I was on a call the other day with someone who wanted me to help them figure out why their thing wasn’t selling. Their course. Their program. Their whatever. And they sent me all this material, the website, the emails, the sales page, and I read it, and I read it again, and then I read it a third time, and you know what I still couldn’t tell you?
What the thing actually was.
I’m not being dramatic. I literally could not figure out what they were selling. There were words. There were paragraphs. There were testimonials from people who said it changed their lives. But the actual offer? The thing? Buried under so much jargon and positioning and “holistic paradigm-shifting methodology” that it might as well have been written in ancient Greek.
And this person is smart. This person does good work. This person has helped people. But none of that matters if I can’t figure out what the hell you’re offering.
Here’s the truth that nobody in the marketing world wants to tell you: When people don’t buy, it’s usually not because they’re cheap. It’s not because they don’t value your work. It’s not because the economy is weird or the algorithm changed or Mercury is in retrograde or whatever we’re blaming this week.
It’s because they don’t understand.
That’s it. That’s the whole thing. Confusion kills curiosity. Confusion kills trust. Confusion kills the sale. If I have to work to figure out what you do, I’m already halfway out the door. I’ve got a thousand other things competing for my attention. I’m tired. I’m scrolling. I’m avoiding my own problems. You think I have the energy to decode your mystical offer?
No. No I do not.
So let’s talk about the “so what” test. This is something I made up, probably, or maybe I heard it somewhere and stole it like a real artist. (And all artists steal, just ask Austin Kleon) The “so what” test is simple: You say what you do, and then you ask yourself “so what?” until you get to the actual reason anyone should care.
Example: “I offer holistic business coaching for creative entrepreneurs.”
So what?
“I help creative people build sustainable businesses.”
So what?
“So they can stop worrying about money and actually make the work they want to make.”
So what?
“So they can wake up in the morning and not want to die.”
Okay. Now we’re getting somewhere.
The first version is what you put on LinkedIn because you think it sounds professional. The last version is what actually matters. That’s what people are buying. They’re not buying your methodology or your framework or your proprietary 7-step system. They’re buying the feeling of not wanting to die in the morning. They’re buying freedom from the noise. They’re buying relief.
But you buried that under all the professional bullshit.
Here’s an exercise that will make you deeply uncomfortable: Explain what you do in one sentence. One. Not a paragraph. Not a carefully crafted mission statement that went through seventeen rounds of feedback. One sentence. Out loud. To another human being.
Can you do it?
Most people can’t. Most people need three sentences and a diagram and a follow-up email. Most people hide behind complexity because clarity is terrifying. Clarity means you have to actually know what you’re doing. Clarity means you can’t hide behind the words. Clarity means someone might say “oh, I don’t need that” and then you have to face the rejection.
Better to be confusing, right? Better to be vague, so nobody can say no. Except nobody can say yes either. They just nod and move on and forget you existed five seconds later.
I learned this the hard way, obviously.
So here’s your homework. Write down what you do. Then ask “so what?” until it hurts. Then write one sentence that a tired, distracted, slightly annoyed human being can understand in the time it takes to scroll past.
And if you want help with this, if you want to figure out how to say what you actually do in a way that doesn’t make people’s eyes glaze over, I talk about this stuff in the newsletter. It’s where I go to figure out the things I can’t figure out alone. It’s free. It’s honest. It’s not trying to sell you anything except the idea that maybe, just maybe, you can do this without losing your soul.
Link’s here. Or below. Or wherever these things go.
I grace the internet here twice a week at least, with strategies & advice for the creatives who hate to market, or the creatives who just want to market effectively. It’s ideas, tools, strategies to make you a successful marketer so you can spend more time being creative. That’s what we need right now: less marketers and more creatives. You can subscribe to the blog and get notifications (that magic box below – no spam), and/or you can do me a solid and buy me a coffee for being here for over two years giving away my pearls of wisdom. Yeah, I’m selling at you, right now.
Digital Marketing for Creatives 
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