Help People See Where You Take Them

It’s easier to explain what you offer than to show someone how it could help them move from A to B.

That became clearer to me at last week’s YATM Lunch Club in London, where our theme was “Buying Into You.” We explored what it takes for someone to believe in what you are doing enough to become part of it.

One of the biggest problems building YATM was that I couldn’t clearly explain the role it played for people. I was invested in what I was creating, but could someone else see what might become different for them?

For years, I thought describing YATM as a marketing learning community helped people make an association.

There was nothing inaccurate about it. The focus had a marketing slant, people came together and there was a growing sense of community around the work. 

It also put YATM in a recognisable category. That can feel reassuring when you are building something. You have words for your website, something to say when people ask what you do and a way of explaining why you send a newsletter or organise events.

This is me now being critical to myself…

The description didn’t help someone recognise their own situation and say, “That’s me.”

Learning for what? Where might being involved take someone? What could change in their work, their relationships or how they felt about themselves?

I had described the container and left people to work out the significance of being inside it. Those already involved could draw on their own experiences. Someone looking in from the outside had much less to go on.

The old description wasn’t wrong. It was insufficient, and that was my responsibility. I couldn’t expect people to understand something I hadn’t made clear enough myself.

It’s easy to fall into this when starting a business, a side project or a new offer. We borrow the language our industry already uses because it helps people understand where we fit.

We become an agency, a consultancy, a coaching business or a membership. We explain the services and put a price next to them. It’s needed, but it can leave the person considering us with another question, “What does this mean for me?”

Clarity isn’t just knowing what you are. It’s knowing what you help people move towards.

That doesn’t mean you need to invent a huge promise of transformation. Not every service changes someone’s life, and it doesn’t need to. The difference might be more confidence in a decision, less time spent worrying or being able to do something that previously felt out of reach, or a step too far.

People don’t need every step mapped out. They do need to recognise a direction they want to go in, and understand how you can help.

For YATM, that direction has become clearer by paying attention to what people experience when they take part.

Someone can be building a business, doing good work and still be carrying every question on their own. They might have plenty of people in their LinkedIn connections, but very few they feel comfortable contacting when they are unsure what to do next.

My goal for YATM is to help people move from isolated independence to supported interdependence. I’ve seen how repeated contact, doing things together and contribution help people become familiar, trusted and able to support one another.

You are still building something of your own and responsible for the work. What shifts is that there are now people who know you, want you to do well and can help you see possibilities you might have missed.

For instance, Matt King has recently taken a managing director role at a manufacturing business. When he needs support, he can turn to people he knows through YATM. From telecoms to identity and a new website, that familiarity has led to work for others in the community. 

Matt has people he can ask, and they have opportunities to put their expertise to work. When you step into a space where the intention is to help build ourselves and our businesses, the work doesn’t have to feel so isolated.

Jon Jenkins also presents proof from joining the Lunch Club panel, in Poole. Taking part resulted in enquiries because people had a chance to hear him and recognise where his experience could be useful. Those asks weren’t confirmed customers, but they were conversations that had become possible through participating.

This is what More Together needs to represent. It’s what becomes possible because people know one another.

This is where I think the learning applies to all of us. We can become so familiar with what we deliver that we stop asking what it makes possible for somebody else.

If you provide training, completing the course is not necessarily the meaningful change. It might be someone finally feeling able to handle a difficult conversation. If you offer accountancy services, accurate figures matter, but so does helping someone understand their business well enough to make decisions without constantly second-guessing themselves.

The change doesn’t have to sound impressive. It has to mean something to the person experiencing it. 

It also needs evidence. For YATM, that means looking beyond attendance towards what people do together, the relationships they build and the opportunities they describe. More people arriving is encouraging, but it doesn’t, on its own, tell me what being there has changed.

These four questions can help:

1) Where are people now?
Look beyond their job title or industry. What are they struggling with, carrying alone or trying to figure out?

2) Where do they want to move?
What would make their working life better? Start with the progress they want, rather than the service you want them to buy.

3) Who are they becoming?
Could they become more confident, capable or recognised? This doesn’t require a new identity; sometimes it means trusting their own judgement.

4) What would prove movement?
Look for something tangible: asking for help, sharing their work, finding a collaborator, receiving an invitation or gaining a customer.

Your answers should help you explain both the difference your work can make and how someone would recognise it happening.

Many of us explain what we do more clearly than where it can take someone. For me, the value was there, but I hadn’t helped people see it easily enough.

People still need to know what they are committing to and why it matters. We should be able to look beyond the offer and explain what it helps them move towards, without promising everyone the same result.

You have to give people a reason to see their future in what you’re building.

If somebody spent a year in your world, what would you hope was different about them, without mentioning anything you sell?