The Top 5.
These five run my business every single day.
Zoom
All my video calls. It lets me connect live, face to face, with clients around the world. I can share my screen and participants can share theirs for easy collaboration and feedback. Every call can be recorded and shared for review.
Pro tip: Customize your preferences when you sign up. Update your background, customize your wait screen, and more.
Google Docs
Creating, sharing, and collaborating with clients. I use one shared doc for need to know info like meeting times and important links, so everything lives in one place. I also build worksheets and guides in it, exactly like this one.
Pro tip: Use the automatic outline when you want to jump between sections. Tools, then Document outline.
Claude.ai
This one changed how I work. Strategy documents, client copy, research, analysis, building actual tools and pages. It is not a novelty. It is the difference between a plan sitting in my head and a plan that ships this week.
Pro tip: Give it real context. The more it knows about your actual business, the more useful the output.
ActiveCampaign
Email marketing and automations. Easy enough to just send an email to your list, and when it’s time to scale you can build custom automations and campaigns. Strong reporting on who’s actually engaging.
Pro tip: Look for top contacts on the main dashboard so you know who’s most active.
Slack
Communicating with my team and contractors during a launch, and keeping up with progress week to week. It also gives clients direct access to me for questions and feedback on the fly.
Pro tip: Set specific alerts under Account and Profile, then Notifications.
The rest of the stack.
Everything else that keeps the business running.
How we make scheduling online appointments easy. Eliminates back and forth emails, shows availability in your client’s time zone, and sends reminders by email or text.
Our preferred social media management and scheduling tool.
We use this and Google Drive to securely store audios and PDFs.
Wonderful for full color, high quality books.
Podcast distribution and management with built in analytics.
Our preferred video and audio editing tool.
For making graphics on the fly. For everything else we use a graphic designer.
Where a large amount of the thinking, drafting, and building happens now. Strategy documents, copy, code, client deliverables, research, and analysis. If you only add one new tool this year, make it this one.
File converter. Turns almost any file type into a different format.
Video and audio editing by editing the transcript. Removes filler words, generates clips, and makes repurposing content genuinely fast.
If your preview image isn’t showing correctly, or you need to refresh what Facebook pulls from your URL, this is where you do it.
For building decks, one pagers, and simple sites fast. Good when you need something presentable today, not next week.
Where we buy and manage domain names.
Where we store business files and create shared documents.
Customizable cards in the mail to your clients.
Good for simplifying and clarifying your message in a post or newsletter.
To get the exact color code and stay on brand when making graphics on the fly.
How we create, store, and share secure, multi layered passwords.
Where we find podcasts to pitch.
Good for business cards and customizable journals and print outs.
Where we deploy and host sites. Drag a folder in and it’s live, with free SSL and built in form handling. Replaced a lot of complexity for us.
Good when you have dedicated tech support. Highly customizable, processes secure payments through Stripe and PayPal.
Where we host and manage sites on WordPress.
Speech transcription. Trint for transcripts closer to a final draft, Temi for rewrites and rough drafts.
Used to create forms, surveys, applications, and more.
Where we find and vet specialists for specific project work. Good for one off builds when hiring a full time person doesn’t make sense yet.
Our preferred tool for video storage.
Save time by creating simple automations between tools.
On stock photos. Most of my photos are taken by a photographer. When we do use stock, we source from Unsplash, nappy.co, Body Liberation Photos, Canva, Eye for Ebony, and Death to the Stock Photo.
Disclaimer. Like all things recommended in business, use this as a guidebook of suggestions. Maya Gaddie International is not responsible for any items you purchase or any business relationships. I’m sharing this because it’s been incredibly useful for clients as they grow and scale. My hope is that it’s useful for you too. Some links may be affiliate links.