Principle #6: Why You Don’t Want to Rush Getting Your Message Right

Principle #6: It takes time and effort to dial your message in right. But don’t wait to get it perfect to show up.

Sometimes we have unrealistic ideas of messaging. We think an hour here or there and boom, we’ve got it.

That’s not what I’ve experienced or seen with my clients.

It can take a minute to dial your message in right.

Depending how sensitive, complex, and nuanced a world you live in, it can take a while to sort through all the pieces and parts of you and bring them together into a cohesive message.

It can take a while to feel into who you are here to serve and who you most want to bring your magic to.

It can take a while to experiment with the focus and theme of what you are sharing with the world.

And it can take a moment to refine the language so it’s clear and it’s simple and it lands.

To be honest, a lot of the reason business owners don’t have a solid message is because it’s messy, hard work and it can be frustrating when you aren’t there yet. Most people who take my message development trainings confess that without the structure of the course, they wouldn’t have hung in there with it.

We live in a world that wants quick answers and quick fixes. We start to think getting our message should be quick, should be easy. And then when it isn’t, we think something is wrong with us.

I think it’s better to think of it this way.

Your messaging is your master work, your masterpiece.

It’s the culmination of all your lived experience and wisdom distilled into something another human can digest without having to walk the path you walked.

So it’s not going to jump out in a half-hour or in three weeks.

My Words on Fire message development training is a six-month program. The first three weeks, we dial in the core message (with help and guidance, it goes faster). And then we expand from the core message to the core wisdom you carry. And then we figure out how you unfold the story of that to someone who hasn’t heard it before. And then we can start creating that Coherent Public Presence.

You need time.

You need time to bring up all the bits that need to be included. You need time to write long and explore what wants to be said. You need to time to write stuff that is messy and incomplete and even off base. You need time to keep circling around and asking “is this right? Is this true?”

And yes, there is a moment it all comes together. Where the pieces line up and fall into place and you get that inner affirmation “yes, this is it!”

To me the greatest tribute I get from clients is when they look at the words I’ve helped them pull together and they say, without question, “this is me, this is the message I want to bring to the world.”

So, “Isabel”, you say, “I don’t know if I can take that long.”

Here’s the deal.

You don’t wait until your message is perfect to be out in the world.

You stand up and say what you can say today, knowing what you have to offer is already beautiful.

You stand and speak and write knowing that in the speaking and writing you’ll learn more about what wants to be said.

And then you commit to doing the work. To holding and working with that message until it rings true. To not stopping until you feel in your bones that it’s dialed in right.

And if you need it, and you probably will need it, to getting help from someone who can hear you.

Who can hear all the parts of you. Who can point out what shines and what falls flat. Who can help you hone your own sense of what’s vibrant and alive and what’s inauthentic. Who can help you weave those parts together.

This is your life. You only get so much time to show up and share what you know.

Start today.

Let it be imperfect.

And keep doing the work to bring it home.

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