Ultimate Guide Table of Content

System #1: Overcome The 1 Roadblock Holding You Back From Leading Online (in 10 ways)

System #2: The Mind of The Abundant Thought Leader

System #3: The One Headline Tweak To Supercharge Your Writing

System #4: The Formatting Rules To Keep Your Reader’s Attention (Make it lean, digestible, and “Yummy”)

System #5: How To 1000x Your Reach

System #6: Developing an Authoritative Growth & Conversation Magnet (Attract interesting people while you sleep)

System #7: Craft Your Authentic Voice & Position (The Profile Optimizer)

System #8: How To Differentiate Your Message & Find Your Zone of Genius

System #9: The Decentralized Writing Approach That Pours Jet Fuel On Your Creativity (Become a unique 1 of 1)

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Have it handy, so you can always reference it as you start your thought leadership journey and build your audience.

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Introduction

Unhappiness is on the rise, but who is paying attention?

What if I told you there’s something that you are currently immersed in that’s holding you back from living your full creative and impactful life and you are not even aware of it.

Is it possible that you are not aware of it because you’ve been submerged in it your entire life?

Most people want to live a happier, more creative, and fulfilling life but a lot don’t even know where to start. An invisible veil separates us from what we want: happiness, peace, and meaning.

This individual unhappiness is silent, raging a destructive war within us, and adding to the growing level of unhappiness in the world.

According to Gallup studies that have been tracking levels of happiness with its wellness index, we are currently at an all-time high of global unhappiness.

It’s fueled by a growing inequality but it is not only isolated to income inequality. It is an “experience-” or “well-being inequality”.

There is a happiness divide.

The people on the other side of the spectrum that rate their quality of life as “low,” state that they are not fulfilled at work, have financial stress, live in broken communities, are malnourished, and don’t have people to count on.

This is humbling and quite sad but a problem we face.

We all have the agency to do fulfilling work, reduce financial stress, live in thriving communities, and build a network of people we can count on.

The meaning of life is to give life meaning.

You have to cultivate it like a garden.

Only the pros know this.

The ones that have stopped playing the amateur games.

They do this by understanding the intangible veil that is stopping us from the life we want to live is – RESISTANCE. They recognize that we are all submerged.

The pro learns to overcome the resistance that’s in between the life they live and the “unlived” life within. They do this by recognizing this internal battle, they win the battle by externalizing their thoughts with writing and sharing their leadership online.

People think writing online is just something that people searching for clout do. 

Writing online is how you change your life, generate world-changing ideas, build engaging communities, and unleash the boundless opportunities of the internet. 

Writing is how you lead your life.

Writing online is how you lead yourself and others to change the world.

But most people are stuck in the old world.

Legacy Thought Leader vs Digital Thought Leader 101

There are two types of leaders in the world today.

The first are legacy thought leaders.

These are people who still believe in the days of Carnegie, Hemingway, Hill, Clason, and Kiyosaki (among others). To become a leader, they believe, you must have gray hair, drink 50+ years aged whisky, and have led a massive corporation before you speak. You must be one of the select few invited to the podium to speak in a room of thousands. Better yet, you must detach yourself from the world, find a cabin in the woods (God forbid it has the Internet or anything to do with AI), and dedicate the next 10 years of your life to writing the next Great Leadership Handbook that would be remembered for centuries. If it does not compare to How To Win Friends And Influence People or How To Grow Rich, then it’s not worth talking or writing about. And if you die doing rigid, linear, hard work. You have lived, and suffered, the life of a true “leader”

I think that’s a bunch of traditional gate-keeping nonsense.

The second are digital thought leaders. 

These are people who, in the age of the Internet, have realized the inefficiencies that kept so many talented leaders and writers from being heard 30, 50, 100+ years ago. They leverage the power of their unique voice and networks to get to their goals with ease. Digital thought leaders don’t run away from life and seek refuge in a cabin—they incorporate their thought leadership, writing, and creativity into their daily lives. Digital leaders don’t lead in isolation (hiding away in their apartment)—they Practice In Public using social publishing platforms like LinkedIn, X, Medium, Substack etc. They don’t wait to be called to speak on a stage for hand-selected people. They create their own unique stage. Digital thought leaders don’t guess what the audience wants to read about—they gather feedback, learn what works in real time, and iterate on a daily basis. 

They cultivate the most powerful assets they have: their authentic voice, creative mind, unique experience, and personal narrative to attract, align, and lead the right people to a vision.

They cultivate their leadership with effective communication.

We believe there has never been a better time in human history to be a thought leader.

As long as you’re a digital thought Leader.

Thought Leadership & Writing In The Digital Age

Writing is leadership.

You will notice that we use writing and thought leadership interchangeably. Writing is the foundation of all intellectual tasks. What do thought leaders do?

They investigate their intellect, arrange it, and present it to the world to inspire action. Writing is the vehicle to make that happen.

There is 1 big difference between digital thought leaders today and legacy leaders who existed many years ago.

• Legacy thought leaders don’t leverage the new tools around them and hide their work from the world until it’s “perfect.”
• Digital thought leaders move with the time, leverage the digital tools around them, and all the world helps them make progress on their work.

Becoming a digital thought leader is all about letting go of the need to do some big grand “reveal” with your venture and experience. Instead of waiting until “the big moment” (when you ship) to see what people think, digital thought leaders test their ideas, build in public, and gather feedback to iterate as they go along.

As a result, their online writing and thought leadership is a perpetual iteration

• Proven LinkedIn or X posts become mini essays.
• Proven mini essays become longer substack articles.
• Proven articles become long-form blogs & ultimate guides
• Proven ultimate guides become books, courses, and so on.

Digital thought leaders don’t spend time working on anything that hasn’t been validated by the people they are looking to serve.

And as a result, digital thought leaders move 10x faster, build their brand and audience as they go along, and uncover way more ideas to inform the business and their storytelling that they ever would have come up with on their own.

So much so, that once you go digital, you never go back.

Getting Started

Whether you are a legacy thought leader looking to teleport into the future and join the digital tribe of leaders building a more impactful life for themselves and the people they lead or you’re new to writing and thought leadership and you don’t know where you begin, this guide is for YOU. It is an ultimate guide on getting started. Becoming a digital thought leader is a journey, one that I have gone on myself. In NapoRepublic’s Narrative Fusion Lab, founded by Nifemi Aluko, I’ve helped other writers, entrepreneurs, founders, thought leaders clarify and elevate their voices online.

The Narrative Fusion Lab is a 40-day space ride taking thought leaders out of the legacy world and up the digital galaxy. Together, we will voyage through 8 orbits, each allowing you to learn the basic elements of thought leadership online. You will live in the digital galaxy and your entire life potential will change forever.

Once you get on the Narrative Fusion Lab rocket, there is no going back.

We will get to the nucleus of your story and fuse it to emit unlimited stories and ideas to share with the world in proven and tested ways.

These are the fundamental principles and systems for writing and sharing thought leadership online and becoming a thought leader in the digital age.

This is the effortless approach to create time, find focus, and live fully while sharing novel ideas to attract the right audience and opportunities.

System #1: Overcome The 1 Roadblock Holding You Back From Leading Online (in 10 ways)

Unfortunately, all beginner thought leaders face the same problems.

And the reason these problems are so common is because so many writers & thought leaders are stuck in the legacy world, still waiting for permission to write, tell their stories, and put their ideas into the world.

When that’s simply just not true.

What you are really fighting is “RESISTANCE.”

Resistance is the veil between the life you are living and the ‘unlived’ life inside you. It is what is stopping you from being the true leader that you are. Shatter resistance and reach your full potential.

But resistance has its disguise.

It comes in different forms.

There are 10. 

All beginner thought leaders face the same 10 overarching problems.

Here are the 10 problems that hold digital writers & leaders back the most, along with some mental reprogramming to help you overcome them:

• Distractions: Thought leaders and writers love distractions. It’s the easiest way to postpone what needs to be done i.e. sit down and write. The amateur writer thinks writing is hard. The pro writer knows that sitting down to write is the hard part. “I need to clean the dishes” is a common one. “I need to give my sister a call” or “I’ve been working so hard lately, I deserve a Netflix binge.” But a small, powerful reframe here is actually seeing the distractions in your life as potential material and things to write about. Instead of getting frustrated by having human responsibilities, impulses, and friends who want to see you, write about them! These are stories of transformation. You acknowledge them and write to overcome them. Another hack is to make your environment support your goals. Your environment will take you where willpower can’t. Eliminate distractions when in your space to write.
  
