For financial advisors · A free tool

You can fix everyone's positioning but your own.

There is a reason for that, and it has a name. The Positioning Blueprint gives you the outside perspective you cannot generate on yourself: a structured, three-pass system that turns your own answers into one sharp sentence. The structured-thinking half of a real engagement, in about two hours.

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Free. No course, no upsell. Runs in Claude or ChatGPT.

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For financial advisors

The Positioning Blueprint

The Three-Prompt
System

Find the positioning you are too close to see.

DI//ONKeir Dillon

Why this is hard

A client lays out a mess and you see it in minutes. Turn that clarity on your own firm and it is gone.

Psychologists named this. Solomon's Paradox: we reason clearly about other people's problems and badly about our own. It is not a skill problem and it is not an intelligence problem. You are too close, and you cannot fix being too close by trying harder.

For decades the only answer was to pay someone outside to manufacture that distance for you, which is most of what a $50,000 branding engagement actually buys. This does the same job a different way. It treats your own answers as third-party evidence and reasons about them the way you would reason about a client.

What it is

One pulls it out. One shapes it. One stress-tests it.

Discovery

You answer a 20-question workbook plus three visual exercises. The raw material comes out. About an hour, and no AI yet.

Synthesis

A prompt runs your answers through five positioning frameworks and returns five to seven candidate statements, each tied to your own evidence.

Pressure Test

A prompt runs every candidate through six failure modes and kills what does not survive. One statement is left standing.

How to run it

Sit down once. Run it in order.

Answer the workbook

Fill in all 20 Discovery questions. Be honest, not polished. This is you, on your own. About an hour.

your foundation

Run the Synthesis prompt

Open a fresh chat. Paste the prompt, then paste your completed workbook beneath it. You get five to seven candidate statements back.

5 to 7 candidates

Run the Pressure Test prompt

In the same chat, paste the second prompt. It scores every candidate and kills the ones that do not survive.

one survives

One statement, stress-tested

What is left is your position. Take it to your headline, your opener, and the filter for everything you publish.

One foundation, two prompts, one sitting. It works the same in Claude or ChatGPT.

What you walk away with

One sentence only you can say, and everywhere to put it.

Your headline

The first line of your LinkedIn and your site, word for word.

Your opener

How you answer "so what do you do?" without reaching for filler.

Your filter

A test for every post: does this sharpen the statement, or blur it?

Your screen

A way to tell a good-fit client from a bad-fit one on the first call.

The honest claim

This is not a replacement for a $50,000 consulting engagement. It is the structured-thinking half of one, made accessible.

It will not interview your clients or size your market. It gives you the disciplined distance to see your own firm clearly, which is where most positioning actually breaks.

Who made this

Built from real positioning work, not a template.

I am Keir Dillon. I run brand and marketing at a financial firm, and I built this from the same discovery process I use on actual positioning work. The method is mine. The frameworks it runs on are not, and they are credited so you can read the source work yourself.

Marty Neumeier

The Brand Gap and Zag. The Onlyness Statement and the discipline of radical differentiation.

April Dunford

Obviously Awesome. Competitive alternatives, and positioning as deliberate context-setting.

Grossmann & Kross

The research on Solomon's Paradox and self-distancing that the whole method is built on.

Do it here

The whole method, right on this page.

Read the questions, copy the two prompts, and run it now in Claude or ChatGPT. Prefer to keep it or print it? Download the PDF at the bottom.

Pass 01 · Discovery

Answer these in your own words.

Twenty questions across seven categories. Each has a short example so you can see the depth that works. Write your answers wherever you like, then paste them under the Synthesis prompt below.

Category 01Origin & Motivation

Why did you start this firm? Not the version you tell clients, the real one. What were you reacting to, or running from?e.g.I watched my dad get sold products that paid the advisor and not him. I wanted someone in the room who was actually on the client's side.

What part of this work would you still do if it paid half as much? That is the signal under the noise.e.g.The first planning meeting, when someone finally sees their whole picture on one page and exhales. I would do that for free.

What was the moment you realized you were better at this than the people around you?e.g.A client's CPA and attorney were arguing in circles, and I was the one who reframed the actual question. The room went quiet.

Category 02The Business Today

Describe the business as it actually is right now in three sentences. Revenue, client count, what works and what doesn't. No aspiration.e.g.About 60 households, fee-only, healthy referrals, zero marketing. I am the bottleneck on almost everything.

If a client left you tomorrow, what would the real reason be? Name the actual weakness, not the polite one.e.g.Slow response time. I go deep on the plan, then disappear for two weeks, and they feel forgotten between meetings.

What work pays you the most, and what do you most want to be known for? Are they the same thing yet?e.g.Insurance reviews pay the bills. I want to be known for equity-comp planning for tech employees. Not the same yet.

Category 03The Client & ICP

Describe the single best client you have, the one you would clone. Their situation, and what you did that mattered.e.g.Mid-career engineer at a pre-IPO startup with equity she didn't understand. I built a tax and sell plan before the lockup and saved her a six-figure mistake.

Who do you quietly turn away, or wish you could? Naming who you are not for is half of positioning.e.g.Day-traders who want me to validate their stock picks. We are not a fit, and I stopped pretending otherwise.

What does your ideal client believe about money, or about advisors, that most people don't?e.g.That speed beats perfect optimization. They would rather make a good decision this week than a flawless one in three months.

Category 04The Process

Walk through your first 90 days with a new client, step by step. Where do they first say 'nobody has ever done that'?e.g.Day one I rebuild their whole balance sheet live on screen. Most have never seen everything in one place. That is the moment.

What part of your process do you do differently from how you were trained? That deviation is where your real method lives.e.g.I was trained to open with a risk-tolerance questionnaire. I throw it out and start with their calendar and their fears.

What do you refuse to do that is standard in your industry? The refusal is often the position.e.g.I will not sell a product I would not own myself, and I will not keep a client who talks over their spouse in meetings.

Category 05Competition & Differentiation

When a prospect doesn't choose you, what do they choose instead? Doing nothing, a robo, their CPA, a friend who's good with money?e.g.Usually doing nothing, or a big-box firm with a name they recognize. Rarely another independent like me.

What can you say about your work that a competitor down the street could not say without lying?e.g.I have personally been through an IPO and a layoff. I am not theorizing about equity comp. I have lived the windfall and the panic.

What do you believe about this profession that would make a room of other advisors uncomfortable if you said it out loud?e.g.Most 'full financial plans' are 80-page binders nobody reads, built to justify a fee. I would rather hand someone three decisions.

Category 06The Vocabulary

Write the exact phrases you use with clients that you would never put in a brochure, including the slightly unprofessional ones.e.g.'Let's not light money on fire.' 'That is a you-decision, not a math decision.' 'What is your sleep-at-night number?'

What words do other advisors use that make you cringe, that you would never say?e.g.'Holistic.' 'Trusted partner.' 'Your financial journey.' If I hear myself reaching for them, I stop talking.

Category 07Aspiration & Self-Critique

Where do you want this firm in three years, and what would have to be true about how you are known for that to happen?e.g.Known as the equity-comp person for pre-IPO employees in my city. For that, I would have to say no to everyone else.

What is the gap you already see in your own positioning, the part that is fuzzy, borrowed, or trying to please everyone?e.g.My site says I serve 'individuals and families,' which means nothing. I am hiding, because picking a lane feels like losing the others.

If you had to keep only the right 20% of your clients and release the rest, who would you keep, and what does that tell you?e.g.I would keep the tech employees with equity. The rest I keep out of fear, not fit. That is the answer, isn't it?

This, Not That

Three visual exercises.

It is never about the object. It is about what the object means. Do these last, when your instincts are warm.

If my brand were a drink, it would be __________, not __________.

What it surfacesTaste level, occasion, price signal, and who is comfortable holding it.

Worked exampleNot a flashy energy drink. It is loud, synthetic, promises a jolt and leaves a crash. Closer to black coffee. Plain, daily, no garnish, the thing serious people actually run on.

Now youWrite both, then say what each one signals. The 'not' carries as much meaning as the 'is.'

If my brand were a car, it would be __________, not __________.

What it surfacesAspirational identity. What the owner is telling the world about themselves.

Worked exampleNot a Lamborghini. It shouts, it is bought to be seen, it values attention over substance. Closer to an old Land Cruiser. Understated, over-built, the choice of someone who knows what they are doing and does not need you to notice.

