#34 Clarity Sessions Podcast - The Resources You Need To Build, Launch, and Grow Your Business

Are you struggling with tech overwhelm? You know that you need tech, but you don't know which software to use or how to use it to its fullest potential. There are so many options, and they're all shouting at you and making promises, but they aren't measuring up!

Read below to learn all about my tech recommendations:

The Cause of Tech Overwhelm:

Tech overwhelm is something that many of my clients struggle with before they start working with me. They've purchased all kinds of different tools, but they mostly choose free options.

For example, they'll opt-in to a free email marketing program. But as their email list grows, they realize, "Wait a second, this program doesn't do all the things I want it to do."

They then need to add a different program, but the one they choose is more complicated. So they buy a third one that's kind of the middle of the road. And now they've got three different emails in three different programs and three different tools they're trying to learn. And that's just emails!!

This isn't a sustainable business practice, so I want to help.

Check-Out My Resource Page

Tech overwhelm is exactly what it sounds like: overwhelming. To make it simple for you, I've created a resource page that you can access here.

On this page, I walk you through each of my favorite resources!

1. Emailing

What are you currently using to get your message out to your email list? I really believe there are two good options for emailing.

When I talk to clients, they've tried all kinds of email services - a lot of which were originally free and then suddenly, they start getting charged because they cap out the subscriber limit for the free version. As somebody who's been around a while, who is all about supporting bloggers and helping them grow, I highly recommend ConvertKit.

ConvertKit is what I use for my personal email list, and there are a few reasons I love it. My brilliant friend, Nathan Berry, created this tool. First, there's a free version of the tool, which makes it risk-free and accessible to everyone. Then, if you see results and you need to scale up, you can. Nathan has grown an incredible team over at ConvertKit that has really focused on serving bloggers through simplifying his system. And that's why I love it: because it's really the easiest system to use. I personally believe it's even easier to use than MailChimp. It includes tagging and all kinds of automation that have been built-in from the very beginning. I recommend it to everyone.

Now the second email program I recommend is called Kajabi. Kajabi is what I use for most of my webinars and member emails. Kajabi takes care of all your emails and more!

2. Logo Design

The second tool that I'd like to share with you is for designing your logo, header image for your Facebook page, and all your Instagram graphics!

My team swears by Canva. Canva has made it easy to use pre-designed templates and edit your own graphics. There's no need to hire a graphic designer right off the bat. Canva's free plan offers everything you need to get started - and I highly recommend it!

You don't have to learn Photoshop, Illustrator, or anything fancy. You can start with Canva. They have a template library with more options than you can imagine. The site is also incredibly collaborative, so different members of your team can log-in and make edits to your graphics.

3. Calendar

The third tool I'm going to recommend is one that I use literally every day -- to book my coaching calls, one-on-one appointments, and podcast interviews. It's called Calendly.

Calendly is a calendar, a scheduling app, and a meeting app. It's online and it integrates with Zoom.

When people hire me as a clarity coach (which you can do here!) they automatically get a link to my Calendly booking page to book a one-on-one call with me. Once they book a time, it automatically gets added to both of our calendars, and since it's integrated with Zoom it automatically sends us both a unique Zoom meeting link, which saves us both the time it would take to go back and create a meeting through the site itself.

4. Managing your Contacts

To get a little bit more advanced, we've started using HubSpot for managing our contacts. Specifically, for managing contacts connected to my speaking schedule. It's a tool that my team has been using for a while. We just started using it for Hope*Writers as well to manage our leads.

If you're looking at building long term relationships with contacts you've made - you know that those relationships need to be nurtured. But how? How do you follow up with them? How do you know who you need to reach out to? How do you know if they got back to you?

You need a CRM, a Customer Relationship Management platform.

There's a free level of HubSpot that I highly recommend. I use it for all of my speaking engagements and our enrollment specialists use it for Hope*Writers.

5. Hosting Platform

The final tool that I'd recommend is for your hosting platform. If you have a WordPress site, you need to have a host for all your files, your blog, and the different pages on your WordPress site. I cannot highly recommend SiteGround enough. We've been using them for years for all of our WordPress sites.

One of the things that I love about SiteGround is that their customer support is top-notch! They immediately get back to you in a live chat whenever you reach out with questions or concerns. It's a great program, and while you do have to pay for it - it is very affordable!

They have all kinds of different levels so you can start small and grow!

A Step Further: An All-In-One Tool

Here's a recommendation that tops them all...

All of these resources mentioned above work with or can be replaced by Kajabi. Kajabi is the number one tool I recommend.

In fact, we are currently moving my entire website onto Kajabi. It takes care of your email, landing pages, checkout pages, login, course hosting, everything that you need to do for your business when it comes to marketing and sales, communicating with your clients, your prospects, all of that can be done in Kajabi.

On Kajabi's website, you'll see that you can get a 14-day trial - but I have a trial offer for you that is twice as long.

You can sign up and experience Kajabi for 28-days for free when you click here.

I use this tool everyday.

Those are my favorite resources to help you start and grow your online business. If you're currently experiencing tech overwhelm, like our friend Marie Forleo says, remember that everything is figureoutable!

If I can help you implement these tools to help you grow your impact and your income online,  just send me a message here.

Click here to listen to the full episode.