Category Archives for "Technology"

Project Management for Business and Personal – Video Tutorials

I was on the hunt for a simple project management app for several years. I tried so many of them both paid and free. Because I am a very visual person and love sticky notes I needed something that would work on my mac computer  and on my iPhone. It also had to be downloadable from the Apple App store instead of from an unknown or insecure website.

Visual appearance was also important since I would be looking and working in it every day. The learning curve had to be short. It needed to be simplistic enough to understand quickly but also intense and robust enough to handle multiple projects and tasks.

I tend to get excited about an app and start to use one and disappointment rears its ugly head very quickly as soon I discover it is not all it was claimed it would be.

Then I found Trello!

Trello changed my business which helped to change my life.

Trello is free. They do have a paid version but very few people I know need to use the paid versions. About 90% of all those I consult and work with can use the free version.

Click here to get your free version of Trello. I gift Trello and in return I get some “Gold” Trello which is graphic skins I can use on my boards. You can invite all your friends to use Trello and get some “Gold” too.

http://KaterinaGasset.com/Trello

Because many of you may not know what Trello is or how to use it, I created a YouTube playlist with tutorials I created to train my team on how to use Trello for our projects.

Here is the Trello Tutorial playlist:

Whether you want to organize your daughter’s wedding or plan your garden or whether you need to organize your website content, blog fodder, social media tasks and other checklists for your business, Trello works for both personal and business! And you can keep it all in one account.

A couple of weeks ago I hosted a webinar on how tips and tricks in speed hacking Trello for project management. I am posting that link here as well.

The video tutorials are very short however the webinar is one hour or so. So make sure you watch the short tutorials first.

This one is called, Trello Tutorial Organize your Business and Life

This next video is called, How to Use Trello as a CRM for Entrepreneurs, Consultants and Biz Owners

Followed by: Trello Tutorial: How to Use Trello for Project Management

And: Trello Tutorial: Task Management

Next Trello Tutorial: Fun Trello Hacks Tutorial: How to Add Some Fun to Your Trello Boards

And last but not least, here is the Trello Webinar if you want to go more in depth in learning how to use this very visual organization app! You can use Trello on your desktop on both PC and Macs, on iPads and iPhones. I don’t know about other smart phones, you can check it out.

Free Webinar: Using Trello for Projects | Management | Organization

Free Webinar: Using Trello for Projects | Management | Organization and more.

Trello is free. Please use my invitation link here:

http://KaterinaGasset.com/Trello 

This is one of my most requested tutorials. I created some video tutorials on using Trello. They are among my most popular video tutorials. Based on these requests I decided to offer you a webinar to show you live how we use Trello.

Trello is a very visual organization app. If you are a visual person you will fall in love with Trello. If you like to work fast and easy… all my webinars are about systems and apps that make your work faster, more efficient and not rocket science.

There is so much you can do in Trello and now, even better, you can use Zapier with Trello to streamline even more tasks.

I use Trello for contact management, travel trips, website creation planning and executing, project management, homeschool records, house inventory, recipes and menus complete with shopping lists, Christmas planning and gift logs  and so much more. I run nearly my entire business on Trello.

This will be a live webinar. I will not have slides as this is for hands on learning. You will want to make it to the live training so you can follow along. I will record the webinar but as always, if a technical problem occurs, there is no guarantee the recording will work. So it is always best if you can attend the webinar live.

The webinar is on Wednesday January 27, 2016 at 8 p.m. eastern standard time.

Please share this on twitter:

[bctt tweet=”Free Webinar: Using Trello for Projects & Organization in biz & personal life,”]

You will get reminders the day before and an hour before you webinar starts from GoToWebinar.

Go here now to get registered:

https://katerinagasset.com/trellowebinar

Also, in the comment section below please comment on what you want to learn in Trello and I will do my best to add that to the webinar. If I don’t know the answer, I will find out.

We will also have a question and answer session all during the training, so bring your questions about Trello!

 

Reminder: Fast & Easy WordPress Webinar is Tonight

Don’t forget to register for this FREE webinar where I will be showing you how fast you can create landing pages, add content to your website in wordpress and a lot more.

 

The webinar is tonight at 8 p.m. eastern time. Save your seat now.

 

See you all later Wed 8PM Eastern (New York time)!

 

If you already registered there is nothing you need to do except get on the webinar!

