 Mae'n fawr oedd ffwrdd y dynol ar gyfer mynd i mi fel ymddi'r edrychi, mae'n Ystafell Ddambos, mae'n ddechrau'r cyfrwyngau'n gweithio'r cyfrwyng. Felly ddweud, yn ddweud i'n ddweud i'n ddweud i'r sefyllfa. Dwi'n ddweud yn fwy ddweud eich bod nhw'n ddweud, mae'n ddweud i'ch gweithio eich hefyd yn y ddechrau. Fe ddim yn ddweud y chan ffordd pwysig i ddweud o'r ddweud y cwestiynau a'r bod yn ddech chi i gael ymweld chi am y cyfnod o'i ddweud. Ac mae gennym ni'n helpu? Felly mae gennym ni'n gweithio i gyfnodau digitalaeth. Felly mae'r Rachel Dines ac Lisa Kerr yn ei ddim yn ystod, felly byddai'n gweithio i'r ddylchogol a'u ddim yn gallu gweithio i'r dweud o'r ddim yn ystod. Ac mae'r ddim yn gallu'n ddim yn gallu'n ddim yn ddim yn dweud o'r ddweud o'u ddim yn dweud o'r ddweud. y gallwn i ni fyddraf am gweithio bod ffasiau a phabreidiau hynny. Felly honan, mynd i wedi gweithio'r ysgud yn mynd i. Mae'n fwy o'r bwynt o'r ysgwith yn gweithio ychydig i'w pwysig ar gyfer nhw i gael yr ysgwith. Ac mae'n gweithio'n dweud o'r cwysgau'n gweithi. Mae fyddraff yn fwy o'r dŷl ym gyfan ydweud. Felly mae'n gweithio'n gweithio'n ddech chi, a gwneud y cwestiynau ymlaen o ddifwyl, o ddylch chi'n gwneud gael y ddechrau. Mae'r cyfleidau cwpio, y byddai'r wneud, sy'n amser o ddifwyl. Mae'n mynd i'n ddim yn ei gael. Ond amser o'r ddefnyddio'r cyfleidau cyfyrdd. Felly, mae'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'ch gweithio'r ddechrau. Mae'n ddim yn ymlaen i'ch ddifwyl. Rachel Dines joining us today, who are two of our digital champions. Rachel's our marketing expert, and she joined some of the earlier sessions with Creative Bloom, but also we've got Lisa Kerr, who is a charge accountant, but she also has a wealth of knowledge around apps and systems to keep you productive, all those things. So she's been joining quite a few of our sessions throughout January, so please do pass questions her way. As I said, it is the last session in our series, so it's the seventh series, session we've been running, and Assa experts panel, so I think most of you joining us today have joined other other sessions in the series, but just to recap for those who are going to be watching the recordings later on, these events have run by West Sussex County Council have been taking place in September, organised to help small and medium businesses, utilise digital tools and gain expert knowledge and advice on how best to grow your online presence and attract and retain customers. We're at the end of the fourth series hosted by always possible, previous series run by Freedom Works and Creative Bloom presented sessions around getting online customers and marketing and systems and productivity. So like I said, the aim of the series is to help businesses like yourselves create the right conditions for growth in a digital world. So we've covered tools for automation, online sales, cybersecurity and keeping productive whilst working apart, and these are some of the questions that I want to pose to our facilitators today to see how they work and you know share their top tips, but we've done sessions around this but it's good to get their insight on what works for them as well. So I want to take this time to share, to introduce our facilitators from the series, give a quick roundup on what they've covered off in their sessions and key takeaways for those that you weren't able to join. I'm just going to stop sharing and hand it over to Jody. Hello, hello everyone. Yes, so my name's Jody Reinsford. I run an agency called Hello Genius. We are a digital agency and so we rely quite heavily on digital tools for growth and that was the subject of the opening session and so the key things that we were talking about in that was the opportunity around the digital tools afford for things like growth, for things like increasing productivity. We talked in quite a general way and one of the things we really focused on was the right way to think about digital tools that you know it's kind of a mistake that a lot of people make around you know choosing tools out of all the bells and whistles that you get very excited about. Everyone gets very excited about technology but actually we can distill it to really thinking of the function that we need from technology and what we need it to do and be very practical. So like some of the questions we wanted to focus on really is things like if we're looking to change a process, if we're looking to use a digital tool, what is the goal that we're trying to achieve, what isn't working, what's missing from what we're doing and how long will it take to implement and we had a really interesting discussion with the digital champions as well because I think we kind of came to the conclusion that we're thinking about the function first, it's really important but a lot of the implementations or implementation of the technology that we use all comes down to things like understanding culture, understanding how we implement those things in the business and how we roll it out and actually making it part of the behaviour of the business rather than you know it's centered around technology and so there are a couple of questions in that session around you know how do I use certain types of technology in order to scale my business, how do I step out of what I'm doing in order to work on the business rather than in the business and we really kind of entered around the conclusion that it's about focusing on what you need right now, focusing on the process and focusing on your behaviours and trying to use technology to leverage yourself out of those so that's really what we covered and we were left really with the action that we wanted everyone to choose a digital tool for a function and actually commit to get into grips with it and understanding how that they could use it in their business to kickstart a quote. Thank you, Jody. And Emerace, you're following Jody, you could give us a little snapshot. Indeed, yes, hi everyone. So yes, I'm Emerace from Cloud Artisans, we're a digital engagement agency up in Midlands working with a whole variety of small businesses and nonprofits and the session that we had, what she did as a meeting format so we had some breakouts and conversations as well and we were very much looking at digital technology for the future and how to protect businesses there and then so we had a whole large chunk around cybersecurity and an element of going through all of the unfortunately all the different risks and the things that could happen and identifying some of those but most importantly some practical ways of actually avoiding them in the first place and reducing risks as well as exploring a little bit of how to recover from any actual issues that may well appear for people as well so backups and different ways of holding data and where they might be and then the more exciting part certainly for me in terms of fragmenting the presentation was also looking at some of the future technologies and just thinking about different ways that people might come in there. So to give a couple of specific examples, I sort of pulled out some reports from for example the word economic forum who looked at sort of emerging technologies and there's some great stuff going on around the green economy, sort of decarbonisation, the technologies that are there now and different types of sensors that can work with that and that also relates into the health tech element and so much that can happen now in terms of sort of diagnosing things just from breathing out and using a device that can pick up various different conditions and such like and also sensors that you can just sort of impart in your arm for example so great for sort of diabetics and such like now as well so looking at some of those other technologies that are coming through and actually starting to think okay