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Gary Huff: Project Management Page 1 Copyright (©), All Rights Reserved Niche Affiliate Marketing System, Inc. NICHE AFFILIATE MARKETING SYSTEM MYNAMS LIVE TRAINING Interview with Gary Huff: PROJECT MANAGEMENT

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In this presentation from Gary Huff, you¡¦ll learn about project management, including: 1.What is a project? 2. What does a project manager do? 3. Why a project manager is important to your business 4. Understanding the three elements that drive every project 5. The steps involved with managing a project 6. The life cycle of a project 7. The importance of communication when working with a project manager 8.Using online tools and other resources to help manage projects

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Page 1: Project Management in your Online Business

Gary Huff: Project Management

Page 1 Copyright (©), All Rights Reserved

Niche Affiliate Marketing System, Inc.

NICHE AFFILIATE MARKETING SYSTEM

MYNAMS LIVE TRAINING

Interview with Gary Huff:

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

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Gary Huff: Project Management

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GARY HUFF:

Gary Huff is a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP) who

was trained as a Project Launch Manager by Jeff Walker. In his 27+ years

of experience with a $60B transportation and logistics company, Gary

managed the company’s first global online product launch for

international trade. He also created and led the Project Management

Office for Technology Solutions in the company’s largest Business

Development Group. As a project coach, Gary’s goal is to transform the average entrepreneur

with project management without becoming a project geek.

RESOURCES FROM GARY HUFF: Off the Chart Headquarters

DAVID PERDEW: David is the founder of NAMS – the Niche Affiliate Marketing System – one of the fastest growing affiliate marketing workshops and affiliate training systems available today. What makes NAMS so different is that the instructors TEACH, demonstrate, and enable the students with hands-on workshops. Students learn from their current experience level. Beginners work with beginners, Intermediates work with intermediates,

and Advanced students work with advanced groups. Everyone speaks the language they understand.

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Gary Huff: Project Management

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DISCLAIMER AND TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT

The author and publisher of this Video, Ebook, and mp3 Audio and the accompanying materials have used their best efforts in preparing this Video, Ebook, and mp3 Audio. The author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this Video, Ebook, and mp3 Audio. The information contained in this Video, Ebook, and mp3 Audio is strictly for educational purposes. Therefore, if you wish to apply ideas contained in this Video, Ebook, and mp3 Audio, you are taking full responsibility for your actions.

EVERY EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO ACCURATELY REPRESENT THIS PRODUCT AND IT'S POTENTIAL. EVEN THOUGH THIS INDUSTRY IS ONE OF THE FEW WHERE ONE CAN WRITE THEIR OWN CHECK IN TERMS OF EARNINGS, THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL EARN ANY MONEY USING THE TECHNIQUES AND IDEAS IN THESE MATERIALS. EXAMPLES IN THESE MATERIALS ARE NOT TO BE INTERPRETED AS A PROMISE OR GUARANTEE OF EARNINGS. EARNING POTENTIAL IS ENTIRELYDEPENDENT ON THE PERSON USING OUR PRODUCT, IDEAS AND TECHNIQUES. WE DO NOT PURPORT THIS AS A “GET RICH SCHEME.”

ANY CLAIMS MADE OF ACTUAL EARNINGS OR EXAMPLES OF ACTUAL RESULTS CAN BE VERIFIED UPON REQUEST. YOUR LEVEL OF SUCCESS IN ATTAINING THE RESULTS CLAIMED IN OUR MATERIALS DEPENDS ON THE TIME YOU DEVOTE TO THE PROGRAM, IDEAS AND TECHNIQUES MENTIONED, YOUR FINANCES, KNOWLEDGE AND VARIOUS SKILLS. SINCE THESE FACTORS DIFFER ACCORDING TO INDIVIDUALS, WE CANNOT GUARANTEE YOUR SUCCESS OR INCOME LEVEL. NOR ARE WE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY OF YOUR ACTIONS.

MATERIALS IN OUR PRODUCT AND OUR WEBSITE MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT INCLUDES OR IS BASED UPON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS WITHIN THE MEANING OF THE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS GIVE OUR EXPECTATIONS OR FORECASTS OF FUTURE EVENTS. YOU CAN IDENTIFY THESE STATEMENTS BY THE FACT THAT THEY DO NOT RELATE STRICTLY TO HISTORICAL OR CURRENT FACTS. THEY USE WORDS SUCH AS “ANTICIPATE,” “ESTIMATE,” “EXPECT,” “PROJECT,” “INTEND,” “PLAN,” “BELIEVE,” AND OTHER WORDS AND TERMS OF SIMILAR MEANING IN CONNECTION WITH A DESCRIPTION OF POTENTIAL EARNINGS OR FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE.

ANY AND ALL FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS HERE OR ON ANY OF OUR SALES MATERIAL ARE INTENDED TO EXPRESS OUR OPINION OF EARNINGS POTENTIAL. MANY FACTORS WILL BE IMPORTANT IN DETERMINING YOUR ACTUAL RESULTS AND NO GUARANTEES ARE MADE THAT YOU WILL ACHIEVE RESULTS SIMILAR TO OURS OR ANYBODY ELSES, IN FACT NO GUARANTEES ARE MADE THAT YOU WILL ACHIEVE ANY RESULTS FROM OUR IDEAS AND TECHNIQUES IN OUR MATERIAL.

The author and publisher disclaim any warranties (express or implied), merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of this material, which is provided “as is”, and without warranties.

As always, the advice of a competent legal, tax, accounting or other professional should be sought.

The author and publisher do not warrant the performance, effectiveness or applicability of any sites listed or linked to in this Video, Ebook, and mp3 Audio.

All links are for information purposes only and are not warranted for content, accuracy or any other implied or explicit purpose.

This Video, Ebook, and mp3 Audio is © copyrighted by Niche Affiliate Marketing System, Inc. and is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws, with ALL rights reserved. No part of this may be copied, or changed in any format, sold, or used in any way other than what is outlined within this Video, Ebook, and mp3 Audio under any circumstances without express permission from Niche Affiliate Marketing System, Inc.

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Gary Huff: Project Management

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INTRODUCTION:

In this presentation from Gary Huff, you’ll learn about project management, including:

What is a project?

What does a project manager do?

Why a project manager is important to your business

Understanding the three elements that drive every project

The steps involved with managing a project

The life cycle of a project

The importance of communication when working with a project manager

Using online tools and other resources to help manage projects

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David Perdew: Hello. This is David Perdew from the Niche Affiliate Marketing System. And it’s

Wednesday night, which means, it’s “Live Training” night. And tonight, we’re going to try to do

a little NAMS 300/400 action. We have a very special guest with us tonight, Gary Huff, who has

been a NAMS attendee from the beginning. You were at the first one, I think. Weren’t you,

Gary?

Gary Huff: I’ve been through all of them, yes. Very, very pleased to be a full-fledged NAMS

attendee.

David Perdew: That’s what I thought. You are one of about a half dozen people that have done

1 through 6, so congratulations! You won the prize.

I found this out about Gary a couple of years

ago, that he is a very talented project manager.

And about four weeks ago, I think, we did a

session with Nicole Dean about outsourcing.

And part of our conversation was about project

management and how we can spend an entire

session on project management and what that

really brings in a mature business.

