Using Technology and Tools to Increase Efficiency

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Michael David Davis
Welcome back to My Thought Partner or welcome if you're a first timer. Michael David Davis here.

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Nicole Davis
Nicole Davis

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Michael David Davis
She would not let me say she was illustrious. I don't know why.

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Michael David Davis
Nicole Today's episode what is all about your favorite? Everything is always your favorite, but it's.

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Nicole Davis
Just because I'm a positive person. I just like stuff easily. I'm easily excited and easily amused.

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Michael David Davis
Yeah, but you are definitely not wrong about being the positive person. I almost did not want to do this episode because I got lost in the whole reason why we're bringing out tools. Yeah, because I was still so excited about. Yes, we do have an actual egg timer. We talked about it last episode.

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Nicole Davis
However, it is, dysfunctional or actually one, one might argue nonfunctional. Yeah, I know. We hear the ticking, we got the ticking. But what, what very important function does it not execute on this particular egg timer?

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Michael David Davis
Yes. So this wonderful egg timer just lets you feel the anxiety of the countdown. But there's no finality.

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Nicole Davis
There's no final ding, there's no final word.

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Michael David Davis
Just going to let it go. And so if you don't hear the ding, that's because it's not it doesn't exist.

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Nicole Davis
But don't you feel like that could be a little like anxiety provoking? I mean, even I'm like feeling a little all sweaty right now, just listening to like.

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Michael David Davis
Yeah, well, you know, 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.

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Nicole Davis
Oh, really? Pulling on a thread here. But okay.

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Michael David Davis
All right. If you think about it, we're at 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.

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Nicole Davis
Sure.

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Michael David Davis
How do you know that It's time to move, right?

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Nicole Davis
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Michael David Davis
So I think the tools that we're going to talk about are going to help with that and implement that and.

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Nicole Davis
Well, yeah, and I think the last time and our on the last episode we didn't get the chance to really like dive in and 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.

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Michael David Davis
You definitely hinted at them for sure.

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Nicole Davis
I mean, I think there's a little bit more than a hint, but yeah, yeah.

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Michael David Davis
We talked the way we met, but that's for a whole nother thing. It was definitely more than a.

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Nicole Davis
Hint that it.

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Michael David Davis
Was pursuing who.

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Nicole Davis
Not for the podcast.

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Michael David Davis
That's not right. Okay, so when we're talking about tools I wanted to talk about, So here's 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's face that she gave me and the listening format and equivalents to.

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Nicole Davis
What they had. Let's be, shall we talk about what was on the list?

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Michael David Davis
Yeah, let's do it real quick. Make me happy.

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Nicole Davis
No pens, pencils, paper, notebooks, standing desk, like folks, folks know what these things are.

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Michael David Davis
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 and I think.

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Nicole Davis
We can move on to like, that's like 101. Yeah. I think we can move on to like one or two, dare I say like 201.

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Michael David Davis
Fair enough.

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Nicole Davis
Of like, what are some digital tools that we can use that can supplement the analog tools that folks are already using, working kind of like 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.

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Nicole Davis
Yeah, we talk about those, but let's.

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Michael David Davis
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 like turn them around and how that was a part of your efficient process in an analog world. So, so.

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Nicole Davis
True. But we talked about it. Yeah, we don't need to talk about it again.

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Michael David Davis
We're good. I will beat a dead horse. All right?

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Nicole Davis
Yeah. What else?

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Michael David Davis
Let's get into it, then. I will say this. So we're talking about tools and a product. No, not a product. And we're talking about tools.

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Nicole Davis
And productivity and.

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Michael David Davis
Productivity. Thank you. Yeah. Brain was actually going to like what I want to purchase from Amazon later, so.

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Nicole Davis
Shocker.

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Michael David Davis
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 like in the entrepreneurial world or you're in a startup where you're trying to, like, get somewhere to be to become your own boss or to create your own business, there are some tools a little bit I want to just hit on for the fact, because it's it is a thing that will set you apart as you're trying to build your business as opposed to

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Michael David Davis
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 or a.

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Nicole Davis
Little more polished, maybe a.

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Michael David Davis
Little more polished so that your friends and family don't think like, Oh, you're just doing this thing. Okay, yeah, whatever. Like, we don't really we're not going to support you and promote you because, you know, it looks a little like my three year old niece did it or something, right? So when I say that, you know, this is all going to make sense.

