Hi Reader,

One of my favorite expressions is this:

You can't read the label when you live inside the bottle.

It's why writing your own website is so difficult.

It's also why AI can only take you so far.

Neither one can solve the biggest challenge: proximity.

When you've spent years building a business, it's hard to tell the difference between what everybody knows and what only you know. The assumptions become invisible. The language feels obvious. The stories you've told a hundred times no longer sound like stories.

That's where another perspective becomes invaluable.

I was reminded of that recently while working with a client whose company name sounded like a marketing firm.

The trouble was, they weren't a marketing firm. They were — wait for it! — an employee benefits consulting firm.

He assumed the company name was the problem. It wasn't. He wasn't about to change the name anyway.

What he needed was language that made it immediately obvious what he actually did.

Because people don't hire a logo.

They hire the person behind it.

That's a very different problem to solve.

It's also one that would have been almost impossible for him to diagnose on his own because he'd been living inside the business for years.

That's what I mean when I talk about voice clarity.

It isn't about inventing a clever tagline or sprinkling personality into your website.

It's about uncovering the assumptions you've stopped noticing and finding language that helps other people understand your work the way you already do.

If you'd like to explore those questions on your own, the Voice Clarity Workbook is a great place to start.

If you'd like to learn a little more about how I approach this work, you can read about the Make It Easy to Refer You process and where the Voice Clarity Intensive fits in.

And if you're thinking, I'd really rather talk this through with someone who's outside the bottle, hit reply or book a Clarity Call.​

Sometimes that's the fastest way to see the label again.

Best,