The Digital Contrarianâ„¢

Ryan Levesque

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The Digital Contrarianâ„¢

Ryan Levesque

Issue #026

| The Digital Contrarianâ„¢

Old World vs. New World Gurus

Three Surprising Observations, And A Simple (But Powerful) AI Prompt...

Ryan Levesque

10 min read

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Here on the farm it is Full Winter as we approach the Winter Solstice next week.
 
The days are short, and the nights are cold.
 
Perfect for contemplation and introspection.
 
Especially when you are in what Richard Rohr describes as “between the ‘no longer’ and the ‘not yet'” (a phrase I learned from my dear friend Dr. Ruth Buczynski in our conversation this week).
 
In other words, when you’re in that liminal space – that period of transition where you’re no longer in the old situation, but at the same time where you’ve not yet fully entered into the new one…
 
A space I feel many of us are in right now from the many conversations and email exchanges I’ve been having throughout this Great Sea Change.
 
We’re in a place right now where we know the old way is no longer working. But the new way is still emerging…
 
Which brings me to the focus of our conversation here today and the topic of today’s newsletter, which is…

1 | Old World vs. New World Gurus

I’ve personally found myself in this transition from the  “old” paradigm to “new” paradigm – following the sale of my software business, shifting my focus, and deeply immersed in the writing of my next book…
 
And one of things I’ve spent a LOT of time studying this past year is the ever widening gap between “OLD World” and “NEW World” Gurus (Heretofore known as “Thought Leaders”)
 
In other words, the difference between the “Old Guard” Gurus – and a “new” class of Thought Leaders who are quickly rising (and thriving) in this New Digital Era…
 
I’m in the middle of doing a Deep Dive Analysis to better understand the approaches they are taking… the combination of channels they’re using… how they’re using them… and how their entire Content Ecosystem operates to propel their influence forward…
 
(While the “Old” Class of Gurus seem to be disappearing into oblivion…)
BTW – If you haven’t read [Issue #021] The Life-Changing Magic of Strategic Obsession, wherein I wrote about “How to Sell A Million Copies of Your Non-Fiction Book” – that issue is a great companion to this one, and an excellent choice to dive into next if you missed it the first time around…
Now, by New World Thought Leaders, I’m talking about people like my friend Justin Welsh on LinkedIn (675K+ Followers) and Dan Koe on YouTube (890K+ Subscribers), and many others who are growing quickly in this post Great Sea Change world…
Pictured left is Justin Welsh. Pictured right is Dan Koe. Maybe the “secret” is to use the same Apple “Think Different” style photograph?
I’m referring to New World Thought Leaders like my friends Dan Martell and Codie Sanchez – whom I wrote about briefly in last week’s [Issue #025] Tipping Points & The “Scaleability” of Your Ideas – wherein I referenced how quickly they’ve taken off in the last 18 months…
 
I’m talking about many of the writers I study and follow closely, like Adam Grant (reading his book Originals as we speak), Malcolm Gladwell (just finished his most recent book Revenge of the Tipping Point, and Yuval Noah Harari (about to read Homo Deus over the holidays…) all of whom are also thriving in this New Digital Era…
Now, while I’m not going to name and shame any of the “OLD World Gurus” (I’m sure you can probably think of a few…)
 
What I am finding is that this class of “New World” Thought Leaders are doing things differently…
 
They’re using (and growing) their Channels of Influence in very specific ways…
 
AND it’s largely informing the “New World Content Strategy” that I myself will be executing in 2025 as a result of all this research…
BTW – This “New World Content Strategy” is something I will be teaching on my 2025 Bold Predictions call next week to members of my Strategic Advisory Group Mastermind (The group is currently full, but I’ll be opening up 1 or 2 spots to join us in January. Shoot me an email if you’re interested…)
And while there are far too many layers to be covering in a single email, in today’s issue of The Digital Contrarian, I’m going to share three (3) observations to consider as you begin thinking about your own “New World Content Strategy” going into 2025…

2 | Observation #1: Primary Channel Principle

One observation you’ll find when you study some of the most successful New World Thought Leaders, is that there is often a massive discrepancy between the size of their Primary Channel Audience, and some of the their other channel audiences – often a difference of 1 to 2 orders of magnitude (or more…)
 
For example:
 
For Justin Welsh, his LinkedIn audience is 200x larger than his Facebook Audience (676K on LI vs. 2.9K on FB)*
For Dan Koe, his YouTube audience is  140x larger than his Facebook Audience (890K on YT vs. 6.2K on FB)*
*Note: Follower count and audience size – while important, are becoming far less relevant than several years ago with the rise of algorithms and the ability for your content to show to an increasingly large number of non-followers.
Or in other words, they have a Primary Channel of Focus.
 
