Read a flowchart. Build an AI agent.
James Zolman · RizeX Monthly Mastermind · June 2026 · Eastern Idaho
Most business owners know AI could save them time. Few know where to start without hiring a developer. At June’s RizeX Mastermind, James Zolman skipped the slides and built AI agents for business live in front of the room. Then he handed out two working agents, a co-marketing partner finder and a deal closer, that the room could test for about a nickel a person.
The conversation about AI has moved past “should we?” to “how do we, without a tech team?” For Eastern Idaho owners wearing every hat in the business, the tools that matter are the ones you can set up in an afternoon and use the next morning. James came to show that the barrier is lower than most people think, and to be honest about where it still breaks.
What James covered
The shade-tree mechanic mindset. James opened with a line from car builder David Freiburger that he’s adopted for AI: “It doesn’t matter if it’s right. It matters that it runs.” He told the room to expect slop and broken things, and invited them to help break things too. The point was to stop waiting for perfect before you start experimenting.
n8n as the engine. James builds most of his AI tools with n8n automation. n8n is a visual workflow builder, and he self-hosts it through Hostinger’s one-click install so he isn’t limited by the caps on the commercial plans. He recommended browsing the built-in template library, especially the marketing and content-creation templates, to see what’s possible before building anything yourself.
How an AI agent actually works. James broke an agent into plain parts. Each step in a workflow is a node. The AI agent uses a large language model like ChatGPT, memory (think of it as a spreadsheet), tools it can use, and an output that passes to the next step. “The beauty of this is you don’t actually need to know any of this,” he said. n8n now lets you describe what you want in plain English and builds the workflow for you.
Build a team of agents, and always add QA. James’s marketing agent is really a crew: a researcher, an idea generator, a risk evaluator, a voice profiler that studies your website and social accounts so the copy sounds like you, a copywriter, and an action planner. The last step is always a quality check. “Does this sound right? Is this actually good quality output?” he asked. That check stays in every workflow he builds.
What the room walked away with
Before the event, members voted in a survey, and the result was an even 50–50 split between a marketing helper and a closing system. So James built both:
- Marketing Partnership Helper. Give it two businesses, just the name, website, and three or four words about what each does, and it uses lateral thinking to come up with creative co-marketing partnership ideas. Tables paired up to try it with the business owner sitting next to them, even when the two businesses seemed completely unrelated.
- Deal Closing Helper. A lightweight AI version of a question-based sales approach (the story is below).
- Free agent files. James offered all of his agents at no cost. They’re files you copy and paste into your own n8n setup, and he’s happy to hand them to your tech person or agency so they can keep building.
The room also got an honest look at the limits. A newer version of one agent broke during the live demo. “Classic AI,” James laughed, and he used the moment to make his point about keeping people in the loop.
A moment that landed
James’s best closer never sounded like a salesman. At a business doing about $40 million a year, a closer named Jeremy was responsible for about $20 million of it. The team could send him junk leads, and he would still close one out of every four, on purchases of $25,000 to $50,000. He didn’t hard-close and didn’t assume the sale. He asked questions until people saw their own problem and closed themselves. James turned that line of questioning into the Deal Closing Helper so any owner can practice it.
“You just need to know how to read a flowchart.” — James Zolman
“AI is not perfect. This is definitely why humans need to be involved.” — James Zolman
About James
James Zolman is a digital marketer who builds AI automations for his own companies. He and his wife, Megan, have lived in Menan since 2003, where he serves as vice president of the Friends of the Menan Annis Grant Library. He closed his talk with a personal ask: the rural library serving about 7,000 people outside Rigby still runs out of a double-wide trailer, and construction on its new building is now underway. James is looking for subcontractors who can donate time or materials, and for anyone who can spread the word about the library project.
Join us next month
The RizeX Monthly Mastermind meets every month in Eastern Idaho. It’s an intimate gathering of local business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals committed to real growth, and it’s the business mastermind Idaho owners come back to because they leave with tools like these, not just talking points. Every event features a speaker who’s in the trenches alongside you, plus time for meaningful conversation and connection with the Idaho small business community.