Michael: Welcome back to My Thought Partner, or welcome if you're the first-timer. Michael David Davis here.
Nicole: Nicole Davis.
Michael: She would not let me say she was illustrious. I don't know why. Nicole, today's episode is all about your favorite. Everything's always your favorite, but it's...
Nicole: That's because I'm a positive person. I just like stuff. I'm easily excited and easily amused.
Michael: Yeah, but you are definitely not wrong about being a positive person. I almost did not want to do this episode, because I got lost in the whole reason why we're bringing up tools, because I was still so excited about, yes, we do have an actual egg timer. We talked about it last episode.
Nicole: However, it is dysfunctional. Actually, one might argue non-functional. Yeah, I know. We hear the ticking. We got the ticking. But what very important function does it not execute on, this particular egg timer?
Michael: Yeah. So this wonderful egg timer just lets you feel the anxiety of the countdown, but there's no finality.
Nicole: There's no final ding. There's no final ring.
Michael: We're just going to let it go. And so if you don't hear the ding, that's because it doesn't exist.
Nicole: I know, but don't you feel like that could be a little anxiety provoking? I mean, even I'm feeling a little sweaty right now, just listening to...
Michael: Yeah. Well, it's a good thing we're talking about tools, because I feel like sometimes we are in an endless timer, or we think we have an endless timer.
Nicole: We're really pulling on a thread here, but okay.
Michael: Okay. If you think about it, we have this endless timer. You think that we have all this time to get things done. So if we don't have something to remind us it's time to move on, how do you know that it's time to move on? So I think the tools that we're going to talk about are going to help with that and implement that, and...
Nicole: Well, yeah. And I think the last time, on the last episode, we didn't get the chance to really dive in, roll up our sleeves, get our hands dirty, and maybe talk about some of the tools that we use, or to create kind of a complete picture of some of the tools that we use and why we think they're so awesome.
Michael: You definitely hinted at them, for sure.
Nicole: I think it was a little bit more than a hint, but yeah.
Michael: It was like the way we met, but that's for a whole nother thing. It was definitely more than a hint of who was pursuing who.
Nicole: That's not for the podcast.
Michael: That's not right. Okay. So when we're talking about tools, here was the problem. I wanted to talk about all these fun analog tools and how they were used in our lives and why and whatever. And that was the Nicole face that she gave me, in the listening format. It equivalates to...
Nicole: Well, shall we talk about what was on the list?
Michael: Yeah, let's do it real quick. Make me happy.
Nicole: Woo-hoo! Pens, pencils, paper, notebooks, standing desk. Folks know what these things are, babe.
Michael: Yeah. Laptops, phones. You know what they are, but are you using them correctly or effectively? Right? Okay. So we got it. We know what they are. You should have one of those. That's probably how you found us, or how you're listening, or maybe even watching us. Right. So I think we can move on to...
Nicole: That's like 101. I think we can move on to 102, dare I say 201: what are some digital tools that we can use that can supplement the analog tools that folks are already using, or can kind of elevate your game, right? Or help you be more organized, can really help you show off in a meeting. We all like to do that every once in a while. So that was the purpose of today's podcast. Yeah, to really talk about those tools.
Michael: But let's be honest. I was also just trying to be a great partner by talking about, and again, practicing my active listening skills, where I knew that we talked about notebooks and the ability to turn them around, and how that was a part of your efficient process in an analog world. So...
Nicole: So true. But we talked about it. Yeah, so we don't need to talk about it again.
Michael: We're good. I will beat a dead horse. All right.
Nicole: Yeah. What else?
Michael: Let's get into it, then. Okay. I will say this.
Nicole: Say it.
Michael: Okay. So if we're talking about tools in a product, no, not a product. If we're talking about tools...
Nicole: Oh, in productivity.
Michael: In productivity. Yeah, thank you. You got it. My brain was actually going to what I want to purchase from Amazon later.
Nicole: Shocker.
Michael: Yes. If we're going into tools about productivity and how to become more operationally efficient, yes, I think we're thinking about who you are interpersonally in your work, in your role, and/or your person.
