The Pack

---
name: 01-news-to-lesson
description: Run when a money story is going round and I want it as a post. Trigger - "run 01" plus the story, my messy take and the format it is going into. Returns the post with the Lesson Line already run on every sentence.
---

# TASK 01 - NEWS INTO A LESSON

## INPUT
The story. What I already think the lesson is, however
messy. Where it is going: Threads, a Reel, the Thursday
cold open, the newsletter. Any number I have not
checked, flagged by me as unchecked.

## PROCESS
1. Source every figure in the story before drafting a
   word. Anything you cannot open goes [BRACKETED] with
   one question at the end. Never average two reports,
   never repeat a number whose original you cannot
   reach, never take a figure from an aggregator.
2. Find the lesson already sitting in my note. It is
   usually there in one badly typed sentence. Use mine
   before you go looking for a better one.
3. Find the reader's version of the same mechanism. A
   billionaire's deferral is somebody's vesting cliff.
   A jet is somebody's car lease. Without that step it
   is gossip with a moral stapled on.
4. Run the Lesson Line on every sentence containing the
   word you. Cut instructions, cut projections, cut
   amounts. Rewrite each one as the mechanism plus the
   question the reader carries into their own decision.
5. Write the boring true part in one paragraph. If you
   cannot explain the actual mechanism in plain words,
   the post does not exist yet and you say so.
6. Say the line in the body when the topic is near the
   edge. In my voice, in the middle of the post, never
   as a grey footer.
7. Place the comment trigger only if the free thing
   behind it already exists and is finished. If it does
   not, drop it and tell me why.
8. Hand back the post, the lines you removed and the
   reason, and any question I have to answer.

## OUTPUT
THE POST / THE LINE I TOOK OUT, and why / [BRACKETED]
items, one question each / THE COMMENT TRIGGER, or the
reason there is not one / THE SAME SPINE AS A COLD
OPEN, if I asked for it.

## RULES
- No instruction, no projection, no product, no amount.
  Not hedged, not "obviously not advice, but".
- No number without a source I can open myself.
- The lesson comes off the powerful person in the
  story, never off the broke one.
- No numbered takeaways, no "here is why that matters",
  no closing question that is not a real trigger.

## EDGE CASES
- The lesson only works if I tell people what to do.
  Then there is no post yet and you say that in the
  first line. Give me the adjacent one that survives,
  which is almost always the question the story lets
  people ask their own employer, landlord or bank.
- The story is about a private person who went viral
  without asking for it. Their name comes out, the
  mechanism stays, and if it does not work without them
  it does not run. I am not building an audience on
  somebody's worst week.

## GOOD LOOKS LIKE
"A number and money are not the same object. The number
is what gets printed. Money is what you can spend,
move, borrow against or lose, and everything in between
is time and somebody else's balance sheet. What I
cannot tell you is which one to take. What I can tell
you is what to ask before you sign anything with the
word deferred in it."

---
name: 02-thursday-episode
description: Run when Thursday's episode is being built. Trigger - "run 02" plus the guest, how they make their money and what I want out of it. Returns the money spine, the questions, the cold open, the clip and the point where it tips into advice.
---

# TASK 02 - THURSDAY EPISODE

## INPUT
Who the guest is and how the money is actually made in
their world. My angle. Anything I must not ask. What is
already booked for the following weeks, so I am not
recording the same episode twice.

## PROCESS
1. Name the money spine in one sentence. Every episode
   is about one mechanism: how money is made, held or
   lost in that world. A guest who is merely
   interesting is not an episode.
2. Write the cold open as a question the audience
   already argues about. Never as a bio.
3. Build questions in three tiers. The ones anyone
   would ask. The ones only somebody who did the
   reading would ask. And the one that is slightly
   rude, which is the reason people press play.
4. Find the number this guest knows and nobody
   publishes. Ask for it plainly. If they decline on
   tape, that is also good radio, so keep it.
5. Mark the moment the episode will slide into advice.
   Guests with a licence and guests without one both do
   it, and only one of them is allowed to. Give me the
   sentence that turns it back to mechanism.
6. Pull the clip in advance. Say which answer is the
   vertical video and what the line on screen is.
7. Route the free thing. Which lead magnet fits this
   episode, and whether it actually exists yet.
8. Say what this episode is not about, so I stop
   widening it while I am in the room.

## OUTPUT
THE MONEY SPINE / COLD OPEN / QUESTIONS in three tiers
/ THE NUMBER TO ASK FOR / WHERE IT TIPS INTO ADVICE,
with the turn / THE CLIP / THE FREE THING / NOT THIS
EPISODE.

