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You've heard it said that content is king, but I'm here to tell you today that the king is dead and AI killed it. Gosh, we've been hearing that forever about content being king. But I'm telling you today that there is a new king. Yes, it's still kind of content, but let's be honest. Like, AI is making content easier for anybody to create, whether it's music, video, write the written word, even original research. AI can do deep research reports in 30 minutes and actually getting published quickly. And they're getting more and more accurate and better and better at its style and the way it presents it all the time. So what's actually king now? Original ideas. Yes. And that's what we want to cover and help you understand how to find original ideas, how to take inventory of where your ideas are and help them help you understand what's actually unique about them and then actually show you the process for making good ideas great. So welcome back to the AI Driven Marketer. I'm Dan Sanchez and I'm joined by my co host, Ken Fre. Yo. Yo. And we're back on our series around Own the show, which of course we are going from pod to book on this one. And through the month of November. It's very exciting. And today we're actually tacking through what we can do do with the ideas we already have and to find new ideas, of course. Last chapter slash episode, we talked about how to find problems because all good problems are like essentially the, the starting point for good ideas because we don't want to just come up with ideas out of nowhere. Shoot. I remember a Shark Tank episode where some inventor thought he had a great idea for butt patch flat. Like light up butt patches. Yeah, like the patches you would normally sew onto a jacket. He made them just for the flap of your, your butt pat you like your jean pocket. And they, they would like light up. And I'm like, yeah, because that's what we all need is butt patches. You're like, he got laughed out of there. But that's, that's kind of what you do. Like just random ideas we come up with are unless we actually tie them to a problem. So we're assuming that all the ideas you're coming up with and taking inventory are tied to problems, unlike that poor entrepreneur on Shark Tank, that we're actually going to find something to make them relevant and unique. But let's talk about what actually makes a, an idea unique because oftentimes I think we can become a little bit romantic. About what makes things unique, you know, Especially if you're like a four on the Enneagram, you're like, I've listened to bands no one's even heard of yet. You know, you're like, so what makes them actually unique? I have a whole list here of things that can make ideas unique, but most of the time, like, there's really no truly original, original ideas. But they've been. That's been true for thousands of years. Right? I mean, was it. King Solomon said that there's no.
B
There's nothing new under the sun.
A
Nothing new under the sun. Right. Ecclesiastes. So that's kind of always been true. I suppose it seems funny for them to have said that back then, knowing all the new stuff we have today. But I think that'll probably be true even thousands of years from now, maybe in eternity. We'll be looking back today and be like, they didn't know nothing, you know? So let's go through them one by one. I got a whole list of them, and it's good to take inventory of them so you actually know what you're looking for when it comes to looking at your own ideas or even trying to hunt down new ideas that you can mark as your own. The first one is lived experience. That's your. Essentially, your personal history, struggles, and context. Filter the way you filter ideas in a way that nobody else can duplicate because it's coming through you. While I have an example here, Ken, can you think of anybody, like, who's presented or taught you ideas that's, like, they're the only ones that could really teach it? Yeah.
B
I mean, I'm thinking of a mentor that we had that he mentored us in leadership development. Right. Where he had so many lived experiences of almost dying, losing his fiance, his late wife passed away, and all those experiences led him to a way of how he led people that greatly impacted me in the way I lead today.
A
That's right. I even remember his experience of, like, how his dad used to say, ugj use good judgment as, like, an acronym. And that became a whole lesson for him that, like, that's a unique content that came through him. His dad just saying that to him.
B
Yeah.
A
Now he has a whole teaching on it. He's got a lot of those. It's funny, because that's a guy who actually thinks he doesn't have any unique ideas, even though he's, like, bleeding out ideas all the time. On leadership development, I'm thinking of, like, Dave Gearhart's book on being. Having A founder brand. Which is interesting because, like, founders have been creating personal brands and building whole companies off of the back of brands for at least a few hundred years, right? You think of like, Josiah Wedgwood, who, if you're in the uk, you're familiar with Wedwood Wedgwood, but in the, in the US it's a very well known, like, brand. Glassware and plates and bowls and all those vases over in the UK, but like, that's a company that started in the 1700s, that's still around today. You can go to wedgwood.com and buy some bowls.
