Joe Casabona [00:00:01]:
If you're overwhelmed by a chaotic business that's stealing time from your family, Streamline Solopreneur is for you. Hey, everybody. My name's Joe Casabona, and I've been there. And on this sho,w I will show you how to turn chaos into clarity. So you can stop checking your email at the playground. So this is the Productivity Tools draft. I am here. I'm going to introduce our players in the order as determined by random.org. Up first is Mike Schmitz.
Joe Casabona [00:00:31]:
Mike, how are you doing today?
Mike Shmitz [00:00:33]:
Doing great. I am very nervous for this draft, but this should be fun.
Joe Casabona [00:00:39]:
And Mike, you run a PKM site, right? Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Mike Shmitz [00:00:44]:
Yes. Practical PKM for all your personal knowledge management needs.
Joe Casabona [00:00:48]:
Yes.
Mike Shmitz [00:00:48]:
Which is why you were fascinated. I'm fascinated by the idea of using tools for thought like Obsidian, specifically for connecting your notes and ideas and something new out of them. I never thought I was creative, and so I kind of went down this journey myself, and I want to help other people kind of un, untap or tap into their innate creativity using the technological tools that we have available. I think that can change your life. So I've got a website, a YouTube channel, and several podcasts that are all kind of loosely tied to that idea.
Joe Casabona [00:01:21]:
Yes. And you are, I'm going to say, single-handedly responsible for me using Obsidian on an everyday basis. Next up is Layla Pomper. Layla, how are you?
Layla Pomper [00:01:33]:
Good. Glad to be here.
Joe Casabona [00:01:34]:
Yes. You have a website called ProcessDriven where you talk about SOPs, is that right?
Layla Pomper [00:01:39]:
Yes, sir. All about how to systemize small teams and be productive together. Because you think we would have figured that out by now, but we haven't.
Joe Casabona [00:01:48]:
Feels like it's a moving target, but yeah, absolutely. Uh, and Cat Mulvahill Cat. Now, since you've been on the show, you have a whole new thing. So, Cat, how are you? And tell us about your new thing.
Cat Mulvihill [00:02:02]:
Yeah, I'm excited to be here as well with my fellow nerds. And my new thing is helping people. I teach about momentum, how to find it and how to keep it, and I developed a framework that I use to help kind of guide people through troubleshooting. Why are they stuck with, you know, endless restart cycles, or why are they just stalling on something that matters to them? So that's what I'm doing now. But I still love my tools.
Joe Casabona [00:02:29]:
Yes, absolutely. It's, it's. We all love our tools. Right. Um, and all of these fine folks have been former guests on the podcast. Uh, so I will link to every one of these episodes in the show notes. I'll link to all the tools and the draft results in the show notes as well. You can find them over at Streamlined.
Joe Casabona [00:02:48]:
But first, let's get to the rules. It's going to be five rounds, round robin style in the order which I just said. Mike, Layla, Cat, me. And we are picking from a few categories. Communication tools, which is more or less email and social. Client and coaching, which is course and community tools. Work tools, which are task and project management. Content tools, which is research and creation and efficiency.
Joe Casabona [00:03:16]:
Automation and shortcuts. We can pick from these, any of these categories at any time, but we can only pick one from each category. Once a tool is selected, it is no longer on the board for anybody else. And only one AI tool per person, if that. I just don't want us to have a whole slate of AI tools. So, Mike, you are up first. What is your first pick and why?
Mike Shmitz [00:03:45]:
Well, I think there can be only one tool that is worthy of the number one overall pick and that is obviously Obsidian.
Cat Mulvihill [00:03:54]:
Gasp.
Mike Shmitz [00:03:56]:
So I feel like Obsidian is sort of the productivity tools draft version of the Super Flex, where you can put, you know, any player in that slot. But I'm going to pick it as a content research and creation tool because that's primarily how I use it. I use it to capture all of my ideas. I've got Kanban boards in there where I will track the process of my articles, my newsletters and my video scripts. But it is the hub of everything that I create. And so if there was one tool that I did not get that would severely hinder my ability to run my online creator business, it would be Obsidian. And so for that reason, I have to take it first.
Joe Casabona [00:04:40]:
Awesome. We all knew it was coming, but I'm glad you still got the pick. In another world, I think we were going to just randomly eliminate some jewels. Right?
Layla Pomper [00:04:52]:
Whose idea was that? That's terrible.
Joe Casabona [00:04:56]:
Speaking of, Layla, you are up next. What is your first pick?
Layla Pomper [00:05:00]:
Okay, I'm going to take a different strategy than Mike. Rather than doing the all all-rounder, I'm going to go for the one that I feel like would be the hardest to replace. I'm taking Canva for research and content creation because believe it or not, I use Canva for just about every type of information processing out there. And so whether it's a presentation, their whiteboarding tools, I mean, content editing, I feel like so many of my ideas and pieces of IP go through Canva at one Point in time and it's really irreplaceable, like, cannot go back to Photoshop.
Joe Casabona [00:05:34]:
Great choice. That probably was gonna be something for me later, so way to grab it now. Nicely done, Cat. You're actually the one I'm most worried about. So let us know, what is your first pick?
Cat Mulvihill [00:05:48]:
All right, I'm gonna pick Notion.
Joe Casabona [00:05:51]:
Okay.
Cat Mulvihill [00:05:52]:
And I'm picking it for content for research and creation, similar to Mike, because it is where all my ideas go for my content. It's how I stay on top of content, but it's also where I gather and collect research and really runs my whole business. But I if there are other tools I could use. But I love planning content in Notion.
Joe Casabona [00:06:15]:
Nice. Well, I should have known you were going to go with Notion. I was really worried you were going to go with a pick that's really high on my list, but I don't think is number one. As a heavy automation guy, I figured I should be picking efficiency and automations first and I thought, what automation tool am I hitting the most am I using the most? And it is my Stream Deck.
Cat Mulvihill [00:06:44]:
Damn.
Joe Casabona [00:06:45]:
I'm sorry, Cat. I know. I think you'll be happy that I left another one on the board for you that I was gonna take, though. Yeah, my Stream Deck, I thought, is it going to be Zappier Stream Deck? And I just like there was a bug in the software a few weeks ago as we record this and it really made me realize how much I rely on this for everyday productivity. I'm happy to say the bug has been resolved, but it basically made all three of my stream decks unusable for a while and it was really a hindrance. So I've got to pick the Stream deck as my first. As my first pick. All right.
Joe Casabona [00:07:25]:
That was a really good round. I think there were a couple of surprises for me, and I think all but yeah, everybody but me picked the content, research and creation. I guess if I wanted to make editing for myself easier later, I could have done that, but that's not the spirit of the draft. All right, back to the top. Mike, you're up. What's your second pick?
Mike Shmitz [00:07:47]:
I'm going to pick under the coaching course and community category circle. It is the platform that I use not only for my membership community, but it's gotten a lot better in terms of being able to sell digital courses directly, which is another thing that I do with the rollout of the landing pages. I'm kind of in the process of moving everything off of Teachable and just going all in with Circle. It is expensive, but if I. I'm only picking five tools to run my business, I feel like that's one that I would really be hurting if I couldn't use it every day.
Joe Casabona [00:08:28]:
I think I should get circle and then I think I don't have. I need to justify the cost first. I think if it was like 50 bucks a month for the things I needed, I would do it and be like, It'll happen someday. But like, it's. It's a little higher than that and I think I would. I need something first.
Mike Shmitz [00:08:47]:
Well, now I feel like I picked the wrong one.
Joe Casabona [00:08:50]:
No, no.
Layla Pomper [00:08:50]:
I mean, it's super popular for a reason.
Joe Casabona [00:08:54]:
All right, Layla, what's number two for you?
Layla Pomper [00:08:58]:
I'm kind of torn. I. Can I go for the bonus round? Are we going just for the core? The core categories.
Joe Casabona [00:09:06]:
Ooh. So I was. I mean, I was thinking bonus round at the end because it's the bonus round.
Cat Mulvihill [00:09:11]:
Okay.
Layla Pomper [00:09:11]:
Full bonus. So skip, I want you that one.
Joe Casabona [00:09:14]:
All right.
Layla Pomper [00:09:15]:
Then I'm gonna say I will go with a communication tool that I'm sure is not gonna be taken, but I wanna grab it first because in priority, this is the one that probably does the most work for my business. And that's missive. It is like a shared Gmail account and it integrates with all social media, all emails, and it allows me to treat emails like T lit. Like, of all the tools I'll talk about today, this is the one that's probably changed my team productivity the most. So everybody I know, I'm like, it's free to try. Try it. I'm gonna take that one because again, if that went away kind of like Mike's point, I don't. There's not a good replacement out there.
Cat Mulvihill [00:09:53]:
I'm intrigued. I am not familiar with that one. So now I need to do some digging.
Layla Pomper [00:09:57]:
Obsessed.
Joe Casabona [00:09:58]:
Obsessed. I only. I only know of this from our recent interview. So I think this is a good tool. Like a new tool for the. For the listeners.
Layla Pomper [00:10:08]:
That's an up-and-comer.
Joe Casabona [00:10:09]:
Yes. Cat, what's up next for you?
Cat Mulvihill [00:10:14]:
So one I would really struggle without is going to be for the work, the task and project management. And that is Sunsama. I am using it for a few years and it structures my day, keeps me organized and works very well with my brain. So I'm going to grab that one. It integrates with Google and with Notion and it's really great for repeating tasks that I don't need to bog down in my project pages. In Notion. So big fan. Love sensama.
Joe Casabona [00:10:46]:
Nice. I did have that on like determined list. Raving about it at another. Okay, I am torn here because there are two tools that I should really pick and I'm really worried that Cat is going to pick this other one. But I feel bad because I've already stolen one from you. So I'm gonna go. I'll go with the. Create some drama later in the episode.
Joe Casabona [00:11:16]:
The one I don't think anybody's gonna pick. But it's. It's like it was down today. And again just realizing how much I rely on it for communication and email, which is SaneBox. This is a cloud-based tool. Like you're gonna have to like give it access to your email, but it automatically filters based on a bunch of rules. Will can mark things red and forward. And since it's being down today as we record this, I'm just like, what is happening to my inbox? Like maintaining you are not sane.
Joe Casabona [00:11:49]:
Yeah, no, I'm like, what is? And it automatically forwards stuff to my feed reader too. So I'm like, am I now? I'm missing newsletters in my feed reader. So it's just, I hope that they'll be up. I understand that software systems go down, so I'm not mad at them for being down. But I am realizing how much I am like locked into this tool because it's really showing its worth today.
Mike Shmitz [00:12:15]:
I've been a big-time fan of SaneBox for many years. That's a solid pick.
Joe Casabona [00:12:19]:
Yeah. So good, right? I think I heard about it on your podcast, on the focused podcast. And then they were a sponsor of my podcast for a little bit too. So yeah, big, big fan of SaneBox. I've been using it for years. All right, round three, Mike, you are up.
Mike Shmitz [00:12:41]:
All right. Well, I kind of can't believe this one is still on the board. So I'm going to pick Kit for communication. I have grown to depend on Kit more than is probably healthy in the last several months. It used to just be the thing that I used to send out my newsletters. And then I started working with Robbie Miles and he helped me build some crazy automations inside of Kit. And basically now when someone joins my email list, they get a welcome sequence which then transitions to a pitch sequence. If at any point they buy the product I'm going to pitch them, it yanks them out.
Mike Shmitz [00:13:19]:
Otherwise, it goes through like this, month long 20 email sequence. Ask them why they didn't buy, you know, all the stuff that you're supposed to do that I never do. I don't have to think about it anymore because it's in Kit and the end result is that I sell more copies of my signature product, which is Life hq. So you can make the argument that it again, that it's pretty expensive. But it's very clear to me, you know, who they're, they're trying to serve creators who are trying to run a business and they give you the tools to do that very, very well. I can't think of another option that would do it as well. There's lots of other email service providers out there. I was ready to pick a different one if I needed to, but I would be very sad if I could not use Kit.
