, humanitarian and athlete pt. 2
    Juliet Starrett founded San Francisco CrossFit  in 2005 with her husband Kelly.  A lifelong athlete, Juliet launched her competitive sports  career in high school when her rowing team won the Californian State Championship.  From there, Juliet rowed competitively at UC Berkeley and went on to paddle for the US Women’s Whitewater Team, winning two World Championships and five national titles.  In 2010, Juliet competed in the CrossFit Games.
    Before turning her attention to San Francisco CrossFit full-time, Juliet had a successful career as an attorney.
    When she is not at the gym, Juliet enjoys spending time with their two daughters Georgia and Caroline, paddling, skiing, reading, and being outside.
    In pt. 2 we discuss:

    Click here to donate to Stand Up Kids

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com.
    You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on RWF 31: Juliet Starret –entrepreneur, humanitarian and athlete pt. 2

    RWF 30: Juliet Starret –entrepreneur, humanitarian and athlete

    Listen to RWF 30: Juliet Starret –entrepreneur, humanitarian and athlete
    Juliet Starrett founded San Francisco CrossFit  in 2005 with her husband Kelly.  A lifelong athlete, Juliet launched her competitive sports  career in high school when her rowing team won the Californian State Championship.  From there, Juliet rowed competitively at UC Berkeley and went on to paddle for the US Women’s Whitewater Team, winning two World Championships and five national titles.  In 2010, Juliet competed in the CrossFit Games.
    Before turning her attention to San Francisco CrossFit full-time, Juliet had a successful career as an attorney.
    When she is not at the gym, Juliet enjoys spending time with their two daughters Georgia and Caroline, paddling, skiing, reading, and being outside.
    Some of the topics we cover in Pt. 1 of this super high energy interview include:

    • The coolest summer job ever
    • Advertisers wanted them to “wipe out”
    • Avoiding a “real job” taught her so much
    • Training for white water
    • Law school
    • Discovering Cross Fit
    • Making it a successful business

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com. You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on RWF 30: Juliet Starret –entrepreneur, humanitarian and athlete

    Do Social Media Platforms Have Your Business In Danger?

    Metaphorically speaking, our businesses are our babies. They need nurturing too.

    Whether you have kids or not, I think you’d agree there is a common struggle to balance time between family and business.

    After all, if we don’t spend time in our business, baby ain’t eating Gerber’s this week, right?

    We bottle feed them. Similac for the baby, Red Bull for the business.

    We cradle them in the middle of the night with tears streaking the cheeks. Gentle burping for baby. Anxious spreadsheet keying for business.

    We provide a home for them to grow up safe and sound. Brick and mortar for baby, and for the business? …

    Well, that’s what this post is about. What kind of home to provide for your business. More specifically, Where not to build your business foundation.

    So where don’t we want to dig the foundation of our building? Ready for it?

    Social media.

    Did someone just say, “Dude, that’s crazy! Not use social media?”

    Wait a second now.

    Of course we want to use them, they are incredibly powerful. In a formula for attracting business—demand, reach, pricing, and copy, social media has the power to reach. No question about that one.

    The point is not to let your business be so reliant on social media platforms, that it overrides your own.

    We aren’t even getting into a social network’s right to use your written or multi-media material without your permission. Actually, that’s not right, they do have your permission, simply by using their platform. They just don’t have to let you know if, or where, they are using it.

    Another topic for another time.

    But let’s say you built your own web site using your provider’s hosting package. It wasn’t easy. You learned a lot, which was good.

    Now it looks… absolutely fantastic… well…, I guess it’s okay. You’re proud of it anyway. A work in progress, and you’re okay with that.

    You then jump up to some social media sites, open accounts, and set up profiles there.

    One day while tweaking some add-on function to your hand-built web site, you realize there is a whole team of people at social media HQ working up cool networking tools for your page on their platform, on their clock, not yours.

    Testing them out, you realize, “Man, this is a lot easier, and a lot more powerful than tools over at my site.” I can post my blogs there and people can comment. I don’t have to worry about comment spam or getting third party filters set up. I don’t have to monitor them as much. You begin to wonder why you just wouldn’t set up shop there.

    Soon, you put more of your content on social media, because you’re getting activity and it’s keeping you too busy responding to people and marketing yourself there to bother updating your own site.

    Until one day you look away from your FB page, over your shoulder, as your better half calls from the kitchen.

    “We got an automated call from your web host. Your domain is up for renewal. The cost went up this year. Are you planning on renewing it?”

    Ummmm?

    See the tempting transition going on here?

    We can be so easily drawn to over use social media platforms, because they are so powerful and can reach so many.

    But, you’ll see in a second how…

    Your Business Could Be In Danger on Social Media Platforms

    Popularity.

    Sitting here at my desk on a sunny afternoon, I can’t really imagine how Facebook, YouTube, and the others would ever step out of grace and popularity with the public. In fact, I don’t think any social media source ever has fallen…

    Wait a minute. I forgot about MySpace. Remember MySpace? Oh, it’s still out there, somewhere.

    It was huge in its day. Everyone was clamoring to get on MySpace. From kids to artists, to businesses. In fact, so many businesses were on it, you couldn’t look at a page without getting the deer in the headlights look from all the ads.

    In the middle of its windfall net popularity, no one would imagine it would have dropped to the level it is today.

    So, what if you had built your business model, MySpace dependent? You’d be hurting today.

    “Yeah but,” you say, “I could see the popularity dropping, and do something about it before it effected my business.”

    That is true. I wasn’t even all that heavy on MySpace, and I could see it struggling. But, let’s say you saw it coming, and you were able to start changing your direction to another similar platform.

