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Inner: Our relationship with ourselves, connected to our mind, body, or emotions.
Personal: Our relationships with other people, like friends, family, lovers, and co-workers
Extra-personal: Our relationship with our environment, social institutions, and roles in society.
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An example of this for a B2B audience might be:
Without any details, I bet you can spin up half a dozen scenarios using just those three elements.
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As you approach any topic, simply pitting the reader against a single threat like deadlines, budgets, or resources, will instantly make it more compelling.
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James Bond doesn't deal with inner conflict or complicated relationships. All he needs is to save the world from some extra-personal threat and look cool doing it.
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That said, conflicts on two or three layers can make for more complex and nuanced stories.
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Take Jason Bourne. He doesnβt know:
Conflict across all three levels vs. one is what makes Bourne and Bond very different spy-thrillers and very different movies.
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Is one better than the other? That's a matter of preference.
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At this point, I think thatβs clear, so let's demonstrate with a fairly standard blog post:
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Repurposing content
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The popular narrative looks something like this.
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Content repurposing is a great way to grow your brand's online presence.
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All you have to do is:
The standard post then fills in the blanks on what to do, without providing resources on how to do it.
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This is a prime example of giving the reader what they want, but not what they need to be successful.
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The true story looks more like this:
Conflict creates credibility, and showing you understand the progressive complications of each step makes you an authority.
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As the creator, the instinct is to be concerned about overwhelming the reader. But the truth is, each complication provides an opportunity to give the reader a reason to keep returning until they believe the thing you sell is the perfect solution to their problemβbecause you understand the problem so well.
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In the next three parts of this series, weβll explore each conflict layer and ways it can make the work better.
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In the meantime, hereβs what I want you to do.
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When you review your next piece, note what obstacles would prevent the reader from doing what you're suggesting. Also note whether it is an internal, personal, or extra-personal conflict.
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You don't have to do anything with this just yet, but I guarantee it will strengthen the work.
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Until thenβ¦
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Want me to edit you?
οΏΌStarting in 2024, I'm hosting a monthly writing workshop where we'll explore the concepts through the lens of your work. Join me, and a group of your peers live while I edit attendees work and discuss these concepts live.
βOli Gardner is one of my earliest influences and what he's talking about in this post is a different application of many of the same principles we've been talking about.
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Oli is a master storyteller and public speaker, and the PDF he's giving away is a perfect demonstration of why.
βThe Vault is a collection of articles that have been edited by guest editors on The Cutting Room.
Look at raw drafts and see how editors from companies like Writer.com, Calendly, Airtable, and more give their feedback in the doc.
In this early episode of The Cutting Room, Jacob McMillen starts by asking one of the most important questions.
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βJump into the document. β
βWatch the video as Jacob edits live. β
Share your content for a chance to be edited by an industry-leading marketer on the show!
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Tommy Walker is the founder of The Content Studio, a content marketing consultancy for Fortune 1,000 companies and fast growing B2B startups. Prior to founding The Content Studio, Tommy was the Global Editor-in-Chief at QuickBooks, and the first marketing hire at Shopify Plus. Currently, he hosts "The Cutting Room" where he interviews industry-leading marketers about their content marketing philosophy, process, and pre-game before they edit an article live. Guests have been from companies like Asana, Calendly, Docusign, Vimeo and more.
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