16:28Nicolas Cole · Interview
Helping A Student Create His Digital Product From Scratch
A live 16-minute coaching session that reverse-engineers a martial arts instructor's expertise into a step-by-step digital product framework.
June 17thThe argument in one line.
Idea generation is not an innate talent but a trainable skill, and running any topic through ten fixed angles, tips, stats, steps, lessons, benefits, mistakes, reasons, questions, examples, and personal stories, produces a hundred usable ideas in about ten minutes.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You want to write online regularly (newsletter, LinkedIn, a content-driven business) and keep running out of things to say.
- You're about to start a cohort-based writing program like Ship 30 for 30 and want a head start on your idea backlog.
- You coach or teach writers and want a repeatable framework to hand students instead of telling them to 'just brainstorm.'
- You're stuck on picking a niche because you think committing to a topic once means being locked into it forever.
SKIP IF…
- You already have a reliable idea-generation system and need execution or editing help, not ideation.
- You're looking for platform-specific growth tactics like SEO or algorithm hacks rather than a content-generation method.
The full version, fast.
Nicolas Cole argues idea generation is a skill, not a trait, and teaches it live to roughly a hundred writers using his '10 Magical Ways to Expand Anything': tips, stats, steps, lessons, benefits, mistakes, reasons, questions, examples, and personal stories. He built the list after ghostwriting about 3,000 articles for Silicon Valley founders and noticing the same ten angles kept recurring. Running one topic through all ten produces ten solid headlines in minutes; running ten variations of each produces a hundred ideas in roughly ten. He closes by reframing 'niche' as simply the topic someone writes about most, not a permanent commitment, and argues writers should build the skill by hand before letting AI automate any of it.
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00:00 – 01:36
01 · Why you're watching this
A short pre-roll pitch for the AI Writing School and the upcoming Ship 30 for 30 cohort before the recorded masterclass begins.
01:36 – 06:25
02 · Idea generation is a skill
Cole reframes 'I have nothing to say' as an undeveloped skill, not a fact, then answers the standing objection that a shared framework makes everyone's writing sound the same, backed by a live roll call of the room's wildly different topics.
06:25 – 12:50
03 · Framework #1: Tips
The 10 Magical Ways list appears. Cole tells the origin story (3,000 ghostwritten articles for founders and executives) and demonstrates Tips live against the topic 'self-publishing on Amazon', while the room floods the chat with their own tips headlines.
12:50 – 19:15
04 · Framework #2: Stats
Stats are built by Googling a number about the topic's industry. Cole shows how one stat snowballs into a second and third, and shares the 'According to Harvard Business Review' credibility trick.
19:15 – 25:40
05 · Framework #3: Steps
Steps are tied to a named desired outcome rather than listed for their own sake; the chat produces step-based headlines across cooking, anxiety, and e-commerce topics.
25:40 – 32:06
06 · Framework #4: Lessons
Lessons split into positive (what you learned achieving something) and negative (what you learned failing to). Cole ties this to the 'learn from someone one step ahead of you' principle and his own LA-to-Miami move story.
32:06 – 38:31
07 · Framework #5: Benefits
Benefits content educates a reader who doesn't yet know what they don't know, reframed as the copywriting-adjacent exercise of listing what's in the reader's best interest.
38:31 – 44:56
08 · Frameworks #6-7: Mistakes and Reasons
Mistakes content speaks to the fear hiding behind every reader question. Reasons splits into reasons-to and reasons-not-to, each generated the same way.
44:56 – 51:21
09 · Framework #8: Questions
Any question the writer has personally asked about their topic is a guaranteed idea, because if they've had the question, a reader has it too.
51:21 – 57:46
10 · Framework #9: Examples
Examples do two jobs: build pattern recognition for how to execute, and motivate by proving the outcome is achievable.
57:46 – 1:04:11
11 · Framework #10: Personal stories
Personal stories only land when tied to a desired outcome the reader shares, illustrated with a dinner-party analogy about the difference between a story that connects and one that doesn't.
1:04:11 – 1:10:36
12 · 100 ideas in 10 minutes, and what a niche really is
Cole sprints through 10+ tips headlines in under a minute to show the full 10x10 drill, then opens TypeShare's 'digital brain' graph to reframe 'niche' as simply the topic a writer covers most.
1:10:36 – 1:17:01
13 · Live Q&A: write with AI or without it
Cole takes audience questions on using AI during Ship 30, arguing the skill has to be built manually first because AI only amplifies clear thinking it can't supply.
1:17:01 – 1:25:35
14 · Live Q&A: mindset and wrap
Closing questions on mindset, trusting the daily-action structure of Ship 30, and a final poll of the room on how prepared they feel.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Idea generation is a trainable skill, not an innate trait, so feeling like you have nothing left to say just means the skill is underdeveloped.
- Two writers given the identical framework and the identical topic still produce different content, because they share different insights, mistakes, and stories.
- The '10 Magical Ways to Expand Anything' framework came from noticing the same ten angles recur across roughly 3,000 ghostwritten articles for founders, executives, and bestselling authors.
- Stats snowball: one Googled statistic about an industry almost always suggests a second and third related statistic, each of which is its own idea.
- Citing a source, 'According to Harvard Business Review...', instantly raises a piece's perceived credibility, even before the reader checks the claim.
- The average self-published Amazon book earns close to $0 in its first year, with the realistic median landing well under $100.
- Every topic yields two lesson angles for one effort: what you learned achieving the outcome, and what you learned failing to achieve it.
- People seek advice from someone only a few steps ahead of them, not the most accomplished expert alive, so even one experience you've had once outranks the reader's zero experiences.
- Mistake-based content works because nearly every unanswered question a reader has is really a mask for a fear of doing something wrong.
- A personal story only holds a reader's attention when it serves a desired outcome the reader and the writer both share; an unconnected story just makes the writer seem self-absorbed at a party.
- A hundred ideas is just ten magical ways multiplied by ten variations each, and with the skill built, the whole exercise takes about fifteen minutes.
- A writer's 'niche' is nothing more than whichever topic they happen to write about most at a given time, not a binding lifetime commitment.
- Ryan Holiday became known for stoicism not by announcing a pivot away from marketing, but simply by writing about stoicism more often over time.
- Cole says he has never let AI write something he hadn't already personally written dozens or hundreds of times himself, treating AI purely as a repeat-the-pattern tool, never a replacement for original thinking.
A ten-angle framework turns one topic into a hundred ideas
WHAT TO LEARN
Run any topic through ten fixed angles, tips, stats, steps, lessons, benefits, mistakes, reasons, questions, examples, personal stories, and treat idea generation as a buildable skill instead of a talent you either have or don't.
02Idea generation is a skill
- Treat 'I have nothing left to say' as a skill gap, not a fact, since the objection evaporates once you have a repeatable method.
- The fear that a shared framework makes everyone's writing sound the same is unfounded, because different writers apply it to different topics and different lived experience.
03Framework #1: Tips
- Start with 'tips for [topic]' headlines; it's the single fastest way to generate a first batch of ten solid ideas.
- The ten-angle list isn't theoretical: it came out of noticing the same handful of angles recur across roughly 3,000 ghostwritten articles.
04Framework #2: Stats
- Turn your topic into an industry and Google one number about it; search engines now summarize the stat right at the top of the results.
- One stat almost always suggests a second and third related stat, so a single Google search can seed three ideas instead of one.
- Citing a source, 'According to Harvard Business Review...', instantly raises a piece's perceived credibility, even before the reader checks it.
05Framework #3: Steps
- Steps only work when they're tied to a specific desired outcome, not just listed as a bare numbered sequence, so name the outcome before writing the steps.
06Framework #4: Lessons
- Every topic gives you two lesson posts for one effort: what you learned succeeding at it, and what you learned failing at it.
- You only need to be a few steps ahead of the reader to have something valuable to teach; one experience beats the reader's zero.
