Unlock Efficiency: Elevate Your Skills with Our Training & Videos

Do you run a business or are thinking of starting a business and your email address looks something like this? If so, keep watching.

Why you need a business account

There is perhaps nothing more unprofessional than using a generic email address for your business, so why would you do that to your brand and your reputation?

Well, one of the challenges in our way is that it can be complicated to search and buy a domain name and then connecting that with our email provider, and there's a good chance that you're either using Microsoft 365, or perhaps you're considering using Google Workspace, but you know what the problem is with these two providers? 

They're not designed for small businesses or entrepreneurs or solopreneurs, as a result, they make it very difficult for you to connect your new domain and even use your email in the long run.

So, what if there was a simpler way? Well, there is, and it's called Neo, business email built especially for entrepreneurs and small business owners, and best of all, you can get started with your own custom domain name and your own fast, reliable inbox in just a matter of minutes.

So let me show you how easy it is to get started with Neo.

Getting an email address with Neo

Here I am at Neo.space and I'm going to come up here and select get started.

Now, if you already happen to have your own business domain name, you can still take advantage of the simplicity and speed of Neo, but in our case, we are going to start with a new domain name, so I'm going to select this option here and select ‘get a new domain’. And now all we need to do is search for something that is going to fit with our brand. I'm going to type in SimpleScott because that is going to be the name of my business.

I'm going to select search and perfect, it is available, SimpleScott.co.site and best of all, it is absolutely free for my first year, so I'm going to come here and select ‘get this Domain’. 

Next, it's time to create our account so I'm going to enter in my full name, my existing email address. This is going to be helpful so I can transfer over and even reply to existing emails from my current email address, and of course, create a password.

Next, we need to finish creating our mailbox. We already have the domain name, but what's going to come in the front of our default email address? Well, I got to keep things nice and simple.

It's just going to be my first name. We're reminded that this is going to be the default admin email address, but we can update and assign more admins later on.

 And then we'll need to set a password for this mailbox. Next, we can add additional mailboxes for members of our team, so if you have a staff or if you have other members of your business, here is where you can start to add them as well. 

I'm going to say done and continue to the next step and here's an additional bonus. Not only do we now have a professional email address, but we have this domain to use at our discretion, and Neo comes with a free one-page site. More on this later, but this is going to be an extremely helpful tool as you continue to build and grow your business.

I'm going to hit continue and our final step is to choose if we want to go with the Business Starter Plan or the Business Plus Plan.

Using Neo with Gmail

And with setup now complete, we are brought into our Neo inbox where we can start to use our custom email address, but also start to work with email a lot smarter and a lot faster.

So, for example, email tracking is built right into Neo. We don't have to install an additional extension. We don't have to enable something special. In fact, you can turn it on or off for any particular email. We also have templates, not only built right into the email, but they're up here upfront under the subject line.

I think that makes so much more sense when I'm crafting a new message or a new email, and lastly, contact groups. Rather than trying to remember, "What did I name that contact group?" 

I can simply select from my list, here's my VIP coaching list, and it's automatically put into the recipient line. But wait, you're probably asking, "What happens to all of the emails I have been using, for example, in my Gmail account?"

Well, the great thing is you can add accounts to Neo so you can continue to work seamlessly and reply and read all of your regular Gmail emails right here from within Neo. You'll notice just below my inbox, I have a Gmail address.

This is my former gmail.com address, and I have all of my messages available to me here, so I can continue to read and review what's going on from this account.

Simple 1-Page Website

Last but not least, let's don't forget about that bonus site that we talked about earlier.

Now, when you're first starting your business, you may be spending way too much time crafting that first website, or perhaps you've even been putting it off, but with Neo, we get our own custom one page website, which is attached to our custom domain name so we can easily share this with others and give them only the most relevant information they need.

And don't worry, you can customize the layout and the look, upload your logo, give a brief description, and then include custom links. 

So in my example, maybe what I really want them to do is book a call with me, so here I have a link to my Calendly booking calendar, but then down below, if they're not ready to book a call, maybe what I want them to really do is to get in touch so they can send me a message here, a message which will go directly to my Neo inbox.

And if I want to add some further details, I can always add additional links, maybe such as links to my social media profiles. All I need to do is hit save and publish and now this site is ready to go live. I can share this link with anyone.

AI & marketing features

Finally, Neo's team is constantly launching new features and functionality. I had the chance to get a sneak preview of two new features, SmartWrite, an AI email generator that can write and reply to emails for you, and email marketing, which you can use to send out beautifully designed custom marketing emails to all your leads.

So if you're tired of looking unprofessional with that generic email address and want to be able to manage your messages in a much faster and simpler environment, you can go to Neo.space or click the link in the description down below. 

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

The first rule of the Simpletivity method is to work on what really matters. And recently, Google has added a new view right here within Google Calendar, which makes it that much easier. Historically we've always had to access Google Tasks from the side panel here, which is okay.

That's fine. But often we are so distracted by the long list of tasks. It's probably a lot longer than what you see here in my example. Well in the top right hand corner of Google Calendar, we can now switch between our calendar view and our tasks view, which makes managing and adding and organizing our tasks a lot easier. 

First off, you can have access to all of your different lists on the very same screen. And you know what that means? It means that you can easily drag and move tasks in between your different lists. T

his is especially helpful if you would like to create a con bond method, a method of moving your tasks from the left hand side to the right hand side of your screen. And of course, you can always add a new list whenever you like.

If I have four or five or more lists, I can still see them here on the exact same screen. But here I've created an even simpler and I feel a more effective way to use this new view. 

Here you can see I have both a work list for all of the things related to my business and then over here I've got a family list, things that are related more to my personal life or things outside of work.

And at the very beginning, I have a list called My Tasks. And the reason why I've set up my list this way is that I only want to focus on three tasks at a time. I want to accomplish those three tasks, not be distracted by everything else going on in my life, and then come back here and pull in another three or another few tasks for that day.

So for example here, I can continue to add a very long list of all of my work tasks, maybe just a number of ideas as well. But when it comes to planning for my day, I can review my list and say, "Well that phone call is very important. 

I want to accomplish that and then I want to send out the newsletter, but I don't want to forget to call Mom and talk about spring break." So these are the first three tasks. These are my most important tasks right now.

Now when I come back to my calendar view, I'm going to come up here and switch to My Tasks. You'll see that you still always have access to your multiple tasks, but now I only have those three.

I can go about my day and focus exclusively on these three tasks, make sure that they are completed. And when I'm done or when I'm ready to add some more, I can go back to my master view, or my new Google Tasks desktop view, and start to drag in a few more tasks.

In this way, I'm not distracted by a lengthy or long list and I can focus on just one or three things at a time. 

Now if you enjoy tips like this to get the most out of your software so you can work a little less and enjoy life a little more, join us at Streamline Academy. It's the private Simpletivity community where you can get more done and enjoy less stress.

To learn more, go to simpletivity.com/streamline, or click the link in the description down below.

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

How often do people visit your website or Shopify page and then leave because they have a question? Well, in this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to add a free AI chatbot so you can make more sales and keep customers on your site.

Hello everyone. Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

And in this tutorial, we are going to be using an app called Tidio, which not only is going to provide us with a professional chatbot that we can put on any website or Shopify page, but we can also use the power of AI, so we or someone else on our team does not have to be answering things directly.

‍Create a Tidio chatbot

So here on the Tidio website, we want to go to the top right hand corner and select get started. And here we can go ahead and create our own free account. And once complete, our very next step is to start configuring our live chatbot.

So it's going to give us a preview here on the right hand side of the screen. First, we're going to have to decide on a name. Now, this could either be the name of the avatar that you are going to be using.

