Demystifying the gap between ideas & execution to collapse time & accelerate results.

I’ve included some new tools and updates to previous ones.

No, and yes, but mostly no.

If you have a large following on LinkedIn, it’s a useful tool. However, the main challenge with the LinkedIn newsletter is that the audience belongs to LinkedIn. In the communities I’m a part of, people are exploring creating a following through an e-newsletter like this one. I use beehive. I explored many platforms before settling on this one. It’s super easy to use and intuitive, plus it has lots of features to help grow your community and monetize if you wish to.

I like it so much that I invested in the company. Get started today!

I’m revealing my tech stack for how I get things done. I’m sharing what I use and why. Plus, if I used different tools, I let you know why I chose one over the other.

Before revealing my tech stack, I have two announcements:

In the meantime, let’s get into this tech stack and countdown to 2024!

Business operations management is defined, for this email, as the processes used to run a business. The processes include, but aren’t limited to, lead management, drafting and delivering proposals and contracts to clients, document management, time management, and so on.

Honeybook allows me to automate to my heart’s content. Here’s how I use it.

▶️ I have lead capture link on my website that opens a form to collect specific information from the prospect.

▶️ Once the prospect has entered the information, the next screen allows them to schedule a meeting with me right away.

▶️ Then Honeybook automatically sends a brochure regarding my services to the prospect providing more detail and next steps.

▶️ On the back end, a project inquiry is automatically created populated with the information provided and adds them as a contact.

▶️ From there, an automated workflow is triggered for me with tasks related to the particular service selected.

▶️ There are endless customizable templates for proposals, brochures, contracts, and invoices so I’m not building these things from scratch every time. And you can program this information to pre-populate.

Other features include allowing me to take notes, track time to a specific project, accept payment, schedule meetings, upload documents, read/send emails, and manage the details of a project. My favorite feature is the Client Portal that gives direct access to project details or documents to the client.

The downside is the customer relationship management portion is painfully horrible 😡. It is not easy to update the contact details for someone, nor can you keep notes on the person, only on projects. I have to use a different tool for that.

UPDATE: Honeybook has improved its CRM and contact management capabilities. It still falls short of other tools, but it’s much better than before.

Another ding was the amount they charged to accept payments. The ACH payment fee has come down considerably and is in line with others. Credit card fees are still higher than most. The good news is you can use another payment platform, mark the invoice paid, and record the details of the payment.

The automation requires a lot of time to set up, but the time savings is worth it.

This is a good tool with similar features to Honeybook. Caveat - I haven’t used 17Hats since 2020. I’m sure it contains new features. My biggest challenge with 17Hats was there was little-to-no customization. The setup was not intuitive and I didn’t feel like it provided a great customer experience for my clients.

The CRM was better. One of the best features allows you to click on a contact and see all emails they’ve sent to you even if they’re not tied to a project.

Frankly, there isn’t anything new or game-changing that I will name here. But, how you use them and connect them using integrations will make life better.

Here are my favorites and most come with free options:

Monday and Asana are classic project management tools where you can detail projects, assign tasks, manage documents, and so on. These are great tools if you lead a team of multiple resources.

Notion is a very robust tool. You can use for more than managing projects. It takes some programming if you want to automate things. But you can create an entire environment.

Trello is an awesome tool that can be enhanced through the use of Power-Ups. This is a great tool for big teams or one person. I created a content calendar and heads-up board to track multiple projects and tasks in one place. The Power-Ups and standard features will allow you to create automations, custom fields, etc.

Regardless of which tool you choose, they all are equipped with integrations to tools such as Slack, Discord, Google, Gmail, etc.

If you’re in a Microsoft or Google shop, they come with standard project management platforms. I haven’t been impressed with either of them. That said, they are good if you are restricted from using the other tools.

We have tools that we love and we would love them even more if they spoke to each other. Say less! These tools allow you to connect different platforms and automate. For example, if you get a new subscriber in a MailChimp list and want to add them to a Slack channel, it can be automated.

Here are my three favorite:

The caveat here is that some have integrations and others don’t. While I love IFTTT, then tend to have fewer integrations available. Make and Zapier have a lot. Zapier’s automation set up is easier than Make in my opinion, but Make is powerful!

All have free options.

Okay, hear me out. If you want to make your own website, you can. I do. It’s not perfect, but it gets the job done.

I only use three tools for website development.

▶️Build a website: WordPress

I use WP to create a website and host my domains. I used to use Google Domains to host my domains, but they sold they’re business to Square Space. So I switched my domains to WP for domain hosting.

Building a website on WordPress is free. Domain hosting is about $12-$30/year depending on the type of domain and includes SSL and domain privacy.

You might hear others say WP is outdated, but ~43% of websites are made using WordPress (according to Zippia in February, 2023). 500 sites are created daily.

▶️Host the site: Bluehost

Bluehost is designed to host WordPress sites. I think it’s very intuitive. I used GoDaddy before, but they charged for everything and changing settings was NOT intuitive.

