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Nicolas Cole 🚢👻 Profile picture
@Nicolascole77
Apr 8, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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How do you design a category breakthrough?

Here's what we can learn from one of the most innovative food technology companies in America.

Campbell's Soup.

(Hint: Andy Warhol wasn't the reason.)

👇👇👇
100 years ago, The Campbell's Soup Company had a breakthrough.

For the first 30 years of being in business, they sold little else besides produce, canned tomatoes, vegetables, jellies, condiments, minced meats, and of course, soups.

Nothing "radically different."
Until, in 1895, a chemist within the company named John T. Dorrance came up with an idea.

If Campbell’s halved the water in each can, the business could produce and ship exponentially more soup (since the excess water was no longer needed)!

Eurika!
As a result, Dorrance and Campbell’s invented “condensed soup.”

New category.

This allowed the company to drop the price of a can of soup from 30 cents to 10 cents, expanding distribution and lowering the barrier to entry for new customers.
Today, The Campbell Soup Company is a $15B company.

Campbell’s condensed tomato, cream of mushroom, and chicken noodle soups remain as some of the most popular shelf-stable foods in grocery stores all across the United States.
The secret?

Instead of COMPETING, Campbell's CREATED.

They didn’t push a new flavor (tomato soup already existed).

They didn’t spin up a marketing tagline (“Mmm Mmm Good” is hardly a breakthrough).

And they didn’t "beat out the competition" by running 2-cents-off promotions
The lesson:

The way it is now, is the way it is, because someone else replaced the way it was.

Here's how to design a category breakthrough of your own in today's Roaring 2020s 👇

categorypirates.substack.com/p/campbells-so…
Co-authored with my fellow pirates @lochhead and @EddieWouldGrow

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

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More from @Nicolascole77

Nicolas Cole 🚢👻 Profile picture
Jul 16
In June, I got 1,558,964 impressions and got paid a little under $400.

So, I thought I'd share what's currently working for me.

Here are 5 top-performing tweet formats I always come back to (with examples): Image
1. Paragraph Style

This is where you write a thought-provoking paragraph connected to your core industry/niche/topic.

Something about this makes it “stand out” simply because it’s formatted differently and readers assume it to be“smart.”

2. What, How, Why

This is a very repeatable formula:

> “What” = The first line is “what” you are trying to say to the reader

> “How” = The middle 3-5 bullets is “how” to accomplish the “what”

> “Why” = The last sentence is “why” this is so important

Read 7 tweets
Nicolas Cole 🚢👻 Profile picture
Jul 13
The biggest problem stopping writers from hitting publish:

(I struggled with this for years)

They're not sure what topics to write about.

So I created The Endless Idea Generator to help you come up with hundreds of writing ideas in 30 minutes: Image
1. Choose Your Topics (Using The 2-Year Test)

Reflect on the last 2 years of your life.

Brain dump:

• Skills you’ve built
• Hobbies you’ve picked up
• Problems you’ve overcome
• Life transitions you’ve made

This should give you 3-4 broad topics to start with.
2. Add Specificity

Take each topic and break them down:

• By price
• By problem
• By industry
• By location
• By situation
• By experience
• By demographic

For example:

• How to X on a tight budget (price)
• How to solve Y (problem)
• Etc.
Read 11 tweets
Nicolas Cole 🚢👻 Profile picture
Jun 23
Recently, the Microsoft AI Chief predicted all white-collar jobs will be eliminated and automated by AI in the next 18 months.

I'm one of the highest-paid ghostwriters in the world.

Here are 8 reasons why AI won't destroy the ghostwriting industry: Image
1. Writing is only 50% of the value (maybe less)

Ghostwriters audit profiles, manage tech stacks, track algorithms, engage with followers & build infrastructure.

Replacing ALL of that with AI requires a proficiency 99.9% of businesses don't have.
2. Uneducated inputs = low-quality outputs

To actually use AI, you have to know what to ask it.

But even the smartest people in the world have no clue how to write in the Digital Age, let alone direct AI to do it for them.
Read 11 tweets
Nicolas Cole 🚢👻 Profile picture
May 22
Yesterday, I locked myself in my office for 7 hours, inhaling 50+ articles about AI.

I did this to unlock more bandwidth for my team.

But these 7 were too good not to share:
How to Actually Use Claude. 18 steps that unlock 100% of its potential by @AnatoliKopadze

20 Claude Skills Most Builders Don't Know Exist by @sairahul1

Read 12 tweets
Nicolas Cole 🚢👻 Profile picture
Mar 31
In 2020, I created 3 business rules that changed my life.

Since then, I've added 6 more.

If you're just getting started in business, read these rules:
1. I must own a piece of the upside.

Employees trade time for a fixed number.

Owners trade time for an asymmetric one.

Until you have equity in the outcome, you're renting your effort to someone else's dream.
2. Accelerate to failure as fast as you can.

Most people fail slowly, spending months on ideas that were dead on arrival.

The sooner you crash, the sooner you learn what actually works.
Read 12 tweets
Nicolas Cole 🚢👻 Profile picture
Aug 29, 2025
I grew my ghostwriting agency to $180k/month in 18 months.

The secret?

Understanding the “Art of Packaging.”

Anyone can use these 3 dead-simple steps to earn more $$$ as a writer:🧵 Image
It's important to package your services as "products."

• Can you offer 2+ different versions?
• What are the differences in speed or volume?

But the price gap between your packages is extremely important.

Here's why:
Step 1: Name Your Packaged Service

Giving your packaged service a name makes it feel like they are buying an OUTCOME rather than just a bundle of tasks.

Here's a simple framework for a Packaged Service name:

Problem, Person, or Way + Desirable Outcome + "Package" Image
Read 8 tweets

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