I cut my content workflow down to 3 tools (one of them is free — for now)
How I create multi-platform content fast, stay consistent, and grow without hiring a team.
Read on my Substack / Read time: 3 minutes
The best content systems are boring. That’s why they work.
Quick note: Sorry this one's a little late — solo building means some weeks move faster than others. But this edition might be the most useful yet.
This week’s theme: efficiency + just do it — less friction, more output, and no waiting for the perfect moment.
Let’s get into it.
AI for Marketing: Why Less = More
This week I simplified my entire content process to just 3 tools — and it’s been game-changing.
🤖 Cleve.ai — I’m testing this right now (thanks to the founder, Ashvin). I drop voice notes or raw thoughts, and Cleve turns them into structured drafts in my voice. Feels like a creative assistant that actually gets me.
💬 ChatGPT — I refine the Cleve draft inside a custom GPT I built. It helps polish tone, generate multiple formats (threads, captions, blog blurbs), and even suggests CTAs. I also add long-tail keywords at this stage—this part’s crucial if you want your content to get picked up by search and surfaced by LLMs. I break down how that works in this blog post.
🎨 Canva — Final stop. I take the post, drop it into a carousel or reel template, and have a visual asset ready in 10 minutes or less.
One idea = four assets in under an hour.
All without Notion, schedulers, or scattered notes.
What it’s costing me this month:
Cleave: Free (testing it)
ChatGPT Plus: $20/mo
Canva Pro: $12.99/mo
= $32.99/month to run my solo content system (and honestly, I’d pay double)
Mindset Hack: If it feels too obvious to post… you should probably post it
The trap: Thinking your content has to be clever, polished, or “next level” to be worth sharing.
The shift: Share what feels obvious to you — because it’s not obvious to the person two steps behind you.
We underestimate how useful our defaults are. The tools we use daily. The mental models we rely on. Even the mistakes we’ve normalized. But that’s exactly the stuff people are searching for — especially those starting out or stuck.
Try this today:
Open your notes or calendar. Look at what you did in the last 3 days.
Ask: What felt easy to me but would’ve been hard 6 months ago?
Turn that into one post, even just a bullet list:
What the problem was
What you did
What changed
Post it. Don’t overedit it. That’s the shift.
What’s boring to you is gold to someone earlier on the path.
When you start seeing through that lens, content becomes effortless.
Founder Story: YOU
Yep, still you.
If you're building solo, trying to scale content without a team, and feeling stretched — we got you.
This is your sign to simplify your stack, stop overthinking, and just hit publish.
→ Start with one idea.
→ Record it.
→ Let the system (Cleve + ChatGPT + Canva) do the rest.
You don’t need more hustle. You need fewer moving parts.
Forward this to a founder still stuck in content chaos. This setup might save their entire week.
Until next week - keep building with purpose,
— Gina Kimiza