The pricing plans are reasonable. It includes a standard level of site backup and security. Some plans allow you to create and host multiple sites if you build sites for others or have multiple sites for yourself. I have three sites, all under one Bluehost plan.

▶️ Design the site: Thrive Themes

This is a game-changer tool! It is specifically designed to create an integrated website experience with various modules on WordPress. It comes with multiple themes and you can set a global standard so when you add a page or an element on a page, it follows the global theme standard.

It is point-and-click website design. If you’re fancy, you can add CSS customizations wherever you want.

The modules include lead generation, membership management, online courses, accept payments, content delivery, automation, and marketing funnels. One of the coolest integrations is with WooCommerce, a platform that allows you to create an online shop.

It costs $299/year; however, I believe it has unlimited site licenses. That means you can rent a license to someone or use it to design sites for others.

Listen, WordPress requires a lot of manual work. If you just want to open up a simple online shop, Square Space works well. It has fewer customizations. WP started off as a blog site. There are other tools that are easier to use.

If you collect emails and want to use them to market to your audience, there are no shortage of tools out there.

I use MailChimp for simple management. It includes automated email sequences and you can segment your audience. MailChimp works for you if you have a small list or a huge list but do standard or basic digital marketing.

For this publication, The Gap Demystified, I use Beehive. The platform is simple and intuitive. My only complaint is that it comes packed with features that are only accessible to the more expensive plans. The least expensive plan is called Grow. The Scale and up plans include many features that would, in fact, help the newsletter grow, but nope.

UPDATE: beehiive has updated its plans, and the basic plan is cheaper and includes more features!

There are too many alternatives to name, but if you have a big list and plan to do a ton of digital marketing via email, I recommend Active Campaign. It has a lot more functionality and features beyond sending emails.

Do you create courses? There are a few tools for you. I use the Apprentice module in Thrive Themes for my WordPress site (go back to the Website Design section 👆🏽). I will admit, it didn’t have a strong start, but over the last 18 months, it has become more robust, I’ve transitioned my courses to Thrive Apprentice.

I loved Thinkific. If Thrive Themes hadn’t improved its Apprentice module, I would still be using Thinkific. The plans are reasonable and offer ample customization. The setup is super intuitive.

While I’ve never used Kajabi, many people use it to deliver content. It is an all-in-one tool. The limitation is that you have to also use it as a website. If you prefer to have a separate website, it can still work, but you have to integrate it. It’s also a more expensive option because it has multiple functions and is meant to be used like a website.

I was a finance major, so a spreadsheet is my go-to tool. Wave is a great free tool that connects to banks and helps you manage your finances. The free version is a fairly robust bookkeeping tool. It generates helpful reports. You can send invoices and get paid. An upgrade will get you some additional features or you can connect to a bookkeeping professional and have them take care of it for you.

UPDATE: Wave has updated its plans. They are removing some features from the free plan for new users. If you were using the free version before, you are grandfathered in.

Zoho Expense is a great free tool for managing expenses. You can capture receipts with the app and categorize expenses. Wave allows you to manage expenses as well, but you can’t email receipts to the platform like you can with Zoho. Frankly, if Wave had the feature, I wouldn’t have use for Zoho Expense. That said, Zoho produces a number of platforms that integrate with one another. And most of them are FREE at the base level.

Of course, Quickbooks is a solid tool as well. If you aren’t doing a ton of money management, the free tools are just as good.

Shift is my favorite tool. At one point I was working with clients that had different Google accounts, social media logins, etc. I had so many tabs open. I got tired or opening and closing tabs, I searched for a platform that could have multiple accounts open at once. I found Shift. It’s not just for email accounts. It contains almost 100 different apps. It’s a time-saving dream come true.

Coming soon, a review of a time tracking device that sits on your desk. When you switch tasks, you flip it 🤯.

This category is complicated. But I’ll make it simple.

▶️ Film a video of you

You can use your mobile phone. But have you tried using Zoom or Teams to record a video of yourself? I use Zoom as a low-production but quality video recording tool. But I also have an Android that takes incredible videos. The secret to recording the best video with your phone is to record using the back camera and connect your phone to your computer to mirror the image so you can see what the camera sees.

▶️ Film the screen

Lots of tools you can use. Here are two that can film the screen and you. Use these for instructional videos.

▶️ Film your screen to create how-to guides

🛑 Stop taking screen shots and pasting then in a document. Use Tango to record the screen and your actions. The tool will create a step-by-step document with the instructions for you. The free version is very robust.

▶️ Edit Video

I use Kapwing. It’s easy and intuitive to edit video. Here is a list of a few features:

While Kapwing may be slightly behind other online editors, it’s a lot of bang for the buck and developers are adding features regularly. There’s a free option, but the paid version provides more useful features.

That was a lot. Take a breath.

These are the primary tools I use to manage my work. There are more.

I have a list of more than 150 tools (and growing) that I’ll make available later this year. Stay tuned!