0:00:00
Is is interesting. It's different. It's hello everyone. We never know when we're starting. I have apparently lost your LinkedIn connection, unfortunately. That's okay. I'll re share it. Easy. We'll make it easy. Tech happens. Mercury is in lemonade. We're good. It's fine. It's great. Make it lemonade. Yep. We don't stress about these things anymore. Welcome, y'all. I am Briar Harvey. This is the Neurodiversity Media Network.
0:00:35
Today, I'm here with the fabulous Veronica Yandes, and we are talking about projects management software. So this episode was kind of like a bonus that we added in the first or second week. We were like, oh, we really should probably talk about project management software at least a little bit because especially when you are neurodivergent, there are good options and they're bad options. So we're gonna take you on a short little tour I'm gonna show you notion. Veronica is just gonna show you click up. We're gonna talk about a couple of other things that we like. And then we're gonna get into the ones that we don't like.
0:01:31
For not for lack of trying -- Right. -- asking power users to walk us through like being the operations consultants that we are. Like, there are so many millions of apps out there. And everybody loves the good project management because that's the whole productivity. Like, everybody still wants to be productive and that those productivity hacks still exist. So it's like, we have to know it. So we actually, you know, you either pay with time or money. Right? So we choose to pay an hourly, you know, whatever somebody who is an expert user at. We're like, here's your what do what what will you charge us to, like, walk us through and have us answer and throw questions at you for an hour because you are a power user. So it's, like, based on all that, we've gotten a lot of information and I still have my favorites and least favorites. Yes. Yeah. There are it's it's unfortunate because I see the value in having as many designs as possible. But, truly, there is no perfect project management system, even the ones that we use, have flaws. So I don't I don't understand the desire for people to reinvent this particular wheel. That's what I'm saying.
0:02:53
So here's where I will start with this conversation, and we touched upon it last episode, which I was really glad we got to, that the reason why we've been so successful full with being able to help figure out project management systems for our clients as well, one, project management is everything. Okay. I'll say that with operations operations, everything. But, like, to me, project management is, like, your command center for lack of better terms. It's where people know what they gotta do, what's coming up, what's do, time lines, campaigns, resource management, like the way we set up our project management, like, oh, And we actually had we actually stick with the whole to do doing done methodology, the combine methodology, but we also add custom fields in there to make it a little more distinctive and descriptive as to, like, what the doing is actually like, what is the fate with the sub phase of the doing, but it comes down to at the end of the day understanding your needs and requirements for success I know it sounds unsexy and I said this last time, but needs and requirements are never talked about enough.
0:03:58
And so I think having this conversation with you prior allows hopefully the listeners to just figure out, okay, there are a hundred and million plus one apps out there. Everybody's vying for my money and attention. What is it that I actually need? What are the features that work with my brain? Whether I be neurotypical or neurodivergent? It doesn't matter. Like, everybody, no matter who you are, has need. And what parameters of success look like. And so it's gonna be fun to be able to chat with you about this as a fellow ops person.
0:04:29
So I'm done talking. Let's let's let's just get into it. Alright. So we'll start with mine. K. I am going to show you my current dashboard for the Nerd diversity media network.
0:04:48
So this is all the stuff. And I have not even done all the work here. Notion is has so many things this is my pretty logo, but it does backgrounds. I have not added that. I have all kinds of properties here. This is actually a page in my project database. So you're saying because to me, I see, like, neuromedia or neurodiversity media work almost like as a business entity. Right? There's so much. So you're saying that you have your entire business as one page in notion and everything else is, like, subpage the crap in. Yes. Okay. I have so many comments and questions that should like, I need to just keep my math shut. Okay. Like, this is where I was just like, where's my gap? Ball bag? Okay. And and and that's the thing. With the reason that Notion works for me, is that I can make it do exactly what I want it to do. I love that.
0:06:03
So I have a couple of template buttons here, which add tasks directly in to my task management database. There's a daily there's a weekly. I have some notes here that are relevant. And then I have a bunch of resources. These are all individual pages or databases. The episode list is an entire fucking database that all of my people have access to so that they can pull out their notes. This is where I leave you all of your files. I love it. This is my advertising database. This is the sponsorship kit that I have built out. These are some templates for prompts to have conversations with people. All of these pages here are like be talking to me about what I'm building here, who it's for, how to sell it, All of these things live here for me.
0:07:13
I have a list here of people that I would like to collaborate on shows with. I have a list here of people that I wanna list, reach out to specifically for ad placement. And what we're doing is collaboration. So we're talking specifically about you and your stuff for the duration of the show. Add sponsors get Adderall at the beginning and the end of some of our more topical shows.
0:07:44
Here is where I just link to posts that I'm currently working on. Here is my list of shows. And if we go into, can we click on yours, Veronica? Please, please. Okay. So if we click on yours, we've got the date that we started. Where we're at in recording, this is again, all a project. And then I have some of our information here, things that we're doing and developing and building, and then here is our episode list. Here is our episode for today, which still has not been named. I feel like we had a name for it. But such as It was a delegation domination. Something like that. And so I can click here and rename it. And then, like, project management, since this is where after, like, the kinky stuff, Dot is done. My marketing brain turns off. Uh-huh. But this episode list here is this page here, which is the entire database, this is my calendar view so that I can see what I am recording. Mhmm.