• Overthinking (aka perfectionism): Ah, a writer’s favorite excuse. “It’s just not there yet.” OK, when will it be ready, then? One of the biggest obstacles writers need to overcome early on is realizing “perfect” is a mystery – an unmeasurable milestone that is hard to attain. More importantly, trying to be “perfect” slows you down. In your race for perfect, average writers and thought leaders that consistently get their thoughts out there zoom past you. A reframe we find helpful here is to allow yourself to create a “mediocre” piece. Who cares whether what you write gets a lot of traction. In everything you write, you are learning. You are on your way to writing leadership-market fit. And the more you learn, the better your writing becomes. Aim for progress not perfection.
  
• Procrastination: “I’ll start tomorrow” We have a saying in Narrative Fusion Lab, and it goes like this: If you out of the spaceship, that’s fine, but just make sure you don’t wallow in space for 2 days in a row (because your writing habit will be swept away and pulled into a black hole, not to be seen again. The secret to writing is to train and nurture your Daily Writing Habit. And to build a Daily Writing Habit, you need to get back in the lab every single day. If you miss a day, that’s cool. Don’t beat yourself up. But get back in the hatch and get back at it tomorrow. Otherwise, too many “tomorrows” will go by.
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• Over-editing: Writers love doing more research and refining: “Should I say ‘great’ or ‘outstanding?’ Should I do more research to find data to back this last point? The reality is that writing is never done. And the truth is, these levels of edits don’t matter, here’s why: One of the first big principles we teach in Narrative Fusion Lab is that, your first year of writing, storytelling, and thought leadership is a data-gathering exercise. Focus on feedback as you move towards what we call “writing leadership-market” fit. Instead, you should focus on getting feedback on your ideas. Forget the grammar. Forget the misaligned texts. Just focus on validating whether you are headed in the right direction. Once you get a sense for what ideas are intriguing to readers, Then refine your writing. But until you get that, all the refining will never be seen. Feedback is the biggest gift you need in your writing. Start getting it. Stop over-editing.
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• Low Confidence: How to build and embrace confidence in yourself as a thought leader? You write. It’s so simple that it’s complex. The reason why writers struggle with self-confidence and lack of clarity at the beginning of their journey is because they are doing experiments in their mind: imagining, waiting, they don’t believe in empirical data. They haven’t yet confronted the brutal reality that, once they begin, they probably aren’t going to be great at writing. It’s going to take practice. So in order to overcome this fear and START gaining clarity and self-confidence, you need to push off the blocks and start. The reprogram here is: nobody starts out with clarity and confidence. Confidence is something you cultivate and build as you move forward. Remember, you are not what you do.
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• No Ideas. No stories: A lot of writers and thought leaders have this fear that someone is going to “jack their ideas” or “I don’t really have important stories” But writers who are afraid of other people stealing their ideas are afraid because they don’t know how to create more ideas and find more stories. Said differently: they value the ideas and stories they have SO MUCH because they don’t have the skill of creating more ideas and stories on command. Well, that’s why we created an Infinite Idea Generator for thought leaders to use anytime they feel stuck. (We still use the Infinite Idea Generator every single day with our own writing & personal narratives. Why? Because it works.
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• Imposter Syndrome: The reason writers experience Imposter Syndrome is because we are taught that writing & telling stories is all about “conforming” where readers already are. It’s about becoming an incrementally “better” thought leader and writer than the next person. That is what leads to the sense of being an imposter. We don’t believe this is a healthy path forward for writing thought leaders. A better way of thinking about your path forward as a leader is figuring out how you can be DIFFERENT and UNIQUE, not “better” than the competition. After all, how can you be an imposter if you created something completely different for yourself? You aren’t competing with anyone. You are unique.
  
• Not knowing where to output: Where’s the best place to write online (where you can get feedback)? The honest answer to this question is: anywhere except your own new blog. Instead, you want to write in social publishing environments like X, LinkedIn, Quora, Medium. Or, if you want to set up a Social Blog, we encourage you to use Substack (so you get the benefits of both a personal blog and social distribution.
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• Inconsistency: The vast majority of writers & creators don’t have a “being gifted” problem. They have a “consistency” problem. It’s a cliché because it’s true. Look at any successful writer, author, musician, artist, content creator etc. Anyone who has stood the test of time did so because they were prolific – was able to create consistently over a long period of time. Consistency, in itself, is a powerful differentiator. And if you have trouble being consistent, we encourage you to sign up for Narrative Fusion Lab, where you’ll be given a support system, a community of fellow writers & business leaders, an Accountability Partner, templates and more, all with the goal of helping you “ship” new content every single day.
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• No Time: And of course, one of the biggest reasons writers & thought leaders don’t write is because they “don’t have time.” Well, here’s the thing—not just about writing & telling personal narrative, but about anything in life: when it comes to making progress on things that are important to us, you don’t “find” the time. You make time. We call these hours – AIS (Ass-in-Seat) in the Narrative Fusion Lab, and encourage writers & leaders to make time where they are a) most likely to be productive, but b) least likely to be interrupted by the outside world. AIS happens early in the morning, at lunch, or at night. But it’s on you to pinpoint them, and then protect them.

If you resonate with any of the above, don’t worry. A lot of writers & thought leaders struggle with these things.

In fact, you are part of the majority. These are the issues keeping MOST people from clarifying their thoughts, writing them down, and hitting the publish button.

The good news is, they’re all easy to fix—once you start down the path of becoming a Digital Thought Leader.

The question is, where are you on your journey?

1. Sitting on the rocket platform

Have you wanted to start writing online and building thought leadership, but aren’t sure the first step to take? Not enough time. Not sure what effective. Feeling overwhelmed with topics, interests, and which platforms to focus on. ​

2. In the spaceship flight deck but losing steam

Have you already started writing online and building thought leadership, but feeling stuck? You’re taking action. Writing posts. Doing the work but not gaining traction?

3. Staring out into the galaxy, afraid to venture!

You have plenty of ideas, but don’t feel clear and confident enough to put yourself out there? You just never hit publish for some reason.

If you are feeling ready to start taking ACTION, there’s no better way than to dive right into Narrative Fusion Lab: our accountability and systems-driven program to help you become a Digital Thought Leader with ease. But unlike other programs, you will take action and start zooming to your personal and professional goals with your novel ideas..

Otherwise, we have put together this master document for you to get started on your own.

This is the Ultimate Guide to START Thought Leadership Online.

The Benefits of Thought Leadership Online

Here are the 5 other biggest benefits that come from consistently writing and publishing consistently online, that most people don’t even realize are possible until they get started.

1. It builds habit and confidence

Your thoughts become words
Your words become actions
Your actions become habits
Your habits become character

Anything worth building requires a habit.

Want to build a business? You need to validate your product/service in the market, consistently.

Want to write a book? You need to write consistently.

Want to build meaningful relationships? Habits.

Habits are built on consistency and writing is a simple way to build a habit. When you write, you create an opportunity for consistency in your life.

You get to assemble, arrange, and refine your ideas.

You also get to express and refine your stance on the world and how you fit into it.

Write to build sustainable habits.

2. It builds clear thoughts & creates ideas

Writing isn’t just words on paper, it’s how you create new information.

When you write more, you generate new ideas. A lot of people think it’s the other way. A false notion that you need perfect thoughts to write. When in reality, you need to write to generate ideas.

Writing is how you externalize your thinking. It’s a canvas to reflect your thoughts and refine them. This gives you clearer thinking and sharper thoughts.

Most people start off with “how don’t have much to say.”

Then they start writing, they generate new ideas, then write some more, then more ideas, and so on.

Once they get the ball rolling they soon say “I have so much I want to say.”

Before you know it you’re impressing people with your prolific novelty.

Write to create new ideas.

3. It allows you to persuade at scale

Writing improves your communication skills.

Writing is the foundation of all intellectual tasks.

Want to build:

Emails: writing
Proposals: writing
Pitch decks: writing
Newsletters: writing
Landing pages: writing
Text messages: writing
Marketing video scripts: writing

Good writing is effective communication. It conveys action and evokes emotions.

If you want to inspire action from your colleagues, employees, bosses, children, you have to learn persuasive communication.

The only other option is manipulation.

Writing allows you to train your persuasive skills. Writing online gives you the opportunity to persuade a large network of people, in turn, scaling yourself.

