The PAS Framework: Problem, Agitate, Solve

AIDA is the full skeleton. PAS is the shortcut.

Problem, Agitate, Solve is a 3-part framework that works in everything from a 3-sentence social media post to a 10-paragraph sales email. It’s faster to write than AIDA because it doesn’t require building interest separately — the problem IS the interest.

Problem

Name the thing your student is struggling with. Not in general terms. In their exact words.

The best way to find the problem? Listen to how your students describe it. Read Reddit threads in your niche. Look at negative reviews on competitor courses. Pay attention to the specific language people use.

Problem examples:

• “You’ve spent weeks building your course and nobody’s buying it.”
• “You know you should be building an email list, but you have no idea what to write to people once they’re on it.”
• “Every time you sit down to write your sales page, you stare at a blank screen for an hour and give up.”

Notice how specific these are. Not “marketing is challenging.” A real problem a real person has right now.

Agitate

This is the step most people skip. Naming the problem isn’t enough. You need to make them feel it.

Agitation is not being mean. It’s showing the consequences of not solving the problem. What happens if they keep doing what they’re doing?

Agitation examples:

• “Another month goes by with zero enrollments. Your course sits there, finished but unseen. You start wondering if it was worth the effort.”
• “So you send an email whenever you think of something to say. Which ends up being once a month. Your list goes cold. People forget they signed up. When you finally have something to sell, nobody’s listening.”
• “Meanwhile, you see other course creators launching successfully and wonder what they know that you don’t.”

Agitation works because people are more motivated to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. A student who feels the cost of inaction is more likely to take action.

Solve

Present your course (or lesson, or email, or resource) as the solution. Not as a product to buy, but as a path to the outcome they want.

Solution examples:

• “What if your sales page wrote itself? In [Course Name], I walk you through the exact structure behind every sales page that converts. You’ll write yours in one afternoon.”
• “That’s why I created a 5-email welcome sequence template. Fill in the blanks, press send, and your new subscribers hear from you consistently — without you writing from scratch every time.”
• “There’s a formula for sales page copy. I’ll teach it to you in Module 3. By the time you finish, you’ll have a complete first draft.”

The solve should feel like a relief after the agitation. “Finally, someone’s going to show me how.”

PAS in Different Formats

Social media post (3 sentences):

“Spent 3 weeks recording your course and got 2 enrollments? (Problem) That’s not a marketing problem — that’s a ‘nobody can find you’ problem. And it’s going to keep happening until you change something. (Agitate) I break down the exact launch strategy that took me from 2 to 200 students in [Course Name]. Link in bio. (Solve)”

Email (5 paragraphs):

Paragraph 1: Name the problem. “You built the course. You hit publish. And then…”

Paragraph 2: Agitate. “Week one: 3 enrollments. Week two: 1 enrollment. Week three: nothing. You start second-guessing everything.”

Paragraph 3: Agitate more. “The worst part? Your course is good. You know it’s good. But nobody knows it exists.”

Paragraph 4: Solve. “This is exactly what [Course Name] fixes. Module 5 covers the launch strategy that gets your first 100 students without ads.”

Paragraph 5: Call-to-action. “Here’s the link.”

Ad copy (2 lines):

Line 1 (Problem + Agitate): “Built a course nobody’s buying?”

Line 2 (Solve): “Learn the launch strategy that fills your course — free training: [link]“

When PAS Beats AIDA

Use PAS for:

• Social media posts
• Email subject lines + first lines
• Ad copy
• Short-form anything

Use AIDA for:

• Long-form sales pages
• Webinar scripts
• Video sales letters
• Any copy that needs to build sustained interest over many paragraphs

Most of the copy you write as a course creator will be short. PAS will be your go-to more often than AIDA.

Your Task

Write three PAS copies for your course, each in a different format: a social media post (3-4 sentences), a short email (5 paragraphs), and an ad (2 lines). Use the problem-agitate-solve structure for each. Keep the problem specific and the agitation honest.

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