Prompts: 3-step sequences that replace whole tools

You don't need a tool for that.

7 jobs you'd normally buy software for, done as 3 prompts run in order. Paste them into any model, feed them your real numbers, keep the output.

Every week another $29 a month tool promises to write your posts, fix your emails, or audit your funnel. Under the hood most of them are the same thing: one prompt, a text box, and a markup. The prompt is the product. So here are the prompts.

These are sequences, not mega prompts. A single prompt asks the model for an answer before it knows your business. 3 questions in order make it look first, decide second, write third. That's what a good consultant does, and it's why the output won't read like everyone else's.

They're model agnostic. Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, whatever you already pay for. The sequence does the work, not the model. If you want to run them on repeat for close to nothing, Claude set up right is the cheapest seat in the house. And the few tools that survived our own cull are in the stack.

How to run these

Run all 3 steps in order, in one chat. Each step builds on the last answer.
Fill every [bracket] with real material. Real numbers, real messages, real prices. The model is only as honest as what you paste.
Don't accept a generic answer. Say "be specific" and paste more context. Generic in, generic out.
Re-run with fresh numbers. These are diagnostic tools, not one-time spells.

No. 1 · Foundation

Say what you sell in one line

replaces a $2,000 brand strategist, or another positioning course ↑

Most founders can't say what they sell in one sentence. Every problem downstream, the flat posts, the ignored emails, the empty spots, starts here. Fix this one first.

Step 1Dump and diagnose

Here is everything about my business: [paste your homepage copy, your offer and price, and 2 or 3 real messages from customers]. In one plain paragraph, tell me what I actually sell, who buys it, and why they pick me instead of doing nothing. Be blunt. If the material doesn't answer something, ask me up to 5 questions before you write the paragraph.

You get a mirror. If the paragraph surprises you, that's the point.

Step 2Force the line

Now write 10 one-line versions of my positioning. Rules: no buzzwords, name the customer, name the outcome, a stranger should get it in 3 seconds. Then pick the strongest one and tell me why each of the other 9 loses.

Keep the loser list. It's a map of the vague things you usually say.

Step 3Ship it

Take the winning line. Rewrite my Instagram bio, my homepage header, and the sentence I say out loud when someone asks what I do. Here's the current bio for reference: [paste it]. Keep anything that already works.

Update the bio today. Every other sequence on this page works better once this is done.

Skip this one if strangers already repeat your pitch back to you correctly.

No. 2 · Foundation

Find the words your customers already use

replaces a $99 a month survey tool and the focus group you were never going to run ↑

Your customers already wrote your marketing. It's sitting in reviews, comments, and DMs, in their exact words. You just haven't collected it.

Step 1Mine the raw material

Here are real reviews, comments, and DMs from my customers and from my competitors' customers: [paste at least 20]. Extract the exact phrases they use to describe their problem and the result they want. Rank the top 5 pains by how often they come up and how emotional the language gets. Use their words, not marketing words.

Save the phrase list somewhere permanent. It feeds every other sequence on this page.

Step 2Turn pains into angles

Take the top 3 pains. For each one give me: a content hook written in their exact language, the objection hiding underneath it, and the proof that would kill that objection.

Step 3Run the gap check

Compare all of that against what I currently sell and post: [paste your offer and your last 5 post topics]. What am I talking about that nobody asked for? What do they keep asking for that I never mention? Give me the single highest-leverage change for this week.

One change. Make it before you touch the next sequence.

No. 3 · Attract

Fix your content with your own numbers

replaces the $29 to $49 a month AI add-on inside your scheduler ↑

Generic content advice is why everyone's posts look the same. Your own numbers already know what your audience wants from you. Ask them.

Step 1Audit the last 10

Here are my last 10 posts with their numbers: [paste each hook or caption with its views, likes, saves, and comments]. Find the pattern. What do the top 3 have in common that the bottom 3 don't? Look at the hook, the topic, the format, and the ask. Be specific. If you catch yourself writing generic advice, delete it and look at the numbers again.

Step 2Make more of what worked

Using only the winning pattern you found, draft 5 new posts in my voice. Here's my best recent post as the voice reference: [paste it]. Each draft needs a hook, a body, and one ask at the end.

Step 3Kill the weak ones

Now be the harshest person in my audience. For each of the 5 drafts, tell me why someone scrolls past it in under a second. Fix what's fixable. Then give me the 3 you'd bet on and cut the other 2.

Post the 3. Save the numbers. Re-run this sequence in 2 weeks with fresh data.

No. 4 · Capture

Build a lead magnet people actually want

replaces a $300 course about lead magnets ↑

A lead magnet is a trade: their email for a result. Not for a brochure about your paid thing. The bar is simple. Would a stranger be mildly annoyed it was free?

