Real talk: I was drowning in my own business.
Three proposals due. Seventeen browser tabs open. Six hours at my desk with maybe forty-five minutes of actual progress. Sound familiar?
That was my Tuesday six months ago. And here's the thing—I'm almost 50. I know AI is taking over the world. I'd even started using a few tools here and there to make my business more efficient. But I kept asking myself: what about me? How do I make myself perform at the top of my game? The tools were getting smarter, but I was still stuck in the same exhausting patterns.
Now? I've tripled my revenue, cut my hours by 30%, and actually take real weekends off. Not "laptop on the couch" weekends. Actual ones.
What changed? I stopped trying to do everything myself and started working with AI instead of against it.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Your competition isn't just other solopreneurs anymore. It's solopreneurs with AI co-pilots who research faster, write better, create more—and still hit the gym.
The gap between people who leverage AI and those who don't is becoming a chasm. Fast.
But here's the good news: you don't need to be a tech genius. You just need seven tools and the willingness to stop doing things the hard way.
The Tools That Changed Everything
ChatGPT or Claude is my always-on chief of staff. Every morning starts with: "Here's my day. What should I prioritize?" It drafts emails, breaks down complex projects, and helps me think through stuck points. Last month it helped me salvage a difficult client relationship in thirty minutes—work that would've taken me hours of anxious journaling.
Perplexity AI became my research department. Need to understand a market? Validate an assumption? Instead of drowning in Google results, I get sourced, synthesized answers in minutes. Last week I researched an entire industry in twenty minutes. Would've taken days before.
Notion AI is where everything lives now. Client notes, random ideas, lessons learned—all searchable and organized. I can ask it to "summarize my notes on email marketing" or turn voice dumps into structured outlines. I'm not just collecting information anymore. I'm actually using it.
Otter.ai records and transcribes everything. Client calls, brainstorms, podcasts I listen to while walking. I'm present in meetings instead of frantically scribbling notes. A client mentioned something from three months ago? Ten seconds of searching and I found it. They thought I had photographic memory. Nope—just better systems.
Midjourney means my brand looks professional without a designer budget. Social graphics, presentation visuals, marketing assets—all created in minutes instead of days of back-and-forth with a freelancer.
Zapier automates the boring stuff. New client signs up? Automatically creates their folder, updates my CRM, sends welcome emails. Invoice paid? Updates my finances and triggers the next project phase. I spent three hours one Saturday setting this up. It's saved hundreds since.
GitHub Copilot (if you build anything) turns "I want to do this" into working code. I'm not a developer, but I've built custom tools that would've cost thousands to outsource.
How It Actually Works Together
My typical day now: Morning strategy chat with Claude. Deep creative work for 2-3 hours where AI handles first drafts. Client calls recorded with Otter. Zapier handles follow-up. Everything captured in Notion. Done by 5 PM.
I'm doing the work of a small team, but I'm not burning out because I'm not doing everything—I'm orchestrating everything.
The Mindset Shift
The hardest part wasn't learning tools. It was letting go of "I do everything myself" as some badge of honor.
AI doesn't have your unique perspective, client relationships, or humanity. What it does is handle the scaffolding so you can focus on architecture. It handles first drafts so you can make them brilliant. It handles repetitive work so you can do remarkable work.
I'm not less creative because I use AI. I'm more creative because I'm not exhausted.
Start Simple
Week 1: Just talk to Claude every morning about your day.
Week 2: Research one thing with Perplexity.
Week 3: Move your notes to Notion.
Week 4: Automate one repetitive task.
That's it. Build from there.
The Real Question
You can keep doing everything manually, wearing exhaustion like a medal.
Or you can finally have bandwidth for what you're actually great at—strategy, creativity, relationships.
The tools are here. They're accessible. They're waiting.
Pick one. Start today. Stop working like it's 2015.
The future isn't coming. It's here. And it's asking: are you coming with?
