January 20, 2025 • 43 mins
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Discover the secrets to streamlining your business operations with Gresham Harkless Jr., the innovative mind behind CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Gresham brings a wealth of knowledge from his diverse experiences, including his time as an adjunct professor and a digital marketer, to share actionable CEO hacks that can transform the way you manage your business processes. From invoicing to project management and note-keeping, learn how his entrepreneurial journey has shaped unique solutions to boost efficiency.
Transform your business communication and organization with the right tools. Gresham takes us on a deep dive into the functionalities of Basecamp, comparing it to other popular platforms like Asana, ClickUp, and Trello. Discover how consolidating tasks, calendars, files, and client communication into one cohesive system can save time and enhance productivity. We also uncover the power of scheduling tools for seamless meeting management across time zones, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
Finally, join us as we discuss digital tools and strategies to further enhance business efficiency. From cost-effective alternatives for digital services to note-taking preferences, Gresham shares his favorite digital solutions like Evernote and the Samsung NotePhone. We also explore the importance of building habits over sheer discipline, with insights to improve productivity and time management.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cathy Sirvatka (00:00):
Have you ever caught yourself doing something
that you've done a hundred timesbefore and thought there's got
to be an easier way to do this?
What I always forget is thatwhenever I have thought that
there's most likely someone elsewho's not only also thought
that, but has come up with asolution, enter hacks as in tips
and tricks things that makeyour business function faster
(00:23):
and easier.
Things that make your businessfunction faster and easier.
Gresham Harkless Jr is joiningus today to share his best CEO
hacks to help you run yourbusiness more efficiently.
We'll cover invoicing andbookkeeping, organizing mail,
(00:47):
project management, keepingnotes and all that stuff that
you have to do in yourday-to-day business.
Gresh is the founder of CBNation and also Blue 16 Media,
which offers digital marketingservices, web design, website
support and SEO services.
Gresh is a proud graduate ofHoward University and Georgetown
University and has won multipleawards.
He has recorded over 1600episodes of the I Am CEO podcast
and authored the I Am CEOHandbook, volume 3, in which he
(01:09):
shares 100 plus business lessonshe has learned during his
podcasting career.
So sit back in your chair orget your walking shoes on as we
dive into these super helpfulnuggets.
Here we go.
Welcome to the Web Pro SavvyPodcast.
This is your host, CathySirvatka.
(01:41):
S as in Sam I-R, v as in VictorA-T-K-A.
All right, hi Gresham, how areyou.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (01:48):
I'm super excited to be here, Cathy.
I'm doing phenomenal.
Cathy Sirvatka (01:56):
Yeah, I'm so glad to have you here.
Thanks for being here.
I think my audience is going tobe really happy with some of
the things you're going to sharewith us today.
We're going to talk about CEOhacks, tricks and hacks and
whatever hack means to you,which I'm going to ask you in a
little bit, and I know I'm goingto learn a lot.
I've already learned a lot justin our conversations together,
so I'm excited.
Can you first, though, justgive us a little bit about your
(02:18):
professional background, whereyou came from and what you do
now?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (02:23):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Again, excited to be here,Cathy, to talk with all the
awesome talk with you and then,of course, hopefully help out so
many of your audience andpeople that are doing phenomenal
things.
So my background is reallyvaried.
I've done a lot of differentthings, everything from being an
adjunct professor to teachlittle four-year-olds how to
throw a football through aninflatable football, to teaching
(02:47):
in elementary schools to nowdoing digital marketing and so
many different things.
But I think one of my bigthings in being in the DC area I
went to school at Howard andGeorgetown.
I went through a kind of spaceand time where I was like I
didn't know what I wanted to bewhen I grew up, so I really just
tried as many things as I couldto find it, kind of try to
(03:08):
figure out what stuck.
And for me, I actually went backto when I was a kid and I
started what is now called likea family newspaper, but for me
it was just a way for me tocollect all the things that were
going on in our family so thatmy dad, who was reassigned to an
entirely different countrybecause he was in the military,
was able to find out all thethings that we were doing.
(03:29):
So a lot of what I do is fueledby that, by creating what I
call media companies, and atthat time, when I was 10, it was
literally finding out all thethings that were going on in our
family so that my dad wouldknow, but I also saw the
subscription.
So I've had thatentrepreneurial itch, so to
speak, and throughout my lifejust been trying to figure out
how best I can kind of scratchthat as much as possible.
Cathy Sirvatka (03:51):
Wow, that's really cool and so much more
advanced than my lemonade stand.
I sold lemonade and seedsflower seeds.
Ah, I like that, which is funny.
That's really.
That's so cool.
You did a family newspaper.
I just love that.
That really taps into something.
I wish I would have thought ofthat.
That is such a great idea.
(04:12):
Do you still have them?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (04:13):
I don't still have them.
But funny, oh, do I still havethe newspaper?
Oh, I thought you meant, do Istill do them?
Yes, so funny enough.
Yeah, years later, you knowwhen I'm trying to go through
this question, like, what do Iwant to be?
When I grew up, my mom had themand it was one of those kind of
unique stories, um, that I feltlike not a lot of other people
did it.
Of course I did the potatochips on the playground and
(04:33):
things like that.
Um, even went to MJ designs andcreated beads.
Uh, got BEC to create necklacesand things like that.
But I felt like this was kindof a unique story where I didn't
meet a lot of people that haddone that.
So, yeah, I had about two yearsworth that my mom had kept.
So now I have them alldigitally that I can always kind
of leaf through.
So, yeah, one of them, mygrandma had a squirrel get in
(04:55):
her house, so that was like aleading story.
So all those kind of fun familythings that I can add in.
Cathy Sirvatka (05:01):
That was the leading story.
I love that.
That's awesome.
Oh my gosh, I love that yeah, Imajored in photojournalism, so
I got a little bit of thatjournalism thing in me, so I
just really love that.
Well, that's really cool.
So today you are CEO, you havea couple of podcasts, you got a
(05:23):
couple of businesses.
You're really out there.
You talk to CEOs every day.
You said yeah, absolutely.
We're here today because youhave talked about CEO hacks that
you come up with and thatyou've come up with through your
whole experience, your businessand life experience.
So how do you define a hack?
First of all, yeah, absolutelyso.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (05:46):
I consider a CEO hack to be an app
, a book or even a habit thatsomeone has that make them more
effective and efficient, and Ithink those things are beautiful
and perfect sometimes when theystand alone.
But I think it goes to anentirely different level when
you're able to implement thathack into your business, your
organization or even your lifeat that.
So I think when we have andhear about morning routines,
(06:07):
they sound really cool, but whenyou're able to kind of mold and
adjust it and make it into yourown, that's when it goes to
another level, because you startto see the impact in your life.
So I feel like what makes a CEOhack a CEO hack is when you're
able to like, leverage it andimplement it within your process
, your systems, the things thatyou're doing on a daily basis,
potentially.
Cathy Sirvatka (06:24):
Okay, I like that.
So you, you don't try andreinvent what you do,
necessarily, but just merging itinto what you already do to
make it more efficient.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (06:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think it's very much likethat the clay, where the clay
can do many things, but youstart to mold it into the thing.
So I think it's a process andyou want to figure out what
you're doing, which I thinksometimes is a great place to
start, and then you start to say, okay, how can I take some of
those principles or some ofthose things or some of that
technology and implement it intowhat I'm already doing?
Cathy Sirvatka (06:57):
I like that because it feels doable.
I don't have to reinventreinvent the wheel, as they say
um.
So I'm interested to hear these.
So what areas do you think thatfreelancers or small business
owners um tend to struggle themost with efficiency?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (07:15):
Maybe, you know, could really benefit
from some hacks yeah, I thinkone of the big things to to kind
of keep in mind and I often saythe systems will set you free,
because I think a lot of timesfreelancers are really creative
and they do a lot of things thatcould be graphic design or
building websites, whatever itmight be.
That is your freelance gig orthe thing that you're doing on a
(07:37):
regular basis those systemsaren't necessarily in place and
I don't think that it has tohappen on day one where you have
to have all the immaculatesystems that do that, automate
and do all the things.
I think it's just starting toget in the process of figuring
out like how can I not carry allthe things that I'm carrying,
do all the things that I'm doing, but I can make it a little bit
(07:59):
more into like a process or aplace.
So I think one of the best waysto do that is really to just
get like overall organized and Ithink the best ways to do that
are like project managementsoftware.
So we as a team and we have adigital marketing company focus
on Basecamp and Basecamp is away and a place that we
literally put everything thatwe're working on.
(08:19):
So anytime we go and we have anew client.
We know that we're going tosend an invoice, we know that
we're going to send a thecontract Literally all of those
steps are outlined in Basecamp,and again it's something that
we're constantly improving place.
But also you're thinking likewhen I want to maybe get an
assistant, or maybe I want tohand things off, or I want to
(08:46):
have somebody that's interningwith me, whatever it is, it's in
one place.
So I think you start to createthat process.
Even though it might feel likean extra step, I think it's
going to help you to be a lotmore streamlined.
And then you start to have likea repeatable process with every
client you end up working with,and I think it makes it an
overall experience for yourself,but also for your clients as
well too.
Cathy Sirvatka (09:06):
Basecamp is something I've heard of but have
not actually worked with.
What would be the main toolsthat are main things that
Basecamp specifically does.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (09:15):
Yeah.
Cathy Sirvatka (09:15):
I said main and then specific generally,
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (09:18):
Yeah, I understood
So we start.
We were using Basecamp now, butbefore we were using Asana.
There's ClickUp, there's Trello.
So again, there's lots ofdifferent softwares out there,
like there's.
Like I talked about the clay,there's lots of different types
of clay that you can use.
You find the clay that worksbest with you, that you feel
kind of fits the needs that youhave.
(09:39):
But I think the thing thatreally helps us out with
Basecamp is that we literallycan put everything we're doing
within Basecamp.
So it has a place that you canput to-dos.
It has a place that you cancreate calendars.
