How To Use Claude As Your Executive Assistant (10-min to setup) - Marketing Against The Grain

Summary

Marketing Against The Grain: Episode Summary

Title: How To Use Claude As Your Executive Assistant (10-min to setup)
Host/Author: HubSpot Podcast Network
Release Date: January 16, 2025

In this episode of Marketing Against The Grain, the hosts delve into leveraging Claude, an advanced AI assistant, to function as an Executive Assistant (EA). The discussion primarily focuses on setting up Claude using the Projects feature, demonstrating its capabilities, and exploring practical workflows that can enhance productivity and organizational efficiency.

Introduction to Claude's Projects Feature

[00:03]
The episode kicks off with an introduction to Claude's Projects feature, hailed as one of the best tools launched the previous year. The host emphasizes that despite its potential, it's underutilized by many marketers.

"Projects is one of the best features launched last year. Not enough people are using it, so we're going to change that." – Speaker A

Setting Up Claude as an Executive Assistant

Enterprise vs. Personal Plan
The host explains the setup process using a Claude Enterprise Seat but reassures listeners that the same steps apply to a personal plan, albeit with a few additional features exclusive to the enterprise version.

"I'm going to show you how to do this via a Claude Enterprise Seat. But you can do the exact same thing on a personal plan." – Speaker A

Creating a Project
Listeners are guided through creating a new project within Claude, which serves as the AI's primary task executor. By defining a project, users can assign specific instructions that persist across all interactions.

"You can think of Projects as an AI assistant tasked with a singular thing, in this case to be my executive assistant." – Speaker A

Customizing the Executive Assistant

Defining Instructions and Output Formats
The host demonstrates how to instruct Claude to manage meeting analyses, follow-ups, project coordination, and maintaining communication style and output formats. This customization ensures that the AI assistant aligns with the user's specific needs.

"We tell it what we want in terms of the output format and when it's doing meeting summaries, when it's doing follow ups, when it's actually drafting replies for me." – Speaker A

Integrating with Google Drive and Other Apps
For enterprise users, integration with Google Drive allows seamless access to documents, enabling Claude to fetch and update files as needed.

"I'm very lucky because I can just search in my G drive. It connects into a bunch of apps." – Speaker A

Managing Meetings and Follow-Ups

Uploading Meeting Transcripts
A key functionality showcased is the ability to upload meeting transcripts, after which Claude generates summaries, extracts action items, and updates follow-up lists automatically.

"I upload a meeting now I probably would do this at the end of each day versus after every single meeting. But I do use it for after meetings as well because it was just giving me the meeting summary." – Speaker A

Action Item Tracking
Claude not only lists the action items but also flags them based on timelines, suggesting priorities and due dates to keep tasks on track.

"It does flag things. It generally will flag things based upon timelines, which I think is really good." – Speaker A

Automating Follow-Up Communications
The AI assistant can draft follow-up messages tailored to different platforms, such as emails or Slack, ensuring consistent and efficient communication.

"It will actually draft me that like just cut and paste and then send. I can actually in the instructions I give to my ea, I'm going to actually ask it to either give me an email or a slack depend on what I ask because a slack one should be much, much shorter." – Speaker A

Practical Workflow Demonstration

Daily Task Management
Starting the day with Claude involves pulling urgent tasks, understanding their context, and generating a prioritized to-do list.

"I start my morning with Claude, it can pull from that list and basically tell me like, what are the urgent things I need to do today?" – Speaker A

Project-Specific Assistants
For users managing multiple projects or pods, setting up individual EA assistants for each project can streamline task management and communication across different teams.

"I'm going to actually use it for I have three large pods that I manage within HubSpot and I'm going to have an EA Assistant for each one." – Speaker A

Continuous List Maintenance
Claude maintains a dynamic list of follow-ups, updating it in real-time as tasks are completed or new ones are added, ensuring users always have an up-to-date overview.

"It will keep a running order of that list for you at all times, which is amazing." – Speaker A

Limitations and Future Enhancements

Current Limitations
While the current setup offers robust functionality, there are limitations, such as the inability to automatically update Google Docs with changes made by Claude. Users need to manually copy and paste updates to share with their teams.

"For the moment it's keeping a running list for you in the Claude assistant. But if you go back into the doc, it's not updating the doc." – Speaker A

Future Features
The host anticipates future updates that will enable deeper integrations, such as writing back into Google Docs, drafting emails directly in email clients, and integrating more seamlessly with communication platforms like Slack.

"I guarantee Claude in their enterprise version will plug into Google Docs and allow you to write back into that file... I'd have to incorporate it into the enterprise seat." – Speaker A

Conclusion and Recommendations

Maximizing Claude's Potential
The episode concludes with a strong endorsement of Claude's Projects feature, urging listeners to experiment and integrate it into their workflows to manage complex projects and large teams effectively.

