Contents:

• High-value ideas
• Content Positioning
• Content styles
• Attention 101
• Writing outline

High-value ideas
Writing is an underrated habit for learning, clarity and purpose in your life.

Want to clear your mind? Write down your thoughts.

Want to 10x your career? Write online and build an audience.

The problem is you won’t build an audience with content that fails.

3 months of trying (and failing) my first take on Linkedin.

The result was:

Unengaging content that sinks in.

Content with no depth or reliability.
Modeling ideas from other creators.

That all changed when I discovered high-value ideas.

High-value ideas are the backbone of any successful creative online.

No ideas mean no content.

Poor ideas mean poor content.
Poor content means no impact.

What are high-value ideas?

High-value ideas create virality and originality for your personal brand.
Here are 3 things you must get right for it:

1.​Virality

These are proven ideas that are shown to perform well.

Get a list of 3-5 creators and influencers from your content pillars.

Study and note down ideas from their most popular content.

• Books
• Social media posts
• Youtube videos
• Podcasts
• Blogs

An example from Better Ideas:

This tells me:

• Viral idea - getting out of a rut.

• Viral idea - always feeling tired

2.​Content Research

Pick a content idea from your content pillars or a proven high-performing idea.

Consume:
• Book summaries (shortform)
• Youtube videos
• Podcasts
• Blogs

Note down:

• Big ideas that speak to you

• Quotes
• Different perspectives
• Common advice that doesn’t work
• Interesting facts
• Interesting statements
• Clarity moments (the big aha moments)
• The process of achieving the desired outcome

Brain dump all this research into a document, Notion or Kortex (my preference).

3.​Originality

This is what makes you stand out from the masses on social media.

Nobody can replicate original ideas that have come from you.

• What experiences have you gone through that relate to the idea?
• What problems have you run into that relate to the idea?
• What benefits have you seen that relate to the idea?

An example from getting out of a rut (list out 3-4 per section):

• Experiences - making progress until the motivation fades, and fall into bad habits.
• Problems - progress towards goals stagnates
• Benefits - unlimited motivation to stay consistent

Content positioning
Now you understand high-value ideas, next is content positioning.

You’ve heard it before, but this is the truth about content:

Authentic content is king.

Authentic content isn’t about flexing, always winning and acting super successful.

It’s about honesty, speaking the truth and speaking from your experiences.

The worst thing you can do as a personal brand is build an audience that doesn't trust you.

Here’s how to position content to be a trusted authority in your industry:

1.​Leader
This is for leading an audience to a desired outcome.

An outcome that you have experience in.

If you’ve built an audience to 5k followers, you can’t lead people to build a 50k audience.

If you’re overweight, and never lost weight, you can’t lead people to lose 20lbs.

Content that is positioned to lead is for your past self or people behind you.

Here’s how to position your content as a leader:

1.​Researcher
This is content positioned as research for a desired outcome.

An outcome that you don’t have experience in.

A researcher connects the dots and provides their research so your audience doesn’t have to.

Having a 5k audience means you can share the process of how someone gained 50k followers.

Wanting to lose 20lbs means you can share the steps you’re taking to do it.

Here’s how to position your content as a researcher:

Content styles
These are different formats of content.

The biggest mistake for creating content is writing whatever comes to your mind.

It does 3 things which kills your content and brand:

• Inconsistent messaging
• Random content with no intention
• No authority, trust or growth

Trust, growth and authority was non-existent until I understood the 3 traits of high-value content:
• Growth content
• Authority content
• Personal content

Every piece of high-value content lies beneath 1 of these traits.

Here’s 15 content styles for building growth, authority and trust with your audience:

1.​Growth Content

Observations:

This is an observation about your topics or industry.

An example:

“The most successful personal brands I know have 1 key difference:

Storytelling…”

Controversial:

This is content that goes against the grain and what people expect.

An example:

“Motivation is the biggest scam to taking action.

Being motivated won’t change your life…”

Present vs Future:

This is a comparison about how something is done now to how it could be done in the future.

An example:
“The future of education is self-education.

Here’s why spending $30k for a degree will disappoint you…”

Lists:

This is a list of how to do something.

An example:

“Here’s 12 sentences to learn copywriting quicker…”

Teardowns:

This is examining and breaking down a business, person or system.

An example:

“The man who built a personal brand from $0 - $10M: Neil Patel.

