🥋 I Know Kung Fu

I Know Kung Fu

Remember that Matrix moment?

Neo sits down.

Morpheus plugs in the cable.

A few seconds later, Neo looks up and says, "I know Kung Fu."

That scene used to feel like pure sci-fi.

But honestly, this became a reality with the concept of “Skills” recently in AI.

And that's what Skills feel like when you use them for the first time.

Before Skills, a lot of us used Claude like this:

  1. Start a new chat.
  2. Explain your business & voice.
  3. Explain what "good" looks like.
  4. You remind it how you work.

And if you come back tomorrow? You do the whole thing over again.

UGH 🤦🤦🤦

This is one of those “work smarter, not harder” moments.

Let's look at how Claude skills can change how AI fits into your work…

🥋 The “I Know Kung Fu” Moment for Your AI

Claude Skills lets you teach Claude your standards one time, and it keeps using them. Without you repeating yourself ever again.

Key Facts

  • 🧩 Skills are reusable instruction folders (usually a SKILL.md file) that Claude can load automatically when your request matches the Skill.
  • 🧠 Skills stick across sessions, so you stop re-explaining tone, format, standards, and steps every time you open a new chat.
  • ⚙️ You can stack Skills together, so Claude can combine "read PDFs" + "draft like my business" in one workflow when it makes sense.

🤔 So What Is a Claude Skill, Really?

A Claude Skill is an open-source, shareable folder of instructions that teaches Claude a repeatable behavior for a specific kind of task.

Most Skills center around a SKILL.md file. 

There's no complex setup. 

No special coding background required for most use cases. 

If you can follow a recipe, you can install a Skill, or better yet, since Claude knows how to build it's own skills, it can coach you through the process.

Here's the part that makes it feel like a real upgrade in day-to-day work:

  • Claude can scan the Skills you've installed and apply the right one automatically when your question fits.
  • If you want to force it, you can call a Skill directly with something like /skill-name.
  • And the big one: Skills persist. Your standards don't disappear just because the chat ended.

If you run a business, or even just manage projects at work, you already know how valuable repeatable systems are. 

You've probably spent years building SOPs and checklists and templates to keep things consistent.

A Skill is basically a system prompt you don't have to keep pasting. 

It lives inside Claude and shows up when you need it. 

It's the difference between writing your coffee order on a napkin every morning versus the barista just knowing what you want.

☀️ What Changed for Me

The concept of skills weren't new to me when I first tried them, and if you've ever connected a database to your AI (like a RAG style lookup) then you'll feel the same. 

AI is great at searching for what it needs, when it needs it, but the challenge with a database is needing to maintain, scale, keep it updated and so on. 

Then there's something simple about having everything you need in “flat files” that take no-time to load. 

I love that a Skill is like installing a GPS that already knows your routes, your preferences, and what roads you refuse to take. 

You just say where you're going and it handles the rest.

That matters because so many of us are trying to use AI for real work, and through all of my conversations with fellow builders, I keep hearing about the same friction points:

  • "It's helpful, but I spend too long setting it up."
  • "It writes fine, but it doesn't sound like us."
  • "It gets 80% there, and I still have to do the last 20% every time."
  • "I can't trust the output because it doesn't follow our rules consistently."

Every time, the root cause is the same: the AI doesn't remember how you work.

Skills push you closer to repeatable quality. 

And repeatable quality is where AI becomes a real part of operations instead of a neat trick you show someone at lunch.

🧰 The Five Skills I'd Install First (and Why They Matter)

These are the ones that I think clean up real work. 

I picked these five because they cover the tasks I see small business owners and team leaders wrestling with most often.

📄 1) PDF Processing Skill

Anthropic PDF Skill 🔗 

Drop in a 60-page contract, a vendor agreement, an insurance policy, an IRS document, or a slide deck. Then ask for:

  • A clean summary
  • Key sections extracted
  • Risk flags or "watch-outs"

And it can happen fast. 

Often under a minute depending on the file size.

Every decision that was waiting for you to finish reading that document gets made sooner.

📣 2) Marketing Skills (25+ in One Repo)

Corey Haines Marketing Skills repo  🔗

Marketing touches everything, whether you call it marketing or not.