Now imagine how many times you had to introduce yourself and tell your story. “I’m an engineer, that went to business school, and started a business, and I create music on the side”

You have to tell that same story over and over again, every, single, time, you introduce yourself.

When you write online, people pick up the breadcrumbs of your story. You have already told them the story before meeting them. This is how you scale yourself with the leverage of the internet.

Writing is how you scale yourself, mission, and values.

4. It creates more options

When you write online, opportunities come to you.

Tired of reaching out to people? Always needing a referral to chat with someone? Not knowing whether those ideas you have have any hope?

Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready.

Writing online does just that. Most people think writing online is about going viral. It’s about  creating easy opportunities to say hello.

The more you write, the more you clarify those you want to help (benefit 1 & 2). When you write online, you create a discoverable body of work. A public content library that people can always refer to.

You write about music: musicians reach out to you.
You write about innovation: scientists and entrepreneurs reach out.
You write about founding an organization: founders, investors, and talent reach out.

Your online brand is how you digitize your reputation.

Writing online is how you do it. It increases your options of who you want to interact and work with.

The world becomes your playground of infinite possibilities.

5. It helps you lead

Writing is leadership.

The most important person you’d lead is yourself. Until you learn to clarify your intentions and focus your attention on that intention, it will be hard to lead anything else.

When you write, you refine your intention and train your attention.

When you write online, you show leadership.

Most people are too concerned about what other people think about them. Like someone else is going to live your life for you.

A lot of people consume content and complain about what they consume.

It’s so easy to create now but only a small percentage do.

When you go from “consumer” to “creator”, you will be immediately perceived differently by peers in your industry.

If connecting with industry leaders and people you look up to is a priority for you, become a creator as well.

You don’t like what you see out there.
Don’t complain, go create.
Go and lead.

But lead yourself first.

Writing and publishing consistently online is one of those things that can unlock life-changing outcomes.

All you have to do is go on the journey.

Becoming a Digital Thought Leader is all about showing up and dancing with your internal resistance.

It’s understanding that overthinking will show up, distractions will come, procrastination will put it’s head up.

These are all symptoms of resistance and you just need to show up to make progress.

Digital Thought Leaders know how to prioritize progress over perfection. They know that to leverage the power of the internet, they have to use progress to get data. This data is then utilized to get confidence to keep building.

They understand the importance of tight feedback loops as a multiplying factor on their thoughts, ideas, and writings.

They know how to show up.

So all you have to do is SHOW UP.

To make this a habit, you have to create an enabling environment with systems that make it easy to show up.

You have to choose self-leadership to master yourself in order to master the world around you.

If you want to learn how to become an abundant Digital Thought Leader, keep reading.

These are the systems you need—to come up with new ideas, to publish consistently, to make your writing easy to fall in love with, and to build a timeless library of content. And if you are ready to take ACTION and want to put all these systems into practice, grab a seat onboard the Narrative Fusion Lab.

Grab your space suits, Astronauts.

It’s time to glide through the Digital Galaxy.

System #2: The Mind of The Abundant Thought Leader

It’s hard to stay consistent.

Most of us fall for the enthusiasm trap.

We start with excitement at the sight of a new and shiny idea but soon fall into the valley of dead ideas – the project plateau.

Ideas are easy.
Execution is hard.

This happens with anything that requires a habit: starting a new venture, sticking to a diet, developing a spiritual practice, and getting your ideas into the world to move people.

Writing a well-crafted piece is attainable.

But writing two is not as easy. How about 3, 5, 10?

Just like anything that requires the evolution of self, writing consistently requires systems and accountability to overcome the perpetual resistance that wants to stop you from living your full life.

You need a clear intention and then direct your attention towards that intention.

The best way to put guardrails around your attention is with repeatable systems and processes.

Writing consistently happens with systems.

7-Step System For Consistent Writing

It’s systems that have gotten me this far. 

I’ve used it to publish 3 books. I’ve used it to grow my online presence. I’ve used it to build my business and develop more autonomy in my life while finding meaning in the mundane.

You can do it too. 

When you write consistently, you take the leadership of your life. You clarify your thinking and values. You also get better at communicating to attract like-minded people.

Here are 7 ways to build a consistent writing practice.

1. Read to write (feed your mind)

Imagine exercising without eating, you’d be exhausted.

Now imagine eating without exercising, you’d be carrying on too much.

Writing is like an exercise for the mind. Reading is how you feed your mind with new and interesting material. If you want to write consistently, make sure you are reading consistently.

It doesn’t have to be books alone.

You can listen to audiobooks, podcasts, interviews, or watch movies. As long as you are deliberate with how you consume.

Feed your mind to consistently have raw material to develop.

2. Take notes (be ready so you don’t have to get ready)

Write before you have to write.

One of the biggest challenges with writing is the huge gap between when you have an idea and when you write it down. You can have an idea on a walk. You can hear something interesting on a podcast. But you might think, “I’ll remember that for later.”

Don’t do it. Please don’t do it.

Your memory will most likely fail you.

Your best bet is to develop a note-taking practice. The single biggest thing that has helped me stay consistent with my writing is note-taking.

I try to take one note per day. Now I have close to 800 notes that I can always reference to look for new ideas that I jotted down.

Take notes to use for later.

3. Use templates and structure (don’t reinvent the wheel)

Don’t start from a blank page.

Structure is your friend. A lot of people want to write like they are in a French cafe sitting next to James Baldwin and Ernest Hemingway. They have romantic ideas of opening up a blank page and just letting the words flow.

Most of them will never write.

Meanwhile, so-called mediocre writers will practice within the constraints of a clear template. These writers will zoom past the romantics. Harsh truth: life favors the brave.

Don’t be in fairy tale land. Use structure and templates to practice and keep you consistent.

We’ll talk about this some more with the Infinite Idea Generator.

4. Have a clear output (start here)

Like Notorious BIG said in the Ten Crack Commandments “No. 4, this should have been No. 1 for me”

I should have started with this.

If you don’t have a destination, then why bother getting into the vehicle? You have to set your intention to be consistent. That means you need a place to output your writing.

In Jan 2023, I set an intention to publish a weekly newsletter. This is the 61st one.

Half of those weeks I struggled to do it. But I knew I had an intention to stick to. Therefore, regardless of what happened during the week, “I ship on Saturday.”

Define what “done is:” a monthly substack, a weekly LinkedIn post, a daily X or Medium post.

Whatever it is, commit to doing it for 12 months.

You’d be surprised how much growth you’d experience.

5. Use community for accountability (what are you shipping for?)

Your willpower will only get you so far. Your environment will take you all the way.

Don’t rely solely on your personal discipline. It will fail you – unless you’re David Goggins. For us mere people who have fat on our bodies, we need a supportive environment. Find a community that will support your goals and keep you accountable.

Tell 10 friends and family that you plan on sending (insert your output here) and go for it.

The expectation from your community will keep you accountable and they will support you when the going gets tough.

6. Identify as a leader

Writing is leadership.

Writing is not something that poets do to throw flowery words at you. Neither is it just something to entertain you in your nest when you binge-watch your next Netflix set. Writing is thinking.

It’s how you understand yourself and the world around you.

It’s the way you create and generate new ideas. It’s how you share and persuade people on your mission. It’s how you find your mission. It’s how you set goals, stick to them, and reflect on them.

Self-awareness is one of the most important traits of a leader. Writing gets you there.

You are not just writing. You are leading your life.

Identify as a leader and put those leadership thoughts out there.

7. Pay attention to your life (make it interesting)

One of the things I hear the most from people that want to write is “but I don’t have much to write about.”

Write to be observant.

I watched a documentary about time. There’s a reason why when you were a child, time moved very slowly. A day could feel like a month. A summer, a lifetime. Fast forward to the promise of adulthood. Zap. One decade, gone like a snap of a finger.

There’s a reason for this. 

As an adult, you develop habits and routines. Everything seems mundane. You just keep going like a boring train. Time zips by fast.

Children, on the other hand, are curious. Everything they experience is new. They pay attention to the wonders of the world. Time slows down for them.

Slow things down. Pay more attention to your daily life.

There is always something interesting happening that’s worth pausing for.

Note it down.

Your note-taking practice will help with this. It makes your life more interesting to you.

When you set your intention, develop a system, and drive your attention to that intention, you create a recipe for flow states.

Writing can be a consistent practice. A meditation that drops you into flow states. Helping you process, understand, and communicate yourself.