So if we like for example, ifwe were to update or do any
maintenance on clients and we doit a specific day of the week
(10:00):
we can put that on the calendarand create that as a task.
If there's files that we wantto have maybe you need a
client's logo that you want tohave handy, you don't have to
search through your email eachtime to try to find it you can
put that into the Basecamp youcan have.
Even now you can add on clientcorrespondence within Basecamp.
Which is what really attractedme to Basecamp over other ones
(10:20):
is that, rather than gettinglost in my email and me trying
to find all the things.
I can literally have as manyconversations as possible with
the client within Basecamp so Ican always go back and say, okay
, what did I say yesterday?
Or what did I say five yearsago to that client?
And you have it all in oneplace.
So at the end of the day, itjust makes it a lot simpler
because you go to one place andyou see everything there.
(10:41):
Of course you have to build thehabits to use that, but I think
once you have those habits, youstart to see the value of that.
I can't tell you how much time,kathy, I've wasted in terms of,
like, going through my emails,Like I know that I got this, I
know that I put it somewhere, Ijust don't know where it is and
I don't know what I named it,and that hopefully alleviates a
lot of those frustrations.
Cathy Sirvatka (11:03):
Yeah, I was going to ask you about that.
So, yes, that would be me.
I do have a system.
I've been doing this a longtime over 20 years so I do have
a system with folders and emails, but, honestly, I still have to
do some searching.
It's not perfect, right, but Iguess nothing is.
But this sounds not only like aproject management, but a
(11:26):
client management as well, then.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (11:27):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
I think it goes to the edge.
I wouldn't call it a full likekind of CRM, but I think you
could actually build potentiallya CRM through that.
So, like one of the things thatwe do is we have like an intake
for clients and we call it aPID, which is a project
initiation document.
We do put some CRM typeinformation there, like the
email address, phone number,things like that, but we upload
(11:48):
that into Basecamp so thatdocument lives on Basecamp and
we can see all the informationat all times about clients.
Cathy Sirvatka (11:55):
And then it's on the cloud so you can get it
anywhere and your assistants orwhoever can get it anywhere.
That, I think, is huge.
I think, right there, that is agolden nugget, because for web
designers, I mean, that's itright.
We're project oriented, we'reclient oriented, so I think
that's a really good idea.
So we got Basecamp down, butover the years you've probably
(12:21):
gathered a lot of tools, tips,tricks, all this stuff right.
If you could categorize them,maybe like three or four or two
or three categories of businessthat they help, say, for a
website freelancer, what kind ofcategories would you put those
into?
Because, like you said I guessI'm trying to get at, there are
(12:42):
many tools to do anything.
Right, we know there's just aton out there.
But if there were two or threecategories that we would need to
address, what would that be?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (12:51):
I think that's a great question and I
think we I feel like we coveredone of those things which is
kind of like that projectmanagement piece which you spoke
to, and I think there's lots ofdifferent tools that you can do
.
Like I mentioned, we startedwith Asana, there's ClickUp that
does a lot of automations,there's Trello.
I think you find the kind oflike a pair of shoes.
(13:12):
You find the shoes that youknow work or fit on best for you
and you feel like you canfunction with and walk around
with or even run, if that's evenyou know your thing.
But I think after that, one ofthe big like impactful things
for me has been probably aroundscheduling.
I can't say how impactful ithas been to be able to share a
(13:32):
link and say is there a goodtime for you?
If it's easier, here's my link.
And when you have clients thatare potentially traveling or
even in different time zones, Iam probably the worst assistant
to myself at trying to schedulethings, because I will be the
person that shows up an hourlate, an hour early or
(13:55):
potentially even the next daysaying, oh, are we meeting today
?
And I think this alleviatesthat, because what it does and I
think even with Basecamp, itallows me to make sure that I'm
a lot more focused on thesmaller things that I can do.
So I just know that things arein Basecamp, so I just go to
Basecamp.
It allows me to make sure thatI'm a lot more focused on the
smaller things that I can do.
So I just know that things arein Basecamp, so I just go to
Basecamp to find the things,rather than trying to figure out
oh, do I have a meeting today?
It's on my calendar, so I justcheck my calendar to see what's
(14:17):
happening on a regular basis.
So I feel like it's taken a lotoff my shoulders to be able to
say, okay, these are the thingsthat I need to do, these are the
things that I need to lean onand then just kind of go from
there.
So I would say, like schedulinglinks have been huge in terms
of like hopefully narrowing downand keeping my schedule in
(14:41):
alignment and something that Ican execute on.
But I think also too, just likethe lack of back and forth with
emails, because I'm really bigon trying to get you know
further and further away fromthe email box and all the things
that can happen there.
One really really cool thingthat I think we've implemented
as a team, but I feel like Iwish I had done it so much
(15:02):
sooner.
I think if I was even just doingthings solely myself is I have
a ticket system.
So we do a lot of support andmaintenance.
That's kind of like one of ourmain things that we do.
So we have clients that willsend emails and those emails
will literally go everywhere.
I've seen them through Facebookmessage, I've seen them through
my email address.
(15:22):
I see them sometimes indifferent social media platforms
.
So what we try to do is try tostandardize even for clients,
like how they can contact us.
So we use a ticket system andwe use Freshdesk.
There's a lot of other toolsout there, just like the project
management software, but whatthis does is, I think,
especially if you're doing anysupport or maintenance and,
(15:43):
honestly, if you have clientsthat you work with on a regular
basis, I think it helps out asfar as like streamlining that
conversation, because once theysend an email, they get a email
back to say they received wereceived your email, and they
even get a ticket number.
Now we take that ticket number,we put it into Basecamp as a
task and do those things just so, again, it's all in one place.
(16:04):
But I think the big part ofwhat it does is it creates an
expectation.
So it says, hey, we receivedyour email, we will complete it
in 24 to 48 hours, and usuallywe have that kind of that
expectation that's communicatedright when that's sent.
But I think too, so many timesclients will send stuff or think
that they send stuff, and oftenyou can say, okay, did you get
(16:27):
an email back?
Did you see something back?
Then sometimes it may have wentto the wrong email address, may
have went to spend, whatevermight happen.
But you start to kind of createthat expectation for clients
that okay, once I get an email,I know that it's received and
somebody will get back to me.
So I think that's been a hugething because it allows again
those things to be in a place sothat it's not constantly
(16:47):
everywhere.
And social media platforms inevery different way they can
connect with you.
And so one of the things that Itry to do too, especially for
clients that we work with evenif I'm having a call with a
client, I will literally putthat either in Basecamp or I'll
put it as a ticket if it's a lotquicker of an update so that it
creates that expectation andcreates that same line of
(17:08):
communication.
So even on my side I try tomake sure that I do that.
But those are probably three,at least parts, that I think
have been really impactful.
But I can go on and on and on.
Cathy, just let me knowwhatever works best.
Cathy Sirvatka (17:22):
Okay, so I was trying to keep notes here to
keep up with you.
So Basecamp with schedulinglinks.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (17:28):
No, basecamp doesn't do scheduling
links, so I use and I didn'tmention I use Acuity for
scheduling links, but Calendlyis another option as well too,
but scheduling links I wouldprobably consider like to be one
of those other categoriesoutside of project management.
Cathy Sirvatka (17:41):
Yeah, Calendly is probably the one I see the
most.
I use an old one Time Trade,which is fine.
It's free.
The tickets part is soamazingly cool and I don't know
why I didn't know about this.
I've been doing this a longtime.
(18:02):
I am one of those people that'skind of caught in the email
situation where you know andthen sometimes a client will be
like did you get my email?
I wasn't sure if it bounced.
You know that kind of thing andthere's a whole lot of trouble
that can come.
You know that can get missed inemail.
So I really love this conceptof the ticket system.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (18:18):
Yeah, you know, what the really cool
thing is is when you have thatclient that uses their same
email or you can even mergeemails.
I have clients that also sendemails from other emails, which
make it even a little bit morefunner, if that's a word is, you
can merge and you can create aprofile for each of the people,
so the different emails,different phone numbers can all
be documented.
(18:38):
So like I'll merge contacts.
Basically, if I get an emailfrom someplace else, I'll merge
it to an existing contact so Ican go through and see, like
okay, like I had a clientactually merge it to an existing
contact.
So I can go through and seelike okay, like I had a client
actually I want to say probablyabout a month or so ago, said
hey, do you have that PowerPointwe sent for you to update
Because we take their PowerPointand make it into a slider on
the site?
And it was literally like fouryears ago and luckily I was able
(19:02):
to go through because it's allin that ticket system and of
course I would most of the timesay, hey, I don't think I could
find that, but I was like,actually, because we have this
in place, I probably can find it.
So we did that and, you know,end up helping a client out in a
way sometimes that they don'texpect.
Cathy Sirvatka (19:18):
Wow, that is really cool.
Now I might be able to do thatin my emails, because I don't
delete anything.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (19:24):
Yeah.
Cathy Sirvatka (19:25):
Which is probably why my computer's
slowing down Again.
Your hack would save me a lotof grief, probably.
I love that, I love that ideaand then.
So we had scheduling, we hadthe ticket system and then-.
Gresham Harkless, Jr (19:42):
Scheduling ticket system, and then the
project management we talkedabout.
Cathy Sirvatka (19:46):
Project management, yes, of course.
Well, those are super.
I mean, those just get at theheart, I think, of our business,
just as far as like withclients.
That communication is soimportant.
Man, one false move and thingscan go really awry, and I've
seen it happen.
It's just not good.
(20:07):
There's a lot of cleanup,there's a lot of extra work that
can come from that, and thenproject management, of course,
is like the heart of what we do.
So what for you?
What is the one hack that youhave used in your business and
you talked about Basecamp.
That's probably the answer tothat question.
Okay, so let's maybe anotherone that you use in your
(20:27):
business that you're like oh,why didn't I do this sooner?
This is so great.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (20:32):
Yeah.
So I would probably sayBasecamp and definitely Acuity
have been my two that have beenthe hugest hugest.
