Latest / The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast / How Solopreneurs Win in the Automation Age with Tim Harrison (stage 2) - Ep. 408

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How Solopreneurs Win in the Automation Age with Tim Harrison (stage 2) - Ep. 408 · The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast

0:00
Scott Ritzheimer: Hello, hello, and welcome. Welcome once again
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to the Start, Scale, and Succeed podcast, the only podcast that
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grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a
0:09
founder. I'm your host, Scott Retheimer, and today we're
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talking to the founders who want to win in what I think is aptly,
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should aptly be known as the automation age, especially those
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of you who are in level two and are doing absolutely everything
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yourself, because historically, if you're in level two and it's
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just you and maybe one or two people helping you, kind of had
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two choices, you could either, if you were, if your schedule is
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full, you could either stop doing something, we would call
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that eliminate, or you could hire somebody else and delegate
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to them, and both of those opportunities can be helpful,
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but they have their flaws, and more than ever, there is a third
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option that's available to us, and that is the ability to
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automate and to unpack that, what it would look like, and how
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you can start implementing it today. I am thrilled to welcome
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Tim Harrison, who is a pioneer at the intersection of both
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coaching and AI. As the founder of Coaching Innovation Lab, he
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specializes in advising, training, and consulting
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solopreneurs and organizations on the practical application of
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AI. Tim's leadership in the field is globally recognized.
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He's one of the eight experts selected for the International
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Coaching Federation's Global Task Force on AI, helping to
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shape industry standards around the use of AI. His innovative
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work includes founding the nonprofit EPO G Academy, which
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developed Power Path, an AI-powered coaching system
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designed to bridge guidance gaps in education, and leading
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Project Beacon, an NIH study measuring the impact of coaching
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for underrepresented biomedical PhD students. He's here with us
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today. Tim, I'm really excited about this conversation. One of
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the things I said is a lot of times these conversations on AI
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can just go 1000 different ways all at once, but I love your
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specialty in this, or your focus in this on how we can use it for
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for solopreneurs, and to an extent the organizations that
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they start, and so I'm wondering if just right out of the gate
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you can start with the mindset shift that you're seeing
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solopreneurs have to make in this age, where so many AR tools
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are available.
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Unknown: Yeah, there, Scott, it's great to be here. Thanks
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for having me. There is so much information out there about AI.
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There's so much hype. Is it going to destroy the planet and
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destroy us, or is it going to be our savior, and I think you have
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to have a balanced perspective. When I say AI, I like to say
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applied innovation, because it's never about the technology, it's
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about our ability to do things better. And for solopreneurs,
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many of them, like you said, are the only person in their
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business, they're doing everything, they're wearing a
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lot of hats, and so there's never been a more powerful
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technology and opportunity to expand what's what an individual
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is capable of than now.
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Scott Ritzheimer: That's awesome. One of the reasons I've
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seen folks be somewhat reluctant is they just don't know how to
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start, so I would imagine that most people have kind of started
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now, but let's say we had the opportunity to kind of push
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reset and start the best way possible. What's the best way to
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start thinking about and using some of these AI technologies?
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Unknown: Do what you do best, let AI do the rest. Right, there
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is now an opportunity to rethink what is it that's worth doing,
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and where should I be spending my time? Everyone has the same
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challenge. There's only 24 hours in a day, and everyone has the
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same challenge, that most of what we do doesn't matter at
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all. There's something called the Pareto principle, or the
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8020 rule, where 20% of our input is responsible for 80% of
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our output, and the opposite is also true, 80% of what we spend
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our time on is only responsible for 20% of our output, and so if
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you want to maximize your impact and your influence and your
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productivity, you have to figure out how to maximize the time
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spent in that 20% that has outsized returns, and AI is now
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that third option, like you mentioned, you can eliminate
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things, take things off your plate, you can simplify them, do
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the minimum viable version of it. Now you can automate. Now
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you can automate, right. And so what you want to do is, you want
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to look at, well, what are the things that AI is just as good
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as I am, or better at, or better, and trade off, hand it
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off to AI, hand it off to those systems, right. Everyone has
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four zones of ability: you have your zone of incompetence, your
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zone of competence, your zone of excellence, and your zone of
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genius. Zone of incompetence are things that maybe you're not
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great at, or things that anyone can do just as well as you,
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right, like the. Data entry, you know, basic analysis, basic
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summary, that kind of thing. Your zone of competence are
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things that you do average. Most people can do them, you're not
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bad at it, but you know it's pretty average. And the zone of
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excellence are things that you do above average, right? And
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then zone of genius are the things that you do that are
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unique to you that you tend to get the most fulfillment and
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reward from, and they have the greatest impact on your
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business. So, you want to do is, you want to minimize your time
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spent doing the things that are average or below, and you want
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to maximize time spent on the things that you're above average
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or great at, right? And that makes sense. And so, now AI is
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an opportunity to hand off those things that are average or
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below, so you maximize time spent on the things that have
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the greatest impact.
