Embracing Systems and AI Without Losing the Human Touch in Coaching

In our ever-evolving world, the rise of AI and automated systems often brings up big questions—especially for coaches. In a recent conversation with Ryan Brazzell, founder of Assistant Launch, we dove into the reality of managing time, leveraging technology, and staying authentic as coaches in an increasingly automated world.

Ryan shared a story that frames his philosophy on efficiency: when tasked with yard work as a kid, he creatively used a go-kart to haul sticks in one trip, saving hours.

This “efficiency-first” mindset drove his journey into systems design and inspired his company, which helps entrepreneurs regain precious time by combining people, processes, and technology.

For Ryan, efficiency isn't just about doing more in less time. It's about creating more space for what truly matters. “I have the number of hours in an average human life tattooed on my chest,” he said, underlining the core of his work. “It’s all about buying back time to focus on what we love and do best.”

Going Pro as a Coach: Systems are Your Friend, Not Your Brand

Our conversation also touched on a crucial element that resonates with all coaches: blending efficiency with authenticity. We’ve all seen that over-relying on systems can drain creativity and humanity from our work.

Ryan mentioned how he consciously shifted his approach, integrating more of the "people side" to avoid becoming just a systems guru. This way, he could focus on relationships and impactful coaching without getting bogged down in automated routines.

Systems can actually make it easier to bring authenticity to our client relationships—when done right. In my coaching practice, I use systems that help me follow up consistently, but I don’t rely solely on cold, transactional automations. Instead, I bring in the warmth and connection that make clients feel seen and valued.

How AI is Changing the Game (And Why You Should Embrace It)

AI might feel overwhelming, even threatening, to some of us. I’ll admit that when it first came onto the scene, I worried if AI might make coaches less relevant. But as Ryan emphasized, this technology is here to stay, and those of us who embrace it have a significant edge.

Ryan explained how he uses AI to streamline personalized proposals for clients—without sacrificing the personal touch. His team extracts key insights from each client conversation, using AI to generate proposals tailored to the client’s unique needs, followed by a thoughtful sequence of personalized emails.

The result? A 33% increase in conversion rates. Ryan’s system doesn’t replace human connection; instead, it enhances it by freeing up time to focus on genuine interaction.

Many coaches worry that AI is too cold or impersonal. But Ryan and I both believe that when used thoughtfully, AI tools can actually deepen client relationships. In fact, I use AI as a brainstorming partner to spark new ideas and strategies, saving time on repetitive tasks. By viewing AI as an ally, I’ve been able to expand my impact and focus on what truly matters: guiding my clients toward transformation.

3 Ways Coaches Can Stand Out in the Age of Automation

Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Ryan what it takes for a coach to truly excel—and to avoid becoming a “cookie-cutter” coach. Here’s his advice for coaches looking to stand out and make a real difference:

1. Hold Clients to a Higher Standard: Great coaches don’t settle. They see potential in their clients and hold them accountable to achieving it. Clients want to be challenged and feel that they’re growing. Show them you’re invested in their highest potential.

2. Be Clear on Your Unique Value: The best coaches know what they bring to the table and communicate it with confidence. Ryan mentioned how mentors like Dan Martell stand out because they’re unabashedly themselves. Your unique approach and vulnerability are assets. Be real, and clients will connect with that.

3. Run Your Coaching Practice Like a Pro: Many gifted coaches have powerful insights but struggle with business fundamentals. If your backend is a mess—if you’re not tracking payments, handling follow-ups, or automating basic tasks—you’re limiting your reach. A well-run business supports better coaching outcomes, period.

Taking the Next Step

As coaches, we have a choice. We can let technology and systems work for us, freeing our time to focus on the personal, powerful connections that drive client success.

Or we can resist these tools and potentially fall behind. The key is to use systems and AI as tools, not substitutes, for genuine human interaction.

Whether you’re already experimenting with AI or feeling cautious, know this: the human element of coaching will always be indispensable. People crave connection and guidance from real humans.

Technology is simply a way to enhance that connection by freeing us from tasks that can be automated, so we can double down on the work that only we can do.