0:09:06
The reason notion work for me is that it allows me to structure things in a way that my brain can go, oh, yes. That makes sense to me. It's this is it. You're right. A whole business on one project page. And if you go into my projects, I think I can do that. I have all these podcasts here. I have this. I have potential clients. I have possible collaborations that I am in progress building. Like, it all lives here for me. I have an entirely different database for task management. So And I have a bunch of dashboards for different things. This is just tasks. Content lives in another place, which my personal content is separate from the NMM's content. So it really allows me to segment everything out in the way that I wanna do it. And I love that. Truly.
0:10:20
Notion is not for everyone. And I know you use notion much more as a knowledge base than as task management. Yes. So I'm happy to share my notion as well. So the story of our So our man task management and everything lives in ClickUp because it actually really works for us. And as somebody who is a I wouldn't say traditional project manager, but, like, the tools that I need to really make things happen because we have dependencies out the Wazoo. Like, I lean on some of the traditional stuff that I need, but the reason why I love click up so much and I'll go back to Notion and share the stuff that we use Notion for is that it injects humanity. It honors the humanity and uniqueness that people need from a traditional, a more traditional project management app. And, like and I'll and I'll show you when I show you my click up, and now I'll show you my notion.
0:11:22
So I, right now, use notion for two things. I have professional for, like, business late there. We mostly use Notion as a client dashboard because it allows us to upload content and links and embed click of view. So it makes showing the clients, like, oh, you just have to click here for everything you need. To make it happen. And then on the other hand, we do have some knowledge based content, whether it's SOPs and stuff. That or I even have my team onboarding experience in Notion, and I'm happy to share that. So why don't I just upload or present my screen now? And then on the personal side, I am building out what I call a life operating system. I'm trying to, like, make this work. Okay. Here we go. So let me just show you my life operating system right now. You see my Notion page? Yep. Okay. So right now, like, I just started notion for myself as like a life knowledge base.
0:12:21
Things from like my glasses prescription our COVID Max Cards, cold remedies, because I hate I constantly, like, if I'm getting sick or don't feel good, like, I don't have to keep googling or asking friends, do I take ibuprofen, or do I take acetaminophen. So this is like my second brain. Everything from like packing list down to like TSA numbers and like mileage numbers I even have, like, a keto meal planning thing when we started keto and I really wanted to be good about it. Like, it's organized by this group by this week or, like, and then next week, but I was playing around with the ingredients thing and I know how to make it better now because I was talking to prior about this. Like, I wanna be able to check everything that I wanna make this week and have it create me a shopping list. And then I get to decide if I already have it or do I need to buy it.
0:13:08
So It's like for me, I'm using Notion a lot personally because this is what I need personally, but I feel like on a business side, it needs to be a little bit more if that makes sense prior. But, like You know, my team my team uses Notion. We use Notion together. It works well for us, but I will acknowledge, especially for me, that I have had to train everyone on how to use Notion, and they do kind of have to learn how it works in my brain. Now, eventually, when you've been with someone when someone's been with me for a while, we'll build them out a dash forward. So they get all of the stuff presented the way that it makes sense for them. But, truly, it's it's not for everyone and it's not for every business. Mhmm. It has absolute incredible potential as knowledge base.
0:14:12
I love Like me. It's smoking time. What's that? Because who wants to Like, I don't wanna forget. You know, I feel like I know that when I make like poor man's prime rib, which means I'm not using rib eye because it's like sixty nine dollars a pound when it's not Christmas Thanksgiving or, you know, some holiday. So I use a different cut and I know, like, what temperatures I need it to smoke at. And so I haven't put the exact time in, but I just wanna know what happens? If I put three pounds of this in, how long is it gonna take me to get to a hundred and ten? How long is it gonna take me to get to a hundred and twenty five so that I could tell my guess, hey, show up at this time because it's gonna take this long to cook and this long to, like, rest because it works so hard. So So so same thing and I can't see your face or if you're just, like, what the hell is going on with you, but it's just, like No. This is fabulous. Fabulous.
0:15:02
So, like, for me right now, I use it a lot for my own life. Like, I had we went to Barcelona. We had chat, EBT, kind give us, like, a five day itinerary because I was curious as to what that would look like, but and we I was able to create, like, a a board style view and notions, like, okay. On Monday, we're doing all of these things on Tuesday, we're doing all of these things. But then if we wanna go to the business side, so, like, we have all our meeting notes here. Every week, we have meeting notes in our quarterly planning. We have a lot of knowledge based content that still lives here.
0:15:32
Like, one of the big things. I have press kits that I give to everybody. So when they're like, oh, can you send me like a bio or something? I'm like, if you're a I definitely have a press kit in no shade. Yes. So when this is a and this is shared on the web, so I can just anybody can have a link to this. I'm just like, here's how you pronounce my name. Pronounced short long bio links photos, like, choose whatever fits your mood, your your landscape or portrait needs, and I don't have to, like, deal with it anymore. Like, everything is here for you. So but one of the things that we love in here, I'll just show, like, some and we do our assessments in here as well because knowing for the assessment, and I'll give you a sneak peek into the DIY assessments that we're gonna be launching soon.
