---
title: "How I work playbook"
description: "Playbook 5: How I work."
canonical: https://tomsharman.com/playbooks/how-i-work/
updated: 2026-10-25
---

# How I work

- [Retainer kickoff](/playbooks/how-i-work/retainer-kickoff/index.md): The night a client signs, a dated 90-day plan with one goal, baselines, named owners and the first two weeks.
- [The creator audit](/playbooks/how-i-work/the-creator-audit/index.md): Scrape the last 30, find the median, the ratio and the outliers, bucket the formats, then say what to make next.
- [Recording day](/playbooks/how-i-work/recording-day/index.md): Write the bank, set the room, record in one batch, then turn the tape into clips and tickets.
- [The clip bank](/playbooks/how-i-work/the-clip-bank/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/the-consulting-session/index.md): Research before the call, a clock during it, and a written breakdown with a proposal after it.
- [Soft DM outreach](/playbooks/how-i-work/soft-dm-outreach/index.md): How Tom opens a consulting conversation: who he is, one useful tip, and a friendly sign-off.
- [Pricing and the offer ladder](/playbooks/how-i-work/pricing-and-the-offer-ladder/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/building-a-content-team-from-zero/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/carousels-and-the-middle-of-the-funnel/index.md): Carousels are winning videos re-cut as slides, made to keep an audience and to reach the buyers on LinkedIn.
- [Monthly ideation](/playbooks/how-i-work/monthly-ideation/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/pitching-a-show-format/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/brand-partnerships-and-talent/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/making-a-viral-youtube-video/index.md): Idea to shoot to edit to publish, the way the biggest videos in the catalogue were made.
- [Packaging, titles and thumbnails](/playbooks/how-i-work/packaging-titles-and-thumbnails/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/long-form-to-short-form/index.md): One prepped hour in a studio, or one talk, turned into weeks of clips, carousels and posts.
- [Proposals that win](/playbooks/how-i-work/proposals-that-win/index.md): The shape Tom's proposals settled into: their numbers first, his proof second, the price last.
- [The founder's personal brand](/playbooks/how-i-work/the-founders-personal-brand/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/the-venture-room-asana-operating-system/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/ai-in-the-content-workflow/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/owned-audience/index.md): The newsletter and Creator Therapy are tier 0: free, weekly, and the list every paid tier launches to.
- [The paid community](/playbooks/how-i-work/the-paid-community/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/outlier-mining-and-the-idea-funnel/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/packaging-and-the-first-ten-seconds/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/the-shorts-story-formula/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/a-podcast-built-to-repeat/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/a-personal-brand-that-converts/index.md): 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](/playbooks/how-i-work/the-event-as-a-studio-content-day/index.md): 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.