General blog posts

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Meet the Innovators: Myron Kowal, CEO RCare

Q&A With Leaders in Technology and Aging

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Welcome to the first edition of our new blog series called “Meet the Innovators: Q&A With Leaders in Technology and Aging.” Each week or so we’ll talking with the most interesting people in the industry. This week we sat down with Myron Kowal, founder and CEO of RCare Inc. Below is an excerpt of our conversation on 3 February 2016.RCare with shadow

Q: Thanks for sitting down with us, Myron. Can you briefly explain who you are and what you do?  

A: I’m Myron Kowal and I’m the CEO of RCare.  We’re a wireless nurse call system manufacturer based in Rochester, New York. But RCare is way more than just a nurse call system.

Q: Definitely, but how would you describe it? What’s different about what you’re doing?

A: Well, back in the 80s I recognized a problem in the nurse call space. Most of these guys were alarm companies whose main business was burglar and fire alarms. Most of them knew very little about senior care and the industry they were selling to. In many ways RCare exists to address this problem in the industry. We know the aging industry, and our products are designed specifically for it. At the time that made us unique and it’s the reason we’re still so far ahead of everyone else. We had a head start, and nobody’s caught up with us. Yet. (Laughs)

Q: Fantastic! So have things changed a lot since then?

A: Pretty much everything has changed. I’ll give you an example. Back then, if a resident pulled a cord or pressed a button, the alert would ding at the nurses’ station. Today with how busy nursing staff is, there might not be anyone at the station. At RCare, we recognized this, and we built our solutions to deal with it. Like RCare Mobile. Caregivers and nurses don’t have to be anywhere in particular to be fully informed and ready to respond.

Q: Ok, so you’ve made the nurses mobile. Is that ever a problem? People running around the facility without a central location to work from?

A: No, I don’t think so. In fact, technologies like ours makes nursing staff even more efficient than before. Features like the “I Got It” button eliminate duplication of effort. If someone presses it, all the other staff know that they don’t have to respond to that particular call. That’s efficiency. And it’s excellent for enforcing accountability. If everyone is responsible, no one is accountable. It’s a whole new approach to caregiving and it’s fueled by technology, enabled by this kind of technology.

Q: You’ve been in this industry for a while. What would you change about it?

A: Tons! It’s why I go to work every morning. We’ve been at this a long time, but there’s always more to be done. For example, it’s my belief that communication is still too segmented and disconnected by care facility type. We pigeonhole different levels of care in communication, each level of care has an individual agenda. At RCare, we think everyone should be working together and we make our tools in a way that facilitates that. By unifying facilities on different parts of the care continuum, RCare is taking actionable steps to break down the communication barriers faced by caregivers today.

Q: Exciting. Anything else going on with you guys these days?

A: Well, we did just win an award from the Rochester Business Journal for healthcare innovation. We were surprised because usually it’s someone over at the Medical Center, the University of Rochester Medical Center, that wins. They’re probably over there going “who’s this guy?” (Laughs)

Q: Awesome. So what’s next for RCare? What’s the future look like?

A: In the future, I see RCare reaching out to make this technology open source. We’re about communication in the eldercare environment. There are many ways in which we can build bridges. Environmental systems and diagnostics will come together into a single hub to integrate into a total wellness system. Wearables, sensors, and other new technologies are going to help facilities provide much more comprehensive and personalized care.

Laura Mitchell Consulting is a strike team of experts in the aging and technology industry. Know someone that we should feature in our “Meet the Innovators” blog series? Contact us at info@lmcllc.us and let us know!

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Laura Mitchell Selected as “Shark Tank” Mentor for Young Entrepreneurs

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Getting the chance to meet with visionary and creative entrepreneurs is one of my favorite parts of my job. In the past decade, I’ve spoken at a variety of aging technology and healthcare events on a wide range of topics, including the evolution of healthcare, aging in place using enabling technologies, medication management, growth hacking, and agile marketing to a fragmented market. I always learn something from every single one of these companies that I can use in my own organization. Sometimes it’s simply preventing a mistake by learning from theirs.

I was recently speaking at a user conference in Charleston, SC to a group of audiologists and clinicians about how to increase brand awareness and get themselves out there in social media without breaking the bank. I understand entrepreneurs. I have foregone paychecks, put business expenses on my personal credit card, and put in the thankless hours every entrepreneur and startup employee has endured. Being an entrepreneur is risky and exhausting, but it’s also wonderful and exciting. And it’s nice to have the freedom you get as your own boss.

I am excited to announce that I was recently asked to be a mentor for a group of college students at Concordia University in Wisconsin. I will be helping in the judging of their Shark Tank competition, which awards cash prizes to the winners to help them start their own companies. I will tell my story, give advice, and provide feedback to the students on their company ideas, go-to-market strategies, fundraising strategies, investor relations strategies, and marketing campaigns. I have mentored many organizations at multiple shark tank competitions, and it was very exciting that two of my companies ended up winning the competitions!

But this time, the topics won’t necessarily center around connected health, aging, and wellness. The topics can be absolutely anything. I am thrilled to be chosen for this cool opportunity.

The Concordia mentoring program is called CULaunch! According to the website, CULaunch! is offered through the School of Business Administration at Concordia University. Students learn from experienced entrepreneurs, and can compete for $1,000 in seed funds for their company. Whether I’m mentoring students or coaching seasoned business professionals, I love seeing entrepreneurs flourish, grow and see their visions come to life!

About Laura Mitchell Consulting:

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Laura Mitchell Consulting is a strike team of experts in the aging and technology industry. Contact us at info@lmcllc.us to learn more.

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Introducing a Brand New Original #LMCTechTuesday Series: Meet the Innovators

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At LMC, it’s our privilege to meet and work with a lot of interesting technology leaders. We thought you’d enjoy meeting some of them, too. That’s why we’re announcing a new #LMCTECHTUESDAY blog series called “Meet the Innovators: Q&A With Leaders in Connected Health, Technology and Aging.”

We will be targeting inspirational technology pioneers who are making a difference in the aging, connected health, and long term care industries. We’ll be featuring these interviews every Tuesday right here on the LMC blog. Follow our blog and make sure you don’t miss this cool new series.

If you know someone that we should feature in “Meet the Innovators,” contact us at info@lmcllc.us and let us know!

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Looking Back at CES

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About a month ago, still coming down from the fast-paced chaos of a busy holiday season, I was jumping on a southwest flight to Las Vegas for my seventh consecutive Consumer Electronics Show. This time, unlike the previous six years, I would see CES from an entirely different perspective, acting as the official Digital Health Summit CES “Social Wizard”. Yes, I got to see the meat being made and do work from a production standpoint.

Every year, CES is crazy, busy, and innovative with such an eclectic mix of Consumer Electronic industry folks, brand new technology products, cutting-edge educational forums, and a remarkable digital health, fitness tech and beauty tech summit.  This year, to my surprise, was by far my busiest CES to date. The three days I spent there were a nonstop whirlwind of interviews, networking, and moderating, and providing live social media for the two day Digital Health Summit.

During the two days of the summit itself, I gave over forty interviews. I spoke with successful and brilliant CEOs who were still too young to vote, business professionals in seemingly unrelated industries who were making headlines in digital health, and industry thought leaders from multiple companies around the world. One entire day was spent wandering the digital health summit expo floor with an iPad and a microphone capturing images and videos of booths and products that are reshaping the healthcare landscape. You can see all of the expo floor interviews here.

Another day was devoted to sitting in a large, comfortable white leather sofa and conducting professional interviews on the Digital Health Summit Studio Live stage.  Interviewees included companies making a large impact at the summit and all of the enthusiastic, intelligent game changers that spoke in the Digital Health Summit educational sessions.  Watch all Digital Health Summit Studio Live Videos here.

Although I spent nearly the entire trip being the media voice of the Digital Health Summit, it didn’t take long for the microphone to be pointed at me. I was interviewed at the Digital Health Summit about my 11 years of experiences, specifically in the connected health and aging technology space. Watch my interview here:

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LMC Welcomes Super Genius Kristin Bayer

KristinBayerA writer, a teacher, and a programmer walked into a bar…

When your motto is thinking outside the box, it helps to have a team with diverse skills and backgrounds. People with different training, experiences and backstories bring new information to the problem-solving table. It’s the foundation of what we do.

With that in mind, meet technical writer Kristin, the newest member of the LMC team. What’s in Kristin’s toolkit? Computer science, education, economics, HIPAA regulation and medical device regulatory compliance. She’s also a published author and playwright.

White papers, case studies, competitive analyses, and installation guides, oh my.

Good technical writing educates and informs your customers about complex topics. It showcases your thought leadership in your industry. Good writing is good, but writing that entertains and engages your customers while providing them with valuable information is even better.

Laura Mitchell Consulting. Yes, we do have a class two computer programming HIPAA compliant playwright.

