Connected workflows
Your tools pass work to each other. A form entry becomes a client record, a calendar hold, a Slack message and a follow-up email without anyone copying it.
n8n, Make or Zapier, plus the apps you already pay for
Hand off the busywork.
I build AI and automation for small teams: the copying, retyping, sorting and report-building your people do by hand every week. Fixed prices, plain English, and a person signs off on anything that matters.
Built by Nelson Ireson, a former magazine executive editor who has spent 20 years in publishing and now runs automation in production every day. Based in Brooklin, Maine, working with teams anywhere.
- Dana R. fills in your website form asking for a quote on a 40-person retreat.
- Sorted as a new client, events, high priority, checked against your rules.AI draft
- Added to your client list with her details filled in.
- Reply drafted in your voice, with the event price sheet attached.AI draft
- Slack message to you: “Approve the reply to Dana?”Needs you
9 seconds, start to finish. Nobody retyped anything, and nothing went out without you.
- Last week’s sales, website traffic and email replies pulled from three systems.
- Lined up in one sheet, in the same columns as every other week.
- Summary written: what moved, what didn’t, and the two numbers worth a look.AI draft
- One source came back empty, so it’s flagged for a person instead of guessed.Needs you
- Report lands in everyone’s inbox before the first meeting.
Built Sunday night, read Monday morning. The flag means a person checks it, instead of a wrong number going out.
- An editor drags a story card to “Ready” on the assignment board.
- Website draft created with headline, byline, tags and photo filled in.
- Search title and summary drafted for the editor to approve.AI draft
- Slack: “Story ready for copy edit,” with the link.Needs you
- The day’s published stories gathered into tomorrow’s newsletter draft.
The headline was typed once. Every other system got it automatically.
Where the hours go
Every small team has some of this. Very little of it needs a person.
- Copying web-form entries into a spreadsheet, then into a second system.
- Typing the same details into the website, the newsletter and three social accounts.
- Building the same weekly report by hand from three dashboards.
- Sorting a shared inbox and forwarding things to the right person.
- Chasing status updates that a tool could post on its own.
- Writing first replies, summaries and descriptions from a blank page, every time.
If someone on your team moves information from one screen to another, there’s usually a better way. Sometimes it’s a two-hour fix. Sometimes it isn’t worth doing, and I’ll tell you that too.
What it’s costing you
Pick one chore. Put in rough numbers. See how fast fixing it pays for itself.
a year in staff time on this work
If automation took over 70% of it, a single build would pay for itself in 8 to 19 weeks.
Estimates from your numbers. The free call turns them into a fixed quote.
Get a fixed quoteWhat I build
Practical systems on tools you already use, set up so your team can run them without me.
AI that drafts, sorts and summarizes
First drafts of replies, summaries of long documents and calls, tagging and routing, cleanup of messy data. Set up so people review instead of rewrite, and nothing goes out without a person approving it.
Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or a private model, picked per job
Simple internal apps
For the point where a spreadsheet stops working: one screen for your schedule, intake queue, inventory or freelancer payments, built on the data you already have.
Retool, Airtable, Google Sheets
Reports and alerts
Numbers from your website, email, sales and accounts gathered into one sheet or dashboard every night, plus a message when something breaks or moves.
Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, your analytics and accounting tools
Private AI
For client files, personnel records and anything you can’t paste into a chatbot: AI that runs on your own hardware or in a locked-down account, so the material stays yours.
Local models on a Mac or small server, or enterprise accounts with training turned off
Training and tutoring
One-on-one lessons and team workshops, so your people can get real work out of AI tools on their own, safely.
Taught on your documents and your tools
About tutoringWho it’s for
Teams of 5 to 50 people with no engineer to spare. A few of the things I can build for each, depending on how you work.
- Publishers and newsletters
- Assignment board to website draft to Slack, with every field filled in once
- Tomorrow’s newsletter assembled from today’s published stories
- Traffic and subscriber numbers in one sheet every morning
- Nonprofits
- Donor and volunteer forms into your CRM, with a thank-you drafted
- Grant deadlines and reporting dates tracked and reminded automatically
- First-draft translations of notices and posts, reviewed by a person
- Law, accounting and professional offices
- New-client intake sorted, with the details you need gathered up front
- Long documents summarized for review, kept private
- Follow-ups and deadlines that remind the right person, not everyone
- Inns, shops, boatyards and the trades
- Inquiries answered within minutes with a drafted reply for you to approve
- Work-order and booking updates sent to customers without a phone call
- Reviews and messages from every channel in one place
- Agencies and consultants
- Client reports assembled from each platform automatically
- Content calendar to publishing, with approvals in Slack
- Time tracked against projects and turned into invoice drafts
How it works
Free 30-minute call
Bring the one process that wastes the most time each week. I’ll sketch how it would run automated, what it would cost, and whether it’s worth doing at all.