B
Wow, that's awesome.
A
Yep. Founder brand. But Dave Gearhart started Founder Brand as a book, right? And he. Nobody had really codified, like, what being a founder and leading with your personal brand is, but he had done it himself specifically for B2B in a really strong way and actually wrote the book on it. So, like, nobody else had codified it, nobody else had talked about it, even though it had been done multiple times. He's the one who actually wrote the book on founder brands. The next one is Earned Expertise. And that's repeatedly solving real problems that gives you insights and that only show up through, like, putting in so many different reps. For this one, I learned how to do, like, online marketing and essentially took the like, SaaS tech playbook. And I remember having earned expertise when I'm coming to higher ed, where they didn't know any of that stuff. Like, higher ed's still in the place of like, buy a list from all the people who took the sat and then just send brochures to them, like direct mail, and hopefully you can generate them. Actually reaching out to you.
B
Yeah, it's exhausting.
A
But back in the day, it was actually a new thing to bring, like, oh, no, like, do Facebook ads and then draw, do, do inbound playbooks. You know, get lead magnets, nurture sequences, get them to actually then request information. Then we'd follow up with sales and then, you know, that was the playbook we ran at bgu. But it wasn't through putting in a lot of reps myself on a totally different playbook. The next one is synthesis, like, unique ideas that come from different disciplines and then combining them in the unique ways. Like you were a carpenter and you came into marketing and had something unique, and I just kind of made that up. But yeah, you got one on that.
B
Well, yeah, well, one of the things that I was going to think about is people who can take a real complex point of view or complex idea and Boil it down to something that can be cross functional is massively useful. And I think the simplest one actually is when, when marketers jump into sales or sales jump into marketing, right? Because you have all these ideas like say I'm going to use myself from sales into marketing. Lots of times marketers have these grandiose ideas and I'm like, my question's always like, well, how's that going to generate leads? How is that going to grow the brand? How is that going to close deals, right? Like, I'm constantly thinking that way. So I'm only looking for marketing tactics or strategies that like, move the needle forward. Sometimes there's great marketing ideas out there that I'm like, those are good, but it doesn't do anything. So it's just fun that I'm like, let's avoid those for the time being. There's a time and place for those, but that's how I think about. Synthesis is just like you're able to constantly figure out what are those things that work really well for other industries or other fields.
A
And there's always, I feel like there's a number of different marketers who had a sales background, got into marketing, figured out like, oh, there is some really good things in marketing here, but had a unique perspective to bring, to bring to marketing because of their background in sales. And we're able to take some sales ideas and make them marketing. Right. Another example I have is April Dunford, who wasn't in positioning. Now she's known for her book on positioning, but she was in product marketing before and brought her storytelling prowess from product marketing over into positioning in order to teach that unique and compelling way. And now she's one of the most famous people when it comes to positioning. Another one is point of view. Like you're like taking ideas and then solving problems and finding new ideas through your stance, values and judgments that give shape and make your ideas unmistakably yours. We all come from different places, we all have different stances or viewpoints on the world. And I find that this is probably one of the best places to start. If you don't know where to start, like, find out what's true about you. Remember we talked about like how important core values are in the age of AI? It's like one of the few things that AI can never do is have core values. So what does that say about the tactics you're actually solving for? You might be solving something already differently and in a different way than most of the industry because your values say, well in, in this light. I think this is true. So we're going to solve it this way. And it works. It's working in a different way than. Than what was done before. An example of this is Andy Raskin, fantastic guy who had kind of like a unique take on how stories can actually drive strategy, which was kind of. Stories were kind of like light and fluffy ideas. And then he found out. He's like, yeah, but if we can have a unique story, not only does it drive internal alignment because everyone is telling the same story, and story is often a shortcut for values and how we actually help the customer, but it creates a unique way of positioning yourself in the marketplace, too. Because if all your prospective buyers understand your story, then that's a unique hook to, I don't know, make it more consistent and helps drive all your marketing and sales if everybody understands that one story. So he calls it the strategic narrative, but he had a point of view around that. Bringing stories into strategy.
