Part Three

Write It Down

Within two days, one person turns the conversation into a short written plan the whole team reads together. Move fast ... a workshop that doesn't get written down starts un-deciding itself within the week.

Part 3 · Write It Down

The 12-part plan

Use the fill-in 90-Day Launch Plan that came with this guide. Work from the recording, not from memory. Each part matches a workshop conversation ... you're assembling, not authoring.

PartWhat goes in it
1 · The spineYour foundation (the thing that isn't negotiable), the one thing you sell first, who it's for first ... and how one leads to the next. Plus your time-or-money call.
2 · What success looks likeYour three chosen outcomes, the "we also talked about" list, and what's deliberately not being counted.
3 · Who owns whatThe areas of work, one name each.
4 · The #1 roadblockThe risk that blocks everything, plan A, plan B, any hard deadline, and whose job it is.
5 · Ready-to-open listThe two-column split: must-do-first vs. can-improve-later.
6 · The first 30 daysThe dated, named, time-or-money-tagged list. The engine room of the whole plan.
7 · The practice runWho your practice customer is, when, and what you'll learn from them (next page).
8 · The meeting rhythmThe four kinds of meetings and who runs each (Part 4).
9 · House rulesHow you'll treat each other when decisions get hard (Part 4).
10 · How we're wiredThe genius map: strengths, one-person jobs, what to watch for.
11 · The risk listEverything that could sink you, and what you decided about each. Most got handled by the workshop itself ... name the ones still live.
12 · The parking lotEvery wonderful deferred idea, kept where everyone can see it. This becomes the menu for your next 90 days.
The plan-reading dinner

Within three days, the team reads the written plan together ... over dinner is perfect. The question isn't "is it perfect?" It's "is this what we decided?" Fix anything that doesn't match, then freeze it. The plan doesn't change again until day 90 ... only the weekly tracker moves.

Part 3 · Write It Down

The practice run: your first customer is a test, not a debut

Before anyone pays you, run one deliberately free, deliberately demanding trial of the real thing. Not a friendly demo for people who'll only say nice things ... a stress-test designed to find what breaks, while breaking things is still cheap.

1
Pick practice customers who'll be hard on it. People who'll really use the thing ... and who love you enough to tell you the truth about it. Comfortable-with-you beats impressed-by-you.
2
Keep it free. Free means no refunds, no liability tangles, no expectations you're not ready for ... exactly what you want before the insurance and paperwork are settled. The practice run pays you in lessons.
3
Collect the honesty on purpose. End with a relaxed conversation ... record it, then type up what they said. Ask what was broken, confusing, missing, and surprising. Don't defend a single thing. Just gather.
4
Let it change things. Everything they tell you flows into your experience checklist, your price, and your how-we-do-things. A practice run that doesn't change at least three things wasn't hard enough.
From the field

One family's practice run: three cheerfully destructive young guests ... trusted, honest, and hard on everything ... living with the product for four days, free, three weeks after the workshop. Chosen precisely because they'd put every system the family was proudest of through the wringer before real customers and real stakes arrived. The goodbye conversation was recorded and typed up straight into the experience checklist ... one free weekend became the standard the whole venture now runs on.

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