The Plaque Test

Three tests before publishing anything. If content fails any of the three, it goes back for a rewrite. No exceptions. Takes 2 minutes. Saves you from publishing forgettable content.

Test 1: The Plaque Test

Read your content out loud. Could any sentence be engraved on a decorative plaque and sold at HomeGoods?

Fails the test:

"Discipline beats emotion." Anyone could say this. A fortune cookie could say this.
"Success isn't given, it's earned." Literally on plaques already.
"Hard work compounds." True. Also meaningless without context.

Passes the test:

"I deleted a feature I spent 3 hours building because nobody asked for it." Only someone who's actually done it says this.
"Sat at my desk for 40 minutes before writing a single line. That's normal. That's not writer's block, that's just how starting works." Specific. Personal. Can't be mass-produced.

If it fails: Add specific detail. Name the thing. Put a number on it. Reference an actual experience. The detail is what makes it yours.

Test 2: The Niche Lock

Can your content tie to a specific domain instead of staying generic? Generic advice is invisible. Anyone can say it. Niche-locked advice proves you actually operate in a specific space.

Generic (fails): "Pain is raw energy. Convert it to output."

Cool quote. Works for literally any domain. Which means it works for no domain. It's noise.

Niche-locked to trading (passes): "Sat through a 4-hour drawdown without touching anything. Account recovered by close. The urge to cut early would've cost me $2,400."

Niche-locked to building (passes): "Spent a week on CI/CD pipeline for a product with zero users. Felt productive. Built nothing that mattered."

Same underlying idea. Completely different impact. The niche-locked version proves you've been there.

If it fails: Anchor to your domain. Replace abstract concepts with concrete scenarios from the world you actually operate in.

Test 3: The Experience Anchor

Does your content contain at least one specific detail that proves lived experience? Numbers, times, actions, outcomes. Things that can't be generated from a prompt.

Passes:

Specific time: "4 hours"
Specific action: "deleted it"
Specific outcome: "zero users"
Specific amount: "$2,400"

Fails:

Universal claims: "Most people struggle with..."
Abstract concepts: "Discipline is the foundation of..."
Vague timelines: "Over time, things improve..."

The experience anchor is what separates content from noise. Anyone can write about discipline. Only you can write about the specific Tuesday you almost quit and didn't.

How to Use This

Run all 3 before publishing. Every piece. Every post.

Plaque Test: Read it aloud. HomeGoods material? Rewrite.
Niche Lock: Could anyone in any industry have written this? Anchor it.
Experience Anchor: Can you point to a specific detail from real experience? If not, add one.

Most content fails Test 1. That's normal. The first draft almost always sounds generic because your brain defaults to safe, clean, universal statements. The fix is always the same: get specific. Add the detail that only you know.