Your ideas deserve a platform that gives you a ridiculously high ROI (return on investment) from what you publish.
Basically, you deserve an idea-first platform.
So, what exactly is that?
It’s an ecosystem of a few key assets you can publish that will center your online platform around your best ideas 🤯, instead of making it about winning the social media game 🙄.
Your focus will be on assets that grow in value over time.
Pieces that help to shift your community’s perspectives and spark a desire inside them to adopt a new, healthier path toward their goals.
I’ll explain these assets more in just a sec.
The first four assets are ones that will create a solid foundation for your idea-first platform. They’ll be responsible for making the “thesis” of your work clear. People will know who you are and the big questions you seek to answer (or issues you seek to solve) with your body of work.
Asset #1: Core Tenet Essay
What it is: a 10-minute to 30-minute text, audio, and/or video essay that communicates one or more of your core tenets so potently and clearly that your best fit clients can’t help but be moved by it and feel it was created just for them.
A core tenet is a deeply held belief around an inequity or underlying reason for a problem, or, it’s a clear idea of how the world should be for a particular community.
Example core tenet: “The American food system is not set up for our success. The recommendations, food pyramid, school food programs, and more are all based on who has the most (old) money and agendas to push their highly engineered, modified, or subpar products. More communities need to be empowered to grow their own food and develop better understandings on nutrient dense foods.”
A core tenet essay is likely to become one of the hardest working and best performing pieces in your body of work, because it helps define your style and level of work to the world, serves as a values alignment piece, and sets boundaries that say “Do not pass GO, do not collect $200 🎲 . . . unless we align on these beliefs.”
Below are some real life core tenet essays by clients and friends.
Reported Results
A client told me she cried a lot throughout the process of writing her core tenet essay because she had never felt like any video, article, or other piece of content she made was actually, really her or how she wanted to market, until this essay.
Another client told me her core tenet essay was responsible for finally getting the “right” people reaching out to her firm. She exists in a competitive corporate consulting niche, and most of her competitors have websites that look, sound, and function the same.
My own experience with core tenet essays has been similar. My most recent one (published in 2021) has helped to sell several thousand dollars worth of my “prerequisite product” (a workshop) every year since it was released. One client even told me “I bookmark and read your essay a few times per year. It’s that meaningful to me.“
A Few Things to Note
A great core tenet essay—
Is designed to last for 5–10+ years with minimal updates; it’s not something that needs to be swapped out every month/week.
Is something that causes your best fit community to really stop and think. It’s something that sits with them for a long time. It’s also something that sparks a new or renewed sense of what roadmap or course of action is best for them after your piece.
Will serve as a “non-gated” intro into how you think and how deep your ideas go . . . meaning: people won’t have to sign up or do anything special to get access to some of your best ideas.
Is something that people will be more motivated to share, since it’s easily accessible online.
Inside the Idea-First Platform Intensive (explained and linked below), you will receive:
✅ An on-demand video lesson and exercise for solidifying the core tenets of your work
✅ Some fill-in-the-blank or Mad Libs style core tenet statements
✅ An on-demand video lesson on writing powerful core tenet essays
✅ 3 full section-by-section core tenet essay templates to help you create a powerful perspective-shifting piece
✅ 20+ prompts to help you find a compelling angle for your essay or for the other pieces you’ll create in this program
Asset #2: Email Runway
What it is: a considerate, carefully-crafted evergreen email series that fills the eight marketing gaps (connection, desire, belief, learning & unlearning, skills, safety, architecture, systems thinking) for one or more of your “best fit client” profiles. An email runway is one of the most underutilized assets in strengthening your thought leadership platform and in selling your best programs and services.
Any marketing gaps you suspect your best fit clients are dealing with can be addressed over the course of 2–3 emails per month, for 1–12+ months, in your runway. The more gaps that need filling (and the more time your community needs), the longer your runway. The closer to conversion and transformation they are, the shorter the runway.
Your runway provides them the time and space to process new perspectives and strategies that will help them move forward with their goal—such as: writing their first novel, undergoing therapy to help with healing, transforming the culture at their workplace, successfully saving for retirement, raising conscious kids, etc.
When planning your runway(s), one concept that’s helpful to think about is the different stages your people might be at, and how much runway they need to make the best investment decision.
I often encourage my clients to break this down to “Helicopter Runway” people—who might be ready to invest in transformation immediately (or within a few weeks), as well as “Jet Runway” clients—who likely need a few months, and finally “Jumbo Plane Runway” community members who need several months of perspective-shifting ideas and time before they invest.
