The message that left me running laps

Published about 1 month ago • 1 min read

It's my first game in Marseille.

The play comes in: "Mike, Veet, de gauche, Mistral, Cross, Burst, Veet, Veet."

Part English, part French, Marseille accent over everything. Mouthpiece in. Three voices at once.

I have no idea what to do.

So, I learned some French that season... but before I could speak it, I had to play football in it. Before I could figure out the language, I had to figure out which part of the call was even for me.

By the end of that season, I was the one calling plays.
American accent. Franglais (muddled French & English) vocabulary. Yelling everything out before I put my mouthpiece in.

One afternoon in practice, I called a play wrong.
The whole defense blitzed the coach. No offensive line. Nowhere to hide.

I ran a lot of laps that day.

The assistant coach didn't take me back to the whiteboard.

He took me to the metro. The market. Anywhere loud and distracting. He called plays. I listened. I called them back. We stopped assuming anything was understood.

I think about that a lot when I'm working on marketing & sales (my own and with clients).

Because I do this too.

We give people the shortcode. The system. The insider language...and none of that means anything to them.

If your marketing and sales aren't landing...your message might not be as clear as you think.

One of the best tools I've found for getting clear and cutting through all the noise is StoryBrand (especially the new 5 Soundbites). It forces you to ask, "What does the customer actually need to hear?"

You've got this...but I'm here if you need a coach on the metro.

Jake

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