Project managers are worth their weight in gold

when you get a good one. The key is finding a

good one, and keeping a good one, and keeping

a communication point strong between the

business owner and the project manager. Many people think a project manager is something

that is a high-dollar, high-ticket, and you’ve got to be a big business kind of person to have a

project manager. That’s not true. Gary’s going to talk about that this evening and we’re going to

have a kind of conversation, back and forth.

Gary and I are very different project managers, but we have both done that professionally for a

long time. Gary has done it for the last 15, 20 years. And he does that both in a corporate world

and as a project manager for small businesses. He has a consultant business of his own.

So, Gary, thank you for being here. And by the way people, please excuse my voice. I am

coming off four days of flu-like symptoms, as they say at this time of year. So, my voice is about

gone. But, Gary, thank you very much for coming this evening. I’m really looking forward to this.

This will be a good conversation, I think.

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Gary Huff: Yes, this is great, David. I really do appreciate the opportunity. We had a great

session with Nicole and all of the things that she was talking about and it just led right into a

natural conversation about project managers, on how folks can leverage project management

either for themselves or even more of what we will probably talk about tonight, of being able to

find the right project manager and utilize a project manager to their fullest.

David Perdew: So, what I see here on your first slide is “Overwhelmed Escape Artist” and I love

that title because to me that’s what a project manager does. He shows you how to dig your way

out of a pile of stuff that, you know, needs to be done and helps you prioritize and sift through

it and really come out with exactly what you want at the end. So, I love the title of that slide.

Tell us a little bit about how you started in project management and what it means to you.

Gary Huff: You’re right. That title there really kind of sums up what I like to do and what I do.

And the next slide here kind of gives you a little bit of an overview. Now let me start right off by

– I have to admit that I am a PMP.

David Perdew: Yup.

Gary Huff: That’s the right kind of PMP, which is that professional project manager or Project

Management Professional. I’ve gone through certifications and testing. But, ultimately, tonight

I’ll give everybody the secret on how to be a professional project manager without going

through a lot of training. One aspect of being a PMP is the certification that you get is not just

about learning. You also have to have years of actually executing the practice.

David Perdew: Right.

Gary Huff: So, there is some advantage in that.

David Perdew: Right.

Gary Huff: Some industries look for that certain type of certification. What I’ve found over the

years that I’ve been doing project management is how to apply that to normal businesses, or

the types of business that we’re doing in terms of smaller businesses, entrepreneurs, online

businesses, because we can all benefit from some of these capabilities and processes for

project management. So, yeah, I’ve got a lot of experience with large corporations. I’ve got

experience with smaller companies.

I’m also a platinum product launch manager with – some folks may recognize Jeff Walker who

has a product launch formula. I’m one of a handful of his platinum product launch managers.

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So, I manage launches for folks, which is a project management function. So, these are some of

the areas where I apply the things we will talk about tonight about project management.

David Perdew: Sure, we can tell them about those things. Those are two good areas for us to

go into from a project manager’s standpoint. One thing about PMP, P-M-P. We want to make

sure that people understand that it’s P-M-P, Project Management Professional. And when we

put that at the end of your name, it’s almost as viable as having something like, in the

accounting world, you have – what is it? – CPA. In the project management world, that is a very,

very good acronym to have at the end of your name. So, congratulations on that! I know that’s

a hard certification to get.

Gary Huff: Yeah, it’s tough. You also have to maintain it. And so that’s my objective. My

objective is to maintain the things so that I never have to go back into the rigorous testing.

David Perdew: Sure.

Gary Huff: So, that means I’m undergoing education maintenance and performance. It is

recognized and that’s nice. But what matters is, the thing that I like most, is having applied this

to real people.

David Perdew: Yeah.

Gary Huff: What I like to say is, “Let’s help people be project managers without making them

project geeks.”

David Perdew: Right.

Gary Huff: As you can easily become a project geek, but most of what we want to accomplish in

running our businesses is to be effective at our business, not necessarily a project geek. And

that’s where I have the most fun.

David Perdew: So, there’s a really fine line now between a project geek and project manager.

We’re going to get into that, I hope.

Gary Huff: I think so, yeah.

David Perdew: Okay.

Gary Huff: So, really, in three years, I was thinking of what to talk about and again, we’ll keep

this kind of a conversation – and definitely jump in with your perspective because you have

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been, David, very involved yourself with large projects and smaller businesses that you have

worked with. And also, there’s a lot of perspective that you would be able to bring us.

We’ll just talk about a couple of items. One is: What is project management? And really the

most important part – project management is all about collaboration. That’s what it really

means for us as business owners when working with project

managers.

So, these are the kinds of topics that we’re going to cover. Then I’m

going to give a few tools and tips and you may have some as well

that we can kind of share that will help folks with doing projects.

David Perdew: Okay.

Gary Huff: So, one thing I can do is just – let’s just start with the

basics. I know we’re talking at a 300/400 level from a NAMS

terminology, of folks that have businesses up and running, but I

always like to start back at the beginning of, “What is a project?” And

ultimately, a project is something that – I look at it as something that

has a beginning and an end.

I love projects. I love being a project manager for that reason

because that thing finishes, right? The things that go on, and on, and

on, are really – they drag on. Well, a project is all about – it’s got an

end. You actually accomplish something. It has a result.

So, there are a few things that a professional project manager can

get excited about. Well, this is one of the things that I get to be

excited about. Projects actually have an end and you see results from

it. So that’s why it’s a temporary endeavor and…

David Perdew: And if you have a short attention span like me, than

you will benefit from this. Because I like to be able to check them off

the list, you know?

Gary Huff: You just said the second thing that a great project

manager likes, checking boxes. So the project has a beginning and an end. It accomplishes

something.

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So, the next thing is, “What is project management?” And really, it can be a lot of things, but

think of it simply as, “What are the things you need – either the skills you have as an individual,

tools you use, the processes – to accomplish something from beginning to end?” We talked

about in the NAMS workshops a lot, about taking and focusing, and then accomplishing it; get

results and then go to the next thing.

So, the business owners that are about a 300 or 400 level that we are talking to tonight, really,

you’ve accomplished that. You’ve had some success in seeing things through. Well, that’s the

art and skill of project management – seeing things through. Figure out what you’re going to

do, identify requirements, identify your objectives, and then put a plan together, and execute

on that plan, and adjust and adapt as you go along.

David Perdew: So, before you go too far from here, let’s talk about this for a second, how it

applies to these NAMSters who are 300 and 400 level. These guys have – they’re making

money. So, either they’re supplementing their income well with their online business already,

which means they have one, two, or three incomes, or more. And if you’re a 400 level person,

then you are a full-time marketer. And what I find with the 300 or 400 level people is that this is

where the overwhelm sets in because to grow your business, you take on more and more.

To me, a project manager is the key to that. Because if you’ve got one, two, three project

managers working, you have them doing tasks that are driven from your ideas, right? So, as a

business owner, you’ve got to get really good at understanding what you want and

communicating that so the project manager can

execute it.

Gary Huff: Exactly, and let’s take it even a step

before that. We talked about being able to have a

solo-preneur – somebody who has built a business

and they’re doing it all themselves. There are only a

finite amount of things you can accomplish yourself.

You have to be able to leverage…

David Perdew: Right.

