It’s ok to turn your camera off.

It’s ok to turn your camera off.

by | Mar 4, 2021 | The Intro

Hello, our Zoom-fatigued, emotionally exhausted, been-working-for-a-year-straight-through-a-pandemic friends. How is everyone doing?

As we approach the one-year anniversary of full-time work-from-home life for our team, we want to give each of you a gift:

It’s ok to turn your camera off.

Listen. We’ve been at this a long time. And while seeing your colleagues’ faces on a screen has its benefits, it can be incredibly draining. (It’s science! Stanford researchers just published a study that concludes that “videoconferencing technologies are exhausting.”)

Person on a zoom conference call

And while we can’t avoid every Zoom gathering or cancel all of our meetings, we can (and should) give our brains, and ourselves, a break. Turn off the camera. Or try this old school thing called a phone call.

Put in headphones, stand up, and walk around. If you’re brainstorming, try doing a monotonous task like washing dishes or wiping down counters while you chat. In our experience, it has the same brain-loosening power as doodling—but you end up with a clean kitchen. Or simply close your eyes while you think.

You get to prioritize your energy and mental health.

And you don’t need to be staring at someone to have an effective meeting.

How to do a content audit and 4 other things you need to read this week

How to do a content audit and 4 other things you need to read this week

by | Feb 25, 2021 | +Good Newsletter

1. Where great plans 📝 go to die.

Have you ever spent hours (days? weeks?) on a project document or campaign overview or editorial calendar…and then never looked at it again? There is no point in making a plan if it doesn’t actually guide your work. Here are a few of the likely culprits for why your beautiful strategy only lives in the recesses of your dreams—and what you can do to rescue it.

How to make a plan that you actually use. [via Nonprofit Marketing Guide]

2. The next new social media 📱 platform.

We know what you’re thinking: another social media platform to understand and manage? But it’s always wise to learn about the new major players, especially when they are gaining traction among business and media leaders (including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Oprah!). Clubhouse—which lets users listen in on audio conversations about key topics, often featuring big-name celebrities and thought leaders—is growing fast.

An inside look at Clubhouse. [via Hubspot]

3. How to do a content 📊 audit.

If you want to squeeze all the life you possibly can out of your content, it’s time to schedule a content audit. This strategic analysis of all of the amazing stories, blogs, and resources you have produced will help you identify what is working—and what isn’t. It will also help you make easy changes to extend the work that you’ve already done instead of reinventing the wheel.

Your step-by-step guide to content audits. [via Animalz]

4. Your email ✉️ deliverability vocabulary lesson.

You know that you want people to receive (and read) your emails. But do you know what all the terms mean that help you achieve this goal? Dive into MTA Reputations, DNS, Spoofing, SPS records, and more with this helpful email deliverability vocabulary guide.

Start here to improve email deliverability. [via Folderly]

5. Dust off that 📚 library card.

Typically, we recommend articles, tools, and videos that you can consume or test out in just a few minutes. But we are also big believers in books. (Sometimes, you need more than 1,000 words to make a point.) This week, we’ve been totally engrossed in David Epstein’s Range. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to think more creativity, cultivate curiosity, and break out of the trap of specialization.

Add this to your TBR list. [via Amazon]

We’re thankful for modern infrastructure

We’re thankful for modern infrastructure

by | Feb 25, 2021 | Gratitudes

Plumbing and electrical wires in an exposed wall

 

This week, we are thankful for…modern infrastructure (and hot water!). We’ve all been there. You’re chugging along, getting work done, and then—BAM–your internet goes out. Your router fails. Or a freak snowstorm in Texas takes down your power line. (You know, hypothetically…)

How do you keep working? How will you watch the next episode of Bridgerton?

Can you even function?

Losing power and internet and heat and water remind us just how overwhelmingly grateful we are to have all of these things almost all the time. And a huge shout out to the men and women who work so hard to restore our services and keep us connected. They are the real MVPs.

If you haven’t already, check out what we’re reading this week in the +Good Newsletter.

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Treat your teammates like people.

Treat your teammates like people.

by | Feb 25, 2021 | The Intro

Last week, our world fell apart.

We live in Austin, Texas—and if you had your eye on the national news, you probably saw that our city fell into a deep and extremely dangerous freeze. Electricity (and heat) went out for days. Pipes burst, water was turned off, and the water that managed to keep running was no longer safe to drink.

It was stressful, to say the least. (And cold. Very cold.)

We decided to take a week off from this newsletter and remember one of our very best leadership lessons:

Treat your teammates like people.

 

Treat your teammates like people - picture of hugging team

In the midst of disaster, the work can wait. If your people are panicking, anxious, grieving, or on day five of no showers, their ability to join the morning Zoom call can (and should) take a back seat. Instead, check in on them as humans.

It’s amazing how significant a genuine “how are you?” (with no ulterior agenda) can be.

But knowing how to respond to your team well in times of crisis requires that you know your team.

The “good leader” work doesn’t start when the s#!t hits the fan—it starts right now. What do your teammates like? What do they do when they aren’t working? What’s their favorite book or TV show? What stresses them out? How do they respond when the world gets hard?

Building relationships with your colleagues—knowing your teammates as people first, employees second—will make you a better leader. It will equip you to respond well when things go wrong. It will build trust, cultivate honest conversations, and prepare you for the hot mess situations when they arise (if 2020 and 2021 have taught us anything, it’s that out-of-our-control disasters are unavoidable).

And as an added bonus, it will make work a lot more fun.

The best questions to ask in a donor survey and 4 other things you need to read this week

The best questions to ask in a donor survey and 4 other things you need to read this week

by | Feb 11, 2021 | +Good Newsletter

Welcome to +good — our weekly round-up of the articles, tools, books, videos, and stories we can’t stop talking about.

1. Repurpose your work. ✍️

We are all about working smarter, not harder. And one of the best ways to save yourself time and stress is to get more life out of the work you have already done. How can you squeeze every last drop out of that blog? Could that speech turn into pull quotes on social? Can you turn those stats into infographics?

20 creative ideas about how to reuse your content. [via Hubspot]

2. The best questions ❓ to ask in a donor survey.

We all know we should be getting feedback from our donors. Surveys seem like an effective (and relatively simple) way to do so. But what makes a good survey? What questions should you ask? Learn how to build a survey that actually helps you meet your goals.

Become a donor survey expert. [via Bloomerang]

3. Tips for dealing with 😞 failure.

We all know the adage “fail fast and fail forward.” We know the best leaders fail, and the best entrepreneurs fail a lot. But the truth is that even though we know if might be good for our creativity and progress in the long run, failing feels terrible. We are here for any tips about how to make the best of it (and we are especially here for it when one of the tips is “sleep.” Yes and amen.)

How to handle failure. [via Future Fundraising Now]

4. A tool to make your 🖥️ virtual work easier.

Move over Zoom, it’s time to check out Loom. Instead of live, real-time web conferencing, Loom lets you record yourself or your screen and share it as a link with your team. It’s a simple way to walk people through a project or show someone how to navigate something on your computer—without having to schedule a time to talk.

Check out Loom. [via Loom]

5. Improve your image 📷 SEO.

You have images on your website. And if we had to guess, those images have names like IMG7642. (It’s ok, we’re guilty of this, too.) But those photos and graphics could actually be a huge SEO win for you if you took the time to tag and title them correctly. Learn how to get started with this helpful guide.

How to optimize your images. [via Search Engine Watch]

If you haven’t already, check out this week’s Intro to read about our personal productivity stack and getting the most out of the tools you use.

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