Well, I also want to just touch quickly. If you're a person who's in the entrepreneurial world, or you're in a startup, or you're trying to get somewhere to become your own boss or to create your own business, there are some tools a little bit I want to just hit on, because it is a thing that will set you apart as you're trying to build your business, as opposed to the side hustle that is really making you look like you're just trying to push a side hustle, to giving you a little bit more kind of edge over your competition.
Nicole: Or a little more polished, maybe.
Michael: A little more polished, so that your friends and family don't think, "Oh, you're just doing this thing. Okay, yeah, whatever. We don't really—we're not going to support you and promote you, because it looks a little like my three-year-old niece did it," or something, right? So when I say that, this is all going to make sense. So for those of you that are out there, and this is my one and only time I'm going to stand on the soapbox. It's not the only time.
Nicole: Baloney. Yeah, it's not. But continue.
Michael: Then I'm going to say, please, please, please, please, please, please. If you have your own business and your side hustle, get a domain name, right? Get yourcompany.com. Obviously that domain name is probably taken, but get a domain name with your company. You'd think that is probably the most obvious thing.
Nicole: Okay. But why is that so important?
Michael: Because, unfortunately, we have to prove ourselves digitally, right? Everything we are fed is a digital environment, and we need some sort of digital certification or verification. Now, granted, I think that you're getting that domain because it gives you some levity, and it gives you that one more percent of the unknown about who you are, because you're probably an unknown person. I'm an unknown person. You're an unknown brand. We're an unknown brand. You're probably somebody that is trying to give a little bit more validity to what you're...
Nicole: Legitimacy.
Michael: Yeah. And your legitimacy.
Nicole: Okay. But pause. So is that domain name—does that just mean you're getting a web address? Like you're getting a website, essentially?
Michael: So there's two ways you can look at this, right? So getting the domain name is first and foremost important. And I'll tell you why: because it's the foundation for two different things that are going to happen next. One, website. You brought it up, right? Everyone should have a website. You can get them anywhere now. Squarespace, Wix, WordPress. They're a dime a dozen. You can build one in less than 30 seconds.
Nicole: You really can. Canvas. Not Canvas, Canva. Sorry. Right. You can do a one-page website.
Michael: Yeah. You can just build a landing page. So great. So what is it? What are the basics? Who you are, what you do, who you're trying to go after, right? But the other more important thing that I find the most...
Nicole: It's your pet peeve, I think.
Michael: It is my pet peeve. And it's almost, I don't want to say it's unprofessional, but man, if you're going through the lengths and the hustle, and you're really trying to get that product or service out there, the last thing I want to see is your business, yourcompany@gmail.com, right?
Nicole: Yeah. Well, and look, there's no problem if that's what you're doing, right? There isn't a problem. That's fine. What we're talking about is kind of that differentiator, and what are small ways that you can kind of add value and, as we said, add validity and legitimacy to your business by just kind of making some of those small tweaks.
Michael: Yeah. I mean, and the reason why I say it's a pet peeve is because you got to imagine, when you're in a world where sales happens all the time, you are going to start receiving information from people. And believe it or not, when you start seeing things from yourcompany.com, great. It looks like it's a real thing. You're more likely going to click on it. You're going to look at it.
If I'm receiving yourcompany@gmail.com from an email perspective, I'm going to go—you're probably going to go to the bottom of the list to be not considered, or I'm just not going to have time to go dig out to see if you're actually a real company. Because, again, I don't have a three-year-old niece. I don't know why I'm using the proverbial imaginary three-year-old niece, but they can create a Gmail account.
And so it's easy to fall into phishing, or any type of bad—sorry. Well, someone can go out there and get your information, right? If they assume you have money, they're going to try to get your money, right? So it's also a form of protection, to protect your business that you're working on building, that you are actually coming from a place of that validity that you mentioned.
So that's really what I just wanted to get into. So get a domain name, get yourcompany.com, whatever it is, and then get some sort of email hosting service of your domain provider. How's that? Great. Do it. Enough of this subject. We're moving on. All right, sure enough, go on. What's next? I want to get into the productivity. That was my thing if you're just starting a company. But now, if you're in the company, or you're in the throes of it, whether you're an executive in your role, what can I use today?
