I was the kid in survival mode at school.

One year, my grades were so bad that my entire report card said “U” next to every subject, which meant “Ungraded.”

That’s dumpster fire-level bad.

So, sitting here as a full-time writer racking up four million+ views and earning some mullah from my words on the internet is pretty mindblowing.

I’ll spare you the Oscar speech and get into the meat and potatoes of everything writers tend not to share. If you take away anything from this, it’s that if I can do it, so can you.

Try to avoid skim-reading. They’re gems worth absorbing.

Let’s get into it.

Strong Ideas Come Before Good Writing

When I started bashing away at a keyboard, my sole focus was perfecting my writing.

Over time, as I organically improved, I slowly realised that the blogs I had written that resonated with people were more about how good the ideas were and less about how well it was written.

So, I began by making the “idea” the most essential part of my blogs, right at the tippy top of the totem pole.

I read a piece by self-help author and writing coach Alex Mathers titled: “Your writing likely sucks — not because you can’t write — but because your ideas are not high-concept.”

It’s true.

Alex says — “When writers see their writing isn’t connecting, most people believe the solution lies in writing better. But this isn’t quite right. It has less to do with your writing and more with the idea. Yes, there are many variables at play in good writing, but a strong idea sits at the top of the hierarchy, particularly an unexpected idea.”

Writing in those early days was a challenge.

I had to tap into my teeth-clenching, semi-murderous side to sit down and write. My only concern was, “How do I write this well?” When it should have been, “Jay, is this a good idea?”

Whenever my process has a prolonged period of me fleshing out the idea before I start writing, the result is always a clearer or more interesting read.

I should’ve searched for good ideas sooner instead of getting lost in the weeds of being a wordsmith and attempting to sound clever.

Let’s get into more detail.

High-concept Ideas Only

A high-concept idea is your story — stated in one sentence, except you’re conveying a compelling, exciting storyline with a novel twist in a single title.

When I understood this part, it completely transformed my writing.

Sometimes, I got lucky and stumbled across a great idea that became a viral hit, but I could never pinpoint why it did so well.

My most viral piece was sourced from a one-minute video by the famous hedge fund manager Ray Dalio.

In it, he spoke about delaying gratification with money and how, if you do that, you’ll have a different conversation with yourself than the person who spends it immediately.

Ray Dalio — Source

“When you save, the next natural question you ask yourself is, where should I hold, and where should I keep this money? When it comes to money, and you don’t spend it for instant gratification, it means you’ve got savings. The next thing that comes at you is, what do I do with my savings?”

It was a simple concept. Dalio also referenced an old but well-known research study called the Standford Marshmallow Experiment.

It allowed me, as a writer, to combine two ideas: Dalio’s thoughts on money and the experiment.

The basic premise of the experiment involves researchers offering a group of kids one Marshmallow, or they could wait 15 minutes and receive two.

After studying the children as they grew up, researchers concluded that the kids who could delay gratification, i.e. not eat that first Marshmallow, had better life outcomes measured by education, health, income and other life outcomes.

People lost their minds.

The blog got 450,000 views and went remarkably viral, and it’s down to the idea being “high-concept”.

Who the heck is Ray Dalio? Why’s he telling me to become wealthy? What experiment is he telling me about? What’s the strategy?

Too many questions need answering, and it’s all encapsulated in one high-premise, thought-provoking title that people had to click on.

Here’s the blog:

World’s 123rd Richest Person Says If You Understand the Stanford Experiment, You’ll Become Wealthy.

Create Conflict

I once Tweeted about this, and people messaged me to say, “You’re everything that’s wrong with journalism”.

Firstly, I’m not a journalist.

When I say “create conflict,” I don’t mean to stir up trouble.

What I mean is to bring two ideas together that are in conflict, so it creates a novel twist. Or, as the famous writer Michael Lewis says, “Look for friction between perception and reality.”

