Unlock Efficiency: Elevate Your Skills with Our Training & Videos

Qatalog

Are you needing an all-in-one workspace for your team or business? Well, in this video we're taking a look at three applications, at three different price points, to determine what is the best for you. Now, note, all three of these apps have a free

or a free trial version, but we want to compare apples to apples, so we're going to be looking at their pro or business plan. So let's get started. (upbeat music) The very first tool that we're going to be looking at today is called Qatalog. Now, Qatalog is an all-in-one workspace where you can use it to manage your projects, manage clients,

manage your staff, manage almost anything, but in a very clean and very easy to use navigation system. So after signing up for your Qatalog account it'll ask you what are you building it for? And it's given me a few examples here.

Am I an advertising agency? Am I a law firm? Am I a real estate agency? In this case, I'm going to type in that I'm an accounting firm, that's what I am, that's what I want to build Qatalog for.

I'm going to select continue, and what it's going to do is take all of its knowledge of the accounting world, of the bookkeeping world, and build something custom for me.

Now, of course, I have the opportunity to change and tweak, and delete, and add more things as well, but what I'm most impressed with is that it's creating me something that I can use and my team can use right away. And in just a few seconds

it has built something that I can get started with right away. Here you can see that it's going to give me three different modules, reports, projects, and clients. And it also tells me exactly what is going to be listed or included within those modules, including things such as cost, client name, start date, end date. 

And of course, all of this is customizable. So unlike just starting with a template, it has something that is much more detailed. Now, at this point, I could choose to remove any of these modules or change them, but we can also do this after the fact.

So I'm going to come down here and say,Build my Qatalog, and now I'm ready to get started with my clients, projects,

and reporting modules ready for me on the left hand side menu. Now that you've seen how easy it is to set up a Qatalog, let's go into another workspace which already has some content, so I can show you around.

In this case, I have a few additional modules, including Services and Contractors, because perhaps I'm a consulting agency in this particular example. If I click on Projects, for example,

I'm going to see a list of all of my projects, and I'm going to click on this one called Wayne Industries. Now, one of the first things that you're bound to notice is that Qatalog looks a lot more like an off the shelf software product, as opposed to something where you need to build things step by step or page by page.

You may think that the services and the different modules here on the left hand side are hard coded, and I think that that's a great thing, especially as you're bringing on new members to your team, it can be like introducing them to a full-fledged software product rather than something that you or other members of your team are building along the way.

Everything here within Qatalog is very easy to navigate and easy to find, and if you need to search for something, they've got a handy search space

where you can search across the entire interface. Now, one of the great things about Qatalog is that not only have we set up different modules, but all of those different components are integrated. And unlike other all-in-one workspace tools everything is integrated together.

So for example, if I have customers here in the top of my project space here, here is my particular customer for this particular project,. It is integrated directly with the Customers section over here.

I don't have to make those manual connections, I can find them and manage them right here within this particular list. Now, another great feature of Qatalog is that we can change the name of any of our fields and it will change throughout the entire workspace.

So for example, even though I'm looking at Projects here and I have Clients at the top of the screen, maybe that's not a term that we use, maybe this is something that we created, but we're now wanting to use the term customer for all of our clients.

All I need to do is come down here and click on Settings, I'm going to click on my Modules, and then click on Clients. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to change this to Customer as the singular name, and I'm going to say Customers as the plural name and hit Save.

And now when I jump back into my Projects, you can see that it is listed as Customers, and this will carry over to everywhere else within my module. So overall, when all is said and done, Qatalog is perhaps the smoothest all-in-one workspace, and the easiest to navigate.

As for pricing Qatalog is priced at $9 per person per month, to learn more and to start your free trial you can go to qatalog.com.

Notion

(upbeat music) Next up, let's take a look at Notion which proudly presents itself

as an all-in-one workspace. And it's true, you can use Notion for an awful lot, including projects, as a CRM, or for managing staff and other tasks. Now, when it comes to getting started with Notion you have one of two options.

Yes, there are a large number of templates in which you can get started with. If I click on the Templates feature, you can see the long list here, everything from project management to some simple database management as well.

Now, your second method would be to start from scratch, and that can be a little intimidating, and may have a rather steep learning curve here within Notion.

Notion at its core feels an awful lot like a wiki where you can add almost anything, including the ability to embed other websites, and videos, and other pieces of content, but depending on how much work you want to do upfront, it may take you a little longer to get started within Notion.

In this example here, I've got a project page where I've broken things down by a few different phases, Design, Development, and the Research Phase.

Now, in many cases, Notion may feel somewhat spreadsheet like with columns and rows, and that can be very, very comforting and also very, very flexible. You can customize a number of different views.

So if I want to see this exact same information, but only see the things that are assigned to me, I can do that here as well. And of course, you can dive deeper into each of your tasks, or projects, or shall we just say elements, because we're talking about all-in-one.

So if I want to open up this task number one, I can dive into deeper detail, and I can also add an additional page within this task. Now, that last feature there I might say is a bit of a double edged sword, yes, you can go deeper and deeper, and embed, and link pages within one another, but many Notion users, especially first time Notion users will say that that can also be a bit of a downside, it can be somewhat confusing as you're making manual links or manual relations between different pages.

Now, the good news is that Notion has a very active community. So if you're looking for other templates and other support, you'll have a large number of people to rely on, but if you're not so comfortable in building things out one by one, or if you're a little nervous that members of your team may edit or break some elements of your application,

then Notion may not be the ideal tool for you. As for pricing,] Notion Business is $15 per user per month. So that puts us in that sort of middle term of affordability. Again, a very, very flexible tool, but maybe too flexible depending on your needs and your team's comfort level. Now, if you're enjoying this comparison video and you're looking

for more productivity tips, tricks, and how-to tutorials,I would invite you to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel.

Airtable

(upbeat music) Now, the last all-in-one workspace tool that we are looking at is Airtable. Now, Airtable is the oldest of the three that we're discussing today, and there's an awful lot in which you can do within Airtable. Of the three, Airtable is the most database like, or shall we say, database exposed, where you're most likely going to be dealing with many rows and columns, that may be either a pro or a con,

depending on your needs. If you have basic database knowledge and you love spreadsheets, well, Airtable may be the better choice for you. As you can see in my example here, we have many of these same features and similar navigations such as sorting and changing things at the top of rows, and keeping things in a very orderly manner.

But of course, you can do so much more than just a simple spreadsheet by adding attachments, and due dates, and having things trigger

an automation right here within Airtable. And you're also not just restricted to this table or database style view. For example, here I've got a social media calendar,

so I can see things within a real world calendar. Another nice benefit is that you can create your own customized workflows, including the ability to build forms. So in this case, maybe I want to create an intake form that I'm going to post on my website,

and whenever those forms are submitted that information can be brought in directly into my Airtable space. Now, getting started with Airtable needs a little bit of planning, a little bit of forethought in terms of how you are going to structure things together.

It's certainly not as easy as setting up a workspace within Qatalog, but Airtable has an awful lot of flexibility and many many extensions available to you as well. As for pricing, Airtable Pro is $20 per user per month, so certainly the most expensive when it comes to the tools on this list, but you get an awful lot for that price point as well.

But if you're wanting to save money and you want to create your own free mobile app, be sure to click on this video next, where I walk you through the steps of building your own custom app for absolutely no cost.

How to Text on a Computer with Google Messages (PC or Mac)

‍

Would you like to view and reply to your text messages from the convenience of your computer? Well, it's actually a lot easier than you think, and I'm going to show you exactly how to do it.

Now, number one, why would you want to have access to your text messages on your computer or laptop?

Well, number one is convenience. How often have you been working at your desktop or laptop computer, and your phone is binging off to the side, and you're going back and forth, and back and forth, here at the computer, and then here replying to a message, and then back to the computer.

