August 2021 Summaries

Turn off Smart Compose in Gmail by clicking the gear icon, then See all settings, General tab, Writing suggestions off option, and Save changes. To turn off Smart Compose in Google Docs, click Tools, Preferences, Show Smart Compose suggestions checkbox, and OK. While turning off Smart Compose can be useful, it's not a substitute for learning how to automate your emails and documents using automation tools and templates.

My summer job as a teenager was taking care of plants at a nursery, which taught me the value of tangible accomplishments. Humanity craves that kind of progress, and it's often lacking in desk jobs. A senior engineer at Zapier, Fokke Zandbergen, used a combination of LEGO bricks and productivity techniques to create a system that worked for him, including color-coding his bricks to track his progress. However, when he tried to apply this system to digital tasks, it didn't work as well, leading him to build an entire LEGO set in his office, which provides a tangible sense of accomplishment and motivation.

To make long-form content more engaging, marketers can try making it a "choose-your-own-adventure" story by providing options and summaries to help readers quickly find what they need. Writers can achieve this by writing a catchy intro that hooks the reader's attention, creating a linked table of contents to provide a clear structure, summarizing key points with subheaders that act as Cliffs Notes, calling out action points at the end of each section, breaking up text with quotes from expert sources, and keeping the reader top of mind throughout the content. By implementing these strategies, writers can increase time on page, conversions, and other metrics without having to sacrifice valuable SEO power or invest in equipment and software.

Meetings are generally unpleasant and video makes it worse, but certain conversations can be more productive when done in person. To make video meetings less miserable and more engaging, consider picking a theme for presentation-based meetings, casually getting celebrities involved, filling the awkward space before meetings with banter, asking informal questions, and including your pets. These tips can help strike a balance between making meetings feel fun and not forced or stale.

At Zapier, a revolutionary automation tool, effective marketing relies on conveying the value of their unique selling point, which is guided by their core value. This core value serves as a guidepost for all marketing messages and visuals, ensuring consistency across touchpoints. The messaging guide template at Zapier includes five main sections: Core Value, Value Themes, Features, Benefits, Proof, and Messages. Each section provides a framework to communicate with customers, from identifying the pain point your leads have to highlighting the benefits of using your product or service. By filling out this template, businesses can create a consistent brand message that resonates with their audience and tells a unique story across multiple touchpoints.

At Zapier, they use attribution to understand how customer actions result in business outcomes, giving a holistic view of how each touchpoint contributes to user behavior. They have three main attribution methods: first-touch, last-touch, and linear. First-touch attribution gives credit to the first interaction with the brand, while last-touch attribution gives credit to the last interaction before conversion. Linear attribution, on the other hand, assigns equal weight to all interactions leading up to a conversion event. These attribution methods can help businesses understand how their activities influence customer behavior and make data-driven decisions to drive growth.

Productivity has become an obsession for many people in my generation, who entered the job market during the Great Recession and had to prioritize output over other aspects of life. However, this focus on productivity is a tool meant to achieve a specific end, not the end itself. The point of being productive can vary depending on individual goals and priorities, and it's essential to recognize that other aspects of life, such as relationships and hobbies, are valuable and worthy of attention. As a result, there's a growing pushback against hustle culture, which emphasizes hard work over happiness and well-being. This shift in perspective acknowledges that productivity is not the ultimate goal, but rather a means to achieve fulfillment and satisfaction.

As a parent, the author's daughter is going through a yelling phase, triggered by stress responses, which are a natural response to an overwhelmed brain. The author reflects on this situation and realizes that similar patterns can be observed in their work as a customer service professional. When customers become angry, it's not about them, but rather about the underlying stress build-up they're experiencing. The author shares their own experience of feeling a physical sensation in their neck, indicating stress, which led them to take steps to manage their own stress and anxiety. They emphasize the importance of paying attention to one's stress and taking proactive measures to prevent emotional emergencies by identifying small stressors and creating systems of prevention. By approaching situations with calm compassion and recognizing the signs of stress, individuals can create a more positive cycle and improve their overall well-being.