I hope you find your system to write and lead more consistently.

How To Become Abundantly Unstoppable

Contrary to popular belief, today’s most-differentiated leaders are the furthest thing from “perfectionists.”

In fact, if you study any of today’s biggest leaders & creators (whether they are business leaders, founders, writers, podcasters, bloggers, video creators, etc.), they all share one thing in common: they are less concerned with being “perfect,” and more focused on making “progress” day after day.

They prioritize progress over perfection.

And we have a simple system for how you can do the same.

In Narrative Fusion Lab we call this the Infinite Idea Generator.

The Infinite Idea Generator makes it easy to not only come up with new ideas of things to write about, but also makes it easy to understand which format is going to work best for the idea you want to communicate and how you want to serve your community.

Here’s how it works.

Think of your story like taking readers on a flight to a unique location and you are the pilot. You will have a destination, create a flight plan, prepare an approach for the flight, and want them to feel comfortable and safe that they are in safe hands (a credible pilot). The same goes for your ideas and stories.

Step 1: What Do You Want To Write About?

First you have to choose a final destination for your writing – choose a topic.

Imagine you were on a flight and the pilot said: “We are going to take off and head towards the east coast. We will get there and see how it goes from there.” Any sensible person will exit that plane immediately. 

You have to sit and decide what your topic is and what you want to write about.

You want to tell the readers exactly where you are taking them and where you’ll be landing. Here are the four main ways to choose:

• Actionable (here’s how)
• Data-driven (here are the numbers)
• Historical (here’s how we got here)
• Big idea (here’s where we can go)

Not sure what to write about? Just ask. Ask the people you want to serve about the top questions they want answered. These are topics you want to write about.

Choose a topic and proceed. 

Step 2: Which Proven Path Is Going To Work Best (For This Topic)?

Alright, “writing pilot,” now that you’ve chosen a direction and place to land, you want to decide the path to get there.

It is important to guide the reader and give them some peace of mind of what to expect in your writing.

Here are 10 useful paths to write about anything:

• Tips
• Stats
• Steps
• Lessons
• Benefits
• Reasons
• Mistakes
• Examples
• Questions
• Personal Stories

The key here is to structure your writing so that it provides consistency, where the main points are easy to follow.

• Is it a “How-To” LinkedIn Post? Then it should be structured: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3
• Is it a “Reasons” Essay? then it should be structured: Reason 1, Reason 2, Reason 3
• Is it a “Lessons Learned” X Thread? Then it should be structured: Lesson 1, Lesson 2, Lesson 3

The last thing you want to do is hop all over the place. Here’s “how to” start your business, then the “lesson I learned” is this, then 2 “reasons why.” This can cause confusion. Readers like a consistent list. It is clear. They know they are getting the tools promised. 

Be clear and deliver. 

Step 3: What Credibility Can You Leverage To Help The Reader Trust You?

The big question that readers are asking is: Why should I trust the origin of this information? 

AKA Why should I listen to you?

Just like a pilot says: “I am your pilot and I’ve flown 79,999 hours” or “as your pilot on this Delta flight.” These statements are intentional to build trust and let passengers know that they are in good hands. 

The same is happening with your reading. The reader wants to know that the information is credible.

You can do this by leveraging your credibility. 

Most people think you have to be a world-renowned expert to be credible. You don’t have to be Oprah or Elon Musk to have “something credible” to say. You have expertise and there are multitudes of people a few steps behind you looking for your knowledge.

Here are the ways to leverage credibility:

• “I am an expert in this industry, here’s what I know.”
• “I have spoken to x number of experts in this industry, here’s what I found.”
• “I am not an expert but I have a personal story that happened, here’s my personal story and opinion.”

Once you are clear about why you are the one writing this story, you clear out the fog associated with your writing and allow people to go on a journey with you.

Step 4: Log Your Credibility Hours

A very important reason people will read and follow you is because of trust.

You get this credibility by building it. Building a business in the industry. Building a network in the industry. Building a repository of personal and business stories that you can always leverage to bring your ideas and stories to life. 

One of the ways to build your “credibility” repository is to pay attention and “log stories”, the way pilots “log flight hours.” 

Do what is called “homework of life”

At the end of the day, ask this question: “what about today is different from any other day?” 

Write one sentence to remember.

That’s all. Keep track in an excel file. You will notice patterns and your life becomes more interesting.

Do this homework for 3 months and you have 90 new stories.

When it’s time to write you’ll always have credibility-boosting narrative to make sure readers buy into your full writing plan, path, and journey.

Put It All Together: Infinite Idea Generator

Because in order to become an unstoppable thought leader, you don’t want to be stuck in your head about what to write every time.

That would make the creation process 10x more daunting.

Instead, what you want to do is use systems and mental models like these that allow you to create “templates” for yourself. Every time you want to share a story, what system are you going to use? Or, every time you want to write about a trending topic or something that’s happening in the news, which system is going to work best?

The only difference between unstoppable digital thought leaders and everyone else is that, before they even write a single word, they already know which format or system they want to use.

As a result, their thought leadership and storytelling process becomes very systematic.

System #3: The One Headline Tweak To Supercharge Your Writing

Because today is the day your headlines go from being “Alright” to “Captivating”

Think about that word for a second – Captivating. 

It means, “Even if I didn’t think I needed this, now I want it.” Which is exactly the sort of thing you want to trigger in your readers. You want them to stop in their tracks, slow down, read your headline, then read it one more time, then say to themselves “Ohhh now I have to know what’s in there”

Click.

The secret to captivating headlines is to give the reader 3 very specific pieces of information.

• What is this about? (It’s clear)
• Who is this for? (It names the audience)
• What do I (as the reader) get in return? (It states the benefit)

Remember, there is a cost to reading your writing.

This is something very few thought leaders and writers ever take the time to really internalize and understand, so we want to make this explicit for you. Whenever you ship and publish your work what you are doing is inviting your audience to make a decision. And that decision is whether they pay you “with their attention.” The question they are really asking is “is this worth my time? What do I get in return?”

So, when you are coming up with a title for your article, emails, essays, LinkedIn posts, this is the question you need to ask yourself whether or not your title is compelling enough to warrant someone spending 2 minutes of their life (think about that—2 minutes they’ll NEVER get back, EVER AGAIN) reading what you wrote.

How do you do that?

By answering these 3 questions.

Let’s walk through each individually.

1. What is this about?

We have a tenet in Narrative Fusion Lab, and it goes like this: if you confuse the reader, you lose the reader.

The vast majority of writers & thought leaders love being “clever.” They want readers to be blown away by their wit and intelligence. They throw in clever alliterations {Back-Breaking Bundles of Cash Flooded The Bank}, all the while missing the most important part of the headlines.

“Yeah…BUT WHAT IS IT ACTUALLY ABOUT?” yells a confused reader, short on time, somewhere.

Be clear.

Instead of trying to be clever, you can immediately improve your headline by telling the reader exactly what it is about.

• This is an article about how to be more productive.
• This is a tweet about how to overcome distractions.
• This is a Linkedin post about how you can gain 2,000 followers.
• Etc.

Being clear and direct is massively important—and massively understated as a writing technique.

Stop trying to be “clever.”

Start being clear.

2. Who is this for?

There’s a secret for attracting exactly the kinds of people you want reading your writing.

And it’s so, so simple.

Call them out. Name them in the headline.

• “3 Simple Systems For One-Person Business Owners”
• “5 Ways To Save Money As A Nurse”
• “7 Relationship Techniques For New Co-Founders”

The easiest way to make sure you’re reaching exactly who you want to reach is to, literally, name them. 

Say, “This is for you.” 

For example, just take a look at this email masterclass you decided to sign up for. “This is for thought leaders.” These same techniques we’re passing along to you, I do all the time as well.

Call. Out. The. Audience.

3. What do I (as the reader) get in return?

This is the most important part of your headline—and it’s also the part most leaders & writers forget (or undervalue).

Every great headline doesn’t just say what the content is about, or who it’s for. It also says, very clearly, what the reader gets in return for paying you their attention. Imagine you just started running, and you’re looking for a new running shoe. Well, it’s one thing for a shoe company to say, “This is our shoe, and it’s for people who run.” OK. You get what it is. And you get who it’s for. But what are the benefits? What promises does it make? How much more compelled are you to buy it if it ALSO says: “This shoe will pour jet fuel on your metabolism and help you lose 15 pounds in 15 days!” WOW! Now THAT’S compelling!

