Just Ask Boomer

← Boomer’s Office · Step 3 of 5 · ~90 minutes, once, forever · requires Claude Pro and a computer

Every AI course starts at “here’s a great prompt.” Almost none start at “here’s how the thing reaches your files.” That gap is where beginners quit. Not here.

And the rule of this whole course: once the doors are open, the staff builds the office. You watch, and you approve. There are exactly two things below you must do with your own hands — both are door-opening, and both are the last of their kind.

Lesson 0.0 — Your Own Key (5 min)

One login = one agent. Not shared with an assistant, a teammate, or an agent you’re mentoring.

Two reasons: accounts are built for one person, and Claude learns YOU — your voice, your clients, your files. Two agents through one door means it serves neither, and your clients’ business bleeds into someone else’s drafts.

Teammate wants in? They get their own Pro ($20/mo). A real team sharing files? Claude’s Team plan (2-seat minimum, ~$25/member/mo) — check current pricing at claude.com/pricing.

✅ Done when: everyone using Claude in your business has their own login.

Lesson 0.1 — What Your Computer Can Actually Do (15 min)

Where	Does	Can’t
Phone app	Chat, search your email/Drive via connectors	Touch files on your computer
Web browser	Same, bigger screen	Same
Desktop app	All that plus Cowork — real work on real files	Work while the laptop is closed

Three facts to set expectations: Cowork is an assistant at your desk, not a service in the sky — laptop open, app running. Any computer from the last five years is plenty. Windows or Mac, same features — and on Windows, if something looks wrong, update the app first; that’s the fix nine times out of ten.

Decision: Google or Microsoft? Most agents already live in Gmail/Drive — this course teaches Google. Deep in Outlook through your brokerage? Same ideas, different buttons; follow along, don’t switch camps.

✅ Done when: you know which device does which job.

Lesson 0.2 — Installing and Letting It In (20 min)

1. Download the desktop app at claude.com/download. Install. Sign in with the SAME email as your phone.
2. In the message box, switch from Chat to Cowork.
3. On your desktop, make a folder called Claude Test. Drop in 2–3 throwaway files. (Hand-work item one of two — the staff can’t reach a folder until you’ve opened the first door.)
4. Give Cowork this job, and grant permission when it asks:

When it lists your files back — the connection works. And note this for the record: that’s the last folder you’ll ever have to build by hand. From here on, the filing is staff work.

Two habits, installed today, kept forever: “Don’t change anything, just tell me” makes any job read-only — use it your entire first month. And read the plan before you say go: Cowork says what it intends to do first. If delete, overwrite, or replace appears and you didn’t ask — stop.

✅ Done when: Cowork lists your test files.

Lesson 0.3 — Connecting the Web (20 min)

Part A (5 min): In Claude: Settings → Connectors. Turn on Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar. Approve access. (Hand-work item two of two — only you can say yes to Google.) Then three ninety-second wins:

Part B (15 min): Install Google Drive for Desktop (search that phrase, download, sign in). Your Drive becomes a normal folder on your computer. Same files, two doors: searchable from your phone, workable in Cowork, synced to the cloud automatically. Wait for the first sync to finish.

The privacy move — do it now: create a folder called PRIVATE — DO NOT SHARE, OUTSIDE your Real Estate folder. SSNs, dates of birth, account numbers, loan apps, credit reports live there. Claude never gets pointed at it. Same instinct as not leaving a client file on the passenger seat. (Yes, you make this one by hand too — on purpose. The private drawer is the one thing the staff should never touch, so the staff doesn’t build it.)

✅ Done when: all three test questions worked and the PRIVATE folder exists.

Lesson 0.4 — Building the Workspace (30 min)

This is the lesson where you stop doing and start directing. You built a test folder by hand in 0.2. Never again — watch the difference.

1. Have the staff build the office. In Cowork, point it at your Google Drive folder and say:

Here’s what you should see when it’s finished:

📁 Real Estate
   ├── 📁 _BRAIN          ← who you are, how you work
   ├── 📁 Listings
   │      └── 📁 123 Oak St   ← ONE FOLDER PER PROPERTY
   ├── 📁 Clients
   ├── 📁 Templates
   └── 📁 Archive

The underscore on _BRAIN sorts it to the top. Prefer clicking the folders into existence yourself? Allowed. But notice: you didn’t have to, and you never will again.

Don’t organize your backlog today — and don’t organize it by hand EVER. The pile is a staff job for later: “go through my old files and sort them into this structure — show me the plan first.”

2. One folder per property. Everything for that address in one place. If you keep one habit from this course, this is it. New listing? Don’t make the folder — say “set up a folder for my new listing at [address].”

3. Have the staff file ABOUT-ME. From Course 1, Day 7. In Cowork:

4. In Claude, create a Project called “Real Estate.” Paste ABOUT-ME into its instructions. Every chat inside that project now knows you. You explain yourself once, ever.

5. The proving run. Your messiest active listing — and no, don’t gather its files yourself. Say: “Find everything in my Drive and email about [address] and copy it into the [address] folder. Show me the plan first.” Then:

What comes back is a status report on a real deal, assembled from files you’d stopped reading — gathered, filed, and summarized by staff. Your hands never left the coffee cup. This is the moment it stops being homework.

✅ Done when: that report is in front of you.

Troubleshooting (plain and fast)

Symptom	Try first
Cowork can’t find my folder	Desktop app open? Laptop awake?
No Cowork option	Update the app. Windows: this is the fix.
Can’t see Drive files	Did Drive for Desktop finish its first sync?
Won’t read email	Settings → Connectors → right Google account on?
Doesn’t seem to know me	You’re outside the Project, or forgot “Read my _BRAIN folder first.”
It did something I didn’t want	Say so. Then “don’t change anything, just tell me” until trust returns.
Sounds nothing like me	Ask staff: “add 2–3 of my own emails and listings to a MY-VOICE doc in _BRAIN — show me your picks first.”

Ninety minutes, once — and the staff did most of it. You now have an office you didn’t build. Course 2 is where we hire the departments. — B.

Next → Course 2: Grow Your AI Company