Unfiltered-ish
Unfiltered-ish is the midlife group chat you wish you were in. Each week, Carina Gardner, Nicki Krawczyk, and Natali Edmonds talk honestly about friendship, ambition, marriage, dating, money, aging, success, reinvention, and the strange little things that make you wonder, “Wait, is everyone else thinking this too?” They’re business friends turned real-life besties, bringing humor, honesty, and just enough chaos to the conversations women usually save for private texts.
Unfiltered-ish
Episode 36: The One Where We Share the Apps We Can’t Live Without
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What apps, AI tools, calendars, password managers, and communication systems are actually helping us run our lives—and which ones are just making more noise?
In this episode of Unfiltered-ish, Natali, Carina, and Nicki talk through the tech tools, productivity systems, and software they use every day for business, friendship, family, content, team communication, and staying organized. What starts as a conversation about Descript, Whisperflow, Claude, Google Drive, Dropbox, and password managers turns into a bigger discussion about the systems that help us not drop the ball.
We talk about AI tools, video editing software, voice-to-text apps, Google Calendar, Marco Polo, Loom, Voxer, Google Chat, Asana, team communication rules, why voice notes can feel disrespectful, and the difference between tools that save time and tools that create more work.
Natali also shares her “Command Center” system: one Google Doc that holds goals, big ideas, active projects, pain points, to-do lists, and key business updates so everything has one place to live.
If you love productivity tools, feel overwhelmed by all your apps, run a business, manage a team, or secretly believe your Google Calendar is the only thing holding your life together, this episode is for you.
Unfiltered-ish is the midlife group chat for women talking honestly about friendship, ambition, marriage, dating, money, aging, reinvention, joy, and wanting more out of life.
Hi, I'm Nikki. And um, did we even decide how we were going to introduce each other? My middle name is Paige. I made an executive decision. Although is that too much information if somebody could be able to like steal my identity now?
SPEAKER_01I'm just glad I know it now because there was a time in my our three friendship where Natalie was concerned that we didn't know you because your middle name was Paige.
SPEAKER_00No, because my full name is Nicole, which now they can really steal my identity.
SPEAKER_01Hi, my name is Karita, and my middle name is my maiden name. Lund.
SPEAKER_02Hi, I'm Natalie, and my middle name is Natasha.
SPEAKER_00And thanks for coming.
SPEAKER_01Okay, this episode I'm very excited about because we're gonna talk about tech. So maybe uh just like some of the stuff we're using right now, what we're really loving. And actually, this this happened because Nikki was talking about Whisperflow, and I was like, hey, wait, how much are you paying for that? I think I want to add that. And then there's another piece that I think I asked you guys about on Sunday that I'm gonna get, and that's for transcripts. That's called Descript, right? Yeah, it's not just for as one of my top three softwares. Yeah. Really? Descript is top three, and I haven't been using it. Wow. Shame.
SPEAKER_00Shame.
SPEAKER_01I feel shame for that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's not just transcripts, though. It's like video editing and all kinds of great stuff.
SPEAKER_02And it's really cool because when you upload a video, it will have the transcript off to the side. And let's say you want to cut out a part of the video editing, you can just highlight the words that you said that you're like, I don't want these words in it. And it literally edits it out of the video for you as you cut the transcript.
SPEAKER_01All right. It's amazing. Done today. I'm ordering it. Okay, how about whisper flow? Do you want to talk about that, Nick?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, Whisperflow, it took me a little bit because I tend to be a typer to think things through, but sometimes you're working on something, it's so much faster just to say it than it is to type it. And if it's something that I can kind of speak as I go or think as I speak, um, I think it was on like a one-month trial. And then they were like, just you know, you're about to lose the pro level, go down to the free level. And I was like, okay, well, let's see what this is all about. And then the free level, basically, I just get a notification that's like, um, you've reached your maximum number of words and now we're gonna transcribe slower. And it really is not made much of a difference at all. Whisperflow, I I thank you for not making it a harder cutoff, like, oh, you've hit your 2000 words. Now we're not gonna transcribe anything. No, now it's like we're just gonna process it a little bit slower. I can't even tell the difference. Can't even tell the difference.
SPEAKER_02Um, wait, what what's the point of whisper flow when most of the things we use have a built-in microphone?
SPEAKER_00You can um you can use it in any kind of it. So you can use it in cloud, certainly, but you can use it in docs, you can use it on your phone, you can use it anything that that they have an input screen, basically, you can use it there. It also keeps it all in one place. So if you're like, oh, I need to find where I know saying this to something somewhere, where was it? You can go and find it in um in Whisperflow. But also you can whisper it.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So it's like uh like uh what am I looking for? Like a database of everything you're talking to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. It's a voice to text, but it also has that database option. And it sounds like you love it. I am a big fan of it. I I I will say that I just still default to typing. And then also, too, if I'm in the library but not in a private room, I'm gonna type because I'm not even gonna whisper. But um, when I do when I do use it, I'm a fan of it. And uh again, free tier.
SPEAKER_03All right.
SPEAKER_02I'm still having a hard time figuring out what would make it, I guess the one place where you can figure out, hey, I was saying something somewhere, but like I do talk to text voice memos, talk to text Claude this morning. I was talking to him, you know.
SPEAKER_01Um speaking of well, we're gonna throw Claude out there because I love him and I think yeah, he's definitely top three right now. Yeah, yeah. So I'm using him for everything. He's running stuff right now as we speak, like in the background, just doing his his deal. So I I really like him. I'm I also have been pretty impressed with the new Claude design that they just came out with. Um, I think there's some really nice features in it. And if you're a non-designer, I think it could be a really helpful thing.
