July 24, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode of Imperfect Marketing, Kendra chats with Aarti Anand, a software product builder turned AI automation consultant, about how small business owners can leverage AI and systems thinking to reclaim their time, energy, and freedom.
Aarti shares her journey from building award-winning software to starting her own business to create more space for what matters—her kids, her aging parents, and her own time. Now she helps other founders do the same using AI and automation tools.
Key Takeaways for Business Owners and Marketers
🗸 SOPs aren’t just for big companies—they're the backbone of freedom
đź—¸ AI enables better thinking, not just faster doing
đź—¸ Delegation and automation are tools for building a life, not just a business
🗸 You don’t need agents or advanced AI to start—you just need intention and clarity
We dive into:
The Real Barriers to AI Adoption
- Why “AI curious” entrepreneurs don’t know where to begin
- The persistent myths holding people back (Will it replace me? Isn’t it just for big companies?)
- Why not adopting AI actually leaves your team at a disadvantage
Getting Started: Crawl Before You Run
- The “record yourself” strategy for overwhelmed founders
- How documenting simple tasks leads to automation success
- The marathon analogy for building automation systems over time
Where to Start with AI and Automation
- How founders waste time crafting proposals manually
- A simple Typeform-AI automation combo that can save 25% of your week
- When to automate, when to delegate, and how to decide
- Designing Your Ideal Day—Then Reverse Engineering It
Aarti’s mindset shift: “Everything else either needs to be delegated or automated”
Aarti’s Biggest Marketing Lesson Learned
👉 Stop leading with your product. No one cares how amazing your thing is until they believe it solves their problem. Lead with empathy and relevance—your customer is the hero, not you.
This episode is for you if...
You're wearing too many hats, feeling burnt out, or just wondering where to begin with AI and automation. Whether you're a founder, solopreneur, or marketer, you'll walk away with actionable steps to start reclaiming your time and scaling with intention.
🎧 Ready to build a business that supports your life—not the other way around? Tune in now.
Connect with Aarti:
Website: https://www.kodenyxai.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aartianand82/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amunjal1
Looking to leverage AI? Want better results? Want to think about what you want to leverage?
Check and see how I am using it for FREE on YouTube.
From "Holy cow, it can do that?" to "Wait, how does this work again?" – I've got all your AI curiosities covered. It's the perfect after-podcast snack for your tech-hungry brain.
Watch here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Kendra Korman .
If you're a coach, consultantor marketer, you know marketing
is far from a perfect science,and that's why this show is
called Imperfect Marketing.
Join me and my guests as weexplore how to grow your
business with marketing tips and, of course, lessons learned
along the way.
Hello, and welcome back toanother episode of Imperfect
(00:27):
Marketing.
Today we're talking about oneof my most favorite topics and
that is AI, and I'm so excitedto be joined today by Arti.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
I'm super excited to be talkingwith you about AI.
Why don't you take a minute andtell us?
How did you get into this?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
AI stuff.
And what do you do?
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me, kendra, I'm very excited.
Yeah, so my name is Arti Anand.
I've been building softwareproducts for more than 15 years
now.
Almost two years ago, I didn'twant to work for anybody else.
I had this epiphany my teamswere already building awesome
products and they were winningawards, and I was also told to
(01:11):
hop on sales calls to help themsell.
And at that point I had thisrealization Well, we're good at
building, now I'm also helpingthem sell.
I should just go do that overmyself, and I think the pain
point it was solving,particularly for me in my life
was I'm a mom of three kids andwe have dogs.
(01:31):
I also have aging parents.
I like to be in full control ofmy time and my schedule, and a
business, if I did that well,would be my route to that
freedom of time, money andlocation.
That's why I got into running abusiness, and then when I
started, I had no idea what Iwanted to sell.
(01:52):
I just knew that I had theskill set or I could upskill
myself to go whatever I wantedto.
So when I started talking tobusiness owners and see what
pinpoints they were strugglingwith, I saw everybody was
wearing so many hats in theirbusiness and they were doing it
as a badge of honor and I just Ididn't like that and I didn't
(02:16):
want to build a businessfollowing those lines.
So that's why I got into AI.
I learned more about it.
I automated some of theworkflows that I had in my
business as I was starting outand as I started seeing success,
I started selling thosesolutions to other people too,
and I took their feedback andsaw what they like, what they
(02:37):
didn't like, what was the ROI onthe things we were automating
for ourselves and for otherbusinesses.
That was our starting point,and lead gen seemed to be one of
the problems that founders werespending most of their time in,
and then they didn't have anyplan or process in place to
nurturing those leads onautopilot who weren't ready to
(03:00):
buy from them today.
So that became my mission is,as I was helping my own business
to get to the freedom of time,location and money, I started
other business owners with thesame issues and now I help them
go to build a business thathelps them achieve that freedom
(03:23):
of time, location and money intheir life too, and help them
build their business around thelife that they want to live, not
the other way around.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I love that.
I picked up on a lot of things.
First off, you don't get thefreedom of time, location and
money before you build yourbusiness, so there is a lot of
upfront work and I think I heardthat in there, right and then
but you're building it so thatyou can have that.
And I definitely get the agingparents thing.
My year of 2025 was totallyderailed by aging parents things
(03:54):
and it can be a lot of work.
I have a really good friend whois almost like semi-retired
right now because she has totake care of her parents, and so
I yeah, I mean a lot of thingscome out of necessity, right,
and so having that control isjust amazing, and AI is such a
great tool for that.
So what is the number oneconcern that you're seeing that
(04:18):
people have when they'reimplementing AI?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Most of the business owners I'm talking to.
They are AI curious, but theyhave no idea where to start.
So that was the first thing Ihave.
The second thing I am seeingwhy they are not adopting it
today is because they have lotsof myths.
Again, they are self-implicated.
(04:41):
There's no truth to it.