07Framework #5: Benefits
- Write benefits content when your reader doesn't yet know what they don't know; it's the education step before they'll act.
08Frameworks #6-7: Mistakes and Reasons
- Mistake-driven content works because almost every reader question is really a disguised fear of doing something wrong.
- Reasons content splits into two posts: reasons to do the thing (get them excited) and reasons not to (protect them from a bad outcome).
09Framework #8: Questions
- Any question you've personally asked about your topic is a guaranteed idea, because if you had the question, someone reading you has it too.
10Framework #9: Examples
- Examples do two jobs at once: they build the reader's pattern recognition for how to execute, and they motivate by proving it's possible.
11Framework #10: Personal stories
- A personal story only earns attention when it serves a desired outcome the reader shares with you; a disconnected story just makes you the person nobody wants to talk to at the party.
12100 ideas in 10 minutes, and what a niche really is
- A hundred ideas is just the ten angles multiplied by ten variations each; once the skill is built, the whole drill takes about fifteen minutes.
- Your 'niche' isn't a permanent commitment, it's just whichever topic you happen to write about most at any given time, and that can shift.
13Live Q&A: write with AI or without it
- Build the thinking and writing skill manually first; AI only amplifies clear thinking, it can't substitute for thinking you haven't done.
- Only use AI to repeat patterns you've already written dozens or hundreds of times yourself, never to write something you've never attempted.
14Live Q&A: mindset and wrap
- Favor progress over perfection, since optimism about a new process is what actually gets you to take the next small action.
Terms worth knowing.
- Ship 30 for 30
- Nicolas Cole's cohort-based writing program where participants write and publish 30 short pieces of online writing over 30 days.
- 10 Magical Ways to Expand Anything
- Cole's ten-angle framework, tips, stats, steps, lessons, benefits, mistakes, reasons, questions, examples, personal stories, for turning one topic into many article ideas.
- TypeShare
- Cole's writing SaaS platform that visualizes a writer's published output as a 'digital brain' graph clustered by topic. Unrelated to the survey tool Typeform.
- Digital brain
- TypeShare's visual map of everything a writer has published, clustered by topic, used to show how a 'niche' emerges from volume rather than a declared commitment.
Things they pointed at.
00:20productAI Writing School
00:20productShip 30 for 30
1:05:00toolTypeShare
1:09:10bookThe Art and Business of Online Writing
Lines you could clip.
01:36
“Generating ideas is a skill... if you're sitting there and you go, I don't have anything to say... the only reason you feel that way is because you have an undeveloped skill.”
14:10
“Stats lead to more stats, which lead to more ideas.”
39:10
“Every single question that someone has about any topic is really a mask for things that they're afraid of happening.”
1:02:30
“The whole key to telling personal stories is that whatever topic you want to write about, you are telling a story in service of a shared desired outcome.”
1:09:10
“Your niche is simply the topic that you write about more relative to all the other topics. That's all it means.”
1:20:50
“I never, zero percent, never have AI write something that I have not personally already written dozens, if not hundreds of times myself.”
Word for word.
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I just held a 90 minute masterclass inside our AI writing school about how to generate a hundred content ideas in, I mean, we did it in 90 minutes, but at the end, I show you how you can do this in 10 minutes using my framework, the 10 magical ways. So if you want to watch this masterclass, this is an example of what we do inside of our AI writing school.
And we did this to prepare everyone for our upcoming ship 30 for 30 cohort. So if you want to hop in, you can come join us. We're going to write and ship 30 atomic essays and 30 pieces of writing over.
30 days. And then inside our AI writing school, we cover all sorts of things like idea generation, how to launch newsletters, how to launch digital products, different ways to monetize your writing as a writer. So come join us, check out the link in the description and enjoy the masterclass.
So here's the first reframe I want to give everyone in terms of generating ideas. Generating ideas is a skill. I think oftentimes people think of writing or components of writing, like generating ideas, as something that just happens.
It's sort of like you just happen to be born with brown hair, or you just happen to be born with blonde hair, or you just happen to be born with black hair. They think that idea generation is something that just happens.
And that is not true. Generating ideas is a skill. And so the first thing that I encourage everyone to internalize.
is that if you're sitting there and you go, I don't have anything to say, or I've already written about this topic, I don't know how I could possibly write about this topic again. The only reason you feel that way is because you have an undeveloped skill. It's not because that's true.
And I think this is a really helpful frame to keep in mind when you're generating ideas. And so how do you build the skill of generating ideas? Well, there are a couple of frameworks that I come back to over and over and over again.
that I encourage all of you to use. The second thing that I want to share building on top of this, though, is whenever I walk through these frameworks, one of the biggest questions, aka objections that people have is, Cole, if I use this framework and someone else uses this framework, then isn't our content or isn't our writing going to sound the same?
And the answer is no, because A, I'm guessing the majority of people here are all writing about different topics. We can prove it. Everyone drop in the chat.
What's one topic you want to write about? Doesn't have to be your forever niche. Just what's one topic you want to write about?
Chris wants to write about cooking. Randy wants to write about natural healing, AI, mental health, one sentence journaling, flowers, how to create your first ebook, stock investing, longevity, migraine relief, special needs education, organizing information, self -expression, governance for your AI agent, women over 60, interior design.
neuroplasticity. So already it's like, just look around the room already. If you take the same framework and you give it to lots of people, well, everyone's going to apply it to a different topic.
So you have nothing to worry about. Okay. And the follow -up to that is someone goes, okay, cool.
That makes sense. But what about someone else who writes about my same topic? Well, even if there's two people here that both want to write about AI or crypto or real estate, right?
You're inherently going to share different insights. You're inherently going to point out different mistakes. You're inherently going to share different lessons.
You're inherently going to tell different stories. So I say this because oftentimes when we talk about idea generation, one of the things that people do from the very beginning is they come up with a lot of really creative reasons why it won't work for them, why they don't have to take action. So I'm sharing these because, you know, we've had 15 ,000 people go through Ship 30 and I often get these questions, aka objections over and over again.
So with that in mind, I always prefer spending more time tactically. So to do this, and it would be really great if you will get the most out of this if we do this together. So whether you want to do this, you know, writing down somewhere, if you have a handwritten journal.
If you have a Word doc open, you have a Notion doc, a Google doc, I would encourage everyone to have something to write with and try to do this as we go along, okay? It's not hard. The answers will reveal themselves very quickly, okay?
So here's the first framework I like to use. I'd like everyone to take one idea you want to write about, okay? This does not have to be your forever topic.
It's not like if you write about this topic once, people are going to associate you with it forever and you will never be able to change. Take one topic you want to write about, and we are going to run that topic through one of my favorite frameworks, which is the 10 magical ways to expand anything. Okay, so we have tips, we have stats, we have steps, we have lessons, we have mistakes, we have questions, we have examples, we have personal stories.
Lessons, mistakes, examples, personal stories.
Katie, which one? I'm forgetting two of them. What are the other two?
Can you look that up for me? There we go. Tips, stats, steps, lessons, benefits.
Benefits, mistakes, reasons. Ah, how could I forget? Personal favorites.
Okay. So this is a framework I came up with, I don't know, six, seven years ago at this point. And it was a framework I came up with after ghostwriting for 300 different Silicon Valley founders, executives, investors, New York Times bestselling authors.
I would write opinion articles on their behalf. I would write with them. We would have a conversation, I'd record the conversation, and then I would take that conversation and I would turn it into an article.
And after doing that, I don't know, 3 ,000 times, I realized that over and over and over again, I kept coming back to the same angles. I was almost always writing an article where I was explaining tips for how to do something better, or I was explaining stats that had to do with their industry, or I was explaining steps on how to do something.
And as time went on, Jamie, can you disable the handwriting? There's a couple people like scrolling on the screen or something. So over and over and over again, I would realize that I was coming back to these angles.
