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Hello Brave Marketers and Creators!

Nothing makes me happier than when weird stuff breaks through and enters the zeitgeist. It has literally never been harder to “go viral” than it is today, and yet, a two-person experimental rock duo from Saguenay, Quebec has done it.

And there is no way anyone could have predicted it, because this band does almost nothing in a conventional way. They don’t play a conventional genre of music. They don’t structure their songs like hits. They rarely have any vocals. They play unusual instruments.

And there’s one more thing that’s a teeny bit unusual about this band…

They perform head-to-toe in black-and-white polka dots, wearing papier-mâché masks that hide their identities. (And it’s not just clothes: hands and bare feet are painted in polka-dots, too. #details!)

Meet Angine de Poitrine, who get my strong vote for the weirdest and most compelling band in the world right now. This mysterious duo has exploded online after a concert appearance was posted by KEXP.

Within days, the performance began eating up the internet, racking up millions of views. I first saw them on Instagram. Then I saw them again. And again. And again. Each time with more fans and media outlets raving about their music and their style.

If you haven’t seen the performance yet, it’s well worth watching. It violates pretty much every expectation you have about a hot new band. Check this short preview out and tell me if you’ve ever seen anything like it:

There is SO MUCH to discuss about this band!

They’re a duo, not a full band.

They play microtonal math rock, which is already a niche within a niche.

Their songs are mostly instrumental and rarely structured like traditional “hits.”

The songs build slowly, layering intricate loops for long stretches before the music erupts. Unlike most songs that slam into a chorus in the opening 10 seconds to hook us immediately, Angine de Poitrine’s songs do exactly the opposite. They require and reward patience. You have to listen to this track for over 1:40 to get the full effect, but it is worth the wait.

One musician, only known as “Khn,” plays a custom double-neck instrument combining a bass and a guitar with twice as many frets as a standard guitar to allow quarter-tone microtonal tuning. (I’ll be honest—I barely understand what that means!)

The other member, the drummer, is only known as “Klek.”

We have no idea who these unusual and talented musicians are or what they look like. The mystery makes this all so much better! Honestly, it’s SO weird that it could almost be a comedy sketch on SNL.

By almost every piece of conventional music marketing advice, this should be a terrible strategy.

And yet people can’t stop sharing it. And music fans can’t stop talking about them.

Why?

Well, it sure helps that the music is awesome and these two are very talented musicians.

But equally important, Angine de Poitrine are truly one of a kind in this era of boring, never-ending, average sameness.

And in 2026, being the “most unlikely” wins.

The “Overnight Success” That Wasn’t

I don’t want to give you the impression that this is a stunt band that started in 2026 on a whim.

Angine de Poitrine formed in Saguenay, Quebec in 2019, and the two musicians have been playing together since they were young teenagers. Just watch the video and you will instantly know that this is not a joke—there are some crazy musical chops on display here. Their debut album, Vol. 1, was released in 2024 and last year, they were named Artist of the Year at Quebec’s GAMIQ independent music awards.

Why do they wear masks and the polka-dots? Apparently, it was creativity born out of necessity. They were told they couldn’t perform twice at the same venue under the same name, so the duo played one show as themselves and another disguised as Angine de Poitrine. The audience went bananas for polka dots and they never went back.

The Paradox of Attention

Right now, every marketer and every content creator is asking the same question: how do you stand out when there is infinite content?

Everything today is being optimized for maximum effectiveness, which is rooted in best practices, which means that more and more people are following the exact same playbook.

When everyone copies what works, everything begins to look the same, and no one actually stands out. Ironically, the more everything becomes optimized for attention, the harder it is to capture attention.

Attention does not go to the most likely. Attention goes to the most surprising.

Weird Wins

This is exactly why Angine de Poitrine cuts through the noise.

They are so specific, so unusual, and so committed to their aesthetic that they are impossible to ignore.

My first impression was “What is this? What am I watching right now?” And I had to keep watching to figure out how it played out. And even though I’ve never heard anything like it before, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the music.

The total commitment to doing something weird and distinct makes them feel almost alien compared to the rest of the music ecosystem.

Our brains love novelty. And when we find it, we want to tell other people about it. “Have you seen that new two-person band from Quebec that wears masks and dresses in polka-dots?”

It makes us feel cool when we’re the ones telling other people know about something cool. (Hence me writing this article… 😊)

Weird > Optimized

So what can we learn from Angine de Poitrine?

There is enormous value in becoming impossible to confuse with anything else.

The brands, creators, and artists who earn attention in the coming years will not be the most optimized. They will be the most unmistakable.

So stop copying the playbook. Stop following best practices. Stop being conventional. Stop being predictable.

Figure out who you are. Who you really are. Figure out what makes you weird. And commit to it. Hard.

Tweaks are not enough. Subtlety isn’t an option. Go hard or go home.

Today, you have to differentiate in as many ways as you can. Don’t just do one thing differently. Do loads of things differently.

Angine de Poitrine have committed to:

• A different sound.

• A different aesthetic.

• A different set of instruments.

• A different vision of what a band can be.

• A different vision of what a live performance can be.

By stacking numerous differentiators on top of each other, Angine de Poitrine have created their own Flagship Format.

Differentiation is about determining the playing field you compete on. Most bands compete on being the “best” rock band or the “best” electronic duo.

Angine de Poitrine has no competition because they are the only one doing exactly what they do. There is no “better” version of a polka-dot-covered, microtonal math-rock duo from Saguenay. They stand alone.

As a result, you will know them the instant you see them anywhere. No one can copy them. People will talk about them. And it’s not just about their music. It’s the entire experience.

Angine de Poitrine didn’t go viral because they were lucky. They went viral because they were so undeniably unique and talented—they broke so many patterns and violated so many expectations—that the internet was compelled to pay attention.

Is this a new law of the internet?

The only thing the internet can’t ignore is something it’s never seen before.

So instead of asking yourself how to optimize, consider answering these…

Angine de Poitrine Inspired Questions for Marketers and Creators

• How can you become instantly recognizable and unmistakable?

• How many layers of differentiation can you commit to?

• How can you make yourself and your content impossible to copy?

• How can you stand alone?

Here’s the full Angine de Poitrine concert from KEXP for your viewing enjoyment!

And if you want to stay up to date with them, this is their official Instagram:

Angine De Poitrine (@anginedepoitrine) • Instagram profile

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

(Well, apart from Angine de Poitrine…)

I was thrilled to chat with author Cam Gordon and podcasting OG, Toronto Mike, this past week to celebrate the forthcoming launch of Track Changes, Cam’s new book about the Canadian music scene during the rise of the internet (1990-2010). We had a lot of fun talking about my time at MuchMusic and particularly about CBC Radio 3. It’s a terrific book and I’m grateful to Cam for writing it and including a section about our adventures at CBC Radio 3.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this music-themed edition. Happy listening!

Unconventionally yours,

Steve

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Welcome to the Creativity Business, a newsletter about earning attention and differentiating yourself as a marketer or content creator. If you’re not a subscriber, sign up and get content & differentiation strategy delivered to your inbox, for free.

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Hello Brave Marketers and Creatives!

It’s an extraordinarily challenging time to be a marketer or creator, isn’t it?

I see tension everywhere in the marketing world right now:

• We want to preserve our human-powered creativity, but feel immense pressure to use AI.

• We want to escape the Attention Economy as consumers, but as marketers, getting attention is our job.

• We want to create marketing and content that stands out, but we don’t want to buy into the quick-fix, copycat strategies that proliferate on LinkedIn.

I would like to address these tensions. Because in keeping with the core theme of Earn It, the solution isn’t to do more. It’s to do something completely different.

The Overwhelm of A.I. Slop and the Attention Economy

I’m not sure about you, but I’m exhausted.

By the volume of AI-generated content everywhere.

By the algorithms that hook you with dopamine into doomscrolling.

By the breathless headlines and polarizing clickbait on formerly respectable news sites.

By the not-so-humble bragging thought leaders filling LinkedIn and Substack with ‘hot, spicy takes’ to maintain their profile and visibility.

Is this how we want to spend our lives? Every day, filling our hours and brains with instantly forgettable and unhealthy crap? Even more important, is this what we want to spend our lives contributing to?

I certainly don’t, and I’m guessing you’d rather not either.

The Pressure to Copy ‘What’s Working’

The unfortunate truth is that if your job is in marketing or creating content, this chaotic online environment is where you have to compete for the most valuable resource in the world: the attention of the people you want to reach.

It’s getting harder because consumers are getting pickier and pickier about what they give their attention to.

And so, our own algorithms end up feeding us an endless barrage of “Here’s What Works” content from other thought-leaders, course-makers, and companies:

• “Here’s the secret to Mr. Beast’s YouTube success!”

• “Here’s how to make a trailer like Diary of a CEO!”

• “Here’s how to build a successful paid Substack like Lenny!”

We click on them because we are desperate for a silver bullet.

It’s all snake oil.

It’s all either shortcuts that don’t deliver results, or it’s impossibly-resourced, obsessively orchestrated machines that aren’t replicable by an average team or individual.

This is all fairly depressing, right?

But I remain optimistic! To me, the current landscape presents an exciting opportunity for Brave Marketers and Creators.

Be ‘The Most Unlikely’: How to Compete Against a Prediction Engine

Here is my North Star for 2026:

AI is a prediction engine. Its job is to predict the next most likely answer, solution, or reply. It’s really, really good at providing what is most likely.

We need to pay attention to these words! Predictions are predictable. Most likely is… very likely.

If our work is predictable, we’ve already lost.

So instead, I am focusing on being the most unlikely answer, solution, or reply.

I want to be unpredictable. By design.

Why?

Average is now a commodity. The only value left is being the most unlikely.

The most unlikely stands out.

The most unlikely is remembered.

The most unlikely is talked about with others.

When I think about most likely, I think average, familiar, and generic. Do you want to be associated with those adjectives?

When I think about most unlikely, I think counter-intuitive, curatorial taste, boundary-pushing, surprising, and refreshing. Yes, please!

If all this sounds a lot like being creative… it is! 😊

How to Not Copy Thought Leaders and Outlier Successes

If someone else has already found success with a strategy, and you decide to copy it, what are the odds that you’re ever going to be anything but a weak copy of the original? As with AI-generated solutions, copying results in average outcomes at best. By definition, copying is predictable.

So again, I am focusing on doing the opposite. I want to design a strategy for success that is unique to me: my audience, my strengths, my voice and values, and my desired outcomes.

I want to be the marketer and content creator that people want to spend more time with, not less.

I want to be one of a kind in everything that I do. If you care about standing out, I think you should want this, too.

What ‘Most Unlikely’ Looks Like in Practice

As you may or may not know, I am an obsessive fan of formats. I’ve written about it here, I have regularly shared clever and original formats in this newsletter, there is an entire section on formats in Earn It, including this enormous two-page spread of format ideas.

Why? Formats are your special sauce. They distinguish your content from everyone else’s. The packaging becomes an essential part of the audience experience. And much of the time, formats are what other people try to copy from successful shows.

Your job as a marketer or creator today should be to create your own Flagship Format—a show or series so distinctive that only you could have created it.

A Flagship Format is rooted in originality: a unique, unpredictable, and most unlikely audience experience.

Your Flagship Format defines you strategically and defines your brand in your customers’ minds.

A Flagship Format is designed around every element that makes you special and interesting. It is as unique as your company, services, and products.

Your Flagship Format becomes brand IP that effectively positions you, builds a creative moat for your company, and earns valuable attention.

Your Flagship Format can take almost any form: a TikTok series, a YouTube show, a podcast, a Substack, an Instagram carousel, or anything else that you make in a truly differentiated way.

You Are Your Format

What do great Flagship Formats look like? Here are some of the one-of-a-kind calling cards that come to my mind…

I think about podcasts from The Daily to Shell Game.

I think about TV shows from Curb Your Enthusiasm to Survivor.

From brands, I think about social accounts like Surreal Cereal, social video like Bilt’s Roomies, extreme sports from Red Bull, and product packaging from Oatly.

In every case, there is nothing else like it, anywhere. It’s instantly recognizable, it’s on brand, it’s strategic, and it’s compelling.

These are all Flagship Formats, and we remember and talk about them because of the perfect marriage of structure and content.

Today, your format is the message.

You are your format.

What does yours say?

A Renewed Call for Creative Bravery

I know you are already a Brave Marketer, so I hope this is an inspiring shot in the arm to be Creatively Brave and make The Flagship Format that only you can make.

Do the Opposite of what everyone else is doing.

Be yourself.

Embrace what makes you weird and different.

Surprise your audience with unexpected value, quality, and creativity.

Be the refreshing break from mediocrity that you would happily welcome into your life right now.

Develop your Flagship Format!

If being “deliberately unpredictable” resonates, I’d love to hear from you. Here is how I’m helping a select number of Brave Marketers stop feeding the feed and instead build their Flagship Formats. (I’ve also got top-tier production partners if required.)

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

To help you embrace the “unlikely,” here are two books that have influenced my thinking lately:

First, my friend has written a perfect book for these times: ‘A Love Affair with the Unknown.’ It’s all about managing (and embracing) the uncertainty that is everywhere in modern life. There is a lot about creativity in this book, including the bang-on insight that new ideas necessarily come from embracing uncertainty. Seeking certainty and trying to control the world around you is an impossible task, and Gill’s book made me excited to be in a state of ‘not knowing’ the answer.

Second, George Newman has just released ‘How Great Ideas Happen,’ which details a methodology for generating new, breakthrough ideas. Newman is a cognitive scientist and has broken down ideation and creativity into a repeatable set of steps, rooted in the metaphor of archaeology: surveying the terrain, gridding promising territory, digging for promising ideas, and sifting through your results to find the most valuable findings. I love a book with actual exercises you can put into practice, and this book is full of them!

That’s it for this edition—thanks for reading!

Steve

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The ol’ Creativity Business newsletter has been quiet for the last few months. That’s because I’ve been really busy on my other newsletter with a new project called .

Like a lot of Gen Xers, my friend and I found ourselves asking the same big midlife questions: What’s next? What matters? Is this all there is?

So we decided to run some experiments—on ourselves. is a year-long series of real-life tests to see if we can shake up our lives, challenge assumptions, and build a better second half.

So far, it’s been an absolute blast, and the reaction has been amazing. I’ve been documenting:

• 🍺 6-months alcohol-free (and counting)

• 📵 30-days with zero social media, news, or Wordle

• 🧔🏽‍♂️ Growing my first beard (More interesting that it sounds, I swear! 🤪)

• 🏃🏻‍♂️ Training for my first ever running race (post dropping this weekend)

• 🎤 Taking a standup comedy course with my daughter. (Vancouverites: come see me bomb gloriously! October 15th standup showcase!)

Geoff and his wife, Suzanne, are mounting an original, one-night-only production of Fiddler on the Roof for their 25th anniversary, and also did a weekend of ketamine couples therapy.

There is a lot more to come.

There is one experiment that is more appropriate to write about here—the attention strategy for . It’s putting everything I’ve written in The Creativity Business and Earn It to the test.

The Attention Strategy

This spring, I went on a bit of a tirade writing about video strategy for podcasters. The gist of my thinking is that if you put the audience first, you should define yourself by your unique area of expertise and you should not define yourself by a single platform, like podcasting.

That means you shouldn’t treat other platforms like promotional billboards marketing your primary platform. (i.e. “Please leave this screen-based short-form social media platform and go listen to my podcast ASAP.”)

is an opportunity to practice what I’ve been preaching.

Yes, we’re publishing on Substack. But we’re not only publishing on Substack. This project is intentionally multi-platform by design—not to promote a podcast or newsletter, but to meet midlifers where they are, in the formats they prefer.

We’re treating every platform as a standalone experience. Social posts won’t be billboards for longform. Videos won’t just tease the newsletter. The podcast (coming soon) will be an immersive audio-first experience.

It’s a practical case study in how to earn attention with aligned strategy—not just volume.

The Business Strategy

With this attention strategy comes a unique business strategy.

This probably will not come as a shock from the person who wrote a book about earning attention instead of buying it—Geoff and I don’t want to have ads in the revenue model for the Midlife Field Guide.

That means we’re not going to “flood the zone” with enormous amounts of mediocre content… because we don’t need to generate a huge amount of inventory to maximize ad revenue. Instead, we are aiming to create a deeply valued space where audiences eagerly anticipate each interaction because the quality and relevance are consistently high.

It’s not about building scale. It’s about building relationships.

And, even though it might not be the easiest or most lucrative option, we’re aiming for high-integrity sponsorships: companies and services that align with our mission and can meaningfully support the experiments themselves. We are going to see if we can make sponsorship of the content across the ecosystem the primary revenue stream.

We have a very specific audience—midlife Gen Xers.

We have a very specific content focus—public midlife experiments.

We have many very specific content lanes that align well with sponsorship opportunities, including:

• Happiness

• Meaning, purpose, and identity

• Physical health

• Nutrition

• Sleep

• Mental health

• Community and healthy social lives

• Relationships, family, and parenting

• Financial planning and management

• Retirement strategy

Our hope is to integrate sponsors and partners into the content organically, collaborating with them to facilitate or help with experiments. I’ve already had early success with and her Phone Fight Course. She let me take the course and write freely about my experience, and the results have been very positive.

With our focus on building relationships and community, we are also going to stay open to ways that we can make for an extra-special experience for those who are interested. Depending on the level of interest, Geoff and I are keen to find ways to make it easier for others to do their own midlife experiments, to share midlife experiences with others, and maybe even gather IRL for meet-ups or events.

Curious? Intrigued?

Come see what we’re building at . Join the community. You might even get inspired to try an experiment on yourself!

What’s Earned My Attention Lately

Life Is Short from Canuck Place

New to Substack, Life Is Short is a bi-weekly newsletter full of insights about life from a very unique source - a children’s hospice in Vancouver called Canuck Place. The premise is that life is short for all of us, and the lessons learned from working in a children’s hospice are numerous, powerful, and universal.

from recently detailed how brands like Saie and The Real Real have been growing on Substack. Nike and NASCAR have started Substack publications, too. Canuck Place’s entry into this space feels equally brave and forward-thinking. You can check it out and subscribe for free here.

Exceptional Experiences by Neen James

Neen is an expert in working with luxury brands to create exceptional experiences, and the strategies she uses can be applied to any business by adopting a “luxury mindset.” Neen’s thinking aligns with so many of the values I embrace, and I love the way she helps readers learn to generate “champagne moments” that customers will never forget. (I hope to employ some of Neen’s thinking in making the Midlife Field Guide an exceptional experience!)

Shift by Peter Reek

I’ve only recently gotten to know Peter, but I’m so impressed with everything he is doing in the midlife space. His new book is a wonderful exploration of seven different mindset shifts that will lead to a happier and inspired midlife.

If you’re in Vancouver, Peter is also hosting a live event on November 5th called the Shift Sessions, with a terrific array of speakers sharing stories of their midlife shifts. I’m honoured to be part of it, and I’ll be talking about the shift to a Brave mindset. It’s going to be a memorable night! Tickets are available here.

Leadership Huddle with Geoff Welch

I had a really fun podcast chat with Geoff Welch, who has the best opening question: “What makes you weird?” We spent a lot of time on that question. 🤪 I got to talk about what makes me weird, but also the strategy of championing what makes you weird as a major differentiator, whether you’re an individual or an organization. Thanks for a great conversation, Geoff! You can listen to the episode here.

The Straight Story with Chris Nelson

Thanks to my old friend, , for having me on his Straight Story podcast to talk about the power of storytelling, especially as it relates to organizations. Chris is a terrific storyteller, and it was a treat to talk shop with him.

Thanks for reading. It’s nice to be back in touch with all of you!

Steve

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I recently hit the six-month mark of having Earn It out in the world, and I can already say that writing, publishing, and marketing a book has been one of the most rewarding creative experiences of my career.

Many people have asked me about my experiences with publishing a book (many of whom are curious about writing a book of their own!), so I want to share some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned so far.

Six Months of Insights

1. Wonderful and unexpected things happen when you publish a book. Publishing a book is a timely event that puts you top of mind for many people. As a result, consulting opportunities show up. Speaking opportunities show up. Invitations to events show up. It’s weird and almost magical. I’ve had so many surreal experiences in the last six months that would have never happened without the book.

2. It’s hard to sell books. You really have to “earn it” when it comes to a book sale! This is obvious, but unlike a podcast, YouTube video, or Instagram post, you have to get people to BUY a book. It’s not enough to convince them to give it a try. It’s not free. It’s not $1. It’s a real commitment, financially and time-wise. I’m so grateful to all of you who have bought a copy—thank you!

3. Manage expectations and measure differently. Similar to podcasts, success for most books is not defined by reach or volume. To me, so far, book success should be measured in the impact your book has on readers. The impact comes from the amount of time people spend with your stories and ideas, not necessarily the volume of people who read the book.
   If you’re used to millions of downloads or views, you need to really calibrate your expectations for book sales.
   There are better ways to make money than publishing a book, but there might be no better way to create an impact on others with your ideas.
   My insight has been to focus on making sure the people the book is written for (brave marketers and content creators) know that Earn It exists, and to try to gauge the impact the book has on the ones that actually read it.

4. Be aware of The Job of your book. Earn It is not designed to be a NYT best-seller. Lots of best-sellers promise quick results, shortcuts, hacks, or core ideas that are easy to comprehend. The message of Earn It is that there aren’t any shortcuts and that you have to do hard creative work to get results. This is a less attractive proposition than becoming a millionaire in a weekend :-) Would I change the message of the book to sell more copies? Absolutely not. This is the book I wanted to write because I know that what’s in the book is true and it works.

5. There are no shortcuts. A book will not sell itself just because it exists. You need to market the book, and that requires a lot of effort over an extended period of time. And over that extended period of time, you have to be consistent with your quality and messaging. Patience is required. I am regularly reminded of a section in the book when Michael Bungay Stanier talks about marketing The Coaching Habit for two years… before it took off and became a million-copy seller.

6. Book success is about more than just the book. Most book businesses are an ecosystem. I think it’s smart to think about success as the aggregate of everything that comes out of having a book. There are two different ecosystems to consider.
   The first is a revenue ecosystem. The book itself generates revenue, but it also leads to all sorts of other revenue that would not exist without the book, including speaking, consulting, coaching, and courses.
   The second ecosystem is content. When you build a multi-platform content ecosystem, the impact of the ideas in the book reach a lot more people, and each element in the ecosystems serves as marketing for the book or your other revenue streams. Whether it’s a newsletter, a podcast, a YouTube channel, or social posts and videos, looking at the overall numbers in your ecosystem shows a more accurate picture of the impact your ideas are having on others.
   The backbone of both the revenue and content ecosystems is the book itself. None of the other elements would exist without the book existing first.

7. You become whatever you write about. I wrote the book to wrap up a chapter of my life and career by sharing all the best strategies and ideas I’ve learned from working with all sorts of amazing brands at Pacific Content, as well as from a lot of time in podcasting, television, radio, and digital media. Before the book, most people thought of me as the “podcasting with brands guy.”
   Post-book, it’s been very noticeable that a decent chunk of people think of me as “the attention and differentiation strategy guy” and “the author./speaker.”