SPEAKER_00I think it's really good for a non-designer who so you know, you and I have talked about how about creative direction. I you and I can be creative directors and you can direct copywriters because you can't necessarily do it yourself, but you can tell somebody what's wrong with it and have them like this is why it's not working, fix it. And then you can tell when something is good and something, and I would say roughly I'm the same with design. I can't design from scratch, but if you give me something, I can say, all right, here's where the hierarchy is wrong, here's where this is too crowded, here's where this I can't fix it myself, but I can say here's what the problem is. And I think Claude design is really good in that sense because I can go, okay, here's roughly what I want. Okay, give me an iteration. Okay, no, that's this is wrong. This is wrong. This needs to be bigger. Let me see it smaller, let me see it bigger. And to go back and forth and iterate like that, I find it so, so helpful.
SPEAKER_01I think the one issue I have with it is I don't even know what the output's going to look like as I'm working in it. So, for example, the first thing I ever built with it was a set of a carousel, right? And it was an all-text carousel. Okay, so it laid it out for me all the way across. And then I would say, I can't do X, Y, and Z. It was like, oh, I'll build you a little menu so now you can be in control of it. I was like, okay, that's interesting. Um, but then the second time I built a carousel, it had a photograph sitting on the background and it gave me a totally different layout and it threw me for a loop. Like I was like, wait, like you're not allowing me to edit it directly here, and you've like like added all this stuff, and I can't access every single carousel page. I was like, oh, and it it gave me a totally different layout. I felt like, especially as a designer, but I can only imagine also as a non-designer how frustrating it actually would be because I'm like, oh, now I can't see everything. I don't know, maybe I'm more particular, but I I I find it very inconsistent. And because of that, it felt really hard.
SPEAKER_00It's like working with a junior designer, but it's like working with a different junior designer every time you start a new project. That's exactly what it is. They uh they understand the they understand, okay, these are the colors I'm supposed to use. This is the fonts I'm this is the general brand guidelines, but it's like working with a different junior junior. Now you can reference other projects.
SPEAKER_01Um but I wanted to see what it would do on its own, and I was very curious about it, and it just I was very surprised by it. So yes. If you don't mind working with a different junior designer every single time, Claude Design is for you.
SPEAKER_00Natalie, what are you loving?
SPEAKER_02Uh well, I mean, I don't think I could survive without Google Drive, basic Google Docs, Google Sheets, all that. Like I use that all the time.
SPEAKER_01I am too. I'm I can't believe it took us as long as we did to move to that. We used Dropbox before and just documents. I think I think it's so dumb to even use that when Google has the whole system set up perfectly for you.
SPEAKER_02We do use Dropbox to upload YouTube videos raw, and then our editor gets them there and then edits them and uploads the final version. That's what we use Dropbox for.
SPEAKER_01That's but why not use Google Drive for that? Why are you paying twice? Yeah, I guess so. Um, we got rid of we moved everything in Dropbox, moved it into the Google Drive, and now everyone has access to their particular folders. So it just makes sense.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna go to the um, I know we have like Google Drive, what is it, like business suite or something? That's like we can't our basic one, 87% of storage used. I don't think I paid for that one though. So hang on, let me go to the other one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the business one has got a massive amount of storage.
SPEAKER_02But then we do, yeah. I should probably just touch. Oh, yeah, here we go. Ours is 20 terabytes. So much space on this.
SPEAKER_01We have 20 terabytes and we're almost out of space. So I need to do a cleanup of my drive. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we'll probably move off of Dropbox then. Just figure get everything in.
SPEAKER_01So it's just expensive and a second place for everything. I like that everybody knows everything is in Google Drive, no matter what.
SPEAKER_02Maybe I should uh see when I renew that and see if we can get everything out of it over into the Google Drive. Um a settings account. So um a piece of software that I use pretty much daily that I really, really like. Oh my gosh, my plan in Dropbox renews June 20th, 2026. So perfect timing. Um perfect timing. Thank you. This podcast episode just saved me $217.
SPEAKER_01Yes, that's always my favorite when that happens. When like you're using something, they're like, why am I paying twice for this? I feel like there's so many things. I feel like I'm constantly having to cut through my software.
SPEAKER_00Oh, speaking of which, I just got an email. So I tried, I was like, oh, there's a um, you know, I think Audible books, or no, not audible books, but books that I've bought on Kindle. I'm like, oh, I you know, actually, I really would like to listen to it, but I want to buy something. So it I was like, oh, I've heard of Specify, which you're supposed to be able to connect to your audio to your Kindle books, and then it will speak it out. And so last, in fact, I know exactly seven days ago, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna set it up and I'm gonna, but it didn't, it wasn't easy. It wasn't immediately easy. And I was like, I'll get back to it later. But it's going, you're getting your free, you're getting a free week. Um, and don't worry, we'll remind like put in your credit card, but you're getting a free week and don't worry, we'll remind you before uh before we charge you. So what do I get today? I get the charge. Do I look through my email and see that there's no reminders? Not a one. So I email their customer service. I'm like, yeah, so um you promised on your purchase page that you would remind me. So I want you to refund this. I got back and we'll give you 50% off. And I'm like, uh, why don't you refer me to the emails that you sent to me that we're gonna that you promised would remind me of this purchase coming through? So I will not be paying for Speechify. That is not one of those.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say the other thing I just canceled was, and I think it's a valuable service, but it's just not a service I need right now, is my Macpaw accounts. So they do like cleanup of your computer. So like Macpaw never for Macs. And so my old computer just I to make it last longer, I downloaded this and it just would consistently clean up the trash and all those unwritten files sitting behind everything to keep your computer really moving fast. And I I do spend a lot on my computers because I want to make sure that all my software is running pretty fast. And um, I just have found I don't need it now because I think by moving to Google Drive, I really keep all my companies up there. So literally, like when my computer crashed a couple of years ago and I was freaking out, like in my heart, I was like, how am I gonna run my companies? I pulled up Josh's computer, opened it up, and I was like, oh my gosh, like I forgot all my companies are up online. My life is totally fine, right? Like it was such a good feeling. And so I realized, oh, I have been reliant on this before like I got great and systemized and optimized, and I don't need this anymore. And I mean, it wasn't that much, it was like 150 bucks, I think, for two licenses for a year, but I was like, I'm not using it, so let's cancel it. Adios.