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Michael David Davis
So I say that 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 baloney.

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Nicole Davis
Yeah, it's like, continue.

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Michael David Davis
Then I'm going to say, please, please, please, please, please. If you have your own business in your side, hustle, get a domain name right. Get your company dot com. Obviously that one it has probably taken but get a domain name with your company. You think that is probably the most obvious thing.

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Nicole Davis
Okay. But why is that so important?

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Michael David Davis
Because it's going to unfortunately, we have to prove ourselves digitally, right? Every everything we are fed is a digital environment and we need some sort of like 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.

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Michael David Davis
I'm an unknown person. You're an unknown brand. We're an unknown brand. You're you're probably somebody that is trying to give a little bit more validity to one legitimacy. Yeah. And your legitimacy.

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Nicole Davis
Okay. So is that that domain name? Yes. Does that just mean you're getting a web address, like you're getting a website, essentially?

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Michael David Davis
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 now. Everyone should have a website. You can get them anywhere. Now, Squarespace, Wix, you can get them WordPress, there a dime a dozen.

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Michael David Davis
It doesn't you can build one in less than 30 seconds.

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Nicole Davis
Canvas, not canvas Canva right? Yeah. Yeah. You do a one page website. Yeah.

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Michael David Davis
You can just build a landing page. Oh great. Or and what is it? How? I know the basics. Here you are. What you do, who you're trying to go after, right? Yeah, but the other more important thing that I find the most.

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Nicole Davis
It's your pet peave right?

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Michael David Davis
It is my pet peeve and, 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, you're really trying to get that product or service out there. The last thing I want to see is your business, your company at gmail.com. Right?

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Nicole Davis
Yeah. Well, and look there's no problem, right? If that's what you're doing. That's right. That's fine. What what we're talking about is kind of that differentiator and what are small ways you can kind of add value and as we said, add the liberty and legitimacy to your business by just kind of making some of those small tweaks.

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Michael David Davis
Yeah. Yeah. And it's and then 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 you're going to start receiving information from people and you believe it or not, when you start seeing things from your company dot com, great. It looks like it's a real thing.

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Michael David Davis
You're more likely going to click on it. You're going to look at it. If I'm receiving your company at gmail.com from an email perspective, I'm going to go, you know, I'm and I'm you're probably going to go to the bottom of the list to be not considered or I'm just not going have time to go dig out to see if you are actually a real company.

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Michael David Davis
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 like, they can create a Gmail account. And so it's easy to, like, fall into like phishing or any type of like, bad sorry. Well, someone can go out there and get your information right. They assume you have money.

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Michael David Davis
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 I just wanted to get into so I get a domain name, get your company dot com, whatever it is, and then get some sort of email hosting service of your domain provider has that great do it.

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Michael David Davis
And that's the subject we're moving on but because that's again got it. Okay. 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?

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Nicole Davis
Yeah, but also this isn't just like startup oriented, right? I mean, I think it's if you're working within an organization, if you're in a matrix organization, there are definitely opportunities to have some better like project management tools and things like that so that you can really ensure everyone under stands what the outcome needs to be, how we're getting there, what the roadmap looks like, blah, blah, blah.

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Nicole Davis
I think I talked about this last week and I can't remember Monday.com

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Michael David Davis
You definitely brought it up because I'm a monday person so I remember that. I remember.

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Nicole Davis
I said it then.

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Michael David Davis
Tell me more.

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Nicole Davis
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. Like 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.

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Nicole Davis
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 like at Disney World, you know, it's like beautiful. You can color code things and, you know, drag things around. Like I really love the functionality of it and you can use it in any number of ways.

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Nicole Davis
I mean, you can we one of the things our list for today is talking about CRMs. You know.

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Michael David Davis
Yes.

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Nicole Davis
Customer relationship management systems. Yeah, man. I had a moment.

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Michael David Davis
Where I actually had to write down that CRM.

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Nicole Davis
So I was like.

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Michael David Davis
So used to using.

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Nicole Davis
I just say CRM all the time.

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Michael David Davis
Right?

