Neal O'Grady 🍉

Demand Curve | 93,000 founders get 3 startup growth tactics in their inbox each week. Join the Growth Newsletter below.

I have an extremely strange mix of skills/experience:

- Mechanical engineer
- Full-stack developer
- Serial entrepreneur ($25M+ in total revenue)
- Content creator/marketer (100k+ newsletter subs and millions of page views)
- Growth marketer (ran marketing companies for 9 years)
- Crypto nerd (20k+ defi transactions)

Which is why I run marketing at a scrappy and highly technical crypto company—I can do a bit of everything.

Co-Founder

Demand Curve (YC S19) creates courses, content, and events to teach founders and marketers how to grow companies. Our weekly newsletter goes out to over 60,000 founders and marketers.

New job title just dropped

In 2026, you can:

- Bet on how many tweets Elon posts this month
- Bet on whether Jesus Christ will return in 2026
- Bet on which country the US strikes next

It's honestly a bit absurd 😅 

With memecoins, you can bet on the cultural relevance of ideas and moments.

And now with Zora, you can mint a token on anything you think will trend — a tweet, a news event, a vibe — and turn it into a market.

Yes, even the topic of the day on LinkedIn.

We've been talking for a while about the Attention Economy and how creators like Mr. Beast have learned to capitalize on it, but now we, the social media-addicted consumers, can capitalize on it as well.

So, although this job post is a joke, trading culturally relevant content is already how some people earn their living.

To you, this may be a dystopian future, but sports betting is surging among Gen Z. 

$1.3B was transacted on prediction markets during the Super Bowl alone.

The appetite to put money where your opinion is isn't going away — it's expanding into every corner of culture.

Whether you think that's exciting or terrifying, the infrastructure is being built right now. Which is why Codex Data Inc is excited to power Zora's token data.

"Attention Economist" might be a joke today. But what else are we going to do when AGI comes? 😅

Neal O'Grady

Head of Marketing at Codex.io & Defined.fi

The Buyer Psychologist | Sell more using science (not guru B.S.) | 63,000+ marketing geeks read my free newsletter

You’re dangerously smart.Yet people with half your experience are making 10X more. Why?It’s not talent or connections.And it’s definitely not by “hacking the algorithm” (sorry, LinkedIn gurus).The wealthiest consultants, agency owners, and coaches all have one thing in common:→ They own an idea in their buyers’ minds.And that idea? It does the selling for them.It positions them as an authority, spreads while they sleep, and sticks in your brain like superglue.I call these “ownable ideas.”Think “boring businesses” or “Start with Why”.Those ideas made their creators famous. But more importantly, those ideas sell—attracting clients and building leverage money can’t buy.Just one idea, built on a strategic foundation and spread relentlessly, changes everything.I know because I’ve lived it...In 2020, I was an unknown growth consultant.Well-respected, sure. I’d built a $250K/year business on referrals and hustle. But I was also burnt the F out.Revenue was lumpy and I was exhausted from trying to do ALL THE THINGS: client work, sales, creating content.Then I found my first ownable idea. Everything changed.→ $1M/year in revenue as a solopreneur (and new mom→ 140K+ followers on Twitter→ 92K+ followers on LinkedIn→ 63K+ newsletter readers→ Recognized as a global authority on “buyer psychology” (the first ownable idea I named and claimed)Since then, I’ve helped 1,900+ big-brained experts become unignorable. (I bet one of your favorite thinkers on LinkedIn is a past client or student.)Now I’m building UNIGNORABLE, the Ownable Ideas agency.We help expert entrepreneurs find, shape, and share their first ownable idea.Your big breakthrough isn’t hiding in some growth hack or viral hook formula.It’s already in your head.Don’t just share ideas. Own one.→ Follow me to see how it’s done.–P.S. I accept a handful of new clients each month.Join my newsletter to learn how to apply: beunignorable.com

Katelyn Bourgoin 🧠

Katelyn Bourgoin

Top paid experts have one thing in common:
They sell ideas (not just time).

