I don’t know about you, but I suck at peeling eggs. At least, I used to.
At 8 a.m., the kitchen in the Kale family household is full. Everyone is anxious and rushing to go somewhere. And amidst this chaos, my job is to peel 6 eggs (3 for myself and 3 for my wife).
On some days, when the stars are aligned, the egg peeling takes less than a minute. On other days, it feels like it takes forever. The shell sticks to the egg white, causing it to tear, creating an unattractive surface.
The more you rush, the worse the peeling is
Going faster hardly helps. The tearing becomes more prominent, making the situation worse. In these moments, there is only one thing that helps me. And I think you know what it is.
Slowing down. That’s when time moves slowly. My fingers are no longer furiously removing the eggshell. My actions are a lot more centered and thoughtful.
The same applies to our work, marketing, and content.
We know we need to slow down
And yet, we do the opposite. The anxiety increases the velocity. It’s all about doing more… and getting it done fast.
– Post 3 times a day
– Use aggressive hooks
– Use the best practices for the thumbnail
– Understand the algorithm
We are now trying to win over the platform rather than maintaining the purity of our message.
Maybe… it works for some.
But most others struggle. The high velocity creates dissatisfaction. We optimize our content to reach more people and, in the process, dumb it down.
The need to hustle has taken over, and we are now more concerned about our idea reaching more people… than slowing down and maintaining its innate thoughtfulness and purity. The love for our idea has been replaced with fear of getting more awareness.
As we hustle harder, our content looks like everybody else’s. We are now creating commodity content – content that looks like everybody else’s.
Thought leaders do it differently
They opt out of this game altogether. For them, the merit of their idea is far more important than dumbing it down. They don’t compete on the algorithm, the volume of content, or the hooks.
They compete on the merit of their idea. Simply put, they create an impactful Big Idea at the center of their brand.
What is a Big Idea?
A Big Idea is a unique perspective that challenges the status quo in your industry and promises to transform your audience’s life for the better. It captures your distinct approach to solving your client’s problems and serves as the foundation for your thought leadership and differentiated brand.
Here are a few examples
Kim Scott – Radical candor
Jonathan Stark – Hourly Billing is Nuts
Susan Boles – Calm is the new KPI
Vikram Shetty – ROI of DEI
Cal Newport – Deep Work
James Clear – Atomic Habits
Michelle Warner – Sequence Over Strategy
All of these are powerful ideas that pull the right audience towards your thinking. It’s the merit of the idea, and not the repetition of it, which makes this change happen. It’s not about saying the same thing again and again but saying something so impactful that it makes the audience go, “Whoa! That’s interesting!”
What are the advantages of a Big Idea?
– It pulls the right audience towards you
– It repels the wrong audience
– You don’t have to compete on the volume of content
– You don’t have to learn the best hooks or understand the platform algorithm
– All your content becomes cohesive (It’s now bound by a unique POV)
How exactly do you arrive at your Big Idea?
Arriving at your Big Idea is not a walk in the park. The process requires digging deep into our motivations and what we stand for. It requires us to understand where the audience is at, what their problems are, and the unique vision you have for them, using which you’d be able to solve this problem.
Here’s a framework to consider.
I talk about this framework in-depth in here.
To summarize:
We all want to earn the trust of the people we’re trying to help, and sometimes, it feels like the only way to do that is by hustling hard and putting out content like there’s no tomorrow.
But here’s the thing – the most successful thought leaders out there? They’re not playing that game. Instead of getting caught up in the rush, they take a step back, breathe deep, and focus on creating a Big Idea that really speaks to their audience. They know that it’s not about peeling the eggs furiously. That’s going to make a mess.