Working on your messaging is a painful process and sometimes feels kind of like therapy for all involved.
Participants will try to avoid it, settle on below-par results, and move on to other tasks at hand, but messaging is so crucial it can’t be overlooked.
No matter your experience, your knowledge, and your willingness to invest time, energy, and hope for better results, you still need to go through the motions, the same questions, the lack of agreement, the discussions, the brainstorming sessions, the analogies, the recollections, the numerous attempts, and sometimes going back to square one…which on its own feels like there was no progress, and you’re not getting any closer, and ‘why do we really need to go through this, cause we already know what we do?’.
I am going through this with a startup right now, and I gotta tell you that it’s just as painful for me as for the founders involved.
But it is also enthralling; you’re toiling away, trying to pick apart a current message, keep the things that work, add new things required, and mix, match, and combine into a concise and straightforward message for upcoming visitors, users, and interested audiences.
And you also know that what you choose may be brilliant, yet it may also prove wrong and ineffective, and you will need to revisit and make adjustments here and there.
That uncertainty is irritating and sits with you throughout the process, and is only alleviated as you see positive results: feedback, traffic, traction, conversions, and the founders adapting the message into their day-to-day lingo, their social networks, and saying it without a hitch.
But what do they say: no pain no gain; and we know that if we want real progress and improvement, then we also need to go through painful times, breaking down previous notions and thoughts, to arrive at new and better outcomes.