And once that clicked for me, I went, okay, so why don't I just make a list of these angles and then reuse them constantly? So what we're going to do is we're going to use the 10 magical ways and you're going to generate your first 10 ideas. This is the single easiest way to generate 10 high quality ideas.
Okay. So take your topic and we're going to go one by one. Okay.
We're going to go one by one. So let's say my topic is self -publishing on Amazon. All right.
Let's say that's a topic I want to write about. Well, go down the list. We're going to all do this together.
Okay. Tips. Take your topic.
And what are tips that you could give people? I think in terms of headline, not the, not even the actual tips yet. You just go tips for self publishing on Amazon.
Or tips for. self -publishing your first nonfiction book on Amazon. Okay.
So I want everyone, we're going to do this together. I want everyone to write that out and then drop it in the chat. So take your topic and it should say tips for something related to do with your topic tips for getting the crispiest tofu every time.
I need to read that because I have no idea how to do that.
Awesome. What else? Tips to improve your mindset when it comes to sales.
Great. Tips for relieving arthritis pain. Perfect.
If I had arthritis, I think I would want some tips for how to get rid of it, right? Tips for organizing information. Tips for using yoga for migraine relief.
Wow. That's a great topic. I have a migraine.
I don't really want to take medicine or anything. Maybe I can do some yoga and the migraine will go away. Tips for quitting emotional spending.
Tips for using creativity as a form of self -expression. Great. Tips for making Korean bulgogi, if I'm pronouncing that right, beef.
That sounds amazing. Tips for leads chasing you for your services. Okay.
Eight tips for investing with confidence. Great. So congratulations, everyone.
You just created your first high quality idea.
It's not hard, right? Not hard. OK, the next one is a little advanced and I'm actually going to do it live.
I'll show you how it works. But stats. OK, what if you were to think about your topic as an industry?
What are some stats that might be relevant? OK, so, for example, if I'm thinking about self -publishing on Amazon, maybe an interesting stat would be how many people. publish nonfiction books every year.
So stats for self -publishing nonfiction books on Amazon. And you want to know how we find this stat? We go to Google and we say, how many nonfiction books get self -published on Amazon each year?
1 .4 million to 2 million total self -published books. Cool. So that is a stat and that would make for an interesting piece.
Did you know that upwards of 2 million books are self -published on Amazon each year?
Okay, so let's do it again. Drop in the chat. Stats for what?
What's something that would be framed as a stat inside of your industry? 21 % of women have experienced migraine or severe headache. That's one in five of US adult women.
Perfect. So stats for women suffering from migraines.
83 % of people favor cooking from scratch, but over half default to ready -made food. It's a great stat. It's relevant to the topic that you want to write about.
Stats for people with arthritis over age 50. Exactly. How many people over age 50 have arthritis?
Is it 1 %? Is it 10 %? Is it 50 %?
That's an interesting stat.
Stats for average time spent organizing emails. Yeah. How much time does the average worker spend organizing their email each day?
That's an interesting stat. That would make for a great piece. Okay.
So does everyone see how this works? Stats, to me, stats are one of the most underrated topic ideas. They're so unbelievably simple.
You literally just think about your industry, what's something that would be framed in a number, in a stat, and then you Google it. And at this point, it's like Google will literally just summarize the stat for you at the very top. And you can go check the source if you want to, but it's like, We don't have to go to the library like we used to do 30 years ago.
Michelle, that's a great one. One in 10 women over 60 are diagnosed with osteoporosis. Here's what to do about it.
It's a great topic. All right. So stats are very underrated.
Highly encourage everyone. And the knock -on of this is, okay, we all just generated one stat. So now the follow -up question is, while you were thinking about one stat related to your industry, did you happen to think about another one?
Like while I was thinking about this, how many books get self -published on Amazon each year? The second thing that popped into my head was, I wonder how many of them are written by male authors versus female authors. That's another stat, which is another idea.
And then thinking about that makes me think, well, OK, of the two million books that are self -published on Amazon each year. How much does the average self -published book make in its first year? That's another step.
How do we do it? We go to Google.
And we go of the million self -published. books on Amazon each year, how much does the average self -published book earn in year one?
The average self -published book earns close to $0 in its first year with the realistic median landing well under $100. That's interesting. That would make for an interesting piece.
And you know what would make for a great hook is like, upwards of a million, 2 million books get self -published on Amazon each year. Most of them earn between zero and $100.
Here's how to make sure that your book doesn't fall into that category and your book earns more than that.
So stats lead to more stats, which lead to more ideas.
Does everyone see how this works?
Now I'm going to share a little advanced tactic here because I think it's relevant. Little pro tip. If you ever want any piece of writing to come off as more professional, all you have to do is insert a stat and reference it.
So instantly, let's pretend we're writing this piece. Instantly, this piece looks more professional if I say, According to Harvard Business Review, 93 % of authors, dot, dot, dot, instantly perceived value goes up.
According to Psychology Today, according to the New York Times, according to this columnist in the New Yorker, according to the Atlantic, instantly. Instantly. So yeah, Janice, do you worry about fake stats?
I mean, so first of all, Google is pretty smart at this point. Okay. But yeah, we can check the stat by just clicking on the reference by clicking on the link and just spending 30 seconds reading it and going, does that make sense?
Right. That's, that's all you have to do. You, you, it's not like we have to go execute our own like study.
All we're doing is just referencing information and stats that other people have already researched. Now, obviously, if the stat exists on a website that looks shady and not real, then yeah, maybe don't use that stat. But for the vast majority of the time, that's not the case.
I often call this solving problems we don't have.
Okay, so everyone understand stats? I think stats are such a great way of generating ideas. Okay.
The third one, steps. Every single person interested in every single topic wants to take steps to achieve some sort of outcome. Okay.
So steps are, you take your idea and you go. if I could give the reader something valuable, I would give them steps to achieve some sort of desired outcome relative to my topic. Okay?
So if my topic is self -publishing on Amazon, I imagine my target reader would want steps to successfully publish your first nonfiction book on Amazon. My target reader probably would also want steps to run your first ad campaign promoting your nonfiction book on Amazon. My target reader would probably also want steps to design an eye -grabbing cover for your nonfiction book on Amazon.
So I want everyone to take your topic, think about a desired outcome, what's something that someone would want, and then just say, I will give you steps to achieve it.
Four steps to stock a simple pantry on a budget. Great. Great.
Three steps to do at your desk job to prevent migraines. Yeah.
Steps to successfully befriend anxiety so it doesn't bully you. Great.
What else?
Sebastian, that's a great one. Steps to build your first custom connector for cloud desktop. Nice and specific, tangible.
Great. Three steps for shopping for Korean food at H Mart. Love it.
Steps to look great at 60. Love it.
Steps to design and automate a pay yourself first system. Love it. Okay.
So does everyone see how this works? When you're giving the reader steps, you are not just giving them steps, right? The steps have to lead somewhere.
So steps get connected to what do they want? What's the desired outcome? Steps to achieve something.
And the achieve something is going to be related to the topic that you're choosing, right?
All right. Steps make sense. We're all on the same page.
Keep it rocking. Is everyone doing this live? I promise.
If not, you should be because this is going to set you up massively for success as we get into ship 30. Like you should go into ship 30 going. I already have at least 10 ideas, probably by the end of this session, close to a hundred.
That's my goal. I'm going to show everyone how we start magnifying this. Okay.
It's very cool. Yep. Everyone's doing this.
Okay, great. All right. Next, we're going to go to lessons.
Now lessons is often one of two things. Lessons is either things I learned achieving something or things I learned not achieving something. Okay.
Now, why is this valuable? Well, it's valuable because anytime you are sharing a lesson, That fundamentally means that you have experienced something for good or for bad that the person behind you has not yet.
Okay? So you've had an experience. You either achieved it or you didn't achieve it.