 

If you have not registered for the webinar yet, Click here to register!

 

See you at the top!

Speed Hack Your Way to a Gorgeous WordPress Website! No Coding Skills Required- Free Webinar

Speed Hack Your Way to a Gorgeous WordPress Website- Free Webinar! No coding skills required. So easy a 5th grader can learn how to do this.

Join me for another Free webinar! I hope you are getting a lot out of my free webinars.

January 13th at 8 p.m. eastern time I will be hosting and teaching a free webinar.

Go now to register for the webinar: https://katerinagasset.com/wordpress-ninja-moves-with-thrive-themes

I am going to show you:

  • how to add content to your wordpress website super fast and easy
  • how to add images super fast to your media library
  • how to then add those images and set them up as featured images on your blog
  • how to set up your blog page super fast and easy on wordpress
  • how to add landing pages, squeeze pages, webinar forms, VSLs all in one click
  • how to edit your pages super fast with no coding required
  • how to add design elements that will make it look like a pro built your site
  • how to create content templates you can simply drag and drop anywhere you want
  • and more….

We only have an hour together so I will show you as much as I can in that hour.

We will have a short Q&A after the webinar if there is something in particular you want me to show you.

This is going to be an online live training so I won’t have any slides. I won’t be walking through any slides. It is all hands on live on the wordpress platform.

I will record the webinar and send out the replay but there is no guarantee that this will work. As always, we will have the recording as long as there are no tech glitches in regards to the recording. I highly suggest you be live on the call for this webinar.

I also advise that you access the webinar from your computer or laptop and not on a mobile device because I will be using my mouse and pointer over my screen and this does not always come out on your side in the best way. You won’t be able to follow along so well on a mobile device.

I recommend you to open up a new window on your computer and have your wordpress site dashboard open in that window so you can follow along.

I highly recommend that you get Thrive Themes at http://KaterinaGasset.com/ThriveThemes.   I am an affiliate and greatly appreciate you using my links to get your Thrive Themes membership. You don’t need to have Thrive to attend my webinar but the tools we use are all in Thrive.

I am excited to share with you more of my speed hacks! I am all about the speed of which we can accomplish a task. Benchmarks are meant to be improved. The only way I can get all this done is 1. speed at task and 2. creating systems to delegate and 3. outsource my systems to my virtual assistant team. This is how you master your time and get things done.

See you soon!

IMPORTANT! Graphics Webinar Time Correction!

IMPORTANT: How to create graphics for your blog and social posts super fast

I don’t know why I did not notice, so sorry.

The time for the webinar is today at 2 p.m. eastern time,

that will be 11 a.m. pacific time.

If you already registered there is nothing you need to do except get on the webinar at 2.

If you have not registered for the webinar yet, register here:

https://katerinagasset.com/webinar-how-to-create-graphics-for-your-blog-social-fast/

Please share!

Also, if you want to learn what we will be covering in this webinar you can read the post here:

How to Create Graphics Fast & Easy for Social Postings and Blogging!

How to Use Trello for Your Business and Personal Projects & More

Trello is by far my favorite free tool I use for  many business and personal tasks. If you are a visual person, you will be in heaven with Trello. 

For your learning pleasure... I added 4 Trello video tutorials I created to train my virtual assistants in using Trello and one of the tutorials was part of a course I teach.  I get a lot of comments on these videos from all over the world so I thought why not share them with all my awesome subscribers! ​

Try #Trello for Free- If you are a visual person- you will love Trello: https://goo.gl/mx7ys1

Click to Tweet

Here are just a few of the ways in which I use Trello: 

  • Business Project Management 
  • Training Guides and Systems 
  • CRM for Small Business 
  • Organizing Workspaces and Files 
  • Home Management and Projects 
  • Trip and Vacation Planning 
  • Gardening Planning  and Projects 
  • Healthy Living Recipes, Articles, Shopping Lists, Menus and more 

How you can use Trello is only limited by your imagination.  There is the free version which is what most people use. Trello also has a business version that is a small fee of $8.33 per user per month when paid annually. You can create teams inside of Trello for personal and for business. 

My favorite Trello features are anything that saves me time, Trello delivers on being a time saver! 

This video tutorial is about how to use Trello for Task Management. This is the system I use with our virtual assistants and really, any one who is connected to a task or project. In this tutorial I start you at the beginning of creating a board and then adding the cards. 

