642: 50+ Tools and Apps to Work Smarter and Get More Out Of Your Side Hustle

0:00:02 – Hey, it’s time for Tool Talk.
0:00:05 These are 50 plus tools and apps to work smarter
0:00:06 and get more out of your side hustle.
0:00:08 What’s up, what’s up, Nick Loper here.
0:00:10 Welcome to the Side Hustle Show
0:00:13 where we’ve been helping make Day Jobs optional since 2013.
0:00:16 Now this is one of the most requested topics that I get.
0:00:18 A look under the hood at the different tools,
0:00:20 apps, resources, software services
0:00:22 that I use to run Side Hustle Nation.
0:00:24 And because I’m not that great at just reading off a list
0:00:26 and monologuing for an hour,
0:00:28 I thought it would be more fun to have a co-host
0:00:30 for this discussion who’s going to bring her own opinions
0:00:33 and insights and recommended resources to the table as well.
0:00:35 She’s the host of the award-winning podcast
0:00:37 that highlights black women entrepreneurs
0:00:40 who scaled their side hustles into profitable businesses.
0:00:43 And she’s an accomplished entrepreneur in her own right
0:00:46 from Side Hustle Pro, Nikela Mathews Okome.
0:00:49 Welcome to the similarly named Side Hustle Show.
0:00:51 – Thank you, thank you so much, Nick.
0:00:52 Wow, that was quite an intro.
0:00:54 And it’s always fun to hear a fellow podcaster.
0:00:56 I’m like, oh, you rocked that.
0:00:58 – Oh, you’re so good at this.
0:01:00 – Well, very much appreciated.
0:01:02 You are no stranger to the mic
0:01:05 with over 400 episodes of the Side Hustle Pro podcast
0:01:06 running since 2016.
0:01:07 I’m excited to learn a little bit more
0:01:09 about your business and the toolkit
0:01:10 that you’ve been using to run it as well.
0:01:12 And we’ve got a bunch of different categories
0:01:13 to run through today.
0:01:16 But since the common thread here is online business,
0:01:18 we’re going to start with website tools.
0:01:21 I still believe that even in the age of social media
0:01:23 and video, I think it’s really important to have
0:01:25 that website as your home base.
0:01:27 And for me, that starts with WordPress
0:01:30 and specifically GeneratePress is the theme
0:01:33 that I’ve been using for the last seven-something years.
0:01:35 For that WordPress, of course,
0:01:37 has the advantage of being free, open source,
0:01:39 GeneratePress, pretty affordable, premium theme,
0:01:42 lightweight, loads fast, customizable.
0:01:44 And what’s cool about WordPress specifically
0:01:47 is just like the ecosystem of plugins in support
0:01:49 where there’s a little bit like any software.
0:01:50 There’s a little bit of a learning curve
0:01:52 to bend it to your will,
0:01:54 but it’s super, super powerful
0:01:55 when it seems to be the platform
0:02:00 that all of the serious website builders are using.
0:02:02 Is that what SideHustle Pro is hosted on as well?
0:02:06 – That is absolutely what SideHustle Pro is hosted on.
0:02:07 I’ve been using WordPress
0:02:09 and it’s funny you mentioned a theme detector
0:02:12 because I started out by getting a WordPress site
0:02:16 and then going to this site called WordPress Theme Detector.
0:02:21 So it’s wp-themedetector.com, I believe.
0:02:22 I will link to it.
0:02:26 And from there, it allows you to copy a URL,
0:02:30 plug it in to see what theme that WordPress site is using,
0:02:32 and then just use the same theme.
0:02:33 So when I was starting out
0:02:36 and I wanted a professional looking podcast website,
0:02:37 I went to a fellow podcaster site
0:02:39 that I thought looked really clean, really good,
0:02:41 and I just copied the theme.
0:02:41 – Yeah, I love that.
0:02:44 It was control you or something,
0:02:45 like looking at the source code,
0:02:47 see if we could find out what the theme file directories
0:02:49 are like totally done, all that stuff.
0:02:52 One of my first sites was this virtual assistant directory
0:02:54 and it was a site that I found,
0:02:57 I was like researching a wine niche site,
0:02:58 like I don’t know anything about wine,
0:02:59 I had no business being in that space,
0:03:03 but one of the sites I found was this wine club review site.
0:03:04 I was like, you know,
0:03:06 what a decent layout, decent structures,
0:03:07 and exactly the same thing.
0:03:08 Well, what theme are they using?
0:03:09 Like, okay, we could just rebuild this
0:03:12 to be about the world of virtual assistants.
0:03:13 So very cool.
0:03:16 – So much of side hustling is literally rebuilding.
0:03:17 (laughing)
0:03:19 – You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, right?
0:03:21 Yeah, and so we just spoke earlier,
0:03:23 it said, okay, this is hosted on WordPress,
0:03:24 it’s not itself hosted.
0:03:27 And for me, the hosting platform that Side Hustle Nation
0:03:29 has been on for over 10 years at this point
0:03:34 is WPX, WPX hosting, amazing customer support
0:03:37 where they like respond within seconds on the live chat.
0:03:39 They’ve helped me out of so many different,
0:03:41 you know, just technical challenges and issues
0:03:43 that come up, they take daily backups,
0:03:44 they’ve been awesome.
0:03:48 And for, it’s one of those bills that I think I pay annually
0:03:51 and up until very recently it was like 25 bucks a month
0:03:53 or about paid annually, like some Black Friday deal,
0:03:55 you know, it was like even less than that.
0:03:59 And I just recently went over my allocated disk space for it
0:04:02 and so I had to go up to the next storage tier.
0:04:04 But it’s one of those bills that every time would come around
0:04:05 and be like, I’m getting such an amazing deal
0:04:06 from these people.
0:04:09 Like this is like, you know those costs
0:04:10 where you’re like really happy to pay.
0:04:12 – Oh yeah, that is an amazing deal
0:04:14 because yeah, hosting is so expensive.
0:04:19 I thought I was hosting on Bluehost for a number of years
0:04:25 and then recently in 2023 switched over to SiteGround.
0:04:28 I’ve had a positive experience so far with SiteGround.
0:04:30 Actually, my web designer recommended it.
0:04:33 And then same thing, they give me emails
0:04:36 with updates on performance, what can be improved
0:04:37 and all these other things.
0:04:38 So I find that really helpful too.
0:04:40 – Yeah, and the other thing
0:04:42 that I still have this Bluehost account for
0:04:45 is creating these like redirects
0:04:47 and I don’t know what they’ve got a bunch of different plans
0:04:48 but like the one that allows
0:04:51 for lots of different add-on domains.
0:04:53 So register vanity domains for the sake
0:04:55 of saying them on the podcast.
0:04:58 Like one of the first ones I got was like buybuttonsbook.com
0:05:00 and that’ll take you over to Amazon for the book
0:05:03 or you want to start a website of your own?
0:05:04 Go to sidehustlewebsite.com
0:05:06 and it’ll go to my tutorial page
0:05:09 and this was a page straight out of the Pat Flynn playbook
0:05:10 back in the day where he’d do this.
0:05:12 I was like, oh, that’s really smart.
0:05:13 – You know, yeah, I’m trying to figure out
0:05:15 like how I can consolidate.
0:05:18 It’s a lot of backend work when you switch over a host
0:05:19 and you definitely, you don’t want to make sure
0:05:21 any of your old sites crash.
0:05:24 So it’s like, am I doing duplicate payments right now?
0:05:25 So I need to figure that out.
0:05:28 – Yeah, okay, so that is the hosting side of things
0:05:30 for the domain registration things.
0:05:32 Use GoDaddy for a lot of years
0:05:33 and still have some domains at GoDaddy.
0:05:37 Lately it’s been Porkbun who was a one-time sponsor
0:05:40 of the show but just I like their very simple
0:05:43 straightforward interface without trying to sell you
0:05:46 a million different add-ons like GoDaddy tries to do.
0:05:48 – I still use GoDaddy but yeah, it’s so annoying.
0:05:50 You’re like, oh, do I need this?
0:05:52 What is actually needed here?
0:05:55 – We’ve talked about like the GoDaddy conspiracy theory
0:05:58 of like, you know, checking to see if a domain is available.
0:05:59 And like, no, no, no, don’t do that
0:06:01 unless you’re ready to click buy.
0:06:03 It’s like for some, like somebody is scraping this.
0:06:04 – Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:06:06 – It’s happened too often to just be purely coincidence.
0:06:08 Like, well, now I go back a week later
0:06:09 and it happens to be registered.
0:06:10 Like, oh, come on.
0:06:11 – Exactly.
0:06:13 – We have, the next one on this list
0:06:17 is the Page Builder or in my case Beaver Builder,
0:06:19 which is, it turns WordPress into more
0:06:21 of a wissy wig type of editor.
0:06:23 What you see is what you get type of editor
0:06:24 where you could drag and drop
0:06:26 and manipulate it a little bit easier.
0:06:28 And so Beaver Builder’s been awesome for that.
0:06:31 – I use Elementor or I should say my website designer.
0:06:33 So I started out with WordPress
0:06:35 and after three years of podcasting,
0:06:37 I hired a website designer.
0:06:41 And so she took over and added in Elementor
0:06:42 to do all the design and all that stuff.
0:06:44 So I can’t even say that I use that
0:06:46 other than making edits anytime.
0:06:48 You know, it’s very user-friendly.
0:06:48 So that’s a great thing.
0:06:49 I’m not a website designer,
0:06:52 but after she’s done with her project and demands,
0:06:54 obviously I’m not gonna call her
0:06:56 every time I need to set up a new page,
0:06:58 make an edit, set up a landing page.
0:07:01 So Elementor is really easy and straightforward to go in
0:07:04 and do any kind of edits.
0:07:05 – Yeah, and the way these were,
0:07:08 you kind of layers on top of your existing WordPress theme.
0:07:10 And I use it to create custom pages,
0:07:12 custom landing pages that, you know,
0:07:14 you don’t wanna follow the exact, you know, default template.
0:07:18 But more often it’s like little call-outs inside the post.
0:07:19 You can use little short code for
0:07:20 and you kind of build these things.
0:07:21 And the cool thing about that,
0:07:24 you can embed that in a bunch of different posts.
0:07:25 And if that link changes
0:07:27 or you wanna highlight a different partner
0:07:29 or a different product, you can, you know,
0:07:33 swap that out in one place in the Beaver Builder saved row
0:07:34 and it updates throughout the whole site
0:07:36 versus going in and manually updating
0:07:37 a dozen different posts.
0:07:38 – I agree.
0:07:40 – That concludes our website section.
0:07:42 I’m sure there’s gonna be more website related things
0:07:44 lower on this list too.
0:07:44 – Yes, yeah.
0:07:47 Plugins might come up, we’ll see.
0:07:47 – I’m sure.
0:07:51 So the next category that we’ve got is marketing tools.
0:07:53 And one big shift for me that we talked about this year
0:07:56 was a shift from active campaign to convert kit.
0:07:58 I guess it’s just kit now for the email list.
0:08:00 Hugely important part of the business,
0:08:03 you know, to be able to take an anonymous podcast listener
0:08:04 and say, well, now I have the chance
0:08:06 to communicate proactively with them
0:08:09 instead of just whenever they happen to download the thing.
0:08:10 You on kit as well?
0:08:11 – I am on kit.
0:08:16 I am, it’s so new to me to say kit, but yes, I want kit.
0:08:16 And I like it a lot.
0:08:18 I started out with MailChamp,
0:08:20 like most people, early marketers.
0:08:22 And then it switched over to convert kit
0:08:26 when I got way more serious about tagging people,
0:08:28 subscribers as they come onto my list
0:08:31 and being able to deliver automations and sequences.
0:08:35 So if you’re not a marketer and that all seems like jargon
0:08:38 and just, you know, gibber jabber to you basically
0:08:41 when someone gives you their email
0:08:43 for a freebie that you offer,
0:08:47 I love being able to customize their experience.
0:08:48 When I’m really on my game,
0:08:50 like I can’t even lie and act
0:08:52 like I’m still not working things out sometimes,
0:08:55 but let’s say I am leading a webinar, right?