I think there's this knowledgegap.
When change comes around,people are averse to it, not
because they don't want to livea better life, it's just because
it's hard, because they're usedto doing things a certain way
and they don't know what theoutcome could be if they go and
(05:03):
follow that path of change.
And I think there's a lot ofhype around AI, but the spin is
it's for big tech companies.
We don't have the budget forthat.
What will happen to my team ifI adopt AI?
Will I start firing people andlots of those concerns and what
(05:27):
I'm trying to do.
As I talk to them, I take themon discovery calls.
I have lots of tools availableto help those people who are AI
curious but they have no ideawhere to start.
But I think where they need togo is they need to fill that
knowledge gap and see what ROIother business owners are
getting in their business.
Where are they starting from?
(05:49):
What is the path they'refollowing?
What are the things they areautomating the top three
automations they're installingon their business, and then,
from there, what is the ROI thatthey're getting?
What does their life look likenow?
How much time have they saved?
How much dollar amount havethey saved?
What does their productivitylife look like now?
How much time have they saved?
How much dollar amount havethey saved?
What does their productivitycurve look like now?
(06:09):
Are they happy?
And then go, follow that pathand get to that point and, from
there, be the leader that yourteam needs to be and start
leading the way by adopting AI,not shying away from it, because
if you're not adopting AI,you're not doing a service to
your team.
They're going to be behind ayear from now.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
It'll be too hard for everybody in your business to
catch up, actually you needed tostart like a year ago, but you
definitely have to start now,right?
And so one of the things so Iknow this is going to be
shocking because I thought weactually like got rid of this
misinformation like a coupleyears ago now and it feels like
(06:51):
it's still there and that is, Iactually had someone walk up to
me and tell me that they weren'tusing AI because they thought
it was going to replace them.
They were wearing they workedin a nonprofit, they were
wearing seven hats, they had allthese things to to do and they
didn't want AI to replace them.
And I'm like AI is notreplacing you, you're just gonna
get more done.
And like those seven hats aregonna feel like three.
She's like, well, I didn'tthink about it that way, but
(07:14):
that makes more sense.
And so it's very interesting tosee, because I do see some
shying away because they'reconcerned it's gonna replace
them.
I actually I'll ask you thisquestion.
So somebody I was working onsome automations with a group
and we started trying toidentify some of their
opportunities and one of themanagers said to me well, like
(07:38):
it's really hard for me to mapout a process and to tell people
what I do, she goes process andto tell people what I do, she
goes because I just do it, Ijust don't, I don't think
literally, I just go, like Ican't tell you what I do to get
there, which I thought wasreally interesting.
How are you working with peoplethat are that are just like you
know what, I can just get itdone and I'm doing it, and like
(08:03):
they have a mental block withslowing down to map out the
process so that they canautomate it right and then they
don't have to do it again?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yes, kendra, that's a beautiful question, by the way,
because it's going to help somany of your listeners.
The way I put that in front ofthem is every time you feel like
you need to sit down and dosomething that's costing your
family maybe a couple dreamvacations a year.
You're not building thebusiness around your life.
You're basically putting onfires every day, and when you're
(08:35):
in those shoes, you don't havethe business that you were
dreaming of before you signedfor that LLC or whatever.
So here is how I want you tothink about it If you are doing
anything on daily, weekly,monthly basis, you need to start
documenting the process.
It could even don't go fancystart with a Google Doc or, even
(09:01):
better, put a camera in frontof you, record the whole thing
and then have someone edit partsof it, which would not take
very long time.
So, in addition to the document, now you have a video.
That's your first V1, startthere.
Someone else can take it,replicate it.
You may have someone on yourteam who's more creative than
(09:23):
you.
Give them a chance and havethem re-record it.
Redo the thing that you justdid, re-record it.
Maybe they'll do a better jobthan you do, and that's fine,
and then that becomes your V2.
You start from there.
Everybody thinks they need towake up tomorrow and go run a
marathon.
It doesn't work out that way.
(09:45):
You start with putting yourshoes on, go run a mile, or
maybe jog, and then next dayshow up again, go run two miles.
That's how it works.
That's the same mentality Iwant you to adopt in your
business.
You don't need to streamlineeverything tomorrow when people
think about AI and they seeother people on LinkedIn brag
(10:06):
about how many automations theyhave in their business, but they
don't see.
It took them six to 12 monthsof work to get there.
That's the perspective I wantyou to take Start and improve
your business with AI andautomations 1% every day and
guess how improved andstreamlined it would be and how
(10:30):
much more enjoyable it would befor you to come into work every
day.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
There was a study that was printed in the Atlantic
that I quote all the time, andthat is, 60% of our days, are
spent on work, about work.
That's the piece that we needto get rid of, right.
That's not the delivering work,that's not the innovation and
the inspiration.
Over half of our day is spenton work about work, which is
just insane, right, and if wecan lighten that load, wouldn't
(10:57):
that be amazing?
I love what you said aboutrecording, because actually that
is the suggestion that I gaveher, and I suggest to people to
subscribe to Loom and to upgradeto their AI feature.
They'll build a standardoperating procedure right from
your video, no editing needed,and it gives you all the links
and it gives you the documentIt'll like give you the whole
(11:19):
thing, which is super cool,right, and then you could have
someone else redo it or try andfollow along with it.
It's amazing how much time itsaves you when you start
implementing even things thatyou're not going to automate,
just standard operatingprocedures in your business.
Again, I'm not a super processedperson, because that's just not
.
I'm more of a creative, I guess, and I get things done person,
(11:40):
like this other lady, which iswhy I told her to videotape
herself doing it so someone elsecan write it down.
Because, yeah, some of us juststruggle with that and that's
okay, right, because we're theidea people in our businesses
and I really think taking yourtime and recording the process
provides so much insight.
