The Client Primer
Build.
A custom 5-day educational email course in your firm's voice. Filters tire-kickers. Educates serious clients before they ever book a call. Delivered in 21 days.
The honest math on building it yourself.
You probably already know what a Client Primer is. A 5-day educational email course that filters out low-budget leads, educates high-value clients on the *Mistakes* most people make in your project type, and earns you the right to charge for the audit instead of writing free proposals.
You might have even sketched the topic on the back of a fee proposal at some point this month.
Then you went back to running your firm.
The hours
A first-draft 5-day educational email course — done well — takes about 20 hours of focused writing. That's not a number I made up. That's what the framework requires, and it matches what I've watched architects do when they actually sit down to build one.
Twenty hours sounds manageable on a Sunday morning. It rarely is.
The part nobody talks about
The hours aren't the real problem. The real problem is voice.
If your Client Primer reads like generic marketing copy, the right clients ignore it. Worse — they unsubscribe.
The voice has to sound like *you.* The architect with 30 years on the boards. The principal who's seen seven recessions. The sole practitioner who walks every site personally. Whatever you actually are.
Writing in your own voice is harder than writing well. Most architects, when they sit down to write something for marketing, default to a stiff "professional" register that sounds nothing like how they actually talk on a site visit. Fixing that takes drafts. And more drafts. And usually a partner who can hear when it's still off.
The cost of "I'll get to it"
I've watched dozens of firm owners read the framework, get excited, block off a Saturday, write Day 0, and then... never finish.
This isn't a knock. It's just what happens when you run a firm.
The cost of "I'll get to it" isn't the 20 hours. It's the 12 months of leads you didn't filter or educate while the asset wasn't shipped.
The leads you would have nurtured stay cold. The tire-kickers you would have filtered keep eating your discovery calls. The high-value clients you would have educated hire the architect who did build the email course.
Six emails. Custom. Finished.
Not a template. Not a "fill in the blanks." A finished asset, built for your firm, in your voice, with your ICP's myths and hidden taxes specifically named.
The deliverable
The welcome email that opens the loop and sets the 5-day expectation.
The specific lie your ICP believes about your project type, dismantled with authority.
The financial cost of staying in the old way, with real numbers from your market.
Your named, branded process for solving the problem — the "[Your Mechanism Name] Protocol."
A case study from your portfolio (anonymized if needed) showing the mechanism in action.
The hand-raiser email that converts students into paid Audit clients.
Each email includes
- Subject line + preview text (A/B variant for Day 0)
- Body copy (~800 words, the proven length for filtering tire-kickers)
- Headers, sub-headers, bulleted lists — structured like a brief, not a letter
- The Loop language — back-references yesterday, teases tomorrow
Three delivery formats
- Google Doc — for review and edits
- Plain text — paste-ready into any email platform
- HTML-formatted — ready for ConvertKit, Mailchimp, MailerLite, Beehiiv, or your platform of choice
What makes this different from agency output
One — I'm an architect, not a copywriter. 52 years on real projects. I've sat through cert reviews, argued RFIs on Saturdays, watched contractors mis-spec hardware. When I write your Day 3 mechanism, I know what zoning analysis actually involves because I've done it.
Two — I write in your voice, not mine. Before I write a word, we do a 60-minute discovery call. You talk. I record. I extract your specific cadence, the phrases you use on site visits, the war stories that animate your point of view. Then I build a custom voice profile — using Claude — that gets your voice tuned correctly before any drafting starts.
Three — I build to the framework. Every Client Primer Build follows the same structural standard: the 5-day arc, the 800-word benchmark, the clinical-not-preachy tone, the specificity-equals-authority principle, the mechanism naming convention.
What's included and what isn't
Included
- 60-minute discovery call
- Custom voice tuning
- All 6 emails, end to end
- Subject lines + preview text
- Two rounds of revisions
- Three delivery formats
- A 1-page "how to wire this up" guide
Not included
- Email platform account setup (ConvertKit, etc.)
- Lead-magnet PDF or opt-in page design
- Ongoing newsletter writing (separate retainer, coming soon)
- Editing your existing copy from another source
Seven steps. 21 days. Three slots a month.
Here's exactly what working together looks like — start to final delivery.
Apply
A short form tells me about your firm, your ICP, what you're stuck on, and which past clients are the kind of work you want more of. This is a fit check, not a sales tactic. If you're outside what I can deliver well, I'll tell you and refund the application step.
Pay
If we're a fit, I send a Stripe payment link. Payment confirms your slot in the queue. No invoice, no deposits, no payment plans — flat fee, one transaction.
Discovery call
Within 7 days of payment, we get on Zoom. You talk. I record. We cover your firm's history, your specific ICP, your unique mechanism, one or two real war stories, and your voice. This call is the load-bearing piece — plan to talk freely.
Voice tuning
I take the recording, pull out 30–40 phrases that capture your voice, and build a custom Claude system prompt. I draft one test paragraph in your voice and send it to you for a thumbs-up. If it misses, we adjust the prompt before any real drafting.
First draft delivery
All six emails, in a Google Doc, with my own notes inline on the decisions I made. You'll see exactly what the Day 1 myth is, why I picked it, why I phrased it the way I did. No black box.
Two rounds of revisions
You comment in the Doc. I revise. Repeat. Two rounds covers ~95% of clients. If you need a third round, fine — at this stage I'd rather over-deliver than nickel-and-dime.
Final delivery
The final 6-email Client Primer in three formats: Google Doc, plain text, HTML. Plus a 1-page "how to wire this up" guide for your email platform.
Total timeline: 21 days from payment to final delivery. Sometimes 18 if revisions go fast. Never longer than 30 unless we both agree to pause.
Flat fee. Capped slots. One transaction.
What you get for the fee, vs. building it solo
| What | Solo build value |
|---|---|
| 20 hours of focused writing | $5,000 at $250/hr billable |
| Voice extraction + custom tuning | The part that's hardest to outsource cheaply |
| Architect-specific authority | What separates a real Primer from agency slop |
| 21-day delivery vs. "I'll get to it in Q3" | 12 months of leads you don't ship to |
The guarantee
If the test paragraph in Step 4 doesn't sound like you, and we can't tune the prompt to match within reasonable iteration, I refund the full fee minus the discovery call. I'd rather refund than ship something that doesn't sound like you. After the first draft is delivered, the project is non-refundable — the work is done.
Slots fill in payment order. When this month's three slots are gone, you go in the next month's queue.
Questions before you apply.
Do I need to have read the framework before applying?
What if my firm size or project type isn't a fit?
What email platform does this work with?
Will the voice actually sound like me, or like Claude?
Can I see a sample of past work?
What if I want more than one Client Primer (multiple ICPs)?
How does ownership work?
Apply for a Client Primer Build.
10 minutes to apply. 48-hour response. If we're a fit, you're in the queue.
Apply Now →