And either way, either of those are valuable to the person who hasn't had that experience yet. Right? So I'll give you two examples.
Here's a positive. Lessons I learned selling over 10 ,000 copies of my book, The Art and Business of Online Writing. Positive outcome.
Here are things that I learned achieving that positive outcome. Okay, here's a negative. Lessons I learned wasting $50 ,000 on Amazon ads promoting my book, The Art and Business of Online Writing.
You can write about the same topic. You can write about the same thing, but chances are there are things that went well and there are things that didn't go well. And both of those are valuable to the person who hasn't had that experience yet.
So this one, this is a little more advanced, but it's worth doing. So I want everyone to take your topic and write two versions of lessons and do it just like I did here. Positive and then negative.
So positive, lessons I learned achieving this thing. Negative, lessons I learned not achieving the thing I wanted to. Or lessons I learned by wasting something.
Getting something wrong.
So let's see both positive and negative.
Yeah, so Judd, that's a positive. So what's a negative? Little pro tip for everybody here.
Okay, look at how nice and clean I structured this. Two bullets, positive in parentheses, and then I wrote it negative in parentheses, and then I wrote it. So in an ideal world, you would mimic that same structure.
This is what's called visual formatting. It's something we're going to talk a lot about in Ship 30.
Okay. I'm going to pass along a little bit of tough love here. I have yet to see a single person execute the instructions correctly, okay?
Here are the instructions. Two bullets, positive in parentheses, write the positive version, negative in parentheses, write the negative version, okay? And the reason that I'm encouraging you to do this is because there's a meta skill we're talking about here, which is here's a structure.
Now follow the structure. So it's not just idea. It's the structure of how the idea is being presented.
There we go, Ronnie. There we go. Positive.
Lessons I learned moving to London and doubling my salary. Awesome. Negative.
Lessons I learned wasting $2 ,000 on Pinterest advertising. Love it. Sushil, there we go.
Now we're rocking. Three lessons I learned preventing migraine episodes. Negative.
Three lessons I learned losing work days due to migraine episodes. Perfect. So you see how positive and negative could be about the same topic, or it could be about two different subtopics, right?
There we go, Michelle. Perfect. Lessons I learned earning my PhD in chemistry from Yale.
Lessons I learned hiding because I was afraid I wasn't as capable as other people thought. Perfect. Yes, Marissa, we will upload this recording to AI Writing School.
Don, there we go. What I learned after wasting time reading unwanted emails. Positive, what I learned after organizing my email inbox.
Great.
Okay, so everyone see how this works? Lessons are incredibly valuable. Right.
One of the ideas that we talk about in Ship 30 is this idea of wanting to learn from someone just a couple steps ahead of you. Right. If you're in fourth grade, you don't want to learn from a 50 year old.
You don't want to learn from your parents. You probably don't even want to learn from someone who just graduated college. If you're in fourth grade, you want to learn from someone in fifth grade.
Or maybe you want to learn from someone in middle school in sixth grade. Right. You're not looking for who's the wisest person in the world.
You want to talk to someone who's just a couple steps ahead of you. Right. So any topic you want to write about really follows that same logic.
It's all it is, is you're talking to the person who hasn't had that experience yet. You had an experience. You're talking to the person who hasn't had that experience yet.
And this applies to everything. Like an example, yeah, Katie, perfect. Like my sixth grade boy probably listens to the eighth grade brother way more than you, right?
An example I use all the time too is a couple of years ago, I moved across the country from LA to Miami. So we did a road trip over seven days and I moved from one coast all the way to the other coast. Now, am I a travel expert?
No. Have I done that a million times? And am I the most knowledgeable person about moving coast to coast ever?
No, I did it one time. But I wrote about lessons I learned moving from the West Coast to the East Coast because that would be helpful information to someone who has not done that yet. So even if you do something one time, that is one more time.
than the person who has done it zero times. And there is value in that. Okay.
There's value in that. All right, moving on. Benefits.
Okay. Now benefits, what's great about coming up with ideas related to benefits is that this is also the exercise that you would use for any copywriting related. Okay.
So I say copywriting because for everyone here, I assume you want to write on the internet as a means to achieve some sort of other goal. You wanna write on the internet because you wanna drive leads to your business, because you wanna be invited on podcasts to speak, because you wanna start a business of your own or you wanna start a side hustle, because you wanna sell digital products, because you wanna start a paid newsletter, because you wanna scale something and make more money from it.
Right? So writing online is often a mechanism to achieve some other thing. Now, I write on the internet just because I enjoy it, right?
And I'm sure a lot of you, you write because you enjoy it. That's great. But in that, you know, the writing is also an engine to achieve other things.
Benefits are, what are the things that are in your target reader's best interest? What are things that would benefit them? And the reason this is important is because a lot of times when people get interested in a topic, they don't know what they don't know.
They need to be educated, okay? So for example, let's say someone is thinking about wanting to write and self -publish a book on Amazon. That's the topic I'm using, right?
I should probably write a piece that's benefits of self -publishing on Amazon. instead of pursuing a traditional book deal. Why is that a helpful topic?
It's helpful because I want to educate the person on if you do this thing, here are the good things that happen. Okay. So for this idea, I want everyone to take your topic and think about what is a desired outcome?
that someone would have related to your topic. And then what are the benefits of them doing the thing that you recommend that they do? So yeah, Chris, benefits of keeping your kitchen organized so you can make meals in half the time.
Cool. Right? Like if I want to get into cooking, I should probably educate myself on the benefits of maybe organizing my kitchen in a certain way.
Benefits of improving your gut health by eating kimchi and more fermented vegetables. Great.
Benefits of eating natural spices to reduce or eliminate arthritis pain. Perfect. I didn't even know that eating natural spices could reduce arthritis pain.
So to get me excited about it, you should educate me on the benefits of it.
Benefits of intentional spending so you can feel rich on any salary. Love that, Ronnie.
That's a great reframe.
Benefits of using your AI assistant via the desktop app instead of using it in a browser tab. Perfect.
Benefits of keeping the class tidy to avoid distractions. Great. benefits of asking what does my child need instead of what should I be doing?
Perfect. So does everyone see how this works? And notice like we're all going down the same list, right?
This might seem like a really simple framework. I had to write 3 ,000 articles in order to distill this framework down to something as simple as this. And now you can see it gets applied to any topic and it works.
It works amazing.
Benefits of befriending anxiety instead of fighting against it. Awesome. Benefits of taking small steps so you can keep yourself moving.
Great.
Career benefits of raising your online visibility when you hate the idea of self -promotion. I bet that resonates with a lot of people, Kara. It's a great topic.
Yep. Okay. So that's benefits.
Now we're going to do the opposite. The opposite of benefits is mistakes. Mistakes.
Why are mistakes helpful? Mistakes are helpful because people want to know what not to do just as much as they want to know what to do. Right?
This is a very important idea. No one wants to make mistakes. And anytime someone starts something new, One of the primary reasons why they don't take action or they struggle to take action is because they are afraid of doing something wrong.
Right? Drop in the chat real quick. Has anyone not started writing online yet because you've been uncertain about something?
You've been afraid to make a mistake? What if I pick the wrong niche? What if I write about the wrong topic?
What if I write something and people disagree with me? What if I pick the wrong platform? What if I spend six months writing about a topic and then I realize that I don't like writing about that topic anymore?
Every single question that someone has about any topic is really a mask for things that they're afraid of happening. It's a mask for things like they don't want to make those mistakes. So mistake content.
is one of my favorite types of content because it speaks directly to the thing that is holding everybody back inside of every single topic which is i'm afraid of making a mistake i'm afraid of doing something wrong okay so take the topic that you want to write about and just think what are things that people are afraid of happening what are questions that people have So how about for my topic, I would say mistakes people make when publishing their first nonfiction book on Amazon.
