Boom. Welcome in y'all. It is start
writing online in 25 2025 day. Cole, how
we doing?
I'm ready to start writing. I'm ready to
start writing online. I'll tell you that.
that.
I am too, man. Whether you want to use
AI or not, we're going to cover
everything you need today to build a
daily writing habit and start writing
online before the year is over.
Let's dive in.
We got a lot to cover. Let's start our
first and most important question today.
Do you currently have a daily writing
habit? Meaning you wrote today, not
maybe in the past, but if you wrote
today, say yes. Otherwise, you can say
not yet because you're in the right
spot. If so, not yet. Not yet. A lot of
yeses. Not yet. Four out of seven days.
Okay, not too bad. Well, if you already
are, we're going to help reinforce that
habit today. If you're not writing yet,
we put not yet because instead of no
because by the end of this session, you
will have everything you need to build a
daily writing habit. The follow-up
question is why are you here? What is
your goal? Are you trying to start
writing online because you want to
connect with like-minded people? You
want to build a network? Is it you
understand the power of building an
audience? You want to build an audience
for yourself, for your own products,
maybe for your own business, for a
service that you provide that you want
to provide? Or is your goal to make
money? You're like, I want to finally
not just start writing online, but I
want to make money from my writing.
There's lots of different ways that you
can make money from your writing.
A bunch of people say all three and I
think they might go in that order,
right? Build a network. That network
helps you build an audience. That
audience you can then monetize. That's
the path that both you and I have taken,
Cole. And I think a lot of other people
want to take that path as well, which
again means you are in the right place.
You know, if you've if you've ever
joined uh a free master class or a free
training or anything on the internet
before and you know that feeling where
you show up and then they basically just
spend the whole time telling you to
follow your passion and you can do it
and you know don't stop believing. Um
that's not very helpful and we don't we
don't like that. And so what we what we
do here and what we prefer is we like to
get as actionable and tactical as
possible. So we're going to cover three
big things today. First is how to build
a daily writing habit. How to get in the
habit of writing every single day.
Couple little tricks that um have worked
for both me and Dicki. You know, we've
been writing every day for however many
years now, years and years and years.
And so, uh we've learned a thing or two
about how to build that consistent habit
that we want to share. Second is where
you should be writing in 2025. I think
this is one of the most important things
that we're going to talk about because
where you publish your writing is just
as important as the writing itself. And
then third, we're going to share a
really cool framework of ours to help
you generate your first 30 highquality
content ideas. And this is one of those
things that is so unbelievably simple,
but everyone makes it complicated. And
when we walk through this framework,
you're going to realize that it doesn't
matter what topic you want to write
about. Doesn't matter what your niche
is. You can write about any single topic
or niche hundreds and hundreds and
hundreds of different ways. And we're
going to show you how to do that by
generating the first 30. That sound good?
good?
All right. Well, we'll spend two minutes
on just introducing ourselves because I
know we have a lot of people here. Cole,
you want to give the people a one minute
background on who you are and why they
should listen to you about writing?
Yeah, I want to get into the good stuff.
So, I'm going to breeze through this. I
uh I'm a former ad agency copywriter uh
making minimum wage writing taglines uh
for brands in Chicago. Um probably
because my college degree is in fiction
writing. Graduated with no idea how I
was ever going to become a full-time
writer and make money from writing. Um
so I went on a journey to figure it out.
Nobody sat me down and explained it. I
had to figure it out on my own. And six
years later, I became one of the most
read writers on the internet. Uh, I've
broken all sorts of different writing
records on all sorts of different
platforms over the past 15 years. Um,
generated over a billion views on my
content at this point. Hundreds of
thousands of followers. I've also
written 10 books. Um, a lot of people,
Has anyone here read uh the art and
business of online writing? That has
become the uh the entry point for a lot
of people into the world of writing on
the internet. Half of it. Okay, good.
Well, you got to get through the other
half. Awesome. Thanks everyone who's
who's grabbed a copy. And I I get emails
every day from people saying this has
helped me so much. So I really
appreciate that. I also uh spent many
years being a ghostriter for hundreds of
different Silicon Valley founders and
seuite executives. I've also ghostritten
for Grammy winning musicians, Olympic
athletes, New York Times best
bestselling authors, you name it. And I
was also one of Inc. Magazine's top 10
columnists. I've gotten to interview
people like Kevin Olirri and Mark Cuban,
which was pretty cool. And most
importantly though, all of that's fun
and it's been uh it's been a journey,
but I am really on a mission to help a
million people make a living by writing
online. And that's uh what Dicki and I
are all about. And all of our writing
programs are are really here to help a
million people start writing online.
All right. Well, like we said, Cole is
the deacto number one person on the
internet. Chad GPT even agrees to listen
to about digital writing. Uh I am also
up there but nowhere near as qualified.
Uh my name's Dicky Bush. Yes, everyone
does call me that. I did not study
fiction writing. I actually studied uh
operations research and financial
engineering which is quite different
than uh writing on the internet. But
that job or that major led me to take a
job at BlackRock which I thought was
going to be my dream job for a long
time. I was a hedge fund trader. This is
actually for my first day. You can see
here I am in my polo shirt, ready to
rock and roll, walking to work in in
Midtown Manhattan. And this was about
five years ago now. And in that first
year, I realized that was not what I
wanted to do with the rest of my life.
And so I started to plot my escape. And
that led me to want to figure out how do
I passively let new opportunities come
my way without having to go quit my job
immediately and jump into this big ocean
that I had no clue what, how, and where
else I could go. So, I started to write
a weekly newsletter every week for 52
weeks. That led me to start writing on
Twitter, which is now known as X. And as
you can see here, this tweet is about
five years old now. And it was when I
hit my first 100 followers. So, July
29th, 2020, first 100 followers. And
that led me into writing for some
prolific people who started to pay
attention to what I wrote. I became a
ghostriter for some successful other ad
agency copywriters and a bunch of people
who wanted to build their brand. That
led me to meet Cole via Cole email here.
So you can see this says Nicholas Cold
Dicky Bush Connect back in October 2020.
That connection led me to eventually
build ship 30, which is into what it's
become now. So if I paint this picture
of every single good thing that's
happened in my life for the last 5
years, I can point it all back to the
single habit of writing on the internet
every day. And so you can see this was
back in November 3rd, 2020. The origin
of ship 30 was I started to write every
day. realized I needed community around
me to do so and asked if anyone wanted
to be a part of that. Everything
accelerated from that tweet right there
and we have some people here today who
are part of that original cohort. It
became one of the fastest growing riding
programs on the internet and since then
we've run 21 cohorts. Been a lot of fun.
I've been riding all over Twitter,
LinkedIn, Substack, Threads, everything.
Couple hundred thousand followers on all
of them. All back to the simple habit of
writing every day. So yes, I did leave
that job at Black Rockck as well um
because of my writing. So, all that to
say, riding every day changed my life.
Riding every day changed Cole changed
Cole's life. And that's why we're going
to give a lots of information on how you
guys can do the same thing because
everything good happens once you start
putting your ideas out there. Yep.
Yep.
Here are some of the good things that
happen as a result of writing on the
internet. And it's one of those things
that I think is we have a saying
internally that is uh everyone says it
doesn't work for them until it works for them.
them.
