[reply worthy | day 22] why your DM sequence is technically right
(but structurally broken)
I joined a new gym in Atlanta about a year ago.
There was a guy who came in at the same time I did, every week.
Gave every bit of ‘gym bro’ . The kind whose Instagram bio just says “the work.”
He had a routine. Basically, EVERYDAY was arm day.
Bicep curls. With the dumbbells. Then with the cables. Then with the barbell. Then with the EZ-curl bar. Then preacher curls. Then hammer curls. Then concentration curls.
7 different bicep variations. Every workout.
He never squatted. Deadlifted. Never did a pull-up. Never touched a back or shoulder machine.
His arms looked great. Them legs looked like they belonged on someone else’s body.
He couldn’t run a 5K without his hamstrings locking up. He told me that himself one Saturday, almost proud of it. “Cardio’s just not my thing.”
7 exercises. Looked like a workout, when it was actually … heyell … I don’t even know what to call it.
Even if you know the gym bro-est of gym bros… a 1 body part split is wild business 😩.
But I see this exact pattern in the DM funnels I autopsy every single week.
7 messages. Maybe 5. Sometimes 12. Looks like a sequence. Actually isn’t one.
The opener a bicep curl. Message 2 a slightly different bicep curl. Message 3 the same bicep curl with a calendar link attached. Messages 4 through 7 progressively louder bicep curls, with the final one wearing a “should I close the loop?” mask.
The messages have volume. There’s a cadence. But doesn’t actually progress the conversation
Today, I’m diagnosing the sequence that has the right number of messages and the wrong number of steps.
→ The 7 conversation steps every booked call actually moves through
→ Why most sequences cover 1 or 2 of those 7 and repeat the rest
→ How to map your sequence against the real 7 and find the missing steps in 5 minutes
Let’s start with the guy who could only curl...
🗺️ Mistake 22 | Your sequence has 7 messages, but it’s missing 5 of 7 conversation steps
Every DM conversation that ends in a booked call moves through 7 steps, in order.
Not 7 messages. 7 steps. Sometimes a single message covers two steps. Sometimes one step takes three messages. The number of messages doesn’t matter. The conversation progression does.
1️⃣ Step 1: Open. Earn the read. Three jobs: Acknowledge, Connect, Trigger.
2️⃣ Step 2: Surface Goal. Get them to articulate what they’re trying to achieve in their own words.
3️⃣ Step 3: Uncover Challenge. Get them to name the specific obstacle, not the symptom.
4️⃣ Step 4: Expand Impact. Help them see how big the problem actually is. The X-ray, not the surface bruise.
5️⃣ Step 5: Insight Bridge. Show them the thing they hadn’t considered. The “huh” moment.
6️⃣ Step 6: Value Drop. Hand them something useful they can run today. The peach at the farmer’s market.
7️⃣ Step 7: Close. Make the call ask, the trial ask, or the next-step ask. The proposal after the relationship.
My friend Reid’s 7-message sequence mapped to these 7 steps looks like this:
Message 1: Open (weakly). Skipped Acknowledge.
Message 2: Open (again). Different wording, same step.
Message 3: Close. Premature.
Message 4: Open (again). Now in “just following up” mode.
Message 5: Close. Premature again.
Message 6: Close. Now with a calendar link.
Message 7: Close. Now with a breakup mask.
Step coverage: 2 of 7.
Repeated steps: Open (3 times), Close (4 times).
Missing entirely: Surface Goal, Uncover Challenge, Expand Impact, Insight Bridge, Value Drop.
Five steps the prospect needed before they would have ever said yes.
Usually, the founder thinks the sequence didn’t work because the messages weren’t good enough. so they rewrite all 7 messages, to basically variations of the same one.
The number of messages isn’t the problem. The conversation progression is.
Your sequence has 7 messages
You’ve been told that’s the right number.
But when you map each message to the actual steps of a conversation that books a call, most of them are doing the same job. Different words. Same step. Repeated.
🤖 I built a free DM Sequence Grader that scores your sequence (or existing conversations) across 7 dimensions in under 3 minutes.
→ Score your DM sequence or last DM conversation for free here
Before & After
Here’s how to fix it in your own DMs:
1️⃣ Map your last sent sequence against the 7 steps
For each message, write the step number it covers. If a message covers no step or repeats a step you already covered, mark it.
Most teams find 5 of 7 messages collapse into 2 step coverages.
2️⃣ Replace repeats with the missing steps
Your sequence probably has 3 Opens and 3 Closes. Pick the strongest Open. Pick the strongest Close. Use the other 5 message slots for Steps 2 through 6. Reid’s sequence sent 3 Closes and never once asked a real Uncover Challenge question.
3️⃣ Build a step-coverage scorecard your team can run before any sequence goes live
Your head of growth or VA should be able to look at any 7-message sequence and tell you which steps are covered, which are repeated, and which are missing. Inside 90 seconds. Build the scorecard. Train the team. Stop sending 7-curl workouts.
That’s it.
Here’s what you learned today:
→ A 7-message sequence is supposed to cover 7 conversation steps, not repeat 2 of them seven times.
→ Most sequences have heavy Open and Close repetition and skip Steps 2-6 entirely.
→ The fix is mapping each message to a step, finding the repeats, and replacing them with the missing coverage.
Start with just one:
Pull up your most-sent DM sequence.
Next to each message, write the step number it covers (1 through 7).
If you find 3 or more messages mapping to the same step, you found exactly where your sequence is bicep-curling.
Over the next 31 days, I’m walking you through:
→ How to build the opener from scratch and score it before send
→ How to build the discovery layer that earns the next message
→ How to expand impact without over-pitching
→ How to write a message that creates the “I hadn’t considered that” moment
→ How to write a Value Drop that earns the call without asking for it
→ How to write a close that works because 6 messages earned it
→ The full sequence assembly, every piece, scored against every diagnostic from the series
Today’s mega-prompt doesn’t just count your messages.
It maps each one to the 7 conversation steps, calculates your coverage gap, and shows you exactly which step each message is doing (or pretending to do).
Paid members get:
✔ The Sequence Step Coverage Map
→ Paste your full sequence, get every message tagged with the step it covers
→ See which steps are repeated, which are missing, and which are covered weakly
→ Get paste-ready rewrites for the 2 most repeated messages, converted into missing-step coverage
✔ A 7-step scorecard your head of growth or VA can run on any new sequence in under 90 seconds
✔ Three example sequences showing strong coverage across the 7 steps
The guy in the gym had great arms. He still couldn’t run a 5K. Your sequence has 7 messages. The question is whether it can actually book a call.