0:16:20
But, like, when you literally get into the operations audit portion, like, we have a hundred and fifty items for, like, folks to check to, like, audit their own operations. And then that puts that the numbers checked because we rolled it up into, like, progress and percentage with action items and things that you checked here, things that you didn't check. And based on what you did or didn't check, here are some action items and best practices. Like, Like you said, Briar, we I couldn't do this in Google Docs. I mean, I could. But it would take, like, hundreds of pages and anchoring and rankings when I could make it so amazing in in notion. Right? Because I made it what I needed to do. I needed to do for me. So in that like, that is a reason for us to use Notion, but we don't use it every day. And so one of my favorite experiences is new team member onboarding and training.
0:17:14
And the reason why this is not in ClickUp is because ClickUp doesn't really do this well. Like, I actually have our team members go through an absent software audit. Because I wanna know what I'm working with. Mhmm. And I want like, if I'm gonna hire someone, for instance, to be an email marketer, and they somehow checked no experience with active campaign, then I know, like, well, one where did I screw up. Right? And I hopefully would never have gotten to that page place. But if it it just allows me to see what people have experiences in and then some comments just so that we know what we're working with. But for me, being able to have this experience for them and to build it exactly how I want to. Like, I love I love Notion for this reason. You can totally do it in click up as well. So these are the That's definitely true.
0:18:07
You could theoretically, everything that you've built out here in Notion with the exception of the of the databases can be built into click up. It's just not gonna be the same. But but it works for us. Right? So the theme here is, like, make it work for you. And you don't have to go all in. Like, Briar, you can kind of like be havesies. Like, I'm kind of like of the power ranger age where it's like, oh, I take the best of, like -- Mhmm. -- all the different worlds that I make it my own bot at the end because I have the knowledge and the requirements and success parameters detailed down. So I know, okay, I'm comfortable not having to jump into an all in one app and be stuck there because we all know apps that claim they are all in one, even click up themselves, you're not amazing at everything you say you can do. Probably amazing at a few things at best in mediocre at the rest. Things like the Posado Honeybook, like we've tried them all. We we we know. Right? You're they're great at what they're great at, but then the rest. They're not. So okay. Done with that soapbox for now.
0:19:21
But yeah, this is what we use notion for. Like, I would say it's a fifty percent split of, like, client dashboards. Like, we use a lot of we use a lot of stuff. Like, I'll just go into an example here. Like, I embed our click up our click up project management. Right? And so it's like And that's that's why you can use both of these tools because you can embed click up and you could backlink to all of the notion places in click up. So Yep. Absolutely. And, like, we don't need to our clients to be in our click up because it's a very sacred space. I'm just like, here's a public page. You don't need to log in. I thought about the user experience. You can just always link to this. Mhmm.
0:20:09
Fathom calls, Google Drive stuff, we're gonna actually create a client facing knowledge base and click up docs. Oh, no. For the only reason why we're doing that because we could create it anywhere else is because we wanted to showcase our clients what different knowledge bases look like. So we have various examples from, like, click up tasks, click up docs, notion, air table, just to give them an idea of, like, what they can do for themselves. So it's a learning experience for them.
0:20:36
I love it. Let's see. So let's look at no. I wanna go look at your click up. I wanna go look at your click up. Okay. Fair. Okay. Fair. Okay. So sharing my screen back again. Alright. So click up to me, like I said earlier, has been the app that has honored the humanity in us all.
0:21:05
And when I say this, it's because think about the different people in your team. Like, some people how they visualize information and feel successful and take action is different from you and I. Right? So to force you to look at things a certain way. Like, prior you were saying it's really easy for you to, like, look at what tasks need to be done because it's laid out a certain way. Right? But what if I forced you to look at how it was laid out according to what made sense for me. That that, like, millisecond even or a few seconds of slowing you down to have you figure it out doesn't feel good. Right? It's not pleasurable. It's not orgasmic. And it certainly doesn't make doing the work easy. And you're not working through with Arizona Genius. Or naturally how you are designed to work. Mhmm.
0:21:50
So, yes, I have a whole a whole bunch of overdue things because I not feeling well, so I am not perfect. But what I love is that we have a space, so we have our knowledge base actually in here. So I moved from Notion to click up tasks because what I was trying to do a notion manually with, like, who's in charge of this documentation, the purpose of it, the documentation strength, origin, and when it was last updated. And if there are any, like, related docs to it, it just was a lot easier to do so in click up. And the reason why I also did it was because anytime, instead of telling our team members that we have a new piece of documentation or that it's been updated and typing that in Slack. If you just open a new task, or leave a comment, it sends a direct notification into our knowledge base update Slack channel, and it is great.
0:22:44
And you cannot I I wanna be clear y'all. There's a lot here that you cannot still do in Notion. We just got recurring tasks in there, and they are not grand. Like, I'm still not in love with Notion's recurring tasks. The templates are better. But, yeah, like, you can do you can send stuff from Notion into Slack if this is a way that you communicate.
0:23:17
But, like Look at this. Like, I I no. We don't have to, like, tell people, like, this channel dings and we go, like, we go see it. Hey, Terry Makayla. Let me know if this document makes any sense at all. When we're on agreements, I'll add it to the contract. Right? Because I have a revision policy document now. And I didn't have to, like, tell them. It just automatically showed up because I left a comment. Mhmm. But, like, this to me is really pretty. And it's like we have like over five hundred pieces of items in the knowledge based task because where a click up is superior in this is that they're they have really over featured their tasks. So, like, the click but I'm sorry.