Marketing to Generation Z

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I was born in the year 1995, which (depending on which study you read) places me in Generation Z. In the year I was born, the words fashionista, bridezilla, and blog were coined, which is only fitting given that I blog for my job. You probably don’t see a lot of content penned by Generation Z in your newsfeeds, so let me introduce the newest generation. Greetings from Generation Z! My name is Elizabeth, and I am a Digital Strategy Consultant at Laura Mitchell Consulting.

I have to say that I’ve felt a bit neglected by the “generations at work” gurus hired by large corporations. They analyzed the working habits and values of those currently employed, and put all their focus on the Silent, Boomer, X, and millennial generations. Why are companies treating millennials as though they are brand new? Why aren’t they ready for us?

When I arrived for my first day at my first “big girl” job out of college, I was honestly horrified. At orientation, I was handed a large packet of paper and seated in a conference room in front of an archaic (five-year-old) PowerPoint slide deck. Then I was escorted through rows and rows of grey cubicles right to my equally grey cubicle. At this cubicle, I was greeted by the sight of a battered, five-year-old Dell brick that would make my life miserable for the next six months.

Serving as borderline IT support for my entire floor for the remainder of my time at this corporation, I came to an astonishing realization: these people have no idea what to do with me. Like the Gen Z stereotype says, I have a better understanding of most things related to computers than most of the management team, and my supervisor asked me to help her figure things out. Yet, because I was young, I was treated like an intern. In fact, I kept a running tally of how many times I was asked when my internship ended. (It was four times, if you were wondering.)

That’s why I decided to seek employment at a more progressive, creative, forward-thinking company. I even turned down job offers at significantly higher salaries for the opportunity.  I’m Generation Z. I’m a digital native. When you hire me to do social media for your business, you’re hiring a native digitized speaker.

So, who is Generation Z?

We’re people who grew up in the wake of 9/11 and came of age during the 2008 economic crisis. We avoid advertising like the plague, but we’re experts on personal branding. We have no interest in playing by your rules, because we’re too busy writing our own rules. We are realistic, future-fearing, financially responsible, privacy protecting, technically savvy versions of our millennial older siblings and parents. We demand more from our schools, employers, and businesses than the generation that came before us. We question the status-quo, and are reluctant to settle for anything less than what fulfills us. Social media is our stomping ground, but even there we find our own platforms that were designed for and many times by us.

It’s difficult to market to a group of people who seem to be hiding in the shadows, with traits and cultural values that, in some ways, have yet to be determined.

So, how do I market to Generation Z?

  • Use platforms in a way that isn’t foreign to your target market

Use social media platforms in a way that makes sense to the market that you’re trying to reach. Get a guide who can tell you what is cool these days. Is it Snapchat? Is it Twitter? Instagram?   Make sure you stay current, because it’s a rapidly moving target and varies greatly depending on the generation that you wish to attract.

  • Humanize your marketing strategy

We’re people, not Nielsen statistics! We grew up with mute buttons and fast forward. We see advertising as annoying and pervasive, we’re resistant to most traditional marketing tactics. Treat us like human beings and you will see a very positive engagement from our generation.

  • Market to our niche lifestyle choices, not our demographics

Yes we are young, but we care about a lot of the same things that you do. The presence of connected technologies in our lives means that we’re less likely to conform to mainstream expectations, but we want to feel known. For every interest, belief, and hobby that we have, no matter how bizarre, we have a supportive community of peers who believe, discuss, and do the same things that we do. If you want to gain our attention, you must market to our lifestyles.

For more information on marketing to Generation Z, contact me at Laura Mitchell Consulting,  elizabeth@lmcllc.us or (888) 767-9493 x701.

3 Myths About Making a Good Marketing Video

If pictures are worth a thousand words, videos are worth one hundred thousand. But making a good marketing video can be hard. After the cost, time, and energy required to shoot and edit the video footage, the messaging may have been diluted. How can businesses create fun, engaging content without becoming bogged down in the details? Laura Mitchell Consulting dispels three myths about creating great marketing videos.

Myth 1: Good marketing videos are expensive.

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Anyone with a laptop and an iPhone can create a marketing video. Free sites like moov.ly are available to make creating and editing fantastic, animated videos incredibly easy.

 

Myth 2: Good marketing videos must be professionally made.

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Again, why hire a videographer or production company to make something that you could make yourself? Even an intern could create an excellent video for your website. Sometimes, honest and organic content is more interesting than something that seems staged.

 

Myth 3: Good marketing videos must be meticulously staged and planned.

