Coffee Social | Social Media Marketing, Content Creation, & Entrepreneurship
Tech Toolbox: Mastering the Best Biz Apps for Entrepreneurs | Ep. 15
May 09, 2024Season 1Episode 15
Jonathan Howard and Mimi Langley
Where would we be without our favorite apps & tools to help run our businesses?! It’s not even just social media apps. We’re talking apps to help edit graphics and video, organize our thoughts, clean up our phones, email our lists, etc. In this episode of Coffee Social, Instagram Reels & Storytelling Coach Jonathan Howard & Social Audio Marketing Coach Mimi Langley are dishing out the apps that are helping their businesses thrive.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS : Canva is every entrepreneur’s best friend! : Notes app is a fast way to jot things down. : Apps like Clubhouse, LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads get a mention. : We would not survive without our Google Drive. : Video editing apps like CapCut are a must! : There’s so many extras packed into this episode like our email service provider!
DID YOU LOVE THIS EPISODE A LATTE? 😂 Give the podcast 5 STARS & write an awesome review! It helps your hosts so much! PS: Mimi loves stars
* Podcast Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. We may earn a commission from the links listed in this description.
Where would we be without our favorite apps & tools to help run our businesses?! It’s not even just social media apps. We’re talking apps to help edit graphics and video, organize our thoughts, clean up our phones, email our lists, etc. In this episode of Coffee Social, Instagram Reels & Storytelling Coach Jonathan Howard & Social Audio Marketing Coach Mimi Langley are dishing out the apps that are helping their businesses thrive.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS : Canva is every entrepreneur’s best friend! : Notes app is a fast way to jot things down. : Apps like Clubhouse, LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads get a mention. : We would not survive without our Google Drive. : Video editing apps like CapCut are a must! : There’s so many extras packed into this episode like our email service provider!
DID YOU LOVE THIS EPISODE A LATTE? 😂 Give the podcast 5 STARS & write an awesome review! It helps your hosts so much! PS: Mimi loves stars
* Podcast Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. We may earn a commission from the links listed in this description.
Speaker 1:
Every entrepreneur has like their own set of tools that they use on their phone or, you know, on their computer or whatever. So it's nice you know to hear, like, what you use, because I didn't know half the stuff that you mentioned. So yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 3:
It's Coffee Social, the podcast, all about social media and business. And now here are your hosts, jonathan Howard and Mimi.
Speaker 2:
Langley, hey, everyone.
Speaker 1:
Hi Jonathan Howard. Hello Mimi Langley Wait, say that again. Hello Mimi Langley. Oh my gosh, you guys. Welcome to Coffee Social Welcome. Of course, we're really stinking excited for this episode because we're going to be talking about tools and apps that we use all the time. But real quick, jonathan, we do want to just throw this out there. If you're able to, please rate the podcast, we would love it. It really helps podcasters out, like you have no idea. Even just you giving five stars helps so much. If you're on Apple or Spotify, give us those five stars. If you're on Apple, you're able to leave a review. We would love it, even if you just want to write. I really love this podcast. It's helped me so much. Boom Period Done. We really appreciate it, you guys. So I just wanted to throw that out there just in case you haven't been thinking about it. Probably not right.
Speaker 3:
Because we always talk about it a lot in the next episode. Oh, okay, Well it wouldn't be coffee social first.
Speaker 1:
It wouldn't be right, it wouldn't be coffee social without the coffee part. So cheers my friend, cheers, cheers everyone. Look how that.
Speaker 3:
I mean, it looks even good Like the cup is sweating and everything. Well, that's tell people what it is.
Speaker 1:
What is that contraption? It's just cold brew.
Speaker 3:
It's cold brew and coconut milk.
Speaker 1:
Okay, I love it. So why don't we jump into it? Because we do have quite a lot of tools and apps we use.
Speaker 3:
We did list a lot there.
Speaker 1:
Yes, Guys, I'm looking. If you're on YouTube, I just showed you like my two pages worth of this. But real quick, you want to introduce yourself.