Now, the choice of Primary Channel of Focus for each individual Thought Leader, depends on a number of different factors, but I’ll highlight one of them here:
 

The Age of the Thought Leader.

 
Like it or not, but our audiences age with us.
 
I know there can sometimes be a temptation to try to achieve deep relevance with a much younger audience in order to broaden our reach…
 
BUT when you try to be something you’re not, you risk alienating your core audience. 
 
The stories you tell, the life stage you’re in, etc. etc. all needs to be highly-relevant to the audience you’re speaking to, beyond just the nature of your subject matter expertise.
 
There are probably enough people around your age and at your life stage for you to have a very meaningful business.
 
Depending on the audience you’re looking to reach, here is a “General Rule of Thumb” in terms of the core demographic of a few key channels:
 
  • TikTok = Teens – 24 yrs old
  • Instagram = 24 – 35 yrs old
  • Facebook = 45 – 65 yrs old
 
Now, of course there are exceptions to those numbers above, but you can see how the audience spending time on TikTok is very different from the audience spending time on Facebook.
 
So the question to be asking is:
 
Where is the demographic that you’re looking to reach spending time right now?
* * *
And that takes us to…

3 | Observation #2: Original Source of Truth

For each of the most successful rising “New World Thought Leaders”, you’ll find that they play to their unique strengths as creators…
 
For example: Justin Welsh and Dan Koe are both writers. So their writing is their Original Source of Truth. (Justin publishes his work in written form, and Dan shoots simple videos of himself reading what he’s written.)
 
In contrast, the Geopolitical Strategist Peter Zeihan is a speaker. So he will shoot semi-off-the-cuff medium length videos on YouTube (often while traveling on the road at a speaking engagement) sharing his perspective on current world events.
But the commonality here is the content comes directly from the creators themselves. Not a team of writers “writing in their voice” or a “faceless account” regurgitating AI drivel.
 
It’s real. It’s raw. It’s authentic.
 
Often times contrarian or controversial.
 
But always with a POV.
 
Because today, people are no longer paying for information (whether that’s with their time, money or attention.)
 
Instead, what people are paying for is insight.
 
And it’s critical to know the difference:
 
Focus on delivering insight over information.
 
The question you need to ask yourself here is this:
 
What is your Original Source of Truth? What is the most raw and real form of your content as it leaves your brain (and this next part is important) with as little external interference/sanitization as possible?
* * *
Now, when it comes to choosing your Primary Channel of Focus, and deciding on your Original Source of Truth, one consideration to think about is…
 
The Nature of your Content.
 
Now more than ever, the content you produce needs to feel native to the platform for it to have the type influence and reach you want it to have.
 
For example:
 
For my friend Nicole Johnsey Burke, her Instagram audience is 1000x larger than her LinkedIn audience (1.2M on IG vs. 1.1K on LI).
And it makes sense because the nature of her content (gardening) is highly-visual, and lends itself to the short-form video platform that Instagram has become. 
 
So she’s doubled down on that format. Using the diverse visual palette that her garden provides as the backdrop for her content as you can see here:
At the same time, there are ZIG when they ZAG opportunities as well.
 
To do the opposite of everyone else on the channel and build a following based on that. 
 
For example, Trial Attorney Jefferson Fisher has built a 6M person following on IG doing videos in his car helping you know “what to say” during difficult conversations.
 
He has just one style of video that he does over and over and over again:
But Jefferson is playing to his strengths.
 
His “kind eyes” and smooth, Southern Texas accent could put him squarely in a John Grisham court room drama.
 
So he’s leaning into that.
 
I’ll give you another ZIG when they ZAG example:
 
Ken Cheng is a comedian who regularly goes viral on LinkedIn with his hilarious posts that are designed to troll the stuffiest social media platform and catch unsuspecting LI warriors off guard with his satire, like this one right here:
He’s capturing attention by catching people off guard. He writes in a way that feels incredibly native to LI – but “tricks” unsuspecting commenters who take the platform (and themselves) so seriously, that they can’t resist commenting in horror and dismay…
 
All the while, Ken is going viral on the platform – and likely getting booked out as a Stand Up Comedian.
 