And the moment that it works for you,
you go, "Oh, this thing works." Well,
yeah, of course it works. It works for
everybody until it works for you. Okay?
And so, writing on the internet is one
of those extremely simple habits that
you don't realize can lead to every
single opportunity that you desire in life.
life.
Outcomes of writing daily are first, it
helps you clarify your own thinking. If
you can't write it, that means you don't
understand it. So, it's very easy to sit
there and go, "Oh, I know how to do this
or I understand that." But it's not
until you have to put pen to paper or
fingers to keys that you realize, "Wait,
I actually don't have as much clarity as
I thought." It also allows you to
connect with like-minded people all over
the world. Dicky and I got introduced
and were internet friends for like eight
months. We were business partners for
like eight months before we had even met
up together in real life. You never know
who you're going to get introduced to.
Dicky, do you remember like our last
ship 30 cohort? How many different
countries did we have of people?
30. At least 30.
All over the world.
All over the world. It also allows you
to build your network of opportunities.
The more that you write, this is this is
what people don't understand about how
building a library of content on the
internet works. The more that you write
on the internet, you are effectively
scaling yourself. Your footprint grows
and grows and grows. And so the people
who have the largest libraries, it's no
wonder that they attract the most
opportunity because they have the widest
footprint. They have the widest web. And
so the more that you build your library,
the more opportunities you inherently
attract. It also allows you to unlock
new revenue streams. Oh, go ahead,
Dicki. No, I was going to say on the
building a network of opportunity, that
one resonates with me the most because
you think about when you put your ideas
out on the internet, you're basically
unlocking an army of robots to work for
you for free 247 for the rest of time,
spreading all of your ideas to as many
people as possible. And that didn't
click with me when I was writing I had
an internal newsletter at Black Rockck
when I was working there and that was
capped at like a hundred people who
would ever read it any given week. And
then when I started to put them out on
the unlocked internet, they ended up
reaching millions and millions of
people. So I I just wanted to double
click on that point because writing is
the only thing you can do for free to
take your ideas and scale them to quite
literally three or four billion people,
however many people are on the internet
at this point, which is just wild to
think about.
Yep. And text is the easiest format to
consume. You know, video there's more
friction. Audio there there's more
friction. Why do you think every Tik Tok
and Instagram reel has subtitles?
Because text is always the easiest
medium to consume. Writing is also one
of those things where you It's so funny.
When I was uh studying fiction writing
in college, my teachers used to say,
"Nobody makes a living as a writer."
Which I was like, "Okay, well then why
am I here?" And everyone says nobody
makes a living as a writer except all
the people in the world who make a
living from their writing. And more and
more like there has never been a better
time in history to make money from
writing. You can monetize on your own
with no employees if you want. You can
monetize with subscriptions. You can
monetize with digital products. You can
monetize with a paid newsletter. You can
monetize with software as a service if
you wanted to. You could sell books. You
can self-publish those books. You don't
even need an agent anymore. There are so
many ways for you to monetize writing
now. And so we fundamentally reject this
idea that nobody makes a living as a
writer. No, there's a gazillion
different ways to make money as a
writer. You just have to learn what they
are and build the skills.
It also positions you as an authority in
your industry. Why do some people have a
really easy time attracting clients and
other people struggle? You know, why do
some people have no problem launching
new products and immediately generating
revenue from a new product line and
other people struggle? The people with audiences
audiences
are the ones who have it on easy mode
and they're seen as the authority in
their niche. Yeah, Cole. I I'll do a pop
quiz for everyone watching. Drop in the
chat a famous CEO or investor that comes
to mind when I ask. A famous investor or
stock market, someone like that. Drop in
the chat. Warren Buffett, Warren
Buffett, Bill Aman, Peter Teal, Warren
Buffett, Warren Buffett.
Okay. Ray Dallio. Notice all of the
people that were mentioned here actively
write and publish something
consistently. Peter Teal has a book and
a very popular newsletter, right? Jeff
Bezos puts out an annual letter to
shareholders. Warren Buffett annual
letter to shareholders. all of these
individuals. There's quite a few others
who have the same level of investment
track record and CEO experience, all
that, but the people who put their ideas
out are the ones that capture most of
the attention. So that's who is seen as
an authority, not the ones who actually
like despite having a ton of success,
all of them, they've gained more
authority through their writing than
they have their actual accomplishments.
So, I just want to put that out there as
a reason to if if you're looking to
increase your authority in whatever
industry you're in.
Yeah, I see. Um, just to put some women
on the list, you should read uh Sarah
Table. She's a GP at Benchmark, one of
the most well-known venture funds out
there, and she writes about AI, and I
read her newsletter all the time. It
also, and this is I think the the single
biggest benefit, is you're able to build
a library of content that works for you forever.
forever.
You a lot of times when people talk
about writing on the internet, they
think of each individual piece of
content as its own thing that only gets
published once. I wrote this thing, I
published it, and that's the end. And
that is the completely wrong way to
think about it. You have you have to
think about everything that you write as
an asset that you can reuse over and
over and over again in the future. An
article that you wrote eight years ago
could be a YouTube video today.
A a long form Twitter post or Twitter
thread or LinkedIn post that you wrote
five years ago could be the introduction
to a book you write today.
There's no reason why you can't reuse
the things that you write in the past.
And that's one of the biggest like
mental reframes that we try and pass
along to writers in the digital age.
And writing most importantly is one of
the few things where you can store your
energy in to the future. And so if I
have an idea and I put a lot of effort
in it right now to write up that piece
that you know maybe I only put on
Substack today in a year that energy
comes back to me. if I go, okay, I'm
going to turn that into a YouTube video.
And so, there's no no better way to
invest your time on any given day for
something that's going to pay you
dividends in the future than building a
library of content and putting your
ideas out there.
Yep. So, here's the big question. Who's
ready? Who's ready to start sh as we
like to say, ready to start shipping,
start writing, start publishing?
We ready to ship? because we're
we'll be using a boatload of nautical
references as you guys will quickly see
here uh as part of the ship 30
community. Everyone uses quite a few of
these and uh if you don't, we promise we
won't throw you overboard.
All right, on to that.
We don't promise anything.
All right, let's do it. Cole, let's
start. How to write. We talked about why
you should write. Everyone here believes
that. But just because you know why you
should doesn't know doesn't mean you
know exactly how to do it, when to do
it, what time of day to do it. So,
what's your approach to this?
Yeah, here's the the first big idea. You
do not find time to write. Has anyone
here ever tried to find time to write
and then what happens? You're like, "Oh,
I forgot to do the laundry." And then
when you finish the laundry, you're
like, "Oh, there's dirty there's dirty
plates in the sink I got to wash." And
then you finish those and you're like,
"Oh, my significant other's calling me."
And then after that, it's like, "Oh, I
forgot to take the dog out." you you'd
never find time to write because there
is no time. Time is always getting eaten
up by something else. Which means
there's only one alternative. You have
to make time to write. And what that
means is you have to be the one to
identify that's why we we love this
little graphic here, your sacred hours.
We're going to talk about how to find
your sacred hours. Because if you do not
make the time and then protect that
time, it's never going to happen.
