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Claude

one document.
every conversation.
Claude knows your business.

7 sections. Fill it out once. LinkedIn posts, client emails, proposals. Claude writes them in your voice, with your context.

12 min read·7 sections·free
coachesconsultantsentrepreneurs

Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant. Competitor to ChatGPT and Gemini. Available on the web, through the desktop app (Mac + Windows), or on your phone.

Claude starts every conversation with zero memory of who you are. The Blueprint is how you tell it once and never repeat yourself. Want to know why Claude and not ChatGPT? Read my take.

Free$0

Chat + Projects + Memory.

Pro$20/mo

Latest models + extended thinking + Cowork. Where the Blueprint fully unlocks.

Max$100 to $200/mo

5 to 20x Pro usage. For daily power users.

the template

7 sections. each one teaches Claude something different about your business.

Work through them in order. The first three take the most time.

Fill it in with me. Complete each section and hit mark as done to track progress.

0/7

Already use ChatGPT? Ask it: “Based on all of our conversations, fill out this template about my business, my clients, and my voice.” Paste the template below. ChatGPT already knows you. Use that head start, then bring the result to Claude.

Claude reads this first. Get it wrong and every output drifts.

paste this into Claude to get help filling this section
I'm filling out my Blueprint for you, starting with Section 1: Business Foundation. I need you to interview me. Ask me one question at a time about: what I do, who I serve, my mission, my values, and what makes me different. After each answer, reflect it back in concise Blueprint format so I can confirm or adjust.

Claude needs your delivery model to give advice that fits.

paste this into Claude to get help filling this section
I'm filling out Section 2 of my Blueprint: How I Work. Interview me about my client journey from first touchpoint to close. Ask about: how I onboard, how I deliver, my capacity, engagement length, what I won't take on, and any frameworks I use. One question at a time. Format each answer for the template.

The section that changes everything. Their actual language, not your marketing copy.

paste this into Claude to get help filling this section
I'm filling out Section 3: My Clients. This is the hardest one. I need to capture their actual language. Interview me about: who they are specifically, what they say when they're stuck (their exact words), what they want, what they don't know they need, and their common objections. Push me to use their real language, not my marketing copy.

What makes outputs sound like you instead of generic AI. The writing sample matters more than any instruction.

paste this into Claude to get help filling this section
I'm filling out Section 4: My Voice. I'm going to paste 2–3 pieces of writing I'm proud of. Analyze them and tell me: what my tone is, what patterns you notice, what words I gravitate toward, and what I seem to avoid. Then format your analysis into the template fields.

Anchors AI suggestions to what you can actually do right now.

paste this into Claude to get help filling this section
I'm filling out Section 5: Strategic Priorities. Ask me: what am I focused on this quarter? What am I saying no to? What are my real constraints (time, energy, capacity)? And what does success specifically look like? Help me be concrete. No vague goals.

Real client stories ground Claude in your actual work, not theory.

paste this into Claude to get help filling this section
I'm filling out Section 6: Examples & Proof. I'm going to tell you about 2–3 client engagements. For each one, ask me: who they were, what we worked on, what the outcome was, what made it work, and what was hard. Format each into a client story for the template.

The section most people skip. Why their outputs still feel off.

start from a preset:

paste this into Claude to get help filling this section
I'm filling out Section 7: Instructions for AI. Based on everything I've told you in Sections 1–6, suggest a set of instructions that would make you give me better output. Include: how to handle writing requests, strategic advice, default format, and what to do when you don't have enough context. I'll refine from there.
Maya Torres — Leadership Coachexample

01BUSINESS FOUNDATION

Name: Maya Torres
What I do: I help mid-career women in tech transition from individual contributor to executive leadership without burning out or losing themselves in the process.
Who I serve: Senior engineers, product managers, and directors at Series B+ startups who got promoted for their technical skills but nobody taught them how to lead. They're usually 32-42, juggling a growing team with imposter syndrome, and starting to question whether the leadership track is even worth it.
Stage: Solo practice, considering bringing on a junior coach for group programs.

Mission: The tech industry's leadership pipeline is broken because it promotes technical excellence and ignores human development. I'm here to fix that one leader at a time.

Values:
- Competence over charisma — I teach skills, not mindset platitudes
- Sustainable ambition — growth shouldn't require sacrifice
- Radical honesty — I'll tell you what your team won't

My offer(s):
- The Leadership Shift (flagship): 6-month 1:1 coaching engagement for new directors. Bi-weekly sessions + async support. Outcome: confident, competent leader with a team that actually wants to work for them. $8,500.
- Director's Table (group): Quarterly cohort of 8 women directors. 6 weeks, weekly group sessions + peer accountability. $2,200.

What makes me different: I spent 12 years as an engineering director at two FAANG companies before coaching. I've sat in the exact seat my clients sit in. I don't teach theory — I teach what actually worked when I had 47 direct reports and a board presentation due Friday.

02HOW YOU WORK

Client engagement model:
1. Application form (filters for fit — must be in a leadership role, not aspiring)
2. 30-min chemistry call — I'm assessing their readiness for feedback, not selling
3. If yes: onboarding packet + 90-min deep-dive kickoff. We map their leadership landscape.
4. Bi-weekly 60-min sessions for 6 months + Voxer access between sessions
5. Final session: 90-day leadership roadmap they own. 30-day check-in after.

How many clients at once: 12 max for 1:1. One group cohort per quarter.
Typical engagement length: 6 months 1:1 / 6 weeks group
What I won't take on: People who want a cheerleader. People who aren't in a leadership role yet. Anyone whose company is the problem and they're not ready to leave.

My frameworks or methodologies:
- The Leadership Shift Model: Visibility → Voice → Velocity (my 3V framework)
- Energy Audit: weekly capacity check I teach every client in session 2
- The Hard Conversation Script: my proprietary framework for difficult feedback conversations

03YOUR CLIENTS

Who they are: Women in their mid-30s to early 40s, usually 2-5 years into a management or director role at a fast-growing startup. Smart, driven, exhausted. They got here by being the best individual contributor on the team and now the rules changed.

What they're struggling with:
- "I'm in meetings all day and I have no idea if I'm actually doing anything"
- "My team likes me but I don't think they respect me as a leader"
- "I got this promotion and now I feel like a fraud"
- "I keep doing my old job plus managing. I can't let go."

What they want:
- To feel like they belong in the room (not just got lucky)
- A team that runs without them micromanaging every decision
- To stop working 60-hour weeks and still feel behind

What they don't know they need:
- Permission to stop being the smartest person in every room
- A framework for delegation that isn't just "hand it off and hope"
- To grieve the identity they had as an IC — that loss is real and nobody talks about it

Common objections:
- "I don't have time for coaching right now" — You don't have time because you don't have the skills this teaches. That's circular.
- "My company should pay for this" — Some do. But waiting for permission is part of the pattern we're breaking.

04YOUR VOICE

Tone: Direct, warm, no-nonsense. I sound like your smartest friend who happens to have run engineering teams at Google. I don't dress things up but I'm never cruel.
Format I prefer: Short paragraphs. Occasional one-liners for emphasis. I use questions to make people think, not to be rhetorical.

Words I use: "the work" / "leadership is a skill, not a personality trait" / "capacity" / "the room" / "your people"
Words I never use: "unlock your potential" / "level up" / "crushing it" / "boss babe" / "mindset shift" / "lean in" / anything Sheryl Sandberg

A piece of writing I'm proud of:
"Nobody teaches you this part. You get the title, the team, the calendar full of 1:1s — and then you realize the job you prepared for doesn't exist anymore. The thing that got you here (being excellent at your craft) is now the thing slowing you down. Leadership isn't a promotion. It's a career change that nobody told you about."

Why it works: It names the exact moment my clients are living. No jargon, no motivation. Just the truth of what's happening to them, described precisely enough that they feel seen.

05STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

Current focus (this quarter):
1. Fill the next Director's Table cohort (4 spots remaining, launch April 15)
2. Write the first 3 chapters of my book on the IC-to-leader transition
3. Get on 2 podcasts in the women-in-tech space

What I'm saying no to right now:
- 1:1 clients outside tech (I keep getting asked by finance people — not now)
- Free workshops or "exposure" speaking gigs
- Any new offer development until the book outline is done

Constraints:
- Capacity: 12 active 1:1 clients + 1 cohort. Currently at 10 — room for 2 more.
- Energy: I do deep work mornings (writing, session prep). Client sessions afternoon. No calls before 11am PT.
- I'm neurodivergent (ADHD) — I need sessions chunked, not scattered across the week.

