June 5, 2025 • 29 mins
Ever wonder how some podcasters manage to run multiple shows while maintaining their sanity and family life? In this eye-opening conversation, automation expert Joe Casabona reveals his secrets for making computers do the heavy lifting in podcast production.
Through practical examples, Joe demonstrates how even seemingly "quick" manual tasks like copying information between apps create hidden costs. Each interruption requires you to stop what you're doing, switch context, and then rebuild momentum on your original task – turning a five-minute action into a 20-minute productivity sink. These small inefficiencies compound into hours of lost time each week.
The conversation explores specific automation solutions for podcasters, from creating private podcast feeds when members join to automatically moving files through your production system. Joe addresses common objections to automation tools, comparing platforms like Notion, Airtable, Zapier, and Make.com to help you choose the right fit for your workflow and technical comfort level.
Perhaps most powerfully, Joe shares his personal lawn mowing epiphany – how spending six hours cutting his overgrown grass cost him $1,200 in lost billable hours. This crystallized the realization that doing everything yourself isn't always the smartest approach. As he puts it, "You're a capable person. You can do a lot of things yourself. It's about freeing up your time to do the most crucial of your tasks."
Ready to reclaim hours in your podcasting workflow? Visit http://podcastworkflows.com/carl to access Joe's free automation template database featuring 40 proven automations you can implement today.
Connect with Joe:
Website
https://casabona.org/
Podcast
https://streamlined.fm/
Socials
X (formerly Twitter)
https://x.com/jcasabona
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/jcasabona
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@JoeCasa
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/
Got a question about something you heard today? Have a great suggestion for a topic or know someone who should be a guest? Reach out to us:
askcarl@carlspeaks.ca
If you're ready to take the plunge and join the over 3 million people who have joined the podcast space, we'd love to hear your idea and help you get started! Book your Podcast Strategy Session today:
https://podcastsolutionsmadesimple.com/get-started/
Never miss an episode! Subscribe wherever you get your podcast by clicking here:
https://communicationconnectioncommunity.buzzsprout.com
Follow us on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/podcast-solutions-made-simple
Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/podcastsolutionsmadesimple/
Follow us on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/groups/podcastlaunchmadesimple
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/carlrichards72
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carl Richards (00:04):
Welcome to Communication Connection
Community, the podcaster'spodcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news
(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
So strap in, it's going to beone amazing ride.
Let's dive into today's episode, and my guest today is no
stranger to the world ofpodcasting.
Joe Casabona is a podcast andautomation coach who helps busy
(00:48):
solopreneurs take back theirtime.
Who doesn't want more time?
If you had 25 hours in a day,would you take it?
Of course you would.
Some even say he perfectlyblends content creation and
technology, like it's the bestcup of coffee you've ever had.
There's imagery for you, by theway.
He says that, not me.
Joe's strategies come from hismany years of experience over 10
(01:11):
years creating podcasts, morethan 15 years teaching and over
20 years as a web developer.
When he's not producing andcoaching podcasters, you can
find Joe spending time with hisfamily enjoying baseball or
talking too much about Star Wars.
Oh, my goodness, it's anotherone of those kids on the block
here and I'm a Trekkie.
(01:31):
But that's okay, we'll getalong, I'm sure, joe.
Welcome to the podcast.
Joe Casabona (01:36):
Thanks so much, Carl, for having me.
I'm really excited to be here.
Carl Richards (01:40):
Okay, favorite Star Wars character, let's start
there, get it.
Joe Casabona (01:50):
Let's just get the dirty laundry out of the way.
Obi-wan kenobi, which is boring, uh, but you know, if I have to
pick like extended universe,I'm gonna go ahsoka tano.
I just think like her story arcis great okay, all right.
Carl Richards (01:57):
Okay, I actually grew up watching star wars, the
original three, which wasactually the last six the middle
, the middle, yeah, yeah, uh sonew hope empire strikes back.
And return to the Jedi.
I would say Yoda would be myfavorite character, probably
because he just spoke the waythat I sometimes speak after uh,
(02:19):
way too many cups of coffee, sothere yeah, yeah, hey, he was
my senior quote.
Joe Casabona (02:24):
So Way too many cups of coffee.
So there you go.
Carl Richards (02:25):
Yeah, hey he was my senior quote.
Philosophy, too, like I meanmaster of philosophy who
couldn't, you know, love Yoda,yeah.
And then later on, yoda becameCGI, which just made him do some
cool things that he could neverdo when he was just a puppet
Right.
Joe Casabona (02:40):
Right, yes, yes.
Or the puppeteer, which I thinkFrank Oz was the puppeteer and
the voice would have been veryimpressive for him to do it
would have been, and I don'teven know if Frank Oz is still
around.
I'm trying to no, I don't thinkhe is.
Carl Richards (02:54):
Oh God, rest his soul.
Such a great, such a greatvoice of many, many characters
Anyhow.
But you're also a podcaster, sowe have kindred spirits there.
Being both sci-fi fanatics, Iguess you could say Me more
Trekkie than you in the StarWars universe, but still in the
universe somewhere right Withspaceships that go faster than
my car.
So absolutely.
Joe Casabona (03:15):
I want to make a quick stat correction.
He is alive.
He's 80 years old and I justknow that.
I want to correct this becausewhen I listen to something and
it's factually incorrect, Ishout at the podcast like they
can hear me through time andspace.
So for anybody who is shoutingthrough time and space, I heard
you and I looked it up and he'sstill alive.
Carl Richards (03:34):
Well, don't rest his soul yet.
God, Frank Oz, keep at it.
You're looking great and stilldoing fine, yeah, but podcasting
you've been at this for quite awhile.
How did you get, how did youfind yourself in this crazy
space podcasting?
What led you here?
Joe Casabona (03:52):
Yeah, I think so.
I mean the origin.
Origin was I was out, myfriends and I had just like a
like a guy's like campingweekend and we were talking
things.
And I have my master's insoftware engineering.
I know a lot about computersand technology, and my friends
seemed to know a lot about a lot.
(04:13):
I'm like how do you guys?
This was like 09, maybe.
I'm like how do you guys knowall this stuff?
And they're like we listen topodcasts.
And so that's when I startedlistening and then like most
people maybe not most, but manypeople who listen to podcasts
they think eventually I can, Ishould do this.
So in 2012, my friends and Istarted a podcast a bunch of
white guys talking about thingswe don't know anything about.
(04:34):
That was the format for theearly 2010s.
Give it the old college try in2016.
I had just got a remote job, Iwas moving away from friends and
family and I thought thatpodcasting would be a good way
for me to stay connected and getkind of the extrovert side of
(04:57):
me out while I was working kindof remotely away from friends
and family.
Carl Richards (05:03):
And here you are today.
Joe Casabona (05:04):
Here I am today.
