2025 Tools Worth Trying

These are the tools and products we use and suggest. Some are tried and true. Some were created last week. We update this list with some frequency so we suggest that you bookmark it and come back periodically (a tool we mention below, VisualPing, automates that process.

Have we used every single product? Nope. But we do use a lot of them, and of those we don't, most are used by our members at Rosen Institute. There are a few that we included without trying because they fill a gap in the market--they solve a problem that some folks desperately need to have solved.

In some categories, we've got a strong preference. In others, we've found a variety of products and services which all meet our needs. Our goal is to give you some ideas that will advance your search for something which solves your particular problem. There are many categories in which we don't make suggestions. These categories tend to be mature (i.e. bookkeeping software, hardware, etc.). The choices are all well established and the distinctions tend to be more of style than substance.

Many of the tools we mention are not specifically built for the legal market. We have often found that lawyer-targeted products are inferior and over-priced. The general market tends to have better offerings at better prices so long as you can adjust to issues like a management system that refers to "customers" instead of "clients." A willingness to adapt to terminology changes can give you an instant advantage over your competition because you've got better tools.

Your feedback helps us refine our list (always a work in progress), so feel free to share your experiences with these products. We encourage you to connect with us and let us hear your suggestions, additions, and input for the list. Let's dig in.

Good Stuff From Rosen Institute#

• Rosen's Rules: Free 10-day online course setting forth the essential rules to follow in order to grow a successful practice.
• Rosen Institute Premium: Membership community of successful lawyers growing practices around the world. In 10 minutes per day, you'll level up your marketing, outsourcing, networking, systems, and more. You'll find a welcoming group of lawyers communicating via Slack 24/7/365 helping one another find more time, make more money, satisfy clients, and take a systematic approach to greater productivity and the rewards you deserve.

Most Recommended Tools#

If you look at nothing else on this page, these are the five items that you should know about. We recommend these resources again and again. We use them because they work, and we're confident you’ll agree too.

• GetStaffedUp: We outsource nearly everything. This is a virtual staffing agency focused exclusively on law firms for both legal and marketing work.
• Search Engine News: Essential reading--I haven't skipped a month in over a decade. You're paying someone for SEO services and you likely don't know whether they know what they're doing. Get educated. We've subscribed to Search Engine News forever, and their advice has helped us achieve astonishing website traffic from Google. What more can I say? There is nothing you can buy that delivers more value.
• Smith.ai: This is the go-to virtual receptionist for law firms. It's our recommendation, and many Institute members swear by them over other options. Useful whether you want to hand of part or all of your reception duties.
• TextExpander: if you aren't using a text-replacement tool like TextExpander, you're wasting hours of your own time each week. Set up abbreviations for simple items like email addresses and phone numbers, all the way to more complex snippets like email responses and PDF or website form fills. Use the advanced features to automatically adjust names, dates and much more in your snippets.
• Perplexity: ( iOS/ Android) AI chat and search on web and mobile. Increasingly more useful and relevant than Google search.
• NotebookLM: Standout AI tool from Google. Very under-utilized and under-rated. Conversations, summaries, and new ideas using PDFs, Google Docs, text, and audio that you provide, to synthesize answers based only on the data you've included (Some of this has also been rolled into Gemini's new Canvas function).
• Rosen Advertising: Helped our firm with website issues, search engine and content optimization, and online advertising  on Google Adwords, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Rosen Advertising is (obviously) run by a relative--my son, Toby. Toby is trustworthy, persistent, and smart. He has handled significant aspects of our marketing and produced an incredible return on our investment. Toby is one of those guys who grew up with technology and just gets it. He implemented complex tactics involving identifying and tracking online visitors, remarketing, and optimized video marketing. If you’re not getting revenues of 10-20x your ad spend then you need to talk to him.
• MacWhisper: This has become my go-to AI tool for dealing with spoken audio on my Mac. Quick transcriptions from your recordings, drag and drop audio files to turn them to text, translation, podcast transcription, and a lot more.

Advertising#

• Google Adwords: If you want to begin advertising on Google, you can select keywords and locations, and pay each time someone clicks on your advertisement.
• PixelMe: PixelMe is a URL shortener that embeds retargeting pixels from Facebook, Adwords, and LinkedIn into shortened links. Brand, track & share your own short URLs and retarget anyone who clicked on your links.

