Tools We Use
These tools power our strategic consulting practice
We co-create clarity, capacity, and impact with purpose-driven leaders thanks to tools that make it all work.
Disclosure: Some links below are affiliate links. If you purchase through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting values-aligned work!
Cardinal Leadership Archetype Assessment
Discover Your Patterns For Strategic Clarity
In 5 minutes, discover your Cardinal Leadership Archetype—your unique strategic pattern, where you get stuck, and the specific clarity shift that could unlock your next breakthrough.
Choose Your Tools
Tools shape how strategy is lived day to day, so this page highlights the applications that help leaders work with more clarity, ease, and integrity. Each tool listed here supports cooperative, people-centered ways of working — whether you are planning, running operations, or leading a team through change. They're platform agnostic and most present alternatives for similar outcomes.
Use this as a starting point to design a tech stack that matches your values, your capacity, and the way your organization actually moves.
Strategic Planning
Notion
Our digital workspace and library in one. Notion keeps ideas, knowledge, templates, and the Cardinal Compass in one shared space so everyone sees what’s next and why it matters.
Pro tip: Use one page per quarter and add your team’s reflection notes to track clarity and focus over time.
Perplexity
AI-powered research that surfaces cooperative trends and market insights faster than traditional search. Our go-to for small organization economic data and emerging strategy patterns.
Pro tip: Ask "cooperative economics" + your industry for instant sector clarity.
Claude
AI thinking partner for strategy synthesis. We use Claude to refine content, frameworks and scenarios. Alternatives: Gemini, ChatGPT, DeepSeek
Pro tip: Prompt with your values first—Claude honors cooperative principles beautifully... be sure to maintain the human-in-the-loop process.
Tally.co
Custom assessments that reveal team and client readiness. From Partnership Readiness Quiz to Values Alignment Check, Tally powers our self-diagnostic tools. Alternatives: Google Forms, TypeForm, Cognito Forms
Pro tip: Embed directly in Notion for seamless client workflows.
Discount: Receive 50% off for 3 months on any plan when purchased after clicking the button above.
Thinkific
Use this LMS to create a resource and training center for your audience for access to anything from free worksheets to paid courses. Thinkific is intuitive, reliable, and keeps your audience’s learning journey organized. Alternatives: Teachable, Prolific, and even plug-ins for wordpress.
Pro tip: Plan your curriculum around results, not modules.
Libro.fm
Listen to top thought leaders while you're on the go with a membership. Also a good tool to decompress with a reading of the latest fantasy novel, DRM-free, from any smartphone. Libro.fm shares profits with your chosen local, independent bookstore. It's also a Social Purpose Corporation, Certified B Corp™, and 100% employee-owned. Alternatives: Libby, Hoopla, and Audible.
Pro tip: Empower your team with leadership development or start a business book club with by giving audiobook credits.
Purposeful Operations
Asana
Asana keeps everything synchronized (with team and clients) with fewer status meetings. Kanban boards, tasks, comments, goals, and dashboards all live where accountability can breathe. Alternatives: ClickUp, Monday.com, Trello, Basecamp
Pro tip: Create onboarding documents so team members and clients can more confidently use this tool.
Pro tip: Create a top-level folder per client and use consistent naming conventions. Collective clarity lives in naming.
Zapier
The silent helper that automates the routine. From syncing surveys to updating spreadsheets, Zapier streamlines small steps so people can focus on meaningful work. Alternatives: n8n, make.com, IFTT
Pro tip: Automate for simplicity, not speed—every connection should save human attention.
Namecheap
Simple, affordable domains without hidden charges. Namecheap is where we register digital real estate for clarity and ownership.
Pro tip: Purchase multi-year registration to avoid renewal fatigue.
Siteground
A high-performing, human-friendly hosting provider. We rely on SiteGround because their service and uptime support our clients’ sites like a true partner—quick, transparent, and reliable. Alternatives: GreenGeeks, Hosting.com, Wix
Pro tip: Keep your domain separate from your host for faster troubleshooting later.
