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Hey rebel solopreneurs 🦸♀️🦸♂️
Staring at a topic for 45 minutes — then writing a post that says basically nothing.
Or: running 3 prompts in 15 minutes and walking away with a full content outline — headline, 3 main points, and 9 sub-points — ready to write.
Here's how the second path works:
⛳️ Here's the scenario
Meet Nina.
She was a corporate HR trainer for 8 years.
She knew how to help people communicate better, manage conflict, and run productive meetings.
Now she was building her personal brand on LinkedIn — posting tips for managers and team leads who wanted to lead without burning out.
She had ideas. Plenty of them.
The problem was the blank screen.
She'd pick a topic — something like "how to give feedback without making things awkward" — and then sit there.
Where do you even start?
What angle?
What's the deeper point?
She'd spend 45 minutes organising her thoughts, then write a post that felt shallow.
Three likes.
Her mum was one of them.
One afternoon, she was working from a coffee shop near her flat.
Laptop open. Topic decided. Zero words written.
The woman at the next table glanced over — calm, unhurried, sipping her flat white.
"You look like someone who knows what they want to say but can't figure out how to say it," she said.
Nina laughed.
That was exactly it.
Turns out the woman had spent 20 years teaching content strategy at universities across Europe. (Nina may have knocked over her oat milk.)
The woman looked at Nina's screen and asked one question.
"What topic were you trying to write about?"
Nina told her.
The woman pulled out a napkin and wrote Nina's topic in the middle.
Then she showed Nina what the same idea could become with a simple structure behind it.
❌ What Nina had: "How to give feedback without making things awkward"
✅ What it became: "Why most managers avoid hard conversations — and the one shift that makes them easier"
Three points: why avoidance feels safer, why it always backfires, and one opener that changes everything.
Same topic. Now it actually goes somewhere.
"Ali Abdaal calls this the Rule of 3," the woman said. "I've been using it in every workshop for years."
"Here's the thing," she continued, slowly, like she was talking to someone who'd never thought about content structure before.
💡 First — your topic isn't your question yet.
"When someone sits down to write, they pick a broad topic. But a topic has no direction. A question does. The first thing to do is turn the topic into one focused question your reader is actually asking — the kind that comes from a frustration they've already lived."
💡 Second — your question is too small.
"A specific question pulls in your exact reader. But the best content also touches on a bigger, more universal truth. Why does this problem exist at all? Why does it matter beyond your niche? That bigger question is what makes a post shareable."
💡 Third — once you have both questions, apply the Rule of 3.
"Distill any idea into 3 things and you've got a structure. Three reasons the problem exists. Three tips that help. Three moves for people ready to go further. Three is the right number — people can remember it. Content people can remember is content they share."
She pushed the napkin across the table.
"Three prompts. 15 minutes. Run them in order and you'll have a full outline — ready to write."
Here's what each prompt does:
▶️ Prompt 1 — Find the real question: Takes your broad topic and turns it into one focused, audience-specific question — rooted in a real frustration.
▶️ Prompt 2 — Zoom out to the universal angle: Takes that specific question and finds the bigger truth behind it — so your content connects with more people.
▶️ Prompt 3 — Build the full Rule of 3 outline: Combines both questions and builds a complete content outline — 5 sections, 3 points each — ready to expand into a post, thread, or video script.
Nina opened her AI sidekick and got to work.
🎯 Step 1: Turn your topic into the right question
⏱️ 5 minutes
Most content feels shallow because it starts with a topic, not a question. A topic is just a category. A question has a direction — and it pulls in the exact reader who needs the answer.
This prompt gives your topic direction. It narrows your focus down to one question your audience is actually asking.
My topic: {e.g. How to give feedback at work}
My target audience: {e.g. managers and team leads who want to lead
without burning out}
List 3 questions my target audience has about this topic.
Prioritise questions that:
- Ease a specific frustration they've already experienced
- Help them remove an obstacle they've been stuck on
- Solve a problem they'd pay to fix
Use 10 words or less for each question.
Be direct. No filler.
The prompt came back with three options.
Nina read them and knew immediately which one was right.
