Endless idea generator: free GTM skill

Generate 100 social media or content post ideas from two short lists, pick the best three, and draft them. Use when someone does not know what to post, has run out of content ideas, or wants a repeatable way to come up with posts.

skills/endless-idea-generator/SKILL.mdView on GitHub

Goal: the person never again sits in front of a blank post. Two dials, turned one click at a time, produce more ideas than they can use.

This method is adapted from the Ship 30 for 30 writing course by Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole.

Before you start

This skill works on its own. If the person has their own marketing brain, read the ideal customer and content files first instead of asking. If they do not, step 1 gathers what is needed. Tools: a Google Sheet for the grid; Buffer or LinkedIn’s scheduler to queue the posts if they have one.

The two dials

Dial 1, FOR: an audience segment. A specific type of person the business serves.
Dial 2, WHO WANT: an outcome that segment wants. Something they would pay for, or lose sleep over.

One audience times one outcome equals one post idea. Ten of each equals 100.

An optional third dial, ANGLE, turns one idea into four posts:

How to (the steps)
Numbers (a stat, a before and after, a cost)
Story (something that happened, a lesson, a mistake they made)
Myth (what people get wrong, why the common advice is bad)

Steps

Ask what the business does and who it serves. Keep this short. If they have a marketing brain folder, read 1-context/ideal-customer.md instead of asking.
Build Dial 1. Ask for audience segments until there are 10. Push for variety: by situation (“first-time landlords”), by size, by stage, by problem. Each segment should be describable in under 8 words.
Build Dial 2. For each of the first three segments, ask what they want. Then generalize to 10 outcomes that cut across segments. Phrase each as the customer would (“tenants who stay”, not “retention”).
Build the grid. Produce the 10 x 10 table. Each cell is one line: “For [segment] who want [outcome]: [post idea in 10 words].” Do not judge quality during this step. Fill every cell.
Ask them to scan the grid and mark the 10 that made them think “I have a story about that.” If they cannot choose, pick the 10 that are most specific.
From those 10, choose 3 with them. Prefer ideas where they have a real example, a mistake, or a number.
Draft the three posts in their voice. Each under 150 words, one idea per post, first sentence is the hook, no hashtags, no emojis unless they use them. End with a soft next step only if it fits (a question, or “DM me if”). Not every post needs a call to action, but the profile bio must have one. Remind them of that.
Tell them: publish all three this week. The first 100 posts will not be great. Consistency matters more than quality early on.

Rules

Never invent stories, customers, numbers, or results. Use placeholders like [a client who …] and tell them to fill it in.
Sharing mistakes signals experience, not incompetence. If they are nervous about a “mistake” post, say this.
Plain language. No buzzwords.
Keep the grid. It is reusable for months. Suggest they recycle the best performing posts every three months with a new caption.

Output

Return the two lists, the 10 x 10 grid, the three drafted posts, and a one-line reminder to block time in the calendar for next week’s three. Suggest saving the two lists to marketing-brain/4-playbooks/content.md if they have a marketing brain folder.

Endless idea generator