I'm making up words over heretime savers that there are out
there, but if there is one likeI also consider a hack to
sometimes be a book or somethingthat you can kind of lean on
that can make you more effectiveand efficient.
I think one of the books that Iwould recommend to freelancers
(20:56):
non-freelancers, everybody is ifyou haven't heard of the book
called the E-Myth.
It's an absolute game changer,because I think so many times
and this is, I think, speaksdirectly to freelancers is
because you're usually reallygreat at the thing that you're
doing, whether it's graphicdesign, whether it's editing
podcasts or whatever it is.
That's your thing.
(21:16):
You're probably really great atthat, but we're sometimes not
as great about the otherbusiness parts of it.
So I consider it a hack becauseI think if you go through and
listen to it and read it, it canbe really transformational.
Because I think most of thetime when we get into business
and that's what the book startsout it starts with the parable,
and I believe the young lady isa baker, she's really great at
(21:39):
baking and someone says, hey,maybe you should start a
business doing that and it'slike, okay, let me start a
business doing that and yourealize you're doing all the
things outside of baking to growthe business.
So I think it's a really greataha moment for people to really
understand when they are doingfreelancing or even deciding
that they want to scale up ofwhat things that they're going
(21:59):
to have to focus on and they getto make that decision related
to that.
But I think it's been one ofthe biggest and most
transformational books that Iwould definitely consider to be
maybe, if not my number one,maybe my number three CEO hack
that I would lean on.
Cathy Sirvatka (22:14):
I have read that book, although I need to go
back and read it again.
I had a business coach whosuggested it to me and I
remember that bakery story, yes,and it rung.
(22:41):
So true for me.
Yes, it.
But all the other things thatare involved in running a
business, you have to kind of ifnot love them.
You got to like them too,because it's a huge part, right,
it's, it's the non-billablestuff that you have to do, so
you're not even getting paid forit.
So you do really need to, youknow, be aware of that and be be
(23:06):
able to learn how to do it.
So I really love these hackideas are to help us do those
things that we need to do, thosebusinessy things or, you know,
just efficiency things to makeour business run more smoothly,
so that we can do the otherstuff that we want to do, which
is the design and thedevelopment and, and you know,
(23:27):
even working with the clients,uh, directly.
So I love that idea.
The E-Myth, E-Myth um, I forgetthe full title.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (23:36):
E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.
Cathy Sirvatka (23:38):
Yeah, I'm going to put it in show notes, so not
to make this a lightning round,but I kind of want to maybe just
list off some topics, that someareas where we need to work in
our business and that maybe youhave a hack for or an idea for
that could help our process.
So something like withinvoicing or bookkeeping, that
(24:00):
kind of thing.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (24:01):
Yeah, for invoicing, bookkeeping.
I've always heard of QuickBooksand I use FreshBooks myself,
though I use FreshBooks, I I useFreshBooks.
I feel like it's a lot simpler,cleaner.
I feel like they've built out alittle bit more of a accounting
arm to the things that they'redoing, but you can run reports,
do all those things.
So I think that's definitelybeen my go-to.
Cathy Sirvatka (24:19):
FreshBooks yeah, I've used QuickBooks and it is
good.
It's a little beyond myunderstanding.
It's it's um and it's forpeople who know bookkeeping a
little bit, and so I now usesomething else Wave apps.
I had to think of it.
Wave apps it's free and it'ssuper basic, but FreshBooks is
(24:43):
one that I know a lot offreelancers use.
Okay, well, organizing email isone I was going to ask you
about, but we really kind oftalked about that.
So what do you do in your inbox?
You still get email, right.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (24:55):
Yeah, so I don't delete emails I'm a
digital pack rat, I will say,but I do try to make sure that I
remove it out of my inbox.
So all that means is I just tryto archive as much as possible
in my email box, so I literallyhave those systems in place.
If I get something from aclient in my email, I forward it
over the fresh desk so that itcan be taken care of there.
(25:19):
So I try to just make sure thatreally what's only in my email
is honestly usually justprospects, and there's different
tools that I can use that Ineed to probably lean more on to
make that happen for, like CRMand things like that.
Cathy Sirvatka (25:36):
Okay, all right.
How about keeping your computerorganized?
Not that I have an issue withthat.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (25:41):
You know, I don't know that I have a
really great you know system forthat.
I really.
One of the things that I doreally try to do, though, is I
will put anything that I don'tthink that I need on my desktop.
The reason that I put that onmy desktop is because it makes
me delete it, so, especiallywhen I'm working with a lot of
images and things, or if I'mdownloading images to upload
(26:03):
them, I'll put that as much aspossible on my desktop so that I
end up deleting it overall.
So, you know, I use other toolsthat are for like antivirus and
things like that, but just forthe organization piece, I really
think that putting it on mydesktop of something that I know
that I probably won't need longterm is probably good, and
maybe another subset of that isI do use Dropbox, so my Dropbox
(26:26):
does sync all across my devices,so if there is something that
is, let's just say, for mybusiness and I want to add a
logo to a folder, I make surethat folder is in the Dropbox
folder.
I have that all organized, itgoes there, and then I can get
it on my phone on my othercomputer.
Whatever it works, it's all inone place.
Cathy Sirvatka (26:44):
Yeah, yeah, I love Dropbox.
They started charging more.
I think I love Dropbox.
They started charging more, Ithink and I was trying to also
combine that with contractsigning.
Do you use it for that?
What do you use for contracts?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (26:59):
I use and I forgot the name of the tool.
I used to use, echosign.
They were by Adobe, but Istopped using them and I found
like a WordPress plugin and Ican get the name of it, but it
was something that I can sendthem out through WordPress.
I got kind of like one of thoselifetime deals, so I just
bought it in advance and said,okay, well, I'm just going to
(27:20):
use this for literallyeverything and I was able to use
it for, you know, whatever Ineeded it to do and I just have
to like upload that.
But I was using EchoSign andthen I try to stay away from
like that monthly cost, if atall possible for something like
that.
Cathy Sirvatka (27:35):
Yeah, these monthly costs really add up.
All these tools, everythingwe're talking about has premium
versions and I think you know ifyou can find tools that do the
same functionality, but you knowthey have a free version and
you're not going to go beyondwhatever that limit is, that's.
I would suggest doing that, youknow, otherwise we can be
nickel and dimed to death.
(27:56):
It's into bankruptcy.
It's just everything's a feenow.
So, anyway, I really like that.
How about note keeping?
Now, you and I talked aboutthis before and you gave me
something really cool, because Ilike to handwrite my notes and
not everybody does that, but I'mon the computer so much.
(28:18):
But I still like thetangibility of handwriting notes
.
But I end up with papers allover the place, notebooks all
over, and it's actually kind ofhard to find.
So what do you do for notes?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (28:29):
Yes, absolutely.
You were speaking my languagewhen we talked about that, Cathy
, because I am that person.
I was an English major.
So, like I talked about before,like loving to write, that's
been my thing and so I literallylove like sitting down and
talking with somebody and havinga piece of paper and writing
those things out.
But I lose the notebook, I losethe paper and all the things in
between.
So I started to like kind of Iwon't say I won't use the word
(28:51):
discipline, but get in the habitof just writing things into my
Evernote.
So Evernote's been big for me,just because I literally will
leave and put everything thereas much as possible.
I've started to kind oftransition a little bit because
the Evernote is a lot more forpersonal and it's a lot easier
to access.
But again, basecamp has notesfeatures as well too, so you can
(29:11):
put it in there.
It's not as robust or as fancyas Evernote, so I can't write
into my Basecamp or things likethat.
But if it's client focused, I'mgonna type it out and put it
into Basecamp and have it inthat Basecamp.
But if not, I'm using Evernoteby default and so you can write
it out.
(29:32):
I have a note phone so Iliterally can just write
everything out within Evernoteand then it will upload there, I
can type in it, I can sharefiles, you can do all those
different things, and I havedifferent folders and categories
I think they call themnotebooks in Evernote to be able
to place all the things there.
But that's been huge, justbecause now again my whole thing
has been like can I go to oneplace and find everything I
don't know If I don't know whereit is?
(29:53):
Can I go to one place to findout, potentially at least be in
the right direction or in thenext stratosphere or something?
Can I get close to where thatpossibly is?
And that's helped me out as faras doing that I hear you.
Cathy Sirvatka (30:06):
It's like, just give me at least a nugget where
I can look in.
Exactly Now you just saidNotePhone.
What's an?
Did you say NotePhone?
Did I hear you correctly?
Yeah, so.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (30:16):
Samsung NotePhone so you can literally
just take a.
It has a pen, that's here.
I also have a I think it'scalled a studio tablet that it
also has a pen as well, too,that I can flip it over and you
know not to do a demonstrationor anything, but you can take it
and flip it and then you canwrite on it and do those things.
(30:36):
So all those things just allowme to tap into the writing when
I feel like typing, when I feellike writing, like when I'm
doing podcasts.
I love taking notes, like youare doing.
So I love just kind of flippingthis over and not depending on
like a piece of paper that Iknow I'll probably lose.
Cathy Sirvatka (30:52):
Oh, I love that, but I'd have to OK.
So I'm an iPhone person.
I'm a PC, but I'm an iPhone, sothat's a really cool thing
though.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (31:02):
I like that idea.
Come over to the dark side, butI think they have it for the
iPad too.
I think they have.
I don't know how well it works,but they might OK it for the
iPad too.
Cathy Sirvatka (31:11):
I think they have, I don't know how well, it
works, but they might have Okay,yeah, I just love that idea,
though that's something to lookinto for sure.
Onboarding clients, that wouldprobably still be well like
onboarding brand new you stillwould be using Basecamp for that
.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (31:28):
Yeah, so I use Basecamp for that.
I think one of the cool thingsand I don't know if I talked a
lot about within Basecamp youcan create templates of the
processes that you want.
So, for example, when we'rebringing on, like, an SEO client
, or we're bringing on a websitemaintenance client, I literally
have steps that I do on everyone of those processes.