Carl Richards (05:05):
Eight years later and it's funny, 2009 being the
first time you heard about it Ithink it was 2012 for me and I
remember the moment when I wasintroduced to it.
I was doing speaker trainingand one of my colleagues said oh
, you're doing speaker training,oh, that's pretty cool, you're
helping people on the stages andget better at public speaking.
(05:26):
And he said you should do apodcast.
And I remember saying at thattime and tell me if this was you
, what's a podcast?
And even after that, even afterthey explained it, I'm like
okay, I don't know why you'retalking about me getting on this
radio thing with I'm already onthe radio doing this part-time
speaker training thing.
I don't know why you're talkingabout me getting on this radio
thing with I'm already on theradio doing this part-time
speaker training thing.
(05:46):
I don't want to do my own likerun my own radio station thing.
I had no concept at all untilseveral years later and I
realized, oh, that's what it is,okay.
And now, like you, I help peopleon the backend, do things in
the podcasting space, so it'seasier for them to well, as
you've, as you've indicated like, save a lot, a lot of time,
(06:09):
otherwise people would bepulling their hair out.
They'd look like me and, forthe record, if you're hearing my
voice, not looking at my face,you know there's not a lot on
top of my head, so, butdefinitely it was.
It was a learning curve for meas well, when I finally did get
into that, get into that space.
So you and I though, eventhough we work on the back end,
(06:29):
you do something completelydifferent.
You're more in the automationspace.
So explain a little bit whatthat is and we'll get into the
how in a minute, but not what itis.
Well, okay, let's talk aboutwhat it is and why it's so
important.
Joe Casabona (06:43):
Yeah.
So I think maybe the mostsuccinct way I usually put it is
automation is making computersdo stuff for you so you don't
have to do it right.
So this could be sending anemail or adding some information
to Notion or Airtable orwhatever tool that you happen to
use.
If you are doing automatic billpay for your mortgage or your
(07:08):
rent or your electric bill orwhatever you're doing.
Automation, right, it's justlike a thing that you can take
out of your brain and drop in acomputer so you never have to
think about it.
And the reason it's soimportant is because for anybody
who's doing a podcast, whodoesn't have a large team of
people, they know it's a lot ofwork, right, just like you, carl
(07:30):
, you know it's a lot of workand you have a bunch of people
with you.
But you are, you know you'renot like Joe Rogan or Conan,
right, where you're, you justget to talk, basically, right, I
don't want to undercut like,cause they're probably still
doing some research, but forpeople who are doing it on their
own, they're doing the researchand the talking and probably
the editing and the publishingand the promoting, and it's a
(07:51):
lot of stuff to think about.
Carl Richards (07:54):
And that stuff that you're talking about takes
time.
I have a coach that calls it orrefers, refers to it as those
$10 tasks, the tasks that youdon't want to do but seemingly
you end up doing because, well,it just seems like it'll be
easier if I just do them allmyself to begin with, but not
even realizing that there's thisthing or various tools we can
(08:17):
use that will help us.
And it's funny how youmentioned the bill payment side
of things, because it's not thatmany years ago, if you needed
to pay a bill, you had to pullout a piece of paper that was a
little bit smaller than anenvelope.
It was called a check, and youhad to not just sign it, you had
to write in the date, you hadto write in the amount, who it
(08:41):
was going to.
Yeah, you had to write in whoit was going to, then you had to
sign it, then you had to put itin an envelope.
Joe Casabona (08:48):
Little memo, right , so you know what it's for.
Carl Richards (08:51):
Right on the envelope, take it to a postal
station so they can put a stampon it and then your bill is paid
.
Now, as you say, it'sautomatically.
It's been automated.
You set it up to have itautomatically come out of your
bank account.
You don't even think about it.
I don't know about you, joe.
I don't remember when the lasttime was I actually wrote a
(09:13):
physical check.
I've cashed a physical physicalcheck in the last year.
I know because every now andagain I'll get a check from a
client.
It's rare, but if every now andagain something will come by
check, but the actual process ofbill payments, a lot of that.
Now, you're right, it'sautomated.
So how is it working then?
For a podcast, how is it you'reable to save people hours in
(09:39):
this space?
Joe Casabona (09:40):
Yeah Well, like you said, right, I think you
broke it down really well withwriting a check.
People look at that task andthey go oh OK, well, carl just
made it sound a lot like ittakes a lot longer than it
actually does.
I write out the check, I put itin an envelope, I get the stamp
, I mail it, but you need tothere's a lot of things, micro
tasks, that happen there Makesure you're spelling the
(10:01):
person's name right, make sureyou get the amount correct, find
your stamps, find yourcheckbook.
I've been incorporated as abusiness for like 10 years.
I just ordered new checks.
Like two months ago I sent thelast check out and I did that
because I wanted to have a papertrail for this particular
(10:22):
transaction.
And so, yeah, there's a lot oflittle things in there.
But what you're also notconsidering, right?
I'll give you an example.
I say a great way to figure outwhat to automate is, if you are
copying information from oneapp to another, probably a good
(10:42):
candidate for automation.
I said that in a talk recentlyand someone said copying and
pasting is easy.
I'd rather do that than pay fora subscription to some other
piece of software.
Okay, fine, let's say that isthe case.
Someone fills out yourscheduling form and then you
(11:03):
copy and paste that informationinto, let's say, trello, let's
say Google Sheets, whatever youprefer.
So you have to stop what you'redoing.
Open that app, copy it, pasteit into whatever other app,
let's say Notion, because Notioncopy and paste is like a
nightmare.
So you post it into Notion,make sure everything's right.
Okay, fine, that maybe took youfive minutes, except you had to
(11:25):
stop what you were doing.
You had momentum for anothertask.
Now, at the other end of it,you have to build up momentum to
start your new task.
So this five minute task took20 minutes of mental energy.
Right, and that's if youremember to do it.
That's the other thing.
If you don't remember to do it,then it's not going to get done
.
A computer will do it.
(11:46):
It'll always remember to do itand it won't take your mental
energy away from more importanttasks.
Carl Richards (11:53):
And the thing that's key there, too, is it's
taking you away from anothermental task, that there's a I
can't remember the exact stat orthe number but for every
interruption it takes is itanother 15 or 20 minutes to get
back into what it is you weredoing?
So add a little bit more time.
(12:14):
So, for every interruption orevery whatever it is that you're
thinking about and thoseinterruptions, even if you're on
task and you're pulled away,it's still, it doesn't matter,
it's still the same.
You have to be a verydisciplined person to not lose
that 15 minutes of focus, energy, right, right, mental clarity,
(12:34):
right On whatever it is you'redoing.
Yeah, is this a tool that we'reonly going to use for, for
example, that we're only goingto use for social posts or their
automation sequences?
That we can be using for otheraspects of our business as well?