And then just have someone elsehelp you document it or
(12:00):
subscribe to a system right,that's gonna help document it
and then have someone check it.
So you talked a little bitabout lead gen and how having AI
help can do that better,because founders are wasting
their time there.
Are there other areas thatfounders are wasting their time,
that AI can do things better?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It could be as simple as in their daily ops.
How are they running it on aday-to-day basis?
When you get off a sales call?
Let's say you're the founderand you do sales call which I do
in my business today, by theway but I don't plan on doing
that six months from now.
When you get off that salescall and they tell you they're
interested in your proposal, howlong does it take you for you
(12:43):
to send that proposal?
If it's anywhere above a fewminutes, then that's what you
need to go streamline first.
I know personally when I talk tothem they spend maybe one,
maybe two or maybe more hourspersonalizing and tailoring and
customizing every proposal.
(13:04):
Why don't you have astreamlined process?
If it's the offer that you'vebeen selling already, why
haven't you automated already?
And if you're taking five salescalls every week and hopefully
your sales process is good andyour scripting is good, so they
ask for the proposal right afteryou're done with the sales call
(13:24):
then if you're sending five ofthem, you're easily wasting 10
hours every week, which is 25%of your time.
And if you put a dollar amounton that hour, that's how much
money you're wasting every week.
And then multiply by four,that's every month and then
multiply by 12, that's everyyear.
That's where I need you tostart Save your energy.
(13:48):
Only do things that light youup, and I don't think writing
proposals from scratch everytime lights anybody up.
I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
I don't think so.
I don't know anybody that loveswriting proposals, but yeah no,
that's a really good way tothink about it, and AI loves
templates, right?
So if you have a format thatyou've been using and want to
personalize, it'll personalizeit, it'll follow your template,
it'll fill in the blanks withthe information you give it and
spit it back out to you.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Right, and this is what we have done for other
clients too, and we do it in ourbusiness too.
You have a type form.
It should not require more than10 pieces of input from you as
you're on the sales call.
You fill out those as you're onthe go, or you could also take
maybe five minutes or maybe lessthan three minutes after the
(14:43):
sales call is done.
Put those fields in.
If you have been recurringselling that offer over and over
again, you should know whatthose repeated fields are.
And then you go fill that inand the automation kicks in, and
then it generates the proposaland AI personalizes it based on
the information you put in whatis the company, who's the owner,
(15:03):
who did you talk to, who's thestakeholder and what is the
price point, what is thetimeline?
Just put those fields in, haveit personalized, and then you
could also put a timer, sendthis after 30 minutes or, if you
don't mind that they see theproposal hit their inbox two
minutes after.
You could also do that.
I typically put a 30 minutestimer before it gets sent into
(15:27):
their inbox.
So that's just that, and it'llsave you 25% of your time every
week.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
I like the idea of identifying things that are
taking you hours a day, a week,a month, and you usually tell
people when they're starting outlook at something that takes
you about four hours a week orfour hours a month.
That's the process to startwith, right, that's the one that
makes sense.
If you're doing something for15 minutes a week or 15 minutes
(15:55):
a month, maybe don't start withthat one right.
Let's figure out where the timeinvestment in the automation
can really make a difference.
Right, I mean I saved 30 to 40hours a week on average since I
started leveraging AI.
It's unbelievable.
I mean even just with thepodcast, the amount it's allowed
me to do is just isunbelievable.
(16:17):
I think each episode I wassaving over three hours of time
one episode.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Right, and the way I typically advise people is you
talked about standard operatingprocedures, right.
Again, look it through the lensof if I'm gone tomorrow or I
get sick, is everything going tofall apart?
Start there.
So that's your first mindsetshift where you need to be
comfortable with delegating.
(16:44):
Okay, if you're on board with,delegation is a beautiful thing.
I don't need to keep everythinghere.
Start with that mindset.
If you're ready to delegate, youeither go find a person who
could do that for you with alower dollar amount not as the
same as the founder's dollaramount.
So if something, if your hourlyrate is $500, someone else
(17:08):
could do that task for $25 anhour.
Now you're saving $4.75 andthat's you're putting back in
your business.
You're actually doing theservice back and you're making
more money.
So start there.
And then, when you're thatassistant that you hired at $25
an hour, there may be thingsthat don't light them up.
(17:29):
Then take those processes, havethem, use AI or create an SOP
for that particular work andthen go automate that and now
they're going to save their timeand they'll be ready to upskill
themselves.
Then they'll be ready to bemore useful in other parts of
your business and theneverybody's growing and
(17:51):
everybody is doing things thatthey're happy to do, and that's
how you grow, and that's how youscale.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yes, I love looking at it like that.
I did.
I read the book Buy Back yourTime.
I don't know if you've everread it by Dan Martell, but it's
a fan.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Dan Martell is my coach, by the way.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Oh, very cool.
Yes, like I love the wholeconcept of buying back your time
, because even if you're buyingit back, you know, not to
necessarily put back in yourbusiness, but to put back in
your life.
That makes you a better person,right?
And if you're going from 80hours down to 50, which is more
sustainable and doesn't get youburnt out and stuff like that,
you know it's amazing.
(18:28):
I love how he talks about howhe like hired, you know, a like
life person to manage theirhousehold calendars and things
like that.
Like just taking that off theplate and how much money made.
That would make that make senseand it's just like.
It's just so many differentways that we need to think about
it.
It's not all about the moneygoing out, right?
(18:48):
So it's about the opportunitycost of spending your money
there and that's why delegationis a beautiful mindset shift.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Once you start to see that in one area of your life
you cannot help but just go andhave the ripple effects in other
parts of your life.
It just simply gives you timeto live as a human.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yes, Right and you need that.
You need that because you canget just burnt out and even
bitter towards some of yourclients and customers if you're
not charging what you'resupposed to, if you're over
delivering what they're payingfor, things like that.
