Are you the CEO of your business, or just the Chief Firefighter?

In this episode of The Automation Show, Shaun digs into the exhausted reality of the "improvised" business. If you spend your first twenty minutes every morning triaging your inbox just to figure out what’s on fire, you aren't running a company—you’re standing in the middle of a structural collapse holding it together with your bare hands.

We look at the story of Sandra the Consultant: brilliant at her job, loved by her clients, and perpetually tired. Sandra represents the "Chaos Gap"—the space between a business that relies on the owner’s memory and one that relies on a system.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The "Decision Made in Advance": Why automation isn't about complex robots—it’s about deciding how a process should work once and letting the system take the wheel.
• The High Cost of Manual Labor: How re-explaining your onboarding or manually chasing invoices is quietly draining your most precious resource: time.
• Reactive vs. Systematic: The psychological difference between feeling like you’re "catching up" and feeling like you’re in control.
• The Engine Trap: Why being the "human spark plug" for every process in your business means the business stops the moment you need a day off.

"The goal of automation is not to make your business run faster. The goal is to make it run without you having to be the engine."

Three Places to Patch the Chaos Cracks This Week:

1. Standardized Onboarding: Does every new client get the same welcome email, contract, and intake form automatically?
2. Hands-Off Reminders: Stop manually texting people the day before a meeting. Let the system do the nudging.
3. Automated Collections: Set up polite, repeated payment reminders so you never have to feel awkward about asking for your money again.

Ready to stop being the engine and start being the architect?

Download the Free Series: The Leaky Bucket

In this episode of The Automation Show, Shaun breaks down the silent killer of small businesses: the follow-up gap. Most business owners think they have a "lead problem" or a "marketing problem," but the truth is usually much simpler—and more expensive. They have a leaky bucket.

Download the Free Series at https://theleakybucket.ca

Through the story of Dave the Landscaper, we look at how a two-day delay in replying to an email can cost thousands of dollars in lost revenue. If your lead management strategy relies on you "remembering" to check your inbox at 8:30 PM, you aren't just losing sales; you're throwing away the money you spent to get those leads in the first place.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Dave Dilemma: Why "getting back to them eventually" is the same as saying "go hire my competitor."
• The Follow-Up Engine: Moving beyond the "fancy spreadsheet" and turning your CRM into an automated sales assistant.
• The "Oh Wow" Math: How shifting your conversion rate by just 10% through better automation can add thousands to your monthly bottom line.
• Plugging the Holes: A 3-step audit you can do this week to find out exactly where your leads are falling through the cracks.

"The bucket didn’t get bigger. You just plugged a hole."

Your Homework for This Week:

1. Map the Sources: Where exactly do your leads come from? (Web, FB, Phone?)
2. The 'Instant' Test: What happens the second a lead hits your system?
3. The Persistence Count: How many times do you follow up if they don't answer the first time? (If the answer is zero, we need to talk.)

Episode Description: Why Your Marketing Isn't Broken (It’s Just Disconnected)

Are you tired of "shouting into a room and hoping someone shouts back"?

Many small business owners are convinced their marketing is fundamentally broken. They’ve tried the ads, they have the email list, and they post to social media—yet revenue remains inconsistent and leads constantly go cold. In this episode of The Automation Show, we pull back the curtain on a truth most agencies won't tell you: Your marketing probably doesn't need more money or more content. It needs connection.

We dive deep into the "Three Gaps" that act as silent killers for small business growth and discuss how to shift from a manual, frantic follow-up process to a streamlined system that flows.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• The "Not Connected" Problem: Why having separate tools for CRM, email, and web forms is costing you sales before you even say hello.
• The Cost of the Wednesday Response: How a 24-hour delay in following up with a Tuesday lead is handing your business to the competition.
• The Three Critical Gaps:

1. Awareness to Inquiry: Why interested visitors disappear without a trace.
2. Inquiry to Follow-up: The "highest-stakes" gap where most money is lost.
3. Sale to Ongoing Relationship: Why businesses stop talking to the people who already trust them.

• The "Paper First" Strategy: A simple, low-tech exercise to identify exactly where your leads are falling through the cracks.
• Automation Without Overwhelm: Why you don't need a complex system—just a reliable one where you aren't the "single point of failure."

"The goal isn't a complicated system. The goal is a reliable one. A system where nothing important falls through, every lead gets a response, and you are not the single point of failure holding the whole thing together."

Resources Mentioned:

• The Client Journey Map: Grab a piece of paper and plot your current (not ideal!) workflow to find your highest-stakes gap.