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Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, it's really helpful. One of the
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things I've seen, and I'd love your insight on this, is there
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are some things that AI isn't good at, or as good as it needs
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to be, and sometimes it can make mistakes and errors, and one of
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the challenges I've seen is folks who have jumped straight
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to the bottom of that tank, like these are the things that I
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don't do well, let me have AI do them, and one of the challenges
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with starting there is you don't know if the output is good or
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not to some extent, right, like if I was, if I was going back to
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school to be a rocket scientist or something, I don't know if
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that's a thing, but I wouldn't know if the answers that it was
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giving to me were right or wrong. That's not very helpful,
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whereas in that zone of competence, things that I can do
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but I don't really care to do, it's much easier to see, hey, am
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I getting a good result back or not? And I have found that that
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tends to be some of the lower hanging fruit. Would you agree?
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Unknown: I would agree in the fact that you're not able to
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evaluate the response as well if you don't, if you're not skilled
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in that area. However, if you're not skilled in that area, the
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odds are that the basic that you're going to get from AI
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might actually exceed what you're doing. So it's a trade
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off, and the areas that I'm great at, I'm able to
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distinguish and have judgment and taste around what's good and
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what's not, but if I'm not able to do that, the odds are that
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the AI might actually boost my baseline for that. Right, there
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was a research study that they did called the Cybernetic
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Teammate. You can look it up, but what they did is they had
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individuals use AI and compare them on performance to teams who
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didn't use AI right, so imagine you had someone who was a
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marketer and someone who was, you know, had a financial
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background, and they had them run a campaign together, and
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then you had an individual who was either a marketer or a
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financial advisor, or had a finance, you know, was a finance
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professional, and they used AI for the opposite, so the
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marketing person use AI for finance, the finance person use
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AI for marketing. The individuals who use AI
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outperform the team of the marketer and the financial
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person. Wow, right? And this is good news if you're a
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solopreneur, because you're wearing a lot of hats: you're
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wearing the marketing hat, you're wearing the financial
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hat, you're wearing whatever service you provide hat, you're
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wearing the backend hat, all of that at once, and so it's
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actually good news, but when you double click and look into why
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it worked, well, it bridged the skill gap, so the financial
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person must have been well below average on the marketing side,
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and vice versa, and the AI bridged that gap, it actually
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raised their level, so they could be average or above
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average, however, it didn't improve their existing skill, so
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AI didn't make them a better marketer, or AI didn't make them
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better at finance. So, there's a saying I like to say: is it
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raises the floor, but the ceiling is still up to you,
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right? So, it can bridge the gaps of things that you're not
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good at, but you still have to work on your judgment and your
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taste, so using AI is an excuse not to develop skill, but it
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allows you to choose which skills have are worth
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developing, because you can augment the rest of them.
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Scott Ritzheimer: That's awesome. That is great news from
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a study standpoint, and really, really helpful insight. So, you
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work a lot with coaches, and I would say coaches are kind of a
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helpful example of what a lot of long-term solopreneurs are,
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right, professional service providers, folks that are good
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at what they do, and, and for those folks, one of the biggest
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things, and you touched on this in the very beginning of the
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show, is to get as much of the other stuff off of your plate as
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you can, and that allows us to maximize our dollars per hour
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worked. It allows us to do things that we enjoy doing, and
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can fill in some really, really big gaps, because most of us
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aren't great at everything, right. And so, for a coach
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looking at how to start automating AI, maybe they've
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separated some of these different zones. What are some
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of the best ways you see coaches or other professional service
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providers using AI to save time?
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Unknown: Yeah, for one, you have to just use it. You are the
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expert at your business, and you're the expert at your
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domain, and these companies, OpenAI. Google Anthropic, you
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know, X AI, they're going to come out with these incredible
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models, and they're going to get smarter and smarter and smarter,
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but they're not going to tell you what that actually looks
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like in your business, right? And so you have to get your
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hands dirty and start using it, because that's where first value
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is going to going to come. After that, it's not just about using
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the tools, right? You don't rise to the level of your goals, you
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fall to the level of your systems, and the people who have
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the greatest results with this are the ones who built a system
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around it. When you look back at the past, sometimes you can
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predict the future, and in the last great technological
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revolution, we had the combustion engine, right, that
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was invented, and everyone knew, just like they know now, that
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this new powerful technology was going to transform the way that
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people do transportation and transform the way that they do
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work. But if you go back, you can look this up. What were some
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of the early mock-ups, some of the early inventions with the
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new engine? And you would see a horse carriage with an engine in
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the back, because they thought, oh, wow, this is going to make
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the horses faster, they're going to be able to carry heavily,
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heavier weight, they're going to last a lot longer, because
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there's less wear and tear, and it's very logical to think that,
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because they spent their whole life traveling via horse, so
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that was their only mental model, and we look back at that,
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and we laugh, because we think obviously it was the automobile,
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it was the Model T that ended up being the real breakthrough that
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the combustion engine allowed for, and if you look at a lot of
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current AI use today, it's like that engine-powered horse and
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buggy, we have this new AI-powered engine, but we're
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just slapping it on and bolting it on to the existing way that
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we do things. The greatest opportunity with AI is not just
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doing things a little bit better, a little bit faster, a
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little bit cheaper, it's in the new things that are now
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possible. What's the Model T in your area? And so, for people
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who are looking to get the most out of it, don't just ask, "Hey,
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can AI do this? Ask, what is now possible, and that's the
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difference between being able to go from zero to 60. To give a
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very practical example, let's say you're a coach or you're an
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advisor, you're a consultant. What you do is you hop on calls
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with people and you're paid for your expertise, right? If you
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have your system currently set up from an AI native
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perspective. You may have an AI note taker that is on the call,
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and here's all the relevant context. And then you have your
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basic AI operating system, like your cloud or your ChatGPT or
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your Gemini in the middle. And then you've set up your back
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end, so where AI can access your context, what your business is
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about, your name, your brand, your packages, your contracts,
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and all that stuff. And then what that allows you to do, once
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you've set up that system, where it connects, you can do a simple
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prompt like this that might take you 10 seconds. Hey, I just got
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off a call with a leader, and they're interested in me sending
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them a proposal. I want you to look at that called transcript
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and identify their core pain points. Then I want you to
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reference my existing services and packages and help me build a
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pitch deck for this engagement. Make sure you reference my brand
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colors, my logo, and all that. And then hit enter. And once you
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set up that system, the AI will go in, read the transcript,
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analyze it, reach back into your back end, like your Notion, your
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Google Drive, your Outlook, find your pre-existing services,
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blend those two together, and then I'll write the code for an
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entire presentation. It'll go ahead and build that out.
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That might be six to 10 hours of work before that can now be
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initiated in the first, you know, 1015 minutes, once you
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have that system in place, now it's not final, because you know
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the AI is going to do its best attempt. You still need your
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judgment, you still need skill to review it, but sheesh, like
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you're saving six hours, gets in, it gets compressed down
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about 15 seconds, and that sounds like hype, but so does
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seeing a car go from zero to 60 in less than 10 seconds if you
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spent your whole life riding a horse, it's the equivalent
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today.
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Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, it's fascinating. Fascinating. Well,
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Tim, there's a question that I'm eager to hear your answer to.
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This question I ask all my guests, and it is this: What is
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the biggest secret you wish wasn't a secret at all? What's
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that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening
14:22
today knew.
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Unknown: I'll say you're already on that mountain. A lot of
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people look forward there, they have things they want to achieve
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and things that they want to accomplish, and it's like it's
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this mountain over there that they need to then start
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climbing. I think, when you actually get more granular, you
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realize there's a lot of things that you've already done that
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are moving you in that direction, and you're actually
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probably standing at the foothills or standing somewhere
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on that mountain, and it's not somewhere that you're that
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you're not already, and I think the difference. Is when you're
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on that mountain, it's easier to continue when just looking at a
15:03
big challenge. It's easy to feel like you have to get started,
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and there's all this inertia to overcome, but when you realize,
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oh, I'm already making progress in this direction, or I'm
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already there, then I think, I think it's a lot easier. You
15:16
have to see yourself as already doing it, as already it, you
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know, when I got trained to become a coach, after you
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graduate from the certification process, so many people are
15:28
like, when I get my first client, then I'll be a coach,
15:31
but then they don't act in alignment because they don't
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believe that's who they are already, so they act as if
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they're not a coach, so they don't do the things that a coach
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would do, but as soon as you say, okay, I am this or I am
15:41
that. It's suddenly appropriate to do the things that that
15:45
person would do, and I think a lot of people just get stuck
15:48
because they, they choose to put it outside of them instead of
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seeing that they're already there.
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Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, so good, so good. Well, Tim, there's some
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folks listening to this, and they'd love help, you know,
16:00
taking the next step, whether it be the first one or the 500th
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into really putting AI to work in the and allowing it to shape
16:08
their practice. Where can they reach out to you? Where can they
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find more out about the work that you all do?
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Unknown: Yep, find me on LinkedIn, Tim Harrison, and you
16:16
can also find more at Coaching Innovation lab.com We put
16:19
together a special package that special link for people who find
16:23
out about me on this podcast, which will be included in the
16:27
show notes, so make sure you check those out.
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Scott Ritzheimer: Fantastic, fantastic, we'll get that in the
16:32
notes for everybody. And Tim, just really a fascinating
16:36
conversation. Pleasure having you here. Thanks so much for
16:39
being on the show, and for those of you watching and listening
16:41
today, you know your time and attention mean the world to us.
16:45
I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I
16:48
did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care. Hey
16:55
everyone, Scott Wedheimer here. Thank you so much for listening
16:58
to the Start Scale and Succeed podcast. I hope this episode
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gave you exactly what you need for the level you're in right
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now. If you want to discover what level you're in, take our
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I'll see you in the next episode.