Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Whitworth.
Hi Daniel, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’d say, as far as my business is concerned, it all started back in 2004 when I took a programming class in college (University of Arizona). I was in the Navy at the time going to school on a commissioning program, getting a degree in Computer Engineering. But honestly the only class I remember is that programming class. I was hooked!
Over the next year I started creating programs in Java for my new wife…a budgeting software, a recipe collection software that calculated groceries, and other stuff I don’t even remember. And then we both read a book that gave us the idea of going into business for ourselves: No More Mondays by Dan Miller.
After that I started teaching myself how to do web programming because I figured that’s how I could sell these programs I had made. I wasn’t using WordPress or Wix or anything, but straight up code: PHP, Javascript, HTML, CSS. I built a website and learned how to integrate with PayPal and so on. Well, nothing much came of trying to sell my programs, but it opened some other doors.
I got involved in my church and befriended the childrens pastor. I built a program for him to manage the childrens program. That was a Flash program.
Oh, and remember I was in the Navy – I found ways to program there too. I was on a submarine and part of our deployment involved writing out a very formatted Word document. I built a program in Java that would basically do it for us.
This trend continued through the years. Whatever I was involved in, I just had to program something, whether it be javascript code that could parse our long text documents, or a full-fledged volunteer coordinating software for the church I eventually became the pastor of after the Navy.
Then, in 2020 things changed. I got out of ministry and we decided to try to live off of the online business my wife had started ten years before (with my technical help, of course). We decided to hire a business coach, and over the next six months we went from nothing to over 100 members in her program. The coach was so impressed, he took us on the road with him doing seminars. That was a blast for a couple of years until it ended.
And that’s when The Workflow Wizard emerged. It started as a coaching program where my wife and I were the coaches. I became known as the tech guy (not surprisingly since I had hacked a few programs together during the traveling days), and one of my coaching clients asked if she could pay me to automate some text messages using Twilio, Zapier, and a Google Sheet.
This was the first time I had even thought of getting paid to do this thing I do for fun. Well, I took the job and made it happen. She’s actually still using it today (even though I keep telling her to upgrade to Airtable instead of a spreadsheet).
Anyway, after that I decided to try to turn it into a business. I had friends in BNI (Business Networking International), so I figured I’d give that a shot. I was able to get a few clients and build a few different things, but traction was slow. It was hard to explain what I do to people in 60 seconds or less, especially to a bunch of non-computer-based business owners.
Initially I called myself some rather boring names like Whitworth Business Automations, but it was a client who helped me coin my current name. After I automated something for her, she called me a Wizard. I do love the Harry Potter stories and generally all kinds of fantasy works, so I grabbed it and The Workflow Wizard was born.
Fast forward a few months and I meet the person that changed the trajectory to what it is today. She is a Transaction Coordinator in Real Estate. Do you know what that is? I didn’t. But she wanted her invoices automated. So, I slapped together a rather complicated Zapier build and sure enough, made those invoices automatic. And she said that it saved her over FIFTY hours per month!!
Well, next thing I know she’s telling her coach and other TC friends about me and their reaching out to me for the same thing and more. Now, about two years later, I’m practically famous in that community. I automate invoices, payroll, agent emails, cda calculations, text messages, intake process, and so much more.
A year ago I got so busy with clients that I ran out of bandwidth and had to turn off new clients for about six months. During that time I hired five apprentices, and right now I I have been booked solid for discovery calls for the last three months straight and on into the next two.
Turns out people love you when you can give them months of their year back.
Oh, and did I mention that we also have six children that we homeschool? Four boys, two girls. Oldest is 17 and the youngest is 6.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not a smooth road, but a fun one most of the time. Probably the hardest struggle was when we left the ministry at the end of 2019, just before COVID hit. During 2020 we had our last child and moved to a different city in our area. I went through a couple years of mild depression, and financially we were near rock bottom just before we decided to try that business coach out. We literally had about six months of savings to live of off with no jobs, and spent a month of it on this chance…and it paid off.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a wizard. A wizard in the digital realm. If it’s online, I can work my magic with it. Technically I build custom online solutions for business owners where I utilize tools like Airtable, Zapier, and open API’s to connect softwares together and automate various business practices.
The bulk of my work these days is working with Transaction Coordinators that use either Open to Close or AFrame. I’m able to help these business owners with the business side of their business by automating invoices in Quickbooks, automating their Payroll for large teams, generating automated communications with Agent, building massive KPI tracking dashboards, and more. My specialty is working in Airtable, but I can also break out custom html pages as needed. And I’ve also built a few Chrome extensions. One is called The Inbox Wizard and provides a sidepanel to Gmail that brings in transaction details from either OTC or AFrame. It saves them tons of time not having to switch back and forth between the programs.
Basically, what I do is give people their time back. These are often solopreneurs who have reached the max of what they can do with spreadsheets and manual data entry. I come in and save them from that so they can use that extra time to grow their business and enjoy life. Being able to do that makes me quite happy.
And as far as I know, there is no one else doing quite the same thing I’m doing. And I’ve looked.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Not books or podcasts, but definitely apps. I’m a Mac guy, so definitely my macbook and iphone. Probably the apps I use the most would be Chrome for web browsing. I usually have multiple profiles logged in on multiple screens.
For programming I use Cursor, which is an amazing AI driven coding platform. AI is amazing at coding. I’m able to build things 10 times faster than when I was typing it all out myself.
My other go-to AI app is ChatGPT. I use it to discuss various things like programming, business, faith, and whatever. I also use it write my Wizard Chronicles – a newsletter I put out that retells some of my programming stories in the style of epic fantasy with wizards and magic and drags and such.
I used to use Evernote quite a bit for storing all kinds of data such as my journal and a timeline I keep so I remember when things happened, but I recently switched to UpNote because Evernote got more expensive, and frankly UpNote is better.
I use Zoom almost every day as I meet with clients.
A couple on my phone I use daily – Facebook, keeps me in the loop. MileIQ – tracks mileage for me. Hinge Health – it’s a pocket physical therapist! Church Planning Center and Music Stand – I’m in the church band playing piano, so that’s where the song order and sheet music are stored. Life 360 – to keep track of my family members. And, of course, Google Calendar – my wife and I live and breath according to that thing.
Pricing:
- I bill hourly at $225/hr for those not in my Magic Maintenance Plan
- I bill $150/hr for those in my Magic Maintenance Plan
- The Magic Maintenance Plan is $150/mo
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theworkflowwiz.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theworkflowwizard
