Millennial Moderator

The way we choose to view ourselves and our lives determines the majority of our life experience..

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

It dictates how we’re going to feel, the mood we will wake up with, our thoughts and reactions, and even our very destiny. If we surround ourselves with negative thoughts, daily events won’t seem quite as positive. If we, on the other hand, choose to try and remain positive – well, that’s a whole new ballgame, isn’t it?

There is, of course, more to it than “just be positive and not negative.” That’s why I will be going into eight powerful mindset shifts you can adopt over the course of 2021. Note how I'm not saying “adopt now so that 2021 can be the best year of your life.” Changing your mindset in the slightest will require a lot of work. You’ll need to keep reminding yourself not to do certain things and to do others instead. It will take time. But, if you want it to stick, you’ll be happy to exchange that time for a better version of yourself down the line. And now for the mindset shifts!

1. Comfort Is the Enemy of Progress

We all like being comfortable. However, the annoying thing is that the more comfortable we feel, the less we are growing. There is no growth in the comfort zone. It can be quite pleasant there, and we can truly enjoy our time being comfortable. In fact, sometimes all you need in life is to retreat there to recharge your batteries before moving on. Maybe you’ve reached a point in life where you feel you don’t want to grow anymore, and there is absolutely nothing else you want to do, achieve, learn, gain. If you would be perfectly happy to live the exact same kind of life from now until you die: congratulations. You have mastered your own life, and you have earned the comfort. On the other hand, if there are still things out there you would want to achieve, own, or become: recognize the enemy within your own camp, and join in battle.

2. Kindness Is a Virtue – Especially on a Bad Day

Kindness used to be considered a virtue, and rudeness was, once upon a time, abhorrent and tedious. Today, we’ve somehow managed to equate kindness with weakness, and we sadly exhibit it less and less. Yet kindness is nothing but positive. It makes your day better, and it makes the day of the person you are being kind to better, too. This is especially true if you are having a bad day.

It doesn’t cost much, either, yet it can completely alter the course of a day. And if you believe in the butterfly effect, it can alter the fate of the world at large. So, next time you sleep late and are consequently late for work and the barista at Starbucks hands you the wrong order, don’t jump down her throat. Be kind, smile, and swallow your irritation. You’ll notice the day somehow manages to become instantly brighter.

3. Self-Care Does Not Equal Being Selfish

This is another myth propagated by modern norms. We are mistakenly lead to believe that it’s somehow selfish to take care of ourselves, put our own needs first, do something we feel like doing and avoid something we don’t feel like doing. Staying home to read a book when your friends would like you to go out is not selfish. After all, you’re not doing anything to harm them – you are just choosing to do what you feel like doing. Start prioritizing self-care over making others feel good. This might mean getting more sleep, for starters – after all, it impacts not only your physical and mental wellbeing, but your creativity too.

Self-care might also mean making healthier food choices and indulging in the pastimes you feel will benefit you. The point of self-care is to nurture your genuine needs, as opposed to doing what other people want you to do (excluding emergencies, of course).

4. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger

When faced with hardship, there are two reactions we can choose: giving up or getting back up. If you choose the former, you will likely be stuck in a perpetual state of negativity, in one way or another. Bad things happen to everyone, even horrible things. Yet some people choose to dust themselves off and embrace what they still have, while others choose to stop dead in their tracks, lamenting how they could have made something of themselves if only that one thing hadn’t happened.

A life without hardship is practically impossible, but if you choose to keep looking ahead, you can still do plenty. The power is in your hands once you choose to treat every bad event that leaves you still breathing as a chance to learn something, however small that something may be.

5. You Are Who You Spend Your Time with

If the people you choose to spend most of your time with are essentially negative people, you will feel their impact every day of your life. Part of this crowd are also people who might cause you to feel any negative emotion (self-doubt, inadequacy, irritability) or drain your energy. On the other hand, if you spend time with people who lift you up and recharge you, you’ll notice you are adopting a different worldview altogether.

Accept that the company you keep greatly influences the life you are living – even when that doesn’t seem to be the case. Choose to spend your time with people who can teach you something, people who can make you smile and laugh, people you like to be around. Even if you are currently closer to the negative bunch.

6. Mistakes Teach You More Than Wins

Most people are afraid of making mistakes. They think making a mistake is wrong or somehow bad. And this thought limits what they get to do in life. They never try many things, or they might try and give up after that first failure, disappointed that they are not instantly good at something.

The truth is, no one knows anything without having to learn it. Some people are more talented than others, there’s that. Take playing an instrument for example. There are people who have a natural ear and who will become better at it – but they still have to practice a lot. In fact, they practice for hours on end, sometimes for entire days. And they make plenty of mistakes until it comes out perfectly.

The mistakes you make can teach you more than you can learn from your successes. Successes are less frequent, after all, and every time you don’t do something right, you learn something new. Just like a baby does when taking its first steps, or a first violin when practicing their next solo.

7. The World Is More Gray Than It Is Black or White

We like to think that our world is built on opposites. Good and evil. Black and white. Darkness and light. But what the world really is is gray. If you shape your beliefs as either/or, and if you choose to approach people and problems with this attitude, chances are, you will be alienating a whole lot of people as well as experiences.

There is no just black or just white, and there is rarely just good and just evil. Everyone, and every situation, is a mixture of both. The sooner you accept that good people can do silly things and make mistakes, and that morally dubious characters can be incredibly kind, the better you will be able to adjust to living life as a human being.

8. We Are All Reading Different Manuals

Finally, accept that everyone is different and that the beliefs and truths you hold so dear will be utterly strange to someone else. So much of who we are depends on when and where we are born. Our family, our immediate surroundings while we are young, the culture we are exposed to – all of these influences shape our belief system, values, and mindset. And it can be incredibly difficult to change any of them.

When you first accept this fact as the truth, you can begin to challenge yourself and reshape the way you see and interact with the world. This realization will help you understand others, where they are coming from, and how they choose to interact with the world. Hopefully, it will also teach you to be less judgmental as well.

Final Thoughts

Think about each of the mindsets and shifts we’ve talked about here. Do you agree with them? Do you find them to be false? Have you recognized yourself in any of them? Can you see yourself altering any of the beliefs related to these mindsets? Remember: you are who you think you are. Not in the “I can fly if I imagine I can fly” kind of way, but in the more cold, hard, “my mindset determines who I am” kind of way. The way you choose to react and interact with the people and events around you is what ultimately shapes your world. And luckily, the only person who can truly shift that is yourself.

If you enjoyed this Mod, you might like to read more about theses 5 tips to maintain a healthy relationship! Please share this Mod using the social links below. Any questions or comments? Let us know on Twitter!

It's no surprise that today, companies need to be marketing on all digital fronts..