Joe Casabona (12:49):
from the podcast perspective, Tons of other
aspects I have.
I actually did a lot as werecord this.
I did a live stream today whereI kind of did a little show and
tell in my make account makecom, formerly IntegraMAT.
It's a Zapier competitor.
Those are the two big like.
Connect one app to another,right?
(13:09):
So looking at the list now I'lljust run through a couple of
these automations.
Right One is when someonepurchases my membership.
Create a private podcast feedin Transistor.
Right so someone this is a taskthat I can't that has to happen
when they make the purchase.
(13:29):
That can't wait until I'm backat my desk.
Right?
If they purchase on a Friday at7 pm and they don't get their
podcast feed until 9 am onMonday like that's not, that's
not a good experience, right?
So that is one automation.
That's not a good experience,right?
So that is one automation.
Create a Notion entry from aGoogle Doc right so I use Google
(13:50):
Docs for my solo episodes andfor you know, I'll talk about my
interviews in a minute but,like, when I add a new document
into this specific folder inGoogle Drive, I have Make
watching that folder, copyingthe content and putting it into
Notion so that I have a fullysearchable database of all of my
content.
And then, because the rules ofthrees are really important here
(14:12):
, I'll just do.
I'll pick a third one, which issend an email to someone who
applied to be on my podcast.
Right, so anybody can apply tobe on my podcast.
Who applied to be on my podcast?
Right, so anybody can apply tobe on my podcast.
Usually, when I get like thosevery bad pitches from people who
are like hey name, I love yourfull name of show.
Latest episode was my favorite.
(14:32):
I love how AI summary I usuallyjust have like a canned email
that says thanks for yourinterest, please fill out the
form here.
That goes into a Notiondatabase and then when I change
the status of that applicationfrom accepted to accepted or
rejected, based on that, theyget an email and make sends that
(14:52):
email out.
So instead of again, this iseasy, right, especially if it's
the same exact text.
I can have a text expander,snippet or copy and paste it,
but I still have to open myemail client, copy the email
address in, write the email,check the subject line, send it.
Now I'm just moving a Notionrecord from one column to
another and the email gets sentout.
Carl Richards (15:15):
Wow, okay, so this is how you're able to save
people a lot of time.
What's the pushback you get,though?
I mean, you talked about thecopy and pasting, would you say.
Some of the pushback is even agenerational thing, where
there's, uh, you know gen xers,or maybe even you know boomers
who are trying to they've beenaccustomed to, you know, doing a
lot of things manually, thatthey just assume it's quicker
(15:38):
than trying to figure out thetech end of things yeah, so
usually, and this, this is where, like the blending you know I'm
again masters in softwareengineering.
Joe Casabona (15:49):
I have spent my entire adult life thinking like
a computer.
So like automation, I recognize, comes easy to me.
So the biggest pushback I getis um, you know, do I really
need to pay 20 bucks a month forZappy or 10 bucks a month for
make?
Um, and to that I usually saylike, let's just say this saves
you one hour.
Is one hour of your time worth$20 to you?
(16:12):
I suspect it's yes, but thebigger pushback I get is around
this is hard, I don't get itRight.
And that's really why I movedinto the, the niche I'm in.
Right, I was doing a webinarand my friend, jeremy ends,
introduced me.
As you know, joe has three kidsand also runs three podcasts,
(16:33):
and there was a parent in theaudience who had one of each of
those things and she was likehow can you do three of each?
I only have one of each and I'mstruggling.
And that was a verycrystallizing moment for me.
I'm like, yes, this is where Ican best serve people.
So that's a lot of what I do isI help people.
I'll either build theautomations for them, or we'll
(16:54):
walk through their process andI'll show you.
Because the other thing is likeI don't know what to automate,
right, that's another big thing.
You don't know what's possibleuntil you know what's possible,
sort of thing.
Carl Richards (17:07):
What can you automate?
I mean, we talked about acouple of things.
Are there steps that aremissing or things that you can
automate that a lot of peoplearen't aware of?
Joe Casabona (17:12):
Yeah, this is a really good question.
I think what I usually tellpeople to do is go to Zapiercom
or Makecom.
There you'll be able to exploreall of the apps they integrate
with.
You'll be able to explore allof the apps they integrate with
and if you see apps that you usein that list, then you can
automate something right.
And the way that I tell peopleto think about it is if you have
(17:33):
really clear inputs and areally clear output or an
outcome, let's say, then youcould probably automate that.
So if I pick a differentexample, here's a good one.
Update.
So I have a full podcast plannerin Notion, with different
(17:54):
statuses.
It builds a Kanban board so Ican see all right, I have these
episodes scheduled, these areout for edit, these are ready to
be scheduled.
I have an automation thatwatches Dropbox and I make sure
to name all of my files byepisode number.
So let's take 428.
(18:15):
If a file with 428 is put intothe needs editing folder in
Dropbox, is put into the needsediting folder in Dropbox, then
Make will automatically updateepisode number 428 in Notion to
mark for out for edit and sendan email to my editor.
Right, this sounds complicated.
(18:37):
I have been building automationsbasically since I started
podcasting.
So like very Rome wasn't builtin a day situation and I did
have to work with my editor tobe like, hey, are you cool with
this?
Is this like?
Does this work for yourworkflow?
But the same thing comes on thebackend.
Right, he knows to upload the.
We do two versions right, Onethat is ad supported and one for
(19:00):
members only.
When he uploads them back withthe episode number, the status
changes to ready for schedulingfor members only.
When he uploads them back withthe episode number, the status
changes to ready for scheduling,the members only episode gets
moved into the members folderand my VA gets an email hey,
these are ready for scheduling.
And because of that, once Iship an edit, uh, an episode out
for editing, I don't even seeit again until it hits my
podcast feed in overcast and Itrust my editor.
(19:23):
Right, that's another big partof it.
Carl Richards (19:26):
Well, yeah, trusting your editor is one step
unto itself, right that they'regoing to hit things, hit the
timelines and such.
So it sounds like you're thesolopreneur's best friend, but
it also sounds like you'repotentially the agency, like
(19:48):
mine, that's working withmultiple clients, that having
those.
I mean this is beyond SOPs.
This is systems set up thatallow you to be efficient
regardless of what's happening.
You really can't miss the mark,because the automations are
(20:10):
always going to hit the mark.
It's not.
There's there's no human errorthat's going to oh, I forgot to
send that email to so-and-so, orguy forgot to upload that for
transfer that from Dropbox toGoogle drive or whatever it is.
There's always the consistency,and it sounds like you've got
it down to a science.
Joe Casabona (20:30):
Yeah, I mean mean, it's something you know, this
lights me up, like I'd besitting at events in college, uh
like, uh, like a acousticguitar singer or whatever, and
like a solution would come to meand I would like you see you've
seen this in like techie movies, like the social network, where
, like the guy literally writesthe solution on a napkin I have
(20:52):
done that before Like this stuffreally lights me.