I hit the sweet spot with this blog post titled:

A Man Famous for Not Talking Taught Us a Valuable Lesson When He Spoke About Free Speech.

The blog was on Rowan Atkinson, who, in real life, is campaigning in favour of free speech. This is ironic, considering he became one of the most famous men in comedy through a character who never spoke: Mr Bean.

It was the perfect central premise for a story, and the clever twist of irony created a conflict most people reading would understand immediately.

Bringing two competing ideas together or a conflict in the title works well.

One of the best high-premise titles cited in books like “The Anatomy of Story” is the late Michael Critchton’s Jurassic Park.

The clash is humans and dinosaurs coming together. It gives you a sense of adventure and captures people’s imagination.

I remember how I felt as a kid seeing the poster at the cinema. My immediate thought was: “What if the dinosaurs get out?” “Are there kids in the park?”

The best headlines usually combine two competing ideas, conveying a clear message and creating a twist that captures the audience’s imagination.

Take Sam Parr, the founder of The Hustle, who sold his newsletter for over $20 million.

After interviewing Pandora’s founder, his most viral blog ever was:

“How Pandora’s Founder Convinced 50 Early Employees To Work 2 Years Without Pay”.

It was a magical formula with conflict in the title and generated millions of views.

Follow The P.A.S. Strategy.

It’s such a simple framework.

Even if you execute it poorly, it still works well.

Author Dan Coe once said: “Most people suck at writing. No ideas. No engagement. No shares. No followers. No impact. No future. The daily writing framework I use made me $4.1 million as a writer last year.”

Here’s the blueprint:

• Problem
• Amplify (marketers use “agitate”)
• Solution.

This P.A.S. model is now the cornerstone of my writing.

Problem:

Dan Coe: “Problems catch attention by opening a curiosity loop. People want to know what the solution is. They want to read the rest of the story. When you make people aware of a problem in their life, they can’t help but listen to you.”

Amplify:

In your blog, explore all your readers’ pain points. I find using a personal narrative works well. For example, in my fitness blogs, I describe the nuanced challenges I faced in getting in shape in a way that relates to the reader.

Solution:

Close the loop of the blog with a solution, AKA climax or payout for the reader. The one question you must ask is, is this good for the person reading this?

I made mistakes early in my writing, like picking away at problems that didn’t exist, fitting in narratives that weren’t relevant to the headline, or not leaving the reader with a substantial payout at the end.

It all boils down to one question you should ask yourself before you post. What’s in it for the reader? Does it enhance their life, solve a problem, entertain them, or give them an insight they haven’t heard before?

Here’s how to think about it.

WIIFM

I read this from one of the world’s most experienced bloggers, and it’s a mindset hack of epic proportions.

As a writer, if you take the reader on a journey with a big idea and a compelling headline, the reader needs a payoff.

I’d get lost in writing pointless anecdotes about my life that weren’t relatable. I’d fail to close the loop by not finishing with a valuable takeaway for the reader and then wonder why my writing wasn’t connecting with people.

It’s all because I thought about myself first, not the reader.

Ayodeji Awosika says you need to think “WIIFM”. That’s “What’s In It For Me” from the reader’s perspective. What do they get out of it? What’s their takeaway here?

Using my viral blog, which I referenced earlier on Ray Dalio, I closed the loop with a payout for the reader.

I applied Dalio’s concept of delayed gratification to modern-day examples of the average salary in America. Using a calculator, I showed what would have happened if you had made a negligible investment in the stock market with money if you had saved.

It worked perfectly. The read ratio and minutes of read time took off like a meme coin on steroids.

Here’s a snippet of my “WIIFM” for the reader.

“If you live in America, the average take-home salary is $3200 after tax. You’d have earned significant returns if you invested half, so $1600, into a growth stock for just one month and left it there for ten years.

If you had invested in Amazon, for example, you would have enjoyed returns of 740% and made just under $12000 in profit.

There are countless companies where we use their products and services daily that have grown like this, even after market corrections.

