I have been in business for three decades because I know what you meant to say.
In my PR days, that comprised smoothing out the message, delivering information to the right people, with pop, panache, and minimal spin. But these days, as an Authority Advisor to leaders and organizations, my role is more about translating your unique take into an idea your audience can understand – and act on.
It’s not about words. Words come from strategy. Strategy comes from clarity. And it’s not “founder clarity” or “company clarity.” What I focus on is “audience clarity.”
I’ve met some fascinating entrepreneurs in my time.
People who build companies, launch products, write books, develop philosophies, start podcasts, and create entire ecosystems of ideas, often by accident.
And when you ask them how all these things fit together, they’ll tell you.
It’s never a short story.
They’ll explain the philosophy, the connections, the big picture, the little picture, and how something they started seven years ago led directly to the thing they’re launching next Tuesday.
And you know what?
They’re usually right.
It DOES all connect. In their heads. Which is a wonderful place for an idea to begin, but a terrible place for it to spend the rest of its life.
I was having a conversation with an entrepreneur whose various endeavors appeared to be heading in about six directions at once.
Not because he was scattered. Quite the opposite.
He had a remarkably clear philosophy behind everything he was building.
The trouble was that the people encountering his work weren’t necessarily encountering the philosophy.
They were encountering a product.
Or a program.
Or a particular business.
Or one small piece of a much larger idea.
And naturally, they were drawing conclusions based on what they could see.
Rude of them, I know.
But as it turns out…
Audiences don’t owe you the benefit of knowing what you meant.
They can only interpret what reaches them.
And this doesn’t stop with customers.
Your partners can misunderstand the larger ambition.
Your team can execute brilliantly against a narrower interpretation of the mission.
Someone can teach your methodology, follow every instruction, and still miss the point.
You can even become wildly successful at something that represents only a fraction of what you actually set out to accomplish.
Congratulations! You’ve built a very impressive misunderstanding.
This is why I sometimes find myself telling people something they don’t expect to hear from a guy who spent years in advertising creative and PR:
You may not need better messaging.
You may need to figure out what people are actually understanding.
Because there’s a difference between having a clear vision and having a vision that survives contact with other human beings.
And if your ambitions are getting bigger, that difference gets bigger, too.
More people. More businesses. More interpretations.
More opportunities for the original idea to wander off, shave its head, put lifts in its shoes, and introduce itself as something else entirely.
That’s the water I bathe in. (just making sure you’re still reading)
Not just helping people explain what they’re doing.
Helping them recognize what must remain true as what they’re doing grows beyond them.
Because the goal isn’t to get everybody inside your head.
This isn’t a Pixar movie, after all.
The goal is to make sure the idea can stand on its own two feet once it leaves.
Clarity compounds. Confusion costs.
And just because YOU get it doesn’t mean THEY do.
That’s not an insult.
That’s where the work begins.
So here’s my question:
Are people understanding what you’re actually building, or just the part they’ve happened to encounter?
I’ve spent three decades listening to ambitious people explain what they mean, then helping them make sure the rest of the world understands it, too.
If your business, your ideas, or your ambitions have grown beyond the story people know about you, we should talk.
Let’s find out whether the world is hearing what you meant to say.