The World Gets Smaller as I Get Older

The World Gets Smaller as I Get Older

I have always been a first class networker and great on follow up even though I will have to will my shoeboxes full of contacts that may never make it to my Act Program. The ones who have, number in the thousands but the internet is a whole new arena that can take you around the world in minutes. Through the wonders of the internet, I have recently met fifty or more people through my Talk Cast shows that I would never have met.

By my own admission, because no one has documented this, I am the only 58 year old talk caster in captivity with four talk casts. So sorry, us talk cast hosts are snobs and don’t like to call it a pod cast which is what it really is. A pod cast is a radio show on the internet but usually is little more than audio blogging. Well, since business owners and seniors have arrived on the scene, pod casts have taken on a whole new format.

My “Techno Granny” Show is an internet talk cast which is recorded live at 7 AM every Monday on the Talk Shoe network at www.talkshoe.com.
“Techno Granny” is a show originally designed to bring baby boomers and beyond up to snuff with 21st Century technology. The need arose because most of my interviewees on “Positively Pittsburgh Live, ” my 7 PM Monday evening show were not conversant with how to access the talk cast to be live.. So I started “Techno Granny” to let people know, “If I can do it, anyone can.” As technology is ever changing, the subject matter grew from there.

To educate my generation was my initial goal, however at 7 AM; the originally targeted audience is either asleep or in gridlock on their way to work. A serendipitous phenomenon of the internet, you never know who is listening and in Sydney, Australia, it’s 9 PM. A young man named Ben Wilson stumbled on to “Techno Granny” around the tenth show and has used Techno Granny as homework entertainment ever since.

Ben Wilson is also a pod caster on Talk Shoe and has a following of his own and brought them with him to listen to Techno Granny. As a result the show has become popular in Australia with the 14 to 25 age group and at 7 AM, a grand group of youngsters from across the ocean log on to listen and participate. Often I get advice from my informal “producers” who help me out with the multi-tasking of running an audio and chat show at the same time. The younger generation has not paradigm shift with technology as a rule.

“Often these guys and gals are in the chat room talking about who knows what while I interview my guest for the week on the scheduled topic.”

Recently Ben e-mailed me to see if I thought he could run a techno show like mine. I suggested he run it the day after mine for technology for teens and call it Techno Teen.” Ben had been running pod casts of his own but basically audio blogging. Thanks to stopping in to various shows on the internet and regularly listening to Techno Granny,” he has become conversant in interviewing guests and running his shows like a radio show.

So now, “Techno Teen” is a transoceanic offshoot of “Techno Granny.” Ben Wilson’s premier “Techno Teen” show aired at 7 AM, EDT, 9 PM in Australia, premiering on October 23, 2007. “Ben’s show will probably garner more live listeners because of the age group and the time slot, however Techno Granny gets a tremendous amount of downloads after the fact as all Talk Shoe shows are archived for listening later.” Also many people just love the name, “Techno Granny.”

Just to give you an idea of how the word spreads, as a result of the “Techno Granny” show, I have been interviewed on a show that originates from Paris, France called “Agless” or Age-Less and hosted by Ran Dulu. Also another granny in Iowa has picked up on the show and blogged about it on her blog, “Boomer2School.”

The internet through pod casts or talk casts and on line social networking has taken networking to a whole new level. When Talk Shoe, the network where my talk casts are hosted advertised a thing called “Ning, “I had no clue what a social networking site was all about, I decided to try it out. I now have around 60 “friends and members” on my Positively Pittsburgh Live site on Ning, who I might not have met even though most are from Pittsburgh. 60 and growing! I hope that you will log on and do some “shameless self-promotion of your own” about your business or profession.
(c) Joanne Quinn-Smith, 2007


Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates, a full service marketing company and the host of four talk casts:
“Techno Granny,” “Monday Morning Marketing,” “Professionals with Impact” and “Positively Pittsburgh Live.” Coming in early 2008, Joanne will be the publisher of an On Line Community Magazine, “PositivelyPittsburghLiveMagazine.com”
To reach Joanne you may call 412-628-5048 or join her on line social network at: www.pospittlive.ning.com e-mail: jqsdreamweaver@hotmail.com