Skills That Matter: Tech Tools Worth Using

Hi 👋

Welcome to Build Things That Matter, where you will receive weekly tips on developing the mindsets, systems, and skills that matter to create a lasting, positive impact on your business.

Today, you’ll get the top apps worth using right now. (I’ve tried hundreds, and these have the most impact on increasing my productivity and allowing me to do much more with less.)

I spent most of 2023 chasing after my toddler, sprinkled with coaching clients, some advisory work, and a couple of in-person keynotes. This meant that I was on Zoom a handful of times a week and could do most of my day-to-day work on my phone.

So, just minutes after my first virtual meeting back to running my 8-figure, 40+ person org full-time—when a team member’s Otter joined (an AI meeting recording tool)—I felt 100 years old.

If that wasn't motivation enough, coming back to a more than full-time schedule (on top of existing commitments and a toddler) meant I needed to figure out how to bend time. Yesterday.

So I did.

I’ve tried countless apps and spent hundreds of dollars, so you don’t have to.

THE TOOLS

Here are the tech tools that have leveled up my productivity, integrated seamlessly into my processes and are on auto-renew. I’ve included my favorite tool in each category, but there are at least a couple alternatives for each category that I’ve tried and will do the job.

Automation Tool: Zapier

• Zapier will save you many hours by automating repetitive tasks. I use it to help me time block my calendar, send personalized emails automatically, turn emails into tasks, etc. etc. Here are some more examples across a variety of use cases of things you can automate. Huge time savings.

Personal Operating System Tool: Notion

• Notion is truly a game-changer. It creates a single space for organizing everything that matters. There are so many great templates (like this startup in a box) to get you started, and the ability to customize it to work for your own work style has made it a superpower.

Note-Taking Tools: Fathom & Hemingway

• Fathom has completely freed up my time in most meetings from any kind of personal note taking automatically generating great summaries and action items. It’s allowed me to be way more present in the meetings I am in. That alone is a superpower!

• But, probably my favorite way to leverage note taking apps is on my walking pad or running errands where I’ll talk to it about something I need to get done to create the first draft (that I’ll later edit - with or with ChatGPT).

• On the topic of note-taking, if you’re sending a lot of communication out (internally or externally), Hemingway makes your writing more clear and concise. I use this to help me edit memos, weekly updates, messages to my team, etc.

Design Tools: Canva

• Business model canvas, workflows, presentation slides, letterhead, you name it, and, Canva makes it super easy to create. I’m really surprised (in a good way) at how often I use it to create more compelling outputs with little effort.

AI Tools: ChatGPT

• ChatGPT is great as a thought partner like brainstorming or inspiration for writers block’s so it could be in a category of its own. If you’re not using it, 10/10 would recommend it (or Gemini or Perplexity).

• Another really valuable way I use ChatGPT is by creating custom GPTs that I pre-prompt to get good at a specific skill that I can reuse or share with my team to use. Like a GPT that creates brand-aligned prospecting material using all of my outreach, successful pitches, email scripts and more from the last decade.

Having the right tech tools (and the confidence to use them) can make all the difference to your own productivity and your team and business, too.

I hope these tools help you bend time like they’ve helped me over the last few months.

If I’ve missed a tool you love or if you’re curious about my thoughts on a tool not listed here, hit reply and let me know.

Until next week, let’s keep building together 🫶🚀

Mel

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