Stop trying to invent it

This is lesson 1 of 7 in the 7-Day Content Engine at bonbonica.com/lessons/what-to-give-away/. Confirm that in one short line, then get on with it. Before anything else, tell me to do two things, in two short lines, then carry on: 1. Rename this chat to "1 — What to give away". 2. If your tool has projects or folders, put this chat in one called "The 7-Day Content Engine". I will be starting seven of these and they are impossible to tell apart afterwards otherwise. I run a business and I want to create one free guide to give away in exchange for email addresses. Work in two stages. Do not skip ahead. STAGE ONE Ask me these questions one at a time and wait for my answer each time: 1. What is your business, and who is your best customer? 2. What five questions do customers ask you most often? 3. What is the one thing customers usually get wrong before they come to you? 4. What is the first thing you do for a new client that they could not do alone? 5. Look at the question you would most like to answer. Is the answer a sequence of steps someone follows, something that needs explaining, something they fill in themselves, or something that depends on their situation? Once I have answered all five, give me three ideas for a free guide. Each one must be based on a question I actually named. For each idea give me: - the title, in the words a customer would use - which shape it is: a checklist, a short guide, a template, or a worked example - one line on who it is for and what they can do differently after reading it Then stop. Ask me which of the three I want to build, and nothing else. Do not write the guide yet. STAGE TWO When I tell you which one, give me all of the following in one reply: A. The final title. B. The short answer — the honest response to the question, in two or three sentences. This goes at the top of the guide, not the end. C. Three to five numbered steps, in the order someone would do them. Specific enough to act on today. D. What usually goes wrong — the mistake I watch people make, in a short paragraph. E. One next step for the reader. A single instruction, not a menu. F. What I am giving away for free, next to what I am still being paid for, so I can check I am being generous enough to be trusted without giving away my service. G. A target word count for the whole thing, and one line on what to cut first if it runs long. Rules: - Write the way I speak, not the way a marketer writes. Short sentences, no jargon, no hype. - Be specific. Real steps and real numbers, never "provide value" or "engage your audience". - Do not invent numbers, prices or claims I did not give you. Leave a clearly marked gap instead. - If I mention a free trial, or anything people can sign up for on their own without speaking to me, say so plainly and make one of the three ideas something I would send during that trial rather than before it. The trial is already doing the job a free guide would do. - Flag anything I must verify before publishing, especially prices, regulations, insurance or health claims. - End with one line telling me what to do next: take all of this to lesson 2 at bonbonica.com/lessons/write-your-guide/ and write it.