It’s true, there’s really nothing scarier than a blank page. Starting to work on a new program can be pretty daunting. But you can make it loads easier, if you just have a playbook to work from.
This week, we’re walking you through the first step in our systematic approach to creating a new program from scratch in Nudge: “Creating Your Ideal Client Story”, so you can stop wasting time staring at that blank page and start building momentum towards your next launch.
This series will give you a system, a structured creative process for planning and mapping out your next program.
If you are a subject matter expert and you really know your stuff, but you've never put together a program to coach others through it, then this system is for you
If you're thinking, "I've put together programs before but the beginning of the process, the blank page and the writers block is just so frustrating and it takes so much time," then this system is for you.
Whether you're a coach, or a program director, or a subject matter expert the core truth here is that the creative process is hard.
Our goal is to help you break through the hardest part, which is simply to start, to begin to put useful ink on the page, that initial text on paper so you can start shaping your programs faster.
Today is all about where to start.
The Mindset to Bring to Program Creation
As I already said, the creative process isn't easy. It's much like the process for behavior change. It's never linear and progress has it's peaks and valleys.
Know and accept this going in. Because if you fight through it. If you persevere, then it will all be worth it.
I'll give you a fun word that my grandfather used to use for the mindset your need to have…
“Spizzerinctum”
It means the will to win, the will to succeed. In this case, the will to push on when the outcome isn't yet clear. If you persevere, your program be worth it.
When you ever feel yourself spiraling towards giving up. Remind yourself of this word. Let it be your mantra as you push through.
A Mental Model for the Creative Process
I'm going to use a metaphor that I'm stealing from Julian Shapiro to give you a mental picture of how I think the creative process works…
He calls it The Creatvity Faucet:
Visualize your creativity as a backed up pipe of water. The first mile of piping is packed with wastewater. This wastewater must be emptied before the clear water arrives.
Because your pipe only has one faucet, there's no shortcut to achieving clarity other than first emptying the wastewater.
At the beginning of a writing session, you must write out every bad idea that reflexively comes to mind. Instead of being self-critical and resisting these bad ideas, you must openly accept them.
Once the bad ideas are emptied, strong ideas begin to arrive.
Here's Why: Once you've generated enough bad output, your brain re-aligns to stop producing the bad elements. It intuitively avoids them. It starts pattern-matching novel ideas going forward.
Most people never get past their wastewater. They resist their bad ideas.
If you've opened a blank document, scribbled a few thoughts, then walked away because you weren't struck with gold, then you didn't get past it.
Neil and Ed know they're not superhuman. They simply respect the reality of human creativity: The brain has a rigid, linear pipeline for creativity, and it's inefficient to fight it. In every creative session, they allot time for clearing the wastewater.
They are not worrying whether clear water will eventually come. It always does…
Step 1: Write your “Ideal Client Story”
Imagine you just finished working with your ideal client for this program, and they got the ideal result they were hoping to achieve from working with you.
Write the story (in narrative form) of your client’s experience from signing up, to their end result.
But don't write it from your perspective - write in the 1st person from the perspective of your ideal client.
Why should I write in the 1st person?
Joanna Wiebe, founder of Copyhackers.com explained why writing in the 1st person makes sense in her rules for copy that converts (from their 10x Web Copy course):
“What sounds better than the stuff going on in my own head as the person visiting your page, right? So first person wherever possible.”
As you write out this narrative journey, include all the juicy details of what this client experienced along the way:
What did they come to you wanting to achieve?
Why is it so important to them?
What challenges did they feel like they needed help overcoming?
How did they find you?
What about their history made your program feel like a fit for them? Why did they choose you?
How did they feel as you were onboarding them? At each stage of their journey?
What key insights, new understandings, realizations did they have to gain along the way?
What new habits/practices/rituals helped them achieve their goal?
What did their success look like? How did it feel?
Next Step - from long-form Story to Clean, Succinct Outline
Once your Ideal Client Story is fully written out in detail - again, it doesn’t have to be perfect at this point, just get it all down - then, below it or on a separate page, use the details from your story to create a succinct outline of the step-by-step journey your Ideal Client took.
Make sure you add a bullet for each new meaningful step your Ideal Client experienced, each new milestone they hit and so on.
Do your best at this stage to consider whether the order of the steps and new learnings your client experiences make sense, and make some tweaks as needed.
But don’t get too bogged down for now. We have a couple of additional exercises coming that will help you optimize your outline from here.
This outline is the first draft of the playbook you’ll use to bring your new program to life.
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