The Automation That Taught Me I Was Doing My Job Wrong
Picture this: After running my virtual assistant business for years, I thought I had it all figured out. The workflows, the systems, the whole nine yards.
Turns out I was about as wrong as socks with sandals.
Here's what happened. I'd become that person who confused being busy with being productive. You know the type—color-coded spreadsheets, workflows with more branches than a family tree, and processes so detailed they'd make a NASA engineer weep. I created 15-step procedures for tasks that should've taken five minutes. Every client interaction had its own special dance, complete with templates, approval chains, and enough documentation to rival War and Peace.
I was drowning in my own "efficiency."
Then one day, probably after my third coffee and definitely after staring at yet another workflow diagram, I thought: What if I automated some of this?
Enter: My Comedy of Errors
My first attempt at automation was... let's call it enthusiastic. I threw every tool at the wall to see what stuck. GPT wrote my emails. Zapier played messenger between my apps. Bots approved things left and right. It was like watching a toddler try to help with dinner—adorable effort, questionable results.
The wake-up call came when I actually looked at what was happening. My beautiful automated emails read like they were written by a robot having an existential crisis. Tasks got tangled up like Christmas lights in January. And somewhere, somehow, I'd created a system where Slack was mysteriously connected to our GDPR compliance logs. (Still not sure how that happened.)
But here's where it gets interesting.
The Plot Twist Nobody Saw Coming
The automation didn't just show me what wasn't working—it held up a mirror to how I'd been fooling myself all along.
Those intricate workflows I was so proud of? They were security blankets, not solutions. I'd been hiding behind complexity instead of focusing on what actually mattered: getting great results for my clients.
The harsh truth? Most of my "essential" steps weren't essential at all. They were just... there. Like that drawer in your kitchen full of mystery cables and dead batteries.
The Real Transformation
So I did what any reasonable person would do. I burned it all down. (Metaphorically. Please don't actually set fire to your workflows.)
Here's what I rebuilt from the ashes:
- Instead of using AI to draft every single email, I now save it for the genuinely complex stuff—the kind of requests that would normally have me staring at my screen for 20 minutes. Basic communication? That stays human.
- Rather than playing digital Jenga with information between platforms, I brought in specialists who actually know what they're doing. Revolutionary concept, I know.
- And those bot-drafted responses? They only go out if they pass the "Would I send this to my mom?" test. If the answer's no, it's back to the drawing board.
The Lesson That Changed Everything
Here's what automation really taught me: The goal isn't to remove the human element—it's to amplify it.
Now, instead of spending hours untangling automated disasters, I spend time actually talking to clients. Instead of debugging workflows, I'm solving real problems. Instead of managing systems, I'm building relationships.
My business isn't run by a perfectly orchestrated symphony of tools anymore. It's run by something far more powerful: common sense, genuine care, and the radical idea that sometimes the simplest solution is the best one.
The funny thing about trying to automate everything? It taught me what actually deserves my human attention. And honestly? That list is a lot shorter—and a lot more meaningful—than I ever imagined.
So if you're sitting there, surrounded by your own beautiful-but-broken systems, ask yourself this: Are you solving problems, or are you creating elaborate ways to avoid them?
Trust me, the answer might surprise you. And it'll definitely set you free.
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