Hey Reader

 

Earlier in the year, I launched a quiz. Maybe you took it?

 

I was using a quiz platform at 50% off for 3 months. Enough time to trial it, see if it worked for me and decide if I wanted to continue at full price.

I'm not gonna lie, it was a sh*t ton of upfront work to build. And my assumptions around the quiz results were off.

But the results told me something interesting. The women who answered the quiz knew what they wanted. Their message was clear. They needed help with strategy.

Still, I didn't get the payoff I'd hoped for. So I ditched it.

Half price is still money. And it made me look properly at everything else that leaves my account every month.

Most of it stayed. Because most of it earns its place.

So here's something new. Once a month, I'm going to share the real stuff I use to run my business. No fluff, no sponsored nonsense. Just the tools I'd be lost without.

None of them are fancy. Here's what stays in my stack 👇

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the tools that run my business

If my laptop died tomorrow, these are the first four I'd log back into.

1. Claude

My Claude subscription is the one I'd fight for. I taught it to sound like me, and now it helps me gather research, brainstorm ideas and edit.

It's also how I build my beta founders' systems. The skills that mean their marketing doesn't start from a blank page every single week. There's a free version and a paid tier.

→ Try this: Pick one thing you write every week, like a caption. Give Claude three examples of your own writing first, then ask. Notice how much closer it gets to sounding like you. Tell Claude “Not like that, like this”. Keep tweaking it until you’re happy.

2. Miro

Miro is a great tool for visualising a process. I'd be lost without it when doing my beta trials with my test users. It helps me create agendas, gather insights, visualise workflows and then capture them with Claude to improve the process. My whole Brand & Bloom playbook lives on one board.

→ Try this: Map one process you repeat, like onboarding a client, as sticky notes from left to right. The step that makes you sigh is the one to fix first.

3. Kit

Kit sends this email to you, and it lets me track everything.

When I cut my list by 58% this summer, Kit is how I could see what really happened. My open rate went from around 20% to over 55%. More of you read this now than when my list was more than twice the size.

→ Try this: Look at your last five emails or posts. Find the one that got the most clicks. Write the next one a little more like that.

4. Canva

I would be lost without Canva. Every carousel, every template, every design I make for my founders starts there. I used Adobe for years and was slow to convert to Canva, but since I did, my designs are way easier to manage. Did you know that with a Pro Canva account, you can even use it as a scheduling tool?

→ Try this: Next time you finish a design, schedule it straight from Canva instead of downloading it. One less tab open.

One to think. One to see. One to send. One to make it beautiful. That's the whole engine, really.

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2 tools that help my life

✦ Glo

Yoga for maintaining my sanity. Thirty minutes, three times a week, where I get to be a student again.

→ Try Glo with my link

✦ The UK's most awarded collagen

Collagen is needed for healthy skin, hair, nails, joints and bone, and levels decline naturally from our mid-twenties onwards. This is the UK's most awarded liquid collagen and it’s won over 60 industry awards. I love it.

→ Try Kollo & save 30%

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