Speaker 3:
Just in case it's someone's first time at Coffee Social, I do not, I'm sorry, they are going to have to look it up on the internet. My name is Jonathan Howard. I'm the owner of Success on Social and I help successful female coaches reach their ideal clients on social media through short form video, sharing their story and eventually changing the world.
Speaker 1:
Hey everyone, I'm Mimi Langley. I teach women in business how to host rooms, how to moderate on social audio that includes LinkedIn audio and Clubhouse to really grow your business from the ground up. So that's what I teach and preach about Jonathan Howard. Let's jump into today's episode. Let's talk about two apps that we use all the time for business. Let's talk about Canva. This is a big one that we use. I mean, I know I use it all the time. You have Canva Pro, right, I have Canva the free version.
Speaker 3:
I have Canva Pro. Yeah, I love Canva Pro.
Speaker 1:
Let's start with just Canva. What is it? Just in case you've never been there before, it is the easiest way, in my opinion, to make any type of graphic you want to make. You can even go as far as even doing video now on there, but with the basic posts like if you want to create a Facebook or Instagram post it's so easy. They even have the dimensions for your post to make it fit perfectly on the app of your choosing and it's just really easy to grab things and drop them in there, change colors, put nice fonts. It really I know it was a female who Shout out to the women who created Canva. I know it was a female who shout out to the women who created Canva. I swear it was. We need to Google it and put it in the show notes. It is a woman.
Speaker 3:
It is a woman. Okay, I didn't know that. It is yes, I thought it was a family company, so that's why I didn't know.
Speaker 1:
Oh my gosh, I hope I'm not lying to everybody, I swear. But anywho, I think why Canva is so near and dear to my heart is because I use it for not only my social media posts but for my digital products that I sell. Okay, you guys, my very first digital product I ever sold. I created a workbook for Clubhouse and I created it through Canva. Just know and again, I use the free version you can create something without having to necessarily pay for, like a monthly service fee. Did you want to talk about Canva? I know we were going to say like, some people can even create their own logos, like your business logo, but do you want to give us a like? Why?
Speaker 3:
Well, yeah, what I'll say is you can create, and if you've got a very basic logo, you could create it on there. But the thing is, if you use any elements that Canva owns in your logo, then you could have trouble down the road. So, generally, you're going to want to get there. There are times when you get a graphic designer and there's times when you do it yourself. And if you're doing a logo, get a graphic designer. If you're doing your brand kit, get a graphic designer. They're going to do things that you don't even think of and you're going to need in the long run.
Speaker 3:
So, yes, it can be expensive, but don't DIY your logo. That is, you know, that's the mark of your brand. All those things are really important. So get a graphic designer to do that and make sure that they have all the rights for the stuff that they're using. The other thing I was going to say about Canva is I love it. You can create all those tools, all those freebies and all that stuff with it. I also, because I have the paid version, can create websites with it, and I actually use websites. You can.
Speaker 1:
What do you mean?
Speaker 3:
You know the Reels report that I send out every month.
Speaker 2:
For your membership yeah.
Speaker 3:
Yeah it's a link with a password and it goes to a private website that you guys only have access to. The people in my membership have access to. That's it, and you open it up. It plays the videos. It links to other things. If needed it, you open it up. It plays the videos. It links to other things If needed. It's all right there. So I love to do that with my free products and my report because it's interactive and it makes it much easier.
Speaker 1:
Wow, see, there's so much to explore on Canva. If you've ever gone to Canva, usually for me I always use the same stuff over and over again. I never really click all the buttons, but I really need to get in there, because now they even have Canva AI Like they're really like, isn't it? Yeah, ai is part of it too now, I think maybe for the pro, but yeah, yeah, for the pro. Also, the other thing, too is when I create like anytime I do like a digital product for the confirmation page, sometimes I'll put links. I'll make the confirmation page right within Canva, download that as a PDF and I'll have links in there and they're clickable. So there's so many different ways you can use Canva, you guys. Okay, we'll go ahead and talk about the next thing. And we both have iPhones. So I don't know, do you use this? I use the Notes app on my iPhone.