This repo is a bundle that covers things like:

  • Copywriting
  • Conversion rate thinking (CRO)
  • SEO patterns
  • Launch planning
  • Email writing
  • Pricing support

One detail I really like: the March 2026 update expanded it so it can work across Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and Windsurf, not just Claude.

That flexibility means you're not locked into one tool.

Simply: you install it once, and your AI starts writing with a more "seasoned marketer" posture. 

💭 Worth sitting with:

If your homepage had to earn its keep this month, what would you change first? Your headline, your offer, or your proof?

🎯 3) Pitch Deck / PPTX Skill

Anthropic PPTX Skill 🔗 

I've watched smart people lose a whole afternoon to a deck.

Slides are a special kind of time sink. 

This Skill helps you generate a structured deck with:

  • Layouts
  • Suggested charts
  • Speaker notes

Important note: this is not about "final design polish." 

You'll still make it pretty on your own. 

The value is that it gives you a strong structure fast, so you're editing instead of inventing. 

💭 Something to think about:

If you had to pitch your business in 6 slides, what are the 6 things you'd pick, and what would you remove?

🧠 4) Claude Skills Library

Claude Skills Library 🔗

This is the broadest "business bundle" I've seen because it has 248 Skills grouped into multiple areas:

  • More Marketing
  • Product strategy
  • C-level advisory
  • Business growth
  • Project management
  • Content creation
  • Customer success

If you run a small company, you've felt this: you're the CEO and the ops lead and the marketer and the support desk.

I've lived that life. 

Most of the people reading this have too.

This kind of bundle works like a "bench of mental models." When you're stuck, it can help you structure decisions:

  • How should we price this?
  • What does a roadmap look like for the next 90 days?
  • What should customer success check-ins look like so churn drops?
  • How do we plan a project so it doesn't drift?

💭 Here's a question that applies to any industry:

What role do you keep playing that you never officially trained for?

You don't need to become an expert in every function. You just need a reliable structure to lean on while you're wearing all those hats.

⚒️ 5) Skill Creator

Anthropic Skill Creator 🔗 

This is the "meta" install, and honestly, it's the one that makes everything above practical long-term.

Because after you install a few Skills, you start noticing patterns.

Maybe you always want outputs in an exact email format…

A one-page summary for execs…

or risks flagged before send.

Whatever it is, those patterns are your custom Skills waiting to be built.

And you don't have to be a coder to do it. 

Even though I am an engineer, let me show you how I recently built one of my own.

📍 Start Here

Have you ever had to write a client agreement from scratch?

It goes something like…

→ You start with a template you don't fully trust.
→ You tweak a few clauses.
→ You wonder if you forgot a key line.
→ You go back and fourth with Chat/Claude/Gemini.
→ Copy/Paste into Docs/Word. Save as PDF, Upload, etc etc

I've been there. Many times. And this is exactly why I keep telling people: we're all using LLMs for our contracts anyways, so let's simplify.

My startup, QuickSign Pro, is built around getting from AI-assisted drafting to legally compliant e-signatures without duct-taping five tools together.

The whole idea came to me when I got a notification for a $250 renewal notice from a service I barely use. 😫

So, I took my own advice and started Quick Sign Pro.

If you want the practical walkthrough of how to connect this new skill via your favorite like Claude, Chat, etc, I wrote it here: AI Agent Drafts Contracts 🔗

Click ^^ that link and you can connect your first “skill-based” workflow that gives you one more agent that can work for you on your next contract!

When you combine AI drafting + review behaviors + signature flow, you stop treating contracts like a once-in-a-while emergency and start treating them like what they really are: a core business workflow.

Something that happens regularly, follows a pattern, and deserves a system behind it.

✅ Try This, This Week 

Install one official Skill.

Use it on a real task you already had planned.

Then share and tell me what happened:

  • What got faster?
  • What still felt annoying?
  • What do you wish the Skill did that it didn't?

And let me know how the QuickSign connection went!

— Jim 😎

P.S. VIP day spots still open for April! I only take 2 max per month and am LOVING working with people at this level. 

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