If you’re ready to reclaim your time, embrace systems that support your authenticity, and make AI your new ally, you’re already on the path to coaching excellence.

Connect with Ryan

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanbrazzell

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Timestamps for Quick Navigation:

0:00 – Introduction: The power of systems in coaching with guest Ryan Brazzell

1:00 – Ryan’s journey: From efficiency-obsessed kid to systems expert

3:12 – Why time is at the core of Ryan’s work (and how it shapes his company)

4:45 – Balancing systems and human connection in client relationships

7:30 – The AI revolution: What coaches need to know about AI in business

10:00 – Creating personalized, AI-driven proposals that feel authentic

12:11 – How AI can streamline follow-up communication and increase conversions

14:30 – Embracing AI in coaching without sacrificing authenticity

16:47 – Top 3 essentials for coaches who want to stand out:

• 17:00 – #1: Hold clients to a higher standard and support their growth

• 18:15 – #2: Understand and communicate your unique value

• 19:10 – #3: Run your coaching practice like a professional business

21:00 – Why genuine connection is irreplaceable, even in a tech-driven world

22:45 – Wrapping up: How to use AI and systems to support—not replace—real relationships in coaching

24:30 – Where to follow Ryan for more tips on efficiency, AI, and coaching support

Full Transcript

Ryan Brazzell Interview

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[00:00:00] I told myself I'm going to do this thing that I love and I'm going to make a million dollars a year doing it. And I'm going to, you know, I'm going to value my services really highly. I'm going to put it in the work, just like I do, you know, out of my desk job.

[00:00:11] Mhm.

[00:00:29] [00:00:30] Well, hello and welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show. I am so pumped to keep going with our coaches that don't suck series. And I've invited my friend Ryan Brazil to join us today. Hey Ryan, how's it going?

[00:00:45] I'm great. I'm excited. Can't wait to show you some stuff and get into it.

[00:00:50] I love it. Ryan and I met in a mastermind, we both believe in the power of coaching and we were in a coaching program together. I mentioned that I was doing this [00:01:00] series and Ryan was one of the first people to say, Hey, let's talk about it. Ryan, why don't you just take 30 seconds and help people understand what it is that you do.

[00:01:09] I'd really love to know how you got into it.

[00:01:11] I think the core of everything I do has always been around, and I actually had somebody else in our coaching group helped me describe this about myself, but it's around bending time. So it's systems plus people plus technology. as a kid, I grew up in Tennessee, a lot of manual labor, a lot of [00:01:30] hard work.

[00:01:30] my dad one time got really angry at me because, he was like, go out into the yard and we had, a couple acres to go out into the yard, pick up a bunch of sticks, get them into the woods. And so that would have been like, you're going to all these different places and grabbing things.

[00:01:43] I have this go kart that I got for Christmas a few years ago. I'm going to tie a rope behind it and put all the sticks in a big bundle. And then I'm going to save myself, hours of time. And, I did that. he came back and he was like, that's being lazy, it's funny because I realized that is. the way my brain has always worked. It's [00:02:00] like efficiency, optimizing, making things easier. And when it, you know, as it relates to companies, it's like profitability, operational efficiency, and overall just making your business easier to run.

[00:02:12] I've done some form of that either in consulting, I've worked at the corporate level and traveled all over the world, built teams in the Philippines, to manage back office operations for a big tech company. And then when I started my own company, I moved to San Diego, back in 2015, I started [00:02:30] my own consulting around systems and systems design and systems engineering.

[00:02:34] since then, I started a company called assistant launch, which is my current company. We've been around for five years. We help fast growth founders to buy back their time with executive assistance. So it's like the person, the process and systems plus the support. it's really fun. we work with a ton of coaches.

[00:02:50] We work with Y Combinator backed 200 million companies that we work with too. And I get to explore the lives of entrepreneurs and, What is going on in their personal life and their [00:03:00] business life is dragging them down. So there's a lot of, there's obviously so much in between and aft, like we have an AI mastermind as well, but I think at the core of everything is I really, really value time.