0:08:58 So I like how convert kit makes it really easy
0:09:02 to send follow-up reminder emails to tag people
0:09:04 and make sure the right people are getting that
0:09:06 or are not getting that.
0:09:07 So I’m not bothering people
0:09:10 who don’t want this info about a podcast webinar.
0:09:11 – Yeah, totally.
0:09:13 If you are sending straight newsletter,
0:09:14 you don’t want a regular cadence.
0:09:16 It could be Beehive, it could be Substack,
0:09:17 it could be any number of different tools,
0:09:20 but for the automation and segmentation and tagging
0:09:23 and all the other features that convert kit or kit has,
0:09:24 I think it’s really cool.
0:09:26 And there’s some safety in numbers.
0:09:28 Like this is what James Clear uses
0:09:29 or this is what Tim Ferriss uses.
0:09:30 You’re like, okay, well, it was good enough for them.
0:09:32 It’s probably good enough for me.
0:09:33 – Exactly.
0:09:35 And that’s how a lot of my tools started like,
0:09:36 oh, you use that, Amy Portafil?
0:09:37 Okay, cool.
0:09:38 (laughing)
0:09:40 – Yes, safety in numbers.
0:09:42 What else I like about kit is like,
0:09:46 they’ve made a lot of investment in the creator economy
0:09:49 where they’re like really rooting for the small guy,
0:09:54 it feels like, where they’ve built out their sponsor network
0:09:55 and their creator network,
0:09:57 where you could recommend other newsletter creators
0:09:59 that you might like, that might be worth a follow.
0:10:00 Like in a similar niche,
0:10:02 it’s like trying to like lift everybody up,
0:10:06 which is cool to be a part of that ecosystem.
0:10:07 – You’re so right about that.
0:10:08 It really is.
0:10:10 And I like the content they develop,
0:10:12 whether it’s on their blog.
0:10:16 And even the founder, he has a podcast as well.
0:10:17 What’s his last name again, Nate?
0:10:18 – Nathan Berry?
0:10:21 – Yeah, it does make it more approachable
0:10:22 when you hear the founder of a business.
0:10:26 I like how Nathan, he just is so approachable
0:10:28 when I hear him on his own podcast
0:10:30 and he’s talking about his experience building.
0:10:32 And that’s what I, me an entrepreneur is going through.
0:10:36 So it adds a level of trust
0:10:39 and also likeability factor to the entire brand.
0:10:42 Not to rave about ConvertKit for forever.
0:10:44 – I know, but he’s always been front and center,
0:10:46 even showing up at events,
0:10:49 even as the CEO of 30, $40 million company,
0:10:51 whatever there’s now, if he remembers your name,
0:10:53 it’s like, hey, remember when we talked a few years ago
0:10:54 about this?
0:10:56 Like he plays a part very well
0:10:58 and he’s built a cool product as well.
0:11:01 So I lied and so we were done with the website section.
0:11:02 I knew we weren’t done.
0:11:05 – The next on this list that I have is lead pages,
0:11:08 which is a landing page builder
0:11:10 that have been a customer for probably close to 10 years
0:11:11 at this point.
0:11:14 It was another recurring subscription.
0:11:15 I was like, do I really need this in my life?
0:11:17 I was like, really hesitant to buy it,
0:11:19 but within three months,
0:11:21 I tripled the size of my email list within 12 months.
0:11:25 It was like 10 or 12 X, like, okay, this is worthwhile.
0:11:28 What I primarily use it for today is,
0:11:31 it still has that landing page functionality
0:11:32 to collect emails.
0:11:34 What I originally used it for was like a double,
0:11:36 like a two-step opt-in.
0:11:37 Like you want to download this thing, okay,
0:11:40 a nice looking pop-up will come in and then you can do it.
0:11:42 I don’t use that so much anymore,
0:11:45 but now you can have these kind of landing pages
0:11:48 after an opt-in with a limited time thank you page
0:11:51 with like a limited time add-on upsell offer
0:11:53 that I’ve been doing for a couple of years
0:11:55 and it has like a little countdown timer
0:11:58 and it integrates with Stripe, with the payment processors,
0:12:00 lots of cool stuff you can do with lead pages.
0:12:02 Ooh, I think I need to be doing more,
0:12:04 but I love lead pages.
0:12:06 I would say this is one of my favorite tools
0:12:08 as a side hustler, entrepreneur,
0:12:12 because it makes it so easy to set up a quick landing page.
0:12:15 AKA, it feels like you’ve set up a quick like mini website
0:12:17 and no one will know the difference.
0:12:22 And so I use that primarily for when I do live classes,
0:12:25 live trainings and that like I have one
0:12:29 that it’s just been with me since I started using lead pages.
0:12:32 And similar to you, I tripled the size of my list
0:12:34 when I started using them right away.
0:12:37 I did like a master Instagram challenge and that,
0:12:39 and we’ve actually did a little mini case study.
0:12:43 So I love lead pages and it’s funny, back in the day,
0:12:45 I also, I saw the bill and I thought about canceling it
0:12:48 and the customer service agent was kind of like,
0:12:51 well, we’re showing that you made this much revenue
0:12:53 from your lead page last year.
0:12:56 Are you sure you don’t want to pay this annual fee?
0:12:58 I’m like, you’re right, you’re right.
0:12:59 I’ll keep it, yeah.
0:13:01 It makes it hard to get rid of,
0:13:04 but and that’s cool ’cause like if you’re doing a webinar,
0:13:06 you’re doing a live training, there’s all these templates
0:13:08 that you just, you don’t have to start from scratch
0:13:09 and that’s such a time saver.
0:13:11 So I definitely like what they’re doing.
0:13:12 Yes.
0:13:15 The next one on this list is a newer to me tool,
0:13:17 maybe in the last year and a half or so.
0:13:19 And that is a quiz builder called Interact,
0:13:21 it’s I think triinteract.com,
0:13:24 but we’ll link all this stuff up in the show notes for you.
0:13:26 We’re using all the same tools, Nick.
0:13:28 (laughing)
0:13:31 As expected a little bit more of a debate or back and forth,
0:13:32 but I’m sure we’ll get to that later in the show,
0:13:34 but Interact, super cool.
0:13:38 I feel like you’re using things in different ways
0:13:39 that like you said, like the lead pages.
0:13:42 So yeah, we can also talk about that ’cause I’m like,
0:13:45 oh, tell me how to use it, I’ll optimize my use.
0:13:46 Happy to geek out on that stuff too,
0:13:48 but Interact, a couple of different quizzes
0:13:49 that are live right now.
0:13:51 One is on the homepage of Side Hustle Nation.
0:13:53 This is like your side hustle finder,
0:13:56 answer a couple of questions about your interests,
0:13:58 goals, experience, right?
0:14:01 It’s gonna hopefully narrow down the realm of possibility
0:14:02 or point you in the right direction.
0:14:05 And then I took an idea from a guest on the show,
0:14:07 Shannon Weinstein, you can see this in action
0:14:11 at hustle.show, answer a few quick questions
0:14:13 and it’ll spit out this eight to 10 episode recommended
0:14:15 playlist based on your answers.
0:14:17 And that’s been working really, really well.
0:14:18 – Ooh, I love that, that’s a great idea.
0:14:21 So I love triinteract as well.
0:14:24 And funny enough, I just recently started using it.
0:14:26 I used to have a different landing page
0:14:28 or excuse me, website, freebie,
0:14:29 that was like the primary driver.
0:14:33 And then I finally said, let me finally try it out as a quiz.
0:14:37 And similar to you, I have a side hustle personality,
0:14:39 like, but it’s more like which side hustle is right for you.
0:14:41 So the whole premise of Side Hustle Pro
0:14:44 is about building out a side hustle
0:14:46 from passion project to profitable business.
0:14:48 So I want people to understand like,
0:14:50 hey, are you the creative type?
0:14:53 Are you a service-based consultant type?
0:14:56 So that quiz, it immediately just took off.
0:14:58 And I also kind of, I also run ads to it.
0:15:00 They’re paused right now, but I run ads to it
0:15:02 as a lead magnet.
0:15:06 And then, you know, you’re able to, as a fulfillment,
0:15:09 you get your response and then also tailored,
0:15:12 customized strategies via email
0:15:14 once you get your response from the quiz.
0:15:17 – Yeah, I think it’s a really cool level of personalization
0:15:18 that you’re able to do.
0:15:20 Plus, you get this first party data
0:15:23 that nobody else really has.
0:15:25 And so one thing that was surprising to me
0:15:28 on the homepage quiz, I think one of the first questions is,
0:15:30 like, do you want to side hustle to make extra money?
0:15:33 Or do you want to side hustle to eventually quit your job?
0:15:36 And, you know, my mentality is like, of course,
0:15:38 you know, people want to quit your job version.
0:15:40 Like, and I think the podcast listener persona
0:15:42 is probably more in that bucket,
0:15:44 but four out of five people that landed on the homepage
0:15:46 were like, I want to side hustle to make extra money.
0:15:50 I was like, oh, that’s really, that’s really interesting.
0:15:52 And so, and now you can segment those people
0:15:54 on the email list and you can do all sorts of cool stuff.
0:15:58 – So question for you, with your playlist,
0:16:00 so are you sending them to an actual,
0:16:04 like a mini episode player on your site
0:16:05 or how are you doing that playlist,
0:16:07 just linking out the episodes?
0:16:08 – Yeah, it’s done through Spotify.
0:16:09 So create those custom, I guess,
0:16:12 public playlists in Spotify and then send people
0:16:14 so they can add those to their device.
0:16:15 – Love it, love it.
0:16:16 – It’s stealing it.
0:16:17 (laughs)
0:16:18 – Perfect, let it snowball.
0:16:21 More tool talk with Nikela in just a moment,
0:16:24 including another relatively new to me tool
0:16:27 that’s helped add thousands of subscribers to my email list.
0:16:29 That’s coming up right after this.
0:16:32 What if you no longer needed five separate apps
0:16:33 for your business bank account,
0:16:36 expense tracking, invoicing, contractor payments,
0:16:37 and tax planning?
0:16:39 I’m excited to partner with our new sponsor,
0:16:42 Found for this episode because Found is business banking
0:16:45 designed specifically for side hustlers, solopreneurs,
0:16:47 and small business owners like you.
0:16:50 Under the hood, you’ll find one easy to use app
0:16:51 to help manage your money,
0:16:53 track your spending, invoice clients,
0:16:55 and even handle your taxes
0:16:56 so you can focus on more important things
0:16:58 like running your business.
0:17:00 There’s no minimum balances,
0:17:01 there’s no account maintenance fees,
0:17:05 and there’s no paperwork or credit checks when you sign up.
0:17:08 One cool feature Found calls them pockets,
0:17:10 lets you allocate income to certain categories
0:17:13 like marketing or taxes or profit,
0:17:14 which is really handy if you wanna practice
0:17:17 the profit first methodology,
0:17:19 but you really don’t wanna set up
0:17:20 a bunch of different accounts.
0:17:22 Over 500,000 small business owners
0:17:25 like you chose Found as their banking solution,
0:17:28 so stop getting lost in countless finance apps
0:17:32 and try Found for free at found.com/sidehustle.
0:17:37 Sign up for Found for free today at f-o-u-n-d.com/sidehustle.
0:17:42 Found is a financial technology company, not a bank.
0:17:46 Banking services are provided by Piermont Bank, member FDIC.
0:17:48 Found’s core features are free.
0:17:52 They also offer an optional paid product, Found Plus.
0:17:54 Here’s a quick side hustle you can do today.
0:17:56 It’s called the substitution game,
0:17:58 and it’s an easy way to score what I call
0:18:00 reverse passive income in your life.
0:18:02 That’s money you’re no longer spending every month
0:18:04 that goes straight to your bottom line.
0:18:06 How it works is you find lower cost alternatives
0:18:08 to the things you’re already spending money on.
0:18:11 For example, I made the switch to our sponsor Mint Mobile
0:18:13 back in 2019 and haven’t looked back.