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Nicole Davis
What does that stand for? Yes, customer relationship management systems. So you can use Monday.com as a CRM, you can use that for project management, You can, you know, set up contingencies within it. I've you know, I've used it in certain roles for, you know, 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?

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Nicole Davis
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 for folks who are a little intimidated by something like us on 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 like I'm not in the I.T. space necessarily.

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Nicole Davis
And so I'm I'm not using JIRA or Asana or things like that to kind of their fullest capabilities, which is maybe I don't love them as much, but they're great for what they do.

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Michael David Davis
Well, then that's perfect. So, like again, disclaimer none of these tools that were recommended, they're not paying for this podcast. They're not we are not being paid. So all these will be in the show notes. There's not going to be any affiliate links and bad decisions on us. Right. But that's okay because this is really about providing you that ability to to do a dive yourself and we're talking about what we use, why we use them and how we use them.

00:13:08:00 - 00:13:26:14
Michael David Davis
But again, this is also more specifically, just to give you an idea about how to 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, like Nicole and I are, again, we talk about our differences a lot. She likes the pretty I like the functional.

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Michael David Davis
So it.

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Nicole Davis
Is I mean, I like functional to.

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Michael David Davis
Correct me. I'm sorry. Let me let me rephrase it. Yeah. It's not that bad because it's.

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Nicole Davis
It's not binary.

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Michael David Davis
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 or especially JIRA is a platform that is 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.

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Michael David Davis
A lot of the time. Right. And so you don't need color. I mean, there are color codes but you don't need like pretty things. You don't need these wow factors. You just need data and a way to collect it and how to kind of not manage the projects, manage management project. Yeah. So that that's kind of what we're getting at.

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Michael David Davis
But like you'll find these tools that will 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.

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Nicole Davis
Oh, you know, but like, look, this is our podcast, so we talk about stuff we want to talk about.

00:14:32:12 - 00:14:34:21
Michael David Davis
Well, you know, that's why I married you.

00:14:35:00 - 00:14:38:12
Nicole Davis
And I want to talk about Monday.com. But again, so we should moveo on.

00:14:38:19 - 00:14:39:21
Michael David Davis
We should use that snippet of.

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Nicole Davis
That. That's that's terrible now.

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Michael David Davis
But you know and the other thing behind that is is there's you're going to you know, we have probably played around with so many tools I can't tell you in our household we are constantly, oh, my gosh, check out this like this website. Check out this, check out check out this tool and no cost to remind me. Just use the one you have.

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Michael David Davis
Stop looking for the next better thing or stop looking for the next tool. So you have to find that tool. Yeah.

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Nicole Davis
I don't know. That's what I say, but. Oh, that's cool. Story. No, I mean, I, I actually think we were just talking about this so 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.

00:15:27:17 - 00:15:45:10
Nicole Davis
Because I think, you know, again, we'll talk through we're doing a lot of talking and I really a lot of tool talk. But, you know, there there are a lot of different things out there that serve a different purpose, just like there are different there are competing organizations that have the right use case or the right client or what have you.

00:15:45:10 - 00:15:53:09
Nicole Davis
So I think that's the important thing with tools is like they're 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 that moment.

00:15:53:13 - 00:16:17:10
Michael David Davis
Yeah, I guess what I'm saying don't be like me. So for instance, let's just go into a CRM for instance, right? Like a CRM, a customer relationship management tool. I always want to say retention because like I now I know. So the customer relationship management tool, what that is, simplify what that simplistic idea is, is anybody that you're interacting with, you're putting it into a database.

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Michael David Davis
So let's go back to the analog. You're writing down their name, their email, phone number, address. Probably the most basic thing is you can get. Now let's take that the next step further. So here's the 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?

00:16:36:05 - 00:16:46:08
Michael David Davis
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.

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Nicole Davis
Like I see where you are going.

00:16:47:19 - 00:17:13:20
Michael David Davis
And Zoho so I will try them all out, I bet while I'm diving into them. Then I'm like, Oh, because they do all have features that are missing and there's not a you'll never find it all in one, right? 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 like, play with all these tools and once I get a tool set up round like I, it is now ready, it's automated, it's going to go then like, But what.

00:17:13:20 - 00:17:18:03
Nicole Davis
About that one thing? It doesn't have to be your thing, right? Yeah.

