A hands-on walkthrough for the re-recorded June Smart Agent Collective group call (originally June 19 — not recorded, redoing it live). Two topics: Moda (an AI design tool for marketing materials) and Skills for Claude (teaching members' AI assistants new, reusable capabilities). By the end, every member will have generated at least one branded asset in Moda and understands what a "skill" is well enough to ask their assistant to build one.
Have members do this ahead of time if possible:
Talk through — no screen share needed yet.
Screen share. Walk them through it live.
Have everyone type this (using their own details):
Create a one-pager for a new listing at [address].
It's a [beds] bedroom, [baths] bathroom home with [one standout feature].
Asking price: $[price]. Use a clean, modern real estate style.
Walk through the results:
Create an open house flyer for [address] this [day] from [time] to [time].
Highlight [one feature]. Include a QR code placeholder for the listing.
Point out: once the first design exists, remixing it for the next listing is a copy + a few edits — not starting over.
Create a 3-slide Instagram carousel about [one market stat from your area],
in a friendly, approachable style with my brand colors.
Talk through — this is conceptual, not hands-on yet.
Screen share. Do this together, live, in each member's own AI assistant.
Have everyone describe one repetitive task to their assistant, using language like:
I do [this task] regularly and I keep explaining it the same way every time.
I want you to turn this into a skill so you remember it going forward.
Here's how I want it done: [describe the steps, format, tone — whatever matters].
Good candidates from this group:
Walk through what happens:
SKILL.md file — plain instructions, not code~/.claude/skills/ (or wherever it stores instructions) and create one if it's missing# Moda + Skills for Claude — Lesson Plan A hands-on walkthrough for the re-recorded June Smart Agent Collective group call (originally June 19 — not recorded, redoing it live). Two topics: **Moda** (an AI design tool for marketing materials) and **Skills for Claude** (teaching members' AI assistants new, reusable capabilities). By the end, every member will have generated at least one branded asset in Moda and understands what a "skill" is well enough to ask their assistant to build one. --- ## Before the Call (2 minutes) Have members do this ahead of time if possible: 1. Open [moda.app](https://moda.app) in Chrome and sign in (Google account works) 2. Have their brokerage website URL or a recent listing photo handy 3. No prep needed for the Skills half — that part runs through their own AI assistant, live --- ## Part 1: What Is Moda? (5 minutes) **Talk through — no screen share needed yet.** ### Key Points to Cover - An AI design platform — builds slides, social posts, one-pagers, carousels, and HTML pages that stay **fully editable** on a real canvas, not locked-in AI output - The "iterative" part: instead of re-prompting from scratch every time something's slightly off, you click into the design and adjust it directly — text, layout, images — like Canva, but AI-driven from the first draft - Used by marketing teams at companies like Deloitte and Intercom for the same reason it's useful to a solo agent: it gets you from blank page to a polished first draft fast, then you polish by hand ### Why This Matters for Agents - "How many of you have opened Canva, stared at a blank template, and closed the tab?" - Moda skips the blank-page problem — describe what you need, get a real design back, then edit it instead of building it - Best pairing: **Moda for the fast first draft, Canva (or your AI assistant building HTML) for final polish and scheduling** --- ## Part 2: Live Setup and First Design (15 minutes) **Screen share. Walk them through it live.** ### Step-by-Step 1. **Go to** [moda.app](https://moda.app) 2. **Sign in** with a Google account 3. **Start a new design** — describe what you want in plain language 4. **Review the result** — it's a real canvas: click any element to edit text, swap images, adjust colors 5. **Iterate** — ask for a variation, or edit directly on the canvas, whichever is faster for that change ### Exercise 1: New Listing One-Pager Have everyone type this (using their own details): ``` Create a one-pager for a new listing at [address]. It's a [beds] bedroom, [baths] bathroom home with [one standout feature]. Asking price: $[price]. Use a clean, modern real estate style. ``` **Walk through the results:** - Show how the layout, typography, and hierarchy are already print/post-ready - Click into a text block and edit the copy directly — this is the "iterative" difference from a plain AI image generator - Swap the placeholder photo for a real listing photo if they have one handy ### Exercise 2: Quick Win — Open House Flyer ``` Create an open house flyer for [address] this [day] from [time] to [time]. Highlight [one feature]. Include a QR code placeholder for the listing. ``` **Point out:** once the first design exists, remixing it for the next listing is a copy + a few edits — not starting over. ### Exercise 3 (If Time): Social Carousel from a Market Stat ``` Create a 3-slide Instagram carousel about [one market stat from your area], in a friendly, approachable style with my brand colors. ``` --- ## Part 3: What Is a Skill for Claude? (10 minutes) **Talk through — this is conceptual, not hands-on yet.