8. Digital > traditional media. Podcasts and email newsletters are terrific for generating awareness. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all the podcasts and newsletters that did interviews and spread the word about the book. It has, and continues to be, so much more effective and targeted than traditional media coverage, and I have a hunch that the digital properties drove more book sales than traditional media coverage precisely because they were laser-focused on exactly the right audiences for the subject matter of the book.

9. The book industry is comparatively (and refreshingly) slow. Again, relative to other media formats, books are a long process. They take a LONG time to write. There are multiple editing processes. There is book design and layout. There’s printing. There’s distribution to all the bookstores.
   The other area that is unusual about books is that it’s slow to get a full view of how the book is doing, because there are so many retailers, there are physical books, digital books, and audiobooks.
   And you know what? It’s wonderful! In a world where algorithms try to force you to publish every single day and creator burnout happens all the time, a book is a truly special creative project to undertake.
   I recently read Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity advocates doing fewer things, doing them at a reasonable pace, and focusing on quality. (P.S. These are also key themes in Earn It!) You get to embrace every aspect of slow productivity with a book, and it is a generous gift to give yourself the time for a project where singular focus on a high-quality product over an extended period of time is the entire point.

10. Each stage of the book publishing process is its own creative project. The book is about how to earn attention with creative bravery, so I knew that the book itself and all the marketing would have to employ all the strategies inside the book.
    So I decided to treat each element of the process like a separate creative project, and it was so much fun. Working on the design of the book with Peter Cocking at Page Two was a creative joy. Recording the audiobook with my brilliant friends, Pedro Mendes and Gaetan Harris, and ending up with a unique and unconventional product still fills me with pride. Organizing launch events was stressful, but it paid off with two truly memorable nights full of friends and colleagues that I will never forget. And working on keynote talks that embody the ideas and spirit of the book is scary, has a steep learning curve, and is deeply engaging.

    Perhaps the most fun I had was deciding to make a stupid mockumentary videos about marketing the book with Steve Scarrow and Perry Pannu, BC Bob, Jody Vance, George Stroumboulopoulos, Jordan Kawchuk, and (above) my son. Making the marketing a fun, enjoyable creative project all its own was a real joy and it made it SO MUCH easier to talk about the book with an unusual format for book marketing like this.

11. Launch events are overwhelming. I wasn’t sure whether to have a book launch event, but I’m so glad that I decided to do one in Vancouver and one in Toronto. The rooms were filled with all sorts of important people in my life. If you’re writing a book and not sure whether to do it or not… do it! Everyone will be there to support you in your big creative journey. It’s a surreal and overwhelming experience. (It’s a bit like a wedding. It’s a total whirlwind. It’s over before you know it. And there is no way you can have meaningful time with everyone that you want to, but everyone understands.)

12. Talk to other authors about their experiences. Ask them for suggestions and what they’ve learned. I talked to all sorts of authors before, during, and after launch, each of whom was extremely kind and generous with their time and insights. (Thank you to Dan Heath, Michael Bungay Stanier, Ann Handley, Jay Acunzo, Liane Davey, Ron Tite, April Dunford, Stephen Shedletzky, Gill Deacon, Larry Gaudet, Rob Volpe… and my dad!)

13. Don’t plan to return to ‘normal’ soon after launch. Clear a lot of your schedule post-publish date (for months!) so that you can say “YES!” and accommodate the unexpected opportunities that arrive on your doorstep.

14. Your book publisher matters A LOT. Be picky about who you work with as your publisher. I have been so incredibly fortunate to work with the talented and experienced team at Page Two, and I’ve always had a palpable sense that everyone on the team has been cheering for the success of Earn It. I’ve heard a lot of stories about publishers that disappear two weeks after launch, but I continue to talk semi-regularly with the sales, marketing, and promotion teams at Page Two and they continue to generate new ideas and opportunities to showcase the book. (I’m pretty sure this is quite rare in publishing!) Their goal is to work with authors who have big ideas that can change the conversation—if that’s you, I highly recommend Page Two.

15. I’m still not aggressive enough in asking people to buy the book or the audiobook! (P.S. if you’d like to learn how to earn loads of attention, a successful content strategy that delivers business results, and loads of actionable ideas and strategies for idea generation, differentiation, and audience growth… I have a book recommendation for you!)

Highlights of the Last Six Months

Remember above when I was talking about all the unexpected and awesome things that just magically happen when you write a book? This is what I was talking about…

1. Earn It was a Porchlight Business Book of the Year nominee, which is still mind-blowing to me.

2. After the nomination, I had a fantastic time attending my first-ever book industry event at the Porchlight Business Book Awards in New York City. (And guest lectured at Steven Goldstein’s Business of Podcasting class at NYU while I was there!)

3. Launch events in Vancouver and Toronto. (Huge thank you to event emcees, Grant Lawrence and Gill Deacon and to everyone who attended!)

4. Opening the Clever Content conference in Copenhagen (Thank you, Stine & Jesper!) and talking about Attention Forts and Chicken Purses at Radiodays Europe in Athens (Thank you, Peter, Rose, Rosie, Liedewij, and Alexis!)

5. Dani Saveker created a visual summary of all the big ideas in Earn It and did a phenomenal job - check it out!

6. As you can see in many of the photos in this newsletter, the cover of Earn It really pops. Peter Cocking from Page Two did all the cover and interior design, and I could not have asked for a better partner. He brought the whole book and the ideas inside to an entirely different level, so I was thrilled to see Peter recognized for his amazing design work by Booklife in their Cover Crush section. The number of people who have brought up the design to me since publication has been incredible - thank you, Peter!

7. I have had so much fun preparing unique keynote talks about the messages and ideas in the book, and, like the marketing of the book, having to use the ideas in the book in the talks themselves.
   I was absolutely thrilled to be recently taken on by the amazing speaking agency, Speakers Spotlight. They’ve put together a terrific speaking profile for me, and if you’d like to book me for a talk about marketing and communication, how to earn attention, or how to stand out from the crowd creatively, just drop them an email at requests@speakers.ca. (Thank you, Martin and Lindsey!)

8. It is simultaneously awkward and amazing to sign your own books in bookstores and to see your book in an actual bookstore, or even better, in a featured position in the front of the store. Thanks to all the booksellers who have supported Earn It, and to the team at Indigo for your enduring support of Canadian authors and publishers!

9. There is nothing quite like hearing from total strangers who have read your book or listened to the audiobook, who reach out to say thank you. I have had so many wonderful messages on LinkedIn, social media, and email from people I’ve never met about this book. Proof of what I mentioned above, I don’t know if there is a better thing in the world than a book if you want to impact others with your ideas!

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

A Love Affair with the Unknown Podcast

Former CBC Radio and TV host, author, speaker, and Substacker can now add podcaster to her impressive list of talents. She is launching a new podcast about how to manage uncertainty this week and it’s full of smart interviews with folks like Oliver Burkeman, Jann Arden, and Mary Walsh.

Trends vs Originality and Authenticity

I’ve mentioned the excellent Link In Bio from before, but a recent edition really stood out for me:

I know trends can be helpful for reach and brand awareness, it’s why I include a few in this newsletter every week. But original content will always be better for brand longevity. Trends tread water, original content floats to the top. When I think about the brand accounts that I love—Planet Money, Merit, Alexis Bittar, Craighill—they have created a style and vision that feels so them. Trends get users to say “Did you see this post?”, original content gets users to say “I love [INSERT BRAND NAME]’s content”. It’s a small but important difference.

Why the AI Action Figure Trend Is Doing Your Brand a Disservice

AI Tells You How To Use AI for Creativity

Jeremy Utley wrote Ideaflow, a book about idea generation, that published right before ChatGPT was unveiled to the world. He has spent the time since then delving into how to use AI to be creative. This video is a pretty interesting take on how to use AI, especially the part about how to use AI to learn how use AI for your particular project or purpose.

I’m going to leave you with one final insight…

We rightly associate the power of writing with creating value for the reader. And yet, for me, act of writing also selfishly helps me figure out what I think, what I’m interested in and curious about, and what things mean to me.

Just writing this post has made me more appreciative and grateful for all the experiences of my book journey so far. Whether it’s a Substack post or a full blown book, the act of writing might be the greatest gift you can give you yourself.

Thanks for reading,

Steve

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I recently attended Podcast Movement Evolutions in Chicago to do a couple of talks about attention strategy and differentiation strategy and there was one big issue that dominated the conference:

VIDEO.

In particular, YouTube.

There was a Video Village area at the conference, with a YouTube-sponsored stage. There were talks by team members at YouTube. There was fresh research from Coleman Insights and Amplifi Media showing a massive increase in the consumption of video podcasts, and almost all of it on YouTube.

And in every coffee meeting, every drink in the bar, and every business lounge meetup, there was talk of video, video, video. While many were excited and there were great examples of people thriving in video, the majority of people I talked to seemed, well… anxious. In some cases, it was full-on existential angst.

What does this mean for audio? What does this mean for the definition of the word “podcasting”? What does this mean for monetization?

I’ve already written a couple of posts about this, but I need to write one more. And even if you’re not a podcaster and you’re not contemplating a video strategy, the strategy below is applicable to any form of content.

WARNING: this might be unpopular with many podcasters!

When it comes to video and YouTube, I think too much of the podcasting industry is asking the wrong question. The wrong question is, “How do I turn my audio podcast into video that works on YouTube?”

It’s the wrong question because it starts with the assumption that the audio product is the focal point. Instead, the focal point has to be serving your audience in the best way possible, wherever you happen to connect with them.

And that requires a different strategy…

Defining By Platform

When you start your video strategy through the starting point of an audio podcast, you’re defining yourself by your primary platform. You’re a podcaster and your default medium is audio.

When you define yourself by a single platform, everything else ends up in service to that one platform. Your social media isn’t about finding social media success. It’s an attempt to get people to leave social media to listen to your podcast, because that’s where you want them to go.

Radio stations are often a great example of platform-first businesses. What kind of companies are they? RADIO. A platform. They’re not a music service. Or a news service. They’re defined by their mode of distribution. RADIO.

For a long time, podcasting has been defined as a mode of distribution. It’s been an audio file delivered over an RSS feed. Many, many podcasters currently define themselves by platform. PODCASTING.

So why is defining yourself by a single platform problematic?

Designing for Context

Audio occupies a sacred space in the media landscape. As James Cridland put it during a presentation this past week, audio is for your ears when your eyes are busy.

Audio is the only option for contexts where you can’t use a screen.

• Driving a car.

• Walking a dog.

• Working out.

• Cleaning your house.

• Cooking.

Great audio producers know this and play to the strengths of audio, using visual language and sound design to create deep engagement and to make listeners see pictures in their minds.

Screens are not, and will not be, a threat to audio in any of these contexts. There are a lot of places where you just can’t use a screen. This is why audio is so resilient.

On the other hand, there are many contexts in which spoken word audio is not a great experience.

• Sitting in front of a giant television in your living room.

• Checking your phone when you have five minutes between meetings.

• While you’re reading a book, an article, the news or anything else that requires your full foreground attention.

Taking audio-first content designed for contexts where people can’t look at a screen and putting it on a screen… isn’t a great screen experience. And yet that is what happens when you define yourself by platform and try to use your audio product in a place it isn’t designed for.

Successful TV producers design shows for giant TVs in living rooms.

Successful social media producers design content for short-form scrolling on phones.

To be successful on a platform requires understanding the way audiences use that platform. It also requires understanding the unique strengths of each platform.

Ignoring Context

When we define ourselves exclusively by one platform, we often misuse other platforms because we are ignoring how and where audiences use them.

Let’s go back to radio. RADIO is the identity, so most radio stations focus almost exclusively on getting people to tune into the their radio station as often as possible. Every other platform that radio uses is a promotional channel to get you to leave where you are and listen to the radio.

A lot of podcasting falls in the same camp as radio. We talk a lot about how frustrating it is that our social media promotions don’t convert very well into podcast listeners. That’s almost certainly because our social media posts are trying to get people to leave social media, a short-form screen-based medium, to listen to a podcast, which is a long-form, non-screen-based medium.

Using social media as a promotional channel for an entirely different platform and context is never going to convert well.

Defining by Content

A more useful content strategy is to abandon your platform-first thinking, focus on your unique area of content expertise, and elevate your identity to a network.

ESPN is a terrific example of defining yourself by your area of content focus. What is ESPN? It’s a multi-platform content network that specializes in sports.

Is ESPN TV? Yes.

Is ESPN radio? Yes.

Is ESPN podcasts? Yes.

Is ESPN on social media? Yes.

The list goes on and on. ESPN is everywhere. And wherever you happen to interact with ESPN, you know you’re getting sports. It’s not defined by any particular platform.

ESPN is focused on creating amazing sports experiences on every platform, designed for the contexts of each platform.

Think Like A Network

I strongly believe that podcasters struggling with video need to think more like a network defined by content. We need to design experiences that play to the strengths and contexts of each individual platform we choose to participate in.

This requires thinking differently about our identity, and that is a hard ask.

We have to stop thinking of ourselves as audio companies and start thinking of ourselves as content companies, media companies, or multi-platform networks. I know a lot of people will not want to hear this and will reject this outright. We can still call ourselves podcasters, but we have to think of ourselves more like networks. Maybe the term podcasting can evolve along with us? (I can feel angry comments being generated as I write this, but hear me out…)

However, I also strongly believe that this is the best way to protect the integrity of the audio experience.

It would appear that many audio podcasters are thinking tactically instead of strategically. The new Coleman / Amplifi research shows that the primary concerns audio podcasters have about video are technical, but I believe that the actual problem is strategic.

Network thinking starts with a different overall content strategy. You have to leave ground level, where you see yourself as an audio podcaster, and fly up to the 10,000 foot level. You and your team probably need to book some serious in-person time in a room with lots of whiteboard space and clear your calendars.

The questions that need to be answered include:

• What is our area of content expertise? What subject areas define our programming?

• What are our business goals and desired outcomes?

• Who is the audience we are trying to reach and what do we know about them?

• What other platforms are used regularly by our audience?

• What are the contexts in which audiences uses those platforms?

  • What locations?

  • What devices?

  • What times of day?

  • How long?

  • How often?

• What are the unique strengths of those platforms?

  • Is it engagement, like audio?

  • Is it reach, like video?

  • Is it interactive, like social media?

  • Is it depth and owned audiences, like newsletters?

  • Is it algorithmic exposure to new audiences like social video feeds?

• Who is our competition? How are they serving our audience’s needs?

• Which platforms are used effectively or ineffectively by our competition? Where are the opportunities to provide unique value to audiences and on which platforms?

• What resources do we have on our team and what budget do we have?

• On which platforms can we sustainably create phenomenal, valuable, differentiated content experiences for our audience?

• Which platforms will be most important and effective in helping us achieve our business goals and desired outcomes?

This is a LOT, right? And yet, are there any of these questions that are not vital to answer if you want to be effective in producing and distributing content on more than one platform?

Now Comes The Fun Part

If you look at the list of strategy questions above, you will notice that there is nothing about program development. We have to answer the big strategic questions before we design our shows.

Once we know our desired outcomes, our audiences, our competition, our resources, etc, and once we know which platforms are most important to us, then we use that information as the basis for program development.

Now we get to design audio shows that are phenomenal audio experiences.

We also get to design videos, social media, newsletters, or anything else that is important to us. Our focus is on creating amazing experiences for our audience in each context.

Our goal is no longer to get people on Instagram to leave the feed and instead open up a podcast app. Our goal is now to create a terrific Instagram experience that can only come from us and that is aligned with our network content focus.

Our goal isn’t to put our audio on YouTube (i.e. webcam recordings of remote interviews or conversations), but instead to create the best possible YouTube experience for audiences interested in the subject matter we specialize in.

I almost guarantee that once you consider the unique strengths and contexts of each platform, you will come up with amazing show ideas that are different and better than porting your existing audio show over to video. You’ll be thinking like a video producer and designing shows to delight video consumers, instead of thinking like an audio producer who is trying to shoehorn your podcast on YouTube and praying for audience growth.

Bonus Challenge

If efficiency is a requirement for your content strategy, here’s a really interesting creative puzzle to try and solve. Can you develop a property that is optimized for both audio and video, with a single production process designed from the ground up to deliver premium experiences on both headphones and screens? This is very different from trying to turn an audio show into a video product—this is about designing something from the ground up that works beautifully on both platforms.

Obviously, this is not easy.

Why Does Video Suddenly Matter?

Both podcasting and YouTube have been around for a LONG time.

Video podcasts have been around for a LONG time. Our team at CBC Radio 3 made R3TV well over 15 years ago, designed for a video iPod and distributed on a video RSS feed.

YouTubers have been successful and popular for a LONG time.

So why is podcasting suddenly having an existential crisis about video and YouTube?

The short answer, in my opinion, is because people are figuring out how to do both well.

And the people who are doing it well are driving increasing consumption of video podcasts on YouTube.

The ones who are doing both well are not defining themselves by a single platform. They are designing great experiences everywhere they show up. We are simply seeing more and more people thinking like networks and executing smart multi-platform strategies.

Mel Robbins talks about the same subjects on TikTok and her podcast. She’s not a podcaster. Or a TikTokker. She’s Mel Robbins, a differentiated self-help thought leader, and I can choose to connect with her in a variety of different ways.

Video Isn’t Scary. It’s An Opportunity.

If you’re an audio podcaster anxious about video and YouTube, I hope this has been helpful. (and maybe even a bit comforting?) I also hope I’m not going to be cast out of the wonderful podcasting community as a heretic and charlatan 😜

Video isn’t here to take over podcasting. It’s simply another context to design for if we want deeper relationships with our audience.

After all, why is no one freaking out about newsletters? Or LinkedIn? Or Instagram? Lots of podcasters transcribe the audio from their podcasts and use that material to craft a companion newsletter. The newsletter is not replacing the podcast. The newsletter is not a copy of the podcast that is stealing audience, attention, and revenue from the podcast.

Video can and should be treated the same way.

Video is not a threat to audio.

It is an opportunity to spend more time with the same audience members in different contexts (where audio is not a great experience) and to reach new audiences who love the subject matter of your content but might not be audio consumers.

As Coleman Insights and Amplifi Media’s research points out, there are people who only consume video and there are a lot of people who consumer both audio and video. If you want to serve more people who will probably love your work and serve them better and more often, video is an opportunity worth exploring more deepl

By thinking differently, we can make great video without compromising our ability to make great audio... but we shouldn’t make crappy video.

If these ideas resonate and you need support figuring out how to create a network strategy for your podcast(s), Steve Goldstein (Amplifi Media) and I would love to talk with you.

We are both seeing a lot of video-related angst in the industry, and we believe we can help. We’ve partnered up to offer in-person strategy workshops that result in a customized multi-platform network strategy. (We do strategy sessions because we don’t believe there is a one-size-fits-all webinar or education series that will truly help you find success with this.)

As you can tell from this edition, there is a lot of thinking and work to be done if you want to do it well. If you’re interested, just reply to this email, and we can set up a time to talk.

(You can also sign up to “The State of Video Podcasting 2025” webinar on April 17 to check out the new research from Amplifi and Coleman.)

What’s Earned My Attention Lately

• I only saw this recently, but in February, Robin Hood used the format of a post-game press conference to report on their earnings. I love seeing people combining formats with unusual subject matter like this!

• Thank you, Jillian Richardson, for celebrating weirdness on LinkedIn - YES!!!

• I love super-serving underserved niches instead of making things for everyone. This is part of the reason why.

• My new favourite drink… the Canadiano!

Earn It Updates

Thanks to Bjorn Barfoed Vestergaard for having me into the Sound Haus in Copenhagen to record this episode of “Master Podcast Marketing” - it’s so rare to get to do a podcast recording in-person these days and I really enjoyed talking with Bjorn.

Thanks for reading—I’m looking forward to your feedback on the video strategy. I know there are different points-of-view about how podcasting should address video and, even if you don’t agree with mine, I hope you appreciate the good intentions in sharing it.

As always, thanks for giving me some of your very precious time and attention!

Steve

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If you’re a content creator or a marketer, how valuable would it be if one activity could help you:

• Unblock creativity

• Ditch perfectionism

• Generate endless ideas

• Collaborate better

• Tell stronger stories

• Adapt to unforeseen changes

• Read and respond to your audience

• Find creative flow

• Build confidence

I have exciting news—anyone can open up this entire world of creativity… if you’re brave enough to enter the world of improv comedy.

These creative skills are a secret, and they’re also not a secret. Here’s why…

Corporate Improv vs Creative Improv

Corporate improv workshops have been popular for a long time, and with good reason. They promise to help you and your colleagues learn teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills that can make a real difference in a corporate work environment. This value of improv is not a secret at all.

What I haven’t seen broadly adopted yet is an improv workshop designed for people who work in content creation, content marketing, or brand storytelling. And if you think improv is great for team building in an office, you will be blown away by how effective improv skills can be in a purely creative environment. Improv in this context still feels like a really valuable secret.

I should briefly explain how I know this all to be true.

Improv Changed My Life

When I was at McGill University (a long time ago), my friend Colin and I joined a campus improv group called (of course) McGill Improv, and I was instantly hooked. We performed weekly at the campus pub and practiced every weekend. After graduating, a group of us started a troupe in Toronto, performing weekly shows at a bar called the Muddy York.

Not only was it some of the most fun I’ve ever had, but doing improv was directly responsible for a huge number of skills that allowed me to have a creative career in TV, radio, podcasting, and speaking.

One of my early television gigs was acting/directing/producing a show for tweens called Roadcrew, and it was shot a lot like Spinal Tap or Best In Show with one major difference. Instead of being complete fiction, Roadcrew featured a set of fictional characters having adventures in the real world with real people, so maybe it was more like Borat for kids 😜. We created a rough skeleton of the plot, but almost all the actual scenes were improvised because they involved non-actors in real-life situations. It was one of the best creative experiences of my life, and my improv background could not possibly have been more critical.

Since then, I’ve done a lot less actual improvising, but the improv skillset continues to be extraordinarily valuable in the world of content creation and marketing.

What are these secret skills? There are honestly too many to put in a single newsletter—it could probably be a book! Here are some of my favourites:

Letting Go of Control

When most people think of improv, they think about performers asking for suggestions from the audience before a scene starts. It’s almost like getting suggestions is proof that nothing has been prepared in advance and that there is no safety net for anyone on stage.

Creatively, having to build scenes, stories, and characters that incorporate suggestions from the audience in real-time is an amazing skill to develop. If you are a perfectionist or someone who likes to plan everything out to reduce uncertainty, improv is both uncomfortable and liberating… because you can’t do any of that.

The biggest lesson beginning improvisers learn is that the more you try to control a scene, the more you try to think ahead and plan what is going to happen… the worse the scene becomes. The magic skills in improv are actively listening, reacting in real-time, and getting comfortable with spitting stuff out of your mouth before you can think about it.

One of my favourite games is called “Should’ve Said.” After any line of dialogue, the audience can yell out, “Should’ve said!” and the improviser has to provide an alternate line to replace the previous one. Sometimes, the audience will yell “should’ve said” two or three times in a row, forcing you to keep coming up with new directions for the scene over and over again. It literally makes it impossible to plan anything in your head and forces you to stay in the moment. It also teaches you the infinite ways a story can unfold depending on differing character choices.

