Save 10+ Hours Per Week With These AI & Automation Systems

[SPEAKER_00]: time to fuel your business success. [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Harmonious and Lunch. [SPEAKER_00]: We're bringing you bite-sized advice and expert conversations to drive clarity in row five days a week. [SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you join our Facebook group at humanop.com slash lunch where it was shared with you in our guest hanging out so we can find our new business together. [SPEAKER_00]: If you're building a business, you're in the right place. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's dive in.

[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back in to some more bite-sized business advice today's episode. [SPEAKER_02]: We're talking all things automation. [SPEAKER_02]: How to save you time. [SPEAKER_02]: How to grow your business. [SPEAKER_02]: We're talking to someone who's an automation expert and a podcaster, which is super exciting. [SPEAKER_02]: Joe Casabona. [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the show and thanks for being here. [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, Brandon. [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks so much for having me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Also always good to talk to a fellow royal. [SPEAKER_02]: That is right, we just found out we both went to the University of Scranton, small world super cool. [SPEAKER_02]: But let's, I want to actually start with the podcasting. [SPEAKER_02]: I just read, you have three podcasts. [SPEAKER_02]: Is that true? [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I have a three active four kind of there. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my main show is called the Streamline Solarpreneur.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's where I talk about automations and systems to build a spacious life. [SPEAKER_01]: Streamline's podcaster, which is my updated kind of in batches. [SPEAKER_01]: I take the advice I'm doling out on Streamline Solarpreneur. [SPEAKER_01]: That is podcast specific and move it over there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joe's audio note is my [SPEAKER_01]: In consistent, frequent, voice notes podcast, so I usually record that from my phone and uploaded just about stuff I'm thinking about around business, solar, pernureship, parenting, whatever life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I also have a podcast called Start Local, which I have two other co-hosts for, so they're the faces, and I'm kind of the behind the scenes guy most of the time, where we highlight businesses and organizations in Chester County, PA, which is where I currently live. [SPEAKER_02]: That's super cool. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but I have this one and one other one that I dabble with, I couldn't imagine any more than that.

[SPEAKER_02]: But Julia Automation's expert, and that's probably why you make it feasible. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: So then what thing? [SPEAKER_02]: Go ahead.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I was going to say, I think like I had a chronic problem for a long time of not saying no to enough things. [SPEAKER_01]: And instead of saying no for a while, I was just like, well, let me see how much I can do without doing everything. [SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, some podcasts have fallen by the wayside, but I've always maintained kind of like three active because they light up like different parts of my brain and interests. [SPEAKER_02]: I like it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it's probably, well, I know it's not probably. [SPEAKER_02]: It's definitely a lot to keep up with that along with doing everything else to run a business. [SPEAKER_02]: So let's dive into automations because if you're not automating things in today's world, your business just won't last very long. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm convinced. [SPEAKER_02]: or it'll be so bloated with people that are unnecessary. [SPEAKER_02]: It's still all that's very long.

[SPEAKER_02]: So we're talking specifically, automations, your expertise is solo per newer spot casting, like you said, but I think everyone can learn from this stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: So where do you typically start with automations? [SPEAKER_02]: What's the lowest hanging fruit for typically people or people typically? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think there are lots of different types of automations. [SPEAKER_01]: I think the lowest hanging fruit is like a small task that you have to do frequently.

[SPEAKER_01]: So one example is [SPEAKER_01]: automatically doing automatic bill pay right is one. [SPEAKER_01]: So you don't have to remember to pay your bills. [SPEAKER_01]: You set up automatic bill pay right so that your water doesn't get shut off or whatever. [SPEAKER_01]: On the business side of things what that could look like is.