Books#

• The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It: Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business.
• Duct Tape Marketing Revised & Updated: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide: Duct Tape Marketing shows readers how to develop and execute a marketing plan that yields more revenue and ensures the longevity of small businesses.
• Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries: Fast-paced, and as entertaining as it is illuminating, Little Bets offers a whole new way of thinking. Break away from the narrow strictures of the methods of analyzing and problem-solving we were all taught in school, and unleash your untapped creative powers.
• One Page Marketing Plan: Simple, easy, direct, and incredibly useful guide to much of what works in the online marketing space. Very basic but very helpfu.
• Street Smarts: An All-Purpose Tool Kit for Entrepreneurs: Brodsky shares his hard-earned wisdom every month in Inc. magazine, in the hugely popular "Street Smarts" column he cowrites with  Bo Burlingham. Now they've adapted their best advice into a comprehensive guide for anyone running a small business.
• Remote: Office Not Required: Whether you’re a manager fretting over how to manage workers who “want out” or a worker who wants to achieve a lifestyle upgrade while still being a top performer professionally, this book is your indispensable guide. Particularly relevant in a pandemic.
• Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable: The cult classic that revolutionized marketing by teaching businesses that you’re either remarkable or invisible.
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable: Throughout the story, Patrick Lencioni reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams--even the best ones--often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team.
• Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business: In this landmark book, Danny Meyer shares the lessons he learned developing the dynamic philosophy he calls Enlightened Hospitality. The tenets of that philosophy, which emphasize strong in-house relationships as well as customer satisfaction, are applicable to anyone who works in any business.
• The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies: Chet Holmes helps his clients blow away both the competition and their own expectations. And his advice starts with one simple concept: focus! Instead of trying to master four thousand strategies to improve your business, zero in on the few essential skill areas that will make a big difference.
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: Dr. Robert B. Cialdini—the seminal expert in the field of influence and persuasion—explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these principles ethically in business and everyday situations.
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change: Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems.
• Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business: In Traction, you’ll learn the secrets of strengthening the six key components of your business. You’ll discover simple yet powerful ways to run your company that will give you and your leadership team more focus, more growth, and more enjoyment.
• What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful: America’s most sought-after executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith, shows how to climb the last few rungs of the ladder.
• Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box: Read this extraordinary book and discover what millions already have learned—how to consistently tap into an innate ability that dramatically improves both your results and your relationships.
• The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation: The authors explain how almost any average-performing sales representative, once equipped with the right tools, can successfully reframe customers' expectations and deliver a distinctive purchase experience that drives higher levels of customer loyalty, and ultimately, greater growth.
• The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals: By following the 4 Disciplines—Focus on the Wildly Important; Act on Lead Measures; Keep a Compelling Scoreboard; Create a Cadence of Accountability—leaders can produce breakthrough results, even when executing the strategy requires a significant change in behavior from their teams.
• Hacking Growth: How Today's Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success: An accessible and practical toolkit that teams and companies in all industries can use to increase their customer base and market share, this book walks readers through the process of creating and executing their own custom-made growth hacking strategy.

Book Publishing#

• PageTwo: Book publishing for domain experts. A more curated and traditional method of publication and distribution than print on demand, but wider availability in brick and mortar locations too.
• ACX: Turn your book into audio and sell it on Audible.
• Amazon Author Central: Author resources, author page, etc.
• Bowker ISBN Numbers: Get your ISBN number--own it yourself instead of letting it be owned by another entity.
• IngramSpark: An Amazon competitor for self-publishing paper books.
• Kindle Direct Publishing: Amazon Kindle publishing.

Business Profile#

• Google Business Profile: Claim your physical locations and maximize what you can for free, then look into additional paid options like Google Guaranteed. This controls how you appear in Google Map and local searches. If you need help getting started, follow our guide.
• Apple Business Connect: Apple's recently unveiled equivalent to Google Business Profile. Control your business listing in Apple Maps.

Calendar Scheduling#

Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 now feature built-in appointment booking, but third party services provide a lot more functionality, like linking calendars across different providers, team booking, and more.

• Calendly: Quick and easy system for having clients select open meeting times.
• Tidycal: A bare-bones Calendly alternative. Nowhere near the features, but does the job and it's a one-time payment instead of a monthly fee.
• Cal.com: Another booking service with a generous free tier and extensive options for enterprise users.

