My Idea Gathering Ritual—or, “Don’t Lick the Wall”

My favorite Saturday morning involves making a pot of coffee and reading the email newsletters I enjoy, which I snooze throughout the week so they won’t distract me.

This is my idea gathering ritual.

Creating and validating a new offer is like doing a jigsaw puzzle without having the box. The box gives you two things: a picture of what you’re assembling and some confidence that all the pieces are present.

With this new offer for freelancers, I do have some of the edges put together—for example, 15+ years of direct experience with freelancers’ problems, my own success at solving most of them, and even past products that haven’t taken off the way I had hoped.

Asking why causes new puzzle pieces to materialize.

Are you familiar with Solomon’s Paradox?

King Solomon, one of the wisest rulers in history, produced shrewd and creative solutions to other people’s problems, yet he had no shortage of his own.

He couldn’t read the label on his bottle, and neither can we.

So even though I’m adept at helping coaching clients solve their problems, I step into Solomon’s Paradox when faced with mine, specifically, how to create a really juicy offer for freelancers.

The question is, how do I create some distance and objectivity and reverse the paradox?

One technique is to ask, “What advice would I give to a friend who was in my situation?”

(Note: Katelyn Bourgoin’s October 29 newsletter was about Solomon’s Paradox)

Add to that the “curse of knowledge.”

Economists Colin Camerer, George Loewenstein, and Martin Weber coined the phrase back in  1989, and it describes the cognitive bias of better-informed folks who struggle to understand and empathize with their less experienced or knowledgeable peers. We forget what it’s like to not know what we know.

When my kids were younger, I remember saying to one of them, “Don’t lick the wall.”

As those words left my mouth, part of me thought, “Really? Why should I even have to say that?”

And yet I did because kids know nothing. How could they? They don’t have the advantage of accumulated life experience. (And let’s be honest, even adults who do go against their better judgment all the time.)

When we assume that our would-be customers know what we know, we set them up to fail.

Recipe books make this mistake all the time.

The inexperienced cook feels a tinge of panic: “Okay, so I need to ‘julienne’ and ‘parboil’ and ‘braise’ and ‘deglaze’?”

Cooking is something billions of people need to do every day, and you have to have a dictionary to do it? No wonder the /cookingforbeginners Reddit has 1.9 million members.

Meanwhile, all that stuff is easy and automatic for chefs. They’re puzzled why anyone wouldn’t know to brown meat in a hot pan and then add liquid back so that the delicious caramelized bits come unstuck and become a part of the sauce.

When Solomon’s Paradox has locked in a warm hug while curse of knowledge puts on a blindfold, an idea gathering ritual will help you gather puzzle pieces you didn’t know you were missing until you find them.

(Note: Jay Papasan’s November 1 newsletter was about the Curse of Knowledge)

Double down on what’s working.

I’m not talking about really rare or intricate pieces either, but fundamental ones.

For example, I was reading a newsletter from Olly Richards with a fantastic subject line, per usual: “After 11 years, my business regret is...”. The newsletter offers advice I give all the time: Double down on what’s already working.

Even so, an idea struck me: log into my learning management system (Podia), look at my sales data, and see what I could see:

• 164 total sales for courses, workshops, and playbooks
• 75 sales (46%) were my Morning Marketing Habit (MMH) course
• The next highest seller was my original Freelance Cake (FC) course with 66 sales.
• The FC course launched on December 2019, and MMH, on November 2022.

What insight can I glean? What missing puzzle piece can my own sales data add?

• FC has averaged 13.2 sales per year. Terrible, but not surprising given that I stopped promoting it.
• MMH has averaged 37.5 sales per year. Still not great, but 3x better than FC.

What does my data say is working?

If I were to take Olly’s and my own advice, which product focus should I double down on, FC’s general “build a profitable freelance business” or MMH’s much narrower marketing focus?

Marketing.

This is all funny to me because, if you were in my shoes and you’d asked me how to develop a new offer, I would have said, “Start by analyzing the sales data you already have.”

It’s a logical next step. The data is free. And the analysis won’t take long.

Is that what I did?

Nope.

Behold, Solomon’s Paradox in all its glory!

Putting the pieces together

Hopefully, you see now how valuable an idea gathering ritual can be. I read short pieces from Katelyn, Jay, and Olly. Though none of the core ideas created an a-ha moment, the trio did result in a no-duh nudge…

Go analyze your own sales data, silly.

That analysis, in turn, resurfaced old ideas, namely the reason I created the Morning Marketing Habit course in the first place.

Many freelancers lack basic knowledge about marketing, have the confidence problem that come hand in glove with their ignorance, and need to build a daily marketing habit.

I already knew this was a big problem for freelancers, and that’s the curse of knowledge, not to mention the trouble with human fallibility: needing constant reminders of what we already know. A chef can write the book and still need to reference recipes.

Start an idea gathering ritual

An idea gathering ritual thus serves as both a failsafe and puzzle-working exercise:

• Remember what you already know.
• Simultaneously, step outside of knowing it so you can better understand and empathize with people you’re trying to serve.
• By reconnecting with their desires and problems, you begin solving your own (by creating an offer they want).
• Add missing pieces to the puzzle.
• Slowly, a complete picture emerges.

Revelation can look like a shower of insight. It can also look like the very next stepping stone bathed in light.

If you’re not solving your problems quickly, chances are, you’re not spending enough time reading, listening, and thinking. Start an idea gathering ritual.

When you’re ready, here are ways I can help you:

1. Free Money. A pricing and money mindset guide for freelance creatives. If you’re unsure about your freelance pricing, this is the book for you.
2. Morning Marketing Habit. This course will help you build an “always be marketing” practice, become less dependent on referrals, and proactively build the business you want with the clients you want. My own morning marketing habit has enabled me to consistently make  6 figures as a freelancer.
3. Custom Business Roadmap. Gain clarity, confidence, and momentum in your freelance or consulting business.
4. Business Redesign. Raise your effective hourly rate, delegate with confidence, and free up 40 hours a month.
5. Clarity Session. It’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the bottle. I've done well over 100 of these 1:1 sessions with founders, solopreneurs, and freelancers who wanted guidance, a second opinion, or help creating a plan.