1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,240 Hello, hello everyone. I hope you're doing well. Welcome. Welcome to another live stream. 2 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:18,440 Let me know. I was messing around with some audio, always something that you do. And actually, 3 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:27,760 yeah, let me know if you're watching how this sounds because I think my noise gate is pretty 4 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:38,600 aggressive. I set my noise gate up. This was very stupid to do like right before a live 5 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:43,840 stream. But I was thinking about it and I'm recording a lot today because I'm going on 6 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:54,240 vacation tomorrow. Let's see. Yeah, it's like super aggressive. Okay. So I'm going to make 7 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:59,960 an adjustment here. Always good. This is good live stream content. So I'm going to make 8 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:08,040 an adjustment here really quick. Let's see. I'm going to reduce the attack. No, increase 9 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:19,040 the attack and lower the threshold and the range. Test check one to test check one to 10 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:27,040 test. Yeah, so I think that's good. I wanted to filter out breaths, but I don't and like 11 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:35,080 mouth sounds, which I find myself editing out a lot lately. And like why right because 12 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:41,880 I should be able to just like do this with my equipment. So anyway, let me know in the 13 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:57,040 comments if you are watching how this sounds seems like it's pretty 14 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:05,200 like if the attack so the attack is super low, then that's like the amount of time it 15 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:13,560 takes for it to kick in I think. But it might be I might have maybe I mixed up with the 16 00:02:13,560 --> 00:02:19,280 attack does because this seems to I can I have like a little graph on my roadcaster 17 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:28,840 pro showing me like when the noise gate kicks in and it it seems to be okay now. And in 18 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:34,960 my monitors it sounds okay, but if you're watching and something sounds weird and choppy, let 19 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:45,680 me know. And I will make the adjustment. Also, I noticed that I'm not streaming to X anymore 20 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:53,480 because I don't have I don't have a premium account. I have a basic account. And so I 21 00:02:53,480 --> 00:03:05,360 guess I can't stream to X anymore. Oh, well, I guess such as life. So let's see, I'm going 22 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:18,200 to double check here on LinkedIn to make sure everything's good. Yeah, that sounds pretty 23 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:32,520 good. That sounds pretty good. Okay, good. So I am on Twitch, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Okay, 24 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:40,280 so today what I'm going to do I'm woefully on let me tell you my friends, I have been 25 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:49,200 recording all morning slash afternoon, because I'm going on vacation on Saturday. And so 26 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:54,640 I want to make sure I get a bunch of content in the tank. Like, you know, a couple weeks 27 00:03:54,640 --> 00:04:01,720 worth, since I'm doing podcast workflows twice a week now. And one of those is like 28 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:09,280 a news based show. So I had to come up with something different for that. But I also want 29 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:15,280 to get this live stream out. I'm experimenting with, you know, a way to put these live streams 30 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:24,400 in a podcast feed using rss.com. And ultimately, what I think I could do to improve my workflow 31 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:34,000 because rss.com uses the live item tag now is like not even need to to upload this audio 32 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:41,760 later. I just haven't. I want to do that for a video for rss.com. And so I haven't done 33 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:51,280 it for myself yet. But that's neither here nor there. Where is here we go. I am working 34 00:04:51,280 --> 00:05:01,920 on I'll share my screen now. Lovely. Okay, so this is obviously not done. But I am working 35 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:09,080 on I love the YouTube channel alt shift X. I think it's excellent. The guy who runs it 36 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:22,280 is is super smart. And he does like dives into YouTube content. I'm sorry, Game of Thrones 37 00:05:22,280 --> 00:05:30,120 and House of the Dragon. And I just love the way he runs his live streams. Like it seems 38 00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:36,400 like he has all of these resources up and like he so he's not you don't see him you 39 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:42,760 never see him in the videos. So it's probably like a little bit easier for him to like not 40 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:48,360 have to make eye contact and just kind of like read and look for stuff. But I loved that 41 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:56,000 idea. So I started using a whiteboard in Canva to pull in some of my graphics and other slides 42 00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:03,640 and stuff so that I can reference them during the live stream. So we'll see how that goes 43 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:10,960 today too. If you are just joining. Hello and welcome. Thanks so much. I see some people 44 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:17,840 trickling in. Let me know where you're coming from. This is I'm going to be talking all 45 00:06:17,840 --> 00:06:23,960 about automations and how you can start automating and then if there's time, I will maybe build 46 00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:30,520 out an automation so you can see how it works. But if you are just joining us, let me know 47 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:35,280 who you are where you're coming from. If you have any questions and since you missed my 48 00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:43,880 preamble, I stupidly messed with my noise gate before right before this live stream 49 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:49,280 went on. And so if I'm like cutting out or my audio is choppy or anything, definitely 50 00:06:49,280 --> 00:07:03,600 let me know so that I can fix that. Also, because because LinkedIn does not work with 51 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:15,840 because LinkedIn does not work with E cam live. I also need to go to LinkedIn and log 52 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:23,920 in and keep an eye on the comments there. So if you're watching on LinkedIn and I don't 53 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:32,240 answer or address immediately, it's it's nothing against you. It is that LinkedIn doesn't send 54 00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:41,680 comments to E cam live. So okay, with that, let's let's look at some automation stuff. 