This is not a practical business book. At least not by what most people deem “practical.” I thought about writing one but soon realized that it would not help you in the slightest. If I were to tell you exactly what to do, some people would do it, fewer would get results, and even fewer would be able to pivot when my map does not directly match up with your territory. You do not have my mind. You do not have my experience. You do not have my thousands of tiny failures that subtly influence my decision-making. That is not arrogance but beauty, because neither do I have your mind, experience, or the failures that make your journey unique enough to succeed.
If you have any plans to do podcasts or public speaking – notice how the best speakers always have 5-10 of their best arguments or ideas top of mind. They repeat these over and over and that’s how they build influence. If you don’t have a set of those 5-10 ideas, then you won’t be as impactful as you could be.
Once the “idea density” of your content increases with time and effort, that’s what creates a brand worth following (and paying).
The goal of curating ideas to include under your brand should fall at the intersection of:
- Performance – the ideas have the potential to “do well.”
- Excitement – the ideas give you a sense of excitement to write about them.
Performance is the measure of how much other people will care.
Excitement is the measure of how much you care.
Art + business.
Metrics and performance shouldn’t determine everything, but they do mean something.
So, when you continue to today’s steps below, bear in mind that you should at least consider the idea’s potential for performance (followers, likes, resonance, views, etc).
Of course, as we learn more writing tactics in the paid substack tier, you’ll be able to turn almost any idea into something that performs at a relatively high baseline.