But that doesn’t scale, does it?

Automation can be a great thing. In a way, it’s the reason you’re reading this right now instead of me having to come over to your house to tell you in person. There are databases, algorithms, feeds, and various other things that help get this post out there.

That said, I’ve been clear over the years that automation isn’t always the answer and it can lead to truly awful results. Authenticity always wins.

That’s not to say there isn’t a case for some automation in your life, but the more you can intentionally do things that can’t scale, the better you’ll look.

On an episode of “The Long and The Short of It” podcast ( episode 811), Pete and Jen said it perfectly:

“Things that don’t scale make people feel seen”

Anyone can click the “happy birthday to x” button on Facebook, but a quick hand-written card is 1,000 times more appreciated. Things you do that aren’t scalable are often the most valuable.

Invoices

One interesting topic related to this is invoicing clients. Pete has relatively few clients, so he always sends a personal message with each manually-sent invoice. Jen, on the other hand, has a ton of small invoices to send and simply has no choice but to automate most of them. Both of their takes on this are valid.