WiP #05: Find your enemy

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

Today you're going to learn about the importance of finding an enemy when building your personal brand.

Enemies are not necessarily other people, but rather ideas that conflict with your purpose and values. These enemies can take many forms, such as a belief, an action, a system, or an injustice. By identifying and opposing these enemies, you are able to clearly define what your brand stands for and against. This helps to attract and connect with like-minded individuals and also provides a clear focus for you.

James Smith, Mr Marmite himself is one of the most prominent PTs in the world with a personal brand that has allowed him to write books on life coaching, confidence and fitness.

The reason for his growth on Social Media is quite simple.

In the fitness industry, there is always a new diet pill, superfood, hack or wonder exercise routine that claims to get you in the shape of your life.

And so James Smith who swears by the calorie in calories out argument, as the way to control weight loss and weight gain has an easy enemy:

All of the fake fads that exist in the fitness industry.

He has an infinite amount of content opportunities, a typical James Smith video would see him doing a sarcastic voiceover on an 'expert's' piece of advice.

Here's an example:

James Smith isn't for everyone, and that's the point.

But because he is clear on what he stands for and what he stands against, he has a personal brand that some people adore.

So...the golden question.

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How do you go about finding your own enemy?

1. Write down a list of your values and beliefs.

2. For each value and belief, brainstorm a list of things that conflict or go against that value or belief.

3. From that list, pick the one thing that you feel most strongly against and that aligns with your overall purpose.

4. Once you have identified your enemy, you can use it as a focal point in your content and messaging, and let it guide the direction of your brand.

For example.

I believe that entrepreneurship is something everyone should try.

Some people desire to be secure and having a job is seen to be more secure than being an entrepreneur.

My enemy essentially becomes the idea of the rat race.

If it is something I truly believe in, then I could now create content citing examples of redundancies to show how having a job and not paying yourself is even more risky than being an entrepreneur.

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One of the people who I admire most from Linkedin is Justin Welsh.

He is probably the best creator on the platform and has also spoken about the concept of an enemy recently.

Taken from his Newsletter, he has another activity you can do to find your content enemy.

Justin Welsh Activity:

"Start With Sub-Topics

Whenever I Tweet or write a post on LinkedIn, I stay pretty honed in on my umbrella topic, which is Solopreneurship.

But I do so in a way that lets me talk about many different sub-topics underneath that umbrella. That’s because I’ve already gone through the process of breaking Solopreneurship down.

Some of my sub-topics include:

• Ownership

• Wealth

• Knowledge

• Audience

• Content

• Products

• And many others

Assign Your Enemy Perspective to Each Sub-Topic Group

Let’s take the sub-topic “Ownership” for example.

By sitting down and giving some deep thought about ownership, I can easily jot down a few ideologies or narratives that I vehemently disagree with.

Here are some of my Enemy Perspectives around ownership:

• Perspective: The only company that cares deeply about you is your company of one.Enemy: Corporations

• Perspective: You must escape the rat race to truly become wealthy.Enemy: The rat race

• Perspective: The likelihood that you become wealthy working for someone else is slim.Enemy: Corporations

• Perspective: Wealth is about doing what you want, when you want, with whom you want.Enemy: The traditional narrative of sacrifice until you're 62 and retire.

By completing this exercise, I’m creating “enemies” that I can attack with my social media content."

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So there you have it. Two activities for you to find your content enemy.

It's important to note that having an enemy doesn't mean being negative or aggressive towards others, it's about standing up for what you believe in and creating a clear point of differentiation for you.

CREATIVE CHALLENGE

This week's creative challenge is about writing a short essay/social media post taking down your enemy.

Let's practice

Whatever you've chosen to be your enemy, write to to try and take down your enemy and share it with your audience to gain support/start a conversation.

Here's one of my favourite examples from Grace Beverley:

Grace stands for Female founders, and here the enemy is the media bias for Male founders.

This post has everything and it's so short and snappy!

Now go and take down your enemies.

Share with me.

How did you find this challenge? Let me know how you got on via e-mail at [email protected]

Good luck and look out for the next activity this time next week.