In this episode, Alane and Micah tackle one of the biggest misconceptions about AI agents — the idea that they can magically fix broken workflows. They unpack why automation only works when the underlying process is solid, clear, and well-defined.

They share real stories from their own experience, including how strategy and design make up 80% of the work in building automated systems, and why slowing down to document and standardize your processes can actually make you move faster later.

You’ll hear:

• Why AI agents can’t save a poorly structured workflow
• How to identify when you’re ready to automate (and when you’re not)
• Why the design phase is the most valuable part of any automation project
• How to document, diagram, and break large systems into smaller, achievable workflows
• The importance of starting small and improving over time

If you’ve ever been tempted to “throw AI at a problem,” this episode will show you how to rethink automation so it actually works — and how to build a process your agents, and your team, can rely on.

Learn More about our AI Leadership Workshop

Winning businesses aren’t just working harder, they understand how to use AI strategically. Sign up for the AI Leadership Workshop, a 3-hour expert-led mastermind designed to give leadership teams clarity, alignment, and a practical path to stay competitive.

Book a call to customize your workshop today!

This episode is brought to you by Biggest Goal, the company Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson co-founded.

Fifteen years of scaling their own companies taught them that adoption is a people problem long before it's a technology problem, so we train executives and their teams through workshops, cohorts, mastermind groups, and hands-on implementation support.

For more info about our programs, join our free community at your.biggestgoal.ai.

Thank you for supporting the podcast!

In this episode, Micah and Beau share the behind-the-scenes changes that reshaped how their team manages client work. After years of juggling multiple projects, they decided to shift their entire production and implementation process into one-week sprints using ClickUp.

They walk through how their system works. From organizing client folders, using parent and sub-tasks to keep ownership clear, and relying on sprint reports to plan, forecast, and manage workload in real time. The result has been smoother communication, stronger accountability, and a noticeable jump in team performance.

You’ll learn:

• How moving from workload views to sprints simplified scheduling and reduced chaos
• Why separating parent tasks from sub-tasks creates clarity for both project managers and developers
• How ClickUp’s sprint reporting helps forecast team capacity and track progress
• Simple ways to monitor task types, priorities, and workload balance
• The benefits of giving your team structure and flexibility at the same time

If you manage ongoing client projects or lead a production team that’s drowning in deadlines, this conversation shows how one practical change can bring organization, momentum, and focus back to your operations.

Learn More about our AI Leadership Workshop

Winning businesses aren’t just working harder, they understand how to use AI strategically. Sign up for the AI Leadership Workshop, a 3-hour expert-led mastermind designed to give leadership teams clarity, alignment, and a practical path to stay competitive.

Book a call to customize your workshop today!

This episode is brought to you by Biggest Goal, the company Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson co-founded.

Fifteen years of scaling their own companies taught them that adoption is a people problem long before it's a technology problem, so we train executives and their teams through workshops, cohorts, mastermind groups, and hands-on implementation support.

For more info about our programs, join our free community at your.biggestgoal.ai.

Thank you for supporting the podcast!

What if you could describe a process and have a working Monday.com system appear—complete with connected boards, forms, sample data, and dashboards? 

In this episode, Micah and Beau dive into Monday Magic (monday.com/magic), a free tool that turns prompts into fully built Monday structures. You’ll hear a live walkthrough—from first prompt to preview video—plus candid pros/cons on where it shines and where you’ll still want an implementation specialist. They cover limitations (no native automations yet, light sub-item support), why its agent-style “planning then building” is so useful for prototyping, and smart ways teams can use it to align on structure before investing in a full build. 

If you’re choosing a work management platform or want faster ways to get from idea to system, this is a must-listen.

You’ll learn:

• How Monday Magic converts a plain-English prompt into connected boards, forms, and starter dashboards
• Where it stops (automations, sub-items) and how to bridge the gap
• A practical workflow: prototype with Magic → push to Monday → refine structure and add automations
• When to keep it simple vs. when to design a multi-board system
• How managers and implementers can collaborate using the AI-generated preview video

Give it a go for yourself: https://monday.com/magic

Learn More about our AI Leadership Workshop

Winning businesses aren’t just working harder, they understand how to use AI strategically. Sign up for the AI Leadership Workshop, a 3-hour expert-led mastermind designed to give leadership teams clarity, alignment, and a practical path to stay competitive.