And idea owners get rich.

Simon Sinek charges $100K+ for a keynote today.

But before his famous “Start With Why” TED Talk? He was a relatively unknown marketing consultant.

Yup. One idea can change everything.

Not a product.
Not a service.
An *idea*.

A well-sculpted idea—supported by a strategic story and shared religiously—can build your authority, spread while you sleep, and generate demand (without chasing).

I call these “ownable ideas”.

And there are 6 types:

// 1. Distinctive Philosophy

Offers a belief about how things should be done that others can live by.

↳ “Start With Why” (Simon Sinek)
↳ “Everything is Figureoutable” (Marie Forleo)

// 2. New Category

Defines a new type of solution or market space you can lead.

↳ “Zero-Click Content” (Amanda Natividad)
↳ “Dark social” (Chris Walker)

// 3. Coined Problem

Names a struggle people recognize but didn’t have words for.

↳ “Law of Shitty Clickthroughs (Andrew Chen)
↳ “The Dip” (Seth Godin)

// 4. Method/Framework

Provides a repeatable methodology, framework, or system others can follow to solve a specific problem.

↳ “Storybrand canvas” (Don Miller)
↳ “5-second Rule” (Mel Robbins)

// 5. Identity Label

Creates an aspirational identity that someone can step into.

↳ “Solopreneur” (Justin Welsh)
↳ “Growth Hacker” (Sean Ellis)

// 6. X vs. Y

Frames a this-or-that distinction that changes how people see their choices.

↳ “Shallow vs. Deep Work” (Cal Newport)
↳ “One-Way vs. Two-Way Doors” (Jeff Bezos)

—
Some types of ownable ideas are harder to pull off than others. But all 6 types of ownable ideas do the same thing when executed well: they work even while *you* don’t.

Your idea becomes your best salesperson. It attracts clients, commands premium prices, and builds leverage you can’t buy.

The lesson?

Don’t just share ideas.
Own one.

—
P.S. wanna learn more? My new Unignorable newsletter will go deeeeeeeep on this topic.

What you see is my ownable idea map. What you DON’T see is the graveyard of legitimately good ideas that didn’t make the cut.

This one-pager captures my ownable idea, my positioning, and the repeatable messages I’ll use at different stages of the buyer’s journey that tie it all together.

This is one of several deliverables clients will get when they work with us.

It looks clean. Simple even.

But getting here meant exploring dozens of possible angles and killing ideas I genuinely loved.

*That’s* the real work.

And it all hinged on one decision: the central argument.

Your central argument is the foundation your entire brand narrative builds from.

And finding the right one is tricky. 

We dig into your brain to find the sparks, then I do buyer and market research to shape it into an idea you can own—supported by full positioning and messaging strategy.

It's hard work. And necessary work. 

Before I clarified my argument, every idea felt equally good. Equally worth pursuing.

I could’ve gone in 100 different directions and made a case for each one.

And I sorta did. And it confused my audience (and hurt my soul).

Sound familiar?

That’s the trap most experts fall into.

You’re not short on ideas. 
You’re drowning in them.

And without committing to a central argument that anchors everything, you just keep drifting from idea to idea—lost.

Creating the messaging map is the easy part.

Killing good ideas so you can commit to ONE epic one?

That’s what’s hard.

—
P.S. Have you figured out your ownable idea? Or are you trying to share 10 ideas while never becoming known for one?

It’s International Women’s Day. But I don’t feel like celebrating. I feel angry. 

Today, like too many days before it, we’re reading horrifying allegations of grown men abusing little girls.

Not women. Girls.

Women shouldn’t have to fight for equal recognition.

Women shouldn’t have to fight for equal pay.

And women and girls—children—shouldn’t have to fight for basic human rights. 

But here we are.

Still fighting. 
Still mad as hell. 
Still not giving up.

undefined undefined

Heyyy!

