Have you ever gone all Marie Kondo on your closet? I have, and it was liberating.

For years, I’d stand in front of my overstuffed shelves — a rainbow of cheap finds covering every trend from neon lace to leopard print — and complain that I had nothing. to. wear.

Then I discovered Marie Kondo and her “life-changing magic of tidying up” (along with other minimalist teachings, because having kids made me desperately crave order — even if it could only be achieved in my closet).

I learned the art of paring clothes down to a simple collection of items you can mix and match, all in a streamlined color palette. I committed myself to buying only things that “sparked joy” (and looked decent on me too, because vanity).

I cut my wardrobe by ⅔ and could suddenly see the forest for the trees. It was exponentially easier and faster to get dressed every morning. I felt lighter. It truly was life-changing magic (NOT a B.S. book title, it turns out).

It got me thinking about my clients, who regularly come to me with messy, cluttered messaging.

They’re thinking all these thoughts and words and ideas about their business, but haven’t a clue how to prioritize them. They’re trying to say all the things and it’s preventing their ideal customers from knowing what the hell they’re all about, let alone buying anything.

If you’re a donut baker, for example, and you’re like, “We make the best donuts because they’re fried in coconut oil and also they also melt in your mouth AND everything is organic and all our bakers are classically trained and if you’re gluten free we’ve got your back! But also you don’t have to be gluten free and did you know our bakery was founded by our granny who made donuts in her shed on the prairie?”

Uh, you lost me at donuts.

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Because brands who try to say everything end up saying nothing.

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Unlike you, potential customers aren’t living and breathing your business 24/7. They need simple, digestible messages from you, or they’ll feel overwhelmed and move on faster than you can scarf a powdered Munchkin.

But not to fret, this problem can be solved.

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You just need to Kon Mari your messaging.

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See, this glorious principle of stripping things down to the most joy-inducing essentials can also be applied to the words you use for your business.

Taking a page from the queen of decluttering will help you find clarity and make your brand messaging understandable to people who are just seeing it for the first time. It’ll help you figure out:

  • What needs to be said, first and foremost.
  • What you can say in the event you have extra time or space.
  • What you don’t need to say, ever.

(Yes, some of your words and ideas will end up dead on the cutting room floor. It’s ok...they won’t feel a thing.)

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The Message-Tidying Method

Just like Marie’s method comes down to one simple question: does this spark joy?  So, too, does the Marie-inspired messaging method.

Get out a piece of paper and do it now:

Step 1. Write down everything you want to say about your business or product.

Step 2. Go line by line and ask yourself, “Does this message spark joy in my ideal customer — and me?” (You want your message to resonate with people in a positive way, and you should love it, too…’cause you’re gonna be repeating it ad nauseum).

Step 3. Keep the messages that spark joy. Toss the ones that don’t.

Step 4. Make the single most joy-inducing message your hero, or run a test on a few.

Step 5. Save the runners-up as secondary messages you can use to support your main message when you have the time, space, and interest from people.

You should end up with a hierarchy like this:

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In our donut maker example, perhaps they’ve found that they love talking about Granny and that story genuinely lights up customers when they talk about it. That message goes to the top of the triangle.

They’re pretty proud of the fact that they’ve got gluten free options and that resonates with people too, although not quite in the way Granny does. So that’s a message worthy of the middle.

On the other hand, no one really cares if the donuts are organic or made by formally trained bakers. Those words get banished to the bottom.

The simple act of prioritizing one message and identifying some that are irrelevant will go a long way toward streamlining how our donut bakers talk about themselves.

How about you? Are you trying to say too much?

If you feel compelled to vomit all the features, benefits, and differentiators of your business/product/service/offer at people in the hopes something will stick, step back and spend some time with this Marie Kondo-inspired exercise.

It’ll be biz-changing magic.