Podcast art for Elevating Experts with Louise Poole and Andy Le Roy.

Top 5 apps to make your work life easier

How many times have you heard the phrase “one stop shop” only to be disappointed you need to visit some other places to fill your trolley?

In this episode of Elevating Experts, we look at the value of using a number of resources that fit with your style.

Today’s tips:

♦ Sometimes simplicity is better than feature-packed.

♦ Budgeting for a trusted program might save time and money in the long term.

♦ The more options you give yourself, the more chance you will have of finding the right tools for your style.

We’d love to hear your feedback on how this has helped you!

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We’d love to hear your feedback on how this episode has helped you!

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About Elevating Experts:

Elevating Experts is an Australian short form podcast series, with episodes running less than 5 minutes, released 3 times a week, giving you the insights that elevate you as an expert in your field. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Snackable, bite sized episodes, under 5 minutes each that deliver hints, tips and coaching to help you with: Content Creation, content planning, business branding, personal branding, brand voice, podcasting, social media tips, building a brand, digital marketing tips, digital content planning, presentation coaching, batching tasks, boosting your engagement, building relationships, growing an online community, brand values, brand voice, brand positioning, evergreen content, perishable content, brainstorming content, creating content calendar, podcast planning, podcast marketing, podcast social media, brand consistency.

About the Hosts:

Created and hosted by Louise Poole and Andy Le Roy.

Louise has worked in Australian commercial radio, media and broadcasting for over 20 years, in on air and brand management roles. Her CV includes hosting 973fm Brisbane, Queensland, morning radio announcer and music director for 8+ years, Content Director of Darwin, Northern Territory radio stations MIX 1049, Hot 100. More info about Louise Poole here.

Andy has over twenty years leadership experience, across a range of fields including broadcasting, aged care and telecommunications. His CV includes Darwin’s top rating drive-time radio program to managing a successful community radio station in Adelaide, South Australia, helping it to expand its community appeal by leading the station to innovate its content. More info about Andy Le Roy here

About Welcome Change Media:

Welcome Change Media is about inclusiveness, empowerment and inspiration. As a media company, we are committed to creating programs that educate, inform and entertain.

More than a podcasting company, Welcome Change Media is also here to support your business in the marketplace by strengthening your brand’s presence and pitching you as the expert in your field.

We grow successful businesses using strong branding, compelling messaging and a simple approach that connects you to your customers.

Contact us today to discuss how we can help you better connect with your customers and help them to understand that yours is a premium brand worth investing in.

From tailored communications, social media strategy, brand reviews, podcast audits and coaching, tailored audio solutions and podcast creation for your business or organisation, Welcome Change Media will help your business rise to the top and earn the trust it deserves.

Other projects by Welcome Change Media include:

That Entertainment Podcast | Adelaide Edition | Brisbane Edition

Any Excuse For Fashion

Episode Transcript:

Top 5 apps to make your work life easier:

How many times have you heard the phrase “one stop shop” only to be disappointed you need to visit some other places to fill your trolley?


Louise Poole and Andy Le Roy, giving you the insights that empower you to become the expert in your field

Elevating Experts!

Louise: Right off the bat, it’s really important to understand we’re not endorsing any of the products we’re talking about today.

Andy: We’re giving you our top five based on our experience and needs and think it’s well worth your time exploring these in your hunt for what serves you. Also something we should note is that we’re Mac users, and Macs are notorious for not working with some programs, so some of our choices might surprise you!

Louise: We’re big on productivity, like everyone else, right?

Andy: You bet! The more productive we are, the sooner we get to log off for the day and cuddle the cats.

Louise: Or train for that marathon!

Andy: Number 5 on our list of tools that have helped us get an edge is Canva. This graphic design program has a free or subscription version and after trying it out, we were impressed! 

Louise: This is the program that’s going to help you design documents and brochures that have that professional edge if you’re not quite at the stage where you can afford a graphic designer. 

Andy: There are all sorts of templates to inspire you, or make things quick and easy from the start and it’s intuitive design means even I can use it and get a good result.

Louise: Number 4 and I’m looking at you, Outlook! For the first couple of months we plodded along with other mail clients until we thought “it’s probably just worth paying the subscription fee and going with something we’ve both used in all of the places we’ve worked before. 

Andy: Maybe it’s that sense of familiarity that brings a certain comfort, or just knowing that you don’t have to relearn commands for simple actions you’ve always just been able to do, but Microsoft Outlook has made emailing so much more efficient for us.

Number 3 and I want to give a shout out to Asana, which was really useful in the early stages of setting things up for our business. 

Louise: We could easily set up categories for different ideas and even had the option in how this looks visually – either a storyboard type look and feel or a more traditional list layout. Where this started to get a little bit unmanageable for us was when the business grew too many arms and legs. 

Andy: Asana would definitely be a great choice if you’re managing different projects as part of your day to day, but for running an entire business, we chose an option with fewer features, believe it or not, to help us map our empire!

Louise: Number 2 is Trello. I love Trello and it’s ability to give me an easy visual of whatever I’m scheduling. At any one time, I can get an excellent big picture view of the variety of content I’ll be serving to my audience across the coming month.

Andy: The colour codes and categories make it really easy to manage content schedules over many weeks ahead and see where more of certain type of content needs to be added or maybe when features could best be diverted to other parts of the schedule to keep the variety consistent. 

Louise: Free and paid subscriptions are available. So what’s the number one program we’re using to keep our business planning on track? Microsoft save the day again.

Andy: Yes. Number 1 on our list is One Note, which we use every day to help us stay organised and on task. Microsoft One Note is like an electronic compendium you can build with sections which you can then fill with pages and subpages for different topics. 

Louise: We’re constantly making checklists, and can quickly flag information on relevant pages for quick reference or reminders during meetings. It’s simple, sharable and it works! 

Andy: I feel like the concept of a one-stop shop, although well intentioned, is a bit ambitious after our journey so far.

Louise: There are definitely some applications out there that offer a massive number of tools in the one place.

Andy: But sometimes another program, although similar, might be better for your individual needs, or complement something you’re already using really well.

Louise: Here’s our top five as it currently stands, with link in the show notes for you to explore.

Andy: Canva for easy, elegant designs 

Louise: Outlook for email that just works as you want it to

Andy: Asana for project management

Louise: Trello for content scheduling

Andy: And One Note, for keeping all of those ideas in a place you can organise your way so you’ll always know where to find them
Louise: Let us know if any of these work for you, or if there’s a program we’ve missed that you really love by dropping an email from the link in the show notes.

Andy: And next time on Elevating Experts, time management hacks keep to you on track.

Elevating Experts with Welcome Change Media, giving you the insights that elevate you as an expert in your field. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Check our show notes and website for more information on today’s topic.

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Elevating Experts is a Welcome Change Media Production.