Hey there,
Today I wanted to put some transparency into what I do in my business to make the wheels go ‘round.
This is something that changes as I get better and my needs change but here’s what I’m using at the moment:
Video Editing & Color Grading Software
At the core of my business is the software I use for editing videos, it shouldn’t come as any surprise by now but for that, I use Davinci Resolve Studio 18. I use this software to create all the videos I make and the LUTs I sell and use for personal use. DaVinci Resolve is also a central part of how I make money as my course and tutorials on YouTube are to some degree based on this software too.
The initial investment for switching to DaVinci Resolve was 295 USD but includes lifetime updates and was a one-off fee. So after almost a year with the Studio version, it’s already paid itself back compared to my old Adobe Subscription. I did however start out on the Free version and actually managed to pay for the Studio version through the money I made selling LUTs, so it kind of bought itself.
To make my editing faster and easier I use the following plugins and services:
- For Music: TrackClub (get a 2-month free trial through the link)
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For VFX, Titles and Transitions: MotionVFX (10% off everything except bundles using ALEX10)
- I use: mTuber 3 DVR and mTutorial DVR the most myself
- For Sound Effects: Soundly (currently the free version)
- For Film Style Grading: Dehancer (10% off using code ALEX10)
Website & Store
Allowing me to sell my products and make money, at the core is Shopify. I switched away from Squarespace this year and it’s been the best change since I switched from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve.
Shopify allows me to add and sell new products easily and allows a ton of options for payment and marketing. The number of apps that are out there, both paid and free are incredible and make my life so much easier.
The only app that I pay for is SkyPilot. This app makes the process of selling Digital Products on Shopify incredibly easy and seamless. The team behind are incredibly helpful and I can’t recommend it enough.
In total this costs me about 50 EUR a month.
Business Management, Notes and Planning
Everything I do that needs to be written down, such as scripts for videos, plans, to-do lists, overviews, client info etc. goes into Notion.
I haven’t gotten the most structured approach but it works for me to have it all in one place. Most of what I do goes into some kind of database or plan to structure and make a storyline where needed.
For e-mail, I use Google Workplace. I have a business account with two emails, so I can professionally send emails. Using a normal Gmail can be okay in the beginning but if you want to be taken seriously and avoid ending up in spam you need a professional email address.
This costs me around 10 EUR a month.
Testimonials
To receive testimonials I use Senja.io. It allows me to collect 15 testimonials for free, which is what I wanted to start off so I didn’t have to invest in another monthly fee but it is an important asset to sell my course.
Course Platform
To host my course I use Thinkific. The reason behind this is that they allow one course for free with some limitations to features. However, the features that I had the most trouble with was not being able to create discounts and offer my course for free for competitions for example. And the second was that I couldn’t create a nice landing page (as the features in Thinkific are very narrow and don’t look very good).
Both problems are now solved using Shopify as they integrate and all payment is handled in Shopify where I can create discounts and easily manage the payments along with offering a lot more payment options and I can create a custom landing page on Shopify as well.
Computer
A crucial part of my workflow is of course also the hardware I use for editing and working in general. My trustworthy MacBook Pro is the centre of all of this.
For the spec interested this is the MacBook Pro I use:
14 “ MacBook Pro M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine, 32GB RAM & 512GB SSD
That's pretty much what I use to run my business. If you got any questions about any of it, feel free to reply to this email and I'm happy to help as much as I can!
I'll catch you in the post!
Alex