Small Business Growth Tools | Sales, Marketing and Mindset Strategies for Christian Women in Local Business · Lindsay Fletcher | Christian Entrepreneur | Sales & Relationship Marketing Coach for Local Small Business

85. How to Use Automation & AI in Your Small Business with Brittni Schroeder

September 16, 2025·36 min·2 clips

Brittni says email lists are owned media, while social media is "so unpredictable."

1. How to Grow My Small Business episode 85 focuses on automation, AI, sales funnels, and email marketing for local business owners. 2. Host Brittni Schroeder-Ahn is introduced as a business coach and marketing strategist who helps entrepreneurs automate, build sales funnels, and scale their businesses. 3. The episode asks what automation should be set up first, and Brittni's answer is to build systems that protect time, improve client experience, and reduce burnout. 4. Brittni says small businesses fail for two reasons: they do not grow fast enough, or they grow too fast and lose their integrity. 5. She identifies onboarding as one of the first automations to create, because a client needs a welcome packet, a payment option, and clear next steps after saying yes. 6. Her own onboarding system includes an invoice, a choice between paying in full or on a payment plan, and an email sequence that explains how clients can reach her and book appointments. 7. She also uses an offboarding sequence that can ask for a second three-month contract, offer an upsell or downsell, and request a review at the end. 8. Brittni links poor communication to client frustration by recalling a pool project in Houston during COVID and a final $10,000 payment that had not yet been made. 9. She says appointment reminders are another key automation, and she uses Acuity to send customized emails, reminders, and cancellation prompts. 10. She explains that if a business keeps asking the same questions, such as what to wear for a photography session or how to schedule a session, that process should be automated. 11. Brittni says a virtual assistant should not spend 20 hours a week tracking down bios, headshots, or follow-ups when SOPs and automations can handle that work. 12. She uses Airtable as a database and sends her assistant an email when a blog or podcast is ready to schedule. 13. The conversation then moves to funnels, and Brittni says funnels are the marketing and sales team that grows an email list. 14. She argues that social media is "so unpredictable," while an email list is something a business owns and can use directly. 15. Brittni describes a funnel for a local pool company where a free consultation leads to an immediate scheduling email, an about-me email, expertise emails, testimonials, and a call to action. 16. She says local businesses like real estate agents can use lead magnets and email sequences to provide value, such as sharing "what's going on around town" for families with young kids. 17. Brittni says AI should be treated as a helper and starting point, not a replacement, and she warns that robotic phrasing can make ChatGPT writing obvious. 18. She describes using ChatGPT to draft 200-word emails from a blog post, Dropbox to transcribe podcast audio, and Canva's image tools to generate custom visuals like straw-themed graphics. 19. The episode feels like a practical coaching session, with the host prompting examples from local service businesses and Brittni answering in step-by-step language. 20. Listeners who run local service businesses and want time-saving systems will benefit most, while people looking for entertainment or deep theory may skip it.

As heard by us

Automation comes across as a practical time-saver that trims back-and-forth and no-shows.

This episode treats automation as plain relief for entrepreneurs, not as a shiny upgrade. It keeps circling one simple point: when a task keeps chewing up time, it is also chewing up money.

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Why you'd press play

Your calendar should not run your business.

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