0:18:17 Mint Mobile offers premium wireless for $15 a month
0:18:19 when you purchase a three month plan.
0:18:21 And all plans come with high speed data and unlimited
0:18:25 talk and text delivered on the nation’s largest 5G network.
0:18:27 You can use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan
0:18:29 and keep your existing phone number
0:18:31 along with all your existing contacts.
0:18:32 To get this new customer offer
0:18:35 and your new three month premium wireless plan
0:18:40 for just 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:18:43 That’s mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:18:45 Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month
0:18:48 at mintmobile.com/sidehustle.
0:18:52 $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 per month.
0:18:54 New customers on first three month plan only.
0:18:58 Speeds slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan.
0:19:00 Additional taxes, fees, and restrictions apply.
0:19:02 See Mint Mobile for details.
0:19:06 The next on this list is
0:19:10 a Facebook group lead generating tool called Group Leads.
0:19:13 This has been a part of our customer flow
0:19:15 or lead flow for the past couple of years
0:19:17 where it automatically,
0:19:19 so when somebody joins the Facebook group,
0:19:20 it asks a couple of questions.
0:19:22 It’s like, “Hey, do you have a side hustle already?”
0:19:24 If you ask, tell me about it.
0:19:25 You wanna get our best side hustle tips
0:19:29 and an insider newsletter through email.
0:19:30 Put your email in here.
0:19:31 And then through Group Leads,
0:19:35 it automatically sends that data over to Kit now
0:19:37 and it adds those people to the email list.
0:19:40 And it can detect, is that person already on the list
0:19:41 or is that a new subscriber?
0:19:44 And you kind of send different messages
0:19:46 based on where they’re coming from.
0:19:46 – Ooh, I love that.
0:19:48 I need to implement that.
0:19:50 So yeah, that’s one I haven’t been using.
0:19:53 So yes, definitely want to test that out myself.
0:19:54 Group Leads.
0:19:57 – Yeah, so the Side Hustle Nation Facebook group
0:19:59 sidehustlenation.com/fb will get you over there.
0:20:01 You can see this in action as well.
0:20:02 If you’re not already a member.
0:20:06 And this has added thousands of new subscribers a year.
0:20:09 So I love the broader strategy is like,
0:20:13 have the Facebook group for your topic, for your community.
0:20:15 And then the next level is like,
0:20:16 well, how do you get people off of Facebook
0:20:18 into your email list, into your ecosystem a little bit?
0:20:21 And so Group Leads has been super helpful for that.
0:20:23 – Yep, getting people off of social media
0:20:26 and into your email list is,
0:20:27 it’s just huge as an entrepreneur.
0:20:30 Do you do anything similar for like Instagram,
0:20:32 LinkedIn, Twitter?
0:20:34 – I got to learn from you on the Instagram stuff.
0:20:36 I do almost nothing over there.
0:20:38 All right, I’ve got a WordPress plugin for you
0:20:40 at number 10 or 10.
0:20:42 I don’t know, we’re probably losing count on this list.
0:20:43 This is called Pretty Link.
0:20:46 This is a long running WordPress plugin
0:20:51 that helps you create easy to remember affiliate links.
0:20:54 So, and both for podcast episodes where I can say,
0:20:55 hey, the show notes for this one
0:20:58 are at sidehustlenation.com/Nakala
0:20:59 or you can do it for,
0:21:01 if you want to go check out courses on Udemy,
0:21:04 it’s sidehustlenation.com/Udemy.
0:21:06 So it makes it easy to say if you don’t want to go,
0:21:09 we mentioned before, creating that custom vanity domain
0:21:10 like buybuttonsbook.com.
0:21:13 Like this is a free way to do that.
0:21:15 – I use Pretty Link all the way.
0:21:17 I love Pretty Link and customizing.
0:21:21 And I also even do it for like Facebook ads, for example,
0:21:23 if I have a link in the ad,
0:21:26 I want to make sure that it’s not this whole long link.
0:21:29 So I often make sure I have a custom link.
0:21:31 Or if I want to know if you clicked on Instagram
0:21:33 to listen to the episode on Facebook
0:21:34 or what have you, I make customized links
0:21:36 for data tracking as well.
0:21:38 – Yeah, that’s a good way to do it.
0:21:40 And the next one is also affiliate related.
0:21:42 And this is the Lasso plugin.
0:21:44 I think it’s getlasso.co.
0:21:49 We had the founder Andrew on the show a year or two ago.
0:21:50 And this was another one.
0:21:52 It’s like, do I need another recurring subscription?
0:21:55 But it’s like, I don’t know what the price is.
0:21:57 It’s like $39 a month or something.
0:22:00 It’s not crazy expensive because the lift in conversions
0:22:03 that you see from creating these cool,
0:22:05 wire cutter inspired product displays
0:22:09 far exceeds the cost of the little tool.
0:22:11 So I think it looks really cool.
0:22:14 We have slowly been going through the entire site
0:22:16 and creating little product displays, little call outs.
0:22:19 And I think they look great.
0:22:22 They look good on mobile and they perform really well too.
0:22:23 – Ooh, definitely heard of getlasso,
0:22:25 but I haven’t used it yet.
0:22:27 So thank you for endorsing it.
0:22:29 So now I’m definitely going to check it out.
0:22:31 – Yeah, it’s one of these call it management
0:22:32 by looking around where you’re like,
0:22:34 well, what is everybody else doing?
0:22:35 And you’re like, oh, everybody else has these cool
0:22:36 little product displays.
0:22:38 Like I’m missing the boat for the longest time.
0:22:41 Like I tried to build it myself like in Beaver Builder.
0:22:45 It just could never get the same look and feel.
0:22:48 And it’s like, eh, you know, why stop cheaping out.
0:22:49 Just go and do the thing.
0:22:50 – Right, right.
0:22:53 Which products are you displaying when you say that?
0:22:56 – Oh, so it will be, you know, tools like Fundrise
0:22:59 or it’ll be like go check out the flea market,
0:23:00 Flipper Workshop.
0:23:04 – Ooh, that’ll be really cool to do for my sponsors.
0:23:05 – Yeah, that one is pretty cool.
0:23:08 My digital product business, my course business
0:23:10 is hosted on Teachable.
0:23:13 And this is probably going on five years at this point.
0:23:16 Teachable was one of the very first sponsors on the show.
0:23:19 So it’s always will have a warm place in my heart
0:23:21 for Teachable and their founding team
0:23:22 ’cause they took a chance, you know,
0:23:25 as a up and coming podcaster.
0:23:28 But this is a place to host your courses,
0:23:31 a place to process payments for those,
0:23:32 host the sales pages,
0:23:35 all sorts of kind of like an all-in-one tool for courses.
0:23:37 – Yes, I also use Teachable
0:23:40 and I host my podcast moguls course on that.
0:23:43 So that’s a course where I teach aspiring podcasters
0:23:45 how to launch and monetize your own podcast.
0:23:47 And it’s been really great.
0:23:50 It’s a seamless experience to go in,
0:23:51 set up the modules,
0:23:55 then you get the replays when we have our mastermind calls,
0:23:58 you can send people to the checkout sales page there,
0:24:01 or if you do another like funnel type of website,
0:24:02 which I’m sure we’ll get to,
0:24:06 you can still just send them the info to get registered
0:24:08 and get started with the course on Teachable.
0:24:09 So I really liked Teachable.
0:24:11 – Yeah, they’ve been around forever.
0:24:13 There’s a bunch of different LMS
0:24:15 or learning management system type of tools.
0:24:16 – Right.
0:24:17 – Pros and cons to all of them,
0:24:19 but it’s been working fine over here.
0:24:22 – Yeah, what you’ll find with tools is the switching costs.
0:24:24 Like you have to really make it worth it
0:24:28 for someone to wanna switch their whole workflow
0:24:31 and take their content over to another platform.
0:24:34 So I don’t think any other course provider
0:24:37 has made the switching costs worthwhile.
0:24:38 (laughs)
0:24:39 – Yeah, it’s gotta be,
0:24:42 it’s gonna have to be a significant feature improvement
0:24:45 or significant cost savings to unravel all of that.
0:24:47 And that was what it was for active campaign.
0:24:50 It was like, really, we’ve got hundreds of different forms.
0:24:53 It’s all these integrations into their credit,
0:24:55 convert kids like, hey, we’ll do it for you.
0:24:55 And they did.
0:24:56 So it’s like, okay.
0:24:59 The next one on, I guess a couple on this list
0:25:02 are gonna be SEO related.
0:25:04 And the first one for me is Ahrefs.
0:25:07 It’s A-H-R-E-F-S.
0:25:09 This is the leading keyword research tool
0:25:11 and has been for a long time for anybody serious
0:25:13 about ranking their content in Google,
0:25:15 all the serious SEO people,
0:25:17 friends, colleagues, people in the industry
0:25:18 tend to use this one.
0:25:22 And they recently came out with a starter plan
0:25:24 that was like a third of the cost.
0:25:27 And I was like, oh, okay, that’s the one that I need.
0:25:29 ‘Cause it’s like, I was always kind of
0:25:32 a little bit expensive for what we were using it for.
0:25:33 And it’s the same thing where it’s like,
0:25:34 well, the ROI is definitely there
0:25:36 if you can get a piece of content
0:25:39 that the keyword topic you discovered through Ahrefs
0:25:41 and you created that content and you got it to stick,
0:25:42 it definitely pays for itself.
0:25:44 But like, it definitely also pays for itself
0:25:45 if it’s a third of the cost.
0:25:47 And the feature set didn’t really change.
0:25:50 So I’m really cool to have discovered that just recently.
0:25:51 – Ooh, I like that.
0:25:54 Another one that, you know, I, for SEO,
0:25:59 was really doing the basic of using a WordPress plugin.
0:26:01 And I think it was called Yoast.
0:26:02 But there’s a new business
0:26:04 that my husband and I are starting.
0:26:07 So I’m gonna take it a step up and actually use,
0:26:08 what’s it called, Ahrefs?
0:26:09 – Yeah, yeah.
0:26:10 – Yeah, for that.
0:26:12 Because again, I wanna start out by knowing,
0:26:14 okay, what can we rank for?
0:26:16 What are the top searches for this?
0:26:17 What are the suggested searches?
0:26:19 So what exactly does it do for you?
0:26:20 – So one of the cool things you can do
0:26:23 is plug in a similar or a competitor site
0:26:26 and see what pages of theirs are doing well.
0:26:28 What pages, you know, what kind of keywords
0:26:30 that they have created content for.
0:26:33 And it’s kind of like this opening spark of inspiration.
0:26:34 Be like, oh, that’s an interesting,
0:26:36 I never would have thought about that.
0:26:38 And then the other kind of use case is,
0:26:42 we’ve got all of these different keyword topics now
0:26:44 or ideas, you know, that we could create.
0:26:45 And then you punch them all in
0:26:47 and it’ll tell you the approximate search volume
0:26:50 or traffic potential plus the estimated difficulty
0:26:51 of each one.
0:26:53 And so we’re naturally sorting by, you know,
0:26:55 which ones have the most traffic potential
0:26:58 and are the easiest in theory to rank for.
0:26:59 – There was something else I used for that.
0:27:03 And for some reason, oh, I’ve used SEMrush tool.
0:27:04 – Oh yeah.
0:27:05 – Yeah, I had to look that up.
0:27:07 Definitely use SEMrush.
0:27:08 – Okay.
0:27:11 The other SEO tool that we’ve been using is Frays.
0:27:13 It’s F-R-A-S-E.
0:27:16 This is a little bit nerdier,
0:27:17 but it works in a couple of different ways.
0:27:19 First, you can input a new content idea.
0:27:22 Hey, this is the article that I want to write
0:27:25 and it pulls in, you know, the top 10, 20 search results
0:27:27 that are already in Google for that topic.
0:27:29 And says, if you’re creating this article,
0:27:30 this is what Google already thinks
0:27:32 is the most valuable content.
0:27:34 So you can kind of build your outline based on that.
0:27:38 And the second way you can use it is to say,
0:27:40 well, I already have this article on topic XYZ,
0:27:42 but it’s due for a refresh.
