Before Day 1 · Setup
Get viral-ready
6M views with no bio and no funnel is zero business. Sort the shop front first, so when a post pops off the traffic has somewhere to go.
- Get a proper photo takenPro shoot, cropped in tight, coloured background, nothing busy behind your head. Same photo on every platform.
- Fix your handle: your name, nothing elseYou are the brand, not "FitForever PT". No underscores. Keep the profession out of it so the brand can grow with you.
- Buy yourname.com and set up a pro emailAbout £4 a year. [email protected] in the bio beats a hotmail address every time.
- Clean the name fieldNo credential letters, no "UK's leading" stack. People need 2 things: what you do and how you can help them.
- Rewrite the bio in 3 linesLine 1 what you do. Line 2 how you help. Line 3 the lead magnet. All above the 150-character "more" fold.
- One link only, and it goes to a squeeze pageLink trees are dead. Never "visit my website"... capture the email instead. Phrase the link as an emotive win: "How to lose your first 5 pounds, free".
- Pin 3 posts: authority, personality, authorityProof you know your stuff, plus 1 that shows who you are. Not transformations by default.
- Set story highlights as permanent homesOne per key campaign or signup route, so nothing good disappears after 24 hours.
- Run the 3-second test on your profileA stranger lands on it. Within 3 seconds can they tell what you do, how you help, and if you're for them?
- Document day zeroScreenshot your follower count, film yourself talking today. That's your before photo for the business transformation story.
Week 1 · Days 1–7
Know your audience
Sharpen the axe first. Every page, post and email downstream is built from what you lock in this week.
- Pick your avatar: your favourite client, or the old youWrite all messaging as if recruiting another one of them. No clients yet? Write to who you used to be.
- Niche to a problem, not a demographic"Tired women" beats "nurses"... the mum, the paramedic and the shift worker all share the problem and all self-select in.
- Ask why 5 times"I want to get fit" becomes "my shoulders burn lifting my daughter" becomes fear of ageing. That moment is what your content reflects back.
- Mine their real wordsDMs, comments, testimonials, competitor reviews, YouTube comments on your niche's top videos. Steal the phrasing exactly.
- Ban coach speakClients say "posting into the void". Coaches translate it to "struggling to generate engagement" and kill it. Use their words back at them.
- Write your avatar statementI help [who] struggling with [problem] go from [current state] to [outcome] without [their biggest objection]. One sentence, no word salad.
- Grunt test itCould a caveman grunt back who it's for, what changes and why it matters? If you confuse, you lose.
- Talk like they're 12Lead with analogy, never jargon. Simplifying builds connection and makes you look smarter, not dumber.
- List 15–20 problems your avatar facesLast 5 things clients said to you, what they comment, what they ask. Under each one, write the feeling driving it.
- Audit your last 10 postsLabel each one: reach, trust or conversion? Most people cram all 3 jobs into every post. One job per post from now on.
- Sign up to 3 competitors' email listsPlus find 3 adjacent-niche creators to study. You'll absorb hooks, formats and email craft by osmosis.
- Aim at white beltsBeginners are the biggest market with the biggest transformation. Take someone from 1 to 5 and they'll shout your name. Black belts don't buy courses.
"Content builds trust, trust gets leads, leads convert to money. If any part of this chain breaks, you no longer have a chain."
Week 2 · Days 8–14
Content that stops the scroll
Nobody cares about you, they care about their problem. Every post is a deposit of goodwill... and the hook decides everything.
- Flip every "How I..." to "If you need to...""How I lost 7kg" is about you. "If you need to lose 7kg in 8 weeks, here's exactly how" is about them. Only 1 of those gets watched.
- Build every video as hook, setup, payoffThe hook is always about the viewer's outcome. Battles are won or lost in the first 10 seconds.
- Learn the hook types and rotate themQuestion, contrarian, curiosity, pain, identity call-out, proof with numbers. Run every idea through 2 or 3 and test.
- Kill the hook killersCut the breath before you speak. No dead space, no "so today I was...". Disrespect their time in the hook and they're gone.