Do you like checklists? Well, then you will love Trello!  You can add checklists in any of the cards. But what is even better is you can click to duplicate the checklist across all your cards. This feature saves so much time. There are also check boxes in front of each item on your checklist. When you check off the box, a progress bar appears so you can see by percentages how much more of the list still needs to get done. 

In this Trello video tutorial I share with you ways in which you can use Trello for business and personal management: 

Another time saver for me is you can drag images, pdf files, documents, whatever it is you need to add to a card, right on the card and Trello uploads it for you. You can choose images to be "cover" image on a card. This is a great way to organize projects and not lose the images you want to keep. 

In this video tutorial I share with you how you can use Trello as a CRM. This obviously won't work if you are using something super robust like Infusionsoft.  Trello is great if you don't have hundreds and hundreds of leads. I use if for my consulting and marketing company,  Listing Experts Academy, Fast Track SEO and other niche markets. 

In this tutorial you will learn how to use Trello for Project Management. There are just too many awesome things you can do with Trello and there is no way I can list them all in a post.  Some of my tutorial videos on Trello have over 8,000 views which is a lot because I did not promote them.  I am happy to share what is working for me in my business and personal life. 

Another timesaver is you can send or forward emails to specific cards on your Trello boards. So when I get an inquiry from someone who wants to hire me to consult them on their branding, marketing, SEO, content marketing, website development and creating funnels for their online businesses- all I need to do is set up a quick rule in Trello, forward the email and it appears right on the card almost immediately. 

 

 

Video Editing Tools to Make Your Videos Rock & Most Are Free!

What is holding you back from crushing it with video?

Video Tools To Rock Your Videos

Video is where it is at! If you are not creating videos by now, the ship has left the port but there is good news! There is still time to get on board! There are many video platforms however, I strongly suggest to use YouTube as your ma   in platform. You can read more about why video is so important to your business here.

How to videos are the most popular kind of videos  any business owner, real estate agent, mortgage broker, e-commerce, marketer can create. How to videos are the most popular of all videos to watch on YouTube. If you are too shy to be on camera- have no fear- you can screencast or talk while shooting video of what you are talking about. You can also do slideshows and narrate the content. The possibilities are numerous. Just take your first step!

YouTube Video EditorRanking high on my list of favorite video apps is the YouTube editor. The best thing about the YouTube editor is, it is free. Unlike many freebies, where you get what you pay for… YouTube editor is worth a lot more than free.

If you don’t want to take the time to learn how to use complicated movie editing software on your computer ( that is, if you don’t have a mac:)) then use the YouTube Video Editor.

You can add music that is approved by YouTube for your video as long as you are not monetizing your videos. (You can’t have ads running on your videos when using the music by CC license from YouTube.) This saves you money and time from running around trying to find tunes you have permission to use.

Adding annotations and captions is easy. Now, you can link your YouTube videos together which is an amazing SEO technique you should be using. I teach how to do YouTube SEO in Fast Track SEO and in Listing Experts Academy. Find your training modules on your Facebook group files tab.

A new addition to YouTube videos is ‘cards’. Learn how to use the ‘cards’ with easy tutorials free from YouTube. I will be creating more how to videos on all the new features inside of YouTube Editor. I am working on some YouTube editing video tutorials. Make sure you subscribe to my blog to get notified they are ready.

Here is a video we created for a new home subdivision of 70 homes that we listed in Port St Lucie Florida- our avatar is a baby boomer couple between 50 to 60 years old. When you watch the video you will be able to tell this is the market we are focused on. Always speak to your avatar:

Share the top Video Editing Tools – most of them are free! Click to Tweet

iMovie AppIf you want to edit your videos on your mac, on your iPad or on your iPhone iMovie is very easy to learn and easy to use.

Drag and drop your movie, audio and image files right from your desktop. On your iPad or iPhone just use your fingers to manipulate your video edits, cuts, and additions.

If you don’t feel like spending over $600 or a monthly fee for products like Adobe- iMovie is only $14.99 – a one time fee- and comes with most macs.

I love how easy and inexpensive it is to use the Apple App store – you can add your apps to all of your devices and computers at home and work without long license verification process and additional purchases saving time and money.

Instagram Built In Video Tool: FREE– If you are creating videos on Instagram look no further than the app right inside of Instagram.

