I run about 2.5–3.5 people's worth of work. Not because I'm exceptional at productivity. Because the automations are good enough that I keep saying yes to things a normal human capacity wouldn't allow. For the past couple of years, I've been the "automation guy" who makes everything look effortless. Client newsletters, social media pipelines, system builds, strategy calls. And I genuinely love it. But behind all that efficiency is a human who still has to think, decide, and solve problems....
16 days ago • 1 min read
I need to tell you something a bit embarrassing. A few days ago, this newsletter sent an issue that was broken. The formatting was wrong. Subject lines leaked into the body. It looked like someone had pasted a template scaffold and hit send without reading it. It was me. I'm the someone. The Automation Wizard, automation-wizard-ing himself into a mess. So it felt like the right moment to share the test I use to make sure AI-assisted content is actually worth sending. It's one question: Remove...
18 days ago • 1 min read
Hello there, friend! You might've noticed it's gone a little quiet from me. No dramatic reason — I've had my head down building automation systems (the irony of the automation guy being too busy to email is not lost on me). But while I was heads-down, I kept picturing you still doing the manual, 2am, copy-paste version of running your business — the exact thing automation is supposed to rescue you from. So I'm back. Consistently, this time. And I want to make the quiet up to you with...
24 days ago • 1 min read
I've been using the same one-sentence test for about six months now. It works on anything: a LinkedIn post, a newsletter, a sales page, a course lesson, a caption. The test is this: if you removed the AI and just had more time, would you have written roughly the same thing? If yes — it's yours. The AI helped you move faster, but the thinking was already there. If no — if the content only exists because of AI — that's slop. And your audience can smell slop. They can't always name it, but they...
24 days ago • 3 min read
Last week, I thought I was running out of space on my NAS (Network Attached Storage, basically my central storage of hard drives at home). The warning lights were flashing, the drives looked full, and my brain immediately shifted into problem-solving mode. I started mapping out backup tiers, sync rules, and cleanup scripts. I even looked at buying another 16TB drive I didn’t really need. After an hour of overthinking and mapping, I noticed something ridiculous. Both recycle bins—local and...
8 months ago • 1 min read
There’s a special kind of panic that comes when you realize you might have just broken something that really matters. Mine started with one small file — a cryptographic key used to publish a client’s Android apps on the Play Store. We were hours away from handing everything back after years of collaboration with a major client. The transition needed to be clean and professional. And then I couldn’t find the key. See, a few years earlier I had made what I thought was the responsible choice: I...
8 months ago • 1 min read
Most people think the magic of AI is in the answers. But the real magic? It’s in the questions — and how you write them. Because let’s be honest. Asking AI for something then getting a sloppy answer really kills the mood. Makes a person think it’s not worth the hype. But who has time to research and learn “effective prompting” from the army of AI bros on social media? Not me. So here’s the shortcut almost nobody talks about: You can use AI to help you talk to AI. I know, it sounds a bit like...
8 months ago • 2 min read
The other day, I caught myself setting the same alarm. Again. "Pick up Jeremy from school - 2:45pm" I wasn't going to forget my kid exists. But I would get absorbed in a project, look up at 2:43pm, and have to sprint out the door. So every morning I'd think, "Right, need to set that reminder later." And half the time... I wouldn't. Here's the ridiculous part: I literally teach automation for a living. Yet there I was, acting as my own unreliable notification system. A human cron job that kept...
9 months ago • 1 min read
For years I’ve been fascinated by typing speed. I’ve used every shortcut, text replacement, and expansion trick imaginable to squeeze a few more words per minute out of my fingers. But at some point, I realised that no matter how fast I type, I can’t type as fast as I can think. Recently, I’ve been using Wispr Flow on both my Mac and iPhone, and it’s quietly changed how I capture ideas. Instead of forcing thoughts through my keyboard, I just… talk. It’s brilliant for rough ideas, notes to...
9 months ago • 1 min read