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Time to implement: <5 mins

Key outcomes?

  • Every meeting is an opportunity. Most people waste it by showing up unprepared, winging questions, and leaving no impression.

  • The professionals who consistently win business, build relationships, and close deals all do one thing differently. They walk in already knowing the person's world.

  • Until now that took 45 minutes of research most people do not have. This recipe does it in 5 mins , with one tool and one prompt.

Ingredients:
Serves: 1 energy investor, founder, or operator with a meeting in the next 24 hours
Tools required: Claude (claude.ai, free tier works)

5 Minutes

TO IMPLEMENT

1 HOUR

TIME SAVED P/W

HOME COOK

DIFFICULTY

🧭 METHODOLOGY
Key steps

Step 1: Open Claude and enable web search (1 minute) Go to claude.ai on your laptop or phone. Sign in. Click on the small + icon in the message before. You will see a small globe icon in the message bar. Click it to enable Claude to research via the web.

Step 2: Paste the master prompt (1 minute) Copy the prompt from the Prompt Kitchen below. Fill in the bracketed fields in the section 1 [Meeting Context] and 2 [ Your background]. This will ensure the prompt is optimised for you. Click enter.

Step 3: Read the brief, pick your two points, practice (3 minutes)

  • Claude will return a structured brief: background on the person, recent activity, the company's current position, tailored conversation openers, smart questions, and a suggested area of common ground, all oriented around your stated objective.

  • Read it once. Do not try to memorise it. Pick the two points that feel most natural to you and let the rest go. The value is arriving informed, not performing a briefing you rehearsed.

  • Before you close your laptop, read your two chosen points out loud. This takes sixty seconds and makes a disproportionate difference.

❝

PROMPT KITCHEN (COPY THIS)

ROLE

You are an expert executive coach and intelligence analyst preparing
[YOUR NAME/ROLE] for a high-stakes professional meeting. Your job is
to make them sound like they've known this person for years.

MEETING CONTEXT

  • Person: [FULL NAME]

  • Title / Company: [TITLE, COMPANY]

  • My relationship to them: [e.g. same firm, cold outreach,
    existing contact, client]

  • Meeting format: [e.g. 30-min coffee, formal pitch, internal review]

  • My objective: [e.g. explore collaboration, land a project,
    teach them about X, get their advice on Y]

  • What they likely want from this meeting: [your best guess,
    or "unknown — please infer from their role"]

MY BACKGROUND (so you can find genuine common ground)

  • Role: [YOUR TITLE AND COMPANY]

  • Key projects / expertise: [2–3 sentences]

SPECIFICITY RULE (read before doing anything else)

Every single insight must trace to something real and verifiable —
a quote, a decision, a publication, a company announcement, a role
change. If a point could appear in a brief about any senior person
in [THEIR INDUSTRY], delete it. Generic observations are worse than
nothing — they create false confidence.

VERIFICATION RULE

If you cannot find real evidence for a section, say so explicitly
rather than filling the gap with plausible-sounding content.
Flag low-confidence findings with [UNVERIFIED].

RESEARCH STEP (do this before writing the brief)

Search for: recent interviews, published articles or reports,
LinkedIn activity, company news, conference appearances, and any
notable public statements by [FULL NAME]. Also research
[THEIR COMPANY]'s current strategic priorities and positioning
in [THEIR SECTOR].

Before writing the brief, state in 2–3 sentences what the most
strategically useful things you found are, and why. This is your
analytical anchor — the brief should flow from it.

OUTPUT: PRE-MEETING BRIEF

Write a tight, specific brief. Target ~400 words total.
Sections and guidance:

1. Who They Are (3 sentences)
Career trajectory — decisions made, pivots taken, what they've
built. Not a LinkedIn summary. End with one sentence on what
seems to drive them professionally.

2. What They're Focused On Right Now (2–3 points)
Recent and specific. Trace each point to a source.
Prioritise things from the last 6 months.

3. Their Company's Position in This Moment (1 short paragraph)
Current strategic priorities, recent moves, or tensions relevant
to [THEIR SECTOR]. Focus on what's relevant to my objective,
not a general company overview.