It is free and easy to use. It is similar to the Instagram photo editor so if you are used to using the photo editor it won’t be hard to get the hang of the video tool.

Here is a tutorial on using video editing tools in Instagram I found on YouTube. It is short and to the point. https://youtu.be/-aUUyx-xa98 

Hyperlapse: FREE -I wrote this article about Hyperlapse. I love hyperlapse and have fun watching many videos done with this app.

Videos speak volume compared to blogging so I will show you how awesome Hyperlapse is instead of talking about it. This is one of the most beautiful hyperlapse videos created- The World is Beautiful by Seiswell:

We took a road trip from Fargo North Dakota to Mt Rushmore over to Cody, Wyoming then on to Yellowstone Park , down into Jackson Hole Wyoming and then ended in Salt Lake City, Utah. The ride was amazing and we took a lot of hyperlapse video along the way. 

StopMotion StudioIf you would like to add some animation to your videos this app for your iPhone and iPad might just become your favorite movie editing app.

Stop Motion Studio’s whole range of unique features will help you create terrific stop action movies. Frame-by-frame editor, the timeline, the sound editor, green screen; where you can change the background of your scene like those in the studio production sets of movies and TV commercials.

It’s user friendly, no complicated in-app tools, and it’s so fun to use and share!

FlipaGram: This app can be downloaded free in the app store for your iPhone and can also be used on Android phones from Google Play and also from Amazon apps.

You can take your photos and create video slideshows, add music, use stop motion, Have I mentioned they have millions of music clips you can use? Oh yes, that is right, millions of music clips to add to your videos. Your Flipagrams can be featured in the social section of the app, share your Flipagrams right from your phones!

The Music Video Camera is a new feature that will enhance your storytelling experience. You can create music videos and lip sync to, again millions of clips! Simply choose a song from the library, or your own, and begin shooting your video with the live camera!

This is a versatile music/slideshow/stop motion app. Give it a try and watch your creative alter-ego at play.

Videohance$2.99 App- This is an app for iOS devices. This app offers hundreds of HD special effects. 

You can adjust the “look” real time you are in control you can manage the settings, texture, light while you are shooting. Adjust authentic textures if you want that cool vintage vibe.

Cinemagram: $4.99 for iPhones and iPads. With this app you can add special effects to your videos! You can add effects like sparklers to your videos. You need to check this one out especially if you like to add animation style effects. While this is not animated, it is to me, easier to use because you just click on the effect you want.

Press-and-release video recording, on-the-fly linear sequencing and audio recording. It lets you play clips (Cinemagram term “cines”) in reverse, import images and videos taken from outside the app, use Instagram-like filters and exposure-enhancements to your vidoes, create manually edited loops, increase or decrease the video speed and release your projects as animated GIFs.

Creative animators or film makers make use of this app and the results are genius!

8mm Vintage: app is $1.99  for iOS devices is really fun. You can create vintage videos very quickly.  Let your imagination soar with this app. Just imagine using this app for historic homes in downtown areas!

Here is a music video was created with the 8mm Vintage app. Lana Del Ray’s song has already had 231,672,810 views! Summertime SadnessThe film is offered in “10 grainy, discolored, dusted and aged films from different eras – 1920, Noir, 60s, 70s, Sakura, XPro, Siena, Pela, Indigo and Tuscan.”

The app includes a jitter button to make your retro film really look like film! This is a very clever feature. The app has some awesome filters too!

Here is another video shot with the 8mm Vintage app:

8mm Vintage video app is really fun. Try creating some retro film with this app. Let me know how it turns out: Click to Tweet

Pick Play Post: FREE- for iOS devices. This app has the cool ability to time and watermark your videos. You can combine your videos, photos, GIFS and music to create videos with this app.

This is a very versatile collage video framer app allowing multiple cropped videos to be uploaded within the same frame. They can also be framed together with photos so that some slots in the grid show photos while others show videos. The degree of customization is so great that it even allows for multiple videos to be played simultaneously, or in a sequential order.

If you are wondering what app to use to make framed videos, or when you are the more versatile fresh type of film-maker try this app. You get to choose from wide range of frame options!

 

400 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every single minute. Don’t let that deter you from capturing your own audience on YouTube. Remember there is plenty of opportunity for you to gain a following and drive traffic to your websites by posting videos on YouTube.