What if you could have it all in the screen in front of you? And then number two, I don't know if you're like me, but I can type a whole lot faster on a full-size keyboard

rather than just my two thumbs. So let me walk you through exactly how to set this up. Within your web browser, do a search for Google Messages or you can go directly to messages.google.com, and you'll come to a screen like this.

Now, if Google Messages is not your default texting app on your phone, you can go ahead and select Download for Android here. But I'm going to assume that you're already using Google Messages for SMS and texting on your device.

So what we want to do is click on Messages for web, and it's going to give us a set of very simple instructions as to how we can pair this with our phone. So first things first, we need to open up our phone. We're going to open up the Messages app. And in the top left-hand corner,

at least on most of your operating systems, you'll see that little hamburger menu.

We're going to open up our Messages menu and down about halfway, we see device pairing. We're going to select Device pairing, and that's going to, again, invite us to go to messages.google.com. But because we're already there, we just need to select QR code scanner. I'm going to select that. And now, all we need to do is aim our phone

at the computer screen. And now, our phone is paired. Now in front of us on our browser, we have access to all of our previous messages, and we can continue those conversations or start a new one.

Now, you'll see that it will prompt us if we want to remember this computer. That means it will keep our phone paired. So if this is your primary computer, I would recommend you select Yes. That means you won't have

to go through this pairing process every single time. And don't forget, this is a perfect pairing between the two, so they will never be out of sync. For example, if I walk away from my computer for 15 minutes and I do some texting away, everything will still be visible here on the Google Messages for my desktop.

So it doesn't matter which device I choose to use, I will always remain perfectly in sync. But what if you don't want to deal with your text messages within your browser because you often are going back and forth between different tabs, or what if you accidentally close this tab?

Well, Google has a solution for that as well. If you use the Chrome Web Browser

and come all the way here to the right-hand corner, we're going to select those three dots. About halfway down, you will see this Install Messages option. Now, this will only be visible when you are on the messages.google.com site.

So if I click Install Messages, it's going to prompt me: Do I want to install this app? I'm going to say Yes, install. Now, I have my own desktop app, which is separate from my web browser.

Here, you can see in my task bar, it will remain down below. So I don't have to keep it within my browser. I don't have to keep it visible. I can just expand it and close it whenever I need to.

But if you want to enjoy even more convenience with your communication and you're a Gmail user, be sure to watch this video next where I show you a little known tip, which may change the way you think about using Gmail filters.

Shortcut 1

I've got a confession to make, I don't use keyboard shortcuts nearly as often as I should. So in the past 30 days, I've been experimenting with discovering a large number of shortcuts, and I've found seven, which I think you'll find helpful too.

So let's dive in. How often have you been wanting to grab something and copy it from the web only to put it into a document, or some other maybe note taking tool? Well, you can come in here and paste it, but oh, wait a minute, I didn't want the different formatting.

I didn't want the underlying for the links. I didn't want any of this. How do I get around it? Well, you could right click with your mouse, and select Paste without formatting. But over here, Ctrl + Shift + V is the much faster way.

Now if I use Ctrl + Shift + V on my keyboard, everything comes over in the style and the formatting of the page that I'm on.

If I go back to this website here, even if I'm grabbing something like these bullet points and they had these funny characters here, I'm going to copy it, but I'm going to come down and do Ctrl + Shift + V. Now everything looks clean and matches the formatting I already have in this particular document.

Shortcut 2

Now another problem I have, especially when I'm browsing the web, is coming across a site where the text is either too large or too small. In this case, this text is just a little too large for my liking. Now within my browser, I could come up here to the top right-hand corner and I could adjust the Zoom.

I'm going to take it down to maybe 90%, but there is a much faster way. If I hold the Ctrl key on my keyboard and then use the scroll wheel on my mouse, I can quickly and easily zoom in and out, either by small increments or by very extreme increments if I need to.

You'll notice in the right-hand corner here that it's actually telling me 150%, 110, now I'm back to a 100%,

now I'm back to 90% where exactly I am. But that is certainly the fastest way to zoom in and out. But keep in mind that this also works for other applications. Here I am within my Word document, and let's say that I want to zoom in down below where I'm going to enter in my next paragraph.

Again, holding down Ctrl on my keyboard and then using the Scroll Wheel, it will zoom in. Now the nice thing about the Ctrl zoom shortcut is that it will zoom in on the text cursor which makes the most sense when I'm working with a document here.

You will find if you're using your browser, it will simply zoom in on wherever your mouse cursor is, which is not always the most helpful but you'll get the hang of it, especially depending on the website you're on.

Shortcut 3

Now if you're anything like me, you probably have a number of applications open

at any given time. And you may be used to minimizing or maximizing certain windows, or coming down here to your taskbar and getting to the place that you want to go.

But there's a faster way by using Alt + Tab on your keyboard, you'll be brought up with sort of a mini menu which will show you all of your open applications. Now you can do a couple of different things here.

Number one, you can click on the application you want to go to immediately. So even if I can't exactly see what is Alt open, I can hit Alt + Tab and I can go directly to this picture, for example.

But there's an added benefit. Within this window, I can also close applications. So maybe I don't need my calculator right now and maybe I don't need to see my desktop view here either. So I can go quickly and easily to the applications that I want

and also close others. In addition, when you have the Alt + Tab menu open, keep Alt held down with your thumb, and then you can tap the Tab key and cycle through those different applications. Wherever you release, that will open up that program.

So this can be a quick and easy way to toggle between two or three open applications. Now before we continue with our next shortcut key, I'd love to hear from you, what are some of your favorite shortcuts? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Shortcut 4

Speaking of the Tab key, this next keyboard shortcut is very applicable, especially if you have a number of tabs open within your browser. If you select Ctrl + Tab on your keyboard, it will cycle through to the next tab within your browser.

This can be especially helpful if you just want to jump to the next place without having to use your mouse. I also use this when I am in full screen mode, and I don't want to have to go back and forth between full screen mode.

I find this especially helpful when I'm giving a full screen presentation and I want to move to the next tab on my web browser, but I don't want to show everything on my screen. I want to stay in that full screen mode. So the next time you need to jump to the next one over, just hit Ctrl + Tab on your keyboard.

Shortcut 5

Now I will admit this next keyboard shortcut is not new to me, but I use it so often.

I wanted to make sure that I included it in this list, and that is when you're looking or finding a keyword on any page and in almost any application. Here, I've opened up this article which is talking about a number of things which might drop in price in the the coming year. But maybe I'm only interested in car prices or car related topics.

All I need to do is select Ctrl + F on my keyboard, that's F for find .And in the top right-hand corner, I will have this input dialogue. Now I can type in anything. In this case, I'm going to search for the word car, and it's immediately going to tell me that there are 23 instances of the word car. Now, I can come over here and cycle through.

It's going to show me where that appears next and it will highlight that word as well.

But what might be even more helpful within your web browser are these little highlighted dashes here on the scroll bar. So here you can see, I can scroll directly to this section where the word car is mentioned a number of different times and maybe ignore the rest of the article.

But if I want to go to any other section, I can either use that scroll bar or use the up and down arrow. But remember, you're not limited to using this just within your browser. Here I am within Word, and I'm going to select Ctrl + F. This time, it's going to appear on the left hand side of the screen.

I'm going to type in the word team, and I can see that that appears twice in this document.

So I can go and review, I can replace these words as well if I need to as a next step, a helpful and easy way, especially if you find yourself in an application or a web browser that does not have a search feature.

Shortcut 6

Next, is a shortcut key, especially for Windows users. Now when you have so many different applications and tabs open on the screen, sometimes it can be a challenge

just to go back to the desktop. You may know that you can take your mouse cursor

and drag it all the way down to the bottom and click, and that will return you to the desktop. If I go all the way back to the bottom and click, it will return me to where I was before. But there's a much faster way, if you select the Windows key plus the D key, that will collapse everything on screen and bring you back to your desktop.