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

Social media, Google ads, affiliate placements, and more all play into the funnel that your business uses to gather leads and turn sales. The notion of variety in where people spend their time online is subject to scrutiny. Some sources believe that businesses should only focus on the platforms where their demographic is most active. In contrast, others believe that marketing efforts should be widespread in the case of attracting outliers.

Regardless if you have a product or service, the digital front has an abundance of channels to locate potential customers, but what's often lacking in the marketers' wheelhouse of expertise is a comprehensive understanding of how the varying channels all feed into the sales funnel. Where do leads come from? Which channels convert and which ones don't? Is it possible to track conversions from radio to website? This is the question that Multi-Touch Attribution seeks to answer, and it's one of the best ways for small businesses to grasp the reigns of their marketing strategy.

According to LeadsRX, a leader in the digital marketing space, Multi-Touch Attribution is the collection of touch-points across all marketing channels, which are then captured as conversions in the funnel, then mapped to each individual customer journey to provide unrivaled and impartial attribution results. In my own interpretation: MTA collects all conversions from all platforms that a company engages from a marketing perspective and designs unique journeys for each of those converting users. These custom "journeys" are designed to expand from the experience they've had so far (someone on Twitter will have a very different experience than someone from Google Ads or Facebook, for example.)

Not only is Multi-Touch Attribution a great way to design unique funnels for a variety of users, but it's effectively a mindset that collectively exhausts all opportunities for marketing narrative across all of a businesses' channels. Take a company's blog posts, for example- pieces of writing designed to share updates or notable topics related to their business, with an underlying assumption that readers will further explore their business and possibly become customers or clients. SEO draws the readers to the blog post (a different topic entirely). After reading said article, that target audience now has an imprint of understanding about what your business stands for.

From there, their next immediate action needs to be closely monitored by the marketing team. Do they choose to click on the "buy now" option, or do they navigate to a different page? Despite a companies' identified customer base, there will always be outliers trickling in through marketing channels, new people who may or may not become your customers but whose behavior can be very insightful to a marketing team's data. Ask yourself this question to better understand multi-touch attribution: wheredo you currently advertise your business/service, and how does that channel's target market vary from another channel? What's the difference in user behavior from an ad on YouTube versus Facebook?

Understanding these differences can be fruitful for a marketing team, but the trouble with such a comprehensive evaluation has always been the same- how do we track it all?

How are multi-touch points evaluated?

Social media posts, radio advertisements, phone/SMS ads, all of these help discover potential new customers, but the process for capturing and measuring these conversions is spotty at best. After all, how are you supposed to track an advertisement for your service on the radio that led to conversion when there are no physical clicks? To answer this question, companies like LeadsRx have designed comprehensive tracking systems that all funnel into a central database, from which marketing teams can extract meaning. By using universal tracking pixels, they can delineate which type of traffic is visiting your site- its source, time spent, and much more.

This information is vital to marketing teams, as it can fuel smarter assumptions in future campaigns. The great thing about Multi-Touch Attribution is that it can be applied to campaigns for new or existing customers. Leveraging a marketing team with experience in MTA and universal pixels is likely the easiest way to get started with this strategy.

Where can customer touch points be planted?

Depending on how your sales funnel is structured, various channels could benefit from a touchpoint (invitation for conversion). There are, of course, obvious placements such as social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn, etc.), but some of the less traditional ones that could yield promising conversion results include:

Radio

SMS messages

TV

Mobile (in-app)

Offline (events, meetings, etc.)

From a marketing mindset perspective, these are all channels that could lead to conversions and should be fully explored. Harnessing the power of Multi-Touch Attribution means gathering data from all of these channels and making informed decisions on how to best proceed with future campaigns. Multiple platforms should be explored with intent for any new business that is desperately seeking a product market fit or customer discovery to get customers. For companies with current customers, expanding to new channels (and effectively tracking their ROIs through MTAs) is a valuable way to increase business.

The age-old debate of how businesses can find new customers is, in my opinion, based on an underlying, incorrect assumption of what customers are. The best places to discover new customers is wherever the topic of your industry is being discussed. Digital environments make this increasingly simple by categorizing everything into topic keywords- the struggle for marketers is to evaluate if the virtual room they've entered has anyone alive or has been deserted for years (the downside of evergreen content strategy, I suppose).

As an overview, begin by evaluating your target audience's needs, exploring search results that relate to that specific need, and strategically placing yourself in the customers' stream of discovery through SEO, backlinks, tags, etc. The website, social media post, or paid advertisement you create to achieve this interception is one example of a touch point. As such, it should be evaluated for effectiveness, along with all other touch points in your campaign. To learn more about how Multi-Touch Attribution works, check out this Attribution Playbook from LeadsRx, which will help break down the process of setting up and evaluating all of your advertisement conversions.

Conclusion

Getting customers is an uphill battle in a vast arena, so it pays to distribute your efforts, but you can't expect quality results if you don't properly evaluate your efforts. Multi-Touch Attribution can help you do just that.

If you enjoyed this Mod, you might like to read more about these tips for video marketing in 2021! Please share this Mod using the social links below. Any questions or comments? Let us know on Twitter!

2020 has been nothing short of a challenge, yet some businesses have found stable footing in the value that they provide to customers..

Aleksey (Aleks) Weyman

List created and published on millennialmoderator.com

As American-British investor John Templeton once famously stated- the best opportunities come in times of maximum pessimism. Calming idea but difficult to embrace when the pessimism is at your front door. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic that has ravaged our world, halted entire industries and resulted in millions of deaths (literally and economically), much of the business world has become skeptical and; in reaction, withdrawn certain risk behaviors like innovating and investing.

However, despite the trend, there exist companies that have taken grasp of this uncertain time, buckled down on their operation and found a way to endure, if not grow even more. It’s these companies (both startups and established) that I want to highlight today. If they can do this well today, imagine what they’ll be doing tomorrow. Here’s our top 20 startups of 2020!

1. Phonic

First up on our top companies of 2020 is next-level survey software Phonic. With their revolutionary voice and video survey features (among others), they are radically redesigning the way that online surveys are conducted. They’ve had PR on Techcrunch and are already integrated with top educational institutions around the United States like Stanford and Cornell. You can learn more about Phonic as well as how to level up your own survey strategy, in this article.

2. The Closing Docs

Identifying a problem and providing a solution is the core of every great company’s value proposition, which is exactly what The Closing Docs is doing for landlords and property owners. With their software, landlords can easily verify tenant income without having to spend a copious amount of time managing multiple reports. Their platform is very user friendly and trustworthy- a key factor when handling finances. It’s a tenant application software that I personally will be using when I rent out my condo next year!

3. Iowa Solar

No list of forward-thinking companies would be complete without alternative energy sources, which is exactly where Iowa Solar shines bright. Servicing the Iowa/Illinois area, they have designed an extremely cost-effective solar panel solution for homeowners and businesses. They also provide installation and maintenance, truly bringing the cost-to-value ratio of solar energy down to consumer level. Not to mention, there are tax benefits associated with solar energy that both homeowners and businesses should take advantage of.