well how do these apply to my businesses what are some of the underlying tech that actually I could start to build on around sort of artificial intelligence and big data that drives all of those sorts of things as well so in particular we could look at HR type systems and also using things like improved GPS how could they work with sort of fleets of vans or indeed keeping people safe if they're out on the road or go into different places you know in this sort of even more remote world now and people working from everywhere what are those ways to stay in touch and ensure everyone is having a great time with work so yeah those sort of the core areas that we sort of spent an hour and a half on and sort of finished on actually identifying the skills aspect so one thing I would say is one looking at your business from a point of view of okay what are what are the technologies that can enable my business to grow and do more of and and therefore what are the skills we need to help deliver those but also thinking about your existing staff and going okay so what are the skills that our current staff have and how can we map that to the types of tools and technologies that we might use because actually you could have objectives of what you want to achieve but how you achieve that can be done in a few different ways and actually thinking about what's the most practical approach for you as an organisation do you need to get a lot of new people in or could you take the approach of utilising the people you've really got whether that's low code no code type solutions or people that do know a bit more sort of code aspect and is that more efficient to drive what you want to do and so yeah that was our three areas thank you thanks Amaris yeah you definitely covered a lot in that and I've personally found that session really useful so Lindsay please share with us thank you and last thing everyone I'm Lindsay Siegel fan of heads up coaching I'm a business coaching trainer specialising time management and productivity and I run the session on how do I use technology to save time and increase sales so um also we were looking at um before thinking about um how we can use productivity and how we can use tools to enhance the way we work actually understanding our relationship with time and our productivity styles um and once we have that understanding then it's about how we can sort of maximise that um individually and also within a team um looked at different whole range of strategies and tools and techniques to help sort of plan and prioritise your time and tasks and to reduce some of that overwhelm and to fill more in control of your time rather than your your time in your workload controlling you and also looked at ways of sort of minimising distractions and helping to increase focus um as we're living in increasingly distracting worlds and especially working sort of remotely and away from people that we're used to sort of working with in an office environment helping really to kind of maximise the way in which we work and also ways of sort of tracking productivity as well whether that's through kind of tools and apps and using systems that are already available to you like through Google and things like that just to kind of track your productivity give you that feedback and have that accountability and also looked at a range of e-commerce tools um to sort of improve and enhance that sales process as well through um through websites and um digital tools and how um just have a greater understanding of how we can save time and increase income with different digital tools um I guess key sort of takeaways was always trying to have that accountability and and actually sort of identify specific tools and techniques that people wanted to use that would make a difference that would help them um but that was primarily through task management apps such as Todoist um but also um Trello so having that kind of overview of time and tasks and having that overview across the team of what people are working on and what's in progress and what's outstanding um and um some apps to track productivity and the Pomodoro technique which was a really popular one that people were wanting to implement so that's it and that shall. Thanks Lindsay, I'm a big advocate of Pomodoro so yeah um and Emma thank you. Hi everyone so good afternoon I'm Emma Mills Sheffield and I run Mindset Up um and firstly welcome to Stephanie's Productivity Cat who's obviously joined us on video which I just love it's one of the things you don't get in offices anymore so I do like to uh you know get the odd pet into any session. My session was focused on boosting um productivity and for me it's very much about the team aspect so my background was spending 15 years in industry leading major global projects um large-scale pursuits sales transformation projects that sort of thing but what's most important is not just that kind of gant chart of end to end how to get something done but it's the human interaction as you go through that process with some very complex um stakeholder needs and everything. I take that sort of approach and scale it down now to smaller and scaling businesses and to understand how people work remotely is really really important. In person yes we can kind of read those cues remotely how do you build a team remotely keep communication open stay productive and actually kind of have a cohesive community. So my session was focused very much on looking at some of the tools that you might use for that but also what are those intrinsic and extrinsic motivators and those factors that um encourage employee well-being satisfaction performance and ultimately productivity so mine's very much a people focused although digital tools are a massive enabler it's knowing which ones to use when and why. So building on some of the previous sessions we covered things like Miro for collaboration Monday Slack all of those different tools that we've possibly heard of but one of my takeaways really for people is to avoid shiny magpie syndrome and think okay there's something we have to use because it's new and everyone's using it but in reality boil down what you expect the output and the outcomes to be and choose the most appropriate tools for your teams. So yeah really it was around sort of communication skills understanding how to coach people and how to kind of work with those the parameters that we have if you're remote. So yeah very much the human angle so it's a great session thank you. Thank you um and finally um it was Lucy Lucy over to you. Afternoon it's Bright and sunny here in Bristol um my session was all about innovation thinking and using digital tools and some non-digital tools but really hooking in all the things that that that Jodi and Emma's sessions were talking about around yes the digital tools to innovate your business but actually that we've all been innovating over the last couple of years almost accidentally. I head up the university west of England innovation for growth fund I also look after the tech spark Swindon and Wiltshire community which is the tech community in this region and a lot of companies have kind of evolved and innovated because we've been forced to but how do we then create that culture in the business and have innovation thinking be a part of the strategy in the culture going forward it might have been uncomfortable but actually it's it's uh it's evolutionary it's potentially incredibly exciting it's how business you should be thinking but what tools can you use to keep yourself curious to keep yourself at the forefront of research and I interviewed a couple of my colleagues from you who head up the innovation team or entrepreneur in residence at Future Space and also tanning hands up the digital innovation fund here to look at how founders approach innovation