They Muzzled Me

My mates had apparently decided that our annual get-together at the Fat Butcher in Stellenbosch required one condition. Before we had even settled in, a picture appeared on our WhatsApp group featuring my smiling face and the words: “Buy me lunch. I won’t mention AI.” Subtle as a brick through a window, but I understood the brief.

And I behaved remarkably well, until a fifth mate joined us and broke the seal. By then, a few brandy and Cokes had entered the conversation, and my carefully maintained restraint went the way of most sensible decisions made late at night in Stellenbosch. A magnificent time was had by a bunch of middle-aged men behaving like twenty-year-olds, followed by a weekend discovering that our recovery systems had not received the same memo.

There was, however, useful feedback in that picture. My friends know exactly what I’m enthusiastic about. The more uncomfortable question is whether being known for talking about AI is the same as being understood for the problem I help people solve.

The founders I work with want stronger leaders, teams that can make decisions without them, and the freedom to take a weekend off without spending it approving things on WhatsApp. AI can help enormously, but my enthusiasm for the tool is only useful when it serves that outcome.

Last week, I wrote about making three birdies with my hybrid while continuing to reach for the driver, seduced by the possibility of looking impressive. There’s a marketing version of that same stupidity: explaining everything we know, showing off our capabilities and hoping customers work out where they fit. We’re swinging the big stick again when a better question might get us closer to the hole.

Donald Miller’s StoryBrand framework puts the customer at the centre of the story, with our business helping them overcome the problem standing in their way. The message starts with what they want and what is stopping them, not our magnificent collection of qualifications, services, and clever toys.

Daniel Pink’s Pixar pitch, featured in To Sell Is Human, offers another useful structure: establish everyday life, introduce a change, follow its consequences and arrive at a resolution. The interesting story is the customer’s journey from frustration to progress, with us helping them get there.

I’m doing this work in my own business. My positioning is shifting from the Sage, sharing knowledge and helping people develop expertise, to the Magician, helping them transform what their businesses can do. That transformation has to mean something concrete to the client, though. Otherwise, I’m simply wearing a different hat and talking about Claude again.

The harder work is getting that clarity reflected by the whole team, our website, proposals, newsletters and first conversations. If I’m the only person who can explain the value properly, every important conversation still waits for me. Hiring more people hasn’t removed the queue; it has given the queue more places to form.

And founders know that particular frustration well.

Our iPad-free weekend offered a surprisingly relevant reminder. We took the boys to sport, went to rugby and kept them busy with Sunday activities, but encouraging old-school play still required effort, intervention and the occasional unpopular parental ruling. Handing back a device would have been considerably easier.

Building the habits we actually want takes work. The same applies to messaging: AI can help us draft, compare, and refine, but we still have to decide whose problem we're solving, listen to how they describe it, and practise explaining it together. Otherwise, it becomes another entertaining device helping us avoid the difficult bit.

PG’s Pro Tip: Three people. One sentence

Ask three people in your team to independently finish this sentence: “We help [who] solve [what problem] so they can [achieve what outcome].” No conferring, no website consultation and definitely no asking the founder for the correct answer. If the responses sound like three different businesses, you’ve found some useful work to do before commissioning another brochure.

Next, compare those answers with the language customers use in three recent emails or enquiries, removing names and sensitive information first. Then use the prompt below to develop one shared message, practise saying it naturally and test it with someone outside the business. Ask them to explain back what you do. Looking politely impressed doesn’t count.

Copy this prompt into ChatGPT or Claude:

“I want a clear business message my whole team can use without the founder explaining or correcting it. Here are three independent descriptions from our team: [paste answers]. Here are three anonymised customer emails or enquiries: [paste emails]. Here is our current website introduction: [paste text].

Using Donald Miller’s StoryBrand principle that the customer is the hero and our business is the guide, identify where our team’s descriptions agree, where they differ and where we focus on ourselves instead of the customer. Compare our language with the words customers actually use, distinguishing evidence from assumptions.

Draft three alternative sentences using this structure: ‘We help [specific customer] solve [recognisable problem] so they can [meaningful outcome].’ Use plain language, avoid jargon and unsupported promises, and recommend the clearest version with a brief explanation.

Turn the recommended sentence into a short customer story using the Pixar pitch structure popularised by Daniel Pink: Once upon a time… Every day… One day… Because of that… Because of that… Until finally… Keep the customer as the main character and show how we help them make progress.

Finish with a 30-second spoken version our team can practise and three questions we can ask an outsider to check whether the message makes sense. If essential information is missing, ask me rather than inventing it.”

If you were away for a month, who in your team could explain what you sell?

Regards,

PG

PS. We’ll work through StoryBrand, the Pixar pitch and how AI can help you put them into practice at our Marketing Workshop on 25 November at W17, Kloof Street, Cape Town. Book your seat and bring the message you’re using right now.