Call Tracking#

• CallRail - Call tracking to unique phone numbers used by a number of our members with success.
• Call Tracking Metrics - another player in the space.

Chat and SMS marketing#

• TextDrip: Automated SMS marketing.
• SMStoSlack: Send and receive SMS messages in Slack.
• ManyChat: Deliver auto-responder drip campaigns via Facebook Messenger and SMS.

Client Reviews#

• BirdEye: Collect reviews, convert leads, run surveys, text customers, and get referrals all in one place.
• Boast: Collect testimonials for your website and social media.
• Broadly: Automatically request reviews and manage all from one dashboard.
• GatherUP: Customer experience and online review engine.
• Google Review Policies: Google guidelines for reviews.
• Google Review Link Tool: Generates a review link to send to a client.
• Review Shake: One tool to generate, manage, market, and analyze online reviews.

Cloud Desktops#

• Amazon Workspaces: Hosted desktop on Windows.
• OakHost: Hosted desktop on Mac.

Competitive Research#

• Distill: Keep track of your competitors or the industry in which you practice with this website monitoring tool. It'll even track PDF files on these sites. You'll get instant notifications of changes via email or SMS.
• BrowserFlow: Automate browser interactions to do things like scrape information from web directories

Customer and Contact Relationship Management#

• Salesforce: We used Salesforce for more than a decade. It'll do almost anything, but you'll pay a steep price in monthly fees plus developer costs.
• Zoho CRM: We've had very positive experiences with Zoho. It's a bit like using Salesforce's younger, dumber sibling. It has all the features but it's always a year or two behind. The price is very reasonable. They offer a simplified and streamlined version called BigIn as well.

Discovery#

• Evichat: Cloud-based discovery tool for unearthing chat and SMS conversations.

Document Assembly#

• TheFormTool: Entry-level document assembly tool.
• FormStack Documents: Formerly WebMerge. A simple, powerful, cloud-based document assembly engine. This is a great place to start when it comes to automating documents for quick fill-in-the-blanks using an existing repository of client information, like a spreadsheet or practice management system.
• XpressDox: Desktop and/or Cloud-based, document assembly tool with a much more comprehensive (and complex) templating language. Includes an API that allows you to trigger document generation from external data and software.
• Docassemble: Relatively new player in the document assembly space. Free, open-source, and built by a lawyer who is also a developer. Very flexible, very customizable, and built on popular technologies which means finding developers to customize it should be fairly easy. If you're not game to build your own solution, Gavel.io is a commercial offering built on top of Docassemble.

Document Processing#

The recognition and categorization capabilities of LLM AIs are often underrated, but there's a growing segment of tools that leverage these functions to make automated categorization, filing, and data extraction from your reams of PDFs, scanned files, and emails a viable replacement for manual intervention.

• Base64.ai: Focused on categorization and extraction for government IDs and redactions.
• DocSumo: Out-of-the-box offerings for financial statements and bills, can be customized to recognize other forms.
• Sensible: Developer-focused platform for document processing and data extraction. Backend for building custom document solutions for your practice.
• AirParser: Easy to get started. Provide an example document, highlight what you want extracted, and let it pull the data from new documents going forward.

Email#

• Sanebox: Stop the email insanity! Sanebox does an amazing job of sorting and preparing your email for review. Instead of being overwhelmed by email, you get it under control. It's the only way I've ever achieved “inbox zero.” It works with almost any email system and it has all kinds of features that get you organized and save you time. They offer a free trial.
• Signature Satori: Centrally-managed Gmail signatures across your entire organization.
• CodeTwo Email Signatures: Centrally managed Office 365 signatures across your entire organization.
• Meco: Connect your Gmail account, select the newsletters you don't want in your inbox, and read them in an online dashboard on your schedule instead.
• Mailbrew: Collect Twitter, Reddit, blogs, YouTube, email newsletters, and just about anything else into a digest that's delivered as a single email to your inbox on your schedule, or available on the web.
• Addy: Create disposable email addresses and set up anonymous email forwarding.

Email Delegation#

• Front: Turn your email, social media profiles, SMS line and more into a Helpdesk and customer support platform for your entire team.
• Missive: Another shared inbox and unified communication tool so multiple team members can handle email and social media communications from one convenient spot.
• EmailTree: AI assisted email triage and auto-reply generation for Gmail.