Here's the link to join the PAINKILLER waitlist and get access to your new bestie, Sparky, the Ouchy Pain Finder bot: https://www.customercamp.co/painkiller-waitlist

This message is automated but if you reply with a question I'll answer it

Have a brainy day!

Idea owners get rich

How to build a “successful” biz in 2026.

4 easy steps:

—
1) Wake up early

The early bird gets the worm. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish before 8am while the rest of the world is still sleeping.

—
2) Create something valuable

Solve a real problem for real people. If you help others win, you’ll win too.

—
3) Have a massive chip on your shoulder

Get bullied as a kid. Mercilessly.

Grow up poor with a single mom who’s constantly stressed about money and on the edge of a breakdown. Pack a bag in the middle of the night and escape to a women’s shelter to hide from her psycho ex-husband.

Have your heart shattered by your first love in a way that takes years to process.

Trust no one.

Develop a nervous system that’s constantly in fight or flight.

Drown it in alcohol and drugs for a while.

Then discover a more socially acceptable addiction: work.

Build a branding agency...

Then a restaurant consulting business.

Land clients like Target and Holiday Inn. Sell the restaurant consulting business. Decide that’s not enough.

Bootstrap a tech startup. Funnel every dollar you make in your agency back into your startup. Stop taking a paycheck. Lie awake at 3am running numbers that never work. Keep going anyway.

Get featured in Forbes and Inc Magazine for building “The next LinkedIn for women.”

Run out of money.
Watch it all collapse.
Go bankrupt.

And somehow... the chip gets bigger.

Build another business. Cross $1M in revenue. Hit 100k followers. Then 200k.

People start clapping. Magazine features. Podcast invitations.

Think you’ll finally feel different.

You don’t.

The goalposts keep moving when you’re running away from something instead of toward it.

Then you become a mom. You hold your baby for the first time and feel something shift inside you.

All those numbers, all those milestones, all that proving—none of it mattered the way you thought it would.

Start therapy. Unpack why you’ve been running so hard for so long. Begin to heal.

Now you build differently. Not to prove anything to the world. But because you’re on a mission to help others make a bigger impact. 

You stop chasing what you think you’re supposed to want... and do the work to figure out what you actually want.

—
4) Build an audience
(It really is worth it)

—
Do you have a chip on your shoulder too? Use it as fuel. But don’t let it run you ragged. Remember, you get to decide what a “successful” business looks like for *you*

No alternative text description for this image

I’m not good at lots of things.
Like, embarrassingly not good...

→ I’m hopeless at small talk

→ I can’t parallel park to save my life

→ I’ve never figured out how to fold a fitted sheet properly

→ I’m terrible at remembering people’s names (I try so hard at this one too)

→ I procrastinate on admin stuff until the last possible second

→ I can’t keep plants alive (RIP succulents)

→ I’m bad at saying no to opportunities (classic people pleaser)

→ I’m always behind on my email inbox

→ I’m the worst at creating systems that I actually follow (I build the system but forget to use it)

Yup. I’m bad at lots of stuff.  

But ya know what?

I’m really fucking great at packaging ideas so people: get it, want it, and buy it.

That *one* skill built my entire business.

—
Stop trying to fix all your weaknesses. 

Find your mega skill and double down on it. That’s where the magic happens. That’s how you win. 

—
So what’s your mega skill?

ChatGPT says I'm the #1 buyer psychology expert on LinkedIn. But I cheated...

No, I don't know some voodoo magic for ranking in ChatGPT. My "hack" is years in the making.

Honestly? It's probably the best thing I did in my business. It made everything else easier.

Here's the backstory...

When I started my Why We Buy newsletter in 2020, I had a decision to make:

How would I cateogorize it?

Technically it was about "behavioural economics"—using cognitive biases and heuristics in marketing.

Sounds science-y, right? Yeah, that was the problem.

My ideal readers weren't academics. They were marketers and founders building online businesses.

Now I could have used a sexier term: “consumer psychology”. 

But my target readers mostly ran B2B businesses. They didn't sell "consumer" products. They sold services and software.

