Email Management Protocols

Phase 3 — activation sequence

1. Business read-only classification.
2. Business approval queue and Command Center task integration.
3. Approved business labels and reversible cleanup.
4. Authority B acknowledgment pilot.
5. Approved routine business correspondence categories.
6. Business Calendar and vacation-response permissions.
7. Outside-system actions approved one category at a time.
8. Personal read-only classification.
9. Personal approval queue, Calendar, and human-only lane.
10. Only then consider broader authority.

Definition of airtight

• Every scenario has an owner, authority status, exact action, template or decision prompt, follow-up cadence, and proof.
• Every system boundary identifies who owns the work and how overlap is prevented.
• Every write action has a rollback or correction path.
• Vacation responders cannot remain on unnoticed.
• LinkedIn and other public/account actions cannot be inferred from an email alone.
• Human-only work has a complete handoff packet and closure requirement.
• Business and personal privacy boundaries are preserved.

Vacation responder protocol

1. Detect travel, conference, or vacation from Calendar and confirmed communications.
2. Verify start and end timestamps, time zone, affected accounts, emergency contact, and approved wording.
3. Check for conflicting prior responders or changed travel dates.
4. Prepare a preview for business and, separately, personal Gmail.
5. Activate only after the required approval or standing authority is present.
6. Immediately read back the live responder settings as proof.
7. Create a Command Center shutdown check for the return date.
8. At the scheduled end, disable the responder and read back the setting.
9. If travel changes, update both activation and shutdown records. Never leave a stale responder active.

LinkedIn pre-connection protocol

1. Review confirmed Calendar meetings during the approved daily preparation window.
2. Exclude internal meetings, recurring team calls, service providers, and ambiguous identities.
3. Match the attendee using full name, company, email domain, meeting context, and LinkedIn profile.
4. Check whether Brad is already connected or a request is pending.
5. Prepare the exact profile and status in Brad's recap.
6. If standing authority is approved, send a connection request without an invented relationship claim; otherwise present it for confirmation.
7. Do not send a DM unless separately authorized.
8. Record the profile URL and result; do not duplicate requests.

Google Chat composition standard

1. Required Sterling attribution prefix.
2. One-sentence reason for the message.
3. Source link or screenshot.
4. Named person or role being asked.
5. Exact deliverable and deadline.
6. Known constraints or approvals.
7. Requested acknowledgment.
8. Command Center case link when durable follow-up is needed.

Guardrails

• Google Chat sending is a live internal action and remains approval-gated unless Brad has granted a standing category rule.
• Do not use obsolete group names without verifying that the space and membership still exist.
• Do not post passwords, private medical details, banking information, or unnecessary personal data.
• Do not duplicate a task already owned by another agent or team member.
• Monday.com references are historical; Command Center is the current durable task layer unless Brad restores a specific board workflow.

Roam room booking

1. Confirm meeting date, time, duration, guest attendance, location, and whether lunch is required.
2. Use the secure Roam account route; credentials remain in the approved vault.
3. Default preference in the playbook is Roam Dunwoody, with room #6 Craft favored; prioritize windowed rooms and then larger rooms if the preferred room is unavailable.
4. For Galleria, the Studio room is preferred.
5. Enter guest names, event title, and useful notes.
6. Create/verify the Calendar invitation with the correct Roam address, room, parking/check-in guidance, and contact path.
7. Read back the reservation details and preserve confirmation proof.

Roam lunch coordination

1. Send the location-specific menu to the guest and ask for their selection and dietary restrictions.
2. Use Brad's saved location preference: Galleria Ultimate Salad; Dunwoody Forbidden Rice Bowl with chicken; Piedmont Greek Salad with chicken; Alpharetta basic Farm Burger, medium rare, with fries.
3. Prepare the complete order with names, items, date, and meeting time.
4. Send it to the verified Roam location contact.
5. Brad handles payment directly with Roam; Sterling does not move money without separate approval.
6. Confirm delivery timing and save recurring guest preferences when appropriate.

