Blockbuster Blueprint: Preparation Stage (Index)
Blockbuster Blueprint: Preparation Stage (Index)
This page houses the articles I wrote that talk in more detail about the Stage 2 of the Blockbuster Blueprint.
I shared the core model in this article: Blockbuster Blueprint: The Most Comprehensive Map Of Thought Leadership (Based On Thousands Of Hours Of Development).
The Stage 2, or Prepare, has several aspects that I’ve broken down below. However, if you want to explore all of the articles on this topic, you can find them on this link.
Some of these aspects I’ve covered in the newsletter, others I will be covering in the future so stay tuned…
1. Learn About Thought Leadership
Mental Models For Thought Leaders
Below are my top picks of articles on mental models for thought leaders:
Blockbuster Mental Model
Blockbuster 2.0: The #1 Mental Model For Writers Who Want To Create High-Quality, Viral Content. How did I go from almost no experience, no email list—in a world of information overwhelm—to having articles consistently seen by stadiums full of people in just a few years? It all comes down to one mental model, which I will dissect in this article.
Blockbuster Blueprint: The Most Comprehensive Map Of Thought Leadership (Based On Thousands Of Hours Of Development). The map I share in this article is the culmination of thousands of hours of development that I’ve done with my own articles, with clients of the content agency I used to have, and with students in the live cohorts I teach. This is the first time I am properly introducing it to a wider audience.
Tutorial: The 30-Hour Blockbuster Article. Learn my 30-Hour Blockbuster framework along with a step-by-step action plan to help you create a blockbuster article in 30 hours.
Multi-Perspectile Thinking
A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points. There are a surprisingly large number of perspectives different people can take on anything. Not only that, as an individual there are a surprisingly large number of perspectives we can take moment to moment. The goal of a thought leader is to see certain things differently and better on a dimension that is important to the people that follow us.
People Who Change Their Opinion "Too Much" Are More Likely To Succeed, According To Research. Staking out an opinion and holding on to it no matter what is celebrated—so much so that it has its own slogans: “Stay the course.” “Defy the critics.” “Prove them wrong.” Conversely, individuals who share a nuanced opinion and then later change it are often criticized...
I Spent 200+ Hours Collecting The Top 35 Resources On Perspectiving So You Become An Idea Machine. By becoming good at Perspectiving, you can rise above the noise of the internet. More specifically, you can move beyond creating content that uses the same templates as everyone else.
Modern Thought Leader
Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman: How To Succeed As A Modern Thought Leader. This post is important because it challenges the fundamental assumptions that people go into thought leadership with without even realizing it. Rather than focusing on tactics, it focuses on a higher leverage point—paradigm. In other words, rather than teaching you how to fish, I’m teaching you about the water you’re swimming in without even realizing it so you can make better choices.
Virality-Market Fit: The Only Thing That Matters In The Beginning. What works later in the process is only a distraction in the beginning. Find your Virality-Market first so you don't go on putting more lipstick on a pig.
Value Hooks: The #1 Skill Experts Need To Succeed Online (Based On Thousands Of Hours Of Research). To succeed as thought leaders, I am convinced that understanding hooks is the #1 bottleneck for 99% of experts. This article, which I spent many months creating, will help you take your first leap forward…
All artices that talk or mention the model of a modern thought leader
The Flywheel
The Bezos Flywheel: The #2 Mental Model That Has Helped Me Succeed As A Thought Leader. One question Jeff Bezos was often asked when he was the CEO of Amazon was one we all need to ask ourselves… What’s going to change in the next 10 years? It’s a profound question because the world is changing so rapidly and because the decisions we make now determine our destiny.
6D Thinking
6D Thinking: Bezos, Musk, & Buffett Learn Faster And Better Because They See Learning Differently. Over my last 8 years of writing about history’s most influential innovators and successful entrepreneurs and Nobel Laureates, I’ve realized that they don’t just work harder or do more productivity hacks. They actually inhabit a different paradigm of reality that’s hard to see. The big clue is that many of their core work habits go completely against conventional wisdom…
If you want to dive into mental models on thought leadership I shared over the years with the members of our Mental Model Club, you can check them out on this link—and join the club yourself!
Milestones
Brutal Truth: It Takes Years To Become A $100k Thought Leader Working Part-Time (Unless You're Lucky). This post is for all of the people who are wondering what’s actually required to be a full-time thought leader earning $100,000+ a year while impacting thousands of people.
2. Strategize
Platform
There are many considerations that go into selecting the main platform for sharing your ideas. I’m now convinced that, for the foreseeable future, your main efforts should go into building a paid newsletter. Below are some articles where I share why, along with some case studies:
Why Paid Newsletters Are The #1 Way To Monetize Your Knowledge. Over the last 20 years, I’ve experimented with 7 different ways to monetize my knowledge, and I’ve earned 6-7 figures per year with each approach. Newsletters are the best way for people who love learning to get paid to learn.
How Ben Thompson Got 40,000+ Paid Newsletter Subscribers. Ben Thompson started his $12/month, one-man newsletter, Stratechery, in 2014. Today, he has an estimated 40,000+ subscribers. Here's one of his top success strategies.
How To Pick The Best Paid Newsletter Platform / My Substack Review. Before we understand how to pick the best newsletter platform for you, we need to address the big elephant in the room that challenges the fundamental premise of this post… Substack Is Not A Paid Newsletter Platform On the surface, Substack looks like a paid newsletter platform.
Case Study: My #1 Lesson Learned About Newsletters After Launching 8 Weeks Ago. Over the last 8 weeks, I've written 30 posts, which is the equivalent of one full length book. On the one hand, we're off to a great start. We now have 170,000 free subscribers, and 280 paid subscribers. On the other hand, I've had one big lesson learned.
All articles that talk about or mention the paid newsletter model