B
Yeah. You know, I even think about how this affects people when they're posting on social media, like, all the things that we were talking about in the previous chapter, because values play a great deal. I'll give you a great example. Just the other day, I saw someone post how they were using AI to automate all their messages. And they're like, look how we just closed this deal to book a call. And I'm like, wait a minute. You just showed the whole world how you are lying. Because in the comments, they took a snapshot of their conversation. The potential client was like, hey, is this AI? And they're like, no, this is a real person. It's me. You know? But then in the actual post, they're like, this was all done by AI. It wasn't a real person. And I'm like, whoa, you. You are just showing that you don't value ethics or integrity. And this is where you can come across and be like, hey, I do value those things and call them out. I actually call them out because I'm like, it's one of my biggest pet peeves when you start lying to people.
A
And, like, a pet peeve, you know, it's cool for you, but I'm just gonna call it out.
B
No, I'm just gonna call. I'm just like, dude, it's more than a pet peeve. It's a conviction. Like, don't lie. You know, like. But this is where your point of view, your values, your judgments, your belief systems really kick in. Because you want to work with people you trust. Right? And I remember messaging that person because I was thinking about using their, their product and I said, hey, FYI, I will no longer use your product because you guys are clearly showing me what you value. And we are completely misaligned.
A
A lot of our values actually show up in this book. And I've had people actually tell me like, hey, like, are you a Christian? Partly because I'm calling things learned in the light. And that just sounds like a Christian thing to say. But other parts is kind of like, well, the reason why we say go be humble and show up as a student is because of our faith background. Like, we really value humility. But then how do you build authority while also showing a high level of humility? That's why we have the whole being the student thing. So we really believe that being humble is the ultimate form of. I don't know, it's one of the ultimate principles of, of living whether, whether you are a Christian or not. Like, humility is high. Like, we highly value it across the board, like, which is why we think that truth plays out. Even when you're trying to become an authority, you don't need to be prideful and that I think pride is actually going to lead to a fall. It's going to lead to you not being an authority. So going, being humble is actually the true path to become an authority. The right way, the long lasting way. And that's our point of view actually coming through in this very book.
B
Absolutely. All right, the next one is constraints. This is about limiting, enforcing sharper ideas, so pushing yourself towards more creative and uncommon solutions. So I think a lot of this is just like how you talk about certain things. You're not broad, you're very specific in what you're talking about. Consistently, Dan always has to reel me in. He's like, what is your angle on stuff? And I'm like, well, I want to talk about this, this, this, this. And they're like, hey, your customer is not going to know what you stand for. If you're talking about 50 different things, you should have three to five pillars. So constraining yourself to what people should know about you.
A
This is a fun one. I find that content creators use this one all the time to help their content stand out and become unique. So they'll be like, you know, I did something big, but only on a dollar a day, you know, or something crazy. Or it's the other way. It's maximalist. I million dollars on a piece of paper, you know, like whatever it might be. But I had an idea one time that became A unique idea and I find more and more people are using it. I just did it within an organization. But we, we, we had a constraint. Like I, I needed a cheap way to like put essentially flyers in the hands of a lot of the customer, current customers to give to prospective customers essentially to recruit. But I needed a easy way and I was like, well, what if we did it as like business cards? Because business cards are super cheap. You could print thousands and thousands of the suckers for nothing. And they're easy to distribute because they're small. So that's what we did. We did these like little business card size flyers and those became handouts that people would use for the organization. So like a, oftentimes constraints lead to some really unique ideas and you can apply them to anything. What's the smallest or biggest version of this specific paid ad strategy you use? If you're in paid marketing, if you're doing earned media, like whatever it is, what's the least amount you can get away with? What's the most amount you actually end up finding unique ideas there. The next one is taste, or curating high quality inputs to refine your sense of what good looks like, making your output stand out. A great example of this I saw with a whole business down in Austin was someone took a boring business and then made it sexy again. Not again. It was never sexy. But they made it cool. And that's Pink's Windows cleaning company. Go Google it. Pink's Windows. But they essentially like some guys just wanted to start a little side hustle so they started cleaning windows. But they dressed up in like this kind of, they branded it well with design and the logo and the like the dress attire they all wore with like this like vintage 1950s flavor. And they all have these, they all wear pink. Converse is kind of the reason for the pink. But they made it cool to the point where people in Austin started just wearing their branded hat and then it started spreading from there. Now they have multiple locations and now it's become a whole trend to just take boring businesses and make them cool. Yeah, but that's an idea of like using taste to make something totally unique. Because now making boring businesses cool is a unique idea on the table for startups going and finding and disrupting markets with that.