Doesn't matter how many times you
journal about how you want to start
writing more often. Doesn't matter how
many friends you tell. Doesn't matter
how many nights you go to sleep and
you're like, "Oh, tomorrow it will be
different." It won't. You have to
identify that time and then protect it
ruthlessly. And so this is the like if
if you need some motivation as to why
you should protect this time, it's that
writing is the foundation for every
other thing that you want to do. your
writing library and that skill
translates over to everything.
The people who can write it can say it
more clearly and more effectively. It
helps you sell. It helps you teach it.
It helps you clarify marketing
messaging. It helps you every other
thing that you want to do starts with
writing because writing is how you
clarify thought. And I I always feel
this whenever I go on a podcast or film
a video or something like that. If
someone asks me a question, my mind
immediately jumps to an idea that I've
already written. And because I've
already written it, I've already
clarified it. And then I come off far
more articulate than I would if I was
just riffing and I had no clue what I
was talking about. So, a zillion reasons
to write. But if your goal is to do any
of these things to eventually make
videos, to eventually have a podcast, to
eventually market your business, it all
starts with distilling your ideas in the
form of writing every single day.
So Dicki, you want to talk about picking
your sacred hours and this little
framework of ours?
Yes. So sacred hours very simply, it's
the overlap of two circles. One, what
time of day are you most productive? And
two, what time of day can you be least
responsive? Now, when I originally made
this graphic, I was 25 years old. I
might have even been 24 years old,
single with quite literally no
responsibility. And so I could be
unresponsive all the time and I could be
productive all the time as well. But as
life evolves, your sacred hour hours
will change because when you can be the
least responsive will change and
honestly when you're most productive
will change too. But what's so nice
about sacred hours are they're flexible.
No matter who you are, there's a time of
day where you can be unresponsive and
productive. And that overlap might be
bigger for some people where you have
eight hours to do it or it might be only
15 minutes and you have to do it a
couple times a day. But no matter where
you are, by the end of this, we want you
to know what your sacred hours are so
you can start to actually do your
writing during that time. Otherwise,
you're just it's always going to get
kicked down the road. It's going to be
9:00 p.m. You haven't written yet. You
go to sleep because you're tired.
Yep. So, what is the most like again
simplicity? What is the most actionable
thing that you can do and the most
objective way that you can measure
success here? I will tell you,
you go to your calendar, you send a
calendar invite to yourself, and then
you show up for that meeting with
yourself. I saw someone post in the chat,
chat,
I make the time to show up to things
like these. Why don't I make the time
for my own writing?
And here is what I you know I am such a
firm believer and this is something we
talk about internally all the time in
always coming back to first principles
and everybody always wants to know you
know what are the writing strategies
what are the writing hacks what are the
audience building hacks what are the
algorithm hacks what are all the secrets
what are all the shortcuts
none of it matters zero
if you can't keep the meeting with yourself
yourself
because we can tell you all the
strategies and all the tips and all the
tricks and all the everything, but if
you don't have a container where you
show up and actually write, then it
doesn't matter. It's just us telling you
things, right? And so, it's worth really
anchoring in yourself and going, if I
send a meeting request to myself and I cancel,
cancel,
that is the first that's the first
threshold. That's the first measure for
success. You don't have the container.
You have to protect the container before
you can fill it with knowledge, fill it
with strategies, fill it with tips, fill
it with all the things that we tell you
will work. And so this is, you know, I
think if if everyone takes one thing
away from this, it's do this with
yourself for tomorrow and then see if
you show up and see if you cancel.
And that's the first problem to solve is
literally just putting yourself in the chair.
chair.
So, let's do this extremely actionable.
What would be your 90minute block if you
had to pick it tomorrow that you're
going to send that individual calendar
invite for you? What do you have? Drop
in the chat what time of day. For me, I
always prefer to do in the morning. Mine
is always at 7:00 a.m. I get up a little
bit before that, make a little lemon
water with some salt, do a little
journaling, and then I sit down and I
have that 90minute block. But see guys,
morning morning's not it. Morning is
long and not precise. So within the
morning, it's got to be a certain time.
And it's going to be different. You
might have to get up a little bit
earlier. You might have to cancel
another meeting that's already there and
put it later in the day. So I see most
people here have their exact time. My
challenge to you is take a second and
put it in your calendar. Just put it in
there. So if you have it lined up for
tomorrow, it's a holiday. Some people
might skip it. So maybe it's Monday. I
don't know. But the real the real
writers will find a time even on
holidays. And send that invite to
yourself. It sounds so simple and so
cliche, but if you just have this on
there, you actually tomorrow can become
a writer.
If you sit down during your 90-minute
block tomorrow or Monday, whatever it
is, and you write, you are officially a
writer. And that type of identity shift
is sometimes all it takes is one day
turns into two, turns into three, turns
into four, and then you've written every
day for 30 days, and it's like boom, I
can't believe there was ever a period of
my life where I didn't do this. So,
props to everyone here who's actually
done this small small thing and sent
that invite to yourself, so you end up
showing up tomorrow or whenever that is. Yep.
Yep.
Which leads to okay you have the
container now we need to fill it and the
next thing is coming up with what we
like to call an idea capture system. Now
here is the number one question that
people ask whenever we open this door.
Dicki Cole, what system do you use? I
bet it's a super fancy, perfectly
optimized notion dashboard that tracks
every single thing you've ever written
ever. And it alphabetizes it and it
numberizes it and it has a master search
function. And can you please share the
perfect template with us?
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter. So here I took a
little screenshot. This is like six or
seven folders from inside of my uh my
Apple Notes on my phone. As as you can
see next to book ideas, I have 496
random notes that I've added. So, you
know, I'll get around to those in my
lifetime. I hope. But there is no such
thing as a perfect system. It could be a
notion page. It could be Apple notes. It
could be a Google doc. It could be a
physical journal. It could be a stack of
note cards by your bed. It could be a
text exchange with your grandma. I don't
care. I don't care where you put the
ideas. All that matters is that as the
day goes on, you're like, "Hey, I've got
this writing block that's coming up at
4:15 and what are some things that could
potentially go in there?" You get out of
a meeting. There's something that you
could write about. You put it inside
your Apple Note. You have a conversation
with a friend. You're like, "Oh, I
should write about that." You put it
inside your little idea capture system.
All that matters is that is it is
accessible to you on the go and it is
easy for you to use.
A little accountability here. So, we
just said a bunch of different ways you
could do this. Drop in the chat, what is
your simple way? Are you going to have
an Apple note? Are you going to make one
big Google document? Are you going to
write them all by hand? Apple Note,
Apple Note, Apple Note, whatever the
notes app is for Google can work, too.
Beautiful. All right. So, just like
that, in the first, you know, we've
probably been talking for 20 minutes now
after we finished the intros. You have
the time of day that you're going to
write and you have a place to capture
ideas. The two things that keep most
people from writing are they don't know
when they're going to do it and they
don't know what they're going to write
about. So we try to squash that
immediately. So now we can get into a
little bit more of the nitty-gritty
stuff because these are the basics.
Everyone wants the the further down the
line like okay what happens what time of
day do I post on this platform and all
these other things. It's like nope.
Let's get these two basic things down
first most importantly and then we can
build on that.
