Writing prompts, the busy trap and my favorite resources

5 questions to help you become a better writer 

When working with clients, it’s my job to extract all the key information and write the best content possible.

But to get the best answers, you need to ask the right questions.

Writing is thinking distilled into words. Clear thoughts = great writing.

Here are 5 questions I ask each client (which I recommend every writer asks themselves when writing their own content:

1/ Who is the audience avatar?

This will shape the entire post. The goal is to write for one specific type of person. Avoid writing for everyone.

2/ How do you want this framed?

A frame is your unique take on something. The more different the better. Don’t hold back and create something which can’t be Googled.

3/ What are the top points to include?

Whether you’re sharing lessons, mistakes or insights- get clear on the 3-5 key points you’re going to talk about.

4/ Can you summarize the idea in one sentence?

If you can’t do this then the idea isn’t clear enough in your own mind. Writing = thinking so get it clear in your head first.

5/ What should the audience feel and understand by the end?

Great writing should educate the reader but also leave them with an emotion. Your audience wants a feeling, not information. The best creators know this and reverse engineer viral content based on the most common emotions (OMG, LOL etc..).

Pin these to the top of your content creation page every time you sit down to write.

What got done > What did I do

This is the best reframe I’ve found to avoid being busy and make sure I’m building things.

So here’s what’s been happening in Lemon Leverage this last week:

• Built an SOP for lead gen and sales

• Generated 7 hot leads for a client

• Built a sales page for a client

• Improved VA admin training

• Booked 2 sales calls

The best routine I’ve found for this level of the business:

1. Wake up and create a daily success list

2. Outsource and tackle urgent low-level tasks

3. Block out 3-4 hours for deep work on needle-moving tasks

4. Keep the afternoons free for calls, working out and monitoring the machine

Detaching from the number of hours worked as a metric for me is tough (an ongoing process), but two books reshaped how I view time management and building a business:

📚 The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber

📚 Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

✍🏻 Looking for help to scale yourself as a thought leader online? Let’s talk.

Life and favourite resources

❤️ A list of books, podcasts, blogs and tools which made my life better

✈️ Having been head down in London for a while, I’ve finally got some travel to look forward to. I’m heading to Arizona for a mastermind weekend with some fellow ghostwriters from the PGA crew run by Nicolas Cole.

💭 What I’m thinking about: “What is the data saying?” When you track the key metrics, it’s easy to spot the bottlenecks.

🧑‍💻 Threw up a personal site to get my essay game on. Check it out.

Until next week

Tom ✌️