Scale Faster By Saving Time
Hey Reader,
Last week, I finished something I’ve been working toward for a while.
I automated almost the entire production workflow for my podcast.
AI and Zapier are now working together to handle work that used to require me to move from one task to another, open different tools, create things manually, and keep track of what needed to happen next. It used to take me 8 hours to get one podcast done, especially around updating the website, now I spend maybe an hour.
I shared that I was building this system with a client and she immediately said, "I want that too!" One aspect I had built for myself where AI drafts my emails in Outlook for me, ads names and emails to my list and acts as my assistant with communication. She immediately pointed out that it would be amazing if I could build the same in her business.
She’s working on a campaign to reconnect with past clients. The challenge was that she has a fairly large list, the people on it need different messages for different reasons, and the follow-up needs to continue over time.
Doing that manually would mean constantly keeping track of who needs what message, when they need it, what was sent before, and what comes next.
So instead, I built the workflow.
Now she can tell ChatGPT what she wants the next message to accomplish. AI creates the message based on what we’ve already built, and the draft of the right email shows up where she can review and edit it before anything goes out.
More importantly, this isn’t just a campaign she can use once.
It becomes a system she can keep using with future clients to follow-up and bring them back into her business for more offers.
And I think that’s where the real opportunity with AI is starting to get interesting.
Not Enough Time To Scale
The challenge is not every business owner has time to scale or the ability to hire. You find yourself buried in manual tasks that need to get done and often when you try to hire nobody wants to do the work, they aren't skilled enough or it just takes too much time.
That was my case with my podcast, I would try to hire and either only part of the support was offered and what took me the longest to do nobody wanted to do.
I enjoy my podcast but it was taking me 8 hours just to get one episode out! I already used Riverside which has started to implement AI for editing, you can literally tell it what to remove, it provides clips and assets.
But I was still spending my time updating my website, writing all the copy, making graphics, adding the intro and outro, uploaded to YouTube, uploading to iTunes, grabbing code, then manually drafting emails and manually creating clips. Now I don't do any of that!
In my clients case she just didn't have the mental capacity to sit down and think what emails she should sent to whom. She knew she should follow-up but starting from scratch was too much at the end of a long day.
So now, she can just go into ChatGPT and tell it who to email. I already wrote the messages, and created the automation that would send the right email to the right client.
In my case I tell AI what to do and it just gets everything done including updating my website.
Focus on Workflows
When we start to look at the things we do every day as a workflow and how it can be systemized we are that much closer to just handing it over to AI to do for us.
Where larger organizations are afraid to implement AI at it's full capacity, for a small business that is trying to scale it is priceless.
Instead of hiring someone to do a boring job, AI can simply become your next employee. The when you hire someone, they can be the one that focuses on quality assurance and doing things that help generate revenue.
How To Get Your Time Back using AI
- Pick one workflow you repeat regularly.
Don’t start with “How can I use AI?” Start with something you already do, such as following up with leads, publishing content, onboarding customers, producing reports, updating your website, preparing proposals, or communicating with past clients.
- Write down every step.
Follow the process from beginning to end. Include the little steps you usually don’t think about, like moving information between tools, creating drafts, sending reminders, renaming files, updating spreadsheets, or notifying someone that something is ready.
- Separate judgment from handling.
Ask which steps genuinely need your expertise and which are simply moving, formatting, drafting, organizing, updating, or triggering something else.
- Choose one piece to automate.
You don’t have to automate the entire workflow at once. Connect AI with a tool like Zapier and remove one repetitive part. If the work needs human judgment, build in an approval step. That’s exactly what we did with my client’s messages. AI creates the draft, but she still gets to review it before it goes out.
- Pay attention to what happens next.
Once you remove one manual step, you’ll usually start seeing several others. That’s when you stop thinking about AI as a collection of prompts and start seeing how it can become part of the operating system of the business.
Inside the Studio
One of the things I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is how much of growth comes down to what happens after the strategy is decided.
It’s not enough to know what should change. Somebody still has to build it, implement it, and make it work inside the business.
That’s a big part of what I’ve been doing with clients.
I’ve helped e-commerce brands grow from roughly $250K to $1M in revenue, and helped another improve conversion by 30% in a single week. For an app launch, I built the brand strategy, messaging, customer-acquisition plan, and a list of 50 qualified leads. I worked with a group of leadership coaches on strategy, business development, lead scoring, digital marketing, and ads, helping increase revenue by $50K in 90 days.
For a crisis communication expert, the work included new programs, marketing, operations, and AI automation, contributing to roughly $160K in new revenue in 90 days. A local restaurant increased revenue by about $30K in one month after we worked through the strategy and implementation. A T-shirt brand went from zero to consistent sales within 90 days after I helped launch and operate its Amazon presence, connect Printify, build the sales and marketing plan, create SOPs, and determine what products to focus on.
I’ve also worked with a winery and farm that wanted to increase revenue across its property and events business. After looking across the business and changing the strategy, they were booked to capacity within 30 days. And a wellness coach who had been in business for a year without making a sale went from zero clients to generating consistent leads after we rebuilt the messaging, website experience, lead-generation system, lead magnets, and advertising strategy.
What I love the most is the fact that every business is different and needs different solutions
Sometimes growth requires marketing, a better offer, a different revenue model, stronger sales systems, better operations, automation, or an entirely different path than the owner originally expected.
And in that process I evaluate a businesses readiness for AI tools to make operations faster and implement if needed.
If you are ready to take your business to the next stage it all starts with Scale Clarity. You can learn more here.
The Year End Is Almost Here, Where Do You Want To Take Your Business?
Before deciding that your business needs more marketing, a new offer, a redesigned website, AI, a salesperson, or another tactic, it helps to get clear on where you’re actually trying to go.
Start with where you want the business to be 12 months from now and work backward from there.
The Business Goal Roadmap™ is a free assessment designed to help you look at where your business is today, where you want it to go, and what may need to happen in between.
There’s no opt-in required. You can simply download it and use it.
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To Your Success,
Aimee