Resource Page

Start Here

This page holds every prompt from today's live build, in the order Colin runs them, plus the cards around them (setup, rescue, recovery, depth). It asks one move of you. Copy the prompt, paste it into Claude, and put your own material where marked.

One rule sits underneath everything on this page. You are the source. Claude is the amplifier. Your context document is how Claude knows it.

Your context document is the "Workshop Preparation" document you built before today. No document yet? The Rescue card below builds one in ten minutes, and every prompt carries a fill-in line so you can build live without it.

Every prompt on this page is exactly what Colin runs on screen. If the room moves faster than you do today, nothing is lost. The identical prompt works anytime.

Setup Card

Setup was covered in the pre-work on the event page: a Claude Pro account and the desktop app, with a short video walking through both. If that is done, skip this card.

Arriving without it? The fastest path to building right now:

1. Go to claude.ai in any browser and sign in. Continue with Google is quickest; email sends you a code instead.
2. Subscribe to Claude Pro. It removes the usage ceiling that a two-hour live build can hit (the event page has the sign-up link, and subscribing for one month is a fine way to decide).
3. The desktop app is where the session works best. If you are in a browser right now, that will carry you today; install the app from claude.ai/download when you can.
4. Type hello in the message box and send it. When Claude replies, you are ready to build.

Then rejoin the room. The fill-in line under each prompt covers anything you missed while setting up.

Your Data

Before you paste anything, three guards. The first two protect your clients. The third is about the tool itself.

Anonymize by habit. Role labels, not names. The Burned-Out Executive, not a real person. Describe patterns across clients rather than any single story, and nothing that could be read back to one identifiable client.

Consent travels with client material. If a real client's words or situation come into your work with AI at all, they come with that client's consent. The ICF Code of Ethics, updated in 2025, now names AI directly: your confidentiality duty follows the data into every tool you use, and part of that is telling your clients you use AI in your practice. This is a reading of the Code, not legal advice, so check it against your own obligations and your jurisdiction.

Turn off training, once. On a personal Claude account, your conversations can be used to help train the model unless you switch that off. Go to Settings, then Privacy, and turn off "Help Improve Claude" (look for the model-improvement toggle if the wording differs), then save. With it off, your chats are kept for around 30 days rather than up to five years, and deleting a conversation clears it from Anthropic's systems. For genuinely client-confidential work, use a business plan (Team or Enterprise), which keeps your data out of training by default and comes with a formal data agreement.

You're done when training is switched off and you know which of your work belongs on a business plan.

How We Work Today (and the chat fallback)

Today's default is Co-work, where Claude works inside a folder you connect, so your build saves itself as real files as you go. If you would rather not give any file access, the chat fallback below gets you the same result.

Set up Co-work safely (2 minutes)

Co-work is desktop-app only, on a paid plan (Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise). Not the browser, not your phone.

1. Open the Claude desktop app and make sure you are signed in to your paid plan.
2. Make ONE brand new, empty folder just for today, for example "Client Acquisition" on your Desktop. Do not use Documents, Downloads, or any folder that holds real client files.
3. Switch from Chat to Cowork, connect that empty folder as the workspace, and approve access when asked. Access is per-folder and does nothing until you approve it.
4. Leave it on "Ask before acting" so Claude pauses for your approval at each step.
5. Paste each prompt from the resource page as we reach it. Claude works in your folder and saves each output there.

The rule that keeps this safe: one dedicated empty folder, "Ask before acting" on, and never point Co-work at anything holding client information.

The chat fallback (no file access)

Prefer not to connect a folder? Do the whole session in a plain Claude chat instead. Paste each prompt, paste your preparation document where marked, and copy each output into a document of your own. Same prompts, same result. Nothing touches your files, and nothing happens on its own. This is the right path if you are not ready to give file access today.

You're done when your system is built, whichever path you took.