Joe Casabona [00:14:08]:
Layla, you're up next.
Layla Pomper [00:14:10]:
Yeah, well, I'm going to piggyback real quick on ConvertKit, aka Now Kit. One of the things that I've started doing with Kit, just to get even more ROI out of it, that I don't understand why people aren't talking about or Kit isn't recommending is I went into Kit the other day and I saw the recommendations tab and like, you know, that's where you can recommend other newsletters. And I did something that for some reason I haven't done in the entirety of the time I've been on Kit and actually looked at who was recommending my newsletter. And for every single person, I reached out to them on LinkedIn or Instagram or wherever they are and just like thanked them and like had a conversation with whoever was recommending the newsletter and it was. It's just been so eye-opening where I'm like, what was I doing before in. That kid is really building this social network almost on the backside of newsletter creation. So just to like plus one on mics. I know I can't steal it too.
Layla Pomper [00:15:00]:
I'm going to steal a utilitarian choice this time around, which I'm sure is on other people's lists. Zapier, I don't love it but like also I can't get rid of it yet with the interface and the other stuff they've got built in now I'll take Zapier for the. What do I have left in here? Probably the tasks or. No, I'll put it under clients and coaching.
Joe Casabona [00:15:21]:
I think there is an automation and shortcuts category.
Layla Pomper [00:15:26]:
Oh, I'll do the efficiency one then.
Joe Casabona [00:15:28]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mike Shmitz [00:15:30]:
So that is a very underrated pick. If there's a sleeper in this draft, that's probably it. Zapier is insane. The other day I was trying to figure out how to get a live dashboard of my new kit email subscribers to show up. And long story short, there wasn't a direct integration, but you go into Zapier and they have this copilot now. And because it can point at the APIs, you basically can vibe code the integration that you want. So even though it's got like four different endpoints that you can officially link to, and number of net new email subscribers isn't on the list, within 10 minutes, I was able to create this custom zap, which gave me exactly what I wanted. It's so good.
Layla Pomper [00:16:14]:
And the data storage now, like, you can kind of build these databases in Zapier, which was always the edge for other tools like Make. Now it's like, ah, all right, fine, take my money. You're overpriced, but you're good.
Joe Casabona [00:16:26]:
That's like where I am, right? Like two years ago, I was like, I'm leaving Zapier for make. It's so much cheaper. And my dad always says, buy cheap, get cheap. And not that, like, make is cheap, but it's not Zapier, but they change. Yeah. And it's like testing in Zapier versus Make is so much easier. Like, you can't really test and make, which is, I feel like a big oversight.
Cat Mulvihill [00:16:52]:
That's a big issue.
Joe Casabona [00:16:53]:
Yeah, yeah.
Cat Mulvihill [00:16:54]:
Cause I catch a lot in testing in Zapier.
Joe Casabona [00:16:56]:
Likewise. And like Zapier is testing now is like, hey, this zap failed. Do you want to, like, put it through test mode and use this as test data? I'm like, yes, that's brilliant. I'm really glad you have that. Really nice. So, yeah, great, great pick. Definitely. I mean, I chose my automation tool.
Joe Casabona [00:17:12]:
I was gonna try to shoehorn it into something else, but great, great pick. Cat, you're up.
Cat Mulvihill [00:17:18]:
All right, I'm going with communication tool, and I'm choosing Zoom because I rely on it not just for communicating when I'm running workshops and stuff, but it also now it can replace Loom because there is a built in clips in Zoom. So when I'm doing a screen recording and just sending it someone quickly, I use that through Zoom. Now for a while I was using Vimeo, which Joe hat tip to you for that. But yeah, Zoom has a clips feature, so it replaces Loom. And also though I use it for all my meetings and workshops and a lot of what I do, so I would be hard pressed to live without Zoom.
Joe Casabona [00:18:00]:
That's. That's a good one. And you, you recommended to me that I do my kind of Asynchronous coaching in Zoom chat, which has been really good and a tool I'm already paying for. So. Yeah, I mean, I think there's like a lot of zoom changes a lot of things a lot of times, but it's, it's got some really good, you know, lesser known features in there that are really helpful.
Cat Mulvihill [00:18:21]:
Agreed. It's worth it. It's worth a perusal of what else it can do.
Joe Casabona [00:18:24]:
Yes. All right, well, I make content a lot and so I need a good content creation tool and I was really between two, but I gotta go with ECAMM Live because I've got the virtual camera that's on right now. It's on all the time. I record my videos in there, I record my podcasts in there, my solo podcasts, I obviously record my interviews and multiple people podcasts on Riverside. But ECAMM Live makes my life a lot easier, especially coupled with the Stream deck. So that's like a winning combination for me.
Cat Mulvihill [00:19:02]:
Yeah. I was torn between, for content creation, what should go there, because I don't know that I could live without it, but here we are.
Joe Casabona [00:19:12]:
I breathe like a little sigh of relief when I didn't pick it, and I was like, all right, now I. Now I can grab the Stream deck. Awesome. All right, round four. The penultimate round before the bonus, I guess. Mike, what's, what's number four for you?
Mike Shmitz [00:19:32]:
Well, since there's already a couple of things chosen from the efficiency category, I feel like I can leave that one for now. So I'm gonna go work task and project management and I don't like, honestly, any of the options that are left for me. I could probably make the case that Obsidian could be in here. I actually use Notion for this currently, but since this is the rules of the draft that has been chosen already, I gotta find something to act as my Notion replacement for collaborating with the team. Right. I think I gotta go with ClickUp. I don't like it better than Notion, but it does do some things better than Notion. I think it really is a better tool if you want to have the task and project management happen inside of your do everything app.
Mike Shmitz [00:20:31]:
In fact, when I was working with the digital marketing agency, we tried because they had all their documentation in Notion, they tried doing the task and project management in there too. It just didn't work. When we switched over to ClickUp, it clicked and there were a lot of people in the organization who were like, oh man, we're switching tools again. This happens every couple of months. I hate this. And they're like, no, this is the perfect tool for the way we're going to work. You can do a lot of different stuff with just like the templates and things. It integrates with a lot of different other tools.
Mike Shmitz [00:21:02]:
You can kind of build these spaces and these dashboards that will show you exactly what you need to do. And people who really know Notion are going to be able to do the same sort of thing. But for people who are trying to like, build this stuff from scratch in a tool that they're not completely comfortable with, which is kind of the position I find myself in with this pick, I think that's the one I got to choose.
Cat Mulvihill [00:21:23]:
And, you know, at ClickUp is another one for people who use Sunsama; it can also integrate. So if you had. If you were working with multiple teams and they were using different productivity tools, you could bring them all into Sunsama.
Joe Casabona [00:21:35]:
Shameless Plug. Yeah, love it. Layla, you. You also use ClickUp, right?
Layla Pomper [00:21:41]:
Yeah. There was a time where I think I was like the number one ClickUp content creator in the world. I don't know if I am anymore because I've been very, very lazy and not on the ClickUp bandwagon, but. But I guess it is my pick, right?
Joe Casabona [00:21:54]:
It is your pick, yeah.
Layla Pomper [00:21:56]:
I'm so grateful someone took ClickUp besides me because I was like, I kind of feel obligated to pick it because I'm like, I did 400 some videos on it. Maybe it's no, thank you, Mike, for biting the bullet, but I am going to take the same category and I'm going to go with SmartSuite because I was kind of like between Airtable and SmartSuite here. But I feel like SmartSuite, as I've described it before, is like ClickUp and Airtable had a baby. And I think what they're doing is really cool with the platform. Like, it's filling this nice middle ground between data and tasks and if I could restart, that's where I would be building. And the automations are just great. So SmartSuite for task and project management.
Joe Casabona [00:22:38]:
Nice. Very nice. I don't think, I mean, maybe you mentioned it on the show before, but I don't think I've seen this one, so I'm gonna have to check it out.
Layla Pomper [00:22:46]:
Yeah, I like the newcomers. I feel like I'm like an underdog chaser when it comes to software. I don't go for the ones that are actually the best in class. I'm like, ooh, this one was founded three years ago. Let's see and then I just go on the ride. That's how I ended up on the ClickUp wagon.
Joe Casabona [00:23:01]:
Nice. Well, you know, luckily the episode that's coming out before this is called how do you know when to switch tools? So if you skipped that one, go back and listen to it so that you're. So that you're not like, I need to switch. Yeah, I give you a framework, so definitely check that one out over at streamlined.fm.
Cat, you're up next. Round four.
Cat Mulvihill [00:23:25]:
Okay, this is maybe a weird one, but I'm going to grab it just in case for the efficiency, automation shortcuts category. Text replacement. So I used for a long time I was using Alfred as my text replacement, but then I did an overhaul of my computer and realized I can just use the built-in text replacement and I can't live without it. If I'm on a keyboard or a computer that does not have my text replacement shortcuts, I struggle. Life is harder. So that's my pick for efficiency.
Joe Casabona [00:24:00]:
That's a good one. I recently jumped ship from TextExpander to Raycast for this and I think it was just like a consolidation of tools maybe. But Raycast has been really good. The only thing that they're currently missing that I hear might be coming soon is a custom keyboard on iOS because that's where TextExpander was really worth its salt, I feel. But also like their keyboard, like their custom keyboard sucked and so that's like the one thing that's missing from Raycast. But otherwise, it's been really good just using Apple.
Cat Mulvihill [00:24:41]:
I just go into keyboard in the settings and just click text replacement and free.
Joe Casabona [00:24:47]:
Yeah.
Cat Mulvihill [00:24:48]:
So good it's built in.
Layla Pomper [00:24:49]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Casabona [00:24:50]:
Does it sync between devices too?
Cat Mulvihill [00:24:52]:
No. Okay, I should look because baby, with your Apple ID it could, but maybe I don't think so because my text replacement on the phone is different than the laptop.
Layla Pomper [00:25:03]:
I feel like 2025 has been my year to be chaotic, like an agent of chaos that we said today. But I turned off autocorrect on my phone and computer. It's just like game-changing. So now I'm thinking, oh my God, no autocorrect text replacement. This is like a new level we've just unlocked here, Cat. So thank you.
Cat Mulvihill [00:25:20]:
I love it.
Joe Casabona [00:25:23]:
All right, well, we are on me now. What do I have left? This is like every late-stage draft for me. I have clients and coaching and work tasks, and project management. I also use Notion for project management so I can't pick that. But I will go with the task manager that for a long time it was will they, won't they? We'd get together, we'd break up, we'd get back together again. I got to go with Todoist. I had always. I would go to Todoist and then I would leave it for things three or Omnifocus, and then I would find myself going back to Todoist because it's got the web-based, it's got the best Zapier and make integrations.
Joe Casabona [00:26:14]:
And so like I can automate a lot of my task list. And I just tried. I have a ridiculous automation using a tool called Whisper Memos, which I assume is not going to go, but that I will just say like, here are my open threads and it'll turn it into like a task list. Like 20 tasks that'll go over to Todoist. Todoist just released Ramble, which is way better. So like, well, so like you can do the same thing, just kind of like word vomit to todoist. And it'll create task lists. And the main difference is that it will figure out what the task is and what the context is and put the context in the description.
Joe Casabona [00:26:56]:
So I'm just like, this is so I cannot wait for it to come to iOS because it's like it's going to be the main way that I do my shutdown routine from here on out. So props to Todoist. And I'll link to. I interviewed Amir Sally Fendik, who's the founder of ToDoist, the company that makes Todoist so many years ago. I'll link that in the, in the description though. Okay, last round. Mike, what do you got?
Mike Shmitz [00:27:27]:
Are we gonna do like an honorable mentions?
