[00:00:00] Maybe you've been building your thought leadership platform for a while now you're showing up, you're creating content, you're doing the things you're supposed to do, but something isn't working the way you think it should. There's a gap between the effort you're putting in and the results you're getting out, and you've tried to fix it maybe more than once. New strategy, new offer, new platform, new coach. And the thing that's frustrating is that nothing changes. If that sounds familiar, I wanna offer you something today that might reframe this for you. The problem might not be your strategy. It might not be your consistency. It might not even be your offer. The problem might be that you're treating a source problem. Like a signal problem or a signal problem, like a source problem. And when you apply the wrong kind of fix to the wrong problem, you can work incredibly hard and still not get any movement. So today I'm gonna give you a diagnostic question that I've been using a lot more lately, and I wanna teach you how to use it on yourself. [00:01:00] The question is simple. When something isn't working in your thought leadership, is it a source problem or a signal problem? That's it. That's the question, but the answer and knowing what to do with the answer changes everything. Let me give you some context. If this is your first time hearing me talk about source and signal, because this diagnostic only works if you understand what you're diagnosing. I've talked about this in a couple of episodes recently, but every instrument that makes music to use an analogy has two things happening. There's the instrument itself. Its physical properties, what it's made of, how it's been shaped and aged and used, and then there's the sound wave it produces, or the signal it sends out into the world. Two violins can play the exact same note at the exact same volume and sound completely different because the instruments themselves are different. That difference has a name in music, timbre. That timbre, that color [00:02:00] comes from the source, not from the note being played. And I think thought leadership works in the same way. You have a source, the instrument that you are, and you have a signal what you send out from that instrument and all together that makes up your core resonance source then is made up of two things inside of core resonance, which you've heard me talk about here before. Your essence. How you're naturally wired, what energizes you, how you create value and your experience, the lived wisdom, what you've walked through, what you have authority to teach sources about the instrument, who you are and what you've actually lived. All of those things together. Signal is also made up of two things. Expression, meaning how you naturally communicate and guide transformation, a k, a, your archetype on my assessment and embodiment, meaning whether there's alignment between what you're teaching and how you're actually living and operating. The signal is about the sound wave in this [00:03:00] analogy, how you're sending what you have into the world. When the source is strong and the signal is clear, you don't have to work as hard for things to land because the resonance is real and it travels. But when one of them is off, when there's a problem with source or there's a problem with signal, you can feel it and so can everyone else. Things are harder than they should be, and the effort you're putting in often doesn't match the result you're getting back. The most important thing I want you to hear today is this, A signal fix will not solve a source problem if the instrument is what is a little bit off. Getting better at sending a signal, just broadcasts the misalignment more clearly. You're turning up the volume on a muffled note. The first move is always the same. Let's figure out what we're dealing with. Source problems and signal problems have different textures in my experience, and when you know what to listen for, they can be more recognizable. [00:04:00] Source problems tend to feel like identity questions. They live in the territory of, do I have the right to say this? Is this really my work or am I performing something I think I should be doing? Why does this feel so draining? Why is this sapping all my energy when this is what I thought I wanted? I've been building this for years, and I don't feel like myself. Those are quiet source problems. They're persistent and they don't announce themselves as strategy failures. They show up as this low grade friction that you can't quite name. Something about the foundation, everything is built on, doesn't feel quite right, and that's a source issue. That's your essence or your experience calling for attention. Specifically if the work you're doing is consistently draining you in a way that goes deeper than hard work. Just being hard. I think that's an essence issue. You may have built something in your business around what you're competent at rather than what you're truly wired for. Or maybe you feel a little fraudulent when you teach a particular topic because you've never [00:05:00] lived it, like you're reaching a little bit beyond what you've actually lived, and that's an experience issue. Both of those are source problems and they need source solutions, . Now signal problems feel different. I think they feel like execution issues. They live in the territory of, man. I know what I should be saying. I know what I wanna say, but it's not landing. I'm creating content, but no one is finding me. My message makes total sense to me in my head, but something gets lost when I try to say it out loud. I'm working as hard as anyone I know, but the results don't match. I think signal problems are visible. They show up a lot more glaringly in metrics and in feedback, or even in the absence of feedback. If you feel clear about who you are and what you have to offer, but the execution breaks down, that's a signal issue, that's expression or embodiment, asking for attention specifically. If your message isn't landing or if you're not getting traction despite consistency, I would check [00:06:00] expression first. You might be using a format or a platform that doesn't match how you naturally communicate. Go back to your results on the archetype assessment. If you've taken it a resonant orator who's trying to build a writing first business or, or even using a writing first channel like LinkedIn without saying the things you wanna post first. That content's always gonna feel forced because writing just isn't how you think or process your ideas or guide transformation in others. A transformational guide like me who's trying to scale through a passive course, removed the relationship that makes their work actually work. So if you've got a really strong source, but the wrong signal, it gets really muddy. Even if everything looks right on paper, but something feels a little bit off. If people seem interested, but they don't convert. If the content is solid, but something feels like they're leaning away, that's embodiment and that's a little bit trickier to see, but there's probably a gap between what you're teaching and how you're actually operating. People can [00:07:00] sense that even when they can't. I think most of us go looking for signal solutions because they're easier to spot. There is no shortage of programs, strategies, coaches, consultants, who will tell you exactly what you should do to fix your offers, your content, your platform. Signal solutions are visible and actionable. You can buy one, you can implement one. You can feel like you're doing something, but that's where it's so easy to get caught in a copy paste trap. Source work is harder to find, and it's a little harder to do because it requires some honesty about whether you're actually wired for the work that you're doing, whether