Written by: Vickie Sullivan | November 12, 2020
How to Brand Your Rant
Going into last week’s Women’s Leadership Board meeting, I thought the election debrief would be the most fascinating session. Nope. The dark horse hit for me was the session with Tom Nichols, author of The Death of Expertise. (Sorry, there’s no video available. But check out this Q&A from Politico 50.)
Nichols was funny, and the content was great. I was particularly fascinated by his ability to brand a rant – to actually turn a rant into a platform with a killer book.
2 Strategies to Turn Brand Your Rant
Nichols has two strategies we can copy:
• Tap into relatable emotions. This all started with a 2014 rant-turned-essay in the conservative publication The Federalist. His exasperation – that ignorance has become a virtue – is relatable enough to go beyond the ivory towers of the ivy league schools. (Have you gotten annoyed at the same thing? I know I have.) Ask yourself: Am I the only one upset about this? If not, your rant might be more brand-able than you think.
Listen: How to Set It on Blast
• A narrow perspective applied in a broad way. Nichols planted a very strategic flag: defending experts in an anti-fact age. (And what happens to us when we don’t trust the experts, such as the epidemiologists and doctors speaking about COVID-19.) This right here is a great example of dominating a slice of a larger social commentary. Not only does this strategy give him wide berth about a large variety of issues (even beyond the political), but also it is specific enough for Nichols to be known for something. Brilliant. And it’s something we can copy.
As thought leaders, we brand our perspective all the time. But the difference between a platform that catches fire and one that sounds like everyone else’s is that you apply a very strategic approach. Your exasperation is just a starting point.
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