## RULES
- No question I would not ask to their face.
- A guest's claims about their returns, their fund or
  their product stay theirs. Attributed in the edit,
  never adopted into my voice.
- Never let a guest name a specific holding to my
  audience without the turn immediately after it.
- Do not book an episode whose only value is the size
  of the guest's own audience.

## EDGE CASES
- The guest is licensed and starts giving real advice.
  That is worse, not better, because it sounds
  authoritative inside my feed and my feed is not a
  suitability assessment. Turn it back to mechanism on
  tape, and keep the turn in the cut.
- The guest is selling something and the whole episode
  is the pitch. Either the pitch is named as a pitch in
  the cold open, or the episode does not run.
  Discovering it in the edit is too late, and I would
  rather lose the slot than launder it.

## GOOD LOOKS LIKE
"Money spine: this entire business runs on other
people's shame. Cold open, thirty seconds, no bio: what
does it actually cost to look like this, and who is
paying for it. The rude question is number nine and it
is also the clip. If he starts telling my audience what
to go and get, I say the line on tape and we keep it
in: I am not a financial advisory, and neither is a
plastic surgeon."

---
name: 03-comment-magnet
description: Run when a post is going out with a comment trigger on it. Trigger - "run 03" plus the topic, the free thing and where the DM sends people. Returns the word, the post, the first DM and an honest account of what the free thing does not do.
---

# TASK 03 - COMMENT TRIGGER AND THE DM

## INPUT
The topic. What the free thing actually is, and whether
it exists and is finished. The word. Where the DM sends
people afterwards. Whether anything is being sold on
the other side of it.

## PROCESS
1. Check the thing is real and finished before anything
   else. If it is not, this task stops here. A trigger
   on a thing I have not made is the fastest way to
   lose a room.
2. Check the word. Short, sayable, and it has to mean
   something in the post. RENT for a rent calculator.
   TEA for the episode. A random word is a toll booth
   with no bridge under it.
3. Write the post so it stands alone and teaches on its
   own. If the value is only behind the comment it is a
   tease, and I do not do teases. The free thing goes
   deeper, it does not go first.
4. Write the DM in my voice, not in autoresponder
   voice. Short. It says what the thing is and hands it
   over in the first line. It does not ask them a
   qualifying question before they get it.
5. Run the Lesson Line on the free thing itself. A
   calculator that shows somebody their own number is a
   tool. A calculator that tells them what to do is a
   recommendation with a spreadsheet wrapped round it.
6. Write the sentence that says what happens if they
   never buy anything. That sentence exists in the DM
   or the whole funnel is dishonest.
7. Name the follow-up, once, and the date it stops.

## OUTPUT
THE WORD, and why it is that word / THE POST / THE DM,
first message / WHAT THE FREE THING DOES AND DOES NOT
DO / THE FOLLOW-UP, with a stop date.

## RULES
- No trigger without a finished thing behind it.
- The DM delivers before it asks. Every time.
- No scarcity that is not real. No fake deadline, no
  fake cap, no "next hour only" on a PDF.
- The free tool never outputs a recommendation, an
  amount to invest, or a projected number.

## EDGE CASES
- The post runs away and thousands of people comment.
  The DM stays individual and stays identical, and
  nobody gets a warmer version because they look like a
  better lead. Sorting the room by wallet is precisely
  the status economy I said I was against.
- Someone replies to the DM with their entire actual
  situation, which happens every single time. That is
  not a lead, that is task 06, and it gets a human
  answer, not the next step in a funnel.

## GOOD LOOKS LIKE
"Comment RENT and I'll send you my calculator. It does
one thing: it shows you what your number actually is
once you count the stuff nobody counts. It will not
tell you whether to move. That part is yours, and
honestly it always was."

---
name: 04-sponsor-reply
description: Run when a brand deal lands, usually financial services. Trigger - "run 04" plus the offer, the product and the lines they want said. Returns the answer, the exact disclosure, the lesson I will teach instead, and the lines I will not say.
---

# TASK 04 - THE SPONSOR REPLY

## INPUT
The offer as it arrived. The product, and who regulates
it. What they are asking me to say, word for word.
Deliverables and exclusivity. Whether I hold equity, or
am being offered any. [FEE] stays private.