Takeaway: Can you make a conscious effort to release control and fully explore options without judgment? If you are committed to a certain path and it’s not working, where are the opportunities for a “should’ve said” moment of going in the opposite direction?

Forced Constraints

At the same time, you have to keep in mind the constraints that you’ve been given. So it’s this amazing high-wire act of trying to not plan, while also looking for opportunities to incorporate the suggestions or constraints in a clever way.

If you’ve ever watched improv, you might be familiar with some games rooted in creative constraints:

• In A, With A, While. This is the most basic form of a scene with audience suggestions. The crowd suggests a location (In A…), an object (With A…), and an activity (While…) and the actors have to build a scene with those constraints. How would you handle suggestions like, “In a diner with a gorilla while knitting”? Or “In a sauna with a clown while getting a haircut”?

• First Line, Last Line. The audience provides both the first line of the scene and the last line of the scene. The improvisers’ job is to find a path from the opening line to the closing in a compelling scene.

As improvisers get more experienced, they will often gleefully impose constraints on one another. Can you imagine being in front of a crowd of people and another actor says to you, “I know you’ve been working hard on that slam poetry piece about ham sandwiches. Why don’t you do it for me now so you can practice?” You have no option but to make up a poem about ham and perform it. Gah! It’s a joy for the improvisers and the audience when this happens, but the first few times someone does it to you, it’s terrifying.

Takeaway: How can you impose constraints on your creative project to generate more unusual ideas or narrative paths?

Say YES and Build on the Ideas of Others

The core skills in improv are also the core skills in creative collaboration.

The first rule most people learn in improv is to say “YES” every time an offer is presented. Saying “no” to an offer is called blocking, and it’s pretty much a cardinal sin on stage. For example, if one performer says to another, “I love your hat,” the other actor is blocking if they reply, “I’m not wearing a hat.”

Like great brainstorming, our job is not to judge ideas, but instead to say yes, explore them and build on them. Saying “yes” is another way to force everyone to let go of the desire for control.

Takeaway: How can you say “YES” more often and explore ideas in an open-minded way?

The Need for Conflict

Conflict is one of the core skills you learn very early as an improviser because stories without conflict are generally pretty boring.“Garth and Susan love working together and always find great, collaborative solutions” is not a story—it’s a sleep aid.

Thinking about how to introduce problems and challenges as early and often as possible in stories or scenes instantly makes them more compelling.

“Garth is a big, loud extrovert who loves breaking the rules, and Susan is an introverted process and operations wizard. They’re both aiming to get the open VP job, they don’t like each other, and they have been assigned to collaborate on a huge project.” WAY more interesting!

Another way to find potential conflict is to consider each character's status in a scene. There is immediate tension if one character is very high status and the other is very low status. There is also immediate tension if two characters are both trying to be the highest-status person in a scene.

Takeaway: If your stories aren’t as compelling as they could be, how can you think about adding more conflict? Or making the conflict bigger? Or using status as a shortcut to conflict? Can you find ways to continually move the action forward with fresh problems and challenges?

Thinking Outside the Box

Too often in our creative work, we default to the most obvious or common solution to a problem. Improv can teach you how to see the same thing in new ways.

These two games will give you a sense of what I mean:

• Uses. Someone in the audience offers up a real physical object. A group of improvisers on stage have to find as many alternate uses for that object as they can in a fixed period of time. So if someone tosses up a shoe on the stage, the shoe can become a phone, an iron, an oven mitt, a mousetrap, or anything else you can imagine.

• Freeze. Two improvisers are on stage doing a scene while the rest of the group watches intently from off-stage. At any point, another actor can yell the word “FREEZE!” The actors on stage freeze, the person who yelled “FREEZE!’ comes in, taps out one of the actors, assumes their frozen position, and starts an entirely new scene that reinterprets the physical staging as something else. A scene with two people sitting next to each other on a bus ride can instantly transform into two people being trapped on a chairlift at a ski resort.

Games like this force your brain to look for unusual patterns or links. Developing the muscle to see non-obvious connections is a path to a true creativity superpower.

Takeaway: Can you use certain elements of your creative project in new ways? Are there new ways of seeing things that you might unknowingly be taking for granted?

Scene Variations

I LOVE formats. I’ve written about them and I include a section on formats in almost every talk and workshop I deliver. They are a magic differentiator for any kind of content. You can take the exact same information, add a format or a genre, and instantly get a significantly more compelling and original audience experience.

Improv taught me the power of genres and formats with a game called Genre Coaster. You take a few suggestions from the audience and begin a scene. At any point, someone in the audience can shout out the name of a genre or format and the scene has to instantly adopt it.

A scene about a couple trying to decide what to have for dinner could suddenly become:

• A game show. (”The correct answer is vegetarian lasagna!”)

• A soap opera. (”The last time we had onion soup was the day I found out about your affair with Mona…”)

• A western. (”We better carb-load tonight… there’s gonna be a gunfight in the living room tomorrow at high noon.”)

• A mystery. (”Something’s happened to the ground beef… it’s MISSING!”)

You get the idea. Adding a genre or a format instantly adds an element of familiarity for the audience and the opportunity for creative fun in how you tell the story. It also teach you to innately understand how stories change when different genre conventions are applied to them.

There is a game called “Emotional Rollercoaster” that works in a similar way. Let’s say there’s a scene where a mother is teaching her daughter how to drive a car. Imagine how differently the scene could evolve if the audience changed the dominant emotions from nervousness to panic to anger, or from meditative to supportive to glee.

Exploring a variety of emotions opens up a huge number of different narrative paths, and it’s fun for the characters to have to justify those emotions.

Takeaway: How would your project change or evolve if it took on an alternate genre? How would the story evolve differently if you endowed characters with an alternate set of emotions?

Why are these particular skills so valuable for creatives? Too often, we are trapped by the way we always do things, or the way the industry always does things. Sometimes, we can’t see new opportunities or solutions because we have too much experience or comfort.

Improv is a way to let go of your brain’s desire to be rational and to limit uncertainty. It’s a way to get comfortable with taking risks—personally, as a team, and creatively. And the rewards for risk-takers are significant: these skills consistently generate novel solutions and open up unexplored opportunities.

New ideas, unexpected stories, and surprising turns attract our attention and interest. And if you’re in the business of creativity, isn’t that the desired and most valued outcome?

The good news is that you don’t need to do improv to start incorporating this mindset. However… if you really want to do something bold and risky, maybe you should dare to say “YES” and take your team to an improv workshop to give this stuff a try.

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

This video has been shared A LOT in Canada this past week, but in case you haven’t seen it, this is a really positive, affirming approach to a campaign ad that is a welcome reprieve from negative attack ads. It’s also a perfectly timed celebration of Canadian identity during a surreal time for all of us up here.

Speaking of managing uncertainty up here in Canada, A Love Affair with the Unknown is an amazing new newsletter from my friend Gill Deacon. (Stay tuned for a forthcoming podcast and book, too!) I first met Gill doing improv at McGill and for me, the phrase “a love affair with the unknown” perfectly captures the magic of improv, even though Gill’s current focus is about exploring our relationship with uncertainty, whether is it societal (like COVID or politics) or personal (health, relationships, etc). She is a terrific writer and a wonderful person and I’m CERTAIN you will enjoy her uncertainty content.

A Love Affair with the Unknown

You get to choose what to pay attention to

Starting off with a glimpse of beauty, something I noticed this week…

Read more

a year ago · 21 likes · 8 comments · Gill Deacon

, author of Writing That Doesn’t End in Questions, and Laura Palmer, producer of the hit podcast series Island Crime, have whipped up an exciting new podcast to address Canada’s brand-new existential crisis. Elbows Up is the podcast I never thought Canadians would need, but as it turns out… we do. I’m so glad that they are producing this.

Earn It Updates

• I was recently tagged on Instagram by Dani Saveker, who creates beautiful visual synopses of books she is reading. Over several posts, she detailed her process of making a visual synopsis of the big ideas in Earn It before revealing the gorgeous finished product. Thank you, Dani—it’s brilliant!

• Earn It was featured in BookLife’s Cover Crush article, which makes me very happy. The amazing Peter Cocking at Page Two did phenomenal work on the entire design of the book and it really stands out on a crowded bookshelf. I regularly get comments about what a memorable and distinctive cover it is, which could not be better feedback for a book about earning attention! Congratulations and thank you, Peter!

• On The Periphery podcast - thanks to Steven Cox for having me as the first guest on his new podcast and talking about how to approach this new creative project. If you’re in Vancouver, Steven is hosting a great live event on April 23rd with some terrific speakers.

I had a ton of fun speaking about how to get invited into heavily defended Attention Forts and also why you consider trying to be the ONLY ONE doing what you’re doing at the Radiodays Europe conference in Athens. (Write up here and here!) They put on an amazing three days of programming and are brilliant event organizers - thanks for having me!

NO JOKE! I’m going to be in Chicago at Podcast Movement Evolutions on April 1 and 2. On April Fool’s Day, I’m on a panel with Fatima Zaidi, James Cridland, and Sharon Taylor about how to create binge-worthy shows, and on the 2nd, I’m talking about why and how to Do The Opposite of everyone else, stand out from the crowd, and be the ONLY ONE doing what you’re doing.

Just writing this email about improv skills and games has inspired me creatively and I hope it has done the same for you!

Thanks for reading - talk soon!

Steve

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Welcome to the Creativity Business, a newsletter about earning attention and differentiating yourself as a marketer or content creator. If you’re not a subscriber, sign up and get content & differentiation strategy delivered to your inbox every two weeks for free.

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I was not fully prepared for the interest in my last post about video strategy for audio podcasters. Thank you for all the great feedback and welcome to all the new subscribers!

This is not going to become a video strategy newsletter, but I did want to follow up on some ideas raised in the original post and answer some of the questions I’ve been getting. The biggest theme was curiosity about ways to make more compelling video for show that use a lot of remote interview recordings.

I put on my director/producer/editor hats and tried to figure out how I would approach making remote recordings more visually engaging. I’m sure there are many more and better creative ideas in practice, but this edition of the newsletter features the things I would personally experiment with to see if I could make it work.

But first, let’s address the reason why we need to make remote recordings more engaging in the first place…

Why are remote video recordings a bad video strategy?

Video is obviously a visual medium. Our eyes consume visual material differently than our ears consume audio. Our eyes (and our brains) like variety, movement, and action. Zoom, Meet, Riverside, or Descript recordings are the opposite of what our eyes like. (Riverside and Descript have some great editing tools, and Descript just announced some really smart new ones—I’m just talking about the raw recordings themselves.)

Remote recordings shot on webcams are static, locked-off talking heads. There is no movement. There is no variety. There is nothing interesting visually happening at all.

Imagine if, after a long day, your partner comes home and asks you to watch an hour-long video. “What’s it about?” you ask. “We put a phone on a tripod in the corner of a boardroom and recorded a meeting a work.”

Can you feel the instant dread in your stomach right now? An hour of a locked-off video. No shot changes. No camera movement. Nothing.

Editing and visual variety are at the heart of great video

We will not tolerate unedited video on a tripod. We get bored SO quickly.

Enjoyable video is composed of a variety of shots and a variety of footage. The shots change rapidly.

This means that if you want to earn and sustain attention… you need to have a lot of shots, and you need to make a lot of edits.

Watch the first minute of anything on the first page of Netflix. Turn on your TV and watch any show or any commercial. Watch a popular Mr Beast video on YouTube, like this:

Pay attention to how often the shot changes. Pay attention to the visual pacing created by cuts. This is what audio-first shows are competing against.

Have a look at the editing in the opening of this Diary of a CEO episode. It’s designed to hook you in and make you want to watch the episode (also Mr Beast!)—it’s really well produced and edited. Again, this is what you’re competing against for the time and attention of audiences on YouTube.

Now look at the YouTube video of an audio-first podcast recorded remotely. (Out of courtesy, I will not link to anyone in particular 😜) It’s almost guaranteed to be astonishingly sluggish visually. When your mind begins to wander, look down at the timeline. How long did you last before you got bored? Even more importantly, look at how many views the visually uninteresting video has so far.

I know some of you will argue that many people listen on YouTube instead of watch… but that’s likely in part because it’s visually boring. If it was visually amazing, I’m confident you’d get a lot more eyeballs and engagement.

At bare minimum, if you’re trying to decide what to watch on YouTube—whether it’s on your TV, your phone, a laptop, or anything else—you are looking for signals that your choice will be a valuable use of your time and attention. A remote recording thumbnail or a boring first minute will prevent most people from giving you a chance.

However, if you decided to make your show visually engaging, nothing but positive things could happen, right?

Turn Voiceover Into Standups

Voiceover is the audio tool for connective tissue in a story or interview. You write to bridge gaps, segue between ideas, or add additional information not provided by others. For audio, this is all done in a recording studio (or more likely these days, in your home office).

What if, in addition to doing the voiceover in the pristine audio environment, you also had your host head out into the real world and record them again on video. In news and current affairs, this is called a standup, and it’s the video equivalent of a voiceover.

You know what this looks like from watching any news broadcast. In between interview clips, the reporter is suddenly out on a sidewalk, talking directly to the camera. Sometimes they’re walking. Sometimes they’re demonstrating something visually. Most of the time, they are in a strategic location that is directly or thematically related to the story being told. Visually, it’s powerful because the reporter is looking directly into the lens—they’re talking directly to you.

You might be asking, why don’t you just shoot the video in the audio studio?

Because it’s boring.

See for yourself…

If you don’t have any voiceover in your show… maybe you could find reasons to add some. It could be the introduction to the show, the ending of the show, or transitions between different segments or parts. Creating opportunities like this that add visual variety is not hard creatively.

Is it extra work recording the voiceover in a great audio location and then shooting the same words somewhere else that is visually interesting on video? Yes, it is. But it doesn’t cost much and it will instantly spice up your show visually.

Consider Hybrid Recording: Remote + an IRL Videographer

On remote recordings, the locations are generally not optimized for video because it’s mostly in a home office, a basement, or a workplace. There is no lighting. There is no thought given to the background or location.

Location plays a role in video. Every visual element says something and adds to the story being told. Pre-pandemic, audio companies used to record a lot more often on location with humans showing up to do tape syncs. During the pandemic, we all moved to remote recording software. Now that the pandemic is fading into the background, we are still hooked on remote recording software. We’ve gotten… lazy?

If video is important to your strategy, it might well be worth getting an actual human videographer to meet with an interview subject, take them to an interesting location, and record for both audio and video at the same time. You can prep the videographer with question lines and storylines, or you can still be piped in and conduct the interview yourself remotely. What you need is someone with a visual sensibility, one-to-three cameras, mics, and some basic lighting to make your guest’s interview look amazing.

While on location, get the videographer to record footage (b-roll) of the interview subject doing things. If you’re interviewing someone at a landfill, shoot extra footage of the landfill. Shoot the subject’s car pulling up at the landfill. Shoot the subject walking through the landfill. Shoot them rifling through material in the landfill. Basicaly, shoot them doing things related to what they’re talking about in the interview.

Instantly, the same interview now looks great, is set in an appropriately visually interesting location, and has coverage that can be used to hide edits, add visual variety, and help tell the story visually.

Attention span is different for video than audio

There are exceptions to every rule, but generally speaking, people have much shorter attention spans when they are watching video online compared to listening to an audio podcast. Audio podcasts can deliver spectacular amounts of listening time every episode if they are done well, sometimes getting 85-95% completion rates on 30-45 minute shows.

Video, by comparison, sheds viewers much more quickly. Most videos are lucky to even sniff an audio-like completion rate on a three-minute video. Short-form social videos on TikTok and Reels are training us to swipe to the next video the second we get bored.

Be honest—what is one of the first things you check before you decide to start watching a video on YouTube? It’s either length or viewcount, right? You are far more likely to say “yes” to a video of one minute compared to one hour. Or five minutes compared to thirty minutes. And there aren’t very many audio podcasts shorter than thirty minutes.

What’s the point? Your video really has to be compelling the entire time. And that means it likely needs to be shorter than your audio podcast by a considerable margin. The second you get bored watching your own podcast’s video is the telltale sign that every other viewer has almost certainly already left before you.

Make videos short. Leave people wanting more. Always.

Clips, Segments, or Parts?

So knowing that YouTube generally doesn’t earn the same attention span as audio, how should you proceed? Here are three different strategies you could consider for your show:

Clips

You could start with identifying short clips and use them as your primary video strategy. Not clips designed to promote your audio podcast, but short clips of the remote recordings that are interesting all by themselves. Standalone short-form video content that provides value for a viewer. If you can get several clips from each audio episode that work well and they are short enough where the lack of visual variety isn’t a massive problem, you’re off to the races.

Segments

If your show has a format and the format has several recurring segments, could one or more of those segments be isolated and distributed as a compelling video?

Parts

If your show is telling an extended story or unpacking an idea in a way that is hard to segment, you could consider chunking the episode into parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, etc. TikTok creators do this all the time and it can be a very effective strategy for teasing people from one part into the next one when well executed.

Perhaps there are implications I’m not considering with having the audio and video versions of the show being different from each other, but from my point of view, you have to start with creating the best possible experience on each platform and that should be the priority.

Show, don’t tell. Visuals can tell stories without sound. Not using visual storytelling is a costly mistake.

There is a mantra in video production: show, don’t tell. Don’t have a person tell me a story or tell me how something works. Instead, show me what is happening. Show me how something works visually.

A common quality marker for video is that you should be able to know what’s happening even with the sound muted. This is the antithesis of how audio storytellers work. Human voices, music, sound effects, and well-written scripts are audio’s superpowers—they allow audio storytellers to bring ideas and images to life in our imaginations in ways that video can’t.

It’s no wonder audio storytellers might not find it natural to embrace purely visual storytelling, but that is what great video requires.

If an interview subject is talking about how to check various foods for freshness at a grocery store, it is so much more powerful to show someone picking up different fruits and vegetables in various states of freshness, and squishing them, poking them, etc, than it is to just hear about it.

If you think of video as a series of shots that form sequences, the selection of shots and the order in which they assemble into a sequence are all creative storytelling elements. Most video podcasts of locked-off talking heads obviously can’t pass this visual storytelling test.

So what can you do? In the above example, if you can’t get a videographer to take the subject to a grocery store and show you, grab your phone and go to the grocery store and get lots of footage of picking up fruits and vegetables and then squeezing and poking them. Get loads of different shots and angles.

If you can show people what you’re talking about, the show becomes much more visually engaging.

Creative B-Roll options

If heading out into the real world to shoot fruits and vegetables on your phone isn’t appealing, here are some weirder ways you could add additional visual variety to your show:

• Create your own visual elements, like drawings by hand, or diagrams or posters in Canva.

• You could try basic animation to add visual variety and storytelling (think South Park, not Pixar)

• Stock video is plentiful and even exists inside software like Descript. Search for stock video related to what your subjects are talking about and use it for visual variety. It took me under three minutes in Descript to put this little fruit and vegetable testing montage together:

• Stock photos are even more plentiful, many of them free or low-cost. You can pull a Ken Burns (or even use the Ken Burns Effect in iMovie) and have slow pans and zooms of photos of what the interviewee is talking about. Instant visual variety.

• You could generate AI images related to what the interviewee is talking about and put a Ken Burns Effect on them.

• You can now even generate short pieces of AI video/film with several different AI platforms that can serve as custom b-roll. Here’s the fairly surreal offering from Canva’s AI video generator. It took one minute to generate this grocery store b-roll:

Takeaways

• How can you add visual variety to the video of your audio podcast?

• What can you afford to add to your production process to make your videos worth the time and attention of viewers?

• What elements can you rethink - like voiceover - that could instantly add production value and variety to your show?

• What’s a B-roll strategy that works for you and your production workflows?

• How long should the video version of your audio podcast be? How can you chunk it into smaller pieces that are better suited for video consumption? Is that something you’re comfortable with?

• What are the small experiments or pilot projects you could undertake to ‘play’ with video creatively in the near future?

Earn It Updates

Ryan Alford and the Right About Now podcast

Ryan Alford is a force of nature and a ton of fun to talk with about marketing. His passion and energy are contagious and it’s obvious why he’s got such a terrific community around this very popular marketing show. Thanks for a great conversation, Ryan, and hope to do it again, soon.

Pilgrim Video Chat

Tobin Dalrymple is already nailing the idea of turning voiceover into video standups in interesting locations. Check out this snow-themed video chat - I love it!

Radiodays Europe in Athens March 9-11

The Earn It World Tour 2025 continues! I am getting very excited to head to Athens and talk about (shocker) how to earn attention as a marketer or advertiser, and also about creative ways to develop shows that truly stand out from the crowd. If you’re in audio and based in Europe, this is going to be a terrific event and I hope to see you there! (Use promo code PAR25ATH for 10% off)

Serving Instead of Selling: Quill Webinar March 18th

On March 18th, I’m joining Fatima Zaidi, CEO of Quill and CoHost, for a live webinar to talk about what really makes branded podcasts stand out.

(Spoiler: It’s not downloads or slick production. It’s about delivering a gift to your audience.)

We’ll cover:
✅ Why great branded podcasts are from you, not about you
🎧 How to create content that earns trust (not just airtime)
📊 Metrics that matter beyond downloads

Save the date:

📅 Date: March 18th

🕒 Time: 12:00-12:45 PM EST

Secure your spot: https://quill-podcasting.wistia.com/live/events/fbxwelqvk8

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

PSYCHEDUP Mental Illness podcast

I’ve had the pleasure of helping Dr. Diane McIntosh and the team at JAR Audio bring this podcast about mental illness to life. Each episode is a deep dive on a single mental illness, explaining what it is, what it’s like to have it, how to treat it with both therapy and medication, and debunking the cultural stigmas. This season focuses on ADHD, Depression, OCD, Panic Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and PTSD. If you or anyone you know and love is suffering from one of these illnesses, PSYCHEDUP is a really informative show.

So Win

I know I’m late to be talking about a Superbowl ad, but I love this one. (So Win makes me feel the same way as when I think about the concept of '“earning it”. Set a high bar. Do the work. Reap the rewards.)

That’s it for this edition of The Creativity Business. What other video strategies are you experimenting with? Have you seen any unique video strategies for audio-first shows? Let me know what you’ve found!

And if you’re in the audio business, find these ideas interesting, and would like to talk more about video strategy, just reply back to this email and we can set up a call.

Thanks for reading,

Steve

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Video in podcasting has been a hot and controversial topic for quite a while now. Even though I’m not running a podcasting company anymore, I’m still passionate about the space and follow a lot of what’s going on.

I have some thoughts about video and I’m pretty sure a lot of people are going to disagree with me. However, I do have a fairly unique perspective because of my past experience.

I spent ten years producing television, everywhere from MuchMusic and YTV to CTV and specialty cable channels. Then I spent ten years working in a digital innovation lab disguised as a music service at Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC. We launched one of the first legal music podcasts in the world, the CBC Radio 3 podcast, in the spring of 2005 (!) and it was a huge hit (!). We started making more podcasts and soon had a podcast network, including a network aggregator Super Feed. We also produced an amazing video podcast called R3TV.

It was only after doing all this that I cofounded Pacific Content and went bonkers in audio-only podcasting.