0:27:44 And it works similarly where it’s like, well, you know,
0:27:48 your content mentions this phrase, you know, twice,
0:27:50 but the top 10 results mention it four times.
0:27:50 So you might want to increase,
0:27:53 it’s like really granular and kind of like,
0:27:54 I don’t know if that’s really,
0:27:55 if that could be considered AI,
0:27:58 but it like just kind of helps you try and figure out
0:28:00 what, where the gaps might be in your content.
0:28:04 – So you find that you need that on top of ARF,
0:28:04 that’s interesting.
0:28:07 – Yeah, so HRF’s more for the like,
0:28:09 the general seed ideas for content.
0:28:12 And then this is like helping you build out the outlines
0:28:13 or improve existing content.
0:28:16 And you could use chat GPT for this probably.
0:28:18 – Yeah, I was going to say, I think I’ve been,
0:28:19 since I’ve been using chat GPT,
0:28:21 I’ve been kind of defaulting to it,
0:28:24 but I absolutely am going to test them out.
0:28:26 I don’t know if I want to pay for all of it again though.
0:28:28 – Our next section is productivity tools.
0:28:29 And all of these are productivity tools
0:28:31 in one form or another.
0:28:34 But for me, the top one, the first tab that gets open
0:28:36 every day, probably a bad habit is Gmail.
0:28:38 It’s like one inbox to rule them all.
0:28:41 If you email me, nick@highthustlenation.com,
0:28:43 it’ll come into that Gmail inbox.
0:28:46 And you’ve got all of these filters set up
0:28:49 where newsletters go over here
0:28:53 and affiliate sales notifications go over here.
0:28:55 And then the personal stuff goes into this folder
0:29:00 and PayPal receipts go into this accounting type of folder.
0:29:02 And so it’s kind of that one central inbox
0:29:03 to really rule them all.
0:29:05 – Gmail has been holding me down
0:29:08 since the beginning of “Sidehouse of Pro”
0:29:09 and again, one inbox.
0:29:12 If you email me at hi@sidehouseofpro.co,
0:29:13 it’s going there.
0:29:17 And it usually is, sometimes I do my calendar before Gmail,
0:29:20 but yeah, that’s definitely one of the first places
0:29:21 I’m in each day.
0:29:23 – Probably a bad habit, but it’s, you know,
0:29:26 15, 20 years old at this point, it’s gonna be hard to break.
0:29:29 One tool that I layer on top of Gmail
0:29:31 is a software called Sanebox,
0:29:35 which is kind of a smart like first level filtering
0:29:38 where for everything that comes in, it decides,
0:29:39 like, does this need to go to your primary inbox
0:29:43 or does this need to go into kind of a secondary,
0:29:44 less important inbox?
0:29:46 And it’s remarkably good at that.
0:29:48 And you still have to go check the secondary inbox.
0:29:49 They call it Sane later.
0:29:52 It’s like, it’s not urgent, you can look at it later.
0:29:54 And you still need to go and clean that out.
0:29:56 And you can train stuff, you can drag it back and forth,
0:29:58 but that’s been a, I’ve been a customer of theirs
0:29:59 for a lot of years.
0:30:02 And there’s, it filtered out thousands of messages
0:30:04 at this point that were less important
0:30:06 and stopped cluttering up the main inbox.
0:30:07 – I think I need that for my personal.
0:30:10 I used to use Boomerang a lot more
0:30:12 and even for like sending later,
0:30:15 but obviously you can do that now just via Gmail.
0:30:17 And what I find with the inbox is
0:30:20 I just want to be able to see everything first.
0:30:21 I don’t want it to go,
0:30:23 like sometimes things would go to filters
0:30:25 and I wouldn’t even, I don’t know,
0:30:27 I just want to make sure that I’m seeing everything,
0:30:31 but I do have my inbox divided, start on top
0:30:32 and then on red.
0:30:35 And so it’s nice because once I’ve read and addressed it,
0:30:37 it’s blank, I don’t have a,
0:30:39 I don’t like keeping a huge inbox at all.
0:30:40 And then, but starred,
0:30:42 let’s me know what I need to get back to.
0:30:45 And that’s my simple system right now.
0:30:48 And then everything has, I have a ton of filters.
0:30:51 So I do organize by, all right,
0:30:53 this email goes to address, this goes to,
0:30:56 I even have things like email examples.
0:31:00 And I’ll do that by name of the influencer,
0:31:01 our content creator.
0:31:02 And I’m like, ooh, I like this email.
0:31:05 So I’ll save it in their special inbox
0:31:07 for me to go back to and review.
0:31:09 – Yeah, take inspiration from somebody else
0:31:11 rather than starting from that blank page
0:31:12 rather than starting from scratch.
0:31:14 – Exactly, exactly.
0:31:17 – So you mentioned Boomerang as a good Gmail add-on.
0:31:19 The one that I’ve been using for a long time
0:31:20 is called Nudge Mail,
0:31:24 where it’s like, this isn’t important today,
0:31:27 but I want to resurface in a couple of weeks.
0:31:29 You just CC or forward that message
0:31:31 to like twoweeks@nudgemail.com
0:31:34 and it like brings it back to the top of your inbox.
0:31:38 Or if you sent a note to a sponsor or a client
0:31:40 and you want to make sure to follow up with them
0:31:43 in a few days, you can say like just CC or BCC.
0:31:44 Maybe you don’t want them to see it,
0:31:47 like five days@nudgemail.com,
0:31:49 like any commonly expressed timeframe,
0:31:51 it’ll resurface that in Syrian box.
0:31:54 So that’s been a cool, helpful tool as well.
0:31:55 – Oh, I like that.
0:31:59 – Next on this list is a clipboard management tool.
0:32:01 I’m on a PC, so this is Clip X,
0:32:05 which allows you to like saves the last 25 things
0:32:07 you copied onto your clipboard,
0:32:08 which is like just one of these
0:32:10 like little desktop productivity tools.
0:32:13 I’ve heard that copy clip is the Mac alternative,
0:32:16 but this is something that I use all day every day
0:32:17 without even thinking about it now.
0:32:18 – That’s so interesting.
0:32:22 So why do you want to remember what you got?
0:32:25 Maybe I’m scared to, scared for someone
0:32:27 to keep track of what I copy.
0:32:29 – Yeah, it’s like I’m pasting the URL
0:32:32 and you know, then I copy something out
0:32:34 and then I, oh, but it was like three copies ago.
0:32:35 I want to paste that thing again.
0:32:37 It’s just like, it’s remarkable
0:32:39 how often that use case comes up.
0:32:40 – That’s true.
0:32:41 That is true.
0:32:42 Like when I’m writing an email,
0:32:45 okay, I wanted to have my podcast,
0:32:46 my Apple podcast link copied.
0:32:48 Oh, but now the last thing I did was the YouTube.
0:32:50 So, all right, okay, you’ve convinced me.
0:32:51 Maybe I will add this on.
0:32:53 Is that a Chrome extension
0:32:57 or it’s another like separate thing to do as I add on?
0:33:00 – That’s a desktop free, I think free software for,
0:33:02 for PC and then copy clip.
0:33:04 I want to say is the Mac alternative
0:33:06 that people have mentioned.
0:33:06 – Okay.
0:33:09 – I do have a Chrome plugin or Chrome extension for you next
0:33:11 and this one is called Magical.
0:33:13 This is custom keyboard shortcuts.
0:33:15 And so use this all the time.
0:33:18 Like if I hit SSS or something like that’ll,
0:33:21 you know, type W, HTTP, you know,
0:33:23 www.sideoscillation.com.
0:33:25 Like you get tired of typing this stuff out
0:33:25 over and over again.
0:33:26 – Yeah.
0:33:28 – You kind of create these custom keyboard shortcuts
0:33:30 for the stuff that you type out all the time
0:33:33 or like m, m, asterisk or something.
0:33:35 That’s like the, you know, schedule once link
0:33:39 like meet me.so/you know, use this all the time as well.
0:33:40 And so that’s been really helpful.
0:33:42 – That’s so cool.
0:33:44 You know, Nick, I thought I was productive, but you,
0:33:48 you weren’t putting me on to a whole different level.
0:33:52 I thought I was doing something with command C, command V.
0:33:55 Well, those keyboard shortcuts.
0:33:55 – Okay.
0:33:57 No, I don’t have a keyboard shortcut tool.
0:33:58 Yeah.
0:33:59 – It takes, you know, it takes a minute to set up,
0:34:02 but you feel like just a productivity ninja
0:34:05 when you bang these emails out, you know, right away.
0:34:07 – Ooh, I like that.
0:34:08 – And I think there’s free,
0:34:10 I think they probably have a paid plan too.
0:34:11 – Oh, speaking of that,
0:34:13 one thing I forgot to mention about Gmail,
0:34:17 I also have a lot of saved templates inside of Gmail.
0:34:20 So that saves me time with responding to people.
0:34:22 So, and I also have that for my VA.
0:34:26 So my VA has a sub email underside House of Pro
0:34:29 and then everything from email pitches
0:34:33 to prospective guests to responses to people who pitch us
0:34:36 and different things to say to sponsors
0:34:38 or all kinds of things.
0:34:40 We’ve made up all kinds of templates
0:34:41 so that we can just plug and play
0:34:44 and not have to keep reinventing the wheel for each email.
0:34:46 And it speeds up the reply process.
0:34:47 Yeah.
0:34:48 – Oh yeah, that’s great.
0:34:52 That’s great for sponsor requests for guest pitch requests.
0:34:54 Like, oh, you can, for the sake of sanity,
0:34:57 I’m funneling guest applications through this form.
0:34:57 You know, here’s the link.
0:34:59 And yeah, ’cause you get,
0:35:02 it’s the stuff you end up typing out over and over again.
0:35:03 – Right, right, over and over again.
0:35:06 Anything over and over again becomes a template.
0:35:08 – All right, my next productivity tool is
0:35:09 my personal creation.
0:35:11 It’s called the three question journal.
0:35:12 Every night it is going to ask you,
0:35:13 what’d you get done today, right?
0:35:16 Like kind of a mental brain dump
0:35:17 of all the things you crossed off your list.
0:35:19 It’s going to ask you what you’re grateful for
0:35:21 and it’s going to ask you how you’re going to win tomorrow.
0:35:23 What are your top priorities for the next day?
0:35:26 And this is something created last year, I want to say,
0:35:29 and has been kind of a daily habit ever since then.
0:35:32 And it helps me feel more on top of it.
0:35:35 Helps me honestly kind of do that, you know,
0:35:36 shut down routine.
0:35:38 Like, okay, you know, it’s out of here
0:35:40 and it’s onto the page.
0:35:42 And then when I get to work the next day,
0:35:44 it’s, well, this is what yesterday Nick said
0:35:45 was the top priorities.
0:35:46 So let’s go knock those out first.
0:35:47 And so that’s been really helpful.
0:35:52 3QJournal.com is a redirect link.
0:35:54 Another one of those vanity domains
0:35:56 where you can get redirected over there.
0:35:57 – Yes, I love that.
0:36:02 So I also have a tool that I use for productivity.
0:36:05 So I started this back in 2016.
0:36:06 It’s called the Goal Getter Action Plan.
0:36:08 And it’s essentially my approach
0:36:11 to managing my goals for the year.
0:36:16 So I break it down into 90 day sprints
0:36:18 and AKA, you know, 12 week sprints
0:36:21 where instead of focusing and looking at the year
0:36:25 as like this huge, oh, I gotta get all this done.
0:36:27 And I didn’t make up the concept of 12 week sprints,
0:36:31 but the way I break it down in the Goal Getter Action Planner
0:36:35 helps people who don’t meet their goal to recalculate.
0:36:38 So I think that’s the thing I’ve noticed for my listeners.
0:36:39 That’s the thing that stops most people
0:36:43 is this feeling of beating yourself up.
0:36:44 And that’s normal.
0:36:46 It’s part of the process to not get things done.
0:36:47 So how do you recalculate?
0:36:49 How do you reshift your goals
0:36:52 so that you actually get things done?