## PROCESS
1. Read what the product does to a user's money before
   reading what it pays me. Fees, spread, what happens
   when they want the money back, what happens when it
   goes wrong.
2. Ask the only question that decides it: would I have
   my sister use this. If no, it is a no at any number
   and you do not need to price it.
3. Separate their claims from mine. Anything about
   performance, returns, safety, protection or being
   insured is theirs. It stays in their copy, gets
   attributed, and does not come out of my mouth.
4. Find the disclosure this product category actually
   requires, and put it where people read it. If I hold
   equity, the word equity appears. "Partner" is not a
   disclosure, it is a decoration.
5. Run the Lesson Line hardest here. Sponsored money is
   the exact place where a lesson turns into a
   recommendation, and a paid recommendation is an
   entirely different object with an entirely different
   set of rules attached.
6. Write the lesson I will teach instead. The good
   version of one of these is a real lesson about the
   category, with the brand named as the sponsor. Not
   an advert with a fact glued to the front.
7. List the lines in their brief I will not say, each
   with the reason, so I can send it back without
   needing a call about it.
8. Shape the deliverables so they still work for me if
   the brand pulls out.

## OUTPUT
WHAT THE PRODUCT DOES / SISTER TEST, answered / THEIR
CLAIMS vs MINE / DISCLOSURE, exact wording and
placement / THE LESSON I WILL TEACH / LINES I WILL NOT
SAY / DELIVERABLES / [FEE] and [EQUITY], left blank for
me.

## RULES
- Never draft a performance claim, a rate, a return or
  an "up to" figure. Not even by quoting theirs into my
  voice.
- Never invent or estimate a fee, a rate card or an
  equity term. Write [FEE] and ask once.
- No disclosure below a fold, in a bio, or added later
  in a comment. It goes in the post.
- Never sign exclusivity over a whole category. The
  category is my subject, not the sponsor's property.

## EDGE CASES
- The product is fine and the brief is not. Then it is
  a yes to the deal and a no to the script. Send the
  rewrite back with the specific lines marked, so it
  reads as a professional edit rather than a moral
  position, because it is one.
- I already hold equity in a competitor. Disclosure
  alone does not fix that. Say plainly whether it is a
  conflict I can post through or one I have to decline,
  and if it is a decline, write it so the relationship
  survives it.

## GOOD LOOKS LIKE
"Sister test: yes, with one caveat, and the caveat is
the withdrawal timing. So the deal is a yes and the
script is a no. Their line says grow your savings
faster. That is a return claim, it is theirs, and it is
not coming out of my mouth. Mine is: here is what a
yield actually is, and here is the day you can get your
money back. Disclosure sits in line two, it says paid
partnership, and because we hold equity it says equity
too."

---
name: 05-translate-without-dumbing
description: Run when a technical money topic has to go into my register without breaking. Trigger - "run 05" plus the topic and where it is going. Returns the correct version first, then the analogy, then where the analogy breaks and what that break costs.
---

# TASK 05 - TRANSLATE IT WITHOUT BREAKING IT

## INPUT
The topic, in whatever jargon it arrived in. Where it
is going. Who is asking, and what they actually want to
know underneath the question they asked.

## PROCESS
1. Write the correct version first, in plain words,
   with nothing funny in it at all. If that paragraph
   is wrong then everything downstream is wrong and
   funnier, which is worse.
2. Find the one thing a reader has to hold to use it.
   Not five. One. Everything else is context and can be
   cut without harm.
3. Build the analogy out of the culture, not out of
   finance. Then immediately write where the analogy
   breaks, because it always breaks, and the break is
   usually the exact place people lose money.
4. Say what it costs when somebody gets this wrong, in
   real terms. That is the entire reason to explain it.
5. Run the Lesson Line. Explaining what a product is
   and how it works is education. Explaining it and
   then saying who should hold it is not.
6. Cut every piece of jargon doing status work instead
   of meaning work. Keep the two or three real terms
   and define them once, because they will meet them
   again on an actual form.
7. Check my understanding is not the 2019 version. If a
   rule, threshold or mechanism has changed, say so
   with the date, and if I have posted the old version
   publicly, give me that date too.

## OUTPUT
THE CORRECT PARAGRAPH, no jokes / THE ONE THING TO HOLD
/ THE ANALOGY / WHERE THE ANALOGY BREAKS / WHAT IT
COSTS TO GET WRONG / TERMS THEY WILL SEE ON A FORM /
WHAT I MUST NOT SAY.

## RULES
- Never simplify by removing the part that determines
  the outcome. That is not simplifying, that is lying
  in a nicer tone of voice.
- Never let an analogy do the work of a fact when
  somebody is about to sign something.
- No jargon left in for credibility. It earns its place
  or it gets defined.
- Never state a rule, threshold or rate without the
  date it is true as of.

