Offer

Before you start

Requires: Vault Guide

Estimated time: ~45 minutes with your LLM

An offer is not just a product. It is a promise of transformation backed by a clear structure: what someone gets, how it works, and why it is worth their time and money. In this guide you will build a complete offer booklet, validate it against the Hormozi Value Equation, set up a Gumroad page to sell it, and find your first 10 early adopters.

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Part 1: The Offer

The Value Equation

Alex Hormozi’s Value Equation is the tool we use to score every offer. Four components:

Value = (Dream Outcome x Perceived Likelihood) / (Time Delay x Effort & Sacrifice)

Increase the top. Decrease the bottom. Lower numbers in the denominator mean higher value.

Dream Outcome is the aspirational result your customer is chasing. Not features. Transformation. “Data replacing guessing” scores higher than “a dashboard with charts” because it speaks to the emotional shift.

Perceived Likelihood is how confident the buyer feels that they will actually achieve the outcome. Step-by-step guides, social proof, and a contained scope all push this number up. If completing your product requires heroic effort or rare skills, this number drops.

Time Delay measures how long the buyer waits before seeing results. Same-day results score a 1 or 2. Months of work before any payoff scores an 8 or 9. The faster someone feels progress, the higher the value.

Effort and Sacrifice captures everything the buyer has to give up or push through. Money, time, learning curves, lifestyle changes. A product that requires only a laptop and a free account scores much lower (better) than one requiring months of study.

Scoring Your Offer

Score each component from 1 to 10, then calculate:

Value = (Dream Outcome x Perceived Likelihood) / (Time Delay x Effort & Sacrifice)

A strong offer has a high numerator (big dream, high confidence) and a low denominator (fast results, low effort). Compare these two examples:

• Strong offer: Dream 8, Likelihood 7, Delay 2, Effort 3. Score: (8 x 7) / (2 x 3) = 9.3.
• Weak offer: Dream 10, Likelihood 3, Delay 8, Effort 7. Score: (10 x 3) / (8 x 7) = 0.5.

The weak offer has a grander vision but collapses because the buyer does not believe they will finish, and the effort is enormous. ODD teaches you to pick projects where the equation works, not projects where the idea sounds impressive.

The Target Avatar

Before you write the offer booklet, get specific about who this is for. Not “everyone.” A single person with a name, a problem, and a reason to care right now. Your vault’s 02_audience/target_avatar.md file should describe this person in detail: their frustration, what they have already tried, and why existing solutions have not worked.

The Offer, Not the App

The app is not the product. The transformation is the product. Read that again if you need to.

You are not competing with established apps in your space. Your product is deliberately simpler because simplicity is the point. The product is: “You can build something people will pay for, in a weekend, with an AI coding assistant.” Your app proves it.

Once you understand that distinction, you stop adding features to make your app “competitive.” You start asking: does my offer deliver the transformation I promised?

The 10 PDF

The offer is a 4-5 page PDF that describes your product in beautiful detail, sold on Gumroad for a small price (we recommend 10). Not free. Real money from real people.

Gumroad is a platform that lets you sell digital products (PDFs, courses, templates) with no monthly fees. You upload the file, set a price, and share the link. Payments go straight to your account. It takes about ten minutes to set up.

Why does charging matter? Free downloads tell you nothing. Someone will download a free PDF out of mild curiosity and never open it. But when someone pays real money, they are telling you that the problem is real enough and the promise is clear enough to spend actual money on. That is signal. That is validation.

Your goal in Part 2 is to find ten early adopters who will each pay for your offer. That is not life-changing money. It is proof. Proof that someone values what you are building enough to pay for it before it exists.

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Step 0: Open Your Terminal and Start Your AI Tool

Before you can run any prompts, you need a terminal open and an AI coding tool running.

1. Open a terminal. If you have not used a terminal before, follow the Using the Terminal guide.
2. Navigate to your vault folder:

   cd ~/path-to-your-vault

3. Start your AI coding tool. Type the command for whichever tool you have installed:

   claude        # Claude Code
   gemini        # Gemini CLI
   codex         # Codex

Once your tool is running and waiting for input, continue to Step 1.

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Step 1: Generate the Offer Booklet

The offer-booklet-builder skill reads your vault files and generates a complete 7-section booklet, saved to your 05_output/ directory.

Step 1 Copy prompt

Generate an offer booklet from my vault at [path-to-your-vault].