So we'll break down and say,okay, we're going to send them
this email, send them this email, or send them this message, or
(31:51):
send them this list of thingsthat they need to look at.
So, when we're onboardingclients usually after they are
prospects, so they are probablyliving in my email box I send
them a message, say, hey, I havean intro video, I have a list
of things that we're going toneed from you.
I have a new clientquestionnaire, which is another
big thing, and then we'll bringclients over to Basecamp through
(32:12):
that and we take all thatinformation, we put that in the
PID, the project initiationdocument, and that way we have
all the things there.
So, again, if I'm looking at ittoday or I'm looking at it five
years from now, I at least canget again in that stratosphere
of like, where that client is,who the point of contact, some
of those things.
Of course, it's never foolproof.
If you know you always have to,you always want to be able to
(32:32):
update it, but at least, again,hopefully, get you there so that
you have some information toget started.
Cathy Sirvatka (32:44):
Oh, that's super cool.
Okay, so it sounds likeBasecamp is our winner for the
all around.
If you were to pick one thing,I'm guessing that would probably
be it.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (32:49):
Yeah, I mean there's definitely some
limitations though.
So that's why I say you know alot of it is.
So I'm very much so, and thisis a lot of.
I think.
Before you jump into the hacks,one of the big things is to
understand yourself as much aspossible, because, again, you
want to build the systems around, I think, your strengths, your
competencies and things likethat.
So Trello, for example, isreally a lot more visually
(33:13):
appealing than, I think,basecamp.
So if you're listening to thisand you're more of a designer,
web designer, then I definitelywould consider maybe looking at
that because it might be alittle bit cooler.
But if you're like, hey, I justwant to automate all things in
my life, maybe look at somethinglike ClickUp.
Clickup is a lot more robust.
You can start to add in a lotmore automations and things like
(33:33):
that.
So I'm a lot more of a personthat likes to always say like
I'm the person that wants to getthe duct tape out and even if
the two things aren't related, Iwant to try to connect them.
And I'm that person.
I want to build out thosethings and sometimes that works
good.
Sometimes it doesn't.
Most of the time probably itdoesn't, but at the end of the
day, I know myself and I knowwhere I lean.
So that's where Basecampprovides some of those things.
(33:55):
It doesn't provide all thosethings, but it has the
opportunity for me to kind ofbuild those out.
Cathy Sirvatka (34:00):
I love that you said duct tape.
Who doesn't like to duct tapestuff?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (34:03):
There you go, I'm the MacGyver.
Cathy Sirvatka (34:12):
I'm wondering if be something Zapier should
think about the duct tape of theinternet.
Yes, Because that's kind ofwhat they do.
They work to connect softwarepackages and it's pretty
extensive with everything theycan do.
Have you ever used Zapier?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (34:24):
Yeah, I use it.
I say we have an account.
I haven't used it nearly asmuch as I think that I could.
I was playing around withcertain things Like, for example
, if I wrote something inEvernote and I think I used a
certain tag, it would show up asa note in Basecamp.
So that was set up.
Those things like that to againknowing your habits and be able
(34:44):
to build around those habitswas some of that, and Zapier was
able to make that happen.
Cathy Sirvatka (34:49):
Okay, yeah, I love that.
I love all those kind of things.
It's like they all take effortto set up and they take time to
learn and, like you said, get inthe habit, but once you get
there it's so worth it.
You don't have to think aboutit again.
Like you said, your note showsup in all these places.
You just get used to that.
(35:09):
You move on.
You can do the things you needto do.
I really like that a lot.
So procrastination and we'rekind of shifting gears here
Procrastination and timemanagement and task management
Do you do anything for yourselfwith regard to that?
Are you pretty disciplined inwhat you do?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (35:32):
I would say I'm fairly disciplined and I
always hesitate as far assaying the word discipline
because I feel like I read thisbook and I've heard about so
many times, but I actually satdown and read it a week or so
ago was Atomic Habits and it wasreally powerful for me because
a lot of it was kind of whatwe're talking about is not
trying to.
(35:53):
You're trying to create habitsfor yourself.
You're not trying to create thediscipline.
The more you have to use yourenergy to do something, the less
likely you are to do it.
So what you try to do is justtry to create those habits and
start to build upon those habits.
And I think it even talkedabout if you want to implement
something, try to do it for justtwo minutes and you do it for
two minutes every day and thenthe next day maybe you do three
(36:14):
or you start to build and growfrom that.
So I feel like I've benefitedfrom doing things, realizing
that if it's not going to be theway that's going to be
beneficial for me or in mystrength, it's probably not
going to get done.
So I think that's helped out alot.
But I think the other thing issometimes just getting when you
do have to use your willpowerbecause I feel like that does
(36:36):
happen to some degree realizinghow you can kind of work around
that.
So if there's things that needto get done that I'm dreading,
probably do them a little bitearlier in the morning, because
the further they get off on theday I'm probably less likely to
do them.
So I try to spend my first twohours just working on those
things that sometimes are mostimpactful, but sometimes things
that I dread as well too.
(36:56):
So that's been really huge asfar as helping out with the
procrastination.
But then, like we spoke to, isjust like literally putting
those things out into whereveryou need them to be.
So, whether it's writing them asnotes, Evernote, I use to-do
lists as well too literallyputting as many things as
possible that I need to get donein a place so I can see, first
(37:18):
and foremost, what I need to do.
But secondly, if I get into theend of the day, if I have 50
things on my to-do list and I'mlike I'm going to finish all
these and I get five of thosethings done, I'm like, okay,
well, these need to be pushedoff because I'm asking too much
of myself, which I kind of runinto a lot.
(37:38):
So I start to kind of likeself-manage and maybe
self-regulate myself a littlebit more.
So I know that, okay, if I getfive things done in a day, then
that's a really, really good day.
So it starts to become okay.
Let me take these other 45things and let me spread them
around to when they're actuallyimportant or you know just
things.
You know whatever it might be.
So you start to figure outthose things.
And one other big thing too iswe all have habits, and I think
(38:00):
this is spoken a lot about inAtomic Habits is where what you
really want to do is to find outwhat your habits are and try to
stack those habits.
So all that means is that ifyou literally do something like
brush your teeth on a dailybasis, maybe you're listening to
a phenomenal podcast like thispodcast while you're listening
to that.
So it gives you the opportunityof something you're already
(38:21):
doing to start to say, okay, Iwant to build my skills a little
bit more, so let me listen tothis podcast.
So it's just figuring out whatyou're doing and then starting
to build about, um, build yourhabits to understand, like,
where you want to go and working, working backwards from there.
Cathy Sirvatka (38:36):
Yeah, that goes along with what you said before
not reinventing the wheel, butjust, um, figuring out how you
are knowing yourself really,first off, and and how you like
to do things, and then findingthings that can help do it in a
way that's more natural to you.
Maybe, um, that doesn't feellike drudgery.
Yes, right, and I love the ideaof stacking, like brushing your
(38:58):
teeth, listen to a podcast,that's.
Or I go for a walk, listen to apodcast, you know that kind of
thing, um, where you can getwell, it's just efficiency.
It comes back to that wordefficiency.
Really, with your time, youknow something I'd wanted to ask
you and this is going back alittle bit what do you think of
(39:19):
chatbots?
This is kind of an out therequestion, but it just popped
into my mind when we weretalking about Freshdesk.
And wait, was it Freshdesk?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (39:27):
Yeah, Freshdesk.
Cathy Sirvatka (39:29):
So when we were talking about Freshdesk and
having tickets, I know a lot ofpeople ask about chatbots and
I've always steered clear ofthem because I personally find
them a bit annoying and not sohelpful.
Have you ever tried them?
What do you think?
What are your thoughts?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (39:45):
Yeah, you know, I'm in the process funny
enough of testing out kind ofchatbots as well too.
So, like I've been able to do,like I have a daily podcast and
one of the questions I asked iseverybody for their CEO hacks.
So we had 1600 episodes andwhat I wanted to do is take that
information of all the CEOhacks and start to compile them.
So I started to look atdifferent ways that I can get
(40:07):
that information out there.
So, of course, you canliterally list out all the
different hacks that everybodytalked about on an everyday
basis.
But then I started to actuallyupload a lot of that information
to chatbots to kind of see howthat interaction would go.
And I think that I'm not anexpert as far as training
chatbots or anything, but I knowjust from what I've seen
(40:28):
there's definitely some room forimprovement.
But I really like the conceptand idea of that because I think
that if I think one of the waysthat we kind of don't really
give opportunity to certainthings is that we always are in
the sense of comparing.
So what I mean by that is thatif we compare having the
(40:49):
conversation that we're havingwith having a conversation with
a chatbot, then I think thechatbot is not going to do the
things that we want it to do.
But if we say that, ok, I haveto sleep, I have to eat, I have
to do whatever it is that I haveto do, and then there could be
a chatbot in place until then,then I think that sets that
expectation and I think also,too, that expectation is for us,
(41:18):
but it's also for the otherperson as well too.
So if somebody's coming to yoursite, I think having that
transparency to say, oh, this isan AI chat bot that you're
chatting with, allows people tomake that decision if they want
to have that conversation or not.
So I think that's really whathelps out a lot.
But I think that obviously is away to go.
But I think, with all thisaggregation of information, to
be able to, even just internally, even if we didn't post that
chatbot, but if I can literallygo to that chatbot and said, hey
(41:40):
, what did I talk about inepisode number 1061?
And it can tell me that that'shuge.
So, even if you use itinternally, of saying, like you
know, what did I do?
What did I do last week or lastyear for that client?
Or like I talked about, whereis that PowerPoint that I was
looking for, all those things?
If you can start to aggregatethat information, I think it's
(42:00):
just going to make us moreeffective and efficient, so that
we can spend the time onactually engaging, creating
relationships the things thatthose chatbots can't do as well.
Cathy Sirvatka (42:08):
That sounds like a job for a virtual assistant.
