On this episode, I speak with Wade Foster. Wade is the CEO and co-founder of Zapier, a workflow automation tool used by over three million people to connect the work apps they use every day. Prior to Zapier, Wade worked as a customer development lead for The Idea Works, Inc. in Missouri. He is an alumnus of Y Combinator and has degrees in industrial engineering and business administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

I wanted to have Wade back on the show to explore the genesis of Zapier as well as how automation has worked for him over the years. We talked about his own to do list, who inspires and motivates him through their work and so much more during our conversation. I’m pleased to have him return as a guest on the show and hope you enjoy this revisited and reframed discussion.

Talking Points

Wade shares a bit about Zapier

Where has Zapier gone since its inception? How has it evolved?

Is there such a thing as “too much automation”? What trips people up when they are trying to automate?

Here’s what Wade thinks Zapier – and automation – is helping people focus on to help out with their productivity

Wade shares how you can make time to automate – and why you should

Here’s one thing that you can’t automate on the whole… but can automate in parts

How Wade started automating – and how he keeps at it

What automation has freed Wade up to do more of

Does Wade keeps a to do list? Here’s how he structures his weeks

How Wade breaks down big things – like projects

What about home or personal automation? What does Wade do on that front?

Where does Wade draw inspiration from?

These are the particular pieces of writing and content that Wade refers to consistently to stay on track

We talk about scale and how Zapier plans to scale

How does Jeff Bezos’s quote “Focus on the things that don’t change” play a role in Wade’s company and his own life

Quote

“The reality is that innovation and technology move so quickly that you always have to be looking for the next angle for yourself or you might find that your company is… innovated out of business.”

Helpful Links

A Closer Look at Automation with Wade Foster | The Productivityist Podcast

Thinking Fast and Slow

IFTTT

Signal v. Noise | Basecamp

The Hard Things About Hard Things

I Ran the Full Text of Jeff Bezos’s 23 Amazon Shareholder Letters Through a Word Cloud Generator, and the Insights Were Astonishing | Inc.com

1,000 True Fans | The Technium

The Innovator’s Dilemma

Zapier

The Productivityist Podcast Pick of the Week: Process

The thing about automation is that you need to think about not only what you want to automate but why you want to automate in the first place. Don’t just automate for automation’s sake. Software can help once you’ve made that call, but without making a smart and wise choice beforehand you may be setting yourself up for more work than you bargained for.

Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice.

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