Okay. What about other specific mistakes? Mistakes people make when optimizing their Amazon author profile.
Mistakes people make when hiring their first book designer. Mistakes people make when outlining their first nonfiction book. Mistakes people make marketing their first nonfiction book.
Mistakes people make coming up with a title and subtitle for their first nonfiction book.
Like just in mistakes, we just generated six ideas in like 20 seconds. Because what's happening is all we're doing is we're just thinking, what's another type of mistake? What's another question that my reader has?
What's another thing that my reader is afraid of happening?
Mistakes gifted kids make when they study on the last day, even if they score well. It's a great one. Mistakes people make creating an online presence for their career.
Great. Mistakes women make when they neglect to get their blood tested. Great.
Mistakes people make when diversifying their investment portfolio. That's an awesome one, Ronnie.
Yeah, Randy, you can use challenges. I'm going to show you that as a framework here in a second, but just for the sake of practicing the exercise, just think in terms of mistakes. Mistakes beverage companies make launching a celebrity brand.
Great topic. Mistakes I made making my kids rooms brain friendly for each of them. Great topic.
Mistakes parents make when picking a school for their special needs child. Great topic.
Mistakes people make on an HOA board. I need to read that, Mark. My HOA is driving me nuts.
Mistakes people make avoiding anxiety. Mistakes managers make when leading their teams. So everyone see how this works?
Trust me, inside of every single topic, there are like an infinite number of mistakes. Infinite. I mean, it's true for all of these, all 10 of these magical ways, okay?
But... There are so like mistakes are so ripe for ideas. All right.
Now we're going on to reasons. Now reasons, I'm going to bold this, reasons kind of mirrors lessons, which is when you are writing about reasons inside your topic, you are either giving readers reasons to do something or reasons not to do something. Okay.
So we're going to do this the same way. We're going to go reasons to do, and we're going to go reasons not to do. Okay.
The top one is positive. The bottom one is negative. So for my topic, I might say reasons every business owner should self -publish on Amazon instead of pursuing a traditional book deal.
Here are the reasons why I recommend you should do this thing. Okay? Reasons not to.
Reasons every business owner should not spend money on ads promoting their nonfiction book on Amazon. Here are reasons not to do something. So I want everyone to take your topic.
and generate two ideas inside of reasons. What are reasons your target reader should do something? And what are reasons your target reader should not do something?
What do we got? Drop in the chat once you got something.
All right, Sebastian. Good first take, not following the instructions. First, reasons to do something.
Second, reasons not to do something. Kara, reasons every teacher needs a LinkedIn presence. Great.
Negative, reasons teachers should not neglect developing an online presence. Perfect.
Ronnie, positive. Three reasons you should focus on your income instead of your savings rate. Negative, reasons you do not need a budget as a high earner.
Great. Great. Two great topics.
Randy, reasons people should find natural cures for arthritis. Negative, reasons people should not ignore natural cures for arthritis. Great.
Reasons to use neuroplasticity intentionally. Reasons not to reinforce old patterns. All right, nice.
Kelsey, I would try to get a little more specific about those, but yep, following the framework.
Reasons gifted kids should study consistently rather than mugging it all up in one go. Yep, or to be more specific, saving it for the night before the test. Negative reasons gifted kids should not try to bypass things they think are below them.
Great, great topics. All right, so everyone see how reasons works? Reasons are another amazing one.
Like, anytime you're explaining something to someone, you have to remember there's a reason why they're not doing it. And the reason, the reason, notice how I'm executing the framework as I'm articulating this. The reason is because they might understand what to do, but they don't really understand or aren't connecting to why it's important.
And so reasons is, well, let's get you excited about the positive or let's make you afraid of the negative. And afraid in a positive way, which is like, you don't want these bad things to happen, right? So here are the reasons why you should do this thing.
Let's get you excited about it. Or here are the reasons why you shouldn't do this thing. Let me help you.
Let me educate you. Right?
Okay. The next one is questions.
another one of my favorites because questions allow you to speak directly to that little voice in people's heads where you might not even realize it as the day is going on. But anytime that you get interested in a topic, you have questions about it, right? Sometimes those questions are very obvious and sometimes those questions are not so obvious.
And so I want you to think about the topic that you want to write about. Think about a desired outcome. that your target reader has, and then think about questions they would have that are holding them back from achieving that desired outcome.
So for example, questions first -time authors have when publishing on Amazon.
Questions business owners have when setting up their first Amazon ads campaign. Questions public speakers have when writing their first book. Questions first -time authors have about marketing their new nonfiction book.
So take your topic, think about a desired outcome. There's many desired outcomes, right? There's probably many things that people are interested in.
relative to your topic. And then think about, so what are questions that people would have about achieving that thing or that are keeping them from taking action and achieving that thing?
Questions college students have when applying for graduate school. Perfect. Yep.
Absolutely. Questions high earners have when setting up a tax efficient investment portfolio in the UK. Yep.
If I lived in the UK, I would read that piece.
Yeah, Sebastian, the beauty of this framework is you could. You could turn all of these into listicles by just putting a number in front of it. Or you could not turn it into a listicle.
But all of these are just ideas. Like how we execute all of these ideas is what we're going to talk about inside Ship 30.
Questions working professionals have about yoga to stop migraine episodes. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. So you're telling me that yoga can help me with my migraine, but I have a question. If I have a migraine and I'm in a lot of pain, am I going to still be able to do it?
What if I've never done yoga before? Do I have to go to a yoga studio or are these things that I can do at home? Every single one of these questions is an idea for you to write about.
So I'm going to let everyone in here on a little content secret, especially as it relates to questions. If you ever find yourself going, I don't know what to write about today. One of the easiest ideas to generate is to start with a question that your target reader has.
And you might be sitting there and asking, well, how am I supposed to know what those questions are? Well, in an ideal world, you are writing about a topic that you are personally interested in. You have some sort of interest in it, right?
Maybe it's an industry that you've worked in. Maybe it's an industry that you currently work in. Maybe it's a hobby that you've had for a long time.
Maybe it's a topic that you just started getting interested in and you've been reading a lot about it, right? Chances are you're writing about a topic because you have some sort of personal interest in it, which means. Any question that you have ever had ever about that topic is an idea.
Because if you've had the question, I guarantee you someone else has that question.
So every question that you have ever asked yourself ever about the topic that you're writing about is something that you should write for the next person.
Does that make sense?
Okay. Questions are amazing, amazing starting points for ideas.
Like I know for everybody here, how many people are on this call? Let's see. Almost a hundred.
Okay. Almost a hundred people here. I bet I know.
99 % of the questions rumbling around in your head about writing online.
Where's the best place to write online? Which platform should I pick? Which platform is best for my niche or my industry?
What happens if I start writing on a platform and I decide I want to change it? What happens if I start writing about a topic and I decide I don't want to write about that topic anymore? Should I optimize for virality or should I just optimize for reaching my target reader?
What about if I have zero followers, then what I just go there, there's 500 questions that are rumbling around everybody's heads here. And I know all of them because I have had all of those questions.
Okay. So the easiest place to start is to just think about. In whatever topic that you are writing about, what are questions that you've had?
And all of those questions are ideas.
Okay. All right. We got two more.
The next one is examples. Now, why are examples helpful? Well, examples do two really important things.
One, they help give target readers. pattern recognition, right? Like, what are we doing here?
Every, every time I explain something, I am giving you examples. I don't just say, come up with lessons. I say, here's the, here's the value of lessons.
And here are two examples of me doing it. Now you do it, right? So examples help build pattern recognition.
And so when you give readers examples, what you are doing is you are making the thing that you are explaining more tangible. You are helping them build pattern recognition. You're not just saying, here's the idea.
You're saying, here's the idea. And here's an example of what good looks like. Or here's an example of what bad looks like.
Right?