4. Conversation Openers (3)
Rules: peer-to-peer tone, not journalist-to-subject.
Each opener should do one of: reveal genuine knowledge of their
world, create a two-way exchange, or connect their reality to
my objective.
Good tone: "I've been thinking about X — curious if you're
seeing the same from your side."
Bad tone: "I'd love to hear your thoughts on..." /
"What's your view on..."
Label each with its intent: [Build rapport] / [Open my agenda] /
[Test alignment]

5. Questions That Show I Know Their World (2)
These are not ice-breakers. They should demonstrate that I've
done my homework and thought about their specific challenges.
Each question should be one they can't answer with a yes or no
and that they'd actually find interesting to think about.

6. What They Might Want From This Meeting (1–2 sentences)
Infer from their role, recent focus, and context.
This is what I should be ready to offer, not just receive.

7. Common Ground to Lean Into (1 point)
One specific, genuine overlap between my world and theirs.
Not "we both work in strategy." Something that would make
them think "oh, interesting — tell me more."

FAILURE MODES TO AVOID

  • Do not write biography that reads like a Wikipedia entry

  • Do not use hedging phrases like "likely", "probably",
    "may be interested in" without flagging as [UNVERIFIED]

  • Do not write openers that are just questions with a preamble

  • Do not pad — if a section has nothing specific to say,
    say so and explain why

📡 CHEF’S UPGRADE
Upgrade your recipe

The base recipe requires you to remember to run it and fill in details. These upgrades progressively remove that requirement, first by making the workflow one sentence, then by eliminating your involvement entirely. Set it up once, runs forever.

Two levels. Pick the one that matches your ambition.

Level 1: The Calendar Integration

What it does: One sentence. Fully briefed for all meetings that day. Never leave Claude.

  • Remembers the prompt: The base recipe requires you to paste the full prompt each time you use it. Level 1 removes that step by saving the prompt permanently inside a dedicated Claude Project.

  • Scans your calendar: This recipe also connects Claude to your calendar, so it can see your upcoming meetings directly, pull the attendee details itself, and run the full brief without you filling in a single bracket.

Your entire workflow becomes:

"Brief me on my next meeting."

What you need:

  • Claude.AI

  • Your calendar run on Google Calendar (Drop us a note if you want a tutorial on making this work with other calendar providers - its slightly more complex)

How to set it up:

Step 1: Create a new Project. Go to claude.ai and click "Projects" in the left sidebar. Create a new Project and name it "🤝 The Pre-Meeting Briefer".

Step 2: Add the system prompt. Inside the Project, click "Edit project instructions". This is where Claude stores its standing instructions for every conversation inside this Project. Paste the prompt from the ‘PROMPT KITCHEN’ above, with one small addition

❝

When I ask you to brief me on a meeting, check my calendar using
the connected integration, identify the next external attendee,
and research them using web search.

[Copy the rest of the Prompt highlighted in the Prompt Kitchen section above]

Step 3: Connect your calendar. Still inside the Project, click "Add content" then "Integrations". Connect Google Calendar and grant the necessary permissions. Claude will now have live access to your schedule from within this Project.

Step 4: Enable web search. In the Project settings, confirm that web search is turned on. This allows Claude to research attendees in real time rather than working from training data alone.

Step 5: Test it. Open a new conversation inside the Meeting Prep Project and type: "Brief me on my next meeting." Claude will check your calendar, identify the next external attendee, research them, and return the full structured brief.

From that point, your daily prompt becomes: "What meetings do I have today and brief me on each external attendee."Claude handles the rest.

❝

Note - This is possible with other calendar providers (Outlook, Apple Mail etc) but it is slightly more involved. If you’d like a tutorial for these drop us a message.

Level 2: The Automated Morning Briefing (Video Tutorial Coming Soon)

What it does: Fully hands-off. Brief arrives in your inbox every morning. You never touch anything.

This level removes you from the process entirely. Your calendar becomes the trigger. Every time a new external meeting is detected, Make automatically fires the Claude prompt, researches the attendee, and delivers a formatted brief to your inbox. You don't initiate anything. It just arrives.