B
Dan, do you think for marketers specifically for this one, there should be a little bit of caution? And the reason why I think that is like they always want to make things look so good that they never actually execute on a project or on an idea.
A
I actually find that Marketers, they do want to make things look good, but they actually don't have great taste because they generally copy their competitors more often than not. Like, if you look at all the tech websites, yeah, they all look the same. These are really highly paid marketers too, working in the tech industry. They all look the same. You know, I'm like, so that's where leaning into a designer, like, I, gosh, I was even at a college, a college marketing conference I was speaking at and this tiny little college was crushing it because they let some of the Gen Z takeover design and they were standing out through like, it was one of the ways they were crushing it was through taste. Like, of course the Gen Z designers were having a field day making it different. As a marketer, I'm like, but because they let the customer actually help push it in the direction. Because we were millennials, so it's like, it's. We didn't really know what was trending with Gen Z at the moment. It worked out really well and they were able to grow because of it. Oftentimes, yes, marketers can get a little bit lost in the weeds of brand and just counting on brand to save them. And I'd say branding is big, but at the same time, you do have to actually generate leads, you do have to generate sales. You can't just like rest on that alone. So I think you're right.
B
Yeah, that's. And that, that's interesting to think about. Like marketers and even business owners, right? We will just copy what the other person is doing because of fear. Like, well, if I stand out too much, people won't like me. But here you're actually saying if you could do it in a well polished.
A
Way that's drastically different, that's what makes it unique. It's not just, it's not just taste by your peer standpoint, it's. It's taste in a different level.
B
Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, the last one is iteration speed. So this is just about how quickly you can move through experiments, give feedback and accelerate all your ideas. I mean, in some ways, this is what we're doing with the podcast, right? We're recording every day. And it's not like a five, 10 minute thing. It's 30 minutes. We're getting feedback. We're also looking at it just to be transparent, like, how many leads do we get by doing this? Right. We're constantly testing new things out. You're always experimenting on a new tool. Right. And sharing your feedback on ideas on that. So it, it's a beautiful way to start sharing your unique ideas.
A
Another example of that is just McDonald's, right? It's kind of like nobody thinks about how getting burgers used to be very slow, but McDonald's made it fast. And that's what put. That was one of the things that put McDonald's on the map as a franchise. But oftentimes we have ideas that are actually faster than market standards. And if we have ideas that can go faster, Speed is a quality in and of itself that is very attractive. And as you can build a whole business around just even just one component within some kind of solution, being way faster can be a whole business in and of itself sometimes. So those are a bunch of different ways you can lead ideas to being unique. There. It's not exhaustive. There's probably more ways to make unique ideas. But oftentimes again, you, ideas don't have to be a hundred percent unique. They could just have a unique spin, a unique angle, a new personal takes point of view, a taste speed, some things, some little tweak that just makes it unique enough to be different from everything else. And having something that's different but also equally helpful is the goal. Again, it's got to be attached to solving one of your prospective buyers problems to make it relevant. But now that we've kind of covered like all the different unique ways that it can be unique, I do have to mention one of the best ways to communicate all these unique ideas that you have is a podcast. Come on. You had to know I was going to say it sometime.
B
That was a good segue. That was a good segue. I like the soft pitch there.
