Athletes on KIND

College athletes are always on the go, it is just that simple. We, me included, are always in a crunch for time whether it is from waking up and getting to class on time to only having five or so minutes to grab something to eat. It is from this constant rush that we sometimes are missing the vital nutrition's that our bodies need. No, I am not talking about our protein intake or major vitamin groups because generally athletes already have a high intake of foods that provide such. The nutrition groups I am speaking of are along the lines of grains. 

As in athlete, I avoid eating things that are bad for me such as food with high sugar counts and what not. The issue that I was having though was when I have an extremely small window to eat something, that attempted avoidance is replaced for quickness. It was not until I was introduced to KIND snacks that made these two factors go perfectly with each other. 

For those of you who have absolutely no idea what KIND bars are, let me give you some background information on them. KIND bars offer a wholesome and delicious alternative to snacking. The organization is "focused on making the world a little kinder - one act and one snack at a time." Ultimately that simply means it has the consumer at hearth first. 

They pride themselves on the ability to say that they are made from ingredients you can see and pronounce. On a side note, I love this because I have zero idea what half the ingredients are in today's food. Like seriously, what the hell is "Soy Lecithin" or "Inulin?" KIND snacks offers a variety of healthy options such as Fruit & Nut bars, Nuts & Spices bars, KIND Healthy Grains Clusters and Bars, STRONG & KIND, and KIND breakfast bars.

Let us take the Peanut Butter Berry KIND Healthy Grains bar. Within the bar, there are five different types of grains allowing for at least 18g of whole grains to be ingested. This bar has 10 percent of my daily value of dietary fiber in one bar. That also is not to mention is only is 150 calories and only 7g of sugars. As in athlete, I can tell you those numbers are impressive. Rarely would I ever just eat one bar in any situation, so imagine those values doubling maybe even tripling. Therefore, if I am getting a solid amount of my grains within a quick and healthy snack, KIND bars are the way to go. 

As a college athlete and more importantly a college student, KIND snacks are the way to go. All it takes is one person to spread "kindness," which hopefully inspires other people to do the same. 

Until Next Time,

Matt

Being Social is the Key

In Chapter 22, Part 7 of "Share This," Rachel Miller focuses on employee engagement and how social media is changing internal communications of businesses. Within this chapter, I found there to be a central theme that is reoccurring, the theme is "it's all about being social." Rachel offers a quote within the chapter, which highlights this central theme flawlessly; the quote reads, "Do you know the difference between social communication and social media? The key word in those terms -- social -- is the path to success."

I love that quote because in all of the communication aspects, being social is the underlying core of them all. She goes into further detail about how different social medias and be effective in being social with the desired audience. Once that relationship is formed, it then allows the employees to be engaged. I completely agree with her tip that a company should not "view social media as something that are done 'to' employees, but 'for' and 'with' them." If you can get an employee passionate about communicating with the companies audience, whether it be though social media or not, the result is infinity more beneficial to the company assuming the employee is communicating in the correct ways.

Rachel later goes into the bottom line about how to effectively gain employee engagement. She looks into a study done by Kotter, which lists the fundamental steps into the implementation. I too agree on the following six steps to be successful "stepping stones" in the implementation process:

1. Establishing a sense of urgency.

2. Forming a powerful group to lead the change.

3. Creating a vision about the change and communicating it widely.

4. Empowering others to act on the vision.

5. Planning for and creating short-term wins.

6. Consolidating improvements.

I believe that Kotter and Rachel are correct on saying that these steps are vital in being social. The ability to become social is now starting to rotate towards the employee’s involvement, and these steps could be the key difference to making or breaking it in this 21st Century

Until Next Time,

Matt

MSU v. MICH Spectacular

This past weekend was the weekend all of Michigan has been waiting for. It was the college football meetings of the two in-state Big Ten schools, Michigan State University (MSU) and University of Michigan (MICH), who were facing off for the Paul Bunyan Trophy. Being that I am from Michigan, I can personally tell you this game ranks above all others. 

The game was so intense that it easily is considered the best game of the weekend, and arguably the best game seen all year. Now I am not going to bore you with the exact details of the full game, rather only the last ten seconds of the game. 

Let me set the scene first though. The two rivals battled what seemed to be though hell and back all game. There is ten seconds left in the game, Michigan is winning 23-21. It is fourth down and Michigan decides to punt the ball away from about the 38-yard line in hope to run the remaining time out. This game was considered to be over, that is until the unthinkable happen. Watch the video below to find out what happen, 

Within those ten sounds, Michigan's worse nightmare became true. MSU returned the ball for a touchdown while also running out the clock. Final score becoming MSU winning the ball game 27-23. 

What were the results of this play you may ask? The punter, lord knows is kicking himself in the butt, has received multiple death threats from various fans. The player who returned the ball is in the hospital from a broken hip. It is unknown if the cause is from being tackled from scoring or from the massive celebration that followed. A Michigan inspired meme has arose from the aired actions of a fan. 

I cannot tell if this game is overall a win or a loss for either teams PR departments. On the MSU positive side, it won the rivalry game and brought back the trophy for another year. On its bad side, it hurt and potentially ended a player’s football career. When we look at the University of Michigan, there are more negatives than anything. The team lost the game in its home stadium, rioted in the streets, has a disrespectful meme circulating the social media channels, and has death threats towards the punter. 

Overall, the game was amazing to watch. I along with every MSU fan out there was jumping and screaming for joy when MSU won. It is just hard to think of the damage control these teams have to implement because of this spectacular game. 

Until Next Time,

Matt