IAM1230 – Have You Maximised Your Time by Leveraging on the Essential Tools You Can Use?

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CEO Hack:

“It’s the App, the book, or the habit that you have that can make you more effective and efficient.”

CEO Hacks allows you to be more effective and efficient because they save us time and money.

Here are the 7 CEO Hacks you shouldn't live without:

• Basecamp – Basecamp is a project management app that you can access in your browser and on your phone. It gives you the tools you need to set up to-dos, a schedule, create and upload documents and files, message and chat with your colleagues, and check in regularly with your group in one place!
• Acuity – Acuity Scheduling is an easy-to-use and user-friendly scheduling solution using which clients can quickly view real-time availability, and book their appointments accordingly.
• I AM CEO Coloring Book – This 16-page coloring book is for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners to relax and harness their creativity. Studies have shown that adult coloring can reduce stress, increase motor skills, improve sleep, improve focus, and help with relaxation. With the disruption and change happening in our world, this is something that helps you stay peaceful and healthy mentally and emotionally. Also, check out Insight Timer and 365 Gratitude Journal.
• Fiverr Business – Set your team up for success every time with the help of freelance talent you can count on. Set your team up for success every time with the help of freelance talent you can count on. We have an eBook and you can check on out at Call Your VA.
• CEO Web Shop – CEO Web Shop is an online store providing 24/7 service and support where businesses and organizations have digital services like domain names, e-mail, web marketing, website builders, SSL, and web hosting. Try Kinsta, WPEngine, or WPMU DEV for dedicated WordPress hosting.
• Freshbooks – FreshBooks is an accounting software package developed and marketed by 2ndsite Inc. FreshBooks products are geared mainly toward small to medium-sized businesses and offer cloud-based accounting applications that send invoices to clients to bill for time and expertise. Also, check out QuickBooks.
• Audible on 2X Speed – Audible, an Amazon company, has the world’s largest selection of audiobooks and original ad-free audio shows. Whatever your passion, your interests, or your favorite authors, there’s a perfect listen for you.

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Transcription

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00:25 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:43 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. And this is episode number 1230. 1,2,3,0 of the I AM CEO podcast. I hope you are having a good wind down to the new year. You're getting the opportunity to really reflect, strategize, and get ready for what's the come in 2022. I'm definitely doing the same. Still working on multiple things. But we wanted to do something a little bit more creative for the podcast as we ease out of 2021 and into 2022. I can't even say that fast. 2022.

The goal is really just to learn a little bit more about the different aspects of the podcast while we dive in a little bit deeper into different aspects of the podcast. Going into 2022, you won't see and listen to the quote Unquote, the same old podcast. You'll hear a little bit more creativity, a little bit more CEO chat podcasts, going to make an appearance here and there, but learning about the different resources in ways that you can kind of be successful. That's what we are all about at the end of the day: helping CEO entrepreneurs and business owners succeed.

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So this is one of my favorites, actually, they're like all my favorites. But I learned from somebody, like podcasts, guess, you know, someone asks you, who's your favorite podcast guest? You can't pick one. It's like picking your favorite children. And the only child I have right now has four legs, so I can only pick one. But with that being said, I also love the questions. And I always say the last question is my favorite question. But this is probably one of my more exciting questions because there are so many different ways that this could go. It's the CEO hack.

If you listen to the podcast, the CEO hack is the app, the book, or the habit that you have that can make you more effective and efficient. And boy, oh boy, do I love these CEO hacks just because they can go so many different ways. And it really makes you think tremendously about what really helps me move the needle. The way that I often phrase the CEO hack is that it's often a thing that you overlook and don't think about and sometimes even take for granted. So during this episode, obviously, I usually ask every guest to give me one.

I'm going to give you seven. One plus six equals seven. So 16 is my number. So we're going to go with that. So with that being said, one of the ones I hear about frequently, and it's more of an overarching, I always like to drill down and hear from people what exactly makes up this specific part of the day, for lack of a better term, as a habit, which is morning routines. I always say a Tony Robbins quote, which is basically in order to win the day, you have to win the morning, and it really sets you up for success.

