9 ways to get the most out of IMPACT+ in 10 minutes a day

"It seems great, but I just don't have enough time."

Time has been by far the top reason people cancel subscriptions or memberships – and for Pro and Free trial members, it’s no different. 

These days, online learning platforms throw the kitchen sink at their members and say, “Hope you figure it out!” And, in all honesty, we did the same thing, but we realize that’s not helpful. 

The goal of this article is to share the quick wins in IMPACT+ that you can get in no more than 10 minutes each day to make the most of your membership. I know you are busy and it’s hard to find time to learn and grow when you have so many important, right-now tasks to get done; after all, you’re a professional! 

🔥 Get started: Try a 14-day free trial of IMPACT+ today

At the same time, however, it’s important to find those small windows of opportunity to refine a skill or learn something new. It’s how you continue to think ahead of just the now and stay keen for the future.

Of the nine actions in this article, don’t start with more than two. If you try to do it all at once, you’ll fall into the trap of if everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Instead, focus your energy on the two that you will find the most value in – for example, Nos. 1 and 4 have been two of the most powerful, according to our members – and begin implementing them into your schedule. 

🔎 Related: IMPACT+ vs. DigitalMarketer and Business Made Simple

Sign in to start your workday, during a scheduled lunch, or a step-away-from-work break. While after work sounds intriguing, you and I both know we’d rather not default to doing professional development after hours.

1. Watch one video from a course or lesson

When it comes to watching course content, a full two hours can feel like not only a major time commitment to squeeze into your already busy schedule but also a mental burden to actually retain what you are viewing. 

Instead of trying to tackle it all in one sitting (something that sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it), take advantage of the course structure we have in place to chip away at it. 

The content we create is designed to be tackled in bite-sized chunks. 

Here’s an example:

Just imagine you are tasked with reorganizing your company’s Google Suite in order to maximize the tools you have at your disposal to fuel your inbound marketing efforts. Problem is, you have no idea where to start. 

Introducing Kevin Phillips with his course, Inbounder’s Guide to Google Suite Tools.

Why so serious, Kevin? Google Suite is fun!

Kevin’s course is over two hours long, and no surprise. When it comes to Google Suite, there is a whole lot to talk about! 

But this is a huge time commitment that likely will have too many takeaways and action items for you to handle in one sitting. 

It can be an overwhelming experience to be lectured for over two hours, then be expected to not only retain that information but also apply it to your company. 

So, break it down. Watch one video or lesson a day until you finish the course.

Each of the two lessons that make up this course is broken down into a series of videos, none of which are more than 15 minutes long, with most being under 10 minutes. This allows you to block your schedule to view the content in chunks. 

Rather than block out a two-hour window to watch this course, commit 10 minutes a day to watch a video and be able to have more actionable takeaways without feeling overwhelmed by the amount of content. 

2. Share a post in a community

Stop me if this sounds familiar: You’re struggling to understand a concept or apply a strategy, and can’t figure out why your brain isn’t figuring it out. After hours of trying to solve it, you surrender and accept that it won’t get done today. 

🔥 Get started: Try a 14-day free trial of IMPACT+ today

What if, instead, you could ask someone who’s been there, done that? Consider how much more efficient you’d be with those otherwise wasted hours trying to solve a problem. 

Our IMPACT+ communities are a great place to do this. For example, a recent post was shared about creating content regarding the supply chain – and we’ve had different industries hopping in to share great practices and examples of the content they’ve created around the supply chain to learn from:

Plus, after you ask the question, you don’t need to sit and wait for someone to respond. You can let it simmer as the community checks in and leaves feedback, giving you time back to focus on the work you need to get done, then come back and take the community recommendations to apply to your challenge.

3. Comment or react to other members’ posts

Speaking of community posts, the third way to make the most of IMPACT+ in your limited time is to check out the other posts and comments our community is leaving. 

Responding or reacting to other members’ posts in IMPACT+ keeps you engaged with what everyone is talking about in the community, and is just like scrolling through your social feed across your social media platforms. 

When you comment or react to posts, you continuously add value to the community, encourage others to engage and chat, as well as establish yourself as a thought leader in the community whom people will seek out. 

🔥 Get started: Try a 14-day free trial of IMPACT+ today

Just like asking questions, answering questions in communities like IMPACT+ is a great way to connect and expand your network. 

Not seeing posts that you want to interact with? Try joining a new community! A huge piece of IMPACT+ that differentiates us from others is our networking communities. Whether you are looking for the most up-to-date digital marketing news or for more role-specific conversations such as videographers, you can always be learning and growing new skills in different communities.

4. Follow other members to know what they are up to

Meeting new people is at the core of networking and career development. When you see someone who leaves a great comment, posts an intriguing question, or perhaps even attends an event alongside you, they may be someone worth following on IMPACT+.

When you follow someone, you get a deeper understanding of what they’re up to and how they’re using IMPACT+.

