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Simplify Your Message

Story, Simplify Your Message | | Tom Suddes

Please, please, please. Don’t blow off this ‘LESSON’!

The SIMPLER the MESSAGE … the STRONGER the CASE/RATIONALE FOR SUPPORT. You’ve heard this from me (ad nauseam):

“If you can’t SAY IT … ON A NAPKIN … you can’t SELL IT!”
(Suddes)

‘Elevator Pitches.’ ‘One-Minute Selling.’ A ‘Napkin.’ The ‘Blue Box.’ ‘3 Buckets.’ I don’t care what you call it. Just SIMPLIFY YOUR MESSAGE.

FUNDING THE VISION is very different than ‘BUILDING CAMPAIGNS,’ ‘CAPITAL CAMPAIGNS’ and ‘CAMPAIGN CAMPAIGNS.’ It’s ALL about the VISION of the ORGANIZATION … and tied directly to the MISSION/MEANING/MESSAGE.

A quick ‘story’ from the field: Colorado College President Dick Celeste took less than a year to bring the entire campus together for their MAPPING PROCESS (AGENDA). Out of that came these THREE THEMES:

  • RIGOROUS INTELLECTUAL EXPERIENCE
  • DIVERSE & RESPECTFUL COMMUNITY
  • NEXT GENERATION CAMPUS

Those 3 THEMES became these 3 BUCKETS:

  • BEST FACULTY
  • BEST STUDENTS
  • BEST CAMPUS

…which required a $300 Million Investment...to FUND THIS VISION.