All posts by John Rampton

Every time I book a trip, I receive a useful reminder, like when my flight departs or when to check in. Since I’m a planner, I already have this information down pat. It’s still nice to ensure everything’s in order. There have been times when life has gotten in the way. An appointment, event, essential to-do item has slipped my mind. It’s times like these when I appreciate these automated reminders. Without them, I would have dropped the ball. Most importantly, reminders are crucial before meetings.

Reminders aren’t just for appointments, tasks, or travel. Reminders are crucial before meetings because of the following 7 reasons.

1. Reduces no-shows, last minute cancellations, and waiting lists.

How many times have you forgotten all about a meeting? Maybe you misplaced an appointment card. Perhaps you didn’t review your calendar the night before. Many other things are going on in your life, and you straight-up forgot all about the meeting.

As a human, this is bound to happen. The result is that either you run late to the meeting or don’t show up at all. Both are unfair to the other person or attendees. They’ve taken the time to prepare and arrive on time for the meeting. If you couldn’t make it, they could have spent their time on something else instead of wasting waiting on you. This action is disrespectful and displays a lack of professionalism. But, a simple reminder could have prevented your goof-up.

Whether you’re using appointment scheduling software or an online calendar, you can modify when and how you receive reminders. For example, you could receive an email 24-hours in advance so that you won’t forget the meeting in the morning. Or, you could be sent a push notification an hour prior to your event reminding you that it’s time to leave for the meeting.

While this won’t impact all businesses, as an additional perk, this can reduce waiting lists. Let’s say that a client canceled the appointment the day before after receiving an automated reminder. You could notify the clients on your waiting list that there’s an open appointment slot. It’s an effective way to keep your customers and clients satisfied because you’re offering them faster service.

2. Gives everyone the time to plan ahead.

Another reason why reminders are crucial is that it gives everyone ample time to prepare. Think back to your days in college. There’s no way that you just rolled out of bed and went to your exam. You had that date circled on your calendar and studied relentlessly to prevent any surprises.

The same is true of meetings.

Everyone should not only be aware of the date, time, and location, but also have an agenda. The agenda will let participants know exactly what’s going to be discussed and what work needs to be done in advance. Knowing this allows everyone to develop any questions or concerns before the meeting gets underway.

Also, it informs invitees what materials to bring, such as performance reports or legal documents, as well as what tech to prep. You want to make sure that your slide presentation is working. And, if it’s a remote meeting, you need the extra time to double check that the phone lines or video chat are running so that participants can join in.

3. Makes the meeting more productive.

When everyone shows up on time and knows what work had to be done, meetings are much more effective. That’s because the meeting starts and ends on time. And, it ensures that everyone isn’t wasting time preparing or getting tech up and running.

All of this information is handled when attendees received a reminder telling them when and where to arrive. What’s more, the reminder lets them know what to do ahead of time so that everyone can dive right into the meeting.

4. Improves office productivity.

Office productivity may not be an issue for all business owners. But, think about the time spent personally reaching out to meeting invitees. Whether if it’s you, an office administrator, or co-worker, automated reminders eliminate this tedious and time-consuming task.

You and your team can focus on other responsibilities. What does growing your business look like to you? Growing your business or finally getting around to cleaning out your inbox. Whatever you chose to do, you’re spending your time more productively instead of reminding people about an upcoming meeting.

5. Maximizes revenue and reduces waste.

The less time you or someone else is on the phone or emailing clients reminding them about a meeting means you have more time to spend elsewhere. You could use this time to strengthen your customer relations. Or, you could improve existing products or services and look for new ways to generate revenue.

In short, you’re improving your bottom line.

Additionally, reminders reduce waste in your business. If you know in advance that a client has to reschedule, then you’re not going to waste time preparing for the meeting with them. Considering that your time is your most valuable resource, this is key.

