Independence Day, Products for Productivity, Masterminding, & Barbara Ling

Another high temperature week here in Arizona… but very productive since it keeps me inside! So, yesterday I did a Google hangout / Vlog but it’s Friday now and I’m finishing up the actual post so you’ll have the text below (cause I’m one of those who likes to have both!)

So for everyone here in the U.S…. Happy Independence Day!

And for those of you outside the U.S., I hope you took advantage of our celebration as a reason to have a cookout and a good time with your own family and friends!

It hit 109 I think yesterday, which is actually the coolest it’s been all week so we didn’t mind.

A Much Needed Personal Note

I don’t know how many of you heard or how far the news has gotten, but while the holiday is usually a big celebration, it’s also been a very sad week here in Arizona.

We lost 19 firefighters last weekend in a fire near Payson. It was a very elite squad of twenty guys who build firewalls to keep fires from spreading… so they get as close to the fires as is safe to do.

There’s an investigation pending, but the belief is that the fire simply turned too fast because of the Monsoon winds that were blowing around.

Needless to say there are many people grieving while the holiday celebrations are happening.

And given that we’ve had no rains for quite a while, most cities around this area have banned personal fireworks this year, sparklers included.

I just didn’t feel it would be right to not acknowledge these guys that died. Most of them, with the exception of one who was 43, were between the ages of 21 and 32.

So for the families there, I hope they know how many people are saying prayers for them.

Product Creation Challenge

This is the only blog post I’ve done this week because I’ve still been busy with Tiffany Lambert’s (used to be Tiffany Dow) Product Creation Challenge.

The biggest thing is getting my ducks in a row about the direction I want to go and how to connect the projects I’m working on so that my branding starts coming together.

Mindless Mapping Method

Technically I suppose, this is my second product that I’ve gotten done during this challenge. But since my first one was already in the works with the exception of a sales page, I don’t feel like it’s fair to count that one.

So, if any of you hesitate for a single second to beat yourself up over not having gotten your first done and I’m on my second due to a technicality… and I know at least one person will cause I do the same thing to myself… well…. DON’T.

That’s all I can say is don’t (and the more often I say it to you, the more often I hear it myself as a reminder for ME not to do it either!)

But the Mindless Mapping Method… I DID create during this challenge.

I have the PDF done, I got the three initial templates done this week and my graphics are finalized.

I haven’t really started marketing it yet though. But I did have a gal in a private group I belong to ask if I’d be willing to do a custom template so she could market it to her group with her own time management product she’s launching.

My initial templates are geared towards bloggers in general. She’s working with Kindle authors and writers.  So, I created the custom template for her and I sent that over to her see if there’s anything else that she thinks her audience might want to keep track of.

I’m waiting to hear back on that and in the meantime, I’m working on figuring out the marketing.

I’m working on the outline for the first 3 Hangouts. I think I mentioned that in last week’s video.

I hadn’t actually done them this week because I wanted to make sure that the custom template done for the gals product launch, so it’s time to get started on those.

Once I have the basics prepared, there are a few people in my hangout mastermind group that want to be a part those. I love that cause it’s always good when you have people who have live questions about stuff I might not have thought about yet.

The other thing I’m working out is the whole OTO thing. i’m not a big OTO person. I prefer to have ALL the information in my product and know what the up front price is. Other people seem to not mind OTOs as long as you let them know up front what they are and what they cost.

I’m not sure what to offer as a bonus yet either. I was considering using my

Niche Research Packs as either an OTO or a bonus since both products are designed to save people time in building and keeping track of their business.

But, not everyone does niche websites, so it may work better as an OTO… that way only those who can use them would buy them whereas it wouldn’t be viewed as a bonus for those who DON’T do niche sites.

Other Projects

I set up a new Pinterest account this week because I’m planning so many hangouts. I was looking for a place where I could USE those hangouts. I did this for two reasons.

First, I want to be able to offer my services for hosting other people’s hangouts.

Second, I’ve been reaching out and finding a lot of great people who know about product creation, mind mapping, productivity and such, along with some really great products, tips, & shortcuts. I wanted a place to highlight what I’ve been finding. I figure if they’re offering such great information, other people should know about it!

I have boards that I’m working on adding pins to… So I’m adding people who have really great, eye-catching Twitter or Facebook backgrounds and people that are experts in their fields who offer really great, useful information.

And I’ll let you know up front… I’m doing research before they get added. I’m not just finding something that looks really cool and throwing it onto a board (that’s what my personal Pinterest account is for!).

I’m looking for who I may eventually want to network with. But even if I decide not to or I DON’T want to… these are people and products that my name and reputation will be associated with once I add them.

So I’m checking. When I find people that I think are really cool, I’m going online to check out their Twitter account, Pinterest account, Facebook page… Any place I can find them to see if people are interacting with them, liking them, NOT liking them, etc.