A
So if you've ever wondered about starting your own podcast, have you ever been on the edge, you should go take our assessment. It's over at aidrivenmarketer.com pod and find out if a podcast is right for you. I feel like anybody who essentially sells with their expertise, coaches, consultants, even tech companies who are leading any new category, anybody who's really selling ideas and then has a service or product that comes with those ideas really should start a podcast. But it's the best way to actually get your ideas out into the marketplace. Kind of like we're sharing this whole book by a podcast. There's a reason for it. It's one of the easiest and most efficient ways to do it. But moving on from the podcast segue is we need to be able to take inventory of ideas. It's not enough just to have unique ideas. We actually have to go and kind of Scour them. I find that most experts, especially people working in coaching and consulting, usually already have, like, a collection of ideas. They just haven't actually pulled them into a document and made a bulleted list of them, and they're usually hiding in plain sight. Ken, what are some of the ways that people usually can find some of the ideas they already have out there?
B
Yeah, I mean, I think the first one was just things you keep explaining to people, like, do people come and ask you the same question over and over and over again? That should be. You should take note that that's one of the ways that you have an expertise or unique angle on something that you should share.
A
What are the questions people are asking, even unique ones. I always find it so helpful to be asked questions all the time. I actually always say yes to as many podcasts as I can be on, even if there's like zero audience or I'm the first. First person to be on a podcast. Because sometimes a question will unlock a new idea in me that I didn't even know I had. They ask a question, I give an answer, and I'm like, hold on, let me write that down. That was an awesome take. I'm amazed by what I just said. That just happens. So questions are also a good place. Good place to find unique ideas. Another one is actually workflows you've already optimized because the standard way annoyed you. Sometimes you learn something from, like when you. Especially when you're new, you're learning, like, how to do the thing that you do. You learn it from a boss, you learn it from a training. And then eventually you got out in the real world and you used it and it worked, but it got annoying to you, and you fixed it. That fixed. That's probably an idea. You probably have a whole collection of them. What are they? Write them down.
B
Yeah. I think another one is in meetings that you actually have had with people. There's gonna be tons of ideas. I've actually been doing this lately. Is every meeting that I come out with, I said, what was an idea that just came to fruition from that? And it could be a marketing conversation, a sales conversation, a coaching conversation. It's just anything that I'm like, ooh, that sparked an idea. I literally take that and I copy and paste, paste it. You know, Sometimes I use ChatGPT and be like, hey, was there a unique idea that came out of this? And they give me something. I'm like, great, now I'm gonna use my own words. I'm not letting chatgpt write it. I'm gonna use my own words to craft that idea and flesh it out a little bit more.
A
Dang, that one's really good. I wish I would have thought of that one. Ken, you got it. Just give ChatGPT your content, maybe even your call, your. Your consulting calls or your coaching calls, or even your sales calls. Say, like, what are unique ideas have? I share. I have it later on in this podcast. Like, ways to validate ideas. But, like, asking ChatGPT if it's unique. It's really good at figuring that out. As many times I thought I had a unique idea and ChatGPT is like, Nah, somebody thought of that already. Other thing, other places you can go hunting for ideas within your own work environment is your notes. Where in your notes. I'm not thinking. I'm like, okay, obviously, just go take your whole Notion database and feed it through ChatGPT. I think you could do a deep research dive on that now. Like, I think you can do deep research. Add Notion as. I wish you could do this with like, Evernote and all the other places, but I'm pretty sure Notion has an integration. You can do deep research. It'll just scan the whole database in mind for unique ideas. Shoot. Gemini just added the ability for you to do a deep research component or deep research search in your Google Drive.
B
Oh, man.
A
So I'm like, dude, this, like, that's going to be a game changer for a lot of people because you could be like, gemini, go find all my most unique ideas in my Google Drive and then validate whether other people have shared them or not. You know, it's all there. You have it all written down. If you've been writing down in docs or a notion or someplace. And the last one I want to share is just frameworks you've created because nothing off the shelf worked. I think we all do, all professionals do. We read a book and we're like, ah, that was good. But I found this this way. Slight tweak worked better. That slight tweak might be a really unique and original idea that you want to use to build up your authority. So let's talk about how to refine the idea. Ken, what's the first step?
B
Yeah, the first one is like, actually doing the work. Don't ever let it just go from a theory to idea. It's got to have experience. Experience is always greater than the theory.
A
That is kind of the main step. Like, if you don't do that, then it's not really there. I will say that you. There are a few times where I have and I've seen others post an idea, but you better make sure to, like, let people know. Like, hey, hypothetically, what if it were like this? I saw a whole company got started that way. Some guy was so mad about WordPress sucking and they like, well, he was a technologist too. He's like a developer. He's like, it should work like this. And he took like, some modern developer standards and JavaScript and writing with Markdown and a couple other unique ideas. He's like, what if we had a thing that was like this? And his post went wildly, like, viral? And he then he did a whole Kickstarter campaign and raised a lot of money and he did. He was successful. He built a whole other platform called Ghost based on a what if post. So it's like, you can throw them out there, but generally, if you really want to push the idea, you need to have at least done it yourself and prove that it works, at least for you. But the next one is actually documenting what you did. Because it's one thing to do it, it's another thing to document it. Ken, I've met with people over and over again. Like, usually in the process of helping people understand how to build custom GPTs, they don't think they have processes because they've never actually documented it, but they do. I'm like, trust me, you're doing this research the same way every, every time. Tell me, like, what do you first do to do this? Okay, and then what's the next step? And what's the next step? People don't take the time to document and, and actually write down their process, so they think they're just making it up or it's just skill. And I'm like, no, it's not skill. You have a process you follow every time. You could delegate this to AI.
B
And actually what I found is that once you start documenting it, you can actually see, oh, I can make this a little bit better.
A
Yes.
B
And refine it and work through it. I think another one is actually that goes along with documenting it, is teaching the work to others. Right? Like, you're either documenting it and sharing it with other people. That's delegation. But you're just teaching everybody what you're doing. I mean, even as we've been talking about this podcast or this whole thing we've been teaching other people, there's several people who are now DMing me. They're like, dude, I see you're doing this book. How's it going? What's happening. What are you learning? And I'm like, oh, this is what I'm learning. And then I'm like, sweet. I just came up with another LinkedIn post, and I just take that and just make it into a LinkedIn post. Just constantly teaching people. And people will start to come out of the woodworks when you're doing that.
A
Yeah. There is something about teaching that really solidifies it. I think. I think I get. I don't think I actually get a ton more out of homeschooling than my kids do. I know my kids learn, too, but as I go through history and science and I teach them the Bible, like, I'm getting way more out of it because I'm teaching it. I'm now reading it through and explaining it to them and going through it. I'm like, oh, my gosh. If you haven't actually taught your kids, like, history or something, it's so rewarding because you get to learn a lot in the process. But even teaching marketing, I've been teaching Marketing now on LinkedIn, just through post after post. You post once a day, every day. Three. Like, you post 300 times a year, man. That's. You end up learning a lot through the process of just posting and teaching.
B
Yeah. I mean, can I give a quick example on this? Like, two weeks ago, and I think I sent you a message on this. I tried. I was like, hey, I'm gonna post three times a day on LinkedIn. It was extremely aggressive.
A
You did it every day?
B
I did it every day. There was several automations and setups and, you know, all that stuff that we've been talking about. But it gave me a lot of data to all of a sudden say, oh, what's working? What's not working? What people are liking, what people are not liking. And it was super helpful for me to do that because I'm like, okay, now I could take a step back and refine those things to hopefully make them better.
A
Yeah. There's something about volume in and of itself that just is a much better teacher. Right. You just create a faster feedback loop and you can learn quicker. Even. Even in posting this series every. Almost every day this month, of course, reach has gone down because people are like picking and choosing which episodes they want to listen to. And I'm like, I don't really care. There's something about posting a lot of something that just gives you a faster feedback loop so you can learn and do something.
B
Which is the last thing that we're going to talk about about taking inventory Is refining the work, getting that feedback.
A
Ultimately, as you're trying to create unique ideas, doing the work is the first, most important. I think documenting is important. Teaching is important. The next one, and this is the one that really becomes the huge qualifier is how many other people have you used? Has it worked for the amount of people that your idea has helped solve? The problem for becomes the barrier for how. Becomes the indicator, in my opinion, of how good the idea is. And then lastly, like, to get greater numbers, it's like some. Some ideas are good and they'll work for people who are exceptional. But does the idea work for people who are on the other side, who are beginners or who are not exceptional? And it still works like, that becomes the ultimate test. Like, we took someone from zero to hero with the idea. Now, not all ideas need to be that good, but it is a good benchmark, in my opinion. Like, how many people has this helped? And that's where, like, testimonial walls become really helpful because it's proven that the idea is worked over and over again. Right?