[00:03:12] I have the number of hours on average human life tattooed on my chest.

[00:03:15] I have a tattoo around time and it's do what matters.

[00:03:20] Oh, I love that,

[00:03:21] right? I just knew we were going to be like fast.

[00:03:24] I saw your blog and I was like, there's some cool overlaps here for sure.

[00:03:28] I have a background [00:03:30] in, my education is in chemical engineering. Didn't work day in my life as an engineer. But that whole process flow thing, It's tattooed on my brain. then I went on to become a consultant for one of the world's biggest consulting firms for about a decade.

[00:03:45] And yeah, it was a lot of efficiency work, but also, efficacy and being more effective with what you're doing. and. it's so interesting because I found my real superpower was, through relationships. when I actually describe [00:04:00] to others how I do relationship, it's very systemy, you know, it's not cold, it's warm, you know, and it's connecting and it's authentic.

[00:04:09] But, if I didn't have my systems, you and I definitely wouldn't be talking we wouldn't have the follow up the follow through and the back and forth and all that. And so that's one of the, my favorite things to talk about with coaches is like, how can you get your time back by designing things to be easier, you know, take it out of your head.

[00:04:26] So here's, here's the question.

[00:04:27] There's also, to play devil's advocate in [00:04:30] my career, I found that, you know, systems are one part of it. But yeah, you over rely on systems and you lose, you know, you can get burnt out, you can get, you can lose that, the creative element that makes entrepreneurship fun.

[00:04:45] I've been trying to detach systems from my identity. Like we talk about it in podcasts and speaking opportunities and stuff like that, but. I've been trying to lean more into the leadership side of things, the people development side of [00:05:00] things, the like coaching my team. and then there's systems within that, but I don't, you know, I think I've.

[00:05:06] You over rely on systems too much and you can miss out on, you know, certain things.

[00:05:11] This is actually one of the, the things as I started my business about, eight years ago, even though I love systems and I, and I use them at home all the time and I'm a nut job for getting things done, methodology and all that kind of stuff.

[00:05:24] I felt like my own consumption, particularly around marketing and [00:05:30] sales, felt so impersonal. some of my first coaches that I, actually hired for myself, I noticed that it was because I met them In person, we were like in an event, we hit it off, you know, we were hanging out in the bar at the networking event

[00:05:43] And then it kind of moved to that. Here's how you could help me. And this is what it would take to work together kind of conversation. for the first couple of years of my business, I was actually anti online, which is really funny because now I teach marketing and sales. in the beginning I, I was so, I think I was, so worried [00:06:00] that, the coldness of system would be off putting to, to others.

[00:06:05] what I realized later is you can have technique around systems to make it warmer, more connected and to be more authentic. And there's quite a bit that I do still quite manually. but I'm still following like the rhythms in the process. what do you think about how AI is changing all of that, you know, like, Can, can people be using these tools really effectively?

[00:06:28] Like I know a lot of coaches, [00:06:30] they're tempted by AI or they're using AI, but it's kind of creating coldness and system. I'm curious about your take on that.

[00:06:38] And we can probably talk about this for hours. Um, so yeah, I mean, at a, at a macro level, AI is changing the nature of value creation.

[00:06:51] So as an entrepreneur. if you're not learning and playing with AI in some way, getting in a community, talking about [00:07:00] it regularly, you will inevitably be behind compared to those people who are. if we're talking content creation, leveraging AI in your sales and marketing function, I think some people have it wrong and that it can be really effective.

[00:07:16] I actually just spoke last week on Kyle Van Boris's, presentation. one of the things I have helped other people leverage and taught them in our mastermind is, there's two things we talked about with Kyle. One [00:07:30] was how we leverage AI to generate highly customized proposals at scale the paradigm shift for me was, take this conversation as an example.

[00:07:41] We have a transcript coming from this call. If you have an AI

[00:07:44] notating.