Gary Huff: …other folks. And project management is

an ultimate leveraging tool. And it’s even when

you’re going to do – if I have an outsourcer, if I have a virtual assistant, you have to be able to

coordinate the work that’s being done by other resources. That is also an active task of a

project manager, of coordinating work across people. So, those are all aspects that business

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people that are making money have done to some level and any of the things that they can do

to help do that better, helps them make more money.

David Perdew: Right.

Gary Huff: Helps make them do that in a way that’s easier and more enjoyable.

David Perdew: So, what you’re saying is that project manager is really somebody who should

be making you money. And that is where they align with your business, that you can leverage a

project manager to get more done, to create more revenue, to reduce your expenses, et cetera.

So, that’s what you’re after.

Gary Huff: That’s also a good contrast. What’s the difference between a project manager and

an assistant and an outsourcer that does a task? A project manager is the one that is actually –

he can leverage your time so that you are not

coordinating work in the individual steps, but the

project manager is actually coordinating that and

developing those plans and ideas and executing tasks

you gave him.

So, the next thing to really – again, we’re talking some

of the foundational principles or ideas associated with

project management and one of them is triple

constraints, meaning there are three of them. Think of

it like a three-legged stool. There are three legs to this

stool that you want to be able to sit on, stand on.

Think of it like a three-legged stool you want to stand

on so you could raise your business even higher.

Well, one of those legs is scope. Scope is the parameter, the extent, of your project effort. Let’s

say you’re going to build a new niche site so you could sell a product in a particular niche. Are

you going to build a network of sites for that niche or are you going to build a single site? Well,

the scope involves what’s the extent of what you’re going to build. Are you developing a

collection of products? Are you building your own product? Are you going to be an affiliate?

The scope of what your business will be has its kind of parameters around what you’re going to

work on.

Another leg on the stool is the time involved. It takes time to develop and build and execute

your plans and go through the steps you need to build your business, to execute your plans.

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You can do things faster by adding additional resources. So, instead of having one person

building out a product, you could have two people building that product. You could have five

people building that product. You could have people building out a website. You can reduce

time by adding resources. You could reduce time by automating it. So, if you purchase a

program that builds websites for you, as compared to mainly coding them yourself, you could

reduce your time.

That leads to the third leg of the stool, which is the cost. That would increase some of your cost.

So, you might spend money on a software application. You might spend money on additional

programmers or resources to reduce your time. But then there is an increased cost.

David Perdew: You know, this is a really simple picture. And underneath that picture is so much

complexity. Everything you do falls under one of those categories. And what I’ve found is that if

you don’t understand balance, how one affects the other, you can get huge spaghetti tangles

going on. So, you really can’t get lost in all the stuff that happens in a project.

The thing that I always end up coming back to – time and cost are

really pretty much fixed, in most cases, so scope usually ends up

being the thing that you work with. You decrease scope, you

increase scope, or whatever. But understanding what your

immediate scope is – that’s a really hard thing for business

owners to define.

I know in my own projects, I say, “I want it to do this. I want it to

look like this.” Then I start talking to somebody who is a website builder or a coder or whatever

and we end up adding little things as we go. And all of a sudden, it’s a much bigger project.

Gary Huff: There’s even a term for that. There’s a term when you’re adding on things to the

scope called “scope creep.” It kind of creeps, you know. There are times when you can sit down

and make a conscious decision that you will now do, you know, more than what you originally

planned and you can plan and understand the ramifications about it. But then there’s this

adding an extra function here, adding an extra page here, adding an extra – and you kind of

creep or move along slowly adding to your scope. Then two weeks later, you look back and you

say, “Holy smokes! Now, this is a huge effort as compared to what it was supposed to be – a

medium-sized effort that was going to get me revenues sooner.”

David Perdew: What happens is you’re working in the scope arena and you think you’ve got

this thing off and about, but what you didn’t realize was as you were building your scope, the

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time and cost on this thing expands with every word, practically. So, you get out of control very

quickly because of scope.

Gary Huff: And I like this analogy of the three-legged stool.

David Perdew: Yup.

Gary Huff: So, you can go and increase your scope. Think about you’re standing on the top so

you can reach your business higher, but one of those legs starts growing taller than the rest and

you’re not managing how you balance the three. There is a dependency. There are constraints.

We think of them all at the same time, but there is a dependency. If you want more scope, well,

it may take more cost to do it. It may take more time or a little of both. There is a balance and

interaction between these three things.

David Perdew: There is also a way to start peeling scope off into future enhancements or

whatever. We’ll get into that I’m sure as we get to start looking at the tools and figuring out

ways to do it.

Gary Huff: But the question there is…

David Perdew: I’m sorry. Everybody should understand that with these three elements, this is

what drives all projects.

Gary Huff: Yes.

David Perdew: Okay.

Gary Huff: And the other thing – what I’d like to emphasize is that as we deal with the scope

and the time and the cost, as good business owners and good project managers, we’re making

conscious decisions. We’re not letting the cost overrun us without realizing it. We’re not letting

the time get away. “Oh man! This took twice as long as I thought it was going to, or as I wanted

it to.” We’re making conscious decisions along the way on these three parameters.

David Perdew: You know, one of the old sayings is you want it faster, better, cheaper and the

project manager comes to you and always says, “I can give you two of those. Which two do you

want?”

Gary Huff: There you go.

David Perdew: That’s it.

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Gary Huff: Let’s look at another aspect of understanding project management. It’s

understanding that a project doesn’t just happen. It has its own life to it. It has its own

sequence of events. Now, what we have here are, again, some of the formal terminology. You

will think of it as called you’re initiating a project, you’re planning a project, you’re executing a

project, you’re closing it out. If you were to look at some of the formal project management

books and training, they would make references in some form to those phases. So, I’d like to

use the terminology, but I want to make sense of it for us.

For business folks and folks that are looking for project managers, and to leverage project

managers in your business, what does this initiating mean? Well, if you’re going to start off a

project, initiating is really figuring out what you’re going to do. We’ve talked a lot about the

scope of work that needs to get done. Put some parameters – a conscious decision on what is

the extent we’re going to work on. The client agreement, the things that are associated with it.

Really, deciding you’re going to work on it. That’s kind of that initiation phase.

Now in some corporate aspects, you have maybe called this the concept phase. I have a

concept. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to do it, but I have a concept. I’m formulating a plan

or I’m formulating some goals and objectives.

David Perdew: And that’s really a big part of your initiation, your goals and objectives, right?

Gary Huff: Exactly.

David Perdew: Okay.

Gary Huff: The next step is actually planning it out. We can jump in and say that we are going to

build a product, but what’s it going to take to build that product? So, a product has your

potential things. These are again some traditional terminology for project management.

Deliverables. What’s a deliverable mean? Well, a deliverable is a thing as a result of your

project. If my project is to build out a 3-stage e-course that people can take and learn about this

niche, then the deliverables would be the three modules: Module 1, Module 2, and Module 3.

So, the deliverables are the thing delivered. Deliverables are kind of what you’re going to

deliver or the scope, what’s it going to accomplish.

Things like milestones are a way to check that you’re making progress, or it can be a major

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point in a project when an accomplishment is made. So, I like to think of milestones as really

good flags. They are the signs. They are the stakes in the ground at a certain point. We’re

moving towards that point, an accomplishment. And good project managers like to have clearly

defined milestones because it’s really tough to get into a project and you’re just working and

working at it and you want to see accomplishments. So, this is kind of what a business person

might have in terms of some of short term strategies and tactics and goals that they’re reaching

to the big revenue goal.

