Set Up Claude Skills in 21 Mins (for Non-Technical People)

In this episode, I walk through a beginner-friendly, step-by-step way to set up Claude Skills so you can get more consistent, higher-value output over time. I show where to enable Skills (it’s not on by default), how to create a new skill using Claude’s “create a skill together” flow, and why Skills are different from Projects for ongoing, reusable workflows. Then I demo a real example: building a conversion-focused copywriting review skill for an agency workflow, installing it, and testing it on app store screenshots + website copy. I close with how to level up Skills by iterating them over time, using a 10-step process I reference from a “Boring Marketer” tweet. Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 00:40 – Enable Skills (Settings → Capabilities → Skills Preview) 01:21 – Creating a new skill 06:34 – Why Skills are important Projects for “always-on” workflows 07:49 – Reviewing the skill 10:34 – Installing the skill (copy to skills / upload in Skills) 11:28 – Testing the Skill 16:14 – How to improve skill over time Key Points Skills make Claude’s output more consistent because you bake in reusable context and workflows. Skills aren’t enabled by default—turn them on in Settings → Capabilities. The easiest path for most people is “Create a skill together,” then answer Claude’s scoping questions. A strong skill includes frameworks, scoring, and an output template—not vague advice. The real power comes from iterating: test on real scenarios, critique, refine, and keep improving the skill over time. Numbered Section Summaries Why Skills Matter For Beginners I open by explaining that Skills help you get more consistent, higher-value output from Claude over time, especially if you’re a beginner and want repeatable results. Turn On Skills First Skills aren’t enabled by default, so I show the exact path: Settings → Capabilities → enable the Skills preview feature. Create A Skill (Three Paths) I walk through the three options: create with Claude, write skill instructions, or upload an existing skill Build A Real Skill: Conversion Copy Review I describe the skill I want: a conversion-focused copywriting reviewer for apps and websites, built like a specialist “employee” that can critique headlines, CTAs, value props, pricing pages, and more. Skills vs Projects (And Why Skills Win For Ongoing Work) I explain why I prefer Skills for ongoing workflows: Projects can be context-specific to a campaign, while Skills are meant to work across day-to-day work regardless of the project timeline. What Claude Generates (And Why Markdown Is Great) I show Claude generating the skill structure and markdown files (like skill md and framework docs), and I call out why markdown is practical and easy for non-technical folks to edit. Install + Test The Skill On A Real Example I install the skill (copy to Skills / upload) and test it on real assets—app store screenshots and website copy—to see if it actually follows the skill workflow. Make The Skill Better Over Time (The Improvement Loop) I share the idea that Skills shouldn’t stay static. I reference a 10-step process (understand the problem, explore failures, research, synthesize, draft, self-critique, iterate, test, finalize) and emphasize ongoing iteration based on real outputs. The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/ The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/ FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Greg Isenberg?

  This is the beginner's guide to actually setting up Claude skills. I'm going to make it super easy for you to understand how to use it, why it's important. I'll start by why it's important. You will be able to get way more out of Claude if you use skills. It's just going to get way, way more consistent, higher value stuff. So who doesn't want that? This episode is for you and it's for the beginner. I'm not going to be using Claude code. I'm just going to be using a website or if you want to just have the Mac app. We're going to talk about how you can create a custom skill.

• 0:40Greg Isenberg?

  So the first thing you're going to want to do is actually enable skills. So it doesn't enable it by default. So if you go to settings and then you click capabilities, if you scroll down, you actually could see that there's this skills preview feature. Repeat customizable instructions that Claude can follow in any chat. And you can actually add them over here. If you want to create a new skill, it gives you three options. It says, create with Claude, build complex skills through conversation, write skill instructions, great for skills that are easy to describe, and then upload a skill. So this is if you actually have a zip already or a skill, you can just upload it already.

• 1:21Greg Isenberg?

  But for the vast majority of people, you actually want to just hit, let's create a skill together. And it says, it basically onboards you to this idea of how to create a skill. So it says, let's create a skill together using your skill creator skill. First, ask me what the skill should do. It says, I'll help you create a custom skill. Let me first review the skill creator documentation to guide us through this process. So then it says, perfect, let's create a custom skill. What functionality should this skill provide? For example, it could help with working with a specific formats or data, following particular workflows for your work or projects, integrating with specific tools or APIs, applying domain specific knowledge

• 2:04Greg Isenberg?

  or procedures or something else entirely. So what do I have in mind? So that's a good question. I'm going to say, Hey there. I run a design agency called LCA. I'm constantly creating new apps and websites. I'd love a skill that reviewed my designs.