I mean, I've had it happen tome numerous times in my business
(19:33):
where I've done that, and it'snot a good place to be right To
feel like you're over deliveringand getting underpaid and not
appreciated, and they very wellmight appreciate it.
But again, you set this up foryourself and you can learn and
change and adjust as you go.
But AI has made it just so much, so amazing when it comes to
(19:57):
freeing up time and actuallycreating a better work product
in a lot of instances.
So I love that of you.
So if someone's starting out andthey want to start getting used
to using automation, it doesn'teven need to be AI automation
right, it can just be automation, because I think there are
different kinds, right?
Sometimes it's hard to separateit nowadays with AI, but let's
(20:21):
talk a little bit about that.
Where do you recommend theystart?
Is it with the standardoperating procedures and those
videos you're talking about?
Or is it just even identifyingthose processes and where
they're spending time.
What are those first couple ofsteps someone should take?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I like how you put it , because everybody's talking
about AI agents on YouTube todayand then every person who's
just starting out and their bestuse case is writing emails with
chat GPT.
They think they need AI agentin their business, but they
don't.
So where I want you to start asa business owner is, again.
(20:56):
It starts from protecting yourenergy, your time On an ideal
day when you have everythingunder control.
What does that ideal day looklike?
Just sit and think about that.
What are the things that youthink on that sunny day scenario
you would love to do?
(21:18):
Would that be go run five miles?
Would that be take your kids toswim class?
Would that be walking your dog?
Would that be taking threesales calls?
What does it look like?
Write that down.
Those are the things you needto protect your energy for.
Everything else either needs tobe delegated to a person, like
(21:42):
an EA or a sales rep or someone,or it needs to be automated.
But before it can be automatedor it can be delegated to a
person, they need a step-by-stepplan.
If they go from step A to Z,you know what that predictable
(22:05):
outcome would look like, becauseif you delegate it to someone
too soon and they get X resultsand you're not happy about it,
it's your fault, it's not theirs, and that's why the SOP needs
to be there, and SOP does nothave to be 100% ideally done.
(22:25):
Start with the V1, give it tosomeone else, let them follow
the plan, let them also give youfeedback, and then get to V2
and then get to V3.
And in a month you'll have astreamlined process that anybody
, even a new hire, could come inand replicate, and you could be
(22:45):
at the beach having a drink atthat time while they're
replicating it.
So that's where I want you togo, and it starts with thinking
big and valuing your time morethan anything else, and then
reversing from there.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I love that starting point right.
Start with what your ideal daywould look like.
If it's sunny and the weather'snice outside, what would you
want to be doing?
And I like how you added inthings like sales calls right,
because it doesn't have to berunning five miles or getting
the laundry done or walking thedog or taking the kids to the
pool right, it can be work stuffif that's what lights you up.
(23:24):
But you've got to be looking atwhat lights you up.
What is it that you would wantto be doing and figure out how
to protect that, because I thinkthat that is just so, so
important.
A couple years ago, I startedprotecting my time on my
calendar and I created an idealweek.
I follow the full focus plannerand I always say like hashtag,
not sponsored, but I love myfull focus planner planner.
(23:44):
And I always say like hashtag,not sponsored, but I love my
full focus planner.
And I really struggled withthat ideal week for a long time
as to like, how am I going toset this up?
Well, everything's everywhere.
And then I was watching apodcast one day, or I was
listening to a podcast one dayand they said my ideal week
isn't carved in stone, likethings change.
This is just the ideal week.
And she said I don't think I'veactually ever hit my ideal week
(24:07):
100% and that's okay.
Right, but she protects it sothat she can get close to it.
So I threw out all of mymeetings on my calendar, hired
somebody to redo all of myrecurring meetings on my
calendar, moved everythingaround, because I had like
meetings at eight and nine andthen at like a two, and that is
like every day of the week.
(24:29):
Right, there was no days Icould take off because during
the pandemic, my calendar blewup, and I think taking that time
identifying what those themesare and what that day would look
like, is just.
I think that's very, verypowerful and I really want
everybody that's listening andwatching to take note of that,
because I think we should allhave what that looks like.
(24:51):
Right, what would your ideal daybe like?
It doesn't matter if it's notpossible right now.
Right, because it probablyisn't possible today, and that's
okay.
Right, because that's wherewe're working to get to, and I
love starting there and thenmoving forward.
Right, because now you've got agoal.
Now you've got a visual goal.
(25:12):
Right, especially if, like, youwrite it down on a piece of
paper, which is what I wouldrecommend right, or draw it out
in PowerPoint or Excel.
You've got something to go for,and I think that motivation is
so amazing.
So I love that insight, I lovethat direction.
This is this is fantastic.
Thank you so much, artie, forjoining me today and sharing so
(25:35):
much great information.
Before I let you go, I do haveto ask you the question I ask
all my guests, and that is thisshow is called Imperfect
Marketing, because marketing isanything but a perfect science.
What's been your biggestmarketing lesson learned?
I learned this.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
The hard way we all did Right.
So think about me being, youknow, a software products
builder for many, many years.
Every product I built orcontributed to, at some point it
became my baby, and then I tookso much pride in it when I
started talking.
At any phase in those years Inever started with the customer
(26:15):
what their pain points were.
I started with you need tocheck out this thing that we
built, and it's so cool.
Nobody cared.
Nobody cares if you are anOlympic gold medalist, unless
they have a problem that you'reset to solve.
You've solved for someone inthe past.
So to anybody who's listeningI'm sure you know that already I
(26:38):
just want to double click on it.
It has to start with theaudience.
It has to start with who'sreading it.
If someone comes to yourlanding page, they don't need to
know anything about you, butthe pains and the problem that
they're experiencing and ifthere is a solution that exists
(27:01):
that you can contribute to,that's all that matters.
