Tools of the Trade
Tools of the Trade
The software, art supplies & tech i've used to create millions
Tools of the Trade
Every bit of tech, software and art gear I actually use to run my business and make my art. No theory, no wishlists — just the stuff that earns its keep.
Because we value transparency: there are affiliate links on this page. It doesn’t cost you a cent — it just means we get a thank you gift from the company if you buy through them. Yay!
Laptop
MacBook Air (2017 & earlier)
Confession: I have a particular obsession with MacBook Air laptops — specifically the older ones, with the smaller trackpad and non-clacky keyboard. Everything else gives me RSI. I still use my 2014 laptop, and bought a backup 2017 model that had been sitting unopened in a tech warehouse for three years. #oldschool
Phone
iPhone 11 Pro Max
My phones tend to last me years before I hand them down to my husband. We don’t see the point in keeping up with new releases unless there are game-changing features (or I’ve fucked my old phone irrevocably). I do love Apple’s Portrait feature with the three rear cameras for photography though.
Printer & Scanner
A3 Brother Printer/Scanner
We have a big A3 Brother printer/scanner unit, and to be honest, I don’t know if we’d bother buying that size again. It was helpful for scanning artworks bigger than A4, but I haven’t needed to do that in years — plus most of my artwork is created digitally now.
Tablet
iPad 10.2 inch
I fell in love with digital illustration in 2020, and quickly upgraded from a standard iPad to one of those big motherfucker 12.9 inch iPad Pros. But I personally found it too large and cumbersome to use constantly — so now it’s just for bigger book design projects, and I use my 10.2 inch iPad 95% of the time. They are GREAT!
Stylus
Apple Pencil
If you are at all interested in doing digital art, take my advice and skip all those other lacklustre, bodgy tablet styluses. I bought them all and did NOT fall in love with digital creativity until I had an Apple Pencil. They are MADE for making stuff with. The sensitivity! The compatibility! The pressure! DIVINE.
(Also: I have both the Apple Pencil and Apple Pencil II, and actually prefer the plain ole original. I am, indeed, a basic bitch.)
Audio
Gaming Headphones
I’ll be honest — I’ve bought a lot of fancy microphones over the years, and been frustrated by how tricky they are to set up each time. The ones I use over and over again? Gaming headphones my husband bought in a 2-for-1 deal. They make it easy for me to just… create.
E-reader
Kindle Paperwhite
I do 90% of my book reading on a Kindle Paperwhite now. I like that it’s backlit (for reading at night) and waterproof (for reading in the bath), and that I can shuffle thousands of books around with me at a time. I also collate all my highlights and notes onto Goodreads and use that as a research resource.
I just have the wifi (not cellular) version — the idea of an ad-supported Kindle makes me vom in my throat.
Laptop skins
Society6 Laptop Skins
I always decorate my laptops with skins from Society6 — like a colourful vinyl sticker for the top of your laptop. Sometimes I make my own design to amuse myself, sometimes I buy from other artists. They are all just so freaking SCRUMPTIOUS! Plus, removable!
Backpack
The Bondi Backpack
For years I used a calico shopping bag or oversized handbag as a Mobile Office to shove my laptop, iPad, journal and Kindle in. But then middle age struck and my shoulders were like FUCK YOU CREATIVE PACKRAT.
So I acquiesced and got a sensible Bondi Backpack from Wanderers Travel Co. I hope it makes me look more intrepid-but-stylish-traveller than teenage schoolgirl, but either way my shoulders have stopped yelling at me, so that’s a win.
Courses & cart
Kajabi
I use Kajabi for most things in my business: selling through their shopping cart, teaching my courses through their learning management system, and running my affiliate program.
I used to use it to send all my marketing emails too, but their send rates went completely borged and it made me very cross. I wish I could still use it for email — it makes things so much simpler to have an all-in-one system!