I mean, it's like it's my phonenow or whatever.
But, like you know, back in ohsix, I was like, oh, my God, I
got to write this down.
Um, so like, yeah, this stuffreally lights me up.
I put a lot of thought into it.
I do it a little bit on hardmode too, cause, like, coming
from the web development space,I've experienced a lot of
freelance web developers whowould say things like I hate
(21:14):
GoDaddy.
If someone comes to me andtheir website's on GoDaddy, I
make them move to the host Ilike, and I'm like that's not my
philosophy.
If you're happy with GoDaddy,state like, if you hate GoDaddy
that much, then they are not agood client for you.
I mean, that's really what itis.
And so if someone comes to meand they're like I hate Notion.
I prefer Airtable.
I'm like all right, well, let'sbuild these things in Airtable
(21:37):
for you then, because there'senough friction here.
I don't want to create morefriction by making them move to
a tool that they are unfamiliarwith.
Carl Richards (21:56):
Well, you also don't want to make them do more
work, right, because there's thelearning curve for the new
software or tool that they'reusing.
But then there's also otheraspects to that, right.
So you mentioned a couple here.
You mentioned Airtable, youmentioned Zapier, you've
mentioned Notion.
Are they equal, or are thereones that you know avoid like
the plague?
What's your philosophy on whichone or ones that you should
consider using?
Joe Casabona (22:17):
I love this question because I also love
looking at tools, right, like myfriend.
I'm in a mastermind with myfriend and he's like I'm like,
oh, I was looking at this tooltoday and he's like, of course
you were.
So my base answer is very likewhen you ask a teacher how long
does the paper need to be andthey say as long as it needs to
be.
My base answer is whatever youare most comfortable with is the
(22:40):
right tool for you.
I will say Notion is verypopular.
There are a lot of templatesand a lot of support for that.
So I think that if you'restarting somewhere and you're
looking for a lot of templatesand a lot of support for that,
so I think that if you'restarting somewhere and you're
looking for a lot of kind ofdo-it-yourself help, you'll find
a lot of do-it-yourself help onYouTube for Notion.
Someplace Notion inexplicablyfalls down is built-in
(23:06):
automations.
So like they rolled this outbut.
But it is like we can do awhole episode on this.
I'm not even going to get intoit.
Um, it's very bad and so likeyou might as well assume that
notion doesn't have automationsair table.
However, their automations areincredible, like you can send
(23:26):
emails when you update recordsin air table.
So, like, if you don't want toconnect a lot of things and, to
be honest, like connecting a lotof things means that there are
more links in the chain thatcould break Airtable is going to
be right for you.
And like there are Airtableexperts out there who can really
like soup up your Airtable foryou.
(23:48):
I'm very familiar with Airtable.
I moved from Airtable to Notionbecause it worked better with
me and my assistant.
I miss some of those thingsthough, like the automations.
So those are the note-taking orlike kind of like the planner
sort of things.
Right, these are likedatabase-esque tools.
As far as automation goes,there's three big to medium
(24:13):
players.
Zapier is the biggest one.
Everyone knows Zapier.
It's the biggest, it's the mostexpensive.
It's also probably the mostuser-friendly it does, you know,
it's got like deep roots andstrong connections with other
companies and so they can buildin tighter integrations.
A step down from that is makecom.
(24:35):
I love makecom.
Makecom for me was like 90%cheaper than Zapier, right, and
that works for me because Iunderstand the kind of
connections you need to make andthe learning curve was not as
high for me as somebody who'sjust starting from scratch Both.
Zapier has a free plan.
(24:56):
I forget if Make does.
And then right below that isPably.
I have no experience with Pably, but I've heard good things.
But I would say like, if you'restarting today, zapier is
probably your best bet, and ifyou're building like five or
fewer automations, the free planis probably your best bet.
And if you're building likefive or fewer automations, the
free plan is probably fine foryou At this point.
For me, like I have like RubeGoldberg machines built and so
(25:17):
like makecom is definitelybetter for me.
Carl Richards (25:20):
Of course, the best answer to this question is
if what Joe has said is allgobbledygook, then you need to
talk to Joe, Because maybe Joeneeds to become and Joe and his
team need to become a member ofyour team to help you push this
forward.
Because that's what you do, isyou help set these up for people
(25:41):
so they can free up six, eight,10, 12 hours of their life,
which it's hard to get that backright.
You'll never get time back, butit's so much easier when you
have those tools in place.
I think there's definitely somevalue in having a follow-up
conversation about oh, who knowswhat, because we're both
brothers to the core on a numberof different things.
(26:03):
But I wanted to give you theopportunity to pass something
along to our audience.
I know you've got someresources that will help people
get started, so what can youshare with them?
Joe Casabona (26:14):
So if you go over to podcastworkflowscom slash
Carl, you will get my freeautomation template database.
So what I would say to you hereis like, even if you don't want
to implement these yourself,you will see 40 automations that
I use to run my business andthis could generate some ideas
(26:36):
for you.
So I think it's a really goodresource.
It'll be over atpodcastworkflowscom slash Carl.
Carl Richards (26:41):
And we'll make sure that that link is in the
show notes, as well as how youcan connect with Joe, his social
handles, his everything relatedto Joe, so you can follow him
and learn from him.
And, of course, if you thinkit's time to work with Joe, then
that information will be thereas well.
Oh, my goodness, like I said,joe, we could talk another.
You know blue streak and youknow still only scratch the
(27:05):
scratch of the scratch, as itwere.
So Joe Casabona has been myguest today.
Before I turn you loose to gosave someone 12 hours worth of
time just with some automationsystems, I'll give you the final
thought.
Joe Casabona (27:19):
All right.
So if you're wondering if thisis really worth it for you, I'm
going to share a very briefstory with you.
A couple of years ago, I wasunable to mow my lawn for three
to four weekends in a row, whichmeant that I need to mow my
lawn on a weekday.
Weekdays include billable hoursfor me, and because my grass
(27:39):
was so long and my lawnmowersucks, it took me six hours to
mow my lawn, which means thatmowing my lawn that one day cost
me $1,200.
After that, I decided to hire alawnmower.
So now I pay this guy $35 everyweek in the summer and I never,
(28:00):
ever, have to think about itagain.
This is what automation can dofor you.
It's not about oh well, I canjust do it myself.
You're a capable person.
You can do a lot of thingsyourself.
It's about freeing up your timeto do the most crucial of your
tasks, so that you can spend therest of your time with your
family, with your friends, orplaying the drums, watching Star
(28:21):
Wars or Star Trek or whatever.
However else you want to spendyour time.
Carl Richards (28:25):
It would probably be Star Wars for sure,
especially if you happen to getinvited over, right?