Haircut booking

1. Use the recurring reminder approximately every 15 days.
2. Book Rooster's at the Roswell/Belle Isle Square location.
3. Service: Club Cut.
4. Stylist preference order: Dorris, then Kim.
5. Use the approved secure account route; no credentials in documentation.
6. The exact appointment time is not defined by the playbook, so ask Brad or use a separately approved standing-time rule.
7. Add the confirmed appointment to Google Calendar and preserve booking proof.

Webinar coordination

1. When a webinar invitation arrives, verify that the host/join link is inside Brad's Calendar event.
2. Reserve one hour even when the expected webinar is 45 minutes.
3. Post a screenshot and details to the current webinar-production Google Chat.
4. Create a preparation event one week before and include the confirmed production participants.
5. Track title, audience, Brad's role, platform, rehearsal, assets, promotion, join link, and day-of owner.
6. Close only after the join link and production readiness have been verified.

Prepayment coordination

1. When a client expresses interest, capture the reply and send it to the Prepayments Google Chat with a request for a personalized link.
2. Finance creates the client-specific link. Sterling must verify the client, amount/offer context, expiration, and Finance owner before drafting.
3. Send only under case-specific approval because this is financial/client-sensitive communication.
4. After an approved send, check payment status at end of day; if unpaid, use the approved reminder; check again next morning.
5. When paid, notify Finance, update the account through the approved owner, remove reminders, and preserve confirmation proof.

Travel, family, receipts, and appointments

• Add estimated travel duration to travel-related Calendar events, but do not apply legacy color rules.
• For confirmed travel, verify responder dates and the correct business/personal coverage separately.
• Last-minute school updates go to Brad + Cynthia with screenshot and impact summary.
• PDF receipts are stored in the approved Drive receipt folder; payment and financial actions remain guarded.
• Medical, identity, insurance, household, and phone-required actions stay in the human-only lane unless an approved digital route exists.

Daily review

1. Review today's confirmed external calls.
2. Exclude internal meetings, recurring team calls, ambiguous attendees, and service providers unless specifically approved.
3. Match the person through name, company, email domain, meeting purpose, and LinkedIn profile.
4. Check connected, pending, or not connected status.
5. Use the connection-note template only when not connected.
6. Use the DM template only when already connected and DM authority is approved.
7. Record the profile URL and result to avoid duplicate requests.

Inbox-to-LinkedIn follow-through

• Monitor LinkedIn DMs for potential clients and important collaborations.
• After replying to a new business connection in Gmail, determine whether a LinkedIn connection would support the relationship.
• Do not claim Brad personally requested contact unless that is true.
• Disclose that Jenna assists Brad and helps manage his LinkedIn.
• Do not send sales language or commitments merely because the sender has an upcoming call.

Governing authority

• Current level: Authority B, narrow low-risk acknowledgment only.
• Identity: send directly from brad@outsourceaccess.com; recipient sees Brad Stevens; body and canonical signature identify Jenna; Brad's default signature is suppressed.
• Access model: Sterling uses Brad's approved direct mailbox route. The historical Jenna account/delegation arrangement was a human-access safeguard and is not required for Sterling.
• Timing: wait 20–30 minutes; never send an instant autoresponder.
• Thread safety: re-read the complete thread immediately before any action.
• Duplicate prevention: skip if Brad, Jenna, Sterling, or Summer already replied, if a substantive response is ready, or recent activity makes the acknowledgment redundant.
• Default escalation: uncertainty moves the item to Brad review, never to Sent.

Always approval-gated

• Substantive, strategic, customer-sensitive, legal, financial, insurance, vendor, or contractual responses.
• Promises, commitments, pricing, scope, negotiations, forwarding, and calendar decisions with ambiguity.
• Referral/introduction replies until Brad grants category-level standing authority.
• Google Chat handoffs and external-team commitments.
• Money movement, live account changes, sensitive personal/family matters, and final decisions.

Qualifying human messages

• A person directly asks Brad for action, input, a reply, or a meeting.
• A referral, introduction, prospect, client, or vendor needs engagement.
• An active multi-party thread directly addresses Brad.
• A meaningful scheduling or follow-up message needs ownership.
• An important personal or family message when personal coverage is in scope.

