If something happened to you today, how long could your business run before things started falling apart? How much time are you actually spending on value (i.e. profit) producing work and how much time is wasted on low-level, time sucking tasks? Get ready to save time, get more done, and be happier with the tips we’re sharing this week.

Productivity superstar Sebastian Marshall is the co-founder of Ultraworking, and writes 6000 words per week for Strategic Review. He shares the top the three things to do to set yourself up for consistent productivity and success, and the single most important question to answer before starting any project that will help you stay on track and achieve your goals. Also, find out what you need to start doing right now that will change the way you work forever (you’ll be surprised how simple it is).

Episode Highlights:

• 7:23 Is this your routine? What the not-so-productive cycle really looks like
• 12:25 The one question you should ask before every project or task
• 15:44 The time frame of productivity:  now, tomorrow, the week, the month, the year
• 17:31 How to estimate your time correctly to increase your productivity
• 21:00 Why having a monthly “theme” will help you become more consistent week to week
• 23:50 Working into the future: How working ahead just 1x can make you more productive  
• 25:32 Fine tuning the process: why you should be making your weekly work easier
• 29:30 How the #1 car company (Toyota) categorizes their work output and how you can too
• 33:25 Why handing off a project actually reduces productivity
• 36:30 How tracking the time of the work you do on your most important tasks may surprise you and how it can help you refocus
• 40:00 Here’s how Sebastian defines and then prioritizes his most important tasks
• 48:30 Asking yourself this one powerful question will help you define what you want to happen and what you need to do to get there
• 49:30 Describing what a work cycle is and how it can help you if you don’t know where to start your work
• 55:00 More about Sebastian’s Pentathlon and how you can join in the fun

Links and Resources:

• Ultraworking.com/ecommerce
• The Strategic Review
• Ultraworking Pentathlon
• Peter Drucker - The Effective Executive
• Sebastian@ultraworking.com

A mega PR hit can be the gift that keeps on giving -- so why aren’t more ecommerce business owners getting in on it?

This week, Peter Friis, CEO and co-founder of ESSIO Shower and CEO and founder of PR Volt, talks about how PR, combined with Facebook advertising, helped grow his business from 0 to $1 million in sales in just two years. Friis shares the key elements of successful PR campaigns, and what your product must have in order to get news editors’ attention. Find out how you can get started with PR for your business today, and the best way to package PR wins into ads that produce results.

Episode Highlights:

• 8:07 The two key elements to use when reaching out to editors for PR opportunities
• 10:20 How Good Morning America (GMA) helped Essio Shower focus their marketing efforts
• 12:01 Why using Facebook video ads helped get more conversions
• 15:30 How hitting a PR “homerun” like GMA can impact your ecommerce business even a year later
• 17:00 The two most effective ways to turn your PR “wins” into great advertisements
• 20:14 Videos on Facebook can be hard for converting on top of the funnel, Peter shares the ad objectives that are most most successful
• 22:30 Does your ecommerce have these key qualities? Then you should be doing PR
• 24:40 Here is what you should be looking for in a PR agency (hint: it’s not who they know)  
• 27:16 What to expect: the lifetime value of good PR for a brand/product
• 33:05 3 types of videos that are working on Facebook for Essio Shower that you can create too
• 36:05 The tools that literally built PR Volt from the ground up

Links and Resources:

• Essio Shower
• PR Volt
• HARO
• Cision
• Streak CRM
• Zapier
• Air Table
• Moz
• Diskbot

Peter Friis

• Peter@prvolt.com
• Clarity.fm/PerterFriis
• Twitter.com/spiritfriis