55 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:52,560 Okay, what is what is this? How do why did that happen? Oh, now you can see this. I'm 56 00:07:52,560 --> 00:08:01,240 editing a video. Oh, yeah, there we are. Okay, great. So, okay, first of all, I'm going to 57 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:08,960 go through some of these things. But when you're so I have a lot of content on this 58 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:14,280 already. And if you're on my newsletter, which you can go to podcast workflows.com slash 59 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:26,240 join. I talked a lot about it in this week's newsletter and the articles I'm doing. 60 00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:32,840 Looks like the live stream is gone from LinkedIn. I lose internet. Am I still here? Am I dead? 61 00:08:32,840 --> 00:08:43,760 No, okay. Anyway, so I talked a lot about this in general, I've talked about my I think 62 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:49,000 I've shown this before, but the automate per task framework, where it's like you perform 63 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:53,920 the task, you evaluate the task and then if it makes sense, you remove the task and you 64 00:08:53,920 --> 00:09:06,000 do that for every task in your workflow. But you know, sometimes it feels like, you know, 65 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:09,600 in one of my articles, I say like imagine you're told you have to get to your wedding 66 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:18,240 and that's it. Like you're not told where the wedding is or what time it's at or anything 67 00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:23,600 like any other details. You're just told you have to get to your wedding. That's kind of 68 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:28,680 what it feels like when someone says you need to automate, right? Or you need to do anything 69 00:09:28,680 --> 00:09:37,640 that like requires skill. There's a ton more. There's like a lot more stuff that you need 70 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:43,080 to know before you actually start automating. And so I had a coaching call with someone 71 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:48,760 yesterday like a discovery call with them. And you know, they were telling me like how 72 00:09:48,760 --> 00:09:54,360 overwhelmed they were feeling because they know that there's places in their process 73 00:09:54,360 --> 00:10:01,880 they can automate, but they're not sure like what what those processes are. And I said at 74 00:10:01,880 --> 00:10:06,120 one point, I'm like, you know, just look for low hanging fruit. And I'm like, if you don't 75 00:10:06,120 --> 00:10:13,280 know what low hanging fruit looks like, like how would you like how could you determine 76 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:20,720 that? And so I recognize that there is a lot of stuff around automation that can be confusing. 77 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:26,520 And so I want to try to tackle a lot of that in today's live stream. Something I'm toying 78 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:33,680 around with as well. And you'll have to tell me if you like this idea is I want to create 79 00:10:33,680 --> 00:10:44,000 a course on automation for podcasters. So I basically teach you everything I know about 80 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:50,200 podcasting. I'll float this to my newsletter too. But it's it's something that I've been 81 00:10:50,200 --> 00:11:02,240 thinking a lot about. Because it's that's a hard and confusing place to start is is 82 00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:09,960 with automation. So anyway, okay, let's get let's get to the actual stuff here. So first 83 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:15,720 of all, there are four questions I usually tell people to ask themselves when they're 84 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:22,600 walking through their process, which is make a list of everything you do. Ask do I personally 85 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:29,120 need to do this? Ask does a person need to do this? And then see if automation tools 86 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:35,600 can do it. And this is nice and high level and everything. And you can definitely make 87 00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:41,880 a list of everything you do. And you can ask do I personally need to do it because the 88 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:50,480 answer in most cases is going to be no. You don't need to do most of the stuff that you 89 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:57,680 do. It's only like the things that you're especially skilled at, or your opinion, your 90 00:11:57,680 --> 00:12:05,280 voice, your insight, especially when it comes to podcasting. And so like it's good for 91 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:11,640 you to offload a lot of that stuff. But then when you get to does a person need to do this, 92 00:12:11,640 --> 00:12:16,440 that's where like big question marks happen. Like how do I know if a person or a robot 93 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:25,720 can do this? And the answer there really lies in the inputs and the outputs. So in the automate 94 00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:35,240 per task, I have when I have you evaluate, I tell you to determine, are the inputs clear 95 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:41,880 and are the outputs clear? Because if the inputs and the outputs are clear, then there 96 00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:51,440 is a better chance that you'll be able to automate it. The main key to automation, when 97 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:58,560 you're automating processes like this with a tool like Zapier or make is there needs 98 00:12:58,560 --> 00:13:05,360 to be some event that kicks off that automation, and then a very repeatable set of tasks need 