How to Craft a Point of View, on, well anything really.

Everyone thinks they’re opinionated, until they start a business. Then they start second-guessing everything.

A valuable point of view is crafted, it doesn’t fall out of the sky.

It’s all too easy to slip into the echo chamber of your particular category and all you see are other people’s points of view, on a very niche aspect of life.  Yours quickly becomes a version of that.

At the same time, you’re told to be bold, to be contrarian, to stand for something and against something else, because ‘it’s how to get followers, it’s how to get noticed, it’s how to attract your people, it’s how you position yourself as the expert.’

So if you’re a business owner who is currently throwing out ‘spicy headlines’ on Threads and then hiding behind the sofa, or you feel like you can’t even remember what your point of view is anymore, listen up.

Today’s masterclass.  How to Craft a Point of View… on anything.

I genuinely mean anything. Any category is impacted by change, any category would likely benefit from disruption, any category has the mainstreamers saying and doing the same thing and some outliers innovating.

I know this, because when you work with consumer brands, you have to craft disruptive ideas for a bleach brand, a probiotic supplement, toilet paper, cookies, as well as the sexy Nikes, Netflix, Googles of this world.

The problem with most ‘points of view’ that you might see on social media, in PR, on a website or a credentials presentation, is that they’re boring, samey, or such a poorly veiled ‘buy my shit’ message, that it feels vacuous. 

That’s not our vibe.

So, first up.  What it is and what it isn’t.

Your point of view should be the thing that drives your business, so it needs to be based on the mission behind the business, not the thing you want to sell more of today.  And it’s only valuable, if you give it a purpose.

Before you do anything, ask yourself ‘What’s the strategic job to be done here?’ You need an end in mind.

What do you need this to do for the business?  Are you trying to be known for a particular thing or to move into a specific space? How does it need to position you as the founder?  An expert in X, An innovator in Y… How will you judge its success, longer term?

Hopefully that ambition is big and stretchy and so requires absolute commitment to a strategic direction.  You won’t get there by meandering or playing with a point of view.  So if you know it’ll be driving the positioning of your business longer-term, let’s make it fire.

It’s why we talk about it requiring ‘crafting’.  It’s art not science.  But it does require curiosity and thinking bigger than your particular niche.

Don’t put pressure on ‘the idea’, spend time upfront getting curious and exploring, but use a framework that will guide your thinking.

A Framework for Thinking.

We look at four spaces of insight.  This is the point at which you go wide, disparate, random even… to get to something interesting and fresh. It’s the time to be playful.

No 1. YOU.  What’s your unique magic? Think about your skills, closest held values, loves and hates, work and life experiences…, think right now and back in the past, what led you to do this work, what really drives you about it, how you do things differently to others.

No 2. CATEGORY.  What really needs changing in your space?  What’s the thing that others aren’t talking about, but really needs to happen?  Zoom out to the categories that are adjacent to yours, to give you a bigger perspective.

No 3. Your AUDIENCE. You know the problems they come to you with, but what’s the bigger shift that’s required in them?  What are the bigger desires? What really drives them?  

No 4. Wider CULTURE. What are the big shifts that are happening around your industry and your audience, think cultural trends?  What will be impacting change in the future?  Think about the economy, politics, changing beliefs…

For example: You target women leaders in your business, so what’s going on in gender politics, female rights, women x sex, power, money, freedom… 

When I do this with clients, we usually have a wall FULL of Post-it notes at this point (or a Google doc) with insights in these four separate spaces.  Remember, ‘art not science’ and there’s not only one answer, so play around with it. 

You’ll already see themes or feel drawn to a particular line of inquiry.

Follow the scent.

You’re trying to get to a killer, single-minded, (ideally) disruptive idea, that sits in the middle of all four spaces. 

A Killer Idea.

The best ideas are ‘inch wide, mile deep’.  Rich enough to be explored long-term, but singular enough to be ‘owned’ by you.

You’ll know when you’ve hit on something interesting and fresh because you’ll feel it.

Some filters you can use to check it.

• Is there a ‘Credible Stretch’?  It’s you, but with ambition.  Stretchy for you and for your audience.

• Is it ‘Fiercely Different’?  Does it feel fresh in your category?

• Does it have a splash of ‘Visionary’?  Plugged into bigger themes, the future, what’s happening at the edges.

• Does it ‘Light a Fire’ in you?  It’s genuinely rooted in a passion, a belief, it feels exciting. It’s the direction you want to go in.

Once you have it, it gets to drive everything you do and it creates a fresh energy in the business. 

It becomes valuable when it drives your marketing, your initiatives, your product line-up… it’s the mission you’re on and the reason your people will join you in it.