Sometimes businesses like to use a fake name or a fictional name, or, depending on where you are going to be placing your chatbot, it could be something like chat with support, or maybe you want to say chat with customer service, something along those lines.

In this case, I'm going to use my name because, remember, we don't have to use the AI capability all of the time. 

You can actually chat directly with your customers if you want to. Now, down below, we get to choose our color scheme. Now, you can choose from a number of presets.

If we hit this more button, we have a number of others to choose from, or we can of course customize what we want as well. And last but not least, and I highly recommend this, we get to upload our avatar.

So here you might want to either choose a logo, a picture of yourself, or, in my case, because I'm going to be selling coaching services, I'm going to use this coach icon here. So they maybe recognize me as Coach Scott.

So this is going to be helpful to them. And I think I'm going to go back to this. I kind of like this default blue here. Lastly, you just want to confirm your default chat language 

Customize your AI chatbot

Now, in order for Tidio to personalize your experience, there's a couple of questions we need to answer. So, for example, what is your main focus? Do I want to increase sales or do I want to solve customer problems? In my case, I'm going to say increase sales.

And how do I want to do that? Do I want to talk to the customers or do I want to automate conversations? I'm going to select this one here. You can actually select all four of these if you like. It's not an either or situation, but the more particular you are, the better that Tidio will be able to help you.

Next up, how many support agents will use Tidio? You don't have to be the only one involved. In my case, I'm just going to say one. But if you have other team members, you can specify that here. And then lastly, what is your industry? 

Well, in my case, I'm going to call myself a service. And how many inquiries do a get a month? I'm going to estimate somewhere in the realm of 26 to 250. Step three in our setup process is how we want to greet our customers or greet our visitors on our page.

So how would we like to engage with them at first? Do we want to ask them if they'd like to get a closer look at your offer? Ask them if they'd like to order a phone call or request a phone call or just greet them warmly.

And you can see the example here on the right hand side, the differences between them. I'm going to say this last one here. “Hey, if you need any assistance, I'm always here”. I like sort of the gentle nature of this.

But again, depending on your goals, depending on what you're wanting, you can choose another option. You also always have the choice to customize this message if you like as well. We're going to select Continue. 

And lastly, our final step is to actually set this up with our site. Now you can either do this manually or use one of the popular integrations down below. In our example, we are going to set this up for our Shopify store.

So at this stage, all we need to do is insert our Shopify store name and then connect it to our Shopify account. And once Tidio is configured, I can log into my Shopify account.

And at the very bottom here under apps, you can see that it has been installed as an application. So there's nothing really more I need to do here within my Shopify account.

Now that things have been connected, every time that I launch this particular site, this particular store, that chatbot will be visible on the front.

‍Setup AI answers & knowledge

So here within our Tidio account, we want to come down to this icon here called Lyro. Lyro AI is the engine that powers the responses, but also allows you to configure the answers and the questions that may be presented to your customers and those who are visiting your website or Shopify page. Here within the data sources menu, we have two different ways in which we can start to add knowledge.

Knowledge is going to be the information that we tell our chatbot to use so that when a visitor asks a question, it can confidently give a number of answers that are accurate and on brand. Now, there are two different ways in which we can do this.

We can either import or generate a number of Q&As. And if you already have an FAQ, a frequently asked questions, part of your site, this is super simple, but we can also simply give it a website URL, where it will take all of the information from your sales page and then use that to answer questions. 

So let's use both of these in this example. So starting with the website option, I'm going to select website URL. And here I just need to paste in the name of the website I want to refer it to. In this case, I'm going to use my Streamline Academy website page.

I understand that there's a lot of information here within this page, and although I think it's clearly laid out, I realize that many of my visitors will simply scan and browse, and maybe just read the bolded lines here. But if they have a question, I want to be able to refer them to the actual information, the accurate data, which is included on this page.

Now, it may take several minutes for Lyro to scan and grab all of that information, but, at this point, you can also consider adding additional websites if you need to as well. Next up, while we're waiting, let's go to the Q&A section. So if you already have an FAQ section, you want to use this option here, but you can also use this in conjunction with generating Q&As. 

So I'm going to click this option here, and I'm again going to state that Streamline Academy page. I'm going to say generate.

And what it's going to do is scan this site. And after a few minutes, it's going to create 25 questions and answers, things that I can review and edit if I need to, so that it can give the best possible answers to those who visit my website.

And once completed, it's going to give me a summary of each of the questions along with the answers below that I can choose to add. Or if I don't want to include it, I can uncheck a box here. I'm going to go ahead and say Add Selected for everything on this page because I can still edit it here.

So I can go through it one at a time. So for example, can I reschedule my appointment or reservation? Here's the answer that the chatbot is going to give. Yes, you can do so.

Please contact our customer service team. Hmm, I don't have a customer service team, so here I can come in here and modify this to include an email address or give it some other instructions if desired.

Review handoff settings & test

Once we're happy with providing it with the information that we need and editing any of these questions if necessary, we also want to come down to the configure option here. And, in particular, look at the handoff section.

Remember, you can still use the chatbot as a one-to-one conversation tool. So if you are monitoring a conversation, you can choose to take over from the chatbot.

The two options here are when operators are online, meaning when you are online, do you want to be transferred to the conversation or do you want to keep the conversation within AI? 

And secondly, when operators are offline, what do you want it to do as well? So these are two important questions for you to consider. Lastly, just before going live with your Shopify or website integration, you can come up here and select Test Lyro.

Here, you can actually see how the chatbot will respond to any questions that you give it. So here, it's going to start us off with a sample question. Can I get personalized advice for my specific software? Of course you can.

This is perfect. This is exactly the type of response I want to give it. What if I ask something like, "Who is Streamline for?" something along those lines? 

The answer, Streamline Academy is intended for individuals who want to optimize their software-specific needs, a plethora of technology tools, and wanting to simplify their technology. This is a perfect answer that really encompasses everything about what Streamline Academy is all about.

So you can try and challenge your chatbot, give it some simple, give it some more complicated questions just before you give live, so you can be confident when real-time visitors go to use your chatbot. And don't forget, you can do so much more than just answer questions.

You can also use your chat bot to capture leads, including email addresses, and then create email marketing campaigns all from within the Tidio platform. 

So if you want to keep people on your Shopify page or your website, make sure you install Tidio, and give them the answers they deserve. To get started, go to tidio.com/get/simpletivity or use the link in the description down below to start using Tidio for free and upgrade anytime with 20% off.

Thank you so much for watching today's video. And remember, being productive doesn't need to be difficult.

ClickUp 3.0 is here and is more powerful than ever, but don't waste your time fumbling around. In this video, I'm going to show you how to use the best new ClickUp features, including Home, Hubs, Universal Search and ClickUp AI. Are you ready?

Home

So let's get started with the new home screen. This is really going to be your productivity home base as you get to customize the look and feel of everything that is happening.

So whether you want to see your agenda, whether you want to see those tasks that are assigned to you, you can create this space any way that you like. Here in the top right hand corner, we have our manage cards button.

And by selecting this, you can see the different types of cards in which we can add or which we can hide from this screen. So for example, if I want to remove the agenda, I just need to select this button here.

If I want to remove the lineup, which is a very customizable card here, I can remove that here as well. And if I ever want to add something back, I can simply just add it to the home screen. Let's go ahead and add those two back. 

Now, by default, you will notice that they will bring them back at the bottom of the screen. So here is my lineup card, here is my agenda card. But the additional benefit of this home screen is that we can edit this entire layout to our heart's content.

Just beside the manage cards button, we have this edit layout toggle. By selecting this, we can take any of these cards and we can reduce their size, we can lengthen their size if we want to see more, but I really do want to see my agenda. So I'm going to click and drag, and maybe I'm going to bring that to my top right hand corner and maybe that lineup something where I can customize and add tasks specifically for me.