If you're able to really focus on the morning routine that you have, you're really able to build really strong habits. I myself and many of the people who have been on the show have mentioned that when you don't do the things that you normally do to set up your day, sometimes you just feel like you're off. And days that things have not gone the way that I wanted them to go, largely, is because I was sometimes, sometimes some way off in my morning routine. So with that being said, I'm going to go do a little bit of a rapid-fire co-hack.

So I'm going to delve down deep, a little bit deeper, not too deep into each of the different ones. Seven CEO hacks that you should not live without. Basecamp project management software takes all the things and puts them all in the right places. Acuity, use that for scheduling. Acuity is huge because it allows me to not have to do the back and forth, especially with time zones of figuring out what is the best time that somebody can speak. The imceo coloring book. If you've been a guest on the show, you probably have heard a little bit about that.

It's basically a coloring book. And there's loads and loads of data that says that taking time out to color to do what we did, quote unquote as a kid in many different ways, not just coloring x, provides a lot of help for you to kind of break away and be able to focus on tackling those problems, which to me is the essence of entrepreneurship. Fiverr when I first started my business, was probably one of the biggest things that I use and leverage.

There are other different ways that you can get help, but the gig workers to get that opportunity to kind of get that help and support for your business sometimes without needing to hire the full-time employee has been huge. So. Love fiverr. I haven't used it as much as I did probably when I started it, but it was definitely something big that I use. I see a webshop. I'd be crazy if I didn't talk about the importance, especially in this digital world, of being able to kind of get domains. And emails and just all those things that you need to have a virtual and a digital footprint seal.

Webshops, are one of those many ways that you can definitely use to do that. Freshbooks, we use that, and I use that for invoicing. As important as it is to do the work, it's also important to get paid. One of the big things that I will, you know, touch on a little bit is a mistake that I kind of made not using something like FreshBooks when I first started my business and not realizing, you know, just, you know, how much that I needed to make sure that I get payment for and then audible onto XP.

So, so many great books, so many great minds, and information that have been written and things that have been developed that are literally sitting in these audiobooks. So I'm super excited about that, but because it provides that opportunity to learn a little bit more from the people and from the geniuses on how they've been able to succeed. So let me delve a little bit deeper into each of these different ones. So tell you exactly why it's important how to do it.

So, basecamp, initially, when I started my business, everything was kind of in my email box. Now I have a remote team, people who work at different hours, in different parts of the world, in different time zones. Everything goes in basecamp. That is the rule as much as possible, even if it's a direct conversation that I have with a team member, they have their own basecamp. Basecamp is essentially like a digital file folder. It allows you the opportunity to put everything that you need for a project within that base camp. Everything is digital, of course.

But you're talking about files, you're talking about communications. You can also have, you know, direct communications within basecamp. You can do so much there. And the big thing is that because there are so many different things that are happening, so many moving parts, you want to be able to say, hey, let me go to the base camp, and I get all the information that I need. We do something also called pids, which are project initiation documents. So anytime we have a new project, we fill out our PID that also goes up into basecamp.

So if there's somebody that's on the team today, or there's somebody on the team five years from now, they can get up to speed with the project initiation documents, all that information, that knowledge goes into the base game. Been an absolute game-changer. I want to say it's probably been my biggest and most impactful piece of software that we've added into the business just because we've had, you know, hundreds or hundreds or so clients and different types of projects as well, too.

The reason that I chose Basecamp over other project management software, and not saying that it doesn't do that now, but at the time, being able to kind of send an email directly to the client through Basecamp was huge. I didn't have to jump out and use my email to send an email that no one else on the team would see, we'd be able to get replies. Everybody on the team can see, that we can win, they win, we win, and everybody wins. So acuity is a scheduling software toyed with different types of scheduling software.

The reason I landed on a QE is because I thought it was a little bit more robust than the others. One of the things that I talk about a lot is that I am not a fan of all-in-one software. I don't like my software to also be my project management software, to be my scheduler, to be, you know, my chief cook and bottle washer. I want everything to be kind of isolated because I personally enjoyed gluing them together or getting duct tape and putting them together. So acuity was that for me because I thought acuity was a little bit more of a robust system.