Joe Casabona [00:27:29]:
Yeah, yeah, we'll do like a. What we didn't pick at the end. We'll have our bonus round and then.
Mike Shmitz [00:27:33]:
Like, okay, cool, because there is one in here that I really should mention if I don't pick it now. And I'm going to resist the urge to pick the one AI tool here because ChatGPT is just sitting right there.
Joe Casabona [00:27:46]:
It's just right there.
Mike Shmitz [00:27:47]:
But you picked. You mentioned Raycast. And honestly, I was a little bit freaking out about this. Like, where. What am I going to pick here? Raycast is the perfect tool here for me because you can do so much right in Raycast. I do so much right in Raycast. And in fact, one of the things that is worth calling out about Raycast is, you know how a lot of these large language models are 20 bucks a month to get access to ChatGPT 5 or whatever. There is an AI plan inside of Raycast that gives you access to the latest models.
Mike Shmitz [00:28:20]:
Maybe not like the day that they come out, but you can choose the model that you want. You can have the chat history right there. It's not going to give you all of the features like the custom GPTs and things like that, but if you just want an interface that you can access these tools directly from your computer, Raycast can actually give you that. But I use it all the time for a bunch of other things as well. I use it to find files on my computer. I use it as a clipboard manager. It's replaced all the other clipboard tools that I used to use. You can grab a file, upload it to CleanShot, all sorts of different things you can do with the extensions which are absolutely amazing and don't require you to know how to code, which is always the thing that held me back with Alfred.
Joe Casabona [00:29:03]:
Yes.
Mike Shmitz [00:29:04]:
So as a result, Raycast has been a huge productivity boost for me.
Joe Casabona [00:29:07]:
Great pick. I, I switched from Alfred to Raycast. Raycast has even replaced, what is it? Carabiner for the hyperkey for me. Just, just an amazing tool. I think they like really understand the assignment and like do a really good job. Sorry, they really, they do such a great job and I, I can't say enough great things about, about Raycast, so great pick. Layla, what is your last pick?
Layla Pomper [00:29:41]:
I was starting on this one. I was going to in my remaining category of course, and Community. I was going to pick member Vault here, but then I realized I actually don't have any email tool. So if I'm going to pretend this is my like top five tools overall, I'm going to go with the devil you know of Kajabi. It's like, it's like not that good, but it's good enough that you can't replace it. So I think Kajabi gives Circle a good run for its money and has a little bit more funnel building than Mighty Networks. And so if you're looking for like an all in one course community, Kajabi's pretty good. And they started rolling out this like custom HTML suite of stuff so you can really customize so it doesn't look as crappy as all the other Kajabi sites out there.
Layla Pomper [00:30:25]:
So that'll be my last pick.
Joe Casabona [00:30:27]:
Nice.
Mike Shmitz [00:30:28]:
Solid.
Joe Casabona [00:30:29]:
All right. Yeah. Anybody here use Kajabi? I'm always like, it's really expensive, but again, I'm not selling courses on the regular or anything either.
Mike Shmitz [00:30:39]:
I'm tempted by it. But every couple of months I started a member.
Layla Pomper [00:30:44]:
Like, I switched to so many different membership platforms. I even custom-developed like, we had a whole developer, whatever, build out a WordPress site. But we managed for years and I ended up coming full circle back to SaaS because once you started looking at the cost of maintenance and teaching team members how to change things on the website and then, oh my God, they broke the entire site, you know, I was like, okay, you know what, it's not that expensive.
Joe Casabona [00:31:07]:
Yeah, former WordPress developer here. My sole, like membership is custom-coded by me and I'm just like, and I know the developers for the plugin and we're good friends and I'm just like, I'm not in the business of supporting software anymore. And so like, I get it. And like, I guess it's probably surprising given the background of the show, that I don't have WordPress on my list, but I can't. It's like I use it every day, but it's not in my top five.
Layla Pomper [00:31:38]:
Yeah.
Joe Casabona [00:31:39]:
All right, Cat, what is your last pick?
Cat Mulvihill [00:31:42]:
So the category, I mean, this has a few different names, but clients, coaching, course, community, all of that. I'm. Because I am not actively running any kind of community or course at the moment, I'm going to pick something I use for all my client work and consulting and coaching Sessions, which is SavvyCal. And I've tried a few different booking software options and I have been most happy with SavvyCal and I love the overlay feature where it overlay and I think a few others adopted it. But to be able to see someone's availability layered over your own calendar is so nice. I hated when you have to have one open and you're okay, what which dates and then you're looking at your calendar bounce back and forth. So I'm pretty happy with the Savvy Cal and it does have some integrations that are all set up, so I'm pretty happy with that.
Joe Casabona [00:32:29]:
Nice. Great pick. Similar to you, Cat, I'm not currently actively running a community. I have like a couple of courses for sale in various places. So I could pick something like ThriveCart, which is where I'm selling my courses. I could pick like WordPress or Vimeo, which is where I'm hosting my courses. But I am going to pick something even simpler than that. Something that I realized very recently.
Joe Casabona [00:32:54]:
Oh, this is of course the best way to deliver my coaching blueprints and any other resources. And that's Google Drive. It's Just like I was like, what kind of portal should I have for the handful of coaching clients I get every year? And then I'm like, this is dumb. We all use Google Drive. We all know how Google Docs work. I can give them. I've given like spreadsheets of recommendations for gear. And so I mean also like, I'm sure we're all using it right now for this draft and wishing.
Cat Mulvihill [00:33:32]:
It had dark mode, but yeah, wishing.
Joe Casabona [00:33:34]:
It had dark mode. So if anybody from Google is listening. First, thank you. Second, dark mode for Google Drive for Google Docs specifically. So yeah, I feel like it kind of deserves a mention. But also, it's like such a simple solution to a problem that I think can quickly get overcomplicated. All right, so let's, let's recap before we get to our bonus. We'll do a bonus, which is an analog tool, and then an honorable mention and then maybe Layla, I'll let you introduce if you want to do the second bonus round, if you want to talk about that.
Joe Casabona [00:34:11]:
But let's recap our. Do we want to each recap our own tool sets. Does that work for you?
Mike Shmitz [00:34:17]:
Sure.
Joe Casabona [00:34:17]:
All right, Mike, what are your tools?
Mike Shmitz [00:34:21]:
All right, so my tools are Obsidian first and foremost for all of the content, which for me is the most important thing. Circle for the community and the course delivery kit as my communication tool of choice. ClickUp for work for task and project management and Raycast for efficiency, automation and shortcuts.
Joe Casabona [00:34:46]:
All right, Layla.
Layla Pomper [00:34:48]:
I guess I should say just as some context, I'm taking this from the perspective of like my business. So a few employees, a few contractors, membership and courses and YouTube so a little different I think than Mike, which probably reflects in the picks but I chose Canva first followed by Missive for communication, Zapier for automation, SmartSuite for tasks and projects and Kajabi as the powerhouse client stuff.
Joe Casabona [00:35:14]:
Awesome. Cat.
Cat Mulvihill [00:35:16]:
Yeah, I took notion from all y'.
Layla Pomper [00:35:18]:
All.
Cat Mulvihill [00:35:18]:
No, I'm just saying I took Notion for content and then Sunsama from for my project and task management for communication chose Zoom efficiency. I chose text replacement, just the built-in keyboard, text replacer and then for client work, Savvy Cal, the calendar booking software.
Joe Casabona [00:35:40]:
Love it. And I picked Stream Deck for automation and efficiency, Sanebox for communication, Ecamm Live for content creation, Todoist for work, task management, et cetera. And then Google Drive for client for client management or client work, let's say. Awesome. This was great. Not too many steals I don't think though I think several of us probably wanted Obsidian Notion, I think I got the stream deck from.
Cat Mulvihill [00:36:11]:
I wanted the stream deck. Yeah.
Joe Casabona [00:36:14]:
Awesome. All right. Now this is a place where there are no rules. We just are picking our favorite analog tool. I would say don't pick the same thing, but like, if Mike and I are going to pick something in the same class, it's very unlikely we're picking the same one. So what's your favorite analog tool, Mike?
Mike Shmitz [00:36:32]:
Well, I didn't know we were going to have this as a bonus topic, first of all.
Joe Casabona [00:36:37]:
All right. But I added it right before we started recording, basically.
Mike Shmitz [00:36:40]:
So this is the world premiere. I have a custom-built analog tool which I will show you. So this is. I gotta fix the blur here, but I talk a lot about the concept of a personal retreat, and I have built a personal retreat planner.
Cat Mulvihill [00:36:59]:
Nice.
Mike Shmitz [00:37:00]:
So this is an analog tool that walks through the whole process where you have your life theme, your core values, your ideal future. You kind of use that as your anchor. And then quarterly you fill out the wheel of life for the nine areas that are most important to you. So this is like the demo one at the beginning. From there, what did I accomplish? What went well, what could have gone better? And then the three questions that I think we talked about when we, when I was on your show last show, even though it was a while ago, what should I start doing? Stop doing, Keep doing. Right. So then from there you have your. Your two intentions.
Mike Shmitz [00:37:29]:
You map out your ideal week. And then so you, you basically can take this to your. For your personal retreat, plan out your quarter using this. And then there are different weeks. I'll try to find a blank section here. Like week seven here you've got the weekly plan. So the three things that are the most important, what you're going to do for the big blocks, and then the daily planning with the goal that everything is going to line up with the quarterly intentions. When you have the alignment, that's really where you can make progress.
Mike Shmitz [00:38:03]:
And I've been doing this in Obsidian for the last several years, but I've always been intrigued about the analog application of this. So Jesse, the guy at New Year who does the Focus calendar, I partnered with him and we've been working on this for literally the last year or so. And by the like, I don't know when this is going live, but it's going to be for sale probably in the next week or so, depending on when this publishes. I may have a link for you, but that's my analog tool.
Joe Casabona [00:38:34]:
This will be out after your tool. So. Very cool. Didn't know about that, obviously, so very cool. Really high bar. Layla, what's your favorite analog tool that you've designed? Custom.
Cat Mulvihill [00:38:52]:
Yep.
Layla Pomper [00:38:52]:
For the last five years, I've been. No, I do not have that. Uh, I would say it's this giant whiteboard behind me. My husband, at his old job, they were like, renovating the office, and there's this giant 5 foot by 4 foot whiteboard, and they were throwing it out. And my husband's scrappy, and he's like, hey, is no one using that? And he just shows up at home one day with this giant whiteboard, and he knows I love whiteboards.
Cat Mulvihill [00:39:18]:
It's like, whiteboards are my love language.
Layla Pomper [00:39:21]:
Yeah. I mean, anytime there's a crisis, I go to the whiteboard. Way better than flowers that die. And so I would say this baby back here.
Joe Casabona [00:39:31]:
Nice.
Layla Pomper [00:39:32]:
Did not make it.
Joe Casabona [00:39:33]:
Yeah, I mean, that's. But I love a good whiteboard. I've got one over here as well. So. Huge fan. I used to have a gigantic one, but it was prohibitive in my office space. Also, my kids just. Oh.
Joe Casabona [00:39:50]:
Thought it was theirs. And I'm like, all right, that is.
Mike Shmitz [00:39:53]:
The one downside to a whiteboard.
Joe Casabona [00:39:55]:
Yeah. This one's, like, far back enough and just tall enough that my youngest can't really reach it yet. So it's. It's safe for a little bit.
Cat Mulvihill [00:40:04]:
Cat, I am going to forego my. Yeah, I'm gonna go with rocketbook. So I have one beside me because I was actually just using it. So this is one. I have three. I've got two big ones. And then. Oh, no, I have four.
Cat Mulvihill [00:40:21]:
Two big ones, two little ones. This one. So this is an example, actually, Mike was talking. I don't want you to see all the details, but it's got all the different types of pages. So you've got the grids, project pages, calendar pages. But it's erasable. And so I love that you don't have to keep on. Basically, it's reusable.
