🔥 Automate it like it’s hot

🧠 It’s 94 degrees, your brain has melted into a popsicle, and you just typed “per my last email” to your dog walker. Decision fatigue? You’re not alone. The inbox is full...And your calendar just scheduled a 7am meeting on your day off.

This week, we’re skipping the productivity guilt spiral to automate your most annoying tasks with free or nearly-free AI tools. No Zapier chains. No code. Just smart defaults and better habits. (3-minute read)

🔦 Week’s highlights

• Sherpa’s Shortcuts: One-click Chrome trick to save and organize research

• Tool Spotlight: Fireflies.ai and Tella automate meetings and client updates

• Sherpa’s Pack: Grab a free (and simplified) ChatGPT prompt sheet

• The Ridgeline news: Client drama? Solved. Inbox mess? Handled.

• 😜 Tools Gone Wild: Sales soar after AI micromanages a family bakery.

🪓 Sherpa’s shortcuts

Sherpa-approved hacks to multiply your output without multiplying your effort.

⚡ Hack #1: Schedule a week of posts in one sitting

Problem: You know you should post something this week, but your ideas are scattered across Docs, and whatever’s open in tab #47.
Solution: Use a Notion content calendar (or your notes app) to plan and batch-schedule posts with Buffer’s free plan (up to 10 posts). Handle a full week in 15 minutes.

How to:

1. Tap your notes app or duplicate Notion’s Social Media Calendar template

2. Pen 5–10 posts for the week, pulling from saved ideas or past wins

3. Copy/paste them into the Buffer app (10 posts max)

4. Schedule your posts, then go sip something iced

Setup time: 10–15 minutes
💡 Bonus tip: Keep a “Greatest Hits” section in Notion for evergreen posts.

👉 Try Buffer for free: https://buffer.com

⚡ Hack #2: One-click save of quotes, stats, and URLs

Problem: You find a brilliant stat, quote, or client example, then lose it somewhere between three half-finished docs.
Solution: Tap the free Google Keep Chrome extension to save content from any page (including the source link. It’s like clipping web gold straight into your brain’s inbox.

How to set it up:

1. Install the free Google Keep Chrome Extension

2. Highlight any quote, stat, or insight

3. Right-click ➜ Save selection to Keep

4. Your saved note includes the text and the URL

5. In Google Docs later, just type @keep to pull it in directly

Setup time: 2 minutes
💡Bonus tip: Use tags in Keep like (client ideas, portfolio, or testimonials) to sort notes automatically.

👉 Get the Google Keep extension:

AI Tool Spotlight

Tool Sherpa explores the flood of new AI apps and carefully selects only proven tools.

🔍 Fireflies ai: Smart notes, zero effort

Why it matters:
Fireflies shows up to every meeting like a polite little spy with a steel-trap memory. It records, transcribes, pulls action items, then sends a recap before you’ve even opened Slack. No more scribbling notes, rewatching Zoom recordings, or pretending you remember what Karen said about Q3.

Best use case:
Turn Zoom chats into task lists without taking notes. Fireflies highlights what matters, organizes by speaker, so you don’t miss anything.

Who should use this:

• Freelancers who leave meetings with 10 open tabs and no memory

• Small teams juggling clients, tasks, and too many calls

• Anyone who wants clean, searchable notes

Pros:
Connects to your calendar, records and summarizes calls, and sends follow-ups to tools like Slack, Notion, and Asana. Can save 1–2 hours weekly after 5-minute setup.

Cons:
Not a full project manager. And yes, it will quote you back when you said “let’s circle back.”

Pricing:
Free plan available. Paid starts at $10/month per user.
👉 Try Fireflies.ai for free

🔍 Tella: Skip the meeting, send the video

Why it matters:
Tella makes it dead simple to record and share polished videos for clients—without hopping on a call, opening five tools, or accidentally showing your 37 Chrome tabs. Think: screen + face, branded and edited in minutes (minus the small talk).

Best use case:
Dispatch personalized updates, walkthroughs, or quick how-tos without booking a Zoom. Record once and still look like you put in effort. (Also great for Webinars, tutorials, and demos).

Who should use this:

• Freelancers who explain things visually but hate meetings

• Designers, developers, and marketers who do better with “show, don’t tell”

• Anyone tired of typing long emails with six screenshots

Pros:
Tella runs in your browser, works fast, and feels like Loom (with a branding coach and better lighting). You can easily record, trim, and style a client-ready video in under 10 minutes from your computer screen.

Cons:
No AI summarizer available (yet), so your message still depends on you being clear. Also: if you’re deeply camera-averse, ease in with screen-only mode.

Pricing:
Free plan available (watermarked videos). Paid starts at $19/month.
👉 See Tella in action:

🎒Sherpa’s Pack

Freebies to help freelancers gain an edge

Want better results from ChatGPT (or your favorite AI) without learning “prompt engineering”? Tool Sherpa recommends this simpler, easy-to-follow guide on how to write clearer, faster prompts that get results. (Thank you Ruben Hassid!)

👉 Download the free PDF here.

The Ridgeline 🏔️

News on how AI is rewriting the rules for solopreneurs and small teams. Let’s trek:

Let’s trek:

🔮 Freelancers are now psychic: AI is helping freelancers spot client issues before they happen with less drama, more “I told you so” energy. 🔗 See into the future

📬 Inbox, healed by Gemini: Google's Gemini cleaned up a chaotic inbox with no filters, no folders, just bliss. 🔗 Detox your inbox

👩‍💻 Freelancers earning more with AI: Some freelancers using AI tools are pulling in higher rates and better gigs. Work smart, get paid. 🔗 Boost your bank

💰 Women turning Substack into 7-figure empires: No clickbait, just cash: women-led newsletters are stacking revenue with smarts and style. 🔗 Meet the millionaire makers

📩 Make your CTAs irresistible: The experts say it’s not what you say, it’s how you say “click.” Your links deserve better. 🔗 Level up your CTAs

🤑 Trillionaire? AI’s making it possible:
Mark Cuban says AI will crown the first trillionaire. Big dreams, small teams—just your kind of odds. 🔗 Chase the trillion

🎥 Final Sip:
Inbox peace, intuitive pitching, newsletter empires…if you’re freelancing in 2025, AI’s not just a tool, it’s your unfair advantage.

###

Tools gone wild! (Success edition) 😜

Let’s end with a laugh — when AI tools take a detour off the happy path.

AI forecasting: now with flaky crusts

Juici Patties, a small family-run bakery in Jamaica, handed AI the keys to its sales records, weather forecasts, and local event calendars. The algorithm quickly started bossing everyone around: "Open earlier on market days," it nagged. "There’s a reggae fest coming up. Start baking now," it warned.

Despite the bossiness, it was right. Sales spiked. Lines disappeared. Suddenly, the cozy bakery was succeeding big time without MBA consultants.

📌Lesson learned: Likewise, freelancers don’t necessarily need more tools, just better signals. Tap AI to sort out which pitches land, which posts convert, and where to double down.

🧭 What’s Next?

Next week: smarter automations, proven tools, and a freelance inbox you’ll actually open. Want in? Join thousands of freelancers who found the AI shortcut they didn’t know existed. 👉 Subscribe now (it’s free).

—Your Sherpa team 🏔️