99 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:13,080 to happen. So one example of this is and I'll you know, I'll bring it up here and we can 100 00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:24,760 do a little show and tell. Maybe see bring up the sidebar here. No, do you not want to 101 00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:33,720 do this for me right now? I know you can't see it, but I can. I think so. Okay, I'm just 102 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:37,000 this is going to be like in the back of my mind a little bit, but it does sound like 103 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:44,480 the noise gate is mostly good. And I'm hearing like some dropout at some points. So it's 104 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:51,880 probably still a little bit too aggressive, but not so aggressive that I can change what 105 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:54,960 I'm doing for the live stream when I'm recording a podcast, it's definitely going to be too 106 00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:57,880 aggressive because like once it's gone, it's gone, right? Like once the audio is gone, 107 00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:08,320 it's gone. But anyway, let's let's look at a really simple automation. Yeah, it just 108 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:13,560 dropped out there, right? Let's look at a really simple automation. I think I probably 109 00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:19,360 want to adjust the attack and the release. Can I like just set this back to whatever 110 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:33,920 the defaults were? Can I do that? Do you do doing things live? Is that good? Threshold 111 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:41,960 attack? Yeah, okay, that's back to that's back to where it was. So now there's probably 112 00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:47,880 some adjustments I'll be able to make, but I'll adjust for podcast studio. And we'll 113 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:52,600 go from there. You just heard that breath. I just heard that breath. It's fine. Everybody 114 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:58,800 needs to breathe. Okay, so let's this is what I get for doing stuff like right before I 115 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:05,600 have to go live. Okay, so here's a really simple, right make like doesn't I love make 116 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:15,360 and like the way they zoom is terrible. So here's an example of an automation. A really 117 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:24,880 simple automation. Watch database items. And then when something changes in that database 118 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:30,120 item, create a new database item. So this is notion to notion. Maybe this isn't a great 119 00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:36,360 example, but it is really simple. Because inexplicably notion doesn't do this natively. 120 00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:47,120 So what I'm saying here is, in my CRM, when a person in my CRM is has a status has changed 121 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:53,680 to one, which means I won the job or whatever, creating new database item in my like current 122 00:15:53,680 --> 00:15:58,560 clients database. And the reason that there are two separate databases here is because 123 00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:03,920 this one is for like project management and this one is my CRM. And you can't do that 124 00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:13,560 natively in notion. Again, inexplicably, like notions, automations are real bad. Like real 125 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:20,840 bad. I can't believe they shipped them like that bad. But anyway, this is so this is a 126 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:26,440 really simple automation. Another one that's maybe worth looking at where you're connecting 127 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:37,920 two items is let's do this one, right? This is really good. So this is when somebody fills 128 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:44,600 out a form on my website, I use a tool called gravity forms, add them to notion. The input 129 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:53,200 is really clear here. The input is the information that was put into this form. The output or 130 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:59,080 the actions are also very clear. Take this stuff that was input into the form and add 131 00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:06,600 it to notion. So inputs and outputs are clear. This is a very simple automation where you're 132 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:12,960 basically connecting two tools that wouldn't otherwise be connected. And you can sub out 133 00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:17,800 anything for this, right? So you could say like, tally form or Google form and you can 134 00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:24,360 swap out notion with air table or Google sheets, your or Trello, right? Like whatever tool 135 00:17:24,360 --> 00:17:37,400 you use can usually be connected here. So that is that's generally what I look for when 136 00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:43,200 I'm asking the four questions. Does a person need to do this? Like another way you can 137 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:53,800 ask that is like, does this task require critical thinking or multiple steps? Like multiple, 138 00:17:53,800 --> 00:18:01,040 let's say, multiple steps where adjustment is needed. Because like a robot can't do that, 139 00:18:01,040 --> 00:18:08,740 right? A really good example of this is I could set up an automation for streamlined 140 00:18:08,740 --> 00:18:16,760 solopreneur where when the item is is published automatically create a post on my WordPress 141 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:27,040 site. That is something that is automatable, right? A person does not need to do that part. 142 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:34,520 However, I want a number of things to happen with that blog post. I want the transcript 143 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:42,200 to be put into an accordion so it's not like making a forever long page. I want the embed 144 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:49,400 to be in a specific section next to my buttons for my calls to action. I want the sponsors 145 00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:56,720 logos to be listed and there's no place in transistor for me to put sponsors and logos 146 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:08,720 and links. So while that task