A Tool to Make Differentiation Easier: Using the Idea Impact Matrix to Stand Out
I have these two friends, let's call them Mitch and Marie to hide their identities. They're both struggling to stand out right now.
Mitch is the consummate expert in his space. He's a veteran marketer, having worked in-house for many years as a practitioner, then team leader. In that capacity, he's given tons of talks, mostly breakout sessions and workshops, all about modernizing your marketing. He's written a book, which he tells me hasn't sold the way he wanted, and he's appeared on several podcasts, though he says he's eager to appear on more and better shows. He's also written more articles and newsletters and ebooks than the average bear. (Opposable thumbs help.) He's an incredibly sharp observer of his industry and teacher of tactics, and lately, Mitch wants to invest more in his personal brand and create a side business consulting clients, en route to branching out to be fully independent soon.
Then there's the ever-inspiring Marie. She's also a veteran in her space (tech startups, mainly). After many years leading teams, she now coaches executives and leaders as a full-time, independent consultant. Unlike Mitch, Marie doesn't create quite as much content, but she's constantly evangelizing her ideas in passionate ways. Her website is gorgeously designed, and her favorite slogans and quotes are written in bright cursive throughout. Marie is a wonderful motivator and a big thinker, and she brings a warm energy to all she does. She's clearly driven to help others make important, foundational changes to their work and their lives.
Mitch and Marie are different. I'd call Mitch "The Analyst" and I'd call Marie "The Evangelist." But despite their differences, both are what I'd call the real deal. They bring plenty of substance and many years of experience to their respective audiences, teammates, clients, and partners. But they're both facing the same problem.
It's getting harder to grow. They keep telling me it's hard to stand out, or else they feel stagnant or stuck. They've got some audience, but it's flat or down. They've got some clients, some invites to speak or appear on podcasts or guest-write or contribute quotes, but those things are similarly frozen at the levels they've been seeing for multiple years.
They're ready to break out. They just ... aren't sure how.
This is a common problem I see among experts, service providers, creators, and leaders today. You reach a certain level by leaning into being the analyst or the evangelist. You're able to teach others strategies and tactics, and they like it (and so do you). So you do it more. Or maybe you're able to motivate and inspire others and connect with them emotionally, and they like it (and so do you). So you do it more. But then, like my friends, things get harder, or else you feel you're ready for something better, bigger, more energizing. And it's not coming.
I hate that feeling. And I hate when friends (or anyone with substance and a desire to serve others) feels this way.
If you've been reading me awhile, you may have seen me mention my Idea Impact Matrix now and again. I need to bring this tool out more and explore it with you regularly, as I know this is a useful tool—but now the moment feels urgent that we all show up better, standing out and resonating through our substance, not grimy internet tactics.
Here's how the matrix works...
We want to separate on the impact of our ideas, NOT the volume of our marketing. So first, we have to make sense of the idea of "impact" so we can learn to be HIGHER-impact.
The impact of any idea is directly proportional to two traits: its value and its originality.
The least value we can share with others is information (it's wholly commodified), while the most value we can share is through an insight (great insights are rare indeed, and they go deeper than information used to update people, since insights empower people).
In terms of originality, you can plot how you're doing on a spectrum from general to personal. Could anyone have done it or said it that way, or did you press it through the lens of your perspective, your style, your stories?
Mitch and Marie are stuck in the commodity cage, but just barely. They aren't deep inside it. They're right on the edges of the walls, reaching through the bars, eager to break free. And they're trying REALLY hard to do it.
For instance, on Mitch's website, his speaker page shows a lists of topics he can speak about which is so long, you have to scroll down to read it all. He also shares a list of 10 (TEN!) different speeches he can give to your event at any one time. Mitch is inside the commodity cage, pressing his face hard against the top wall, as he pushes more and more and more towards his expertise.
Mitch wants to "out expertise" everyone else. But what he's failed to do is give us anything original, anything that conveys emotional stakes, anything that connects interpersonally or gives us reason to pick HIM over another expert who looks and sound like him. Because his problem is he looks and sounds like so many around him, and I suppose now he's trying to do is look and sound like everyone ... but louder? But with a longer list of topics?
He shares lots of stuff, but he needs to make that stuff higher-impact. The easier part for him will be finding deeper insights under his wealth of knowledge. The harder, more pressing, and more immediately differentiating part for Mitch will be getting in touch with his perspective to actually share THAT and color his work with THAT, along with telling stories and honing his own style. He's a great analyst. He needs to work on being a better evangelist.
Marie is the opposite.
Whereas Mitch had tons of topics and speech options on his website, Marie has just a couple. But navigate to her home page, scan her social feeds, or read her newsletter, and you're left with a strange feeling. You feel fired up ... but then never use that fuel to go anywhere. It's really hard to get Marie to anchor her thoughts to the ugliness and tactical needs of reality. Her website shares these wonderful, motivational ideas she wrote, but they land as mere platitudes, empty pablum, without any grounding devices to follow them, like methodologies to think and execute better, or terminology she can define for us. But instead, she's pressed against the wall of the commodity cage in her own direction, trying to publish more nice-sounding quotes at scale or else make even more impassioned pleas for us to "be authentic" and "harmonize our true selves with our chosen paths." As more evangelist than analyst, she leans the opposite way to Mitch:
What Marie has failed to do is give us anything of true value. She has no follow-up insight to offer once she helps us feel energized or connects with us interpersonally (which she's great at doing). To be clear, she does HAVE insights, she just hasn't invested in figuring out what they are or, more to the point of our work, articulating them in ways that actually make clear their value to others.
Marie ALSO looks and sounds like folks similar to her, but while Mitch keeps grinding into the ground, Marie is up among the clouds—and her solution is naturally to try and fly even higher than her peers. But what her audience most needs is for her to come down and meet them where they live. On the ground. To make her work higher-impact is to start sharing more tangible instruction and, ideally, foundational insights that we can apply.
It's nice to hear someone like me say, "Don't market more. Matter more. You'll need to hustle for attention less." If I'm Marie, though, I don't follow that up with the Idea Impact Matrix, or this essay, or any grounding device. I just ask you to book me as your coach so that I can push you. Genuinely, Marie is good at that. She WILL push you. But seeing why you'd hire her so she can? That's the problem. You get a queasy feeling that there's nothing under the exciting quotes. But there's plenty. It just hasn't been identified, developed, and shared by her regularly enough. She has to draw on the left side of the matrix and analyze our situations and our culture, even while Mitch needs to stop analyzing so much and start evangelizing.
Where do you fall on the idea impact matrix? Are you more analyst or evangelist? We contain multitudes, of course. We have a mix. But if we're going to get past the vague feelings of stagnation or the acute pains of slow-to-no results, we can step outside ourselves to analyze (Mitch would love that) where we are and what we need to do next, so that we can find clarity (Marie would love THAT).
How do you show up now? Are you sure? Check in with friends, peers, subscribers. Consume your work the moment it lands in the inbox or podcast player or video feed. Assess yourself generally, but more narrowly, use this visual tool.
Always remember that as someone of substance, what you know matters, but we need to embrace that what you say and how you say it determines whether others care.
"Make me care." They're implying that, every time you show up in front of them.
"Resonate," they demand of you, the moment you reach them.
Stop competing on the volume of your marketing. Differentiate on the impact of your ideas.