David Perdew: You know, one of the things I’ll say about milestones quickly is that’s also one of

the ways you can pay outsourcing people really well. Once they have accomplished a milestone,

they’ve earned so much money. And I

use that method a lot with my projects.

Gary Huff: Excellent! And a project can

be planned out in phases. We talked

earlier about the triple constraints and

maybe there’s just more that you want

to build out, in terms of this website but

let’s talk about Phase One. And so, there

are some milestones to get Phase One

done and then, a major milestone is the

website’s up and running. And you pay

out. And there might be another

milestone in doing Step Two or Phase

Two.

David Perdew: Okay.

Gary Huff: So, your project starts off. You’ve got the concept, the initiation. You’ve decided

you’re going to do the project. You’ve put a plan together, which can be the sequence of steps,

the tasks you need to get the work done. Project management is not just a planning effort.

Project management is a doing effort. It’s a doing function. And so projects are not projects if

you’re not actually executing on those plans and working the plan.

Now there are a couple of other things that happen during execution. How many times have we

started something in our businesses and we need to make a change? You know, as we were

talking about website changing or putting a website together and we found that we really want

to change the menu structure. We wanted to be able to offer other capabilities. We decided

that we needed to have an affiliate tracking that we hadn’t planned originally. Great! Those are

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all changes that may be very valuable to the success of the project or the goal that you want,

but managing that change and not just letting change happen, making a conscious decision, is

important during this execution phase for you as a project manager, or for project managers

you would hire.

David Perdew: So, this is the key to me. If I’m evaluating somebody to run a project for me, the

thing that I’m looking at is how they will handle the change management and how they will

help me assess the risk of whatever changes we’re asking for. We talked about scope earlier.

We talked about scope creep. This is where the project manager will be continually bombarded.

You continually get bombarded throughout the project by people wanting to add something in

the project because they actually see a spot where it could be very efficient to do that. But that

always has an impact to your project, to the outcome of that project.

So, you can look at that and say, as part of this change management, is it doable? Is it going to

cost us more money to do that? Is it going to risk the project to do that? And if not, then yes,

we will include that in the project and incorporate that change. Understanding risk, though –

that is a huge part of this because if it’s going to impact your project in any way, any of those

three things, the time and cost, particularly, then you’re going to have to reevaluate whether

you’re going to do that or not.

I know I said that a project manager is not a decision maker; he is a communicator. So, the

project manager doesn’t say, “We cannot do this.” The project manager says, “We can do this,

but here are the results of what happens if we do.”

Gary Huff: Yeah, absolutely. And you’re hitting on a valuable aspect for business owners, for

small businesses owners like us that are out building our own businesses to whatever level it is

and now want to get to the next level. Oftentimes, we have a certain view of our business or

that opportunity in front of us. And a project manager also, in understanding change

management and even risk management, is that other set of eyes.

There’s that scotoma – it’s where you have a blind spot in what you see. And this can even

happen to a brilliant project manager. I pride myself on not being the most brilliant guy in the

room, but I try to be able to see the things that, maybe somebody that’s close or deeply – you

know, as business owners, we get to be very emotionally involved in the business that we’re

growing. We made this stuff. And a project manager is that extra set of eyes that can look at it

from another perspective, to help you understand the risks and the change associated with

executing on those.

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David Perdew: Yeah, and I guarantee you when you get marketing in the room with the

execution guys, scope goes through the roof in a second.

Gary Huff: Yeah. You know, we try not to let those people talk.

David Perdew: Right. I understand. Okay.

Gary Huff: And just to kind of close this slide, which is the final step –

again, this is one of my favorite parts of project management. The

stuff finishes. Sometimes, we will finish a project or we’ll get a site up

or we’ll have a product launch. What we really need to think about is

more of those steps to actually close down this project effort

because there are a ton of things that we can leverage if we think of

that as an actual step in our project.

Imagine if we took just a little bit of time to look back and

understand what we learned from this time so that we could do it

better the next time. We build products and we put offerings out to

our customers and we’re building our businesses and we’ll probably

be doing it more than once. So, a key part of closing a project is to

get the learning of what worked and what didn’t work this time so

we can do it better the next time. And, oftentimes, we take a big sigh

of relief. “Whew! Okay. That is done. Yeah, that wasn’t a fun

experience, but I got what we wanted done. Yeah!” Or, “It was a

great experience.” But why was it a great experience? Taking a few

seconds to do these steps is going to help you grow your business

even more.

David Perdew: And also, part of this closing-out phase is where you

can actually start building your asset list. You’ve completed a project

and that project completion is an asset.

Gary Huff: There you go. Absolutely.

David Perdew: I’ll give you an example of that. You know, we

completed a project a couple of years ago called “Niche Mall.” And the Niche Mall, for me, was

just about ready to rock and roll until the end of this last year and that’s when my site got

hacked badly. And that had about a $15,000 investment and so I thought, “Well, that’s down

the drain.” But, after getting some perspective on it, getting another set of eyes, we looked at

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it. We realized that it was still an asset. We still have good code. What we could do is turn that

into something else like a WordPress plug-in for the MyNAMS site.

So very shortly, I think in probably two to three weeks, you’re going to see the Niche Mall show

up as a benefit to the MyNAMS members so they can actually start selling products as a

member at a 100% commission right up on the MyNAMS site. And it’s because we didn’t throw

that away. We realized we had an asset that had some value in there and it’s because we closed

out that project.

Gary Huff: Exactly. Great example.

David Perdew: You know, one thing that I noticed that is missing here, for me – and it’s

probably incorporated in your execution part that we didn’t talk about. Can you guess what I

think that is?

Gary Huff: Go ahead.

David Perdew: Testing.

Gary Huff: Yeah.

David Perdew: For me, testing is a huge piece of a project. Even if you tested it in a couple of

places in the project, you certainly need to have post-execution testing to make sure you

identify all the bugs. That bad boy will save you money in the long run and it will make sure

experience with users is so much happier. So, that’s usually the final end of the execution

phase, is testing.

Gary Huff: Exactly. And we’re going to go on to a couple of examples to try to tie in what we’ve

talked about, concepts here in project management. So, what I want to be able to do is let’s

look at a couple of examples. Now, these are not necessarily the only way to run these types of

projects, but there are some good outlines that will give you a good start. And you’ll see in a

second when we talk about it, it has testing called out explicitly as one of the last parts of

execution.

David Perdew: Yeah.

Gary Huff: So, you are right on target there, yeah. I didn’t mention it yet. Part of the work that I

do, in the experience that I have, and clients I’ve helped with, is on product launches. So, I want

to be able to talk through an outline on what’s involved in a product launch. Well, let’s put it in

context in those four phases of a project.

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First one is the initiating. It’s kind of putting a scope of what you want to accomplish. Well, from

a product launch perspective, if I’m going to create and launch a new product, I want to

understand my launch strategy and my objectives. So, launch strategy can be things like, I’m

going to launch it to my internal list then I’m going to get affiliates involved. Launch strategy

can be a webinar type of launch. My objective is I want to have my list grow. Product launches

is a huge list building tool, not just a revenue growing tool. That can be another objective. I

want to make this much money or I want to serve this niche. So, those are the kinds of things

you would do in that initial setting up your game plan for a product launch.

