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Stop Generating Start Refining With Claude A during this Claude Workshop led by Caren Glasser. Learn how to work smarter, not harder, by refining your ideas instead of starting from scratch.
* Discover why Claude is designed for careful thinking and refinement, not just speed
*Learn how to use the SMART stack workflow to support your creative process
*See practical prompt examples to clarify your writing and preserve your unique voice
*Find out how to give Claude clear boundaries for better results
*Master when and why to use Claude for nuance and tone, especially before hitting send on important messages
00:00 "Refine, Don’t Start Blank"
06:01 "Tone Matters in Communication"
09:53 "Nuance and Effective Communication"
10:53 "Smarter AI, Less Pressure"
Pick up the Smart Stack Quick Wins PDF. This free guide walks you through 10 deliberate ways to use Claude — each one designed to slow the process down, not speed it up. https://carenrecommends.com/claude-pdf
📌 Subscribe to my channel: https://videos.carenglasser.com.
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0:00
Hello, everyone. Karen Glasser here, and I'm your tech evangelist. I want to welcome you today
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to our workshop that I'm calling Stop Generating, Start Refining. Finally, a Claude workshop that
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meets you where you are. Today, we are here to think with tools, not chase them. So let's reset
0:22
some expectations. One, AI overwhelm is usually a thinking problem, not a tool problem. And two
0:29
Claude is designed for careful thinking and refinement, not speed. You might have heard me
0:35
refer to something called the Smart Stack. The Smart Stack is a workflow, not a list of tools
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It's different tools that support different thinking stages. So other tools might discover
0:48
generate quickly, but Claude will refine, clarify tone, and think through nuance. So the key idea
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here is that Claude works best after thinking begins. So the first thing you're going to want
1:01
to do is create an account, obviously. You're going to go to claude.ai. You'll sign up, enter
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your email address, verify your email, set a password, and select free plan. All right, I'm
1:15
going to share my screen because I'm going to walk through a couple of other things that you might
1:19
want to do as well. So optionally, you want to go down to the bottom where it has your name
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click on your name, click on settings, and you want to make sure that you go to capabilities
1:32
turn on the memory for both the chat history and being able to reference other chats that you have
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done. This is really important. I really, really encourage you to do that. All right, so are you
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ready to get going? We're going to try a practice prompt right now. I'm going to put in here
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something that I've already created. I want to show you how this works
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Here is the sentence I wrote. I work with entrepreneurs who want to use technology
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without feeling overwhelmed. Please suggest one small way to make it clear. Do not change the
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meaning. Preserve my voice. And then I click the little arrow. It thinks for a while, and then it's
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going to give me some things that I can tweak. In this case, it's asking me to add an M dash
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The dash creates a beat and without the overwhelm will land harder
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Same meaning, but makes the pause more intentional. Does that make sense
2:31
Let us know if you have any questions about that in the comments
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So we're going to go ahead and start with our quick win number one
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And that's meaning to start with what exists. So most people open AI tools and ask them to create something, right
2:49
That actually the least useful way to use them Claude works best when refining something you have already written So instead of starting with a blank prompt you going to bring what you have You going to bring a rough draft client emails proposal language
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newsletter paragraphs, notes from a call. And then you're going to do something like this
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You're going to first put into the prompt, Hi Sarah, we're going to need to move the delivery date because
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A few pieces of the project are taking longer than expected. I want to make sure everything is done right instead of rushing it
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So look what happens. It's thinking. This reads clearly. One small tightening
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Hi, Sarah. We need to push the delivery date. A few pieces are taking longer than expected
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Better to get it right than rush it. It cuts the hedge going to need to
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And the last lines are going to end. with more confidence. Does that make sense? So the sticky takeaway for this is bring the thinking
3:59
first, then let the tool refine it. That's the quick win. All right, let's move into quick win
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number two, and that is to ask for restraint. AI tools get better when you ask them to do less
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I'm going to say that again. AI tools often get better when you ask them to do less
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Claude responds well to clear boundaries. So restraint will actually improve the outcomes
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It preserves my voice. That's a clear boundary. Clarify without ideas. That's a clear boundary
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Shorten without sharpening. Again, another clear boundary. So let's try this out. We're going to go
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ahead and I am going to put in a prompt about tightening a newsletter. All right, so I've been
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thinking a lot lately about how entrepreneurs often feel pressured to adopt every new tool or
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trend that appears. And sometimes that pressure makes it harder to focus on the work that actually
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matters. So here's the prompt that I'm going to put in. You notice it's all in one little paragraph