Yep. Which leads to everyone here notice
like first principles. You have to have
the time first. Then you have the
container. You fill the container. Okay.
So then we start filling the container.
But then the next thing that everyone
says is, "All right, but Dicky Cole,
I only come up with a good idea like
once a week. So how do you start
generating ideas?" And the secret is to
think in lists. Every single idea is a
list. I'm I'm going to say something
extremely direct. If you cannot make a
list of the things that you want to
write about within a topic, you don't
actually know what you're about to write.
write.
Everything is a list. And oftentimes
people think of lists as only, okay, I
list out cities I visited or books I'm
reading or habits I'm building. But
everything is a list, right? qualities
that you look for in a friend. You're
talking with a friend and you're sh
having pizza and you're like, "Man, you
know, I just really value like the
friends that do." And then what do you
say? You list qualities. You're like,
"Oh, I really value a friend who does
one, two, three." That is a list. If you
write that list down, that is a tweet, a
LinkedIn post, an atomic essay, a
YouTube short, it doesn't matter. Or
what about, you know, Dicki, I'm sure
you've gone down this biohacking rabbit
hole. Have you seen all the I know
Daniel has one too, like the different
kinds of teas that you can drink before
bed, like tea with salt in it or, you know,
know,
all these other things. Yeah, I I've
started to dabble in that a little bit.
But no matter what, you end up
someone asks you a question, right? So,
I'll give an example. Anyone here ever
play Game Boy growing up? I have a Game
Boy sitting here on my desk from like
200 who knows.
Wow. Throwback.
And uh my girlfriend walks in, she's
like, "What's that?" And I was like,
"Oh, that's my Game Boy from like when I
was eight years old." And she's like,
"Oh, that's cool. Like, did you play
that a lot?" And I'm like, "Did I play
that a lot? I played it for a zillion
hours." And then I go, "Okay,
that is actually the first thing on a
long list of the obsessions that have
shaped my life."
And most people, someone would ask a
question and it's like, "Oh yeah, like
that's my game boy." And then go back to
whatever they're doing. But once you
start to think as a writer, you go,
"Huh, how is that the first item of a
list that I actually could go write a
long piece about? And what are the
implications of that that I had all
these different obsessions and how might
I treat my kids differently with it?"
And so just sharing like these are the
ways that real prolific writers are
thinking, they go through life and when
people ask them questions or they notice
something, they go, "Hey, what else
could I talk about that's related to
that?" And then you seriously will never
run out of ideas.
Yep. And for anyone here, I see it in
the chat. I'm sure it's a it's a
question objection that a lot of people
have and you go, "Okay, Dicky Cole, this
makes sense, but I don't want to share
personal things. I don't want to talk
about my life." Okay. Insert any
industry on planet Earth.
Sales. Okay. Well, what what five things
should I do on a sales call to make sure
that the person closes? Okay. Knitting.
I'm brand new to knitting. I go to
Michaels. What seven things should I buy?
buy?
Right? It doesn't ma music. I want to
start learning classical piano. What are
the five classical piano books that I
should go read first?
What are the three exercises that if I
do every single morning, I'll warm up my
fingers? Every single thing is a list.
And the number one skill to build as a
writer is to think in terms of lists.
Okay. So with that in mind,
now we continue by setting the rest of
our constraint our constraints. And so
you have, you know, the time you're
like, I sent a calendar invite to
myself. I'm going to write for 30
minutes. I'm going to write for 60
minutes. Whatever it is, that's a constraint.
constraint.
Topic, that's a constraint. What am I
going to write about? Really important
one is length. Are you sitting down to
write a tweet? Are you sitting down to
write five tweets? Are you sitting down
to write an atomic essay? Are you
sitting down to write a paragraph in a
book chapter?
What are you writing? and and the
whatever you're writing that length
constraint is actually what dictates a
lot of the mechanisms that you should
use in the writing right because you're
constrained to 250 characters or 300
go ahead
no keep going keep going
the another constraint too is platform
it's like okay so what are you going to
write for where is this going to live
you know
and then of Of course, you have
environment. If you want to build a
habit, we recommend, you know, try and
pick the same or similar places, right?
It's like every time you sit down at
your desk, you're like, "Oh, I know that
this is my writing space or I know this
is my writing time." But the two that I
think are really underrated that a lot
of people don't understand is the length
and the platform because that is what
dictates a lot of the rules that you use
in whatever thing that you're about to write.
write.
So, let's use this as an example, right?
If someone came in today and said, "I
just want to start writing." That's very
vague. Like I I want to start writing.
Who here might feel that way? Like I
want to do it, but I don't know where to
start. I don't know what time to do it.
I don't know what to write.
The goal is for you to take this and
turn it into one sentence, which is I'm
going to write at 7:00 every morning at
my desk about a certain topic. I'm going
to publish them as atomic essays on
LinkedIn. And that's all I do every day.
And I do that for a month. And so you
can see how one of those is extremely
clear and you can live up to it every
day versus the general vague I just want
to start writing far more difficult. And
so what we're trying to encourage here
is the only reason if you haven't
started writing it's because you haven't
broken it down into extremely specific
small steps. And once you do that it
actually becomes extremely
straightforward. Oh, I just have to go
sit down at my desk at this time. I know
what I'm going to write about. I only
have to do it for 90 minutes. I'm going
to write 250 words and I'm going to
publish it and I'm going to do that for
a month. And if you do that for a month,
I actually promise you your life will be
on a completely different trajectory
than when you start.
Yep. But here's here's the key.
Here's the key.
Imperfect and published is better than
perfect and unpublished. And so for
everyone here, all of these things that
we talk about, you could be like, Dicky
Cole, this all makes sense. I'm going to
do it. I'm going to send the calendar
invite to myself. I'm going to show up
tomorrow 3 p.m. I'm sitting down to
write. I'm going to write an atomic
essay. I'm going to post it on LinkedIn.
It's going to be great. And then you
finish. And then you go and then I'm
going to put it on my desktop and I'm
never going to share it with the world.
And I promise I promise I promise I have
lived this. Dicki has lived this. We
have gone through this so many times.
The things that you think are never
going to resonate with people are the
ones that end up changing your life. And
the things that you're like, "Oh, I
spent 20 hours on this. Everyone's going
to love this." They're the things that flop.
flop.
You have no idea. Writing on the
internet is a lottery. It's a big wheel.
And every time you hit publish, you spin
the wheel. And so it doesn't matter
whether your inner critic loves it or
hates it. Imperfect and published is
always better than quote unquote chasing
perfection, but it stays unpublished.
Indeed. Indeed. Okay. So, before we dive
into where to write, quick recap. We
talked about what time you're going to
write. Everyone's got their sacred hours
here. We talked about your note-taking
system where you're just going to
capture ideas that come up throughout
the day. We talked about thinking in
lists. And then we helped you set your
daily writing habit constraint. All of
those decisions are now taken care of
for you. You do not have to keep making
them. You just follow the plan. Now,
let's get a little bit more tactical
here on where you should actually
publish the writing so that if you spend
90 minutes every day, it's actually
going somewhere where readers might end
up seeing it rather than on a blog that
no one ever discovers.
So, this is uh this might be my personal
uh favorite section because I'm going to
give everyone here a little history
lesson. You know, I've been writing on
the internet for uh over 15 years now. I
started writing on the internet in 2007.