Cat Mulvihill [00:40:41]:
It's erasable. And I like colors. So it goes with a color pack that goes with the Rocketbook. But essentially, it's not like the smart notebook where it recognizes your writing. It is just a reusable notebook. But you take a picture. Now, typically, they're built in. I don't think it has any integration with Notion.
Cat Mulvihill [00:41:01]:
So I just take a picture and just attach it to the Notion page that I want the note to live in so it works just as well. And then I can erase it, which is also very satisfying. Once in a While just go through and erase all the pages and you get that clean start. So I really like the Rocketbook.
Mike Shmitz [00:41:16]:
So I think I backed the Rocketbook on Kickstarter. Is this the microwavable one?
Joe Casabona [00:41:22]:
That's the one I had.
Cat Mulvihill [00:41:23]:
I don't think. I don't know. I don't know. I don't remember them advertising. I remember hearing about a microwavable book. This one, you just have a cloth, just damp cloth, and you just wipe it.
Mike Shmitz [00:41:34]:
That sounds safer.
Layla Pomper [00:41:35]:
There's different versions of the Rocketbook, though. It's all the same brand. So it might be the same one.
Cat Mulvihill [00:41:40]:
It could be, yeah.
Joe Casabona [00:41:41]:
Version 1.0, the Kickstarter one was like you have to use an erasable pen and then you microwave it with like a little cup of water, I think for a minute, and it's like erases or something.
Cat Mulvihill [00:41:52]:
That's not how I erase my pages, but I don't know. I have heard that.
Joe Casabona [00:41:56]:
That sounds better.
Cat Mulvihill [00:41:58]:
Yeah.
Joe Casabona [00:41:59]:
Oh, man. Well, that's a great pick. I posed this question and now I feel really unprepared for it because I love analog tools. But I'm gonna have to go with. Despite my affinity for fountain pens, I just got a new one and I love it. But I'm gonna have to go with the field notes notebook. This. There is always one in my pocket.
Joe Casabona [00:42:22]:
I got my latest newsletter went out and it was like an idea I got at church, like during mass. And I'm just like, I'm not gonna pull out my phone. I leave my phone in the car. So I wrote it down in this. Also a great way to placate children who are bored at church. I just give them my pen and my notebook and they draw on it. And so really low stakes. It's really easy to not.
Joe Casabona [00:42:45]:
What's the word? There's a guy, Mike Hurley, on the Penatic podcast, who says, like, Mollycoddle, don't mollycoddle your notebooks. Which is like, don't use kid gloves with them. Don't treat them as if they're like the china that you wait for the queen to use. Right.
Cat Mulvihill [00:43:01]:
That's kind of my issue is I would have them. It's like, I need the perfect reason to use this notebook. I would start to amass them and, yeah, realize, oh, wait, I should use these.
Joe Casabona [00:43:11]:
I should use these notebooks. Yeah. So field notes, there's no risk of that. Right? It's just like whenever I finish one, I grab another one from the draw and I'm ready to go. So I gotta go with field Notes.
Mike Shmitz [00:43:23]:
Sorry.
Joe Casabona [00:43:23]:
You all heard my New York accent there. I can see. Love it.
Cat Mulvihill [00:43:27]:
You know, Joe, I almost said fountain pen, and that's why I kind of was reluctant at first when I was doing my pick. My gut says fountain pen, but realistically, I had to choose something like the Rocketbook. But I know you and I both love a fountain pen.
Joe Casabona [00:43:40]:
Yes. As does. As does Mike. Right? Still. Do you?
Cat Mulvihill [00:43:43]:
Yes.
Mike Shmitz [00:43:44]:
Dude, there's about 100 bottles of ink right over there.
Layla Pomper [00:43:49]:
I feel very left out.
Joe Casabona [00:43:51]:
It's so fun.
Layla Pomper [00:43:52]:
I, Like, I. We started sending handwritten things to my clients, and I realized last week, I was like, this is the first time I've written something in a Probably a year. So, I mean, markers don't count, so I feel very left out of this one.
Cat Mulvihill [00:44:07]:
It's never too late.
Joe Casabona [00:44:08]:
It's not. Casabona.org Pens that's. So many people ask me. I'm just like, here's a page that explains everything. Here's what I recommend.
Mike Shmitz [00:44:18]:
So what did. What did you get recently? I gotta know.
Joe Casabona [00:44:20]:
So Gold Spot pens. Not a sponsor, but can be if they want.
Mike Shmitz [00:44:24]:
Should be.
Joe Casabona [00:44:25]:
They recently had, like, a. Hey, we got to clear out our inventory sale, and they were selling Sailor pens for, like, 40% off. Sailor is a Japanese company. They are my favorite fountain pen. They've raised their prices a couple of times. And so, like, I got this one. It's the. It's a standard sailor 1911 in it.
Joe Casabona [00:44:46]:
They called it Jellyfish, but it's like, University of Scranton purple, and that's my alma mater. And it was for, like, less than 200 bucks when this pen goes for, like, 360. So I was like, I mean, I have to. Right? That's what I told myself.
Cat Mulvihill [00:45:01]:
I'm going to Japan next year, and I will probably have an entire suitcase just for stationery. The paper and then the fountain pens, the ink, it's all coming home with me.
Joe Casabona [00:45:12]:
Yeah, get a hobonichi techo, too, while you're out there. Really good things.
Cat Mulvihill [00:45:15]:
I've heard good things. Yeah.
Joe Casabona [00:45:16]:
So good. Oh, man. I guess we know what our next draft is. The analog tools draft. Okay, so let's. Let's wrap up here with honorable mentions and we don't have to, we don't, I'll introduce a little. I'll be like Layla and introduce some chaos. But we don't have to go on the draft order. Somebody shout out a tool that they. That didn't get picked that they wanted to pick or otherwise they think should be mentioned. Well, it's a Little bit Mike, it was your idea. So you can.
Mike Shmitz [00:45:45]:
Yeah, a little bit AI-based, but I. I'm a big fan of Opus. I like it better than Descript because you can actually control the framing of the different clips that you export. And I just got done. In the month of August, I published a YouTube short every single day. That was the first time I really published YouTube shorts. And I'm like, what better way to figure it out than to do it every single day. Opus was the thing that let me do it though.
Mike Shmitz [00:46:09]:
I cranked out all those shorts in a Saturday afternoon. It basically takes, you know, you put in the URL for your long-form video and it tries to create 25 different clips and none of them are what I actually would be willing to post on my channel. But it gives, it gets you like 85, 90% of the way there. And you can go in and you can edit it from there. You can select. Now I want this section to be added via the text transcript. So it makes it really easy to get something that actually is publishable. And yeah, I know Descript does something similar, but the ability to not change the framing of the shots because I do so much screencast stuff, I switch back and forth between like screencast and Talking Head.
Mike Shmitz [00:46:51]:
That that was a deal breaker for me and I would have picked that one for the Automation Tool Tools round if we were not doing the bonus round. Cause I just love it so much.
Joe Casabona [00:47:01]:
Yeah, that's great. I use. Well, my honorable mention will I think talk a little bit about this. So I was really close to picking Tela TV for several of these rounds, including the course and community one because it is fully replaced Loom for me. It just the layouts it creates, it just added remove mistakes, which is pretty good. And the shorts I've been recording, I have my little DJI mic and I've got my secondary camera and I've been recording directly into Tela. And then Tela does a really good job of adjusting the framing and makes it really easy to edit that sort of video in a way that as an elder millennial, I find very difficult to do on my phone. So yeah, shout out to Tela tv.
Joe Casabona [00:47:55]:
There were a lot of opportunities, you know, I think if there was one more round, I probably would have picked it. So that is my honorable mention.
Layla Pomper [00:48:02]:
I guess I'll go next. I've got one that I'm sure is not taken, but gather. I know I talk about this every time I have an opportunity, but this is like the virtual office. You can have it It replaces Zoom, Google Meet, but also provides so much more. And I really think in five years, maybe 10, every single person who works with more than one other person will have Gather or an equivalent. I just can't imagine working without it with other people. And so I didn't really fit into any of these categories as like a powerhouse. But if we're thinking about my business, not just any business, I just cannot imagine operating without the ability to just walk over to my remote team's office and be like, yo Mariah, what's up? Yeah, so Gather, not to be too.
Joe Casabona [00:48:50]:
Tangential here, but do you think that it will become more popular with devices like the Vision Pro and the meta.
Layla Pomper [00:49:00]:
Quest 2000% and like the integrations that Gather? I think as we get more and more connected, I think tools like Gather are going to become so obvious. The fact that we each have computers now with a screensaver as our desktop is idiotic, I think. And so like the fact that I don't go to my computer, open it and see my office with other people in it is just bizarre. And so I think as we start integrating more and more our tools with our interface, which right now there's like no marketplace for interfaces, I cannot see how tools like Gather won't take over all remote work. I'm very bullish on this one.
Joe Casabona [00:49:37]:
Yeah, you've heard it. Well, I'm not going to say you heard it here first because I'm sure you've mentioned it in other places, but you've heard it on here for the first time. Awesome. Cat, any honorable mentions for you?
Cat Mulvihill [00:49:50]:
I think I am, I'm torn between a couple. I think I'm going to give a shout-out to Vimeo because I sort of forced into it when I had switched to ThriveCart and needed to host videos. But ever since getting it, I do really appreciate the quality and the transcription and the chapters and that you have all the branding on it. And so when I am sharing recorded content, the Vimeo is a great host and it does have an integration with Zoom that when I record a video on Zoom it can automatically go over to Vimeo so then you can clean up your Zoom Recordings folder. And so that's a nice option to have that. And so I would share that with clients right after the meeting ends I can just share the Vimeo link instead of worrying about the Zoom recording.
Joe Casabona [00:50:40]:
I didn't know that.
Cat Mulvihill [00:50:42]:
Yeah, and that's interesting. That's a built-in integration. So you don't need a third-party tool like Zapier. To. To make that happen.
Joe Casabona [00:50:48]:
That's wild. You would think that Zoom wouldn't like that because they have, like, the cloud recording thing.
Cat Mulvihill [00:50:53]:
Yeah. But they have limits.
Layla Pomper [00:50:54]:
Right?
Cat Mulvihill [00:50:54]:
They don't want to store all of that.
Joe Casabona [00:50:55]:
That's true. Oh, that's so good. Yeah. Vimeo is like the perfect Goldilocks between, like, YouTube unlisted videos and Wistia, which is like, definitely not built for people like me. I don't want to speak for all. You just say definitely.
Layla Pomper [00:51:10]:
You could just end it there.
Joe Casabona [00:51:11]:
Yeah.
Mike Shmitz [00:51:14]:
Well, I feel like I used to be the ideal customer for Wistia, but they just kept cranking up the prices, so.
Joe Casabona [00:51:19]:
Right. Wild. So, like, I mean, I like Vimeo. My favorite feature of Vimeo is like the domain lockdown. Right.
Joe Casabona [00:51:25]:
And the branding, it's like really, really well done. So awesome. Wow. We have a great list of tools here. Thank you all so much for being here. Let's go in round robin order again. If people want to learn more about you, where can they find you? Mike?
Mike Shmitz [00:51:40]:
practicalpkm.com. That's where you will find the links to everything that I do.
Joe Casabona [00:51:45]:
Awesome. Layla?
Layla Pomper [00:51:46]:
processdriven.co website for all of my good stuff.
Joe Casabona [00:51:51]:
Awesome. Cat?
Cat Mulvihill: catmulvihill.com.
Joe Casabona: Excellent. I will link all of that in the show notes, everything we talked about, and of course, the episodes in which each of these fine folks were featured as the sole interviewee.
Thank you all so much for joining me. This was so much fun, and thank you all for listening. Until next time. I hope you find some space in your week.
