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Across the Microsoft 365 apps, the average employee spends 57% of their time communicating (in meetings, email, and chat) and 43% creating (in documents, spreadsheets, and presentations).

A recently pubished report by Microsoft: The 2023 Work Trend Index: Annual Report, revealed that workers are spending at least full working days (57% of their time communicating in meetings, email, and chat). The report noted an urgent need to make meetings more effective as people report inefficient meetings as their number one productivity disruptor.  The top 5 obstacles to work productivity, according to the Microsoft Work Trend Index Report, are: Having inefficient meetings, Lacking clear goals, Having too many meetings, Feeling uninspired, and Not easily finding the information I need.

Workers spend at least full working days (57% of their time communicating in meetings, email, and chat).

I recently enrolled and finished the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate Course on Coursera. It is kind of the first full course that I would finish on Coursera; I use other platforms such as Linkedin Learning, Pluralsight, and EdX, to name a few, for my personal and professional development. The course is comprehensive as it was taught by industry professionals from Google. The content is very informative and great for both beginners and intermediate learners. I highly recommend it.

Subject-matter experts from Google share insights, tools and platforms like Canva, Constant Contact, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Hootsuite, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Shopify, and Twitter. Concepts discussed in the course include customer journey, email marketing, marketing analytics and measurements, e-commerce, building customer satisfaction and other digital marketing methodology and frameworks.

One of the key takeaways from enrolling in the Coursera-Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate Course is the myriad of tools and resources shared by the subject matter experts from Google that facilitated the course.

Here is a list of the resources and tools shared in the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate Course:

Customer Persona Generators

Google Tools

Social Listening Tools

Photo Editing

For paid software for photo editing, you can try the following products:

For free or open-source software for photo editing, you can try the following options:

Video editing

For video editing, you can try the following products:

For free or open-source software for video editing, you can try the following options:

Graphic design

For graphic design, you can try the following products:

For free graphic design options, you can try the following:

Social Media Analytics Tools

Social Testing

Social testing is an experimental process that shows how social media content is performing among target audiences.

Email Marketing

Media Planning Tool

Marketing Analytics Tools

Marketing Suites – Analytics

Open source tools

Open source tools for marketing analytics include:

Advertising Platforms

A/B Testing

Other tools for A/B testing

Here is a list of several other tools for A/B testing:

  • AB Tasty: Pricing is available by custom quote
  • Convert: Free trial is available
  • Crazy Egg: Free trial is available (requires billing information)
  • Google Optimize: Google Optimize is free while Google Optimize 360 is a paid subscription
  • Instapage: Free trial is available (requires billing information)
  • Optimizely: Pricing is available upon request
  • Unbounce: Free trial is available (requires billing information)
  • VWO: Free trial is available

To try a sample size calculator for A/B testing that includes a feature to estimate the required duration for a statistically valid test, refer to the following link:

  • Sample size calculator: Use this calculator to estimate how many users you need and how long you should run an A/B test.

Firebase is an app development platform that helps developers build apps that people enjoy.

Microsoft Excel

  • Sort data in a range or table: This page guides you through all the steps you will need to sort data by number, text, and color.
  • Filter data in a range or table: This article has step-by-step instructions on how to filter an Excel spreadsheet to show only the data you want to see.
  • COUNTA function: This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the COUNTA function in Microsoft Excel.

How to choose a data visualization: Refer to this pictorial guide for help selecting the right type of chart for your data. You may download and keep it for reference.

Resources for more information

eCommerce Tools

Customer relationship management (CRM): These tools help businesses manage and monitor multiple aspects of their company, including sales, marketing, analytics, and customer service. Here are a few examples:

Team collaboration: These tools help teams stay organized and make it easier for them to communicate with each other. Features that might be included in these tools are email, video calls, cloud storage, messaging, file sharing, and more. Here are a few examples:

Digital advertising and PPC: These tools help teams manage their online advertising campaigns:

Digital marketing: These tools make it easier to manage marketing campaigns for email, social media, or other channels:

Search engine optimization (SEO): These tools assist with monitoring and improving a website’s performance in search results:

Analytics: These tools help businesses analyze their website traffic, sales, and other data.

eCommerce

  • A Better Lemonade Stand: This resource offers articles to help e-commerce entrepreneurs develop better business practices. 
  • HubSpot: HubSpot is an American developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. Their blog offers many resources about digital marketing.
  • Practical Ecommerce: Practical Ecommerce is an independent online magazine, whose mission is to publish informative articles, commentary, webinars, and podcasts to help online merchants. The magazine is not affiliated with any e-commerce service, platform, or provider.
  • Shopify blog: Shopify’s blog offers articles to help people achieve e-commerce independence. The blog’s goal is to make it easier for users to start, run, and grow an online business. 

Resume Tools

Interview

Resume Templates

All the Best in your quest to get better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.

In his book, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, former Apple employee and co-creator of the iPhone and iPod Tony Fadell shares lessons learned and insights for becoming more creative. He also shared a reading list of his favourite books and articles that have enhanced his creativity. He writes

“Here are some of the books and articles that have helped me, my friends, and mentors, in no particular order:”

build-by-tony-fadell

Fishpeople tells the stories of a unique cast of characters who have dedicated their lives to the sea and the transformative effects of time spent in the ocean. It chronicles the story six people transformed by their experience with the sea. The six people profiled in the documentary include Kimi Werner, Matahi Drollet, Lynne Cox, Ray Collins, Eddie Donnellan, and Dave Rastovich.