I'm going to grab that as well, and I want that front and center, but I don't need it to span the entire width. There we go, I'm going to put my agenda there and maybe that assigned to me maybe on second thought. There is a lot of detail there. So let me go ahead and expand that. And now my other cards will be brought down below. 

Now, some other features within the home area you should be aware of is that depending on the card, you may have some other views or some other settings. So for example, here in my agenda view, I can view my agenda here.

You can see that it is linked to my Google Calendar, but I can click the gear icon and select the calendar view. So if I want to see that calendar view, and maybe if I expand it out here, I can see it here as well. But I kind of prefer that more condensed agenda view.

So I'm going to use that here. In addition, as I am clicking on and maybe looking at further details within any of my tasks, by default, we're going to have this standard pop up or dialogue view. But in the top right hand corner, we can switch our layout to either a full screen or a sidebar view. A

nd I personally like this sidebar view. You can drag and decide how wide of a sidebar view you want, but as I'm clicking on different tasks here, if I'm reviewing certain things and remember, I can immediately start to work on them here. I still have access to my tasks and my home view here on the left hand side.

Universal Search

Next up, let's take a look at a new feature, which makes finding what you're looking for that much easier, not only here within ClickUp, but with other apps that you can connect. At the top of the screen, we have our Universal Search.

And of course here we can search for anything within ClickUp, including things across our multiple spaces and our multiple projects. But what's better yet is that we can now search files and other folders in our connected apps. Here you can see that I've already connected my Google Drive.

Why would I want to open up a new tab, log in somewhere else, and search or find that file when I can do it all here from within ClickUp? So in my example, I'm looking for a particular consulting form, and here you can see the three results here are actually all coming from my Google Drive account. 

This first one is what I'm looking for. So I can click on it and immediately I'm brought to the form that I want. I can start editing, I can start reviewing, and I didn't have to open up another tab or switch back and forth.

I can do it all here from this Universal Search. Here within the apps section, if we select this plus button, you can see the number of different apps which we can connect. So whether you use Drive, Dropbox, GitHub, Figma, or some other service, you can search within these applications from the convenience of your ClickUp account.

Hubs Now, speaking of finding things fast, ClickUp 3.0 has introduced something new called Hubs. Here within our menu, below home and inbox, you will see things such as docs, dashboards and whiteboards. 

These are referred to as Hubs. So if I click on docs, I now have a high level view of all of my docs across all of my spaces, and they're conveniently categorized in a few different ways, including my most recent docs, docs that I have favorited and docs that are created by me.

And I particularly like that they've kept these nice and short, they're only showing the top three. But if I want to see them all, I'm only a click away. Down below, I can see a full list of all of my docs, but I can also quickly filter these as well. I

f I want to find out things that are specifically private in this case, maybe things that are specific to a workspace, I can do so here as well. So very much like the universal search, a quicker or faster way to find all of those documents, dashboards, and whiteboards that you are looking for.

ClickUp AI

Last but not least, an overview of ClickUp 3.0 would not be complete without looking at ClickUp AI and AI is built into a variety of different places. For example, if I come here and open up this task within the description field, I can immediately start to write with AI by selecting this option here, I can immediately give it a prompt, ask it a question, and start to create a number of different types of content.

But if I don't want to click that or depending on where I am, I can always use that forward slash and I can choose that option here as well.

So there's a variety of different places in which you can give it this prompt, but what's better yet is the different ways in which we can get started. At the very top of the screen, just to the right of your search bar, you will see this AI button.

By selecting this, we will get the same prompt, but what I appreciate is how specific we can get with what we are creating. 

Now, by default, we are going to be shown some of the more popular prompts, such as writing an email, creating a template, maybe we want to generate a table. But what if you want to do something a lot more specific?

You probably know by now that when it comes to getting the most out of AI, it all comes down to the prompt. So here with this dropdown, we can select a particular department or the type of work in which we are working on.

So for example, maybe I'm working on some marketing, I'm going to select marketing, and immediately I am given a number of different scenarios, a number of different things that I can use right away to create something so much more valuable than just giving it a one-liner here at the top of the screen.

So let's say I want to create a customer survey. I'm going to select this option, and it's going to give me just a few simple questions that I need to answer. So I can create a high quality survey. 

So in this example, I'm selling a bath soap for seniors. I'm telling it what my target audience is and what my survey objectives are. Last but not least, I can choose a particular tone of voice. I'm going to keep it at default, and I can also choose my level of creativity.

I'm going to tone this down to medium, and then all I need to do is select, generate. And of course, in just a number of seconds, it's produced a great survey, something that I can get started with.

Maybe I'll only need to change a few different things before I issue it, or maybe pass it along to someone else on my team. But of course, ClickUp is going to make it that much easier for us.

I can immediately create a task or create a doc. I can now turn this into something so much more actionable. I can give it an assignee. I can give it a due date and create that task. So in a matter of seconds, I didn't have to open up another tab.

I didn't have to go to ChatGPT, I didn't have to go to Google Drive. I can do it all here within ClickUp and get on with my very next task. 

So now that you know how to use some of the best features here in ClickUp 3.0, I'd love to hear from you next.

Which features are you most excited to try out next? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Thank you so much for watching today's video. And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

There has never been a better time to build online courses. But you may be saying to yourself, "I don't have the content, the skills, or the software to do something like that." Well, I think you're wrong. And if you just know some basic PowerPoint skills, you can create professional looking courses and start selling them online. 

Use your PowerPoint presentations

But first, a quick warning. Don't take the easy way out and do what others are doing. Earlier this year, I purchased an online course. And you know what I got? A collection of Loom videos,kind of like what you see here with the presenter's face here in the lower left-hand corner as they just went through their slides, one slide at a time.

In fact, these videos were recorded live, so I could actually hear them advancing on their keyboard as they went from slide to slide.

This is the fastest way to present yourself as unprofessional and someone who is not as knowledgeable in your particular field of teaching. 

Instead, you can take your existing PowerPoint slides, the presentations that you probably already have or perhaps that you're putting together and add something to it. And what we're going to add is iSpring Suite.

iSpring Suite is an add-on to your PowerPoint slides so you can add interactive quizzes, role plays, screen recordings. You can even let AI do voice narration for you if you don't want to be on camera or if you don't want to be reading the script.

So let me show you five of my favorite features and why you should consider using iSpring Suite. Number one, do it in an application that you already know. 

You already know how to add content and create new slides here within PowerPoint, so why waste your time learning a completely new piece of software? You can create your course here and add all of these additional add-ons, interactions, and produce the course at the end within a software that you already know.

Not only is this going to save you a lot of time, but it's going to save you a lot of effort because you don't have to convert your slides to some format that you're not familiar with. You don't have to worry if your font types or your layout is going to carry over into the new software.

Everything that you build here within PowerPoint is going to look exactly the same way to those who take your course.

Add user interaction

Number two is adding interaction. Why narrate over a boring slide when you can get your users to click on particular elements within your course. Get them to interact with what's going on so they can really absorb your material and make it that much more engaging for the learner.

This way, you can get them to interact with your content rather than just listen to you speak over a number of boring slides.

Include quizzes and surveys

Number three, adding quizzes or surveys directly to your content. Here with iSpring Suite installed, we have a new ribbon where we can add all of our learning features directly to any of our existing slide decks.

All I need to do is come up here and select quiz and I can go ahead and start adding a quiz to this slide. And best of all, we're not limited to just some boring form where everything is text-based.

You can make your quizzes as colorful or as interactive as you like. In this example, not only can I ask the question here, but I can have a nice bright visual related to it here as well. 

I'm going to select true and then select Submit. And I can even give the learner a reason for their correct or their incorrect answer in this case. And what about interactivity? How about this? Sorting your food in terms of what is healthy and what is not.

