JUMPSTART® — CARVE OUT YOUR POSITIONING
LIVE PORTAL WORKSHEET REFERENCE

STATUS
CURRENT — canonical implementation reference for the live Carve Out Your Positioning worksheet in the Joel Pilger Portal.

MODULE
Jumpstart® Module 2 — Carve Out Your Positioning

IMPORTANT SCOPE / ROUTING RULE
Positioning system work is handled by Positioning Copilot™.

Jumpstart® Copilot should:
- Know that this live worksheet exists inside the Jumpstart accelerator.
- Understand its structure well enough to recognize what a member is working on.
- Refer members back to the live Portal worksheet for saved implementation work.
- Route requests for positioning diagnosis, rewriting, differentiation, Seven Sins work, Buyer Perception Map work, or deeper positioning application to Positioning Copilot™.
- Do NOT teach or recreate the positioning system inside Jumpstart® Copilot as a substitute for Positioning Copilot™.

SOURCE OF TRUTH
- Live Portal worksheet = canonical implementation flow, prompts, categories, tests, and completion behavior.
- User answers are persistent in the Joel Pilger Portal.
- Jumpstart® Copilot does not automatically have access to the user's saved Portal answers unless those answers are provided in the conversation or exposed through a future Portal connection.

WORKSHEET TITLE
Carve Out Your Positioning

WORKSHEET DECK
“Step outside the jar. Become the only, not one of many.”

PURPOSE
Guide the founder from generic, portable studio language toward a horizontal, distinctive positioning line that another studio could not credibly use.

The live worksheet is organized into seven beats:
1. The Mirror
2. The Seven Sins
3. a → the
4. Brain Dump & Narrow
5. First Verb
6. Fit Test
7. Flavorize

BEAT 1 — THE MIRROR
Heading:
“Let’s hold your positioning up to the light.”

Prompt:
Paste the opening line from the studio’s About page or LinkedIn studio page.

Reflection:
Read the line out loud to the next biggest dream client.

Question:
Would they stop mid-scroll to read it again?

Response choices:
- Absolutely
- Doubtful
- No way

Core framing:
“Your problem is structural, not creative. You’re stuck inside the jar trying to read the label. Today we step outside.”

BEAT 2 — THE SEVEN SINS
Heading:
“Now audit your whole message, not just that line.”

The worksheet asks the user to audit the studio’s messaging across the site, deck, bio, and pitches.

The Seven Sins:

1. ONE OF MANY
Describes the studio as “a…” — a studio, an agency — instead of the only.

2. PICK ME
Self-serving CTA such as:
“Call us,” “Request a quote,” “Have a project?”

3. CLICHÉ
Buzzwords such as:
creative, passionate, storytelling, collaborative.

4. SELLING INPUTS
Narrows on discipline or product instead of a horizontal need.

5. WALLPAPER
Presents work without naming the problem solved or result produced.

6. ABOUT US, NOT THEM
Uses “we / us / our” more than it names the buyer’s world.

7. SEA OF SAMENESS
Sounds like every other studio’s About page.

The worksheet tallies how many sins the user identifies.

BEAT 3 — a → the
Heading:
“The single most powerful edit in positioning.”

Instruction:
Find the “a” or “an” in the line — including an implicit “a” in language such as “we are a creative studio” — and change it to “the.”

Prompt:
Write the revised line.

Question:
“Did it survive?”

Response choices:
- No — it collapsed. I was one of many.
- Yes — it held. I can claim “the.”

Interpretation:
If the sentence collapses, the studio was still one of many.
If it holds, the line may have stronger structural differentiation, but it still must be tested for horizontal positioning and distinctiveness.

BEAT 4 — BRAIN DUMP & NARROW
Heading:
“Find the words that already make you the only.”

Teaching:
There are four ways to narrow positioning. Three are presented as commoditization traps; one is the desired direction.

THE FOUR AXES

1. VERTICAL — trap
Definition:
The industry you serve.
Examples:
Entertainment · tech · automotive

2. DISCIPLINE — trap
Definition:
The service you offer.
Examples:
VFX · live action · character animation

3. PRODUCT — trap
Definition:
The deliverable you produce.
Examples:
Commercials · promos · film titles

4. HORIZONTAL — desired axis
Definition:
The need or belief you satisfy.
Examples:
Audiences who crave laughter · CEOs who need a megaphone

Core instruction:
“Narrow on horizontal. The other three are traps.”

STEP 1
Brain dump every word and phrase used to describe the studio.

Sources suggested by the worksheet:
- About copy
- LinkedIn bio
- Capabilities deck
- Pitches

Instruction:
Do not curate. Dump.

STEP 2
Tag each phrase as:
- Vertical
- Discipline
- Product
- Horizontal

STEP 3
Highlight the three or four horizontal words that feel most true.

Framing:
These words have the power to attract clients who share what the studio believes.

Live behavior note:
The interface instructs the user to choose three or four horizontal words. Technically, the worksheet allows continuation once at least one horizontal word has been chosen.

BEAT 5 — FIRST VERB
Heading:
“From vocabulary to a line.”

The worksheet carries forward the user’s selected horizontal words.

STEP 1
Prompt:
“In one sentence — what does your studio do?”