Speaker 3:
I use Notes app a lot. I use it to copy and paste hashtags. I use it to copy and paste captions. I have an entire folder in Notes that is nothing but captions that I previously used. So if I need to pull a caption again and reuse it, I just pull that caption, reuse it and then I have hashtags in there and then I have obviously notes for myself, just things that I need to make sure I'm doing checklists, that sort of thing. Although I do miss my checklist app. They don't use it, microsoft ate it up and now it's not available anymore.
Speaker 2:
It makes me sad. I used to love Wunderlist.
Speaker 3:
It was my favorite.
Speaker 1:
I haven't found anything that's anywhere near as good as it. Well, if you guys know of any that are similar, let us know in the comments section. I know there's comments on YouTube. If you watch the YouTube video or you can let us know on Instagram, we would love to know.
Speaker 1:
For me, I'm thinking of the Notes app. That's where I put a lot of my content ideas, because I'm I mean, come on, we're always on our phone, right? We're not always near our laptops. So you know, I like to put all of my content ideas on there. Um, I love putting all of my titles, cause I do a lot of social audio. So I like putting all the titles in there, because I always reuse and repurpose my titles, captions, descriptions, maybe if I'm like I don't know, at an appointment waiting for the doctor, or something like that. I'm just throwing out an example. I like to be able to write my email and sometimes I'll just write what I feel like is going to go into the email, or even email subject lines. I'll put that all in the notes app. So I don't know, I don't know if it's convenience or what it is, but it works.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, well, I like it for, especially for Instagram, because if you're writing a caption and you're on the go and you close the app, you lose the caption. Almost nine times out of 10, you lose the caption because something happens. Somebody sends you an Instagram message and it pops open and then you lose the caption that you're writing and people me personally like I hate that. It makes me crazy. So I always do my captions and notes and then I copy and paste them over and it's not. There's people out there saying that that's a reason why you're not getting reach and that's a load of crap. We won't go into that, but that's a load of crap.
Speaker 1:
Oh, wow, yeah, I have heard that little rumor.
Speaker 1:
Okay so that's the notes app on your phone. So I'm sure Android has something similar. But whatever's going to be convenient for you to store all that stuff, have it on your phone as well as your computer, right, depending on where you are. Okay, why don't we go ahead? We have to keep the lights on, obviously at coffee social, right. So why don't we go ahead and roll some commercials for you guys, really quick commercials for you, talks about Jonathan's membership real quick, and what I have to offer, and then we'll be right back.
Speaker 3:
All right.
Speaker 1:
Take it away.
Speaker 3:
Tired of being overlooked? On social media, ready to be seen in the crowded marketplace, attract your ideal clients and increase your impact. Decision to Membership combines all the tools you need to level up your presence, share your powerful stories and have a bigger impact in the world. See the link to join in the show notes.
Speaker 2:
I don't know if you're like me, but I'm a busy mom with big dreams. I feel like I have no time in the day to write my book or start my blog. That's why I signed up for the Girl You've Got this Action Over Perfection community. It includes dedicated co-working sessions to get things done, brainstorming sessions so you don't drive yourself crazy, and social audio trainings to learn more about gaining visibility and making sales. No-transcript.
Speaker 1:
Okay, thank you, guys, so much for listening to that and watching it. Okay, let's continue on. We're talking about tools and apps that we use all the time in our business. Of course, we have our social media apps.
Speaker 3:
Right, that's like a daily thing, probably A daily thing, multiple times daily, yeah.
Speaker 1:
What about? Okay, so I'm Clubhouse LinkedIn, instagram and Threads. Those are like my four.
Speaker 3:
I am, and I don't think you need four. I am Instagram Clubhouse, a little bit Facebook group, a little bit LinkedIn, right now, Okay, where's threads? I don't. I hate threads.
Speaker 1:
Next Next, an app that we use all the time to really communicate, not just between us. To really communicate not just between us, but also for doing collaborations, we'll use WhatsApp and that one.
