The Starter Vault

First, before writing anything. It decides which door every other prompt walks through.

Almost all copy that flops fails here: it says the right thing to the wrong level of awareness. A direct offer to cold strangers reads as an ambush; a slow story to your eager list wastes their time.

Using my Copy Brief above: I'm about to write [describe the piece: a sales email to my list / a LinkedIn post for strangers / my homepage / an ad]. The people reading it are: [your best guess — my subscribers / cold strangers who've never heard of me / people who know their problem but not that solutions exist / people comparing me to alternatives]. Task: diagnose this audience's awareness level. Classify them on a spectrum from "most aware" (they know me and my offer, they just need the deal) down to "unaware" (they don't even see the problem yet). Tell me: (1) the level, (2) what this audience needs to hear FIRST before they can care about my offer, and (3) what I must NOT open with at this level, and why. Keep it under 150 words. Flag anything you're not sure of instead of guessing.

The heart of the vault: six openings for the same offer, one per awareness level.

Roughly 80% of a message's impact lives in its first 20% — the lead — and virtually every great lead is one of six types. Which type works isn't taste; it's determined by how aware the reader is.

Using my Copy Brief above, write SIX different opening leads (50–120 words each) for this offer: [the offer, or "the offer in my brief"]. One lead per type, in this order: 1. OFFER lead — the deal itself, plain: product, price, terms, deadline. For my warmest audience (my list, past buyers). Plain IS polished here. 2. PROMISE lead — my single biggest honest claim, up front. 3. PROBLEM-SOLUTION lead — open inside the reader's most emotionally charged version of the problem, then turn toward the solution. 4. BIG SECRET lead — tease a specific piece of hidden knowledge (use real proof from my brief; invent nothing). 5. PROCLAMATION lead — a jarring but defensible statement that stops the scroll, which the piece then earns. 6. STORY lead — a specific narrative (real details from my brief only) that disarms the coldest reader. Rules: one idea and one emotion per lead. Use my voice samples for cadence. Specifics over abstractions — numbers, names, things you can picture. No banned words. If my brief lacks the proof or story a lead needs, write the lead with a [BRACKETED GAP] telling me what to supply instead of inventing facts. Output: the six leads, numbered, nothing else — no commentary.

From chosen lead to finished piece.

Every unit of attention is three parts: a hook (stops them), a story (builds belief), and an offer (names the next step). This prompt builds the machine behind your chosen lead.

Using my Copy Brief above: Take this lead: [paste the winner from The Six Doors]. Extend it into a complete [email / landing page / post] of about [length] words. Structure: the lead is the hook. Follow it with a story section that builds belief using ONLY the proof in my brief — no invented testimonials, no fabricated numbers. End with one clear offer: exactly one thing to do next ([the action]), stated once plainly and once with the deadline or reason to act now. Done means: a reader knows what I'm offering, believes it could work for someone like them, and knows exactly one next step. Constraints: my voice (match the samples), no banned words, short paragraphs, no throat-clearing before the lead. Keep one idea and one emotion throughout — if a second idea creeps in, cut it and list it below the draft as "saved for another piece." Output: subject line (if an email) + the full draft. Then a P.S. section flagging anything you weren't sure of or left as a gap.

The revision that makes it sound expensive. Run on everything — AI-drafted or yours.

Professionals draft ugly and earn their money on the second pass. These five rules are the second pass.

Revise the following piece using exactly five rules. Show me the revised version, then a short change-log listing what each rule caught. 1. FEATURES → BENEFITS: find every feature ("live feedback on your draft") and chase it with "which means" until it hits something the reader personally gains ("you leave with it finished, not a to-do list"). Rewrite the sentence with the benefit; drop the scaffolding. 2. ABSTRACTIONS → PHOTOGRAPHS: replace vague claims ("many clients see great results") with specifics from my Copy Brief (numbers, names, picturable nouns). If no specific exists, mark [NEEDS PROOF] rather than faking one. 3. SELF-INTEREST OR NEWS FIRST: check the headline/opening leads with what the reader gains or what's new — never mere cleverness. 4. PAYLOAD LAST: the end of a sentence is its loudest position. Move each sentence's most important words to the end. 5. THE READ-ALOUD TEST: flag any phrase a real person would never say across a table, and rewrite it the way they would say it. It should sound like talking, from someone worth listening to. The piece: [paste it]

For when something flopped and you're tempted to conclude "I can't write."

"I can't write" is unfalsifiable and unfixable. "The hook failed" is a repair ticket.

Using my Copy Brief above: This piece went out and underperformed: [paste it]. Where it ran: [channel]. Who saw it: [audience + how warm]. What happened: [opens/clicks/replies/sales — whatever you know, even roughly. "200 views, 0 clicks" is enough.] Diagnose it as three separate parts and grade each: - HOOK: would this stop my specific audience mid-scroll? If not, why — wrong awareness level (see the six lead types), wrong first line, buried opening? - STORY: does the middle build belief with specifics and proof, or does it assert? Where exactly does a reader's attention leak out? - OFFER: is there ONE clear ask, or does it end in a polite shrug? (The most common failure among nice people.) Verdict: name the ONE part most likely responsible — don't hedge across all three — and rewrite only that part, two ways. Flag anything you can't judge from the data I gave you.

One piece of copy, correctly re-aimed at every temperature of reader.

Your list and a cold stranger should never receive the same words — but they can receive the same idea.

Using my Copy Brief above: Here's a finished piece that works: [paste your best email/page/post]. It was written for: [audience + warmth]. Re-aim the same core idea at two other audiences: 1. COLDER: rewrite it for people who've never heard of me. Swap the opening for a STORY or PROCLAMATION lead (pick whichever my proof supports better and say why in one line). Remove insider references they won't get. Same one idea, same one emotion. 2. WARMER: rewrite it for my list / past buyers. Swap the opening for a PROMISE or OFFER lead. Cut the persuasion they no longer need; get to the deal faster. Plain is polished at this level. Keep my voice, my banned-word list, and one clear ask in each. Output: the two versions, labeled, plus one line each on where I should run it.

The ongoing habit. When any ad or subject line stops YOU mid-scroll, save it and run this.

Within a month you'll own a private, labeled textbook of leads that demonstrably work — on the hardest audience you know: you.

This piece of marketing stopped me mid-scroll: [paste it, or describe it precisely] Analyze it in under 200 words: 1. Which of the six lead types is the opening (offer, promise, problem-solution, big secret, proclamation, story)? 2. What awareness level is it aimed at, and how can you tell? 3. Hook, story, offer — which of the three is doing the heaviest lifting here? 4. Name the ONE move in it I could steal for my own business (per my Copy Brief above) — and show me that move rewritten for my offer, in my voice, in 2–3 sentences.