The CHAOS Framework

If you’ve heard about the CHAOS Framework, you most likely heard it from Ali Abdaal – one of the most successful YouTubers on personal productivity. I’ve been watching his videos straight from the beginning and every now and then I discover a method, a framework, or another valuable thing I just need to remember or even implement myself.

Photo by Thomas Yohei on Unsplash

A framework I recently discovered, is the CHAOS framework and I thought: why not summarize it in a blogpost – I’ll learn something and maybe someone else finds it valuable as well.

What is CHAOS?

To me the acronym already was very intriguing – I mean CHAOS is usually something bad. However, when you think of entropy (a measure for disorder), it is something necessary. If the universe wouldn’t increase its entropy, time would stop to exist. And this is nothing we’d actually want, right?

But what is CHAOS?

Essentially, it is a framework you can use as a basis for implementing a new project, an idea or even for starting a new business. According to Ali Abdaal, CHAOS stands for …

• Concept: Define a clear business idea that solves a problem.
• Hot Audience: Identify an engaged audience who would benefit from the solution. Originally, Ali Abdaal uses just “Audience”, but I changed it to “Hot Audience”, to end up with a better acronym (I hope this is OK for you, Ali!)
• Offer: With a concept and a clear audience in mind you can further detail the concept to a offer.
• Sales: If you want to succeed with a new idea in terms of creating a business out of it, sales is an essential step.

Concept

If you have a rough idea in mind, don’t try to turn it into a perfect solution right now. Start by creating an MVP (minimum valuable product) you can start to share and get feedback on as quickly as possible.

Hot Audience

This might be the toughest nut to crack.

Of course, if you already have a reach (e.g. via social media), it is easier to tap into it. However, the quality and interest of the audience is much more important than its size.

If you have 100 highly engaged followers on, let’s say Substack it can be more valuable than having 10k followers on TikTok. The essential thing is: your concept needs to be relevant for your audience. If you are in the realm of personal productivity, creating an MVP for a productivity app makes much more sense as to create a webinar for marketing.

Offer

An offer is when your service/product receives a price-tag. Therefore, Ali Abdaal recommends to design a high-ticket offer. This can reduce the effort later needed in sales, tremendously. However, creating high-ticket offerings isn’t feasible in all niches. If you have a low-priced product aim for a good scalability.

Sales

At the end, if you want your idea / project / business to succeed, selling is a necessary step you need to do. A method, that is especially suitable for high-ticket offers, is LAPS:

• Leads: Generate interest through social media, ads, and your network.
• Appointments: Schedule one-on-one discussions with potential clients.
• Presentations: In these conversations, diagnose the client’s problem and propose your solution, just as a doctor might diagnose and recommend a treatment.
• Sales: Ask for commitment. Approach sales as problem-solving and educating. Don’t shy away from asking money. You did something valuable that simplifies someone else’s life.

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That’s it. The CHAOS framework is pretty simple, right? And, what I like most: it is easy to remember as well!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my article and learned something new.

Cheers, Matthias