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they paid $499 but you get this for free
Taylin John Simmonds
February 15, 2024
Make money with your mind, not your time.
This week, I’m sharing an article straight from The School of Thought community.
It was one of the most highly requested articles so I had no choice but to take some nicotine and get it done.
All my members paid $499 to join the community but screw it, I’m giving it to you for free.
Let’s dive in…
What Separates the Top 1% Creators From the Other 99%?
How do you come up with life changing ideas that create true fans, build a strong personal brand, and help you break through the noise?
Well, I’m going to tell you…
… Fortunately for you, most people have no idea how to come up with new and revolutionary ideas.
Their thoughts and beliefs are downstream from the same thought leaders as everyone else.
Leading to them posting content people have already read 100 times.
They'll never stand out above the crowd or build a meaningful Digital Identity - personal brand.
All because they don't understand these 3 things...
Relevance & Resonance
All viral worthy ideas, wether good or bad, have 2 things in common:
❖ Relevance - they're positioned against large scale modern problems
❖ Resonance - people have a strong, immediate desire to solve these problems
Alex Hormozi says it's easiest to sell hot dogs if you position your stand in front of a starving crowd.
The same is true for ideas being shared on social media.
Most creators don't understand this.
They think picking a niche is enough.
But a niche, defines the topics you're going to talk about.
An idea defines the desired transformation you’re going to provide.
↳ It moves your audience away from pain and towards their idea life.
The bigger the problem, the more relevant it is.
The bigger the pain, the more likely the idea is to go viral.
First, create a list of relevant problems and desired outcomes within your niche.
If you’re not sure how to do this, click HERE before reading on.
Niche - Writing
Problems:
❖ Struggling to find time to write
❖Struggling to write consistently (build a writing habit)
❖ Struggling to consistently come up with good ideas to write about
Desires:
❖ Have 1 to 2 hours of writing time per day (while working a 9-to-5)
❖ Write every day (effortlessly)
❖ Have an infinite amount of ideas to write about
Most creators stop there, but not you.
Rank each problem and desire on a scale of 1 to 5 based on their emotional pull.
Aka. How much pain or desire your audience feels when they experience the problem or think about the desired solution.
Anything that gets a 4+ is a problem and desire you should create content around
↳ Pro tip - call out these problems and desires in your hooks.
Relevance: The Bigger the Problem, the Faster They Click
Most creators struggle to attract an audience because they aren't talking about relevant problems.
They create content around team management, leadership, or venture capital.
But how many people actually feel a deep need to solve problems within these niches?
Not as many as people who need help getting to sleep at night, losing weight, or making money online.
Put simply, if you want to grow fast, your content must appeal to the broadest audience within your desired sphere of influence.
Imagine 2 circles.
One is small; the other is 10x larger.
These circles represent the audience sizes within different niches.
Small circle - Venture capital
Large circle - Making money
When I started writing online, I shared ghostwriting content.
I was able to get my first 10,000 followers but then my growth came to a screeching halt.
So I niched up.
I started sharing writing tips that apply to copywriters, blog writers, ghostwriters, and authors.
With these tips I was able to grow to 70,000 followers.
But then my growth stopped.
So I niched up again.
Now I share life advice and talk about why everyone should start writing.
I appeal to the broadest sphere of influence within my niche.
I'm growing faster than I ever have before. While reaping the benefit of introducing my audience to a life changing skill - writing.
Writing tips only appeal to writers. Why you should write, appeals to everyone.
Ask yourself:
"How many people care about this problem?"
"How many people feel the need to solve this problem immediately?"
The more people you appeal too, the faster you can grow your audience on social media.
If you choose to go niche, that's fine as well.
Just make sure the transformations you offer are relevant to the niche you're targeting.
Resonance: The Link Between Emotions and Identity
Your audience must identify with the problems and desires you choose to write about.
This is the difference between content that attracts and content that repels.
Here's the first version a hook I'm working on for an X thread:
"The information paradox: a thread on the link between social media and mental illness:"
Do you see the problem with it?
The pain point = mental illness.
How many people, do you think, identify as mentally ill?
Is that the language they would use to describe their problems?
No. It isn't.
That's why the hook lacks emotional resonance.
Resonance is felt when your reader identifies with the problem and pain point present in your writing.
Here's a rewrite that targets a problem with deeper emotional resonance:
"The Information Paradox:
The more you consume, the worse you feel.
If you feel overwhelmed, anxious, or depressed this might be why:"
How many people do you think identify as overwhelmed, anxious, or depressed?
A lot of people!
These pain points shortcut their logical mind and appeal directly to their emotions.
Emotion leads to motion.
In our case, motion is the actions we want the reader to take - like, share, comment, or follow.
Your ideas must leverage deep, burning problems your audience identifies with.
Unique Mechanism: Creating a Personal Brand Through Novel Processes
An idea is nothing without a transformation.
Meaning, you must bridge the gap between pain and desire.
Everyone is creating content around the same big problems.
To differentiate yourself, you must do so in a novel way with a unique mechanism.
↳ Unique process or system that guides your reader through their desired transformation.
The benefits of unique mechanisms:
❖ Position you as against your competitors
❖ Open a curiosity loop within your readers mind
❖ Differentiate you in the idea marketplace as a unique personal brand
Unique mechanism are easy to create (they're usually made up).
Consume quality content, put it into practice, and hone it into a system others can use (with an easy to remember name).
Hormozi does this all the time by reading popular books then filtering the concepts through his experience and giving them novel names that are easy to remember.
Here's a few unique mechanisms that have gone viral:
❖ How to fall asleep quickly (The 4-7-8 method)
❖ How to feel energized within 10 minutes of waking up (The 5-5-5-20 method)
❖ How to create slippy slope writing (the slip and stick)
Add a unique mechanism to problems with high relevance and deep emotional resonance to become a top 1% creators.
Until next time,
Taylin John Simmonds
This Week In The School of Thought Community
⇢ Damian created and shared a persuasive tweet writing framework - PEST.
Problem: Identify what the burning problem it
Emotions: What emotions can you pull from it
Solutions: How do you solve it
Transformation: What is the transformation that takes place.
Make sure all of your content hits these 4 marks.
⇢ LinkedIn announced they’re making a big update to creators profiles that will drastically impact their conversion. We covered it and advised all members on how to leverage it to get more sales.
⇢ I shared one of my secret viral content frameworks. Whenever I’m out of ideas and need a viral post, I use this to kick start my engagement back up.
Here it is:
Personal definitions are so powerful for creating unique content.
For example:
What is happiness?
How would you define it?
Don't use ChatGPT or look this up.
Think and define it for yourself.
Naval's personal definition of happiness is so fricken good:
“Happiness is the space between your thoughts.”
Only someone who has thought this through could have a definition like that.
These definitions are so powerful because you hit on a common desire, while providing a novel translation of feelings into thoughts.
Pair this with actionable advice to build authority.
Whenever I'm stuck on tweets, I always turn to personal definitions.
Oh. Are you still hungry?
If your mouth is salivating for more goodies, check out these free courses and cheat sheets (more coming soon):