 

I have written articles about YouTube stats so here is the short list: ​

  • Over 50% of all YouTube video views are on mobile devices.
  • Average time a person spends on YouTube is 40 minutes
  • Music, Minecraft and Movies are the most searched terms on YouTube
  • There are over 1 Billion YouTube active users!!!

 

Just for Fun! 

What is the #1 YouTube Video of ALL Time???

Psy’s 2012 hit ‘Gangnam Style’ has over 2.4 billion views and it also became the first to reach that 2 billion mark.

This video almost broke YouTube. Engineers for the site had to update the maximum view limit from 2,147,483,647 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, or more than nine quintillion.

YouTube video is also great for SEO.  Thinking of learning more about how to SEO your websites, blogs and YouTube videos?

Check out Fast Track SEO. Text me at 561-502-1577 to learn more about how we can help you with your digital marketing strategies from DIY programs and courses to Done for You Total packages.

 

How to Build Your Brand on Facebook without Annoying Your Friends & Family

Facebook marketing outsourcing social media plans

How to Build Your Brand on Facebook without Annoying Your Friends & Family

This webinar was one of my favorite webinars I attended a few years ago. I am excited to be able to host this webinar training for you.

Facebook marketing outsourcing social media plans

This webinar is popular and space will fill up fast.

Make sure you register today!

Date:  Wednesday September 2, 2015

Time: 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.  EST

This is a totally FREE webinar. Just bring yourself to a computer near you:).

Register now: : https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/600054441474036481

I am inviting you to hear REALTOR® Shaun Nilsson, the social media expert behind CityBlast walk us through how he used his time-saving secrets to attract new buyers and sellers while NOT annoying the rest of his social media peeps.

This is a 100% FREE workshop. We will show you how to close more real estate deals using only your Facebook while projecting an image of confidence and a seasoned professional.

You will learn how you can outsource this part of your marketing to others and avoid wasting your valuable time each day searching for great content to share.

You will also learn:

  • The secret of Inbound Marketing &  how to use it to make more money.
  • How a rookie agent used Facebook to close 24 deals in his first year of business with over $165,000 in income.
  • How to 100% systemize your Facebook marketing, so you don’t have to spend all your time on it.
  • What major factor makes Inbound Marketing especially critical for real estate professionals.
  • Live Q & A with the expert!

Reserve your space NOW for Wednesday’s Totally FREE workshop and start doing more business through your social media.

Register Now: : https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/600054441474036481

 

 

How Can We Stop Patent Trolls- H.R.9 Won’t Stop Them

If you are a REALTOR® then you received one of the emails from NAR asking you to contact your Senators to pass H.R. 9 for the sake of your business. If NAR was really so concerned about our businesses then they must also understand that we are not all just REALTORS® but also innovators and some of us own technology we invented and some of us run small businesses. The bill is not what the email said it was. I am embarrassed to say that I fell for it. And now, I am going to try to make amends by educating myself and you on what this bill is really going to do. 

As always, there are 2 sides to every bill, 2 sides to every argument. The biggest problem with passing laws contained in bills is 1. there is always more to it than what the people interpreting the bill lead on and 2. there are always unintended consequences to every law. 

When we face a problem or issue there are those who immediately jump on it and develop some kind of bill and run to legislate. I think that the politicians we send to Washington think they have to keep writing and passing new laws in order to feel as though they are worthwhile, like if they are not passing bills and laws they are not doing their job. But there are way too many laws now. Imagine passing laws every single session. Can you even add up how many laws there are now?

The REALTOR® Party sent out a call to action about the patent trolls that are out there ready to destroy your small business. This article is for all small business owners and entrepreneurs not just REALTORS®. 

The REALTOR® Party is admonishing each member to contact their congressmen and women to pass H.R.9 which the REALTOR® Party says will stop this abusive practice of 'legal' extortion over simple uses of every day technology such as your scanner and your drop down menu on your website.

I read the REALTOR® Party's call to action and I did contact the representatives of our area to ask them to stop this practice by passing H.R. 9. I am sorry to say, I reacted too soon. That is not like me. I usually study an issue very closely before deciding which action to take.

I also should have known better because the NAR was all for the ACA ( Obamacare) and we are suffering horribly from the health care laws that allow the IRS to extort money from us in the name of more taxes. I digress....

