My thesis is simple: to build authority as a soloist, you don’t need to perform more. You need to find the one idea underneath your expertise, commit to it until it organizes everything you say, and learn to say it well.

The usual advice points the other way. Publish more. Talk about your expertise more often. Funnels, channels, reach, impressions — more of everything, everywhere.

A decade in marketing tells me most of us are quietly tired of it: the performance theatrics, the fancy funnels, the AI slop, the pressure to project an image just to feed the machine. And the worst part — it pulls us away from the craft itself. Instead of thinking deeply about a client’s problem, we’re wondering what time to post on LinkedIn.

Here’s the deeper problem with spreading your expertise everywhere: real expertise is complex. It’s layered, nuanced, contextual — and a client can’t hold all of it. While they can’t feel your expertise, what they can carry with them is one idea.

A single idea sits at the center of everything you make. I call it the Big Idea.

This matters more now than it used to. AI can produce forgettable content at scale. The algorithms reward whoever performs the loudest. As the downstream work gets commoditized, the Big Idea stays upstream — it’s something you can own and become known for.

We don’t need more content. We need a Big Idea.

That’s what I help clients find. If you’d like to see the Big Ideas I’ve helped other clients uncover, you can take a look here.

If you want to build a coherent body of work you can be proud of — and learn to share it well — join me. Here’s the link to subscribe.