Your copy has 21 ways to fail. Find them before your audience does. An AI skill for Claude Code that simulates 7 hostile readers on 7 bad days, each attacking your copy across 3 failure layers (first impression, trust, action). 21 checks per draft. Run before every send.
You wrote the copy. You know the context. You're already bought in.
That makes you the worst person to review it.
Seven Critics simulates 7 hostile readers having 7 bad days — from the CEO with 43 unread emails to the subscriber burned by every "game-changing framework" they ever bought. If your copy survives all 7, it survives the inbox.
- Founders shipping cold emails, landing pages, newsletters, or ads and not sure which parts are working
- Copywriters and marketers who need an adversarial review without begging a colleague for time
- Consultants and coaches rewriting client copy and needing a structured critique layer
- Founders using AI-generated copy who want to kill the tell-tale AI phrasing before it kills the send
| # | Reader | What kills the copy |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Time-Crushed | Subject line doesn't earn the next line |
| 2 | The Self-Conscious | Feels like a mass email about anyone |
| 3 | The Burned Skeptic | Claims without proof, hype without substance |
| 4 | The AI-Allergic | Polished corporate phrasing, templated patterns |
| 5 | The Lurker | Nothing specific enough to break 3 months of not clicking |
| 6 | The Visual Reader | Abstract concepts, no scenes or moments |
| 7 | The Inspiration Seeker | Information without motivation |
Every reader attacks at three levels:
- First Impression — "In the first 3 seconds, I stop reading because ___"
- Trust & Engagement — "Even if I kept reading, I lose interest because ___"
- Action — "Even if I read everything, I wouldn't do anything because ___"
7 readers × 3 layers = 21 failure checks per draft.
FAILURE REPORT
CRITICAL: [n] failures
HIGH PRIORITY: [n] failures
LOW: [n] failures
REBUILT COPY
[Full rewrite that passed all 7 readers]
WHAT CHANGED
[Specific fixes, specific reasoning]
The standard: if the rebuilt version reads like a different person wrote it, the review failed. Tighter, not bigger. Sharper, not different.
git clone https://github.com/SimonTheSalesBooster/sevencritics ~/code/sevencritics
ln -s ~/code/sevencritics/seven-critics.md ~/.claude/commands/seven-critics.mdThen:
/seven-critics
Paste your copy when prompted.
Add seven-critics.md to your project context. Then: "Run the 7 critics on this email."
Paste seven-critics.md into any frontier model (Claude, GPT, Gemini). Follow with your draft.
- Before sending any cold email sequence
- Before publishing a landing page or ad
- Before hitting send on a newsletter
- When copy "feels right" but isn't converting
- When AI-generated copy sounds too polished
- To write copy from scratch (this reviews, it doesn't write)
- On copy that's already converting (don't fix what isn't broken)
- On copy under 50 words (not enough surface area for 21 checks)
Do I have to rebuild my copy after running it? No. Sometimes only 2 of the 21 checks fail and the fix is a single line. Severity ratings make it scannable.
Can I use this with GPT instead of Claude? Yes. The skill file is agent-agnostic. Works in any frontier model.
Can I customize the 7 readers for my industry? Yes — that is exactly the right move. Fork the repo and add industry-specific personas. If you build something useful, open a PR.
Does this replace human review? No. It replaces the 3-hour wait for a colleague to respond. Use it to ship a cleaner draft to the human reviewer.
What if the rebuilt copy is worse than my original? That means the rebuilder compromised with the critics instead of resolving them. Re-run with a stricter instruction: "rebuild tighter, not bigger."
Seven Critics + prospectingwork = diagnosis + review. Write a positioning diagnostic with prospectingwork. Stress-test it with Seven Critics. Ship what survives.
copy review AI · marketing copy AI · cold email review · cold email critique · copywriting tool · AI copywriter · email copy feedback · landing page copy review · adversarial copy review · copy stress test · kill AI writing · humanize AI copy · Claude copy skill · AI copywriting skill · Rick Rubin copy · David Ogilvy copy review · B2B copywriting · SaaS email copy · email conversion · cold email reply rate · Strategy Sprints methodology
Built by Simon Severino, founder of Strategy Sprints. Author of Strategy Sprints (Kogan Page) and Time Freedom with Jay Abraham. Added $2B+ in sales to B2B clients across 72 countries.
- Sprint Club — $49/mo community, 7-day free trial, 47+ AI skills
- Jetpack Monthly — $200/mo cohort workshop
- 200K Club — $900/mo 5-founder group coaching
- Private Jetpack — $9K/mo 1:1 with Simon
- Certification — for consultants teaching the method
Book: 30-min coffee · 90-day sprint discovery · Certification
- prospectingwork — Rick Rubin positioning diagnostic
- ogilvy — copy review through David Ogilvy's lens
- emailwriter — write emails that book meetings
- natural-planning-for-teams — 11-minute team planning model
- ClaudeSkills-SprintClub — 18 AI sales skills
MIT. Rip it apart, rebuild it better. Keep rolling, Simon & The Sprinters.