132 - 5 Essential Time-Saving Tools for Consultants and Entrepreneurs

Annette Richmond (00:05.39) Hi, I'm Annette Richmond. Thanks for joining me for this episode. If you're a consultant or entrepreneur like me trying to create content without a team, you know the drill.

You never have enough time. I have many friends in similar situations, small business owners, entrepreneurs. Not one of them ever complains about having too much time. So today I am going to share five of my favorite tools.

And the good news is that You can try almost all of them for free. Now, I've talked about tools before. Some of these, if you listen to this podcast regularly, you've probably heard about them before. And a couple of them are new tools that I found and quickly, quickly embraced.

And the first one is Wispr Flow. Now you spell this W-I-S-P-R Flow. And I had heard a lot of people talking about this. And so I decided finally, break down and give it a try.

And I will tell you, I love this tool. I use it every single day. You can dictate into it on virtually every platform. Now I use it to dictate into ChatGPT, into Claude, into if I'm writing a post on LinkedIn, I use it to email, everything.

And the simple truth is I can type Annette Richmond (02:21.696) The simple truth is that like most people, I speak much faster than I can type and Wispr Flow really works seamlessly across a lot of different platforms. As a matter of fact, I dictated the article that this podcast is kind of based on. And also I will say I've been writing for years, but one of my guilty secrets is that I am a really bad speller.

So Wispr flow not only types faster, it also spells better than I do. And it understands me way better than Siri. I don't know if you've ever tried to use voice on your phone, but you know, on your iPhone, but that is always a struggle for me. So as such, Wispr Flow has become one of my biggest time savers.

And I will tell you, you can get started with the free version, which is 2000 words per week on Mac or on Windows. The annual is 144 that I'm paying right now. I signed up for Pro after using it for just a few weeks. And again, it's one of my favorite tools.

The next thing that I want to mention is Metricool, which is M-E-T-R-I-C-O-O-L. Now, I had tried Metricool in the past. I've used a lot of different scheduling software and, you know, I tried it. I didn't see really what made it different, but I just recently went back to it.

Annette Richmond (04:35.498) One of the reasons that Metricool earned a place in my sort of toolbox is because it lets me post on TikTok, Instagram, Blue Sky, Threads, and YouTube all from one place. You can also post on LinkedIn. I just don't use it for LinkedIn.

But what makes it different from some of the other platforms that I've used is that it understands each platform. For example, if you post shorts on YouTube, you know that they need a title. So what you can do with a video on Metricool is upload the video and then edit it for each platform. And Metricool knows how many characters, if it needs a title as it does on YouTube.

So I'm not just cross posting, I am optimizing each video for each platform without having to put it in five different times. Annette Richmond (05:52.782) Now, Metricool does have a pretty solid free version. You can manage one brand and schedule 20 posts a month.

Now, I schedule more than that. So I upgraded to the Starter Pro, which is about $240 annually if you pay annual. Annette Richmond (06:16.642) Now I post more than 20 posts a month.

So I upgraded to one of their pro versions and the starter pro, which actually allows you to manage up to 10 brands, unlimited content publishing. They do have some spam guidelines. So to, you you can't just post a thousand posts because they want to make sure that you're not spamming people. But I will say for a solopreneur managing multiple platforms, it paid for itself really, really fast.

Annette Richmond (06:55.561) Now another platform that I love, I've been using this for a few years. You've probably heard me talk about it before and it's Opus Clip. Now I've also tried numerous different clipping tools over the years because I've been creating videos, my live shows for several years and Annette Richmond (07:24.

364) Now I've used a lot of different AI clipping tools over the last four years or so. by far to me, Opus Clip gives you the best results. know everyone doesn't love it, but I really do. And one of the reasons that I like it so much is that it numerically rates the clips.

that it creates based on engagement, based on what they consider the hook, the flow, the value, and whether or not it's trendy. So it really helps take the guesswork out of what might be, might get engagement on social media. And again, I have to say the quality of the clips that it produces is consistently for me the best I've found. Now it also has text-based editing similar to Riverside and Descript.