4. CornerNook

Work from home is seemingly the new norm around the world, with many organizations allowing for full time WFH accommodations for the foreseeable future, even after the global pandemic. CornerNook saw the value in this change of work-life, and began offering equipment and furniture that every home office needs to be functional and comfortable. From ergonomic chairs to electrical components, you can bet that they have all the home office equipment you need.

5. Cover Video

Our 5th startup to highlight has a unique backstory- founder and developer Nicholas Treybig had spent copious amounts of time applying for various jobs at companies like Amazon and Google, going so far as to create custom cover letter-videos to enhance his applications. He realized the struggle with creating multiple videos and thus, created a simple solution for applicants and employers alike. Covervideo.com is a key-protected cover video sharing web service that helps companies interview and hire candidates more readily and safely than ever before.

6. See Inside Media

2020 has been an eye opener to many industries of the possibilities that come with virtual reality and 3D user experiences, and founder David Schanen has been well aware of these possibilities since 2018, when he formed See Inside Media. This company provides virtual, 3D tour technology and has an existing market foothold in the real estate and music industries, with virtually every market an option in the foreseeable future. They are currently exploring volumetric video productions, which will allow for virtual reality live-stream experiences. A business to surely keep an eye on!

7. All About PDF

If there was one business that cares about your digital documents more than anyone else, it’s All About PDF. Founder Steven Amani has designed a suite of features that allow anyone to become a master of the portable document format. From PDF expiration dates, online file conversion options (in browser as well as downloadable software), PDF merging, not to mention a relatively new feature- DRM (digital rights management) to protect the monetary value of your documents, Amani and team are looking out for your digital documents in ways most don’t even think about.

8. BrandLume

It’s no surprise that there is an abundance of digital marketing solutions available on the web, so how can someone possibly explore them all? BrandLume has the answer- They provide expert-level services for every area of your business. Think of them as a one-stop-shop for all your digital marketing, branding and website services. They have been helping build businesses from the ground up since 2011! BrandLume offers wholesale prices and no-contract-needed consultations (among other features) for all digital marketing needs under the sun.

9. Emi

Being stuck at home for days on end has been a testing ground for relationships around the world, which is exactly where the Emi App has stepped up to the plate. They offer a simple yet valuable set of relationship exercises that are designed to rekindle and strengthen relationships with your significant other. The best part- it’s intuitive and easy to set up, with the premise being that you won’t have to take time out of your busy day to focus on relationship tips- Emi will do all the reminding for you!

10. Pry

Budgeting can be a sensitive subject for bootstrapped startups (or any company for that matter) but that doesn’t mean there isn’t value in planning ahead. Pry Financials makes it simple for companies to manage their budget, hiring plan, financial models, and cash runway. Their cloud-based platform allows for live, team collaboration and encourages a positive mindset with its clean and intuitive finance planning dashboards.

11. Finally

Unlike business finance, personal finance is a much more intimate topic to digest, with the majority of decisions based on personal goals and current economic conditions. Finally is (finally) providing a solution for the individual, by creating educational material about which financial options are available, and then automating financial portfolios based on the individuals goals’ and desires. Not to mention, they offer financial advising for a fraction of the cost.

12. NITL

So much of our news media today is fluffy and misleading, which fuels and perpetuates the concept of fake news around the world. NITL (News In Three Lines) is solving this problem by objectively scraping the facts out of current news articles and presenting them to readers in just three lines. From there, the viewer can decide whether they want to read the full article or not- an important decision that is often swayed by how clickbaity the title is, but no more!

13. Intervue

In our exceedingly technological world, software developers are becoming the builders of tomorrow, but it can be difficult to properly assess the skill that a developer has, especially in remote working conditions. Intervue has arisen to this challenge by offering an immersive, live coding environment for employers and applicants to assess technical capabilities in real time, with video chat, multiple compilers, loggable interview notes, and more. Hiring quality developers is now much easier!

14. Palabra.io

Email automations are the bread and butter of a hands-free digital business or service. The Palabra.io team has created a platform that allows for complete landing page optimization, allowing users to define how customer contacts are collected, when to engage with them (down to the minute) and write copy in advance. All that’s left is to connect Palabra to your site and your email automation workflow is live!

15. Flip Booklets

Digital presentation is vital in todays world- portfolios, landing pages, all seeking to educate the user in the most innovative way possible. Flip Booklets allows users to upload any PDF document and turn it into an interactive, digital flip book (like the ones you’d find in stores). These books are a great digital marketing tool for 2021 and beyond!

16. Wiza

Linkedin poses a lot of opportunities for customer leads, but it can be tricky to navigate their UI and pull meaningful (email) contact infos. The Linkedin Sales Navigator tool can help with this, but even it has limitations; specifically, the amount of time it takes to scrape contacts. Wiza is a tool that allows you to quickly export Linkedin contacts and even vets the users for quality. Getting leads on Linkedin doesn’t have to be a painful process!

17. Twisted Road

Despite the stay-at-home protocols enforced by many governments in 2020, travel enthusiasts are still finding time to get out of their homes and hit the roads. Twisted Road is essentially Uber for motorcycles specifically, and it allows users to list their bikes or rent from others. Vehicle renting apps are a hot commodity, plus we won’t be in lockdown forever!

18. Earned Value App

Tracking a projects budget involves more than just a projection and some receipts, especially if the project has many moving pieces (as most organizations do). The Earned Value App leans on the earned value mathmatic formula, which helps identify potential financial issues that could lead to overspending, before you get there. Budget tracking apps are critical to monitoring a projects financial success.

19. Video Jaguar

Like mentioned before, video content will likely see an upswing in 2021, so businesses need to get ahead of the curve and adapt. Video Jaguar is a video template tool that has simplified video creation to the point where all users need to do is choose a format, upload text, and the platform will do the rest. Video content marketing in 2021 could be the difference between a positive and negative impacting campaign!

20. Lionshare Digital

Digital marketing is a diverse beast, with various potential avenues to explore. However as most business owners know, time is never on their side. Lionshare Digital is a full stack digital marketing agency that creates everything from websites to brand bibles, and has a long track record of serving professionals in the creative (among others) field. Building an effective website could be the start of something great!

21. EXTRA: GMASS

Last on our list is the GMASS service, a plugin for Google that helps automate email workflows right from within Gmail. This plugin is versatile and constantly updated with new features. In fact, it’s one of the several tools that our team at Millennial Moderator relies on! Check out our Tools page for more information.

Conclusion

As we wrap up a rather tumultuous year, we reflect on the companies that have given us value in times of uncertainty. This list is surely not collectively exhaustive, but it does highlight some startups that we believe will be paving the way for businesses in 2021. Have a great rest of 2020 and we’ll see you in the new year!

