December 3, 2024 • 37 mins
In This Episode:
Ever wondered how a unique blend of creativity and nature can transform project management? Tanya Boyd, our guest on the PM Mastery Podcast, reveals her journey from the swamps of Louisiana to her current role with CORBEAU.
Her innovative "Tales from the Swamp" approach to communication within organizations is a testament to her storytelling roots and her knack for thinking outside the box. Tanya's life story, woven with childhood inspirations and a love for country music, paints a vivid picture of how personal passions can fuel professional success.
Tanya opens up about the challenges of balancing creativity with the demands of project management and social media, all while reflecting on her life as an only child. Her journey takes us through the ups and downs of maintaining focus amidst the everyday disruptions of working from home. Tanya discusses her creative process and the tools she employs, including AI technologies and the Canva Magic Eraser, to overcome obstacles and enhance her workflow. By sharing her strategies for setting realistic goals, she offers valuable insights into adapting to life's changing circumstances.
Nature and music play pivotal roles in Tanya's creative inspiration, providing rejuvenation and mental clarity through quite time and exercise. Her reflections on the power of nature as a teacher, much like Einstein perceived it, are both compelling and inspirational. Tanya also shares her plans to leverage her LinkedIn marketing, highlighting the importance of personal well-being in driving creativity. This episode invites listeners to explore the fascinating intersection of personal growth and professional innovation, all while benefiting from Tanya's wealth of experience and insights.
Favorite Tool(s):
- Canva - https://www.canva.com/
- ChatGPT - https://openai.com/chatgpt/overview/
Links:
- Connect with Tanya on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanya-boyd-pmp-project-personality/ - Check out Tanya's Tales from the SWAMP presented at the PMI Central Arkansas chapter in February of this year:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j_08yLNqKIE_zvzt1j-P7H5bVBNiP8WW/view - Check out Tanya's presentation for TalentCheetah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFt8J2Sw3aU&t=663s - Check out Tanya's photography site:
https://www.tanyaboydphotography.com/
PM-Mastery Links:
- For a full podcast episode list, visit here: PM-Mastery Podcast Episodes.
- For a full list of blog posts, go here: PM-Mastery Blog Posts
- Become a PURE PM: https://pm-mastery.com/pure
- Check out Instructing.com for all your PM course needs: https://www.instructing.com/?ref=bd5e5c
- Get your free PDU Tracker here: https://pm-mastery.com/resource_links/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro/Outro (00:12):
Welcome to the PM Mastery Podcast.
This podcast is all abouthelping you master your project
management skills by sharingtips, tricks, tools and training
to get you to the next level,while sharing the stories of
other project managers on theirjourney in project management.
And now here's your host, waltSparling.
Walt Sparling (00:36):
Welcome everybody to the current edition of PM
Mastery, and today I have withme Tanya Boyd.
Welcome, tanya.
Tanya Boyd (00:44):
Thank you, Walt.
Walt Sparling (00:46):
Glad to be here, glad to have you.
So what I want to do is startout with you telling us a little
bit about who you are as aperson family, hobbies, things
like that.
Tanya Boyd (00:59):
So well.
I am a resident of Lafayette,louisiana, which is known as the
Cajun country.
In Lafayette Live very close tothe swamps of Louisiana, the
Atchafalaya Basin Bridge thatconnects Baton Rouge to
Lafayette.
So weekend hobbies for me hasbeen going out kayaking and
(01:21):
practicing my photography.
Some of my favorite subjectsare the sunsets, the alligators
and a wide variety of birds.
So that's a little bit aboutthe hobbies.
Other things that I enjoy doingI enjoy singing and karaoke,
and also love anythingcreativity related, whether it
(01:44):
is creating courses or evencreative cooking.
So, and then, of course, thatspare time that we all have to a
bit of project management, yesso you do um your creativity.
Walt Sparling (01:57):
I've seen a lot of your photographs and I'm a
big waterfall guy, so I loveyour.
Your waterfall stuff and youryour alligator shots are really
cool.
I've seen some great ones inthe swamp with the sun kind of
setting in the background At the.
In the show notes I'm going toinclude a link to your website
and I encourage everyone to goout there and check out some of
your work.
They get some great prints fromfrom the work that you've done.
(02:21):
Now, speaking of creativity,you have something called
Inspire Creative Consulting.
Can you tell us a little bitabout that?
Tanya Boyd (02:31):
Yeah.
So Inspire Creative Consultingwas a company name that I formed
about a year ago.
The idea behind it, or thetagline, is bold ideas beyond
the box.
My vision is just to work withdifferent project managers,
different leaders and differentorganizations to help them think
(02:52):
more creatively and theircommunications, their
interactions with one another,and just really drive those
communications to uncoverdifferent layers.
I guess that can lead toorganization breakthroughs,
because to me even you know, theproject management is 90%
(03:14):
communication, but if we'realways saying the exact same
thing and not thinkingcreatively, then we may not
uncover new solutions that weneed to tap into to get our work
done.
Walt Sparling (03:28):
Yeah, we don't want to get too boxed in by
processes.
Tales from the swamp.
Tanya Boyd (03:36):
So you want to hear a story about that.
Walt Sparling (03:39):
Well, yes, because I know this is something
you have done and I thinkyou're doing here soon with your
local PMI chapter.
Tanya Boyd (03:47):
Yes.
So Tales from the Swamp is areally, really interesting story
, if I track it back to anorigin story of how this all
even came about.
In April of I guess it wasApril of 2023, I was at PMI's
Leadership Institute meeting andduring that meeting, which it
(04:11):
was for volunteers from PMIwhere they can meet, share
peer-to-peer learning, at thatparticular meeting I was
delivering a presentation calledGumbo your strategic I don't
remember how I call it Gumboyour strategic strategy for
spicing up your speaker series.
So that was all about my timein a leadership role with the
(04:35):
PMI Baton Rouge chapter and inthat role I was in charge to
some extent of finding speakersfor our virtual events.
One of those my friend JeremiahHammond that you're familiar
with he was one of thosespeakers as well, but I was
successfully able in the yearsafter COVID, to secure a wide
(04:57):
variety of virtual speakers forthe chapter.
So Gumbo was telling the story.
Well, one of the outcomes ofthat was there was leaders from
the San Francisco chapter thatwere there and they liked that
presentation.
So they approached me about amonth later and said, hey, would
(05:17):
you be willing to present forus virtually on project
management and storytelling?
So that was it?
That was kind of the baselinethat I got and, of course, me
not having an exact plan, I said, sure, that sounds like a lot
of fun.
I'll do that.
And I was able to secure thatfor later down the road.
(05:38):
I believe they asked mesometime in June and I told him.
I said, look, even with some ofthe things I had going on in
2023, I said I can present thisto y'all in the beginning of
2024.
The way that my life played outI was going to the swamps that I
told you about a lot on theweekends.
(05:58):
That, for me, was kind of awayfrom project management.
It was a nice sunset, it was anopportunity to get outdoors and
breathe and enjoy.
And so I kept thinking about,okay, how am I going to do
storytelling and projectmanagement?
And somewhere in my brain, Istarted thinking about the fact
that it would be really fun toset this against the backdrop of
(06:21):
a swamp.
And then I started thinkingabout the word swamp, as goofy
as it sounds.
I started thinking about well,aren't we all swamped in our
jobs?
We're inundated, we'reunderwater, I'll get back to you
, I'm swamped.