David Perdew: Okay.

Gary Huff: Then once that you’ve got that, you’ve got your objectives, so that’s going to help

give you some guidance to put your plan together. So, there’s an overall plan and we haven’t

really touched on it a lot, when we were talking about the planning phase, timelines. I de-

emphasize it a lot during conversations about project management because, oftentimes,

people see timeline, building a schedule for the project, as the major function for project

management.

I’m going to talk a little bit later about how there is actually a different major part in being a

project manager than the scheduling part. But it’s an important piece. Let’s plan out the steps

and the time to do it as we target for the milestones.

So, in a product launch, you’re putting your game plan together, your overall plan, your tasks

that need to be done. What are the resources that are going to be involved in building the

product, in launching that product?

Now, one aspect of a product launch is you need to be able to tell a story. Part of doing a large

product launch, and now there’s – again, there are different product launches. There can be, I

want to launch a new e-book and make it available to customers. I want to do a multi-figure

product launch. I want to launch a physical product. So, there are a lot of product launches.

The premise behind a product launch is that there’s a story to be told. There’s a story to be told

and you will engage with your customers. The typical product launch will have what’s called a

pre-launch, so it’s the time when you’re developing your story, communicating to prospects,

you know, giving them content, value, and helping them engage in the potential launch or need

for that product. And then, a launch is where they can purchase and participate.

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Ultimately, successful product launches come down to the offer. You could have a great

sequence, you could have a great story, and if your product doesn’t do what people need, or

what your prospects need, then it doesn’t matter. So, we have a solid offer and deliverable of

value to the customer. That’s part of all the planning that goes into a product launch – and any

other ideas or things that you think about as you release a product or a new offering. That is

part of your planning steps.

David Perdew: You know, I am probably a bad example of a project

manager in this regard because I almost always start with a date and

then work my way backward and figure out how much I can get done

in that time frame and if it’s realistic. And often I end up having to

change the date because I go through this process that you’re

outlining here and realize, “We’re not going to get this all done.

There’s just no way to get this done in that amount of time.” But you

talked about the timeline earlier. For me, the timeline is an easy

thing to do because it’s always a backend process, for me.

Gary Huff: That’s a great perspective, too, because think about those

three parameters – scope, time, and cost. Well, a project, if you have

a particular project or product available at a certain time, then you

do start at that date and then work your way back. Now, sometimes,

a project plan can be built. It has to have this result. So, when will

you be able to get it done? Well, we work from the start and then

the end date is the end date. Well, you can’t do that when you’re

putting on NAMS7.

David Perdew: Right.

Gary Huff: NAMS7 has a due date.

David Perdew: It does. You’re right.

Gary Huff: Yeah. You can’t just let that due date float. NAMS7 is a

date. You have to work your way backward. So, there are multiple

ways to figure out your timeline, but that’s a great example of

putting some parameters and making conscious decisions about what you do and don’t do

based upon what you can and can’t do from the timeline.

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David Perdew: Actually, NAMS7 fits this model. Any NAMS fits this model. One of the things

that I love about Gary coming from the NAMS events is because you’re a guy who appreciates

what goes into building that, from a project standpoint. You start with a date and you have to

work your way into it.

So, right now we’re at the phase now from NAMS7 where I’m just about ready to build the

schedule and the hotel information. I’ve got the hotel lined up, all done. And we’ve got the

registration page ready. I haven’t put it out there yet because I want to kind of get a little boost

on it when I send it out there to people to see that we’ve got the schedule built and the hotel

built. So, we have so many things to go along with that. We don’t ever do anything that we

don’t have some other tasks around it, some benefit tasks.

Gary Huff: Building the schedule for the NAMS7 event – that is the outlining offer, right?

David Perdew: It is.

Gary Huff: Your product is that event and just the amazing talent and folks that come and

present and are able to, you know, give value to all of the students. Well, there’s your offer.

David Perdew: And there are two markets.

Gary Huff: Yeah?

David Perdew: We talk about that there are two markets because the market of the people

who have just experienced a NAMS experience, they jump right in. We don’t have to sell them

hard. But then there is a month or two later when people are coming who haven’t come before

and we have to sell those people with a completely different offer. So, you’re right.

Gary Huff: So, I have a little story about your timeline for NAMS7. Because at NAMS6, you

announced that it was going to be, I think, it was towards at the end of January.

David Perdew: I did.

Gary Huff: I’m already booked for a conference in January and I knew I couldn’t make it, but I

still was trying to be the first person who bought for the NAMS7. And, darn it, I have been

through every one of them.

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David Perdew: Right.

Gary Huff: And then I found out a little later it was the next week or so in February and I was

doing a little jump-up-and-down. So, I appreciate you doing that timeline for me.

David Perdew: We can talk to the hotel about that.

Gary Huff: Oh. That wasn’t a project change just for me?

David Perdew: It was a resource change just for you. So, there you go.

Gary Huff: There you go. So, the planning concept, there is a good example for being able to

identify the plans, all the plans that will be involved in having NAMS7 work and, yes, you did an

amazing job…

David Perdew: Thank you.

Gary Huff: …in having NAMS and what you bring to it and how again, I know, from the inside,

things may happen away from the participants and the people there. We don’t really see all

those little things you notice. It goes great.

David Perdew: Well, thank you.

Gary Huff: I love it.

David Perdew: Thank you.

Gary Huff: And I’ll be there every time.

From a product launch perspective, okay, let’s create the story. You’ve got to create the

content for your pre-launch. So, that might be a video and information. I would suggest that

you, for the NAMS events, your pre-launch is your pre-training events that you do with some of

the instructors, right? You’re helping us understand the content that we’re going to get by

going to the NAMS.

David Perdew: That has been a good part of it.

Gary Huff: Yeah. Create the offer, the sales page. So there’s – executing it is actually doing the

things you need to do and launching the product. And you get out to the point where now

you’re executing on the launch and you’re adjusting as you go along.

One of the things that we do from a sophisticated product launch standpoint is we try not to

actually create too much ahead of time. It is really nerve-wracking for a project manager, but

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you want to be responsive and adjust. And if there is a set – four videos that help explain what

a product does and into the second video, there seems to be a lot of questions going on about

what this product is about, we may have to just add an extra webinar to explain it and talk

about it.

So, there has to be the adjustment as a project manager in your product launch sequence to be

able to manage that. Again, it’s back to that point of project manager – it’s helping and

adjusting, not just doing the plan that was written out.

David Perdew: Sure.

Gary Huff: And closing out the offer now. They may not be available – like, I can’t participate in

NAMS7 after NAMS7 is done.

David Perdew: Right.

Gary Huff: It is finished. It is then delivering the product, compiling the lessons learned. So, that

would be a good generic outline for doing a product launch and some things to think about

along the way.

David Perdew: Okay.

Gary Huff: Let’s do just one more example that’s a little different. I try to make that distinction

between a project which has a distinct beginning and end and the running of a process in a

business. Day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, we may do a

process. Well, that’s doing a process, that’s not a project. But a project could be that I’m going

to take this thing that usually takes me four weeks to do, and I want to do it in three weeks. I

want to build a new product, but last time it was a hassle. This time, I’m going to make it easy

for me to build a product. So, a process improvement cycle would identify what you’re going to

do with it.