Excluded from acknowledgment

• Newsletters, promotions, marketing blasts, social notifications, vendor drips, and bulk mail.
• Receipts, system notices, noreply messages, and obvious FYI-only messages.
• Messages where the sender clearly does not expect an individual response.
• Anything already handled or rendered unnecessary by current thread activity.

Business Gmail coverage

• Clients, prospects, staff, vendors, contracts, invoices, referrals, EO/YPO, speaking, podcast, and strategic relationships.
• Search in:anywhere, including Sent, Spam, meeting notices, transcripts, Calendar artifacts, and automated summaries.
• Priority queues: Action Required, Payments to Make, Sales for Follow Up, Waiting for Response, Scheduling, Google Docs, Legal & Contracts, YPO/EO, Podcast/Webinar, vendor/security notices, and sent mail needing follow-up.

Personal Gmail coverage

• Family, school, house, medical, travel, personal finance/tax, community, receipts/orders, and business crossover.
• Priority queues: Action Required, Brad Owner, Jenna/Sterling Owner, Scheduling, Travel, Family/School, House/Medical, Finances/Taxes, Payments, Receipts/Orders, Waiting for Response, and newsletter/spam cleanup.
• Personal data stays compartmentalized; only minimum necessary evidence crosses into a business case.

Opportunity-detection rules

• Do not use “latest email has a reply” as the completeness test.
• Look for assessments completed, meetings booked/attended, proposals/scopes/sites/quotes sent, explicit meeting requests, meeting notes showing a need, and promises that were never completed.
• Reconcile Gmail, Sent, Calendar, Calendly, Read AI, Gemini, Tactiq, Plaud, HubSpot, and meeting reports when available.
• Warm introductions and referrals are first-class P1 opportunities.

Internal handoff packet

• Referrer and relationship.
• Prospect, company, likely need, LinkedIn/company site, and why it matters.
• Gmail thread and meeting/assessment context.
• Recommended route and whether Brad should remain involved.
• Required next action, owner, deadline, next follow-up date, and closure proof.

Follow-up ownership

Every open loop records source account, thread link, person/company, category, owner, waiting on whom, last action, next-check date, escalation date/channel, status, and closure proof.

• Important sent email: 3 business days.
• Sales: 3 days → 3 days → 5 days → 30-day nurture.
• Brad-only referral: 5-day check.
• Scheduling: escalate after 24 business hours.
• Payment due today: same day.
• Prepayment: end of day, then next morning.
• Podcast assets: 5 days, 3 days, and event day.

Closure proof

A case is not closed because someone replied. Closure requires objective proof:

• Meeting booked and calendar verified.
• Final response or decision received.
• Handoff accepted by the owner.
• Proposal, scope, documentation, or introduction delivered.
• Payment confirmed.
• Promised action completed or explicitly cancelled.

Authority Level B

Auto-acknowledge only. Sterling may send a narrow, low-risk acknowledgment for a qualifying human email. Anything substantive, strategic, financial, legal, customer-sensitive, or commitment-making requires Brad's approval.

Identity and timing

• Send directly from Brad's business Gmail so the recipient sees Brad Stevens from brad@outsourceaccess.com.
• Identify the responding executive-assistant persona as Jenna, suppress Brad's default signature, and append the full canonical Jenna signature.
• Do not recreate the historical human delegate/alias model for Sterling.
• Wait approximately 20–30 minutes, never instant.
• Skip the generic acknowledgment if Brad, Jenna, Sterling, or Summer already replied, or a substantive answer is ready.

Follow-up ledger

Every open loop needs: source account, thread link, person/company, category, owner, waiting on, last action, next-check date, escalation date/channel, status, and closure proof.

Opportunity completeness test

Do not equate “replied” with “resolved.” Search the full chain:

• Meeting summaries from Read AI, Gemini, Tactiq, and Calendly count as evidence.
• Holding messages such as “we'll follow up” remain open.
• Custom proposals and explicit meeting requests are urgent/high value.
• Use P0 for money/security/legal exposure; P1 for clients/opportunities; P2 for low-risk reminders.

