7 Ways to Get Smart(er)

Article from copyblogger by  Demian Farnworth

In the marketplace of products, services, and content, life is like a crowded New York City street … your prospect is one of seven million people stiff-arming thousands of messages competing for her attention.

She has her own agenda … and that agenda doesn’t include you, your product, idea, or your latest dumb link-bait article.

To earn her attention you need to get drastic. And the best way to do that is with a seductive hook.

What are some of the best tips for finding those incredible hooks (and becoming a lot smarter in the process)?

A couple weeks ago Brian Clark and I covered this topic in an Authority webinar called How to Find the Seductive Hook.

We explained that the best way to find a hook is simply to be relentlessly curious about everything. Then someone asked if it was better to be a generalist or a specialist.

In order to answer that question, we had to back up a bit and eat our words. See, we’d just gotten done telling everyone that you needed to be a generalist. What we should’ve said — specifically — is that you need to be a specialist in your field of expertise.

Get specific, then get free

Nobody is going to listen to Matt Frazier (The No Meat Athlete) unless he is an authority in exercise and plant-based diets.

Nobody is going to listen to Marcus Sheridan unless he is an authority on swimming pools.

And nobody is going to listen to Pam Slim unless she knows early stage entrepreneurship.

Outside the boundaries of your specialty, however, all the world becomes (and should be) your oyster. Satisfy your curiosity until the cows come home, building that bank of creative ideas. Be a generalist with everything except your area of expertise. Just go where your interests take you. Learn about what you love.

And to help you get started on that path, allow me to show you exactly how I do it.

1. Obsess about one subject once a year

Each year I try to buckle down and master a topic outside of my field (I use the word “master” loosely).

This year I chose classical music. I even went as far as vowing never to listen to any other type of music except classical (no half-measures with me).

I’m also reading three pages a day out of a classical music textbook. And plan on reading five or six books about classical composers. I’ve already unearthed one idea from the book The First Four Notes, which I used as an opening for a recent Copyblogger article titled How to Nail the Opening of Your Blog Post.

In the past, I’ve spent a year studying the American Civil War, the Spanish Flu of 1917, Theodore Roosevelt, and science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.

2. Listen to podcasts

Whether you are moving the lawn, sitting by the pool, or humming along the subway, pop in some ear buds and catch up with the latest podcasts that pique your interest.

Here are some of my personal favorites …

This American Life
RadioLab
Freakanomics
White Horse Inn

This is all about the accumulation of facts. Strange and curious facts. Facts that will inform your fascination headlines, and separate them from the clutter.

 

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