About
Why I diagnose the workflow before recommending a fix
ForTheEast is an AI workflow and operations consultancy for Australian service businesses. I identify operational bottlenecks, redesign messy workflows, and implement practical systems that improve follow-up, consistency, visibility, and staff execution. AI and automation are tools within the solution, not the product being sold.
I was hired by an insurance brokerage in Brisbane to revive dead lead lists and build a more consistent sales journey: activate leads with a first call, then warm them up through follow-up emails. The principal had just bought Salesforce after a seminar recommended it, and assigned me to run it as the CRM. After a week of setup, often at the expense of calls I could have been making, I concluded it was too heavy for a small service business. It is built for corporations with sales-ops teams.
Before building a leaner setup, I looked at where the sales journey actually leaked. Call notes were handwritten, photo-scanned, emailed around, then retyped into Excel. Context stayed in the head of whoever made the call. “Send me an email” requests could not be separated from polite brush-offs. Follow-ups were generic templates pasted by hand, with no clear next step. And the brokers’ follow-up calls mostly reached people who wanted nothing to do with us: time that should have gone to renewals and client advice.
A later conversation revealed the brokerage had also paid a marketing agency to run Google Ads at one point. Very few of those leads became clients, and without a diagnosis of the process, nobody could say where they had leaked. There was a deeper problem too: admin operations could not keep up with existing clients, so winning more leads would have added fuel to the fire.
The brokerage had tried an agency, then Salesforce, then a hire: three fixes bought before the problem was clear. A workflow diagnosis first would have saved most of that money. That is the principle this service is built on: problems precede solutions. Tools and fixes only earn their place once it is clear what needs to be solved.
Based in Brisbane, working with Australian service businesses nationwide.
What I do
- Audit workflows: find bottlenecks, missed follow-ups, duplicated work, knowledge gaps, and weak handoffs
- Check capacity first: whether the business can comfortably take on more before pushing for growth
- Design the improved system: responsibilities, decision logic, SOPs, and the tools required
- Implement practical systems, using AI only where it creates a measurable operational advantage
- Train staff, document the system, and stay until it is actually adopted
What I'm not
- Not a copywriter: the goal is not prettier words, it is work moving through the business properly
- Not a marketing or lead-gen agency: I do not run ads or promise more traffic
- Not an appointment setter: I design the workflow rather than chase leads by hand
- Not a virtual assistant: a VA processes more manual work, I reduce how much manual work is needed
- Not a CRM reseller: Salesforce is usually too heavy, and GHL only fits if the team will actually use it
- Not an AI automation agency: automation is only useful against a clearly diagnosed problem
If there is no worthwhile problem to solve, I’ll tell you directly.
The audit is designed to reduce guessing, not create pressure to buy a build.
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