I Spent the Weekend Building AI Workflows...

Welcome back to The Intelligent Marketer, where over 14,538 growth-minded founders, agency owners, and marketers go to learn modern marketing strategies.

There’s a question I’ve been asking myself a lot when thinking about building differnet AI workflows and automations:

“What problem does it solve?”

And most of the time, the answer is some version of:

“Well… it’s pretty cool.”

“Cool” is unfortunately not a good business use case.

The Two Extremes

From what I’ve seen, most founders fall into one of two camps.

Camp 1:

“AI is overhyped. We’re not touching it.”

I get the instinct. The human element matters. Strategy matters. Judgment matters.

But pretending this shift isn’t happening? That’s not a strategy either.

The businesses that integrate AI thoughtfully are going to move faster, operate leaner, and serve clients better. That’s just reality.

Then there’s…

Camp 2:

“Automate everything.”

Full agentic workflows.

Dashboards connected to dashboards.

Zapier chains that extend a mile long.

I believe the real opportunity lives somewhere between those extremes.

What We’re Actually Doing at Legacy Builder

As we scale Legacy Builder, I’ve been thinking about this constantly:

Where am I the bottleneck?

What tasks are predictable?

What’s repeatable?

What’s repetitive>

Last weekend, I experimented heavily with Claude Cowork.

And I’ll be honest, you could say it was my “AI moment.”

In just a week’s time, I’ve been able to automate tasks I didn’t think were possible.

Things like:

• Breaking down messy project processes into structured action items

• Drafting entire client content strategies and packages with a simple instruction input

• Entire newsletter workflows for clients weekly

I even created a research bot that sends our COO and I a daily market brief on all the important things we want to keep our eyes on each day (stock market, precious metals, crypto, housing market, etc.).

The Shift: From Using AI to Building With It

Most people are still using AI.

“Write me a caption.”
“Summarize this doc.”
“Give me ideas.”

And I was too (still am for the most part) until this week.

The shift is asking:

How do we build this into the workflow itself?

Instead of:

“Can AI help me create content faster?”

It becomes:

“How does this process run with AI embedded inside it?”

That’s a completely different lens.

When you start thinking that way, you stop playing with tools and start designing systems.

How Jennifer Aniston’s LolaVie brand grew sales 40% with CTV ads

The DTC beauty category is crowded. To break through, Jennifer Aniston’s brand LolaVie, worked with Roku Ads Manager to easily set up, test, and optimize CTV ad creatives. The campaign helped drive a big lift in sales and customer growth, helping LolaVie break through in the crowded beauty category.

Learn more

The Only Two Questions That Matter

Before we automate anything now, I ask:

1. What specific constraint does this remove?

2. How will we measure whether it actually worked?

If we can’t answer both clearly, we don’t build it.

If you’re experimenting with AI right now, here’s my advice:

Start with the constraint and then build backward.

The tech is the last thing you figure out, not the first.

See you next Friday.

– Eric
Intelligent Marketer Newsletter

P.S. Want help building a content engine that consistently generates opportunities for you and your business?

Click the link below to book a discovery call: