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Productivity prompt

One prompt that plans a profitable winemaker dinner, start to finish

Most release dinners get planned on a napkin and lose money on food cost and comped seats. This prompt builds the budget, ticket price, run of show, invite emails, and the follow-up offer in one pass.

How to use it

  1. Copy the prompt below.
  2. Swap each [bracket] for your own details. The more specific you are, the better the answer.
  3. Paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini and send it.

The prompt

You are an event P&L strategist who has run profitable winemaker dinners, release parties, and paid tastings for small beverage producers. You are blunt about money. You assume most of these events quietly lose money on comped seats, over-pouring, and food cost, and your job is to stop that.

My business: [BUSINESS NAME AND TYPE, e.g., a 4,000-case winery in Walla Walla / a 12-barrel brewery in Asheville / a craft gin distillery in Austin]
Event: [EVENT TYPE, e.g., winemaker dinner for our new estate Cabernet release / taproom launch party for a barrel-aged stout / single-barrel bourbon pick dinner]
Date and time: [DATE]
Target headcount: [HEADCOUNT TARGET]

My costs:
- Venue or room: [VENUE COST, or "our own tasting room, no rent"]
- Food: [FOOD COST PER PERSON, or the caterer's total quote]
- What we are pouring and our wholesale or production cost per bottle/keg: [POURS AND WHOLESALE COST EACH]
- Staff: [STAFF HOURS AND HOURLY RATE]
- Anything else: [rentals, music, printing, glassware]

My plan so far:
- Ticket price I was thinking: [TICKET PRICE YOU WERE PLANNING]
- Comped seats I expect to give away: [COMPED SEATS, e.g., 6 for press and trade]
- What I want guests to buy that night: [WHAT YOU WANT GUESTS TO BUY, e.g., 3-bottle library packs at $150 / cases of the new release / club signups]
- Club or loyalty offer available: [CLUB OR LOYALTY OFFER, e.g., waive the first shipment's shipping and a free magnum at signup]
- Email list size I can invite: [EMAIL LIST SIZE]

Produce all seven of the following.

1. The budget table. Every cost line, fixed versus variable per guest, with a total. Flag any number I gave you that looks low for this kind of event and tell me what you'd expect instead.

2. Breakeven. Tell me exactly how many paid seats I need to cover costs at my planned ticket price, including the comped seats as a cost. Then give me two alternative ticket prices (one lower with a bigger product push, one higher with a more premium format) and the breakeven at each. Recommend one and say why.

3. The revenue stack. Estimate total event revenue in three tiers (conservative, likely, strong), broken into tickets, on-site product sales, and club or loyalty signups. State the attach rate and signup rate you are assuming so I can argue with them.

4. Run of show. Minute by minute from doors open to last guest out. Include when each pour happens, when the owner or winemaker speaks and for how long, exactly when the sales offer gets made and by whom, and when the payment table opens. Keep the speaking segments short.

5. Three invite emails. Email 1 (announcement, sent far enough out to fill the room), Email 2 (reminder with a reason to act), Email 3 (last seats). Give me subject lines, preview text, and full body copy in my voice as a small producer, not a hotel event flyer. Tell me how many days before the event to send each one, and estimate how many of my list I need to open and convert to hit my headcount.

6. The at-table offer script. Three to five sentences a staff member says to a table while guests still have a glass in hand, plus two answers to "I'll think about it." No pressure language.

7. The follow-up offer. One email sent within 72 hours to attendees, with a time-limited reason to buy, and a second email to invited people who did not attend. Include the exact offer and expiration.

Format as clear sections with tables for anything numeric. If I have given you a detail that makes this event unprofitable no matter how it's run, say so first, before anything else, and tell me what to change.

What you fill in

  • BUSINESS NAME AND TYPE, e.g., a 4,000-case winery in Walla Walla / a 12-barrel brewery in Asheville / a craft gin distillery in Austin
  • EVENT TYPE, e.g., winemaker dinner for our new estate Cabernet release / taproom launch party for a barrel-aged stout / single-barrel bourbon pick dinner
  • DATE
  • HEADCOUNT TARGET
  • VENUE COST, or "our own tasting room, no rent"
  • FOOD COST PER PERSON, or the caterer's total quote
  • POURS AND WHOLESALE COST EACH
  • STAFF HOURS AND HOURLY RATE
  • rentals, music, printing, glassware
  • TICKET PRICE YOU WERE PLANNING
  • COMPED SEATS, e.g., 6 for press and trade
  • WHAT YOU WANT GUESTS TO BUY, e.g., 3-bottle library packs at $150 / cases of the new release / club signups
  • CLUB OR LOYALTY OFFER, e.g., waive the first shipment's shipping and a free magnum at signup
  • EMAIL LIST SIZE

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