As Google continues to evolve its algorithm, understanding search intent behind user queries has become increasingly important for businesses to provide value to their audience and improve their search engine rankings. The primary types of search intent are informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional, each requiring different content formats and strategies to optimize for. By analyzing search results and using tools like the "people also ask" box, businesses can identify common questions and phrases associated with a particular query, informing the creation of relevant and helpful content that addresses these needs. Effective SEO content optimization involves matching content formats with search intent, utilizing the "people also ask" box in the outline phase, categorizing content ideas by search intent, and optimizing for passive intent as well, ultimately providing value to readers and improving search engine rankings.

As a talent sourcer at Zapier, the author has seen firsthand how difficult it is for large companies to hire efficiently and effectively due to the massive number of under-qualified applicants. However, with good sourcing practices, companies can identify and contact passive candidates who are twice as likely to get hired than inbound applicants. Social media is an accessible and cost-effective way to source talent, requiring only posting about open positions on social media platforms and enlisting team members' help to create engaging posts. Creative job postings, such as short videos or memes, can make people excited about joining the company, while keeping track of engagement is crucial to follow up with potential candidates. LinkedIn offers native tools for recruiters, including searching by companies, using filters to narrow down searches, and leveraging the Similar profiles feature to find relevant candidates. Effective outreach involves personalizing messages, preparing content, sending follow-up messages, and getting the prospective manager involved in outreach to increase engagement and find the right candidate.

I'm a manager at Zapier, and I've found that having one day a week completely free of meetings makes a huge difference for my mental health. By blocking out Friday, I'm able to catch up on tasks I dropped throughout the week, which increases my productivity and reduces stress. This small change has had a significant impact on my work-life balance and overall well-being. I recommend setting up your own meeting-free day by blocking it off in your calendar and communicating with your coworkers about it.

Email automation can increase personal connection with an audience by allowing for communication in a way that wouldn't be possible otherwise, providing opportunities for subscribers to reach back out. To build this connection, start a customer journey with a welcome series that sets the tone and encourages an emotional connection. This should include information about your product or service and its value, demonstrating why customers are interested and how you can help them. The series should also share your business's story, showcasing values and uniqueness to make email campaigns personal. Segmenting the audience allows for targeted messages that cater to individual interests and purchase history, boosting engagement. Finally, adding value with targeted automations such as birthday mailers and loyalty rewards demonstrates appreciation and encourages brand advocacy.

Thought leadership is about sharing expertise to educate, influence, and motivate the audience, whether to take action or think about something in a new way, focusing on meeting the reader's curiosity rather than promoting the company or its offerings. It can be written by any individual at the company, with varying content types ranging from anecdotal musings to research analysis, and should be born of the author's own experience or perspective, bringing their unique voice and authority to an issue. To pick thought leadership topics, companies should clarify their target market, listen with intention, and use market research and competitor analysis to identify gaps in the industry or opportunities for differentiation. The content can then be extracted from the author through first drafts, recordings, transcription, or partnering with a professional ghostwriter, with final approval by the author to ensure authenticity and accuracy. A thought leadership campaign is a long-haul strategy that requires a promotional plan, including microcontent publishing on social media, longer-form content on owned platforms, and pitching to external outlets for maximum exposure.

Automating processes can lead to hiccups if not prepared for potential issues. To mitigate this, it's recommended to automate less initially, focusing on building manual efficiency first. This approach helps develop essential skills and ensures that automation is used effectively when implemented. The concept is illustrated through examples from Naruto anime and T-Pain's music career, where expertise in a task is developed before relying on automation. By doing so, productivity tools can help achieve goals without making automation the sole solution.