If you're overwhelmed by a chaotic business that's stealing time from your family, Streamline Solopreneur is for you. Hey, everybody. My name's Joe Casabona, and I've been there. And on this sho,w I will show you how to turn chaos into clarity. So you can stop checking your email at the playground. So this is the Productivity Tools draft. I am here. I'm going to introduce our players in the order as determined by random.org. Up first is Mike Schmitz.
Joe Casabona [00:00:31]:
Mike, how are you doing today?
Mike Shmitz [00:00:33]:
Doing great. I am very nervous for this draft, but this should be fun.
Joe Casabona [00:00:39]:
And Mike, you run a PKM site, right? Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Mike Shmitz [00:00:44]:
Yes. Practical PKM for all your personal knowledge management needs.
Joe Casabona [00:00:48]:
Yes.
Mike Shmitz [00:00:48]:
Which is why you were fascinated. I'm fascinated by the idea of using tools for thought like Obsidian, specifically for connecting your notes and ideas and something new out of them. I never thought I was creative, and so I kind of went down this journey myself, and I want to help other people kind of un, untap or tap into their innate creativity using the technological tools that we have available. I think that can change your life. So I've got a website, a YouTube channel, and several podcasts that are all kind of loosely tied to that idea.
Joe Casabona [00:01:21]:
Yes. And you are, I'm going to say, single-handedly responsible for me using Obsidian on an everyday basis. Next up is Layla Pomper. Layla, how are you?
Layla Pomper [00:01:33]:
Good. Glad to be here.
Joe Casabona [00:01:34]:
Yes. You have a website called ProcessDriven where you talk about SOPs, is that right?
Layla Pomper [00:01:39]:
Yes, sir. All about how to systemize small teams and be productive together. Because you think we would have figured that out by now, but we haven't.
Joe Casabona [00:01:48]:
Feels like it's a moving target, but yeah, absolutely. Uh, and Cat Mulvahill Cat. Now, since you've been on the show, you have a whole new thing. So, Cat, how are you? And tell us about your new thing.
Cat Mulvihill [00:02:02]:
Yeah, I'm excited to be here as well with my fellow nerds. And my new thing is helping people. I teach about momentum, how to find it and how to keep it, and I developed a framework that I use to help kind of guide people through troubleshooting. Why are they stuck with, you know, endless restart cycles, or why are they just stalling on something that matters to them? So that's what I'm doing now. But I still love my tools.
Joe Casabona [00:02:29]:
Yes, absolutely. It's, it's. We all love our tools. Right. Um, and all of these fine folks have been former guests on the podcast. Uh, so I will link to every one of these episodes in the show notes. I'll link to all the tools and the draft results in the show notes as well. You can find them over at Streamlined.
Joe Casabona [00:02:48]:
But first, let's get to the rules. It's going to be five rounds, round robin style in the order which I just said. Mike, Layla, Cat, me. And we are picking from a few categories. Communication tools, which is more or less email and social. Client and coaching, which is course and community tools. Work tools, which are task and project management. Content tools, which is research and creation and efficiency.
Joe Casabona [00:03:16]:
Automation and shortcuts. We can pick from these, any of these categories at any time, but we can only pick one from each category. Once a tool is selected, it is no longer on the board for anybody else. And only one AI tool per person, if that. I just don't want us to have a whole slate of AI tools. So, Mike, you are up first. What is your first pick and why?
Mike Shmitz [00:03:45]:
Well, I think there can be only one tool that is worthy of the number one overall pick and that is obviously Obsidian.
Cat Mulvihill [00:03:54]:
Gasp.
Mike Shmitz [00:03:56]:
So I feel like Obsidian is sort of the productivity tools draft version of the Super Flex, where you can put, you know, any player in that slot. But I'm going to pick it as a content research and creation tool because that's primarily how I use it. I use it to capture all of my ideas. I've got Kanban boards in there where I will track the process of my articles, my newsletters and my video scripts. But it is the hub of everything that I create. And so if there was one tool that I did not get that would severely hinder my ability to run my online creator business, it would be Obsidian. And so for that reason, I have to take it first.
Joe Casabona [00:04:40]:
Awesome. We all knew it was coming, but I'm glad you still got the pick. In another world, I think we were going to just randomly eliminate some jewels. Right?
Layla Pomper [00:04:52]:
Whose idea was that? That's terrible.
Joe Casabona [00:04:56]:
Speaking of, Layla, you are up next. What is your first pick?
Layla Pomper [00:05:00]:
Okay, I'm going to take a different strategy than Mike. Rather than doing the all all-rounder, I'm going to go for the one that I feel like would be the hardest to replace. I'm taking Canva for research and content creation because believe it or not, I use Canva for just about every type of information processing out there. And so whether it's a presentation, their whiteboarding tools, I mean, content editing, I feel like so many of my ideas and pieces of IP go through Canva at one Point in time and it's really irreplaceable, like, cannot go back to Photoshop.
Joe Casabona [00:05:34]:
Great choice. That probably was gonna be something for me later, so way to grab it now. Nicely done, Cat. You're actually the one I'm most worried about. So let us know, what is your first pick?
Cat Mulvihill [00:05:48]:
All right, I'm gonna pick Notion.
Joe Casabona [00:05:51]:
Okay.
Cat Mulvihill [00:05:52]:
And I'm picking it for content for research and creation, similar to Mike, because it is where all my ideas go for my content. It's how I stay on top of content, but it's also where I gather and collect research and really runs my whole business. But I if there are other tools I could use. But I love planning content in Notion.
Joe Casabona [00:06:15]:
Nice. Well, I should have known you were going to go with Notion. I was really worried you were going to go with a pick that's really high on my list, but I don't think is number one. As a heavy automation guy, I figured I should be picking efficiency and automations first and I thought, what automation tool am I hitting the most am I using the most? And it is my Stream Deck.
Cat Mulvihill [00:06:44]:
Damn.
Joe Casabona [00:06:45]:
I'm sorry, Cat. I know. I think you'll be happy that I left another one on the board for you that I was gonna take, though. Yeah, my Stream Deck, I thought, is it going to be Zappier Stream Deck? And I just like there was a bug in the software a few weeks ago as we record this and it really made me realize how much I rely on this for everyday productivity. I'm happy to say the bug has been resolved, but it basically made all three of my stream decks unusable for a while and it was really a hindrance. So I've got to pick the Stream deck as my first. As my first pick. All right.
Joe Casabona [00:07:25]:
That was a really good round. I think there were a couple of surprises for me, and I think all but yeah, everybody but me picked the content, research and creation. I guess if I wanted to make editing for myself easier later, I could have done that, but that's not the spirit of the draft. All right, back to the top. Mike, you're up. What's your second pick?
Mike Shmitz [00:07:47]:
I'm going to pick under the coaching course and community category circle. It is the platform that I use not only for my membership community, but it's gotten a lot better in terms of being able to sell digital courses directly, which is another thing that I do with the rollout of the landing pages. I'm kind of in the process of moving everything off of Teachable and just going all in with Circle. It is expensive, but if I. I'm only picking five tools to run my business, I feel like that's one that I would really be hurting if I couldn't use it every day.
Joe Casabona [00:08:28]:
I think I should get circle and then I think I don't have. I need to justify the cost first. I think if it was like 50 bucks a month for the things I needed, I would do it and be like, It'll happen someday. But like, it's. It's a little higher than that and I think I would. I need something first.
Mike Shmitz [00:08:47]:
Well, now I feel like I picked the wrong one.
Joe Casabona [00:08:50]:
No, no.
Layla Pomper [00:08:50]:
I mean, it's super popular for a reason.
Joe Casabona [00:08:54]:
All right, Layla, what's number two for you?
Layla Pomper [00:08:58]:
I'm kind of torn. I. Can I go for the bonus round? Are we going just for the core? The core categories.
Joe Casabona [00:09:06]:
Ooh. So I was. I mean, I was thinking bonus round at the end because it's the bonus round.
Cat Mulvihill [00:09:11]:
Okay.
Layla Pomper [00:09:11]:
Full bonus. So skip, I want you that one.
Joe Casabona [00:09:14]:
All right.
Layla Pomper [00:09:15]:
Then I'm gonna say I will go with a communication tool that I'm sure is not gonna be taken, but I wanna grab it first because in priority, this is the one that probably does the most work for my business. And that's missive. It is like a shared Gmail account and it integrates with all social media, all emails, and it allows me to treat emails like T lit. Like, of all the tools I'll talk about today, this is the one that's probably changed my team productivity the most. So everybody I know, I'm like, it's free to try. Try it. I'm gonna take that one because again, if that went away kind of like Mike's point, I don't. There's not a good replacement out there.
Cat Mulvihill [00:09:53]:
I'm intrigued. I am not familiar with that one. So now I need to do some digging.
Layla Pomper [00:09:57]:
Obsessed.
Joe Casabona [00:09:58]:
Obsessed. I only. I only know of this from our recent interview. So I think this is a good tool. Like a new tool for the. For the listeners.
Layla Pomper [00:10:08]:
That's an up-and-comer.
Joe Casabona [00:10:09]:
Yes. Cat, what's up next for you?
Cat Mulvihill [00:10:14]:
So one I would really struggle without is going to be for the work, the task and project management. And that is Sunsama. I am using it for a few years and it structures my day, keeps me organized and works very well with my brain. So I'm going to grab that one. It integrates with Google and with Notion and it's really great for repeating tasks that I don't need to bog down in my project pages. In Notion. So big fan. Love sensama.
Joe Casabona [00:10:46]:
Nice. I did have that on like determined list. Raving about it at another. Okay, I am torn here because there are two tools that I should really pick and I'm really worried that Cat is going to pick this other one. But I feel bad because I've already stolen one from you. So I'm gonna go. I'll go with the. Create some drama later in the episode.
Joe Casabona [00:11:16]:
The one I don't think anybody's gonna pick. But it's. It's like it was down today. And again just realizing how much I rely on it for communication and email, which is SaneBox. This is a cloud-based tool. Like you're gonna have to like give it access to your email, but it automatically filters based on a bunch of rules. Will can mark things red and forward. And since it's being down today as we record this, I'm just like, what is happening to my inbox? Like maintaining you are not sane.
Joe Casabona [00:11:49]:
Yeah, no, I'm like, what is? And it automatically forwards stuff to my feed reader too. So I'm like, am I now? I'm missing newsletters in my feed reader. So it's just, I hope that they'll be up. I understand that software systems go down, so I'm not mad at them for being down. But I am realizing how much I am like locked into this tool because it's really showing its worth today.
Mike Shmitz [00:12:15]:
I've been a big-time fan of SaneBox for many years. That's a solid pick.
Joe Casabona [00:12:19]:
Yeah. So good, right? I think I heard about it on your podcast, on the focused podcast. And then they were a sponsor of my podcast for a little bit too. So yeah, big, big fan of SaneBox. I've been using it for years. All right, round three, Mike, you are up.
Mike Shmitz [00:12:41]:
All right. Well, I kind of can't believe this one is still on the board. So I'm going to pick Kit for communication. I have grown to depend on Kit more than is probably healthy in the last several months. It used to just be the thing that I used to send out my newsletters. And then I started working with Robbie Miles and he helped me build some crazy automations inside of Kit. And basically now when someone joins my email list, they get a welcome sequence which then transitions to a pitch sequence. If at any point they buy the product I'm going to pitch them, it yanks them out.
Mike Shmitz [00:13:19]:
Otherwise, it goes through like this, month long 20 email sequence. Ask them why they didn't buy, you know, all the stuff that you're supposed to do that I never do. I don't have to think about it anymore because it's in Kit and the end result is that I sell more copies of my signature product, which is Life hq. So you can make the argument that it again, that it's pretty expensive. But it's very clear to me, you know, who they're, they're trying to serve creators who are trying to run a business and they give you the tools to do that very, very well. I can't think of another option that would do it as well. There's lots of other email service providers out there. I was ready to pick a different one if I needed to, but I would be very sad if I could not use Kit.