    There are the countless hours of changing your network funnel and rebuilding your following. There is the loss of potential revenue during the transition. There is the energy which could be used elsewhere, like spending time with family? Plus, if you decide to set up camp on yet another social media platform, there is the risk of reliving another marketing disaster.

    Aside from all that, what if, and we’re just supposing now, right? But what if you suddenly experienced…

    Account Closure.

    “That would never happen,” you say. Well? I wouldn’t want to challenge the Terms of Use on social media platforms and let them get wind of it.

    Do you really think a huge organization like Facebook or Google could afford a mouse click’s time to consider you breaching their rules? Or should they? Considering their scope, size, and posted Terms of Use? It is their platform, you are a guest in their house. It is not yours.

    Can you imagine the impact that would have if your business was so embedded in a social media account, and they expressed their right to close your account, because you unknowingly violated their Terms of Use policies?

    Catastrophic might describe it.

    In fact, you don’t even have to violate anything for them to take your page.

    Coca-Cola is on Facebook, right?

    Did you know it wasn’t Coca-Cola who started their Facebook page?

    It was started by a fan of Coca-Cola’s.

    Did you know that Facebook, expressing their rights, just pulled the plug out from under this fan, and gave the page to Coca-Cola?

    Fortunately for this fan, Coca-Cola came back to him and made it right. Lucky him.

    And this guy had tons of people on it. It was just a fan page at the time, but it would have been a business models dream to have had the amount of followers on there.

    In a moment’s decision, not his, he lost control. And that brings us to the last point today…

    Control.

    Why wouldn’t you want control over your own business, on your own platform?

    By all means, use the social media outlets to target clients and customers, but then direct them to your web site.

    Put out good, informational content to keep them there.

    Draw them in from resources other than social media as well. Guest blogging. Publishing your own podcast. Do some target networking. Even more traditional market funneling methods are still viable such as presentations at Chamber of Commerce events, and networking at trade conferences.

    Would you agree that as you run your business, you might see an opportunity to take it in a certain direction? Maybe you see a windfall opportunity you can’t pass up.

    What happens though if the social media platform policies don’t allow for you to do it, but you’ve built your entire business dependent on that model?

    You’ve lost control over your business. You might as well be working for, “the man.”

    The way we talk, and the way we are encouraged to talk about social media pages is: my Facebook page, my Pinterest page, my this page, my that page.

    What we forget is we are guests in their homes. They are NOT our pages at all, or our accounts.

    They are property of that particular social media organization, and that’s the way we should treat it.

    You would think it strange to invite a friend from work to stay with you while they’re going through a rough stretch, and then overhear them say to someone, “Oh hey, come on over to my place. I’m having a wild party tonight.”

    Then when you pull in your driveway, you notice your name is scratched off the mailbox, and your friend’s name is etched in.

    Opening the door there is some stranger flopped out on the couch.

    It wouldn’t be long and you’d establish rules of the house too. And if your guest doesn’t abide by them, you change the locks on the door. Problem solved.

    Social media platforms have the same rights.

    As entrepreneurs, our businesses are our babies. Bringing them into the world and bedding them down on a social media platform is like putting baby down for a nap, going out to the mailbox, and realizing your house that’s sitting on that nice waterfront peninsula, wasn’t a peninsula at all.

    It was a landscaped barge, owned by someone else, and they just decided to take it out to sea.

    It looked like it was yours, but it really wasn’t. And everything in it, including your baby, just went bye-bye.

    That’s not a place you want to find yourself or your baby.

    Until next time…

    Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… Try, try, try until you succeed!

    Posted in Entrepreneurship | Comments Off on Do Social Media Platforms Have Your Business In Danger?

    Serotalk Extra: CrowdViz

    Download or stream this SerotalkExtra or use the audio player below the show notes.
    Have you ever been searching for something, and that something is in a container just like all the other containers, but you think you’ve found it, only it’s 2 A.am. and you don’t want to facetime or Skype or get a Hangout going with a friend or family member due to the lateness of the hour? The answer just might be in this serotalk Extra, in which I have a chat with Akash, the developer of Crowdviz You can download CrowdViz in the app store

    You can always find the latest on this show and others on the SeroTalk Podcast Network

    using iBlink Radio for your iOS device, the Kindle Fire, the Mac or your Android device. You can even leave us an iReport right from the iBlink app.

    Thanks for listening!

    Posted in SeroTalk | Comments Off on Serotalk Extra: CrowdViz

    RWF29: Nutrition Talk with Brian St. Pierre pt. 2

    Listen to RWF 29: Nutrition talk with Brian St. Pierre pt. 2

    In this second part of my conversation with nutrition expert, Brian St. Pierre we cover some unusual and controversial topics including:

    • Brian’s thoughts on topical supplements
    • Your skin can absorb calories
    • Food is a social thing
    • food cravings
    • ”bullet proof” coffee
    • Just keep it real
                        Click here to check out some of Brians articles. Additionally Lisa has some important information we all need to pay attention to Don’t forget to join me on the 16 for my Hadley webinar
    

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness @ gmail.com.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on RWF29: Nutrition Talk with Brian St. Pierre pt. 2

    RWf28: Nutrition talk with Brian St. Pierre Part 1

    Listen to RWF 28: Nutrition talk with Brian St. Pierre pt. 1
    My guest this week is nutrition expert,
    Brian is a Registered Dietitian.  He attended  the University of Maine, where he  earned his Master’s in Food Science and Human Nutrition. He is a Certified Sports Nutritionist (CISSN) as well as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS).
    Brian worked for three years at
    Cressey Sports Performance   as the head Sports Nutritionist and as a Strength and Conditioning Coach, working with hundreds of athletes and recreational exercisers of all levels. During this time, he also authored the High Performance Handbook Nutrition Guide, Show and Go Nutrition Guide, Ultimate Hockey Nutrition, Ultimate Hockey Transformation Nutrition, and dozens of articles for publication.
    Today, Brian is the Director of Performance Nutrition at   Nutrition, working with a host of professional sports teams including the San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Browns, and more.
    Brian is a regular contributor to the Precision Nutrition blog, and has been featured in Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Q Magazine, STACK and  Testosterone Magazine.
    Brian lives with his beautiful wife Anna and their two children, Kate and Will in Scarborough, Maine.
    In part one of our conversation we discuss:

    Check out some of Brians published articles here.