Email marketing
ActiveCampaign
I use ActiveCampaign to send all our marketing emails. Pros: good email deliverability rates, good customer service. Cons: it can be eye-wateringly expensive, and it insists on putting a logo on all email opt-in forms unless you pay double the eye-watering amount.
In related news, I think I need therapy about email delivery providers. Ahhhh, for the simple days when Mailchimp was enough!
Cloud & docs
Google Suite
We use the full Google Suite: email (including our domain-branded addresses forwarded through them), Google Drive for storing all company files, photographs, book designs, website designs and paperwork, and Docs, Sheets & Slides for creating everything else.
LOVE that it’s cloud-based, so I can work on the same document as my assistant at the same time and never worry about a computer crashing and losing important data.
Website platform
WordPress
If I was starting a website today, would I use WordPress? Probably not. It’s powerful but geeky and not super easy to use — if I was starting out I’d use something like Wix or Squarespace.
I’m not starting out, though. I’ve been blogging since 2004 and have thousands of posts in my archives, so out of pure necessity, WordPress is what I use.
Page builder
Divi
WordPress is powerful and also a complicated pain in the ass. If you’re going to use it, make sure you use a plugin like Divi so you can do plug-and-play website design with templates.
Hosting
WP Engine
I host my WordPress websites on WPEngine — they’re secure and fast. We made the shift because of their strong security measures, and because they manage the constant WordPress updates. So far we’ve been really happy with them!
Accounting
Xero
I use Xero as my accounting and financial management system. It’s about a thousand times easier to finangle than other accounting systems I’ve used before, and I love that it’s cloud-based — my accountants in Canberra can work on our accounts and I can check reports whenever I need to.
If you’ve got an accountant or bookkeeper, I’d recommend checking with them what software they prefer using with clients.
Graphic design
Canva
My assistant and I use Canva all the time to create new graphics for everything in my business. I love that they make design so much more accessible for small business owners — you can use it for free, and they have some great templates and layouts as well.
Plus, it’s super sexy that it’s helped make one of its founders the third richest woman in Australia.
Video calls
Zoom
I use Zoom for eCourse live calls, coaching calls, interviews and meetings with my assistant. I also really like that Zoom will automatically add captions, can do live transcription, and will record calls to either the cloud or your computer.
Digital illustration
Procreate
Procreate is the iPad app I use to do digital illustration. It’s blindingly good and used by most professional illustrators. And it’s simple enough to use that my kids love it too.
Notes & PDFs
GoodNotes
GoodNotes is the iPad app I use for taking handwritten (and illustrated) notes, signing documents, and annotating and studying PDFs.
Photo & layout
Adobe Creative Suite
I use Adobe Photoshop for editing photos, and Adobe InDesign for laying out my books for print. I also used Illustrator to clean up my pen-on-paper drawings, though most of the time I do them digitally now.
Scheduling
Calendly
Calendly is what we use to screen interviewers and book in interviews. It’s totally streamlined our booking process by automatically connecting to my calendar. All we have to do is send people the link — they book themselves in using their own time zone, get the Zoom link, and receive automatic reminders.
Transcription
Otter AI
We use Otter AI to create transcriptions and closed captions for our courses, videos and podcasts. We’ve also used Rev, Read AI and Loom for similar needs.
Project management
Asana
Asana is our project management software. My assistant uses it to manage her daily, weekly and monthly tasks (which I can add to whenever I need). We also use Asana to create templates for our launch SOPs.
Automation
Zapier
We use Zapier to connect Kajabi and ActiveCampaign. Whenever anyone purchases one of my eCourses, Zapier creates or edits their contact details in ActiveCampaign.
Social proof
TrustPulse
Have you noticed the little pop-ups in the bottom left hand corner of my website that pop up (HA!) every time someone purchases an eCourse? That’s TrustPulse! It works in realtime and is a great social proof tool.
Pop-ups & forms
OptinMonster
I use OptinMonster to create all the pop-ups, reminder windows and lead magnet forms on my website. It’s definitely made an increase in adding new people to my mailing list — and increased sales as well!
