The message that sells your product is already in your head.
Leave with it written down.

You know your work inside and out: your product, service, science, or technology.

You've spent years honing your craft, and the results prove it.

The problem that's crept up? The better you get at your work, the harder it is to describe what you do.

One consultant I helped, Karen, had been working on her messaging for years. She'd worked with other consultants and a LinkedIn expert, and done plenty of learning on her own.

Even so, her own mother couldn't describe what Karen does for a living.

After we built Karen's argument, she put it in a book and shipped her parents a copy. A few days later her mom texted:

“Hey, I think I might know what you do now.”

Other people call this the curse of knowledge. I call it the curse of knowledge applied to marketing.

How does the curse of knowledge hold back smart people's businesses?

The curse of knowledge means you've forgotten what it's like to be a beginner. That means you've also forgotten the basics that your buyer needs to believe. You take these basics for granted because you've been so close to them for so many years.

But unless you identify these missing buyer beliefs, little you tell a prospect will convince them. It's like planting a seed in hard soil. The ground hasn't yet been prepared.

That means your number one task is to sort those beliefs from everything else you know about your topic.

Easier said than done, right?

The usual tries aren't going to fix this:

• Creating more content that earns likes but not customers (more LinkedIn posts, more YouTube videos, more emails)
• Hiring an agency that has you as one client among dozens
• Asking AI to write from the whole internet instead of from your message

Which of these sounds like you?

The curse of knowledge shows up at different moments in a business.

“I built a product. Now how do I sell it?”

At a recent technology conference, I spoke with a founder of a startup. His company turns waste products into clean energy—a noble venture if I've ever heard one. But I could see the tiredness in his eyes.

“I pretty much travel around asking for money,” he told me.

Here's a scientist who's built a truly breakthrough technology. And in addition to running his company, leading his team, and selling to his customers... he needs to convince investors, too.

But I've seen the same challenges with creative solopreneurs, consultants, and coaches.

They build a product hoping to leave their current job or grow their existing business or reach more people than they can serve one-on-one. But they don't know how to make the case for it.

They set a launch date and then constantly push it back. They second-guess and overthink. A leadership coach named Suraj wrote to me after a workshop that it “had already been a month of hesitation.”

It's kind of like being tongue-tied. You know what to say, but the words refuse to appear.

Which means the product doesn't get into the hands of the people that need it.

“I still can't explain what I do.”

Remember Karen? She had years of experience and was good at her job. And all that experience was part of why she was stuck. The longer you've done something, the more of it you take for granted.

A founder friend in San Diego told me a similar story. A scientist went on before him at a conference and dove straight into the deep chemistry behind his product. My friend looked out at the room, and every person was scrolling on their phone.

“People who know me buy. Strangers don't.”

I'll never forget what one client said: “The circles I've been able to leverage are starting to tap out.”

One more person this workshop is designed to help is the person who sees clients come easily when they know you, but slowly when they don't. Their inner circle taps out. I picture a well slowly running dry.

This exact scenario is how I began working with my book's co-author, Wall Street Journal best-selling productivity expert Tiago Forte. His early fans already believed in digital note-taking, but they were rare. Most people never thought about digital note-taking.

So before we could sell Tiago's training on digital note-taking, we had to put forth an argument for why digital note-taking was important.

Once people had that aha, they began enrolling in Tiago's course, and he turned it from a side hustle into a seven-figure business with a team of employees.

Try asking yourself this: What would someone who's never heard of me need to believe before they'd be open to what I'm offering?

The same problem, everywhere I look

Whichever of those sounds like you, it's the same problem.

Remember my friend in San Diego, watching a room full of people on their phones while a scientist explained his chemistry? My friend is a scientist himself, and even he struggled to follow.

It isn't only scientists...

A hotel owner in New Zealand. A psychiatrist in Switzerland. A diving school in Scotland. A marketing consultant in Costa Rica. Different industries, customers, and products.

I've heard from all of them, and it's all the same problem.

They know their work cold. But knowing a lot about something doesn't mean you know how to sell it.

Who am I to teach this?

I'm a science guy. I started my career in renewable energy, where I was surrounded by brilliant people creating breakthrough technologies. The problem was they couldn't explain it.

Then I built an online business of my own, teaching people to brew beer at home. I ran into the same problem, and struggled to sell even a $49 course.

So, I learned marketing. Out of necessity. And I found that the best marketing isn't hype, isn't “vibes”, and definitely isn't doing more tactics.

Marketing is an argument you put forth. That argument builds the beliefs your buyer needs before they say “yes.”

I built the Five Lightbulbs to help people make that argument. It became the framework behind my consulting practice, and I've used it with over 140 business owners, from solopreneurs to Y Combinator startups.

If you're in the middle of a project, or you've stalled on one, you may benefit from a live room. Something to kickstart your creative juices.

So I'm bringing it to you: a two-hour workshop, me leading the room, and everyone working on their Five Lightbulbs together.

Walk away with your Five Lightbulbs Messaging Map

I call it a messaging map because all your messaging takes its direction from it. It holds your argument on one page: the five beliefs your buyer needs before they buy. Your website, your pitch, and your emails are that argument expressed downstream.

Here's what that one page gives you:

1. One argument behind everything you say, so it can draw more response from the people you sell to: your homepage, your pitch deck, the first minute of a sales call, even how you introduce yourself.
2. Pre-filled instead of blank. When you sit down to write, your argument is already there waiting.
3. A brief you can hand to whoever executes, whether that's a copywriter, a designer, a co-founder, or AI.

What's the cost of starting from scratch every time you sit down to write?

My advice, even if you don't do this workshop: build your core argument. Marketing is far too important to “wing it.”

You've likely gone at it alone before. Have you ever wasted two hours writing a blog post, updating your website, or fiddling with a new marketing tool? This workshop is two hours in the right place: building the upstream argument that powers all your downstream marketing.

The workshop last ran on October 13, and I haven't set a date for the next one. Leave your email below and I'll let you know first.

Guarantee

Here's what I can promise, and what I can't.

I can't promise you'll get customers. Nobody honest can.

I can control the two hour experience, and if you do the work, I guarantee you'll leave the workshop with a clearer marketing message. If not, or if you're unhappy for any reason, email Laura at laura@fivelightbulbs.com within seven days of the workshop, and we'll refund 100% of your purchase.

Questions