So I took a strategic leap. I created the world's first "buyer psychology" newsletter. No other person owned that specific category, so I:

→ named it 
→ framed it
→ claimed it

This brings me to my "hack"...

If you want to be known for something specific, you can literally choose to name that thing (eg. think “boring businesses” or Storybrand). 

But making it spread isn't just about choosing the right words.

You must attach meaning to those words (aka. frame it).

The easiest way to do that is by starting with a problem your audience already feels.

In my case, that problem was chronic overwhelm. Marketers are exhausted by constant change—always chasing, never catching up. But human behavior doesn't change. It's a steady anchor in the raging sea.

So I crafted a simple mantra: Marketing changes fast. People don't. Learn buyer psychology.

I framed the problem (ie. speed of change) and offered a distinctive solution (ie. buyer psychology.)

Then to claim it? I just spread that idea everywhere. It became the dominant narrative underpinning all my content.

Not once. Not twice. But consistently across 100s of posts... for... years.

Finding my first ownable idea changed my business. It can change yours too.

So if you want to be seen as an authority in your space (and get paid like one), I've got a new mantra for you:

Don't just share ideas.
Own one.

That's the best "hack" there is.

--

P.S. Claiming a new category isn't the only type of ownable idea. It's actually one of six (and probably the hardest to pull off).

I'm breaking down all six in my new UNIGNORABLE newsletter. Next issue drops this Thursday.

Drop a 🧠 if you want in.

graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message

Let’s normalize disagreeing with someone without disliking them 

If you’re saying anything even remotely interesting people will disagree 

Thems the breaks 

But that doesn’t mean it needs to be mean-spirited—accept it as feedback and keep rocking

Your buyer already knows what they want. They’re waiting for someone to show them why everything they’ve tried falls short.

That’s why an ownable idea is so powerful. When you find the right one, you stop chasing clients and start attracting them.

But not with a catchy tagline or a polarizing take. What you need is an argument that meets your buyer’s existing goals and exposes the gap in how the market currently serves them.

An example?

Justin Welsh built a $10M business on his ownable idea. He didn’t invent solopreneurship. The word already existed—but before Justin, nobody wanted to claim it. 

Calling yourself a “solopreneur” felt like admitting your business was small. Like your ambitions weren’t serious enough to build a 'real' company.

Justin reframed its meaning entirely. He argued that choosing to work solo was an act of rebellion. It was the smart path to ditch "the rat race" (Justin's words) and live on your own terms. 

Being a solopreneur became a statement. You valued freedom over fancy titles or unicorn exits.

Justin didn’t change what people wanted. He told a story that changed what it meant to want it and gave them a new identity to proudly step into.

You can see how powerful that is, right? 

Here's where people go wrong: 

You won't find your ownable idea by guessing at a clever phrase. 

You have to understand your buyer’s world first—what they want, and why everything they’ve tried has failed to deliver it. That gap is where your argument lives.

The graphic above breaks down the method we use with clients to find, shape and share their first ownable idea. 

In Excavate, we surface your thinking and map it against your buyer’s world (their goals, desires, and where existing solutions are falling short). 

In Distill, we find the argument that’s genuinely ownable and fits where your buyer already is.

Stage 3 is Claim. The idea gets locked. Not invented. Chosen.

In Shape and Activate, we build the full language system and strategic narrative around your idea and help you put it into the world. 

This is how you stake your claim on an idea that sells…. like Justin did. 

Justin’s idea didn’t spread because he just chose the right words. It spread because he named something people already wanted to claim as their own. 

That’s what the right ownable idea does: it doesn’t just attract clients. It creates believers.

—
P.S. Are you becoming a believer in the power of ownable ideas?

I (foolishly) shut down my profitable agency because I was sick of the feast-famine cycle.

I started a tech company instead. Surely that would be easier, right?

Wrong. I went bankrupt.

But let me back up...

--
In 2010. I founded my branding agency, RedRiot. 

