Talking about your method repeatedly without going insane
All work and no play...
I've started to write a book on this stuff. You can help here.
Also, I've launched a Podcast season. The podcast is called Exotic Matter and is the most handcrafted thing I've ever done. You can listen to it here:
http://exoticmatter.space/S1E1_Nick.html
It's perfect if you're in the Expertise Business and can't shake the feeling that there's a lot of nuance not being discussed.
Now, onto today's post:
Your Method is a Brand.
But also a Product
As a product, you must develop and iterate it and share it often and widely.
As a brand, you need to be able to talk about it all the time, in a consistent manner, without feeling repetitive.
This can be a bit of a challenge, especially if you try to do it from scratch or just based on how inspiration hits you.
Also, if you are an Expert, it's likely that you believe that just by explaining your method from your perspective others will be able to connect the dots themselves.1
The last thing you want is to create a massive post that explains everything but that no one sees because the linkedin algorithm didn't like it.
So, again, you need to play the number's game with talking about your work
To help me with this, I've put together a list of different ways of approaching my method. I use these to continually talk about my expertise and do it with enough volume.
Keep it exciting with 8 lenses
Besides helping you really cover every aspect of how you deploy your Expertise, they also have another super power:
Each connects better with different audiences. Some people are more convinced by the description of a method, others prefer to understand how things can go wrong, etc.
It's an evolving model of this, but it has helped me so far.
You can talk about your method in these 8 ways:
your overall process
how to diagnose a problem
why the solution makes sense
how to do each part of the process
criteria and principles for your process
consequences of doing something wrong
tools and techniques to execute on your advice
how notable people arrived at similar conclusions
If you go back to some posts of mine, you can probably notice this undercurrent.
Thematic Coherence + Varied Perspective
This approach allow me to keep hammering on my themes, but while keeping things fresh (and interesting/bearable to me)
To really make the most of it, I don't write these posts separately. I create a single large document, I state my objectives at the top, I create an initial list of ideas for topics (mixing my theme with these wildcards) and I get to work.
The fact that they all stay in a single file makes it very easy to check for coherence across multiple posts, ensuring that whenever I refer to an idea or definition twice, I don't change it from the last time I've mentioned it.
Bonus: it goes on forever
Notice how you can link these approaches together and in different orders.
Like filters that you can overlap and lead to new effects, you can layer these and get to slightly distinct results that are still related to the core ideas of your method.
Let me give you some examples:
how to diagnose the problem + consequences of doing your process wrong
= consequences of a poor diagnosishow do each part of the process + how others arrived at similar conclusions
= the solidity of your methodthe overall process + tools and techniques to execute on your advice
= very actionable how-to guide
Something you can do right now
Take these 8 perspectives, slap them on the LLM that knows you the best and ask it to mix and match them to give you content ideas.
Ask for 20 ideas, with with intention of picking the best 3. But you choose them. Keeps it grounded in your taste and perspective.
I suggest you specifically ask it NOT to give you titles, only ideas. LLMs tend to create overly click-baitey titles that override your own voice.
In other news:
The book keeps chugging along. I'm at the stage where the curve begins to flatten (more time, less visible progress. Not because there's no progress, but because we are shifting into more refinement things. Fun fact: I haven't used AI at all for the book. Part of me enjoys that, part of me wonders if using it to stress test it would be advisable)
I've decided not to create cartoon illustrations for the newsletter. They increase the production time by quite a bit and as far as I can tell, make no difference.
I've spoken at the All In Agency Summit. Will upload video and link it soon.
I've added some detail on the resources section of my website. Now the books have some description of what I found good about them. I think this makes it more useful. Check it out here.
I've had a number of great conversations since last edition, perhaps too many to mention.
I've posted less on LinkedIn, but these got the most attention:
Mankind is forking cognitively. People had strong opinions about this.
I've made a Vibe Map that explains how I look at the world. Some people asked for how to do one.
Again, the podcast, here for your enjoyment.
I've started to write a book on this stuff. You can help here.
Experts are often quite smart and smart people also get bored of repetition. If you rely on pure grit and motivation to force yourself to talk about your method over and over again, you will eventually give up. The algorithms tend to punish these interruptions (mercilessly)