00:00 Introductions.

Martin Henley: [00:00:13] Hello there. My name is Martin Henley. This is The Effective Marketing Content Extravaganza. If you’re new here, you won’t yet know that I’m on a mission to give you everything you need to be more successful in your business. Providing of course, what you need to be more successful in your business is to know more about and be implementing more enthusiastically, efficiently and effectively sales and marketing. Because of course that’s what you need. If you’re going to be more successful, you need more customers more profitably. That is what’s going to give you a better life, a better business. So what goes on here is I’m here giving you everything I know about sales and marketing as part of the What The series, I bring in Anyone I can find with experience relevant, useful to you if you are looking to be more successful in your business. Melanie Farmer comes along every couple of weeks. We look at the Marketing News and we speculate wildly about what it might mean for you in your life. We review the very best and the very worst of marketing content on the Internet and and the new thing.

Martin Henley: [00:01:14] Today’s thing is Marketing Reviews. The idea is quite simple. We review so you don’t have to. It’s absolutely a mission. Finding the right content, finding the right tools, finding the right subscriptions to be effective in your marketing. So that’s what today is about. I am reviewing for you today. So if this sounds like it might be interesting or useful, then please take a second to like share, subscribe, comment, get involved because that is what will give us the motivation to continue on this epic, epic journey. So today is Marketing Reviews number three. In the Marketing Reviews, we’ve reviewed two books which I thoroughly recommend you read. You should go check out those videos. You’ll see those on our channel.

01:57 What is Google Keep?

Martin Henley: [00:01:57] But today we’re changing tack slightly and we are going to review a tool. Now, this isn’t a new tool. This is an old tool. It’s been around for as long as I can remember, but it is an incredibly useful tool. And that tool is called Google Keep. Now you will find Google keep described as many things. So people describe it, for example, as a simple and clean notetaking app. They describe it as a cloud based web clipper. They describe it as a to do list manager. They describe it very often as virtual sticky notes or as a content collector or store. And that is the way I’m using Google Keep and that’s the way I recommend you use it to. Now, this tool is available to you on iOS and Android apps, so you can install this on your phone, you can access it through a browser on your desktop. Unfortunately, there is no desktop app. You can access it through a chrome plug in. It is integrated into Google Apps like Gmail and Drive, etc.

03:03 How do you access Google Keep?

Martin Henley: [00:03:03] This is widely available. That’s what you need to know. So whatever kind of flavor of phone you’re using, whatever flavor of desktop you’re using, you will be able to access this tool wherever you are. And that’s important for the way that I think about this. So what I want to do is I want to show you very quickly, this isn’t a how to this is a review. But I just want to show you very quickly how this thing works. Most importantly, I want to show you how I’m using it and how I recommend you use it, because this is ridiculously, stupidly useful. And have I mentioned yet that it’s free? I haven’t on purpose. You can install this and run it for completely free and there is no limitation on how much data you can store within this within this app. So there is no, no, there is no limitation. You know, this is let me show you what it does and then I’ll show you how I use it. And then you can see why I’m so excited about this. So if we look at Google, keep it looks like this and there are a number of functionalities. Now, people do describe this as a note taking app and I don’t think it does the best, but basically that’s what it’s here to do. So you can take a note for example.

04:14 What are the basic functions of Google Keep?

Martin Henley: [00:04:14] So I can title this note something to do. This is the hardest thing I do in my life is type in front of people something to do with Google, Google Keep. Okay. And then we can put some content in here and then we can save that. Now, what we can do here, which is really useful, is we can set ourselves a reminder so we can decide when it is that we need to come back and pay attention to this note so we can set it for later today, tomorrow, next week. We can also set it for a location so we can decide, okay, I need to be reminded of this note when I’m at home or when I’m at work, or when I’m at the shops or when I’m at the Scout hall or wherever it is that you are. So this is a really useful and pretty effective kind of reminder type service. So, for example, if I’m putting together shopping lists, then I might want to. Be reminded that I need to buy nails and a drill and a hammer when I go to the hardware store, for example, or I need to buy toothpaste and orange juice and washing up liquid when I go to the supermarket. So it’s a pretty effective reminder type tool. That’s not what I’m excited about. Well, you can also do with these tools is you can collaborate. So if there’s a project that you’re working on with somebody or if you’re planning to go on holiday with someone, then you can set up a note between you and you can start sharing things to those notes.