So, yes, yes, that's a greatplace to leave it, joe.
It's been a fantasticconversation.
Joe Casabona, thank you so muchfor being my guest today.
Joe Casabona (28:37):
My pleasure, carl, thanks for having me.
Carl Richards (28:39):
And thank you for joining us today.
Special thanks to our producerand production lead, Dom
Carrillo, our music guru, NathanSimon, and the person who works
the arms all of our arms,actually my trusty assistant,
Stephanie Gaffor.
If you like what you heardtoday, leave us a comment and a
review, and be sure to share itwith your friends.
If you don't like what youheard, please share it with your
(29:00):
enemies.
Oh, and if you have asuggestion of someone who you
think would make an amazingguest on the show, let us know
about it.
Drop us an askcarl atcarlspeaksca.
Don't forget to follow us onLinkedIn and Twitter as well.
You'll find all those links inthe show notes, and if you're
ready to take the plunge andjoin the over 3 million people
who have said yes to podcasting,let's have a conversation.
(29:23):
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space, because, after all, we'rePodcast Solutions Made Simple.
We'll catch you next time.
Welcome to Communication Connection
Community, the podcaster'spodcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news
(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
So strap in, it's going to beone amazing ride.
Let's dive into today's episode, and my guest today is no
stranger to the world ofpodcasting.
Joe Casabona is a podcast andautomation coach who helps busy
(00:48):
solopreneurs take back theirtime.
Who doesn't want more time?
If you had 25 hours in a day,would you take it?
Of course you would.
Some even say he perfectlyblends content creation and
technology, like it's the bestcup of coffee you've ever had.
There's imagery for you, by theway.
He says that, not me.
Joe's strategies come from hismany years of experience over 10
(01:11):
years creating podcasts, morethan 15 years teaching and over
20 years as a web developer.
When he's not producing andcoaching podcasters, you can
find Joe spending time with hisfamily enjoying baseball or
talking too much about Star Wars.
Oh, my goodness, it's anotherone of those kids on the block
here and I'm a Trekkie.
(01:31):
But that's okay, we'll getalong, I'm sure, joe.
Welcome to the podcast.
Joe Casabona (01:36):
Thanks so much, Carl, for having me.
I'm really excited to be here.
Carl Richards (01:40):
Okay, favorite Star Wars character, let's start
there, get it.
Joe Casabona (01:50):
Let's just get the dirty laundry out of the way.
Obi-wan kenobi, which is boring, uh, but you know, if I have to
pick like extended universe,I'm gonna go ahsoka tano.
I just think like her story arcis great okay, all right.
Carl Richards (01:57):
Okay, I actually grew up watching star wars, the
original three, which wasactually the last six the middle
, the middle, yeah, yeah, uh sonew hope empire strikes back.
And return to the Jedi.
I would say Yoda would be myfavorite character, probably
because he just spoke the waythat I sometimes speak after uh,
(02:19):
way too many cups of coffee, sothere yeah, yeah, hey, he was
my senior quote.
Joe Casabona (02:24):
So Way too many cups of coffee.
So there you go.
Carl Richards (02:25):
Yeah, hey he was my senior quote.
Philosophy, too, like I meanmaster of philosophy who
couldn't, you know, love Yoda,yeah.
And then later on, yoda becameCGI, which just made him do some
cool things that he could neverdo when he was just a puppet
Right.
Joe Casabona (02:40):
Right, yes, yes.
Or the puppeteer, which I thinkFrank Oz was the puppeteer and
the voice would have been veryimpressive for him to do it
would have been, and I don'teven know if Frank Oz is still
around.
I'm trying to no, I don't thinkhe is.
Carl Richards (02:54):
Oh God, rest his soul.
Such a great, such a greatvoice of many, many characters
Anyhow.
But you're also a podcaster, sowe have kindred spirits there.
Being both sci-fi fanatics, Iguess you could say Me more
Trekkie than you in the StarWars universe, but still in the
universe somewhere right Withspaceships that go faster than
my car.
So absolutely.
Joe Casabona (03:15):
I want to make a quick stat correction.
He is alive.
He's 80 years old and I justknow that.
I want to correct this becausewhen I listen to something and
it's factually incorrect, Ishout at the podcast like they
can hear me through time andspace.
So for anybody who is shoutingthrough time and space, I heard
you and I looked it up and he'sstill alive.
Carl Richards (03:34):
Well, don't rest his soul yet.
God, Frank Oz, keep at it.
You're looking great and stilldoing fine, yeah, but podcasting
you've been at this for quite awhile.
How did you get, how did youfind yourself in this crazy
space podcasting?
What led you here?
Joe Casabona (03:52):
Yeah, I think so.
I mean the origin.
Origin was I was out, myfriends and I had just like a
like a guy's like campingweekend and we were talking
things.
And I have my master's insoftware engineering.
I know a lot about computersand technology, and my friends
seemed to know a lot about a lot.
(04:13):
I'm like how do you guys?
This was like 09, maybe.
I'm like how do you guys knowall this stuff?
And they're like we listen topodcasts.
And so that's when I startedlistening and then like most
people maybe not most, but manypeople who listen to podcasts
they think eventually I can, Ishould do this.
So in 2012, my friends and Istarted a podcast a bunch of
white guys talking about thingswe don't know anything about.
(04:34):
That was the format for theearly 2010s.
Give it the old college try in2016.
I had just got a remote job, Iwas moving away from friends and
family and I thought thatpodcasting would be a good way
for me to stay connected and getkind of the extrovert side of
(04:57):
me out while I was working kindof remotely away from friends
and family.
Carl Richards (05:03):
And here you are today.
Joe Casabona (05:04):
Here I am today.
Carl Richards (05:05):
Eight years later and it's funny, 2009 being the
first time you heard about it Ithink it was 2012 for me and I
remember the moment when I wasintroduced to it.
I was doing speaker trainingand one of my colleagues said oh
, you're doing speaker training,oh, that's pretty cool, you're
helping people on the stages andget better at public speaking.
(05:26):
And he said you should do apodcast.
And I remember saying at thattime and tell me if this was you
, what's a podcast?
And even after that, even afterthey explained it, I'm like
okay, I don't know why you'retalking about me getting on this
radio thing with I'm already onthe radio doing this part-time
speaker training thing.
I don't know why you're talkingabout me getting on this radio
thing with I'm already on theradio doing this part-time
speaker training thing.
(05:46):
I don't want to do my own likerun my own radio station thing.
I had no concept at all untilseveral years later and I
realized, oh, that's what it is,okay.
And now, like you, I help peopleon the backend, do things in
the podcasting space, so it'seasier for them to well, as
you've, as you've indicated like, save a lot, a lot of time,
(06:09):
otherwise people would bepulling their hair out.
