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#244August 11, 202158:55

#208 with Steph Smith - Why You Need a Chief Automation Officer

About This Episode

Shaan Puri and guest Steph Smith explore strategies for identifying business opportunities in 'seas of sameness' and untapped financial markets like Flexible Spending Accounts. They brainstorm several ventures, including the concept of a Chief Automation Officer, luxury corporate swag agencies, and color-changing consumer products.

Episode Description

In this episode Shaan (@ShaanVP) is joined by Steph Smith (@stephsmithio) for an idea packed episode. They start off talking about opportunities around spending your FSA dollars and on swag packs. They transition to talk about the role of automation at companies and Steph shares how she would go about automating repetitive parts of her role. The end the episode talking about Steph's new course, approaches to building a company, and Fidelity allowing trading accounts for teenagers. --------- * Want Steph's course? You can find it at https://doingtimeright.com * Want to be featured in a future episode? Drop your question/comment/criticism/love here: https://www.mfmpod.com/p/hotline/ * Support the pod by spreading the word, become a referrer here: https://refer.fm/million * Have you joined our private Facebook group yet? Go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion and join thousands of other entrepreneurs and founders scheming up ideas. ---------

Show Notes

  • * (1:06) Intro
  • * (2:20) Ideas around spending your FSA dollars
  • * (15:58) Ideas around giving out awesome swag
  • * (21:52) The role of chief automation officer
  • * (27:37) Building a company around automation
  • * (35:03) Giving away free alcohol as marketing
  • * (41:22) How Steph invests her time & money
  • * (43:50) Steph's new course - doingtimeright.com
  • * (47:44) Approaches to building a company
  • * (51:39) Fidelity allowing teenagers on the platform
  • * (56:52) How to find Steph online

Key Takeaways

1

Identify 'seas of sameness' in retail aisles to create modern, high-end brands that focus on customer benefits rather than boring technical ingredients.

2

Target the $20 billion pool of Flexible Spending Account (FSA) money by creating products or services that help consumers spend their 'use it or lose it' pre-tax dollars before annual deadlines.

3

Implement an 'Automation Audit' within companies where a specialist shadows employees to identify and eliminate manual, repetitive tasks using no-code tools and scripts.

Business Ideas Mentioned

FSA Automated Spending Subscription Box

E-commerce

Limited Edition Luxury Corporate Swag

Agency

Outsourced Chief Automation Officer Service

AI & Automation

Fantasy Sports for Stock Trading

SaaS

Instagramable Color-Changing Tea Brand

E-commerce

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Quick Stats

Duration58:55
Guests1
Ideas Discussed5
Topics4