The problem usually isn’t what you think. And the fix is rarely what you’re trying.
The first movie I ever wrote was called Spring Break Sorority Babes.
Also known, at one point, as Can It Be Love.
That should tell you everything.
It was a goofy, light, beach movie.
Nothing too serious. Nothing trying to be more than it was.
And that’s exactly why it worked.
I didn’t build it from scratch.
Bill Milling had already written the original draft.
The characters were there. The setting was there.
My role was to come in and work within that.
Dialogue. Story points.
But really, making sure it all played the way it was supposed to.
That’s a very specific kind of work.
Because you’re not changing the foundation.
You’re adjusting how it shows up.
How it sounds.
How it lands.
With something like that, it doesn’t take much to throw it off.
A line that leans too far one way.
A moment that plays differently than intended.
Now the audience isn’t quite sure what they’re watching.
Not enough to reject it.
Just enough that it doesn’t fully connect.
So the work becomes:
What needs to shift so it does?
Not everything.
Just the right things.
A line.
A beat.
Dialogue that brings it back into alignment. (A running gag.)
Once that clicks, the whole thing feels different.
Same characters.
Same story.
But now it lands the way it was meant to.
That’s the part people miss in business.
They think fixing it means rebuilding everything.
New messaging.
New strategy.
Starting over.
It usually doesn’t.
Most of the time, it’s already there.
It just isn’t landing the way it could.
So they keep adding.
Trying new angles.
Adjusting things at the edges.
Instead of isolating the one thing that’s throwing it off.
That’s the work I do now.
What I do is find the specific thing that’s creating the problem.
It might be copy. It might be positioning.
But the value isn’t in the change.
It’s in knowing exactly what to change so it actually fixes it.
Once that’s right, everything else starts to move.
Same offer.
Same person.
But now it lands.
Earlier this week, I wrote about how people decide what they think something is before it even starts.
And what happens when that’s off.
This is the other side of it.
What it looks like to actually fix it.
Not by rebuilding everything.
Not by starting over.
But by finding the specific thing that’s throwing it off, and bringing it back into alignment.
Once that’s right, everything else works the way it was supposed to.
It’s not about doing more. It’s about fixing what’s off.
Sell the truth.