---
title: "Positioning, Stage 1 of Write to Sell: you and your product"
description: "The first stage of Write to Sell makes clear who you are, your core product and your customers, then puts your website on the Internet."
type: "Love post"
docType: "Overview"
from: "write-to-sell/introduction"
tags: ["1. Positioning"]
entity: "positioning"
---

> Documentation Index
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# Positioning, Stage 1 of Write to Sell: you and your product

Positioning is the first stage of Write to Sell. In this stage, you get clear on 2 things, in this order:

1. **Yourself**, the person who makes the product.
2. **Your [core product](https://cuongthach.com/docs/content-system/core-product/introduction)**, the product with you at its center.

The stage ends when you have a clear core product, a website that is indexed and measurement data that has started to record. Then you take your core product into stage 2 and build the content system.

## Why does positioning matter?

![Why does positioning matter?](https://cuongthach.com/docs/_nimbus/md/1iwxbdy/illus-docs-dinh-vi-la-ban.en.svg "Positioning keeps you from getting lost")

Positioning keeps you from **getting lost**. You always know which stage you are in and what comes next. No product yet? The next step is to make one. Already promised customers something? The next step is to make that promise true.

Your mission holds that direction. When the mission stays the same, you don't do one thing today and switch to another tomorrow. Customers look at your mission to understand you, and you look at it so you don't write posts that drift off course.

A core product also makes the rest of the coaching program easier. Once you have one, the content system in stage 2 only has to serve that product.

## Why start with you?

Positioning in Write to Sell means **getting clear on yourself first, then on your core product**. The person is the root of the product, so the core of the product is you. Last, you pick one group of customers for the product to serve.

### Start with yourself

You begin by answering questions about yourself:

- Who are you, and what is your expertise?
- What are your wishes and your advantages?
- What do you want, and who do you want to become?
- Which steps has your career taken so far?

### Grow it into a core product

Then you grow this into **one core product**, which is a product that can hold your wishes and who you are. A core product takes one of two forms:

- **A planned product.** It doesn't exist yet, but it starts from you.
- **A product you already sell.** You love selling it, it fits who you are and what you are good at, and you are determined to run it for the long term so you always have cash flow.

A core product is not something you pick up from anywhere and drop into the coaching program. A product like that won't keep its maker going to the end.

### Sell to one group of customers

A product **can't be sold to everyone**. It always has a group of customers, and the size of that group depends on the size of the brand. Even a big company like Apple has set customer groups. It just has more product lines to cover more of them.

A person who runs a business alone is a small brand. You start with **one core product** (it may have variants) and **one group of customers** you most want to serve, your dream customer.

Picking the group from the start keeps your content in one piece. The people who buy the product are the same people who read the content, so from your very first post you **write for your customers**, even before you have a website. If one post speaks to one person and the next to someone else, the content falls apart, and a brand is very hard to build.

## What does stage 1 cover?

The Positioning stage has 2 groups of pages, and draws on the shared Resources of Write to Sell.

| Group | Pages | Use it to |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Get it right | Personal site, business site | Understand why a solo business owner has 2 websites |
| Put into practice | Home page, about page, product page, turn on indexing | Build the base pages, then put your website on the Internet |
| Resources | Tools: Digital brain template, Google Trends, Google AI Overview, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools. Page templates: home page, about page, contact page. AI prompts | Get clear on yourself, research the market and measure results |

Start with the Get it right pages. These two concepts tell you which website each base page lives on and who it serves.

Then follow the Put into practice pages in order, namely home page, about page, product page, then turn on indexing once the pages are complete. Each page draws on what you have made clear about yourself and your core product.

The Resources are shared by the whole coaching program, for any step that needs a tool or a template. In stage 1, you use AI prompts and the Digital brain to get clear on yourself, Google Trends and Google AI Overview to research the market, Google Analytics and Google Search Console to start recording data.

## What are your strengths?

![What are your strengths?](https://cuongthach.com/docs/_nimbus/md/12zeaqi/illus-docs-the-manh-lam-san-pham.en.svg "A superpower plus skills you already have")

Your core product is made from 2 things you already have, namely a strength no one can copy, and skills you have built over the years. The Positioning stage is when you find both.

### What is a superpower?

A superpower is **your biggest strength, the one thing others can't copy**. It may be a belief, a kind of strength, or a skill that grows out of that belief. Everyone has one. If you don't know your biggest advantage yet, you simply haven't found yourself yet.

One question is enough to spot a superpower, namely **if someone copied you, what could they not copy?** A person can't copy it, so AI certainly can't.

A superpower is different from 2 things it is easy to mix up with:

- **A degree** is something you learn. You finish a course, you get a certificate, and anyone can get that certificate.
- **A hobby** is just something you like. A hobby isn't always a superpower, but it is often a clue that leads to one.

In the coaching program, you answer many questions to find this strength, and you keep the question above in mind as you work. Calling something your superpower isn't enough. You **prove it through your actions, your content and what you make**.

### What is an income skill?

An income skill is **a skill you already have**, not a new one you have to go and learn. Everyone builds a few skills from childhood on, then hides them because they think the skills can't earn money. Now is the time to bring them out and join them with your superpower to make your core product.

Besides the skills you already have, Write to Sell trains 2 main skills:

- **Writing** helps you build your content system.
- **Selling** gives you the mindset to make a product and sell it. Because you are the center of your core product, selling the product is also selling yourself.

A skill is **enough for others to pay for** once it is packed into a product. When you can make a product and build a content system for it, you earn income. Customers pay for the product and for you. The product doesn't have to be revolutionary. It only needs to be something no one has made yet, made by someone who truly cares, and sold through a story, feeling and mission.

## What is the most common mistake?

![What is the most common mistake?](https://cuongthach.com/docs/_nimbus/md/itaa83/illus-docs-san-pham-thuong-va-loi.en.svg "Someone else's product is easy to quit")

The most common mistake in the Positioning stage is **not telling an ordinary product from a core product**:

- **An ordinary product** isn't yours. It is something you have on hand and want to sell: goods from your parents, a relative, or someone who asked you to sell for them.
- **A core product** is a product you truly want to run for the long term, one that carries your advantages and who you are.

An ordinary product can still sell, but the seller tends to quit halfway. They don't understand the product because it isn't theirs, and they don't love it, so their attitude when selling is different. By contrast, people who find their core product find the rest of the coaching program much simpler.

:::caution[No core product yet? Stop here]
If you finish stage 1 without a core product, stop instead of moving on. The center of your core product is you. If you don't understand yourself yet, content is very hard to make, and you can't build the content system in stage 2.
:::

## When do you move to stage 2?

Stage 2 starts when your website has **been indexed**, which means you are officially on the Internet. What you bring to stage 2 is your **core product**. The content system serves the core product, and the core product has you at its center, so bringing the core product is all you need to build the content system.

## Read next

- [Personal site](https://cuongthach.com/docs/write-to-sell/positioning/concepts/personal-site) — A website that stands for you, the maker
- [Business site](https://cuongthach.com/docs/write-to-sell/positioning/concepts/business-site) — A separate website focused on selling one product
- [Create a home page](https://cuongthach.com/docs/write-to-sell/positioning/guides/home-page) — Who you are, what you do, what you sell

Source: https://cuongthach.com/docs/write-to-sell/positioning/introduction/index.mdx