What’s your promise?
Marketers spend so much time looking for fancy statements that they sometimes forget to just plainly state their promise.
What’s yours?
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In love with an idea
Did you ever act foolishly after you’ve fallen in love with someone?
Probably, your mind went a little over the top with all the things it suggested to impress the beloved one with. Or you struggled to find the right words, bombarding the beloved one with thousands of things you love because you thought that they might love it as well. So maybe, in trying to make a good impression you achieved, well, the exact opposite?
You’re not alone.
Also, this does not only happen when you fall in love with SOMEONE. It also happens when you fall in love with an IDEA.
We’re easily overwhelmed with all the things we love about that idea. We would want to tell the world everything about it – at once. And it’s not uncommon that in trying to impress others we’ve actually alienated – or at least confused – them.
Just as with building new relationships, it helps to listen more than you want to talk. It helps to figure out what the others love so that you can figure out whether it’s a good match. And it helps to take a deep breath so that the words that you do say come out in a way that makes at least a little more sense.
The environmentally friendly way to communicate
Less confusion means shorter meetings.
Shorter meetings mean less time on zoom. Which means less data that travels over the Internet. And less power to run the servers.
If you care for the environment, there’s a small contribution you can make each time you communicate: Communicate with clarity.
Clarity is an infinite game
Alert: The Universe is on a mission to distract you from remaining focused.
It will never stop trying to get you off track.
Even if you once started from a position of total clarity, new ideas constantly pop up, new paths want to be explored, and generally, times change.
Which sometimes means opportunities. But more often, these are just distractions.
That’s why it’s so important to play clarity as an infinite game by constantly asking yourself:
- Are we still on track?
- Do our actions still reflect what we want to be known for?
- Did we let go of the non-essential?
Let’s just refuse the Universe the triumph of distracting you, will you?
Although, now that I mention this, here’s something that might be worth it: The book “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown helps you recognize the utter unimportance of almost anything so that you can focus on what truly matters – which to me sounds really useful to be prepared for the infinite game of clarity.
But now you’re in a dilemma. Should you let yourself become distracted by a book that teaches you how to not get distracted?
.
.
.
Should you?
I told you, clarity is an infinite game and the Universe is on a mission to make it as hard as possible.
PS: My online course “Crack the Clarity Code” might help you play the game better.
Word juggling
Eloquence is sometimes mistaken as the skill of being able to juggle complex sentence structures and complicated words.
Which leads to the even worse misconception that the more complex your speech, the more eloquent you would be.
Far from it.
Eloquence is the skill of using the right words at the right time.
More often than not that means finding simple words to describe complex things rather than complex words to describe simple things.
Selling diamonds
All too often, corporate messaging suffers from – let’s be straight – bullshitting. Promising the blue from the skies, using fluffy statements, and decorating vague claims with some sweet candy and cream.
One of the reasons for this is that these corporations think that great messaging can fix inferior products.
And maybe it can.
But I think it pays much more to fix your product first. To make sure that you’re actually selling diamonds.
If you’re selling a diamond, you don’t need to decorate it. You wouldn’t even want to. You much rather polish it to surface its pure beauty. You wouldn’t ever hide it underneath layers of fluff and stuff to make it appear more beautiful. It’s already pure beauty.
When you’re selling a “diamond” product, your communication becomes way easier. You just need to speak the truth, in plain English, making clear statements and bold promises.
Moving faster
“I’m not getting the results I’m looking for … so I need to work harder and move faster.”
But do you?
Because the thing is when you’re moving full speed in the wrong direction, you’re not going to arrive anywhere meaningful. It pays to reflect on whether you’re actually headed in the right direction before working harder or moving faster.
Which means that the opposite might be way more useful. Pause for a moment. Reflect, refocus, and refine to gain clarity about where you’re headed. Or more precisely: where you should be heading.
That process takes time. You might feel that it slows you down. But it’s required work that will pay off manifold when you do it properly.
That’s one of the reasons why you can’t accelerate the “Crack the Clarity Code” course. Lessons are released daily and there’s no way for you to skip ahead.
When you’re considering the course, you’re looking for clarity, not speed, don’t you? The quick answer is usually not the most clearest answer. That’s why I want you to really think the prompts through before you move on to the next lesson. When you do, the next lesson will be so much more valuable. And the results will feel so much clearer.
Clarity ≠ Minimalism
Clarity makes complex things feel simple.
That’s not the same as removing things to make them simpler. Clarity is about making them more accessible.
Often, it actually means adding things …
… to your story, using examples, metaphors or anecdotes that translate a concept into our audience’s domain so that it’s easier for our audience to get what we mean.
… to your slide deck, bringing it from 1 difficult to decipher slide to 20 easy to understand slides.
… to your process, visualizing what each step is for.
… to your experience, amassing years of working with something.
… and many more.
Clarity feels minimal but it’s often quite the opposite.
When everything’s important, nothing’s important
This is the blueprint of most presentations, reports, pitches, websites, you name it.
Everything’s important. And therefore, nothing is important.
The thing is this: If you don’t pick what’s important you’re asking your audience to do it for you.
You might not be too happy with their choice.
Better to find the courage to do it yourself.
Clarity is revelation work
Clarity is much more revelation work than it is creative work.
When we encounter one of these charismatic leaders who seem to just magically nail it and find words that make the complex feel simple, it can feel like they are just natural born talents.
I don’t think that’s true in most cases. More often than not, they are just much more rigorous in their thinking. They:
- Reflect on what truly matters
- Strip the non-essential
- Focus from the right perspective
- Refine the difficult parts and
- Boost their impact
I built “Crack the Clarity Code” to walk you through this process and find that rigor in your thinking. My goal is to take you from a gut feeling of possibility to razor-sharp clarity.
It seems to work. Even after day 1, I got this note from Bob: “The clarity is already coming.”
Find out more at https://crack-the-clarity-code.com.
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