My #1 rule for content—and how I inadvertently broke it

There's a reason why I advocate for the "Power Trifecta"— and why you should too.

Welcome to Illuminate Me. Each week, I share an illuminating insight to help you communicate and connect better, growing your reach, impact, and career.

This week’s insight: Clear beats clever every time.

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Hot tip: If you confuse people, you lose people.

This includes:

• A potential employer’s interest

• Your boss’s attention

• A prospective client who doesn’t understand how you can help them

• Or even (gulp!) a newsletter subscriber.

First, a little background

When I work with founders, my goal is to help them communicate and connect better with their intended audiences to magnify their reach and impact.

Along with helping them share their unique stories and experiences, lean into their emotional intelligence, and focus on serving, not selling, I always remind them of my #1 rule for content:

Stick with the “Power Trifecta” of clarity, consistency, and discipline.

Here’s a quick breakdown of each element:

Clarity

When you’re clear—about your messaging, content, audience, and your offering— everything becomes easier. People understand what you do (and what you don’t), your value, what differentiates you, who you serve (and who you don’t), and how you can help them. Clarity helps others know, like, and trust you.

Consistency

Consistency is about aligning and maintaining your “voice” and look and feel in how you present yourself, sound, and write. And by regularly showing up in the same way, people expect—and anticipate—your specific point of view and unique perspective (aka thought leadership).

Discipline

Rather than trying to be all things to all people (which lowers your competitive advantage and waters down your offering), focus on those areas in your zone of genius and highlight your expertise in helping others, so you become known as the go-to expert in that arena.

The most important element

While clarity, consistency, and discipline are all essential elements for effective communication, one is foundational to your success: CLARITY.

Because a lack of clarity = confusion.

Even if you consistently publish content and are disciplined enough to stay in your wheelhouse, you’ll leave people scratching their heads if any part of your content is fuzzy.

And one of the fastest ways to confuse people is to be clever, not clear.

My a-ha moment with this newsletter and why I’m making a few changes

When I started Illuminate Me more than two years ago, my intent was to share illuminating insights designed to help you communicate and connect better.

I also wanted to deliver them in a fun, easy-to-read style with immediately actionable takeaways infused with my “Amy-ness.”

And for the most part, I’ve done that.

But the growth of this newsletter has been slow (especially compared to my LinkedIn newsletter), and I just had an a-ha moment on why: I’m not being clear enough.

I realized something else too.

It wasn’t just that I needed to be more clear; I also needed to be less clever too.

Each week, I’ve delighted in the creative challenge of crafting a tongue-in-cheek, attention-grabbing headline. And to be fair, I’ve come up with some fun ones, including, Here’s to the ugly ones, Uh, you’re FAQ’d, and You’re fired, peach hater!

But in doing so, I broke my cardinal rule: I put more emphasis on being clever versus being clear.

Did those clever headlines pique your interest? Maybe.

Did they confuse you? Probably.

And we know what happens when you confuse someone.

So moving forward, this writer will do her best to follow her own advice with this newsletter and make things easier for you, dear reader.

In the name of greater clarity, you’ll notice a few changes:

• My headlines are more straightforward.

• I’ve led with the purpose of this newsletter.

• I’ve identified the insight of the week.

• I’ve added links to more illuminating content.

• I’ve tightened up the postscript area.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please comment or reply to this email.

Rest assured, I’ll still maintain my voice (my “Amy-ness”), but I’ve taken this week’s insight to heart, and I hope you have too.

Remember, clear beats clever every time.

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Another thing that’s clear?

Whether or not you find someone charismatic.

As it turns out, all highly charismatic leaders possess a blend of two powerful traits.

And in my latest Forbes article, I share how to focus on them to build your charisma.

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More illumination:

• Miss last week’s newsletter? Here’s how to up your “know, like, and trust factor” to become Too good to be true.

• And one from the archives: Lots of us probably said, “I’m bored” as kids. But as this edition explains, action is the antidote if you’re unhappy in your current situation.

• Want more “Power Trifecta” content? Earlier this week, I spoke with Russ Hedge on his Marketing with Russ show about the importance of intentional communication.

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P.S.

What I do:

When I’m not writing this newsletter or breaking my own rules, I’m a social media ghostwriter. (Yep, that’s a thing). I help founders craft their stories to communicate and connect better, magnifying their reach and impact. (Think personal branding and thought leadership.) Learn more by visiting my website.

Where you can follow me and find more of my work:

Forbes: I write weekly articles on personal transformation and its impact on career growth.

LinkedIn: Hit the 🔔 in the top right corner of my profile to get notified when I post and join more than 21,000 others by subscribing to my weekly LinkedIn newsletter, momentum, featuring insights to help you maintain positive motion and continually grow your career.

Twitter: Pithy synopses and threads of my content.

Instagram: My content, visualized (and occasional travel-related Instagram Stories and archived Story Highlights about my adventures if you’re into that kind of thing).

How to subscribe to this newsletter:

If you haven’t already, please subscribe by clicking the blue button and be sure to check out the archives.