M3 Insider · Client Updates & Intelligence

Operator Manual & Roadmap

A complete guide to what M3 Insider is, how every part works, how to publish as an admin, and what hardens next. Written so any M3 team member can read it once and understand the full product — and so any client understands what they unlock by signing in.

Ship-ready now

The Q4 2026 State of the Union is published, public, and live in Cloud. The link works for anyone — signed in or not. Clients watch the vertical video without distortion; the landscape promotional cover shows first. This manual documents the version you can send out today.

Part 1 · The Product

What M3 Insider Is

M3 Insider is M3's premium, centralized destination where existing clients receive company announcements, platform updates, new feature releases, tutorials, workshop replays, strategic briefings, and important developments relevant to their businesses. It is deliberately not a blog, a YouTube channel, an LMS, or a support portal. It is a two-way client intelligence channel: the video is the hook, the written briefing carries the substance, and a signed-in client can acknowledge a briefing, ask a question about it, and have their watch history logged to their account.

Positioning: “Your business is evolving. Stay ahead of what's next.”

It is separate from public Impact Media distribution, the M3 onboarding vault, client-specific project management, daily support, and standard courses. The experience reinforces that being an M3 client means ongoing access to valuable intelligence — even while selected content is viewable by anyone with the link.

Why this beats a course or YouTube

A course broadcasts one-way and forgets who watched. YouTube is all-or-nothing. M3 Insider is a two-way client intelligence channel: known by account, acknowledgeable, question-able, and restricted by tier. The article carries the substance; the video is the hook; the acknowledgement is the receipt. Completion can later feed follow-up without a client re-explaining their business.

Part 2 · The Access Model

Open Intelligence + Private Client Layer

M3 Insider is open by default, identity-enhanced on sign-in. A forwarded State of the Union link lets a prospect experience M3's capability with no friction — no login wall, no form, no interruption. Anyone with the link can watch the video and read the full article. Signing in is an enhancement that unlocks the personalized client layer. Putting a locked door in front of the best demonstrations would work against one of M3's biggest advantages: letting people see how much capability you bring to businesses.

What stays open vs. protected

Feature	Public	Signed-in client
General announcements & platform releases
Tutorials & public workshop replays
Full video + full article (not just teasers)
Client-specific / confidential briefings
Acknowledge receipt of a briefing
Private question history to M3
Personalized 'what's new since your last visit'
Publish / edit briefings (admin)

Visibility is enforced by Cloud, not the UI

Every publication carries an explicit visibility setting — Public, All M3 Clients, or Specific Clients — enforced server-side by Cloud row-level security. A signed-in non-client cannot read a Clients Only briefing. Admin publish/edit is a separate role checked on the server before any write. Public access never exposes client-specific data, CRM records, private questions, or engagement histories. Anonymous watch activity is never attributed to a known contact.

Part 3 · How the Screen Is Built

The Main Experience, Top to Bottom

The home view is a split-screen: a main column (the active briefing) and a right-side Intelligence Archive (the playlist of every briefing). On mobile the archive stacks below. Here is each region and what it does.

A. The Header

Sticky top bar with the official M3 logo, the M3 Insider wordmark, a search field (desktop inline, mobile below), a Manual link, the Publish button, and the Client Intelligence bell with a red unread badge. When signed in, a client-identity chip and a gold Admin badge (admins only) appear. A Q4 Major Upgrades Live pulse marks the active flagship release.

B. The Adaptive Video Player

Shows the active briefing's landscape promotional cover first — even when the underlying video is 9:16 portrait. A holographic gradient strip sits above it. Click the play button to transition into the actual video at its true aspect ratio. See Part 4 for the full player behavior.

C. The Executive Briefing Card

The concise, high-impact intro: category + canonical code + visibility badge, the headline and subtitle, the presenter/role/date/duration/reading-time row, an executive summary callout, the Engagement Bar (Acknowledge / Ask M3 / watch progress), and a Share button (admins also get Edit). This is the 20% visible part of the launch composition.

D. The Expandable Briefing Reader

Collapsed by default: topic chips, three executive highlight cards, one prominent Read Complete Briefing action, and a chapter quick-jump grid. Expand it to reveal the full original article in Passport White reading typography with a sticky toolbar, a table of contents drawer, and a collapse control. The 100% on demand part of the launch composition. See Part 5.