Thought leaders like to believe readers just want to read simply because they took the time to write it.

But that’s just not true.

Readers read because of what they believe the content can do for THEM. If it’s a story, they want to know how the story you wrote is going to change their life (or, at a minimum, change the way they see some part of their life). If it’s an actionable system, readers want to know how this tool and system is going to help them solve a specific problem they’re experiencing. People are in it for themselves—and thought leaders who remember this law are the ones who succeed.

So, how do you tell the reader what they’re going to get in return?

You “create a curiosity gap.”

Somewhere in your headline, you pique the reader’s interest by a) stating where they are b) stating the outcome c) filling the gap will only be possible by reading the content.

For example:

“9 Reasons Why Founders Stay Up At Night And Burnout Easily.”

1) It’s about: the reasons for something – sleep or the lack of it.

2) It is for founders

3) The outcome: Up all night and burnout easily (This is more of an outcome founders wouldn’t want).

Filling in the gap: The reader has to read the article to get the 9 Reasons Why.

Remember this: It is not clickbait if your writing fulfills the promise in the headline.

And readers love knowing what they’re going to get before they “buy” (aka: click to read).

12 Principles of Good Storytelling

System #4: The Formatting Rules To Keep Your Reader’s Attention (Make it lean, digestible, and “Yummy”)

Most writers think how readers read is linearly.

They click.

Pull out their mug of tea or coffee.

They start at the top, reading each word of each sentence of each paragraph, carefully, until they reach your final thoughts and conclusion.

Readers don’t read linearly down the page. And writing is not a linear practice either. It is an art of interlocking tasks.

What they do is they jump around like a Kris Kross song.

• They read the headline.
• Then they read the first sentence of the piece.
• Then they scroll and skim the subheads.
• And then, if the headline and the first sentence and the subheads all hook their attention, they start to read.
• It’s like they sample the food first before ordering the entire meal and paying for it with their full attention.

Which means, if your writing isn’t “digestible,” your writing isn’t readable.

Think about that for a second.

You could write the greatest story or insightful perspective on earth, but if it’s formatted poorly, it’s not going to get read. Why? Because readers judge content online visually before they even read a single word. And if your content looks long, stuffy, and difficult to read, then readers are going to assume it’s not worth their time.

But a few simple tweaks and all of a sudden the same exact content becomes magically more “digestible”

Here are a few ways to do that.

Step 1: Begin with the end in mind

Don’t rush off to just start writing yet.

Start with the end in mind. What do you want to achieve with your writing? The goal of effective writing is to get your readers to take some form of action or to feel something.

Start with the end goal. Ask the following three questions:

1) How do you want them to act? Do you want them to reshare your article, sign up for your newsletter, comment, or have a discussion with other employees?

2) How do you want them to react? Emotions are the springboard for action. It’s like the opposite law of motion: If you can get a reaction, you can get an action. If you can get them to feel something – outrage, compassion, astonishment, you can get them to act, share, reply. Think of the emotional reaction you want the reader to have.

3) What’s the one line you want them to remember?

Attention spans are short, so if the reader remembered one sentence from your writing, what would it be? This is sort of your “big sticky idea”

Write down the answers to all three questions before moving forward.

Step 2: Never open with a block of text. Hit them with a one-sentence hook.

The goal of the first line is to get them to read the next.

And the goal of this sentence is to get you to keep reading. So I can tell you this: That the first line is the most important line. Your goal with writing is to move the reader and engage their attention.

If you lose them in the first couple of lines, they’re gone forever.

The most important part of your writing is the first 20%. This is where you should spend 80% of your time.

Most people bury great writing underneath boring hooks and headlines.

This is what I’m working on the most these days.

Practice your hooks. You want them to endear curiosity and show benefits to the reader.

Alternating between single-sentence paragraphs and multi-sentence paragraphs is the fastest way to make your writing more digestible. If you hit them with a flurry of sentences (3+) in the first paragraph, you’re going to overwhelm the reader and transport them back to sitting in a boring high school lesson. No one wants to read another textbook, if they are not forced to.

You don’t have to change the content.

Just reshape it.

Use spacing to your advantage.

Step 3: Subheads should tell a story

Take a moment to look through this course here.

How did you go through it? You probably scrolled a bit to where the bolded text was. This is the subheading. 

That’s because the subheads are like guideposts. The reader is trying to allocate their time and attention efficiently. Think of your readers like hunters for tools that will help them live a better life. They want to do it as quickly as possible. Your subheadings tell a story. Subheaders help readers separate ideas and allow them to find what they came for faster.

Which is why readers don’t read, first.

They skim. They seek digestible chunks of information. When they find something interesting, then they read.

Step 4: Don’t Write and Edit (Draft Fast, Incubate Slow)

Writing is a set of interlocking tasks. 

Most people see it as this one linear exercise. So when they want to write, they want to achieve it all at once. They want to write, edit, research, format – all at once.

These are all separate activities that require a different part of the brain. 

This is important to remember with the first draft. Do not write and edit at the same time. Write your first draft as quickly as possible. Just put down a brain dump. This is just to get a high-level structure down and direction.

Then step away and allow your ideas to incubate. You edit later.

Step 5: Great writing is great editing. 

Once you have a draft, you have a starting place to reflect on your ideas and make changes. It is during this refining process that your writing begins to take shape and shines. Most writers and thought leaders tend to over-edit. 

In an effort to “perfect” their writing, they keep editing until they forget to publish.

Use the 80/20 principle here too. 

Focus your 80% of your editing effort on the first 20% of the entire piece and beginning of every section. 

Remember, a confused reader is a lost reader. Make sure you guide them down the path of your writing.

Step 6: Write like you talk.

Most leaders and writers think great writing has to include sensational flowery words that only great writers use. 

They pack each sentence with adverbs and adjectives like “deterministic” and “vivacious”. There’s nothing wrong with these words but use them only if you actually talk that way.

Make your writing conversational. 

A good test for this is the “voice memo”. Write like you are sending a voice memo to a friend that asked a question about the topic. Use a voice recorder to record it and transcribe later.

Another test is the “Dinner Test.” When you think of a story, imagine you were telling your friends and family at dinner.

You wouldn’t start with “I’m so honored to announce that I’ve been promoted.” or “It was a frigid 5 o’clock ride on the ferry, slicing across the frigid lake.” NO.

Write like you talk and write for an audience of one – like you were addressing it to one person.

Step 7: Great Writing is music.

(1) Life is all about rhythm.

(3) My music professor at Stanford was giving some feedback on my beats. In his office, he pointed to the rotating fan overhead. He said: “Now, that is the most boring sound in here, it’s about to put me to sleep.”

(1) Don’t let your writing be repetitive and boring like the fan.

(2) If you notice the last three paragraphs. You see the rhythm.

(2) It goes: One sentence (1), three sentences (3). Then one sentence (1).

(2) There is variability in the rhythm. It makes it more interesting.

Unlike the last 3 paragraphs. 2 sentences each.

Like the repetitive rhythm of a faannnnnnnnnnnn….oh sorry, I almost fell asleep typing it. Repetition without variability gets boring.

Switch up the rhythm. Create an enjoyable vibe with your writing

Step 8: Great stories engage emotions and inspire people to action

Storytelling is a more nuanced version of writing.

It can come in different forms – written words, oral, visual. Writing is a medium to carry a story and you can use stories to make your writing pack a punch. Great stories have intention and obstacles.

There is a transformation. As you move through the story, readers want to see how obstacles are overcome.

When people hear this, they think they always need life-changing events to have great stories. You don’t.

1) It doesn’t have to be your story, you can tell someone’s transformation story.

2) You can increase the emotional stakes in low-stake situations. 

For instance, in my first book Press Play, I related a story about heading back home from a business trip, where I had spent 3 weeks at a factory, optimizing the process. Exhausted on my flight back, I sat next to a man that ordered a can of coke. He took a sip and in a few minutes, the attendant came by with the trash bag and he threw it away. I was so frustrated. In my mind I thought “are these the people we are optimizing for?” 

My rage was internal.

Readers love that story. It was very relatable. Not life-changing but I raised the emotional stakes. You have stories like this – someone cutting you off in traffic or on the grocery line. A boss not acknowledging your work.

These stories are relatable and endearing because people have similar stories, you just increase the emotional stakes.

Larry David does this all the time in his show “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” When in doubt, think Larry David.

Package this all up in a digestible format.

As a recap.