Yes, that aggregating of allthat information, but because it
could be huge, but I could alsosee the huge benefit of it as
well.
Well, maybe I'll revisit it,especially with AI being
integrated into everything nowthey may even be more helpful
and they can be taught, so thatcould be something, maybe
(42:32):
connected to your your freshdesk tickets.
You know who knows Gresham?
This has been an awesomeconversation and I have learned
a lot.
I know my audience has learneda lot, so I just really
appreciate your being here andjust want to thank you again.
Thank you I appreciate you,Cathy.
Have you ever caught yourself doing something
that you've done a hundred timesbefore and thought there's got
to be an easier way to do this?
What I always forget is thatwhenever I have thought that
there's most likely someone elsewho's not only also thought
that, but has come up with asolution, enter hacks as in tips
and tricks things that makeyour business function faster
(00:23):
and easier.
Things that make your businessfunction faster and easier.
Gresham Harkless Jr is joiningus today to share his best CEO
hacks to help you run yourbusiness more efficiently.
We'll cover invoicing andbookkeeping, organizing mail,
(00:47):
project management, keepingnotes and all that stuff that
you have to do in yourday-to-day business.
Gresh is the founder of CBNation and also Blue 16 Media,
which offers digital marketingservices, web design, website
support and SEO services.
Gresh is a proud graduate ofHoward University and Georgetown
University and has won multipleawards.
He has recorded over 1600episodes of the I Am CEO podcast
and authored the I Am CEOHandbook, volume 3, in which he
(01:09):
shares 100 plus business lessonshe has learned during his
podcasting career.
So sit back in your chair orget your walking shoes on as we
dive into these super helpfulnuggets.
Here we go.
Welcome to the Web Pro SavvyPodcast.
This is your host, CathySirvatka.
(01:41):
S as in Sam I-R, v as in VictorA-T-K-A.
All right, hi Gresham, how areyou.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (01:48):
I'm super excited to be here, Cathy.
I'm doing phenomenal.
Cathy Sirvatka (01:56):
Yeah, I'm so glad to have you here.
Thanks for being here.
I think my audience is going tobe really happy with some of
the things you're going to sharewith us today.
We're going to talk about CEOhacks, tricks and hacks and
whatever hack means to you,which I'm going to ask you in a
little bit, and I know I'm goingto learn a lot.
I've already learned a lot justin our conversations together,
so I'm excited.
Can you first, though, justgive us a little bit about your
(02:18):
professional background, whereyou came from and what you do
now?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (02:23):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Again, excited to be here,Cathy, to talk with all the
awesome talk with you and then,of course, hopefully help out so
many of your audience andpeople that are doing phenomenal
things.
So my background is reallyvaried.
I've done a lot of differentthings, everything from being an
adjunct professor to teachlittle four-year-olds how to
throw a football through aninflatable football, to teaching
(02:47):
in elementary schools to nowdoing digital marketing and so
many different things.
But I think one of my bigthings in being in the DC area I
went to school at Howard andGeorgetown.
I went through a kind of spaceand time where I was like I
didn't know what I wanted to bewhen I grew up, so I really just
tried as many things as I couldto find it, kind of try to
(03:08):
figure out what stuck.
And for me, I actually went backto when I was a kid and I
started what is now called likea family newspaper, but for me
it was just a way for me tocollect all the things that were
going on in our family so thatmy dad, who was reassigned to an
entirely different countrybecause he was in the military,
was able to find out all thethings that we were doing.
(03:29):
So a lot of what I do is fueledby that, by creating what I
call media companies, and atthat time, when I was 10, it was
literally finding out all thethings that were going on in our
family so that my dad wouldknow, but I also saw the
subscription.
So I've had thatentrepreneurial itch, so to
speak, and throughout my lifejust been trying to figure out
how best I can kind of scratchthat as much as possible.
Cathy Sirvatka (03:51):
Wow, that's really cool and so much more
advanced than my lemonade stand.
I sold lemonade and seedsflower seeds.
Ah, I like that, which is funny.
That's really.
That's so cool.
You did a family newspaper.
I just love that.
That really taps into something.
I wish I would have thought ofthat.
That is such a great idea.
(04:12):
Do you still have them?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (04:13):
I don't still have them.
But funny, oh, do I still havethe newspaper?
Oh, I thought you meant, do Istill do them?
Yes, so funny enough.
Yeah, years later, you knowwhen I'm trying to go through
this question, like, what do Iwant to be?
When I grew up, my mom had themand it was one of those kind of
unique stories, um, that I feltlike not a lot of other people
did it.
Of course I did the potatochips on the playground and
(04:33):
things like that.
Um, even went to MJ designs andcreated beads.
Uh, got BEC to create necklacesand things like that.
But I felt like this was kindof a unique story where I didn't
meet a lot of people that haddone that.
So, yeah, I had about two yearsworth that my mom had kept.
So now I have them alldigitally that I can always kind
of leaf through.
So, yeah, one of them, mygrandma had a squirrel get in
(04:55):
her house, so that was like aleading story.
So all those kind of fun familythings that I can add in.
Cathy Sirvatka (05:01):
That was the leading story.
I love that.
That's awesome.
Oh my gosh, I love that yeah, Imajored in photojournalism, so
I got a little bit of thatjournalism thing in me, so I
just really love that.
Well, that's really cool.
So today you are CEO, you havea couple of podcasts, you got a
(05:23):
couple of businesses.
You're really out there.
You talk to CEOs every day.
You said yeah, absolutely.
We're here today because youhave talked about CEO hacks that
you come up with and thatyou've come up with through your
whole experience, your businessand life experience.
So how do you define a hack?
First of all, yeah, absolutelyso.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (05:46):
I consider a CEO hack to be an app
, a book or even a habit thatsomeone has that make them more
effective and efficient, and Ithink those things are beautiful
and perfect sometimes when theystand alone.
But I think it goes to anentirely different level when
you're able to implement thathack into your business, your
organization or even your lifeat that.
So I think when we have andhear about morning routines,
(06:07):
they sound really cool, but whenyou're able to kind of mold and
adjust it and make it into yourown, that's when it goes to
another level, because you startto see the impact in your life.
So I feel like what makes a CEOhack a CEO hack is when you're
able to like, leverage it andimplement it within your process
, your systems, the things thatyou're doing on a daily basis,
potentially.
Cathy Sirvatka (06:24):
Okay, I like that.
So you, you don't try andreinvent what you do,
necessarily, but just merging itinto what you already do to
make it more efficient.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (06:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think it's very much likethat the clay, where the clay
can do many things, but youstart to mold it into the thing.
So I think it's a process andyou want to figure out what
you're doing, which I thinksometimes is a great place to
start, and then you start to say, okay, how can I take some of
those principles or some ofthose things or some of that
technology and implement it intowhat I'm already doing?
Cathy Sirvatka (06:57):
I like that because it feels doable.
I don't have to reinventreinvent the wheel, as they say
um.
So I'm interested to hear these.
So what areas do you think thatfreelancers or small business
owners um tend to struggle themost with efficiency?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (07:15):
Maybe, you know, could really benefit
from some hacks yeah, I thinkone of the big things to to kind
of keep in mind and I often saythe systems will set you free,
because I think a lot of timesfreelancers are really creative
and they do a lot of things thatcould be graphic design or
building websites, whatever itmight be.
That is your freelance gig orthe thing that you're doing on a
(07:37):
regular basis those systemsaren't necessarily in place and
I don't think that it has tohappen on day one where you have
to have all the immaculatesystems that do that, automate
and do all the things.
I think it's just starting toget in the process of figuring
out like how can I not carry allthe things that I'm carrying,
do all the things that I'm doing, but I can make it a little bit
(07:59):
more into like a process or aplace.
So I think one of the best waysto do that is really to just
get like overall organized and Ithink the best ways to do that
are like project managementsoftware.
So we as a team and we have adigital marketing company focus
on Basecamp and Basecamp is away and a place that we
literally put everything thatwe're working on.
(08:19):
So anytime we go and we have anew client.
We know that we're going tosend an invoice, we know that
we're going to send a thecontract Literally all of those
steps are outlined in Basecamp,and again it's something that
we're constantly improving place.
But also you're thinking likewhen I want to maybe get an
assistant, or maybe I want tohand things off, or I want to
(08:46):
have somebody that's interningwith me, whatever it is, it's in
one place.
So I think you start to createthat process.
Even though it might feel likean extra step, I think it's
going to help you to be a lotmore streamlined.
And then you start to have likea repeatable process with every
client you end up working with,and I think it makes it an
overall experience for yourself,but also for your clients as
well too.
Cathy Sirvatka (09:06):
Basecamp is something I've heard of but have
not actually worked with.
What would be the main toolsthat are main things that
Basecamp specifically does.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (09:15):
Yeah.
Cathy Sirvatka (09:15):
I said main and then specific generally,
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (09:18):
Yeah, I understood
So we start.
We were using Basecamp now, butbefore we were using Asana.
There's ClickUp, there's Trello.
So again, there's lots ofdifferent softwares out there,
like there's.
Like I talked about the clay,there's lots of different types
of clay that you can use.
You find the clay that worksbest with you, that you feel
kind of fits the needs that youhave.
(09:39):
But I think the thing thatreally helps us out with
Basecamp is that we literallycan put everything we're doing
within Basecamp.
So it has a place that you canput to-dos.
It has a place that you cancreate calendars.
So if we like for example, ifwe were to update or do any
maintenance on clients and we doit a specific day of the week
(10:00):
we can put that on the calendarand create that as a task.
If there's files that we wantto have maybe you need a
client's logo that you want tohave handy, you don't have to
search through your email eachtime to try to find it you can
put that into the Basecamp youcan have.
Even now you can add on clientcorrespondence within Basecamp.
Which is what really attractedme to Basecamp over other ones
(10:20):
is that, rather than gettinglost in my email and me trying
to find all the things.
I can literally have as manyconversations as possible with
the client within Basecamp so Ican always go back and say, okay
, what did I say yesterday?
