What your fellow community builders are sharing this week:

🧠 Stop drowning in contradictory advice: Katelin wrote the framework you need for when to say "Yes...and" (ideation mode) vs "No...but" (prioritisation mode). If you're mentally exhausted from conflicting inputs and can't even decide what's for dinner, this one's for you. → Read the full piece

📆 Battle of the Platforms - Circle vs Mighty vs Skool vs Heartbeat: Which platform wins for community building? Join the live debate on 4th Dec where actual community leaders duke it out. Stop guessing, start choosing strategically. → Register for the panel

🗣 Wish you could just talk at your computer and it would actually listen? (Unlike your partner during dinner.) Wispr Flow transcribes your rambling voice memos into clean text so you can stop pretending you'll 'do it later.' → Grab 1 month free!

📣 Calling all creative freelancers: Someone wants your opinion (and it's not a client asking for free work). Lee Bergman is building a coaching program and needs 5 minutes of your brain. → Pay it forward.

🙈 Networking out of Necessity? I'm wrapping up 2025 with this talk at Code & Networking 101 (women only!) next Tuesday, 25th Nov. Stop treating networking like a transaction and start building actual relationships. → Get your spot

I made 12K in two weeks. I also barely slept for two weeks. And afterwards I had no idea when my next paycheck was coming.

This was my life a few months ago. And if I'm being completely honest? I was drowning.

I teach people how to build systems and automate their communities. I help founders create scalable processes. I literally make a living telling people how to work smarter, not harder.

And yet, I had automated myself straight into burnout.

Here's what nobody tells you about automation: it doesn't fix broken boundaries.

I had automated my onboarding. I had automated my content pipeline. I had automated my community engagement flows. I had Zapier connections and Notion databases and agents doing work for me while I slept.

But I was still:

The automation wasn't the problem. I was automating the wrong things.

After hitting rock bottom (and having a very necessary tough-love intervention with my mentors), I realised there are three critical business functions that should never be automated:

No Zapier workflow can tell a client "no, that timeline isn't realistic" on your behalf. No agent can protect your sleep schedule or prevent scope creep.

I learned this the hard way when I kept accepting projects that demanded two-week turnarounds for work that realistically needed six weeks. The money looked good on paper. The burnout was not worth it.

What changed: I started saying no. Not "maybe" or "I'll try." Just no. If a client can't respect a reasonable timeline, they're not my client.

You can automate task management. You can automate progress tracking. You cannot automate the hard work of sitting down with a client and clearly defining what's in scope and what's not.

I was charging $500/month plus hourly for work that had no clear boundaries. Every week brought new "quick requests" that added up to dozens of unbilled hours. I was building resentment with every message.

What changed: I created proper Service Level Agreements for every client. Clear deliverables. Clear timelines. Clear pricing. If it's not in the SLA, it's a new project with a new quote.

This is the big one. You can't automate believing you're worth what you charge.

I was underpricing because deep down, I didn't think I deserved to charge what my work was actually worth. A client once paid me $2000/month, then complained, so I immediately dropped to $500/month. I absorbed the loss and told myself I'd "make it up in volume."

Spoiler: I didn't make it up in volume. I just made less money and worked more hours.

What changed: I started tracking my actual time on projects. When I saw that a "simple community build" took 40 hours, I couldn't lie to myself anymore. I was worth the investment. My expertise was valuable. My time mattered.

Automation is powerful. But it's not a substitute for:

I'm still automating things. But now I'm automating the right things:

But the hard stuff (the boundaries, the scoping, the self-worth) that stays manual. That stays human.

I'm not writing this from the other side of burnout with all my problems solved. I'm writing this from the middle of it, still figuring it out.

But here's what I know now:

Fix the boundaries first. Automate second.

Your 2am self will thank you.

If this resonated with you, you're probably in one of two camps:

1) You're trying to systemise everything but burning out anyway, or

2) You're avoiding systems because you're already overwhelmed.

Either way, let's talk. Drop a reply/comment or send me a message, I'd love to hear you vent about which automation trap you're stuck in.