My vision was crystal clear: we'd be the only agency in Eastern Canada that specialized in guerrilla marketing. 

Guerrilla marketing was new, it was gutsy, and I was obsessed with it.

The wee problem? I was new to business and had zero contacts. Finding clients was haaaaard.

So I got clever...

I used some black hat SEO to rank us for keywords like "marketing agencies Halifax." (No one was searching for "guerrilla marketing" back then)

And it worked. Leads started rolling in from Google.

Except these weren't people who cared about guerrilla marketing.

They were typically small business owners with tiny budgets. They didn't understand what made our approach different. They didn't want what I actually wanted to offer.

They just knew they needed "a marketing agency." 

And I had bills to pay, so I said "yes" to every project anyway...

Want us to build a website? Sure. 
Need social media content? We got you.

Every project was different. Our clients were cheap. And I was burnt the F out.

So I did the only thing that felt logical at the time: I decided to blow up my agency and start a tech company.

How hard could that be, right? 

Turns out... VERY hard. 

As I soon learned, SaaS was way harder than selling services.

--
Looking back, I know what I should have done differently...

I should have built my personal brand. 

I could've created content that showed my ideal clients why guerrilla marketing was the future. I could've pre-educated and pre-qualified potential clients through content.

My personal brand would've done the heavy lifting before we ever talked.

Instead, I convinced myself that building an audience was just an ego play. But that was my own insecurity talking. It wasn't true.

--
If you're running a service business today, don't make the same mistake I did. 

Don't blow up your current business searching for an "easy" business. (There aren't any.) 

Start creating content and sharing your rebel POV on your industry. Figure out what you want to be known for and double-down.

Build an audience who buys into your ideas *first* and shows up ready to hire you.

Your personal brand isn't vanity. It's strategy.

It's the difference between chasing clients and making them chase you.

So what's stopping you?

--
P.S. This pic is from one of the cool guerrilla branding projects we did back then. We helped our vodka client create the world's first double-label and create an insider brand for true vodka lovers. Cool, huh?

This might surprise you given the fact that I’m pushing 100K followers here, but… 

I don’t jump out of bed every day excited to create content.

Nope. 

The thing I really love is *PRODUCT*.

↳ Product design
↳ Product strategy
↳ Product marketing

But because I wake up every day and create content… I get to sell more products.

Funny how that happens, huh?

I also get to clarify my thinking about the problems our products solve and how they should evolve. That is a MASSIVE second-order benefit to content creation.

So if you don’t love creating content, that’s fine. That’s normal. Most people don’t.

But it’s still worth doing.

Get it right? And it can change your life. It changed mine.

The smartest experts I work with can solve anyone's problem... but their own.

Chris Piper is brilliant. He’s helped multiple businesses scale past 8-figures. He even helped Codie Sanchez grow her business from $2M to $10M in 12 months.

But when he started consulting last year, he agonized over his own messaging. Spent months spinning his wheels.

Chris’s story isn’t uncommon. I've watched this pattern play out hundreds of times...

Smart people. Impossibly stuck when it comes to how to talk about their own business.

I call it "The Expert's Paradox".

It's a double-whammy.

The deeper your knowledge runs, the more "obvious" your best thinking feels. 

You dismiss insights that took years to develop because they don't feel special anymore.

Worse yet? Your brain literally reasons more clearly about *other* people's problems than your own. (This is proven by multiple behavioral science studies. Not my opinion.)

So yeah. Figuring out your own positioning and messaging feels damn near impossible.
But it's not just a *brain* problem... 

It’s also a *time* problem.

You're running a service-based business that eats every available hour.

↳ Proposals 
↳ Client work 
↳ Discovery calls

Unlike full-time creators, you can't burn 3 hours a day leisurely fleshing out ideas. You've got client deadlines to hit.

And the better you are at doing the work for clients, the BUSIER you become… leaving even less time to figure out your own business. Fakkkk. 