So I started building upon thatand, about this same time, too,
(06:41):
I started playing a lot morewith chat GPT, although I was on
the original version of Ask AI,and so it was just an evolution
.
You know, by the time thatOctober rolled around, which I
knew I was going to have apresentation beginning of 2024,
(07:01):
I had settled on the idea of theswamp being the story, started
using a lot of chat GPT and justassembled all of the images and
all of the thought processesusing chat GPT to help me build
out that presentation.
So that was the origin story ofthat, which later led to Delta
(07:25):
Dawn, which that came about in adifferent instance, but it was
somebody asking me to create itand tell my story of how I use
AI creatively.
Walt Sparling (07:38):
So Good deal.
Yeah, and you're.
You're presenting the Talesfrom the Swamp.
Tanya Boyd (07:47):
Yes, that's going to be next Monday night for the
Mid-America KC chapter and thenon Wednesday I'm going to the
PMI New Orleans chapter anddoing Delta Dawn, which Delta
Dawn is a bit more of a personalstory on building tales from
the swamp, but also how I'veused AI for my photography and
(08:13):
when I say photography, all mypictures on my website are my
own pictures, with the exceptionof one album that's
specifically called Swamp Talesand it features more cartoonish
Cajun alligator characters, youknow, with their beverages and
having fun in the sunset.
And I've also started using AIa bit to help build course
(08:40):
creation and just differentcontent creation as well.
So some of that will be kind ofa live demonstration for that
chapter on how to use it in realtime.
Walt Sparling (08:53):
This will be now the Monday.
One would be pre me postingthis, but are either one of
these going to be availableonline?
Tanya Boyd (09:02):
is like guests can connect, because I know our
chapter does that I think the Ithink the one with casey, mid
america, will probably bevideotaped, um the one in new
orleans, they're.
They're probably not going tovideotape that one being in
person, but I do have arecording of the Delta Dawn that
(09:25):
was done through a companycalled Talent Shader and that
one's on a YouTube channel thatI have available as well,
definitely want to get a link tothat too.
Walt Sparling (09:33):
We'll include that in the show notes as well.
Okay, so you've got all theseside ventures that you're doing
and some pretty cool stuff.
What do you do for work?
Tanya Boyd (09:46):
So lately.
So earlier this year I was in arole where I was helping an
author named Christopher Connorpromote his third book on
emotional intelligence, so thatwas a contract role and a huge
testament to LinkedIn.
I have known Christopher fromLinkedIn since 2019.
(10:09):
He wound up speaking for ourprofessional development day
last year and then last year,when he found out I had been
impacted by a tech layoff, hestarted talking to me about the
fact that his third book wascoming out and that he would
love to get my unique twist onthings to help him with his
marketing.
So that was part of this year.
(10:32):
And then very recently, I'vestarted work with a company
called Corbo.
So Corbo Tech.
They've got their ProjectSuccess Academy.
They've also got a mobile appcalled Crow's Nest.
Right now I'm starting as aneducational instructor for their
Project Success Academy.
Walt Sparling (10:53):
Cool, and that was just recently.
Tanya Boyd (10:56):
Yeah, that was very this month.
I think, I'm just adaptingquickly.
Walt Sparling (11:04):
You've got a lot going on.
I see your posts all the timeand they're all over.
I mean you've got so manythings that you're working on.
Tanya Boyd (11:12):
I have so many people giving me the advice too
that I need a niche down, and Iknow that that is probably very
true and very relevant becauseof the level of me doing so many
different things.
I've been told that that cancause confusion, you know, but
sometimes, sometimes for me, Ithink I'm a little bit on the
(11:34):
Renaissance I'm going to call itthe Renaissance plan where I
I'm an ENFP by Myers-Briggsterms, which means I like doing
a lot of different activities, Ilike doing a variety of things.
So I'm probably not the best atniching down, you know, but
some of this has given me anopportunity to try on the
(11:56):
different hats and really seewhat I like and how I want to
reinvent myself for the future,because I think I think
reinvention is important,especially the economy that
we've had ever since thepandemic and a lot of people
being laid off and not knowingwhere the next gig is going to
(12:17):
come from.
I think taking some of thoserisks and chances are really
important actually.
Walt Sparling (12:24):
Well, one of the.
It was interesting because Iwas recently having a
conversation with someone aboutan individual who's very famous
and who's got his hands in like10 different things.
You know, he's especially likefour or five major things and is
being very successful at it,and that's Elon Musk.
So I mean mean incredibleprojects and he's he's doing all
(12:46):
of them very well.
You know from what I know.
So right, so why?
Why do you do all this stuff?
You can focus on any one if youwant, or you can, or you can
just kind of cover a little biton each I think it keeps me
entertained.
Tanya Boyd (13:04):
I mean, I don't know how to put it otherwise and
sometimes I try to track thatcreativity back.
I you know, maybe some of it ismy upbringing.
I'm an only child, you know.
I grew up in the 80s, so as anonly child it was a lot of it.
I had to, I had to entertainmyself, you know, and I had to
(13:24):
keep myself amused.
And I think even when I grew uplike I grew up listening to old
country music and thestorytellers you know that was
what my parents listened to.
So I think I grew up justlistening to all these
storytellers and absorbing someof it and it was always
fascinating to me.
(13:45):
And even as I'm moving more into, like, the education space or
even the speaking space, a lotof it and a lot of the zaniness
with the tales and theuniqueness.
I feel like I'm tying it backto my grade school years,
because I remember when I wouldgo to school like I'd phase out
(14:08):
really quickly unless theteacher was entertaining.
So it always wound up being theones that had the unique,
slightly strange spin on thingsthat I paid attention to and I
learned the most from and evenwith, like the Tales from the
Swamp or the Delta Dawn.
It wasn't this completeintentional effort to start with
(14:30):
.
It really started with somebodyelse's idea for me and asking
me.
But the further I got into theprocess I realized oh, I'm
having a really good time withthis.
You know, I think I'm ontosomething here and you, you know
.
Walt Sparling (14:44):
So that's just kept my creativity and
imagination going this year, Ithink is what drives me yeah,
well, you got to have that drivebecause you, like we said, you
have a lot of stuff going on.
How do you now you, you haveyour handle your hands in a lot
of different things, so thephotography, the training,
(15:07):
you're helping a friend withmarketing, and then, of course,
you've got project management,so and you do social media posts
and you've created greatstories for your presentations.
How do you continue to learn tokind of keep up with all these
various things that you do?
Tanya Boyd (15:29):
It comes in stages, like with everybody.
I mean I don't think thatthere's a perfect equation for
anybody, necessarily, but I dofollow a lot of different
branders and influencers to mylife and my parameters, because
(15:52):
I'm not always going to be theperson that's going to have 50
direct messages out every singlemorning or be connecting with
50 new people every day, as muchof a communicator and an
extrovert as I am.
If I feel boxed into thatcorner or that I have to get all
(16:13):
of that done before 830 in themorning, it creates this
pressure in my head that I can'tsustain.
And I'm hearing more and moreand more people that are
communicators on LinkedInvocalizing that as well.
So for me, I just try to keepconsistent at least about three
days a week with the post.
(16:34):
If I can do more, I do moreWeekends usually.
If I'm posting, it's usuallyabout my swamp adventures
Because, again, it's hard for meto say, okay, I want to respond
to 100 people by noon on mySaturday morning.
You know, that's just notalways where I'm at at this
(16:54):
certain stage in my life, youknow.