Yeah, Janice, it could be a personal anecdote, but it doesn't have to be. I could be explaining, here's how to fix your refrigerator.
And you're like, okay, I understand conceptually, but what would help a lot is if I go, and here's an example of how to replace the screw inside your refrigerator that I'm telling you how to replace. Right? Examples just build pattern recognition.
The second thing that examples do, Is when you are giving examples of of things done well or people achieving things well, that is very motivating. So anytime you're explaining how to do something, when you can provide an example of a person, a .k .a.
a success story that inspires people to take action. Right. So I'm going to give everyone an example.
Notice, I am talking the same way that we are writing. So I just explained it. And now to help everyone build pattern recognition, I am going to provide an example.
So I go, for example, examples of self -published nonfiction authors on Amazon making $100 ,000 or more per year from their books.
If I give these examples to my target reader who wants to self -publish on Amazon, I am doing both of those things. I am helping them build pattern recognition. So they go, oh, here are examples of how to execute this correctly, right?
And second is I am motivating them. I go, and there's no reason why you can't do this because look at all these people doing it. Okay.
So I want everyone to come up with what is something that you can show your target reader as an example. And an easy one is to think about a desired outcome. Think about something they care about.
And how can you show them examples of it? So I'm thinking about the arthritis topic. Examples of women over 60 who cured their arthritis.
That would help build pattern recognition. And that would be very motivating.
Yeah, Randy, perfect. Examples of people who have used spices to successfully eliminate their arthritis. Builds pattern recognition, very motivating.
Examples of expenses which buy you time freedom. Exactly, Ronnie. It's one thing to understand that.
It's another to go, and here's what that looks like. Here are some examples of expenses, right?
Examples of working professionals who overcame migraine episodes. Yeah, it's a great topic. Imagine if you took that to level 10, you were like examples of publicly traded CEOs who struggled with migraines for years and then eventually solved them.
Wow. If it works for the CEO of a $10 billion company, it probably worked for me too, right?
Examples of the reasons doctors lose leads because their website is not collecting visitors. Yeah, Boris, exactly. That is an example of negative examples, right?
Here's what it looks like to do something poorly. That is just as helpful as here is an example of how to do it correctly.
Yeah, that's a great one. Examples of special needs kids who aced their SAT exams. It's probably very motivating, especially for parents with special needs kids.
They're like, wow, okay, so it is possible, right? Builds pattern recognition, very motivating.
Michelle, that's a great one. Examples of people who overcame their imposter syndrome and landed their dream jobs.
All right. So we're all clear on examples.
Examples are one of my favorite things to do inside of a piece of content to make it more tangible. So this is something we're going to talk about in Ship 30, because in Ship 30, we're going to start with very small containers. And then over the 30 days, we're going to write longer and longer things.
So I'm going to show everyone how to take a very small idea and expand it and then expand it again and then expand it again and then expand it again. And one of the easiest ways to expand any piece of writing, it's like, how do you go from a tweet to a 2000 word newsletter? The answer is you give the reader more.
And one of the most helpful things you can give them more of is more examples. So it's not just here's how to do it, but also here's an example of me doing it. Here's an example of someone else doing it.
Here's an example of people who did this and then achieved the same outcome that you want to achieve. Examples build pattern recognition and are very motivating.
Now the last one breaks our pattern here a little bit. Notice how all of these 10 magical ways, we're basically just putting them at the front. of the idea, the front of the sentence, right?
Tips for mistakes, lessons, stats, reasons, questions, okay? Personal stories is where you start thinking about, so what's something that you've experienced that is directly related to something the reader cares about?
So what I mean by this is, Take the other nine magical ways here and think about a time that you think about your topic and a desired outcome that you wanted, whether you achieved it or you didn't achieve it. And what happened?
And when you tie a personal story to a desired outcome relative to your topic, inherently, that means it's going to be interesting. to your target reader because they want the same thing or they want to not make the same mistake as you, right? So personal stories, it breaks our rule a little bit, but it's not that hard to come up with where you just think about, so what's something that I have personally experienced here?
Okay. And you can use the other nine magical ways to generate ideas. Actually, you know what?
Let's go through and let's do this. Let's just go down the list. Tips I would give someone if they wanted to self -publish their first book on Amazon.
Because I have written 10 plus books on Amazon. That's something I've experienced. Okay, what about stats?
Stats I would tell or I would point out to first -time authors that I... Or that helped me a lot at the beginning of my writing journey? Or what about the steps I would take to become a full -time author if I was starting over from zero?
Lessons I learned publishing 10 plus books on Amazon.
Mistakes I made designing my first self -published book cover myself. Reasons I don't think everyone should write a book and why they should hire a ghostwriter instead. Questions I had at the beginning.
of my author career that you probably have too.
Examples of the inflection points in my writing career when I made the most money.
So all of these are things that I have personally experienced. So I can tell the story, you know, like If I was starting over from zero, I can tell the story of, well, when I started at zero, I did all these things and this is what happened.
And if I could do it all over again, this is what I would do differently.
Yeah, Randy, would this be a good way to write an atomic essay? Absolutely. That's the whole point.
That's the whole point. That's what we're going to cover in Ship 30.
Chris, that's a really good one. My mother never used recipes and made the best meals I've ever had. It wasn't until I stopped using recipes that I actually became a great cook.
Cool.
Yeah, Virginia, that's a good one. Lessons I learned going on 12 college visits with my daughter. That's a personal experience.
That's a personal story. I went and visited these 12 schools. Was that too much?
Was that too little? What are things that you learned? What are things that you took away from it?
Yeah, Boris, there you go. Mistakes I made starting to post on LinkedIn.
How I helped my parents get the living room back by redesigning the kids' rooms. There you go. That's a personal experience.
Yeah, Michelle, that's a good one, assuming that's what you experienced and you could write about that personal experience, right? Tips I would give students who feel like a fraud when they started a prestigious school. So maybe you tell the story.
Hey, when I remember when my parents signed me up for this prestigious school or I attended this prestigious school and I had all these fears, right? Personal experience. So personal stories, the whole key, the whole key to telling personal stories, and this is a very important nuance, is that I want everyone to , okay?
And you grab your glass of wine. You go over to this group of people, you start mingling, you start making conversation. And this person, you just hear them telling these stories about their life, like over and over and over again.
And it's not connected to anything that you're personally interested in. And so what happens in that moment, you find that person annoying. Now they don't mean to be annoying.
Maybe there's other people that find the stories really interesting, but their stories aren't connected to anything that you are interested in. Right. And so as a result, you kind of tune them out and you go move to another group of people.
But now imagine you grab that glass of wine, you walk up to a group of people and your friend introduces you to someone and goes, oh, yeah, you know, Mary here. Mary is thinking about buying her first rental property. And the other guy in the group goes, oh, my gosh.
I've been buying rental properties for 15 years. Actually, I've got a crazy story for you. And then he goes on to tell a story about the first time he bought a rental property.
Well, you listen to that story because it is directly connected to something that you're very interested in. You're thinking about buying your first rental property. This person has bought a bunch of rental properties and they are telling you a story about it.
And in that story, what are you doing? You're listening for... maybe little tips.
Like what are little things they mentioned where you're like, oh, that's a really good point. I'm going to tuck that away for later. What about lessons?
They're like, and then I bought this first property and it was a nightmare and I learned so many things. Like one of the things I learned was you're listening for lessons. You're listening for benefits.
They're like, oh, and then once I got to five rental properties, like, oh my gosh, then my life changed. Like all these good things started happening. You're listening for mistakes.
So the whole key to telling personal stories is that whatever topic you want to write about, you are telling a story in service of a shared desired outcome.
If you do that, the reader listens. If you don't do that and you just tell an arbitrary story for the sake of it, the reader doesn't care because the reader is not invested in it. The story is not connected to something that they care about.
Okay?
