Your first week with an AI crew: a day-by-day plan for owners

The first week decides whether an AI crew becomes part of how you work or one more tab you stop opening. The way to get value is not to explore every feature. It is to make a handful of small decisions that teach your crew your business, one a day.

This plan assumes you are on a plan, because approving and sending email, connecting your accounts and inviting teammates all come with one. Days one and two also work in the free preview, and a plan keeps the same workspace, the same brain and your drafts.

One rule for the whole week: use real work. A made-up test question teaches your crew nothing and tells you nothing. Have these ready before you start.

• Your price list, in whatever form it exists: a PDF, a spreadsheet, a sheet of paper.
• Three real customer emails that need an answer.
• The Google account your business uses for email and calendar, if you have one.
• The name and email address of one teammate.

Day 1: confirm the facts

Open the Brain tab and find the knowledge inbox. It lists the basics your crew works from: your name, what you do, who you serve, where you work, your top goal and your voice. Each was read from your website, or from what you typed at the start.

For each one, press Confirm if it is right, or press Correct and type the right answer. Your answer overrides the first reading from then on. Look at the Brain health score before and after. Confirmed facts are worth up to 30 of its 100 points.

Day 2: correct one page

Pick the page that matters most to your money. For a trade that is often prices or estimating rules. For a service business it may be what is included and what is extra. Open it, press Edit page, fix what is wrong, add what is missing and save.

If the page you need does not exist, add it. Drop your price list on the Brain tab, or take a photo of the sheet you hand to customers.

Day 3: connect a source

Open Sources. If your business uses Google, connect it with one sign-in. Brainztem asks to read and send mail and to manage calendar events, and you can disconnect in the same place. Once it is connected, your Inbox tab shows your recent customer emails, and meetings your crew writes can go on your Google Calendar once you approve them.

For outreach from your own domain, you also connect an email sending key. Every plan includes a setup call, and connecting that key with you is part of it.

Day 4: approve three emails

Take the three real emails. If the Email agent is on your plan, open each one in the Inbox tab and press "Draft a reply." If it is not, ask your crew for the reply in chat and put the draft in Outreach.

Read each draft and change what you would change: the greeting, the length, the sign-off. Then approve it and send it. Each approval becomes an example of how you write. If you changed a draft, open its receipt on the Brain tab, and you will see the crew's version beside yours.

Day 5: invite a teammate

Open Settings, then Team. Enter a name and an email address and pick a role. An approver can approve and send. A drafter can chat, add tasks and edit, and an approver sends. Each person gets a sign-in link of their own.

Start with one person. Make them a drafter unless they already send email in your name. You can change the role later.

Monday: read the email

On Monday the owner gets one email: what your crew did, what is waiting on you, what your website brought in and what your crew learned. Start with what is waiting and clear it. Then read the list of what was learned. It should name things you confirmed, corrected and approved during the week.

A quiet week sends nothing. If you would rather not get the email at all, switch it off in Settings, under Plan & email.

By the end of the week you have a brain with confirmed facts, one page you wrote yourself, a connected inbox, three examples of your voice and a second person who can help. None of it took a training course. Each step was a decision about your own business.

Start day one now: open the Brain tab and confirm the first fact. If you do not have a workspace yet, the free 48-hour preview at brainztem.com covers days one and two, and it needs no card.