Speaker 1: Who do you reach out to when something needs to
Speaker 1: get done, when something is broken it needs repair, or
Speaker 1: when a company isn't doing what they're supposed to. If
Speaker 1: you're like most people, reaching out is just a generous
Speaker 1: way of saying sending an email into the.
Speaker 2: Ether and hope for the best.
Speaker 1: It doesn't usually work, it's frustrating, and it's a big
Speaker 1: waste of time. But Jannislintz is not most people. When
Speaker 1: she wants something done, she writes a letter to the Queen.
Speaker 1: No seriously. When she noticed that the hearing access signage
Speaker 1: at Buckingham Palace was incorrect, she didn't fill out a
Speaker 1: contact us form on a website, she wrote a letter
Speaker 1: to her Majesty. Jannis knows that going straight to the
Speaker 1: top is the most effective and efficient way to get
Speaker 1: something done, and she definitely doesn't have time to waste.
Speaker 1: Ever since learning her daughter was hearing impaired and realizing
Speaker 1: that most of the world is simply inexcessible for the
Speaker 1: heart of hearing, Janis has been on a mission to
Speaker 1: change that. As the CEO of Hearing Access and Innovations.
Speaker 1: How does someone who's trying to literally change the world
Speaker 1: get everything done and how does Janis use data to
Speaker 1: influence the influential in a space where there's normally no
Speaker 1: data at all, And how does she not just reach
Speaker 1: out to the important people but convince them to do
Speaker 1: what needs to be done. My name is doctor Amantha Imba.
Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist and founder of behavioral science consultancy
Speaker 1: Invent Him and this is how I work a show
Speaker 1: about how to help you do your best work. Janis
Speaker 1: says that her secret source is going straight to the top,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to know exactly what she meant by that.
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 4: I go right to the top.
Speaker 3: I go to heads of companies, see heads of states,
Speaker 3: heads of governments, heads of corporations, agencies, everyone. It is
Speaker 3: much easier, more efficient to go to the head of
Speaker 3: the decision maker who controls the purse strings than to
Speaker 3: work your way up from the bottom.
Speaker 4: Plus, if you work your way up.
Speaker 3: From the bottom, people don't appreciate when you go above
Speaker 3: their head. When you start at the top and you're
Speaker 3: directed to speak to someone, then you're not going over
Speaker 3: their head, but they now have authority to accomplish the task.
Speaker 3: It's a much different position, and people don't like when
Speaker 3: you go over their head.
Speaker 2: They certainly don't do they.
Speaker 1: Now when you say going straight to the top, you
Speaker 1: like really made it. Can you tell me about writing
Speaker 1: to the Queen?
Speaker 4: Years ago?
Speaker 3: We were at Buckingham Palace and the sign was incorrect.
Speaker 3: I tried explaining the problem with the sign for hearing
Speaker 3: access not being the correct symbol, and it was clear
Speaker 3: the person didn't care and was brushing me off and
Speaker 3: dismissing me, and I was really annoyed, and.
Speaker 4: I just thought, well, I'll write to the Queen.
Speaker 3: And I told her that, and I could tell she
Speaker 3: just thought, yeah, whatever, And I was like, Okay, she
Speaker 3: clearly doesn't know who she's dealing with. And I wrote
Speaker 3: a letter to the Queen. The sign got fixed. No,
Speaker 3: I don't think the Queen herself went down and fixed
Speaker 3: the sign, but she directed. At some point somebody with
Speaker 3: a position of authority cared that the sign was incorrect.
Speaker 3: It was the wrong simbol giving poor information, and they
Speaker 3: fixed the sign and I was invited to be on
Speaker 3: the International Royal Advisory Committee. I ended up never doing
Speaker 3: anything with it. Frankly, I was hoping for knighthood, but
Speaker 3: that didn't happen. Nonetheless, you know, it's it's just but it's.
Speaker 4: Not just the Queen.
Speaker 3: I mean I went to Prime Minister Dough, I went
Speaker 3: to then Vice President of Ecuador who later become became
Speaker 3: the President of Ecuador.
Speaker 4: I have gone to the Vatican, you know, the Pope.
Speaker 3: I have gone to every person, because it is just
Speaker 3: you know, I have a lot to do and it's
Speaker 3: just efficient.
