Ascend 101

Lessons about building a one-person business, writing, and self-improvement

“Alex how do you always have something to write about?”

This is a question I hear often. And it baffles me.

Every week I create 40+ pieces of short-form content and 21 long-form pieces. I’ll also start experimenting with creating multiple threads a week again, maybe even as many as 1 a day for a while.

Aside from that, I’m also creating new offers and writing new modules or rewriting old modules for all of my digital products.

I’m also planning to start writing a novel sometime soon, as well as launching some new exciting offers, forcing me to create even more content on the regular.

Long story short, I pump out a lot of content.

But it hasn’t always been this way.

I obviously didn’t start out this way. I gradually scaled up the volume that I was pumping out. And yet, I’m certain that I could have pumped out the amount of content at a similar level as I’m doing right now—if only I knew about the systems I know of today.

And while one single email isn’t enough to guide you through my whole system.

I can give you 3 tips that help me out tremendously when it comes to pumping out so much content you get messages from people asking you to stop, or others mentioning that you’re obsessed.

But more importantly, all that content will make you so much more money you wonder why you didn’t start doing this before.

So let’s get into it.

1) Use a list

One of the best tips I’ve ever learned was one from Ben Settle.

He talked about the importance of making a list.

More specifically, make a list of all the problems, pains, annoyances, insecurities, and other pain points that haunt your readers, your clients, and every other person in your market.

In theory this list should be endless. An infinite amount of problems.

Because that’s how the world works. You solve one problem, and two more arise. There’s never a point in time when someone would say “That’s it, I’ve solved the last of my problems”.

The only exception could be if you’re in the spirituality niche. But even then, I doubt anyone really gets that far into it.

But let’s stay realistic for a moment.

Simply create a list somewhere and look for problems you know your audience suffers from, then write them all down. Make sure you’ve got at least 10–20 problems to start with. And then just keep filling it as time goes on.

Now take each problem individually and think about 3 tips to help solve that problem.

Then create pieces of content about each tip individually.

Then do it again with 3 different tips.

Already those are 8 pieces of content. And that’s only for 1 problem. Do this for 10 problems and you’ve got 80 pieces of content.

2) Repurpose the hell out of your content

In the previous tip I talked about how to get hundreds of content ideas.

All those ideas would make great articles or emails. But that’s not where it ends.

I can repurpose every single email I write into a thread (or a long form post if that’s more your vibe). If you end up writing a 700-word email, you can turn it into 2 threads.

Then you could repurpose each thread into 4 separate tweets individually. On top of that, you could repurpose each email into a video, a module for a course, a giveaway (I’ve done so multiple times, with great results), or bonuses for future offers.

Combine all those ideas above with all these different mediums and you’re already well over 500 pieces of content from a simple list with 10 problems.

3) Stick to one piece of music

To pump out a lot of content you also need good focus and concentration.

Many people talk about the importance of deep work. And that’s true. The best way to get focused and get your work done is to schedule a session of at least 90 minutes where you’ll be free from distractions and can focus entirely on your work.

Even more, there’s this trend where people talk about “deep work music”.

Which is a good tactic. But most people then end up suggesting you listen to scores from Hans Zimmer. They’ll recommend you listen to playlists of movie soundtracks such as Interstellar, Dunkirk, Oppenheimer, The Dark Knight Trilogy, and Inception.

And while I love Hans Zimmer—and often listen to those exact playlists. It’s not the best advice.

The thing is, there are many different musical pieces. All with different rhythms, speeds, emotions, and instruments.

All of which can turn into a distraction.

The best way, I found, is to pick one piece of music and put the entire thing on a loop.

Whenever I’m creating content (such as this email right now) I pick between 2 or 3 pieces of music and listen to looped versions for 90 minutes straight. The repetitiveness of the music helps you stay focused and pay attention far better and much easier than if you listen to a playlist that switches songs every 2–5 minutes.

(I’m currently listening to a 3-hour Final Ascent loop from No Time To Die, which coincidentally is from Hans Zimmer)

Try it out for yourself next time, and let me know how it goes.

Anyway, those were my 3 tips.

Let me know what you think of them, either by replying or by clicking one of the 3 options below. I’d love to hear your feedback. And perhaps I’ll expand upon this subject another time.

Cheers.

P.S. Whenever you’re ready. Here’s how I can help you:

Hop on a Clarity Call with me: Remove all of your uncertainty. Get clear on what you have to do, when you have to do it, and how. Let’s get you on the right track to achieving the freedom you deserve.
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