Automations & Workflows
Automations run while you sleep. A WV realtor who gets an email summary of new Zillow listings every morning. A small business owner whose customer form submissions are automatically logged and trigger a follow-up. This week you build that.
⚙️ Thinking in Automations
Automations are workflows that run without you touching them. Something happens (a trigger), conditions are checked, and actions run automatically. The most powerful ones run while you're asleep.
"When a new row appears in Airtable (trigger) → if the Status field is 'New' (condition) → send me an email summary (action)." Or: "Every Monday at 9am (trigger) → pull last week's Airtable rows → send a digest email."
📧 Build Automations with Make.com
Make.com (formerly Integromat) is a visual automation builder. You drag and drop "modules" and connect them. It has pre-built connectors for hundreds of apps — Gmail, Airtable, Slack, Notion, and more.
Create a free Make.com account
Go to make.com → sign up → New Scenario. A "scenario" is Make's word for an automation workflow.
Add a trigger module
Click the empty circle → Search for "Airtable" → choose "Watch Records." Connect your Airtable account and select your base and table.
Add an action module
Click the + button after your trigger → search "Gmail" → choose "Send an Email." Fill in the recipient, subject, and body — using data from your trigger.
Turn it on and test it
Click Run Once to test. Add a row to Airtable. Watch Make process it. Check your email.
🔗 Webhooks: How Apps Talk in Real Time
A webhook is a URL that you give to one app so it can notify another app the instant something happens — no polling, no waiting. "Call this URL when a payment goes through." The other app receives the call and reacts immediately.
🤖 Adding AI Steps to Automations
Make.com has a Claude/OpenAI module. You can add an AI step to any automation: summarize the incoming data, classify it, draft a reply, generate content. This is where automations get seriously powerful.
Trigger: every Monday 9am → Get last week's Airtable rows → Send all rows to Claude with prompt "Summarize these submissions in 5 bullet points, highlight any urgent ones" → Send Claude's summary as an email. You built an AI assistant for yourself.
Automated Email Digest Pipeline
A Make.com automation that collects form data and emails you a daily summary
- Submissions from your Week 9 form save to Airtable
- Make.com scenario runs every 24 hours
- Pulls all new Airtable rows from the last day
- Sends the data through Claude AI to generate a summary
- Emails you the AI-written summary
Week 10 Done!
Mark it complete and keep your momentum going.