Set Up Your Cold Email System

What you are building

Two things, and the order matters.

A second brain. One folder on your computer holding everything about your business: what you sell, who you sell it to, your offer, your proof, your clients, and what you did yesterday. Claude reads this folder every time you open it. You explain your business once instead of at the start of every chat.

Five plugins. The cold email machine that runs on top of that context. Domains and inboxes, finding prospects, cleaning lists, writing copy, and running campaigns.

The second brain comes first because the plugins are close to useless without it. A script writer that does not know your offer writes generic emails, and generic emails book nothing.

Make a folder · Install Claude Code · Install the first plugin ↓ Second brain built by answering questions (~30 min) ↓ Five plugins installed ↓ Connect your tools · First campaign

Before you start

Three things worth having ready. None of them block you, but having them saves a lot of stopping and starting.

What	Why
A Claude subscription	Claude Code needs a paid plan. Pro works. Max is better if you run this daily.
Your customer results	A company name and a real number for each. This is the most important input in the whole system. Cold email works on proof.
Your website URL	Optional. Claude reads it and fills in half the questions for you.

About the proof. If you cannot name even one customer and what changed for them, get that first. One is enough to start. Three is what makes the copy good, so add the others as you go.

A cold email that says "we help businesses grow" gets deleted. One that says "we cut Northfield's missed calls from 40% to under 5%" gets a reply. You cannot write the second one without the raw material.

You do not need any of these yet: sending domains, inboxes, API keys, a sending platform, or a prospect list. The system helps you get all of them.

Make your folder

Make one new, empty folder. This becomes your second brain and it is where everything lives from now on.

On a Mac: open Finder, click Documents in the sidebar, then File › New Folder. Name it my-outbound.

On Windows: open File Explorer, click Documents, right-click the empty space, choose New › Folder. Name it my-outbound.

It must be empty. Do not use your Documents folder itself, your desktop, or a folder that already has other work in it. Claude will create files here and you want them separate from everything else.

Install Claude Code and open your folder

Claude Code is Claude that can read and write files on your computer. It comes as a desktop app.

Go to claude.com/download and install it. Mac and Windows both work.
Open it and sign in with the same account as your Claude subscription.
It asks which folder you want to work in. Click the folder picker, find Documents, click my-outbound once, and click Open.
The folder name should now show at the top of the window. That is how you know it worked.

Claude Code also runs in the terminal and in the browser. This guide uses the desktop app because it is the easiest to start with. Everything here works the same in all three.

Install the first plugin

Two lines. You type these yourself, into the Claude chat box at the bottom of the window, the same place you type messages. Claude cannot type them for you, because these are app commands rather than questions.

Type this and press enter:

/plugin marketplace add leadarc-io/leadarc-outbound-os

Wait for it to finish, then type this:

/plugin install second-brain@leadarc

Now quit Claude Code, reopen it, and select the same folder again. New commands need a restart before they appear. This is the single most common thing people get stuck on, and the fix is always the same.

Then paste this into the chat and send it:

Run /second-brain-start and walk me through it.

Ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer. Do not skip questions.
I am not technical, so explain anything that is not obvious in plain words.
When it is finished, tell me what to install next.

Build your second brain

This is the long part and it is a conversation. Most of the 30 minutes goes here. Claude asks one question at a time. Answer honestly and in your own words. If you do not know an answer, say so, and it picks a sensible default and moves on.

It works through eight stages, which it announces as it goes:

Stage	Name	What happens
`A`	Check the folder	Confirms it is building in the right place.
`B`	Name the business	Asks whether you run cold email for yourself or for clients. That decides the shape.
`C`	Build the folders	Creates the structure. Takes seconds.
`D`	Write the house rules	Asks how you want Claude to write to you and what it must never do without asking.
`E`	The business interview	The important one. About 20 questions on what you sell, who buys it, and your proof.
`F`	Add your first client	Your own business if you sell for yourself. A real client if you run an agency.
`G`	History and logs	Turns on git if you have it, so you can go back to any earlier version of a file. If git is not installed, setup carries on without it.
`H`	Tools, then hand off	Offers to connect your API keys, then tells you to install the five pillars. You do not need any keys yet, so say you have none and it moves on.