6. Allows you to track cancellations.

Thanks to automatic and SMS reminders, you can track how often a customer cancels, postpones, or reschedules. That may not sound groundbreaking. But, when you’re armed with this knowledge, you can stop doing business with unreliable people. More importantly, you can focus more on your most loyal and dependable peeps.

7. Reminders build stronger relationships with employees, customers, and clients.

If you want your business to thrive, then it’s a given that you need to have healthy relationships. These relationships include the lifeblood of your business, and you need your employees to be loyal and satisfied. But, how exactly do reminders achieve a better relationship?

Take, for instance, appointment reminder software like Weave. It lets you create unique and personalized messages. For example, you can add their first name, appointment time, and when it should be sent. Remember, customers are demanding a more personalized experience. When delivered, a personalized experience will increase customer retention, loyalty, and revenue.

7 Reasons Reminders Are Crucial Before Meetings was originally published on Calendar by John Rampton

When done correctly, webinars are a tired and true way to engage, inform, and generate quality leads for your organization. And, while there are plenty of resources available that can guide you in creating an effective webinar, most gloss over an important detail; your webinar needs to be conversational to make it an unforgettable and valuable experience for participants. You can make your webinars more conversational.

To make your webinars more conversational, start with the following five tips.

1. Use AI to establish audience connect.

Although it may seem like a recent development, artificial intelligence has been around since 1956. And, considering that AI will contribute $13 trillion to the global economy by 2030, there’s no denying this AI is here to stay. The reason? It’s completely changed the business world for the better — including webinars.

By tapping into the power of artificial intelligence, you can personalize the webinar experience from start to finish. For example, you can use AI to determine everything from which topic your audience wants to discuss, their preferred format, the speakers you should invite, the ideal date and time, and how long it should run. AI can also be used to reduce friction in the event awareness and registration process by orchestrating conversations via platforms like Drift.

More promising, AI allows you to get to know your audience in advance so that you can build some rapport with them personally, so that they feel comfortable asking questions or adding to the discussion. Let’s say that an attendee jumped on a couple of minutes before and you know that they live in Seattle. You could discuss the weather, the Mariners or Seahawks, or what your favorite restaurant is in the Emerald City.

This technology can also analyze your webinar once it’s concluded to provide information like when the audience was most engaged and which participants hung around until the end. It will then make smart suggestions on how to improve your next event, like who to invite and how much time should be allocated for the Q&A portion.

2. Kick things off with an icebreaker.

In a previous Drift article, Mark Kilens suggests that you begin the event a couple of minutes early. This way, you can“Break the ice, talk to the audience through the chat feature on your webinar platform.” You can also ask your audience where they’re calling from, what their favorite food is, or what they’re most interested in learning.

“One question should do the trick,” adds Kilens. And, don’t forget to, “Call people out by name and let them know you know they’re there.”

Sounds simple. But, this lets the person know that the webinar is going to be conversational. Kilens also recommends that you drive this point home by creating slides that say “Today’s Conversation.”

3. Tell a story.

Who doesn’t enjoy a good story? Whether if it were cave paintings, The Odyssey, or The Avengers: Endgame we’re just hardwired to react to stories. And, that’s because of how our brains respond to stories.

Unlike slides, stories activate the language processing parts in our brains and light up our sensory cortex. They can also “plant ideas, thoughts, and emotions into the listeners’ brains.” But how can you use that to make your webinar more conversational?

For starters, think of yourself as a storyteller and recall a personal experience at the beginning. It’s an effective way to hook attendees and emotionally connect with them. Next, identify a common problem that your audience has, think of this as the antagonist of your tale, and what the solution is. The answer is the product or service that flies in and saves the day. Finally, provide a clear call-to-action so that they can see how great the future is when the big bad has been defeated.

You probably learned that back in your high school English class. But, it works because we’re wired to think in terms of cause and effect. That’s why we’re continually creating narratives in our daily actions and conversations. It’s been found that “Personal stories and gossip make up 65% of our conversations.”