This is the Expert's Paradox:

👉 The smarter you are, the harder it is to articulate what makes you different.

Your brain can't see yourself clearly. 

Your calendar won't give you the space to try.

But here's the good news: 

This isn't a flaw—it's a side effect of being really damn good at what you do.

The answer isn't to just think harder or magically carve out more time. It's to get someone on the outside to help you see what's been there all along.

That's what Chris did. He stopped trying to white-knuckle it alone. We worked together to extract what he couldn't see himself.

Chris has already just begun using his new messaging in client pitches and newsletter. We haven’t even rolled his full strategy out publicly yet, but he’s already on track to do over $1M in his first year of consulting.

Chris always had the raw ingredients locked in his head. He just couldn't bottle his own brilliance.

None of us can.

—
P.S. Have you overcome the Expert’s Paradox? If so, what helped you finally break through?

Don’t pick a niche. 
Pick a fight. 

What problem are you committed to solving?

What rebel POV differentiates you from the masses in your space? 

Share your thinking. 
Convert believers into buyers. 

Win.

My client Joe Daniels launched his new ownable idea 2 weeks ago… and already generated $100k in pipeline.

This is the power of nailing your ownable idea. 

People confuse ownable ideas for a few clever words strung together. 

How hard can that be to pull off, right?

But the truth is that an ownable idea is so much more than what you see on the surface. 

To help my clients get to their ownable idea, we do deep, heady work. 

An ownable idea is the distillation of:

↳ Strategy

↳ Positioning 

↳ Messaging

↳ Personal brand

All that work comes together for the full ownable idea to emerge. 

It’s actually a sh#tload of work to figure it out. 

But when you do?

Magic ✨

It positions you as an authority, spreads while you sleep, and sticks in your buyer’s brain like superglue.

Yup. One ownable idea changes everything. 

Don’t just share ideas. Own one. 

—

P.S. I’m working with Joe on packaging my new Unignorable 2.0 offer. 

Then I’ll be accepting another round of beta clients this month. Let me know if you want to hop on the waitlist so you get first dibs to apply.

Two brains read your content.
Most people only write for one.
(That’s a problem)

This ideas comes from behavioural science. Jonathan Haidt called it the 'Elephant and the Rider'.

The Rider is your logical brain. Slow and analytical. It evaluates arguments and reads the fine print to the letter.

The Elephant is your emotional brain. Fast and instinctive. It decides in milliseconds whether something is worth its attention.

On social media, the Elephant is almost always driving.

Which means if your message requires effort to decode—it's jargon-heavy, no signal of "What's in it for me?", long-winded—the Elephant's already gone. Onto the next shiny thing.

Many smart people intuitively write for the Rider. The ideas are brilliant and worth sharing... but the Elephant ignores them because their point is buried under heaping piles of cognitive load.

It's a tricky balance to get right. 

Want an example of writing for the Elephant?

Last week, I changed my LinkedIn headline. Several people sent connection requests, saying it's the reason they followed me.

The new headline: "Idea Owners Get Rich."

Four words. 
Low cognitive load.
Provocatively teases value
The Elephant gets it immediately.

Now don't worry. Your social content doesn't need to be dumbed down. You can still share big ideas and deep takes. It just needs to be packaged in a way that makes it more digestible for hungry Elephants. 

Know when and where to write for the Elephant. That's how you get a shot at talking to the Rider, too. And the Rider gets the last say on purchasing decisions.

--
P.S. What's your current LinkedIn headline? Drop it below and let's audit it ↓↓↓

P.P.S. I don't share my title or what I do in my headline because all my clients come inbound. But I think if you're doing any outreach or social selling, it's important to clarify what you do.

I don't believe in marketing "hacks"... 

But I do believe this:


If people think of *you* when they're looking to solve the problem your service or product solves, you can get rich.

That means getting very specific about what you want to be known for and very consistently talking about your thing—so you become unignorable and people remember you.

It's simple. But it's certainly not easy.

It all starts with answering this all-important question: 

"What do you want to be known for?"

