Hi Reader,

One of the challenges of running a business for a long time is that you stop noticing things.

The language you use every day feels ordinary because you've been saying it for years. The problems you solve seem obvious because you've solved them hundreds of times. The questions clients ask over and over again begin to feel so familiar that it's hard to imagine someone not understanding the answer.

I've come to think of that as living inside the bottle.

You can't read the label from there.

That's not a criticism.

It's simply what proximity does.

The closer we get to something, the harder it becomes to see it the way someone else does.

I see it in client work all the time.

Someone will spend ten minutes explaining what they do, then casually mention something almost in passing.

I'll stop them.

"Wait. Go back."

The thing they nearly skipped over is often the most interesting part of the conversation. To them, it's routine. To the outside world, it's the reason someone hires them.

I don't think expertise disappears over time.

I think familiarity changes our relationship to it.

That's one of the reasons I enjoy this work so much.

I'm not listening for better adjectives or clever taglines.

I'm listening for the ideas that have become so familiar to you that you've stopped noticing them.

Those ideas are usually hiding in plain sight.

If you've been wondering whether you're too close to your own business to see it clearly, the Voice Clarity Workbook is a great place to begin.

If you'd like a little more context about how I approach this work, you'll find it on my Make It Easy to Refer You page.

And if you'd rather have someone stand outside the bottle with you for a while, hit reply or book a Clarity Call.

Let's find your sentence.

Best,