First Steps · Lesson 1 of 4
Meet Claude
In ten minutes you'll have an account, you'll have run your first real prompt, and you'll have five ideas for saving time in your own business.
Think of it as a brilliant new employee
Claude is an AI assistant you talk to in plain English. The best way to picture it: a very smart new employee on their first day. They've read more than anyone you've ever hired. They write well, they're fast, and they never get tired of boring tasks.
But it's their first day. They don't know your prices, your customers, your hours, or how you like to sound. Everything you get out of Claude follows from that one idea. Tell it what a new employee would need to know, and it does great work. Assume it already knows your business, and you'll get generic mush.
What it's great at, and what it's not
Great at: writing and rewriting anything, summarizing long documents, explaining things simply, drafting emails and posts, organizing messy notes, and giving you a solid first draft in seconds.
Not great at: facts about your specific business (it can't know them unless you say them), exact numbers and dates from memory, and anything it can't see. We'll cover how to handle that in lesson 4.
Get set up
- Go to claude.ai in any browser, on your phone or computer.
- Sign up with your email or Google account. The free plan is all you need for this course.
- You'll land on an empty chat box. That box is the whole product. Everything in this course happens right there.
Your first prompt
A prompt is just what you type in the box. Here's your first one. Anything in {curly braces} means replace it with your own words. That rule holds for every prompt in this course.
I run a small {type of business} in Southwest Florida. Give me 5 specific ways you could save me time each week. Keep each one to 2 sentences and make them things I could try today.