Updated: Jul 9, 2023
Times are rough. We know. As an optimist, I like to see the good side of everything.
A lot of businesses are struggling and I wanted to give you some recommendations on how you can use this time to work on your personal brand.
In this time of uncertainty and social distancing for all of us, here are some key tasks you may finally have the time to complete:
Let's take this opportunity to do things that you usually do not have the time to do.
- Art and Culture
- Social
- Self Development and Financial Education
- Business ( My fav if you know me)
- Completely random ( My fav #2 if you really know me)
And I am not talking about reading for the 6th time one the Harry potter but something new, something that you are unfamiliar with, that will expand your horizon.
Some recommendation of last books I read:
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humanity ( science/history)
By Yuval Noah Harari
A short telling of the entire human history, from pre-anatomically modern humans through the agricultural and scientific revolutions and to the present.
A Man Called Ove (novel)
By Fredrik Backman
This novel about an angry old man next door is a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others.
Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion. ( psychology, sociology)
Dr. Robert B. Cialdini
Learn the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these principles ethically in business and everyday situations.
I’m ordering this one :
Classics like Friends, The Office, Entourage, Californication or newer shows like GoT, Stranger things, it’s time to binge-watch. Take advantage of every free trial from every streaming service.
So put on sweat pants and enjoy without remorse
Always wanted to learn how to play Harmonica? Now its the time. The best instrument to bring anywhere and to feel like a Cow Boy.
You always felt like you were missing out on those Star Wars references?
And to cook healthy! Like those Vegan Gingerbread cookies.
Here’s 20 Magic tricks that you can easily learn.
My answer every time someone brings politics is “ Hmm I do not know enough about this subject to talk about it” SO NOW ITS TIME TO LEARN ABOUT IT.
You’ve been thinking about it for years, now its time.
Here’s a good music for it.
FSI research indicates that it takes 480 hours to reach basic fluency in a new language. Time to download Duolingo!
I will give you one for free : Bonjour! 49 ones to go. This two-minute tutorial will help you make friends no matter where you go.
And to delete it after you realize you are more than 20 years old.
Listen you are in quarantine with your loved one. Might be the right timing.
And to play with me ( add me I’m benkobe).
There are a ton of donation options. Check on GoFund Me if anyone you know is trying to raise some money.
Or find an organization you relate to. Believe me even $1 makes a difference.
If you are in family play board games ( I am obsessed with Catan)! If you are by yourself play Call of! ( see #25)
Checking on elderly people is important, please make sure your elderly neighbors does not go to stores and offer to take care of their groceries for them.
But something you should do ( if you still have the chance to have your grandparents alive) is to call them and interview them. We do not realize how much we are missing out on just asking simple questions about life to someone who has seen way more than you did.
There are a ton of Pranks you can do here’s some of my fav:
Replace your family photos with pics of Steve Buscemi.
Sign them up for a random mailing list
Find a cult newsletter or The Ferret Association of Connecticut publishes three regular newsletters FYI.
Change your family auto-correct dictionary
A great example of this is changing your mom’s phone so that whenever she types “no” you can have it correct to “yes”, for example. That’s a dangerous power for a teenager to have, but you have to be sneaky about it.
Call Two Anybodies (On 2 Phones)
Put the phones together so they can talk to each other.
See here 18 other ideas of prank calls.
It might be the end of the world but people try to keep smiling with amazing Memes.
what’s more human than laughing in the dark?
Here’s some of my favorite :
By Playing!
She won't have much choice to say yes as it would be really awkward to be in quarantine we someone you just turn down.
Ok I might have watched the Netflix documentary “Dont F*** with cats” too many times but I do believe if the online gang were on quarantine we would have found Lucas Magnotta way sooner.
The one who makes it always sells it.
The one who buys it never uses it.
The one who uses it never knows he's using it. What am I?
You’ve seen people juggle with paper toilet or the “Baby Challenge”. Try to launch one!
If you are passionate about something, you should love to talk about it. You can find many groups and community on Facebook Groups or Reddit
Remember your best friend in 5th grade? Or the first boy you kissed? Try to find them and connect back!
Treat yourself with a skin care routine you don’t have time for during a normal workweek.
With the stock market crash it might be a good time to invest.
Tools that I use:
Acorn : invest your spare change so you don’t even feel it. Use my referral link and get $5.
Motiff: Instead of investing in specific stock invest in a theme portfolio composed of different stocks ( like Online Gaming, Robotics Revolution and Digital Dollars).
RobinHood : one of the best investing app around here, and they do not take a commission! Use my link and get a FREE stock.
Yes you can start investing for less than $1k.
I started using Fundrise a year ago and I completely fell in love with their product. My portfolio has already 213 active projects all over the US.
Check this article of 6 science backed Methods to improve your memory.
Being lockdown for weeks will give some motivation to explore the world.
Be smart and take advantage of crazy prices in the travel industry. Most of the companies offer free CANCELLATION. Looking for the best offers?
Check out Trip Advisor , Fly Business for Less ( pay economy travel in business) , Airbnb and Booking!
Get some practice ! In 40 years you will tell your grandchild that you were part of the resistance that saved the world by staying on their couches.
You will feel like going to a hotel bed every night!