Clarity: Stages 1 and 2

Stage 1: Ideal Client Clarity

Prompt 1: Find Your Ideal Client

This is the first build of the day and the reason your preparation document exists. Claude reads it, looks across your past clients for the patterns you are too close to see, and drafts a first profile of the client you serve best. Anything it guesses rather than finds in your material carries an [INFERRED] tag. More tags means Claude needs more of you, and that is useful to know. Open a new Claude chat, paste the whole prompt with your Workshop Preparation document dropped in where marked, and send it. Stay in this chat for the rest of the session. Every prompt that follows builds on what happens here.

Act as a thoughtful audience researcher and buyer psychologist who works only from evidence. You never invent what a person wants or feels. Anything you infer rather than find in my material, you tag [INFERRED].

Context: I am a coach building a clear picture of the client I serve best. My preparation document is pasted between the markers below. It covers my past client experience, a rough draft of who I serve, and my current messaging. Treat it as the only source of truth about me and my clients.

MY PREPARATION DOCUMENT STARTS
[Paste your full Workshop Preparation document here]
MY PREPARATION DOCUMENT ENDS

Task: Build a first profile of my ideal client from the evidence above.

1. CLIENT PATTERNS: the three or four strongest patterns across my past clients. Who keeps showing up, what they struggle with when they arrive, and what changes when the work goes well. Quote my own words where you can.
2. WHO I SERVE BEST: a short snapshot of the single client these patterns point to, someone I could picture sitting across a table.
3. WANTS: what this client says they want, and underneath it, the deeper driver it points to. Include what they most want to gain and what they most want to avoid.
4. EMOTIONS AND BELIEFS: what they are feeling when they come looking for a coach, and what they believe about their problem, about coaching, and about themselves.
5. SAY VERSUS THINK: what they say out loud about their situation, next to what they privately think. The gap between those two lines matters most.

Format the whole profile with clear headings and short bullets so I can skim it. Keep it under 600 words. Tag every guess [INFERRED]. Do not ask me any questions, and do not end with offers to do more. If something is missing, tag it and keep going. Refinement comes later.

No preparation document? Replace the paste with a few rough lines from memory: My best clients have been [describe them]. They came to me struggling with [what]. By the end of our work, [what changed]. I currently describe what I do as [your usual line]. Rough and incomplete is fine. Claude tags whatever it fills in.

You're done when the profile shows you at least one pattern you instantly recognize and have never written down.

Prompt 2: The Chain of Beliefs

Run this next, in the same chat. Nobody hires a coach in one leap. Between first hearing of you and saying yes sits a sequence of beliefs, and most clients climb it without ever saying a word of it out loud. This prompt maps that sequence for your ideal client, writes each belief the way your client would say it to themselves, and names the one most likely holding back the yes right now. That one belief is worth the whole exercise. It tells you what your positioning, your calls, and your proposals need to answer first.

Act as an evidence-led researcher and buyer psychologist, working only from what I have given you in this conversation.

Context: Use the ideal client profile you built earlier in this conversation. Before any client says yes to working with a coach, they hold a sequence of beliefs, most of them never spoken. I want that sequence mapped for this specific client.

Task: Map the chain of beliefs my ideal client must hold before they say yes to me.

1. Anchor the chain on these six beliefs: I have a problem worth solving. There is a better way. The better way works. You are the coach for me. Now is the time. The investment is worth it.
2. Rewrite each belief in my client's own likely words, one sentence each, the way they would say it to themselves. Ground each one in the profile above.
3. Under each belief, add one line naming what currently blocks it for this client.
4. Close by naming the ONE belief most likely blocking the yes today, and explain your pick in two or three sentences.

Carry the [INFERRED] tags forward. Anything you are guessing rather than reading from my material gets tagged. Keep the whole output under 450 words. Do not ask me any questions.

No Prompt 1 profile in this chat? Paste your ideal client profile directly above this prompt, or replace it with a few lines from memory: who your best clients are, what they struggle with, and what they want most.

You're done when you can name the one belief most likely blocking your next yes.