So, let's do a little history lesson.
In 2008,
the best places to write on the internet
were a little website called Blogger. If
anyone here remembers, drop Blogger in
the chat if you remember that website.
That website changed my life. I thought
it was the coolest thing ever. I was 18
years old just ripping blog posts on
Blogger. Thought it was awesome. And if
you didn't use Blogger and you were a
little technical savvy because it was
not as easy as it is today, you might
launch a WordPress site. You might use
WordPress to launch your own website,
launch your own blog. But there was
technical proficiency involved in that.
And in 2008, I was an 18-year-old, so I
didn't I didn't have all that figured
out. So I I was using Blogger, okay? And
those were the options. All right? You
didn't really have many more options
than that. Like Facebook was starting to
evolve, like Twitter was starting to
evolve, but like no one even knew what
to do with those platforms yet. And they
weren't built for for any sort of long
form at all. Okay. If we fast forward
in 2016,
the best places to distribute your
writing on the internet were very
different. Okay, now you had sort of
entered this age of what I like to think
of as social blogging. So you had sites
like Medium, you had sites like Quora
and also this was sort of the golden age
of writing in major publications like
you could become a columnist at Forbes
or Inc. or Business Insider or whatever.
I'm speaking from experience. I did all
three of these and generated hundreds of
millions of views by using these three platforms.
platforms.
And the only real difference, I was 26
years old when this was going on. The
only real difference was that I was
choosing to publish my writing in
different places than other people. So,
everyone else who was still on the the
blogger train or the WordPress train, if
you were still publishing your content
here in 2016, no wonder you weren't
getting distribution. You weren't
writing in the right places. And so,
this is what happens about every five to
seven years. The best platforms for
distributing your writing changes. The
algorithms change. Sometimes platforms
go under like Medium got sold off and it
has completely plummeted as a platform.
It is not good for distribution anymore.
Quora the whole algorithm changed. The
founders decided to start focusing on
AI. Distribution on Quora is not
important anymore. So every 5 to seven
years the platforms change and you need
to keep up with the changing times.
Which is why today the best platforms
for distributing your digital writing in
2025 are X, formerly known as Twitter,
LinkedIn, and now we're starting to see
a lot of positive signal on Substack.
Most people only know Substack as a
newsletter platform, but they now have a
social feed where you can share short
medium form content. We're seeing a lot
of traction with that. And so, if you
are not publishing your writing on one
or two or three of these platforms right
now, then you're you're already like
losing the game because you're not
taking advantage of the best platforms
today. So, not only are these platforms
growing, the attention or they're they
want to push writers more than other
platforms. So, yes, Instagram and
Facebook and all these others do have a
lot of users, but they are not investing
in the distribution of writing and
that's why these are so important. So, X
has half a billion users. LinkedIn is
the one personally of the three we are
the most bullish on, the most excited
about, and that's where a large amount
of the attention that we generate comes
from. Substack is starting to accelerate
as well, and a lot of prolific writers
that have newsletters are also
publishing social content and getting to
grow that way. So, Cole, I'll let you
talk about these three, but I have a
feeling there are a lot of people here
who are not actively writing on these
three, which again makes it a massive
beginner opportunity because we know
that more and more people are going to
start reading here and writing here over time.
time.
Yep. Yeah, I see, you know, a bunch of
different types of questions in the
chat, but ultimately,
so, so here, two big things. One, for
everyone who's going, "But what about
blue sky? But what about threads? But
what about? But what about? But what
about? That's fine. They're all options,
but you do not have unlimited hours in
the day.
So, it's not very helpful for us to say,
"Hey everyone, you should be writing on
15 different platforms right now." It's
not helpful. What is helpful is saying,
"Hey everyone, we're all constrained by
time. If you're going to spend your time
anywhere, these are the top three." Okay?
Okay?
And if you're writing on none, just pick one.
one.
That is our best piece of advice. If
you're at zero,
pick one. Because the beautiful part is
once you write on one of them for a
month, two months, six months, and
you're starting to see success, you'll
have a bunch of data around what your
readers were actually interested in. And
then when you start on a new platform,
you'll be able to take some of those
ideas, repost them, repurpose them, and
then immediately start growing there as
well. So you don't have to do all three
at the same time, but over the long
term, if you want your writing to reach
the maximum number of people possible,
you will take your ideas from one, put
them on the other, mix them around a
little bit, and then grow your library
in that way. Yep.
Yep.
And then the other type of question, you
know, I I also see
it's all platform specific questions.
It's like, okay, but yes, LinkedIn, but
uh here's all these little questions or
problems that I see with that platform.
or okay X yeah but and then here's all
these things that I don't know about
that platform or Substack but I here's
all these things I don't understand.
What you have to realize is that each
individual platform think of it like a
sub language.
Each platform has its own rules. Each
platform has its own constraints. Each
platform has its own culture.
Each platform has its own inside jokes.
And so that is why it is a mistake when
people go, "Oh, so the strategy is I
just write something and I just copy
paste it across every platform." Not
necessarily. You are way better off
picking one and learning and immersing
yourself in that platform and learning
that specific sub language. And that's
like one of the biggest things that we
harp on especially in our writing
programs and in ship 30 for30 is like
you do not need to be everywhere. You
need to be consistent in one place for a
prolonged period of time.
And here's what's more important than
platforms and why we wanted to start
with what to write about, how to write,
when to write. It's where doesn't really
matter over the long term. As long as
you are writing, you can put them in
multiple places. So, what you'll find is
that over the next five years, when
these three platforms inevitably get
replaced, if you sit around thinking,
I'm not going to start writing until I
know the perfect platform, you're going
to get left behind. Because if you just
pick one and then you sit down for 90
minutes every day and you take your
ideas and you put them out there, you're
going to have a large reusable library
that you can put on another platform in
the future. And so I just want to kill
the idea for anyone here that's like,
"Okay, none of these platforms are
perfect. I'm not going to get started."
Don't let that hold you back. It doesn't
matter which one you pick as long as you
pick one.
Yep. And so this is the big idea. Here's
why this is so important. Okay?
The platforms
will come and go. I've been writing on
the internet for long enough to know and
have experienced that it really doesn't
matter how big the platform is. There
will be years where the platform is
really great. It's it's thriving.
There's a lot of distribution. And there
will be other years where maybe the
platform is still around, but it's just
not good at distributing content
anymore. The platform will change. What
you have to realize is that your
library, your library of content will
stick with you forever.
Okay. And what this allows, this is this
is one of like the best kept secrets in
all of writing online. Okay.
When a new platform comes out, the
single easiest thing that you can do is
go take all your proven content from
wherever you've been writing and bring
it over to the new platform. Okay? So,
if everyone remembers, I think it was
about two years ago at this point,
Instagram launched this new platform
called Threads.
Now, did Dicki and I sit down and go,
"Hey, this new platform came out. I
think we need to block an hour every day
to start writing new content on this new
platform." No, of course not. Why would
we do that? Instead, what we did was we
went back through
our entire libraries on Twitterx.
Now, we looked for all of the highest
performing pieces and then we copy
pasted them over to threads.
