How I'd Improve the Premise of a Marketing Legend: Reworking Joe Pulizzi's 3 Signature Projects
Last week, my friend Joe Pulizzi was kind enough to cite my premise development methods and frameworks in his wonderful newsletter.Here's the full article on LinkedIn.
Joe forwarded me the email version and asked, "Am I doing this right?" He wanted my input on the premises for his three most important projects: his two podcasts and his brand new book.
I replied in brief, but I thought I'd flesh out my thinking more for you today.
What do I mean by premise?
If you're new to my thinking, here's a brief primer.
A premise is the core idea informing the rest. It's an assertion you make (you see things a certain way compared to others and you're here to defend that stance) about a topic you explore (which others explore too, but differently) which aligns your choices (like a coherent circle around your business) and informs your reputation (you become known for your premise).
Of course, there's a big difference between a premise and what we want: an effective premise. We want our ideas to be higher-impact. We want a premise that influences others, that shows them a new and better way. We aren't trying to say things that sound generic and forgettable. We're trying to differentiate and resonate.
An effective premise in our line of work matches the work of an effective leader. All effective leaders move people AWAY from what's broken and TOWARDS something better. They pivot off the conventional wisdom or approach, creating a before-and-after effect: before experiencing their leadership and after.
Developing a great premise works the same way. Your premise should pivot off the central tension inherent in your posture as a leader. You have identified what is currently happening in your industry or niche, and you won't stand for it. You see a better way. Your premise is your assertion of what that better way might sound like, and you can imbue your communication of your premise with that tension. That's what makes it memorable or even kinetic. To hear a great premise is to experience a kind of forward progress. Again, this is about creating a before-and-after effect with you and your ideas.
I could say, "Babies cry the moment their parents sit down." That is technically a premise. So is "accounting made simple" or "your one-stop-shop for all your marketing needs." These are similarly an assertion you are making about your space or about yourself. But these are not effective premises.
One of the most effective premises in the last few years (and most viral, but that needn't be the case to be effective) comes from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits. You've probably encountered it before or maybe read my take on it. It's an easy example not only because it's well-known but because it's articulated in two distinct sentences, so we can clearly see the "before" and the "after."
"You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."
My business's premise, given my work with clients and teams, also draws a clear before/after line in the sand:
"Think resonance over reach."
The trick here is not only to pivot people away from their current understanding or approach, but to create a kind of "good-versus-good" argument. In the case of James Clear's premise, both goals and systems have merit. He has a vision for how to place each in the proper context. That's far more effective than "set goals" or "have systems" (which sound more similar to "accounting made simple").
Likewise, in the case of my premise, you probably see merit to both resonance and reach. My assertion is to prioritize resonance OVER reach, because either (A) the reach part gets far easier if you do the work I'm suggesting and coach clients to do, or (B) you never again need to focus overtly on growing reach as a result of that work. My premise evokes a "good-versus-good" comparison.
An ineffective premise says, "Don't be bad. Be good!" Don't be complex, be simple. Don't fall behind, get ahead. Don't NOT adopt that new trend—adopt it!
An effective premises advocates for a positive change by reframing a common topic in an insightful way. It's as if the person who develops that premise is saying to you, "You have a current approach or understanding. But think of it THIS way instead. That would be better."
Refining Joe's premises
With that context in mind, let's continue to strengthen Joe's already pretty strong premises.
The first looms largest in his world right now, so let's start here: the premise of his new book, Burn the Playbook!
(I was honored to blurb this book and highly recommend it if you're an ambitious, creative person. Get it here.)
Joe told me he would summarize the premise for Burn the Playbook like this:
"The only true path to meaning, freedom, and wealth is building something you control"
Of course, Joe is a marketing master and prolific author and speaker. He's no stranger to this craft, so this is a strong premise already. However, he could make the tension a bit more overt. Right now, it's implied. When you hear, "something you control," you naturally think, "Oh, okay, he's saying that I can't achieve meaning, freedom, and wealth if I DON'T build something I control, or if I'm building something that I ultimately don't control personally." In short, he's saying this:
"The only true path to meaning, freedom, and wealth is to build something you control, not something others own."
Adding that last little bit makes it sharper, more memorable, and more kinetic.
