Scan time: 2-3 min / Read time: 5-7 min
Hey rebel solopreneurs 🦸♀️🦸♂️
Most solopreneurs spend an hour trying to figure out what to say before they write a single word.
That's the problem — because blank-page thinking is the most expensive thinking there is.
Every hour spent going in circles on a topic is an hour not spent writing, not spent publishing, not spent building.
The same content that could take 8 minutes to outline ends up taking all morning.
One prompt fixes that.
🧩 You provide:
A topic you want to write about, record, or teach
Your target audience (e.g. "new solopreneurs with no clients yet")
🍿 What you get:
First — a focused question your specific audience actually needs answered
Then — a broader "why this even matters" angle that gives your content more depth
Finally — a complete 5-category outline with 15 sub-points, ready to expand into any format
This is a working outline — not finished content.
Use it as your script, your post structure, or your course skeleton.
Pick the sub-points that resonate most and start there.
⛳️ Here's the scenario
Nina ran a 1-on-1 coaching business helping new solopreneurs write content that attracted clients.
She knew her material cold.
But every week she sat down to write a new post or record a video — and froze.
She'd spend an hour deciding what angle to take, what to include, what to cut.
By the time she had a rough idea, her best thinking hours were already gone.
One morning she was working from a coffee shop, laptop open, staring at her third half-abandoned outline of the week.
The woman next to her glanced over.
Quiet. Methodical. Typing without stopping.
"You look like someone who knows what they want to say but can't figure out where to start," she said.
Nina laughed. That was exactly it.
The woman had spent 15 years producing content for YouTube creators — including some of the biggest channels in the world.
(Nina nearly knocked over her flat white.)
She looked at Nina's screen.
Then she pulled up a blank document and rebuilt the outline in under two minutes.
❌ What Nina had: "Content creation tips for solopreneurs — hook writing, consistency, repurposing"
✅ What it became: "Why do most solopreneurs quit content after 3 months? — 3 reasons the fear of being ignored makes people stop — 3 ways to write posts that attract the exact clients you want — 3 tricks to stay consistent without burning out — 3 advanced moves for building a content system that runs itself"
Same topic. Completely different structure.
"How did you do that so fast?" Nina asked.
The woman leaned back.
"Ali Abdaal shared this on a podcast years ago," she said. "Been using it ever since."
"Most people try to outline everything at once," she said. "That's why they freeze."
"Start with one question your audience is silently asking. Zoom out and ask why that question even matters. Then let the Rule of 3 do the rest."
She scribbled three steps on a paper napkin and slid it across.
"One prompt. Three internal steps. You'll have an outline in 8 minutes."
Nina opened her AI sidekick.
🎯 Step 1: Build the full outline
⏱️ 8 minutes
This prompt finds the right question to answer, zooms out to the bigger "why it matters" picture, then builds a complete 5-category outline — all in one run.
Here's what it produces:
❌ Before: "I want to write about email marketing for solopreneurs — not sure what angle to take"
✅ After: "Step 1 question: How do you write emails people actually open?
Step 2 broader question: Why does honest communication build lasting trust?
Step 3 outline:
Why honest communication builds trust — People buy from people they feel they know — Trust closes more sales than any tactic — Consistency compounds over time
Write emails people open — Use subject lines that tease without spoiling — Open with a sentence that earns the next one — Say one thing well instead of five things badly
Get people to click — Place your link where attention peaks — Make the call to action feel like a next step, not a demand — Test one variable at a time
Keep your list engaged — Email enough to stay visible, not enough to annoy — Give more than you ask for — Reply to replies — it changes the relationship
Advanced moves — Segment by what people actually clicked — Write a 5-email welcome sequence that does the heavy lifting — Build one evergreen sequence that runs on autopilot"
[Nina's AI sidekick filled in the remaining sections...]
Here's the prompt that did that:
My topic: {e.g. email marketing for solopreneurs}
My target audience: {e.g. new solopreneurs with no email list yet}
Work through 3 steps in order. Show me the output of each step before moving to the next.
Step 1 — Turn the topic into a focused question.
Think about what my target audience struggled with 2 years ago and needs solved today.
Write 3 questions they are silently asking about this topic.
Each question must ease a frustration, remove an obstacle, or solve a painful problem.
Use 10 words or fewer per question.
Then pick the single best question for my specific audience.
Tell me which one you chose and explain in 2-3 sentences why it will work best for them.
Step 2 — Zoom out using Abstraction Laddering.
Take the question from Step 1.
Ask "Why does this question matter?" — then ask "why?" again, 5 times in a row.
Each time, expand the scope a little further.
Show me all 5 levels.
Then pick the single most powerful broader question — the one that adds depth without losing the original audience.
Tell me which one you chose and explain in 2-3 sentences why.
Step 3 — Build the outline using the Rule of 3.
Use the focused question from Step 1 and the broader question from Step 2.
Create an outline with exactly 5 categories and 3 sub-points each:
— Category 1: use the broader question from Step 2 as the category name. 3 sub-points answering why it matters.
— Categories 2, 3, and 4: 3 practical categories that help my target audience with the original topic. 3 actionable tips each.
— Category 5: "Advanced moves." 3 tips for people ready for the next level.
Use 10 words or fewer for each sub-point.
Make every sub-point something to do — not a concept, not a label.
Nina read through the outline.
Clearest she'd seen a content idea in months.
Eight minutes. No frozen cursor. No wasted morning.
Here's the thing — the prompt doesn't just give her a structure.
It gives her an angle and a "why it matters" hook built right in.
🏆 Nina's results
Before:
An hour to outline a single post — sometimes longer
Topics felt too vague or too scattered to actually write from
Most outlines got abandoned halfway through
After:
A complete 5-category, 15-point outline in 8 minutes
A clear focused question and a deeper "why it matters" hook built in
One outline she could expand into a post, a video, or a mini-course
Total time: 8 minutes. Not a morning.
Her AI sidekick found the question, zoomed out to the bigger picture, and structured the whole outline.
Nina picked the sub-points she loved most and started writing. BAM.
One prompt. Three internal steps.
Go from blank page to a complete working outline — with a focused angle, a deeper hook, and 15 ready-to-use sub-points.
Pick the format. Post, video, email series, or course.
The structure is already done.
That's it, my fellow outliers!
Yours 'finding high-potent AI shortcuts so you work less' Vijay Peduru 🦸♂️