The issue is the NPEs that are trolling the patents and then becoming like the ugly trolls in Billy Goat's Gruff extorting a fee for crossing the bridge. There are people who will come after you and sue you for patent infringements based on patents they themselves did not create or invent. 

A friend of mine who is in a mastermind group with me stated that he met a man who does this for his business. He explained to my friend how he does this and my friend wondered how he lives with himself doing this kind of business which is obvious extortion. It is nasty and dirty business.

Unfortunately it is not as simple as passing H.R 9 to stop these trolls without hurting the true NPE's as there are good reasons to allow NPE of the original intent of the patent laws. The bad NPEs have taken advantage of this loophole to which our Founding Fathers did not intend. H.R. 9's language is too vague.  ​

Let's have a bit of history about the United States Patent laws. ​

NPE stands for Non Practicing Entities.  These include universities, research departments and start up companies who don't actually product their inventions themselves for many reasons. For startups this is usually because they don't have enough money to manufacture their inventions. For universities, the reason is obvious.  These instances greatly add value to our economy. 

This is also not a new idea. The Founding Fathers over 200 years ago also understood the value of adding to our economy by way of regular and poor people being able to invent products and then allowing another person to produce it. Even Thomas Edison did this.  The Founding Fathers wanted to stimulate our poor economy and this was a way to do it since in England ONLY the wealthy could obtain patents. 

In England you had to be very very rich and be able to pay for a factory to be built and hire the workers and so forth in order to manufacture an invention. This keeps innovation inside of a tightly knit group of wealthy people.

Our country is the first country in the world to have a patent licensing law and the right to resell your patents.  In early America, over 70% of all the patent owners had very little schooling. Even Thomas Edison had to leave school in order to take care of his family. 

By the time of the Civil War the United States had three times more patents than England did when we had double in population. Then soon after we had five times as many patents as England had. Because most of the people were poor that were inventing products about 85% of these patents were licensed. These licensed patents were so important to our early industrial revolution and growth our country had. 

For more reading on this subject here is an article you can read to get more details on Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/econostats/2015/05/29/who-are-patent-trolls-and-what-will-h-r-9-do-about-them/

In the last 30 years over 5,000 new products have been launched through this patent licensing known as NPEs. 

Stop H.R. 9 - new patents are more often licensed patents, save innovation 

Click to Tweet

The patent trolls are nasty people who send you a demand letter telling you to pay up for infringing on their license fee by you not paying for the right to use the invention.  Some of these trolls buy these licenses in groups of a particular type of technology.  You get served this demand letter saying you have infringed. The letter warns you, you will get a declaratory judgment in court.  They extort money from you for what they call "license fees" to keep using said product. 

But the H.R. 9 bill does little to address the very issue that proponents are talking about. 

According to another opinion on Forbes: 

Under such proposals, if enacted, Congress would generally require more particularity in demand letters and lawsuits, shift both parties’ litigation fees to the losing side, limit often expensive and time-consuming discovery, require disclosure of all beneficial owners of asserted patents, and protect users and purchasers of alleged infringing products from suit unless the manufacturer had first been sued or if the manufacturer agreed to assume defense of the suit.

If the REALTOR® Party considers itself a party to represent the best interest of REALTORS®, it should be also foremost also should be proactive in protecting private property rights which is embedded in the NAR Preamble. Private property rights cover different areas and more than just land. Private property rights also entail the house you own, the production of your hands and brain, the material things you own, your own person and space around you. It also should include intellectual property rights as many REALTORS® have invented processes and systems for the real estate market and businesses. 

H.R. 9 passed the house by a big majority: 24- 8. 

To read the Judiciary Committee's press release on this passage click here: http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/press-releases?id=00590462-03D1-414F-B266-2BBEEFC62074

Chairman Gootlatte said this: 

“At its core, abusive patent litigation is a drag on our economy and stifles innovation. It is a problem that impacts businesses and industries of all types and the jobs of the people who work for them, from the tech sector to the hospitality industry and even grocery stores. Everyone from independent inventors, to start-ups, to mid-and large-sized businesses face this constant threat. The tens of billions of dollars squandered on settlements and litigation expenses associated with abusive patent suits represent truly wasted capital – capital that could have been used to create new jobs, fund research and development, and create new innovations and technologies.