Book a call to customize your workshop today!

This episode is brought to you by Biggest Goal, the company Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson co-founded.

Fifteen years of scaling their own companies taught them that adoption is a people problem long before it's a technology problem, so we train executives and their teams through workshops, cohorts, mastermind groups, and hands-on implementation support.

For more info about our programs, join our free community at your.biggestgoal.ai.

Thank you for supporting the podcast!

Many founders approach automation with a single idea in mind: “If I just automate this one thing, everything will get better.” But the truth is, businesses aren’t built on one system—they run on dozens of interconnected ones.

In this episode of Automate Your Agency, Alane and Micah challenge the “one workflow” mindset and show why real freedom comes from systemizing the entire business, not just automating a single task. They share stories from their own experiences—mergers, exits, and client work—on how building layered systems can reduce employee overhead, eliminate bottlenecks, and even increase a company’s valuation.

You’ll learn:

• Why no business truly has “just one process”
• How to shift from transactional fixes to long-term systemization
• The risks of relying on institutional knowledge trapped in people’s heads
• How systemization supports different founder goals (taking time off, changing roles, exiting, or building a legacy)
• Practical ways to prioritize what to automate first—based on impact, not just feelings

If you’ve ever felt stuck in the day-to-day of your business or wondered how to prioritize what to systemize next, this episode will give you the roadmap—and the mindset shift—to get started.

🔗 Mentioned in this episode:

• Priority Impact Report: Stop guessing where you business is broken! 

Learn More about our AI Leadership Workshop

Winning businesses aren’t just working harder, they understand how to use AI strategically. Sign up for the AI Leadership Workshop, a 3-hour expert-led mastermind designed to give leadership teams clarity, alignment, and a practical path to stay competitive.

Book a call to customize your workshop today!

This episode is brought to you by Biggest Goal, the company Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson co-founded.

Fifteen years of scaling their own companies taught them that adoption is a people problem long before it's a technology problem, so we train executives and their teams through workshops, cohorts, mastermind groups, and hands-on implementation support.

For more info about our programs, join our free community at your.biggestgoal.ai.

Thank you for supporting the podcast!

In this episode of Automate Your Agency, Alane and Micah dive into one of Google’s most exciting new AI tools: Nano Banana (yes, that’s its real name). They share how they’ve been using it to create professional-quality images, fix bad speaking photos, merge visuals, and even iron out wrinkles — all in seconds.

But that’s not all. They also reveal how pairing Nano Banana with Hailuo AI Video can bring still images to life, letting you create unique animations for content, presentations, and social media.

You’ll learn:

• How to access Nano Banana in Google AI Studio (and avoid the impostor sites).
• Real examples of editing, enhancing, and merging photos.
• How to generate diagrams, infographics, and illustrations with simple prompts.
• The workflow of combining Nano Banana with Hailuo to create animations you can layer into Canva, Final Cut, or Premiere.
• Why these tools are game-changers for content creators, educators, and agency owners.

📌 Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Google AI Studio (Nano Banana)
• Hailuo AI Video
• Kling AI

Learn More about our AI Leadership Workshop

Winning businesses aren’t just working harder, they understand how to use AI strategically. Sign up for the AI Leadership Workshop, a 3-hour expert-led mastermind designed to give leadership teams clarity, alignment, and a practical path to stay competitive.

Book a call to customize your workshop today!

This episode is brought to you by Biggest Goal, the company Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson co-founded.

Fifteen years of scaling their own companies taught them that adoption is a people problem long before it's a technology problem, so we train executives and their teams through workshops, cohorts, mastermind groups, and hands-on implementation support.

For more info about our programs, join our free community at your.biggestgoal.ai.

Thank you for supporting the podcast!

There could be an AI security risk brewing in your business.