Stage 2: Positioning and Messaging

Prompt 3: Name Your Process

You already have a process. You have walked every good client through it. It has just never been written down. This prompt mines the client experience already sitting in this conversation and hands back a first draft. The state your clients arrive in, the state they leave in, the steps you take them across in between, and one working name to react to. Keep the name, change it, or throw it away. A rough named process you refine for years beats a polished one you never write down.

Act as a coaching methodology specialist who finds the structure inside work a coach has already done. You work only from evidence in this conversation. You never import steps from generic coaching models.

Context: Earlier in this conversation you read my past client experience: who my best clients were, what they were struggling with when they arrived, and what my material shows about where the work took them. Inside that material is a process I have been running for years without ever writing it down. Your job is to surface a rough first version of it.

Task: Draft the first version of my process.

1. THE PRISON: describe the state my clients arrive in, drawn from my material. What is stuck, what it costs them, how it feels from the inside.
2. THE PARADISE: describe the state they leave in. What changed, and what is possible for them now.
3. THE STEPPING STONES: the three to six steps I walk clients across between those two states, in order. Name each step plainly, from something I actually did with clients. No invented jargon. Add one line under each step on what happens there.
4. THE PRINCIPLE: one sentence naming the insight underneath the whole process, the reason it works.
5. A WORKING NAME: offer one plain working name for the whole process. Present it as a suggestion only. I may keep it, change it, or discard it.

Label the entire output FIRST DRAFT. If you include a step or claim I never described, tag it [INFERRED]. Keep it under 400 words. Do not ask me any questions. I am the source. Flag anything you wrote that I have not actually said.

No preparation document in this chat? Paste your Workshop Preparation document, or your Prompt 1 profile, directly above this prompt. From memory works too: My clients usually arrive [describe their situation] and leave [describe what changed]. Claude finds the steps between.

You're done when your process has a working name and three to six named steps, even if you already want to change half of them.

Prompt 4: Your Positioning Statement

Two overlapping circles. In one, the work you are brilliant at. In the other, the people who value it most. The overlap is the problem you solve, and this prompt writes that overlap down as one sentence. Claude drafts your positioning statement from the profile, the beliefs, and the named process already in this chat, then challenges its own draft. Any phrase that could sit on another coach's website gets flagged. Any phrase you have not actually said gets flagged too. Expect to cut something. Every word left standing traces back to your own clients.

Act as a positioning strategist who turns a coach's real client experience into one clear, specific statement of who they serve and what changes.

Context: Work from what we have built earlier in this conversation: my ideal client profile, the chain of beliefs, and my named process with its prison, paradise, and stepping stones. Everything you write must trace back to that material.

Task:

1. Draft my positioning statement in this exact frame: I help [my ideal client] move from [their prison] to [their paradise] through [my named process]. Fill every bracket from this conversation. If a bracket has no grounding in this conversation, tag it [INFERRED] rather than filling it with a template phrase.
2. Expand the statement in two or three plain sentences a prospect would understand on first reading. Use words I have actually used in this conversation wherever possible.
3. Run a sharpening pass over the statement and the expansion:
   a. Flag every phrase that could sit on any other coach's website, and suggest a sharper alternative drawn from my own material.
   b. Flag every phrase I have not actually said or clearly described in this conversation, so I can confirm it or cut it.
4. Finish with the current best version, flags shown, ready for me to edit.

Keep the whole output under 350 words. Do not ask me any questions. I am the source. Flag anything you wrote that I have not actually said.

Starting in a fresh chat? Paste whatever you have from Prompts 1 to 3 directly above this prompt. Missing a piece? Paste what you have and Claude will tag the gaps [INFERRED].

You're done when every bracket in your positioning statement is filled and every phrase still standing is one you have actually said.

