The Expert Ghosted. I Had Surgery. Guess Who Finished the Job?
Surgery, Thanksgiving, a vanishing "expert," and me in a recliner.
Goldfish attention span? No judgment. Listen here or read below.
Thanksgiving 2023. I'm recovering from major foot surgery, parked in my recliner with doctor's orders to keep my foot above my heart. My wife is handling the turkey. The kids are doing whatever kids do when dad can't chase them.
And I'm staring at my laptop thinking about a Monday.com automation that's been haunting me like a ghost with unfinished business.
Speaking of ghosts.
The Expert Has Left the Building
My client had already hired "The" expert. Huge YouTube following. Official Monday.com forum contributor. The guy whose name gets dropped every time someone asks "who do I hire for complicated Monday stuff?"
The Expert got stuck and ghosted.
Just...poof. Left my client hanging with a half-finished automation and a house-flipping business that absolutely could not afford delays.
So now I'm sitting in my recliner, foot elevated, turkey smells wafting in, thinking: if the guy with the YouTube channel couldn't crack this...what exactly makes me think I can?
Hubris, mostly. And the fact that I had literally nothing else to do.
Seven Hours of "What Have I Gotten Myself Into"
I worked seven-plus hours that Thanksgiving. My family periodically checked on me, presumably to confirm I hadn't passed out from either the pain medication or the Make.com scenario that was actively trying to ruin my holiday.
It was the most complicated Monday.com/Make.com automation I've ever built. Every time I thought I had it, some new exception would crawl out from under a rock and wave at me.
But I solved it!
Here's the truth about gaining expertise: the first time is BRUTAL. You're Googling things you're embarrassed to admit you don't know. You're rebuilding modules because you realized three hours in that and "the three-hour younger version of you" was an optimistic fool.
Then the client needs the same automation again. Different board, same logic. Suddenly it takes half the time. Third time? Pattern recognition kicks in and you're executing solutions you learned the hard way.
You're not a wizard. You're just someone who did the painful thing enough times that it stopped being painful.
Credentials vs. Reps
The Expert had the audience. The platform. The official forum status.
I had seven hours in a recliner, prescription ibuprofen, and the stubborn refusal to be the second person who couldn't finish this job.
Guess which one solved the problem?
Called my client Friday. He was thrilled. His house-flipping operation could finally track projects the way he'd always wanted. Tight schedules, clear visibility, nothing slipping through cracks.
The Expert is probably still answering forum questions somewhere. I'm still solving the problems that make other people vanish.
If you've got something stuck that an "expert" couldn't finish, that's literally my whole thing. Eight hundred co-building hours means I've probably seen your problem before.
And I promise not to ghost you. Mostly because my wife would never let me hear the end of it.
Andy "Too Stubborn to Ghost" O'Neil O'Neil
P.S. — My wife asked what I was doing. I said "building a lead magnet inside a lead magnet." She stared at me for three seconds, said "okay," and walked away. This is what she signed up for. Allegedly.
But if you've scrolled this far without downloading, let me make one more case.
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The inner guide has 10 objections with the psychology behind each one — not just what clients say, but why they're really asking and how to respond without sounding desperate. The outer guide shows how I pulled from nearly 400 sources in 10 minutes using AI as a research tool, not a writing crutch.
No email required. No 14-day drip sequence where I pretend we're friends and pitch you something on day 7. Just download the thing, steal what works, and build your own.
And if you do build something with this process, tell me. I collect these wins like other people collect... I don't know, stamps? Does anyone still collect stamps? Anyway. Download the guide.
Hi! I'm Andy O'Neil.
I find the thing that's actually broken in your business — then figure out if automation or AI will fix it. (Sometimes the answer is neither, and I'll tell you that before you waste money.)
After 800+ co-building sessions, I've seen the patterns. I know what breaks before it breaks, and I know which "obvious" fixes make things worse. My tools are Make.com and Claude AI. My method is sitting with you, watching how your work actually flows, and building solutions you understand and can maintain.
I don't disappear into a back room and return with a black box. We build it together.
Since 2003, I've been Trisha's other half, raising kids and running a business on the same automation systems I build for clients.
Ready to diagnose before you build? Let's have virtual coffee.