It’s that old cycle that you know everybody’s probably heard – that Plan-Do-Check-Act. You’re

just going to plan what you want to do, do it, check it, and then implement. So, process

improvement like this, in those four phases would be – make sure you know what you’re going

to work on because you could start off trying to improve a process and a second thing over here

and a second thing over there.

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Again, this is that scope. Get your objectives clear in the initiation, then plan out the steps

you’re going to do to improve it. What are the resources? Then your execution is understanding

where you’re already today, then figuring out and designing where you want to be tomorrow.

And then what’s the difference between those two places? That’s that gap. And what’s it going

to take to improve the process – to fill that gap? Do it. Then test it to make sure it worked.

David Perdew: So, I would say the test in this case can come from both ends of the execution.

Because sometimes you don’t know what your “to-be” is until you do some test on the “as-is.”

So, I’m a big believer in focus groups and getting feedback at all points along the way and I

would really encourage people to do as much as they can, especially process groups, because

your objective is to improve a process, but this is a place where you have to adjust quite a bit

because you’re not always sure if you’re going to meet that objective from your own thinking.

You know what I mean?

Gary Huff: You make a great point in there. The statement there is really, “Assess the as-is.”

Oftentimes, we think we know how things work and that’s not really how they work. So, you

really need to know what “as-is” is and that’s really what you’re hitting on. Exactly. Making sure

you’re testing and trying it out and getting feedback. Understand where you are today.

David Perdew: Yeah.

Gary Huff: It’s pretty difficult to drive from and land into Louisville if right now I’m in Miami. It’s

a different path. I better know at least where my car is right now.

David Perdew: Gary, we’re going to have to speed up a little bit. I’m afraid we’re not going to

make the tools and stuff.

Gary Huff: Yup. So, let’s go. So, we’re done with what I would consider some of the project

management areas. Any thoughts there?

David Perdew: I think we covered it pretty well.

Gary Huff: Yeah. So, let me go through this real quick and have this up on the screen. But the

point is, now let’s talk about this, the aspect of collaboration, the key value of a project

manager – what you deliver as a project manager yourself or what you need to look for when

you are hiring a project manager.

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We kind of mentioned this a couple of times. Let me put it into perspective. Before, there used

to be these things that you call typists. If you’re in a company, you’d write down your memo

and you’d go give it to the typing pool and they would type. And I’ve always been curious on

how they kept the paper dry because somehow they were in a typing pool, and the paper is

dry.

David Perdew: Very funny.

Gary Huff: And they were able to type. Yeah, I know. And the crowd goes wild.

David Perdew: That’s right.

Gary Huff: But the idea was that there are these people that were typing. There are no typing

pools. There are no typists out there anymore. Where did they all go? Well, it was automated.

You have the ability to use word processors and you type it yourself. We talked about how the

premise of a project manager is all about creating schedules and putting a Gantt chart together

in a flow of how things will work. There are tons of tools to do all that. There’s Microsoft

Project, there’s Project Management Tools, things that schedule it out and smooth the

schedule. We don’t need project managers anymore because we can automate it and do kind

of like how now we can use a word processor to type stuff.

David Perdew: And that can go from $0.99 to millions of dollars. I had committed a project

management tool last year for a corporate client that was $20,000,000. All it did was to build a

fancy schedule.

Gary Huff: There you go. And you have all these tools, but why do we still have project

managers? Why do we still have project managers if that type of thing was automated? So, it

really begs this question: What is truly needed to be a good project manager? What do you

want in a successful project manager? That really comes down to that collaboration.

If you think about the sequence or the life cycle of a project, a piece that is working in every

single step is the communicating. And you even mentioned this earlier. A project manager is

worth their weight in gold if they are helping to communicate and coordinate across the

groups. If you’re not communicating in all of the phases, then you did not accomplish much as a

project manager.

David Perdew: I love this slide. The communication piece, for me, is the absolute, most

important thing. And if you are a business person that is struggling with a project or a project

manager, I guarantee you, it’s because of communication. If you’re a project manager who is

having projects fail, I guarantee you it’s because of communication. This is always where people

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assume somebody else’s viewpoint or understanding or – I like to call it the “curse of

knowledge,” – where somebody else knows something and so they expect everybody else

knows that.

A project manager has got to be able to communicate among multiple groups of people. And to

me, that’s the thing that makes a great project manager. And that’s the first thing you look for,

that the project manager communicates well. And that includes documenting.

Gary Huff: You’re right. And it’s all forms of communication. And, ultimately, I really think of a

good project manager as – it’s all about the “people” side of the project.

David Perdew: Yup.

Gary Huff: Right. There are a lot of things, especially when we talk about internet marketers

and we get kind of stuck behind our computer screens, sometimes. It’s

wonderful that we can go to NAMS and actually interact and say “hello” to

people.

David Perdew: Right.

Gary Huff: A project manager is a people type of activity. It’s coordinating

across folks. There are ways to interact with folks. There are ways to get

things done. Project managers understand the good way to get things done

and the good way to communicate with folks.

David Perdew: And if you are a good project manager and you can

communicate well, there are a lot of sins that will be forgiven because of

that.

Gary Huff: And yes, I’ve made many of my sins and mistakes as a project manager.

David Perdew: We all do.

Gary Huff: So, I guess the other aspect is to understand that project managers are people, too.

David Perdew: Yup. Right.

Gary Huff: Contrary to popular belief, we are people, too, and we make mistakes.

Communicating about those, not trying to cover those up, is what also makes a good project

manager.

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David Perdew: If you’re looking for a project manager who is going to help you achieve that,

communication is the key. There have to be some ways to evaluate how someone

communicates. Gary, if you are looking for a project manager, how do you test whether they

are a good communicator at first?

Gary Huff: Well, first, in terms of their interaction with me, if I’m going to interview them or

discuss with them. So, oftentimes, especially from an online perspective, our first

communication comes through email. It might be Skype. It might be a phone call. But

sometimes, we may connect with somebody through email. Can I read their email? Does it

make sense? Is it kind of like getting that text message with a little text? Or is it a

communication that I can make sense of?

If I have to spend effort and time trying to decipher their communication, then the people that

they are coordinating may have to do the same thing. So, I do look very closely at how they

communicate and how effectively they communicate in whatever medium. Now if we get on a

Skype call, or we go to a meeting session, then how are they able to – they’ve got to

communicate well. It’s nice to have something at the other side that has a reasonable mic, a

good microphone that you can hear well. Even if it’s not them. It’s not their communication

skills, but it’s their communication equipment. That can be an impediment.

David Perdew: Sure.

Gary Huff: So, all of those aspects are some of that first impression.

David Perdew: And it’s also how attentive they are to the details, right?

Gary Huff: Exactly.

David Perdew: And that’s what you’re talking about.

Gary Huff: To the details. And also understanding that project management is a communication

thing.

David Perdew: Yeah.

Gary Huff: If they get it that communicating and coordinating across people is what’s important

from a project manager, that is the type of questions and interactions that you want to get back

from them as a good project manager.

