Session 1 · 2 hours

First Contact

Zero to "wow" — naming the company tonight.

By the end of tonight

3 candidate company names
A favorite, with a tagline
A 1-page brand brief PDF — saved on your laptop
A working mental model of what Claude actually is

First, what we're working with.

Claude is an AI model — one of the best in the world. Made by Anthropic. Trained on most of what humans have written down.

You talk to it. It talks back.

Watch this.

Something real from my clinic.

See what just happened?

I described a real situation
I asked for a specific output (4-sentence text)
It drafted in my voice, with my context
It took 3 seconds

That's the whole game. Describe a real problem. Get something useful back.

Your turn.

Open Claude. Type the thing you were going to put off this week.

Don't worry about "how to phrase it right." Just describe it like you'd describe it to me.

Now let's look under the hood

What is this thing, actually?

15 minutes of theory. Then we name your company.

Common misconception

It's not a search engine.

When you ask Google something, it goes find pages that match. When you ask Claude something, it doesn't go anywhere. There's no "looking up."

It's a prediction machine. It learned patterns. From those patterns, it predicts what a good answer looks like.

Try this

Fill in the blank.

What does that mean for you?

✓ Great at

Writing drafts. Editing. Summarizing what you give it. Generating options. Brainstorming. Anything where it's working WITH information you provide.

✗ Bad at

Recalling specific facts. Names. Dates. Statistics. Today's news. Anything where it has to "look something up" — it can't.

Important

It will lie to you.

Sometimes Claude makes things up. Confidently. Cites a fake book. Invents a statistic. Quotes someone who never said it.

This is called hallucinating.

Real example of a confident lie

Don't trust Claude
on facts you can't verify.

Names. Dates. Statistics. Citations. Awards. Quotes. Always double-check.

DO trust it for drafts, structure, language, analysis of stuff YOU give it.

Last concept before we build

Context.

Each chat with Claude is like a meeting. Whatever's been said in this meeting, Claude remembers.

New chat = new meeting. Claude has amnesia between chats.

Watch context build up

Three things to remember tonight

1. Predictor, not searcher

It writes from patterns it learned. It's not looking anything up.

2. Verify the facts

It can lie confidently. Double-check names, dates, statistics.

3. Stay in one chat

Context builds up. Each message makes the next better.

Quick check.

In your own words — what's the difference between Claude and Google?

Theory done

Now we name the company.

Watch a small example, then you take the keyboard.

Demo · iteration in action

Your turn · paste this in Claude

I'm starting a roofing and solar installation
company in [YOUR CITY].

The new business will install roofs AND solar
panels — both standalone and as a bundle (roof
+ solar in one project).

Customers:
- Homeowners with storm damage
- Homeowners planning a roof replacement
- Homeowners curious about solar
- Sweet spot: roof + solar bundle

I want a name that:
- Sounds local and trustworthy
- Works for BOTH roofing AND solar
- Easy to say on the phone
- Fits on a truck and a polo shirt

Give me 10 candidate names with a 1-sentence
reason for each.

When the first batch is mid

Don't start over. Refine.

Bad approach

Close the chat. Start a new one. Re-paste the original prompt. Hope for better.

Good approach

Reply: "These [list 3] are interesting because [why]. Give me 5 more in this style. Drop the ones that sound [whatever you didn't like]."

Pick three.

Three you don't hate. Doesn't have to be "the one" yet. Write them on paper.

Next artifact

Now the tagline.

Pick your favorite name. We'll build a tagline together. The other 2 names get taglines as homework.

The big artifact tonight

A one-page brand brief.

The document you'd hand to anyone you ever pay to make stuff for your business — designer, printer, marketing person. Tells them who you are in 10 seconds.

Save as PDF

Don't lose this.

Copy the brief from Claude
Open Word or WordPad
Paste it
File → Save As → file type "PDF"
Save in your Roofing & Solar Launch folder as brand-brief-v1.pdf

Recap · the three rules

1. Predictor

Not a search engine. It writes from patterns it learned, not from looking things up.

2. Verify facts

It can lie confidently. Always check names, dates, statistics.

3. One chat

Iterate. Each message adds context. New chat = blank slate.

Before next week

What's one thing you'll try with Claude this week?

Specific. From your real business. 10 minutes Monday morning.

Next session

Session 2 — The Art of Asking

We take one of your real cold emails, rewrite it five ways, and build your personal Sales Voice template.

Bring: one cold outreach email you've sent (or one you got that you liked).