Struggling through messaging mayhem is the worst. You’re distressed with a lack of confidence in your messaging, ambivalent towards your ultimate customer, or afraid of branding without proper FDA clearance. It’s pretty challenging to build connections with your network and audience if you're anxious and unclear, and messaging mayhem makes it tough to break free.
Now, imagine if you could hire a professional organizer to not only hand you a clutter-free office, but a clutter-free mind as well. A mind clear of the chaos, worry and countless elevator pitches that tend to fog your communication clarity. When tidying up a cluttered closet, professional organizers rely on frameworks to declutter and categorize belongings. It's a process to bring clarity to the situation and your favorite items, front and center. Ironically, it's also a process that starts with chaos, and when I'm helping founders declutter their messaging, I tend to borrow the same technique. The best and only way to permanently stop the cycle of Messaging Mayhem is to dump everything out, sort and categorize - or, as I like to call it, "complicate to simplify."
Here’s what it looks like:
Review the complicated collection of past materials including one-pagers, investor decks, webcopy drafts and more
Add to the chaos with insights from stakeholder interviews, investor and customer feedback and competitive analysis
Simplify by categorizing key themes, evaluating trends, identifying clear patterns for improvement and ultimately creating a rubric (a messaging foundation)
Trash the rest
We complicate and then, we simplify. Resulting in a framework for creative and consistent messaging and effortless engagement with all stakeholders.
Here is why “complicate to simplify” works every time:
1️⃣ Focus - Analysis paralysis never lands you better results and has no place in your content strategy. By reviewing all the data, noticing trends, highlighting themes, and trashing what you don’t need, your mind can focus on the few most impactful elements, rather than being bogged down by them all.
2️⃣ Flexibility - Believe it or not, rigidity breeds flexibility. When crafted correctly, a solid framework provides a guideline for creativity, change management and pivots - especially when the unexpected arises.
3️⃣ Moving Forward - Rather than flounder every time you need to make a tough business decision or consider a pivot, you’ll rely on your strategy as a compass. This type of framework will offer clarity for what's to come - even if you aren’t there yet. And as a business leader, clarity is golden!
Marie Kondo taught me that the best way to get rid of an article of clothing is to thank it for its service and then say goodbye. So, send this message to your old ideas, taglines and communication methods: “Thank you for helping me get the company to where it is today. We will no longer be needing your service.” Now, trash them and start creating!
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