Hi Reader,

Something I learned long before AI existed.

In my first agency, I built hundreds of pages of SOPs and a very thorough briefing questionnaire — years before anyone in my industry used these as a selling point. They were detailed and clear, and included how to react in different crisis scenarios.

Yet even with all the answers written down, some employees still ignored them. 😳 That was usually the real reason behind the weaker results — not their intelligence or experience.

AI, it turns out, follows the SOP better than some humans. I run close to 40 AI assistants in Claude, as Skills and Projects — one writes sales pages, one handles sales-call debriefs, one builds carousels, one thinks through strategy with me, and so on. See my current list below.

This is the part that brought real changes to my business and revenue.

I use them all the time. I wouldn't, if they didn't perform so well. So how do you increase their performance?

The same rule applies to them as to anyone you've ever hired: the quality of the work is capped by the quality of the brief you give it.

First, they need to be anchored on a strong foundation — detailed context, your Ultimate Brand Book. Then they need very clear rules and boundaries (see below). And finally, they need excellent expertise behind them — playbooks, examples, case studies, selected frameworks.

The criteria for building them right include these aspects:

In 2025, I bought my first ones from someone I trusted. When I discovered the potential and the impact they had, I started building them myself. Then I kept refining and improving them.

Several times, I asked Claude — all models, Opus, Fable, Sonnet — to compare mine with others. Not to show off, but to make sure they'd perform well for me and my clients.

I was truly happy to hear how they stood up. Below is one of those reviews.

If you're a solopreneur, or you have one or two assistants, these skills will make a real difference in your business.

You can get them from me — my Quiet AI Accelerator includes all of mine, and more (I keep building them). The AI Strategic Business Team is a curated selection of what you need most. Links below.

But I'd encourage you to build them yourself, if that's what you prefer. I'm not pushing sales here — if my approach or my tools aren't the right fit for you, I’m fine with that. I'd be genuinely happy to hear you built one that performs great and saves you time.

So here's what's worth asking yourself this week: which task do you resent doing most — the one you'd hand off first if you had someone to hand it to? Write down how you'd explain it to them. That detailed explanation of the process is the brief. Then ask Claude to help you build the skill. Give it the criteria above. Once it’s built ask it to review the skill on all of them. Then test it.

If you want to see more of the AI infrastructure I use — not just the assistants, but the full system built out — the assistants, the other automations and some of the AI agents I use, plus the launch they carried — I'm running a session on it in September. Details when it's closer.

Best,

Diana 🩵

P.S. Don't install AI agents if you're not sure about the quality of the skills behind them. Even a well-built agent is only as good as the team it's managing — think about how a manager performs when the team behind them is average.