How do you commit to a Big Idea when you don’t yet know if anyone will pay?
When I worked with my first Big Idea client (let’s call him Jacob), he was wrestling with this exact question. He had landed on his Big Idea, the articulation of his unique perspective. He was excited when it first emerged. But the excitement was already being replaced by doubts.
What about the audience?
Will it actually resonate?
Will they pay?
What about that… what about that…
It’s the “what about that” syndrome. We go in circles, trying to answer every question in one go. If you have never experienced hell, this is it. Constant rewriting, doubts, overthinking, and endless validation seeking. Just a few symptoms among many. The fear is understandable. Everything here is uncertain, and there are no guarantees.
But notice what’s happening underneath these questions. All the fears boil down to 2 main questions we struggle with –
- Is the idea true to me?
- Is this what I genuinely believe? Will the market pay?
We want answers to both of these at the same time.
So how do we work through this tension?
We need three concepts.
- Perspective
- Big Idea
- Positioning
Let’s take them one at a time.
1. Perspective is the raw material
Our perspective captures what we stand for, and what we stand against. We see that something is broken in our industry. We can’t articulate it cleanly yet, but the frustration won’t go away.
We may not have figured out the best solution. But this is an itch we can’t not scratch.
What if you don’t have a perspective?
I am yet to come across a client who doesn’t have one. It’s just buried under layers. They have been in their field for years, accumulated opinions and frustrations, which naturally shape a perspective. They just can’t articulate it well.
But a perspective stuck in your head goes nowhere. Other people can’t engage with it. That’s why you need a Big Idea, which is the articulation of your perspective.
2. The Big Idea
Your Big Idea is the articulation of a perspective that sits at the core of your work. It’s a counterintuitive view of your industry that challenges the status quo and promises something genuinely better for your audience.
Classic examples:
- Hourly Billing is Nuts by Jonathan Stark
- Start with Why by Simon Sinek
- Radical Candor by Kim Scott
This isn’t to suggest that the first version of your Big Idea will sound as clean as “Start with Why”. Version 1.0 is messy. We keep coming back to it, keep playing with phrases.
Jonathan Stark didn’t start with “Hourly Billing is Nuts.” He started with the irritation that something was deeply wrong about how independent consultants priced their work. The Big Idea is what the irritation eventually became after enough reps.
But who does the Big Idea apply to? That’s where the third concept comes in.
3. Positioning faces the market
Positioning is about who you serve, what problem you solve for them, and how you are different from the alternatives. It is external. It is how the market sees you.
Perspective and Big Idea are inward. They are about what you believe and how you say it. Positioning is outward. It is about what the audience hears.
Perspective and Big Idea answer the first question. Is the idea true to me?
Positioning answers the second. Will the market pay?
When all three click into place
My client Florian Heinrichs is one example. His perspective is that consulting firms are stuck selling capabilities and listing what they can do. Instead, they should be selling the outcome to a specific problem.
His Big Idea is Proposition Led Selling. His positioning is sharp. He works with boutique consulting firms and large firm practices that appear successful from the outside but quietly struggle to scale profitably.
Perspective, Big Idea, positioning. All three pointing in the same direction.
Big Idea is inside out, Positioning is outside in
The Big Idea, shaped by our perspective, comes from our conviction. We start with what’s broken, articulate it as best we can, and start sharing that messy articulation with the world. This goes against the traditional Silicon Valley advice, which advises starting with the audience’s problem and reverse engineering the solution.
No. We start with our perspective and work our way toward the audience’s problem.
But it still has to land. If your conviction doesn’t speak to a real buyer’s pain, they won’t subscribe to the philosophy, resonate with the idea, or buy what you sell.
That’s where positioning comes in. Positioning works the other way around. It’s how your conviction reaches the buyer.
A Big Idea can apply to many contexts. Positioning is the choice to apply it to one context that pays.
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A Big Idea without Positioning is unconstrained
“Hourly Billing is Nuts” is true for independent software consultants, lawyers, accountants, agency owners, freelance designers, SaaS CEOs, professional service firms, and a long list of other professions.
The Big Idea doesn’t change when the audience does. Jonathan didn’t go market by market and develop different Big Ideas for each. He carries the same philosophy across every context.
What changes is where he chooses to apply it. For him, primarily independent software consultants. That choice is positioning.
There is always a lag
For many of my clients, the work begins with uncovering their perspective, which we then articulate as a Big Idea. At this stage, we don’t yet know the positioning or where it fits in the business world. We just have an itch worth scratching, and the next move is testing it against the market.
In other cases, clients already know their positioning, but their perspective is still fuzzy.
Either way, you can’t crack all three at once. It’s a process. The “what about thats” resolve over time, not in a single instance.
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It’s a dance
If you don’t know your exact positioning, there are two knobs to fiddle with.
Get better at articulating your perspective through content. Develop proprietary IP in the process. Take these ideas to multiple audiences and see who resonates, and who is willing to pay.
Both knobs move at the same time. Both with uncertainty. That’s what makes it scary.
They evolve together
What actually happens, especially with clients who are yet to finalize their positioning, is that the three things sharpen each other over time.
- Perspective sharpens as the Big Idea gets articulated.
- The Big Idea sharpens as positioning attempts hit the market and come back with feedback.
- Positioning sharpens as the Big Idea pulls in or repels specific buyer types.
There isn’t a moment where one finishes and the next begins.
They live on different timelines and need different inputs. Day 1 doesn’t have all the inputs yet. That’s why trying to lock all three down at once always fails.
To summarize
It’s a fool’s errand to expect your Big Idea and positioning to be nailed down on Day 1. But there’s a tentative path. Start with the perspective. Shape it into a Big Idea. Take it out into conversations. From there, each piece feeds the others.
Remember Jacob? His aha moment wasn’t the finish line. He still has to do the work. Conversations with different audiences. Finding where the idea sticks. Figuring out who will actually pay.
P.S. –
Life update – I became a Dad. As of today, the baby is 24 days old. I give myself 8 out of 10 for diaper changing, 6 out of 10 for soothing the baby, and 6 out of 10 for swaddling. Both the baby and my wife, Pooja, are doing well. 🙂