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on RWf28: Nutrition talk with Brian St. Pierre Part 1

    Rwf27: A Conversation with Mike Brown

    Listen to RWF 27: A conversation with Mike Brown This week my guest is strength and conditioning coach Mike Brown. Mike has spent the past decade splitting time between coaching in the weight room and on the field. After graduating from the University of Utah, Mike went to work for Dan John at Juan Diego Catholic High School. Mike’s main focus these days is on strength and longevity training for the nine-to-five-er and the aging population. He trains clients at Age Performance, a facility for adults fifty and older, in Salt Lake City. He also co-founded Find Time for Health  with Breaking Muscle coach, Marc Halpern. Mike continues to train daily with Dan John and the Westridge Barbell Club community where Dan has named him Director of Programming. Some of the topics we discuss include: ul> 
    * How they came up with the idea
    * Spreading the word to the rest of the world
    * Mike’s backround
    * Meeting Dan John
    * Training seniors Vs high school atheletes
    * “park bench” vs “bus bench” workouts
    * Discussing Dan’s programs
    * Why its so hard to get people to grasp the simpelest things
    * You have got to give a program time to see if it works for you
    * Practical strength
    * A great coach will  acknowledge his mentors
    * back to the “Intentional Community”

    ### Contact Bill!

                                                To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at [kociabafitness@gmail.com.][1] You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.
    
    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on Rwf27: A Conversation with Mike Brown

    Grammarian’s Cringe… But Oh… Will You Get Read

    Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact, I am who I am, and that is just the way it is. What you get here is the same version you’ll get over the phone, over coffee, or in a business meeting.

    To tell you the truth? It’s too much work to be anyone other than me.

    I’ve got a confession though.

    When I started writing, that wasn’t the case at all.

    I turned into some Shakespearian writing hack, only with about 50,000 less words than old Willie sported in his vocabulary.

    Gee, I hope that didn’t bother you I called William Shakespeare, Willie.

    See, that’s what I mean. If he were here at my desk, and I was writing about him? I’d still call him Willie, or Will, or maybe even Bill.

    I mean no disrespect at all. If he found it offensive? I’d call him what he wanted, of course.

    Even though I’m easy-going and lay back, when I began writing I was either too rigid or swung the opposite and became this flowery conversationalist.

    Decades ago, I copped a major offense at my creative writing instructor who said I was writing too flowery. I tried to change my style during the writing course, but as hard as I tried, I couldn’t get it in my head.

    You know what I did?

    I asked myself, “Why am I beating myself over the head with this stuff? Why don’t I just write like I talk? Why try to be someone I’m not?”

    Little did I know it back then, that’s what the market would look for in writers years down the road.

    Here’s the deal. If you’re going to write about a new headset for instance, what sounds better…?

    “The XL5 Super Boom headset sports a rigid body for durable use. The 2.5 cm built-in woofer perfectly balances the high treble for a pleasurable listening experience anywhere.” We’ve coated the earpieces with a special moisture resistant polymer to prevent premature unit breakdown.”

    Or…

    “Whether you’re jamming in the park while jogging, rocking out in the library studying, or drowning out your mom’s oldies while in the car; the bass will sound like it’s rattling the fenders off and highs that put you on stage with the band. The XL5 Super Boom won’t break if you drop them either. We’ve tossed them on concrete from 25-feet over 100 times and they still rock! Sweat on them all you want while working out, we’ve moisture proofed the grills and speakers, so you’re good to go.”

    Bottom-line? Write more like you speak than you would if submitting your college thesis. Because, it isn’t your English prof you’re writing for, it’s your buying customer.

    Then, be prepared to offend the grammarians in your life.

    Proper grammar is best practice, but we do talk in sentence fragments, start our conversation with “but, or “and, and use slang you won’t find in the dictionary.

    Of course, there are certain writing environments which lend themselves to lean either way, and I’m being pretty casual here. The point is, people respond more to a casual tone than one they feel they are being talked down to, or swimming in technical or corporate speak.

    I’ve seen comparisons time over, including my own experiences where conversational tones beat out tech talk.

    Years ago, I wrote an e-mail campaign for an organization. One of the board members thought it too casual. This person tossed down the white glove, re-wrote it, and submitted it to the board for review.

    Guess which one the board wanted?

    My campaign is still used to this day.

    The board member who re-wrote my piece is articulate, educated, and has an art background… A very capable person.

    But, for the project we were working on, to get the best results it called for a fun, casual tone.

    Here’s a tip to help overcome this Shakespearian phenomena when sitting down to write.

    Imagine you are sitting across from your mom or a friend. Then, just relax, and write like you’d talk to them. Imagine them listening to you, nodding their head, getting every word.

    You might even imagine them asking questions about the topic. If you get one? Mark them down. Those questions might well be your customer’s questions. If so, you’ll need to answer them in your content.

    When you’re done, go back to fix up glaring grammar errors, take out as many instances of “that” or words ending in “ly,” and other similar unproductive boo-boos.

    Try this technique on your next content piece. Taylor it to your industry and the level of your readers, but stay under the eighth-grade reading level. If you can get to the fifth-grade, even better.

