I love learning about different programs and products other creators use, and I’ve found so many helpful things because of that. So, today I wanted to share what I use to keep this ship sailing smoothly.

DIGITAL PROGRAMS:

Evernote — I learned about this during my senior year in college, but didn’t really start using it until FemmeHead came along. But now, it is my everything! It’s where I write everything, make lists, you name it. It all starts in Evernote. It is a place to write and organize text documents. Like Word but so much better in my opinion.

Squarespace — In college I made websites with Wordpress, but since discovering and using Squarespace for FemmeHead I can’t imagine going back. It made creating a website that was simple and aesthetically appealing so so easy.

Gmail — You’ve all heard of this, but I didn’t start using it until this past year. I know, what was I doing with my life!? I love that I can have all of my emails from three different accounts in one place. I have my old personal email, my new personal email, and my FemmeHead email. And having it all in one place makes it so much easier to keep up with.

MailChimp — This is how I send out my weekly email to everyone and how I send out my email courses as well. Another must-have.

GumRoad — This is the program I use to sell my courses and coaching. They take care of the payment processing and everything.

Zapier — This is one of those middleman programs, and learning about it made life so much easier. So, when someone goes from my site to GumRoad to register for a course, Zapier is what connects that registrant back to my MailChimp account so they can receive the lessons when the course starts. And while I just use it to connect my GumRoad to my Mailchimp it can act as the connector between all sorts ofother programs and apps.

Unsplash — This is where I get all of the images for my website. I almost don’t want to share it because it’s that good.

Hootsuite — This is what I use to schedule social media posts on Facebook and Twitter. I had a lot of troubles with using it for Instagram because Instagram won’t other programs post automatically to your account for you. So for Instagram, I post manually still.

Canva — I’m learning the Adobe editing programs, but I discovered Canva at the start of FemmeHead when I was trying to create a header in the correct size for my YouTube channel. And now I use it for all my editing needs. I create thumbnails, social media posts, green screen overlays for my videos, everything.

iMovie — This is what I have always edited my videos on. It’s simple, easy and because I’ve been using it for so many years I can edit my videos in my sleep.

YouTube Create tab — This is where I get the music for my videos. If you go to your creator studio for your channel on the left-hand side you’ll see “create” and then there’s a ton of music, and it tells you whether you need attribution or not for that song on YouTube. Once I discovered this it made finding music for videos so much easier.

Etsy — This is what I use to sell my FemmeHead merchandise. So far I’ve sold tote bags and shirts here, and plan to do more this spring. And it makes creating shipping labels super easy for sending the items out.

Asana — I just discovered this in the past month. I think it would be awesome for group work, but I use it to create my social media calendar. I can have when I want to post what, a place for what I want to post and I can click “complete” when it’s posted, which is oh so satisfying. Being consistent on social media is something I’ve struggled with and while I’m still not perfect this helps so much.

Calendy — This was another recent discovery, and it makes scheduling appointments, calls, etc. so much easier than going back and forth via email. It syncs with your Google Calendar, so it knows your availability and then you can just send a person the link to your Calendy and they can choose a time that works for them.

PHYSICAL PRODUCTS:

Canon t5i — This is the camera I bought when I decided I wanted to start a YouTube channel. Spending over $500 was a big thing for me (and still is). But if I had to go back I’d buy the same camera. I wanted one that could both take videos and photos. Not to mention it’s just super simple to use and learn how to do things on.

Canon g7x — This camera joined the family last summer, and it’s a loved addition. I wanted something more portable for travel, and I wanted to start vlogging, both of which are hard with my big t5i. And I absolutely love my g7x. I love that it can fit easily in my backpack, pocket or hand.

GoPro Hero Session — This was a wedding gift, but it gets plenty of use. Mostly when we travel because it’s so tiny and waterproof. My only complaint is that I wish it had some sort of built-in stabilizer. I wish I could use it to film while running and not have completely unusable, shaky footage. But it’s really easy to use while you’re doing any sort of activity.

MacBook Pro — This was another big purchase for me. It’s my third laptop I’ve ever owned. My dad bought me an HP as my high school graduation gift, which died during midterms or finals my senior year (talk about stressful). Thankfully a family friend was looking to sell his old 2006 MacBook Pro, and so I got it for $400. That lasted me for a few years until about 6 months into starting FemmeHead when I realized I needed a faster laptop for making videos. And that’s when I bought my current MacBook Pro, which has been the apple of my eye ever since. I’m a total Mac girl.

Tripod (from Best Buy) — I got this for $30 a few months into starting my YouTube channel. It was a hassle to stack up books to prop my camera up on for videos. It was cheap and one of the legs snapped off a few months into using it. Thankfully I only ever use it at home so taping the leg back on keeps it pretty secure for a few months at a time.

Joby GorillaPod — I wanted a small tripod for travel and just something that was more mobile. And it has come in pretty handy when I vlog around the house. But I don’t use it as much when we travel as I thought I would.

Rode Mic — This was another big purchase for me. I wanted to step up my audio game. And this is the pretty standard microphone for YouTubers.

Blue Yeti Mic — This is actually my brother’s really nice microphone, but I borrow it when I need to do podcast interviews or anything when I want good audio. I definitely enjoy having access to it.

Transcend SD cards — These have been my favorite SD cards.

Seagate Drive — I love this external hard drive. I actually need to buy another one because I've filled up my 1TB so far. This is where I store documents, photos, video or anything I want to keep long-term.

Rhodia Dot Journal — This is what I use for my bullet journal, which is pretty crucial to what I get done for FemmeHead. Making the switch from a standard planner to a bullet journal was a big moment for me, and I highly recommend it.

iPhone — And last but not least, my phone. Pretty standard, but I use it for social media and photos, even though it has like zero storage on it. I’ll definitely take that into consideration when it comes time to get a new phone in the future.

Are there any products or programs I’m missing out on that would make my life oh so much easier? I’m all ears. What are the things you use to make life a breeze?