Everyone's switching from ChatGPT to Claude. Almost nobody is using it properly.
If you've moved across and you're still typing one-off questions into the chat window, you're using maybe 10% of what it can do. The two features that actually move the needle — the ones that take Claude from "smarter chatbot" to "system that runs alongside your business" — are projects and skills.
This is a practical walkthrough of how to set up both. Not the marketing version. The version where you end up with workflows that genuinely save you hours.
(If you're still deciding whether to use Claude over ChatGPT, start with Claude vs ChatGPT for business — that one breaks down the decision. This post assumes you've already picked Claude.)
Get the setup right before you build anything
Before projects and skills, the foundation. Open Claude, jump into settings.
Three things to do here, in this order:
- Custom instructions. Tell Claude who you are, what you do, what tech stack you work with, and how you want it to respond. Want short answers? Want it to push back? Put that here. If you've already done this in ChatGPT, copy-paste your instructions across.
- Memory. Under capabilities, turn on "search and reference chats" and "generate memory from chat history." The first lets you say things like "Hey Claude, jump back to our chat from two days ago about that spreadsheet" and have it actually do that. The second lets Claude build up a picture of how you work over time.
- Import your old memory. If you've used ChatGPT for a while, there's a prompt under "import memory" that exports everything Chat has learned about you. Clean it up first — most of what ChatGPT remembers is outdated. Ask Chat to keep only memories from the last 90 days that are still accurate, then paste into Claude.
The whole thing takes about five minutes. Skip it and Claude stays generic forever. Do it once and every project you build sits on a real foundation.
Custom styles — the hidden time-saver
Before we get to projects, one detour. Custom styles are genuinely underrated.
You get a handful of defaults (concise, explanatory, formal). But the unlock is creating your own.
I have one called "Brooke's DMs" — Claude knows to respond with no capital letters, casual tone, the way I actually write Instagram DMs. So when someone messages me asking about my next masterclass, I drop the message in, hit my style, and get back a reply that sounds like me. Not "professional response with em-dashes." Me.
Build one for every repeated writing context you have: LinkedIn comments, blog drafts, email replies, client check-ins. Each style is two minutes to create and saves five minutes every time you use it.
Projects — the real upgrade
Here's where Claude stops being random chats and starts being infrastructure.
A project is a workspace. Custom instructions, knowledge base files, chat history — all scoped to one area of your business or one client.
I have a project for my podcast (it acts as my producer). One for my email strategy. One for each consulting client. Inside each, three things matter:
System instructions
The role Claude plays in this project. Give it a role, an objective, the kinds of tasks you'll ask it to do, the tone you want, and ideally an example of what good output looks like.
If you've built custom GPTs in ChatGPT, this is the same idea — paste those instructions straight in. One thing to know: Claude projects aren't shareable unless you're on a Team plan. That's the one real downside compared to GPTs.
Knowledge base
The files Claude can reference inside this project. Upload PDFs, paste in long text, or pull files from your Google Drive, Notion, or GitHub directly. Anything in here is fair game for Claude to read whenever you chat inside the project.
Chat history
Every conversation you have inside the project is nested here. So you're not hunting through a global chat list six weeks later trying to find "where did Claude and I land on Maya's launch plan?" — it's right there, inside Maya's project.
The compound effect is the point. Each chat inside a project teaches Claude more about how that part of your business works. Six months in, opening that project is like sitting down with a team member who's been with you the whole time.
Skills — the part most people skip
If projects are workspaces, skills are repeatable workflows. The moment Claude stops feeling clever and starts feeling like it's actually working for you.
A skill is a small markdown file Claude reads to do something the same way every time. It can call your connected tools (Google Drive, Gmail, Notion), use your custom data, and produce a consistent output.
Real example: my consult transcript processor. Every time I finish a consulting call, Claude grabs the transcript from my Google Drive, runs it through my action-plan framework, and pushes the result into Notion as a structured roadmap. I trigger it with one sentence. The whole thing takes maybe three minutes instead of an hour.
Two ways to build a skill:
1. Start from a chat that worked. When you've gone back and forth with Claude on something and it finally nails the output, say "Can we turn this into a skill?" Claude packages up everything you taught it into a reusable workflow. Next time you don't have to re-explain anything.
2. Build one fresh. Describe what you want the skill to do, what tools it needs, what the output should look like. Claude writes the skill, tests it, and asks for feedback.
The best part: skills get better the more you use them. If something's off, you give Claude feedback inside the skill and it updates the workflow itself. They compound.
How the four pieces fit together
Settings → projects → skills → artifacts. That's the stack.
- Settings are global — they shape how Claude responds across every chat
- Projects are scoped — they hold the context for one client, one launch, one area of your business
- Skills are workflows — they're the repeatable jobs you can trigger from inside a project (or globally)
- Artifacts are the output — documents, dashboards, content plans, HTML resources Claude builds and you can download or publish as a shareable link
The pattern that produces real time-savings: set up a project → attach the relevant skills → run them → publish the artifacts.
For my corporate trainings, I have a "client resource pack" skill. It pulls the training transcript, builds an interactive HTML resource pack in my brand colours, includes the action items per staff member, and gives me a published link to share. The whole thing happens in minutes. That's the system, not "AI."
FAQ
What's the difference between projects and skills in Claude?
A project is a workspace — custom instructions, files, and chat history scoped to one area of your business (a client, a launch, a content channel). A skill is a repeatable workflow — a small set of instructions Claude reads to do the same task the same way every time. Projects hold context. Skills do work. You can run a skill inside a project to combine both.
Do I need a Pro or Team plan to use projects and skills?
Projects and skills are both available on the free plan, but you'll hit limits fast once you're using them seriously. Pro is the practical minimum if Claude is part of your daily workflow. Team is only needed if you want to share projects across people — otherwise Pro is enough.
How do I create a custom skill in Claude?
Two ways. The fastest: have a normal chat where you teach Claude to do something well, then say "Can we turn this into a skill?" Claude will package it up. The other way: go into the customise menu, hit "create skill," and describe what you want it to do, what tools it needs, and what the output should look like. Either way, Claude writes the skill markdown for you.
Can I share my Claude projects with my team?
Not on the Pro plan — projects are private to your account. To share a project with your team you need to be on the Team plan. This is the one place where ChatGPT's custom GPTs are still ahead (those are shareable on lower tiers).
What's an artifact in Claude and how do I share it?
An artifact is anything Claude builds for you inside a chat — a document, a content plan, an interactive HTML dashboard, a tool. Find it in the right-hand panel of the chat, hit publish, copy the link. It works the same as a shared Google Drive link. Real example: I send corporate training clients their post-workshop resource pack as a published artifact.
If you want to actually wire this stuff up — projects, skills, the workflow that ties them together — that's what we do inside Wright Mode. Fortnightly Build-with-Brooke sessions, the templates I use in my own business, and a community of women building this every day. The doors are always open.