Nicole: Yeah, but also this isn't just startup oriented, right? I mean, I think if you're working within an organization, if you're in a matrix organization, there are definitely opportunities to have some better project management tools and things like that, so that you can really ensure everyone understands what the outcome needs to be, how we're getting there, what the roadmap looks like, blah, blah, blah. I think I talked about this last week, but now I can't really remember. Monday.com.
Michael: You definitely brought it up, because I'm a Monday person. So I remember that.
Nicole: I remember I said that.
Michael: But tell me more.
Nicole: I really love Monday.com. So I love a good project management tool, but I also love something that is highly customizable and that looks pretty, for lack of a better word. I just love for things to look inviting. When you log into it, you want to stay, because it's just really appealing looking and looks nice and tidy and organized.
So I'm sure the folks at all of these organizations would not appreciate this description, but to me, Monday.com is like Jira or Asana, but at Disney World. It's beautiful. You can color code things and drag things around. I really love the functionality of it, and you can use it in any number of ways. I mean, one of the things on our list for today is talking about CRMs—customer relationship management systems. Yeah. Man, I had a moment.
Michael: Look, I actually had to write down...
Nicole: I was like...
Michael: You were so used to using acronyms.
Nicole: I just say CRM all the time. What does that stand for? Yes, customer relationship management systems. So you can use Monday.com as a CRM. You can use it for project management. You can set up contingencies within it. I've used it in certain roles for ensuring that people are onboarded correctly, and, do we know, does everyone within our team understand what the onboarding and new training process looks like for a new team member? So we can just ensure that that new person has a great experience.
And again, you're kind of ensuring that that communication is set across your organization, that everyone knows what the expectations are. So to me, Monday.com is a great tool, maybe for folks who are a little intimidated by something like Asana or Jira. And those are great tools, by the way, don't get me wrong. But I'm also not someone who's actually building out—I'm not in the IT space, necessarily. And so I'm not using Jira or Asana or things like that to kind of their fullest capabilities, which is maybe why I don't love them as much, but they're great for what they do.
Michael: Well, then that's perfect. So again, disclaimer: none of these tools that were recommended, they are not paying for this podcast. They are not—we are not being paid. So all these will be in the show notes. There's not going to be any affiliate links, just bad decisions on us, right? But that's okay, because this is really about providing you that ability to do a dive yourself. We're talking about what we use, why we use them and how we've used them.
But again, this is also more specifically just to give you an idea about what steps you can take to increase your productivity and make yourself more efficient. The other part of that, though, is using these tools depending on who you are. Nicole and I are, again, we talk about our differences a lot. She likes the pretty. I like the functional. So if it is...
Nicole: I mean, I like functional too.
Michael: Correct. I'm sorry. Let me rephrase that. It's not that because it's pretty, it's not functional.
Nicole: It's not binary.
Michael: It's not like chrome on a car. It's so pretty, but there's no function to it. It's more so like when you mentioned Jira. Jira is a platform that's known to be used by a lot of engineers and different startups or tech companies to list and provide documentation and support systems, and who's actually accountable for following up on those, in a very technical environment.
And so you don't need color. I mean, there are color codes, but you don't need pretty things. You don't need these wow factors. You just need data and a way to collect it and how to kind of knock it off. Manage the project. Yeah. So that's kind of what we're getting at, but you'll find these tools that'll work best for you. So again, this is not a comprehensive list by any means. There's going to be things we don't even talk about.
Nicole: Oh, but look, this is our podcast. So we talk about the stuff we want to talk about.
Michael: Well, that's why I married you.
Nicole: And I want to talk about Monday.com. But I did, so we can move on.
Michael: They should use that snippet. I'm going to send that out.
Nicole: That's terrible. No.
Michael: But the other thing behind that is, we have probably played around with so many tools. I can't tell you, in our household, we are constantly like, "Oh my gosh, check out this website, check out this, check out this tool." And Nicole has to remind me, "Just use the one you have. Stop looking for the next better thing, or stop looking for the next tool." So you have to find that tool to...
Nicole: I don't know that that's what I say, but—oh, that's a cool story. No, I mean, I actually think we were just talking about this, that it's really important to be open to new tools so that you do know what the next best thing is, right? And so that you're constantly kind of learning and expanding your own toolbox.