Your subheads should essentially be an “outline” for your engaging article, essay, etc. If all a reader did was read your subheads, they should get the general idea of what the piece is about—and, even better, learn a thing or two. 

Because the reality is, most readers will ONLY read the subheads, and then make a decision as to whether or not they want to stick around and actually read all the other text. Which means your subheads better be a) easy to understand, b) compelling and specific, and c) easy to digest and navigate within the piece.

If all you do is break your big paragraphs into 1/3/1 sequences and organize your content with clear subheads, the“digestibility” of your writing will 10x overnight.

It’s simple stuff, but it makes all the difference.

Be A “Lean Thought Leader” (Leverage Data)

Have you ever been given the advice to “start your blog?”

To be fair, this used to be the best way to publish your thoughts, insights, and stories online.

Back in the day, you would build your own website, write articles there or guest post on other people’s websites. This was the only way for about a decade.

But fast-forward to today, and starting your digital thought leadership journey on a isolated blog is the biggest mistake you could possibly make

And here’s why.

Online Storytelling 101

Blogs have one major flaw in the design, and it is something that thought leaders, founders, and writers don’t realize until it is too far along in the journey (at the point where they have an abandoned blog)

Blogs don’t have a content distribution wheel.

A blog is nothing but a website. So the big question is, How are people going to find out your website exists

• You’re going to have to tell them about it on social media.
• You’re going to have to share it to your friends and family members via email or text.
• You’re going to build an audience elsewhere and then say, “Come check this thing out over here!”
• How many press releases can you really do to drive consistent traffic to your island of a blog?

The metaphor we like to use to illustrate how difficult it is to start a successful blog (and get people to read your writing there) goes like this: 

Imagine you are at a conference downtown in a big city. 

Convention center is buzzing. People exchanging contact information. Peeling off for side conversations. Meeting up for lunch at the open-bar restaurant. Everyone is having a great time.

And there you show up, in your rumpled Hawaiian t-shirt and flip flops (traditional writer and thought leader) with a huge sign.

GREAT NETWORKING EVENT AT MY HOUSE. WAREHOUSE DISTRICT. 27 BLOCKS AWAY.

Tons of people walk straight past you, scared to make eye contact. “Networking event at your house? 27 blocks away? Why? There’s a bunch of cool restaurants and events here.”

Here’s the reality: none of them are going to come over (They might even avoid you for the rest of the conference).

That’s what it’s like starting a traditional blog, and then asking readers to leave the social platforms they are already on to come back to your house to network.

Which is why you are so much better off starting your writing journey by writing on social platforms.

• X/Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Medium
• Quora

Basically, anywhere the audience already is.

When you write and publish stories on social media platforms, you remove the single greatest obstacle in starting your own blog: finding an audience. The reality is that these platforms are constructed to serve your content to people that are interested in them.

The big question people always ask is, “But what if I have 0 followers?”

Ah, glad you asked.

How these platforms actually work is less about the followers you have and more about whether there are people interested in what you have to say.

Here’s how the interest-based algorithm works.

It takes your content and serves it to a few people. When people start engaging with it – liking, reposting, commenting – it serves it to more people with a similar interest.

It goes on and on and on. This is how you can have a low follower count and get thousands of impressions.

The chance of getting the same amount of eyes on your own blog is close to zero.

You will have to grab a link to your website and share it on these platforms.

The reality with that is that people are on these platforms to be on these platforms. They don’t want to click your link and leave.

“But what if what I write is not well received?”

That’s one of the biggest fears of thought leaders, writing stuff people do not interact with. The internet is more forgiving than you think.

Remember how the algorithm works. They serve it to a small group of people first and a snowball effect if it catches some winds.

What happens when the first small group of people don’t interact? You guessed it. It ends there. That small group is the only one that sees it.

No one else does.

In reality, the only thing that’s affected is your ego.

You’ve gotten some feedback.
Data to guide your next choice.

“But what if I still want a blog or website because I want somewhere to store all my content?”

Ah, another great question.

If you really love the idea of having a centralized place for all your content, then what we recommend isn’t for you to start a legacy “blog.”

We recommend you start a social blog.

Writing on Substack

Either start a social blog like Substack. A place where you can have a master library of your content and plug into the social network on the platform.

OR

Socialize your blog and newsletter. 

Host your library of content in a centralized location and repurpose your content weekly to share, natively, across the social media platforms. When you get traction on your writing, you can drive prospective subscribers back to your blog in the comments of your posts.

Whatever you do, do not write online in isolation.

You’d be missing out on the biggest thing to boost your writing and thought leadership journey – feedback.

You can only improve what you measure.

OK, so what’s the real benefit of writing in an environment where you can get feedback (a social environment)?

Data!!!

Every time you hit publish, you are getting the biggest gift – feedback. You’ll gather tangible data about what’s working, what’s not, what your audience wants, and what readers don’t respond to

You would be surprised how few leaders use data to improve their writing over time. Instead, most writers just write and publish into the void, and never really take the time to look for patterns. But not YOU. You’re a digital thought leader. You know the value of data. You follow it and use it to improve.

• What headlines are working?
• What format gets the most engagement?
• What location has the most engaged audience?
• What topics do people resonate with the most?

Every month, take some time to look through everything you’ve written and published and look for patterns. 

Try to reverse-engineer your content. 

What’s working? 

What’s not resonating? 

Then, when you find something that works, double-down on it! Repeat it.

This is the secret to next-level audience growth & exponential content output.

System #5: How To 1000x Your Reach

Want to know how to immediately increase your reach as a leader?

Publish your content in more places

Here’s how it works.

Step 1: Write

Wherever you get your best writing done, write there.

Some thought leaders like writing in a Google doc. Some like writing in Hemingway or Notion or Obsidian.The reality is, it really doesn’t matter where you get the words to paper (or to screen)—so long as you get them down somewhere. Because you can always copy/paste across multiple platforms

Step 2: Pick 1 main platform to publish on.

In Narrative Fusion Lab, we use Twitter and Linkedin as the primary publishing platform, primarily because Twitter and LinkedIn have amazing distribution flywheels and it’s very easy to get your content in front of a lot of eyeballs there (especially in a community of business leaders).

But regardless, it’s important for you to choose one platform as your “primary.” If that’s your Social Blog on Substack, great. If that’s LinkedIn, awesome. If that’s Medium, X/Twitter, Quora,  wherever works (as long as it’s not solely on your personal website/blog, because nobody knows it exists!)

Unfortunately, this is where most thought leaders stop. They pick one platform, they hit post, and then wait. And keep waiting.

But why stop there?

You can get so much more mileage out of your content.

Step 3: Understand each platform’s language

Every platform has its own language.

Now that you have one solid piece of content and you have posted it on your primary platform. Don’t stop there. Let that content engine do more work for you. All you have to do is tweak the content (usually just the first couple of lines) to match the platform’s language.

Then you have an infinite amount of repurposing opportunities.

Step 4: Copy/paste your content again as an article on Medium.

If Medium isn’t your primary publishing platform, then it should absolutely be one of your republishing platforms.

Go to Medium. Create a new article. Copy/paste (same title, same content, same everything). And hit publish.

There you go. You just increased your distribution and reach AGAIN.

Step 5: Copy/paste your content again on LinkedIn.

The same exact way you can copy/paste content as an article on Medium, you can do this again on LinkedIn. Go to your main feed, hit “Write An Article,” and bring your article, story, essay, etc, over to the close to a billion users over on LinkedIn.

Posts are even better.

Leverage LinkedIn Language

LinkedIn’s language is business and professional. 

Take your content and make it relevant to corporate professionals, business owners, investors, and worker bees.

In the first or second line include one of the following words: “work” “professional” “entrepreneur” “industry” “business” “enterprise” “conference”

It can be as easy as “on my way to work, I heard this interesting thing on a podcast…..}

Insert a skimmed down version of your content. (100 – 150 words). POST.

BOOM.

You just increased your distribution and reach AGAIN.

Step 6: Copy/paste your content as an “answer” to a relevant question on Quora.

Did you think we were done?

No.No.No….

Quora is one of the most underrated publishing platforms on the Internet.

• 300 million+ users.
• Every question is essentially a “writing prompt.”
• Questions on Quora rank very well as long-tail keywords on Google.
• And every single question on Quora is literally your target readers TELLING YOU exactly what they want to read.

It’s an amazing platform for thought leaders and writers. But it’s an even more amazing republishing platform for your content.