Two shortcuts that save you 20 minutes

When it reaches stage E, the business interview, offer these before it starts asking:

Give it your website. "My site is example.com, read it first." It pulls out your service and positioning and then only asks what it could not find.
Drop in a file. A case study, a sales deck, an old proposal. Any of them fill in large parts of the profile automatically.

What you end up with

my-outbound/
├── CLAUDE.md            the house rules, read every session
├── _paths.md            where everything lives
├── _clients.md          who you run campaigns for
├── business-profile.md   your offer, ICP and proof
├── Clients/              one folder each: profile, log, tasks
├── Daily/                what you did, day by day
├── Operations/          settings and reports
└── Library/              copy that worked, and what you learned

Open CLAUDE.md and read it. Two minutes well spent. It is the file that governs every future session, and you can edit it in any text editor whenever you want.

Install the five pillars

Type this into the Claude chat box, the same place you type messages.

/plugin install infrastructure@leadarc email-scraping@leadarc list-building@leadarc script-writing@leadarc campaigns@leadarc

If that errors, install them one at a time, in this order:

/plugin install infrastructure@leadarc
/plugin install email-scraping@leadarc
/plugin install list-building@leadarc
/plugin install script-writing@leadarc
/plugin install campaigns@leadarc

Then quit Claude Code, reopen it, and select the same folder again. These five plugins add eleven new commands and they will not appear until you restart.

They are separate so you can see what each part does, and so the course has one video per pillar. All five read the second brain you just built.

#	Pillar	What it does
`1`	infrastructure	Sending domains, mailbox names, how many inboxes you need, warm-up, and swapping out burned domains.
`2`	email-scraping	Scrapes businesses off Google Maps, builds your LinkedIn and Sales Navigator searches for you to export, then finds and verifies the email addresses.
`3`	list-building	Turns raw contacts into a clean list. Removes anyone you already emailed, scores them against your ICP, verifies addresses, and stores everything so you never buy the same data twice.
`4`	script-writing	Builds your offer, then writes the emails using eight proven frameworks and a library of scripts that won real campaigns across 11 industries.
`5`	campaigns	Builds the campaign on your sending platform, checks it, launches it on your word, and gives you a 13-point health check every morning.

Connect your tools

The second brain walkthrough already offered you this at the end. If you skipped it, or you have new keys now, run it again:

/connect-tools

Nothing here is required today. Set up what you already have and come back for the rest.

Tool	What it unlocks	Priority
Sending platform EmailBison, Smartlead or Instantly	Sends the emails and holds your inboxes and campaigns.	First
Email verifier MillionVerifier or Bouncer	Checks addresses are real before you send, so you do not bounce.	Second
DataForSEO	The Google Maps scraper. About one cent per 1,000 usable businesses on the default setting.	When you need it
Prospect search Prospeo, Apollo or similar	Finds people by job title and company filters.	When you need it
Catch-all verifier	Recovers addresses on domains that accept every email.	Optional

The sending platform is the one thing here you have to pay for, roughly $30 to $100 a month depending on volume. If you have not picked one, any of the three works with this system. Pick later, the setup does not need it.

Cloudflare R2 is separate, and you set it up with /prospect-database rather than /connect-tools. It stores every contact you ever source so you never buy the same data twice. The free tier covers 10 GB, which is roughly 50 million contacts. Cloudflare asks for a card even on the free tier.

The one security rule: your API keys never go inside your second brain folder.

They go in a settings file that lives outside it. Claude handles this for you. One day you will share this folder, back it up, or put it on GitHub. Your keys should not travel with it. If you ever paste a key straight into the chat, tell Claude, and change that key in the tool afterwards.

Your first real job

Get your domain and inbox order placed first:

/plan-infrastructure

Then run the full walkthrough. It asks what you are selling and to whom, then takes you from nothing to a campaign that is ready to send.

/outbound-start

Order your domains today. This is the one thing that will cost you six weeks if you skip it.

A new sending inbox needs about six weeks before it can send at full speed: two weeks of warm-up mail only, then four weeks of raising the daily volume one step a week. That is real calendar time and nothing makes it faster. Everything else in this system can happen while it runs. Most people leave infrastructure until last. Then the campaign is ready and there is no inbox to send it from.