__
P.S. If you're not sure yet, you'll love my new Unignorable newsletter (launching next week). Let me know if you wanna signup.

I used to own a branding agency. So it's a wee bit embarrassing that UNIGNORABLE's first logo was made in Canva in 3 minutes 😬

It didn't necessarily hold us back too much—we still manageed to generate $1.2M from the original UNIGNORABLE Challenge (while running it as a side gig).

But the old UNIGNORABLE branding just kinda felt... ignorable.

Ironic, right? 

We never sat down and got intentional about the visual side of the brand. We basically just mashed together a few elements from the Why We Buy brand with a few elements from Demand Curve, and called it a day.

So when I finally decided to commit full throttle to building UNIGNORABLE 2.0, the Ownable Ideas agency, I knew it was time for a glow-up.

The first person I called? 

Sarah Hart ✤ (duh).

And she understood the assignment. 

We wanted UNIGNORABLE be a distinctive brand while still giving a nod to the sister brand, Why We Buy.

She kept my signature "burn-your-eyes-out yellow" and used our blueish purple as a highlight color. 

But while Why We Buy's visual brand is playful and punchy—I wanted to make behavioral science feel accessible and fun—the new UNIGNORABLE brand is built around one idea: the spotlight.

We help big-brained experts to step into the spotlight and finally become known for an idea they own.

Why? Because idea owners get rich.

UNIGNORABLE's brand is dripping with gravitas and vibey AF. 

I'm obsessed with it.

So let's give is up for Sarah, right? She killed it!

Fun fact: Sarah did this branding work while 39 weeks pregnant. Her due date is today so there's a very real chance that Sarah is having a baby as I type this post. 

Calling her insanely talented doesn't even cut it.

Go have that baby, Sarah. You've earned it. 👏

UNIGNORABLE Branding

Someone DMd me this question at 7am. 

It’s an important question:

“Do experts struggle because they lack a distinct idea… or because they haven’t committed to repeating one long enough for it to stick?”

My answer: both. 

But one is way more dangerous than people realize.

Almost everyone I talk to knows they have the first problem. Their ownable idea exists—they can feel it—but it’s tangled and foggy in their brain. They know they need help untangling it, shaping it, figuring out what to say and what to leave out.

What they don’t see coming is problem two.

You find your idea. You post about it a few times. You start to feel like a broken record. So you pivot to something new, something fresher.

And just like that, your idea dies quietly.  

The idea was good—it had real promise. Life changing promise. But you abandoned it before it had a chance to become *yours*.

I know this one firsthand. Years ago I spent ages developing my Trigger Technique framework. 

(A methodology for turning buyer journey stories into laser targeted marketing campaigns).

I labored over it. Circulated it to most brilliant people I knew for feedback. I easily spent 80 hours just writing the blog post revealing it. 

Then I posted about it a handful of times. Got some claps. Got bored. Moved on. 

Shockingly (heavy sarcasm), the Trigger Technique never became the thing I was known for.

Luckily I learned from my mistake. When I started talking about buyer psychology a year later, I didn’t stop. 

I repeated the same core message—again and again and, yes, again!

The ugly truth?

You have to say the same thing 1,000 ways before people actually associate it with you. 

That’s not repetition—that’s how ownership works.

Sorry. I don’t make the rules.

Play for the game for the long-term (or miss out on the best prizes).

—
P.S. So which problem are you stuck in—the foggy idea, or the follow-through?

1,878 entrepreneurs did the Unignorable Challenge since 2023. The final exercise was always the toughest…

Everything in the challenge laddered up to one thing: identifying your big idea (what I now call your “ownable idea”).

After watching thousands of entrepreneurs work through this, I’m now convinced it’s THE most important thing to figure out if you want to build authority that sells.

Everything else is a nice-to-have by comparison.

