Daniel Santos is a long-time enthusiast of no-code tools and a member of the n8n community. In this interview, he shares how he uses workflow automation in his work and personal life.
Hi Daniel, tell us a bit about yourself
Hello, my name is Daniel Santos. I'm originally from California, but now residing on the other coast in the beautiful coastal city of Portland, Maine.
I currently work for a non-profit, the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, where I am employed as a Membership Development Manager. When I am not working, I also volunteer my time as the Board President of one of the longest-running and most incredible children's non-profit in my state, called the Maine Children's Home For Little Wanderers.
I also help non-technical small businesses when I have free time set up with open-source software to improve a business process or simplify their lives. I am not a coder, but I am proficient enough to make some magical things happen.
Have you tried other automation tools before?
Automation started for me on Android in 2011 with Tasker. I instantly got hooked, automating whatever I could. Then, I jumped to IFTTT. I always wanted something more powerful, so I jumped to Zapier. Then, I moved to Integromat for the price. In the last two years, I have now settled on n8n for almost all of my needs.
I chose n8n because, as a non-coder, it was easy to use, self-host, implement workflows and extend them. n8n is also great because you can learn from the workflows of other community members and break them down to understand how they work. Using n8n was my introduction to APIs, authentication, and even learning basic JavaScript. For me, n8n is helpful as a tool and as a teacher for learning some basics of coding.
What kind of workflows are you building with n8n?
Recently, I built a workflow with Mautic that would trigger once the "Get Quote" form was submitted. It would then take the submitted information and calculate their organization's annual investment in my Chamber of Commerce. It would then store details in a Google Sheet to follow up with for future prospecting. From there, it would post all the user details and the new quote back to Mautic, where it would get added dynamically to personalized emails and get added to a campaign.
After that, Mautic would perform its automation based on whether they clicked in the email to join, if they didn't open it or read it, and if they opened it but did not respond. I want to extend this and automatically add those that do not respond as prospects in my database.
I also currently use n8n to pull all new Facebook posts, all new submitted YouTube videos, and all upcoming live presentations on Zoom and display them in a dashboard I made in Appsmith.
Which integrations do you use the most?
The HTTP Request node! This has helped me learn how to use APIs, and with this, you can do so much with even just a few basic standard n8n nodes. At some point or another in my workflows, it makes an appearance.
Have you created n8n workflows for personal use?
I, like many others, love crypto. I use n8n to track my portfolio, provide me with timely notifications, log the "open" and "close" (my bedtime) of each day, and learn about what Bitcoin's dominance is in the morning and at night. I also use n8n to track my gains and losses on trades. It stores them in a Google Sheet that I will be moving to Appsmith to make a dashboard.
Do you have any tips for someone who wants to try n8n?
If you aren't using n8n, start now and start early. You will get so much precious time back in your life, and in my life, time is a hot commodity.
How do you see yourself using n8n in the future?
Great question. I am kind of addicted to n8n and try to find creative ways to automate and solve my problems. I find myself trying to play around and seeing what cool things I can make work together, so I am sure there will be a million more use-cases, and I keep learning.
Is there a feature you would like to have on n8n that currently does not exist?
I would love to see further integrations with Appsmith. I love the versatility you can get to create complicated web apps with just Google Sheets, n8n, and Appsmith.
n8n users come from a wide range of backgrounds, experience levels, and interests. We have been looking to highlight different users and their projects in our blog posts. If you’re working with n8n and would like to inspire the community, email Lorena to tell your story 💌