So, like I said, it's I feellike it's for each of us as we
go through different stages itchanges.
So I tell people do what worksfor you.
If you're trying to build upand you're trying to hit certain
goals, do it incrementally.
(17:20):
It's the same thing withexercise, which I used to be
phenomenal at, and I'm trying tofigure out how to go back to
where I was in 2022.
But it's literally just puttingone foot in front of the other
and not saying I have to get10,000 steps today.
Well, no, if you get 5,000 andit was a crazy day you got 5,000
.
Maybe you can hit 7,000tomorrow.
(17:41):
It doesn't need to be in onejump.
Walt Sparling (17:45):
Little bites.
So, speaking of that,challenges so with the various
things you've got going on,whether it be work or personal,
do you have any recentchallenges that you could share?
Tanya Boyd (18:05):
all the time.
Okay, well, you know part of ittoo, and part of my story that
I didn't go into earlier.
There's and there's a lot ofpeople that do know this about
me.
So I grew up in Lafayette, youknow.
We lived here until I was 12.
We moved to Houston because mydad was in the oil field.
When the oil field went down inthe late 80s, we moved to a
(18:25):
place called Mandeville and thenI went to college at LSU in
Baton Rouge, and I didn't leaveBaton Rouge for 20-something
years.
So I moved back to Lafayette in2019 to help my dad out as an
only child.
It was several years after mymom passed, you know.
So he's 76, and every daythere's challenges.
(18:47):
I mean, some of them are worsethan others.
He's in good health right now,you know, but just even
different things with workingfrom home, inconsistency, other
people in the home andstandardizing.
You know like this may be areally, really, really goofy
instance, but we've gotextraordinarily high ceilings
(19:10):
and we've got a lot of differentfire alarms in the house and
when the batteries go off, theychirp really, really loudly.
Well, one of them startedchirping last night at about two
o'clock and we've got to get asix foot ladder to get up there
to you know.
So challenges today, not muchsleep, because neither one of us
(19:30):
went and got the six footladder at 2 am in the morning.
I don't know if that's thegreatest challenge to share, I
think for some of us just evenregular life, you know regular
life sometimes, and navigating,and when people have kids that
get sick at school and they haveto pick them up, and it's
different from what it wasbefore the pandemic, or when
(19:53):
you're helping elderly parents,or scenarios are different
sometimes there's there's thosedifferent challenges and even
when we have storms, like it hasbeen nothing major here, but
like a lot of times, if we havea storm, the electricity is out.
So just adapting quickly tothat and going okay, I have the
(20:15):
stuff I need to get done today.
Let me pack up my laptop, leavethe house, find somewhere in
town that does have electricity.
Walt Sparling (20:24):
So All valid challenges.
And, speaking of ladders tools,what are some of your favorite
tools that you use throughoutthe through the day, through
either your work or your hobbies?
Tanya Boyd (20:39):
So the past few years and it has been creative,
like the LinkedIn journey.
I love Canva for that, but overthe past year I have been
learning a lot about chat, gpt,so I use a lot for idea
generation and I will toss out areally, really, really great
tip.
I think it's a great tip toanybody who is wanting to use AI
(21:05):
for their image posts butfrustrated by the fact that it
cannot spell on images.
There's a way that you can useCanva to fix that.
So if you're in Dolly or ImageGenerator and you're wanting to
do a project management post andit's got the word project
management but it's forgettingthe E, all you have to do is
(21:27):
download the image from Dolly,upload it into Canva.
If you're using that, there's atool called Magic Eraser on
there.
You erase the words and thenyou text them back in where you
can spell it correctly.
Walt Sparling (21:42):
Now, is this like when you found out about this?
Is this like a video that'savailable out there the how to
do it?
Tanya Boyd (21:49):
No, I just I figured out the Magic of rice and I,
especially with the tales fromthe swamp, I was getting super
agitated because it I'd have tomanage when I was hitting those
buckets every three or fourhours to get enough images.
(22:18):
But somewhere along the lines Ifigured out, okay, let me try
to modify this in Canva and Irealized, okay, I can, I can
maybe do that and gloss oversome of the gibberish that
they've got for the spelling.
It's better than what it usedto be, but it's still.
I don't know if you've noticedthat about the image generators,
(22:40):
that it doesn't spell right.
Walt Sparling (22:41):
I've only done a few and I typically don't do
text.
I've just started experimentingwith some of the other features
of AI and about a month ago Ijust sat around one day and just
started trying coming up withall kinds of descriptions saying
create a, create a, an AI imageof this and it's amazing.
It's amazing what it creates.
(23:02):
You describe, like I was, likeyou know, show me a sports car
that's red, low to the ground,gave it some description and
then, boom, I'm like that'scrazy, that's just crazy it's it
is and it's there's limitationswith it, like I know for a
while.
Tanya Boyd (23:20):
If, if something's copyrighted like I was joking
around with it one day I had um,I had been involved in a
professional development day andthere were volume challenges on
my computer that day that I wasable to get through it
eventually, but it definitelycaused a gap in the programming.
So I was aligning this tofeeling like the gremlins were
(23:41):
in the machine.
But when I got in a dolly and Iwas trying to create gremlins,
it was like we can't do thatbecause of copyright.
But we can create you somethingthat might look kind of like a
gremlin.
Would that be okay, you know?
So you have to work withinthose things, but it is.
(24:02):
It's fun to play with at timesand see what it came up with.
Like when I was doing the swamptales I just once I got it into
a state of flow.
I was having a really, reallygood time with it.
But when you're trying to dopeople, you know it's almost
like you have to put on more ofa mindful and inclusive hat when
you're doing people, because itwill get some things wrong
(24:26):
sometimes in there.
Walt Sparling (24:35):
To like not query , it's not the right word, but
give it better descriptors toget their faces better or not
blurred or different things ofthat nature ai does some
incredible stuff, but no matterwhether you're doing images or
write-ups, I mean, I use it fora lot of brainstorming things
and creating, like you were.
We had talked about earliercourse, course outlines and
maybe book chapter summaries,things like that.
(24:55):
But, all of it.
Really, the quality comes downto how well you prompt.
Tanya Boyd (25:02):
True, and I will say that PMI has got some good
courses on that.
I really they've come out withthree different courses.
I liked the third one that theycame out with, the talking to
AI, the prompt engineering, thatone had more frameworks in
place, that people could comeout with an actual workbook and
(25:23):
apply it easier, you know.
And then, of course, there's alot of other resources out there
too for training or just even.
I think even talking to thepeople that are using it and
hearing about their use casesand learning from them is great.
So canva.
Walt Sparling (25:43):
canva is new to me.
I mean, I've known canva foryears and I've I've looked at it
in the past, but I never had ahuge reason to use it.
And now I've been recentlystarting to create carousels.
So I just I reached out to acouple of different people about
what they use and everybody'slike, oh, canva, canva, canva.
And I struggled with it in thebeginning and then I finally
(26:05):
just buckled down.
I think I started using it lastweek and today I think I
finally finished my firstcarousel through that.
The first one I did, I used anAI app, but now I kind of feel
like I'm on a roll.
Tanya Boyd (26:19):
So I want to see what other kind of things have
you used the bulk create?
So, for instance, there'ssomething called bulk create in
there, like, if you want toschedule posts, like let's say,
you want to do a weekly post ofa certain theme, you can create
that in Canva, you know, and youcan actually import Excel
(26:44):
spreadsheets.