00:17:18:06 - 00:17:36:22
Michael David Davis
So don't fall into that trap. Try them out, but be very go in with the idea of what you actually need. Right. The idea, 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 ten steps down the line or 20 step. Yeah.

00:17:37:08 - 00:17:56:16
Nicole Davis
It's like over engineering for where you are now, right? Or that grass is always greener idea. I'm like, Well, surely there's something else out here, like do something right. Use use a tool or 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.

00:17:56:16 - 00:18:03:13
Nicole Davis
But yeah, I go, you're saying now like, don't, don't prevent yourself from doing something because you're waiting for that perfect tool.

00:18:03:19 - 00:18:22:13
Michael David Davis
Okay? So like if we're going to, we talk about tools, right? And specific tools, the psychology of I'm writing things down, it's working for me. Where is it? 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.

00:18:22:13 - 00:18:40:18
Nicole Davis
That when it's not working for you? Okay, I mean, look like do do what works for you and I think we talked about this before. I like I love a good Post-it, you know, and and it just depends. But there are times 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.

00:18:41:01 - 00:19:01:13
Nicole Davis
So, you know, I think that is that is the tipping point is 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 like, running into the same problem over and over again.

00:19:02:04 - 00:19:23:04
Nicole Davis
Those are usually good indicators that something's not quite right with the systems that you're using right now. You know, 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, you know, a ton of roles that are like that. But, you know, I'm sure there are some you didn't, you know, you know, like keep keep plugging away at whatever systems work, even if those are pencil paper.

00:19:23:11 - 00:19:30:18
Nicole Davis
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.

00:19:31:01 - 00:20:06:04
Michael David Davis
You know, And speaking of Segways, yeah, between collaboration and Sticky Notes, there is a wonderful platform out there that's called Lucid Spark. And Lucid Spark is just that. It is. It's taken. Nicole This is almost like I want it. Nicole to use this tool all the time. But again, they have already so many tools, but it is taking a a board basically like a whiteboard and you get in there with five, six, ten, 20 people and you just start throwing ideas down on sticky notes on digital sticky notes, and then you can drag and drop them in different columns and things of that nature.

00:20:06:04 - 00:20:22:18
Michael David Davis
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, and see all that, do the alphabet. And then you just start writing and you go, okay, people look at you.

00:20:22:18 - 00:20:41:20
Michael David Davis
Look, there's already five people from cities with A through C, so, you know, but it is a total drag and drop and it's based off the sticky note. I think it's so cool because it's it's easy, it's fast and, and believe it or not, it's fun. And I think that's one thing that tools we never talk about is they can be fun if you like to use them.

00:20:41:20 - 00:20:44:13
Nicole Davis
So yeah that one is not my favorite though.

00:20:44:22 - 00:20:49:07
Michael David Davis
Yeah, it's okay. It's like it just made me think about it. And, you know, if we're going to talk about the tools that are out there.

00:20:49:14 - 00:20:51:21
Nicole Davis
Yeah, well, so can I counter that with.

00:20:51:21 - 00:20:52:07
Michael David Davis
Yes.

00:20:52:21 - 00:21:13:10
Nicole Davis
For Miro. Miro is my, 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?

00:21:14:04 - 00:21:33:22
Nicole Davis
Are the other folks 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.

00:21:34:07 - 00:21:52:12
Nicole Davis
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, you know, let's really map out what your customer journey looks like right now.

00:21:52:12 - 00:22:12:12
Nicole Davis
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 you want to dig into, I've got that tool ready to crank out.

00:22:12:19 - 00:22:31:04
Nicole Davis
I have one for identifying a 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, is you can replicate your own template, you can pull from other people, and then it's pretty easy to customize.

00:22:31:04 - 00:22:40:09
Nicole Davis
So like 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.

00:22:40:09 - 00:22:44:12
Michael David Davis
All right. So we'll be back in the second half. Getting into more specific tools.

00:22:44:17 - 00:22:57:08
Nicole Davis
Awesome. Let's be live recording and recording. Great. Both of us, our best our best selves in this moment.

00:22:57:08 - 00:23:24:02
Michael David Davis
I'm just having fun. Okay, so no calls. Always telling me I'm a I'm, I'm. I'm, like, swirling the drain constantly. Like it just or it's the longest night. I just can't wrap things up or I just don't bring these things together. So we we've alluded to some of these tools, but like we're going to get into like the rapid fire where the tools are and then get you on your way.

