The Conversational Build · A 4-week live cohort · Starts June 3
Build the brand.
Ship the site.
Keep the SOP.
A live cohort for web designers and founders. You'll walk away with a complete brand, a live website, and the documented SOP you'll run on every brand you ever build.
The Conversational Build · A 4-week live cohort · Starts June 3
Build the brand.
Ship the site.
Keep the SOP.
A live cohort for web designers and founders. You'll walk away with a complete brand, a live website, and the documented SOP you'll run on every brand you ever build.
The real problem
You don't need another AI prompt list.
Tricks don't compound. Systems do.
If you're a designer, you already know this. The firms that scale are the ones with documented processes. If you're a founder, you've felt it too. The brands that grow are built on repeatable systems, not bursts of inspiration.
I built that SOP. I've run it on Fiction Over Frameworks. I've run it on 5Four and other brands. I'm teaching it in this cohort.
The method
The Conversational Build.
A documented SOP for building complete brands through extended conversation with AI.
Most people use AI like a search engine. Ask, get an answer, move on. That works for atomic tasks. It fails for branding, because a brand requires hundreds of decisions that build on each other.
Learn it in 4 weeks. Run it forever after.
Fiction Over Frameworks. An editorial brand built end-to-end through conversation: voice, visual system, and live site.
Visit site ↗5Four. Agency rebrand and website shipped using the same SOP you'll learn in the cohort.
Visit site ↗The 4-week rollout
Learn the SOP. Apply it. Ship it together.
One live Tuesday a week. One async module on Sunday. One deliverable shipped by Friday.
Brand Foundation
The SOP for origin discovery, audience definition, positioning, and voice. The 20-question protocol that produces a complete brand brief in one session.
1.1: The Conversational Build Method (5 min)
Why prompts fail and conversations work. The accumulated-context advantage. The three core skills. What you'll produce in 4 weeks.
1.2: Workspace Setup (10 min)
Claude, Wispr Flow, Midjourney, Lovable, Figma, and Notion, configured end-to-end.
1.3: Origin Discovery (8 min)
Why origin stories are the highest-leverage starting point. The four origin questions. How to interview yourself without pre-loading answers.
1.4: Audience Definition (Building Mark) (8 min)
Why demographics fail and personas succeed. The composite reader exercise. The FoF case: how 'Mark the 38-year-old SaaS founder' was built.
1.5: Positioning & Naming (8 min)
Finding your positioning fork. Naming as thesis-extraction. The FoF name evolution. Trademark vetting basics.
1.6: The 20-Question Voice Protocol (5 min)
How voice gets extracted from specific answers. The full question sequence. Synthesizing answers into testable rules.
1.7: Locking the Brand Brief v1.0 (5 min)
What goes in, what's optional. How to know when v1 is done. When to revisit and refine.
What you get
Everything you need to run the SOP.
A small, intimate cohort, 25 students max. Every artifact, recording, and SOP yours to keep.
4 Live Sessions with John
Every Tuesday, 90 min each, hot-seat reviews.
The Full SOP Documented
Notion-based, yours forever.
4 Async Modules + Worksheets
Drops each Sunday before the live call.
Private Cohort Community
Skool space, daily check-ins from John.
Fiction Over Frameworks Case Study
The personal brand built using the SOP.
5Four Digital Case Study
The 7-figure agency built on the SOP.
All Templates + Worksheets
Every artifact, ready to fill in.
90 Days Post-Cohort Access
Through the first audience-building sprint.
Lifetime Recordings + SOP Updates
Free as the tools evolve.
Honest fit check
Is this for you?
This is for you if…
- ✓Web designer expanding into complete brand work
- ✓Agency owner productizing brand engagements
- ✓Founder or creator stalling at the launch line
- ✓You see AI as a collaborator, not a replacement
- ✓You value systems over hacks
- ✓You can commit to 4 Tuesdays (June 3 – July 1)
- ✓You want a repeatable SOP, not a tutorial
This isn't for you if…
- ✕You want a passive video course
- ✕You can't commit to the 4 live Tuesdays
- ✕You want someone to build it for you
- ✕You have zero idea what brand to build
- ✕You think prompts replace strategic thinking
- ✕You're not ready to ship imperfect on July 1
- ✕You want hacks, not a system
What people say
This is the founding cohort. The proof comes from everything else.
The Conversational Build is new. But the SOP-driven teaching style? That's been refined across thousands of WeeklySOP subscribers, hundreds of WDSA students, and a decade of 5Four client work.
