Scan time: 2-3 min / Read time: 5-7 min
Hey rebel solopreneurs 🦸♀️🦸♂️
Most content creators write posts that get lots of engagement but zero sales.
Smart ones identify which of the 7 customer pain types their audience have right now, and write posts that make people buy.
⚛️ Why this works
Before you can sell anything, you need to know what problem you solve.
But it's not enough to say "X is a problem." You need to know WHICH pain you're speaking to. Social pain? Financial pain? Emotional pain?
Without that clarity? Your content gets likes but zero sales. Readers engage with your stuff. They just don't buy.
Here's the thing:
Your content is like a doctor diagnosing a patient.
If you say "You're sick" - that's vague. The patient nods but doesn't trust you. Won't follow your treatment plan.
But if you say "You have a vitamin D deficiency causing fatigue, brain fog, and muscle weakness" - now they lean in.
You just described exactly how they feel. They trust you. They buy your solution.
The 7 Pain Types framework fixes this.
It taps into the exact pain your reader feels. Social. Mental. Physical. Sexual. Spiritual. Financial. Emotional.
When you speak to the specific pain? Readers don't just like your post. They act. They buy.
Turns out, precision beats generic every time. BAM.
Let's see how Ryan figured this out:
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Ryan creates content for his coaching business. Posts 5 times a week.
But here's his problem.
Posts got tons of engagement. Likes everywhere. Comments rolling in. Shares daily.
Sales calls booked? Zero.
His content looked great. But it wasn't converting. Readers liked his stuff. They just didn't buy.
Every post felt like throwing darts blindfolded. "Is this the pain they feel? Or that one?"
He had no clue which one would actually make someone buy.
Ryan knew he needed to understand customer pain. But how?
Everyone said: "Interview customers. Read hundreds of reviews. Rely on your intuition."
So Ryan tried.
3 weeks of customer calls. Scrolling through review sites. Taking notes. Looking for patterns.
Got some insights. But still guessing which pain points would actually convert.
The problem? Ryan believed understanding customer pain required hundreds of hours of manual research.
He didn't know there was a framework that could reveal it all in minutes.
Then Ryan found something. A principle from multi-million dollar copywriters.
A framework called "The 7 Pain Types."
It explained exactly why generic content doesn't convert. And how to identify the specific pain that makes people buy.
Changed everything.
Ryan decided to follow these steps:
Step 1: Train his AI sidekick on 7 pain types Step 2: AI transforms pain into customer's exact words Step 3: AI generates posts from each pain point
🎯 Step 1: Ryan trains his AI sidekick to identify all 7 pain types
Ryan opened ChatGPT/Claude (his AI sidekick).
He needed to know which pain to speak to. Social? Mental? Financial?
The problem? Ryan couldn't see all the pain types at once. He was finding random problems, not the complete picture.
But if Ryan could see ALL 7 pain types for his specific topic, he'd know exactly which one to target.
Here's what Ryan tried:
The prompt needed just three things: his topic, his target audience, and the 7 pain type definitions. From there, it would identify 1 specific problem for each pain type. Ryan could see the complete pain landscape.
The pain type identifier prompt:
I want to create a list of problems my target audience has when trying to get an outcome.
I will give you a topic, a target audience, and sub-topic and you will identify 1 TANGIBLE problem for each of the 7 types of customer pain.
Here are the 7 types of customer pain:
- Social: Pain related to acceptance & access
- Mental: Pain related to confusion & uncertainty
- Physical: Pain related to friction & immobility
- Sexual: Pain related to trust, connection, & emotions
- Spiritual: Pain related to disconnection, isolation, & victimhood
- Financial: Pain related to scarcity & abandonment
- Emotional: Pain related to unhappiness & betrayal
Format: Return the results in a table.
---
INPUT:
Target Audience: {INSERT Audience e.g. "New freelancers"}
Topic: {INSERT Topic e.g. "Finding clients"}
Sub-topic: {INSERT Sub-topic e.g. "Cold outreach"}
The AI sidekick returned a complete table.
7 pain types. 7 specific problems. All for Ryan's exact topic and audience.
Social Pain: "I don't have access to the networks where my ideal clients hang out." Mental Pain: "I'm paralyzed by which offer to pitch - too many options, can't decide." Financial Pain: "I'm afraid to raise my rates because clients might leave."
Ryan scanned the list. Every single pain his audience felt. Laid out clearly.
Completion moment: Ryan knew exactly which 7 pains existed for his topic.
🔍 Step 2: Ryan transforms pain into his customers' exact words
Ryan had the 7 pain types identified.
Now he needed to know how his audience actually DESCRIBED these pains.
