Consultation plan — first soul-discovery 1:1

Draft v0.9 by Dima for Mike to refine during our first working session. This is the scaffold for what a soul-discovery conversation looks like — designed so we have structure to push against, not a script to follow. Mike will reshape this from twenty years of doing it.

Status: Pre-Mike-1:1. This document becomes the working surface during the call. Sections Mike approves get the approved_for_public: true flag and stay visible here; sections he reshapes get redrafted live.

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What this page is for

Mike returns from his conference circuit this week. His first 1:1 with Dima designs the soul-discovery conversation Soul Forge will productize. This page is a starter scaffold so the conversation has structure to push against — generic consultant intake patterns adapted toward soul-discovery, ready for Mike's twenty years of expertise to override.

If you're Mike reading this: please mark up freely. The agenda for our 1:1 is at the bottom; this scaffold is the agenda.

If you're Doug or anyone else reading this: this is methodology design happening in the open. The published version of the methodology — once Mike approves what's externalizable — will replace this scaffold.

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The shape of a single soul-discovery session

(For Mike: this is my initial cut at session structure. Tear apart, reshape, replace.)

A first soul-discovery 1:1 typically runs 90 minutes. Three phases:

Phase	Duration	Purpose
Open	~10 min	Settle the room. Signal listening. Ground the work.
Discover	~60 min	The core. Follow narrative threads. Ask big, listen long.
Close	~20 min	Reflect back. Schedule the next move. Capture commitments.

The 60-minute discover phase is where conviction surfaces. It is not linear; the conversation will revisit step 1 from step 3 and circle back to step 2 after touching step 4. The seven-step arc (see Journey) is the taxonomy of what we collect, not the sequence of how we collect it.

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The opening (first ten minutes)

(For Mike: how to ground the founder so the discovery has somewhere to land.)

What to ask first

The opening question matters more than any other. It signals what kind of conversation this is. Recommended opening (refine with Mike):

"Before we get into what your business is, I want to understand who you were before there was a business. Tell me about something formative — a moment from your life, anywhere from childhood to last year, that shaped how you show up at work today."

Why this works:

• It immediately establishes that the conversation is about the human, not the company
• It invites a story, not a value statement — values without stories are hollow
• "Last year" softens the request: this isn't "tell me your origin myth," it's "tell me a real moment"
• It centers the founder — which is who Soul Forge is for

Three alternates Mike might prefer

1. "What would you do for free, even if no one was watching?" — purpose anchor
2. "Tell me about a time when you knew, in your gut, that something was wrong — and what you did about it." — values-through-friction
3. "If your business closed tomorrow, what would you miss the most about doing this work?" — meaning vs. output

Mike has heard six thousand founder stories. His first question is the right one — these are placeholders.

Establishing safety

Soul discovery requires vulnerability. Three small moves that create the room:

1. Lead with vulnerability yourself. Mike has shared the imposter-syndrome bond moment with Dima — that template works. Briefly disclose a relevant moment of your own. Signal: this is mutual.
2. Normalize uncertainty. "If you don't have a clear answer, that's the data. Gray areas are valid."
3. Make the recording explicit. Tell the founder how the conversation is being captured and what happens with it. Trust is brittle when the surveillance is invisible.

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The discover phase (the 60 minutes that matter)

(For Mike: the rhythm of asking vs. listening, with explicit cues.)

The asking-listening rhythm

The default ratio is 20% asking, 80% listening. Most coaches over-talk; the founder needs to hear themselves think out loud, which they can only do if the room is quiet enough for it.

When to ASK	When to LISTEN
You've heard a value surface but no story to ground it → ask for the story	The founder is mid-narrative; even if it seems off-topic, let them finish
The founder gives an abstract answer ("integrity matters to me") → ask for the specific time	The founder is processing — looking up, slowing down, pausing
Two surfaced values appear to contradict → ask "help me hold both of those"	The founder has just said something that surprised themselves → don't fill the silence
The founder asks YOU a question → reflect it back gently before answering	The founder is correcting their own answer mid-sentence → that's the real answer arriving
You're at the end of a thread → ask the next big-question, not a follow-up	The founder is repeating a phrase → that phrase is doing load-bearing work

Signals the founder is opening up

(For Mike: how to know it's working.)

• They start telling stories you didn't ask about. "This reminds me of when…" — the door is open, walk through.
• Conviction drops in confidence but rises in depth. "I think… actually, I don't know. Maybe it's more like…" — gray-area honoring at work.
• They surface a contradiction in themselves without prompting. "But I also believe the opposite is true when…" — high signal.
• The pace slows. Long pauses, lower voice, looking inward — this is where the soul is.
• They name a person who shaped them. Specific people unlock specific values.
• They use your word back at you — your earlier framing is resonating.

Signals the founder is defending

(For Mike: how to know it's NOT working, and what to do.)