Fixed quote in two business days
A one-page proposal with a price and a start date. Teams weighing several projects can start with the audit instead.
A working version within two weeks
You try it on real work. I adjust it until it fits how your team actually works, not how a diagram says they should.
You own it
The workflows run in your accounts, with your logins and a plain-English guide. You get a recorded walkthrough and 30 days of fixes.
Prices
Most clients start with a free call, pick one build, then keep me on a light retainer so things keep working as their tools change.
Projects
- Workflow audit1 week
A map of every hand-off in your process, the five automations that would save the most hours, and a fixed quote for each.
$750Credited against your first build - Single build2–3 weeks
One workflow, end to end, documented, with a recorded walkthrough and 30 days of fixes.
$1,800–$4,500Depends on the systems involved - Operations system4–8 weeks
Three to five connected workflows plus a simple internal app for your schedule, queue or tracker.
$6,000–$12,000
Ongoing
- Care retainerMonthly
Monitoring, fixes when an app or API changes, small additions and a monthly check-in. Up to 6 hours.
$650/mo - Ops retainerMonthly
Everything in Care, plus one new workflow or AI feature each month. Up to 15 hours.
$1,400/mo - Hourly
Anything outside the packages, billed in 15-minute increments.
$125/hr
Learning
- 1:1 AI tutoring
Hour-long lessons over video, built around your own work.
$95/hrOr 3 sessions for $255 - Team workshop
A half-day, hands-on session for your team using your own documents and tools. Remote, or on site in Maine and New England.
From $1,200
- Nonprofits get 15% off builds.
- Once I quote a price, it doesn’t move. If a build runs long on my estimate, that’s on me.
Rather learn to do it yourself?
Not everyone needs a build. Sometimes you need someone to sit with you and show you how to get real work out of ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, on your own documents, in your own job.
One-on-one lessons are $95 an hour, or three for $255. Team workshops start at $1,200 for a half day.
Who you’d be working with
One person, start to finish. The one you talk to on the first call is the one who builds it.
I’m Nelson Ireson. I’ve spent two decades in digital publishing, including as executive editor of Automobile Magazine, where I led a 25-person team, and I built the publishing system a 30-journalist newsroom runs on every day. I hold a law degree, I’ve been CTO of a small media company since 2015, and I run my own automation and AI systems in production from home in Brooklin, Maine.
- A publishing platform for a 30-journalist newsroom. Assignment cards become website drafts, status changes post to Slack, and editors see one calendar instead of three. In daily use.
- A production automation server. Scheduled jobs run around the clock, including a nightly one that gathers new listings, removes duplicates and files them in a shared sheet for review.
- AI content pipelines. Built on the Anthropic API, including a multi-agent marketing system that keeps the AI focused on a handful of tools at a time.
- Private AI. Open models running on local hardware for work that shouldn’t leave the building.
- People approve what matters.
- AI drafts, sorts and suggests. A person signs off before anything reaches a client, a reader or the public.
- You own everything.
- Your accounts, your credentials, your documentation. If we stop working together, nothing breaks.
- Plain English.
- A short written guide and a recorded walkthrough, not a diagram only I can read.
- Honest scoping.
- If something isn’t worth automating, I’ll tell you on the first call.
Questions
Do I need to be technical?
No. If you can describe how the work gets done today, that’s enough. I handle the setup and leave you with a guide written for the people who’ll use it.
Which tools do you work with?
Most of what small teams use: Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, WordPress, Monday.com, Asana, Airtable, HubSpot, Mailchimp, beehiiv and others. If a tool has an API or a decent export, it can usually be connected.
Which AI do you use?
Whichever fits the job and your rules: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or an open model running privately when the material is sensitive. You pay the AI provider directly, usually a few dollars to a few tens of dollars a month for small-team volumes.
Will this replace people on my team?
That isn’t the goal. The point is to take the repetitive part of their week away so they can do the work you hired them for.
What happens when one of my apps changes and something breaks?
Every build includes 30 days of fixes. After that, the Care retainer covers monitoring and repairs, or you can call on me hourly.
Is my data safe?
I work inside your accounts with the least access the job needs, and everything runs under your ownership. For sensitive material, AI can run on your own hardware so nothing leaves the building.
Do you only work in Maine?
No. Most work happens remotely for teams anywhere in the US. I’m glad to come on site in Maine and New England.
Bring me the chore your team hates most
Tell me what eats the time. I’ll reply by email to set up a free 30-minute call, and you’ll leave it knowing what a fix would cost, or that you don’t need one.