And guess what happened? A lot of them
performed just as well on threads. And
most people actually have no idea that
you can do this. It's your content. You
own it. Which is why focusing on
building your library is the most
important thing because you can bring
that library to any new platform in the future.
future.
Amen. So, enough platform talk. These
are the the decisions that we don't want
you getting caught up on, but we did
just want to recommend these three. If
you're not writing on any of them, pick
one. If you're already writing on a
couple and you want to expand your
audience to another platform, that's
where we recommend expanding. But to be
clear, 90% of our effort and time just
go to those three platforms. So, if you
want to take it from us, we like to
think that we know a little bit about
how to write on the internet, and this
is our recommendation.
Yep. So the last thing we want to leave
everyone here with is
this is uh a framework that we have been
using internally for years.
Excuse me.
And it is about how to take one single
topic and expand it into dozens and
dozens and dozens of other tangental
topics. Basically, how to write about
the same thing over and over and over
again, but always in new ways. Okay? And
so we're going to do this together. All
right. So this is going to be a little
actionable exercise for everyone here.
Drop in the chat, what is one topic that
All right, everyone's got a a topic.
Movies, trading, tax sales, beauty,
motor sports, storytelling, real estate.
Can we just pause for a second and
recognize how cool that is? that the
power of the internet allows us to
generate a room with 928 people who
seemingly all want to write about
different things. But by the nature of
you being interested in writing, you've
put yourself on this call today in a
community of other people who want the
same things just in a different area.
And so you can talk to them about what
they're writing about, how they approach
writing, their writing habits. I just
think that's so cool that you can never
get this many people interested in other
things in a room, but writing is that
like universal lens that everyone can
view their topic through. So, just want
to take a second because that's pretty cool.
cool.
Yep. Okay. So, everyone has their topic.
All right. And we've we've been doing
this long enough, you know, we've had
over 10,000 writers go through ship 30.
So, we've been doing this long enough
where and I know Dicki, you're having
the same reaction. We we see certain
topics and we're like, "Oh, that's just
the tip of the iceberg, my friend.
You can unpack that in so many more
ways." Okay,
so watch how you can write about the
same topic in 30 plus different ways. Okay,
Okay,
Cole, before we go, let's just pause for
a second. everyone if you have a pen or
a notepad or an Apple note or something
to write this down and do it actively.
Highly, highly, highly recommend it
because this will be the most actionable
thing that we do on today's class. So,
just want everyone to not just listen to
what we're talking about here, but
actively do it.
Awesome. Yeah, great call. Okay. So, I
want everyone here to take the topic
that they just dropped in the chat and
then expand it in these five different
ways. So, take the topic and then who
could you write that topic for? What
would their job title be or what would
their formal title be or what what sort
of archetype of person would that be for?
for?
A second one is by price point. So, for
example, it could be by revenue. It
could be by how much something costs. It
could be uh the barrier to entry to get
involved in something like a really
great example is like, you know, how to
buy your first piece of real estate for
$0 down. So, what dollar figure could
you in some way associate with that
topic? Okay. The third is experience
level. So topic for what sort of person
is it for beginners? Is it for people
who have been doing it for a year but
are still stuck? Or is it for people who
have been doing this for 10 years and
they just want to improve by that last
like little 1%.
The fourth is then the topic plus either
an analog or digital location.
So is it this topic for people in
Chicago? Is it this topic for people on
LinkedIn? Is it this topic for people
who browse Reddit at 2 am?
What is the analog or digital location?
And then what is the topic and then some
sort of demographic? So it could be for
a specific type of person that speaks
three languages or specific sort of
person in a specific age range. Is this
for college students or is this for
startup CEOs over the age of 65?
Okay. So, there's examples next to each
one here.
Anyone want to drop one of one of theirs
in the chat and I'll I'll walk through
all five and I'll show you.
Yeah. Drop your general topic and then
Okay. Beauty. Beauty is easy. Are we
talking about beauty tips? Are we
talking about beauty scaling strategies
for CEOs? Job title. Are we talking
about beauty tips for CEOs trying to
scale to a certain um market price
point? Are we talking about beauty
products that are a dollar or less or
are we talking about beauty products
that cost $1,000 or more? Experience
level. Is it beauty for people who have
never put on makeup before, ever in
their life, or beauty tips for people
who are super proficient and they
Dicky, I see you smiling. Anything? I
I'm I'm just smiling because watching
you take a topic that someone
it's just awesome. It's just I I we've
been doing this for five years and
watching you take a topic and say here's
beauty. here's 50 different ways you
could niche down on talking talking
about that topic. And I don't know who
put it in the chat, but like which one
of those resonated the most? Because
it's not until you start to do this
niche down exercise that you actually
realize you have such specific knowledge
on a very specific type of beauty that
once you get more specific, the reader
can then say, "Oh, I know that's for me
now. This is makeup tips for elderly
women." And that's evolved. their makeup
process has evolved significantly versus
makeup tip makeup tips for teenagers and
it's their first time their first set of
makeup right so anyway I just think it's
cool when you just start to riff on
those things and when I think something
cool I I start to smile
well that's good all right so let's
let's drop in the chat everyone just do
this one time take your topic and say
who it's for so if your topic is yoga or
yoga routines. Who's it for? It's for
software developers. Okay, can we get
even more specific? Oh, it's for
software developers who work at OpenAI.
Okay, so take your topic and write it as
a sentence.
The topic that you wrote for who?
There you go. Self-improvement for
people in their teens and 20s. Far
better than self-improvement for someone
who's 60 plus. Way different problems
that person faces. Way different goals
that person has. There you go. Education
leadership for campus leaders far
different than if you
run like a digital education or
something like that. You're on campus,
right? Physical location
financial management for coaches. Awesome.
Awesome.
Unschooling. Unschooling for who? Simona
skincare tips for pregnant women.
Incredible. So much different. So much different
different
decision-m for dental students. way
different than general decision-m,
right? What type of practice are you
going to open? What should you major in?
I don't know. Tons of stuff there. Awesome.
Awesome.
So, this is this is the big the big
mistake that people make is they say, "I
want to write about X,"
and they give the topic, but they don't
realize how many different ways you can
and should unpack that topic. Like if
you say you want to write about
parenting, well, the way that you write
about parenting for a single mother on
welfare is very different than the way
you write about parenting for a a mom
who's married to a venture capitalist
who's worth a billion dollars and has
five kids, but also has eight nannies
and a yacht,
right? So you you don't just say, "I
write about a topic." You have to
realize that that topic can be tailored
to lots of different types of specific
situations, specific people, specific demographics.
demographics.
Now, here's where things get crazy
here. Cole, before we get there, I I
know we have a bunch more different ways
to niche down here that we're going to
talk about. Are you guys finding this
useful? I just want a quick temp check
in the chat. Is everyone's like uh
brains spinning the right way? Ideas
starting to churn? Awesome. Okay. Just
wanna just want to make sure we're on
the right track here because I see a lot
of people's heads are nodding, but just
love to hear it. Awesome. Thanks, guys.
I appreciate it.
Thank you. I saw I saw somebody say this
isn't live.
Uh, not live. Yeah,
that's how good that's how good we've
gotten that is.
Yeah. Who said it? Who said it? We can
call out their name. And that's actually
planted to show that it's not live. No,
this is live, folks.