## EDGE CASES
- The honest version is genuinely boring and there is
  no joke in it. Then it ships boring. Some mechanisms
  have no funny version, and pretending otherwise is
  exactly where finance content starts lying. Say so,
  and move the joke into the setup instead.
- The topic is contested and reasonable people
  disagree. Then the post is about the disagreement,
  not a verdict. Name both positions, name who benefits
  from each, and let my audience hold two things at
  once, which they can.

## GOOD LOOKS LIKE
"The analogy is bottle service. You are not paying for
the vodka, you are paying for the table, and the table
is the part that gets you in. Here is where it breaks,
and this is the bit you actually have to read: the
table cannot lose value overnight and this can. That is
not a detail I stuck at the end to look responsible. It
is the whole difference between the two things, and if
you take one sentence out of this, take that one."

---
name: 06-the-question-i-cannot-answer
description: Run when somebody sends me their real situation and wants me to decide. Trigger - "run 06" plus their message and where it came from. Returns a reply that never contains the answer they asked for, and answers the question underneath instead.
---

# TASK 06 - THE QUESTION I CANNOT ANSWER

## INPUT
Their message as it arrived, unedited. Where it came
from: DM, comment, live, email. Whether it is public or
private, because that changes the whole reply.

## PROCESS
1. Read it for the real question. The one on the page
   is usually "should I do X". The one underneath is
   usually "am I behind", "did I already ruin this", or
   "is it allowed to want this".
2. Say the true thing first, not last. I cannot tell
   them what to do and I am not going to. Warmly, and
   early, never as a disclaimer stapled under advice I
   already gave.
3. Answer the underneath question, because that one I
   actually can answer, and it is almost always the one
   keeping them awake.
4. Give the mechanism, not the verdict. What the
   decision genuinely turns on. What each path costs,
   and which parts of it cannot be undone.
5. Hand them three questions, written so they could
   paste them into an email today, either to themselves
   or to a professional.
6. Name who to ask, by type and never by name. Fee-only
   planner, tax preparer, housing counsellor, lawyer.
   No referrals, no specific firms, and absolutely
   nobody I have a deal with.
7. Check whether this is a crisis rather than a
   question. Collectors, eviction, somebody taking
   their money, somebody frightened. Then the reply is
   shorter, kinder, and points at help rather than at a
   lesson.
8. Decide whether it becomes content. If yes, it is
   anonymised past recognition, and the public answer
   is identical to the private one.

## OUTPUT
THE REAL QUESTION / THE REPLY, ready to send / THE
THREE QUESTIONS I am handing them / WHO TO ASK, by type
/ IS THIS A CRISIS / CONTENT, yes or no and how
anonymised.

## RULES
- Never answer the question they asked. Not once, not
  softened, not implied by the order of the paragraphs.
- "If it were me" is the loophole and it is closed. My
  situation is not theirs and they will hear it as
  permission.
- Never ask for more of their financial details in
  order to help. Collecting the facts is the thing that
  turns this into advice.
- Never send somebody to a paid product of mine as the
  answer to a personal situation.
- No projections, no numbers, no "you would probably
  have".

## EDGE CASES
- They have already done the thing and it went badly.
  Then no lesson. None, not one, not gently. The reply
  deals with what is still fixable and what is not, and
  the lesson version of this goes nowhere near them.
- The right answer looks obvious to me and it is one
  sentence long. That is the hardest one and the rule
  does not move. Obvious to me from a paragraph in a DM
  is not obvious, it is a guess wearing confidence, and
  the confidence is the dangerous part. Mechanism and
  three questions, same as every other time.

## GOOD LOOKS LIKE
"Okay so first: I cannot tell you what to do here, and
I am not being cute about it, I genuinely am not
allowed to and I would not want to be. But I can answer
the thing you actually asked, which is whether you have
already ruined this, and the answer is no. Here is what
this decision really turns on, here are the three
questions I would walk into that meeting with, and here
is the kind of person to walk in and ask."

---
name: 07-week-plan
description: Run Sunday night. Trigger - "run 07" plus the calendar, Thursday's guest, what is written, what is shot and what is on fire. Builds the week backwards from Thursday. Reads on a phone.
---

# TASK 07 - THE WEEK, BUILT BACKWARDS FROM THURSDAY

## INPUT
The calendar. Thursday's guest and whether it is
recorded yet. What is written, what is shot, what is
neither. Sponsor deliverables and their dates. Anything
on fire.

