Hi, my name is Fab (I know, what a way to kick off hey), and no, it’s not short for fabulous, you cheeky little thing.

First and foremost, some Medium introductions. You may have read my pieces in the following columns:

• News in Brief — Social Media & Marekting News Column for Better Marketing
• The Brave Marketer — My Marketing for Writers Column for the Brave Writer
• Productivity Guinea Pigs — My Productivity Column for the Post-Grad Survival Guide

The back story

I started developing courses over eight years ago. When I think about how many courses I created, the closest number I can get to is probably 20.

The reason I do not know exactly how many courses I created is that I also helped over a hundred clients and students create their courses and programs (yes we run a course on how to launch digital products too).

I have to say, I love the idea of dictation as a time hack — however, as a second language English speaker, I’m appreciative of the fact that my pronunciation sometimes can sound a bit weird.

When I tried Siri or even the Google Docs dictation, it has been frankly hit and miss, especially because I couldn’t go back to the audio file and play it back to make sure that what I reading would make sense.

Did I mean to say coffee cup? Or was it kettle?

Jokes aside, it’s extremely important to be able to have a tool…

It’s interesting to see how often, something that just starts as a trend will quickly become the next new tool to use for your business.

If you’re not familiar with Clubhouse yet, it’s probably time that you get the memo and check out what the app is about.

I am going to start by saying that I am a big fan of the app. The reason why I love Clubhouse is that its simplicity of features and proposition is going to potentially become a big new driver for brands and businesses, not just personal brands.

A lot of people have…

THE BRAVE MARKETER

Marketing can feel daunting for most of us, as it’s yet another thing to do. The strategy, the actioning, the reviewing: these are some of the core day-to-day tasks we have to accomplish.

As a writer, how can you fit these, which may not be in your own ZoG (zone of genius), into your monthly practices?

I am personally a lover of running 90-day reviews. As a company, we run 30-day reports, weekly updates, and 90-day reviews (also known as quarterly reports). We also take a full day for the end-of-year reviews.

Yet, for personal brands, I suggest making things…

NEWS IN BRIEF

You know a social network is a sensation when its invites start getting sold on eBay. If it sounds too crazy to be true, well, it must be.

In other news, find out how Twitter can tell you what’s on people’s minds and how brands can stay ahead of what’s happening with The Conversation.

Meanwhile, a Chinese company created an application to introduce a ‘drunk mode’ of WhatsApp and other applications that will prevent you from suffering from ‘crude morals’. You are welcome.

Productivity Guinea Pigs

How long does it take you to respond to your emails in the morning? Roughly, I mean. What about scrolling your Twitter feed, or maybe scheduling your newsletter?

I ask this question to every single client I work with, and very often to our collective members during office hours. Most time, all I can see is sheer panic in their eyes.

From guess-timating all the way to wildly underestimating, most of us truly do not know how long it takes us to complete a given task at a given time. This is because most of us suffer from planning fallacy.

…

As Reels have been taking the spotlight on Instagram, a new feature has gone undetected in the last couple of months: Instagram Guides.

To me, that is a shame because I do believe that Instagram Guides are something that could be explored, and also is incredibly easy to set up.

Initially, Instagram enabled the Guides feature for a select number of health and wellness advocates, to provide resources for people who are struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instagram describes Guides as:

“A way to more easily discover recommendations, tips, and other content from your favorite creators, public figures, organizations…