I talk about AI, Claude especially, a lot.

What I use it for and the way I’m building my business with it are constant topics of conversation for me and my person.

Some of it lands. Some of it doesn’t, which I get because I often go too deep into the weeds.

But when I told my person they could use Claude to help them prepare for an upcoming commitment, from brainstorming to creating and refining a presentation deck, that caught their attention.

However, when they tried to start working on the project, they hit a snag.

They didn’t know Claude’s web address.

Oof.

I felt like a fool. Like I’d explained how to drive to the store without telling them how to turn on the car.

As I walked them through signing in, I realized there’s a massive gap I want to help fill.

All the AI headlines, all the talk about foundation labs and tokens and model releases, it all misses one key point: how to help a person begin using AI. Because once they start the right way, they’re almost halfway to discovering what all the hullabaloo is about themselves.

Three Key Steps

When you start using an AI tool, there are three things you should do to improve all the work you do with it:

1. Get Introduced
2. Provide Context
3. Tailor The Voice

While these work across most tools, I’m highlighting Claude. It’s the tool I recommend because of its safety foundation as well as for the quality of what it generates.

And if you have been using AI for a while but haven’t done numbers one and three yet, doing them now will add immediate value to your outputs.

Get Introduced

The first thing you should do when beginning to use Claude or any AI tool is to have it interview you.

The purpose of the interview is to help the AI understand who you are, what you care about, your goals, and how you do and do not like to work. When it knows that from the outset, you save yourself the hassle of having to remind it repeatedly who you work for, your goals, or that you hate bulleted lists.

Use this prompt to start the interview:

I’m new to Claude and want you to understand how I work before we do anything else.

Interview me. One question at a time, and wait for my answer before asking the next.

Cover my role and what a typical week looks like, the tasks which eat my time, what I’d hand off if I could, the tools I already use, and how I like answers delivered: short or detailed, bullets or prose.

Push back when an answer is vague. Don’t rush.

When you have enough, stop. Write a short profile of me I can review and correct. Once I approve it, remember it. Then name the three places you’d start helping me first.

You’re welcome to modify this if you want, but it’s a solid start as is.

One caveat: make sure memory is turned on in Claude. If you don’t know where that setting is, ask it and it will walk you through how to check.

Provide Context

Every prompt you write can be improved by adding context to the statement. A key way to do that is by showing instead of telling.

“Showing” here means adding files or photos to the prompt. The purpose of doing that is to either give Claude an example of what you want it to generate, or providing material you already have which it needs to do what you’ve asked.

If you want Claude to write an email, give it one you’ve written. If you want it to make a PowerPoint presentation, you can upload one you already have so it knows the style and design to follow.

Of course, if you’re using work-related info, check your organization’s AI policy first, especially before uploading work files to a personal account.

With that done, there are two ways to add context:

1. Select the plus sign in the lower left corner of the prompt window, select “Add files or photos,” then navigate to where the information is stored on your device.
2. Or just drag and drop the file or photo into Claude. It will add it to the prompt for you.

Once that’s done, Claude will refer to the material after you enter your prompt.

Tailor The Voice

Claude writes well, but it writes like Claude. You want it to write like you instead.

To do that, you create a skill. Which sounds complicated, but it’s really not.

A skill is, simply put, a set of instructions Claude can use automatically whenever the task calls for it. It lets you not have to explain yourself every time.

Here’s a simple prompt you can use to make your own voice skill:

Build me a skill which writes in my voice.

I’ll give you samples of my own writing. Study them first: sentence rhythm, punctuation, how I open and close, words I use and avoid.

Then interview me, one question at a time, on what the samples don’t show.

Draft the skill, write a short test piece, and revise until it sounds like me. Then save it.

Along with that prompt, you’ll want to provide context. That could be several emails you’ve written recently or any other writing.

Once they’re added to the prompt, enter it, and then step through the conversation with Claude.

When you’re done, and you save the skill by clicking the “Save Skill” button, Claude will write like you instead of it.

If you’re unable to generate the skill and you’re using an account provided by your organization, you may need to ask your admin for permission.

So What Then?

These three steps will prepare you for using Claude well. What you do with it from there depends on your goals or the challenges you’re working on.

I find a simple way to begin when I don’t know any other way to start is to simply tell Claude what I need to do: “I have to [DESIRED OUTCOME] by [DATE OR TIME] because [THE REASON WHY]. Let’s brainstorm three possible ways to get this done.”

That simple prompt will get you started in a lot of different situations.

But if you’re truly lost, with any of the steps I described or just trying to get started with AI, I’ve got time for you.

Schedule 15 minutes with me now. The call is free to you and includes no judgment and no rolled eyes.

And I’ll probably learn more from you by the end of the call than you learn from me.

So do us both a favor and schedule your call today.