Think of the possibilities that you could create. How much more fun, engaging, and how much more real learning will take place when your users get to interact at this level? And best of all, you get to create it all within the comfort of Microsoft PowerPoint.

Record narration or use text-to-speech

Number four, recording your own audio or using text to speech. Now, iSpring Suite makes it super easy for us to record audio over any of our slides. So for example, maybe I want to give a brief introduction to this slide.

All I need to do is select Start Record, and I can do as many takes as I'd like, making sure I get the perfect one to put together as a part of my course.

But instead, if I don't like the sound of my own voice, or maybe I want to save some time and have some professional narration, I can come up here and select Manage Narration. 

This time, instead of recording my own audio, I'm going to select text to speech. And then all I need to do is either type in or maybe paste what I would like to be said here within this slide. I have a wide variety of languages, which I can choose from, and also a large variety of voices, which I can try.

And before I insert this narration, I can always come down here and preview it just to make sure I've got everything right. Not only newbies need a mentor, but also employees who are moving to a new position within the company.

And now this crisp and clear narration will be played when this slide is presented during the course.

Add characters and royalty-free backgrounds

And number five, adding high-resolution characters and backgrounds so that your slides pop and look more professional. Here within our iSpring Suite ribbon, you can see that we have access to icons, objects, backgrounds, and characters.

Characters can bring your courses to life and make things so much more interactive. If I click on characters here, I have a massive library of different characters which I can use, and I can search and sort by different age groups if I want, if I'm looking at more of a casual audience or maybe a business audience, and let's say I want to choose Carmen here. 

I have Carmen in literally hundreds of different poses, different positions. So no matter what type of training, no matter what type of course that I'm using, I can add it directly to my training.

In addition, I don't have to come up with my own scenarios or physical spaces for my training. Let's say that I'm delivering some specific leadership training for those who work in restaurants. Now I have access to a full library of different areas of kitchens, restaurants, bars, and setups, which I can use as a part of my course development.

So stop just thinking about creating that course. Make it look professional with iSpring Suite. To get started with your free trial, click the link in the description down below. 

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

This is too expensive, this is too complicated. And for many people, this might be too simple. So what project management tool won't break the bank is easy to use, yet still has advanced features for real people like you and me? Let's find out.

Views you want to use

Without question, you have an awful lot of choice when it comes to selecting your project management tool. Well, I might argue that Hive may be the very best user experience because it's built by users.

So in this video, I'm going to share with you five of my favorite features within Hive and why you may want to consider Hive for yourself or your team. Now, my number one reason for considering Hive is its multiple views and layouts.

And you may be surprised by that because most of our project management tools will offer a variety of different views.

But whether you prefer Trello or Asana or Monday or some other tool, you probably recognize that they do one view very, very well, and the other views tend to feel like add-ons or things where you can't quite do as much as their prominent view.

Well, here within Hive, not only do we have six different views, but they are all very, very functional. My first view here is the status view, or you might say a standard board view where we can drag and move things around between our different columns.

But a view that is often lacking in project management tools is a team view or viewing those responsibilities by individual members.

Within this view, I can quickly and easily see what I'm assigned, but also what other members of my team are assigned. And rather than just relying on a standard board style view where I would need to open up this card, come over here, select the person, and then select myself, do you know what's so much easier is working within this team view where I can simply just take this and drag it into my column.

That's a lot simpler, a lot faster, and makes a lot more sense depending on who is working on this project at a time. In addition, we have a fully functional Gantt chart view so we can manage our project from a timeline perspective and a table view if you prefer to sort things in a more Excel or spreadsheet-like manner.

Block time on your calendar

The second feature that I love about Hive are the little details that help me be more productive. Here within this particular task, I have all the details that I need to get started, including the due date as to when this should be finished.

But you know what I love about this is just below, we have a feature called Schedule time. How am I supposed to get this done unless I actually make time for it on my own calendar?

Well, all I need to do is select schedule time and my own personal calendar is brought up and I can take a look at the week in advance. Maybe I see a block of time here on Friday where I can dedicate to this particular task.

All I need to do is click and drag, and now that will be added to my Google calendar.

I'm going to select schedule, and now, I don't have to keep coming back to review what I should be doing when if I open up my calendar, here is exactly that time that I scheduled, and when I click on it, I have a direct link to that task. So it will open it up for me and I can immediately go back to work and start accomplishing this task.

Assign tasks with smart options

Speaking of little details that can make such a big and productive difference, I also love the way that Hive treats assignees.

Here we can see that this particular task is assigned to me, but when I click on my name, I can choose if I only want to assign one person at a time or if I want to allow multiple assignees. This is such a valuable feature that most other productivity tools do not include.

So for example, maybe when I'm done with my dependency or my sub-action, I'm going to go ahead and assign this to Kate. I didn't have to remove myself because I have it set to single one at a time. If I need to assign it to myself, I don't have to waste time or effort and go and remove Kate. But if this particular task does require multiple people or multiple eyeballs on it, I can simply select the multiple option.

Now I can go ahead and add a few more of my team members and assign them, and now we are all a part of this task. In addition, Hive has another feature that I absolutely love.

Sometimes when creating a project or a task, you don't know exactly which individual will accomplish the work, but you do know what type of skill set or maybe what type of role should be performing this task.

So here in this example, I've yet to assign anyone, and I'm not exactly sure if it's going to be Kate or Kelley who does this, but what I do know is I can use a placeholder since both of them are copywriters, I'm going to assign it as a copywriter role.

And then when it comes time to accomplish this task, I can allow our two copywriters to decide which one of them will take on this assignment.

Display goals and milestones

Now, a fourth feature that often gets overlooked when it comes to our project management software is creating an overarching goal or an overview of what is going on. Far too often, we set up our projects and they seem to be ongoing.

We're always going to have a number of things that are either unstarted, things that we're working on and things that are completed.

But what are some of those key milestones and are we staying on track? Well, here on the top-right hand corner, you can see that there is an overview section where we can see exactly how many things we've completed, how many things are overdue, and we can also see a summary of our project activity.

So this can be a great place to get caught up to see what has been going on and what is happening within that project.

We also have the opportunity to create our own status updates. So here you can see that just a few days ago, I've let the team know that we caught up in this month, "Nice job, we are back on track."

But if things change, I can come up here and create a new status update. Either we can be at risk or off track, something that everyone who is working on this project can easily see and keep in mind.

But on top of that, we can also create specific milestones and goals. Up in the top-right hand corner, if I select new and select goal, I can enter in a specific milestone. So in this example, perhaps a key goal that we have is to demo the new website to the customer.

I'm going to be the owner, and this is the date in which we need to do this by. And although this is often where we stop with a particular date, we can take things one step further and add a goal measurement.

So whether we want to calculate the number of actions completed or track the number of overdue actions, or maybe we want to manually enter in a number, we can select that here. And what is going to be the project source?

Well, we can say the specific projects and maybe there are two or more projects that are related to this milestone or related to this goal. You can select multiple projects here and go beyond just the scope of the space which you are working on.

You can even choose if you'd like to make another goal, a dependency in the case that you need to hit something else first before you're capable of achieving this goal. Now, when I create this goal, I can see exactly how close are we to completing this particular goal and see if we are on track in hitting that milestone.

User submitted roadmap

Now, the fifth reason why I love Hive as a project management tool is that they truly listen to their users.

Don't believe me? You can go to their public roadmap and see exactly what they're working on, what they are planned to deliver and what they are reviewing when it comes to user requests.

And Hive has a commitment to developing things that receive the most votes or the most amount of feedback here. So if you have a feature that you would like to add. Here, you can easily submit your own feature request or review the ones that have already been submitted, give your supporting vote so it can be included in a future version of Hive.