- Turn your 20 problems into 20 quick videosAbout 20 minutes each, low polish, proof of concept. Find the top 5 performers, remake those better, double down on the best.
- One idea per reel"3 ways to run faster" is 3 reels, not 1.
- Post in the 3-1-1 ratio5 posts a week: 3 reach, 1 trust, 1 conversion. Weight even harder to reach while you're new... it feeds everything else.
- Phone, tripod, big captions. That's the kitTurn the grid on, eyes on the top line, headroom above. Most watch on mute, so captions are non-negotiable.
- Spend on audio first, lighting second, camera lastKey light at 45 degrees to the face, or just sit side-on to a window. People have hit a million followers on iPhones.
- Use propsA prop in hand nearly doubled Dr Julie's views. When one works, keep reusing it. It calms your hands down too.
- Edit tightCut every pause, scene change roughly every 3 seconds. A 90-second reel is about a 15-minute edit. CapCut or the Edits app is plenty.
- Post at least 7 pieces this weekReps over polish. Quality is secondary right now... the habit is the asset.
- Use trial reels to test hooksSame video, different hooks, shown to non-followers. Winner goes to the feed. Change at least 10% or Instagram flags it.
- Read your retention graphsDrop in the first seconds = hook problem, not content problem. Gradual tail-off at the end is normal.
- Steal ethically, never identicallyEvery format has 3 elements: subject, text, background. Change at least 2. Copy the king of the castle exactly and you sit in view jail forever.
- Segment the room in line 1"A lot of type 1 diabetics don't know..." sends the wrong people away fast, which teaches the algorithm exactly who it's for.
"The place you find a lead is the worst place to convert the lead."
Week 3 · Days 15–21
Turn followers into leads
Social media is rented land. Its only job is to get people off it and onto the one list you actually own.
- Check the 20% ruleYour email list should be at least 20% of your following. Under it, harvest your followers for emails. Over it, grow the audience.
- Pick ONE lead magnet: one small problem solved completely"Lose fat" beats "lose fat and build muscle". Quick win inside 5 minutes, builds curiosity, proves your expertise.
- Build it as an email series, not a PDFPDFs die on phones. Name it outcome + duration: "30 Ways in 30 Days", "Move Better in 17 Days". One genuinely useful idea per day.
- Street test itCould you hold it on a sign in the street and get strangers to stop? "Free protein guide" stops nobody. "Lose 3lbs of belly fat without tracking a calorie" stops some.
- Build the squeeze page: one job, get the emailHeadline is the big result without the pain point. 3 curiosity bullets, email field only, button says "Send me day 1". No nav, no socials, no video needed.
- Wire up comment-to-DMManyChat: one keyword ("pod", something daft) triggers an auto-DM with the squeeze link. Reuse the same keyword across every related post.
- Write the autoresponder: 20–40 short emailsYour 20 best points, 1 per email, 90 seconds to read. Story first, teaching woven in. Load 1 a day... build it once and it runs forever.
- CTA in almost every emailEven a soft PS: "if you're ready, click here". An email without a call to action is a newsletter, and we don't do those.
- Sort deliverability on day 1"Move me to Primary" prompt on the thank-you page and in email 1, then ask for a quick reply. That reply trains the inbox to trust you.
- Email far more often than feels politeDaily is fine if it's good. If someone needs 15 touches, daily gets there in 15 days, weekly takes 4 months.
- Never collect emails then go quiet6 weeks of silence then a pitch is the "you up?" text. Keep a running story list on your phone so you never run out.
- Stop watching unsubscribesIt's inbox management, not personal. Smash the granny out of a dormant list... if it halves and 4 clients pop out, you won.
- Plaster the opt-in everywhereBio link, pinned comment, mid-video mention, end-of-video CTA. On long form: first 30 seconds, middle, end.
"You cannot email too often, only be too boring."
Week 4 · Days 22–30
Turn leads into money
No landing page is a restaurant with no menu. People must be able to self-serve what it is, what they get, why to trust you and how to pay.
- Keep squeeze and landing pages separateSqueeze page captures the email. Landing page makes the sale. One page, one job, never both.