Connecting with people online can feel daunting, but it's actually an effective way to build relationships and improve your life. The key is to focus on making friends rather than trying to advance your career through networking. To do this, start by complimenting people's work or sharing interesting information, responding to their questions, and being funny when the opportunity arises. Don't try to insert yourself into conversations or argue with people you barely know online. Instead, aim to be a "good hang" - someone who adds value to the conversation and makes the internet a better place. Over time, this will lead to online friendships that are just like in-person ones, and can even help you find job opportunities through connections with others.

This summary provides an overview of the author's journey as a content marketer and their struggle to create meaningful content in a field where SEO dominates. The author shares five strategies for delivering content that matters, including finding a unique angle, going against common beliefs, interviewing subject matter experts, analyzing organizational data, and engaging with customers. These tactics aim to help content marketers move beyond the typical "mirage content" and create content that resonates with their audience.

When I arrived at Amigos de las Américas (AMIGOS) in 2016, the organization had just finished its 51st year of international youth leadership and service programming, but lacked a strong marketing presence. To modernize their systems and produce high-quality constituent experiences while saving critical funding for mission impact, Plushcap identified Zapier as a cost-conscious solution to engineer a functional experience without expensive annual contracts or lengthy custom development projects. By building a layered digital ecosystem with Zapier at the center, they overhauled other systems such as email marketing, fundraising, and payment processing, automating tasks like peer-to-peer fundraising using CauseVox, sending receipts using Mandrill by Mailchimp, and task assignment through LiveChat and Asana. Through this process, they saved time and money to focus on fulfilling the mission of AMIGOS, inspiring leaders through authentic service and immersion experiences.

As a company navigated the news of marriage equality becoming the law, it became apparent that even seemingly private workspaces could be affected by social and political issues. This scenario is echoed in today's virtual work environment where technology-heavy settings can lead to complex and culturally-nuanced conversations. To navigate these challenges, leaders must prioritize empathy, listening, and setting boundaries while positioning themselves as credible voices despite the pressure of modern work dynamics. By engaging with colleagues, making a plan for meeting engagement, reclaiming one's voice when necessary, and fostering an environment of mutual respect, leaders can effectively lead through their communications in today's complex workplace.

Airtable is a powerful database tool that can be overwhelming for new users. To learn its capabilities, start by playing with Airtable templates, which provide a pre-populated example of how the system works. Explore different views and features, such as expanding records to see all details at once, and creating custom views tailored to your specific needs. Use filters and marking views as favorites to make it easier to find the ones you use most. With practice, Airtable can become less intimidating and a valuable tool for managing data and workflows.

If you're trying to create content for your company blog, one way to come up with ideas is to review customer support logs to identify pain points that resonate with your target audience. This strategy involves using AI software like Jarvis to generate new ideas based on existing top-performing posts in your niche. Another approach is to use Google Alerts and Google Trends to stay on top of trending topics in your industry, while also analyzing competitors' content to fill in the blanks and create more valuable posts. Joining online communities for your niche can also be a great source of inspiration, as well as creating your own community to build brand advocates. Additionally, sharing your personal story or taking a break to focus on something else can help stimulate new ideas. By using these strategies, you can come up with consistent streams of ideas that align with your business goals and target audience.

As Zapier's partnerships specialist, this individual emphasizes the importance of influencing a product roadmap by learning about the product team's unique goals and KPIs to determine overlap with company goals. They recommend keeping open lines of communication, reviewing documentation, and being aware of bandwidth for new projects. To make a case for a project, they suggest using customer feedback, compiling anecdotal evidence into a digestible form, and including numbers to support it. Additionally, they advise scoping out the project, providing a summary document with resources needed to clarify scope, and positioning the project outside normal bounds by highlighting its potential impact on brand-building or future-thinking initiatives. By doing so, partnerships specialists can increase their chances of getting projects prioritized on the product roadmap.