Here’s why:

👉 You hear James Clear, you think of ‘atomic habits’
👉 You hear Mel Robbins, you think ‘5-second rule’
👉 You hear Justin Welsh, you think ‘solopreneurship’

That’s not just good content. That’s not just clear positioning. That’s an ownable idea doing its job.

A few years ago, you didn’t necessarily *need* one.

You could create solid content, be clear in your positioning, and still attract clients. That was enough.

Plenty of UNIGNORABLE alum built very profitable audiences without nailing one central ownable idea.

They won because their content was f*cking great.

But that’s not enough. Not anymore.

Everyone’s creating content now. AI made it easy.

So what separates the people who break through *today* from the people who blend in?

An idea people can buy into.

Because people need to buy into your idea before they’ll buy from you.

I’ve always known it was important...

But it’s really in the last year—after going deep with clients 1:1 on this—that I realized the ownable idea isn’t just part of the process.

It IS the process.
Everything else flows from it.

Get it right, the rest just sort of clicks together.

→ Creating content gets easier
→ Right-fit clients pay attention
→ People show up pre-sold on working with you
→ You get leverage to earn more (without working more)

Without it? Stuff just feels... harder.

So let’s start with the tough question: What do you want to be known for?

You can be world-class and still invisible. Just ask Joshua Bell, one of the world’s top violinists...

In 2007, Joshua Bell played his $3.5M Stradivarius violin for 45 minutes in a Washington, D.C. subway station as part of an experiment.

Only 7 people stopped to listen.

The same musician who sells out concert halls at $500+ per ticket made just $32 from subway commuters.

Thousands of people walked by without even noticing him.

The brutal truth? Your expertise is worthless if people can’t recognize it.

How you *package* your expertise matters. Like a lot.

If you’re posting consistently but not landing clients, here’s how to fix this:

1. Create content for buyers (not peers):

Maybe other musicians would have recognized Joshua’s subway genius, but his potential customers walked right by.

Stop bending over backwards to impress your peers and start speaking to your buyers. That means ditching the jargon (yes, even the smart-sounding stuff).

I do this in my own business. Technically, I write a newsletter about “behavioral economics”—but you’ll rarely hear me use those words.

Instead, I talk about “buyer psychology”. Why? Because my audience understands it. The PhD experts might cringe, but my 63,000 readers get it immediately.

—
2. Position yourself strategically:

Joshua commands $500+ tickets at Symphony Hall but earned $32 in a subway. Same talent, completely different context.

Are you making it crystal clear what problem you solve, who you help, and when they need you? If your audience has to guess, you’re easy to ignore.

—
3. Look the part:

In concert halls, Joshua wears formal attire on an elevated stage. In the subway, he looked like a random street performer.

Don’t make the same mistake. Your LinkedIn photos, banner image, and videos should amplify your positioning.

Fun fact: Todd Herman, one of the world’s top business coaches, doesn’t need glasses but wears them anyway as part of his personal brand ‘uniform’. Why? Because people automatically perceive glasses-wearers as smarter and Todd wants to be seen as an expert.

(Before you ask, yes. I actually need my glasses.)

—
4. Showcase your credibility:

Concert-goers know Joshua’s reputation before hearing a note. In the subway, he was anonymous.

Even brilliant experts make this same mistake. Don’t assume people know you’re an expert. Share your wins. Brag about client results. Display those hard-won credentials.

Yes, humble-bragging can feel cringe. (Trust me, I know). And yes, it works. (Again, I know).

—

The most talented violinist in the world went from earning tens of thousands per performance to street performer wages. All because he ignored the fundamentals of perception.

Don’t be the Joshua Bell of your industry—brilliant but ignorable.

How much is poor packaging costing YOU?

taplio

The Battle

Neal O'Grady 🍉

Katelyn Bourgoin 🧠

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreNeal O'Grady 🍉's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKatelyn Bourgoin 🧠's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Neal O'Grady 🍉

Katelyn Bourgoin 🧠

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Neal O'Grady 🍉's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKatelyn Bourgoin 🧠's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreNeal O'Grady 🍉's LinkedIn Performance