00:23:24:03 - 00:23:25:04
Michael David Davis
Okay? Okay. Right.

00:23:25:05 - 00:23:26:01
Nicole Davis
Yeah, I love that.

00:23:26:01 - 00:23:47:12
Michael David Davis
Yeah, I figured you when we mentioned canvas, 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.

00:23:47:17 - 00:23:57:21
Michael David Davis
And that content planning is the automation part of me posting to my social networks, right? Whether that's where the personal side of the world or from the business side.

00:23:57:21 - 00:24:04:15
Nicole Davis
Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, because I actually am not sure that a lot of people know about that, that it is that functionality within Canva.

00:24:04:16 - 00:24:05:17
Michael David Davis
Well, and the funny thing is.

00:24:05:17 - 00:24:14:15
Nicole Davis
I didn't, I didn't know about it. I mean, I'm not necessarily like representative of Nicole Loves. I love Canva, but I didn't know that it did that. Yeah, And.

00:24:14:15 - 00:24:31:17
Michael David Davis
She would tell me about Canva. I'm like, I don't care about this stuff. Like, what's the point of it? And now I am like, this big proponent of Canva because of that. And it was funny because we were 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.

00:24:32:01 - 00:24:55:01
Michael David Davis
And I was I was trying to find this tool that would like 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 it, that is a thankless job and it is one of the most crucial elements now, because again, that is everything we are facing is digitized.

00:24:55:01 - 00:25:15:22
Michael David Davis
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. It is challenging. Yeah. You had to come up with so much stuff.

00:25:16:04 - 00:25:16:17
Nicole Davis
Long kiss goodnight.

00:25:17:02 - 00:25:28:20
Michael David Davis
Yeah, but I want to, right? So I have a year or a year stuff planned out already that is now going to automatically be generated through Canva, through their content planner.

00:25:28:21 - 00:25:33:12
Nicole Davis
Yeah, well, in a great example of two people using the same tool in very different ways.

00:25:33:12 - 00:25:42:14
Michael David Davis
Very much so. Right? Yes. Okay. And then so but that also leads into the next tool, which is Chat GPT Yes, I know it is. The big hot button is the big.

00:25:42:14 - 00:25:43:22
Nicole Davis
Topic blows my mind.

00:25:44:00 - 00:25:53:19
Michael David Davis
There are hundreds, if not thousands of articles a day written about the fear of the AI and removing a lot of these redundant jobs content creation.

00:25:53:19 - 00:25:58:09
Nicole Davis
Well, yeah, but like great thing to talk about when it comes to content creation, right?

00:25:58:17 - 00:26:16:02
Michael David Davis
Yeah. And it's and it's really, hey, 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.

00:26:16:19 - 00:26:19:19
Nicole Davis
Now or what message you want to convey your audience, Right?

00:26:19:21 - 00:26:38:21
Michael David Davis
No, AI is going to replace you, right? Let's just get that now where A.I. generation tools are great for whether this is a painting one, whether it is as a chat, one. The great thing is, is that it can give you a little foundation to start.

00:26:39:06 - 00:26:40:03
Nicole Davis
A jumping off point.

00:26:40:03 - 00:26:49:00
Michael David Davis
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.

00:26:49:00 - 00:26:49:11
Nicole Davis
Yeah, they're.

00:26:49:11 - 00:26:53:17
Michael David Davis
Perfect. But then you go in and you start modifying, you start tweaking it, right?

00:26:53:21 - 00:27:17:06
Nicole Davis
Well, and I mean, I always say I love to edit, I hate to write. And so for me, it's it's a perfect tool for that, right? Because I, I have a good eye for kind of tweaking other people's work. Like, isn't that convenient? But like, you know, I like to go in, 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.

00:27:17:06 - 00:27:29:12
Nicole Davis
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 in that, gosh, sometimes it's just really hard to get started, that it's a great place to get started.

00:27:29:14 - 00:27:53:14
Michael David Davis
Yeah. And then it really is good for again, if you're creating sequences in cells, if you're creating responses, if you're doing things that are that are repetitious, it's great for really adding your voice into something created based around all the data that exist 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.

