How to be completely ignorable
Building a brand (personal or company) is scary.
People DM you wanting to work with you & for you.
They want to get your help. Maybe even pay you for it.
They want you to go on podcasts and speak at conferences.
Here’s my proprietary framework on how to avoid all these scary things:
1. Only do the logical thing
If everyone does the most logical thing, everyone will do the exact same thing.
And as Rory Sutherland says:
“You’ll never be fired for making the logical decision.”
So don’t even think about doing something that might make you stand out. Look what happened to Liquid Death with their crazy branding, messaging, and attention.
You don’t want that.
2. Post and ghost
People crave community and connection. So avoid it.
If you just throw content up online and then disappear and do not connect with your readers and other creators, you’ll definitely be ignored.
Same if you just let people buy your product and then you never connect with your customers to learn things like why they bought, and what they like and don’t like.
3. Use jargon and long sentences
Clear, simple language makes it easy for people to understand your message.
And you definitely don’t want that—they might figure out what you actually sell.
4. Be a thought recycler, not a thought leader
If you:
Have unique points of view
Do original research
Or share a unique perspective
People will notice. So make sure to recycle other people’s ideas.
5. Use templates
The best way to be ignored is to sound exactly like everyone else.
And to blatantly copy something that people have seen already.
Using templates is an excellent way to do this.
6. Wait until it’s perfect to publish
If you strive for perfection, you’ll never publish.
There’s no better way to be ignored than to never publish anything.
So keep editing and researching!
7. Your target audience is everyone
If you sell a specific solution to a specific person with a specific problem, they might just find it extremely valuable and take note.
So instead try to help everyone with a very broad problem like “making friends.”
8. Hop on every trend
People love it when someone changes their identity each new season.
They love your evolved thinking when you change from the “Dropshipping Guy” to the “Web3 Guy” to the “Ai Guy” and then to the “Threads Guy.”
So don’t be like James Clear where you choose a specific, niche, and valuable topic and become the domain expert in it over 10 years.
9. Ask: “What in it for me?”
People love kind, courteous, and giving people.
Instead, approach relationships as completely transactional and only post content or engage with people if it serves your self-interests.
10. Optimize for engagement + followers
Do you follow accounts on Instagram with 1M+ followers that share memes, animal photos/videos, or photos of Victorian-era homes?
I sure do.
Have you ever bought anything from them? Ha, no.
Do you even care who runs it? It probably never crossed your mind.
Would you make a purchase decision based on its recommendation? Doubt it.
Accounts that build purchase intent and influence are ones that demonstrate expertise. So don’t do that.
11. Let AI do everything
ChatGPT is super powerful. Just ask it to generate all of your content for the next month. Give it max like 10 words as a prompt.
Don’t even read or edit them. Then just schedule the posts and walk away.
Done.
Conclusion
In short:
Copy others
Write poorly
Use people
And do a bit of everything for everyone
Actually, just let AI do those things
Just kidding.
If you want to succeed you need to become Un-ignorable. And to do that, do the opposite of all of these things.
Cheers folks!
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How I can help you grow:
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1000s of companies define their growth strategy.
100s of people start building their personal brand.
And I run two 7-figure bootstrapped businesses.
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– Neal