B
Yeah. So. So, Dan, if we're taking inventory and all this, right, People start creating a list of all these ideas, how do they know that it's unique and not just good, Right? Where it's like, okay, this is actually going to be a strong idea for them.
A
So I find that there's five criteria you want to see. That it's true, that it's helpful, that it's transferable, that it's repeatable, and that it's sharpened and actually tested through feedback. So let's unpack each one of those true. Like, it actually has to line up with your values and with your actual experiences. That's why doing it yourself is so important. Helpful. It actually solves the real problem that you're tackling. Tackling. Again, one of the most helpful. It's why we even started with that one. It's like, if it's not actually helping some kind of problem, then it's not really useful. Transferable. Others have to be able to use it. You have to be able to teach it in such a way that you can pass the idea and someone can actually grab it and run with it. But it has to be transferable. There's been times where I've shown people things and I'm like, yeah, this is how it works. And then you end up like that meme where the guy's like, got the big plot charts behind him and he's like, this is the system. I've mapped it all out you know what, meme? I'm talking about everybody. It has to be transferable. Otherwise people are like, oh, that's nice. And then repeatable. It can't just be a one time thing that worked for you. That's like the most common thing we see out, especially in is across marketing. Yeah, like, oh, look at this hack. I was able to 10x my business and in three days you're like, okay, even if it's true, the chance that that's going to like work for others is low to say the least. So is it repeatable and then sharpened? Have you actually iterated on this? Tested it, done it multiple times for yourself, taken notes, refine the notes. That's why you documenting it so important, so you can refine it. And then took it through the process with multiple people refining it every single time in order to make it something that's really sharp and has been honed and all the variables taken into account to make it an actual sharp idea. So those are kind of the five things that you want for a unique and helpful idea.
B
I love it. And that's where the more you do it, the more you can actually start to see, wow, people want to learn from me, people want to grow with me. Which is something that you don't actually think about most of the time. You just think, oh cool, this is just a idea that I threw out there, it's going to work. But now that's where you gain true followers, where people are excited. They're like, well, I wonder what Dan's thinking about this. Or I wonder what, you know, so and so is thinking about that. That's the beauty of making a strong idea, walking through these five criteria, so memorable.
A
So if you've listened to this whole thing or read through the whole chapter now, I'm sure some of your best ideas are probably coming to the surface. You're already thinking about a few. Go and take inventory of all the rest of them and come up with just a word, doc. Come up with a bulleted list of maybe a half a dozen to a dozen of them. Because in the next episode we're going to talk about how to package them in such a way that they can actually be like one of those things. They can actually be more transferable. Today we want to find what's helpful. We want to find what's repeatable, maybe what's sharpened and what's true. But in the next chapter, I have a whole episode, or a whole chapter episode dedicated to how to make it more transferable more in a nice packaged way.
Podcast: AI-Driven Marketer: Master AI Marketing To Stand Out In 2026
Host: Dan Sanchez
Co-Host: Ken Fre
Date: November 18, 2025
This episode contends that "content is no longer king" in marketing—AI has democratized the creation of content, making it easier and faster for anyone to generate music, videos, and research at scale. Instead, the true differentiator in the AI era is original ideas. Dan and Ken break down how marketers can consistently find, refine, and showcase ideas that are uniquely their own, moving beyond generic AI-generated content to stand out in 2026 and beyond.
Dan and Ken provide a detailed inventory of what makes an idea unique:
Lived Experience:
Earned Expertise:
Synthesis:
Point of View (POV):
Constraints:
Taste:
Iteration Speed:
Dan's "Five Criteria" checklist for idea quality:
"If it’s not actually helping some kind of problem, then it’s not really useful." – Dan (31:40)
Next episode preview:
Dan hints that the follow-up will focus on packaging and transferring your unique ideas to others effectively—moving from idea collection to impactful communication.