The Smart Marketer’s Guide to Streamlining Work with AI

Wondering where you should begin using AI in your work? Are you overwhelmed by the number of AI tools available and unsure which to try?

In this article, you'll discover a practical framework for prioritizing where to use AI and finding the right solutions to streamline your business processes.

Why You Need a System for Applying AI to Your Work

Adopting AI remains challenging for many marketers and entrepreneurs. According to Rick Mulready, that's because most people approach AI implementation backward.

They start with, “What can I do with ChatGPT?” rather than, “I want to solve this business problem. What's the best AI tool to help me?”

Additionally, the sheer volume of tools and features released on a regular basis makes many marketers feel like they're drinking from a fire hose, so they freeze instead of taking action.

The solution? A structured framework that helps you move from overwhelm to implementation.

The 5-Step AI Implementation Framework

Mulready has developed a systematic approach to help marketers and entrepreneurs intelligently incorporate AI into their workflows. Let's explore each phase of this framework.

#1: Audit How You Spend Your Time

The first step—and admittedly the one nobody likes to do, is conducting a thorough audit of how you spend your time.

This audit serves multiple purposes. First, it creates awareness about how you're actually spending your time versus how you think you're spending it. Second, it helps identify patterns and repetitive tasks that might be candidates for AI enhancement. Third, it helps you recognize which tasks you enjoy (and might want to keep doing yourself) versus those you'd gladly hand off to AI.

The best solution for recording this data is the one you'll use. If you prefer analog methods, a simple notebook works. You can also use a spreadsheet, an app, or software already used in your business.

You'll need to document:

What: Whether you're creating content, holding coaching calls, or handling administrative tasks, record everything to get an accurate picture of where your time goes. Just track what you do on a day-to-day basis. The important thing is to track your time over five to seven standard business days.

Time: Mulready recommends a free app called Clockify for tracking time, which has desktop, mobile, and Chrome extension versions.

Energy: How do you feel about this task and the time you spend on it? Do you hate doing it? Does it drain your energy? Or do you enjoy this task? Does it lift your energy up? Keeping track of these insights will be helpful down the line. To quantify energy ratings, you can use a simple 1-4 scale where 1 represents tasks that drain your energy, and 4 represents tasks that energize you. This additional data layer will be valuable when deciding which tasks to prioritize for AI enhancement.

Value: Mulready recommends using a concept from Perry Marshall's 80/20 Sales and Marketing book, which involves assigning dollar values to your tasks. Loading emails into your CRM might be a “$10 per hour” task, copywriting might be a “$100 per hour” task, and working on business strategy might be a “$10k per hour” task. $10k tasks are worth your personal attention versus $10 or $100 tasks which could be delegated to AI.

#2: Prioritize and Plan Your AI Implementation by Task

The next step is prioritizing which tasks to tackle first with AI. When prioritizing, look for low-value tasks that:

• Are repetitive (occurring weekly or monthly)
• Take significant time
• Don't energize you

For example, Mulready's weekly newsletter takes a good five hours of his time and drains his energy, making it a perfect candidate for implementing AI.

Pro Tip: AI can help with the prioritization process if you upload your audit data.

For example, you can take pictures of handwritten notes or your spreadsheet with your phone and upload them to ChatGPT, then prompt it with:

This is a time audit of my time over the past 5 business days. I want to prioritize what you're seeing in these images in terms of where I can use AI to simplify my work. Based on these tasks that I regularly perform, I want you to help me create a prioritized list of where you think I should begin implementing AI.

Alternatively, you can upload a CSV file from your time-tracking tool or use Gemini 2.0's real-time screen-sharing capability.

#3: Deconstruct Your Task

Once you've identified your top priority task, it's time to break it down into constituent parts. This approach allows you to target AI implementation at key points in the process rather than trying to automate the entire process at once.

For instance, if you're creating a podcast or YouTube video, the process isn't simply “create content.” The smaller steps include topic ideation, outlining, scripting, recording, editing, and publishing. Breaking the process down will let you decide where AI can help you most.

#4: Identify AI Tools and Test Implementation

Now that you know what you want AI to help you with, it's time to compare and experiment with different AI tools to find the best fit for each specific task.

To simplify AI model comparison, Mulready recommends ChatHub. This service allows you to simultaneously give the same prompt to multiple AI models and compare their outputs side-by-side, making it much easier to determine which AI solution gives you the best results for a specific type of task.

Once you've chosen a tool, you can move on to building and testing workflows or automation with tools like Make, Zapier, or Mulready's favorite, MindPal. For example, he used MindPal to built a workflow that does research for his newsletter and then prompts him to choose the story he likes best. After he chooses, automation moves the workflow on to the next step.

Suggested Tools for Use Cases

Mulready shared which tools he uses for specific use cases:

• For brainstorming, ideating on things, fleshing out ideas, and creating outlines, he uses ChatGPT.
• For data analysis, especially on large data sets, he prefers using Gemini within Google AI Studio because the context window is so large.
• For writing emails, sales page copy, email sequences, and any other content, he likes Claude but is also experimenting with Lex.
• To create a single topical knowledge base from multiple sources—Google Docs, Google Slides, URLs, YouTube videos, audio files, and text, he uses NotebookLM.

Manage Your Expectations

Many people hesitate to start because they want the perfect prompt or implementation from day one. But that's not how working with AI plays out. You have to be willing to start and then continue to test and iterate what you're trying to accomplish.

It's not an overnight process. It requires consistent effort and experimentation. “Give yourself permission for it not to work the first five times you try something,” Mulready advises.

Set It and Forget It… For a Little While

Remember that testing isn't a one-time event. AI models are emerging, evolving, and improving constantly, so you have to periodically compare what you're using now to what comes next. A perfect example is ChatGPT. Mulready notes that the GPT-4o model “is so much better than 4.0, and most people don't even know it.”

#5: Document and Delegate the Process

Once you've established an effective AI-enhanced workflow for your priority task, it's time to document the process and potentially delegate it to someone on your team.

After you've dialed in the process and you're getting good results, you can teach somebody on your team to take over the process. This delegation frees you to move to the next item on your prioritized list and start the planning process again.

For effective knowledge transfer, Mulready recommends this process:

1. Record a screencast of you going through the process; Mulready prefers Loom for this step because it has an SOP option that translates what's happening on the screen into a very well-written SOP.
2. Walk through the process with the person as you execute it.
3. Have them demonstrate the process while you're on the call. 

With this process, they have a recording of you to reference, a written SOP, and a recording of themselves to follow along with.

Bonus: Audit Your Progress Quarterly

An often-overlooked benefit of this framework is the ability to measure the impact of implementing AI over time. Mulready recommends repeating the time audit quarterly. This periodic assessment allows you to quantify the time savings and productivity improvements from your AI implementation efforts, reinforcing the value of the process.

Other Notes From This Episode

• Connect with Michael Stelzner @Stelzner on Facebook and @Mike_Stelzner on X.
• Watch this interview and other exclusive content from Social Media Examiner on YouTube.

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✋🏽 If you enjoyed this episode of the AI Explored podcast, please head over to Apple Podcasts, leave a rating, write a review, and subscribe.

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