Essential Tools

Over the past few years, I have invested a significant amount of money and time into a lot of different software platforms and digital marketing tools.  It seems like there are a million choices for everything that you could need and new options are being added to the mix daily.  This is my current list of favorite platforms that I actually use in my business and they have been vital to the success of this business.  If I ever find something better to replace one of these, I will simply delete the old recommendation and replace it with the new one.  As you will notice, there is a button to try each software that I have listed here.  Many of these buttons are affiliate links, which means I may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase. None of the prices have been increased to help make me more money.  Is that honest and transparent enough for you?

ClickFunnels is possibly the most important software that I use.  My business is focused on helping entrepreneurs and agencies design, build and optimize their sales funnels…and I exclusively use ClickFunnels for my landing pages, cart pages, etc.  You can do ALL of you digital marketing automation with this one platform and once you use it a bit, you will love how easy and powerful it is.  I have made tens of thousands of dollars helping others use this software too.  Believe the hype, it is a must have for every business that wants to grow its list and convert more leads to paying customers.  It also has the best affiliate program that I have ever seen!

I started with MailChimp for my email marketing and then I realized that I hated the platform.  It wasn’t super powerful and it is a bit limited in what it can do.  I also always felt like “the chimp” was silently mocking me.  Paranoid perhaps?  I eventually migrated over to Actionetics, in the full suite of ClickFunnels, and finally, I tried ActiveCampaign.  It was love at first sight with me!  It is powerful, user-friendly and extremely visual with the automations and the sales pipeline.  I use ActiveCampaign to power the backend of all of my funnels and best of all it works very well with the ClickFunnels integration.  I am a Certified Consultant with them and work with the company on a variety of beta testing projects.  Already have ActiveCampaign and need some help?  Go here.

When Intentionally Inspirational first began it was actually just a blog where I wrote to inspire other people to build a business that they actually wanted to work in.  Once I was ready to start making money with the website, I quickly realized that it had a lot of limitations.  I did my research and knew that I wanted to migrate over to a WordPress.org powered website, but I didn’t know who to use for a host.  I read a few too many horror stories about some of the other big, well known web hosts so I went with SiteGround.  They helped with migration, their costs are reasonable and the chat support is world class.  I have called on them several times when I was in a crisis and they quickly resolved my issues.  I strongly recommend SiteGround for your web hosting and I can say that with complete confidence.

One of the first things that any entrepreneur needs is an email address with a  custom domain.  I am in disbelief that I still see entrepreneurs running their business with a “@gmail.com” email address or worse.  The cost is so low that it is just lazy not to make the upgrade.  I went from Gmail to GSuite because they look the same from within the inbox and it was crazy easy to do.  What I didn’t bargin for was all of the other tools that come in the package!  Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive, etc.  I use these tools all day, everyday in both of my businesses.   I would literally be a broken man if they tools went away tomorrow.  The integrations and zaps available (through Zapier) make this an essential tool for any business that operates online.