E. The Intelligence Archive (sidebar)

A scrollable list of every briefing as a thumbnail card (16:9 cover, category tag, orientation badge, New badge for signed-in clients, presenter + date). Selecting a card loads it into the main player and scrolls to top. When only one briefing exists, an “Upcoming Intelligence Briefings” note appears. Below the archive: an M3 Passport banner linking to credential verification.

Part 4 · The Video

The Adaptive Video Player

The player is the centerpiece, and it adapts to the media — not the other way around. A vertical video is never stretched into 16:9 or stranded in a giant blank rectangle.

Landscape (16:9)

Wide cinematic container, full column width, responsive across sizes. The default for most future M3 announcements, demos, tutorials, and workshops.

Portrait (9:16)

Height-capped, centered, never stretched. On mobile it fills the column width at a natural 9:16; on desktop it sits beside the editorial content, not in dead space.

How orientation is decided

Auto (default): reads the video's native videoWidth/videoHeight metadata on load and picks portrait or landscape.
Portrait / Landscape override: set by the publisher when the file metadata can't be trusted. The player respects the override, not the thumbnail.
A layout toggle under the player lets anyone (or an admin) flip the rendered orientation at view time — useful for edge cases.

Decoupled cover — the key design move

The thumbnail and the video are independent. The Q4 flagship is a 9:16 portrait video fronted by a 16:9 landscape promotional cover. Before playback, the wide cover greets the client; after clicking play, the interface transitions into the correctly proportioned portrait player. The poster stays a wide promotional hero while the active player uses its natural dimensions. Default thumbnail: 16:9, 1280×720.

Player controls

Play/pause, restart, mute, a click-to-seek progress bar, current/total time, an orientation badge, and fullscreen. Playback respects browser autoplay policies — it does not force autoplay with audio.

Part 5 · The Article

The Expandable Briefing Reader

M3 Insider feels like a premium streaming platform with an executive briefing attached — not a blog with a video at the top. The default page is short; the full original State of the Union is available on demand. The document itself is never shortened.

Collapsed executive view (default)

Shows topic chips, three executive highlight cards, and one prominent Read Complete Briefing action. A chapter quick-jump grid lets a reader dive straight into any of the eight sections. The page stays compact and premium.

Expanded Passport White reading view

Clicking Read Complete Briefing expands a full-width white editorial surface with the entire original article rendered verbatim — every word, heading, table, callout, and link preserved. A sticky toolbar shows the title, reading time, a Table of Contents toggle, and an Executive View collapse control.

Table of contents & deep links

The TOC drawer lists all eight sections with descriptions and jumps to them in-page. Each section has a share-link control that copies a direct URL to that chapter, so a briefing can be linked at the section level.

Reading typography

Passport White: ~19px body, ~1.75 line height, ~820px max reading width, IBM Plex Sans for editorial reading, generous spacing. The longest briefing stays genuinely readable.

The full document is never shortened

The complete original Q4 2026 State of the Union — all 34 numbered developments, eight sections, Anthony's letter, executive summary, and references — lives in Cloud as one complete content record. The interface only decides how much to show initially. If you ever see a briefing that looks truncated, the fix is in Cloud, not by re-summarizing the article in the UI.

Part 6 · Two-Way Communication

The Engagement Bar & Client Intelligence

This is what makes M3 Insider a client communication platform rather than a media site. On the briefing card, an Engagement Bar shows live watch percentage and two signed-in-only actions.

Acknowledge receipt

A signed-in client confirms they've seen a material briefing. It logs a receipt against their account — not just a play count — and notifies the account manager. The button flips to Acknowledged and confirms the log.

Ask M3 a question

Opens a small textarea tied to the current briefing; the question is stored as an open item against the client and the publication. Both actions require a signed-in session; a guest is prompted to sign in rather than having anonymous activity attributed to a contact.

Watch tracking (milestones)

The player reports progress at 25 / 50 / 75 / 95% and completion to the client-intelligence layer, scoped to the signed-in account under RLS. A guest's watch is never attributed to a known contact.

