Module · How a workflow is built
Draft and active: which workflows are actually running
Lesson 13 of 40 · 4 min
You have edited four workflows in this module and nothing has happened as a result. That is not luck — it is the single most important safety property in the product, and it is worth one short lesson before you make something run for real.
Saving is not activating
A workflow you have saved is a drawing of a workflow. Its trigger is not listening. Its schedule does not fire. You can edit it, break it, fix it and save it fifty times in front of a client, and nothing in their business moves until somebody switches it on.
This is why every change in this course has been safe. It is also the answer to “what if we get it wrong?” — you get it wrong on a draft, which is a rehearsal, not an incident.
Which of yours are running
| State | How many | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Active | 7 | Listening right now. A trigger fires and work happens. |
| Draft — waiting on the client | 7 | Finished and configured. Waiting on a credential only the client can supply. |
| Draft — waiting on nobody | 5 | Nothing is missing. Nobody has switched them on. |
Active
- How many
7- What it means
- Listening right now. A trigger fires and work happens.
Draft — waiting on the client
- How many
7- What it means
- Finished and configured. Waiting on a credential only the client can supply.
Draft — waiting on nobody
- How many
5- What it means
- Nothing is missing. Nobody has switched them on.
Those last two rows look identical in the workflow list and are completely different things. Conflating them is the mistake to avoid in front of a client: telling them a workflow “needs your WhatsApp number” when it needs nothing at all is the kind of error they remember.
What each waiting draft is actually waiting for
| Waiting on | Which workflows it unlocks |
|---|---|
| a telephony number | 3.2 · Let AI call the lead and qualify them, 6.3 · Let AI call your old contact list |
| a WhatsApp business number | 4.1 · Answer WhatsApp questions with AI, 4.2 · Qualify and book inside WhatsApp |
| a calendar connection | 5.1 · Book the visit into your calendar |
| an ad account | 8.1 · Tell Meta which leads were actually good, 8.2 · Tell Meta which leads became revenue |
a telephony number
- Which workflows it unlocks
3.2 · Let AI call the lead and qualify them,6.3 · Let AI call your old contact list
a WhatsApp business number
- Which workflows it unlocks
4.1 · Answer WhatsApp questions with AI,4.2 · Qualify and book inside WhatsApp
a calendar connection
- Which workflows it unlocks
5.1 · Book the visit into your calendar
an ad account
- Which workflows it unlocks
8.1 · Tell Meta which leads were actually good,8.2 · Tell Meta which leads became revenue
Four things, across seven workflows. That is the entire gap between this demo and a client's live system — and every one of them is something the client already owns, not something anybody has to build.
And the ones waiting on nobody
5.2 · Remind them, and chase the no-shows6.1 · Send a 4-message follow-up over 21 days6.2 · Write a different message for every person6.4 · Welcome, onboard and ask for a referral7.2 · Every morning, chase what has gone quiet
These five would run today. They are off because switching a workflow on is a decision about someone's business, and nobody has made it. In a client's org, this list is the conversation: here is what is ready, what would you like turned on first?
Change one thing — switch on three
The next lesson has you create an enquiry and watch what your org does about it. These three are what does it, and they all start on the same event — a new deal:
2.3 · Mark every lead hot, warm or cold — and say why3.1 · Call every new lead back within 5 minutes7.1 · Give the lead to the right person, and tell them
- Open each one and check whether it is already active. In this org they are; in yours they may not be, and that is exactly the thing worth knowing how to check.
- Switch on any that are not.
- Change nothing else.
Do not switch on the other five, however tempting. The morning sweep would raise a chase task for every quiet enquiry in your org tomorrow at half past nine — up to fifty of them. The 21-day follow-up would start a cadence you then have to wait three weeks to see the end of. Activating is a commitment, not a checkbox, and that sentence is worth carrying into a client conversation: the question is never “can we turn this on?” but “are we ready for what it will do tomorrow morning?”
Try it
- Go down the workflow list and sort it in your head into the three states. You should be able to do it from the names and what you now know.
- Pick one of the five that is ready and decide whether you would switch it on for a real client in week one. Have a reason.
- Find the workflow you would switch on last, and be ready to say why. That answer is worth more in a sales conversation than the list of what the product can do.
Next: The execution log: run one, then read it — make one enquiry, and read everything your org just did about it.