Joe Casabona [00:14:08]:
Layla, you're up next.
Layla Pomper [00:14:10]:
Yeah, well, I'm going to piggyback real quick on ConvertKit, aka Now Kit. One of the things that I've started doing with Kit, just to get even more ROI out of it, that I don't understand why people aren't talking about or Kit isn't recommending is I went into Kit the other day and I saw the recommendations tab and like, you know, that's where you can recommend other newsletters. And I did something that for some reason I haven't done in the entirety of the time I've been on Kit and actually looked at who was recommending my newsletter. And for every single person, I reached out to them on LinkedIn or Instagram or wherever they are and just like thanked them and like had a conversation with whoever was recommending the newsletter and it was. It's just been so eye-opening where I'm like, what was I doing before in. That kid is really building this social network almost on the backside of newsletter creation. So just to like plus one on mics. I know I can't steal it too.
Layla Pomper [00:15:00]:
I'm going to steal a utilitarian choice this time around, which I'm sure is on other people's lists. Zapier, I don't love it but like also I can't get rid of it yet with the interface and the other stuff they've got built in now I'll take Zapier for the. What do I have left in here? Probably the tasks or. No, I'll put it under clients and coaching.
Joe Casabona [00:15:21]:
I think there is an automation and shortcuts category.
Layla Pomper [00:15:26]:
Oh, I'll do the efficiency one then.
Joe Casabona [00:15:28]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mike Shmitz [00:15:30]:
So that is a very underrated pick. If there's a sleeper in this draft, that's probably it. Zapier is insane. The other day I was trying to figure out how to get a live dashboard of my new kit email subscribers to show up. And long story short, there wasn't a direct integration, but you go into Zapier and they have this copilot now. And because it can point at the APIs, you basically can vibe code the integration that you want. So even though it's got like four different endpoints that you can officially link to, and number of net new email subscribers isn't on the list, within 10 minutes, I was able to create this custom zap, which gave me exactly what I wanted. It's so good.
Layla Pomper [00:16:14]:
And the data storage now, like, you can kind of build these databases in Zapier, which was always the edge for other tools like Make. Now it's like, ah, all right, fine, take my money. You're overpriced, but you're good.
Joe Casabona [00:16:26]:
That's like where I am, right? Like two years ago, I was like, I'm leaving Zapier for make. It's so much cheaper. And my dad always says, buy cheap, get cheap. And not that, like, make is cheap, but it's not Zapier, but they change. Yeah. And it's like testing in Zapier versus Make is so much easier. Like, you can't really test and make, which is, I feel like a big oversight.
Cat Mulvihill [00:16:52]:
That's a big issue.
Joe Casabona [00:16:53]:
Yeah, yeah.
Cat Mulvihill [00:16:54]:
Cause I catch a lot in testing in Zapier.
Joe Casabona [00:16:56]:
Likewise. And like Zapier is testing now is like, hey, this zap failed. Do you want to, like, put it through test mode and use this as test data? I'm like, yes, that's brilliant. I'm really glad you have that. Really nice. So, yeah, great, great pick. Definitely. I mean, I chose my automation tool.
Joe Casabona [00:17:12]:
I was gonna try to shoehorn it into something else, but great, great pick. Cat, you're up.
Cat Mulvihill [00:17:18]:
All right, I'm going with communication tool, and I'm choosing Zoom because I rely on it not just for communicating when I'm running workshops and stuff, but it also now it can replace Loom because there is a built in clips in Zoom. So when I'm doing a screen recording and just sending it someone quickly, I use that through Zoom. Now for a while I was using Vimeo, which Joe hat tip to you for that. But yeah, Zoom has a clips feature, so it replaces Loom. And also though I use it for all my meetings and workshops and a lot of what I do, so I would be hard pressed to live without Zoom.
Joe Casabona [00:18:00]:
That's. That's a good one. And you, you recommended to me that I do my kind of Asynchronous coaching in Zoom chat, which has been really good and a tool I'm already paying for. So. Yeah, I mean, I think there's like a lot of zoom changes a lot of things a lot of times, but it's, it's got some really good, you know, lesser known features in there that are really helpful.
Cat Mulvihill [00:18:21]:
Agreed. It's worth it. It's worth a perusal of what else it can do.
Joe Casabona [00:18:24]:
Yes. All right, well, I make content a lot and so I need a good content creation tool and I was really between two, but I gotta go with ECAMM Live because I've got the virtual camera that's on right now. It's on all the time. I record my videos in there, I record my podcasts in there, my solo podcasts, I obviously record my interviews and multiple people podcasts on Riverside. But ECAMM Live makes my life a lot easier, especially coupled with the Stream deck. So that's like a winning combination for me.
Cat Mulvihill [00:19:02]:
Yeah. I was torn between, for content creation, what should go there, because I don't know that I could live without it, but here we are.
Joe Casabona [00:19:12]:
I breathe like a little sigh of relief when I didn't pick it, and I was like, all right, now I. Now I can grab the Stream deck. Awesome. All right, round four. The penultimate round before the bonus, I guess. Mike, what's, what's number four for you?
Mike Shmitz [00:19:32]:
Well, since there's already a couple of things chosen from the efficiency category, I feel like I can leave that one for now. So I'm gonna go work task and project management and I don't like, honestly, any of the options that are left for me. I could probably make the case that Obsidian could be in here. I actually use Notion for this currently, but since this is the rules of the draft that has been chosen already, I gotta find something to act as my Notion replacement for collaborating with the team. Right. I think I gotta go with ClickUp. I don't like it better than Notion, but it does do some things better than Notion. I think it really is a better tool if you want to have the task and project management happen inside of your do everything app.
Mike Shmitz [00:20:31]:
In fact, when I was working with the digital marketing agency, we tried because they had all their documentation in Notion, they tried doing the task and project management in there too. It just didn't work. When we switched over to ClickUp, it clicked and there were a lot of people in the organization who were like, oh man, we're switching tools again. This happens every couple of months. I hate this. And they're like, no, this is the perfect tool for the way we're going to work. You can do a lot of different stuff with just like the templates and things. It integrates with a lot of different other tools.
Mike Shmitz [00:21:02]:
You can kind of build these spaces and these dashboards that will show you exactly what you need to do. And people who really know Notion are going to be able to do the same sort of thing. But for people who are trying to like, build this stuff from scratch in a tool that they're not completely comfortable with, which is kind of the position I find myself in with this pick, I think that's the one I got to choose.
Cat Mulvihill [00:21:23]:
And, you know, at ClickUp is another one for people who use Sunsama; it can also integrate. So if you had. If you were working with multiple teams and they were using different productivity tools, you could bring them all into Sunsama.
Joe Casabona [00:21:35]:
Shameless Plug. Yeah, love it. Layla, you. You also use ClickUp, right?
Layla Pomper [00:21:41]:
Yeah. There was a time where I think I was like the number one ClickUp content creator in the world. I don't know if I am anymore because I've been very, very lazy and not on the ClickUp bandwagon, but. But I guess it is my pick, right?
Joe Casabona [00:21:54]:
It is your pick, yeah.
Layla Pomper [00:21:56]:
I'm so grateful someone took ClickUp besides me because I was like, I kind of feel obligated to pick it because I'm like, I did 400 some videos on it. Maybe it's no, thank you, Mike, for biting the bullet, but I am going to take the same category and I'm going to go with SmartSuite because I was kind of like between Airtable and SmartSuite here. But I feel like SmartSuite, as I've described it before, is like ClickUp and Airtable had a baby. And I think what they're doing is really cool with the platform. Like, it's filling this nice middle ground between data and tasks and if I could restart, that's where I would be building. And the automations are just great. So SmartSuite for task and project management.
Joe Casabona [00:22:38]:
Nice. Very nice. I don't think, I mean, maybe you mentioned it on the show before, but I don't think I've seen this one, so I'm gonna have to check it out.
Layla Pomper [00:22:46]:
Yeah, I like the newcomers. I feel like I'm like an underdog chaser when it comes to software. I don't go for the ones that are actually the best in class. I'm like, ooh, this one was founded three years ago. Let's see and then I just go on the ride. That's how I ended up on the ClickUp wagon.
Joe Casabona [00:23:01]:
Nice. Well, you know, luckily the episode that's coming out before this is called how do you know when to switch tools? So if you skipped that one, go back and listen to it so that you're. So that you're not like, I need to switch. Yeah, I give you a framework, so definitely check that one out over at streamlined.fm.
Cat, you're up next. Round four.
Cat Mulvihill [00:23:25]:
Okay, this is maybe a weird one, but I'm going to grab it just in case for the efficiency, automation shortcuts category. Text replacement. So I used for a long time I was using Alfred as my text replacement, but then I did an overhaul of my computer and realized I can just use the built-in text replacement and I can't live without it. If I'm on a keyboard or a computer that does not have my text replacement shortcuts, I struggle. Life is harder. So that's my pick for efficiency.
Joe Casabona [00:24:00]:
That's a good one. I recently jumped ship from TextExpander to Raycast for this and I think it was just like a consolidation of tools maybe. But Raycast has been really good. The only thing that they're currently missing that I hear might be coming soon is a custom keyboard on iOS because that's where TextExpander was really worth its salt, I feel. But also like their keyboard, like their custom keyboard sucked and so that's like the one thing that's missing from Raycast. But otherwise, it's been really good just using Apple.
Cat Mulvihill [00:24:41]:
I just go into keyboard in the settings and just click text replacement and free.
Joe Casabona [00:24:47]:
Yeah.
Cat Mulvihill [00:24:48]:
So good it's built in.
Layla Pomper [00:24:49]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Casabona [00:24:50]:
Does it sync between devices too?
Cat Mulvihill [00:24:52]:
No. Okay, I should look because baby, with your Apple ID it could, but maybe I don't think so because my text replacement on the phone is different than the laptop.
Layla Pomper [00:25:03]:
I feel like 2025 has been my year to be chaotic, like an agent of chaos that we said today. But I turned off autocorrect on my phone and computer. It's just like game-changing. So now I'm thinking, oh my God, no autocorrect text replacement. This is like a new level we've just unlocked here, Cat. So thank you.
Cat Mulvihill [00:25:20]:
I love it.
Joe Casabona [00:25:23]:
All right, well, we are on me now. What do I have left? This is like every late-stage draft for me. I have clients and coaching and work tasks, and project management. I also use Notion for project management so I can't pick that. But I will go with the task manager that for a long time it was will they, won't they? We'd get together, we'd break up, we'd get back together again. I got to go with Todoist. I had always. I would go to Todoist and then I would leave it for things three or Omnifocus, and then I would find myself going back to Todoist because it's got the web-based, it's got the best Zapier and make integrations.
Joe Casabona [00:26:14]:
And so like I can automate a lot of my task list. And I just tried. I have a ridiculous automation using a tool called Whisper Memos, which I assume is not going to go, but that I will just say like, here are my open threads and it'll turn it into like a task list. Like 20 tasks that'll go over to Todoist. Todoist just released Ramble, which is way better. So like, well, so like you can do the same thing, just kind of like word vomit to todoist. And it'll create task lists. And the main difference is that it will figure out what the task is and what the context is and put the context in the description.
Joe Casabona [00:26:56]:
So I'm just like, this is so I cannot wait for it to come to iOS because it's like it's going to be the main way that I do my shutdown routine from here on out. So props to Todoist. And I'll link to. I interviewed Amir Sally Fendik, who's the founder of ToDoist, the company that makes Todoist so many years ago. I'll link that in the, in the description though. Okay, last round. Mike, what do you got?
Mike Shmitz [00:27:27]:
Are we gonna do like an honorable mentions?
