Less Talk. More Rock.

The notion of working while traveling is romantic but nothing beats a dedicated workspace with optimized tools.

This is where it gets done friends.

Every item on my shelves has a story.

A simple glance instantly tops up my inspiration and gets me motivated to create more memories through hard work. I am the only one going to make it happen and I am the only one standing in my way.

Less talk, more rock.

A few people ask what gear I’m rolling for side-projects, so here is a detailed breakdown of my tangible and digital tools:

Hardware

• 27″ 5K Retina iMac (late 2015)
• 13″ Retina MBAir (2018)
• Griffin Elevator Stand (for MBAir)
• Magic Mouse with Ugmonk Mousepad (black)
• Shure SM7B Mic – podcast, audits and video narration
• Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 & Cloudlifter CL-1 Mic Activator – to power the Shure
• RODE PSA 1 boom arm – to swivel that Shure
• Logitech C922 Pro Stream 1080P – webcam
• Bose Q25 – headphones for editing (with cable, no lag)
• Bose Q35 – headphones for designing/coding
• Aeron Chair by Herman Miller
• …and I rotate between 3 Ugmonk mugs 🙂

Software: General Work

• iA Writer – Notes ($30)
• Notion – Writing and organizing my Landing Page course (free)
• Trello – Yo! Podcast research and question curation (free)
• 1Password – Password Management ($3/mo)
• Loom – Screen recorder for daily comms ($10/mo)
• QuickBooks – Tracking all expenses ($15/mo)

Software: Hosting, Domains, Email

• Flywheel – WordPress hosting for my full network of sites ($100/mo)
• Digital Ocean – Hosting for one side-project ($5/mo)
• Amazon Web Services – CDN, EC2, SES (~$30/mo)
• IMGIX – Image CDN ($60/mo)
• Plausible – Simple analytics across full network ($32/mo)
• Cloudflare – DNS (free)
• Hover – Domains ($20/mo)
• EmailOctopus – Newsletters, Email Drips ($23/mo)
• MailerLite – Newsletters ($30/mo)
• Google Drive – Bigger work file backups ($20/yr)
• Dropbox – Regular work file backups (free)
• Google Mail – Email for 3 projects ($21/mo)
• Lemon Squeezy – Commerce transactions ($29/mo)
• Gumroad – Commerce transactions ($25/mo)
• Zapier – Automation help ($25/mo)
• Notion – Hosting my Landing Page course ($10/mo)

Software: Video and Podcast

• Vimeo Pro – Video hosting for my Landing Page course ($20/mo)
• Loom – Screen recorder for Landing Page feedback ($10/mo)
• Simplecast – Yo! Podcast hosting and distribution ($12/mo)
• Anchor – Second podcast hosting and distribution (free)
• Zencastr – Yo! Podcast guest recording (free)
• Epidemic Sound – Music licensing and SFX ($15/mo)
• Screenflow – Video and Podcast editing ($129)
• Speechpad – Podcast transcription ($1/min)

Software: Designing

• Figma – Designing, wireframing, brainstorming (free)
• Adobe Photoshop – Mainly stitching together difficult screenshots ($23/mo)
• Contrast – Screen color identifier including color contrast ratios ($7)
• PixelSnap – Screen measurement tool ($39)

Software: Development

• Sublime Text – Code Editor ($80)
• Transmit – FTP ($45)
• Codekit – Code compiling ($38)
• Local by Flywheel – WordPress local development (free)
• ImageOptim – Image optimization desktop tool (free)
• Tower – Git client (legacy acc)
• GitHub – Code backups (free)

Shelf Highlights

• “Water Thick Lines” print by Aaron James Draplin
• Inter “a” print by Rasmus Anderson
• Skeleton Bay, Namibia print by Seth Phitides
• … current being updated.

FAQ: What maker chat communities have you joined?

Nothing against Slack or Discord but they are too distracting for me so I haven’t joined any and not using chat software.