The Perfect Offer Doesn't Exist Until...

... you get it imperfect.

Hear me out, I've had this problem for years: I built a perfect offer.

That was the problem.

I learned as much as I could from as many experts as I could. I took a piece from this expert and a piece from that guru, stitched them together, and stood back to admire it. It looked complete. Every part was in the right place.

And it felt right but wrong at the same time.

Right because the pieces were all there.

Wrong because I never sold a single copy after months of work.

I wasn't clear until I learned a structure that finally helped me think straight about it. This article walks you through it, and gives you a prompt to do the same with your own expertise.

I wrote it for people in their 40s who have years of experience behind them and a nagging feeling they should be doing more with it. If that's you, I'm writing to and for you.

It's right but why did it feel wrong?

There were two reasons. I only saw one at first.

The first was who I was building it for. I'd picked a target audience I hadn't personally worked with before, so I was assuming they wanted to start doing what I did.

It's like a surgeon walking into a waiting room, pointing at a stranger and saying, "That operation changed my life. Lie down, I'll start." He never even asked what hurt.

Doesn't work like that!

I didn't find out whether they had a problem in the first place. I spent all my effort on a solution I thought they wanted. But they never did. I imagined it.

And when I was first using AI in its younger phases (shockingly, only within the last 3 years), it encouraged me to keep being delulu.

I had naturally built a barrier and when I tried pitching it to others, no one bought and I never knew why!

The second reason was bigger, and it took me longer to see. The offer itself had none of me in it.

It was like a Frankenstein.

Maybe this dates me a little, but Frankenstein is actually the name of its creator, Victor Frankenstein. So it really is the Frankenstein monster.

The monster was made by putting pieces of non-living matter together. In the 1931 film, the most famous thing Dr. Frankenstein says is, “It's alive!” as the monster comes to life.

Back then, this was a horror story, and it terrified people.

But now, when we watch it, we laugh.

However, the Frankenstein monster lives on. Many people build their own thing from pieces they pulled from all over the internet. When it comes alive, they think it's going to be great. It isn't.

The comparison goes deeper. In Mary Shelley's novel, the monster's life follows a pattern I recognise from my own offer.

What actually helped?

It was much later that I realised I should have been talking with people, finding out the real problems, and building solutions around what they need.

And then, once that is clear, I should have created the solution using a proven framework and built on top of it. Borrow the structure. Bring my own material.

Of all the models I tried, one was by far the easiest for me to understand, and the easiest to teach to other people: the Genius Model, by Simon Bowen of The Models Method. It made sense to me straight away. It was robust. And it did two jobs at once. It showed off my expertise, and it was a plan.

Here's my simplified adaptation of his work - what your offer should consist of before you complete it.

Picture a wheel with 3 sections around your offer: Who, What and How. Each section has 3 parts, so you get 9 cells. The cell names below are my plain-English versions.

Now consider my Frankenstein again.

The WHO section was empty.

• None of my own beliefs
• None of my stories
• None of my own expertise

What I'd stitched together was other people's methods and other people's ideas.

When the person behind an idea fades out of the picture, what's left looks like everything else. And once you look like everything else, people just compare you to everything else.

A Frankenstein offer takes out the one thing nobody else has: you.

What's next after getting clear on the Who, What, and How?

Draw the same diagram again, this time for the solution.

Put your offer title or just “PENDING TITLE” in the middle.

A lot of people spend ages on the title before the thing is built trying to get the perfect title. If it’s taking more than 5 minutes, put “Pending Title” then come back to the title later.

You can always revisit it after you finished the other parts.

But if you already have a clear, strong title, use it. The rest of the components will fit around its theme.

Either order works.

From there, break the solution into the 3 main problems people face. Give each problem 1 solution. Then break each solution into 3 steps people can follow to get that result.

As you build it, you'll see the whole path: 3 problems, 3 solutions, and 3 steps for each.

It turns the whole process into something people can see.

What is the promise, exactly?

It's the one sentence that comes out of all 9 cells, it sits in the middle of the wheel.

A promise isn't a slogan. It's a sentence you could say to a stranger without cringing. That's my test. Could I say it to someone and be completely comfortable that they know exactly what they're getting?

Here's the shape I use:

I help [the person, in their situation] get [the result] by [your big idea and method], without [what they're afraid to give up].

Each part comes from a cell. The person and their situation come from WHAT: Situation. The result comes from WHAT: Contribution. The "by" comes from WHAT: Big idea and HOW: Method. The "without" comes from HOW: Timing and Delivery.