Because I think, again, we'll talk through—we're doing a lot of talking and not really a lot of tool talk, but there are a lot of different things out there that serve a different purpose. Just like there are competing organizations that have the right use case or the right client or what have you. So I think that's the important thing with tools. There are a million things out there. Find the ones that work for you, and that work best for the particular use case that you need them for in that moment.
Michael: Yeah. I guess what I'm saying: don't be like me. So for instance, let's just go into a CRM, right? So CRM, a customer relationship management tool. Wow. I always want to say retention, because I'm trying to keep you. I know. So the customer relationship management tool, what that simplistic idea is, is anybody that you're interacting with, you're putting it into a database.
Okay, so let's go back to the analog. You're writing down their name, their email, phone number, address, probably the most basic things you can get. Now let's take that the next step further. So here's the trap that I fall into. Now I want to put this into an Excel sheet, or I want to put this into a Google spreadsheet, or I want to put this into some digital format, right? And then after I've done that, now I want to take that and I want to put that into a new, nice and beautiful system. So you have systems like HubSpot, you have systems like Salesforce, you have things like Zoho.
And so I will try them all out, but while I'm diving into them, then I'm like, "Oh," because they do all have features that are missing, and you'll never find an all-in-one. And you shouldn't try to find an all-in-one, because then you're probably overpaying for features that you don't need. But what I do is I start to play with all these tools, and once I get a tool set up where I'm like, "All right, it is now ready, it's automated, it's good to go," and I'm like, "But what..."
Nicole: About that one feature it doesn't have? That's what you're saying, yeah.
Michael: So don't fall into that trap. Try them out, but go in with the idea of what you actually need, right? The idea of the tool is to fix the problem that you have at the moment, or to prevent an immediate problem. Don't worry about things that are 10 steps down the line or 20 steps down the line.
Nicole: It's like over-engineering for where you are now, right? Or that grass-is-always-greener idea of, "Well, surely there's something else out here." Do something, right? Use a tool, start moving forward, and fully assess and decide what's working about it and what's not. And then, yeah, if you need to pivot or make a change, do that. But yeah, I get what you're saying now. Don't prevent yourself from doing something because you're waiting for that perfect tool.
Michael: Okay. So if we talk about tools, right, and specific tools, the psychology of, "I'm writing things down, it's working for me." Where should I be self-aware? What type of things should I start thinking about? When is it time to move into that next tool?
Nicole: When it's not working for you? Okay. I mean, look, do what works for you. And I think we talked about this before. I love a good Post-it, and it just depends, but there are times that that does not serve me. Obviously, living in my Post-it paradise doesn't really work when I'm trying to collaborate with other people.
So I think that is the tipping point: when you're starting to see things break down in your systems, when you're not as productive as you feel like you should be or could be, or maybe as you used to be, that's when it's time to kind of reassess the tools that you're using and figure out if there's a better approach. Or if you're running into the same problem over and over again, those are usually good indicators that something's not quite right with the systems that you're using right now.
If you are kind of working in a silo and doing your own thing, and you don't need to collaborate with a lot of people, I don't know a ton of roles that are like that, but I'm sure there are some, you do you. Keep plugging away at whatever systems work, even if those are pencil, paper. But I think the things that we're talking about today are when you do need to kind of expand and be able to collaborate with folks a little bit more broadly.
Michael: And speaking of segues, between collaboration and sticky notes, there is a wonderful platform out there that's called Lucidspark. And Lucidspark is just that. I wanted Nicole to use this tool all the time, but again, they have already so many tools. But it is taking a board, basically like a whiteboard, and you get in there with five, six, 10, 20 people, and you just start throwing ideas down on sticky notes, digital sticky notes. And then you can drag and drop them in different columns and things of that nature.
So let's say, okay, if you want to use it for an icebreaker, and you're like, "All right, I want everyone to write down what city you're from. And then we're going to put them in columns, like what city starts with the letter A through, whatever, C, all the way through the alphabet."
And then you just start dragging and dropping. You go, "Okay, people, look at you. Look, there's already five people from cities A through C." So it is a total drag and drop, and it's based off the sticky note. I think it's so cool because it's easy, it's fast, and believe it or not, it's fun. And I think that's one thing about tools we never talk about: they can be fun if you like to use them.
Nicole: Yeah. That one's not my favorite, though.