Speaker 3:
I heard your gulp. Not only did you hear my gulp, but I was afraid I was going to leave myself a milk mustache. Let's reset again.
Speaker 1:
No, that's the real deal. You better keep this in the episode. Yeah, but no WhatsApp. I feel like we use it a lot for communication, so is that something you're checking that every day, Because we talk to each other on there?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I check it every day. There are times that it gets overwhelming. There are times it gets overwhelming and I don't check it. We have so many messaging apps as entrepreneurs it's a little bit crazy. I don't know where the messages are coming from sometimes, so I'm like, oh shit, yeah.
Speaker 2:
I oh shit.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I didn't Gosh how many messaging apps do you have?
Speaker 3:
There's WhatsApp. There's signal. There's clubhouse, which to me is sometimes a mess. I get messages on there. There's Instagram messaging you, facebook messaging.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it's a lot, and then I got to check many chat and all that stuff, which I include many chat in the, which it should be on our list, okay, okay, well, go ahead and say it ManyChat. So what is ManyChat? Just give us a real. Manychat helps you. Yeah, manychat helps you automate your DMs on Instagram and Facebook by allowing you to set like send me if you've ever heard the send me this word, if you want this. That's what ManyChat does. It actually sends the messaging out and then it captures their information, so you have it on your list as well.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, you know what. Then it captures their information so you have it on your, your list as well. Yeah, and you know what's so cool? Like it's taking off. Like, if you're ever on Instagram, there's like you see a post and it has like 500 comments. It's usually people commenting one word and that goes to their many chats. So they get a DM and they're yeah, and their IG, um, okay, really awesome. Okay, google drive, that's a huge tool, not only for this podcast, but that's a huge tool not only for this podcast, but that's like my whole life is on google drive spreadsheets yep my whole life is on google drive.
Speaker 3:
Shout out to google yeah, my whole life is probably out on google drive as well, especially since I use the google home for stuff like, like, I can have it put information on my in my drive about this, about that. So, yeah, I use google drive a lot. We use google drive a lot for the podcast, um, and I use it also for because I'm not. I have photos in dropbox, but that's the only other storage I really use.
Speaker 1:
Well, no, icloud, icloud dropbacks oh gosh, don't even ask jonathan how much is icloud is? Um, yeah, that'll be on the Patreon. No, but really the Google Drive. It's free for the most part unless, like of course, you go over your storage or something. So Google Drive-.
Speaker 3:
Right, and if you have a business email, then you have unlimited storage in your drive. I have 700 gigabytes used and there's no limit, yeah.
Speaker 1:
You have 740 gigabytes used Wowzers Okay Well, but listen, it doesn't have to just be storage, right, like a lot can come from Google Drive. There's Google Docs, which I have done. Actually, I've sold digital products and made some of the digital products inside of a Google Doc and share that Google Doc with people. So I mean, there's so many avenues that you can use Google Drive for the other one. I know we both use this ConvertKit when we want to send emails to our people.
Speaker 1:
I love ConvertKit, did I influence you to get on ConvertKit.
Speaker 3:
No, it wasn't. But I had been on whatchamacallit MailChimp forever and it was getting really annoying because it just doesn't do what it. It's a great starter tool. It's a great starter tool. If you're starting your email list, you don't want to pay and you want to have good features, use MailChimp. But after some time, when you want to actually start building like actual hey sequences, this is what you want to do, you want to get them through these emails. It does not do that at all, not easily at least, and yeah. So that's when I switched over to ConvertKit, which was right around the start of Clubhouse, and I've been on ConvertKit for about three years.
Speaker 1:
Okay, yeah, I've been on there for a while and I will say I did start on MailChimp. I started on MailChimp and they are. I think they even have sequences now. I mean they are growing.
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Probably because so many people are probably requesting it. But yes, convertkit is one that we use. We get that question. I mean, I get that question a lot service to use. So, convertkit, you guys, we'll put all of the links in the show notes or, if you're on YouTube, we'll put it in the description for you so that it's easy for you guys to click. They may be affiliate links, so we'll put that disclaimer also in the show notes. If it is, if we make a little bit of commission off of it, we'll disclaim that. So okay, photo editing you added this to the list. I totally forgot about this. I use Lightroom when I'm editing a photo.
