Scan time: 2-3 min / Read time: 5-7 min
Hey rebel solopreneurs 🦸♀️🦸♂️
A solopreneur spent 4 months writing an eBook.
Designed it in Canva.
Edited it 11 times.
Told everyone it was almost ready.
Then never published it.
Not because it was bad — because it never felt finished.
Meanwhile, someone else built a one-page template in an afternoon.
It pulled in 30 new email subscribers a week.
There's a shorter path to growing your list.
It doesn't involve writing a single page of long-form content.
⛳️ Here's the scenario
Meet Emma.
7 years in HR.
The last two years helping companies reduce employee turnover.
She knew her stuff cold.
She'd packaged her knowledge into a LinkedIn coaching offer — helping small business owners keep their best people without spending a fortune on perks.
But her email list sat at 14 subscribers.
Mostly family.
Probably her mum twice.
Every time she tried to grow it, the advice was the same: "Create a lead magnet."
A lead magnet is the free thing you give away in exchange for someone's email — a template, a checklist, a guide, anything useful.
She'd started an eBook three times.
Three months in, 40 pages written, still not done.
She scrapped it each time.
One afternoon she was stuck in an airport lounge waiting for a delayed flight.
Laptop open. Staring at yet another half-finished draft.
The woman next to her glanced over.
Quiet. Unassuming. Reading a very battered paperback.
"Trying to write something?" she asked.
Emma explained. The eBook. The list. The subscribers that never came.
The woman smiled.
Turned out she'd spent 15 years helping digital writers grow their email lists from zero.
She'd worked with Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole — two of the biggest names in the online writing world — on exactly this problem. (Emma nearly knocked her coffee over.)
She glanced at Emma's screen.
"Can I show you something?"
She took Emma's draft — 40 pages, 3 months of work — and showed her what she could have given away instead.
❌ What Emma had: "The Complete HR Playbook for Small Business Owners — A 40-Page Guide to Reducing Employee Turnover, Building Culture, and Retaining Your Best People"
✅ What it became: "The 5-Minute Stay Interview Template — 7 questions to ask any employee before they decide to leave"
Same expertise. One-tenth the work. Way more useful to someone right now.
Emma stared at it.
"How did you figure that out so fast?"
The woman leaned back and explained two things — slowly, as if talking to someone who had never thought about this before.
💡 First — people don't want to read. They want to use.
"An eBook tells someone what to do. A template lets them do it. Your reader doesn't want 40 pages of advice — they want the exact tool that solves their problem in 10 minutes."
💡 Second — the best lead magnet is the tool your reader wishes already existed.
"Ask: what does my reader search for at 11pm when they're frustrated? That's your lead magnet. Not what you want to teach — what they desperately need right now."
Then she pulled out a napkin and wrote two prompts.
"Run these in order. You'll have a finished template in 15 minutes."
Here's what each prompt does:
▶️ Prompt 1 — Find the right idea: Finds the most useful template your audience is desperate for — based on their biggest problems.
▶️ Prompt 2 — Build the template: Takes the best idea and builds a complete, ready-to-give-away template your readers can fill in and use right away.
Emma opened her AI sidekick and got to work.
💡 Step 1: Find the right lead magnet idea
⏱️ 5 minutes
A lead magnet is the free thing you give away in exchange for someone's email.
The best ones aren't long — they're useful.
A template, checklist, or step-by-step guide that solves one specific problem.
This prompt finds the best template idea for your exact audience.
My niche: {e.g. helping small business owners reduce employee turnover}
My target audience: {e.g. small business owners with 5-20 employees}
1. List the 5 biggest frustrations my audience has — the problems they're losing sleep over right now
2. For each frustration, suggest one template, checklist, or step-by-step guide I could give away for free that would solve that specific problem in under 10 minutes
3. For each idea, write the exact title I should use — specific, tangible, and focused on a quick win. Format: "[Number]-[Type] to [Specific Outcome]"
4. Pick the single best idea — the one my audience would most want right now — and explain why in one sentence
No vague ideas. Every suggestion must be something a reader can open and use immediately.
Emma got back 5 clear ideas in about 30 seconds.
She'd been staring at a blank document for three months.
This took less time than ordering her coffee.
The winning idea was immediately obvious — the one she wished she'd had on her first day in HR.
Here's what changed:
❌ Before: "The Complete HR Playbook for Small Business Owners (40-page eBook — 3 months in progress)"
✅ After: "The 5-Minute Stay Interview Template — 7 questions to ask any employee before they decide to leave"
"The New Hire 30-Day Check-In Checklist — 10 questions to ask in the first month so nothing falls through the cracks"
"The Exit Interview Script — what to say when someone hands in their notice so you actually learn why they're leaving"
[Emma's AI sidekick filled in the remaining ideas...]
Three months of overthinking.
Replaced by a 30-second list of ideas she could actually use.
But having the right idea is only half the job.
The template still needed to exist — and be good enough that someone would hand over their email to get it.
That's Step 2.
🎯 Step 2: Build the finished template
⏱️ 10 minutes
This prompt takes the winning idea from Step 1 and builds the complete template — every section, every prompt, every instruction.
Your reader opens it and uses it immediately.
No extra work from you.
My niche: {e.g. helping small business owners reduce employee turnover}
My target audience: {e.g. small business owners with 5-20 employees}
My template idea: {paste the winning title from Step 1 — e.g. "The 5-Minute Stay Interview Template — 7 questions to ask any employee before they decide to leave"}
Build the complete template. Include:
1. A one-line welcome — WHO it's for and WHAT problem it solves. Format: "This template is for [WHO] who want to [DO WHAT] so they can [OUTCOME]."
2. A 3-sentence overview explaining how to use the template
3. The full list of questions, steps, or prompts — everything the reader needs to complete it themselves. Label each one clearly. Leave space for the reader to fill in their answers.
4. One closing tip — the single most important thing to remember when using this template
FORMAT: Use clear headings and plain language. Write like you're talking to someone who has never done this before. No jargon.
Emma ran it.
She had a complete, polished template in about 8 minutes.
Not a rough draft.
Not a starting point.
Something she could put her name on and give away today.
Here's what changed:
❌ Before: "The Complete HR Playbook — Chapter 1: Understanding Employee Turnover... Chapter 2: Building a Retention Strategy... Chapter 3: The Role of Culture... (40 pages, 3 months, still unfinished)"
✅ After: "The 5-Minute Stay Interview Template
This template is for small business owners with 5-20 employees who want to find out what their best people really need — before those people start looking elsewhere.
How to use this: Set aside 10 minutes with each team member, one at a time. Ask the questions below in order. Write their answers in the space provided.
Question 1: What part of your job do you enjoy most right now? Your notes: _______________
Question 2: Is there anything in your role that's been frustrating you lately? Your notes: _______________"
[Emma's AI sidekick filled in the remaining questions...]
Emma read it twice.
This was better than anything in the 40-page eBook.
It took 15 minutes, not 3 months.
🏆 Emma's results
Before:
14 subscribers — mostly family
40 pages of eBook, 3 months of work, still not published
No idea what kind of lead magnet her audience actually wanted
After:
A finished, ready-to-give-away template built in 15 minutes
11 new subscribers in the first week after she published it
A clear system she can repeat for any topic in her niche
Total time: 15 minutes. Not 3 months.
Her AI sidekick found the right idea and built the whole template.
Emma added her name and published it. BAM.
Two prompts. 15 minutes.
You go from a half-finished eBook collecting dust to a polished template your audience actually wants — ready to publish today.
That's it, my fellow outliers!
Yours 'turning your expertise into income 10x faster' Vijay Peduru 🦸♂️