Michael: Yeah, it's okay. It just made me think about it, and if we're going to talk about the tools that are out there...
Nicole: Yeah, well, so can I counter that with Miro? Miro is my favorite right now, and I should say right now because tomorrow it could be something else. But I use Miro in that same way. And again, this is one of those things that it is kind of like, what's the right use case, and what kind of resonates best with you based off of how you're operating, and what works best for your clients and customers, right, or the other folks that you're collaborating with.
So to me, Miro kind of serves that same purpose. What I really love about Miro is that they have all of these templates already created, and they have this really robust community where other people can submit the boards and the templates that they've created. So you don't have to build everything from scratch. And one thing that I've done with Miro is really created my own personal set of templates that I can use time and time again.
So one thing that I've done is created a customer journey map, so that when I'm working with clients and saying, "Okay, let's really map out what your customer journey looks like right now. Let's identify those different inflection points. When are you interacting with customers? Does that feel like a positive interaction? What are some pain points during that time?" So I have that ready to go, so that anyone that wants to kind of talk to me about their customer journey, or anyone where it seems like that may be something we want to dig into, I've got that tool ready to crank out.
I have one for identifying, or building out, a new initiative. So kind of, what are all the things that we need to think about when we're embarking on a new initiative? So to me, that's the thing I really like about Miro: you can replicate your own templates, you can pull from other people, and then it's pretty easy to customize. If I'm working with a different client, I just switch out the branding colors, I switch out the logo, and then it feels like a very personalized, customized experience for them as well.
Michael: All right. So we'll be back in the second half, getting into more specific tools.
Nicole: Awesome. Let's do this. Are you recording?
Michael: I'm recording.
Nicole: Great. Both of us, our best selves in this moment.
Michael: I'm just having fun. Okay. So Nicole's always telling me I'm swirling the drain constantly, right? Or it's the long kiss goodnight. I just can't wrap things up, or I just don't bring these things together. So we've alluded to some of these tools, but we're going to get into the rapid fire, where the tools are, and then get you on your way. Okay? Okay. Right.
Nicole: Yeah. I love that.
Michael: I figured you would. We mentioned Canvas. So I'm going to go from Canva and just talk about what I love about Canva. So Canva, if you're in design world, it's excellent. It's awesome. You can create things. There's a billion templates on there for everything imaginable that you can create. But what I use Canva for, because we're going to tie this all into something, is that I use Canva for actually content planning. And that content planning is the automation part of me posting to my social networks, right? Whether that's for the personal side of the world or for the business side of the world.
Nicole: That's a good point, because I actually am not sure that a lot of people know about that, that it exists, that functionality within Canva.
Michael: Well, and the funny thing is...
Nicole: Because I didn't know about it. I'm not necessarily representative of...
Michael: Nicole loves Canva.
Nicole: I love Canva. Love it. But I didn't know that it did that. Yeah.
Michael: And she would tell me about Canva. I'm like, "I don't care about this stuff. What's the point of it?" And now I'm this big proponent of Canva because of that. And it was funny, because we were talking about—I wanted to find this tool. So there's existing tools that are out there. There's Hootsuite. There's things that have been there for a long time, for years, decades even. And I was trying to find this tool that would allow me to post content.
Because, as you know, content generation is key nowadays. Any social media manager out there. And again, if you don't have that person in your company, or that is you, just know that is a thankless job. And it is one of the most crucial elements now, because again, everything we are facing is digitized. So that is an important thing. And Canva fits that exact immense proportion for a tool. But I never knew that you can actually use it to free up your life, because content generation, which I have learned, is tedious. It is challenging. You have to come up with so much stuff for...
Nicole: Long kiss goodnight.
Michael: Yeah, but a little bit, right? So I have a year's stuff planned out already that is now going to automatically be generated through Canva, through their content planner.
Nicole: Yeah. Well, and a great example of two people using the same tool in very different ways.
Michael: Very much so. Right. Yes. Okay. And that also leads into the next tool, which is ChatGPT. Yes, I know. It is the big hot button, the big topic out there.
Nicole: Blows my mind.
Michael: There are hundreds, if not thousands, of articles a day written about the fear of AI and removing a lot of these redundant jobs of content creation.