And Hive is so certain that you'll love their tool. They have a 90-day adoption guarantee. That's right. You can use Hive for a full three months, and if you don't love it, they will pay you back. Of course, you can always get started with their free forever plan, but if you do choose to upgrade to their team's version, you have this guarantee in place. T

o get started with Hive, just go to hive.com or click the link in the description down below.

hank you so much for watching today's video. And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Do you want to get more out of your AI?

Well, then you better pay special attention to your prompts. So in this video I'm going to share with you seven essential prompts so you can get more done and enjoy less stress. 

Pretend to be someone else

Hello, everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity. And while I could show you these prompts here within ChatGPT, there are so many other tools which allow us to be that much more productive.

So I'm actually going to show you these prompts within one of my favorite tools called Walling, and you'll see why in just a minute. And make sure you stay to the end of the video where I show you something that just might blow your AI mind.

So here within Walling, I can incorporate AI into almost any component. I'm going to right-click here and say, new brick with AI. And the first prompt that we want to pay attention to is the word pretend. 

Pretend is such a valuable keyword when we are interacting with AI because it allows us to take a closer look as to what someone else or maybe a customer base may be thinking.

So in this example, I'm asking the following, pretend you're a customer looking to redesign your website. What are you looking for? What pain points are you experiencing? And in just a few seconds, Walling has spit out both a current pain point summary, along with things that it may be looking for.

So maybe they're worried that their site is not mobile-responsive, maybe they also are worried that their site is outdated. And then down below here are some of the things that they are looking for. Our second keyword prompt is the word questions

Generate powerful questions

and questions are so valuable so that we can generate helpful or thought-provoking questions for our next meeting, or in this case, perhaps if we have an upcoming interview.

So let's say that I am interviewing a number of virtual assistants and I really want them to specialize in social media, but I haven't interviewed someone in a long time. I don't want to waste my time scrolling through a number of Google Search results.

So in this case, I've asked it to write five interview questions for a VA who specializes in social media. 

And in just a few seconds, I've got a number of great questions that I can choose to evaluate or start to use in my upcoming interview. Now, just like we saw that we can bold and edit things here within Walling, another fantastic use here is if we want to convert things. S

o in this case, you can see that it is a numbered list, and that makes a lot of sense, I asked it for five things, but maybe I want to turn it into a checklist.

So as I go through the interview itself, I can say, oh, I asked that question already and then I asked that question, or if I even want to give maybe a answer, such as a note, I could start to type in whatever it is they had to say directly here.

Create reusable templates

Now, the third AI prompt that I want you to start using is all about templates, because, why have to create the same thing over and over and over again when you can craft an excellent-looking template and repurpose it so you can save more time?

In this case, I'm asking it to write an email template that will be used to remind customers of upcoming delivery deadlines for holiday orders. Remember, I want to spend a little effort upfront creating one fantastic template that I can use dozens, maybe hundreds, or even thousands of times in the future.

And in just a moment, I'm presented with this template, including the proper formatting. 

Now, I appreciate that it's going to show me the brackets where I need to insert that specific information, such as the customer's name, such as specific dates, and, of course, my name or the company name down below.

But now I have something that is so much more actionable, something that I can use for an email template. And if I'm not done with it here, remember, we can still make this very actionable as a part of our project plans.

Here within Walling, we have a variety of different sections and ways in which we can group information. 

So here you can see I've got a number of tasks, and maybe this is just one of the tasks I want to complete this week. Well, all I need to do is drag and drop it and I can put it here within my in progress area. So now I can focus on this, this can be one of my top priorities for the coming week.

And if you want to minimize the details, I can simply do that as well. I can start to move things around if it comes to the review stage, or maybe I want to add it here as a part of my to-do list. And when I need to, I can simply expand it and see that template as a whole.

So a number of ways in which we can take action on the prompt results and not simply just let it sit within ChatGPT.

Must-read subject lines

Now, of course, once we have a fantastic email template, we want to make sure that people are going to open up that email. So the next one on our list is all about email subject lines, or you might want to consider titles for your content or social media posts.

So in this case, I'm going to ask it the following, write five email subject lines that are designed to increase open rates for an online store that sells scented candles. Remember, when it comes to your AI prompts, you want to be as descriptive and as detailed as possible. 

And instead of staring at a blank screen or a flashing cursor, I now have five excellent email subject lines that I can consider or start to edit myself. 

And again, since we are in Walling, if I want to stack-rank this, or maybe I just want to eliminate a few of these, maybe I don't like this first one here and I'm not wild about this one, I can check those off the list and I can rearrange these as well.

So once again, even if I am not happy with all of the results, I can become that much more actionable and start interacting with the results which the AI has given me. 

Build a task board

Now, so far in our video, we've seen how we can create small pieces of content, what Walling refers to as bricks, but we can actually go so much further by creating entire sections based on an AI prompt.

So instead of choosing to create a new brick with AI, this time I'm going to select to create AI for an entire section. And the keyword this time around has to do with creating a tasks list or a task board.

In this case, I'm going to give it the following prompt, create a task board for a successful retirement plan in your 20s. Perhaps I'm a financial advisor or I'm providing some financial coaching and I want to create a more actionable list for the clients that I work with. 

And rather than just spitting out a simplified bullet list or a number of paragraphs, look what Walling AI is capable of doing. Here I am presented with a task board with four different areas, financial assessment, savings goals, investment strategies, and skill enhancement, and then within each of those lists, I have actionable things that I could almost give to my clients right out of the box.

And yes, because this is a Kanban board style, if I need to move things around or reorder them, I can easily do it here, and again, not waste my time copying and pasting and trying to jam it into some other format. Let's let AI do the heavy lifting for us, not only with the answers, but by getting us that much further along the way.

Dynamic table data

Now, let's stick with creating a new section here within Walling. I'm going to select AI Generate again this time, but for this prompt, our keyword is the word table.

We just saw how we can create a board-style view, this time I'm going to say, create a budget table including the expense type, cost, quantity, and request date. And in almost no time at all, I am presented with an actual table, something where I can start to type in the cost of certain products or certain things that I have, maybe the quantity or how often we are going to be using that, and it even gives me a handy-dandy calendar here, so if I want to enter in the due date nice and quickly, I can do so. 

And because we're working with a table, we can also add other things, such as maybe we want to sum this entire column here, or maybe we want to sort this from ascending or by descending.

But once again, I'm not limited to just a good idea and then have to think about how I'm going to build this or enter this in manually in a spreadsheet or some other location, I can start to use and engage with this table right away and use less apps overall.

Design a complete project

Now, for our seventh and final prompt, I've perhaps saved the best for last. I've already shown you how we can create small pieces of information, but also create entire sections.

Well, what if you could create an entire project or entire plan right here from within Walling? Here on the left-hand side, I'm going to say, create a new wall, and I'm going to say AI Generate.

All we need to do is give it a specific prompt. In this case, I'm going to say, design and employee onboarding program for a health food store that includes training, job responsibilities, expectations, and closing duties.

I've only given it one detailed sentence, let's see what it comes up with. And in less than 10 seconds, I have a complete project plan with all of the information which I've requested. I've got a nice title here at the top.

It will even automatically include images related to whatever you are asking. So here's the Welcome section, describing a bit about our company culture and understanding our mission. 

Down below, here are the daily tasks and closing duties that I requested. Obviously, not everything is going to be perfect, but I can come in here and start to adjust the few things that need improving.

Down below, our store policies and culture and other areas, including checklists that people can use as a part of their training. It has even included a training schedule, which I can start to fill out so that that employee is set up for success.

Now, keep in mind, AI is never perfect. I'm not exactly sure why it shows the Amish building, a barn, but I'm going to come up here and select replace and maybe I'm going to type in the word fruit and immediately I'm brought up with a number of images.