0:23:59
The custom fields that we can add, we can if I wanted to, I could group and have a whole view just by, like, custom field, like, documentation strength, but like this has worked really well for me and needs a requirements searchability. With out. A shadow of a doubt is important. So I'm just like, oh, well, if I was gonna get a testimonial and I forgot what questions I asked. So I'm just typing the word testimonial. And it shows up. So here we go. Client testimonial questions and prompts done. And the reason why I have documentation origin is because I love detail, but it's like Okay.
0:24:35
Where did this original piece of documentation come from? Oh, it came from tango or I actually put it straight in click up or to Notion and we, like, embed edit it into ClickUp. So it looks like this. So I don't even have to leave ClickUp if I didn't want to. So it just works for me and knowledge base wise. And then when we copy and paste this URL, it unferrals in, like, a task document in in the, like, the description side, and I'll say client testimonial questions and prompts if I copied this URL. So we're good there with knowledge base. Right? Like, where did you have more questions? No. No. I mean, and drilling. This is lovely.
0:25:19
And I could I it's been a few years, and and this is one of the things Verotta and I both this about being early adopters. When you are too early, to a system. It may not have the features that you need it to have, and so you will abandon it in favor of something else. And so I started first, started trying to use click up back when it was version one? Oh. You were earlier than me. I was like one point five or two. And when they made the transition to two, it became utterly unusable for me. And So it became usable for me. I haven't been I'm I'm sure it is now, but it broke the way that I was using ClickUp. And so now, I I have no idea what's in there. And I would have to go back in and relearn it. But again, if my team was any bigger than it is, I probably would.
0:26:32
I have one full time ish contract and a couple of other people who do, like, a few hours a month for me. So there's no need to integrate them deeply into a task management system, whereas you have full time people Yeah. Pretty much. Like, okay. We I don't work forty hours a week. So full time. It's full time. It's not relative. Dedicated. There we go. Right.
0:27:06
I just wanted to be clear, like, we're like, when people say full time, like, I don't even think some days, I work more than forty hour weeks. Some weeks, I don't. Right? But my committed full time? Yes. But here, let me show you my project management. I'll go back to actually the project management side. So Okay. Okay. Oh, there you go.
0:27:23
So here's where click up works really well for me. Like, I will show you one area that all the other project management apps that we have tested and tried do not work. So we have clients. Right? Like, clients is what gets us paid. We wanna make sure we're on top of our stuff and to make sure that we're not delayed and if we are to communicate that. But in where Asana failed for me before I left it for Trello is because if I wanted to see all the tasks, I have to click into each project. And I can't see your face prior, but I can imagine, like, the face you're making we share a mutual disdain for both Asada and Trello. But when we get there, But the thing is asana works really well for people that need that.
0:28:15
Right? Some people get overwhelmed by seeing all the things. But I am a big picture person, so here's what gets really orgasmic for me. If I can roll up all of these tasks and click on the client work folder and we created a calendar view and we know exact we what we're doing this week because it's grouped by week because I set it back I set the filter. So that we know these are everything this is everything that we're doing or involved in this week for every single task or every single project that clients are involved in. Right. Like, I have a meeting I have a prep call with somebody for an assessment. We're doing we know that for one client, we're working on tech. Project management. Another client also project management in wholesale and influencer staff. So it's like really cool to see what that time box is so the the overwhelm is limited? I absolutely cannot do any of this. In notion. So we're all clear. But, no, personally, I don't need to at this time. But it's really important when you are trying to figure out your project management system. It's not about what sex and what everyone else is using, it's about your needs. But this is orgasmic to me.
0:29:37
Like, I am a walk in closet type of person. I wanna be able to see and this is we truly ask our clients this question, so take this as a pro tip that clients pay us for. Like, when I say, are you a walk in closet type of person? Or are you a dress or drawer type of person? There's no wrong answer. The wrong answer is you choose to not answer. But they'll be like, oh, well, I'm a dresser drawer person because any if I see too many things, my brain goes everywhere. I'm overwhelmed. I just wanna be, like, out of sight, out of mind for everything, just focus on here. Great. Or you're like me. I wanna see everything and give the opportunity to zoom into one area in my closet if I want to, but I want to go both ways. And I want that freedom And ClickUp is the only app that we found that does this walk in closet mentality really well.
0:30:28
And based on that example, I just gave you, Asana is very much a dresser drawer. Cool. You have to go into one project. You can't see all the projects that once. And because we're, like, operating on an agency model and we're hiring new people, it's, like, while we want to we can see far ahead, there's sometimes something that's really beautiful to say, okay. Because in our Monday meetings, like, what are our priorities this week for each client?
0:30:53
And by seeing this portrayed out in click up with just one click in this specific view, it works for us, but it's also because I stated that as a needed needs and requirements for success that I was not willing to give it up for. And you're right. Notion doesn't allow for that. So make it work for you. Can I show you one more thing from click up? Yes. I will share it one more time. Hey, here we go. So the other list I will show you is our content. And this looks pretty. Oh, I love the progress. Now you can do the progress bar in Notion, But up until very recently, it was a fucking formula and I don't code some not great at that shit. Now there is a way to do it, but it's still not great. So again, This is custom model. Okay.
0:31:54
You wanna see or something that's even more orgasmic and why that these channels are done the way they are, not just because I wanted it to look pretty. Yeah. So if I created a new blog post, so, oh, jeez. Like, testing. So right now, it's an empty task, but depending on what custom field I select, for the channel, if I select a static blog post, it will give me a subset of subtasks that I have determined. I've predetermined.