If you use either of those platforms, I know Descript is very popular where you can go in the clips and you can actually edit them in the text. But the truth for me is I rarely edit the clips at all because I'm generally very happy with the results. It also lets you create templates. So you pick the captions that you like to use.

Annette Richmond (08:53.71) It also allows you to create templates so you can choose the type of captions that you want to appear on your clips. And again, they have a free version which includes 60 processing credits a month. I've been using the Pro Plan for two or three years now and it's under $200.

Annette Richmond (09:54.008) I also want to mention that they recently introduced Agent Opus, which creates video clips. Now, if you've been using Sora, which is now gone, it's a similar type that it will create videos based on prompts or based on things that you upload. Annette Richmond (10:17.

044) I've had Opus Agent for a while because I subscribed to Opus Clip, but I've really just started playing with it. And I have to say that it's pretty interesting so far. Now, another long time favorite of mine is Text Expander, I have had Text Expander in my toolkit for years and... I'm surprised that more people don't mention it as one of their favorite tools.

Now, most people think of it for short phrases, email sign-offs, common responses, that kind of thing, but it's just as powerful for longer texts. Now, if you use AI, you know that you have to often start your prompts with a me prompt that describes who you are and who you work with, et cetera. So my Claude me prompt is in TextExpander. My networking chat intro with links to my LinkedIn profile and my Substack account that I use in chats if I'm on a group chat somewhere in TextExpander.

And just pitch templates in TextExpander. So if you are typing the same things over and over again and you have not tried TextExpander yet, I really highly recommend it. I will say that there is no free option, but the individual plan, which works for me, is like $3 and something every month or less than $40 for the year. So it is well, well worth the price for me.

Annette Richmond (12:15.074) The last one that I want to mention is Riverside. Now, it's very similar to Descript if you use Descript, and it's where I record all of my solo podcasts, and I have been recording my interview podcast in Restream, which is my live streaming tool, and I'm thinking of possibly moving them over to Riverside as well. Now my favorite thing about Riverside is the AI editing in their studio.

Of course it cuts dead space and filler words with a click and it also has sound correction and eye correction. But what I love most about it is it has this function called Find Fluff. And that's a tool that automatically flags mistakes that I made mid recording so that I can remove them with a click. For example, as I'm reporting my podcast, often I will make a mistake or stumble And then I pause as I would if I was recording a video and I then start recording with that line again.

And... Annette Richmond (14:17.314) When I go into the editing studio, Riverside will find all those mistakes where I've myself or started a sentence more than one time and flagged them for me. So all I have to do is review each one and then remove the extra text and extra video with one click.

It also generates summaries and highlights for most recordings. There's a time limit on that. If you record something for three minutes, it doesn't generate a transcript for that. And it also creates clips, but I will say that although I get clips from Riverside, I still use Opus Clip.

That's my favorite for clip creation. Now again, Riverside is one of those platforms that you can start for free. They have a free version available. The pro plan that I use is about 30 bucks a month.

And I will say that it's worth it for the AI editing tools alone.These are five of my current favorites. Now I hope that you will find them as useful as I do. Annette Richmond (16:47.

928) So to tie everything together, Wispr Flow, Metricool, Opus Clip, Text Expander, and Riverside are five of my favorite tools. I hope you'll find them as useful as I do. And I also want to add that I do have, I pay for all of these tools. I don't get any of them for free, but I do participate in their affiliate programs, which means if someone signs up for one of my links, then I would get a small commission.

And I recommend for you, you are using any kind of a platform or tool that you find helpful, find out if they have an affiliate program and then sign up for it. It's a way to make, you know, a little bit of extra here and there. So again, thanks for joining me for this episode. I hope you found it valuable.

I hope you find these tools helpful and... Annette Richmond (17:41.208) So again, thanks for joining me for this episode. I hope you find these tools as helpful as I do.

If you're an entrepreneur looking to save time, give them a try. And I'll see you next time.