Focus Archive - The Art of Communicating

Kick off the New Year with Clarity and Purpose

I’m starting the year with a new format: “The Leaders Light the Path Session”.

It’s a free, hands-on gathering for leaders who want to sharpen how they communicate their vision and inspire others to act.

We’re skipping the lofty ideas and over-complicated frameworks (leaving that to the gurus).

I’m more interested in real, actionable ways to make your message resonate.

→ How to make your story crystal clear.
→ Why the right words matter more than you think.
→ Simple strategies to inspire action and alignment.

Jan 14th | 11am Eastern · 5pm CET | Zoom

Whether you’re rallying your team, presenting a big idea, or guiding others toward a goal, this session will help you do it with focus and impact.

It’s highly interactive, in a small group setting with like-minded peers – ideal to start the year with focus on what truly matters for your path ahead.

Would love to see you there.

Seats are limited — Reserve your spot by simply replying to this email (I wanted to keep the process as plain and simple as possible).

Keep lighting the path!

Happy New Year

Welcome to the New Year, where not everything needs to be new.

Not your goals.
Not your plans.
Not your next step.

(Nor your promise to live a healthier life.)

For many, January 1st is the great reset.
An annual excuse to pile on new goals.
Or commit to a shiny new program.

They fill journals with resolutions they’ll abandon by March.
Vowing to do more, be more, achieve more.

Without asking whether “more” even makes sense.

Because often, progress isn’t about doing more.
It’s rather doing more of what works.

So, what if the New Year wasn’t a starting line.
But a checkpoint.

A chance to ask:
→ What’s already working?
→ What deserves more of your energy (as opposed to “less thanks to the new thing”)?
→ And what’s quietly stealing time without giving back?

The last question is the hardest.
But also the most important.

You don’t need a starting line.
You’ve already started.

The discipline isn’t in setting new goals.
It’s in letting go of what isn’t working.

And focusing on what already is.

Happy New Year! Here’s to a year that builds on what already works.

Glitter and glam

A powerful message doesn’t need backup dancers or flashy props. It stands alone, clear and strong.

Here’s a simple test:
When you strip away the extras, what’s left?

If your message is strong, it will still resonate.
If it’s weak, it will now crumble.

That’s precisely why some believe that a little glitter will make up for a weak message.

But adding glitter won’t make your message strong,
it only distracts from the weaknesses.

Superficial wow elements will never make up for a missing aha.

On the other hand, once your message is strong enough to stand on its own, then adding the wow can amplify its impact manifold.

In other words, when you have a strong message, skillfully composed, the extras aren’t there to distract from the message, they are there to serve the message.

PS: Reach out if you need help finding that strong message.

Imagine you’re making a simple, classic pizza. Just sauce, cheese, and a few basil leaves. But then someone leans over and says, “Oh, I love mushrooms on pizza!” So you add mushrooms. Then someone else chimes in, “Pepperoni is a must!” And now, anchovies for the adventurous types. Pineapple, because there’s always someone who wants it. Pretty soon, your pizza’s so loaded it’s about to collapse.

What was once a delightfully simple creation is now a confusing mix of flavors. Every new topping was meant to please someone, but together, they please no-one. Instead of a satisfying bite, it’s just an awful mess of a taste.

Clarity works the same way. When you try to add everything, to appeal to every taste, you end up with something that pleases no one. A message that started off strong and clear gets buried under competing ideas, details, and angles.

Maybe the question isn’t, “What else can I add to make it as complete as possible?” but, “What’s essential to keep to make it as delightful as possible?”

So, how can you make your message so pure that it stands out with irresistible clarity.

Because, just like pizza, the most powerful messages don’t need everything. They just need the right ingredients, passionately selected, and arranged with dedication.

That’s what can turn it into an unforgettable delight — simple and satisfying (sometimes in a very unexpected way).

How 2 Simple Words Disrupted an Entire Industry

In the 1970s, Southwest Airlines realized a simple truth: a plane on the ground is a plane losing money.

No matter how good the seats or the food, if the wheels are down, the airline is losing money.

Therefore, Southwest focused on one goal: getting planes back up in the air as fast as possible. While competitors chased comfort, Southwest chased time.

Every minute saved on the ground meant more profit. They didn’t win with better service, but with better strategy.

But the real brilliance is in how they framed the strategy, using just two words: Wheels up!

Not jargon, not lofty missions – just something everyone understood.

Contrast that with how others would frame it:
“We want to be the industry leader in carrier efficiency.”

Sounds impressive, but ultimately meaningless to the staff. When faced with a choice, how does the crew, ground team, or catering know what to do?

