There’s a beautiful quote attributed to the poet, writer, satarist, and all around wordsmith Dorothy Parker where she says, “I hate writing, I love having written.”

When it comes to me and design, I’d phrase it like this… I love design, but I hate designing. And, then likely follow that up with a lot of words you should say around your grandmother. Just ask any of my marketing colleagues that sat within earshot of me trying to design a sales presentation, or a marketing communications piece in the twenty years or so before I retired to Japan. Powerpoint? A WYSIWG Nightmare. Photoshop? Are you kidding me? What the hell? Quite possibly the least intuitive and poorly documented piece of software I’ve ever attempted to learn.

So, why is it now that I spend several hours each week designing with Canva Pro? Because it’s dead-simple. Intuitive. It’s easy to teach someone else how to use it. The knowledge you acquire is infinitely scalable. And the Canva Pro templates are… just… insane.

In the past year alone, I’ve designed teaching materials for the classroom here in Japan, as well as slide decks for my online courses about how to start a business in Japan. My wife and I own a Japanese literature translation firm, and we’ve used it to design every single peice of marketing for our translations as well as for every promotional image we created for our social media accounts when we were doing that sort of thing.

I have used it as recently as today (Feb. 24, 2021) to create  sharp, professionally designed (I’d say), video for YouTube, and every single image you will find on this website.

To say I’m in love with Canva Pro would be an understatement. It is indeed my secret weapon. My wife loves it just as much, and we’re constantly learning more about how to use this sweet little tech tool each and every day.

So, if you’re a salesperson hanging out around NihonHustle for some of my tips on personal branding for sales people, or if you’re looking for access to thousands of design options to make your own personal website look like you paid far too much for it, then Canva Pro is where it’s at. I’m not kidding when I say it is one of a small handful of tech tools we would always be sure to have the money for if we were just starting a business.

In fact, that’s precisely how we looked at it. Many things we used to have and pay for: Mailchimp, CoSchedule, Kartra… have disappeared from our small business accounting books for now, in favor of what we truly need and what provides genuine value. I trust you will love it as well.

On that note. You’ll see people online endlessly pondering about whether to pay the measly cash required for a Canva Pro subscription. Here’s the short answer: if you have a need to create presentation-worthy material for a personal website, a marketing presentation, a pitch deck, your social media accounts… hell, if you just want to create an annual calendar, or a set of thank you cards for family, or business cards, even! Jeez. Then, yes, Canva Pro really is worth it.

P.S. I’m a proud Canva Affiliate, and can’t stop bragging about it. Give ‘er a shot if any of the above rings true for you.

Test drive it for 30 days. Oh, and don’t even consider the non-Pro version. Within 24 hours you’ll realize you’ll want to resize images “magically”, and then, holy potatoes… you’ll be sold. Go all in.