[00:07:46] you can use whatever. from that transcript, you can run it in, Cloud, or GPT, or whatever. And then, Extract, you know, let's say it was a sales call, right? It's your pain points, your goals, the things that you mentioned, maybe even have AI [00:08:00] help you generate some additional ideas.

[00:08:01] So for us, when we speak with a client, who's telling us about their day and how they're wasting their time we extract all of that. then, I have an assistant who runs the process and we'll create a fully customized proposal that speaks to those points, speaks to those goals that they have.

[00:08:17] everything there is highly customized, which is the direction where sales is going. it's going to start at the advertising level, within the next year or so, you'll see ads are going to start becoming, you know, it's going to say, Hey Amanda, have you [00:08:30] thought about X, Y, and Z in the voice that you like to hear in the color that you like to see in the, type of language that you speak, it's going to become highly customized.

[00:08:38] if you're selling a product, you need to know how to make it highly customized and highly personalized because that's what people expect. the process is really cool. the last piece, which I think most people were most excited about in this presentation is.

[00:08:51] if you have a sales team or if you are an individual who sells the biggest drop off point is the follow up and follow through. meeting with [00:09:00] new leads, you're speaking with them, they're excited. You're excited. And then just because of lack of action, nothing happens.

[00:09:07] So what we do is we take the same transcript, the same conversation that we have with someone. And then we have five emails that get generated immediately after the call takes place. let's say that you and I spoke and you're talking about, spending a lot of time every day. putting together invites for an event and talking about a bunch of administrative things in your business.

[00:09:28] What we do is email [00:09:30] one says, Hey Amanda, have you checked out the proposal? Just a boilerplate response. But email two says, Hey Amanda, I had an idea I know you're running these events. Have you thought about having someone organize the entire schedule and contact the vendors and take care of X, Y, and Z?

[00:09:47] So the prompt that generates that response says, okay, let's go into the transcript, find a novel idea that we didn't talk about on our call and mention it just kind of like seven days after, right? It's always seven [00:10:00] days. And so there's these cool things that you can do. And you have one at the three day, at the two week mark, it's like, Hey, Amanda, I know you wanted to bring an assistant on board.

[00:10:09] And I know that you said you wanted to spend more time with your kids. every founder that's ever brought an assistant on has been able to, you know, whatever. And so you can use really interesting follow up messages. the whole point of the speech that I did with Kyle was, we saw 33 percent increase in conversions from doing that alone.

[00:10:26] And so we put a sales assistant responsible for taking care of all the follow [00:10:30] up. they would send the email schedule. that's an example of something that on the other end, no one is going to be able to tell that I didn't write those messages or that our sales team didn't write those messages.

[00:10:41] And it's generating 33 percent more conversions than before.

[00:10:45] I really love this example because, I remember when AI first came out, I actually panicked. And I think a lot of coaches did as well like, Oh, nobody's going to want to hire a coach anymore.

[00:10:55] Cause they're just going to have, a coach buddy type app. you're already seeing the boyfriends and the girlfriends [00:11:00] kind of coming out on AI. Why would somebody want to hire a coach? And, I think it's normal to have those kinds of thoughts. I know for me, I was like, you know what, I'm just going to use it.

[00:11:11] I'm going to use the AI. Like you said, I'm going to, join different communities and have conversations about AI. I'm going to embrace this thing. Cause it's not going anywhere. And you know, it's a little like the, the buggy whip producers getting upset when the car comes out.

[00:11:25] Right. It's like, this is a really big change. I love your example [00:11:30] about having really customized follow up. you know, I, I recently. was setting up like a, just a very basic Zapier automation to do exactly that, connected with my, chat GPT. I got some new ideas from how you did it, but just having AI help draft.

[00:11:47] Just do a draft of an email saves me five to 10 minutes every single time. And you know, I'm a big believer in like, kind of start with the template and then add the customization. but I [00:12:00] think it just, I think it's really promising for a lot of coaches because where you might've had to have a really big team to be able to have the same impact, you can actually set up quite a bit for not that much expense.

