Every business has six pillars
Marketing, sales, delivery, operations, finance, mindset. Everything you do in a week sits in one of them. I have used this frame for years, and every agent in this course is built on it. So before we touch a single setting that costs money, I want you to see your own business through it.
Here is the mistake I watch people make
They buy the agents, install all of them, and then sit there. Nothing moves, because nobody decided what was supposed to move. What changes a business is a written plan of what you are handing over, and in what order. The download on its own changes nothing.
We build that plan in two passes
Today is the first pass, and it is on paper on purpose. You write down what hurts in each pillar and what you would want instead. Twenty minutes. I call it your sketch. The second pass is module 8. By then Perplexity has read your files, run Foundation and connected to your real tools, so it can check your sketch against your actual inbox, calendar and numbers, and push back. Right now it cannot, so we do not pretend.
Three kinds of work will show up on your page
The work you do every week and want off your plate. The work you have never got to, because there was never enough money, time or energy for it. And the work that stays with you, because the client matters too much, or a mistake would cost too much, to hand it to anyone else. Write all three down. Most people only write the first. The third one tells you who you are in this business, and it matters as much as the first.
What you do, step by step
Open a blank doc, or print the worksheet at the bottom of this page.
Call the file business-sketch.
Six rows, one per pillar.
Marketing, sales, delivery, operations, finance, mindset, down the left side. Write them. Do not do this in your head.
Three columns across the top.
What hurts. Right now. What you want instead. One line in each, no paragraphs.
This is the whole page. Six rows, three columns, one mark at the end of each row. Marketing first.
What hurts? One line. Then right now: who does it, how long it takes, what it costs, or why it never happens. Then what you want instead, your best guess. The shape looks like this: I write every email myself, three hours on Sunday night. I want to give it the idea Monday morning, it drafts in my voice, I approve.
Then sales, delivery, operations, finance and mindset.
Same three lines each. If a pillar has nothing worth naming, write none and move on. A blank pillar is a real answer.
Mark each row with a letter.
R means replace, work you want off your plate. N means new, work you never got to. H means human, work that stays with you. Not sure? Leave it blank. Module 8 settles it with real data.
Circle the one row that hurts most.
Not the most exciting one. The one you would pay to never do again, or the one that is costing you clients because it never happens.
Save it where you can find it.
It goes into your Material folder in module 5 and your Project in module 6. Foundation reads it in module 7. In module 8 it becomes the map.
Six pillars, one line each
| Pillar | What hurts, example shape | What you want instead, example shape | Mark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | I write every email myself, three hours on Sunday. | It drafts in my voice from my past emails, I approve, it loads. | R |
| Sales | I take every sales call, including people who are not a fit. | It qualifies and scores, only the right people get my number. | R |
| Delivery | Client questions pile up in a group chat and I answer them at midnight. | It reads the chat each morning, drafts the replies, I say yes or no. | R |
| Operations | My inbox has 300 unread and I do not know what is urgent. | It sorts the inbox each morning, drafts what needs a reply, I approve. | R |
| Finance | Nobody reconciles anything until tax time. | It reads the transactions weekly, syncs the books, asks me only about the odd ones. | N |
| Mindset | I have no one to think out loud with on hard weeks. | A mentor room that knows my patterns and asks the question I avoid. Or H, a human. | N or H |
Shapes only, to show the length. Your lines will be about your business. The mark is R for replace, N for new, H for human.
Before you ask
Should I do this before I know what Perplexity can do?
Yes. If you wait until you understand the tool, you will design around the tool. Design around the business first. That is why this is on paper and costs nothing.
Why not just run the AI mapping session now?
Because right now it knows nothing about you. It would ask you six questions and write down whatever you said. In module 8 it has read your files, run Foundation and can see your real tools, so it can push back. That is worth waiting five modules for.
What if everything comes out as H, stays human?
Then your business is built on you doing the delivery, and that is worth knowing. Start with operations and finance, where almost nothing needs to be you, and buy back some hours.
I have a team. Does this change?
A little. Add a fourth letter, T, for what the team keeps. But do the honest version first: what does the business look like with no one in it? Then add people back for judgment, taste and energy. That is how I went from eleven people to one.
How detailed should each line be?
One line each. What hurts, what happens now, what you want instead. If you are writing paragraphs you are doing module 8’s work with none of module 8’s data. Save it.
Can I do this with my team?
Yes, and it is better. Ask each person to fill in the pillars they touch. You will find out that two people describe the same problem differently, which is a problem worth knowing about.
What if I do not know what AI could do for a pillar?
Leave what you want instead blank. That is what module 8 is for. The sketch is about what hurts. The fix comes later.
Should I include personal stuff under mindset?
Only what you want an agent to know. Mindset on the sketch means the thinking and energy side of running the business: decisions you avoid, weeks you crash, who you think out loud with. Not therapy.