As with LinkedIn, the people you follow or connect with will be more prominent in your personalized feed and will be able to show you what events they plan to attend, courses they are taking, and even recommend others you should be following. 

When you look at IMPACT+ as a whole, there’s a lot of content to take in. In reality, you don’t need all that content in order to be successful. Instead, find the people whom you find insightful, inspiring, or influential in your role and follow them specifically. That’ll keep you focused on the content you need to be successful as well as the people who will help you get to where you want to be.  

To follow someone, click on a post of theirs or click on their name to land on their profile page. Click the big blue Follow button to keep up with that member’s recent in-app activity.

Following someone is as easy as 1,2,3 - P.S. Katie is an awesome member of our community!

5. Send a member a 1:1 message

What’s the worst part of networking? The part where you have to awkwardly walk up to an individual (or, yikes, a group of people) and introduce yourself. The nervous build-up, the anxiety-filled walk, or awkwardly trying to put yourself out there and meet someone new is something not all of us look forward to. 

Instead, you can avoid that awkward experience by sending a quick message directly to someone and use the context from a video or a community thread to get things started.

Say, for example, you see this post from David Roberge (a regular in the IMPACT+ community) asking about qualifiers to use in the hiring process.

This post speaks to you and your current situation at your company, and you want to thank David for starting the thread.

You can head right to Conversations in the top right-hand corner (the little speech-bubble icon) and send David a message saying so.

Not only is this tool great for connecting with regulars in IMPACT+, but it’s also a great tool for meeting people.

Call me crazy, but once a week I take 5 to 10 minutes to message three people I haven’t met to say hello and get to know my fellow IMPACT+ members. The more people I know, the more opportunities I’ll have. Plus, it takes only a few minutes to say hello. 

6. Update your profile

As with any social platform, it’s important to keep your profile current with the latest info and updates members care about. Assume, for example, that someone follows tip No. 4 in this article and goes to your profile to follow you. 

Once they land on your profile, you want to have an engaging profile so fellow members can get to know you and want to follow you. 

For example, here’s the IMPACT+ profile of IMPACT Director of Membership & Events Stephanie Baiocchi, which includes an eye-catching cover photo, a strong (and brilliant) headline, as well as a full bio, so you can learn more about her.

Great job, Stephanie! (I'm not saying that because she's my manager, either. 😉)

Quick ways to keep your profile engaging: 

• add a new cover photo (great marketing real estate)
• update your profile picture
• update your company domain, time zone, role, bio, and headline. 

Updating your profile ensures visitors know whom they are looking at, plus you can learn more about your fellow members, and discover others you may want to follow under the “following” and “followers” tabs for yourself and other IMPACT+ members. 

To update your profile, go to the top right corner and select Profile and Password, then you can update all the external-facing information you like.

Tip: Click the View Profile button in the top right corner to view the external-facing version while editing your profile.

7. Explore upcoming events

We host a number of events per month in IMPACT+, for both Free and Pro members. With all these events being announced, checking in on what’s happening on our Events page is a great way to stay up to date on new content that is on the way.

The events page features all upcoming and past events.

For example, we have a pair of upcoming events available for IMPACT+ members to register for on our events page, as well as one that just concluded that’s now available on-demand.

Be sure to take a few minutes to scroll through our upcoming events, learn what could be valuable, and add them to your calendar in an easy one-click RSVP. 

8. Start watching an event recording

As with courses, another great way to make the most of your IMPACT+ membership is to take advantage of our event recordings. Now, these aren’t really broken up into chunks as our courses are, but you can absolutely approach them the same way.

Think of every keynote presentation or breakout workshop you have attended. More often than not, they are broken down into smaller points or segments to make the content more digestible and memorable. Use these segments as your stopping and starting points. 

🍿 Check these out:

• Website Optimization Summit recordings on-demand
• Virtual Selling Summit recordings on-demand
• Video Sales and Marketing World recordings on-demand

Based on what I’ve seen both in person and on video, you will often get valuable and applicable insight every eight minutes or so. That means if you take a lunch break to watch eight minutes of an event recording, you can be not only entertained but also get great insights that can help you and your organization succeed.

To get started with an event recording, be sure to scroll through all of our past events here and filter to find exactly what you are looking for. 

9. Clear out your notifications 

Once you’ve gone through all these steps, you’ll notice that the little bell in the top right-hand corner will gradually build up a surplus of unread notifications. I don’t know about you, but seeing unread notifications definitely makes me wonder what I’m missing out on.

Building this habit of staying on top of your daily notifications, just like you might do with your inbox or your social media platforms, ensures you never miss an important conversation or post – and it gives you that little boost of accomplishment that you have battled through your notifications, and are now up to date with all that is happening.

Making the most of IMPACT+ won’t take long!

IMPACT+ is a growing and evolving platform, with new content and features posted regularly. Although this list of activities will grow over time, I also feel that what I've described are the staple actions that will never change. 

With that, you are ready to make the most of your IMPACT+ membership with these nine easy steps. Good luck, enjoy, and let’s make it happen!