People ask me this constantly. “How do you manage everything?” “What’s your actual stack?” “How is it just you?”
Here’s the honest answer. it started with one evening, a tool called Greta, and a real estate calculator idea I couldn’t get out of my head.
How I got here
I bought Greta on AppSumo. Opened it. Started building. Within an hour I had a working real estate calculator app. Twenty minutes after that, Stripe was connected and it could actually take payments.
I’d been building on WordPress for 15 years. I’d never built an app from scratch in an afternoon.
I upgraded to Tier 4 before I went to bed. Not because I hit a limit — because I knew. That’s the test I use for every AppSumo deal. do I feel that pull within two hours? With Greta, absolutely.
That one evening sent me looking for more. Which is how I found Base44. I haven’t left.
The actual stack
Google Enterprise — the one AI I’ve actually settled on
I’ll be honest. For a while I was everywhere. Claude for copy. OpenAI for reasoning. Gemini for research. Each one genuinely impressive in its own lane — and that was exactly the problem. I was spreading myself too thin, context-switching between platforms, maintaining different workflows for different tools.
I’m a Google Workspace native. Always have been. Gmail, Drive, Docs, Calendar — it’s all Google. So when I finally asked myself why I was fighting my own stack, the answer was obvious.
I’ve settled on Google Enterprise. Gemini sitting inside the tools I already live in. No tab switching. No copy-pasting between platforms. As much as I love what Claude and OpenAI can do — and I genuinely do — I was building cognitive overhead I didn’t need. I’m still on a learning curve with it. But it’s the right curve to be on.
WordPress — the foundation that isn’t going anywhere
15 years. I’m not switching. WordPress isn’t broken — it’s just been waiting for AI to catch up. What’s changed is everything that sits on top of it.
10Web — hosting that doesn’t require a sysadmin
10Web handles LoudCow.ai’s hosting. Managed WordPress, Google Cloud infrastructure, built-in optimisation. I don’t think about server stuff anymore. That’s the point.
I’ve tried cheaper options. You get what you pay for with hosting — slow sites kill conversions and I learned that the hard way on a client site years ago.
AppSumo — where I source tools before they get expensive
AppSumo is genuinely how I find most of the tools in this stack. Lifetime deals on SaaS software that would otherwise cost $50-100/month. My filter. who built it, how long have they been around, and can I build something real with it in two hours?
I’ve refunded plenty. The 60-day guarantee is real — use it.
Base44 — where the automation actually happens
Base44 is what runs the parts of LoudCow.ai that run themselves. The AI agents, the content publishing pipeline, the automations. It’s where I build apps now too — proper ones, not just experiments.
I found it chasing the same feeling I got from Greta. Base44 gave me more of it, consistently. That’s a rare thing.
Gamma — presentations that don’t make me want to cry
Gamma is what I use now whenever a client needs a pitch deck, a proposal, or anything that used to mean opening PowerPoint and losing an afternoon.
You describe what you want. It builds a fully designed, properly formatted presentation. You edit in plain language — “make the second slide punchier”, “add a pricing section” — and it updates. No fiddling with alignment. No fighting with templates.
I built a complete client pitch deck for a fictional interior design studio in under two hours. The output was genuinely impressive — good enough that I embedded the actual live deck in the post. You can read the full review here →
Descript — video and audio without the production headache
Descript is what I use for anything involving video or audio — screen recordings, voiceovers, client walkthroughs. You edit the transcript and the video edits itself. It sounds too good to be true. It isn’t.
For a one-person agency that occasionally needs to send a client a recorded walkthrough without it looking like it was filmed on a potato — this is the tool. 50% off two months on the Creator Monthly plan through my link if you want to try it.
OpenAI API — the engine under the hood
OpenAI’s API powers the AI sales agents I build and deploy for clients. Not ChatGPT the product — the raw API, connected directly to the agent platforms I work with. Clients supply their own keys; I handle the setup and training.
The models are extraordinary. That’s not up for debate. I just prefer not to live inside the ChatGPT interface as my day-to-day. The API is where OpenAI earns its place in this stack.
AdCreative.ai — ad graphics without a designer
AdCreative.ai generates conversion-focused ad creatives in minutes. You connect your brand kit, describe the campaign, and it spits out a batch of properly formatted ads — sized for Meta, Google, LinkedIn, whatever you need. Not stock-photo generic. Actually on-brand.
To be straight with you — I don’t run paid campaigns for LoudCow. I’m an introvert with a genuine aversion to social media and I’ve never sponsored a post in my life. AdCreative.ai is in this stack because I use it for client campaigns. But if I ever did need to push LoudCow ads — and there’s a non-zero chance that day comes — this is exactly what I’d use to make sure the assets were on brand without needing a designer.
Adobe Express — quick creative that doesn’t look quick
Adobe Express is part of the Creative Cloud suite and it’s what I reach for when I need something polished fast — thumbnails, on-brand client visuals, quick graphics — without firing up the full Photoshop/Illustrator workflow. The AI tools inside it have gotten genuinely good. Same caveat as AdCreative — this is client work territory for me. If I ever did need to create social assets for LoudCow, Express would be the first place I’d go. Same logic. On-brand. Fast. No designer required.
Rank Math — SEO that runs in the background
Rank Math is the SEO plugin running on every LoudCow.ai post. Focus keywords, meta titles, schema markup, internal link suggestions — it handles all of it inside WordPress. I set the Rank Math fields for every post as part of the publishing pipeline. It’s not glamorous but it’s doing real work every time something gets published.
Google Analytics and Search Console — what’s actually working
Part of the Google Enterprise ecosystem and genuinely non-negotiable. Google Analytics 4 tells me what’s converting. Search Console tells me what’s ranking, what’s getting impressions, and what needs work. I check both weekly. Not daily — that way madness lies — but weekly, methodically.
If you don’t have these two set up on your site, do it today. They’re free and the data compounds over time. Past-you will thank present-you in about six months.
Xero — the bookkeeping I don’t have to think about
Xero handles the numbers. Invoicing, bank reconciliation, GST — all of it. Paired with Dext for expense capture, it’s a genuinely seamless loop. Receipt hits Dext, gets coded, lands in Xero. I barely touch it.
For any Australian small business owner doing their own books — this combination is the one. No spreadsheets. No shoebox of receipts at tax time.
The tools that didn’t make the cut
There have been plenty. Tools I bought, tested for two hours, couldn’t get anything useful out of, and refunded. I don’t talk about those much but I should — it would save you money. I’ll start doing proper “I tested it and got a refund” posts soon because honestly those are more useful than any glowing review.
Want this kind of setup for your business? Let’s talk →
Affiliate links may apply. I only recommend tools I’ve actually bought and tested. If you buy through my link, I earn a small commission — at no extra cost to you.