[SPEAKER_01]: When a file is put into Dropbox, email my editor, or email my VA, or when I update a status in Notion, again, email my VA, or upload this file to wherever. [SPEAKER_01]: And then those things could be the basis for bigger automations, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So I just set up on this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was told I went to this conference last week and was basically told like, hey, [SPEAKER_01]: You need some presents on social media if you want to grab your if you want to grow your mailing list and I hate social media and so I need to do it my way and I write a newsletter.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love long form writing and I put the newsletters in notion [SPEAKER_01]: I will send it out on my kit account to my mailing list, but then I have my VA take it and post it on both my personal blog and my sub-stack on different dates so that my personal blog becomes the primary link, according to Google, whatever's their first is usually the primary.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then I also have an automation in Zapier that says, hey, when a new entry is added to this database, take the text, [SPEAKER_01]: filter it through chat GPT, I have this really long prompt that's like really specific about how I want this post to be formatted and don't re-word it. [SPEAKER_01]: Just like make sure it follows this structure and then add that back into the database, the notion database as the LinkedIn post so I can just copy and paste it into LinkedIn.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so instead of me like sitting there going, all right, what's like a LinkedIn friendly hook for this newsletter? [SPEAKER_01]: How long should it be? [SPEAKER_01]: What should I include? [SPEAKER_01]: What's my call to action? [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm using Zapier with a combination of AI to do that for me. [SPEAKER_01]: And again, I'm really specific about like, don't add your own stuff here. [SPEAKER_01]: Only use my words re-arranged for LinkedIn.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that stuff is, it's a huge time saver, but it's also, it also skirts the line of, you know, posting using AI or creating content using AI, which I know you're, you're absolutely not doing in that scenario. [SPEAKER_02]: When it, when you tell it to be specific and don't, don't, don't re, don't hallucinate all those fun things. [SPEAKER_02]: I wish more people knew how simple it could be because you're already probably doing the work once and you're just repurposing it.

[SPEAKER_02]: So in in that vein though, it sounds like you're taking text to text you ever use it to go text to image and maybe create a visual story out of that the blog post you write.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've used it to generate like accompanying images and the prompt I'll use for that is something like summarize this blog post into one to two sentences and then use those two sentences to generate a prompt to generate an image because usually when I say like look at this blog post and generate an image for it it misses the mark because it's not there's too many things right and so I found that to be better.

[SPEAKER_01]: ChatGPT, especially, is getting so much better at this, but when I was doing it, all of them kind of looked the same and weird.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it worked out really well for me when I did this thing last year called Podcast Advent. [SPEAKER_01]: because I wanted them all to kind of look the same. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's like I talked about this, but it's like about Christmas and advent and like definitely incorporate that. [SPEAKER_01]: And it does a really good, you did a really good job at that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I should probably revisit it, especially now that they've gotten text really good, actual words and stuff, and it's really impressive. [SPEAKER_01]: So I haven't done that in a while, but I have done that. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I will say what you said that was in the key for me at least to where to go from blog posts or newsletter or whatever along form content right to image is is still really difficult like the tools they put out some weird stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've noticed if you insert three or four steps in between your start and your endpoint, you can refine that prompt down. [SPEAKER_02]: And you actually do get really good quality stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: Everybody's talking about it. [SPEAKER_02]: Everybody knows the prompt is what you get. [SPEAKER_02]: The quality of the input is the quality of the output.