All you have to do is go to Quora, search around for a question that is relevant to the thing you just wrote about, and then copy/paste your content as the “answer” to that question.

Wabam. You just quadrupled your distribution.

Step 7: Copy/paste your content as an “answer” to a relevant question on a facebook group.

The exact thing you just did on Quora, do it on facebook.

Facebook groups are thriving places for communities around shared interests.

Find communities you can be helpful too. Look for questions around topics you can answer. “Copy & Paste” your content there.

You have just 5x your content reach.

Remember to post these as organic content on each platform and not just links to the original content piece.

Step 8: Do the reply thing

Here’s a $1 growth strategy you didn’t realize you needed in your life.

It’s not all about original content, it’s about being helpful.

This means you can provide insights wherever your community is already. There might be people in your industry that your target audience follows already. Ride the wave of the bigger account’s audience.

Be a reply-guy or reply-girl (in twitter language).

Make a list of 25 influential people in your field that have a decent following. Whenever they post, reply with a comment. 

But not just “great” “so insightful” “100% agreed”

That’s boring.

Add value to their original post. Add your “2 cents.” Write something that is valuable, incorporating your own insights and experience. Do 50 replies a day or in a week, that’s 50 x 2 cents = $1 growth strategy.

Most accounts grow this way. This is a great way to grow your reach.

 You can reply with value in a number of ways:

• Asking a relevant question
• Offering a solution to a problem
• Being funny
• Suggesting an opportunity
• Back the author with personal examples
• Contradict the author with personal examples
• Tagging a relevant person for the author
• Supporting someone in a tough spot 
• Extending the list

Step 9: Repurpose your reply

Oh, you thought we were done.

Your reply is also a huge springboard for an original post. If you see that a reply is getting a lot of feedback, then it is a tested idea that you can save later to create your next original post.

Remember this: most of your audience did not see your reply or original post. Use it again to get it in front of them.

Do the reply thing.

Grow with $1.

Is this for real? Are writers really allowed to do this?

The answer is YES.

It’s your content. It’s your intellectual property. Which means you own it, and you can publish it and republish it anywhere you’d like.

So, if you feel like your content isn’t getting enough attention, consider simply publishing it in more places where it can be helpful. At a minimum, you will double, triple, even quadruple your “average” number of views. But more than likely, what you’ll find is your audience actually lives on a different platform—and by republishing in multiple places, you will learn (through data) where your readers really are.

System #6: Developing an Authoritative Growth & Conversation Magnet (Attract interesting people while you sleep)

Most people don’t know what they’re doing online. 

As a business leader, your goal is to separate the signal from the noise. That means getting clarity. All you are doing online is create a conversation engine: a warm inbound and cold outbound flywheel.

Your goal with building authority is to forge trust.

Trust makes it easy to work with people and get to your goals quickly.

The faster you can build trust and get to a conversation, the faster you can do the things you want.

Build a conversation engine that works for you while you sleep.

There are two ways to facilitate conversations online.

Inbound and outbound.

Inbound: people come to you to ask for a conversation.

When people come to you, there’s already some level of trust. You’ve attracted them with your thought leadership content.

You build this engine by creating a 24/7 library of content: Your own personal public library that lives on the internet.

Outbound: you reach out to people to ask for a conversation.

This one is not as warm. You have to find the people you want to talk to and reach out by email or DMs.

Combine these two strategies and you have an unbeatable conversation engine.

Building Your Evergreen Inbound Marketing Asset

For warm leads, the thing that has the highest long-term impact is bustling a content library.

Top of funnel content is a library that will be referenced over and over again.

The goal is not virality.

The goal is how do you build a library that answers all the questions someone will have at scale.

Your content libraries is built on responding to client questions beforehand (Each piece of content is a content block that makes your expertise scalable)

Start here:

Write down the ten client questions or questions you always get asked.

Use the structure template referenced in this guide to write content to answer each case.

Remember that there are different levels of awareness of people coming across your library of content.

Create content to match those levels.

There are 5 levels of awareness:

1. Unaware: They don’t even know they have a problem.

Here, you want to create educational content around the benefits of solving the problem or just showing that the problem exists.

2. Problem-aware: They are aware they have a problem and want to find different ways to solve it.

Here, you want to provide content on the different ways to solve the problem. Provide How-to guides and blog posts on overcoming the problem.

3. Solution-aware: They are aware of the different solutions to their problem, now they want to get educated on the best solution that matches their needs.

Here you want to give content that guides their decision. Comparison guides. Case studies. Testimonials.

4. Product-aware: now they know you. They know your product. They need education on why what you offer is best for them. This is where you give free trials and product demos.

5. Most aware: people know about your product and just need a nudge to make a final decision. Content in this phase include: discount codes, coupons, limited offers.

Building Your Strategic Sales Outreach System

This part might be cringing for some. A lot of people think sales is sleazy but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Think of it as you’re trying to reach the people you can service.

You do this through emails or DMs.

These are the steps:

1. Find a list of the people you want to reach out to on Twitter or LinkedIn

2. If you are reaching out by DM, skip to step 5.

3. Use an email list finder (database or hire a Virtual Assistant to help with this.)

4. Make sure your email reputation is high. This guarantees you don’t land in spam. Use a warmup service like warmup inbox.

5. Send out a message.

6. Subject Line: Make it beneficial and something that piques their interest. This is how you guarantee high open-rates.

7. First Line: Personalize with their first name or something you interacted with or industry-specific. This increases the chance of them reading through.

8. List out how what you have can be helpful.

9. Keep it short and concise (respect their time)

10. Ask for a call. Always end with a request, don’t leave it open ended.

11. Add your social profile in your signature. (A lot of people will check you out before responding).

12. If no response, follow up at least once. At most twice.

13. Send out each email manually or use a CRM to automate your outreach.

Automated Outreach Campaigns

Between your inbound and outbound, you’d be booking calls to scale how you help people in no time.

The thing that really drives these conversations is when you land in front of someone and they check out your profile, do they say “yeah, let me talk to this person?”

That’s why your profile needs to be optimized.

System #7: Craft Your Authentic Voice & Position (The Profile Optimizer)

What is a brand really?

It is the way you digitize your reputation to scale how you find and serve the people you really want to help.

Your profile is your entry point to who you are. When people discover your thought leadership, they come to your profile. But you have only a few seconds to tell them what you  are about.

So you have to optimize your profile. 

The profile optimizer

1. Who do you serve? (The more specific, the more terrific)
2. What problem do you solve? (in one word e.g. procrastination)
3. How do I solve it? (in one sentence)
4. What one revenue stream matters more than the other.”

When you differentiate your unique self based on your experience, expertise, who you want to serve, the problem you solve, and the unique way you solve it, it becomes easy to coin terms and products that match your position.

This gives you tremendous leverage, authenticity, and authority to attract the right people into your sphere and build a life of autonomy and meaning.

System #8: How To Differentiate Your Message & Find Your Zone of Genius

The Coining Advantage

Do you want to know the difference between writers who endure and writers who fade away, easily forgotten?

The writers and thought leaders you remember all share one thing in common:

They coined a new term.

Richard Dawkins: Meme

Meme is a word in popular culture about ideas that spread virally.

It has become part of our everyday language. We use it to talk about the latest political gaffes, poster dunks, trendy topics, cat, dogs, and baby videos.

But where did this term come from?

Back in 1976, a British evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, wrote a book called The Selfish Gene. The entire book focused on the self-replicating power of genes that have led to our survival and evolution. In the last chapter of the book, Dawkins touches on an idea where this self-replicating pattern of biological process can be attached to cultural ideas, symbols, and practices. He called them “memes.”

Boom. He created a new word.

Even Richard Dawkins did not claim that the entire idea was novel as there had been other expressions of the same idea in the past. People have been copying ideas and replicating them in their notebooks for centuries. Even some authors from Charles Darwin’s time have claimed similar ideas that the struggle for existence holds the same weight in the intellectual realm as in the physical world. 

But Dawkins did something none of those other people did.

He coined the term.
He named it.

And since then: like a meme itself, the term meme has lived on, continues to grow, and self-replicate. It has become part of the everyday vocabulary. The same way your friends and family members say, “Google it” or “Just Uber here,” they also say, “that’s an interesting meme.”

Now, are you ready for a mind-bending meme?

Anyone can coin, name, and claim something.

It’s very simple.

Whatever it is you’re writing about, whatever category you want to “claim,” name it something.

