Step 3 — Build your first Project

A Project is a workspace inside Claude or ChatGPT. Every chat inside it already knows your business and your rules.

Your first one is called My Business Assistant. It handles your everyday drafts, appointment prep, checklists, and your Sunday Run. Build one. Use it. Specialized Projects come later.

This is what replaces them. A prompt is something you have to remember, find, and paste every time. A Project is something you tell your AI once — and it's there in every chat, for as long as you use it.

So anything you'd normally save as a prompt has a home:

In both Claude and ChatGPT, a Project holds its own chats, its own files, and its own instructions. Set them once, and every new chat inside starts already knowing them.

• If you use Claude: Files in the Project get used in every chat inside it. Google Docs added from Drive stay up to date when you edit them. Uploaded files don't — replace them when they change. With memory on, each Project keeps its own memory, and chats can look back at earlier chats in the same Project.
• If you use ChatGPT: Upload files to the Project. Its instructions apply only inside that Project. Depending on your settings, chats in a Project can draw on the Project's files and earlier chats.

Either way: don't count on memory for anything that has to be right. Put it in a document or the instructions.

• If you use Claude: Projects → New project. Name it My Business Assistant. In the Project's files, add your Business Brief and Brand DNA + Voice File — click + → Drive for Google Docs that stay current, or upload them. Add your logo files if you have them.
• If you use ChatGPT: Projects → New project. Name it My Business Assistant. Upload your Business Brief, your Brand DNA + Voice File, and your logo files if you have them. Make sure both documents show up in the Project.

Then open the Project's instructions. Paste Block B from your Working Instructions document. Underneath it, paste this job description:

This Project is My Business Assistant. It handles my everyday drafts, appointment prep, checklists, and my weekly review.

Use my Business Brief and my Brand DNA + Voice File as the source of truth for my business. Write like the Phrases I Actually Use section, not like a marketer. Use my connected email and calendar, and what I tell you in the chat, for what's happening now. If they conflict, tell me.

When a process document in this Project covers the task, follow it step by step. Never swap in a generic real estate checklist.

My email and calendar don't hold everything. Ask me for missing context when it would change the answer.

Everything is a draft for me to review.

What each part does: Block B tells it who you are and your rules. The job description tells it what this Project is for, which documents win, and that your processes beat generic ones.

Your documents tell it who you are. A process tells it how you do the work. This is the part most agents skip — and it's the part that makes the drafts usable.

Start with one job you do the same way every time: prepping a listing for photos, following up after an appointment, setting up a new buyer, opening a new transaction. Each one becomes a checklist and workflow your assistant follows. Get the first one right, then repeat this for the others.

Open a new chat inside My Business Assistant and paste this, with your job filled in:

Help me document my process for [the job].

Ask me one question at a time: what starts it, the steps in order, who does what, timing, what information it needs, and how I know it's done.

Capture how I actually do it. No generic checklist. If you think something's missing, ask me, and label your idea as a suggestion.

Then write a short checklist: title, what starts it, what it needs, the steps, who does what, and how I know it's done. Flag anything unresolved. Show it to me before you make the file.

Read the checklist. Walk through it in your head with a real deal. Fix what's off. Save it to your AI Setup folder and add it to My Business Assistant's files.

Then check that it can use it:

Using my approved [process name] checklist, tell me what you'd need from me to help with the next one. Don't start the work.

Add one piece of work you like — an email, a seller update, a post. The fixed-up email from Step 2 works. Swap private details for labels like [client] and [property], and name the file Approved Writing Example.

Your example shows structure and tone. It never supplies facts for the next client.

Start a new chat inside My Business Assistant and send:

Read my Business Brief and Brand DNA + Voice File. Give me my business name, market, best-fit clients, time zone, and three of my working rules. Tell me what this Project is for and which documents you used. If you couldn't open something, say so.

Check it against your documents. If it misses something, first make sure that thing is actually in them. If it can't open a document, upload it directly and test again.

Update the document. If you uploaded it, replace the uploaded copy too. Never leave two "current" versions in the Project.

When you catch yourself explaining the same kind of work over and over, that's your next Project. Most agents' work falls into four:

Copy My Business Assistant's setup, then change the job description.

Up next: Step 4 — The Proof Run