Does this make sense? Everyone understand? There is tremendous, tremendous value in telling personal stories.
The whole secret, though, is that the story has to be connected to a shared desired outcome. You're telling the story because... You care about how it ends, right?
You cared about how it ends. And you're telling the story to pass along something to the listener, to the reader, because they care about the same thing that you care about or cared about, right? It's like, why do I share personal stories about writing on the internet?
Well, I share them because I'm like, I know what you care about because I care about the same thing. So let me tell you a story about it.
This is, by the way, what I've just articulated in the past five minutes is one of the most difficult things for people to understand in nonfiction writing. So A, if it doesn't click right away, that's okay. You are not alone.
Just give yourself time. You'll get it, okay? It's a skill.
But second is so often people think that the value of telling a story is the fact that they told a story. They think the value of telling a story is like, I took the time to write it. That is not the value.
The value of a story is what the story teaches or tells the target reader about an outcome that you both share in common.
That's how you get them invested in the story, right? They want to know how the story ends because they are pursuing a similar story, right? If I tell you all a story about how 10 years ago I...
was brand new to writing on the internet and completely broke in chicago and 10 years later have generated over 30 million dollars writing on the internet you care about the end of that story because you're like i want to go on some version of that same arc right i'm starting at zero and i want to achieve something invested in the story because you and i we share relatively similar desired outcomes Now the nuances of those desired outcomes might be different, but ultimately it's like we're heading in the same direction.
Okay. And so that's the goal. Anytime you're telling a story.
So everyone understand the 10 magical ways. Everyone see this? Now, the last thing I want to point out is you go, okay, Cole, I generated 10 ideas.
How do I generate a hundred?
The single easiest way. to generate 100 ideas is to go down this list and do 10 versions of each. We basically did this for personal stories already.
And we're halfway through doing this for mistakes. You can generate 100 ideas by just taking the 10 magical ways, multiplying it by your topic, and creating 10 versions of each.
And once you build this skill, you can do this in literally 15 minutes. Like not hard. Like let's see how long it takes to do one.
Tips, well, actually we'll call this as the first one. Tips for self -publishing your first nonfiction book on Amazon. Tips for setting up your first nonfiction book ad campaign on Amazon.
Tips for hiring your first book designer on Amazon. Tips for creating marketing collateral to market your book on Amazon. Tips for optimizing your Amazon author page.
Tips for optimizing the book page for any self -published book. Tips for setting up an email newsletter to promote your book over time. Tips for driving traffic from your social profiles.
to your amazon author page tips for setting up retargeting ads to promote your book on amazon tips for creating a personal website as an author using claude code tips for using youtube to drive traffic to your books and tap into google's Search results.
I mean, we could keep going just on tips. So that's over 10 just inside tips in less than 60 seconds.
So that means in 10 minutes, we can generate 100 ideas just by going down the 10 magical ways and then coming up with different versions inside each one. Now, Michelle, You ask a great question.
This is a question a lot of people ask, which is, do you recommend diving into one single topic versus expanding to different topics? The answer is it's entirely up to you. But if you wanted to write about another topic, what would you do?
You would just do this whole exercise over again. And if you wanted to write about another topic, what would you do? You would just write about that same topic through this same lens.
You would do the same exercise all over again. And what will happen, and this is something we're going to talk about in Ship 30, is what will happen is your niche, just to demystify this for everyone, you can write about whatever you want to write about. If one day you write about investing and the next day you write about parenting, it doesn't matter.
No one's going to get mad. It's not a problem. You can write about whatever you want to write about.
Your niche what it means to become known for a niche you own, all that means is that over time, you write about one topic more relative to all the other topics. That's all it means.
It doesn't mean you can't write about other things. It just means you write about one thing more than other things. And so people tend to associate you with the topic that you write the most about.
So if you start writing about three topics and one of them really grabs your attention for a month and you write about it more, chances are for that period of time, people are going to associate you with that topic more. But then the next month, if you go, you know what? I don't want to write about that topic anymore.
Now I'm interested in something else. Can you write about another topic? Yeah, of course you can.
Do you have to delete all your previous posts? No, of course not.
So your niche is really just the topic that you write about more relative to all the other topics. And that might change over time. It probably will.
And what the final result of this, just to show everyone, this is something we've been working on for the past two months. Very excited about it. But this is what the final result looks like.
Okay. So in Ship 30, and you don't have to use this. Okay.
This is just. Our cool SaaS platform, if you find it helpful and you want to use it and you want to build your digital brain inside of TypeShare and you want to use the agents and the systems that we've set up to get some leverage on it, that's great. You don't have to do this, okay?
But visually, this is essentially what you're doing and achieving by writing online. Every time you write and publish something, you are , which is your library of content on the internet. And inside of that brain is going to be more than one topic, right?
Like I write about business and monetization. I also write about the craft of writing. I also write about digital publishing.
I also write about AI and workflows. I write a little bit about finance and investing. Lately, I've been writing a little bit about World of Warcraft and my experience is playing that game as a teenager.
Right? Yeah, and TypeShare is our SaaS platform. Typeform is a completely different company.
We have nothing to do with Typeform. Okay? And here, if I hover over my profile, there are also lots of just personal stories and personal anecdotes that I've shared.
Okay? So this is all you're doing. Every time you hit publish, you are contributing to your content library, aka your digital brain.
And as time goes on, you're going to write about lots of different things. And that's okay. That's actually the point, right?
But the ultimate goal and what your niche ends up being simply means you write more about one thing relative to all the other things you write about. For me, I write more about writing in the digital age than I write about all the other things I'm interested in. Every once in a while, I will write about my experiences as a pro gamer, as a teenager.
Every once in a while, I'll write something about finance and investing, right? Lately, I've been writing more about AI and workflows and how it relates to writing where I think technology and writing is going. But generally speaking, I tend to write about writing in the digital age the most.
And as a result, that is the topic that most people associate me with. So this should be very empowering for everyone, okay? Is it?
Can you drop in the chat? Is this helpful? Is this empowering?
Because this should remove this fear of like, oh my gosh, my positioning has to be perfect and I have to commit to a niche before I can make a single move. No, you are a multidimensional person. You have many different interests.
You want to write about many different things. That is fine. You can do that.
Your niche is simply, but as time goes on, I tend to write about this topic more. That's all it is. That's all it means.
And part of the reason why we've rebuilt TypeShare in this way is to give all of you a visual representation of this so that you can actually see, oh, this is what my digital brain looks like. This is what my content library looks like. Now I understand every time I write something and I publish something, I am contributing to this digital brain.
Does that make sense?
Brenda, exactly. Exactly. Ryan Holiday is one of my favorite examples.
When he was writing about marketing the most, people associated him with marketing. Then he stopped writing about marketing as much and he started writing more about stoicism. And over time, people started associating him with stoicism more than they associated him with writing.
Was it because he did some big grand announcement and announced, I am no longer writing about marketing. I am now only writing about stoicism. No, of course not.
All he did is he just started writing about another topic more. And the more he wrote about that other topic, the more people associated that topic with him. That's all.
All right. So we got 10 minutes. I'm going to open it up for some questions.
If you have any questions, drop it in the chat. Anything I can clarify? Maybe first, was this helpful?
One out of 10. How did we feel? Do we all have ideas?
One out of 10, how was this masterclass? Did we learn something? We feel confident going into Ship 30.
We're like, wow, I have a hundred ideas. I have three months of content of things I could write about.
Awesome. I'm glad. That's the goal.
That's the goal. Unlimited ideas now. Yes, that's the goal.
Yeah, me too, Tanya. It's been, yeah, a year since we ran a Ship 30 cohort. I'm super excited about this.
We rebuilt all of it. The whole curriculum is new. All the live sessions are new.
Type share is new. I'm really excited about it. It's gonna be fun.
All right, couple minutes. Any follow -up questions? Any quick questions that people have before we go?
