Ideas that Create Momentum (Are Not the Ideas We're Handed by Others)

My radical non-radical belief is we all have plenty of stories to tell and ideas to share, all of which are better than the typical types of content alleged experts urge us to create.

But to unlock and unleash that kind of work requires a mentality shift. You're probably told to "talk to your audience, talk to your customers, talk to your clients," then create content based on what they say. To that I say, right start, wrong execution. The one thing others can't give you is the one thing you need most to differentiate and resonate: an original and well-articulated perspective.

Turns out, your personal perspective is something that must be identified, explored, and developed to matter much to anyone -- including you. Your perspective doesn't just arrive fully formed. It's felt at first. It's in there. But then, through reflection and (I think) lots of writing, it's discovered, brought into the light, and shaped. You need to put the right language to your ideas to express it effectively, in ways that show others why they should care about it too.

So, back to that necessary mentality shift we need:

Stop acting like an expert. Start acting like an explorer.

Ideas that create momentum are created from curiosity. You are willing to raise your hand and say, "I don't actually have all the answers, but I'm going to figure this out." Sure, you bring expertise to what you do, but you're not merely looking backwards, mining your work experience for answers and how-tos. That well runs dry real fast, and worse, it puts you in the well business, which is not a good business. You become a commodity. Useful expertise, perhaps, but people can get it anywhere. Why are YOU the source they want? Where are YOU in all that mess of content?

That's why you need to develop your perspective, and that's why you need to stop acting like an expert and start acting like an explorer. (I say "you" here to make a point. I really mean "we." Turns out you're never quite done developing your perspective...)

So again, I suggest to you: Stop acting like an expert, start acting like an explorer.

Creativity is not the constant manufacturing of brilliance. It's the consistent pursuit of curiosity.

When we're tired or stressed, or we feel like an imposter, or we're worried we're starting to repeat ourselves, or we feel like we have nothing left to say, we can craft ideas capable of gaining momentum by remembering:

"I don't need better ideas. I need to ask better questions."

Don't be brilliant. Be curious.

This is the gateway to stronger ideas, rooted in personal perspective, and it unfolds across three phases:
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​1. Identify your perspective.

First, sense your own feelings about your space or community. Interrogate those feelings and use curiosity to drill down to the root of your thinking. Get brutally honest with yourself. How do you really feel? Why? What's broken in the status quo, and why is it broken? What would be better? Why don't others see that? What would it look like if others embraced this better way?

Make a mess of things on the page, but get it onto the page no matter what. Rant and ramble as passionately and as honestly as you can. These are the best raw ingredients before you start really cooking.

2. Turn your perspective into your premise.

Next, with a better set of ingredients on the table, you can start to cook something tasty. Begin to wordsmith. Turn that perspective into a premise -- a defensible assertion you make, pulled from your perspective, which then informs your choices and your reputation.

First, ALIGN with them. "You are..." who? "And you want..." what? "To do that, you're..." doing what typical, expected things? But unfortunately, "you're feeling..." what way? or maybe "you're running into..." what problems?

Then, AGITATE the problems and introduce additional tension, the calling card of any storyteller. "As a result of feeling that way, you start..." doing what expected things, which promise to solve the problem. List them out here. "But that only leads to..." what insufficient outcome or exacerbated struggle? "The truth is..." what do they think is the issue, but what is actually causing it? Help them see past their symptoms. Diagnose the illness.

Third, ASSERT your position. Share your premise. "Stop X, start Y." Don't do THAT accepted thing. Do THIS better thing. What is your specific, defensible assertion, pulled from your perspective, which others need to hear as a kind of hard truth or paradigm shift? (Mine: "You should prioritize resonance over reach.")

Finally, INVITE them on your journey, whether by subscribing to a project or exploring your overall platform and various offerings, because you're the walking, talking avatar for the premise and the solutions made possible by it.

So to recap, you (1) identified your perspective by drilling down to the core of your thinking, then (2) given language to it, not just in messy draft form, but by structuring it well (see above), then testing it publicly (publish content). Then it's time to use the premise to differentiate your entire platform and ensure you find passionate fans.

Like a comedian crafting a joke or an author writing their manuscript, everything follows from the premise. In your case, it becomes the idea you're known for, because while everyone seems excited to be known on the internet, they're forgetting: you have to be known for (checks notes) something.

Your premise is that something. Go defend it, share it, explore it, and own it.

3. Develop IP around your premise.

Deploy your premise across your platform to make it your differentiated positioning, then see writing for what it is: thinking. Write (or speak or sketch or shoot or anything you like creating) your way forward, amassing IP around your premise. What logical questions follow the premise language? What ideas are sparked? What objections do others have when they hear you? How do they need to hear things so they "get it" the way you do?