Once you have your 1–3 runways (you don’t have to work on all 3), you can plan a customized email series for each one, and match each one to a sample, lead magnet, or opt-in that is most likely to attract someone at that level/place.
So, let’s say you’re like Tina, a therapist who helps women of color who experience racial trauma & BS at work, but who want to take up more space and ask for what they need more.
Let’s also say that Tina both (1) changed her therapy model in recent years to support clients more fully with therapy intensives, and (2) prefers that most people (after a short application process) go through her intro $1,200 intensive that is 4 hours/day for 2 days. Tina might split clients into 3 different levels of readiness, and then decide on the appropriate sample offer, lead magnet, or experience for each client . . . and then decide on the 2 weeks, or 4 months, or 8 months of emails that should go out to that person after they sign up for her list.
Don’t worry. We go into way more detail in the trainings and templates inside the Idea-First Platform Intensive, so you can plan and publish your runway(s).
Reported Results
A client told me: “I get a sale or two each week when my runway email goes out.“
A client shared with me: “Thousands each year in sales come through these emails! They took a long time to write, but I get it now.“
Another client shared: “I’m never going back to the hard and goofy way of handling my email newsletter. After people sign up with me they have months and months of emails and attention. I can spend my time on other things.“
A Few Things to Note
A great email runway—
Naturally works to fill your clients’ needs over time without creating a high-pressure sales scenario
Is designed to last for years with minimal updates; it’s not something that needs to be swapped out often
Provides a sense of safety for your best fit clients—they actually know what kind of person/firm they’re working with; they actually know the values of the entity they’re buying from; they’re actually being treated like an intelligent, real human who deserves enough info to make well-informed decisions and not invest in unnecessary risks
Inside the Idea-First Platform Intensive, you will receive:
✅ An on-demand video lesson on creating the best runway(s) for your people and your business
✅ 8 plug ’n play email templates for 8 different types of emails
✅ Example jet & jumbo plane runway outlines for both info products and coaching services
✅ A bank of 9 fully written lesson-style emails and 3 fully written sales emails that work on the various marketing gaps; not only are they great examples, but they’re available for you to tweak and send if they fit your purposes
✅ 30+ email idea prompts, organized by marketing gap
Asset #3: Shapeshifting Training
Snapshot: This is a philosophy-based or framework-based training to help educate and shift perspectives for your clients.
This asset can take many forms: You can format it into a video or audio training, an SEO-enabled and text-based training on your site, a beautifully designed PDF, or even an drip course or private podcast with multiple episodes.
Here are two examples—a video series by Alexis Campbell and a white paper I’ve created before.
As an example, Tina (our therapist) might have a framework around changing learned behaviors that cause people to not want to take up space.
Not only is this framework the work she does with people in her $1,200 intensive (4 hours/day for 2 days), but it also might be what she teaches in her “shapeshifting training” . . . with the belief that her Helicopter Runway community members are the ones most likely to sign up for it and go through it.
Maybe Tina’s framework is a 4-part procedural journey (which is 1 of 6 framework types you’ll learn in the Intensive):
Identify a single signal you received (from parents, a traumatic experience, microaggressions, etc.) that translated into the message that you weren’t safe to take up space, make mistakes, or receive love.
Inspect what “protection” behaviors you adopted as a result.
Reimagine what a “space” response or behavior might be instead.
Chart your own, practical path from the “protection” to the “space” response, and set milestones & rewards.
The nature of a “shapeshifter” training means that Tina can create it as a video, private podcast, on-site training, PDF, and more. We’ll go over all of this (with actual section-by-section outlines for your trainings) inside the Intensive.
Below is a little preview of the “shapeshifter” section in your Notion dashboard that comes with the Intensive.
Reported Results
A client told me: “People finally get my work is different from other service providers with similar labels now that I have this training on my site.”
I took a PDF eBook/training I’d created and turned it into an Instagram carousel, which I then turned on as a lean budget ad . . . and it has been one of the most effective, inexpensive, and profitable ads of all time for me. Every few years, I update it a little bit and keep it running at a few dollars per day.
Why does it work so well? The Internet is semi-🗑️, so most people don’t actually expect to learn anything from a downloadable resource they sign up for, let alone a social media post . . . let alone an ad. People might start out hopeful, but they’re let down so often that when something actually helps, you can get a radical ROI (return on investment) from it as the creator of it.