0:32:27
And if it was an email, it would list reload the task with email campaign related subtasks because I set all of that up. So it looks a little something like this. So if I click email, You kinda have to wait or sometimes it does it. But if I refresh and hopefully I didn't break it because I was playing with it yesterday, so maybe I spoke too soon, But generally, it will it will load the subtasks that we need to make it happen. Oh, there it goes. So it's gonna show up at some point. I know it will. There we go. There we go. There we go. This is different. Like, blog posts will have things like scheduled or revision draft. You know what I mean? Mhmm. And all of this was set up because I set automations. When a custom field changes, then apply a template for the email newsletter website.
0:33:19
Like, you have to work to make things how you want it or hire us to do it. But this then also, Briar allows us to see what I was saying earlier. Like, if you're in the doing phase, think of a podcast because we had this for the business with podcast as well. Doing is very, very vague. Right? Uh-huh. So for us that we like with doing because it reinforces that when we look at business late bears a high level, I can see, okay, These are the tasks that I have to work on in the doing stage. And then to the to do stage for us is specifically, we have all agreed to the is a process and boundary we've all set. If something isn't the to do phase, it means that we are planning on taking action on it. This week. So I have a lot of things am I doing, and I see that I have added a lot of things to my to do section, it means that I probably just thought I was cooler than I really was and could do more than I really can.
0:34:13
So it's about resource management as well. Definitely. Look. Look for if I click stages, it doesn't delete my my state my to do doing it done, but now it groups it by where each blog post is or content. I love it. Yes. Depending on stage. I figured you would, but it's just like this then allows people that need to see things like this. Be happy. We can see a publication calendar because we have set the filter by when I don't know where I put this. It's somewhere here, but essentially, we listed it based off of There was a publication date. So we can see what the publication calendar looks like because that's different than your to your start and your due dates. So this really works for us.
0:35:05
And then if the social we also, I think, have a task. If we create a task here, it duplicates it to the social media tasks. And then if it's if we've done creating social content for it, Mikayla just clicked social content checked. So now we know what kind of things we have to do. So to us like this really works for us because I think in the true sense of project management, we need this because we're doing so much. And with more team members coming down the line, it's like we really have to be organized.
0:35:35
And recurring tasks, I can't even, like, wonder like, I have to know that I just need to click recurs daily, bi like biweekly, semimonthly, like yearly, like, I don't even wanna think about if recurring tasks are hard. If that's hard, I'm like, I can't I can't deal. And I will emphasize again, y'all notions, recurring, task, are not awesome yet. They're working on them, but the Truly, the thing about task management is that at the end of the day, it's about checking box. Right? And structurally, I think Veronica and I would agree. If you spend more time designing the boxes, then checking the boxes.
0:36:29
There is a problem with your project management system. And again, the some of the shit she's showing you, especially if you have a team, is going to be life changing If you are a solo or if you have a very specific sequence notion may work for a team. But if you need robust task management, I always suggest click up and or air table. And neither one of us do you have an air table? We use it, but not for project management. Okay. So we don't have nothing to demonstrate. No. But we can talk about it. Yeah. We actually don't believe that air table is the best project management for everybody. Again, right, your mileage may vary, but I just wanted to show this because this is to us proof that click up works for us because out of all of my team members, no surprise. I am the worst comparatively, but holy cow. Like, how can you ask for anything more team members who are on top of their shit, get things done. And I can't think well, we thank ourselves because we sent we set these like best practices because I have in my knowledge base a ClickUp best practices document for all of us. But, like, this is a testament that for us, this project management at works.
0:38:03
You said Look at all of the look at all of those completed tasks. And that's That is that's the measure here. The measure of your task management system working is now and will always be boxes checked. And for me, especially right now, that all of my time is here on the neurodiversity media network. Every day, it's the exact same shit. So I have a template of the boxes, but it's not even most days, I don't even check the box. It's just there is a visual reminder of these are the things that you have to get done before you can be done for the day. Have you uploaded this? Have you downloaded that? But it's the same sequence. A same sequence that I could hand somebody else too and they could also check the boxes in Notion. If it's anything more complicated than that folks, please do not make Notion your project management software of choice. And here's a few more I'll show you two more things before I'm done. Okay.
0:39:19
I really, like, lean on this home screen because it's every single task from every single sub folder, sublist, whatever, in my space -- Mhmm. -- that is either has been started, the start date already passed, or the due date is coming up. This then allows me to go to one spot if you've done project management right because if you don't set due dates, it goes into what we call the click up abysst. Unscheduled. Right? So I forgot what was the number? How how many unscheduled were there? Hundred and ninety five? Okay. Yeah. So it's okay because there are a lot of them ideas. And that's fine. Right? But we I would say, like, I trust that we have done the work and set the parameters and protocols so that we don't have to go to multiple places to figure out what needs to be done. It's all here.
0:40:10
And then one last thing I'll show you, the reason why I love click up so much is because it connects with Slack. So for every single and we are very judicious about what we choose to zap over or, I'm sorry, integrate over to Slack. So client work, every single task that gets updated or created is tied to each client. Channel because then this is a way of communication. I don't need to ask Mikaela if she's finished something. It clearly says done because it says move from because we only have three statuses. So when I know that the knowledge base is done, I don't have to think about it. Right? Like, it's like a way of communicating.