After understanding his strategy…”

2.​Authority Content

Actionable:

This is actionable advice to do something.

An example:

“You want to change your life, but when it comes to action.

Procrastination kills it, here’s a simple solution.”

Success story:

This is a personal or client success story.

An example:

“After using the GAP framework on my writing.

Here’s how it doubled my Linkedin growth..”

Client wins:

This is a big or small win from one of your customers or clients.

An example:

“DMs like this are worth the consistency:

“I just hit hit…”

Building in public:

This is sharing a goal that you’re going after.

An example:

“4 months ago I made a decision that most people doubted me for.

Building on Linkedin, here’s 6 things I’ve learned…”

 3.​Personal Content

Vulnerabilities:

This is sharing your weaknesses and how you overcame them.

An example:

“Consistency has always been a problem for me.

Until I learned about…”

Mistakes:

This is sharing mistakes that you have made during your journey.

An example:

“I made a mistake that 90% of beginner writers make.

Focusing on…:

Failures:

This is sharing failures that you have overcome.

An example:

“It’s tough when things go wrong in life.

After failing 4 businesses, I was clueless…”

Wins:
This is sharing wins and successes that you have made during your journey.

An example:

“3 months of building on Linkedin, here’s how I went from 0-5k followers…”

Attention 101
Attention is like the modern day gold rush.

Having it gives you leverage.

Leverage for authority, trust and impact.

The hardest part is…

You only have 8-seconds to capture it.

If you don’t give people a good reason to continue reading (they won't).

Here are 7 rules of attention-worthy content:

1.​Pattern interrupts

Everyone expects the norm, what happens when you break it?

It gets noticed.

• Numbers: 35
• Symbols: ()
• Bullet points
• Questions: ?
 2.​Negative bias
Negativity hurts more than positivity.

That’s why we are wired to remember it.

You’ll get rich -> you’ll never suffer being poor again.
You’ll lose fat -> You won’t be unsatisfied with your body.

3.​Targeting emotions
Humans are emotional beings, not factual beings.

It’s why people remember how you make them feel, not random facts.

• Describe the emotional pain (I felt sad -> my eyes were hurting from tears)
• Describe the emotional pleasure (I felt happy -> I was overwhelmed with laughter)
• Tell a story

4.​The rule of 3

Writing flow is an important part of what makes people continue reading.

The rule of 3 gives enough information that it’s not too overwhelming for people to read.

“I almost gave up my dreams (why?)”

“I almost gave up my dreams, goals and aspirations (why?)”

5.​Talking to someone

If you’re wearing a red hat, and someone calls out: “hey you, with the red hat”.

You’ll likely respond.

The same principle applies for writing.

• State age groups (If you’re in your 30s…)
• State titles (If you're unemployed…)
• State emotions (If you’re not happy…)

6.​Big problems or benefits

Everyone wants their problems solved.

Problems cause pain, speaking to that pain gets attention.

“If you don’t know what to post on linkedin…”

The problem here is not knowing what to post on Linkedin.

“Imagine adding 2 extra hours to your day”

The benefit here is adding 2 hours to their day.

7.​Active voice

Active voice is clear, concise and confident.

Passive voice is cluttered, unclear and doubtful.

Writing in an active voice is crucial to be perceived as confident.

Passive voice: the ball was chased by the dog.

Active voice: the dog chased the ball.

Passive voice: the book was written by Jake.

Active voice: Jake wrote the book.
Writing Outline
From studying the top 1% of Linkedin creators, something stood out to me.

Something that was consistent between all their content.

At first I thought high-performing content was down to luck, consistency or hacks.

That was until I discovered the high-value writing outline.

High-performing content is down to strategy.

This is a content strategy for creating posts that hook attention, add value and relate with
people.

Here it is:

But, before you begin, for every post you write make sure to have your research in front of you
(problems, benefits and experiences)

1.​ Hook - start with a story, bold statement or big problem or benefit

2.​ Rehook - create intrigue and leave people wanting more

3.​ Problem - describe and agitate the big problem, what does it look like?

4.​ Benefits - list out the benefits associated with overcoming the problem

5.​ Value - what's the solution and process to overcome the big problem

6.​ Takeaway - sum everything up in 1-3 lines for a clear conclusion

7.​ CTA - give people clarity on what to do next or ask for a desired action,
8.​