Countdown timers
MailTimers
Have you noticed the magic countdown timers we use in emails? On the sales pages? In the banners and popups? That’s MailTimers!
Podcast hosting
Anchor
Anchor is what we use to record, host and share the podcast to Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever else you might listen!
Social scheduling
SmarterQueue
Our social media scheduler! We’ve tried a few others in the past — SmarterQueue is the best fit so far.
Comment moderation
CommentGuard
Have you noticed an influx of spam comments on your social media (especially nasty links and gifs)? We did! We tried a few different options, but CommentGuard worked best — in combination with another app, NapoleonCat — at automatically moderating social media comments.
Comment moderation
NapoleonCat
NapoleonCat is another social media moderation tool that works brilliantly when paired with CommentGuard. Between the two, we’ve successfully stopped all spam so far!
DM automations
ManyChat
Another social media management app: ManyChat lets you set up automations triggered by commenting certain words on social posts. If you’ve ever seen someone post “Comment STAR and we’ll send you this freebie!” and then received a DM with the link — that’s most likely ManyChat.
Screen recording
Loom
Loom (not to be mixed up with Zoom) is a free online screen recorder. We mainly use it to film staff training videos — it films everything happening on your screen, which makes it a fabulous visual training tool. It also creates automatic transcripts, and videos can be shared via a link or downloaded directly.
Domains
GoDaddy
GoDaddy is what our domain (AKA leoniedawson.com) is registered through. They’re also a hosting site — you can build your website through it — but we only use GoDaddy for our domains.
Link in bio
Linktree
Social media has come a loooong way in terms of how many links you can have in your bio, but even now sometimes you just need one more. We use Linktree so we can point to sales pages, podcast episodes, summits, interviews, freebies and more.
Video editing
OpusClip
OpusClip is the editing software we use to create clips and videos. Super duper handy when you want to make short videos for social media!
Live chat
Chatra
Chatra is the cute live chat widget I use on my site so my humans can ask a quick question right there on the sales page — without closing the tab, going hunting for my email, and losing all their momentum. It saves so many almost-sales, because someone just needed one tiny answer before they hit buy!
Sketchbook
Mont Marte Sketching Journal
I have been using this exact style of journal since I was 16, when my incredible high school art teacher introduced us to the practice of keeping an art journal. It’s a cheap A4-sized hardbound journal with blank pages — and I like that it’s cheap, because it never feels like I’m wasting anything.
I have been drawing and collaging and painting and taking notes and writing in these since the dawn of time, and I will continue to until the end. They are my special place. Whatever kind of journal you use, I hope it becomes your special place too.
Brush pens
Japanese Kuretake Brush Pens
These babies make writing and drawing look wildly artsy. Kind of like drawing with a brush and paint — but it’s a PEN! You will instantly feel 100x more artistic when using one of these bad boyz.
Paint pens
POSCA Pens
Paint pens: be still my beating heart. These babies were the hot ticket item of my high school art room supply cupboard. There was a black market of them. THAT is how delicious they are. It still feels slightly thrilling and contraband to use them.
Watercolours
Winsor & Newton Watercolours
I lived out of this tiny set for years, and just swapped out a couple of the colours to make sure I had my favourites. Then I lashed out and got the Big Mother of sets. It’s also great, but I remain still in love with the tiny one.
Gouache
Gouache Paint Set
I don’t get why watercolour is more popular than gouache, to be honest. Gouache is always my favourite to use out of the two. Even the cheapest shit set under the sun is great. Gouache is like watercolour but more intense and opaque, with intensified colours. SCRUMMY!
Fine liners
Uni-ball Eye Fine Pens
I’ve been using the black pens for years in my artworks because you can paint over them — they’re waterproof. I use the light blue version for writing in my daily journal. Sometimes I like to go wild and use the purple too. #lifestylesoftherichandthefamous
Got a burning question about anything else I use?
Let me know what you’re interested in & I’ll add it to this page for you!