"If you can get that set up over the weekend and you have those per project, you can create one for all of your projects." – Speaker A

Call to Action
Listeners are encouraged to subscribe for detailed instructions and additional resources, which will be provided through the host's newsletter and social media channels.

"I will give them to you in my newsletter... Basically the exact instructions that I give my ea." – Speaker A

Notable Quotes:

"Projects is one of the best features launched last year. Not enough people are using it, so we're going to change that."
— Speaker A [00:03]
"You can think of Projects as an AI assistant tasked with a singular thing, in this case to be my executive assistant."
— Speaker A
"It does flag things. It generally will flag things based upon timelines, which I think is really good."
— Speaker A
"It will keep a running order of that list for you at all times, which is amazing."
— Speaker A
"If you can get that set up over the weekend and you have those per project, you can create one for all of your projects."
— Speaker A

This episode provides a comprehensive guide for marketers and professionals looking to harness the power of AI to streamline their workflow. By setting up Claude as an Executive Assistant, users can efficiently manage meetings, track action items, and maintain organized communication across multiple projects, ultimately gaining a competitive edge in their marketing endeavors.

Transcript

A (0:03)

Okay, we're going to give everyone their own personal assistant using Claude and something you can actually set up in less than 10 minutes and really showcases the power of Claude's Projects feature. So who doesn't want their own personal assistant? That would be awesome. So let's go through the entire workflow. I'm going to show you how to do this via a Claude Enterprise Seat. But you can do the exact same thing on a personal plan. The only reason I'm calling that out is there's a couple of additional features that I have that you'll see and I'll tell you how you can do it if you don't have an enterprise Seat. Plus this is brand new, so it's set up with dummy data. I'm only starting to set up the Enterprise seat now. So the first thing you want to do is go to Projects. Projects is one of the best features launched last year. Not enough people are using it, so we're going to change that. You can think of Projects as an AI assistant tasked with a singular thing, in this case to be my executive assistant. And so the reason I say that is you can basically set up a project and then you can give it some actual instructions. And those instructions last across all of the different chats you have. Right. So in this case we want our personal assistant to be able to do a bunch of our meet analysis. We're going to give it all of the meeting transcripts after every single meeting. It's going to do all of our follow up management. So it's going to coordinate all of our different projects and follow ups and make sure we stay on top of all of that. It's going to have a communication style and we give it the output format. So we tell it like what we want in terms of the output format and when it's doing meeting summaries, when it's doing follow ups, when it's actually drafting replies for me, and then for follow up tracking, we talk about the extended items. I want what's due this week, what's overdue, what are suggested messages, so you want to give it some instructions then. The cool thing about projects is I can basically add content really easily. So my case, the reason I call that the Enterprise seat, I'm very lucky because I can just search in my G drive. It connects into a bunch of apps. So I've given it this project file which is this. So this is just a flat file. Right. Basically it's going to capture all of the follow ups. And this is dummy content here. But What I'm giving it is the actual structure that I want to maintain. And you'll see Claude actually starts to keep that list itself. So it's going to keep the follow ups and update it itself. And then you want to provide the mean and summary. So if you're on a personal plan, you would upload these documents. I can just connect into my doc and basically I can just go and say, look, where are the meaning summaries? And I can find them all. And so I've added like one with dummy data because obviously there's a bunch of like personal things in here or business things in here. So now I've set up my assistant, I can go through all of the things I did. Right, so give you some ideas. So now we can basically ask it to analyze the latest meeting transcript and update our action list, right? So when you upload a meeting now I probably would do this at the end of each day versus after every single meeting. But I do use it for after meetings as well because it was just giving me the meeting summary. And I can basically ask it to draft that meeting summary into a bullet point list to actually provide people with the follow ups, key decisions and then it talks about the action items. So this is the really cool bit, right? It actually extracts the action items and starts to talk about what they are and then combines them with the existing tracked items. And I'll show you what that means. It does flag things. It generally will flag things based upon timelines, which I think is really good. Now we'll go into the things I asked, right? This was in the last instructions I give it, which is tell us about what else is in that follow up list and then actually suggest some follow ups. Now I actually don't want it to do follow ups until I ask, so I would stop at doing that, which is just an adjustment in the prompt. So basically analyze the meeting and then I say, well, what are our standard action items and what needs to follow up today? So I go in, in my morning, I start my morning with Claude, it can pull from that list and basically tell me like, what are the urgent things I need to do today? What is the context? What is the history? How dope is that? Right? I get my own like what is my to do list today? Now imagine you actually had this across all of your projects, right? I've just got dummy data in here, but I'm going to actually use it for I have three large pods that I manage within HubSpot and I'm going to have an EA Assistant for