The art of sifting through the shit ideas
I’m obsessed with big ideas and thought leadership - I’ve seen it move the dial monumentally for clients, but moreover, it’s the easiest PR to get over the line with journalists and editors, because you’re adding value, and it’s a soft sell.
But how do you get your big ideas media ready? I have a 5 step process: Observe > Refine > Challenge > Substantiate > Breathe.
As part of the Meet The Media program, we’ve been having some great chats with the ever so lovely, Katy Hall, Deputy Opinion Editor at The Age. She always has super useful insights, and I loved the way she articulated stretching and developing a concept.
The third idea is best
Katy advised, once you've sifted through the less promising concepts (the shit ideas), the third one is often the charm. Toss out the first two - they’re normally the most obvious and won’t get the traction you are looking for.
To get to the elusive third (or quite honestly, the 20th!) idea you need to feed the brain and apply a few lines of questioning to it. Sometimes I will cycle through my 5-step process several times before feeling clear on my story ideas.
I thought I’d walk you through my process to develop strategic thought leadership ideas.
To help this make sense, I’ll outline an idea I have been teasing out.
Step 1. Observe
I am constantly writing down content and story ideas, observing things that I’m seeing around me and capturing notes about articles and podcasts. Outtakes of conversations with friends, observations from client conversations. The things that stop me, that stay with me, the things that I can’t quite work out, or the things that I think more people should know about.
Sometimes this is a headline idea, other times it’s verbatim of what someone said accompanied by some bullet points teasing out the idea, other times, I truly can’t even understand what I was trying to say. I voice note ideas into notes while I’m driving or walking to freestyle the idea out of my head. The idea here, reduce friction, just capture the idea before it floats away into the ether.
My ideas lists are stupidly unhinged and if anyone else were to read it, it would appear to be the inner ramblings of drunk, but these are the thought starters.
How to do this:
I use the notes app because it’s on my phone and lappy, wherever I am, one of those things is normally with me. There are plenty of other more sophisticated ways to do this, I’m pretty basic here.
Step 2. Refine
From this list, I pull a handful of ideas that might have legs. The goal here is to be exploring ideas that don’t get a lot of airtime. If the ideas come easily, they are likely a well worn path, and editors have already published plenty of ideas around these themes.
How to do this:
These threads are incomplete and quite simply thought starters. On their own, there is almost zero chance that they would get picked up. So, curiosity and research are key. This process takes some brainsweat and some exercise, and most importantly, time.
But it will invariably result in a far more interesting story.
Step 3. Challenge
Taking the initial list of ideas, it’s important to understand context around them. You have to understand if you’re alone in your thinking, if the concept has data to back it up or if you’re going wildly out on a limb, wholeheartedly unsubstantiated. While you’ll probably get the headline, the reputational fall out, simply isn’t worth it. You’ll have to disqualify some ideas and leave them in the scrap pile.
How to do this:
I have a few lines of questioning to challenge my ideas. Firstly: The most important Q: Is this new or novel? At this point, be brutal and bin it or push on.
Then:
—Who do I know who I could talk to about this idea more deeply, what evidence in my career/personal life informs my view?
—What is being talked about on the global stage, who are the key players?
—How does this relate to the political, environmental and social climate?
—What commonly held beliefs do people hold about the idea and what are the holes in their arguments or beliefs?
—What research has been released that supports or refutes the idea?
—What high profile people or celebrities are talking about this topic, are they aligned or opposing, why?
Step 4. Substantiate
Sit with this process, read articles, listen to podcasts, read research articles and start scribbling down dot points of ideas. Don’t think too hard on crystallising your thoughts, this is purely information gathering.
How to do this:
Some of my fave places to research thought leadership ideas are TED talks, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Women’s Agenda, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review & DO Lectures. I then love to dig around industry specific reports by the likes of Deloiite, KPMG, Future Lab. New York Times best selling book lists. If the idea I’m looking at it more pointed towards ecommerce for example, I look for Shopify benchmarketing reports, and of course ABS data can be really helpful.
Step 5. Breathe
Time is your friend at this point in the journey.
Once you have fed your brain, you’ll have a busy scrambled egg list. I then need to go for a walk, take a shower, or sleep on it - sometimes for a week or more. Give it space. This is where the marination kicks in, the important work. Once you’ve had some space you’ll see the links and threads between your ideas.
Eventually, the idea will start to take shape. A more informed, exciting and interesting take.
How to do this:
I’ve normally moved over to Google Docs at this point because one idea will turn often turn into 5 pages of notes. This is usually bullet points with links to sources, added commentary based on the things I find.
When you have a busy and robust background document, you will no doubt pull out the ideas that are most robust. Again come back to the question, is this new?
If you’re in love with your idea, it’s then time to build out a few punchy paragraphs that succinctly articulate your matured, stretched out idea. This is a really good time to go fishing on LinkedIn, post some of these ideas to get feedback, test being firm in your position vs asking questions from your community and colleagues.
And then, start pitching your big ideas to media.