New Visual Tool for Indexing Web Sites

I stumbled upon this app (www.PearlTrees.com) and have found it to be a very functional and cool method for organizing and sharing web sites.  It has an iPhone and iPad app that I use to add sites to my tree, seen above and accessible here - www.PearlTrees.com/rhettdean. I have added and will continue to add sites I find valuable. It is a useful tool for anyone (teacher, speaker, corporate trainer, etc.) who is in the business of aggregating and sharing information on the web. I have used http://Delicious.com/pliblog for years to index content I find valuable.  However, Delicious doesn't do a good job of visually representing the information or of just showing the source web sites.  PearlTrees does.

Website: Send to Dropbox

If you are a Dropbox user (and you should be), you probably have wished for the same thing I have wished, which is the ability to be able email files to your Dropbox.  The free service I have found and am currently using is Send to Dropbox.  It creates a unique email address that is linked to your Dropbox.  It is simple and seamless.  You email to your unique address and the document shows up in your new Attachments folder.  Perfect.

www.sendtodropbox.com.

Website: Issuu.com

Issuu is an online document sharing and viewing tool.  It is a great place to publicly display PDFs, PowerPoints, etc.  It can also be used to share documents with a select group of people.  Registration and use are free.  Below is the link to my Issuu library with some leadership documents you will find useful. 

Rhett's Issuu Library

Website: Tinyurl.com



 www.tinyurl.com

In the world of URL-shortening, there are a million different providers.  I have used www.tinyurl.com from the start.  Anytime you need to share a web address in a presentation, magazine, brochure, poster, tshirt, etc. that is longer than 15-20 characters, go to www.tinyurl.com and shorten the link.  Facebook, Hootsuite, Twitter, etc. - they all do this automatically for you for social media sharing.  But for off-line sharing, it is useful to share URLs that are short - easier for people to write down, remember, share and actually go to.  Here is a list of Tinyurl's I have. 
(Bonus: each one is a link to a leadership teaching/learning resource for you.)

• http://tinyurl.com/cheetahleaderoverview
• http://tinyurl.com/yns-cards-2011
• http://tinyurl.com/theleapshow
• http://tinyurl.com/RhettsTools
• http://tinyurl.com/credo-cards-formatted
• http://tinyurl.com/yns-25-cent-fundraising
• http://tinyurl.com/gear-preview
• http://tinyurl.com/pli-iphone

Website: ifttt.com

Funny name. Useful tool. http://ifttt.com. Ifttt stands for If That Then This (and variations of that phrase). It is a tool that allows you to schedule automatic and recurring web tasks. Here are three examples of tasks I have set up.

1. Blog Posts to Evernote.
I have always needed an automatic system that saves to my Evernote any new blog post I publish. This tool allows that to happen. So, any time I publish a post here, on my leadership blog or on my speaking skills blog, it will automatically send that text to my Evernote - which is my primary information gathering, filtering, indexing and creating platform.

2. Starred Google Reader Posts to Evernote.
Similar to the first task, except this saves to my Evernote content other people have published. I read about 150 blogs everyday via Google Reader. When I read one that is excellent, I star it. Now, when I do this, that content will automatically be saved in my Evernote for quicker access and easier searchability.

3. Facebook Pictures to Dropbox
When I post a picture on my Facebook, this tool will automatically save a copy of that photo (albeit a Facebook-version low-resolution copy) into an IFTTT folder in my Dropbox - my primary tool for saving docs I can access across devices.

There are many more uses for this tool. Some of them are easily discovered via their Recipes function. These are customized Tasks other users have created that you can use for your information.

Website: Dropbox

We run a very mobile operation. Multiple speakers/trainers/staff all communicating and working together via mobile phones and laptops. Therefore, it is vital we have an easy to use, secure and flexible method for sharing files. This method is Dropbox. I'm sure you've heard of it, but in case you haven't, Dropbox is the premier file-sharing tool out there. I can add to, delete from, share and access all types of files from my laptop, iPhone, iPad and any computer in the world via the web. It is essential to our operation.

Signing up is free. Try it out today.

 

Fundraising: $193,224 in a Week

When I am not delivering keynotes and workshops across the country, I am creating and delivering leadership curriculum to schools and businesses via our PLI leadership curriculum.  One of the parts of this is online resources.  An example is The Warehouse - a portion of our PLI website that has additional resources for our PLI teachers/trainers.

In the Innovativeness section of the Warehouse you will find a PDF detailing how one Oklahoma student council group raised $193,224 in 2009 for charity.

• The Warehouse
• The PDF detailing the fundraising efforts
• Our PLI curriculum
• The PLI leadership blog
• The PLI leadership iPhone app (free!)

Copyright 2012 Rhett Laubach

Copyright 2012 PLI, Inc.

Free to share and use with credit.