The Client Intelligence Console (the bell)

Clicking the bell in the header opens a right-side drawer with the signed-in client's full intelligence surface:

Identity — name, company, account tier, and the avatar chip.
Since your last visit — count of new briefings, total watched, completed, and to-acknowledge.
Watch activity — per-briefing max progress, seconds watched, and a Done badge on completion.
Open questions — questions the client has sent to M3 and their status.
Publishing access — for the first signed-in user, a one-time Claim Admin Seat grant; afterward admin-only.
Sign out & stamp visit — records the session end so the next visit computes “what's new.”

Engagement icons at a glance

Acknowledge receipt Ask M3 Read the full briefing on demand

Part 7 · Identity

M3 Passport Sign-In

Email/password only. Sign in unlocks the personalized layer; Create Account captures name, company, and a default Growth tier. Authentication is optional for public content but required for acknowledgements, questions, private briefings, and any admin action. It is an enhancement, not an interruption.

Where identity lives

Sessions come from the platform's managed backend (Cloud). The browser client handles auth flows and session listening; the server enforces admin role + visibility with RLS. There is no third-party auth backend.

Part 8 · For Administrators

The Admin Back-End controls the feed

Readers see a clean homepage at the public link — the video and a Read the Full Briefing button, plus the archive. There is no publish button, no edit affordances, and no admin chrome on the public site. All publishing, pinning, reordering, and deleting happens in a separate, protected back-end.

Open the Admin back-end

Go to /admin (the header shows a gold Admin link once you're signed in as an admin). It's protected: if you're not signed in, you hit a sign-in gate; if you're signed in but not an admin, you see a clean "no access" state — there is no self-claim button. It is also noindex'd so it never shows up in search.

Sign in as an admin

Sign in with your M3 email & password. The admin role is granted on your Cloud account record (M3 sets the first operator's admin role directly — no public "claim seat" flow that anyone could grab). Once signed in as an admin, the Feed Manager loads automatically. Additional operators are granted the admin role the same way; it is never self-served.

Manage the live feed

The dashboard lists every briefing in live feed order (pinned first, then manual order, then newest). Each row has Pin (to the top), Move up / down (reorder), Edit (open in the two-input studio), and Delete. New Briefing opens the studio from scratch.

Admin enforcement is real, not cosmetic

Writes go through a server function that verifies your session and checks the admin role (via has_role) before any insert/update/delete. A signed-in non-admin gets 403 Forbidden. Drafts never auto-publish — publishing is a deliberate choice.

The Publishing Studio — two inputs, one complete release

The studio has three tabs. The goal is two primary inputs, one complete publication.

Tab 1 — Two Inputs (the required minimum)

Input A — the video: paste a direct hosted video URL (or an embed). Pick the Auto / Portrait / Landscape orientation. Input B — the written article: paste full HTML, markdown, or plain text — headings, tables, callouts, and links are preserved verbatim. Hit Auto-suggest to draft a title, headline, and summary from the text, then edit. Your wording is never shortened.

Tab 2 — Presentation & Cover

Set a custom 16:9 promotional thumbnail (works even for a portrait video, with a live preview). Assign categories from the six official options. Set presenter, role, and duration. Choose Visibility (Public / All M3 Clients / Specific Clients), Status (Published / Draft / In Review / Archived), and whether to Feature at Top.

Tab 3 — Preview

A miniature of how the briefing will look: the cover, title, headline, categories, duration, summary, and the article in Passport White. Confirm, then publish or save.

Publishing update #2 — step by step

Open /admin and click New Briefing

From the admin dashboard, New Briefing opens the two-input studio from scratch. (Or click Edit on an existing row to revise it.)

Paste Input A — the video

Drop the direct video URL. Pick Auto, Portrait, or Landscape. The player adapts to what you set, not to the thumbnail.

Paste Input B — the article

Drop the full written content. Hit Auto-suggest to draft the metadata, then edit. Your wording is preserved as-is.

Set cover, categories, visibility

On the Presentation tab, set a 16:9 promo thumbnail, assign categories, and pick visibility (Public / All M3 Clients / Specific Clients).

Preview, then Publish

Check the Preview tab, then Publish Release (or Save as Draft to come back later). It writes to Cloud and appears in the archive instantly — and survives a refresh.

Pin or reorder any time

Back on the dashboard, use Pin to push a briefing to the top of the feed, or Move up / down to reorder. The public site reflects it immediately.

Editing an existing briefing

From the admin dashboard, Edit loads that briefing's full record back into the studio — the article, video, cover, and metadata all come back editable. Published articles keep stable IDs and durable order. Pinning and reordering persist to Cloud, so they survive a refresh and a full restart.