Email Marketing#

• ActiveCampaign: This is our current email marketing, automation, and CRM tool. It's comprehensive, effective, and powerful. It's more than most small firms require and that's especially true if you're using a practice management system. But if you can justify the expense, it's an awesome system.
• Gmass: Email marketing is powerful and this tool makes it especially easy to blast out emails straight from your Google email account. New features keep rolling out, but Gmass has one benefit that really stands out--very high deliverability.
• Kit: We've tried them all (Aweber, Mailchimp, Infusionsoft, Getresponse, Pardot, etc.) and Kit (formerly ConvertKit) stands out for offering amazing features at a great price.
• Mail Tester: Easy and thorough spam and deliverability testing tool with no signup required.
• Email Drips: Examples of drip marketing sequences.
• Email Octopus: Great prices and deliverability. Not as easy to use as ConvertKit but the deliverability and price more than make up for a bit more complexity.
• Postmaster Tools: Google tool for monitoring and improving your success with sending email.
• SendSimple: Turn a google sheet into an email list.

Email List Maintenance and Cleanup#

• MailFloss: Automatically filter out junk email addresses from your list.
• KickBox: Email verification service with multiple integrations.
• AlfredKnows: Fast email hygiene tool.

File Storage/Migration/Document Management#

• MultCloud: Migrate data from one cloud service to another. Free and paid tiers.
• Cloud Convert: Convert anything to anything.
• Sharefile: Dropbox on steroids--file storage, workflows, permissions and more.

Cloud Storage backup#

• Backupify: Automated backup for Google Workspace and Office 365.
• Spin.ai: Backup, restore, and ransomware detection for Google Workspace, Office 365, Slack, Salesforce, and more.

Finance#

• Tiller Money: Connect your bank accounts to your financial spreadsheet for automatic updating.
• ScribeUp: Manage recurring subscriptions from an app.
• Booke.ai: AI assistant for QuickBooks Online and Xero

Hardware#

Computer#

• Apple MacBook Air M4: Our top pick. Available in two sizes and several processor/HD/RAM options. For the kind of work most of us will be doing, the processor upgrades won't make any noticeable difference. Hard drive capacity is up to you based on your needs, but we'd recommend paying a little extra to bump whatever configuration you choose up to at least 24gb of RAM, as this can't be upgraded later, and will keep the performance of these up to par for longer.
• Dell XPS 13: Our pick for Windows. We recommend a Copilot+ model with at least 16gb of RAM and a 512gb hard drive. You can option these up with more memory and storage, as well as combinations of touch screens and 4k resolution, but be mindful that the screen options will reduce battery life.

Phone#

• Apple iPhone 16: Still the best option for most people unless you like to tinker. Two sizes available. Skip the pro version unless you're convinced you need the extra camera features or just want the top-of-the-line.
• Google Pixel 9: There are many options on the Android side of things, including some increasingly viable folding options if you want to go that route. We've previously recommended Samsung's Galaxy line, but we find the Pixel to be a better value and free of much of the bloat that has crept into Samsung's devices over the years. The Pixel 9 also has a pro version and our advice on the regular vs pro is the same as the iPhone

Wireless earbuds#

• AirPods Pro 2nd Gen: The best wireless Apple earbuds - if they fit your ears properly (apparently, they don't work well for some people). I'm also still quite partial to the Beats Fit Pro too.
• Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro: The best option if you're using a Samsung phone.
• Google Pixel Buds: Good option for Google phones or other Android devices.

Multi-function printer/scanner#

• Brother MFC-J4335DW: We've previously recommended the HP OfficeJet Pro 9125e, which is still a workhorse and great all-rounder. We've recently had members complain about various issues with HP's online monitoring and ink subscriptions. The Brother is a solid alternative if slightly more work to get set up on first use.

Other#

• Extra USB charger: We recommend a notebook as your only computer. Just take it with you. To facilitate that, an extra charger at the locations you're likely to go makes sure you're never stuck without a charge. There are plenty of models out there, but this one has as much power as you'll need from any device and can charge your notebook, phone, and a few other items simultaneously if needed. The key element to look for is a new type of charger using GaN technology, as they can deliver substantially more power in a much smaller physical size than older silicon based chargers, meaning they're a lot more portable.
• David Clark Headsets: Working remotely and need quiet? These cans get the job done, plus you can direct air traffic.
• ScanSnap iX1600 Scanner: The ultimate small firm desktop scanner.
• Harmony Headphone Microphone: Serious noise cancellation for working in noisy environments.