Joe Casabona [00:27:29]:
Yeah, yeah, we'll do like a. What we didn't pick at the end. We'll have our bonus round and then.
Mike Shmitz [00:27:33]:
Like, okay, cool, because there is one in here that I really should mention if I don't pick it now. And I'm going to resist the urge to pick the one AI tool here because ChatGPT is just sitting right there.
Joe Casabona [00:27:46]:
It's just right there.
Mike Shmitz [00:27:47]:
But you picked. You mentioned Raycast. And honestly, I was a little bit freaking out about this. Like, where. What am I going to pick here? Raycast is the perfect tool here for me because you can do so much right in Raycast. I do so much right in Raycast. And in fact, one of the things that is worth calling out about Raycast is, you know how a lot of these large language models are 20 bucks a month to get access to ChatGPT 5 or whatever. There is an AI plan inside of Raycast that gives you access to the latest models.
Mike Shmitz [00:28:20]:
Maybe not like the day that they come out, but you can choose the model that you want. You can have the chat history right there. It's not going to give you all of the features like the custom GPTs and things like that, but if you just want an interface that you can access these tools directly from your computer, Raycast can actually give you that. But I use it all the time for a bunch of other things as well. I use it to find files on my computer. I use it as a clipboard manager. It's replaced all the other clipboard tools that I used to use. You can grab a file, upload it to CleanShot, all sorts of different things you can do with the extensions which are absolutely amazing and don't require you to know how to code, which is always the thing that held me back with Alfred.
Joe Casabona [00:29:03]:
Yes.
Mike Shmitz [00:29:04]:
So as a result, Raycast has been a huge productivity boost for me.
Joe Casabona [00:29:07]:
Great pick. I, I switched from Alfred to Raycast. Raycast has even replaced, what is it? Carabiner for the hyperkey for me. Just, just an amazing tool. I think they like really understand the assignment and like do a really good job. Sorry, they really, they do such a great job and I, I can't say enough great things about, about Raycast, so great pick. Layla, what is your last pick?
Layla Pomper [00:29:41]:
I was starting on this one. I was going to in my remaining category of course, and Community. I was going to pick member Vault here, but then I realized I actually don't have any email tool. So if I'm going to pretend this is my like top five tools overall, I'm going to go with the devil you know of Kajabi. It's like, it's like not that good, but it's good enough that you can't replace it. So I think Kajabi gives Circle a good run for its money and has a little bit more funnel building than Mighty Networks. And so if you're looking for like an all in one course community, Kajabi's pretty good. And they started rolling out this like custom HTML suite of stuff so you can really customize so it doesn't look as crappy as all the other Kajabi sites out there.
Layla Pomper [00:30:25]:
So that'll be my last pick.
Joe Casabona [00:30:27]:
Nice.
Mike Shmitz [00:30:28]:
Solid.
Joe Casabona [00:30:29]:
All right. Yeah. Anybody here use Kajabi? I'm always like, it's really expensive, but again, I'm not selling courses on the regular or anything either.
Mike Shmitz [00:30:39]:
I'm tempted by it. But every couple of months I started a member.
Layla Pomper [00:30:44]:
Like, I switched to so many different membership platforms. I even custom-developed like, we had a whole developer, whatever, build out a WordPress site. But we managed for years and I ended up coming full circle back to SaaS because once you started looking at the cost of maintenance and teaching team members how to change things on the website and then, oh my God, they broke the entire site, you know, I was like, okay, you know what, it's not that expensive.
Joe Casabona [00:31:07]:
Yeah, former WordPress developer here. My sole, like membership is custom-coded by me and I'm just like, and I know the developers for the plugin and we're good friends and I'm just like, I'm not in the business of supporting software anymore. And so like, I get it. And like, I guess it's probably surprising given the background of the show, that I don't have WordPress on my list, but I can't. It's like I use it every day, but it's not in my top five.
Layla Pomper [00:31:38]:
Yeah.
Joe Casabona [00:31:39]:
All right, Cat, what is your last pick?
Cat Mulvihill [00:31:42]:
So the category, I mean, this has a few different names, but clients, coaching, course, community, all of that. I'm. Because I am not actively running any kind of community or course at the moment, I'm going to pick something I use for all my client work and consulting and coaching Sessions, which is SavvyCal. And I've tried a few different booking software options and I have been most happy with SavvyCal and I love the overlay feature where it overlay and I think a few others adopted it. But to be able to see someone's availability layered over your own calendar is so nice. I hated when you have to have one open and you're okay, what which dates and then you're looking at your calendar bounce back and forth. So I'm pretty happy with the Savvy Cal and it does have some integrations that are all set up, so I'm pretty happy with that.
Joe Casabona [00:32:29]:
Nice. Great pick. Similar to you, Cat, I'm not currently actively running a community. I have like a couple of courses for sale in various places. So I could pick something like ThriveCart, which is where I'm selling my courses. I could pick like WordPress or Vimeo, which is where I'm hosting my courses. But I am going to pick something even simpler than that. Something that I realized very recently.
Joe Casabona [00:32:54]:
Oh, this is of course the best way to deliver my coaching blueprints and any other resources. And that's Google Drive. It's Just like I was like, what kind of portal should I have for the handful of coaching clients I get every year? And then I'm like, this is dumb. We all use Google Drive. We all know how Google Docs work. I can give them. I've given like spreadsheets of recommendations for gear. And so I mean also like, I'm sure we're all using it right now for this draft and wishing.
Cat Mulvihill [00:33:32]:
It had dark mode, but yeah, wishing.
Joe Casabona [00:33:34]:
It had dark mode. So if anybody from Google is listening. First, thank you. Second, dark mode for Google Drive for Google Docs specifically. So yeah, I feel like it kind of deserves a mention. But also, it's like such a simple solution to a problem that I think can quickly get overcomplicated. All right, so let's, let's recap before we get to our bonus. We'll do a bonus, which is an analog tool, and then an honorable mention and then maybe Layla, I'll let you introduce if you want to do the second bonus round, if you want to talk about that.
Joe Casabona [00:34:11]:
But let's recap our. Do we want to each recap our own tool sets. Does that work for you?
Mike Shmitz [00:34:17]:
Sure.
Joe Casabona [00:34:17]:
All right, Mike, what are your tools?
Mike Shmitz [00:34:21]:
All right, so my tools are Obsidian first and foremost for all of the content, which for me is the most important thing. Circle for the community and the course delivery kit as my communication tool of choice. ClickUp for work for task and project management and Raycast for efficiency, automation and shortcuts.
Joe Casabona [00:34:46]:
All right, Layla.
Layla Pomper [00:34:48]:
I guess I should say just as some context, I'm taking this from the perspective of like my business. So a few employees, a few contractors, membership and courses and YouTube so a little different I think than Mike, which probably reflects in the picks but I chose Canva first followed by Missive for communication, Zapier for automation, SmartSuite for tasks and projects and Kajabi as the powerhouse client stuff.
Joe Casabona [00:35:14]:
Awesome. Cat.
Cat Mulvihill [00:35:16]:
Yeah, I took notion from all y'.
Layla Pomper [00:35:18]:
All.
Cat Mulvihill [00:35:18]:
No, I'm just saying I took Notion for content and then Sunsama from for my project and task management for communication chose Zoom efficiency. I chose text replacement, just the built-in keyboard, text replacer and then for client work, Savvy Cal, the calendar booking software.
Joe Casabona [00:35:40]:
Love it. And I picked Stream Deck for automation and efficiency, Sanebox for communication, Ecamm Live for content creation, Todoist for work, task management, et cetera. And then Google Drive for client for client management or client work, let's say. Awesome. This was great. Not too many steals I don't think though I think several of us probably wanted Obsidian Notion, I think I got the stream deck from.
Cat Mulvihill [00:36:11]:
I wanted the stream deck. Yeah.
Joe Casabona [00:36:14]:
Awesome. All right. Now this is a place where there are no rules. We just are picking our favorite analog tool. I would say don't pick the same thing, but like, if Mike and I are going to pick something in the same class, it's very unlikely we're picking the same one. So what's your favorite analog tool, Mike?
Mike Shmitz [00:36:32]:
Well, I didn't know we were going to have this as a bonus topic, first of all.
Joe Casabona [00:36:37]:
All right. But I added it right before we started recording, basically.
Mike Shmitz [00:36:40]:
So this is the world premiere. I have a custom-built analog tool which I will show you. So this is. I gotta fix the blur here, but I talk a lot about the concept of a personal retreat, and I have built a personal retreat planner.
Cat Mulvihill [00:36:59]:
Nice.
Mike Shmitz [00:37:00]:
So this is an analog tool that walks through the whole process where you have your life theme, your core values, your ideal future. You kind of use that as your anchor. And then quarterly you fill out the wheel of life for the nine areas that are most important to you. So this is like the demo one at the beginning. From there, what did I accomplish? What went well, what could have gone better? And then the three questions that I think we talked about when we, when I was on your show last show, even though it was a while ago, what should I start doing? Stop doing, Keep doing. Right. So then from there you have your. Your two intentions.
Mike Shmitz [00:37:29]:
You map out your ideal week. And then so you, you basically can take this to your. For your personal retreat, plan out your quarter using this. And then there are different weeks. I'll try to find a blank section here. Like week seven here you've got the weekly plan. So the three things that are the most important, what you're going to do for the big blocks, and then the daily planning with the goal that everything is going to line up with the quarterly intentions. When you have the alignment, that's really where you can make progress.
Mike Shmitz [00:38:03]:
And I've been doing this in Obsidian for the last several years, but I've always been intrigued about the analog application of this. So Jesse, the guy at New Year who does the Focus calendar, I partnered with him and we've been working on this for literally the last year or so. And by the like, I don't know when this is going live, but it's going to be for sale probably in the next week or so, depending on when this publishes. I may have a link for you, but that's my analog tool.
Joe Casabona [00:38:34]:
This will be out after your tool. So. Very cool. Didn't know about that, obviously, so very cool. Really high bar. Layla, what's your favorite analog tool that you've designed? Custom.
Cat Mulvihill [00:38:52]:
Yep.
Layla Pomper [00:38:52]:
For the last five years, I've been. No, I do not have that. Uh, I would say it's this giant whiteboard behind me. My husband, at his old job, they were like, renovating the office, and there's this giant 5 foot by 4 foot whiteboard, and they were throwing it out. And my husband's scrappy, and he's like, hey, is no one using that? And he just shows up at home one day with this giant whiteboard, and he knows I love whiteboards.
Cat Mulvihill [00:39:18]:
It's like, whiteboards are my love language.
Layla Pomper [00:39:21]:
Yeah. I mean, anytime there's a crisis, I go to the whiteboard. Way better than flowers that die. And so I would say this baby back here.
Joe Casabona [00:39:31]:
Nice.
Layla Pomper [00:39:32]:
Did not make it.
Joe Casabona [00:39:33]:
Yeah, I mean, that's. But I love a good whiteboard. I've got one over here as well. So. Huge fan. I used to have a gigantic one, but it was prohibitive in my office space. Also, my kids just. Oh.
Joe Casabona [00:39:50]:
Thought it was theirs. And I'm like, all right, that is.
Mike Shmitz [00:39:53]:
The one downside to a whiteboard.
Joe Casabona [00:39:55]:
Yeah. This one's, like, far back enough and just tall enough that my youngest can't really reach it yet. So it's. It's safe for a little bit.
Cat Mulvihill [00:40:04]:
Cat, I am going to forego my. Yeah, I'm gonna go with rocketbook. So I have one beside me because I was actually just using it. So this is one. I have three. I've got two big ones. And then. Oh, no, I have four.
Cat Mulvihill [00:40:21]:
Two big ones, two little ones. This one. So this is an example, actually, Mike was talking. I don't want you to see all the details, but it's got all the different types of pages. So you've got the grids, project pages, calendar pages. But it's erasable. And so I love that you don't have to keep on. Basically, it's reusable.
