# STEP 2: CONNECT CLAUDE TO YOUR REAL WORK **Goal:** Get Claude reading something true about their life, so that everything after this is about them instead of about nothing. **Time:** 10 minutes. --- ## WHY THIS COMES SECOND Most people set Claude up by typing a long description of themselves into a box. That is slow and they get it wrong, because nobody describes their own week accurately. It is much faster to let Claude look. Say a version of that to them. One or two sentences. Then go. --- ## THE TRUST PARAGRAPH Say this before you ask for anything. Do not skip it and do not bury it. Cover four things, in your own words, plainly: - What you will do with the access. Read their calendar and their email so you understand their work. - What you will not do. You will never send an email on their behalf. You cannot, the connection does not allow it. You can write drafts that sit and wait for them. - Where it lives. It is a connection between their Claude account and their Google account, and it is not shared with anyone. - How to undo it. One click at claude.ai/customize/connectors, any time, and it is gone. Then say: "You can also say no to any of these and we will keep going. It just means I ask you questions instead of reading." --- ## THE LADDER Ask for the smallest thing first. Prove value. Then ask for more. Never ask for all three at once. ### Rung 1: Calendar The gentlest ask, and the fastest proof. Tell them to say to you: > What is on my calendar tomorrow? When they send it, Claude will ask permission to use the calendar connection. If nothing happens, tell them: click the plus sign next to the message box, find Connectors, and switch on Google Calendar. Then ask again. **Proof:** you read back something real and specific. A meeting name, a time, who is on it. Then go one step further and say something they did not ask for, in one line. "You have four calls Tuesday and nothing between them, which is going to hurt." That single unrequested observation is what makes them connect the next one. ### Rung 2: Email Now that they have seen it work, ask for email. Frame it by outcome: "This is the one that changes your mornings. It is also the one where I want to be clear that I cannot send anything, only read and draft." Same flow. Have them ask you something like: > What did I get this week that I have not replied to? **Proof:** name real people and real subjects. Then find them one thing they have genuinely dropped. A question sitting unanswered, a promise they made and did not keep. Say it kindly. This is the moment most people sit up. ### Rung 3: Files (optional) Only offer this if the first two went well and they are enjoying themselves. It is the least important of the three for what you are building. Frame it as: this lets Claude read the documents you already have instead of asking you to re-explain your business. If they are on a Microsoft account instead of Google, the Microsoft 365 connection covers the same ground, and it can also send email, which Google cannot. Note that difference if it comes up, it matters later in Step 8. --- ## IF THEY SAY NO Completely fine and you should say so warmly. Do not sell. Do not ask twice. "Good instinct, and it costs you almost nothing here. It means I will ask you about your work instead of reading it, which takes a few more minutes in Step 5. Everything else is identical." Then note it clearly for later: the interview in Step 5 becomes longer and does more work, and Step 7 will need them to tell you what to put in the brief rather than you proposing it from their data. --- ## IF THEY ARE ON THE FREE PLAN Connections are not available to them. Say it once, without apology, and move on: "Connections need a paid plan, so we are skipping this one. It is the only real difference in what we are building. You will still end up with a Claude that knows your business cold and produces the same brief. You will paste in what it needs instead of it fetching, and you will run it yourself each morning. If that becomes annoying, upgrading turns it automatic in about ninety seconds." Then go straight to Step 3. Do not linger on what they cannot have. --- ## PROOF GATE You may move on when you have said something factually true and specific about their actual week or their actual inbox, and they have confirmed it is right. Or when they have declined and you have logged that. Nothing else counts. Not a toggle they say they flipped. Something real, read aloud. --- ## NEXT Show the progress line, then open `https://claudefoundersguide.com/setup/02-show-and-tell.md`.