WEBVTT 00:00.440 --> 00:03.160 Welcome back to Beginner to Pro course. 00:06.040 --> 00:13.440 If you are here, that means you are ready to move from why automation matters to how automation actually 00:13.440 --> 00:13.960 works. 00:14.600 --> 00:20.160 In this episode, I will show you the core components that make automation possible. 00:20.640 --> 00:26.920 Think of this as learning the basic ingredients before you start cooking your own automation recipes. 00:27.480 --> 00:34.280 By the end of this lesson, you will have a clear understanding of how workflows are structured and 00:34.280 --> 00:38.320 how different parts work together to automate tasks effortlessly. 00:39.200 --> 00:43.360 Now the importance of data driven decisions in automation. 00:44.160 --> 00:51.560 Automation is not just about saving time, it's about making smarter, data driven decisions instead 00:51.560 --> 00:53.040 of relying on feelings. 00:53.360 --> 00:58.480 Automation helps collect, process, and analyze data to improve reporting. 00:58.880 --> 01:04.080 Increase visibility on Roy and to optimize resources like time and budget. 01:04.600 --> 01:13.880 This means businesses can make better choices, reduce inefficiencies, and allocate their efforts where 01:13.880 --> 01:14.880 they matter most. 01:18.800 --> 01:20.280 Let's get straight to it. 01:20.520 --> 01:21.560 What is workflow? 01:22.360 --> 01:29.920 A workflow is simply a set of steps that tells the system what to do, when to do it, and under what 01:29.920 --> 01:30.760 conditions. 01:31.160 --> 01:38.560 Imagine this you wake up, make coffee, check your phone, reply to emails, and then start work. 01:39.800 --> 01:40.640 That's workflow. 01:41.480 --> 01:43.440 You are following a set of steps. 01:43.840 --> 01:46.520 But we don't want you doing the steps. 01:46.720 --> 01:49.280 We want automation to do them for you. 01:50.360 --> 01:57.600 Think about how many hours get wasted on copy pasting data, moving files, or manually updating spreadsheets. 01:58.040 --> 02:01.760 Automating these repetitive tasks not only improves accuracy. 02:03.240 --> 02:06.800 But also boost productivity and job satisfaction. 02:07.640 --> 02:12.240 Your team can focus on high value work instead of tedious manual labor. 02:12.800 --> 02:19.120 Less time spent on repetitive work means more time for creativity, strategy, and business growth. 02:20.120 --> 02:20.360 Now. 02:20.360 --> 02:21.360 Predictability. 02:21.400 --> 02:22.840 Dataflow in automation. 02:23.160 --> 02:26.800 One of the biggest benefits of automation is predictability. 02:28.560 --> 02:37.040 But workflows follow a structured process every time, ensuring that no steps are missed and data flows 02:37.040 --> 02:38.920 exactly where it needs to go. 02:39.480 --> 02:46.880 This level of consistency reduces mistakes and ensures smoother business operations, making automation 02:46.880 --> 02:50.720 an essential tool for scaling and maintaining efficiency. 02:54.680 --> 02:59.920 Now breaking down a workflow, there are three key ingredients. 03:00.800 --> 03:05.480 But before building workflows, it's important to understand one key concept. 03:05.960 --> 03:13.560 Workflows are all about moving and transforming data between different systems, whether it's contact 03:13.560 --> 03:17.040 details, sales numbers, or support tickets. 03:17.320 --> 03:21.600 Automation helps ensure that data flows smoothly and accurately. 03:22.080 --> 03:30.880 Also, keep in mind that workflows can be linear one step after another or complex with multiple branches, 03:30.880 --> 03:32.400 depending on your needs. 03:33.400 --> 03:40.400 So every workflow, whether you are automating a business task or your morning routine, has three core 03:40.400 --> 03:45.440 parts trigger actions and conditions. 03:46.400 --> 03:49.160 Trigger is what starts the workflow. 03:49.600 --> 03:53.760 Actions are the tasks that need to be completed. 03:54.320 --> 04:00.040 And conditions is basically the logic that decides what happens next. 04:04.960 --> 04:05.880 So trigger. 04:05.920 --> 04:07.320 This is the starting point. 04:07.760 --> 04:10.080 The event that kicks everything off. 04:10.920 --> 04:19.440 For example, someone fills out a contact form on your website or send a message or upload a file. 04:21.120 --> 04:23.200 Think of it like an alarm clock. 04:23.480 --> 04:26.240 When the alarm rings, it triggers you to wake up. 04:28.760 --> 04:31.040 Triggers can come from different sources. 04:31.720 --> 04:32.760 A specific time. 04:33.120 --> 04:40.120 An event in an app like a message sent on WhatsApp, telegram, slack or any other communication platform 04:40.480 --> 04:41.920 or even manual input. 04:42.360 --> 04:45.840 Without a trigger, the workflow has no reason to start. 04:49.880 --> 04:50.760 No actions. 04:51.440 --> 04:54.240 These are the tasks that happen after the trigger. 04:55.280 --> 05:02.320 So, for example, send a confirmation email, update a Google Sheet and notify your sales team on slack. 05:02.800 --> 05:04.120 It's like making coffee. 05:04.120 --> 05:09.560 After you wake up, your brain gets triggered and the action is making that cup of coffee. 05:10.800 --> 05:13.440 So actions are the workers of your workflow. 05:13.880 --> 05:20.280 They can send emails, move data, create files, or even trigger other workflows depending on your 05:20.280 --> 05:20.760 needs. 05:21.560 --> 05:27.560 One important thing to remember is that actions ensure predictability in your processes. 05:28.000 --> 05:34.680 Whether it is whether it is just adding a contact to a CRM or automatically generating an invoice. 05:35.320 --> 05:38.520 Automation follows the same pattern every single time. 05:42.800 --> 05:45.360 No conditions or filters. 05:46.000 --> 05:47.920 This is where things get smart. 05:48.120 --> 05:48.800 Conditions. 05:48.800 --> 05:52.800 Decide what happens next based on certain criteria. 05:53.120 --> 05:54.720 So it's conditional logic. 05:55.360 --> 06:01.960 For example, only send delete to your sales team if the contact is from a specific country. 06:02.480 --> 06:05.400 It's like checking the weather before leaving the house. 06:06.240 --> 06:08.640 So if it's raining, you grab an umbrella. 06:08.760 --> 06:11.080 If not, you head out as usual. 06:13.120 --> 06:16.480 In short, conditions help you control the flow of automation. 06:16.760 --> 06:22.840 They ensure that the right actions are performed for the right situations and help avoid unnecessary 06:22.840 --> 06:23.400 steps. 06:23.920 --> 06:25.880 So also reduce complexity. 06:26.560 --> 06:28.280 Think of them as quality control. 06:28.640 --> 06:30.640 They ensure that only the right data. 06:31.120 --> 06:36.920 Let's make this reel with an example that's relevant for almost any business, whether you are in marketing, 06:36.960 --> 06:39.360 sales, or running your own agency. 06:40.640 --> 06:47.720 Let's say you manage incoming leads from your website, and you want to make sure no potential client 06:47.760 --> 06:49.000 slips through the cracks. 06:49.520 --> 06:56.880 So here is what you want to happen automatically when someone when someone fills out your website's 06:56.880 --> 07:00.480 contact form, their details should be saved in your CRM. 07:01.360 --> 07:09.080 If the lead is from a high value company based on their email domain, assign it to your top sales rep 07:09.600 --> 07:14.040 and send an instant slack notification to follow up as soon as possible. 07:15.120 --> 07:22.680 If it's a regular lead, add them to an automated email nurturing sequence and if the form submission 07:22.680 --> 07:24.840 is missing key info like no email. 07:25.160 --> 07:28.600 Send a follow up, uh, asking for more details. 07:29.800 --> 07:35.240 In automation language, trigger is a new contact form submission on your website. 07:36.440 --> 07:40.960 Actions add deletes into your CRM. 07:44.120 --> 07:45.080 Conditions. 07:45.400 --> 07:52.120 Check if the list company domain matches high value clients like fortune 500 companies. 07:53.480 --> 07:58.680 If high value assigned to a top sales rep and notified them via slack. 07:59.160 --> 08:05.960 If regular annual delete in an email nurturing campaign and if info is Foist incomplete. 08:06.960 --> 08:09.920 Send an automated follow up requesting more details. 08:10.520 --> 08:12.320 Now why this example works. 08:12.600 --> 08:15.880 While automating, always think about potential exceptions. 08:16.160 --> 08:22.720 What happens if an email fails to send or if the CRM is temporarily down? 08:24.080 --> 08:29.360 Adding simple error handling steps can make your automation more reliable. 08:29.920 --> 08:36.080 It's a multi-step workflow with real conditions and decisions, not just basic data entry. 08:36.440 --> 08:43.960 It shows you how you can combine lead qualification, CRM updates, sales notifications, and email 08:43.960 --> 08:46.280 automation in one seamless process. 08:47.840 --> 08:50.120 Plus, it's relevant to many industries. 08:50.520 --> 08:54.400 Perfect if you are managing leads, clients, or even job applications. 08:55.280 --> 09:01.040 And by the way, you can build this type of automation in N810 relatively easily. 09:02.120 --> 09:09.760 Once this is set up, it runs automatically in the background, so no need to manually track leads or 09:09.760 --> 09:11.240 worry about missing follow ups. 09:12.360 --> 09:19.600 Now handling edge cases and AI for decision making, human intervention and AI driven decision making 09:19.920 --> 09:23.320 when workflows encounter unpredictable situations. 09:24.960 --> 09:27.960 So sometimes automation alone is not enough. 09:28.080 --> 09:35.440 You may need human intervention for edge cases or AI powered decision making to handle exceptions. 09:37.640 --> 09:38.760 In future lessons. 09:39.000 --> 09:44.840 We'll explore how AI agents can help make intelligent decisions within your workflows. 09:45.480 --> 09:47.720 Best practices for workflow automation. 09:48.720 --> 09:52.600 Importance of planning and mapping out workflow before automating. 09:52.640 --> 09:57.640 So, before jumping into an A-10, try to take a moment to map out your automation. 09:58.240 --> 10:04.360 Use tools like Miro, Figjam, or even a simple pen and paper to sketch out the process. 10:04.760 --> 10:12.960 This helps identify missing steps and prevent wasted effort on workflows that won't work as expected. 10:15.040 --> 10:21.680 So before wrapping up, here are some quick best practices to keep in mind when building workflows. 10:22.520 --> 10:31.080 Map it out first, so sketch a simple flowchart of what you want to automate before jumping into automating 10:31.080 --> 10:32.480 platforms like N810. 10:34.200 --> 10:40.400 Start simple, build small workflows, test them, and then add complexity as needed. 10:42.240 --> 10:46.400 Test as often as possible and document your workflows. 10:46.600 --> 10:52.360 Add notes or comments, especially for complex automations so you or your team can easily understand 10:52.360 --> 10:53.080 them later. 10:56.480 --> 10:59.000 All right, let's wrap up what we covered today. 10:59.400 --> 11:01.840 So every workflow has three key parts. 11:02.800 --> 11:07.440 Triggers the starting point like a form submission or a new email. 11:08.640 --> 11:13.280 actions, which are the tasks that get done. 11:14.080 --> 11:22.360 So saving data, sending notifications, etc. and conditions the logic that decides what happens next. 11:22.520 --> 11:27.000 Like filtering high value lists, we work through a real world example. 11:27.720 --> 11:36.200 So automating lead management from saving CRM data to routing leads based on the email domain, and 11:36.200 --> 11:39.080 quick tips to remember, start small and build up. 11:40.320 --> 11:43.280 Test your workflows often and document your steps. 11:47.600 --> 11:53.440 In the next episode, you will learn about N810 and its interface. 11:55.480 --> 11:57.720 And I've got a small homework for you. 11:58.200 --> 12:01.480 Think of one repetitive tasks you do daily. 12:02.360 --> 12:03.200 Thanks for watching. 12:03.200 --> 12:08.640 I will see you in the next episode where we dive into N810 and start automating like a pro.