Based on this background, I have thoughts about video and podcasts.

Copy and Paste Doesn’t Work

Every medium is different. It has been proven over and over again that copying content from one medium and pasting it onto another medium does not work. And yet that is what many podcasters are attempting to do with video.

There is so much emphasis on the need to be on YouTube because of the enormous amount of podcast consumption going on there, but not enough emphasis on what actually works on YouTube.

Audio’s Complaint About Video is Now Video’s Complaint About Audio

I remember in the early years of podcasting, there were several times when audio professionals complained heavily when they were asked to take the audio from a video recording and turn it into a podcast.

“We can’t just take audio from a video shoot! Video people don’t understand audio! They’ll be pointing to things and showing things that won’t translate into audio. And people won’t be talking for an audio audience. We need to make audio the priority if we want to have a good podcast.”

I might have even said that several times to video teams who had tons of footage and thought there was an easy podcast to be made from them 😜

Here’s the thing… many of us are doing the exact same thing to video. We’re taking our audio-first recordings and telling ourselves that we can just tack on video, put a check in our video strategy box, and keep doing things the same way.

A video strategy is not putting cheap wallpaper over high-quality audio. Video, like audio, is an extremely powerful medium and ignoring the core strengths of video (the visuals!) is a recipe for no viewers.

So let’s explore a few different solutions for how to kick ass in audio and video…

Multi-Platform Strategy Works (But It’s More Work)

A multi-platform content strategy is not a new concept in the media world, but it might be new for many podcasters. What is it?

Essentially, instead of defining yourself by a single platform like podcasting, you define yourself by your expertise or focus on your subject matter. Then, you evaluate each different platform and design phenomenal experiences about that subject matter on each one you want to participate in.

In a nutshell, a multi-platform strategy encourages creators to respect the strengths of each individual medium or platform. It encourages creators to design differently for each medium. It encourages creators to strongly consider and solve for the very different contexts in which audiences use each medium.

Pickleball + Podcasting

For example, let’s say you love pickleball and you think there is a great business in making pickleball content.

Someone who identifies as a podcaster (platform first) will design a pickleball podcast and then use TikTok, Instagram, newsletters, etc to promote the podcast. This is a single-platform strategy.

The multi-platform strategy is very different. You start with the idea of being the online home of pickleball fanatics (subject matter first). Then you might decide to make the world’s best pickleball podcast for people in audio-first contexts like commuting, or walking dogs, or cooking.

Then you might decide to make the world’s best pickleball show on YouTube and design it for a very different set of contexts, like when people are on couches or in bed and focused visually on their phones.

You might decide to create the world’s best pickleball newsletter, designed for another set of contexts, like people want to have in-depth information about the sport that is best absorbed and consumed via text.

The audio, video, and email strategies are distinct from each other and not copying and pasting the same material from one primary channel to all the others.

Is this more work? Is this more expensive? Absolutely. But this is what is required for meaningful success on each platform.

When Should You Consider a Separate Video Strategy?

Why should you potentially consider a multi-platform strategy? I think it makes sense if you have an existing audio-first podcast and it’s not video-friendly. There are all sorts of podcast formats that will never translate easily or effectively to video.

How could Hysterical, the Apple Podcasts Show of the Year for 2024, be a video podcast? It would have had to be conceived as a full-fledged video documentary from day one.

How could Shell Game, an amazing podcast about AI Voice Agents, be a video podcast? There are no visuals for the majority of the show—it’s primarily the host, , and a digital audio clone of himself talking to other people on the phone. Phenomenal as audio… not optimized for video.

If you have a format like this and if you feel that you really need to be on YouTube, you should consider an entirely separate video strategy.

Questions for Shifting from Audio-First to Multi-Platform

Here are some starter questions for thinking in an integrated, multi-platform way about video:

• What is the purpose of your show? (i.e. celebrate the magic of pickleball)

• Is there a subject matter or point of view about a subject matter that you are exclusively focused on? (i.e. pickleball)

• What is the outcome you’re trying to achieve? (build a passionate and loyal community of pickleball enthusiasts)

• How would you accomplish that if you could only do video and weren’t allowed to have an audio feed?

CBC Radio 3 and the R3TV Video Podcast

Back when I was at the digital music service, CBC Radio 3, there were a few reasons that we existed. First and foremost, our job was to champion new Canadian music. Next, our job was to attract younger audiences to the public broadcaster. And finally, our job was to experiment with new digital distribution channels and formats. (Kinda awesome, right???)

Our hit audio podcasts would have been pretty boring as video. It would have been a host in a recording studio talking about the music and then hitting the play button on a computer. 💤💤💤

That is how R3TV came to be born. The amazing was tasked with figuring out how to accomplish CBC Radio 3’s goals in video form. Jordan created a show that was video first, championed new Canadian music, and in a new distribution format (video podcast, complete with a video RSS feed!). It was surreal and wonderful and unlike anything that could exist in audio. There was an ongoing storyline about an old man named Scotty who was discovered after being trapped in the walls during a renovation of the CBC Radio 3 office. He became an intern working for one of the hosts, Grant Lawrence, and knew nothing about new Canadian music at all. (CBC has, for some reason, scrubbed R3TV from internet, but I found the first episode… )

There was video coverage of live music festivals, complete with on-site artist interviews. There were creative segments, like spending a day with an artist doing their day job (professional dog-walker!). And there was one music video per episode. We had annual music awards called the Bucky’s and we made some videos like this because the concept could never work in audio…

R3TV was a real gem because it was its own show. It was not expensive to produce because it had a creative genius making it all himself. With today’s technology, you can shoot a brilliant, high-quality video-only show with a decent phone, some DJI mics and gimbal, and a subscription to Descript or Adobe Premiere. The priceless part is finding someone who really knows video production and is a great storyteller.

TLDR: There has never been a better time in history to make affordable, high-quality original video.

Does every podcast need a separate video strategy like R3TV? No, it does not. But for many shows, a separate video strategy will be the most successful option if YouTube is important to your business. If I had the budget and resources, my first option would be a multi-platform strategy where each piece of content was designed specifically for one particular medium.

As you likely well know, though, there are some very prominent examples of shows that work very well on both video and audio, including the most famous podcast of them all… but I have a potentially unpopular point of view about Joe Rogan, too…

Joe Rogan is Not a Podcast

Joe Rogan is not an audio show pasted onto a video platform. It’s shot with a multi-camera set-up and on a set designed for video.

Joe Rogan is a video interview show that translates well to audio, not vice-versa.

Kill Tony is likely the most popular live podcast on the planet. It’s shot in Joe Rogan’s Comedy Mothership club in Austin… on a set with a multi-camera set-up and a live audience. It is essentially a live TV show that is on YouTube… that calls itself a podcast.

Bad Friends, Trash Tuesday, Call Her Daddy Diary of a CEO… the list of popular YouTube podcasts goes on and on, and they all have the same things in common: they are designed for video first. They are shot on sets or in a physical location chosen for video. There are multiple cameras. For shows that are live tapings, someone is directing the show and using a switcher or heavily editing it afterwards. Diary of a CEO’s epic opening sequences look and feel like a TV show.

I feel like the only reason that we call them podcasts and not talk shows is that there are giant podcast microphones in the shots. And sometimes, “podcasts” like Bobbi Althoff’s are a lot more like R3TV - no set, no big mics… nothing that says ‘audio’ or ‘podcast’ at all. It’s a video shoot, and visually, it’s much more interesting because… it plays to the strengths of video

Audio-first podcasters are too often just publishing Zoom, Riverside, or Descript recordings of remote interviews, and that’s it. Remote interviews are terrific for audio, but visually… they’re pretty boring. And that is why, IMHO, most (not all) Zoom recording shows have a very tough time finding an audience on YouTube.

Put it this way… If I offered you the chance to spend additional hours of your life watching someone else’s Zoom calls, does that sound compelling?

Or another way… Have you ever seen a hit television show that features two people in different locations talking on locked-off cameras for an hour? Me neither.

SNL’s Medcast sketch

More proof? Saturday Night Live recently had a terrific sketch about getting men to share more information with their doctors by making a doctor’s appointment feel more like a podcast. I love the sketch, but it also says something about how popular culture perceives podcasts. It’s a video set with podcast mics on it.

We are not in the era of watching SNL podcast sketches featuring people in NPR studios anymore. Medcast “feels like a podcast” today.

Kraft Dinner is even riffing on podcast culture (!) … and it includes a set designed for video and podcast mics. The Medcast and Kraft Dinner videos are now what a lot of people think of when they think “podcast.”

Show Development Needs New Considerations

If you want to make a single show that works on multiple platforms instead of creating distinct solutions for each platform, you need to design that way from day zero.

How do you design a show to be optimized for both video and audio? You need only look at what great video shows have in common.

Probably, like Joe Rogan and the other examples above, you need a branded, identifiable set designed for the needs of that particular show instead of a generic audio recording studio or remote recording solution.

You need multiple cameras. You need great mics set up so that they don’t obscure people’s faces and mouths. You need lighting. You need video professionals who can direct and/or edit a multi-camera show.

If you really want to knock it out of the park, you might even go bonkers and use a boom camera like most TV networks do. You could even do shows with multiple segments and multiple guests, the way traditional TV talk shows do. You almost certainly want the vast majority of your guests in your studio and not Zooming from their basement.

If YouTube is important for your show, what you probably shouldn’t do is design shows that make for a crappy video experience.

(Of course, the other very viable option is to double down on audio the way podcasters have for decades and make the best listening experience possible without compromising it for video.)

Quality is All That Matters

If you think it’s hard getting an audience for your podcast because there is too much competition… check out YouTube. YouTube has exponentially more content than the world of podcasting. So if you show up with a visually boring hour-long Zoom interview, you’re going to have a tough time getting anyone to watch it.

Audio listeners will not suffer very long through static-riddled audio with dropouts. And YouTube viewers will not suffer very long through numbingly boring and static videos. if you hold yourself and your show to high standards with all your audio, you need to hold yourself to the same high standards for video.

Audiences do not have to suffer through crap anymore. Ever. They have all the power to choose whatever they want and to ignore anything that is not worth their precious time and finite attention.

So our job is to create content that is truly worthy of time and attention, no matter what platform we are publishing on. Shortcuts don’t work anywhere anymore. We have to bring the goods and that means putting in the effort.

If you’re going to be on YouTube and you want to find any modicum of success, you should make the best damn video show you possibly can.

What About Budget?

I know this is harsh, but if you don’t have the budget to do any of these options, maybe you shouldn’t do video. Why make something sub-par and put it out in public? Why spend any time and effort on something that isn’t worthy of attention?

The budget issue is real, but it’s not something you can ignore or wish away. If you want to be like Joe Rogan and make great video, build sets, have lighting, etc, it is going to cost a lot more money than a remote recording.

As I mentioned above, finding a talented video storyteller and using phones, DJI mics, and Descript is much more reasonable than building a permanent set… apart from the cost of a talented video storyteller 😜

That is the price to be paid if you are in the attention business. You have to be great or you will be ignored.

If you can’t be great, maybe you shouldn’t participate.

Takeaways

• Why do you want to have video for your podcast? What will video success look like for you?

• How will you measure success for a video strategy?

• Will average, mediocre video quality get you the results you are looking for?

• How could you rethink your show development process to include both audio and video from day zero?

• How will you decide whether you take more of a Joe Rogan approach (a video show with a set that is also optimized for audio) or a multi-platform approach like CBC Radio 3?

• Can you deliver the same standard of quality required the earn the attention of discerning audiences on every platform you publish on? If not, why not? And what are the implications?

• Would you be better off spending your time making your audio even better and more amazing than splitting focus and budget and putting out mediocre video that likely won’t perform?

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Earn It Updates

NYU’s Business of Podcasting Class!

In a lovely coincidence, podcast strategy guru Steven Goldstein emailed me a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned that I was coming to New York and he magically had an open guest lecture spot in his NYU course, the Business of Podcasting. It was such a treat getting to talk with all these smart and keen podcasting students and I learned a lot about how they consume podcasts (SPOILER: VIDEO. Not a coincidence I wrote this newsletter after being at the NYU course…)

Porchlight’s Business Book of the Year Prize

It was a real thrill to attend the Porchlight Business Book of the Year awards in New York last week, where Earn It was a nominee in the Marketing and Communications category. Congratulations to Terry Szuplat, former Obama speechwriter, for his winning book, Say It Well, as well as all the winners in the other categories. And a huge thank you to the amazing team at Porchlight Books for putting on such a stellar evening and for championing so many wonderful books.

Here is a lovely video featuring the authors whose books were nominated, talking about why they believe in books. (You can see my ridiculous attempt at a fake blooper at the very end…)

Podcasts!

Thank you to Mark Drager for having me on the How to Sell More podcast. It’s episode 99 (the Gretzky episode!) and I think we unknowingly tried to not focus on where the marketing puck has been, but more on where it’s going to be.

Thanks also to Ozeal Debastoshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ozeal/ for a great time talk about content for creators on the Creator Factor podcast. I love talking about creator business models and strategy and I love Ozeal’s passion and energy!

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

• Annalise Nielsen from Pacific Content and Lower Street is one of my favourite podcast strategy thinkers, and I really enjoyed her thoughts on video podcasting data.

• AI Slop from the other Prof G, Steven Goldstein. Not only is Steven the Prof at NYU’s podcasting course, but he’s a great audio strategist. (Doesn’t AI Slop sound appealing? 😜)

• Jay Acunzo has opened up another session of his Signature Speech speaking bootcamp. Jay recently helped me with a keynote and he kinda blew me away with the depth of his expertise and his real-time insights. If you’re a speaker looking to step up your game, check out Jay and his consulting.

• I had a great ‘non-Earn It’ chat with Peter Reek about mid-life career transitions for his wonderful new publication, InHabit. For me and a lot of other people in my age bracket, all the issues in InHabit are top of mind and I’m really enjoying it a lot.

• Unlike THIS newsletter, here is something short and powerful that I was fortunate enough to help out with. The Life Is Short newsletter is a short bi-weekly newsletter with powerful insights about life. What makes it unique and powerful is who it’s from. Canuck Place is a children’s hospice in Vancouver and they deal with some of the most tragic and heartwrenching experiences you can imagine. This generous newsletter shares life insights for all of us—insights that can only come from those who have lived experience working in a children’s hospice.

Thanks for reading this video-heavy edition of the newsletter. Please let me know if you have any addition strategies or approaches that have worked for you with video, or if you have examples of unusual video successes.

(If you want to talk more about video podcasting or multi-platform content strategy, just reply back to this email.)

Steve

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Welcome to the Creativity Business, a newsletter about earning attention and differentiating yourself as a marketer or content creator. If you’re not a subscriber, sign up and get content & differentiation strategy delivered to your inbox every two weeks for free.

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I have just returned from almost three weeks away from home, and I’m coming back committed to making some changes to my Attention Diet. My last newsletter was a call to “pay attention to what you pay attention to” and being away for an extended period of time certainly helped me do that with clarity.

Maybe you’re like me, and over time, you slip into bad habits for how and where you spend your time and attention. When you spend a decent chunk of time away from your regular routines and cues, though, it makes it easier to see how trapped we can become in unhealthy attention habits.

For example, being away helped me realize and confirm:

• I spend too much time checking and responding to emails, especially early in the morning

• I spend too much time on LinkedIn, of all places

• I check the news too often, and it’s not helpful or valuable

• I book too many Zoom calls a day

• I respond to an enormous amount of text messages every day, usually with a degree of urgency that pulls me out of my current focus

• At night, I spend too much time scrolling social media

As a result, I’m subconsciously deprioritizing the stuff that actually requires focus and attention, like writing, work projects, and reading. Too often, I end up getting to those at the end of the day when my attention and energy are shot.

Attention-wise, this is a horrible diet. Having an extended break from these bad habits was a real eye-opening gift. So, I’ve decided to embark on a major Attention Health Kick.

The Attention Diet Stakes Are High

There are a lot of parallels between how we think about a healthy food diet and a high-quality Attention Diet. And even though it may not seem like it, the stakes of where you place your precious, limited attention are high.

We live in an era where we have never been exposed to more messages attempting to get our attention, where algorithms are designed to manipulate us into endless doom-scrolling with dopamine-inducing intermittent variable reward strategies, and where business models reward tactics like generating outrage, creating controversy, and spreading falsehoods.

It’s so easy to have our time and attention hijacked by the attention equivalent of sugary breakfast cereals, high fructose corn syrup, and fast food.

So, going one step further than paying attention to what we pay attention to, let’s actively consider what a healthy Attention Diet looks like.

Evaluating Your Current Attention Diet

Here are some diet-themed questions that might help you generate some insights about the quality of your attention choices:

• What’s the junk food in your Attention Diet? Are there sites or apps that suck up tons of your time without providing much in return?

• What are attention equivalents of addictive things like alcohol, smoking, or vaping that we use to escape reality or discomfort? What algorithms and products are knowingly designed to be addictive? Are they actually creating any value for us, or are they putting us on a never-ending dopamine-seeking hamster wheel?

• Are there any carcinogens in your media diet? Are you giving your attention to things that actively make you feel bad? Angry? Outraged? Depressed? Scared? Hopeless?

• Much like the variety of “experts” in health, who are the influential people claiming to be experts in their fields without any experience or credentials? And who are the real ones you can actually trust?

• Media literacy is like reading the labels on food. How can you do your own research to make sure that the advice you’re following is based on real expertise and not propaganda?

Get Rid of the Junk Food

What are some quick and easy ways to instantly improve the quality of your Attention Diet?

• Review your notification settings and shut off almost everything

• Actively use the Focus Mode settings on your phones and computers when you’re doing work that requires deep focus

• Put severe limits on apps and platforms designed to suck up all your time.

• Even better, hide, delete, or leave the services that aren’t good uses of your attention.

• Utilize focusing strategies like the Pomodoro technique.

• Go on an unsubscribing binge and get rid of the spam or unwanted emails that flood your inbox.

• Don’t get sucked into an email vortex first thing in the morning. Protect your best hours—block off time in your calendar to work on what is most important to you and while you are at your freshest.

Prioritize Healthy Attention Ingredients

The harder but vital part of building a healthy Attention Diet is to spend some real time figuring out what is truly most important to you. What are the best possible uses of your time, and where are the opportunities to arrange your schedule and life to prioritize those more often?

Much like the Food Guide, what would be the ingredients and portions in your ideal attention pie chart? It might include:

• Tasks and projects that are important but not necessarily urgent

• Social time with family and friends

• Hobbies and creative projects

• Reading

• Exercise

• Mindfulness

• Healthy eating (!)

• Time outdoors

• Sleep

• And yes, it might include some short bursts of attention junk food like social media because it’s fun and that’s what we’re in the mood for.

There are no right or wrong answers, and the ingredients in a healthy Attention Diet will be unique for everyone. Being fully aware of how you’re spending your attention is what matters.

Then, the key is to spend the time determining what the most valuable and meaningful uses of your attention are, where you’re spending your time instead of your priorities, and creating a plan to cut down on the junk and double down on the important stuff.

Beware Wall-E World

If we’re not active participants in determining how and where we place our attention, it will be determined for us by those who most benefit from hijacking it. And when we fall victim to that, huge swaths of our time and attention disappear daily. Days, weeks, months, and years of our finite lives will go by with enormous swaths of time being poorly used.

Doing all this is, unfortunately, hard work! As usual, though, the hard work is the path to the good stuff. Let’s not all end up like the world in Wall-E. Sometimes it feels like we’re not far off…

Earn It Updates

A huge thank you to Porchlight Books for promoting Earn It as one of the Best Business Books of the Year. I’m heading to NYC this week for the Porchlight event and can’t wait to meet the other nominated authors!

Earn It Featured in Entrepreneur

It was a real thrill this week to see Entrepreneur include Earn It on this list of books that inspire leadership and boost productivity. It was also a treat to be the same list as Michael Bungay Stanier’s amazing new Do Something That Matters journal, which I highly recommend and am personally enjoying a lot.

Earn It World Tour 2025 Update

Copenhagen!

I had a phenomenal time at the Clever Content conference in Copenhagen and it was an honour to do the opening keynote. I learned a ton from the other speakers, including Harry Morton from Lower Street, Hannah Freegard at the FT, Mats Bax at NoA Elevate, and the amazing closing keynoter, Andy Crestodina. The brilliant organizers behind the event, Stine Holmgaard and Jesper Laursen, have two more events coming up this spring. In NYC, check out Branded Content Day on April 3, and in London, you can go to Native Advertising Day on May 14th.

Australia!

Australians might just be the friendliest and most generous hosts on the planet. Huge thank you to fellow Page Two author Allan Dib and his wife Sarah Jane for hosting us for a day on the Mornington Peninsula. I love Allan’s books, The One Page Marketing Plan and Lean Marketing, and it was a treat to talk shop while seeing the spectacular area of the world they live in.

I was also very lucky to meet up with all sorts of Australian podcast and media royalty, including Ann Chesterman (Deadset Studios) and Robbie Buck (iconic radio host at ABC) who took us out for a great night in Sydney, Corey (ARN/iHeart) and Jessica Layton (CFO at Gewurzhaus) for an amazing evening in Melbourne, and Kellie Riordan (Deadset Studios), Matt Liddy (data visualization wizard at ABC), James Cridland (Podnews) and Sally Walker (scheduling wizard at ABC) for a wonderful night out in Brisbane. (As a total bonus in Melbourne, I got to see my old university friend and lung surgeon extraordinaire, Naveed Alam, who I haven’t seen in person in over 25 years!)

I don’t think I’ve experienced such generous hospitality before and I’m also now officially envious of everyone living in Australia. It’s mind-blowing! 🇦🇺🦘🐨

If your organization could benefit from one of my 2025 keynotes or a content strategy workshop, just reply back to this email, or reach out at steve.pratt@creativity-business.com.

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

Reset, by Dan Heath

Not only have I been a fan of Dan Heath’s books since I first read Made to Stick, but I’ve also had the pleasure of working with Dan on a couple of great podcast projects and he was kind enough to participate Earn It as one of the Attention Coaches.

Every time I talk to Dan, I learn a lot, so when he has a new book, it’s like having Dan inside my head downloading wisdom at scale. In his new book, Reset, Dan Heath show us all how to diagnose and fix the systems that are holding us back, and to create lasting change. It’s available now. YES!

Self-Promotion Doesn’t Work

This is about a year old, but I just found it and I love it. writes about why we shouldn’t fret about the discomfort of self-promotion… because it doesn’t work anyway. Instead, why not try making phenomenal content that earns attention on its own? YES!

Chris Hayes on Attention

Our attention is a wildly valuable resource, and some of the world’s most powerful corporations extract it at scale in increasingly sophisticated ways, leaving us feeling like bystanders to our minds. You might say we’ve built a machine for producing boredom and then entertainment to fill it in an endlessly accelerating and desperate cycle.

Chris Hayes, MSNBC host and author of The Sirens Call. (Can’t wait to read this book when it comes out on Tuesday)

I hope that even though it’s the end of January instead of the start, that it’s not too late to think about your Attention Diet for 2025. Thanks for reading—I’m very grateful for your time and attention!

Steve

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Happy 2025! I hope you all had a great holiday season and are excited about the year ahead.

