Table of Contents
- Software For Video & Creating
- Software for Community Building
- Software for Marketing
- Software to make life easier
- Bonus Tip: Go for lifetime deals
Running an adventure travel blog, sailing bizz, AND balancing a nomadic lifestyle in tune with nature is a treasure hunt and adventure in itself. There’s vanlife logistics, sailing trip organization, community-building, and content creation. And, of course, no day without play! As a business owner or creator there are so many hats to wear. Over the years, technology has become a great co-pilot creating more freedom and making oceanpreneuring easier while slow travelling the world. How to tap into technology these days to work smarter, not harder, when creating content and community?
Here’s an overview of my favourite business-related software and apps that give me more freedom to focus on what really matters: inspiring others to live consciously, explore widely, and protect the planet. I’ve tried dozens of software over the years (I have my nerdy moments:)), but a select few have become my trusted allies.
Let me introduce you to some of my favourite software tools for digital nomad life as a creator and community builder I’ve found worthwhile investing in and that set me and my ventures up for 2025. All these software tools have been personally used and tested by me for at least 1 year, most of them multiple years.
Software For Video & Creating
Descript
Descript is probably my favourite software discovery of all.
What does Descript do?
This productivity tool allows you to edit videos (and podcasts) by editing text. Yes, text! So no need to re-watch your ‘talking to the camera’ video 20 times to get the edit right. You just edit in the text and the video auto synchronizes with that. You can remove filler words, cut the silences pauses, and overdub audio, of which a lot as well is automatically done. You can even automatically let Descript choose your best take.
How I Use Descript?
I use Descript to streamline my videos and edit course materials and interviews for both my youtube channel, Ocean Nomads youtube channel, the how to sail the world crew course, and sometimes for reels too. It’s handy for turning raw talking to camera footage into concise smooth clips. Also, it does a great job at automatically adding subtitles to video or short form content.
Why I Love Descript?
It’s greatly thanks to Descript I managed to create a 5 hours online video course! I reduced my editing time with about 90% and boosted my talking on camera skills thanks to the ease of editing. Descript’s simplicity and time-saving magic are unmatched. It helps me focus on storytelling instead of the technical details of editing.
What is the investment? There’s a free option! Then plans start from 12$/month. The amount of time I’ve saved with it is unheard. If you have a bunch of videos to edit or finally want to create that online course, try it and buy it.
Canva
What does Canva do?
Canva is a graphic design tool for non-designers. It’s packed with templates for everything from Instagram posts to presentations.
How I Use Canva?
Every graphic on this blog and with Ocean Nomads comes with visuals, and Canva is my go-to for creating them. It’s also a lifesaver for designing quick social media posts or presentation slides. I also use it for making Youtube thumbnails. There are tons of templates to choose from that you can easily fine tune.
Why I Love It
It’s super user-friendly, versatile, and packed with features that help me create professional-looking designs in minutes. You can add your brand colours and easily fine tune any design to your liking. Canva has a generous free version. The pro edition also give you access to tons of templates and royalty free video, graphics and more. Every digital nomads who creates and is not a professional designer, needs this.
Software for Community Building
Mighty Networks
What Does Mightynetworks do?
Mighty Networks is a platform for building and hosting communities. It’s where the Ocean Nomads membership lives, creating a space for like-minded ocean adventurers to connect, share, and collaborate for a lifestyle at sea.
How I Use Mightynetworks?
For 4 years already, I host the Ocean Nomads member hub and Ocean Nomads Crew course on Mightynetworks. It’s where we share updates, coordinate trips, connect members, do our community management, networking, and exchange ideas about living a conscious ocean nomads lifestyle.
What it looks like:
Why I Love It?
It’s like having a virtual clubhouse without having to glue tons of other software to it to make it work. Mighty Networks makes it easy to share content, connect people, and create resources and courses, organize events, facilitate discussions, and manage the backend of a growing community. Without the noise and data-selling that come with tools like facebookgroups. It also has a payment system and intergrations with other tools like kit for easy email marketing. I like that the course videos are hosted locally (as opposed to many other tools where you have to host on for example youtube), and that it comes with a smooth app that you can customise to your own liking. It’s an all-in-one community software to create and manage your community.
