I caught up with an agency friend last week and I hadn't talked to her in a bit. She caught me up on life stuff, what she's been working on at work, where she's running into some roadblocks, etc. etc. etc. A real delight, that one.

While we were talking, she told me that she's feeling a lot of pressure to get more efficient. Agencies are a tough business and making sure you're making the most of billable hours is really important!

She said she knows that she can do more with her AI platforms, but doesn't really have the time to invest in figuring it out. She's stuck using her LLM to refine emails, etc. That's not a bad use of AI, but she's right, there is more she could do.

For all of you agency folks that are in the same boat, here's an idea for you. It requires a little bit of teamwork and setup, but once you have it, you'll save literal hours on building out new proposals.

In Claude Cowork - ask for help. Tell it that you want help building out a proposal engine for your organization. Either create a folder on your desktop or create one in Google Drive and link it. Then Ask for:

• A README Claude reads every time it starts
• A reference folder to add your brand style guide, pricing guide, etc.
• A folder to house past proposals to pull from
• A proposals folder where the finished proposals land

Then keep client context in a Claude Project — scope, history, recent conversations, notes, etc.

When you need a proposal, link the proposal builder folder, the project for your client (if new, skip this step and add a transcript from your disco), and give it specifics on the kind of proposal you need. Include things like the current situation, what kind of proposal you're needing, how many pricing options you want, the file format you need, etc.

You let it run, go get a snack, come back, review your proposal, maybe make a few tweaks and voila!

What kind of real work do you need to tackle in your job?