Speaker 4: It sounds funny but.
Speaker 1: It works and I'm not surprised, But how do you
Speaker 1: do it in practical terms? Like how do you even
Speaker 1: does the Queen have an email? How do you get
Speaker 1: her email address or any of these people?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, it is really funny. So years ago,
Speaker 3: I mean I wrote her a hard copy letter. In
Speaker 3: the Pope, I wrote a hard copy letter.
Speaker 2: But I will tell.
Speaker 3: You there was one time where someone gave me the
Speaker 3: Queen's phone number for a housekeeper and I thought they
Speaker 3: were kidding and I called it and was like, no,
Speaker 3: it was Buckingham Palace and they were like, how did
Speaker 3: you get this number? And I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: I really have the Queen's phone number, you know, with
Speaker 3: some where within Buckingham powers because it was the wild
Speaker 3: household head number.
Speaker 4: But usually that was just a funny story.
Speaker 3: But usually you know, I have to say, in this
Speaker 3: day and age, thanks to data breaches, everyone's email is
Speaker 3: on on the internet. Otherwise a good old fashioned letter
Speaker 3: or somebody else's email, you can track everyone down. You
Speaker 3: would be really surprised there are many prime minister's email
Speaker 3: addresses on the internet.
Speaker 2: So what like, how would you do that?
Speaker 1: Like, let's just say, I said, janis, your job today
Speaker 1: is to contact Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister of Australia,
Speaker 1: and you need to contact him directly.
Speaker 2: Like what would you do?
Speaker 1: Are there specific tools that you use for finding people's
Speaker 1: email addresses or are there specific words that you enter
Speaker 1: into a Google search?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I saw, I put Scott Morrison.
Speaker 3: I'm doing it as worth speaking email it into I
Speaker 3: don't know, like so I put in Scott Morrison email
Speaker 3: into the search bar and then one of the deep
Speaker 3: things that.
Speaker 4: Oh here it is no like, no joke, it is
Speaker 4: right here. Oh this is great.
Speaker 3: I will be emailing him because here we go. I'm
Speaker 3: going to send him an email. But there's a whole
Speaker 3: government online directory for the Australian government with his email address.
Speaker 3: It's not even that hard. I mean that was what.
Speaker 1: Second you have detailed how this going straight to the
Speaker 1: top strategy works with regards to Donald Trump and celebrity
Speaker 1: Apprentice back several years ago.
Speaker 2: So what was the story there.
Speaker 4: That's another funny story. They're all like, really funny.
Speaker 3: So Donald Trump's Apprentice was before he became president. The
Speaker 3: show was the capture were spelled incorrectly, and for example, Bordeaux,
Speaker 3: the region of France, was spelt like two animals, a
Speaker 3: bore and a dole. And my daughter at the time
Speaker 3: was in high school or maybe junior high school, I
Speaker 3: don't remember what year was, and she was learning poor spelling,
Speaker 3: and when you have a hearing loss, it's already hard enough,
Speaker 3: and I didn't want her learning poor spelling.
Speaker 4: Now, Donald Trump's son.
Speaker 3: A daughter, Ivanka, went to the same private girls school
Speaker 3: as my daughter, although she left or was reportedly asked
Speaker 3: to leave. That's subject to many rumors, but nonetheless I
Speaker 3: thought I would reach out as a parent from the school.
Speaker 3: Donald Trump's assistant Rona, her daughter went to the school,
Speaker 3: and I thought I would be able to reach out,
Speaker 3: and so I reached out to the office, spoke to them,
Speaker 3: and it was clear they didn't care. And in fact,
Speaker 3: Evanka came to the school hawking her book at the
Speaker 3: time for the school's book fair, and Ivanka didn't care
Speaker 3: as well. I tried the production company Mark Burnett Productions,
Speaker 3: vaiting care.
Speaker 4: In fact, the woman who was.
Speaker 3: In charge of overseeing the captions told me I was
Speaker 3: stressing her out, she was too busy.
Speaker 4: She was a single mother.
Speaker 3: I explained to her, I was a single mother, and
Speaker 3: I didn't really understand what being a single mother had
Speaker 3: to do with accurate spelled captions. So right, like, that's
Speaker 3: not an excuse to do a bad job, It's just
Speaker 3: not and.
