Playbook 5 of 7

How I work

27 principles.

Retainer kickoff The night a client signs, a dated 90-day plan with one goal, baselines, named owners and the first two weeks.
The creator audit Scrape the last 30, find the median, the ratio and the outliers, bucket the formats, then say what to make next.
Recording day Write the bank, set the room, record in one batch, then turn the tape into clips and tickets.
The clip bank One long recording turned into a bank of short clips, each mapped beat by beat and handed to an editor as a ticket.
The consulting session Research before the call, a clock during it, and a written breakdown with a proposal after it.
Soft DM outreach How Tom opens a consulting conversation: who he is, one useful tip, and a friendly sign-off.
Pricing and the offer ladder A paid hour, then a three month sprint, then a monthly retainer, each priced from what has already been sold.
Building a content team from zero Audit the people you have, move them first, hire for both jobs, then install the pipeline and the gates.
Carousels and the middle of the funnel Carousels are winning videos re-cut as slides, made to keep an audience and to reach the buyers on LinkedIn.
Monthly ideation Scrape the creator, find the outliers, generate double what you need, then shortlist to 4 long-form titles and 30 short-form ideas.
Pitching a show format A one-line promise, a mechanic in numbers, a signature device, a season of topics and a budget at three scales.
Brand partnerships and talent Build something talent wants to turn up to, let them play first, then ask, and put the brand somewhere nobody has put it before.
Making a viral YouTube video Idea to shoot to edit to publish, the way the biggest videos in the catalogue were made.
Packaging, titles and thumbnails Write the title first, test titles and thumbnails one variable at a time, and never let packaging carry a weak story.
Long form to short form One prepped hour in a studio, or one talk, turned into weeks of clips, carousels and posts.
Proposals that win The shape Tom's proposals settled into: their numbers first, his proof second, the price last.
The founder's personal brand Content for founders and CEOs: one position, a short list of messages, and formats the team can run without them.
The Venture Room Asana operating system Seven Asana boards, named gates and a fixed handoff so a shoot becomes a film and a stack of cuts without the founders routing it.
AI in the content workflow The tools Tom built sit on the team's own stack, Asana, Slack and Shade, and take the shortcuts out of the pipeline.
Owned audience The newsletter and Creator Therapy are tier 0: free, weekly, and the list every paid tier launches to.
The paid community What Tom has said and planned for a paid community: the course inside it, him in every thread, two live hours a week, and a door up to the retainer.
Outlier mining and the idea funnel Farm outliers from the right channels, mine them four ways, cut a hundred ideas to a handful, and pitch each with a take and a prediction.
Packaging and the first ten seconds Write the title and thumbnail before the video, open a gap only the click closes, test it, then make the first shot prove it.
The Shorts story formula The hook is the idea, VIRAL is the story, the answer is the last word, and retention below 95% means it will probably not travel.
A podcast built to repeat Three yeses for every guest, outlier guests booked from the package, sections with no gaps, and a panel before release.
A personal brand that converts Start from the outcome, stand against something, narrow to the buyer, and measure what pays ahead of views.
The event as a studio content day Treat every workshop, graduation and stage slot as a booked studio: plan the stations, follow the talent, film the room, then cut it into a month of posts and ads.