Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Josh Ochs interviewed me on his podcast!





Josh Ochs, social media expert, came to my high school to talk to students about how to stay safe and  shine online and leave a positive digital footprint for colleges/universities and future employers. He was intrigued by my positive presence online and asked me to do a podcast with him! It was pretty cool! Listen to my podcast here!

https://simplecast.com/s/298f9039

In this episode, Josh Ochs sat down with a high school student named Carson Magee who raises awareness for students with Type 1 diabetes. Learn how Carson built his Google presence as Josh asks him questions on how students can shine online.
Key Takeaways:
  • When you get a lot of popularity through the internet it can boost a parent too.
  • Post content online that can help others
  • There's a few advantages of being a kid but having an adult (or someone that can guide you through that process) really helps when building a positive online presence
How did you discover your condition?
When I was 7 years old I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. At first we didn't know what was going on. I was drinking a lot of water. I felt tired all the time until my mom had to go away on a trip. She checked me into the doctor, saw the results, and said that I had type 1 diabetes. The doctor is a good friend of ours; he came back with tears in his eyes and said, “pack your bags and go to the hospital.” My diagnosis was a life changing moment. I didn't know what was going on but I realized that I had an autoimmune disease and that I had to get finger pokes and shots every day for the rest of my life until there was a cure. Those first few weeks in the hospital, I felt alone. I soon found out that there were other kids like me that had type 1 diabetes. I felt there was a need to advocate for type 1 diabetes because it is a horrible disease. I wanted to help out. Not only me but the friends that I had met that have type 1 diabetes as well. I started out with coming up with small ideas that could help me out with type 1 diabetes. I entered an invention contest called Invent Idaho and I ended up getting best of show the first year, for a diabetic invention of mine called the “Swipe and Wipe”.
What did you do to raise awareness about Type 1 Diabetes?
At first I didn't reach many people. A few months later I was featured on a Nickelodeon show and when it aired the entire community held a showing of the game show. That boosted my name and got the community involved. It helped raise awareness for Type 1 Diabetes. From there it empowered me to go on to do more things. I got excited and felt that burn to go out and do whatever I could to raise money to one day get rid of T1D.
How did you come to speak on Capitol Hill?
I entered a contest called Children's Congress in 2013. There were 150 kids that got chosen to speak at Capitol Hill and talk about raising awareness for type 1 diabetes. There is a bill that we were advocating to be passed which was called the SDP bill and it raised $150 million a year towards juvenile diabetes research. That's a big part of finding a cure for type 1 diabetes. I got chosen for that contest.
How did Carson build and grow his online presence?
Carson has a lot of ideas, he always come up with ways to advocate for what he believes in. After the contest, a lot of TV stations and radio shows wanted to interview him. I started looking and there was quite a bit of information out there about him online. It was somewhere around that time that Carson decided to start a blog.
When he went to Capitol Hill, we started that blog. What really boosted the people looking at his blog was when he went to a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation co-sponsored contest with Ford Motor Company and he won for the country and designed a race car. Ford Motor Company put his blog in a piece that blasted out to every dealer. His blog was getting thousands of hits daily.
From there, people started calling us. At times, I almost had to be sure that I was not trying to put my kid out there -- because to be honest when you get a lot of popularity online, it can boost a parent too. I had to be very careful that I wasn't exploiting my child. There were times we had to say he didn't want to do an interview. I had to listen to him as a young boy. Most everything he wanted to do. He wanted to do it but not because of the media. It's because he had a passion for advocating for this disease to get cured.
Carson’s quick tips on how students can build their online presence:
  • Get known
  • Find a mentor
  • Be persistent
What are some tips for other parents who are wondering how their student can be online in a positive way?
I'm a school counselor over in Spokane Elementary School. We talk to kids all the time about digital footprints. We warn them that their digital footprint can be positive or negative. I was a little bit leery at first of Carson being online. We didn't go searching for popularity online, it kind of came to us. But we have found the positive in it.

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