Success looks like:
- Full cohort (8/8) by April 15
- Book proposal done by June
- 2 podcast appearances aired by end of Q2
- Revenue: $28k this quarter from coaching + $17.6k from group = $45.6k target

06EXAMPLES & PROOF

## Client Story 1
Who: Priya, senior PM promoted to Director of Product at a Series C fintech startup
What we worked on: She was drowning in stakeholder management — couldn't say no to her CEO, was micromanaging her PMs, and felt like a fraud in every leadership meeting.
Outcome: By month 4, she'd restructured her team's decision-making process, started pushing back on scope with data (not emotion), and her skip-level feedback went from "she's nice" to "she's the clearest thinker in the room." Her CEO gave her a second team to lead.
What made it work: She was coachable and willing to be uncomfortable. We practiced the hard conversations word-by-word before she had them.
What was hard: Month 2 was rough — she almost quit coaching because the feedback loop with her team got harder before it got better.

## Client Story 2
Who: Rachel, engineering manager at a health-tech startup, first-time manager
What we worked on: Classic IC-to-manager transition. She was still writing code instead of leading her team. Couldn't delegate. Felt guilty when she wasn't "producing."
Outcome: Stopped writing production code by month 3. Built a delegation framework her team actually liked. Got promoted to senior engineering manager 2 months after our engagement ended.
What made it work: We reframed delegation as a leadership skill, not laziness. That shift was everything for her.
What was hard: She cried in session 3 when she realized she might not write code daily anymore. That grief is real. I need to hold space for it better.

## A situation I'm still figuring out
Group dynamics in Director's Table when one person dominates. Had one cohort member who was brilliant but took up 60% of airtime. I handled it privately but I'm not sure my approach was clean enough. Still refining my facilitation framework.

07INSTRUCTIONS FOR AI

When I ask for help with writing:
- Match my voice section exactly — direct, warm, no jargon
- Short paragraphs. No bullets unless I'm listing.
- If the draft sounds like it could be for any coach, stop and rewrite it
- Read my writing sample in Section 4 before every writing task

When I ask for strategic advice:
- Check my constraints first (Section 5) — I have ADHD and a capacity ceiling. Don't suggest what I can't sustain.
- Give me 2-3 options with tradeoffs, not just a recommendation
- Reference my 3V framework when relevant

When I ask about client situations:
- Use client language from Section 3, not coaching industry jargon
- Be direct. Don't soften feedback. I can handle it.
- Reference similar patterns from my client stories in Section 6

Default output format: Under 300 words unless I ask for more. Short paragraphs. No headers unless the content needs them.

When you don't have enough context:
Say: "I need more information about [X] — can you tell me [Y]?"
Don't guess or invent details about my business, my clients, or my methods.

Most important principle: If it sounds like it could be for any leadership coach, it's not right for me. My edge is specificity — women in tech, IC-to-leader transition, 12 years of doing the job before teaching it.

This is a fictional example. Your Blueprint should reflect your actual business, clients, and voice.

~50 min

to fill out the first time

7 sections

covering your full business context

sessions that benefit from it

where it lives

one prompt. one setup. every project inherits it.

Your Blueprint goes into Custom Instructions. Claude reads it before every response. Set it up once.

first — open settings

In the sidebar, click Customize. This opens Settings. Every step below lives here.

Claude sidebar showing Customize button highlighted to access Settings

Sidebar → Customize opens Settings.

1

Paste your Blueprint into Custom Instructions

Customize → General tab → Personal preferences

Copy your completed Blueprint and paste it into the personal preferences field. All 7 sections, one block.

Claude Settings showing Profile preferences where your Blueprint goes
your Blueprint goes here

Customize → General tab → the text field labeled “What personal preferences should Claude consider?”

How to get there: Sidebar → Customize → General tab → scroll to “What personal preferences should Claude consider?”

2

Turn on Memory

Customize → Capabilities tab → Memory

Click the Capabilities tab. Turn on both toggles: “Search and reference chats” and “Generate memory from chat history.” Corrections, preferences, and business details carry forward. Your Blueprint is the base. Memory refines it.

Claude Settings showing Memory toggles — Search and reference chats, Generate memory from chat history

Turn on both toggles. “Search and reference chats” = Claude references past conversations. “Generate memory” = Claude stores preferences automatically.

3

Create a Project for each client or context

Sidebar → Projects → New Project

Your Blueprint is already loaded in every project. Projects add specific context: client intake forms, session transcripts, course outlines. Project instructions define the engagement. 8 clients? 8 projects. Same Blueprint, different context.

Client: Sarah

project knowledge

sarah-intake.pdfsession-notes.md

project instructions

Sarah is rebranding from executive coaching to leadership retreats. Help with messaging, pricing, and launch content.