I wanna make sure that you feel good going into Ship 30.
By the way, if you haven't yet, if you want a friend, don't forget, you can invite a friend to come join Ship 30. You can invite a friend to come join Ship 30. So if you want an accountability buddy, maybe reach out to a friend and go, hey, let's do Ship 30 together.
Yeah, Sebastian, what should you have prepared going into Ship 30? So next week is onboarding week. We walk everyone through very simple onboarding process.
you'll be good to go. This is the best thing you can do is walk in, show up day one and go, I got a lot of things I could write about. That's the easiest place to start.
Yeah, Katie, thanks for linking. So I'll show this real quick. If you want to bring an accountability buddy, and Anna, if you want to drop your question in the chat, I'm happy to answer it.
But if you want to bring an accountability buddy, you go into AI Writing School. this first box here join the cohort and if you go to want to bring a friend to this cohort this is the little walkthrough guide to invite a friend okay so if you want to invite a friend a little accountability that's that's a great one yeah olu do i need ship 30 if i want to be a ghost writer i mean no not necessarily but you will learn a lot you will learn a lot they're the same skill It's writing.
You're either writing for yourself or you're writing for someone else.
Um, yeah, Anna, I don't, there, there might be some confusion there because type type form is a, like a survey platform. That's not a writing platform. So, um, it's always been type share type type form is like a completely different.
We have nothing to do with that. That's a survey platform, completely different industry. It's always been type share.
Do you recommend writing together with AI at the beginning or trying to build the skill completely organically first? Yeah, I am a big believer in building the skill yourself. The entirety of Ship 30, the thing that inspired me to rebuild it is that I would like to challenge everyone to do Ship 30 without AI.
Because something that I have really noticed in the past two years is how many people want to start writing in some capacity. It doesn't even matter what they want to write about. And they try to skip the step of understanding, well, how do I think through this?
And they just instantly use AI. And then they post it and they're like, three people commented and said, this looks like AI and it's not helpful. And it's like, well, yeah, because you didn't build the skill to know what to look for.
You didn't know how to edit the output. You didn't know how to actually use AI to your benefit. And the only way you can know how to use AI to your benefit is if you understand how to write in the first place, right?
So I really encourage everyone. I mean, obviously you're welcome to do whatever you want to do if you want to use AI and you want to try and find the shortcut by all means. But like, I would really encourage everyone to build the skill.
Writing is a mechanism for clarifying your thinking. AI gives leverage to clear thinking. So if you do not have clear thinking, and if you do not understand the principles of writing, then AI is going to give you something and you're going to have no idea whether it's good or bad, helpful, not helpful.
You have no idea how to evaluate the output.
Yeah, Serene, if you want to use it for brainstorming, sure. But think about what we just did on this masterclass. Brainstorming ideas is a skill.
So if you want to get better at that skill, You're not going to get better at brainstorming ideas if you have AI do it for you, right? So I would encourage you to practice and build the skill yourself and then consider using AI to amplify it, okay?
And can you use AI to edit? Sure. If you want AI to give you some feedback, sure.
But like, I wish, like, all I can say is that I have been training writers for a decade now. And I have noticed a steep drop off in the past two years at how many people start these things and then instantly defer to AI and then get frustrated and give up three days later. And it's because they're trying to shortcut the learning process and it doesn't work.
It never works. So that's my honest feedback. I would really encourage everyone to build the skill.
Yeah, awesome, Randy. Glad to hear it. Yeah, Virginia, the power of a positive mindset for succeeding in Chip 30.
I mean, everything I would say is everything I know every person here knows. Like you will get more out of it if you embrace progress more than perfection. If you are optimistic about something, you will make progress.
If you are pessimistic about something, you won't do it. So, so much of mindset is just embracing the learning process. And the way that we've structured Ship 30 is that I have broken it down to daily actions.
So every day it's like, here's just one idea. And here is one thing that you should go do. Micro, micro steps.
And so I have made it as tangible and actionable as I can. And I have structured it very deliberately so that each day builds on the last. And if you trust the process, I promise maybe the first day, second day, you're like, oh, this feels kind of different or, oh, I don't know where this is going or, oh, I think I understand this.
I can just skip it. I promise. Like if you follow the instructions on the box and you trust the process one week later, two weeks later, three weeks later, you're going to go, oh my gosh, now I'm really experiencing the compounding benefits of doing all these things in order.
It's very deliberate, very deliberate.
Yeah, Lindsay, I mean, honestly, same. Like I am a big proponent of AI. I am constantly experimenting with it.
I think we're still very early and there's so much we don't know about the best ways of using it yet. But I will tell everyone here, I almost never, actually never. have AI write something that I have not already written a hundred times myself ever.
The only time I use AI for writing is when I'm like, you know, I've written follow -up emails in this funnel 500 times. I probably don't need to do that anymore. I bet I can train AI to do it, and I have so much pattern recognition, and I know exactly how the email should go, and I have the skill, and I've already clarified the thinking, so now I can automate it.
But I never, zero percent, never have AI write something that I have not personally already written dozens, if not hundreds of times myself.
And that is, to me, that's the right way of using AI. You don't use AI to write things you don't know how to write. You use AI to repeat things that you've already written hundreds of times.
That's the goal.
And yeah, Melinda, every session is recorded. It'll all be uploaded inside of the Ship 30 for 30 module. You can always catch up.
We distribute the replays after. No problem.
And yeah, Billy, that is the entire point of that digital brain. That's why we're building TypeShare in this direction is because the right way to use AI is for you to do the thinking. It's for you to do the writing.
It's for you to create lots of different examples of writing something about a topic and then using AI to go, can you just help me repeat myself?
How you should not use AI is go, hey, I really want to write about this topic. Never written about it before. No idea what I want to say.
Can you write it for me? That is like the worst way to use AI. Right.
So I I feel very strongly that as time goes on, you're going to see this divergence where the people who do the writing and clarify their thinking and build content libraries. certain topics and build their digital brains, they are going to get a tremendous amount of leverage out of AI. And the people who don't and just go, AI, can you write me a newsletter about topic?
And they try to shortcut it. They are going to experience 30 seconds of feeling like they found a shortcut and then a very steep drop off of realizing that they have built no leverage and they have no idea what they're doing. And so there is a skill to build.
in terms of writing and writing yourself and building your own digital brain so that you get leverage out of it as time goes on.
All right. Well, we're at time. Thanks everyone.
This was a great masterclass. I really appreciate everyone showing up. I hope this makes you feel pumped and prepared going into Ship 30.
We're going to kick off onboarding next week and then start writing the week after. Obviously, if you want to start writing now, by all means, like it's not going to hurt you. It's going to help you.
But we're going to go through onboarding next week and then officially start Ship 30 the week after. So very excited. Can't wait.
I appreciate everyone being here. I hope this makes you feel prepared and I will see everyone next week for kickoff. We're going to do our kickoff call and our shipper meet and greet.
All right. Thanks, everyone. See you.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Nicolas Cole opens by promising something concrete: a ten-angle framework that turns any topic into a hundred ideas, then proves it live with roughly a hundred writers typing their own topics into the chat as he builds the list in real time.
Named ideas worth stealing.
06:25list
The 10 Magical Ways to Expand Anything
- Tips
- Stats
- Steps
- Lessons
- Benefits
- Mistakes
- Reasons
- Questions
- Examples
- Personal Stories
Cole's fixed set of ten angles for generating article ideas from any single topic, built after noticing the same ten angles recurred across roughly 3,000 ghostwritten articles.
Steal forany content calendar or brainstorming session that's stalled on 'what do I write about next'
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
00:20product
“come join us, check out the link in the description”
A soft pre-roll pitch for the Ship 30 for 30 cohort before the masterclass content begins; the rest of the session is pure teaching with no further pitch until the closing minutes mention inviting a friend.
Visual structure at a glance.
