Use AI and Automation To Scale Your Business

Today on 🥯 Bagel Bots, we’re discussing:

• 📈 Sharing secrets on scaling the business

• 🚀 Fresh app of the day - Zapier AI

• 📰 The latest AI and tech news

• 🤖 Cool new apps for you to check out

• ✏️ Content creation hack with Unsummary

• 💰 Less is more.

(Read time: six minutes)

We’re changing things up on Bagel Bots. Almost all of the feedback and emails I have gotten have said the same thing, you want more of my story of building a multimillion-dollar business and how I’m using AI and the latest tech to continue scaling the company.

So, we’re going to be more about tech, apps, AI, and automation—not just AI.

🚨 I have an ask: email me things you want to learn or read about. Send an email to [email protected] and let me know what’s on your mind.

Want to connect with me beyond Bagel Bots? You can also connect with me directly on Twitter (X) and LinkedIn. If you’re new here, you can read past posts and subscribe to Bagel Bots to get caught up.

💰 If you’re looking for investors or advisors for your AI product. I’m interested.

🚀 Fresh app of the day - Zapier AI

I have used Zapier for years at my company, and it helps automate so many things. Like what? Here are a few use cases for us:

1. Automate information from Hubspot to Google Sheets to Salesforce (don’t ask, we’re nuts)

2. Send specific new user notifications to Slack

3. Tag our entire company when a new social post goes live

4. More incredible things that our RevOps team does that I don’t even know about because they make it look effortless

BUT, Zapier just launched Zapier AI, and it’s fantastic. Here are some things you can do now

Build Zaps using plain English - Automate your workflows faster by using natural language. Describe what you want to automate, and we'll draft a Zap you can easily customize. Learn how to build Zaps with AI.

Turn a sentence into code - Customize your workflows without writing any code. Describe what you'd like to do, and we'll generate custom code to power your workflows.

Automatically format data with a prompt - Describe what data you need to reformat—like a date, text, or name—and we'll draft the relevant formatter step for you.

🔗 You can read more about the big update here.

💡 Fresh AI and tech news to consume.

🔗 Disney creates task force to explore AI and cut costs

My take: We can get mad at Disney because we are backing the writers and actors in their current strikes, but the fact is that every company on Earth will be doing this. At my company, we have worked hard to incorporate AI instead of adding more headcount.

🔗 Tim Cook says Apple is building AI into ‘every product’ amid questions over its plans

My take: Of course Apple is doing this. Apple constantly catches flack for not being first on specific products or features, but they are damn sure always the best. To be honest, Siri has been, and continues to be, a disappointment.

🔗 Deepfake speech is getting too good, fooling a quarter of listeners in study

My take: This is huge. This is brand new technology, and it’s already confusing a quarter of people in this study. How good do you think the technology will be by the 2024 elections?

🔗 Pony, investor Toyota partner to ‘mass produce’ robotaxis in China

My take: I am pretty tired of hearing about robotaxis and self-driving cars. It’s time for one of these companies to nail the technology. Would you get into a driverless car?

🔗 Zoom launches an asynchronous video tool for the meeting-averse

My take: It sounds like Zoom is coming for Loom. At my company, we use Zoom for meetings internally and with customers and Loom to create internal videos for training and our wiki. Would we start using Zoom for the same purpose since it’s all-in-one? Probably.

🤖 New apps for you to check out this week

Every one of these apps can help you with your company, career, side hustle, or personal project. I recommend diving deep into them all.

• 🔗 Shopify Magic - Discover the magic of growing your business with AI built directly into Shopify

• 🔗 Impel - An always-on AI companion for your Mac that understands the context of your screen, doesn’t need any prompting and surfaces suggestions, information, and actions automatically

• 🔗 Gan.ai - Create millions of personalized videos from one recording

• 🔗 Voiceling - The ultimate AI tool for dubbing and translating videos in any language with just a single click.

• 🔗 Wondercraft - Turn existing content into captivating podcasts, effortlessly

Check these fantastic platforms out, and let me know what you think. Reply to this email or tweet me directly.

✏️ Content creation hack with Unsummary

If you’re reading this newsletter, you’re probably a content creator. Some people create newsletters; some create YouTube videos, tweets (or are those now posts on X?), blog posts, anything. Unsummary is a great web app that allows you to select a person, book, movie, TV show, or anything and get an AI summary written about it.

I just saw Oppenheimer, and I loved it. I wanted to learn more about the man behind the atomic bomb, and I searched for his name in Unsummary. This is what I got:

I could take this interview and add it to a blog post, use it in a YouTube video, or just create a cool Twitter thread with it.

Here is another use case, summaries of podcasts or books. I was curious, does my podcast about veterinary marketing come up on this website? Well, it does!

🔗 Test it out for yourself, and let me know what you think!

💰 Less is more.

I’ve done a great job at making money in my life. I’ve started two companies, exited both, made a bunch of money, invested well for a long time, and set myself up for a great life.

The more money I make, the more I hope to experience new places and upgrade things in my home.

Happiness is not logos or fancy cars; it’s an extra day of a trip, getting the bottle of wine at dinner, or upgrading something in your house that you use daily.