They'd look like me and, forthe record, if you're hearing my
voice, not looking at my face,you know there's not a lot on
top of my head, so, butdefinitely it was.
It was a learning curve for meas well, when I finally did get
into that, get into that space.
So you and I though, eventhough we work on the back end,
(06:29):
you do something completelydifferent.
You're more in the automationspace.
So explain a little bit whatthat is and we'll get into the
how in a minute, but not what itis.
Well, okay, let's talk aboutwhat it is and why it's so
important.
Joe Casabona (06:43):
Yeah.
So I think maybe the mostsuccinct way I usually put it is
automation is making computersdo stuff for you so you don't
have to do it right.
So this could be sending anemail or adding some information
to Notion or Airtable orwhatever tool that you happen to
use.
If you are doing automatic billpay for your mortgage or your
(07:08):
rent or your electric bill orwhatever you're doing.
Automation, right, it's justlike a thing that you can take
out of your brain and drop in acomputer so you never have to
think about it.
And the reason it's soimportant is because for anybody
who's doing a podcast, whodoesn't have a large team of
people, they know it's a lot ofwork, right, just like you, carl
(07:30):
, you know it's a lot of workand you have a bunch of people
with you.
But you are, you know you'renot like Joe Rogan or Conan,
right, where you're, you justget to talk, basically, right, I
don't want to undercut like,cause they're probably still
doing some research, but forpeople who are doing it on their
own, they're doing the researchand the talking and probably
the editing and the publishingand the promoting, and it's a
(07:51):
lot of stuff to think about.
Carl Richards (07:54):
And that stuff that you're talking about takes
time.
I have a coach that calls it orrefers, refers to it as those
$10 tasks, the tasks that youdon't want to do but seemingly
you end up doing because, well,it just seems like it'll be
easier if I just do them allmyself to begin with, but not
even realizing that there's thisthing or various tools we can
(08:17):
use that will help us.
And it's funny how youmentioned the bill payment side
of things, because it's not thatmany years ago, if you needed
to pay a bill, you had to pullout a piece of paper that was a
little bit smaller than anenvelope.
It was called a check, and youhad to not just sign it, you had
to write in the date, you hadto write in the amount, who it
(08:41):
was going to.
Yeah, you had to write in whoit was going to, then you had to
sign it, then you had to put itin an envelope.
Joe Casabona (08:48):
Little memo, right , so you know what it's for.
Carl Richards (08:51):
Right on the envelope, take it to a postal
station so they can put a stampon it and then your bill is paid
.
Now, as you say, it'sautomatically.
It's been automated.
You set it up to have itautomatically come out of your
bank account.
You don't even think about it.
I don't know about you, joe.
I don't remember when the lasttime was I actually wrote a
(09:13):
physical check.
I've cashed a physical physicalcheck in the last year.
I know because every now andagain I'll get a check from a
client.
It's rare, but if every now andagain something will come by
check, but the actual process ofbill payments, a lot of that.
Now, you're right, it'sautomated.
So how is it working then?
For a podcast, how is it you'reable to save people hours in
(09:39):
this space?
Joe Casabona (09:40):
Yeah Well, like you said, right, I think you
broke it down really well withwriting a check.
People look at that task andthey go oh OK, well, carl just
made it sound a lot like ittakes a lot longer than it
actually does.
I write out the check, I put itin an envelope, I get the stamp
, I mail it, but you need tothere's a lot of things, micro
tasks, that happen there Makesure you're spelling the
(10:01):
person's name right, make sureyou get the amount correct, find
your stamps, find yourcheckbook.
I've been incorporated as abusiness for like 10 years.
I just ordered new checks.
Like two months ago I sent thelast check out and I did that
because I wanted to have a papertrail for this particular
(10:22):
transaction.
And so, yeah, there's a lot oflittle things in there.
But what you're also notconsidering, right?
I'll give you an example.
I say a great way to figure outwhat to automate is, if you are
copying information from oneapp to another, probably a good
(10:42):
candidate for automation.
I said that in a talk recentlyand someone said copying and
pasting is easy.
I'd rather do that than pay fora subscription to some other
piece of software.
Okay, fine, let's say that isthe case.
Someone fills out yourscheduling form and then you
(11:03):
copy and paste that informationinto, let's say, trello, let's
say Google Sheets, whatever youprefer.
So you have to stop what you'redoing.
Open that app, copy it, pasteit into whatever other app,
let's say Notion, because Notioncopy and paste is like a
nightmare.
So you post it into Notion,make sure everything's right.
Okay, fine, that maybe took youfive minutes, except you had to
(11:25):
stop what you were doing.
You had momentum for anothertask.
Now, at the other end of it,you have to build up momentum to
start your new task.
So this five minute task took20 minutes of mental energy.
Right, and that's if youremember to do it.
That's the other thing.
If you don't remember to do it,then it's not going to get done
.
A computer will do it.
(11:46):
It'll always remember to do itand it won't take your mental
energy away from more importanttasks.
Carl Richards (11:53):
And the thing that's key there, too, is it's
taking you away from anothermental task, that there's a I
can't remember the exact stat orthe number but for every
interruption it takes is itanother 15 or 20 minutes to get
back into what it is you weredoing?
So add a little bit more time.
(12:14):
So, for every interruption orevery whatever it is that you're
thinking about and thoseinterruptions, even if you're on
task and you're pulled away,it's still, it doesn't matter,
it's still the same.
You have to be a verydisciplined person to not lose
that 15 minutes of focus, energy, right, right, mental clarity,
(12:34):
right On whatever it is you'redoing.
Yeah, is this a tool that we'reonly going to use for, for
example, that we're only goingto use for social posts or their
automation sequences?
That we can be using for otheraspects of our business as well?
Joe Casabona (12:49):
from the podcast perspective, Tons of other
aspects I have.
I actually did a lot as werecord this.
I did a live stream today whereI kind of did a little show and
tell in my make account makecom, formerly IntegraMAT.
It's a Zapier competitor.
Those are the two big like.
Connect one app to another,right?
(13:09):
So looking at the list now I'lljust run through a couple of
these automations.
Right One is when someonepurchases my membership.
Create a private podcast feedin Transistor.
Right so someone this is a taskthat I can't that has to happen
when they make the purchase.
(13:29):
That can't wait until I'm backat my desk.
Right?
If they purchase on a Friday at7 pm and they don't get their
podcast feed until 9 am onMonday like that's not, that's
not a good experience, right?
So that is one automation.
That's not a good experience,right?
So that is one automation.
Create a Notion entry from aGoogle Doc right so I use Google
(13:50):
Docs for my solo episodes andfor you know, I'll talk about my
interviews in a minute but,like, when I add a new document
into this specific folder inGoogle Drive, I have Make
watching that folder, copyingthe content and putting it into
Notion so that I have a fullysearchable database of all of my
content.