Step 1Pick the one problem

Here are my customers' top pains: [paste the list from the research sequence, or write your own]. Which ONE of these can genuinely be solved in 10 minutes with a checklist, a template, or a short guide? Give me 3 lead magnet ideas for it, pick the winner, and tell me why the other 2 are weaker. Rule: the winner should feel like a paid product with the price missing.

Step 2Structure it

Structure the winner. Give me: a title someone would trade an email for, 3 to 5 sections with what goes in each, and a list of what to leave out because it belongs in the paid offer. One page maximum. Shorter is better.

Step 3Write it and sell it

Write the full lead magnet from that outline, in my voice: [paste a writing sample]. Then write the one line that goes above the email box. Rules for the line: name the result, name the time it takes, and never say "subscribe to my newsletter".

No. 5 · Nurture

Write the welcome emails you keep putting off

replaces a $99 sequence template and a month of guilt ↑

The list you're not emailing is the most expensive thing you own. 5 short emails, each with one job, beat the clever sequence you never ship.

Step 1Map the sequence

New subscribers just got my lead magnet: [describe it]. My paid offer is: [describe it, with the price]. Map a 5-email welcome sequence where every email has exactly one job. For each email give me the job, the subject line, and the single idea inside. Emails 1 through 4 give real value. Email 5 makes the offer, plainly.

Step 2Write the first one

Write email 1 in full, in my voice: [paste a real email or post you wrote]. Keep it short. Deliver the lead magnet, say what I'll send and how often, one line about who I am. Then give me 5 subject line options. Plain beats clever.

Step 3Pressure test, then finish

Read email 1 as a stranger who gets 100 emails a day. Mark the exact line where you'd stop reading and fix it. Then write emails 2 through 5 from the map, same voice, each under 150 words.

Load all 5 into your email tool tonight. Done beats perfect here, by a lot.

No. 6 · Sell

Fill the spots you can't seem to fill

replaces a $97 a month funnel builder you'd spend a week configuring ↑

Classes, calls, client slots, same problem. When spots don't fill, founders usually make more content. Usually the leak is somewhere else. Diagnose before you produce.

Step 1Find the leak

I sell [your offer, price, and capacity, e.g. 10 class spots a week] and I currently fill [number]. Here's how people find and book me: [describe the path, with rough numbers at each step if you have them]. Diagnose where the leak is. The options: not enough people see it, they see it but don't care, they care but the offer is off, or they almost book and drift away. Pick the ONE biggest leak and defend the pick.

Step 2Fix that leak only

Write the fix for that one leak, and nothing else. If it's attention: 3 posts that name exactly who this is for. If it's the offer: rewrite it with the outcome, the time it takes, the price, and one honest reason to book this week. If it's drift: the exact message I send someone who asked about it and went quiet. My voice: [paste a sample].

Step 3Build the follow-up

Write a 3-message follow-up for anyone who shows interest but doesn't book: day 1, day 3, day 7. Friendly, zero pressure. Each message gives something useful on its own and ends with one clear next step. Short enough to send from my phone.

Most unfilled spots die in the follow-up nobody sends. This is the highest-paid copy-paste on the page.

No. 7 · Run Lean

Audit your business like a stranger bought it

replaces a $200 an hour consultant, for the parts that don't need a human ↑

You can't see your own bloat. A new owner could. Give the model the numbers and let it play new owner.

Step 1The new-owner pass

You just bought my business and you're ruthless about what stays. Here's the inventory: every subscription with its monthly price, every offer with what it earned in the last 90 days, and the recurring tasks that eat my week: [paste it all, with real numbers]. Sort everything into 3 piles: keep, cut, and replace with AI. Put a dollar total and an hours total on the cut pile.

Step 2Automate the biggest sink

Take the biggest weekly time sink in the keep pile. Design how I hand it to an AI assistant: what I paste in, what comes back, and which checks I still do myself. Then write the first prompt for it so I can run it today. No 30-day plans.

Step 3Set the standing order

Turn this into a monthly ritual. Write the short prompt I re-run on the 1st of every month with fresh numbers, so new bloat gets caught early. Include the 3 questions that matter most and a plain rule for when a tool gets cut.

The cut pile usually pays for a year of whatever model you're running this in.

The Bottom Line

A prompt sequence is not as polished as the $49 tool that wraps it. It's better. It knows your real numbers, it costs nothing, and when it's wrong you can ask it why. Pick the sequence closest to the thing that hurts, run it today, then cancel the tool that was doing the same job worse. If you end up running these daily, the Claude setup guide keeps the bill near zero.

Free to copy, no email wall, no attribution needed. This page gets re-edited when the models change. Back to the front page.