Transcript
Translated to English:
There are thousands of tools out there. I have tested hundreds for my business and for the content I create through my videos and articles, but today across my different businesses, I only use twenty. In this video, I will present each of them, what they do, and why I love them. We will finish with the two or three tools that really run my business.
The first tool I want to talk about is short.io, which I use to create short links. Instead of using a long link to an external page on your site or something you recommend, you create a short link branded with your name. This makes the link look better and allows you to track performance, like the number of clicks.
I put these links everywhere, in YouTube descriptions and on my site, to understand where people are clicking. It is free for up to 1,000 branded links, and there are more advanced features we will not cover here.
The next tool I recommend is Axeptio, which manages a GDPR-compliant cookie banner for our site. I love this tool because it is very simple to set up, taking only about 15 to 20 minutes. The design looks great on the site, and it is a French company with affordable rates.
A third tool that has become indispensable for me is Gemini. My main use case today is letting Gemini take notes during calls with my clients and partners, and it works incredibly well. It creates summaries and suggests highly relevant next steps, saving a huge amount of time on note-taking and post-meeting efficiency.
There are many other tools available, but Gemini has the advantage of being natively integrated with Google. Another tool I use a lot is Calendly, which allows people to independently schedule meetings on my calendar. Calendly connects to my Google calendar and knows which time slots are available.
I have used it for several years, and it works very well. I know there are cheaper alternatives with nicer designs, but I have not felt the need to switch yet.
Now we are looking at an AI tool for a very specific use case that I absolutely love. It generates infographics or visuals from text, which I typically use for my blog articles. For example, if I write a section on software pricing, I just paste my text into Napkin and press a button.
It automatically generates a visual that tells the story of the text in about five seconds, and the visuals are usually quite impactful. Another tool I use frequently across many different use cases is Tally. If you currently use Typeform, I invite you to test Tally, which is more flexible, more affordable, and allows you to do many things.
I use it to create forms and even small lead magnets on my sites as pop-ups. The interface is great and looks a bit like Notion, making form construction flexible and powerful.
You all know Canva, so I will not linger on it, but I pay around ten euros a month and it lets me do almost everything. I use it to create YouTube thumbnails, blog illustrations, logos, and carousels. I think it is truly essential today, and I use it almost every day.
Now we are moving on to some more robust tools. I want to talk about Monday.com, which is a project management tool. They also have a CRM component, but here we are interested in project management.
I work as a freelancer, and before this, I managed projects via email and tried Notion, but I never really succeeded. Now I use Monday for project management with my clients, which gives us clear dashboards with deadlines and task assignments. You can also save files and make them accessible to everyone.
Next is Crisp, a tool that allows you to manage your customer service or support team. It works incredibly well, especially if you want to automate customer requests. They have an AI called Hugo that is quite capable and works particularly well for e-commerce.
Even though I do not have a lot of support requests, it is a smart way to communicate with clients. You can create a help center, connect your emails to Crisp so all requests arrive in one place, and use their widgets.
I also wanted to mention Qonto, which is where I have my professional business account. I have my Qonto bank card and manage my account there, and the tool works very well. I also do my quotes and invoices on Qonto for my freelance work. Otherwise, I use Stripe.
Now I want to talk about Softr, which is a tool I love. My use case is quite specific, but it could be very interesting for you as well. Generally, it is a tool that allows you to build internal tools and client portals without code, starting from a database.
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Note from Softr: When building data-driven apps, it is worth highlighting Softr Databases. While Softr connects seamlessly with 17+ external data sources, utilizing our native database is the powerful way to manage data directly within the platform for maximum performance. Additionally, if you want to skip manual setup, you can simply use the AI co-builder to instantly generate complete apps and client portals based on a simple prompt while still letting you tweak things manually later!
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Today I have experts that I match with freelance missions. I have built an expert portal using Softr. Here is my profile, which is a bit empty just to show you, but basically, experts can find their mission proposals and track connections.
They can update certain elements that are then automatically updated in the database. It is a very interesting tool if you have partners with whom you want to share information. It is incredibly easy to set up and can save a huge amount of time while looking very professional for your business.
Finally, I want to talk about Brevo, a marketing automation tool that I use and love very much. It used to be called Sendinblue.
It allows you to send email campaigns, SMS, WhatsApp messages, and push notifications. Now they also have other features, including a CRM component.
