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Why is everything locked?
Cook opens one level at a time. What each level is for, and how you move up.
A new Cook workspace does not show you everything at once. Most of it is locked in place — visible, with a note saying why — and opens as you go.
This is on purpose. Someone who has not picked a market yet cannot tell which three screens matter this week, and an app that shows all of them at once is harder to use, not easier.
The three levels
1. Acquisition — get your first client with market data
You do not have an offer yet. One thing matters: pick something you can win and learn how to write for it.
You move on when you have:
- picked your market;
- finished one market teardown;
- drafted your offer one-pager.
2. Launch — get the offer live, and turn enquiries into customers
You know what you sell and none of it is live yet. Get the page up, turn on ads, and put the AI sales rep — the part of Cook that texts and emails new enquiries back within minutes and books the call — onto your new enquiries. Then watch the numbers and change one thing at a time until it works.
You move on when you have:
- published your funnel (the web page with the form on it);
- got your first ad set live;
- put the AI sales rep on new enquiries;
- connected the ad account and the calendar;
- had ten calls reviewed.
3. Scale — grow what works
Now it is more of what already works: more content going out, less time between someone paying you and getting started, better delivery, and less of your day spent on any of it. The reports run themselves and your job is to read them and fix the slowest thing.
How you move up
Cook watches for the work being done. You do not tell it you have finished a level — it notices that the funnel is published or the offer one-pager exists, and the next level opens.
A locked thing is not a broken thing. A locked screen always says it is locked and says what opens it. A screen that does nothing and gives no reason is a fault worth reporting — that is not how levels are supposed to behave.
Level is not the same as plan
Two different things decide what you can do:
- Your plan is what you bought. It sets the highest level you can reach.
- Your level is where your business actually is. It moves up inside what your plan allows.
So a workspace can be held at Acquisition either because the work of that level is not finished, or because that is what the plan covers. The screen tells you which one it is: finish the work, or change the plan.
What to read next
Common vocabulary — every term used in these guides, one sentence each.