• 2:33Greg Isenberg?

  Actually, reviewed my, viewed my copywriting on my apps and websites and, and critiqued it to get the highest conversion rate possible. Basically, I want to ship apps that drive revenue, et cetera, and copy helps do that. So basically, what I'm trying to do is I want to have almost like a copywriter that specializes for, you know, apps and, and websites. And I want to see if I can create a skill that can go and do that. And it says, "Great idea.

• 3:18Greg Isenberg?

  A conversion-focused copywriting review skill would be really valuable for your agency. Let me ask you a few questions to understand exactly how you do this. What kind of apps and websites are you typically building?" So I'm going to say,

• 3:33Greg Isenberg?

  I'm typically building mobile apps that have AI embedded in it.

• 3:44Greg Isenberg?

  Or SaaS. Number two, how would you provide the copy for review? Would you share URLs, HTML shots, HTML files, screenshots? I'm going to say I would share screenshots or Figma files, or just paste text, whatever is easiest for you. So I literally treat it like, you know, I'm talking to an employee. What specific elements do you want critiqued? Headlines, CTAs, value propositions, product descriptions, hero sections, pricing pages, onboarding flows, all of the above? All of the above?

• 4:26Greg Isenberg?

  And what does a helpful review look like to you? Do you want specific suggestions with before and after? A scored assessment, prioritize issues to fix or something else? Actually, that all sounds great.

• 4:40Greg Isenberg?

  If you have a business that's doing at least $50,000 a month in revenue, I've got something interesting for you. It's called Offline Mode. It's a two-day event that me and my team are putting on at a 20,000-plus-foot-square-foot mansion. Yes, this is what it looks like on January 23rd and January 24th in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I'll include a link in the description if you're interested in coming. But it's basically for people who have a business that's kind of cranking, but they really want to put it in rocket ship mode. They want to create a set of businesses that generate tons of money, tons of cash flow, tons of product market fit, tons of impact. But they're not just quite there yet. It's also about making your business AI-first,

• 5:24Greg Isenberg?

  how you can actually build not just one product, but multiple products. And you're going to leave with tactical answers to your questions. So if that's you and this sounds interesting, I'll see you there. So you answer it. And it's actually a really good, like before you create, I mean, you should create your first skill, but I think that you should be asking Claude, like telling him what you do and asking it to tell you, what are the 10 skills that you should be creating?

• 6:01Greg Isenberg?

  So this would just be one of the skills. So you can see here, it says, "I have a clear picture now. I'm creating a conversion copywriting review skill for your AI and SaaS mobile apps. I'll build a skill that reviews all copy elements, headlines, CTAs, value props, provides scored assessments with specific before and after suggestions, prioritizes issues by impact on conversion, works with screenshots, Figma files, and pace of text." Let me start by setting up the skill structure. And it's gone and it's like it's it's building out, building this out. So why this is so important is, you know, yes, you could

• 6:40Greg Isenberg?

  obviously have this within within Claude in like one chat, but you lose the context with the skill. You're getting the consistency and you're just getting better output ultimately because you're getting consistent output that you want, right? You're giving it the right amount of of context and now knows about my business. A common question is, well, why wouldn't I just use a project within Claude? Well, you could use a project, but projects are context specific for a specific like, you know, there's a beginning, middle and an ending date to the project. So for example, like, maybe you're working on a, you know, Christmas campaign.

• 7:21Greg Isenberg?

  But after that, you know, the type of copy that, you know, you would do for Christmas campaign, you know, might be might be different, you know, if you're doing something for Valentine's Day. So I think, you know, think of skills as like you're building like your team a little bit and you need a set of skills that are going to work regardless if you're working on a campaign or if you're working on just, you know, you're it's sort of like your day to day operations. So let's just check in on what's happening here.

• 7:53Greg Isenberg?