You should decide your best strategy and have a different conversation with yourself”.

Search for The Seed of Truth Behind Every Negative Comment

My ego used to take a ding.

In the early days, with a small audience, people were super friendly. But occasionally, I’d get an earful from someone who disagreed with something I’d written.

People who know me best, like my close, sporty friends, know that I can shoot from the hip every so often. I used to get defensive at highly critical comments, you know, the ones that were bordering on trolling. They’d trigger me.

Everything changed once I dropped my ego and searched for the opportunity. This comment below in the early days would have nagged at me for days.

Not anymore. Once I shrugged off my defensiveness as a writer, I uncovered gold.

My immediate thought here was, “He’s right”.

Anonymous:

“I’m tired of hearing you brag about losing 30 pounds and saying it’s because of calorie counting. 30 pounds ain’t sh*t. Every single person in the know thats done a calorie focused weight loss like Weight Watchers or Noon, initially lost weight but gained it all back and more. The only thing that works long-term is whatever controls your appetite hormones. Everything else is bullsh*t.”

I had been talking about calorie counting, which is a common truth in losing weight, but an inability to manage one’s appetite cravings makes it not work for many folks.

I missed this when I wrote about fitness, but the magic was hidden behind a reader’s passionate comment.

It gave me an idea for a follow-up blog and is a classic example of finding golden nuggets by reverse engineering comments.

Here’s how.

Reverse Engineer Readers’ Comments

Use someone else’s comments section if you don’t have an audience.

I wrote a blog on Cathie Wood,a relatively famous Investor. The comments section was carnage and misogyny from men was as smelly as a gym locker in a heat wave.

When her company stocks (Ark Invest) were getting crushed, people were in the comments saying:

• “Why would anyone listen to this witch.”
• “How can you take this woman seriously.”
• “It has nothing to do with her being a woman. She’s just terrible”.

Those are real things people said.

So, I reverse-engineered the comments and created a follow-up blog with the headline:

“You’re Making a Huge Mistake by Ignoring Cathie Wood’s Financial Advice.”

If you thought people were teetering on the brink before, it was on an entirely new level now.

The blog went remarkably viral and unintentionally brought in a larger female audience who had never heard of Wood or weren’t even interested in modern finance. However, they resonated with the message.

I didn’t write something I thought people would agree with. I said what I truly believed to be true.

Now that her investment company, Ark, appears to have recovered from the carnage, perhaps I’ll do a third follow-up with a title about how I was right. Lol.

Maybe with the headline: “You Ignored Cathie Woods Financial Advice Because She’s A Woman and I Bet You Regret It.”

My spidey senses tell me it’ll be a smash hit. It all stemmed from reading comments from my audience, reverse engineering their thoughts, and speaking directly to them.

Who doesn’t like the feeling of being spoken to directly?

Steal Everything Michael Lewis Says

Michael Lewis is a powerhouse.

I’ve watched all of his films, read his books and dined out on his 4-hour “Masterclass” like he was some sort of writing genie ready to grant me any wish.

Blind Side, The Big Short and Money Ball were all books he wrote that were turned into Hollywood classics.

He shares two broad meta hacks for writers that I now implement.

• Notice what people aren’t seeing.
• Always structure your story so it loops back to the start.

The Idea for Money Ball came about because Lewis recognised a gap between people’s reality and what was happening in baseball.

He learned very quickly that coach Billy Bean, played by Brad Pitt in the film, was arbitraging the mispricing of baseball players. He was focusing on the things people weren’t seeing.

It started by scratching his curiosity itch.

Michael Lewis: “I was watching the Oakland A’s play baseball and I noticed that the left fielder was getting paid $160k and the right fielder was getting like $8 million.

My curiosity was, I wonder how the left fielder feels whenever the right fielder screws up. Is there class resentment on a baseball field?

I started watching baseball through that lens, like what’s going on with the money on the field.”

