222 - Mike Strives

Mike Strives builds and shares insights about building his startup Upvoty on Twitter.

Besides that, he's highly investing in creating content with weekly vlogs on YouTube and daily shorts, TikToks, and Instagram Reels. Besides building his business, he's also the founder and host of the SaaS Pirates podcast show in which he interviews founders from successful SaaS businesses.

Office Items:

• ‍‍LG 27UL550 Monitor
• Apple Macbook PRO M1 14"
• Apple Magic Mouse
• Apple Trackpad
• Apple Magic Keyboard
• Phone and Apple Watch Charger
• iPad for controlling music and lights
• 2 Standing Desks
• 2 Herman Miller chairs
  

Studio Items:

• Shure sm7b microphone for doing demos and recording podcasts
• Sony A7 III Camera for recording Reels, TikToks, and Shorts‍
• Sony Camera Lens FE 2.8/16-35 GM
• Philips Hue Lightning
• Focusrite Scarlett 2i2
• Apple Magic Mouse
• Apple Trackpad
• Apple Magic Keyboard
• LG 27UL550 Monitor
• Genelec speakers
• Aputure Light Storm 120d II Soft box for lightning
• Standing Desk
• Herman Miller chair
• DT 770 PRO headphones
  

Tools:

• ‍Ilo.so for Twitter Analytics
• Sendgrid for transactional emails
• Slack for internal communication
• EmailOctopus for Newsletters
• Ghost for my blog‍
• Final Cut Pro for editing videos
• Stripe for payments
• Crisp for support chat
• Notion for managing my work and life
• Loom for Recording customer tutorials
• Tally.so for lead forms
  

What is your favorite item in your workspace?

The obvious answer would be my Macbook, I mean, couldn't do any work without it. But the geek in me would say my Shure sm7b microphone. Love that thing!

How do you spark creativity?

In the office, you'll find a whiteboard, sticky notes on the wall, and notebooks all over the place. I just love to get some off-screen time and brainstorm ideas. One thing I always do as well is to go and read for 30 mins around 2pm.

How do you manage work-life balance?

Having an office really does the trick for me. I can come to office to work, and leave around 5pm to really go home and be with my family.

What do you enjoy most about podcasting? Least?

Getting to meet new people in the same space is so awesome. Didn't think that it would do this many downloads at all (around 1,000 per episode) and that I was able to actually monetize it (around $250 per episode because of sponsors). What I enjoy the least? Hmm. Nothing really. Being it a side project, I can make time for it whenever I like.