I floated a few other options to Joe too:
"If you want meaning, freedom, and wealth, you need to prioritize control more than certainty in your career."
"If you want meaning, freedom, and wealth, you can't work for others. You need to build something you control."
Those are okay too, but I really like the first one.
Here's a crucial point if you want to develop a stronger premise for your project or your entire business:
Even though I allegedly do this work professionally, for myself and for my clients, I still needed my writing practice to get through the bad ideas and sharpen them into something good. I first wrote an email back to Joe with the two weaker options above. Then I started writing this essay as a LinkedIn post and rewrote them a little bit. Then I decided this needs to be a newsletter edition, not a social post, and only while drafting this full essay to you did I uncover the best option of them all: "The only true path to meaning, freedom, and wealth is to build something you control, not something others own."
As always, we need our creative practice. We need to aerate our thoughts and iterate. Brainstorming is bullshit. Said better, brainstorming generates shit. Then you need to sift through it to find something worth cleaning up. (Sorry, I had to. I am just so sick of people telling me they haven't "found" their premise yet. You don't find it! You build it. Actively. Don't tell me you haven't figured out your premise when you barely write or create, or you DO create content, but only as marketing, not as a means to discover and sharpen your own understanding. Again, you won't "come up with" your premise. You need to create it. So create. A lot.)
Let's move on to the other two premises Joe shared with me for his two podcasts, starting with his short-form, monologue podcast, Content Inc. He told me the premise is this:
"If you build an audience first, you can design any business model you want."
Again, not bad! This isn't Joe's first rodeo. In fact, it's probably his twelfth. Which may or may not be true. I just like forcing you to read one of the worst English words ever invented. Twelfth.
What a car crash disaster of letters. Wow.
Anywho, here are a few ways I might sharpen the premise for Content Inc:
"Today's best entrepreneurs build an audience for their business before they pick their business model."
"Build your audience, then your business."
"First build an audience. Then pick your business model."
I know what Joe is trying to say, and my suggestions are an improvement, albeit still kinda meh. But what he's saying is this: We mostly start our process with a business model, whether inside an actual document or in our heads. We think, "I'll launch a course business," or, "I'll be a coach," or whatever you plan to build. Then we model out a sellable offering or two, sell it a few times, then think, "Okay, now I must build an audience." But Joe is asking us to reverse this pattern. Pick an audience to serve first. Go build an audience for yourself. Then you can design a more tailored business model (and all your business entails) to solve the audience's problems.
Maybe:
"Your business model should follow from the audience you already built."
We'll workshop it.
We'll also workshop the next premise for Joe's other podcast, which he cohosts with Robert Rose (who also just released a fantastic new book of his own, Valuable Friction).
Their podcast, This Old Marketing, is about to pass 500 episodes, and Joe shared the premise with me like this:
"The patterns of the past explain why ownership and audience always win."
There's obvious tension here (the past versus the present; evergreen lessons versus fleeting trends), but I can sense Joe is trying to shove a bit too much of his various messages into one premise. It's almost like the premise for This Old Marketing is combining a theme from the show's name (the past) with elements of Joe's other two projects and premises (Burn the Playbook = ownership; Content Inc = audience). The result is a bit of a mashup. Not quite as bad as "twelfth," but we can simplify it even still.
"The patterns of the past reveal your competitive edge today."
"The best way for modern marketers to keep up with timely trends is understand patterns of the past." (I'm awarding myself bonus points for three instances of alliteration, though this is still too wordy.)
"In an industry full of change, success means understanding the things which never do." (It's a little clunky still, but I like the musicality. There's a satisfying finality and a delicious rounded edge to the final few words, and I like the juxtaposition between change and "things which never do.")
Ultimately, a premise is an idea meant to explore continuously. It's never final, especially if you're doing the hard but meaningful work of consistently exploring your premise through your content and listening to both your audience and your intuition. I hear a lot from people that they struggle with their premise because they're seeking the perfect idea and won't settle for anything else, so they just persist with mediocre messaging until they get it exactly right. But that's a fantasy. They won't. Ever.
I guess my question is this: If a marketing legend with millions of followers, eight books, hundreds of keynotes given, and multiple successful company acquisitions under his belt can iterate in public ... why can't you?