could be automatable, there are some inputs that change. The inputs 147 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:16,740 aren't clear and exactly the same every time. And so my VA does that because we have a process 148 00:19:16,740 --> 00:19:23,280 in place where she can find the sponsor logos and links and she knows how to add them. She 149 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:28,240 knows how to add the transcript to the right section. She knows which template in WordPress 150 00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:35,160 to use. So that's kind of the difference. When you're going through a task, maybe the 151 00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:42,160 best way to think about it is this. When you're going through a task, if there's a little 152 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:50,440 hiccup, make a note of that hiccup and that might have the potential to require a person 153 00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:59,760 to do it. Not always as I'll show you in a minute, but it could. Okay. So let's look 154 00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:05,240 at what kind of tasks you should automate because this is another, like what, well, 155 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:09,320 I don't even know what's possible. I could ask, does a person need to do it? And I don't 156 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:17,160 really know the answer to that. So here are four types of tasks you can automate. Common 157 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:23,240 easily repeatable tasks. When someone fills out a form, add it, add the information to 158 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:34,160 notion infrequent high level of effort tasks. I would qualify booking guests for your podcast 159 00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:41,680 as this because at least for me, right? Cause for me, it's not just filling out a calendar 160 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:49,000 reform. It's doing a bunch of things. And I'll show you that in a little bit as well. 161 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:56,200 Specific timing required. So this is like someone becomes a member of your podcast and 162 00:20:56,200 --> 00:21:04,440 gets a private podcast feed. You don't want them to have to wait until you're at your 163 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:13,240 computer to give them access to the private podcast feed. And then finally, can't forget. 164 00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:21,840 So this is something where it's a task that needs to happen at a specific time or based 165 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:29,640 on a specific thing and you might forget, right? So when I was giving a talk like this 166 00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:38,520 last week, someone said like copying and pasting is easy. And I'm not going to pay for a subscription 167 00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:44,400 to basically just copy and copy and paste information into my app. So this is for something 168 00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:55,400 later. Switch back to this camera. They said like, I'm not going to pay endless. They said 169 00:21:55,400 --> 00:22:03,760 they use the words, uh, endless subscriptions. Um, and like, yeah, copying and pasting is 170 00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:14,640 easy, right? I could copy and paste, uh, someone's, uh, calendar information into Notion myself 171 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:22,520 or I could copy and paste a standard, uh, hey, we're recording tomorrow. Here's what 172 00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:33,280 you need to know. Email and send it. But what if I forget to do those things? Then my schedule 173 00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:40,560 won't be complete. Then my guest won't get crucial information that they need. Why would 174 00:22:40,560 --> 00:22:48,400 I leave that up to chance when I have a tool that could send those emails out for me, right? 175 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:56,600 Obviously and savvy Cal and Cal.com all have send an email one week before the event, one 176 00:22:56,600 --> 00:23:02,240 day before the event, one hour before the event, and you can set the timing. So yeah, 177 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:07,760 like maybe it's not worth it to pay to copy and paste, but it's worth it to not to never 178 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:13,320 have to forget about it. And so that's the type of automation tasks that we're looking 179 00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:20,720 at. Um, so some of my favorite automation tools. So if you go into this to that with 180 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:27,680 this in mind, I need to update this graphic, but, uh, my favorite automation tools are make, 181 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:34,800 which we just saw alternative is Zapier. Uh, you connect lots of lots of apps that way. 182 00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:44,920 Right. So like, um, you have lots of apps that can be connected through Zapier and make. 183 00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:50,760 I also use shortcuts on my iPhone. Uh, this is mostly for information gathering. So like 184 00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:57,120 I do a three things in podcasting episode every week and I'm gathering stories, uh, 185 00:23:57,120 --> 00:24:02,160 from across the internet. I have a shortcut to copy the crucial information from that 186 00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:08,160 story and paste it into obsidian so that I have like a little repository, repository 187 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:13,880 of stories I can pull from Google assistant and other on device automation tools exist 188 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:20,880 for Android. Um, air table, I say alt notion notion is not good at automation. So like there's 189 00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:27,360 no alternative. In my opinion, notion is no longer an alternative for air table, right? 190 00:24:27,360 --> 00:24:32,440 But like it is one for storing a bunch of data and sending information there, but air 191 00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:40,560 tables, automations are incredible. They're the thing that I miss most about air table. 