It's Thursday, July 3rd at 11:58 Pacific
time. There you go.
All right, let's keep going. We got we
got more to get through. Now, here's
here's where things get crazy is you can
take just one of these. Okay, so to
recap, you can take just one of these
topic plus specific job title or topic
plus price point or topic plus
experience level. Okay, you can take
just one and then start expanding it in
5 10 20 other ways which is and what is
the biggest problem that that sort of
person has.
Right? So if you're saying I write about
not just marketing but marketing tips
for CEOs of $10 million e-commerce companies.
companies.
Well CEOs of $10 million e-commerce
companies have lots of different problems.
problems.
And so every individual problem also
becomes a new topic. It also becomes a
new thing to write about. So you say
it's, you know, here's marketing tips
for CEOs of $10 million companies
specifically to solve high customer churn.
churn.
Solving high customer churn is a
different topic. It's a different piece
than how to stop losing money on
Instagram ads, which is a different
piece than how to be less organic or
dependent on organic content. which is a
different piece than avoiding hiring the
wrong marketing director. Okay, so the
next little exercise here is take your
topic and take your and who is it for
and then add on and what problem does
that person have? So it's not just yoga
routines for software developers. It's
not just yoga routines for software
developers who work at OpenAI. It's yoga
routines for software developers with
back pain.
That is the specific problem.
Does that make sense?
Let's see. Let's see some examples.
Right. So, you have your topic astrology
or astronomy for software engineers.
Astronomy for software engineers to do
what? To learn about the way the stars
are arranged to connect it to astrology.
These are all different problems that
you can help solve. And if you take
nothing else from this that this entire
presentation today, if your writing
solves a problem, people will read it.
Period. And so when you start problems
first, you can then create solutions for
the reader. And by having a specific
topic with a specific type of person,
you can start to get more specific on
what types of problem that person faces.
And then writing becomes just answering
things that are extremely obvious to you
that you don't think are worth writing
but are extremely or are extremely
valuable if you went back a couple years
before you gathered all that knowledge.
Right? So I'm seeing a lot of people
have some breakthroughs here and that's
really exciting for us.
I just saw someone okay so someone said
how would you do this for script
writing? Here's the thing, everyone.
Every single person thinks, "Okay, this
makes sense, but I don't understand how
this works for my niche. I don't
understand how this works for my topic."
I promise you, this is just a skill, and
it's a very easy skill to build, and it
works for every single topic on planet
Earth. It does not matter. I I have gone
through this exercise in the most
obscure topics and niches you could
possibly think of. Okay. So, someone
asked, "How would you do this for the
topic of script writing?" Okay. Well,
how about script writing routines for
for who for college students who, what's
the problem? Have never written a script before,
before,
right? It doesn't matter what the topic
is. All you have to do is just walk
through these couple simple steps and
you realize, wait, I'm not just writing
about overarching topic. I'm not just
writing about script writing. I'm not
just writing about parenting. I'm not
just writing about real estate. I'm
writing about topic for specific
situation to solve specific problem. And
what I love about this exercise is every
time we do it, someone drops a pretty
niche topic that has clearly been niched
down a couple times and they get a reply
from someone who says, "I'd be
interested in this." Exactly.
Exactly.
Right. So, uh, Debarga said, "YouTube
video content creation for beginner
YouTubers that have a full-time job and
seemingly no time for content creation."
And Dr. Steve says, "I'd be interested
in this." Right? But if it was just
YouTube video creation, nothing about
that would have resonated with him
enough to leave a comment. It's just,
"Oh, okay. You're going to give me broad
general tips." And so if you think
you're not if you think you're being too
specific, I promise you you are not.
Because Cole, if I wrote a book that
said every single thing I had to think
about you, it was, you know, only for
you, only for Nicholas Cole, every
single thing I thought about you. Would
you say that's too specific? I'm not
going to read that. Or what would you do?
do?
I'm I'm cancing my entire weekend and
I'm going to read the entire thing cover
to cover. Right? And that's exactly what
talking about a more niche specific
topic does. The person scrolls past it
and goes, "How did you know that that's
who I am and you're seemingly going to
solve all of my problems on this very
specific thing?" You have a lifelong
reader, customer, and probably, you
know, lifelong fan.
Exactly. Now, we're going to push this
one step further. And this is where it
all comes back to writing.
The entire goal of writing is clarity of thought.
thought.
And I'm going to point out something
that seems so unbelievably simple and
obvious, and yet it actually is like a
perfect example of how writing
encapsulates the skill of clarity of thought.
thought.
When I went through this exercise and I
asked all of you to drop in the chat
topic for who
and then problem,
a lot of you actually wrote topic for
and then positive outcome.
And that is a different way of expanding topics.
topics. And so this is this is where it's like
And so this is this is where it's like if you can't have full clarity over what
if you can't have full clarity over what you are going to write in a single
you are going to write in a single sentence, then I promise you it doesn't
sentence, then I promise you it doesn't matter how many words you write, you're
matter how many words you write, you're still not going to know what you're
still not going to know what you're saying.
saying. 300 words, 3,000 words, you're not going
300 words, 3,000 words, you're not going to figure it out because all of the
to figure it out because all of the clarity happens in a single sentence.
clarity happens in a single sentence. And so the other way that you can
And so the other way that you can continue to expand and write about the
continue to expand and write about the same topic is you go okay I take the
same topic is you go okay I take the same topic for who and then here's the
same topic for who and then here's the outcome that they desire.
outcome that they desire. Outcomes are different than problems.
Outcomes are different than problems. And so this is like it's such a simple
And so this is like it's such a simple example of how when you sit down to
example of how when you sit down to write, it's like you have to really get
write, it's like you have to really get clarity with yourself and go, "Wait,
clarity with yourself and go, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. Am I writing this to
wait, wait, wait. Am I writing this to help someone solve a problem or am I
help someone solve a problem or am I writing this to help someone unlock an
writing this to help someone unlock an outcome?" Sometimes they're the same,
outcome?" Sometimes they're the same, but oftentimes they are different. They
but oftentimes they are different. They are different pieces.
are different pieces. And this just goes back to reader
And this just goes back to reader psychology. If you're going to take an
psychology. If you're going to take an action on something, it's always because
action on something, it's always because you're either moving away from pain or
you're either moving away from pain or towards some goal. And so if your
towards some goal. And so if your writing can help someone remove their
writing can help someone remove their pain or get them closer to their goal,
pain or get them closer to their goal, which sometimes are the same thing, but
which sometimes are the same thing, but oftentimes they're different, you're
oftentimes they're different, you're going to easily attract readers. And
going to easily attract readers. And again, we talked a lot about some very
again, we talked a lot about some very basic simple things that a lot of people
basic simple things that a lot of people will just like let go over their head
will just like let go over their head like, "Oh, of course, like write about
like, "Oh, of course, like write about problems." But if you take that very
problems." But if you take that very seriously and you just write about you
seriously and you just write about you defined who you're writing for, you list
defined who you're writing for, you list out their problems and the outcomes they
out their problems and the outcomes they want, you have 10 years of content.
want, you have 10 years of content. We've been talking about digital writing
We've been talking about digital writing tips on LinkedIn and X for five years
tips on LinkedIn and X for five years now. And every time I feel like we're
now. And every time I feel like we're just getting started, every time we
just getting started, every time we publish something, I think of a new
publish something, I think of a new potential way to say or a new framework
potential way to say or a new framework to share or a new problem to overcome.
to share or a new problem to overcome. And as the world continues to evolve,
And as the world continues to evolve, the person you're writing for, they have
the person you're writing for, they have new problems that evolve. Technology
new problems that evolve. Technology evolves that introduces new problems or
evolves that introduces new problems or introduces new goals. So, just want to
introduces new goals. So, just want to kind of close the loop on this whole
kind of close the loop on this whole idea of when you take your topic and you
idea of when you take your topic and you get more specific with a problem or a
get more specific with a problem or a person or an outcome,
person or an outcome, the reader then actually understands
the reader then actually understands it's for them and then they will stop
it's for them and then they will stop what they're doing. They'll read what
what they're doing. They'll read what you write and the rest takes care of
you write and the rest takes care of itself.
itself. Yep.