You're not the hero in yourstory.
They are.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
I love that.
So, so, so important and sooverlooked, because, yes, we
hear it all the time.
I've probably said it on 150different episodes of this
podcast, because we're over 300now.
So I say it at least everyother time, I think.
But you got to think about youraudience.
It's what's in it for me and weforget sometimes because we're
moving so fast.
(27:28):
And that's again where I lovethe power of AI coming in there,
because you can slow down rightwhen AI is picking up that
slack, that 60% of work aboutwork.
Then you're able to slide inthere and think and be inspiring
and come up with innovationsthat AI can't come up with,
innovations that AI can't comeup with.
That's where we're adding value, that's where we're making a
(27:50):
difference, and I love that.
Thank you so much, first off,for again sharing your wisdom
and your insights.
I hope a lot of people got someinsight on how to start moving
forward with automation andlooking at their business,
hopefully differently, or ifthey're looking to start to
start with the intention of thatideal day which I just think is
(28:11):
so powerful.
We will have again all thenormal things on how to connect
with Artie and her company ifyou're looking to get some help
in that AI automation space.
So definitely check that outand connect with her there.
Thank you all again for tuningin.
Have a great rest of your day.
Hi, I'm Kendra Korman .
If you're a coach, consultantor marketer, you know marketing
is far from a perfect science,and that's why this show is
called Imperfect Marketing.
Join me and my guests as weexplore how to grow your
business with marketing tips and, of course, lessons learned
along the way.
Hello, and welcome back toanother episode of Imperfect
(00:27):
Marketing.
Today we're talking about oneof my most favorite topics and
that is AI, and I'm so excitedto be joined today by Arti.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
I'm super excited to be talkingwith you about AI.
Why don't you take a minute andtell us?
How did you get into this?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
AI stuff.
And what do you do?
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me, kendra, I'm very excited.
Yeah, so my name is Arti Anand.
I've been building softwareproducts for more than 15 years
now.
Almost two years ago, I didn'twant to work for anybody else.
I had this epiphany my teamswere already building awesome
products and they were winningawards, and I was also told to
(01:11):
hop on sales calls to help themsell.
And at that point I had thisrealization Well, we're good at
building, now I'm also helpingthem sell.
I should just go do that overmyself, and I think the pain
point it was solving,particularly for me in my life
was I'm a mom of three kids andwe have dogs.
(01:31):
I also have aging parents.
I like to be in full control ofmy time and my schedule, and a
business, if I did that well,would be my route to that
freedom of time, money andlocation.
That's why I got into running abusiness, and then when I
started, I had no idea what Iwanted to sell.
(01:52):
I just knew that I had theskill set or I could upskill
myself to go whatever I wantedto.
So when I started talking tobusiness owners and see what
pinpoints they were strugglingwith, I saw everybody was
wearing so many hats in theirbusiness and they were doing it
as a badge of honor and I just Ididn't like that and I didn't
(02:16):
want to build a businessfollowing those lines.
So that's why I got into AI.
I learned more about it.
I automated some of theworkflows that I had in my
business as I was starting outand as I started seeing success,
I started selling thosesolutions to other people too,
and I took their feedback andsaw what they like, what they
(02:37):
didn't like, what was the ROI onthe things we were automating
for ourselves and for otherbusinesses.
That was our starting point,and lead gen seemed to be one of
the problems that founders werespending most of their time in,
and then they didn't have anyplan or process in place to
nurturing those leads onautopilot who weren't ready to
(03:00):
buy from them today.
So that became my mission is,as I was helping my own business
to get to the freedom of time,location and money, I started
other business owners with thesame issues and now I help them
go to build a business thathelps them achieve that freedom
(03:23):
of time, location and money intheir life too, and help them
build their business around thelife that they want to live, not
the other way around.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I love that.
I picked up on a lot of things.
First off, you don't get thefreedom of time, location and
money before you build yourbusiness, so there is a lot of
upfront work and I think I heardthat in there, right and then
but you're building it so thatyou can have that.
And I definitely get the agingparents thing.
My year of 2025 was totallyderailed by aging parents things
(03:54):
and it can be a lot of work.
I have a really good friend whois almost like semi-retired
right now because she has totake care of her parents, and so
I yeah, I mean a lot of thingscome out of necessity, right,
and so having that control isjust amazing, and AI is such a
great tool for that.
So what is the number oneconcern that you're seeing that
(04:18):
people have when they'reimplementing AI?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Most of the business owners I'm talking to.
They are AI curious, but theyhave no idea where to start.
So that was the first thing Ihave.
The second thing I am seeingwhy they are not adopting it
today is because they have lotsof myths.
Again, they are self-implicated.
(04:41):
There's no truth to it.
I think there's this knowledgegap.
When change comes around,people are averse to it, not
because they don't want to livea better life, it's just because
it's hard, because they're usedto doing things a certain way
and they don't know what theoutcome could be if they go and
(05:03):
follow that path of change.
And I think there's a lot ofhype around AI, but the spin is
it's for big tech companies.
We don't have the budget forthat.
What will happen to my team ifI adopt AI?
Will I start firing people andlots of those concerns and what
(05:27):
I'm trying to do.
As I talk to them, I take themon discovery calls.
I have lots of tools availableto help those people who are AI
curious but they have no ideawhere to start.
But I think where they need togo is they need to fill that
knowledge gap and see what ROIother business owners are
getting in their business.
Where are they starting from?
(05:49):
What is the path they'refollowing?
What are the things they areautomating the top three
automations they're installingon their business, and then,
from there, what is the ROI thatthey're getting?
What does their life look likenow?
How much time have they saved?
How much dollar amount havethey saved?
What does their productivitylife look like now?
How much time have they saved?
How much dollar amount havethey saved?
What does their productivitycurve look like now?
(06:09):
Are they happy?