00:27:53:14 - 00:28:15:03
Michael David Davis
But we're in a society now that nothing really is original anymore, right? We're just we're building upon something new. Okay, So the other part of that is what I struggle with most is how do I know? And spending too much time on something is enough. Nicole I have to use this tool. We already know this is how I look like.

00:28:15:03 - 00:28:34:17
Michael David Davis
Did anybody hear it go out? No, you didn't. It broke. So unfortunately we had to go digitally. And I say unfortunately, because it is it's around us everywhere. I use this wonderful tool. It's called Pomodoro. It is based off of the Pomodoro method. Yeah. And I actually didn't even know what the Pomodoro method is. I probably should have known this my entire life.

00:28:34:17 - 00:28:55:18
Michael David Davis
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, it's education. You can use it in a Chrome extension. I'm sure that there are other varieties out there that use it for Is it on it's default settings? It's 25 minutes of focused work, five minute break.

00:28:56:00 - 00:29:17:19
Michael David Davis
You do that four times and then you get a long break that's there. The whole concept of it is, is that so that you are giving and retraining your brain to get that real focus on what you're doing and then relaxing? Yeah, my problem was when I first started using this tool was that 25 minutes is not long enough for me to get something done right.

00:29:18:01 - 00:29:40:11
Michael David Davis
But what I was finding out and what I am also now an advocate of as when I when I don't do that. 25 five Now again, you can go in the settings, you can change all these things, but 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.

00:29:40:11 - 00:29:45:16
Nicole Davis
So what? And the quality of your work tends to diminish. Not you like just people. I mean.

00:29:45:16 - 00:29:48:02
Michael David Davis
It's you say it's like my battery levels is I.

00:29:48:12 - 00:30:07:08
Nicole Davis
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 your work time frame to have that same level of quality there. Right. Yeah. And I think we actually use it for different reasons.

00:30:07:08 - 00:30:34:22
Nicole Davis
So for me, my personal productivity is really high on days that I have a lot of meetings, right? Because you, 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, you know, meetings in the morning with an afternoon is free, sometimes it's hard for me to just stay focused and get those things done in a shorter amount of time.

00:30:34:22 - 00:30:50:18
Nicole Davis
You know, maybe it takes me 2 hours to do something that really should have just taken me an hour. If I had not had my phone, if I had, you know, just kind of like 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.

00:30:51:00 - 00:31:10:08
Nicole Davis
It helps me with structure. And then I know, you 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 5 minutes, yeah, I'll check my email, I'll check my phone and see if I have any calls, missed calls or text or anything like that. But then when it's time to work again, it's time to work again.

00:31:10:08 - 00:31:26:16
Nicole Davis
And that has really helped me. I get to add structure in unstructured days. Yeah, and just to talk about the talks, I think we're talking about the method, but we're not 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.

00:31:26:16 - 00:31:51:05
Nicole Davis
So there is kind of like 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, when your break time is over.

00:31:51:11 - 00:31:55:17
Nicole Davis
But, you know, it's a very simple tool but can be really helpful.

00:31:55:17 - 00:32:15:07
Michael David Davis
I will say it's interesting. I'm actually trying to use it. This is its own thing. I'm trying to use it to help me with one of my fears. Like, I don't know where happened. It's somewhere in my life over age I've been getting scared of flying. I don't know why I love flying. So let me get in fear for the one of the dings as that that the call attendant button is like that to me.

00:32:15:07 - 00:32:15:16
Nicole Davis
Yeah.

00:32:16:23 - 00:32:17:14
Michael David Davis
I used.

00:32:17:16 - 00:32:18:02
Nicole Davis
That to help.

00:32:18:02 - 00:32:21:13
Michael David Davis
It. I don't. I don't know. We haven't flown like that since that time. But like I'll.

00:32:21:14 - 00:32:21:20
Nicole Davis
Say.

00:32:22:01 - 00:32:25:09
Michael David Davis
Like I'm using it so that that becomes a more common sound.

00:32:25:10 - 00:32:25:23
Nicole Davis
That's pretty funny.

00:32:26:01 - 00:32:31:01
Michael David Davis
And I'm disassociating that with the fear of being in a plane. So we'll find out if it works well.

00:32:31:01 - 00:32:36:19
Nicole Davis
But is it positive reinforcement? Are you using that to indicate it's time for a break or maybe get back to work? I was.