192 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:45,240 And then scheduling, I use Cal.com now, but Calendly and Savi Cal, they all do the same 193 00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:51,920 thing. I use Cal.com because, uh, it's free and does everything that Calendly and Savi 194 00:24:51,920 --> 00:25:00,360 Cal do and more, um, their models really interesting. Uh, but I like Calendly and Savi Cal. Uh, 195 00:25:00,360 --> 00:25:08,640 I have a question coming in here. I think maybe I'll be able to read it. Uh, uh, uh, 196 00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:18,240 maybe not. God, I like really can't stand LinkedIn. Um, for this sort of thing. I like, 197 00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:27,800 okay. So I see, can I go to this notification? Um, I'm also really sorry. I'm probably, I 198 00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:38,760 don't want to mispronounce your name. I think it's 10, 10, 10, 10, you. Um, I, I am seeing 199 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:46,760 this is very frustrating. I'm seeing part of your comment. Uh, so let's see. Perhaps 200 00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:51,360 the most common automation. Oh, oh, nope. That wasn't a question. You just liked it. 201 00:25:51,360 --> 00:25:55,800 That was very dumb on my part. I'm sorry. Um, no wonder I couldn't see it. There was 202 00:25:55,800 --> 00:26:04,760 nothing there. Um, this notification just looked like, uh, a question. So sorry about 203 00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:10,760 that. And thanks for the like and for being here. I appreciate it. Um, if you are joining 204 00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:17,000 in, uh, and you have questions or comments, feel free to leave them. Um, it looks like 205 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:22,240 most of you are watching on LinkedIn right now. So I will, uh, try to do my due diligence 206 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:29,200 and check LinkedIn for questions and comments that come in. Okay. So we just walked through 207 00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:34,040 automation tools and the four questions I want to tell you about the components of automation 208 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:41,120 right now. Uh, and then I'll move on to like building one and how this works. Right. Um, 209 00:26:41,120 --> 00:26:49,520 so, uh, there are four components to automation. One, the first one is the trigger. Some event 210 00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:56,520 needs to kick off the entire automation. This could be someone fills out a form. Uh, someone 211 00:26:56,520 --> 00:27:03,040 visits a website, right? That could be a trigger. Um, someone sends you an email. Uh, someone 212 00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:10,180 books a time on your calendar. These are all triggers. Something happens and that signals 213 00:27:10,180 --> 00:27:19,240 to your automation tool to do a bunch of stuff. Uh, the next component, number two is actions. 214 00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:25,360 So once an automation is triggered, one or more actions need to be performed. This could 215 00:27:25,360 --> 00:27:38,000 be a copy the form information into a notion. It could be, um, send an email, right? I had 216 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:41,480 an automation for a while and I was trying to respond to like horror, a horror, which 217 00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:47,440 is helper reporter out, uh, requests that whenever I got an email from helper reporter 218 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:57,840 out that had the word podcast or podcasting or podcaster in it, copy a link to that email 219 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:02,920 into Google sheets. And then I would check Google sheets once every couple of days. So 220 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:08,040 instead of having to sifting through all of the horror requests that were coming in, I 221 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:14,720 was just surfaced. The ones that I felt were relevant to me. So that's an action. Copy 222 00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:23,520 a link to the email into Google sheets, right? One or more actions. Condition number three, 223 00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:32,640 you can also check to see if certain conditions, um, meet, uh, uh, if certain conditions are 224 00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:40,380 true to continue to those actions. So, um, you know, maybe you only want to read emails 225 00:28:40,380 --> 00:28:48,880 from people named Jim, right? So the trigger is you get an email. The condition is if name 226 00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:56,200 contains Jim, uh, then add it to spreadsheet or, you know, send me a push notification 227 00:28:56,200 --> 00:29:01,560 about it or whatever, right? Um, there are a number of triggers. Again, I'll show you 228 00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:05,080 like one of my more complicated automations so that you can kind of see all of this in 229 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:10,920 action. Um, but you can also choose the, and then number four is you can choose the timing 230 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:17,560 of your automations. So, uh, you can choose them to run immediately or at specific intervals. 231 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:24,200 Um, for some, it doesn't need to run because the more you run, the, the, the higher your 232 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:31,280 cost will be for some of these services, right? You're using a lot of resources. Um, for the, 233 00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:35,400 my helper reporter out automation, I knew I would get emails that I think it was six 234 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:41,840 a.m. noon and five p.m. or something like that, or maybe it was seven p.m. Uh, and so 235 00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:50,240 I would run the automation once at seven 30 p.m. Right. And, uh, then it would, you know, 236 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:55,200 get the last three check to see if it had my keywords and if it did add them to the 237 00:29:55,200 --> 00:30:04,240 sheet. So, uh, those are the four components trigger actions, condition timing. If we zoom 238 00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:08,880 out here, let's see, did I capture everything? I have some examples here. And then this is 239 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:16,040 the, uh, an info graphic for automating per task. If, um, this is going to be up at podcast 240 00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:22,040 workflows.com. So if you want to grab this graphic, you can. Um, but you know, I think 241 00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:28,960 the biggest part here is the, are the inputs and outputs clear? That's the main question 242 00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:37,480 you want to determine if you need to give it to a person or a computer. So, um, let's, 243 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:44,280 let me, uh, open up, make again, and we can look through some of these things. And then 244 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:51,560 I can also, uh, build out an automation for you. So let me just, I'll just, uh, check 245 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:57,400 the comments and questions here really quick. I don't see any questions or comments coming 246 00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:07,920 in. Um, so let me move on to, uh, the actual, the actual, uh, automation side of things. 