Time is precious, so why waste it on tasks that you don’t have to do yourself?
Whether you’re formatting notes from meetings, managing your leads or just sharing posts on social media, your day can quickly be overrun with menial tasks. Sure, you could outsource these to a VA, but your dollars could be better spent using platforms for tasks that do not require actual human input.
For example, instead of having someone create an invoice, format it up, then send it off, you can jot down the important details and have a machine do all the work for you.
Still, business automation through integration with platforms like Zapier can be a bit of a handful at first, and to get the most out of it you need a little inspiration to see the possibilities. So, let me give you a head start and highlight five common tasks to automate for a company of any size to save time and focus on the work that matters.
Organizing meeting notes
Meetings are best when they encourage productivity, but having to take time to organize and format your notes after every meeting completely counteracts your productivity goal.
The solution? Use Zapier to automatically shift your meeting notes into a format you’ll use.
For example, when my team has a meeting we’ll run our meeting checklist – a quick list which helps us stay on track and lets me take notes as we go along, including links to recordings of work that is presented.
Once the meeting wraps, I tick off the final step in the checklist and Zapier automatically pulls the notes and links from it and formats them into a snippet which is sent as a message to our Slack channel.
In other words, I take notes, then Zapier formats and pastes them into Slack. It’s a relatively short time saver, but with 4 meetings a week it more than builds up (both in time saved and keeping me productive by not messing around with notes).
A virtual summit is when you interview several experts around a central theme with interviews being released over a set window of time to participants. A virtual summit might also be referred to as a telesummit with all interviews conducted via phone or you may opt for a video summit.
Each guest expert promotes the virtual summit to their list allowing you to reach a larger combined audience.
There are many reasons to host a virtual summit:
Build credibility… and your brand
Become seen as an influencer in your industry
Grow your list… attract clients
Generate income… fill programs and sell products
Increase invitations to speak at events
The most common reason for hosting a virtual summit is list growth. Regardless of your business stage, just getting started or an established expert, you will always need to infuse your list with a fresh pool of potential clients seeking the support you provide.
If your main goal is list growth, you still achieve all the other benefits when you host a virtual summit.
Here are 7 steps to hosting a virtual summit that will build your brand, grow your list, and multiply your sales:
7-Step Virtual Summit Blueprint
Step #1: Determine the virtual summit theme to best attract your target audience
You are hosting this virtual summit to grow your list, BUT you don’t want to attract just anyone to your list. You want to attract your target market. People seeking the products and services you provide.
I’ve been in this vicious cycle lately. Lots of great ideas I want to implement, but I’ve been so busy working IN my business I haven’t had time to work ON my business.
I enjoy the clients I support, but I also enjoy the creative side of running a business. I must consistently come back and remind myself to implement these three strategies to increase productivity and consistently grow my business every day.
As we discuss each strategy, my reference to a “to-do” list does not encompass all the tasks/work/email conversations you are performing for clients. I am referring to the tasks you need (or want!) to complete to further grow and develop your business.
#1 Start the day WITHOUT email.
Do NOT start your day by opening your email inbox. Instead, dedicate the first hour of each day to working on your business.
The minute you open your email inbox you can be sucked down various rabbit holes and before you know it the day is ending and you completed nothing on your business to do list.
Do not have your email inbox as the home page of your internet browser. Instead, have your calendar as the home page. Review your tasks and activities for the day and select one or two business tasks you can complete. Complete those tasks, remove them from the to-do list, and then open your email inbox.
Examples of tasks you could complete without distraction…
1. Write a blog post
2. Write and send a newsletter
3. Record a teleclass
4. Research and outline a program module
5. Reach out to potential clients to schedule a strategy session (May require email, so approach cautiously… will need to implement blinders if you enter your email inbox!)
This is not a time to multi-task. One hour of dedicated work. One task at a time.
#2 Maintain an organized to-do list.
A never ending to do list is just a fact of life. You will always have something you need to do. However, everything on that list is not critical right now.
If you want to be productive and efficient you need an organized system. A bunch of post-it notes, plus notes on your phone, plus notes in various emails, and so on isn’t going to cut it.
One location.
Everything listed.
Easy drag and drop feature to reorganize
Quick access for adding/deleting
Have a consistent, easy to manage location where you keep track of all to do’s. I manage tasks via project management systems and google calendar. Google calendar is my hub.
Maybe you need to start your productivity journey with one hour tomorrow morning getting yourself organized. :)
Once you can see everything you need to do, you assess and move the three highest priorities to the top of your list. Focus at least the first hour of every day on these top priorities. Once complete, reassess priorities and move on to the next set.
#3 Break down big tasks into smaller steps.
Some tasks will be on the to-do list for months. This isn’t necessarily bad, but if you have something hanging over your head and causing your anxiety because it isn’t done, stop and assess the task.
Is the task too big and daunting? If so, breaking it down into smaller steps will allow you to move forward.
For example, “host a webinar on xyz” is a big task. I’m speaking from experience on this task. This has been hanging over my head and causing me angst for a few months now. I finally dug in and broke it down into smaller chunks and I’m seeing the light. For example, individual components would be…
You get the point. Big projects need to be broken down to make them more manageable. Plus, I’m all about checklists and I’m happiest when I can check a task off as done!
Increase productivity and get more done
Where do you struggle? Do you have any great strategies you implement to consistently stay on track?
All the best,
Lisa Nelson
Are you losing dollars and missing opportunities?
As a project manager, I take the day-day project management pieces off my clients plate, freeing up their time to convert new clients, create new programs, and frankly...just show up and do what they’re good at.