What is the investment? Quite a lot. But it is way less hassle, time and resources than starting your own app from scratch. There are different plan options depending on your needs.
Alternative I considered: Circle.co
Grammarly
If I only knew about Grammarly before I hired a book editor for Ocean Nomad and burned my budget.
What does Grammarly do?
Grammarly is a writing assistant that checks your grammar, punctuation, and tone.
How I Use It?
From blog posts to newsletters, Grammarly ensures my writing is clear and polished. It’s my safety net for avoiding embarrassing typos.
Why I Love It?
It makes me look smarter. Enough said. Grammarly automatically pops up wherever I’m writing to improve my writing. There are some auto edit features.
I also considered: Quillbot which has a pretty advanced free option.
Software for Marketing
Manychat
What It Does?
Have you seen those calls to actions on instagram where you have to comment X or send a DM and you get a response right away. That’s often via the tool called ManyChat. It works with Facebook messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp and can save some time on the socials.
How I Use Manychat?
I’ve used Manychat for Ocean Nomads and the Ocean Nomads Crew Course on Instagram (See examples)
Why I Love It?
ManyChat simplifies communication while maintaining a personal touch. I love how it saves time and automates repetitive tasks means I can focus on creating value and connecting authentically. Manychat has a free option and a more advanced premium option
Repurpose.io
What It Does?
Do you sometime wonder how all these content creators can post so much content on different platforms? Well, they don’t. They use a tool called repurpose which does exactly what it describes. This app automates content distribution across platforms.
How I Use It?
I use Repurpose.io to share videos, blogs, and social posts across multiple channels with 1 click. For example, I post a reel on instagram and it gets auto posted to Youtube, Pinterest, Twitter etc.
Why I Love It
My internet connection is quite often terrible, or non existing. Uploading and clicking can take a lot of time. Repurpose does all that work for me. It’s like having a personal assistant for content management.
Kit
What It Does?
Kit (previously Convertkit) is an email marketing tool designed for creators, offering features for building email lists, landing pages, creating automated workflows, selling products, and engaging your audience effectively.
How I Use It?
I’ve been testing this tool for a year now and decided to switch over from Mailerlite. I use Kit to share newsletters and get content seen to those who choose to sign up. It’s my go-to tool for creating impactful email sequences, like those for launching the Ocean Nomads Crew Course or sharing blog updates (Coming!)
Why I Love It?
ConvertKit blends simplicity with power. The automation features are easy to set up, and its design tools help me create emails easy peasy. It keeps me connected with my community without overwhelming me with unnecessary complexity. The main reason for switching from Mailerlite is that it integrates with Mightynetworks, which makes email marketing way easier. Also I love the feature that give the ability to sell your new book or product within the email software. I use the free edition with this blog and the Creator plan with Ocean Nomads
Alternatives I used: Mailerlite and Sendfox, both more affordable options that may be just fine for you.
WordPress
What It Does?
WordPress is a powerful and versatile website-building platform that allows creators to design, manage, and optimize their websites. It’s open-source, customizable, and perfect for everything from personal blogs to full-scale e-commerce sites.
How I Use It?
This blog, as well as Ocean Nomads, is built on WordPress. With its wide range of themes, plugins, and integrations, I tailor the sites to reflect the brands while keeping them functional and user-friendly.
Why I Love It?
WordPress is like a blank canvas for creativity. It offers endless possibilities. I love its ability to scale as my projects grow and the vibrant community behind it that continually adds new features and support. It’s reliable, adaptable, and aligns perfectly with my mission of sharing impactful content with the world.
It’s free! www.wordpress.org
That said, you do need to host your website somewhere. It’s important to select a good one. I’ve had some bad experiences in the past which made me lose my blog DestinationXploration (Did you know me back then already :)? I now use Lightningbase for many years already and never have had an issue. Also they autoback up your website and fix something when you can’t figure it out (to a certain extent). It’s a very small hosting business ran by Chris. You can choose website themes and templates for free or pay for one. This blog is the Salient theme. Ocean Nomads is built in Elementor with Astra theme.
Software to make life easier
aText
What It Does?
aText allows you to re-use texts, emails, codes, or phrases that you often use, with a simple shortcode.