And then go, follow that pathand get to that point and, from
there, be the leader that yourteam needs to be and start
leading the way by adopting AI,not shying away from it, because
if you're not adopting AI,you're not doing a service to
your team.
They're going to be behind ayear from now.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
It'll be too hard for everybody in your business to
catch up, actually you needed tostart like a year ago, but you
definitely have to start now,right?
And so one of the things so Iknow this is going to be
shocking because I thought weactually like got rid of this
misinformation like a coupleyears ago now and it feels like
(06:51):
it's still there and that is, Iactually had someone walk up to
me and tell me that they weren'tusing AI because they thought
it was going to replace them.
They were wearing they workedin a nonprofit, they were
wearing seven hats, they had allthese things to to do and they
didn't want AI to replace them.
And I'm like AI is notreplacing you, you're just gonna
get more done.
And like those seven hats aregonna feel like three.
She's like, well, I didn'tthink about it that way, but
(07:14):
that makes more sense.
And so it's very interesting tosee, because I do see some
shying away because they'reconcerned it's gonna replace
them.
I actually I'll ask you thisquestion.
So somebody I was working onsome automations with a group
and we started trying toidentify some of their
opportunities and one of themanagers said to me well, like
(07:38):
it's really hard for me to mapout a process and to tell people
what I do, she goes process andto tell people what I do, she
goes because I just do it, Ijust don't, I don't think
literally, I just go, like Ican't tell you what I do to get
there, which I thought wasreally interesting.
How are you working with peoplethat are that are just like you
know what, I can just get itdone and I'm doing it, and like
(08:03):
they have a mental block withslowing down to map out the
process so that they canautomate it right and then they
don't have to do it again?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yes, kendra, that's a beautiful question, by the way,
because it's going to help somany of your listeners.
The way I put that in front ofthem is every time you feel like
you need to sit down and dosomething that's costing your
family maybe a couple dreamvacations a year.
You're not building thebusiness around your life.
You're basically putting onfires every day, and when you're
(08:35):
in those shoes, you don't havethe business that you were
dreaming of before you signedfor that LLC or whatever.
So here is how I want you tothink about it If you are doing
anything on daily, weekly,monthly basis, you need to start
documenting the process.
It could even don't go fancystart with a Google Doc or, even
(09:01):
better, put a camera in frontof you, record the whole thing
and then have someone edit partsof it, which would not take
very long time.
So, in addition to the document, now you have a video.
That's your first V1, startthere.
Someone else can take it,replicate it.
You may have someone on yourteam who's more creative than
(09:23):
you.
Give them a chance and havethem re-record it.
Redo the thing that you justdid, re-record it.
Maybe they'll do a better jobthan you do, and that's fine,
and then that becomes your V2.
You start from there.
Everybody thinks they need towake up tomorrow and go run a
marathon.
It doesn't work out that way.
(09:45):
You start with putting yourshoes on, go run a mile, or
maybe jog, and then next dayshow up again, go run two miles.
That's how it works.
That's the same mentality Iwant you to adopt in your
business.
You don't need to streamlineeverything tomorrow when people
think about AI and they seeother people on LinkedIn brag
(10:06):
about how many automations theyhave in their business, but they
don't see.
It took them six to 12 monthsof work to get there.
That's the perspective I wantyou to take Start and improve
your business with AI andautomations 1% every day and
guess how improved andstreamlined it would be and how
(10:30):
much more enjoyable it would befor you to come into work every
day.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
There was a study that was printed in the Atlantic
that I quote all the time, andthat is, 60% of our days, are
spent on work, about work.
That's the piece that we needto get rid of, right.
That's not the delivering work,that's not the innovation and
the inspiration.
Over half of our day is spenton work about work, which is
just insane, right, and if wecan lighten that load, wouldn't
(10:57):
that be amazing?
I love what you said aboutrecording, because actually that
is the suggestion that I gaveher, and I suggest to people to
subscribe to Loom and to upgradeto their AI feature.
They'll build a standardoperating procedure right from
your video, no editing needed,and it gives you all the links
and it gives you the documentIt'll like give you the whole
(11:19):
thing, which is super cool,right, and then you could have
someone else redo it or try andfollow along with it.
It's amazing how much time itsaves you when you start
implementing even things thatyou're not going to automate,
just standard operatingprocedures in your business.
Again, I'm not a super processedperson, because that's just not
.
I'm more of a creative, I guess, and I get things done person,
(11:40):
like this other lady, which iswhy I told her to videotape
herself doing it so someone elsecan write it down.
Because, yeah, some of us juststruggle with that and that's
okay, right, because we're theidea people in our businesses
and I really think taking yourtime and recording the process
provides so much insight.
And then just have someone elsehelp you document it or
(12:00):
subscribe to a system right,that's gonna help document it
and then have someone check it.
So you talked a little bitabout lead gen and how having AI
help can do that better,because founders are wasting
their time there.
Are there other areas thatfounders are wasting their time,
that AI can do things better?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It could be as simple as in their daily ops.
How are they running it on aday-to-day basis?
When you get off a sales call?
Let's say you're the founderand you do sales call which I do
in my business today, by theway but I don't plan on doing
that six months from now.
When you get off that salescall and they tell you they're
interested in your proposal, howlong does it take you for you
(12:43):
to send that proposal?
If it's anywhere above a fewminutes, then that's what you
need to go streamline first.
I know personally when I talk tothem they spend maybe one,
maybe two or maybe more hourspersonalizing and tailoring and
customizing every proposal.
(13:04):
Why don't you have astreamlined process?
If it's the offer that you'vebeen selling already, why
haven't you automated already?
And if you're taking five salescalls every week and hopefully
your sales process is good andyour scripting is good, so they
ask for the proposal right afteryou're done with the sales call
(13:24):
then if you're sending five ofthem, you're easily wasting 10
hours every week, which is 25%of your time.