I’m going to start 2025 by doing the opposite of what I normally do here.

Instead of writing about how to earn attention as a content creator or marketer, I’m kicking off the new year by exploring what it looks like to protect and curate our own attention as consumers and audience members.

I have a little mantra I like to keep top of mind that helps me focus on the things that really matter.

Pay Attention to What You Pay Attention To.

We are both cursed and fortunate to be living in these times. Cursed because there are so many ways our attention is manipulated and hijacked, but fortunate because there is an abundance of phenomenal and personalized ways to use our time.

Your Life is What You Pay Attention To

I included this quote from Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks in Earn It and I regularly revisit it because it rings so true:

“Attention, on the other hand, just is life: your experience of being alive consists of nothing other than the sum of everything to which you pay attention… So when you pay attention to something you don’t specially value, it’s no exaggeration to say that you’re paying with your life.”

How’s that for a wake-up call?

Being aware of how we spend our time and where we give our attention is an act of mindfulness. Sam Harris, one of my favourite thinkers, put out a very interesting message related to time and attention on his Waking Up app about the year ahead. He is going to live 2025 through the filter of assuming it will be his last year. (He has no actual health concerns—this is a thought exercise). Acting as if this will be your last year alive forces you to really think hard about how you’re going to spend your time. Are you going to doom scroll for three hours a day? Or are you going to spend more time with your family? Are you going to listen to crappy podcasts and watch mediocre movies and shows, or are you going to use that time to do something that is truly meaningful or purposeful?

This exercise is powerful because it delivers insights that are tough to swallow:

• We don’t have infinite time here on Earth. Far from it.

• We are likely spending huge chunks of our lives on things that, in hindsight, we might regret

• We probably already know where we are making poor use of our time, and we probably know many better, more meaningful options for that time

For me, there are two necessary approaches to successfully managing our attention. First, we need to defend and protect it against unwanted intrusions. Second, we need to consciously curate what deserves our time and attention by setting a very high bar.

Look at Your Attention Data - Strengthen Your Defenses

What are some ways of making our good and bad attention choices more visible?

• Use the screen time reports on your phone to see where you spend your time online. I am often flabbergasted to find out how many hours a day I am on my phone, how many times the phone gets picked up per day, and how many messages and notifications I get daily. It’s a real motivator to start culling and muting!

• See if you have regular patterns or times of day where your attention slips and you let less than stellar things into your life. If I’m bored before bed, I too often end up on TikTok. And first thing in the morning, I too often check my email and get overloaded before I’m even out of bed.

• Set timer limits on various apps to ensure you don’t slide into a multi-hour dopamine haze.

• There are all sorts of browser plugins and apps to help you stay focused, block certain sites, block ads and pop-ups, and work in Pomodoro bursts to protect your attention against temptation and interruption. Forest is a particularly fun one if you’re curious about these.

• At the end of spending time with something, ask yourself if it was “time well spent.” If you could go back in time and make the choice again, would you still make the same choice? This will identify what is worth it and what to avoid in the future.
  For me, the worst example of this was the recent Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson boxing match. They did a brilliant job promoting it and hyping it up, but it ended up being one of the biggest wastes of time I’ve ever spent in front of a screen. If I could go back in time, I would never make the same choice to watch it again. It overpromised and dramatically underdelivered. Next time, I will think at least twice before buying into the hype of a sporting event like this.

Attention Journaling - Strengthen Your Curation

One other idea I’ve been playing around with for a while is keeping an Attention Journal. At the end of the day, you very briefly review where you spent your time and attention, noting particularly good uses of attention and particularly bad uses of attention.

The act of reflecting on how you use your time and attention improves your filters. You become more and more aware of both the strong and weak choices you make, and inevitably, the quality of your choices goes up over time.

I started writing the “What’s Earned My Attention Lately” section of this newsletter in January of 2023 and, oddly, I’m pretty sure it’s been more valuable for me than it has been for you (although I certainly do hope it’s valuable to you, too!). When I find something particularly interesting, creative, or engaging, I immediately add it to my list of recommendations for this newsletter. The very act of curating what I find worthy of attention has helped me set a higher and higher bar for what I consume.

If an Attention Journal sounds ridiculous and like a poor use of your time and attention, you could do something as simple as becoming more aware of what you decide to share with others. If you’re sending someone an article, a video, a podcast, a song, or anything else, your endorsement is a signal that it’s a solid use of time.

The Takeaway

It’s never been harder to avoid the distractions and interruptions that you don’t want and didn’t ask for, but it’s also never been a better time to find amazing and incredibly valuable content for whatever interests you. With the volume of options, we can and should be extremely discerning with where we use our most precious and limited resource.

Let’s do this! In 2025:

• Don’t suffer through crap.

• Don’t accept mediocrity.

• Put up defences to keep unwanted messaging out of your life.

Life’s too short to give your attention away to everyone who wants it.

The Twist

I know that many of you who read this newsletter are content creators or marketers. If you’ve read this far, you now realize the challenge ahead of you in 2025. You have to produce amazing and incredibly valuable content if you want to get the time and attention of the people you are seeking to reach.

Let’s do this! In 2025:

• Don’t produce crap.

• Don’t deliver mediocrity.

• Focus on earning attention instead of interrupting it, stealing it, hijacking it, grabbing it, or anything else that sounds gross 😜.

So set the bar high twice.

Once for yourself as a consumer and audience member.

Then set it high again as a marketer or content creator.

Cheers to a year ahead respecting our most precious resource and putting it to its best use!

Earn It Updates

New keynotes for 2025!

I’ve been working hard on new keynotes for 2025. Here’s what I’m going to be talking about it 2025:

Enter the Attention Fort

In the Attention Economy, consumer attention is under siege. We’ve built up Attention Forts to defend ourselves against the onslaught of messages and to protect our precious time and attention. As marketers, how can we get inside the walls of the Attention Fort? You’ll learn unconventional strategies that will get you invited into the Fort with open arms.

We Are All Creative

Creativity has never been more essential. In a world oversaturated with mediocre marketing and content, standing out requires more than effort—it demands creativity. But creativity isn’t a gift for the few; it’s a skill we all possess: accountants, lawyers, tradespeople, and everyone else. In this empowering keynote, you’ll unlock your creative potential with practical tools, transformative exercises, and fresh strategies to generate bold, innovative ideas that set you apart.

The Earn It 2025 World Tour

I’ve got a lot of travel coming up this winter. Come say hi if you’re at the events, or reach out if your company is interested in a workshop or talk while I’m in town.

• Copenhagen (!) on January 7 at the Clever Content Conference talking about Attention Fort Strategy.

• Australia (!) January 12-24. I’m going to be in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

• Athens (!) March 9-11 at the Radiodays Europe Conference.

If your organization could benefit from one of my 2025 keynotes or a content strategy workshop, just reply back to this email, or reach out at steve.pratt@creativity-business.com.

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

• The unique Timothee Chalamet press tour for A Complete Unknown continues in this epic interview with Nardwuar the Human Serviette. I don’t know what’s going on, but Nardwuar seems to be getting bigger and bigger and I’m here for it. So well deserved!

• I am a comedy nerd and I love Anthony Jeselnik. He’s been doing standup for 20 years and recently put out a new special called “Bones and All” on Netflix that is top-notch. He is a true master of hopping back and forth over “the line.” Even though you know that every joke has a surprising turn, you can never figure it out in advance.

• The Link In Bio newsletter from Rachel Karten has been one of my favourite reads of 2024. It’s one of the few newsletters that I pay for as a subscriber. If you’re a marketer or a social media manager, you’ll learn a lot and get introduced to a ton of creative and innovative leaders in the space.

• Angus Tucker is one of the co-founders of the john st agency in Toronto, and he started writing a newsletter this fall. It’s full of good stories and smart advice for creatives and marketers.

• Mark Armstrong recommended Matthew Dicks’ book Storyworthy on LinkedIn recently and I read it over the holidays and loved it. If you want to learn how to tell better stories from your life, this is a terrific and entertaining guide.

• "The truth isn't the truth until people believe you, and they can't believe you if they don't know what you're saying, and they can't know what you're saying if they don't listen to you, and they won't listen to you if you're not interesting, and you won't be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly."
  Luke Sullivan, Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This

Thank you to everyone who reached out about receiving a copy of Earn It as a holiday gift! It’s been a wonderful and surreal experience to see so many of you giving and getting the book, and I really hope you all enjoy it.

I wish you all the best in 2025!

Steve

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In the spring of 2022, I was burned out and knew I needed to make a change. I decided to leave my full-time job at the company I co-founded, even though I didn’t know what I wanted to do next. All I knew was that I wouldn’t be able to discover my next adventure without leaving the current one.

I had also just turned fifty, and my youngest kids were preparing to leave for university in the fall. It was not a mid-life crisis, but it was definitely a lot of big pieces of my identity shifting at the exact same time.

I went into a phase of transition and it was really valuable. I read a lot of books. I did a lot of thinking and writing. I talked with a lot of people. And, even though it took longer than I expected, I’ve emerged on the other side with a lot that I’m excited about in my life.

Having been through this process myself, I find it a real privilege to be invited into a meaty conversation with someone about their career transition or career development. Lately, due to layoffs or life changes, I’ve had a lot of these conversations.

As a way to close out the year here in the Creativity Business newsletter, I want to share some of the big topics, books, and ideas that come up regularly in these conversations. I know a lot of us take stock of our year and our careers around now, and these are all things that helped me immensely.

One big caveat before we dig in: this is written for people who are contemplating a big change or transition. This is not going to be as helpful if you’re just looking for a new job that is similar to your previous job or staying in the same profession.

Book #1: Transitions

There are a number of great books I’m going to recommend, but the first one is a timeless classic from William Bridges called Transitions. The biggest takeaway for me from this book is that we are conditioned to think about everything as:

• Beginning → Middle → Ending

However, transitions are the reverse of this. The process of a successful transition is:

• Ending→ Middle → New Beginning

A key insight is that when we enter into a life transition, we have an urge to jump from the fresh Ending straight into a New Beginning. The Middle is an uncomfortable void. We don’t like emptiness and uncertainty, so we put pressure on ourselves to get out of the Middle as quickly as possible.

However, if circumstances allow for it, we should instead embrace the discomfort of this liminal state because that is where fresh perspectives and ideas are generated. Embracing the Middle instead of rushing through it will help prevent us from jumping back into the same thing we have always done and will open us up to new opportunities we might not have considered without spending time in the void.

So what do you do while you’re in the awkward void of the Middle?

Who Are You?

It’s important to know what you want before you start looking for new adventures and opportunities. A vital part of knowing what you want is acknowledging who you actually are and what makes you special. These questions seem simple, but I’ve found that thoughtfully answering them really helped me find my next chapter.

• Who are you?

• What are your values?

• What are you passionate about?

• What are you curious about?

• What are you really good at? Where are you exceptional?

• Where do you have unique or unusual expertise and/or experience?

• When/where/why do you enter into ‘flow’ states and lose sense of time because you’re deeply engaged?

• What makes you WEIRD?

These questions help identify not only what you’re interested in, but what you’re good at and what is authentically you. (You might consider getting a DISC, Myers Briggs, or Strengths Finder profile done if you haven’t before to find out more about your unique traits.) Keeping these answers top of mind will help you from jumping into something that isn’t aligned with who you really are.

What Do You Need?

Another factor to consider is the set of environments you thrive in and the ones you don’t:

• Are you happy with the profession you’re in, doing the type of work you’re doing? Or are you looking to make a significant change into a new area entirely?

• Do you like working in large teams, small teams, or on your own?

• Can you picture yourself in a large company, a small-to-medium-sized business, or working on your own?

• How much social interaction do you need in your work life? Would you want to be in a physical office collaborating with others? Working in a hybrid or remote team environment? Or working solo with clients from your home or a co-working space?

You might also have some mandatory requirements or constraints in your next chapter:

• Do you have any financial considerations or minimum annual revenue/income requirements?

• Are you open to moving to other cities?

• How much or how little do you want to work? Full-time? Part-time? Or a set amount of hours of your choosing?

• What else is important in your life that needs to be considered? In the pie chart of how you spend your finite amount of time, what are the other pie pieces and how big are they?

Thinking deeply about these questions will help you choose environments that play to your needs and strengths, and can help you rule out options that won’t move you in the right direction.

Book #2: Four Thousand Weeks

As I recently wrote, Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman is the book that I have recommended more than any other in the last several years. Why? It fundamentally changed my perspective on what is and isn’t important in my life.

Four thousand weeks is roughly how long the average person is alive. Burkeman makes the case that it is paradoxically liberating to embrace that we are finite humans with finite time and finite possibilities. Once we realize that we can’t do everything we want in our lives, that we’re not going to be here forever, and that we’re not guaranteed anything beyond today, it frees us up to consider what the most meaningful and purposeful uses of our finite time actually are.

There is a strong case made for not putting important hopes and dreams on hold for “someday” when everything is finally done, our problems have all been solved, and the perfect window arrives… because that time will never come. There will always be more to do. There will always be more problems that arise. But there may not always be more time to do the things you really want to do before your short time is up.

While this may sound a bit depressing, it’s invigorating to consider these limitations as you are pondering your next chapter and sitting in the discomfort of the liminal state that is the Middle.

Are there things that you are truly and deeply going to regret if you don’t ever get a chance to do them?

Book #3: From Strength to Strength

If you’re over forty and in a career transition, I’d also recommend reading Arthur C. Brooks’, From Strength to Strength. The big idea that stood out for me with this book is that we have two different intelligence curves in our lives and it’s important to know which curve you’re on when you’re choosing a new adventure.

When we’re younger, we thrive by embracing Fluid Intelligence, which is our ability to soak up loads of information like a sponge, solve hard problems, be entrepreneurial and innovative, etc. Regrettably, our Fluid Intelligence starts to fade in our forties, which means that it is risky to base mid-life career decisions on the skills and attributes that made us successful when we were younger.

The good news is that there is a second curve, called Crystallized Intelligence, and it begins growing at the same time that our Fluid Intelligence is diminishing. Crystallized Intelligence is our ability to see the big picture, synthesize complex ideas, and share our wisdom with others. It keeps growing into our eighties, which is why we should embrace it as we enter middle age and beyond. According to Brooks, this is why some of the best professors in the world are older and why so many people turn to consulting, coaching, and teaching later in their careers.

If you’re in the age range when your Fluid Intelligence might be ebbing, it would be valuable to consider how you might lean into ideas and opportunities that embrace Crystallized Intelligence.

Standing Out vs Fitting In

Let’s assume you’ve spent a lot of time in the void and now have some insights about who you are, what you want, and what you need. Now it’s time to figure out how to tell your unique story and stand out from everyone else. (It’s time to market yourself!)

In today’s job market, AI is screening resumes at scale and job-seekers are using AI to craft resumes to ensure they are optimized to be scanned and read by AI. To me, this is worrisome for a number of reasons, but mostly because it sounds like the result will be resumes that end up blending in with each other.

If we’ve done the work on figuring out who we are and what makes us special, it would seem like a shame to have it stripped away into something conventional and generic to appease the AI screening overlords. So I’m a fan of doubling down on being unique.

This may not be the right approach for everyone, but for me, it has been important and valuable to make myself as differentiated as possible. My dream outcome is to end up as the ONLY person on the planet doing what I’m doing, but still creating a lot of unique value. (Another book recommendation! I was happy to find this strategy validated in The Element, by Sir Ken Robinson)

When I was in the media and applying for a new job, I would almost always get asked why they should choose me for the gig. The answer that got me a lot of jobs was this: “If you give everyone applying for this job the same assignment, mine will be the one that is different than everyone else’s and mine will be the only one you remember a month from now.”

If each of us can find a version of this story about why we are different and what makes us special, it would be more valuable than an AI-optimized resume. So how do you figure out how to present yourself as one-of-a-kind?

Unusual Combinations

Unusual combinations stand out precisely because they are unusual. They break patterns. They are memorable. (Read more about unusual combinations here). Look at the list of things that you’ve identified earlier about what makes you weird, the mix of things where you’re exceptional, where you enter flow states, and what you’re passionate and curious about. Now, start generating unusual combinations of those elements. You might quickly find that you have a fantastic differentiation strategy sitting in plain sight. (Another book recommendation! There are some great exercises for doing this sort of exploration in the book Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.)

I’ve had a few of these unusual combinations work for me in the past. When I started Pacific Content, my unusual combination was “Podcasting + Media Executive + Marketing.” That led directly to the first company exclusively focused on making podcasts with brands.

After I left Pacific Content and went through this process again, I emerged with another unusual combination: “Content Strategy + Attention Strategy + Marketing.” I can’t be sure, but I might be the only person with a LinkedIn title of “Attention Strategist.” That makes me weird and easy to differentiate when it comes to my point of view on content and marketing.

(One of my favourite examples of someone who has doubled down on what makes them unique and special is Nardwuar the Human Serviette, who you can read about in detail here.)

What are your unusual combinations? What could make you unique and eliminate the vast majority of your competition?

Share Your Ideas Generously

Once you land on your personal differentiation strategy, how do people find out that you exist?

One option is to apply for jobs with resumes and cover letter. However, as I mentioned above, the AI-ification of job applications fills me with dread about having to make your resume the same as every other resume out there.

Another option is to find a way to let the world find out about you and to instead have jobs and gigs show up on your doorstep. How do you do this?

The answer that has worked over and over again for me is to put out content that shares my passions and thinking in public. I did it with the brilliant Dan Misener at Pacific Content and it changed the fortunes of our company. We wrote a blog post and newsletter every week and we shared everything we knew about podcasting for brands. And suddenly, brands started showing up in our inbox because they were reading our posts.

Whether it’s a newsletter, a blog, a podcast, videos, or even posting your thinking generously on LinkedIn, sharing your unique expertise freely with others lets everyone else know who you are and what makes you special.

The newsletter you are reading right now is proof that I continue to see loads of value in doing this on an ongoing basis. This past year, I doubled down on this strategy by writing a book about how to earn attention!

Bypass the Gatekeepers and Bet on Yourself

This can be a scarier option, but it can also be the most rewarding. There is often a fear of betting on ourselves and a desire (or a need) for the security of having someone choose us to fill an existing job opening.

If your circumstances permit it, you also find yourself with an unusual combination of value, and you’re comfortable sharing the unusual expertise publicly… you might want to consider going for it on your own and betting on yourself.

When you’re truly unique, you might not be a great fit inside a corporation that wants to put you in a tightly defined role. You might find that you have to hide or subvert important parts of yourself in order to get a “gatekeeper” to choose you. In the media, there are still a lot of people who feel pressure to have a job with a traditional media company, for example, even though many of those traditional media companies aren’t going to let them do the work that they really want to do and often don’t understand or embrace the way digital audiences behave.

It requires bravery and confidence, but sometimes the best option is to bypass the gatekeepers and bet on yourself. If you’re interested in learning more about this route, I’d highly recommend one last book, Company of One by Paul Jarvis.

Warning: It’s Uncomfortable

When I went through this transition process, it was HARD. And it was uncomfortable. I had false starts. My patience was tested being in the void of the Middle. I sometimes wondered if I would ever have my “aha!” moment about what my next chapter would be. And, TBH, I got lonely sitting alone at home for too long. So steel yourself that it’s not necessarily going to be easy or quick. But, speaking from experience and with the benefit of hindsight, if you want to make a big change, the hard work and the discomfort are worth it.

If you’re going through a life or career transition, or taking stock of your life at the end of the year, I hope you find these ideas and books as valuable as I did in the last couple of years.

If you’ve gone through this journey or are in the middle of it, what other books or resources would you recommend? Let me know in the comments.

Earn It Updates

• I was shocked and extremely pleasantly surprised to find out that Earn It is one of forty books chosen for the longlist of The Porchlight Business Book of the Year. There are so many amazing books and authors on this list, from Seth Godin’s This Is Strategy to Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity and from Charles Duhigg’s Supercommunicators to Lorraine Besser’s The Art of the Interesting. Check out the full longlist here.

• Thanks to the amazing and generous Brittany Hodak for choosing Earn It as her favorite read of 2024. Brittany has a fantastic book of her own that shares so many of my own values about the importance of magical customer experiences–you can check out Creating Super Fans here.

• Liane Davey, a terrific author, speaker, and consultant, has a wonderful annual tradition called “NOvember,” which celebrates thirty days of saying “NO” to very specific things in the world. I was very happy to contribute a NO this past week, but you should check out the whole month of NOvember posts on Liane’s LinkedIn page.

• If you’re in or around Copenhagen, I’m going to be talking about Attention Strategy at Clever Content on January 9th.

If your organization could benefit from a content strategy workshop or a talk about how to thrive in the Attention Economy, just reply back to this email, or reach out at steve.pratt@creativity-business.com.

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

• Cohost and Quill asked a lot of podcasters for their predictions and advice for 2025 and the result is a ton of smart and insightful thoughts about the year ahead. My advice is eerily similar to the advice for career transitions!

  

• I know this quote is not about marketing or the media, but it certainly feels relevant to me through that lens!
  "Perhaps the greatest impediment to human creativity is the natural decay that sets in over time in any kind of medium or profession. In the sciences or in business, a certain way of thinking or acting that once had success quickly becomes a paradigm, an established procedure."
  Robert Greene, The Daily Laws

• Shane Parrish is writing more about attention these days in his excellent Farnam Street newsletter. From this past week’s edition:
  “You have just six seconds to capture someone’s attention — but if you interest them, you earn another twenty to thirty seconds.
  Practically, this means you have about thirteen words to hook them and another thirty to forty to deliver your most compelling information.
  If your email exceeds 100 words, allocate your editing time wisely: dedicate 40% to perfecting the first sentence, 40% to refining the next 2-3 sentences, and just 20% to polishing the remainder.”

• The Extraordinary Cost of Dull Advertising. Love this piece from Brad Cunha in the Brand Storytelling newsletter!

• Why the Mainstream Media has Already Lost - a very insightful article about the state of traditional media, influencers, and the future of journalism from Helen Lewis at The Atlantic.

• Thanks to the team at Storythings for sharing this guide for How to Find a Gift (They’ll Actually Love). I believe that the qualities of a great gift also apply to great content, so I loved reading this.

Thank you so much for spending some of your precious time and attention with me in 2024. And thanks to all of you who have supported Earn It in so many ways this past year–i’m extremely grateful to all of you. It’s a real privilege to be welcomed into your inbox every couple of weeks, and I don’t take it for granted.

I hope this edition has been useful if you’re going through a career transition, thinking about a change, or wanting to stand out from the crowd of job-seekers.

Happy holidays and see you in 2025!

Steve

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How to Infuse Creative Bravery Into Risk-Averse Environments

I’ve been doing a lot of talks, webinars, and workshops about the ideas in Earn It, and one of the recurring questions comes from people inside organizations that are fairly traditional in their marketing. The question is either:

1. How do I get people in my organization to take a risk or do something differently?

2. How can I convince my boss/CMO/CEO that we need Creative Bravery in our content and our marketing?

These are the most effective strategies I use in my content strategy workshops to get people (often bosses) to buy into the need to stand out from the crowd.

Include Stakeholders in Creative Development

Do your best to get key decision makers to be participants in the strategy and development process for a new creative project. There are several benefits. 