0:36:56 So that has helped me a ton to not waste time
0:36:58 on like that mental rollercoaster and just say,
0:37:00 all right, let’s pivot.
0:37:03 So similar to you, I look at my calendar.
0:37:04 That’s where I keep.
0:37:08 So once I break the sprints down into quarterly goals
0:37:11 by 90 day sprints, then I break it down into monthlies.
0:37:13 And so each night I’m looking at, okay, what did I get done?
0:37:15 What do I need to shift around this week?
0:37:18 So it just keeps me going one foot at a time,
0:37:19 just keep swimming.
0:37:21 And you can get more of that
0:37:24 over at sidehouseofpro.co/goalgetter.
0:37:27 – We’ll link up the Goal Getter Action Planner.
0:37:27 Very cool.
0:37:30 More tool talk with Nikela in just a moment,
0:37:33 including the calendar and team collaboration categories,
0:37:35 plus my favorite new find of the year
0:37:38 that’s helping me speed up video creation right after this.
0:37:42 You did mention the calendar.
0:37:44 And that’s our next category of tools here.
0:37:47 For me, two tools work in conjunction with each other.
0:37:48 First is Google Calendar.
0:37:50 And then the second one is Schedule Once.
0:37:53 This is like the booking management link
0:37:55 where somebody wants to book a podcast interview.
0:37:58 Somebody wants to book an intro call
0:38:00 where you have these different categories set up.
0:38:04 We have heard from the AppSumo crew that TidyCal
0:38:06 is a one-off, one-time purchase
0:38:09 instead of an annual subscription for Schedule Once.
0:38:11 But Schedule Once has already integrated
0:38:12 into a bunch of different systems,
0:38:14 including these keyboard shortcuts.
0:38:18 So that’s what I’ve have stuck with by Google Calendar
0:38:20 and Schedule Once for that.
0:38:21 Really the thing with Google Calendar
0:38:23 is like the time blocking
0:38:26 and Schedule Once will allow you to do this too.
0:38:28 I’m only taking meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays.
0:38:30 I want like bigger, deep work blocks of time
0:38:31 the rest of the days.
0:38:35 – Yes, I use Google Calendar and Calendly.
0:38:39 So Calendly, that’s originally I started using that
0:38:42 just to have my guests be able to book and see,
0:38:45 select from all the options I had on my calendar.
0:38:47 And now I use it for everything
0:38:49 as well as my VIP coaching calls
0:38:52 with like VIP branding or podcasting clients.
0:38:55 I use it for quick informational calls
0:38:59 when I interview people to hire them for SignHouse a Pro.
0:39:00 It’s all run through Calendly.
0:39:02 And then of course it syncs with my calendar
0:39:05 so they could only schedule when I’m available
0:39:07 because I also block off my calendar
0:39:10 for various life things or yeah,
0:39:12 deep work sessions and all that.
0:39:12 – Totally.
0:39:14 I will hand it to Calendly,
0:39:16 much better looking interface than Schedule Once.
0:39:19 If you want to care about presentation a little bit more,
0:39:21 Calendly is the one to go with there.
0:39:22 – Oh yeah.
0:39:24 (laughs)
0:39:28 – The next category on our tool list resources list
0:39:31 is for graphics and video.
0:39:34 And so the common one that everybody probably uses
0:39:37 at this point is called Canva, this is C-A-N-V-A.
0:39:39 This is YouTube thumbnails.
0:39:43 This is digital product, like making workbooks in here.
0:39:45 This is sometimes custom blog graphics.
0:39:48 This is super easy to use and they’ve added on
0:39:51 all these kind of cool, you know, photo editing,
0:39:54 image enhancement, AI type of there.
0:39:55 Like really, really powerful.
0:39:57 Like that’s another one of those where it’s like,
0:40:01 it’s really, I’m just grateful that this exists in the world
0:40:02 and makes life easier.
0:40:04 – Yes, absolutely.
0:40:05 Canva is A-1.
0:40:09 If you’re a side hustler doing any kind of creating graphics
0:40:11 for your business, you need to be on Canva.
0:40:16 I use the Canva for my presentations, for webinars,
0:40:18 for creating quick eBooks.
0:40:21 And sometimes I even purchase templates on Etsy.
0:40:24 So let’s say you’re not finding what you want
0:40:25 inside of Canva.
0:40:28 A lot of times you can go onto Etsy and say, you know,
0:40:33 eBook or you want a new slide deck, AKA presentation slides
0:40:35 and then they create a Canva version.
0:40:38 So you can just, once you purchase, download it
0:40:39 and then upload that template to Canva
0:40:43 and start working by customizing it to your brand colors.
0:40:45 And I do that a ton because sometimes I’m just looking
0:40:48 for something fresh, whether it’s graphics on Instagram,
0:40:52 you talked about Instagram growth or anything.
0:40:54 I sometimes purchase a template
0:40:55 and then move it over to Canva.
0:40:59 – Yeah, for sure. There’s a screen recording tool
0:41:03 that I use for online courses, for demo videos,
0:41:05 for tutorials, for virtual assistants.
0:41:07 I use this all the time, it’s called ScreenPal.
0:41:09 Used to be called Screencast-O-Matic.
0:41:12 I think there’s still a free plan, but super affordable.
0:41:14 This would be an alternative to Loom.
0:41:18 This is just, I don’t know, one that we use almost daily
0:41:21 to kind of create that type of process library type
0:41:24 of content that’s, you know, internal facing to the company
0:41:26 but also external facing content
0:41:28 where it’s like you wanna do a demo
0:41:30 of some tool that you’re using and put that up on YouTube
0:41:33 and it’s like really, really helpful to have.
0:41:34 And I also use their built-in editor
0:41:36 for a lot of the video tools too.
0:41:38 It’s like, it’s very basic.
0:41:41 Like if you are used to After Effects or some like,
0:41:43 you know, real official video editing software,
0:41:45 you’re gonna be like, what the heck am I doing?
0:41:47 But it’s the one that I learned.
0:41:51 – Don’t use either Loom or QuickTime.
0:41:53 QuickTime, I’ve been defaulting to a lot more
0:41:56 because Loom has been a little bit glitchy.
0:41:57 Sorry, Loom.
0:41:59 So I need to check out ScreenPow.
0:42:01 Why do you like it more than Loom?
0:42:02 Did you ever try Loom?
0:42:05 – Yeah, I used Loom up until like the limit of the free plan.
0:42:07 And the cool thing about Loom is that
0:42:09 it will provide you a transcript of the video
0:42:12 where this tool is not, or at least on the pricing tier
0:42:13 that I’m at.
0:42:16 I think I’m probably grandfathered in at some low rate
0:42:19 but Loom absolutely is a viable alternative too.
0:42:23 And similarly, I also record tutorials for my team
0:42:25 to, you know, just walk through process
0:42:26 of how to do something.
0:42:28 And eventually, ’cause I’ve recorded so many,
0:42:31 we need to go back in and probably, you know,
0:42:35 get transcripts, put those in chat GPT and update SOPs.
0:42:38 – Yeah, the other one, just for screenshots
0:42:41 and actually for like full scroll,
0:42:43 like if you wanna capture like the whole website,
0:42:45 not just what’s visible.
0:42:47 I use a Chrome extension called awesome screenshot.
0:42:49 And what else is cool about this
0:42:52 is you can kind of do real time markup of it
0:42:55 where in the editing window, you can crop that image.
0:42:58 You can add circles and arrows and text.
0:43:01 And we use that for a lot of like product review content
0:43:02 on the website where, you know,
0:43:05 when you point to, you can cash out for gift card,
0:43:07 you kind of highlight that section on the screenshot.
0:43:09 And I don’t know, that’s something
0:43:10 that ends up getting used quite a bit.
0:43:12 Or just like, even if it’s just like customer support,
0:43:13 like here’s what we’re seeing on our end.
0:43:15 You know, capture the screenshot, send it over.
0:43:16 – I like that.
0:43:17 What’s that called again?
0:43:19 – Awesome screenshot is the Chrome extension.
0:43:21 All right, next tool, video tool
0:43:23 that we’ve been loving this year
0:43:24 ’cause it’s really, really cool.
0:43:28 It’s called pictory, pictory.ai, I wanna say.
0:43:31 This is upload your script.
0:43:33 And there’s probably like different script creation tools
0:43:34 that are in there, but for us,
0:43:37 our typical use case would be upload the script,
0:43:39 upload the voiceover,
0:43:43 and then it pulls in hundreds of stock footage clips.
0:43:47 Like it turns this into a really visually compelling
0:43:49 type of video, it adds captions.
0:43:50 – Ooh yes, yes.
0:43:52 – And some of these videos that we’ve done
0:43:53 have had 10,000 views.
0:43:55 Like they’re out there on YouTube making money.
0:43:58 And this would have taken hours and hours and hours
0:44:00 of, you know, a video editor’s time.
0:44:02 – I love it, yes.
0:44:04 – Yeah, this has been a cool addition
0:44:07 just to speed up video production process.
0:44:08 The bottleneck is still in the scripting,
0:44:10 which we’ve talked about.
0:44:10 – Yeah.
0:44:13 – And working with some chat GPT prompts.
0:44:16 I wanna turn this blog post into a compelling video script.
0:44:19 Can you help me get from A to B?
0:44:21 And it’s not quite there yet,
0:44:23 ’cause it’s still me narrating.
0:44:25 And we’ve experimented around with some AI narration.
0:44:27 It’s like, ah, it’s not quite there yet.
0:44:29 – No, not quite.
0:44:30 They’re not quite there yet.
0:44:33 I’ve tried, I think it’s what, 11 labs for that.
0:44:36 And it’s scary how good your voice can be,
0:44:38 but by the time you set up everything,
0:44:40 there’s still some, you know, things to work through.
0:44:43 But what I wanted to say about what you just said,
0:44:45 the scripting part with chat GPT,
0:44:49 what I found helpful is when you really have to approach it.
0:44:51 And I got this from my sister and my husband,
0:44:53 like this is like an intern, you know?
0:44:55 And so it’s gonna be a back and forth dialogue.
0:44:57 It’s not like people think,
0:44:59 “Oh, just give me a list of great prompts.”
0:45:00 And I’m sure you don’t think that,
0:45:01 but a lot of people are like,
0:45:03 “Oh, let me just get the prompts that you got.”
0:45:05 But actually you’re having a conversation.
0:45:08 I usually start every experience of writing something.
0:45:09 And I’m like, “Hey, GP, how’s it going?
0:45:12 “It’s the Kayla here, you know, blah, blah, blah.”
0:45:14 And then I’m like, “Here’s what I wanna do.”
0:45:15 And then we go back and forth
0:45:17 and it gives me the first draft.
0:45:19 And then I’m like, “No, that sounds too this.”
0:45:21 I give it examples of my writing
0:45:23 and I say, “What I’m trying to do is this.”
0:45:25 And so it takes a while, Nick,
0:45:28 but by the time we go through this process,
0:45:30 we get to a good place.
0:45:33 And then you can take that script
0:45:35 and tweak it to what’s not,
0:45:39 or as you’re reading it, of course, adjust it organically.
0:45:41 But I can definitely say,
0:45:44 I think you can speed up your script process with AI,
0:45:46 with ChatGPT or claud.ai,
0:45:50 like check those out because it’s been really, really helpful.
0:45:51 It’s not gonna give you,
0:45:53 the first pass you’re not gonna be impressed with.
0:45:56 You still have to workshop it, like it’s a person,
0:45:57 an employee.
0:45:59 – Yeah, that makes sense.
0:46:01 And the more you can prime it,
0:46:04 and you’ve got enough body of content on the internet
0:46:05 where it knows who you are,
0:46:07 it kinda knows how you would speak in your personality,
0:46:08 and it’s the same thing.
0:46:10 – But I find it’s still faster
0:46:13 even after we’ve gone through that whole conversation
0:46:15 than me sitting down
0:46:17 and having to download what I’m thinking
0:46:19 and create a script from scratch.
0:46:20 – Yes, for sure.
