I Almost Lost Everything I Built in Claude

This morning I tried to log into Claude and got an error message.

Did I lose access. Was my account blocked?

My stomach dropped.

Over the past year, I've built an entire knowledge base inside Claude. SOPs. Processes. Strategic documents. Prompts I've refined over dozens of iterations. Conversations that shaped how we run Foresight Insurance.

And for about two hours, I thought it was all gone.

Turns out it was just an issue on Claude's end. Everything came back. But that scare reminded me of something I should have taken more seriously a long time ago:

These AI tools are not your database.

Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, they're incredible for thinking, creating, and problem-solving. But they're someone else's platform. Which means:

Accounts get suspended (sometimes by mistake)
Companies change their terms
Conversations disappear
Features get removed
Servers go down

If your business depends on what lives inside these tools, you're one login error away from a very bad day.

The fix is simple but easy to ignore:

Save your work somewhere you control. SharePoint. Google Drive. Notion. A local folder. Whatever works for your workflow.

Every time you build something valuable in an AI conversation, a framework, an SOP document, a prompt that finally works, export it. Copy it. Store it outside the platform.

Treat these AI tools like a collaborator, not a filing cabinet.

Today was my reminder. Hopefully this is yours before you need one.

In case you missed it:

Speaking of keeping your business organized, I recently did a webinar with Virtual Intelligence on how to transform your Microsoft 365 setup from scattered to streamlined. If you're paying for these tools but only using a fraction of what they offer, this one's worth your time.

👉 From Scattered to Streamlined Microsoft 365 Setup for Agencies