each one. And each one will be able to tell me what are the core things I need to do that day with context across those three different pods. So it will basically give me what are the urgent tasks and then it will say what are the recommended immediate follow ups? And call out the people. Then I ask it for the complete list of action. This is with the cool pit, right? So what are all the follow ups I actually have on the docket right now? So the first time it basically goes through it tells me what they all are. Again, this is all dummy data. Tells me what is due this week. They don't actually have due dates. I actually need to put due dates. So the thing is you really need to stick to that format and I think that's a good thing because it really forces you to make sure that there's an owner description, due date and when you actually have that thing delivered. So it suggests next steps. And then I ask for the table format. So you can see it didn't give me the table format. I actually prefer a table format and here it gives me the table format. So it will continue to update that for you. And when you say one of those is complete, it will actually take it off. So it will keep a running order of that list for you at all times, which is amazing. And then it will start to draft. So like I have different prompts. This one here is if I want to get confirmation on a status, right? This is progress check. So I'll basically say, hey, like draft a follow up for me on the thing that we talked about, the ultimate cac and basically ask, you know, gives it some guidance and what to do here. And so it will actually draft me that like just cut and paste and then send. I can actually in the instructions I give to my ea, I'm going to actually ask it to either give me an email or a slack depend on what I ask because a slack one should be much, much shorter. So I actually have that done on my personal. I actually need to incorporate it into the enterprise seat. So you can basically say you can set one from email, you can set one for slack, you can set whatever you want to do. Now you're probably saying, well, I want to get all of the instructions that Kieran's showing us. I can't provide the docs along with this video on LinkedIn where I'm going to post it or even on YouTube if we post it there. I will give them to you in my newsletter. So I'm going to send this video next week to my newsletter subscribers. You can find it on my LinkedIn profile and I'll send you all of the docs that I used here. Basically the exact instructions that I give my ea. So basically it gives the follow up here. There's another one here which is basically this is assign in a task. So basically I want to clearly state that this person owns this task and when the deadline is and ask for confirmation that they understand that. So you can see here again this one here is for checking in. This one here is for making sure we've assigned all tasks. And then basically I've assigned this task out. So I actually give this as a new task with a new due date and then it will update that list. So it updates the list here. So required follow ups and it's added here. Jan Tent. Right, so it's actually added that list. So basically what is it doing? Right, we're setting some instructions for this AI assistant on how it should act across all of this chat and it keeps that context. Then we're just adding all of our meeting transcripts. So after every single meeting we just add the transcript and it can provide a summary of the meeting and it can extract all follow up actions and then we provide it guidelines on like what format to keep those follow up actions in. And it keeps a running list of that. So you can go back to your assistant and say okay, like what is the list? What's due this week, what's due today? Actually we did this one, so can you put this off the list? Actually can you draft follow up to Kieran and basically the, you know, the prompts I showed you, this is a check in, check in, give me a status or I want to assign this one out. Can you draft that? And we'll draft it in the right format and then we'll add it to the list for you. Now you can go way, way deeper on this. I'm giving you like the quick thing you can set up over the weekend and have it ready for next week. And really just showing you how you should really think about projects and play around with projects. I guarantee Claude in their enterprise version will plug into Google Docs and allow you to write back into that file. So for the moment it's keeping a running list for you in the Claude assistant. But if you go back into the dock, it's not updating the doc. You'd have to copy and paste the table I showed you back into the dock if you want to share that with other folks. So that is a bit of a challenge because you probably want to share that doc with your team or have a running doc that's been uploaded, all of your team can see it. That will come, I'm pretty sure that will come from Claude, that they'll be able to write back into docs. At the moment, you cannot do that. You could just read from those docs. The other thing that we'll be able to do I think in the future is like draft these emails for you in your email client and then actually draft them for you in Slack. I think that will come as well and actually be able to like plug it into your Slack to actually keep track of your comms there as well. So there's a bunch of things that I think will probably come from Cloud, like basically a knowledge assistant, right? So you'll be able to like start creating these projects and plug into a bunch of different tools. But for me, this is a pretty great step. One that if you can get that set up over the weekend and you have those per project, you can create one for all of your projects. If you don't have a lot of things going on, but if you have like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that you're kind of managing across different projects, I think an EA assistant per project works really, really well. So that is the Claude EA assistant and a little bit of like why I think projects is such an underutilized tool, but such an incredible tool. Let me know in the comments if you found it useful and and also tell me if there's other use cases that you're interested in solving with Claude.