Books transform lives they are bridges from your current self to your best self.

The Book I’m Reading is a weekly cross-platform show where Nigerians hear their idols passionately discuss and read from the books they love. It is hosted by legendary actor, Richard Mofe-Damijo, popularly called RMD. The Book I’m Reading is sponsored by Sterling Bank and hosted on RadioNow 95.3 FM. The show is created by Kadaria Ahmed (Chief Executive Officer of RadioNow 95.3FM)

Netflix has announced the launch of a book club, a one-of-a-kind book club from the home of the world’s most talked-about book adaptations.  The Netflix Book Club is hosted by Orange is the New Black star and Three-time Emmy Award winner Uzo Aduba. As a fan of great books, I can’t for the show to start.

Through Netflix Book Club, readers will hear about their new favorite books, films, and series adaptations first – and get exclusive access to the process behind bringing these books from page to screen.

On Sunday night May 23rd, 2021, Canadian-born rapper Drake (Drizzy) received the Billboard Artist of The Decade Award for his consistency in the past 10 years. The 2021 Billboard Music Awards was held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. The award was presented to him by his Manager, Future the Prince in the presence of his parents and other OVO team members. Drake received the award with his 3-year-old son Adonis by his side,

The highlight and the most inspiring part of the night for me was the introduction video dubbed “Certain Destiny” with Drake narrating the early years of his career, and Basketball player King Lebron James narrated the latter part of the intro.

Drake Intro video “Certain Destiny” :

Let me tell you something,

Drake 2021 Billboard Acceptance Speech:

Drizzy shared some very powerful words of inspiration about his success and what really drives him

“I’m really self-conscious about my music. I rarely celebrate anything, and just for anyone watching this that’s wondering how this happened, that’s really the answer. It’s being so unsure how you’re getting it done, that you just keep going in the hopes of figuring out the formula. Feeling so lucky and blessed that the fear of losing it keeps you up at night.”

It’s being so unsure how you’re getting it done, that you just keep going in the hopes of figuring out the formula. Feeling so lucky and blessed that the fear of losing it keeps you up at night.”

On his Hardwork and Work Ethic:

“I didn’t write a grandiose speech about how to make it work or what it took, ’cause to be honest, I don’t really understand it myself. I just know that I’ve spent an incalculable amount of hours trying to analyze all the things I did wrong, but tonight, for once, I’m sure as hell we did something right.

I didn’t write a grandiose speech about how to make it work or what it took, ’cause to be honest, I don’t really understand it myself.

Award Dedication:

“I want to dedicate this award to my friends, I want to dedicate this award to my longtime collaborators. I want to dedicate this award to all my peers, all your decisions, and the music you make really does have me tossing and turning at night trying to figure out what I should do next. Thank you to my beautiful family.”

All the Best in your quest to get Better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.” – Marcus Aurelius

I recently ordered the Daily Stoic’s Momento Mori Medallion as a way to remind me of my mortality. We hear of people’s death daily on social media, in the news, within our family, we lose friends, colleagues and we know deep down that it is an inevitable thing that would happen to us all. Death is a debt we all have to pay, and it is a subject our society encourages us to avoid. We act awkward around people that just lost a loved one; some people even avoid reaching out to their family and friends because they do not know what to say. The sad reality is that when you DIE, the world would move on, you and I are not that special.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. – Steve Jobs

Since 1960: Venture capitalist have invested over $450 billion in more than 27,00 companies.

Something Ventured is a 2011 documentary film investigating the emergence of American venture capitalism in the mid-20th century. Something Ventured follows the stories of the venture capitalists like Tom Perkins, Don Valentine, Arthur Rock, Dick Kramlich, and others, who worked with entrepreneurs to start and build companies like Apple, Intel, Genentech, Cisco, Atari, Tandem, and others.

Beginning in the late 1950′s, this small group of high rollers fostered a one-of-a-kind business culture that encouraged extraordinary risk and made possible unprecedented rewards. They laid the groundwork for America’s start-up economy, providing not just the working capital but the guidance to allow seedling companies to reach their full potential.

Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.–Thomas Edison.

One of the most exciting tools I have come across in the past week is the five-minute journal. I got to know about the journal after watching a Tim Ferris Youtube video (Thanks Tim). I love the five-minute journal so much that I ordered 10 for the most important people in my life. I have been trying to journal in the past three months, and it has not been straightforward.

Gratitude is the feeling that embodies the phrase “Thank You”. It is the unexpected reward of a kind deed that is magically produced by your brain. It is the cute, tingly feeling in your body that makes you smile at strangers. A 2003 study by Emmons and McCullough found that keeping a daily gratitude journal leads to better sleep. reductions of physical pain, a greater sense of well-being, and a better ability to handle change.

Gratitude is the experience of counting one’s blessings.

With the gratitude journal, I have a system that makes it easier to journal every day; it has pre-formatted questions on every page with the following questions:

Every page contains the following: