In 2024-2025, I spent a year becoming a world-class Make.com expert, the kind of builder who would challenge Make’s own support team. I never build automations by hand anymore. I leverage Claude + n8n to create, edit, debug, and monitor incredibly complex workflows.
This screenshot shows one workflow from a five-part system that monitors millions of dollars in lead inflow and outflow across multiple platforms including GHL, Calendly, ClickUp, Google Sheets, Gmail, Twilio, and more. It simultaneously tracks course sales for a world-class thought leader. It’s a complete lead generation intelligence system with all results displayed in a custom UI that lives on the client’s own cloud computer, keeping their private data and encrypted LLMs secure.
But the foundational work was critical. I needed to understand how automation works, how systems connect and interact with each other. That foundation is what has allowed me to become as effective as I am today. And it doesn’t end there. Even now, I’m graduating from visual automation tools entirely and building more robust solutions directly in code. Of course, I’m not writing the code myself. I’m not a developer. I’m a product designer and systems thinker.
When people ask how I learned to do this, my answer is this:
- First, you need problems to solve, then you can begin learning about solutions through AI, YouTube and online resources.
- When talking with AI, I find it’s helpful to be humble. Instead of telling it how you want it to do something, you have some back and forth to discuss what you want to build, and how you think you might do it. You ask for it’s input and to push back – after all it might have a better way. This collaboration approach is one of the most incredible ways to use AI.
- Then you get your hands dirty with pilot projects. Before long, you’re creating incredible things.
Over the last year, I’ve launched multiple client portals, built public-facing apps, and created tools that I could only dream about when I was working with Figma prototypes in the past.
This week, I’m building a custom version of ClickUp for a client, completely personalized to their specific needs and saving them hundreds of dollars per month in subscription costs.
My advice for this week: Push an edge, jump into something new, and have fun. If you read this, you’re already ahead of most people on Earth 🙂