Every command, in one place

All of these go in the Claude chat box, the same place you type messages.

Command	What it does
Second brain
`/second-brain-start`	Builds the second brain from scratch. You run this once.
`/brain-status`	Shows what is set up and what is still missing.
`/add-client`	Adds a new client folder.
`/connect-tools`	Connects your tools and stores the keys safely.
`/log`	Ends a work session. Writes down what you did and why.
Infrastructure
`/plan-infrastructure`	Works out how many domains and inboxes you need, and what it costs.
`/get-domains`	Generates sending domains that do not trip spam filters.
Finding prospects
`/scrape-maps`	Pulls businesses off Google Maps by trade and location.
`/find-emails`	Finds and verifies email addresses for a list of people.
`/build-list`	Turns raw contacts into a campaign-ready list.
`/prospect-database`	Sets up and queries your own contact database.
Writing
`/build-offer`	Builds the offer. Always do this before writing any copy.
`/write-copy`	Writes the email variants.
Running it
`/outbound-start`	The guided walkthrough from nothing to a ready campaign.
`/build-campaign`	Builds the campaign and leaves it in draft.
`/diagnose`	The 13-point morning health check.

When something goes wrong

What you see	What to do
A slash command does nothing, or Claude says it does not know it	Quit Claude Code, reopen it, select the same folder. New commands need a restart. This is the most common problem by far.
Claude says it cannot run a slash command for you	That is correct, it cannot. Slash commands are app commands, so you type them yourself into the chat box.
The marketplace command fails	Check you are online and that you copied the whole line. Then paste the exact error into the chat and Claude will read it.
Claude created files in the wrong place	Tell it. It moves them. Nothing is lost.
You lost track of where you are	Run `/brain-status`. It tells you what is done, what is missing, and the one thing to do next.
Your emails come out generic	Your business profile is thin. Open `business-profile.md` and look for `[TBD]` markers, which is what the system writes wherever you skipped a question. The proof section is the one that matters.
A key is not working	Run `/connect-tools` again. It tests each one and tells you which failed. Keys are long and easy to cut short when copying.
Something else	Describe it in the chat in plain words. Claude can read its own files and usually finds the problem faster than you will.

How to work with this day to day

Three habits. All of them small, all of them compound.

1. Start where you left off. Open Claude Code in your folder and it reads yesterday's notes on its own. You do not need to re-explain anything. Just say what you want.

2. End with /log. It writes down what you did, what you decided, and why. This is what makes the system remember. Two weeks later you will not recall why you paused a campaign. The log will.

3. Run /diagnose every morning once you are sending. Thirteen checks across every campaign, telling you what is broken and what is ready to grow. It reports the numbers and leaves the decisions to you.

What it will never do without asking

These are written into your house rules during setup, and they are there because each one can cost you real money or a real relationship.

Send an email to a real person. It drafts, shows you, and waits.
Spend money. Data pulls, verification credits, domains. It shows the cost first and waits for a yes on anything over a dollar.
Launch a campaign. It builds it, checks it, and leaves it in draft.

Read the copy before it sends. The system writes good emails and it still gets things wrong. Read every variant on your phone before you launch, because that is where your prospects will read it. You will catch things on a phone screen that you never notice on a laptop.

What comes next

You now have the second brain and all five pillars installed. The rest of the course walks the same pillars on real work.

Video	Covers
`2`	Infrastructure. Domains, inboxes, the warm-up clock, and the caps you must never raise: 20 a day per Google inbox, 5 a day per Outlook inbox. You scale by adding inboxes.
`3`	Finding people and building the list. The Maps scraper, the email guesser, then exclusion, scoring, verification and your own database.
`4`	Offer and copy. The eight frameworks and how to mix them so your test teaches you something.
`5`	Build and launch. The four-way split, the checks, the phone test, and the first 48 hours.
`6`	Run it daily. The 13 checks, and what to do with what they find.

Do not wait for the other videos to start. Run /plan-infrastructure today and get your domains ordered. The warm-up clock is the only part of this you cannot speed up, and every week you wait is a week you are not sending.

Start at step 1 →