Canva
Visual consistency across templates, social, and client deliverables. Canva Pro keeps our cooperative brand crisp, consistent, and accessible.
Pro tip: Create a Brand Kit with your values as color-coded templates.
Kit
Email sequences that nurture without selling and provide clean deliverability. We use Kit to guide leaders from curiosity to clarity. Alternatives: Sender.net, Loops, Mailchimp
Pro tip: Tag subscribers by client type for personalized nurturing.
Pro tip: Align your meeting types to your energy: clarity mornings, partnership afternoons.
Givebutter
Fundraising and donor engagement for mission-driven organizations. Givebutter centralizes donation forms, campaigns, and events (including silent auctions) so your team can focus on storytelling and stewardship instead of juggling multiple tools. Alternatives: Betterworld.org, Zeffy, BiddingOwl
Pro tip: Pair Givebutter with your board reports and program dashboards so fundraising decisions are grounded in both dollars and impact.
Bitwarden
Cybersecurity is important no matter the stage of your org. Our go-to starter pack is Bitwarden - a zero-knowledge, open-source password manager with strong audits, MFA support, secure sharing, good admin tooling, and excellent small-team economics. Alternatives: 1Password,
Pro tip: Implement these tools alongside Black-owned or woman-led cybersecurity firms or consultants, so the advisory, training, and policy work sits with leaders who share your values.
People-First Leadership
HiHello
Digital business cards that share values + links. Replace paper cards with HiHello and bring sustainability into your business pretty quickly. Alternatives: Blinq, LinkedIn QR code, Wave Connect
Pro tip: Include a link to your capabilities brief in every digital handoff.
Zoom
Human-centered video with breakout rooms for collaboration and co-creation. Zoom is a tool that can be used around conversation flow, not meeting agendas. Alternatives: Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
Pro tip: Use reactions + chat for async participation—introverts contribute too.
VideoAsk
Quick videos that humanize communication. VideoAsk is useful for asynchronous project updates, tutorials, and check-ins when words on a page aren’t enough. Alternatives: Loom, Camtasia, Riverside... Zoom
Pro tip: Start with a smile. Clarity plus warmth saves follow-up messages later.
WordPress
The flexible foundation of our online home. WordPress gives us creative freedom to craft experiences that reflect mission, voice, and cooperative integrity.
Pro tip: Prioritize accessibility and clarity over flashy widgets; good design follows purpose.
Slido
Live Q&A and polls that surface collective wisdom. During workshops or team meetings, Slido reveals what participants need most in real time.
Pro tip: Pre-load your top questions as poll options for instant alignment.
AppSorteos
Contests are a great way to add play to regular activities. Using the wheel picker turned basic market research surveys for stakeholders into incentive-based giveaways - we received more than enough responses.
Pro tip: Make sure incentives help recipients move closer to their goals AND connect with your brand.
How We Choose Tools
- Supports cooperative workflows (shared ownership, transparency)
- Scales with small teams (no enterprise bloat)
- Respects human capacity (async-first, automation-friendly)
- Aligns with our values (equity, sustainability, clarity)
Ready to Build Your Stack?
Book a workflow audit consultation to talk tools + strategy for your team.
Disclosure: Some links above are affiliate links. If you purchase through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting values-aligned work!
Yolanda Brown is an independent management consultant, nonprofit leader, and proud mom based in Durham, NC. For nearly 20 years, she has delivered value as a trusted ally, diligent solver of complex problems, and influential collaborator to managers and leaders within top organizations in the telecommunications, wireless, transportation, small business, and nonprofit industries.
She is the Founder and President of Yolanda Nichole Solutions, a management consulting firm that partners with mission-driven leaders fully build and execute strategies to solve their most urgent problems and move the needle forward on achieving their goals. Connect with her online to join in the fun!