[SPEAKER_02]: So the more time you spend on that, which it sounds like you've dialed in for your blog to link in, [SPEAKER_02]: That's where the magic comes. [SPEAKER_02]: So what tools are you using? [SPEAKER_02]: You said Zapier, you said chat GPT. [SPEAKER_02]: I personally use NADN a lot, linking other various tools together, kind of like Zapier. [SPEAKER_02]: But what are you using? [SPEAKER_02]: What are your favorite automation tools?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, you are now the third person to mention NADN to me in the last week, which means I have to sign you got to get on it. [SPEAKER_01]: I know, I have that rule, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Because like, you know, when someone recommends a TV show, they say like, oh, you know what TV show you would really like? [SPEAKER_01]: What they really mean is I really like this TV show. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel the same way, like, you know, it's a great tool, like this thing I just discovered in the views once. [SPEAKER_01]: But you're the third person until I'm definitely going to check it out now. [SPEAKER_01]: My favorite automation tools are, yeah, Zapier. [SPEAKER_01]: Make to some extent, I love make for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't recommend that for, you know, I got my masters in software engineering at the U. Also, I learned that like only people from the University of Scranton College. [SPEAKER_02]: I was gonna say, like that's the U is Miami, but only right. [SPEAKER_01]: That's why I felt confident in dropping it on you, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so like, make.com, I think is better for people who can tolerate a higher learning curve because there are like, [SPEAKER_01]: The reason it's cheaper is because it abstracts away some of the ease that Zapier has, but I do like it. [SPEAKER_01]: And then on the AI side, I've been really heavy with chat GPT for general research and code. [SPEAKER_01]: I've been doing a lot of vibe coding lately.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then clawed for, you know, general creative, general creative work. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like having AI. [SPEAKER_01]: I think we probably established. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like having it right for me. [SPEAKER_01]: But I will use it a lot for rubber ducking, which is a term, again, and programming that essentially means like. [SPEAKER_01]: programmers would keep rubber ducks on their desk and then talk problems through with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like talking, just speaking it out loud helps you arrive at a solution. [SPEAKER_01]: I think we've all probably experienced that. [SPEAKER_01]: You go to a friend and you're like, hey, I'm really struggling with this and then you talk through it. [SPEAKER_01]: And then you're like, I have the solution. [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for your help. [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for just standing there. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, so programmers use a rubber duck. [SPEAKER_01]: I've been using Claude for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Where I'm like, hey, I'm thinking through this thing. [SPEAKER_01]: What am I not considering? [SPEAKER_01]: Like, what is [SPEAKER_01]: What is outside of my bubble? [SPEAKER_01]: And the really important thing that I include in every prompt or in the project is, don't just blindly agree with me, push back on my assumptions. [SPEAKER_01]: Because otherwise, you're absolutely right. [SPEAKER_01]: It's more flattering than my mom and I'm Italian. [SPEAKER_02]: I am too.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know exactly what you're talking about. [SPEAKER_02]: But it is a great idea, Joe, this is inspirational, like hang out. [SPEAKER_01]: I said I want chicken for dinner. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's funny. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so I learned programmers are crazy. [SPEAKER_02]: Is that a little bit that way you're saying because they talked to rubber ducks. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, I don't even have like a physical rubber duck.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just kind of talk to the air and my wife has come down to my office and she's like, who are you talking to?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, just me, just no one the ether. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, but we're not always okay. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, right? [SPEAKER_01]: It has helped me because I'll say like, Oh, and then I do this. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and I'm like, just, I don't know, just like hearing it outside of your head. [SPEAKER_01]: I think leads you down a different path. [SPEAKER_02]: I agree.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think talking out loud is a beautiful strategy, but the second you add a rubber duck or it's where I'm going to question you a little bit. [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe this is why people have dogs. [SPEAKER_01]: Because when they talk to their dog and it's not as crazy. [SPEAKER_02]: There you go. [SPEAKER_02]: There you go. [SPEAKER_02]: That's funny. [SPEAKER_02]: I will say, though, I think that's a brilliant tip, and I've done this before with Gemini is my AI of choice.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I tell it to even analyze meeting notes, like meeting transcripts with our team, and I'll say, going to analyze these responses, I know I am positive and optimistic all the time. [SPEAKER_02]: I really only see what's working first, and it takes me a long time to see the negative side.

[SPEAKER_02]: so i i remember one meeting or super mean i was like go play devil's advocate go analyze these this transcript [SPEAKER_02]: and one person on our team followed somebody else and said, I agree with Dave, what Dave said. [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's a good way to go. [SPEAKER_02]: And it said, Corey seems like he's really weak and doesn't have any thoughts for himself because he agrees with other people. [SPEAKER_02]: I was like, Jim, I chill out to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is bad. [SPEAKER_02]: I think not to that extent. [SPEAKER_02]: You could tone it down a little bit. [SPEAKER_02]: But having that that someone else or something else that can think intelligently, not like a rubber duck. [SPEAKER_02]: to poke holes in your plan, just helps you get to the solution way faster. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely. [SPEAKER_01]: And like, you know, I think what I don't, I don't want people to hear what I'm not saying, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because don't let AI think for you. [SPEAKER_02]: No. [SPEAKER_01]: Let it surface things that you would have never thought of, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Because that's what it's doing. [SPEAKER_01]: Like a large language model. [SPEAKER_01]: I think we all probably know this now, right? [SPEAKER_01]: But it's just like it's essentially doing extremely advanced word association. [SPEAKER_01]: So when I say I'm thinking about this thing, what am I missing? [SPEAKER_01]: It knows.