David Perdew: And I’ll also say if it’s a good project manager, it’s probably somebody you’re

going to want to spend time with, believe it or not. Because it’s got to be somebody you enjoy

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communicating with. So, if it’s somebody you think, “Oh gosh, I’ve got to call my project

manager today because it’s time to check in and I really dread doing it,” then you’ve got a

problem.

Gary Huff: Exactly. A good project manager helps that communication to be effortless.

David Perdew: Okay.

Gary Huff: Or helps that communication be important and valuable.

David Perdew: Okay. Let’s go to the next.

Gary Huff: So, those are the key things about collaboration. I think we’ve hit on most of those. I

did have a couple of tips and tools and I know these are probably some of the key one that you

want to use. I want to highlight a few some with some caveats. For instance, we talked about –

we mentioned that there are these tools that are out there. There are a lot of online project

management tools and I don’t specifically endorse or recommend

one as the only answer.

So, some of the other online tools are things like Basecamp.

There are several out there. The one that I use myself is called the

Planner and I use it for a specific reason, well, a couple of specific

reasons. As a project manager, it handles the scheduling in a way

that no other online tool does. So, I look at tools like these

because of my project management background. The other thing

that this particular tool does, and Basecamp does a very good job on, is it helps in terms of the

communication and coordination. So, it provides a platform for you to collaborate on projects.

There are other sites out there like Huddle. Are there any other general online sources that you

have experience using?

David Perdew: I looked at a bunch of them a couple of years ago when I was building my own

online project management base for my own projects. And I even bought a couple of tools that

were software, self-installs, but I ended up going with Basecamp. And one reason I chose

Basecamp was that it was a better communication tool for me. LiquidPlanner looks really

interesting to me, though. I love the scheduling and the internal communication that you have

there.

Gary Huff: Yeah. The nice thing that I like about it is that I have a fully-functioning backend and

detailed project management tool. But, for my clients, I can open up what’s called a portal. And

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that portal now is a simplified view of their project. They don’t get overwhelmed with all of the

project details. They get what I show them and I’m able to interact with them.

The other key piece of any of the online project management tools you want to use for

collaboration is all of the communication, all of the files, all of the interaction is in one place.

How often as a project manager would you deal with this email? “Why

didn’t I get that email? Well, send it to me again. I didn’t get that file. I

can’t get that.”

Having a central place, regardless of the platform, where your

communication with your resources and team is centralized streamlines

that communication. And that’s critical, especially when you’re trying to

get a lot done.

David Perdew: So, is this a single user site or is it for a team site, or what?

Gary Huff: So for LiquidPlanner, it’s a monthly fee for a user. So I have

what they call a workspace that I purchased that’s on a monthly fee. I can’t

remember what my monthly fee is. It’s around a $30 range, maybe. But I

only have to pay for that for myself, as long as I don’t need somebody else

to come in and do detailed scheduling like this. So, I can open up a portal

for a client and portals are free. So, from a consulting practice, I can open

up a portal for a client to only interact with that client and it’s no additional

cost for me.

David Perdew: Cool.

Gary Huff: So, the pricing structure between LiquidPlanner and like

Basecamp is a little different depending on how you’re going to use it.

Now, one thing there’s a caveat I always tell folks about LiquidPlanner is

that it is a little project geeky. So, to go to that next level and put schedules

and coordinate across multiple projects at one time, LiquidPlanner excels.

But it’s a little project geeky. So be careful. Try it out. They’ve got trial

periods and stuff like that, so try it out and see how it fits.

One thing I say is that Basecamp is awesome if you’re using a lot of outsourcers because the

programmers use Basecamp. Some of the e-nets and other formats actually utilize Basecamp as

one of their tools. So, if you’re going to need a lot of people like that, they’re already familiar

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with Basecamp, usually. You don’t have to convince them to use a different platform. So,

depending upon your business needs is what you would want.

David Perdew: Yeah. So I use Basecamp and I’m very happy with Basecamp for what it does.

There is a scheduling add-on that I saw and actually bought for Basecamp, but I didn’t like it.

And Basecamp is continually adding things and one of the things that they have now is a very

good mobile app that goes with that. So, you can look at Basecamp on your iPhone or your iPad

and it works as well. Since I’m traveling all the time, I use my iPhone as the command center for

my business just about all the time.

Now I’ll put the LiquidPlanner link in the question box there for everybody to take a look at;

take a free trial. They have a tour for you so take a look at that. I’m also going to add the

Basecamp link here as well. And you can take a look at that as well. I put this on the chat box, so

you guys should be seeing that.

Gary Huff: Now there is something that we may talk more about at the next NAMS. I’m going

be doing an investigation on the integrated project management capabilities that’s built upon

Google Apps.

David Perdew: Really?

Gary Huff: It’s interesting in that it is already there if you’re already using Google Docs, Gmail,

and stuff like that. And now, it’s a piece that is already there. So, I just became aware of it a

couple of weeks ago. I’ve got to do some research in it and see how we can leverage it. Maybe

there are some additional options out there.

David Perdew: Google’s going to take over the world. They’re free, aren’t they?

Gary Huff: They are. Any other questions on the platforms? There are a lot of good ones out

there.

David Perdew: If people hold on after this call is done, toward the end of the call, I’ll come back

and I’ll show you a live view of Basecamp. So, if you just hang on I’ll show you that when we’re

done.

Gary Huff: Another quick tool. This is a quick one I want to highlight. I came across this one

when I was having problems along with what I do with project management. I’m also the

technical IT support desk for my mom.

David Perdew: Yeah.

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Gary Huff: And I was using my Go To Meeting session and trying to have to work on my

computer and it’s just frustrating and I found this. Some folks may use this – Go To My PC.

David Perdew: Yup. I’ve got that.

Gary Huff: TeamViewer is like that. It’s really good. I mean, it just works great. I use it now. My

own computers are connected. I can access my computers with my iPad, with my Android

phone. I can connect onto my mom’s computer in Arizona from Atlanta. As long as your

computer’s on the network, I can get to it. TeamViewer is free for personal use. So, if you’re

going to use it for supporting clients and tech support, you know, you should purchase a copy,

but you can use it for your personal use for free. It’s definitely worth a look.

David Perdew: No kidding? That’s great.

Gary Huff: Yeah. So, if you think about it from a project

manager’s standpoint, like you said, being virtual on

the road, having access. The first time I really got using

it was in NAMS6 because now I can take it to NAMS. I

would set up a whole workstation. I had my laptop. I

have so much gadgetry around me and I can’t get stuff

done. Now I bring my little LiveScribe notepad and my

iPad and I can go from session to session and have

everything I need whenever I need them real quick.

David Perdew: This is important to project managers

because?

Gary Huff: Because, ultimately, you don’t want to be tied down and you want to be responsive.

And so what I do is I have the materials I needed on my computer. I was always trying to make

sure that I had what the clients needed or I wanted to have access to, the most up-to-date

information. Now I have it. It’s on my computer. I can access it anywhere.

David Perdew: Okay. Great.

Gary Huff: And I can – if I needed to work with folks that I’m supporting, too.

David Perdew: So, we have a couple of comments here related to these tools. If you don’t

mind, we’ll just hit those right now. Carine says Gantter.com is a project scheduling application

that actually integrates Google Docs. I don’t know that one, Gary, do you?

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Gary Huff: No, I haven’t heard of that one. There’s actually one that I’ll be investigating that is

actually from Google.

David Perdew: Okay.