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7 apps you can use to make friends from home, during the holidays! 🎁 Read more:

Free file converting tools are plentiful in the online space, but how do you know which ones are the best?

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

File formats today continue to demand frequent modification- video files turned to MP3 for audio-only playback, MP3 to WAV or AAC conversions for those operating in the audio space, JPGs that need to be PNGs for better image scalability, the list goes on. Searching online for "free video converter" will give you hundreds if not thousands of options to choose from, but today I want to highlight some important points to consider, when deciding which conversion tool to use. In an overview, these points are:

1. Identify the file upload size restrictions (2MB really isn't that much).

2. Did you check if there is any loss of quality in the conversion?

3. Do free file converting tools keeps your files on their server? (Privacy?)

4. Watch for typos in extensions (MOVIEMP4.MP3?)

5. Check if the file converting tool has upload quantity restriction.

1. Identify the free file converter upload size restrictions.

Because these free file converters rely on computing power the convert files into other output formats, there is a cost associated with the conversion process. A common strategy to mitigate bulky computing (video formats for example, tend to be quite large), is to restrict upload file size. Tools like Zamzar have a restriction of 50MB and others, like TinyPng, restrict upload files to just 2MB (though it is meant for smaller files in general). Different file formats have different sizes, and file conversions from SOME formats to others, requires full file re-writing, for example the conversion of video codecs. Your best bet is to identify an online file converter that has zero limitations on file upload size.

2. Did you check if there is any loss of quality in the conversion?

Depending on the file output type, you may wish to identify if there was any lossy conversion. In the music space, a WAV file is intended to be lossless, but converting MP3s to WAVs doesn't guarantee that the output audio files are completely lossless. For most people, this loss in bits is not noticeable but for others, it can be a big difference. Another format to identify lossless file types is PDFs. If your output file appears blurry when reading, there's a good chance that quality was reduced. Some of the free file converters online do this to mitigate cost of computing power. If you're converting high quality file formats, you might want to consider investing in a powerful software (Final Cut Pro for video, for example) to handle these conversions. Otherwise, I suggest monitoring your output files after using a file converter online, to identify if there was loss in quality. You can also check input vs output file size, as a smaller output size MAY indicate compression (but keep in mind that file types compress their bits differently).

3. Do free file converting tools keeps your files on their server?

Security and privacy are extremely important nowadays, especially when it comes to your digital files. Converting a highly classified PDF for your business through an online converter might not be protocol, but you should always check if the converter software/website handles the conversions on your browsers end or on their own servers. If the latter, this likely means that your files are being downloaded directly into their backend, where they can have full visibility and control of them. In most cases, there isn't an actual person watching the files for potentially valuable information, but that doesn't mean there isn't a risk. Some free file converter websites will make a note whether they directly download your input file to their servers, but not all.

4. Watch for typos in extensions

This is a tip that mostly falls on the users end- by mindful of typos in your file names. Some operating systems will give you trouble if you try to manually change an extension name from download (macOS for example) and instead of the FILENAME.MP4 that you intended, you'll end up with FILENAMEMP4.MP3 or something similar. Downloading output files from a free file converter online could also yield problematic file extensions, especially when attempting to convert and download videos from direct URLs (YouTube videos for example). Video converter softwares are pretty complex, so do your due diligence and make sure your output file type is as intended. Consider attempting one file conversion before your entire batch?

5. Check if the file converting tool has upload quantity restriction.

A final hurdle that many online converter present, is upload quantity. Much like our first point regarding file size, these converter tools rely on computing power, and if you're sending hundreds of thousands of files through it at once, it could rack up some pretty hefty charges. Services like Zamzar get around this by setting a limit of 2 files per 24 hour period, but that obviously makes it a pay-to-play service, not exactly ideal for everyone. Your best bet is to find a free online file converter that has zero restrictions on quantity of files (and perhaps even offer a batch conversion feature), which would speed up those bulk file moments.

Conclusion

Online file converters have truly revolutionized the flexibility of digital file management, offering seemingly endless conversion possibilities all at a moments notice. There are however, certain pros and cons to using these tools, as well as variety in the flexibility that they provide. Do your due diligence when converting that next file, and pick a tool that gets the job done right.

If you enjoyed this Mod, you might like to read more about these tips for video marketing in 2021! Please share this Mod using the social links below. Any questions or comments? Let us know on Twitter!

Following tradition, Black Friday and leading holidays are times of heavy discount on many types of goods, but perhaps none more-so than home office products..

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

Finding the best deals and discounts around the holidays can seem like an arms race (sometimes it literally is), with virtually every producer and supplier cramming incentives to purchase their goods over competitors. In light of the global pandemic (COVID-19), the battle of home office supply and equipment sales is on steroids. Suppliers are undoubtedly feeling a financial loss due to the difficulties of maintaining revenue throughout 2020, and millions of employees have shifted to work-from-home environments, realizing that their performance and comfort is directly connected to the quality and quantity of at-home equipment (desks, chairs, etc). It's a two sided front, and both parties are eager to hit the shopping floor.

Today I want to highlight 6 home office supplies that will undoubtedly be offered at a heavy discount during the holiday season, as well as where you might find the best deals, online. Here's a list of the home office items we'll be addressing in this Mod as being most valuable to you:

Home office desk (standing, moving, etc).

Home office chair (physical posture is important).

Home office keyboard (carpel tunnel syndrome sucks).

Home office trackpad/mouse (preference).

Home office decor (aesthetics are important).

Home office electrical items (are some power strips better than others?!).

1. Get a nice home office desk

Your desk is your podium, from which you conduct all matters of business. With such importance, you need to be comfortable and equipped to perform at all hours of the day, in all varieties of position. I can tell you from firsthand experience, that sitting at a standard desk for 10+ hours each day is a no-go for both my back and my sanity. I believe that a desk is the most important home office furniture item to have and thus, needs to be of high quality. Because most WFH jobs involve computer desks, you likely want one that is able to move up and down, to accommodate both standing and sitting orientations. If a desk comes with mounted monitor arms, even better (though these may be purchased after the fact, as well).

Take a look at the desks offered on Cornernook.com, as they have a variety of price ranges and desk styles. In addition to a first-time purchase 10% off, they will also likely offer a Black Friday sale, just like all other home office essentials providers.

Tip: Be sure to properly measure the space in your home where your desk will sit- returns during the holiday season can be a pain!

2. Support your back with a proper home office chair

If your desk is a podium, then your chair is your throne, from where you command your legions (emails, in my case). Sitting in a low quality chair for multiple hours each day can result in some pretty serious physical pain, and lead to long term skeletal damage if not closely monitored. Stores like Best Buy always have an abundance of great deals on home office chairs, but you can also find great value online. Simply reading the reviews of a particular product will yield insight into how that item has worked for others- trust the advice of your fellow home-office peers. That said, be wary of false product reviews on marketplace sites like Amazon.

