I’ll be honest—sometimes I catch myself firing off a quick “Thanks!” text to a client and convincing myself that counts as staying connected.

Just last week, I replied to three client messages with “Sounds good!” while getting in my afternoon walk. That was my big moment of “connection” for the day. Yikes.

Over the past few months, I’ve been having a lot of conversations with service-based business owners – many of whom are leading a small team, raising teens, and juggling community roles. The common thread? You want to use AI and automation to work more efficiently—but you don’t want to lose the human connection in business that built everything in the first place.”

And you’ve tried. You’ve restructured your calendar, dabbled in time-blocking (again), and maybe even brought on another VA. But the problem isn’t poor planning. It’s the mountain of tasks still sitting on your plate—many of which don’t actually need to be there.

Texting Isn’t Talking

Let’s be real:
Texting isn’t talking.
Emails aren’t engagement.
Zoom calls aren’t the same as grabbing a hot chocolate and laughing over your latest “I can’t believe I did that” story.

AI can absolutely make your business faster and more efficient (I’m all for it!), but it can’t build trust. It can’t replace the connection that comes from an actual conversation with a client, a heart-to-heart with a team member, or a check-in with someone who’s been on your mind.

 

Why Human Connection in Business Leads to Real Growth

These moments matter more than you think.

They help you build loyalty with long-term clients who refer you without being asked.
They help you lead your team with clarity instead of last-minute direction.
And they create space for the kind of deep work that moves the needle—like following up on a warm referral or finally launching that offer you’ve been sitting on.

And for me? That trust has always been built in the small, intentional moments.
The check-ins. The side conversations. The unplanned “just thinking of you” messages.
Those don’t scale easily, but they matter more than almost anything else.

 

So What’s the Fix?

You can’t squeeze “make meaningful connection” into the cracks of an overbooked day. And staying up until midnight catching up on admin just to make space for a quick lunch with a referral partner? That’s not sustainable.

The answer isn’t working harder—it’s delegating smarter.

 

Here’s Where to Start

If you want to free up your time for the parts of your business (and life) that actually fill you up, start with this:

Step 1: Check your Zone of Genius (ZOG) ratio

Track your tasks for a few days and highlight the ones that fall into your Zone of Genius—the work you’re great at, love doing, and that directly moves your business forward.

Are you spending at least 70% of your day there?

If not, it’s time to delegate more. And not just anything—the right things.

Step 2: Delegate from these categories:

  • Recurring Admin Tasks
     (Client follow-ups, invoice reminders, scheduling—you don’t need to do these.)
  • Multi-Step Projects
     (Think: prepping reports, building presentations, formatting content—map it out once and hand it off.)
  • Energy-Drainers
     (That weekly email you dread writing or the spreadsheet you keep “fixing” at 9pm? Yep. Those.)
  • Back-Burner Items
     (The team handbook, CRM clean-up, SOP updates—offload them and finally cross them off.)

Better yet, have your team do the same ZOG check.
 If you’ve got 4 to 8 people supporting you, there’s untapped genius sitting right there. Delegation gets a whole lot easier when you can align what you need to offload with what they are energized to own.

 

This Isn’t About Getting More Done

It’s about reclaiming the space to:

  • Grab a lemonade with a referral partner without feeling guilty
  • Have an unhurried check-in with your team without emails piling up
  • Call a friend on the way to pick up your kid from practice—just because

You’ve built something incredible. Now it’s time to run it in a way that prioritizes human connection in business and actually feels good.

So tell me—when’s the last time you had a real conversation with a client, team member, or friend that didn’t feel rushed or transactional?

Drop it in the comments. I’d love to hear about it.

 

 

 

*Featured image created in Canva*