• When the decision-makers help develop an idea, it eliminates “not invented here” arguments.

• There is no misunderstanding about what success looks like or what the criteria will be for approval.

• You get to hear about concerns, flags, or outright “no’s” in the room and not days or weeks later.

• It’s hard to say no to something you helped to create.

• The group can influence how ideas are perceived more effectively than a deck or meeting.

• Most importantly… the stakeholders are going to be in the room for all the pieces below.

Use This Graph

Since we first introduced it at Pacific Content, I have started pretty much every strategy session or creative development session by putting up this graph.

Why is this graph so impactful? It explains content and marketing success in a very simple, visual way. 

Creative Bravery

High Creative Bravery is essential if you want to stand out in the sea of sameness. You need to make something original, interesting, and valuable for your audience and it needs to be something that can only come from you. Creative Bravery starts slipping lower when there are ideas like “let’s have our CEO host our podcast and interview our leadership team about next quarter’s new products and services.”

A powerful way to gauge whether your content idea is filled with Creative Bravery or not is to ask the group this question:

 “Would you tell other people about this video/podcast/newsletter if you didn’t work here?”

Commitment

Once you have your Creatively Brave project, you need high Commitment to tell all the right people about it. You need to effectively and consistently market your marketing.

A Creatively Brave project that you don’t market ends up with a small group of people who love it, and it’s not enough to move the needle on your marketing goals. On the flip side, if you tell a lot of people about a project, but it’s low in Creative Bravery, they will show up briefly, discover it’s mediocre or worse, and never come back. 

The goal of the strategy or development work is to get ideas and plans that are in the upper right quadrant of the graph. Once this is established, I recommend deliberately leaving the graph up in a very visible place on the wall for the entire session… because it’s going to be valuable to keep coming back to it.

Set the Table Stakes High with Examples

The next step is to share some best-in-class examples of brands or teams that are doing Creatively Brave work and finding measurable success as a result. The goal of doing this is to paint a clear picture of what success looks like, to show how high the bar is to successful, and to make it harder for everyone in the room to do something average, conventional, or boring. The key is to choose the right examples and the right companies for your project and your brand.

When I was working in podcasting, I would often use Dell Technologies and the show Trailblazers as an example of Creative Bravery. Their VP of Marketing, JC Gama, is one of the bravest marketers I have ever met.

The host of Trailblazers could easily have been Michael Dell. It could have been any number of other executives at Dell Technologies. The brand team knew that the goal was to get people to listen to the show, so they went big on Creative Bravery with their host selection: Walter Isaacson, the iconic journalist and biographer of legendary disruptors like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. Instantly, Trailblazers felt and sounded like a top-tier business show and not an ad for Dell Technologies. 

Another key Creative Bravery decision is the artwork for the podcast. Can you see what’s missing?

That’s right. There is no Dell Technologies logo on the podcast artwork. They are very clearly and publicly the publisher -  they’re not hiding that they made it. However, the absence of a logo says to potential listeners that Trailblazers is a REAL show. I would also share research and data about how popular and successful Trailblazers was as a series, and how powerful it was in impacting the brand positioning for Dell Technologies. 

It’s much harder to have your CEO as a host and to slap your giant logo on podcast art after you’ve seen this example.

When it comes to best-in-class examples of Commitment, I would always use Mozilla as an example. Commitment is about using all your strengths as a brand to let all the right people know about your amazing show. Mozilla understood this and used their biggest Superpower, the Firefox browser, to let users know about their terrific podcast, IRL.

Again, sharing the giant success of the IRL podcast with people in the room makes it harder for the group to do a poor job on Commitment.

Once the table stakes have been set very high, consider one more exercise to get everyone in a creative and open mindset.

Empathy Mode: Think Like the Audience

If you ask people to share their own experiences, it puts them in the mindset of a potential audience member. I like to ask people to think about their own attention filters. How do they choose what to ignore and what to give their attention to? You can even write up criteria on the wall about the criteria that lead us to ignore thing and the criteria that lead us to give something a try. 

We’re all getting pickier and pickier, so it’s not hard to build a general consensus in the room that we all ignore the vast majority of the attempts to get our attention unless they seem really interesting or valuable. So if you’re going to make something, you need to be awesome enough to be worthy of attention.

I recently started using this slide to hammer home the point:

Heat-mapping and Ranking Ideas

Finally, when we’re at the stage of the strategy process where we’re generating ideas, there are two ways to make it hard for one risk-averse person to undermine the best ideas.

Put all the ideas up on a whiteboard and give everyone three red dot stickers or a red marker. Everyone goes up to the whiteboard at the same time and puts a red dot on their top three ideas. Instantly, the group will identify a select group of ideas, while others will clearly fall by the wayside.

Once you have a small group-approved set of ideas, we go back to the graph on the wall. Ask the group to rank each idea on the Creative Bravery scale. Again, the power of the group will identify when some ideas are sub-par or when concepts are “about” your company instead of “from” your company.

Caveat: Creative Bravery is Relative

Creative Bravery is different in every organization, and that’s because every organization has a different purpose, different values, a different voice, and a unique set of customers. Your goal shouldn’t be to become as “unhinged” as Duolingo or as playful as Poo Pourri. It should be to create something truly worthy of the attention of the people you are seeking to reach, and something that can only, authentically come from you. 

When you get the right people in the room, you build the right mindset and expectations of success, and you use the power of a group to identify the best ideas, there is a much higher likelihood of landing on a Creatively Brave solution.

If your organization could benefit from a content strategy workshop or a talk about how to thrive in the Attention Economy, just reply back to this email, or reach out at steve.pratt@creativity-business.com.

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

• It will not be a surprise that this Scott Galloway quote also strikes a strong chord with me:

  We're in an attention-based economy, full stop. If you can command attention, you can get revenue.

• Another lovely quote about attention from Shane Parrish at Farnham Street:

  Attention isn't free. It's the most valuable thing you spend.

• I share the writing of Rishad Tobaccowala often here. This quote made me think about marketing, advertising, and challenging the status quo:

  “Adapt or die” is a good adage for an age of rapidly advancing technology.

• I write a lot about doing the hard work instead of taking shortcuts, favouring patience over urgency, so this quote from Derek Sivers really resonated with me (bonus points for using “earn it” 😜):

  Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.

• Finally, this quote from James Clear quite tidily sums up the philosophy of Earn It:

  Focus on what provides value to others, not what impresses others…
  The things we do to impress others rarely impress them for longer than five minutes. But the things we do to provide value for others can last a lifetime. In the long run, one of the most impressive things you can do is provide exceptional value.

  ---

  Earn It Updates

  

  • Audible is offering Earn It FREE with a membership right now. I’m heavily biased, but this is a really different audiobook and this is a great deal.

  • Big thanks to Indigo for bringing fresh stock of Earn It to a lot of locations. If you want to buy a copy IRL, check out the store finder option here.

  • You know when you meet another person and just instantly love the way they see the world? That’s how I felt chatting with Brittany Hodak on her Creating Super Fans podcast. She’s not only a generous community builder and customer experience expert, but she does the hard work of making content worth your time and promoting it really well. Her book, Creating Super Fans, is also terrific!

  • Thanks to the Booklife team at Publisher’s Weekly for choosing Earn It as an Editor’s Pick and for the very nice review!

• Sevaun Palvetzian is the President & CEO of UNICEF Canada - she is one of my favourite people and an amazing leader. It was a treat chatting with her in Toronto at the UNICEF all staff meeting!

• Thanks to everyone in the Design Trust UK community for joining the webinar this past week and to so many of you for signing up for this newsletter!

• Shreya Sharma is one of my favourite writers in the podcasting industry, so it was a real treat to talk about the discomfort of marketing yourself for the Marketing Magic newsletter. Thanks, Shreya!

• Thank you to Jay Baer for recommending Earn It to your readers–it means a lot coming from a legend in word-of-mouth marketing!

As always, thank you for your time and attention, and I hope this edition helps you get buy-in for more Creative Bravery!

Unconventionally yours,

Steve

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I recently wrote about the power of a format to differentiate content. 

Now let’s go even deeper. We’re going to use one of my favourite themes, Do the Opposite. 

If you really want to stand out from the crowd, earn loads of attention, and get people to both remember and talk about your content, you should explore the benefits of not just using the conventions of familiar formats, but actually undermining them.

Let’s have a look at some great examples of how to do this…

Undermining a Countdown Show

Chart shows are nothing new—in fact, pretty much everyone knows what they are and how they work. Countdowns are a really powerful and effective format, whether it’s music charts like Casey Kasem’s American Top 40, David Letterman’s famous Top Ten lists, or Buzzfeed’s listicles. Once you start spending time with a countdown format, you want to stick around to see what the rankings of other items are. And of course, you want to know what the No. 1 item is. 

Countdowns earn lots of time and attention on their own, but here’s an example that uses the countdown format in novel ways to make something really unusual and memorable without sacrificing any effectiveness.

The R3-30 was a weekly music countdown show from CBC Radio 3 that existed for many years as a radio show, podcast, and blog series. Host Craig Norris and producer Pedro Mendes took all the conventions of a chart show—specifically Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 countdown—and subverted them to create a self-referential, comedy-filled countdown full of new Canadian music.

They made up jingles and stings that sounded similar to American Top 40, but they were… weird. They had long-distance-dedication-type phone calls, but they were… highly unusual. The R3-30 was a countdown show that aggressively made fun of countdown shows . . . while using every convention of a countdown show. It was genius—you paid attention to the format as much as the countdown and the music because it was creative and funny.

The Sunshine Show

Craig and Pedro also created another surreal radio show and podcast, The Sunshine Show.

Once again, they used all the conventions of a traditional music radio show—songs and a host, with occasional promos and show IDs—but made something entirely new with them. The host of the show was Richard “Sunshine Dick” Johnson, a crotchety old man who used to be a host at a larger, more traditional radio network. His job had been eliminated and his union had negotiated a reassignment to the indie hipster service CBC Radio 3. When Sunshine Dick was on the air, he butchered all the band names, knew nothing about the music or audience, and resorted to very strange on-air segments that were entirely unfit for a national music service. For example, he would choose one small town somewhere in Canada and give a traffic or weather report for only that location. Why would we put someone so inept and unsuited to the audience on the air once a week?

Because Sunshine Dick wasn’t a real person. 

He was a character played by Craig Norris, and the audience knew and loved it. The entire show was a fake inside joke. The Sunshine Show was so funny and weird that I would find myself downloading the latest podcast episode and listening only to the host segments, ignoring the music. That’s earning attention—when the content people normally want to skip becomes the main attraction.

Eventually, Craig and Pedro decided that The Sunshine Show had run its course and wanted to retire it, but they wanted to end in a very planned way. On the final day of the show, which no one in the audience knew about, Sunshine Dick was delivered a letter, which he opened and read live on the air. The letter was another reassignment notice. Sunshine Dick promptly announced he was quitting, packed up his things, and left the studio. The station had a period of dead air before a producer came on and started playing songs. It was amazing.

The best part was that a newspaper chain in Canada somehow heard that a radio host had quit live on the air and walked out of the studio. They decided to write a story about it with a big, splashy headline, something like, “CBC Radio Host Quits Live On-Air.” It started spreading across all the papers in the chain online and was slated to be printed in a national public newspaper the next day... until one of my former colleagues who worked at the national paper let them know that the host was not real and the entire show was a sketch.

Could there be any better send-off for a fake host with a fake show on a real radio network?

Undermining an Audiobook

I knew that if was going to write a book about unconventional strategies for earning attention, both the book and audiobook would have to be unconventional in their own ways, too. When it came to the audiobook, I reached out to the master of undermining conventions, the producer of the R3-30 and the Sunshine Show, Pedro Mendes.

Pedro has directed audiobooks for a major publisher in the past. If you listen to enough audiobooks, you will know that there are a lot of rigid conventions. Pedro wanted to do things differently and make an audiobook that is one of a kind. So we brought in sound designer Gaetan Harris and went to work.

If you listen to the audiobook, you’ll hear music and sound effects bringing additional energy, life, and imagination to the stories. You’ll hear the fourth-wall being broken multiple times, with Pedro interrupting the reading of the book to point out where it’s not working. You’ll hear elements from the book, like some fake ads, brought to life as fully produced in-book commercials. You’ll even hear laughing, bad Seinfeld impersonations, and even worse singing. 

Undermining a Physical Book

Peter Cocking is the Creative Director at Page Two books and he’s a brilliant collaborator. We had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for how to undermine the conventions of one of most familiar formats of them all–a business book.

As a result, Earn It has no opening testimonials. It has no opening title page. It has no publishing information page. It has no table of contents off the top. The book literally starts as soon as you open the front cover.

All the conventions of a traditional book have not just been undermined, but they’ve been called out. The table of contents arrive after the first chapter of the book, much like the title sequence of a movie often doesn’t arrive until after the opening scene. The book’s design forces the reader to pay attention not just to the content, but also the structure. The structure has been undermined in ways that make you realize the rigidity of conventional book formats.

Why Undermining Conventions Works

It is powerful when you undermine conventions. You lure audiences in by using conventions and formats that are familiar. Then, you surprise them with unexpected content, structures, and points of view. 

Patterns are broken. 

Expectations are turned upside down. 

Something that seemed familiar has transformed into something unfamiliar. Once you undermine conventions, you also see the traditional conventions more clearly for what they are. 

And the surprise will make people want to tell others about it.

So learn the conventions that define a specific format, and then use those conventions in unconventional and creative ways to make something uniquely yours that stands out from the crowd.

A Surreal Coincidence

I have had this post outlined for a few weeks, and it has been in my content calendar to go out this week for a long time. In a bizaare twist of fate, I am currently writing this on a flight to Toronto. And who yelled out my name at the Vancouver airport? And who am I now sitting beside on the airplane for over four straight hours as I write this? 

PEDRO MENDES. 

Fate. Love it.

I asked Pedro to share some advice on how to undermine conventions:

“I usually come up with ideas while I'm listening or watching something and thinking to myself "wouldn't it be great if this or that unexpected thing happened right now?" And it almost never does. It's an exercise for flexing that creative muscle for the unexpected so that when I'm in a situation creating my own stuff, it's almost second nature to do something sideways.”

Thanks, Pedro!

Earn It Updates

• Thank you to Zak Rosen to having me on The Best Advice podcast to talk about Seinfeld and Doing The Opposite, Costanza-style. I had lots of fun recording this with Zak and he’s done a great job putting it all together.

• Thanks to Neil and Michaela at Fresh Air for having me on the Fresh Ears podcast to talk about some of the big ideas in Earn It… and a considerable number of toilet-related marketing anecdotes. 

• This Thursday, I’m doing a workshop with Rachel Elsts Downey and the fine folks at Share Your Genius. We’re going to talk about how to deliver Creative Bravery on a budget–constraints and creativity go hand in hand and we’re going to have some fun strategies and examples to sahre. You can reach out to Rachel if you’d like to attend.

• For Australian readers of this newsletter, I’m doing a Masterclass with the amazing team at Deadset Studios on Tuesday November 12th. If you’d like to attend this online event, details are here.

• Thanks to all of you who have reached out with such nice feedback about Earn It–it means a lot to hear from so many of you. If you have read or listened to Earn It and enjoyed it, would you consider writing an Amazon review? It has a big impact on getting the ideas in the book to reach more readers and listeners. Thank you so much!

  ---

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

SURREAL cereal on LinkedIn

I have never heard of the SURREAL Cereal company before this past week. Tobin at Pilgrim Content shared it with me and I’ve since told several people about it and talked about it on a podcast. I’m including it in two talks this week. And now I’m putting it in this newsletter. 

Why? This is a brilliant example of Creative Bravery on a budget. It’s a great example of the power of an unusual idea to spread and earn attention. SURREAL has over 100k people following the brand on LinkedIn because they are having fun and being different. 

When I say “slide carousel on LinkedIn” you might start to doze off. And yet that is the most effective tool SURREAL has used to build a large following. This post in particular, attempting to remove any confusion about whether SURREAL is cat food or not, is genius. I clicked through slide after slide with glee, and at the end of it, without having to talk about it, I now know that SURREAL is a delicious, nutritious high-protein cereal (and NOT cat food).

Storythings and Formats Unpacked

I first discovered Storythings when they reached out about their Formats Unpacked newsletter after I published the Content Cookbook and my deep love of formats. Between these two newsletters, they generously share thinking and curate interesting articles about attention, formats, storytelling, and storyfinding. Here are two articles they recently suggested that are exactly the sort of things I’m interested in:

• The price of being dull. (YES!)

• Non-traditional formats. (YES!)

As always, thank you for giving me your precious time and attention and I hope this edition was “time well spent” for you.

I recently received an email from Shreya Sharma, whose email signoff is “All my joy.” I love it! I’m going to take Shreya’s lead, mess with convention and end my emails differently now.

Unconventionally yours,

Steve

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Hi everyone!

Before we jump into the heart of this edition, I want to deeply thank all of you who supported the launch of my book, Earn It: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers. It’s been a wonderfully overwhelming two weeks since it launched, and I’ve had photos of the book sent to me from all over the planet, including Singapore, Australia, Costa Rica, the UK, and all over North America. (Also… a dog has already partially eaten a copy of the book.)

It’s a humbling experience to have something created in private for so long and to suddenly physically exist in the world.

I’m also deeply relieved that a book about unconventional marketing strategies that used unconventional marketing strategies to market the book actually worked! (It would not have been a good look if the unconventional strategies in the book didn’t deliver…).

It was pretty surreal to see this in the U.S. Amazon store:

It’s probably not a surprise that my head is deep in Book Marketing Mode. So when I had a recent chat with Bryan Barletta at Sounds Profitable, we talked about unconventional ideas for marketing another book - a book about making fantastic audience-first podcasts by Bryan’s business partner, Tom Webster. (Tom Webster is also one of the generous experts who serves as an Attention Coach in my book.)

Both Bryan and I want more people to know about Tom’s book, The Audience Is Listening, and we came up with a very unconventional strategy to help spread the word. I’ve written about the magic of combining unusual things together, and that is what I’m attempting here. Behold some volunteer marketing for a terrific book in the format of an open letter to Tom…

Dear Tom,

This is an open letter regarding your very fine book, The Audience Is Listening. Many of us in the podcasting community are concerned that you are underselling a very valuable and important resource for the podcasting industry.

In the book, you write, “You don’t deserve an audience.” We agree with you, with one exception. You. We believe that you do deserve an audience for this book. 

If Sounds Profitable exists to grow and support the podcast industry, we, the people of the podcast industry, believe it is your responsibility–nay, your duty!–to make sure more people know about The Audience Is Listening.

So Tom… may we have a word?

On Jul 24, 2024, in the Sounds Profitable newsletter, the day your essential book launched into the world, the header was “Educational Opportunities for the Podcast Industry.” There was no mention of your book. The announcement was buried at the end of the email. There was no photo of the beautiful cover with the rabbit! (Taking care of that now…)

This is like Steven Spielberg writing a newsletter about educational opportunities for the film industry, and just before signing off, adding, “Oh by the way, I made a little movie called JAWS.”

There is a simplistic recipe for podcasting success, but it applies to any form of content, including a book. The secret is to maximize both Creativity Bravery and Commitment.

Creative Bravery is a term for making something incredibly valuable and unique for your audience. After they spend time with your book, will they say “this was time well spent”? For you, the answer is yes! You have knocked it out of the proverbial book park.

Commitment is whether you are using all your resources to let the people in your desired audience know that you have made this Creatively Brave Gift for them. We are concerned that your humility and fear of becoming a Slimy LinkedIn Thought Leader are preventing you from letting more of your audience know that your book exists.

We have plotted this situation on a handy graph.

We do recognize that you have been doing some wonderful book promotion on your Facebook page… for other people’s books.

(Note: You get a free pass for the second one - your wife Tamsen’s new book is also excellent. You are now officially the Non-Fiction Power Couple (NFPC™) of 2024.)

We know it is hard to promote your own work. And so, Tom, we come bearing a Gift of our own, designed just for you.

The Audience Is Listening Marketing Plan 2.0

Video Calls 

You do a lot of presentations, podcasts, and meetings on video calls. What if you added a novelty prop tied into your rabbit ears cover image to remind people that you have a book? It worked very well for Steve Martin in his early standup days. This is what you could look like in EVERY video call:

Newsletter Promotion

Have you considered having other newsletters creatively promote your book? It can be like a podcast host recommending another show in their podcast! (Make sure you only do with top-tier newsletters written by really, really cool people…)

Empower Your Audience

What if you asked your audience to help you spread the word? What if you asked the people who have read and enjoyed the book to leave stellar five-star reviews on Amazon? And what if you put this ask of your community into your own newsletter??? 

***BONUS TIP: You might even consider getting the really, really cool newsletter writer to make this ask of your community so that you don’t have to do it yourself.

Book Neighbourhoods

Our Bumper friend Dan Misener talks brilliantly about Podcast Neighborhoods Neighborhoods reveal what your target audience is listening to and provide an instant roadmap for where you can effectively promote your show.

What about exploring this for books? What if, for example, you promoted like-minded books that complement each other without competing with each other? As a random example, you could promote The Audience Is Listening with your wife’s new book, Say What You Can’t Unhear, and maybe add in some sort of hot new release about unconventional ways to earn attention? Readers could even be entered into a draw for a pair of novelty rabbit ears.

OOH Marketing

Tom, we’ve been saving The Big One for the end. This is a game-changing idea and we are offering it to you free of charge because we believe in this book.

At the end of The Audience Is Listening, you write: 

“The most underutilized way to market podcasts is in the offline world. Where are your listeners when they are receptive to your show? Urinal cake advertising in sports bars is better than X/Twitter for a sports show.” 

We have generously designed Rabbit Ears Urinal Cakes™ for the washrooms at the next Podcast Movement conference. 

Think of the fun many podcasters will have at the conference! (We are still working on creative ideas for podcasters who do not use urinals). Your stunt will be the talk of the conference and everyone will know that the hilarious urinal cakes came from Tom Webster, book author.     

Final Bonus Tip - The Sign-Off

One final idea is unconventional and for brave book marketers only. Can you turn your book title into a closing sign-off on all your calls and emails? For example, “That’s all the time we have for this research presentation. I’m Tom Webster reminding you… The Audience Is Listening.”

You’re a brave book marketer, Tom. You can do this, Trust us. You’ve Earned It! 

Sincerely,

Steve

Unelected representative of the entire podcasting industry and Unelected President of the Tom Webster Fan Club.

Earn It Updates!

A huge thank you to everyone who has helped spread the word about the book, including:

• IVY - Beri Meric reads 200+ books a year, interviews the authors, and shares the wisdom to a huge community of business leaders.

• Jody Vance for doing a locker room interview post book launch.

• Brand Storytelling for a great Q&A in their newsletter.

• James Cridland for a wonderful and detailed review in Podnews.

• Steve Goldstein at Amplifi, who was the first person who reached out when I wrote about the concept of earning attention a couple of years ago, for a new Q&A about the book.

• Alison at Quill for a really fun Q&A about more effective thought leadership.

• Tod Maffin for a fantastic special edition of Today In Digital Marketing podcast with a fantastic opening question.

• The team at Readwise and Reader, who featured Earn It in the terrific WiseReads newsletter.

And finally… a closing favor! If you have read or listened to Earn It and enjoyed it, would you consider writing an Amazon review? It matters a lot in helping new readers and listeners discover the book. If you’re up for writing a review, it would be hugely appreciated- thank you so much!

(And thank you again to Tom Webster for being such a good sport with this Open Letter. You’re awesome, Tom!)

Until next time,

Steve

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Today is a big, exciting day for me. It’s also a weird, awkward day.

It’s exciting because the book I’ve been working on for a long time is finally out in the wild. Today is the launch day for Earn It: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers. 

Before I get to the weird and awkward, I need to first say that I am very proud of this book. I’m obviously deeply biased, but I believe there are a ton of valuable and road-tested insights and strategies in the book for anyone who is in marketing, content creation, or thought leadership.

It’s an unconventional book about unconventional strategies, and whether it’s the print version or the audiobook, there are many fun and unusual elements that make Earn It different from other marketing or business books.

Weird and Awkward!

It’s weird and awkward because, as the person who has been writing about doing hard work, showing up consistently over time, and earning attention, today is the day I get to find out if I have “earned it” for you.

One of the messages in the book is that you can’t rush to short-term results with marketing and content. I’ve learned repeatedly that the path to success is to create unexpected and surprising value for the people you seek to reach, over and over and over again. If you earn attention regularly, you build trust. If you continue to create value, you build relationships. And when people have a need for your products or services, those relationships transform into customers.

Attention → Trust → Relationships → Customers

This Substack started just over two years ago and I’ve been trying very hard to practice what I preach. There has been no paywall, I’ve tried to give away as many valuable ideas and strategies as I can, and I’ve done my best to show up every two weeks with the goal of earning your attention.

So today is the awkward day that I ask you, “Have I earned it?” 

Option A: Yes, Steve Earned It!

If the answer is “YES!” I would be honoured if you would buy Earn It today. Strong first-week sales will help booksellers promote the book more heavily, helping the ideas in the book spread further. 

Here are some links to places you can buy Earn It today:

• Amazon US

• Amazon Canada

• Indigo/Chapters Canada

• Barnes & Noble

• Audible

• Books a Million

• Bookshop.org

• Porchlight (bulk buys)

If I’ve really Earned It, it would be amazing if you could also share the book on your social media channels with a link to the book’s website. Here’s the book cover in case you want to share it 😜

Some potential copy you could use when sharing:

1. “Earn It is the most important book I’ve ever read”

2. “After reading Earn It, I will never be able to see the world the same way again.”

3. “I just bought copies of Earn It for my entire marketing team!”

If you’re more of a social video person, here’s some inspiration from my son Dawson and his roommates, Ryder and Toby (and yes, that is indeed a limited edition Earn It Toque…):

@wydaturnerThe times coming! @Steve Pratt

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And if I’ve really, really Earned It and you enjoy reading or listening to the book, one of the most valuable things you can do for a new book is to leave a review of the book on Amazon.

For whatever you can do to support the book today, thank you thank you thank you!!! 🎉🎉🎉

Option B: No, Steve Has Not Earned It!

And if the answer is “No, Steve, you have not yet ‘earned it,” that’s okay, too 😀

I’m not giving up! I hope that I will Earn It for you very soon. I’ll keep trying to create more surprisingly awesome value for you here and elsewhere. (And in case you’re concerned, this newsletter is not going to become endless book promotion.)

Thank You!

Even though sometimes writing a book can feel like a solitary journey, there are many segments of the journey that involve deep collaboration. This book would not have been possible without the help of a lot of phenomenally talented, experienced, and kind people.

Thank you to the entire team at Page Two and their partners. You are an unconventional publisher in all the best ways. I’ve learned so much from you! Special shout-outs to:

• Jesse Finkelstein has become a friend and a tireless supporter of my journey from inception to today. Your passion and energy are contagious, and I couldn’t ask for a better publishing partner!

• Peter Cocking designed the cover and the interior of the book. You constantly surprised me with how your creativity brought the ideas in the book to life at an entirely new level. The structure and design of the book are unconventional and call attention to how conventional so many other book designs are. 

• Rony Ganon, Caela Moffet, Ashley Rayner were the amazing project managers at different stages of the book. You all stayed on top of everything, answered so many dumb questions, and were incredibly helpful at every step of the process. 

• Scott Steedman, Steph VanderMuelen, Alison Stroble - the structural editor, copy editor and proofreader. Your ideas, suggestions, feedback and encouragement made Earn It so much better. The time, care, and attention to detail you all put into this project still blows my mind!

• Felicia Quon, Madelaine Manson, Meghan O’Neill, Tessa Eisenberg, Leonni Antono, Viktoria Skaper–what a sales and marketing team! Thanks for all your support, advice, and advocacy for Earn It. As a first-timer doing this, it is a gift to have all your expertise to show me the ropes and guide me through the process.

• Jay Korporal, the brightest and friendliest person in the office! I love coming to visit you all at Page Two HQ and Jay, your energy and enthusiasm always stands out!

• Don Sparrow, the incredibly talented illustrator and comic book artist that Peter asked to draw all the images of shocked and surprised marketers on the cover and throughout the book. Your art brings so much fun and personality to the book!

• Friesens printed the book and did a bang-up job with it. The colours explode off the cover in the best possible way - thank you!

• Thank you to the teams at Raincoast, Macmillan, Ampersand, and Upstart and Crow for your support of the book and for getting booksellers excited about this unconventional marketing book! 🎉

Two of my favourite creative collaborators made the audiobook for Earn It a truly unconventional listen. Pedro Mendes and Gaetan Harris brought all their creativity to this project and made the audio version sound a lot more like a podcast than a traditional audiobook. (Biased again, but I think this is the future of audiobooks–more production, more creativity, more editing!)

The marketing of the Earn it might have been more fun than writing it, because I’ve been able to collaborate with some great, funny friends to make ridiculous videos on TikTok and Instagram with fake book marketers, a fake agent, and a fake social media coach. There are more collaborators coming, but for now, a big thank you to Steve Scarrow, Perry Pannu, Bob Kronbauer, and Jordan Kawchuk–I’ve had an absolute blast shooting these with you!

The book also would not have been possible without my adventures at Pacific Content. A lot of the strategies, ideas, and best practices emerged from working with phenomenal people at our weird little podcasting company, and many brilliant and brave marketers that we made podcasts with. A special shout out to my cofounders, Jenny Ouano, Chris Boyce, and Rob Leadley, and a big thank you to the entire Pacific Content team!

Enormous thanks to my whole family for supporting me through the last couple of years to get to today’s launch. In particular, my amazing wife, Debbie, and my dad, Courtney, were the recipients of many early drafts and much whining, and they always offered fantastic suggestions and feedback. Thank you!!! Cedar, Dawson, Charlotte, Alexa, Brian, Kerri-Lynn, Sydney, Benjamin, and Victoria–thanks for all your support! ❤️

Finally, thanks to all of you who read this newsletter. Earn It is about valuing the precious time and attention of those you seek to reach and connect with. It means a lot to me that so many of spend some of your precious time and attention with me here. Thank you!!!

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Tuesday is a big day for me. It’s been years in the making. October 1 is the official launch day for my book, “Earn It: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers” and I can’t wait for it to finally be out in the world!

Until now, I have been holding back one very exciting detail about the book.

I have enlisted the help of some serious legends in the quest to help marketers and creators earn more attention. I feel like I’ve assembled The Avengers of Attention.

Without further ado… (drum roll…), in alphabetical order, please meet… your Earn It Attention Coaches!

Jonah Berger is the bestselling author of Contagious, The Catalyst, Magic Words, and Invisible Influence. He’s also a professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Jonah knows how to create change and make ideas spread.

Michael Bungay Stanier is the bestselling author of several books, including The Coaching Habit and The Advice Trap. Michael knows how to ask smart questions and play a generous long game with content, and has exceptional empathy for audiences.

Ann Handley is the bestselling author of the book Everybody Writes and the hugely popular email newsletter about marketing and writing, Total Annarchy. Ann knows everything about building relationships with audiences and crafting a unique brand voice.

Dan Heath is the bestselling coauthor (with his brother, Chip) of Made to Stick, The Power of Moments, Decisive, and Switch; the author of Upstream and the forthcoming book, Reset. Dan is also the host of the podcast What It’s Like to Be. Dan knows how to make ideas enduring and memorable.

Dan Misener is the cofounder of Bumper, a podcast growth agency. Dan is one of smartest problem solvers I know and is a global expert on building audiences for content published by brands.

Jenny Ouano is my original cofounder at Pacific Content and is the cofounder of Rewrite Capital Advisors. She is the best person I have ever met at designing unique, unexpected, memorable content, experiences, cultures, and environments.

Tom Webster is one of the media industry’s top research and strategy minds, as well as a compelling speaker and author of The Audience Is Listening: A Little Guide to Building a Big Podcast. Tom is a partner at Sounds Profitable, a company focused on growing and improving the podcasting industry through research and education.

What a stellar collection of mega-brains, right?! You might be wondering what these Attention Coaches are doing inside the book. Well, much like the “hero’s journey” made famous by Joseph Campbell, you are being called to adventure. Earn It pulls you out of your comfort zone and sends you off into the wilderness to overcome tough challenges in pursuit of a better, more effective way of marketing and creating content.

And–not gonna lie–sometimes the journey is going to be tough. Following the pattern of every epic hero’s journey, though, there is expert help every step of the way. Much like Luke Skywalker had Yoda, Neo had Morpheus, Frodo had Gandalf, and Harry Potter had Dumbledore, you have this amazing assemblage of Attention Coaches who have agreed to be part of this book and serve as your guides and mentors.

An Attention Coach Preview

Here are some appetizers of Attention Coach wisdom–just to whet your appetite for the main course 😜. Let’s start with the basics. Why do all these experts (who I am not paying to agree with me) think earning attention is important and valuable?

Jonah Berger: Some things attract attention, but holding it is also really powerful, particularly if we want to change minds or drive action. The challenge is a little bit like food. Sometimes food is delicious and sometimes food is nutritious, but the goal is for it to be both. And so you want it to be delicious enough that it grabs our attention . . . but it also has to be nutritious enough that once you’ve given it some attention, you’ve actually learned something from it.

Michael Bungay Stanier: Are you building a lighthouse or are you trying to fire off a lot of flaming arrows? Sometimes when you’re seeking attention, you’re shooting arrows all over the place and hoping that somebody notices. Earning attention says I’m building a lighthouse that helps people navigate by what I stand for. It only works if people come into the realm of your lighthouse. There is something about having the confidence to say, “This is what I stand for and this is how you can choose to navigate by what I put out into the world.” Earning attention is saying that you can trust my lighthouse.

Ann Handley: The Holy Grail of earning attention from anybody is that they want to hear from me. They want information from me. I love that that bar is so high, and I love the fact that the minute I disappoint them or I don’t deliver on their expectation, they can unsubscribe and I can never darken their doorstep again. I love that kind of pressure as a marketer and as a person.

Dan Heath: Sticky ideas are effective partly because of their ability to capture and hold the attention of the audience. For messages to stick, they need six traits (or as many of the six as you can muster).

• Simplicity

• Unexpectedness

• Concreteness

• Credibility

• Emotion

• Story

Unexpectedness applies most to earning attention.

Dan Misener: Earning attention acknowledges the opt-in nature of content. It’s hard to force somebody to watch, read, or listen to something. So earning attention is about making something worth people’s time. How do you know if you’ve made something worth people’s time? It’s good if people spent time with it and it’s bad if people didn’t spend time with it.

Jenny Ouano: If you really want people to experience joy or wonder about the content you’ve made—there’s so much noise out there—then it’s up to you to really understand that audience. You need to deeply understand who this is for. Don’t cheapen it by not listening to what they want or ignoring whatever is important to that particular audience group. You have to put in the work to make the really good quality stuff that people will talk about and remember.

Tom Webster: Earning attention is a trailing variable of doing something really, really good. Maintaining attention is a different thing. That’s a daily discipline that never ends. You have to earn your audience every single day. 

This is some serious, heavyweight experience and they all really deliver the goods. Thank you, Attention Coaches - I’m so grateful to every one of you for your participation in the book!

Earn It Updates

• A huge thank you to Sevaun Palvetzian for this early review of Earn It:

  “Compelling content is addictive. But the bar to pass in producing it is higher than ever to reach. In his unique style and voice, Steve shows readers how to blow past mediocrity and earn the attention of audiences -- differently and consistently.”
  –Sevaun Palvetzian, President and CEO, UNICEF Canada

• Did you know that a book cover only has TWO SECONDS to earn the attention of a potential reader? Peter Cocking does. He is the Creative Director at Page Two Books and the designer of Earn It. He fully embraced the challenge of crafting an unconventional book cover that earns attention. Here’s a video with all the smart design choices he made to gamify a book cover.

@steve_prattA book cover has only TWO SECONDS to earn your attention! Here's how Peter Cocking, the Creative Director at Page Two Books uses unconventional approaches to stand out in a sea of covers. #books #booktok #bookdesign #bookdesigner #marketing #bookmarketing

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• I’m very grateful to the team at Wisereads (makers of Readwise Reader and Readwise, my favourite digital read-it-later and highlighting apps!) for featuring Earn It this week and giving their wise readers a free preview of the first chapter. (If you’re a power reader, I highly recommend checking out both services and the newsletter.)

• Big thanks to Matt Cundill for having me as a guest on the Sound Off Podcast to talk about Earn It. Matt is real pro - it is always a treat to talk with someone who really prepared for the interview and who spends time crafting it afterwards. Thank you, Matt!

• I wrote a tribute/love letter to the most original and hard-working celebrity interviewer I’ve ever met - meet Nardwuar the Human Serviette!

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

Seinfeld Wisdom

Since publishing my piece on Costanza Marketing (Do the Opposite!), I’ve had a lot of wonderful Seinfeld insights shared with me.

Steve Goldstein shared the Jerry Seinfeld quote above with me–it echoes something Tom Webster talks about in the book–the “short attention span” theory is disproven every time we binge a Netflix series or listen to a three-hour Joe Rogan podcast. When something is of high quality, we have loads of attention.

Stephen Shedletzky shared a funny clip of Jerry Seinfeld accepting a Clio Award, telling the crowd of advertisers, “I love advertising because I love lying!”

Farnam Street Insights

I really enjoy Shane Parrish’s newsletter, Farnam Street. He recently had two nuggets of wisdom that resonated with the themes inside Earn It. One of the ‘hard truths’ about making extraordinary work that is worth people’s time and attention is that it takes time and hard work. Unpopular, but nonetheless very true.

“You don't have to be special to be successful. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things by choosing to be what most people are unwilling to be: consistent, hardworking, patient, and determined.”

Following up on the word “patient” above, apart from a very rare exception, short-term success doesn’t really exist with content. It’s a long game. You have to show up over and over again, being unexpectedly awesome each and every time.

“The short-term crowd is always too distracted to notice the long-term crowd slowly compounding.
An investor obsessing over daily economic data misses the big picture. A teenager chasing fleeting popularity neglects to develop genuine interests and skills. A co-worker stops paying attention to the details to chase attention. All chase false stimuli at the cost of lasting value.
Never try to win the moment at the expense of the decade.”

Viewing marketing and content as an asset whose value compounds over time would shift a lot of current strategy and would earn a lot more attention.

Say What They Can’t Unhear

There’s a terrific book coming out on October 8th from Tamsen Webster, the author of one of my favourite messaging books, Find Your Red Thread. The new book is called Say What They Can’t Unhear. Tamsen is on a mission to make it easier for people to make change happen and this book delivers the goods. Even better, the science and psychology Tamsen shares recommends finding alignment and empathy instead of cajoling and pressuring! 😜

Meditations for Mortals

Four Thousand Weeks is my most recommended book of the last several years. Oliver Burkeman has truly made me rethink how I approach spending my time and to appreciate how short our finite lives are. Oliver has a new book, Meditations for Mortals, coming out October 8th and I’m eagerly awaiting fresh new perspectives on life. (Spoiler: I was thrilled to chat with Oliver last week about the book and will be publishing the highlights of our conversation soon in The Creativity Guild. Stay tuned…)

I’ll be back with a short Earn It launch day newsletter on Tuesday and then it will be back to the regular cadence. Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement with the book - it means a lot to me!

Steve

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Also… my new book, Earn It: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers comes out Oct 1 (very soon!) and is available for pre-order now.

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The Recipe for Great Content is a Recipe

Formats are like recipes for content. There are specific ingredients put together in very specific ways that deliver a delicious final product. If you follow a great recipe, it’s hard not to deliver something very tasty. It’s the same with a content format.

While you can and should put your own individual variations on a format (we’ll get to that shortly…), the power of a format is that audiences recognize it as something they are familiar with and already enjoy. A great format has already been proven again and again to earn attention. It is not an accident that every episode of Wheel of Fortune follows the exact same pattern.

The more you watch your favourite sitcoms, the more you see recurring structural patterns that are unique to that show. Take Seinfeld, for example. If you watch enough episodes, you know that there will be several unrelated plotlines that somehow intersect with each other at the end of the episode in a surprising and funny way. This is one part of the recipe for a great Seinfeld episode.

Formats are underutilized by marketers and creators, though they constitute a huge area of opportunity for differentiation and earning attention. In television, formats are a big business. They are invented and sold over and over to broadcasters in various territories. Dragons’ Den is an entrepreneurship TV format that originated in Japan, which was then sold as a format in the Uk and Canada as Dragons’ Den, before being sold and produced as Shark Tank in the United States.

Reality shows are also formats. The Bachelor is a format that has been licensed to other geographic territories outside America. Same with Love Island. Same with Big Brother. If you have watched these shows more than once, you know that there is a very, very specific recipe for each episode. (“This is the final rose of the night.” “Take a moment and say your goodbyes…” )

Subject Matter + Unusual Format = Memorable, Differentiated Content

The key with a format is to adapt it and make it uniquely yours. Carefully copying someone’s recipe is not what I’m advocating for. Instead, use storytelling structures that are proven to work, but use them in creative new ways and contexts that then become your recipe.

I would like to encourage you to think about pairing your unique subject matter with a format that is not normally associated with it. A few editions ago, I shared a great example of this - Mohawk Chevrolet is using all the conventions of the format of The Office to make videos about their car dealership. It’s brilliant and successful. I’m pretty sure it’s the only car dealer on the planet doing this… and that’s why it stands out.

The good news is that applying a format to your content strategy is easier than you might think. Formats are everywhere. You just have to find one that inspires you, reverse engineer the key elements in the recipe for the format, and then creatively apply that recipe to your unique subject matter.

The Areas of My Expertise

I am a giant fan of John Hodgman’s book The Areas of My Expertise, a fake “Almanac of Complete World Knowledge.” I’m not sure I’ve read anything like it before. It was published in 2006, and to this day, I still tell people about it. One of its strange obsessions is American hobo history and culture. There is a section of the book— pages and pages and pages long—that is nothing but a list of seven hundred(!) hobo names. (Hellooo, Ironbelly Norton and Thermos H. Christ!) 

To help you see the scope of potential formats at your disposal, I’ve written an homage to Mr. Hodgman that is focused on the areas of my expertise—forms and formats for content. This is a giant, incomplete list of ways that we all communicate and interact with each other. As you think about your content project, browse the list and see if any forms or formats jump out at you. Think about how to infuse your idea with an unusual format.

So without further ado, here is an exhaustive but unfinished compendium of forms and formats to inspire you: 

I could go on and on with this, and I’m sure there are loads of inspiring ideas you have that aren’t on this list. The point is, there are a lot of forms and formats we are all familiar with. Using familiar forms in unfamiliar situations is memorable and earns attention. Unusual combinations work. Identify a few formats that you love and see what it feels like pairing it with your subject matter. You might be the next Mohawk Chevrolet!

For example, If you work at an insurance company and want to create content about different life stages, what would it look like if it were a scavenger hunt? Or a game show? Or a high school science experiment? Or a diary entry from someone at each life stage? You make the information you want to transmit much more memorable by presenting it in a surprising or unconventional way.

Just adding a format can transform an average idea into something really memorable that earns lots of attention.

Earn it Updates

It’s Alive! It’s Alive!

A few days ago, the doorbell rang. A very sweaty FedEx guy was standing outside my door with two stacks of boxes. The first physical copies of my book were sitting on my porch!

I’ve been living with the digital version of Earn It for months, but opening a box and seeing a REAL BOOK inside is a wonderful and surreal experience. The design work from Peter Cocking at Page Two is next level - the physical book has some really unconventional design choices, from paperback cover flaps that fold out and turn the cover into a poster, to starting the book as soon as you open the cover.

Interviews and Webinars!

• Thanks to Sam Sethi and James Cridland for having me on Podnews Weekly. You can listen to our conversation here or you can read the interview in the Podcast Business Journal.

• I’m doing a free Office Hours webinar with Harry Morton and the team at Lower Street on Wednesday, September 18th about why you need an attention strategy and how to create one. Sign up to attend for free here.

• I’m doing a virtual talk at the Branded Podcast Symposium on September 25th about how to make shows that stand out from the crowd. You can sign up for free here.

• If you’re looking for a podcast guest, a speaker, or a customized workshop for you team, and you’re interested in rethinking marketing, building an attention strategy, or differentiating your brand, I’d love to talk with you! :-) (I’m going to be in Austin and Toronto in mid-to-late October and Montreal in November.) You can reach me here.

Kind Words

Speaking of Podnews, thank you to Radio Futurologist (real title) and Podcasting Wizard (not a real title) James Cridland for giving Earn It an early read and sharing this:

"If you should pay attention to anything right now, it’s this book. Steve Pratt highlights the only thing that really works in marketing - and the way to get there. This book is required reading if you want to rise above your competitors - while delighting your potential customers.”

–James Cridland, Editor of Podnews

What’s Earned My Attention Recently

Dan Heath has a new book!

I am a fan of pretty much everything Dan Heath puts out into the world. I have read several of his books multiple times because they are that good. I also really love the podcast he started last year called “What It’s Like To Be…” that explores a different career every episode. (So if you’ve ever wondered What It’s Like To Be A Mystery Novelist, or a Tennis Coach, or a Mall Santa, or a Baseball Stadium Beer Vendor, you know where to listen…)

All this to say, I am very excited that Dan just announced his next book on LinkedIn. Here’s how he describes Reset:

“RESET will help you get unstuck, shake off old habits, and overcome the inertia of “the way things always work.” You’ll learn how to vault forward and make progress toward what matters—without the need for an influx of new resources (which, for most of us, is not forthcoming).

The book showcases normal people in normal situations who transform the way they work. There are no case studies of the usual stars of business books (Google, Nike, Starbucks, Apple, Netflix, etc.). No exhortations to embrace AI. No mention of anything Elon Musk is doing.”

You can pre-order Reset now.

The Launch of Sequel!

Two of my good friends and extremely creative and talented former colleagues, Tori Allen and Andy Sheppard, have launched a brand new podcasting company, Sequel. They’ve assembled a terrific team of audio storytellers and they already have a phenomenal roster of clients. Congratulations! 🎉🎉🎉

Thanks for reading this edition! Let me know if you have any examples of unusual formats and subject matter that you love.