• They quote marketing copy at you. They're answering as the company, not as themselves. → Reroute: "What would you say if your marketing team wasn't in the room?"
• They give you the resume version. Achievements, not moments. → "Tell me about a time when that achievement was almost not achieved — what nearly stopped you?"
• They're explicitly performing humility. Over-the-top self-deprecation. → "You said you 'just got lucky' — pick one specific thing that wasn't luck."
• They ask "what answer are you looking for?" → "There's no right answer. I want the one that's actually true for you, even if it's messy."
• They flatten everything to one value. "Integrity is the only thing that matters." → "Tell me about a time when integrity cost you something."

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The close (last twenty minutes)

(For Mike: how to land the session so what surfaced doesn't evaporate.)

Reflecting back

Synthesize what you heard in three to five sentences. Not a transcript — a synthesis. Then ask: "Did I hear that right?" Let the founder correct. The correction is often more valuable than the original.

Conviction inventory

Walk back through the values that surfaced. For each, ask: "On a scale of 0 to 1, how strongly do you believe this is true of you?" Capture verbatim. Don't argue with low conviction. A 0.3 is the data; pushing it up is fraud.

Commitments for the next session

• One thing the founder will reflect on between sessions (not "do" — reflect on)
• One question they want to come back to next time
• A loose calendar commitment for the next session (typically 1-2 weeks out)

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What supports the session

(For readers asking "what documents help?" — three categories.)

Pre-read for the founder (sent before the session)

• A one-page "what to expect" doc — the session structure, why it's not a survey, why it's about them
• A very light pre-work prompt: "If you have 15 minutes before our call, list 3 moments from your life — any age — that shaped how you work today. We'll start there." (Optional. Skipping is fine.)
• NOT a values inventory worksheet. That defeats the entire purpose.

Reference for the coach (Mike or other future coaches)

• A short "operating-system" doc on the seven-step arc — what each step is for, not what to ask in it
• Mike's twenty-year accumulated question bank as a reference (not a script — a draw-from-when-needed library)
• The four-pathway routing definitions — when each pathway is right
• The guardrails doc — ethics, dark-side handling, ego prevention, soul renewal

Capture template (filled during/after the session)

• Audio recording + transcript (explicit consent)
• Per-value capture: name, conviction score, story anchor, gray-area flags
• Per-defining-moment capture: brief summary, theme tags, candidate values it suggests
• Coach's notes: what worked, what didn't, what to revisit next session
• The synthesis ("here's what I heard") — kept verbatim, available for the founder to revisit

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What to look for over time

(For Mike + Dima: signals across multiple sessions.)

• Does the founder return to certain stories? Repeat-stories are usually the load-bearing ones.
• Do the values stay stable across sessions, or shift? Stability is data. Shift is also data — the soul might be evolving, or the early discovery missed something.
• Are clarifying stories landing? Step 4 is the keystone. If a value never finds a story, the value isn't real for this founder.
• Is the conviction score climbing or flat? Climbing = the founder is internalizing the surface. Flat = we haven't reached the real value yet.

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What we deliberately don't do

(For everyone: things the methodology refuses.)

• No surveys. Self-reported brand questionnaires produce demographic-driven generic output.
• No hard definitions. Values point in a direction; they don't equal a dictionary line.
• No ego inflation. Soul ≠ ego. The session includes humility checks and neighbor-feedback prompts.
• No timeline pressure. Mike has done six thousand of these; some founders open in twenty minutes, some need three sessions to drop their guard. The methodology honors both.
• No "right answer" framing. Every question is open. Every gray area is valid.

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Agenda for the first Mike-Dima 1:1

(For Mike: this is what we work through together. Time-boxed loosely.)

1. Tear apart this scaffold (~20 min) — what's wrong with it, what Mike would replace, where the twenty-year experience overrides my desk-research framing
2. The opening question (~15 min) — what's Mike's actual opening? What three alternates does he use depending on the founder? Why?
3. The question bank (~20 min) — Mike's 100+ questions, organized by step. We capture and structure into the database.
4. The four pathways (~15 min) — when does each apply? What's the routing logic? What's the user's experience of being routed?
5. The scoring rubric (~15 min) — conviction thresholds, story coverage requirements, drift signals
6. Guardrails (~10 min) — ethics, dark-side handling, ego prevention, when the system refers out
7. What's externalizable on /methodology (~5 min) — Mike marks approved_for_public on what he's comfortable with

End of session: this page updates with what Mike approved. Sprint 2 build (May 18) wires the question bank + rubric into the Discovery Engine.

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This scaffold is intentionally generic-consultant in places. Mike's twenty-year methodology is what makes it Soul Brand Guide rather than another coaching tool. The expectation is that ~60% of this gets replaced in our first 1:1; the remaining ~40% becomes the stable skeleton that survives subsequent iterations.