INSTIG8.

Chart 3, 14 October 2026PreviousNextAll charts

Make the first email worth answering

For whoever builds it.

Everything below is the parts: the folders, the tools by role, the steps and what it costs to run.

Build order
Nothing sends unreadThe owner reads the first batch before any email goes out, then checks a sample of the rest.
What you need from the owner
Who countsBefore you start, the owner writes down who counts as a real buyer, the signals, the offer, the proof and the voice.
Monthly cost
From $140From about $140 a month in tools
What breaks first
SendToo much volume gets your sending addresses marked as spam. Keep to the limits and keep the map in the email.

1Build it

One prompt. Paste it into your AI and it draws your business on this chart and makes the nine folders the system runs from, with your rules written in. About 15 minutes. Nothing sends to anyone.

What to do

  1. 1Hit the button. It copies the instructions.
  2. 2Open Claude Code in the folder where this system should live. Paste, and send.
  3. 3Answer its questions, one at a time. When it shows your chart, say go and it builds the first square.

Written from this chart's research. Nothing to edit.

Pro adds the finished folders for this chart in Claude Code: every step, every prompt, an example setup. See the plans.

2The nine folders

One folder for the owner in the middle, one workspace per part around it, side by side; each reads the business and campaign it works for. Measuring results, keeping records and building the automations are shared with the rest of the business and sit outside this tree.

outreach/

The owner's folder: the quality bar, the firm's proof and voice, each campaign's buyer and offer, every lesson from replies and meetings.

You can see what this folder is for. The full folders for this chart are not published yet.

3What it runs on

Tools by role. Prices are public list prices read in October 2026, as examples, not recommendations.

Reaches Email sending and calendar booking. Sending from $39 a month for 6,000 sends; booking from $10 a user a month.
Thinks A model that researches, maps and writes. Not priced in this chart.
Runs Workflow automation. Not priced in this chart.
Knows Lead and campaign records, and the domain folder. Not priced in this chart.
Feeds Signal sources and contact data. A database subscription from $89.99 a month billed annually ($119.99 monthly).

4Build order

Start here
Read the first batch of emails yourself before any go out; then sample.
Then
Set up the eight workspaces around those notes, each reading the business and campaign it works for.
Monthly cost
From public prices: a database subscription for finding people from $89.99 a month billed annually, a sending tool from $39 a month, and a booking tool from $10 a user a month. About $140 a month before the AI model's usage cost, which is not priced here. On top: the domains you send from, and the owner's weekly time. Itemize it each month: signal data, sending, booking, the model. The public prices are under What it costs to run.

5The five rules

Where the work lives

The rules live in one folder the owner keeps: the quality bar, the firm's proof and voice, each campaign's buyer and offer, and every lesson from replies and meetings. Each of the eight parts reads from it, so the next email carries what the last meeting taught.

Nine folders handle outreach. A whole business needs them to work together.

Your AI does better work when it reads the right instructions before it acts. These are real folders on a computer. Each holds plain text files of instructions for one kind of work, which your AI reads before it starts.

These nine handle outreach. A business has many areas: sales, delivery, finance, content, the owner's own week. Each needs its own folders, and they have to work together. When they don't, your AI reads the wrong instructions, two folders say different things about the same fact, and every new conversation with your AI starts from zero.

Five rules keep them working together:

  • One file read first. A single file tells your AI which folder handles which kind of request.
  • One home for each fact. A rule lives in one folder. Every other folder reads it there, and only that folder changes it.
  • Hand work over, don't reach in. Work meant for another folder is dropped into a folder inside it called inbox, and the work is done there, by that folder's rules.
  • Write down where things stand. Each folder keeps a file of its decisions and progress, which your AI updates as it works, so the next conversation starts where the last one stopped.
  • Nothing runs unseen. Anything set to run on its own, like a scheduled email or a nightly update, is listed with when it runs and how to stop it.

Large companies already run this way: one home for each fact, written rules read before the work starts, a record of every change. AI can read those rules and work from them.

When Expert opens, it teaches you to build this for your business: a full course on setting up the folders and rules, from your first folder to all of them working together, Nick's group coaching while you build, and a community of people building theirs. It includes everything in Pro.

Sources (21)

For the owner: decidePreviousNextAll charts