My favorite 20 business apps

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THIS WEEK’S LESSON

These 20 apps help me run a legendary business.

I put a full day of work into this email. The writing was easy, but the videos took time. I wanted to show you how some of these apps — which might be new to you — work.

My goal is to over-deliver value and I recommend you star this email to come back to over the years.

I always say my free “stuff” is better than most people’s paid stuff. So I hope you see why.

For each of the 20 apps, I share:

• A basic description.

• How I use it.

• A video (if I thought you would benefit from a tutorial).

• And a sign up link. Some are affiliate links, most are not.

Each of these apps I’ve used for at least a year or more.

Let’s get to it 🏴‍☠️

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a CRM: Customer Relationship Management System.

I use Pipedrive to:

• Nurture relationships and keep track of important info about your clients/prospects

• Move deals along and close them

• Automate my calendar

• Automate onboarding

Here’s a 14-minute video showing you how I use it:

Ready to try Pipedrive and stop losing deals? Sign up here.

Beehiiv

Beehiiv was created by one of the founders of Morning Brew.

Morning Brew is a super entertaining and informative newsletter. It’s also a widely successful business model:

So a founder of Morning Brew created Beehiiv, and I love it because:

• Beautiful design

• Built for growth and monetization

• Has a ton of tools to understand (and therefore serve) your audience better

• Innovating and improving the product at a pace I’ve never experienced with other apps

Here’s a deep dive video in how I use it:

If you haven’t started a newsletter yet, or want to switch to Beehiiv, use this link. I’m happy to help you get up and running too if you get started with it 😉

Sanebox

Sanebox makes sure only important emails hit your inbox.

I use Sanebox to: keep the noise out of my inbox.

• Non-urgent emails go to a SaneLater folder

• Newsletters go to the SaneNews folder.

• People I never want to hear from again go to the SaneBlackHole.

• If I don’t hear back from someone: SaneNoReplies

  

The other folders I don’t use much

This is all automated by AI.

The best feature is that you can train Sanebox easily. Just drag an email from your inbox into a different Sane folder or vice versa and Sanebox just remembers.

Each day I get two Sanebox digests. 

You can see it’s separated into Later and News.

I open the Digest, scan the emails in less than 1-minute and see if there is anything I want to read or not.

I usually save about 4-hours per week using Sanebox.

And this image shows me the ratio of important vs unimportant email I receive:

IMPORTANT! If you try Sanebox, this email you’re reading will get filtered to your SaneNews folder. Make sure you drag the emails I sent from the SaneNews folder to your inbox, and you’ll be sure not to miss an issue 😉

Ready to save hours each week on email? Try SaneBox today.

Google Drive

Google Drive is my #1 place to create docs and sheets.

Here’s a 6-week email launch that generated $26K. Use it as a swipe file. I’ll be making this one better for the summer of 2025. I’ll probably also create a course on the topic of digital launches and content creation in the future (I’ve done more than 3 launches that were all $50K+).

Not including a sign up link because you probably already use it.

Basecamp

Basecamp is where I manage team projects: websites, landing pages, e-commerce, podcast, and so on …

Here’s an example checklist I use with my 3-person podcast team:

Here’s example communication in the comments section. You can see the team sharing info and links, audio files, and communicate the progress of going from the recording to published online.

Ready to start managing projects instead of projects managing you? Sign up for Basecamp here.

Zoom

I use Zoom for all my virtual events, coaching calls, and podcasts.

I’m sure you are familiar with it too 💻

So I’ll stop here. Worth the mention because I’m on it daily.

Not including a sign up link because you probably already use it.

Notion

Notion is a great way to organize your thoughts and keep notes.

I use it for:

• My packing list for travel

• House projects I need to do for the family

• Business dashboard

• Coaching client notes

• Even hosting digital courses

This is a 3-minute video on Notion.

Keep your notes organized. Sign up for Notion here. I use the free version.

Loom

All the videos in this email were made with Loom.

I do use the paid plan.

I use Loom for:

• no-production course content

• screen shares and tutorials

• personalized reach out videos to prospects

Say cheese 🧀 and get to recording. Sign up for Loom here.

Canva

Canva makes design easy.

I use it to create images for social, email, presentations, podcast, product mockups and so on …

Create beautifully designed content. Sign up for Canva here. I do use the paid version.

Fireflies

Fireflies is my AI assistant on virtual calls.

I use Fireflies to:

• record virtual calls and create transcripts

• for podcasts I create show notes

• from coach calls or sales calls I create content

• I also look to make sure I am not talking too much!

Here’s an 8-minute video showing you inside Fireflies.