There is transition taking place in the video livestreaming world.
Blab.im is no longer available. This platform provided multi-person livestreaming. It worked well for interviews or panel style videos.
There are also rumors google hangouts is going away.
Some alternate options…
Zoom Video Conferencing
This system works well for virtual trainings, virtual summit interviews, and client masterminds.
A perk of this platform is the ease of use for your guests. It’s mostly “click a link to join” format. Plus, you can easily pull the mp3 from the video file. Great for virtual summits.
Facebook Live
A multi-person livecast version has not been released, but is highly anticipated.
A problem with Facebook Live… when do you start presenting content? You don’t want to begin until you have a decent audience, but those who arrive early get tired of listening to “filler” information and leave before you really get started.
Summits and giveaways leverage the lists of your guest speakers/contributors to grow your own list.
What is a virtual summit?
A virtual summit is when you interview a group of experts on a specific topic. Interviews can be live or pre-recorded, video or audio, and may last anywhere from ~30-60 minutes. Interviews are released daily over about five days and are available for free to all participants during the replay period.
One summit example is the Creating Unstoppable Teens event. Maggie hosted 20 experts all focused on helping teens develop the skills they need to thrive in and out of the classroom. This event was targeted to the parents of teens, which is her target audience.
What is a giveaway?
A giveaway is when you coordinate with a group of experts to “gift” services or products for free to all participants during the giveaway window. The giveaway window may range from one week to several weeks.
A giveaway example is the Done4You Giveaway. This giveaway is targeted to business owners and provides a wide range of business and marketing gifts.
Effective, quality list growth
You seek list growth so you have a larger audience to offer your services to and increase business profits.
These events can grow your lists by thousands over a few weeks. However, the quality of those subscribers varies… will they become paying clients? Continue Reading…
How do you make a return on investment with a Virtual Summit? Here are just 3 ways:
1. Event upgrades
The purpose behind the virtual summit is often list growth. Therefore, it is a free event anyone can attend, but access to each interview is limited to a 24 or 48-hour replay period. If you miss an interview or want to re-listen to a particularly useful segment, you may purchase the event upgrade package. The upgrade package might include downloadable mp3s, transcripts, a bonus gift collection, and/or special q&a only available to those who upgrade. An upgrade package often costs $97 during the event period with a price increase post event.
2. Affiliate commissions
You may sign up as an affiliate for each of your speakers. Your speakers offer a gift to your participants. Participants opt in for their gift and then move through that speakers sales funnel. You make a commission on any connected sales.
This is a main obstacle you may face when planning for a virtual summit.
How do you find speakers for the virtual summit?
How do you secure big name speakers?
How do you get speakers to accept if this is your first time and you don’t have other speakers yet lined up?
What can you do to attract speakers to leverage their lists if you have no list yourself?
Let’s shift the way you are thinking when it comes to speaker invitations for a virtual summit.
Your list size is not really relevant.
Part of the agreement when you confirm a guest speaker is that they will invite their list via a set number of solo emails.
Therefore, you are leveraging the lists of your guest speakers.
For example, guest A has a list of 3000… you now have access to a list of 3000 for this event. Guest B has a list of 4000… you now have access to a list of 7000 for this event. Every speaker you add increases your event list size reach.
This leverage is one of the reasons why virtual summits are so effective at quickly growing your list.
A virtual summit is when you host a gathering of speakers and experts who all speak about a specific topic. As the summit host, you decide the topic and who you want to interview.
There are many reasons to host an event:
Build credibility
Become seen as an influencer in your industry
Grow your list… attract clients
Generate income… fill programs and sell products
Increase invitations to speak at events
The most common reason for hosting an event is list growth. FYI – You still get all the other benefits even if your main goal is list growth. :)
They work because you are leveraging the lists of others in your industry. You could have a small list and you can still host an event. Your list size doesn’t matter, because you are capitalizing on the lists of your guests.
Be sure you select a system for where you want to go and not necessarily where you are right now.
I’ve heard these “words of wisdom” from various sources in the business world. I’ve always struggled to fully accept this way of thinking.
You want to make sure the systems you use to run your business do not hinder your business growth. True. BUT you also want to manage your finances wisely and committing to high monthly overhead costs while building up your client base might be foolish…especially if you have a large learning curve when it comes to your target market, marketing strategies, what works/what doesn’t. It could be a chunk of time before your monthly income covers your overhead costs…let alone leaves you money to live on.
Plus, as a business develops, it evolves. When you are just getting started the vision you have for your business could do a complete 360. If you select a system for where you want to be…it may not be the right system in the end.
The systems you need will change as your business grows. Continue Reading…
Yes, you can use Facebook ads for lead generation. Are you?
I’ve started utilizing Facebook ads as a means to grow my email list and generate more sales.
This is for a heart health branch of my business. I’ve sorely neglected the Facebook page for this business. Created the page probably 2 years ago and it achieved a whopping 30 likes over 2 years. Yes, pathetic.
Well, I set my business goals for this year and I’m on a mission to more than double my annual sales from one home study program.
Bing ads flop
Played with Bing ads for a few weeks. Even spent time consulting with their support team to get everything set up just right on two ads I was running and it still wouldn’t track results. If you can’t track…you are wasting time and dollars! Nixed that avenue, purchased a Facebook training course and I like where I’m headed.
Facebook ads success
Implemented my first like ad a few days ago and I’m already up to 500 likes! Now that’s what I’m talking about.
Each like is costing only $0.18. Here’s a screenshot of the ad: Continue Reading…