With Southwest’s Wheels up!, there’s a simple test: will your choice help the wheels go up? If yes, absolutely do it. If not, absolutely don’t.

It works because it’s:

Visual: You can see it.
Concrete: You know what it means.
Actionable: It drives behavior.

“Wheels Up” gave Southwest focus. Everyone knew what success looks like. Not a vague aspiration, but something you could watch happen every time a plane left the ground.

That’s the magic of their approach.

They took a simple operational truth and told it in plain English so that everyone could act on it.

P.S. Want more examples of how the right words can make a bigger impact? Check out my new book, The PATH to Strategic Impact!

Turning ambition into progress

A while ago, a friend called me because he was frustrated with his marketing team. “The people on the team are so motivated, but we’re making so little progress,” were his words.

And he was right. The team was highly motivated. But the problem was that they were chasing 100 ideas in a 100 different directions.

Each of them was good, some even amazing. But each of them told a slightly different story.

Rather than one bold promise, they were making 100 little promises.

Which confused customers.

As soon as we understood this, we changed it. Instead of redoing the website or planning the next campaign, we took a step back. We focused.

It wasn’t an easy process. Some of these choices were hard, some perhaps even slightly deliberate.

But by aligning every activity on a common path we managed to turn ambition into progress.

The team was just as motivated as before, if not more. Only this time, everyone was pushing in the same direction.

How about you? Do all of your marketing activities tell a concise story?

No further explanation

“What you said hurt me deeply.”
This needs no further explanation.

And yet, in an argument, how often do you bet on ever more explanations?

You disagree with your colleagues from the executive team.
Mails are gearing up.
Arguments build up.
Everyone feels deeply misunderstood.

More explanations follow.
Still no agreement in sight …

The explanations become longer …

More potential for misunderstandings …

When there’s actually not much to explain in the first place: What your colleague said during the partner meeting hurt you deeply.
That’s it.
This needs no explanation.

Actually, long explanations will likely make it worse.

So, instead of widening your argument why not focus it?
Go to a place where you can calm down, collect your thoughts, and focus.
Could be outside, could be in a quiet corner, could be at a café.

When you’re there, figure out:
So, what is it that I actually want to say? What is my point here?

That’s never 30 reasons. It’s often rather one, maybe two. Often even just a feeling.

And then, in your next reply, just make that point.
Say it as simply as possible.
And leave it at that.

Both, my clients and myself have often been amazed by the difference that makes.

What’s your experience?
Have you ever been frustrated with arguments where no one could find agreement, and everyone just kept overexplaining?

A little experiment

I’ve got a question for you that I’m genuinely curious about.

It’s about a little experiment.

Sit down at a (somewhat) quiet place.
No earphones.
No media.
No reading.

Just sit there.

Put your phone visibly in front of you.

Good.

Now, here’s the question:
How long does it take until you pick up your phone?

I’m very curious about this. Would you reply to this message with your experience?

The Lego Challenge

Let me tell you about a really interesting article that I read some time ago. It was about a Lego model, very similar to this one:

The model has a pretty unstable roof which puts the monkey in danger as it’s supported by only one brick in one corner.

Now, the researchers in that article asked people for their ideas on how to improve the stability of the roof.

Many of them had the idea of including a column at the front right or adding supporting bricks between the building and the roof.

Surprisingly few of them had the idea of removing something – like the single brick directly under the roof.

When you do that, you’ll achieve a very solid structure.

The researchers derived an interesting observation which they supported with more experiments. It seems that when we’re faced with solving a problem, we’re biased to add things rather than remove things.

And isn’t the same true for our communication?

I mean, when people don’t get what we mean, we often tend to include another argument, a metaphor, an anecdote, maybe a visual, or a table, throw more stats at them …

Rather than to take a step back, evaluate the structure, and ask ourselves, so which story has the best potential of resonating the most with our audience? Or which is the strongest argument?

And then really focus on that one.

Tweak it.
Refine it.

Until it’s razor sharp.
And crystal clear.

How would you have fixed the structure?

How do you approach this in your communication?

PS: In the meantime, researchers have added a little more nuance to these findings in a new article.

You’ve got my attention

I give you permission to use a chunk of my attention.
However, you must choose between two options:

Option #1:
You can get 30 minutes but you have to fill it with 30 ideas of one minute each.

Option #2:
You can get 10 minutes but you have to fill it with one idea and one idea only.

Many businesses instinctively pick option 1.
But is this a smart choice?

Which of the two do you think has a better chance of intriguing me?
Which one is more likely to get me to engage in a conversation?
Which one will stick with me for longer?

What would you pick?

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