So let's say, for instance,you've got a topic that you're
passionate about.
You use ChatGPT to ask it thequestions or come up with, like
let's just say, come up with 52different ideas on this topic.
You can download that intoExcel, upload that into Canva
(27:06):
and once you find your templatethat you want, you can do bulk
create and it will create all ofthose for you, rather than you
having to go in 50 differenttimes and 50 different touch
points oh wow, if you're doingstuff on linkedin, I mean, are
you using the um linkedinscheduler feature?
Walt Sparling (27:24):
yes, okay, okay, I'm right now.
I'm the one I'm doing I want touse as a template, with maybe a
few changes to it, but I havefour posts in mind.
I'm actually writing blog postsand then I'm going to market
them on LinkedIn through acarousel and it's kind of my end
(27:45):
of year goal planning andself-assessment stuff that I'm
doing.
I just got started on it thisweek, so I'm thinking now I'm
going to manually go through andjust change the stuff, but I
like that for maybe next year,because I want to be more, I
want to post more, andautomation is definitely
(28:05):
something I like to do ifpossible.
Tanya Boyd (28:08):
Agreed, agreed, and it's.
You know, for me too, with theautomation, sometimes it's just
keeping up with it.
I mean like, for instance, ifyou're using that scheduler on
LinkedIn, just even knowing thatyou're available within that
first hour of it posting torespond back to the comments,
you know so sometimes they tellyou like I've read or heard
(28:30):
different things that it'sbetween eight and nine, but I
think that's based off ofEastern time.
I'm on CST, you know.
So sometimes I don't try tokeep up with it that hard
because I feel like I'marchitecting myself in a box,
like I know that that kind ofstuff helps, but at the same
time I'm like I don't know thatI need to be answering 500
(28:54):
comments in a day.
I don't know how much else Iwould get done if that's not my
primary role or reason for doingit.
You know, like, if I don't havethis complete lead funnel
worked out yet, because I have alot of people approach me on
that and try to sell, you knowwe can teach you how to get all
(29:15):
of these leads.
It's yeah.
There's other priorities that Ineed to yeah.
Walt Sparling (29:21):
This is a knockout first.
My job is my, my, my.
You know my job and my personallife and family are number one.
Uh, this stuff is something Ido and enjoy, but yeah, I like
how to do this stuff issomething.
I do and enjoy, but yeah, Ilike how to do this stuff and
and then doing it myself andthen it you know when I grow and
get bigger.
(29:41):
Yeah, yeah, I'll think aboutthat exactly, and so.
So one of my favorite questionsand everyone typically has a
really interesting answer tothis Do you have a cool?
Did you know?
Tanya Boyd (30:02):
I have quite a few.
Let's see.
Did you know that AlbertEinstein credited nature as
being one of the greatestteachers?
Did you know that AlbertEinstein credited nature as
being one of the greatestteachers?
So I happened to cross thatphrase and it really, really
resonated with me because, forme personally, I feel like when
I can get out in nature whetherit's in the swamps, or even if I
(30:22):
just go outside for a walk toslow myself down and listen for
the birds and see the naturearound me that that's when I get
some of my more creativethought processes.
Walt Sparling (30:37):
I like it.
Yeah, I think, not only justthe teaching, but thinking about
a lot of the photography you do.
I'm getting ready to go on aretreat where a buddy of mine
and I we used to do a road tripevery year.
We're getting a cabin in NorthCarolina in the mountains, and
it's about just chilling, justsitting on the balcony and
(30:58):
having coffee in the morning ora bourbon at night around a
campfire and it's just, I know,for me, my mind.
I usually come back from thosetrips with just notepad full of
ideas and things that I want todo now, because I've let my
brain get away from the dailygrind and it's all about getting
out in nature.
Tanya Boyd (31:19):
Absolutely and exercise.
When I used to be better aboutexercise.
I used to love kickboxing.
I fell off of it.
Boxing I fell off of it and Igot very sick in 2022 with COVID
.
That it kind of wound up beinglong COVID for a while
afterwards and was enough toreally throw me off my game for
a while.
But I used to kick box at leastfive times a week and I would
(31:43):
be in the middle of kickboxingand thinking of the moves and
almost wanting to stop and gotext myself an idea Like they
were used to me, like runningoff the mat and then go and do
something, or coming back on themat and singing while
kickboxing.
Walt Sparling (32:00):
But that was like , for some reason, even that
intense activity just unlockedideas and one day I need to get
back to that when I go to thegym and not enough, but when I
I'll do warm-up or cool down bywalking, that they have an
indoor track and I'll do that,and usually 20 minutes to a half
(32:24):
an hour just walking around,and it's nice because down here
it's super hot and it's airconditioned.
So but I have so many ideas, orI'll listen to a podcast on
there and that'll give me ideas,and then when I'm done walking
I'll sit down somewhere on abench and I'll write out some
notes or thoughts.
And sometimes it's just beingquiet, I'll just listen to music
(32:48):
and I come up with ideas.
Tanya Boyd (32:51):
What's your favorite music to listen to that gives
you ideas.
Walt Sparling (33:01):
For me, I like instrumental music, what I call
focus music.
I have actually in Amazon, I'vecreated a focus track of a
bunch of different, um differentsongs or not, say songs, but
musical, I don't know what.
Would you call them music?
I guess songs, but they're justnot.
They're not singing, it's justmusic uh is an artist.
(33:24):
I, I've listened to a lot.
I like their stuff, um.
So yeah, I don't.
I don't like words, because tome the words a lot of songs tell
a story and then you get intothe story and then that takes
you away from what you werefocusing on.
That's why I just liked themusic and it helps drown out
noises around me as well.
Tanya Boyd (33:44):
If I'm an intense activity, like if I'm, it
depends.
I mean, obviously if I'm, itdepends on me.
Now, obviously if I'm recording, I can't listen to music.
But if I'm doing creative workand this is really really weird
because it almost goes againstwhat you're saying but like
really loud music with wordsmotivates me.
And it's the strangest thing,Cause, like I don't like loud
(34:07):
sounds, Like loud sounds willstartle me, unless it's music.
I mean, I can be on likeMetallica, level 25, you know,
and it's like why doesn't thisdistract me, you know?
But like pans clanging and allcan't deal with it.
But like if I get in a creativeflow where I'm writing a lot, I
will just throw on music andjam out, and it's like I get off
(34:31):
in my own world that nobodyelse can break into.
Now I'll use.
Walt Sparling (34:35):
I'll use that kind of music for, like, if I'm
doing, for some reason,housework.
You know like, my wife wentaway for the weekend, so now
I've been home for three daysand, all right, she's going to
be home in two hours, crank upthe music and get the dishes
done, put away everything youknow, whatever it for that.
Yeah, I don't care if it haslyrics, as long as it's got an
(34:58):
upbeat nature to it and it kindof gets keeps me, keeps me going
.
But for concentration, I likethe instrumental, only
Instrumental.
Okay, awesome.
So I'm going to try to puttogether when I go through and
edit this, try to pull out allof the different things we
talked about.
Like, I'm going to put a linkto your linkedin, link to your
website.
(35:19):
Um, I'll put some links totools like canva and what.
What ai do you use?
Tanya Boyd (35:27):
use uh open ai chat, just the chat okay, it's the
paid description yeah I use anapp the link for um.
I can send you the link fordelta dawn and I can send you
one.
