“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
I opened an old Google doc last week, looking for a piece of content.
Didn’t find it.
Came across something much more disturbing.
It was our website about page from 2020.
The writing was (technically) fine. But the whole thing was pointing in the wrong direction.
It was all about what I knew. My process. My approach. The careful, detailed way I think about designing and building websites. Paragraph after paragraph of me explaining the inside of my own brain.
[ Clearly very pleased with how much was in there. 🫤 ]
Reading it now, all I could think was: who the heck did I write this for? Because it sure wasn’t talking to the person on the other side of the screen.
It was written for me. A shrine to my own competence. #gross
***
This is the “expert trap,” and most of us are guilty of doing it.
Experts love sharing what we know. It’s the most natural thing in the world. We’ve spent years getting great at something, and explaining it feels like proof of our credibility.
Meanwhile, the person reading it has exactly one question:
Soooooo … what changes for me?
That’s it.
We’re busy explaining how the car’s engine works, when all they really care about is getting to their next appointment.
Two completely different conversations.
***
Don’t worry. The fix has nothing to do with dumbing down your process.
Just flip everything around so it focuses on them. Lead with what changes, and let the “how” earn a more reserved place underneath.
Here’s a quick example:
“We take a meticulous, architecture-first approach to every website we build.”
True.
Also true — the reader has no idea what that gets them.
Updated headline:
“Send a prospect to your website with confidence, knowing it’ll close the deal.”
Our “meticulous build” is the reason that new version is true. But now it leads with the thing our audience actually wants: more clients and easy sales.
That’s the whole shift. One sentence at a time.
***
We’ll talk about this more during our masterclass Wednesday. How to identify (and close) the gap between your expertise and how you communicate it to prospects.
It’s for business owners who have earned their reputation the hard way and are tired of losing deals to louder, less talented competitors.
We’ll cover the three brand signals you’re probably missing, why great referrals stall out, and what unresolved trust-gaps really cost you.
Half-hour. Gone after that, no replay.
Make it a great week! 🙌
PS — Go read your own about page right now. First sentence … is it about you, or about them? You’ll know in about 2 seconds. And so will your prospects.
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