Hybrid Automation vs. Full Automation
I've been guilty of this too many times.
Spending 6 weeks trying to automate a workflow perfectly, when I could have automated part of it in 2 hours and spent those 6 weeks actually driving revenue.
It's the perfectionist trap that kills productivity.
The All-or-Nothing Mistake
Too many people (my past self included) approach automation with an all-or-nothing mindset.
"If I'm going to automate content creation, I need to automate ALL of it. Research, writing, editing, posting, engagement tracking..."
So we build these massive, complex workflows that take months to perfect.
Meanwhile, we could have automated the time-consuming parts and kept the creative parts manual.
Why Hybrid Makes More Sense Now
Here's what's changed: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity dashboards have gotten incredibly good since we started building automations 2 years ago.
They're now genuinely useful for real work, not just party tricks.
Which means the smart approach is no longer: "automate everything" or "automate nothing."
It's what I'm calling "hybrid automations" - strategic combinations of automated workflows and AI-assisted manual work.
A Real Example
Instead of building a complex AI Image Carousel automation that:
- Researches topics automatically
- Writes posts automatically
- Creates the images
- Edits the images
- Schedules them automatically
- Monitors engagement automatically
Try this hybrid approach:
- Use automation to brainstorm and outline (automated)
- Use the brainstorm and outline inside of ChatGPT to generate script and image prompts (10-15 minutes)
- Upload the main image into a system, that then creates 5-10 more images with the same style (automated)
- Piece together the carousel in an editing tool like Canva (5 minutes)
- Automate the cross-platform sharing (automated)
Result? You get 80% of the time savings with 5% of the setup complexity.
The Business Reality Check
If automating your business is taking you away from driving sales, you're doing it wrong.
Automation should free up time for revenue-generating activities, not become a revenue-generating activity replacement.
I see too many entrepreneurs who get so obsessed with "optimizing their systems" that they forget to actually use those systems to make money.
The Hybrid Advantage
Hybrid automations give you:
Speed to implementation - Get value in hours, not weeks
Flexibility - Easy to adjust as your business changes
Quality control - Keep human judgment where it matters most
Lower maintenance - Fewer complex workflows to break and fix
Stop trying to build the perfect automation.
Start building helpful automations that free up time for the work that actually grows your business.
Because at the end of the day, the goal isn't perfect automation. It's profitability.
Talk soon,
Mitch
P.S. Speaking of revenue generating activities... Here's a shameless sales pitch:
We have 1 AI Automation spot available at MakeBigMoves. We can help with automations, but also show your whole team how to set up ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI dashboards for maximum productivity.
Hit reply if interested.
P.P.S. Here's this weeks YouTube videos.
All AI videos will now be on the BigMoves AI channel. Make sure you're subscribed. Here's what we posted this week:
When you're ready there's 2 ways we can help you:
- Automate Your Business Workflows w/ https://makebigmoves.ai/
- Read & Watch AI Tool Reviews w/ https://bigmoves.ai/