and SMEs and establish businesses how they fund it things they get very wrong so trying to obviously avoid the potholes and we had a really good conversation around getting innovation right and maybe maybe innovation as a word needs rebranding that it is what every business should be doing being curious looking outside at their competitors and their scenario sort of their infrastructure and whatever business you're in making sure you're you spend some time working on the business not in the business are coming to sessions like this and how refreshing that is and be lovely when we're in a room together won't it when you know some of the the magic happens in the coffee break moment but thinking innovatively just means have that curiosity having that appetite for change and tapping into all the resources we have from the the digital champions to the the growth of itself through to the BIPC through to the universities we have in the region get out there and allocate some of your time as a business owner to to be out there finding new ways of doing business and moving forward. Great thanks Lucy and also you know touching on that we had a session with Richard last week where we were joined by four businesses Jeremy as well talking around that digital disruption and how it has led to innovation how they've been forced to change how they work you know pivot do things differently and you know it's it's been really interesting to see and there was some really good success stories from that that they were able to share last week so for those who've not seen it the video is on West Sussex County Council's YouTube channel so please do check in on that but yeah I think I am going to take this opportunity to well leave the floor open for those who want to ask questions but also I thought I might just like I said I'm going to flip it round to our facilitators we've talked so much about tools gosh Monday, Canva, Mero all sorts, Clockify all those sorts of things I have my personal favourites but it'd be really good to hear from each of you as to what in your in the way that you work what do you use and what could you not live without what's been revolutionary to how you work um let's start with Emma I would say my newest adopted piece of tech that I absolutely love now is Mero so you can run lots of collaborative online sessions with it it requires more skill I'd say than some of the others because you can present one way but actually to collaborate to facilitate to lead to type and you know as everyone watches you typing you're thinking right this is the time I'm going to throw in all the typos um so it requires and for me that was the learning experience and as Lucy was saying about curiosity I want to be curious on in all of my work I don't want to get bored and stuck and I think that's the problem with some of the other tools you know slack is great it has its place um Monday is my other go to when you're working with clients that use certain systems you have to be agile you can't be stuck and set in your ways um working on your own you don't need an awful lot but when you're working with others you suddenly have to understand how to get in and manipulate the you know systems very quickly so Monday's fabulous but also yeah Mero for me is my play space I think it's great and I know there was a question I just wanted to touch on that again I had a question from a business um I think it probably was in your session around getting those teams on board so everybody works differently you know appreciate that aesthetics are a big thing for a lot of people we touched on that in your session but you know the likes of mundane stuff I was a massive fan when I joined or as possible to get that on board but um what are your tips on you know getting people to you know join you on the journey I think that it's really valid it's about having that open communication and that buy-in and understanding that everybody works differently that asynchronous working is is the sort of nirvana of where we want to be so understanding what's needed so is this an email is it a video is it a broadcast can someone catch up later or does it have to be online now so everybody's time is used respectfully and appropriately and if you're collaborating that's when you need to make sure you're in that space online to to work on something together and that's the best value and the best use of people's time I think that's how you get buy-in if somebody's on a meeting of all 30 staff and you know most of them are typing away on teams in the background then you sort of wonder why we hear because that's just a broadcast so working more more appropriately with people's style their timing their flexibility reducing as much online time as possible so really understanding how people focus so you've got your big sessions in the morning and you're not trying to do something you know really deep into finances at four o'clock and expect everybody to be able to keep up with the spreadsheet so yeah I think it's that understanding the mindset the way people work what you need them for and then just gently taking them through that training and explaining not everybody's going to be up to speed not everybody touch types so you can't expect everyone to suddenly get online and start keeping up so you have to be very cognisant of that as a as a business leader yeah and we talked a lot about that didn't we it was about wanting your power times in the day you know some people are morning some people are you know straight up to lunch it's it's adapting to that isn't it you kind of have to know and the onus is on you to be able to address that isn't it am I really productive in the morning can I get lots done and you know block it out your day we did touch on that do finances you know whenever that fits with with how you work or never yeah and what about you Lindsay and so my go to tool and when I can live without is definitely to do it so for those of you that aren't familiar with it it's a task management app that syncs across all your devices and what I particularly love about it is it's just my kind of one stop shop for recording all my ideas and to-dos and follow-ups so because it's on my phone it's with me all the time to wake up in the middle of the night with an idea I'm walking down the street or I'm not on my desk I haven't got to kind of you know wait to come back and write something on a piece of paper it's kind of with me all the time and it's it's particularly good because it's organised in three ways it's organised under today um upcoming so it's like the next seven days and then inbox which is beyond those seven days so it's a way of kind of filtering out and prioritising your your task and to-dos um you can move the items around so it automatically creates that sort of sense of chronology within the working day um and then if and then you just kind of click and delete whilst you've achieved it which is particularly great it gives you that feedback so you can see how many tasks you've achieved um and what's really good about it if you don't get to to achieve on the task for whatever reason you can just you know by literally the press of a button you can then just move that to tomorrow or to next week so you know it's just that way of knowing I've captured it I've got it I can either respond and do it now or kind of um schedule it for the future which is particularly good you can also add filters and labels and priorities and you can share it amongst other people and um yeah just kind of have those different categories for different things in your personal and professional life um yeah I couldn't live without it great and um just to pull up on a question that um I think it was Vicki you actually asked this in one of the earlier sessions was social media it's a massive minefield there's so