Chapter 4: Automation That Buys Back Your Time

The question I got most often when I explained my operational setup was always the same: "How do you get all these different tools to talk to each other?"

Bigcommerce for the storefront. Zendesk for customer service. Slack for notifications. PayPal for payments. Mailchimp for email marketing. Trello for task management. Each of these platforms was best-in-class at what it did, but they were built by different companies with no intention of working together.

Getting information from one platform into another meant exports and imports, copy and paste, or worse, manual data entry. Every time I had to manually move information between systems, I was doing work that a computer could handle better.

This wasn't just inefficient. It was stealing time I could have spent on things that actually mattered: responding to customer stories, designing new products, building relationships with the community.

Zapier changed everything. It's automation software that connects different web applications without requiring any code. When something happens in one app (the trigger), it automatically does something in another app (the action). These connections, called Zaps, became the invisible infrastructure that freed me from routine work.

Without Zapier, or something like it, I would have drowned in administrative tasks instead of building a brand people loved.

The First Automation That Changed Everything

My first Zap was simple: when someone placed an order in Bigcommerce, send a notification to Slack.

Before this automation, I had to log into Bigcommerce multiple times per day to check if orders had come in. It was like checking your mailbox obsessively, never knowing if there was something waiting for you.

After setting up the Zap, orders appeared in Slack the moment they happened. I could see them in real-time without checking anything. The notification would show me who ordered, what they bought, where they were located, and how much they spent.

This single automation saved me maybe five minutes per day. That's not much. But here's what it actually gave me: freedom from checking.

I wasn't constantly wondering if orders were coming in. I wasn't interrupting other work to log into the platform "just to check." I could focus on donor meetings, program planning, strategic work, knowing that if an order came through, I'd see it immediately.

That mental freedom was worth more than the five minutes saved.

Automations That Protected Relationships

Some of the most valuable automations weren't about saving time. They were about making sure nothing fell through the cracks with customers.

When someone emailed support@stupidcancer.org, a Zap would create a ticket in Zendesk and post a notification to Slack. This meant I'd see every customer inquiry within minutes, even if I wasn't checking email.

Why did this matter? Because sometimes people reached out with urgent questions or emotional stories. Someone might email asking if we could rush ship a shirt because their friend was starting treatment next week. Someone might share that they wore our shirt to a doctor's appointment and it helped them feel brave.

These moments required human response, not automated replies. But I could only respond if I actually saw them. The automation made sure I never missed an opportunity to connect with someone when it mattered.

Another automation: when someone left a five-star review, it would post to our #community-love channel in Slack. I'd see it immediately and could respond personally within minutes. Quick responses to positive feedback reinforced those relationships and often turned happy customers into vocal advocates.

The automation wasn't doing the relationship-building work. It was making sure I never missed the opportunity to do that work myself.

Buying Back Time for Creative Work

The most impactful automations were the ones that eliminated repetitive work entirely, giving me time back for the creative parts of running the store.

When inventory for a popular item dropped below a certain threshold, a Zap would create a task in Trello reminding me to reorder from the printer. Before this automation, I'd occasionally realize we were out of stock only after someone tried to order something we didn't have. The automation caught the issue before it became a problem.

But the real value wasn't preventing stockouts. It was freeing me from having to manually monitor inventory levels. I could spend that mental energy on designing new products, surveying the community about what they wanted next, or improving existing designs.

When someone completed a purchase, a Zap would automatically add them to our Mailchimp list (with proper permissions, of course). No manual imports. No spreadsheet exports. The customer joined our email community immediately, and I could focus on writing compelling email content instead of managing lists.

When a customer service ticket was marked as "resolved" in Zendesk, a Zap would send a follow-up survey asking about their experience. This feedback loop helped us improve without requiring me to manually track satisfaction or remember to ask for feedback.

Each of these automations saved anywhere from five to thirty minutes per occurrence. Individually, they were small wins. But they compounded. Together, they bought back hours every week—hours I could spend on the work that actually built the brand.

The Difference Between Busy and Productive

Before automation, I was constantly busy. Checking platforms. Moving data. Updating spreadsheets. Creating tasks. Sending notifications. It felt like work because it took time and effort.

