There is a power in simplicity. The easier something is to understand, the easier it is to share it. And the easier your message is to share the more people you can impact. Wow. Although I’ve known this for a long time this statement really hit me hard this week as I begun to realize how complex I have made my business and my life.
And it’s important to realize that in the words of Steve Jobs: “Simple can be harder than complex”. Sometimes trying to articulate what we do in a simple statement can be so challenging to do. We have a natural tendency to want to tell everyone all the things that we can do to help them, and yet when we do that we make our elevator pitch (short description of what services you offer) complex and no-one understands anything. Ironically, we can then end up serving no-one as people just don’t understand what ours specialism is.
I know I run a limiting belief that if something is too easy it’s not worth doing! What’s that all about?. Why do I insist on making things complex?. Can you relate to that?. I know it comes from my parents who were all about making things complicated and yet when things are complex it is difficult to flow.
Just think about a river. It flows easiest when there are no rocks or boulders in the way. The flow of the river is effortless and no resources are wasted. Contrast that with a river full of debris and rocks. The river flows more slowly as it navigates the hazards in its way. That’s the difference between the power of simplicity and the challenge of complexity and it provides a great metaphor that is for life and business.
Now please don’t confuse simplicity with easiness. As Steve Jobs noted: “You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple”. Yes making something complex simple is really challenging. That’s a bit of a twist!. It tests us to ensure that we really understand what we are talking about and that we can distill it into understandable, manageable chunks. This is why the best courses and training create step by step systems to help you learn. They simplify the process and engage all our sensory systems in the learning process to maximize results.
I know when I am designing my training programmes I often hold the vision of could I explain this to a 5 year old. Because if I can’t then I haven’t simplified the process enough. Albert Einstein also recognized the power of simplicity when he said: “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”.
Often a great way to get to learn something is to challenge yourself to explain it to someone else. If they don’t get it you gain valuable feedback on what you need to do to make your message clearer. Networking events provide a great arena to try this out in. Draft your elevator pitch and share it with others. Do they get it great, but if other people still don’t know what you do, then you’ve got valuable feedback to work on.
I’ll never forget a story that one of my mentors shared with me. She crafted what she thought was an excellent elevator pitch yet when she went and met potential clients they didn’t understand what she did. It tuned out that whilst the sentence made sense on paper the words she used simply did not resonate with her target clients. They even thought she did something different! This awesome feedback allowed her to refine her message and craft it using different language that resonated with her audience.
So my challenge to you this week is how can you simplify your life and business so others can better understand it.? Share your ideas with us in the facebook group.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
