Five jobs every business has: finding clients, writing posts, sales calls, automations and videos. For each one: the old way, a good tool, and the one I actually use, with my setup. Plus how the video you just watched was made, prompt included.
My picks from daily use at Growth Cab, checked on October 15, 2026. No tool paid to be on this list. Growth Cab is a Clay Enterprise Partner.
BAD is how most people still do the job. GOOD is a decent AI tool that saves time. GREAT is what I use every day to grow Growth Cab and this channel, with the exact way I set it up.
LinkedIn, by hand BADScrolling profiles one at a time. Slow, and you still have no email or phone number.
Apollo GOODA big contact database with filters and emails. Fast to start, but it is one source of data.
Clay GREATMany data sources in one table, plus AI that researches every company for you.
Locked. How I use Clay opens with your email.
Open it with your emailPick Apollo instead if you need a few hundred contacts this week and one data source is enough.
ChatGPT BADOut of the box it writes in its own voice, with the same dashes and the same "it's not X, it's Y". People can tell.
Gemini GOODCleaner first drafts. Still sounds like a template unless you push it.
Claude GREATGive it your rules and your best posts, and it writes like you.
Locked. How I use Claude opens with your email.
Open it with your emailPick Gemini if you live in Google Docs and want a quick first draft right there.
Google Docs BADTyping notes while you talk. You miss half of what the client says.
Otter GOODRecords and transcribes the meeting. Usually a bot joins the call.
Granola GREATTakes notes from your computer's audio, with no bot in the call, and blends them with yours.
Locked. How I use Granola opens with your email.
Open it with your emailPick Otter if you need recordings of calls you are not in: its bot can join without you.
Zapier BADEasy for simple triggers. Every step costs a task, and big flows get hard to follow.
n8n GOODVisual flows with more control, and you can host it yourself.
Claude Code GREATDescribe the job in plain English. It writes the code, runs it and fixes it.
Locked. How I use Claude Code opens with your email.
Open it with your emailPick n8n if people who don't code must see the flow and change it themselves.
CapCut BADEditing by hand. Hours per video, every video.
HeyGen GOODAn AI avatar of you reads the script. Fast for daily talking-head videos.
Seedance GREATThe whole shot from one prompt: your face, your voice, the lip-sync, the set. It made the reel.
Locked. How I use Seedance opens with your email.
Open it with your emailPick HeyGen if you post a talking head every day and want the same look every time.
The person talking in the reel is me, generated by Seedance 2.5 on Dreamina from one prompt and a 27-second clip of me talking, used only for my face and voice. The logos, cuts, music and sounds were added afterwards by a script I built with Claude Code.
Locked. The full Seedance prompt, block by block, opens with your email.
Open it with your email