089 | The 3-Text Test: How Female Founders Use AI to Stop Their Team From Treating Them Like Google

If your team is texting “How do I…?” at 7PM, you’ve become their expensive search engine. At your CEO salary, that’s draining time and focus.

This isn’t about being mean. 

It’s about breaking the habit of training your team to lean on you for every answer—and giving them tools to solve problems on their own. That’s where the 3-Text Test comes in, with a little AI backup to take you out of the loop for good.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How your “helpful” answers are actually creating team helplessness
• The 3-Text Test framework for knowing when it’s time to systematize instead of answering again
• Simple AI-powered tools(FAQs, workflows, custom bots) that stop repetitive questions at the source
• How one founder cut leadership interruptions by 40% in two weeks by teaching this method to her team
  
  

This episode at a glance:

• [00:00] – Why answering makes you the bottleneck, not the leader
• [01:30] – The psychology: asking you is faster than thinking
• [02:15] – The 3-Text Test explained step by step
• [03:30] – AI as your 24/7 system for repeat questions
• [04:15] – Founder case study: 40% fewer interruptions in two weeks
• [05:00] – Your brain is worth more than $7.50/hr answers—protect it
  
  
  

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

• 10 Ways AI Will Make You a Better Leader 
• Follow Dawn on LinkedIn 
• Join the waitlist for the AI for Founders Playbook

Want to increase revenue and impact? Listen to “She's That Founder” for insights on business strategy and female leadership to scale your business. Each episode offers advice on effective communication, team building, and management. Learn to master routines and systems to boost productivity and prevent burnout. Our delegation tips and business consulting will advance your executive leadership skills and presence.

Transcript

She's That Founder
088 | The 3-Text Test: How Female Founders Use AI to Stop Their Team From Treating Them Like Google

If your team is texting you, how do I dot type of questions at 7:00 PM on a Tuesday night, you didn't hire employees, you hired people who turned you into their very expensive search engine and at your high level salary.

And at your high level salary, while spending hours, potentially answering questions that Google or your SOPs or another employee could have answered, you have become the most expensive search engine on the planet. 

And I know this hits because you're probably looking at your phone right now, thinking about three quick questions that are sitting in your messages that you haven't answered yet.

Welcome to She's That Founder Thursday edition. These are the quick rants kick in the pants, velvet boot moments that represent me standing in the future, pulling you toward the even stronger, better, more powerful version of yourself as a leader with AI as your copilot. 

So here's what happened. You hired smart people, you trained them, you gave them access to everything they need, and somehow, somehow you have become the human Google for questions they couldn't figure out themselves.

You have become the human Google for questions they could figure out themselves. Dawn, where's the client folder? Dawn, what's the password for Dawn? Should I send this email? And the worst part you answer. Every single time because you're helpful, because you care, because saying figure it out, feels mean.

But here's what's actually happening. Every time you answer a question they could have solved themselves. You're training them to be helpless. You're teaching them that their brain is optional when you're available, and I get it. Female founders especially struggle with this because we've been socialized to be helpful, to not burden others, to make things easier for everyone around us.

Research shows that women are 40% more likely to respond to non-urgent requests immediately thinking that it builds team loyalty when it actually undermines authority. 

My client, Maria told me, I realized I was spending two hours a day answering questions. My $85,000 project manager could have Googled in 30 seconds. I wasn't being helpful. I was being expensive. 

Totally. The psychology here is simple. If asking you is faster than thinking, they'll keep asking you. You have accidentally become the path of least resistance. So here is the mindset tweak that changes everything.

This is the 3 text tests, the three text test, and yes, I had to practice saying that so that I could not get tongue tied.

If someone asks you the same type of question via text or slack three times, it doesn't need your answer anymore. It needs a system.

So here's how this works. The first time they ask, answer it, but note what they asked. Second time they ask. The second time they ask the same type of question, answer it, but flag it in your brain or literally in Slack because you're starting to see the pattern.

Okay, and the third time, stop, do not answer. Instead, create an AI powered solution that handles this question forever. Maybe it's setting up a five minute GPT, like custom GPT with your company policies. Maybe it's using Claude to create department specific FAQ documents that update automatically, or maybe it's not AI at all, and it's just you pointing the finger to the person they should be asking instead. Or maybe it's an AI generated workflow document, but whatever it is, AI can probably handle it so that you don't have to. 

Because here's the truth, my friend. brain is worth more than $7 and 50 cents an hour Answering questions a computer could handle.

The goal isn't to be mean. The goal isn't to distance yourself from your employees. The goal is to free up your brain for CEO level thinking while your team gets faster, better answers than you could give them anyway, and starts to learn them on their own. 

AI doesn't get tired of answering the same question. It'll do it all day and twice on Sundays, even while you're sleeping. AI doesn't sigh when someone asks about a policy for the 15th time. AI just serves, and this is the force multiplier effect. 'cause you know, I love a force multiplier. Teach this 3 text test to your direct reports and other leaders in your organization.

So when Sarah, my client, at a 50 person startup taught this to her three department heads, they reduced leadership interruptions by 40% in just two weeks. What? Yeah. I know. When you have a startup and so many parts are moving all at once, and you're trying to build a plane as you're flying it, it is really hard to document all of this stuff and to really empower your people.

But it's worth trying to do this. So if you've got department heads or team leads, show them the framework. When everyone in leadership uses that 3 text test system, you create a culture where people solve problems instead of escalating them, and you reduce that interruption time significantly. So bottom line, every time you answer a question, they could solve themselves. You're choosing to be busy instead of being strategic. 

The 3 text test forces you to see the pattern and create a system instead of being the system. Because your team doesn't need you to be their search engine. They need you to be their leader. 

So if you're sitting there thinking, Dawn, what if they actually need me?

That is your helpful programming, talking, and I love that helpful programming. I've got it too. The guide that I'm about to share shows you which questions need you versus which need AI. And if you're ready to stop being your team's human Google and start using AI to handle the questions that are eating your time. Grab my free guide 10 Ways AI will make you a better leader. It's got specific AI tools and prompts that handle the most common founder questions and things that hang founders up so that you can focus on what only you can do. And you can grab it at hellodawn.Live/ai10ways.

Okay, that's your kick in the pants for today. Stop training your team to need you for everything. Start training AI to handle what it can so you can lead what it can't.

I'll see you next week where we're diving deep into things that I know are going to change how you think about your role as a leader 'cause that's what I am all about for you every single episode. 

And until then, remember, you're not their Google. You're their CEO. Act like it and own it. All right. See you next time, Lovie.