One Original Idea: Okay, I admit it. I’m a thief.

Most of you are here reading this because, well,… I’ve got sticky fingers.

Actually, make that sticky digital fingers.

And the best example of that comes from starting and scaling Magnetic Ag.

You might be wondering why I associate my ability to ‘borrow‘ a good idea with the origin story of an ‘all-thing-agriculture’ newsletter. But ultimately, that same ‘swipe file’ strategy is actually how I approach a lot of my marketing work in the industry.

Let’s go a bit deeper…

The backstory:

The year is 2018.

I’m flying out to San Francisco for an in-person week of work with an AgTech company. On the flight, I’m browsing emails and found myself toggling between a few ag-related news pieces and my go-to source for broader economy news, The Morning Brew.

And that’s when the question hit me:

‘Why isn’t there a Morning Brew equivalent for agriculture news?’

Something that had:

• Concise, clear business insights
• An engaging, witty tone
• Plenty of memes and GIFs

It would definitely be a 180° pivot from the angle and distribution of how traditional ag media groups were approaching their editorial and audience-building.

So, I decided to test my own marketing chops. If no one else was going to do it, why not me?

And the rest is history.

Some 20 months and 11,000 readers later, it seems to have found product-market fit.

Now, some folks have credited our team with coming up with a new, engaging, original idea…

But that’s where I’d actually disagree.

We found a playbook, copied it, and made slight alterations for our industry.

Most folks don’t realize that I researched the Morning Brew’s beginnings and scaling tactics through dozens of articles, videos, and more.

(⬆️Just one example of many where I found inspiration.)

And that’s where I believe this approach can be applied to a lot of marketing and content creation efforts in agriculture.

Strong marketing doesn’t need to be 100% original thinking or execution.

The whole ‘work smarter, not harder’ approach is key:

• Find playbooks and modify them.
• Discover campaigns and tweak them.
• Observe tactics and adjust them.

It can be hard to build an audience. It takes consistent publishing, some growth hacking, and an optimized tech stack.

But while hard, the playbook is dead simple. You just have to execute it.

It wasn’t rocket science. I’ll be the first to admit it.

So, what industry will you scour to find ideas? What company can give you some creative inspiration? What will you ‘steal’ today?

P.S. Even this newsletter format is a rip-off. I took James Clear’s masterful 3-2-1 newsletter framework and turned it on its head with my own spin. There ya have it… I’m a crook.