many things you know Instagram, Facebook, Twitter how do you you know what tools are there out there to be able to um you know be able to post something once but then share it with all the channels and people mention Hootsuite you know to schedule things um trying to remember some of the other ones buffer I don't know if anybody wants to pick this up is there anyone that can advise on this extra um I'm happy to give it a go I mean I first of all talk about rationalising you know talk about that research in my piece is I think you're right Stephanie people go I need to be on social it's like you probably don't need to be on every channel who are you talking to what is your product who do you want to sell to we had somebody who was on breakthrough for example who was busy advertising on Facebook and he was getting all the wrong leads people who just didn't value his services didn't want to work with him who were haggling over 60 pounds you know he didn't want to be there he wanted to be linked in he wanted corporate clients but he'd never really thought about who his clients were built his client personas he actually I know Emma and I both spoke about quite a few of our sessions and and actually then defined who I want to talk to and where and be really precise about who that was so yeah people think they need to just do this massive spread throw a massive great big net but it can be a waste of time I love buffer Hootsuite they're all great tools but actually I'd wind back and go what am I selling who am I selling it to where should I be it might just be linked in is it and that that'll give you everything you need so I'd rationalise it first Vicky I don't know what where you're at with with that did um have you kind of condensed it down as to which channels work for you or you're still kind of debating that well yeah I'm on Facebook Instagram and and I have actually set up a LinkedIn as well so it's just learning all of the different um just getting used to the the different ways of posting things and navigating myself around on it but really um what I'd really like is um I haven't looked at the Hootsuite yet or the the buffer but I I just want something that I can just do it in one place bang bang bang all all across and um and that sort of thing just to make life easier because like you say you know time you've got to be really careful with your time and before you know it you can start it two hours later you're still faffing around trying you know and by that point I've lost the will so so um but uh but yes I think um which one would you say would be the better Hootsuite or buffer um to uh to try that I think I think buffer's cheaper right now um in terms of their usability they are very similar and and I yeah I've I've used both um the one of my best things about working at Sussex Innovation Centre is we had to use the tools that our clients had so I got to use you know we've talked about Monday and Osana and Trello I got to use all of them which is brilliant because you it's all about which one your brain likes isn't it in a way Vicky you're because you I would try I try buffer if I were you because I think it's cheaper and you can then schedule a say a month's worth get it all out there but obviously don't schedule too much again practice it look at your analytics and see where you're getting responses but see which one you find intuitively works for you okay thank you I think that's it I think it's yeah go on you're saying it's it's rationalising it it's saying which ones work so by Vicky by using this at least you're getting it out and all those channels and then you can quantify exactly what is working for you I think that's the key thing can I just sort of rewind just one step back from that I think um you know it's great that these tools are available to to help save time and to um you know to schedule things in advance rather than having to think about what am I going to post today, what am I going to post tomorrow and next week etc but I think going one step back from that it's just about um you know creating kind of windows of time to focus on social media marketing because it is so time consuming it can be such a you know a a rabbit world once you kind of get started so I think it's about batching I talked to a lot about batching tasks you know tasks that you can kind of put together batch together so you really kind of focus on that specific task for that specific amount of time and then it's kind of it's gone you move it on to something different and also thinking about the best time of your day to be focusing on that so for some people creating content is you know considered like it's a deep work it's you know that really highly focused uninterrupted time um to kind of focus on that possibly in the morning if that's your most optimal time of the day but other people that's more of a kind of shallow type of work so it's something like more admin related they can just kind of you know get a few ideas down and schedule that in batching off they go so it's really just thinking about what you want to talk about what you want to create and batching time for that um that that kind of suits your optimal ways in which you work and your time tasks. Yeah and Emeris now you delved us into the world of cyber security which is I mean that session could be much longer there's a lot to cover off but I'm interested because you you obviously work in lots of different areas but what tools kind of you know and you've got a big team now so what team what um what tools are keeping you afloat? Oh well good great so in terms of general tools um yeah we are sort of big slack users in google workspace um in terms of those tools for collaboration um so google drive is part of that in terms of some of the plans um project status things like that all in google spreadsheets which are quite handy um another tool big tool that we do use is Dropbox although we've sort of played with it in different ways and pretty much now use it really as that sort of file storage and collaboration aspect there are things like Dropbox Paper and other sort of things that are a bit like Google Docs and such which we don't tend to make much use of now we've sort of tried out what works and actually decided we'll either keep the files in there and collaborate on those or wherever is there sort of a good collaboration one then we have that in in google drive um so that's a good sort of way to go um uh with things and then um so yeah those are sort of collaboration communication tools in terms of if I pick up uh actually social media one thing I would say is there is another one to the two that you guys were discussing but actually later dot com um later seems to be pretty good um and reasonable pricing for what you get the pricing model slightly different I think actually um but just another one to to potentially try um and in terms of sort of cyber security um aspect just to bring it to my sort of presentation um as well um there was a few tools that we discussed at the session and one thing for example is a VPN you know as quite a handy one so it's a virtual private network essentially a way of you sort of tunneling your computer your tablet your mobile phone um out to another server um to go and explore something you're doing on the internet rather than people on the local network being able to see what you're doing or or going through the router itself so a VPN essentially is like a tunnel um across to somewhere else so that it keeps everything a bit more private um now the one that I personally use and and sort of advocate for is some called private internet access PIA um that's a good one but there are other sort of good ones out there like Nord VPN and and that's what we're seeing sort of have a bit of a google um there are a few places that offer them um as