A Few Things to Note
A great shapeshifting training will—
Be a wildly effective asset for you because it’s a powerful, flexible way for you to present your unique frameworks and ideas.
Be the “proof” for you when you don’t have fifty-leven degrees and awards, or want to go above and beyond to “prove” you know what you’re teaching, consulting, or coaching on.
Be one of the major gap fillers you use in your runway (explained in the previous section).
Be a full-time sales person for your introductory offer or prerequisite product that you want all your best fit clients to go through.
Help people know what they’re getting into with you. You won’t be “those people” in your industry inviting people into deeper offers with practically zero actual context of how well they teach, or how helpful their frameworks are.
Inside the Idea-First Platform Intensive, you will receive:
✅ An on-demand video lesson to help you brainstorm and bring to life truly useful frameworks
✅ An on-demand video lesson on creating engaging philosophy-based or framework-based trainings
✅ 4 section-by-section formulas to use for various trainings you’ll create over time
Asset #4: Idea-First Home Page
Snapshot: This is a radically different, in form and function, style of home page that puts your best assets (a.k.a. your stellar ideas and thought leadership; a.k.a. the assets we’ll create in the Intensive) front ’n center on your site.
This page is designed to instantly differentiate your work from other people who your best fit clients might buy from. It’s a page that means you’re not competing on prices, or popularity/prettiness, or [insert goofy thing you don’t want to be involved in here]. The key ideas inside your body of work are the differentiating factors.
Note: This idea-first home page is designed for your best fit clients, who are likely somewhere between 1 day and 1 year away from investing in a major transformative process. It captures their attention and directs them to the best resource for them based on the stage of their journey they’re in.
Your idea-first home page will have elements such as:
1. A powerful “key approach statement”
. . . that is either a (1) “take up space” idea—something you’re confident enough in to test it out on the most important real estate of your site, or (2) message that communicates “you might not say this out loud, but I know you are/have/etc.”; a message that feels like you read their Lisa Frank diary-notebook or got in their head somehow.
Note: you’ll get 3 formulas for this “key approach” statement in the Intensive.
2. Two+ “spark pieces” (a.k.a. the other assets you’ll create in the Intensive) that center around your core tenets, pillars, or frameworks
In essence, the message behind this idea-first home page is:
“I’m so confident that my ideas are different and needed, that I’m not only going to not gate them or limit access, but I’m actually gonna lead with them and just leave them there like a mic drop. You can come to my site and understand the depths and differences of my work before paying me a cent.”
3. And more elements we’ll get into during the Idea-First Platform Intensive . . .
Reported Results
Client have told me: “My site is finally something I’m not embarrassed to send people to.“ and “Bounce rates are down now that I have my idea-first home page; and time spent on my website is up.”
Another client expressed: “When potential clients reach out to our firm, they reference ideas they found on the home page; it’s a fun, new experience to have our ideal clients using our words and phrases with us because they unlocked new insight from our site alone.“
A Few Things to Note
Your idea-first home page unlocks:
Visits from best fit clients who can immediately sense the difference, consideration, and deep expertise you have to have in order to build something like this
A sense of safety for your best fit clients—they actually know what kind of person/firm they’re reaching out to; they actually know the values of the entity they’re buying from; they’re actually being treated like an intelligent, real human who deserves enough info to make well-informed decisions and not invest in unnecessary risks
A confident vibe that feels good and an ease of navigating through your most valuable ideas
Inside the Idea-First Platform Intensive (explained and linked below), you will receive:
✅ Formulas and exercises for your “core approach statement” header
✅ An on-demand lesson that takes you through all of the recommended sections of your idea-first home page
✅ Suggestions/ideas for the other pages on your site
✅ A lesson and template for writing an “origin story bio” that clues people into the origins of one of your key philosophies, tenets, or frameworks . . . because: most people’s website bios are a big missed opportunity for thought leadership
✅ A template for creating a thought leadership style sales page
So, above are the 4 assets that are available on-demand inside the Idea-First Platform Intensive. Let me now introduce you to the other 4 assets (below) that we’ll be going through live during the month of April.
These next 4 assets combine together to create an upgraded sales journey or funnel that works much better for changemakers and thought leaders than the traditional high-pressure funnels many coaches, teachers, and consultants create. At the heart of this upgraded funnel is a product/service inside your business that you can use as a “prerequisite product.”