Nicole: Well, yeah, but great thing to talk about when it comes to content creation, right?
Michael: Yeah. And it's really—here, let's get this to the very truth of the matter. You are the human. Nobody has the voice that you have, and nobody is going to speak with your voice. You know you, and you know how you portray a message.
Nicole: Or what message you want to convey to your audience, right?
Michael: No AI is going to replace you, right? Let's just get that. Now, what AI generation tools are great for, whether this is a painting one, whether this is a chat one, the great thing is that it can give you a little foundation to start with, right?
Nicole: A jumping-off point.
Michael: It can absolutely give you a jumping-off point. And that's all you should be using it for. You should be using it for a jumping-off point. If you need it for idea generation, they're perfect. But then you go in and you start modifying. You start tweaking it, right?
Nicole: Well, and I mean, I always say I love to edit, I hate to write. And so for me, it's a perfect tool for that, right? Because I have a good eye for kind of tweaking other people's work. Isn't that convenient? But I like to go in and fine-tune or edit things. But sometimes sitting down and just writing something from scratch can be really challenging for me. It's just kind of how I'm built. I've always been that way. So it is a great tool in that sense, that if you're similar in that, gosh, sometimes it's just really hard to get started, that it's a great place to get started.
Michael: Yeah. And it really is good for, again, if you're creating sequences in sales, if you're creating responses, if you're doing things that are repetitious, it's great for really adding your voice into something created based around all the data that exists out there. Again, not reinventing the wheel, but adding your voice to it. And again, you're doing it because you don't need to plagiarize other people's content. But we're in a society now that nothing really is original anymore, right? We're just building upon something new.
Okay. So the other part of that is, what I struggle with most is, how do I know when spending too much time on something is enough, Nicole? I have to use this tool. We already know. This is analog. Look, did anybody hear it go off? No ding. You didn't. It broke. So unfortunately, we have to go digitally. And I say unfortunately because it surrounds us everywhere.
I use this wonderful tool. It's called Pomodoro. It is based off of the Pomodoro method. And I actually didn't even know what the Pomodoro method is. I probably should have known this my entire life. Someone should have told me about it. I'm surprised Nicole didn't introduce this to me years and years ago in our relationship. But ultimately, what it is, you can use it in a Chrome extension. I'm sure that there are other varieties out there. What we use it for is, on its default settings, it's 25 minutes of focused work, five-minute break. You do that four times, and then you get a long break that's there.
The whole concept of it is so that you are retraining your brain to get that real focus on what you're doing, and then relaxing. My problem was, when I first started using this tool, that 25 minutes is not long enough for me to get something done. But what I was finding out, and what I am also now an advocate of, is when I don't do that 25/5—now, again, you can go into settings and you can change all these things—I will find myself doing an hour-and-a-half sit-down of just work, deep diving into it. And I will find myself more mentally fatigued later and burning out of the day sooner.
Nicole: Well, and the quality of your work tends to diminish. Not you, just people.
Michael: Oh, I diminish. It's like my battery levels.
Nicole: You power down. But the quality of your work tends to diminish when you don't take those breaks to kind of give yourself that mental reset. And yeah, then you don't necessarily have that same energy later in the day, or later in your work time frame, to have that same level of quality there. And I think we actually use it for different reasons.
So for me, my personal productivity is really high on days that I have a lot of meetings, right? Because you have a very clear schedule. I only have this amount of time in between these meetings to get these other things done that have to happen today. And so I can boom, boom, boom, crank those things out. But on days that I don't have a lot of meetings, or if I have meetings in the morning and the afternoon is free, sometimes it's hard for me to just stay focused and get those things done in a shorter amount of time.
Maybe it takes me two hours to do something that really should have just taken me an hour, if I had not had my phone, if I had just kind of stayed tuned in to what I was doing. So that's how I use it, on days that I have longer stretches of that unstructured time. It helps me with structure.
And then, I know we've talked about distractions before. During that 25-minute work session, I'm not kind of giving in to distractions. And then during those five minutes, yeah, I'll check my email. I'll check my phone and see if I have any calls, missed calls or texts or anything like that. But then when it's time to work again, it's time to work again. And that has really helped me, again, to add structure in unstructured days.