It also provided a lot of integration with other outside platforms. So, for example, if you sign up for acuity, you click a checkbox or two checkboxes and you're signed up for two different newsletters, constant contact, and active campaigns, you automatically get added to those. So I really enjoy that because it's just the integration, the ease by which it does that, there's always some opportunities that could be a little bit better. I think it was probably, I want to say, a year, year, and a half or so purchased by Squarespace. So that changed a little bit.

But at the same time, it's still kind of been, you know, pretty good. Not imperfect, but definitely something that's good. And then if you're watching this, you saw that I eased away a little bit to grab the Imco color book. This is a color book that I worked on and really wanted it as a way to do something unique for people who have been on the show, but also a way for people to kind of ease their mind and get away from the day-to-day activity. This was definitely created.

This is one of those pandemic lockdown projects that kind of came about so super excited about this and wanted to be like a small token of appreciation to everybody that had been on the show, but also getting that opportunity to kind of, you know, get away from work. There are lots of studies that show that it reduces stress and increases motor skills. And here's one of the big things, everybody. So when you are trying to de-stress or figure out a solution to a problem, often the best thing that you can do is to get away, ie, go in color for a little bit so you can see the star of the show, my dog star, if you're watching this, and also personnel desk.

But go in color, go and meditate, go and, you know, write down things that you're appreciative of. Go for a walk, take your dog out, take your cat out, go take a shower, do something, or work out something that is away from what it is that you're doing that's going to lead you to be a lot more successful. And I'm not the best color, so, but I can hold my own pretty well. So that's going to be number three. Number four, I talked about Fiverr for business. Don't use Fiverr as much anymore.

But I'm still a big proponent of it because you don't have to hire a full workforce. Upwork is another big tool that I use as well. So the idea is that you find the talent, find the people. Definitely check out some of our episodes for virtual assistants as well, too. You get the people that are successful so that you're able to kind of lean on them. CEO Webshop CEO Webshop is just a way by which you're able to get domains, you're able to get information, and all the things that you need. You want to set yourself up for success. CEO Webshop is the affiliated site that we use to kind of get domains and email marketing.

They have website builders and things like that, SSL, and all types of things. Fresh books. I promise. A lot of people use QuickBooks. I started out with FreshBooks. It's what's primarily invoice, and software has become a little bit more robust. Now, one of the big mistakes that I made when I started my business is I use PayPal and nothing against PayPal, but it doesn't have a dashboard to let you know how many invoices. At least it didn't at that time. At least I couldn't find where your money was. Like, how many invoices did I put out? How much money was I owed?

One of the things that I love about FreshBooks and sometimes hate about Freshbooks is when I go in, I find out right then and there exactly how much money I'm behind or how much money I'm owed, how much money I need to make sure that we get. So I like that because it's just a reminder of saying, hey, if you have $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 potentially that's just not there. That number speaks to you. So you will make sure that you do that. Of course, it has loads of other things, great things. They actually just went through a change.

They kind of change from, I don't know what they call it, but it's a newer, fresh book, but I'm a big fan of that. And then audible readers and leaders, and there's always so much knowledge and information. You can see so much further by standing on the shoulders of giants. So be sure to check out each of those seven, those seven hacks, those things that you can use. There are loads and loads of additional ones as well. To go to Ceohack.com, check Co. Has a directory of all the ones that I kind of come across, some of the ones that are mentioned on the podcast and the episodes.

But it is a huge resource that I always usually love and get giddy about an opportunity to kind of hear about any of those hacks that people use. Of course, you can listen to any episode. You'll hear a CEO hack, especially these. This one you get to hear seven. So that's basically it. This is Gresh signing out. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day. Hope you're easing into 2022 very, very well. And, as always, can check me out@imgres.com. or blue sixteenmedia.com as well. Thanks and have a great rest of the day.

13:43 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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