What you'll need:

  1. A Make account — sign up at make.com. Free tier gives you 1,000 operations/month, enough for ~250 briefs.

  2. A Claude API key — from console.anthropic.com. Top up with $5 of credit, which lasts ~500 briefs.

  3. Your Google account — the one holding the calendar you want monitored.

How to build it:

Getting your Claude API key (5 minutes)

  1. Go to console.anthropic.com and sign in.

  2. Click Settings (gear icon, bottom-left) → API Keys.

  3. Click Create Key. Name it "Make - Morning Brief". Copy the key immediately — you won't see it again. Paste it somewhere safe for now.

  4. Click Billing in the left nav → Add credits → add $5. This is a one-off top-up, not a subscription.

Step 1: Create the scenario in Make

  1. Log into Make. You'll land on the dashboard.

  2. Top-right, click the purple Create a new scenario button.

  3. You'll see a blank canvas with a big + in the middle. That's where you add your first module.

Step 2: Add the Google Calendar trigger

  1. Click the big + in the centre of the canvas.

  2. In the search box that appears, type Google Calendar.

  3. Select Google Calendar from the results.

  4. A list of triggers appears. Choose Watch Events. Note: "Watch Events" fires when a new event is created. There's also "Watch Events by Update Time" — don't use that one, it re-fires every time an event is edited.

  5. Create a connection:

    • Click Add next to the Connection dropdown.

    • A popup asks you to sign in to Google. Sign in with the account holding your calendar.

    • Google asks you to grant Make permission to read your calendar. Click Allow.

    • The popup closes and you're back in the module config.

  6. Configure the trigger:

    • Calendar: select your primary calendar (usually your email address).

    • Watch events: choose By created date — this catches newly booked meetings.

    • Limit: 10 (how many events to process per run).

  7. Click OK.

  8. A dialog asks "Where do you want to start?" — choose From now on. This means Make only processes meetings booked after this moment.

  9. Bottom of the screen, click the clock icon next to the scenario name to set the schedule. Set Run scenario to Every 15 minutes. Save.

You should now see a single purple Google Calendar module on the canvas with a small clock icon, meaning it's scheduled.

Step 3: Filter for external meetings only

You don't want briefs for internal team meetings. Add a filter.

  1. Click the small + that appears when you hover on the right side of the Google Calendar module — this adds a connected next module.

  2. Search for and select Tools → Set multiple variables. Actually, let me correct myself — we'll handle filtering differently. Instead of a Tools module, we'll add a filter on the connection line itself. Delete the Tools module if you added it.

  3. Hover over the line connecting the Google Calendar module to where the next module will go. A wrench iconappears on the line. Click it.

  4. Select Set up a filter.

  5. Configure:

    • Label: External attendees only

    • Condition:

      • Left field: click it, then from the variable picker select Attendees[]: Email from the Google Calendar module.

      • Operator: Text operators → Does not contain

      • Right field: type your own company's email domain, e.g. @yourcompany.com

  6. Click AND to add a second condition:

    • Left field: Attendees[] (the whole array)

    • Operator: Basic operators → Exists

    • This ensures the meeting has attendees at all.

  7. Click Save.

The connection line now shows a funnel icon — meetings without external attendees will be silently skipped.

Step 4: Extract the external attendee's details

We need to pull out the first non-internal attendee's email and derive their company domain.

  1. After the filter, add another module by clicking the + icon.

  2. Search for Tools → select Set multiple variables.

  3. Add three variables: Variable 1:

    • Name: attendee_email

    • Value: click into the field, then use the variable picker. We want the first attendee whose email doesn't contain your domain. Use this formula (paste into the value field):

     {{get(map(1.attendees; "email"; "email"; "not_contain"; "@yourcompany.com"); 1)}}
 Replace `@yourcompany.com` with your actual domain. `1.` refers to module 1 (Google Calendar).

Variable 2:

  • Name: attendee_name

  • Value:

     {{get(map(1.attendees; "displayName"; "email"; "not_contain"; "@yourcompany.com"); 1)}}

Variable 3:

  • Name: company_domain

  • Value:

     {{split(get(map(1.attendees; "email"; "email"; "not_contain"; "@yourcompany.com"); 1); "@")[2]}}
 This splits the email at `@` and grabs the domain.