0:40:50
It's really fun to see when something goes from, like, doing to done. And I and we can talk about all of our client related conversations in one channel. So do you think your clients get access to this channel? No. They do not. This is private. They have their own communication channels if they wish. But let's just, like, this is when you keep all of your client information, in conversations organized into one Slack channel here. It really allows us to see, like, okay. Look. It went from to do, to doing, to done, or if I left a new comment, it's right here. It it sends so this works for us. So it's again efficiency, and that's where I will stop talking because I feel like I've talked a lot. But that's the name of the game folks. Like, make your apps work for you, but you have to know yourself well enough to figure out what that looks like. And I think right. And and and this is this is the fun part for you and I. It's figuring out the ways that make it work so that you are effortlessly checking those boxes.
0:41:58
Slack is a black hole abys to me for communication. I can't find anything in there. I would rather have notes attached specifically to the task and have it all live in notion. But again, I have one person and a couple of very part time people So it gets to live where I want it to live. I do not have to worry quite so much about designing a system that's functional for everybody. But when you have full full time, and we say that with bunny rabbit ears around here. You gotta be able to make sure your system usable and functional for everyone. So alright.
0:42:48
Let's So how about this? What's the takeaway? I think for me is intention. That is the takeaway. Right? You have to be intentional, not just follow people because I always see this on the forums linked it. Doesn't matter what platform. What's your favorite project management app? And then people will shout their phrases. And then that person will just blindly sign up for because twenty out of twenty five people said Asana or something. Mhmm. So for us, it really has to be What is it that you need to accomplish? What is it that your brain needs to see? How do you work? And for me, like, being able to put all of our client tasks integrated into Slack and a single channel allows us to quickly look at what the paper trail or what the history looks like because it allows us to be really efficient and what we do because we're working with a handful of multiple clients at once, which is why we're so organized about it because Slack was designed intentionally with categories and channel nomenclature to make sense for us. But again, it was all from intention. So That's my biggest takeaway. I would love your big takeaway before we kind of talk about apps that don't. Maybe don't work. Yeah.
0:44:07
I continue to come back to the time, cost of design versus the actual time spent in execution. And people who aren't hiring you, are doing this themselves. And when they're doing it themselves, they are frequently at the procrastinating planning stage. Right? I should have worn my idea and demon t shirt. Like, I'm just flirting shit out now, but ugh, opportunity missed Veronica. It it it totally was.
0:44:48
Like, And I say this because you're right. Right? You're you can't I can't I you can't even. Like, you don't know what you don't know. And your business. Like, business is not easy. Let's, like, just cut the crap. People think that business is easy. It's it's not it's just more accessible. So when you fall into that and do it yourself, you're spending more time trying to figure out the thing than, like, growing or running your business. And we would like you to take it from the operations people that ops design takes a lifetime to learn. We would prefer that you trust somebody else with it so that we can just give you the thing that works instead of trying to hack it together yourself with a bunch of stuff. So I definitely wanna come back to your audit.
0:45:52
But first, what is the link for that that so they can get on the waiting list? Because Oh, yeah. Yeah. I can drop that town. Yes. Well, as I'm looking for it, what was I going to say? I had many things that I wanted to say, but First of all, thank you for saying op design takes a lifetime or you just it's not just easy. Like, some people have these beautiful notion builds. It's because they know the software really well. And I oh, the other thing I wanted to say was just because we love ClickUp so much love notion. It doesn't mean that we're only limited to building on that app.
0:46:32
Because as you and I've talked about prior, apps are just the tip of the system's iceberg. Right? You have to figure out needs and requirements. I'm thinking about my pyramid. And the results parameters of success, like, what the setup looks like. And then when you have that strategy, all those things make up the strategy, then you can, like, after, like, close, you can take them off. Put them on as you please.
0:46:56
But if your strategy stays the same, that means that you know what your cap color palette looks like, what colors and patterns fit you best and you can just be like, oh, I don't want that. I don't want that. I think I want this. Let's try it on to make it work because I know what my strategy is. I know that I need this feature set. And if this app doesn't have it, why do I even look and bother? So drop in my link now for you because I can't post it in the comments.
0:47:18
But that's my I like call it platform agnostic, and that is I think the difference. We want you to truly oh, just copied and paste did your link right back to you? That was delightful. We want you to be able to build the thing or use the thing that works for you. Okay. So we mentioned Eric table. But neither one of us use it well. I wanna highlight that it has automations and that it integrates well with other things. So if your task management system needs to play well with others, Air table may be worth looking at. Are there Or if you need that database y looking? Yes. Like, it's like Google sheets on steroids because I would say that Notion's databases are still not where air tables are at. But, like, think if you are a content creator, that is, like, YouTube is your business for instance, and you have that specific cadence, like, every video is the same. You need to know at what point what each video is at our content. Airtable would work really well for you if your brain worked that way. Mhmm.
0:48:43
An app that both Brian and I have not been in favor of. So, Briar, this is where I'm I'm teeing you up is Monday. Listen, I do not understand why we named an app after the worst day of the week. I paid somebody to walk Terry and I through because I didn't wanna learn it. I'm like, I have all these questions. Like, it was like rapid fire. And it was something as simple as, like so tell me how recurring tasks work and she said, well, you have to go over here, create an automation, and tell it when to recur the task. And I'm just like, for people that need project management, like, in a really robust way, we don't have time for that. And plus Monday doesn't allow you to have that walk in closet feel.