    It’s not about dumbing down or writing unintelligently.

    It’s all about being understood and identifying with your customer or client.

    Hey, even those fancy suits gather at the coffee pot or water cooler and talk in a casual tone about their lives or company events.

    You’ll dramatically improve your readership if you write conversationally. Of course, there is a lot more to content writing than tone, but this is a foundational element which… sets the tone… pardon the pun.

    Until next time…

    Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching and above all… try-try-try until you succeed!

    Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

    Rwf 26 A Conversation with Kevin Larrabee

    Listen to RWF26 My guest this week is Kevin Larrabee Kevin Larrabee graduated from Keene State College with a BS in Health Science in 2008. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Kevin has had a passion for fitness and nutrition ever since winning his battle with the bulge at the age of 15. After discovering the effects of diet and exercise, Kevin lost 30 pounds in three months. Ever since then he has been striving to learn as much as he can about fitness and nutrition. Kevin completed an internship at Cressey Performance in Hudson, MA during the Fall of 2008. There he worked with a wide demographic from weekend warriors to high school, college, and minor league athletes. After his internship Kevin spent one year as a Pro Trainer at Boston Sports Club in Woburn, MA. Currently Kevin is working at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning in Boston, MA as a strength & conditioning coach. Some of the topics we discuss include:

     
    * Why he started the podcast
    * A conversation rather than a formal interview
    * His early podcasts
    * How the show has changed over the years
    * Audio quality is becoming more important
    * Fitness “experts” are more accessable than “experts” in other industrys
    * Follow “the program”, finish “the program”
    * Why we had to go to history class
    * Kevin’s personal growth
    * The Turkish Get-Up
    * What do you REALLY want?
    * Relax and enjoy your life
    * Young girls and the scale
    * Over coming balance issues with a blind client
    * Keeping his life balanced

    ### Contact Bill!

                                                            To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at [kociabafitness@gmail.com.][2] You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.
    
    Posted in Real World Fitness | 1 Comment

    SeroTalk: Behind-the-Scenes Edition

    Download SeroTalk: Behind-the-Scenes Edition or use the audio player below to tune in.

    Have you ever been curious about the magic that goes into creating a podcast? We thought some of you might be, so before SPN completes its revamp of the old format, we thought we’d give you a rare glimpse of our virtual studios.

    Coming up: The history, the mechanics, and the people responsible for making the SeroTalk Podcast what it became.

    For comments, questions and criticisms of the show, please leave a comment on this post, e-mail them to resources (at) serotalk (dot) com, Tweet them @SeroTalk, or use your iBlink Radio app to send us an iReport!

    Posted in SeroTalk | 3 Comments

    These Two Social Proofing Mistakes Will Kill Your Sales

    To understand the mistakes, we first have to know what social proofing is.

    If you don’t already know, social proofing is nothing more than a tool used by the marketing industry to gain customer’s trust of their product, service, or company based on the word of others. It isn’t new, but the more our busy lives become reliant upon the internet, the more role social proofing plays in our decision making.

    There are several…

    Types of Social Proofs

    • By the masses.

    We see this in product reviews, YouTube comments, and Facebook “likes.” Proof is validated by the viewpoint of many individuals or companies.

    For instance, if we are interested in purchasing a new microwave, and our research shows many product reviews of satisfied customers, we tend to trust them. You’ll find this on Amazon for instance. You’ll even see a note at the bottom of the page saying…

    “Those who bought this product also bought…”

    We find comfort in the views and actions of others. We assume at least some of those people did their research, bought the product, and now give their thumbs up.

    Social proof tells us, after all, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

    • Expert’s endorsement.

    Another method of trust is through an expert in a field. When looking for our microwave, if we saw an endorsement from a respected chef, a published nutritionist, or Consumer Reports; we trust their word.

    Again, we may not know much more than to hit the coffee cup icon to heat a cup of water, but these other folks? They know their stuff, so we can trust them.

    • Celebrities.

    Closely related to an expert is an endorsement of a celebrity. Odd really, because years ago you’d see Michael Jackson doing Pepsi commercials and he never even drank Pepsi.

    Actors, singers, politicians, or anyone in the public’s eye, provided they are well liked, achieves similar social proofing.

    Whether they use the product or are just getting paid to put their face to it, it doesn’t matter. It’s what people perceive that matters.

    • Testimonies.

    Testimonies from individuals in similar life situations also works. For instance, one like…

    “A single parent trying to raise three young kids on two part-time jobs… sigh… it’s nearly impossible to find enough time and money at the end of my week to put a decent meal on the table. I don’t’ spend it if I don’t have to, but my ten year old microwave died last month and I couldn’t go any longer without one. I bought this one and boy is it a life saver. It wasn’t as expensive as many out there, and it’s super easy to use, easy to clean too which I really like… not like my old one. Plus, I got some really good vegetarian ideas from the recipes that came with it. Got to go, one’s in the high chair screaming as I type.” –Bea Leever, Anytown, USA

    This type of proofing carries a little less weight than the others, but somewhere out there among the many single parents out there identifying with trying to make ends meet, this testimony is selling a microwave.

    • Friends and family.

    Last in our examples are the people we know and trust. We will buy a particular product based solely on the fact someone we knew bought it, rather than its cost or even if it is the best of what we’re looking for.

    We trust the person, so we trust their judgement. We drag our entire opinion, love, and loyalty of that person right into the product catalog with us.

    Of course, if that person said they didn’t like the product, as with any of the above social proofing types, we won’t buy.

    So, with that very brief description of social proofing, when doesn’t it work?

    Social proof will not work if it has…

    • Negative foundation.

    Or…

    • Little proof

    Negative Foundation

    If we were to advertise our microwave like…

    “We may not have the most sales in the microwave market, not everyone quite gets it yet, but we have the best one out there, hands down.