4. Click OK.

If those formulas feel intimidating, here's the plain-English version of what each does: find the first attendee whose email isn't from your company, then grab their email / name / domain respectively.

Step 5: Send the details to Claude

  1. Add another module with +.

  2. Search for Anthropic Claude.

  3. Select Anthropic Claude → Create a Message Completion (Chat). If Anthropic isn't in the list, use the generic HTTP module instead — I'll cover the HTTP fallback at the end.

  4. Create a connection:

    • Click Add next to Connection.

    • Connection name: Claude API - Morning Brief

    • API Key: paste the key you saved from console.anthropic.com.

    • Click Save.

  5. Configure the module:

    • Model: claude-opus-4-7 (or claude-sonnet-4-6 for cheaper/faster briefs)

    • Max Tokens: 2000

    • Messages:

      • Click Add item.

      • Role: user

      • Content: paste the master prompt below, replacing the three placeholders with variables from the previous Set Variables module (click the field, then pick from the variable list):

Step 6: Send the brief to Gmail

  1. Add another + module.

  2. Search for Gmail → Send an Email.

  3. Create a connection (same pattern as before — sign in, allow permissions).

  4. Configure:

    • To: your own email address.

    • Subject:

     Your brief for {{attendee_name}} at {{company_domain}}, {{formatDate(1.start.dateTime; "DD MMM HH:mm")}}

  • Content Type: HTML

  • Content: pull in the output from the Claude module. The variable will be labelled something like Content[].Textfrom the Anthropic module. Wrap it in a simple HTML structure:

html

     <div style="font-family: -apple-system, sans-serif; max-width: 600px; line-height: 1.6;">
     {{replace(5.content[].text; newline; "<br>")}}
     </div>
 (`5.` refers to the Claude module — adjust if yours is numbered differently.)

5. Click OK.

Step 7: Schedule it for 30 minutes before the meeting

The trigger runs every 15 minutes, but the email should land 30 minutes before the meeting, not immediately.

Two ways to handle this:

Option A (simpler): Send the brief immediately when the meeting is booked. You get the brief when it's booked, not when it's imminent. Fine for most people.

Option B (the promised version): Use Make's Sleep module or scheduling.

For Option B:

  1. Between the Claude module and the Gmail module, add a Tools → Sleep module.

  2. Delay (seconds):

   {{max(0; (1.start.dateTime - now) / 1000 - 1800)}}

This calculates seconds until 30 minutes before the meeting. 1800 = 30 minutes in seconds.

Caveat: Make's free tier caps scenario runs at 40 minutes. If a meeting is booked more than 40 min in advance, Sleep won't work. For reliable scheduling, use Make's Scheduled scenarios feature instead — create a second scenario that runs every 15 min, queries Google Calendar for meetings starting in the next 30-45 minutes, and fires the brief then. Happy to walk through that version if you want it.

Step 8: Test it

  1. Bottom-left, click Run once.

  2. Add a test external meeting to your Google Calendar 1 hour from now, with an attendee outside your company domain.

  3. Wait up to 15 minutes (or re-run the scenario manually).

  4. Check your inbox.

If something fails, Make shows a red X on the broken module. Click it to see the error — 90% of the time it's a variable reference pointing at the wrong module number.

Step 9: Turn it on

Bottom-left, toggle the scenario from OFF to ON. It'll now run every 15 minutes forever.

🧑‍🍳 PAIRS WELL WITH

Recipe No. 2: The Daily Digest. Build your general market intelligence each morning so your Claude brief lands on a foundation you already have. You'll spot the relevant details faster.

Recipe No. 3: The Follow-Up Garnish. Close the loop before the momentum fades. The natural next step after every meeting this recipe prepares you for.

Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways we can help you:

1. Partnerships

We have a growing audience of 45,000+ Investors, Business Owners and Executives across Energy and Natural Resources and ClimateTech. Apply to feature your business in front of our readers.

📩 Written by Ollie. Feel free to send us deals, announcements, or anything else using the link below or via LinkedIn.

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