Speaker 4: So I was rediculous.
Speaker 3: I happened to be reading an article about Bob Wright
Speaker 3: and I saw in the article that he had started
Speaker 3: Autism Speaks because he has a grandson with autism. So
Speaker 3: for me, that's the type of information I look for.
Speaker 3: So I didn't hadn't even gotten to the point of
Speaker 3: doing the Google search and looking for people in this case.
Speaker 4: I stumbled across the article.
Speaker 2: And Bob Brott was then chairman of Nbasay is that right?
Speaker 4: I believe that that was it?
Speaker 3: If the CEO of the President, I'm not your exactest
Speaker 3: title at this point, and so I reached out to
Speaker 3: him again using my way of getting people's phone numbers,
Speaker 3: and I never spoke to him.
Speaker 4: I spoke to his assistant.
Speaker 3: But the next thing I knew, somebody contacted me and
Speaker 3: he said, we're setting up a team and we'd like
Speaker 3: you to help us solve this problem. Because they did,
Speaker 3: and they said they you know, I don't remember the
Speaker 3: exact order, but basically, they reviewed at some point to
Speaker 3: the captions.
Speaker 4: They were.
Speaker 3: Shocked to see what was appearing on the screen, and
Speaker 3: they set up a team. We worked together to figure
Speaker 3: out how to create standards. At one point, the captioning
Speaker 3: company that they regularly used flew me to Pittsburgh to
Speaker 3: meet with them to understand how captions worked and how
Speaker 3: they thought that would be helpful because I could identify
Speaker 3: the problems, and we realized what the problem was was
Speaker 3: that there were no standards in the contract and the
Speaker 3: caption company at the time hadn't upgraded their software because
Speaker 3: without standards, there was no incentive for them to spend
Speaker 3: the money to upgrade their software, and they were hiring
Speaker 3: the cheapest people possible to capture. It was a disaster,
Speaker 3: and once NBC put standards into the contracts, pre recorded
Speaker 3: programming for NBC, stopping an issue.
Speaker 4: And also they were.
Speaker 3: Now bidding quality captions against quality captions, like companies with
Speaker 3: quality captions could now bid because before they were bidding
Speaker 3: solely based on price. Because also at the time the
Speaker 3: FCC didn't have standards. They now do this Ultimately, you know,
Speaker 3: through other decisions and other issues helped NBC's success helped
Speaker 3: lead the FCC to realize they could implement standards but
Speaker 3: have gone into there if it wasn't for Bob Bright.
Speaker 1: And so in that phone call or that email, that's
Speaker 1: that is the initial one to that person at the top,
Speaker 1: how are you, how are you structuring that call or email?
Speaker 1: Because I imagine there's some credibility building to be done so
Speaker 1: that they listened to you in the first place.
Speaker 3: Well, in that case, I reached out based on as
Speaker 3: like parents are grandparents care? You know, using the hook
Speaker 3: of I know you care about your grandchild he has autism.
Speaker 3: I care about my child who has a hearing loss.
Speaker 3: Let me explain to you what the problem is and
Speaker 3: why you should care too. Write from human to human.
Speaker 3: People who start organizations like that have a strong empathy chip.
Speaker 3: It's it's much easier to get an issue, and the
Speaker 3: assistant who worked for him was spectacular and she got
Speaker 3: it immediately. It was it wasn't a hard sell. And
Speaker 3: the person who I work with at NBC Ronlina, he
Speaker 3: was remarkable. I learned a tremendous amount working with him
Speaker 3: and it was an incredible experience.
Speaker 4: But people need to get it or don't.
Speaker 3: And these were working with people with empathy chips who care.
Speaker 3: Usually if I'm sending an email, I am trying to
Speaker 3: find some hook that makes them care that there's a
Speaker 3: reason neither I've done research and I know they care,
Speaker 3: or I'm finding some reason why they.
Speaker 4: Would want to care.
Speaker 3: I also have now a list under my name of
Speaker 3: all the awards I've won, so that also gives me
Speaker 3: instant credibility and they don't have to research who this
Speaker 3: person is. I literally, under my signature list the awards
Speaker 3: I want. I think you've seen that when I respond
Speaker 3: to you, I do that. It's a very efficient way
Speaker 3: for people to assess who you are interesting.