Human Resources#

• Guideline: Simple, low-cost 401(k) plan provider with ETF investment options.
• Gusto: Payroll service plus benefits platform.
• Sequoia One: Professional Employer Organization (PEO) that handles all employee benefits, compensation, and human resource issues businesses.
• TriNet: Another PEO.

Legal Outsourcing#

• Law Clerk: Many members have used this service and reported that things went well. They offer a resource page including a link to "Ultimate Guide to Outsourcing." Use the rebate code “LEEROSEN” on your first project, and they'll send you a $200 rebate.

Mail/Postage#

• PostPilot: AI powered direct mail
• Casemail: Send mail.
• Handwrytten: Automated notes, handwritten and sent via postal mail.
• Simple Certified Mail: Certified mail is a hassle. This vendor makes it easier, plus it's cheaper than paying at the post office. No-brainer.
• Stamps.com: Print postage on your computer. No trips to the post office, better than a postage meter.
• Thankster: Thank-you cards, etc. mailed for you.

Meeting Assistants#

AI-assisted meeting assistant tools have quickly become a must-have utility. They sit in on your video/voice conferences to record and transcribe the meetings. Once finished, they provide summaries, action items, metrics, and some can be queried like ChatGPT so that you can ask questions about what was covered. In the past year, Google and Microsoft have incorporated some basic transcription and AI-assisted note taking functionality into Meet and Teams, but a 3rd party tool will join in every meeting on your calendar, regardless of who is hosting and what platform it's on.

• Fireflies: Connect your calendar and it will automatically join your Google Meet, Zoom, and Teams calls. Supports some phone services like RingCentral and AirCall. Can automatically log calls to CRMs like Zoho, Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive
• Otter: Another meeting assistant for Zoom, Google, and Teams. Includes mobile app for in-person discussions, and a Slack integration for real-time summaries of Huddles.
• CircleBack: Focused on turning meeting transcripts into action items and tasks.

These assistants work entirely on your end and don't require a bot to join the call, if you'd rather not let it be known that you're napping and planning to catch up on what was said later.

• BlueDot: Chrome extension that functions as a meeting assistant for Google Meet calls. Unlike the other services that send a bot to join your calls, this one works inside of Chrome and doesn't require any extra attendees.
• Krisp.ai: Originally a live background-noise removal tool, now a bot-free meeting note taker.
• Jamie: Meeting notes for any call without a bot.

Newsletters#

• Ghost: Paid newsletters are all the rage but you can use these tools for a free newsletter as well. Of course, you can use some of the tools mentioned above in "Email Marketing" but Ghost is built specifically for paid newsletters.
• Substack: This product deserves most of the credit for the revival of the paid newsletter category. The product is simple, easy to use, and supports both paid and free newsletters.
• BeeHiiv: A Substack competitor offering newsletter and marketing automation tools.

Nomad Life and Remote Work#

• 1 Dollar Scan: These folks scanned all of our books.
• Airbnb: Online marketplace for vacation rentals--get up to $50 off when you use our link.
• CDC Travel Advice: Travel health advice from the US government.
• CDC Yellow Book: A resource for health professionals who advise on international travel--covers diseases, vaccines, etc.
• Fit for Travel: Vaccine advice from the U.K.
• IATA Travel Centre: Do you need a visa or other travel documents to visit a particular country? Find out here.
• Nomad List: Sortable index of best places to visit.
• Google Fi: Wireless device service for international travel.
• Pill in Trip: Prescription drugs around the world have different names in different countries. This site helps you figure out the name of the medication you need anywhere in the world.
• Ripcord Travel Rescue Insurance: Flexible travel/evacuation insurance.
• Tripit: Track and monitor travel plans.
• ScanCafe: Photo scanning service for photos, slides, and digitizing video.
• SIM Card Wiki Directory: By country, for prepaid cellular SIM card providers.
• AnonymSMS: Receive SMS messages without using your own number. Great for confirmation codes when traveling.
• eSIM Radar: Comprehensive guide for eSIMs by country.
• Smugmug: Photo storage without compression.
• St. Brendan’s Isle Mail: Scanning and forwarding service in Florida.
• Thai Vaccine Clinic: Vaccines at bargain prices in Bangkok.