If you hit it again, it will return you where you last left off. This has really made me think differently about how I use my desktop rather than using it as just a repository

of different files. I can make this a much more productive space if I make it that much easier for myself to get to. So Windows + D to open or collapse the desktop.

Shortcut 7

Last but not least,

and this is perhaps most important for Windows users, what happens when a program freezes or you can't close it, or you get that not responding message? Well, make sure you know about Ctrl + Alt + Delete. And what that is going to do is going to allow you to access your task manager.

By opening up the task manager, you are going to see every single application and every single background process that is going on at a given time. So for example, if I need to come up here and I need to shut down Microsoft Word, all I need to do is right click and I can select End task.

This is the quickest and easiest way, and sometimes your only resort enforcing a certain application or program to shut down. And don't forget, your task manager is also the place to see what is taking up so much CPU and memory.

And if you want to save even more time while using the Chrome web browser, be sure to click on this video next. It's free, easy to use, and just might change the way you work. And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Tip 1

ChatGPT is an incredibly powerful AI tool but how can you use it to be more productive and save time both in your work life and in your personal life? Well, in this video, I've got seven different ways in which we can get the most out of this tool.

Now, first things first, if you haven't yet used ChatGPT all you need to do is go to chat.openai.com. Number one, creating a schedule whether you want to try something new and create a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule. Or you can use ChatGPT to prepare for a launch or a project timeline.

In my example here I've asked it to create a daily work schedule for a YouTube content creator where I wake up at 6:30 and want to enjoy a 45 minute lunch. All I need to do is tell it to go and do its magical thing, and in a matter of seconds here's the answer that is given me.

Yes, waking up at 6:30, my morning routine begin filming here is my 45 minute lunch

but checking my emails is at 4:00 PM but I want to move that to the morning. So all I need to do is come down here and say now move the email checking to the morning.

In this revised version here you can see that it has moved my email checking to 8:00 AM in the morning, which is great because that's when I'd like to deal with email and then not have to deal with it ever again. Now, in our second example, we're going to be looking at a schedule which is much longer in duration.

In this case, I've asked it create a launch schedule for a membership site that will be released on April 1st, 2023. Include all aspects of the project including product development, testing, and promotion.

What are the results? Well, here is the sample schedule that it has given me starting the product development and assigning those deadlines in January beginning the building of the membership site and testing in February, finalizing and promoting in March ready for launch on April 1st.

And what I really appreciate about this brief sample schedule, it's even included some tasks that I didn't think about after the April 1st launch. But what if this isn't quite detailed enough for me? Well, I'm going to come down here and say, now break it down into week intervals.

I want to look at this at a somewhat more granular level. Maybe I'm happy with the schedule, which it produced but now I want to break it down week by week. And as you can see, it's going to break everything down by the year and the date that we're in, the timeframe that I'm looking at. So this can be a fantastic way

to break down a much larger project, something that can seem very daunting or intimidating, and get some great examples as to how you can approach this particular task.

Tip 2

Tip number two, let's see how ChatGPT can make us look a lot smarter and a lot more efficient when it comes to writing messages. In particular, when it comes to writing emails.

Here I've asked it to write an email that encourages the potential client to reply to my message and book a pet grooming appointment for their dog. Let's see what it comes up with.

Now, what I love about this answer is not only has it given me a subject line and a professionally formatted email, but even with giving it such little details as a pet grooming business, look at all the language look at all the descriptive words it's used including the different breeds and sizes well groomed and healthy pet basic grooming, spa grooming.

We know how important it is for your pet and their environment. It has taken limited knowledge and produce something fantastic, which I can now massage make some edits and fill in the blanks and then be ready to go.

Think of how easy it will be to create an email sequence either for your email newsletter or next up for emails where you maybe don't deal with those types of questions or those types of answers on a regular basis. In this case, I've told it to reply

to this email from a frustrated client and encourage them to continue with our services. Now, in this case, I've just given an example but you can cut and paste any email that you receive and put it after these instructions.

Let's see what it comes up with. So here we have a complete email which starts with a simple apology and then asking to understand a little bit more about what they have experienced.

And by the time we get to the end of the email we are gently inviting them to try us one more time so we can regain their trust. Now, one of the great things about using ChatGPT  is that we can make additional modifications.

So if I don't typically respond to an email in this level of detail, I can come down here and say, now write it in less than 50 words. So this time around, it's taken that entire email and condensed it into just three sentences.

This might be a lot more appropriate if I'm responding to someone via Google ratings or maybe on a social media platform. All of the key points are still there, but in a much more condensed format. So whether you need to expand, reduce, or change the tone you can do so in just a few simple instructions.

Tip 3

Now, a third way to get the most out of ChatGPT and to save a lot of time is to summarize a lengthy article or meeting notes. How often have you been sent a long document and you need to preview it or summarize it in just a few moments.

For example, here I've landed on an article which seems to be a complete guide to setting up a membership website, and I can tell by the scroll bar on the right hand side that this is indeed a very, very lengthy article.

But what if I just want to get the gist of this article or just share some of the key points with a potential client? Well, all I need to do is give it some instructions such as summarize this article in less than 200 words and then paste in the link of that article.

Now, in just a few seconds, it's going to scan and only pull out the key points or the key ideas from this particular article. In this example, it's taken thousands of words and broken it down into four key paragraphs.

But what if I want something even a little more digestible? Well, let's give it some additional instructions. I'm going to tell it to now break it down into four actionable steps, and in just a few seconds I have the four key points listed in order

something that I can now share maybe in a presentation or deliver as a part of a training. This makes it so much more easy to digest and to retain that information.

Of course, you may always want to go back to the original article to find the details

and find out other pieces of information, but this can be a fantastic way to summarize meeting notes, articles or anything else that you come across. And don't forget, if you're enjoying this video so far and are wanting to learn more ways to save time be sure to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel.

Tip 4

Next up, let's take a look at how Simpletivity can actually solve many of our technical challenges including helping us with our software.

For example, many people ask me questions about Gmail and other Google products, and although I try to read every single comment right here on the Simpletivity channel I simply can't respond to every single question.

Well, let's see if ChatGPT can do a good job in my absence. So in this example, I've asked it to create a filter in Gmail that will automatically move messages from my inbox that are more than 30 days old to a new label called Moved After 30.

And in just a few moments, it's given us a very easy 12 step process to follow/ Everything from where we need to click to find our filters what exactly we need to enter into that search bar and how to skip the inbox and apply the new label.

What about something else? Maybe like a Spreadsheet or an Excel formula? I don't know about you, but I often forget certain formulas or how to structure them within a Spreadsheet.

In this case, I've asked it to create a combined sum of two columns in Excel where the first column is weighted 1.7 times more than the second column. All I need to do is hit enter on my keyboard and it's going to come up with that answer in just a few seconds.

Often it will start with an opening paragraph just briefly describing what it's going to do. But what I especially like with its answer is that it's going to explain what is happening and how this function is working.

Now, I've got this Excel formula that I can simply copy and paste and use to my liking within my Excel Spreadsheet or Google Sheet.

Tip 5

Speaking of complex, no one likes to feel stupid. So what if you struggle to understand a complicated topic? Well, here within ChatGPT we can use things such as explain to me like I'm five or 10 or 20 or whatever age you think is appropriate and then give it something that you don't fully understand.

n this case, I'm asking it a question about cryptocurrency. No, I think it's done a very good job of explaining

this to a small child, but maybe I want to present this and add a little more detail, but also a little more fun. So what I've done is I've said explain it to me like I'm 10 but use terms and analogies in the style of a Western movie. Let's see what it comes up with.

