Tip of the Week #91: Revamped Wait Steps in Workflows

In Gym Lead Machine, you will now see a completely revamped Wait Step experience inside workflows. The functionality remains the same, but the setup process is now much clearer, easier to understand, and gives you more flexibility when building automations.

Where to Find the New Wait Steps

Navigate to:

Automations → Open Any Workflow → Click on a Wait Step

You’ll immediately notice the wait action panel on the right-hand side now looks different and is much easier to configure.

Standard Wait Steps

The most common wait action is still a simple timed delay.

Example

A workflow may:

  • Wait 2 minutes
  • Then send an SMS message

This means as soon as a contact enters the workflow, GymLeadMachine pauses the automation for 2 minutes before continuing to the next action.

Wait Until Contact Replies

This allows workflows to pause until a contact responds.

Example

A workflow may:

  • Wait until the contact replies
  • Timeout after 15 minutes

If the contact replies within 15 minutes:

  • The workflow continues down the normal path

If the contact does not reply:

  • The workflow follows the timeout branch

  • Example: sending a follow-up text like:

    “Hey, did you get my text?”

This makes follow-up automation much cleaner and easier to configure.

Easier-to-Understand Wait Types

When adding a new wait step, you’ll now see clearer wait type options with better descriptions of what each one does.

This makes workflow building faster and reduces confusion when setting up automations.

Wait Until a Scheduled Date or Time

This is one of the biggest improvements.

Previously, you often needed to:

  1. Create a custom event date
  2. Build timing offsets around that date

Now you can directly create a wait step for a specific date and time.

Example: Summer Camp Reminder

You can now:

  • Set an event date:
    • June 1st at 9:00 AM
  • Then configure reminders:
    • 1 day before
    • 2 days before
    • After the event
    • Or exactly at the selected time

This is especially useful for:

  • Kids camps
  • Workshops
  • Seminars
  • Special gym events
  • Challenges

You now have much more control over event timing without needing complicated setup steps.

New Recurring Wait Steps

GLM now supports Recurring Wait Steps.

This allows actions to repeat automatically on a schedule.

Example Setup

You can configure:

  • Every Monday
  • At 9:00 AM
  • For 5 occurrences

The workflow will clearly display all upcoming send times so there’s no confusion about when messages will fire.

Great Use Cases for Recurring Wait Steps

Recurring waits are perfect for:

  • Nutrition challenges
  • Accountability check-ins
  • Weekly coaching reminders
  • Ongoing fitness programs
  • Habit-building campaigns

Example

A 12-week nutrition challenge could:

  • Send a weekly Monday check-in SMS
  • Continue automatically each week
  • Stop once the contact is removed from the workflow

This keeps long-term engagement automations simple and organized.

Summary of Improvements

The revamped wait steps now provide:

  • Cleaner workflow setup
  • Easier-to-understand wait options
  • Direct date/time scheduling
  • Built-in recurring automation support
  • Better visibility into future actions
  • More flexibility for events and long-term campaigns

These updates make workflow automation inside Gym Lead Machine much more intuitive while giving you greater control over timing and engagement.