How I Use It
I use aText for quickly entering details into forms, for emails, for passwords for intro’s. Whenever I notice I’m retyping the same thing. I add it to aText
Why I Love It
It just saves time and energy. You can try for free and then it costs 5$ only (per year). It’s a very simple timesaving tool.
Notion
What It Does?
Notion is an all-in-one workspace to organize your tasks, ideas, projects, and goals in one place. It’s highly customizable to fit your unique lifestyle and workflow.
How I Use It
I use Notion to plan my life, trips, manage my content creation, Ocean Nomads business system, and organize personal goals. From brainstorming new ideas to structuring long-term plans, it’s my ultimate tool for clarity and focus.
Why I Love It
Notion brings everything together in one clean and inspiring space. It’s flexible, visually appealing, and has endless possibilities for customization. Plus, it’s free to start, with affordable upgrades if you need more features. It makes life simpler and more intentional.
Try Notion.
Surfshark
Have you experienced those verification things or websites that don’t work when you travel somewhere else? You solve it with a VPN.
What does surfshark do?
Surfshark is a VPN service that keeps your online activity private and secure.
How I Use It?
As a digital nomad, I rely on Surfshark to safely connect to public Wi-Fi and access content from anywhere. It’s essential when managing sensitive member data on the go.
Why I Love It?
It’s affordable, easy to use, and gives me peace of mind while working remotely from my campervan or wherever. Everything gets tracked these days. With Surfshark you can minimize that. I love this one as it is super easy to set up on both desktop and mobile and very affordable.
ThriveCart
What It Does?
ThriveCart is a shopping cart software without subscription designed to maximize sales and simplify checkout processes.
How I Use It?
I sell my book Ocean Nomad (the E-book edition) through ThriveCart. See here an example. And future digital products I’ll sell through thrivecart too. I also you their Convertbox tool to optimize conversion. You may have seen it pop up on the blog here.
Why I Love It
It doesn’t have a subscription or extra fees per purchase. Yes, the initial investment is quite a lot, but do the math over time and it’s way less than those subscriptions that can add up a lot over time, or services that take a huge cut of your amazing products and services. Also, it just does what it needs to to without you have to take a course how it works or tons of extra features.
The digital nomad office when living vanlife
Wise
What It Does
Wise (formerly TransferWise) is an international money transfer platform that offers transparent, low-cost solutions for sending and receiving money globally. It uses real exchange rates without hidden fees.
How I Use It
For international payments (for me outside of europe)
Why I Love It
It’s a very easy and affordable way to make and receive intercontinental payments for freelancers.
Bonus Tip: Go for lifetime deals
Many of these software tools come with subscriptions that can quickly add up to quite an investment. Though these investments may and should be earned back through using them, as a small entrepreneur or creator it can be a tough cookie. It all adds up and we rather have some funds for the adventures. Check out Appsumo for Lifetime software deals. You only pay once, can try out the tool for 60 days (or just get your money back), and then keep access for life. Through this, I acquired some tools like onlinecoursehost, neuron writer (Seo writing tool), Transcript (for transcribing and summarizing podcasts & youtube videos) and Minvo (AI video tool turning long form into short form content) that, with their competitors, cost a fortune. And like this you also support some start-ups and other creatives instead of the giant corporates.
Figuring out your software stack can be quite a project in itself. Over the years I’ve researched and tested so many tools and things. In the end, it’s a personal choice, and the most important part is actually using what you invested in. And to create the freedom and impact with it, staying sane in the process.
I hope by sharing my productivity and management tools, you may got some ideas or inspiration to create your own personal digital nomad software stack for 2025 so you can work smarter, and play harder. We are not meant to sit behind computers all day. Set it up, make it work, and make a difference while living your best life to your full potential.
For more adventure and travel related tools I use, check out the resources page.
What’s your favourite software tools for the creative and community focused projects and business?
Disclaimer: As always, opinions are my own. What drives me is encouraging you to connect to nature, care for nature, and live your best life. If you’re looking to purchase something from this software stack list for creators and communitybuilders, huge thanks if you try out the software via the links on this website Oceanpreneur.co. At no extra cost to you, purchases via this website give me a tiny piece of the pie that helps me keep investigating, exploring, and creating content about living an oceanpreneurial life of adventure travel in tune with nature.
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