** ### Key Points to Cover - Your AI assistant (Siegfried, Winston, Zip, Mac — whatever you've named yours) already knows a lot on its own. A **skill** is how you teach it something specific and make that knowledge stick, permanently, without re-explaining it every session - Practically: a skill is a small folder with an instructions file. When your assistant recognizes a task matches a skill it has, it reads the instructions and follows them — step by step, the same way every time - Skills are the difference between "I explained this to my AI three times this month" and "I taught my AI this once, and now it just does it" ### Real Estate Examples Already in Use in This Group - **Perfect Cuts** and **Hyperframes** — video editing skills members have installed so their assistant can cut and produce video without hand-holding - A market report skill — feed it CSVs, get a formatted report back the same way every time - A newsletter skill — same input format in, same polished output out ### Why This Matters for Agents - "How many of you have re-explained the same task to your AI assistant more than once?" - A skill means you only teach it once. Every future request, it already knows the format, the tone, the steps - You don't need to write code to build one — you describe the workflow in plain language, and your assistant can write the skill file itself --- ## Part 4: Live Setup — Install or Build a Skill (15 minutes) **Screen share. Do this together, live, in each member's own AI assistant.** ### Option A: Install an Existing Skill 1. Ask your assistant: _"I want to install a skill — here's the link: [give them a skill link, e.g. the Perfect Cuts or Hyperframes links already shared in this group]. Can you install it?"_ 2. Watch it read the skill, confirm what it does, and confirm it's ready to use 3. Try invoking it on a real task ### Option B: Build a New Skill from a Task You Already Do Have everyone describe one repetitive task to their assistant, using language like: ``` I do [this task] regularly and I keep explaining it the same way every time. I want you to turn this into a skill so you remember it going forward. Here's how I want it done: [describe the steps, format, tone — whatever matters]. ``` **Good candidates from this group:** - "Every month I need a market report built from three CSVs, formatted the same way." - "Every new listing I need a one-pager, an open house flyer, and three social posts." - "Every call I have, I want a summary emailed to me with action items pulled out." **Walk through what happens:** - The assistant writes a `SKILL.md` file — plain instructions, not code - From then on, saying the trigger phrase (or just describing the task) makes it run the same way every time - If it's wrong the first time, correcting it teaches the skill permanently — no need to re-explain next time ### Troubleshooting - **"My assistant says it doesn't have a skills folder"** — ask it to check `~/.claude/skills/` (or wherever it stores instructions) and create one if it's missing - **"It didn't trigger automatically"** — skills need a clear description of when to use them; ask your assistant to tighten the trigger phrase - **"I'm not sure what to turn into a skill"** — anything you've explained to your assistant more than twice is a candidate --- ## Part 5: Workflow Tips & Wrap-Up (5 minutes) ### Recommended Pairing - **Moda** for fast first-draft marketing visuals — new listings, open houses, social posts - **A skill** for anything you do the same way, repeatedly — market reports, newsletters, call follow-ups, listing packages ### Pro Tips to Share 1. **Start Moda designs specific** — neighbourhood names, price points, and standout features produce sharper first drafts than generic prompts 2. **Teach a skill from a real example** — show your assistant an actual past output you liked, not just a description 3. **Correct once, not every time** — if a skill gets something wrong, tell your assistant to fix it permanently, not just for that one run 4. **Skills compound** — the more you teach your assistant, the less you re-explain, week over week ### Homework - Create one design in Moda for a real, current listing - Identify one task you've explained to your AI assistant more than twice, and turn it into a skill - Share what you built in the Skool group --- ## Resources - **Moda:** [moda.app](https://moda.app) - **All Call Materials:** [tom.here.now/thesmartagent](https://tom.here.now/thesmartagent/)