00:32:36:21 - 00:32:39:13
Michael David Davis
Using it for the.

00:32:39:13 - 00:32:42:15
Nicole Davis
Break. Okay. I got. You should have a positive association.

00:32:42:15 - 00:32:48:17
Michael David Davis
Yeah, of course. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, like. Yeah, Who wants to go back? I think my going back to the work is like that big gong.

00:32:48:17 - 00:32:49:20
Nicole Davis
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah.

00:32:49:20 - 00:33:03:05
Michael David Davis
Okay. Yeah, because that's fun. All right, You also talk. This is either either favorite tool. Hands down. I don't care if you are a solopreneur or entrepreneur of your small business or even if you don't do anything. If you.

00:33:03:05 - 00:33:04:06
Nicole Davis
Are a human.

00:33:04:09 - 00:33:09:03
Michael David Davis
If you're a human and you just need some sort of little bit.

00:33:09:06 - 00:33:09:22
Nicole Davis
Don't even know what you're.

00:33:10:05 - 00:33:16:06
Michael David Davis
Gaining back the chaos in your life right? Get Calendly.

00:33:16:15 - 00:33:21:17
Nicole Davis
Oh, why have we not talked about this? Yeah, I get Calendly because of it.

00:33:21:23 - 00:33:31:11
Michael David Davis
First of all, it is the best free tool out there in my I would, I would love for anyone out there to argue differently. I know. If you're me.

00:33:31:11 - 00:33:32:08
Nicole Davis
I'm sure you do.

00:33:32:08 - 00:33:32:16
Michael David Davis
You could.

00:33:33:02 - 00:33:34:14
Nicole Davis
But I know it's great.

00:33:34:14 - 00:33:49:15
Michael David Davis
Yeah, go ahead. Look, I. I This woman is itching to get out of her chair and talk about this because. Only because only hands down for the free tool that it is. And Calendly if any of your executives hear this, or if I don't.

00:33:49:15 - 00:33:50:15
Nicole Davis
chagne this, I love you

00:33:50:16 - 00:33:58:02
Michael David Davis
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. Yeah.

00:33:58:14 - 00:34:15:16
Nicole Davis
I was going to say you can pay to upgrade the features, right? And to add kind of like a more robust suite of scheduling options. But man, the free tool itself, I love it. How does it work? I don't I don't know, because I pay for it. So I, I don't want to talk about the free aspect. Sorry, but I'm just saying.

00:34:16:07 - 00:34:39:13
Nicole Davis
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 get time on my calendar then because sometimes you do just need to have that quick check in like, Hey, I have a question about this.

00:34:39:13 - 00:34:57:18
Nicole Davis
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.

00:34:58:00 - 00:35:19:02
Nicole Davis
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. You know, people love it. I think trying to navigate multiple calendars is awful sometimes because you're also trying to interpret like the importance of someone else's calendar, which is not, you know, a battle you're going to win and.

00:35:19:02 - 00:35:38:18
Michael David Davis
You're relying on if they are sharing all the information that's calendar, right? You don't need to see the details about like, are they really available? Because again, when we talk about our efficiencies or trying to make ourselves more productive and my favorite game, I mean, we talk about time blocking a lot of if you're not putting time blocking in your calendar, then you're showing available.

00:35:38:18 - 00:35:58:18
Michael David Davis
So if you set up that Calendly link and then it shows you're available and then you're really not right, you're you're harming yourself. So I think to to add to what you're saying is that 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 hour more.

00:35:58:18 - 00:36:16:02
Michael David Davis
I would say more like 5 to 10, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.. You can actually just create a select of a 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 like new clients, we usually do like a new client Monday or something like that.

00:36:16:02 - 00:36:34:15
Michael David Davis
So there's only certain things 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 going to be like probably 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 the time.

00:36:34:15 - 00:36:43:09
Michael David Davis
When I had time, guess what? Make that just set a block of time out, send it to the friends and if they don't choose it, guess, would you at least give them the opportunity, Right?

00:36:43:09 - 00:37:03:20
Nicole Davis
Yeah. So. Well, and that's the thing is that, you know, 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 know, you do have the ability to also set up those different types of appointments like you mentioned. So you know some of them. So like for me a new client onboarding is probably more like a 45 minute call.

