Where do the people who buy, join or ask end up?
Say Tracy sells mugs and teaches a Tuesday evening glazing course. Before now, the people who bought a mug, the people on the course register, and the people who'd emailed asking about commissions lived in three places that never spoke to each other — an order list, a course roll and an inbox. Your people is the one place they all land.
How it fills itself
- A sale — the moment someone buys from your shop, they appear here: name, email, what they bought, when. You don't add them.
- A course — sign up for your Tuesday class and the same thing happens.
- A form on your site — a waiting list, a PDF download, a sign-up sheet — anyone who fills one in appears here too. See Tell people when my next course opens, Trade a PDF for someone's email address and Sign people up for my fair, workshop or open studio for the three you can ask Bernard to build.
- Your own list — bring a spreadsheet you've kept for years and import it in one go.
What's recorded alongside each person
Not just a name and email — what they agreed to, and when. Someone who joined your waiting list agreed to hear about that course, nothing more. Someone who bought a mug agreed to nothing beyond their receipt unless they ticked a box saying otherwise. Bernard keeps that distinction per person, which is what makes it possible to answer, honestly, the question every list eventually needs answering: who am I actually allowed to write to, and about what? See When do I need someone's permission to email them? for the full answer.
What this isn't, yet
This is the record, not a mailing tool — there's nowhere in bernard yet to press "send" to your whole list. What you have today is a book that's always accurate and always lawful to build, ready for when sending arrives.
The prompt
“Show me my people — who's bought from me, who's on a course, and who's asked to hear from me — and tell me who I'm actually allowed to email.”
The [bracketed] parts are yours to fill in. First time? Connect bernard to your AI over MCP — a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI — then paste the prompt above.
Questions people ask
- Do I have to set anything up for people to start appearing here?
- No. Anyone who buys from your shop or joins a course appears the moment they do — name, email, what they bought, when. If you ask Bernard to build you a waiting list, a sign-up sheet or a download form, anyone who fills it in appears the same way. Nothing to switch on.
- Can I bring in people I already know about — my old mailing list?
- Yes. Bring a spreadsheet and it imports in one step, with duplicates skipped — ask Bernard to import a CSV of your existing list.
- Can Bernard email these people for me?
- Not yet — building the list and being allowed to write to it are two different things, and bernard makes both honest, but the sending tool itself is still being built. What's here today is the record: who's who, and what they've agreed to, ready for when it is.
- Who can see this list?
- Only you, from your own dashboard — it's private to your account. If you ask your connected AI to help tidy it up, that's something you switch on deliberately, on a screen that says plainly what it can see, not something that comes bundled with website editing. Every change it makes still waits on your approval like everything else.