Scan time: 2-3 minutes / Read time: 3-5 minutes
Hey rebel ideapreneurs 🦸♂️🦸♀️
Nate hosts a weekly podcast about running your first 5K, for people who hate running.
A 5K is a short race, about 3 miles. To someone who never runs, it sounds impossible.
He started it because he was once that person — 40 pounds overweight, dreading every step.
His message is simple — you can go from the couch to a 5K even if you hate running.
And his listeners feel it too. They want to get fit, but running sounds miserable to them.
⛳️ Problem:
Nate can't say what makes his podcast different in one clear line.
He's rewritten his show description five times, and it still sounds like every other running show.
Sound familiar?
His struggle:
When a stranger asks what his podcast is about, he rambles, and they forget it minutes later.
🔥 The recipe
➡️ The Common Enemy
Here's a surprising way to stand out in a crowded topic.
You don't describe what you are. You point at an enemy your readers already hate, and stand against it.
That's what Alex Lieberman figured out.
In 2015, he and a friend started Morning Brew, a daily email that explains business news.
In 2020, Business Insider bought most of the company, in a deal reported at around $75 million.
Now, business news is one of the most crowded topics there is.
Giant names like Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal already cover it every single day.
So Lieberman did not look for a brand-new topic. He did something smarter.
First, he named an enemy.
Most business news is full of hard words, like "basis points" or "EBITDA."
Regular people don't know those words, so the news makes them feel stupid — and they give up.
That confusing, show-off style was the enemy.
So Lieberman built Morning Brew to be its exact opposite, out loud.
He wrote the same news in short, simple, funny words — the way a friend explains it to you.
That short, simple style became their whole promise, in one line: "Get smarter in 5 minutes."
Get this — readers repeated that line to friends, who understood it instantly and signed up.
So the email spread on its own, one friend at a time.
So his whole fix is really one move, done out loud.
You name the enemy — the one thing everyone in your topic does that quietly annoys your readers.
For Morning Brew, that enemy was boring news stuffed with hard words.
Then you build your whole thing as the opposite, the obvious cure.
Morning Brew was short, simple, and fun, in a world of long and dull.
And you hand people one line they can repeat to a friend.
Morning Brew's was "Get smarter in 5 minutes," and it spread, one friend at a time.
🚗 So Nate tried it his way.
Recall Nate and his podcast about running for people who hate running?
He couldn't say what made his show different, so he tried naming an enemy of his own.
First, he named his enemy.
Before, he tried to sound special with fancy words about his "unique method."
Spoiler: it fooled no one.
Now he points at the real enemy: "no excuses" coaches who make slow beginners feel like failures.
Then, he became the loud opposite.
Before, he softly promised "running tips for beginners," just like every other show.
Now his show says the opposite, out loud: you can walk, you can skip days, and no one shames you.
Finally, he gave people one line to repeat.
Before, no friend could explain his show in a single sentence.
Now they say it simply: "It's the running show that doesn't make you feel bad."
Funny thing is — that one line does the work for him.
A nervous friend hears it, feels understood, and finally gives running a try.
Nailed it.
🧸 People forget what you are. But they remember what you're against.
The prompt below turns your fuzzy pitch into a clear enemy and the side you take.
You just tell it your topic and the thing your whole space does that annoys people.
🏄♀️ The prompt
Save this prompt as a Skill or add to Project in your favorite AI tool — build once, use often.
Update your input values in the prompt, or just run it as is. Your AI sidekick will use the example values and give you an output.
CONTEXT:
- (use what's available, fall back to the inline values)
- If my Voice Profile exists, write in that voice. Otherwise, write in a clear, warm, no-jargon voice — first-person, plain words, no buzzwords, no startup-speak.
- If my ICP / Audience doc exists, target that reader. Otherwise, use the audience below.
Inputs:
My topic — the crowded subject I cover, even if a hundred others cover it too (name it plainly):
{e.g. weekly tips for total beginners learning to run}
The thing my whole space does that quietly annoys my audience (the habit, tone, or rule everyone follows that secretly frustrates people):
{e.g. every running plan is intense and shaming — "no excuses," "push through the pain" — so beginners feel like failures}
Who my audience is, and what they're tired of feeling:
{e.g. people who want to get fit but feel judged and hopeless every time they try to run}
For Audience: {e.g. total beginners who think running is only for fit, disciplined people}
For Outcome: {e.g. a clear enemy and a one-line description of the side I take, that a stranger can repeat}
Outputs:
1. My enemy — the one specific thing my topic does that annoys my audience, named as a clear villain (not a vague word like "boring"). One sentence.
2. My loud opposite — how I become the cure, said out loud. One or two lines a reader would cheer for.
3. My one line to repeat — a short, simple line a reader can tell a friend, so it spreads on its own.
4. My full one-liner — a single sentence that names my topic AND the enemy I fight, so a stranger can repeat it. In my real, plain voice — no press-release words.
Then take the safest, most neutral version of my one-liner and rewrite it once with a sharper enemy — so I can pick the version that takes a clearer side.
That's it, my fellow anti-status-quo-ers!
Yours 'helping you gain years of experience without putting in the years' Vijay Peduru 🦸♂️