Cat Mulvihill [00:40:41]:
It's erasable. And I like colors. So it goes with a color pack that goes with the Rocketbook. But essentially, it's not like the smart notebook where it recognizes your writing. It is just a reusable notebook. But you take a picture. Now, typically, they're built in. I don't think it has any integration with Notion.
Cat Mulvihill [00:41:01]:
So I just take a picture and just attach it to the Notion page that I want the note to live in so it works just as well. And then I can erase it, which is also very satisfying. Once in a While just go through and erase all the pages and you get that clean start. So I really like the Rocketbook.
Mike Shmitz [00:41:16]:
So I think I backed the Rocketbook on Kickstarter. Is this the microwavable one?
Joe Casabona [00:41:22]:
That's the one I had.
Cat Mulvihill [00:41:23]:
I don't think. I don't know. I don't know. I don't remember them advertising. I remember hearing about a microwavable book. This one, you just have a cloth, just damp cloth, and you just wipe it.
Mike Shmitz [00:41:34]:
That sounds safer.
Layla Pomper [00:41:35]:
There's different versions of the Rocketbook, though. It's all the same brand. So it might be the same one.
Cat Mulvihill [00:41:40]:
It could be, yeah.
Joe Casabona [00:41:41]:
Version 1.0, the Kickstarter one was like you have to use an erasable pen and then you microwave it with like a little cup of water, I think for a minute, and it's like erases or something.
Cat Mulvihill [00:41:52]:
That's not how I erase my pages, but I don't know. I have heard that.
Joe Casabona [00:41:56]:
That sounds better.
Cat Mulvihill [00:41:58]:
Yeah.
Joe Casabona [00:41:59]:
Oh, man. Well, that's a great pick. I posed this question and now I feel really unprepared for it because I love analog tools. But I'm gonna have to go with. Despite my affinity for fountain pens, I just got a new one and I love it. But I'm gonna have to go with the field notes notebook. This. There is always one in my pocket.
Joe Casabona [00:42:22]:
I got my latest newsletter went out and it was like an idea I got at church, like during mass. And I'm just like, I'm not gonna pull out my phone. I leave my phone in the car. So I wrote it down in this. Also a great way to placate children who are bored at church. I just give them my pen and my notebook and they draw on it. And so really low stakes. It's really easy to not.
Joe Casabona [00:42:45]:
What's the word? There's a guy, Mike Hurley, on the Penatic podcast, who says, like, Mollycoddle, don't mollycoddle your notebooks. Which is like, don't use kid gloves with them. Don't treat them as if they're like the china that you wait for the queen to use. Right.
Cat Mulvihill [00:43:01]:
That's kind of my issue is I would have them. It's like, I need the perfect reason to use this notebook. I would start to amass them and, yeah, realize, oh, wait, I should use these.
Joe Casabona [00:43:11]:
I should use these notebooks. Yeah. So field notes, there's no risk of that. Right? It's just like whenever I finish one, I grab another one from the draw and I'm ready to go. So I gotta go with field Notes.
Mike Shmitz [00:43:23]:
Sorry.
Joe Casabona [00:43:23]:
You all heard my New York accent there. I can see. Love it.
Cat Mulvihill [00:43:27]:
You know, Joe, I almost said fountain pen, and that's why I kind of was reluctant at first when I was doing my pick. My gut says fountain pen, but realistically, I had to choose something like the Rocketbook. But I know you and I both love a fountain pen.
Joe Casabona [00:43:40]:
Yes. As does. As does Mike. Right? Still. Do you?
Cat Mulvihill [00:43:43]:
Yes.
Mike Shmitz [00:43:44]:
Dude, there's about 100 bottles of ink right over there.
Layla Pomper [00:43:49]:
I feel very left out.
Joe Casabona [00:43:51]:
It's so fun.
Layla Pomper [00:43:52]:
I, Like, I. We started sending handwritten things to my clients, and I realized last week, I was like, this is the first time I've written something in a Probably a year. So, I mean, markers don't count, so I feel very left out of this one.
Cat Mulvihill [00:44:07]:
It's never too late.
Joe Casabona [00:44:08]:
It's not. Casabona.org Pens that's. So many people ask me. I'm just like, here's a page that explains everything. Here's what I recommend.
Mike Shmitz [00:44:18]:
So what did. What did you get recently? I gotta know.
Joe Casabona [00:44:20]:
So Gold Spot pens. Not a sponsor, but can be if they want.
Mike Shmitz [00:44:24]:
Should be.
Joe Casabona [00:44:25]:
They recently had, like, a. Hey, we got to clear out our inventory sale, and they were selling Sailor pens for, like, 40% off. Sailor is a Japanese company. They are my favorite fountain pen. They've raised their prices a couple of times. And so, like, I got this one. It's the. It's a standard sailor 1911 in it.
Joe Casabona [00:44:46]:
They called it Jellyfish, but it's like, University of Scranton purple, and that's my alma mater. And it was for, like, less than 200 bucks when this pen goes for, like, 360. So I was like, I mean, I have to. Right? That's what I told myself.
Cat Mulvihill [00:45:01]:
I'm going to Japan next year, and I will probably have an entire suitcase just for stationery. The paper and then the fountain pens, the ink, it's all coming home with me.
Joe Casabona [00:45:12]:
Yeah, get a hobonichi techo, too, while you're out there. Really good things.
Cat Mulvihill [00:45:15]:
I've heard good things. Yeah.
Joe Casabona [00:45:16]:
So good. Oh, man. I guess we know what our next draft is. The analog tools draft. Okay, so let's. Let's wrap up here with honorable mentions and we don't have to, we don't, I'll introduce a little. I'll be like Layla and introduce some chaos. But we don't have to go on the draft order. Somebody shout out a tool that they. That didn't get picked that they wanted to pick or otherwise they think should be mentioned. Well, it's a Little bit Mike, it was your idea. So you can.
Mike Shmitz [00:45:45]:
Yeah, a little bit AI-based, but I. I'm a big fan of Opus. I like it better than Descript because you can actually control the framing of the different clips that you export. And I just got done. In the month of August, I published a YouTube short every single day. That was the first time I really published YouTube shorts. And I'm like, what better way to figure it out than to do it every single day. Opus was the thing that let me do it though.
Mike Shmitz [00:46:09]:
I cranked out all those shorts in a Saturday afternoon. It basically takes, you know, you put in the URL for your long-form video and it tries to create 25 different clips and none of them are what I actually would be willing to post on my channel. But it gives, it gets you like 85, 90% of the way there. And you can go in and you can edit it from there. You can select. Now I want this section to be added via the text transcript. So it makes it really easy to get something that actually is publishable. And yeah, I know Descript does something similar, but the ability to not change the framing of the shots because I do so much screencast stuff, I switch back and forth between like screencast and Talking Head.
Mike Shmitz [00:46:51]:
That that was a deal breaker for me and I would have picked that one for the Automation Tool Tools round if we were not doing the bonus round. Cause I just love it so much.
Joe Casabona [00:47:01]:
Yeah, that's great. I use. Well, my honorable mention will I think talk a little bit about this. So I was really close to picking Tela TV for several of these rounds, including the course and community one because it is fully replaced Loom for me. It just the layouts it creates, it just added remove mistakes, which is pretty good. And the shorts I've been recording, I have my little DJI mic and I've got my secondary camera and I've been recording directly into Tela. And then Tela does a really good job of adjusting the framing and makes it really easy to edit that sort of video in a way that as an elder millennial, I find very difficult to do on my phone. So yeah, shout out to Tela tv.
Joe Casabona [00:47:55]:
There were a lot of opportunities, you know, I think if there was one more round, I probably would have picked it. So that is my honorable mention.
Layla Pomper [00:48:02]:
I guess I'll go next. I've got one that I'm sure is not taken, but gather. I know I talk about this every time I have an opportunity, but this is like the virtual office. You can have it It replaces Zoom, Google Meet, but also provides so much more. And I really think in five years, maybe 10, every single person who works with more than one other person will have Gather or an equivalent. I just can't imagine working without it with other people. And so I didn't really fit into any of these categories as like a powerhouse. But if we're thinking about my business, not just any business, I just cannot imagine operating without the ability to just walk over to my remote team's office and be like, yo Mariah, what's up? Yeah, so Gather, not to be too.
Joe Casabona [00:48:50]:
Tangential here, but do you think that it will become more popular with devices like the Vision Pro and the meta.
Layla Pomper [00:49:00]:
Quest 2000% and like the integrations that Gather? I think as we get more and more connected, I think tools like Gather are going to become so obvious. The fact that we each have computers now with a screensaver as our desktop is idiotic, I think. And so like the fact that I don't go to my computer, open it and see my office with other people in it is just bizarre. And so I think as we start integrating more and more our tools with our interface, which right now there's like no marketplace for interfaces, I cannot see how tools like Gather won't take over all remote work. I'm very bullish on this one.
Joe Casabona [00:49:37]:
Yeah, you've heard it. Well, I'm not going to say you heard it here first because I'm sure you've mentioned it in other places, but you've heard it on here for the first time. Awesome. Cat, any honorable mentions for you?
Cat Mulvihill [00:49:50]:
I think I am, I'm torn between a couple. I think I'm going to give a shout-out to Vimeo because I sort of forced into it when I had switched to ThriveCart and needed to host videos. But ever since getting it, I do really appreciate the quality and the transcription and the chapters and that you have all the branding on it. And so when I am sharing recorded content, the Vimeo is a great host and it does have an integration with Zoom that when I record a video on Zoom it can automatically go over to Vimeo so then you can clean up your Zoom Recordings folder. And so that's a nice option to have that. And so I would share that with clients right after the meeting ends I can just share the Vimeo link instead of worrying about the Zoom recording.
Joe Casabona [00:50:40]:
I didn't know that.
Cat Mulvihill [00:50:42]:
Yeah, and that's interesting. That's a built-in integration. So you don't need a third-party tool like Zapier. To. To make that happen.
Joe Casabona [00:50:48]:
That's wild. You would think that Zoom wouldn't like that because they have, like, the cloud recording thing.
Cat Mulvihill [00:50:53]:
Yeah. But they have limits.
Layla Pomper [00:50:54]:
Right?
Cat Mulvihill [00:50:54]:
They don't want to store all of that.
Joe Casabona [00:50:55]:
That's true. Oh, that's so good. Yeah. Vimeo is like the perfect Goldilocks between, like, YouTube unlisted videos and Wistia, which is like, definitely not built for people like me. I don't want to speak for all. You just say definitely.
Layla Pomper [00:51:10]:
You could just end it there.
Joe Casabona [00:51:11]:
Yeah.
Mike Shmitz [00:51:14]:
Well, I feel like I used to be the ideal customer for Wistia, but they just kept cranking up the prices, so.
Joe Casabona [00:51:19]:
Right. Wild. So, like, I mean, I like Vimeo. My favorite feature of Vimeo is like the domain lockdown. Right.
Joe Casabona [00:51:25]:
And the branding, it's like really, really well done. So awesome. Wow. We have a great list of tools here. Thank you all so much for being here. Let's go in round robin order again. If people want to learn more about you, where can they find you? Mike?
Mike Shmitz [00:51:40]:
practicalpkm.com. That's where you will find the links to everything that I do.
Joe Casabona [00:51:45]:
Awesome. Layla?
Layla Pomper [00:51:46]:
processdriven.co website for all of my good stuff.
Joe Casabona [00:51:51]:
Awesome. Cat?
Cat Mulvihill: catmulvihill.com.
Joe Casabona: Excellent. I will link all of that in the show notes, everything we talked about, and of course, the episodes in which each of these fine folks were featured as the sole interviewee.
Thank you all so much for joining me. This was so much fun, and thank you all for listening. Until next time. I hope you find some space in your week.