Martin Henley: [00:05:47] When you update that note, then your collaborator will get a reminder. That’s also not what I’m excited about. So what you can also do is customize it a little bit. I’m not really excited about that. What you can also do is add images, you can archive. There are a number of other things you can do. You can add labels, add drawings, make a copy, all of these things. So this is a pretty effective, if not the best note taker, not the best notification reminder type service, but you can do those pretty effectively within this tool for free. And this might compare maybe it’s not as technical, maybe it doesn’t have the functionality, but it will compare with something like Evernote, for example. But none of this is the reason that I am excited about this. The reason I’m excited about this, the reason I’m excited about this tool is because I’m not very good at remembering things. I haven’t remembered how to make this service work. I know. So I’m going back through there that needs to be over there. That needs to become here because I need to talk to you. So I’m not very good at remembering things. And I got excited. I mean, I’ve used Google Keep for a long time, but I haven’t really been excited about it recently.

Martin Henley: [00:07:04] But I got excited recently when I discovered about this second brain idea, which you may or may not be familiar with. But the idea is very simply that one brain isn’t enough. Maybe in 2023 and you could benefit from having a second brain. And what this is about is about creating digital environments where you can store ideas, contents, notes, all of these things. So what it comes down to is this idea of note taking. And there are and I’m not the person to talk to you about this, but there are kind of levels to this. The first stages you need to collect these things. The second stage is you need to store these things effectively so that they are accessible, these content, these ideas, these notes. And then the third stage is that you need to be able to present it really nicely and maybe connect all of those different things together. So the reason I’m excited about Google Keep is because it does, I think, the best job, certainly the best job for free of the first part of those three processes, and that is collecting a collector for data, ideas, content, etc., etc.. So the point of this is the point of this is what is the point of this? The point of this is there’s a quote I can’t remember who said it.

Martin Henley: [00:08:22] I could look it up, maybe I will look it up. But the quote is, let’s look it up. Let’s do that thing. All right. So there’s Google key. We want that open and let’s have the quote. So the quote is, Your brain is good at having ideas and not good at keeping them. Now the guy behind. I did warn you. Ah, we’re here. So the guy behind all of this, all of this second brain type stuff and the people behind it. So the quote forever changed how I work. Unworthy. So let’s look at earn worthy. Let’s see what this quote is. The quote that forever changed me. Productivity. It’s a productivity tool. That’s the thing I also meant to say. So productivity can mean different things. Another side of productivity, your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. And it’s David Alan who said that. Now David Alan is the author of Getting Things Done. Now I read Getting Things done, I don’t know, in 2006 and I was probably really good at getting things done in 2006. I’m less good at getting things done now. So your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. And that, my friends, is the point of Google Keep. So somewhere else somebody written that we receive 35 gigabytes of data every single day. Now, I don’t know if that’s true. It sounds preposterous to me. What I know is when I produce a talk marketing, it’s an hour and 15 minutes.