part of their sort of product so things like AVG security um I also use Bit Defender personally as my sort of security platform for Mac um and they also have VPN so you can often find them sort of linked to some other tools that you might already be using um as well but that's sort of a good one um even if it is things like logging into your facebook account to go and post some adverts or do some of that and you're in a public cafe or something so you're on a public network of some sort then it's particularly good um for that we use VPN also for the fact that we can connect to different cities and different places around the world um and bypass sort of DNS stuff which is a technical thing um but looking at sites um sort of slightly fresh or how they load um sort of via other servers and things um as well so yeah that's sort of a VPN um quite a handy thing to explore if you don't want to sort of add something that is um an additional tool or something to your computer you can also look at things like um the opera web browser which not a lot of people sort of know about will see but they've got a built-in VPN one click on the left of the sort of URL bar and you can be connected through their VPN um as well so there are sort of ways um that you can use the browsers that you've got available um yeah I mean I could go on forever with all sorts of other tools but that's a few few key things I think to share via VPN and I mentioned things like ABG and Bit Defender obviously having security software um on your devices in general is great um and whilst I'm on that topic you know think about your websites and stuff as well double check where are you who's to them who are you hosting them with um do they collect sort of valuable or um data that actually needs to be protected more is a sort of shared hosting thing appropriate especially if you're with one of the sort of the big ones that advertise on TV and stuff you may be on a on a system with literally thousands um of other sites and things so is that the right thing do you have firewalls um on there do you have um any sort of security scanning things like that on the servers and on the website um do you keep things up to date um as well so any software any of the tools that we're talking about most of which are sort of cloud based but if especially if you've got them installed on your own server so your websites or on your own computer keeping things as up to date as possible um is a great thing especially for using something like WordPress which gets regular updates and unfortunately there's also a big target um so keeping things up to date uh is really valuable thank you and Jodi what about you you're obviously working with lots of different clients so you're hearing I'm sure you've been abreast of all the different new technology always introduced and everything goes up date so what about you no um I think it's it's really interesting because we have gone through so many different um project management tools we've tried so many different apps and things like that and actually project management is the one where we kind of struggle the most because um you know when I the way that I work is very different from the way other people on the team work and so when I was working on my own I a certain system worked for me when other people are working with it and we're collaborating a different system and so but I I mean it's really about behaviour for me my brain and the way I work doesn't see the kind of technology that has lots of distraction that has lots of features on it and so real you know simplicity is like the most important thing to me so things like like using google drive and um uh google sheets and you know basically the whole sort of like the the google workspace is was really important when I was um you know collaborating with um marketers in the US you know we'd be we'd be on the phone we're on the phone basically while also working live on you know a piece of work for two or three hours and and it was just it was incredibly useful and so just through the process of using that I you know we managed to I didn't realise that as a as a as a business we'd become sort of you know um disaster proofed and in the cloud and things like that is just simply through the behaviour we were using just you know we all ended up because we needed to collaborate in that way so so for us like something really simple like google drive without having to use anything else you know any sort of project management software or anything was really important um the other couple of things that we you know that I find really really useful is is slack um I don't again like things like to-do lists and things like that this is this all depends again on how you work my best my best to-do list is um is Meg in my office telling me the three things that I need to do today on Slack and that's it that's how that you know if I have to go into something and do it all chaos reigns and so it's all about knowing what what works for you and how it works for you and that and they you know as soon as I think they see me using an app of some sort or trying to do something everyone kind of groans and and tries to take it off me um and then something really simple like like you know voice recorder on your on your iPhone like for taking note for me I find it really easy you know I can I can dictate stuff into that and then and then use something like Rev or Temi to to get it written up and you know I can do that when I'm travelling in the car and stuff you know I can I can you know you know write whole chapters of books when I'm when I'm doing that as well and so again it just kind of fits into what I'm doing so but I try to keep it really really simple. Well that leads us seamlessly on to my next question which was going to be around how do you keep productive you know we're all working remotely you know whether it's in shared working spaces or at home you know what what are those things that that help you um let me bring it back to Lucy. Do the first thing that springs to mind is going for a walk but that's not really a digital tool it helps I think all this stuff which we've talked continuously around you know you know those there's times a day when you're more productive but those times a day is when you need to have just get out in the fresh air we're you know we're guilty of all just staying in and just you know getting everything done but it's so important. I totally agree with what Lindsay was saying and I think it's been touched on by everybody is that it's really listening to yourself and knowing what how you work and how you think and what motivates you and what drags you down and then being really aware of your personal battery and if you're feeling really shattered take a break do something differently I'm with Jody I love Slack that's the way my brain works I like it visual those sort of tools keep you motivated I like the silliness that's something that really helps me you know we're all doing wordle at the moment it's always possible and despairing at each other but feeling a part of a conversation even when we can't be with each other is what really motivates me I'm very much a people person I find it's I've really struggled with with lockdown and being alone so using those digital tools to create conversations and make them not all just work based make them a bit of fun put some silly things on the random channel on Slack as an example and use them to create an energy that we've all been missing. Yeah and Emma you talked about that in your session it was you know you don't want to start creating these games and things you know we've had two years of lockdown people have been forced to do these online cocktails and all these types of things how do we kind of keep that momentum and keep that interest between