You can automatically publish all your Instagram photos on multiple Facebook pages using either Instagram's built-in integration with Facebook or the automation tool Zapier. With Instagram, you can connect to a single Facebook page and have new posts sent there instantly, while with Zapier, you can create customized automated workflows to send posts to as many Facebook pages as needed, allowing for more control over post information and additional actions such as posting on other apps like Twitter or Pinterest.

You are able to create strong associations with people's names in your mind, which helps you remember their names more effectively. To improve your ability to remember names, stop saying that you're bad at remembering names, as this can set a self-fulfilling prophecy and make the conversation about you instead of the other person. Instead, say the person's name back to them with thoughtful intention when they introduce themselves, making it clear that you value and are interested in getting to know them. You should also try to make associations in your head with the person's name as quickly as possible, without sharing these associations with the person. Finally, if you do forget someone's name, own up to it by asking for their name again and apologizing, rather than trying to play it cool or making excuses, which can actually be more embarrassing than admitting a mistake in the moment. By focusing on the other person and making an effort to remember their details, you become more memorable to them and stand out from others who may not put as much thought into remembering names.

As a business owner, creating and maintaining multiple social media profiles can be challenging. The key to simplifying this process is to create a "social media web" by determining which platforms are most important for your business, using consistent design and branding across all platforms, and setting up automated connections through tools like Zapier. This automation allows you to post content on one platform and have it automatically appear on others, saving time and reducing stress. By using Zapier's free version or paid plan, users can create a chain reaction of social media posts that reach multiple platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. With the right setup, businesses can efficiently manage their online presence and increase their credibility and engagement.

I've summarized the key points of the text for you. The author of the article, a real estate entrepreneur, struggled with creating content for multiple platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic but found a solution using Zapier, an automation tool that allows users to create shortcuts and automate tasks across different social media platforms. To start, one needs to create a "social media web" by determining which platforms are important for their business and setting up profiles and pages consistently. The author then sets up Zaps, automated connections between the platforms, using Zapier's trigger-and-action system. For example, when a post is made on Facebook, it automatically posts to Twitter and LinkedIn. This automation saves time and reduces stress, allowing the entrepreneur to focus on other aspects of their business.

You can now automate shipping label creation with the use of workflow automation software like Zapier, which allows you to combine user interfaces, data tables, and logic with thousands of apps to build and automate anything you can imagine. You can also make shipping labels using Google Sheets and Avery's free Design & Print software, creating a ready-to-print label quickly from your spreadsheet with addresses. Additionally, Zapier can automatically add addresses to a spreadsheet whenever new orders are received or contacts are added in a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM), making the process of collecting and organizing addresses much easier and more efficient.

When building a partner program, it's essential to start with a basic structure that outlines the payout structure, which should be between 15% and 25% per conversion. A simple form on the website is needed for application, with clear terms and conditions that include tracking referrals, commission payment timelines, and missed customer submissions. Partner relationship management software is also crucial, and it's recommended to use an existing tool instead of piecing it together oneself. Creating necessary assets such as onboarding/training materials and marketing resources is vital before starting the outbound search for potential partners. Trust is key in a partner program, so working within one's network and doing outreach at scale is important. Providing support to partners, including point persons, excellent onboarding processes, timely commission payments, and marketing-level support, can motivate them to stick around and generate revenue.

Manually logging Stripe transactions is tedious and error-prone, but automating bookkeeping with Zapier can simplify the process. Zapier integrates with Google Sheets to automatically log Stripe transactions, providing further analysis capabilities. To get started, a Stripe account, Google account, and Zapier account are required. A Google Sheet must be set up with clearly labeled columns before connecting it to Zapier. The integration allows users to select specific data fields from Stripe to populate in their Google Sheet, such as transaction date, ID, currency type, amount, and URL of receipt. Users can also create custom Zaps or use a pre-made template to automate the process.