Gary Huff: My hope is that it integrates better than any of the other third-party apps. But, yes,

there are tons of them out there. The key is to find the one that can communicate files and

centralize your information in a usable way because, frankly, it doesn’t matter how good it is if

you and your team are not effectively using it. It doesn’t matter.

David Perdew: And we have two people who are saying that TeamViewer is great, so that’s

good.

Gary Huff: Good.

David Perdew: Okay.

Gary Huff: Okay. So, the last thing I’ll mention here in terms of some of my tips is when we

think about project management – this is a little bit outside of that area, but one of the other

things that I work with clients on is their business model.

This book is amazing. It’s fun to look at. It’s a great little reference. It’s available on Amazon. It’s

the Business Model Generation. As you’re building up your business, you’re putting up your

game plan on how you’re going to build your business and where to spend your time, in

essence, and how to leverage your project manager and your time. The Business Model

Generation helps you map out your business model and it’s a very cool resource. So, we don’t

have time to go over any of the specifics of it, but that is something that we take a look at in

terms of a business model.

David Perdew: That’s Business Model Generation?

Gary Huff: Business Model Generation.

David Perdew: Okay. And I’ll put up a link to that in just a few minutes. So, while we are talking

about tools and stuff, I’m going to check your presentation here to see if – yeah, we’re coming

to the end. So, why don’t you just go ahead and finish this up?

Gary Huff: Yeah, this is it. What I had really hoped to accomplish tonight was be able to really

get to some of the basics of project management and how it is applied to us as business owners

– how we can manage projects better ourselves or look for the right project managers that we

can leverage our time with and it’s going to help us grow our business.

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The key piece of project managers working for us and with us is on communication. If we get

anything out of tonight, remember it’s all about communication and working with folks to get

things done. It’s not about writing out a schedule. It’s about effectively collaborating with folks

and a few tools and techniques that we use as project managers to help streamline our time.

And, with that, I’m always available, especially if any folks have some questions about

LiquidPlanner. I have mine set up in a certain way. There might be some other things that they

are interested in. They are welcome to reach out if I can help answer some questions.

David Perdew: Okay. And people should see Business Model Generation is available at Amazon.

They have it for $18.99, so that’s good. I’m going to take the screen back for a second just to

show people something that I’m liking a lot. Let me log in before we do it. Somebody pointed

this out in our forum the other day and I had not heard of it. Then I looked at it and I am just in

love with this tool right now. It is called

WorkFlowy. Have you heard of this tool?

Gary Huff: It sounds familiar, but I’ve not used

it.

David Perdew: It’s so simple, it’s ridiculous.

Gary Huff: I like that.

David Perdew: I’m going to take the screen

back.

Gary Huff: Can you take it or do you want me

to take it?

David Perdew: No, I got it. Just wait.

Gary Huff: Perfect.

David Perdew: Okay. So let me get rid of this. Okay, so this is called WorkFlowy and it’s on

workflowy.com. Let me type that into the URL here. It’s so easy and simple. What you do is you

create these little lists and it’s like an outliner kind of thing. You can just create a task. It’s

almost like a mind mapping software except you can – one of the things I like about this is, for

example, if I put a tag on this, I think it’s like this, a tag on here, and it will go into “Do These

Things Today.” And what I do is I search for things for today. It shows me what my tasks are for

that day, so I could actually schedule these things out by days. So this is for Tuesday,

Wednesday, Thursday. And then make a schedule of what I’ve got there.

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This is for people who are on a really, really low budget for project tasks and management. I

think this is a great little tool. See, I have multiple projects started in here just for capturing

what my ideas are. And it’s kind of like an Evernote in that sense, but it also is a great way to do

everything, you know. I started trying to figure out what my daily tasks are, what my weekly

tasks are, what my monthly tasks are. And I wanted to put those in and, again, probably create

some kind of a system around them. Once you click on that little thing here to the right, the

little highlighted circle, it will go to that task list as one step down. Did that make sense?

Gary Huff: Yeah. That works awesome. And definitely having an ability to put an outline

together is a critical piece of being a project manager. Just kind of, if you brainstorm, you just

write stuff down without organization, it gets real confusing real fast, especially when there’s

more than one person. So, having a tool like this that helps organize thoughts is critical for

project managers.

David Perdew: Well, one of the other things that I like about this is that you don’t have to have

an app for this to work on your iPhone or iPad. You just go to this site and it automatically

identifies itself as an iPad or iPhone app and you can use it on your iPhone and keep in sync

automatically.

Gary Huff: Great.

David Perdew: So this is just a nice little simple tool, a cheap and easy project manager that you

can create task lists with. And it’s a great way for you to actually create communication tools

for you to remind yourself about the things that you need to work with on project

management. So, Gary, I want to give you this back so people can – I’m sure you wouldn’t mind

answering some questions for some folks if they came back to you. I’ll try to put your contact

page back up there, if you don’t mind.

Gary Huff: Yeah, please. There you go.

David Perdew: So if they wanted to get in touch with you or even talk to you about managing

some of their product launches or something like that, they can contact you at this location,

right?

Gary Huff: Yeah. That’s the best place. And what we’re doing is, we’re actually taking this

premise of off-the-chart, meaning, it’s building your business or growing it off the chart and it’s

also help me get things done in between times, off the normal grid. And so we’re building out

this site that really is a central place and it kind of goes back to the original slide, “Overwhelmed

Escape Artist.”

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So there might be some questions folks have that they want to reach out. “How do I organize

myself?” or “How I can help alleviate some of the overwhelm I have?” So please, anybody’s

welcome to reach out and I’d love to follow up.

David Perdew: Okay, great. Also check out Wedoist , another online project management tool.

Before we close out, I just want to make a point that project management can be the most

valuable thing that you invest in. It is all about getting the right project manager and the right

communication skills set up. And that is what makes it effective and that’s what makes it a long-

lasting relationship, so I really encourage these NAMS 300/400 students, particularly, to look at

getting highly involved with good project managers.

The other thing I would say is that we have people – one of the things that I always do is if I’m

not ready to go more into something, I go halfway into it, which means, I might hire somebody

who wants to be trained as a project manager and let that person learn kind of around my

dime, but on my reduced dime. There are a lot of people in the NAMS forum, the MyNAMS

forum, and you can go to that, the MyNAMS.com site. If you’re a member or not a member,

you can get to there – that’s in the public area. You can find a lot of people in there who can do

project management for you. So, if you need a project manager, post it in there and we’ll see if

we can help you with that.

Gary, anything else?

Gary Huff: Outstanding. I really do appreciate the opportunity. It’s been a great time. I always

enjoy having some time to talk with you. And it’s one of those things where project

management is – for some folks, it’s drudgery. For others of us – maybe I’m a little weird, but I

like it. And so, that’s the other aspect when you’re looking for folks to partner up with. People

that like doing project management do it well because they like it. So those are all the things

that encourage me and hopefully tonight everybody’s got a little bit of reason why they like

project management.

David Perdew: Thank you, Gary. We’ll talk to you soon.

Gary Huff: Alright. Take care.

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READ WHAT THESE FOLKS SAY ABOUT NAMS! NAMS is the acronym for Niche Affiliate Marketing System workshop. Here’s what some

folks are saying about the NAMS experience!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE NEXT LIVE NAMS WORKSHOP!

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