Tip: Find an office chair that has an inward bowed back, as this will encourage better posture and prevent slouching.

3. What's your type.. of keyboard?

Your keyboard is your vessel for crafting messages to the world, but pounding flat keys for hours on end is actually pretty bad for your hands. The Carpal Tunnel is a narrow passageway surrounded by bones and ligaments on the palm side of your hand. When the median nerve is compressed, the symptoms can include numbness, tingling and weakness in the hand and arm. This can lead to long term nerve damage and is quite uncomfortable! Thankfully, there exist ergonomic keyboards, that are shaped in a way that prevent strain on the hands, thus encouraging a less painful, typing experience.

There are tons of Black Friday deals on these types of keyboards, and your employer HR department might even offer rebates for the purchase of an ergo-keyboard. For the best prices, you can check a variety of marketplace sites (your employer might know some that they suggest) and be sure to use tools like Honey to compare and identify the best deals available.

Tip: If you can, go to a physical location and FEEL the different types of ergo-keyboards. They feel significantly different than standard keyboards, so it's good to find one that suits you.

4. Are you a mouse or trackpad kind of person?

Some prefer the laptop-like trackpad experience (which can be external from the computer), while others are accustomed to a free-moving mouse. Whatever your poison, the holidays are a great time to find deals and discounts. Black Friday savings alone, can reduce these accessories to just a few dollars, if not bundled in for free, with larger purchases. Office Depot (both physical and online) is a great resource for buying trackpads/mice (mouses?), so it's really just a matter of preference and what you have available to you. If you go ergo, I suggest feeling the mouse/trackpad in person, since it's significantly different than standard designs.

Tip: Most office-supply stores have an abundance of trackpad/mouse options, year round. If you can't find anything during the holiday rush, you can rest assured that there will be more available in coming months.

5. Decorate your home office!

One of the best values of working from home, is the flexibility to set up your "office" however you like. Without corporate policy or employee relations, your home office can be completely retrofitted to be a spaceship, or an arboretum (popular with the hipsters), or even just some minor artifacts placed on your desk that inspire creativity. Funny enough, these types of office accessories can be bought pretty much everywhere, especially if you're a DIY type of person. I personally find the clearance sections of supermarkets (where they have small household sections) to be ripe with creative, aesthetically pleasing, office accessories. Some ideas of what you might buy to spice up your office:

Plants (get those little succulents in glass jars).

Pictures (of your family, sure, but what about exotic destinations?).

Lights (LEDs if you like to party, Christmas lights if you're just setting a mood. Lamps are cool too).

Books (practical, and they make you look smart).

Tip: Try going to unconventional stores to find home office accessories. Also, why not some new light fixtures? Check out the desk lights offered on Corner Nook.

6. Get plugged with some new electrical tools

Probably one of the most underrated home office items is your power strip- or any electrical unit for that matter. If you're like my dad and obsessed with saving pennies from the electric bill, then you should probably look into an energy saving power strip, that can be toggled on/off with a switch. This can help reduce unnecessary electrical use, not to mention protect against accidental shock (if you have kids, or cats).

Length is also a common issue- if you have a standing desk, you need a power-strip with enough reach to not get snagged each time you move your desk up/down. Corner Nook has some great options for power strips, along with other (more than just electrical) accessories. Here's a

link

to some examples. It's good practice to buy before the holiday rush kicks in, to get the early deals and avoid high sale prices. Cables are also one of those home office items that can be easily shipped, so you don't need to go out of your way to visit a store and fight through lines.

Tip: Upgrade your power strips to preserve electric costs, while also protecting kids and pets from accidental shock. Also, mind the cable length!

Conclusion

Though it's generally a good idea to start preparing for holiday shopping in mid July (seriously), there are tons of big deals offered on home office tools and furniture all the way through the new year. With the amount of WFH personnel and thirsty product suppliers ravaging the ecosystem that is 2020, you can bet that this holiday season will be jam packed with cost-saving opportunities. Take the time to get acquainted with your options now, and don't wait too long to shop!

If you enjoyed this Mod, you might like to read more about these easy ways to upgrade your home office! Please share this Mod using the social links below. Any questions or comments? Let us know on Twitter!

There are several reasons to move out of a place into another..

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

It could be that you are just starting a new phase in your life (which is essential). In this case, you should know that your transition and adaptation into your new environment will be much easier when you have personal connections with other people (especially those within that vicinity you just moved into). It is quite evident that your friends and families are more spread out. It is also possible that you lived with your family and had your friends around you in your previous location, but you decided to move out and start a new phase in your life, or you are moving out for career reason, and now you are lonely, in no man’s land.

As it turns out, there is a solution to that problem- in social apps. You can download a social app, and in no time, you are meeting new people and making new friends. Several best essay apps are geared towards helping people make new friends. With these apps, you can target a particular lifestyle interest or demographic, so that you can easily find people on the same wavelength as you. By doing so, you already have several topics to discuss, and it is easy to forge strong bonds. The good thing about these apps is that you don’t need to go out to meet these new people in real life. You can stay right there in your house and connect with them.

It does not matter if you are looking for a new set of friends in your vicinity or you want to expand your circle of friends, there are different apps that you can download and use to find friends from the comfort of your home. This article from one of the authors at assignment writing services talks about seven apps that you can download to make friends while staying at home.

1. Nextdoor

Being the new neighbor in the neighborhood is not always an easy thing. With the Nextdoor app from GH Media and Tech, you have an essential social app, more like a social network that is private and exclusive to a particular neighborhood. This app makes it easy to relate to your new neighbors while at your house. You can easily ask for their recommendations on things to buy and where to buy them, to live comfortably in the neighborhood. You can also get local news, while scoring quality household items. Most importantly, you can also form new friendships and relationships with people living around you in a very organic manner.

The fact that the Nextdoor app is location-based means that you will very quickly meet up with the people you meet on the app in real life, and you can get to know each other better while discovering commonalities as well.

2. Eatwith

With this app, Eatwith, you have the chance to meet up with people that have the same food taste as yours and eat out with them. For example if you just moved out to a new location and are having difficulty finding the best restaurant that offers your preference of food, or you are too shy to go and eat your favorite meal alone. Eatwith makes it easy for you to find people with the same passion for food, in your locality.

The app is a food-centered community that focuses on meeting locals and sharing your food experience with them in that location. This is one way to make friends with a shared passion. But in this case, the passion is food. It is effortless to use this app. All you need to do is download the app, choose the location or city you’re at and see the available food experience there, while meeting locals ready to share the experience with you. It is also possible that you find several events that you can join. Just select an occasion when you find one that appeals to you on the app, get the date, and book a seat. You can also meet people at this event and make friends!

3. Meetup

Once you move out to a new location and look to make new friends, your best bet is to start by looking for people who share the same ideas and interests with you. If this is the case for you, then the right app for you to start with Meetup. This app helps people that share the same hobbies and passion connect with each other.