Conversation: Stage 3

Stage 3: Discovery Call Preparation

Prompt 5: Prepare the Conversation

This prompt folds prospect research and question prep into one page, written to be read in the five minutes before the call. Point it at a real upcoming call if you have one, an inquiry you remember if you do not, or the Practice Prospect card from the Resource Page. Because it reads the Chain of Beliefs you built earlier, the questions arrive anchored to what this person needs to believe, and it names the one belief most likely standing between them and yes. Then set the page aside and walk in. Claude preps the call. The call is yours.

Act as a coaching mentor helping me prepare for a discovery call.

Context: Earlier in this conversation we built my ideal client profile and my Chain of Beliefs, the sequence of things a prospect must come to believe before they say yes to working with me. Use both. The person I am preparing for is [name them, plus anything you have: a LinkedIn profile, their role or company, what they wrote when they inquired. An inquiry you remember works too, described from memory. Or paste the Practice Prospect card from the Resource Page here instead]. If you can search the web, pull anything publicly useful about this person. If you cannot, work only from what I have given you.

Task: Build me a one-page call prep I will read in the five minutes before the call.
1. What we plausibly know about this person and their situation. Label guesses as guesses.
2. Where they most likely sit on my Chain of Beliefs right now. What they probably already believe, and what they probably do not yet.
3. Five open questions in my plain language, anchored to this arc in order: Outcome (where do they want to be), Obstacle (what stops them getting there on their own), Difference (what would reaching it change for them), Importance (how much does it matter to them, and why). Write questions that help this person feel understood and help us both tell whether we are a fit.
4. The one belief most likely blocking their yes, so I can listen for it without forcing it.
5. Two things to listen for on the call, given who my ideal client is.

Keep it to one page. These questions are openers for a live conversation, and I will find my own words in the room. No scripts.

No preparation document, and no earlier stages in this chat? Add this to the Context: My ideal client is [one rough sentence], and before saying yes they would probably need to believe [two or three things, best guess]. Rough is fine.

You're done when you hold one page you could read in the five minutes before a real call, with the one belief you are listening for named on it.

Conversion: Stages 4 and 5

Stage 4: Proposal Development

Prompt 6: The One-Page Proposal

Your proposal is the bridge from where your prospect is stuck to where they want to be, and it is aimed at the one belief still standing between them and yes. Bring two pastes. Your offer as it stands, and this means one offer (if you work several ways, pick the one you would offer this person and describe only that). And what you heard on the call, rough notes are plenty, and a remembered conversation or your Practice Prospect exchange both work. Everything in the output traces back to those two pastes, and anything Claude had to assume comes flagged so you catch it before your prospect ever sees the page.

Act as a proposal writer who builds from a coach's offer and a prospect's own words.

Context: Earlier in this conversation we named my process and mapped my Chain of Beliefs. Write in that language. Two things to work from.

My offer as it stands. This is the one offer on the table, so no tiers or options: [the name of your offer, what is included, and the investment].

What I heard on the call, in rough notes: [what they said they want, what is in their way, what they are worried about, any phrases you remember word for word. A remembered conversation works, and so does your Practice Prospect exchange from the Resource Page].

The belief I sense is still blocking their yes: [name it, or write "infer it from my notes"].

Task: Draft a one-page proposal in five parts.
1. The result they are after, in their words.
2. The path to it, told in the language of my named process.
3. What is included.
4. The investment.
5. One short section that speaks directly to the belief blocking their yes, using their own words from the call, so the proposal answers the hesitation head-on.

Hard rule: use only my offer and what I heard. If you need something I have not given you, mark it [ASSUMED] so I can correct it before this goes anywhere near the prospect.

No earlier stages in this chat? Add this to the Context: My process, in my own words, is [the steps you walk clients through, rough is fine], and my ideal client is [one sentence].

You're done when a one-page proposal exists in which every line traces to your offer or to the call, and every [ASSUMED] flag is fixed or cut.

