50 marketing mistakes / Mistake #39
Mistake #39 of 50Don’t spend three hours on something AI can help you do in ten minutes.
Your time has a cost too.
What it costs you
Your time isn’t free.
You’d never pay someone for three hours to do a ten-minute job.
But you do it to yourself every week.
Three hours on a newsletter. An hour on one follow-up email. A whole Sunday on the About page of your website.
Every hour you spend typing is an hour you’re not selling, serving or at home.
And because it takes so long, half of it never gets done at all.
A real example
The just-sold letter
A realtor sells a house on Maple Street. She wants to send the neighbors a letter: “Just sold. Thinking about selling? Call me.”
She sits down on a Saturday afternoon. Writes it. Hates it. Writes it again.
Three hours later, she has one letter, and she missed her kid’s game.
The next time, she talks to AI in the car between showings. “I just sold a house on Maple Street. Write a short letter to the neighbors. Friendly, not pushy. Ask them to call me if they’re thinking about selling.”
She changes two lines so it sounds like her.
Ten minutes, start to finish.
Same letter. Same realtor. She got her Saturday back.
Why it happens
Why you’re still typing it all yourself
It never gets tired. You do.
Do this instead
Hand it the typing.
If it’s writing, AI can do the first draft. You do the last two minutes. A good ask has four parts: who you are, who it’s for, what you want them to do and how it should sound.
| The job | Hand AI this |
|---|---|
| The newsletter | Talk through what happened this month. Ask for a short email. |
| The follow-up | “A friendly check-in on a quote that went quiet. Three sentences.” |
| The review reply | Paste in the review. Ask for a short, kind answer. |
| The post | Tell it about the job you just finished. Ask for a before-and-after caption. |
| The letter | Ramble into your phone for two minutes. Ask for one page. |
| The plan | “A 90-day marketing calendar, one small thing a week.” |
Then use the time you just got back. Call a customer. Ask for the order. That’s the work that pays the bills.
Do this today
- 1
Write down the one writing job that eats the most of your week.
- 2
Talk it through to AI instead of typing it: who you are, who it’s for, what you want them to do and how it should sound.
- 3
Read the draft out loud, change what doesn’t sound like you, and send it.
- 4
Use the time you saved to call one customer today.
Your time has a cost too. Spend it on people, not on typing.
From the book
Chapter 14: Let AI Do the Typing
Starts on page 126. The whole chapter, plus 250+ ways to market your business, in the free book.
Download the free bookIdeas that fix it
Spend the time you saved on people.
Idea 164 · book page 343Cutting Boards$6–$18 eachUsed constantly in the kitchen.
Idea 135 · book page 329Ceramic Coffee Mugs$3–$10 eachA good mug lives on a desk for years.
Idea 194 · book page 358Hoodies$20–$55 eachOne of the most-worn items anyone owns.
Idea 133 · book page 328Yard Signs$2.72–$7.49 eachEvery job site becomes an ad to the neighbors.Want a 90-day plan that’s already typed?
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