Speaker 1: So you're using the empathy hook within let's say the
Speaker 1: body of the email, and then your signature is actually
Speaker 1: the thing that builds your credibility, as opposed to opening
Speaker 1: with hey, this is why you should trust me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't even tell them why you should trust me.
Speaker 3: I use my signature as my credibility, and as you've seen,
Speaker 3: it has hyperlinks to various awards, and the awards are prestigious.
Speaker 3: I'm also going to be going to Harvard in July.
Speaker 4: That's at the top.
Speaker 3: When you have a list like that, it builds credibility.
Speaker 3: But even in the beginning, when I didn't have that,
Speaker 3: then I would my signature look different. It's evolved over
Speaker 3: the years, right, it's much stronger now. But I might have,
Speaker 3: let's say, in an article that quoted me, I would
Speaker 3: list them under my signature. And as the articles got better,
Speaker 3: I listed those and governd of the weaker articles. So
Speaker 3: when the note Your Times profiled me, that was under
Speaker 3: my signature, you know. And over the years it's evolved.
Speaker 3: It's constantly making it as strong as possible.
Speaker 4: You know, even with the awards.
Speaker 3: As I win stronger awards, I eliminate the weaker awards
Speaker 3: because there's a point where it's like just the gene
Speaker 3: is too long, Right, you don't want to look upnoxious.
Speaker 1: We will be back soon with Janis explaining her rules
Speaker 1: for following up so that she actually gets a response.
Speaker 1: What frequency is best and through which channel? And if
Speaker 1: you are looking for more tips to improve the way
Speaker 1: that you work, I write a short fortnightly newsletter that
Speaker 1: contains three cool things that I've discovered that helped me
Speaker 1: work better. You can sign up for that at Howiwork
Speaker 1: dot co. That's how I Work dot co. Now you
Speaker 1: learned an important rule from the powerbreaker and civil rights
Speaker 1: activist Vernon Jordan.
Speaker 2: What was that rule?
Speaker 4: Well, he was amazing.
Speaker 3: I was looking for his support for an appointment, and
Speaker 3: I knew he was connected to someone in the White House,
Speaker 3: and so I reached out to him.
Speaker 4: And when I.
Speaker 3: Don't receive an I don't expect always to receive a
Speaker 3: response right away. And it took four responses with him,
Speaker 3: and when he met me when he said he raised
Speaker 3: this first. He said, you know, I want you to
Speaker 3: know the reason I met you is because you follow
Speaker 3: it up. I have a rule that I usually don't
Speaker 3: see people or meet with them for at least unless
Speaker 3: they contact me at least four times, because if it's
Speaker 3: not worth your time, it's not worth my time to
Speaker 3: meet with you. And I thought, wow, you know there's
Speaker 3: times you wonder if that rule exists.
Speaker 4: But he actually told me.
Speaker 3: That, and it was one of the most invaluable lessons.
Speaker 3: I mean it was because I realized other people may
Speaker 3: be doing this and you know, may not be.
Speaker 4: As overt about it.
Speaker 3: But he was right, and I actually implemented that rule myself, like,
Speaker 3: if people want to meet with me, I let them
Speaker 3: follow up.
Speaker 4: I don't because if it's not worth their time, it's
Speaker 4: not worth my time.
Speaker 3: And I am amazed how many people do not follow up.
Speaker 3: I mean people always ask me my secret sauce for success.
Speaker 3: I would say ninety nine percent of it is I
Speaker 3: follow up.
Speaker 4: It's that simple.
Speaker 3: My mother is to say, you know, it's like tennis
Speaker 3: and golf, it's only in the follow up.
Speaker 2: And what are your rules about following up? Like there
Speaker 2: are a certain number of times you'll do it? What's
Speaker 2: your frequency? What does that look like?
Speaker 3: Okay, so I have no end.
Speaker 4: So and there.
Speaker 3: So you know, not everybody is so happy and willing
Speaker 3: to receive my contact, right. There are some people who
Speaker 3: are grateful, many people who are grateful, and they're like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: thank you for telling us that our sign is wrong
Speaker 3: or that like we could do better. You know, it
Speaker 3: is really actually interesting to see the differences between.
Speaker 4: Companies and their reactions.
