Back in 2017, we were helping authors self-publish (started in the digital marketing space around 2011) when I stumbled into chatbots (manychat), voice assistants (alexa), and third party automation tools like zapier. What started as a fun side project became my mission when I saw something remarkable: the simplest automations often deliver the biggest impact.

I built launch bots for authors that got higher engagement than traditional emails; people just had to tap, not type. We pushed Amazon's algorithm without spending a dime on ads, making books more visible through smart automation.

Then I applied this to a client running webinars. She was struggling with less than 50% show-up rates. We implemented a webinar bot, and her show-up rate jumped to 75%. That's when it clicked: small businesses needed someone who understood both technology and their daily operational reality.

One of my favorite projects was for a hard money lending company. Their unique selling point was "loan approval in 48 hours or less," but they were losing precious hours just getting borrower information from intake to their loan auditors.

We built them a system using completely free tools: Google Forms connected to extensions that automatically created PDF versions of applications, saved them in the right folder, and instantly notified the team. Information that used to take hours now arrived in minutes. For an industry where time literally is money, the ROI was immediate and undeniable.

I hear this all the time. Here's the truth: your brain should be reserved for strategy, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving; not responding to the same inquiry for the 47th time, manually copying data between systems, or following up on tasks that get forgotten until it's too late. 

That's not human touch. That's human waste.

AI can assist with many tasks, but humans need to review and refine the results. The key is using your limited brain power on high-level thinking, not repetitive work that steals your time and energy.