00:37:03:20 - 00:37:16:14
Nicole Davis
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, when it's convenient for them. Yeah, but it's it's a game changer. Yeah.

00:37:16:21 - 00:37:40:11
Michael David Davis
Like a 15 minute check in or something like that. Which again, you know, a lot of these things that this is going to lead into the next tool Zoom because like you can like have Zoom set up where that if you're doing your video calls I know we've talked about when we send out this county 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 team's, if they want to do just like a Google Meet

00:37:40:11 - 00:37:41:00
Nicole Davis
Meet me.

00:37:41:06 - 00:37:55:02
Michael David Davis
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.

00:37:55:07 - 00:38:13:13
Nicole Davis
Well, yeah, but let me say that a little different 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.

00:38:13:19 - 00:38:21:23
Nicole Davis
So it's nice to include that optionality so that you can ensure a meeting platform that's compatible with that organization.

00:38:21:23 - 00:38:43:21
Michael David Davis
Yeah, great point. Great point. Because like that is the thing that again, if you're trying to make it easier for other people to connect with you, then that definitely will do that. Yeah, I wish there was one more. Oh, okay. So I was thinking about, all right, we've covered all these things that how to make it easier for people to get to you, how you can make yourself a little bit more efficient.

00:38:44:03 - 00:38:59:07
Michael David Davis
There's an you know, 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. Like, how am I going remember it? Yeah. So you can actually use there's another tool called Momentum

00:38:59:07 - 00:39:17:20
Michael David Davis
Momentum is also, again, I'm giving myself away. I use Chrome quite a bit. But like it's an it's an extension that you can use or it's also just a tab. You can go in there and create task list. 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.

00:39:17:22 - 00:39:28:00
Michael David Davis
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 open.

00:39:28:12 - 00:39:29:19
Nicole Davis
Three as conservative.

00:39:29:19 - 00:39:45:08
Michael David Davis
But yeah, and bad for your computer. But anyway, all that being said and done, you use Momentum It's got it has a quote of the day. It has a beautiful picture behind it and it has my task list. And I of course I can prioritize that task. Or as I'm going down the task, I can check it off and on there.

00:39:45:08 - 00:39:55:15
Michael David Davis
It's a free tool. Again, there are other things that are out there. Yeah, with HubSpot and things of that nature. Sure, you can use these tools to help make you more efficient so that you're getting things done.

00:39:55:22 - 00:39:56:11
Nicole Davis
Absolutely.

00:39:56:15 - 00:40:00:07
Michael David Davis
What else do you have? Anything else? Oh, nothing.

00:40:00:07 - 00:40:01:04
Nicole Davis
Wow, We did it.

00:40:01:13 - 00:40:06:15
Michael David Davis
Man. I'm. I think it's time for you to get out of here.

00:40:06:15 - 00:40:09:13
Nicole Davis
I think that maybe it's time for us to get out of here.

00:40:09:18 - 00:40:21:14
Michael David Davis
We've got to go so close to me.

00:40:22:01 - 00:40:22:15
Nicole Davis
You like.

00:40:22:15 - 00:40:30:12
Michael David Davis
It? I do. Welcome to my thought partner, Michael David, and my illustrious wife.

00:40:31:08 - 00:40:33:04
Nicole Davis
I don't really think that's the word you might use.

00:40:33:04 - 00:40:33:17
Michael David Davis
What is it.

00:40:35:01 - 00:40:37:19
Nicole Davis
Like I say, Hi. Let's start over.

00:40:38:04 - 00:40:39:17
Michael David Davis
Now. That's so good. That was great.

00:40:40:00 - 00:40:42:18
Nicole Davis
Hmm.

00:40:42:18 - 00:40:43:07
Michael David Davis
Thank you.

00:40:44:21 - 00:40:47:12
Nicole Davis
Thank you.

00:40:47:12 - 00:40:49:19
Michael David Davis
All right. Hello. Welcome.

00:40:49:23 - 00:40:51:04
Nicole Davis
That's high low.

00:40:51:06 - 00:40:53:18
Michael David Davis
How do I do that? Hello. Welcome.

00:40:53:19 - 00:40:55:17
Nicole Davis
I don't know. It's like you say, materials.