And just to talk about the tool, because I think we're talking about the method, but we're not really talking about the tool. The thing that I like about the tool is that you can also customize pieces. So yes, you can customize the timing, but you can also customize the sounds and the little alerts. So there's kind of a white noise function that gives you kind of that nice auditory signal as well, that this is working time.
And if you happen to be working with someone else in your home as well, it's a nice signal to other people that this is my focus time, right? So they're not inadvertently kind of interrupting the time that you're really focused on work. And then you can choose what the little alarm is when your work time's over, or when your break time is over. But it's a very simple tool that can be really helpful.
Michael: I will say it's interesting. I'm actually trying to use it, and this is its own thing, I'm trying to use it to help me with one of my fears. I don't know where it happened. It's somewhere in my life. Over the age, I've been getting scared of flying. I don't know why. I love flying. It's so bad. But I've been getting fearful of it. But one of the dings is the call attendant button. It's like the bing. I use that.
Nicole: Is that helping?
Michael: I don't know. We haven't flown since that time.
Nicole: Okay, we'll see.
Michael: But I'm using it so that that becomes a more common sound.
Nicole: Yeah, that's pretty funny.
Michael: So that I'm disassociating that with the fear of being in a plane. So we'll find out if it works.
Nicole: Well, but is it positive reinforcement? Are you using that to indicate it's time for a break, or it's time to get back to work?
Michael: I'm using it for the break.
Nicole: Okay, good. You should have a positive association with it.
Michael: Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, of course, right. Well, I mean, who wants to go back? I think my going back to the work is like the big gong.
Nicole: Yeah, that's mine, too.
Michael: Yeah. Okay. Because that's fine. All right. This is our other favorite tool, hands down. I don't care if you're a solopreneur or entrepreneur, if you're a small business owner. Even if you don't do anything, if you are a human, and you just need some sort of little bit...
Nicole: Don't even know what you're going to say.
Michael: Gaining back the chaos in your life, right? Get Calendly.
Nicole: Oh, why have we not talked about this? I love it. Get Calendly. I love it so much.
Michael: First of all, it is the best free tool out there, in my... I would love for anyone out there to argue differently. I know if you're...
Nicole: I mean, I'm sure you could.
Michael: You could.
Nicole: But it's great.
Michael: Yeah. Well, here, look. All right. This woman is itching to get out of her chair and talk about this. Because Calendly, hands down, for the free tool that it is. And Calendly, if any of your executives hear this, or, I don't even know off the top of my head, [inaudible], don't change this, because you've got me hooked, right? I've even had to pay for it now because I love the feature so much.
Nicole: You've got me. You really need it. I was going to say, you can pay to upgrade the features, right? And to add kind of a more robust suite of scheduling options. But man, is it great. The free tool itself, I love it. How does it work? I don't—well, I don't know, because I pay for it, so I don't want to talk about the free aspect, sorry. But I'm just saying...
Michael: Why?
Nicole: Well, no, I'm just saying I can't speak to the features. I don't work for Calendly. But the way that I use it is that I just keep a 30-minute meeting link available in my email at all times, so that any of my clients, or anyone that I'm working with, knows they can reach out to me and get time on my calendar then. Because sometimes you do just need to have that quick check-in of, "Hey, I have a question about this, Nicole. Can you help me work through this?" Blah, blah, blah. So that's one way that I use it.
We use it for a team calendar also, so that if everyone or a few people from our team need to be included on a specific meeting, it'll actually align with the availability of multiple calendars, so that you don't have to do that legwork yourself. I can't tell you how many times I've had clients that we're working with say, "Oh my gosh, that was so easy. Thank you for sending me that Calendly link." People love it. I think trying to navigate multiple calendars is awful sometimes. It's awful. Because you're also trying to interpret the importance of someone else's calendar, which is not a battle you're going to win.
Michael: And you're relying on if they are sharing all the information in the calendar, right? You don't need to see the details, but are they really available? Because again, when we talk about our efficiencies, or trying to make ourselves more productive, and my favorite, again, when we talk about time blocking a lot, if you're not putting time blocking in your calendar, then you're showing available. So if you send out that Calendly link and it shows you're available, and then you're really not, right? You're harming yourself.