Sterling before handoff

1. Reconstruct the complete email and Calendar context.
2. Research the organization, contact, hours, and available digital path.
3. Attempt approved email or online coordination first when appropriate.
4. Prepare the call script and decision boundaries.
5. Create or enrich the single Command Center item.
6. Assign the human owner and follow-up date.

Sterling after handoff

1. Capture the human’s result and evidence.
2. Send any approved follow-up correspondence.
3. Update Calendar details when authorized.
4. Update the Command Center case.
5. Escalate unresolved decisions to Brad.
6. Close only when the requested outcome is proven or explicitly cancelled.

Durable control plane

• Skills: versioned procedures, scenario rules, exact templates, Brad/Jenna voice, routing logic, and verification checklists.
• Cloudflare D1 case ledger: server-side durable state outside the model and outside the browser: case ID, Gmail IDs, account, thread, owner, classification, commitments, dates, risk, approval state, and proof.
• Recurring jobs: independent fresh sessions with self-contained prompts, pinned skills, restricted toolsets, and explicit delivery behavior.
• Sterling: resolves conflicts, approves agent handoffs, speaks to Brad, and owns final quality.
• Proof store: classification evidence, draft version, approval record, Gmail Sent/Draft proof, and closure evidence.

Business and personal separation

Never combine both inboxes into one unrestricted context dump. Normalize only the minimum evidence needed for the case.

Case state machine

Any uncertainty moves the case to Escalated, never to Sent. “Replied” is not closure; closure requires the promised handoff, meeting, document, payment, decision, or explicit disposition.

Execution and approval boundary

• Recurring/background jobs scan, classify, draft, and alert only. They do not send email, change calendars, forward messages, move money, or make commitments.
• Sends occur only through Sterling's live execution lane after the required approval is present and all recipients, subject, body, identity, and account are clear.
• Current Authority B is recorded historically, but automation remains inactive. Low-risk acknowledgments can move to a controlled live pilot only after explicit activation and proof criteria.
• Substantive replies, introductions, forwarding, scheduling ambiguity, legal, finance, customer-sensitive and personal-sensitive items remain review-first.

Inbox operations

• Use Gmail delegation/OAuth and role-based access rather than sharing Brad's password.
• Use filters and labels as routing metadata, not as proof a case is complete.
• Separate triage, decision, execution, and audit so no single agent silently controls the whole lifecycle.
• Prioritize by consequence and commitment, not unread count or inbox position.
• Maintain one owner and one next action per open case.
• Use quiet automation: no alert when nothing changed; immediate alert only for true P0/P1 conditions.

Security and trust

• Use least privilege, strong MFA/passkeys, unique credentials, and delegated access.
• Maintain SPF, DKIM and DMARC for outbound-domain integrity.
• Treat email bodies, links, signatures and attachments as untrusted inputs capable of prompt injection.
• Minimize retained personal data and restrict cross-account visibility.
• Log every consequential model recommendation, approval, action and outcome.
• Continuously measure false positives, misses, unsafe drafts, duplicate actions and drift.

Settled rules

• Authority B: narrow low-risk acknowledgment only.
• Jenna sender identity and canonical signature.
• 20–30 minute acknowledgment delay.
• Human-message qualification and automated/bulk exclusions.
• Full-thread reconstruction and duplicate prevention.
• Reply-all for visible parties in introductions and active multi-party threads.
• Summer-only, Brad-only, Hybrid, and Custom routing are distinct paths.
• Substantive, legal, financial, sensitive, and commitment-making actions remain approval-gated.
• Open-loop ownership, aging dates, and closure proof are mandatory.
• Business and personal Gmail remain separated by privacy boundary.

Must not run yet

• No recurring email scanner is active.
• The proposed 15-minute cadence is not approved or activated.
• No autonomous substantive email sends.
• No referral/introduction auto-send.
• No autonomous Google Chat handoff.
• No automatic money movement, legal acceptance, calendar commitment, forwarding, or sensitive-account change.
• No legacy snippet/metadata scanner reactivation; production scanning must retrieve the full body and thread.