But it wasn't productive work. It was work that kept the machine running without actually moving the business forward.

After building out a library of automations, I was less busy but more productive. The routine work happened automatically. The information I needed appeared where I needed it. The follow-ups happened on schedule. And I could focus my limited time and energy on the work that required human judgment, creativity, and relationship building.

This is the fundamental shift that automation enables: from operator as executor to operator as orchestrator.

I wasn't checking twenty things per day. I wasn't manually moving information between systems. I wasn't setting reminders to follow up on tasks that could be handled automatically.

I was responding to customer stories. Designing new products. Building partnerships. Creating content. Strengthening the community.

These activities couldn't be automated. But they also couldn't happen if I was buried in routine work.

What This Freed Me to Build

With automation handling the routine, I had mental space and time for the work that actually mattered:

Customer conversations that shaped products. When Jessica emailed about extended sizing, I had time to have a real conversation with her instead of rushing through responses. That conversation led to expanding our size range, which opened up a whole new segment of customers.

Community surveys and pre-orders. I could invest time in designing surveys to ask the community what they wanted, analyzing responses, and creating pre-order campaigns to validate demand before committing to inventory. None of this would have been possible if I was drowning in administrative work.

Design iterations with 99Designs. Working with designers to create new products took time and attention. I needed to review submissions, provide feedback, run community polls to get input, and refine designs based on what resonated. Automation freed me to invest in this creative process.

Thoughtful email marketing. Instead of just blasting promotional emails, I could write content that told stories, shared updates about our mission, and made customers feel connected to something bigger than a transaction. This kind of writing requires focus, and focus requires time.

Relationship building with suppliers. Conversations with printers about quality, turnaround times, and pricing needed attention and follow-through. Automation handled the routine communications so I could focus on the strategic relationships.

The store didn't succeed because I was working harder than anyone else. It succeeded because automation freed me to work on the things that couldn't be automated.

The Investment That Keeps Paying

Zapier cost about $50 per month for the plan I needed to run all my automations. That's $600 per year.

Even if each automation only saved me fifteen minutes per day—which is conservative—that's over 90 hours per year bought back. At even a modest valuation of my time, the ROI was enormous.

But the real value wasn't just the time saved. It was what I could build with that time. The products I could create. The relationships I could strengthen. The community I could serve better.

Automation didn't just make me more efficient. It made the entire operation more human. Because I wasn't grinding through routine tasks, I could show up as a human being in the moments that required one.

Modern Alternatives and Transferability

Zapier still exists and is more powerful now than it was when I used it. But it's not the only option anymore. Make, n8n, and dozens of other automation platforms offer similar capabilities. Some ecommerce platforms now have better native integrations that reduce the need for middleware.

The specific tools will continue evolving. But the principle remains constant: automate the routine so you can focus on the exceptional.

Every hour you spend setting up automation returns time to you continuously. A workflow that saves you ten minutes per day saves you 60 hours per year. Over multiple years, that's hundreds of hours returned.

But more importantly, automation creates consistency. Manual processes fail when you're tired, distracted, or overwhelmed. Automated processes run the same way every time. They don't forget. They don't make mistakes. They don't need motivation.

This reliability doesn't just save time. It protects relationships, prevents problems, and creates space for the work that actually matters.

What Gets Automated, What Stays Human

Not everything should be automated. Some work requires human judgment, creativity, or emotional intelligence. That's the work you need to protect time for.

Automate the routine: creating tickets, adding customers to lists, posting notifications, generating restocking tasks.

Protect time for the exceptional: responding to customer stories, designing new products, making strategic decisions, writing content that resonates.

When I left Stupid Cancer in 2016, the automations I'd built kept running for months. They maintained the operation even without me. But eventually, without someone who understood the systems and could evolve them, the store couldn't sustain itself.

That's the lesson: automation creates leverage, not independence. It amplifies what an operator can accomplish. It buys you time, but what you do with that time determines everything.

Automation freed me to build a brand people loved. It freed me to listen to the community and create products they wanted. It freed me to show up as a human being in the moments that required one.

That's what good automation does. It doesn't replace you. It frees you to do your best work.