---
title: "Glossary"
description: "20 terms as Tom uses them."
canonical: https://tomsharman.com/glossary/
updated: 2026-10-25
---

# Glossary

- **[Fake pod](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/fake-pod/index.md)**: A podcast built for the clip: real answers to questions written in advance, recorded in one sitting in a studio, with a guest who is there to ask.
- **[Creator Hotline](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/creator-hotline/index.md)**: A format where a creator sends a voice note with a question and Tom answers it properly, lit and on proper cameras, as a real service.
- **[Clip bank](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/clip-bank/index.md)**: One long recording turned into a bank of short clips, each one idea at 40 to 75 seconds, mapped beat by beat and handed to an editor as a ticket.
- **[The messy middle](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/messy-middle/index.md)**: The ground between builder and authority, where a personal brand says both things at once and stalls.
- **[Builder](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/builder/index.md)**: A personal brand in the trenches, documenting the journey while it happens.
- **[Authority](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/authority/index.md)**: A personal brand that has already done the thing and teaches from it.
- **[Overwhelm the algorithm](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/overwhelm-the-algorithm/index.md)**: Volume first, refine second. Every post is a shot on goal, and 80% of the way five times a day out-learns 100% three times a week.
- **[Formats over ideas](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/formats-over-ideas/index.md)**: A repeatable format beats a one-off story, because the audience can guess what comes next. Repeat it until it becomes a show.
- **[Selfie video](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/selfie-video/index.md)**: Phone, front camera, one argument. The top of funnel format and the spine of the content engine, also called a yap video.
- **[Outlier](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/outlier/index.md)**: A post past three times the median views of the last 30. The outlier is the brief for what to make next.
- **[The eight things](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/the-eight-things/index.md)**: Six to eight messages a person says over and over, a hundred different ways, until people know what they stand for.
- **[Mission and enemy](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/mission-and-enemy/index.md)**: What a brand is for, and what it is against. The enemy is the shortcut to the mission.
- **[One person, one problem](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/one-person-one-problem/index.md)**: The five beats of a top of funnel video: one person, one problem, authority, one solution, then follow.
- **[Top, middle and bottom of funnel](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/top-middle-bottom/index.md)**: The job a format does. The top brings people in, the middle keeps them, the bottom sells.
- **[Views per follow](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/views-per-follow/index.md)**: Views divided by follows for each post, the metric Tom uses most. A follow is the biggest signal short of a sale.
- **[Trial reels](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/trial-reels/index.md)**: Instagram's test posts, run two a day on top of three feed posts to test hooks, with the winners moved to the feed.
- **[Retainer kickoff](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/retainer-kickoff/index.md)**: The plan written the night a client signs: one goal for 90 days, a baseline for every number and a name against every step.
- **[Creator audit](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/creator-audit/index.md)**: Scrape the last 30 posts, find the median, the ratio and the outliers, bucket the formats, then say what to make next.
- **[Recording day](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/recording-day/index.md)**: One booked studio, one person asking and a bank of questions written in advance, turned into clips and tickets.
- **[Creator Therapy](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/creator-therapy/index.md)**: The hero long form format: a real creator brings a real problem and it gets taken apart properly, problem, diagnosis and fix.