The AI's output said "Pain related to confusion & uncertainty." But how do real people actually say that?
Ryan needed the exact words his audience uses. The language they'd use telling a trusted friend.
Here's what he used:
The customer language translator prompt:
Now add a column to the table and transform each problem into the specific words the target audience would use to describe their problem (like they are telling a trusted friend).
Be super specific.
VAGUE: "I've been practicing guitar a lot lately."
SPECIFIC: "Over the past three months, I dedicated an hour every day to practice the guitar, and now I can confidently play complex solos like the one in 'Hotel California' by the Eagles."
---
INPUT:
[Use the pain table from above]
The AI sidekick returned the same table with a new column.
Customer Language column showed real words:
Social Pain became: "I've been posting on LinkedIn for 6 months but I still can't get past the gatekeepers to reach decision-makers at the companies I want to work with."
Mental Pain became: "I have three different service ideas and I've rewritten my offer page 12 times this month but I still can't decide which one to lead with."
Financial Pain became: "I'm charging $50/hour when I know I should be at $150, but I'm terrified that if I increase my rate my current clients will ghost me and I'll have nothing."
Ryan read through them. These weren't textbook definitions. These were the exact thoughts running through his audience's heads.
Completion moment: Ryan had the real words his customers use when describing their pain.
✍️ Step 3: Ryan generates conversion-focused posts from each pain
Ryan had 7 pain types. He had customer language for each one.
Now he needed actual posts he could publish.
Ryan needed to turn "I can't reach decision-makers" into a punchy post that makes people stop scrolling.
Here's what he used:
The pain-to-post generator prompt:
Great, now for {INSERT Type of Pain e.g. "Social Pain"}
I want you to write short-form piece of content (280 characters or less) in a conversational, helpful and actionable tone.
Each sentence should catch the reader's attention to make them keep reading.
Use a mix of short and long sentences. Make it punchy and dramatic.
Here is the format I want you to use:
1. Open with a single strong declarative statement about the pain or experience that shows the target audience you understand them, use 15 words or less.
2. Next write 1 sentence telling the target audience what they should do to overcome the problem, use 10 words or less.
3. Then in 1 sentence explain why solving the problem is important using 15 words or less
4. Then give 3-5 actionable tips on how they can solve the problem in a bulleted list using 8 words or less per tip
5. Finally close the short-form content with a pithy 1-liner using 10 words or less
Format: Format for readability. Separate sentences with a line feed.
Only give me the short-form content. DO NOT label.
Follow the format I provided.
---
INPUT:
Type of Pain: {INSERT which pain type e.g. "Social Pain"}
[Use the customer language from above]
The AI sidekick returned a complete post.
Opening line hit hard: "You've been posting for months but gatekeepers still block you from decision-makers."
Clear action: "Stop posting generic content and start solving their specific problems."
3 tactical steps included.
Punchy closer: "Access follows value."
Ryan generated posts for all 7 pain types. Each one addressed a different pain. Each one structured for maximum engagement.
Social Pain post → speaks to access struggles Mental Pain post → addresses decision paralysis
Financial Pain post → tackles money fears
7 posts. 7 different pain points. All ready to publish.
Completion moment: Ryan had conversion-focused content for every pain type his audience felt.
🎯 Ryan's results after 2 weeks
Before:
Time per post: 2+ hours (research, writing, rewriting)
Posts created: 5-7 per week (all generic)
Conversion rate: Near zero
Customer understanding: Guesswork
After:
Time per post: 15 minutes (pick pain type, adapt AI output, add voice)
Posts created: 21 posts in first session (3 per pain type)
Conversion rate: 3x higher (speaking to specific pains)
Customer understanding: Complete (all 7 pain types mapped)
His process now:
Run all 3 prompts for new topic (10 minutes)
Review the 7 pain-specific posts (5 minutes)
Pick the pain type for this week (2 minutes)
Add personal stories and examples (8 minutes)
Publish
Total time: 25 minutes per post. Not 2+ hours.
His AI sidekick handles pain identification, language translation, and post generation in 10 minutes.
Not bad.
🎧 Your turn
Copy all 3 prompts into your AI sidekick. Run them in the same chat.
Paste your topic and target audience into Prompt 1. Your AI sidekick identifies all 7 pain types.
Then Prompt 2 runs automatically using that output. Transforms each pain into customer language.
Then Prompt 3 generates a post for each pain type.
Generation time: 90 seconds total. Time to adapt and publish: 15 minutes.
That's it, my fellow outliers!
Yours 'helping you hire the best 'AI Sidekicks' team who work 24/7 with almost zero cost' Vijay peduru 🦸♂️