My Favorite Business Tools & Services

Running a business can have so many moving pieces and parts. One thing I've always been grateful for is my tech savviness. I realize I have step up on many people because of my background in technology and development - but I also know how to keep things simple! Because of my ADHD and chronic illness - I need to do as much as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Below are tools that I currently or have used in the past and are favorites of mine. I recommend these because they are high performers, easy to use, and will give you great results. Additionally, they are built well from a development perspective - and that is always a huge priority for me! I know if something isn't built to last.

*Please note some of these are affiliate links and I will be compensated if you sign up.

Email Systems

FloDesk

FloDesk is a women owned email service that is very affordable to get started with and makes beautiful emails! They have gorgeous templates that are super easy to use and they also make it easy to create optin pages, automations, and tagging. Zapier is also a feature so you can connecting it with just about anything. The best part of FloDesk though is that they do not charge you based on the quantity of contacts on your list - it's unlimited! So it's great for those just starting out.

Get FloDesk for 50% off your first year here.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is my favorite email system hands down. It can grow and scale with your business regardless of the size. You can use it with just simple email newsletters or use all of it's features to get really detailed with your marketing. I love their automations and how nuanced you can be with them. I've combined ActiveCampaign with tools like LearnDash and ActiveMember360 to make full membership sites. My favorite combo (and what I currently use) is it combined with Kajabi to make an unstoppable business setup. I've got most of my clients using it now too! I also love that you can share automations! I've found some really great ideas because of this and I also can share with other business owners too! If you want a system that will grow with you - this is the one!

Get ActiveCampaign here.

Websites

WordPress

Honestly, I don't know much of what to say about WordPress that isn't already out there. Almost 80% of websites that use a content management system use WordPress. There are thousands of themes and plugins you can use to make it be whatever you wish! I've built literally hundreds of websites using WordPress, and some of those sites were for billion dollar organizations. As far as I am concerned it is a top tier product for a reason - because it's super flexible, easy to use, and can grow and scale as far as your imagination can carry you!

When creating a website with WordPress you DO NOT want the product offered at WordPress.com - that is a totally different solution and easily confused by those just starting out. You want the stand alone WordPress platform provided by web hosts and available at WordPress.org. When you sign up for hosting (I recommend Cloudways) usually they will either offer a solution with WordPress already installed for you (WordPress Managed Hosting), or show you how to get it installed with a click or two.

Kajabi

See "Kajabi" further down. That's who I use!

Memberships/Courses

LearnDash

I've used LearnDash for years. When I was in corporate I built a huge training system using LearnDash that had to host thousands of users and training materials. LearnDash works with WordPress and because it's on WordPress there are tons of other plugins that can integrate with it.

You can also pair it with something like ActiveCampaign360 or Memberium to make a full course and membership platform.

This does take a bit of work to get set up - but if you need a more customized solution or a fully custom customer solution from start to finish - this would be your best option.

You can purchase LearnDash here. I recommend the Pro plan so you can get analytics data with it.

Kajabi

See "Kajabi" further down. That's who I use!

All-In-One

Don't have time for all this techie nonsense and just want everything in one place that you KNOW works together? Here is my favorite solution:

Kajabi

I f*%^ing love Kajabi. I'm a Certified Premier Expert through Kajabi - so maybe I'm a little biased and even though I'm a developer at heart and like flexibility to do my own thing, Kajabi really does make it so easy to get started with your business. Yes that cost may be a little higher, but honestly by the time you pay for everything separately, you could have just signed up for Kajabi. Like do you want to figure it all out or do you just want to pay a little more and not have the headache?

Kajabi offers you website, landing pages, courses, checkout, email, even podcast hosting and coaching packages - it's all there! And it all works together in one awesome area so you don't have to figure out to make things talk to each other.

I will say the only feature I'm not totally in love with is their email. I do prefer ActiveCampaign for this because it is a lot more robust.

Overall though for the cost it really is a great elegant solution that is built well and they are always working on improving!

You can get a free Kajabi trial here.

Want help setting your Kajabi up and getting things moving fast? We can handle this all for you over at Laurea Consulting, my full service marketing agency. 

Marketing Services/Tools

Marketing Magic

I LOVE Marketing Magic!!! This app was designed by Meneske Stewart from Marketing with Meneske. This tools was designed to help you grow your business, not your to-do list. As someone with ADHD, I MASSIVELY struggle with content creation. I'm great at writing, and have lots of ideas, but with my start up paralysis, it's extremely difficult to get going. 

That's where Marketing Magic comes in! 

Marketing Magic is an AI-powered business growth tool that helps small business owners grow their brands, not their to-do lists.

Craft ready-to-use sales and marketing assets that use your brand’s tone of voice in minutes, with over 58 tools that will help you create things like…

• A full sales page, from headline to final call-to-action
• A welcome sequence for your email list, with 13 fully drafted emails you just need to tweak, review, and put into your email provider
• Unique product descriptions for your ecommerce store, your Etsy shop, and your marketplace listings
• Facebook adverts for the top, middle, and bottom of your advertising funnel
• Blog titles & outlines to attract organic traffic to your website at each stage of the customer journey

… So you can step out of overwhelm, grow your business with confident consistency, and get back to doing more of what you love!

I use this tool almost everyday. It helps me get moving and gives me a great starting off point. I really love the freestyle tool the most because I can use it for just about anything ChatGPT related, not just business!

Grab your FREE lifetime trial here. This lets you use the 6 most popular tools and see what it's like! 

The Email Marketing Membership

Remember how I said I struggle getting started with things? Well that includes email! I used to HATE writing to my list. It seriously gave me so much anxiety and task paralysis and it was costing me so much time and money! But bad azz boss lady Liz Wilcox saved the day. Literally! Her Email Marketing Membership gives you proven templates and training to help you get those emails done done done.

Just to give you an idea - I was able to write 3 months worth of emails to my list in a little over an hour. Like WHAT?!

Whether you make money or not in your business right now, with this membership, email is about to be your #1 communication + cash channel.

And you want to know the best part IT'S ONLY $9!!!!! Like WTF!!!!!!! (as of me writing this at the end of 2023 lol).

You get templates, monthly Q&As, trainings, and more - for only $9 a month. It's the deal of the century tbh.

Check it out here. Or grab her free Welcome Sequence, 3 Newsletters Templates, and 52 Subject Lines here.
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Conclusion

I'll update this as things change for me and my business - but for now this is what I recommend. Have questions or don't want to do any of this yourself and want some help? My sister company, Laurea Consulting can help you out! We're a full service marketing agency that's helped businesses scale into 7, 8 figures - and beyond!