The Three Scenes method turns one goal into three short first-person scripts you read aloud with your eyes closed: the Failure scene, the Breakthrough scene and the Success scene. Below is what the complete intake asks, with a worked example from a founder learning to delegate. The free version on this page stays intentionally shorter; the private app gathers all 19 answers.
1. Goal
What do you actually want to be true?
Worked example: A $30M ARR company whose leadership team makes strong decisions without routing everything through me.
2. Repeating behaviors
What specific behaviors keep repeating?
Worked example: I reopen director decisions, rewrite the board deck, and delay executive hires until I control the shortlist.
3. Words that sting
What exact words has someone said that still sting?
Worked example: My chair said, “You ask for leaders, then give them no room to lead.”
4. Formative moment
What early moment helped seed this pattern?
Worked example: At 24, I trusted a forecast that missed payroll and decided I would never rely on someone else's numbers again.
5. Avoidance
What are you avoiding, tolerating, or lying about?
Worked example: I say my COO needs more time when I know I have never given her final authority.
6. Who is affected
Who is affected by the pattern, and how?
Worked example: My directors stop deciding, my COO feels undermined, and my family gets what is left of me.
7. Default emotion
What emotion takes over when the pattern is active?
Worked example: Tight-jawed irritation, followed by shame that I have made myself the bottleneck again.
8. Rescue hope
What do you secretly hope will save you instead of acting?
Worked example: One exceptional president who earns instant trust and takes control from me without asking me to let go.
9. Refusal
What will you never let yourself become again?
Worked example: I refuse to ask for ownership and take it back whenever a director chooses differently.
10. Identity claim
Who are you choosing to be instead?
Worked example: Decisive. Trusting. A builder of leaders.
11. Internal shift
What is the inner shift underneath the change?
Worked example: I stop treating control as proof that I care and see trust as the work of leadership.
12. Changed action
What action will you take differently?
Worked example: My COO makes the next director hire, and I back her decision in the boardroom.
13. Business fully working
What does the business look like when it is fully working?
Worked example: We are at $32M ARR, directors own their numbers, and the executive team runs the operating review.
14. Financial outcome
What real financial number or range is present?
Worked example: $35M ARR, 22% EBITDA, and twelve months of operating cash.
15. Support system
Who supports you, and how do those relationships feel?
Worked example: My COO challenges me, my CFO owns the board deck, and I feel backed rather than burdened.
16. Body and mind
How do your body and mind feel each day?
Worked example: My shoulders stay loose through the board call, my breath is slow, and my mind has room to think ahead.
17. Closest relationships
What do your closest relationships look like now?
Worked example: I am present at dinner, and weekends are no longer recovery days from the company.
18. Newfound ease
What has become easy that used to be hard?
Worked example: Hiring updates reach me as decisions, not twenty tabs I have to reopen.
19. External validation
What outside recognition or opportunity is present?
Worked example: Founder referrals arrive without outreach, and the board renews my mandate early.