In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to productivity expert, Paul Minors. Paul started off by consulting entrepreneurs on how to learn how to use Asana. He shares that he was inspired to go out on his own and start his own business – and Asana was a great tool for that. He had worked with other businesses in the past on their teams to help them with this program, and figured he could go out on his own by consulting others on how to use the platform. He tested offering it as a service and found there was a serious demand for the expertise he could offer. From there, he added offerings to consult on the use of PipeDrive, which then eventually evolved into the use of Zapier.Zapier is a powerful automation tool that allows users to connect unrelated programs, applications, and softwares in order to integrate their use. Zapier has become a very popular program, and Paul shares that many of his clients wanted consultation on how to combine their CRM with other aspects of their business so that it could be automated. Zapier allows you to plug some of the gaps in your system so that you can do more than previously thought possible to automate your programs.Paul stresses that you should be thinking about automation from early on. You don't want to be in a position where you're too far into the weeds and you have to backtrack in order to automate. Paul and his team consult businesses on how to use these tools to automate their businesses and optimize their growth. Josh and Paul explore specific ways to utilize automation tools. For one thing, you can utilize Zapier to integrate your CRM with your email marketing tool. You can completely customize your email marketing flow by hooking it up to your CRM. You can also trigger other emails to send seamlessly by integrating these two aspects of your business via an automation tool. You can also utilize various different sequences in your email marketing tool in order to allow your CRM to inform the software to send different emails based on their status as your client. Zapier’s purpose is to move information from one platform to another. It can handle anything from email triggers, accounting, administrative tasks, documentation automation, and more. There are countless ways to utilize these types of automation programs with full customization, if you know what to do. This is where experts like Paul come in. Want to learn more? Check out Paul’s website at https://paulminors.com/. Check out Paul Minors on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulminors/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.