EXPRESSIVEAUDIO VISUAL

For Irvin, Vanessa and the Expressive AV team

Something that drafts your emails for you.

The idea is simple. It reads the emails coming at you from venues, vendors, and labor, and writes the reply back in your voice, so you just approve or tweak it instead of writing every one from scratch. It never sends anything on its own. You always have the final say.

This has two parts. First, a handful of quick answers that get your brand new site live, it is built and just waiting on you. Then a bit more so the email tool can learn to sound like you. Every question tells you why we are asking, and you do not need to know anything technical. Just answer as the person who runs the shows.

⏱ The first part takes about 2 minutes and gets your site live. The rest you can do whenever you have time. Short answers are fine, and skip anything that does not apply.

The single most valuable thing you can give us is your real emails and your real numbers. Not a description of them, the actual back and forth. That is the part no tool can invent, and it is what makes this sound like you instead of a robot.
First
Section 1 • First, let's get your new site live Your new site is built and ready. These few answers are all that stands between it and going up.
Take a look at your new site ↗

Opens in a new tab, your answers here stay put.

Your site • where messages land
Why we're asking: Right now the contact form points at a placeholder inbox. This is the address that gets every lead from the site, so it needs to be one you actually watch. On the spam worry: your new form has a hidden bot-trap and real spam filtering built in, with no annoying captcha for real people. That is the whole point, you get to be reachable again without the flood of junk you were getting before.
Your site • your phone
Why we're asking: You kept your number off the old site because of spam, and that is fair. The new form and number are protected, so just confirm this is the line you want public, or give me the right one. If you would rather keep it off entirely, say so.
Your site • your story
Why we're asking: The "about us" part is generic right now, no name, no story. This is the single thing that makes a stranger trust you over a big faceless AV company. A few honest sentences is all we need, we will shape the wording.
Your site • your hours
Why we're asking: The site shows placeholder hours right now (open every day, 8 to 8). Give me the real ones so the site and your Google listing are accurate.
Your site • a chat assistant (optional)
Why we're asking: This is the real answer to the spam problem. Instead of leaving a raw inbox out for bots to harvest, a chat assistant on your site and on WhatsApp answers the common questions instantly, day or night, and hands you the real leads. Customers get help fast, you get far less junk. We can set it up if you want it.
Section 2 • The email assistant Now the tool that drafts your replies. A few quick ones before it can start.
Question 1 • Read this one carefully
Why we're asking: To draft a reply, the tool sends the email off to be read by an outside service (the same kind of AI that powers this). For most vendor and venue emails that is no different from using Gmail. But some corporate or pharma clients put confidentiality terms in their contracts about where their information is handled. We need to know before a single one of your emails moves anywhere. If the answer is yes or maybe, we simply leave those clients out and only work from the rest.
If you are unsure, pick the last one. We would rather wait than guess.
Question 2 • Your email
Why we're asking: How the tool reads your inbox depends entirely on whether you are on Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or something else, and on who has the admin login (you, an assistant, an IT person). This decides how we connect it later.
Who has the admin login for it?
Question 3 • Volume
Why we're asking: This tells us how much time it can actually save you and where the pressure really is. A rough number is perfect, no need to count.
Threads in a normal week
Threads in a week when a show is loading in
Shows in a year

✉ The important part: send us your real emails

No rush on this one, it can wait until after the event. It is the one thing a form cannot capture, and it matters more than every question here combined. Only do this if you answered "no restrictions" or after you have checked.

  1. Pick 30 to 50 complete threads, the full back and forth including your own replies, not single messages.
  2. Try to spread them across: venue quotes, union labor, AV subrentals, freight and drayage, client production requests, crew.
  3. Throw in a few where you had to push back hard, and a couple that went sideways. Those teach it the most.
  4. Drop them in a Google Drive or Dropbox folder and paste the share link below, or just reply to the message this link came in and attach them.

No link handy? That is fine, we will sort out the easiest way to get them over.

Section 3 • What makes it you This is what turns it from a writer into a negotiator that sounds like you.
Question 4 • The gold
Why we're asking: This is the single highest value thing you own. Real numbers, union labor, room rental, power drops, rigging, drayage, by city and venue. It is what lets the tool anchor a reply on a real figure instead of guessing. Messy and incomplete is completely fine. A spreadsheet, an invoice folder, an old quote archive, anything.
Or describe what you have and where it is
Question 5 • Your red lines
Why we're asking: This is the difference between a reply that sounds nice and one that actually protects you. What is the thing you refuse every time? What do you concede without a fight because it is not worth it? At what point do you walk away from a venue or vendor? This mostly lives in your head, so say it plainly.
Easier to talk than type? Record a voice memo on your phone and send it with your emails. That works just as well.
Question 6 • Who you deal with
Why we're asking: You write to a warm, long time vendor very differently than a one off. Telling us who is a real relationship versus who is purely transactional lets the tool match your tone to each one instead of treating everyone the same.
Question 7 • The union map
Why we're asking: This is knowledge that is not written down in any public place and it is expensive to learn the hard way. Which cities are strong union, which locals, what work rules quietly run up your bill. It makes the tool genuinely useful the moment a job lands in a hard city.
Question 8 • Good and bad examples
Why we're asking: Showing the tool three replies you nailed and three that went too soft or too hard teaches your voice faster than any description. If they are in the threads you send, just name them here.
Question 9 • Your voice
Why we're asking: Are you short and direct, or warm and relationship first? Do you open with small talk or get straight to it? How do you sign off? A few honest lines here and we shape the rest.
Section 4 • The bigger picture Three last ones. The first is the most important question here.
Question 10 • Answer this cold
Why we're asking: Do not overthink it, do not try to give the right answer. If drafting these emails is not near the top of your list, then we are building the wrong thing first, and we would much rather find that out now. So tell us straight.
Question 11 • Your tools
Why we're asking: Quoting, crew, gear tracking, invoicing, calendar. Knowing what you really use, versus what you signed up for and never touch, tells us what this could plug into down the road.
Question 12 • Anything else
Why we're asking: You know this work and the people in it better than we ever will. Anything you wish this did, anything nagging you, anything we clearly missed. Put it here, nothing is too small.

Your answers come straight to Rigo. Take your time, there are no wrong answers.

Got it. Thank you, Irvin and Vanessa.

Your answers are in. I'll use these to put your new site live and start setting up the email helper. When you get a minute, sending over a few real email threads is the last piece that makes it sound like you.

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