Speaker 3:
I use Lightroom, I use Photoshop Express for a lot of it and I also have one that I use because I obviously do somewhat more artistic renditions of photos. He's showing his photos right now, by the way. By the way, please note that they all have prices on them, if you'd like.
Speaker 1:
I love that. Just reach out to me, that's New York City. Right, a lot of those. Yeah, it's New York City. I love that New York City.
Speaker 3:
But anyway, Skylum has a product called Luminar Neo and I use that for a lot of my editing. It has a lot of AI mixed into it. It allows me to do some fun filters and stuff like that lot of AI mixed into it. It's, it allows me to do some fun filters and stuff like that. But I do use Photoshop Express a ton because I have a lot of the photos on my phone, prepping them, getting them ready for putting them on, you know, underneath the post, because I use them that way. So that's, those are two that I use for that and I also did video ones. Should I hop into the video ones, Mimi?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, just real quick Photo editing what you could even edit some of your photos right in Instagram. You can use stories to edit your photos.
Speaker 2:
Yep, that's just like an inside tip, or?
Speaker 1:
Canva or Canva Canva. Yes, okay, go ahead. Yeah, video, let's talk video.
Speaker 3:
Video. Capcut and the Captions app are the two that I use the most and I like them. Don't listen to me you will not get the features, the fonts, all the things that you need for an updated feel of a movie on iMovie. Try CapCut or the Captions app.
Speaker 1:
Listen, listen to Jonathan Howard on video editing, please. He knows what he's doing. I will always stand by iMovie. Shout out to Apple. Okay, we have here for community, which I love this. So my community. I'm launching a community right now. Unless it's already been launched by the time you're listening to this, All the links will be in the show notes and description. I'm putting my community, I've decided I'm putting them on like a private Facebook group. That's how we'll be connecting with each other. You, on the other hand, your community, is on Discord, which is interesting.
Speaker 3:
My community is on Discord and I do love Discord for a lot of what I can do on it. So I can have video meetings on there, I can teach a webinar on there, I can have just audio only rooms on there, and then what else works really well for me is I have a couple of different levels of my membership so I can gate based on what they're, what they, what level they are. So, like my signature members which is really people looking for help, storytelling and sharing you know, sharing their story on social media with reels and stuff like that my signature membership has a certain tag and they can see all the stuff inside the signature membership, but the people that are below signature can't see that. So it's really great to have it all in one place, because on Facebook the only way to do that is to have multiple groups, so that solves that problem and then you can run the classes and all that sort of stuff on there.
Speaker 3:
So I do love Discord. It's ugly as sin, it's ugly as sin.
Speaker 1:
It is pretty ugly yeah.
Speaker 3:
But it works.
Speaker 1:
I wish that they would just let you change your own background color, or something like make it look. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:
You can actually now. You can. That's an available feature now.
Speaker 1:
Yes, Okay, I like love that, you, I love that it's all in like, all in one, like you're saying with me, mine's like the facebook group, and then I go on and I use zoom whenever we have to do video together. So right I mean, I could do facebook video, but you know when. Anyways, it's easier on zoom. Um, okay, oh, you have. Oh my, I didn't even think about this, but you put down web browser, that's like a given no-transcript. Oh, that's you, that's you 100%.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, if you are like that and you want, like, actual workspaces for your browser, the Arc browser and this is one that was recommended by my coach is an amazing. Amazing because you can have workspaces and you can put all the tabs that you usually go to in one place down the side and just always have those things available for you, so you don't have to keep all the tabs open up top and it gets so small that you're like wait what? I can't even see what the name of this tab is that I have opened, you know.
Speaker 1:
I've got way too many. Is the Arc browser like Chrome, like Safari? Is that what we're talking about when we say browser?
Speaker 3:
Yes, so, you can download the Arc browser and it works on top of Chrome. So it's pretty much a Chrome browser, but it works on top of it.