See, the world is divided into two groups of thought leaders.

• Thought leaders who are very smart and very educated and very sure of themselves and who sometimes even say very smart things, but don’t ever “name” their ideas.
• And then thought leaders who name their ideas.

That’s because readers like things they can NAME.

The easiest way to bring order to all the uncertainty in our ever-expanding universe is to name things. That’s why the word is so important. We like to put things in little understandable packets. So that we can share it at the dinner table or at a networking event with ease. It makes us sound smart and thoughtful. We like these easily shareable ideas. These memes.

And how do you do that?

You give your idea a name.

So, instead of saying, “I want to write about how to be more free and find autonomy” take it a step further. If you were to write about how to gain more autonomy, and you were to give people a way (a system, a set of tips, steps, etc.) to gain more freedom and autonomy, what might you CALL that path, system, set of tips, steps, etc?

• The Freedom Finder: How To Be More Free
• The Freedom Facilitator: How To Be More Free In Your Career
• The Autonomy Discography: How To Gain Autonomy With 7 Tools
• 5-Minute Freedom Path: How To Be More Free In 5 Minutes Or Less

Coining the larger idea is how you get readers to go, “Ohhhhh, I get it!”

More importantly, coining a term that summarizes the larger ideas is how you get readers to go tell their friends about it.

This is how you go from being “a smart thought leader” to becoming “a memorable thought leader.”

But before you name things, it’s more valuable when you coin from a position of authority and differentiation.

The 4-Way Intersection of Your Position

You are unique. A good position to differentiate is to explore the intersection of your curiosities, ideals, competence & experience

1. Ideals: This is your why. It pulls you.
2. Curiosities: This is what drives you to keep learning. Your interests.
3. Competence: This is what you’ve done in the past and you can successfully point back to it that you did it well.
4. Experience: This is a shortcut to finding who you want to serve. Serve who you were 3 years ago.

You are your niche.
You are a teacher of your experience.

That’s your differentiation.

But differentiation adjusts with time. Don’t dwell on it. Start somewhere, write online, and get feedback to adjust.

DATA IS YOUR FRIEND.

Start and keep learning. That’s what a differentiated online thought leader does.

System #9: The Decentralized Writing Approach That Pours Jet Fuel On Your Creativity (Become a unique 1 of 1)

Alright! Things are heating up. 

If you have made it this far, you’re the real champion.

Here we go. 

You are going to need all the help you can get when you are in the field. 

Keep your head on a swivel, OK. 

Grab this. It’s slip-boxing: a decentralized writing approach to use your pen to nurture your creativity as you dance with resistance. 

Lord knows.
In the field.
You need all the creativity you can get. 

Let the wind be on your side. Here are the three things you need to know to familiarize yourself with the slip-boxing approach to creativity.

It will help facilitate your creative zone of genius and nurture your novel idea creation (and execution).

1. Multi-task (but do it slowly) 

Multitasking is good.
When done slowly. 

Work on multiple projects, cut across different fields, to boost your creativity. 

Music has been my gateway to creativity. 

My mode of music creation is sampling. Which is literally taking one sample from a genre of music and transposing it into another genre. 

Transposing ideas is something I do and leaned into some more when I wrote my first dystopian novel, Toffy’s Divide. 

It started as a music project, then a story, then back to music. This process helped me continue moving on with my project leading to an award-winning sci-fi novel. 

The great creatives of our time do one thing the same way, they work on multiple projects at the same time. 

They transpose ideas from one field and transfer them to a different field. Throughout their life, they multitask across each project, slowly. 

This slow multitasking helps in three ways.

1) it helps to move ideas from one field to the other. 

2) Learning to do one thing well can usually help you do something else in another field. 

3) it helps to get unstuck. 

One challenge with creativity is that it can get overwhelming. 

Let organization be your friend. 

Put each source of inspiration in its separate box. 

Work on different projects at the same time to keep you in perpetual movement and to cross-pollinate ideas. 

This is where the slip-box comes in.

It’s where you drop your atomic notes and let your multiple ideas incubate.

2. Slip-boxing: Your Dialogue Partner 

“We write when we want to organize our thoughts and when we want to exchange ideas with others.” “Writing is not what follows research, learning or studying, it is the medium of all this work.” 

~ Sonke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes 

Make generating ideas easy
(it’s even easier with a tool for consistent progress). 

Writing is easy if you have a system and create an environment to make it effortless – you can actually make it fun. Most of my writing these days begins on my phone. That’s where I keep all my notes. 

I have a template note structure that I duplicate each time I want to take a note. 

It’s a digital version of the note-taking system of Niklas Luhmann. 

It has drastically increased my writing and idea-generation, and it takes less effort. 

I wrote this particular note while I lay in bed. 

Niklas Luhmann was a German philosopher of social science, sociologist and prominent thinker in systems theory. He  published 70 books and over 400 scholarly articles on a wide variety of topics. He developed a system to write and develop his thoughts with ease. 

It’s a slip-box system.

It’s a note-taking system that allowed him to be so prolific that his peers just regarded him as a genius. He admits that it was just his system that made it easy for him to be productive. 

His slip box was his dialogue partner, main idea generator, and productivity engine. 

It was the simplicity of his system that made it work. 

He followed his interest by reading. 

Took notes on index cards and stored each note in a slip box. 

He numbered each note, and his numbering system was how he linked related topics and ideas together. 

Writing is not a linear process, insights happen from the exploration of ideas. 

The slip box method allows you to explore different ideas and the ideas synthesize in a system outside your brain. 

You are giving yourself a good chance for success. 

It’s not ingenuity or willpower that helps you get your work done, it is working in the right environment and the right working system that reduces the resistance to work. 

The slip-box succeeds in the fact that it gives an external structure to generate ideas that compensates for the limitation of the brain. 

The reason this process is not widespread is:

• People were not doing it properly 
• Most text about it was in German 
• The system is so simple that it is counterintuitive for people.

Make documenting and generating ideas easy by developing your own personal idea generator and dialogue partner called the slip-box. 

Slip-boxing is a style to help you bring order to your process. 

Use this system to foster your creativity and find your differentiation zone. 

3. Develop your ideas with the slip-box 

Writing anything is all about taking notes 

I’ve been publishing articles online since 2014. Almost a decade of publishing and I’ve learned a lot along the way. Writing for a business blog, newsletters, medium posts, and this book. 

Slip-boxing has really fast-tracked my writing way more than anything else I’ve done.

It helped me develop my thoughts, brought clarity, and helped me publish. It’s what helped me write this guide. Here is how it works. 

• Write down your fleeting thoughts (keep a pen handy or a digital note-taking app)
  
• Have a reference notes system: This is where you categorize and source where your ideas came from.
  
• Write literature notes: Jot the main ideas of content you have just consumed. In your own words. Write it so it makes sense to you. Remember the goal here is to investigate and probe ideas to help us understand them. Keep it short. Write one idea or thought process per note. Imagine you were writing each note to someone else.
  
• Write a permanent note into your slip box: Look through your literature and fleeting notes. Develop an idea and boil down the insights into a permanent note. This is a simple sentence of the idea. Link it to other ideas. If it fits into a broader idea, make sure you include it in the table of contents for that main idea.
  
• Develop your ideas: Mix and match your notes and ideas. Find areas where your ideas are leading. Find areas that have holes. Go back and research it. You will be following your interest anyway, so create more notes.
  
• Start generating ideas for your topic: It will be based on ideas that are in your slip box and not unfounded ideas.
  
• Write a draft of your manuscript: Piece by piece. Determine a structure that allows for persuasive writing. Use your notes as the foundation for the manuscript.
  
• Edit your manuscript: Give yourself a pat on the back. Start refining your thoughts with the next manuscript. 

Thinking is the goal here. Sharpening our thoughts and communication skills is a nice result. 

The process I have described above is exactly how I wrote this book you are reading right now. 

Write to think…..More is unnecessary. Less is impossible”
~ Sonke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes 

With the slip-box as a central repository of your own insights, you can generate insights by following your interests (in a non-linear way) and then develop those ideas (in a linear way) with a manuscript.

The slip-box approach can boost your creativity through a continuous form of a dialogue between you and your one-stop shop for your unique ideas. 

Become an annotating and slip-boxing master.

Write in a decentralized way to find your zone.

Dear Digital Thought Leader!

This is the end of our voyage together.

The universe is yours.
Keep exploring, building, and attracting the right people to your mission.