Your prerequisite product helps to create and confirm the alignment between your client + you and your work. It often functions as a turning point where people deeply understand your unique approach and decide if they're fully on board. And it helps you “pre-qualify” people for your deeper offers. You might already have something that can function as your prerequisite product in your current body of work (maybe with just a few tweaks).
It will typically take one of four forms:
Structured One-on-One Session—based on one of your frameworks, with specific templates, tools, or resources that guide the interaction with your client.
Group Training Experience—that can range from intimate pods of 5–10 people to larger group classes.
Subscription—a paid weekly or monthly delivery of key resources that move people closer to a specific goal.
Guidebook—a field guide, playbook, handbook, or other tool that introduces people to one or more of your methodologies.
Once you have a prerequisite product in mind (and don’t worry, we’ll talk about them more during the Intensive), you can move on to the 4 remaining assets (explained below) that will form your idea-first sales journey.
Asset #5: Blueprint Email Course or Challenge Email Course
What it is: a multi-day email course designed to share the blueprint for a specific “structure” you think is wise for your best fit clients to create . . . or an email course that is designed as a challenge to help your community arrive at an important destination. Either way, your email course will do two special things—(1) provide a follow-along workbook or multi-part activity that people really want to complete, such that if they miss a day, they’ll want to open that email up and go through it; and (2) be a direct and always-on “sales person” for your prerequisite product.
During our Intensive, I’ll share a TMI case study with you on earning $92,000 in profit from a blueprint email course and “proof of concept” tool (which is Asset #6 below).
To best illustrate this, let me give you an example:
Let’s say there’s a novel writing coach and teacher named Nic who believes that the world of fiction needs more books with atypical main characters.
Nic wants more novels that feature people from diverse backgrounds, people with chronic illnesses, neurodivergent people, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, etc.
And let’s also say that Nic has a $250 prerequisite product—a quarterly workshop on featuring complex characters in your stories, including sections such as:
Foundational building blocks for complex characters (backstories, internal motivations, and distinct worldviews)
Transformation arcs that connect thematically to the story and answer bigger questions
Character networks that offer surprising, believable, and meaningful interconnections
Language patterns and engaging dialogue development
Nic might create a 5-day “blueprint email course” that outlines the foundational elements necessary for building out multi-dimensional, interesting, realistic characters . . . that go far beyond whatever stereotypes the world puts on them.
As Nic helps people progress through the days of the email course, there may be a follow-along workbook to add new layers to your characters each day based on the lesson/concept of the day.
Nic can also share with email course participants that these foundational character building blocks are just one element of your overall character work (that also includes transformation arcs, language patterns & engaging dialogue, and character networks), and that your overall character work is just one of the four main elements to pay attention to in your overall novel creation.
Meaning: This email course covers a fraction of what Nic knows and is an easy segue into the $250 workshop.
Hint: Your blueprint or challenge email course will fit perfectly with Asset #6 below—a “proof of concept” guide, tool, or other small product.
Inside the Idea-First Platform Intensive, you will receive:
✅ A full, guided lesson on creating an engaging blueprint or challenge email course, plus suggestions for compelling email courses specific to your work
✅ Example email course outlines that you can use to structure your experience more easily
✅ 8 plug ’n play email templates for 8 different types of emails
✅ A bank of 9 fully written lesson-style emails and 3 fully written sales emails that work on the various marketing gaps; not only are they great examples, but they’re available for you to tweak and send if they fit your purposes
✅ A lesson on a special series of 3–5 sales emails you can add to your email course for people who express interest in your bigger product
✅ 30+ email idea prompts
Asset #6: “Proof of Concept” Product (a Guide or Tool)
What it is: a small, affordable, “quick win” product you can offer subscribers to your email course (Asset #5) at the very beginning of said email course, and after the email course. This product is likely to be a tool (like a template, dashboard, pattern, or set of formulas) or a guide for a specific, small project (eBook, mini course, or workbook) that “proves” to your client that they can successfully learn from you and complete meaningful projects with your frameworks and ideas.
To best illustrate this, let’s continue our Nic example:
From top-down, let’s say that Nic has a 6-month program that is the deepest work they offer (highlighted in blue above) and is in the high 3-figure or low 4-figure range. The program covers four things you’ll want to build out to create amazing novels—(1) a layered world, (2) multiple complex characters, (3) tight story structure, and (4) thematic layering.