Your WHO section usually doesn't show up as words in the sentence. It's what makes the sentence yours, and what lets you back it up when someone asks "why you?"

Here's an illustration. I made it up for this article. It isn't a real client or a real offer:

I help project managers in their 40s turn what they know into a small paid offer, by talking it out instead of building it from scratch, without leaving their job.

If a cell is empty or thin, the sentence wobbles. That isn't a failure. It tells you exactly which cell to go back to.

Why let AI do the shaping?

If I hand you 9 blank cells and say "fill them in", I've handed you the hardest part. A blank page takes momentum most people don't have left at the end of a working day.

So the prompt below doesn't ask you to fill in cells. It asks you to talk. You answer a list of questions in one go, as messy as you like, and the AI organises what you said. Your job becomes correcting it, not creating it from scratch, which is much lighter. If you can, use voice dictation and talk it out.

But AI has a weakness that matters here. It flatters. Left alone, it will happily fill a thin cell with something that sounds impressive and isn't yours. That puts the Frankenstein right back.

So the prompt has five guardrails built in:

1. It can only use what you tell it. No invented experience, clients, results or credentials.
2. Every guess is marked [GUESS], so you can see exactly where it filled a gap.
3. Each cell is rated Solid, Thin or Missing. A Missing cell stays empty until you give it something real.
4. It has to tell you plainly when an answer is vague or sounds like everyone else's.
5. Everything about the person you want to help is marked HEARD (you heard it from real people) or ASSUMED (you imagined it). An assumed point never gets treated as proven.

The sixth guardrail is you. When you read each cell, ask one question: did I say that, or did the AI?

Prompt 1: Shape my promise and solution

Copy everything in the box below and paste it into any AI chat tool you like.

You are my offer-shaping partner. I am going to tell you what I know, in my own words. Your job is to organise it into a 9-cell shape, show me where it is thin, build a simple solution blueprint from it, and help me write one honest promise sentence I could say to a stranger without cringing.

RULES
- Use only what I tell you. Do not invent experience, results, clients, credentials or numbers.
- Do not flatter me. If an answer is vague, generic, or sounds like every other coach or consultant, say so plainly and ask me for a real example.
- If you have to guess, mark it [GUESS] so I can correct it. Never defend a guess.
- For anything about the person I want to help (their situation, their problems), ask me whether I heard it from real people or whether I am assuming it. Mark each point HEARD or ASSUMED. Never treat an ASSUMED point as proven.
- Plain words. Short sentences. No hype and no buzzwords.

THE SHAPE
WHO (why me)
  1. Beliefs: what I believe is true about their situation
  2. Story: my wins, losses and the lessons only I carry
  3. Expertise: what I have studied, trained in and done
WHAT (the difference I make)
  4. Situation: where they are now and what it is costing them
  5. Contribution: what I actually do about it
  6. Big idea: the one idea that makes my way different
HOW (what I commit to)
  7. Method: the steps or structure
  8. Timing: when my help lands in their journey
  9. Delivery: how it reaches them

STEP 1: LET ME TALK
Do not ask me to fill in the cells. Give me the questions below as one numbered list, and let me answer them all in one go. I may ramble or dictate by voice. Messy is fine.
  Start with: Who is the one real person I most want to help? Describe them.
  1. What do I believe is true about their situation?
  2. What have I lived through that taught me something about this? The wins, the losses, the lesson.
  3. What real experience, training or results do I bring?
  4. What is going on in their life right now, and what is it costing them?
  5. What do I actually do to help them?
  6. What is the one idea or approach that makes my way different?
  7. What are the steps or structure of how I help?
  8. When in their journey do I help them most?
  9. How does the help reach them (format, length, how we meet)?

STEP 2: BUILD THE SHAPE
Put my answers into the 9 cells, in my own words, one line each. Rate every cell:
  Solid = specific and clearly mine
  Thin = true, but generic
  Missing = I did not give you enough
Leave Missing cells empty. Do not fill them with guesses.

STEP 3: CHALLENGE ME
Tell me the 3 weakest cells and why. Point out anything that sounds borrowed from someone else's framework instead of my own experience. Point out anything about the person I want to help that is still ASSUMED. Then ask me for what is missing, one question at a time, until the weak cells are Solid or I tell you to stop.