So there is always going to be an opportunity to stand out by doing the opposite of everyone else on the platform, provided that the content still feels native to the platform – and the content itself is pulled directly from the Original Source of Truth…
 
So the question to ask yourself here is:
 
How can you play to your unique strengths as a creator?
 
And that takes us to…

4 | Observation #3: Strategic Absence

Here’s the thing:
 
You are NOT going to be everywhere.
 
You are NOT going to be on every channel.
 
You don’t have the resources for that.
 
(And you don’t have the time).
 
If being a good entrepreneur is knowing what to say “yes” to…
 
Then being a great entrepreneur is knowing what to say “no” to…
 
Cal Newport for example, is famously not on social media. While you’ll find him on YouTube where he publishes and releases his podcast:
You won’t find him on Instagram, Facebook, or even LinkedIn.
 
Now this is naturally very much “on brand” for him (and in integrity with what he advocates in his books Digital Minimalism and Slow Productivity…)
 
But this is a common theme I’ve seen among the most successful “New World Thought Leaders”…
 
They each have notable “gaps” in their online presence.
 
Now whether this is by default or by design, the trend holds true nonetheless.
 
And I would argue that:
 
In order to develop a Meaningful Presence on the channels you choose, you need to decide where you’re going to have a Strategic Absence on the channels you don’t.
 
The question to be asking yourself here is:
 
What channel (or channels) are you going to be strategically absent from in 2025?
* * *
So, as you ponder your plans for 2025, three (3) questions to ask yourself (and think about) today are as follows:
 
  1. Primary Channel Principle: Where is the primary audience you’re looking to reach and what is your single most important channel of focus for this next year?
  2. Original Source of Truth: What is the most real and raw format you can most easily and naturally create content directly from your brain without using AI or a team of writers?
  3. Strategic Absence: Where are you going to be strategically absent from so you can be meaningfully present where it counts?
Make sense?
 
Okay, great.
* * *
Now, before we wrap today’s issue, I’ve got one final question for you today and that is this:

5 | Would YOU Like to Get Access to the ALL the Back Issues of "The Digital Contrarian"?

This issue [#026] marks 26 weeks (6 months) since I first started writing this weekly newsletter personally by hand…
 
(No team of writers. No AI. Real. Raw. Source of Truth.)
 
And I’ve had a number of conversations recently with folks asking where they can find the “back issues” of past newsletters that they’ve missed along the way…
 
(Currently, there is no public way to get access.)
 
But…
 
Lately, I’ve been thinking more and more about possibly making them available to access all in one place.
 
However…
 
Before I go through the work and effort to do this, I want to make sure there is enough interest. Make sense?
 
So if you *would* like to get access to all the past “back issues” that you may have missed (there are 26 of them so far) add your name to the following list here:
 
 
(I’m putting together something special that I think you’re going to LOVE – and which as you’ll see when you sign up for that list, will be part of my “New World Content Strategy” going into 2025…)
* * *
Okay, I’ll leave you with that for now…
 
I’m off to watch my son’s first basketball scrimmage of the season, and then join in the Christmas festival in our town, with my parents who are stopping by to visit for the day.
 
After working for the US Postal Service as a shipping clerk for the last 49 years, my dad just retired last week – and I’m looking forward to spending more time with him.
 
Have a GREAT rest of your weekend.
 
And HUG the ones you love.
 
Until next week,
 
Ryan :-)
 
P.S. Almost forgot! I’ve got a super simple (but powerful) AI prompt you can use to up-level the quality of response you get when using ChatGPT as a “thought partner” on your next project. It goes like this:
 
When you get a response back from ChatGPT, respond with the following:
 

“This is good Level 1 thinking. Can you apply Level 2 thinking to the conversation and your response above?”

 
And then, when you get that response back from ChatGPT, respond with the following:
 

“This is good Level 2 thinking. Can you apply Level 3 thinking to the conversation and your response above?”

 
Try it out, and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear how it works out for you! :-)

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The Great Sea Change

The Great Sea Change diagram from Return to Real