Um, there's a few people thatvideotaped the swamp tales.
I know that pmi centralarkansas has got one, so I can
(35:50):
send that one.
Because, as crazy as it sounds,swamp Tales is almost about
emotional intelligence and teamstoo.
It's somewhere in betweenstorytelling, emotional
intelligence, bridging the gapsand bringing people together and
being nice type of thing.
Walt Sparling (36:07):
So but no, I think that I really would like
to see that.
So, yeah, if you can send methose links, I'll include those
in the show notes as well.
And it's been a pleasurechatting with you.
I didn't ramble too much did Isometimes I go you did, did fine
, you did okay.
Lots of information there, goodconversation and hopefully
(36:28):
we'll we'll get together againand maybe have another
conversation in the future.
Tanya Boyd (36:32):
That sounds good.
And if you need anything onCanva too, you know, just let me
know.
I'm glad to hop on heresometime and like show you
different.
You know anything that can kindof help with that or go through
it.
I like Canva and I'm in therequite a bit.
Same thing with ChatGPT too.
Intro/Outro (36:50):
Thanks for listening to the PM Mastery
Podcast at wwwpm-masterycom.
Be sure to subscribe in yourpodcast player.
Until next time, keep workingon your craft.
Welcome to the PM Mastery Podcast.
This podcast is all abouthelping you master your project
management skills by sharingtips, tricks, tools and training
to get you to the next level,while sharing the stories of
other project managers on theirjourney in project management.
And now here's your host, waltSparling.
Walt Sparling (00:36):
Welcome everybody to the current edition of PM
Mastery, and today I have withme Tanya Boyd.
Welcome, tanya.
Tanya Boyd (00:44):
Thank you, Walt.
Walt Sparling (00:46):
Glad to be here, glad to have you.
So what I want to do is startout with you telling us a little
bit about who you are as aperson family, hobbies, things
like that.
Tanya Boyd (00:59):
So well.
I am a resident of Lafayette,louisiana, which is known as the
Cajun country.
In Lafayette Live very close tothe swamps of Louisiana, the
Atchafalaya Basin Bridge thatconnects Baton Rouge to
Lafayette.
So weekend hobbies for me hasbeen going out kayaking and
(01:21):
practicing my photography.
Some of my favorite subjectsare the sunsets, the alligators
and a wide variety of birds.
So that's a little bit aboutthe hobbies.
Other things that I enjoy doingI enjoy singing and karaoke,
and also love anythingcreativity related, whether it
(01:44):
is creating courses or evencreative cooking.
So, and then, of course, thatspare time that we all have to a
bit of project management, yesso you do um your creativity.
Walt Sparling (01:57):
I've seen a lot of your photographs and I'm a
big waterfall guy, so I loveyour.
Your waterfall stuff and youryour alligator shots are really
cool.
I've seen some great ones inthe swamp with the sun kind of
setting in the background At the.
In the show notes I'm going toinclude a link to your website
and I encourage everyone to goout there and check out some of
your work.
They get some great prints fromfrom the work that you've done.
(02:21):
Now, speaking of creativity,you have something called
Inspire Creative Consulting.
Can you tell us a little bitabout that?
Tanya Boyd (02:31):
Yeah.
So Inspire Creative Consultingwas a company name that I formed
about a year ago.
The idea behind it, or thetagline, is bold ideas beyond
the box.
My vision is just to work withdifferent project managers,
different leaders and differentorganizations to help them think
(02:52):
more creatively and theircommunications, their
interactions with one another,and just really drive those
communications to uncoverdifferent layers.
I guess that can lead toorganization breakthroughs,
because to me even you know, theproject management is 90%
(03:14):
communication, but if we'realways saying the exact same
thing and not thinkingcreatively, then we may not
uncover new solutions that weneed to tap into to get our work
done.
Walt Sparling (03:28):
Yeah, we don't want to get too boxed in by
processes.
Tales from the swamp.
Tanya Boyd (03:36):
So you want to hear a story about that.
Walt Sparling (03:39):
Well, yes, because I know this is something
you have done and I thinkyou're doing here soon with your
local PMI chapter.
Tanya Boyd (03:47):
Yes.
So Tales from the Swamp is areally, really interesting story
, if I track it back to anorigin story of how this all
even came about.
In April of I guess it wasApril of 2023, I was at PMI's
Leadership Institute meeting andduring that meeting, which it
(04:11):
was for volunteers from PMIwhere they can meet, share
peer-to-peer learning, at thatparticular meeting I was
delivering a presentation calledGumbo your strategic I don't
remember how I call it Gumboyour strategic strategy for
spicing up your speaker series.
So that was all about my timein a leadership role with the
(04:35):
PMI Baton Rouge chapter and inthat role I was in charge to
some extent of finding speakersfor our virtual events.
One of those my friend JeremiahHammond that you're familiar
with he was one of thosespeakers as well, but I was
successfully able in the yearsafter COVID, to secure a wide
(04:57):
variety of virtual speakers forthe chapter.
So Gumbo was telling the story.
Well, one of the outcomes ofthat was there was leaders from
the San Francisco chapter thatwere there and they liked that
presentation.
So they approached me about amonth later and said, hey, would
(05:17):
you be willing to present forus virtually on project
management and storytelling?
So that was it?
That was kind of the baselinethat I got and, of course, me
not having an exact plan, I said, sure, that sounds like a lot
of fun.
I'll do that.
And I was able to secure thatfor later down the road.
(05:38):
I believe they asked mesometime in June and I told him.
I said, look, even with some ofthe things I had going on in
2023, I said I can present thisto y'all in the beginning of
2024.
The way that my life played outI was going to the swamps that I
told you about a lot on theweekends.
(05:58):
That, for me, was kind of awayfrom project management.
It was a nice sunset, it was anopportunity to get outdoors and
breathe and enjoy.
And so I kept thinking about,okay, how am I going to do
storytelling and projectmanagement?
And somewhere in my brain, Istarted thinking about the fact
that it would be really fun toset this against the backdrop of
(06:21):
a swamp.
And then I started thinkingabout the word swamp, as goofy
as it sounds.
I started thinking about well,aren't we all swamped in our
jobs?
We're inundated, we'reunderwater, I'll get back to you
, I'm swamped.
So I started building upon thatand, about this same time, too,
(06:41):
I started playing a lot morewith chat GPT, although I was on
the original version of Ask AI,and so it was just an evolution
.
You know, by the time thatOctober rolled around, which I
knew I was going to have apresentation beginning of 2024,
(07:01):
I had settled on the idea of theswamp being the story, started
using a lot of chat GPT and justassembled all of the images and
all of the thought processesusing chat GPT to help me build
out that presentation.
So that was the origin story ofthat, which later led to Delta
(07:25):
Dawn, which that came about in adifferent instance, but it was
somebody asking me to create itand tell my story of how I use
AI creatively.
Walt Sparling (07:38):
So Good deal.
Yeah, and you're.
You're presenting the Talesfrom the Swamp.
Tanya Boyd (07:47):
Yes, that's going to be next Monday night for the
Mid-America KC chapter and thenon Wednesday I'm going to the
PMI New Orleans chapter anddoing Delta Dawn, which Delta
Dawn is a bit more of a personalstory on building tales from
the swamp, but also how I'veused AI for my photography and
(08:13):
when I say photography, all mypictures on my website are my
own pictures, with the exceptionof one album that's
specifically called Swamp Talesand it features more cartoonish
Cajun alligator characters, youknow, with their beverages and
having fun in the sunset.