As you use your premise to inform your content, you start to collect and define key terminology, craft visual frameworks and signature stories, and develop pillar projects and offers, all flowing from the premise -- like a big, coherent circle around your platform, drawn in YOUR color, because you're creating YOUR way.

But all of this begins with that single mentality shift first. Stop acting like an expert. Start acting like an explorer. Ask bigger, bolder questions, maybe sparked by feelings of frustration with the status quo, then keep asking questions and explore them.

Don't buy into most experts preaching audience growth tactics. It's not about algorithm gaming or "hooks" on social content. It's also not about acting like an industry Help Desk with FAQ content. That may have worked before, but it's not 2012 anymore. Simply answering questions others have is not enough to appear as anything more than a commodity, on a list with everyone like you. But that's not who you are.

You're a leader with big ideas. You hear what others say they want, but you also know what they NEED. You've figured that out by (1) identifying your perspective and (2) turning that into the language of your premise. But you don't stop there. You know how to show others why they'd care about this idea you say they need, so they actually WANT it. You do that through (3) developing IP around your premise -- all your content, focused on exploring your premise and every logical question, definition, heuristic, and story that follows.

As leaders, we give others what they need, even if they can't yet see why they need it. But as storytellers, we show them.

The reason people start thinking their own perspective and original thinking won't build an audience is because they haven't invested enough in developing those ideas. They try it a little bit, then shrug and say, "I guess the stuff I see spinning around the internet is what works. I wish I could do something my way, but that doesn't seem to work."

No. You just haven't developed "your way" enough. You haven't drilled down, identified your perspective through brutal honesty and ranty writing, built that up into a premise, then used that premise to inform content.

This is the work. This is the shift.

No, it's not enough to just hand others what you feel they need. "I know you asked for X, but how about Y?" Really, the goal is to have all the communication tools at your disposal to show them why what you say they need is actually what they want. You increase your odds by starting in a powerful, foundational place with your perspective and premise, then you use your content to make the lawyerly, logical case for your ideas everywhere you show up.

This creates momentum.

Momentum is not created by sharing content consistently. Momentum is created by sharing stronger ideas consistently -- and using that publishing process to make those ideas even stronger as you go. You have to share ideas AND do so in a way that shows them why they'd care.

Remember learning about momentum in science class? It's a product of velocity AND mass, not just velocity. In our marketing world, we obsess over just the one thing: shout louder, hype harder, distribute quicker. Velocity. But a boulder rolling? LeBron James on a breakaway? A bull charging? An avalanche as it tumbles and a singer as they belt out those last few lines of the song -- they all benefit from bringing greater POWER to what they do.

We need greater mass behind our ideas: a more honest, personal perspective, turned into more articulate premise language, which in turn becomes your differentiated message, with plenty of IP amassed behind it through content.

It is the power of your ideas, not just the volume of your content, which creates momentum.

These three individuals have powerful ideas because they're in the business of giving others what they believe they NEED, not simply what others run around saying they WANT:

• Michelle Warner's premise is that you need to prioritize sequence over strategy to build a sturdier business. Knowing the right move to make next matters more than knowing all the moves to make.

• Susan Boles's premise is that calm is the new KPI. If you want to build a business that's different, you need to design a business that solves for something (gasp) different.

• Jessica Lackey's premise is to stop gambling on tactics and invest in systems. To actually run a business is its own skill, separate and upstream from all the tasks and playbooks people spend so much time seeking and trying, and knowing how to run a business means you know how to create, implement, and optimize systems.

Michelle understands her clients NEED sequence, even if they're asking her as a business strategist for growth blueprints. Susan understands her audience NEEDS to think beyond margins, if they arrive wanting her to address their traditional P&L. Jessica understands entrepreneurs need to get better at actually running a business, even while they drunkenly stumble between growth hacks and secrets peddled online today.

They are visionaries. Not because they act like monks. Not because they post pithy sayings on social media. But because they have a clear vision. That vision was inside them all along, of course, but they did the work to drill down to their foundational perspectives, craft and test the right language to develop a premise that resonates, then they use that premise to develop stronger, more differentiated platforms full of consistently great content, pillar projects and signature stories people remember and share, and relevant offers delivered in ways that fit their philosophies.

I'd ask you: Are you so focused on showing up as an expert, you've stopped exploring? Have you done the work to drill down to the first principles driving your thinking? Sense your frustration, and pursue it. Take seriously moments of curiosity. Lead with intuition, then course-correct with data.

Identify your perspective. Turn that into your premise. Amass IP behind it. That's where creative momentum comes from.

Forget the volume game. Do your ideas have enough power?

This is a skill, not a gift. My radical non-radical idea is anyone can master it. Because anyone can explore.