When I work with a new copy or content client, I half-listen to the polished pitch. I’m waiting for the moment they stop reciting what they do… and tell me why people actually show up at their door reaching for their wallets.
That moment is gold. Because that’s where strategy lives.
Most businesses bury it under brand-speak: “quality solutions,” “customer-focused excellence,” or whatever other beige language they picked up from a mission-statement generator. I let them get through that, then ask them to complete one simple sentence: “People come to us when…”
Often they freeze and then they deliver the safest, dullest possible answer.
So, I pull out the exercise: Ten minutes: Pen. Paper. No editing. No corporate varnish. As many times as you can, complete the sentence: “People come to us when…”
Somewhere in that 10 minutes they start writing the real answers … and everything opens up.
Suddenly, we’re talking about the actual moments customers rely on them: the 11 p.m. emergency call, the founder who still picks up the phone, the tiny human details that make the business matter. That raw material is what we build the strategy from:
- messaging that sounds like a real company
- content that points customers in the right direction
- a voice that isn’t made of drywall
- positioning rooted in reality, not wishful thinking
Clients think hiring a writer means “fix our words.” But the work is deeper. We’re not decorating. We’re excavating. And an effective way to begin the dig is with that one exercise of completing the sentence "People come to us when…"
