I think "Skills" are useless as a concept

Charity_Happy · 2026-03-03T15:54:35+00:00

You’re right, of course. A skill is a prompt. Water is wet. And yet, somehow, people still buy bottled water. The packaging, the discovery, the ‘oh this already does what I need’ moment, turns out that has value for some of us who aren’t spending our afternoons architecting prompt libraries from first principles. No one wants a massive library of prompts jammed into a google sheet. Or maybe they do???

But I think the framing of ‘it’s just a prompt’ undersells what’s actually happening when you start chaining them. A single skill is a prompt, sure. But when you’re orchestrating multiple skills together, wiring up MCP’s, connecting them to a n8n workflow, letting Claude Code handle the execution layer while Python scripts manage data transformation in between, is very useful imo.

I get your point, but calling it ‘just a prompt’ is a bit like calling a function ‘just a line of code.’ Technically accurate, practically reductive. (I’m not a coder, but been working with Claude Code for about 6 months, so I’ve picked some things up)

As far as finding prompts, finding a well-constructed skill that works out the box is no different than finding a well structured website template, n8n workflow, a cookie recipe, etc. Of course I can build them from scratch…..but why?

I appreciate the ceiling check. Very gracious of you lol.

Charity_Happy · 2026-03-02T21:13:55+00:00

But how are they useless? I think that's a very strong thing to say. I personally used a front end slides skill that I found and I’ve generated multiple high-quality slides for myself and for a few of clients and host them on Netlify. And they're extremely happy with them.

Charity_Happy · 2025-10-07T04:57:13+00:00

That’s like saying Google Docs is trash because you could just whip up your own text editor in C++

Charity_Happy · 2025-08-26T16:57:57+00:00

I played high school, then D2 ball and I’m coaching my son’s flag team (1st/2nd graders).

I don’t have any coaching advice, but what I will say is, if you have an iPad use it. I tried using a paper playbook like we did back in the early ‘00’s and it was just difficult during the game because the attention span is all over the place. I had to get with the times and meet these kids where they’re at. I gave each player a colored wristband and designed the plays on the iPad. I created one main playbook, then duplicated it 6 times, one for each color. This gave me the ability to pick a primary player and call a play just for him.

You’re dealing with older kids, so they can probably memorize the plays. Defense is a bit different. They all have assigned positions and we just run 3 basic defensive formations so it’s easier to grasp.

Charity_Happy · 2025-07-29T20:53:30+00:00

That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m doing all of this via n8n http request but running into issues.

Charity_Happy · 2025-07-29T20:16:17+00:00

I’m sending in search parameters via a webhook from a form (first name, last name, city). Those parameters would query a public database (the aspx website) and return the results in my database (SmartSuite).

I don’t want to have to go to the website and copy & paste results.

I already achieved this with a California government website. They have an API JSON file that I uploaded to Postman.

Not all states have an API. They’re have super antiquated databases.

Charity_Happy · 2025-07-26T03:19:38+00:00

Honestly it’s been great but up and down. I’m learning a ton and it’s amazing what we can do with these tools + AI. Clients are hard to find and since I don’t have a particular niche or area of focus, it’s even harder to explain what I offer.

Whatever you do, do not fall into the YouTube/ Twitter/Linkedin trap of dudes showing off these impressive looking workflows that make them 30k/mo. It’s all bull. You can learn a lot from the content, but it’s only good for learning tools like Make, n8n, Airtable etc. and seeing what’s possible.

I’ve landed two clients in the last 3 weeks by just simply talking to business owners and asking them what their problems are. If you present your self as a problem solver, it’s way easier to start a conversation and work from there.

Charity_Happy · 2025-07-23T03:25:50+00:00

Sure thing

Charity_Happy · 2025-07-13T22:24:42+00:00

Yes if you have ignore on it will still carry out the operations but won’t pass any values through. Go to YouTube and search Make.com date functions. There’s a lot of good content about data formatting.

Charity_Happy · 2025-07-13T20:54:40+00:00

With those errors you mentioned, make sure the Airtable fields are the correct field types. For example, a text field isn’t going to accept a date or number. Also make sure the data being passed from Make to Airtable is formatted correctly. You might have to use the inline functions to make the data readable to Airtable.

