Everyone Gets This Backwards

Welcome back to Viral Examples.

Today (in 2 mins or less) we're diving into why your most viral content comes from challenging what everyone believes.

Assumption Audit: Why Your Biggest Content Wins Come From Going Against the Grain

You see a post that gets 50,000 views while yours gets 500. 

Why? 

They challenged an assumption. You reinforced one.

Most creators build content around what their audience already believes. Top creators build content around what their audience believes that's wrong.

Here's the framework that turns conventional wisdom into viral content:

The Assumption Audit

Start by listing 10 things your audience assumes about your topic. Write them down. The more obvious, the better.

Example assumptions for productivity:

• More hours equals more output

• Busy people are productive people

• Planning ahead saves time

• Multitasking gets things done faster

• Early birds outperform night owls

Now flip each assumption using this formula: 

"You probably think X, but actually Y because of Z evidence."

Watch what happens when you challenge assumption #3:

"You probably think planning your day saves time, but actually it costs you 2-3 hours of peak performance because your brain burns glucose making decisions instead of doing work."

Suddenly you have content that makes people stop scrolling.

Why this works

Your audience craves validation, but they crave revelation more. When you challenge their assumptions with evidence, you give them something they can't get anywhere else: a reason to question everything they thought they knew.

The magic happens in the comments. People share their own examples. They tag friends. They argue with each other. Your post becomes the center of a conversation instead of another scroll-past moment.

Executing this

1. Pick one assumption per post

2. Support your challenge with specific evidence or examples

3. Keep the tone confident, but conversational

You're revealing a secret, but you're also helping them see things differently.

Your audience has been nodding along to the same ideas for years. Give them something to think about instead.

Time to Grow

There’s two parts to getting results from posting content:

1. High quality content

2. Relevant distribution

Megaphone, the team behind Viral Examples, helps with both.

1. Our writing team works learns your voice and delivers weekly batches of content for you to post.

2. Our creator network helps get your posts in front of the right audience.

Grab time here or just reply to this email to learn more.