Or what did I say five yearsago to that client?
And you have it all in oneplace.
So at the end of the day, itjust makes it a lot simpler
because you go to one place andyou see everything there.
(10:41):
Of course you have to build thehabits to use that, but I think
once you have those habits, youstart to see the value of that.
I can't tell you how much time,kathy, I've wasted in terms of,
like, going through my emails,Like I know that I got this, I
know that I put it somewhere, Ijust don't know where it is and
I don't know what I named it,and that hopefully alleviates a
lot of those frustrations.
Cathy Sirvatka (11:03):
Yeah, I was going to ask you about that.
So, yes, that would be me.
I do have a system.
I've been doing this a longtime over 20 years so I do have
a system with folders and emails, but, honestly, I still have to
do some searching.
It's not perfect, right, but Iguess nothing is.
But this sounds not only like aproject management, but a
(11:26):
client management as well, then.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (11:27):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
I think it goes to the edge.
I wouldn't call it a full likekind of CRM, but I think you
could actually build potentiallya CRM through that.
So, like one of the things thatwe do is we have like an intake
for clients and we call it aPID, which is a project
initiation document.
We do put some CRM typeinformation there, like the
email address, phone number,things like that, but we upload
(11:48):
that into Basecamp so thatdocument lives on Basecamp and
we can see all the informationat all times about clients.
Cathy Sirvatka (11:55):
And then it's on the cloud so you can get it
anywhere and your assistants orwhoever can get it anywhere.
That, I think, is huge.
I think, right there, that is agolden nugget, because for web
designers, I mean, that's itright.
We're project oriented, we'reclient oriented, so I think
that's a really good idea.
So we got Basecamp down, butover the years you've probably
(12:21):
gathered a lot of tools, tips,tricks, all this stuff right.
If you could categorize them,maybe like three or four or two
or three categories of businessthat they help, say, for a
website freelancer, what kind ofcategories would you put those
into?
Because, like you said I guessI'm trying to get at, there are
(12:42):
many tools to do anything.
Right, we know there's just aton out there.
But if there were two or threecategories that we would need to
address, what would that be?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (12:51):
I think that's a great question and I
think we I feel like we coveredone of those things which is
kind of like that projectmanagement piece which you spoke
to, and I think there's lots ofdifferent tools that you can do
.
Like I mentioned, we startedwith Asana, there's ClickUp that
does a lot of automations,there's Trello.
I think you find the kind oflike a pair of shoes.
(13:12):
You find the shoes that youknow work or fit on best for you
and you feel like you canfunction with and walk around
with or even run, if that's evenyou know your thing.
But I think after that, one ofthe big like impactful things
for me has been probably aroundscheduling.
I can't say how impactful ithas been to be able to share a
(13:32):
link and say is there a goodtime for you?
If it's easier, here's my link.
And when you have clients thatare potentially traveling or
even in different time zones, Iam probably the worst assistant
to myself at trying to schedulethings, because I will be the
person that shows up an hourlate, an hour early or
(13:55):
potentially even the next daysaying, oh, are we meeting today
?
And I think this alleviatesthat, because what it does and I
think even with Basecamp, itallows me to make sure that I'm
a lot more focused on thesmaller things that I can do.
So I just know that things arein Basecamp, so I just go to
Basecamp.
It allows me to make sure thatI'm a lot more focused on the
smaller things that I can do.
So I just know that things arein Basecamp, so I just go to
Basecamp to find the things,rather than trying to figure out
oh, do I have a meeting today?
It's on my calendar, so I justcheck my calendar to see what's
(14:17):
happening on a regular basis.
So I feel like it's taken a lotoff my shoulders to be able to
say, okay, these are the thingsthat I need to do, these are the
things that I need to lean onand then just kind of go from
there.
So I would say, like schedulinglinks have been huge in terms
of like hopefully narrowing downand keeping my schedule in
(14:41):
alignment and something that Ican execute on.
But I think also too, just likethe lack of back and forth with
emails, because I'm really bigon trying to get you know
further and further away fromthe email box and all the things
that can happen there.
One really really cool thingthat I think we've implemented
as a team, but I feel like Iwish I had done it so much
(15:02):
sooner.
I think if I was even just doingthings solely myself is I have
a ticket system.
So we do a lot of support andmaintenance.
That's kind of like one of ourmain things that we do.
So we have clients that willsend emails and those emails
will literally go everywhere.
I've seen them through Facebookmessage, I've seen them through
my email address.
(15:22):
I see them sometimes indifferent social media platforms
.
So what we try to do is try tostandardize even for clients,
like how they can contact us.
So we use a ticket system andwe use Freshdesk.
There's a lot of other toolsout there, just like the project
management software, but whatthis does is, I think,
especially if you're doing anysupport or maintenance and,
(15:43):
honestly, if you have clientsthat you work with on a regular
basis, I think it helps out asfar as like streamlining that
conversation, because once theysend an email, they get a email
back to say they received wereceived your email, and they
even get a ticket number.
Now we take that ticket number,we put it into Basecamp as a
task and do those things just so, again, it's all in one place.
(16:04):
But I think the big part ofwhat it does is it creates an
expectation.
So it says, hey, we receivedyour email, we will complete it
in 24 to 48 hours, and usuallywe have that kind of that
expectation that's communicatedright when that's sent.
But I think too, so many timesclients will send stuff or think
that they send stuff, and oftenyou can say, okay, did you get
(16:27):
an email back?
Did you see something back?
Then sometimes it may have wentto the wrong email address, may
have went to spend, whatevermight happen.
But you start to kind of createthat expectation for clients
that okay, once I get an email,I know that it's received and
somebody will get back to me.
So I think that's been a hugething because it allows again
those things to be in a place sothat it's not constantly
(16:47):
everywhere.
And social media platforms inevery different way they can
connect with you.
And so one of the things that Itry to do too, especially for
clients that we work with evenif I'm having a call with a
client, I will literally putthat either in Basecamp or I'll
put it as a ticket if it's a lotquicker of an update so that it
creates that expectation andcreates that same line of
(17:08):
communication.
So even on my side I try tomake sure that I do that.
But those are probably three,at least parts, that I think
have been really impactful.
But I can go on and on and on.
Cathy, just let me knowwhatever works best.
Cathy Sirvatka (17:22):
Okay, so I was trying to keep notes here to
keep up with you.
So Basecamp with schedulinglinks.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (17:28):
No, basecamp doesn't do scheduling
links, so I use and I didn'tmention I use Acuity for
scheduling links, but Calendlyis another option as well too,
but scheduling links I wouldprobably consider like to be one
of those other categoriesoutside of project management.
Cathy Sirvatka (17:41):
Yeah, Calendly is probably the one I see the
most.
I use an old one Time Trade,which is fine.
It's free.
The tickets part is soamazingly cool and I don't know
why I didn't know about this.
I've been doing this a longtime.
(18:02):
I am one of those people that'skind of caught in the email
situation where you know andthen sometimes a client will be
like did you get my email?
I wasn't sure if it bounced.
You know that kind of thing andthere's a whole lot of trouble
that can come.
You know that can get missed inemail.
So I really love this conceptof the ticket system.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (18:18):
Yeah, you know, what the really cool
thing is is when you have thatclient that uses their same
email or you can even mergeemails.
I have clients that also sendemails from other emails, which
make it even a little bit morefunner, if that's a word is, you
can merge and you can create aprofile for each of the people,
so the different emails,different phone numbers can all
be documented.
(18:38):
So like I'll merge contacts.
Basically, if I get an emailfrom someplace else, I'll merge
it to an existing contact so Ican go through and see, like
okay, like I had a clientactually merge it to an existing
contact.
So I can go through and seelike okay, like I had a client
actually I want to say probablyabout a month or so ago, said
hey, do you have that PowerPointwe sent for you to update
Because we take their PowerPointand make it into a slider on
the site?
And it was literally like fouryears ago and luckily I was able
(19:02):
to go through because it's allin that ticket system and of
course I would most of the timesay, hey, I don't think I could
find that, but I was like,actually, because we have this
in place, I probably can find it.
So we did that and, you know,end up helping a client out in a
way sometimes that they don'texpect.
Cathy Sirvatka (19:18):
Wow, that is really cool.
Now I might be able to do thatin my emails, because I don't
delete anything.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (19:24):
Yeah.
Cathy Sirvatka (19:25):
Which is probably why my computer's
slowing down Again.
Your hack would save me a lotof grief, probably.
I love that, I love that ideaand then.
So we had scheduling, we hadthe ticket system and then-.
Gresham Harkless, Jr (19:42):
Scheduling ticket system, and then the
project management we talkedabout.
Cathy Sirvatka (19:46):
Project management, yes, of course.
Well, those are super.
I mean, those just get at theheart, I think, of our business,
just as far as like withclients.
That communication is soimportant.
Man, one false move and thingscan go really awry, and I've
seen it happen.
It's just not good.
(20:07):
There's a lot of cleanup,there's a lot of extra work that
can come from that, and thenproject management, of course,
is like the heart of what we do.
So what for you?
What is the one hack that youhave used in your business and
you talked about Basecamp.
That's probably the answer tothat question.
Okay, so let's maybe anotherone that you use in your
(20:27):
business that you're like oh,why didn't I do this sooner?
This is so great.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (20:32):
Yeah.
So I would probably sayBasecamp and definitely Acuity
have been my two that have beenthe hugest hugest.
I'm making up words over heretime savers that there are out
there, but if there is one likeI also consider a hack to
sometimes be a book or somethingthat you can kind of lean on
that can make you more effectiveand efficient.
I think one of the books that Iwould recommend to freelancers
(20:56):
non-freelancers, everybody is ifyou haven't heard of the book
called the E-Myth.
It's an absolute game changer,because I think so many times
and this is, I think, speaksdirectly to freelancers is
because you're usually reallygreat at the thing that you're
doing, whether it's graphicdesign, whether it's editing
podcasts or whatever it is.