And if you put a dollar amounton that hour, that's how much
money you're wasting every week.
And then multiply by four,that's every month and then
multiply by 12, that's everyyear.
That's where I need you tostart Save your energy.
(13:48):
Only do things that light youup, and I don't think writing
proposals from scratch everytime lights anybody up.
I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
I don't think so.
I don't know anybody that loveswriting proposals, but yeah no,
that's a really good way tothink about it, and AI loves
templates, right?
So if you have a format thatyou've been using and want to
personalize, it'll personalizeit, it'll follow your template,
it'll fill in the blanks withthe information you give it and
spit it back out to you.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Right, and this is what we have done for other
clients too, and we do it in ourbusiness too.
You have a type form.
It should not require more than10 pieces of input from you as
you're on the sales call.
You fill out those as you're onthe go, or you could also take
maybe five minutes or maybe lessthan three minutes after the
(14:43):
sales call is done.
Put those fields in.
If you have been recurringselling that offer over and over
again, you should know whatthose repeated fields are.
And then you go fill that inand the automation kicks in, and
then it generates the proposaland AI personalizes it based on
the information you put in whatis the company, who's the owner,
(15:03):
who did you talk to, who's thestakeholder and what is the
price point, what is thetimeline?
Just put those fields in, haveit personalized, and then you
could also put a timer, sendthis after 30 minutes or, if you
don't mind that they see theproposal hit their inbox two
minutes after.
You could also do that.
I typically put a 30 minutestimer before it gets sent into
(15:27):
their inbox.
So that's just that, and it'llsave you 25% of your time every
week.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
I like the idea of identifying things that are
taking you hours a day, a week,a month, and you usually tell
people when they're starting outlook at something that takes
you about four hours a week orfour hours a month.
That's the process to startwith, right, that's the one that
makes sense.
If you're doing something for15 minutes a week or 15 minutes
(15:55):
a month, maybe don't start withthat one right.
Let's figure out where the timeinvestment in the automation
can really make a difference.
Right, I mean I saved 30 to 40hours a week on average since I
started leveraging AI.
It's unbelievable.
I mean even just with thepodcast, the amount it's allowed
me to do is just isunbelievable.
(16:17):
I think each episode I wassaving over three hours of time
one episode.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Right, and the way I typically advise people is you
talked about standard operatingprocedures, right.
Again, look it through the lensof if I'm gone tomorrow or I
get sick, is everything going tofall apart?
Start there.
So that's your first mindsetshift where you need to be
comfortable with delegating.
(16:44):
Okay, if you're on board with,delegation is a beautiful thing.
I don't need to keep everythinghere.
Start with that mindset.
If you're ready to delegate, youeither go find a person who
could do that for you with alower dollar amount not as the
same as the founder's dollaramount.
So if something, if your hourlyrate is $500, someone else
(17:08):
could do that task for $25 anhour.
Now you're saving $4.75 andthat's you're putting back in
your business.
You're actually doing theservice back and you're making
more money.
So start there.
And then, when you're thatassistant that you hired at $25
an hour, there may be thingsthat don't light them up.
(17:29):
Then take those processes, havethem, use AI or create an SOP
for that particular work andthen go automate that and now
they're going to save their timeand they'll be ready to upskill
themselves.
Then they'll be ready to bemore useful in other parts of
your business and theneverybody's growing and
(17:51):
everybody is doing things thatthey're happy to do, and that's
how you grow, and that's how youscale.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yes, I love looking at it like that.
I did.
I read the book Buy Back yourTime.
I don't know if you've everread it by Dan Martell, but it's
a fan.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Dan Martell is my coach, by the way.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Oh, very cool.
Yes, like I love the wholeconcept of buying back your time
, because even if you're buyingit back, you know, not to
necessarily put back in yourbusiness, but to put back in
your life.
That makes you a better person,right?
And if you're going from 80hours down to 50, which is more
sustainable and doesn't get youburnt out and stuff like that,
you know it's amazing.
(18:28):
I love how he talks about howhe like hired, you know, a like
life person to manage theirhousehold calendars and things
like that.
Like just taking that off theplate and how much money made.
That would make that make senseand it's just like.
It's just so many differentways that we need to think about
it.
It's not all about the moneygoing out, right?
(18:48):
So it's about the opportunitycost of spending your money
there and that's why delegationis a beautiful mindset shift.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Once you start to see that in one area of your life
you cannot help but just go andhave the ripple effects in other
parts of your life.
It just simply gives you timeto live as a human.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yes, Right and you need that.
You need that because you canget just burnt out and even
bitter towards some of yourclients and customers if you're
not charging what you'resupposed to, if you're over
delivering what they're payingfor, things like that.
I mean, I've had it happen tome numerous times in my business
(19:33):
where I've done that, and it'snot a good place to be right To
feel like you're over deliveringand getting underpaid and not
appreciated, and they very wellmight appreciate it.
But again, you set this up foryourself and you can learn and
change and adjust as you go.
But AI has made it just so much, so amazing when it comes to
(19:57):
freeing up time and actuallycreating a better work product
in a lot of instances.
So I love that of you.
So if someone's starting out andthey want to start getting used
to using automation, it doesn'teven need to be AI automation
right, it can just be automation, because I think there are
different kinds, right?
Sometimes it's hard to separateit nowadays with AI, but let's
(20:21):
talk a little bit about that.
Where do you recommend theystart?
Is it with the standardoperating procedures and those
videos you're talking about?
Or is it just even identifyingthose processes and where
they're spending time.
What are those first couple ofsteps someone should take?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I like how you put it , because everybody's talking
about AI agents on YouTube todayand then every person who's
just starting out and their bestuse case is writing emails with
chat GPT.
They think they need AI agentin their business, but they
don't.
So where I want you to start asa business owner is, again.