[00:12:11] I've found a few years into AI being around. People very much want coaches. They very much want that human, connection. And I've even used it in my coaching. when there would be a challenge or, behavior that was new to me in a coaching conversation.

[00:12:29] I would [00:12:30] use AI to help generate ideas about how I can, help move my client forward. So I've become a major ally of the AI forces. even though at first I was kind of like, is this going to hurt my relevancy? what do you think about that?

[00:12:43] Yeah. The personal roles that a couple of things, one is.

[00:12:47] AI is essentially taking over a lot of high leverage things as well, but it's just taking everyone and their roles and putting them into a higher leverage place. as an [00:13:00] example, if you're a programmer developer, a lot of the low leverage, essential build out of building, software applications is done by AI.

[00:13:07] I literally just talked to someone yesterday who their team is doing this. if you're a researcher, the layout of your, document is, you know, so I think like the low leverage stuff is being taken care of, and it will continue to be that, and then that leaves the high leverage work, I think truthfully, the world is going to change in 18 months or so, the world will change a [00:13:30] ton.

[00:13:30] there's a lot of things that are going to cascade. And so, If you're a coach, if you're an employee, if you're a founder, getting into a higher leverage place, means figuring out what you love to do, what you're great at and spending as much of your time there figuring out a way, whether with AI or people, to get out of the weeds is really important.

[00:13:53] on the coaching side. I think coaches are probably akin to, I mean, the work that coaches do [00:14:00] is not going anywhere with AI I have actually found this in our business with executive assistants. Initially, I was like, oh yeah, AI is going to come and disrupt our industry majorly.

[00:14:09] I think we're several years away from that being a possibility because, there's just so much context. There's so many pieces of your life.

[00:14:18] it's the context, right? Cause I think of a lot of AI, tools. It's, it's like the super over eager intern. That'll give you an answer no matter what, and they do lack [00:14:30] context.

[00:14:30] That's why I say intern, they lack kind of that context that if you're not, you know, mastering that prompt and being thoughtful about what's going in, you're just, choosing to operate at a higher value place.

[00:14:40] And so therefore you need to develop some additional, skill set. And what I've noticed in my own journey is it's like, like you, you know, spending more time on. leadership, and, uh, spending more time on like, how am I interfacing with communities and collaborating? Those things have become far [00:15:00] more important to create the same results.

[00:15:04] Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's the higher leverage stuff.

[00:15:07] I think

[00:15:08] coaching coaching is not going to be, I mean, the, the coaches who maybe are like, they're, the way they create values by just basically providing information. Um, I think those people are going to be in trouble potentially, uh, because information is being completely democratized at this point.

[00:15:27] Um,

[00:15:27] Totally. But, Well, thank you. Which I [00:15:30] love to ask in this segment. Like, what do you think are three things that helps a coach not to suck? So you know, like that, that, that, that could even be one of them is like, just don't be an information regurgitation machine.

[00:15:42] I think a lot of people early on, that's what it is.

[00:15:44] Um,

[00:15:45] Yeah.

[00:15:46] The coaches that I've worked with that didn't suck. Um, One is, I think, I mean, for me, the first thing that comes to mind is just holding you to a higher standard [00:16:00] and not, you know, from my personal style, I like being coached this way where it's like, look, I see something in you that is really special and really valuable.

[00:16:11] And the way you're showing up is not allowing that to express itself. So I like being held to a higher standard and that accountability is really important. Um, I think similar to what I mentioned earlier, I think the best coaches are really clear on the value that they [00:16:30] create and really clear on their, their gift and their specialty.

[00:16:33] I know we both work with Dan Martell and that's, um, he is unabashedly himself. And, um, And vulnerable and really vulnerable. I think that's a, that's a key piece of it too. If we talk about like how AI impacts coaching, it's like AI can't be vulnerable and really deeply connect with a part of you that, um, If you, if [00:17:00] you really want to affect change with, with someone, I don't know what type of coaching your coaches are necessarily involved in, but if you want to affect change, you have to do it through emotion and through, you know, making people feel something, and I think.