4. Don’t stick to the script.

You want to prepare for your webinar to make sure the audio is working and that the webinar will not exceed the time allocated. But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t mix things up a bit.

For example, you could scrap the slides and script and host a discussion-style webinar or a full-blown Q&A. Doing so will keep the event less formal and more conversational while still providing valuable information to attendees.

If you want to stay on track, however, you should poll your audience or create a landing page where they can vote on what topics they want to be discussed. This way, you know exactly what they’re most interested in and can plan accordingly.

5. Keep the audience engaged.

I think we’ve all attended an online event where you put yourself on mute and focused on something else like email. The problem is that when your audience is disengaged, they’re not going to be a part of the conversation.

To avoid this, keep your audience engaged by:

• Encouraging them to turn on their cameras so that you can if they’re not paying attention.
• Breaking the content into easy-to-digest bite-sized pieces.
• Planning for interaction, such as a Q&A at the end, and breaks.
• Doing frequent check-ins to make sure everyone is still attentive.
• Skipping the industry jargon and speaking plain English so that they can understand what you’re saying.
• Adding a little humor and personality to help attendees relax.
• Quizzing the audience several times throughout the webinar.

That’s by no means an extensive list. But, the list above is a great starting point for you to get your audience to be more alert and interactive during your webinar. And, as a result, they’ll be more likely to participate in the discussion.

5 Ways to Make Your Webinars More Conversational was originally published on Calendar by John Rampton

We’ve all had it happen. You plan for a busy day with all these items on your to-do list, and the WiFi goes out for most of the day. Or, you’re catching a flight and have plans to work on the plane, but the WiFi connection is spotty.

Whether you’re experiencing an outage at your main workspace or while traveling, it can make your schedule pretty hectic as you lose the risk of getting productive work time in.

With it currently being summer, my work schedule is all over the place as I stay busy with taking my son to camps and programs. I am often stuck without WiFi or have to rely on the local library or area coffee shops to stay connected. Luckily, I’ve become a pro at making it work and want to share with you some ways to stay productive when you don’t have WiFi.

Catch Up on Organization Tasks

You don’t need the internet to stay organized. You can still check your calendar when you’re offline and move things around. If you’re at home or your office space, catch up on some organizational tasks you’ve been putting off.

Sort through papers and file them correctly, clear off your workspace, and update your calendar. Also, take the time to work on some tasks that don’t require internet. I’ll share more ideas below. Taking the necessary time to get organized will help you keep track of what you have to do so you can work efficiently when you have internet access again.

Check and Respond to Emails on Your Phone

If you need to stay connected with others via email, you can likely do so on your phone. If you have Gmail, it’s easy to access messages and receive notifications. You may not be able to go through dozens of emails but choose the top 10 crucial messages and take care of them to stay productive when you don’t have WiFi.

You can also delete and sort through emails by filing them away in the appropriate folders. Keep in mind that this will require the use of your mobile data, but you can still make a lot of progress if you limit this task to just 30 minutes.

Write a Newsletter Draft From Scratch

You don’t need WiFi to share creative thoughts and ideas. If your small business publishes regular email newsletters, challenge yourself to create the content for a few when you don’t have WiFi.

Consider sharing company news, promoting the features or new products and services, or sharing tips or advice that will help your audience. Helping your audience can be easy to do when you know your audience and customers well.

A typical marketing email can include you taking a recent piece of content that you liked or didn’t like and share your opinion about it along with some helpful tips for others. Last year, I took a short email course about engaging with your audience, and it prompted me to focus on four different types of email strategies: motivational, kick in the pants, relatable advice, and practical solutions.

These are all email structures that you can draft copy for freehand without the use of WiFi.

Outline Some Content

Do you have upcoming blog posts, articles, or marketing copy to publish? While you may need the internet to perform some research and contact others, you can still outline and even start the content without it.

I find that outlining blog posts before writing them saves me a ton of time. Outlining can also help you stay productive when you don’t have WiFi because you don’t need actually to worry about writing the content yet. Still, when you do get started, the process will be much more efficient.