Speaker 1:
It's like an extension.
Speaker 3:
Not really, because it's the browser itself. It's sort of it's weird. But check out the ARC browser. I really actually am liking it. It keeps me from having the mess up top and I can keep it a little bit more organized.
Speaker 1:
Okay, and you know what my question is going to be. Is it it's free, ding, ding, ding. We need to have like a little bell or something. Oh my gosh, I love that. Free. Okay, so the last one we have here. You guys, as if we haven't given you enough, you're like I need to download all of these. Okay, I've never heard of this one, gemini. What is that?
Speaker 3:
So again, if this is somebody who has like 9 million photos on their phone, that's Jonathan Howard, like me, and you're annoyed because you know you have duplicates in there and my coach is really big on cleaning. At the beginning of the year, so our January project was to clean things like our phones and our computer desktops and stuff like that. So I found it and in one day I was able to remove 40,000 photos, 40,000 duplicates from my yeah, and it just it goes through and it sorts it and it gives you like little reports that allow you to see what all the things are. Let me see if I can find it really quickly.
Speaker 1:
Were you nervous, though, that it would mess up and like delete things that you I was terrified, yeah, terrified. That would be what I would be terrified of. Yeah, butified, that would be what I would be terrified of, yeah.
Speaker 3:
Like it'll give you, like similar it'll give you here.
Speaker 1:
Let me show you really quickly Show people that photo again, cause that's your big notebook.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, well, it's there still. Um, like, okay, your library, it'll show you the duplicates, it shows you the videos, it shows you screenshots, it shows you all that and you can go through all of those and see and select some for deleting and stuff like that. It's actually really nice. It was 40,000 photos out of 180,000, almost 200,000 that I had.
Speaker 1:
That's a lot, that's a lot of photos, but you are a photographer, I mean, so it makes sense. That's awesome. Maybe I'll check it out again.
Speaker 3:
I get nervous, but, um, if a lot of people are, really, it's a really good job and it and it lets you select if you want to delete it or not. You don't have to just delete it. It won't go in and just delete it all.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so we'll take over and just do it. Yeah, okay, that's good.
Speaker 3:
Okay, well, jonathan Howard, oh my God, are we at the?
Speaker 1:
end already. I feel like I just ran a marathon.
Speaker 3:
We're a little all over the place today, but hey, we'll clean it up, you'll be good.
Speaker 1:
No, it was so good. I mean honestly, like this is. It's always everybody, every entrepreneur, has like their own set of tools that they use on their phone or, you know, on their computer or whatever. So it's nice to hear what you use, because I didn't know half the stuff that you mentioned.
Speaker 3:
So that's cool and it's fun stuff to kind of go over and compare notes and all that stuff. Everybody needs a tech stack that works for them and however it works for them because there's so many different options out there and I know there's email and CRMs and we didn't even give a CR crm, which will another day okay.
Speaker 1:
Well, we'll go ahead and wrap it up, jonathan, because I know we'd like to make these episodes digestible, so do you want to go ahead and give your spiel?
Speaker 3:
my spiel. You took my spiel. You did it at the beginning of the damn episode. Anyway, yes, she took my spiel, by the way that was him trying not to swear at me.
Speaker 3:
Okay, go ahead if you haven't already given us a five-star rating and you've enjoyed what you've heard today, make sure you go on wherever you listen to podcasts and give us five stars, because Mimi loves her stars and if Mimi doesn't get stars, she cries. So also, you can follow us on YouTube, follow us on Instagram, follow us I think Mimi is going to put us on threads and Pinterest and everywhere she wants to be, because she wants to spread herself too thin. And with that, mimi, back to you.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, guys, so much for watching and listening. We'll go ahead and end this with the most important question of them all, and that is no wait wait, wait, a minute.
Speaker 3:
Are you, are you, are you?
Speaker 1:
team mimi or team jonathan oh cheers. I think this episode deserves like five cheers. We don't need to see your milk mustache. Thanks for watching. Oh gosh. Bye jonathan howard, bye mimi langley, bye guys, bye everyone, bye everyone.