And just like that, I've got this same basic description but I've got everything else that I wanted. Just like in the Wild West, people used to mine for gold. Now people use computers to mine for Bitcoin. So whatever you are looking for, this can be especially

helpful if you are sharing information or wanting to make something a little more creative for your audience or your team.

Tip 6

Next up, let's take a look at how we can create agreements or contracts based on our needs.

Now, of course, there's a caveat here. You should always rely on professional legal help before issuing or using agreements and contracts but this can be a great place to start to flesh out the details of your agreement.

In this example, I've said, create a simple coaching agreement where the client will receive four coaching sessions for $995. Now, what's so great about the results is that not only does it include all of the details including some additional ones, such as my cancellation policy, but it has formatted it in the right way.

It's got everything listed here, including the client's name and what they will be referred to hereafter. But even if we scroll down to the bottom, it's even included a client's signature and date.

So this can be a great starting place, especially if you're worried about forgetting something as you're putting your agreements or contracts together. Now, I've got one more great way to get the most out of ChatGPT. But just before I share that tip,

I'd love to hear from you what are some of your favorite ChatGPT prompts? Be sure to let me know and share it with others in the comments down below.

Tip 7

Now, so far, we've talked mostly about getting ChatGPT to generate new content for us but perhaps one of the most powerful ways to use this tool is to enhance our own,

make it better or maybe make it geared towards a particular audience. Think about all of your marketing material. Think about your biography think about your website, your email anything else that you use on a day-to-day basis. How can you refine it

or gear it towards a particular audience? In this case, I've said make the following more exciting and geared towards busy professionals.

And all I've done is cut and paste some content from my own website, and in just seconds I certainly have a much more exciting description here including a "Slay the Dragon" reference in the opening sentence.

Of course, I may want to revise and change this but think of the possibilities that this opens up. And don't forget, you can continue to refine your prompts so you can get closer to what you're looking for.

I'm going to take this same piece of text but now I'm going to tell it make the reader fear that they will miss out if they don't contact me today. Of course, this can be a very powerful marketing tool.

It may not be relevant for everything that you're doing or every product or service

but see how it can change things and make it closer to what you're wanting. And if you're wanting to save even more time as a part of your day, be sure to watch this video next where I show you a free Chrome extension which just might change the way you work.

Intro

Love it or hate it, Zoom meetings are here to stay, so why not look and sound your very best? In this video, I'm going to show you seven settings that you're going to want to review right away. So, let's dive in. (bright music) Now, one of the most embarrassing things that can happen to us is if our video or our audio turns on

without us expecting it. So we want to double-check our default settings when first joining a meeting. (bright music)

CHECK YOUR DEFAULT JOIN SETTINGS

First off, how do we get to our settings? Well, if you open up your Zoom client and come all the way up here to the top right-hand corner and click on Settings, that will open up the Settings dialogue.

And we're going to start in our video settings. And right under Video, if we scroll down to this second section here, you can see that there is a checkbox that says turn off my video when joining a meeting.

I want to be the one who decides when my video starts when I join any meeting whether I'm the host or whether I'm a participant. So that's why I have this check box selected.

If you're okay with having your video starting immediately, you can leave this unchecked but you may want to double check this particular setting.

(screen rolls) Next, we're going to click on our audio settings and we're going to scroll all the way down to the bottom and you can see that the second option here says mute my microphone when joining a meeting.

Now, I'm okay with my microphone being on

as soon as I jump into a meeting,  that's why mine is unchecked. But if you want to make sure that something is not distracting others in the background if you want to make sure that you are ready to go and you are the one to initiate when people can hear you or see you, you may want to select this checkbox as well. (bright music)

INCREASE AUDIO QUALITY

Now, the second group of settings we want to pay special attention to are also here under Audio, because if you don't sound great, you probably aren't coming across as your best self when it comes to your Zoom meetings.

Now you're probably already familiar with coming in here and selecting the correct speaker or the correct microphone, but where we want to pay special attention to is our Audio Profile.

Now, by default, this first option Zoom optimized audio is going to be selected,

but it's the next two sections I want us to pay special attention to. First off, Zoom will do its best to automatically suppress background noises but everyone's situation is a little different.

So for example, if you are in a noisy coffee shop, perhaps you want a high background noise suppression. If you have dogs in the background that are whimpering or growling or barking, again, you may also want high or medium. And sometimes auto is too much. So you may want to adjust this to a low profile as well.

But there's one other setting which is going to allow you to have even better audio,

especially if you have a good quality microphone. And that is original sound for musicians. Now, don't let this name fool you. If you are not a musician and if you are not playing any type of music through your input devices or your microphone,

this still may be the correct setting for you. If you have a high quality microphone

and if you don't want extra compression reducing the quality of your sound, this may be the option for you. I recommend that you experiment with this option to see if it's right for you, but make sure to try this setting out for yourself.

By selecting it, it will disable the noise suppression and also remove high pass filtering and automatic gain control. So if you want the best quality audio, this might be the right selection for you. (bright music)

TOUCH UP YOUR VIDEO APPEARANCE

Now with our audio and microphones sounding great, let's jump back to our video settings to make sure that we look the best that we can. Under the My Video section,

there are two settings we want to pay special attention to. The first one is mirror my video. Now, I find for most people it's most natural if it mirrors their video, very much like if you raise your left hand or your right hand, it's going to be appropriate to what you see on screen.

However, if you tend to show things on screen, especially if you are an educator or a teacher, you may want to uncheck this box. Why? Well, if I hold up my water bottle here can you read the name or where this was made? No, because I have it on mirror my video.

But if I uncheck that box, now you can read exactly what I am holding up in front of the camera. So this may come down to both personal preference, but also depending if you're ever needing to show things that people will need to see on camera. The next one here is touch up my appearance.

And I want to warn you, be careful with this slider. If we slide this all the way over to the right, Zoom is going to try and touch up our appearances in particular our skin tone and skin color. But if you take this all the way to the right, it almost looks like I'm wearing a lot of foundation on my face. It's almost washed out much of my tones.

And yes, it may have removed some of my wrinkles as well but I don't feel that it looks that natural. So I'd suggest that you'd start maybe somewhere in the middle. And in my case, I tend to bring it back to about maybe a quarter of the way along. It's going to smooth out a few of my lines on my face but not so much that I don't look authentic. (bright music)

BEWARE OF BLURRED BACKGROUNDS

Now, sticking with how we look on screen, let's jump down to background and effects.

Now, Zoom gives us many options when it comes to selecting virtual backgrounds

or even uploading backgrounds of our own. But what's become most popular recently is the blurred effect, which can be great if you want to mask any activity that's going on in the background, especially if you perhaps have a messy room

in the background as well. But in a recent poll, it found that the majority of Zoom users actually prefer a natural background. As long as there's nothing distracting

or moving too often in the background, a natural background is the preference.

Why? If you choose a virtual background or a blurred background as you can see here, it's doing some funny things with my face. If you have a chair or a headrest, which is relatively high sometimes that will look funny as well.

So my recommendation is try to create an environment where you can use your default natural webcam and don't feel that you have to defaultto that blurred effect just because you see it with others. Like I said, in a recent poll, most people actually prefer the natural background. (bright music)

POWERPOINT AS A VIRTUAL BACKGROUND

Now, although using a virtual background can be very distracting, there is one situation where it may actually be enhanced and that's if you are sharing a PowerPoint slide. If I come down here within my Zoom meeting and select Share,

be sure to select the Advanced tab and this will allow you to show and share a PowerPoint slide as a virtual background. I'm going to select that option and select Share. And then all I need to do is come in here and select the particular file.

So I'm going to select this PowerPoint file and select Open. Now it's going to open up that PowerPoint to share, but if I start my video, it's going to add me directly on top of these slides themselves.

