P30 – Day 3: Brainwrangling 101
Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing. ~ Wernher von Braun
If you have a business — or are well on your way to having one, even — then there’s something you need to remember as you head into the first day of researching the topic we perfected yesterday:
You are already an expert.
Do you know as much as the world’s best welder? (to continue the example from yesterday.)
Probably not.
Do you know more about welding than 95% of the population? Probably so, if you know what steel-rod TiG welding even is.
Today, while you’re starting to amass your resources and research on your topic, keep that in mind. It’s very easy to focus on that 5% of the world that knows more than you do, and to feel like you may not have all that much to add on the subject.
After all, your brain will tell you, you couldn’t possibly be an expert if there are people who know more about your topic than you do.
This, my friends, is where you tell your brain to sit nicely in the corner while you get to work. To that other 95%, you’re the guru on the top of the mountain, holding all the wisdom they’d ever need to know about your topic. (Minus the cave and the crazy hair.)
So dig into your research, folks.
Dig in hard and fast today.
Just remember, though: you probably already know most of what your topic’s all about. Look for inspiration and things you need to clarify (facts, figures, glaring holes in your thought process), but don’t get so overwhelmed or bogged down that you forget that, in the end, you’re the one with the great big brain and the knowledge bank to make this thing work.
ACTION TASK:
List out the major sections of your proposed topic. What parts of it do you need further information to write? What parts may be fuzzy, or are you not able to articulate? Take an hour or so to look up other information that’s available without comparing yourself to the existing stuff. (That’s key.)
Write down any facts you need, save any resources to which you may want to refer back during the writing phase, and bookmark any links you might be linking to. In other words, get your informational ducks in a row.
TOMORROW:
With research done and a better idea of what you want to say, tomorrow we’re going to put pen to paper in order to hatch our battle plans for the rest of the product. It’s possibly the most important day this week…so get ready!
Elli and Tim
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