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Curating genuine, raw content is a desirable strategy. You may capture something unexpected, which is good! After all, your web presence serves to humanize your business. Your customers are hungry for personality, so it’s important to have a personality.

Not interested in creating your own marketing video? Let Laura Mitchell Consulting help!

6 Tips for Getting Your Press Releases Noticed!

WritingIf you write it, they will come. Or wait, they probably won’t, unless you’ve devised a compelling scheme to MAKE them notice. So, how do you get attention in today’s media-saturated and ADD digital world? Use these 6 tips to generate more buzz around your company press releases:

  • Have a point.
    Really. It makes it so much more interesting for the reader. A press release should be announcing something that is relevant, interesting, and meaningful to the reader. If you can’t answer the “why would anyone care?” question, save it for the blog and skip the press release.
  • Get to the point.
    Once you’ve determined that you do have a point, say it and say it quickly. There’s no need to say things multiple times in a press release, and there’s even less room for fluff. Mimic the accessory rule (taking off one accessory before leaving the house) and see if there are extra unnecessary ‘accessories’ in your release. If you find yourself repeating or trying to add filler materials, double check to see whether or not you really have a message to share. If not, wait to get more details until releasing. Serious and positive attention is hard to come by and harder to regain.
  • Make it relevant today.
    How does your statement relate to the current state of the industry, the impact of the future, or to a specific population of people? Why should anyone care? Who are the people that care? What motivates them to care? If you are going to discuss a new product or feature, discuss the impact it makes (e.g. an underserved need, cost-savings, increased quality of life, etc.). Don’t stop constantly answering the “WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL” question throughout your release.
  • Get personal.
    Don’t write a stuffy, cold and impersonal release. Throw away the pedantic, brochure-worthy jargon. If your release sounds like Watson wrote it, people will not take notice. Create a story that is fun to read by decorating with thought-provoking quotes from relevant sources, which will make it accessible. Think of your quotes as your press release emoticons!
  • Keep it simple.
    Keep the release readable and simple. Your release should not require additional research to understand exactly what your company does and what the release is about. Include a brief product and company description and the announcement within your first sentence.
  • Grab attention, avoid clickbait.
    Ensure your release title is interesting, yet believable. How many boring or misleading press releases do you encounter each day? Invite the reader to seek more information while remaining truthful to the content of the article.

Laura Mitchell, founder of Laura Mitchell Consulting, is an expert in the digital health technology space. Follow her at @laurahmitchell or like us on Facebook to keep up with the latest news.

Guerrilla Marketing

Guerrilla Marketing: innovative, unconventional, and low-cost marketing techniques aimed at obtaining maximum exposure for a product.

Recently, Laura Mitchell Consulting implemented guerrilla marketing at the 2016 Digital Health Summit at CES. We created an inexpensive aftermovie to showcase some show highlights, and we can make a splash for your business too.

In other words, get noticed. Fast. Laura Mitchell Consulting provides world-class expertise in guerrilla marketing, social media, and more. Are you a business in need of some advice? Let us help you Internet better! Contact us at info@lmcllc.us or through our website.

Imagine that your website is a grocery store…

Imagine for a moment that your website is a grocery store.  All of your aisles must be clearly marked, customers should know exactly where and how to find items. It should always be neatly labeled, tidy (no grammar errors), professional, accessible and modern.  Now, envision that same grocery store has some impulse discounted items at the checkout and in front of the store. Think of the mismatched bins of items out in front of the store, perhaps some gardening equipment and other household items.  These discounted items out front, this colorful, messy and eye-catching display of materials is your social media. It appeals to our impulsive, human-side.

Serving to establish your business as a legitimate operation, a website provides a base-level overview of your team, services, mission, and other pertinent information. A website should always be neat and tidy like a store. The aisles should be clearly marked and everyone should have a good understanding of who you are, what you do, and where to go. In 2016, there is no valid excuse for not having a website. Whether you sell artisan soaps, clothing, or consulting services, companies like WordPress or SquareSpace provide out-of-the-box solutions at a low cost. Websites, like resumes, should contain concise sentences with no punctuation, spelling or grammatical errors.

If a website legitimizes a business, social media establishes your human side, your brand personality. Wild, crazy, a little chaotic, and fun, social media is your discount rack. Not restricted by the rules of traditional marketing, social media serves to showcase a unique brand voice and allows a business to establish one-on-one connections with customers.

Now get back to business, there’s a blue light special, aisle 9.

Want to know more about crafting an effective online presence? Need help figuring out a digital strategy? Let us help! Contact Laura Mitchell Consulting today.