Communicating With Clarity –
For Business Professionals, Startup Founders, and NGOs
Communicating With Clarity – For Business Professionals, Startup Founders, and NGOs
“Let Us Be Clear…”
Eliminate uncertainty, confusion, and misinterpretations – for more persuasive and impactful communication.
Are you…
- Struggling to effectively communicate complex or technical ideas to those outside of your area of expertise?
- Encountering prospects, donors, or investors who seem confused or unclear about your value proposition?
- Frustrated by the (lack of) response your message is generating from audience?
If you answered YES, then we would love to help you achieve your goals.
The process begins with a discovery call, to get to know you, your challenges, your goals, and your audience.
From there, we can explore what the journey will look like – tracking down potential sources of audience confusion, and searching for opportunities to simplify and clarify your most challenging or complex ideas.
The process of working with you to improve the clarity of your message is a very personalized and bespoke process. The primary focus can be on revamping the way you frame certain ideas, creating stories and analogies to help to communicate difficult concepts in a more accessible way, helping you to eliminate jargon and “corporate speak” that may be creating unnecessary vagueness, and much more.
We’ll be focusing on:
- Concrete Language: Too often, acronyms, industry terms, and complex jargon create a wall between you and your audience. Just as dangerously, these are also used by speakers as a way to overwhelm or intimidate listeners, to prop up weak ideas and “half-baked” proposals. Both of these cases most often lead to audiences who tune out, disengage, or become highly skeptical. Instead, we focus on how you can “cut through the noise” and “get to the chase.” We will push back on your pitches, presentations, and messaging until your listeners understand exactly what you do, precisely what your value proposition is, and unambiguously why they should support you.
- Metaphors and Analogies: Especially when you’re trying to help an audience understand technical, detailed, or complicated ideas, creating effective metaphors and analogies can be an extremely efficient solution. By connecting new and potentially confusing ideas to stories and concepts that will be more familiar and engaging to your audience, you can help to create a bridge of comprehension that – even when it doesn’t exactly cover every detail – can create the sort of “big picture” understanding necessary to for audiences to grasp your most important messages and key takeaways. We will work with you to find the ideal metaphors and analogies to match your subject matter and your audience.
- Storytelling: There’s a good reason why you can still remember stories and fables you read as a child, yet struggle to remember manuals and PowerPoint presentations a week after your office meetings. As humans, we tend to think and remember in pictures. Unfortunately, most working professionals have been taught to communicate in a way that ignores this basic principle. As we find and develop the right stories to “cut through the clutter,” we will actively equip you with the skills and mindset to effortlessly make storytelling an invaluable tool in your long-term communication strategy.
My Six Core Principles:
- 1) Your opening 30 seconds needs to grab my attention and engage me emotionally. Make me FEEL something, whether it’s suspense, laughter, anxiety, anger, or curiosity.
- 2) A huge part of resonating with an audience is authenticity, and the key to authenticity is congruency. Your body language, vocals and content should always be in alignment, if you want to avoid looking like you’re “performing” instead of “connecting.”
- 3) Storytelling is key. A single well-told story is more memorable and more persuasive than any fact, figure, or PowerPoint slide.
- 4) A great speech isn’t just a great essay spoken out loud. Some of the sentence structures and rhetorical techniques that are most effective in public speaking go against nearly every lesson your English teacher has ever taught you.
- 5) Have a clear through-line. Having a metaphor or a story that weaves throughout your presentation can be an incredibly powerful way to make it feel more focused and easy to follow.
- 6) Record yourself repeatedly when you practice. It can feel awkward to watch yourself on camera for many of us, but it’s absolutely the fastest way to review, analyze, and improve your performance.
Are we a good fit?
Can you provide a cost estimate?
Lessons or feedback related to Communicating With Clarity are provided at $250/hr. for one-on-one sessions. Creating or rewriting content for enhanced clarity will have costs that can vary based on the existing material and necessary research time. We will communicate with you well in advance so that you can receive an “all-in” pricing prior to commencing work.
How long will it take to review and update my presentation / pitch / etc. for clarity?
The clarity-focused writing and editing requests we receive can vary wildly, from rewording or eliminating jargon from a keynote presentation, to overhauling investor or donor pitches, to providing ongoing coaching and mentorship to assist in becoming a clearer communicator. As such, the timeline can vary significantly. That said, once we have an opportunity to learn more about your background, your goals, your needs, and your challenges, we will provide you with detailed timelines and estimates well in advance of the start of our journey together.
I don't have a particular upcoming speech or goal, but I want to be able to communicate more clearly in general. Can you still help me?
Yes! We have hundreds of pages or resources available to help you to become a clearer communicator. We have organized, established pathways developed to help to take you step-by-step from uncertainty to confidence and success.
Are you also able to assist with our pitch deck or PowerPoint material?
Yes! Our goal is to ensure that your message is connecting with your audiences “loud and clear,” and that most certainly extends to your digital and print material as well as your presentations.
What is your experience ?
In addition to winning a world championship in impromptu public speaking, and publishing a book on content, rhetoric, and delivery, I have also spent nearly two decades teaching public speaking and offering 1-on-1 coaching to students, business professionals, coaches, media personalities, and more.
Ready to Schedule a FREE Consultation?
The sooner we get in touch, the more time you’ll have to discover the stories that make your ideas, your message, or your brand connect with your audience like never before.