Your brand should sound like you, not me

The best compliment that a business owner can give me is to read something I’ve written for them and go, “Wow. That sounds just like me!” Because here’s the thing. If you’re a good communicator and writer, the job is not about you.

It’s about the client, their goals, and the way they need to convey information.

So when people do a discovery call with me, they are sometimes a little taken aback.

They expect me to walk them through a services menu. To tell them what I do, what they should do, what I charge, and what the timeline looks like. But that is not where I start.

I start by asking about them. A lot of questions about them.

(Spoiler alert, here’s just a few.) What are you trying to build? What does success look like for you right now, this season? What will success look like for you if I asked you that five years from now? What is the one thing you wish people knew about your business/product? What is the thing you keep trying to say that never quite comes out the way you mean it? Who most needs to hear what you have to say? Where have you found that exact right audience… and where do you feel that they still aren’t hearing you?

As mentioned before, I love to listen and absorb. Because I am most successful at what I do when you answer as honestly and fully as you can.

What listening actually looks like in practice

I’ve shared before how my mother used to marvel that I would come home from school knowing everyone's life story. She meant it as a gentle tease, but honestly, it never felt like a skill to me. I’m a genuinely curious person. I love to understand how people got to the here-and-now and what makes them tick.

And after all, people want to be heard. So if you're willing to stop talking and actually listen, they will tell you everything you need to know.

That instinct is at the core of everything I do as a communicator.

When I sit down with a new client, whether it's a nonprofit leader trying to connect with new donors, a small business owner who wants to grow but doesn’t know where to start, or a sales executive who just wants someone to buy tickets to their show, I am not walking in with a pre-built template. I am walking in with questions.

What do you wish people understood about what you do? What does your audience most need right now, even if they haven't said so directly? What is the gap between how the world sees you and how you know yourself to be? If there was one thing you could start doing today, what would it be?

The answers to those questions become the foundation of my work. I search for your truth, and then figure out how to get that to the people you want to hear it.

Mapping your brand to action matters more than most people realize

One of my favorite sayings is that “more” is not an audience.

The organizations that struggle most with their communications are rarely struggling because they lack something substantial or meaningful to say, they are often just making their words sound too much like everyone else. (For example, if you’re having AI write everything for you, you’ve just created more noise in the channel. If you like using AI, I’ll work with you to build brand tools that your AI can use that will never allow you to sound like anyone but yourself.)

If you don’t know the people who have already come to your brand, you won’t understand who else you might reach. So sometimes, in asking my questions, the leader realizes they don’t really KNOW who they are trying to reach. I’m going to keep poking until we’ve gotten a really good glimpse into who we are already reaching and who we want to also reach.

The result of not having a clear direction is that your messaging ends up vaguely accurate but still hollow. And people will see right through it and gloss on by, because human brains are REALLY good at filtering out stuff that doesn’t feel like it applies to them.

So together, we have to make someone see themselves in what you are saying.

I have had clients tell me, after we've gone through a strategy session together, that it was the first time someone had asked them those questions. To be honest, sometimes they feel a little wrung out because I’ve really made them think. Or other times, they leave feeling so energized because they’ve put into words what they love about their company. (And note, if they leave that meeting not at all changed or excited by our time, it’s a good indicator to me that I’m not the writer for them!)

That part of the process isn't glamorous and it’s not easy for me to articulate in a sales pitch about what I do. But it is, without question, where the best work begins.

What comes after listening

Once I understand what you are building and what you need to say about it, something shifts in the way that we work together.

What I write for my clients should never sound like this blog post. It should sound like something that already lives in your organization’s values, vision, and stories, and simply refined into something that hits its target.

I also believe strongly that different media require different sounds. While we may take a central concept to shape into email, social media, or traditional media content, it will feel like a coherent whole that’s still tailored to the place where it lives.

The goal is that your content always sounds like its best self: clear, intent, impactful, and on brand.

I think of it this way: your brand already has a personality. My job is to help it speak and actually be heard.

A note to the leaders who want to farm out communications

If you have ever sat across from a communications expert who is already jumping in with ideas and actions before they’ve asked you any questions, you probably know that it can feel good at first to “hand off” communications. You think, “that’s one less thing I have to do. They’ve got this.”

I’ve got bad news, my friend. You can’t. I’m so sorry to share it.

Because “handing off” communications is the last thing you should do if you want your business to grow and thrive. Because if your communications expert isn’t listening, they aren’t hearing, and you are going to get the same advice that everyone else is receiving. It’ll be generic and fixated on “more” without intentional audience activation.

A good communicator needs your energy and your brain actively involved to be sure that the message is on point and will land where it’s intended. It’s going to be a process that involves you if it’s being done right.

I don’t have a proprietary framework or a magic process but I’m genuinely interested in how you and your company got to this specific moment sitting across from me. Your story got you here. Let’s get your story to other people we want to move.

And human connection and storytelling is infinitely scalable. Whether we’re speaking to millions of social media accounts on an international awareness campaign to three or four potential financial planning clients in your business’ backyard, I’m going to make sure that it’s your words that they hear.

So. Tell me about your business. Believe me when I say that I am already listening.

If you're ready for a communications partner who starts by asking the right questions and stays curious all the way through, I'd love to connect. Send me a message or find me on LinkedIn.

XOXO,

Laney