I'm not a programmer. I just got Claude set up right.

I'm Jeff Goldware. I sold real estate in Houston for 30 years. I know contracts, closings and how to talk to people. I did not know how to build software.

Today my company, CS Digital Media, runs seven websites and apps: an oil and gas well map, a crime map, tools for home buyers, and a few others. Claude does most of the grunt work. It researches, writes, builds, checks its own work, and runs jobs on a schedule while I sleep.

None of that came from learning to code. It came from treating Claude like a car I could build up, one part at a time. First it learned who I am and how I like things done. Then it got a home base for each business. Then it got access to my email, calendar and files. Then it got skills: written know-how for each job I do over and over. Then it started running some of those jobs on its own.

Every time I bolted something on, Claude got more useful. And every week, Claude itself changes. New features land, buttons move, and the things that worked last month need a tune-up.

Why the newsletter

Most of what's written about AI is for programmers, or it's news with no instructions attached. Regular people, the ones running a small business, a household, a job and a family, get left with a chat box and a blinking cursor.

So every Tuesday I send one AI change that actually matters to regular people, with exactly what to do about it. Members also get the new skills I built and used that week, ready to install. If a skill didn't earn its keep in my own businesses, it doesn't go out.

What I promise

• Plain English. If I use a technical word, I explain it.
• Nothing you need a programmer for. Download, upload, done.
• Skills you can read. Every one is a plain text file you can open before you install it.
• No hype, no fake urgency, no selling your email.
• When Claude changes, I fix the skills and tell you.

The fine print

Hot Rod My AI is an independent publication of CS Digital Media, LLC, a Texas company at 15814 Champions Forest Dr. #105, Spring, TX 77379. It isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic, the company that makes Claude. Questions or ideas for a skill? Email hello@hotrodmyai.com. I read them.

— Jeff