Tools I’m loving right now

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This week I’m sharing my newest favorite tools and softwares in my creative small business. I’m talking time management, AI, and SOP tools to get back hours and make your life as a creative entrepreneur easier.  Here’s what I’m loving lately:

1. Descript – A powerful software used for recording podcasts, audio, video, and screen sharing. It also transcribes the audio and creates a script. You can then edit directly from the transcript, eliminating the need to work from waveforms and timelines! 

2. Otter.AI – Joins Zoom calls to create summaries, transcripts, and notes. Helps with keeping track of conversations without the need to write notes. Allows for easy referencing and searching through the transcript or summary. Can pull screenshots from the call for additional context.

3. Tango – A tool for creating standard operating procedures or tutorials for how to do something on the internet. It records each step users take on a web page, transcribes the process, and provides directions. Procedures can be shared via a link and include pictures of the steps taken. The transcription and directions can be edited and altered.

4. Reclaim.ai – A tool for time management and scheduling. It helps figure out where different tasks fit into a schedule, saves time, and allows for time-blocking. It automatically schedules and rearranges tasks as needed and locks in certain time periods to prevent others from scheduling during those times.

5. Cast Magic – A one-time purchase software that uses chat GPT AI technology to process long-form video or audio content. It can generate episode summaries , show notes, and help you share your content with things like instagram reel ideas or captions.

6. MissingLettr – A tool available through AppSumo that helps repurpose content by creating drip content for social media based on long-form blog posts. It breaks down the content into multiple social media posts, which can be customized and makes repurposing content so much easier! Get more traction out of the content you are already creating and drive traffic to your long form content.

Bonus:  AppSumo – A platform for software developers to launch beta versions of their products or gain a large number of users at once by offering discounted or lifetime prices. This is a great place to find new softwares! 

Anything that helps me save time AND do my job as a creative entrepreneur better is worth checking out! Let me know if you try any of these tools!

Check out more of my favorite tools and grab discounts for them at dearkatebrandstrategy.com/resources

*This post contains affiliate links which may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. 

Check out Kate Online: Website | Instagram | Tiktok | Pinterest

Kate Hejde is the host and creator of How You Pictured It Podcast and Dear Kate Brand Strategy. She helps creative entrepreneurs and service providers create a profitable business that fits into their lives. With over 10 years of experience running her own photography business, while raising three kids, Kate believes that business is not one size fits all and that you define your own success.  Kate teaches through her podcast as well as through her signature course, The Website Launch Accelerator, done-for-you website designs, and 1:1 coaching.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