[SPEAKER_01]: It knows a lot about me and so it knows my background and my preferences and prejudices and whatever prejudice and like the things I'm predisposed to thinking not like prejudicing and so other people. [SPEAKER_01]: And then it could push back and present different perspectives and I appreciate that because. [SPEAKER_01]: Even if I talk to the five closest people in my orbit, we're all kind of similar, we're attracted to people we're similar to.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's really good to get things that I wouldn't have heard from my mastermind group where I would have thought of wouldn't have thought of myself.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, it's a great strategy. [SPEAKER_02]: So why don't we talk about, well, we'll wrap up with this. [SPEAKER_02]: Give me either some or one of your favorite automations that either you use or you've helped other people implement. [SPEAKER_02]: That's one of the biggest time savers throughout the week. [SPEAKER_01]: I think far and away the biggest one is my podcast processing. [SPEAKER_01]: It's like a series of automation.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I will talk about the post production stuff and leave the pre-production stuff for another time. [SPEAKER_01]: So once I am done recording an episode with a guest, I take everything I use Riverside so I download the files from Riverside. [SPEAKER_01]: The files get renamed, I use an app called Hazel for this, and moved into a folder called needs editing. [SPEAKER_01]: The folder called needs editing is watched by Zapier or make whatever it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it looks for an episode number. [SPEAKER_01]: I always included an episode number because the episode number is related back to notion and the status is updated in notion to out for edit. [SPEAKER_01]: And my editor gets an email with a Google Doc that has all the show notes and any edit notes it needs. [SPEAKER_01]: Once my editor is done editing it, he uploads it back to the production folder in Dropbox.

[SPEAKER_01]: Again, with that episode number, the status is updated for to ready for scheduling. [SPEAKER_01]: And then my VA gets an email saying, hey, this is ready for scheduling. [SPEAKER_01]: All of the show notes are here. [SPEAKER_01]: I usually, I've been using AI to write the show notes in description. [SPEAKER_01]: Always included disclaimer at the bottom that AI wrote it based on the transcript. [SPEAKER_01]: if I haven't written something people know, I haven't written it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes I have to change it a lot, and I'm like, nah, it's not what I was going for, but it's getting a lot better lately. [SPEAKER_01]: And so my VA knows to take the files and she has the SOP for publishing it to my podcast host, to YouTube, and to sub-stack, and then she updates it to scheduled for publishing or whatever the status is. [SPEAKER_01]: So when I am done recording an episode, I record the intro.

[SPEAKER_01]: I ship out the summary and I don't see it again until it hits my podcast feed. [SPEAKER_01]: And so like this, this alone probably saves me like ten hours a week. [SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm not editing. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not even sending emails saying it needs to be edited. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not scheduling it. [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm not uploading the files or copying and pacing anything. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not sending emails to anybody telling them that it needs to happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are getting all that stuff automatically. [SPEAKER_01]: And it took some time to set up, but I would say like the five hours it may be took me to set up or according the SOP for my VA and connecting everything and testing it is well worth the investment because it does save me a legitimate amount of time.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, those things, they're so frustrating, by the way, to set up workflows and automations, but the payoff and the even the short term is so massive that it's like, okay, just push through, work through it. [SPEAKER_02]: So what I'm gonna do based on that is I'm gonna take this transcript, I'm gonna tell Gemini, spit out this process for me that Joe just described for uploading podcasts.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, knowing the tools that I use, give me the step-by-step workflow to go set this up for myself, and I will save four hours on what took you five hours. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you know, like, you know, I haven't looked at Zapier. [SPEAKER_01]: I was talking to somebody and they were like, oh, have you been using like AI agents? [SPEAKER_01]: And like up until this point, I feel like marketing teams have stolen the word agent and just like rebranded chat boxes that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, oh, I like, you know, I've built Zaps to do a bunch of things. [SPEAKER_01]: He's like, oh, no. [SPEAKER_01]: And he showed me the Zapier agent interface. [SPEAKER_01]: And so maybe you could even just have it right in a prompt for an agent, right? [SPEAKER_01]: And kind of do all that stuff yourself. [SPEAKER_01]: And then now you're saving four and a half hours. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to took me five hours, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the the agentic side of things is a little bit controlled by marketing at this point because a lot of a lot of agents are really just workflows. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's true. [SPEAKER_02]: It has a powerful powerful powerful powerful. [SPEAKER_01]: It's like how cell phone companies started using four G or five G before like four G and five G mean something like it means fourth generation fifth generation and it's related to upload and download speeds.