Nic has decided that a live workshop on one of those four elements will be their prerequisite product (highlighted in pink above—the Complex Characters Bootcamp). Inside that $250 prerequisite product, there are four major sections (highlighted in yellow above—character building, arcs, networks, and language patterns).
As we know, Nic created a 5-day email course on just one of those sections—character building.
In that free email course, Nic covers (highlighted in green above):
Building backstories that inform the narrative without overwhelming it
Creating detailed and distinct worldviews that each character operates from
Developing meaningful, relatable internal motivations for each character that conflict with other characters’ internal motivations
For Asset #6—the proof of concept product, Nic is going to develop a tool or guide that helps with one of the main tasks people will run into when trying to do character building (the items highlighted in green above).
Nic decides on a $40 Character Dimension Matrix as a “proof of concept” product. It’s a downloadable template and 30-minute lesson that helps writers plan out two separate multi-dimensional characters (a protagonist and supporting character) with conflicting motivations, distinct worldviews, and layered backstories that can reveal themselves through the course of a novel.
The product also includes 3 case studies showing how bestselling novels used similar character development techniques.
This is a “proof of concept” product because it’s something that is designed to be used (not just passively read/watched), and once people use it, they will have “proof” that they can learn from you, proof that they can do the work, even if it’s complex, and potential proof that your further offers are likely to be helpful and worth the investment.
Another thing that makes your “proof of concept” product so amazing for you and your clients is that you can offer it at a price that’s easy to take you up on . . . even if they still need more time to decide on your prerequisite product ($250 in Nic’s case) or deepest offer (~$1,200 in Nic’s case). Now they’ll be in your world, succesfully using your tools, and better positioned to buy with you in the future.
Nic’s email course and proof of concept product flow might go something like this:
There are multiple ways you can structure your email course, and a handful of really effective “proof of concept” products that will offer a meaningful quick win to your best fit clients.
We’ll get into each of these things more during the Intensive.
Inside the Idea-First Platform Intensive, you will receive:
✅ An AI training document (that you can use with Claude or ChatGPT) to help you brainstorm email course topics, “proof of concept” topics, as well as ideas for Assets #7 and #8 (described below)
✅ A full lesson on the best types of “proof of concept” products to create or pull from a larger product or service you offer
✅ A guided lesson on creating your product and example product outlines
✅ A TMI case study on earning $92,000 in profit from a blueprint email course and “proof of concept” tool
Asset #7: Message Test Campaign
What it is: a 2–5 day ad campaign (that costs between $70–$120 USD) where you test several distinct messages against each other, to find the winning few messages that are the most compelling draws into your email course.
You can also create message tests for your other resources or lead magnets.
Asset #8: Long-Form Short-Form Series
What it is: a series of robust short-form pieces (like Instagram carousels or reels) that are perspective-shifting pieces built from the winning messages during your message test campaign.
These “long-form” short-form pieces can be posted organically, then turned into lean, evergreen ads for $1–$5+/day.
These last two assets combine together to help you create an always-on pipeline into your email course and introductory products. Inside the Intensive, we’ll dive deep into the strategy behind them, and you’ll be able to download multiple templates and prompts to make it easier for you to get them up and running quickly.
Inside the Idea-First Platform Intensive, you will receive:
✅ A full, guided lesson with step-by-step “message test campaign” setup instructions for Instagram or Facebook ads, and additional guidance if you’re using LinkedIn ads
✅ Example message test formulas you can modify and use
✅ Some long-form short-form writing exercises and templates that you can fit your ideas into and then publish
So, we cover a lot inside the Intensive . . .
But the pieces work together seamlessly once you create them. And you don’t have to create them all (or all at once). You’ll keep unlimited access to the trainings and templates for:
1. Your core tenet essay
2. Email runways
3. Shapeshifter trainings
4. Your idea-first home page
5. Your sales email course
6. A “proof of concept” product
7. Message test campaigns
8. Robust short-form series
The live Idea-First Platform Intensive is happening Thursdays in April (2025).
Remember, Assets #1–4 are already in your on-demand dashboard once you join us below. Assets #5–8, will be covered live, one at a time, on each Thursday in April (the 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th). Note: there are sessions at 10a ET and 7p ET on each Thursday, so that you can choose the best time for you.
Note 🎉: Each live session lasts about 2.5 hours. Whether you can make the sessions live or not, you will receive access to a course dashboard with unlimited access to on-demand replays of each section as well as a Notion dashboard with all the prompts and templates.