It does not matter your passion or interest, whether it is learning a new language or marathon training or just conversations about philosophy. This app is the right one to help you meet such people in a new environment. Meetup is even more effective when you are in the big cities such as Tokyo, London, and Berlin. This opens you up entirely to a new set of people with the same ideas as you. You may meet up with different people every day of the week.

No matter what you are looking for, you will find people that resonate with similar interests as you. Just ensure that you read and understand the group description of whatever group you are joining. You could be required to pay a fee, bring an item, or know some other things before joining. Whatever the case is, have fun and make new friends.

4. Hey! Vina

Hey! Vina is an exciting app for ladies. There is a reason why people call it “Tinder for (female) friends.” It is a social app that allows you to meet new people and make friends by simply swiping to the right. With this app, it is also possible that you join a group or community of people that share the same kind of interests.

Hey! Vina, not only connected you to new people, but it also allows you to take quizzes if you want to, and read some of the best articles. According to the founders Jen Aprahamian and Olivia June, the app was created to help with women empowerment, those that recently moved into a new location, or women who love traveling, etc. This will ensure that they can meet new people and make new friends easily within their community, so they are not lonely.

5. Peanut

We all know how difficult it is to be a mom. Taking care of the kid(s) as a mom is undoubtedly one of the most challenging things to do globally, especially for people combining it with other daily activities and jobs. Sometimes, it is easy to become isolated from the real world while trying to fulfill your motherly duties.

But Peanut, as an app, has the goal of connecting moms that have been isolated from the real world. Like many similar apps, it uses the swipe right, swipe left model, and brings matches or suggestions based on individual values, interests, and the children’s age. So, it is easy to meet another mother with a child(ren) about the same age as yours and connect with them. This app also has a forum where the moms can pose their questions and share their knowledge.

6. Friender

Looking for friends in a new location means that you are looking for someone or people to share your favorite activities with. The good thing is, you don’t have to force people to do things or activities that do not interest them, not with an app like Friender.

When you are creating your profile on the Friender app, you have the opportunity to choose some of your favorite activities from a list with about 130 different activities. Once you have selected your favorite activities, the Friender app will look for people with activities that match yours and suggest them to you. At the very least, you will get someone that shares at least one activity with you, so you both have a common ground to kickstart your friendship. From there, both of you can meet up to discuss and try out your favorite activities together, be it rock climbing, surfing, etc.

7. BarkHappy

BarkHappy should undoubtedly be one of your favorite apps if you are a dog lover. When you move out to a new place, you might not be able to carry your friends and family along, but your dog would always go with you and be your companion. So, while you are busy looking up people with similar interests in your area to be friends with, you need to look up new friends for your dog too.

With BarkHappy, you have a location-based app that will help you find and connect with other dogs or dog owners around you. In this case, it is not just you that is meeting someone new and making friends; your dog is as well. You can also check out the app’s map for businesses and dog-friendly events that you can go to with your dog.

Conclusion

It is not always easy for you to move out to a new location (for whatever reason), and while you are unable to come along with your friends, you must make new friends to aid your adaptation into your new environment. With these 7 social apps, you can meet new people that share your interests with ease, and make new friends!

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Most people know that financial planning is an important topic, but it can be difficult to understand its complexities..

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

Let’s face it, the financial models of our world can get pretty complicated. The question of whether that’s because of an abusive agenda by financial institutions or a lack of understanding and knowledge by consumers, is an entirely different conversation. For now, we’ll just agree that finances can be hard. Especially for the young adult who recently graduated from college and is bound by debt, or freelance/remote workers who collect payments on a project basis but have no clear understanding of how to properly track and forecast their financial performance, financial planning can be a sore subject.

Today, I hope to at least shed some light on an overview approach for creating and automating a financial plan, as well as one particular service that is helping people (Canada only, for now) create their own financial plan in a matter of minutes. Let’s go!

Start by picking the right investment portfolio

One of the most important aspects of a financial plan is deciding where you are going to put your money, to work for you. In the most common practice, this is usually some form of a retirement plan, that is matched by an employer and meant to be withdrawn in the later years of life. However, that lifestyle might not resonate with everyone (it’s kind of an outdated model, tbh), so understanding the other types of investment portfolios and more particularly- financial products, is a crucial first step to forming your financial plan.

To choose an investment portfolio, you need to first choose which type of financial product you want to pursue. Some of the more common financial products include:

GICS.

Mutual Funds.

Stocks.

RRSP vs TFSA.

These are just a few of the ways you can have your money work for you, and the combination of these, is what constitutes a good quality investment portfolio. Much more than we have time to get into today, you can search these terms out on Google, or contact a financial advisor to help you figure out which one makes the most sense for you. If you reside in Canada, you can use the Finally application to get suggestions and explanations of the various financial portfolio types that you can create. Again- understanding which type of financial product you wish to pursue (how you wish to invest your money) will determine how your investment portfolio is built, and how it affects your overall financial plan.

Consider working with a financial consultant

If you’re ready to take your financial planning seriously, then you need to partner with someone who has years of experience and understands the various options available to you. This is especially true for beginner finance planners, who might not be aware of all the options available to them. Working with a quality financial consultant will help you better grasp your financial future for a few reasons:

They are unbiased to your emotional preference- a bad deal is a bad deal.

They are aware of current limitations/opportunities in the financial markets that you can take advantage of, or avoid to prevent loss.

They can undertake financial decisions on your behalf- depending on how much authority you choose to give to them.

Financial planners are in the business of making your money work for you, in the long term. Unfortunately, because this is a full time career for these individuals, the costs can run pretty high, especially if you find a specialist who is well reputed in the industry. Basically- you pay for what you get.

There are of course, services that can help bridge the gap between you and a financial consultant, that don’t eat up your wallet. If you live in Canada, the Finally team (mentioned earlier) will generate you a custom financial plan for just $9.99/month (currently they have a limited offer of $4.99/mth), compared to most financial firms who will charge over $1000 for a financial plan, and then additional fees for every time you meet/modify your plan with them. I guess what I’m saying, is that your financial plan might benefit from being a Canadian citizen and using Finally! ;)

Automate your financial movements as much as possible

I was taught as a kid to never let services charge me automatically, but as I got older and busier, I realized that a certain amount of automation can really save time, headache, and take away that edging anxiety that might make me pull out at the last minute before a transaction. If you’re committed to financial security, you should make sure you get out of your own way and just let it do its thing. That’s why scheduling automatic deposits into your financial plan is a good idea.

Depending on which types of assets your financial plan is engaging, you might have a series of scheduled transactions between accounts (X amount to bank A, twice a month, Y amount to account B, once a month, etc). Managing these independently can be extremely taxing on time and attention, so it’s a good idea to automate them. Some platforms will actually handle all the transactions for you, so once you have a solid financial plan created with them, you can connect the necessary accounts and monitor all of the automated transactions. You can also make changes to your plan at any time, changing the automatic workflow as needed (this is something that standard firms will charge you for).