0:46:23 So I’ve got a discount code for Pictori.
0:46:27 It’s nshn20, like Nick, side isolation 20.
0:46:29 We’ll get you 20% off, I think, over there.
0:46:31 We’ll also link that up in the show notes.
0:46:31 Really cool too.
0:46:33 I’m gonna try and put together kind of a demo video
0:46:36 of our typical use case and share some of the results
0:46:39 that some of those videos have gotten.
0:46:41 It’s like, well, some of them are earning views
0:46:42 and dollars every day.
0:46:44 And it was like, you know, what it will typically do
0:46:47 is, you know, me for the first five or 10 seconds,
0:46:49 hey, we’re gonna talk about the best items
0:46:50 to flip for a profit,
0:46:53 or we’re gonna talk about side hustles for introvert.
0:46:55 I don’t know, some of these examples
0:46:57 where we use these, use this tool,
0:47:00 but, you know, talking head intro for three seconds,
0:47:02 five seconds, and then, you know,
0:47:04 the rest is kind of Pictori generated
0:47:05 with those stock footage.
0:47:07 – Right, I love that.
0:47:08 And we were talking about this
0:47:09 before we started recording how,
0:47:11 as I was going through your YouTube channel,
0:47:12 I’m like, oh, you know what?
0:47:14 I can do some of these as well,
0:47:17 because there are lots of little mini things people ask me.
0:47:20 And I’m like, through looking at your channel,
0:47:22 realizing I need to do one of these,
0:47:24 just quickly explaining how something works
0:47:27 or how a side hustler can set up your email list
0:47:28 and tag people or, you know,
0:47:30 that’s just shooting out an example,
0:47:32 but I love what you do there.
0:47:34 So I think that’s so smart.
0:47:38 – Some of that Q&A content has the longest shelf life
0:47:40 where some of my best performing videos
0:47:43 are like how to keep your Dropbox
0:47:45 from taking up your local hard drive storage.
0:47:46 – I saw that.
0:47:48 – Yeah, this video is probably 10 years old
0:47:50 and it’s just, you know,
0:47:52 it was probably created with ScreenPal
0:47:55 and it’s like, here’s a two minute video
0:47:55 on how to get it done,
0:47:57 but it still answers the question.
0:47:58 So anytime people are asking you questions,
0:48:00 I think it’s important to make a note of that
0:48:02 because that could turn into content for you.
0:48:03 – Yeah, yeah.
0:48:04 – All right, real quick.
0:48:06 The other one on the graphics and video category
0:48:08 is Pexels, P-E-X-E-L-S.
0:48:11 This is just, you know, free stock photography
0:48:14 where that’s where you’re sourcing a lot of the images.
0:48:16 We’ve got a deposit photos license
0:48:19 where we bought like a 100 pack off AppSumo a few years ago.
0:48:21 It’s still working through those as well,
0:48:23 but, you know, wherever you can kind of find the image
0:48:25 to illustrate what you’re talking about,
0:48:26 sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s Pexels.
0:48:29 – Yeah, you know, I actually use Canva
0:48:30 for my images these days.
0:48:32 I used to use Pexels,
0:48:34 but nowadays I’m on the pro plan on Canva.
0:48:37 So, and oftentimes I’m looking for black women,
0:48:40 women of color, just more like niche things.
0:48:41 I shouldn’t say niche,
0:48:43 but I want specific things.
0:48:46 And Canva has actually a really good library of images,
0:48:48 even when I’m talking about podcasting,
0:48:50 different type of podcast studios.
0:48:52 So I use it for that.
0:48:55 And when I need other stock photo things,
0:48:57 like imagery for social,
0:48:59 I have some apps that I use for that.
0:49:01 Like Temply is one of them.
0:49:03 And Vixer, I’ve also tried.
0:49:04 – Well, I don’t know those.
0:49:05 We’ll link those up too.
0:49:06 – Oh yeah.
0:49:08 – Okay, our next category is team collaboration.
0:49:11 And for me, this starts with secure password sharing.
0:49:12 For me, that’s last pass.
0:49:15 Again, been a customer for years and years.
0:49:18 This company is maybe a little bit embattled with,
0:49:19 I don’t know, security breaches.
0:49:21 Anyways, it’s been fine for me.
0:49:22 It’s been good for me.
0:49:24 – Yeah, I know, knock on wood.
0:49:26 And same thing with the switching costs.
0:49:29 It’s like, at this point, I don’t know.
0:49:30 I was thinking with last pass for now,
0:49:32 but yeah, the password breaches
0:49:34 have been a little concerning.
0:49:36 – I don’t know where the tipping point was,
0:49:39 where it’s like you had so many different logins
0:49:41 to keep track of, and it’s like,
0:49:44 how are you ever gonna remember all of this stuff?
0:49:47 And so just, you know, offload that mental clutter.
0:49:48 It doesn’t have to be last pass,
0:49:50 but if you don’t have a password manager,
0:49:53 like that’s an absolute must have.
0:49:54 – Yes.
0:49:56 And for me, the password manager,
0:49:59 it wasn’t so much like I was forgetting passwords anymore,
0:50:01 but once I started working with the team,
0:50:03 I was definitely not comfortable
0:50:05 giving someone else my password.
0:50:08 So whoever invented this concept, thank you,
0:50:11 so that I can get them to log in places,
0:50:13 but they’re not seeing my password.
0:50:17 – And our next stage of this is the family share plan.
0:50:19 Mainly in like, in case of emergency,
0:50:20 is Bryn gonna be able to access
0:50:22 the stuff that she needs to.
0:50:25 And without, ’cause I think it’s like,
0:50:27 the laptop is like biometric,
0:50:29 or it’s like, hope, you know, I just wanna make sure,
0:50:32 like, you know, in one secure location,
0:50:35 you can unlock everything she needs to unlock.
0:50:37 But that’s last pass for the team,
0:50:38 secure password sharing.
0:50:43 We have make.com, which is, you know, formally Integromat.
0:50:46 This is an automation tool
0:50:50 that connects different apps and services in your life.
0:50:52 And so an example use case would be
0:50:55 if somebody enrolls in one of the courses on Teachable,
0:50:57 make will automatically send their information
0:50:59 over to ConvertKit.
0:51:02 If somebody buys one of the workbooks,
0:51:04 make will make sure that they get appropriately tagged
0:51:08 and it automatically triggers that like file delivery email.
0:51:12 If the podcast editor uploads a episode
0:51:14 to like the final audio folder in Google Drive,
0:51:17 it triggers an email to the show notes writer.
0:51:19 Like, hey, another episode is ready for you
0:51:21 to go, you know, listen to and summarize.
0:51:22 Here’s the link to it.
0:51:25 And so it’s kind of removes me from that process
0:51:26 in a lot of ways.
0:51:28 It just like, you know, makes it,
0:51:29 it makes it happen automatically.
0:51:31 – Ooh, so I’ve used Zapier for that.
0:51:33 And as we’re talking about this,
0:51:37 you just gave me an idea of new automations
0:51:39 that I need to set up for my team
0:51:41 when like I’m done recording in Riverside, for example.
0:51:45 So I love that we’re having this conversation
0:51:47 just getting so many new ideas.
0:51:49 – Yeah, Zapier was using them for a long time.
0:51:52 And then they wanted to like double or triple the rates.
0:51:54 And I was like, really guys?
0:51:57 Like, come on, you know, come on.
0:51:59 And that was one where it was like, yes,
0:52:00 there’s a learning curve.
0:52:02 Yes, there’s a switching cost,
0:52:04 but I didn’t have so many automations.
0:52:06 Where it was like, yeah, we can figure this out.
0:52:08 Yeah, I found the support,
0:52:09 the make support like pretty well too.
0:52:11 And they’ve got lots of knowledge-based articles.
0:52:13 Like if you want to do a specific thing,
0:52:16 they’re usually pretty helpful on getting that set up.
0:52:19 The next one here is Asana.
0:52:21 This is, you know, I still have my like pen and paper
0:52:23 to-do lists, but as the team has grown,
0:52:26 as the complexity of the business has grown,
0:52:31 despite trying to stick with the mantra of simplicity first,
0:52:34 Asana has been really helpful for keeping track of tasks
0:52:37 and deadlines and due dates and who’s responsible for that.
0:52:40 – You know, I’ve used Asana, Basecamp, Trello,
0:52:43 and I found that I’m really not into these yet.
0:52:45 I don’t know what it is.
0:52:48 It just kind of over-complicates it a little bit for me,
0:52:51 but I know at some point maybe I’ll revisit
0:52:54 or someone will make one that I really vibe with.
0:52:58 But right now, we have our communication via Slack.
0:53:01 We’re not using a project management tool.
0:53:03 I’ve only used those when I’m usually working
0:53:05 with a brand, right?
0:53:07 Giving them deliverables and things like that.
0:53:10 So that’s when Asana has been most helpful.
0:53:12 – Yeah, there’s a learning curve to all of these.
0:53:15 And the challenge is you open it up and it’s blank.
0:53:17 Yeah, I know this is gonna be super powerful,
0:53:20 but I gotta figure out how to make it work for me.
0:53:22 And it’s cool that it’s all customizable,
0:53:25 but it’s like, you know, some level of onboarding
0:53:27 or guidance would be helpful for sure.
0:53:29 And that’s why there’s whole businesses built around
0:53:31 selling notion templates.
0:53:32 And you know, people have done really well with that.
0:53:35 All right, I have a virtual assistant service
0:53:36 that I’ve been a customer of for years.
0:53:38 And this is called OK Relax,
0:53:42 which might be my favorite name for a VA service.
0:53:46 They do, you know, I’m on my fifth, sixth, seventh assistant
0:53:48 through them, but they’ve all been really reliable
0:53:51 for like dedicated, you know, recurring tasks.
0:53:54 Early on it was, you know, running reports,
0:53:58 installing lead magnets, doing company research,
0:54:01 blog post formatting, like they’ve been a helpful addition
0:54:03 to the team and pretty affordable service too.
0:54:06 – I also use a VA and not through a service,
0:54:10 actually through just a referral and we’ve been going on,
0:54:14 I wanna say maybe like almost five years now.
0:54:16 So, yeah, finding a good one,
0:54:19 a good person is really priceless.
0:54:21 – Yeah, keep ’em on the team for sure.
0:54:22 – Yes.
0:54:25 – The other kind of agency service or productized service
0:54:27 that helps out on the website side of things
0:54:29 is called ZenWP.
0:54:31 And I consider this kind of my on-call,
0:54:35 on-demand website insurance where if something breaks
0:54:38 with WordPress or you wanna make an adjustment or,
0:54:39 but they help out with all that stuff,
0:54:42 especially instrumental during the last redesign,
0:54:45 refresh of the site, I don’t, it’s kind of painful.
0:54:45 It’s like there’s a lot of months
0:54:47 where like I don’t bother them at all.
0:54:49 And it’s like, well, there was my monthly fee down the drain.
0:54:51 But when you do have something that comes up
0:54:52 and that’s why it’s kind of like the insurance policy.
0:54:54 If something breaks, you know, you have somebody
0:54:56 on your team who can jump in.
0:54:57 – I like that.
0:55:00 I formally would just go to like my host customer service,
0:55:02 but that is a good investment.
0:55:05 – Okay, next under team collaboration and communication
0:55:08 is Mint Mobile who has been a sponsor on the show.
0:55:11 This is the affordable wireless service provider.
0:55:13 I’ve been a customer since 2019.
0:55:16 Don’t do a lot of phone, you know, direct phone calls.
0:55:18 I use Google voice as well for some business calls,
0:55:21 but this is really handy to have at an affordable rate.
0:55:24 – So you use this for yourself service overall?
0:55:25 – Yes.
0:55:28 – Okay, so I, yeah, I do have a Google voice as well.
0:55:32 And then outside of that Verizon is who I use.
0:55:33 – And as the business grows,
0:55:36 we’ve had open phone as a sponsor on the show.
0:55:38 Like just under different use cases at a certain point,
0:55:41 you kind of outgrow your personal cell phone.
0:55:42 – Yeah.
0:55:43 – You gotta route things to different ways.