Repurposing webinar content is essential for maximizing ROI and reaching a wider audience. By sharing the same content in different formats, companies can cater to various learning styles and maximize engagement. Repurposing also saves time during content creation, increases impact, and boosts brand awareness. Five effective ways to repurpose webinar content include creating hub pages with ungated recordings, turning webinars into blog posts with key takeaways, using them as lead magnets, cutting short clips for cross-channel promotion, and adding quotes to new blog posts. By leveraging these strategies, companies can breathe new life into their webinars and make their hard work go further.

The text discusses the importance of having a strategic approach to content creation in business. It highlights that while content can be a valuable resource, it becomes diluting if not backed by a strategy. The author shares their experience creating a content strategy for Zapier and provides a template that outlines key components such as problem statement, opportunity, audience, strategy overview, key areas of investment, supporting initiatives, goals & KPIs, dependencies, distribution channels, content funnel, future projects, other resources & references, and getting feedback. The goal is to synthesize the information into a concise plan that captures what's going well with existing content, identifies gaps, and outlines how to unlock its full potential through targeted and incisive content campaigns.

The term inbound marketing refers to a strategy that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them, as opposed to interrupting them with unwanted content like cold calling or billboards. This approach helps build relationships with potential customers, ultimately leading to a purchasing decision. To implement an effective inbound marketing strategy, it's essential to define buyer personas, map out the customer journey, create relevant content, and distribute it through various channels such as social media and email. By understanding your target audience's goals, pain points, and demographics, you can tailor your messaging and content to attract and engage them, ultimately driving more conversions and sales.

Titles in the startup world are often not structured or formalized, making it essential to self-advocate and research to find a more accurate representation of one's role and responsibilities. This can impact career growth, compensation, and job search prospects. By understanding industry roles, researching job titles, and proposing a title change to management, individuals can ensure their hard work is recognized and valued, ultimately steers their career in the right direction.

Arlo, a training management software provider, has shifted its focus from building an all-in-one solution to providing a focused product with robust integrations via Zapier. This change allows for flexibility and adaptability in a rapidly changing market, future-proofs the business, and enables customers to use best-of-breed software. By integrating third-party applications via Zapier, Arlo's customers can easily add and remove functionality without custom development costs, ensuring they have access to the necessary tools as their business evolves. The company's decision is driven by a desire to be upfront about its product capabilities and value proposition, recommending a best-of-breed approach for additional functionality. This shift enables Arlo to compete with custom-built solutions while maintaining its focus on training management.

Local SEO is heavily reliant on Google My Business optimization, and businesses need to stand out from the competition by focusing on link building strategies. Three key places to get featured for local SEO are local directories or review sites, where getting a backlink and social proof can be beneficial. Local newspapers or blogs can also provide opportunities for brand building and link acquisition through guest posting and outreach. Additionally, local listicles often rank highly in Google search results, making it essential to get featured on these curated lists by offering unique value and context to the author or publication editor. Regular analysis and improvement of outreach efforts are necessary to maintain a strong local SEO presence.

The text discusses a personal note-taking system that helps transform consumed information into meaningful action and lasting insight. The system consists of three steps: capturing, connecting, and creating, using various tools such as Kindle, Instapaper, Readwise, Roam Research, Ghost, and Zapier to organize and utilize captured ideas. The author emphasizes the importance of finding a note-taking workflow that works for each individual and encourages experimentation with different tools to create a system that is both lightweight and powerful.

The world of SaaS content marketing has evolved significantly over the past five years, with industry giants spending tens of thousands of dollars on content marketing every month, making it increasingly challenging for smaller businesses to compete. To succeed, Quoleady's bootstrapped clients have employed three effective strategies: speaking from experience, writing about competitors, and joining forces with smaller competitors. By focusing on quality content that showcases their expertise, highlighting alternative solutions to competitors' tools, and collaborating with smaller rivals to exchange backlinks, these businesses have been able to attract high-quality leads and drive growth.