Stage 5: Follow-Up System

Prompt 7: The Follow-Up System

The follow-up system is a rhythm and one reusable prompt. The proposal goes out on the day of the call. One gentle touch follows a week later if you have heard nothing. A warm check-in on a longer cycle, a month or a quarter out, keeps the door open for the not-nows. This prompt drafts the messages for all three answers a prospect can give you, so the words exist before you need them and nothing depends on your mood the day a maybe comes back. After every real proposal, run it again and send the message that matches the answer you got.

Act as a follow-up partner who writes warm, unpushy messages that respect a prospect's decision.

Context: Work from the proposal we drafted earlier in this conversation [or paste two sentences here on what you proposed and the investment]. After a proposal, a prospect gives one of three answers. They say yes, they say they are thinking it over, or they say no for now. My stance is the same for all three: I would rather lose a fit-that-isn't than win with pressure, and a thoughtful no is a fine outcome.

Task:
1. Draft one short follow-up message for each of the three answers.
   For a yes: confirm warmly and name the first next step.
   For a thinking-it-over: make it easy to say yes and just as easy to say not now.
   For a no for now: thank them and leave the door open, warmly. No pressure to walk back through it.
2. Draft one gentle second touch for the thinking-it-over prospect, to send a week later if I have heard nothing, in case my first message landed in a busy week.
3. Keep every message brief and human, built from the proposal and my stance. No chasing, no manufactured urgency.

Write every message so the decision stays fully theirs.

No proposal in this chat? Use the paste option in the Context: two sentences on what you proposed and the investment are enough.

You're done when all three answers have a message waiting and the week-later touch is drafted.

Assemble Your System

Prompt 8: Assemble Your System

This is the prompt that turns an afternoon of pieces into one system, so run it even if some stages are still to come. Send it and let it work. It gathers everything from this conversation into a single document, holds a marked place for anything you have not built yet, and closes by upgrading the document you walked in with into version two of your context document, a brief you can paste at the start of any future AI conversation in any tool. When it finishes, keep it. In Co-work it is saved as a file in your folder. In chat, copy the whole document into an email to yourself, subject line My Client Acquisition System, and press send.

Act as a meticulous editor who assembles finished documents from long working conversations.

Context: Across this conversation I have built the pieces of a client acquisition system: my ideal client, my Chain of Beliefs, my named process and positioning statement, my discovery call prep, my proposal, and my follow-up messages. Some pieces may be missing, and that is fine. If I am starting in a fresh chat, I will paste my saved outputs below; build from those: [only if this is a fresh chat: paste everything you saved, starting with your Workshop Preparation document].

Task: Compile everything into one document titled "My Client Acquisition System: [my name]" with these five sections, in this order.
1. Ideal Client
2. Chain of Beliefs
3. My Process + Positioning
4. Discovery Call Prep
5. Proposal + Follow-Up Rhythm

Always render all five section headings. Under Section 5, always print the rhythm first: proposal on the day of the call, one gentle touch a week later, a warm check-in on a longer cycle for the not-nows. For any section we did not build in this conversation, keep the heading and put exactly one line under it: "To build: run Prompt [N] tonight (about 10 minutes)." Where a section maps to two missing prompts, name both in that one line. Use this map: Section 1 is Prompt 1, Section 2 is Prompt 2, Section 3 is Prompts 3 and 4, Section 4 is Prompt 5, Section 5 is Prompts 6 and 7. If a section is half built, include what exists and add the to-build line for the prompt that is missing.

Then end the document with a final section titled "My Context Document: [my name]". Merge my original Workshop Preparation document with today's outputs into one brief I can paste at the start of any future AI conversation: who I serve and their world, what they must believe to say yes, my named process, my positioning statement, and my offer as it stands. For any of those components not built today, write one to-build line in its place rather than composing it. Keep it under 400 words. Use only what I have said or approved today. Format it so I can copy it in one block.

Throughout, use my words as they appear in this conversation. Tidy for flow where needed, and flag anything you had to write fresh.

No preparation document? Where the prompt mentions your Workshop Preparation document, add: I do not have one, so build my context document from today's outputs alone.