Notion#

• SalesMate: B2B sales management CRM template for Notion.
• Notocat: Create web and email newsletters from Notion pages.
• NotionApps: Turn Notion databases into custom apps.
• NotionDesk: Build a help center with Notion.
• Potion: Create websites from your Notion pages.
• Notion Sender: Send and receive emails directly inside Notion.
• Data Jumbo: Build charts from your Notion databases.
• Notaku: Turn your Notion database into a documentation website or knowledgebase on the web.
• PopInvoice: Generate PDF invoices from records in Notion.
• Simple Ink: Probably the quickest path from Notion to website. Less than a minute to put your notion content on the web.
• PeopleToNotion: One click to add information from Linkedin to your Notion database.
• Embed Notion Pages: The easiest way to embed your Notion data on your existing website.

Office Systems#

• DocuSign: Works great for obtaining digital signatures. We use it for client agreements and whenever else possible. We've incorporated it into our practice management system so certain documents are prepared and sent for signature with one click.
• XodoSign: Formerly Eversign. Lacking the more advanced features of Docusign and other top-tier competitors, but less expensive and a decent free tier.
• Microsoft 365: Email, Calendar, text, spreadsheets, etc. all safely managed in the cloud by Microsoft. You're likely already up and running with either Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Whichever one you're using is fine, but if you need to start fresh, Microsoft's offerings include a lot more tools on most of their tiers, including products like Teams that make it a no-brainer for a lot of law offices.
• 1Password: If you already have a password manager, stick with it. They all have similar features. But if you don't, you need one and 1Password is great. No more having to track down passwords for associates. Share passwords with your team safely and securely. No one but you will know the actual password and you can change it as often as you like. It now supports creating, saving, and sharing Passkeys as well.

Outsourcing#

• GetStaffedUp: Virtual assistants. They’re good. They provide VAs, bookkeepers, writers, webmasters, and more.
• OnlineJobs.ph: Advertise for assistance in the Philippines.
• Shepherd: Headhunters for international talent.
• Upwork: Take our Outsourcing course before you hire your first Upwork contractor and you’ll get much better results.
• Virtual Assistant Israel: We used this company for years with impressive results.

Podcasting#

• Auphonic: Automated post-production services for podcasting.
• StreamYard: The go-to solution for live-streaming, recording, interviewing, and broadcasting to multiple platforms all at once.
• Descript: Built in recording for interviews, etc. and then edit audio in text form. Incredibly useful for podcasts, video, and screencast editing.
• ElevenLabs: The premier stand-alone tool for creating an AI model of your own voice for text to speech.
• Podium: AI-generated transcripts, highlights, and chapters for your podcasts.
• Libsyn: The previous hosting provider for our audio. You don’t want to store the video on your website server. Libsyn is inexpensive and optimized for audio.
• Hello Audio: What we use for audio hosting and podcasting. Many very useful features, particularly for delivering different audio to different individuals.
• Microphones: We get asked which microphone we use for our podcasts. Lee Rosen uses a Zoom H1N which is a small, portable handheld recorder that's easy for him to use on the road.
• Music Radio Creative: A voice talent marketplace for intros, outros, and more.
• Laura Welsh: Our preferred female voice-over artist.
• Chris Lynch: Our preferred male voice-over artist.
• Resoundly: Let the software handle the speaking part of the podcast. Text to speech automation.

Podcasts#

• Manager Tools: Great management advice. Start with their basics series.
• Marketing Over Coffee: Concise and actionable marketing advice.

Printing#

• VistaPrint: Shockingly well-priced printing with very good (not great) quality. We’re using them for business cards, letterhead, and postcards.

Selling Law Firm#

• The Law Practice Exchange: Ready to sell the practice? These experts know the ins and outs. Mention my name--Lee Rosen--when you connect and you’ll get the deluxe treatment. There is a market for your business, and you’ll be glad you got help finding your buyer for the best price.

