First Turn Operations

03/30/2023

Sometimes we build automations at home…

…and sometimes we get to go to Phoenix and process map in person with amazing clients!

Excited for this project helping a client take his automations to the next level.

03/26/2023

Today in "What I'm stewing about while doing farm work":

Why ChatGPT is hella cool but it's still not going to replace an experienced, operations-minded automation builder for your business...

03/23/2023

Just surfing Facebook while Make.com creates me literally a million google folders...

While this particular element of this project is a one-time task that I need to do to get it set up rather than something I'll always need an automation for, sure is great to make the magical interwebs do the stuff that sucks.

03/17/2023

What the baby ducks and I think about business today…

Or

…why you need to think about flexibility when building automations even though that sounds super counterintuitive

03/04/2023

It's "Build Weekend" for the "100 Days of No Code" Bootcamp, and I'm chilling in my PJs building some cool stuff in Make...

The "Automagic Video-to-Post Converter" (thanks for the name, OpenAI) will take video inputs, transcribe them, and use OpenAI to create a series of social media posts from the content. All this will be nicely organized in an Airtable backend that users can access from a fancy-pants Softr portal. Because we're clearly fancy-pants around here and need fancy-pants portals...

It's been such fun to mess around and build a few things for myself the last couple weeks of this course. Likewise, I've been stretching myself to try out some things that have been on my list of things to try out. Like Softr which is amazing. And OpenAI which is half amazing and half creepy SkyNet maybe gonna come to life and take over the world...

I'm constantly amazed at just how easy these no-code tools make it for anybody to build a customized solution for their needs! It's really an incredible time to be a small business owner where nothing feels out of reach because of a lack of tech budget.

(Also, we can work in our PJs which is pretty great... and COVID made it cool to have noisy kids in the background of Zoom calls... even though I was totally doing that before it was cool because I'm obviously a trend setter.)

02/27/2023

One of the incredible things about No-Code is how it’s brought capabilities that used to only be available to big companies with big budgets to everyone.

For the fraction of the cost and time, pretty much anyone can create a solution tailored to their needs.

Also, it’s super fun… so there’s that.

(Also also… did you all know how stinky pigs are? I definitely did not know how stinky pigs are…)

02/25/2023

Not ashamed that it's Friday night and I'm on the couch in my pajamas building Airtable bases.

1. I'm old and hate real pants.

2. I'm a huge nerd.

3. I can't even - as my teenager would say - with the amount of time, energy, and sanity the organization and automation capabilities of Airtable are going to bring this client. They've got a "good enough" solution in Trello right now, but Airtable is going to be the next level thing they need to support their growth.

Also, that huge nerd part again...

02/23/2023

I'm participating in the 100 Days of NoCode Bootcamp, and the challenge during the course is to create a product using NoCode tools AND THEN actually tell people about it.

So Internets, consider this my telling you all about it and sharing the fun little website I've made so they stop hassling me with their automated Slack messages about doing the thing.

Selfishly, I'm creating a solution to my own problem of hating marketing with a product that allows you to upload a video and have the magic of all this creepy AI weirdness turn it into social media posts for you.

Feasibly, you could sign up on my fun little webpage and get the updates about it that I'm feasibly going to write so you could feasibly use the product when it goes live.

(Or more than likely you can let me know you want one and I'll build it for you because here at First Turn we automate stuff; we don't build products all willy-nilly like people who build products).

Here's the link to check it out:

Use AI to Turn Your Videos Into Social Media Posts

12/19/2022

Business owners are often given the advice to "hire, hire, hire!" as one of the first things to do as you scale. Here's some ramblings on why I don't always agree with that and why automation can be such a great interim step.

No-code and low-code tools are SO powerful and SO accessible these days that business owners can save a lot of money and a lot of heartache by looking to automate before looking to hire.

The added advantage is that when it comes time to hire (which it will because people like to do business with people and not with robots) your role will be better defined, contain less nonsense, and allow your new team member to focus on their best work and not mindless button-pushing and data entry.

12/09/2022

Today's thing I'm thinking about... because I'm often thinking about very interesting things... is the value of using forms inside your business with your team.

We often think about using forms with our customers, but it's an under-utilized asset internally.

Forms provide consistency - they ensure you get all the data you need in the correct format every time you need it. Consistency is the key to a good process and essential for a reliable automation.

In this video, I'm ranting a little about two ways you can use forms in your business:

1. You can automate sending a form to collect information.
2. You can automate follow-up actions based on a form being submitted.

11/23/2022

Ok, so this might sound counterintuitive as a person who loves automation... but I'm not that wildly interested in new tech.

As an operations professional first and automation nerd second, I've seen way too many businesses get caught up in the latest shiny tool at the expense of actually solving their process problems.

It's like changing a horse's bit before you've tried to fill the gaps in its training (please tell me that metaphor makes sense to anyone else...? Downside of having an obscure hobby...)

Sure, there might be a better project management tool or email marketing tool out there than the one you're using. However, until you've really dialed in your process to the point where you've legitimately outgrown your current tool and need to address limitations, you're going to waste a bunch of time and probably money trying out the next new thing.

Use your current thing until your current thing doesn't meet your needs anymore. Then find another thing. You'll be much more informed on your requirements when you go to find something new.

(Also, I don't know who needs to hear this today - but you DON'T need that lifetime deal on AppSumo...just sayin')

11/21/2022

One of the common objections I hear from people about automation - especially in a coaching, consulting, or service-based businesses - is worry they'll lose that personal touch and everyone will think their business is made up of scary, SkyNet-style robots coming to take over the world.

(Ok, not the second part... that's just hyperbole...But totally the first part.)

And this isn't entirely false. Poorly done automation can really take your brand down a notch.

Here's my soapbox about three considerations for designing an automation that feels personal.

1. Use tactically-sound automations that feel as un-automated as possible.

2. Place your automations correctly operationally so you get the maximum benefit and the lowest "risk". Automation is NOT all or nothing (but that's a whole other soapbox...)

3. Strategically, you need to be running a business where people already feel seen and heard. Automation enhances what they already expect of you.