Eben Pagan reveals his systematic approach to transforming business concepts into compelling content pieces. He teaches three powerful frameworks including the three-brain model to create content that resonates physically, emotionally, and logically with audiences.
How To Create A Piece Of Content
Eben introduces content as the logical next step from complete concepts, serving as the building blocks for full products. He emphasizes that mastering this progression from concepts to content to products is essential for business success.
A single concept can be transformed into over 10 different content formats including emails, blog posts, podcasts, and webinars. The key insight is that format is less important than organizing information in ways humans naturally consume it.
Frameworks serve as structural skeletons based on human biological wiring and psychological processing. These proven structures make content more accessible, understandable, and attractive to audiences by working with natural human information processing patterns.
Based on Dr. Paul McLean's triune brain theory, this model addresses the reptilian brain (physical/survival), mammalian brain (emotional/bonding), and neocortex (logical/abstract). Understanding these three systems and their conflicts is crucial for effective content creation that resonates with all aspects of human psychology.
“When you're teaching, it's important to cover all three realms if possible, the physical, the emotional, and the logical. When you cover all three realms, you'll be communicating with all parts of the human, and you'll be communicating with all of the people, because some people tend to be more physical, some tend to be more emotional, and some tend to be more logical.”
— Eben Pagan▶ 8:47
The three-brain model addresses the reptilian brain (physical/survival), mammalian brain (emotional/bonding), and neocortex (logical/abstract thought). When creating content, you should cover all three realms to communicate with different types of people and all parts of human psychology.
“Use frameworks to turn concepts into content. I like to use what I call frameworks to develop my concepts and turn them into entire pieces of content.”
— Eben Pagan▶ 3:29
Use frameworks as structural skeletons to hang your content on. Take a complete concept and expand it into a bite-sized, consumable format. The same concept can be transformed into emails, blog posts, podcasts, webinars, or any format once you understand how to organize information for human consumption.
“I like to use what I call frameworks to develop my concepts and turn them into entire pieces of content. These are skeletons or structures that you can use to kind of hang your content on them. And when you use one of these frameworks, it makes the information highly accessible to another person.”
— Eben Pagan▶ 3:29
Frameworks are skeletons or structures that you hang your content on, based on human biological wiring and psychological processing. They make information highly accessible, easier to understand, and more attractive to audiences by working with how humans are naturally wired to receive information.
“The interesting thing about the three brains is that they don seem to be very well connected to each other And we experience lots of conflicts in our lives We're always pulled in multiple directions, and we're experiencing all of these conflicts.”
— Eben Pagan▶ 7:37
The three brains aren't well connected to each other, creating conflicts where what we want physically, emotionally, and logically pull us in different directions. We experience heart versus mind conflicts, or feel physically drawn to something while emotionally ashamed and logically knowing it's bad for us.
“So content, as we're using the term, could be any of these formats, but the definition is going to be essentially a bite-sized chunk of knowledge or information that's been expanded out, blown up, and then put into a format that's easily consumable by your customer.”
— Eben Pagan▶ 2:59
Content is a bite-sized chunk of knowledge or information that's been expanded and put into a format easily consumable by customers. It can be presented as emails, blog posts, podcasts, webinars, tutorials, or free reports - the format is less important than making it accessible.
A systematic approach to creating content that addresses all three aspects of human psychology for maximum impact and engagement.