Martin Henley: [00:10:00] Those are typically like two gig, four gig, maybe a video. There are about four gig of video. So that’s an hour and 15 minutes. So are they telling us that we are receiving ten times that or are we receiving, I don’t know, 10 hours, ten and a quarter or ten, 14 hours of content a day doesn’t really make sense to me. Are they saying that we receive 30 odd gigabytes of data digitally through our screens every day? I don’t really know. What I do know is that it’s relentless. Like there is information coming at us constantly and some of it is good information. So, for example, if you’re scrolling tick tock or you’re scrolling Instagram reels or you’re scrolling, whatever, you might be scrolling, if you’re watching YouTube videos, if you’re reading things on the Internet and not just on your screen, but on your phone or on your tablet, however this information is coming to you, some of it is going to be useful. And for me, especially some of it’s going to be useful because I kind of am in the content business like I am doing this largely for fun on the YouTube channel, but for work I teach people. So I am producing content and delivering content all of the time. So what’s really useful for me is that when this content comes to me and it’s useful, is that I have a way of collecting and storing it and the way I am collecting it and storing it is through Google Keep.

11:23 What is the best function of Google Keep?

Martin Henley: [00:11:23] So I have Google keep installed on my phone, I have Google keep installed on my tablets because what you can guarantee is the most useful, interesting thing is not going to come to you when you are ready to receive it, it will come to you. I don’t know when you’re sitting at the bus stop and just scrolling through your phone or it will come to you. I don’t know. You might be walking past something. You might see a sign that would be really interesting. Useful, I don’t know. But it will come to you at the time that you are least prepared to collect it. And going back to David Allen’s observation, your mind is for having ideas, not keeping them. So you will know you’ll be in conversation with someone. You’ll say, Oh, I saw this brilliant thing the other day. It was talking about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don’t know where it was. Well, what Google key will allow you to do is collect that piece of content and have it accessible to you. I’m going to show you exactly how this works because this is really, really useful. So, for example, if we come to Google, keep here is a note that I made while I was practicing. So for example, if I am scrolling the Internet and I say, okay, you’re not seeing my screen now, you’ll see my screen.

Martin Henley: [00:12:33] So I come across this quote like, Now I’d forgotten that it was David Allen’s quote. So what I can say is I can go, okay, I’m going going to highlight that quote that’s really useful and I’m going to right click because I have Google keep here installed as a crown Chrome extension. So when I right click here, I can say, okay, save selection to keep. And then what will happen is. Don’t forsake me now. So what will happen is save selection to keep. Nothing is happening. Why is nothing happening? Have I got too many windows open? Okay, so let’s go the other way. Okay. And if I click here on Google now, nothing’s happening because. Why is nothing happening? Why is it not happening? Because my chrome has crashed. I know that app is working. This is sods law, isn’t it? So if we go, for example, I really like that quote and I’m going to save that selection to keep. But it’s not creating the note. So let’s go to another page. So let’s go to this page and save that selection to keep. Here we go. So maybe that page is protected. I don’t know. Anyway, here we are. So now I have the quotes. It’s not ideal. It’s not what I really wanted. And what I can do is I can add a title to this.

Martin Henley: [00:14:19] Whatever. Getting things done. David Allen quotes. And now what I can do is I can use my tags, which I’ve already set up and I can say, okay, this is to do with communication, this is to do with content ideas. This might be a content idea for the future. This is to do with leadership, this is to do with personal development. What I should really have in here is a list which I don’t have yet. This is to do with Second Brain. So this is to do with all of these things. And then what I can do is I can just literally create that note. And now I’ve created the note. It took a little bit longer than I wanted. If I come back to Google, keep, you will see that it’s here already. And actually if I look on my phone, you will see that it’s here also already. So if I open that, you will see that the quote is there. So this is interesting because now that is captured. Now I don’t have to think about that quote ever again. I should probably have a label which is getting things done or personal effectiveness or productivity, those kinds of things there will be very shortly. So now what happens is I don’t have to think about that ever again. I mean, I might have remembered it subconsciously because I’ve done the action, but I don’t have to think about that anymore.

Martin Henley: [00:15:38] That’s not taking up any space in my mind. So now when I come and I’m like, okay, I need to do something which is about or I need to produce a piece of content. So let’s have a look at some content ideas. Now, all of these content ideas that I’ve saved are here and they’re accessible to me. So for example, I’m very interested in what I mean, am I interested in I’m interested in digital transformation. I might be expected to produce a course in digital transformation. So now when somebody comes to me and says, Can you produce a course on digital transformation, I’m not starting from scratch. I literally come here and I click digital transformation and here are all the little pieces of content that have been delivered to me that I think are interesting and useful in a conversation about digital transformation. Similarly, we can look at innovation, there’s ideas, we can look at leadership, there’s ideas, we can look at all of the different things that I am interested in, and there are lots of interesting and useful things here. So for example, if we look at leadership, what we can see is that there was a brilliant I’ve looked for this over and over and over again. There is a brilliant thing that’s I hope this is the right thing. It’s not the right thing. That is the wrong thing. The secret to high performing teams.

Martin Henley: [00:17:04] But what I would do now is I would just start browsing this content. But and so there might be quotes, for example, from Simon Sinek. There might be, Oh, there is this one quote, This is I need to get more organised. But anyway, what I will do is I will scroll through these things and I will have these ideas again and this will trigger me then to create the content. Because what you need to remember is that your brain is for having ideas, not for keeping them. Keep is for keeping these ideas. So how this gets better? Well, I don’t feel like I’ve done a brilliant job of this. Showing you how good it is, is where this gets better is if I come to a page, for example. Oh, no, we’ve seen that. So not only is the note here, if we come to all of the notes, it also has the reference. So it shows me where I’ve kept that from. So if I’m putting a slide together, then I have the reference to put on the slide so people can go and explore the subject more if that’s what they want to do. Where this gets better is maybe where this happens with your phone. So for example, if I come to my phone, I have keep on my phone and I press the plus I want to take a note. Then what I can do is I can.

18:16 Transcribing audio notes using Google Keep.

Martin Henley: [00:18:16] This is annoying because my eyes are going. So then what I can do is I can record a note. So send label delete notes. I want to create a note, search reminders, contents, notes. I felt like I was perfectly prepared. There’s a little microphone here. You see that in the bottom. So what I can say is I can record, try saying something. This is a note about Google Keep so I can demonstrate to people how the audio notes work on Google Keep. Okay, good. Now that is recorded. And the beauty of this now is you could see it’s already here on my device. It saved us, collaborator. I didn’t actually save that. But what I can do is I can add a reminder to that or a notification to that. I can do all these things. So if we come back and we say, okay, this is voice message, and then what I really want to do is I want the thing to go away and then I want that to be saved as a note. Well, it is saved as a note. The point I want to make here is, look, you just saw me record that and what is done is transcribed that note already. So before I’ve even added any labels to that, Google is transcribing the note. It may not be perfect, but what that means is that that searchable. So if I’m walking around in an idea comes into my head, I can literally put together a voice note.

Martin Henley: [00:19:53] I can know it’s going into the right place. I can add labels to that so that so that I have a sense of what it’s about. But what Google will do is it will also search the text of that voice message. So I will be able to find it. So the important thing here with these collection type tools is that you are able to access the information again when you need it. So I think that’s brilliant.

20:19 Transcribing text from images using Google Keep.

Martin Henley: [00:20:19] Where this goes further is if, for example, we do a new search and we do a search for a a image, so let’s just say page of text. And what I want to do is I want to do an image search. And so here, let’s not go with a big page of text because I’ve been caught out like that before. Maybe this is a good one down the rabbit hole. So I can do is I can right click that Google. Keep sending save image to Google. Keep all I can do here. As I can say, I can add a title. I can say, okay, this might be about I, this might be about brand. But what I want to do is I want to create a note so that is saving the notes. And then by the time we’ve come back to Google, Keep.