Speaker 3: Some companies their goal is to always get it right
Speaker 3: and do better, and you can see that in the
Speaker 3: way the companies run and the culture of that company.
Speaker 4: And then the companies that people have a bad reputation.
Speaker 3: You see that in the reaction to my emails, right,
Speaker 3: it's consistent. So those companies that don't follow up, and
Speaker 3: they go well past the floor. In fact, sometimes it
Speaker 3: could go well into the fifties, and I'll start at
Speaker 3: some point numbering them. And you know, then there are
Speaker 3: the companies where they just or government agencies they just
Speaker 3: don't follow up. I mean the Trump's Apprentice was one
Speaker 3: of them, and I sent them a phone blog. So
Speaker 3: I maintained something called a phone blog.
Speaker 2: Can you tell me about your phone look?
Speaker 3: Yes, And it's been written about and it's pretty much
Speaker 3: in the disability community. It's well known. No, and it's
Speaker 3: actually funny at this point. So when I start a project,
Speaker 3: I have a horrible memory, horrible and I can't remember
Speaker 3: who I spoke to last you know, when you call
Speaker 3: like the bank and they'll say to you, like, well,
Speaker 3: who'd you speak to last time when you called, and
Speaker 3: you're like, really, do you think I possibly remember that? Well,
Speaker 3: I actually do, because I write it down. So when
Speaker 3: I start any project, I have a phone log for
Speaker 3: that project. And I do this, by the way, for
Speaker 3: my bank, because I decide to my bank is keeping
Speaker 3: track of me, I'm keeping track of them. So I
Speaker 3: start with, let's say a project. Let's say the Trump's Apprentice, right,
Speaker 3: and I'll say Trump's Apprentice at the hung And there
Speaker 3: might be a point where I might break up the
Speaker 3: log based on different companies, right, because you could have
Speaker 3: MBC and you could have the production company me.
Speaker 4: But in one particular instance was the.
Speaker 3: National Parks where I was trying to fix Ellis Island
Speaker 3: in the National Parks and fix their access for hearing
Speaker 3: people with hearing loss. And at some point, like with
Speaker 3: all the emails, the phone calls, the meetings in person,
Speaker 3: this is presum I had seventeen pages of phonelocks. Wow,
Speaker 3: now that's insane, and I will tell you it's gotten
Speaker 3: like worse. And I just sent it again to the
Speaker 3: new Secretary of Interio and I will now send her
Speaker 3: this recording. So I sent the former Secretary of Interia
Speaker 3: when my daughter was having a school trip to Ellis Island,
Speaker 3: saying I have done all these things. And you could
Speaker 3: say I contacted someone a lot, right, and they're like, well,
Speaker 3: what does that mean?
Speaker 4: Right? You need data?
Speaker 3: So I basically am creating data by sending them a
Speaker 3: phone law with every person I contacted, a summary of
Speaker 3: the conversation, who I spoke with, their position, their phone number,
Speaker 3: the date I spoke, and then what the next follow
Speaker 3: up is, and then what happens after. And I said
Speaker 3: that and apparent with scheduling request asking for a meeting,
Speaker 3: and apparently the Secretary of Interior was fed by that request,
Speaker 3: as they should be, and I received a phone call
Speaker 3: asking for me to come to Washington, of course at
Speaker 3: my own expense, and was asked to help write the
Speaker 3: National Park Service guidelines as a result of that, because
Speaker 3: it was clear there was a breakdown in what people
Speaker 3: understood a hearing access was and what was being implemented.
Speaker 3: And we did, and we wrote the National Park Service Guidelines. Now,
Speaker 3: I will say, you know, through the Trump administration, things changed.
Speaker 3: It was it became a disaster again. And things are
Speaker 3: still It's improved dramatically, but it's not quite right. And
Speaker 3: I recently sent the new Secretary of Interior, Secretary Haveland,
Speaker 3: the previous phone log and said, you know, we just
Speaker 3: went to Ellis Island and things were better but not great.
Speaker 1: Now, with the different documents that you've got for the
Speaker 1: different phone logs for the different projects, how do you
Speaker 1: remember when it's time to do another round of follow ups?
Speaker 3: I diary things on my calendar, so if I if
Speaker 3: somebody says, like, let's speak in two weeks, it goes
Speaker 3: on my calendar in.