Your team is already using AI—the question isn't whether they should, but whether you have control over how they're using it. This solo episode with Micah tackles the security nightmare that most business owners are completely ignoring: uncontrolled AI usage across their teams.

Employees creating personal ChatGPT and Claude accounts, uploading company proposals and client data, then leaving with all that information still in their personal accounts. Even worse, paid AI accounts are sharing your business data for training purposes by default.

What You'll Learn:

• Why personal AI accounts create data retention nightmares
• Step-by-step instructions to secure ChatGPT and Claude settings
• How to create AI policies that actually work
• The critical difference between chat interfaces and API usage
• Why even paid accounts share your data for training by default

This episode provides the roadmap to get ahead of AI security issues before they become a crisis that could cost you clients, competitive advantage, and legal compliance.

Learn More about our AI Leadership Workshop

Winning businesses aren’t just working harder, they understand how to use AI strategically. Sign up for the AI Leadership Workshop, a 3-hour expert-led mastermind designed to give leadership teams clarity, alignment, and a practical path to stay competitive.

Book a call to customize your workshop today!

This episode is brought to you by Biggest Goal, the company Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson co-founded.

Fifteen years of scaling their own companies taught them that adoption is a people problem long before it's a technology problem, so we train executives and their teams through workshops, cohorts, mastermind groups, and hands-on implementation support.

For more info about our programs, join our free community at your.biggestgoal.ai.

Thank you for supporting the podcast!

Your automations are probably more fragile than you think—and costing you way more time than they should. Micah started the year convinced there was no real difference between AI agents and regular automation workflows. He was wrong, and now he's obsessed.

In this eye-opening episode of Automate Your Agency, Alane and Micah break down the five (plus a bonus) critical differences between traditional A-to-B automation and AI agent workflows that are revolutionizing how smart businesses operate. They reveal why your current automations break every time someone adds an apostrophe or changes a date format—and how agents eliminate that technical debt forever.

From chat interfaces that let you refine outputs in real-time to agents that can retry failed tasks and fix their own errors, this episode shows you exactly why the future of automation is here. You'll discover how agents access databases, handle unstructured inputs, and choose their own tools—just like training the perfect intern who never needs a coffee break.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why traditional workflows require mapping every single scenario (and agents don't)
• How chat interfaces transform automation from rigid to conversational
• The database access that makes agents context-aware and incredibly smart
• Real examples of agents fixing their own JSON errors and date format issues
• Why you can stop building dropdown forms and rigid input requirements
• How agents reduce technical debt and scale with your changing business

This isn't about replacing automation—it's about building systems that think, adapt, and grow with you. If you're tired of automations that break every time you make a small change, or if you want to build workflows in minutes instead of weeks, this episode gives you the roadmap to agent-powered operations.

Ready to explore AI agents for your business? Visit biggestgoal.ai for resources and tools to get started.

Learn More about our AI Leadership Workshop

Winning businesses aren’t just working harder, they understand how to use AI strategically. Sign up for the AI Leadership Workshop, a 3-hour expert-led mastermind designed to give leadership teams clarity, alignment, and a practical path to stay competitive.

Book a call to customize your workshop today!

This episode is brought to you by Biggest Goal, the company Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson co-founded.

Fifteen years of scaling their own companies taught them that adoption is a people problem long before it's a technology problem, so we train executives and their teams through workshops, cohorts, mastermind groups, and hands-on implementation support.

For more info about our programs, join our free community at your.biggestgoal.ai.

Thank you for supporting the podcast!

Alane and Micah tackle one of the most crucial yet overlooked principles in business automation: never automate a process you haven't done manually first. Through real examples from their own business, they demonstrate why the "manual first" approach saves time, money, and prevents costly rebuilds.

They share a detailed case study from Alane's podcast guest booking process, revealing how manual work uncovered hidden business value that would have been missed in premature automation. They explain how doing processes manually first reveals critical nuances, decision points, and the true ROI of automation projects.

This episode is essential listening for business owners who want to automate smart, not just fast.