STEP 2
Instruction:
Tap the first verb.
Everything before it drops away.

The remaining language is then converted into a command.

Examples:

FROM:
“We are a studio that produces commercials for tech brands”
STRIP:
“Produce commercials”
NOTE:
Too narrow on product — push horizontal.
TO:
“Make tech feel human”

FROM:
“We are a creative agency that helps streaming services build loyal fans”
STRIP:
“Build loyal fans”
NOTE:
Already horizontal — sharpen.
TO:
“Convert viewers into believers”

STEP 3
Write three variations using the selected horizontal words.

Live behavior note:
The worksheet presents three variation fields, but allows the user to continue to the Fit Test after writing at least one variation.

BEAT 6 — FIT TEST
Heading:
“Before you flavorize, make sure the line is sound.”

Instruction:
Pick the strongest variation and test it against four filters.

FILTER 1 — THE THREE Cs
Question:
Does this stop a buyer mid-scroll? Or does it explain?

Pass:
“It stops them”

Fail:
“It explains”

FILTER 2 — ARC
Question:
Is it Authentic, Remarkable, Curious?
If one is missing, the line is half-built.

Pass:
“All three land”

Fail:
“One is missing”

FILTER 3 — a → the
Question:
Apply the test one more time.
Are you “the,” or still “a”?

Pass:
“I am the only”

Fail:
“Still one of many”

FILTER 4 — HORIZONTAL
Question:
Is the line horizontal?
Or did it fall back to vertical, discipline, or product?

Pass:
“It’s horizontal”

Fail:
“I fell back”

RULE
All four filters must pass before the worksheet allows the user to proceed to Flavorize.

If one or more filters fail, the worksheet sends the user back to revise the line.

THE PAUSE
The worksheet explicitly encourages the user to stop here if possible:
Close the worksheet, sleep on it, take a walk, shower, or drive, then return.
The framing is that the best flavorizing often happens after distance.

BEAT 7 — FLAVORIZE
Heading:
“Make it a line only your studio could write.”

Definition:
A horizontal line earns:
“tell me more.”

A flavorized line earns:
“wait, what?!?”

Goal:
Run the sound horizontal line through the studio’s name, point of view, or worldview until it becomes structurally non-portable — another studio literally cannot use it.

STEP 1
Prompt:
Your studio name — or, if the name is generic, a one-sentence point of view.

Example:
“Impossible Pictures.”
or
“We believe clarity beats cleverness.”

STEP 2
Prompt:
Rephrase the line in the world the studio name or POV opens up.

STEP 3
Prompt:
Write five words, phrases, or images the line opens up.

The worksheet describes these as:
“The beginnings of your lore.”

EXAMPLES

Impossible Pictures:
Horizontal line:
“Attract audiences”

Flavorized:
“Imagine the Impossibilities”

Lore examples:
- miracle-making
- leaping tall challenges in a single bound
- Think. Do. Impossible.
- daredevils
- attention-grabbing

Weekend Video:
Horizontal line:
“Make videos people love”

Flavorized:
“The Funnest Videos This Side of Friday”

Lore examples:
- VHS aesthetic
- Friday-night rentals
- the funnest
- weekend energy
- side of Friday

FINAL ARTIFACT
The worksheet captures:
1. Final hero statement
2. Five lore words

Framing:
“This is what you’ll publish on your About page this week — and what will guide every piece of writing you produce from here forward.”

COMPLETION
The worksheet is sealed/completed when the user provides a final hero statement and chooses “Seal my positioning.”

Completion stores a timestamp and remains persistent in the Portal.

The worksheet can be resumed while incomplete and reset/start over when needed.

WORKSHOP BRIDGE
The worksheet instructs the member to bring:
- The hero statement
- Two dream clients to test it on that week

Recommended feedback frame:
“We’re going this direction, what do you think,”

Not:
“Do you think we should.”

The worksheet frames this as the difference between feedback that helps and feedback that kills.

HOW JUMPSTART® COPILOT SHOULD RESPOND
If a member mentions this worksheet:

1. Recognize the worksheet and where they are in the seven-beat flow.
2. Help them understand logistics or where an answer belongs if needed.
3. Encourage them to save/refine implementation work in the live Portal worksheet.
4. Do not recreate the worksheet in chat when the live worksheet is available.
5. Do not perform the underlying positioning system work inside Jumpstart® Copilot.
6. For substantive positioning diagnosis or application, route to Positioning Copilot™.
7. If the member shares completed worksheet answers and asks for positioning critique, rewriting, differentiation, Seven Sins diagnosis, or next-step positioning work, route to Positioning Copilot™.

ROUTING LANGUAGE
“Positioning Copilot™ is the right tool for this because you’re now working on positioning and differentiation.”

KEY DISTINCTIONS
- Vertical = industry served.
- Discipline = service offered.
- Product = deliverable produced.
- Horizontal = need or belief satisfied.
- Horizontal is the target direction in this worksheet.
- A sound line must pass all four Fit Test filters before flavorizing.
- Flavorizing is not decoration. Its purpose is to make the positioning structurally non-portable.
- The final implementation artifact is a hero statement plus five lore words.

END OF REFERENCE