you're building a playground and not a prison based on the energy you have to run your business, and it requires some uncomfortable questions about is the transformation you're teaching when you've lived or when you've just studied. It requires looking at the gap between what you believe and what you're building, and so people do what they naturally find the easiest. They just overinvest in Signal solutions. I can't tell you how many people will hop on a call with me and will tell me they've tried [00:08:00] everything and when we go through all of the programs that they've invested in and all of the things that they've tried to calibrate their signal, they're right. They have, they work really hard. But if we're not starting with the right source and the right signal, nothing fundamentally changes. You cannot content strategy your way out of a source problem or sending out the wrong signal. It's really a deeper version of this copy paste trap. It's, it's not that you're just copying someone else's strategy. You're actually using that signal fix or solution to solve a problem that is around your energy or your source and happens over and over, and then you wonder why nothing sticks. But I think the fix is always the same. Is this a source problem or a signal problem? Name it before you try to fix it. So how do you actually use this as a diagnostic? Well, here's, here's something practical you can try. Think about the one thing in your business, your thought leadership, your authority [00:09:00] based, your expert based business that feels most stuck right now. The place where effort and result aren't matching Now. If you've got it, ask yourself, does this feel like an identity question, like who I am and how I'm wired, which is source? Or does it feel like an execution question what I'm showing up to do? If your gut answer is, man, it's an identity question. If there's something that feels uncertain at the level of who you are, what you have the right to say, whether this content, whether this thing is really yours, it's a source problem. So start there. Don't buy the content strategy program. Go back to your essence. Maybe look at some assessments you've taken in the past. Go back to living experience and ask yourself, honestly, am I building this around who I actually am or around who I think I should be? Or when it comes to what you're teaching? Am I teaching from a place I've actually been? Am I sharing something? I've actually learned? That's a great place to start. [00:10:00] Now if your gut answer is execution, if you feel really clear and grounded in who you are and what you have to offer, but the mechanics of getting it out into the world keep breaking down, it's probably the signal. Now, the strategy conversations make sense, but even then start with expression and how that expression is is meant to be created before you go looking for tactics. It's really not the end result. At the end of the day, it's the source of the creation. I was on a call earlier today with some really amazing copywriters, and again and again as we looked at their archetype results, the thing that came up was this is the way you're wired to start creating, to think through things, to guide transformation in others. It doesn't have an effect on what we deliver at the end. But it does make a difference when it comes to where you start. If you are expression led, if you are a wisdom writer, if you are a resident orator, you need to [00:11:00] actually express yourself to get the ball rolling. It may end up in some other format at the end, but the actual talking it out is the thing that gets things moving. It's uncanny. I've seen it happen again and again and again. That if things feel stuck, if things feel like you're not getting traction, if you're feeling like you're spinning, even if you're using like AI tools to try and figure out some of this stuff, you've really gotta go back to how you're wired to express yourself, how you're wired to guide transformation in others, and that's what this archetype assessment tells you to start to get things moving. Then you can start looking at different mediums, different tactics, different platforms. It gives you some scaffolding to decide, like we talked about last week. The question is not what platform is gonna work magically. It's which platform, which process, which way of communicating matches how your brain works. And if you can't genuinely tell [00:12:00] if both things feel true at once, that's not unusual either. I've had plenty of roadblocks that I've run into that are signal and source problems happening all at once. And so in that case, I try to go back to expression because it's measurable and take a look at how I'm showing up 'cause it's actually observable and measurable and I can start to make some tweaks. Look at the data you're getting, sometimes seeing concrete evidence of how you're naturally wired to express yourself, solves it and gets things moving in the right direction. 'cause it gives you something to do, it gives you a place to start. Now here's what I want you to take away from today. When something isn't working, the most important thing you can do before you invest more money, more effort, more time into fixing it, is looking at what the problem actually is. Is it source or signal? Is it identity or execution? Is it the instrument or is it the sound wave? Because the right fix for the wrong problem doesn't just fail to help. It [00:13:00] costs you. It costs you time. It costs you resources. It costs you confidence that this is ever gonna be possible for you, and you deserve better than that. Source problems need source solutions. Clarity about your wiring, honesty about your lived experience. Alignment between who you are and what you're building. And signal problems need signal solutions and expression mode that matches your natural communication style, embodiment that closes the gap between what you teach and how you live. And when both halves of core residents are working. When the source is strong, the signal is clear. The resonance that comes from that. It doesn't require force. It's aligned. It fits in the gap, the it cuts through the noise, and when you find that alignment, it feels that way. It feels like things are finally working the way they were supposed to work all along. If you need some help with this, if you wanna start with the measurable piece. That I think is the easiest to begin with. It kind of puts a compass in your hand and gets you moving in the right direction. The thought Leadership Archetype assessment is free and it's [00:14:00] waiting for you at macy robison.com/quiz. We've had hundreds of people take this, and the thing that has been most helpful for me and for clients is that it gives you a data-based starting point for the signal side of this conversation. It gives you some scaffolding to build from. So take it and sit with the result and ask yourself, is the way I'm showing up in my expertise, in my thought leadership actually built for this archetype? And if you've been sitting with that for a while, that question for a while, and you're trying stuff and you know something is off, but you haven't been able to name what it is, sometimes you just need a thought partner. You need someone to be a strategic mirror. And my archetype strategy call is probably the fastest way to get you that we look at your specific results. We map them to your current work and we get you going in the right direction through the misalignment so things get moving again, and you can find the link to that@macyrobison.com slash call. Thank you for [00:15:00] being here. Your ideas really matter and your expertise has value and that signal that you only you are meant to send. The world is out there listening for it and looking for it. We just need to send it as clearly as possible.