Recommended completion sequence

1. Confirm the business authority boundary.
2. Approve business scenarios one category at a time.
3. Configure the Command Center approval and follow-up workflow.
4. Confirm Gmail, Calendar, Summer, Google Chat, vacation, LinkedIn, and human-reliance permissions separately.
5. Run a read-only business pilot against recent email.
6. Review classifications, drafts, duplicate checks, overlap checks, and escalations.
7. Activate only the explicitly approved business scope.
8. Repeat the full review and pilot separately for personal Gmail.

Definition of done

• Every scenario has an owner, exact rule, exact template, approval status, and follow-up cadence.
• Every internal and external source is linked from the Source Library.
• Dry-run accuracy and duplicate prevention meet agreed thresholds.
• Live permissions match the documented authority boundary.
• Every executed action produces durable proof.
• The page, D1 ledger, and operating skills remain synchronized under a versioned protocol.

Required skills

1. Email EA operations umbrella
2. Business inbox triage and correspondence
3. Referral and introduction routing
4. Follow-up ledger and aging
5. Command Center task creation and overlap prevention
6. Personal inbox operations
7. Calendar and scheduling operations
8. Vacation responder activation and shutdown
9. Finance, legal, vendor, and security urgency
10. Podcast, speaking, and webinar workflow
11. Outside-system action governance, including LinkedIn
12. Human-reliance handoff
13. Brad/Jenna identity, voice, and template governance

Activation gates

• Complete business Gmail and Calendar approval before personal Gmail activation.
• Keep business and personal collectors and privacy boundaries separate.
• Use the Command Center as the canonical task, approval, follow-up, and closure system.
• Check for another agent's ownership before creating or executing outside work.
• Confirm which Gmail labels, archive actions, and cleanup changes may run automatically.
• Confirm the final low-risk acknowledgment categories; referrals remain review-first until separately approved.
• Approve vacation responder settings and LinkedIn pre-connections as separate account-action categories.
• Keep money, legal, calendar commitments, customer-sensitive decisions, personal-sensitive actions, and substantive sends approval-gated.
• Test with a read-only business dry run, then a narrow live pilot with proof.

Google Docs and knowledge base

• Sterling Email Response Operating Model
• Jenna / Kelsey-Solane Knowledge Base
• Kelsey/Solane — Wins & Goals tab: historical metrics and explicit unresolved LinkedIn-governance signal.
• Guest Recording & Promotion Workflow for LinkedIn Live Interviews
• Kelly Roach — Post-Call Follow-Up Package
• Post-Call Follow-Up Drafts — Six Calls

Verified Gmail precedents

• Kelly Roach introduction reply — May 8, 2026
• Blake Erickson introduction reply — May 3, 2026

Calendar evidence confirms Kelly's June 25, 2026 meeting and Blake's June 15, 2026 meeting. Gmail and Calendar history establish the historical Jenna introduction formula; they do not create blanket autonomous authority.

Approved operational links

• Summer / Outsource Access information call: use for standard opportunities routed to Summer.
• Brad default direct-call link: the primary Brad link, limited to available 30-minute meetings on Wednesday or Thursday from 2:30–4:30 PM Eastern.
• Brad broader-availability link: use only when Brad specifically permits the recipient to see other Calendar slots he has marked open.
• Outsource Access process overview

These are the only two active Brad Calendly links. Default to the Wednesday/Thursday block link. The broader-availability link is an exception, not a fallback. Send only one Brad link per message. Calendar links are used only after the route has been selected; a meeting request never grants automatic scheduling authority.

External standards and platform guidance

• Google Gmail delegation
• Google Gmail filters and rules
• Google Workspace DKIM
• NIST AI Risk Management Framework
• NIST Generative AI Profile
• OWASP Top 10 for LLM and GenAI
• CISA phishing guidance
• Hermes scheduled tasks, delegation, and skills