So this can be a great way if you want to make sure that you stay visible as you share your slides. If I move to the next slide, in this particular instance, I can still be on screen and if I want, all I need to do is click on the image

and I can reduce the size of my image on screen but I can also click and drag. So if I want to bring myself to a different portion of the screen, or if I want to make sure that I get out of the way of perhaps some of the text on screen, I can always do that as well.

So if you want to make sure that you stay visible, especially for those participants who may be watching on a mobile device, using PowerPoint as a virtual background can be an engaging way to stay on top. (bright music)

IMMERSIVE VIEWS FOR GROUPS

Now, the next tip can be a great way to spice up your meetings and get away from the standard grid view here within Zoom. If we come up to the top right of any Zoom meeting and select View, you may be familiar with the speaker and the default gallery view. But if we select Immersive, we have an opportunity to put ourselves

and all of our participants into a virtual immersive view. So, for example, I'm going to select this one here and then select Start. And I am placed at a seat in front of a table. So this would be great for any group of maybe three to six people.

We get to see one another in a slightly different perspective and maybe that brings a different feel or a different energy to the meeting. Now, if we go back and click on View and select Change Immersive View, you can see that there is a number of different defaults that we can choose.

I love to ski, so maybe this is the one that I'm going to select for my very next meeting. You can both have a lot of fun, but also see people in a different light by experimenting with an immersive view. (bright music)

ENABLE LIVE CLOSED CAPTIONS

Now, the last tip that I have for you today has to do with enabling captions for your Zoom meetings. There may be instances where people have to mute your Zoom meeting but they still want to be able to see what is being said. Or maybe there's someone who is just more comfortable seeing the words on screen as we speak.

So if you come into your Zoom meetings and select More, you should see the option here for captions. If you don't, I recommend you click on this video where I walk you through the steps for enabling those captions.

Once captions is enabled, you can select this option and say show captions and even change the speaking language.

So I'm going to select Show Captions, and here you can see that it is recording

everything that I say in real time, so others who are participating or who are involved in this meeting can follow along. The added bonus is that these captions are recorded. So if you would like a full transcript of your meeting, you can do that right here with Zoom closed captioning.

(screen rolls) And if you're looking for even more ways to get the most out of your Zoom meeting experience, be sure to click on this playlist next. Thank you so much for watching, and remember being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple. (bright music)

Intro

If you want to achieve more in 2023 you need a frictionless way to organize and manage all of your ideas, and Walling may just be the best solution for that purpose.

So in this video, I'm going to share with you five different ways in which Walling provides a seamless experience so you can spend less time playing with your software and more time doing.

Idea Capture

First up is idea capture, because we know those thoughts come and go rather quickly. And here within Walling, we can double click anywhere and start to capture that new idea. So maybe I want to start a new service here in 2023.

Maybe something else that I'm thinking of doing is writing a book in 2023. I can double click anywhere on this screen, I can also click and drag to move or group things together. But if I want to add files from my computer, well, that's super easy, too. I can click and drag.

If I want to add perhaps a link to a website, I want to grab this, I'm going to drag it over here to this tab, and I'm going to release it here. So I can grab that information in a matter of seconds, stay within that brainstorming mode, and not be restricted by the software itself.

Organizing Ideas

Number two, organizing those ideas. We know that brainstorming and ideation is only half the battle, but what's really valuable is grouping those things together.

And again, Walling makes it super easy. If I want to drag things together,  I can do so here within this particular section. If I want to add a particular color, maybe to one of these notes, or if I want to add a custom tag, or a tag that's already been used before, I can do that here as well.

But Walling also allows us to create multiple sections so we don't have to be opening and closing or traveling between multiple pages. So for example, in this section up above maybe I'm going to call this Ideas,

but I'm going to come down to this second section down below, and maybe these are things that we're going to plan to accomplish in Q2. Now I can stay on the exact same screen and start to drag things down below in between these different sections.

Things are nice and clean, but I don't have to be jumping around from place to place. In addition, within each section we can customize how we want to visualize all of these different bricks.

So in the top right hand corner, you can see that by default we will be set to our visual look and feel. But if I click this dropdown, I can quickly and easily convert this into a Kanban setup.

So for example, maybe these first ones are going to be our ideas. Maybe these are things that we're actually going to do. And then maybe I'll add a third column, which is going to be called Complete.

Something along those lines. So now I can drag these things as a part of a Kanban board, but still always go back to my visual board whenever I need to. Some of the other views include a list view, which can be great if you want to see everything on an even keel.

This is especially helpful if you have a mix of links and images in the same place. We can also view a calendar view. And no, you don't have to create this for yourself. I have the next few days lined up here, so if I want to drag things down into a certain timeframe, I can do so at the click of a button. Lastly, we can take a look at the table view. So if you want to add specific due dates, maybe a status

and a complete checkbox, you can do that here as well and easily go back and forth between these various views.

Sharing Ideas

Number three is sharing your ideas with others. Now, whether you work with a team

or perhaps you want to share your wall with clients, Walling makes it super easy for you to do so. At the top of every wall, you'll find this share button. And if I click on this,

I can easily input any email address that I want. So maybe I want to make sure that Diana has access to this. I can simply invite her here  and change her editing permissions without having to go into some type of admin or system settings.

Maybe I only want Diana to be able to comment, so I can click that here, and now she can comment on anything within this wall. But what if I'm working with someone and I don't want them to set up an account and I don't need them to have these types of permissions either?

Well, you can quickly create a shareable link by toggling this button at the top of the screen. Now I can copy this link, share it via Slack or email

or any other means, and they will have read-only access to this particular wall.

This can be a great way to share all of your ideas or notes with external clients without forcing them to sign up for an account or give them abilities that you don't want them to have here within the Walling system.

And because Walling keeps your workspace on the same page, it can be fantastic for sharing via video calls. Rather than opening and closing different tabs and going back and forth, you can have one wall to share all of your ideas or all of your notes and keep everyone on the same page.

Adding Comments

Number four, adding comments. Now, adding comments is nothing new

for most collaboration tools. However, in many cases there will only be one comment section either for the entire workspace or for the entire item itself.

So for example, in this particular note I have five different bullet points here, but maybe I only want to ask a question or provide a comment for this one down here. I don't want to have to waste my time by explaining that I'm only referring to this particular bullet point.

So what I can do is click and say Add a Comment, and now my comment is going to be attached specifically to this point. If I want to call out someone in particular, I can do so. And now will not only Diana be notified directly, but we can have a specific conversation about a specific element around this idea.

Linking to Specific Sections

Number five, linking to specific sections. Again, one of the big benefits within Walling

is that you can have as many sections within a single workspace. It keeps everything centralized and on one screen.

However, if I want to share something regarding this Goals section, all I need to do is select Copy Link to this particular section. And now when I share this link with others, they will be brought specifically just to this section.

They will still have access to other parts of this workspace, but you will notice that Walling automatically minimizes everything else, so that they can focus on this section as well and whatever I was referring to as a part of my message.

So if you're wanting a more frictionless way to gather all of those ideas and to share them with others Walling may be the best tool for you this year. You can get started with Walling with up to 100 bricks absolutely free.

And if you need more, you can go unlimited for just $5 a month. To learn more be sure to click the link in the description down below. And if you have any questions about Walling, be sure to let me know in the comments.

Thank you so much for watching, and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

For years, I've been teaching people how to get the most out of Gmail filters so that you can spend less time in a busy inbox like you see here and create custom filters, so things can skip your inbox and be applied to a label here on the left hand side.

But recently I've discovered a hack which makes this so much simpler and allows you to have fewer filters. So I'm going to show you how to set it up and why it's going to make your day so much easier.

Within your Gmail settings, you can come up to Filters and Blocked Addresses and see all of the filters that you have applied. And this first filter that I have here is a classic example where I want to make sure that a particular label is either applied to incoming messages or maybe, in this case, that it is never sent to spam. But there's a problem.