Mastermind Q2

project knowledge

q2-roster.mdhot-seat-notes.md

project instructions

12-person mastermind. Focus on group dynamics, hot seat prep, and recap emails.

Email Course Launch

project knowledge

course-outline.mdemail-swipes.md

project instructions

5-day email course on delegation for solopreneurs. Each email: 400 words, one idea, one action step.

4

Set up Cowork Instructions

Customize → Cowork tab → Global instructions

Pro plan

Click the Cowork tab. Cowork is Claude's autonomous mode. Give it a goal, it executes and delivers drafts you review. Custom Instructions do not carry over. Paste your Blueprint here too. Without it, Cowork has no context.

Claude Settings → Cowork showing global instructions field

custom instructions

  • Loaded in every chat
  • Web, desktop, mobile
  • Inherited by all Projects
  • Free plan and up

cowork instructions

  • Cowork sessions only
  • Desktop app only
  • Separate field. Paste Blueprint here too.
  • Pro plan ($20/mo)

Why are these separate? They're independent systems. Use both chat and Cowork? Paste in both. 30 seconds.

quick start — 5 minutes

1Complete the 7 sections. Use the helper prompts if stuck.
2Copy your finished Blueprint. Sidebar → Customize → General tab → paste into personal preferences.
3Customize → Capabilities → turn on both Memory toggles.
4Create a Project. Upload client files, add project instructions.
5Cowork users (Pro): Customize → Cowork tab → paste your Blueprint again. Click Save. Separate field.

Custom Instructions, Memory, and Projects work on Free. Cowork requires Pro ($20/mo).

2026 update

Cowork turns your blueprint into a working draft machine.

Instead of back-and-forth chat, you describe a goal. Claude plans the steps, executes, and delivers a draft. With your Blueprint loaded, it already knows your voice, your clients, and your frameworks.

with your Blueprint loaded, Cowork can:

Weekly content batch

Draft a week of LinkedIn posts, emails, and proposals in one session. Your voice, your audience, your topics. Review and publish.

Client prep briefs

Before a call, Cowork reads the client's project files and your methodology. Delivers talking points, open questions, session goals.

Proposals and follow-ups

Describe the engagement. Cowork drafts a proposal in your voice, referencing your pricing, process, and the client's situation.

Research and analysis

Research a topic, audit a competitor, analyze a transcript. Filtered through your strategic priorities. Structured summary.

Scheduled tasks

Any task can run daily, weekly, or monthly. Left sidebar → Scheduled → pick a cadence. Computer must be awake and desktop app open.

Pro plan ($20/mo)Desktop app requiredMac + Windows

session starters

once the context is built, even simple prompts work.

Session starters that put your Blueprint to work. Start with the opener, then pick the one that matches what you're working on.

New chat in My Coaching Business
Y

your session opener

I want to [describe your task] so that [what success looks like].

Read my Blueprint completely before doing anything.

DO NOT start working yet. Ask me 2–3 clarifying questions so we're aligned on what I actually need.

Keep my voice. Keep my client language.
Only begin once I've answered your questions.
paste this at the start of every session

Key move: “DO NOT start working yet.” Claude defaults to generating immediately. The questions it asks first sharpen everything. Turn on Extended Thinking for strategic work.

New chat in My Coaching Business
content

LinkedIn post from a real moment

You have the story. Blank box.

Y
I want to write a LinkedIn post about [describe the moment — raw, no polish].

My audience is [who you're writing for].
The one thing I want them to walk away thinking: [your takeaway].

Read my Blueprint. Match my voice exactly.
DO NOT write anything yet — ask me what's missing first.

going deeper

skills turn your coaching IP into Claude's working knowledge.

Your Blueprint tells Claude who you are. Skills encode what you know: your frameworks, your assessment process, the language that converts. Why Claude?

01

Automatic

Claude reads and applies skill files when your request matches one.

02

Explicit

Reference the skill by name. Most reliable.

"Using my content voice skill, write a post about..."

03

Combined

Load everything at once for complex work.

"Read my Blueprint and content voice skill. Ask clarifying questions before you write anything."

Claude

the coach skills bundle

16 skill files — free — 10-min setup

download the skills bundle — free

what's next

you have the template. now make it yours.

Paste it in. Run the opener prompt. You'll feel the difference in the first response.

feedback

how is the template working for you?

your rating

apply for CORE

let's see if it's a fit.

Two quick steps. I read every one.