Steve

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It’s ONE MONTH until Earn It launches! I’m understandably very excited about this. Just a heads up that I will be sharing some book excerpts, giveaways, events, etc between now and October 1st.

Even though Ron Burgundy is kind of a big deal, he is always desperate for attention. Ron Burgundy is all of us. 

Whether you’re a marketer, a production company, a content creator, a politician, or pretty much anyone else… we all want more attention. And if we want more attention, we need an Attention Strategy™. (No, that is not a real trademark. Yes, it IS a real strategy.) 

Why? Here is a very obvious but blunt truth:

If we don’t have attention, we have nothing. There are no ears listening. There are no eyeballs watching or reading. There is zero consumption. We’re not getting anyone’s time, which means that we’re also not getting anyone’s money. 

So whatever we have made that is getting little to no attention is now also a huge waste of our own time and money.

Why You Need An Attention Strategy™

I believe attention is the most valuable commodity on the planet. It’s becoming increasingly harder and harder to get, and those who figure out how to get it reap all the rewards. 

Why is it so hard to get attention? As individuals, our attention is the limited resource we try to protect the most. We are bombarded with thousands and thousands of attempts to interrupt, steal, capture, hijack, or buy our attention every single day. And yet we ignore almost all of them. In fact, many of the attempts to get our attention, make us annoyed and angry instead. 

A bad problem is now getting much worse. Thanks to the proliferation of AI-generated content, there is exponentially more mediocrity flooding the internet with the sole intent to get our attention. There have never been so many choices, and there has never been a higher percentage of those choices that are absolute crap.

As a result, we have been trained to shore up our attention defences. We have built Attention Fortresses™. We keep building bigger walls and wider moats. We’ve become more and more selective about who or what we allow to access our precious time and attention. Whether it’s installing ad-blockers, paying for streaming services without ads, or quitting shows and books as soon as they become too long or too boring, we are all fighting to reserve our attention for things that are truly worth it. And that makes it very hard to be a marketer, podcaster, filmmaker, musician, TikToker, writer, or anyone else reliant on attention for success.

What Are Your Filters and Standards?

Think about your own life as a consumer of podcasts, videos, newsletters, movies, social media, etc. How long are you willing to spend on something that is average or conventional? When something isn’t very good, how quickly do you bail and search for something better? How long do you spend searching for something on Netflix because you want something great and not something meh? When you have infinite choice at your fingertips, you no longer have to settle for anything other than “awesome.” None of us wants to waste our finite time. We know that in this infinite sea of mediocrity, great stuff exists and it’s worth the effort to find it. Our quality filters and standards have never been higher.

How good are you at sniffing out mediocrity and avoiding it? How good are you at sensing desperation from a marketer? How good are you at intuitively knowing that an attempt to get your attention is transactional and shallow? 

I bet, like most of us, you are a world-class expert. And, of course, if you are a world-class expert, you should assume everyone else is, too. 

So what are marketers and content creators to do?

How to Gain Entrance to the Attention Fortess™ 

Here is another obvious and blunt truth: the most valuable attention is earned. If we want to succeed, we have to make something worth people’s time and attention. We have to create things that are valuable to the people we are seeking to reach. 

If consumers have high standards, those of us creating content and marketing also need to have incredibly high standards. If we don’t, we get no attention, and again… we have nothing.

People will give all sorts of time and attention to things they value, things they love, and things that unexpectedly and pleasantly surprise them. And, even better, when you unexpectedly surprise people with things they value and love, it’s good for us and our businesses.

So it’s obvious what we have to do:

We have to earn attention by creating value for the people we want to reach. 

It’s not necessarily obvious how to go about doing it successfully.

How to Gain Entrance to the Attention Webinar

I’ve spent my entire career learning and studying how to earn attention with creativity. From co-founding and running the Pacific Content branded podcast company, to working in children’s television, and from running a digital audio innovation lab at a public broadcaster (my first podcast was in 2005!) to producing live television on MuchMusic (the Canadian equivalent of MTV), I’ve learned a lot.

I’ve spent the last couple of years coalescing all the most important and effective strategies and tactics I’ve learned into a new book called Earn It: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers. The subtitle is important: these are not conventional ideas. In fact, many of the ideas are the exact opposite of the status quo. On September 18th, I’m going to share several of my favourite unconventional ideas in a live webinar in partnership with the team at Lower Street and Pacific Content. 

You can sign up for the free event here.

I’m really excited to start sharing the concepts in the book more broadly, and this session is tailored specifically to podcasters and marketers producing podcasts. If you attend, you’ll even get a free download of the first chapter of the audiobook (which is unconventional itself, because it’s produced more like a podcast than a traditional audiobook).

It’s going to be a really fun hour with lots of opportunities for questions - I hope to see you there!

What’s Earned My Attention Lately

• My friend Jay Acunzo has opened up registration for The Creator Kitchen, which offers a mix of education and coaching to help creators find their personal perspective for stortyelling. Jay is a phenomenal creative and coach and this sounds like a terrific program.

• I enjoyed this TikTok about overt product placement from brands (thanks, Debbie Basco!):

  

  @yuviliteat least try to make it seem less obvious 😭

  Tiktok failed to load.
  
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Earn It Updates

• New videos!

  • The Negosshh got testimonials for the book… from random people on the street who haven’t read it.

  • BC Bob, my social media coach, lured me into the Rad Idiot project. #RadSTeve

• I’m going to be speaking about how to earn attention at the Branded Podcast Symposium on September 25th - you can register for this excellent virtual event here.

• Barnes & Noble is having another great pre-order event. From September 4-6, Rewards and Premium members can use code PREORDER25 to get 25% off pre-orders (including Earn It :-) )

• Ann Handley writes one of my favorite newsletters, Total Annarchy (sign up!), and every time we talk, I feel the immediate presence of a kindred spirit in the world of content strategy. Ann graciously read an advanced copy of Earn It and, with regard to the topic of this edition of the newsletter, it means a lot to get an endorsement like this. Thank you, Ann!

  “What if your prospects and customers wanted to hear from you? What if they grew to anticipate you in their inbox, on social media, in a streaming platform? How? Well, friend... Steve Pratt has an answer for you."
  -- Ann Handley, WSJ best-selling author and Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

Thanks for reading and sharing your precious time and attention with me today!

Steve

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How do you start a story? A video? A podcast? A newsletter?

Whether it’s non-fiction or fiction, B2B or B2C, or long-form or short-form in any medium, the start is the most important part. And there is an art to the start! As we learned from Scott Rensberger in the last edition, when it comes to anything you are putting out in the world to earn attention, the beginning deserves most of your attention. The ending is a close second, but here’s why beginnings matter more:

People will never get to the ending if your beginning stinks.

So let’s start with the start. Your goal is a mighty one: you have to make it impossible for your audience to stop watching, reading, or listening. What does that look like? Here are some of my favorite examples that earn attention immediately:

Six Incredible First Lines from Movies & Novels

1. “Three billion human lives ended on August 29th, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgement Day, they lived only to face a new nightmare; the war against the machines.”  Terminator 2: Rise of the Machines

2. “This is the story of how I died. Don’t worry, this is actually a very fun story.” Tangled

3. “The world has changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.”  Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

4. “We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold.” Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S Thompson

5. “My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered.” The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold

6. “I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.” A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving. (one of my favorite books of all time…)

Every one of these opening lines is a fantastic Attention Hook. Attention Hooks are exactly what they sound like - sometimes in just a single line, unexpected and incomplete information is offered in a way that is irresistible catnip for our brains. We learn just enough to have our curiosity sparked, but we instantly have so many questions. What happened? What’s going to happen? Who is this about? What would I do in this situation?

When we don’t have answers to these questions, we are compelled to keep watching, reading, and listening. Fantastic openings hook our attention because they compel us to stick around to find out what happens next.

The Sniffing Window is Very Short

Let’s imagine your ideal audience member has just discovered your content project. What is going through their mind? It’s pretty simple. They are looking for signs that this is going to be an excellent use of their precious, valuable attention. They might give you a minute. They might give you a page or two. On TikTok or Instagram Reels, they might give you two measly seconds! When people give something a try, they are sampling. They are trying to determine whether it’s worth it to stick around for the full experience.

Again, this sampling window is very short. If you don’t pass the sniff test, they are gone, and they’re not coming back. So you have to deliver something that smells great and passes the sniff test right away.

So how do you hook them right off the top? How do you get a sampler to convert into an interested audience member? Let’s start with what not to do…

The Unfortunate Reality of Most Beginnings

Here’s the strange reality, though. If, as an example, you’re a podcast listener, try listening to the first two minutes of a variety of random shows. Here’s what you’re likely to hear:

• Over two minutes of ads

• Host(s) rambling in an unfocused way, not telling the listener what to expect in the episode

• A generic opening that is the same episode after episode and does nothing to differentiate the first two minutes of this episode from any other episode

• Jumping straight into a long guest biography and introduction without telling the listener what the conversation is going to be about and what they will take away from it if they keep listening

These are the shows shedding loads of listeners in the first two minutes. It’s the same with any media format you produce: if you don’t respect every second of the audience’s time and attention, they will leave.

So how do you avoid the audience exodus? And what does content with a great Attention Hook look like? Here are a few different Attention Hook strategies to explore…

The Cold Open

There is a strategy you will recognize from countless TV shows and movies called the “cold open.” A cold open immediately drops audiences into the middle of a story. It could be a death-defying action scene at the start of a Mission: Impossible movie or it could be the discovery of a puzzling crime at the beginning of a police procedural show. Or it could be Dwight orchestrating the most over-the-top fire safety drill of all time on The Office…

A cold open plunges you into a story immediately, before any opening sequences and credits. As an audience member, you feel the attention hook. You are engaged right away, and you’re left hanging with all sorts of questions about what’s going to happen next, so you stick around past the credits and keep watching. Check out the cold open to the pilot episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer below. When no one knew what the show was about, it proved itself with drama and surprise before the opening credits.

It works in books, too. In a previous edition, Dan Heath shared how to use Story to “start strong and sticky.”

“Obsess about the first story in the book. If you don't grab attention with the first story in your book, shame on you, right? A reader has expressed enough interest to open the book, whether they've bought it or are just browsing it in the store. You’ve got one chance, and you’ve got to throw your best material at them. The stickiest story in your book should be the first thing.”

The Counterintuitive Thesis

It starts with an unconventional or counterintuitive thesis and promises to explain why this thesis makes more sense than conventional wisdom. We want to know more. Malcolm Gladwell is the undisputed master of this, from the 10,000-hour rule of expertise to the David and Goliath insight that underdogs have lots of unseen advantages over the favorites.

Gladwell always starts with a provocative, unexpected lens through which to see the world. His theses break patterns and undermine our current default understanding. And so… we want to know more. We want to understand if we are all actually seeing the world the wrong way.

(Similar to Gladwell, the Freakonomics team is another fantastic practitioner of counterintuitive insights–their tagline is “The Hidden Side of Everything.” Perfect!)

The Provocative Question or Surprising Information

It starts with a provocative question and promises the answer inside the content. Yet again, your attention hook is creating an open loop that audiences are compelled to try and close.

• What’s the best way to protect yourself in a shark attack?

• The one surprising ingredient that will improve every meal you cook.

• Has productivity culture become dangerous for our mental health?

Even though I just made these up, I would almost certainly get hooked by all of them and want to know more.

The key, of course, is that you have to deliver the goods. To be 1000% clear, I am not advocating for clickbait in any way, shape or form. You have to actually have something interesting to say or share and you have to successfully satisfy the attention hook at the beginning.

The Promise of Value

If the nature of your content isn’t unexpected or surprising or dramatic, you can still create strong attention hooks by simply telling audiences what they’re going to get if they stick around.

As an audience member, I want to know what I’m going to learn if I keep listening, reading, or watching. Valuable information—the promise of getting smarter or understanding a concept—is another form of curiosity gap that needs closing. If the topic is interesting and you want that information, you will stick around.

• In this episode, you’ll learn how to balance your family budget in 30 minutes a month

• In this video, you’ll discover the pros and cons of renting versus buying a home.

• In this newsletter, you’ll learn why beginnings are the most important element in your content and how to create effective ones that earn attention.

This is hopefully obvious by now, but starting with something unexpected, starting with a story, or starting with a promise of information or ideas that will be explained over the course of the episode helps people decide to move beyond sampling and dive into the entire content experience. 

In the end, the cliche about relationships holds true for content: you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Do your best to wow people as quickly as you can.

Prompts for Better Beginnings

• Are the beginnings of your recent content formulaic, generic, or casual?

• Are you putting enough effort into hooking your samplers with compelling beginnings?

• What is a story or cold open you can use to kick off your content project?

• What are the ways you can leave audiences wanting more once they start sampling?

• How can you very quickly leave your audience with unanswered questions that you successfully answer deeper into your content project?

• How can you entice your audience to stay with a compelling promise of what they’ll get?

What’s Earned My Attention Lately

Mohawk Chevrolet’s Office Parody

When you think of car dealership marketing, you probably think of yelling salespeople on cable TV or announcers with big voices talking about financing rates. You definitely don’t think about what Mohawk Chevrolet is doing - a fake documentary in the style of “The Office” about their dealership. It’s funny and unique, and people all over the internet suddenly know about a car dealership in Malta, NY. Love it! And in case you didn’t know, I’m a huge fan of fake Office-style documentaries on social…
(Thanks to Brittany Duggan for sharing this with me!)

The Greatest Zoom Home Studio I’ve Ever Seen

I recently had a Zoom call with my friend , the former CMO of Slack and Zendesk, and I was absolutely awestruck at the scope and quality of the home studio that he has built for both video calls and content creation for . This is not “get a ring light and a new webcam.” This is an entirely different playing field. It feels like Bill has created something akin to a network news studio and… I might be envious. There is zero doubt that Bill earns attention with every single video call he’s on! Check out the specs and the video tour of the studio here.

Rishad Tobaccowala on Generosity

Generosity is one of my favorite topics when it comes to marketing strategy. One of the core values of my book, Earn It, is about creating value for others and thinking about marketing and content as a gift. (I even wrote a post a while ago about “Giv’r Marketing”) I share Rishad’s writing here often because it resonates with me deeply and his thoughts on generosity are no exception.

Say What They Can’t Unhear

Last edition, I shared Tom Webster’s brilliant new book, The Audience Is Listening. This time, it’s Tamsen Webster’s new book, Say What They Can’t Unhear. (They are a Page Two book-writin’ power couple!) Tamsen was kind enough to share an advanced copy with me and I loved it - this is a refreshingly positive and human framework for creating lasting change. Connection > convincing. Alignment > arguing. Empathy > manipulation. Understanding > coercion. If you want to learn how to get buy-in for change, this is your book!

Earn It Updates

• My audiobook is available for pre-order! This is not an ordinary audiobook because it follows all the advice in the book itself. It’s unconventional and produced like a podcast instead of a traditional audiobook. I worked with the amazing Pedro Mendes and Gaetan Harris and I’m really proud of how it’s all turned out. Check it out here.

  

• New videos!

  • The Negosshh on Negosshhing

  • Meet my new social media coach

  • Some very strange book title advice from Gary and Perry

  • And… a spectacular Orca sighting that I ruined with a weird noise.

• Speaking of Tamsen Webster, I shared an advanced copy of my book with her, and here are some very nice things she had to say about it: (Thanks, Tamsen!)

  "How much do I love this book? Let me count the ways... Suffice to say, this book gives you the roadmap for making your content deliver on your dreams for it. Is it going to be easy? No—you'll have to Earn It, just like the title says. But if you're interested in creating content that captures people's hearts, heads, eyes, and ears, that's a craft, and there's no one better than Steve and this book, to teach you."

  Tamsen Webster, Founder, Message Design Institute [and author of Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible]

Thanks so much for giving me your time and attention - I’ll see you in your inbox in a couple of weeks!

Steve

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I met Scott Rensberger in 1997 when I joined the startup television station, Vancouver Television (VTV). Scott was a one-man-band videographer and the station hired him as a consultant to help teach journalists how to tell more powerful and memorable stories. Scott quickly became a storytelling mentor for me and many others. So much so that I still remember the lessons he taught me over twenty-five years later.

Scott had a lot of wisdom to share, but my favorite was the simple question, “Where’s The Juice?”

The Juice is the magic ingredient in a story that makes it compelling. It can be a great character, a surprising story, or an unusual point of view. The Juice can take many forms and cannot be explicitly or categorically defined. But in your heart, you know whether your story has The Juice or not.

Scott taught us that if our stories didn’t have The Juice, we were in trouble. They would be boring, forgettable, and a waste of our and the audience’s time.

“Ninety-eight percent of the stories we watch are totally forgotten within a few days,” he said. “Most are forgotten in a few seconds. The goal isn’t to have your work remembered the next day or week; the goal is to have your piece remembered twenty-five years later.”

That is a HIGH BAR. And yet, if your job is telling stories, why would not aim for having them remembered twenty-five years later? Memorability is the calling card of phenomenal storytellers.

At VTV, every day, reporter after reporter would meet with Scott before heading out to shoot their story for the day, and we could hear him bellowing from across the newsroom, “Where’s The Juice?!?!?”

He was like Clara Peller from the famous Wendy’s commercials, who would yell “Where’s the beef?!”… but for journalists and storytellers.

Ingredients in The Juice

Scott had many strategies for finding The Juice in stories. First, a story had to hit audiences in the heart, mind, or wallet. For example, in local news, the wallet became stories like:

• Are your property taxes going up?

• 5 hidden local places for kids that are free

• How to save money on heating your home this winter

This is just the beginning of “Juice Theory,” though. The Juice is not just a filter for stories overall. It is also applicable to elements inside a story. My favourite Juicy Advice is that the two best moments in any short-form story have to be the beginning and the ending. Full stop.

If you have gathered content for a story, look for the two most powerful, most memorable, most unusual, most attention-earning moments. Then figure out how to make one of them the opening and one of them the ending. And then, structure everything else around those two quotes or moments. Why would you do this, you might be asking?

Well, if you don’t have a great opening, people won’t even stick around to see what the story is about. Every audience member is weighing whether or not this piece of content is going to be worth their precious time and attention by asking themselves, “Where’s The Juice?”

So… hit them with The Juice immediately. Otherwise, they’re gone.

The ending is also vital. Great endings are what make stories memorable. They are what make people tell others about a story. Great endings are filled with The Juice. The ending could be a joke. It could be an emotion. It could be perfect closure. It could be an unexpected surprise, or a clever line.

But it can’t be boring. It can’t be generic. And it can’t just end because it’s done. Great endings are crafted.

Juicy Interview Strategy

Many times, especially in content driven by interviews, producers just use linear time progression as the storytelling format. Start at the start of the interview and end with the end of the interview.

What are the odds that the way the one-take interview unfolds is the absolute best possible version of the conversation? What are the odds that the start of the interview is one of the two most compelling moments, and that the end of the interview is the other? (Hint: almost zero.)

Start with the best clip and end with the second-best clip. And rearrange everything else in the middle and write voiceover to make it seem like this was the order in which everything was meant to flow.

Scott used to share this wisdom and I still use it decades later:

“If you don’t have a great beginning, no one will even watch the rest of the story. If you don’t have a great ending, no one will remember it or tell anyone else about it.”

You can have movies or stories with good enough beginnings, mediocre middles, and unbelievable endings, and everyone will leave blown away because of the ending. But if you have a great beginning, an amazing middle, and a “meh” ending, everyone leaves deflated and disappointed.

Find Your Personal Flavour of The Juice

At Vancouver Television, one side effect of using The Juice as a storytelling filter is that it helped all the journalists hone their own personal voices. Everyone had their own flavour of Juice—the types of stories they were attracted to, the way they were shot and edited, and most of all, the voice they used to write and read the scripts. A story filled with Juice is not generic. It comes from a person or brand with a strong voice.

I found my storytelling voice at Vancouver Television, thanks to the Creative Bravery of the leaders running the station (Hi, Jon Festinger!) and the tutelage of Mr. Rensberger. This is one of the pieces that, for better or worse, became my signature style of storytelling. In 1997, scores of world leaders descended on Vancouver for the APEC conference and we had to find ways to cover it and make it interesting for viewers. I stumbled into an area of the convention centre called “The Quiet Zone” and was immediately intrigued. This isn’t exactly hard-hitting journalism, but we had a lot of fun making it and some people still remember it… over twenty-five years later.

Juicy Advice

So what can you learn from Scott’s sage storytelling advice? Focus on finding The Juice in every piece of content you put out into the world. Focus on developing your personal flavour of The Juice.

• What is your voice?

• What is your take?

• What is your stylistic approach?

• How will audiences know that this story comes from you, specifically?

Over time, your consistency of voice and Juice will make your content and stories instantly recognizable and memorable… over twenty-five years later.

One final piece of Juicy advice from Scott:

Always remember, no one cares more about your work than you do. If someone tells you that you’ve done a great job—I’d get a second opinion. The very best storytellers always rewrite and rework their ideas. The only time to celebrate is when you’re standing on the red carpet.

In short, you have to earn it.

What’s Earned My Attention Lately

The Audience Is Listening

My friend and fellow podcast nerd, Tom Webster, has written a brilliant book that is a true must-read for anyone in podcasting, and more broadly, in content creation. Tom is a terrific writer and storyteller who shares timeless strategies for crafting audience-first creative projects. Tom also has one of the best voices on the planet and is a phenomenal speaker, so even though I’ve read the printed version, I’m also going to listen to the audiobook version of this one…. Check it out here.

Shell Game

Journalist hosts a clever, funny, and illuminating exploration of AI, Voice Agents, and identity. He takes listeners on a journey of cloning his voice, hooking it up to ChatGPT, and then hooking it all up to his phone. The result is a string of very entertaining phone calls with customer service departments, telemarketers, and… his wife. There are a lot of laughs from the “uncanny valley” nature of the current state of Voice Agents, but it will also make you think a lot about what the world will be like as they get better, and how often you may already be talking to Voice Agents and not know it. Even better, it’s produced by and the former Head of Audio at the New York Times, .

Scott’s YouTube Channel

If you are intrigued by The Juice and want to see a great storyteller at work, Scott Rensberger’s YouTube channel is filled with clever storytelling and great shooting and directing, from stories about Rat Man to the Music Box Man to the guy who has the unfortunate job of Captaining the Pump Out Boat. Check out this story - a great opening, a compelling character, and a really clever focus: meet the gunfighter who dies for a living and shows Scott how to die realistically.

Earn It Updates

• New videos: I started posting to YouTube Shorts this week. I tried talking to my brother, nephew, niece, and kids about Earn It and well… it didn’t go as planned. Gary and Perry also denigrated me by insinuating that I’m so boring that I blend into the wall behind me.

• Tom Webster and I are both working with the amazing team at Page Two publishing, and we exchanged early drafts of our books with each other. Tom was kind enough to share this testimonial, which makes me particularly happy because it includes the word “devious” :-)

“What Steve has done with ‘Earn It’ is something truly devious and wonderful - he’s created a complete primer for brainstorming creative ideas under the guise of an incredibly useful book for marketers and content creators. I’ll be going back to this book for many years. ”

• If you’d like to pre-order Earn It, there are all sorts of new places to purchase it.

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