Speaker 1: Two weeks, and like just as a reminder within your
Speaker 1: calendar software, or is there another specific strategy that you
Speaker 1: use for documenting those reminders.
Speaker 4: No, it's just in my calendar.
Speaker 3: Call National Parks or email Secretary of Interior.
Speaker 4: It's not so sophisticated, right, Like I don't have like
Speaker 4: I keep.
Speaker 3: It really simple, like with less of these technology things,
Speaker 3: because to me is less about the technology and more
Speaker 3: about spending the time getting things done. Sometimes if you
Speaker 3: have just too many different tools, it becomes too cumbersome.
Speaker 1: Now I know that with your to do list, you
Speaker 1: don't just keep a to do list like most people do.
Speaker 2: What's the other list that you keep?
Speaker 3: I also keep a waiting for list but I use
Speaker 3: this also for my personal issues, you know, like you know,
Speaker 3: you charge something, you're supposed to get a credit from
Speaker 3: your credit card, you know, for the return.
Speaker 4: I have a department store. Now I'm waiting two weeks
Speaker 4: for the return to hit.
Speaker 3: I have that on my waiting for list, and if
Speaker 3: it doesn't show up, I've been emailing them and they
Speaker 3: promised me I was going to receive it, so okay,
Speaker 3: for at six o'clock in New York, I haven't received it.
Speaker 4: They promised me I would have it by five.
Speaker 3: There will be another email today where is that credit?
Speaker 3: And I am surprised how often stores don't follow up
Speaker 3: on these type of things.
Speaker 4: And I think it's become in a pandemic.
Speaker 3: World almost like they they this is their new income sources,
Speaker 3: not processing things.
Speaker 4: Because I'm hearing this from other friends. So I use
Speaker 4: this in my you know, all of these tools.
Speaker 3: Are used in my personal life as well as my
Speaker 3: work life, because I find if you're consistent between personal work,
Speaker 3: it's easy to remember how to use them.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I like the idea of that.
Speaker 1: Like I would imagine though, like with all the communication
Speaker 1: that you're doing, your inbox must be very busy and
Speaker 1: I was impressed when we were organizing this interview that
Speaker 1: you you were very speedy with your responses, which I
Speaker 1: appreciate it and it makes my life easier. So I'm wondering,
Speaker 1: how how are you managing your inbox?
Speaker 3: So I use colored flags and fileboxes, so I have
Speaker 3: a file for every single project, right, this goes into
Speaker 3: the podcast best project.
Speaker 4: And then if I'm.
Speaker 3: Waiting for some I have like one color for you know,
Speaker 3: I'm waiting for them to respond, another color. If I'm
Speaker 3: like in a holding pattern of I need to like
Speaker 3: I need to do the next step, and then but
Speaker 3: I'm like it's not quite there yet, That'll be another color.
Speaker 4: And then I can have like different colors for specific projects.
Speaker 3: It could even be I'm planning a trip, right and
Speaker 3: I'm trying to keep all of the trip colors, all
Speaker 3: of the trip emails into That'll be another color, right,
Speaker 3: so that I could just see everything is grouped together
Speaker 3: in my inbox. And so if I have something specific
Speaker 3: where I'm working on, I'll assign a specific color. But
Speaker 3: for the most part, I'm using red yellow, and then
Speaker 3: specific projects will get or and then I have another
Speaker 3: color for like things I want to read that I
Speaker 3: don't have the time. You know, let's say blog posts,
Speaker 3: I will do another color and I call those like
Speaker 3: micro projects. When I'm between calls, I'll sit and do
Speaker 3: the things with back color as microprojects.
Speaker 4: Like right before this started, I was doing that.
Speaker 3: You know, when you have like that ten minutes where
Speaker 3: one thing ended in your podcast, let's say, or phone
Speaker 3: call is about to start. What are you going to
Speaker 3: do with those tenets? You can go to the bathroom,
Speaker 3: you go on a Facebook. But instead of doing Facebook,
Speaker 3: I do those micro projects. Might be paying a bill,
Speaker 3: it could be reading in an article, but I have
Speaker 3: those so they're flagged.