[SPEAKER_01]: And company like now to get now like team mobile has to say like five G ultra or whatever and like in his marketing company stole it. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the technical people. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I saw, I don't know if it was like, Xfinity or something is coming out with ten G or something like you can't go from fifth generation to tenth generations. [SPEAKER_01]: There's a missing myth. [SPEAKER_01]: Madness. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I love it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Joe, this was a lot of fun. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm quite sure you saved our audience a whole lot of time as long as they go implement this stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: And you have a special giveaway for them that I don't even know what it is because you said you were going to make it up on the spot. [SPEAKER_02]: So here's the link. [SPEAKER_02]: What is it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if you go to Casabone.org slash brand, and we talked a lot about AI and automations, and so you will get a free copy of my automation's database, which includes my AI swipe file. [SPEAKER_01]: And so, for the automation sounds overwhelming, what I would encourage you to do is pick one and grab the template. [SPEAKER_01]: It could be a Zapier template. [SPEAKER_01]: It could be a make blue print, but it can serve as just an idea's list.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I see Joe is using this tool. [SPEAKER_01]: What does that tool do? [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Joe uses to do is, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Joe word vomit into an app and then magically has a list of tasks into do is. [SPEAKER_01]: So use it as ideas for what's possible. [SPEAKER_01]: And you can, again, find that over at Casabona.org slash Brandon. [SPEAKER_02]: Joe word vomit. [SPEAKER_02]: Joe needs to go see a doctor. [SPEAKER_02]: I think that's yes. [SPEAKER_01]: I word, I mean, I'm from New York. [SPEAKER_01]: Like I've word vomit. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll I just say a lot of things, but that last one is real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like usually I'll work up until the moment my kids have school. [SPEAKER_01]: I have to go pick my kids up from school. [SPEAKER_01]: And so in the car, I'll just be like, here's everything I didn't do and everything I'm thinking of.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll like dictate that and the transcript automatically gets sent to chat to B.T., which comes up with a comma separated list of the tasks that I said I had to do and then zap your turns that into to do items that it sends to to do list. [SPEAKER_02]: That's pretty awesome. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if that one necessarily saved you time. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I know it does, but the mine clutter is on that one. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because this is why I do it, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to be fully present with my kids. [SPEAKER_01]: And if I'm thinking about everything I didn't do, I'm not fully present with them. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely. [SPEAKER_02]: This episode is gold, Joe. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for stopping by. [SPEAKER_01]: My pleasure, Brandon. [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks so much for having me. [SPEAKER_02]: where you're watching, listening the link to the forty automation blueprints is down below in the show notes or description.

[SPEAKER_02]: We'll catch you on the next episode of Harmonies at Launch. [SPEAKER_00]: Another episode of Harmonies at Launch in the Books. [SPEAKER_00]: I hope this episode made you think, and you grab some actionable ideas to prepare your business. [SPEAKER_00]: Don't forget to like, comment your takeaways, and subscribe wherever you're listening. [SPEAKER_00]: So we can help more entrepreneurs just like you to keep our names alive. [SPEAKER_00]: I'll see you next time.