Tools I Actually Use

My go-to for creating graphics, social media templates, presentations, and any visual content. The Pro version is worth every dollar.

"If you make content, you use Canva. There's no faster way to produce polished visuals."

Social media scheduler and analytics platform for Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and more. Plan, schedule, and analyze all in one dashboard — with a genuinely useful free tier.

"Metricool does scheduling AND analytics in one place. I switched from two separate tools to just this one."

Free website analytics that show you where your traffic comes from, what content performs, and how people move through your site. Essential from day one.

"Free, powerful, and the standard. Set it up before you launch — you'll want the data."

Anthropic's AI — excellent for longer-form writing, nuanced thinking, and anything where you want more thoughtful, less formulaic output than ChatGPT.

"My go-to when I need something written with more depth or when I want a second opinion on an idea."

The best AI image generator I've used for creating on-brand visuals, mood boards, and creative concepts. The quality is genuinely stunning when you learn to prompt well.

"Once you learn to write good prompts, Midjourney produces images no stock library can match."

AI transcription that turns meetings, voice memos, and interviews into searchable text. Incredible for capturing ideas on the go and repurposing spoken content.

"I talk through ideas better than I type them. Otter captures everything without me having to write a word."

My second brain — content planning, project tracking, running ideas lists, and anything I need to capture and find again. Endlessly flexible once you build your system.

"Everything I need to remember lives in Notion. It's the one app I couldn't run my life without."

Google Docs, Sheets, and Drive for collaboration, document storage, and anything that needs to be shared easily. The standard for a reason.

"I draft, share, and store everything here. Works seamlessly with remote work and collaboration."

Record your screen and camera to send quick video messages instead of long emails or back-to-back meetings. A remote work essential that saves hours every week.

"A 2-minute Loom replaces a 20-minute meeting. I use it for everything from tutorials to feedback."

Eliminate back-and-forth scheduling emails. Share a link, people pick a time that works, it shows up on your calendar. Simple and genuinely time-saving.

"The scheduling back-and-forth is one of the biggest time sinks in professional life. Calendly eliminates it."

Spreadsheet-style project management with powerful automation, collaboration, and reporting features. Perfect for managing complex projects and team workflows at scale.

"The flexibility of a spreadsheet with the structure of a project tool. Great for managing multi-step campaigns and launches."

The video editor I use for Reels and TikTok. Free, intuitive, has every transition and effect you actually need, and the auto-caption feature alone is worth it.

"Free and genuinely powerful. I edited my first hundred videos on CapCut before ever touching anything else."

Professional photo editing and color grading, available on mobile and desktop. The mobile app is free and handles 90% of what most creators need.

"Consistent editing is what makes a feed look cohesive. Lightroom presets make that repeatable."

The link-in-bio tool that lets you send followers to multiple destinations from one link. Simple to set up and handles the basics well for free.

"You have one link in your bio — make it count. Linktree is the easiest way to organize it."

The shoppable content platform I use to share affiliate finds with my audience. People come to LTK specifically to shop, which means higher conversion than any other platform.

"My best-performing affiliate platform by far. The audience has purchase intent — they're there to shop."

A creator-focused storefront for selling digital products, booking calls, collecting emails, and monetizing your audience — all from one link in your bio.

"Everything in one place. If you're monetizing as a creator, Stan makes the setup simpler than anything else."

A creator-to-brand outreach platform that makes it easy to find and pitch brands directly. Cut through the noise of cold DMs and get your name in front of the right people.

"I've landed real brand deals through Bento. It puts you in front of brands that are actually open to working with creators."

The top platform for lifestyle, fashion, home, and beauty creators. Shoppers come to LTK with the intent to buy, which drives far better conversion than social media links.

"If you're in lifestyle, LTK is non-negotiable. The audience is there specifically to shop."

Amazon's affiliate program — low commission rates, but the conversion rate is high because everyone already has a Prime account and trusts the checkout. Good as a supplemental program.

"Lower commissions but high conversion. Good for products your audience already searches for on Amazon."

A leading affiliate and partnership platform with a wide selection of premium brands across every category. Powerful tracking, clean reporting, and direct brand relationships all in one place.

"Impact has some of the best brand partnerships out there. The reporting is clean and tracking is reliable."

My preferred reservation platform — better restaurant curation than OpenTable, works with Amex dining credits, and the app experience is just cleaner.

"Most of the restaurants I actually want to get into are on Resy. It's become my default for anything worth planning ahead."

The widest selection of restaurants, especially for places outside major cities. If a restaurant I want isn't on Resy, it's almost always on OpenTable.

"More restaurants, more coverage. My backup when a place isn't on Resy — which honestly isn't often."

Forward your travel confirmation emails and TripIt builds a complete itinerary — flights, hotels, car rentals, all in one place with offline access.

"I live out of TripIt when I travel. Everything in one place, even without wifi. It's saved me more than once."

Beyond navigation — I use Google Maps to research neighborhoods, read restaurant reviews, save lists of places I want to visit, and get a real sense of an area before I arrive.

"My saved lists in Google Maps are how I actually plan where to go. Better restaurant discovery than most dedicated apps."

The platform A2K Collective is built on. The most flexible, SEO-friendly CMS for building a content-driven site with full ownership and control.

"Own your platform. WordPress gives you the most long-term flexibility for a content business."