Yep. So, does everyone here see like this?
So, does everyone here see like this? This is a skill th this is arguably one
This is a skill th this is arguably one of the most important skills because if
of the most important skills because if you can't communicate in one sentence
you can't communicate in one sentence what you're writing about, who
what you're writing about, who specifically it's for, and if you're
specifically it's for, and if you're trying to have someone help them solve a
trying to have someone help them solve a problem or generate some sort of
problem or generate some sort of desirable outcome, if you can't say that
desirable outcome, if you can't say that in a sentence, what are you going to say
in a sentence, what are you going to say in 500 words? What are you going to say
in 500 words? What are you going to say in 5,000 words?
in 5,000 words? It all comes back to being able to
It all comes back to being able to summarize it in that one sentence. And
summarize it in that one sentence. And this is why the game, you know, so like
this is why the game, you know, so like the game is not to have one amazing
the game is not to have one amazing idea. The game is to write about the
idea. The game is to write about the same idea a hundred different ways over
same idea a hundred different ways over and over and over again. That is how you
and over and over again. That is how you become known for a topic. You only
become known for a topic. You only become known for a topic when you write
become known for a topic when you write about that topic lots and lots and lots
about that topic lots and lots and lots of different ways. And I can prove it.
of different ways. And I can prove it. We love doing this little example. I can
We love doing this little example. I can prove it. Can everyone please drop in
prove it. Can everyone please drop in the chat if you've ever heard of the
the chat if you've ever heard of the author or read any of the author's books
author or read any of the author's books Ryan Holiday? What does Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday? What does Ryan Holiday write about? Drop in the chat.
Seems like everyone knows, right? So, if you know Ryan Holiday, every single
you know Ryan Holiday, every single person here wrote the same exact word.
person here wrote the same exact word. Why? Why does that happen? That doesn't
Why? Why does that happen? That doesn't happen because Ryan Holiday writes about
happen because Ryan Holiday writes about lots of different things. That happens
lots of different things. That happens because Ryan Holiday writes books about
because Ryan Holiday writes books about stoicism and has a newsletter about
stoicism and has a newsletter about stoicism and writes articles about
stoicism and writes articles about stoicism and has a podcast about
stoicism and has a podcast about stoicism. And that is ultimately
stoicism. And that is ultimately the entire goal of the game. That that
the entire goal of the game. That that that is exactly what we show writers how
that is exactly what we show writers how to do inside of ship 30 for30. It's like
to do inside of ship 30 for30. It's like you say you want to write about this
you say you want to write about this topic, but you you don't yet realize how
topic, but you you don't yet realize how many different ways you can unpack that
many different ways you can unpack that topic to write about it forever to
topic to write about it forever to become known for a niche you own. And
become known for a niche you own. And that is what unlocks all of the
that is what unlocks all of the outcomes, all of the revenue streams,
outcomes, all of the revenue streams, everything is when you dominate a topic
everything is when you dominate a topic and niche. Does everyone here feel more
and niche. Does everyone here feel more confident in building a daily writing
confident in building a daily writing habit? Now you know what time of day
habit? Now you know what time of day you're going to write. You got your
you're going to write. You got your sacred hours. You got your notetaking
sacred hours. You got your notetaking system. You got your constraints. So,
system. You got your constraints. So, you're not just sitting down to write.
you're not just sitting down to write. You know where you're going to write.
You know where you're going to write. You know how long you're going to write
You know how long you're going to write for. Awesome. Nice.
for. Awesome. Nice. How about capturing ideas? Go ahead,
How about capturing ideas? Go ahead, Cole.
Cole. Yeah. Has everyone picked their perfect
Yeah. Has everyone picked their perfect notetaking dashboard system? Everyone
notetaking dashboard system? Everyone Everyone have their perfect template?
I think so. Or they got Apple Notes, which is good.
which is good. What about where? Does everyone feel
What about where? Does everyone feel more clarity about where you should be
more clarity about where you should be writing? Did you pick a platform that
writing? Did you pick a platform that maybe you haven't started to write on
maybe you haven't started to write on before and you go, "Okay, maybe over the
before and you go, "Okay, maybe over the next month I go give that a try." You
next month I go give that a try." You know, I got some ideas here. I'm going
know, I got some ideas here. I'm going to pick LinkedIn and I'm just going to
to pick LinkedIn and I'm just going to go write once a day for a month or I'm
go write once a day for a month or I'm going to pick Substack Notes and I'm
going to pick Substack Notes and I'm going to write once a day or I'm going
going to write once a day or I'm going to pick X. Well, don't overthink it. Our
to pick X. Well, don't overthink it. Our goal would be by the end of this you
goal would be by the end of this you just pick one and it doesn't matter.
just pick one and it doesn't matter. your customers and eventual customers
your customers and eventual customers will be on all of them. And so we just
will be on all of them. And so we just wanted to concisely
wanted to concisely give you the options that we most
give you the options that we most recommend given this is kind of what we
recommend given this is kind of what we talk about all day.
talk about all day. Yep. And what about what you're going to
Yep. And what about what you're going to write about? Does everyone here have a
write about? Does everyone here have a little more clarity over Okay, it's not
little more clarity over Okay, it's not just topic. It's actually topic in this
just topic. It's actually topic in this specific way. It's topic to help someone
specific way. It's topic to help someone solve this problem. It's topic to help
solve this problem. It's topic to help someone unlock this outcome.
Love it. Yep. Have a list. Knew what they were
Yep. Have a list. Knew what they were writing, but feel more clarity. A little
writing, but feel more clarity. A little bit more clarity. Love it. Well, do we
bit more clarity. Love it. Well, do we feel this last hour was worth it even
feel this last hour was worth it even though it was free? Was it well worth
though it was free? Was it well worth your money spent? All the stuff we w Is
your money spent? All the stuff we w Is everyone here walking out of here with a
everyone here walking out of here with a little bit more clarity? Ready to rock
little bit more clarity? Ready to rock and roll? Ready to build your daily
and roll? Ready to build your daily writing habit? Take your writing to the
writing habit? Take your writing to the next level. But that's all we got for
next level. But that's all we got for today. Have a good one, y'all. Talk
today. Have a good one, y'all. Talk soon. Yeah, everyone.
soon. Yeah, everyone. Peace.
Peace. [Music]