Example output

The booklet contains these 7 sections:

1. Cover: product name, tagline, and author
2. The Offer: what the product is and the transformation it delivers
3. Who It’s For: ideal customer profile and who it is not for
4. What You Get: deliverables with descriptions
5. How It Works: step-by-step buyer journey
6. Pricing: price, value comparison, and call to action
7. Next Steps: purchase link and reassurance

Review each section and edit anything that does not sound right before converting to PDF.

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Step 2: Convert to PDF

Once you are happy with the booklet content, convert it to a branded PDF ready for Gumroad.

Step 2 Copy prompt

Convert my offer booklet to a branded PDF. My vault is at [path-to-your-vault]. Use the brand guidelines from 00_brand/tone_of_voice.md to inform the visual tone. The PDF should be A4 portrait, clean and professional, suitable for uploading to Gumroad as a paid digital product.

Example output

This skill requires Python and ReportLab Setup. If you do not have them installed, you can use Obsidian’s built-in PDF export as an alternative.

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Step 3: Validate with the Value Equation

Before you start promoting, run your offer through the Hormozi Value Equation to identify weak spots.

Step 3 Copy prompt

Score my offer using the Hormozi Value Equation. My vault is at [path-to-your-vault].

Example output

Interpreting Your Score

Score	Meaning
1.0-2.0	Weak: friction outweighs the promise
2.1-4.0	Moderate: has potential but at least one component is dragging it down
4.1-6.0	Good: solid fundamentals
6.1-8.0	Strong: compelling value proposition, focus on distribution
8.1-10.0	Exceptional: protect what works, start scaling

After making changes based on the recommendations, run the validator again with your updated details.

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Step 4: Set Up Gumroad

With your offer booklet PDF ready, you need somewhere to sell it.

Step 4 Copy prompt

Create me a complete guide in docx format covering every step to build a Gumroad product page from scratch. I have never used Gumroad before, so include the full level of detail: account creation, payment setup, product listing, pricing configuration, uploading my PDF, writing the product description, setting up a cover image, and publishing. Use my offer details from 01_offer/offer_definition.md and 01_offer/gumroad_landing.md in my vault at [path-to-your-vault] to pre-fill the product listing copy where possible. Save the guide to 05_output/.

Example output

Once your product page is live, update 01_offer/gumroad_landing.md with your final listing URL.

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Part 2: Finding Your 10

Why 10?

You have a vault. You have an offer scored with the Value Equation. You have a Gumroad page ready to take money. Now you need 10 people to pay for your offer.

Why 10? Because 10 is small enough to find without advertising, without an audience, without a following. You do not need a marketing strategy. You need a phone and some courage.

Ten is also enough to mean something. One sale could be a favour. Two could be a coincidence. Ten people, each spending their own money, is a pattern. It tells you the offer has value. It gives you 10 early adopters who are now invested in what you build. They will test your product, give you feedback, and tell you honestly whether it works.

Start Warm

Start with the people closest to you. Always warm.

Hormozi’s Core Four says there are four ways to let people know about your offer: warm outreach, cold outreach, content, and paid ads. For your first 10 sales, only one of those matters. Warm outreach. People who already know you.

But here is a detail most books skip: start with the warmest of the warm. Your closest, most supportive friends and family. Not the sceptic uncle who questions everything you do. Not the mate who sends the eye-roll whenever you mention a side project. Start with the people who would cheer you on even if the idea was terrible.

Why? Because the first ask is the hardest. Your hands will shake a bit. Your message will be slightly too long. You will check your phone every ninety seconds waiting for a reply. That is normal. Everyone feels it. The trick is to make that first ask to someone who will respond kindly, whether they buy or not. You are building confidence, not just collecting sales.

Once you have two or three yeses from your inner circle, the next ten messages get easier. You have proof it works. You have language that landed. You have momentum.

So make a list. Open your phone contacts. Scroll through LinkedIn. Think about WhatsApp groups, old team chats, the people you play five-a-side with. You are looking for anyone who has ever complained about the problem your product solves, mentioned wanting better habits, or expressed interest in building something with code. Write down 30 names. Rank them: the first five should be people you would call if you had a flat tyre at midnight. The rest can be looser connections. You will not message all 30. But having the list removes the “I don’t know who to ask” excuse.