And then, because the rules ofthrees are really important here
(14:12):
, I'll just do.
I'll pick a third one, which issend an email to someone who
applied to be on my podcast.
Right, so anybody can apply tobe on my podcast.
Who applied to be on my podcast?
Right, so anybody can apply tobe on my podcast.
Usually, when I get like thosevery bad pitches from people who
are like hey name, I love yourfull name of show.
Latest episode was my favorite.
(14:32):
I love how AI summary I usuallyjust have like a canned email
that says thanks for yourinterest, please fill out the
form here.
That goes into a Notiondatabase and then when I change
the status of that applicationfrom accepted to accepted or
rejected, based on that, theyget an email and make sends that
(14:52):
email out.
So instead of again, this iseasy, right, especially if it's
the same exact text.
I can have a text expander,snippet or copy and paste it,
but I still have to open myemail client, copy the email
address in, write the email,check the subject line, send it.
Now I'm just moving a Notionrecord from one column to
another and the email gets sentout.
Carl Richards (15:15):
Wow, okay, so this is how you're able to save
people a lot of time.
What's the pushback you get,though?
I mean, you talked about thecopy and pasting, would you say.
Some of the pushback is even agenerational thing, where
there's, uh, you know gen xers,or maybe even you know boomers
who are trying to they've beenaccustomed to, you know, doing a
lot of things manually, thatthey just assume it's quicker
(15:38):
than trying to figure out thetech end of things yeah, so
usually, and this, this is where, like the blending you know I'm
again masters in softwareengineering.
Joe Casabona (15:49):
I have spent my entire adult life thinking like
a computer.
So like automation, I recognize, comes easy to me.
So the biggest pushback I getis um, you know, do I really
need to pay 20 bucks a month forZappy or 10 bucks a month for
make?
Um, and to that I usually saylike, let's just say this saves
you one hour.
Is one hour of your time worth$20 to you?
(16:12):
I suspect it's yes, but thebigger pushback I get is around
this is hard, I don't get itRight.
And that's really why I movedinto the, the niche I'm in.
Right, I was doing a webinarand my friend, jeremy ends,
introduced me.
As you know, joe has three kidsand also runs three podcasts,
(16:33):
and there was a parent in theaudience who had one of each of
those things and she was likehow can you do three of each?
I only have one of each and I'mstruggling.
And that was a verycrystallizing moment for me.
I'm like, yes, this is where Ican best serve people.
So that's a lot of what I do isI help people.
I'll either build theautomations for them, or we'll
(16:54):
walk through their process andI'll show you.
Because the other thing is likeI don't know what to automate,
right, that's another big thing.
You don't know what's possibleuntil you know what's possible,
sort of thing.
Carl Richards (17:07):
What can you automate?
I mean, we talked about acouple of things.
Are there steps that aremissing or things that you can
automate that a lot of peoplearen't aware of?
Joe Casabona (17:12):
Yeah, this is a really good question.
I think what I usually tellpeople to do is go to Zapiercom
or Makecom.
There you'll be able to exploreall of the apps they integrate
with.
You'll be able to explore allof the apps they integrate with
and if you see apps that you usein that list, then you can
automate something right.
And the way that I tell peopleto think about it is if you have
(17:33):
really clear inputs and areally clear output or an
outcome, let's say, then youcould probably automate that.
So if I pick a differentexample, here's a good one.
Update.
So I have a full podcast plannerin Notion, with different
(17:54):
statuses.
It builds a Kanban board so Ican see all right, I have these
episodes scheduled, these areout for edit, these are ready to
be scheduled.
I have an automation thatwatches Dropbox and I make sure
to name all of my files byepisode number.
So let's take 428.
(18:15):
If a file with 428 is put intothe needs editing folder in
Dropbox, is put into the needsediting folder in Dropbox, then
Make will automatically updateepisode number 428 in Notion to
mark for out for edit and sendan email to my editor.
Right, this sounds complicated.
(18:37):
I have been building automationsbasically since I started
podcasting.
So like very Rome wasn't builtin a day situation and I did
have to work with my editor tobe like, hey, are you cool with
this?
Is this like?
Does this work for yourworkflow?
But the same thing comes on thebackend.
Right, he knows to upload the.
We do two versions right, Onethat is ad supported and one for
(19:00):
members only.
When he uploads them back withthe episode number, the status
changes to ready for schedulingfor members only.
When he uploads them back withthe episode number, the status
changes to ready for scheduling,the members only episode gets
moved into the members folderand my VA gets an email hey,
these are ready for scheduling.
And because of that, once Iship an edit, uh, an episode out
for editing, I don't even seeit again until it hits my
podcast feed in overcast and Itrust my editor.
(19:23):
Right, that's another big partof it.
Carl Richards (19:26):
Well, yeah, trusting your editor is one step
unto itself, right that they'regoing to hit things, hit the
timelines and such.
So it sounds like you're thesolopreneur's best friend, but
it also sounds like you'repotentially the agency, like
(19:48):
mine, that's working withmultiple clients, that having
those.
I mean this is beyond SOPs.
This is systems set up thatallow you to be efficient
regardless of what's happening.
You really can't miss the mark,because the automations are
(20:10):
always going to hit the mark.
It's not.
There's there's no human errorthat's going to oh, I forgot to
send that email to so-and-so, orguy forgot to upload that for
transfer that from Dropbox toGoogle drive or whatever it is.
There's always the consistency,and it sounds like you've got
it down to a science.
Joe Casabona (20:30):
Yeah, I mean mean, it's something you know, this
lights me up, like I'd besitting at events in college, uh
like, uh, like a acousticguitar singer or whatever, and
like a solution would come to meand I would like you see you've
seen this in like techie movies, like the social network, where
, like the guy literally writesthe solution on a napkin I have
(20:52):
done that before Like this stuffreally lights me.
I mean, it's like it's my phonenow or whatever.
But, like you know, back in ohsix, I was like, oh, my God, I
got to write this down.
Um, so like, yeah, this stuffreally lights me up.
I put a lot of thought into it.
I do it a little bit on hardmode too, cause, like, coming
from the web development space,I've experienced a lot of
freelance web developers whowould say things like I hate
(21:14):
GoDaddy.
If someone comes to me andtheir website's on GoDaddy, I
make them move to the host Ilike, and I'm like that's not my
philosophy.
If you're happy with GoDaddy,state like, if you hate GoDaddy
that much, then they are not agood client for you.
I mean, that's really what itis.
And so if someone comes to meand they're like I hate Notion.
I prefer Airtable.
I'm like all right, well, let'sbuild these things in Airtable
(21:37):
for you then, because there'senough friction here.
I don't want to create morefriction by making them move to
a tool that they are unfamiliarwith.
Carl Richards (21:56):
Well, you also don't want to make them do more
work, right, because there's thelearning curve for the new
software or tool that they'reusing.
