A few weeks ago, I was on vacation with my family. There were five kids in the house, all between the ages of 8½ and 12 — which, if you’ve ever tried to get that many kids to do anything at the same time, you know it takes a small miracle.
My sister-in-law, Christine, was doing her best to rally the troops for dinner. She called down the stairs: “Mac and cheese is ready!”
Nothing.
She tried again, louder this time. Still nothing. The kids kept doing whatever they were doing — building a fort, playing Switch, arguing over who gets the special controller. Who knows. They could hear her just fine. But they weren’t moving.
Hang on, I thought. I’m trained for this. I walked to the top of the stairs and said, “There are only three bowls of mac and cheese left — so if you want one, come grab it now.”
And just like that: BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM — five sets of feet flying up the stairs.
Christine’s expression was somewhere between surprise and relief. And this is from somebody 100 times the parent I’ll ever be! “You just needed a little marketing,” I told her.
Here’s the thing — she said the same thing I did. The mac and cheese was ready. But the way it was delivered didn’t connect. It didn’t feel urgent. It didn’t make the kids care.
I know that feeling. And that’s exactly what I see happen with small businesses all the time.
You’ve got a great product. You’re good at what you do. You’re putting messages out there — posting on social media, updating your website, even running ads — but for some reason, people just aren’t “coming up the stairs,” to continue the analogy. And if they are, they’re certainly not running.
It’s frustrating. You’re saying what you think people need to hear… but nobody’s biting. So what’s going on?
More often than not (and just like with the distracted kids), it’s not about working harder or yelling louder. It’s about clarity. Positioning. Framing. Saying things in a way that resonates with your audience and compels them to act.