    Be the first one on your block to sport the industries quietest, sleek profiled machine while chatting with friends over Chicken Paprika or Italian Lasagna.”

    Although we are enticed to be the first to get in on something, and are tantalized with a couple delicious meals, the underlying proof is…

    We are told very few people want this machine just now. So, we begin to distrust it, or ask why aren’t they the largest microwave seller.

    Market tests show negative social proofing has the opposite result. In Arizona’s Petrified Forest, there was a problem with people stealing pieces and destroying this natural treasure.

    A sign was placed to please not do as so many have done before, taking pieces, and to please help preserve the park.

    The result was, because visitors were told so many people had done it before, it must be alright, despite the plea not to steal.

    Astonishingly, they found theft had not only continued, but tripled in the area of that signage.

    In our little microwave case, we are sure to send customers running to the microwave manufacturer with the most sales. Let someone else be the first on the block to buy this one, right?

    Little Proof

    This one is not difficult to explain.

    If you are on Facebook, you get a friend request, you go on-line to see who it is, and seeing they have ten friends of which you recognize no one…

    Are you going to confirm the request? No.

    If you see an awesome microwave on-line. It really has some convincing copy. It looks really good, but there are only two reviews, or worse, you see the… “Be the first to review this product,” notice on their home page…

    Are you going to buy it? Not likely.

    Very simple if there is little proof, people won’t reach in their wallet.

    It’s better to side step social proofing all together until there’s enough backing to make it a credible trust factor in the marketing equation.

    Until next time…

    Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… Try, try, try until you succeed!

    Posted in Entrepreneurship | Comments Off on These Two Social Proofing Mistakes Will Kill Your Sales

    Listen to Rwf25: When Pushing to your Limit Can be Counter-productive

    This weeks show is very different from previous ones.
    Lisa will be with us to discuss some of the health bennifets of cocanut oil.
    We do not have an in depth interview with a fitness or nutrition  expert nor do we have an inspiring story of a great athelete who has overcome tremendous obsticles to achieve glory in their sport.
    Instead I discuss my recent health scare and how it can effect anyone out there who pushes themselves to the extreme!
    Weather you are a crossfiter, a marathon runner or any other person who likes to train to or beyond their limits this is a must listen for you!
    Listen to RWF 25: When pushing to your limit can be counterproductive

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com. You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on Listen to Rwf25: When Pushing to your Limit Can be Counter-productive

    Listen to Real World Fitness 24: Marana Weber –a rising star

    Listen to RWF 24: Marana Weber –a rising star
    In this weeks show I chat with a young woman on a mission.  Marana Weber is one of the most focused and determined people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.
    Marana has clearly defined goals and eagerly seeks out the knowledge she needs to achieve them.
    Some of what we discuss includes:

       

    • Strength training and BJJ
    • Finding a coach who understands the special challenges associated with diabetes
    • Growing up
    • Skinny but not healthy
    • Why low carb didn’t work for her
    • Steady state cardio burns glucose
    • Her future plans

    Additionally Lisa has another informative article for us.

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com. You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on Listen to Real World Fitness 24: Marana Weber –a rising star

    Meet and Greet with Bill Kociaba

    Have you ever had questions about general fitness, but you didn’t know who you could ask or where would be an appropriate place? Do you think that you pretty much know what there is to know, but you might have some questions anyway? You’ll have the chance to get all those answered and more, and to listen to Bill kociaba, of the Real World Fitness podcast give a live question and answer. It’s Bill’s turn to be interviewed this time. Bill has done everything from body-building to weight loss, over the last 35 years, so he most certainly knows a thing or two. If that isn’t enough check out Bill’s web site for even more interesting articles. If this interests you, come to the lobby on Wednesday, August 5th at 7 Pm Eastern using your Samnet client. If you do not have an account and you wish to sign up, you can grab the software and sign up for a trial and see what all Samnet has to offer. We, and most especially Bill, look forward to seeing you there.

    Posted in Announcements | Comments Off on Meet and Greet with Bill Kociaba

    Phil Brooks and the irt-1 Infared Talking Thermometer

    [Listen to this Serotalk Extra with Phil Brooks.](http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.serotalk.com/podcasts/SeroTalk/Phil Brooks Interview.mp3) In this seroTalk Extra with Phil brooks, of Brookes Technology, he Describes and demonstrates the IRT-1 infrared
    Talking thermometer.

    We learn How infrared energy works, how an infrared thermometer
    Differs from a conventional thermometer, and his very interesting story about why a “regular sighted normal guy” decided to develop products for the blind.

    If you’re interested in purchasing an infrared talking thermometer,
    Phil has graciously given the SeroTalk community a discount. When
    You purchase directly from the Brookes technology website you can
    Use the coupon code
    Serotek
    When checking out. If you have questions or would like more information you can contact
    Brookes technology via the following methods. Website http://www.brooks-technology.com/ phone:408-781-4577 during normal business hours, Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm central time.

    Feel free to send your feedback on this show to resources@serotalk.com

    You can always find the latest on this show and others on the SeroTalk Podcast Network

    using iBlink Radio for your iOS device, the Kindle Fire, the Mac or your Android device. You can even leave us an iReport right from the iBlink app.

    Posted in Interviews, Podcasts, SeroTalk, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Phil Brooks and the irt-1 Infared Talking Thermometer

    The Imhotep Labyrinth, A Strategic Game You Should Grab!

    Serotek Corp has financially supported this effort and encourages you to do the same!

    The Imhotep Labyrinth is a strategic board game for 2-4 players. It can be played in 3 versions with varying degrees of difficulty. In the easiest version, it takes about 10 minutes to comprehend the rules and the following game lasts approximately 20-30 minutes. Once players have had some practice, then the most difficult version of the game can be played in approximately 45-60 minutes.