247 00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:17,840 So, um, let me do, where's cal.com? Here it is. This is again, this is one of my more 248 00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:27,720 complicated automations, right? So the trigger here is someone books with me through cal.com. 249 00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:36,360 This lightning malt bolt means that it happens immediately as data arrives. And so as soon 250 00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:45,400 as someone books with me, this automation kicks off. That's the trigger. The conditions, 251 00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:50,680 this is something called a router. So when there are multiple conditions, um, in Zapier, 252 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:55,120 this is called paths. But when there are multiple conditions you want to take, you're going 253 00:31:55,120 --> 00:32:01,920 to need to basically tell, make or Zapier what to do if these conditions are met. And 254 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:10,120 so if the name of the event contains streamlined solopreneur, I wanted to do one thing. Uh, 255 00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:17,520 and then my fallback, but I also have kind of the specific, uh, filters for this. Um, 256 00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:23,000 really ultimately I'd have a fallback with no conditions on it. Um, but I don't necessarily 257 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:28,360 want that at least at this point. So, uh, the conditions are if, if the event contains 258 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:33,160 the word discovery or 15, because I do like a 15 minute discovery for people who fill 259 00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:39,040 out my coaching form, then do separate things. And so let's walk through this path first. 260 00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:43,840 The streamlined solopreneur one, there's a number of things I want to happen here. One 261 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:49,660 is create a Google doc. This is going to be the show notes doc. It's based on the show 262 00:32:49,660 --> 00:32:57,440 notes template and it fills the information out, um, with the information from Calendly. 263 00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:10,000 So I can show you, let me, uh, let me bring that up here so I can do show notes and I'll, 264 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:23,280 I just want to like sanitize. Oh, that's not, is that right? Let's see. Uh, I'd like to 265 00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:33,400 sort by, oh yeah, this is right. This is, uh, why is it in alphabetical order? Um, doesn't 266 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:41,200 matter. Let me pick one. We'll do Justine. Uh, and I just, I want to sanitize her email 267 00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:48,960 address. Um, because I don't like making other people's information public. Okay. So, uh, 268 00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:55,840 you can find, so here's the kind of final result email address website. Also this is 269 00:33:55,840 --> 00:34:02,240 legacy. I don't use that anymore, but all of this information is sent via the form, the 270 00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:08,040 cal.com form. Um, and then we get into like the summary and the top takeaways aren't, 271 00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:12,960 but all of this information, her links that she's included, uh, her bio, the topic we're 272 00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:20,120 talking about email address and website. I don't look, okay. I could copy and paste 273 00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:26,240 that from cal.com into a document, but I'd have to remember to do that. And I'd have 274 00:34:26,240 --> 00:34:30,520 to do it for every guest that books with me and like, yeah, it doesn't happen that often. 275 00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:39,000 I interview like maybe 40 people per year and that number is going down now. But why 276 00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:44,400 should I have to remember to do that? Which, you know, copy and pasting it might take me 277 00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:51,920 15 minutes per person, right? So 15 times, uh, 40 is what that's like 10 hours. Did I 278 00:34:51,920 --> 00:35:01,160 do that right? Um, that's 10. That's a whole work day, right? Uh, or more. And that doesn't 279 00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:06,200 even include the fact that like it takes mental energy to start to like stop a task and start 280 00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:13,760 a task. And so why would I do, and that's only one part of this. So like when, you know, 281 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:18,840 once a day I would maybe churn through or once every couple of days I would churn through 282 00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:24,320 the people I've booked with and then separately create a new Google document for each of them. 283 00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:27,520 And then that's only one part cause I also have them added to the notion database, which 284 00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:36,200 includes the Google doc. And then I send an email to my task manager, which is things 285 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:44,000 reminding me to do a post, uh, interview summary. So it sends the recording date and the guest 286 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:49,200 and then the due date is the recording date. So I know when I record with them, I want 287 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:53,200 to am meat. Like I want to do the summary that same day. So that's fresh in my mind. 288 00:35:53,200 --> 00:36:00,320 I can capture all the things, uh, quickly. So that is one route, right? Based on the 289 00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:06,040 condition event is called streamlined solopreneur. The other route is a lot simpler. Someone 290 00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:13,800 fills out my discovery