0:55:44 And you want to, especially if you’re doing
0:55:45 different marketing channels
0:55:47 and you want to make sure what channel is working,
0:55:50 well, I want to have a dedicated phone number for that
0:55:50 and everything.
0:55:54 So, but Mint Mobile has been my wireless provider.
0:55:57 I just include that on this list because, you know,
0:55:58 as their slogan says, you know,
0:56:01 friends don’t let friends overpay for wireless.
0:56:02 (laughing)
0:56:06 The other team collaboration tool that I am in
0:56:08 all day, every day is Google Drive.
0:56:10 And this is sharing blog articles.
0:56:13 This is sharing like production docs for different episodes.
0:56:17 It is kind of home base for a lot of different files
0:56:20 and reports and templates is where we house
0:56:22 our process library for, you know,
0:56:25 all the things that are going on inside hustle nation.
0:56:26 I was kind of a latecomer.
0:56:28 I was on, you know, using Dropbox for a long time,
0:56:31 but the functionality with Google Drive is,
0:56:32 is a whole lot better.
0:56:35 Even use it for collecting survey responses,
0:56:38 job applications and then sharing files
0:56:39 amongst people on the team.
0:56:40 – Yeah, I use both.
0:56:43 So primarily Google Drive for team related files,
0:56:47 but Dropbox for really large files like episodes,
0:56:49 all the backups and things like that.
0:56:52 – Yeah, it’s amazing how affordable extra gigabytes
0:56:55 of storage are, you know, just having that backup.
0:56:56 And I think, I think there’s a WordPress plugin
0:56:58 I should probably look up which one it is.
0:57:00 But like, you know, so the host WPX takes
0:57:01 daily backups of the site.
0:57:03 But we also like a little bit of redundancy
0:57:04 wouldn’t hurt, you know,
0:57:07 since that is, you know, the whole base of bread and butter.
0:57:08 And I think that gets backed up
0:57:11 to Google Drive daily or weekly.
0:57:12 – Oh, interesting.
0:57:14 – All right, we’re onto the podcasting section now.
0:57:16 And the first is, well, how do you,
0:57:18 is one question, well, how do you record remote interviews?
0:57:21 And we’re recording this on riverside riverside.fm.
0:57:24 This is a browser based recording tool
0:57:25 that allows for remote interviews.
0:57:27 It takes, I think, really clean audio.
0:57:30 It records video, it records each side independently.
0:57:33 So if there’s a voiceover IP lags, you know,
0:57:36 theoretically it’s got a good backup
0:57:38 on each individual’s local hard drive.
0:57:41 It’s been probably a year and a half using riverside.
0:57:43 Sometimes we have some technical challenges,
0:57:45 but overall it’s been pretty reliable.
0:57:48 – Same here, I’ve been using riverside now.
0:57:50 I wanna say maybe since 2021,
0:57:52 and it has been very reliable.
0:57:53 I love riverside.
0:57:56 I’m actually creating, it’s almost live,
0:57:59 a course with them called Ultimate Guide to Video Podcasting.
0:58:01 So when it’s live, you’ll go over to
0:58:05 riversidehouseofpro.co/videopodcasting, all right?
0:58:07 And I’m just going through basically, yeah,
0:58:10 everything, like my at home studio and my closet,
0:58:12 and why it’s so seamless.
0:58:16 I love it because I love virtual podcasting.
0:58:19 I am not ready to go into a studio every single time
0:58:23 I do an episode yet, and I’m able to see the guests.
0:58:24 They can join easily.
0:58:26 They don’t have to log into anything.
0:58:30 And I can see their equipment to make sure, you know,
0:58:33 their sound is okay, that the recording is uploaded,
0:58:36 and I just think it’s so, so smart and adaptive.
0:58:39 – Yeah, a couple recent guests were local,
0:58:41 and it’s like, well, I guess we could have recorded
0:58:42 this in person.
0:58:43 It’s like, no, I’m not set up for that.
0:58:45 Like let’s just stick with the process,
0:58:46 stick with the system here.
0:58:49 I also record a direct backup into audacity,
0:58:51 and that ends up being the track that, you know,
0:58:54 we end up using from my side of the audio.
0:58:56 This is audio editing too, like where I can record
0:59:01 the ad reads, the commercials, and just do that directly.
0:59:03 – I’ve been doing everything in Riverside,
0:59:08 like my ad reads, course reads, everything these days, yeah.
0:59:10 – Okay, it’s become really powerful.
0:59:12 Like they have like these AI snippets
0:59:13 that they’ll generate.
0:59:15 It does transcriptions, which, you know,
0:59:17 allows us to cancel our subscription
0:59:19 to the other transcript tool.
0:59:22 There’s been some consolidation, some tool swap,
0:59:24 like trying to trim down the commitment
0:59:25 of monthly subscriptions.
0:59:27 – Yes, it’s taken over a lot.
0:59:32 Like you said, like show notes before my social media manager
0:59:36 was writing those manually, and now we have like a base
0:59:38 to start with, and then we customize it.
0:59:40 So it’s just sped up our processes
0:59:43 so we can then focus on other big picture items.
0:59:46 – Yeah, there is another transcription editing tool
0:59:49 that we do keep on the payroll, and that is Descript,
0:59:51 and primarily for video editing.
0:59:56 And when I first used it, I think Joe from Stacking Benjamins
0:59:57 was the first one to be like, “You gotta try this.”
1:00:01 ‘Cause you first experience editing video by editing text.
1:00:03 You know, this is where the conversation went off the rails.
1:00:06 We were gonna just strike that out of the transcript,
1:00:08 and it deletes that section of the video.
1:00:09 You’re like, “This is like magic.”
1:00:11 – Magic.
1:00:14 – And it makes it so much easier for video editing.
1:00:16 If you have an interview, if you have even just
1:00:18 a talking head type of video where you wanna,
1:00:19 it’ll do the transcription,
1:00:21 and then you can start editing it that way.
1:00:22 We use that for a first pass,
1:00:23 and my video editor uses that
1:00:27 to create the video version of podcast.
1:00:30 – Yes, I love that actually about Riverside,
1:00:33 but I also do have Descript because I still like it
1:00:36 as a video editor for non-podcastings
1:00:37 when I just quickly wanna upload something
1:00:38 and do some editing.
1:00:41 – Yeah, one cool use case was,
1:00:44 we talked about 11 Labs for their professional voiceover,
1:00:46 you know, upload hours of your audio,
1:00:49 and it comes back pretty good, actually.
1:00:52 Well, Descript has something similar called Overdub,
1:00:54 and the use case for me, we were traveling,
1:00:56 didn’t bring the podcast set up,
1:00:57 didn’t bring the microphone with me,
1:01:00 and they said, “Oh, the advertiser requested a change
1:01:02 “from this script that you recorded to this script.”
1:01:04 And it was like, one line was different,
1:01:06 or just a few words were different.
1:01:08 It was like, “Oh, let me try,
1:01:11 “let me punch this into Descript Overdub.”
1:01:12 And it was like, “Oh, okay,
1:01:14 “for just a few seconds of audio,
1:01:15 “like nobody would know the difference.”
1:01:16 Like, that was really cool.
1:01:18 Like, it didn’t have to do a full setup
1:01:20 and recording and re-upload,
1:01:21 and like, I’ll hold all this other nonsense.
1:01:25 So, definitely a cool tool to have in your tool belt.
1:01:27 As far as the editing of the show itself,
1:01:29 like the, you know, after recording production side,
1:01:34 my editing service has been podcast fast track since 2016.
1:01:36 Like, since like right before my oldest son was born,
1:01:38 and it’s been a big net time saver,
1:01:40 and you know, focus your energy
1:01:42 on what you’re most excited about,
1:01:44 creating the content, connecting with awesome people,
1:01:46 like the, looking at those little waveforms
1:01:47 for the first three years of the show,
1:01:49 it’s like, “Ah, there’s got to be somebody.”
1:01:50 And on top of that,
1:01:52 like, I just didn’t know how to do it very well,
1:01:55 and like, yeah, so they help out with all that.
1:01:56 – Same boat, same boat.
1:01:58 I also outsource editing,
1:02:01 and it’s just never something I loved, I use.
1:02:04 Well, actually my editor pitched me back in 2016,
1:02:05 and we’ve been working together
1:02:07 ever since longest team member.
1:02:11 That is still crazy to think about, Chris, from Pod Shaper.
1:02:12 – Very nice.
1:02:13 Yeah, there is something to that,
1:02:16 where maybe that’s the side of the opportunity,
1:02:17 if you can figure out audio editing,
1:02:20 and maybe you use some of these AI-powered tools,
1:02:21 you get a client that sticks around,
1:02:23 if they’re going to keep doing the show,
1:02:24 that’s a very sticky customer,
1:02:27 a long, long, long, long, lifetime value.
1:02:28 – Yeah, exactly.
1:02:31 And start pitching people, don’t be afraid.
1:02:33 Like, don’t just wait for them to come to your website,
1:02:35 look for podcasters.
1:02:37 Podcasters are always looking for, you know, a good deal,
1:02:39 so, you know, work on your pitch.
1:02:41 – All right, we’ll link up Pod Chaser as well.
1:02:44 And then last one in the podcasting category is Megaphone.
1:02:46 This is the new or new-ish within the last year or so,
1:02:48 the media host for the show.
1:02:50 This is Spotify-owned or Spotify-powered
1:02:54 that allows for dynamic ad insertion across the whole catalog.
1:02:57 This seems to be the direction that the industry was going,
1:02:59 and that’s been another good addition
1:03:01 or another good shift over to Megaphone.
1:03:04 Definitely more expensive than what I was paying with Libsyn,
1:03:08 which is noticeable, but again, the ROI is definitely there.
1:03:11 – Yes, I am on the ACAST podcast network,
1:03:13 so I’m on ACAST platform,
1:03:17 which also seamlessly allows for dynamic insertion.
1:03:20 I believe they might’ve been the first ones to do that
1:03:21 for independent podcasters.
1:03:24 – Before that, I was on Libsyn for a long time,
1:03:26 and love Libsyn as well.
1:03:28 It was super user-friendly.
1:03:31 The team, customer support was always very, very responsive,
1:03:34 so I actually have a code for Libsyn, Hustle Pro,
1:03:35 if you wanna try it out,
1:03:37 ’cause it’s the first month and a half free.
1:03:39 – Very nice, we’ll link that up.
1:03:42 Yeah, Libsyn was absolutely awesome for the first,
1:03:44 you know, probably 10 years of the show.
1:03:45 It’s just, again, one of those bills
1:03:46 that comes up every month,
1:03:49 and you’re like, “I am getting such an amazing deal.”
1:03:51 You know, it’s similar to the web hosting.
1:03:52 You’re like, “Yes.”
1:03:53 – Yeah, no brainer.
1:03:56 – Yeah, I was really, like, I had no idea.
1:03:58 Like media, you need a media host?
1:04:00 What, I thought iTunes, you know, in the early days,
1:04:02 maybe iTunes hosts, like, I didn’t even think about it,
1:04:05 and it was 15 bucks a month, you know, starting out,
1:04:08 and had it been 25 or 30,
1:04:10 like legitimately, the show might not exist.
1:04:12 Like, what am I committing myself to?
1:04:15 I just have to keep paying this for forever?
1:04:17 And, you know, over time, it’s like, oh, no, no, no.
1:04:20 This is a very, very low cost to pay
1:04:22 to be able to reach thousands and thousands of people.
1:04:23 – Right.
1:04:26 – Yeah, one really important point
1:04:28 that I should have mentioned at the top of the show
1:04:30 is that neither of us started here
1:04:32 with, you know, dozens of different tools
1:04:33 and monthly subscriptions.
1:04:36 Like, we started off doing the editing ourselves,
1:04:38 we started off doing the graphics ourselves,
1:04:39 you know, very free, very cheap,
1:04:42 like, trying to do the, you know,
1:04:44 the minimum viable product,
1:04:46 and then layering on complexity and cost
1:04:49 and team members as time has gone on.
