What you need to do BEFORE you start writing a book.

Which ideas you should validate, which you shouldn't, and how to do it if you're going to.

There is a yin and yang between productivity and creativity—how soloists can find the right balance

Talking Points

Why authority-based businesses require being unproductive sometimes—and how to give yourself permission to go there.

The hidden costs of failing to innovate, especially for soloists.

The wide spectrum from productivity to creativity—and deciding where you want to be at any given moment.

Pushing through any residual guilt from not being highly productive all the time.

The difference between exploration and expedition—and why exploring (a proxy for creativity) may be challenging for experts.

Quotables

“There are things that you probably need to do for an authority-based business…that require you to be unproductive.”—JS

“Creativity is like being delightfully unproductive.”—RM 

“There's no stopwatch to be like, okay, like how fast did you come up with an idea today?”—JS 

“You may have this sort of mindset that you always need to be busy. And sometimes that just has to be broken.”—RM

“The question immediately comes up like, how do you schedule projects back to back if you're unsure when they're done? And I'm like, why are you scheduling projects back-to-back at all?”—JS

“You just have to find a way to shift back and forth between those times where you're really busy, and it's relatively quiet.”—RM 

“There's a thing that I do that looks like I'm doing nothing from the outside. And if you just recognize that that's part of the process, like without that, you're not gonna innovate.”—JS

“People resist it (allowing an idea to roll around before it gels) like I can't even tell you because there's so much discomfort in sitting in the not knowing.”—RM

How to find the overlap between your expertise and your what your client needs so you can operate in your genius zone.

Links

• Rochelle's Customer Avatar Brandsheet
• If You’re Not Turning Down Work You Don’t Have A Brand

We unpack the concept of a big idea, share some examples, and suggest how to start to define one for yourself.

LINKS

• Larry Tesler
• Finding Your Mission
• The Elon Musk Post Series

It's counterintuitive but true: focusing on a narrow market segment is great for business.

Links

• PRLeads
• HARO
• Trust Me I'm Lying

Having "clients for life" isn't always a good idea.

How to stop trading time for money.

Links

• Ditching Hourly
• Hourly Billing Is Nuts

The two ways you can decide to be a specialist or a generalist.

A four-quadrant approach to choosing where you want to take your business on the generalist to specialist continuum.

How to make a generalist skill set work in a hyper-differentiated marketplace.

Why experimenting between the quadrants will lead you to your ideal balance between specializing and generalizing.

Quotables

“In the etch-a-sketch metaphor, there are these two knobs you can dial…one would be who you help, and the other is what you do.”—JS

“Is there a market for this? And how big is that market?”—RM 

“The lower left quadrant is a rough place because that's where you have downward pricing pressure. You're commoditized.”—JS

“If you just pick one of these two axes, I think most people know right away which feels better.”—RM

“If you really want to be a generalist, I'd say okay. Stay general in your skills, but pick a vertical. Pick who you help.”—JS

“This can be an experiment, but even if it doesn't work, what do you learn from that experiment? Well, you learn what you didn't like, so how do you get closer to what you DO want?”—RM 

“You create a moat around yourself that very few competitors will be able to cross.”—JS

“You can think about which quadrant you are in. And is it the right quadrant for you and for your business? “—RM