form. I want to add them to the notion database. And so, uh, this 291 00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:18,000 is much simpler. It grabs the information from that form. It puts it in notion. It 292 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:27,480 marks them as a lead and it, um, marks them as they found me via, uh, via my email list 293 00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:34,920 because, uh, if they fill out the form, they're marked set. Like if they fill out the form, 294 00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:41,180 that also just automatically goes to notion. Um, and so that's what this Calendly router 295 00:36:41,180 --> 00:36:50,160 looks like. So that has all the components, right? Um, if we look at one that is, uh, 296 00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:55,880 like, okay, this is a good one, right? Because this is for when people want to apply, uh, 297 00:36:55,880 --> 00:37:00,160 when people apply to be a guest for my podcast, this is watching, uh, notion databases. This 298 00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:08,760 happens every three hours. To be honest, it could probably happen once a day. Um, but 299 00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:16,560 it will look for database items in the guest application notion database. And if they are 300 00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:23,360 accepted, send the accepted email. If they are rejected, send the rejected email. I 301 00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:28,360 could just send those emails, right? But then I'm copying and pasting. I'm looking for their 302 00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:38,400 email address. Here I just move them into the accepted or rejected column in notion 303 00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:44,040 and everything else is taking care of for me. Because it's the same email, right? Hey, 304 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:48,600 thanks so much, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? Uh, for the accepted email, it's like, 305 00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:54,040 Hey, name, thanks so much for submitting to be a guest. Actually, and I need to change, 306 00:37:54,040 --> 00:38:01,320 this is dumb. Um, and never change this. I'd love to have you on. And then like, I do build 307 00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:08,040 a link based on the information, uh, that they, um, filled out. So this is, I missed 308 00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:14,360 this part. I thought I got everything. Um, and then the rejection email looks similar, 309 00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:22,200 right? Um, Hey, thanks so much. You know, I, unfortunately, I don't think you're a good 310 00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:32,520 fit for the show, blah, blah, blah. Uh, here are some reasons why. Yeah. And this is pretty 311 00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:37,320 candid. I'm just like, Hey, you probably pitched me a founder story, even though I explicitly 312 00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:46,520 say I don't do founder stories. Okay. Let's build an automation. Anybody watching here? 313 00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:56,520 Use here. Couple people. Great. Um, so I'm going to create a new scenario. Let's do, 314 00:38:56,520 --> 00:39:11,280 um, oh wow. Open AI. Sure. Let's, this is like, I should have thought of this ahead 315 00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:25,440 of time, right? Um, okay. Why don't we, this is good. Watch for when a new document is 316 00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:37,200 created. That's really good. Um, in the folder coaching. Great. Okay. So I've already, first 317 00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:42,000 of all, I've already connected my Gmail account. You know, you, you'll get, when you sign up, 318 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:46,280 you'll get instructions for like how to connect to your Gmail account. This is one place where 319 00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:55,640 Zappier is better than make. Um, I think Zappier like probably has a deal with make.com. Um, 320 00:39:55,640 --> 00:40:01,040 I'm sorry with Google, I think Zappier probably has a deal with Google to make life easier. 321 00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:08,000 Uh, or they just kind of, or the, I mean, maybe the worst scenario is they just kind 322 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:14,040 of like skirt the security things, but I don't think Google lets them do that. So anyway, 323 00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:16,840 you'll connect. They give you pretty, like they give you clear instructions on how to 324 00:40:16,840 --> 00:40:32,000 do that. Um, okay. So when a document is added to the coaching, um, form, uh, let's, uh, 325 00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:40,200 let's add it to a Google sheet, maybe. Um, I guess the other thing that like you, you 326 00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:47,960 would maybe do is create a tweet, right? Like maybe you have the text of a tweet in here. 327 00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:57,160 Let's do that. That's stupid. Uh, when like doesn't require real information. Um, so, 328 00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:09,680 yeah. So actually here's what I'll do. Uh, drive.google.com. I will create a folder 329 00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:28,000 called tweets, new folder tweets. Cool. All right. So now we'll go back here. I'll change 330 00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:35,760 the document. It's going to pull the fresh list and there's tweets. So when I add a document 331 00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:41,000 to Google sheets or Google docs, this could also be a Google sheet, right? Like maybe 332 00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:54,160 that's better. Um, well, let's see. Uh, probably if I show advanced text media quote post. 333 00:41:54,160 --> 00:42:00,240 Uh, yeah. So it's not like I can schedule this here. This is going to happen immediately. 334 00:42:00,240 --> 00:42:13,680 Right. So, um, maybe I grab, let's see, document ID, thumbnail, capabilities. Where's the content? 335 00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:34,640 Uh, export links. Did I miss it? Link. Document ID name. Parents spaces. Owners owned by me 336 00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:52,160 capabilities. Okay. Let's actually create one. All right. So we'll create a new doc. 337 00:42:52,160 --> 00:43:02,720 This is like such an academic example. Um, hello. This is an automated tweet from my 338 00:43:02,720 --> 00:43:15,200 live stream from my live stream. And then I guess my YouTube link. How about that? Okay. 339 00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:28,080 So we've got that. So if we go back to make, and I just run this module only, it will grab 340 00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:37,600 this information, found it. I mean, did it find it? Let's see. Owners permissions. Okay. 341 00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:43,520 So then like over here, now I should have like real information here. This is crazy. 