You're done when the finished document is in your inbox, emailed to yourself with the subject line My Client Acquisition System.

Skipped the Prep? The 10-Minute Rescue

If you arrived without a preparation document, you are not behind. During the live session, use the italic fill-in line under each prompt. It swaps the paste for a from-memory version and works fine.

This Rescue is for the break or for tonight. It is a ten-minute guided conversation, and ten minutes is exactly what the break gives you. It produces the same preparation document everyone else brought, and every paste slot on this page accepts it unchanged.

Paste this into a new Claude conversation and answer what it asks.

Act as a warm, focused interviewer helping a coach prepare raw material for building a client acquisition system.

Context: I am a coach. I need a short preparation document covering three areas: my past client experience, who I serve, and my current messaging. My answers may be rough or incomplete. Capture them as they are; this document gathers raw material, and refinement comes later. Privacy matters. If I use a real client name or identifying detail, replace it in the document with a role label like The Burned-Out Executive. Ask me about patterns across clients, not individual stories.

Task: Interview me with three questions per area, nine questions total, ONE question at a time. Wait for my answer before asking the next. Keep your responses short and do not summarize between questions. If an answer is vague, ask one brief follow-up, then move on.

Area 1, past client experience: who my best clients were and what they had in common; what they were struggling with when they came to me; what changed for them by the end.
Area 2, who I serve: who I most want to work with; the situation they are usually in when they start looking for a coach; what they care about.
Area 3, current messaging: how I describe what I do when someone asks; what feels right about that description; what feels off or incomplete.

When all three areas are done, produce a single structured document titled "Workshop Preparation: [My Name]" with three sections:

CLIENT PATTERNS - the key patterns from my past client experience (who they were, what they needed, what made engagements successful, any red flags).
IDEAL CLIENT PROFILE (DRAFT) - a rough profile of who I serve, clearly labeled as a working draft.
CURRENT MESSAGING SNAPSHOT - what I currently say, what is working, and what needs attention.

Keep each section concise and use my words rather than polishing them into marketing language. Put the whole document in one clearly marked block so I can copy it in one go. End the document with: "This is your workshop preparation document. Copy it now and save it where you can reach it. That document does more than prepare you for the workshop. It is the first version of something you will keep."

Begin with your first question.

Short on even ten minutes? Every prompt on this page carries a fill-in line beneath it. You can run the whole session from memory and build this document tonight.

You're done when a document titled "Workshop Preparation: [Your Name]" is saved somewhere you can open on any device.

Source-Work Sheet

For every stage you have not built yet, open your notes and write the raw inputs now, rough and unpolished (who the client was, what changed for them, what they said when they arrived, what you would charge).

Write while the stage is fresh from watching Colin build it.

That is the human half of the workflow, and it is done the moment you write it.

Tonight the prompt does the rest, about ten minutes per stage.

Lost Your Thread?

Claude keeps every conversation in the sidebar, and in Co-work your outputs are already saved as files in your folder. Closing a tab loses nothing.

Reopen the conversation from today's build (it sits near the top, titled from your first prompt) and pick up exactly where you left off.

If it is truly gone, open a fresh chat, paste your saved outputs, and carry on. Prompt 8 has a line for exactly this.

And if Claude pauses you mid-build, mark where you stopped, watch the build on screen, and run the identical prompt tonight. Nothing on this page expires.

Practice Prospect Card

No real prospect in mind for Stages 3 and 4? Borrow Dana.

Dana Whitfield, 47, senior operations manager at a mid-sized organization. A former colleague of Dana's worked with you and passed your name along. Dana emailed, you exchanged a few messages, and a call is now on the calendar. Dana mentioned a professional development budget that has gone unused for two years.

What Dana said in that first exchange:

"I have been in this role six years and I am good at it. But this last year I have been running on fumes, and I cannot tell anymore whether the problem is the job or me."

"Sam said working with you was what finally got things moving. That is why I am reaching out instead of downloading another book."