  It says it's building, you know, it's building the skill. It's starting, it's starting by setting up the skill structure. Now let me build out the skill with conversion copyrighting expertise. I'll remove the example files we don't need and create reference materials. Great. And now it let it says now let me, let me write the main skill MD with the review workflow. So it's, you know, these are markdown files dot M D,

• 8:20Greg Isenberg?

  which is really simple. And I saw, I think someone from from Anthropic, actually, you know, someone asked them, hey, like, why did you do markdown files? Like, that's like literally the most basic files ever. Like, why didn't you do something a little, a little, you know, more complex? And they just said that, like, it works, right? Files work, markdown files are super easy to understand. If you're non-technical, obviously you can really understand it. So I'm happy that they that they, you know, pick such an easy way to actually to get involved. So you can see here now it's sort of at work. You can, you can actually go and see what it's doing.

• 9:05Greg Isenberg?

  So, you know, it's, it's, you know, key principles, quality standards. I mean, this is really insane, you know, like that, that, that this is possible. And, um, and, and it's gone. And I think it's, I think we've got it. So it says, hey, I've created your LCA conversion copy review skill. Here's what it includes. Provide expert conversion copywriting reviews for your AI-powered mobile apps in SaaS. It works with screenshots, exactly what we said. So, um, it says, what's inside? Okay, so it's got the markdown file, skill.md, which is the step-by-step review workflow with scoring system and output template. It's got a conversion framework.md.

• 9:48Greg Isenberg?

  So it's got the core frameworks like IATA. Uh, I think that's attention, interest, desire and action. P A, P A S, B A B. These are different frameworks that I'm happy exist in here. And value proposition formulas, like any good copywriter knows those things. Element guidelines on MD, so it's specific best practices for every copy element. Headlines, calls to action, pricings, et cetera. So how it works, when you ask me to review copy, I'll automatically load the conversion frameworks and guidelines, analyze each element with specific scoring, prioritize fixes by conversion impact, critical, high, medium, low, and provide before and after examples

• 10:32Greg Isenberg?

  with psychological rationale. And then it says, to use this, upload this dot skill file to Claude, then just share any app, website and ask for conversion review. So, uh, we're gonna go ahead and do that. I'm actually gonna go download it. Download it here, copy, I click copy to your skills. So I believe we need to go back to the settings. We're gonna go ahead and click settings. And then we'll go back to capabilities. And here you can see the skills, we have to add the skills. And now is when we upload the skills. So we're gonna go ahead and drag and drop that from downloads.

• 11:16Greg Isenberg?

  So actually, when I click copy, it put it in there. I wasn't sure about that. So you actually, you know, if you click copy, it automatically puts it there. But I've gone and uploaded it there again. And let's go and start a new chat and see if this works. So I mean, we're gonna need something for it to review. So I'm actually just gonna go to like, let's say, Cal AI, which is a popular app for tracking your calories.

• 11:45Greg Isenberg?

  I'm just going to, you know, screenshot this. Actually, maybe I'll screenshot. Yeah, I'm gonna screenshot these App Store previews. I'm gonna go back. So I'm gonna say, hi, please use the conversion review skill to look at these App Store screenshots and provide better copy. Actually, I'm also gonna give it the website. I'm literally just gonna copy and paste. I've also included the website copy, which needs a copy review as well.

• 12:30Greg Isenberg?

  So I'm gonna go and see if this actually uses the skill. Hopefully it does. So it says, I'll review your App Store screenshots and website copy for conversion optimization. Let me start by examining the conversion copyrighting best practice for your app. So now you can see the agent really is going and working with the skill to get, to give the best possible outcome. Think about if we didn't have the skill. If we didn't have the skill and you were like, make it better, you know, make it sound fresh, make it sound clean, make a conversion rate optimized. You just wouldn't, you know, it wouldn't get the best output.

• 13:12Greg Isenberg?

  So here, let's see what happens. Cal AI's current copy relies heavily on generic AI messaging without explaining concrete benefits or differentiation for competitors. The App Store screenshots use vague headlines and don't communicate the value proposition. While the website copy buries compelling features under technical descriptions. Top priorities: Rewrite headlines to focus on specific outcomes. Clarify the unique AI capability. Depth sensor for volume calculation and lead with transformation rather than features. So it goes and tells you the critical issues. It says, "The App Store screenshots." And let's actually go, and let's look at the App Store screenshots.

• 13:54Greg Isenberg?