0:49:36
So for me, Briar, I felt that Monday was very much like, air table with project light project management features. But again, if that's the right project management features, I I we're not here to bash people or apps when we were just saying, like, this is what we're we're looking at. Right? Like, what is the capability? Is what can it do? And if Monday is what you need because you have no project management and it's all on a piece of paper or sticky notes, then go forth.
0:50:05
Or your calendar. Monday is probably fantastic for people whose entire work schedule is meeting people. Because the calendar integration into Monday is top notch. So if that's your job, it's just talking to other people, and you don't require robust note taking system, Monday might be for you. See, that's that that too means, like, air table.
0:50:34
So what I'm trying to say is that, like, for me, like, even, like, there's an app that I really like that is pretty considered old school. That we don't talk about so much. But it's actually called Reich. Like Reich? Oh, I know Reich. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it actually allows me to see the things I need to see because it allows me to build the dashboard, how I want to be how I want it built. So it's just like, again, what do you need? And crave and desire. What do you not want? And this is where then project management in choosing the apps becomes a lot easier. But if you don't know, this is where Briar and I love to talk about them, so book calls with us. We're happy to, like, consult you and figure out what works for you.
0:51:16
Last one I'm gonna mention, especially if you have ADHD and you're a solo or a freelancer. Amazing Marvin has okay. Y'all. K. I gotta look up now. Oh, yeah. And you're gonna love Marvin. Because he's this cute little marshmallow man, and he accompanies you. He, like, celebrates when you complete tasks. Well, like, the the Microsoft Word a little bit a little bit. Okay. I just dated myself. Cliffy. His name was Kliffy. Marvin will dance for you he moonwalks occasionally if it's been if if the task's really old.
0:52:06
But the reason that I like amazing Marvin is that there are a bunch of feed to pull up the stuff that's in the doom pile. Like, If if you have tasks that are have been sat on, it's going there are lots of ways. It'll tell you if you're procrastinating. It will tell you if it's been how many days since you've looked at this task. It will tell you approximately how long this task will take you or you can set that in your self. I'm there a bunch of time management and, like, ADHD style fee pictures that you can turn on and off to really make it work for you as an individual. But again, It doesn't procrastination count page. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's great. See, I don't even know all the apps. And we're you know, this is where our expertise. It's like, well, we're not we're not slated as experts. We're slated as operations experts. Right? So the fact that the fact that we're finding things to help It's like I love learning, and I'm not afraid to say I don't know. Like, this is amazing for the people that would need that. That's so cute. But but I'm not wrong. Marvin is adorable. Isn't he? Yes. So cute. Okay. I love that. So you see, project management needs to fit what you need. If you need that cheerleader, go forth. If you need that procrastination count, go forth. If you want Notion, if you want air table, Monday, the list goes on.
0:53:45
All I ask as an operations person is think about continuous improvement. Meaning, whatever you choose ask yourself, how can it be more orgasmic? How can it be more pleasurable? Don't just stick with an app because you bought it. Like, If it's not serving your needs, don't be afraid to move to version two. So this is where continuous improvement comes in. And while we can see like a level ten solution for our clients, Sometimes they can only see a level two solution because they're so spreadsheet focused on their tasks. So it's like we build them solutions that kind of pull them through and evolve them over time. But, no, it's because it's a shock to the system. And what might be the perfect app for you at the very end? Could turn out to be negative because you had a bad first impression. So we work with our clients in the sense too to help them grow and improve continuously in a pace that makes sense for them.
0:54:40
And I think at the end of the day, it's important to understand that operations isn't project management, but you don't have operation without project management? Because operations is about the how in a business. Right? The how that makes sure what actualized project management is the thing, the command center that makes taking action, the doing, the how easier -- Mhmm. -- or harder depending on what kind of person you are. Right. You're a master guest and trying to make things harder on yourself because you don't know any better or you're like, we've always done it this way.
0:55:21
Then I recommend trello, go forth and enjoy. I I've tried Trello. My first knowledge base was in Trello, but it didn't satisfy that need. I'm just like, is there no way to aggregate all of my millions of boards into one thing filled No. No. There is not. I am a clock like, I need that walk in closet. Like, it is a deal breaker if you don't have walking closet views because that's who I am as a person. And I I love myself for it. So I'm not happy to. Alright y'all. This is so fun. This is amazing. Thank you so much for taking us on a tour of your stuff, I am absolutely delighted to get to see your walk in closet for project van treatment, really.
0:56:05
Like and and I and I say that knowing that when we're done here, despite the fact that I have no time for it, I am probably gonna go look at click up again. It's and this is where then you can talk to me about, like, you're like, oh, I kinda wanna do this or I wanna see this is possible when you you can talk to me or somebody who's a power user to kinda streamline that discovery process. So I can't wait till we chat. Basically, I'm all in telling myself to chat with me. I'm all in telling you to chat with me. I'm hearing that. Yes. So I don't think Let's talk one more time about the self assessment that you've built into Notion.
0:56:46
Because I'm so excited about it. Yeah. Let's do it again. Okay. So I gotta open up and I gotta close Marvin down. So let me share my screen.
