Let Tech Take the Wheel: How Automation Became My Ultimate Delegation Tool
Written by: Ellyn Schinke
There was a time not that long ago when I truly believed that if I wasn’t doing everything myself, I wasn’t doing it right. Solopreneur life meant wearing every hat.
Every task, every client follow-up, every post, every launch? That was me—strong-arming my way through chaos and calling it “dedication.”
Spoiler alert: It was burnout dressed up in productivity drag.
And the shift? It didn’t happen because I finally found the “right” planner or magically developed more discipline. It happened when I stopped seeing automation as a cheat code—and started seeing it as a love language.
Why We Avoid Automation (Even When We Know Better)
Let’s talk about the resistance. Because I see you, fellow control freak. We avoid automating or delegating not because we’re lazy—but because:
We don’t trust tech to do it “right.”
We think systems are a luxury we’ll build “later.”
We associate ease with laziness (ouch).
But if you’re still manually sending every contract, customizing every email, and reinventing every launch from scratch—you’re not being thorough. You’re being drained.
Delegation doesn’t have to mean hiring a team. It can mean programming your tech stack to support you. And in the messy middle of solopreneurship, that’s more than good enough—it’s textbook “work smarter, not harder.”
Why Hiring Felt Impossible—and Automation Was the Lifeline
Let’s be real for a second. Hiring didn’t just feel out of reach—it felt terrifying. Financially, I wasn’t in a place where I could bring someone onto payroll without sacrificing other parts of my life or business. Emotionally? I was still holding onto the belief that if I didn’t do it all myself, it wasn’t done “right.”
So I delegated the only way I could: through tech.
I didn’t build a team—I automated one.
Automation Is Delegation
Let me paint you a before-and-after:
Before:
I spent 1–2 hours per client manually onboarding: customizing coaching agreements, sending payment links, building out their portal, coordinating scheduling.
Follow-ups lived in a notebook and often got lost in the shuffle.
Every call type had a different workflow I repeated by hand.
After:
A client pays → They automatically receive their contract, welcome packet, portal, AND welcome email.
Podcast guests, strategy sessions, VIP days? Each one has a fully-automated onboarding form that gathers bios, headshots, goals, and more.
All call types now have backend forms that collect exactly what I need before we meet.
That’s not just smart—it’s sustainable.
My Tech Stack = My Team
Here’s a peek into the delegation-through-tech toolbox that keeps my business moving:
Notion™ → The backbone of my business. It runs my recurring task system, houses my client and content dashboards, prompts follow-ups, and supports my themed CEO schedule. Every day, I open one dashboard and know exactly what I need to do.
Acuity Scheduling (built into my website) → No back-and-forth. All call types are pre-loaded with forms, follow-ups, and confirmation emails.
Zapier → It makes everything talk to each other. Payments trigger onboarding. Form completions update client files. I don’t touch a thing.
ChatGPT → My AI dream team. I’ve built a full C-suite: CMO Chelsea, CFO Charlie, COO Cass. They brainstorm, draft, strategize, and call me out when I’m avoiding what matters.
Each one is more than a tool—they’re teammates. And if I had tried to replicate this with human hires early on? I would’ve gone broke and burned out.
The Emotional Shift: It’s Not “Cheating”—It’s Survival
Rationally, we know burnout isn’t a badge of honor. We didn’t start our businesses to run ourselves into the ground. We started them for freedom. But culture—and the hustle myth it fed us—had us convinced that exhaustion equals commitment.
We internalized this idea that strong-arming our way through every to-do was the cost of success. That if systems made things easier, we were somehow doing it “wrong.”
Here’s the truth: ease isn’t cheating—it’s choosing to protect your energy for what matters.
The day I let my systems run without micromanaging them? That was the day I started breathing again.
Tangible Tech Wins: 5 Easy Ways to Start Delegating Today
If the idea of “building automations” makes your brain freeze, don’t worry—I’ve got you. Start here:
Automate Your Scheduling: Use Acuity (or Calendly). Embed it on your website. Add pre-call forms. Done.
Create Onboarding Forms: For every service. Include bios, headshots, goals, preferences—so you have what you need before the call.
Build a Recurring Task System: Use Notion to auto-populate your weekly priorities, daily routines, and follow-up prompts.
Train a Custom GPT: Yes, you can literally build a Custom GPT with your tone, workflows, and preferences baked in. I use them daily.
Use Zapier to Eliminate Repetition: Start small. Automate contract delivery after payment. Sync form entries with your CRM.
You don’t have to start with everything. You just have to start with something.
Your systems aren’t supposed to impress anyone—they’re supposed to support YOU.
Let tech do the busywork so you can do the big work.
Let automation hold the details so you can hold the vision.
And if you’re still telling yourself you’ll build better systems later? Remember: Later isn’t a strategy.
Start with one workflow. One template. One click that saves you five.
Because delegation doesn’t start with hiring. It starts with deciding you deserve to be supported.
✨ You’ve got this.
Ellyn Schinke is a former scientist turned burnout coach and the founder of Coach Ellyn LLC. She helps solopreneurs create burnout-proof businesses through sustainable systems, automation, and AI integration. Learn more about her work (and take her signature burnout audit!) at coachellyn.com.
Website: coachellyn.com
Instagram: @coachellyn
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