Day 24 Transcript
NOTE: Today’s transcript is followed by an AI prompt that can be used with your AI provider of choice. Just copy and paste it into ChatGPT or Perplexity and it will help you answer today’s questions for your specific side hustle… the way a human teaching assistant would help you in an Ivy League university. If you’re eager for more on today’s topic, I’ve included a Secret Dessert Course at the very end — a bonus section that isn’t directly covered in today’s video but has a lot of value practical, hands-on value. That dessert also comes with its own AI prompt.
—
Part 1: Automate for Scale
The secret skill of most people who land in the C-suite is that they’re really good at getting along with others. They’re good at getting people on their side. They’re salespeople, relationship managers, and trust builders. They are not product people. They’re not process experts. And they’re certainly not technologists. Trust them when they inevitably say “I know just enough to be dangerous.”
Now…. If you were to lock up a bunch of them in a conference room—that they didn’t willingly lock themselves up in— cuz they do that for fun– and you tell them that they’re locked in and can’t go golfing until they (as a group) come up with a proposal that will scale their business, there’s a 100% chance that their collective answer will be a fast and furious combination of four words: new, tech, platform, automation—and those leaders– as much as we all love them– will all be violently wrong… again.
Welcome to week 4, Day 24 of starting your side hustle! We’re taking 28 Days—28 small steps—to build a business that’s meaningful, impactful, and profitable. This week’s goal is scalability so today we’re going to talk about those 4 words– loved by all CxOs—new, tech, platform, automation— and we’re going to do it a little differently… by talking about everything that needs to come before them.
All the seemingly intuitively garbage you hear from the masters of scale—all the companies pitching automation—about how to build antifragile workflows that improve under pressure—that marketing intentionally hides a very simple truth: automation as a path to scale needs to be built on scalable processes, which themselves need to be built on scalable products.
And because corporate leaders are mostly salespeople, relationship managers, trust builders– 99% of companies don’t have scalable products or scalable processes. And for that same reason– that same 99% spend a ton on tech to scale what isn’t ready to scale. They expect tech investment to compensate for the lack of Business and Ops investment. They expect tech leaders to compensate for the absence of Business and Ops expertise. And to be fair, that’s usually because the business and Ops are heads down– selling and delivering– unscalable products. Another reason you should take on your competition: their internal expertise is locked in to all the bad decisions their founders made… all the gut-driven “tech will save us” bs that their c-suite believes. They’re all locked into a losing proposition.
Today we’re going to talk about how to design your hustle from the get-go to first think product, then process, then tech—that’s the right order for scalability. If you’re just starting your hustle—if you’re on day 24, less than a month in—now is the best time ever to commit from the ground up to a business and culture that understands the sequence of investments that lead to scalability, that lead to hockey-stick output.
Your questions for today:
1: When you look at the most repetitive parts of your hustle– the one you’re dying to automate– what would happen if you asked yourself every week going forward whether this step or this automation still makes sense for your business… if the goal is not to grow but to scale?
And
2: If you could only automate one thing in your hustle this month, which task would let you see the most immediate impact on your time or your customers’ experience, and how would you know if it was working?
Question 1 matters because most workflows drift into irrelevance because no one checks if they still fit the current business or if they’re designed for scale. Asking yourself this question every week creates a habit of continuous improvement. It makes sure your processes stay aligned with your evolving product– which in turn, need to stay aligned with your customers needs. This is how you avoid one of the biggest traps of the 99% of tech investment– building once and forgetting, which fails to understand that your customers-products-processes– are constantly evolving.
And question 2 matters because early stage founders will chase automation without a clear sense of what will actually move the needle. This second question forces you to prioritize and measure, so you invest your limited time in changes that deliver more free time for the harder things. The question also helps you spot the difference between automation that looks good on paper and automation that actually makes your hustle better.
Let me take one more sec to explain my thinking on these questions. Both of them train you to focus on product and process before jumping to automation-tech. They ask you– as a founder– to identify something that, if you invest time and money into– would have an outsized impact on your hustle, on your customer experience. It’s superskills #1 and #2– focus and prioritization. You’re forcing your brain to make sure that your product is already simple, it’s already serving a clear need and the process on top of it is already stable enough, optimized enough to benefit from tech–automation. It’s all meant to train your brain– to keep driving home the point– that automation is built on scalable processes, which are themselves built on scalable products.
Worth repeating a billion times.
Product first. Process next: And last: Tech… Automation,,, whatever you want to call it. Magic! But only after the boring stuff. This is a competitive advantage. You’re going to follow the sequence your competitors were too busy to follow: product → process → automation– the exact sequence for scalable, sustainable growth. For that hockeystick.
Ok. Take a moment and try to answer the Day 24 questions for your hustle without AI and before you listen to the next section-- the 28-Day Ivy League MBA. I personally think it's useful to try to answer questions without AI first, but if you'd rather do that: The AI teaching assistant prompt will drop with today's case study... in a couple of hours. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out Lunch Break Millionaire Day Zero... or go over to superserious.com where I’m posting daily transcripts. The AI prompts are there too. That's it. Hustle smarter.
Part 2: 💼 Master Operating Model Design with the Aid of the Product-Process-Tech Pyramid: Today’s Ivy League MBA Skill
Most of the times when tech fails to scale a business– and tech fails alot– it’s not because we didn’t throw enough tech people at it or we didn’t use the right tech process or the right tech tools. It’s because the solution– the investment– should have started as a product exercise in the business proper and then it should have been followed by an investment in process optimization in Ops. And what makes that approach even harder is that… if you ask the experts in the business or the experts in Ops– who are always heads down, just doing their jobs– they’ll say they only one need thing to change their operating model: tech. Those experts– like their well-meaning c-suites– are violently wrong.
Day 23, Part 2 of Lunch Break Millionaire– where we turn whatever you're eating for lunch into an Ivy League MBA degree. For today’s lunch, we’re going to say goodbye to tacos– once and for all– the kind that someone else makes for us and today we’re going to go with a build-your-own taco bar. Woohoo!! Here’s the metaphor I’m going to use to rationalize the taco today: every taco starts with a simple, solid base—the tortilla (your product). Then, you layer in the proteins, veggies, and toppings (your processes). Only after you’ve got those right do you reach for the hot sauce, the lime, the salsa (your tech and automation).
What most companies have BEFORE tech isn’t a taco. It’s a mess. And throwing hot sauce on it, just makes it a spicy mess.
The other taco analogy that’s worth sharing– because I’m filled with them– pun intented: If you overload your taco– any taco– with too many toppings, it falls apart. So you have to keep it simple. Build it in the right order—base, fillings, flavor—and you get a scalable, delicious treat. Which leads us to today’s Ivy League MBA skill– operating model design with the aid of the product-process-tech pyramid. I’ll put up a picture but the message around it is simple: Every time you skip a layer in this pyramid, you create complexity that slows down your business.
Which means… You should be constantly asking yourself: “Am I building my hustle in the right order? Am I starting with a solid product, then layering in processes, and only then reaching for the spicy tech?” If you are, you’re on your way to a scalable, satisfying business—and a damn good lunch.
Ok. Let’s jump back to that conference room full of pro-golfers– the professional c-suite people– and explore why they’re wrong about tech as their best first investment for scalability. The answer should be simple now. Technology is only as good as the processes it supports. And those processes are only as good as the simplicity and uniformity of the products that they support.
Why should you care about any of this while your hustle is still just you flying solo? Because during the early days, you have the chance to shape your products and processes in a way that clears the path for tech to scale your hustle, eventually. It’s also good to think about the product-process-tech pyramid before you make your first hire because most of the people you hire will come from companies that– by default– buy into the mindset of that poor CEO who is locked in the conference room. Your employees– whether they’re your business people, your Ops people or your tech– will necessarily think tech is the answer… unless you create a culture from Day 1 that values the sequence of product first, then process, then tech.
Train your brain to sequence your investments in product, process, and technology—in that exact order. This is the essence of what top MBAs call “operating model design,” and don’t worry, I’m going to tell you how it works.
Start by making your product or service as simple, clear, and uniform as possible. The more straightforward your core offering, the easier it is to scale. Once your product is stable and uniform, design your workflows to deliver it efficiently and consistently. Think end-to-end process wise and focus on eliminating bottlenecks end-to-end. Only after your product and processes are solid should you invest in technology to automate and scale.
Your operating model design matters because most businesses—and most founders—get this sequence wrong. They jump straight to tech, hoping it will solve problems that are actually rooted in messy products… messier sales practices… or just flat out broken Ops processes. The result is wasted time, wasted money, a lot of frustration and a lot of deja vu when after tech fails once, everyone suggests that the answer should be.. Tech… again. By mastering the product-process-tech pyramid, you set yourself up for scalable, antifragile growth.
Let’s do a couple of quick exercises to flex these muscles.
First, take a napkin and draw three boxes stacked on top of each other. Label them “Product,” “Process,” and “Tech.” For each box, write down the one thing you could do today to make that layer simpler. Then, commit to working your way up the pyramid—never skipping a step.
An example for the Product box might be: “Simplify my core offer to three main features… or ideally one main feature”
An example for the Process box: “Map the steps from order to delivery and identify dependencies between the various steps.”
And an example for the Tech box: “Identify one low-risk task to automate.”
The point is to commit to working your way up the pyramid—so fight the urge to skip a step.
Second exercise: Pick your most repetitive workflow. Trace each step, each decision point, each dependency– what essentially becomes a standard operating procedure… an SOP… and add a final step to that workflow (and every workflow you ever build called): “Review this workflow for relevance weekly.”
The point of both exercises is to train your brain to consider changing your product and your process before you commit to tech as any kind of answer. It's counterintuitive but it’s how you hustle smarter.
Part 3: Learn from How I Eliminate Bottlenecks: The 28-Day Case Study
This is Day 24, Part 3 of Lunch Break Millionaire. This is the segment where we #BuildinPublic– where I answer the daily questions every hustle should– using the MBA skills we just learned– and showing my work– sharing how I’m building my hustle from scratch-no filters, just the real journey. You don't need to actually like or subscribe. I'm not doing this for the clicks. But if you’re leveling up from other creators you follow or know, introduce us. I want to learn from them and help them level up, too. We all deserve better than just making rich people richer.
Ok. As I’ve been building metatorial’s/superserious’ business workflows and engineering pipeline– and I get that it’s still early days– I’ve been hyper-focused on where I have manual processes. Why? Because right now, it’s really what my 11th grade Chemistry teacher called a personal problem: Unless I invest my time in automating my processes– spending my time investing in scaling– I soon won’t have any time at all. Think Shawshank Redemption. “Get busy scaling or get busy dying.”
Buuuuut! Even though it's early days, I don’t forget everything that I’ve learned about automation over the last 25 years.
For instance, I once designed and delivered a self-service workflow creation system that was adopted at scale—in less than a year, over 3,000 new workflows were created by teams across this massive company. On the surface, it was a success: everyone was automating their work, and productivity seemed to be soaring.
But there was a catch. Because all that automation was happening at the coal face, with no oversight or alignment, we ended up with a tangled mess of disconnected automations– each of which ignored the crappy process underneath it… and the crappy product underneath that. No one felt empowered to question process or product. Also… no one was looking at the end-to-end process requirements across the company, and the result was a 3000-point system that was fragile, confusing, and impossible to maintain. There is a point in life where automation becomes a liability.
The lesson there (again!) is that automation only works if it’s built on top of clear, aligned processes—and those processes only work if they’re built on top of simple, uniform products. If you skip any step in the product-process-tech sequence, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
The other bit of experience worth calling out: most automation advice focuses on “doing it right the first time so you don’t have to do it again… which is just plain wrong. It’s naive to think that your hustle (or any business really) is going to remain so static that you can set automations up and walk away. In my experience, the best automations– the best DAILY workflows– include a final step: a review that asks, “Is this workflow still relevant?” This forces everyone to keep their processes fresh– to keep their products from drifting into complexity.
My entire career in automation has been lesson after lesson about how sustainable, scalable automation never starts with tech. It’s never first about plugging in a bunch of fancy tools or even gathering requirements for those tools. Which is the standard BAU response to all problems in the corporate world.
Scalability and automation starts with product design, it then needs you to step back and map out every process step you take to deliver value. To ask, “Where am I still doing things the slow, manual way? What process can I first optimize WITHOUT TECH but in a way that lets tech come in later like the cavalry. Before I tech anythine…. Before I automate anything, I first need to redesign my processes, my operating model, my business.
You can start by looking for your “analog work”—repetitive tasks you do over and over, the ones that make you feel like a robot. I know how tempting it is to think “let’s just get a tech tool to solve this”… but no tech tool comes with your operating model out of the box. And if you automate a broken operating model, a broken process, you’re scaling garbage.
Don't get me wrong. There are some really cool tools out there. My favorite these days is Make. But before you automate with tech… optimize your processes. Map out your current workflow—step by step, no matter how basic.
In fact, imagine yourself in an old-timey factory holding a clipboard and a stopwatch… It’s called a time and motion study. It’s a way to look closely at how work gets done, with the goal of making it more efficient. Imagine you’re carefully watching and measuring how long each step of a job takes (the "time" part) and what actions or movements are involved in doing it (the "motion" part). You’re really looking for any unnecessary actions or wasted effort. And then after collecting all this information– which is genuinely hard work– you review it to find ways to make the job– the process– quicker, easier, safer.
This method has been used for over a century in factories, in offices, in hospitals… long before software, long before AI… to help improve productivity, to help reduce costs… and it’s still the most powerful way to scale your hustle. You need some version of what I just described before you spend real time or money on tech to automate anything thoughtfully, planfully.
Ok… That was a little rabbit hole so let’s get back to today’s questions. Because those two questions are trying to train my brain to understand the foundation for building automation. They guide me to examine my workflows and automation decisions through the lens of the product-process-tech pyramid.
When I ask myself, “If I had to review and redesign every workflow in my business every month, what would I keep, and what would I change?” I am practicing continuous improvement. It’s an invitation to me to regularly assess my processes for relevance and alignment with my evolving hustle. It encourages me to notice when workflows drift out of sync with my current product or my customer needs, making sure that my automation is always built on a solid, up-to-date process.
The second question… was… —“If I could only automate one thing in my business this month, which task would let me see the most immediate impact on my time or my customers’ experience, and how would I know if it was working?”This one guides me to prioritize automation based on impact. It asks me to focus my limited time and energy on changes that deliver measurable value.
Both questions are the practical application of the pyramid. They teach us that automation is only effective when built on top of clear, aligned processes, which in turn are built on simple, scalable products. I really just want to make sure that every automation decision is grounded in a product that is ready to scale and a process that is designed to support that growth.
And that is yet another secret to turning my lunch break into something much bigger.
Prompt #1 - Automate for Scale
○
Prompt #1 - Automate for Scale ○
Today, you’ll learn how to multiply your results by automating repetitive tasks and optimizing your workflows-so you can grow your hustle without burning out. You’ll be guided by the writings and frameworks of Ivy League faculty whose research is foundational in business automation, workflow design, and operational efficiency:
- **Professor Karim R. Lakhani, Harvard Business School:** Leading expert on digital transformation and the power of no-code automation.
- **Professor Ethan Mollick, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania:** Specialist in practical AI, automation, and lean startup operations.
- **Professor Teresa Amabile, Harvard Business School:** Authority on productivity, motivation, and building systems that support creative work.
**What Today’s Coaching Will Help You With:**
You’ll identify your biggest time-wasters, choose the right tools to automate them, and design a workflow that frees you up to focus on high-impact work-so you get more done in less time, with less stress.
---
### Step 1: Reflection Questions
Please answer these questions in a few sentences each:
1. **What are the three most repetitive or time-consuming tasks in your hustle right now?**
- Think about things like scheduling, invoicing, social posting, email follow-ups, or data entry.
2. **If you could wave a magic wand and automate one part of your workflow this week, what would it be?**
- Describe the task and why it would make the biggest difference.
3. **What tools, apps, or systems (if any) are you already using for automation or workflow management?**
- Are you using anything like Zapier, Airtable, Notion, Google Sheets, or built-in automations in your current software?
---
### Step 2: MBA Skill – Workflow Optimization & No-Code Automation
Today’s MBA lesson is about building a “10X workflow”:
> The most successful hustlers don’t work more-they work smarter by building systems that scale their output.
- Start by mapping your daily or weekly workflow. Where do you spend the most time on low-value tasks?
- Identify at least one “bottleneck” (a task that slows everything else down).
- Research or brainstorm one no-code tool or automation (Zapier, Make, Hootsuite, Calendly, etc.) that could eliminate or streamline that bottleneck.
- Set a micro-goal: automate one task this week, even if it’s just scheduling social posts or auto-forwarding emails.
---
### Step 3: Coaching & Workflow Action Plan
After you reply, I will use the writings of Professors Lakhani, Mollick, and Amabile to:
- Help you identify your highest-leverage automation opportunities.
- Guide you in choosing the simplest, most effective tool for your needs (no coding required).
- Suggest workflow tweaks to reduce friction and free up your creative/strategic energy.
- Offer examples of real businesses that scaled faster by automating early and often.
---
**How to use this prompt:**
- Respond with your answers to the reflection questions and your top automation wish.
- I’ll help you prioritize what to automate, recommend tools, and suggest next steps for building a workflow that works for you (not the other way around).
Secret Dessert Course
I have a love-hate relationship with low-code, no-code tools but I need to set that aside for today. Or do I?
Instead of recommending whatever tool I use, I’ll have you connect with someone much more knowledgeable. The AI prompt below walks you through the best beginner-friendly automation tools and matches them to real-world business tasks.
You can make your own decision about which tools fit your automation needs.
Just copy and paste the following prompt into your favorite AI assistant to enjoy Day 17’s dessert.
Prompt #2 - Research No Code Tools
○
Prompt #2 - Research No Code Tools ○
**Today’s Focus:**
Evaluate market-leading no-code tools to automate your hustle, eliminate busywork, and scale efficiently. You’ll be coached by Ivy League faculty with expertise in entrepreneurship, automation, and decision science:
- **Professor Karim R. Lakhani, Harvard Business School:** Leading authority on AI, innovation, and how no-code tools democratize business creation.
- **Professor Ethan Mollick, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania:** Expert in practical AI/no-code applications for startups and small businesses.
- **Professor Sheena Iyengar, Columbia Business School:** Specialist in choice architecture and avoiding decision paralysis when selecting tools.
**What Today’s Coaching Will Help You With:**
You’ll learn to audit your workflows, match no-code solutions to your needs, and build a lean automation stack that frees up your time for high-impact work.
---
### Step 1: Reflection Questions
**Answer these in a few sentences each:**
1. What repetitive tasks (e.g., email responses, data entry, social posting) consume the most time in your hustle?
2. What tools/apps do you currently use? What gaps or frustrations exist in your current workflow?
3. What’s your technical comfort level? (e.g., “I hate coding but can use Zapier” or “I’ve never used no-code platforms”)
4. What’s one automation you could implement this week to save 2+ hours?
---
### Step 2: Coaching & No-Code Strategy
After you reply, I will use the writings of Professors Lakhani, Mollick, and Iyengar to:
1. **Audit Your Workflow:** Identify top candidates for automation using frameworks like the Eisenhower Matrix.
2. **Recommend Tools:** Match your needs to market leaders (e.g., Zapier for integrations, Airtable for databases, Carrd for websites, Make.com for complex workflows).
3. **Avoid Pitfalls:** Warn against over-automating too soon or choosing overly complex tools.
4. **Build Your Stack:** Create a prioritized table comparing tools by ease-of-use, cost, and impact. Example:
5. **Action Plan:** Suggest one “quick win” automation to implement within 48 hours.
---
**How to use this prompt:**
- Respond with your answers to the questions above.
- Your Ivy League panel will return a tailored no-code strategy and tool comparison.
- You’ll leave with a clear roadmap to automate your hustle and reclaim 10+ hours/month.
*(This exercise combines Lakhani’s innovation frameworks, Mollick’s lean automation principles, and Iyengar’s choice-filtering techniques.)*