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Step 5: Build Your Prospect List

Step 5 Copy prompt

Help me build a list of 20 warm prospects for my offer. My vault is at [path-to-your-vault]. Read 02_audience/target_avatar.md and 01_offer/offer_definition.md to understand who my ideal customer is. Ask me about my network first: colleagues, former clients, online communities, social media connections, friends. Then help me identify the 20 people who are the strongest fit. For each person, I need a markdown table with these columns: - Full name - How I know them - LinkedIn URL (I will fill this in) - Email (I will fill this in) - Why they fit my offer

Example output

Write Personalised Messages

Every outreach message follows a 4-part formula:

1. Personal hook: a genuine, specific reason you are reaching out to this person
2. Value lead: share something useful before asking for anything
3. Bridge: connect what you shared to your offer without pitching
4. Soft CTA: ask for their opinion or feedback, not their money

Step 6 Copy prompt

Generate 3 outreach message templates for my warm prospects. My vault is at [path-to-your-vault]. Use 00_brand/tone_of_voice.md for my brand voice and 01_offer/offer_definition.md for my offer details. Create one template for each channel: 1. LinkedIn DM 2. Email 3. Text / WhatsApp Each template must follow this 4-part structure: - [PERSONAL HOOK]: leave this as a placeholder with a note that I need to fill it in myself for each contact - Value lead: share something genuinely useful related to the problem my offer solves - Bridge: connect the value to my offer naturally, without a hard pitch - Soft CTA: ask for their opinion or feedback, not a purchase Keep each message under 150 words. Make them conversational, not salesy.

Example output

Before sending any message, fill in the [PERSONAL HOOK] for each contact. This is the part that makes outreach feel personal rather than templated.

The Ask Pattern

Follow this pattern for every conversation: Acknowledge, Share, Describe, Ask.

• Acknowledge. Start with something genuine. Reference a conversation you had, something they posted, a shared experience.
• Share. Tell them what you are working on. Keep it brief.
• Describe. Explain who it is for and what it does.
• Ask. “I am looking for 10 early adopters who will pay [your price] to get early access and shape the final product. Do you know anyone who might be interested?”

Notice the phrasing. You are not asking them to buy. You are asking if they know anyone. This removes the pressure. If they are interested, they will say so. If they are not, they can suggest someone else without feeling awkward.

Handling Rejection

Most people will say no. That is normal. That is the job.

If someone says “no thanks,” accept it gracefully and move on. Do not chase. Do not argue. Do not explain why they should want it. A clean “no worries, thanks for reading it” preserves the relationship and leaves the door open for next time.

But pay attention to the flavour of the no:

• “No, I am not interested in [your topic]” tells you it did not land with that person. Fine.
• “No, I would rather use an existing app” tells you something about the competitive space. Useful.
• “I would, but the price feels like a lot for something that is not built yet” tells you the price or the timing needs work. Very useful.

The most valuable response is “I would, but…” Everything after the “but” is product feedback. Write it down. If three people say the same “but,” that is a signal worth acting on. Maybe you need to adjust the price. Maybe you need to explain the offer differently. Maybe the dream outcome is not clear enough. Each “but” sharpens the offer.

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Step 7: Create a Tracking Sheet

Step 7 Copy prompt

Create a CSV file for tracking my warm outreach campaign. Include these columns: - Name - Contact method (LinkedIn / Email / Text) - LinkedIn URL - Email - Why they fit - Initial message sent (date) - Initial message status (sent / opened / replied) - Follow-up 1 sent (date) - Follow-up 1 status - Follow-up 2 sent (date) - Follow-up 2 status - Response status (interested / not interested / no reply / meeting booked) - Next action - Next action date - Notes Pre-fill the Name and Why they fit columns from the prospect list we created earlier. Save the file to 05_output/ in my vault at [path-to-your-vault].

Example output

Key Principles

• Lead with value, not a pitch. Share something useful before asking for anything.
• Be specific. Mention why you thought of this person specifically.
• Follow up with a reason. Each follow-up should add new value. Never send a bare “just checking in.”
• Ask for feedback, not a sale. Early conversations are about learning what resonates.
• Track everything. Update your tracking sheet after every interaction.

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What Comes Next

You now have a validated offer with a complete booklet, a live Gumroad page, and (if you did the work) your first paying customers.

When you are ready to turn your offer into working software, move on to the Ship guide. That guide introduces the SpecKit workflow and walks you through building your product with your chosen LLM coding tool.