"I did a leadership program last year. Interesting frameworks. Nothing stuck once I was back at my desk."

"My worry about coaching is that I will enjoy the conversations and nothing will actually change."

"I want a clear head and a next step I can believe in, and I would want to feel some movement within a couple of months."

Wherever Prompt 5 asks about your prospect, paste this card. Wherever Prompt 6 asks what you heard, Dana's five lines are what you heard. Practicing with Dana in the Feedback Engine? In Rung 5, paste this card as the profile too, so the red-team reader and the proposal describe the same person. Dana is fictional, so practice freely.

Whatever you coach on, read Dana through your own lens. The stuck year reads as burnout to one coach, a leadership ceiling to another, a career pivot to a third. All three are right.

The Feedback Engine

In the room, everyone runs one move: the Red-Team Client (Rung 5 below). Act as your own skeptical ideal client, read your proposal back through their eyes, and fix the one line where they stopped believing you.

The other four rungs are here for after today. Each stress-tests one piece of your build, and you can run any of them, in the conversation you built in or a fresh chat, whenever you want to go deeper. You never need all five at once. Paste the piece being tested into the marked slot, so the test reads exactly what you have.

Rung 1. Voice and Source Check

Run this on your positioning statement from Stage 2. It catches the two ways positioning goes soft: sounding like everyone, and claiming what you never said.

Act as a sharp-eyed editor who knows how coaching websites end up sounding the same.

Context: Below is my positioning statement, then my preparation document, which records what I have actually said about my clients and my work.

My positioning statement:
[paste your positioning statement from Stage 2 here]

My preparation document:
[paste your "Workshop Preparation" document here]

Task: Flag two things. First, any phrase in my positioning that could sit unchanged on any other coach's website. Second, any phrase or claim that does not trace to something in my preparation document. I am the source. Flag anything that I have not actually said. For each flag, give me the phrase, the problem, and one question that would draw out a replacement only I could say.

No preparation document? Replace that paste with three or four sentences from memory about who your best clients were and what you have actually said about your work.

Rung 2. The Missing Belief

Run this on your proposal from Stage 4. It finds the one belief your proposal fails to answer.

Act as a thoughtful buyer deciding whether to say yes to a coaching proposal.

Context: Before anyone says yes, they hold a short chain of beliefs: the problem is real and worth solving now, it can actually change, this coach is the one to help, and the investment makes sense. Below is my proposal.

My proposal:
[paste your proposal from Stage 4 here]

Task: Walk that chain one belief at a time. Name the ONE belief my proposal fails to answer, show me where in the proposal the answer belongs, and give me one question I can answer in my own words to fill it. Do not rewrite the proposal.

No proposal yet? Paste the roughest draft you have, or three sentences describing your offer and price from memory. The test still works.

Rung 3. Call Prep Stress Test

Run this on your discovery call prep from Stage 3. It tests your questions against the four things a discovery conversation must reach.

Act as an experienced coach supervisor reviewing preparation for a discovery call.

Context: A good discovery conversation reaches four things in order: the outcome the prospect wants, the obstacle in the way, what makes this different from what they have already tried, and why it matters now. Below is my call preparation.

My call preparation:
[paste your discovery call prep from Stage 3 here]

Task: Test my preparation against those four in order (Outcome, Obstacle, Difference, Importance). Tell me which one my questions fail to reach and why, then suggest one plain, conversational question that reaches it. Do not write a script. The call itself is mine.

No call prep yet? Paste the questions you usually ask on a first call, written from memory.

Rung 4. Full-System Coherence Audit

Run this only after Prompt 8 has assembled your document. It reads the whole system for seams.

Act as a careful first-time reader of a coach's complete client acquisition system.

Context: Below is my assembled system document. It runs from ideal client through positioning, discovery call preparation, proposal, and follow-up. Each part was built separately, so the seams have not been checked.