I try to notice what people aren’t seeing or talking about whenever I consume content. While it stimulates a ton of ideas, I’ve found Lewis’ strategy has got me into this habit of seeing the world entirely differently.

Michael Lewis says the ultimate story hack is plotting your start and finish first since your ending is your beginning.

It’s a strategy that helped the direction and clarity of my message.

Looping back to the start is a strategy M. Lewis employed to write the book on Sam Bankman-Fried. Here’s what he said:

“The story of the meteoric rise and fall of crypto billionaire Sam Bankman Fried is that our main character starts his first 17 years on earth alone in his parents’ house, friendless and without any communication with his fellow human beings. He goes on this incredible journey and, in the end, is back with the ankle monitor in his parents’ house with no friends. There’s something timeless about coming back to where you start.”

Pay attention to what people aren’t seeing and loop back to the start with your structure.

Avoid This One Mistake

I used to sit down and rack my brain for hours.

I’d try to think up these fantastic ideas or write about subjects I thought would interest others.

It doesn’t work, and the lack of progress of words on the page becomes demotivating.

As Lewis says, it’s a mistake most writers make:

“The simplest mistake writers make is to think the material is inside them as opposed to outside them. You have such an edge as a writer if you’ve lived some experiences and can tell about it. Maybe you can’t be a longshoreman, but you can be on the docks and have the experience of being a longshoreman.

You find this over and over in literary careers. People end up writing legal thrillers but they started out as lawyers.

Seeking those experiences materially is how you find your way into the material.”

Use Flow States

This one is huge.

Everyone is different, but for me, getting into a flow state requires two things: eliminating distractions and writing quickly without worrying about perfection. Have the view that you can come back to it later.

Here’s the thing. You only need to try and write quickly for the first 60 seconds, and before you know it, your mind has slipped into a writing trance without noticing.

When I started this journey, I would nail every sentence upfront and pack it with flavour.

The problem is that it slows you down when speed is a great motivator. Going faster creates a gap for creativity that allows random ideas to flow into your brain without effort.

Try it.

Tell A Story

Or as Michael Lewis says — “If you don’t have a story, you don’t have a way to persuade people”.

If people wanted a bunch of facts, they’d Google them. Facts don’t stick in people’s brains and linger in their memory days after they read them. Stories do.

Notice how I have included some narrative throughout this guide on powerful writing strategies to reinforce my point.

Focus on writing a good story.

Triumph Over Adversity

I always take my main character on the hero’s journey in all my writing.

Let’s return to my article on Mr Bean. In it, I discussed my main character’s adversity during the story’s development.

“Comedian Rowan Atkinson stuttered his entire school life and was called “alien face” because of his looks.”

Or how about this article you’re reading right now? I spoke about how completely below average I was academically.

The triumph in both journeys is Rowan Atkinson, who became one of the best Comedians in the world — and little old me. Well, I became a full-time writer.

My point: Search for adversity because your readers want to support the underdog and rally behind them.

When they do, they’ll feel invested in what you have to say.

Make Promises You Can’t Keep

The holy rule in writing is to deliver on the headline, so it’s not clickbait.

What if you did something different and never delivered on the title? Instead, you took the reader on a journey and said, when it ended, “I don’t know the answer. You figure it out, Mr/s Reader.”

Malcolm Gladwell says leaving the puzzle unfinished sometimes leaves your message lingering in the reader’s mind for days afterwards. Gladwell says some writers are obsessed with “not creating an expectation that can’t be fulfilled.”

He says:“I sort of wonder about that. People have this impulse to be neat and tidy. They think being neat and tidy is the goal of a narrative. I don’t. It’s fine for narratives to be messy. I’m more for the idea that you work through a problem imperfectly or even fail at the task you have set out to do. If the failure is interesting, I am fine with it.”

Malcolm Gladwell says he spoke to a Writer and British criminologist who had to investigate why delinquent kids at certain schools kept running away.