- Build the landing page in orderHeadline, video, the problem, your method, proof, price, guarantee, CTA. What it is, what they get, why to trust you, how to pay.
- Make the headline specific, visualisable, falsifiable"Sign your first 5 paying clients in 90 days or your money back" beats "transformation coaching for ambitious people". Add a number.
- Win above the fold80% of the decision happens before they scroll. Headline plus video plus button, visible immediately.
- Record the VSL: no welcome, straight into the painTheir problem, your method, what they get, proof, honest expectations, CTA. Pre-empt every objection you've ever heard on a call.
- Strip the page bareNo nav menu, no social links, no animations, no stock photos. Every exit is a leak.
- Use your best 3–6 testimonials, not 13Name, result, timeframe. Text context above every video because skimmers won't press play. None yet? Leave it blank, never fabricate... the guarantee is your proof.
- Offer a money-back guaranteeIt's for you, not them. It buys you the confidence to make a bold claim: "Give me 30 days or your money back." Refund from your personal account, by name.
- Price high, price publicPrice is the first evidence of quality. 1 or 2 tiers max. "I can't afford it" really means "I don't see the value"... the guarantee kills the real objection.
- Sell the outcome, never the mechanismNobody woke up wanting to buy coaching. They want to be leaner, booked, out of pain. The programme is just the vehicle.
- Write the copy in your own voicePage, emails and how you speak in person should sound identical. Don't let AI write it... human imperfection converts.
- Ship the mid version this weekendMid content, mid squeeze page, mid landing page beats a perfect one that doesn't exist. Lay down a white belt of each, then improve under pressure.
- Send buyers from email, not raw from bioThe landing page link lives in your emails, hit when the reader's ready. Cold bio traffic goes to the squeeze page instead.
- A/B test one variable at a time3 headlines, then 3 photos, never both at once. Font size alone has moved sales 17%. The winner is usually not the one you'd have picked.
- Answer real objections in the FAQs"What if I've tried everything?", "How long until results?". Straight from your sales calls, kept short.
"No one gives a f*ck about you. Solve their problem and they'll never stop watching."
Beyond Day 30 · The habits
The posting operating system
The 30 days build the machine. These habits keep it running... this is the difference between the ones who make it and the ones who stop at post 200.
- Make 1 post a day your identityLike hitting 10,000 steps every day, not 3 times a week. It's who you are now, not a task list.
- Get through your first 100 posts fast200 posts is not enough data. Craig Jackson posted 1,800 before growth kicked in. Volume is the tuition fee.
- Work the 8-week windowNew followers are red hot for about 8 weeks. Every post is a body shot wearing down resistance... land the lead magnet while they're warm.
- Repost your winners every 3 monthsMost people who saw the viral one didn't follow, and your new followers never saw it. Remake it better each time.
- Never wait for infrastructure to postReach content needs no funnel. Either it grows the audience or the retention graph tells you why not. Both are wins.
- Set honest expectations6 to 12 months of eating dirt, about 2 years to real traction on one platform. Most quit right before the breakthrough.
- Filter feedback from criticismDoes this person benefit your life? Yes = feedback, listen. No = criticism, ignore. Your mates' opinions don't count... strangers buy, friends don't.
- Work in phases, one pillar at a timeAll-in on content, then emails, then pages. Not everything at once.
- Prove it organic before you payAds only amplify what already works. A failing funnel fails faster with money behind it.
- Track it like a programmeThis hook = this retention. This email = this click rate. Same scientific brain you use on clients, pointed at the business.
- Repurpose everythingEvery strong email becomes a LinkedIn post, a tweet, a script. One viral asset is 20 pieces of content minimum.
- Review and improve monthly, never endlessly polishPerfectionism is the enemy of launching. Ship it mid, measure, upgrade the winners.
The whole game in one line: know exactly who you help, post for them every day, pull them onto your email list, and give them one clear page to buy from.
Built from the James Smith 30-day business mentorship: the 3-day webinar, the weekly coaching calls (James, Cam, Ollie and guests), and the supporting courses... Your Bio Sucks, Black Belt Content Mastery, Lead Magnet Mastery and Send Emails Get Paid.