I never want something from cloudhq to be sent to spam. But like many organizations, they are using multiple email addresses to send out information, whether that's marketing or updates or other things that come my way.

So I've had to modify this filter over time to include things from cloudhq.net, cloudhq.us  and cloudhq-mkt11.us. Not only is this time consuming but I have to make sure that I get the exact domain name or email sender correct  when setting up this filter.

In addition, what if you would like everything related to finance to be going into a certain filter? Every time you sign up for a new financial newsletter or a new financial service, do you really want to come into your Gmail account and set up a new filter just for that one organization?

So to make this so much simpler, we're going to make use of the plus hack right here within Gmail so that we don't have to set up so many filters. What exactly is the plus hack?

Well, for any Gmail account, including those that do not have a Gmail domain, you can add the + symbol just before the @ symbol and then add anything that you like. So for example, maybe I'm going to call this one not spam.

My actual email address is ScottFriesen@Simpletivity.com. But if I sign up for a new service or a newsletter I can give them this email address, ScottFriesen+notspam, or I can include anything

that I want there, @Simpletivity.com. And everything that I receive will go to my standard email address, ScottFriesen@Simpletivity.com. And I can use this as many times as I like. Maybe I'll give another service something like ScottFriesen+money@Simpletivity.com for everything that is financial or money related.

Maybe I'll give another one +newsletter@Simpletivity.com for all of the newsletters I set up. You're probably already thinking one step ahead of me. I will only have to create one filter for incoming mail for that particular email address, and then everything, new or old, will go into and be treated by that filter.

So returning to our Gmail main screen, I'm going to come up here and select Show Search Options. And what I'm going to do is create a new filter, but I want to pay special attention to the To line.

So here I'm going to type in ScottFriesen+notspam@Simpletivity.com, meaning Gmail is going to be looking for any messages that are sent to that email address, and now I can do whatever I want with them.

I'm going to come over here and I'm going to say Create Filter. I'm next brought to our second step where I can choose from many of the options here, including skipping the inbox, applying a particular label or categorizing it in some other way. Now, here I can say Never send it to Spam.

In this case, that would be most appropriate, because of the way that I've titled this email address.

And now I can say, Create This Filter. Now going forward, I can use that special email address ScottFriesen+notspam@Simpletivity.com for all of the newsletters or for really anyone that I want to make sure never get sent to my spam folder.

And don't forget, you don't just get to use this for new services that you sign up for. You can now go back into other services or applications that you use and change that email address based on the filters you have set up

right here within Gmail. This may reduce the number of filters that you have, which I've seen from many users upwards of 100 all the way down to maybe half a dozen filters based on the email addresses that they use. S

o whether you use Gmail to manage a traditional gmail.com address or a custom domain, you can use the plus filter hack.

And for even more tips and tricks on how to get the most out of Gmail filters and labels, be sure to watch this video next. Have any questions? Let me know in the comments down below. And don't forget, being productive doesn't have to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

Creating your form in Google Forms It's hard to stress just how important a good intake form is for your business. So in this video I'm going to show you how you can use Google Forms to create a custom lead intake form and have it sync directly with your CRM system.

So whether you use HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive, Crmble, Zoho CRM, or a number of other tools you can have that information directly input into your system. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

So in this example, I'm pretending that I'm a commercial bakery and I'm wanting other smaller bakeries to fill in a form so I can sell them baked goods in large quantities. And I've titled this form, Let's Get Started.

This is something that I'm going to either link to or embed directly on my website or maybe I'll send it to them via email or however they first get in contact with me. Now, a couple of key things to keep in mind with creating a great intake form.

Number one, try to keep it relatively short. In my example here, I've kept it to only five questions.

The longer your intake form is, the less likely that people will fill it in at all or fill in many of those fields. And tip number two, be very specific with which fields are required and which are not. You can see that my first three questions of name,

email and phone number are all required. And within Google Forms, all you need to do is make sure that the required slider is over. But I haven't made the last two questions required because even if they don't tell me what they are looking for,

even if they don't add any additional comments I at least have their contact information so I can reach out to them. Lastly, you're going to want to make sure that at least one of your questions is asking something very specific.

In my example here, I'm asking them which product or products they are wanting to distribute and I've given them four options, cakes, pies, muffins, and cookies. When it comes to your business, it may be what type of service or other products are they seeking.

What kind of help are they looking for? This helps you greatly so that when you reach out to them you already have an idea of what they are looking for.

Adjusting your Google Form settings

Lastly, finishing up here within Google Forms we want to come up to settings.

And there's two I want you to take particular attention to. Number one, when it comes to responses make sure that you have limit to one response turned off. You want your customers and potential customers to come back here as often as needed.

You certainly do not want them to require to sign into their Google account. And under presentation, I also recommend that you come down to the confirmation message

and add something a little more custom. By default, Google Forms is going to say something like thanks for submitting this form. But in this case I want to make sure that they know I'm going to get back to them with a quote within the next 48 hours.

The last thing that we need to do when it comes to Google Forms before we jump into our CRM system is come up here to responses. And in the top right hand corner

you will see this Google Sheets icon. By clicking on this icon it is going to create a Google sheet for you. This is actually what your CRM system is going to be looking at

when it comes to sending information over. You can always come in here and review the data yourself but this is exactly what we are going to be syncing with our CRM tool.

Making the connection within your CRM

Now that we have everything set up within our Google form let's jump into our CRM system. Now for this example, I'm using Crmble, C-R-M-B-L-E. And within your CRM system things may look a little bit different, but essentially the steps are exactly the same.

First things first, we're going to want to look at our integrations. Now here within Crmble, they refer to them as toppings. And under those integrations, you're going to want to look for something that says Google Forms] or intake forms sync, something where you can set up these settings.

Here I'm going to select on Google Forms, and it's going to open up a screen where I have an opportunity to link my account. I've already done so, but you may be prompted to link your Google account.] Wherever you created that Google form, you're going to need to link that account to your CRM.

Since I've already done so, the very next step is to add a new Google form. And the good news is is that you can usually create multiple forms that will sync with your CRM system.So I'm going to select this option here.

I'm going to choose the correct account because maybe I've synced multiple accounts. I'm going to select this account. Now that I've selected that, I can select a specific Google form spreadsheet.

Remember, we're not actually linking it to the form we're linking it to the spreadsheet

where the form is displaying those results. I can see all of the form spreadsheets

for that particular account, but the one that we want is the one at the very top, CRM intake form. The last step is going to ask us if we want to select a specific sheet in that form, because you may have different sheets or multiple sheets within a single form. We only have the one, so I just need to select Form Responses 1.

Mapping Form answers to CRM fields

And with that, now we move on to the step of mapping where those fields will end up

within our CRM system. So here under card details, this is where we have the opportunity to match those different columns and those different questions to fields within our CRM.

So when it comes to the name of my card, when it comes to the name of the deal, So here you can see not only the five questions but it's also included the timestamp which we're going to add a little later on. So I want the name

of my deal to be the name of the customer. And under the card description I'm going to add two different things. First I want to add if they answer that question about which products they're interested in, I want that to be displayed here, and I also want their comments to be displayed here as well. Remember, these are not required,

so maybe not every single submission will have them, but if they do, they'll show up here in the description. Keep in mind, you don't need to map everything. We only have a possible six items for us to map in this particular example, so you only need to map the things you need.

Next up, we have our contact fields and these are perhaps the most important. So name yes, we want to match with our name.m We want to match the phone number with the phone number and we want to match the email with the email, so that I have all of that information here within my CRM.

And in this case the only other thing I'm going to add is down under the deal fields where where under creation date I want that to be tied to the timestamp. So when that form was submitted is going to be the creation date here within my form. With everything mapped the way I want all I need to do is come down here and select update,

and now my form is ready to go.