So I think, too, to add to what you're saying, what I also love about Calendly is you might work from 9 to 5, you might work 8 to 6, you might work 10 to 10, or, well, I would say more like 5 to 10, 5 AM to 10 PM. You can actually just create a select period of time that you're going to be available for meetings. So you're controlling it before it even gets to your availability. And so for new clients, we usually do a new client Monday or something like that. So there's only certain links that we send out, specific to those reasons why you might want to meet me.
And if you don't have something like that, and if you want to use it in your personal life, it sounds ridiculous, and you're probably going to be freaking your friends out. But if your friends want to do something with you, and everyone's like, "Well, I don't know when I have time, when I have time," guess what? Just set a block of time out, send it to the friends. And if they don't choose it, guess what? You at least gave them the opportunity, right?
Nicole: Well, and that's the thing, is that Calendly has the ability to sync with your calendar, so it can see when you're already booked, see when you're available. And you do have the ability to also set up those different types of appointments like you mentioned. So, like for me, a new client onboarding is probably more like a 45-minute call. So I'll send that to that group. And I have more availability there, right? Because especially with a new client, I want to make sure that I can get them in when it's convenient for them. But it's a game changer.
Michael: Like a 15-minute check-in or something like that. Which again, a lot of these things, this is going to lead into the next tool, Zoom. Because you can have Zoom set up where, if you're doing your video calls—I know we've talked about, when we send out this Calendly link, you can create an option in there so that if they want to just do a phone call, if they want to do a Zoom, if they want to do a Teams, if they want to do just a Google Meet, right?
So you can actually choose the tool. So you're creating a successful environment for yourself, so that the meeting expectation is lined up with what that particular person who's creating the meeting with you is about.
Nicole: Yeah, but let me say that a little differently.
Michael: Yeah, go ahead.
Nicole: So you can choose the tool that you prefer, or you can add the optionality within Calendly for the person that you're meeting with to choose a tool that works best for them. Because for us, we're somewhat tool agnostic, but for a lot of our clients, there's one specific thing that they can only use within their organization. So it's nice to include that optionality, so that you can ensure a meeting platform that's compatible with that organization.
Michael: Yeah, great point. Because that is the thing: again, if you're trying to make it easier for other people to connect with you, then that definitely will do that. There was one more. Oh, okay. So I was thinking about—all right, we've covered all these things, how to make it easier for people to get to you, how you can make yourself a little bit more efficient. We talked about last time, tasks too, right? So all these things.
"All right, now I want to go check out all these tools. I want to go do these things. You've given me this list of tools to check out. But oh my gosh, how am I going to remember to do that?" So you can actually use—there's another tool called Momentum. Momentum is also, again, I'm giving myself away, I use Chrome quite a bit, but it's an extension that you can use. Or it's also just a tab. You can go in there and create task lists.
And what I really like about Momentum is that, first of all, it's a separate tab, and I kind of keep that on its own. So it's not with my—if you're like me, or definitely like Nicole, we have three different windows with at least 15, 20 tabs.
Nicole: Three is conservative.
Michael: Yeah, which is bad for your computer. But anyway, all that being said and done, you use Momentum. It has a quote of the day, it has a beautiful picture behind it, but then it has my task list. And of course, I can prioritize that task. So as I'm going down the task, I can check it off on there. It's a free tool. Again, there are other things that are out there, with HubSpot and things of that nature. But you can use these tools to help make you more efficient, so that you're getting things done.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely.
Michael: What else? Do you have anything else? No? Nothing?
Nicole: Wow. We did it.
Michael: Man, I think it's time for you to get out of here.
Nicole: I think that's it. Maybe it's time for us to get out of here.
Michael: We got to go. Yeah. You're so close to me.
Nicole: You like it.
Michael: I do. Welcome to My Thought Partner, Michael David Davis and my illustrious wife.
Nicole: I don't really think that's the word you want to use.
Michael: What is it?
Nicole: I just don't—hi, let's start over.
Michael: That's so good. That was great.
Nicole: Mm-mm.
Michael: Okay. There you go.
Nicole: Thanks. I love you.
Michael: All right. Hello. Welcome.
Nicole: That is so dumb. Hello.
Michael: Why do I do that? Hello. Welcome.
Nicole: I don't know. It's like you say materials.