Now youPick the 'not' first. Ask why you would reject it. What is it about that car that, if it were your brand, would feel wrong? That answer is your real position.

If my brand were a place, it would be __________, not __________.

What it surfacesAtmosphere. The room a client feels they have walked into when they work with you.

Worked exampleNot a marble bank lobby. Cold, formal, built to make you feel small and grateful. Closer to a serious kitchen at prep time. Focused, a little intense, everyone knows their job, you are welcome but not the center of attention.

Now youDescribe the feeling of each place, not the furniture. What does a client carry out the door?

Pass 02 & 03 · The prompts

Copy these. Run them in order.

Open a fresh chat. Paste the Synthesis prompt, then paste your Discovery answers beneath it. When the candidates come back, paste the Pressure Test prompt as your next message in the same chat. One foundation, two prompts.

Pass 02 · Synthesis

<role>
You are a positioning strategist trained in the methodologies of Marty Neumeier and April Dunford. You are specifically trained to overcome Solomon's Paradox, the cognitive bias where people reason poorly about their own situations. Treat the user as a third party. Look at their evidence, not at them.
</role>

<context>
The user has completed a 20-question Discovery workbook plus three visual analogies. They will paste it after this prompt. Your job is to synthesize their answers into candidate positioning statements grounded in their actual evidence.
</context>

<method>
Run their Discovery through five positioning frameworks:
FRAMEWORK 01. Onlyness Statement (Marty Neumeier): "My firm is the only ___ that ___ for ___ who ___ in/at ___." Force specificity in every slot.
FRAMEWORK 02. Competitive Alternatives (April Dunford): What do prospects actually compare them to? What unique value do they deliver versus each alternative?
FRAMEWORK 03. Mechanism of Value: What specific process, framework, or capability does the user deploy that competitors don't or can't? A real mechanism, drawn from their answers.
FRAMEWORK 04. Category Move: Is the user better than competitors, or in a different category? If different, what is the new category?
FRAMEWORK 05. Statement Form: For each candidate, produce a single declarative sentence under 15 words. Fact, not claim. No banned words.
Cross-reference the visual analogies as aesthetic checks.
</method>

<output>
Five to seven candidate positioning statements. For each: the statement (under 15 words), which framework produced it, the specific evidence from their Discovery that supports it (cite question numbers), why it could fail, and an aesthetic alignment check versus their visual analogies. End with the two strongest, and why. Do not pick a winner yet.
</output>

<self_check>
Am I writing about this firm, or about advisors in general? If anything could be pasted into another advisor's analysis without changing meaning, delete it. Check for banned words and regenerate if any appear.
</self_check>

Pass 03 · Pressure Test

<role>
You are now the toughest possible reviewer. Your job is to break every candidate from the previous pass before the user takes it to market. Do not soften failures to spare the user's feelings.
</role>

<context>
You have 5 to 7 candidate positioning statements from Pass 02. Run each one through six failure modes. Score honestly. Recommend kills.
</context>

<method>
TEST 01. FACT OR CLAIM: A fact is provable; a claim is assertable. Score 1 to 10. Below 6 fails.
TEST 02. THE OTHER ADVISOR: Could a competitor copy it and still be telling the truth? If yes, it is a category description, not theirs.
TEST 03. SO WHAT: Read it aloud, then ask "so what?" If it needs more explanation to land, it is incomplete.
TEST 04. DINNER PARTY: Could a non-advisor friend explain it back in their own words? Jargon loses the room.
TEST 05. BANNED WORDS: help, partner, trusted, boutique, personalized, dedicated, comprehensive, holistic, tailored, customized, white-glove, concierge. Replace or kill.
TEST 06. TWELVE-MONTH DURABILITY: Still true and differentiated a year out? Position for the persistent reality.
</method>

<output>
For each candidate: the original statement, a score on each of the six tests, the verdict (Ship it, Iterate, or Kill), and for the top two survivors a rewritten final form. End with which one to commit to, and why.
</output>

<self_check>
You are here to find what survives stress. If a candidate fails three or more tests, it dies. Do not soften failures.
</self_check>

Keep it

Want it to keep, or to print? Take the whole thing with you.

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18 pages · the full method, the questions, and both prompts · free