Testing the form to CRM connection

So let's go ahead and fill in a sample form and see how it is displayed right here within my CRM. So here is how my Google form will look like to my potential customers. So let's get started. I'm going to enter in a name. I'm going to say that we are filling this in for Wendy Bakersfield. That sounds like a bit of a baker's name.

And we're going to enter in Wendy's email address here. I'm going to say that that is her email address. Phone number 555… And then what products are we wanting to distribute? Well, let's say in this case we're interested in cakes and cookies.

So I'm going to tick off both of those boxes. And down below maybe I'm going to say I need 100 of each before February 1st. Last but not least, I'm going to hit submit and there is my custom message so that the potential customer can feel confident that I've received it and will respond in a timely manner.

Now, jumping back into my Crmble CRM system under my very first stage called New Deals, here you can see at the bottom we have Wendy Bakersfield. And it's even telling me on the front of the card that the source is Google Forms.

I'm going to open up this card and we're going to see all of those details that were just submitted via the form. So right away under the description we have cakes and cookies, and we have her comments. I need 100 of each before February the 1st.

But perhaps most importantly I have all of her contact information right here her full name, her work number and her email all available to me at the click of a button. And the great thing about Crmble and most CRM systems

is that you can email them directly from here. More on that in just a moment. Now down below, here you can see we also have our source, Google Forms,

Using form data to add client value

and the creation date which is based on when they submitted that form.

Now that we have all of this valuable information which was submitted through the form we can update this entry with other details. So for example, Wendy has told me exactly what she is looking for and also the quantity. So I want to be able to quickly

and easily generate a quote for her. Well under products, I can click on my products

and start to add these items to build out that quote. So for example, I'm going to say

that she is looking for a cake. I'm going to add that as a item. I'm also going to update the quantity. She's looking for 100. I'm going to hit save. But she's also looking for cookies as well, so I'm going to add that item here.

Let me select cookie as the other product and let me update the quantity, also wanting 100 and save. Now here within my CRM system I have a total just a little over $2,200, so I can update the deal value which is going to update this entire entry. And now I have this at my fingertips,

so I can reference it, I can report on it, I can project what my earnings will be at the end of this month but I can also send this quote directly to the customer. Here, all I need to do is click on this Gmail icon and now I can input that information and email it directly to Wendy without having to leave my CRM.

Adding multiple contacts to CRM deals

One other bonus of using a CRM tool such as Crmble is that not only can you manage all of your products and services right here within the CRM system

but you can also add multiple contacts. So for example, maybe I'm used to dealing with Wendy's husband but Wendy was the one who submitted this request, even though I know I could reach out and communicate with either of them.

So what I'm going to do is select this add contact option here and in this case, I believe his name is John, that's right, John Bakersfield. So I'm going to add John to this entry as well so I can keep him in the loop.

If I don't get in touch with one of them I can always reach out to the other and I can have their contact information available to me immediately. Now, if you're looking for an easy to use CRM system that integrates seamlessly with Google Forms and Gmail be sure to check out Crmble at Crmble.com or click the link in the description down below.

And if you're really wanting to customize your Google forms and make them look amazing be sure to watch this video next. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

Before you record with Loom

Do you want to record your screen,quickly, easily, and for free?  Well then Loom is probably the best option for you. So in this video I'm going to show you everything

you need to know to get started with Loom. (upbeat music) (air whooshing) Now, first things first, Loom is absolutely free for up to five minutes of video recording, and a total of 25 saved videos. And you can use Loom on any of your devices, including iOS and Android. For today's example, we're going to be looking at the desktop version,

but the features and functionality is essentially the same across the different systems. (air whooshing) So once Loom has been installed on your machine and you launch the Zoom app, you'll be presented with this dialogue.

You'll also noticed here in the left-hand corner of the screen you can see my webcam, and I also have some controls which are creeping out from the side of my screen. Now, first things first,

we need to decide what we want to record. By default, you typically will want to record both your screen and your camera, but that's not the only available options to us. By selecting this dropdown we can choose to only record the screen, which will make my webcam go away, or we can also choose to record just our webcam

if you simply want to record a video. But in this case, I do want to record both my screen and my camera, so I'm going to keep that selection here. Next up, we can choose if we want to record the entire screen or if we just want to record a particular window on our computer. If you want to customize the recording window, you will need to upgrade to their paid plan. Within this dialogue, the only other two settings

we want to pay careful attention to is our camera and our microphone.

Many of us may have multiple webcams or multiple microphones available to us,

so make sure you select the correct ones here.

Recording your screen and camera

(gentle percussion) After hitting the recording button, you will receive a brief countdown, three, two, one, and now we are recording my screen along with my video. So maybe I want to discuss this spreadsheet with one of my colleagues,

and I'm going to come in here and I can do whatever I want. I can change cells, I can go through a demo of a product, I can go to a web browser, whatever I want to.

You'll notice on the left-hand side of the screen I have my countdown because the free version gives us a maximum of five minutes, it's counting down from five minutes. And the little red square lets me know that we are recording.

If I hover my mouse over this area, I can choose to stop the recording or I can choose to restart, pause the video, or cancel the recording altogether. Now, if you do choose cancel, it will give us a prompt, are you sure you want to cancel or do you want to resume?

In this case, I'm going to select resume, but if you do choose stop it will stop the recording immediately. What can be very helpful is to use this pause button

because maybe I need to set something up on a new tab or a new application.

I can come over here, select pause on my screen, and now I can maybe come up here and select a filter or sort the screen by some other means before I go back to recording what I'm doing.

When I'm ready, all I need to do is come down here and select resume, and now I'm back to recording my screen. Now, whether you're in recording mode or in a pause mode, you can click and drag your webcam

and move it to a different part of the screen. This can be most helpful if you want to make sure that your webcam is not in the way of something that you are showing

as a part of your recording. When you're happy with your recording, all you need to do is come over here

Viewing your completed recording

and select stop recording. (gentle percussion) Once you have finished your Loom recording, Loom will open up that recording in a new browser tab. So here you can see we have a preview of our video recording. Now, perhaps the first thing you will want to do is give your recording a different name than the default up above.

As you can see, Recording Region Indicator and today's date is maybe not so helpful.

So I can click my cursor up here and maybe I'm going to say this is a Sheets Tips and Tricks video, something along those lines. I can click anywhere else and now that title has been saved.

It's going to indicate who made the recording, so all of your viewers will know when this recording was made. Within this screen, we can of course play back the recording, to make sure that this is something that we want to share, and we can also choose to watch it at a faster speed if we want to save some time.

Now, before we share this video with anyone, we may want to cut out a few different clips or shorten the video as a whole.

Trim and edit your recording

To do that, we want to come over here to the right-hand side and select trim and add clips. (gentle percussion) By selecting this option, we can take the total duration of the video and maybe I want to cut out the ending. So I'm going to click and drag my cursor, so now this is a minute and 30 in total rather than the nearly two minutes

that I have originally recorded. But in many cases, you don't want to just reduce the beginning or the end, maybe I want to take out this middle section. All I need to do is drag my cursor and find the place where I want to cut out.

So maybe I need to hit play just to make sure that I want to cut out this part here when I'm talking about the recording console. I'm going to select Split to Trim, and what that's going to do is going to cut a point right there.

Next up, I just need to find the place that I want to return to and I'm going to select Split to Trim here. Now you can see I have three distinct sections for my video, All I need to do is select this middle section here

and I'm going to select Delete that clip. It'll still be visible here, but you can see

that there is a lightly shaded area behind it. So if I start playing this clip here,

it will immediately jump to the very next section, so people who are viewing this video

will not see this component down below. While in this editing screen, you always have the option to undo or redo, or if I want to I can also revert to the original.

When I'm happy with my changes,

Sharing your video with others

all I need to do is select Save changes. (gentle percussion) Now that we're happy with our finished video, we can come up to the top right-hand corner and select the copy link, the link being copied to our clipboard. We can now share this video with anyone.