Here's a neutral, one-paragraph summary of the text: Cloud Clicks uses Zapier to manage their customer relationship management (CRM) platform by avoiding duplicate data entries. They utilize Zapier's conditional actions and search capabilities to check new contacts against existing categories in their CRM before creating a new record, thereby preventing duplicates. This process allows them to ensure that leads are treated as leads and customers are treated as customers, and it also enables them to tag leads with relevant information for greater impact. By implementing this workflow, Cloud Clicks can efficiently manage their contact lists, avoid wasting time on data duplication, and focus on engaging with the right people at the right time.

To effectively prioritize advertising channels for a business, it's essential to consider various factors such as audience intent, size, effort required to set up, initial financial investment, competition, tracking capabilities, learning period, and creative fit. A prioritization template can be used to evaluate ad platforms based on these criteria, allowing businesses to make data-driven decisions about where to allocate their budget. The template involves rating each criterion out of 100 for each ad platform, with the final column for notes. By using a weighted scoring system, businesses can adjust the importance of each criterion to suit their specific needs. Ultimately, this process requires a human touch, as businesses should review results and be willing to revise their weighting systems or delete rows that don't apply to their business.

The internet is actively hostile to readers, with most pages cluttered and hard to read. Reader view is a feature that allows users to focus on the article itself, without the distractions of ads and other clutter. This feature can be found in Apple devices, and also available through browser extensions like Mercury Reader for Chrome. Using reader view instead of an ad blocker is recommended because it doesn't block out all content, but rather filters out only the good stuff. This approach is better suited to the current state of the web, where ads are just one of many distractions. Read-it-later apps also offer a similar solution, allowing users to save and read articles without clutter.

LearnWorlds is an all-in-one online course platform that helps businesses create unique and interactive eLearning experiences. With its cloud-based software, LearnWorlds offers a range of features including marketing tools, analytics, and a powerful sales engine. The platform allows users to build comprehensive online courses with ease, using tools such as video creation, quizzes, eBooks, assignments, digital certificates, and more. Additionally, LearnWorlds provides an SEO-optimized eLearning website that is mobile-friendly, making it easy for potential students to find courses. The platform also offers a social learning tool, allowing students to exchange tips and ask questions in an interactive space. Furthermore, when paired with Zapier, LearnWorlds workflows can be automated, streamlining work across different apps and integrating with various payment gateways.

Spreadsheets are anarchy` because they allow users to freely input data without any restrictions, which can lead to inconsistencies and errors. To combat this, Google Sheets offers a feature called `data validation`, which enables users to add rules to specific cells or columns, ensuring that only relevant information is entered. Data validation allows users to limit the types of input allowed, such as dates or numbers, and even provides dropdown options for easier selection. Additionally, data validation can be used to enforce scoring systems, like pet attributes, and reject invalid inputs. The author demonstrates how to use data validation in Google Sheets by creating a dropdown menu for pet types and enforcing a scoring system. They also touch on conditional formatting, which is separate from data validation but works well with it. Overall, data validation makes Google Sheets a powerful tool that can be used to build custom tools and automate workflows without the need for external software.

The text discusses the importance of showing the value of social media for businesses, despite its often-overlooked role in growth. The author shares their experience as a social media marketer and provides a monthly social results template to help others promote their results and get more buy-in for their social media program. The template includes sections to track impact on business, breakdown of site traffic, platform performance metrics, customer love, upcoming plans, how to get involved, and global insights. By using this template, users can demonstrate the value of social media marketing and secure more resources for their businesses.

GitHub is a collaboration platform for coders to share, track changes, and work on projects together, similar to Google Docs for collaborative writing. It's built on the Git tool, which allows users to track revisions and collaborate with others from around the world. While it's not designed for downloading software, GitHub can be used by non-programmers when they're working on quick projects without a separate website. To use GitHub effectively, one should explore the documentation below the file list or search for an official app store listing. Additionally, Zapier offers integration with GitHub to automate workflows and connect apps, making it easier for users to collaborate and work efficiently.