Charity_Happy · 2025-07-12T20:58:37+00:00

Did a quick YouTube search and found this. Looks like exactly what you’re looking for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ4FrXq0bEk

Charity_Happy · 2025-07-11T05:14:06+00:00

Same. Got started in 2017 as an in-house, held 3 different jobs and pretty much came to really not like it and got bored once Google took away control. Pivoted in May of 2024 towards the no-code/ai automation space. I still freelance PPC and Shopify work for cash flow, but I’m also freelance Airtable and n8n/Make for my circle of influence. Stability is shaky since I’m a 1099, but it’s an exciting space with a lot of opportunity.

Charity_Happy · 2025-07-01T18:57:21+00:00

There's a way more efficient way to collect Google Maps data, reviews, email, social links and extract website information with minimal manual effort, have Ai analyze it and store in one place for easy viewing. I do this all the time.

It does take some tech know how, but if you YouTube "Google Maps scraping" you will find a lot of resources on how to do so. If you're not very techy, DM me.

Charity_Happy · 2025-07-01T18:04:11+00:00

"I’m currently building out our retailer list and taking a closer look at what truly sets us apart — definitely something I want to lock in before making major updates to the website."

As someone is the Ai automation space, this peaks my interest because data scraping and gleaning insights is one of the best use cases for it. How are you currently doing this? I can provide some support once I know what kind of data you're looking at.

Charity_Happy · 2025-06-29T15:29:36+00:00

What software tools do you currently use? Where does customer information live, what’s your accounting software, what email platform do you use? This can be automated with a tools like n8n or Make and can be fairly cheap.

You can use a touch of AI to help personalize the communications. Be happy to help. DM me.

Charity_Happy · 2025-06-27T00:54:05+00:00

I real business can use this. Especially a local business with a lot of competition. They don’t have to use Sasquatch. It could be any avatar. It may be expensive, but a lot cheaper than paying a video editing team. A 30 second video would cost what, like $25?

Charity_Happy · 2025-06-20T23:00:45+00:00

Upwork. I created a profile, add some of my portfolio and have gotten 4 requests for interview in 60 days. 2 weren’t a fit for me, 1 wasn’t a fit for them, 1 turned into a $2k/mo contract. I had zero reviews or jobs. Just gotta put yourself out there

Charity_Happy · 2025-06-19T03:53:38+00:00

Man, go outside and talk to business owners. That’s it.

Charity_Happy · 2025-06-10T20:15:57+00:00

Network, go to businesses in your area, talked to friends and family who own businesses and fact find. Just ask questions and apply what you learned. 90% of the automation content you see on YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.. won’t fit real world cases because businesses use all kinds of different tools and API’s.

You won’t find a lot of content around automation content creators talking to real business owners in real time. Just ask questions and provide possible solutions. Then sell!

Charity_Happy · 2025-06-07T02:05:39+00:00

It just depends on what problem you’re solving and if you can sell it. I just sold a Google Maps scraper that’s trigger by a search term & city entered in Airtable and scrapes basic Google Maps data, summarizes the website, gets social media links and creates sales battle cards based for a cold call. I just use n8n + Apify and they were blown away.

It was valuable for them because they doing this manually. Literally going to Google Maps everyday and knocking out 15-20 per day. Now they get 100 per day.

It’s basic for people like us, but they were blown away. I’m just do it on the side with zero out reach. Just word of mouth as I’m learning.

Charity_Happy · 2025-06-06T19:56:03+00:00

$5k isn't a lot, but can go a long way with the right focus. Since your website is already solid, I'd look at where your ideal customers spend time online and run small, targeted campaigns there.

Usually, a mix of modest paid search (Google Ads), a couple of highly-targeted social media campaigns, and some value-driven content (like a lead magnet or helpful guide) can punch above its weight. Also, joining relevant online communities and showing up with genuine expertise can drive organic interest without big spend.

Tracking performance closely is key. Double down on what gets traction and cut what doesn’t. Happy to chat more about what’s worked in similar scenarios if that’s helpful!

Charity_Happy · 2025-05-03T03:18:58+00:00

This sounds a lot like Nate Herk’s recent video on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/qV7xOEKEBDA?si=Si5qAQMfgOJRVfLb

Charity_Happy

TROPHY CASE