1:04:51 ‘Cause it may be intimidating,
1:04:53 you start doing the math in your head of like,
1:04:54 well, this is an annual subscription,
1:04:56 this is a monthly subscription,
1:04:58 and it might sound intimidating,
1:05:00 but it’s like, no, no, no, we’ve added that cost
1:05:02 and complexity as the businesses have grown.
1:05:03 – Yeah, exactly.
1:05:05 – Now, we’ve got the money category,
1:05:07 which I think is our last one here,
1:05:09 if not the last, but maybe one of the last,
1:05:13 the new to me bookkeeping software,
1:05:16 you know, FinTech and Plaid integrations
1:05:17 have opened up a bunch of these different services.
1:05:19 And one of the cool ones that I found
1:05:21 and actually made the switch for bookkeeping this year
1:05:24 was to kick, I think it’s kick.co.
1:05:27 – Oh my gosh, I literally just saw an email about them
1:05:30 and want to try them, so tell me about your experience.
1:05:31 – Yeah, so this, you know,
1:05:33 syncs with all your different accounts,
1:05:35 and it kind of gives you that, you know,
1:05:36 real time, you know, picture,
1:05:39 but also the monthly snapshot of income and expenses,
1:05:43 and probably will save 1,000, 1,500 bucks a year
1:05:44 compared to the other thing.
1:05:45 And the cool thing is like,
1:05:47 if you don’t have much expenses, it’s actually free.
1:05:50 And so if you have less than, I want to say 25,
1:05:51 you know, depending on when you’re listening to this,
1:05:53 and you know, it’s a FinTech startup,
1:05:55 so like your plans change all the time.
1:05:59 But if you have less than 15 or $25,000 in annual expenses,
1:06:01 I think you can actually use it for free.
1:06:02 And it’s really cool.
1:06:04 And then they have annual plans on top of that.
1:06:08 I was the person who kept bookkeeping as one of my tasks,
1:06:09 way too long, way too long.
1:06:11 ‘Cause I was that weird person
1:06:15 who got that little dopamine hit of logging the income
1:06:17 on the spreadsheet, like almost in real time,
1:06:20 like what a colossal waste of energy,
1:06:23 even though it felt good, even though it felt good.
1:06:26 – And still missing stuff, like we’re not accountants,
1:06:27 we’re missing stuff.
1:06:30 We don’t know other things we could, like that’s what,
1:06:32 I saw what that kick does that intrigued me,
1:06:34 ’cause it’s like, all right,
1:06:36 they’re catching things that you might not realize.
1:06:38 And back to our earlier conversation
1:06:39 about the Teachable team.
1:06:42 So it’s founded by another Teachable alum.
1:06:44 So that’s the other one I was talking about.
1:06:46 So you have Carrie and Kik,
1:06:49 our both Teachable alum founded business.
1:06:52 – Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, Conrad, totally, yes.
1:06:56 But it’s pretty slick, really cool interface that you can,
1:06:58 what bothered me about my old bookkeeping solution
1:07:00 was you had to message your bookkeeper if you wanted to,
1:07:02 like if something got miscategorized,
1:07:04 like why on earth do they not just have like,
1:07:07 – Yeah, that’s what I’m struggling with right now.
1:07:09 I don’t like any of the ones I’ve tried.
1:07:14 And I’m like, I need to find a better, more automated,
1:07:16 more intelligent solution.
1:07:18 – Yeah, I was like, how come they couldn’t just put
1:07:20 a little dropdown menu or like recategorize it?
1:07:21 And I was like, you got to message them,
1:07:23 and it takes three weeks for them to reply.
1:07:25 I was like, really guys?
1:07:27 Like the whole pitch was like, AI,
1:07:29 intelligence software plus human.
1:07:31 Like if you’re not gonna have the human part,
1:07:32 like what’s even the point at this?
1:07:35 – Right, and I like a nice interface.
1:07:37 Like I am an aesthetic person.
1:07:39 I need a nice interface that I can drag, drop,
1:07:43 and then I’ve also tried the human bookkeeper thing.
1:07:45 And I don’t like like you going off into the dark,
1:07:47 whipping on spreadsheets, then coming back to me
1:07:49 with a spreadsheet that I don’t really like,
1:07:51 like I don’t really like how you’ve organized information.
1:07:54 So I’m still working through this process, Nick.
1:07:56 So I’m gonna give it a try.
1:07:58 – And then the other one, so that’s on the business side.
1:08:00 The one that I really like on the personal side is Monarch.
1:08:03 And this is your personal net worth dashboard.
1:08:06 This is monthly income and expenses.
1:08:08 This is historical performance.
1:08:11 And the stock market at the time of this recording
1:08:13 has been on a year long tier.
1:08:15 So of course, like it’s rewarding to log in
1:08:17 and see that net worth number go up.
1:08:19 But it’s kind of a cool interface as well
1:08:21 with a customizable dashboard.
1:08:24 And you track all the personal side of things.
1:08:27 And that’s something that my wife and I both have access to
1:08:28 where we can kind of get that snapshot
1:08:31 and get that picture of the personal finances.
1:08:32 – Oh, I like that.
1:08:34 Another one I’m taking note of.
1:08:36 – Yeah, that’s that one has been cool.
1:08:38 And a couple of guests have mentioned it too.
1:08:40 And I don’t know, maybe there’s a business,
1:08:41 I don’t know, maybe you can use it for business too,
1:08:43 but that’s on the personal side.
1:08:45 And then finally, on the affiliate tracking side,
1:08:47 affiliate income tracking side,
1:08:48 been using a tool called Affluent,
1:08:51 which pulls in, I think it got bought by Impact,
1:08:52 one of the affiliate networks,
1:08:55 but it pulls in data from Impact,
1:08:58 from Commission Junction, from Raketam,
1:09:00 from all of these different affiliate networks,
1:09:02 it kind of gives you a daily snapshot
1:09:04 of your affiliate earnings.
1:09:05 And it sends you an email every day,
1:09:06 which is always nice to get.
1:09:09 And lately that number has been like going down.
1:09:10 It’s like, well, shoot, what?
1:09:12 But it kind of gives visibility to it.
1:09:14 And my only, because I really like that,
1:09:16 and it saves time, like for a month in reporting,
1:09:19 of like, where did the income come from?
1:09:20 How did these links perform?
1:09:22 The only downside is like,
1:09:24 there’s no ThriveCart integration,
1:09:25 there’s no SamCart integration,
1:09:29 where it doesn’t give you 100% picture
1:09:31 of what happened on the affiliate side,
1:09:32 but it probably has 60, 70%.
1:09:34 – I’ll look into that once.
1:09:35 That’s the thing I’m looking for too,
1:09:36 with the bookkeeping.
1:09:39 It is so annoying to have all these different things,
1:09:42 where when you start out as a side hustler,
1:09:44 like money is coming from different places,
1:09:48 Stripe, PayPal, all these different integrations.
1:09:51 And I wish someone would just make an overall
1:09:53 that just takes it all.
1:09:54 And I don’t have to like,
1:09:56 be uploading spreadsheets from different places,
1:09:59 or also looking at this data,
1:10:02 in addition to this website’s data.
1:10:04 It’s, AI solution is needed.
1:10:05 (laughs)
1:10:06 – Yeah.
1:10:10 Now, if I’m able to get Lasso’s performance tool working,
1:10:12 I may be able to hit the cancel button
1:10:13 on this affluent tool,
1:10:14 ’cause I think there’s some overlap
1:10:16 in the functionality there.
1:10:17 But that’s it.
1:10:20 I think we threw out 40, 50 different tools, resources
1:10:21 for you.
1:10:22 – That’s it, wow.
1:10:24 Are there any favorites that come to mind
1:10:26 that people ought to know about?
1:10:28 – One last thing I’ll add is just social media management.
1:10:31 So I like using a tool called Later right now
1:10:32 to schedule out posts.
1:10:35 Well, my social media manager schedules out posts
1:10:37 across the different social media,
1:10:40 SciHouse of Pro, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn channels.
1:10:42 And we use Buffer for LinkedIn.
1:10:43 – Oh, okay.
1:10:44 What was the first one?
1:10:47 – It’s called Later, just L-A-T-E-R, later.com.
1:10:49 – Awesome, we’ll add those in to the list.
1:10:51 Well, what are you excited about these days?
1:10:52 What kind of projects you’ve got going on?
1:10:55 I know you’ve always got different things
1:10:58 following from afar and curious to see what’s coming up.
1:11:00 – Oh yes, I am.
1:11:04 I’m excited about this Riverside video podcasting course,
1:11:06 especially after our conversation.
1:11:07 I’m excited to get that out there
1:11:10 and have everyone see how easy it can be
1:11:12 to podcast right from home.
1:11:15 Like you don’t need this huge fancy setup or studio.
1:11:17 And so I’m excited to get that out into the world.
1:11:20 And also if people want to continue learning for me
1:11:24 and growing their podcast into actual revenue,
1:11:26 then I’m excited for you to learn more about podcast moguls,
1:11:30 which is my course and also mastermind group
1:11:33 where we are independent podcasters
1:11:37 who have scaled our podcast into repeatable revenue
1:11:39 through various measures.
1:11:42 So we’ve done, we’ve had people who work with brands,
1:11:45 but also people who have used their podcast as a funnel
1:11:48 for their own business and to get more clients.
1:11:50 So you can find out all about that
1:11:53 over at sidehustlepro.co for podcast moguls
1:11:56 at sidehustlepro.co/podcastmoguls.
1:11:59 And like I said, once the Riverside course is live,
1:12:03 it will be over at sidehustlepro.co/videopodcasting.
1:12:05 – I love it, in partnership with Riverside.
1:12:07 Well, now, Nikela definitely knows a thing or two
1:12:10 about podcasting, haven’t done it for years and years.
1:12:12 400 episodes of the Side Hustle Pro podcast,
1:12:14 go check it out and you won’t be disappointed there.
1:12:17 As for the links to all the resources mentioned,
1:12:20 definitely check out the show notes for this episode.
1:12:22 You can hit the link in the episode description,
1:12:23 it’ll get over there.
1:12:24 I’ll toss out a pretty link again,
1:12:28 sidehustlenation.com/nikela or slash resources,
1:12:31 both will get you over to the show notes for this page.
1:12:33 Big thanks to Nikela for sharing her insight.
1:12:35 Big thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content
1:12:36 free for everyone.
1:12:39 You can hit up sidehustlenation.com/deals
1:12:41 for all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place.
1:12:43 Thanks again for supporting the advertisers
1:12:46 that support the show, really does make a difference.
1:12:47 That is it for me.
1:12:48 Thank you so much for tuning in.
1:12:50 Until next time, let’s go out there and make something happen
1:12:52 and I’ll catch you in the next edition
1:12:55 of the Side Hustle Show, hustle on.
1:12:57 I’ve got another podcast recommendation for you.
1:13:01 It’s the Young and Profiting podcast hosted by Hala Taha.
1:13:03 A good life comes from good choices,
1:13:06 but good choices come from experience.
1:13:08 Tune in to learn from Hala’s inspiring guests
1:13:10 like Matthew McConaughey in episode 101,
1:13:13 Seth Godin in episode 87,
1:13:16 and even Robert Green on Decoding the Laws of Human Nature
1:13:17 in episode 44.
1:13:21 Shoot, I was even a guest myself way back on episode 10,
1:13:24 back when the show was still a side hustle for Hala.
1:13:25 Today, the Young and Profiting podcast
1:13:28 is one of the most popular entrepreneurship
1:13:32 and educational podcasts across all listening platforms.
1:13:34 If you’re interested in improving your mental state,
1:13:36 gaining influence, healing your mind,
1:13:38 and growing your business and much more,
1:13:42 then the Young and Profiting podcast is just for you.
1:13:45 Subscribe to YAP, Young and Profiting podcast
1:13:49 on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform
1:13:50 to help level up your life.
1:13:54 That’s Young and Profiting podcast hosted by Hala Taha
1:13:56 to learn from the brightest minds in the world.
1:13:58 Check it out and let her know that you heard about it
1:14:00 from The Side Hustle Show.