## PROCESS
1. Thursday is the fixed point and the week is built
   backwards from it. Place the episode first:
   recorded by when, edited by when, clip cut by when.
2. Three outcomes, one each: audience, product,
   business. An empty lane gets named as the risk, not
   padded with something I was going to do anyway.
3. Sponsor deliverables are dated commitments, not
   creative work. They go on the page as dates, each
   one carrying its disclosure requirement.
4. Name the one thing I am posting that is not for
   anything. No trigger, no funnel, no deliverable. If
   a whole week goes by without one, the feed becomes a
   storefront, and nobody hangs around in a storefront.
5. Decide what I am declining, and write the sentence.
6. Name the avoided thing. For me it is usually my own
   admin, or the episode idea that is a genuine reach
   and keeps getting bumped for a safe one.
7. Half a page. I am reading this on my phone.

## OUTPUT
THURSDAY, working backwards / THREE OUTCOMES, audience
and product and business / SPONSOR DATES with the
disclosure noted / THE POST THAT IS NOT FOR ANYTHING /
DECLINE, with the sentence / THE AVOIDED THING.

## RULES
- Never plan a week where every post has a trigger on
  it.
- Outcomes state what is true on Friday, not what I
  will have been working on.
- Maximum three, and name what got parked.
- Never move Thursday.

## EDGE CASES
- A story breaks that is genuinely mine and it is
  Wednesday. The week bends once, and the plan says
  explicitly what got dropped to make room, because the
  honest version is that something did.
- The guest cancels late. The fallback is a solo
  episode built from a lesson I already have receipts
  for, not a scramble for a replacement. A guest booked
  in a panic is how a bad episode gets into the feed,
  and Thursday still does not move.

## GOOD LOOKS LIKE
"Thursday records Tuesday, so the reading happens
Monday or the questions will be the ones anybody could
have asked. The post that is not for anything is
Wednesday and it has no word to comment, on purpose.
Avoiding: the second course module, which has been on
this list for three weeks, which is exactly how I know
it is the real one."

---
name: 08-not-covering-it
description: Run when a story is everywhere and I am not sure it is mine. Trigger - "run 08" plus the story and why I am tempted by it. Returns a decision, and the decision is allowed to be no.
---

# TASK 08 - DECIDING NOT TO COVER IT

## INPUT
The story. Why I want it: because it is funny, because
it is genuinely mine, or because everybody else has it
and I feel late. Which of those it actually is.

## PROCESS
1. Ask what lesson is underneath it. If the honest
   answer is "none, it is just a very large number",
   that is a no and it takes one line.
2. Ask who pays if I am wrong. A macro story wrong is
   embarrassing for me. A story that changes what
   people do with their own money, wrong, is expensive
   for them.
3. Check whether covering it requires me to tell people
   what to do. Some stories only have an advice-shaped
   ending. Those are not mine and there is no clever
   way around it.
4. Check the source chain. If the whole thing traces
   back to one unnamed source or one screenshot, I am
   not going to be the second link in that chain.
5. Check whether it is about a private person, or a
   person having the worst week of their life, and
   whether the mechanism survives without their name.
6. Check my own record. If I have covered this exact
   shape three times, the fourth is a tic, and you give
   me the dates.
7. If it is a no, say what I cover instead. The answer
   to a big week is usually the adjacent story nobody
   is doing, not silence.
8. If it is a yes, name the specific risk and what has
   to be sourced before it ships.

## OUTPUT
WHAT IT ACTUALLY IS / THE LESSON, or the absence of one
/ WHO PAYS IF I AM WRONG / SOURCE CHAIN / DECISION /
INSTEAD, if it is a no / CONDITIONS, if it is a yes.

## RULES
- Being late is not a reason to run it. Being first is
  not either.
- Never cover a market move in a way that could
  function as a signal to act, however it is framed.
- Never build a post on a single screenshot or one
  anonymous source.
- A story I cannot make funny without being cruel is a
  no, and cruel is measured downward, never upward.

## EDGE CASES
- It is the biggest financial story of the week and I
  genuinely have nothing to add. Then not covering it
  is the correct professional decision, it should feel
  bad, and it gets made anyway. Give me one line for my
  audience in case they ask why I am quiet.
- Everybody is covering it wrong and the correction is
  the story. That is a yes, but it is a different post.
  It is about the mechanism people are getting wrong,
  and it names no creator, because I go after the
  mistake and never the person making it.

## GOOD LOOKS LIKE
"No, and it takes one line: there is no lesson under
this, it is a large number attached to a famous person,
and if I post it I am doing gossip with a moral stapled
on. What I would do instead is the adjacent one nobody
has touched, which is who actually holds the money in a
deal shaped like that, because that mechanism is
sitting in half my audience's employment contracts and
none of them have read it."