And if I run across people who have negative things being said, I still go see if I can find out why on my own. Not everyone is going to like everyone else… that doesn’t mean they’re bad people. So I like to investigate and not just go by people at face value.

My initial goal is to eventually add one per day… to take five minutes and highlight that specific person on a hangout. Initially I may be doing two or three a week until I get faster at it.

Then I’ll be including the information on my YouTube account, Pinterest account and my blog. That way they get plenty of back link love for being good at what they do.

While I’m doing this, I’m going to be tracking my traffic as well. I want to know what the difference is between using Pinterest vs. just my blog in the way of traffic.

For example, so far this week, with just joining communities on Google+, creating a new Twitter and Pinterest account… and then doing my hangouts… without blogging at all, I’ve gotten 25 new Twitter followers in the last six days, and 41 new people over at Google+ who have circled me.

Not bad… and I’m meeting really helpful people!

Masterminding

This past week (which was July 3rd when I recorded the video), I joined a mastermind group with Barb Ling called Facebook Espresso.

I haven’t known Barb for very long. I’ve known aBOUT her for a lot longer than I’ve been following her, but she has discounted the product for the holiday. I don’t know how long she’ll be running the sale so if you’ve been wanting to figure out Facebook for your business, you may want to check it out.

Personally, I’ve been ignoring Facebook. I’ve used it for years for family, friends and high school buddies, but I’ve mostly ignored as a business tool.

It’s not that I haven’t played with it a bit on that side. But I don’t like switching from page to page to make sure that my business posts are separate from my personal posts. And I don’t want to inundate friends and family with business (or business associates with my personal views for that matter).

But I attended a webinar with Barb and she has some GREAT ways to Facebook to simplify the socializing aspect of it for business, as well as incorporate it into what I’m already doing… WHILE moving my followers OFF Facebook (so changes over there will never damage my ability to stay in touch).

In just the webinar alone, I learned at least three new things about Facebook that I have never seen before.

It’s a three week course. The information is already online so it won’t take three weeks to go thru it if I want to move faster. I have access to a private mastermind group with Barb and her folks that I can ask questions of and get to know.

The mastermind I joined with Zane Miller a few weeks ago has been EXTREMELY useful, so I felt this one would be a good idea for where I’m headed.

I spoke with Zane, who has been my Google hangouts mentor and we were talking about my launching my Mindless Mapping.

During our talk, we took a look at the products I’ve done and the ones I’m working on and figured out that I’m an organizer.

I’ve known that for a long time, but I hadn’t really thought about it from a business standpoint. And the thing is, I only organize things that I care about.

So as far as other stuff… bills, dishes, and other day-to-day stuff that doesn’t really float my boat… they might be organized and they might not. Sort of a “If I get time, I’ll get around to it.” kinda thing.

But when you’re talking about my photos, my photo albums (yes I still have real, hard copy albums), and my scrapbooks (which are also hard copy), my cassettes… Yes I still have those too… but I have DVDs and CDs as well so…  back off… I KNOW how old I am! 🙂

Anyway…. those things… they mean something to me. They’re things I care about. So I keep those extremely organized.

And my business… when I create products or offer other people’s products… that’s important to me.

So everything that I’m doing, from mind mapping to Pinterest to Evernote and more… everything is in regards to keeping yourself organized, increasing your productivity, staying focused for at least 15 minutes at a time.

OH! Speaking of focus and productivity… I found a cool new toy this week!

I don’t remember where I found it offhand but it’s called The Email Game.

For those of you who get a lot of email and start to feel overwhelmed by it at times (I have over a hundred thousand emails in my account), this is SO helpful.

It’s and online tool and I know they have a Chrome extension. I use Chrome, so I don’t know if it’s available for Firefox or IE. You’ll have to check that out.

I’m gonna cover it in more detail on a hangout later this week but basically, it’s a fun way to get control over your inbox.

You can start it at any time when you have a few minutes and set it to do 30, 50 or 100 emails at a time. That keeps it from becoming a chore for you.

But it accesses your emails and lets you make instant decisions about what to do with them.

For me, I typically start on my emails but I find myself opening them and then not making a decision about them. Then by the end of the day I still haven’t done a darn thing with most of them.

If that sounds like you, you definitely wanna check this out. But like I said, I’ll do a hangout on it too and go over how it works.

Finally!

I think that’s all I’ve got. It’s been another “record on Day 1, blog on Day 2, finish on Day 3” kind of post… because I got wrapped up in these dogs I’m sitting. There appears to be something odd going on but I won’t know for sure till mid-week so I’ll get back to you on that one.

I hope you had a fun and safe Independence Day!

Oh, and I had to record the hangout twice. Apparently I managed to hit the mute key again on my computer the night before I recorded so I spent nearly 20 minutes talking to myself.

It’s ok though. That means I’ve just officially become a member of the club we’re creating over in my hangouts mastermind group! “The Silent Recorders” Club!

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