No, your gym closing does not give you a free pass for not exercising, they are a lot of programs you can do at home. Here’s some I recommend:
- Apptiv , best Audio Fitness App with professional trainers.
- Insanity Work out From BeachBody On Demand
Nuts, soy, are great food to store so perfect for a quarantine. Why not trying? Here’s 12 tips from the experts
It might be the end of the world so 3 words :
And be able to point out places like Tajikistan, Vanuatu, and Addis Ababa on a map.
Set goals for the future and start working on that for the same day. Make a plan which you can follow strictly in future and also crawl it accordingly.
Use tool like Mint to check on your monthly expenses and set budgets limits!
Check your score using Free tool like Credit Karma and learn how to improve it. See #57.
I highly recommend Ramit Sethi blog I will Teach you to be Rich to optimize your finance.
With mortgage rates at an all-time low, you should really consider buying a house.
If you don’t know how to start email me ben@laxir.us I work with a lot of mortgage brokers and can help you.
I used to think I didn't need anyone and can learn everything myself. It’s a big mistake, benefit of having a mentor can save you many mistakes you would you do on your own.
Make a list of successful people in your entourage ( with your own definition of success, family-wise, business-wise, etc..) and contact them. If you have no one in mind you can use Growth Mentor.
Tools I recommend:
WordPress - Best choice if you are planning to invest on SEO and marketing.
Wix - Super easy to use. Good choice if you just need a website as a "portfolio"
Search engine optimization was, is, and will always be a good idea for your long term game plan. You need to get some keywords ranked and spend some time working on your SEO because:
Tools I recommend :
This is B-A-S-I-C. This is the first step to keep track of all traffic and statistics about your website.
A great tool to track your site’s position in search results and get insights into any company’s website traffic.
Mangools :
A compelling tool due to its low price and very easy to use interface for search engine optimization.
I won’t tell you again about Cuban cigars and the embargo, I’ve emailed you plenty of times regarding bridge ads and posted about them on our blog, but they are the only way to run Facebook and Instagram ads for some industry where online regulation is tough.
No, Email Marketing is not dead! It is still one of the most effective marketing tools that you have.
It drives conversion, it increases customer retention and the LTV (lifetime value) of your customers.
As with all good things, do not overuse it to send promotional content every other day but try to use it to engage and share good value content with your customers.
My favorite tools
For a cold outreach and to scrap a list of 5k emails from a niche-specific Instagram profile, we use Sendy.
Emails are sent thought AWS SES, which will mitigate any risks.
For a warm list and to reengage with your customer, I would recommend Active Campaign. I’m pretty impressed with their software and it can also be used as a CRM.
Also talking about email, this is me after 80% of my daily meetings.
Influencers can be a hit or a miss. Don’t focus on the big influencers, you will spend your entire budget on one post and their audience does not trust them anymore. Their audience sees promoted posts every day, so conversion will be very low.
Focus on micro-influencers, even with a “small” audience of 10-20k, look at their engagement. Go for the one who has experience with your niche. Create a real relationship with them, ask for genuine feedback about your product and do not offer a “commission for each product sold.” They will not waste their time with those offers.
Always use custom links and create custom promo codes for each of those collaborations. This way, you can keep track of sales per collaborations.
Chatbot is one of the best tools you can use to pre-qualify your prospects!
▪️ Messenger click rates are up to 60% or about 20 times higher than email. Messenger open rates can go as high as 85% compared to email open rates of about 17%.
▪️ Chatbots are equally popular among millennials and baby boomers.
▪️ 53% of people are more likely to shop with businesses they can message.
Schedule a call with our marketing specialist to implement your chatbot strategy for 2020 👉 Schedule a time
For people that knows me, you know how little patience I have, yes SEO and social media are great but if you want QUICK results nothing will beat Paid Ads.
It’s time to ask your mom to invest in your candle business or use solution like Kabbage to apply for a line of credit of up to $250k.
Funnel marketing is one of the most important aspect for a business to be able to scale. ClickFunnel is the best platform to make one.
With services like Amortentia.Media
You can’t run a business without knowing with a proper CRM. Hubspot has been one of the best in the market. Specially for small businesses and SaaS companies.
My favorite tools:
- Zoom: For conference calls
- Slack: for chatting with your team
- Trello: For project management
You can also check this Guide to Managing Your Remote Workers.
Create a logo, make an explainer video, set up a website or design a business card. Fiverr has a lot to offer for someone that wants to launch a business on a small budget
If you don’t want to have to deal with stocks and shipping a great solution is Drop-shipping.
My Favorite tools:
Spocket = top suppliers of original US/EU products
Printful = If you want to try print and demand and create a unique product
It takes some practice but that’s impressive. See tutorial
I just did my Tupperware what a relief because that was me 2 days ago:
Please DM me the number for data research
Animal shelters across the US are making the hard decision to close their doors. They are in urgent need of adoption.
Impress everyone on the dance floor, learn HERE
Learn and Every NY cab will stop.
From Donald Trump being president to the Corona Virus Simpsons predicting the future is now a thing.
Because of the situation we got an extension to PAY IT but we still need to FILE them. If you are a self-employed I recommend Quickbooks.
BONUS
101. It's finally time to Follow me on IG and tell me how you spend your quarantine!
Schedule a call if you want to invest in your marketing: