Putting my experience to work for your small business.
Part One of a Series
This post is the first in a series where I want to share some of the things I have learned over the course of my career. It has been varied in terms of industry and the customers served, and has given me many valuable lessons along the way. I hope to benefit my clients with advice, ideas and cautions as a way of contributing to my local community.
- Messages that are simply stated are key to conveying our meaning. Expansive vocabularies are indeed an important asset for most everyone, but communication is not always about demonstrating how much you know. Instead, it may about how much you know about your audience and what they need. Consider that offering services for an arboriculturist might be better offered as services for your sick and/or dying trees.
- Tone is important and can be thought of (in one way) as formal vs. informal. Does your audience relate better to everyday speech? Or technical terms?
- Visuals are one of the most powerful methods of communication that are often overlooked. Consistent visuals like a logo, type style, color go a long way in making your message memorable. And, often one, simple graphics can convey a message better than thousands of words.
The importance of effective communication was brought home to me in an early-career job I had with a video production company. One of our clients was a multinational organization that hired us to create employee training videos. We produced them and happily presented them to the client. They were shocked. Why? Turns out that we had used a common hand gesture that in the US means “ok” that has an entirely different, and obscene, meaning in Brazil!
With another client I made my video directing debut. The task was to create a compelling visual that introduced a new line of shoes. Simple. Right? Not exactly. I learned that the lighting, set and placement of the shoes are an important aspect that helps convey each design. Most importantly, I learned that the single most important thing was to never show the shoe in the wrong profile. Only shoot the side opposite the arch! Who knew!
Verbal communication is not just about the words, it is also about the caliber and complexity of those words, how we string those words together to create a message, as well as the intonation (pitch, tone, cadence, etc.) used while speaking. And to be effective, verbal communication must be such that the intended audience can understand the message, remember it, and can act on it if required.
Bringing these kinds of experiences to the table for my clients is a very satisfying part of my job. I have been blessed with a diverse background and I am thrilled to share my learnings.