Sometimes I write articles without WiFi or at least get the draft or the introduction prepared for the piece — if I know the topic well. Keep in mind that an initial draft of a piece of content can be just that. You can always edit and reframe it once you get connected to the internet again but having a headstart is excellent.

Have an Impromptu Meeting

One day, the power went out at my job, but my boss didn’t want us to go home just yet. We had a ton of stuff to do, and he was able to get most people connected to the internet again via his mobile hot spot. Still, the connection was spotty, and we ended up having an excellent meeting until the power came back on

Sure, we all know that the best meetings and scheduled, planned for, and have a clear agenda. However, you can still have a pretty productive impromptu session as well. Keep a running list of meetings topics on your desk to start with.

You can even begin by having your team share a status update and ask questions that have been on their mind. From there, see if you can narrow down an issue that everyone can work to overcome by the end of the meeting. Whether there’s a plan in place from the start or not, ending a meeting with a practical solution to a significant problem or obstacle is always a success in my book.

Make a Phone Call

Catch up on calls to stay productive when you don’t have WiFi. Make all your business and personal requests for the day when WiFi isn’t available and remember you can always take notes by hand if needed.

Knocking out business calls can still be a great use of your time, especially if they are discovery calls, coaching calls, or even necessary inquiries to gather information. If you usually meet with someone over Skype or Zoom but don’t have internet access, ask if you can meet over the phone or virtually — when you don’t have WiFi so you can still get your meeting taken care of.

No Internet, No Problem

In today’s world of constant and often instant connection to the web, it may seem nearly impossible to get anything productive done in your business when you don’t have WiFi. On the contrary, being able to stay productive when you don’t have WiFi is all about getting creative, tying up loose ends, and optimizing what you do have.

You may not get the same amount of work done, but you can still keep busy and make some progress during the day, which is better than nothing.

How to Stay Productive When You Don’t Have WiFi was originally published on Calendar by John Rampton

Unfortunately, we have all sat through meetings that did not accomplish anything. Many of us probably have one or two of these time-wasting meetings on our Calendar. At present, many of our calendars are filled with unproductive meetings, and here are 25 ways to make your meetings less productive.

We know the low productivity meeting is coming, and many are not sure how to stop that big ball rolling down upon you in the meeting “cave.” Typically these unproductive meetings have many participants and few outlined objectives. Here is a look at the ways that you can potentially make your meeting less productive. Now, all you need to do is the opposite. You can always Implement the “good” strategies appropriate for your workgroup.

1. Forget to set an agenda.

It is easy to assume that everyone knows what is supposed to be happening at the meeting. That is usually an untrue assumption that leads to all around confusion. It is always a good idea to set up an agenda and send it out to the participants before the meeting. An early agenda warning gives everyone a chance to come prepared. If no one is sure what the meeting will cover, then they will be less likely to be aware of the current status of agenda items.

2. Don’t bother taking notes.

Although we wish that we could remember everything talked about during a meeting, that is just typically not possible. It is a good idea to designate a note taker before each meeting starts. The note-taker should send out their summary of the meeting to the participants soon after it ends. New AI-enabled calendars will record your meeting and send out the actions needed for the meeting — plus your notes. Everything recorded and noted will make subsequent meetings more productive because everyone should be on the same page.

3. Start late.

This one is obvious. If you start late, then you set a lousy precedent for all meetings. Bad starts are never a good thing, especially when it comes to meetings. Start on time – end on time. Period.

4. Don’t create a time frame.

When you are creating the agenda, you should set up time frames for each topic. Of course, there is some room for adjustment during the meeting. However, these time frames allow people to see approximately how much time each subject will take. It is especially important to let any presenters know what their time limit is. Otherwise, someone could take over the entire meeting with their presentation slides.

5. Invite Everyone.

Instead of inviting the entire office or team, just invite critical team members. Anyone that does not have a direct in the meeting or project is just someone that does not need to be there. It is possible they will take valuable time and resources away from the meeting.

