USES

Tech Gear

Intel Core i7 10th Gen 10750H (2.60 GHz) – 6-Core
16 GB Memory, 512 GB SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti
15.6″ Full HD Touchscreen

Monitor: LG 27″ IPS LED 4K UHD with HDR

This monitor is amazing! It’s basically like having 2 monitors, plus you can split the screen into about 15 different sections.

Model – LG – 27UL600-W

Previous Laptop: Acer Aspire E5-576G (i5)

Microphone: Yeti Nano – USB Microphone – Sound more professional and not scratchy with this inexpensive microphone.

Webcam: Logitech C920 HD Pro Webcam – Captures video in 1080 and looks way better than the integrated webcams on laptops.

Tablet: iPad Mini 5 with Apple Pencil

This is the first time I’ve ever had an iPad. Combined with the Apple Pencil, it is such a helpful tool. I write notes, draw images and diagrams, and read books on it.

Headphones: Airpod Pros

NAS: Synology 4 bay DS920+ – 4GB DDR4

NAS Drives: Seagate IronWolf 2TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD

Writing

Document Creation: Google Docs

Grammar Check: ProWritingAid and Grammarly

Favorite Word Tool: OneLook Reverse Dictionary and Thesaurus

Online Database to Organize Anything: Airtable – Powerful, feature-rich personal and business database. You can truly organize anything you want. Projects, plants, books, equipment, tools, invoices, travel plans, and the list goes on and on and on. Check out my Book Tracker in Airtable and my favorite Airtable articles. For more ideas of how you can use it, browse the templates and the Airtable Universe.

Screen Recorder: Camtasia – I use this to create explainer videos, documentation GIFs, and any other screen recordings. Useful for editing videos.

Loom – Quick screen recording and video capture tool. This is one easier to use if I don’t need to do much editing in the video and when I need to share it with someone else.

Screen Capture: Screenpresso – Easy-to-use screen capture tool with lots of editing capabilities, such as adding text, arrows, boxes, blurs, and more. I wrote an article detailing the many options.

Digital Workspace and Notes: Notion – An organizer and digital note-taking space. Useful for capturing lots of information in one single place. Read how you can capture notes quickly in Notion and learn about how I used Notion to keep track of my new home construction budget.

Marketing

Social Media Post Scheduler: HootSuite

Email Newsletter: MailChimp

Browser: Google Chrome and Firefox

Google Chrome Extension: GoFullPage
A quick screen capture and screen recorder tool in your browser

Off-the-Wall: Emoji Bullet List – Create lists with emoji bullets

Design

Design and Photo Editing: Photoshop

PhotoPea – similar to Photoshop, but browser-based and has a free version

Quick Design: Canva and Google Slides

Mockups: Figma – Create quick website mockups to display how web copy will look. Useful for giving clients more of a ‘visual’ of their web copy rather than just sending text.

Whimsical – Create flowcharts and mind maps for articles and for your brilliant ideas

Fonts: Google Fonts and Font Fabric

Off-the-Wall: Handwriting Font Generator

Website

Website Content Management System: WordPress
(open source and self-hosted version, NOT the commercial, blog version)

Website Hosting: SiteGround – Powers this site and several company sites I manage. SiteGround has great support and is reasonably priced.

Liquid Web – Premium host used for several company sites I manage

Domain Purchases: Name Cheap – I’ve used this to buy domains for years. They range from $8 – $12 a domain

WordPress Starter Template: Divi by Elegant Themes
This theme is the base for the majority of my websites. You can create just about anything you want with it.

Plugin: Yoast SEO
Yoast is a powerhouse when it comes to increasing your chances of being seen in search engines

Off-the-Wall: Built With
Used to see the entire technology stack for websites

*I use each one of these tools and highly recommend each one. For some of them, I will receive a small kickback if you click and buy. You aren’t charged anything extra.