You Must Value Your Time
“Why would you pay someone when you can do it yourself?”
People have said that to me about hiring:
- Lawn mowers/landscapers
- Movers
- House cleaners
As well as as:
- Paying for software (back in my development says)
- Having appliances delivered and installed
Yet, all of these businesses exist — and it’s not because their clients are exclusively people who can’t do it themselves.
It’s because their clients, like myself, value their time.
And you probably do too.
I recently have a presentation where I said:
If you’re copying and pasting from one app to another, that’s a perfect candidate for automation.
So when I saw someone in the comments of a recent presentation I did talking about how, “that’s easy and not worth the endless subscriptions,” I thought, “This person don’t think their time is worth $10/month.”
That means I can’t help them. Because the truth is, it’s NOT just about copying and pasting — something you and I do every day.
It’s actually about two separate but important distinctions:
First, when you’re copying and pasting from one app (say, Calendly) to another (say, Notion), you have to open Calendly, copy the text, then open Notion, find the place where you want to paste the text, and paste it.
Then make sure the paste is correct. This could take several minutes per copy and paste. And that doesn’t count the mental energy it takes to switch to and from this menial task.
And second, you need to remember to do the copy and paste. If you don’t do it, it doesn’t matter how easy it is. And when you forget, that’s when your process falls apart and important things slip through the cracks.
Is remembering you have a podcast interview worth $10/mo?
What about remembering to follow up with a potential client from your CRM?
I bet they both are.
Hiring someone to mow my lawn isn’t about the physical act of mowing. It’s about the fact that I never have to worry about mowing my lawn.
That frees my brain up to think about more important problems.
Automation is the same.
With automation, you don’t have to worry about making sure data gets from A -> B, or that you might forget to do something…or that you need to take 15 minutes out of your day to do something simple.
It’s about creating the margin and freedom in your schedule to do the most impactful work you can — for your podcast, and your business.
And that is well worth the “endless” subscriptions.