Have you ever heard of The Bacon Podcast? Inc.com voted it one of the top 35 business podcasts of all time. The podcast is released twice a week, and topics include everything from social media, to content marketing, SEO, and more. There are over 350 episodes and people around the globe rely on it to polish their digital marketing skills.
The Bacon Podcast is written and produced by Brian Basilico, a well-known and highly respected web marketing professional. He has been on the beat for over twenty years and was, in fact, an early innovator in the web marketing space.
So what’s with the bacon? Brian says he wants “to make your business sizzle,” and Evernote is his favorite tool for turning up the heat: “If your business needs more organization, searchability, and share-ability, you should be using Evernote.”
Sharing with clients, one at a time
Beyond the podcast, Brian also does one-on-one consulting and marketing webinars. He has built his business by staying organized and being able to focus on each client individually.
One of the features Brian uses all the time is notebook sharing. He creates a notebook for each client and shares it with them exclusively. It makes each relationship personal. The shared notebook is a singular, go-to place for everything Brian and his clients need to share. And for reference 24/7, desktop or mobile, every coaching session lives in the client’s notebook.
“Every time we meet, I create a new note and I put it into a notebook that is shared specifically with just that client so only that client can see the notes,” he says. “They can easily log in to Evernote and see exactly what was discussed, so the next time that we get together, it’s kind of like their to-do list.”
“Evernote was the only thing I could find that made it easy to work across all my computers and platforms at the same time. The portability was huge.”
I’d like one app with everything, please
Like so many business leaders, Brian tried a variety of different tools, all designed with the promise of keeping him on track and organized. Each of these tools did something well. However, the one feature missing was their ability to play well with others. There were overlaps in capabilities but not one of them had the complete suite of features Brian was looking for. And using multiple applications added up to multiple headaches: “Evernote was the only thing I could find that made it easy to work across all my computers and platforms at the same time,” he says. “The portability was huge.”
Another feature that has proven to be a big time saver and a great benefit to his clients is Web Clipper: “One of the things about web pages is you can go visit it today and it could change tomorrow; but if there’s something you want to capture right now in its current state, Web Clipper will keep an archive of exactly the way it looked at the moment that you clipped it.”
Always know where to look
When asked what advice he would offer anyone just getting started with Evernote, Brian says it’s all about notebooks and notebook stacks:
“Organization is so incredibly important. The first thing I would do starting out is think about the big things; the areas of your personal life or your business that you need to focus on. Then put together a notebook for each category and start depositing notes into it. This way you don’t have to go back and organize notes later. Think of verticals that have a common theme, then add multiple notebooks that can fit under that as well.”
In Brian’s system, a stack would cover a broad topic area like ‘marketing’ or ‘new products.’ Within that stack are notebooks for related subtopics. For example in your ‘new products’ stack, you may have notebooks for ‘developers’ or ‘prototypes.’
The digital hub of your workplace
Brian’s story reflects what we’ve always believed: that capturing and sharing information makes Evernote a natural information hub for your business. Evernote Premium puts Brian in control—confident that his plans, documents, next steps, and anything he needs to share are stored and searchable in one place.
To hear more about how Brian uses Evernote to keep his business on track, check out Episode 345 of The Bacon Podcast, featuring Evernote CMO Andrew Malcolm:
Are you using Evernote to help you capture content, stay organized, and accomplish your goals? If so, we’d love to hear from you! Contact us at evernotestories@evernote.com.
