FridAI and Over-Automating – Business Brain 627

In this episode of Business Brain, Dave Hamilton and Shannon Jean reflect on the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, acknowledging the emotional rollercoaster that comes with running a business. They discuss the importance of resilience and how even seasoned entrepreneurs still experience moments of doubt, only to bounce back with new energy and perspective.

The main topic of the episode focuses on the risks of over-automation. Shannon shares his philosophy of manually doing a task before automating it to fully understand the process and add a personal touch—what he calls avoiding the loss of “Dave-ness.” Dave agrees, emphasizing that starting with a manual process allows businesses to iterate and refine their systems before automating them efficiently. They share real-world examples, including how Dave’s company initially managed podcast ad placements with spreadsheets before building a custom solution, and how Shannon believes hands-on experience in business operations prevents blind spots when scaling.

In their weekly FridAI segment, Shannon introduces Napkin.ai, a tool that extracts key insights from written content and automatically generates visually appealing charts and diagrams. Dave shares a personal story of using ChatGPT to decipher his illegible handwriting from a critical business call, highlighting the importance of interacting with AI as a collaborative tool rather than expecting perfect results on the first try.

• 00:00:00 Business Brain – The Entrepreneurs’ Podcast #627 for Casual Friday, February 28th, 2025
  • February 28th: National Chocolate Souffle Day
• 00:02:22 Beware of over-automating
  • BackBeat Media’s PodMan
  • Zapier
  • Walter Bishop from Fringe said “posit”
• 00:11:58 FridAI: Napkin.AI
• 00:14:19 ChatGPT, I can’t read my own handwriting…can you help?
  • Apple spending $500B on AI Servers
• 00:19:50 Business Brain 627 Outtro
  • Review Business Brain
  • Subscribe to the show
  • [email protected]
  • Call/Text: (567) 274-6977
  • X/Twitter: @ShannonJean & @DaveHamilton, & @BizBrainShow
  • LinkedIn: Shannon Jean, Dave Hamilton, & Business Brain
  • Facebook: Dave Hamilton, Shannon Jean, & Business Brain

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:38 — 15.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Podcast Index | RSS | More