Start with a complete concept
Begin with a well-developed concept that you want to transform into content
Address the physical brain
Include tangible, real-world elements like specific actions, exercises, foods, or physical things people need to do
Address the emotional brain
Cover the emotional aspects, feelings, bonding elements, and emotional challenges or benefits
Address the logical brain
Include the rational, abstract, logical understanding and reasoning behind the concept
Choose your format
Select from email, blog post, podcast, webinar, tutorial, or other formats based on your audience preference
Structure using frameworks
Use proven frameworks as skeletons to hang your content on, making it more accessible and attractive
Content is the logical extension of a complete concept and serves as the building block of products
Eben explains the progression: first learn to create complete concepts, then develop them into content pieces, finally combine multiple pieces into full products
A single concept can be repurposed across 10+ different content formats including email newsletters, blog posts, podcasts, webinars, and free reports
Eben lists specific formats: email newsletter, blog post, podcast, product chapter, webinar, teleclass, tutorial, free report, launch video, and article
The format is relatively unimportant because it's just sharing your concepts in a format that makes sense to the user
Eben emphasizes that once you understand how to organize information into ways humans like to consume it, you can make it into any format
Content is defined as a bite-sized chunk of knowledge that's been expanded and put into a format easily consumable by customers
Eben provides this specific definition after explaining various content formats and their applications
Use frameworks as skeletons or structures to hang your content on, making information highly accessible, easier to understand, and more attractive
Eben explains frameworks are based on human biological wiring and psychological processing, making information go down smoother
The three-brain model addresses the reptilian brain (physical/survival), mammalian brain (emotional/bonding), and neocortex (logical/abstract thought)
Based on Dr. Paul McLean's triune brain theory, Eben explains these three brains evolved over millions of years and handle different aspects of human experience
The reptilian brain evolved to deal with the physical world, managing fight or flight responses and keeping the body alive
Eben describes this as the ancient hind brain at the top of spinal cord that beats our heart and manages survival functions
The mammalian brain handles emotions and allows bonding with others and feeling affection toward people in our tribe
Eben explains emotions are abstracted physical things that stand in for physical responses, making us more subtle and sensitive than pure fight-or-flight reactions
The human neocortex enables processing beyond physical and emotional into pure abstract thought space
Eben describes the big frontal lobes that emerged in humans, allowing symbolizing and rational thinking beyond basic survival and emotion
Cover all three realms when teaching to communicate with all parts of the human and reach people who tend to be more physical, emotional, or logical
Eben demonstrates with natural weight loss example, showing how to address physical exercises/foods, emotional aspects, and logical understanding
Content is the logical extension of a complete concept and serves as the building block of products
▶ 0:39A single concept can be repurposed across 10+ different content formats including email newsletters, blog posts, podcasts, webinars, and free reports
▶ 1:13The format is relatively unimportant because it's just sharing your concepts in a format that makes sense to the user
▶ 2:24Content is defined as a bite-sized chunk of knowledge that's been expanded and put into a format easily consumable by customers
▶ 2:59Use frameworks as skeletons or structures to hang your content on, making information highly accessible, easier to understand, and more attractive
▶ 3:29The three-brain model addresses the reptilian brain (physical/survival), mammalian brain (emotional/bonding), and neocortex (logical/abstract thought)
▶ 4:03The reptilian brain evolved to deal with the physical world, managing fight or flight responses and keeping the body alive
▶ 5:09The mammalian brain handles emotions and allows bonding with others and feeling affection toward people in our tribe
▶ 5:45The human neocortex enables processing beyond physical and emotional into pure abstract thought space
▶ 6:57Cover all three realms when teaching to communicate with all parts of the human and reach people who tend to be more physical, emotional, or logical
▶ 8:47Claim: “You need different content for different formats and platforms”
Reframe: One concept can be transformed into any format once you understand how to organize information for human consumption
Claim: “Content creation is about coming up with new ideas constantly”
Reframe: Content creation is about using proven frameworks to expand complete concepts into consumable formats
“Think of a complete piece of content as the logical extension of a complete concept.”
“Content is the building block of products.”
“The format is relatively unimportant because for the most part, it's just going to be you sharing your concepts in a format that makes sense to the user.”
“When you use one of these frameworks, it makes the information highly accessible to another person. It makes it easier to understand. It makes it more attractive.”
“When you cover all three realms, you'll be communicating with all parts of the human, and you'll be communicating with all of the people.”
Coaching Strategies
Business Frameworks
Humans have three distinct brains that evolved on top of each other: the primitive brain (brain stem/limbic system), the emotional brain (mammalian brain), and the logical brain (cortex/frontal lobes)
Based on Dr. Paul MacLean's triune brain theory, with the primitive brain containing the amygdala, the mammalian brain handling emotions, and the cortex managing intellectual functions
The primitive and emotional brains are where all the real power lies and they control the thinking brain, not the other way around
The older brains control concerns like sex, power, controlling others, feeling threatened, getting love, affection, and approval - these take over and make the rational brain rationalize decisions