342 00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:51,640 It doesn't get the content. This is all falling apart. This can't be right. Um, that's all 343 00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:57,040 right. I'll change it. This is part of automation, right? Like some of you are probably thinking 344 00:43:57,040 --> 00:44:02,680 now, if Joe doesn't even know this stuff, like if Joe's not making it look easy, how 345 00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:10,120 can I possibly do it? Um, it's a lot of, it's a lot of trial and error. I honestly, I bet 346 00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:27,880 there's, let's see. I'll put it here. Can I do that? I'll delete this module. Put that 347 00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:36,680 there. I bet there's a way, yeah, get content of document. That's dumb. Um, by mapping, 348 00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:45,120 ID, document ID. Okay. So that's a two step, right? I didn't anticipate that. That's okay. 349 00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:55,280 And then create post. The post is going to be the content, uh, like all of, how about 350 00:44:55,280 --> 00:45:05,280 all of the content? Title revision, suggested view text content. There we go. Uh, so now 351 00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:12,120 if I run this once, I might have to create a new one. Yeah. Cause it didn't, okay. So 352 00:45:12,120 --> 00:45:18,840 it didn't, uh, find that it didn't find that again. It, it'll only find a document once. 353 00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:23,760 This is another drawback I think of make where like, I think Zappi is a little bit better 354 00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:31,600 about this. You can really only like test a thing once, which is silly. Um, and I'm 355 00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:37,360 going to add an extra exclamation point here so that it runs properly. So that like we 356 00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:45,360 know, hello with two exclamation points means it worked. Okay. So we'll run this again. 357 00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:57,560 Okay. Now we'll go over to Twitter slash X. Hello. This is an automated tweet from my 358 00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:04,760 live stream. Great. So we've built an automation. It frankly didn't go as smoothly as I would 359 00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:17,520 have liked, but, um, it is, it is a lot of trial and error. Right. And so what I would 360 00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:26,960 recommend you do is kind of explore. Also, Zapier has pretty good AI. I haven't tested 361 00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:39,760 it in makes, but Zapier, build me a scenario that looks at a Google sheet and schedules 362 00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:50,960 a LinkedIn post for a specified time. Let's see if it can do this. I had this is I'm testing 363 00:46:50,960 --> 00:47:06,040 this live 364 00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:26,600 the blueprint. This is taking a while. Okay. Like modified the one I was looking at. That's 365 00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:36,720 crazy. Watch new rose. This is dumb. I mean, I guess I guess I was in this and so I asked 366 00:47:36,720 --> 00:47:43,960 it, but it did put these two things together for me with the right action. And then, okay, 367 00:47:43,960 --> 00:48:01,080 so I got to connect my account. Okay. That was super weird waiting for authorization. 368 00:48:01,080 --> 00:48:21,600 Do I actually need all this, man? This is not having. Oh, there we go. Okay. I don't 369 00:48:21,600 --> 00:48:29,400 know what I did before. Yes, this is what you want. That was unclear as well. I'm really 370 00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:40,760 glad that this is going as well as I thought it would. Content media type visibility. Re-sharable. 371 00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:52,600 So it looks like, oh, mentions. That's cool. It looks like there is no scheduling available. 372 00:48:52,600 --> 00:48:57,960 So like I want to be able to do that. But this is this would allow me to create a LinkedIn 373 00:48:57,960 --> 00:49:08,880 post based on, you know, a Google sheet that I'm looking at. So I'm not going to sit here 374 00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:13,520 and tell you that it's easy and you can just do it really quick. It is a learned skill. 375 00:49:13,520 --> 00:49:19,760 I think that some are, some tools are more user friendly than others. I think Zapier 376 00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:28,400 is more user friendly than make if I'm being honest with you. And Zapier does have a nice, 377 00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:38,520 a lower priced plan now. When I left Zapier, my plan was like $75 a month and my make plan 378 00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:53,480 is $10 a month. And so like I get like pay for the tools worth paying for, but also I 379 00:49:53,480 --> 00:49:59,600 had two tools that could do the same thing and one is 90% cheaper. So that's something 380 00:49:59,600 --> 00:50:05,000 to consider. Now I will say like I do help people with this and if you want help building 381 00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:11,680 automations definitely reach out. I think I don't have that lower third prepared, but 382 00:50:11,680 --> 00:50:16,000 sign up for my mailing list at podcastworkflows.com. I talk about this. I'm going to be talking 383 00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:20,480 about automations more, I think because I get a lot of questions about it. And I feel 384 00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:25,120 like this is a place where I can more or less differentiate my content from the content 385 00:50:25,120 --> 00:50:29,960 of lots of the great pot like people who are podcasting out there and giving really good 386 00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:35,800 advice. So that's it for this live stream. Thanks so much for watching. I will not be 387 00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:40,240 here next week because I'll be on vacation, but I'll be back the following week until 388 00:50:40,240 --> 00:51:01,720 then have a great end of July and I'll see you in August.