That's your thing.
(21:16):
You're probably really great atthat, but we're sometimes not
as great about the otherbusiness parts of it.
So I consider it a hack becauseI think if you go through and
listen to it and read it, it canbe really transformational.
Because I think most of thetime when we get into business
and that's what the book startsout it starts with the parable,
and I believe the young lady isa baker, she's really great at
(21:39):
baking and someone says, hey,maybe you should start a
business doing that and it'slike, okay, let me start a
business doing that and yourealize you're doing all the
things outside of baking to growthe business.
So I think it's a really greataha moment for people to really
understand when they are doingfreelancing or even deciding
that they want to scale up ofwhat things that they're going
(21:59):
to have to focus on and they getto make that decision related
to that.
But I think it's been one ofthe biggest and most
transformational books that Iwould definitely consider to be
maybe, if not my number one,maybe my number three CEO hack
that I would lean on.
Cathy Sirvatka (22:14):
I have read that book, although I need to go
back and read it again.
I had a business coach whosuggested it to me and I
remember that bakery story, yes,and it rung.
(22:41):
So true for me.
Yes, it.
But all the other things thatare involved in running a
business, you have to kind of ifnot love them.
You got to like them too,because it's a huge part, right,
it's, it's the non-billablestuff that you have to do, so
you're not even getting paid forit.
So you do really need to, youknow, be aware of that and be be
(23:06):
able to learn how to do it.
So I really love these hackideas are to help us do those
things that we need to do, thosebusinessy things or, you know,
just efficiency things to makeour business run more smoothly,
so that we can do the otherstuff that we want to do, which
is the design and thedevelopment and, and you know,
(23:27):
even working with the clients,uh, directly.
So I love that idea.
The E-Myth, E-Myth um, I forgetthe full title.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (23:36):
E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.
Cathy Sirvatka (23:38):
Yeah, I'm going to put it in show notes, so not
to make this a lightning round,but I kind of want to maybe just
list off some topics, that someareas where we need to work in
our business and that maybe youhave a hack for or an idea for
that could help our process.
So something like withinvoicing or bookkeeping, that
(24:00):
kind of thing.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (24:01):
Yeah, for invoicing, bookkeeping.
I've always heard of QuickBooksand I use FreshBooks myself,
though I use FreshBooks, I I useFreshBooks.
I feel like it's a lot simpler,cleaner.
I feel like they've built out alittle bit more of a accounting
arm to the things that they'redoing, but you can run reports,
do all those things.
So I think that's definitelybeen my go-to.
Cathy Sirvatka (24:19):
FreshBooks yeah, I've used QuickBooks and it is
good.
It's a little beyond myunderstanding.
It's it's um and it's forpeople who know bookkeeping a
little bit, and so I now usesomething else Wave apps.
I had to think of it.
Wave apps it's free and it'ssuper basic, but FreshBooks is
(24:43):
one that I know a lot offreelancers use.
Okay, well, organizing email isone I was going to ask you
about, but we really kind oftalked about that.
So what do you do in your inbox?
You still get email, right.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (24:55):
Yeah, so I don't delete emails I'm a
digital pack rat, I will say,but I do try to make sure that I
remove it out of my inbox.
So all that means is I just tryto archive as much as possible
in my email box, so I literallyhave those systems in place.
If I get something from aclient in my email, I forward it
over the fresh desk so that itcan be taken care of there.
(25:19):
So I try to just make sure thatreally what's only in my email
is honestly usually justprospects, and there's different
tools that I can use that Ineed to probably lean more on to
make that happen for, like CRMand things like that.
Cathy Sirvatka (25:36):
Okay, all right.
How about keeping your computerorganized?
Not that I have an issue withthat.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (25:41):
You know, I don't know that I have a
really great you know system forthat.
I really.
One of the things that I doreally try to do, though, is I
will put anything that I don'tthink that I need on my desktop.
The reason that I put that onmy desktop is because it makes
me delete it, so, especiallywhen I'm working with a lot of
images and things, or if I'mdownloading images to upload
(26:03):
them, I'll put that as much aspossible on my desktop so that I
end up deleting it overall.
So, you know, I use other toolsthat are for like antivirus and
things like that, but just forthe organization piece, I really
think that putting it on mydesktop of something that I know
that I probably won't need longterm is probably good, and
maybe another subset of that isI do use Dropbox, so my Dropbox
(26:26):
does sync all across my devices,so if there is something that
is, let's just say, for mybusiness and I want to add a
logo to a folder, I make surethat folder is in the Dropbox
folder.
I have that all organized, itgoes there, and then I can get
it on my phone on my othercomputer.
Whatever it works, it's all inone place.
Cathy Sirvatka (26:44):
Yeah, yeah, I love Dropbox.
They started charging more.
I think I love Dropbox.
They started charging more, Ithink and I was trying to also
combine that with contractsigning.
Do you use it for that?
What do you use for contracts?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (26:59):
I use and I forgot the name of the tool.
I used to use, echosign.
They were by Adobe, but Istopped using them and I found
like a WordPress plugin and Ican get the name of it, but it
was something that I can sendthem out through WordPress.
I got kind of like one of thoselifetime deals, so I just
bought it in advance and said,okay, well, I'm just going to
(27:20):
use this for literallyeverything and I was able to use
it for, you know, whatever Ineeded it to do and I just have
to like upload that.
But I was using EchoSign andthen I try to stay away from
like that monthly cost, if atall possible for something like
that.
Cathy Sirvatka (27:35):
Yeah, these monthly costs really add up.
All these tools, everythingwe're talking about has premium
versions and I think you know ifyou can find tools that do the
same functionality, but you knowthey have a free version and
you're not going to go beyondwhatever that limit is, that's.
I would suggest doing that, youknow, otherwise we can be
nickel and dimed to death.
(27:56):
It's into bankruptcy.
It's just everything's a feenow.
So, anyway, I really like that.
How about note keeping?
Now, you and I talked aboutthis before and you gave me
something really cool, because Ilike to handwrite my notes and
not everybody does that, but I'mon the computer so much.
(28:18):
But I still like thetangibility of handwriting notes
.
But I end up with papers allover the place, notebooks all
over, and it's actually kind ofhard to find.
So what do you do for notes?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (28:29):
Yes, absolutely.
You were speaking my languagewhen we talked about that, Cathy
, because I am that person.
I was an English major.
So, like I talked about before,like loving to write, that's
been my thing and so I literallylove like sitting down and
talking with somebody and havinga piece of paper and writing
those things out.
But I lose the notebook, I losethe paper and all the things in
between.
So I started to like kind of Iwon't say I won't use the word
(28:51):
discipline, but get in the habitof just writing things into my
Evernote.
So Evernote's been big for me,just because I literally will
leave and put everything thereas much as possible.
I've started to kind oftransition a little bit because
the Evernote is a lot more forpersonal and it's a lot easier
to access.
But again, basecamp has notesfeatures as well too, so you can
(29:11):
put it in there.
It's not as robust or as fancyas Evernote, so I can't write
into my Basecamp or things likethat.
But if it's client focused, I'mgonna type it out and put it
into Basecamp and have it inthat Basecamp.
But if not, I'm using Evernoteby default and so you can write
it out.
(29:32):
I have a note phone so Iliterally can just write
everything out within Evernoteand then it will upload there, I
can type in it, I can sharefiles, you can do all those
different things, and I havedifferent folders and categories
I think they call themnotebooks in Evernote to be able
to place all the things there.
But that's been huge, justbecause now again my whole thing
has been like can I go to oneplace and find everything I
don't know If I don't know whereit is?
(29:53):
Can I go to one place to findout, potentially at least be in
the right direction or in thenext stratosphere or something?
Can I get close to where thatpossibly is?
And that's helped me out as faras doing that I hear you.
Cathy Sirvatka (30:06):
It's like, just give me at least a nugget where
I can look in.
Exactly Now you just saidNotePhone.
What's an?
Did you say NotePhone?
Did I hear you correctly?
Yeah, so.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (30:16):
Samsung NotePhone so you can literally
just take a.
It has a pen, that's here.
I also have a I think it'scalled a studio tablet that it
also has a pen as well, too,that I can flip it over and you
know not to do a demonstrationor anything, but you can take it
and flip it and then you canwrite on it and do those things.
(30:36):
So all those things just allowme to tap into the writing when
I feel like typing, when I feellike writing, like when I'm
doing podcasts.
I love taking notes, like youare doing.
So I love just kind of flippingthis over and not depending on
like a piece of paper that Iknow I'll probably lose.
Cathy Sirvatka (30:52):
Oh, I love that, but I'd have to OK.
So I'm an iPhone person.
I'm a PC, but I'm an iPhone, sothat's a really cool thing
though.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (31:02):
I like that idea.
Come over to the dark side, butI think they have it for the
iPad too.
I think they have.
I don't know how well it works,but they might OK it for the
iPad too.
Cathy Sirvatka (31:11):
I think they have, I don't know how well, it
works, but they might have Okay,yeah, I just love that idea,
though that's something to lookinto for sure.
Onboarding clients, that wouldprobably still be well like
onboarding brand new you stillwould be using Basecamp for that
.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (31:28):
Yeah, so I use Basecamp for that.
I think one of the cool thingsand I don't know if I talked a
lot about within Basecamp youcan create templates of the
processes that you want.
So, for example, when we'rebringing on, like, an SEO client
, or we're bringing on a websitemaintenance client, I literally
have steps that I do on everyone of those processes.
So we'll break down and say,okay, we're going to send them
this email, send them this email, or send them this message, or
(31:51):
send them this list of thingsthat they need to look at.
So, when we're onboardingclients usually after they are
prospects, so they are probablyliving in my email box I send
them a message, say, hey, I havean intro video, I have a list
of things that we're going toneed from you.
I have a new clientquestionnaire, which is another
big thing, and then we'll bringclients over to Basecamp through
(32:12):
that and we take all thatinformation, we put that in the
PID, the project initiationdocument, and that way we have
all the things there.
