Ep. 290 — David: The Real Killer Isn't Confusing Messaging. It's Generic.

5 min read

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Episode Summary

Your ads are running. Your team is busy. Your website is up. And your potential customers are walking out the mental door inside seven seconds because nothing on the page is actually about them. I sat down with my friend David, a former theater director turned messaging coach, to get into why this happens to almost every business and what to actually do about it. David spent nearly 40 years as a professional actor and director before he started cleaning up the way owners and lawyers talk about what they do. He’s also the guy who helped me land on the words “intentional growth” back when I was still calling it growth and exit planning. We dug into why generic messaging, not confusing messaging, is the real killer. Why your Milestone 13 — Strategic Plan and product-line margins have to come before any of this or your marketing is just expensive noise. And how the work of getting to one simple, clear idea costs more than most owners are willing to spend, which is exactly why so few ever do it.

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## Top 10 Takeaways
  1. Generic messaging kills more deals than confusing messaging. Everyone sounds the same. Nobody stops scrolling.
  2. Your potential customer walks out the mental door in seven seconds unless your first line is about them.
  3. Lead with your customer’s problem, not your services list. Your “why” goes deeper on the page, not first.
  4. Strategic plan first. Product-line margins second. Messaging third. Reverse the order and you waste money on ads.
  5. Your team fights about marketing because nobody knows which products actually make the money. Numbers end the argument.
  6. The simple message isn’t a tagline. It’s a core idea that bends to fit every medium you use.
  7. Authenticity is a discipline, not an accident. Actors do it on cue. So can you.
  8. Practice doesn’t kill spontaneity. It earns it. The sweet spot is between bullet points and memorization.
  9. Every revision gets you closer to the essence. Most owners stop at draft two and call it done.
  10. If a new service can’t connect back to your core idea, it probably belongs outside the company.

Sound Bites

“Donald Miller says confusing messages are a problem. I think more of a problem is generic messaging.” (@00:17:19) — David

“Chris Voss, the FBI negotiator, says you have seven seconds to get them to pay attention so that they give you another like 10 seconds so that they give you another 30 seconds.” (@00:13:14) — David

“Most people have no idea what products and services they should be selling at what margin, what volume, for what reasons, and actually why their customers really need that.” (@00:25:09) — Ryan Tansom

“A lot of times people in business don’t like the idea of imagination because it sounds random and uncontrolled. It sounds childlike, it sounds not serious. And I’m like, nope, it’s your best friend.” (@00:40:38) — David

“It takes that much work to be effortless.” (@00:57:09) — David

About This Episode

David is a former professional actor, director, and playwright who spent nearly 40 years on stage before turning his attention to business communication. For the last 15+ years, he has helped owners, executives, and lawyers clean up the way they talk about what they do. He’s the founder of Simple Message and the person who helped Ryan land on the name “Intentional Growth” back when the company was still going by a different label. This episode is a working session disguised as a podcast: two friends digging into why generic messaging wastes more marketing budget than anything else, and what it actually takes to land on a core idea that’s clear, personal, and bends to fit every medium an owner uses.

Resources Mentioned

  • Simple Message — David’s company and forthcoming website. — asimplemessage.com
  • Donald Miller — StoryBrand — Referenced for the “if you confuse, you lose” framework.
  • Bob Moesta — Demand-Side Sales / Jobs to Be Done — Referenced for selling to customers based on the progress they’re trying to make.
  • Chris Voss — Referenced for the seven-second attention rule (former FBI negotiator).
  • David Horsager — The Trust Edge — Referenced in the backstory of how Ryan and David first met.
  • Gino Wickman — Traction — Referenced as an example of a single core idea anchoring a brand.
  • Joseph Campbell — Hero’s Journey — Referenced as the underlying structure StoryBrand draws from.
  • Steve Jobs / iPod — “10,000 songs in your pocket” — Referenced as the gold standard of customer-problem messaging.
  • Mark Twain (attributed) — “I would have written you a shorter letter but I didn’t have the time.” — Referenced to capture the cost of simplicity.

Connections

Phase + Module:

Milestones:

Concepts referenced:

  • The One Thing — The single core idea David’s entire practice points toward
  • Noble Aim — Why the message has to mean something to you, not just to the customer
  • Owner’s Roadmap™ — Where the messaging work fits in the larger ownership arc
  • Revenue Architecture — The system the messaging plugs into once the core idea is clear

Graph View