colleagues when you're working you know what have you what do you promote as useful things for that. I think having something with a bit of a sense of shared purpose is good so if the purpose is fun that's valid if the purpose is something community driven or volunteering based there are other platforms for that. Anything that just means people get to have a chat that isn't just work so when you used to go to physical meeting you'd be outside together for a few minutes before the meeting room was available you would have a bit of a chit chat you'd get in get the coffee then you'd start the meeting then you finish and you've got a few minutes to walk back to wherever whereas now we go right we've got a 12 o'clock meeting bang start off we go one o'clock off we go finish and so it's creating that space for those little informal chats so if you think about your staff interactions your interviewing on boarding your one-to-ones your appraisals anything that has that sort of human aspect you need to work at how to recreate that very authentically we can't just and we also read the things really inappropriately when they're put into teams they're put into text they're put into email if someone writes something in caps then you think that's it you're being fired so you have to be really careful about how you come across on text voice visually and it's much harder for people to read those cues when you're online so yeah any opportunity for that human interaction a bit of fun but also be okay turning stuff off so I don't play wordle I've turned off the channel for people who love it great philly boots but I don't want the pings I don't want the alerts for me I use Slack as very much a work tool and then sometimes the chats but I like to control what I do with all of these pieces of tech and so I turn things off my turn off teams I turn off email and I will be most productive first thing in the morning do the big strategic things early turn off emails turn off WhatsApp then it can happen later or else suddenly you find your sidetracked and you down the rabbit hole and you sort of you know poodling around doing something else and then your brain's not back in that space again so yeah I'm an early morning person but also don't be afraid to turn things off um but then when you are communicating be be appropriate and you know with the right channel and interject some fun but never have an online pub quiz again please I think yeah it's it's what it's what Jodie says you've got to make what works for you he likes things that aren't distracting so it's yeah switching yourself off from those things that are distracting and being able to focus Vicky just to bring you into this conversation what what works for you how are you finding this kind of silo working and you know I know you you move around a bit don't you so what works for you um well I've I've just been in fact last night I was actually for the first time ever trying to move over a landing page host server from one to another so that that was an interesting thing for me so um you know bearing in mind my my sort of technology and that um but um but I do find that um these these sessions have been really sort of helpful because I'm just sort of trying to kind of navigate and get my mind around all the different areas and all the different um technologies like this slack that everyone's going on about I need to kind of have a have a good old look at that next um and um and that sort of thing but um but yeah sorry what what was the question again so no it was just saying what what works for you really you know yeah what what works for you and and how you're kind of navigating this this whole new way of working I guess well yeah I've been I've been doing a lot of networking and doing a lot of sort of sessions like this sort of trying to kind of learn as much as I possibly can um and and the thing is I love I love the networking side of actually going out and meeting the people as well so seeing yourselves all on the screen and that I'm able to kind of go out and visit people as well and and with with um with my stuff um I love that the personal touch and actually meeting the people it makes it means a lot to me so when I'm doing deliveries for instance it's that personal sort of touch that I like to try and keep in touch with um compared to just um sending sending my products out in the post and there there you go it's it's that more sort of personal bespoke touch that I love about my my thing but it's it's just it's just navigating around doing that being able to do the deliveries doing online things um and when when meetings have been made into zooms and then um in in person and then change back to zoom it's just adapting as as and when really um it's all about adapting really I've been finding that I've just had to if you know one one minute you're doing this no you can't do that because things have changed and it's um it's just keeping up with um what what's going on and trying to learn the new new technologies and the new things that are out there and and also these seminars that I've been coming to and like yourselves um this series and I've I've been on all of the series so uh so it's been really interesting um you know watching from from the first ones that were done um to uh to learning so much in a in a short space of time and and I will I will get around to uh taking advantage of the digital champion uh thing but I just haven't got around to it yet so um so it's it's it's I will get around to it that's definitely for sure okay can I ask you can I ask you a question do you do you have do you have a team no no okay right okay so do you mind if I do you mind if I make a couple of suggestions um okay so oh one of the things you said earlier there I think is is something that a lot of other people do like we were talking about Slack there and everyone's going on about how great Slack is and everything else like that now Slack is totally pointless if you haven't got a team like it's you know you don't need it at all but you don't know that until you start like investigating stuff like that so so I mean that that kind of this is exactly what happens whenever everyone has discussion about technology they always go oh everyone's talking about it I need to grab that I think what you've talked about some very specific behaviours that you have that work for you right now and I think finding the technology that matches those things so one thing that you've mentioned there was networking and you absolutely love networking and so if you folk I mean like the certain like social so one of the things you said before is like do I need to get a Hootsuite or Buffer in order to you know make sure that I'm like you know I'm doing the social media thing well I would argue that you if you're going to do a social media channel you need to do it according to what that social media channel requires so you're doing it not because you're ticking it off the box you're doing it because you want to get results from that and if you want to get results from it you have to understand you know if I'm on LinkedIn LinkedIn's a networking site if I'm on Instagram you know there has to be some sort of engagement just posting stuff onto those things you'll do that it'll take up more time than you realise but because the technology has told you oh you're going to save time you feel like you're doing something I've worked with people who spend all of their time creating content pushing out through Hootsuite huge amount but they don't interact they don't use those channels as they're supposed to so I would say because you know because of the type of person you are you are a networker you're very good I would use the social media as an extension of that so somewhere like LinkedIn LinkedIn is incredible if you have those offline connections and Instagram is to some extent as well making those offline connections bringing them online you because offline connections are brilliant for for ensuring that you know things like your posts when you put them get huge amounts of engagement and then that gets your message to more people increases your reach so I would focus on the things you're doing I think what technology complements it and just focus on those I wouldn't worry about things like Hootsuite I need to go and create content I would focus on what you're doing now and think okay what do these two or three things that complement that and then build from there I hope that's helpful yes thank you thank you very much yeah just going on from that um Joe just to sort of echo that I'm a really big fan of keeping things simple and sometimes we can make things so much more complicated for ourselves by trying to use these tools um to to save time and actually becomes more time consuming so I think it's about creating really good habits I think it's about using effective systems and processes that work that work best for you and to use them so consistently they always become second nature you know they become like your second brain they become your go-to systems for support rather than something that's um that's trying to help but actually kind of cost more time and and sort of adds that overwhelm rather than reduces that overwhelm and I think it's also about creating habits and about having embedding those habits really effectively into the way that we work I've actually just created it they're hot off the press and it arrived a few days ago and I created a product here called uh here's one I made own and it's called productivity prompts and it you sit on your desk and they're just like a set of like 30 spiral bound cards just to kind of have those sort of little reminders those kind of prompts um to focus on that one thing for the day you know it could be it could be a well-being project it could be going to get outside keep hydrated it could be a planning or a prioritising or a motivational thing but just something to kind of help focus and then over time those those prompts those habits just become embedded into the way in which we work um so yeah I'm a big fan of that I'll put it I'll put it all and link to them in the chat I think yeah and Lucy you were quite dismissive when you said oh you know part of it's the work somebody is going for a walk but you know I think I think everyone more so than ever appreciates how important that is for your own you know wellness mental health you know these these are more important and you know Emma I'm sure you've seen that when you're working with teams you've got to be checking in with your teams to see how they're doing to see how you can support them with with you know maybe just going for a walk or just having time to chat and time to talk maybe not about work but just how you're doing in yourself and you know that's massively important. I would agree I think one of the issues I see a lot with business owners and leaders is not understanding that people don't just want to talk about project deliverables but how are you doing you know what's going on read read the room literally rather than okay high let's do a one-to-one let's do an appraisal and then what's happening with the project bang bang bang that's not relevant what's relevant is how people are feeling you know you can do a project update on an email but use that time to just kind of put the notepad away and say right you know what do you want to do for your own personal development professional development learning opportunities this is about working with people so you know systems and projects are great they make the wheels go round but but yeah just interacting interacting properly I think that there's a risk that we forget so onboarding working together and off off boarding as well you know as people leave you can close a laptop on a friday change jobs sit in the same seat on a monday open a new laptop for a new job log into a new zoom call or new teams instance and you've changed jobs but you know you're still the same person in the same office so it's really weird we need to understand how those behaviors and characteristics play out because it's not you know it's not the norm we don't get to go and buy new work clothes and start somewhere different and we'll have a leaving do shop leaving remembering what it's like for real people at the end of the screen as to what it's like to leave you know especially if you've been in the job for a long time yeah I think it's really good and you know Emma's session touched on that we've got all these tools at play but you know we need to think about the human aspect you know how do we support people these are the ones that have been productive and doing all this but you know we need to check in on them as well definitely so I just had one final question and then I'm going to hand it over to Nasa who's joined us from coast to capital he's going to explain a little bit more about access to free support from our digital champions I wanted to just ask this you know Richard's session last week touched on businesses that have done things differently and the pandemic has forced them to you know whether it's adopting digital tools changing their business model are there any businesses you've seen work and done amazing things you know whether it's someone you've worked with or someone you just look at and think what a great job they've done Jody can I start with you or just raise your hand if there's anyone that you think you'd like to highlight I'm sure everyone's doing brilliant jobs but it's nice to see those companies that you can really aspire to I can't think anything off the top of my head so I'll have a little think okay is there any anyone want to come up with anyone they'd like to share some details behind I've I've done a lot of go on joe me you go I'm just going to say that joe from piglets pantry I think that's quite an interesting study if you weren't on the call last week just the whole idea of taking a business to business wholesale business that relies on crowds of football matches to eat pies to a consumer business which just had a grew into a phenomenal I think three million pound turnover retail business but the growing pains as well and that was the interesting thing about this and the whole series has been it's good to get the ideas and the inspiration but it's also good to hear where people went wrong so you can say I won't do that then because other people's mistakes cost you a lot less I think as Brits we like to hear that you know that humble thing um not the humble thing sorry the the honesty you know what didn't work for them in their business I think I think that's important and welcome Miley joining us um if you've got any questions June do feel free to pop them in the chat or turn your video on and ask um yeah Lucy sorry you were going to say also no Steph I was going to talk about a project which we had we still have in the West Wing called tech for growth it was called trading best for online it was launched in June 2020 so we had all those businesses whose front doors had literally closed a lot of them were hospitality and retail and leisure who came to us and didn't know what they didn't know because they'd never had to use to go online they'd never had to use any of the tools which have been covered in these topics and they came to tech spark as kind of a mediator to say I don't know I know that while I am right now I'm stuck but I don't know how to to get unstuck so we helped they're still going it's brilliant and we helped so many on their journey they wouldn't go to an agency they wouldn't go to a digital consultancy because they were scared one guy his guy who'd built his website had