Sarah-Jane
@SarahJaneGwira
Sherrell Dorsey
@Sherrell_Dorsey
Joyce Marie
Elevate Consultants
Tierra Filhiol
@TierraFilhiol
Victoria J.
@thecapitalv
Jayne Karol
WDSA Alumni
Chels
@chelsjean614
John Kornegay
WDSA Cohort
Leslie Johnson
WDSA Alumni
Jordan Hughes
WDSA Alumni
Victor Martins
WDSA Alumni
Touré
WDSA Alumni
Taijaun
WDSA Alumni
Alex Lathery
@AlexLathery
Keith
@keif_xyz
Dan Henry
Client
Ameji
@mr_ameji
Roy Saucedo
WDSA Cohort
Cass
@cass4ql
Liam Mooney
WDSA Alumni
Based in
Miami, FL
Who's teaching this
Hi, I'm John.
I'm the SOP guy.
That's the title people in the design space gave me, because I've spent the last decade documenting how brands actually get built, then teaching that system to designers, agencies, and founders.
- Run a 7-figure agency (5Four)
- Sold 3 companies
- 200+ brands shipped
- Author of WeeklySOP
- Founder of Black Illustrations
- Teach the WDSA program
Everything I make has one thing in common: it's the documented version of something I've already built and run, repeatedly, at scale. I teach what's worked.
The Conversational Build is the next one. The SOP I've been running on 5Four projects for the last 18 months. The system that compresses a 6-week brand engagement into a 1-week sprint, without losing quality.
Founding cohort pricing
Lifetime Access to The Conversational Build
Founding cohort discount. The next cohort runs Q4 at $997.
One-time payment · 4-week cohort · June 3 – July 1, 2026
- ✓4 Live Sessions with John
- ✓The Full SOP Documented
- ✓4 Async Modules + Worksheets
- ✓Private Cohort Community
- ✓Fiction Over Frameworks Case Study
- ✓5Four Digital Case Study
- ✓All Templates + Worksheets
- ✓90 Days Post-Cohort Access
- ✓Lifetime Recordings + SOP Updates
Cap: 25 students. Closes May 30 or when full.
The SOP pays for itself the first time you run it on something other than yourself.
Questions
Frequently asked, honestly answered.
Once you've internalized the system, a complete brand (strategy, voice, identity, website, launch sequence) takes an afternoon. Your first run during the cohort takes the full 4 weeks because you're learning the SOP while applying it. After that, every brand is a sprint.
It's a live cohort. Four Tuesdays with John, hot-seat reviews of real student work, async modules dropped each Sunday, a private Skool community with daily check-ins. The accountability and feedback are the unlock. Self-paced courses sit unfinished.
Every session is recorded and uploaded within 24 hours. Lifetime access to recordings. You can submit hot-seat questions in advance and watch the recording answer them.
No. The SOP is the system. It works whether you're a designer who wants to scale, a founder who can't design, or a consultant in between. We use tools (Figma, Webflow, AI) but the SOP is what makes the output good.
An LLM platform (Claude or ChatGPT, paid tier recommended), Wispr Flow for voice input, Figma (free is fine), a Notion account, and a domain you can point at a website. Lovable is optional but recommended for the build week. That's it. Everything else is template-driven.
Yes, that's the entire designer track. The SOP is licensed for unlimited internal and client use. Several students charge $10K+ per brand engagement using a productized version of this system.
Yes, the founder track is built around shipping your own brand by July 1. You'll have a launched site, a voice guide, a content engine, and the SOP to keep running on every future project.
Week 1's discovery protocol is designed to surface and crystallize the brand you've been circling for months. Most founders come in with three half-ideas and leave week 1 with one locked one. If you have zero direction, this cohort isn't the right fit.
Full refund within 7 days of cohort start, no questions asked. After week 1, no refunds. You've received the foundational SOP that's the highest-value piece of the curriculum.
Founding cohort students help shape the final SOP through their real-time questions and feedback. In exchange you get a $500 discount, lifetime updates as the SOP evolves, and a permanent founding-member tag in the community.
90 days of post-cohort access in the community, through the first audience-building sprint after launch. Lifetime access to recordings and SOP updates. You're not locked out, ever.
WeeklySOP is the weekly system newsletter. WDSA is the long-form agency operations course. The Conversational Build is the focused 4-week sprint specifically on brand-building with AI. Different products, same underlying philosophy: systems over hacks.
Ready?
Join the cohort and build brands and websites with conversational AI.
Questions? Email john@johndsaunders.co