Learn More about our AI Leadership Workshop

Winning businesses aren’t just working harder, they understand how to use AI strategically. Sign up for the AI Leadership Workshop, a 3-hour expert-led mastermind designed to give leadership teams clarity, alignment, and a practical path to stay competitive.

Book a call to customize your workshop today!

This episode is brought to you by Biggest Goal, the company Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson co-founded.

Fifteen years of scaling their own companies taught them that adoption is a people problem long before it's a technology problem, so we train executives and their teams through workshops, cohorts, mastermind groups, and hands-on implementation support.

For more info about our programs, join our free community at your.biggestgoal.ai.

Thank you for supporting the podcast!

Ever hire someone with great experience, only to watch them struggle with basic tasks in your company? You assume they "should know this stuff," but they're sitting there paralyzed, afraid to make the wrong move.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: your training process is broken, and it's costing you more than just productivity.

In this episode, Micah and Alane reveal why even the most experienced hires can't succeed without proper company-specific training. Using Walmart's intensive cash register training as a surprising business lesson, they break down what separates companies that scale from those stuck in firefighting mode.

You'll discover:

• Why "they should figure it out" is killing your team's confidence and efficiency
• The marketing analogy that will completely change how you approach training
• How AI and RAG systems are revolutionizing employee knowledge access
• Why one training session sets everyone up to fail

Stop assuming your team knows your company's way of doing things. Every minute you delay proper training is another hour you'll spend answering questions, fixing mistakes, and wondering why your "good people" aren't performing.

This episode gives you the framework to build training that actually sticks—so you can finally step out of constant firefighting mode.

Resources mentioned:

• Check out our BRAIN program to stay up to date on how AI can be integrated into your business!
• EP 61: The AI technology that eliminates bottlenecks 
• Free Resources & Courses

Learn More about our AI Leadership Workshop

Winning businesses aren’t just working harder, they understand how to use AI strategically. Sign up for the AI Leadership Workshop, a 3-hour expert-led mastermind designed to give leadership teams clarity, alignment, and a practical path to stay competitive.

Book a call to customize your workshop today!

This episode is brought to you by Biggest Goal, the company Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson co-founded.

Fifteen years of scaling their own companies taught them that adoption is a people problem long before it's a technology problem, so we train executives and their teams through workshops, cohorts, mastermind groups, and hands-on implementation support.

For more info about our programs, join our free community at your.biggestgoal.ai.

Thank you for supporting the podcast!

Are you drowning in AI terminology and wondering which tools will actually move the needle in your agency? Custom GPTs, AI assistants, AI agents—everyone's throwing around these terms, but nobody's explaining what you should actually be using.

In this episode, Alane teams up with Beau Cunningham to cut through the confusion and give you a crystal-clear breakdown of when to use what. No more wondering if you're missing out on the "better" solution.

You'll discover:

• The real difference between GPTs and AI agents (and why it matters for your workflow)
• How to train a custom GPT on client knowledge so new team members aren't starting from scratch
• Why GPTs require conversation while agents actually do the work for you
• A live example of their automation tool that's been running for years

Stop second-guessing your AI strategy. Beau and Alane break down exactly which tool solves which problem, so you can pick the right solution and start seeing results immediately.

Whether you're just getting started or ready to level up your current AI setup, this episode gives you the roadmap to make smart decisions about your AI stack.

See a custom GPT in action by testing out Willy the Workflow Wizard! He's powered by a custom GPT that is supported by automation. Check him out here! 

Learn More about our AI Leadership Workshop

Winning businesses aren’t just working harder, they understand how to use AI strategically. Sign up for the AI Leadership Workshop, a 3-hour expert-led mastermind designed to give leadership teams clarity, alignment, and a practical path to stay competitive.

Book a call to customize your workshop today!

This episode is brought to you by Biggest Goal, the company Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson co-founded.

Fifteen years of scaling their own companies taught them that adoption is a people problem long before it's a technology problem, so we train executives and their teams through workshops, cohorts, mastermind groups, and hands-on implementation support.

For more info about our programs, join our free community at your.biggestgoal.ai.

Thank you for supporting the podcast!