Early in her career, Samantha McLean worked in IT support. A friend gave her a pad of complaint Post-it notes, with boxes for whose fault it was, the desired outcome, and whether you’d like to complain anonymously.
She brought that story to the second live session of Transform, Elite Agent’s 30-day AI program, because of where many people start with AI.
“A lot of people think, if you’ve watched any YouTube videos, this should be ‘build me an AI agent that every morning at 9.30…’,” she says.
Sam would rather you start with a complaint.
“We’ve all been taught not to complain, right? Complaining is bad. Well, what I’m going to say to you is that complaining to the AI is actually a good thing.”
Humans don’t like it when you complain to them. An AI does not mind.
In the video
- 1:00 Start with one question
- 2:26 Have a good rant
- 3:41 Build a skill
- 6:19 Your personal assistant
Start with your inbox
Sam’s first demo is one most agents will recognise. She types into Claude: “My email is a complete mess. Things get buried all the time. What is one way that I could use you to help me sort through and triage this email?”
Claude suggests a daily triage pass that sorts unread email into what needs a reply, what needs action, what’s FYI and what’s noise. Sam calls that “your level one”.
Then she complains some more. Every two days isn’t enough, she’s in property management, and she needs to know when her investors email. Claude replies that two days was only an example and it can check as often as she likes.
“You can rant and complain for as long as you want,” she says.
Sam talks to AI instead of typing (she uses Wispr Flow for dictation). “It is much easier if you want to have a good rant at your AI.”
Let it ask you the questions
Next, Sam works on a real request from one of her students, Nick, a real estate agent. He wants a skill he can use over and over. He dictates notes straight after a listing appointment, then Claude drafts the vendor follow-up in his voice, matched to the vendor’s DISC style.
Sam ends her prompt with the line she says matters most: “Ask me any questions that you think are necessary to get the right outcome for Nick.”
“I’m not just barking instructions at it… I’m saying this is what I want, you come back to me and let’s figure out this together.”
Claude starts designing the skill and asks what it needs, including five to 10 of Nick’s real follow-ups to build a voice profile. Once those questions are answered, Sam asks Claude to make it into a skill she can zip up and send to Nick, who installs it in his own Claude.
“All you have to do is talk in plain language,” she says.
Then it comes to you
Sam’s own personal assistant works the same way. She set up a project, put the prompt in and connected her tools. Now every morning she gets what she asked for: “Send me my calendar every day and make some suggestions of what you can do for me.”
“So we’re really starting to treat AI like it’s a real assistant.”
And for anyone feeling a bit overwhelmed watching this, she has a plan. “This is what the week’s lessons are for. I’ll just take you through it step by step by step.”
Key takeaways:
- Start with a complaint. Tell AI what’s bugging you before you ask it to build an agent.
- Begin at level one. A daily email triage is a simple first job to hand over.
- Keep ranting. Each extra detail you give it makes the answer fit your business.
- Ask it to ask you. End your prompt with “ask me any questions” and let it work out the job with you.
- Make it a skill. Once something works, it can be saved, reused and even shared with someone else.
Want Sam to take you through it step by step? The next Transform kicks off on Monday 16 November. Sign up at transform.eliteagent.com.
Transform XIV is supported by major sponsor PropertyMe and supporting sponsor BuySecure.