But then there's also otheraspects to that, right.
So you mentioned a couple here.
You mentioned Airtable, youmentioned Zapier, you've
mentioned Notion.
Are they equal, or are thereones that you know avoid like
the plague?
What's your philosophy on whichone or ones that you should
consider using?
Joe Casabona (22:17):
I love this question because I also love
looking at tools, right, like myfriend.
I'm in a mastermind with myfriend and he's like I'm like,
oh, I was looking at this tooltoday and he's like, of course
you were.
So my base answer is very likewhen you ask a teacher how long
does the paper need to be andthey say as long as it needs to
be.
My base answer is whatever youare most comfortable with is the
(22:40):
right tool for you.
I will say Notion is verypopular.
There are a lot of templatesand a lot of support for that.
So I think that if you'restarting somewhere and you're
looking for a lot of templatesand a lot of support for that,
so I think that if you'restarting somewhere and you're
looking for a lot of kind ofdo-it-yourself help, you'll find
a lot of do-it-yourself help onYouTube for Notion.
Someplace Notion inexplicablyfalls down is built-in
(23:06):
automations.
So like they rolled this outbut.
But it is like we can do awhole episode on this.
I'm not even going to get intoit.
Um, it's very bad and so likeyou might as well assume that
notion doesn't have automationsair table.
However, their automations areincredible, like you can send
(23:26):
emails when you update recordsin air table.
So, like, if you don't want toconnect a lot of things and, to
be honest, like connecting a lotof things means that there are
more links in the chain thatcould break Airtable is going to
be right for you.
And like there are Airtableexperts out there who can really
like soup up your Airtable foryou.
(23:48):
I'm very familiar with Airtable.
I moved from Airtable to Notionbecause it worked better with
me and my assistant.
I miss some of those thingsthough, like the automations.
So those are the note-taking orlike kind of like the planner
sort of things.
Right, these are likedatabase-esque tools.
As far as automation goes,there's three big to medium
(24:13):
players.
Zapier is the biggest one.
Everyone knows Zapier.
It's the biggest, it's the mostexpensive.
It's also probably the mostuser-friendly it does, you know,
it's got like deep roots andstrong connections with other
companies and so they can buildin tighter integrations.
A step down from that is makecom.
(24:35):
I love makecom.
Makecom for me was like 90%cheaper than Zapier, right, and
that works for me because Iunderstand the kind of
connections you need to make andthe learning curve was not as
high for me as somebody who'sjust starting from scratch Both.
Zapier has a free plan.
(24:56):
I forget if Make does.
And then right below that isPably.
I have no experience with Pably, but I've heard good things.
But I would say like, if you'restarting today, zapier is
probably your best bet, and ifyou're building like five or
fewer automations, the free planis probably your best bet.
And if you're building likefive or fewer automations, the
free plan is probably fine foryou At this point.
For me, like I have like RubeGoldberg machines built and so
(25:17):
like makecom is definitelybetter for me.
Carl Richards (25:20):
Of course, the best answer to this question is
if what Joe has said is allgobbledygook, then you need to
talk to Joe, Because maybe Joeneeds to become and Joe and his
team need to become a member ofyour team to help you push this
forward.
Because that's what you do, isyou help set these up for people
(25:41):
so they can free up six, eight,10, 12 hours of their life,
which it's hard to get that backright.
You'll never get time back, butit's so much easier when you
have those tools in place.
I think there's definitely somevalue in having a follow-up
conversation about oh, who knowswhat, because we're both
brothers to the core on a numberof different things.
(26:03):
But I wanted to give you theopportunity to pass something
along to our audience.
I know you've got someresources that will help people
get started, so what can youshare with them?
Joe Casabona (26:14):
So if you go over to podcastworkflowscom slash
Carl, you will get my freeautomation template database.
So what I would say to you hereis like, even if you don't want
to implement these yourself,you will see 40 automations that
I use to run my business andthis could generate some ideas
(26:36):
for you.
So I think it's a really goodresource.
It'll be over atpodcastworkflowscom slash Carl.
Carl Richards (26:41):
And we'll make sure that that link is in the
show notes, as well as how youcan connect with Joe, his social
handles, his everything relatedto Joe, so you can follow him
and learn from him.
And, of course, if you thinkit's time to work with Joe, then
that information will be thereas well.
Oh, my goodness, like I said,joe, we could talk another.
You know blue streak and youknow still only scratch the
(27:05):
scratch of the scratch, as itwere.
So Joe Casabona has been myguest today.
Before I turn you loose to gosave someone 12 hours worth of
time just with some automationsystems, I'll give you the final
thought.
Joe Casabona (27:19):
All right.
So if you're wondering if thisis really worth it for you, I'm
going to share a very briefstory with you.
A couple of years ago, I wasunable to mow my lawn for three
to four weekends in a row, whichmeant that I need to mow my
lawn on a weekday.
Weekdays include billable hoursfor me, and because my grass
(27:39):
was so long and my lawnmowersucks, it took me six hours to
mow my lawn, which means thatmowing my lawn that one day cost
me $1,200.
After that, I decided to hire alawnmower.
So now I pay this guy $35 everyweek in the summer and I never,
(28:00):
ever, have to think about itagain.
This is what automation can dofor you.
It's not about oh well, I canjust do it myself.
You're a capable person.
You can do a lot of thingsyourself.
It's about freeing up your timeto do the most crucial of your
tasks, so that you can spend therest of your time with your
family, with your friends, orplaying the drums, watching Star
(28:21):
Wars or Star Trek or whatever.
However else you want to spendyour time.
Carl Richards (28:25):
It would probably be Star Wars for sure,
especially if you happen to getinvited over, right?
So, yes, yes, that's a greatplace to leave it, joe.
It's been a fantasticconversation.
Joe Casabona, thank you so muchfor being my guest today.
Joe Casabona (28:37):
My pleasure, carl, thanks for having me.
Carl Richards (28:39):
And thank you for joining us today.
Special thanks to our producerand production lead, Dom
Carrillo, our music guru, NathanSimon, and the person who works
the arms all of our arms,actually my trusty assistant,
Stephanie Gaffor.
If you like what you heardtoday, leave us a comment and a
review, and be sure to share itwith your friends.
If you don't like what youheard, please share it with your
(29:00):
enemies.
Oh, and if you have asuggestion of someone who you
think would make an amazingguest on the show, let us know
about it.
Drop us an askcarl atcarlspeaksca.
Don't forget to follow us onLinkedIn and Twitter as well.
You'll find all those links inthe show notes, and if you're
ready to take the plunge andjoin the over 3 million people
who have said yes to podcasting,let's have a conversation.
(29:23):
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space, because, after all, we'rePodcast Solutions Made Simple.
We'll catch you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.