Lastly, track your financial goals on a consistent basis

It’s great to be dumping your money into an account every two weeks, but where is that effort going? Being clear on your financial goals is a fundamental part of having a good financial plan- you can sail out to sea but if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re going to end up somewhere you didn't plan. Take the time to map out your trajectory (by yourself, with a financial firm, or with a finance service), and get clear on your checkpoints along the way. Hell, you can even treat yourself when you reach certain milestones- a little positive enforcement never hurts. :)

To learn more about the Finally financial planning service, check out their home page.

If you enjoyed this Mod, you might like to read more about these four privacy tips for virtual project management! Please share this Mod using the social links below. Any questions or comments? Let us know on Twitter!

Whether we like it or not, our life is organized around seasonal events to a great extent..

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

Seasonal marketing is a professional response to those culturally long-established occasions and is an excellent example of the skillful taking of every opportunity to keep the business successfully running.

Marketing is the art of attending to the needs of many, while good marketing is the talent to professionally use every significant public event to spice up promotions. The seasonal events are the perfect opportunity for marketers to bring something new on the table by merely implementing all the ready symbols and topics of the particular holiday.

Holidays - an inexhaustible source of marketers' inspiration

The first holiday to sprang up in everyone's mind when talking about holiday marketing is, with high probability, Christmas. So let's cite an example without further ado. In order to prepare content for the Christmas campaign, marketers do not have to face a tremendous obstacle of reinventing the wheel; the set of ready-made, time-tested ideas, marks, and symbols is right here at their disposal. We are talking here about traditional red and green colors, brightly wrapped presents, good old Santa, Rudolph, Christmas miracles, cookies, family reunions - you name it.

The list goes on, giving the perfect, fertile ground for marketers to generate fascinating ideas. Easter, Halloween, Valentine's Day, St. Patricks Day - seize these opportunities of driving more interest to your business, thus boosting the revenue! Customers will not only lose track of their wallets, but also get inspired by festive spirit and, quite often, really enjoy the mastery of marketer's merry-making campaigns.

We have put together a list of great seasonal marketing ideas from real marketing craft professionals - get inspired for new campaigns and do not waste your seasonal opportunities!

Let's Hear it From the Real Brands

1. Grammarly's guide to the faultless Valentine's Day.

Nowadays, it is more than ever difficult to imagine the actual communication percentage that has moved to the online world. And as we all know, written communication leaves a lot of room for error. This unfortunate truth is particularly embarrassing when it comes to a romantic relationship that strives online. Grammarly, a software company that runs an English language digital writing tool, has got you covered. The company's specialists have a campaign each year to come up with the top tips on making a beautiful romantic gesture and not to embarrass yourself with their app's help. What a great idea! If you set out on a quest to write the perfect love note - Grammarly can help.

2. Nintendo's launch of Luigi's Mansion 3 on Halloween day, what a treat!

Halloween presents yet another excellent opportunity to stand out among the competitors. Some brands really know how not to miss this train. We are talking about universally recognized masters of all things scary — video game companies.

On the 31st of October, 2019, Nintendo presented their fans with a spooktacular Halloween gift - the new game's launch, loudly promoted using all the famous Halloween-related codes. The company celebrated the launch with special offers, thematic rewards for users, and impressive social media campaigns. The launch later turned out to be a sweeping success, chartered as the best ghostbuster game ever released. Well played, Nintendo!

Seasonal marketing does not exclusively include holidays; Johanna Bohm, the Head of Marketing at Adsy, shared. There is one big annual marketing event that all the professionals anticipate. And it is, absolute beyond comparison, Black Friday. Both small and big businesses introduce time-sensitive sales to boost their revenue. Make sure your content marketing campaigns are working a few weeks before the biggest sale of the year; for example, by submitting a guest post to Adsy.com and reap the results.

3. Opt outside with REI on Black Friday.

While we are on the topic, there is one intriguing campaign we cannot omit to mention. REI, an American retail and outdoor recreation services corporation, launched a campaign to protest the annual rise of consumerism associated with Black Friday, inspiring people to spend this day outdoors. All the current and potential customers and users of their services were encouraged to share their outdoor adventures on Instagram with the hashtag #OptOutside.

This bold marketing move, which rang true to the brand's values, formed the outdoor enthusiast's; community, loyal to the brand all year round.

4. Virtual Easter egg hunt with Freefly VR

There is no Easter without an egg hunt, and, in this day and age, comes the time to finally test intriguing, ultra-modern approaches to this festive activity from childhood. Freefly VR, a company dedicated to offering robust, highly engaging virtual reality products, knows how to use the time of year to its advantage and set a festive mood for its customers.

The company came up with unique promotions around Easter, announcing a virtual Easter Egg Hunt where customers can find eggs around the website for the chance to win prizes and special offers.

5. HotelTonight: Visit. Don’t Stay.

This is a unique example on our list since it does not relate to any of the seasonal events in particular. At the same time, it applies to all the holidays that involve family gatherings. HotelTonight took a different approach to the joy of family reunions, stressing sheer uneasiness of staying with the family under one roof. We find this plot absolutely brilliant since almost everyone can relate.

The campaign presents the message across many formats, including various visual ads, social media posts, and offers to take part in a competition to win a stay at one of their hotels during the holiday season. Such a brilliant and concise storytelling! They definitely managed to engage human emotions, quickly making people want to share their experience, and, in a joking manner, reevaluate their housing decisions.

6. Hinge - find someone special to share holiday joy with (or maybe even your life journey).

Around Thanksgiving, this dating app sent out an email inviting people to reconsider their everyday dating habits and concentrate on finding someone special to build long-lasting relationships with. Family and loved ones' importance is usually highly stressed in the media and other cultural narratives around Christmas, so Hinge marketing professionals decided not to let this beautiful opportunity of sentimentally reminding their current and potential users of what is truly important leak away.

Within the letter, they recommended to stop swiping the perfectly retouched portraits and instead concentrate on starting a new meaningful relationship, of course, with the help of their service.

7. The Body Shop is sending Kisses!

This deserves a spot on this list because it is an excellent example of how a simple campaign, presented at the right time, still may get the desirable brand exposure and increase revenue around holidays.

Marketers at the Body Shop decided to act by employing an effective method of user engagement. They promoted Valentine's Day launch of a new lip balm by encouraging the audience to share a photo of them blowing a kiss to someone special with a hashtag #SendingAKiss. The campaign went international and included prizes for the most ingenious photo ideas. Needless to say, thanks to perfect timing, the company’s marketing goals were achieved.