So, the criminologist went into the schools and interviewed the kids to see if there was something about their personalities. Finally, he realised he’d been barking up the wrong tree. He looked at all the data on the schools of delinquent kids and realised it wasn’t the kids — it was the schools.

It leaves the reader asking, “What were the schools doing that made the kids want to run away?” — you want the answer, but the writer never gives it.

He says, “And just as I was about to finish that research project, I was called away to another project.” The criminologist never figured out the answer.

Gladwell says:“The thing that made me remember that story is the fact that the story is incomplete. I sometimes find myself randomly thinking about what could have caused it (kids running away). I keep returning to the puzzle because it didn’t fit perfectly and was incomplete. He said you figure it out. I got a job somewhere else”.

You don’t have to keep all of your promises, provided what you say is still interesting.

That’s the peculiar power of the imperfect puzzle.

Illiminate Bromides, Trites and Platitudes

Challenging commonly held ideas is essential.

Bromides, trites and platitudes refer to the same concept of using phrases, sayings, and ideas that are overused, unoriginal, and lack freshness or impact.

I pack flavour into each area during the editing process. It’s long-winded but works incredibly well.

I ask myself, “Can I write this in a way that doesn’t sound vanilla?” or “Can I approach a common problem from a different angle?”

One interview I enjoyed was Piers Morgan’s conversation with Jordan Belfort, the man Leonardo DiCaprio portrays in the famous film “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

Whenever I see Belfort in an interview, he’s always asked — “Do you feel guilty having scammed all those people out of millions?” Or they introduce him to their show as “Convicted fraudster Jordan Belfort” as if the impact keeps the audience engaged.

It doesn’t. It’s as worn out as an old boot.

Piers Morgan approached the interview in a way I hadn’t ever heard before and opened with:

“People who knew you (Jordan Belfort) in your heyday said you were such a good trader, and with money, that you would’ve been a billionaire without the criminal activity.”

I was instantly captivated.

Interrupt Patterns

My buddy Fred, who’s supported my writing since day one, messaged me to say, “Jay, is this a typo, mate, “Jeff Bozzo”.

He was talking about Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.

I use pattern interrupters between 50% and 75% of the way down my blogs. It’s a random twist on words that stops people dead in their tracks as if they’ve had some cold water thrown in their faces.

You think to yourself, “What the heck?” — adding this in as a writer forces you to be different and less tedious.

It gives my writing a little spice.

Add a Sprinkle of Idioms and Similies.

Once I became more conscious of adding these to my writing repertoire, I gave the reader more flavour and colour.

These figures of speech create vivid images in the reader’s mind, helping to convey ideas more effectively and memorably.

Which sounds better: “The market is crashing.” or “The Market is falling faster than a broken elevator.” Or “We’re headed for a bull market” or “It’s about to take off like one of Elon’s Rockets.”

It’s much more exciting for the reader when you create vivid images.

Circle Back to Where You Began

I watched Baby Reindeer on Netflix. The story’s premise is that a lonely and somewhat crazy stalker obsessively pesters a Barman.

When Martha walks into the bar, Richard Gadd feels sorry for her. His opening line is, “How about a cup of tea?”

It leads to some horrific levels of stalking.

Gadd comes full circle when Martha’s sentencing to 9 months in prison ends the ordeal. So he decides to head to a pub.

The barman sees a dishevelled Gadd slumped over the bar and asks, “How about a cup of tea?”

It ends right where it began, and it’s beyond brilliant.

I often think back to my English Language class, where the teacher would ask us to read out loud. It made me so uncomfortable that I went into survival mode.

I’d get home, put my workbooks on the dining room table, and stare at them out of fear, leading to zero revision come exam time.

Fast-forward to now, and here I am, a full-time writer with 43,000 followers and over four million views, having earned well over $100k from writing—all from my dining room table.

It was by implementing these simple writing strategies I see very few writers willing to share.

It shows that if a kid with “U” s on his report card can do it, so can you.