That looks a lot more in line with a health food store, so I can quickly and easily make those modifications. So if you're wanting to take full advantage of AI, be sure to check out Walling. You can get started for free and receive 20 AI credits or get unlimited AI credits for a mere $6 per month.

Yes, that comes with unlimited guests per wall as well. 

And if you have any further questions about AI or getting the most out of your prompts, be sure to let me know in the comments down below. Thank you so much for watching.

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

Are you trying to highlight or find the most relevant information within your spreadsheet? Well, that's exactly where conditional formatting can help us out so much. So instead of staring at your spreadsheet aimlessly, let's take advantage of conditional formatting. 

This video is sponsored by SaneBox, the email inbox lifesaver.

With AI technology, SaneBox prioritizes essential messages, saving you hours of time each week. And by learning from your behavior, SaneBox will clean up your inbox, get rid of spam, and organize your emails into relevant folders. Best of all, SaneBox works with any email provider.

To get started, click the link in the description to get your free 14-day trial.

Getting started with Conditional Formatting

Here within Google Sheets, we need to come up to Format, and then near the bottom, we want to select Conditional Formatting. And on the right-hand side,we will have the opportunity to apply some conditional format rules.

Now, there are two choices, we can either choose a single color or a color scale, and I'm going to be covering both, including an advanced option that you may find helpful as well.

Single-color formatting‍

So the first thing we need to do is choose the range where we want this formatting to take place. Now, you can either type it in here if you're comfortable with that. I prefer to select the range with my cursor.

So in this example, I want to highlight things here within the Units column. So I'm going to select everything within that column and I'm going to say, OK. Now, by default, it is going to color everything in here because our default settings are if the format cells is not empty, we want to apply this color.

And because nothing is empty here, everything has a value, everything has received this green shade. But even this default can be handy at times. Let's say that I forgot to enter in a value here and let's say that this individual has forgotten to give me their sales numbers. 

Well, that stands out pretty clearly where I am missing data, so even this simple example may be helpful. But let's take a closer look at this drop-down menu so that we can make this conditional formatting that much more valuable.

In my example, I want to highlight anything here that is less than 30 units. Maybe if something has sold fewer than 30 units, that's a cause for concern and I would like to investigate further.

So I'm going to select this drop-down and you can see that there are three broad categories we can use. The first section is specific to text-based findings. So this would be very helpful if we were looking at one of these other columns, such as Region, Rep, or Item.

Next we have a date area, so if we want to zero in on a specific date or before or after, that would be most helpful here in my first column. 

But for my example, I want to look at units. I want to look at a numerical example, so I'm going to say less than or equal to. I'm going to select that option here, and then down below, all I need to do is enter in what that value is. S

o I said the number 30, I'm going to enter in the number 30, and instantly all of those cells that have 30 or fewer units are going to be highlighted here.

This makes it so much easier for me and others that I share this sheet with to find specific or important pieces of information. And remember, the conditional in conditional formatting means that it is dynamic.

So let's say that this unit is actually incorrect and they come back and say they actually sold 32. Well, as soon as I enter in the number 32, that color is going to be removed. 

But maybe this one is also incorrect, and we review on the order form that they only sold 29 units, well, now that will be shaded this color green. Speaking of color, we have a lot of options here when it comes to formatting that style.

Now, we have six different defaults ranging from green, yellow, and red. We can either choose to have a full color background like this, or if we want, we can just choose to have the text itself change color.

This may be a little too subtle, so I often prefer to use the full background here. But we're not limited just at those six selections, you can see down below we can add other options as well.

So if I want the numbers to be bolded in this case, I could do that. If I want them to be struck through, I could do that as well. Or if I want to change it to a custom color, I can make that option here as well. So you've got an awful lot of choice when it comes to choosing your color. 

Now, when you're happy with editing your conditional format rules, all you need to do is come down and select Done, and now those will be baked into your spreadsheet. At this stage, I can either close this window here or add another rule.

Now, if you ever need to go back and edit an existing conditional rule, all you need to do is select the cell which is being applied to that conditional rule.

You can see, even if I choose something else here within column E, even though it's not highlighted in red, this option here to edit or remove that conditional formatting rule is available to me.

So if I click on this, this menu will be revealed again. And maybe I want to change that number to anything less than 25 this time, and you can see at least one of those changed as a result. I'm now going to go ahead and hit Done. And if I want to remove it, all I need to do is select Remove This Rule and we were brought back to our standard spreadsheet.

Color scale formatting

But let's go ahead and add another conditional rule, this time we are going to make use of the color scale. So I'm going to select this tab here, the Color Scale, and once again, we will need to select the range where we want this rule to be applied.

In this example, I'm going to select everything here within this G column and select OK, and immediately you can see that we have a color scale applied. Now, in many cases, you may want to come up to this range and actually remove the end row and just leave it as the column name.

The reason being is so that as you add additional numbers down below, your same conditional formatting rule will apply.

f I left things at just G21 or G22, these rules would only be applied here. But I imagine I'm going to be adding further information in the future, so if I add in another dollar value here, I want the same color scale to be applied as well. 

So taking a closer look at our color scale, here you can see that the highest number here, roughly $2,800, has no color applied to it, and the darkest shades of green are going to be our lowest numbers.

However, I personally find this a little confusing. It's given a green shade, many of them very, very similar, to every single thing in this column and only one is standing out with no color at all.

Well, if we select the preview option here, we have a number of different color scales that we can choose from. Now, my personal preference is this red to white to green, and let me show you why. I'm going to select it here, and now we can see that the highest number within this column is that dark green. 

Some of our other higher numbers have a shade of green, but our lowest numbers are now in the red. To me, this color scale is a lot more helpful and makes a bigger distinction between the greatest totals and the lowest totals here as well. Now, down below the preview, we can continue to customize our rules for both the minimum point, the midpoint, and the maximum point as well.

But I find that this is going to be helpful enough for my needs right here. Keep in mind these color scales are not only dynamic, but the level of shading will change as well.

In this example, we can see that this is a dark green for the $2,875, the largest total in this column. But let's say we have a record sale and they actually sold 99 of these units. 

Now because this is such an extreme difference from everything else on the list, this is the only one with a green shade. We have a lot more white, meaning things that are more in the midpoint compared to this, and then the other shades that are red.

Maybe if this is a more reasonable number, something like 43, now we start to see some other green shades here, but if we change it to something like, oh, maybe three, now you can see what else jumps out as the highest point.

Again, we can see the effects of making these changes and how it will dynamically affect our conditional rule. When you're done or happy with your edits here, all you need to do is select the Done button.

Custom formula formatting

But now that you know how to apply a simple single or multi-color conditional formatting rule, let's take a look at how we can apply an advanced rule if we want to highlight multiple things and also highlight complete rows.

I'm going to select Add Another Rule and we're going to stay within the Single Color tab. This time, I'm actually going to select everything on my spreadsheet because I want to highlight entire rows.

Now, again, by default, because nothing is empty, it has actually made my entire spreadsheet green, but we're going to change that in just a moment. Here we're going to select what type of rule we want to apply, and I'm going to come all the way down to the bottom and select this custom formula option.

And here we have the opportunity to include a specific formula or a specific set of instructions. 

So I'm going to come in here and select the equal sign and then I'm going to select the dollar sign because I wanted to identify the entire row. And in my example, I'm going to say B, because we're going to be focusing on this B column.

In particular, I want to highlight all of the rows that were sold in the East region. So what I need to do next is enter in the number two, identifying that I want it to start looking at the top of this column and then continue to persistently look the remainder of this column.

I'm again going to enter the equal sign and I'm going to use quotes to look for the word East and then close it with my quotations once again. 