SPEAKER_00Did you see that text I sent about the podcasts? No. Oh, I sent this. I was like last week. So I know you and I both have our Macs have been like, um, you are running out of disk space. I'm like, Dis, what the f you mean running out of disk space? Uh so I was like, all right, let me I've been deleting stuff like crazy. And then I went in and was like, all right, let me actually look and see what's using my space. The vast majority was podcast downloads. I didn't realize that when I have something automatically downloading to my phone, it was also automatically downloading to my computer. And I was deleting it on my phones as I listened to them. It was not deleting my computer. I had like 14,000 podcast downloads on my computer. I got rid of that and my computer's like space galore. So take a look at that if you haven't um checked out.
SPEAKER_01Mine are not connected. So I make sure mine is not connected. So I know my podcasts are not sitting on there. I have other issues because I've got really big design files, like full fabric collection. So I have to keep eyes on that. But I usually use an external drive for everything. It's only recently that I've been keeping a few things on my computer because I've been traveling and I don't want to take an external drive with me. So I for the most part try really hard to clear my computer off. And so it's like a blank slate, and everything's sitting on the Google Drive or on an external drive.
SPEAKER_02I um I feel like a software that I don't really talk about, but I use every day is LastPass.
SPEAKER_01I was just gonna say mine is helpful.
SPEAKER_02What's yours?
SPEAKER_01Oh, all three of us use different ones. That's interesting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we use one password.
SPEAKER_01We use Dash Lane. And I don't I don't even know how I'd live without it. It has like 280 passwords in it, plus all my kids' passwords on things because they forget stuff. Like we're going to the bank tomorrow to set them up like money market accounts, especially while Felicity's gone. I'm like, you're you might as well put all your money in a money market account, honey. And she's like, Well, what is that? And I'm like, well, let's go open one for you and you can we can just transfer the money in. She's got it sitting in a savings account. I'm like, that's a terrible place to leave that. So um she's like, but I don't know my password to my bank account. I'm like, all right, let me let me just look. And so I I don't even know how I'd live without it at this point.
SPEAKER_00No way.
SPEAKER_02No, the number of passwords that you have to have memorized, like and they all require you to change it at different times and have different services. It's like, uh, you can't even use the same one over and over.
SPEAKER_01I also love it because as a backup, like if something ever happens to me, Josh can get in there and get into anything. If something happens to Josh and me, there's a special piece of paper for my kids that's filed away. It's like this gets you into everything because you know how like people will be stuck out of their parents' bank accounts or whatever. I'm like, you can get into every bank account and you can transfer money directly into your accounts because I've got them hooked up to the kids' accounts. So it's like you won't be waiting on money. Like you should be able to pay the mortgage. You will be able to, you know, everything's in there.
SPEAKER_02So you want to know what software I absolutely love and use daily? And let's hear it. I do too.
SPEAKER_01Is it related to pickleball?
SPEAKER_02Is it your aura ring? No, I think I'd be okay without my aura ring, you know, honestly. Me too guys love your aura rings though. I do, I do love it. Um, yesterday I woke up and it had the minor signs with the red thing. I'm like, oh, I thought I turned that setting off. So it made me a little bit scared. But um, why does this morning it thinks I did a stare exercise? Interesting. Okay. Okay, but Marco Polo.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's real.
SPEAKER_02Good point. Yeah. Good point. It's not so businessy, but it is business-y because look what we communicate business stuff on there, friendship. It keeps me in touch and keeps relationships I care about deeply alive.
SPEAKER_00I agree. I agree. Even when I don't see you guys every day, which I don't like, by the way, I like seeing you guys every day. Um, it feels like I'm seeing you every day via Marco Polo. Like I wish I could get Melody on Marco Polo. I don't think her ADHD brain would remember to use it, but maybe I'll ask because it's really it's it's a great way to stay in communication.
SPEAKER_01Well, even my family uses it with the girls being at college. I was worried I would feel like super disconnected, but we haven't at all because the kids are on Marco Polo. Except for Charlie. But you know, he's 13. I'm gonna see him no matter what.
SPEAKER_00He's in the house, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But I love it because I was just thinking about how many phone calls I have with one kid that I then have to go communicate to my husband all the things that's going on with this one kid. But when it's on Marco Polo, everyone hears it. So it's like both parents hear it, the sibling hears it, and so we all know we're all on the same page. And especially like, okay, this weekend we're gonna go finally see, oh, what's that movie? Uh Hail Mary. Hail Mary? Project Hail Mary. Project Hail Mary. Okay, so Siri's been saying, I want to go see this movie. And I was like, oh, okay, hey, is Saturday okay for everybody? I have a six six forty movie, whatever. And like everyone's like, yeah, oh, okay, I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. Okay, great. I book it. That would have been a pain in the butt if I had tried to track everyone down. So yes, Marco Polo. Love. Love, love.
SPEAKER_02What do you guys use if you are you need to edit a video?
SPEAKER_01I use screen flow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I still use screen flow. Like when I'm recording new videos, which I'm sure there's probably a much this is this is like old habits, right? Me too. I use screen flows when I was building, when I was first building the course, building the program. So I use screen flow and then because I like the editing capabilities, and then I usually export to an MP what four, right? Um if it's comes MP4 first, then I can do it in iMovie, but I probably could skip a I probably could just I could use Zoom and go right to iMovie.
SPEAKER_01I don't like the quality of Zoom, and I also feel like it's tricky, whereas I know Screenflow for sure will get it. I I like Screenflow enough.
SPEAKER_00No, I mean to record and then export it to iMovie. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01So the reason we're stuck on Screenflow is there was a time period where nobody knew how to videotape your screen. And so Screenflow and Camtasia is that that's what I used to edit my videos, Camtasia. Camtasia, yes. So that's since that that was all we all had, right? So but I like it enough that I pay for two. I pay for one on one of my um team members' desktops because that way it's easy when we're all in Screenflow, it's easy to like send over something to be like, hey, go fix this, you know?
