Claude basics: start here.

Hi, it's me. I'm not a coder. I'm not a computer person. A few months ago I'd never heard of a "connector".

Everything in my other guides, I learned by asking Claude a lot of questions and not being scared to look silly. So if you're brand new, start here. This is how I'd do it all over again.

Step 1: Get set up

1. Get the Claude app. Download the Claude desktop app (and the phone app, so you can send it screenshots on the go). Make an account and say hi.
2. Tell it who you are. Your business, what you sell, who you sell to, what you're working on. Talk to it like a new hire on their first day. The more it knows, the better everything gets.
3. Connect your tools. In Settings → Connectors, connect the things you already use: your email, Klaviyo, Shopify, Canva, Google Drive. Now Claude can actually see your stuff and do the work, not just talk about it.
4. Start small. Pick one annoying task this week and do it together. Then another. That's how my whole system got built, one task at a time.

Step 2: Work with it like a bestie

Once it's connected, you can literally just ask. Some of my favourites:

• Learn my voice: "Read my last 30 sent emails and write me a guide to how I sound."
• Learn from people I follow: "Read the last 10 emails from [newsletter] and pull out the lessons I can use." (Here's who I learn from.)
• Learn design: "Look at my Canva designs and tell me what makes them look like us."
• Learn my numbers: "Look at Shopify and tell me what sold best last month."

The 5 habits that get me unstuck

1. Ask "what do I do next?" Stuck halfway through a setup? Just ask. Or ask "is it possible to do this?" Claude will walk you through it, step by step.
2. Send a screenshot. Can't find a button? Got an error? Screenshot it, paste it in and say "help, what am I looking at?" This one habit saved me hours.
3. Start with the outcome. Tell Claude what you want to end up with, then ask how to get there. "I want people who buy once to buy again. How do I do that?"
4. Ask it to interview you. Before a big task, say "interview me first, one question at a time." It pulls out details you'd never think to mention.
5. Give it more context. The more Claude knows about you and the task, the better the answer. When in doubt, over-share.

I'm new to Claude and I'm not technical. I run [business], we sell [products] to [customers]. Interview me one question at a time until you understand my business, then tell me the 3 tasks you could take off my plate this week and walk me through the first one step by step.

My favourite email trick

Subscribe to a brand you really look up to. Let their emails pile up for a few weeks. Then get Claude to go into your inbox and study them: the flow strategy, the timing, the layout, the fun stuff.

Go into my inbox and find every email from [brand]. Map out their strategy: what they send when, how their welcome emails flow, how they write subject lines, their layouts and the fun little touches. Then tell me 5 things I should steal for my brand.

And when an email stops you in your tracks? Send it to Claude.

Here's an email I love [forward it, paste it or screenshot it]. Recreate it for my brand: my voice, my colours, my fonts and my products. Keep what makes it great, make everything else ours.