8. Macaulay Culkin stays Home Alone again for Google Assistant.

Opening our Christmas-related great seasonal marketing campaigns is the most famous child (well, not anymore) to have spent Christmas alone at his home. Google marketing team members are well aware that seasonal events are fantastic opportunities to provoke positive emotions connected with the particular holiday, and skillfully extrapolate them onto your product. And they couldn't be more right about picking the hit Home Alone as a set for the sentimental setting of Christmas atmosphere to remind what Google's voice-activated gadgets can do.

Being at home alone around Christmas time, the actor uses a Google Home Hub, his phone to check the calendar, set reminders, order pizza, and adjust the house temperature. We think it is a perfect case of skillful appropriation of festive emotions brought around by this iconic classic.

9. Starbucks’ holiday marks.

The company is well-known for its highly professional and diverse seasonal brand amplification. Starbucks lavishly spreads festive cheer, whether it's Halloween o'clock, aka pumpkin spice latte season, or hot cocoa in annual reddish holiday cups around Christmas. Moreover, the company takes many other paths to make the most significant winter holiday their perfect marketing actor.

As mentioned above, one of the time-proven and most popular with the customers marketing ideas is encouraging user-generated content, such as photo competitions. In one of the annual winter holiday campaigns, the company encouraged its customers to design their red cups and share them on Instagram with a specific hashtag. The winners got valuable prizes; the company acquired the desired promotion.

10. Coca-Cola's Holidays Are Coming.

Last but not least, the long-running ad that, with the years, grew into one of the most recognizable marketing Christmas campaigns - Coca-Cola's Holidays Are Coming. The famous trucks have become unquestionable Christmassy icons since they were launched on TV in 1995. Since then, spotting this ad somewhere around the beginning of November marks the sweet starting point of anticipation of the marvelous winter holiday.

Each year, Coca-Cola adds something new, like social networks integration, new outdoor activities, decorations, prizes, and ads that viewers already perceive as mere Christmas family and friends reunion stories. All the ideas mentioned above work perfectly, boosting positive engagement with the brand.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are numerous options to choose from. Your main goal is to opt for those most applicable to your niche. Do not worry if you currently find yourself out of brilliant ideas; look for inspiration within ready-made ones that have proven to be effective in the past. Our list above is a great starter pack to get inspired by real brands and unravel your own creative potential.

If you enjoyed this Mod, you might like to read more about these How to Start a Dropshipping Business! Please share this Mod using the social links below. Any questions or comments? Let us know on Twitter!

Virtual projects and remote teams are commonplace, but so is the risk of security compromise..

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

With so much of our worlds workforce moving online (globally sourced teams, time zone-insensitive deadlines, etc), concerns of privacy and security are more relevant than ever. Virtual criminals today are able to infiltrate many different systems and steal valuable information, including personal identification, credit card numbers, and more.

Beyond the criminal though, even corporations are found guilty for gathering unnecessary user data and either selling it to the highest bidder or taking advantage of it in other, profitable ways. By the act of collecting data, these organizations put themselves and their customers at risk. Companies like Portabella (a team project management application) on the other hand, believe that 90% of businesses don’t even need access to customer data, in order to do their business- a key mentality that has shaped their entire platform around project workflow, with security in mind.

For virtual teams, people who are collaborating exclusively through digital tools, the quest for secure channels is even more critical. Key timelines and project notes that are exposed, could lead to the down fall of an entire organization or, at the very least, a project launch. Imagine if Apple got hacked and their next revolutionary product plans were exposed- Microsoft might have a field day, but Apple could possibly be in ruins.

Today, I want to share four privacy tips, specifically in regards to virtual teams who leverage technology for collaborative work.

1. Use an encrypted project management system

I’ll start with an easy tip- use a system that prioritizes security and privacy. Most project management tools are about the same- they allow you to communicate, share messages, assign roles, etc. What they don’t all do, is make users feel secure about their shared dashboards. Especially with projects that involve finances or sensitive communications, one slip of sensitive data could lead to a world of hurt for the company and individual. While traditional tools include Slack and Trello have dominated the market, there are others like Portabella (mentioned earlier) that offer the exact same product experience, but with a focus on privacy. Their CEO; Alex, is very vocal on their blog about how secure their system is and how others are lacking in security practices. You can learn more about them (pricing, features, etc) here.

2. Understand the roles of your project team members

A lot of potential data compromise (specifically social engineering) comes from a mismanagement of user roles- who can (and can’t) access certain files. Founding members of a team or board of directors should absolutely have visibility into many aspects of a teams project, but that part time social media consultant you hired, probably not so much. Evaluating who your team members are and what their specific roles/needs are, should help you identify what type of access that person needs. Especially if you have team members that were brought on virtually (you don’t know them in real life), establishing rules and guidelines ahead of time, is a best practice. We always assume we have the right people on the bus, but virtual project management also means managing the confidentiality of certain aspects of the job.

3. Use two factor authentication when possible

A general good rule of thumb for secure internet performance, is to use a multi-factor authentication system for accessing resources. Yubikeys and authentication apps (like Google authenticator) can help prevent unauthorized access to your resources, by requiring users to verify identity with multiple devices, when signing in. This helps protect your virtual workspaces from unwanted, infrastructure access.

Multi-factor access can also be assigned at the resource level (depending on how your infrastructure is configured and which new technologies you’re using) to mask important topics from undesirable visibility. If someone were to access Apples’ R&D databases and see the word “grapefruit” (silly, I know) they would not understand what is being discussed. However if the subject line reads “Updated MacBook Specs [SUPER SECRET]”, that would be a bit more telling and thus, more risky for the company to have exposed. In order to see the internal name of projects, team members would need to verify their identity with 2FA.

4. Have good credential habits

Don’t make your password something easy like “password1”. Despite your belief in reverse psychology, most data criminals use a series of algorithms to try various passwords to get into someones account. They also know that someone who is silly enough to use “password1” as a password, probably is silly enough to use the same password on all of their accounts with every other platform they’ve ever used. Most computers today have suggested, alphanumeric passwords that are generated for users when signing up for new services. These are great, but if you want total separation from the risk of digital compromise, a post-it note on your desktop will work wonders, just be sure not to lose it!

Some examples of simple yet effective credential habits to follow:

Don’t use your real name in either username or password.

Don’t use the same password/username on every single website.

DO combine numbers with letters with symbols whenever possible.

DO keep your credentials stored in a place that is at minimal risk of being compromised.

Whether you’re a project manager for a massive enterprise or on a virtual project team for university, take the necessary steps to protect your and your teams information from the risk of compromise. Platforms like Portabella are simplifying the way we handle cyber security, and they even allow you to import all of your data from other project management apps like Trello, etc. Check out their site and start using for free.

Virtual security may not seem like a big deal to you now, but with an ever increasing demand for virtual work environments, cyber will become the exclusive playing field for thieves, and their potential loot is worth much more than a few dollars out of the cash register. Stay vigilant, stay prepared.

Dropshipping is an e-business model that for years, has helped entrepreneurs find new business opportunities..

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

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