    The Imhotep Labyrinth is specially developed for the blind but at the same time can be played on equal terms with persons who have normal vision; thereby providing a level of interaction between the two groups in a strategic game, that would not normally be possible.

    Today, virtually all board games are developed for people who have normal vision. Games for the blind are normally games that have been developed for people that have vision, but have later been adapted so that blind people may also play them.

    The Imhotep Labyrinth is a game that from the outset was developed for the blind but with the aim of also allowing people with normal vision to participate. In effect, the game can be played by everybody. There was no necessity to adapt an already existing game.

    The result is an extraordinary game that the WBU (World Blind Union) considers to be very helpful and supportive in their efforts to integrate the blind into normal everyday society. At the same time, we hope that due to the natural interaction that occurs during the course of a game, barriers between the blind and those that can see will be removed; and that attention is drawn to the challenges that the blind have to face every day, due to their lack of vision.

    Link to our website where you can read much more about the game:
    http://theimhoteplabyrinth.com/

    Link to our Indiegogo where we need donators to continue with this great project. You can buy your copy of the game cheep if you are fast. There are limited copies of the cheep version where the shipping price is included. Yes, we do ship world wide:
    https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-imhotep-labyrinth-a-visionary-game#/story https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-imhotep-labyrinth-a-visionary-game

    Link to our Facebook page:
    https://www.facebook.com/theimhoteplabyrinth

    Posted in Blog | Comments Off on The Imhotep Labyrinth, A Strategic Game You Should Grab!

    What Are Your Brain Games Telling You?

    Recently, I saw an episode of National Geographic’s TV show Brain Games. One segment was on confidence and how it plays out in our actual performance.

    To illustrate this, they got the help of both a pharmacist and a professional basketball player.

    They gave a basketball to the pharmacist who admitted she sucked at the game, never plays, and was just kind of going along with the exercise.

    They made her shoot ten free throw shots, of which she made absolutely none.

    Then they gave the ball to the pro ball player. He got nine out of ten on his turn. To be expected, right?

    Then they blindfolded the pharmacist, encouraged her to take a couple shots, and gave her the ball.

    She shot once and the crowd went wild with her having made the shot. The host was amazed.

    She took a second shot, and again, she plunked that baby through the hoop. The crowd freaked and the announcer was ecstatic.

    Then they took the blind fold off the pharmacist, gave her the ball again, and encouraged her to shoot another ten shots. After all, she aced the first two blind-folded and was feeling pretty good about herself.

    Remember, the first time she tried, she got zero out of ten baskets. This time she made four out of the ten shots. A40% increase from her original try.

    Can you see how confidence worked for her?

    By the way, when she was blindfolded? She really did miss the hoop by an Arizona mile, but she was convinced she made the shots by the encouragement and false positive feedback she got from the crowd and show host.

    Maybe you’re a doubter and are excusing her four successful shots by saying, “Yeah, but she had some practice shots and so she’s inevitably going to do better. Odds are in her favor she’d make some the second time.”

    Okay, explain this.

    The pro ball player, having missed his blind-folded shots with a less than encouraging crowd, was getting ready for his shots without the blind-fold.

    The crowd was eerily silent, and when the ball player shot and made one, the crowd remained silent and talked among themselves. If he missed I think they even snickered and booed trying to embarrass him a bit. Basically, they were feeding him negative influences.

    Remember he originally, being a pro ball player, shot nine out of ten shots before?

    He now only made five out of ten, pretty close to the same 40% difference, only in reverse.

    Can you now see how both outside influence and our own confidence and positive outlook has a major impact on how we perform?

    So, how does this apply to business?

    First, don’t hang with people who have a negative attitude or want to dump on your success parade. Those people who enter doubt, even if they seem like they mean well, can bring you down.

    Find people who are encouraging, who cheer you on even in your failures. You know, those folks you can always count on to not let you off the hook and help get your head on straight.

    And most importantly, don’t listen to yourself when you hear yourself say things like:

    “Who do I think I am that I can be a business person anyway? I can’t even remember that person’s name I met this morning!”

    “If I was so smart, or meant to be an entrepreneur, I’d have done it years ago. I’m too much a late bloomer for this now.”

    “I should be further along than I am; maybe I’m just forcing something that shouldn’t be.”

    Learn to recognize when you are telling yourself this crap, and stomp it out immediately. And I mean immediately!

    Give yourself a break. You are going to have failures. Well, they are not failures if you learn something, and you will learn something. No one gets it right from the first crack.

    Famous basketball player Doctor J said once that everyone was so amazed when he made it big. Everyone thought he was such a gifted player, but they never saw the thousands and thousands of hours he practiced.

    There are no people so gifted they get it without failures or distinctions, there are just good marketing behind them to make it look like that is the case.

    Here’s an assignment for you. Go look up just about any sport Hall of Famer. They got there by the awesome success they achieved, right?

    Maybe. Did you know they all have more failures than successes? Like two-thirds more failures than success.

    They had plenty of failures they could have turned into self-doubt, but they didn’t.

    It’s what you tell yourself and who you listen to that will make you a success or not.

    You can have all the training in the world, all the digital gizmos, all the fancy tools of the trade…

    But if you believe lies about your ability and doubt yourself?

    You ain’t goin’ nowhere baby!

    Here’s a friendly little anchor to remind you to think on the sunny side of life.

    When you here a weather forecast that is anything other than a gorgeous day…

    Something like, “We have a 40% chance of isolated showers today.”

    Ask yourself why the weatherperson is so negative.

    Change what he or she said to, “We have a 60% chance of beautiful sunny weather today! For that leaner side of percentage, bring an umbrella, just in case.”