  So it says, "Make easy calorie tracking easy with AI. Just snap a picture of your food, then let us do the rest." You can see, you know, it's taking a picture of pancakes. And then it says, "Track your progress as you go. Protein, carbs and fats." So it says, "The issue is it's too generic. Every calorie tracker claims to be easy. There's no specific benefit or differentiation. Then let us do the rest is nothing meaningful." So then it gives these alternatives. Option one, "Track calories in three seconds." I actually like the three seconds. I think that's really good. Oh, it did include, by the way, the score. It's pretty harsh, three on 10, but yeah.

• 14:38Greg Isenberg?

  Track calories in three seconds, no manual logging, get exact portions using iPhone depth sensing. Like, it's obviously better. Why it works: Specific timeframe, three seconds emphasizes the elimination of friction points users hate, highlights unique capability, includes concrete multiplier. I've written copy for some of the largest SaaS businesses' apps on the planet, and I cannot agree more with this statement. Option two, so it gives you another option where it's transformation focused. Lost 17 pounds without counting a single calorie. Your count camera calculates everything instantly. See calories, protein, carbs in real time. Join 5 million users hitting their goals daily.

• 15:23Greg Isenberg?

  So leading with success, I think that could be really cool, too. Let's, let's, let's see how it did on the website copy. So the current copy says, meet Cal AI, track your calories with just a picture. It has a lot of issues with it. It says it wastes precious headline space, no emotional hook. The recommended alternative is the only calorie tracker that actually knows portion sizes. Your iPhone depth sensor measures exact food volume. So this, I mean, and then it, you know, gives you the high priority improvements. And you can just, you know, see this on screen, but the point here is it's done an incredible job here. It goes into medium priority refinements.

• 16:07Greg Isenberg?

  It says what's working well here. It gives you product considerations and then a summary of what to do. Now, this, this is awesome. But I saw a tweet from my, my friend, Boring Marketer this morning. And he said something that's really smart around how you can get the most out of Claude skills. So he said, the trick to creating effective skills to make your AI think like an expert, not just to follow steps. So he has a 10 step process that I think, you know, is really great. So we've gone ahead and great. Now, anyone listening to this can great, can create a Claude skill.

• 16:49Greg Isenberg?

  But how do you actually make the skill 2X better, 3X better, 4X better, 5X better? You do something like this. And if people want, I can go and do an episode with, with James, the Boring Marketer, where we can actually, you know, go deeper on this. Understand what skill, what problem.

• 17:06Greg Isenberg?

  Step one, right? So we did that, but could we have gone deeper? You know, with, with, with the LLM, probably. Explore, see where Claude fails without guidance. Step three, research, go deep on the domain. Step four, synthesize, extract principles from research. Step five, draft, write initial skill. Step six, self critique, review against quality criteria. Step seven, iterate, fix gaps, get feedback, improve. Step eight, test, use skill on a real scenario. Step nine, finalize, codify into an optimal structure. What does this mean? It says, you know, make Claude, Claude think like an expert, not follow steps.

• 17:50Greg Isenberg?

  Produce output, not intermediate documents. Sounds like a practitioner, not documentation. Constrain ruthlessly, every section earns its place. The point here is that, once you've created your first skill, or your second skill, or your third skill, skills aren't something that you aren't, you know, making better over time. So as you see the output, let's say I didn't like the output of what I got, I can go ahead and edit the skill, you know, now that I have it, I can just go in and edit it and add to it and change it and iterate from there. So I want to keep this episode short and, and it's, you know, because today, today was just about like how you can create your first few skills.

• 18:34Greg Isenberg?

  And, and but once you have that, the second step is iterating on those skills so that it really, really, it's like an employee that knows you. You don't even need to like tell it what to do, right? That's like what you want to get to, that it's just constantly delighting. And that's step two, you're iterating on the skills, getting the most out of them. And then step three is using it within a platform like Claude Code. We've, we've shown today around, you know, just using it on, on the web, on the Mac app, but you could use it within the terminal. And that's really where you're going to get the most amount of control in it. So, hope this was helpful.

• 19:18Greg Isenberg?

  You know, I, I do these practical AI tutorials because, you know, I think that.

• 19:27Greg Isenberg?

  We have a lot of ideas and you know, this is the Startup Ideas Podcast and it's about how you can get those ideas out of your head and actually create something that people love. And I think a big part of that is having, you know, using things like skills to your advantage. So, hope this was helpful. Please like, comment, and subscribe. I literally read every single comment and respond to most. So, I hope this was helpful. Happy holidays and have a creative day.