There's this lie we tell ourselves as business owners. Maybe you've told it to yourself too.

It goes something like this: "This process is so complex, so nuanced, so uniquely me that no one else could possibly do it. Definitely not AI."

I once believed this lie also. Especially about the processes that felt most founder-coded. You know, the ones that lived entirely in my head, built from years of instinct and hard-won experience.

But here's what I've learned:

If you can walk an intern through it without losing your mind, you can teach it to AI.

Not someday. Not when the technology gets better.

Right now.

The Monday Morning Reality Check

Let me tell you about my Monday mornings.

For the longest time, I spent 90 minutes every single Monday writing my weekly ops update to one of my corporate clients. Ninety minutes of my most productive time, gone. Week after week after week.

I told myself it was necessary. "It's too strategic," I'd think. "Too many judgment calls. Too many moving pieces that only I understand."

The breakthrough came when I got honest about what was actually happening during those 90 minutes. I wasn't doing anything that required supernatural founder intuition. I was following a pattern. A pattern that I'd never bothered to document because it lived so comfortably in my subconscious.

Once I forced myself to break it down, choice by choice and check by check and gut call by gut call, something magical happened. That 90-minute marathon became a 10-minute sprint.

First, I handed the documented process to a human team member. They nailed it.

Then I handed it to AI. Same result.

That's not just time saved. That's founder freedom in action.

Enter the Intern Test

Here's the framework that changed everything for me:

The Intern Test asks one simple question: Could you explain this process to a smart intern without wanting to tear your hair out?

If yes, you can systemize it.

If no, the problem isn't that the process is too complex. It's that you haven't done the work of untangling it yet.

When you can clearly explain:

• What a successful outcome looks like
• What decisions come up along the way
• Where things typically go sideways

You've already reverse-engineered the backbone of a repeatable system. The only enemy standing between you and automation is vagueness.

What works inside your head won't work inside a workflow, not for a new hire, and definitely not for AI.

The Real Work of Ops Elegance

This is where most business owners get it wrong. They think operational excellence means finding the perfect tool or hiring the right person or discovering some productivity hack that changes everything overnight.

But the real work is much quieter than that.

It's sitting down with your most sacred, most "only-I-can-do-this" process and asking uncomfortable questions:

• What am I actually doing here?
• Why am I making this decision this way?
• What would I need to tell someone else for them to get the same result?

It's not glamorous work. There are no shortcuts. But it's the difference between building a business that runs without you and building one that holds you hostage forever.

Most People Won't Do This

Here's the thing: most founders will read this and nod along. They'll think it makes perfect sense. They'll even bookmark it for later.

And then they'll go back to spending 90 minutes on their Monday ritual. They'll keep saying "only I can do this" like it's a badge of honor instead of a bottleneck in disguise.

But Circle members? We untangle it.

Your Assignment This Week

I want you to catch yourself saying "only I can do this" at least once this week. When you do, pause and ask: What would I tell an intern?

If that process takes more than 10 minutes to explain, you've spotted a sinkhole. Email me "Sinkhole Spotted" and I'll celebrate you publicly in Friday's forecast.

Because here's the truth we all need to accept: ops chaos is optional.

You can keep worshipping your bottlenecks, treating every manual process like a sacred ritual that only you can perform.

Or you can start systematizing your genius.

The choice is yours. But the Circle? We've already decided.

Ready to untangle what's been holding your business hostage? The first step is admitting that your "impossible" processes aren't actually impossible—they're just undocumented.