(20:56):
It starts from protecting yourenergy, your time On an ideal
day when you have everythingunder control.
What does that ideal day looklike?
Just sit and think about that.
What are the things that youthink on that sunny day scenario
you would love to do?
(21:18):
Would that be go run five miles?
Would that be take your kids toswim class?
Would that be walking your dog?
Would that be taking threesales calls?
What does it look like?
Write that down.
Those are the things you needto protect your energy for.
Everything else either needs tobe delegated to a person, like
(21:42):
an EA or a sales rep or someone,or it needs to be automated.
But before it can be automatedor it can be delegated to a
person, they need a step-by-stepplan.
If they go from step A to Z,you know what that predictable
(22:05):
outcome would look like, becauseif you delegate it to someone
too soon and they get X resultsand you're not happy about it,
it's your fault, it's not theirs, and that's why the SOP needs
to be there, and SOP does nothave to be 100% ideally done.
(22:25):
Start with the V1, give it tosomeone else, let them follow
the plan, let them also give youfeedback, and then get to V2
and then get to V3.
And in a month you'll have astreamlined process that anybody
, even a new hire, could come inand replicate, and you could be
(22:45):
at the beach having a drink atthat time while they're
replicating it.
So that's where I want you togo, and it starts with thinking
big and valuing your time morethan anything else, and then
reversing from there.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I love that starting point right.
Start with what your ideal daywould look like.
If it's sunny and the weather'snice outside, what would you
want to be doing?
And I like how you added inthings like sales calls right,
because it doesn't have to berunning five miles or getting
the laundry done or walking thedog or taking the kids to the
pool right, it can be work stuffif that's what lights you up.
(23:24):
But you've got to be looking atwhat lights you up.
What is it that you would wantto be doing and figure out how
to protect that, because I thinkthat that is just so, so
important.
A couple years ago, I startedprotecting my time on my
calendar and I created an idealweek.
I follow the full focus plannerand I always say like hashtag,
not sponsored, but I love myfull focus planner planner.
(23:44):
And I always say like hashtag,not sponsored, but I love my
full focus planner.
And I really struggled withthat ideal week for a long time
as to like, how am I going toset this up?
Well, everything's everywhere.
And then I was watching apodcast one day, or I was
listening to a podcast one dayand they said my ideal week
isn't carved in stone, likethings change.
This is just the ideal week.
And she said I don't think I'veactually ever hit my ideal week
(24:07):
100% and that's okay.
Right, but she protects it sothat she can get close to it.
So I threw out all of mymeetings on my calendar, hired
somebody to redo all of myrecurring meetings on my
calendar, moved everythingaround, because I had like
meetings at eight and nine andthen at like a two, and that is
like every day of the week.
(24:29):
Right, there was no days Icould take off because during
the pandemic, my calendar blewup, and I think taking that time
identifying what those themesare and what that day would look
like, is just.
I think that's very, verypowerful and I really want
everybody that's listening andwatching to take note of that,
because I think we should allhave what that looks like.
(24:51):
Right, what would your ideal daybe like?
It doesn't matter if it's notpossible right now.
Right, because it probablyisn't possible today, and that's
okay.
Right, because that's wherewe're working to get to, and I
love starting there and thenmoving forward.
Right, because now you've got agoal.
Now you've got a visual goal.
(25:12):
Right, especially if, like, youwrite it down on a piece of
paper, which is what I wouldrecommend right, or draw it out
in PowerPoint or Excel.
You've got something to go for,and I think that motivation is
so amazing.
So I love that insight, I lovethat direction.
This is this is fantastic.
Thank you so much, artie, forjoining me today and sharing so
(25:35):
much great information.
Before I let you go, I do haveto ask you the question I ask
all my guests, and that is thisshow is called Imperfect
Marketing, because marketing isanything but a perfect science.
What's been your biggestmarketing lesson learned?
I learned this.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
The hard way we all did Right.
So think about me being, youknow, a software products
builder for many, many years.
Every product I built orcontributed to, at some point it
became my baby, and then I tookso much pride in it when I
started talking.
At any phase in those years Inever started with the customer
(26:15):
what their pain points were.
I started with you need tocheck out this thing that we
built, and it's so cool.
Nobody cared.
Nobody cares if you are anOlympic gold medalist, unless
they have a problem that you'reset to solve.
You've solved for someone inthe past.
So to anybody who's listeningI'm sure you know that already I
(26:38):
just want to double click on it.
It has to start with theaudience.
It has to start with who'sreading it.
If someone comes to yourlanding page, they don't need to
know anything about you, butthe pains and the problem that
they're experiencing and ifthere is a solution that exists
(27:01):
that you can contribute to,that's all that matters.
You're not the hero in yourstory.
They are.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
I love that.
So, so, so important and sooverlooked, because, yes, we
hear it all the time.
I've probably said it on 150different episodes of this
podcast, because we're over 300now.
So I say it at least everyother time, I think.
But you got to think about youraudience.
It's what's in it for me and weforget sometimes because we're
moving so fast.
(27:28):
And that's again where I lovethe power of AI coming in there,
because you can slow down rightwhen AI is picking up that
slack, that 60% of work aboutwork.
Then you're able to slide inthere and think and be inspiring
and come up with innovationsthat AI can't come up with,
innovations that AI can't comeup with.
That's where we're adding value, that's where we're making a
(27:50):
difference, and I love that.
Thank you so much, first off,for again sharing your wisdom
and your insights.
I hope a lot of people got someinsight on how to start moving
forward with automation andlooking at their business,
hopefully differently, or ifthey're looking to start to
start with the intention of thatideal day which I just think is
(28:11):
so powerful.
We will have again all thenormal things on how to connect
with Artie and her company ifyou're looking to get some help
in that AI automation space.
So definitely check that outand connect with her there.
Thank you all again for tuningin.
Have a great rest of your day.
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