    Until next time…

    Live like you’ll never get hurt, dream like nobody is watching, and above all… Try-try-try until you succeed!

    Posted in Blog, Entrepreneurship | 4 Comments

    Listen to RWF 23: Randy Roach –Personal trainer, Author, Inventor, Pt 2

    Listen to RWF 23: Randy Roach –Personal trainer, Author, Inventor, Pt 2

    This week’s show features the second half of my conversation with my good friend Randy Roach. This week some of the topics we discuss include:

    •   http://www.musclesmokeandmirrors.com/Muscle, Smoke And Mirrors
    • The challenge of losing his vision half way through the project
    • The truth about early  protein powders
    • Questionable supplement industry practises
    • Digitizing Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors
    • Our mutual love of wrestling

    additionally Lisa joins us with another interesting article

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com. You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on Listen to RWF 23: Randy Roach –Personal trainer, Author, Inventor, Pt 2

    Rwf22: Randy Roach –Personal Trainer, Author, Inventor, Pt. 1

    Listen to RWF 22: Randy Roach –Personal Trainer, Author, Inventor, Pt. 1
    This week I have a conversation with my Canadian brother, Randy Roach.
    www.randyroach.ca
    At virtually the same time I was discovering bodybuilding here in Florida, Randy, also with limited vision was discovering it in Canada.
    While I was training people and having welders build equipment for my gym, he was doing  exactly the same thing  a few thousand miles north of me.  And today both now age 56 and totally blind we continue to train clients and spread the word.  I say have a conversation because this is far more that than an interview.
    Where we lose our simalaritys is Randy’s huge acomplishments as a historian and author.
    Some of the highlights of part 1 include:

    •  Early athletics
    • Stevens Johnson Syndrome
    • Dealing with lifes changes
    • Dave Draper, an early hero for both of us
    • Early employment and education
    • Designing and building his own gym equipment
    • How losing his vision made him a better personal trainer
    • Finding the right approach for each client

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com. You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on Rwf22: Randy Roach –Personal Trainer, Author, Inventor, Pt. 1

    SeroTalk Extra: The Future of SPN

    Download this SeroTalk Extra: The Future of SPN or use the audio player below the show notes to tune in.

    Where the heck is SeroTalk 229?

    That’s been the gist of an increasing number of e-mails to the SeroTalk team, for which we are grateful, and at long last, we have some developments to share.

    Join Hope Povenmire on an interview with Mike Calvo concerning the upcoming changes to the network. We’re remodeling the party palace, and we think you’ll like what you find in the months ahead. Or, you should, considering you’re going to be a more active part of it.

    But, tune in to decide for yourself.

    As always, for comments, questions and criticisms, please leave a comment on this post, e-mail them to resources inbox,, Tweet them @SeroTalk, or use your iBlink Radio app to send us an iReport!

    Posted in SeroTalk | 7 Comments

    RWF 21:Allison Kuslikis -Healthy and Fun Eating

    Listen to RWF 21:Allison Kuslikis -Healthy and Fun Eating

    Bills guest this week is Allison Kuslikis
    Allison is a young mother who decided right from the start that her children
    would live and eat in a healthy way. Both she and her husband Todd are
    plagued with food allergies so she has had to learn to be very creative in
    the kitchen. Allison is an engaging and charming lady who is sincere in
    wanting to help others raise their children in a healthier manner.

    Some of the interview highlights include:

    • Starting her kids off on the right nutritional path
    • chocolate is good for you, the right chocolate
    • fruit is still sugar
    • Eat more greens
    • Food intolerances
    • coconut sugar
    • Her future plans

    Additionally, Bill has a couple of very exciting announcements.

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com.
    You can also visit his site at
    http://kociaba-fitness.com Or, feel free to
    leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on RWF 21:Allison Kuslikis -Healthy and Fun Eating

    Listen to RWF 21:Allison Kuslikis -Healthy and Fun Eating

    My guest this week is Allison Kuslikis href=http://kalecuties.com/
    http://kalecuties.com
    http://kalecuties.com%3c/a .

    Allison is a young mother who decided right from the start that her children
    would live and eat in a healthy way.Both she and her husband Todd are
    plagued with food allergies so she has had to learn to be very creative in
    the kitchen. Allison is an engaging and charming lady who is sincere in
    wanting to help others rais their children in a healthier manner.

    Some of the interview highlights include:

    • Starting her kids off on the right nutritional path
    • chocolate is good for you, the right chocolate
    • fruit is still sugar
    • Eat more greens
    • Food intolerances
    • cocanut sugar
    • Her future plans

    Additionally I have a couple of very exciting announcements.

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com.
    You can also visit his site at
    kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to
    leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | 1 Comment

    Listen to RWF 20: Mike Katz

    Listen to RWF 20: Mike Katz Mike Katz  is truly  a man with a big heart.  He did not make it in bodybuilding without a serious effort.  As he trained for his competitions, he worked as a high school teacher. He always had his eye on the top prize in the  sport and his unwillingness to give up on that quest  served to inspire everyone he came in contact with from his students to his fellow competetors. From humble beginnings in his basement gym to the NFL to his teaching career to his partnership in a chain of successful health clubs, this giant of a man has never lost sight of what  is really important in his life.   Some of the topics we cover in this lengthy and inspiring interview include:

     
    * His early training
    * Squatting with no squat racks
    * His  early bodybuilding compatitions
    * College scholarship offers
    * Playing for the New York  Jets
    * An offer from the WWF
    * Why he left the A.A.U.
    * Losing to Lou Ferrigno in ‘74
    * His teaching career
    * From World Gym to Planet Fitness
    * Mike’s thoughts on Crossfit

    ### Contact Bill!

                                            To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at [kociabafitness@gmail.com.][1] You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.
    