Part 9 · Reference

Categories & Library

The six official categories (a publication may belong to more than one):

Important Announcements
Platform Updates & New Releases
Tutorials & Walkthroughs
Workshops & Replays
Strategy & Business Growth
M3 Company Updates

The filter bar only shows categories that have published briefings, and only appears once a second briefing exists — keeping the single-briefing launch clean. The category list is editable in code without rebuilding the app.

Search & related content

Full-text search runs across title, summary, presenter, headline, and category. Results filter the archive live. Selecting a result loads it into the player and scrolls to top. No fabricated or placeholder publications are shown — only what's actually published in Cloud.

Current Capabilities (v1)

Adaptive video player

Detects orientation per publication from native metadata, with a manual override. Portrait renders height-capped and never stretched; landscape goes cinematic 16:9. A landscape cover can front a portrait video.

Custom thumbnails

Every publication has its own cover independent of the video's aspect ratio — a 16:9 promo cover for a 9:16 founder video, with a smooth transition to playback.

Passport White articles

Long-form briefings render in readable white typography (~19px / 1.75 leading, ~820px max width) with headings, tables, callouts, and links preserved.

Progressive disclosure reader

Collapsed executive view by default; full original article on demand with a sticky toolbar, table of contents, chapter quick-jump, and section deep links. The document is never shortened.

Two-input publishing

Paste a video + paste an article → auto-suggested title, headline, summary, reading time, and canonical code. Three tabs: Two Inputs, Presentation & Cover, Preview. Save as draft or publish.

Acknowledge receipt

Signed-in clients confirm they've seen a material briefing — a logged receipt, not just a play count.

Ask M3

Signed-in clients send a question tied to a specific briefing; it's stored as an open item against their account and the publication.

Watch tracking

Known-contact milestones (25/50/75/95% + completion) are attributed to the signed-in account under RLS. Anonymous watch is never attributed to a contact.

What's new since your last visit

Returning signed-in clients see a welcome strip + NEW badges on briefings published after their last stamp.

Searchable library

Full-text search across title, summary, presenter, headline, and category filters. Stable per-publication URLs.

Admin-gated writes

Server-enforced admin role; first-seat claim then admin-only promotion. Drafts don't auto-publish. Edit any briefing from its Edit button.

Visibility + RLS

Public / All M3 Clients / Specific Clients — enforced server-side by Cloud row-level security, not the UI.

M3 Passport sign-in

Email/password identity; optional for public content, required for the personalized client layer and admin actions.

Roadmap

Phase 1 · MVP

Make the experience real

Live now

Official M3 Passport branding & logo
Adaptive portrait / landscape player
Custom landscape cover for portrait video
Full Passport White article presentation
Progressive-disclosure reader (short page, full article on demand)
Library + categories + search
Real Q4 2026 State of the Union seeded in Cloud
Responsive layout (desktop + mobile)

Planned

Per-publication SEO routes (e.g. /p/2026-q4-major-upgrades)

Phase 2 · Publishing

Make publishing effortless

Live now

Two-input studio (video + article)
Auto-suggested metadata
Drafts + publish + archive statuses
Persistent Cloud storage (survives refresh)
Admin-gated writes with first-seat claim
Edit existing briefings from view

Planned

WYSIWYG section editor (tables, callouts, images)
Inline thumbnail upload to Cloud storage
Per-publication SEO + canonical link fields
Desktop/mobile live preview toggle

Phase 3 · Ecosystem

Connect the operating system

Live now

Known-contact watch tracking (Cloud)
Acknowledge receipt (Cloud)
Questions back to M3 (Cloud)
Visit stamp / what's-new (Cloud)

Planned

HighLevel media library picker (when API verified)
Native video-tracking event verification + documented limits
CRM contact-identification passback
Engagement → follow-up workflow automation
Tier-based client segmentation for specific_clients
HQ content-record linkage (canonicalM3Code / sourceRecord)
Notification routing to intended clients

A note on tracking honesty

Native video-tracking events (view %, completion, contact identity) are logged in M3 Insider's own Cloud tables tied to the signed-in account. They are not CRM-native events on a third-party player until that integration is verified against the live API — that's Phase 3, and it's marked honestly as planned, not done. No tracking event is fabricated or claimed without testing.

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