And I've also started using AIa bit to help build course
(08:40):
creation and just differentcontent creation as well.
So some of that will be kind ofa live demonstration for that
chapter on how to use it in realtime.
Walt Sparling (08:53):
This will be now the Monday.
One would be pre me postingthis, but are either one of
these going to be availableonline?
Tanya Boyd (09:02):
is like guests can connect, because I know our
chapter does that I think the Ithink the one with casey, mid
america, will probably bevideotaped, um the one in new
orleans, they're.
They're probably not going tovideotape that one being in
person, but I do have arecording of the Delta Dawn that
(09:25):
was done through a companycalled Talent Shader and that
one's on a YouTube channel thatI have available as well,
definitely want to get a link tothat too.
Walt Sparling (09:33):
We'll include that in the show notes as well.
Okay, so you've got all theseside ventures that you're doing
and some pretty cool stuff.
What do you do for work?
Tanya Boyd (09:46):
So lately.
So earlier this year I was in arole where I was helping an
author named Christopher Connorpromote his third book on
emotional intelligence, so thatwas a contract role and a huge
testament to LinkedIn.
I have known Christopher fromLinkedIn since 2019.
(10:09):
He wound up speaking for ourprofessional development day
last year and then last year,when he found out I had been
impacted by a tech layoff, hestarted talking to me about the
fact that his third book wascoming out and that he would
love to get my unique twist onthings to help him with his
marketing.
So that was part of this year.
(10:32):
And then very recently, I'vestarted work with a company
called Corbo.
So Corbo Tech.
They've got their ProjectSuccess Academy.
They've also got a mobile appcalled Crow's Nest.
Right now I'm starting as aneducational instructor for their
Project Success Academy.
Walt Sparling (10:53):
Cool, and that was just recently.
Tanya Boyd (10:56):
Yeah, that was very this month.
I think, I'm just adaptingquickly.
Walt Sparling (11:04):
You've got a lot going on.
I see your posts all the timeand they're all over.
I mean you've got so manythings that you're working on.
Tanya Boyd (11:12):
I have so many people giving me the advice too
that I need a niche down, and Iknow that that is probably very
true and very relevant becauseof the level of me doing so many
different things.
I've been told that that cancause confusion, you know, but
sometimes, sometimes for me, Ithink I'm a little bit on the
(11:34):
Renaissance I'm going to call itthe Renaissance plan where I
I'm an ENFP by Myers-Briggsterms, which means I like doing
a lot of different activities, Ilike doing a variety of things.
So I'm probably not the best atniching down, you know, but
some of this has given me anopportunity to try on the
(11:56):
different hats and really seewhat I like and how I want to
reinvent myself for the future,because I think I think
reinvention is important,especially the economy that
we've had ever since thepandemic and a lot of people
being laid off and not knowingwhere the next gig is going to
(12:17):
come from.
I think taking some of thoserisks and chances are really
important actually.
Walt Sparling (12:24):
Well, one of the.
It was interesting because Iwas recently having a
conversation with someone aboutan individual who's very famous
and who's got his hands in like10 different things.
You know, he's especially likefour or five major things and is
being very successful at it,and that's Elon Musk.
So I mean mean incredibleprojects and he's he's doing all
(12:46):
of them very well.
You know from what I know.
So right, so why?
Why do you do all this stuff?
You can focus on any one if youwant, or you can, or you can
just kind of cover a little biton each I think it keeps me
entertained.
Tanya Boyd (13:04):
I mean, I don't know how to put it otherwise and
sometimes I try to track thatcreativity back.
I you know, maybe some of it ismy upbringing.
I'm an only child, you know.
I grew up in the 80s, so as anonly child it was a lot of it.
I had to, I had to entertainmyself, you know, and I had to
(13:24):
keep myself amused.
And I think even when I grew uplike I grew up listening to old
country music and thestorytellers you know that was
what my parents listened to.
So I think I grew up justlistening to all these
storytellers and absorbing someof it and it was always
fascinating to me.
(13:45):
And even as I'm moving more into, like, the education space or
even the speaking space, a lotof it and a lot of the zaniness
with the tales and theuniqueness.
I feel like I'm tying it backto my grade school years,
because I remember when I wouldgo to school like I'd phase out
(14:08):
really quickly unless theteacher was entertaining.
So it always wound up being theones that had the unique,
slightly strange spin on thingsthat I paid attention to and I
learned the most from and evenwith, like the Tales from the
Swamp or the Delta Dawn.
It wasn't this completeintentional effort to start with
(14:30):
.
It really started with somebodyelse's idea for me and asking
me.
But the further I got into theprocess I realized oh, I'm
having a really good time withthis.
You know, I think I'm ontosomething here and you, you know
.
Walt Sparling (14:44):
So that's just kept my creativity and
imagination going this year, Ithink is what drives me yeah,
well, you got to have that drivebecause you, like we said, you
have a lot of stuff going on.
How do you now you, you haveyour handle your hands in a lot
of different things, so thephotography, the training,
(15:07):
you're helping a friend withmarketing, and then, of course,
you've got project management,so and you do social media posts
and you've created greatstories for your presentations.
How do you continue to learn tokind of keep up with all these
various things that you do?
Tanya Boyd (15:29):
It comes in stages, like with everybody.
I mean I don't think thatthere's a perfect equation for
anybody, necessarily, but I dofollow a lot of different
branders and influencers to mylife and my parameters, because
(15:52):
I'm not always going to be theperson that's going to have 50
direct messages out every singlemorning or be connecting with
50 new people every day, as muchof a communicator and an
extrovert as I am.
If I feel boxed into thatcorner or that I have to get all
(16:13):
of that done before 830 in themorning, it creates this
pressure in my head that I can'tsustain.
And I'm hearing more and moreand more people that are
communicators on LinkedInvocalizing that as well.
So for me, I just try to keepconsistent at least about three
days a week with the post.
(16:34):
If I can do more, I do moreWeekends usually.
If I'm posting, it's usuallyabout my swamp adventures
Because, again, it's hard for meto say, okay, I want to respond
to 100 people by noon on mySaturday morning.
You know, that's just notalways where I'm at at this
(16:54):
certain stage in my life, youknow.
So, like I said, it's I feellike it's for each of us as we
go through different stages itchanges.
So I tell people do what worksfor you.
If you're trying to build upand you're trying to hit certain
goals, do it incrementally.
(17:20):
It's the same thing withexercise, which I used to be
phenomenal at, and I'm trying tofigure out how to go back to
where I was in 2022.
But it's literally just puttingone foot in front of the other
and not saying I have to get10,000 steps today.
Well, no, if you get 5,000 andit was a crazy day you got 5,000
.
Maybe you can hit 7,000tomorrow.
(17:41):
It doesn't need to be in onejump.
Walt Sparling (17:45):
Little bites.
So, speaking of that,challenges so with the various
things you've got going on,whether it be work or personal,
do you have any recentchallenges that you could share?
Tanya Boyd (18:05):
all the time.
Okay, well, you know part of ittoo, and part of my story that
I didn't go into earlier.
There's and there's a lot ofpeople that do know this about
me.
So I grew up in Lafayette, youknow.
We lived here until I was 12.
We moved to Houston because mydad was in the oil field.
When the oil field went down inthe late 80s, we moved to a
(18:25):
place called Mandeville and thenI went to college at LSU in
Baton Rouge, and I didn't leaveBaton Rouge for 20-something
years.
