Thank you Joel. This is an easy to do exercise that brings great leverage to your operation. Between this and your second brain, I am heading to Aruba. 😂
I just went through your instructions for creating a Skill. I chose the workflow-visualizer to experiment with. I had already uploaded context info about me and my business previously. Wow, after uploading it, when I switched over to create a prompt, there was one already preloaded, then I got a response, "Since you just added this skill, let me put it through its paces with something that's directly relevant to your business — a visual map of how content flows through your ecosystem." 1 minute, and I had a nearly perfect flow chart. Thanks for outlining the steps so clearly, Joel!
Thank you Joel. I have been doing this on a one off basis but creating repeatable skills is sooo powerful. Ppt Outputs are much better than gamma as well in terms of visualization!
40 hours back is basically getting an extra week every month. The key is treating Claude as a thought partner, not just a task executor. When you structure requests as strategic problems instead of simple commands, the output quality jumps exponentially.
100%. If you treat Claude like a junior task-doer, you’ll get junior outputs. Treat it like a thought partner: give context, constraints, trade-offs, and ask it to challenge your plan.
Example: don’t say write an email say here’s the goal + audience + risks… draft 3 options, predict objections, and recommend the safest one. That’s when 40 hours back becomes real and the next wave is turning these strategic workflows into repeatable Skills/playbooks so good thinking scales, not just typing.
Really cool how Claude Skills work, and love your breakdown Joel. I am trying to also integrate specific formats with my content calendar, so that I can potentially create different kinds of posts. Hoping that will further streamline things for me :)
One of the things I do is create a new brand skill with the brand guide of each business I have, so it knows exactly what to pull depending on the business
This is a great example of AI being used as infrastructure rather than a novelty feature, and what stood out for me is the difference between tools that simply generate output and systems that actually fit how you already work. Most people I see struggle not because the tech is weak, but because they try to bolt AI onto broken workflows and then blame the tool when it feels clunky. When the workflow is designed first and AI is there to carry the heavy lifting, the quality usually goes up rather than down. The real gain here is not speed alone, it is consistency without the mental tax. Where do you think people most underestimate the setup work needed to make this genuinely useful?
“Projects are context (what Claude knows), Skills are capabilities (what Claude does)”
that alone is a great take away to really clear up a lot of the confusion i see around claude! great post :)
it was a confusion I had!
Great job on this, Joel! I definitely got a few ideas I hadn't considered before. Love what Claude is doing!
Thank you Joel. This is an easy to do exercise that brings great leverage to your operation. Between this and your second brain, I am heading to Aruba. 😂
Haha! Yes that’s the plan!!
Great stuff Joel. I love the visualizations idea.
It’s saved me quite a bit of time
I just went through your instructions for creating a Skill. I chose the workflow-visualizer to experiment with. I had already uploaded context info about me and my business previously. Wow, after uploading it, when I switched over to create a prompt, there was one already preloaded, then I got a response, "Since you just added this skill, let me put it through its paces with something that's directly relevant to your business — a visual map of how content flows through your ecosystem." 1 minute, and I had a nearly perfect flow chart. Thanks for outlining the steps so clearly, Joel!
Denise, this is so encouraging to read. Thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate you :)
Thank YOU! for the steps to follow. That’s how I learn best.
Thank you Joel. I have been doing this on a one off basis but creating repeatable skills is sooo powerful. Ppt Outputs are much better than gamma as well in terms of visualization!
I was a heavy gamma user and yes, this is better :)
Genuinely useful. Thank you.
I’m glad, Emmy!
Awesome! Claude is a game changer. Learning to use it well makes all the difference.
It really is! I’ve switched fully from Chat gpt around a yr ago
40 hours back is basically getting an extra week every month. The key is treating Claude as a thought partner, not just a task executor. When you structure requests as strategic problems instead of simple commands, the output quality jumps exponentially.
Anfernee we need to do a live sometime! I think it’d be a fun chat
But I’m still a Notion AI guy. Haha!
Haha I guess we all have all have areas to improve ;)
🤣🤣
Sure 💪🏻
100%. If you treat Claude like a junior task-doer, you’ll get junior outputs. Treat it like a thought partner: give context, constraints, trade-offs, and ask it to challenge your plan.
Example: don’t say write an email say here’s the goal + audience + risks… draft 3 options, predict objections, and recommend the safest one. That’s when 40 hours back becomes real and the next wave is turning these strategic workflows into repeatable Skills/playbooks so good thinking scales, not just typing.
Great example!
This is gold!
Thanks Luis! Glad to help you customize any of this, reach out if you have questions
Love that Joel, I'll test some of these myself
Ask if you have any questions!
will do for sure
This is quite useful, Joel. Thanks for sharing in such great detail.
Glad it helps! That’s my goal
Really cool how Claude Skills work, and love your breakdown Joel. I am trying to also integrate specific formats with my content calendar, so that I can potentially create different kinds of posts. Hoping that will further streamline things for me :)
One of the things I do is create a new brand skill with the brand guide of each business I have, so it knows exactly what to pull depending on the business
That’s a good idea!
Great breakdown, thanks for sharing!
Thanks @Benjamin Hies
Repeatable workflows usually create the biggest productivity gains.
So true!
This is a great example of AI being used as infrastructure rather than a novelty feature, and what stood out for me is the difference between tools that simply generate output and systems that actually fit how you already work. Most people I see struggle not because the tech is weak, but because they try to bolt AI onto broken workflows and then blame the tool when it feels clunky. When the workflow is designed first and AI is there to carry the heavy lifting, the quality usually goes up rather than down. The real gain here is not speed alone, it is consistency without the mental tax. Where do you think people most underestimate the setup work needed to make this genuinely useful?