I taught myself how to create and manage automated workflows using tools...
Madson Laylah@laylahmadson285
6 days ago
I taught myself how to create and manage automated workflows using tools like Zapier and Make (formerly Integromat). I was working as a virtual assistant, booking appointments and entering data for a bunch of small business owners. The work was fine, but it was repetitive and I was losing hours every week to tasks that felt like they could just run themselves.
So I started watching YouTube tutorials and reading forum posts about automation. I built my first zap to automatically move email attachments into Google Drive and send a Slack notification. It saved me maybe 15 minutes a week. Not a big deal, right? But then I started automating client onboarding, invoice reminders, even social media posting. Within six months, I cut my own workload by about 20 hours a week while taking on more clients at the same rates. I went from being a grunt pushing buttons to someone who could show up and say "here's how we can eliminate this entire process."
The real career shift came when I started selling those automations as add-on services. Now I do process consulting and automation building for agencies and solopreneurs. I charge more than double what I did as a VA. The funny thing is, I'm not a programmer. I don't know Python or any real coding. But I understand how systems connect, and that's worth a lot.
If you're in any kind of repetitive digital work, pick one boring task and figure out how to make it run itself. The confidence you get from solving that one problem will change how you see your whole job.
5 days ago
