Why talented people stay invisible, and how to fix it
I talk to leaders, speakers, and entrepreneurs who have genuinely important things to say. Real expertise. Real results. Real stories that could move people.
And almost none of them are being heard the way they should be.
When I ask them why they think that is, the answers are predictable: they need a bigger audience, better content, more consistency, a better website. They think the problem is reach.
It’s almost never reach. It’s almost always positioning.
WHAT POSITIONING ACTUALLY MEANS
Positioning is not your tagline. It’s not your niche. It’s not the category you put yourself in on LinkedIn.
Positioning is the answer to one question: why you, specifically, over everyone else who does something similar?
Most people can’t answer that cleanly. Not because they don’t have a good answer, because they’ve never been forced to articulate it with precision. And if you can’t answer it cleanly, neither can the people who need to advocate for you, refer you, or hire you.
Unclear positioning is invisible positioning. And invisible positioning means you’re competing on price, availability, and luck.
THE COMMON MISTAKE
The most common positioning mistake I see is trying to appeal to everyone. Broad language. Inclusive messaging. A value proposition designed to not exclude anyone.
The problem is that language designed to include everyone resonates with no one.
The leaders who command authority, who get the referrals, the speaking fees, the media, the premium clients, have positioning that is specific enough to feel like it was written for one person. That specificity is what makes it powerful. Paradoxically, the more specific your positioning, the more broadly it resonates with the right people.
HOW TO SHARPEN IT
Start with your results, not your process. Clients don’t buy how you work. They buy what changes when they work with you. Lead with that.
Then add the context that makes you the only logical choice. Your background, your unique path, the specific experiences that gave you insight others don’t have. Not as a biography, as a reason why your perspective is different.
Finally, be willing to exclude people. The best positioning statements implicitly say ‘this is not for everyone.’ That’s not arrogance. That’s clarity. And clarity creates trust faster than anything else.
THE TEST
Here’s a simple test. After someone reads your website, your bio, or your LinkedIn for 60 seconds, can they answer three questions?
What do you actually do? Who specifically is it for? Why are you the right person to do it?
If the answer to any of those is ‘it depends’ or ‘it’s complicated,’ your positioning needs work.
Get those three answers sharp, and watch how differently people respond to you. Not because you’ve changed what you do, because you’ve finally made it easy for people to understand why it matters.