Here's what changed:
❌ Before: "How to give feedback at work"
✅ After: "Why do most managers avoid giving feedback until it's too late?"
"How do you give feedback that lands without damaging the relationship?"
"What stops people from asking for feedback in the first place?"
That last one hit her.
She'd been that person.
She had her question.
But here's the crazy part — a sharp question is only half the job.
The best posts don't just answer a specific question.
They tap into something bigger.
That's Step 2.
🔍 Step 2: Zoom out to the universal angle
⏱️ 5 minutes
A specific question pulls in your exact audience. But a post that also touches on a bigger, universal truth gets shared by people who didn't know they cared about your topic yet.
This prompt takes your specific question and keeps asking "why?" — moving up a ladder of bigger and bigger ideas until you find the one that connects.
My specific question: {e.g. What stops people from asking for
feedback in the first place?}
Ask the question "Why does this exist?" 8 times — each time
expanding the scope.
Move from specific to universal.
Each answer becomes the next "why."
Only give me the questions.
Use 10 words or less per question.
Go from specific to philosophical.
Nina read down the list.
Most were too abstract.
But one jumped out.
"Why do people avoid information that could help them grow?"
That was it.
Here's what changed:
❌ Before: "What stops people from asking for feedback?" (Useful for managers. Too specific to spread further.)
✅ After: "Why do people avoid information that could help them grow?" (Still relevant to managers. Relevant to everyone.)
She could feel the difference.
Now she had two questions.
A sharp, specific one that pulled in her audience.
And a bigger, universal one that made the post feel like it mattered beyond her niche.
Step 3 puts it all together.
🧠 Step 3: Build the full Rule of 3 outline
⏱️ 5 minutes
This is where it all comes together.
The Rule of 3 is a simple content structure: people can hold exactly three things in their head at once. Three reasons. Three tips. Three examples. Content built around threes is easy to follow, easy to remember, and easy to share.
This prompt takes your two questions and builds a complete content outline — 5 sections, 3 points each — that you can expand into a LinkedIn post, a Twitter thread, or a video script.
Target audience: {e.g. managers and team leads}
Topic: {e.g. giving and asking for feedback at work}
Universal question: {e.g. Why do people avoid information that
could help them grow?}
Specific question: {e.g. What stops people from asking for
feedback in the first place?}
Create an outline with 5 sections, each with 3 sub-points.
Section 1: Use the Universal Question as the heading.
- List 3 reasons that answer it.
Sections 2, 3, and 4: Choose 3 broad categories that help the
target audience with the specific topic.
- Use each category as the heading.
- List 3 actionable tips per section.
Section 5: "Advanced moves"
- List 3 advanced tips for people ready to go further.
Use 10 words or less per item.
Be specific. No filler.
Nina pasted both questions in and hit enter.
The outline came back in under a minute.
Here's what changed:
❌ Before: "How to give feedback at work" (A topic. No structure. No direction.)
✅ After: Why do people avoid information that could help them grow? • It feels like a verdict, not a conversation • The relationship feels more important than the truth • Nobody showed them how to use it without flinching
Build safety before the conversation • Name the discomfort before you give the feedback • Separate the behaviour from the person every time • Ask permission — "Can I share an observation?" changes everything
[Nina's AI sidekick filled in the remaining sections...]
She stared at the screen.
That was 15 minutes.
She had a structure for a post.
A framework for a thread.
And three more outlines she could build from the other questions in Step 1.
🏆 Nina's results
Before:
45 minutes staring at a topic with nothing written
Posts that felt shallow and got 3 likes
Every piece of content started from zero
After:
A full 5-section content outline in 15 minutes
Each section had 3 ready-to-expand points
One session gave her material for 3 different posts
Total time: 15 minutes. Not 45 minutes of nothing.
Her AI sidekick surfaced the right questions, found the universal angle, and built the structure.
Nina made the creative call on which direction to take. BOOM.
Three prompts. 15 minutes.
One focused question, one universal angle, and a full content outline — ready to write.
That's it, my fellow outliers!
Yours 'finding high-potent AI shortcuts so you work less' Vijay Peduru 🦸♂️