gone AWOL he literally had no logins getting into a site he he couldn't go and ask anybody else so we saw people going through really painful digital transformation journeys and and just to build their confidence so our role in that project was to empower them not to do it for them they come and say well I think I need SEO and as Jo do you say to me she was going that they've heard this word I know SEO will fix all my problems and they didn't understand what it meant and people have been door knocking saying well 400 pounds a month will fix it for you so taking people who were really scared through a very small digital transformation project was it was really it was really exciting it was a great thing to be a part of but it shows you how levels of confidence and knowledge in this area it for so many businesses it's quite daunting yeah definitely and you know judges have said their SEOs free exactly so yeah I mean NASA that leads us on to you you're from coast to capital whose looks after all the digital champions have been joining us throughout these series who ultimately they want to support the businesses in areas that whether they know they need help or they don't know need their help and I think that's the key thing for you guys isn't it you can help people navigate as to what assistance they need and from which digital champion I know we've got Rachel with us today as well who's marketing specialist and can guide people in that direction shall I hand it over to you NASA yeah sure I'm just really wondering whether there's anyone actually on this call that actually doesn't know what the digital champions and the growth champions are I think a lot of them have heard it but it's always good to revisit this and also you know the video is going to be shared on West Sussex's YouTube channel so for those accessing it a later point to work around their business they can access it and hear from you so please do great can I share my yeah please do great so can everyone see this so I just want to just double check great um yeah I'm actually quite new to the coast of capital I know quite a few people on the the call I'm doing a three days a week um at coast of capital at the moment and one of the growth associates relationship associates request the capital if I just give you a little brief about myself run and bought and sold software houses in the past um I had a consultancy business and then I've done some work with coast of capital three days a week with regards to trying to help the predominantly the Gatwick and Crawley business areas in terms of turning those businesses around and working with that so working with the growth hub has been actually pretty good I've really enjoyed it and basically the the growth hub is a fully funded area of coast of the capital where we can work and work with particular partners digital champions that are here growth champions that help businesses really take them from a position where they're actually treading water and stuck and look at the services that coast of capital offer um and really it's all client-led it's about working with um you know yourself Stephanie and looking at the recovery and rise program I've tried to join as much as I could at the time that I started so I could get myself up to speed and really um yeah on the back of those those sessions is to try and I get the the clients I suppose you were like best worth but business owners and businesses to start looking at the digital champion program so much so that I've got a little slide here about what the digital champions offer and the drive for small businesses um literally I won't read it for a beton but basically eight hours of fully funded specialist support which to me is is you know a massive thing for your business owners that are looking to demystify themselves um if I can point Vicky out as a you know you're listening to what you you just said you know the the digital champions I would urge you to try and um place the digital champions in your top priority list really in terms of where you can seek help I mean certainly uh on the website there's a a listing and I've come through to the listing of the the digital champions that we we have on board and some of them are here again it's about reaching out to people who are experts in the field and you know coining a phrase from Jeremy learning from those who've you know been there tried it may have failed worked out the ones that really work and then yeah you're in a great position given your your business to try and capture that and and you know springboard yourself so I'd really you know impressing you to try and look at the digital champion program as a real key thing to do going forward in terms of your next business plan primarily because of the bottom statement of the here you know each digital champion offers different blends of skills and that is key you know it's about demystifying what can be a such a jargon um your area of business so here we've got some of the digital champions um say Andrew Lisa Malcolm I've done quite a lot of work with Rachel I haven't heard the pleasure of reporting anyone to yet but hopefully that'll be as I kick into my remit of business and Lisa was a few too and as you can see everyone has a specific set of skills everyone has you know longevity in their business and also the ability to try and help businesses I think it's the key thing it's about guiding and help and also point sign point you know signposting people to your particular areas that you know they wouldn't have been able to do most business owners if I take your your point there Vicky are so immersed in your business you forget to actually you've got to run your business so you know you talked about delivery you talked about you know packaging everything up but you know you are so immersed that you know the end of the day all you want to do is partially forget about it but the whole point is by taking some time out and having a fully funded access to the expertise that you would want to have in an ideal situation then make the most of it I would say I think your business are your base wording way or yeah okay so anyone else who does look at this video please utilize the website look at the contact form look at the digital champion page both digital champions and growth champions I know Jeremy is on there and look at the skill sets that these guys have because they're exceptional and also make sure that you can actually then follow up with your growth relationship associate who has their particular patches and you can see that on the website as well so really that really sums up what I wanted to say Stephanie thank you Nasa that's great yeah and I'm all right and thinking that all access is available to the end of March so for those that are interested in in taking that oh yes sorry Stephanie I should have added that yeah apologies yes up until the 31st of March at the end of this financial public sector financial year yep so those that are interested please do have a look and as Nasa said for those that unsure about which which um expert they need or area they want to support with um there's someone there at the end of the phone that can support you with that and see how best to support your business so fantastic thank you for that um yes Nasa would you mind a thank you that's great okay um does anybody have any further questions or anything they want to flag up before we close I did promise um we'd finish a bit earlier for for lunch so thank you so much for your involvement today um really appreciate it and for all our facilitators for hosting the sessions throughout the series it's been um fun filled January with lots to learn and I've definitely taken a lot more on board so um really grateful for all your support and best of luck with with everyone with everything thank you