    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on Listen to RWF 20: Mike Katz

    DocuScan Plus V3.0 is Here and It’s Brought Discounts!

    After extensive development and excellent feedback from the community, we’re ready to unveil the final release of DocuScan Plus V3.0 for Windows and Mac! Already the most affordable assistive technology OCR package in the industry, we’re saving you even more money in the month of July. Keep reading for details.

    What is DocuScan Plus?

    DocuScan Plus, or DSP, is your affordable gateway to the written word. There are excellent mobile apps that let you snap pictures of items to read text, and while amazingly convenient, you sometimes need the efficiency of a dedicated computer app to consume books, brochures, bank statements, manuals, and important documents without fretting over camera views and proper angles.

    Every technology has a time and place. With DSP, we’ve taken what you know about using a computer and created an intuitive means of converting print to spoken audio. Each upgrade brings a new wave of features and improvements.

    Introducing DocuScan Plus V3.0

    Is the new upgrade worth it? Well, check out these new features:

    • You can count on clearer text results with the help of an updated OCR engine.

      • With the new DSP, it’s possible to grab your favorite bestseller from Bookshare right from within the DSP application.

        • Rely on nimble navigation of large files with better heading detection and place marking.

          • Speaking of large files, launching and navigating PDF files is now a breeze.

            • Want to convert between formats? We heard you, and now you can convert text to DAISY, MP3, or Braille, and store them in the cloud; formats include: .epub, .doc, .docx, .rtf, .txt, .html

              • Now it’s even easier for you to open image files, including: .jpg, .png, .tiff, .gif, .bmp

                • Why launch an OCR application and then open a file when you can open files in DSP directly from Windows Explorer?

                  • Do you find yourself switching between Mac and PC? Well, you’ll be pleased to know there’s now better consistency in functionality and UI between the Windows and Mac versions of DSP.

                    • Don’t you hate it when other OCR products make you put your screen reader of choice to sleep? We’re partial to System Access, but we know you may disagree so feel free to use DSP in conjunction with the Windows screen reader you prefer.

                      • The new DSP comes with OCR for other languages, including: Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (including Brazilian), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish

                      Download the Windows installer here.

                      Download the OSX installer here.

                      A Month of Discounts

                      OpenBook and Kurzweil 1000, the other OCR options, cost $995. To each his own. At Serotek we work hard at developing solid performers without breaking the bank. The regular price for DSP is $299, and unlike our competition, we even give you payment options to make our lower price even easier to digest.

                      But, wait; in this month of July, we’re going to sweeten the pot even further.

                      Get your copy of the new DSP for only $249! Ready? Get the installers for your PC or Mac.

                      Can we do better? You betcha! Because you can get the new DSP for only $199 if you also take advantage of our discount on System Access.

                      Through the month of July, get your copy of System Access for only $299. At home, in school, and on the job, System Access is your key to popular applications. System Access Standalone lets you install full versions of the software on two computers. Stay on top of your e-mail inbox. Take control of PowerPoint presentations. Balance spreadsheet records. Read and write comprehensive reports, and navigate the web with the confidence of a seasoned professional. It’s your digital life after all. Own it!

                      In short, you get two great products for $498.

                      Accessibility Really is Anywhere

                      So, let’s recap up to this point. DSP normally costs $299. Right now you can purchase it for $249. If you also want to buy System Access, you can own it now for $299, 25% off the normal price, which also means you can buy DSP for $199. Remember this is only good through July 31.

                      Surely it can’t get better than this? Actually, it can, because you do remember our kitchen sink deal, right?

                      Accessibility Anywhere is the perfect toolkit for a balanced life of work and play on your Windows machine, Mac and iOS devices. Pick and choose from the growing features of a screen reader, an OCR app, and a combined social network and multimedia library to stay on top of your job and special interests no matter where you are.

                      Subscribe to Accessibility Anywhere for $21.95 a month or $240 a year. Remember as part of your subscription, you do not pay separate for the new version of DocuScan Plus V3.0. It’s already a part of your subscription plan!

                      Questions?

                      Leave us a comment or get in touch with our helpful technical support staff.

    Posted in Announcements, Blog | 3 Comments

    RWF 19: Marc Halpern-Keeping It Reasonable

    Listen to RWF 19: Marc Halpern-Keeping It Reasonable
    Bills guest this week is Marc Halpern, whose website is located at http://findtimeforhealth.com  Marc likes to lift heavy things because of what it enables him to do elsewhere in life, like skiing and hiking. He doesn’t eat egg whites and lettuce for breakfast, he eats real food. 
    As a Registered Dietitian and strength coach, Marc’s philosophy is to keep it reasonable and feeling good. Marc has over fourteen years of experience. He started his journey when he lost seventy pounds in high school. It began a career that has gone from New York, to North Carolina, all the way to Utah.
    In addition to working with clients, Marc spends a great deal of time in Dan John’s Lab (aka garage) constantly looking for better ways to do things. He combines evidence-based practice with experience and real-life application. Some of the interview highlights include:

    • His personal transformation

    • How to know you are in the right job
    • Connecting with Dan John
    • Bacon
    • Building good habits rather than counting macros
    • Minamum effective dose
    • The new website
    • Health first

    In addition Lisa will be back with some very important information about diabetes

    Contact Bill!

    To submit questions to Bill Kociaba, drop him a note at kociabafitness@gmail.com. You can also visit his site at kociaba-fitness.com. Or, feel free to leave your comment below. You may also use your iBlink Radio app to leave an iReport.

    Posted in Real World Fitness | Comments Off on RWF 19: Marc Halpern-Keeping It Reasonable