SPEAKER_00I think the problem with ScreenFlow files is that they are huge. Yes, they're huge. And it looks like you can't you you have to zip it first before you can put it on a Google Drive. Like I've made it looks like it's on the Google Drive, and then you try to get it back down and it's like that file is wait.
SPEAKER_01Is that the case with it? Because we do drop stuff up there, we just pull it back down again with all the files sitting next to it, and then like it just you put them back in. It's almost um, it's almost like Illustrator, like if you don't embed the file as long or InDesign, if you have the files there, you can just relink them. So that's what we've been doing. But I didn't know you could zip it. I'm gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you should be able to zip it. Oh, I'm gonna do that from now on. Like I zip when we do our new videos, I just I take all like the the keynotes to it, I the um the screen flow, the and I'll even do the external or the the exported MP4, zip it all and then upload it.
SPEAKER_01Wait, keynote I don't know how much money you just saved me, but I have a feeling you saved me a lot. We haven't been doing that.
SPEAKER_02Karina, do you make your presentations on keynote?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Oh, I never use keynote. What do you do you use Canva? Yeah. Yeah. I we I started in Keynote and then the the only thing for me is that I like Canva and I like because I know where it is. I don't have to like look on my computer for where's the screen. However, when you record in Canva, I hate what the screen does. Like if you have two uh screens, um it wait, let me have to I have to remember how this goes. But if you are recording a keynote, you can play the keynote and then you can have if you have a second screen, you can have your doc on that second screen. But if uh you are recording Canva and you have a second screen, it takes over that second screen. And I have looked into this again and again and again, and there's no way around it. It takes over that second screen. So then I have to have like my iPad up scrolling through the script so that I can read the script and deal with this that I find very, very annoying.
SPEAKER_02But otherwise, I guess I'm never doing the screen recording like you're talking about, but I love Canva, it's easy to use. I tried keynote once, it's like very basic, doesn't look as pretty. I don't know. But um, when I give a talk, it's a Canva file. So I'm always like, here's the link. It the place I give a talk at needs to have Wi-Fi so I can use a link. Because when I download a Canva presentation as a PowerPoint, the fonts get messed up. Sometimes the images don't download, so it's a little bit like a frustrating.
SPEAKER_01You download it as a PDF. So that's what I do with my keynote.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but then sometimes it doesn't like the it doesn't move like a slide, like on a presentation.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, you know what I mean? Like with a little pointer when it like goes forward. I haven't done a presentation in real life in so long that I wouldn't even know because I just build it in keynote, I turn it into a PDF. I'm doing it virtually, so I just set it up in preview as one slide at a time. So I just push a button that just makes me go to the next image.
SPEAKER_00If you yeah, if it's if you're using your computer, then you can make sure that you have the right fonts and you have the right, but yeah, if you're sending it to someone else, they probably won't be able to do it. Usually they have like a computer all set up.
SPEAKER_02I just show up and I could just like use a clicker or something. Oh I'm just like it needs to have Wi-Fi wherever I go. It's a little bit of a because they already. Like, you know, want the backup slides. I'm like, well, the backup slides are not gonna render properly.
SPEAKER_01That's why I like a PDF, or even if you set up the PDF, like because it's embedding your fonts, that's what you're really wanting it to do. Because any place else, it's always going to change your fonts because it's based on what's on that computer.
SPEAKER_00So that's what I'm unless you but if you use like the standard font, like if you used Arial and Helvetica, and yeah, then you're safe.
SPEAKER_01Ironically, Helvetica is not on every computer these days. Uh-uh. It's weird. I mean, yeah, it's weird. Ariel is, but Helvetica, not as much. It's quite expensive if you go to the font shop to go buy it right now. Interesting. What's the most standard serif font font? Is it Times? Serif. Yeah. Uh the most standard serif is Times, Roman. The most standard Sanserif font is probably Ariel, maybe Myriad, or the one that starts with a C-A-L. Why am I blinking?
SPEAKER_00Cal. Is it the one that was Google? Not Google. Is it the Google default one or the Google Docs default one? Yeah. Yeah. Calibre. Yeah, Calibri.
SPEAKER_01Or I assume it's Calibri, but I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. Yeah, I don't know what it is either. But yeah, so those three for Sans Seraph, pretty standard.
SPEAKER_00Tune in next time for when we talk about uh handwriting fonts, uh, which are all terrible. Which uh Charlie can help us with.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Next week on font talk.
SPEAKER_02Okay, wait, do you guys use Loom at all?
SPEAKER_01My team loves Loom. I hate Loom. Okay. Why? Because they send me Looms and I'm not gonna watch them. I've decided I'd not do it.
SPEAKER_02Well, you could put a rule in place that your team can't send you Looms.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's like my new thing. I was like, I think the problem is I've gotten too lack and lacks, and I need to tell my team if because I just did this to Claude, I just told it, if you write me something long, I'm not gonna read it. I'll read the first sentence. So it was like, oh, oh, I have to be more concise. And I was like, logical and concise. Like, I'm not going to read it. I don't have time. And so, like, I've had team members who send me looms, who send me voice things, who send me Marco Polos. And up until this point, I have done, watched it, watched part of it. And then finally, I was just like, I'm just gonna stop uh gonna stop doing. I can't like they don't understand even a 10 minute. I'm like, if I could have read that in two minutes, oh yeah. If I could bloom, absolutely not. No, I just I it's like to me, it feels a little bit disrespectful of my time. Like you just took a ton of. Yeah, I feel that way about voice notes as well.
SPEAKER_02I think this leads us into a discussion of like what are like the CEO rules or like the kind of culture we've created for like our people to do and not do toward us because it drives us crazy. Like that would be an interesting conversation. However, I want to say first, I saw a reel, I saw an Instagram reel, and it was a guy talking into GPT computer, and it was like, um GPT, build me a business that makes me a million dollars a year uh and do it really quickly so that I'm a millionaire in like two weeks. And it's the GPT voice. Well, well, that sounds great. Well, it might and he's he interrupts, he's like, You're talking too too slow, just do it, build it for me right now. And they're like, Well, this might not be realistic. I don't want to hear it, just but you know, like it's basically safe, like it might take a longer time. Where it might and he's like keeps interrupting the voice, like, no, build it for me now, run it on its own, make it start making money tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00It's hilarious. Um, is there a prompt I could copy that could put in?
SPEAKER_02It's just wonderful. Interrupting it like too slow, I don't want to hear it, too long. Please just make me the money, please just build this business right now. When I wake up tomorrow morning, I want the business to be operational and making money. It's really good. If I find it again, I'll send it to you guys. I'm like, he's like saying out loud what we all wish could happen, you know? Yeah. Um, but speaking of the CEO rules, I know that this is like frowned upon, but I have like if I I only communicate in Voxer to my business people, because you guys know how many unread text messages I have, but nobody knows I have Voxer except for my business people. So um you send me a Voxer only. It's the only notification I get, like that flashes on my phone, and you have to type it out. You cannot leave me a voice memo. But I can leave you a voice memo, which is where it sounds horrible. It's your business. And then when they, whenever I send anything, a voice memo or a written of any type, you have to acknowledge that you received it. So even if it's nothing that requires an a response back, you have to at least heart it so I know that you received it.
SPEAKER_00You know, I think my team just kind of knows that or somehow I lucked out and got the kind of because you're right. I don't think I've ever sent anything that they haven't acknowledged, either with a, ooh, okay, I'll get on it, or okay, I can't get to this today, I'll get to it tomorrow. Or yeah, like you said, even a heart or a thumbs up.
SPEAKER_02But I find when people talk or do voice memos, they don't think enough to get to the point. They are talking too long. So that's why I'm like, you can only text me what you're wanting. And there's been one exception where something major happened, and I responded to Jenna and I said, You can voice memo me back this time. Give me more information on this.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, I think that's actually the problem. Like, it's like I think with a Loom or with a video, they don't get to the point because they're like brainstorming it in their head, like as they're talking it. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like the the point is you've thought through it and then you give me a one quick statement that states what it is that you either need for me or you need for me to know. And I have not done a great job of telling my team that because I get some crazy messages.
SPEAKER_00I'm curious about the use case in this because we use Loom, but we use Loom in in where in the use case where they have to show me something. Like, okay, let me show you what I'm seeing on the back end of drip or let them let me show you I'm saying, or like when I try to connect this, this is happening. Have you ever, you know, that I guess it always ends up being kind of technical, but it's it's they have to show me something on the screen in order for me to understand something or why they're doing something or or something like that. It's never just uh uh to tell me about something correct.
SPEAKER_02That would never happen either. We have two use cases for loom. One would be um inside of our program, the questions like FAQ tech questions for our members. We have a whole section. It's like, how do I change my password? How do I find an article? How do I, whatever? And everything is a loom so our members can watch. And then in our operations manual, we have laid out steps of how things work, and then there's an attached loom to walk through and show.
SPEAKER_01I think this is my fault. And a lot of it has to do with how new the university is because it's happening on the university side. It doesn't happen on the Karina Gardner side. Does that make sense? Where we have technical policies that I've had to put in place, but I haven't taught my team that yet. And so they'll send me a question and then they're confused about it. And so it goes on and on and on. Like this course does this, and why is that related to this course? And what's the prerequisite, you know, it's like it becomes like this whole crazy thing. And I'm just like, okay, well, the simple thing here is this, you know, but it's like they're brainstorming it out in their head. And so um, actually, we're in the middle of fixing this very problem because we are now, this is the month we are splitting the faculty and staff. So before we've been doing all of our meetings for faculty and staff together, and now it'll be a faculty meeting and a staff meeting. So they're gonna be split because we're not, we don't have enough time to go through all the things that are going on staff side versus faculty side.
SPEAKER_00Interesting. But so what are your other means of communication besides because that that sounds like something to me that would be something that's I thought it would probably be a slack conversation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was gonna say, no, no, that's none of that is so our main communication method is Google chat. So we used to use Slack, but then we had to pay for it, right? Like trying to keep all the stuff. And I was like, I spend a boatload of money at Google. We have 20 terabytes. So that means I pay for a ton of space. And it comes with Gemini, it comes with Google Chat. It comes, I was like, so we moved over to Google Chat and we realized, oh, wait, we can like put tasks in here. We can like instead of just telling things, we can actually put it into a task. And then it also pulls up on their calendar. Like there are all some nice things here. And so when we moved over to Google Chat, that that was awesome. So we have like spaces just like Slack. So we have the university space, we have the Karina Gardner space, we have new enrollments, we have all these spaces and then individuals. And that has worked perfectly until people will marko polo me or loom me or try to send me a voicemail. Like, and I'm like, I don't understand why you guys are doing this. Like, I I actually never do that to anybody, I never give them that. Like I text them very precisely.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I really hate voice messages. It's it is convenient for the person sending them and it is not convenient for the person who is receiving them. And I hate that. Yeah. They're like to the point that I will, if someone sends me voice message, I will, and usually it's like a text message, which is it's like which is terrible because that's what we'll be from, but like I will leave it for weeks and weeks and weeks just because it's it's hard enough, honestly, when it's hard enough sometimes to find time to to like listen to a Marco Polo, but to listen, I don't know. I just I I find it so inconvenient. Let me be able to read it whenever I want to read it, you know? Yeah, really.
SPEAKER_01I am in agreement with that. Okay, so CEO rules. Like, I don't think I have a ton of like straightforward CEO rules. That's like one of those things that like I am gonna try to get better at just telling people. Actually, someone Marco polled me yesterday and I said, Hey, just so you know, like uh preferred communication if it's not an emergency should be via Google Chat. And I just said that because I was like, I they just didn't know, right? Um I I think because everyone on my team is they're like their own agents, right? Like if adjunct faculty, right? So they're all doing other things and stuff. I understand if people can't get back to me quickly, and I don't actually really expect anyone except for my full-time staff to get back to me quickly at this time. So yeah, I also understand my whole team is women. Most of them have children, most of them have a lot of other crazy things going on. So I'm pretty understanding of that. In fact, one of my favorite things we have is we have a calendar that's like a do not disturb calendar. You put your name on dates and times. Like I'm gone, I'm not a rant. And so everybody can see it. So even I will not be, I won't put anything on their calendar during that time, you know? That's smart.
SPEAKER_02Do you have any rules, Nikki?
SPEAKER_00Um, I don't know if I have rules so much as things that have just become customs. I think I have said enough times, like I can't stand voice messages. So that like even the I think Caitlin left me one the other like a week or two ago. But what she said in the voice was like, I'm so sorry to leave this as a voice message. It just I'm on the go and I wanted to make sure I could answer this quickly, which I appreciated, obviously. And it was in the middle, it was something that I I wanted an answer to. If I could get one, I wanted an answer quicker sooner than later. So in that case, I but and then I also chew, I think I I think we stay within email, Slack. I mean, those are really our two channels, and then Loom when we need something, when I need to see something or when they need to see something, because it'll be just as similar, just as similar. It was when I'm doing something and I'm like, all right, I gotta record a Loom. Caitlin, I'm seeing this and it's not connecting here, even though I think it's supposed to be connecting. Am I missing something? You know, that kind of thing. Um, but we don't have additional channels.
SPEAKER_01You said email, you allow your team to email you. Yeah. Oh, we are anti-email. Oh, really? Yeah, no.
SPEAKER_02What would you do for a big thing like that? Like if somebody had a big update to communicate.
SPEAKER_00I guess we can email each other. Actually, you know what? I take that back. I guess we don't we don't email each other all that often. It's more often that I will send a Slack. Or yeah, I guess come to think of it, and we we all have email and we all can email each other, but I guess we don't have to do the anti-email and everyone figured that out pretty soon.
SPEAKER_01And it's because my email box gets 200 emails every single day. So if you mix in team emails and you guys want me to get to you soon, then you aren't gonna, it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02So you But isn't somebody on your team going through all your emails and responding to what they can't do.
SPEAKER_01I used to, I got rid of it. Now I have like I have like cleaned up emails so I have them um sorted myself because I didn't need anyone in my email to do that. But there's still like so much important stuff in there, and I have it marked for the order I'm gonna do it in. So I'm not I can't have team emails in there. They have to use Slack, Karina? Google chat, which is basically Slack. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_00So but it's like you were saying, the the the I we they email us, but it's not gonna be an instant. I'm not gonna get back to them right away. If it's there's something like, oh, this is something we're working on. If you want something soon, it's gonna be by a Slack.
SPEAKER_01I get forwarded emails, like forwarded emails. If I get a forwarded email from Abby on my team, I know it's important because it's a student inquiry or something that I can only answer, right? So that that's how I know it's important. It's getting forwarded to me, but no one's gonna send me an email. Like, and I'm not gonna send you an email. So it's gonna be in Google Chat.
SPEAKER_02I got an email, it's very, very rare, like so rare, because basically, wait till a meeting, and if it's something urged, fox me. That's it. But yesterday I got an email from Jenny, and um, she's like forward-facing in the company in terms of talking with partners, collabs, speaking requests. And I guess somebody from like a news channel emailed in and was like, this is what we're thinking, this is what we want to do, blah, blah, blah. Jenna forwarded it to Jenny. Jenny, being the awesome person she is, just picked up the phone, called the person, got all the details, then wrote me an email and said, here's the request, here's what they're wanting, here's the details, then her opinion in terms of like, I do think this is something I know you have a lot on your plate, but this is probably something really great to pursue. And then it was just bolded, next step. No, it was good. It was like and it was like, um, if this is something you want to proceed with, the email is click here and reply back and say blah, blah, blah, and they would take care of their. And it was just like, I like literally responded and was like, I love you so much. I didn't have to, I didn't have to dig for a history. I didn't have to watch a Zoom recording of what they talked about. I didn't have to, whatever. And it was like, boom, boom, boom, this is what you do.
SPEAKER_01And I was like, I Natalie, that is what we call a Google task. So that gets put in our Google chat as a task so I can see a list of things that I need to do. So that does not come into my email, but that exact thing, which I love, it's incredible. It goes into my task list.
SPEAKER_02And then in that task list, they're able to give you all the background, you know, of like, okay, maybe we'll have to look into that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they'll like write me all the things, or if it's really, really intense, it gets a Google Doc, like because it's going somewhere, like into my speaking engagements or whatever, and they're linking it. So then we have backtrack of it. Or my favorite is that thing that you got via email, it would already be on my calendar. So they would put it on my calendar as a call.
SPEAKER_02Oh, nobody puts anything on my calendar for me.
SPEAKER_01Oh, everyone puts things on my calendar. And then, and and it's just not my calendar. We have 10 calendars, so it's sorted by content, by, and then they put it on, they'll be like, this is the content calendar. Here's the link to it, here's the stuff that's happening, and so everyone can see it. Everyone has access to my main calendar so that they don't bug me when I've got certain things blocked off.
SPEAKER_02And everybody has access to my calendar too, and they see everything, my personal and my professional.
SPEAKER_01So they might my team can't see the personal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'll be like, I have a hair appointment at this time or whatever. You know, that way, you know, it's sometimes during work hours, so they could see it all, but they don't put anything on my calendar unless I've told them to, because I want agreed.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, feel full, feel free to find time on my calendar, but otherwise they can they can give me an asana task. And in fact, sometimes I'll say, Can you make me a task for that? And they'll say, All right, I'm just gonna throw it on for Tuesday or whatever, do it whenever you get a chance. But yeah, nothing on my calendar. I'm the only one unless I've invited them to to put time on my calendar. Correct.
SPEAKER_02Because then I feel like now I'm working for other people.
SPEAKER_01Like I'll yeah, no one's gonna put something on my calendar unless I've told them to do it. Like, I need a meeting with you. Like, put it on my calendar. Find a meeting time, put it on my calendar. That's why everyone has access and they can put something on there. Also, like it's most things are not gonna be on the Karina Gardner work calendar. It's like, oh, Karina, there's this thing, it's happening at this time. I'm gonna put it on the events calendar, and then you can see it, right? And so yeah.
SPEAKER_02I also don't see the majority of emails that come in. Like it all somebody else goes through all my emails and I just have one folder that says for Natalie to reply. And only things that are for me to reply get in there, and I never see anything else unless I want to go searching. Like if I get wind of something and I'm like, oh, I want to go see what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because your customer service doesn't go through a customer, it just goes to it's just an inbox, right? Our customer service is we use fresh desk. And so our customer service team works in Fresh Desk. And every once in a while I will get tagged in something. I really prefer not to be. Um more I it's great if they tag me and they're like, oh, look at this, you know, student writing in because they had this win, or they're so happy with something. If it's, you know, something not great, I prefer not to deal with it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. So we have one big meeting a week, and we have a section in there of like announcements, news, and that's where we'll do like, here's something really great that happened, or here's a headline, whatever. But like, don't send it to me throughout the week. I can't keep up.
SPEAKER_01Me neither. We all of ours goes through Go High Level into new conversations, and I don't check it. Someone on my team is in charge of that.
SPEAKER_02I really, really, really, really want to get rid of Monday.com. I think that'll be the next thing we tackle. It's just such a great that our YouTube setup and how it alerts everybody as it happens is just so great. And I I'm afraid of like confusing our video editor who can't seem to anyway.
SPEAKER_01We got rid of Monday.com six months ago, four or five months ago. It's been a little while. I was really nervous. We had so many systems in there. We moved them all to um Google Sheets, and we moved to a full like operations handbook that links to everything. Um, it was the right move. But it just it was crazy, but it was the right move.
SPEAKER_02That's the only thing we're really using it consistently for. We do have all of our member names and addresses and things like that in there. So that's the other thing to really think through. Um, but since we've been on this phone call, Jenna said she will get rid of transfer everything from Dropbox to Google Drive and I can't. So that's good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that is we yeah, we still use Asana. Um, I will say that we used to be a lot more militant about exactly how projects were in there and how projects were scheduled. I think really for our podcast is the main one. I have 100% gone rogue when it comes to I'll be like, all right, I'm just gonna in my own channel, I'm gonna build a project and then I'm gonna schedule out things and I'm gonna, you know, it's it's definitely not the intended use. And I think that as we get as we get bigger, that might be something that we go back to more of the intent, but it's I notice myself bristling against projects being scheduled and having things on my Asana, like waking up the next day and be like, my Asana schedule is full. And I was thinking that today I'd be able to do this. And you know, I I I which is not a good use of my resources, I suppose, but I like to be able to schedule myself. So I will build out a project for myself and then and then as far as I can go with that project, and I'll I will put, you know, schedule one task and then at the end of the task, it'll be like, and schedule next one, and then I will schedule the next one so every day feels fresh. Um and then for bigger projects, then certainly stuff is gonna happen. When it's multiple people touching a project, then that has to be scheduled out through Asana. But I it's so funny. There's some days when I'm like, yeah, yeah, I can totally flow with this. And the other days when I just I can't be I can't be hemmed in. Hed hemmed in, hedged in, wedged in, wemden, I don't know. Stuck stack stack.
SPEAKER_01I can't have boundaries, which which we know I'm the exact opposite. I like to have a really tight schedule. And I thank goodness I do, because I think otherwise I would just look at my task lists and I would just work through the night. I mean, it's really to stalk me and be like, hey, this it's time to be done. So I I will say this Google Calendar and I, I mean, that's probably the thing I use the very most, Google Calendar.
SPEAKER_02Yes, without my Google Calendar. Oh, okay, let's do this real quick. I know this is getting long, but since we're kind of on all this like weird stuff, what is something you Do to kind of help you not drop the ball. So, like, for example, every morning I wake up and I look at my Google Calendar. And for any meeting I have that I have to show up for, I set my alarm on my phone to go off like five minutes before that meeting so that if I so I don't lose track of time. So like if I have five meetings that day, there's five alarms on my phone that I've already pre-I've set that morning so that I don't get lost and forget about the meeting. Like I had one set before this podcast.
SPEAKER_01I do that if I have an open day and I only have one meeting. That's usually not the case with me. I almost always I probably average three meetings a day. So there's enough meetings that I'm kind of like in between tasks trying to figure them out.
SPEAKER_02I know, but like I feel like the in-between meetings I could easily get sucked into like a you know deep thought or something to get about the meeting. Yeah, I'm always worried about that two five days a week. Like I definitely protect like Mondays, I'm not taking meetings. I need to start my work week strong.
SPEAKER_01I have meetings every day. I had I've had five meetings already to no, I have five total meetings today.
SPEAKER_02So Yeah, no. I try to prop them up on certain days and have at least one day of ideally two, Monday and Thursday, of no meetings whatsoever so that I could just like get focused and get work in without being interrupted with a meeting.
SPEAKER_01I could do that before the university, but now at the university there's like not a chance. But I loved that. I Wednesdays and Thursdays, Thursdays, we didn't allow any meetings in our company so that everybody could do deep work. Now those two days are our main um course days. So I teach those days.
SPEAKER_02So is there anything else like that for you guys that might be interesting to hear in terms of what you do to kind of make it easier or keep you on track?
SPEAKER_01Um, every month I have a one to two hour block on a Monday where all I do is calendar. So like I can look out over the next like three months and make sure that there's nothing crazy going on with my family, that I've blocked off the right time. And that has actually been a huge help because I can see so far in the future that I don't get as stressed out. Like, oh, if everything I say I want to do this week doesn't happen, it's fine. There's lots of blocks of time next week and the week after and the week after that I can add it in. So I think it reduces my overwhelm.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Um, I guess we oh, maybe we talked about this. Oh, maybe it was not on a podcast recording, but um, I every couple of weeks will do just a full brain dump of whatever all the stuff that's on my head so that I can then go in and arrange it. I really as much as I use Asana, I also like I live from a Google Doc, a list of stuff that I want to get through. Cause then also with that Google Doc I can go, okay, well, I also don't forget about this and don't forget about this. And that becomes a task. And then when I do that, I go cross it off the list. And so every morning I look at my calendar and see if I have meetings. Um, and then I also go through and organize what I think I can accomplish for that day in my like Google Doc to-do list, which is is very silly and very like I don't know, basic, but it it works for me. There's something about being able to work from a Google Doc that's just words, it's not on a calendar that it just feels freer than being in Asana. And I because I like I was saying, I hate logging into Asana and seeing like seven or eight tasks to do, and they're all the same size. And you're like, all right, I know that's five minutes, but it's the same size as the one that I know is going to take me two hours. And then two, when you log into and it's like it scrolls past the bottom of the page, then it's like, what am I even doing? What am I even doing? What's the point of this? There's just some whereas I can have like 40 items in a Google like doc list. And for some reason that feels freer to me. It feels like I'm in charge. Whereas when I have a lot of stuff in Asana, it feels like not even my team, it feels like Asana is in charge. And I don't work for Asana. Asana works for me.
SPEAKER_02I did recently create a Google Doc that I'm loving, like it's now my go-to source. And because of it, I actually just downloaded Google Docs on my phone because I don't even have work email on my phone, but I'm like, I'm gonna download this. It's just called like Natalie's Command Center, and so it has like my main goals, it has my big ideas, it has um uh there's like two tabs. Main goals, my big ideas, like current active um projects, kind of like the weekly recurring requirements, like in my mind, although I'm slowly weeding those out because they're going on my Google Calendar. Um, oh, and then every time I run across a pain point, I just put it in there. And then the next tab is just the to-do list. And so everything is like, I feel like this could, I can put this into Claude at any time too and be like, help me prioritize. Like, here you see my goals. This is where I'm at right now. Strategize with me on like of the here are my ideas, here are my act of where should I be focusing? But then it can also just look at my to-do list and help be like, like, let's, you know, this is not important. This is so it's just like one document with like my whole my North Star, I guess. Oh, I like that a lot.
SPEAKER_01I like that too. I don't think I have anything quite like that because I handwrite a lot of that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So me too, right? Like, here we go. I have this notebook that, all right, I've got this, I've got this, and I'm like, oh, okay, like there, this is like whatever. I just wanted like one document that, like, if everything else burned up or disappeared, this is still the thing I'm working from. And it's the thing I'm constantly like, Claude will constantly evaluate and look at to make sure, like, are we still on this right path and trajectory based on like you just know all the ideas I get and stuff, and sometimes I kind of go off.
SPEAKER_01What did you call it again? Command center?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I called it Natalie's command center.
SPEAKER_01I like that. I am so copying that. Yeah, it's a great idea. I just don't, I don't I have a command center, but it's written down in handwriting. And I'm like, I think I like the idea of it being typed up and it's like uh a personal Google Doc.
SPEAKER_02It's just one document and then I can check. And so also what I realized where I like is sometimes I I think of things as I'm walking with Nico or something, and now that it's on my phone, I could just pull up the command center, type it in as type it in and then put it away. And I know I haven't lost it. I don't have to go back to my notes app and remember where I put it, it's just like all right there. I did actually recently create a third tab. I don't want to get any more than that, but the third tab are key actions and updates. So sometimes what I'll do in my business is like I'll make a tweak. Hey, I changed the onboarding sequence, or hey, I added a new ad. Or hey, here are my stats from here's like my ClickFunnels board of like my dashboard of like how many people are converting on my new SLO. On this date, I changed my SLO. So then like in two weeks, I'm gonna go screenshot it again. So I literally have screenshots in there with dates. And so now when I feed it into Claude, Claude can actually also highlight, like, hey, I noticed your conversion on this week change, and it was right after you made this change. You want to go back to the version it was so it's like kind of keeping all of it just in one place.
SPEAKER_01I have to admit, as you were talking, I was like, you keep telling it to go fix it in Claude, but I think I'm gonna build this directly in Claude. So I think I'll just create a thing that's that exact same. I love the idea of a command center, but then it's just updating it so I could just talk to it as I go and let it go ahead and build.
SPEAKER_02I just want it in the Google Doc. For some reason, Claude is still.
SPEAKER_01Are you doing doc or sheets? Because you said multiple docs.
SPEAKER_02Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_01I can show it to you guys real quick if you want.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I like that. I want it, I would I agree. I would build it in docs too, because it's easier because you can see it all in one place. And also, and then the chat.
SPEAKER_02I want it easy when I'm walking. I want it easy no matter what I'm doing. Click on it, but it's very fun, it's like very, very basic, but I feel like it's been a something I can't believe I haven't thought of earlier because I feel like it's just taking a lot out of my brain.
SPEAKER_01I like that a lot. Interesting. Um, guys, I have a hard stop, so we're gonna have to end. But this was kind of a longer podcast. I hope you guys enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00Well, quite frankly, I don't care if they did because I and now I'm gonna set up a command center. So there you go. And we saved each of you 200 bucks. So I just already paid for itself. Saving $217 for this. Boom. Boom.