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here. Please shorten this paragraph while preserving my voice. Do not add any new ideas
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Here we go. And so it's now going to spit out entrepreneurs feel pressure to adopt every new
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tool or trend. And that pressure often pulls focus away from the work that actually matters
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You see how it tightened it up? It's very clear. It did not add a new idea, but it still
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preserved my voice. Powerful stuff! Clarity improves when the tool is asked to
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refine rather than create. So here's your sticky takeaway. Clarity usually improves when the tool stops trying to be clever And that a quick win All right we gonna go to quick win number three the tone check Most communication problems aren content problems They tone problems Claude can act
6:07
as a tone mirror, helping you identify where something is sounding off before it lands with
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the reader, where something may sound abrupt or feels defensive or where the feelings or the
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wording might actually cause some friction and you don't certainly don't want that right so i'm
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going to go ahead and show you a prompt that you might want to use for a sales page sentence
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this program is ideal for entrepreneurs who are serious about improving their systems the prompt
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is how might this sentence come across to someone who is interested but unsure the phrase serious
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but improving may feel exclusionary to some readers. And here we go. Let's see what Claude
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has to say. You're right to flag it. Serious about can read as a quiet challenge. So here's a small
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fix. This program is for entrepreneurs who are ready to improve their systems. Ready feels like
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an invitation rather than a test. Let me know that you can see the difference in that kind of
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languaging and communication. So Claude helps you hear your message from the reader's perspective
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Here's your sticky takeaway. Claude helps you hear your message the way someone else will
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And that's a quick win. Are you ready for quick win number four? Here we go. Number four
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slow before refining. AI tools often get worse when you rush them. Have you ever noticed that
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So Claude performs best when the thinking slows down. So use a simple rhythm like this
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one thoughtful prompt, one revision, and then one pause, and then decide if you need more. So I'm
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going to go ahead and give you an example for my workshop description that I used. I'm going to
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go ahead and put a prompt in here. This workshop helps entrepreneurs use AI tools without feeling
8:11
overwhelmed. The prompt actually is help me clarify this sentence without changing the meaning. Here we
8:18
go. And as it thinks through it, this workshop helps entrepreneurs use AI tools, M dash, without
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the overwhelm. Same fix as the very first thing we did. The dash causes a pause and without the
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overwhelm hits cleaner than without feeling overwhelmed. Do you agree with that? Put it in
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the comments. Let me know what you think. So basically slower thinking produces stronger
8:47
output I mean that actually makes sense So your sticky takeaway slower thinking creates results And that a quick win Let go on to quick win number five
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When to reach for Claude. Not every AI tool is meant to make you faster
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It isn't. Claude is most useful at very specific moments, not all of them
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So you're going to reach for Claude before sending a proposal, a client explanation
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a newsletter or a thoughtful post. You want to skip Claude when you're still deciding what you
9:25
think when you're frustrated and when you need something immediately. So for instance, you might
9:33
have created a proposal but you want to check the proposal closing. So you might put a prompt in
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something like this. I'd love to work with you on this. Let me know if you have any questions or
9:45
concerns. And then the prompt, I'm about to send this closing line, this is what you're talking to
9:50
Claude about, to a potential client. How might it land? Does anyone, does anything feel off? Is it
9:56
too casual? Don't rewrite it. Just tell me what you notice. And so Claude then responds, it's warm
10:05
and approachable. Fits your voice. Two small things to notice. I'd love to work with you. Is genuine
10:10
but can read a slightly eager depending on the client relationship that might be exactly right
10:17
or slightly off balance so questions or concern is a common pairing but concerns introducing a
10:24
mild negative it plants the idea that there might be something to worry about questions alone
10:32
usually do the job. So the sticky takeaway is Claude is best when nuance matters
10:44
And that's a quick win. So we've gone over a lot of things. And here's three things that I'd like
10:51
you to remember. AI tools should reduce friction, not increase pressure. Claude works best after
10:59
thinking begins and clear thinking produces better outcomes than faster output. Entrepreneurs
11:08
don't need more tools. They need better ways to use the ones that they choose
11:15
This workshop is part of the SmartStack Quick Win Series, One Tool, One Shift in Thinking
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Per Session. So make sure you check out the rest of the workshops. There's no urgency here. There's
11:27
no pressure. I just want to make sure that you can use these platforms without fear and create
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some clarity. If you have any questions whatsoever, put them in the comments
11:41
or you can reach out to me at karen at karenglasser.com. I hope this was helpful
11:48
We'll see you on the next workshop. Goodbye, everyone
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