Speaker 1: So I can easily find them, right and so that'll
Speaker 1: be flagged within your in books. Or do you also
Speaker 1: have a specific to do list that's for micro projects?
Speaker 3: Now, micro projects don't warant a to do list.
Speaker 4: They're like, you know, pay my bill.
Speaker 3: You know, let's say, pay my credit card or something,
Speaker 3: or but I do have that on my calendar and
Speaker 3: make sure I don't miss a payment, plus remind us
Speaker 3: with the credit card company. But they're flagged and I
Speaker 3: just do them as they come up on my micro
Speaker 3: you know, where I get five minutes, ten minutes here
Speaker 3: in there, I will do that, but they're all flagged
Speaker 3: in my inbox. And then I also, you know, when
Speaker 3: something comes across, like I do have reminders coming through
Speaker 3: because let's say you're emailing me and you're asking me,
Speaker 3: can you change the date on a podcast? Right, that's
Speaker 3: a two second email. It's just easier to respond than
Speaker 3: make it a project. I will respond immediately, even if
Speaker 3: I'm working on something, because it's just this way, it
Speaker 3: doesn't become another thing in my inbox.
Speaker 1: And so with your flag system and color coding, so
Speaker 1: aside from color coding by projects, you're color coding by
Speaker 1: micro projects, the ten to fifteen minute jobs. Are there
Speaker 1: any other kinds of colors that you have codes for
Speaker 1: to organize your inbox?
Speaker 4: Yep, it's just you know waiting for you know, like
Speaker 4: this yellow.
Speaker 3: It's kind of like a to do sort of to do.
Speaker 3: And then I have colors based on different projects. Like
Speaker 3: let's say when I was going to Costa Rica, that
Speaker 3: was a color. All the emails related to Costa Rica
Speaker 3: were that color, so I could easily find them. You know,
Speaker 3: if I'm working in a big document and I'm sending
Speaker 3: out lots of requests for different information, I will just
Speaker 3: assign that project to color and this way what I'm
Speaker 3: working and I can see quickly what's coming in and
Speaker 3: what's what I'm still waiting for. It's just a little
Speaker 3: faster around than.
Speaker 4: Sorting through the entire red inbox.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I'm so inspired.
Speaker 1: Like hearing all your strategies, Jettus, for people that want
Speaker 1: to read more, consume more of what you're doing, what's
Speaker 1: the best way for people to do that?
Speaker 4: Three places.
Speaker 3: My advocacy work is on jazz lins dot com, my
Speaker 3: consulting work is hearing access dot com, and of course
Speaker 3: on LinkedIn on Janis Linz amazing.
Speaker 1: I will link to all that in the show notes. Janiss.
Speaker 1: It's been absolutely fascinating hearing your strategies. I am seriously
Speaker 1: going to be listening to this interview again and taking
Speaker 1: copious notes about what I'm going to be implementing because
Speaker 1: I'm feeling very inspired right now. So thank you so
Speaker 1: much for your time. I love this chat with Janis.
Speaker 1: She is taking productivity inefficiency to the next level, and
Speaker 1: I loved her phone log. Although for me, I find
Speaker 1: myself using Superhuman, which is email software to remind me
Speaker 1: so whenever I send an email to someone and I
Speaker 1: need to remember to follow up if they don't write
Speaker 1: back to me, I simply program into Superhuman to have
Speaker 1: that email bounce back into my inbox when I know
Speaker 1: that I next need to follow up, which I.
Speaker 2: Personally find very useful.
Speaker 1: Now, if you are not a subscriber or follower of
Speaker 1: How I Work, you might want to hit subscribe or
Speaker 1: follow today, because next week I have got the CEO
Speaker 1: of meetup dot com, David Siegel, on the show, talking
Speaker 1: about how he managed working with the leader as chaotic
Speaker 1: as Adam Newman, co.
Speaker 2: Founder of we Work.
Speaker 1: We'll be talking about a lot of other things too,
Speaker 1: such as how David has made some of his biggest decisions.
Speaker 1: How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support
Speaker 1: from Dead Set Studios.
Speaker 2: The producer for this episode.
Speaker 1: Was Liam Riordan, and thank you to Martin Nimber, who
Speaker 1: does the audio mix for every episode and makes everything
Speaker 1: sound better than.
Speaker 2: It would have otherwise. See you next time.