Martin Henley: [00:21:10] The image is here with the page of text. Now, the genius here, this is absolute genius is I can say, okay, grab image, text. And now what it does is it transcribes or it pulls the text out of that image. And again, that is now searchable. So if I’m walking around or if I’m scrolling tik-tok or whatever it is, I can literally hit the share button and share that piece of content to Google Keep worst case, if I see a sign or something, I can take a photo and I can share that to Google. Keep and Google keep or Google can pull the text out of that. I hope you’re getting a sense of what this is about. I don’t feel like I’ve done the best job necessarily of showing you what it’s about, but the idea here is that here is a free tool. Google Keep that interacts with all of your devices, whether you’re on iOS, whether you’re on Android, whatever kind of device you’re on, whether you’re working on your desktop. It’s unfortunate that there isn’t a desktop app to go with this, but whatever device you’re working on, if a piece of content comes to you, if you’re walking down the street and you see something that inspires you, you can take a photo. If a thought occurs to you, you can record a piece of a piece of audio and you can put all of these things into the same places, into keep, and it will be perfectly searchable.

Martin Henley: [00:22:32] So when you need to know about that, when you need that piece of audio, when you need that image, when you need that piece of content, you just literally come to Google keep and you search and it will all be made available to you. I think this is absolute genius. It could be ever so slightly better. Like so, for example, if you’re online with your desktop, when are you offline ever? Then you don’t have access. You always have access whether you’re online or otherwise on your phones or your tablets. So it could be better. If there was an app for desktops, it would be nice to have. It could be better. How else could it be better? What? I don’t seem to be able to do is select a selection. If I’m if I’m on my phone, for example, select detection of selection of text, it does. It’s not so good at referencing the source in those instance. So it could be ever so slightly better. But do you know what? It doesn’t have to be because this is an absolutely free tool that will free up so much of your mind space so you can be interested. You might say, I’m interested in too many things, but I’m not actively interested in any of these things. Like these are things that are on my radar. These are things that I should be knowing about because it could come up.

Martin Henley: [00:23:42] When it comes up, I come to my label. It’s like, okay, somebody wants something on innovation, I can do it. Somebody wants something that’s funny, I can do it. Somebody wants something that’s about, I don’t know, communication or AI or brand or whatever these things are. We’ve all been in a situation where we’ve said, okay, I saw this great thing, I wish I could show it to you. We’re searching. This is the point. I’ve got a shopping label because I spend too much time looking for things that I want to buy. We all do, but I’ve got shopping label because then when I see something I want to buy, it just goes in there. I don’t have to think about owning that thing ever again. When it comes up, when I actually need it, I can go and I can say, okay, these were the ones that I was interested in. So what this does is it enables you to collect content when it’s coming to you so that when you need to know about that subject or you need to know about those products or you need to know whatever it is, you need to know when exactly you need to know it, You come here and you look at all of the things that caught your attention or caught your interest before. So I would say your brain is for having ideas, not keeping them.

24:46 Should you be using Google Keep?

Martin Henley: [00:24:46] That’s 100% correct. But what Google keep enables me to do is stop searching know. So if somebody comes to me with a topic, I’ve got lots of information already stored here and this is where I start. And of course this is where this is the beginning of the journey. But I’ve got a starting point because the worst thing that happens to me in my life is somebody comes to me and says, Can you produce something on this? And I’ll say, 100%, I can. And then I start with a blank page. That’s a disaster. So now I’m in a situation where people come to me and they say, Can you produce a thing on this? And I say, Absolutely, I can. And I come to Google Keep and I see all of the stuff that has been most interesting, most useful, I think. Okay, good. So hope you found this interesting, useful use Google keep if you’re in the business like this isn’t necessarily a marking tool marketing tool. It doesn’t matter what you do wherever you are in your life, you can and should use this tool to be more organized, to be remembering more stuff, not remembering more stuff. I think there might be an earthquake happening here. So use Google. Keep If you found this interesting, useful, please take a second to like share, subscribe and comment and we will see you in the next video. I’ll look forward to that happening very soon.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?