{"id":1164,"date":"2020-07-12T10:54:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-12T17:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scot.fun\/damentals\/?p=1164"},"modified":"2020-07-12T10:54:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-12T17:54:04","slug":"entertainment-automation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scot.fun\/damentals\/entertainment-automation\/","title":{"rendered":"Entertainment Automation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Let’s hire robots!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Small business owners have trouble with automation and outsourcing. Let’s talk about automation — setting up systems to run themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entertainment companies are often small-profit-margin organizations who end up competing with larger-margin companies. Eg: a couple friends could go to a play or to a bar. Competing in this way means amusement companies need to get every leg up they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Automation can take the humanity out of entertainment and it can also do the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over-automating<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some people are trying to save themselves all the time in the world. They want everything to be a hands-off system before it’s even a system. They want all the tools to do all the cool things tools do. I can fall victim to this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Symptoms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. You pore over the latest productivity apps trying to find what’s new and next<\/li>
  2. You get dragged into ads that promise an all-in-one package or some efficiency<\/li>
  3. You hate paper <\/li>
  4. You spend time figuring out how to do something for the first time instead of doing it for the first time<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Under-automating<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Some people are stuck doing the tasks that are better done by machines. Machines are good at repetitive things and memorization (storage).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Symptoms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Every task takes your brain<\/li>
    2. You’re using your mind to remember things like schedules, contact info, what you are doing, your goals, etc.<\/li>
    3. Your day to day has many easy tasks<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      This is better use of resources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      I think of time, energy, money, etc as one collective of resources called “jellybeans”<\/a>. Automation might not save you time, but it might save you a lot of decision fatigue, so overall may save you more jelly beans<\/a>. Choosing the wrong automation could cost you jelly beans, so who has the jelly beans to really figure all this out?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Solve the problem at the right time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      If you’re in the “over-automating” category, you might start a project with a perfection<\/a> mindset of “what do I want this to look like at the end and how do I get there the fastest” If you’re in the “under” category, you can probably just jump into something and start going. Then, you keep doing it the same way for the duration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The happy medium is to jump into a project. Start doing the next task. Then, when you know what the project is, and you know what tasks are required, sort thru the process and find repetitive and storage needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      If you go to early, you’re gonna waste too much time trying to solve issues that might not even be issues. You might say “I’m going to need to organize thousands of clients” then you later realize that you get three clients that pay for your year of operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      If you go too late, you could be totally drained, and have let a lot of work that fall aside — the work that only humans can do… the work that humans want from you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Easy evaluation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      The easiest way to assess your automation potential for stuff is to take inventory of your jelly-bean-heavy-tasks (JBHT) and then compare them to the value you provide. See, I’m starting with the tasks, not the tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      • Look at your books and see where you spend all your money<\/strong>. Look at each one to see if there’s an automation solution that will save you money. <\/li>
      • Spend a week or a month tracking all the time<\/strong> you spend on your business. Figure out if there’s automation to save you time, even if it costs you money. <\/li>
      • Look for things that take your energy<\/strong> leave you exhausted. <\/li>
      • Keep a journal for a week and see what burns through your emotional currency <\/strong>where are the headaches, what drives you to a feeling of helplessness? <\/li>
      • There are a lot of other resources you can examine too, like social currency, equipment damage, etc.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        You don’t want to automate your main value. If people come to you because of original thinking, you don’t want a robot to post quotes randomly on your instagram. You want to spend all your jelly beans on sharing original thoughts and ideally automate or outsource everything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        For example Scot Nery’s Boobietrap<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

        The main value we provide is curation, communications, and community. So, even though it takes a lot of time and emotions for a neurotic person like me to go thru act submissions, respond to emails, and write good comedy newsletters; I do it. Co-producer Meranda spends a lot of jelly beans on connecting with people and building the community. These things might feel repetitive, or like they don’t always warrant a human brain, but they do… if we don’t offer them, we don’t have anything proprietary to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Here are some examples of automations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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