And now you can see not only has it highlighted the cells that contain the East region, but because we selected the entire range of this spreadsheet, it is highlighting the entire row as well, so I can really zero in on those areas.

I'm going to select Done, but we're not quite done because I also want to highlight the West region, but use as little effort as possible.

Now, to make it easier for me, what I'm going to do is actually copy this formula. I'm going to select Done and say Add Another Rule. Now, that entire range is already selected. That's great, I don't have to do that again. 

But once again, I want to come down to the custom formula. I'm going to paste in the same formula that we had before, but this time I'm going to type in the word West because that's what I want to highlight.

But I don't want East and West to have the same color, so I'm going to come down here and select this pinkish shade here. Now I can select Done and I can easily see the difference between everything that was sold in the East region versus everything else that was sold in the West region.

And remember, no matter how I sort my spreadsheet, these conditional formatting rules will still apply as long as they're within the range that we specify. 

So now that you know how to apply conditional formatting rules right here within Google Sheets, what further questions do you have? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

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

Trello is a fantastic tool for managing so many different things, but Trello does not have a built-in form builder. So in this video, I'm going to show you how to create an amazing looking form that syncs directly to your Trello criteria. 

Benefits of forms with Trello

Hello, everyone. Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And here I have a sample Trello board called a Sales Pipeline, and my very first list is called New Requests.

But all of the cards that you see here, none of them were input by me, nor did I copy and paste anything. All of these have appeared via a form which I've made available.

And better yet, if I open up one of these, this label, this due date, the description here, and this email address all have come directly from that form.

So I now have all of this great form information that I can take action on and no longer do I need to receive this type of information in my email or go to some spreadsheet to find it later. So how did I set this up and how can you set it up in just a matter of minutes?

Using Jotform to build a form

Well, I'm using one of my favorite form builders, Jotform, to make it happen. And best of all, you can do this absolutely for free. Now, Jotform is a very powerful form builder, but it's also very easy to use.

So let's go ahead and create a form together and then show you how you can connect it directly to any Trello board. After signing into Jotform, I just need to select create a form. Now we have a few different options to get started.

We could begin with a blank form or we could import a form as well, but I'm going to choose the template option here. And what I'm actually going to be looking for is the form layout, because there's an awful lot of different layouts, but I especially like the card layout within Jotform.

And I'll show you in just a moment. I'm going to select this one. You can select preview on any one of these. But as you can see, as I hit start, you can see how sleek it's going to be.

As people are entering in information, they will immediately be brought to the next question so they can answer these things one at a time and not get lost with some kind of massive vertical scroll. So I'm going to come up here and say use template.

And remember, everything here is absolutely editable. So I'm going to come up here and I'm going to remove this image and I'm going to upload a file instead. And let's go ahead and select my logo. So now I've got my logo here.

Next, let's go ahead and change this text because this is just giving me a description. I can just say something like, "Please fill out this form for more detail," something along those lines. Now of course, we're going to come down and edit a few of the questions that we have listed down below.

Customizing form appearance

But just before we do so, why don't we make some changes to both the colors and of course, the background here? So I'm going to come up here to the right hand side and click on Form Designer.

Now there's a number of different themes in which we can choose from, but I'm going to select on custom. And yes, I want to remove that current image, and I'm going to select upload a file.

And I've got something here from my computer, which I think is going to make things stand out a lot better, really help people focus in on those questions. I like that a lot.

And then down below, we can also change other things, so for example, that button color, green is not really in line with my own button color. So I'm going to come up here and let's pick something more sort of in that purplish range.

This first option is just for the welcome. And then down below, this will change all the other buttons on the screen. And I think that makes it look a lot sharper, a lot more in line with my brand.

So now that I'm happy with the display, with the style, let's come down and start editing some of the questions. Now, anything here you simply just need to click on and you can either edit or remove it.

This first section here just gives me an opportunity to give some more detail. So I'm actually going to go ahead and hit remove. I want them to see that welcome screen here. And then I want to go directly into them entering information.

And down below, maybe I'm not interested in their phone number, so I'm going to delete that as well. But I am going to add some other fields.

Adding input fields

And here on the left hand side, I can hit plus. And this is really where Jotform stands out from other form builders, cause there are so many different options available to you, and we haven't even gotten to the payments and the widgets.

We're not going to use that in today's example. But in this case, I think what I'm really looking for is I want to include a dropdown. So I'm going to bring a dropdown here below the email.

And then I also want to give them the option to pick a date. So up here, I'm going to select the date picker, and I'm going to put that in here as well. So I've got a few simple questions, name, email, type a question, we're going to come back to that, a date, and then requesting information more.

So with these new fields that we've entered, I'm going to say, what are you interested in? What service are you interested in? So this is my opportunity to ask them a question and give them a few different options.

Now, if we jump back to our Trello board, you can see that I offer coaching, product launch help, and also auditing services. So all I need to do here within my Jotform form is give them those three options.

So if I do it in the same order, coaching, auditing, and the last one is product launch. I'm just going to save my changes here. And now when I set up the Trello integration, whatever they select when they fill out this form is going to appear in my Trello board.

Here's a date picker. I better give this a title. I'm going to ask them, when would you like to get started? That's going to be the question for this one here. And again, it's just a simple date picker for them.

And then lastly, in this description field, maybe I'll say something like, anything else you'd like to share? So if they'd like to ask a follow-up question or anything else, I've given them the opportunity here.

Connect Jotform to Trello

So we have our questions, we've got our form. The last thing that we need to do is now make the connection with our Trello board. And for that, we need to click here on settings.

Now under the settings menu on the left hand side, we want to come down here to integrations.

And here you can see the long list of many different kinds of integrations that are available to us. Now if you can't find the app that you're looking for, all you need to do is just come up here and do a quick search.

So yes, we are looking for our Trello integration. So I'm going to select that option here. And all you'll need to do is authenticate your Trello account so Jotform can send the information directly to it. And once you've given permission, you'll need to tell it if you want to create a card, which is what we want, or update an existing card.

We're going to select that first one here in terms of create a card. Next up, we need to pick the particular board. We're going to select that Sales Pipeline and then pick the particular list on that board.

And we want it to appear in that very first one, which is called new requests. Lastly, and this is probably the most important stage, is where we are going to match our fields.

So the things that we have asked for within our form, where do we want them to appear within our Trello board? Now, on the left hand side, this represents the name of the Trello card.

And here on the right hand side, we just need to tell it which of those fields, which of those questions do we want to appear. Now it makes the most sense, I think, to make it the name of the individual, right?

When I'm asking for their name, that's who I want it to appear on the front of the card. So I'm going to select name, but let's continue down and add a new field. So next up we want to take a look at, let's say the due date, right? So what's going to appear of the due date?

Well, obviously it's going to be when would you like to get started, right?

That's the option we want there. So when would you like to get started?

We want it to sync with that due date. Let's add another field. In this case, let's take a look at those labels, remember?

And that's where we want to pick the dropdown. What service are you interested in? So I'm going to select that. And then the last one, the one that we haven't picked yet is the email.

Now you'll notice that you are of course are limited to certain areas of Trello, and of course, you can never use the same one twice. So for the email address, I'm actually going to select the attachments area because it's going to create it as a link anyhow, which might be helpful.

So I can just click on it and immediately start to email them. And one more here actually that I forgot, we're going to put this in the description is the last question.

Anything else that you'd like to share? Now it doesn't matter what order you set this up in. You can see that this actually isn't the same order that I created the form. That makes no difference at all.

And if you want to remove any of them, you just need to come over here to the right hand side and select that X or make a change. But everything here looks great to me.

So I'm going to say complete the integration, and it says it's ready. I'm going to click finish here. And you can see there's this little check mark beside our Trello integration letting us know that this is active and that the integration is working.