Supercharge your virtual calls with an AI assistant. Sign up for Fireflies here.

Perplexity

Google created the category of Search. It shares the top results and it’s up to you to read and synthesize.

Perplexity created the category of Answer. Type in the same question you would Google and it summarizes the best info for you …

And provides links to where it is getting it’s info. I haven’t seen it hallucinate the info yet — a common problem with other LLMs like ChatGPT.

Google is now using Gemini trying to win the Answer war going on right now, but I use the free version Perplexity daily.

Remember when I was talking about Morning Brew earlier? I used Perplexity to figure out how much revenue they’ve been generating 💰

Use this link to answer 👉 Perplexity.ai.

Todoist

Todist is like my digital brain.

Any thought I have that is connected to an action, I drop in Todoist.

The best part is that it’s so smart.

Here’s a 2-minute video showing you how:

Never forget an important task again. Sign up for Todoist Pro here and get two months free (that’s the plan I’m on).

Mighty Networks

I run The Ruckus Maker Club on Mighty Networks.

I’m paying for the Path-to-Pro level because it has some courses, coaching, and a community involved with it. I also get better support as well.

You can white-label the app. That runs $20K or more. I think Path-to-Pro was around $3K. When The Ruckus Maker Club has enough members, I’ll consider white labeling. Right now it’s not a must have for a MVP.

I use Mighty to:

• create a space where Ruckus Makers Do School Different™

• share digital courses

• and tools

• I also host events: masterminds, 2-day virtual events, workshops …

• I might also explore running 5-day challenges inside too

Here’s a tour including the data insights you get (the best part for Former Educator Founders):

Ready to build your online community? Sign up for Mighty Networks here.

Claude

There are tons of AI tools out there to help you.

When it comes to content, Claude is my favorite tool. It writes better than ChatGPT and Gemini. And it writes 10x better than itself when you train it on how to write like you.

I use Claude to:

• create content for social and newsletters (but not this one — yet)

• create digital launches

• negotiate sales/deals … I often have it write in the voice of Chris Voss

• respond to emails

Here’s a video showing a 10-day email launch:

Train AI to write like you and create more content. Sign up for Claude.ai here.

Typeshare

Typeshare is a must have tool for speeding up content writing if you need ideas.

It was created by Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole — two legendary digital writers.

I use Typeshare to:

• create content fast with their template packs

• schedule out content to LinkedIn and twitter

• it has a super simple carousel designer too

Here’s a video showing you how I use it:

Need content ideas and want to write faster? Sign up for Typeshare here.

Cardd

Want a landing page up in just a few minutes? Use Cardd.

And it’s super cheap. I pay $19 for the year!

I built a very basic landing page for an event I’m hosting in my Ruckus Maker business.

Here is a short video on how to use Cardd:

Create a landing page in minutes. Sign up for Cardd here.

Hypefury

Hypefury is the best tool for scheduling posts to X.

You can also schedule stuff to LinkedIn, IG, FB.

There is inspiration and templates there, but I have yet to use them because Typeshare is so good.

The real reason I use Hypefury is for the autoplug and thread functionality. It’s kind of hard to describe the thread feature, so just watch this short video:

If you’re on X, this tool you need. Sign up for Hypefury here.

TextExpander

TextExpander allows you to create codes for anything repetitive you type.

For example, I type “xblbsweb” and voila — https://betterleadersbetterschools.com pops out.

You can also use codes to create a subject line and body of an email.

I show you how in this 2-minute video:

Never type repetitive stuff again. Sign up for TextExpander here.

Zapier

Zapier connects all your digital tools and makes them talk to each other.

For example, when a podcast client uploads a new episode to Dropbox I get an email and a to-do is created in Basecamp for my podcast team.

I launched The Ruckus Maker Club this summer. There is now a waitlist. So when someone fills out the GoogleSurvey I’m alerted in Gmail to reach out. I could easily add a step that would send an email to the person who completed the survey.

The options are nearly limitless.

Now, that I am moving my email list from ConvertKit to Beehiiv, I’ll need to connect The Ruckus Maker Club (run on Mighty Networks) to Beehiiv. That way when someone new joins, they have a contact created and tagged in Beehiiv.

Connect call your apps and make them talk to each other. Sign up for Zapier here.

Typeform

If I want a beautiful survey created, Typeform is the solution.

• It’s simple to use.

• You can personalize it (Ask for someone’s first name and then have the rest of the questions use their first name).

• You can add conditional logic (e.g. If the answer is “X” then provide “Y” question next)

• And you can connect it to Stripe to collect payments (I did this for my last live event)

Create beautiful surveys. Sign up for Typeform here.