So, again, if I'm looking at ittoday or I'm looking at it five
years from now, I at least canget again in that stratosphere
of like, where that client is,who the point of contact, some
of those things.
Of course, it's never foolproof.
If you know you always have to,you always want to be able to
(32:32):
update it, but at least, again,hopefully, get you there so that
you have some information toget started.
Cathy Sirvatka (32:44):
Oh, that's super cool.
Okay, so it sounds likeBasecamp is our winner for the
all around.
If you were to pick one thing,I'm guessing that would probably
be it.
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (32:49):
Yeah, I mean there's definitely some
limitations though.
So that's why I say you know alot of it is.
So I'm very much so, and thisis a lot of.
I think.
Before you jump into the hacks,one of the big things is to
understand yourself as much aspossible, because, again, you
want to build the systems around, I think, your strengths, your
competencies and things likethat.
So Trello, for example, isreally a lot more visually
(33:13):
appealing than, I think,basecamp.
So if you're listening to thisand you're more of a designer,
web designer, then I definitelywould consider maybe looking at
that because it might be alittle bit cooler.
But if you're like, hey, I justwant to automate all things in
my life, maybe look at somethinglike ClickUp.
Clickup is a lot more robust.
You can start to add in a lotmore automations and things like
(33:33):
that.
So I'm a lot more of a personthat likes to always say like
I'm the person that wants to getthe duct tape out and even if
the two things aren't related, Iwant to try to connect them.
And I'm that person.
I want to build out thosethings and sometimes that works
good.
Sometimes it doesn't.
Most of the time probably itdoesn't, but at the end of the
day, I know myself and I knowwhere I lean.
So that's where Basecampprovides some of those things.
(33:55):
It doesn't provide all thosethings, but it has the
opportunity for me to kind ofbuild those out.
Cathy Sirvatka (34:00):
I love that you said duct tape.
Who doesn't like to duct tapestuff?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (34:03):
There you go, I'm the MacGyver.
Cathy Sirvatka (34:12):
I'm wondering if be something Zapier should
think about the duct tape of theinternet.
Yes, Because that's kind ofwhat they do.
They work to connect softwarepackages and it's pretty
extensive with everything theycan do.
Have you ever used Zapier?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (34:24):
Yeah, I use it.
I say we have an account.
I haven't used it nearly asmuch as I think that I could.
I was playing around withcertain things Like, for example
, if I wrote something inEvernote and I think I used a
certain tag, it would show up asa note in Basecamp.
So that was set up.
Those things like that to againknowing your habits and be able
(34:44):
to build around those habitswas some of that, and Zapier was
able to make that happen.
Cathy Sirvatka (34:49):
Okay, yeah, I love that.
I love all those kind of things.
It's like they all take effortto set up and they take time to
learn and, like you said, get inthe habit, but once you get
there it's so worth it.
You don't have to think aboutit again.
Like you said, your note showsup in all these places.
You just get used to that.
(35:09):
You move on.
You can do the things you needto do.
I really like that a lot.
So procrastination and we'rekind of shifting gears here
Procrastination and timemanagement and task management
Do you do anything for yourselfwith regard to that?
Are you pretty disciplined inwhat you do?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (35:32):
I would say I'm fairly disciplined and I
always hesitate as far assaying the word discipline
because I feel like I read thisbook and I've heard about so
many times, but I actually satdown and read it a week or so
ago was Atomic Habits and it wasreally powerful for me because
a lot of it was kind of whatwe're talking about is not
trying to.
(35:53):
You're trying to create habitsfor yourself.
You're not trying to create thediscipline.
The more you have to use yourenergy to do something, the less
likely you are to do it.
So what you try to do is justtry to create those habits and
start to build upon those habits.
And I think it even talkedabout if you want to implement
something, try to do it for justtwo minutes and you do it for
two minutes every day and thenthe next day maybe you do three
(36:14):
or you start to build and growfrom that.
So I feel like I've benefitedfrom doing things, realizing
that if it's not going to be theway that's going to be
beneficial for me or in mystrength, it's probably not
going to get done.
So I think that's helped out alot.
But I think the other thing issometimes just getting when you
do have to use your willpowerbecause I feel like that does
(36:36):
happen to some degree realizinghow you can kind of work around
that.
So if there's things that needto get done that I'm dreading,
probably do them a little bitearlier in the morning, because
the further they get off on theday I'm probably less likely to
do them.
So I try to spend my first twohours just working on those
things that sometimes are mostimpactful, but sometimes things
that I dread as well too.
(36:56):
So that's been really huge asfar as helping out with the
procrastination.
But then, like we spoke to, isjust like literally putting
those things out into whereveryou need them to be.
So, whether it's writing them asnotes, Evernote, I use to-do
lists as well too literallyputting as many things as
possible that I need to get donein a place so I can see, first
(37:18):
and foremost, what I need to do.
But secondly, if I get into theend of the day, if I have 50
things on my to-do list and I'mlike I'm going to finish all
these and I get five of thosethings done, I'm like, okay,
well, these need to be pushedoff because I'm asking too much
of myself, which I kind of runinto a lot.
(37:38):
So I start to kind of likeself-manage and maybe
self-regulate myself a littlebit more.
So I know that, okay, if I getfive things done in a day, then
that's a really, really good day.
So it starts to become okay.
Let me take these other 45things and let me spread them
around to when they're actuallyimportant or you know just
things.
You know whatever it might be.
So you start to figure outthose things.
And one other big thing too iswe all have habits, and I think
(38:00):
this is spoken a lot about inAtomic Habits is where what you
really want to do is to find outwhat your habits are and try to
stack those habits.
So all that means is that ifyou literally do something like
brush your teeth on a dailybasis, maybe you're listening to
a phenomenal podcast like thispodcast while you're listening
to that.
So it gives you the opportunityof something you're already
(38:21):
doing to start to say, okay, Iwant to build my skills a little
bit more, so let me listen tothis podcast.
So it's just figuring out whatyou're doing and then starting
to build about, um, build yourhabits to understand, like,
where you want to go and working, working backwards from there.
Cathy Sirvatka (38:36):
Yeah, that goes along with what you said before
not reinventing the wheel, butjust, um, figuring out how you
are knowing yourself really,first off, and and how you like
to do things, and then findingthings that can help do it in a
way that's more natural to you.
Maybe, um, that doesn't feellike drudgery.
Yes, right, and I love the ideaof stacking, like brushing your
(38:58):
teeth, listen to a podcast,that's.
Or I go for a walk, listen to apodcast, you know that kind of
thing, um, where you can getwell, it's just efficiency.
It comes back to that wordefficiency.
Really, with your time, youknow something I'd wanted to ask
you and this is going back alittle bit what do you think of
(39:19):
chatbots?
This is kind of an out therequestion, but it just popped
into my mind when we weretalking about Freshdesk.
And wait, was it Freshdesk?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (39:27):
Yeah, Freshdesk.
Cathy Sirvatka (39:29):
So when we were talking about Freshdesk and
having tickets, I know a lot ofpeople ask about chatbots and
I've always steered clear ofthem because I personally find
them a bit annoying and not sohelpful.
Have you ever tried them?
What do you think?
What are your thoughts?
Gresham Harkless, Jr. (39:45):
Yeah, you know, I'm in the process funny
enough of testing out kind ofchatbots as well too.
So, like I've been able to do,like I have a daily podcast and
one of the questions I asked iseverybody for their CEO hacks.
So we had 1600 episodes andwhat I wanted to do is take that
information of all the CEOhacks and start to compile them.
So I started to look atdifferent ways that I can get
(40:07):
that information out there.
So, of course, you canliterally list out all the
different hacks that everybodytalked about on an everyday
basis.
But then I started to actuallyupload a lot of that information
to chatbots to kind of see howthat interaction would go.
And I think that I'm not anexpert as far as training
chatbots or anything, but I knowjust from what I've seen
(40:28):
there's definitely some room forimprovement.
But I really like the conceptand idea of that because I think
that if I think one of the waysthat we kind of don't really
give opportunity to certainthings is that we always are in
the sense of comparing.
So what I mean by that is thatif we compare having the
(40:49):
conversation that we're havingwith having a conversation with
a chatbot, then I think thechatbot is not going to do the
things that we want it to do.
But if we say that, ok, I haveto sleep, I have to eat, I have
to do whatever it is that I haveto do, and then there could be
a chatbot in place until then,then I think that sets that
expectation and I think also,too, that expectation is for us,
(41:18):
but it's also for the otherperson as well too.
So if somebody's coming to yoursite, I think having that
transparency to say, oh, this isan AI chat bot that you're
chatting with, allows people tomake that decision if they want
to have that conversation or not.
So I think that's really whathelps out a lot.
But I think that obviously is away to go.
But I think, with all thisaggregation of information, to
be able to, even just internally, even if we didn't post that
chatbot, but if I can literallygo to that chatbot and said, hey
(41:40):
, what did I talk about inepisode number 1061?
And it can tell me that that'shuge.
So, even if you use itinternally, of saying, like you
know, what did I do?
What did I do last week or lastyear for that client?
Or like I talked about, whereis that PowerPoint that I was
looking for, all those things?
If you can start to aggregatethat information, I think it's
(42:00):
just going to make us moreeffective and efficient, so that
we can spend the time onactually engaging, creating
relationships the things thatthose chatbots can't do as well.
Cathy Sirvatka (42:08):
That sounds like a job for a virtual assistant.
Yes, that aggregating of allthat information, but because it
could be huge, but I could alsosee the huge benefit of it as
well.
Well, maybe I'll revisit it,especially with AI being
integrated into everything nowthey may even be more helpful
and they can be taught, so thatcould be something, maybe
(42:32):
connected to your your freshdesk tickets.
You know who knows Gresham?
This has been an awesomeconversation and I have learned
a lot.
I know my audience has learneda lot, so I just really
appreciate your being here andjust want to thank you again.
Thank you I appreciate you,Cathy.
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