This week I want to share with you a variety of tools and software that I’m using in my business right now.Some that I’ve been using for a while and others that I’m just getting into.Um,let’s get started.The first one is the software that I’m actually using to record this podcast right now.It is called Descript,D E S C R I P T.It is such a powerful tool.It allows you to record,um,audio or video,or,um,you can also record like your desktop,screen share,with this tool and it transcribes as you talk.Um,so it transcribes the audio and creates a script for you.It also allows you to edit directly from that script.So if I wanted to find all of the,um,like long pauses or spaces,I can automatically search for word gaps that are a certain length and shorten those.Um,I’m Um,again,editing directly from the transcript.So I’m editing from the text instead of having to like go in and find all of those like breaks and pauses in like a wave form,um,it’s,I’m finding it with the text and then like I can also automatically remove ums,I can find any certain word that I said or find anything where I wanted to like.Try again,say it better,um,and delete the,like,text delete,and it deletes the audio and video as well.It’s a really cool tool.I’ve been using it for,gosh,a year and a half now.Um,the other way that I use it is similar to Loom.So,With Loom,you can record a video,um,like a screen share with your face or,uh,just your face,whatever you want to record and send it to someone via a link on the internet.You can do the same thing with Descript.So this is a tool that I use multiple ways in my business.I use it for the podcast.record YouTube videos.I use it to,um,share tutorials or feedback,um,with people via video,uh,with those links.And again,this one is called Descript.I pay about30a month for it,but it is one that again,I use in a lot of different ways.Next up is Otter.ai.Another alternative for this is fireflies.ai.Um,the,these are tools that act as like virtual assistants on your Zoom calls.So.With Otter AI,this is the one that I actively use.I know Firefly’s is similar.You set it up so that Otter joins all of your Zoom calls,um,and then it creates a summary of the call,a transcript,and notes,um,for the call.So it helps me keep track of everything that’s happening in a Zoom call without having to sit there and like,write the whole time.Using Otter helps me to focus more on the conversation and the connection and allows me to not have to worry about like writing notes and keeping track of everything that was said.It also makes it easy when I’m like,Ah,I know we talked about XYZ in our call.I need to go back and check what that was.I can either read the transcript or go to the summary and try to figure out what exactly was said and it makes it so much easier.It also pulls screenshots from the call,um,and you can go through again and see like what was on the screen when you were saying something too.Number three is an app called Tango.Tango is great for creating standard operating procedures or sharing a how to of how to do something on the internet.With Tango,you activate it on any web page and it records each step that you’re taking.So,for example,if I wanted to show somebody how to,um,create a blog post in the back end of WordPress with ShowIt,I can go through that process and Tango is going to create step by step.procedures for that process that I can then share via a link,um,and it gives pictures.It shows like a zoomed in version of what you’re clicking and writes down it like transcribes and writes directions for you as well.You can alter and edit those,but it’s such a fast and easy way.To create standard operating procedures.So it’s something that you could do in your own business or if you’re hiring a VA.Um,I don’t pay for this one.This is a free app.Um,same with Otter.I’m using the free version of Otter.It gives me,I think,25minutes of audio in Otter.Tango gives you a certain number of free,um,tangos is what they’re called.Uh,we’re recording standard operating procedures that you can use as well.Next up,we’re going to talk about some that are available through AppSumo.So AppSumo is a website that’s like a marketplace for software developers to kind of launch beta versions of their product or get a bunch of users at once by offering a discounted price or a lifetime price,um,of their product.through AppSumo.So,on AppSumo,a couple of products that I’ve purchased are CastMagic.CastMagic is a software that allows you to transcribe a recording.It can either be a YouTube video or you can actually even pull from Descript into CastMagic or An audio file,whatever you want to choose to transcribe and then Cast Magic will help you create titles for that.Um,it helps you like come up with Instagram captions or,um,show notes for a podcast.YouTube video descriptions.It’s an AI tool that goes through your transcript and helps you summarize and break down that info.It was,I think,29for a lifetime use.And so,much cheaper than using something like Buzzsprout’s new,um,Studio Magic,I think is what Buzzsprout’s version is called.Um,I can’t even remember what the Buzzsprout version is called,but Buzzsprout is a monthly fee of I think15,whereas Cast Magic is a one time purchase of29through AppSumo.And again,it saves you time by helping you come up with those summaries.I use it for creating like Instagram carousel posts.I can ask it for like five carousels based on this episode.I can say,help me write a,um,help me write show notes using this format.It’s basically using like the chat GPT AI technology,but applying it to long form content of video or audio.The next one that I’m using that is available currently through AppSumo is called Missing Letter.Missing Letter is a tool to help you repurpose content.So basically what it is,I put all of my show notes for my podcast onto my blog and then I have missing letters set to pull those in and help me create drip content for social media based on the long form blog post.So you can set it up to be like a.12month campaign,uh,three week campaign,whatever you want,you can set the length of time that this content’s going to drip over and,missing letter will help you pull that content in and break it down into multiple posts so that you’re resharing things over and over again.You might notice these on.My Instagram feed for dear Kate brand strategy,you’ll see like,and I,I changed the images.I changed,I update things so that it matches like my branding and stuff.Um,but you’ll see like weeks after a blog post or a podcast episode has aired,you’ll see like information about that podcast episode come back up in my Instagram feed.This keeps things kind of top of mind and it helps me to automatically have content rolling out.Um,to Instagram when I am publishing podcast content.You can also set it up for blog content,YouTube videos,whatever you want.Um,but again,that one is called missing letter and it really just makes the.Content creation and repurposing a lot easier for me.Breaking away from AppSumo for this last one.This one is called Reclaim.ai.I have just started using it.It is such a cool tool.Um,again,it’s free.There’s a paid version as well.I’m using the free version.But you basically can put in for the week and assign how much time you think they’ll each take and what takes priority.And Reclaim will put those tasks into your calendar for you and as,say something comes up and you have like a firm appointment that needs to be scheduled onto your calendar,Reclaim will rearrange the rest of your schedule and those tasks to fit.Um,so for example,say I have a podcast episode to record,I need to work on a website,I need to,um,I have a meeting.Reclaim will help figure out like where all of those things fit in to my schedule and there are other tools within that that I haven’t explored fully yet.Um,But it is really cool for time management,saving time,and figuring out like time blocking without having to like sit there and like really think about like how I’m going to fit everything in.It also has a thing where you can like put in that I want to take a lunch every day or I want to do an exercise every day or habits that you want to fit in and it will like say I want to have a lunch somewhere in the hours between like11and1and I need a30minute lunch.Reclaim will put that30minute lunch in my calendar and rearrange it as much as possible or as needed um,when other things are booked.But once there’s No more like room to move it.It will lock it in.So no one can schedule during that30minute period.Really cool tool.Again,I’m just new to that one and can’t wait to get started.Okay.I hope this has been helpful.We’ve been through a lot of tools.If you have questions about any of them or if you’ve used any of them,um,I’d love to hear from you.You can find links for them all in the show notes and in the blog post for this episode.I look forward to talking to you next week.