6. Disregard introductions.

If anyone in the room is new or unfamiliar with the project, then it is a good idea to break the ice. Of course, it can be as simple as introducing everyone, especially if prospects are present.

7. Overdo the icebreaker.

Do not spend too much time on icebreakers because it can potentially cut into your actual meeting time. One time I went to a meeting with a three-hour icebreaker. What a time-suck. It ended up running into the rest of the meeting and forcing us all to stay late. Keep an icebreaker to a couple of minutes and very, very simple.

8. Skip breaks.

Although breaks are not strictly productive, it is important to give everyone a chance to breathe. Even if it is just a five-minute coffee break, it will help. Typically people come back refreshed and ready to dive back in following a break.

9. Forget the snacks.

If you are planning to host a long meeting, then you should provide some light snacks and beverages. No one can think on an empty stomach.

10. Invite distractions.

Everyone is accustomed to having their phones and laptops at the ready. It is too tempting to get distracted by the internet instead of focusing on the meeting.

11. Don’t address action items.

It is essential to create action items. It is also important to follow through. Do not just write them down, actually address these and quickly run through them. Your AI-enabled notes and assignments will take care of the rest.

12. Ignore deadlines.

Just like action items, you need to keep all deadlines in mind and be precise. Set deadlines for team members and follow up during meetings.

13. Start the conversation.

Although the leader of the meeting may need to say a few words, it is a good idea to open the floor to the group. Opportunities to address issues and concerns that you may not have been aware of are crucial to stay connected to your team.

14. Stay too formal.

Formal meeting settings have their place. However, it is usually a good idea to invite discussion from the team and build on the ideas presented by team members. Most of the meeting can be formal but allow for a little discussion time or round robin that will include team members and their opinions.

15. Get sidetracked.

Try to avoid going down any rabbit holes. If there is a problem that needs to be addressed at a different time, then make that an agenda item for the next meeting.

16. Create long sessions.

No one wants to sit through a six-hour meeting. It may be required for certain situations, but attempt to keep the meetings as short as possible.

17. Throw out the agenda.

You can adjust the agenda if needed, but it should only be as a last resort. If at all possible stick to the agenda and work through the items on that list.

18. Squeeze in everything on your to-do list.

Typically you cannot squeeze an entire project into one meeting. You can (and should) spread of the process across multiple shorter meetings.

19. Have meetings for no reason.

Sometimes we can get into the habit of having a meeting scheduled every week or every other week. Although this is a good way to keep the time open on your Calendar, sometimes these meetings are not necessary. Make sure that your scheduled meetings have meaningful and productive goals before you get started.

20. Keep the spotlight on a few people.

Some projects will have a few key players that present at every meeting. However, you should make an effort to involve everyone. It will help to keep everyone interested and engaged in the meeting.

21. Ignore the next steps.

After every meeting, the participants usually come away with tasks or action items to focus on. Make sure that everyone is clear about the next steps before they leave the meeting.

22. Figure out the technology at the last second.

Many of us use virtual meeting systems. It is excellent to involve long-distance team members. However, you should test out the technology before the meeting starts. Technical errors are a great way to harpoon the productivity of your meeting before you even get started.

23. Set it for lunchtime.

No one wants to sit through a meeting on their regular lunch hour. Everyone is hungry and just not interested in the meeting.

24. Leave no room for error.

In your agenda, you should schedule some buffers into the time frame. People talk and get off track; this built-in time will ensure that it does not affect the productivity of the meeting too much.

25. Have hours of PowerPoints — sometimes — but rarely.

PowerPoint is an excellent tool for some presentations. However, not every meeting needs hundreds of slides. It is an easy way for your audience to start tuning you out as you flip through your presentation.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, you can avoid these productivity zapping activities in your next meeting.

25 Ways to Make Your Meetings Less Productive was originally published on Calendar by John Rampton