Slack#

• Slack: The de-facto community and workplace communication platform. It's what we use for our member community inside of Rosen Institute. If you're in the 365 ecosystem, Microsoft Teams has become a very robust alternative, and Google Chat has recently become a viable option that's bundled with Google Workspace accounts.
• Mattermost: Slack's pricing has crept up and up over the years. If you have a large group, Slack's paid offerings might be cost prohibitive. There are options that allow you to host similar software yourself. Mattermost is an open-source offering that can be used on a subscription like Slack at a similar cost, or installed on your own hardware for free (and thus becoming your IT headache to manage). If you decide to go this route, choosing a dedicated hosting service is likely a better option. A newer and simpler option is Once, a tool you purchase for a one time fee and host yourself.
• Spock: Manage scheduled leave for your team inside of Slack
• Toki: Workflow management inside of your Slack workspace
• Timy: Robust utility for scheduling Slack messages
• Truffle: A bot for surfacing previously answered questions in Slack
• Ricotta: Trivia, icebreakers, and games for your team

Social Media and Repurposing#

• Headliner: Turn podcasts into video marketing pieces.
• Repurpose.io: Republish content from one platform to another with sophisticated automations.
• Graficto: Create engaging infographics quickly
• APITemplate: Add to your automation or workflow builder tool like Zapier to generate social-media friendly images and banners automatically

Software#

• Reader by Readwise: our favorite "read-it-later" application.
• KeepItShot: Automatic file renaming via AI (Mac only). Higher-tech version of FileJuggler (Windows) and Hazel (Mac).
• Setapp: a big, useful collection of Mac and iPhone apps at one fixed annual fee.
• TickTick: Task management system we use daily. It's solid, reliable, and simple.
• Zapier: Connect all your favorite cloud software with customizable workflows. Automate tedious tasks and remove human error.
• Lindy.ai: Similar to Zapier, but AI-directed from the ground-up and including a voice assistant you can turn into a phone receptionist.
• Zoho: A complete small business software suite. Everything from Mail and Calendar and Documents to Finance to CRM to Recruiting and HR.

Subscription - Memberships - Courses#

• Podia - Comprehensive, feature-rich site making it easy to offer memberships, courses, webinars, and more.
• Thinkific: Easy and intuitive platform for creating and selling courses
• Graphy: A fast, slick, and easy way to set up and charge for online courses.

Systems Automation and Documentation#

• Napkin.ai: Easy and effective way to turn a rough idea into a diagram or flow-chart. Great for documentation and presentations.
• Pipefile: Make it easy for clients to upload documents for your review.
• Copilot: Quick and easy client portal.
• Process Street: We use this to document our systems and procedures. Our entire team has access so they know how to do whatever needs doing. Your systems are your business. Most of us lack an easy, accessible, comprehensive approach to documenting systems. ProcessStreet pulls together your system documentation and checklist, and integrates with many products via Zapier.
• Scribe: Record your processes and the application automatically creates a step-by-step process illustration you can then edit, tweak, and share.
• Guidde: Another option for AI enhanced how-to guides and video documentation. Record yourself performing a process, and Guidde creates the manual.
• Tettra: Internal knowledge management system with workflow builder.
• KBee: Turn a Google Drive folder into a fast, searchable wiki
• Pilot: Run a knowledgebase from your Google Drive

Time & Billing#

• Minute 7: Syncs with QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online and enables employees to enter time and expenses from their PCs, Macs, iPhone and Android devices.
• PayDirt: Time tracking, online invoicing, team productivity management, and business reports on one dashboard.

Transcription#

If you need the best accuracy and formatting, these services provide human assisted/augmented transcription for proofing.

• GoTranscript: Decent and cheap transcriptions.
• SpeakWrite: Pay by the word.
• Trint: Cheap transcription using artificial intelligence.

AI transcription has gotten so good, it does the job for most of our needs. Most use OpenAI's Whisper model under the hood to do the transcribing, which can be run locally on your computer and without sending data to the cloud.

• SpeechPulse: One-time purchase desktop app for Mac and Windows with lots of options, new word training, and offline functionality.
• MacWhisper: My preferred desktop option. Free and paid versions.

Video#

• Epidemic Sound: Royalty-free music for your show.
• Unscreen: Remove video background.
• vidIQ: YouTube optimization Chrome extension.
• Presenting.app: Easy to use Mac app for making stunning screencasts.
• Video Husky - Unlimited video editing - probably not the greatest editing, but more than good enough for most straightforward lawyer marketing videos featuring a lawyer speaking to the camera. It's not free, but it's cheap compared to hiring an editor focused on your work alone.