“The Innovation Act takes the necessary steps to address abusive patent litigation, while protecting legitimate property rights. Specifically, the legislation targets abusive behavior rather than specific entities, preserves valid patent enforcement tools, preserves patent property rights, promotes invention by independents and small businesses, and strengthens the overall patent system.”


The Bill now goes to the Senate. You can track the bill here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr9

The BIO tech industry organization is against H.R. 9 . 

Groups who are against this H.R. 9 bill say that this bill will stifle innovation by regular people and poor people. They are saying that this will undermine our patent industry and the patent laws which created the innovation we have been able to experience in our country. 

Will H.R. 9 Stifle innovation and small business patents?

Click to Tweet

The biggest giveaways that something may be amiss with a bill is what they name the bill. If it something peachy and rosy and makes you feel good- it most likely is not. 

The Hill reported: 

H.R. 9, the ill-named “Innovation Act” will allow large, market-dominant firms to infringe with impunity, by making it much more difficult for small inventors to enforce their patents. Three years ago, the American Invents Act made it more difficult to get and keep patents. H.R. 9, purported to solve a patent troll problem, is instead the next step in crushing competition from new small firms, creating “Big Tech Patent Ogres” that can ignore smaller players and their patents. This new bill makes it almost impossible for small technology startups to enforce their patents.

​The Hill's has a very good article about the assault on small businesses this new so called innovation act is going to be: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/238973-hr-9-crushes-innovation-killing-the-american-dream

How much of the H.R. 9 bill did the REALTOR® Party  and the NAR read? Did they read the entire bill? Did they discuss the ramifications with their legal counsel? 

And here is what Schmidt the  co-chair of the Small Business Technology Council has to say:


The U.S. patent system promotes innovation. H.R. 9 will retard innovation and cost America jobs and wealth. H.R. 9 is contrary to the Founding Fathers’ Constitutional intent, contrary to the policies of 220 years of patent law, and contrary to stated intention of the President and Congress to stimulate innovation. We urge the Congress, the White House and the SBA to oppose these potentially damaging changes, and instead support either the Troll Act in the House or the STRONG Patents Act in the Senate, both of which solve the troll issue, but do not hurt small inventors. If H.R. 9 becomes law as is, patent ogres will be a much worse problem than trolls could ever be.

"If H.R. 9 becomes law as is, patent ogres will be a much worse problem than trolls could ever be."

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Study the bills before you write your congress and representatives, study before you vote. Don't believe what you read. Explore, research, and most of all, read the bills! 

How To Use Trello as a CRM for Entrepreneurs- Consultants- Coaches- Small Business Owners

Katerina Gasset uses Trello to organize

How To Use Trello as a CRM for Entrepreneurs- Consultants- Coaches- Small Business Owners 

Are you just starting out in business? Are you looking for a simple solution to keep track of your contacts, leads and customers?

Trello is a free. Here is the link to Trello. There are very few reasons to upgrade to a paid version, however they do offer a business class and a gold class. But for most people, they can use the free version of Trello.  

Now granted, Trello is not a professional CRM program like Infusionsoft is. If you need really robust applications then you will have to look at solutions like Infusionsoft. 

Trello is a great project management app that can be used for many different things in your home and in your business. We use Trello for remodeling our home. We use it for homeschool projects and household chores. We use it to run our company projects on and keep track of listing syndication projects. 

I created this video tutorial below to show you how easy it is to set a Trello board up as a CRM, contact management system.

Trello is very beneficial to visual learners and tactical learners. I don’t like spreadsheets. They drive me crazy. But I love the boards and cards that you use on Trello. It is visually appealing to me. You can use it on your desktop, iPad and iPhone. I like the app for it on the phone.

I go to Lowe’s and snap a photo of something I want for the home and add it right into my home remodeling board. We went to Ikea and we took photos of the furniture and kitchen cabinets we want to buy and then placed them on my Trello board for Ikea hacks in home remodeling. 

I recommend that you sign up for Trello through your gmail account; that way it is very easy to login and you can also email directly from Trello- it will open your default email program. 

For Listing Experts Academy I will be doing a tutorial on how to set up your listing syndication board. Our VA team is being trained to use Trello so shortly they will be able to run your tasks in Trello for you. 

Please use my link to sign up for Trello. I get credits, no money, just credits towards their gold service if you use my link. Since I don’t use the gold version it really does not matter to me however I like to keep track of who is getting Trello because of my recommendation. 

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