SherpaTech.AI · Voice AI live build · Wed Oct 7, 6 PM · AWS Skills Center

Build-Along Prep Sheet

On Wednesday I build an AI receptionist from an empty screen to a ringing phone number that books real appointments on a real calendar. If you want to build your own at the same time, do these four steps before you come. About 40 minutes and about $20. Step 3 is the one that takes the time; it's also the one that makes the whole thing work. If you'd rather watch and call the finished agent, bring your phone and skip all of this.

4accounts to set up

40 minon your own, before Wednesday

about $20total, most of it optional

1calendar connected to Retell before you arrive

A Google account for your practice business

5 min · free

You'll build the agent for a pretend business, so the room never sees your real calendar. A fresh Google account gives that business its own email and its own Google Calendar, which the booking tool needs.

Go to accounts.google.com and create a new account. Name it after your practice business, something like ridgelineplumbing.demo@gmail.com.
Open calendar.google.com once while signed in, so the calendar exists.
Stay signed in to this account in Chrome for the next two steps. It keeps everything in one place.

You can use your real Google account if you don't mind the calendar being visible on your own screen. Nobody else sees it.

Retell AI

10 min · $10 in credits, $5 for a number

Retell is where the agent lives. It handles the voice, the brain, and the phone line in one place, and you pay by the minute of talk time. Expect about 25 cents a minute for an everyday setup.

Go to retellai.com, Sign up, and use Continue with Google with the account from step 1.
Open Billing, add a card, and buy $10 of credits. Leave auto recharge off. Two reasons: the $10 is your spending cap (when it's gone, the line stops answering and nothing else gets charged), and Conductor, the assistant we build with, only runs in an account with a card on file.
Optional but recommended: Phone Numbers, then +, then Buy a number. Pick a local US number. About $5 a month, cancel any time. Without a number you can still test the agent through your laptop.
Look for the Conductor box on the Home page. That's the assistant that builds agents from a description. We'll use it in the room. Don't ask it to build anything yet.

Don't build the agent ahead of time. The empty workspace is the point. Watching it go from nothing to a phone that answers is the whole lesson.

Cal.com, and plug it into Retell

20 min · free · the one that matters

This is the calendar the agent books into. It checks real availability while the caller is on the line and sends the confirmation email. The free plan does everything we need. The last two steps connect it to Retell. Do them at home: in the room, connecting the calendar is the part I'll say "took me ten minutes to two hours," and I'm not joking. With it done, you add two functions on Wednesday and your agent books for real.

Go to cal.com, Sign up, Continue with Google, same account as step 1. Pick a username that matches your business. Time zone: America/New York.
When it offers to connect Google Calendar, say yes. If you skipped it, it's under Apps, Calendar.
Make one event type: Event Types, + New, name it Intro call, 15 minutes. Save. Open its Limits tab and make sure "Limit future bookings" is off and "requires confirmation" is off. Under Availability, give it a few hours on a few weekdays. Empty availability means the agent finds nothing to offer.
Open that event type and copy the number at the end of the web address, like app.cal.com/event-types/1234567. Write it in the worksheet below.
Make an API key. Settings, Developer, API keys, + Add. Name it Retell, no expiry. Copy it right away. Cal.com shows it once.
Connect it to Retell. In Retell, open any agent (make a throwaway one if the list is empty: Agents, Create, single prompt, any name). Scroll the right panel to Functions, + Add, Add integration, Cal.com, paste the API key, save. From now on "Cal.com - API key" shows under Connected Integrations on every agent in your account.
Prove it. Same menu, Connected Integrations, Cal.com, Check Availability. Name it test, event_type_id = your ID, timezone = America/New_York (click the T next to the field, choose Value, paste). Click Run a test. If it returns open times, you're done; delete the test function and the throwaway agent. If it errors, screenshot it and email me; that's exactly the kind of thing I'll fix in the room.

If you lose the key before you paste it, make a new one. It takes a minute.

Bring these

5 min · free

A laptop with Chrome, signed in to Retell and Cal.com. A tablet won't cut it for this one.
Earbuds or headphones with a mic. You'll be testing your agent by talking to it, and the room will be loud.
Your phone, charged, to call your own agent and mine.
Your Cal.com event type ID from step 3, written down. You'll type it into two functions on Wednesday.
The brief below, filled in. On Wednesday you hand your answers to Conductor along with the house rules I've tuned, and it writes your agent's prompt. No brief, no custom agent.

✎

Brief your receptionist

15 min · the part that matters most

On Wednesday I'll hand you a prompt I've already tuned and we'll merge your answers into it, so the agent you leave with is built around your business, not a coffee shop. The prompt is my job. The facts and the judgment calls below are yours, and nobody can fill them in for you.

Write it the way you'd brief a new hire on their first morning at the front desk. Short, plain, specific. Make the business up, or use your real one with the numbers rounded. Real or pretend, leave out anything you wouldn't say to a stranger on the phone.

Business name

Owner's first name (who the agent covers for)

Town and area served

Hours

What you sell or do (three to five lines, the facts a caller asks about)

The three calls you get most often, and what a good answer sounds like

The one thing callers should be able to book

When the agent can't help, what should happen?

What should it capture from every call?

Two things the agent must never do

What makes you nervous about an AI answering your phone?

Cal.com event type ID (from step 3)

Retell phone number (if you bought one)

Saved on this device as you type. Nobody else can see it. Bring the laptop you filled it in on, or copy the answers into a note.

What it all costs

rounded up on purpose

Item	Before Wednesday	Ongoing, if you keep it
Google account and Google Calendar	$0	$0
Retell credits (your spending cap)	$10	about 25¢ a minute of calls
Retell phone number (optional)	about $5	about $5 a month
Cal.com free plan	$0	$0
A typical 3-minute test call	under $1	under $1

These are round numbers with headroom. Your real rate will be lower. The $10 of credits covers Wednesday's testing with room to spare.

If you get stuck

it's fine

Skip the step and come anyway. Everything I type on Wednesday goes on a sheet I'll send to everyone who registered, and the agent you call on stage is the one you'd build. You can finish on your own time with the sheet, or ask me for help afterward at sherpatech.ai/next.

Questions before Wednesday: mark@sherpatech.ai