Video Streaming#

• Restream: Stream live to multiple platforms simultaneously.
• Streamlabs: Another product for streaming to multiple platforms.
• Streamyard: Yet another streaming service.

Voice and Video Communication#

• DialPad: We use Dialpad. It’s simple, inexpensive, flexible, and reliable. It's a great system for any business and it's perfect for providing phone-based systems for your remote team.
• Tossable Digits: Phone numbers in a variety of locations.

Webinars#

• Demio: Live, pre-recorded, and hybrid webinars with all the bells and whistles.
• ElasicWebinar: Evergreen, pre-recorded webinars with simulated events and real-time chat.
• eWebinar: Webinar automation so you don't have to give that speech one more time.
• Pitch: A beautiful and simple alternative to Keynote and PowerPoint loaded with templates.
• Zoom--Video Conference/Webinars: Host webinars with up to 100 attendees via desktop, phone, or tablet. It also permits live video or screen share, an essential tool for webinars.

Websites#

• Carrd: Simple one-page website creator. This is where we suggest starting when you need something quick, easy, and inexpensive. You'll have a website up in an hour.
• Pagy: Rapidly build multi-page websites with modern layouts, template blocks, and a Notion-like formatting editor.
• TypeForm: Webforms made quick and easy. Users fill out your forms and you integrate their data with your practice management system. It’s Zapier-friendly, so it’ll integrate with lots of systems.
• GoDaddy: They handle our domain registrations and they get the job done with very good customer support.
• Moz: Website performance metrics, crawl issue tracker, and centralized local business listing management.
• Google Analytics: Google’s free website tracking and analytical tool. It is a must-have for anyone with any type of website.
• Dribble: Find a great designer.
• FeedPress: Manage your podcast hosting and keep watching your podcast and RSS feed stats in a single web application.

WordPress#

• WordPress: The go-to web publishing platform. Free and easily customizable with wonderful support. All of my sites use WordPress as the content management system.
• WP Engine: This is the service that hosts our sites. We've tried them all and this one is simply the best. WP Engine provides powerful, robust servers with excellent stability and customer service. Because they try to lock things down and prevent issues, they don't provide all of the flexibility of some other providers. We're making tradeoffs in favor of reliability, and we're very satisfied customers.
• Yoast: They provide several excellent WordPress plugins for search engine optimization, sitemaps, etc.
• Formality: Fully-featured and free form builder plugin for WordPress

WebFlow#

• WebFlow: Well-supported and highly extensible website builder platform
• FlowBase: Components for WebFlow websites
• NoCodeCMS: Manage your WebFlow site from a spreadsheet

Website Analysis/Testing#

• Clarity: Free analytics and heat map analysis for your websites from Microsoft.
• Built With What: Find out what tools were used to build a website.
• DareBoost Performance: SEO, and content testing tools.
• Google PageSpeed Insights: A game plan for site speed considerations directly from Google.
• GTMetrix Speed Tools: Leading page speed test.
• Pingdom Speed Test: Leading page speed test.
• SEOmator: Automated SEO analysis tool.
• SimilarWeb: Website traffic comparison tool.

Working From Home & Conference calls#

• mmhmm: Borderline magical tool that acts as a virtual camera for use in your conferencing software and makes it easy to create and share very slick presentations, even when you're not the host.
• Camo: Swiss Army knife for making your video look better. Real-time processing on the video from your built-in or external webcam, or your phone. Add filters, overlays, adjust colors, and more.
• Krisp.ai: Eerily good background noise reduction software. Works in any app.
• Fathom: Let the software handle the notetaking so you can watch and listen. It'll even update your CRM or Slack so you don't have to remember to cut and paste.
• Grain: Instantly record, transcribe, and highlight the best parts of your Zoom video calls.
• Luma: Host Zoom events with custom events pages and tickets.

Writers#

• Rule the Word: Great at writing bios. She's a writer for hire but we've used her to write lawyer and staff bios that engage the reader and generate interest. She's not going to write the boring traditional blurb about law school and law review. She's very good.
• Scribe on Demand: All kinds of legal writing, editing, etc. If you need blog posts, website content, or other writing, done by lawyers who know how to make it interesting, then this is the place to start.

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above are affiliate links and, at no additional cost to you, we will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. Please understand that we have some level of interaction with all of these companies, and we recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.