[00:17:12] Um, if you're just a robot, you're, you know, you're like, okay, coaching client one, coaching client two, having conversation and you're not actually like digging deep and really getting vulnerable with, with them, it's going to be difficult to affect change with people. So the best coaches I've worked with have done that.

[00:17:29] They've really [00:17:30] touched me on an emotional level. Um, yeah, I think those two things, what would be the last? To help people to not suck.

[00:17:41] Yeah, I, so I see, this is the last piece is I see a lot of coaches who are really good at what they do, but if you look behind the scenes, it's really messy. And they're not collecting payments that they should be kept. So, so they actually do their clients a disservice because their business isn't [00:18:00] being run like a business.

[00:18:01] So

[00:18:02] that's so good. That's so good. I think like a lot of coaches, when we start out, we want to be so coachy. And, you know, I, uh, I have a class that I actually, that I teach pretty regularly. And I'm like, you know, when I very first started as a coach and I got my certification, it almost felt like the expectations, you go stand out in the middle of the courtyard and scream, I'm a coach now.

[00:18:23] And just like have a bunch of people care about that, you know, and in that's not it at all. You know, it's really about [00:18:30] connecting authentically with the value and then just going pro with it, like really treating it.

[00:18:36] Go pro.

[00:18:37] Yeah. Yeah. Like, just like decide, like, this is a service. It's valuable. I am a talented provider of said service.

[00:18:45] And you know, here's the experience that goes along with that, you know?

[00:18:50] Yeah. There's a, there's a guy in our group. Um, and he left his job after 20, 20 years in, in the [00:19:00] valleys. He worked like as a graphic designer and he decided he was going to become a, an artist. And I started talking to him. I'm like, how did you decide that?

[00:19:06] Cause what, you know, in your forties becoming an artist, uh, and he was like, yeah, he's like, I said, I told myself I'm going to do this thing that I love and I'm going to make a million dollars a year doing it. And I'm going to, you know, I'm going to value my services really highly. I'm going to put it in the work, just like I do, you know, out of my desk job.

[00:19:24] I'm going to come in at four in the morning, you know, and it's just, he, he went pro with it. And it's been really interesting to watch his journey, [00:19:30] but that's what you have.

[00:19:30] That's huge. That's why you have to do no one.

[00:19:33] No one gets no one gets impacted. No one gets to benefit your gift. No one gets a benefit.

[00:19:36] Exactly. Exactly. Well, Ryan, this is we've got to do this and we got to spend some more time. But for now, how can people follow you? And yeah, what's the best way to track you down?

[00:19:48] Uh, Instagram, I'm actually really, I'm really active there. So it's at Ryan Brazil, r y a n b r a z z e l l. I post a lot of cool stuff [00:20:00] there.

[00:20:00] Um, And then, uh, yeah, I'll share. I've got, I've got some interesting resources that I could share with people. One of them is a, uh, it's actually an AI backed tool that allows you to understand what are you spending your time on that you probably shouldn't be spending your time on. Oh,

[00:20:19] that's juicy. That's a good one.

[00:20:21] Yeah. And, and what's cool is you guys can use it and then you can steal the idea for your own lead magnet because we put this on our website. Uh, we used to have it on our [00:20:30] website, but you enter your name, your information, and then we're able to generate a custom report that comes out in a form of a Google doc.

[00:20:37] And you can look at it and figure out what percentage of things you're working on that you shouldn't be daily, weekly, monthly. So I think a good resource. And, uh, but in general, you reach out anything related to topics we talked about today, AI, executive assistants, whatever we're, we give away everything.

[00:20:54] So we'll give away all the templates, all the resources, all the playbooks.

[00:20:58] You're a gem, Ryan. Thank you [00:21:00] so much for doing that. And a listener, thank you so much for tuning in on this episode. Make sure you take a moment to subscribe. Scribe so you don't miss the next one. And leave us a five star review.

[00:21:11] It helps others find this episode and benefit from it. And, you know, go ahead and help some of your friends. I'm sure you've got friends who are AI curious, who want to spend their time very wisely. go ahead and share this episode we will see you next time.