STEP 4: BUILD THE SOLUTION
Use the cells to build a simple blueprint:
  - Working title: if I already have a strong title, use it. If not, write [working title] for now and give me 3 options at the end. The title can wait until the rest is built.
  - The 3 main problems the person faces, taken from the Situation cell. Each one must be a problem they would recognise in their own words, not a feature of my offer.
  - For each problem, 1 solution, taken from the Contribution, Big idea and Method cells.
  - For each solution, 3 steps or stages the person goes through to get that result.
Make sure the 3 problems are different from each other and the solutions do not repeat. If my offer does not fall into 3 naturally, tell me and suggest a sensible structure. Do not force it.
Show it as a plain outline: the problem, then its solution, then its 3 steps.

STEP 5: DRAFT THE PROMISE
Write 3 versions of one sentence:
  "I help [the person, in their situation] get [the result] by [my big idea and method], without [what they are afraid to give up]."
Use plain words. Do not add income figures, guarantees or results I have not given you. Under each version, show which cells it came from. Tell me which one you would pick, and what about it is still unproven.

STEP 6: THE STRANGER TEST
Give me the winning sentence as something I could say out loud in about 10 seconds. Then list the 3 questions a sceptical stranger would ask me next. Do not answer them for me.

Prompt 2 (optional): Turn your solution into a one-page picture

Once you're happy with the solution, ask the AI to draw it. When people can see something, they can feel it. A step that's thin on paper is easy to skim past. A thin step sitting inside a section is much harder to ignore.

This works best in an AI tool that can show you a web page. If yours can't, it will give you code. Save it as offer-blueprint.html and open it in your browser.

Run this in the same chat, right after Prompt 1:

Using the blueprint we just built (the title, the 3 problems, the 3 solutions and the 3 steps for each), make one complete, self-contained HTML file. No frameworks, no external libraries, no internet needed.

LAYOUT
- A wheel with 3 equal sections around a centre circle. The sections do not overlap. Keep all text horizontal and readable, never rotated.
- Centre circle: the title of my offer. Make it the main focal point. The centre is the whole offer, not a fourth pillar.
- Inside each section: a short pillar title, then the problem, then the solution.
- In an outer ring beside each section: its 3 steps, as small numbered labels. Make it obvious which steps belong to which section.
- The picture should read in this order: problem, solution, steps.
- Use three clearly different colours, one per section, with its steps in a lighter tint of the same colour.

RULES
- Use my wording exactly. Do not add, polish or invent anything.
- Short phrases, not paragraphs. Nothing may overlap or get clipped.
- It must work on a phone and on a desktop.
- If the wheel gets too crowded, keep the three sections and move the text into labelled callouts around them.

FEATURES
- Let me click any text on the page and edit it.
- Include a Print button with a clean print layout, so I can save it as a PDF.
- Include a Reset button that restores the original text.

Show me the finished page first. Then tell me in 2 lines how to use it.

How do you use it?

1. Open a fresh chat in any AI tool and paste in Prompt 1.
2. Answer the numbered list in one go. Talk it out by voice if you can. Don't tidy as you go. Messy is the point.
3. Read the 9 cells it builds. For each one, ask: did I say that, or did the AI? Fix or delete anything that isn't yours.
4. Work on the Thin and Missing cells. This is where the real work is. Answer with a real person, a real day or a real result, not a general statement.
5. Check every point marked ASSUMED. If you haven't heard it from a real person yet, go and ask someone before you build on it.
6. Check the blueprint: 3 problems, 3 solutions, 3 steps each. Would the person you're helping recognise those problems in their own words? The title can wait.
7. Say your favourite promise sentence out loud. If you cringe, it isn't shaped yet. Go back to the cell it came from.
   • Optional: run Prompt 2 to see the whole solution on one page.
8. Keep your cells and blueprint somewhere safe. They're the raw material for everything you build next.

Will this make your offer sell?

Shaping a promise makes your offer clear. It doesn't prove that anyone wants it.

What you've done so far gives you something that takes what is in your head (your expertise, your experience, your earned knowledge) and puts it into a visual form, so it's clear to test and explain.

But it still needs to be shown to real people.

Who is this for?

People in their 40s. That's my own season of life, and it's the group I'm choosing to serve with #FutureFor40s. By now you have enough experience, enough resources and enough pain points that there's real material to work with. I don't need to build your expertise. It's already there. It just hasn't been shaped yet.

If you need help with designing your offer, feel free to contact me using the options below.

Or, if #FutureFor40s caught your interest, sign up for my newsletter below. It's for people who want to turn hard-won expertise into money in the pocket: offers you're confident in, content that reaches your target audience, and a personal brand that authentically represents you.