I bet you’ve heard the word “languishing” more in the last few months than you have in your entire life.

There’s a reason for that.

Adam Grant, a psychologist and writer, wrote a very shared article about our collective mental health after more than a year of Covid and all its trials. If you haven’t read There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing I’m guessing you’ve read about it.

The popularity of the article — it was widely shared, then widely written about (including by one of my business coaches who took a contrary stance to great effect) — is a beautiful example of something I say constantly to my clients as I coach them through writing effective copy for their businesses:

You want your readers to recognize themselves in your copy.

That article blew up in all our feeds because so many people snapped to attention at Grant’s premise that there’s a pervasive “sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield.”

“Foggy windshield? Yes, that’s me!” thought a whole lot of people.

Grant didn’t settle for defining languishing from a psychologist’s point of view and language — “dulling of delight or the dwindling of drive.” He dove into how it was actually presenting by sharing examples of how people were spending their days and that great foggy windshield line.

When we write for our business, that’s exactly the reaction we want. We want our most ideal people to sit up and say, “Yes, that’s me!”

You do that by focusing on the stuff that comes before your solutions and value propositions.

It’s defining the problem/struggle your ideal client is up against — pain points, as many people call them, or tolerations or struggles— but in a very specific way. You need to define those pain points as they define them. Not as you define them.

It is a subtle but mighty difference that requires a point of view shift.

For people to recognize themselves in your content, write from your client’s point of view so that they’ll pay attention to your point of view.

Here’s what it looks like in a real-life content situation.

I was coaching a client through rewrites of his digital marketing agency’s website. We came across some copy that was fine as written but brimming with potential impact. It was a straightforward question that 100% made sense to him and his team:

“Is your digital marketing not working as well as you'd like?“

One editorial fix would be to swap out the negative to read “Is your digital marketing working as well as you’d like?”

But it’s still the same question coming from the agency’s point of view.

With their experience and expertise, they can quickly diagnosis why your digital marketing is “not working as well as you’d like.” In fact, they know how much your digital marketing isn’t working, even if you don’t have a clue that it could be doing more.

I challenged him to rewrite this sentence from a current, ideal client’s point of view. Was that business owner really coming to him saying his marketing isn’t “ working as well as I’d like?” Was that the thing that drove him to think “They get me! That’s exactly what I’m dealing with!” and contact the agency?

Maybe.

But what if we truly put ourselves in the client’s shoes and thought about what he was experiencing on a day-to-day basis? Was there a more specific problem, a more pointed need? Digging in deeper came up with several more compelling options:

Is your digital marketing not bringing in enough leads?

Is your digital marketing bringing in the wrong leads?

Is your digital marketing costing way too much per lead?

Are you using Facebook ads and can’t figure out if your investment is paying off?

Lack of leads, the wrong leads, spending too much — those are problems I can connect with and want solved ASAP. It’s far more compelling than my marketing not “working as well as I’d like.”

Can you see how the new options are coming from the client’s point of view (not enough leads) while still telegraphing the agency’s point of view (we’ll get your more and better leads)?

Next time you are writing about the problems you solve for your clients, take a page from Adam Grant and my client. Don’t settle for your definition of the problem. Shift your point of view and try to imagine how your ideal client sees it. How does this problem show up for them? How are they describing it and its impacts?

That’s how you create content that makes your ideal client feel seen so they start a conversation.

And if you saw yourself in any of these words, let’s have a conversation about putting these ideas into practice for your business. Grab some time on my calendar.

“Well Said Wednesday” is a blog by Barbara Govednik, Founder, Content Coach & Message Strategist of 4.23 Communication. It’s published every other Wednesday…ish.