#39 · $100K/Mo Founder Roasts Cold Emails From His Inbox

youtube ↗Niches

Most automation discussions focus on agents, email marketing, and content creation. Do you think there's a big opportunity in optimizing internal processes instead — like a CRM automation streamlining a Google Drive/Workspace setup for a contractor or PM? How does that space compare to those other trends?

There's a ton of opportunity here — you could build a fully successful business just optimizing internal processes; that was most of what Left Click did in its first year working with my old business partner. I later shifted primarily to growth systems because they make more money, but that doesn't mean internal-process optimization isn't also lucrative — think of it as top-line versus bottom-line. If a company makes some amount of revenue at the top, they only keep a subset of that as profit. Growth work adds to the top line; internal-process optimization mostly improves margin on what's already coming in (though it's not purely margin — faster internal processes also improve throughput, meaning you can push more customers through the same system, which does affect the top line too).

internal process automationmargin vs growthpositioning

Related answers

youtube ↗Offers

Should an automation offer focus on eliminating admin work or directly on generating revenue for clients?

The core determinant of whether someone buys from you is the return on investment (ROI) you generate, how confident they are in your delivery, and how easy you make it to accept the transformation. This can be expressed as a formula: Value = (ROI * Social Proof) / Friction. Positioning automation as eliminating manual admin to free up time to eventually make money is indirect and circuitous. Instead of taking indirect steps, focus directly on generating revenue right away. This increases the clear ROI and makes social proof easier to establish. Revenue generation (marketing and sales) is standardized and needed across virtually all industries, whereas backend admin automation is often client-specific and difficult to replicate or scale. When you solve marketing and sales problems, your offer becomes much easier to sell.

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youtube ↗AI & Automation

How do you find automation opportunities in a non-technical industry like manufacturing?

Manufacturing is already about automation (think assembly line). To find automation opportunities I start at the top of the funnel: reach, acquisition, conversion, expansion. For reach I look at AI‑driven creative generators, speed‑to‑lead systems (branded numbers, power dialing, follow‑up automation). For acquisition I automate quote production—saving time and improving quality by removing manual document review. For conversion I use high‑quality proposals, automated contractor dispatch, reminder systems. For expansion I follow up with promo offers and ideate solutions. The biggest gains come from automating front‑end sales and marketing rather than back‑end processes.

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youtube ↗AI & Automation

I'm really interested in how automations work. If my goal is to eventually transition into automation as my full-time focus, what types of automations should I start building and selling?

Automations don't let you do anything you couldn't already do manually — they just improve the speed and efficiency of the process. Speed matters for revenue (faster speed-to-lead, more orders fulfilled per unit time, more personalization squeezed in); efficiency mainly saves money. Given that, build and sell 'revenue-proximate' automations — ones close to the revenue line: sales automations, marketing automations, lead-gen automations. Focus on things that help clients make money, not just things that help them save money.

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youtube ↗Agency Operations

Nick, I'm 18 and live in a country where small and medium‑sized businesses are far behind with AI and automation; they don't know Zapier or Make. Is it smart to build an automation agency here now to make money during the lag period and level up systems thinking before the window closes?

He says yes, it's smart to start an automation agency now to capture the lag, but you should focus on delivering strategic outcomes and consulting rather than just selling tools. You can still make money with tools, but the real value is in helping clients achieve business results. He also notes that if you're not making $10k/month yet, focus on reaching that income first, and that many traditional businesses (web design, clay pottery) still thrive, so it's not all black‑and‑white.

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