How I'm scaling to $1M (while staying lean)

6 Claude Skills I use to run my agency

My #1 goal this year is growing my email agency to $1M in ARR.

Now, my second goal is to hit this milestone while staying as lean and profitable as possible.

So over the past month, I’ve built dozens of Claude Skills to help me streamline, systematize, and automate different tasks within my agency.

Here are the 6 I’ve found most helpful so far:

Skill #1: Content Planning

Every month, I feed Claude my journal entries, to-do lists, LinkedIn analytics, and sales call transcripts.

It then generates 40+ content ideas organized by topic and format.

The skill knows what types of content I create (newsletters, LinkedIn posts, lead magnets), what topics resonate with my audience, and how to pull insights from each source.

The result: What used to take me 2-3 hours now takes about 20 minutes.

And I never run out of ideas - because the ideas come directly from what I’m already doing and what my audience is already asking about.

Skill #2: Pre-Sales Call Prep

Before every discovery call, I run a skill that researches the prospect and creates a one-pager with:

• Background on their business

• Potential challenges & pain points

• Which of our offers makes the most sense to pitch

The skill pulls from their website, LinkedIn, and any info I have from their application or intake form.

The result: I walk into every call prepared instead of winging it.

I already know their situation, their likely problems, and what we might be able to help with.

The call feels more like a conversation than an interrogation.

Skill #3: Proposal Creation

After a sales call, I feed Claude the call transcript.

It pulls all the context it needs, then creates a fully formatted proposal that breaks down:

• Scope of work

• Deliverables

• Pricing

• Strategy

The skill knows our offer structures, our pricing, and how we typically scope projects.

It just needs the specifics from the call.

The result: What used to take me 45-60 minutes now takes about 5.

I review, tweak if needed, and send.

No more staring at a blank Google Doc trying to remember everything we discussed.

Skill #4: Writer Briefs

Every time we onboard a new client, our writers need a detailed brief covering:

• Voice and tone guidelines

• Target audience

• Content strategy

• Reference materials

• Examples of what good looks like

I built a skill that creates comprehensive writer briefs after asking me a few clarifying questions about the client.

The result: This alone has saved me hours every single week.

New writers can hit the ground running because they have everything they need in one place.

No back-and-forth.

Skill #5: Lead Magnet Creation

I built an entire Lead Magnet Skills Pack — a collection of skills that help me:

• Brainstorm lead magnet ideas based on my niche and audience

• Write landing page copy using proven frameworks

• Write viral giveaway posts for LinkedIn

• Design mockups and visual assets

Each skill handles one piece of the process, but together they form a complete workflow.

The result: I used to spend days building a single lead magnet. Now I can go from idea to launch in a few hours.

Skill #6: Client Portal Creation

For every new client, we create a Notion hub that outlines every stage of the project with:

• Checklists for each phase

• Timelines and milestones

• A repository for all deliverables

I built a skill that generates this entire portal directly in Notion after asking me a few clarifying questions about the client and project scope.

The result: No more copy-pasting templates and manually filling everything in.

The portal is ready to go within minutes of signing a new client.

The Bottom Line

Claude Skills have become an essential part of how I run my agency.

Almost every repeatable task now has a skill behind it.

And the nice thing is:

You don’t need to be technical to build them.

If you can write an SOP (a.k.a. a clear set of instructions), you can build a skill. It’s just prompt engineering with structure.

The hard part (at least at first) is figuring out what to build Skills for.

Which is why I‘ve created this prompt:

This Week’s Prompt:

Here’s a prompt to help you identify which skills you should build for your own business:

**ROLE:**

You are an expert at identifying repeatable business tasks and turning them into Claude Skills — custom instructions that transform Claude into a specialized assistant for specific workflows. You help business owners, creators, and agency operators find their highest-leverage automation opportunities and build skills to capture them.

---

**CONTEXT:**

Claude Skills are custom instructions you can build inside Claude Projects. They turn Claude into a specialized assistant for any repeatable task in your business.

The best skills share these characteristics:
- They automate tasks you do frequently (weekly or more)
- They follow a consistent process each time
- They require gathering context, then producing a specific output
- They save significant time (30+ minutes per instance)

Your job is to interview the user, identify their best skill opportunities, and generate ready-to-use skill instructions for each one.

---

**PROCESS:**

Ask these questions ONE AT A TIME. Wait for the user's response before asking the next question.

1. "What's your role or business? (Examples: agency owner, content creator, coach, consultant, freelancer, etc.) And what do you spend most of your working hours doing?"

2. "What are 3-5 tasks you do repeatedly — at least weekly — that follow roughly the same process each time? (Examples: writing proposals, creating content, onboarding clients, preparing for calls, writing briefs, sending reports, etc.)"

3. "Pick the task that eats up the most time or mental energy. Walk me through exactly how you do it today — step by step. What inputs do you start with? What's the output you need at the end?"

4. "What information would someone need to do this task for you? (Examples: client details, templates you follow, your tone of voice, specific formats, examples of good output, etc.)"

---

**OUTPUT:**

After completing the interview, provide:

**Top 3 Skill Opportunities**

For each opportunity, include:
- **Skill Name:** A clear, descriptive name
- **What It Does:** 1-2 sentence description of the skill
- **Time Saved:** Estimated time savings per use
- **Priority:** High / Medium / Low (based on frequency and time saved)

**Full Skill Instructions for #1 Priority**

Generate complete, ready-to-use skill instructions for their highest-priority skill, including:

- **Role:** Who Claude is acting as
- **Context:** Background information Claude needs to know
- **Process:** Step-by-step instructions (including any clarifying questions the skill should ask)
- **Output Format:** Exactly what the skill should produce
- **Example Output:** A sample of what good output looks like (if applicable)

**Quick-Start Skill Instructions for #2 and #3**

For the remaining two skills, provide:
- A shorter version of the skill instructions
- Notes on what additional context they'd need to add

**How to Install These Skills**

Brief instructions on how to create a Claude Project and add these as custom instructions.

---

**BEGIN:**
"What's your role or business? And what do you spend most of your working hours doing?"

Pro tip: Start with your most time-consuming, most repetitive tasks.

Those usually are the biggest time-savers.

Hope this is helpful,

Daniel

PS - Want to get a (free) copy of my Lead Magnet Creation Skills?

Comment “skill” under this post and I’ll send them over.