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Why You Should Focus on One Core Message · The Daily Writer

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest challenges for writers, especially at the beginning of your journey or your writing career, is dealing with the feeling that you have to write about everything.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: After all, you have so many things that you want to share, you have so many life experiences, you have so many things you're learning now.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much happening in the world around you and in your life personally.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a disconnect between what you personally experience in the world and what your reader needs from you.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important to pay attention to this, particularly if you want to build a career or have a business as a writer.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why is that?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's because your audience is going to expect one main message from you for the most part.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, yes, of course, you're a multifaceted person with many interests.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we all are.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm interested, for example, in guitar, movies, classic art, woodworking, fatherhood, home renovation, gardening, and a hundred other things.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And those might be my interests, but those are not why you come to this podcast.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: You come to this podcast and or you read my emails or you read my writing books, and you do that for one reason.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's because you want me to help you become a more successful writer.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, let's be honest.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I might be interested in gardening, but honestly, you're not interested in my opinions on gardening because that's not why you're here.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're here because you're interested in what I have to say about writing.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the same principle is true for you.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: You might have a lot of things that you want to say.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: You might have a lot of messages and ideas that are really important to you.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: But people only have space in their brains to associate you with one core thing or one core idea.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: You might be passionate about 10 different things, but you can't build a business around 10 different things, at least not in the beginning.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's important to choose just one single core message.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look at any successful author, I would say 95% of the time, and I'm basically just making up that number, I have no evidence to back that up, but that's kind of my perception.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say 95% of the time they have one basic message or one basic viewpoint that they're sharing.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: For example, uh Stephen King writes about the horror of life.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: He writes about scary things for the most part.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Joanna Penn writes about resources for authors in her nonfiction.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Ryan Holliday writes mostly about stoicism.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Michael Hyatt writes mostly about productivity and leadership.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the cold hard truth is that people are going to put you in a box as a writer.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to primarily associate you with one core message or one core truth.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not only a good business practice to stick with that one thing, but it also makes your life as a writer a lot easier in the long run.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it doesn't mean that you can never deviate from that one central message, but it does mean that for the most part, you're going to be associated with that one thing or that one viewpoint.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So choose it carefully and make sure to use it to your advantage.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, tomorrow we're going to look at some of the benefits of focusing on a core message, and then on Thursday, we're going to take a look about how to identify your core message as a writer.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's question How could it help you as a writer to have one core message?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.