So I moved back to Lafayette in2019 to help my dad out as an
only child.
It was several years after mymom passed, you know.
So he's 76, and every daythere's challenges.
(18:47):
I mean, some of them are worsethan others.
He's in good health right now,you know, but just even
different things with workingfrom home, inconsistency, other
people in the home andstandardizing.
You know like this may be areally, really, really goofy
instance, but we've gotextraordinarily high ceilings
(19:10):
and we've got a lot of differentfire alarms in the house and
when the batteries go off, theychirp really, really loudly.
Well, one of them startedchirping last night at about two
o'clock and we've got to get asix foot ladder to get up there
to you know.
So challenges today, not muchsleep, because neither one of us
(19:30):
went and got the six footladder at 2 am in the morning.
I don't know if that's thegreatest challenge to share, I
think for some of us just evenregular life, you know regular
life sometimes, and navigating,and when people have kids that
get sick at school and they haveto pick them up, and it's
different from what it wasbefore the pandemic, or when
(19:53):
you're helping elderly parents,or scenarios are different
sometimes there's there's thosedifferent challenges and even
when we have storms, like it hasbeen nothing major here, but
like a lot of times, if we havea storm, the electricity is out.
So just adapting quickly tothat and going okay, I have the
(20:15):
stuff I need to get done today.
Let me pack up my laptop, leavethe house, find somewhere in
town that does have electricity.
Walt Sparling (20:24):
So All valid challenges.
And, speaking of ladders tools,what are some of your favorite
tools that you use throughoutthe through the day, through
either your work or your hobbies?
Tanya Boyd (20:39):
So the past few years and it has been creative,
like the LinkedIn journey.
I love Canva for that, but overthe past year I have been
learning a lot about chat, gpt,so I use a lot for idea
generation and I will toss out areally, really, really great
tip.
I think it's a great tip toanybody who is wanting to use AI
(21:05):
for their image posts butfrustrated by the fact that it
cannot spell on images.
There's a way that you can useCanva to fix that.
So if you're in Dolly or ImageGenerator and you're wanting to
do a project management post andit's got the word project
management but it's forgettingthe E, all you have to do is
(21:27):
download the image from Dolly,upload it into Canva.
If you're using that, there's atool called Magic Eraser on
there.
You erase the words and thenyou text them back in where you
can spell it correctly.
Walt Sparling (21:42):
Now, is this like when you found out about this?
Is this like a video that'savailable out there the how to
do it?
Tanya Boyd (21:49):
No, I just I figured out the Magic of rice and I,
especially with the tales fromthe swamp, I was getting super
agitated because it I'd have tomanage when I was hitting those
buckets every three or fourhours to get enough images.
(22:18):
But somewhere along the lines Ifigured out, okay, let me try
to modify this in Canva and Irealized, okay, I can, I can
maybe do that and gloss oversome of the gibberish that
they've got for the spelling.
It's better than what it usedto be, but it's still.
I don't know if you've noticedthat about the image generators,
(22:40):
that it doesn't spell right.
Walt Sparling (22:41):
I've only done a few and I typically don't do
text.
I've just started experimentingwith some of the other features
of AI and about a month ago Ijust sat around one day and just
started trying coming up withall kinds of descriptions saying
create a, create a, an AI imageof this and it's amazing.
It's amazing what it creates.
(23:02):
You describe, like I was, likeyou know, show me a sports car
that's red, low to the ground,gave it some description and
then, boom, I'm like that'scrazy, that's just crazy it's it
is and it's there's limitationswith it, like I know for a
while.
Tanya Boyd (23:20):
If, if something's copyrighted like I was joking
around with it one day I had um,I had been involved in a
professional development day andthere were volume challenges on
my computer that day that I wasable to get through it
eventually, but it definitelycaused a gap in the programming.
So I was aligning this tofeeling like the gremlins were
(23:41):
in the machine.
But when I got in a dolly and Iwas trying to create gremlins,
it was like we can't do thatbecause of copyright.
But we can create you somethingthat might look kind of like a
gremlin.
Would that be okay, you know?
So you have to work withinthose things, but it is.
(24:02):
It's fun to play with at timesand see what it came up with.
Like when I was doing the swamptales I just once I got it into
a state of flow.
I was having a really, reallygood time with it.
But when you're trying to dopeople, you know it's almost
like you have to put on more ofa mindful and inclusive hat when
you're doing people, because itwill get some things wrong
(24:26):
sometimes in there.
Walt Sparling (24:35):
To like not query , it's not the right word, but
give it better descriptors toget their faces better or not
blurred or different things ofthat nature ai does some
incredible stuff, but no matterwhether you're doing images or
write-ups, I mean, I use it fora lot of brainstorming things
and creating, like you were.
We had talked about earliercourse, course outlines and
maybe book chapter summaries,things like that.
(24:55):
But, all of it.
Really, the quality comes downto how well you prompt.
Tanya Boyd (25:02):
True, and I will say that PMI has got some good
courses on that.
I really they've come out withthree different courses.
I liked the third one that theycame out with, the talking to
AI, the prompt engineering, thatone had more frameworks in
place, that people could comeout with an actual workbook and
(25:23):
apply it easier, you know.
And then, of course, there's alot of other resources out there
too for training or just even.
I think even talking to thepeople that are using it and
hearing about their use casesand learning from them is great.
So canva.
Walt Sparling (25:43):
canva is new to me.
I mean, I've known canva foryears and I've I've looked at it
in the past, but I never had ahuge reason to use it.
And now I've been recentlystarting to create carousels.
So I just I reached out to acouple of different people about
what they use and everybody'slike, oh, canva, canva, canva.
And I struggled with it in thebeginning and then I finally
(26:05):
just buckled down.
I think I started using it lastweek and today I think I
finally finished my firstcarousel through that.
The first one I did, I used anAI app, but now I kind of feel
like I'm on a roll.
Tanya Boyd (26:19):
So I want to see what other kind of things have
you used the bulk create?
So, for instance, there'ssomething called bulk create in
there, like, if you want toschedule posts, like let's say,
you want to do a weekly post ofa certain theme, you can create
that in Canva, you know, and youcan actually import Excel
(26:44):
spreadsheets.
So let's say, for instance,you've got a topic that you're
passionate about.
You use ChatGPT to ask it thequestions or come up with, like
let's just say, come up with 52different ideas on this topic.
You can download that intoExcel, upload that into Canva
(27:06):
and once you find your templatethat you want, you can do bulk
create and it will create all ofthose for you, rather than you
having to go in 50 differenttimes and 50 different touch
points oh wow, if you're doingstuff on linkedin, I mean, are
you using the um linkedinscheduler feature?
Walt Sparling (27:24):
yes, okay, okay, I'm right now.
I'm the one I'm doing I want touse as a template, with maybe a
few changes to it, but I havefour posts in mind.
I'm actually writing blog postsand then I'm going to market
them on LinkedIn through acarousel and it's kind of my end
(27:45):
of year goal planning andself-assessment stuff that I'm
doing.
I just got started on it thisweek, so I'm thinking now I'm
going to manually go through andjust change the stuff, but I
like that for maybe next year,because I want to be more, I
want to post more, andautomation is definitely
(28:05):
something I like to do ifpossible.
Tanya Boyd (28:08):
Agreed, agreed, and it's.
You know, for me too, with theautomation, sometimes it's just
keeping up with it.
