Last week I was in Belfast, invited by the University of Ulster. I was asked to run a workshop for second year students of visual communication. But as I was over there, they’d arranged at the last minute for me to talk to an invited audience from the Northern Ireland business community. Expecting a cosy chat, I was surprised to find myself in the lecture theatre in front of nearly a hundred people.
It was a good evening. I talked about storytelling in business, and then asked for questions. My host Richard McElveen had warned me that Belfast audiences are reluctant to ask questions. Not so. The questions kept coming.
The one that intrigued me most was from a young woman who was just launching a new start-up business. She explained that she was a bit nerdy and it was a business that relied on technology. She could explain it to her mum but hadn’t yet found the words for a business audience. What should she do?
I said she’s probably answered her own question. I quoted Warren Buffett (the investment guru, the ‘sage of Omaha’) who explains his reputation for clear financial reporting by focusing on writing for his sisters, Doris and Bertie. They’re intelligent people, not necessarily deeply versed or immersed in the technicalities of finance. I suggested that the young woman’s mother was the equivalent of Doris and Bertie. Write with your mum as the audience. She’ll understand it, so will your business audience – indeed your readers will probably thank you for your clarity of thought and consideration of their needs.
The woman came up to me afterwards to say I’d helped a lot. She now knew what to write, and she was going to do just that. I hope so. It’s always easy to complicate, much harder to keep things simple. But it works. Your mother should know.
Lovely.
Simple.
The other thing about explaining it to your mother is you can often inject a little more of yourself – be more intimate, be more conspiratorial, be more humorous – which only serves to make the whole thing even more human.