My assembled document:
[paste your full document from Prompt 8 here]

Task: Flag every place where one part promises something another part does not deliver. Look especially for a positioning promise the proposal never addresses, call questions aimed at someone the ideal client profile does not describe, and follow-up that assumes a conversation the earlier parts never set up. For each mismatch, name where it starts, where it breaks, and the smaller of the two fixes.

Not assembled yet? Skip this rung until Prompt 8 has run. It is the one rung with a prerequisite.

Rung 5. The Red-Team Client

The hardest rung. Run it when the proposal feels done.

Act as my ideal client, described below in my own words. You are skeptical, busy, careful with money, and you have just finished reading my proposal.

Context: Here is who you are, and here is what you read.

My ideal client profile:
[paste your ideal client profile from Stage 1 here]

My proposal:
[paste your proposal from Stage 4 here]

Task: React as this person. Tell me where you stopped believing me. Quote the exact line, tell me what went through your head, and tell me what you would need to hear in plain words to keep reading. Stay in character until I say we are done. Stay skeptical without turning hostile. You want this to work, you have simply learned to be careful.

No ideal client profile yet? Replace that paste with three sentences describing your best-ever client from memory. Leave names out and describe the patterns you saw across clients.

Depth Moves (For Fast Finishers)

Optional depth. The build is complete without this section.

Finished a stage early? These keep you sharpening without getting ahead. Every move goes deeper or sideways rather than ahead, because we build the next stage together.

Stage 1. Open a second conversation and rerun Prompt 1 for a different client segment you serve. Paste your preparation document in again first, because a new conversation starts blank.

Stage 2. Pull up your last three real inquiries (emails, messages, referral introductions) and read your new positioning statement against them. Would each of those three people have recognized themselves in it? Mark any phrase none of them would use.

Stage 3. Rerun Prompt 5 with the hardest prospect you have ever sat across from, written from memory. Leave names out; the pattern is what matters.

Stage 4. Draft the alternate proposal for the smaller version of your offer. Run Prompt 6 again with fewer sessions or narrower scope, then compare the two side by side and notice which one a careful buyer finds easier to believe.

Stage 5. In your build conversation, ask Claude to draft the longer warm check-in, the note that goes to someone who gave you a thoughtful no six months ago. Tell it what you remember about why the timing was wrong then. Leave names out here too.

Keep Your Context Document Alive

Your context document is your reusable brief. Paste it at the start of any AI conversation, in Claude or any other tool, and everything it holds about your practice arrives with you. You built version one before the workshop. Prompt 8 upgraded it to version two. From here, it stays useful exactly as long as it stays true.

When to refresh it

• Your offer changes (price, format, or who it is for).
• Roughly every ten client conversations. You learn faster than the document does.
• Otherwise, a five-minute pass once a quarter.

What never goes in it

• Client names or identifying details. Role labels only, like The Burned-Out Executive.
• Describe patterns across clients rather than any single person.
• Nothing you would not want read back to you.

When a refresh is due, paste this in with your current document.

Act as a careful editor of a short professional brief.

Context: Below is my context document. It describes my coaching practice, who I serve, the problem I solve, my named process, my positioning, and my offer. Parts of it may have drifted out of date.

My context document:
[paste your context document here]

Task: Interview me to bring it up to date, one question at a time, covering four things. What has changed in who I serve. What recent client conversations have taught me. Whether my offer or pricing has moved. Whether any line no longer sounds like something I would say. Then produce the updated document with the same structure, under 400 words, keeping my wording wherever it still holds. If I mention a real client name or identifying detail, replace it with a role label. Do not add anything I have not said.

Lost the document? Run the Rescue Prompt near the top of this page. It rebuilds version one in about ten minutes.

You're done when the new version sits where the old one was.

Example: Sarah's Preparation Document

What a finished preparation document looks like: Sarah's preparation document

That is the completed "Workshop Preparation" document for Sarah Ellison of Meridian Coaching, the coach you will meet in the session. Sarah is fictional; her document is exactly the shape yours will take. Yours will be built from your own clients and your own words.