But if you want to adjust some of your sharing settings, you'll want to select the Share button. Here within the Share Dialogue, I can invite certain members of my team or input certain email addresses that I would like to share this video with.

Pay special attention to this bottom dropdown menu, you can see that by default,

anyone with the link can view it, but perhaps I only want to share this with members of my Loom Workspace, or only people that I've added up above. if that's the case, I can select these options down below. I can also make some tweaks such as sharing this video at a certain timeframe, this can be very helpful if you don't have time

to edit or trim your overall video, and you just want to start sharing the videoat a particular timestamp. We can click anywhere else on the screen and then be returned to our video editing options. Now, an additional benefit of using the Loom Screen Recording Service

Managing your video recordings

is that we can keep track of how often our videos have been watched, and also allow viewers to comment and also record their comments within the Loom Player.

On the left-hand side of the screen, all we need to do is select the My library section, and here we will see all of the videos which we have recorded within Loom. You will notice in the top right-hand corner of the screen, it lets me know that I have used 6 of my 25 free videos.

You can have a total of 25 videos, before you may need to delete some of these videos if you choose to stay within the free plan. So here on this video,

I can see that it has already been viewed, and someone has commented and reacted to it. So if I click on this video, I can go into those details, I can scroll down to the bottom and see exactly when they watched this video, 55 minutes ago.

I can see what comment they've added, and perhaps they've added their comment at a certain time. This can be especially beneficial if you want to see what people are commenting on, or if they're addressing something specifically in that video.

(air whooshing) Returning to the My library screen, we can also take some bulk actions on our videos. So if I select these three videos, for example, I can come down to the bottom, and I can either share them with specific people, or edit their settings as a whole.

I can choose to move them to a different folder, I can archive or delete those videos all with just a single click. And when I'm ready to record my next video, I can either launch it from my desktop, or I can select this record a video button here

in the lower left hand portion of my screen. (air whooshing) Now, if you have questions about how to use Loom for screen recording, be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

And if you're interested in more free tools to make your life that much easier, be sure to watch this video next. Thank you so much for watching.

And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple.

(upbeat music)

Intro

(upbeat ambient music) - It can be very difficult to get things done if your team isn't working together effectively. And if members of your team don't like the tools that you're using, well, good luck. But there's a reason why many teams consider walling

the best collaborative tool on the market, and I would tend to agree with them.

So in this video, I'm going to share five problems that walling solves so you and your team can focus more time on the work and less time on your tools. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

And the first problem we want to address is getting your team involved

GETTING TEAM BUY-IN

and excited about the tools that you're using. Now if you've used another project management system, you know how complicated it can be to invite, and especially invite those who may be outside of your team, but you also wish to collaborate with.

Here at the top of my screen, I can see that there are three members who are assigned as a part of this wall. Yes, that's right,] workspaces within walling are referred to as walls and then each task or idea is referred to as a brick. If I want to add a new member to this wall, all I need to do is to type in their email address.

So maybe I'm going to invite my coworker, Diana. Now just before I hit invite, I can choose at what level I want to give her access. Do I want her to be able to edit everything on this wall, maybe only provide comments or just have view only access?

I can make that selection here and then select "Invite".] Of course, I can always come back and change that ability whenever I like, but it's a good idea to make that selection off the top. But what I really love about this is that I can also create a shareable link.

So let's say for example, I'm collaborating with an outside client. I don't want to invite them as a member, I just want to be able to give them a link because I think most of us understand the hassle of having to create a new account in a new system, which we have never used before.

So in this case, I'm going to enable the shareable link and now all I need to do is copy this link and I can send it via an email and they will have view only access to this wall. Easy, simple, straight to the point.

And perhaps when I'm finished working with that particular client, I can always come up here and disable that ability as well. So quick and easy ways to share things with teams and outside collaborators. The second problem that walling solves is a lack of visibility

EASY VISIBILITY & ASSIGNMENT

and the inability to assign specific things to members of your team. Here in this goal section, I have four different bricks and I've got a combination of notes and bullet points listed here.

Now in most project management tools, I would need to dive in deep to see who wrote what and who is the author of each of these notes. But in this case, walling keeps it front and center, so I can quickly and easily see who is the author of each and every one of these bricks.

But it goes one step further, let's say that I want to add somethingto this particular note. I'm going to come down here

and I'm going to say insert a bulleted list. And immediately you can see that my profile picture is attached to it. So if I start adding in some text as a note, people will see the difference between what my teammate has input and what I have shared as a part of this note.

Another difference with walling is the ability to assign tasks or assign things at a specific level. Too many project management systems force you to assign the entire task, or in this case the entire brick. Now I could come down here

and select "Assign To" and assign this to myself or someone else on my team, but what if I'm only going to take on this display testimonials? Well, I can do so here as well.

I'm going to select myself, and now everyone knows that I'm assigned only to that specific bullet point and I don't have to add additional notes, letting them know which one I'm going to take care of. A third problem that walling solves is keeping everything at the forefront

EASY ACCESS TO INFORMATION

so that users don't have to click in and out or dive deeper in to see the information that they're looking for. In this example here, I've got a combination of some checklists, but also some content that is linked to another article.

And rather than having to open up this particular task to dive in to see all of those details, I can see that on the front of each and every one of these bricks. Not only does that save an awful lot of time, but it prevents users from bypassing important information.

Now if you prefer, you can always minimize any of your bricks. So if I think that this checklist is a little too lengthy, I can come up here and collapse it. And if I don't want to see this article preview, I can collapse that as well.

So now I'm just limited to the title of each of these bricks, but you can expand them in just a click rather than having to open up

or expand something in a entire new dialogue, walling keeps it simple and straight to the point so you can see exactly what you're looking for. Now when you're collaborating with a team, it's of great importance, the ability to highlight

GROUPING AND ORGANIZATION

or to make certain ideas or tasks stand out. In this example, you can see that I've made this particular brick a shade of blue, and maybe anything that has this preferred in the title, I'd like it to stand out by having a similar shade.

And you can choose from a wide variety of colors as you can see here. But in addition to color shading, of course, we can also use tags. So in this case, I'm going to come up to the top left hand corner, select "Add Tags" and I can choose one of the predefined options, which I've created in advance, or I can create my own.

So if I need to highlight something as urgent and also be able to search on this tag, I can quickly and easily do that right here within walling. Now when it comes to true team collaboration, it really all revolves around communication. And with that, walling has this covered

FLEXIBLE COMMUNICATION

in a number of different ways. In most project management systems, you're only permitted to comment on each individual item. So for example, I might have to add a general comment, even though I'm only talking about one aspect here. But just like

with assigning ourselves to individual components, we can do the same thing with comments. So maybe I want to ask my teammate, "What exactly does she mean

by making the website designed trustworthy?" I can come in here and add a comment specifically just to that line item, and I can assign them if I want to as well.

And in addition to just being specific as to where you add your comments, you can also resolve those comments as well.

So you don't always have to have a long list of a discussion, especially if something has been completed. But if you also want to communicate with your team at a workspace level, walling has you covered here as well.

Here near the top of the screen, I can select on the wall discussion, and here I can have a broad conversation with my entire team, not just on a specific task, but maybe something in general. And if I need to address certain people directly, I can do that here as well.

Now you can get started with walling for absolutely nothing. The free plan gives you up to 100 bricks and unlimited walls, but if you need more, you can upgrade to premium at only $5 a month, which is really a fraction of what most other tools are charging.

To learn more and to get started, go to walling.app or click the link in the description down below. And if you have suggestions for other tools and apps I should cover here on the Simpletivity channel, be sure to let me know in the comments.

Thank you so much for watching, and remember, (upbeat ambient music) being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple.