#208 with Steph Smith - Why You Need a Chief Automation Officer

My First Million

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Steph Smith and Shaan Puri discuss the multitude of opportunities there are through innovative marketing strategies and product white spaces if you simply look at the world around you“Look for a sea of sameness, that’s your opportunity”– Shaan PuriLook at your local pharmacy, the band-aid aisle will look ironically similar across brandsWelly changes this, giving a uniqueD2C (direct to consumer) experience on a boring product brandWhy do companies invest in their marketing products (swag, if you will) that nobody uses (water bottles, T-Shirts)?SwagUp changes this, branding products that are unique and generate conversation amongst the target marketThe Return on Investment (ROI) of swag can be much greater by investing in high-end products for your top consumers through limited-edition drops rather than worthless products for everyoneThese are just two examples, the sea of sameness is vast. Shaan and Steph discuss a few more in this episodeThere are people within a business who set the strategy, people who deploy the strategy, but there isn’t a person that evaluates the effectiveness of the strategy – this is the Chief Automation OfficerIdentifies and evaluates the effectiveness of ‘that’s how I was thought to do it’ process pitfallsShadowing is more effective than it gets credit for, you truly understand the nuance of the workplace and employees’ environment. We are often more compliant with process issues than we should be.Doing Time Right – a course designed by Steph SmithEliminate, Automate, and Delegate is the sequential framework the course is built on that you can apply to your everyday life

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In this episode Shaan (@ShaanVP) is joined by Steph Smith (@stephsmithio) for an idea packed episode. They start off talking about opportunities around spending your FSA dollars and on swag packs. They transition to talk about the role of automation at companies and Steph shares how she would go about automating repetitive parts of her role. The end the episode talking about Steph's new course, approaches to building a company, and Fidelity allowing trading accounts for teenagers.

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Show notes:

* (1:06) Intro

* (2:20) Ideas around spending your FSA dollars

* (15:58) Ideas around giving out awesome swag

* (21:52) The role of chief automation officer

* (27:37) Building a company around automation

* (35:03) Giving away free alcohol as marketing

* (41:22) How Steph invests her time & money

* (43:50) Steph's new course - doingtimeright.com

* (47:44) Approaches to building a company

* (51:39) Fidelity allowing teenagers on the platform

* (56:52) How to find Steph online