The last thing we need to do is come over here to publish, and now we are ready to test things out.

Viewing the form in action So we can copy this link here.

We can put it anywhere that we want. I'm just going to select open in a new tab and look at how more inviting this form is than your standard Google Form or other forms that have a long vertical scroll bar.

So I'm going to say start. Let's go ahead and enter in some just test information here. I'm going to say Jane Doe and hit next. Then let's put in just a test email address and hit next. I love how the user can focus on just one question at a time.

And down below, it shows them how many different stages or how many different things they will be asked, and they can always go back if they need to go back. That's really slick too. I really like the way that, that looks.

It might even feel even better for those who are visiting your form on mobile. What service are you interested in? Well, let's say that I am interested in the auditing service. I'm going to choose that one here. I'm going to say next.

When would you like to get started? They can either enter in a date, but it's probably a lot easier just to pick the little calendar here. I want to get started by the 12th. I'm going to hit next. And anything else? I'm going to say no.

I look forward to working with you. Something along those lines.

We're going to put this in just so we can see what it looks like in Trello. I'm going to hit submit. And again, nice and clean and crisp. And if we go to our Trello board now, here at the very bottom, almost instantly is Jane Doe.

This is the form that we just filled in. And if I open it up, we've got all of those details. We've got auditing. That's what she said she was interested in. We've got the date, December 12th. Here is what she put at the very end.

No, I look forward to working with you. And here is her email address. So no longer do I need to wait for this information to hit my email inbox. No longer do I need to look at a spreadsheet or some other form and copy and paste this information.

I can now sort this. I can reach out to her and move her along within my Trello process.

It is slick, it is fast, and it can make your life so much easier. And if you're not already a Jotform user, you can get started with their free forever plan at Jotform.com, or click the link in the description down below.

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

Pipedrive continues to be one of my favorite CRMs because it's so simple and easy to get started.

I also really appreciate its simple navigation and how quickly and easy it is to find exactly what you're looking for, but Pipedrive also makes it very simple for us to set up automations. So in this video, I'm going to show you how to get started. 

So here within your Pipedrive account, to find the automations menu, we're going to come over here to the left-hand side, click on more, and then select automations.

And I'll admit at first glance, this screen may seem a little intimidating, but actually it's full of helpful suggestions. Here we're going to see a number of featured templates, including a number of template collections here at the bottom, but you may want to begin by browsing the different categories at the top of the screen.

Everything from emails, campaigns, and deal actions. But you can also look for automations that include some of your favorite software, including Teams, Asana and Trello. 

Now for our first example, I'm going to use a template because it can help us to create an automation in just a few minutes. I'm going to come down here and select this, Add New Deals template.

Every time a new person is added, create a deal. I want to try and remove the number of manual things that I need to do when someone is added and try to automate those things so I can focus on my most important work.

So I'm going to select this Add New Deal, and at first, it's going to give me a prompt asking me a couple of questions. Now, not all of them are going to be required. So for example here, the trigger condition is optional. 

I could choose if it's going to be a certain type of customer in which I want to create a deal, or I could just say any customer comes in and I want a deal created.

But in this case, I want to create something just for a hot lead, a customer, which I have identified as a hot lead. So I'm going to select that option here. And then under create deal, I get to choose a title.

Now, in my example, it's going to make the most sense if I give it the name of that individual. So I'm going to come down here and select person name, and then I need to tell it where do I want this deal to be created. And I'm going to select contact made.

At this point, I'm going to hit save. And now, my automation is almost complete. 

Here, I am brought to a workflow view so I can see the different steps, the different stages that are going to be taken.

Now I can click on any of these areas. So for example, if I want to change it from a hot lead, all I need to do is select edit, and I can change that condition here, but I'm happy with it the way it is. So I'm going to come up to the top and select Save.

Now in order to make sure that everything is working before we initiate this, by default, Pipedrive is going to make it inactive. Here you can see the toggle switch, but I'm going to turn it on and show you exactly how this works.

So back within my deal section, you can see that I only have one existing deal under this contact-made area. But let's jump into our contacts and I'm going to add a brand new person. I'm going to give it that specific lead. And then let's see what happens to that area. 

So here, I'm going to create a sample customer. I'm going to call him Teddy testerson, and I'm going to give him that label of a hot lead. Remember, that is what our automation trigger is looking for new persons With this particular label.

I'm going to hit save. And at the bottom of the screen, you can see that he has been added along with the appropriate label.

And now when we go back to our deal screen, there he is with the brand New Deal under Contact-Made, not only does this save me a lot of time and manual effort, but now that customer is exactly where I want them to be. 

But remember, you're not limited to just using the templates which are given here. You can start with your own automation from scratch. At the top of the automation screen, we can select add automation.

And here, we are brought directly into the workflow screen. So in this example, I want to create an automation that will send a welcome email when someone has actually become a customer.

And then I want to send them a follow-up email with some important instruction a few days later. So let me walk you through how easy it is to create this or any other automation from scratch. 

First off, you're going to want to come up here and give it a more appropriate title. By default, it's going to give it simply the date that you created this automation. So I'm going to call this an intro email to a new customer.

And remember, this is just for my reference. They will not see this as a part of the email. We can always come here and change this and add a helpful description if we'd like to. So my first step is to come over here to the right hand side and select my trigger.

I'm going to select person and then person updated. And then at the bottom, I select Apply Trigger. 

Next, I need to decide what exactly is that change or update that it needs to be looking for. And in this case, I'm going to select that label. On the right hand side, I'm going to say has changed to, and here, I want to say when it has changed to customer.

So that is going to be the condition that Pipedrive is looking for. I'm going to say apply those conditions, and that's exactly what has been added here as step number two. But we actually haven't told it what to do, what kind of activity or action to take.

All I need to do is select this plus button here, and now, I'm going to select my action. And in this case, I want to send an email. 

I'm going to come down here to email, and I can either create a new email from scratch or I can use one of my existing templates. I'm going to select the template option, select next. And now I can add all of the default fields that I want.

In this case, I'm only going to add one additional one, and that is track email opening. And on the next screen, I have two required selections. First, who am I sending this email to? Well, am I sending it to the owner or their primary email?

In many cases, this may be the same email address, but I'm going to select primary email. And then which template do I want to send? In this case, I want to send the intro template.

That's going to be the first email that they receive. And I'm going to select the person once again so that we can address them directly. 

This last option here is optional, but you may remember that I selected that. I wanted to choose if we are tracking those emails. So here, I can choose yes or no. I'm going to select yes and say apply the action.

So now when that customer label has changed, it will send this particular email template. But wait, remember I said I wanted to send another email with further instructions a few days later. Well, let's continue with our customized workflow.

I'm going to select this plus button here. And at the bottom, I want to select delay because I don't want this second email to be sent at the same time or immediately after. I'm going to select delay and I'm going to choose three days. 

I want to give them some time to read that welcome email, and then, they will receive further instruction.

So here, I'm going to say apply the delay of three days. I'm going to hit that plus button one more time and we're going to come back and select that action.

Again, we're going to follow many of the same steps we did before with our email template. I'm going to select next. I'm going to say the primary email and the template this time is the materials after contact.

And lastly, just choosing that person once again to address, I'm going to say apply that action, and now, we have our complete automation ready to go. When I'm happy with the layout, I can come up here and hit save. 

And remember, your last step before making this automation live is to come up here and to hit this toggle.

Now, I'm not going to hit this toggle just yet because I want to come back to my automations menu just to show you the difference between the one we just created, which is showing as inactive and the other two automations, including the one that we set up before, which is showing as active.

So here, you can quickly and easily edit any of your existing automations or simply disable an automation if you don't want to use it going forward.

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