0:56:59
And before I do so, I just wanted to say that right where you are building are DIY assessments for different business models. But the thing is is like we understand, like, any business you have a revenue, you have different revenue models. Right? You could be a service based business like us, but you can also sell merchandise. Or a template shop or or have a membership site or so it doesn't matter. But what we've done with our clients is, like, we know you have different revenue models, but let's figure out what the bulk of your revenue comes from first. And let's operationalize the crap out of that service or offer or product. So that's how we've designed the DIY assessment is based on, like, main revenue model. And I'm gonna oh, okay. Now I'm gonna hide my face. This is where I'm trying to get, like, technical. Okay.
0:57:49
So for the assess or the DIY assessment, so this the service based option. Like, use this template if the majority of your revenue comes from providing services to others. We'll give them a whole list of, like, memberships, digital products, physical products. What have you. But what's really great is that you are walking walked through exactly how we do this for our clients. We talk about high level evaluation and business goals. We teach you how to interview team members to get like nuggets of wisdom and where people are in consensus about what could be better. We help you audit your own tech stack so that maybe your support your emotional support tech stack can, like, be finally not so emotional support anymore. It's all about the emotional sport. Text back y'all.
0:58:37
But then, like, the big meat of this is the operations audit. And when you get this, everything will be unchecked, but I just you know, with testing and stuff. And it's really, like, you're going through your knowledge base and saying, and these are, like, clear yes or no questions. Do you have a centralized knowledge management system? Yes or no? Leave comments. And as you're going through this, from team communication to project management to team onboarding and training.
0:59:03
So while in the sales page, I said eleven areas, it's actually like fourteen or fifteen. Team organization and culture, your tech stack and automations, how you've optimized what you offer and sell, your CRM, inquiries, payments. It's like the whole gamut. Onboarding, offboarding, for retention, fulfillment, marketing operations. Like, hundred and fifty items for you to click, which then aggregates into, like, percentages here. And because we're not doing it for you, you get decide what the priorities are that you're going to tackle. And of course, we'll give our opinions and such, but at the end of the day, you get to decide and choose your own adventure. But to see things like, oh, hey, look, I'm doing pretty good here. But oh, man, I I'm sucking, like, right here. What tells you where you can improve on things. And it looks like I'm Truly, y'all. This is where the optimization of your processes will prove your overall flow. We talked about that one a lot in the last episode But I really think you people do not realize how much time it takes to just assess what you have and what you don't have.
1:00:30
Much less create at all. So I am the person that doesn't just create offers willy nilly. Like, oh, this offer doesn't work well. Instead of creating a new offer. It's like, let's figure out why if we can rejig it. Maybe it's not me and it's the wrong audience. Right? So I'm saying this because we've been doing assessments since the beginning of twenty twenty. And, like, this is like the culmination of three plus years of us refining and working with hundreds of clients and doing this for them so that you now don't have to talk about, you don't know what you don't know because we're actually telling you these are what the experts are looking for in terms of what we believe should be the caliber of your operations. So you just have to follow the action steps just clicky clicky clicky clicky like things like has project templates for client work. Like, when we get a new client, when they pay a new project from the template section of ClickUp gets added And their name is prefix because we had zaps set up, like, oh, this is a done for you or done with your client. Like, we are talking about high caliber stuff.
1:01:40
And granted, I audited my own business with this. And I'm not perfect. Right. There's a lot of areas in marketing operations that I suck in. Right? And that's okay because now I know. Like, I'm not saying we're perfect. Things can always be improved, but for having to go through this with your team or yourself will be really eye opening.
1:02:00
To see what is expected. And it's always operations is always a work in progress. And I think that is the thing that people struggle with. You're never gonna be able to do your ops and be done with it. So having an assessment process that you can put your business through regularly allows you to really refine what is working, what is not, and what you need to fix. And if you're doing this on your own, then this audit, which we have linked in the comments, is absolutely the best way to do this.
1:02:43
And I think what's gonna be great, Ryers, that this is gonna lead up to our final sowed for the season. Mhmm. And we're gonna talk about, like, what's happened with clients and businesses that have prioritized their operations in some of the case studies and testimonials from both of our clients so that we can actually just say, like, you're not just hearing from the both of us, like, oh, yeah, operations aren't part because, yes, we're bias that way, but it's just like to hear actual results in what has a what operations has allowed our clients to do, I think it's gonna be really, really fun to just celebrate that. Like, celebrate why operations actually matters. And they impact -- Yes. Especially socially for us it has the world. Oh, I just got shivers. Yes.
1:03:31
And y'all, I just wanna say one more time, this is what we're building here at the neurodiversity media network. We're taking all of this knowledge that people have spent years refining, years creating better things for you and going into as much granular detail as we can without it being specific to you. And if you have a program or a service that you would like to teach in this way, We are currently placing collaborators for June and July. And you can reach out to me. I will link that in the comments. It's briar harvey dot com slash partners. We would love to be able to build something for you like this so that you can get the word out.
1:04:26
Veronica, I adore you. Thank you. It was so fun. Thank you for allowing me to geek out on this episode because really, like, I felt like I was born to be a project manager kinda thing because that's just how my brain works. So I'm really glad to see it. I'm really excited to see the snippets that you get to create from this episode of all of your little things in click up and notion that you can go and use to advertise from now until the end of time, maybe. Let's do this. Let's see. Alright. Thank you for being here y'all have an amazing afternoon.
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