I mean like, for instance, ifyou're using that scheduler on
LinkedIn, just even knowing thatyou're available within that
first hour of it posting torespond back to the comments,
you know so sometimes they tellyou like I've read or heard
(28:30):
different things that it'sbetween eight and nine, but I
think that's based off ofEastern time.
I'm on CST, you know.
So sometimes I don't try tokeep up with it that hard
because I feel like I'marchitecting myself in a box,
like I know that that kind ofstuff helps, but at the same
time I'm like I don't know thatI need to be answering 500
(28:54):
comments in a day.
I don't know how much else Iwould get done if that's not my
primary role or reason for doingit.
You know, like, if I don't havethis complete lead funnel
worked out yet, because I have alot of people approach me on
that and try to sell, you knowwe can teach you how to get all
(29:15):
of these leads.
It's yeah.
There's other priorities that Ineed to yeah.
Walt Sparling (29:21):
This is a knockout first.
My job is my, my, my.
You know my job and my personallife and family are number one.
Uh, this stuff is something Ido and enjoy, but yeah, I like
how to do this stuff issomething.
I do and enjoy, but yeah, Ilike how to do this stuff and
and then doing it myself andthen it you know when I grow and
get bigger.
(29:41):
Yeah, yeah, I'll think aboutthat exactly, and so.
So one of my favorite questionsand everyone typically has a
really interesting answer tothis Do you have a cool?
Did you know?
Tanya Boyd (30:02):
I have quite a few.
Let's see.
Did you know that AlbertEinstein credited nature as
being one of the greatestteachers?
Did you know that AlbertEinstein credited nature as
being one of the greatestteachers?
So I happened to cross thatphrase and it really, really
resonated with me because, forme personally, I feel like when
I can get out in nature whetherit's in the swamps, or even if I
(30:22):
just go outside for a walk toslow myself down and listen for
the birds and see the naturearound me that that's when I get
some of my more creativethought processes.
Walt Sparling (30:37):
I like it.
Yeah, I think, not only justthe teaching, but thinking about
a lot of the photography you do.
I'm getting ready to go on aretreat where a buddy of mine
and I we used to do a road tripevery year.
We're getting a cabin in NorthCarolina in the mountains, and
it's about just chilling, justsitting on the balcony and
(30:58):
having coffee in the morning ora bourbon at night around a
campfire and it's just, I know,for me, my mind.
I usually come back from thosetrips with just notepad full of
ideas and things that I want todo now, because I've let my
brain get away from the dailygrind and it's all about getting
out in nature.
Tanya Boyd (31:19):
Absolutely and exercise.
When I used to be better aboutexercise.
I used to love kickboxing.
I fell off of it.
Boxing I fell off of it and Igot very sick in 2022 with COVID
.
That it kind of wound up beinglong COVID for a while
afterwards and was enough toreally throw me off my game for
a while.
But I used to kick box at leastfive times a week and I would
(31:43):
be in the middle of kickboxingand thinking of the moves and
almost wanting to stop and gotext myself an idea Like they
were used to me, like runningoff the mat and then go and do
something, or coming back on themat and singing while
kickboxing.
Walt Sparling (32:00):
But that was like , for some reason, even that
intense activity just unlockedideas and one day I need to get
back to that when I go to thegym and not enough, but when I
I'll do warm-up or cool down bywalking, that they have an
indoor track and I'll do that,and usually 20 minutes to a half
(32:24):
an hour just walking around,and it's nice because down here
it's super hot and it's airconditioned.
So but I have so many ideas, orI'll listen to a podcast on
there and that'll give me ideas,and then when I'm done walking
I'll sit down somewhere on abench and I'll write out some
notes or thoughts.
And sometimes it's just beingquiet, I'll just listen to music
(32:48):
and I come up with ideas.
Tanya Boyd (32:51):
What's your favorite music to listen to that gives
you ideas.
Walt Sparling (33:01):
For me, I like instrumental music, what I call
focus music.
I have actually in Amazon, I'vecreated a focus track of a
bunch of different, um differentsongs or not, say songs, but
musical, I don't know what.
Would you call them music?
I guess songs, but they're justnot.
They're not singing, it's justmusic uh is an artist.
(33:24):
I, I've listened to a lot.
I like their stuff, um.
So yeah, I don't.
I don't like words, because tome the words a lot of songs tell
a story and then you get intothe story and then that takes
you away from what you werefocusing on.
That's why I just liked themusic and it helps drown out
noises around me as well.
Tanya Boyd (33:44):
If I'm an intense activity, like if I'm, it
depends.
I mean, obviously if I'm, itdepends on me.
Now, obviously if I'm recording, I can't listen to music.
But if I'm doing creative workand this is really really weird
because it almost goes againstwhat you're saying but like
really loud music with wordsmotivates me.
And it's the strangest thing,Cause, like I don't like loud
(34:07):
sounds, Like loud sounds willstartle me, unless it's music.
I mean, I can be on likeMetallica, level 25, you know,
and it's like why doesn't thisdistract me, you know?
But like pans clanging and allcan't deal with it.
But like if I get in a creativeflow where I'm writing a lot, I
will just throw on music andjam out, and it's like I get off
(34:31):
in my own world that nobodyelse can break into.
Now I'll use.
Walt Sparling (34:35):
I'll use that kind of music for, like, if I'm
doing, for some reason,housework.
You know like, my wife wentaway for the weekend, so now
I've been home for three daysand, all right, she's going to
be home in two hours, crank upthe music and get the dishes
done, put away everything youknow, whatever it for that.
Yeah, I don't care if it haslyrics, as long as it's got an
(34:58):
upbeat nature to it and it kindof gets keeps me, keeps me going
.
But for concentration, I likethe instrumental, only
Instrumental.
Okay, awesome.
So I'm going to try to puttogether when I go through and
edit this, try to pull out allof the different things we
talked about.
Like, I'm going to put a linkto your linkedin, link to your
website.
(35:19):
Um, I'll put some links totools like canva and what.
What ai do you use?
Tanya Boyd (35:27):
use uh open ai chat, just the chat okay, it's the
paid description yeah I use anapp the link for um.
I can send you the link fordelta dawn and I can send you
one.
Um, there's a few people thatvideotaped the swamp tales.
I know that pmi centralarkansas has got one, so I can
(35:50):
send that one.
Because, as crazy as it sounds,swamp Tales is almost about
emotional intelligence and teamstoo.
It's somewhere in betweenstorytelling, emotional
intelligence, bridging the gapsand bringing people together and
being nice type of thing.
Walt Sparling (36:07):
So but no, I think that I really would like
to see that.
So, yeah, if you can send methose links, I'll include those
in the show notes as well.
And it's been a pleasurechatting with you.
I didn't ramble too much did Isometimes I go you did, did fine
, you did okay.
Lots of information there, goodconversation and hopefully
(36:28):
we'll we'll get together againand maybe have another
conversation in the future.
Tanya Boyd (36:32):
That sounds good.
And if you need anything onCanva too, you know, just let me
know.
I'm glad to hop on heresometime and like show you
different.
You know anything that can kindof help with that or go through
it.
I like Canva and I'm in therequite a bit.
Same thing with ChatGPT too.
Intro/Outro (36:50):
Thanks for listening to the PM Mastery
Podcast at wwwpm-masterycom.
Be sure to subscribe in yourpodcast player.
Until next time, keep workingon your craft.
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